What You Missed Last Week

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Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of February 19, 2024:

Human Space Exploration:

• • Astronauts celebrate success of 1st surgery robot on ISS: ‘It’s a real game-changer’;
  • Vast seeks to bid on future ISS private astronaut missions;
  • Forget rockets – Space Perspective wants to take you to ultra-high altitudes using balloons;
  • Black hole-like ‘gravastars’ could be stacked like Russian tea dolls;
  • U.N. committee to take up issue of satellite interference with astronomy;
  • Intuitive Machines’ private Odysseus Moon lander on track for February 22 lunar landing;
  • ESA prepares Hera mission to investigate aftermath of NASA DART impact;
  • Look at how much the sun has changed in just two years;
  • IM-1 mission on course for the Moon after engine test;
  • Russia’s Progress 87 cargo ship arrives at International Space Station;
  • Get a sneak peek inside the Artemis 2 spacecraft that will fly astronauts to the moon for the 1st time in 50 years (photos);

   

  Space Science

  • We could snoop on extraterrestrial communications networks;
  • Three X-flares, zero CMEs;
  • IM and NASA declare success – Odysseus lander on the Moon;
  • It’s not just rising sea levels – the land major cities are built on is actually sinking, NASA images show;
  • Can we survive in space? It might depend on how our gut microbiome adapts;
  • IM-1 lander enters lunar orbit;
  • Martians wanted: Apply here now for NASA’s simulated yearlong Mars mission;
  • Did Pluto ever actually stop being a planet? Experts debate;
  • Private Odysseus moon lander beams home 1st photos from space;

   

  Other News

  • Blue Origin’s 320+ foot New Glenn rocket stands vertical for first time at Cape Canaveral;
  • Hughes’ networking software selected for Air Force satellite internet experiment;
  • Varda capsule lands in Utah;
  • Bus-sized European satellite crashes to Earth over Pacific Ocean;
  • Mission Gaganyaan: ISRO’s CE20 cryogenic engine now human-rated;
  • Roscosmos seeks to obscure bidding process to evade U.S. sanctions;
  • Impending European satellite reentry highlights debris mitigation challenges;
  • The race to back up vulnerable GPS;
  • Delivering a business case for rocket cargo;
  • Kam Ghaffarian’s Moonshots;
  • Stormy weather over NOAA’s commitment issues;
  • Satellite weighing as much as adult rhino to crash through Earth’s atmosphere this week;
  • Highlight: ISRO’s INSAT-3DS, India’s weather eye, injected into orbit;
  • Japan’s space agency successfully launches latest H3 rocket;
  • Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off with space debris removal mission;

   

  Major Space Related Activities for the Week

  • Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander, Odysseus, is enroute to attempt a landing at the Moon’s south pole on Thursday afternoon. If successful, it will be the first lunar landing by the U.S. since Apollo 17 the final Apollo era Moon landing in December 1972. Launched last Thursday, February 15, the Odysseus mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and will gather science data upon descent and landing from the Malapert-A crater at the lunar south pole which is of value to NASA’s Artemis III mission, which is to return human explorers to the surface of the Moon in September 2026.
  • The 26th annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference hosted in partnership with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation is meeting in Washington on Wednesday through Thursday. Also on Wednesday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will host a news briefing on scientific research activities underway aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with U.S. European and Japanese space station crew members. NASA will air and live stream the exchange over NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/nasalive beginning at 10:35 a.m. EST.
  • Meanwhile, the U.S. House and Senate continue to face a government shutdown unless they can come to agreement on a 2024 budget or another in a succession of continuing budget resolutions (CRs). The expiration dates for the current staggered CRs are March 2 and 8. The federal fiscal 2024 began October 1 without a yearlong budget, restraining current spending to 2023 appropriations levels. If a formal budget for 2024 has not been enacted by April 30, the 2023 spending level under current CRs will be cut by another one percent. The current CR funds NASA until March 8.