Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of December 16th, 2024:

Human Space Exploration:

• Axiom Space revises space station assembly plans
  Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;
• SpaceX’s 31st Dragon cargo capsule returns to Earth with splashdown off Florida coast
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• Shenzhou-19 astronauts complete record-breaking 9-hour spacewalk;
• Meet Endurance, a pioneering NASA Moon rover designed to survive the frigid lunar night;
• Starliner astronauts get more time added to ISS stay as NASA’s Crew-10 gets delayed;
• ‘It’s go time’: Artemis II Moon mission players focus on job despite Trump uncertainty
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• Thailand signs Artemis Accords;
• “Continuous heartbeat” wins the day in NASA’s LEO microgravity strategy 
  Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;
• Vast signs agreement with SpaceX for private astronaut missions to the ISS;
• Russian cosmonauts install X-ray detector, jettison trash on spacewalk outside ISS;;
• Russian space chief says country will fly on Space Station until 2030;
• Major paradigm shifts needed for NASA’s future Mars exploration science program;

Space Science

• The Moon may be 100 million years older than we thought;
• Drone test flights are being tested for flights on alien worlds;
• Firefly, ispace lunar landers to share Falcon 9 launch;
• We might finally know how galaxies grow so large;
• Antimatter propulsion is still far away, but it could change everything;
• NASA to ‘touch the Sun’ in historic mission;
• NASA releases long-term strategy for robotic Mars exploration;
• This is how close NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will fly by the Sun;
• New observations of the most volcanic world in our solar system solve a mystery that began with Voyager 1;
• Up and over! NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance reaches rim of its Jezero Crater home (video);

Other News;

• Transformative’ $1.8 billion space construction project may start next month at Cape Canaveral;
• OSTP releases cislunar science and technology plans;
• Shutdown fears escalate as Trump calls on Republicans to reject CR;
• Japan’s Space One Kairos rocket fails minutes after liftoff;
• SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 test flight gets FAA launch license. But when will it fly?
• NRO hits milestone with more than 100 satellites in low Earth orbit
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• China kicks off Guowang megaconstellation with Long March 5B launch;
• FAA takes step to streamline launch licensing process;
• Archaeology on Mars: Preserving artifacts of our expansion into the solar system;
• Space Force says first national security Vulcan launch now anticipated in spring 2025;
• NASA’s Bill Nelson praises agency’s people, accomplishments during last days as administrator;
• House defeats new CR as shutdown looms;
• Blue Origin’s New Glenn poised to compete with SpaceX, disrupt heavy-lift rocket market;
• Virgin Galactic signs agreement to study suborbital space flights from Italian spaceport;
• ULA eyes annual mods to turn rocket stage into space interceptor;

Major Space Related Activities for the Week of Dec 2nd:

• Highlights of this week include the weather-delayed departure of NASA’s 31st SpaceX-contracted Dragon resupply mission to the ISS on Monday at 11:05 a.m. EST with a planned splashdown in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico waters off the Florida peninsula.
• On Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST, NASA plans to host a news briefing on Firefly’s first Moon landing mission under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, Blue Ghost Mission One.
• Also on Tuesday, there is a “Celebrating the U.S. Space Force and Charting its Future (CSIS)” webcast from Washington, D.C. The 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST virtual event is focused on the role space plays in the nation’s national security.
• Meanwhile, the National Academies’ committee on Science Strategy for the Human Exploration on Mars meets Tuesday through Thursday. Livestreamed sessions are planned for Tuesday at 1:25 p.m. EST and Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. EST regarding exploration science and planetary protection.
• Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the ISS are scheduled for a spacewalk on Thursday starting at 10:10 a.m. EST, which NASA plans to livestream.
• Congress must address the expiration on Friday of the current U.S. federal budget continuing resolution (CR), which took effect on October 1, 2024 with the start of the 2025 fiscal year without a formal budget. Without another CR or an actual budget, federal agencies could face a shutdown.

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