In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA explores its Space Launch System test options after assessing last Saturday’s early hot fire shutdown. The OSIRIS-REx team is considering a mission extension.
Human Space Exploration
SLS Green Run static fire cut short by “intentionally conservative” test limits
Coalition Member in the News – Boeing
SpaceNews.com (1/19): NASA and Boeing officials said Tuesday they are working to determine whether to make a second attempt at a ground-based hot fire test of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage. During Tuesday’s news briefing and in earlier statements, the officials said the first try at the test on Saturday was truncated due to an overly conservative hydraulic system parameter intended to protect the core, a parameter that would not have been set so conservatively for a real launch. The four engines functioned properly during the test. The core has been fueled fully or partially three times so far; the design limit is nine.
Bridenstine, departing NASA, hopes Artemis continues
SpaceNews.com (1/20): As he prepared to depart his position as NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday he hopes that despite the challenges President elect Joe Biden and his administration will continue efforts to return humans to the Moon with the Artemis initiative and the Space Launch System (SLS). “If we’re talking about sending humans to the Moon, that’s the highest probability of success at the earliest possible moment,” the one-time Oklahoma congressman said of the SLS.
Space Science
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe could make a 2nd stop at infamous asteroid Apophis
Space.com (1/19): NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission successfully gathered material from the surface of asteroid Bennu on October 20 and is set to return the samples to Earth in 2023. The OSIRIS-REx team is now considering a mission extension that would permit the probe to perform a flyby of asteroid Apophis, a near-Earth object (NEO), in April 2029.
What Mars sounds like, and the rover’s welcome party
CNN (1/18): Three spacecraft are but weeks from arrival at Mars, among them NASA’s Perseverance rover, and a United Arab Emirates (UAE) orbiter. One of Perseverance’s novelties is a microphone designed to provide sounds from the Red Planet for the first time. The landing is scheduled for February 18.
Missing: One black hole with 10 billion solar masses
New York Times (1/19): Black holes are thought to reside at the center of every galaxy. The larger the galaxy, the larger the black hole. However, thanks to observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers may have found an exception, a curious star system 2.7 billion light years from Earth.
Other News
Rocket Lab launches secretive communications satellite for OHB
SpaceNews.com (1/20): Rocket Lab, the small satellite launch services company, launched a German communications satellite with a secretive future from its New Zealand launch complex early Wednesday.
Diversion
EGS Mobile Launcher| Launch Pad 39 360° Video: Take a 360° behind-the-scenes view of the mobile launcher and Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to see how the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team is preparing to send the first woman and next man to the Moon.