Category: Space

Aria Alamalhodaei, writing at TechCrunch:

After a nearly three-year interlude, Jared Isaacman is returning to space. The billionaire entrepreneur first went to orbit as part of the Inspiration4 mission, which made history for having a crew comprised entirely of private citizens, not professional astronauts. But with this next mission, Polaris Dawn, he and mission partner SpaceX have set their sights even higher.

Literally: Polaris Dawn will fly farther than any mission using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to date, while also soaring through portions of the Van Allen radiation belt for the first time since the days of the Apollo missions.

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Jay Peters, writing at The Verge:

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket experienced an engine failure after it launched late Thursday night from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission, Starlink Group 9-3, was carrying Starlink satellites and failed to reignite its upper second stage after developing a leak. “Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown,” Elon Musk said overnight, confirming that the engine experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

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Last year, NASA announced plans to deorbit the International Space Station at the end of the decade. We now know much more about the agency’s plans, according to Jeff Foust:

NASA selected SpaceX to develop a spacecraft that will be used to perform the final phases of the deorbiting of the International Space Station around the end of the decade.

NASA announced June 26 it awarded SpaceX a contract valued at up to $843 million to build the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV). That contract covers the development of the spacecraft, with NASA to conduct a later procurement for launching the USDV.

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Robert Lea, writing about our far-flung friend:

NASA’s interstellar explorer Voyager 1 is finally communicating with ground control in an understandable way again. On Saturday (April 20), Voyager 1 updated ground control about its health status for the first time in 5 months. While the Voyager 1 spacecraft still isn’t sending valid science data back to Earth, it is now returning usable information about the health and operating status of its onboard engineering systems.

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A week from today, a large portion of the United States will be witness to a solar eclipse. Here in Memphis, we’ll see 97.7% coverage at 1:56 PM CDT. I’ll be traveling with my family to Arkansas, to experience 100% coverage. NASA has published a website that will tell you what to expect at your location.

I just hope the forecasts for clouds turn out to be wrong.

We also traveled for the 2017 eclipse, and it was incredible. Jason Snell and I spoke about our experiences on episode 54 of Liftoff.

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Cheyenne MacDonald, writing at Engadget:

It turns out Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus spacecraft didn’t land upright after all. In a press conference with NASA Friday evening, the company revealed the lander is laying on its side after coming in a little faster than expected, likely catching its foot on the surface at the moment of landing. Fortunately, Odysseus is positioned in such a way that its solar panels are still getting enough light from the sun to keep it charged, and the team has been able to communicate with it. Pictures from the surface should be coming soon.

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Aria Alamalhodaei, writing at TechCrunch:

Intuitive Machines has landed a spacecraft on the lunar surface, in a historic first for a private company.

Flight controllers confirmed the landing at 5:23 p.m. CST, though the exact condition of the spacecraft is unclear as engineers work to refine their signal with the lander.

“What we can confirm without a doubt is that our equipment is on the surface of the moon and we are transmitting,” mission director and Intuitive Machines CTO Tim Crain said. “So congratulations IM team, we’ll see how much more we can get from that.”

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What happens when you are afraid a member of a spaceflight crew is going to do something really stupid? You lock the hatch, apparently. This story is wild.

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This video explaining how the shuttle got to space is the best I’ve ever seen. Real Engineering does a great job with these.

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Kenneth Chang has a wonderful piece for The New York Times walking through the history and usage of NASA’s iconic logo:

Last month, NASA welcomed Richard Danne to its headquarters in Washington to celebrate work he had done nearly half a century ago.

Mr. Danne never studied the stars. He never built a rocket.

But he and his design partner, Bruce Blackburn, came up with one of the most recognizable elements of the space agency: the logo known as the “worm,” with the acronym N-A-S-A spelled out in bold, sinewy, orange-red letterforms.

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James Gilboy, writing at The Drive, about a NASA project I was not aware of until recently:

The TAV’s story begins in 1993, when NASA was upgrading the Space Shuttle’s landing gear. After gliding down through the atmosphere, the 240,000-pound Space Shuttles would land at speeds up to 288 mph, placing enormous stress on their tires. They had to endure triple the load of a Boeing 747 tire, so they weighed 230 pounds apiece according to Michelin, and were nitrogen-filled to as high as 373 psi.

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Abbey A. Donaldson:

NASA’s new on-demand streaming service and upgraded app are now available, ushering in a new world of original content from the space agency for the benefit of all. These new digital platforms are the landing place of original video series, live launch coverage, kids’ content, Spanish-language programming, and the latest news as NASA continues to improve life on Earth through innovation, exploration, and discovery.

Even more free and compelling space content on all of my devices? Yes, please!

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