November 26, 2022

SpaceX Launches CRS-26 Cargo Dragon, Heads for Space Station (Source: America Space)
After being delayed since Tuesday following poor weather on the Space Coast, a brand-new SpaceX Cargo Dragon is zeroing-in on the International Space Station (ISS), with an expectation that it will reach the sprawling orbital outpost early Sunday morning. The CRS-26 mission—flying under the second-round Commercial Resupply Services (CRS2) contract between NASA and SpaceX—took flight from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Saturday, laden with 7,777 pounds (3,528 kilograms) of experiments, payloads and supplies for the incumbent Expedition 68 crew.  (11/26)

Tianzhou 4 Deploys Minisatellite (Source: Space Daily)
China has recently conducted an in-orbit test of a robotic cargo spacecraft to deploy miniature satellites, according to a project insider. In the test that took place on Nov 14, the Tianzhou 4 cargo ship, which was on its journey back to Earth, deployed a CubeSat named SmartSat 3A into a low-Earth orbit about 380 kilometers above the ground, said Liu Likun, founder and CEO of Smart Satellite, a private satellite maker in Beijing that built the SmartSat 3A. The minisatellite was accurately placed in its preset orbit and soon established a data link with ground control. It has started carrying out its tasks, he said. (11/23)

Europe's Space Agency Reviewing Space-Based Solar Power (Source: Space Daily)
The European Space Agency could be tapping the power of the sun by deploying satellites that could beam the energy back to Earth, its director general said Tuesday. The ESA said it was investigating the technology necessary to deploy a space-based solar power system through an initiative dubbed Solaris. A demonstration project carried out in Germany used a microwave beam to transmit the energy necessary to power a model city, even cooling liquids suitable for consumption.

ESA said that for a utility-scale system, satellites would need to draw on the sun's energy on a permanent basis and then convert that energy to microwaves that could be safely beamed at power stations on the Earth's surface. To do this, the agency estimates that both the satellites and the collecting antennas on Earth would need to be huge - potentially on the order of a mile wide - to capture the equivalent nuclear power from space-based solar. (11/23)

China to Complete Lunar Outpost by 2028 (Source: Space Daily)
China will possibly complete the establishment of a lunar research outpost based on two robotic exploration missions by 2028 and send Chinese astronauts to the moon around 2030, according to the chief designer of China's lunar exploration program. Wu Weiren, also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the director of the country's deep-space exploration laboratory, said recently that China has laid out its space exploration plan for next 10 to 15 years, according to a China Central Television report.

The lunar exploration is one of the four major tasks in the future plan, and the other three are asteroid probe and impact, planetary exploration, and a heavy-lift launch vehicle that is powerful enough for the future manned lunar and Mars missions, Wu said. In 2004, China formally established the "Project Chang'e", and it has successfully concluded its three-step lunar exploration program of orbiting, landing and bringing back samples after the Chang'e 5 mission in 2020. (11/23)

Space Is for Machines. Earth Is for People (Source: The Tyee)
Let’s consider what a problem it is to launch humans into space for any length of time. We are very high maintenance. We need just the right temperature, plenty of oxygen and water and food, waste containment, and a host of other persnickety requirements. Without gravity our muscles start to atrophy and our bones weaken. In space, we are far more likely to die of radiation than of gunshot wounds.

Humans can be sustained, more or less, in a crewed satellite like the International Space Station, which gets regular shipments of new supplies. On the moon, or a spacecraft bound for Mars, those supplies would be the most expensive groceries in the solar system. Consider what robot spacecraft have done since the last American left the moon in 1972. They have landed rovers on Mars, some of which have lasted for years. They have sent back close-up photos of Jupiter, drifted through the rings of Saturn, and sent photos from the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. Space telescopes like the Edwin Hubble and James Webb have gone farther into space than Captain Kirk, and brought back visions of a universe larger and more beautiful than we ever imagined.

The Apollo moon flights were propaganda stunts, a way for the U.S. to outspend and outshine the Soviets. That’s why they called it the “space race.” I well recall the public relations campaigns of the 1960s that made heroes out of a bunch of test pilots and suburban goddesses out of their long-suffering wives. Even then, moon trips got boring in a hurry. Artemis is also a stunt, but it’s not a Cold War race against the bad guys. Now it’s a promise of colonization, making the moon into a jumping-off point for Mars and beyond — if only we can find water and other resources on the moon. (11/25)

NASA’s Orion Capsule Goes Into a Far-Out Orbit Around the Moon, Heading for Record (Source: GeekWire)
NASA’s uncrewed Orion capsule successfully executed an engine burn to enter an unusual type of orbit around the moon on the 10th day of the weeks-long Artemis 1 mission, and it’s due to set a distance record on the 11th day. During today’s course correction, the orbital maneuvering system engine on Orion’s European-built service module fired for 88 seconds as the capsule traveled more than 57,000 miles above the lunar surface.

The firing ensured that Orion will trace what’s known as a distant retrograde orbit, ranging out as far as 268,552 miles from Earth. On Saturday, the capsule is expected to break the 248,655-mile record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by spacecraft designed to carry humans to space and bring them home safely. The current record was set by Apollo 13 in 1970. (11/25)

CAPSTONE Forges New Path for NASA's Future Artemis Lunar Mission (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft has completed final maneuvers to place it in its target orbit around the Moon, refining its path in the orbit it arrived to last week. The spacecraft now is in the operational phase of its pathfinding mission, during which it will test an orbit key to future Artemis missions and demonstrate new technologies for spacecraft operating near the Moon.

"Missions like CAPSTONE allow us to reduce risk for future spacecraft, giving us a chance to test our understanding and demonstrate technologies we intend to use in the future," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. "Partnering with innovative U.S. companies, including several small businesses, on CAPSTONE has given us the chance to forge new ground, merging commercial interests with NASA's goals."

CAPSTONE took a four-month journey from launch to orbit - overcoming challenges related to communications and propulsion along the way - and performed an initial orbit insertion maneuver on Nov. 13. In the following days, the CAPSTONE mission operations team, led by Advanced Space of Westminster, Colorado, analyzed data from the spacecraft to confirm it was in the expected orbit and carried out two clean-up maneuvers to refine its track. (11/23)

Indian Startups Join the Space Race (Source: The Economist)
The flight, a 90km sub-orbital jaunt, was over in minutes. But for India the rocket launched by Skyroot Aerospace on November 18th, the first by a private company in the country, was a moonshot. Numerous other flights in the coming months will signal an industry ready for take-off.

Satellites built by two Indian companies are set to be sent into space on November 26th, carried on a rocket launched by India’s space agency. The one made by Pixxel, a Bangalore-based startup, is intended to be the first of dozens that will provide detailed images of Earth. Two manufactured by Dhruva Space from Hyderabad will serve to demonstrate to potential customers that it can make, deploy and operate satellites successfully. A second private rocket launch by Agnikul Cosmos is set for December. (11/24)

US Forces in South Korea to Host Space Force Component (Source: Yonhap)
The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) will host a component command of the U.S. Space Force (USSF), likely the second regional space command to be established by the United States outside of its mainland, amid growing missile threats from North Korea. The U.S. Department of Defense plans to open a component command of the Space Force under the wing of the USFK, and the USSF is scheduled to integrate the body into its organizational structure by the end of this year, according to multiple high-level government sources. (11/26)

India's PSLV-C54 Rocket Successfully Places Oceansat Satellite In Orbit (Source: NDTV)
ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV today successfully injected Earth observation satellite 'Oceansat' into a sun-synchronous orbit, Indian Space Research Organisation said. The 44.4 metre tall rocket lifted off at a prefixed time at 11:56 am from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at this spaceport at the end of a 25.30-hour countdown.

After reaching the intended orbit 17 minutes after PSLV-C54 lifted off, the Earth Observation Satellite or the Oceansat successfully separated from the rocket and was placed into orbit, ISRO chairman S Somanath said. Scientists would perform lowering of the rocket to place the other co-passenger satellites into a different orbit which is expected to take place in a two-hour duration. (11/26)