Spaceflight news

— Megaconstellations in the news

— Viasat asking for halt to building out Starlink (spacenews.com)

— Chinese Guowang constellation (spacenews.com)

— SATCON2 is coming up on July 12-16 (aas.org)

— New Frontiers 5 will be delayed (spacenews.com) (wiki)

Short & Sweet

— Mars helicopter lands safely despite computer glitch (space.com)

— Multiple new Lunar Rovers planned for coming years (space.com) (techcrunch.com) (spacenews.com)

— Tianzhou-2 docks with Chinese space station (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Etienne via email: book recommendation on corrosion (thriftbooks.com)

— Kickstarter for a book on Katherine Johnson (kickstarter.com)

— From the intro:

— ISS debris strike (cnet.com)

— On-orbit conjunction live data stream (astriacss.tacc.utexas.edu)

This week in SF history

— 4 Jun, 2012. NASA announces NRO’s donation of two Hubble-class space telescopes to the agency (wiki) (spaceflightnow.com) (PDF: science.nasa.gov)

— WFIRST DRM1 and 2 (PDF: roman.gsfc.nasa.gov) (roman.gsfc.nasa.gov)

— WFIRST-AFTA (PDF: roman.gsfc.nasa.gov) (PDF: iopscience.iop.org)

— SALSO produced multiple proposals for the second satellite via an RFI (exoplanets.nasa.gov) (thespacereview.com)

— Next week (6/8 - 6-14) in 1969. Shut it down. (But keep some of the camera parts.)

Spaceflight news

— Zhurong rover dismounts from lander (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Rocket Lab failure analysis (spacenews.com) (rocketlabusa.com)

— Crew-3 Finalized (americaspace.com)

— SpaceShipTwo returns to the skies! (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Not catching is different than not recovering! (twitter.com/chairboy)

— From the intro: Blue Ghost to fly on Falcon 9 (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history

— 30 May, 1975: Founding of ESA (PDF: esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (6/1 - 6/7) in 2012: Binoculars to ploughshares

Spaceflight news

— Rocket Lab Recovery (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (rocketlabusa.com)

— Scott Manley demonstrated the TVC angle on 2nd stage ignition (twitter.com/DJSnM)

— SpaceX files for Starship orbital launch radio license (spacenews.com)

— SPX may have competition for HLS (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— China successfully lands rover on Mars (spacenews.com)

— Ariane 5 fairing issue may delay JWST(spacenews.com)

— Russia announces two actors, Japanese billionaire, to fly to space station (reuters.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

This week in SF history

— 19 May, 1996 - Launch of STS-77 (nasa.gov) (doi.org) (HT Colin: youtube.com) (HT Colin: eoportal.org)

— The Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE) had residual air that caused premature inflation (space.stackexchange.com)

— Next week (5/25 - 5/31) in 1975: Last week we deflated something, this week we inflated something, next week let’s unite something.

Spaceflight news

— Awards, awards, awards

— Eta Space - In-orbit cryogenic refueling (spaceref.com)

— JPL - Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (cnet.com) (jpl.nasa.gov)

— Loft Orbital - Edge computing on spacecraft (spacenews.com)

— Northrop - Navigation payloads on Blackjack sats (spacenews.com)

— Raytheon - Update NASA’s EO IT system (govconwire.com) (earthdata.nasa.gov)

— Hughes and OneWeb - LEO-based Arctic internet (spacenews.com)

— Isar Aerospace - Won ESA’s Boost! Award (spacenews.com)

— SN15 lands successfully (spacenews.com) (teslarati.com) (youtu.be) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— There were some unknown vehicle updates (twitter.com/elonmusk)

— It was a safe landing, but the crush core in the legs did activate. (twitter.com/starshipgazer)

— SN15 MAY get reflown! (twitter.com/elonmusk)

Short & Sweet

— Starliner nears its second test flight (spacenews.com)

— European Space Agency to launch orbital debris-tracking telescope (space.com)

— Firefly has a successful funding round (spacenews.com)

— Geyer steps down as Johnson Director (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Colin in the chat: Ingenuity audio (mars.nasa.gov)

This week in SF history

— 11 May, 1963. Collapse of Atlas Agena D due to a depressurized tank while still on the launchpad (thespacereview.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (HT Colin: youtube.com) (youtube.com)

— Next week (5/18 - 5/24) in 1996: This week we deflated something. Next week, let’s inflate something instead.

Spaceflight news

— Long March 5B set for uncontrolled re-entry (spacenews.com)

— The module raised and is maintaining orbit (HT Colin: heavens-above.com)

— The booster is slowly deorbiting (HT Mike: heavens-above.com)

— Amateur video shows the booster in a 2.4 hz tumble (twitter.com/dfuji1)

— BIG Ingenuity Update!

— Flight 3 was a success (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

— Flight 4 was a delayed success (space.com) (spacenews.com)

— Ingenuity’s mission was extended (twitter.com/jeff_foust) (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Virgin Orbit to launch out of Brazil (smallsatnews.com)

— Blue Origin and Dynetics protest HLS award (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

— Nelson confirmed as NASA Administrator (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Ben Hallert: ACES details (twitter.com/chairboy)

— ACES had on-orbit refueling (arstechnica.com)

— Centaur V has a hydrolox RCS… Peroxide was a typo! (twitter.com/torybruno)

This week in SF history

— 5 May, 1999: The failed second flight of Delta III (spacelaunchreport.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (astronautix.com)

— Investigation concluded the combustion chamber was breached (spaceflightnow.com) (PDF HT Mike: orbireport.com)

— Next week (5/11 - 5/17)  in 1963: *balloon squeak*

Spaceflight news

— Renewable Space Updates (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

— ACES scrapped, but lives on in Centaur V (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/torybruno)

— Centaur III features the optional Aft Bulkhead Carrier (PDF: ulalaunch.com)

Short & Sweet

— MOXIE operates for the first time on Mars (space.com)

— Ingenuity flight 2 (mars.nasa.gov) (mars.nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (HT Colin in the chat: youtube.com)

— OneWeb and Starlink cross paths (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history

— 1 May, 1999. Failure of the ABRIXAS X-ray telescope (adsabs.harvard.edu) (nature.com) (skyrocket.de) (sci-hub.se)

— Next week (5/4 - 5/10) in 1999: In hindsight it didn’t seem like it would work.

Spaceflight news

— HLS downselection - Starship chosen (PDF: nasa.gov) (twitter.com/jeff_foust)

— HLS Base Period Source Selection occurred last year. (PDF: beta.sam.gov)

— Berger/Davenport were assumed to be wrong by some. (twitter.com/lavie154)

— NASA internally apologized for the leak. (twitter.com/joroulette)

— The US Senate wasn’t happy this selection occurred before a new Administrator could be confirmed. (twitter.com/wapodavenport)

— Dynetics was planning on using on-orbit propellant transfer, not just bolting on tanks. (HT Ben Hallert: spacenews.com) (HT Ben Hallert: spectrum.ieee.org)

— Subsequent acquisitions are expected, so don’t count anyone out just yet. (spacepolicyonline.com)

Short & Sweet

— Pam Melroy nominated as Deputy Administrator (twitter.com/Astro_Pam) (nasa.gov)

— NASA’s InSight to hibernate for the winter (thehill.com)

— New Shepard flies again (nasaspaceflight.com)

This week in SF history

— 4 Apr, 1997. STS-83 had to be aborted on-orbit due to a fuel cell anomaly (science.ksc.nasa.gov) (astronautix.com)

— Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) managed to return data before the abort. (princeton.edu)

— STS-83 was reflown as STS-94, the next available consecutive number on July 1st 1997 (en.wikipedia.org)

— After some digging, Mike Stewart suggests the fuel cell problem was never identified (HT Mike: scribd.com) (HT Mike: cbsnews.com)

— Next week (4/27 - 5/3)  in 1999. If a spacecraft takes data but can’t transmit it back to Earth, does it make a science?

Spaceflight news

— ISS’s crew of ten (spacepolicyonline.com) (spacenews.com)

— Rocket Lab to test booster recovery from space this May (rocketlabusa.com)

— Two new Chinese spaceports planned (spacenews.com)

— End-to-end testing of Lunar Gateway SEP system completed (americaspace.com)

Short & Sweet

— Space startup Phase Four wins government contract (spacenews.com)

— Biden administration asks for 6.3% increase to NASA’s budget (spacepolicyonline.com)

— JWST packs its sunshield in preparation for October launch (satnews.com)

— Ingenuity Flight 1 delayed (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Ben Hallert via Discord: Spacelab isn’t Skylab.

— From the intro: no more fairing catching (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut) (spacexfleet.com)

This week in SF history

— April 15, 2005: DART Collides with MUBLCOM (nasa.gov) (en.wikipedia.org)

— DART stands for Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology

— MUBLCOM stands for Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-of-Sight Communications

— Next week (4/20 - 4/26) in 1997: Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Spaceflight news

— Failed data bus on Crew Dragon (HT Kevin Smith: blogs.nasa.gov)

— SN11 landing failure (space.com) (twitter.com/Bojay_stellar) (twitter.com/TrevorMahlmann)

Short & Sweet

— Rocket Lab preparing for Moon Mission (twitter.com/RocketLab) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Everyday people in space (spaceflightnow.com)

— NASA buys lunar gravity from Blue Origin (nasa.gov)

— HLS award should be here soon (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— From the intro: ingenuity deployed (space.com)

Last week in SF history

— 4 Apr, 1983: The launch of TDRS-A aboard STS-6 (space.nss.org) (spacefacts.de) (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasa.gov) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com)

— Footage of TDRS-E’s deployment in 1991 was shot with much better cameras (youtu.be)

— Next week (4/13 - 4/19) in 2005: Bullseye?

Spaceflight news

— Bill Nelson to be nominated as next NASA head (spacenews.com) (whitehouse.gov)

— Debris mayhem

— Space Force would hire deorbiting satellites (spacenews.com)

— Astroscale’s demo will launch on the GK Launch Services rideshare Soyuz (spacenews.com)

— NOAA-17 broke up (spacenews.com) (HT Mike Stewart: archive.org) 

Short & Sweet

— Chang’e 5 orbiter begins extended mission (spacenews.com)

— JWST on target for launch in October (spacenews.com) (theatlantic.com)

— Super Heavy is being stacked (teslarati.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)

— Capella releases dish deployment video (cnbc.com) (directory.eoportal.org)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Emory S. via Discord: on-orbit servicing thoughts

This week in SF history

— 24 Mar, 2006. HiRISE takes its first images of Mars (space.com) (newscientist.com) (mars.nasa.gov)

— Next week (3/30 - 4/5) in 1983. A little deeper pool.