Space Explored

SpaceX successfully completed its TurkSat-5A mission after launching from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday night. This marks the first launch of 2021 and SpaceX’s 50th launch using flight proven boosters.

SpaceX and Florida-based L3Harris were awarded Space Development Agency contracts to develop four missile tracking satellites each last October, but protests by competitors Raytheon and Airbus halted those contracts from moving forward in December. This week the SDA reached a conclusion after reevaluating submissions for the contracts.

For over a year, SpaceX has been developing its next-generation rocket Starship near the small neighborhood of Boca Chica Village in Texas near the Mexican border. It wasn’t until June of last year that the Federal Aviation Administration which licenses airspace started an environmental assessment of the rapid expansion of SpaceX facilities there.

Back in 2011, a company called Mars One was founded by a small private Dutch organization with a single bold claim — to land the first humans on Mars. Not only would it be landing humans on Mars, but it would have them “live, explore, and create a second home for humanity” there.

2020 ended on a low note for the scientific community as the Arecibo Observatory collapsed in early December. However, this event has reinvigorated the discussion around NASA’s proposed Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT). Some scientists have even suggested that an LCRT on the Moon’s far side could act as a better replacement for Arecibo.

Updated January 7th 8:18 PM with details from ExoLaunch tweet.

SpaceX has been planning dedicated ridesharing launches with their first planned to take place later this month, but it might be going with two fewer payloads. Two of DARPA’s payloads that were planned to launch on the missions are apparently now damaged.

Joe Biden will become the next President of the United States on January 20, and the space community has questions. What does the new administration have planned for NASA’s Artemis program, how will the new commander-in-chief direct the U.S. Space Force, and will the Trump-revived National Space Council continue?

Another question to ask is how will a President Biden approach revisiting government facilities named after those with whom we do not share values. Biden will preside over renaming 10 military bases named after Confederate generals. This change gained bipartisan in Congress at the end of last year. What did not gain bipartisan support in 2020 is support for renaming NASA’s Stennis Space Center.

Preparations for NASA’s Artemis program are in full swing as the first mission, Artemis I, is set to launch later this year. However, one crucial part of the program that still requires a solution is navigation architecture. With extended stays on the moon, humans and autonomous robots alike would benefit greatly from having a system similar to GPS available.

Valles Marineris, also known as Mariner Valley, is a vast, expansive canyon covering a quarter of Mars’ equator. The 2,500-mile-long canyon is so large that it has been deemed the largest canyon in our entire solar system.

January 7: VO now has a more firm date of Wednesday, January 13.

Virgin Orbit has announced the next test opportunity for its Launch Demo 2 mission from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The mission will test launching a rocket to space from the wing of an airplane.

SpinLaunch is a company founded in 2014 to develop a new way to launch payloads into space. Now they are expanding their team and facilities at Spaceport America in New Mexico to be able to test-launch their first suborbital flight.

The last big test before Starship SN9’s flight was conducted on Wednesday with the static fire of all three Raptor engines. While SpaceX fueedl up the rocket and briefly fired up the Raptor engines below SN9, some weird differences were noticed to suspect something didn’t go right.

Virgin Galactic is developing a suborbital spaceplane called SpaceShipTwo Unity that is designed to fly passengers and payloads to zero gravity. A VSS Unity test flight in early December failed to reach space as intended, however, and now the company knows why.

Today is a heartbreaking day in the United States, and one that affords us no room for progress. Political disagreement and passionate debate are features of democracy. Halting a peaceful transition of power and putting lives at risk is not. That’s spreading chaos and fear, and neither allow us the opportunity to dream.

You cannot dream when you are unable to divert your eyes from the video stream of Washington, DC, out of fear that people are not safe. You cannot dream if the thing you see when you close your eyes is people hurting people. It is a luxury to invest our energy into learning and thinking about solving the problems of tomorrow, and today we cannot afford that gift.

There was a moment this afternoon when I found comfort in watching the SpaceX Starship prototype livestream from Boca Chica. The launch site in South Texas that’s just a short walk from the beach and Gulf of Mexico provided peace in contrast to a debate in Washington over whether or not Congress should recognize the results of the 2020 presidential election.

On one screen I saw a longview that offered a glimpse of what’s possible when we work together on a common goal; on the other was a test of our democracy that was unnecessary but nevertheless prevailing. Then the safety of people of all political ideologies were seen at risk on national television and social media, and even the inspiring progress of a rocket that could change our reach beyond our planet could not compare.

Nor could sharing knowledge of accomplishments in space through storytelling. Days like today are not unprecedented, even if the specific actions of protesters in DC may be. Instead, heartbreaking moments in America are experiences we will continue to share, and progress will necessarily halt while we await a return to peace. This fact has to change if we want to see dreams in space and our goals of exploration fulfilled.

NASA’s Lucy mission is primed to be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids around Jupiter. Today the mission moved one step closer to its launch following the successful integration of the L’TES instrument into the spacecraft.

Good spacesuits are arguably the most crucial aspect of any mission to space that involves humans. Even an uncomfortable spacesuit could impose substantial issues or limitations that you wouldn’t expect. That’s why engineers and designers at NASA have been hard at work designing a next-generation spacesuit called xEMU.

Supersonic flight is set to make a comeback and go further than ever before in this decade. Today the Federal Aviation Administration published new guidance to support this effort by clarifying existing policy and potentially streamlining the regulatory side of supersonic testing.

The Department of Transportation currently does not authorize supersonic flight by default. This means developing and testing technology like Boom’s XB-1 supersonic jet will require special authorization from the DOT and FAA to fly over Mach 1 speeds.

Back in early October, Northrup Grumman launched a Cygnus spacecraft named after NASA Astronaut Kalpana Chawla on top of an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. It carried over 8,000 pounds of supplies to the station and was released today by ground teams.

Huntsville-based firm Dynetics announced today that is has completed the submission process for its Human Landing System proposal for NASA’s Artemis Moon program. If selected, the Leidos-owned subsidiary would be responsible for the vehicle used to take astronauts from the Orion capsule to the surface of the Moon.

The Washington Post’s Christian Davenport reports that NASA is considering extending the mission duration of the Crew-1 astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi arrived at the station in mid-November. The four astronauts launched from Kennedy Space Center inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

A couple of weeks ago, on December 20, NASA completed the wet dress rehearsal test for the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage. And then today, the agency finally announced that it would be moving forward with the green run hot fire test, targeting a date “as early as January 17.”

SPHEREx, or Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, is NASA’s newest space telescope, and today, NASA announced that the project has entered into “Phase C.” This is essentially a final design phase, meaning that a final design can now be accomplished as well as building out hardware and software for the project.