NASA, Axiom Sign Second Private
Astronaut Mission to Space Station Order (Source: NASA)
NASA and Axiom Space have signed a mission order for the second private
astronaut mission to the International Space Station to take place in
the second quarter of 2023. The spaceflight, designated as Axiom
Mission 2 (Ax-2), will launch from Florida and travel to the space
station. Once docked, the Axiom astronauts are scheduled to spend 10
days aboard the orbiting laboratory. NASA and Axiom mission planners
will coordinate in-orbit activities for the private astronauts to
conduct in coordination with space station crew members and flight
controllers on the ground. (8/31)
BlackSky Awarded NASA Contract to
Advance Earth Science Research (Source: Space Daily)
BlackSky Technology received its first call order, worth $1.7 million,
from NASA to evaluate accessibility, accuracy, quality and utility of
the Company's imaging data services for the Commercial Smallsat Data
Acquisition (CSDA) Program. "New discoveries in Earth science can be
accelerated with innovative research methods and real-time dynamic data
sets that keep up with the increasingly rapid pace and scale of change
on our planet," said Dr. Patrick O'Neil, BlackSky chief innovation
officer. (8/30)
Comet Impacts Formed Continents When
Solar System Entered Galactic Arms (Source: Space Daily)
New research has found evidence that Earth's early continents resulted
from being hit by comets as our Solar System passed into and out of the
spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, turning traditional thinking about
our planet's formation on its head. The new research, published in
Geology, challenges the existing theory that Earth's crust was solely
formed by processes inside our planet, casting a new light on the
formative history of Earth and our place in the cosmos. (8/30)
Firefly Gets New CEO (Source:
Space News)
Firefly Aerospace has hired a longtime aerospace and defense executive
as its new CEO. The company announced Thursday it hired Bill Weber as
CEO, effective immediately. He was an executive with several defense
companies, including president and CEO of KeyW Corporation, acquired by
Jacobs in 2019. Peter Schumacher, a partner at majority owner AE
Industrial Partners, had been Firefly's interim CEO since mid-June when
co-founder Tom Markusic stepped down as CEO. Firefly is preparing for
its second launch of its Alpha rocket, scheduled for Sept. 11 from
Vandenberg Space Force Base. (9/1)
SpaceX Conducts Super Heavy Engine Test
(Source: Space.com)
SpaceX performed the first multi-engine static-fire test of its Super
Heavy booster Wednesday. The test at the company's Starbase test site
in Boca Chica, Texas, involved two or three engines firing for several
seconds. Super Heavy, which serves as the booster for the Starship
vehicle, has 33 Raptor engines. (9/1)
Collins Opens Spacesuit Production
Facility at Texas Spaceport (Source: KPRC)
Collins Aerospace opened a new facility in Houston where it will
develop spacesuits for NASA. The company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony
Wednesday at Houston's spaceport at the city's Ellington Airport.
Collins will use the 11,000-square-meter building for work on
spacesuits for the ISS and Artemis missions under a contract it won
from NASA in June. (9/1)
Perseverance Rover Producing In-Situ
Oxygen (Source: CNN)
A payload on the Perseverance rover is producing oxygen equivalent to a
small tree. The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment
(MOXIE) payload on Perseverance takes in carbon dioxide from the
planet's thin atmosphere and converts it to oxygen. In a paper
published Wednesday, researchers said MOXIE has demonstrated its
ability to operate at different times of day and in different seasons,
producing about six grams of oxygen per hour, the same rate of a small
tree on Earth. The technology behind MOXIE could be scaled up future
Mars missions to generate oxygen for astronauts. (9/1)
Mars Orbiters View Aurora
(Source: The National)
Observations by two Mars orbiters have revealed a "patchy" aurora. Data
from NASA's MAVEN mission along with the UAE's Hope orbiter discovered
the proton aurora on the planet's dayside, caused when particles from
the solar wind interact with the Martian upper atmosphere. While
aurorae had been previous seen at Mars, they were more uniform than the
patchy ones seen by Hope and MAVEN, and appear to be caused by
turbulent conditions in the solar wind. (9/1)
NASA Will Pay Boeing More Than Twice
as Much as SpaceX for Crew Seats (Source: Ars Technica)
NASA did not elaborate on its reasons for purchasing 14 missions from
SpaceX and just six from Boeing. However, this decision to buy all of
the remaining seats from SpaceX is likely due to past performance and
price. SpaceX started flying operational missions to the space station
in 2020, with the Crew-1 mission. Although Boeing's Starliner has a
crewed test flight early next year, likely in February, its first
operational mission will not come before the second half of 2023.
Additionally, there is some question about the availability of rockets
for Starliner. Boeing has purchased enough Atlas V rockets from United
Launch Alliance for six operational Starliner missions, but after that
the Atlas V will be retired. During a news conference last week,
Boeing's program manager for commercial crew, Mark Nappi, said the
company is looking at "different options" for Starliner launch
vehicles. These options include buying a Falcon 9 from a competitor,
SpaceX, paying United Launch Alliance to human-rate its new Vulcan
rocket, or paying Blue Origin for its forthcoming New Glenn booster.
Whatever NASA's ultimate reasons, it is clear in hindsight that the
space agency has gotten a much better deal from SpaceX in the
commercial crew competition. For the same services, development of Crew
Dragon and six operational missions, NASA paid SpaceX $2.6 billion.
After its initial award, NASA has agreed to buy an additional eight
flights from SpaceX—Crew-7, -8, -9, -10, -11, -12, -13, and -14—through
the year 2030. This brings the total contract awarded to SpaceX to
$4.93 billion. (9/1)
NASA Extends SpaceX Commercial Crew
Contract (Source: Space News)
NASA announced Wednesday it completed an extension of its commercial
crew contract with SpaceX worth more than $1.4 billion. The extension
adds five Crew Dragon missions to the ISS to the contract, bringing the
total to 14. The extension has a value of $1.44 billion, or $288
million per mission, and brings the total value of the Commercial Crew
Transportation Capabilities contract with SpaceX to more than $4.9
billion. NASA announced three months ago its intent to extend the
contract so that it had in place all the missions it needed from SpaceX
and Boeing for ISS operations to 2030. (9/1)
Intelsat Payload Switched Off in Orbit
(Source: Space News)
A malfunctioning Intelsat satellite has turned off its payload,
reducing the risk of interference with other spacecraft. The Galaxy 15
satellite turned off its communications payload Wednesday after it
stopped responding to commands in mid-August. However, Galaxy 15
continues to drift out of its geostationary orbit slot at 133 degrees
and will soon pass near other GEO satellites, Intelsat warned. The
company said it is working with other GEO operators to minimize the
impacts caused by the drifting Galaxy 15. Intelsat had already ordered
a replacement for Galaxy 15, called Galaxy 33, that is scheduled for
launch in October. (9/1)
Space Command Seeks More Investment
for Deep Space Ops (Source: Space News)
A U.S. Space Command general called for more investments in
technologies needed for deep space operations. Space Force Lt. Gen.
John Shaw, deputy commander of Space Command, said at a DARPA event
Wednesday he met with NASA officials at the Artemis 1 launch attempt
about collaborating on future technologies needed for operating beyond
Earth orbit. That includes the ability to track objects in cislunar
space as well as propulsion and logistics. He said he expected future
Artemis missions will require working with NASA to track objects in
cislunar space that could range from debris to "deliberate threats."
(9/1)
China Looking at Same Area as NASA for
Lunar Landings (Source: Space News)
China is considering some of the same regions at the south pole of the
moon for lander missions as NASA. NASA earlier this month announced the
selection of 13 potential landing regions for the Artemis 3 crewed
mission, flying no earlier than 2025. Meanwhile, a Chinese journal
article on potential lunar south pole landing sites identifies 10
suitable spots near the lunar south pole. The sites are thought to be
related to the country's Chang'e-7 mission, currently scheduled for
2024. Several of the Chang'e-7 sites are the same as Artemis 3
locations. That overlap reflects the limited amount of "prime real
estate" around the south pole based on lighting conditions and access
to potential water ice deposits. (9/1)
Ursa Major Wins Air Force Contract for
Rocket Engines (Source: Space News)
Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major has won a U.S. Air Force contract
to support rocket engine development. The $3.6 million deal is a small
business innovation research contract known as a TACFI, or Tactical
Funding Increase, that includes both government and private funds. The
funding will support the company's work on the Hadley liquid-propellant
engine, which generates 5,000 pounds-force of thrust. The Air Force
plans to use the engine to power the X-60A airdropped rocket designed
for hypersonic flight research. (9/1)
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