NASA Laser Reflecting Instruments to Help Pinpoint Earth Measurements – NASA

The best known use of GPS satellites is to help people know their location whether driving a car, navigating a ship or plane, or trekking across remote territory. Another important, but lesser-known, use is to distribute information to other Earth-viewing satellites to help them pinpoint measurements of our planet.

NASA and several other federal agencies, including the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command,the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are improving the location accuracy of these measurements down to the millimeter with a new set of laser retroreflector arrays, or LRAs.

The primary benefit of laser ranging and LRAs is to improve the geolocation of all of our Earth observations, said Stephen Merkowitz, project manager for NASAs Space Geodesy Project at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A team of scientists and engineers with the project tested these arrays earlier this year to ensure they were up to their task and they could withstand the harsh environment of space. Recently the first set of these new laser retroreflector arrays was shipped to the U.S. Space Force and Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado, to be added to the next generation of GPS satellites.

How do Laser Retroreflector Arrays Work?

Laser retroreflector arrays make it possible to do laser ranging using small bursts of laser light to detect distances between objects. Pulses of laser light from a ground station are directed toward an orbiting satellite, which then reflect off the array and return to the station. The time it takes for the light to travel from the ground to the satellite and back again can be used to calculate the distance between the satellite and the ground.

Laser ranging and laser retroreflector arrays have been part of space missions for decades, and they are currently mounted on and essential to the operation of Earth-viewing satellites like ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation satellite 2), SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography), and GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow On). LRAs for laser ranging were even deployed on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo missions.

The LRAs are special mirrors, said Merkowitz. Theyre different from a normal mirror because they bounce back light directly towards its original source.

For laser ranging, scientists want to direct light beams back to the original source. They do this by placing three mirrors at right angles, essentially forming an inside corner of a cube. The laser retroreflector arrays are made up of an array of 48 of these mirrored corners.

When light enters the array, due to those 90-degree angles, the light will bounce and take a series of reflections, but the output angle will always come out at the same angle as the one that came in, said Zach Denny, optical engineer for the Space Geodesy Project at Goddard.

What Will Laser Retroreflector Arrays Help?

Geodesy is the study of Earths shape, as well as its gravity and rotation, and how they all change over time. Laser ranging to laser retroreflector arrays is a key technique in this study.

The surface of Earth is constantly changing in small ways due to shifting tectonic plates, melting ice, and other natural phenomena. With these constant shifts and the fact that Earth is not a perfect sphere there must be a way to define the measurements on Earths surface. Scientists call this a reference frame.

Not only do these arrays and laser ranging help to precisely locate the satellites in orbit, but they also provide accurate positioning information for the ground stations back on Earth. With this information, scientists can even go so far as to find the center of the mass of Earth, which is the origin, or zero point, of the reference frame.

Geodetic measurements laser ranging to reference satellites like LAGEOS (Laser Geodynamic Satellites) are used to constantly determine the location of Earths center of mass down to a millimeter. These measurements are critical for enabling scientists to assign a longitude and latitude to satellite measurements and put them on a map.

Significant events like tsunamis and earthquakes can cause small changes to the Earths center of mass. Scientists need accurate laser ranging measurements to quantify and understand those changes, said Linda Thomas, a research engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

Satellite measurements of subtle but important Earth phenomena, such as sea level rise, rely on an accurate reference frame. The long-term global trend of sea level rise, as well as its seasonal and regional variations, occur at rates of just a few millimeters a year. The reference frame needs to be more accurate than such changes if scientists want to accurately measure them.

Geodesy is a fundamental part of our daily lives because it tells us where we are and it tells us how the world is changing, said Frank Lemoine, project scientist for NASAs Space Geodesy Project.

ByErica McNameeNASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Space Force’s secretive space plane is making its highest flight yet – New Scientist

X-37B after its sixth mission

ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy

The US Space Force is preparing to launch its secretive X-37B space plane for the seventh time. What little information has been released suggests this will be the uncrewed space planes highest and longest flight yet.

Over the course of its first six missions, X-37B spent a total of 3774 days in space, with its last mission in orbit lasting the longest of the six at 908 days. For five of those flights, the plane was launched into space atop Atlas V rockets before continuing in orbit under its own power, and the sixth used one of SpaceXs Falcon 9 rockets.

The upcoming flight, scheduled for 10 December, will launch atop a Falcon Heavy rocket, which is about three times as powerful as the Atlas V and Falcon 9. That, along with a Space Force statement that says that this mission will see the space plane operating in new orbital regimes, indicates that this may be the highest and longest flight of X-37B so far.

The exact orbital parameters of previous missions havent been disclosed by the US government. Historically each X-37B mission has expanded the flight envelope of the vehicle, says Laura McAndrews, a representative for the US Air Force. It is safe to expect this mission to do the same.

Each of the previous missions has remained in low Earth orbit, generally defined as less than 1000 kilometres above the surface, but Falcon Heavy is capable of carrying spacecraft far beyond that, to the farthest reaches of the solar system. The Air Force declined to give any specific information about the planned orbit of the mission, and SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

The mission is planned to carry several scientific experiments, both classified and unclassified. The less-secretive experiments include testing the effects of space radiation on various materials and seeds: X-36B Mission 7 will build upon previous NASA long-duration human spaceflight experiments to assess the impact of the space environment on plant seeds, says McAndrews.

The experiments more shrouded in mystery include what the Space Force referred to in its statement as experimenting with space domain awareness technologies. Space domain awareness typically involves monitoring satellites and orbital craft to make sure they dont crash into one another or Earth, but it isnt clear exactly what technologies this mission will be testing.

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Space Force's secretive space plane is making its highest flight yet - New Scientist

ULA’s first mission with its Vulcan rocket may slide to January launch window Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

ULAs Vulcan rocket sits at the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) ahead of the start of a wet dress rehearsal tanking test on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Image: ULA

The debut of United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket may slip from late December into early January, according to the companys president and CEO, Tory Bruno. In a social media post on Sunday, Bruno said the planned Dec. 24 launch date is likely out.

The statement comes a couple days after the rocket conducted a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), where the vehicle was fully fueled and went the countdown was to proceed to the final seconds before cutting off. But Bruno said a couple of routine ground issues came up near the end of the test.

Ground teams were targeting a T-0 of 4:30 p.m. EST on Friday. Based on observations of venting during the operation it appeared the countdown reached its final four minutes before an abort occurred. The Vulcan vehicle left the launch pad and returned to the Vertical Integration Facility building at launch complex 41 Saturday afternoon.

Id like a full WDR before our first flight, so [Christmas] Eve is likely out, Bruno said in his post on X. He added that they are working on schedules but Spaceflight Now understands another test has been scheduled for as soon as Tuesday.

The primary payload onboard is Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander, which will journey to the Moon. If the launch is able to happen during the December launch window (Dec. 24-26), the lander would touch down on the Moons surface at approximately 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 UTC) on Jan. 25, 2024.

Bruno said that the next launch window based on Peregrines needs opens on Jan. 8, 2024 and would likely last for four days. Dan Hendrickson, Astrobotics Vice President of Business Development, told Spaceflight Now back in October that the nominal time from launch to landing is between 30 and 39 days. It was not immediately clear if there is a different transit time for the early January launch window.

Shifting Moon race

With the launch potentially shifting to January, that changes the landscape for Moon-bound missions. Liftoff on Jan. 8 would mean Peregrine would launch just four days before the opening of the launch window for Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agencys (JAXA) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is also making its way to the Moon and is set to land around 1520 UTC on Jan. 19.

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ULA's first mission with its Vulcan rocket may slide to January launch window Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

NASA’s IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy – NASA

On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists will commemorate two years of landmark X-ray science by NASAs IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission.

IXPE is the joint NASA-Italian Space Agency mission to study polarized X-ray light. Polarization is a characteristic of light that can help reveal information about where that light came from, such as the geometry and inner workings of the ultra-powerful energy sources from which it emanates.

Launched Dec. 9, 2021, IXPE orbits Earth some 340 miles high, studying X-ray emissions from powerful cosmic phenomena thousands to billions of light-years from Earth, including quasars, blazars, remnants of supernova explosions such as neutron stars, and high-energy particle streams spewing from the vicinity of black holes at nearly the speed of light.

Adding X-ray polarization to our arsenal of radio, infrared, and optical polarization is a game changer, said Alan Marscher, a Boston University astronomer who leads a research group that uses IXPEs findings to analyze supermassive black holes.

Were all familiar with X-rays as a diagnostic medical tool for humans. Here were using them in a different way, but they are again revealing information that is otherwise hidden from us, said Stanford University researcher Josephine Wong, who co-authored findings in October based on IXPE studies of the pulsar wind nebula MSH 15-52, some 16,000 light-years from Earth.

Martin Weisskopf, the astrophysicist who led the development of IXPE and served as its principal investigator until his retirement from NASA in spring 2022, agreed.

Martin Weisskopf

Retired IXPE Principal Investigator

Scientists have long understood, for example, the fundamentals of blazars such as Markarian 501 and Markarian 421. A blazar is a massive black hole feeding off material swirling around it in a disk, creating powerful jets of high-speed cosmic particles which rush away in two directions perpendicular to the disk. But how are those particles accelerated to such high energies? IXPE data published in November 2022 in the journal Nature identified the culprit at Markarian 501 as a shock wave within the jet.

This is a 40-year-old mystery that weve solved, said Yannis Liodakis, a NASA Postdoctoral Program researcher at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. We finally had all of the pieces of the puzzle, and the picture they made was clear.

IXPE also conducted unprecedented studies of three supernova remnants Cassiopeia A, Tycho, and SN 1006 helping scientists further their understanding of the origin and processes of the magnetic fields surrounding these phenomena.

IXPE is even shedding new light on fundamental mechanisms of our own galaxy. According to studies IXPE conducted in early 2022, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, woke up about 200 years ago to devour gas and other cosmic detritus, triggering an intense, short-lived X-ray flare. By combining data from IXPE, Chandra, and the European Space Agencys XMM-Newton mission, researchers determined the event occurred around the start of the 19th century.

We know change can happen to active galaxies and supermassive black holes on a human timescale, said IXPE project scientist Steve Ehlert at NASA Marshall. IXPE is helping us better understand the timescale on which the black hole at the center of our galaxy is changing. Were eager to observe it further to determine which changes are typical and which are unique.

IXPE has also supported observations of unanticipated cosmic events such as the brightest pulse of intense radiation ever recorded, which abruptly swept through our solar system in October 2022.

The pulse stemmed from a powerful gamma-ray burst likely to occur no more than once in 10,000 years, researchers said. Backing up data from NASAs Fermi Space Telescope and other imagers, IXPE helped determine how the powerful emission was organized and confirmed that Earth imagers viewed the jet almost directly head-on.

Perhaps most exciting to space scientists is how IXPE data is upending conventional wisdom about various classes of high-energy sources.

So many of the polarized X-ray results weve seen over the past two years were a big surprise, tossing theoretical models right out the window, Ehlert said.

Steve Ehlert

IXPE Project Scientist

That excitement continues to build among IXPE partners around the world. In June, the mission was formally extended for 20 months beyond its initial two-year flight, meaning IXPE will continue to observe high-energy X-ray emissions across the cosmos through at least September 2025.

The new year also will mark the start of the IXPE General Observer Program, which invites astrophysicists and other space scientists around the world to propose and take part in studies using the IXPE telescope. Beginning in February 2024, as much as 80% of IXPEs time will be made available to the broader scientific community.

About the IXPE Mission

IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorados Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.

Elizabeth LandauNASA Headquarters elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov 202-358-0845

Jonathan Deal NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center 256-544-0034 jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov

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NASA's IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy - NASA

Hubble Captures a Cluster in the Cloud – Science@NASA

This striking Hubble Space Telescope image shows the densely packedglobular clusterknown as NGC 2210, which is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The LMC lies about 157,000 light-years from Earth and is a so-called satellitegalaxyof the Milky Way, meaning that the two galaxies are gravitationally bound. Globular clusters are very stable, tightly bound clusters of thousands or even millions of stars. Their stability means that they can last a long time, and therefore globular clusters are often studied to investigate potentially very old stellar populations.

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Hubble Captures a Cluster in the Cloud - Science@NASA

SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch of secretive X-37B space plane delayed to Dec. 11 – Space.com

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is poised to launch the X-37B space plane for the U.S. Space Force on Monday evening (Dec. 11) after a one-day delay due to weather, and you can likely watch the action live.

Liftoff of the Falcon Heavy is scheduled to occur from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 GMT Dec. 12). If, as expected, SpaceX webcasts the liftoff, you can watch it live here at Space.com. SpaceX announced its delay of the flight by 24 hours early Sunday.

"Now targeting Monday, December 11 for Falcon Heavys launch of the USSF-52 mission, with weather conditions forecasted to improve to 70% favorable for liftoff on Monday night," SpaceX wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "The team will use the time to complete additional pre-launch check outs."

The upcoming launch will be the seventh launch to date for the reusable X-37B space plane its first-ever ride on a Falcon Heavy, which could have consequences for its coming orbital mission.

Five of the six X-37B launches to date have employed United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, with one other using a SpaceX Falcon 9. Falcon Heavy, which utilizes three Falcon 9 boosters as its first stage, outclasses both of those other rockets when it comes to getting mass to orbit. According to a recent Space Force release, some of the objectives of the coming X-37B mission, known as OTV-7 ("Orbital Test Vehicle-7"), include "operating in new orbital regimes," which, given the launch vehicle, may indicate a higher orbit than usual, farther from Earth.

Related: The Space Force's secretive X-37B space plane: 10 surprising facts

The upgrade in launch vehicle may also have to do with mass. The X-37B features a cargo bay to house equipment and experiments, and it could be carrying a secondary mission payload that requires Falcon Heavy's added lift capability.

The uncertainty here is not surprising; most details of X-37B missions are classified. However, USSF-52 does carry at lease one unclassified experiment: NASA's "Seeds-2" project, which will test the effects of radiation and long-duration spaceflight on plant seeds.

Each successive X-37B mission has been longer than its predecessors, with its most recent orbital jaunt lasting 908 days. That mission, called OTV-6, landed in November 2022.

When Falcon Heavy launches on Sunday, it will be the rocket's ninth mission to date. It will also be the fifth flight for the side boosters supporting this particular mission; the duo most recently launched NASA's Psyche probe, in October of this year.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Dec. 10 to reflect SpaceX's one-day delay of the launch of the Falcon Heavy and X-37B.

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SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch of secretive X-37B space plane delayed to Dec. 11 - Space.com

SpaceX set to launch USSF-52 mission with space plane – News 13 Orlando

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SpaceX in partnership with Space Systems Command is set to send up the USSF-52 mission with a space plane on Monday night.

SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket is set to launch from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, with the 10-minute launch window opening at 8:14 p.m. ET, confirmed both SpaceX and Space Systems Command (SSC) in a press release.

The launch was set for Sunday night at the same time, but it was pushed back to the following day. On Saturday, SpaceX posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the weather conditions were only 40% favorable.

But on Sunday morning, SpaceX posted that the forecast condition improved to 70% while the 45th Weather Squadron gave a 75% of good liftoff conditions. The only main concern is liftoff winds, stated the squadron.

If the launch does not happen on Monday night, the next chance will be Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the same launch window, SpaceX stated.

The Falcon Heavy has three Falcon 9 boosters. After the stage separation, the two side boosters are expected to land SpaceXs landing zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as sonic booms are expected to be heard.

The Falcon Heavys core booster B1084 (the center booster) is going to be jettisoned into the Atlantic Ocean. This will be its first mission.

The two side boosters, B1064 and B1065, already have four successful missions on their resume:

The USSF-52 will send up the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, a seventh mission for the Boeing-made space plane.

Onboard the unmanned space plane, also known as OTV-7, will be a series of top secret experiments, with the U.S. Space Force only stating the craft will be doing such tests as operating in new orbital regimes, experimenting with space domain awareness technologies and investigating the radiation effects to NASA materials.

Were nearly complete with the pre-launch work for our next National Security Space launch, which is the third Falcon Heavy used to launch a national security payload, stated Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for Assured Access to Space and Commander, Space Launch Delta 45, in the press release.

Neither the SSC nor the U.S. Space Force stated how long the X-37B will be in orbit for the USSF-52 mission, but in November 2022 when it came in for its landing of its last mission, it spent 908 days in orbit.

When the X-37B does eventually return to Earth, people can expect to hear a sonic boom.

One-fourth the size of the space shuttle, this Boeing-made craft is designed to operate in low-earth orbit, which is about 150 to 500 miles above the round Earth, described Boeing.

While not stating exactly what the X-37B is made of, Boeing stated the space plane was built using a lighter-composite structure than aluminum.

USSF-52 is carrying the seventh mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which is an experimental test program that demonstrates technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Space Force, stated the SSC.

The space planes flight controls and brakes do not use hydraulics, but use electro-mechanical catalysts.

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SpaceX set to launch USSF-52 mission with space plane - News 13 Orlando

The Pentagon’s X-37B "spycraft" is shrouded in mystery and whispers – Earth.com

The Pentagons X-37B, an unmanned drone, is gearing up for a mission that is set to launch today at 8:14 pm Eastern time. This small spacecraft is less than 30 feet in length and under 10 feet in height. It has a pair of compact wings and a rounded, bulldog-like nose.

Often compared to a miniature space shuttle, the purpose and capabilities of X-37B remain shrouded in mystery. Is it a covert weapon, a stealth technology, or something else? These questions linger as the Pentagon maintains its silence.

For the first time, the X-37B will be launched on SpaceXs powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. This shift to a more potent launcher hints at a potential higher orbit speculation that is supported by recent documents.However, the exact nature and purpose of its higher orbit activities remain undisclosed. SpaceX secured the $130 million contract for this launch back in 2018.

The Pentagon remains tight-lipped about the specific activities of the X-37B in its higher orbit, stating only that the mission involves a wide range of test and experimentation objectives. These include operating in new orbital regimes and experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies.

The focus on space domain awareness hints at the X-37Bs potential role in monitoring satellites and guarding against threats in space a mission that closely aligns with the objectives of the U.S. Space Force.

General Chance Saltzman, the Space Forces chief of space operations, emphasized the increasing threats to U.S. space systems.

Our space systems are threatened by a variety of growing anti satellite capabilities, and the joint force is threatened by increasingly sophisticated adversary space-based systems intended to target the joint force, General Saltzman said in a statement to Congress earlier this year.

One thing that is known about X-37Bs mission is that the vehicle will expose plant seeds to the harsh radiation environment of long-duration spaceflight in an experiment for NASA.

The X-37B, built by Boeing, has previously been used to test cutting-edge technologies like a small solar panel for transforming solar energy into microwaves, a concept that could enable space-to-Earth energy transmission. The spacecraft has also deployed small satellites, but their purposes remain undisclosed.

The U.S. government is in this weird place where they brag publicly about how amazing it is and cutting edge, but will not provide any info about it, said Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation.

Weeden suggests that much of the speculation surrounding the vehicle is likely off-base, with its mystique being its most defining trait. Secure World downplays the likelihood of the X-37B being used as an orbital weapons system for attacking ground targets.

The X-37B is more likely employed for the purposes stated by the Pentagon: testing reusable space launch vehicle technologies and on-orbit testing of new sensor technologies and satellite hardware. This hasnt stopped nations like China from perceiving the X-37B as a symbol of U.S. space militarization.

Chinas own secretive reusable space plane, the Shenlong, has completed two missions, with its latest lasting 276 days in orbit. Like the X-37B, the Shenlong is shrouded in secrecy, with no publicly released photos. This apparent mimicry of the American model suggests Chinas interest in similar space capabilities.

The X-37Bs history spans over a decade in space, with each mission exceeding the duration of the last. Its last flight ended in November 2022 after 908 days in orbit. General David Thompson of the Space Force hinted at exciting plans for the X-37B. He acknowledges its role as a remarkable test bed and experimentation vehicle.

The upcoming Mission 7 of the X-37B, launching on the Falcon Heavy, will include a mixture of innocuous civilian NASA science and military experimentation with space domain awareness. This combination of civilian and military objectives underscores the dual nature of the mission.

The X-37Bs development history is intertwined with NASA, the Air Force, and Boeings Phantom Works. Initially envisioned as a lifeboat for the International Space Station, its design evolved to meet various military and experimental needs. The spacecrafts ability to deploy solar arrays in orbit allows for extended missions, a capability unmatched by the Space Shuttle.

The X-37Bs design suggests potential for covert operations, such as retrieving or inspecting foreign satellites without detection. The U.S. has expressed concerns about similar activities by nations like Russia and China, highlighting the strategic importance of space domain awareness.

In summary, the combination of the X-37B and Falcon Heavy opens up possibilities for high-energy orbits and advanced military capabilities in space. While the specifics of the X-37Bs upcoming mission remain classified, its launch signals the U.S.s intent to maintain dominance in space.

Image Credit: AP / U.S. Air Force

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SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch X-37B space plane Sunday night at KSC – Florida Today

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Three robotic missions target Moon landings over one week in January Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

Intuitive Machines engineers loading the IM-1 mission Nova-C lunar lander into its custom container in Houston, TX. Image: Intuitive Machines

In a blend of interesting circumstances and happenstance, two private companies and Japans space agency are all poised to land on the Moon in the back half of January 2024.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are all exercising distinct launch and landing options to reach the lunar surface. But all three have announced timelines that would see them land on the Moon within days of each other, if everything stays on track at this point.

While avoiding further timeline slipping is far from a certainty, Earths satellite could see its busiest month ever in terms of new spacecraft arriving.

As it happens, the last lander scheduled to launch could be the first to touch down on the Moon. Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander is targeting liftoff between Jan. 12-16 and is set to land at the Moons South Pole (80.297S, 1.2613E) on either Jan. 19 or 21.

A spokesperson for Intuitive Machines said the landing opportunity for both days is in the afternoon in EST.

Trent Martin, the Vice President of Lunar Access at Intuitive Machines, told Spaceflight Now in an Oct. 27 interview that they have instantaneous launch opportunities each day during their January window. He said because their lander needs to be fueled at the launch pad, crews will perform a wet dress rehearsal several days ahead of launch.

We will do a full fuel of our vehicle to ensure that we have the timeline down because we do a late fueling at the pad. We fuel with liquid oxygen and liquid methane, and we want to fuel as late as possible, Martin said. SpaceX has been very accommodating and theyre providing us a service that gives us liquid oxygen, liquid methane. Theyll fill up until the very last minute so that were as full as possible, so that we have the highest chance of success at landing on the Moon.

This mission along with the Peregrine lander will mark the first two fulfilled contracts under NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

Onboard the Nova-C lander for NASA are the following:

This mission also features a CubeSat payload called EagleCam from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which will be launched from the lander when its about 30 meters above the surface.

The camera itself is actually multiple cameras, four cameras. So as this 1U CubeSat tumbles, its taking video imagery as it falls to the surface. And so from that, within a day or two, well have video of us landing on the Moon, Martin said. So, Im super excited about that one because that will be the first time that anyones ever actually recorded themselves landing on another planetary body.

Intuitive Machines announced on Monday that its Nova-C lander for the IM-1 mission arrived at the Cape in Florida ahead of its launch next month.

Double landing possibility

JAXAs Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is spending the longest in space, having launched back on Sept. 7, but depending on the timing of the IM-1 landing, it could touch down on the same day from a Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) standpoint.

According to a statement from JAXA on Tuesday, SLIM is set to begin its descent to the lunar surface at 12:00 a.m. JST on Jan. 20 (1500 UTC on Jan. 19) and touchdown at 12:20 a.m. JST (1520 UTC).

The next big milestone in SLIMs journey is coming up on Dec. 25 when it enters into lunar orbit. JAXA stated that the 200kg dry mass (700kg wet mass) lander will achieve a full degree of success if it is able to land within a 100-square-meter target using its vision-based navigation system.

The target landing site for SLIM is the SHIOLI crater near the Sea of Nectar, located at 13.3S, 25.2E. The lander is designed to operate until lunar sunset occurs.

Its payloads include the Multi-Band Spectral Camera (MBC), which will examine the composition of surrounding rocks, and a small probe called the Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2), which separates from the main spacecraft just before landing and performs photo imaging.

To satisfy the limited size of the vehicle to be [mounted] on SLIM, we had to downsize LEV-2. However, downsizing causes a decrease in running performance, said Hirano Daichi, one of the researchers involved with LEV-2, in a statement. In order to deal with this problem, we designed the vehicle to be a spherical object with expandable wheels and a stabilizer using the transforming technologies for toys.

Moreover, we adopted the robust and safe design technology for childrens toys, which reduced the number of components used in the vehicle as much as possible and increased its reliability, he added.

Peregrine takes flight soon

The next lander to launch and the last one scheduled to land in January is Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket is set for 1:49 a.m. EST (0649 UTC) on Dec. 24. If needed, there are backup opportunities at 1:53 a.m. EST (0653 UTC) on Dec. 25 and 2:08 a.m. EST (0708 UTC) on Dec. 26.

The mission will launch the lander on a translunar injection.

We will be close to Earth, but on a trajectory that will more or less intersect with the Moons orbit. Its at that point, and this is within about an hour or so of launch, were going to separate from the launch vehicle and our lander and Astrobotics mission begins, said John Thornton, Astrobotic CEO, during a media teleconference on Nov. 29.

According to a Nov. 14 presentation by Dr. Joel Kearns, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration, the landing window for the Peregrine Mission-1 landing is at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 am UTC) on Jan. 25.

Once they land, Thornton said Peregrine will operate for about 10 days at which point the Sun will set on that part of the Moon, after which he said it will likely become to cold to operate.

In time, we are developing capability to survive that night, but on these first missions, were really focused on the hard enough problem, which is landing on the Moon in the first place, he said.

As with the IM-1 mission, PM-1 will also host a slate of NASA payloads as a participant in the CLPS program. During the teleconference, Thornton said he mostly only thinks about the other companies trying to land on the Moon when asked about it by press, adding that many players are needed for the lunar economy to be a successful venture.

We need this industry to succeed. We need the CLPS program to succeed. That is the number one priority for us, Thornton said. Of course, there is some level of competition with our competitors, but at the end of the day, its really secondary. The most important is the industry and most important is landing success.

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Three robotic missions target Moon landings over one week in January Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

SpaceX sends 23 Starlink satellites to orbit on 90th Falcon launch of 2023 Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket stands at the pad at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket is supporting the Starlink 6-33 mission for SpaceX. Image: Adam Bernstein

Update 12:20 a.m. EST: SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket and landed the booster on the droneship.

SpaceX hit another milestone with its overnight Starlink mission launch. The flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station marks the companys 90th orbital launch in 2023 and its 280th Falcon 9 launch to date. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-33 mission took place at 12:07 p.m. EST (0507 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40.

Weather for the mission was ideal at liftoff, but meteorologists kept their eye on the picture downrange as well. Liftoff winds were the only watch item in a forecast that predicts 95 percent favorable weather.

A secondary push of cold air will filter into the area [on Wednesday], bringing clear skies and a stronger pressure gradient over the Space Coast, the launch forecast stated. This will result in gusty surface winds through tomorrow evening which will slowly diminish through the launch window, so liftoff winds remain the only concern.

The forecast also noted that upper-level wind shear is considered low to moderate and was highlighted under the Additional Risk Criteria section.

The Starlink 6-33 mission marks the fourth fastest turnaround for SpaceXs workhorse launchpad, SLC-40, at four days, one hour, six minutes and 40 seconds since the last launch from here. This mission will be the 159th SpaceX orbital launch from this pad.

The first stage booster used for the launch was tail number 1077, which launched on its ninth flight with this mission. Notable previous launches include Crew-5 and GPS 3 Space Vehicle 06.

It landed on the drone ship, Just Read the Instructions, about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The 23 satellites on board bring the total launched in 2023 up to 1,871.

Reposting an infographic from analytics firm BryceTech, SpaceX founder Elon Musk stated that the company is tracking to launch over 80 percent of all Earth payload to orbit this year. Its Q3 report states that out of the 63 orbital launches around the world, SpaceX accounted for 26 of them.

Broken down further, SpaceX launched significantly more to space than the rest of the world combined. It launched 519 spacecraft during Q3 compared to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the next closest, which launched 24 spacecraft.

The stat that Musk quoted from BryceTech was one that he often likes to hold up, which is spacecraft upmass to orbit. That chart shows in Q3, SpaceX launched 381,278 kg to orbit, followed by CASC at 24,560 kg and Roscosmos with 17,475 kg.

Meanwhile, over at Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center, teams continue to work towards what likely will end up being the final launch from that pad in 2023. The Falcon Heavy supporting the USSF-52 mission rolled back into the adjacent hanger Tuesday evening in anticipation of integrating the X-37B spaceplane onto the rocket.

Launch of the ninth Falcon Heavy to date continues to target Dec. 10.

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SpaceX sends 23 Starlink satellites to orbit on 90th Falcon launch of 2023 Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

SpaceX, Space Force set to launch secretive X-37B space plane on Dec. 10 – Space.com

The U.S. Space Force's mysterious X-37B space plane is just about ready to take flight for the seventh time.

The Space Force and SpaceX "are making final preparations" for the planned Sunday evening (Dec. 10) launch of the robotic X-37B, Space Force officials said in an emailed update today (Dec. 7).

The space plane is scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 GMT on Dec. 11). If SpaceX webcasts the launch as expected, you'll be able to watch the action live here at Space.com.

Related: SpaceX will launch the Space Force's mysterious X-37B space plane on a Falcon Heavy rocket

The Space Force is believed to possess two X-37B vehicles, both of which were built by Boeing. The space planes look a lot like NASA's old space shuttle orbiters, but they're much smaller; both X-37Bs could fit inside the payload bay of a single space shuttle.

The two X-37Bs have flown a total of six missions to date, each one longer and more ambitious than the last. The most recent one, known as OTV-6 (Orbital Test Vehicle-6), touched down in November 2022 after circling Earth for 908 days.

It's unclear how long the coming flight, OTV-7, will last; the Space Force releases few details about X-37B missions, as most of their payloads are classified. Some of this gear is likely to be novel reconnaissance instruments; military officials have long said that the X-37B is used primarily as a testbed for new technologies.

But the X-37B carries up some civilian research cargo as well. For example, one of the unclassified experiments going up on OTV-7 is Seeds-2, a NASA project that will test how seeds are affected by long-term exposure to space radiation.

The first five X-37B missions launched atop United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, and the most recent one flew aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. OTV-7 will be the first to use the powerful Falcon Heavy.

The Heavy has eight missions under its belt to date. It last launched in October, sending NASA's Psyche spacecraft toward the bizarre metal asteroid of the same name.

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SpaceX, Space Force set to launch secretive X-37B space plane on Dec. 10 - Space.com

NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program: Where Future Tech is Developed – Popular Mechanics

What will the future of

The NIAC program has a relatively tiny budget, just a few million dollars per year. Its a drop in the bucket compared to NASAs entire expenditure (which is itself just a fraction of a percent of the entire federal budget). But the purpose of NIAC isnt to build the next rocket or design the next mission. Its here to look 20, 30, 40 years into the future, and provide seed funding to anyone with a crazy, but still plausible, idea that can radically change spaceflight as we know it.

If you want a peek into the future of humanity in space, then NIAC is your window. (Full disclosure: I have served in NIAC review committees for several years, and recently joined the external advisory council. So if this reads like Im a big fan of the program, its because I am.)

As an example of the game-changing possibilities NIAC investigates, take FLUTE, the fluidic telescope. The largest telescope flown into space is the James Webb, a massive array with a width of 6.6 meters (21.7 feet). That sounds impressive (and it is), but ground-based telescopes dwarf itthe largest one stretches more than 30 meters (98.4 feet) across. And with telescopes, you care more about the total surface area than the diameter. Placed on Earth, the James Webb would be a decent, but not groundbreaking or world-class, telescope.

But space offers so many advantages for astronomers. It gets you away from light pollution, and, more importantly, from the distorting effects of Earths atmosphere. Thats why the James Webb is able to deliver such spectacular results. However, the telescope was also the most expensive scientific mission ever flown into space, because that large of a mirror couldnt fit within existing rockets. The engineers behind the James Webb devised a clever origami-like folding mechanism, something that had never been tried before with a telescope.

The FLUTE telescope would have a 50-meter (164-foot), unsegmented primary mirror based on fluid shaping in microgravity.

In astronomy, bigger is always better. Larger mirrors allow us to see further into the reaches of the distant universe, and they give better resolution of closer objects. If we want to go bigger, we dont have a lot of options unless we get clever. The FLUTE design envisions a radical new kind of telescope mirror, one made from liquid. The idea is to launch the observatory with tanks of some highly reflective compound. Once in space, the telescope would unfurl its support beams and begin rotating, allowing its own spin to stabilize the liquid in the shape of a mirror. The best part is that the only design limit is how much liquid you can pack on board. The reference design is for a jaw-dropping, 50-meter (164-foot) telescope, which would make the James Webb look like a hobbyists toy in comparison.

If astronomy isnt your main focus, the creative people NIAC funds have some other ideas for you, like utilizing fungi to build habitats on Mars. Thats right: fungi. Known as mycotecture, the projects aim is to solve one of the most basic problems facing any future Martian mission: building structures.

We take our building materials for granted. Cement, bricks, wood, plaster, drywall, all of it is readily accessible and relatively cheap. When you want to build something on Earth, you just grab your tools, load up your materials, and go for it. But on Mars there is no wood, no drywall, no plaster, no bricks. Just a lot of red dust and pavement-like desert floor, all at temperatures usually well below freezing. For the near term, NASA and other space agencies envision bringing all our building materials along with us for the ride, which increases the cost and complexity of any crewed mission to the Red Planet.

Building material wouldnt be made of mushrooms, but from specialized strains of fungi that grow tight, interwoven webs of material. This would yield cheap and effective Martian habitats.

But what if we could build our habitats directly on Mars? Unfortunately, the Martian soil isnt a great building material on its own, and its not like well have easy access to quarries. Enter the radical NIAC idea to use fungi instead. In this project, the researchers are developing specialized strains of fungi that grow tight, interwoven webs of material. The hope is that we just need to bring along the basic foodstuffs; we can grow the walls, ceilings, and even plumbing pipes that will enable the rapid infrastructure expansion needed to maintain a long-term presence on Mars.

Even if you just want to stay warm and cozy on planet Earth, NIAC is funding a project to help youliterally to save your life from a catastrophic asteroid impact. Simply called PI, the plan is to avert disaster by blowing up an asteroid before it ever reaches our planet.

Earth is constantly under cosmic bombardment. Thankfully, most of the material crossing our orbit is small, making no more than a delightful meteor shower. About every year or so, however, a large enough rock impacts our atmosphere with a velocity of 5070,000 mph. That releases enough pure kinetic energy to be the equivalent of a nuclear weapon, but usually these detonate safely in the atmosphere over some random patch of ocean. And then there are the big ones, like the asteroids that ended the reign of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. Those come every few million years, and its been a while since the last one.

The PI approach would use energy transfer to pulverize very large asteroids so that their pieces burn up in Earths atmosphere.

If we are to last as a species into the long term, then we need to protect ourselves. One way will be to settle on other worlds, giving us backup options. But even if we leave Earth, were still going to be nostalgic for it, and well probably want to prevent large space rocks from messing up the place.

Recently, NASA demonstrated the DART mission, which nudged the orbit of an asteroid. This can work for planetary defense, but only if we see the asteroid from far enough away that we can effectively deflect it. With PI, however, the game plan is different. The idea is to send a swarm of small, hypervelocity impactors straight for an incoming asteroid. Instead of trying to nudge it off course, the colliding objects would burrow themselves into the body of the asteroid, tearing it to shreds.

The resulting fragments would still be headed toward Earth, but our atmosphere is great at taking a punch. If we get the pieces small enough, we can all celebrate as we enjoy the fireworks in the sky.

All of these ideas, along with the dozens of other projects NIAC funds, are only in their initial stages of development, and have no guarantee of success. In fact, most of these projects will not pan out. But, if we want to take big swings, were going to have to accept some misses, because when we hit, we really hit! Take the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, which is currently setting records and laying the groundwork for an entirely new class of planetary exploration; NIAC inspired that project.

The best part: anyone can apply, from an established player in the space industry to a garage tinkerer. If you have an idea for the future, and you have a plausible path to getting there, then NIAC wants to hear from you. Its the only way we can make the science fiction dreams of the future become reality.

Paul M. Sutter is a science educator and a theoretical cosmologist at the Institute for Advanced Computational Science at Stony Brook University and the author of How to Die in Space: A Journey Through Dangerous Astrophysical Phenomena and Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence. Sutter is also the host of various science programs, and hes on social media. Check out his Ask a Spaceman podcast and his YouTube page.

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NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program: Where Future Tech is Developed - Popular Mechanics

SpaceX launches its 90th orbital mission of the year (video) – Space.com

SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit early Thursday morning (Dec. 7).

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 23 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:07 a.m. EST (0507 GMT), on SpaceX's 90th orbital mission of 2023.

Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky

As to plan, the rocket's first stage came back to Earth for a vertical landing about 8.5 minutes after launch. It touched down on the SpaceX droneship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

It was the ninth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to the mission description.

The 23 Starlink satellites, meanwhile, were set to deploy from the Falcon 9's upper stage into low Earth orbit about 65 minutes after liftoff.

Starlink is SpaceX's huge and ever-growing broadband megaconstellation, which beams internet service down to people around the world. The network currently consists of more than 5,100 active satellites, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

SpaceX extends its flight-cadence record with every liftoff these days. The company's previous annual mark, 61 launches, was set last year. But we should expect even more spaceflight action next year: SpaceX representatives have said they're shooting for 144 launches in 2024.

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2023 saw thrilling space missions and new cosmic mysteries – New Scientist

SpaceXs Starship rocket made its first launch attempt in April 2023, but blew up

SpaceX

The following is an extract from our monthly Launchpad newsletter, in which resident space expert Leah Crane journeys through the solar system and beyond. You can sign up for Launchpad for freehere.

As the end of the year looms, I wanted to take a look back at the most important, fun and fascinating space stories from 2023. There were amazing images that blew me away, audacious space missions and even a few new mysteries about

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2023 saw thrilling space missions and new cosmic mysteries - New Scientist

Discovery of Space Tomato Relieves Record-Breaking Astronaut From Fracas Explorersweb – ExplorersWeb

The discovery of an extraterrestrially harvested tomato has finally exonerated the famous astronaut accused of losing it, multiple outlets report.

Yet details are glaringly sparse.

Astronaut Frank Rubio set a United States record when he accomplished a 371-day space flight this September (beating the old record by 16 days). Along the way, he found the time to cultivate a bright red tomato and lose it, somewhere on board the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA designated Rubios earthy mission the Veg-05 Experiment. Pick-and-Eat Salad-Crop Productivity in outer space was a focus. As part of it, the astronaut would grow a crop of tomatoes aboard the space station.

He succeeded, in the form of at least one Red Robin dwarf tomato that he proudly harvested in 2022.

To his dismay, he put it in a plastic baggie and promptly lost track of it.

I put it in a little bag, and one of my crewmates was doing a (public) event with some schoolkids, and I thought itd be kind of cool to show the kids Hey guys this is the first tomato harvested in space, Rubio said during an October media event. I was pretty confident that I Velcroed it where I was supposed to Velcro itand then I came back and it was gone.

Fresh food in space is not a light-duty topic among astronauts, who eat freeze-dried food out of technical necessity for their entire stay. As the mystery of the tomato lingered, popular opinion turned against Rubio.

Unfortunately because thats just human nature a lot of people are like, He probably ate the tomato, Rubio told CNN. And I wanted to find it mostly so I could prove I did not eat the tomato.

Rubio finally disembarked from his mission in late September, bound to reunite with his young family and happy in all appearances except for the tomato crisis.

Then finally, a Dec. 6 news conference commemorating the ISSs 25th anniversary depressurized the situation. Several members of the ships remaining seven-person crew told international audiences that they had finally located the tomato.

Rubio had been blamed for quite a while for eating the tomato, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli said. But we can exonerate him.

But the crew offered no further information on the tomatos whereabouts, condition, or other details.

Rubio had previously offered the opinion that the tomato had shriveled and desiccated into an unrecognizable object.

For his part, hes just happy to be home. His record space flight was an accident to begin with a forced delay due to a malfunctioning Russian shuttle craft. As of this writing, Rubio has not publicly commented on the discovery of the controversial tomato.

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Discovery of Space Tomato Relieves Record-Breaking Astronaut From Fracas Explorersweb - ExplorersWeb

Astronaut Mary Cleave, the first woman to fly on NASA’s space shuttle after Challenger disaster, dies at 76 – Orlando Sentinel

Mary Cleave, the NASA astronaut who in 1989 became the first woman to fly on a space shuttle mission after the Challenger disaster, has died at the age of 76.

NASA did not give a cause of death, the space agency announced last week.

Im sad weve lost trail blazer Dr. Mary Cleave, shuttle astronaut, veteran of two spaceflights, and first woman to lead the Science Mission Directorate as associate administrator, said NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana in astatement. Mary was a force of nature with a passion for science, exploration, and caring for our home planet. She will be missed.

Cleave who died Nov. 27 in Annapolis, Maryland, according to the statement was a native of Great Neck, New York, but had lived in Annapolis since 1991. She studied biological sciences at Colorado State University before going on to earn her masters in microbial ecology and a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from Utah State University.

Cleave had been inducted into the Maryland Womens Hall of Fame in 2022.

In addition to being one of the first American women in space, Cleave helped develop and lead projects to gather critical information about the effects of climate change.

Always fascinated by airplanes, Cleave said in a March interview with The Capital that she started flying lessons as a 14-year-old, which she funded with her babysitting money.

Although Cleave had a strong interest in aviation, she was too short to be a flight attendant at 5-foot-2 at the time. Instead, she applied to veterinarian school at Cornell University but was not accepted.

They used to discriminate based on gender at all the professional schools vet school, law school, medical school. When Title IX went through, they had to stop that, Cleave said in March. It made a huge difference.

She was accepted to Colorado State Universitys pre-vet program, but when it came time to apply for vet school, she ran into the same roadblock; the programs didnt accept women. She switched her focus to botany.

After Cleave obtained her bachelors degree in biological sciences at Colorado State and her masters degree from Utah State University, the schools dean of the College of Engineering asked her to consider a doctorate in engineering. With Title IX law, there was a new world of options for Cleave to explore.

Partway through her doctorate, a colleague told her about an advertisement at the local post office. For the first time, NASA was recruiting women, people of color and nonmilitary personnel for the astronaut class of 1978. It was a dream job for Cleave flying and science together.

NASA representatives told Cleave they wanted her to complete her doctorate first, which she did before joining the next astronaut class in 1980. The decision meant she missed out on joining the countrys first co-ed astronaut class and the chance to become the first American woman in space, a title held by Sally Ride, but she was glad she finished her degree.

On her first mission, flying on NASAs Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1985, Cleave became the 10th woman to travel into space. On the mission, she served as a flight engineer and helped operate the shuttles robotic arm.

Between her two flights, the Challenger disaster in 1986 had occurred, and Cleave went to work on crew equipment issues following the mission. On the second shuttle flight, as she looked down on the Amazon rainforest, she had a realization that she wanted to return to environmental research.

Cleaves second flight in 1989, STS-30, also on Atlantis, came after NASA had reverted to flying all-male crews for three missions in the wake of the Challenger explosion.

Looking at the Earth, particularly the Amazon rainforest, the amount of deforestation I could see, just in the five years between my two space flights down there, scared the hell out of me, Cleave said in March.

Jeffrey F. Bill/Capital Gazette

In 1991, Cleave moved to Annapolis to be closer to her aging parents, which led her to NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, home of the agencys environmental spacecraft programs.

At Goddard, Cleave managed a project to measure all the phytoplankton in the ocean via spacecraft, developing models to understand carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere.

Cleave went on to do other work gathering data from space to help scientists better understand climate change. She also briefly worked on redesigning the proposal for the International Space Station, after which she was asked to work at NASA headquarters in Washington.

She retired from NASA in 2007. She was a member of the Annapolis Rowing Club and Anne Arundel County Bird Club, and volunteered with the Anne Arundel County League of Women Voters. She also mentored students through the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

Baltimore Sun Media journalists Dana Munro and Jay Judge, and CNN Wires Service contributed to this article.

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Astronaut Mary Cleave, the first woman to fly on NASA's space shuttle after Challenger disaster, dies at 76 - Orlando Sentinel

Stratolaunch’s huge Roc plane flies with fueled-up hypersonic vehicle for 1st time (photos) – Space.com

The world's biggest airplane took to the skies over the weekend with a new type of payload under its expansive wings.

Stratolaunch's Roc carrier plane conducted its first-ever captive-carry flight with a powered and fueled-up hypersonic test vehicle on Sunday (Dec. 3).

The main goal was to evaluate the propulsion system of that vehicle the first of Stratolaunch's robotic Talon-A craft, known as TA-1 and to see more generally how it behaves while being carried in flight, company representatives said.

"Talon-A's propulsion system supports a liquid-propellant rocket engine that provides the thrust needed for Talon-A to reach hypersonic speeds," Stratolaunch CEO Zachary Krevor said in a statement on Sunday.

"While we have conducted several successful ground tests fueling and igniting the system, we needed to evaluate how the system performs in the flight environment prior to release," he added. "Initial results from today's flight show that the system has performed as predicted, and we will determine our next steps pending the full data review of the test."

Related: Stratolaunch test photos: The world's largest plane in action

Sunday's flight was the 12th overall for Roc, which has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). The huge, twin-fuselage plane had last flown in May of this year, when it performed its first-ever drop test with a Talon prototype.

Roc stayed aloft for three hours and 22 minutes on Sunday's sortie, which originated from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Southern California. TA-1 stayed attached to its carrier plane from liftoff to landing.

The flight "represented a significant step forward in the company's near-term goal of completing a powered flight with the Talon-A vehicle," company representatives said in the same statement.

Stratolaunch was founded by Microsoft's Paul Allen in 2011. The initial aim was to air-launch rockets from high in Earth's atmosphere, much as Virgin Galactic sends tourists aloft using its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane and VSS Unity spaceliner.

But in 2019, a year after Allen's death, the company's focus shifted: It now intends to use Roc as a platform for hypersonic research and development. (Hypersonic vehicles are highly maneuverable craft capable of flying at least five times faster than the speed of sound.)

The reusable Talon-A craft will be Stratolaunch's first line of hypersonic vehicles, though others are in the offing; the company's website also teases a Talon+ vehicle, as well as a space plane.

Stratolaunch has already inked some customers for its hypersonic services. Last week, for example, the company announced that it had signed a contract with Leidos, the prime contractor for the U.S. Navy's Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB). The deal funds five hypersonic flights with Talon-A vehicles.

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Stratolaunch's huge Roc plane flies with fueled-up hypersonic vehicle for 1st time (photos) - Space.com

The GAO Calls on the FAA to Improve its Mishap Investigation Process – Payload

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the FAA should improve its procedures when things go awry in spaceflight. The federal agency watchdog published a report yesterday that called on the FAA to develop tools to 1) define criteria for when a mishap report is operator-led, and 2) better evaluate the effectiveness of the process as a whole.

Without a comprehensive evaluation of its mishap investigation process, FAA cannot be assured its process is effective, especially given the expansion of commercial space operations in recent years, the GAO report said.

The FAAs Office of Commercial Space Transportation is responsible for issuing launch licenses and investigating flight mishaps.

12% mishap rate: Mishap investigations kick in when a flight is not completed as planned, like in the case of Starships two big kabooms this year. Out of 433 launches between 2000 and mid-January 2023, 50 were mishaps, according to the report.

In-house? Since all launch vehicles are specializedand literally rocket sciencethe FAA believes operators are best suited to sniff out root causes and identify corrective actions. The agency estimates that in-house investigations could take the agency 10-20 times longer.

After a September anomaly with Rocket Labs Electron, it took the FAA just 36 days to approve a Rocket Lab-led mishap investigation and Electron was cleared to fly again. According to the agencys estimates mentioned above, an FAA-led investigation could have taken north of a year.

GAO does not necessarily disagree with that logic; instead, they are requesting that the FAA better track effectiveness, share data, and develop a defined criteria for when the investigations should be operator-led.

The FAA concurs with the GAOs recommendations to evaluate and further improve the FAA commercial space mishap program, the FAA said in an email to Payload. Protecting public health and safety are at the core of the program.

Learning period: As for human spaceflight/tourism, the industry has been operating under an eight-year learning period, where the FAA is restricted from enacting regulations. The learning period is set to expire on Jan. 1.

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The GAO Calls on the FAA to Improve its Mishap Investigation Process - Payload

Watch live as astronauts on the ISS celebrate the station’s 25th anniversary today (video) – Space.com

Astronauts on the International Space Station will celebrate 25 years of their vehicle in orbit on Wednesday (Dec. 6), and you can watch the event live.

The six astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 70 crew will mark the 25th anniversary of the Russian Zarya and U.S. Unity modules meeting up Dec. 6, 1998. You can watch the event live here at Space.com, via NASA Television, at 12:25 p.m. EST (1725 GMT).

The Expedition 70 astronauts include commander Andreas Mogensen (European Space Agency), Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Satoshi Furukawa (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Loral O'Hara (NASA) and Russian cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. The crew, by coincidence, represents all the largest ISS partners on the orbiting complex.

The Zarya module blasted to space on its own on Nov. 20 1998, using a Russian Proton rocket launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Unity came to space on board the STS-88 space shuttle Endeavour mission that launched on Dec. 4, 1998.

The commander of STS-88, Bob Cabana, will also join the event in his current role as NASA's associate administrator alongside Joel Montalbano, ISS program manager. Cabana was also the first American to enter the ISS, NASA officials said in a release about the anniversary event.

Related: Track the ISS: How and where to see it

The ISS has greatly expanded from its two-room origins into a six-bedroom complex that has hosted 273 individuals from 21 countries, according to NASA statistics. The complex has had nearly 270 spacewalks servicing or assembling the space station, including 198 on the U.S. side and 71 on the Russian side. Crews typically complete hundreds of experiments during missions that can last between six months and 12 months at a time.

In addition to the station itself, the vehicles serving the ISS have changed a lot in the last quarter-century. The early days used the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz for crews, alongside government cargo vehicles from Russia, Japan and Europe. The space shuttle retired in 2011, and for nearly a decade, Soyuz was the exclusive ride to the space station. Soyuz continues to launch all Russian crews today, alongside some U.S. astronauts under an agreement with NASA.

Today, private SpaceX Dragon and Northrop Grumman cargo ships resupply the space station. U.S. companies also have two vehicles on offer for astronauts: SpaceX's Crew Dragon (in service since 2020) and Boeing's Starliner (expected to run its first mission with astronauts in 2024.) Meanwhile, Axiom Space is running independent private missions to the space station for commercial purposes, using paying customers to pay for seats.

Related: Private space station: How Axiom Space plans to build its orbital outpost

The ISS also aims to fly a diverse set of individuals in space, and has celebrated numerous societal milestones in the last five years. A few include the first all-woman spacewalk in 2019, the first long-duration missions by a Black man (NASA astronaut Victor Glover) and Black woman (NASA's Jessica Watkins) and the first long-duration mission by a Native American woman (NASA's Nicole Mann).

Also, this year Hispanic-American Frank Rubio accidentally set the record for longest NASA mission in space, 371 days, following an issue with his Soyuz spacecraft that doubled his stay in orbit. Astronauts from several countries outside the U.S. have set their own records for spacewalking, space station commands, long-duration missions and similar milestones, too.

Most partners of the ISS have committed to extending the partnership until at least 2030, and NASA has committed to funding several private space stations to keep a presence in low Earth orbit in the next decade. Russia will remain with the ISS until at least 2028, although it may be longer. (The ISS is one of Russia's few remaining space partnerships internationally after its unsanctioned invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which is ongoing.)

The moon is the new focus of the ISS partners. NASA has formed the Artemis Accords, a coalition of more than 30 countries that are aiming for peaceful space exploration together; a few of those partners are also working on moon missions with the NASA-led Artemis program. Russia has allied with China, and a few other countries, on its own moon-facing alliance in the coming years.

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Watch live as astronauts on the ISS celebrate the station's 25th anniversary today (video) - Space.com