In Today’s Deep Space Extra… The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter makes history as the first-ever aircraft to perform a powered, controlled flight on a world beyond Earth. Former shuttle commander Pamela Melroy to be nominated by the White House to serve as NASA’s deputy administrator.
Human Space Exploration
Expedition 65 begins, as Soyuz MS-17 trio return safely to Earth
Coalition Members in the News – Nanoracks, Northrop Grumman
Americaspace.com (4/17): Russia’s Soyuz MS-17 departed the International Space Station (ISS) late Friday for a parachute descent into Kazakhstan, ending a 185-day mission for astronaut Kate Rubins and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. Theirs was the second of four flight operations underway in April to exchange a total of 14 U.S. Russian, Japanese, and European crew members. The MS-17 touched down safely on Saturday at 12:55 a.m. EDT.
Russia plans to withdraw from the ISS, deploy its own national space station
Sputniknews.com (4/18): Russia’s space agency, one of five partnered with NASA in the operation of the International Space Station (ISS), has stated it will end its participation in 2025 based on assessments of the aging hardware in the Russian segment, and deploy a national independent station. Reports of the decision followed meetings between Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin earlier this month. (Editor’s note: Sputniknews.com is a Russian state-owned news source).
NASA selects SpaceX to develop crewed lunar lander
Coalition Members in the News – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
SpaceNews.com (4/16): NASA on Friday selected SpaceX to continue the development of a Human Landing System (HLS) to support near-term efforts to return humans to the surface of the Moon. Under the Option A agreement, the selected company must conduct an uncrewed demonstration before receiving NASA’s approval to shuttle two astronauts between lunar orbit and the Moon’s south pole during the Artemis program’s first crewed lunar landing mission. The agency, however, has not closed the door on further assessing other industry partners for the shuttling of astronauts to the surface during future missions.
Space Science
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter achieves historic powered flight on Mars
The Verge (4/19): Early Monday, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter attempted its first test flight on Mars, a planned 40-second leap. Mission managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) eagerly monitored data coming back to Earth indicating a successful brief flight. NASA plans a news briefing at 2:00 p.m. EDT to discuss the outcome in more detail, which will air on NASA TV and stream on www.nasa.gov/nasalive. Ingenuity was delivered to the Martian surface aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on February 18. Evaluations of the drone’s rotor performance after being placed on the Martian surface prompted delays in the first attempt to fly. Plans for today’s attempt were announced on Saturday.
Three years on, TESS delivers on discoveries as extended mission continues
NASAspaceflight.com (4/18): On Sunday, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) marked its third anniversary and is now in an extended mission until at least September 2022 to continue to search for exoplanets. So far, TESS has contributed 122 confirmed discoveries, plus an additional 2,645 candidates that could join the confirmed list.
Russia joins China’s mission to sample an asteroid and study a comet
Space.com (4/18): In a show of future cooperation in space, Russia will provide science instrumentation for a Chinese mission planned for a 2024 launch to return samples of the near Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa prior to an orbital encounter with the comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro.
China to launch a pair of spacecraft towards the edge of the solar system
SpaceNews.com (4/16): China is developing a pair of planetary science missions, similar to Voyager 1 and 2 launched by NASA in 1977. China’s mission would support flybys of Jupiter and Neptune as they strive to reach interstellar space by the middle of the 21st Century.
Other News
Pam Melroy to be nominated as NASA Deputy Administrator
Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/16): The White House announced April 16 it will nominate former astronaut Pamela Melroy to be NASA’s deputy administrator. After departing NASA as a space shuttle astronaut, Melroy worked for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation and in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. She’s also worked for Lockheed Martin on the Orion crew capsule program. She’s the owner and CEO of Melroy & Hollett Technology Partners and director of Space Technology and Policy at Nova Systems in Adelaide, Australia.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of April 18-24, 2021
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/18): NASA plans a news briefing at 2 p.m. EDT to go over the results of the Ingenuity drone helicopter’s successful test flight. Former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, President Biden’s nominee to head NASA, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT for a confirmation hearing. SpaceX’s Crew-2 Dragon with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday at 6:11 a.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Thursday also marks Earth Day.