Detailing NASA’s development of deep space optical communications, Aviation Week reports, “Preparing for future human deep space exploration is not just about developing large rockets, new generations of spacesuits and habitats. It is also about enabling communications, including the transmission of high-definition imagery and data over vast distances.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Tag: Deep Space
Space Force to Request Proposals for Deep Space Radar Sensors
GovCon Wire reports that the US Space Force “intends to release a request for proposals by June 30 to develop prototypes of deep space radar sensors that can monitor satellites and space debris in geostationary orbits, SpaceNews reported Sunday.” The Space and Missile Systems Center’s Space Enterprise Consortium “plans to select one or more vendors to build prototype concepts for the Deep Space Advanced Radar Concept project that the U.S. Air Force launched in 2017.” The Space Force “expects to invest between $140 million and $200 million annually in DARC-related prototyping and testing efforts and plans to build up to three radar sites, according to the report.”
Full Story (GovCon Wire)
SpaceX Launches Falcon 9 for Second Time in Three Weeks
Spaceflight Now reported that SpaceX “continued throttling up its launch rate with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Friday, completing a rapid recycle with a Falcon 9 first stage booster flying for the second time in 21 days.”
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James Webb Space Telescope Fully Aligned
CNN reports that the James Webb Space Telescope is now “completely aligned, according to the NASA’s Webb team.” Webb “will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.” The first high-resolution images “Webb collects of the cosmos aren’t expected until the end of June since the observatory’s instruments still need to be calibrated.”
Full Story (CNN)
James Webb Space Telescope Components Cooling to Deep Space Temperature
SPACE reported that there is no timeline as to when all the James Webb Space Telescope’s “observatory components will meet their operating temperatures.” Webb Deputy Senior Project Scientist Jonathan Gardner said Thursday the telescope’s mirrors “are not quite there yet.” All “of the observatory’s instruments are at their final temperature, including the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which is super-sensitive to heat and gets some help from a cryocooler to stay around 7 degrees Kelvin (minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 266 degrees Celsius).”
Full Story (SPACE)