Tag Archives: Nasa

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has selected DCUBED as its first choice for space pin pullers for the critical Space Qualified Rover Lidar (SQRLi) Support project. The SQRLi project is a LIDAR engineering test unit with a 35m or greater range sensor array to provide a 40×40 field of view and operate under poor lighting conditions for rover-based missions and autonomous exploration of extreme environments like permanently shadowed lunar craters. 

NASA has released its initial assessment of models for a next generation microgravity national laboratory. In September 2022, the National Space Council directed NASA to develop a plan led by the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) and the Office for Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS). NASA’s OTPS conducted a study of various candidate models of future operations between a National Laboratory and various Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD). Six models were identified ranging from high to low levels of government oversight with three different economic models. 

Astrobotic announced on the 19th of December that their Peregrine lunar lander has successfully completed all integration milestones and was mated with United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket payload adapter on the 16th of November. After the three week campaign to fuel and complete final checkouts, the Peregrine spacecraft is ready to launch to the Moon on the 8th of January 2024. 

NASA has launched its Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument as a payload on Intelsat 40E aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The instrument aims to provide unprecedented resolution of monitoring major air pollutants – down to four square miles. As a result, it also aims to improve life on Earth by revolutionizing the way scientists observe air quality from space. 

Axiom Space announced it plans to launch its third mission, Ax-3, on the 9th of January 2024.  Four commercial astronauts will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Dr Slavka Andrejkovičová, CAMões Mission Control, and Principal Investigator at the GeoBioTec research unit at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Torsten spoke with Slavka on the evening before the CAMões Mission analog astronauts left the cave. They have been on the mission for over 6 days already.

In the first half of 2023 I conducted a study on the future of the global space economy for the future studies institute 2b AHEAD. Being based on in-depth expert interviews from both inside and outside the space sector, the study contains some wild predictions for the upcoming two decades: private space stations, modular, repairable satellites, a permanent Moon base, and nuclear propulsion. But many of these predictions stand on the assumption that SpaceX’s Starship will, as promised, dramatically ease accessibility to space. What if Starship fails? In this article, I would like to provide an overview of the consequences of Starship’s failure for future human activities in space.

The Peregrine Lunar Lander is set to land on Christmas eve. It intends to touch down on a region of ancient lunar lava flows, Sinus Viscositatis, the Bay of Stickiness. This will be the first mission to launch under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. It will lift off on the first flight of the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Join us in this episode of Space Cafe as Markus Mooslechner talks with University Toulouse astrophysicist Dr Naomi Murdoch about the fascinating sonic environment of Mars. As a planetary scientist and space engineer, Murdoch provides an in-depth look at the sounds recorded by the Perseverance rover and what they tell us about the Red Planet. From the first audio recordings on Mars to the insights gained about Martian wind and dust devils, Murdoch's discussion offers a profound understanding of Mars' unique acoustic landscape.

by Christophe Bosquillon   At most conferences, there’s always the excuse of a plane to catch if you want to skip that last lunch keynote address. In the case of the latest von Braun Space Symposium thou, it would have been ill-advised. Mike Griffin delivered a compelling call to arms …