Tag: NASA

Senate Committee Approves Legislation Supporting NASA’s Artemis Lunar Campaign

Ars Technica reports, “During a brief hearing on Wednesday morning, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation spent only a few minutes ‘marking up’ new legislation that provides guidance to NASA for its various initiatives, including the Artemis program to land humans on the Moon. ‘Our bill authorizes critical funding for, and gives strategic direction to, the agency in line with the priorities of administrator Isaacman and the Trump administration,’ said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas).”
Full Story (Ars Technica)

NASA Outlines Flight Plan for Crewed Artemis II Mission

Aviation Week reports, “NASA used its first Space Launch System rocket to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a 25-day test flight around the Moon in late 2022, kicking off its Artemis lunar exploration campaign. On Artemis II, the agency will attempt to broaden Orion’s operational envelope by adding a flight crew, with assessments of the spacecraft’s environmental control, life support and astronaut interactive systems on tap.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

ISS Back to Full Strength with Arrival of New Crew

AP News reports, “The International Space Station returned to full strength with Saturday’s arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns.  SpaceX delivered the U.S., French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral.”
Full Story (AP News)

New Crew Launches to ISS Following NASA’s First Medical Evacuation

AP News reports, “A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday to replace the astronauts who returned to Earth early in NASA’s first medical evacuation. SpaceX launched the replacements as soon as possible at NASA’s request, sending the U.S., French and Russian astronauts on an expected eight- to nine-month mission stretching until fall. The four should arrive at the orbiting lab on Saturday, filling the vacancies left by their evacuated colleagues last month and bringing the space station back to full staff.”
Full Story (AP News)

NASA Weighs Next Crew Vehicle as Starliner Return Plans Advance

Space News reports, “As NASA prepares to launch a new crew to the space station, the agency has yet to decide which spacecraft it will use for the next crew rotation mission … NASA has said Starliner-1 could launch as soon as April 2026. At a Feb. 9 briefing on the upcoming Crew-12 launch, however, the agency said it had not set a more specific launch date.”
Full Story (Space News)

Slow Launch Tempo Clouds Long-Term Role of Space Launch System

Ars Technica reports, “The Space Launch System rocket program is now a decade and a half old, and it continues to be dominated by two unfortunate traits: It is expensive, and it is slow. The massive rocket and its convoluted ground systems, so necessary to baby and cajole the booster’s prickly hydrogen propellant on board, have cost US taxpayers in excess of $30 billion to date. And even as it reaches maturity, the rocket is going nowhere fast.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)

Persistent Hydrogen Leaks Push Artemis II Launch to March

Ars Technica reports, “The launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission will have to wait another month after a fueling test Monday uncovered hydrogen leaks in the connection between the rocket and its launch platform at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ‘Engineers pushed through several challenges during the two-day test and met many of the planned objectives,’ NASA said in a statement following the conclusion of the mock countdown.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)

NASA Seeks External Partners to Help Extend Earth Science Missions

Space News reports, “NASA’s Earth Science Division is exploring partnerships with external organizations to support instruments mounted on the International Space Station and free-flyer missions. ‘For some of these missions that are well into or well beyond their planned lifetime, we decided to explore whether or not there might be partners who would be interested in taking on some of the burden with us of keeping these missions going,’ Karen St. Germain, Earth Science Division director, said Jan. 26 at the American Meteorological Society annual meeting.”
Full Story (Space News)

NASA’s Giant Moon Rocket Rolls Out for Artemis II

The New York Times reports, “On Saturday morning, a mammoth crawler began transporting the Space Launch System vehicle, the Orion capsule and the launch tower — 14 million pounds altogether — from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launchpad 4.2 miles away. It reached the launchpad at 6:42 p.m. Eastern. Now, final preparations will begin — hooking up connections for electrical power and propellants and performing checks of key systems. That will lead up to a dress rehearsal of the countdown in early February.”
Full Story (New York Times – Subscription Publication)