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      Rocket Report: Starship could fly again in May; Ariane 6 coming together

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 7 days ago - 11:00 · 1 minute

    Nine kerosene-fueled Rutherford engines power Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle off the pad at Wallops Island, Virginia, early Thursday.

    Enlarge / Nine kerosene-fueled Rutherford engines power Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle off the pad at Wallops Island, Virginia, early Thursday. (credit: Brady Kenniston/Rocket Lab )

    Welcome to Edition 6.36 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX wants to launch the next Starship test flight as soon as early May, the company's president and chief operating officer said this week. The third Starship test flight last week went well enough that the Federal Aviation Administration—yes, the FAA, the target of many SpaceX fans' frustrations—anticipates a simpler investigation and launch licensing process than SpaceX went through before its previous Starship flights. However, it looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for Starship to start launching real satellites.

    As always, we welcome reader submissions , and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

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    Starship could threaten small launch providers. Officials from several companies operating or developing small satellite launch vehicles are worried that SpaceX's giant Starship rocket could have a big impact on their marketability, Space News reports . Starship's ability to haul more than 100 metric tons of payload mass into low-Earth orbit will be attractive not just for customers with heavy satellites but also for those with smaller spacecraft. Aggregating numerous smallsats on Starship will mean lower prices than dedicated small satellite launch companies can offer and could encourage customers to build larger satellites with cheaper parts, further eroding business opportunities for small launch providers.

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      Rocket launch marks big step in building China’s lunar infrastructure

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 19 March - 23:31

    A Long March 8 rocket, standing 165 feet (50 meters) tall, rolled out of its assembly building to its launch pad Sunday at the Wenchang Space Launch Site.

    Enlarge / A Long March 8 rocket, standing 165 feet (50 meters) tall, rolled out of its assembly building to its launch pad Sunday at the Wenchang Space Launch Site. (credit: Luo Yunfei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images )

    The next phase of China's Moon program begins with the launch of a new data relay satellite Monday to link lunar landers and rovers on the far side of the Moon with ground controllers back on Earth.

    This launch, set for approximately 8:31 pm EDT (00:31 UTC), will send China's Queqiao-2 relay spacecraft toward the Moon, where it will enter an elliptical orbit and position itself for the arrival of China's next robotic lunar lander, Chang'e 6, later this year.

    A medium-lift Long March 8 rocket will carry the Queqiao-2 spacecraft aloft from the Wenchang launch base, located on Hainan Island in southern China. This will be the third flight of the kerosene-fueled Long March 8, one of a new generation of Chinese rockets designed to replace older Long March launcher designs burning toxic propellant.

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      Thomas Stafford, who flew to the Moon and docked with Soyuz, dies at 93

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 19 March - 12:46

    Former NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford, a three-star Air Force general known for a historic handshake in space with a Soviet cosmonaut nearly 50 years ago, died Monday in Florida. He was 93.

    Stafford was perhaps the most accomplished astronaut of his era who never walked on the Moon. He flew in space four times, helping pilot the first rendezvous with another crewed spacecraft in orbit in 1966 and taking NASA's Apollo lunar landing craft on a final test run before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon in 1969.

    By his own account, one of the greatest moments in Stafford's career came in 1975, when he commanded the final Apollo mission—not to the Moon but to low-Earth orbit—and linked up with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Soviet cosmonauts. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) planted the seeds for a decades-long partnership in space between the United States and Russia, culminating in the International Space Station, where US and Russian crews still work together despite a collapse in relations back on Earth.

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      The US government seems serious about developing a lunar economy

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 18 March - 15:48

    Permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles are an area of interest for the resources they might harbor.

    Enlarge / Permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles are an area of interest for the resources they might harbor. (credit: LROC / ASU / NASA )

    For the first time ever, the United States is getting serious about fostering an economy on the Moon.

    NASA, of course, is in the midst of developing the Artemis program to return humans to the Moon. As part of this initiative, NASA seeks to foster a lunar economy in which the space agency is not the sole customer.

    That's easier said than done. A whole host of conditions must be met for a lunar economy to thrive. There must be something there that can be sold, be it resources, a unique environment for scientific research, low-gravity manufacturing, tourism, or another source of value. Reliable transportation to the Moon must be available. And there needs to be a host of services, such as power and communications for machines and people on the lunar surface. So yeah, it's a lot.

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      NASA faces a quandary with its audacious lunar cargo program

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 21 February - 12:00 · 1 minute

    Intuitive Machines released this photo of its Odysseus lander in space after launch.

    Enlarge / Intuitive Machines released this photo of its Odysseus lander in space after launch. (credit: Intuitive Machines)

    Most of NASA is a pretty buttoned-down place these days. Nearly 70 years old, the space agency is no longer the rambunctious adolescent it was during the race to the Moon in the 1960s. If you go to a NASA field center today, you're much more likely to get dragged into a meeting or a review than witness a rocket engine test.

    One way to describe the space agency today is "risk averse." Some of this, certainly, is understandable. NASA is where flight director Gene Kranz famously said during the Apollo 13 rescue, "Failure is not an option." Moreover, after three major accidents that resulted in the death of 17 astronauts—Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia —NASA takes every conceivable precaution to avoid similar tragedies in the future.

    But there does come a point where NASA becomes so risk averse that it no longer takes bold and giant steps, succumbing to paralysis by analysis. As one long-time NASA engineer told me several years ago, only partly tongue-in-cheek, it took a minor miracle for engineers designing the Orion spacecraft to get a small window on the vehicle through the rigorous safety review process.

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      pubsub.blastersklan.com / slashdot · Thursday, 15 February - 20:02 edit · 1 minute

    Texas-based Intuitive Machines' inaugural moon mission began early Thursday morning, heading toward what could be the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years. From a report: Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander launched from Florida on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, beginning the IM-1 mission. "It is a profoundly humbling moment for all of us at Intuitive Machines. The opportunity to return the United States to the moon for the first time since 1972 is a feat of engineering that demands a hunger to explore," Intuitive Machines vice president of space systems Trent Martin said during a press conference. The IM-1 lander, named "Odysseus" after the mythological Greek hero, is carrying 12 government and commercial payloads -- six of which are for NASA under an $118 million contract. NASA leadership emphasized before the launch that "IM-1 is an Intuitive Machines' mission, it's not a NASA mission." But it marks the second mission under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to deliver science projects and cargo to the moon with increasing regularity in support of the agency's Artemis crew program. The agency views CLPS missions as "a learning experience," NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration in the science mission directorate, Joel Kearns, told press before the launch.

    Read more of this story at Slashdot.

    Moon Company Intuitive Machines Begins First Mission After SpaceX Launch
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      science.slashdot.org /story/24/02/15/1854204/moon-company-intuitive-machines-begins-first-mission-after-spacex-launch

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      A Japanese spacecraft faceplanted on the Moon and lived to tell the tale

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 25 January - 17:55

    Japan's SLIM spacecraft is seen nose down on the surface of the Moon.

    Japan's SLIM spacecraft is seen nose down on the surface of the Moon. (credit: JAXA/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Corporation/Doshisha University )

    Japan's first lunar lander made an unsteady touchdown on the Moon last week, moments after one of its two main engines inexplicably lost power and apparently fell off the spacecraft, officials said Thursday.

    About the size of a small car, the Small Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed on Friday, making Japan the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface. Shortly after landing, ground teams in Japan realized the spacecraft was not recharging its battery with its solar panels. The evidence at the time suggested that SLIM likely ended up in an unexpected orientation on the Moon, with its solar cells facing away from the Sun.

    With the benefit of six days of data crunching and analysis, officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) briefed reporters Thursday on what they have learned about SLIM's landing. Indeed, the spacecraft toppled over after touching down, with its nose planted into the lunar regolith and its rear propulsion section pointed toward space.

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      NASA urged Astrobotic not to send its hamstrung spacecraft toward the Moon

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 23 January - 00:35

    A camera on Astrobotic's Peregrine spacecraft captured this view of a crescent Earth during its mission.

    Enlarge / A camera on Astrobotic's Peregrine spacecraft captured this view of a crescent Earth during its mission. (credit: Astrobotic )

    Astrobotic knew its first space mission would be rife with risks. After all, the company's Peregrine spacecraft would attempt something never done before—landing a commercial spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.

    The most hazardous part of the mission, actually landing on the Moon, would happen more than a month after Peregrine's launch. But the robotic spacecraft never made it that far. During Peregrine's startup sequence after separation from its United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket , one of the spacecraft's propellant tanks ruptured, spewing precious nitrogen tetroxide into space. The incident left Peregrine unable to land on the Moon, and it threatened to kill the spacecraft within hours of liftoff.

    " What a wild adventure we were just on, not the outcome we were hoping for," said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic.

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      Japan becomes the fifth nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 19 January - 13:42

    Artist's illustration of the SLIM spacecraft on final descent to the Moon.

    Enlarge / Artist's illustration of the SLIM spacecraft on final descent to the Moon. (credit: JAXA )

    The Japanese space agency's first lunar lander arrived on the the Moon's surface Friday, but a power system problem threatens to cut short its mission.

    Japan's robotic Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission began a 20-minute final descent using two hydrazine-fueled engines to drop out of orbit. After holding to hover at 500 meters and then 50 meters altitude, SLIM pulsed its engines to fine-tune its vertical descent before touching down at 10:20 am EST (15:20 UTC).

    The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which manages the SLIM mission, streamed the landing live on YouTube. About two hours after the touchdown, JAXA officials held a press conference to confirm the spacecraft made a successful landing, apparently quite close to its target. SLIM aimed to settle onto the lunar surface adjacent to a nearly 900-foot (270-meter) crater named Shioli, located in a region called the Sea of Nectar on the near side of the Moon.

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