BLOG

Today’s Deep Space Extra

May 25th, 2017

In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s Space Launch System scores a successful ground test of the core stage rocket engine at the Stennis Space Center.

Coalition for Deep Space Exploration releases statement on the FY18 President’s Budget Request for NASA. Click here to read more.


Human Deep Space Exploration

Powerful NASA SLS rocket engine test-fired in Mississippi | video

Space.com (5/24): Watch the 500 second test firing of an RS-25 rocket engine. One of four assigned to the first stage of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, the engine is a crucial component of the heavy lift rocket under development to start human explorers on future missions of human deep space exploration.

 

Space Science

Probe into crash of ESA lander recommends more checks on ExoMars descent craft

Spaceflightnow.com (5/24): In a report, the European Space Agency (ESA) urged more prelaunch hardware testing and modeling of future spacecraft developed to land on Mars. The report was developed in response to the loss of the ExoMars Schiaporelli lander on October 19, 2016. In partnership with Russia, ESA is preparing a follow-up lander mission, the ExoMars 2020 lander, which will attempt to determine if Mars hosts or once hosted life. The Schiaporelli lander was spinning as it descended, investigators concluded.

Psyche mission to reach metallic asteroid 4 years earlier

SpaceFlightInsider.com (5/24): NASA’s Psyche asteroid encounter mission will launch in 2022, a year earlier than once planned, in order to reach its assigned destination in 2026, four years sooner than initially planned. The NASA spacecraft will survey the iron nickel asteroid Psyche for resources of value to Earth’s economy.

Strange signals from space: ‘Space’s Deepest Secrets’ investigates (video)

Space.com (5/24): Fast Radio Bursts, just one of the mysterious celestial phenomena studied by terrestrial and space telescopes, are featured in Space’s Deepest Secrets, a Science Channel production.

 

Low Earth Orbit

Soyuz 2-1B launches Tundra missile detection spacecraft

NASAspaceflight.com (5/25): Russia launched the second in a new generation of missile warning satellites atop a Soyuz 2-1b rocket early Thursday from the Plesetsk launch complex. The new missile warning system will replace a system from the Soviet era.

No good news for FAA space office in FY2018 request

Spacepolicyonline.com (5/24): The 2018 White House budget request of $17.9 million for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation reflects a retreat from the $19.8 million it received in 2017. Commercial space advocates have called for more resources and staff in the office to help regulate and promote the growing commercial space industry.

Boeing, DARPA to build prototype spaceplane

Reuters (5/24): The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced Wednesday that it will join Boeing through a $146 million agreement to develop the XS-1 spaceplane, a small satellite launch vehicle that could deliver payloads to orbit on a daily basis.

Rocket Lab puts its first low-cost Electron launch vehicle in space from New Zealand

Geekwire.com (5/24): Rocket Lab’s new Electron rocket lifted off for the first time on Thursday from a New Zealand launch complex, though it did not achieve orbit. The Los Angeles based company is attempting to establish a low cost launch service for the small satellite market. Rocket Lab said it will investigate why the Electron did not make it all the way to orbit.

500 new space startups by 2025? The Founder Institute wants to make that happen

Space News (5/24): The California-based Founder Institute, a business incubator for tech startups, sets a goal of 500 new commercial space companies by 2025. “I believe that within the next few years humanity will start exploring space again proactively. It’s an effort that was somewhat abandoned for a number of years and has been rekindled only recently,” said Adeo Ressi, the institute’s co-founder and chief executive.

 

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

-->