Artemis 1 mission reaches halfway point
Original Publication Date: 2022-11-29 12:07
NASA managers are adding additional test objectives for the Orion spacecraft. Orion spacecraft orbits the moon in the middle of the 25.5-day Artemis 1 mission. Controllers have dealt with only minor issues during the mission, none of which “are of consequence.”
Vega C to launch five Copernicus spacecraft
Original Publication Date: 2022-11-30 11:11
Arianespace will launch five Copernicus Earth observation spacecraft on Vega C rockets. The European Commission operates both Copernicus and the Galileo navigation constellation. The contract secures the position of the European Commission as the launch provider’s top institutional customer. It’s unlikely the European Commission would have gone with another launch provider.
China’s Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft deployed a small satellite before deorbiting
Original Publication Date: 2022-11-30 10:08
China's Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft released a small satellite after its departure from the Tiangong space station. The release of the Zhixing-3A satellite was not announced by the Tianzhou spacecraft operators. The satellite was later tracked in orbit by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron.
Shenzhou 15 astronauts arrive at China’s space station for first crew handover
Original Publication Date: 2022-11-29 23:09
China has six astronauts aboard its recently-completed space station for the first time. Shenzhou-15 launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Nov. 29. Rendezvous and docking with the Tiangong space station was completed at 4:42 p.m.
NASA cancels GeoCarb greenhouse gas monitoring mission
Original Publication Date: 2022-11-29 22:49
NASA has canceled a greenhouse gas monitoring mission. GeoCarb was intended to fly as a commercial hosted payload on a geostationary satellite. The mission lost its ride to orbit and suffered severe cost overruns. NASA cited technical concerns with the mission as well as cost performance.
Live coverage: China launches Shenzhou 15 mission with three astronauts – Spaceflight Now
Original Publication Date: 2022-11-29 00:00
Shenzhou 15 mission is a planned six-month expedition to the Chinese space station. Follow us on Twitter. Text updates will appear automatically below. CCTV launch coverage (with English commentary) Clean feed (no commentary; only mission communications in Chinese) China's Shenzhou 15 mission is scheduled to take place over six months.
NASASpaceFlight.com
India launches a new ocean monitoring satellite on Saturday morning. The EOS-06 spacecraft will be placed into a low Earth orbit. The mission, PSLV C54, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 11:56 local time (06:26 UTC)
Commercial Archives
SpaceX is readying to use its reliable Falcon 9 rocket to send a privately funded mission to the surface of the moon. HAKUTO-R Mission 1 is now scheduled to liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
International Archives
SpaceX is readying to use its reliable Falcon 9 rocket to send a privately funded mission to the surface of the moon. HAKUTO-R Mission 1 is now scheduled to liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the early morning hours of Dec. 1.
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
A SpaceX Falcon 9 took 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
Russia's Rockot booster set to blast off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 17:57 UTC with the Sentinel-3B multi-function satellite. Sentinel-3B is part of the European Space Agency’s Copernicus satellite fleet. It is the third satellite in the Copernicus constellation.
Re-Entry: Long March 11 Rocket Body – Spaceflight101
The CZ-11 fourth stage used leftover propellant for a partial de-orbit maneuver, lowering its perigee to 120 Kilometers to significantly accelerate its orbital decay. It is reportedly built around a YF-50 main engine and in a nominal mission conducts the orbital circularization after the three CZ-11 stages.
Baby Star ‘Burps’ Tell Tales of Frantic Feeding, NASA Data Shows
Newborn stars “feed’ at a furious rate and grow through surprisingly frequent feeding frenzies. Outbursts from stellar babies at the earliest stage of development occur roughly every 400 years. The first such outburst was detected nearly a century ago, and they’ve rarely been seen since.
NASA’s Lunar Flashlight SmallSat Readies for Launch
Lunar Flashlight will use a new kind of “green’ propellant that is safer to transport and store than the commonly used in-space propellants such as hydrazine. One of the mission’s primary goals is to test this technology for future use. The science data collected by Lunar Flashlight will be compared with observations made by other lunar missions.
NASA’s Europa Clipper Gets Its Wheels for Traveling in Deep Space
The Europa Clipper mission is scheduled to launch in October 2024. The mission will explore the icy moon of Europa. It will investigate whether the moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa’s habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth.
NASA, ESA Reveal Tale of Death, Dust in Orion Constellation
In between the two hollow regions are orange filaments where dust condenses and forms new stars. Over time, these filaments may produce new giant stars that will once again reshape the region. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, managed Spitzer mission operations for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington until the spacecraft was retired in 2020.
Meet the People Behind the SWOT Water-Tracking Satellite
Satellite will be the first to observe nearly all water on Earth’s surface. Will measure the height of water in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the ocean. Will improve scientists’ ability to track the movement of water around the world. Data will help communities monitor and plan for changing water resources.
NASA Program Predicted Impact of Small Asteroid Over Ontario, Canada
The asteroid was detected 3 ½ hours before impact, making this event the sixth time in history a small asteroid has been tracked in space before impacting Earth’s atmosphere. Such small asteroids are not a hazard to Earth, but they can be a useful test for NASA’s planetary defense capabilities.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Investigates Intriguing Martian Bedrock
After it collects a sample from Yori Pass, Perseverance will drive 745 feet (227 meters) southeast to a mega sand ripple. Located in the middle of a small dune field, the ripple will be where the rover collects its first samples of regolith, or crushed rock and dust.