Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of October 14, 2024:

Human Space Exploration:

• GAO: Lack of ground system schedule margin adds to likelihood of Artemis II delay
  Coalition Members in the News – Axiom Space, Bechtel;
• Artemis Accords signatories look to recruit new members;
• NASA further delays first operational Starliner flight
  Coalition Members in the News – Boeing;
• Axiom and Prada unveil design of Artemis spacesuit
  Coalition Members in the News – Axiom Space, Collins Aerospace;
• U.S. and China will need to discuss moon mission plans, NASA chief predicts;
• Insuring commercial suborbital flight passengers could be tricky, at least initially;
• Nuclear rockets could travel to Mars in half the time – but designing the reactors that would power them isn’t easy
  Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;
• Vast Space unveils Haven-2, a private space station to follow the ISS after its fiery end;
• SpaceX launches fifth Starship, catches Super Heavy booster;
• Blue Origin delays debut launch of 2nd human-rated New Shepard rocket due to GPS glitch;

Space Science

• Bridenstine to lead NASA Mars Sample Return Strategy Review
  Coalition Members in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman;
• The Moon, Mars, asteroids and Jupiter: China reveals ambitious space exploration plans;
• Most meteorites traced to three space crackups;
• How did Mars turn into an uninhabitable desert? Curiosity rover rock samples may have answers;
• ISS astronauts to test trash compactor that’s basically WALL-E;
• Pollution from rocket launches and burning satellites could cause the next environmental emergency;
• Hunter’s supermoon rises this week, the biggest full Moon of 2024. Here’s how to see it;
• NASA launches mission to investigate a potentially habitable ocean world;
• NASA extends tiny CAPSTONE probe’s Moon mission to December 2025;

Opinion

• Space isn’t all about the “race”: rival superpowers must work together for a better future
  In an op-ed, Art Cotterell, a research affiliate with the Australian Centre for Space Governance, expresses concerns of a growing rivalry between the U.S. and China over the future human exploration of the Moon. “Humanity has much to lose if global superpowers don’t cooperate on space governance. There is a real and growing risk of exporting and exacerbating our earthly conflicts in space. This will invariably increase tensions on Earth,” he writes. Cotterell notes that despite their Cold War rivalry, the U.S. and former Soviet Union cooperated on the 1975 Apollo Soyuz mission and became signatories to the U.N. Outer Space Treaty. As the Cold War ended, the U.S. and Russia led a 15-nation effort to assemble the ISS.

Other News;

• ULA is examining debris recovered from Vulcan rocket’s shattered booster nozzle
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• U.S. government eases export controls on space technologies;
• China launches new Gaofen-12 remote sensing satellite;
• No simple answers for debris mitigation;
• Vulcan SRB anomaly still under investigation;
• Army’s space tech roadmap emphasizes secure navigation, satcom, intelligence;
• FAA allows Falcon 9 launches to resume;

Major Space Related Activities for the Week

• NASA on Sunday again delayed the return to Earth of Crew-8’s three NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonaut due to weather in the splashdown and recovery zone options in the Gulf and Atlantic waters off the Florida peninsula. Their return has been rescheduled for no sooner than early Friday.
• Also on Sunday, Blue Origin scrubbed for a second time the planned test launch of its second suborbital, reusable human rated New Shepard vehicle with the RSS Kármán Line crew capsule. The test launch awaits rescheduling.
• Meanwhile, the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is underway in Milan, Italy with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and other agency officials participating.
• The Lunar and Planetary Institute’s “Astrobiology and the Future of Life” meeting will take place in Houston with virtual access Wednesday through Friday.

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