Tag: Astronautical

NASA Solicits Ideas for Artemis III Landing Experiments

SPACE reports that NASA is “soliciting the scientific community for ideas about instruments and experiments that could accompany Artemis 3 astronauts on their mission to the moon.” The agency specified “that it was looking for experiments that take advantage of the unique location of the Artemis 3 landing, which will be within 6 degrees latitude of the moon’s south pole.” Many of the proposed landing sites “around the lunar south pole are among the oldest sites on the moon, including occluded ‘shadow’ regions that the sun’s light hasn’t reached in billions of years.” With the potential for “ancient water ice and other accessible ‘volatiles’ in the craters around the south pole, NASA is especially keen on getting scientific experiments that seek to probe these useful materials.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Ariane 5 Launch Scheduled for July 4

Spaceflight Now reports that Europe’s last Ariane 5 rocket “is now scheduled to lift off July 4 after being grounded for more than two weeks due to a problem with the pyrotechnic systems required to jettison the launcher’s strap-on solid rocket boosters.” Europe’s workhorse rocket “is being retired after 27 years of service.” The Ariane 5 was originally “scheduled to fly on June 16, but officials from Arianespace, the rocket’s commercial operator, announced on the eve of launch that they were delaying the mission to replace pyrotechnic transmission lines on the vehicle.” The suspect systems “identified fire explosive charges that jettison one of the two solid rocket boosters two minutes into flight, then to activate the ‘distancing’ system, which uses small thrusters on the boosters to ensure the spent casings safely fly clear of the Ariane 5’s core stage as it continues its climb to orbit.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

SpaceX to Launch Euclid Dark Energy Probe

SPACE reported that Euclid, a dark matter and dark energy hunter, is “scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 1 at 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT).” Euclid aims to “map the extent and influence of the dark universe to a sharper degree than ever before, with numerous implications: how the universe grew in its early days, how galaxies come together, and why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.” Euclid Project Scientist René Laureijs said, “Dark energy and dark matter reveal themselves by the fairly subtle changes they make to the appearance of objects in the visible universe; otherwise we don’t know about them.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Virgin Galactic Reveals Dates for First Commercial Space Flights

The Street reports that Virgin Galactic has unveiled its inaugural commercial flight dates. “Seats have been assigned for the Virgin Space Ship Unity and for the inaugural Galactic 01, a scientific research mission,” which is “scheduled between June 27 and 30.” The next flight, Galactic 02, is scheduled for August “with the first group of excited space ticket holders.”  Initial presale tickets may have “seemed like a steep price but now the going rate for a single ticket is $450,000, more than double the original price.”
Full Story (The Street)

North Korea Spy Satellite Launch Fails

The AP reports, “North Korea’s attempt to put its first spy satellite into space failed Wednesday in a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to boost his military capabilities as tensions with the United States and South Korea rise.” The AP adds, “After an unusually quick admission of failure, North Korea vowed to conduct a second launch after it learns what went wrong.” The AP goes on to report that the South Korean military “said it was salvaging an object presumed to be part of the crashed North Korean rocket in waters 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of the southwestern island of Eocheongdo. Later, the Defense Ministry released photos of a white, metal cylinder it described as a suspected rocket part.”
Full Story (Associated Press)

NASA Soliciting Commercial Lunar Rover Proposals

Aviation Week reports that NASA is “reaching out to the private sector for assistance with the Artemis program, this time to provide unpressurized lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs) to enhance astronaut exploration or to robotically transport cargo and prospect for resources when humans are not available.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

Artemis II Crew Begins Training

SPACE reports that the Artemis II crew has begun training for the mission. The astronauts will “be the first humans ever to fly atop NASA’s Space Launch System megarocket and ride in the agency’s Orion spacecraft.” The four Artemis II astronauts “are NASA commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover (the first Black astronaut to leave low Earth orbit), NASA mission specialist Christina Koch (the first woman on a moon mission) and Jeremy Hansen (the first Canadian to go beyond Earth orbit).” Wiseman, Glover and Koch “all have accumulated many months of experience on International Space Station missions and in many cases set records.”
Full Story (SPACE)

JUICE Deploys Radar Antenna

Space News reports that the European Space Agency said that, “after weeks of effort to loosen a stuck pin,” the JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) successfully deployed its 16-meter-long antenna. Engineers tried to loosen the pin via shaking the craft using thrusters orienting it with sunlight to warm the antenna, but it didn’t deploy “until controllers fired a non-explosive actuator in the jammed bracket.” The antenna is part of the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration sensor, which is designed to probe up to nine kilometers beneath Europa’s, Ganymede’s, and Callisto’s surfaces.
Full Story (Space News)

Vulcan Rolled Out to Launchpad for Final Series of Tests Ahead of its Debut Launch

Aviation Week (5/11) reports that a “United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan-Centaur rocket was rolled out to its launchpad on May 11 for a final series of tests ahead of its debut launch, targeted for this summer.” Space News reports ULA said on Thursday that the “Vulcan is in position atop SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to undergo a full launch day rehearsal tomorrow and flight readiness firing test of its main engines planned for next week.” ULA CEO Tory Bruno tweeted on Wednesday that the “Vulcan was returning to tanking tests although the investigation of a Centaur upper-stage testing anomaly that occurred on March 29 has not yet been completed.” Bruno said that “ULA plans to livestream the flight-readiness test firing of the BE-4 main engines. The test fire is expected to last about six seconds, he said. ‘A short burn, but a very long time to be on the pad.’”
Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Space News)