SLS Update: A Major Milestone Is Achieved on a Future Flight Component for NASA's Mega-Rocket...

NASA

NASA Completes Design Review of the SLS Exploration Upper Stage (News Release)

The Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) for future flights of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket has passed its Critical Design Review, or CDR.

A panel of experts evaluated the EUS in the latest review to determine that the stage’s design meets requirements for future missions. This most recent assessment certifies the EUS meets critical design requirements to withstand deep space environments and when completed will ensure astronaut safety. The review board also evaluated testing processes, the ability of the industrial base to supply parts and tooling, and production plans. Boeing, the prime contractor for the EUS as well as the core stage, will manufacture and assemble the upper stage at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

A structural test article of the stage will undergo testing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the SLS Program is managed. The flight article will undergo Green Run testing at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, before its first flight, similar to the SLS core stage Green Run testing currently in progress, including a hot firing of the engines.

NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. SLS and Orion, along with the Human Landing System and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Terry White

Artemis Update: A Canadian Astronaut Will Fly on Orion's First Crewed Flight to the Moon, as Well as the Lunar Gateway...

Canadian Space Agency, NASA

NASA, Canadian Space Agency Formalize Gateway Partnership for Artemis Program (Press Release)

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) finalized an agreement between the United States and Canada to collaborate on the Gateway, an outpost orbiting the Moon that will provide vital support for a sustainable, long-term return of astronauts to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Artemis program. This Gateway agreement further solidifies the broad effort by the United States to engage international partners in sustainable lunar exploration as part of the Artemis program and to demonstrate technologies needed for human missions to Mars.

Under this agreement, CSA will provide the Gateway’s external robotics system, including a next-generation robotic arm, known as Canadarm3. CSA also will provide robotic interfaces for Gateway modules, which will enable payload installation including that of the first two scientific instruments aboard the Gateway. The agreement also marks NASA’s commitment to provide two crew opportunities for Canadian astronauts on Artemis missions, one to the Gateway and one on Artemis II.

“Canada was the first international partner to commit to advancing the Gateway in early 2019, they signed the Artemis Accords in October, and now we’re excited to formalize this partnership for lunar exploration,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “This agreement represents an evolution of our cooperation with CSA providing the next generation of robotics that have supported decades of missions in space on the space shuttle and International Space Station, and now, for Artemis.”

CSA will be responsible for end-to-end external robotics, including engineering and operations. Canadarm3 will move end-over-end to reach many parts of the Gateway’s exterior, where its anchoring "hand" will plug into specially designed interfaces. Delivery to the lunar outpost is targeted in 2026 via a U.S. commercial logistics supply flight.

“Gateway will enable a robust, sustainable, and eventually permanent human presence on the lunar surface where we can prove out many of the skills, operations, and technologies that will be key for future human Mars missions,” said Kathy Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations.

Approximately one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, the Gateway will function as a way station located tens of thousands of miles at its farthest distance from the lunar surface, in a near-rectilinear halo orbit. From this lunar vantage, NASA and its international and commercial partners will conduct unprecedented deep space science and technology investigations. It will serve as a rendezvous point for astronauts traveling to lunar orbit aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket prior to transit to low-lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon.

“CSA’s advanced robotics contribution with Canadarm3 builds upon our long spaceflight history together, enabling us to perform critical long-term sustainability and maintainability functions, overall inspections of the external Gateway and its attached vehicles, and servicing of external payloads in support of our worldwide research initiatives,” said Dan Hartman, Gateway program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Our efforts are well underway on Gateway to integrate CSA’s robotics system with arm attachment points and smaller dexterous adaptors already being incorporated into the individual Gateway modules including the PPE (power and propulsion element), HALO (habitation and logistics outpost), Gateway logistics, and international habitation element designs.”

NASA astronauts will board a commercially-developed lander for the final leg of the journey to the lunar surface, and the agency has contracted with U.S. industry to develop the first two Gateway components, PPE and HALO, as well as logistics resupply for Gateway.

In October, NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) signed an agreement solidifying ESA’s contributions to the Gateway to provide habitation and refueling modules, along with enhanced lunar communications and service modules for Orion. In March, NASA selected the first two scientific investigations to fly aboard the Gateway, one from NASA and the other from ESA. ESA developed the European Radiation Sensors Array, or ERSA, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is building the Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite, or HERMES. The two mini space weather stations will split the work, with ERSA monitoring space radiation at higher energies with a focus on astronaut protection, while HERMES monitors lower energies critical to scientific investigations of the Sun. All of the Gateway’s international partners will collaborate to share the scientific data that will be transmitted to Earth. Additional scientific cooperative payloads will be selected to fly aboard the outpost.

In addition to supporting lunar surface missions, the Gateway will support activities that will test technologies needed for human missions to Mars. Using the Gateway, NASA will demonstrate remote management and long-term reliability of autonomous spacecraft systems and other technologies.

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SpaceX Update: NASA and the European Space Agency Select the Astronauts Who'll Fly on Crew Dragon's Third Official ISS Mission Next Year...

NASA / ESA

NASA, ESA Choose Astronauts for SpaceX Crew-3 Mission to Space Station (Press Release)

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) have selected three astronauts to serve as crew members for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station, which is expected to launch in the fall of 2021.

The trio will consist of NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, who will serve as commander and pilot, respectively, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who will serve as a mission specialist. A fourth crew member will be added at a later date, following a review by NASA and its international partners.

This will be the first spaceflight for Chari, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017. He was born in Milwaukee, but considers Cedar Falls, Iowa, his hometown. He is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and joins the mission with extensive experience as a test pilot. He has accumulated more than 2,500 hours of flight time in his career. Chari was selected earlier this month as a member of the Artemis Team and is now eligible for assignment to a future lunar mission.

Marshburn is a Statesville, North Carolina, native who became an astronaut in 2004. Prior to serving in the astronaut corps, the medical doctor served as flight surgeon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and later became medical operations lead for the International Space Station. The Crew-3 mission will be his third visit to the space station and his second long-duration mission. Marshburn previously served as a crew member of STS-127 in 2009 and Expedition 34/35, which concluded in 2013.

Maurer comes from Sankt Wendel, in the German state of Saarland. Like Chari, Maurer will be making his first trip to space with the Crew-3 mission. Before becoming an astronaut, Maurer held a number of engineering and research roles, both in a university setting and at ESA. In 2016, Maurer spent 16 days on an undersea mission as part of a NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, space analog.

When Chari, Marshburn, and Maurer arrive at the orbiting laboratory, they will become expedition crew members for the duration of their six-month stay. The crew will have a slight overlap with the Crew-2 astronauts, who are expected to launch in the spring of 2021. This will not be the first commercial crew mission to overlap. The Crew-1 astronauts, who are currently on station, and the Crew-2 astronauts, also are expected to coincide in their sojourns for a short time. Increasing the total number of astronauts aboard the station is allowing the agency to boost the number of science investigations conducted in the unique microgravity environment.

This will be the third crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system and its fourth flight with astronauts, including the Demo-2 test flight, to the space station through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The goal of the program is to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective crew access to the space station and low-Earth orbit in partnership with American aerospace industry. NASA’s contract with SpaceX is for six total crew missions to the orbiting laboratory. Commercial transportation to and from the station will provide expanded utility, additional research time, and broader opportunities for discovery on the orbital outpost.

For more than 20 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. As a global endeavor, 242 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.

The station is a critical test bed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight. As commercial companies focus on providing human transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit, NASA is free to focus on building spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.

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Artemis Update: NASA Chooses 18 Astronauts Who Will Return Humanity to the Lunar Surface...

NASA

NASA Names Artemis Team of Astronauts Eligible for Early Moon Missions (Press Release - December 9)

NASA has selected 18 astronauts from its corps to form the Artemis Team and help pave the way for the next astronaut missions on and around the Moon as part of the Artemis program.

Vice President Mike Pence introduced the members of the Artemis Team Wednesday during the eighth National Space Council meeting at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“I give you the heroes who will carry us to the Moon and beyond – the Artemis Generation,” said Vice President Mike Pence. “It is amazing to think that the next man and first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read. The Artemis Team astronauts are the future of American space exploration – and that future is bright."

The astronauts on the Artemis Team come from a diverse range of backgrounds, expertise, and experience. The agency’s modern lunar exploration program will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the decade.

NASA will announce flight assignments for astronauts later, pulling from the Artemis Team. Additional Artemis Team members, including international partner astronauts, will join this group, as needed.

“We are incredibly grateful for the president and vice president’s support of the Artemis program, as well as the bipartisan support for all of NASA’s science, aeronautics research, technology development, and human exploration goals,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “As a result, we’re excited to share this next step in exploration – naming the Artemis Team of astronauts who will lead the way, which includes the first woman and next man to walk on the lunar surface.”

The astronauts of the Artemis Team will help NASA prepare for the coming Artemis missions, which begin next year working with the agency’s commercial partners as they develop human landing systems; assisting in the development of training; defining hardware requirements; and consulting on technical development. They also will engage the public and industry on the Artemis program and NASA’s exploration plans.

“There is so much exciting work ahead of us as we return to the moon, and it will take the entire astronaut corps to make that happen,” Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester said. “Walking on the lunar surface would be a dream come true for any one of us, and any part we can play in making that happen is an honor. I am proud of this particular group of men and women and know that any of them would do an outstanding job representing NASA and the United States on a future Artemis mission.”

The Artemis Team members are:

Joseph Acaba was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2004. He has spent 306 days in space and performed three spacewalks. The Anaheim, California, native holds a bachelor’s degree in geology, as well as master’s degrees in geology and education. Before coming to NASA, he taught high school science and middle school math and science.

Kayla Barron was chosen as an astronaut in 2017. Originally from Richland, Washington, she earned a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering. As a submarine warfare officer, Barron was a member of the first class of women commissioned into the submarine community. She is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy.

Raja Chari joined the astronaut corps in 2017. A colonel in the U.S. Air Force, he was raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He received a bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering and a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics. The U.S. Naval Test Pilot School graduate worked on F-15E upgrades and then the F-35 development program, before coming to NASA.

Matthew Dominick was chosen as an astronaut in 2017. Born in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, he holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in systems engineering. He also graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and was a developmental test pilot specializing in aircraft carrier launches and landings before coming to NASA.

Victor Glover was selected as an astronaut in 2013. The Pomona, California, native and U.S. Navy Commander earned a bachelor’s degree in general engineering and master’s degrees in flight test engineering, systems engineering, and military operational art and science. He piloted the Crew-1 Dragon Resilience and is currently serving as an Expedition 64 flight engineer aboard the International Space Station.

Warren Hoburg joined the astronaut corps in 2017. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he holds a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics, and a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science. Before coming to NASA, he was an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a seasonal member of the Yosemite Search and Rescue team.

Jonny Kim came to NASA as part of the 2017 astronaut class. The Los Angeles, California, native enlisted in the U.S. Navy following high school. He became a Navy SEAL before earning his commission and going back to school to pursue a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, followed by a doctor of medicine.

Christina Hammock Koch was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and holds the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman, with 328 days in space and six spacewalks. She grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and received bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and physics, and a master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Kjell Lindgren was chosen as an astronaut in 2009. He spent 141 days in space and performed two spacewalks. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in cardiovascular physiology and a doctor of medicine. Before becoming an astronaut, he was a flight surgeon supporting space shuttle and space station missions.

Nicole A. Mann joined the astronaut corps in 2013 and is currently training as pilot for the Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. Born in Petaluma, California, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering. The U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel was an F/A-18 fighter pilot and graduate from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

Anne McClain, from Spokane, Washington, joined the astronaut corps in 2013. She has spent 204 days in space and conducted two spacewalks. The U.S. Army lieutenant colonel is a Senior Army Aviator and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as a helicopter test pilot. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical/aeronautical engineering, and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering and international relations.

Jessica Meir was chosen as an astronaut in 2013. She has spent 205 days in space and performed three spacewalks. A native of Caribou, Maine, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in space studies, and a doctorate in marine biology. Before coming to NASA, she studied the physiology of animals in extreme environments.

Jasmin Moghbeli joined the astronaut corps in 2017. A major in the U.S. Marine Corps, she was raised in Baldwin, New York. She received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering. She also graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and tested H-1 helicopters before she came to NASA.

Kate Rubins was chosen as an astronaut in 2009 and is currently orbiting Earth on her second flight aboard the International Space Station. She was raised in Napa, California, and holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and a doctorate in cancer biology. She was the first person to sequence DNA in space and has performed two spacewalks.

Frank Rubio was selected as part of the 2017 astronaut class. The U.S. Army lieutenant colonel considers Miami, Florida, his hometown. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a doctor of medicine. He served as both a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and a flight surgeon in the Army before coming to NASA.

Scott Tingle came to NASA to join the 2009 astronaut class. The U.S. Navy captain has spent 168 days in space and performed one spacewalk. He considers Randolph, Massachusetts, his hometown and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering. He also graduated from the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School.

Jessica Watkins joined the astronaut corps in 2017. The Lafayette, Colorado, native received a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences, and a doctorate in geology. Before becoming an astronaut, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, where she served as a member of the science team for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.

Stephanie Wilson was chosen as an astronaut in 1996. A veteran of three space shuttle flights, she has spent 42 days in space. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering science and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. Before becoming an astronaut, she worked on the Galileo spacecraft at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Acaba, Dominick, McClain, Meir, and Watkins attended the announcement in person, representing their teammates.

Ahead of a human return, NASA will send dozens of new science investigations and technology experiments to the Moon beginning in 2021 through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. This team announcement also follows the agency’s release Dec. 7 of a new science report highlighting the key science objectives for astronauts on the Artemis III surface mission. NASA and its partners will establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by the end of the decade and prepare for sending astronauts farther into the solar system, including Mars.

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NASA

CST-100 Update: The Starliner Capsule Will Now Make Its Next Flight in Late March...

Boeing

NASA and Boeing Target New Launch Date for Next Starliner Flight Test (News Release - December 9)

NASA and Boeing now are targeting March 29 for the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is a critical developmental milestone on the company's path toward flying crew missions for NASA.

For the OFT-2 mission, the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, dock to the International Space Station and return to land in the western United States about a week later as part of an end-to-end test to prove the system is ready to fly crew.

“Boeing is making solid progress on the path to flying a second uncrewed test mission and preparing for the company’s Crew Flight Test in 2021,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. “Our teams are focused on applying the lessons learned, and it won’t be long until we see Starliner visiting its destination – the International Space Station.”

The OFT-2 Starliner spacecraft is nearing final assembly inside the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The vehicle’s reusable crew module has been powered up and final checkouts of the avionics, power and propulsion systems are nearing completion. The spacecraft’s parachutes, landing airbags, base heat shield, and its back shells are installed signifying the completion of the vehicle build phase. In the coming weeks, teams will load the crew module with cargo, including Rosie the Rocketeer, and weigh the vehicle before mating it to its service module, which is already complete.

In parallel, Boeing technicians continue to refurbish the crew module flown on Starliner’s first Orbital Flight Test while also building a brand-new service module for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT), which is now targeting launch in summer 2021, following a successful OFT-2 mission.

NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Mike Fincke, and Nicole Mann continue to train for CFT, the inaugural crewed flight of the Starliner spacecraft. After the completion of both test flights, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Josh Cassada and Jeanette Epps will launch on the Starliner-1 mission, the first of six crew rotation missions NASA and Boeing will fly as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Formal qualification of Starliner’s flight software also is underway inside Boeing’s Avionics and Software Integration Lab in Houston. Teams are running both static and dynamic testing of the vehicle’s software to ensure it’s coded as designed and incorporates all mission requirements. Test teams then will perform an entire end-to-end mission scenario, from prelaunch to docking and undocking to landing, using a high-fidelity suite of hardware before flying the OFT-2 mission.

"NASA and Boeing are doing a tremendous amount of work on all aspects of their flight software running numerous cases through the Boeing high fidelity simulation environment that includes the Starliner avionics," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Boeing has worked hand-in-hand with NASA to address all of the lessons learned from Starliner’s first flight. The company is more than 90% complete in closing out all the recommended actions developed by a joint NASA and Boeing Independent Review Team, even those that were not mandatory, ahead of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test.

United Launch Alliance also is making progress with the OFT-2 Atlas V hardware at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and ready for processing for the upcoming OFT-2 launch. The Centaur upper stage for CFT is complete, and all hardware for the CFT mission is on track for an early 2021 delivery to the launch site. The hardware to support Starliner-1 is in progress.

“The progress we’re making ahead of Starliner’s next flight is laying the groundwork for safe and reliable transportation services for NASA and a variety of customers for many years to come,” said John Vollmer, Starliner’s vice president and program manager at Boeing. “With each vehicle closeout, line of code tested, and document delivered, we’re on a path to proving we have a robust, fully operational vehicle. It’s truly a team with effort with NASA and our industry partners.”

Source: NASA.Gov

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Join us for a closer look at the Orbital Flight Test-2 #Starliner crew module. Go inside our production factory on @NASAKennedy to learn more about the build behind this reusable @Commercial_Crew spacecraft that's flying next.

Watch the full video: https://t.co/0ynswWYquM pic.twitter.com/7s7yEMoWxe

— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) December 9, 2020

SpaceX Update: The Starship SN8 Prototype Conducts a Successful Test Flight (with an Explosive Ending)!

SpaceX

Less than four hours ago, the Starship Serial No. 8 (SN8) prototype rocket lifted off from SpaceX's launch facility at Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. The flight was a 12.5-kilometer (41,000-feet) hop that was supposed to end with SN8 conducting a high-altitude belly flop prior to going vertical again for a rocket-powered touchdown several meters from its launch pedestal. The belly flop and everything that came before that happened as planned; it was the explosive landing (caused by two of the three Raptor engines shutting down early due to low pressure in the header tank at the top of the vehicle—according to Elon Musk's tweet below) that was unwarranted...but not unexpected!

Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2020

Despite the unfortunate fiery finale to today's historic test for Starship, the aerial demonstration was immensively successful. The SpaceX team gathered all of the data it needed to ensure that the next Mars rocket prototype, Starship SN9, will stick the landing next time. This vehicle's flight can happen in a matter of weeks... Ground personnel only need to remove SN8's wreckage from the landing pad before SN9 will be ready to resume SpaceX's bid to revolutionize human spaceflight with what was formerly called the Big Falcon Rocket. Ad astra will soon take on new meaning.


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX

Watch Starship high-altitude test live → https://t.co/Hs5C53qBxb https://t.co/sEMe4firi6

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 9, 2020

NASA Honors Chuck Yeager (1923-2020)...

NASA Administrator Statement on Passing of Gen. Chuck Yeager (Press Release)

The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on the passing of Gen. Chuck Yeager:

“Today's passing of Gen. Chuck Yeager is a tremendous loss to our nation. Gen. Yeager's pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America's abilities in the sky and set our nation's dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age. He said, ‘You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.’

“Among many firsts in more than 60 years in aviation, Chuck was the first man to fly at the speed of sound, and his achievements rival any of our greatest firsts in space. Not content to rest on his laurels, he went on to break his own record and travel at Mach 2.44. But even before that he was serving his country heroically in World War II. Long after he became a legend in his own time, he continued to serve his country through the military and later in his ongoing work to test new aircraft.

“Chuck's bravery and accomplishments are a testament to the enduring strength that made him a true American original, and NASA's Aeronautics work owes much to his brilliant contributions to aerospace science. As a young naval aviator, I was one of many around the world who looked up to Chuck Yeager and his amazing feats as a test pilot. His path blazed a trail for anyone who wanted to push the limits of human potential, and his achievements will guide us for generations to come.”
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Artemis 3 Update: NASA Announces What the Mission Goals for this Historic Flight Will Be...

Blue Origin

NASA Defines Science Priorities for First Crewed Artemis Landing on Moon (Press Release)

NASA has identified the agency’s science priorities for the Artemis III mission, which will launch the first woman and next man to the Moon in 2024. The priorities and a candidate set of activities are included in a new report.

The Artemis III Science Definition Team, which comprises federal employees and consultants with expertise in lunar science, began meeting in September to define compelling and achievable science objectives for all aspects of the Artemis III mission, including sampling strategies, field surveys, and deployable experiments.

The Moon often is referred to as the cornerstone of the solar system, and these high-priority investigations will help scientists better understand fundamental planetary processes that operate across the solar system and beyond. In addition, the team prioritized investigations that will help NASA understand the risks and potential resources of the Moon’s South Pole, where the agency hopes to establish its Artemis Base Camp concept by the end of the decade.

“The Moon holds vast scientific potential and astronauts are going to help us enable that science,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Even before Artemis III lands, our agency’s science and human exploration teams are working together as never before to ensure that we leverage each other’s strengths. This report helps outline a path forward toward the compelling science we can now contemplate doing on the lunar surface in conjunction with human explorers.”

Questions the team explored include how to approach investigations and key science activities on the lunar surface and how to incorporate science into the concept of operations for the crewed mission to the lunar surface. The team also solicited papers from, and drew from many existing reports outlining the highest science priorities of, the lunar science community, which has been preparing for the return of humans to the Moon’s surface for decades.

“Science will be integral to Artemis missions, and we look forward to planning missions of human and scientific discovery that draw on the thoughtful work of this team,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. “The work NASA is already doing in science will help prepare for the Artemis III landing in 2024 and maximize the science value of having humans back on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.”

As was the experience during Apollo era of human exploration, every second of an astronaut’s time on the lunar surface will be meticulously planned, and the report will provide a resource for mission planners who will be developing crew surface activities.

Activities related to field geology, sample collection and return, and deployed experiments all are part of the necessary mix of work to advance a science program at the Moon. Collectively, this candidate set of activities will address the highest science priorities that can be achieved at the lunar South Pole.

The team also provided overarching context by assessing what science goals could be realistically executed during the Artemis III surface mission. NASA will develop a detailed mission operations plan when human landing system capabilities, a landing site, and other architectural details come into sharper focus. The procedures and operations techniques developed for Artemis III also will inform future Artemis missions.

“We wanted to bring together what was most compelling to the science community at the Moon with what astronauts can do on the lunar surface and how the two can mutually reinforce each other,” said team co-chair Renee Weber, chief scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who led the effort. “The team’s hard work will ensure we’re able to take advantage of the potential of the Artemis III mission to help us learn from the Moon as a gateway to the rest of the solar system.”

NASA’s Science and Human Exploration and Operations mission directorates will work together to integrate recommendations into the science strategy of the agency’s Artemis Plan as plans move ahead for the Artemis III crewed launch in 2024.

Artemis III has the potential to enable the science community to make significant progress on many of the identified priority science goals, including increasing our understanding of how the Moon formed and evolved, how it interacts with the Sun, and how water and other resources arrived at the Moon, are transported, and currently are preserved.

To read the full report, go to:

https://www.nasa.gov/reports
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Nanorack's New Commercial Airlock Is Now Headed to the International Space Station...

SpaceX

Bishop Airlock Takes Flight (Press Release)

Cape Canaveral, Florida – The privately-owned Nanoracks Bishop Airlock, nested inside the SpaceX Dragon trunk, has reached a stable orbit after a successful launch onboard the CRS-21 mission. Today’s mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 11:17 AM ET.

“This is a monumental moment for Nanoracks,” says CEO Jeffrey Manber. “We came up with this idea five years ago. In those five quick years, we’ve gone from being known as the ‘CubeSat’ deployment company to an organization that is building the future of commercial low-Earth orbit infrastructure. I am beyond proud of our team and grateful to all of our partners and customers who have brought us to this very moment.”

The self-funded Bishop Airlock offers five times the current payload volume than is currently available on the government-operated JEM Airlock on the space station and is the first-ever commercial airlock. Bishop’s capabilities include the deployment of free-flying payloads such as CubeSats and externally-mounted payloads, housing of small payloads for research and in-space manufacture, jettisoning trash, and recovering external Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs). ORUs are modular components of the station that can be replaced when needed, such as pumps and other hardware.

The concept for the Bishop Airlock was developed after Nanoracks found themselves in a bottleneck on the space station with too much customer demand for the limited airlock space and opening frequency.

‘It’s a very Nanoracks way of thinking, to say that something on the International Space Station isn’t working for us, so we’ll just go ahead and build our own,” says Nanoracks Airlock Program Manager Brock Howe. “We couldn’t have gotten to this critical point without our partners, which includes Boeing, Thales Alenia Space, ATA Engineering, Oceaneering, and Craig Technologies.”

Bishop is currently certified for 100 cycles, with one ‘cycle’ including both an opening and a closing. Nanoracks expects that lifetime can be extended through some additional analysis and if market demand warrants the increase. The first Bishop customers include NASA and ESA, and Japanese space robotics startup, GITAI.

“Our Bishop team has been dedicated to this program for years, working most recently around the clock in the midst of a global pandemic, all to make sure our beauty would be delivered in perfect condition and ready to be commissioned upon arrival to the space station,” continues Howe. “I am so proud.”

Once installed permanently on the American side of the space station, Bishop will be a privately-funded service allowing NASA to follow the agency goal of serving as one of many customers for commercial services in space, expanding the low-Earth orbit market beyond just government-provided products and services. For Nanoracks, the Bishop Airlock is the first step in building in-space infrastructure, to be followed with demonstrations and missions for the Nanoracks Space Outpost Program.

Source: Nanoracks

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NASA / Nanoracks

The Core Stage Boosters for the Next Two SLS Rockets Continue to Undergo Construction...

NASA

NASA Building Core Stages for Second, Third Artemis Flights (News Release)

Technicians are simultaneously manufacturing NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) core stages for the Artemis II and Artemis III lunar missions at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage for the deep space rocket consists of two huge propellant tanks, four RS-25 engines, and miles of cabling for the avionics systems and flight computers. All the main core stage structures for Artemis II, the first mission with astronauts, have been built and are being outfitted with electronics, feedlines, propulsion systems, and other components. Technicians are currently wiring and performing functional tests on the avionics inside both the forward skirt and intertank sections. The engine section – the most complicated part of the stage – is in production assembly.

Engineers are welding the core stage structures for the Artemis III mission, which will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface, through a process called friction stir welding. Each of the structures for the core stage has rings that attach the pieces together to produce one stage during final assembly. The rings are trimmed down to 1/1000th of an inch at the ring machining center then sent to another part of the facility for the next phase of manufacturing. Assembling the 5.5-million-pound SLS rocket for the Artemis missions takes special tools and is a collaborative effort between NASA and Boeing, the lead contractor for the core stage.

The manufacturing progress for Artemis II and III comes as the first core stage for the SLS rocket undergoes Green Run testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. The SLS rocket, NASA’s Orion spacecraft, Gateway, and Human Landing System are part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. The Artemis program is the next step in human space exploration. It’s part of America’s broader Moon to Mars exploration approach, in which astronauts will explore the Moon. Experience gained there will enable humanity’s next giant lap: sending humans to Mars. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA

Photo of the Day: The Final Touches Are Being Put on Artemis 1's Orion Spacecraft for Flight...

NASA / Cory Huston

Hardware has Orion’s Parachutes ‘Covered’ for Artemis I Mission (News Release)

Affixed to the top of Orion for the Artemis I mission is the shiny, newly installed forward bay cover. This critical piece of hardware will protect the top part of Orion’s crew module as the capsule blazes back through Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of more than 25,000 mph. After reentry, jettison mechanisms will generate enough thrust to push the cover away from the spacecraft and allow the three main parachutes to unfurl, stabilizing and slowing the capsule to 20 mph or less for a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Source: NASA.Gov