In Today’s Deep Space Extra… A Japanese re-supply mission reaches the International Space Station (ISS). A Space Launch System (SLS) core stage mock-up reaches NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for critical fit checks and to serve as a training aid. Elon Musk updates Starship and Super Heavy development and flight test plans.
Human Space Exploration
HTV delivers batteries and experiments to space station
Spaceflightnow.com (9/28): The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) eighth cargo mission reached the International Space Station (ISS) early Saturday, delivering more than 8,000 pounds of crew supplies, science experiments, technology demonstrations and Station hardware. The hardware includes a half dozen external lithium ion batteries, which are to be installed with a series of spacewalks in October. They will replace a dozen less efficient nickel hydrogen batteries.
NASA’s Pegasus barge arrives at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with SLS hardware
Florida Today (9/27): The large barge Pegasus on Friday delivered a mock-up of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) after a journey through coastal waters from the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The large mock-up will be used for fit checks and launch training. The SLS is to carry out a pair of uncrewed and crewed test flights with Orion capsules before launching the Artemis-3 mission from KSC to carry out the return of human explorers to the surface of the Moon in 2024.
SpaceX unveils silvery vision to Mars: ‘It’s basically an I.C.B.M. that lands’
New York Times (9/29): It’s clearly yet to be seen whether the bold plan outlined Saturday night by Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, to provide the rocket transportation for a human settlement on Mars can materialize. Musk spoke at company facilities near Brownsville in south Texas. SpaceX has a second production facility and a leased launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Florida’s Space Coast. But is there a commercial market for his interplanetary ambitions?
Space Science
India’s Lost Moon Lander Is Somewhere in This NASA Photo
Space.com (9/27): NASA has released an image of the intended landing site for India’s Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander at the Moon’s south pole. Controllers lost contact with the lander minutes before it was to carry out an automated propulsive touchdown on September 6, U.S. Time. The image was taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on September 17. Vikram, however, is nowhere to be seen.
Black Hole seeds missing in cosmic garden
NASA.gov (9/24): In the vast garden of the universe, the heaviest black holes grew from seeds. Nourished by the gas and dust they consumed, or by merging with other dense objects, these seeds grew in size and heft to form the centers of galaxies, such as our own Milky Way. But unlike in the realm of plants, the seeds of giant black holes must have been black holes, too. And no one has ever found these seeds — yet.
Other News
Senate appropriators weigh in on commercial launch regulatory reform
Coalition Member in the News – United Launch Alliance
SpaceNews.com (9/26): U.S. Senate appropriators for the Department of Transportation (DOT) ask that the FAA revise its approach to streamlining commercial space launch and regulatory reforms as part of a 2020 funding measure. The effort to streamline regulations for commercial launches and re-entries in 2019 drew more criticism than support. Senate appropriators have tasked the DOT with making another attempt to elicit comment before making reforms. The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation would also receive a small budget increase if the measure is passed by both houses and signed into law.
Senate appropriators nix Bureau of Space Commerce until they get answers
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/27): The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee rejected efforts by the White House to elevate the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce after not being given access to witnesses for questions about plans to transition responsibility for providing satellite positional data to non-military satellite operators from the Department of Defense (DOD) to the Department of Commerce.
Stratolaunch rebuilds team for the world’s biggest plane after Paul Allen’s death
Geekwire.com (9/26): Stratolaunch, founded in 2011 by the late Paul Allen, is hiring in key positions, including test pilots, as it moves to complete test flights of the world’s largest airplane, a carrier aircraft, for the air launch of satellites. Allen, the billionaire, Microsoft co-founder and space visionary, died a year ago, which led to staff reductions.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of September 30 to October 5, 2019
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/29): The U.S. House and Senate are in recess for two weeks as the start of the 2020 fiscal year approaches on Tuesday with no federal budget. However, Congress and the White House have passed and signed a budget Continuing Resolution (CR) that will prevent a government shutdown through November 21. Though there is no formal budget in force, spending continues at 2019 levels, which NASA has cautioned could challenge efforts to return to the surface of the Moon with astronauts in 2024. Russia’s Soyuz MS-12 capsule is to depart the International Space Station (ISS) early Thursday and return to Earth with NASA’s Nick Hague, Russia’s Alexey Ovchinin and the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) first astronaut, Hazza Ali Almansoori. Hague and Ovchini conclude a 203 day mission. Almansoori, a Russian space tourist, launched September 25. Friday marks the beginning of World Space Week and the 62nd anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch.