In Today’s Deep Space Extra… The U.S. Senate has joined with the House in passing a budget continuing resolution (CR) for the 2020 fiscal year, which begins October 1. The Senate Appropriations Committee has also passed a NASA 2020 spending measure. India’s Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lunar lander continues to elude efforts by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to spot the spacecraft, which is assumed to have landed hard.
Human Space Exploration
Senate approves FY 2020 CR, CJS bill advances in committee
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/26): The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a budget continuing resolution (CR) needed to prevent a federal government shutdown, including NASA, when the 2019 fiscal year ends September 30 and the 2020 fiscal year begins October 1. The House passed a CR, which holds 2020 fiscal year spending at 2019 levels, last week. The measure, which would keep the government active until November 21, now awaits President Trump’s signature. NASA leadership has stated previously the absence of a 2020 fiscal year budget approved by Congress and signed into law by the president could jeopardize efforts to accelerate a human return to the surface of the Moon in 2024.
Senate appropriators advance bill funding NASA despite uncertainties about Artemis costs
SpaceNews.com (9/27): Budget legislation approving $22.75 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2020, which begins October 1, cleared the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. The bill now goes to the full Senate for action. A report accompanying the measure, however, notes that while there is support for accelerating NASA’s return to the surface of the Moon with human explorers to 2024, lawmakers are troubled by the absence of a total cost estimate. The measure also falls short of providing the money sought by the White House and NASA to commercially develop the lunar landers needed to shuttle astronauts between a lunar orbiting, human tended Gateway and the surface of the Moon. Earlier this year, the U.S. House took no action on a White House request for a $1.6 billion 2020 budget supplement, much of which was to go for the lunar lander development. The Senate version also supports continued development of the Wide Field Infrared (WFIRST) Space Telescope and NASA’s educational initiatives.
UAE issues postage stamps honoring first Emirati astronaut in space
Collectspace.com (9/26): The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is commemorating the space flight of its first astronaut, Hazzaa Ali Mansoori, by issuing six commemorative stamps. Ali Mansoori launched and docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday with U.S. and Russian crew mates Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka.
Space Science
NASA shares images of Chandrayaan 2 landing site, says Vikram had hard landing
Hindustan Times of India (9/27): NASA on Thursday provided shadowy images of the intended soft landing site of India’s Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander at the Moon’s south pole. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) lost contact with the lander on September 6, U.S. time, September 7 in India, as the lander was making an autonomous powered descent. The lander is not to be seen in the imagery from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which were obtained on September 17. The LRO is to fly over the intended landing site again on October 14.
NASA to fly CubeSat pathfinder for Gateway in unique lunar orbit
Spaceflightinow.com (9/26): Potentially in 2020, a NASA sponsored small satellite mission will launch on a pioneering mission to validate the near rectilinear halo orbit in which NASA plans to assemble a lunar orbiting Gateway in order to accelerate a human return to the surface of the Moon in 2024. The CAPSTONE mission will assess navigation and demonstrate maneuvers of the spacecraft in order to establish and maintain a strategic orbit intended to provide explorers with wide ranging access to the lunar surface.
Here is China’s most detailed view yet of its Chang’e-4 landing site on the far side of the Moon
Space.com (9/26): Landing on the Moon takes only minutes, but analyzing that process afterward takes much longer. A team of Chinese scientists has just completed such an analysis for the landing of Chang’e-4, which touched down on the Moon in January. The mission was the first successful landing on the far side of the Moon, where spacecraft are unable to communicate directly with humans back on Earth.
Surprise! Giant planet found circling tiny red dwarf star
Space.com (9/25): In a surprise discovery, astronauts find a Jupiter class planet orbiting close to a red dwarf star. The find may prompt planetary scientists to rethink how planets form. The star GJ 3512 is located about 31 light-years from Earth. It’s about one-eighth the sun’s mass, nearly one-seventh the sun’s diameter and less than one-hundredth as bright as the sun. The findings led by a Spanish astronomer were published in the journal Science.
Other News
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin expects at least two more rocket test flights before launching people
CNBC (9/25): Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, in development for suborbital tourism, will undergo at least two more test flights before launching with its first passengers, leaving open the possibility that a launch with people aboard will be in 2020 rather than late this year. Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith told CNBC the company is being thorough and cautious as it nears the milestone.