Jared Isaacman, a wealthy businessman and pilot, is chartering a four-seat SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for what will be the first fully commercial, non-government piloted flight to orbit, SpaceX and the entrepreneur announced Monday. The mission will benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The flight, named Inspiration4, will be commanded by Isaacman, 37, who is reserving two seats for St. Jude and one for an entrepreneur who will be selected in an independently judged competition.

One of the St. Jude seats will be awarded to a frontline health care worker and the other to the winner of a national fundraising campaign that will attempt to raise $200 million for the famed research center. Isaacman promised diversity, indicating a female health care worker has already been selected.

"St. Jude's mission is not about rockets or space exploration, it's about treating some of the most heart wrenching conditions that any parent could imagine," Isaacman said during a teleconference with SpaceX founder Elon Musk. "And if we're going to continue making advances up there in space, then we have an obligation to do the same down here on Earth.

"So one seat will go to a frontline health care worker and the other will be awarded through a national fundraising campaign that begins today and runs through the month of February. Our goal is to raise over $200 million, and I'm contributing the first $100 million to this great effort."

He also said he will cover applicable tax obligations for the selected health care worker.

Said Musk: "This is a stepping stone on the way towards providing access to space for all."

"Things necessarily start off real expensive, because it's new technology at low volume, low production rates," he said. "And so we actually need people who are willing and able to pay the high prices initially, in order to make it affordable, long term, for everyone."

Asked if he ever intends to fly in space aboard a Crew Dragon himself at some point, he said "I will be on a flight one day, but not this one."

The Inspiration4 mission will be unveiled to the public during the SuperBowl with a first quarter television commercial calling attention to St. Jude and the fund-raising initiative.

Unlike a mission announced last week in which Houston-based Axiom Space plans to send four private citizens to the International Space Station during an eight-day mission, Isaacman's flight has no destination other than low-Earth orbit.

After circling the globe for several days, the capsule is expected to plunge back to Earth and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral. All four crew members will undergo medical screening and receive extensive training in spacecraft procedures and emergency operations.

"SpaceX is targeting no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year for Falcon 9's launch of Inspiration4, the world's first all-commercial astronaut mission to orbit from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center," SpaceX said on its website.

"Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, is donating the three seats alongside him aboard Dragon to individuals from the general public who will be announced in the weeks ahead."

Isaacman said the three seats he is donating will be given to crew members selected to represent the "mission pillars" of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity.

"The big focus is what we aim to raise for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, but look at every one of the crew members and what they represent in terms of the mission pillars," Isaacman said.

The front-line health care worker will represent hope while someone making a significant donation to St. June will be showing generosity. An entrepreneur selected in a national competition will represent prosperity.

"The three crew members we're selecting come from everyday walks of life, including a front-line health care worker who's committed to helping kids fight cancer," Isaacman said. "Someone who visits our mission website and makes a donation, and an aspiring entrepreneur building a business. And what they don't know is that 30 days from now they're going to get fitted for a spacesuit."

SpaceX's ability to launch private space missions is rooted in NASA's drive to encourage development of commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, ending the agency's sole reliance on Russia for post-shuttle space transportation.

In 2014, after a series of competitions, NASA announced that Boeing and SpaceX would share $6.8 billion to develop independent space taxis, the first new U.S. crewed spacecraft since the 1970s.

Under a $2.6 billion contract, SpaceX built a crewed version of its Dragon cargo ship that rides into orbit atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket. Boeing's Starliner was developed under a $4.2 billion contract and relies on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets.

SpaceX launched a piloted test flight to the space station last May and the first operational flight last October. Boeing's first piloted mission is expected later this year.

Unlike past piloted spacecraft that were built to NASA specifications and were owned and operated by the government, Boeing and SpaceX retained ownership of the new "commercial crew" ships and both companies are free to launch non-government missions.

The cost of a non-NASA seat aboard the Crew Dragon has not been revealed, but it is reportedly in the neighborhood of $55 million per "ticket."

The Axiom flight to the space station will be commanded by former astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria, now an Axiom vice president. His crewmates are American entrepreneur Larry Connor, Canadian businessman Mark Pathy and Israeli entrepreneur Eytan Stibbe.

Actor Tom Cruise is also rumored to be considering a space flight as part of a movie venture, but no details have emerged.

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SpaceX announces plans for first all-civilian space flight to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - CBS News

A Falcon 9 rocket rolls out to pad 39A Thursday for the next launch of SpaceX Starlink satellites. Credit: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX plans to deploy the next group of Starlink internet relay spacecraft Sunday with a liftoff on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from NASAs Kennedy Space Center, the companys fourth satellite launch of the month.

The two-stage Falcon 9 launcher emerged from its hangar at the Florida spaceport Thursday and rolled up the ramp to pad 39A, where SpaceX will raise the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket vertical for a test-firing as soon as Friday.

The hold-down firing of the rockets nine Merlin 1D main engines will last several seconds.

The test, which SpaceX calls a static fire, was part of every Falcon 9 launch campaign for nearly a decade. But SpaceX did not perform a static fire before its last four missions as teams try to cut the time required between Falcon 9 flights from SpaceXs two launch pads on Floridas Space Coast.

Assuming a good test-firing Friday, SpaceX is expected to press ahead with launch of the Falcon 9 rocket Sunday. There is an instantaneous launch opportunity at 7:02 a.m. EST (1202 GMT), about 10 minutes before sunrise Sunday.

The Falcon 9 will launch with the next batch of approximately 60 Starlink satellites, adding more capacity and coverage to SpaceXs burgeoning broadband network.

Warning notices to pilots and mariners previously indicated the launch was scheduled Saturday morning, but sources said Thursday the flight was delayed to Sunday.

Forecasters from the U.S. Space Forces 45th Weather Squadron predict an 80% chance of good weather Sunday. The primary weather concern Sunday will be with the possibility of violating the cumulus cloud rule.

A high pressure ridge is forecast to begin moving away from Central Florida this weekend, allowing a low pressure system and a cold front to move into the Mid-Atlantic states north of Florida.

The spaceport will be within the warm, prefrontal regime during the launch window, the weather team wrote Thursday. Clouds will be thicker and more abundant than Saturday, but the vast majority will be too low-topped to create lightning launch commit criteria concerns. Southwesterly winds will increase to 15-20 miles per hour (up to 200 feet) in response to the tightening pressure gradient. The primary concern during the backup window will be the cumulus cloud rule.

If the Starlink mission takes off Sunday, SpaceX will close out January with four Falcon 9 launches, keeping pace with the companys goal of launching more than 40 Falcon flights in 2021.

A Falcon 9 rocket took off Jan. 7 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the Turkish-owned Turksat 5A communications satellite. SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites Jan. 20 from pad 39A, then launched a rideshare mission Sunday on a Falcon 9 with a record-setting payload of 143 small satellites from U.S. and international customers.

SpaceX, founded and led by billionaire Elon Musk, will have more than 1,000 Starlink nodes in orbit with the roughly 60 more Starlink spacecraft set to launch Sunday. The company has launched 1,025 Starlink satellites to date, but some of the spacecraft were either prototypes or failed after launch, and are no longer in orbit, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomerat theHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks global satellite and launch activity.

SpaceX says the Starlink network is providing preliminary low-latency internet service to users in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom through a beta testing program. Commercial service will begin after SpaceX has its initial network of around 1,584 satellites in orbit, including spares.

The quarter-ton Starlink satellites are built by SpaceX technicians and engineers in Redmond, Washington.

The initial block of Starlink satellites, including the 60 launching this weekend, fly in mid-inclination orbits tilted 53 degrees to the equator. They fly at an altitude of 341 miles, or 550 kilometers, to provide broadband coverage over nearly all of the populated world.

SpaceX plans to launch more Starlink satellites into polar orbit to enable global coverage for maritime and aviation customers, including the U.S. military. The company has regulatory approval to launch around 12,000 Starlink satellites.

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Falcon 9 rocket arrives on pad 39A for sunrise Starlink launch this weekend Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

You can blame Microsoft Flight Simulator for the flight stick shortage were experiencing. Logitech, Thrustmaster, and many of the big name manufacturers are out of stock everywhere you look. What little product is actually available even used equipment is going for wildly inflated prices. Still other manufacturers are taking pre-orders, and then banging out new units as quickly as they can. So whats a budding flight or space sim enthusiast to do?

My advice, of course, is to give the scalpers a wide berth. If youre stuck on Microsoft Flight Simulator especially the big commercial airliners give Honeycomb Aeronautical a try. If youre playing a more hardcore flight simulator, like something from the DCS World portfolio, you probably already know about VKB. Its high-end equipment is currently in stock. But, if youre looking to spend a relatively modest amount of money on a more general purpose device something that might work with terrestrial and space flight I recommend you take a look at Virpil Controls, a small European company that is doing some really remarkable work.

And, just like everyone else, Virpils stuff is on backorder as well. Nevertheless, late last year Virpil sent along a selection of its most popular flight gear. Ive been taking it for a test drive on my custom-built flight rig. So far Im extremely impressed.

My favorite set of kit is called the Virpil Constellation Alpha, which, when coupled with a throttle, does an admirable job of controlling commercial aircraft. It has plenty of hat switches, plus an assortment of triggers that are perfect for games in the IL-2 Sturmovik family or other high-end simulations. Its also mostly plastic, but in a good way. It feels more robust than the Logitech X-52 and X-56, but lighter than the all-metal Thrustmaster Warthog.

The Virpil Constellation Alpha also comes in a left-handed variant. That means you can easily arrange for a much more complex dual-stick set-up. Also known as a hand-on-stick-and-stick (HOSAS) setup, I found that it completely changed the flight experience in both Star Citizens Persistent Universe and Elite Dangerous.

Explaining the difference is difficult to do with words. Previously I had played spaceflight simulation games with a single stick and throttle, which is known as a hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) setup. Swapping out the throttle for another stick meant that I had to constantly hold the left-hand stick forward to maintain forward thrust. But, by pulling back on that stick I had easy access to reverse thrust, which makes slowing down and changing directions in space a lot snappier. The right-hand stick still has complete control of pitch and yaw, while rudder pedals handle roll. But now Im able to use the two sticks twist axes to handle strafing (right) and moving up and down (left). Previously, those functions sat on a tiny hat switch on my throttle.

After a few hours of HOSAS practice, I suddenly found myself with much more precise and immediate control over my virtual spaceships than ever before. Vectors which had previously been relegated to the keyboard or tiny hat switches were now integrated into the joysticks themselves. I could hit the gas on the main thruster to accelerate forward, rotate my ship in place, then roll left while also moving slightly down and sliding to the right all at the same time. The impact was especially prominent in Star Citizen, which has much faster ships and far more aggressive combat. HOSAS made me a harder target to hit, and helped to improve my own aim especially with fixed weapons.

Better still, the Constellations side-mounted thumbsticks mean that you can actually navigate on foot without ever taking your hands off the joysticks. That made the experience in Star Citizen, which features a surprising amount of walking, much more enjoyable. It will also likely have the same kind of impact when Elite Dangerous: Odyssey launches later this year, adding first-person, on-foot gameplay to that spacefaring game.

Another highlight for me were Virpils Ace Interceptor Rudder Pedals. Ive had a pretty good experience with the Thrustmaster TPR Pendular Rudder Pedals for the last few years, but they hang from a large central column that takes up a lot of space in my office. Virpil pedals are much, much lower to the floor and accommodate a wider stance which, as a 66 man, I greatly appreciate. Ace pedals also have a much better mounting solution, in my opinion, compared to the TPR pedals. Out of the box, Virpils large, grippy rubber feet stay put on most surfaces. You can also remove about an inch of height from the pedals, stripping off the rubber feet and the entire lower frame, to attach them directly to a custom flight seat.

While the input devices alone are excellent, Virpil also has a line of surprisingly affordable custom mounting solutions. For around $70 you can get the Virpil Desk Mount V3-S. It features a dead-simple clamp with an adjustable bite, which you can dial in to firmly grasp the edge of your desk surface and hold fast. They release quickly, making storage a breeze. Theyre also beautifully powder coated, and come with all the bolts you need to make the attachment to the Constellation. The V3-S also opens the door to additional customization options, including mounts that hang a keyboard, mouse pad, additional button boxes, and more all off of the same clamp.

Note that youll need two of the Desk Mount V3-S devices for a HOSAS solution using the Virpil Constellation sticks, which brings the price of accessories up to $140. If you go with a HOTAS solution instead, making use of one of Virpils fully-customizable throttle boxes, youll need a slightly larger version of the clamp and a special adapter plate. That brings the price for a full HOTAS mounting solution closer to $180.

Overall, Im smitten with these Virpil controls. They strike a good balance between price point and feature set, sitting comfortably in between classics like the Logitech X-52 and the Thrustmaster T16000, and higher end products from Thrustmaster and VKB. They also have just the right amount of heft to them, and feel like a substantial upgrade to the kinds of flight sticks Ive been using for the last decade.

There are a few caveats, however.

First, the documentation on these products ranges from awful to non-existent. Even basic assembly drove me out to YouTube where I spent hours freeze-framing foreign language unboxing videos to find out which screw goes where. When it comes to calibration and programming, you will similarly need to find your own way with the community of users on YouTube and on message boards as Virpil offers next to no help in getting things squared away.

Second, know that the current incarnation of the Virpil throttle box may simply be too much for most users. It has about twice as many buttons as Microsoft Windows recognizes on a game controller, which means youll need to take some extra time to get it tuned before you hop into a game. If youre going HOTAS, Id recommend getting something from Thrustmaster instead.

Also, I did notice some defective materials in the batch of products that I received. The non-marking pads on the mounting hardware, for instance, began to slide off after several weeks of continuous use. I also had several screw heads shatter as I attempted to remove them, either due to being made from weak metal or being gummed up with too much thread locking paste.

With those limitations in mind, I still cant help but recommend Virpil. After nearly a decade of watching modest, incremental improvements in the space its nice to see a manufacturer innovating with their flight sticks. Theres even a line of collective grips on the way, which will be perfect for the new helicopters coming to DCS World and Microsoft Flight Simulator in the not-to-distant future.

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Virpil Controls review: Theres a new challenger in the world of flight sticks and throttles - Polygon

Components for the Long March 5B rocket that will launch the core module of Chinas space station. Credit: CASC

The core section of Chinas space station is scheduled to launch in the next several months, the first of 11 missions carrying lab elements, cargo, and astronauts to the fledgling outpost over the next two years, according to Chinese space program officials.

The launch of the first element of the Chinese station is one of more than 40 missions scheduled this year by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., or CASC, Chinas largest state-owned aerospace contractor.

CASCs subsidiaries build Chinas Long March rockets, manufacture satellites, and oversee construction of the Chinese space station.

The China National Space Administration, the countrys space agency, said last month that the third phase of the Chinese human spaceflight program will begin in earnest in 2021, building on earlier missions testing out the human-rated Shenzhou space transport vehicle, spacewalk procedures, and docking systems needed for building the full-scale space station.

The heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket assigned to launch the space stations Tianhe core module has completed testing at its factory in Tianjin, China, and will soon be delivered by transport ship to the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island.

At Wenchang, the Long March 5B rocket will be stacked on its mobile launch platform and mated with the Tianhe module, which measuresmore than 54.4 feet (16.6 meters) long, has a maximum diameter of around 13.8 feet (4.2 meters), and has a launch weight of roughly 49,600 pounds (22.5 metric tons).

Manufacturing and testing of the Tianhe module has also been completed in preparation for its launch this year.

Previous Long March 5 launch campaigns required about two months from the time of the rockets arrival at the Wenchang spaceport until liftoff. If Chinese teams follow that precedent, the Long March 5B launch with the Tianhe module could occur as soon as this spring.

The Long March 5B rocket is a variant of Chinas Long March 5 rocket family tailored to haul heavy payloads into low Earth orbit.

Flying without a second stage, the Long March 5B will carry its payloads into space using just its core stage and four strap-on liquid-fueled boosters. Large payloads will occupy the second stages volume on the Long March 5B, which can deliver up to 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit.

The Long March 5B configuration completed its first demonstration flight in May 2020, following delays stemming from a Long March 5 launch failure in 2017 that also pushed back the schedule for launching the first element of the Chinese space station.

The 11 missions to kick off assembly of Chinas space station include the three launch of three pressurized modules on Long March 5B rockets, resupply flights using Tianzhou cargo freighters launched on Long March 7 rockets from Wenchang, the Shenzhou crew capsules launched on Long March 2F rockets from Jiuquan, an inland spaceport in the Gobi Desert in Chinas Inner Mongolia region.

The fully-assembled outpost will be about one-sixth the mass of the International Space Station, and is closer in size to Russias retired Mir station than the ISS.

China launched two Tiangong prototype space labs in 2011 and 2016.

The Tiangong 1 space lab hosted two Shenzhou crew in 2012 and 2013, and Chinas most recent human spaceflight mission Shenzhou 11 docked with the Tiangong 2 module in 2016.

China also launched a test flight of the Tianzhou supply ship, similar in function to Russias Progress or SpaceXs Cargo Dragon capsule supporting the International Space Station. The first Tianzhou freighter took off on a Long March 7 rocket in 2017 and docked with the Tiangong 2 space lab, proving out automated docking and in-orbit refueling technology.

After the Tiangong pathfinders verified key technologies for the Chinese space station, officials are moving ahead with integrating the complex in low Earth orbit a few hundred miles above Earth.

The Long March 7 rocket for the Tianzhou 2 mission, the first cargo delivery flight to the Chinese station, is undergoing final assembly in its factory, according to CASC. The Long March 2F launcher for the Shenzhou 12 crew flight is undergoing final factory tests, which should be completed soon after the Chinese New Year in February, officials said.

A specific schedule for the launches of the Tianzhou 2 and Shenzhou 12 missions were not disclosed by Chinese sources.

Chinese officials have said they have selected crew members for the Shenzhou 12 mission, and astronaut training is underway. The astronauts will carry out multiple spacewalks on their mission to link up with the Tianhe module in orbit.

CASC described the space station missions as the top priority on the organizations schedule this year. Other major activities in Chinas space program this year include the arrival of the Tianwen 1 robotic mission in orbit around Mars in February, setting the stage for landing of a Chinese rover on the Red Planet in the May timeframe.

In a statement previewing Chinese space program in 2021, officials also hinted at further planning for exploration of the Moon by Chinese astronauts. But the statement offered no details on the lunar mission planning, which follows Chinas successful robotic sample return mission to the Moon in late 2020.

Other Chinese launches expected to add up to the more than 40 missions in CASCs schedule this year include Long March rocket flights to deploy weather satellites, research payloads, and Chinese military spacecraft in orbit.

There are also a handful of commercial launches in CASCs backlog, including missions to deliver batches of small Earth-imaging satellites for the Argentine company Satellogic.

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China to begin construction of space station this year - Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket soars into the sky with 60 Starlink internet satellites after liftoff Oct. 18 from pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX

Leading all other nations, U.S. launch providers flew 44 missions in 2020 that aimed to place payloads in Earth orbit or deep space, with 40 successes. China followed with 35 successful orbital missions in 39 launch attempts.

Russias space program was in third place with 17 successful launches of Russian-built rockets in as many tries, including two Soyuz missions from the European-run spaceport in French Guiana. European-built launchers reached orbit four times in five attempts, and Japanese vehicles launched four times, all successfully.

Indias space program, grounded much of the year by the coronavirus pandemic, launched two successful orbital missions in as many attempts. Iran conducted two orbital launch attempts, with one success, and Israel launched a single mission to deliver a military spy satellite into orbit.

The most-flown type of space launchers in 2020 were SpaceXs Falcon 9 and the Russian Soyuz. Chinese Long March rockets flew 34 times more than Falcon 9s or Soyuz rockets but come in a range of configurations, making them difficult to classify into a single family.

The final tally for orbital launches worldwide in 2020 ended up at 104 successful flights in 114 attempts. The ten launch failures were more than global launch providers suffered in a single year since 1971.

Despite the global pandemic, the 114 launch attempts last year tied 2018 for the most orbital launches globally since 1990, when Cold War-era military budgets helped propel more missions into orbit.

In 2019, there were 102 orbital launch attempts around the world, with 97 missions that successfully reached Earth orbit.

SpaceX led all launch companies in 2020 with 25 orbital missions that sent up hundreds of satellites for the companys Starlink internet network, the first two flights with astronauts on SpaceXs Crew Dragon spaceship, two space station resupply missions, and three launches that delivered national security payloads into orbit for the U.S. government.

All 25 orbital missions used Falcon 9 rockets, with 20 of the launches powered by reused Falcon 9 boosters, a capability solely demonstrated by SpaceX. One first stage in SpaceXs fleet flew five times in 2020, the same number of missions performed by United Launch Alliances expendable Atlas 5 rockets or all European rockets last year.

ULA a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, accomplished six missions last year. Five flights with ULAs Atlas 5 rocket carried national security payloads into orbit, launched the European-built Solar Orbiter science mission, and sent NASAs Perseverance rover toward Mars.

A single Delta 4-Heavy launch in December deployed a top secret spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Rocket Lab, builder of the light-class Electron rocket family, conducted seven missions last year, with one failure. The company is headquartered in Long Beach, California, and builds engines and other components in the United States, but assembles and launches its rockets in New Zealand.

Electron rockets are set to begin flying from a new launch pad in Virginia this year. Because of Rocket Labs U.S. headquarters, its launch statistics are counted under the column of U.S. companies.

Northrop Grumman conducted three launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia last year, including two cargo launches to the International Space Station using Antares rockets, and a single flight of a solid-fueled Minotaur 4 rocket with satellites for the NRO.

Two newcomers to the U.S. small satellite launch business conducted their first orbital launch attempts in 2020.

Virgin Orbit, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, performed the first test flight of its airborne-launched LauncherOne rocket off the coast of Southern California in May. Astra, another startup smallsat launch company, launched two of its orbital-class rockets on test flights from Alaska.

The Virgin Orbit and Astra test flights all faltered before reaching orbit, but the companies say they gathered crucial data to set up for additional tries in 2021.

Chinas 39 orbital launch attempts last year ties a record level of Chinese launch activity set in 2018,but China achieved more successful space launches that year.

The four Chinese launch failures this year included a mishap during the debut launch of the Long March 7A rocket in March, a Long March 3B failure in April with the Indonesian Palapa N1 communications satellite, and problems during launches of Chinas light-class Kuaizhou 11 and Kuaizhou 1A rockets in July and September.

Major successes for Chinas space program in 2020 included launches of the Tianwen 1 rover toward Mars in July, and the launch, landing, and return of the Change 5 lunar sample collection mission in December.

Russian rockets delivered payloads into orbit 17 times in 2020, with the venerable Soyuz launcher conducting 15 of those flights. Russias heavier Proton and Angara launch vehicles each completed one mission last year.

In addition to launches with Russian military payloads, the Soyuz missions launched two crews to the International Space Station, two Progress logistics flights to the station, and three batches of more than 30 satellites for OneWebs commercial broadband network.

Soyuz rockets also launched on two missions with Emirati and French military reconnaissance satellites from the European-operated Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. Those flights were managed by Arianespace, the French launch services provider, but Russian engineers and technicians built and assembled the Soyuz boosters, and assisted in launch operations.

European rockets, also operated by Arianespace, launched from French Guiana five times in 2020. Three heavy-lift Ariane 5 rockets successfully took off from French Guiana with commercial communications satellites for Eutelsat, Intelsat, Sky Perfect JSAT, B-SAT, and the Indian Space Research Organization, a South Korean weather satellite, and a satellite servicing vehicle for Northrop Grummans subsidiary Space Logistics.

The smaller Italian-led Vega rocket program suffered one failure in two launch attempts last year.

Japans four orbital launch attempts last year all successful included three flights by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries workhorse H-2A rocket. The H-2A missions carried two Japanese defense-related satellites to orbit, and deployed the Hope Mars orbiter for the United Arab Emirates.

The ninth and final launch of the more powerful dual-engine H-2B rocket in May lofted Japans last first-generation HTV cargo freighter with several tons of supplies for the International Space Station.

India performed two missions with its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in November and December, following a months-long grounding caused by restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Both delivered their payloads to orbit.

Iran tried to launch two satellites in February and April, but only the second attempt was successful. And Israels Shavit launcher successfully placed the countrys Ofek 16 military surveillance satellite into orbit, the first Israeli satellite launch since 2016.

Floridas Space Coast hosted more orbital launches than any other location last year, with 30 successful missions originating from launch facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center.

Before 2020, the previous record for launches from the Space Coast that reached orbit was 29, a mark set in 1966. There were 31 orbital launch attempts from Cape Canaveral that year, plus two suborbital test flights of the Apollo-era Saturn 1B launcher, for a total of 33 space launches from Florida in 1966, according to a launch log maintained by Jonathan McDowell,an astronomer at theHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks global satellite and launch activity.

A run at breaking that record will have to wait for another year.

Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the most-used launch pad worldwide in 2020, with 14 Falcon 9 missions taking off from there.

Chinas launch sites at Jiuquan and Xichang each hosted 13 satellite launches in 2020. The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russias Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Rocket Labs privately-operated launch site in New Zealand, and the Guiana Space Center in South America each had seven launches last year.

Here is the breakdown of orbital launch attempts from spaceports around the world, with numbers in parentheses representing failed missions:

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Artists concept of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In a pair of mission extensions, NASA has cleared the way for more seismic observations on Mars with the robotic InSight lander and approved plans for the Juno spacecraft to alter its orbit and perform close flybys of Jupiters icy moon Europa, Ganymede, and the volcanic moon Io.

The Juno mission, in orbit around Jupiter since July 4, 2016, has been approved for a four-year extension through September 2025, assuming the spacecraft is still operating. NASA also granted a two-year extension for the InSight mission, which landed on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018.

The Juno orbiter has focused on observations of Jupiter in its first four years at the giant planet, but the missions task list will grow in the coming years to include flybys and measurements of Jupiters rings and three of its largest moons.

Led by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the InSight mission has been extended two years through December 2022. InSight will continue measuring seismic tremors on the Mars, producing data to help scientists unravel the internal structure of the Red Planet.

The solar-powered Mars lander will also continue operating a weather station, and ground teams will develop plans to bury a tether leading to InSights seismometer in hopes of eliminating data dropouts from the instrument.

A lower priority for the InSight team in the two-year extended mission will be to continue efforts using the landers robotic arm to help a heat probe hammer itself deeper into the Martian soil. The mole one of InSights two main instruments alongside the seismometer stalled in early 2019 before reaching a planned depth of at least 10 feet (3 meters) to measure the heat gradient inside the Red Planet.

Despite the problem with the heat probe, InSights seismic sensors have worked as designed. The seismometer instrument made the first detection of a marsquake soon after its deployment on the planets surface in 2019.

The Juno spacecraft hasprobed the Jupiters atmosphere and internal structure, revealing new insights about Jupiters cyclonic storms and detecting evidence for a large, potentially dissolved core at its center.

Scott Bolton, Junos principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said last year that the spacecraft could address a broader scope of science questions if NASA granted an extended mission.

It really becomes a full system explorer, not as focused as the prime mission was, Bolton said last year.We have multiple flybys of Io, Europa and Ganymede.

The solar-powered Juno spacecraft launched in August 2011, beginning a five-year cruise to Jupiter.

Junos nine scientific instruments include a microwave radiometer for atmospheric soundings, ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers, particle detectors, a magnetometer, and a radio and plasma waves experiment. The Jupiter orbiter also carries a color camera known as JunoCam, which collects image data for processing and analysis by an army of citizen scientists around the world.

NASA approved the extensions for the InSight and Juno missions after recommendations from a senior review, where a panel of independent scientists rank the meritsof continuing to operate NASAs robotic science missions beyond their original planned lifetimes.

When considering the senior review recommendations, NASA balances the scientific productivity of older missions with priorities to develop and launch new spacecraft. In 2020, InSight and Juno were up for extensions after reaching the end of their primary mission phases.

The senior review has validated that these two planetary science missions are likely to continue to bring new discoveries, and produce new questions about our solar system, said Lori Glaze, director of the planetary science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. I thank the members of the senior review panel for their comprehensive analysis and thank the mission teams as well, who will now continue to provide exciting opportunities to refine our understanding of the dynamic science of Jupiter and Mars.

Junos primary mission cost around $1.1 billion, while InSight was developed, launched, and flown to Mars for about $1 billion, including contributions from European partners. The cost per year of operating each mission is significantly less than the cost of developing and launching the spacecraft.

The senior review panelists found InSight and Juno have produced exceptional science and recommended extending both missions. NASA approved the extensions Friday.

Lockheed Martin built the InSight and Juno spacecraft for NASA.

While InSights extension is largely about improving and extending datasets from the landers prime mission, Juno will take aim on new targets over the next four years.

The flybys of Jupiters moons will be enabled by Junos changing orbit. Jupiters asymmetric gravity field is gradually perturbing Junos trajectory and pulling the closest point of the spacecrafts elliptical, or egg-shaped, 53-day orbit northward over time, according to Bolton.

The northward migration of Junos perijove, or closest approach to Jupiter, will allow the spacecraft to get a closer look at the planets north pole. Juno was the first mission to glimpse Jupiters poles, and now the spacecraft could see the north pole and its cyclonic storms in greater detail.

This gives us close proximity to the northern parts of Jupiter, which is a new frontier, Bolton said. Weve seen a lot of activity there, so well be able to explore it very close up, whereas in the primary mission we were limited to the lower latitudes.

In an extended mission, the spacecraft will also be able to quantify how much water is bound up within Jupiters atmosphere, Bolton said.

Junos naturally evolving orbit is also what will permit the spacecraft to pass near Jupiters moons and rings.

The moon flybys could begin in mid-2021 with an encounter with Ganymede, Jupiters largest moon, at a distance of roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers), Bolton said last year.

After a series of distant passes, Juno will swoop just 200 miles (320 kilometers) above Europa in late 2022 for a high-speed flyby. Only NASAs Galileo spacecraft, which ended its mission in 2003, has come closer to Europa.

There are two encounters with Jupiters volcanic moon Io planned in 2024 at distances of about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers), according to the flight plan presented by Bolton last year. Juno will be able to look for changes on the surfaces of Jupiters moons since they were last seen up close by NASAs Voyager and Galileo probes.

At Ganymede, Juno will map the moons surface composition and investigate the 3D structure of Ganymedes magnetosphere. Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system known to have its own magnetic field.

Junos microwave radiometer will be able to probe the thickness of Europas global ice shell, which covers an ocean of liquid water. Well see where the ice is thin and where its thick, Bolton said.

Junos spectrometers will also map concentrations of water ice, carbon dioxide and organic molecules across 40 percent of Europas surface, Bolton said.

Imaging observations will search for changes since Voyager and Galileo, and observations with the spacecrafts microwave radiometer will explore Europas ice shell, NASA said. In situ measurements of Jupiters ring system will explore their structure and characterize their dust population.

The visit to Europa would give scientists a taste of whats to come with NASAs Europa Clipper mission, which could launch as soon as 2024. Europa Clipper will carry a more powerful radar among other instruments to measure the moons ice shell through a series of targeted flybys.

The JunoCam imager will take the sharpest pictures of Europa since the Galileo missions last encounter with the icy moon in 2000, allowing scientists tosearch for evidence of plumes erupting from Europas surface.

The spacecrafts other instruments will be tuned to look for particles lofted from Europa in the possible plumes. Signs of recurring eruptions from Europa were detected by the Hubble Space Telescope.

During its flybys with Io, Juno will look for evidence of a global magma ocean feeding Ios volcanoes. Juno might also be able to observe active volcanoes in Ios polar regions.

Juno is the second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter after the Galileo mission, which intentionally crashed into the giant planet in 2003. Galileos last close-up flyby of one of Jupiters moons, Io, occurred in 2002.

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NASA mission extension enables first flybys of Jupiter's moons in 20 years - Spaceflight Now

NASA plans to ignite the most powerful rocket it's ever built on Jan. 17 according to a statement from the agency.

It will be the first firing of the Space Launch System (SLS), the long-awaited (and delayed) rocket ship that NASA plans to use for non-commercial human space flight. It's the centerpiece of NASA's Artemis program, a crewed mission to land, in language NASA frequently uses, "the first woman and next man" on the moon.

However, during this first ignition, only the liquid fuel engines at the core of the rocket will be tested, without the solid fuel boosters that will one day help carry SLS into orbit.

When the SLS core test-fires, it will become the most powerful rocket ever ignited on Earth.

At 322 feet tall (98 meters), the SLS stands a head shorter than the 363-foot (110 m) Saturn V rockets that carried astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and '70s. But this rocket is substantially more powerful, producing 15% more thrust during liftoff and ascent.

Raw power doesn't translate neatly into how much mass the rocket can carry into space.

When complete, if everything goes right, the SLS will have the capacity to carry more than 27 tons (24,000 kilograms) to the moon much more than the 24 tons (22,000 kg) the Space Shuttle hauled into low-Earth orbit, though technically less than the Saturn V carried to the moon. (However, according to Live Science sister site Space.com, less of the SLS carrying capacity will be wasted on the different rocket stages and fuel, making the SLS an overall better cargo mover.)

The test will cap off an eight-part testing program NASA has dubbed the SLS "green run."

The seventh part, successfully completed Dec. 20, 2020, showed that the rocket could be loaded with 700,000 gallons (265,000 liters) of supercooled liquid fuel and then have that fuel removed without incident.

The hot fire will take place at at NASAs Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

"During our wet dress rehearsal Green Run test, the core stage, the stage controller, and the Green Run software all performed flawlessly, and there were no leaks when the tanks were fully loaded and replenished for approximately two hours," Julie Bassler, SLS Stages manager at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in the statement. "Data from all the tests to date has given us the confidence to proceed with the hot fire."

The test will likely be streamed on NASA's YouTube channel.

Originally published on Live Science.

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NASA will soon fire up the most powerful rocket ever built - Livescience.com

ExoCube 2 is among 10 small satellites flying aboard Virgin Orbits LauncherOne rocket that takes off under the wing of a Boeing 747 before being dropped and fired into orbit

SAN LUIS OBISPO A Cal Poly CubeSat will ride on Wednesday Jan. 13 aboard Virgin Orbits LauncherOne rocket on its second attempt to reach space.

The rocket includes nine other NASA-sponsored small satellites on the space agencys next Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission. This is the first payload carried by Virgin Orbits rocket that will be carried aloft under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 to an altitude of 35,000 feet, released and fired into orbit.

The mothership jet, named Cosmic Girl, will take off from Mojave Air and Space Port, which will release the two-stage LauncherOne off the coast of Southern California. The launch window is 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with additional windows throughout January if needed, the company announced.

The mission includes ExoCube 2, a satellite about the size of a loaf of bread that was built over several years by a group of about 50 multidisciplinary Cal Poly students, said advisor Pauline Faure, an aerospace engineering assistant professor in the College of Engineering.

The mission is scientific in nature, Faure said, and aims to acquire data on ions mass and density in the exosphere, the uppermost region of Earths atmosphere as it gradually fades into the vacuum of space.

To execute the mission, Faure added, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center developed a spectrometer, and the Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory team was tasked to design, develop, manufacture, assemble and test the supporting elements of the spacecraft system structure, power system, communication, flight software, etc. The students were definitely the driver of the project execution and deserve the full credit of the incredible work they achieved.

Once Cal Polys 12th CubeSat achieves orbit, a student team will use the campus CubeSat Lab groundstation to download scientific data from the spacecraft and share it with their counterparts at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Illinois who are responsible for its interpretation.

ExoCube 2s mission is to expand knowledge of the composition and the current state of activity in the thin exosphere atmosphere, some 600 km (370 miles) above sea level. The data will be useful in better predicting space weather phenomena in order to forecast potential effects of ions on satellite communications and spacecraft performance.

The three-unit CubeSat is a relaunch of the original ExoCube, which launched in early 2015 but suffered from antenna problems. ExoCube 2 underwent a complete redesign of the antenna deployment mechanisms.

This will also be Virgin Orbits second attempt to reach orbit. The Launch Demo 2 mission was delayed from mid-December, because COVID-19 contact tracing led to a round of precautionary quarantines of the companys personnel. Quarantines meant the company had fallen below the number of staff we feel we require to prudently and safely proceed with pre-launch operations, the company said in a release.

For the past few years, Virgin Orbit has been developing and testing its unique launch system, which involves using the refitted Virgin Atlantic 747 to carry a rocket nearly 7 miles high, where the rocket is released and its engine ignites following a 4-second drop.

After an engine burn and stage separations, LauncherOne will deliver its payload to orbit, while Cosmic Girl returns to the Mojave Air and Space Port airstrip. Its the same facility where Cal Poly alumnus Burt Rutan (aerospace engineering, 65) developed and launched SpaceShipOne the worlds first privately built aircraft to reach space in 2004.

This will also be the NASAs ELaNa mission No. 20. The Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program was started ion 2010 to attract and retain students in STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Managed by the Launch Services Program at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ELaNa introduces educational spaceflight to high schools and colleges across the nation.

Cal Polys last ELaNa satellite was LEO, or Launch Environment Observer, a two-unit CubeSat that launched in June of 2019 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Monday night from NASAs historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A low-cost platform for agency missions, CubeSats and other small satellites are playing a larger role in space exploration, technology demonstration, scientific research, and educational investigations at NASA. The other nine CubeSats on this mission were designed and built by seven other universities in the United States, as well as one NASA center. They include:

--PolarCube, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado--MiTEE, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan--CACTUS-1, Capitol Technology University, Laurel, Maryland--Q-PACE, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida--TechEdSat-7, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California--RadFXSat-2, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee--CAPE-3, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana--PICS (two CubeSats), Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

NASA selected and sponsored Cal Poly and the other providers through the agencys CubeSat Launch Initiative. By offering small satellite developers a relatively low-cost avenue to conduct science investigations and technology demonstrations in space, NASA gives K-12 schools, universities and nonprofit organizations hands-on flight hardware development experience.

The journey to this launch has been long and challenging, said Scott Higginbotham, ELaNa 20 mission manager. Our CubeSat developers have invested much of themselves in their spacecraft, and I know theyll all be thrilled to see them fly later this month.

Arielle Cohen Electrical engineering major Arielle Cohen works on the ExoCube 2 CubeSat scheduled for launch aboard a Virgin Orbit rocket Wednesday. Cohen graduated in 2019 and works as a digital design electronics engineer at Northrop Grumman. ExoCube 2 is Cal Polys 12thCubeSat.

Aaron Fielden Mechanical engineering graduate student Aaron Fielden works with an unidentified student outside the Cal Poly clean room during testing of the ExoCube 2 satellite, a collaboration between the university and NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. Fielden was a project manager in 2016-17 for the ExoCube 2 satellite that is designed to characterize ion densities in the exosphere, the thin atmosphere some 370 miles above sea level. ExoCube 2 is scheduled for launch aboard Virgin Orbits LauncherOne rocket between 7 to 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

Photos courtesy of Cal Poly PolySat

In the photo at the top,Virgin Orbit teammates complete a dry run of the payload encapsulation process last August inside its Nebula payload processing facility ahead of the companys Launch Demo 2 mission. The payload has 10 small satellites, called CubeSats, including Cal Polys 12th CubeSat, ExoCube 2. Virgin Orbit is gearing up for ELaNa 20, the Jan. 13 Launch Demo 2 flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Photo courtesy of Virgin Orbit/Greg Robinson

Contact: Pat Pemberton805-235-0555;ppembert@calpoly.edu

January 11, 2021

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SpaceX has fired up its newest Starship prototype for the first time.

The SN9 vehicle's three engines lit up for about one second today (Jan. 6) at 5:07 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) during a static-fire test at SpaceX's South Texas facilities, near the Gulf Coast village of Boca Chica.

Static fires, in which rocket engines blaze while a vehicle remains anchored to the ground, are a routine preflight checkout. And SN9 ("Serial No. 9") will indeed get off the ground soon, if all goes according to plan: SpaceX is prepping the vehicle for a test flight that's expected to be similar to the epic one made last month by its predecessor.

Video: Watch SpaceX test-fire its Starship SN9's enginesStarship and Super Heavy: SpaceX's Mars-colonizing vehicles in images

On Dec. 9, SN8 which was powered by three of SpaceX's next-generation Raptor engines, as SN9 is performed the Starship program's first-ever high-altitude hop, soaring about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) into the South Texas skies. (Three previous single-engine prototypes have flown as well, but they all reached a maximum altitude of about 500 feet, or 150 meters.)

SN8 didn't stick its landing and exploded in a dramatic fireball. But the vehicle hit pretty much every other milestone that SpaceX had laid out, leading company founder and CEO Elon Musk to declare the flight a big success.

SpaceX is developing Starship to take people and payloads to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations and, eventually, to take over all of the company's spaceflight needs. The system consists of two elements: a 165-foot-tall (50 m) spacecraft called Starship and a giant first-stage booster known as Super Heavy.

Both Starship and Super Heavy will be fully and rapidly reusable, Musk has said. Super Heavy will come back down to Earth for vertical landings after getting Starship aloft, as the first stages of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets already do. But Starship's touchdowns will be even more precise than those of the Falcons, ideally occurring directly on the launch stand to improve turnaround time, Musk announced recently.

The Starship spacecraft, meanwhile, will make many roundtrips between Earth and Mars, or whatever other destination has been targeted. The vehicle just needs the roughly 30-engine Super Heavy to get off our relatively bulky planet; the final, six-engine Starship will be powerful enough to launch itself off the surfaces of the moon and Mars, Musk has said.

Today's static fire was captured on video by dedicated Starship watchers like the tourism site Spadre.com, which webcasts live Starship views on YouTube. It may not be the only such test performed by SN9 before it takes flight. For example, SN8 conducted four static fires over the course of more than a month ahead of its high-altitude hop.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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The milestones are coming fast and furious for China's space program.

The robotic Chang'e 5 mission successfully returned pristine moon samples to Earth in mid-December, something that hadn't been done since 1976. China's first fully homegrown Mars mission, Tianwen-1, is scheduled to arrive at the Red Planet on Feb. 10. And shortly after that, the nation plans to begin assembling its space station in Earth orbit.

"The testing is in its final stage. We will start the key technology test and construction of the Chinese space station next spring," Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's human spaceflight program, said last month, according to the South China Morning Post.

Related: China selects 18 astronauts in preparation for space station launch

The hardware scheduled to take flight in a few months is the station's core module, known as Tianhe ("Joining of the Heavens"), which will provide living space and life support for astronauts and house the outpost's power and propulsion elements.

Tianhe, which is 59 feet (18 meters) long and weighs about 24 tons (22 metric tons), will launch atop a Long March 5B rocket from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, on the island of Hainan.

Tianhe's launch will be followed in relatively rapid succession by numerous others. A total of 11 liftoffs will be required to build the space station, which China wants to finish by the end of 2022, the South China Morning Post reported.

The completed complex is expected to be about 20% as massive as the International Space Station, which is run by a 15-nation partnership that does not include China. If that's the case, China's outpost will be about the same size as Russia's old Mir space station, which was intentionally deorbited in 2001.

China has been gearing up for Tianhe's launch for years. The nation lofted a prototype station module called Tiangong-1 in 2011 and another one, Tiangong-2, in 2016. Chinese astronauts visited both of these space labs aboard the nation's Shenzhou spacecraft. And in 2017, the robotic cargo vessel Tianzhou-1 visited Tiangong-2, demonstrating autonomous docking and refueling operations multiple times during its mission.

Tiangong-2 was deorbited successfully in July 2019. Tiangong-1 also burned up in Earth's atmosphere, but its demise was not quite as clean; it came down in an uncontrolled fashion over the southern Pacific Ocean in April 2018.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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China plans to launch core module of space station this year - Space.com

Poor weather on Earth forced a SpaceX supply ship to wave off the opportunity to make the first successful autonomous undocking from the International Space Station on Monday (Jan. 11).

The upgraded Dragon cargo ship, hauling 5,200 lbs. (2,500 kilograms) of scientific experiments and other supplies, was supposed to depart the orbiting complex at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).

NASA and SpaceX decided to abandon the attempt at 9:53 a.m. EST (1453 GMT) due to poor weather at the craft's splashdown site in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Daytona, Fla. The two entities will decide later when to make the next undocking attempt, officials said on NASA TV, which broadcast the undocking attempt live.

SpaceX's upgraded Cargo Dragon capsule can carry 20% more cargo (and experiments) compared to its predecessor and can splash down in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Pacific, making for a faster turnaround time on science since experiments can arrive at the nearby NASA Kennedy Space Center in as little as four hours. The new Dragon can also remain on station twice as long as previous cargo Dragon types, allowing for longer science investigations.

Video: See SpaceX's 1st automated uncrewed docking at space stationRelated: SpaceX launches upgraded Cargo Dragon to space station for NASA

This Cargo Dragon launched on Dec. 6 and made SpaceX's first autonomous supply ship docking at the International Space Station about 24 hours later. This mission, called CRS-21, marked the first time a Cargo Dragon did not use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to berth to the space station.

This mission also marks the first time two Dragon spacecraft were docked at the space station simultaneously, NASA said on NASA TV, since a Crew Dragon is currently parked at the orbiting complex after ferrying four astronauts to the station in November.

In a statement, NASA officials said the CRS-21 Dragon will bring "significantly more science back to Earth than possible in previous Dragon capsules" due to upgrades in the cargo spacecraft. Dragon's return near NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will also be the first time such an event has happened since the agency's space shuttle fleet retired in 2011, allowing the science to be processed there.

A selection of the returning experiments includes:

NASA added that the ground teams will need to work quickly to bring the precious science back to Earth as the effects of gravity take hold on the experiments.

"After a SpaceX boat scoops the capsule out of the water, a waiting team pulls time-critical science out of the spacecraft and loads it onto a waiting helicopter," NASA said in the same statement. "The helicopter will deliver this science to shore a few hours after splashdown. Any remaining scientific cargo will come back either in a second helicopter load or stay aboard the boat and be removed at the port."

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Bad weather on Earth delays SpaceX Dragon's return from space station - Space.com

Elon Musk just became the world's richest person, nudging fellow space tycoon Jeff Bezos from the top spot.

The SpaceX founder and CEO is now worth more than $185 billion, thanks in large part to the ongoing surge in the stock price of his electric-car company, Tesla, according to media reports. Bezos, who runs Amazon.com as well as the spaceflight outfit Blue Origin, is currently worth $184 billion, according to CNBC.

Bezos had held the world's-richest title since 2017.

Related: SpaceX's 1st crewed Mars mission could launch by 2024, Elon Musk says

Musk began 2020 worth $27 billion, then padded his pocketbook in historic fashion during the year, CNBC reported.

"Musk's wealth surge over the past year marks the fastest rise to the top of the rich list in history and is a dramatic financial turnaround for the famed entrepreneur, who just 18 months ago was in the headlines for Tesla's rapid cash burn and his personal leverage against the company's stock," CNBC wrote. "Tesla's rocketing share price which has increased more than ninefold over the past year along with his generous pay package have added more than $150 billion to his net worth."

SpaceX which, unlike Tesla, isn't a publicly traded company had a big 2020 as well. For example, SpaceX launched two crewed missions to the International Space Station last year, the first orbital human spaceflights to lift off from the U.S. since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011.

All told, SpaceX launched 26 missions in 2020, the most it has ever lofted in a calendar year. The company also made big strides in the development of Starship, the transportation system it's developing to take people to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Musk has long said that he founded SpaceX back in 2002 primarily to help humanity colonize Mars and that he plans to devote a large chunk of his growing wealth to help make this happen.

"About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth and half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens and we destroy ourselves," Musk wrote in a 2018 tweet, which he recently pinned to the top of his Twitter account.

Bezos also wants to help humanity extend its footprint into the final frontier.

"Blue Origin believes that in order to preserve Earth, our home, for our grandchildren's grandchildren, we must go to space to tap its unlimited resources and energy," the company's mission statement reads, in part. "Like the Industrial Revolution gave way to trade, economic abundance, new communities and high-speed transportation our road to space opens to the door to the infinite and yet unimaginable future generations might enjoy."

Musk and Bezos both stress that reusable spaceflight systems are key to achieving such grand ambitions. The two billionaires have traded jabs about each other's systems and reusability milestones in the past, so any competitive feelings evoked by Musk's ascension to the billionaire top spot would not be entirely new.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX founder Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world - Space.com

Artists' representation of astronauts on Moon.

The year 2020 witnessed a lot of exciting space endeavours! From launching multiple Mars missions to collecting samples from the Moon and a space rock2020 was an exceptional year for space exploration, despite unprecedented lockdowns due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, with the arrival of the New Year, begins a new space race as countries are gearing up to prove their prowess in cosmic exploration yet again with multiple novel mission launches. As space agencies across the globe fire up the hopes of millions of space enthusiasts, The Weather Channel India has compiled a list of highly anticipated missions of 2021.

File photo: Chandrayaan 2 launch.

Chandrayaan-3: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is once again eyeing to land on the Moon in 2021. Though no date has been fixed yet, Indias Moon mission successorChandrayaan-3may be launched sometime in the first half of 2021. The third lunar mission was earlier scheduled for 2020, but the ongoing pandemic and the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus stalled its launch. In its second attempt, the Indian space agency is aiming to achieve a soft landing on the south pole of the lunar surface, which is least explored to date. Unlike its predecessor, Chandrayaan 3 will not carry an orbiterbut will include a lander and a rover to study the lunar surface.

Artemis 1: The US space agency NASA is gearing up to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024 and towards this, the first uncrewed test flight is slated for launch in November 2021 under the Artemis program. The mission spacecraft is named Orion, which will be onboard a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The mission will carry 13 small satellites to conduct science and technology investigations. As per NASA: the primary operation goal of the mission is to assure a safe crew module entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery.

Luna-25: The Russian space agency, Roscosmos is also gearing to launch a lander mission named Luna-25 to the Moon by October this year. The mission is said to have nine instruments on board with the main objective of exploring the natural resources present on the Moon. The spacecraft is expected to land on the Boguslavsky craternear the South Pole.

Apart from Chandrayaan-3, ISRO is also aiming to launch its first crewless flight as part of its ambitious human spaceflight mission Gaganyaan by the end of 2021. However, no date has been confirmed by the space agency so far. The mission, which was scheduled for the first half of 2021, witnessed repeated delays due to COVID-19-induced lockdowns. The second crewless flight has also been pushed to 2022.

The two crewless flights are scheduled before the maiden human spaceflight launch by ISRO under the Gaganyaan mission. In one of the crewless flights, ISRO has planned to send a humanoid robot named Vyommitra to the low-earth orbit. The robot will mimic the space crew activities set for the human mission to assess the technology prior to the final mission.

In this illustration, NASA's Mars rover uses its drill to core a rock sample on Mars.

In the 21st century, Mars has been the poster planet in space exploration. The planet is a top contender to being a possible host for future human colonies. Several exploratory missions and scientific studies have pointed to a possibility of ancient microbial life on the red planet. Thus, space scientists dont want to leave any stone unturned in finding clues of life and establishing future human colonies. Exploration missions are the key to achieving this!

In July last yearbetween 20 to 30three distinct Mars missions were launched. All three missionsfrom UAE, the US and Chinaare set to arrive at the Martian vicinity by February 2021. The space agencies have set several scientific goals for the missions. Among many, the main aim of the UAE mission is to study the planets thin atmosphere, while both Perseverance and Tianwen-1 will fetch samples of Martian rocks and soil for further analysis.

Construction of James Webb Telescope.

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescopes is on the cards for this year, after decades of hard work in design and construction of the most powerful space telescope till date. After several delays, it is now expected to be launched this year with a tentative date set for October 31 from French Guyana onboard the European Space Agencys Ariane 5 rocket.

The infrared telescope will not be placed around the Earth orbitlike Hubblebut will be positioned at an L2 Lagrangian point in the Sun-Earth orbit about 1.5 million kilometres away from the planet.

The development of the space telescope is a collaborative work of the US space agency NASA, ESA and Canada. It is designed to study various comic objects present in our solar system, investigate the early galaxies, snap through the dust clouds and aid other cosmic observations. It is regarded to be the largest, powerful and complex space telescope, which will carry forward the legacy of the historic Hubble Space Telescope.

Schematic of the DART mission shows the impact on the moonlet of asteroid (65803) Didymos. Post-impact observations from Earth-based optical telescopes and planetary radar would, in turn, measure the change in the moonlets orbit about the parent body.

Apart from the ambitious Artemis 1 and Mars mission, NASA is also gearing to launch a planetary defence spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART. The mission is slated for launch in July this year to test the ability to change the direction of an asteroid, to protect Earth from future collisions. In particular, it will use a kinetic impactor technique to change asteroid motion in space and is expected to experiment on a double asteroid named Didymos. As per NASA, the Didymos primary body is about 780 meters wide, while its secondary body (or moonlet) is about 160-meters in sizesignificant enough to cause large scale impact upon collision with the Earth.

In October, NASA is planning to launch another asteroid mission named Lucy. The mission spanning 12 years will explore 8 different asteroidswith one located in the asteroid belt, and the rest 7 Trojans-asteroids, which share Jupiters orbit. Experts believe that these asteroids are orbiting in these locations since the formation of the solar system and therefore, will help to shed some light on the early history of our solar system.

In 2021, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) will begin the construction of its permanent Space Station complex. The agency is planning to launch the core cabinet module of the space station in the spring of this year. The station is expected to be constructed over 11 missions, which will include manned flights, as well as cargo spaceship flights. It is expected to be operational by 2022. The space station will be placed in low orbit and is estimated to be one-fifth the mass of the International Space Station. Moreover, the Chinese agency has planned over 40 space launches for 2021.

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The test was conducted at the company's test site in Fife.

Scotland-based startup Skyrora says it has fully tested the upper stage of its Skyrora XL rocket, which it hopes to launch as soon as 2022 but may launch another smaller rocket in the next six months.

The company, headquartered in Edinburgh, says that on December 23, 2020, it successfully test fired the upper stage of its XL rocket for 450 seconds at its test site in Fife.

The test which involved three firings of the engine was a full flight-ready test to simulate an actual launch, including full operation of its software and avionics.

With the test, the company said the upper stage which will sit at the top of the 22-meter-high Skyrora XL rocket was now essentially qualified for spaceflight.

This is a complete flight weight third stage for Skyrora XL, says Robin Hague, Skyroras Head of Launch.

Skyrora says the stage can operate as a standalone spacecraft itself, known as the Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV), which would allow it to deploy satellites and perform other activities in orbit.

Hague said it was similar to the Photon kick stage employed by New Zealands Rocket Lab on its Electron rocket, but was more capable because it is a full third stage.

The OTV is made of carbon fibre and uses a 3D-printed 3.5 kilo-Newton liquid engine, with spherical tanks storing the fuel, which is kerosene and a hydrogen peroxide oxidizer.

After launch it would be deployed in orbit, where it could then release satellites weighing up to 315 kilograms that it carried on board.

The engine successfully fired for 450 seconds in three separate firings.

The ability of the OTV to fly itself would allow multiple missions to be carried out, such as acting as a space tug to remove dead satellites from orbit following the launch of a new satellite.

After the primary mission is complete, it can also execute secondary objectives, says Volodymyr Levykin, Skyroras CEO.

We can leave it in orbit as a standalone spacecraft, which can reignite its engine up to 15 times.

Levykin singled out satellite mega constellations like the U.K.s OneWeb as an example, a rival to Starlink from Elon Musk's SpaceX company, saying Skyrora could replace satellites in the constellation using the OTV.

We believe we could launch [their] new satellites and then, as an extra mission, deorbit the old one, says Levykin. That is how I see the future.

The OTV is designed to perform multiple missions in orbit.

Before such missions can be contemplated, Skyrora will first need to prove it is able to reach space with its rockets.

The company has performed several low-altitude test flights, most recently launching the 3.3-meter-long Skylark Micro rocket to an altitude of almost 27 kilometers from Iceland in August 2020.

Now the company is preparing to launch its larger Skylark L vehicle in the first half of 2021, which measures about 12 meters in length and was tested last year.

This will be capable of just reaching the boundary of space, 100 kilometers above our planet's surface, before returning to Earth.

That would be a huge milestone for us, says Levykin. The location of the launch site for the test has not yet been announced.

The overriding goal, however, is to reach orbit with the Skyrora XL vehicle, with a first launch currently targeted for either the end of 2022 or early 2023.

Skyrora hopes to launch its XL vehicle by the end of next year.

Over the next two years the company plans to test the second and first stages of the rocket, ahead of its inaugural launch, including static fire tests of the engines.

What is not clear at the moment is where this launch will be conducted from, with several options on the table.

Skyrora uses a unique mobile launching platform, which it says enables it to be flexible with its launch site selection, but it will depend on which site is available first.

In the U.K. two launch sites are being developed, one backed by the U.K. government in Sutherland, on the northern tip of mainland Scotland.

The other, the Shetland Space Centre located on the Shetland Island of Unst, recently received backing from the U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.

We are flexible and we can launch from anywhere, says Levykin.

I have a bit of a preference for Shetland because it has a better geographical position for trajectory optimizations, but well see.

Were happy to launch with whoever is first.

Sutherland is one of two U.K. vertical launch sites being developed.

Skyrora is not the only U.K. company currently developing rockets to reach orbit, with two others also aiming to achieve the feat.

Orbex, based near Inverness in Scotland, hopes to reach orbit with its Prime rocket in the coming years, with half a dozen launches a year planned from Sutherland.

The Richard Branson-backed Virgin Orbit, too, hopes to conduct horizontal launches from the U.K. in the future with its Cosmic Girl plane, which would launch rockets to space from high altitude.

While the U.K. has reached space before with its Black Arrow rocket in 1971, launched from Australia, and later military launches, no commercial U.K. company has ever launched to orbit.

Skyroras latest test has brought it a step closer to that goal, and if all goes to plan, we could see orbital launches beginning by the end of next year.

It's fantastic that companies such as Skyrora are persisting in their ambition to make the U.K. a 'launch state', British astronaut Tim Peake, and a member of Skyrora's advisory board, said in a statement.

In undertaking a full fire test of their third stage, Skyrora is one step closer to launch readiness.

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British Launch Company Skyrora Completes Testing On Rocket Upper Stage And Hopes To Reach Space This Year - Forbes

Astronautical engineer and astronomer George Robert Carruthers, a name well-known and dearly regarded in the space science community, and a good friend of the National Air and Space Museum, passed away on Saturday, December 26 after a long illness. His fame derives in part from the fact that he developed and built a compact and powerful ultraviolet electronographic telescope, which became the first (and still the only) astronomical instrument sent to the Moon. It was placed on the lunar surface on Apollo 16 in 1972, and it performed extremely well, leading to enhanced knowledge of the Earths outermost atmosphere and of the vast spaces between the stars and galaxies invisible to the eye.

The flight-backup of that astronomical instrument was first displayed at the Museum in the mid-1990s. It was first set out on the lunar surface of our Apollo Lander exhibit on the east end of the building next to the Lunar Lander LEM, and more recently in the Apollo to the Moon gallery, safely protected in a sealed vitrine. After several years however, collections care specialists noticed upon inspection that it gave off an acrid odor. Something was decaying. A 2016 blog describes the Museums efforts to restore the film cannister, which was the suspected culprit.

Now, with his passing, we want to better appreciate the man who built the machine. Carruthers was born on October 1, 1939, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the first child (of four) of George Archer Carruthers and Sophia Singley Carruthers. His father was a civil engineer at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, but early on he moved his family to a small farm on the outskirts in the town of Milford. Although he had chores around the farm, such as helping his mother with the chickens, George was always quiet and focused, devouring space travel comics, books from the library, and later Colliers series on the dream of spaceflight. By the time he was 10 years old, he built his first telescope from lenses he saw for sale in an astronomy magazine.

After Georges father suddenly died in 1952, his mother took the family to Chicago to stay with relatives, and he carried his dreams of space flight along, nourishing them at the Adler Planetarium and elsewhere. Although he had an avid interest in science and space, he was more successful in science projects and competing in science fairs than in formal classes. George always went his own way. But mindful teachers recognized his brilliance, and he was propelled to college at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he brightened up in the laboratories and dutifully worked through his undergraduate years and graduate years, receiving a PhD in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in late 1964.

As George was completing his thesis in experimental plasma dynamics trying to better understand the forces rockets and missiles experience in the upper atmosphere, he also spent his summers back home experimenting with plasma engines for small rockets. These interests and activities propelled him to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) after graduation. Still working on his thesis, George applied for an NRL postdoc in Herbert Friedmans newly-created Hulburt Center Associate Program sponsored by the NSF. When he gave a lecture there about his thesis research, he was immediately accepted, first as a postdoc candidate in December 1964, and then, after two postdoctoral years, as a full staff member in 1967. He remained at NRL until 2002, retiring as a senior astrophysicist in the Space Sciences Division.

The camera that George designed, built, tested, and patented in the 1960s met all the requirements for an Apollo lunar surface experiment. It was small, lightweight, powerful, easy to use, and, most of all, had to be operated by a human and required that the individual bring home the goods. It was an electronically amplified photographic camera. Decades before the advent of powerful solid-state sensors, photo-chemical photography was the main means of faithfully recording images that could yield scientific data. Yet, photography was highly inefficient. So, to view faint objects in the heavens, a bigger telescope was needed. A larger telescope would not fit on sounding rockets, satellites, or Apollo, however. The most competitive solution was to find a way to amplify the incoming light signal so that photographic recording was possible. Thats what George did. He didnt invent the concept, but the design he applied proved to be highly efficient, reliable, and easy to use.

Because Carruthers camera designs required that the instrument return to Earth to be studied, his work in the 1970 and 1980s focused on space missions that were human operated. However, by that time, the solid-state revolution had produced purely electronic sensors, charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that could relay imaging data to Earth efficiently and reliably.

George reacted to this sea-change in technology in several ways. His detectors had wider fields and spatial resolution than the first CCDs, but he knew that the CCDs soon would compete. Still, he adapted his designs using CCDs rather than film to achieve even more powerful and useful ends. He also increasingly reached-out beyond his laboratory to inspire young minds to get involved in his never-ending quest to create new tools to explore the universe.

After his Apollo success in 1972, his notoriety from being the man who sent the first astronomical camera to the Moon made him very attractive to the dedicated groups that were campaigning to make science, technology, and engineering accessible to people of color. He became a symbol and conduit for their efforts, helping them change from debating on how to do it, to actually doing it.

Indeed, by the 1990s, George Carruthers devoted more and more of his life and energies to mentoring students in and around Washington, D.C. Fostered by administrative staff at NRL and NASA, he was constantly sought out to give lectures and address classes, and he became active in a number of STEM organizations, starting with the National Technical Association (NTA) that had been promoting science and engineering literacy among African Americans since the 1920s. Carruthers joined a chapter in 1978, writing short essays and notes keeping readers updated on opportunities in aerospace. He became editor of their Journal and remained with the NTA until 2013.

George also brought students into his laboratory to experience research in real-time. In the 1980s, he took part in creating what was called the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program, (SEAP) which supports summer co-op students to work and be mentored by NRL scientists to experience and appreciate science firsthand. Added to this, and to his NTA work, in the late 1980s, he was encouraged by Valerie Thomas to join a local activist organization, Project S.M.A.R.T., created by Congressman Mervyn Dymally, who chaired the Congressional Science and Technology Subcommittee. Carruthers engaged in a wide range of activities often orchestrated by Thomas and others, including public observatory viewings at Howard University, monthly Saturday speakers, and S.M.A.R.T. Day programs at our Museum.

George was no stranger to the Museum. I was always amazed with his outreach activities when he met with students in small groups, helping them appreciate what it feels like to experience space science, talking with them as a peer, not a professor. He was very obliging in the 1990s when we asked him to restore the flight backup instrument that we had in storage so that we could display it. He not only restored it beautifully but added the flown film cassette that he had in his storage room, which eventually emitted an acrid but harmless smell. One of the most touching parts of the story is that he had students who were in his laboratory at the time helping him conduct the restoration.

Over the years, Carruthers has received numerous awards and honors for his work. Notably in 2013, he was awarded the 2011 National Medal for Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama.

David H. DeVorkin is Senior Curator for the history of astronomy at the National Air and Space Museum. Portions of this blog derive from a manuscript biography he is preparing on the life of George Carruthers.

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George Robert Carruthers: Astronautical Engineer and Astronomer - National Air and Space Museum

The moon as seen from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

A Canadian space flier will join three NASA crew members on the first piloted flight of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft around the moon, becoming the first non-U.S. astronaut on a lunar voyage, officials announced last week.

There will be a second flight opportunity for a Canadian astronaut on a later NASA mission to the international Gateway station in orbit around the moon.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced the agreement for Canadian astronaut flights Dec. 16, as the agencies affirmed details of Canadas contribution to the Gateway station, which is intended to serve as a waypoint, spacecraft refueling station, and deep space research outpost in the vicinity of the moon.

Canada will join the U.S. on the first crewed mission to the moon since the Apollo missions, said Navdeep Bains, Canadas minister of innovation, science and industry. Launching in 2023, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut will be part of Artemis 2, the first mission to carry humans to lunar orbit in over 50 years. This will make Canada only the second country after the U.S. to have an astronaut in deep space.

Monica Witt, a NASA spokesperson, said the Artemis 2 crew will consist of three NASA astronauts and one Canadian space flier. The Artemis 2 mission is currently scheduled to launch in 2023.

The signature of a final agreement solidifies Canadas participation in the NASA-led Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon in the 2020s. The Trump administration has a schedule goal of 2024 for landing humans on the moons south pole, a timetable widely viewed as ambitious and one that could be reset for later in the 2020s by the incoming Biden administration.

Under NASAs Artemis architecture, astronauts will take off from Earth atop NASAs Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, fly to the moons vicinity in an Orion capsule, then link up with a human-rated lander for the trip to and from the lunar surface. The astronauts will then return to Earth in the Orion spacecraft.

An outpost named the Gateway, about one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, will be assembled in orbit around the moon. NASA has said the first two U.S.-owned elements of the Gateway could launch as soon as the end of 2023, although a report by the NASA inspector general in November suggested the launch of the stations power and propulsion module and habitation section was likely to slip into 2024.

Canada plans to build an upgraded robotic arm, named Canadarm3, for placement on the Gateway in the 2026 timeframe, according to NASA. The Canadian Space Agency has also formally agreed to provide robotic interfaces for Gateway modules, allowing the elements to host scientific instruments.

Canada was the first international partner to commit to advancing the Gateway in early 2019, they signed the Artemis Accords in October, and now were excited to formalize this partnership for lunar exploration, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. This agreement represents an evolution of our cooperation with CSA providing the next generation of robotics that have supported decades of missions in space on the space shuttle and International Space Station, and now, for Artemis.

The Canadarm3 robotic arm will be delivered to the Gateway by a commercial logistics mission, NASA said.. NASA has contracted with SpaceX to fly a bigger version of its Dragon cargo capsule to the Gateway in deep space. The Dragon XL will launch on SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket.

Gateway will enable a robust, sustainable, and eventually permanent human presence on the lunar surface where we can prove out many of the skills, operations, and technologies that will be key for future human Mars missions, said Kathy Lueders, NASAs associate administrator for human exploration and operations.

Earlier this month, NASA announced the selection of 18 U.S. astronauts to begin training for Artemis lunar missions. NASA has not revealed which of the astronauts will fly on the Artemis 2 mission the first crewed test flight of the Space Launch System and Orion capsule or on the first lunar landing mission.

Canadian officials did not announce which of its four active astronauts would take the seat on the Artemis 2 mission or the later flight to the Gateway.

Canadas fortunate to have a strong corps of highly trained professional astronauts, any one of whom would be an excellent choice, said Lisa Campbell, president of CSA. These decisions are made with all sorts of specific considerations at a moment in time when we get closer to flight.

The Artemis 2 mission will follow an uncrewed SLS/Orion test flight, named Artemis 1, scheduled to launch no earlier than late 2021 on a trip to lunar orbit and back to Earth.

On the Artemis 2 mission, the four-person Orion crew will fly on a hybrid free return trajectory around the moon.

After launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Space Launch System will place the Orion crew capsule into orbit around Earth, where the astronauts will perform checkouts, test out the ships rendezvous and docking systems, and then fire Orions service module engine to fly to the moon a quarter-million miles away.

The crew will not enter orbit around the moon, but the trajectory will naturally bring the Orion spacecraft directly back to Earth after the astronauts arc out to a distance of 4,600 miles (7,400 kilometers) beyond the far side of the moon, farther than any humans have ever traveled into space.

The Artemis 2 mission will last around 10 days, paving the way for future landing expeditions and longer-duration flights to the Gateway.

NASA is also working with other international partners on the Artemis program, although those partnerships have not yet yielded a firm commitment for flight assignments for astronauts from other nations.

The European Space Agency and NASA signed a memorandum of understanding in October for cooperation on the Gateway. ESA will provide a habitation module developed together with Japan, along with a module to support enhanced communications, in-space refueling, and equipped with a window similar to the European-built cupola on the International Space Station.

ESA is also building service modules for Orion missions. The service modules include solar panels to produce the crafts electrical power, and propellant tanks to feed the capsules rocket thrusters.

NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have signed a joint exploration declaration of intent to begin negotiations for Japanese contributions on the Artemis program. In addition to helping ESA with the habitation module, Japans space agency has also expressed interest in launching resupply missions to the Gateway using the countrys next-generation HTV-X cargo freighter.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last year that his country would provide robotics systems for the Gateway station near the moon. The government has committed 2.05 billion Canadian dollars (about $1.6 billion) over the next 24 years for the Canadarm3 program and associated robotic aids.

Canadas four active astronauts, based at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, have been training for space missions for years. Only one of the four astronauts, David Saint-Jacques, has flown in space aboard the International Space Station.

Im pretty excited that Canada has had the vision and the leadership to commit to something that we do so very well space robotics (and) to take it into its next evolution, said Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. This is a significant leap in technology. It has a lot of trickle down effects with respect to artificial intelligence.

The international (astronaut) corps here in Houston is over the moon excited by the prospect of these missions and for the opportunity for scientific discovery and innovation that they represent, saidJoshua Kutryk, one of Canadas four active astronauts.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Canadian astronaut to join NASA's first crewed Artemis mission around the moon - Spaceflight Now

Days after NASA signed two international memoranda of agreement related to missions for the Artemis moon program, there's good news on offer for its delayed Space Launch System rocket testing.

"Green run" tests on the new Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, which is scheduled for its debut launch in November 2021, are moving forward again after problems with ground equipment earlier this month pushed the testing behind, NASA announced Thursday (Dec. 17).

The rocket itself is fine, NASA said in a call to media Dec. 11, but temperature issues associated with ground equipment to fuel the tank had stalled the seventh of eight "wet dress" rehearsal exercises at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

Related: NASA SLS megarocket testing stalled by temperature issues

As of Thursday (Dec. 17), though, contractor Boeing and NASA started resuming the test, a "wet dress rehearsal" which involves fully loading the SLS core stage's liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks this week.

"Upon completion of the wet dress rehearsal, the team will spend a few days analyzing data to determine if NASA is ready to proceed with the final green run test: the hot fire when all four engines will ignite, simulating the countdown and launch of the Artemis 1 mission," NASA said Thursday on its Artemis website blog. The hot-fire test date will be set once the wet dress rehearsal data analysis is complete, NASA added.

The SLS being tested right now is supposed to be launching an Orion spacecraft on a round-the-moon uncrewed trip in late 2021, but the testing needs to be done soon to complete final shipment to Florida and construction to meet that flight date. This mission, called Artemis 1, must be completed before the crewed Artemis 2 moon orbit mission flies for its expected 2023 date, and NASA lands people on the moon during Artemis 3 by its deadline of 2024.

"We're getting to a point where we've got very little margin left in the schedule relative to our commitment to our delivery date," John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said about the Artemis 1 SLS testing during the Dec. 11 teleconference.

Flying SLS on time not only has importance for NASA, but for its international partners. Earlier this week, both the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency announced they had signed agreements with NASA related to participation in the Artemis program. CSA also announced it will fly an astronaut who has not yet been named on Artemis 2 in 2023, marking the first time anybody but an American will have left Earth orbit.

The pace of Artemis missions not only depends on SLS testing, but also on funding and other technology associated with the moon program. The 2024 moon push was officially set by the outgoing Donald Trump administration in 2019, accelerating the timeline in 2028.

More recently amid a pandemic not anticipated in 2019 now creating economic pressure around the world the 2021 fiscal budget for NASA has not yet been finalized. The new Joe Biden presidential administration will assume office in January, potentially adding its own ideas for NASA's exploration plans. NASA also needs to test moon equipment such as spacesuits prior to certifying them for flight.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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NASA SLS megarocket for the moon resumes testing after equipment hiccup - Space.com

Since 1961, more than 500 humans have flown into space. However, only 20 astronauts have stayed more than 90 days on long-duration space missions. If humans will one day travel to and from Mars, the round-trip will take 3 years. It is essential then, before those crew members ever launch, that we understand the effects long duration spaceflight has on the human body.

This unique environment consists of extreme conditions such as weightlessness, high radiation, variations in extreme temperature and pressure, among other health stressors. Long duration space flight significantly affects astronaut body mass index and what genes are expressed. Changes in metabolism, vascular health, the gastrointestinal microbiome, and cognitive performance were also observed during spaceflight. These adverse effects resolve upon return to earth as astronauts maintain vigorous exercise and nutrition programs for rehabilitation.

To study in depth the changes taking place in the human body over such a long mission in space, researchers need to look at everything from genetics to body mass. Among the Astronaut corps, NASA had a unique opportunity a set of genetically identical twin astronauts, Scott and Mark Kelly. For 340 days, Scott would be on the International Space Station (ISS), while Mark remained on Earth, both undergoing the same medical analyses, pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight to catalog the changes between the two.

The results were obtained from samples including saliva, stool, skin, urine and blood. Different molecular level techniques, cognitive tests, and biometric tests were used to understand the genetic, physiological and psychological changes in the astronauts.

The astronauts experienced changes in the expression of over 800 genes during spaceflight. Most of the genes returned to normal after flight, but some did not leading to changes in astronauts genetics and physiology. Space radiation may have damaged their DNA.

The midflight flu vaccination administered by the astronauts worked exactly as it does on Earth. This suggests the primary immune system functions were maintained during the flight, and vaccines were still an effective tool for protection.

Genes related to inflammation were more active, which may result from the human body reacting to long duration space flight. Researchers suggest telomeres (a region of DNA at the end of a chromosome) act as an aging clock in every cell, as we grow older our telomeres grow shorter. Telomere elongation was observed in space, but we cannot conclude that space is a miraculous location that adds to human longevity. Elongation may be due to the exercise and calorie-regulation astronauts maintain inflight.

A rapid shortening of telomeres in less than 45 hours was observed upon astronaut return to Earth, likely due to the extreme stresses associated with landing. Mainly the longer telomeres are associated with healthy lifestyle factors such as good nutrition and regular physical activity. However, it is unknown if telomere lengthening and shortening relate to aging in this case, because of the lack of research conducted on telomeres in microgravity.

Spaceflight might have effects on learning and cognition. The in-space astronaut could complete learning and work tasks with greater speed and accuracy, concluding that spaceflight may affect cognition positively.

Bone density is of great concern for space biology researchers. It is well known that spaceflight causes rapid loss of bone density, decreased muscle mass, and weight loss. These are common physiological changes observed in astronauts due to changes in gene and hormone regulation in space. Furthermore, due to microgravity, blood and fluids move from lower to upper body called headward fluid shift causing an appearance of a puffy face and skinny legs. This fluid shift may lead to increased pressure in the veins and capillaries of the eyes causing vision problems in astronauts.

Research also suggests astronauts are at high risk for dehydration, evidenced by changes in the gene AQP2, which regulates water reabsorption in the body and is a useful indicator of hydration status. On the ISS, the isolated and confined environment of the astronauts puts them in a degree of psychological stress. Meanwhile, eating only freeze-dried or heat-stabilized prepackaged food in space is different from what astronauts are used to eating on Earth. These psychological and nutritional stressors in astronauts negatively affect the function of beneficial gut microbes. This change in the gut microbiome results in alterations of immunity, physiology, and even psychological well-being.

The NASA twin study generated unique biomedical data on the effect of a year-long spaceflight on the human body. Most of the biological changes returned to baseline after the 340-day space mission, suggesting that human health can be mostly sustained over this spaceflight duration. As the researchers suggest, the space environment leads to potential health risks. Exercise, a good diet, and personalized medicine will make multi-year space exploration safe for astronauts. These advancements also have the potential to improve Earth medicine as well.

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How does the human body react to being in space? - Sciworthy

As my arms rose above my head and my feet left the ground, I thought to myself: "?!?!"

This October, I left the comfortable embrace of Earth's gravity, taking to the skies aboard a "zero-gravity flight." I embarked on a plane ride aboard the Zero Gravity Corporation's (Zero-G) "G-Force One," a customized Boeing 727 airplane that flies passengers in a series of specially designed parabolas, or arc motions, to create weightlessness, simulating zero gravity, lunar gravity and Martian gravity in the cabin.

First: how does it work?

Think of the airplane like the cars of a rollercoaster, going up and over steep inclines and then plummeting down, only to come back up and climb another hill. But, instead of metal coaster tracks, the airplane goes up and over carefully planned-out parabolas in a slice of sky away from other planes for safety.

And, just as you might rise out of your seat going over the top of a rollercoaster's peak, as you crest over each parabola in the plane, your body lifts into the air. But, while technically you're in freefall, you actually float around the craft.

Related: TV's 'The Bachelor' takes a ride with Zero G

Additionally, as you round out the bottom of the parabolas, you feel increased gravity about 1.8 g's, or gravitational forces. (Earth's "normal" gravitational pull at the planet's surface is 1 g.) Now, depending on which of the 15 parabolas the plane is currently flying on, you either feel simulated zero gravity and float weightlessly or you feel simulated lunar gravity or Martian gravity.

So, what does it actually feel like?

Getting to the point: it feels nothing like I could have ever possibly imagined. It's the kind of feeling you can't anticipate, but once you've had the experience, the feeling is impossible to shake. Even while writing this, I keep finding my head spinning and my mind drifting off, back to the G-Force One cabin.

Now, I have seen countless videos of people floating weightlessly aboardG-Force One and thought that I had at least a pretty good rough idea of what was to come as I boarded the helicopter to the airport. (We all went in helicopters, which only added to the excitement and insanity of it all.)

Boarding the plane, my heart was pounding out of my chest with anticipation, beyond eager to jump head-first into this bucket-list item. I was a bit nervous that the flight might make me nauseated (and we all had "barf bags" secured in our flight suit pockets just in case), but since most people who take this flight don't get sick, I wasn't too worried.

After a short flight into the slice of sky where we would begin the parabolas, we all left our seats and walked forward into the main part of the cabin while wearing masks (Zero-G has changed its operations to include a number of COVID-19 safety precautions). The walls, floor and ceiling all were heavily padded for safe floating, and we all went to find our own space on the floor to lie down as we would soon feel the "heavy" 1.8 g's before lifting up on the first parabola a lunar parabola simulating gravity on the moon's surface.

Fun in zero-g: Weightless photos from Earth and space

The increased gravity wasn't uncomfortable; in fact, it felt kind of comforting being pushed against the bottom of the plane like a gravitational weighted blanket. But before I knew it, we were flying over the crest, and I felt the ground give way.

What I expected to feel was the sensation of floating. From watching Zero-G flyers float on the plane to seeing videos of countless astronauts floating in space, it seemed reasonable to assume that what looked like floating might, well, feel a bit like floating. But instead, it was a sensation entirely its own.

What I realized pretty much immediately is that, as a human, my brain has been hard-wired to function with Earth's gravity, and I've gotten pretty used to Earth's gravity in my years on this planet. So, when it was taken away and I got my first taste of lunar gravity, my brain didn't know what to make of it. It was so amazingly, incredibly bizarre I might even liken it to a psychedelic experience.

In fact, I was so disoriented that it took me a minute to adjust my eyes to try and see straight as I stood up and my arms flew instantly above my head. I knew that with less gravity, every tiny action would merit a much bigger physical response, but actually experiencing it is completely wild! I barely moved and yet I was catapulting to the (padded) ceiling in absolute disbelief of the myriad of sensations rushing through me.

As soon as I had just begun to wrap my head around what was happening, we were nearing the bottom of the parabola and I lay back down on the cabin floor for the next round of 1.8 g's and my next moments in lunar gravity.

One really special part of experiencing lunar gravity, I found, was that I suddenly felt a little bit closer to the Apollo astronauts bunny-hopping across the lunar surface. As someone who grew up in utter awe of NASA's early, pioneering astronauts and the incredible journeys they took, feeling what those bouncing, awkward steps on the moon may have felt like was beyond words.

Mesmerized like a kid at Disney World for the first time, staring at Cinderella's castle, I continued to float through lunar gravity, Martian gravity and, finally, total weightlessness. When we crested over the top of the first "zero gravity" weightless parabola, I lifted right off of the ground, bewildered my senses somehow even more confused and distorted than before.

Flight coach Ray Cronise, an author and scientist who served as an assistant mission scientist on four Spacelab missions during his 15-year career at NASA, helped to guide me and other flyers through the day. As my feet left the ground, he tossed me a colorful "koosh ball"l so I could see it floating weightlessly and experience the absolute magic of manipulating objects without gravity. I tried to catch it and, again a bit clumsy as I adjusted, caught it while tumbling backward head over heels (literally). Trying desperately not to bump into the others who were also getting used to it all, I made my best effort to get rightside-up again, experiencing my limbs and their movement without gravity for the first time.

At this point, the up-and-down motion of the plane and the overall sensory overload was starting to catch up to me, and I began feeling just a bit queasy. Upon lying back down to prepare for the next round of weightlessness, I realized that I might be getting sick on this flight after all. As the gravity pushed heavily against me, I stared straight ahead, hoping that if I kept my gaze focused on a single point the nausea would subside.

I kept my eyes locked, desperately, on a small knob on the ceiling, hoping that this focused stare might right the chaos that my brain was working feverishly to make sense of. But, alas, as gravity once again dissipated and I floated back upward, I saw Cronise floating over to me. As someone who's flown countless times, he knew the instant that I wasn't feeling well and he escorted me into a buckled seat in the back of the plane so I could try and catch my breath (and catch...well...you know).

More: Weightlessness and its effect on astronauts

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make a miraculous comeback, and both my flying partner and I ended up spending the last portion of the flight buckled into seats in the back, clutching our barf bags tightly. While disgusting and unpleasant as puking while weightless is, it was a quick and effective lesson in fluid dynamics, giving me a firsthand glimpse into how liquids behave when no longer acting in accordance with Earth's gravity.

Luckily, we were the only ones on the entire flight to get sick at all I chalk it up to not taking any kind of anti-nausea medication before the flight (not even the most basic over-the-counter Dramamine). So, at the very least, I know the mistake I will not make if I ever have the opportunity to go weightless again.

Landing back on Earth and making my way home was a blur as I both attempted to settle my stomach and came to terms with the unbelievable day I'd just had. But, little did I know, the ride wasn't quite over. As I lay my head down to go sleep that night, I found myself instantly transported to the belly of the plane; lying back flat against the cabin, pressed down by the 1.8 g-forces, awaiting the next round of weightlessness.

For just that night, every time I'd close my eyes, I would find myself feeling that heavy gravity once again. I'd liken it to drifting off to sleep at night after spending the entire day floating in the ocean and still seeming to feel the rocking waves of the sea. But, instead of the ocean's waves, I fell asleep while feeling the heavy burden of gravity, only for it to lift from my chest, lifting me with it, over and over again.

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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I flew weightlessly on a Zero-G plane and it was nothing like I expected - Space.com

NASA has awarded the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Charge Management Device (CMD) contract to the University of Florida, Gainesville.

The total value of this cost-no-fee contract is $12,582,356.00. The period of performance is from Jan 1, 2021 through July 31, 2025. The work under this contract will be performed at the University of Florida.

Under this contract the contractor will design, fabricate, integrate, test, verify and deliver the breadboard, the Engineering Development Unit, and Engineering Test Unit CMD and the Fiber Optic Harness. The CMD is part of LISA, a state-of-the-art space-based gravitational wave telescope to address key questions in astrophysics and is a part of the (ESA) European Space Agencys Cosmic Visions Program.

LISA is an international project led by ESA as a space-borne gravitational wave observatory. NASA has partnered with ESA on this space mission to provide key enabling technologies. LISA is planned to consist of three spacecraft that are separated by 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) in an Earth-trailing orbit. These three spacecraft relay laser beams back and forth between different spacecraft and the signals are combined to search for gravitational wave signatures that come from distortions of space-time. The study of the universe through gravitational waves will yield a revolutionary perspective on the universe, which has been intensely studied using electromagnetic waves in many wavelength bands.

The Charge Management Device is a critical payload sub-system that uses ultraviolet light to control the electric charge on the free-falling test masses housed in each LISA spacecraft. These test masses act as the end-mirrors for the laser beams and must be isolated from all unwanted forces. The CMD prevents electric charge build-up on the test masses that would otherwise create noise that would prevent the observation of gravitational waves.

Among NASAs contributions to the LISA mission, the CMD is the only one provided by a U.S. academic institution. The CMD team at the University of Florida (UF) is led by Principal Investigator, John W. Conklin, Ph.D. in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) and Program Manager, Peter Wass, Ph.D., also MAE at UFs Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

This team will work with Fibertek, Inc. in Herndon, VA, and other industrial partners to complete two design-build-test phases of the CMD. Advanced prototypes of the spacecraft hardware will be delivered to NASA and then to Italy, where they will integrated with other elements of the LISA payload and then tested to demonstrate their ability to control the electric charge on the LISA test masses.

Dr. Conklins research team will provide both the hardware for major scientific exploration as well as important education experience for UF students in a ground-breaking space flight mission, thus positioning them as future leaders in advanced aerospace engineering.

UF News December 22, 2020

Link:

UF awarded NASA contract to build space exploration device - University of Florida