Aviation Week reports, “NASA is looking to mid-November for the resumption of planned spacewalks outside the International Space Station (ISS) following the unexpected appearance of moisture on the helmet visor of European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer at the conclusion of a March 23 excursion.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Tag: ISS
Crew-4 Astronauts Ready for ISS Departure
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports, “After nearly half a year in space, the four astronauts of Crew-4 are set to climb back into the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom for its return trip to Florida.” NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, along with the ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in April and have spent nearly 170 days onboard the station. Upon its departure, Crew Dragon Freedom will be making its first return to Earth.
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)
NASA, SpaceX Successfully Launch Crew-5 Mission to the ISS
Space.com reports that NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission successfully launched to the International Space Station Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Pad 39A. Liftoff occurred at 12:00 p.m. EDT, “kicking off a roughly 29-hour journey to the orbiting lab.” The spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the ISS on Thursday at 4:57 p.m. ET. The mission’s “four spaceflyers are NASA’s Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina.” The launch “made Mann the first Native American woman to reach the final frontier and Kikina the first Russian to fly on a private American spacecraft.”
Full Story (Space.com)
Video
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Mission to the International Space Station (Official NASA Broadcast)
(NASA; YouTube)
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)
Commercial Space Data Relays May be Used by NASA within a Decade
Via Satellite reports that NASA “could be using commercial services to enable its next-generation satellite communications constellation that will provide connectivity to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as various science missions,” within the next decade. NASA is “one of several government organizations that are investing in space data relay networks, and the Defense Department in particular is funding new efforts to launch proliferated LEO constellations for on-demand connectivity.” European and Canadian companies “are partnering with the European Space Agency (ESA) to take the next steps in optical communication via the High Throughput Optical Network project, also known as HyDRON.”
Full Story (Via Satellite)
NASA Posts RFI for ISS Deorbit Spacecraft
GovCon Wire reports that NASA “expects the International Space Station to conclude operations in late 2030 and is seeking information from potential industry sources of spacecraft that will work to deorbit the government-funded laboratory.” A request for information “posted Friday on SAM.gov says the deorbit vehicle should attach to the Node 2 Forward port one year before the controlled reentry of ISS into an unpopulated region.”
Full Story (GovCon Wire)
Roscosmos Chief Clarifies Comments About ISS Departure
SPACE reports that Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov “expanded on comments he made last week indicating the country’s intent to disassociate from the International Space Station ‘after 2024.’” In an interview with Russia 24, Borisov said, “We announced that we intend to do this not in 2024, but after 2024. In Russian, these are two big differences.” Borisov elaborated, “We must warn our colleagues a year in advance that we will do this for such and such circumstances. We have not warned [NASA] about this yet; there is no need for this. We just said that after 2024 we will start the exit process.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Congress Approves ISS Mission Extension to 2030
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reported that Congress has passed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, authorizing NASA to keep the ISS operational until 2030. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “This act shows continued bipartisan support of NASA’s many missions, including our Moon to Mars approach, as well extension of U.S. participation in the International Space Station to 2030.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)
NASA, Roscosmos to Conduct Integrated Crewed Flights to ISS
ExecutiveGov reports that NASA and Roscosmos “have agreed to perform integrated crewed flights to the International Space Station.” The first integrated crewed flight to the ISS “will occur in September and NASA said U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio will join two cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, who will launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.” Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, “along with two U.S. astronauts and a Japanese astronaut, will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.”
Full Story (ExecutiveGov)
SpaceX Launches CRS-25 Resupply Mission to ISS
The Orlando Sentinel reports that SpaceX “sent up its Dragon spacecraft on the CRS-25 resupply run to the International Space Station on Thursday night.” The launch was delayed from last week “after teams detected hydrazine vapor in the spacecraft, and ultimately decided to replace the vehicle’s parachutes.” The Dragon supply capsule is loaded with “experiments tackling wound healing, immune response and a potential way to build structures off planet, among other things.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)
Video
SpaceX launch of CRS-25 Mission, July 14, 2022.
(SpaceX via YouTube)