Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of September 2, 2024:

Human Space Exploration:

• Boeing Starliner hatch closed, setting stage for unpiloted return to Earth Friday
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• Archaeological methods reveal how astronauts work on the International Space Station;
• NASA prepares for Starliner return from ISS
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• ‘There was some tension in the room’, NASA says of decision to bring Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft home without astronauts
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• After Starliner, NASA has another big human spaceflight decision to make;
• NASA delivery: ESA’s Canopee powers past Port Canaveral with key Artemis III hardware;
• SpaceX targets Wednesday morning Starlink launch; Polaris Dawn launch target moves to Friday
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• NASA bumps two astronauts from SpaceX flight to make room for Starliner crew
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• The pieces of NASA’s next 3 Artemis Moon missions head to Florida launch site (photos);
• NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore reports ‘strange noise’ coming from Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;

Space Science

• China to launch Mars sample return mission in 2028, will follow planetary protection guidelines;
• Meet Phaethon, a weird asteroid that thinks it’s a comet – our new research may explain what’s going on;
• Solar cycle 25 continues to surge;
• A visiting star might have reshaped the outer solar system;
• The search for dark matter just got a lot harder;
• Shelved NASA spacecraft could spy on asteroid Apophis before 2029 Earth flyby;
• NASA’s Webb telescope spots 6 rogue planets: What it says about star, planet formation;
• NASA deploys Advanced Composite Solar Sail System in space;
• NASA science mission spacecraft are at risk from hackers, but a new law could help protect them;
• NASA moving ahead with Europa Clipper launch in October;
• ESA delays BepiColombo orbital insertion because of thruster problem;
• Estimating the basic settings of the universe;

Other News;

• NASA reaffirms decision to cancel OSAM-1;
• China’s secretive reusable space plane lands after 267 days in orbit;
• Final original Vega launches Sentinel-2C;
• NGA to launch $700 million program to help AI make sense of satellite images;
• Space startups eye opportunities in the orbital surveillance market;
• SpaceX resumes Falcon 9 launches after brief FAA grounding;
• China launches new set of classified Yaogan-43 satellites;
• This company wants to reinvent the space rocket as a space plane;

Major Space Related Activities for the Week

• The U.S. House and Senate remain in recess until September 9. Upon return, lawmakers must rush to reach a continuing resolution on federal spending with the October 1 start of the 2025 fiscal year in the absence of a formal budget.
• Starliner Crew Flight Test mission is to come to an end Friday at 6:04 p.m. EDT with an autonomous undocking from the ISS. NASA plans a news briefing on the undocking on Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. EDT, which will be streamed. Starliner’s planned return to Earth will be on Saturday at 12:03 a.m. EDT to White Sands, New Mexico. Live coverage of the ISS departure and descent is to begin on Friday at 5:45 p.m. EDT with deorbit and landing coverage resuming at 10:50 p.m. EDT followed by a post-landing news conference on Saturday at 1:30 a.m. EDT.
• Delayed from a launch last week by weather and temporarily by a SpaceX Falcon 9 core stage recovery issue, the launch of the five-day, private astronaut Polaris Dawn mission is anticipated no sooner than early Wednesday.
• On Friday, the George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute and Aerospace Corporation will host a seminar entitled “Commercial Developments in LEO: Challenges and Opportunities,” with a virtual option for participation.

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