In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Auditors question NASA’s assessment of Orion development costs. The first Space Launch System (SLS) core stage is moving toward a “green run” ground test firing in October. Spacewalking NASA astronauts all but complete and upgrade of solar power storage batteries on the International Space Station (ISS).
Human Space Exploration
SLS static-fire test expected in October
Coalition Member in the News – Boeing
SpaceNews.com (7/16): Speaking before the American Astronautical Society’s (AAS) Glenn Memorial Symposium earlier this week, Boeing’s John Shannon explained plans to proceed with the “green run” ground test firing of the Space Launch System’s (SLS) core stage four RS-25 engines in October. The full duration, eight minute firing is considered a key milestone in readying the first SLS launch on NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, a multi-week test flight of an Orion capsule without crew around the Moon and back to Earth, planned at this point for late 2021. Testing of the core stage at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi so far this year has gone well, said Shannon, Boeing vice president and SLS program manager. Work earlier this year was slowed in workplace response to coronavirus pandemic concerns.
NASA IG blasts NASA for excluding $17.5 billion from Orion cost estimate
Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin
Spacepolicyonline.com (7/16): A NASA Inspector General’s (IG) audit of the long running development of the Orion crew capsule questions development cost, schedule delays and award fees paid prime contractor Lockheed Martin. Development initiated in 2006 has weathered three White House administrations and mission strategies that began with transporting astronauts back to the Moon, potentially the International Space Station (ISS) as well as a large boulder transferred from the surface of an asteroid to lunar orbit and now again the Moon by 2024 and to Mars in the 2030’s.
Spacewalking astronauts replace old ISS batteries as part of years-long upgrade
Space.com (7/16): A year’s long effort to upgrade the power system batteries on the vaulting solar power truss of the ISS drew to a close on Thursday with a fast paced spacewalk by NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken. They all but wrapped up an effort that began in January 2017 to replace 48 aging nickel hydrogen batteries with 24 more efficient lithium ion units. They upgraded the last of eight power channels by removing six of the old batteries and installing three of the lithium ion replacements. All that remains is one more exchange involving a new lithium ion battery that shorted out after an exchange spacewalk in March 2019.
Space Science
NASA delays James Webb Telescope launch date, again
New York Times.com (7/16): Previously planned for March 2021, the launch of the NASA-led $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been re-rescheduled for no sooner than October 31, 2021 to address technical issues as well as a workforce response to the coronavirus pandemic. The technically challenging successor to the Hubble Space Telescope was developed by NASA and its prime contractor, Northrop Grumman, as well as the European and Canadian space agencies to seek out the earliest galaxies and evidence for biomarkers in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.
New launch date for UAE’s Hope probe set for July 20
The National of the UAE (7/17): A poor weather outlook at the Japanese launch site has again delayed the planned launch of the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) Hope orbiter mission to Mars. The launch is now set for early Monday, U.S. time. Hope is the first of three missions set for launch to Mars. NASA’s Perseverance Mars 2020 rover is planned for a July 30 liftoff. China’s Tianwen-1, orbiter, lander and rover is planned to launch between late July and early August. All are to arrive at the red planet in February 2021.
Long March 5 rolled out for July 23 launch of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission
SpaceNews.com (7/17): China is preparing to launch its Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover next week with the rollout of the mission’s Long March 5 launch vehicle. The roughly 878-metric-ton heavy-lift Long March 5 was vertically transferred to its launch area at the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center late Thursday Eastern. The rollout indicates that China will launch Tianwen-1, the country’s first independent interplanetary mission, next week.
This photo of the Sun is the closest ever taken
Nature.com (7/16): The close up photo was taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) led Solar Orbiter mission. The detail shows small flares everywhere across the surface of the Earth’s star. Released on July 16, the imagery was taken on May 30 while the Solar Orbiter was about half the distance between the Earth and sun. Meanwhile, the NASA led Parker Solar Probe mission is flying even close, passing within the sun’s corona.
A surprise visit from Steve
Spaceweather.com (7/16): Observers in Canada may be gifted with some of the most surprising views of Comet Neowise, thanks to the Earth’s magnetic field.
How many aliens are in the Milky Way? Astronomers turn to statistics for answers
Scientific American (7/16): A look back and ahead at the 1961 Drake equation, astronomer Frank Drake’s theoretical assessment of intelligent life in the Milky Way galaxy. If life was plentiful, could it become intelligent and survive the hazards of its own technical advances?
Other News
Airbus reorganizes U.S. operations to fuel growth in space and defense
Coalition Member in the News – Airbus U.S. Space
SpaceNews.com (7/15): Airbus is reorganizing its U.S.-based operations in an effort to strengthen its position in the space and intelligence markets, officials said July 15. A new business unit, called Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, will focus on the military, intelligence and NASA markets, said Christopher Emerson, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Airbus U.S. Space & Defense. He was previously the president of Airbus Helicopters. Speaking on a video chat with reporters, Emerson said the new unit operates under a Special Security Agreement with the U.S. government that allows it to compete for highly sensitive national security and defense contracts.
More than 2,400 airmen to transfer to U.S. Space Force in September
SpaceNews.com (7/16): The U.S. Space Force has selected 2,410 officers and enlisted personnel from the Air Force for transfer to the newest branch of the military beginning September 1. More than 8,500 applied for the transfer to the Space Force from a variety of space operations career fields.