In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA previews Webb telescope and fully stacked hardware for Artemis I. VP Harris says National Space Council will develop comprehensive framework for space.

 

Human Space Exploration

NASA shows off finished SLS Moon rocket, Webb telescope
Coalition Members in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance
Spaceflightnow.com (11/5): NASA previewed two major upcoming missions on Friday with photo opportunities at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) of the fully stacked Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion for Artemis I, and at the Guiana Space Center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Launch of the Artemis I test flight that will take an uncrewed Orion capsule around the Moon and back to Earth is planned for as soon as February 12. The launch of the JWST is planned for December 18.

Wang Yaping becomes the first Chinese woman to walk in space
NASAspaceflight.com (11/7): Two astronauts conducted a spacewalk outside China’s space station, making Wang Yaping the first woman from her country to walk in space. The outing on Sunday to install external hardware on the Tianhe core module lasted about six hours. The station’s current three-person crew launched on October 15. They are scheduled to remain aboard until April 2022.

Crew-2 undocking delayed a day
SpaceNews.com (11/7): The four Crew-2 Dragon astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been rescheduled to depart for Earth on Monday at 2:05 p.m. EST. The schedule waivered over the weekend due to weather concerns, especially high winds. The changes have Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, of NASA, Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA), and Akihiko Hoshide, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) returning to Earth after 199 days in orbit prior to the launch of their replacements aboard the Crew-3 Dragon. Launch is now planned for Wednesday at 9:03 p.m. EST. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who launched with two Russian cosmonauts in April and is slated to return to Earth in March of 2022, will oversee transition activities for the replacements, NASA’s Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Tom Marshburn, and ESA’s Matthias Maurer.

 

Space Science

Ariane 5 fairing cleared for Webb launch after “perfect” performance on last flight
Coalition Member in the News – Ruag Space
Spaceflightnow.com (11/7): Successful launches of the Ariane 5 rocket on October 23 and July 30 have restored confidence in the rocket’s payload fairing performance for the planned December 18 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JSWT) from Kourou, French Guiana. Launches of the Ariane 5 in 2020 experienced fairing, or nose cone, separation difficulties that prompted unwanted vibrations on the satellite payloads. Though the satellites were not damaged, Arianespace introduced changes to the fairing demonstrated successfully during the most recent launches of the Ariane 5 and ahead of the JWST launch.

New science from Juno provides insight into atmospheric processes on Jupiter
Coalition Member in the News – United Launch Alliance
NASAspaceflight.com (11/6): Findings from NASA’s Juno mission in orbit around Jupiter have revealed details about its atmosphere, some surprising. Those include hundreds of anticyclones, swirling features that are warm rather than cool at their summits and cool rather than warm at the bases. The anticyclones extend upward more than 200 miles. The most famous is Jupiter’s Giant Red Spot, which stretches more than 300 miles into the atmosphere. The planet’s brightly colored atmospheric bands that wrap around the large planet dip down about 2,000 miles and the source of their formation remains a mystery. Launched in 2011, Juno entered orbit around Jupiter in 2016.

NASA considering software fixes for sidelined Hubble Space Telescope
Space.com (11/7): The Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode on October 25. Ground support teams are working on possible software adjustments to the 31-year-old orbital observatory’s Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit and specifically the Control Unit as a potential remedy.

Astronomers detect water in one of the oldest known galaxies
Space.com (11/5): Astronomers have detected evidence of water in lSPT0311-58, a two-galaxy formation located nearly 13 billion light years from Earth using a powerful radio telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert. ISPT0311-58 is one of the oldest known star systems. The find reveals that a key life-giving substance, water, played a role in the formation of the earliest stars. The study was published in the Astrophysical Journal.

NASA picks landing site at the Moon’s south pole for ice-drilling robot
Space.com (11/5): Intuitive Machines and NASA have selected Shackleton Connecting Ridge on Shackleton Crater at the Moon’s south pole as the landing site for the company’s solar powered Nova-C lander with PRIME-1, a drill. PRIME-1 is to dig down about three feet.

 

Other News

Harris says National Space Council will develop “comprehensive framework” for space priorities
SpaceNews.com (11/6): In a speech at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center last Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the National Space Council’s first meeting will be on December 1. “At that meeting, we will outline a comprehensive framework for our nation’s space priorities” which will include civil and national security space activities as well as education and the “emerging space economy,” according to Harris. While Harris did not discuss additional details of the framework, she emphasized the need to use space capabilities to benefit society broadly.

An object is now orbiting alongside China’s Shijian-21 debris mitigation satellite
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
SpaceNews.com (11/5): China’s Shijian-21 space debris mitigation technology satellite has a second object tracking alongside. The Shijian-21 was launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit on October 31. The secondary object was catalogued by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron on November 3 and noted as a rocket body of an apogee kick motor. The role of the secondary object in the technology development activities was unclear when catalogued, making it likely the Shijan-21 and its companion will be closely monitored.

 

Major Space Related Activities for the Week

Major space related activities for the week of November 7-13, 2021
Spacepolicyonline.com (11/7): The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) two-week ASCEND forum gets underway on Monday. “Spaceflight for Everybody,” a NASA virtual forum focused on spaceflight health unfolds on Monday through Wednesday. NASA plans a news media update on the Artemis initiative on Tuesday at 3 p.m., EST. Except for pro forma sessions, the U.S. House and Senate are in recess this week, with the human infrastructure bill that includes $1.115 billion for NASA, still under discussion.