Tag: Mission

AIAA Statement on the Indian Space Research Organisation Chandrayaan-3 Mission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 24, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Executive Director Dan Dumbacher made the following statement:

“Congratulations to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its successful landing at the south pole of the moon! We were thrilled watching the Chandrayaan-3 mission unfold in real time. We will be eagerly following the progress of the rover, Pragyan, and the ongoing mission in the coming days.

As the professional technical society for aerospace engineers, our members appreciate and understand the difficulty of this mission’s engineering challenges. Safely landing on the moon is a challenge and to reach the lunar south pole is an even greater accomplishment.

The ISRO team’s resilience is admirable. The Chandrayaan team has persevered over time to continue advancing its lunar exploration program. They have reached an historic milestone making India the fourth spacefaring nation to land on the moon. AIAA is honored to support the four AIAA student branches at universities in India and about 400 AIAA members across India.

We applaud India’s commitment to a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space, especially as it joined the Artemis Accords earlier this year. We believe the Artemis Accords establish important principles to guide cooperation among nations exploring space, including those participating in NASA’s Artemis program. As we expand the human neighborhood in low Earth orbit and beyond to the surface of the moon and cislunar space, we see the vital need for this type of cooperation among countries and industries.

On behalf of the 30,000 professional and student members of AIAA, we recognize the professionals in the aerospace industry involved in making this mission a success. We salute and applaud the ISRO team for making important contributions to shaping the future of aerospace.”

AIAA Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

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Aviation Week reports that preparations “continue for the planned Aug. 25 launch of NASA’s Crew-7’s three astronauts and a cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS) to begin a multi-mission exchange of the seven current crewmembers.” Early on Tuesday, the Crew-7 members “wrapped up a countdown dress rehearsal.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

SpaceX’s Crew-7 Mission to Launch Next Week

SPACE reports that four astronauts from four countries “will fly on SpaceX Dragon capsule to the International Space Station for a six-month mission.” They will “launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX’s Crew-7 flight no earlier than Aug. 25.” NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli said, “It’s one of the things I think we’re most proud of, is what we represent by being an all-international group.” Moghbeli will “become the second Iranian-American astronaut to reach space” on the mission.
Full Story (SPACE)

Artemis I Cubesat Winds Down Mission

Space News reports that a cubesat launched “as a secondary payload on Artemis 1 may end its operations at the end of the month unless it can get its propulsion system working.” The LunaH-Map spacecraft “was one of 10 cubesats launched as secondary payloads on the inaugural flight of the Space Launch System last November.” The spacecraft had planned “to use an ion propulsion system on the 6U cubesat to perform a maneuver as it flew by the moon days later, ultimately allowing it to go into orbit.” However, the thruster failed to fire due to what is likely a stuck valve.
Full Story (Space News)

DART Mission Shows that Dimorphos Has No Water-Ice

SPACE reports that six months following the DART mission slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid, Dimorphos has given NASA scientists time to clarify a profile of the asteroid. Careful scrutiny of the debris “from the impact of NASA’s DART mission into Dimorphos has not found any evidence for water-ice on the asteroid, nor the residue of thruster fuel from the spacecraft, new results from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) show.” However, the data from the MUSE (Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) “instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile does indicate differences in the size of particles in the debris, and show how the polarization of the light from the asteroid changed.”
Full Story (SPACE)

SpaceX Launches Two Separate Satellite Missions

Spaceflight Now reported that SpaceX “launched two Falcon 9 rockets in a span of a little more than four hours Friday, a record-setting day that began with the launch of 52 Starlink internet satellites from California and ended with the sunset liftoff of two SES television broadcast payloads from Florida.” The two missions were launched just over four hours apart and set a record “for the shortest span between two SpaceX Falcon 9 launches in the company’s history.” Space News reported that the payloads included SES-18 and SES-19, built by Northrop Grumman. The two satellites “are due to start services in June after using onboard hydrazine-fueled propulsion to reach their geostationary orbital slots.” SES-18 is “set to replace the operator’s aging SES-3 satellite at 103 degrees west,” while SES-19 is “heading to 135 degrees west to join the SES-22 satellite that SpaceX launched last year.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now); More Info (Space News)

 Video
SES-18 and SES-19 Mission

On Friday, March 17 at 7:38 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched SES-18 and SES-19 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

(SpaceX; YouTube)

Rocket Lab Launches First US Mission

Reuters reports that Rocket Lab “launched its first mission from American soil on Tuesday, kicking off an expansion of the company’s launch business that adds to a surge in private rocket activity at U.S. space ports.” The Long Beach, California-based company’s workhorse “Electron rocket, an expendable launcher standing 40 feet (12 meters) tall, lifted off at 6 p.m. EST from its new launch pad at the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.” The mission “marked Rocket Lab’s first outside its flagship launchsite on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, where the company has carried out all 32 previous Electron missions since the rocket’s debut in 2017.”
Full Story (Reuters)

 

 Video

Rocket Lab Launches First Electron mission from Virginia, Tuesday, January 24, at 6 p.m. EST from Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
(NASASpaceflight; YouTube)

SpaceX Targeting December 11 for Japanese Moon Lander Launch

SPACE reports that SpaceX is “now targeting Sunday (Dec. 11) for the launch of a private Japanese moon lander after a series of delays.” If all goes according to plan, a Falcon 9 rocket “will launch the Tokyo-based company ispace’s Hakuto-R lander toward the moon on Sunday at 2:38 a.m. EST (0738 GMT), SpaceX announced today.” Sunday will be “a big day for space fans: NASA’s Orion capsule is scheduled to return to Earth that afternoon, wrapping up the agency’s Artemis 1 moon mission.” The coming SpaceX flight, “which will kick off ispace’s Mission 1, was originally supposed to get off the ground last month. It has been pushed back several times, however, so SpaceX could perform additional checks on the Falcon 9.” The company said “in today’s update that the Falcon 9 and the Hakuto-R lander, which is also carrying a small United Arab Emirates moon rover, are both ‘looking good for launch’ no earlier than Sunday.”
Full Story (SPACE)

NASA to Crash DART into Asteroid Monday

SPACE reported that on Monday “at 7:14 p.m. EDT (2314 GMT), NASA will intentionally crash a spacecraft into an asteroid – and you might be able to see it live.” The test mission “is targeting the moonlet Dimorphos, a small celestial body orbiting the asteroid Didymos about 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) away from Earth.” The livestream “from the telescopes will begin on Monday at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT) on the Virtual Telescope Project’s website.”
Full Story (SPACE)

NASA’s DART One Month Away from Impact

SPACE reported that NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) “will crash into the asteroid Dimorphos at approximately 15,000 mph (24,000 kph) in an attempt to alter the celestial body’s trajectory around a larger asteroid called Didymos” on September 26 at 7:14 p.m. EDT (2314 GMT). The DART mission is “a test to see if ‘kinetic impact technology’ would work to deflect any potential Earth-bound asteroids.” Members of the public “will be able to view live coverage of the impact on NASA TV, NASA’s website, and NASA social media pages beginning at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) on Sept. 26.”
Full Story (SPACE)