In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Blue Origin has filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over NASA’s decision in April to award a single HLS contract. China prepares to launch its second space station cargo supply mission.
Human Space Exploration
Blue Origin sues NASA over Human Landing System contract
SpaceNews.com (8/16): Blue Origin has sued NASA in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over the agency’s April contract award for a lunar Human Landing System (HLS). The company is arguing that the agency failed to properly evaluate its proposal for its HLS program, a procurement won by SpaceX. It is not clear if the Blue Origin suit in the Court of Federal Claims will force a stop-work order on the contract.
Space Science
Saturn’s rippling rings point to massive, soupy core hidden inside
Space.com (8/16): A new study of data gathered from the ringed planet Saturn by NASA’s Cassini mission finds that the wobbly motions of the large planet’s rings are due to the sludgy composition of the planet’s big core.
Multiple supernovas may have implanted our solar system with the seeds of planets
Space.com (8/17): New research probing a nearby star-forming region examines conditions that may have been similar to those found in the early solar system to try to solve the mystery of how radioactive elements essential to planet formation arrived in the environment around the sun. The new finding concludes that such particles are common in star-forming regions, suggesting that the processes that formed the solar system are readily available throughout the galaxy.
Scientists locate likely origin for the dinosaur-killing asteroid
Space.com (8/16): Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid estimated at six miles wide struck the Earth on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, wiping out the dinosaurs and 75 percent of the planet’s animal species. Scientists at the Southwest Research Institute now believe they have tracked down the object’s source, the outer asteroid belt, after assessing tens of thousands of asteroid models.
Opinion
Is it time to create the designation of non-governmental astronaut?
Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space
The Space Review (8/16): Recent suborbital launches by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic with non-government passengers and with orbital versions of the flights just around the corner, is raising a question over who is an astronaut. Michael J. Listner, a space legal expert, looks at the implications as the number of space passengers rises.
Other News
Astronauts say they’re saddened to watch the climate crisis from the Space Station. “We can see all of those effects from up here”
Businessinsider.com (8/14): Concerns over the number of wildfires linked to drought underway in the U.S. as well as abroad and visible from the International Space Station (ISS) were expressed by NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Mark Vande Hei during interviews earlier this month. “The other thing that we can see, of course, is the very thin lens of atmosphere.” “That is what protects our Earth and everything on it. And we see how fragile that is, and we know how important it is,” said McArthur.
Rocket arrives for second Chinese space station cargo mission
SpaceNews.com (8/16): China is preparing to launch its second space station cargo supply mission in mid to late September following delivery of a Long March 7 rocket to Wenchang spaceport. The rocket will launch the roughly 13,000-kilogram Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft into low Earth orbit to dock with Tianhe, the core module for China’s space station. The Tianzhou-3 mission will provide supplies for the upcoming Shenzhou-13 crewed mission which is currently planned to launch in October.