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...