NASASpaceFlight.com
Airbus and ESA invited media for the Moon Media Day. Three Orion European Service Modules are currently being produced at Airbus Space and Defence in Bremen. During the event, NASASpaceflight spoke with two experts from NASA and ESA about the upcoming Artemis missions.
Commercial Archives
SpaceX has launched the Inmarsat I-6 F2 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit atop a Falcon 9. The vehicle lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This launch marked 2023’s 24th orbital launch and SpaceX’s 12th of the year.
International Archives
Airbus and ESA invited media for the Moon Media Day. Experts from NASA and ESA spoke about the upcoming Artemis missions. The three Orion European Service Modules are currently being produced at Airbus Space and Defence in Bremen. There were also talks about the results of the first Artemis mission.
ISS Updates – Spaceflight101 – International Space Station
A veteran NASA spacewalker and an EVA rookie from Japan ended their week with nearly six hours of work outside the International Space Station. The restoration of the Station’s Mobile Servicing System started last year and continued in January to provide Canadarm2 with a new pair of grappling hands.
Featured – Spaceflight101
SpaceX Falcon 9 takes to the skies over Florida’s Cape Canaveral Monday afternoon. The flight-proven Dragon spacecraft will deliver science gear, supplies and maintenance hardware to the International Space Station. It is the first of at least six cargo ships inbound to the U.S. Segment of ISS this year.
News – Spaceflight101
Europe's Copernicus satellite fleet is gearing up for the arrival of its next addition on Wednesday. A Russian Rockot booster is set to blast off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 17:57 UTC with the Sentinel-3B multi-function satellite.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Set to Begin Third Year at Jezero Crater
Perseverance has collected 15 rock cores, two regolith samples and one atmospheric sample. It has sealed three “witness” tubes. Numbers play a big role in the life of a Mars rover mission. They provide the best glimpse of vehicle trends and performance.
NASA’s Planetary Radar Captures Detailed View of Oblong Asteroid
2011 AG5 flew past Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California closely tracked the object. This close approach provided the first opportunity to take a detailed look at the asteroid.
NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Networks of Gas, Dust in Nearby Galaxies
James Webb Space Telescope getting first look at star formation, gas, and dust in nearby galaxies with unprecedented resolution at infrared wavelengths. Data has enabled an initial collection of 21 research papers which provide new insight into how some of the smallest-scale processes in our universe impact the evolution of the largest objects in our cosmos.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Shows Off Collection of Mars Samples
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover provides a panorama of its recently completed sample depot. The panorama, stitched together from 368 images that were sent to Earth, captures more than a month of careful placement and mapping of 10 titanium tubes. The depot represents a backup collection of samples that could be recovered in the future.
NASA’s NuSTAR Telescope Reveals Hidden Light Shows on the Sun
NuSTAR’s relatively small field of view means it can’t see the entire Sun from its position in Earth orbit. NuSTAR’s view of the Sun is actually a mosaic of 25 images, taken in June 2022. The high-energy X-rays observed by NuSTAR appear at only a few locations in the Sun’s atmosphere. By contrast, Hinode’s XRT detects low-energy X-ray, and SDO’s AIA detects ultraviolet light – wavelengths that are emitted across the entire face of the Sun.
NASA’s Curiosity Finds Surprise Clues to Mars’ Watery Past
Scientists will be looking for softer rock in the week ahead. Wind carved the valley, but a channel running through it that starts higher up on Mount Sharp is thought to have been eroded by a small river. Scientists suspect wet landslides also occurred here, sending car-size boulders and debris to the bottom of the valley.
Webb Detects Extremely Small Main Belt Asteroid
The MIRI team found a small asteroid in the same field of view as the James Webb Space Telescope. The object measures 100-200 meters, occupies a very low-inclination orbit, and was located in the inner main-belt region at the time of the Webb observations. Future dedicated Webb observations will allow astronomers to study asteroids smaller than 1 kilometers in size.