What You Missed Last Week

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of March 4, 2024:

Human Space Exploration:

• • Blue Origin targets 2025 for cargo lander’s inaugural moon trip, with humans to follow;
  • Spacesuits need a major upgrade for the next phase of exploration;
  • Blue Origin is getting serious about developing a human spacecraft
    Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
  • SpaceX adds tests to next Starship flight;
  • NASA addresses the crack in the hatch of the Crew-8 spacecraft;
  • SpaceX’s Crew-8 Dragon capsule docks at the ISS
    Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
  • Can Antarctica serve as a model for international cooperation on the Moon?
  • NASA studying issues with Orion hatch design;
  • Artemis recovery team ships out for splashdown rehearsal
    Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;
  • Three NASA astronauts, Russian cosmonaut head for the International Space Station
    Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;

   

  Space Science

  • NASA high-altitude balloon breaks agency flight record;
  • 6 reasons why the 2024 total solar eclipse could be the best eclipse for hundreds of years;
  • Voyager 1, first craft in interstellar space, may have gone dark;
  • Webb sees a system that just finished forming its planets;
  • New congressional caucus seeks to build support for NASA’s planetary science programs;
  • Asteroid Apophis will swing past Earth in 2029 – could a space rock collision make it hit us?
  • Juno measures how much oxygen is being produced by Europa;
  • If aliens had our life-hunting equipment, could they find us?
  • Squinting at the universe;
  • Grabbing samples from the surface of Mars;
  • Could tardigrades have colonized the Moon?

   

  Other News

  • Big, dead satellite’s crash was a space-junk wakeup call, experts say;
  • Office of Space Commerce considers restoring orbital debris regulations for commercial remote sensing licensees;
  • Senate Passes Another Extension for the FAA and the “Learning Period”
    Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;
  • Is it time for a new Outer Space Treaty? Reports of Russian nuclear space weapon raise questions;
  • China outlines position on use of space resources;
  • House easily passes first FY2024 minibus appropriations;
  • U.S. general warns of Russia’s enduring space threat despite Ukraine woes;
  • House to take up FY2024 appropriations for NASA, NOAA, FAA on Wednesday;
  • NASA studies to examine commercial partnerships for Mars exploration;
  • Space Force eyes smaller, cheaper GPS satellites to augment constellation
    Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;
  • NASA shutting down $2B satellite refueling project over tech, cost challenges;
  • NASA gets significant cut in final 2024 appropriations
    Coalition Members in the News – Axiom Space, Boeing, Lockheed Martin;

   

  Major Space Related Activities for the Week

  • With the successful launch late Sunday of NASA’s Crew-8 mission to International Space Station (ISS) with three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, arrival of the four fliers at the ISS is planned for Tuesday at 3 a.m. EST. NASA will televise and stream beginning at 1 a.m. EDT, over NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/nasalive.
  • Meanwhile, the U.S. House and Senate continue to address the concerns for the absence of a budget for the 2024 fiscal year that began October 1, with a succession so far of four continuing resolutions (CRs) intended to prevent a government shutdown. The latest of the staggered CRs that expires on Friday, in the case of NASA and NOAA among six federal agencies, and March 22 for the others, is among significant congressional deliberations anticipated this week.
  • This week, NASA’s Planetary Advisory Committee plans to meet Monday and Tuesday. An update on NASA’s technical and budget challenged Mars Sample Return mission is anticipated;
  • Also on Tuesday, NASA will mark the graduation of its latest class of astronaut candidates. Selected in 2021, and in training since February 2022, the astronaut candidates (ASCANS) include 10 new astronauts from NASA, plus two from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all eligible for missions to the ISS as well as the Moon and Mars. The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) hosted graduation ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. EST and will be broadcast over NASA TV and streamed over www.nasa.gov/nasalive.

   

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