In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA, ESA, and Arianespace representative express confidence that JWST is on track for December 18 launch. Scientists have possibly found a planet outside the Milky Way Galaxy using the Chandra X-ray telescope.
Human Space Exploration
SLS program completes Block 1 design review, preparing to certify Artemis 1 vehicle
Coalition Members in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, United Launch Alliance
NASAspaceflight.com (10/27): After completing a Design Certification Review (DCR) in late September, the Space Launch System (SLS) program engineering groups are now organizing the data to certify the rocket’s initial configuration for flight in a few months’ time. Following the DCR, the Exploration Systems Development (EDS) office continues to prepare for the final reviews before launch. The office is also supporting ongoing flight analysis and joint simulations across the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS), Orion, and SLS Programs. After these programs hold their program-level reviews, ESD will hold a division-level review. The process will culminate in an agency-level flight readiness review to assess NASA’s overall readiness to support the launch, the mission, and recovery of the spacecraft at its conclusion.
L+600 and counting: ESA astronaut to be 600th person in space
Collectspace.com (10/26): The Crew-3 mission is nearing a planned launch on October 31 at 2:31a.m. EDT to the International Space Station (ISS). The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Matthias Maurer will launch with NASA’s Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Tom Marshburn to become the 600th person to enter space. Like Chari and Barron, Maurer is launching for the first time. “I actually offered the place to Kayla, because she and I will be together on the spacecraft, but I was the lucky one to get the round number,” Matthias said on Tuesday (October 26), soon after arriving at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). “It is okay, we will all have fun in space.”
Progress MS-18 continues Russian push at Space Station
NASAspaceflight.com (10/27): Russia’s Progress MS-18 resupply mission launched to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT. The nearly three-ton cargo of food, crew supplies and propellant was on course to reach the seven-person orbital science lab on Friday at 9:34 p.m. EDT.
Space Science
JWST launch preparations on track
SpaceNews.com (10/28): During an International Astronautical Congress (IAC) panel discussion, representatives of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and Arianespace expressed confidence that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will launch in December. Their confidence is reinforced by the successful launch of the most recent Ariane 5 mission on October 23, which placed into geostationary transfer orbit the SES-17 communications satellite and the Syracuse 4A communications satellite. The total payload mass of 10,264 kilograms was the heaviest for a geostationary orbit mission by any vehicle to date.
Scientists may have found a planet outside of the Milky Way galaxy for the first time
NPR News (10/26): Astronomers have found indications of a planet beyond the Milky Way galaxy using NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope, a first. Previous exoplanet discoveries reside within the Milky Way and within distances of 3000 light years of the Earth. The possible discovery, which is about the size of Saturn, resides in the Whirlpool Galaxy, about 28 million light-years away. Chandra was launched aboard the shuttle Columbia in July 1999.
You can help train NASA Mars rovers to avoid danger from your sofa
Newsweek (10/27): NASA is making it possible for citizen scientists to help the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover avoid terrain hazards as it continues its exploration of Jezero Crater on Mars. Imagery from Perseverance will be made available to participants through a project called AI4Mars to examine imagery and label different terrain types, sand, soil, bedrock and big rocks, for an artificial intelligence upgrade to the rover’s navigation data set. Perseverance landed on Mars in February to gather samples of soil and rock for return to Earth. The samples are to be assessed for signs of past and possible current microbial activity on the Red Planet.
Other News
China sets new national launch record with Kuaizhou-1A mission
SpaceNews.com (10/27): China’s launch Wednesday of Jilin-1 Gaofen, a high-resolution remote sensing satellite, set a new record for orbital launches in a single year, 40, by the Asian nation. China launched 39 in 2020 and 2018. The U.S. so far has launched 39 missions this year.