Space

South Korean rocket startup Innospace is planning to launch its suborbital technology demonstration rocket, HANBIT-TLV, later this month. The launch will validate the company's hybrid rocket engine that uses liquid oxygen and paraffin-based propellants. While the company set December 14-21 as a launch window at the Alcântara Space Center in northern Brazil, the company said the exact date and time will be decided after consultations with the Brazilian air force.

NASA has signed the US $3.2-billion SLS Stages Production and Evolution Contract with Boeing for the manufacture of the core and upper stages of future Space Launch System (SLS) rockets for the Artemis missions going to the Moon and beyond, NASA said.

Online fashion retailer Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire who purchased all the seats aboard SpaceX’s Starship, has picked eight crew members to accompany him on the journey. for the first-ever artist-centered mission.

The UAE-built Rashid Rover, the first Emirati mission to the surface of the Moon, lifted off on board a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, US, at 11.38 am UAE time on Monday, December 11, 2022. 

Our Space Café “33 minutes with Joel Spark” took place on Tuesday, 6th December at Spire Glasgow. Joel is an ISU (international Space University) alumnus and the Co-Founder of Spire. He is currently the company’s Chief Satellite Architect and General Manager of Space Services - more on that later. He holds a Master’s degree in Space Management from the ISU and a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Carleton University, specializing in structures, systems, and vehicle design.

Global lunar exploration company, ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has successfully established communications with Earth following its launch by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket yesterday, the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed.

Sidus Space, Inc., a Space-as-a-Service company focused on mission-critical hardware manufacturing combined with commercial satellite design, manufacture, launch, and data collection recently signed an agreement with Exolaunch. The agreement will see Sidus Space use Exolaunch's CarboNIX separation system to deploy LizzieSatTM satellites during the LizzieSat rideshare missions with SpaceX in 2023 and 2024. This agreement includes comprehensive technical support that ensures safe, reliable LizzieSat microsatellite deployment.

Yesterday, December 11, 2022, marked the end of the first Artemis mission as NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 17:40 GMT/18:40 CET after traveling around the Moon and farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans and return them to Earth.

In this week’s Space Café Brazil, Ian Grosner talked with Bruno Sarli, a Brazilian Aerospace Engineer. Bruno Sarli is a PhD Aerospace Engineer with 13 years of experience, most recently focused on space flight dynamics for the past seven years.  After graduating in Aeronautics in Brazil and Space Engineering in Europe, he moved to Japan where he obtained a PhD in Engineering while working for ISAS/JAXA as a researcher. In 2016, Bruno joined NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where he focused on mission design and planetary defense.