In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA on Wednesday wrapped up a decade of testing the parachute recovery system for the Orion crew capsule. NASA exploration exec predicts the agency’s planned human tended lunar Gateway and science objectives will lead astronauts back to the lunar surface by the end of the 2030s.
Human Space Flight
NASA’s Orion space capsule aces final parachute test before Moon flight
Space.com (9/12): NASA’s Orion program on Wednesday wrapped up what is to be the final test of the complex parachute system for the capsule that is to launch and return astronauts on future missions of human deep space exploration. Eleven different parachutes will be required to help brake the fast moving capsule with crews of four as they return from the Moon and Mars to just 17 miles per hour before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. More than a decade of parachute drops test from aircraft have used the skies and grounds of the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona to carry out the testing.
NASA: Humans will touch the Moon again by the late 2020s
Houston Chronicle (9/12): The prediction from Steven Clarke, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration, was delivered this week before a meeting of the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Space Studies Board in Irvine, California. Clarke spoke of NASA’s plans to assemble a human tended lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon in conjunction with lunar science investigations as part of preparations to one day launch human explorers to Mars.
“Getting humans to Mars could happen by 2030s” – former NASA Deputy Administrator
Wyoming Public Media (9/11): The prediction comes from Dava Newman, the former NASA deputy administrator and current Apollo Program Professor at MIT. Newman spoke in a public radio interview prior to a lecture scheduled for the University of Wyoming.
Other News
Role models tell girls that STEM’s for them in new campaign
Coalition Member in the News – Boeing
New York Times (9/9): A new advertising campaign that debuted on Monday of this week, the She Can STEM campaign put together by the Advertising Council, encourages young women, girls 11 to 15, to become involved in science, technology, engineering and math. Featured are women succeeding in the field, who work at Boeing and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
HTV-7 launch rescheduled to September 15
Spaceflightinsider.com (9/12): Twice this week the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has been forced to delay the launch of its seventh re-supply mission to the six person International Space Station (ISS) by tropical weather in the Pacific. The launch has been re-set for Friday at 4:59 p.m., EDT. JAXA’s Kounotori will carry five tons of crew supplies and experiments, including a half-dozen lithium ion batteries for the Station’s solar power system. Canadian robotics and a pair of NASA spacewalks are planned later this month for the battery installation.
Blue Origin’s schedule for putting people on space trips reportedly slips to 2019
GeekWire.com (9/11): Blue Origin has shifted its focus from late this year to early next year for the company’s first suborbital passenger flights. The report is based on comments originating this week from the Euroconsult World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris.
“Golden period” for space startup investment continues
SpaceNews.com (9/12): Commercial space ventures remain attractive investments for venture capitalists, according to participants gathered in Paris this week for Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week. U.S. investors appear to be the most enthusiastic, but the increase is coming from more nations, especially Europe, a trend that applies to recipients of the funding as well as investors.