December 7, 2020

The Future of Mars Exploration, From Sample Return to Human Missions (Source: Space Review)
With Mars 2020 en route to the Red Planet, NASA and ESA are moving ahead with future sample return missions. Jeff Foust reports on the challenges that effort faces, along with other issues for future robotic and human Mars missions. Click here. (12/7)
 
The Cloth of Doom: The Weird, Doomed Ride of Ariane Flight 36 (Source: Space Review)
In 1990, an Ariane rocket failed when a cloth left behind in a coolant tube caused an engine to malfunction. Francis Castanos describes how that was just one of many strange turn of events that doomed that mission and its satellite payload. Click here. (12/7)
 
Learning From Chandrayaan 2 for India (Source: Space Review)
With the Chang’e-5 mission, China has now landed three times on the Moon successfully, while India’s only attempt crashed last year. Ajay Kothari discusses how India can learn from that failure on its next mission to the Moon. Click here. (12/7)

China Launches Surveillance Satellite (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched a remote sensing satellite Saturday. A Long March 3B carrying the Gaofen-14 satellite launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 10:58 p.m. Eastern. The rocket placed the satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit, a first for the Long March 3B. Few details about Gaofen-14 have been disclosed, but the use of the Long March 3B and an extended payload fairing suggest it is a large satellite. (12/7)

Biden Team Gets NRO, NGA Intelligence Briefings After Trump Block (Source: Space News)
The transition team for the incoming Biden administration is scheduled to meet with intelligence officials this week. The Pentagon said Saturday that meetings with the NRO, NGA and other intelligence organizations will take place Monday and Tuesday. The announcement came after a report that the White House was preventing the Biden transition team from meeting with intelligence officials. (12/7)

NASA Considers Industry Collaboration on Mars Commsats (Source: Space News)
NASA is considering working with industry on a network of Mars communications satellites. Agency officials at recent meetings have discussed the possibility of a public-private partnership for that communications system, intended to support future Mars missions. Such satellites would be able to greatly increase the amount of data missions like the proposed Mars Ice Mapper could return. The efforts are still in their early phases, and agency officials said they would move ahead with Mars Ice Mapper if a commercial data relay system turns out not to be feasible. (12/7)

NASA Conducts Green Run Tanking Test (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
NASA is starting the next step of the Green Run test for the Space Launch System. A tanking test known as a wet dress rehearsal started over the weekend, which will culminate in loading the SLS core stage with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants and going through a launch countdown to the final minute before ignition. The test is the last step before the Green Run campaign concludes with a full-duration hotfire test of the core stage's four engines, which could take place as soon as later this month. (12/7)

Pandemic Delays India's Human Spaceflight (Source: PTI)
The pandemic will delay India's human spaceflight program by a year. The chairman of the Indian space agency ISRO, K. Sivan, said that an uncrewed test of the Gaganyaan spacecraft originally scheduled for the end of this year will instead likely take place in late 2021 or early 2022. That will push back a second test flight originally scheduled for mid-2021 and the first crewed mission, which had been planned for late 2021. India's next lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, has also been delayed, and Sivan said ISRO hasn't set a date for its launch. (12/7)

Thales Alenia Gets Northrop Grumman Contract for Gateway Module (Source: Thales Alenia Space)
Thales Alenia Space has secured a contract to build a lunar Gateway module. Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor for the Habitation And Logistics Outpost (HALO), awarded Thales a contract to produce the pressurized module component of the element. HALO will be based on Northrop's Cygnus spacecraft, for which Thales also provides the pressurized module. HALO is set to launch with another Gateway module, the Power and Propulsion Element, no earlier than late 2023. (12/7)

Some Russian Cosmonauts May Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19 With Russian Vaccine (Source: Sputnik)
Some cosmonauts and employees of the Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center may be vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus with Sputnik V, a source in the space and rocket industry told Sputnik News. Members of the next crew of the International Space Station - Oleg Novitskiy, Pyotr Dubrov and Sergei Korsakov - will not be vaccinated with Sputnik V.

The source added that the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Federal Medical-Biological Agency were also considering the vaccination of employees of the cosmodromes of Baikonur and Vostochny. Sputnik V was the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world - Russia officially registered it on August 11. The vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and is currently completing phase 3 clinical trials. Preliminary results of clinical trials of Sputnik V have demonstrated over 90 percent efficacy. (12/7)

Australian Aerospace Company Develops World First ‘Green’ Scramjet Technology (Source: Hypersonix)
Queensland aerospace company Hypersonix Launch Systems will receive Australian Government funding to fast track development of a reusable ‘green’ hypersonic scramjet capable of placing small satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The Australian Government will invest $956,000 through its Accelerating Commercialisation program to help the company develop a world first prototype engine called ‘SPARTAN’.

“Our SPARTAN scramjet will power an unmanned, fully composite vehicle called ‘DELTA-VELOS’, pushing it to hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 12 before it releases its payload in LEO“ he said. “What makes DELTA-VELOS so different from other launch vehicles is that it's designed to be low cost, reliable and reusable with zero nett carbon emissions through the use of locally produced green hydrogen for fuel... We're confident we will be able to achieve a rapid turn-around potentially as short as one week for launching small satellites into LEO.” (11/30)