Deep Space Extra

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

Human Space Exploration:

• Boeing finishing expansion of NASA SLS core stage production facilities at KSC
  Coalition Members in the News – Boeing, Collins Aerospace, Moog, Northrop Grumman;
• The future of space and AI: Exploring new frontiers and transforming Earth;
• SpaceX Cargo Dragon to demonstrate ISS reboost
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• NASA seeks continuity in human spaceflight programs in next administration;
• SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts, including Boeing Starliner crew, fly Dragon spacecraft to new ISS parking spot
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• China space station crew returns to Earth after 6 months in space;

Space Science

• Chinese rover helps find evidence of ancient Martian shoreline;
• NASA MSR review continues despite committee leadership change
  Coalition Member in the News – L3Harris;
• Moon RACER: Intuitive Machines takes lunar rover out for debut drive
  Coalition Members in the News – Boeing, Northrop Grumman;
• Asteroid-mining company AstroForge gets first-ever FCC license for commercial deep-space mission;
• NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to glimpse Venus’ surface tomorrow before historic Sun encounter;
• NASA’s 15-year-old NEOWISE asteroid hunter meets fiery doom by burning up in Earth’s atmosphere;
• Astronomers urge FCC to halt satellite megaconstellation launches;
• NASA devised a wild plot to capture an asteroid and save humanity. It almost failed
  Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;

<!– 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;

• Astronaut Suni Williams ‘in good health’ on the ISS, NASA says, refuting tabloid claims
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• Japan, Poland to join U.S. military satellite network
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• Rocket Lab launches undisclosed commercial payload;
• NASA’s infrastructure crossroads
  Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;
• Losing GPS could cost billions, so the Space Force is having companies like Astranis build a backup network
  Coalition Member in the News – L3Harris;
• ULA’s Vulcan rocket in “final phase” of certification, awaiting first national security launch date
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;

Major Space Related Activities for the Week

• NASA’s 31st SpaceX contracted resupply mission to the ISS is planned for launch on Monday at 9:29 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center. With an on-time launch, the Dragon capsule and its about 6,000-pound payload would rendezvous and dock with the orbital lab on Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. EST. NASA will stream those activities, starting at 9:10 p.m. EST for the launch on Monday and 8:45 a.m. EST on Tuesday for the rendezvous and docking.
• NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) meets virtually on Wednesday and Thursday with an agenda that includes the status of the Mars Sample Return mission.
• Also on Thursday and Friday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAA) and NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee (APAC) are to meet, with public access to some of the proceedings accessible virtually.

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