October 7, 2023

What's Next for Artemis? (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
During an August briefing at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development, said Artemis 2 was running a “number of weeks” behind schedule. But for now, the previously announced November 2024 target launch date remains unchanged.

Then, there’s Artemis 3 — the SLS/Orion flight slated to return humans to the surface of the Moon using a lander provided by SpaceX. Artemis 3 is scheduled for launch in late 2025. However, in the same August briefing, Free explained that SpaceX had considerable work to do on the lander and that a different mission could be flown if the lander isn’t ready. Here’s a rundown on the current state of the Artemis 2 and 3 missions and associated hardware. (10/6)

Here's How Artemis 2 Astronauts Will Exercise, Sleep and Use the Toilet on Their Moon Mission (Source: Space.com)
The Artemis 2 astronauts and ground teams are preparing for the first liftoff of the Artemis program with people on board. The round-the-moon mission is scheduled to lift off in late 2024 to set up NASA and its partner agencies for future lunar landings. The Orion spacecraft that will carry four astronauts to the moon and back is currently under construction, along with other key hardware. Meanwhile, the astronauts and other personnel are testing living activities the crew will do on the 10-day mission, including sleeping, eating and of course, going to the bathroom. Click here. (10/6)

Space Florida's New CEO Remarks on Amazon's Kuiper (Source: Space Florida)
"Amazon’s Project Kuiper expansion to our Launch and Landing Facility signals to the market that Space Florida's decades of capital investment has created the aerospace ecosystem in the state," said Space Florida President/CEO Robert Long. "We have stepped into a new era in the space economy, revitalizing the infrastructure once used for government space operations and utilizing them for the next generation of space innovation, exploration, research, manufacturing and testing. When companies like Amazon partner with us, we invest in the community and infrastructure and drive the new era of aerospace commerce.” (10/6)

NanoAvionics Is On the Cusp of Constellation Orders (Source: Satellite Today)
One year after being acquired by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, smallsat manufacturer NanoAvionics is on the cusp of signing constellation contracts, CEO Vytenis Buzas told Via Satellite in a recent interview. The company expects to announce serial manufacturing orders in 2024. Negotiations include constellations up to 100 satellites, to be built within three to five years. (10/5)

Arianespace's Vega Scrubs Attempt to Orbit 12 Satellites on VV23 Mission (Source: NSF)
Arianespace’s lightweight Vega rocket scrubbed its penultimate flight Friday, ahead of carrying the THEOS-2 Earth-observation satellite for Thailand, Taiwan’s Triton (FORMOSAT-7R) weather satellite, and ten small satellites. The launch is only Arianespace’s third mission of 2023. Vega and its replacement Vega-C are currently the only operational vehicles in Arianespace’s fleet. This will be the first launch of the original version of Vega since November 2021, with this mission designated VV23.

Vega is being replaced with the upgraded Vega-C rocket, which increases payload capacity and sports a new first-stage P120C solid rocket motor that has been developed for the next-generation Ariane 6 vehicle, introducing commonality which will help to bring down costs. Vega-C first flew in August 2022, however, its second and most recent launch in December failed to reach orbit. The VV23 mission is the first for the Vega family since that failure. (10/6)

Magnetic Fusion Plasma Engines Could Carry us Across the Solar System and Into Interstellar Space (Source: Universe Today)
Missions to the Moon, missions to Mars, robotic explorers to the outer Solar System, a mission to the nearest star, and maybe even a spacecraft to catch up to interstellar objects passing through our system. If you think this sounds like a description of the coming age of space exploration, then you’d be correct! At this moment, there are multiple plans and proposals for missions that will send astronauts and/or probes to all of these destinations. Naturally, these mission profiles raise all kinds of challenges, not the least of which is propulsion.

One popular concept is nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), which NASA and DARPA are currently developing in the form of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). This method relies on a nuclear reactor to heat propellant (like liquid hydrogen), causing it to expand through nozzles to generate thrust. The benefits of NTP include very high energy density and significant acceleration, but it also comes with numerous technical and safety challenges involving the handling and launching of nuclear materials.

And there’s Florian Neukart’s proposal, which combines elements of fusion propulsion, ionic propulsion, and other concepts. As he explained: “The MFPD is a propulsion system for space exploration, utilizing controlled nuclear fusion reactions as a primary energy source for both thrust and potential electric power generation. The system is predicated on harnessing the immense energy output from fusion reactions, typically involving isotopes of hydrogen or helium, to produce a high-velocity exhaust of particles, thereby generating thrust according to Newton’s third law. (10/5)

Virgin Galactic Completes Fifth Successful Spaceflight in Five Months (Source: Albuquerque Journal)
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceship shot into space Friday morning from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico with three paying passengers on board, marking the company’s fourth successful commercial spaceflight since June. The company says it wants to respect the privacy of its paying customers going forward as it moves into regular monthly flights, offering live-streamed coverage only on select missions. (10/6)

Spanish Company PLD Space Launches Rocket for 1st Time (Source: Space.com)
Spanish company PLD Space now has one launch under its belt. PLD Space's Miura 1 suborbital rocket lifted off from the El Arenosillo Test Center in Spain. The  mission was scheduled to last 12 minutes and get 50 miles above Earth's surface. Miura 1 carried an experiment from the German Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity that studied microgravity conditions during the flight. The mission ended with Miura 1's splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean. PLD Space had boats in the area, which aimed to recover the vehicle. (The Miura 1 is the first European rocket that's designed to be recoverable.) (10/6)

Rocket Lab Sees Rapid Demand for its HASTE Hypersonic Test Vehicle (Source: C4ISRnet)
In the six months since Rocket Lab revealed its hypersonic test vehicle, the California-based launch company has flown its first mission, signed deals for at least five more and been selected to demonstrate high-speed test capabilities for the Defense Innovation Unit. The Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron vehicle, or HASTE, is a modified version of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket and is designed to support high-speed test efforts — an area of particular focus for the Defense Department as it looks to validate and field its first hypersonic weapons in the coming years. (10/6)

Unprecedented Discovery Seems to Defy Fundamental Astronomical Theories (Source: CNN)
New images from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed surprising pairs of planet-like objects in the Orion Nebula that have never been detected before. When astronomers Samuel G. Pearson and Mark J. McCaughrean studied the short-wavelength image of the Orion Nebula, they zoomed in on the Trapezium Cluster, a young star-forming region that’s about 1 million years old, filled to the brim with thousands of new stars. In addition to the stars, the scientists spotted brown dwarfs, which are too small to kick-start the nuclear fusion at their cores to become stars.

On the hunt for other low-mass isolated objects, the astronomers found something they had never seen: pairs of planet-like objects with masses between 0.6 and 13 times the mass of Jupiter that appear to defy some fundamental astronomical theories. The scientists dubbed them Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or JuMBOs. “Although some of them are more massive than the planet Jupiter, they will be roughly the same size and only slightly larger,” said Pearson.

The astronomers found 40 pairs of JuMBOs and two triple systems, all on wide orbits around one another. Although they exist in pairs, the objects are typically about 200 astronomical units apart, or 200 times the distance between Earth and the sun. It can take between 20,000 and 80,000 years for the objects to complete an orbit around each other. (10/5)

Earth Hit by 'Dead Star' Blast So Powerful Scientists Don't Understand It (Source: New York Post)
A dead star known as the Vela pulsar redefined hit Earth with a blast of energy so powerful that scientists are at a loss to explain it, according to a new study detailing the cosmic fireworks display published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “This discovery was so unexpected … that it somehow was difficult to understand,” said Arache Djannati-Atai, an astrophysicist with the Astroparticle & Cosmology laboratory in Paris, which helmed the illuminating research, in a statement.

Meanwhile, the phenomenon was also detected by the High Energy Stereoscopic System array in Namibia. This is the most high-energy burst of its kind ever recorded and scientists are currently unable to explain how a pulsar could emit such intense energy. This led researcher to determine the discovery challenges existing knowledge of pulsars — and requires a rethinking of how these natural accelerators work. (10/6)

India To Have Its Own Space Station (Source: ZeeNews)
After leaving a mark on the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now getting ready to establish its first-ever space station. The Indian space agency is already working on its Mars and Venus missions and chief S Somnath has revealed the ISRO's big plan for the space station. (10/7)

Axiom Space and ESA Forge New Partnership for Future Space Exploration and Discovery (Source: Axiom)
Axiom Space and the European Space Agency (ESA) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed Oct. 1 in Paris to explore collaborative opportunities in human spaceflight, science, technology, and commercialization. Both organizations have expressed the intent to foster science and technology development, potentially collaborating on Axiom Space missions to the ISS, post-ISS low-Earth orbit activities, space suit innovations, and other R&D. (10/6)

Mark Hamill Explains Space in New Video Series for State Department (Source: The Verge)
Star Wars' Mark Hamill is lending his famous face and voice to the US State Department for a series of videos about — what else? — space. The six-part series, which is now live on the State Department’s website, touches on a variety of space innovations, such as microbes, astronauts staying fit in space, maintaining muscle mass, advancing robots that track astronauts’ health, filtering water from recycled waste, farming in space to grow food, and more. (10/6)

Amazon's Project Kuiper Takes Flight with ULA Atlas Launch at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space Daily)
Amazon's expansive ambitions to delve into satellite-based broadband have taken a concrete form. On October 6 the e-commerce behemoth successfully launched KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, the initial pair of its projected constellation of more than 3,200 satellites. The launch, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket, marked a critical milestone in Amazon's satellite journey. The chosen altitude for the satellites is 311 miles. (10/6)

Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing for FAA Administrator (Source: C-SPAN)
Michael Whitaker, President Biden’s nominee to be administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, testified at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Senators' questions focused on safety as well as workforce shortages and training. Also, Mr. Whitaker discussed the importance of the FAA preparing for the future, saying, “When I was at the FAA just a few years ago, drones were new, commercial space launches were rare, and flying taxis were still only in cartoons. All of this has changed.” (10/4)

Space Club to Honor Annual Florida Award Winners at Celebrate Space Banquet (Source: NSCFL)
The National Space Club, Florida Committee, will recognize the achievements of 18 space industry leaders during the organization’s annual Celebrate Space awards banquet on 13 October. The Space Club will honor recipients of its Lifetime Achievement awards, Rising Star awards, Kolcum News & Communications awards, and additions to Florida’s Space Worker Hall of Fame. Click here. (10/6)

UK Space Agency, Japanese Aerospace Agency Sign Cooperation Agreement (Source: Trend)
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have signed a cooperation agreement. "The cooperation between Japan and the UK represents one of the most effective methods to enhance the capabilities of Japan's H3 rockets. Usually missiles are tracked by ground stations, but we are using satellites instead. This reduces the number of objects on the ground, provides a flexible orbit, and facilitates operations when the missile is launched. Therefore, this cooperation is of great importance," commented JAXA spokesman Masaya Ido. (10/4)