In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA official says International Space Station operations remain normal ahead of all-private astronaut mission. The GOES-T weather satellite is scheduled to lift off atop a ULA Atlas V rocket today.
Human Space Exploration
ISS operations remain normal ahead of private astronaut mission
Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space
SpaceNews.com (3/1): At a February 28 briefing to discuss the upcoming Axiom Space Ax-1 all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for space operations, said station operations were unchanged despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine that prompted sanctions by the United States. “Right now, operations are nominal… We, as a team, are operating just as we were operating three weeks ago.” That includes plans to have NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei return on a Soyuz in late March. He launched to the ISS nearly a year ago and is scheduled to return on the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft along with two cosmonauts, March 30. Lueders said there were no plans to have Vande Hei come home on the Ax-1 mission.
Space Science
Atlas V rocket will launch powerful GOES-T weather satellite today. Here’s how to watch live
Coalition Member in the News – United Launch Alliance
Space.com (3/1): The GOES-T weather satellite is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today during a two-hour window that opens at 4:38 p.m. EST. NASA’s Launch Services Program is managing the liftoff of GOES-T, but the satellite will be operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) once it’s aloft. GOES-T is the third spacecraft in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)-R Series.
Ingenuity helicopter aces 20th Mars flight
Space.com (2/28): NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter reached the Martian surface as part of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission that touched down in Jezero Crater in February 2021. Last Friday, Ingenuity logged its 20th flight, a 1,283 foot long, 130.3 second flight, bringing it closer to the rover’s landing site. There and joining with Perseverance, the two explorers will head for a new destination, an ancient Martian stream delta, to continue working on the collection of samples of rock and soil that are to be returned to Earth. Once the sample cache returns, scientists will use the latest techniques to evaluate the materials for evidence of possible past microbial life.
ESA says it’s “very unlikely” ExoMars will launch this year
SpaceNews.com (2/28): Planned for September, the launch of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) joint ExoMars mission with Russia is very unlikely to occur this year due to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. The mission includes a Russian lander and the Rosalind Franklin rover from ESA developed to assess the habitability of the Martian environment. Plans to launch ExoMars during a favorable alignment between the Earth and Mars were delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and issues with the descent parachutes. A statement from ESA noted that the agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, has yet to reach a formal decision in consultation with representatives from the agency’s member states.
Opinion
The ending of an era in international space cooperation
Coalition Members in the News – Axiom Space, Northrop Grumman, United Launch Alliance
Thespacereview.com (2/28): The post-Cold War pragmatism that helped to bring the U.S. and the former Soviet Union’s Russian successors together to develop the International Space Station (ISS) three decades ago is dissolving as evidenced by Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, according to Jeff Foust, publisher and editor of The Space Review. “The ISS partnership will eventually come to an end. When that happens, there may no longer be any major civil space cooperation or commercial space relationships between Russia and the West,” he writes.
Other News
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, York Space selected to build DoD’s internet-in-space constellation
Coalition Members in the News – Lockheed Martin, Maxar, Northrop Grumman
SpaceNews.com (2/28): The Pentagon on Monday announced the award of contracts to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and York Space valued respectively at $700 million, $692 million, and $382 million for the development of a low Earth orbit constellation of 126 satellites for a global communications network, an internet network in space. Each company will provide 42 satellites by 2024. An earlier awarded tranche of 20 satellites for the network, 10 each from Lockheed Martin and York Space, are to launch later this year.
Rocket Lab launches Electron rocket, selects Virginia for Neutron factory
SpaceNews.com (3/1): Rocket Lab announced its decision to build a factory for producing its medium-class Neutron launch vehicle in Accomack County, Virginia, next to the Wallops Flight Facility, which will host Neutron launches at the state-run Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab chief executive, said Virginia came forward with a very attractive offer that the company couldn’t turn down.