French astronaut Pesquet calls for European space independence
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 16:37
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French astronaut Thomas Pesquet on Tuesday urged Europe to seize the momentum created by its newfound diplomatic unity and "start moving now" to develop its own human spaceflight capacity.
The charismatic engineer and pilot, 44, recently completed his second deployment to the International Space Station on the NASA-SpaceX Crew-2 mission, and has arguably the highest profile among the European Astronaut Corps, in addition to being a celebrity in his native France.
Though he has long extolled international cooperation in space and remains in the mix to possibly go to the Moon as part of the NASA-led Artemis missions, Pesquet said it was vital for Europe's leaders to give the European Space Agency (ESA) the funding and mandate it needs to launch its own people, too.
NASA Artemis I moon rocket rolls back to Kennedy Space Center launch pad
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 16:04 Write a comment
NASA has sent the Artemis I rocket back to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center for testing later this month, looking to get back on track for a potential moon launch as early as August.
The 5.75 million-pound, 322-foot-tall combination of the Space Launch System, Orion capsule and mobile launcher left the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center early Monday to make the 4.4-mile slow crawl to Launch Pad 39-B.
The rocket still needs to run through a complete wet dress rehearsal during which NASA will fill and drain the core and upper stage with 730,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen while also simulating a countdown but without lighting the engines.
It first rolled out to the launch pad back in March, but several issues scrubbed three test run attempts forcing the rocket back to the VAB, but now mission managers hope their headaches are behind them.
"I think we've got a pretty good plan in place. We'll see how it turns out as we get into our next attempt, but I certainly think we've learned a lot and figured out a lot of specific things and how you want to do this dance," said Tom Whitmeyer, NASA's deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development.
Op-ed | FAA Overregulation Threatens America’s Future in Commercial Space
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 14:30 Write a comment
The FAA's culture of prescriptive rules and obsession with passenger safety at all costs is antithetical to the Office of Commercial Space Transporation's congressionally mandated role of encouraging, facilitating, and supporting a nascent U.S. commercial spaceflight industry.
South Korea cancels Apophis probe
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 13:56 Write a comment
Citing a “lack of technical capabilities,” South Korea has dropped the plan of developing a robotic spacecraft to escort asteroid Apophis during its 2029 close encounter with Earth.
The post South Korea cancels Apophis probe appeared first on SpaceNews.
Vega-C inaugural launch: mission highlights
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 13:00 Write a comment
Video:
00:01:21
Animated preview of flight VV21 illustrates gantry rollout and liftoff from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, stage and fairing separations, and deployment of the Italian Space Agency’s LARES-2 scientific payload and six research CubeSats. Vega-C represents a dramatic capability boost compared to its predecessor, Vega, which has flown since 2012. With new first and second stages and an uprated fourth stage, Vega-C increases performance from Vega’s 1.5 t to about 2.2 t in a reference 700 km polar orbit and handles larger payloads.
Redwire to produce tactical communications antennas for military satellites
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 11:30 Write a comment
Redwire announced June 7 it won a contract to produce 42 tactical communications antennas for U.S. military satellites in low Earth orbit.
The post Redwire to produce tactical communications antennas for military satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.
Redwire, MDA, to produce tactical communications antennas for military satellites
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 11:30 Write a comment
Redwire announced June 7 it won a contract to produce 42 tactical communications antennas for U.S. military satellites in low Earth orbit.
The post Redwire, MDA, to produce tactical communications antennas for military satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.
Jupiter’s moon Europa to obscure distant star
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 11:00 Write a comment
On 19 June 2022, Jupiter’s intriguing moon Europa will pass in front of a distant star, making that star appear to disappear for at least a minute. This event will be easy to see with any size of telescope from certain parts of Africa.
Beautiful Weekend Views - Sols 3493-3495
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 10:33 Write a comment
We're heading into a packed weekend, after a successful drive putting us in a great location with some really beautiful views. Everywhere you look in the Navcam mosaic (above) there's something interesting to see!
We're up close to a nifty layered outcrop, which is getting lots of imaging including ChemCam LIBS on targets 'Rukumata' and 'Guarico,' a ChemCam mosaic on 'Kamakusa,' MAHLI dogs Shenzhou XIV astronauts transporting supplies into space station
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 10:33 Write a comment
Crew members of the Shenzhou XIV spaceflight have begun to transport living and mission supplies to the Tiangong space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The agency said in a short release on Monday afternoon that the three astronauts - mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong, Senior Colonel Liu Yang and Senior Colonel Cai Xuzhe - entered the Tianzhou 4 cargo spaceship NASA rolls SLS moon rocket back out to Kennedy Space Center launch pad
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 10:33 Write a comment
NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket reached the launching pad at Kenndy Space Center in Florida Monday morning after its slow-rolling 4.2-mile hike.
The trip to the historic 39B launch pad, which finished up around 8:20 a.m. EDT, will allow the rocket to be loaded with super-cold propellants as it prepares for launch around the moon later this summer. China sends three astronauts to Tiangong Space Station
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 10:33 Write a comment
China on Sunday successfully launched a manned mission to its Tiangong Space Station.
The three-person crew launched on the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft from the Jiquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. local time with the astronauts entering the Tianhe core module at 8:50 p.m.
The astronauts - Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe - will live and work in space for six m Bacterial cellulose enables microbial life on Mars
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 10:33 Write a comment
An international research team including the University of Gottingen has investigated the chances of survival of kombucha cultures under Mars-like conditions. Kombucha is known as a drink, sometimes called tea fungus or mushroom tea, which is produced by fermenting sugared tea using kombucha cultures - a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Although the simulated Martian environment destroye Cargo Dragon mission postponed to investigate potential propellant leak
Tuesday, 07 June 2022 01:18 Write a comment
NASA and SpaceX have postponed the launch of a cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station after discovering a potential propellant leak in the spacecraft’s thrusters.
The post Cargo Dragon mission postponed to investigate potential propellant leak appeared first on SpaceNews.
Researchers tapped again for NASA moon mission, set to explore mysterious domes
Monday, 06 June 2022 16:09 Write a comment
A team of researchers from the University of Central Florida will be exploring an unknown and mysterious region of the moon.
Two UCF planetary scientists, Kerri Donaldson Hanna and Adrienne Dove, have been asked to lead a $35 million mission which would land a spacecraft over the Gruithuisen Domes—an unexplored part of the moon that has left NASA scientists scratching their heads, according to a NASA press release.
The domes, which are found on the western part of the moon, appear to be the result of a rare form of volcanic eruption, according to NASA. What's mysterious about the domes is that such geological structures on Earth require oceans of liquid water and plate tectonics to form. Without such ingredients, NASA scientists are left baffled as to how the structures came to be.
Donaldson Hanna and Dove's work is part of NASA's plan to use more commercial companies to take payloads to the moon through its Commercial Lunar Payload Service program (CLPS), which is headquartered in the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The CLPS program is born from NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans and efforts to get humans back on the moon.