Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter:
Don’t miss the latest developments in space policy, science, and exploration with Deep Space Extra, delivered directly to your inbox from Monday to Friday.
|
|
Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of December 17, 2023:
Human Space Exploration:
- SpaceX launch of Axiom Space’s 3rd private astronaut mission delayed to January 17
- SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule undocks from ISS after delays
- International partnerships, mission authorization, export control reform highlight Space Council meeting
- SpaceX completes static fire test in push toward third Starship launch
- Virgin Galactic announces January flight window for sixth commercial spaceflight
- Launch success brings Blue Origin closer to resuming crewed suborbital space trips
- SpaceX Starship in lunar development
- Laser communication: the future of communicating in space
Space Science
- Hubble Telescope gifts us a dazzling starry ‘snow globe’ just in time for the holidays
- Finding life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus might be easier than we thought
- It’s time for Saturn’s spokes to return
- Mars Express orbiter suggests evidence of ancient microbial life, water and volcanism on Red Planet
- NASA laser-beams adorable cat video to Earth from 19 million miles away (video)
- Intuitive Machines delays first lunar lander launch to February
- Peregrine lunar lander ready for January launch
- Can Webb find the first stars in the universe?
- These scientists want to put a massive ‘sunshade’ in orbit to help fight climate change
- Blue Origin ramps up for second launch attempt after delaying return to spaceflight
- Space weather will drag NASA’s NEOWISE asteroid-hunting probe back to Earth in 2025
- ‘What is that material?’: Potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu stumps scientists with its odd makeup
Opinion
- Rethink the Mars program
SpaceNews.com (12/7): In an op-ed, Robert Zubrin, who head the Mars Society, calls for an end to the NASA-led Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission effort, whose technical challenges are high and that a new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit found is likely to cost $10 billion. The joint MSR effort with the European Space Agency (ESA) seeks to return samples of the Martian surface gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover back to Earth for analysis to determine whether they hold evidence of past biological activity. Though judged a high Mars science priority by the National Academies of Sciences, MSR could fail and alternative missions could be stalled by an absence of funding, according to Zubrin.
Other News
- To sustainably develop space, we must manage orbital capacity
- White House releases mission authorization policy framework
- France to establish NewSpace hubs in Denver and Houston
- Ariane 6 schedule not affected by aborted upper stage test
- U.S. Congress recommends placing assets at Lagrange points to counter China
- Senate confirms senior military leaders, including two four-star Space Force generals
- Report: Hypersonic weapons challenge Pentagon tracking capabilities
- Spaceport in Shetland Islands given licence for UK’s first vertical rocket launch
- Spain’s new space agency is a bigger deal than it seems
- U.S. Space Command at `full operational capability’ as Congress battles over HQ site
- SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of X-37B space plane now targeted for Dec. 28
- Electron returns to flight with successful launch of Japanese radar imaging satellite
- A top-secret Chinese spy satellite just launched on a supersized rocket
- NASA and China are competing for space allies in the Middle East
- Russia’s second meteorological satellite Arktika-M launched from Baikonur put into orbit
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
- Blue Origin is standing by on Monday to launch its first New Shepard suborbital mission since a September 12, 2022 launch failure from its West Texas launch complex. Many of the 33 NASA science experiments aboard are reflights, though the payload capsule from the 2022 New Shepard incident successfully separated and parachuted to Earth. Launch is planned for 9:30 a.m., EST.
- Also December 28 at 7 p.m., EST, is the next planned launch time for a SpaceX Falcon Heavy with the U.S. Space Force’s X-37B reusable spaceplane on a largely classified mission. Originally planned for December 11 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the launch has been delayed by unfavorable weather and ground side issues.
- The White House National Space Council is scheduled to meet for the third time under the leadership of Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, though the time has not yet been provided. The session will focus on international partnerships.
- Also SpaceX’s 29th NASA contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is currently scheduled to undock on Wednesday at 5:05 p.m., EST, with a return payload for a parachute descent into the waters off the Florida peninsula. The departure has so far been delayed by several days due to stormy Florida weather conditions at the splashdown sites.
- Also, Northrop Grumman’s 19th NASA contracted resupply mission is slated to depart the ISS on Thursday at 10:30 a.m., EST.