The News from Space: Week of 3/1/20
NASA tests Orion capsule recovery operations with the US Navy.
Credit: NASA 2020.
China drills into the far side of the Moon——Elon’s Texas Starship bonanza——Perseverance
The Week of 3/1/20
Happy Saturday.
Space POLITICS recap from this week: HERE.
NASA:
The new Mars 2020 Rover’s name: Perseverance. More HERE.
Nobody likes the new NASA House Authorization bill, and that is fine because it probably won’t pass: More HERE.
An Op-Ed further analyzing the NASA Authorization bill. HERE.
The first Orion capsule for the Artemis program (NASA’s plan to return American astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024) is undergoing electromagnetic and thermal testing. More HERE.
Despite political and technical delays, the Space Launch System, NASA’s latest megarocket and the cornerstone of the Artemis program should launch by the end of 2021. More HERE.
NASA will lose contact with the Voyager 2 probe, one of two human spacecraft in interstellar space, for 11 months because of a Deep Space Network radio dish in Australia: More HERE.
NASA concludes: SPACE LETTUCE is better for you than Earth lettuce: More HERE.
SpaceX:
Updates on Starship (the revolutionary spacecraft that Elon Musk plans to colonize Mars with):
Starship SN1 exploded during a liquid nitrogen pressure test: More HERE.
If you just want to watch the EXPLOSION…HERE.
Musk increases the construction intensity by an order of magnitude at the Boca Chica, TX Starship plant and MUCH more: Watch HERE.
The full ARS Technica article mentioned in the video above (Musk’s absolutely absurd plan to build a Starship a week by the end of the year): More HERE.
At full production capacity, Musk wants to build a Starship every 72 hours: More HERE.
Elon Musk wants to help the Space Force build “Starfleet”: More HERE.
Watch Musk’s full conversation with Air Force Lt. General John Thompson HERE.
SpaceX launched a cargo resupply mission to the ISS last night (CRS-20). Watch NASA’s coverage HERE.
The NASA Psyche mission to study a metal rich asteroid will launch on a Falcon Heavy in 2022: More HERE.
Space Force:
What does the Space Force do? … Congress doesn’t know. More HERE.
L3Harris one a contract to overhaul the military’s aging Space Situational Awareness system (space debris tracker) that was implemented in the 90s. More HERE.
Boeing and Lockheed win a contract to develop jamming-resistant satellite communications payloads for the USSF. More HERE.
Space Force’s budget for 2021 is heavy on two unsurprising things: Rockets and Satellites. More HERE.
Why you should try to feel bad for Boeing:
NASA found 61 “corrective actions” for Boeing after the botched Starliner mission in December…uh oh, that’s not good! More HERE.
NASA declares the same Starliner demo mission in December a “high visibility close call”. NASA Chief of Human Spaceflight says, ”we could have lost a spacecraft twice during this mission”…YIKES! More HERE.
So, should Boeing have to test the Starliner again before a crewed flight? … Everybody: Yes! … NASA: 🤷♀️. More HERE.
Commercial:
Rocket Lab, the daring launch company from New Zealand, will launch a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite (how satellites can image in inclement weather and night) for Capella Space later this year: More HERE.
Axiom Space, the space infrastructure company planning to install an add-on to the International Space Station, struck a deal with SpaceX to send commercial astronauts to the ISS next year. More HERE.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ well-funded, steady-moving launch company, has BIG plans for this year. More HERE.
Astra, the stealthy launch company that came out of nowhere to attempt a DARPA rapid launch challenge, has failed to launch in the challenge’s time frame. But it is not all bad. More HERE.
Fantastic, what about China?
Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit 2), China’s lunar rover and part of the Chang’e 4 lander, took surface samples of the far side of the moon this past week. More HERE.
The intrepid rover and lander duo also completed their 15th day on the far side of the Moon this past week. More HERE.
NUCLEAR:
The Department of Defense is seeking public input for the potential development of an ADVANCED MOBILE NUCLEAR MICROREACTOR. More HERE.
In April, researches at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory plan to rebuild the NATIONAL SPHERICAL TORUS EXPERIMENT (an experimental nuclear fusion reactor). More HERE.
A stunning shot of Pluto: LOOK.
The Mars 2020 Rover: “Perseverance”
Credit: NASA JPL 2020.
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Have a good rest of the weekend y’all.
Harry Thomas is a junior in the College studying Economics and Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA). He is a Co-President and Co-Founder of Georgetown University Space Initiative.