May 28, 2023

NASA and Boeing Say Preparations Continue for July Starliner Test Flight (Source: Space News)
NASA and Boeing said May 26 they are still working towards a July launch of the CST-100 Starliner on a crewed test flight despite “emerging issues” and concerns raised by a safety panel. In a statement issued just before the close of business ahead of a holiday weekend, the two organizations said they completed a “checkpoint review” May 25 of preparations for the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, currently scheduled for no earlier than July 21. Two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will fly on CFT to the International Space Station on the short test flight, the first crewed flight of the spacecraft. (5/27)

Space Tourists Learn Harsh Reality of Space Station Bathroom (Source: Futurism)
This past week, a crew of private space tourists — carried by a vehicle built by SpaceX and operated by Axiom Space — arrived at the ISS for the vacation of a lifetime. And because everybody poops, once they arrived they had to confront the grim realities of using the restroom in microgravity. NASA seemed to allude to the struggles in a cursory blog post, saying the space tourists had "practiced" what it euphemistically referred to as "hygiene practices."

Because using the restroom here on Earth depends very much on gravity, doing so in space has long demanded the ingenuity of scientists. Modern technology has yet to fully deal with the challenge. The current generation of space commodes work by sucking both liquid and solid waste into tubes, but people involved say the stench can be appalling. There's also the issue that resources in space are precious, meaning that everything possible needs to be recycled. Back in the summer of 2020, it was announced that the ISS would be getting a new toilet that, uh, recycles the water out of fecal matter for reuse — only for NASA to come back to say that it was calling for new lavatory designs for the forthcoming Artemis moon missions .

Private spaceflight companies have yet to overcome the challenge. SpaceX, for one, admitted in 2021 that a previous crop of space tourists had struggled with waste management during a crewed mission. A month after that, we got more information when SpaceX revealed that it had fixed a problem on one of its Crew Dragon capsules in which its space toilet, which relies on two separate vacuum tubes for numbers one and two, was leaking and spraying urine onto the floor of the craft. (5/26)

Debt Ceiling Deal: Get Ready For Budget Cuts At NASA (Sources: Reuters, NASA Watch)
The deal would suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until January of 2025, allowing the U.S. government to pay its bills. In exchange, non-defense discretionary spending would be "roughly flat" at current year levels in 2024, "when factoring in agreed upon appropriations adjustments," a source familiar with negotiations said. It would increase by only 1% in 2025. What is this going to do to NASA’s Artemis plans, and issues within SMD over science missions – and the “nice to have” things like education? Stay tuned. (5/28)

Putin Establishes Gagarin Award for Achievements in Space (Source: TASS)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented a new state award, the Order of Gagarin, according to a presidential decree published on Saturday. The decoration will be awarded for merits is space exploration, for example, for a successful flight of a crewed spacecraft. Also, it will be awarded for prominent achievements in the training of scientists, engineers and other specialists of the space industry; for achievements in developing, manufacturing, testing and operating astronautics equipment without accidents, in developing and implementing new technologies, and in conducting research. (5/27)

Meet the Lunar Rover That Will Venture to the Moon’s South Pole (Source: CNN)
Engineers are busy constructing a rover set to land at the lunar south pole in 2024. About the size of a golf cart, VIPER, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will search for ice, collect and analyze samples, and map how much ice may exist beneath the moon’s surface. A hardy, clever design will allow the robot to handle the extreme conditions of a place humans have yet to explore. The rover’s findings could help sustain a human presence on the moon by allowing astronauts to collect drinking water and uncover other resources. And it’s not the only lunar rover in the works. (5/27)

Texas Welcomed Elon Musk. Now His Rural Neighbors Aren’t So Sure (Souerce: Washington Post)
hap Ambrose has always been a fan of Elon Musk. He spent $100 to join the waiting list for Tesla’s first pickup in 2019 and bought internet service from Musk’s satellite provider. But then the billionaire’s companies moved in next door to the computer programmer, who works from his rural, hilltop home. Two years later, massive construction sites and large white warehouses have taken over the green pastures where cattle used to graze.

Semis barrel up and down the narrow country roads. And the companies — rocket manufacturer SpaceX and tunneling company Boring — are seeking state permission to dump treated wastewater into the nearby Colorado River. “I just have no faith that the leadership there values the environment and these shared resources,” said Ambrose, who leads a group of local residents pushing Musk’s companies to slow down and address concerns about the environmental risks of the development. (5/28)

Lunar Orbital Congestion II: Economic and Strategic Drivers (Source: Forbes)
Most proposed plans for lunar surveying and comms are less ambitious than the Earth orbital constellations. They depend on just a few satellites into higher, elliptical orbits, from which they can cover a lot of surface area, but are subject to longer observational distances and communications latency. If I am correct in projecting 1000 satellites in lunar orbits by 2030, the congested space around the Moon may result in international contention and/or a troublesome debris problem, similar to the one plauging Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The lunar equivalent of GEO are two points in space known as the Earth-Moon Lagrange Points 1 and 2 (L1 and L2).

Earth-Moon L2 is a great place to put a satellite for communicating with landers or rovers on the Moon’s far side, and China located their Queqiao relay satellite there to support their Chang’e 4 lander and Yutu-2 rover mission. The Lunar Gateway, a NASA lead multi-national space habitat, will be placed in a special halo orbit around L2, called a Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). This weeklong orbit has one end which allows the Orion deep space capsule to dock and another in a good location for dropping a lander on the surface of the Moon. Click here. (5/26)

ULA Calls Off Critical Vulcan Centaur Test on Launch Pad Due to Engine Ignition Delay (Source: Space.com)
ULA called off the first-ever engine test of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket on the launch pad in Florida on Thursday (May 25) due to a technical issue on the booster. The Vulcan Centaur rocket engine test, called a Flight Readiness Firing, was scheduled Friday at Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceprt. But two hours before the test, ULA announced it was standing down. "During the countdown, the team observed a delayed response from the booster engine ignition system that needs further review prior to proceeding with the flight readiness firing," ULA officials wrote. (5/26)