The Washington Post reports most Americans believe NASA’s top priority should be monitoring asteroids that could strike the Earth instead of returning astronauts to the Moon, according to a poll released Thursday. For respondents in the Pew Research Center survey, only 12 percent of “adults think returning astronauts to the surface of the moon should be NASA’s top priority.” A human landing on “Mars is even less popular: Only 11 percent said it should be the top priority.” By contrast, 60 percent “said monitoring asteroids should be the agency’s top priority; 50 percent said monitoring climate change should be NASA’s top priority.”
Full Story (Washington Post)
Tag: July 2023
ESA Readies for ‘Assisted Reentry’ of Aeolus
Space News reports that the European Space Agency “is in the final stages of performing an ‘assisted reentry’ of an Earth science spacecraft, an effort that will attempt to bring the satellite down over the ocean in a little more than a week.” A series of maneuvers “will lower the perigee of the Aeolus spacecraft to enable a reentry, projected over the Atlantic Ocean, on July 28.” The maneuvers “are intended to minimize any chance that debris from the spacecraft that survives reentry would land in populated areas.”
Full Story (Space News)
NASA Showcases Crew Modules for Artemis II, III, and IV
Gizmodo reports that the crew modules for NASA’s Artemis II, III, and IV missions “are currently stationed next to one another at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the three spacecraft undergoing different stages of production for their upcoming launch dates.” NASA recently “shared a group photo of its Orion crew capsules inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, revealing the spacecraft trio coming together ahead of humanity’s return to the Moon.” The Artemis II spacecraft is “designed to carry astronauts on a journey to the Moon and back in late 2024.” NASA technicians recently “installed the heat shield on the Artemis II Orion capsule, which is designed to protect the crew and the spacecraft during its reentry through Earth’s atmosphere.”
Full Story (Gizmodo)
NTSB to Investigate Engine Fire on Boeing 737 MAX
The AP reported that the NTSB “will investigate an engine fire that was discovered on a United Airlines Boeing 737 Max after the plane landed in Newark, New Jersey.” One of the plane’s engines caught on fire after the plane completed a flight from Fort Lauderdale. No one was injured. The Boeing Company “declined to comment, referring inquiries to the NTSB and United, which said it too was investigating.”
Full Story (Associated Press)
NASA Reestablishes Contact With Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
Spaceflight Now reports, “NASA engineers are prepping the miniature Mars helicopter Ingenuity for its 53rd flight across the surface of the Red Planet after re-establishing contact following a two-month radio blackout.” The disruption “was due to a Martian hill blocking line-of-sight communications with the Perseverance rover – which acts as a conduit between the helicopter and ground controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)