Tag: Astronautical engineering

Starship Award Part of $4 Billion in NASA Flights

CNBC reports that right before Artemis I lifted off from Cape Canaveral, “NASA announced an additional Starship award under the lunar Artemis program. SpaceX is now on tap for about $4 billion worth of Starship flights for NASA – an uncrewed demonstration mission and the two crewed landings during Artemis 3 and 4 – and it’s clearly crunch time for the company.” SpaceX still has a ways to go, however, with the Federal Aviation Administration saying that the company still needs to provide the regulatory agency with more information on the “environmental mitigations that the regulator outlined in June.”
Full Story (CNBC)

NetJets Close to 1,000 Aircraft

Aviation International News reports, “With planned additions and no expectations to dispose of any of its current aircraft, NetJets is on track to have nearly 1,000 jets in its fleet by the end of next year, Patrick Gallagher – the fractional lift provider’s president of sales, marketing, and service – said yesterday at Corporate Jet Investor Miami.” The company currently utilizes 850 aircraft globally across the US and Europe. NetJets will take delivery on another 25 to 30 new aircraft before the end of the year, which brings 2022 new acquisitions to approximately 75. “Next year, the company expects to intake more than 100 new-production jets. At these rates, Netjets accounts for approximately 12 percent of the industry’s jet production.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

NASA’s InSight Nears End of the Line

SPACE reports, “So much dust is choking off the solar power supply to NASA’s InSight lander that the Mars mission, which is operating well past its expiration date, is expected to fall silent very soon.” The craft is expected to run out of power in the next few weeks. InSight has been operating on Mars since it landed in 2018 – on a mission to help measure the interior of the red planet. The craft initially was supposed to last two years, but has far exceeded expectations.
Full Story (SPACE)

Dream Chaser Spaceplane to be Used for ISS Cargo Mission in 2024

SPACE reports that Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane “will be used for an International Space Station (ISS) cargo mission in 2024 to ferry ‘a variety of life sciences experiments’ for Yuri, a German space biotech company.” Sierra Space “will send at least six uncrewed ISS cargo missions using Dream Chaser, all lifting off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station using United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rockets.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships to Utilize Starlink WiFi

SPACE reports that Royal Caribbean is the first cruise company “to sign up for Starlink, and framed the deal as ‘a better onboard experience for guests and crew fleetwide.’” Starlink service “will splash on to the fleet in the coming months, concluding in the first quarter of 2023 during the cruise season,” according to an announcement made Tuesday.
Full Story (SPACE)

NASA Selects Design Concepts for Lunar Nuclear Power Stations

SPACE reports that NASA “and the U.S. Department of Energy selected three design concept proposals that the government hopes could be ready for use on the moon by the end of the 2020s, to support the space agency’s Artemis program of lunar exploration.” NASA sees the $5 million contracts “as potentially useful for the exploration of Mars and other deeper-space destinations.” The selected teams “are led by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX (a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy)” and are to “provide NASA critical information from industry that can lead to a joint development of a full flight-certified fission power system.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Voyager Spacecraft to Power Down Systems after 44 Years

The Daily Mail (UK) reports that NASA is considering a potential timeline for the powering-down of the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft after 44 years of operation. NASA “is now planning to begin turning off some of the Voyagers’ systems in the hope of eking out the spacecrafts’ remaining power to extend their journeys to about 2030.”
Full Story (Daily Mail (UK))

Sierra Space, Spirit AeroSystems Partner on Dream Chaser Cargo Modules

Space News reports that Sierra Space announced Tuesday “a strategic partnership with aerospace manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems for production of cargo modules for its Dream Chaser vehicles.” Spirit “will assist in the development and production of Shooting Star, the cargo module attached to the aft end of the Dream Chaser lifting body vehicle.” The Shooting Star module “will support future cargo missions to the International Space Station under Sierra Space’s contract with NASA, and for other applications.”
Full Story (Space News)

Assembly on Dream Chaser Spacecraft Continues

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports the launch of the first Dream Chaser spacecraft could take place by this time next year. The first Dream Chaser, named Tenacity, “has undergone aeroshell and wing deployment system installation at the company’s headquarters in Colorado, shown in a time-lapse video posted to the company’s YouTube channel on Tuesday.” Dream Chaser “will join SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for bringing cargo to the International Space Station, but the company is already planning to build out a human-rated version that could become one of the players to launch crew to the ISS or other private space stations, including their own, this decade.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)