Space @ interstellar news

  Dealing with dust: A back-to-the-moon dilemma Future Artemis crew members on the moon will face the challenges presented by lunar dust, to equipment and themselves. Credit: NASA If the political, technical and budgetary stars align for NASA and its partners in coming years, the moon could be the go-to place as the century unfolds. Astronauts would again explore Earth’s celestial next-door neighbor, perhaps setting in motion future mining endeavors to extract ices likely lurking in sunlight-shy craters for processing into water, oxygen, and rocket propellant. Humans that “settle in” on the moon could well be a future prospect. Earth’s moon is a dusty denizen of deep space. View from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Jeff Williams The next chapter in the U.S. human exploration of the moon, the Artemis Project, will dispatch crews there for extended periods of time, building upon Apollo’s heritage. Between 1969 and the end of 1972, a dozen astronauts kicked up the powder...

  China launches first Long March 8 from Wenchang spaceport The first Long March 8 launch, lifting off from Wenchang. Credit: CNSA Five payloads include classified remote sensing satellite and a first commercial SAR sat HELSINKI — China  successfully carried out a first launch of the new Long March 8 medium-lift rocket late Monday, marking a small step towards Chinese rocket reusability. The 50.3-meter-long, 356-ton Long March 8 lifted off at 11:37 p.m. Eastern Dec. 21 from the coastal Wenchang launch site carrying five satellites into Sun-synchronous orbits. Launch was delayed  two days due to weather. State-owned defense contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) confirmed launch success around 40 minutes later. The  Long March 8  combines the 3.35-meter-diameter Long March kerosene-liquid oxygen first stage with a 3-meter-diameter hydrolox second stage from the Long March 3A series.  The core stage is powered by a pair of YF-100 kerol...

  SLS Exploration Upper Stage passes review The Exploration upper Stage will increase the payload performance of the Space Launch System for missions to the moon by more than 10 tons. Credit: Boeing WASHINGTON — An upgraded upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket has passed a major review, allowing its prime contractor, Boeing, to start producing hardware. Boeing announced Dec. 21 that the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) of the SLS completed a critical design review with NASA. That review confirmed the design of the EUS, allowing Boeing to proceed with development of the stage, including hardware fabrication. The EUS will be used on the Block 1B variant of SLS, replacing the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) used on the initial Block 1 version of the SLS and based on the Delta 4 upper stage. The EUS will have larger tanks and use four Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engines. The Block 1B will offer increased performance over the Block 1. While the Block 1 can place 27 metric t...

  NASA receives $23.271 billion in fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending bill The omnibus fiscal year 2021 spending bill includes $505 million for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST), after the administration sought once again to cancel the mission. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — Congress will provide NASA with nearly $23.3 billion in the final fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending bill, restoring several science programs but falling far short of the funding sought for a lunar lander program. Congress released the omnibus spending bill Dec. 21, a day after congressional leaders announced they had reached an agreement on a companion coronavirus relief package. The omnibus spending bill, a compromise between House and Senate bills, had been completed days earlier but its release was delayed until a deal was struck on the relief package. The bill provides $23.271 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2021, $642 million more than what it received in 2020 but nearly $2 billion less tha...

  Relativity Space raises $500 million Relativity Space says the $500 million Series D round will allow the company to accelerate its long-term plans beyond the development of its Terran 1 rocket. Credit: Relativity WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle startup Relativity Space has raised a $500 million funding round that the company says will enable it to accelerate its long-term vision of reshaping aerospace manufacturing. Relativity announced Nov. 23 that it raised the $500 million Series D round, led by hedge fund Tiger Global Management. Several new investors joined the round, including Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, ICONIQ Capital, General Catalyst, XN, Senator Investment Group, and Elad Gil. The company’s existing investors also participated in the round, which valued the company at more than $2 billion. The funding round is among the largest for a space company, rivaled only by investments in OneWeb and SpaceX. Tim Ellis, co-founder and chief executive of Relativity, said in an int...

  Rocket Lab declares success in Electron rocket recovery The Electron first stage from Rocket Lab's latest launch being hauled onto a recovery ship after a reentry and splahsdown that the company said was a "complete success." Credit: Rocket Lab WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab says its attempt to recover the first stage from its latest Electron launch was a “complete success,” but that the company still has work to do before it’s ready to attempt to reuse the stage. On  Rocket Lab’s latest launch Nov. 19 , the rocket’s first stage made a controlled reentry after stage separation, then released a drogue and a main parachute before splashing down about 400 kilometers downrange from its New Zealand launch site, where it was recovered by a boat. The recovery itself went as planned. “The test was a complete success,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a call with reporters Nov. 23. “The stage splashed down completely intact. What it proved to us is that this is a feas...

  Traditional launch services may not suit the needs of the future Space Force The U.S. Space Force Launch Enterprise is doing market research on emerging space technologies such as tug vehicles and how that could influence future space launch requirements. Seen here is Spaceflight's Sherpa tug. Credit: Spaceflight Industries illustration. The Space Force’s launch enterprise is trying to gain better insight into the next wave of space innovation and figure out how the military could acquire those capabilities.  WASHINGTON — SpaceX and United Launch Alliance were selected as U.S. national security launch providers based on their ability to deliver spacecraft to specific Earth orbits. How the Pentagon buys launch services in the future could change, however, as the military considers using emerging technologies and services known as “space mobility and logistics.” Col. Robert Bongiovi, the director of the Space Force’s launch enterprise, said his office is trying to gain better ...

  SpaceX ready for Starship suborbital flight as FAA begins new environmental study Elon Musk tweeted this image of the "Starship Production Complex" in Boca Chica, Texas, in June. Credit: Twitter @elonmusk WASHINGTON — As SpaceX prepares for the first high-altitude test flight of its Starship reusable launch vehicle, the Federal Aviation Administration is starting a new environmental review required for the company’s future launch vehicle plans. SpaceX performed a brief static-fire test of its Starship SN8 prototype Nov. 24 at its Boca Chica, Texas, test site. After the test, company founder and chief executive declared on Twitter that the vehicle was now ready for a suborbital flight to an altitude of 15 kilometers. “Good Starship SN8 static fire! Aiming for first 15km / ~50k ft altitude flight next week,” he  tweeted . “Goals are to test 3 engine ascent, body flaps, transition from main to header tanks & landing flip.” That flight will be the first time that a Starship...

  SpaceX sets new Falcon 9 reuse milestone on Starlink launch A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a set of 60 Starlink satellites Nov. 24 on the 100th flight of the Falcon 9, and the seventh of this particular first stage. Credit: SpaceX WASHINGTON — SpaceX set a new milestone in Falcon 9 reuse with the latest Starlink satellite launch Nov. 24 as the company seeks permission to deploy Starlink satellites into a new orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:13 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s upper stage released its payload of 60 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit about 15 minutes later. The rocket’s first stage landed on a droneship in the Atlantic, completing its record-setting seventh launch. The stage first flew in September 2018 launching the Telstar 18 Vantage satellite, followed by the final Iridium mission in January 2019. The rocket then launched four Starlink missions starting in May 2019, most recently A...