Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of July 1, 2024:

Human Space Exploration:

• NASA announces Artemis II Moon mission backup astronaut Andre Douglas will support 2025 lunar liftoff;
• NASA astronauts send Fourth of July message to Earth from ISS (video);
• Northrop Grumman names Cygnus cargo craft for fallen Challenger commander
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• NASA assessment suggests potential additional delays for Artemis 3 lunar lander;
• Webinar replay – “Race to the Moon”;
• Robotic rover could support astronauts on moonwalks;
• NASA delays next ISS spacewalk until end of July due to spacesuit leak issue;
• Date for Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test return still up in the air
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;

Space Science

• NASA selects SpaceX to launch a gamma-ray telescope into an unusual orbit;
• Firefly Aerospace launches NASA-sponsored cubesats;
• If alien terraforming emits greenhouse gases, our telescopes could detect it;
• Could we replace Ingenuity with a swarm of robotic bees?
• See the Sun rage behind the ISS in epic time-lapse photo;
• Once-in-a-lifetime star explosion, visible from Earth, could happen any day now;
• NASA administrator weighs in on China’s historic lunar far side samples – and potential U.S. access
• Webb finds never-before-seen structures above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot;
• Mars is an asteroid punching bag, NASA data reveals;
• Prize winner wants to detect asteroids coming from Sun’s direction;

Opinion

• The new space race: International partnerships (op-ed)
  Space.com (6/30): The global space community has entered a new era of international cooperation in the exploration of space that includes commercial partnerships as well. “In this era of immense possibilities in space exploration, it is imperative that we adopt a united, diplomatic approach towards securing our space frontier,” writes Charles Bolden, former NASA administrator and astronaut, and Stuart Holliday, a former U.S. ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations.
• Transferring the International Space Station into the future
  SpaceNews (7/1): A timely international effort that combined NASA’s Space Station Freedom and Russia’s Mir 2 into the multi-agency ISS is considered one of the most incredible engineering accomplishments in human history, notes Michael Griffin, a former NASA administrator, and Jean-Jacques Dordain, a former director general of the European Space Agency, in an op-ed. They suggest that rather than conducting a safe and destructive re-entry of the ISS by the end of 2030, as currently planned by NASA, the large spacecraft’s orbit should be raised to safely preserve its presence as an asset for future generations.
• The overlap between the space and longevity industries
  The Space Review (7/1): Space-hosted medical research, like that conducted aboard the ISS, has benefits to life on Earth. This concept must live on as space research aboard the ISS transitions to future commercial space station successors, according to Dylan Taylor, founder and CEO of Voyager Space, in an op-ed. “Learning how to explore the most distant reaches of space can help us live healthier lives back here on the home planet,” he writes.

Other News

• Space Force clears Blue Origin and Stoke Space to bid for fast-turnaround launches
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• Commercial space stations go international
  Coalition Members in the News – Axiom Space, Lockheed Martin;
• Florida expands aerospace infrastructure with new spaceport territories in Miami-Dade and Bay counties;
• Firefly is building fast and breaking things on path to a reusable rocket
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• Europe’s space funding gap threatens industry potential;
• NASA and SpaceX studying ways to mitigate Dragon trunk debris;
• Japan successfully puts advanced satellite into orbit using H3 rocket;
• Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and huge explosion;

Major Space Related Activities for the Week

• SpaceNews is hosting the Race to the Moon webinar on Tuesday at 11 a.m., EDT, with a lineup that includes NASA and international, commercial and academic experts on the topic.
• The European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket is in line to make its long-awaited launch debut on July 9 from Kourou, French Guiana.
• The Secure World Foundation’s 6th Summit for Space Sustainability is scheduled to take place in Japan on July 11-12.

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