Tag: NASA
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NASA urged Astrobotic not to send its hamstrung spacecraft toward the Moon
Astrobotic knew its first space mission would be rife with risks. After all, the company’s Peregrine spacecraft would attempt something never done before—landing a commercial spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. The most hazardous part of the mission, actually landing on the Moon, would happen more than a month after Peregrine’s launch. But the…
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Astrobotic’s lunar lander falls into South Pacific after missing out on moon landing
One of the last pictures taken by a camera on the Peregrine lander shows a crescent Earth. (Astrobotic Photo) Ten days after its launch, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander fell back to Earth, ending a trip to the moon’s orbital distance and back that was doomed by a propellant leak. The mission began auspiciously on the…
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Rocket Report: A new estimate of Starship costs; Japan launches spy satellite
Welcome to Edition 6.27 of the Rocket Report! This week, we discuss an intriguing new report looking at Starship. Most fascinating, the report covers SpaceX’s costs to build a Starship and how these costs will come down as the company ramps up its build and launch cadence. At the other end of the spectrum, former…
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NASA SLS Exploration Upper Stage moving into qualification phase of development
As NASA pushes out the schedule for Artemis II and III, development of the first major upgrade to the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is moving into qualification. SLS Stages prime contractor Boeing is activating production areas for the new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans in…
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NASA SLS Exploration Upper Stage moving into qualification phase of development
As NASA pushes out the schedule for Artemis II and III, development of the first major upgrade to the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is moving into qualification. SLS Stages prime contractor Boeing is activating production areas for the new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans in…
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Axiom, SpaceX launch third all-private crew mission to space station
For the third time, an all-private crew is heading for the International Space Station. The four-man team lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday, kicking off a 36-hour pursuit of the orbiting research laboratory. Docking is scheduled for Saturday morning. This two-week mission is managed by…
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Axiom and SpaceX are disrupting Europe’s traditional pathway to space
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) has a deal with Axiom Space to get more Europeans in orbit. But does the partnership benefit European taxpayers who fund the agency’s operations? On Wednesday, January 17, the third privately funded mission by US commercial spaceflight company Axiom Space is set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center in…
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Webb discovers potential aurorae on brown dwarf
Silently floating through the universe are cosmic objects that are both too large to be planets and too small to be stars. Called brown dwarfs, these substellar objects are among the most captivating objects in the universe, and their low surface temperatures mean that most of the light they emit is infrared and thus can…
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Using Hubble, scientists observe weather on exoplanet
Using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has detected atmospheric variability on an exoplanet called WASP-121 b. The team analyzed observations taken with Hubble over several years and used computer simulations to demonstrate that the observed variations in the atmosphere could be explained by weather patterns. WASP-121 b, also known…
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Citing “crew safety,” NASA delays upcoming Artemis missions by about a year
Citing “crew safety” as the agency’s chief priority, NASA officials outlined a new schedule for the Artemis lunar program on Tuesday. The roughly one-year delay for each of the next three missions came as little surprise, given the significant amount of work left to be done before astronauts can return to the Moon later this…