In Today’s Deep Space Extra… A late year crew exchange aboard the International Space Station got underway early Thursday. NASA’s long lived Opportunity rover emerges from its eighth Martian winter. Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space is honored with a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp.
Human Space Exploration
Soyuz carries three Station crew members back to Earth
Spaceflightnow.com (12/14): Russia’s Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft descended to Earth for a landing in subfreezing weather early Thursday in remote Kazakhstan with U.S., European and Russian astronauts and cosmonauts Randy Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli and Sergey Ryazanskiy. They touched down southeast of Dzezkazgan at 3:37 a.m., EST, and were greeted by Russian led recovery forces after 139 days in orbit. Command of the Station transitioned from Bresnik to Russian Alexander Misurkin upon their overnight departure in the Soyuz capsule. Japanese and Russian replacements are to launch early Sunday.
RS-25 hot fires with 3-D printed part
Coalition Member in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne
NASAspaceflight.com (12/13): NASA and prime contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne are embracing 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing, to lower the cost and improve performance of the RS-25 rocket engines that are to power the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS). A development version of the engine with a 3-D printed “pogo” accumulator assembly was test fired Wednesday at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. NASA’s SLS is to launch astronauts and hardware on future missions of deep space exploration.
Humanity’s expansion into deep space is inevitable, industry experts say
Coalition Member in the News – NanoRacks and United Launch Alliance
Space.com (12/13): Houston based NanoRacks is working with three U.S. companies on a promising strategy to convert spent Atlas V launch vehicle upper stages into space habitats. Participants in the initiative include United Launch Alliance, Space Systems Loral and Space Adventures. Described at the recently concluded Space Commerce Conference and Exposition, the plan could become part of a larger public/private push to expand human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
Op-ed | Remembering America’s fallen space heroes
Space News (12/12): On Tuesday, President Trump signed into law the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation includes wording authorizing a memorial at the Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington honoring NASA’s Apollo 1 crew. The astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee perished aboard their Apollo 1 capsule in a launch pad fire during a January 27, 1967 training session at what is now the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Space Science
Japanese lunar exploration company ispace raises $90 million
Space News (12/13): ispace, of Tokyo, announced Wednesday that it has raised $90 million to advance a pair of lunar missions to orbit and land on the moon, both departing by 2020. The lander is to deliver a collection of small rovers for robotic exploration.
Mars mission sheds light on habitability of distant planets
NASA (12/13): NASA’s MAVEN orbital mission at Mars is shedding new light on how long a rocky planet like Mars might be habitable if it were orbiting a red dwarf star. The findings, presented this week at the American Geophysical Union science conference in New Orleans, suggest that a loss of atmosphere could restrict habitability.
NASA’S Opportunity rover withstands another harsh winter on Mars
Universe Today (12/13): NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover touched down on the red planet on January 25, 2004, with a mission assignment that was to last 90 days. However, Opportunity is still going, having prevailed over eight winter seasons overall and traveled 28 miles.
Occultation data hints New Horizons’ next flyby target may have a moon
SpaceflightInside.com (12/13): In something of a surprise, scientists believe the second destination for NASA’s New Horizons Mission, the Kuiper Belt Object 2014MU69, has a small moon. New Horizons made history in July 2015 as it became the first spacecraft to carry out a close flyby of Pluto. The probe is on course to flyby MU69 and its moon on January 1, 2019.
Other News
Blue Origin begins moving into massive New Glenn rocket factory at KSC
Florida Today (12/13): Earlier this week, Blue Origin began the move into its new 750,000 square foot manufacturing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it plans to produce two variants of the New Glenn rocket. Launches of the new hardware are to commence in 2020.
Rocket Lab begins new countdown with fix for propulsion system glitch
Spaceflightnow.com (12/14): Rocket Lab’s efforts to launch an Electron rocket on a second test flight from New Zealand were halted by strong high altitude winds, the second postponement this week. The flight of the small satellite launch vehicle was reset for Thursday night, U.S. time.
First American woman in space Sally Ride to appear on 2018 U.S. postage stamp
Collectspace.com (12/13): In 2018, the late NASA astronaut Sally Ride, the first U.S. female to venture into space, will be honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a stamp. Alan Shepard, the Mercury astronaut who became the first American in space in 1962, was the first to be honored with a USPS stamp. Ride launched on the shuttle Challenger in 1983. She passed away in 2012.