In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is campaigning hard to return human explorers to the lunar surface in 2024. A Senate bill offers an increase over 2019 levels as Congress works toward a final NASA budget. An international crew made up of U.S., Russian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronauts is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) this morning.
Human Space Exploration
NASA is trying to land on the Moon. The biggest challenge might be Congress
Washington Post (9/24): NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a former Oklahoma congressman, is campaigning hard to win support among lawmakers for an accelerated effort to return human explorers to the surface of the Moon in 2024, a four year advance put forth by the White House in March. So far, the House has rejected a $1.6 billion down payment to kick off the Artemis initiative in 2020. The Senate is partially on board. Many lawmakers are awaiting an estimate of the total cost of the accelerated lunar return, which NASA is promising as part of its 2021 budget submission. Bridenstine, meanwhile, is traveling the U.S., meeting with lawmakers in their home districts as well as Washington, and lining up new lunar partnerships in Australia and Japan. “He’s really selling, as he needs to,” said one space policy expert.
Senate bill offers $22.75 billion for NASA in 2020
SpaceNews.com (9/24): The U.S. Senate’s Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday approved a $22.75 billion spending bill for NASA in 2020, $1.25 billion more than the agency received for 2019, with much of the increase for exploration, yet not all of the funding sought by the agency to achieve an accelerated return to the lunar surface in 2024. The measure now moves to the full Senate appropriations committee, then to the full Senate for approval and then a conference panel with the House to reconcile differences. In a $1.6 billion supplement sought by the administration in May, about $1 billion was to fund a NASA led effort to develop commercial landers to shuttle astronauts between a lunar orbiting, human tended Gateway and the lunar surface. The Senate measure, however, provides just $744 million for that. The supplement was in addition to the $21 billion overall that was initially requested by the Trump administration for NASA during the 2020 fiscal year that begins October 1. The House version does not include any of the $1.6 billion supplement.
NASA chief hits at China’s ‘aggressive’ space activity
Nikkei Asian Review (9/24): The head of the U.S. space agency on Tuesday criticized China for using space for military purposes, warning that any attempt to militarize it would be met by action from the U.S. “China’s activities are in many ways aggressive in space,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, in an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review. “When we think about the future of space, we want it to be peaceful.”
NASA wants to test new Moon spacesuits on the Space Station in 2023
Space.com (9/24): In order to achieve an accelerated return to the surface of the Moon with human explorers in 2024, NASA will need a new space suit design engineered for activities on the lunar surface. The current suit, the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, was developed for the space shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) eras. Work on a successor is leading toward testing on board the Space Station in 2023, or a year ahead of NASA’s Artemis 3 mission that is to touchdown at the lunar south pole.
Final Soyuz-FG rocket to launch ISS crew
Russianspaceweb.com (9/24): Russia’s Soyuz MS-15 is ready for launch this morning at 9:57 a.m., EDT, to the International Space Station (ISS) with new NASA and Russian crew members, Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka, and spaceflight participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, the first resident of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fly in space. This flight marks the final mission for the Soyuz FG rocket booster. Meir and Skripochka are to live and work on the Station for six months. Almansoori is to return to Earth on October 3 aboard the Soyuz MS-12 with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexey Ovchinin. Live TV of the launch is available at www.nasa.gov/nasalive.
The first Emirati astronaut is ready to launch into space
Space.com (9/24): Hazza Ali Almansoori, who is to be the first citizen of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to launch into space, joins NASA’s Jessica Meir and Russia’s Oleg Skripochka aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket on Wednesday as they liftoff for the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:57 a.m., EDT. With a successful liftoff, the trio is to reach the Space Station about 6 1/2 hours later. As a spaceflight participant, or tourist, Almansoori’s stay will be just eight days. In pre-launch news briefings, Almansoori said he wants his mission to inspire his children as well as the next generation of UAE students.
Fresh batteries, experiments on the way to the International Space Station (ISS)
Spaceflightnow.com (9/24): A Japanese H2B rocket lifted off Tuesday at 12:05 p.m., EDT, on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) eighth cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The space freighter, carrying a cargo of more than four tons, is to reach the Station early Saturday. The payload includes science experiments and a half dozen lithium ion batteries to continue an upgrade of the Station’s external power storage batteries, which keep the electricity flowing when the solar powered orbiting science lab is in darkness as it orbits the Earth.
Space Science
WFIRST Space Telescope fitted for ‘starglasses’
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (9/24): Moving toward a launch in the mid-2020s, NASA’s Wide Field Infrared (WFIRST) Space Telescope will feature a new technology flight opportunity. WFIRST will be equipped with a coronagraph to block the bright light of a distant star in order to reveal details about its orbiting extra solar planets. In a sense a coronagraph will play the role of a powerful pair of sunglasses. And it just passed a preliminary design review, enabling the hardware build phase.
Other News
Keeping satellites from going bump in the night
The Space Review (9/23): Concerns from early September over a conjunction between a European Space Agency (ESA) Earth science satellite and a SpaceX Starlink smallsat have sparked a discussion over how to better manage the threat of low Earth orbit collisions between growing numbers of small satellites and/or with aging manmade orbital debris. Space situational awareness, including innovations in spacecraft autonomy and guidance, was a topic at the recent Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies conference in Hawaii.