Astor Perkins’ Post

SpaceX will launch 2 private lunar landers this week, kicking off busy year for moon missions There are so many missions flying to the moon this year, they had to fit two on one rocket. The Falcon 9 will carry both landers to Earth orbit, where each will begin independent trajectories toward the moon. Ghost Riders in the Sky, the mission for Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander, is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver scientific payloads to the surface of the moon. The second lander, Resilience, comes from Japan-based company ispace, and is the second mission the company has flown in an attempt to land on the moon. ispace's Mission 2 will deploy after Blue Ghost and will take about four times longer to complete its mission. Blue Ghost's 60-day mission from Earth to the moon will end about five hours after night falls on the lander's location. The spacecraft will preserve the last of its battery power to capture an image of the lunar sunset before powering down. ispace is taking a step-by-step approach with Hakuto-R Mission 2, laying out a 10-step list of milestones Resilience will complete on its way to the moon, with a separate checklist for goals reached following a successful touchdown on the lunar surface. The lander is aiming for Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold), in the moon's northern hemisphere, where it will begin surface operations, including the deployment of an onboard microrover named Tenacious, which will collect a sample of regolith (moon dust) as part of a contract with NASA. M-2 is expected to launch sometime in February, and is also headed to the moon's south polar region — this time, to a ridge near Shackleton Crater. IM-2 will carry a number of CLPS payloads for NASA, including an instrument called PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1) that will help confirm the abundance of water ice in the area. A third Nova-C lander will deliver another round of CLPS experiments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface for the space agency, and is slated to launch sometime later in 2025 on the IM-3 mission. Astrobotic is also targeting this year for its Griffin Mission One, another probe carrying NASA CLPS payloads. The company's Peregrine lunar lander launched last year but failed to reach the moon due to a fuel leak. Instead, the probe's handlers brought it back to Earth, where it burned up during atmospheric reentry above the Pacific Ocean. NASA's many CLPS contracts are focused on forwarding the efforts of the agency's Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the moon in 2027, and eventually to set up a base in the lunar southern polar region, where water ice appears to be plentiful. NASA awarded Human Landing Services (HLS) contracts to companies to deliver astronauts to the surface of the moon. https://lnkd.in/ecYmKSfi

Two private lunar landers launch on Wednesday https://ift.tt/AwuXMrf There will soon be a lot of work on the Moon. This week, a pair of landers are launching aboard a SpaceX rocket to land on the lunar surface and unpack a host of scientific instruments. The two missions are part of a commercial push for lunar exploration that marks the beginning of a new era of private spaceflight. The launch of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and ispace’s Resilience lander is scheduled for Wednesday, January 15 at 1:11 a.m. ET. The missions will launch from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. launching will live-stream the launch on its website and NASA+, beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The way to the moon Although both vehicles will launch together, each will follow its own trajectory to the Moon. The Firefly mission, called “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” will take 45 days to reach the Moon. For the first 25 days after the launch, the Blue Ghost lander will orbit the Earth, after which the engine will put it on a flight path to the Moon. Blue Ghost will spend four days on its way to the Moon, and another 16 days orbiting the Earth’s satellite before attempting a soft landing on its dusty surface. The Resilience lander, on the other hand, will take a much slower route to the moon. After operating in an elliptical transition orbit, the lander will circle the Moon, switching to a low-energy trajectory for a planned soft landing on the Moon. The Japanese startup’s first mission to the moon, launched in April 2023, took about four and a half months to reach lunar orbit, but ultimately the lander failed to land on the surface; the Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) lunar vehicle, as it was named, fell rapidly toward the moon and crashed on its surface. The Hakuto-R M1 carried both commercial and government payloads, including a tiny two-wheeled robot transformer from the Japanese Space Agency. Clear for landing After traveling to the Moon, both vehicles will target lunar mares – flat, dark plains formed by ancient collisions that were subsequently flooded with lava and other materials. In particular, Blue Ghost is targeting Mare Crisium, the site of an ancient asteroid impact that was once filled with basaltic lava. According to NASA, the basalts on Mare Crisium are between 2.5 and 3.3 billion years old. As for ispace’s Resilience, the lander is to explore Mare Frigoris, located in the far north of the Moon. The name of the place translates to “sea of cold” as it stretches along the northern part of the lunar disk for almost 900 miles (1,400 kilometers). What is inside the Blue Ghost landing module? Texas-based Firefly’s first mission to the moon is a collaboration with NASA under the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to develop commercial cargo delivery services to the moon. NASA is working with its industry partners to develop landers that...

SpaceX will launch 2 private lunar landers this week, kicking off busy year for moon missions Two private lunar landers are set to launch this week aboard the same rocket, kicking off a busy year of missions to the moon. A six-day window for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the missions begins early Wednesday morning (Jan. 15), with liftoff scheduled for 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 GMT) from Launch Complex-39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The Falcon 9 will carry both landers to Earth orbit, where each will begin independent trajectories toward the moon. Ghost Riders in the Sky, the mission for Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander, is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver scientific payloads to the surface of the moon. The second lander, Resilience, comes from Japan-based company ispace, and is the second mission the company has flown in an attempt to land on the moon. ispace's Mission 2 will deploy after Blue Ghost and will take about four times longer to complete its mission. Blue Ghost will spend 25 days orbiting Earth ahead of an engine burn to set its trajectory toward the moon. After another 20 days — four in transit, plus another 16 in lunar orbit — if everything performs nominally, the lander will autonomously touch down in Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises") to begin two weeks of lunar science. Blue Ghost's 60-day mission from Earth to the moon will end about five hours after night falls on the lander's location. The spacecraft will preserve the last of its battery power to capture an image of the lunar sunset before powering down. The Ghost Riders in the Sky mission will last 60 Earth days from launch to its expected loss of power following sunset on the lunar surface. | Credit: Firefly Aerospace The Resilience lander will fly a much slower trajectory to the moon, with landing targeted for four to five months after launch. The second mission for ispace's Hakuto-R program, Resilience is equipped with hardware and software upgrades based on lessons learned during Hakuto-R Mission 1. That mission successfully reached lunar orbit but failed its landing attempt in April 2023, after an altitude sensor on the lander didn't perform as expected, resulting in a crash on the lunar surface. ispace is taking a step-by-step approach with Hakuto-R Mission 2, laying out a 10-step list of milestones Resilience will complete on its way to the moon, with a separate checklist for goals reached following a successful touchdown on the lunar surface. The lander is aiming for Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold), in the moon's northern hemisphere, where it will begin surface operations, including the deployment of an onboard microrover named Tenacious, which will collect a sample of regolith (moon dust) as part of a contract with NASA. ispace's planned Mission 2 Milestones.

Plato, PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is ESA’s groundbreaking mission to discover potentially habitable planets around stars similar to our Sun, and study thousands of exoplanets in detail, focusing on terrestrial ones. Plato will board the Ariane 6 with two boosters for a launch from Europe’s Spaceport, in French Guiana, end of 2026, and will be placed into orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. “This is the first science mission that our new rocket Ariane 6 will launch,” said Toni Tolker-Nielsen, “and the first mission that the versatile launcher will send to the Lagrange point 2, 1.5 million km from the launch pad, a new destination for our heavy-lift rocket to show its prowess.” “Most of ESA’s Science flagship missions have been launched on Ariane rockets. From Rosetta to Webb and Juice, Arianespace has ensured exquisitely accurate delivery of our precious technologies into deep space, increasing mission lifetimes and scientific performance,” added Carole Mundell. “So it comes naturally to launch Plato on Europe’s newest rocket, confident that it will take our spacecraft exactly where it must be.” Ariane 6 first flight was in July last year with its second flight planned for next month, ramping up launches over the coming months. Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – provides Europe with greater efficiency and possibility for launching all manner of missions. “Plato’s launch with Ariane 6 continues Ariane’s key role in the quest to discover other worlds and answer fundamental questions about life beyond Earth,” remarked David Cavaillolès, CEO of Arianespace. “We express our pride and gratitude towards our historic partner the European Space Agency for their trust. Our teams are most enthusiast to closely working together to bring this extraordinary European exploration spacecraft to orbit with Ariane 6.” Planet hunter Plato will focus on the properties of rocky planets orbiting Sun-like stars. In particular, Plato will discover and characterise planets in orbits up to the habitable zone – the ‘goldilocks’ region around a star where the temperature is just right for liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface. To achieve its feat, Plato will use 26 cameras to look at more than 200 000 stars and search for planets around them. The mission exploits the transit method to characterise these planets; when planets pass by the face of their host stars, they dim the starlight we receive. By studying this dimming effect, we can learn about a planet’s size, mass and density. #ESA #Plato #PlanetHunter

What's next for the 2 private landers SpaceX just launched toward the moon? Two newly launched private moon landers have long roads ahead of them. Early on Tuesday morning (Jan. 15), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent Blue Ghost and Resilience — lunar landers built by Firefly Aerospace and the Tokyo-based company ispace, respectively — into the final frontier from Florida's Space Coast. Neither spacecraft is headed to the moon just yet, however. Here's a rundown of what they'll be doing in the coming weeks. Blue Ghost will spend the next 25 days in Earth orbit, undergoing a variety of systems checks and gathering data with some of its 10 science and technology instruments — NASA gear that earned their spots onboard thanks to the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The lander — Firefly's first-ever mooncraft — will then conduct an engine burn to head toward the moon. Blue Ghost will reach lunar orbit four days later and spend 16 days there before attempting a touchdown in Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises") on the lunar nearside. The solar-powered Blue Ghost and its 10 NASA payloads will then operate on the surface for a lunar day, or about two Earth weeks. This work will come to an end after the sun sets over Mare Crisium. "Following payload operations, Blue Ghost will capture imagery of the lunar sunset and provide critical data on how lunar regolith reacts to solar influences during lunar dusk conditions," representatives of Texas-based Firefly wrote in a description of the mission, which it calls Ghost Riders in the Sky. "The lander will then operate for several hours into the lunar night." Resilience's mission will be more than twice that long, if all goes according to plan. The ispace lander is taking a very circuitous, energy-efficient path to lunar orbit; it's expected to reach that destination four months from now. (There is also a big milestone before that: a flyby of the moon, which Resilience will make in about a month.) ispace will then spend another two weeks or so gearing up for the landing attempt, which will take place in the Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold") region of the moon's northern hemisphere. Resilience is carrying five science and technology payloads from several commercial and academic partners. Among this gear is a microrover named Tenacious, which was developed by the company's Luxembourg-based subsidiary. The 11-pound (5-kilogram) rover will deploy onto the lunar surface and collect lunar regolith as part of a contract with NASA. (The U.S. space agency did not provide any of the payloads on Resilience, however.) The ispace lander is also carrying some culture to Earth's nearest neighbor — "Moonhouse," a small red-and-white model house by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.

China Crewed Moon Lander Separation Test & Moon Rover Driving Test Clips FriendsofNASA.org: This is a short video of China's crewed "Embrace the Moon" lunar lander separation test, crewed lunar lander spacecraft, and crewed lunar rover driving test released by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Thursday, November 21, 2024. China's crewed lunar landing mission is expected by 2030. It aims to carry out lunar scientific exploration and related technological tests, striving for breakthroughs in key technologies, such as repeated crewed Earth-Moon round trips, short-term lunar surface stays, and integrated human-robotic exploration, according to the CMSA. With objectives incorporating landing, roving, sampling, researching and returning, the project seeks to establish an independent capability for long-term crewed lunar exploration. It will coordinate the use of pre-flight crew tests and crewed lunar missions to conduct large-scale space science experiments. Scientists have outlined preliminary goals across three key areas: lunar science, lunar station science, and resource exploration and utilization, covering nine major research directions. Currently, the production of prototypes for Long March-10 carrier rockets, crewed spacecraft (named "Mengzhou"), the lunar landers (named "Lanyue"), the lunar spacesuits (named "Feitian") and crewed lunar rovers is progressing as planned, along with related ground tests. A series of ground facilities and equipment designed to support these production and testing activities have been completed and put into operation. Meanwhile, the construction of the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's island province of Hainan has been prioritized and is advancing smoothly in readiness for these ambitious upcoming missions. Video Credit: CCTV Duration: 11 seconds Release Date: Nov. 21, 2024 Dan Goldin Islam Elsayed Ismail El Omari Samarth Kumar Diane M. Rousseau LHD, Ph.D Maedeh Taherkhany Shahriyar Gourgi Rafael Bartolome Oscar Tirado Behrokh Beiranvand Pee-Shang Teh Natalia Czortek Aroop Bhattacharjee Kumud Deepali R. Jânio Batista Sousa Osvaldo Gonzalez Bustos Ljiljana Milić Jankovic V Kotha (Ph.D) (ZA), MSc (UK), MS, MRAeS Natalia Czortek Aroop Bhattacharjee Adeel NASIR, Ph.D. Patrick O'Brien Nicole R. Sakshi Nigavekar MD.Asadur Zaman Imani Lawrence Haaris S. Behrokh Beiranvand Mahammad Haneef #NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #China #中国 #Moon #LunarMissions #CrewModules #Mengzhou #LandingSpacecraft #MoonLanders #LunarLanders #Lanyue #MoonRovers #LongMarch10Rocket #Taikonauts #Astronauts #EVASpacesuits #HumanSpaceflight #CNSA #CMSA #国家航天局 #SpaceTechnology #Robotics #SpaceEngineering #SpaceExploration #STEM #Education #Video

T-Minus: SpaceX’s Starship vs. Boeing’s Starliner https://ift.tt/UwIYzOD This is T-Minus, where Freethink’s Kristin Houser breaks down the biggest developments in space, from new rocket launches to discoveries that advance our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Humanity is reaching new heights in space exploration. Make sure you’re part of the journey by subscribing here. June 2024 has been a momentous month for human space travel.  First, Boeing delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in its Starliner capsule on June 5, marking the spacecraft’s first mission with people on board.  The very next day, SpaceX successfully recovered both stages of its Starship rocket system during a test flight — a milestone that brings the in-development spacecraft one step closer to transporting people to the moon and Mars. In light of these achievements, let’s take a closer look at these two spacecraft, how they came to be, and what their development tells us about the future of space travel. Starship A SpaceX Starship system a few days prior to its first flight test in April 2023. (Credit: SpaceX) Configuration: Starship upper stage (SpaceX) / Super Heavy lower stage (SpaceX) Total height: 121 meters Crew capacity: 100 people Payload to LEO: 100-150 tons Price to LEO: $100 per kilogram Reusability: Both stages Cost so far: $5 billion  The purpose: Starship is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever developed, and SpaceX’s plan is to use it to deliver massive payloads — including up to 100 people at a time — to low-Earth orbit, the moon, Mars, and beyond. A version of the spacecraft will also be used to transport NASA astronauts to the lunar surface. Five major milestones: 2005 – SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shares his vision to eventually build a massive rocket system capable of putting 100 tons of payload into low-Earth orbit. At the time, the company had yet to fly a single rocket. 2012 – SpaceX announces plans for a rocket surpassing the capabilities of its powerful Falcon 9. Initially called the “Mars Colonial Transporter,” SpaceX eventually lands on “Starship.” 2020 – SpaceX “hops” a Starship prototype for the first time, sending the spacecraft about 150 meters into the air and almost straight back down again. This test does not include the Super Heavy lower stage that will complete the Starship system. 2022 – NASA awards SpaceX a $2.89 billion fixed-price contract to develop a version of Starship that could be used to transport astronauts from a capsule in the moon’s orbit down to the lunar surface. A $1.15 billion contract for a second lander follows in 2023. 2023 – An integrated Starship system (the Starship upper stage atop a Super Heavy lower stage) successfully clears the launchpad on its first attempt, but the test flight ends after four minutes when an anomaly triggers the spacecraft’s self-destruct system. The latest: The June 6 launch was the fourth test flight of an integrated...

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket blasts off in first launch, reaches orbit. By Gregg Newtown with Charlotte Causit in Washington - Cape Canaveral (AFP) Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its massive New Glenn rocket for the first time early Thursday, a livestream of the blastoff showed. The rocket, whose inaugural mission had been delayed by several years, blasted of at 2:03 am (0703 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in the US state of Florida, the webcast showed. Space-themed merchandiseThe mission is seen as critical to Blue Origin's efforts to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX, which dominates the commercial space industry. "LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first ever ascent toward the stars," Blue Origin said on social media platform X. "New Glenn has passed the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space!" the firm posted just a few minutes later. And then: "Second stage engine cutoff confirmed. New Glenn's second stage and payload are now in orbit." An initial test launch of the towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of legendary American astronaut John Glenn, had been scrubbed early Monday morning after repeated halts during the countdown. The company later said it had discovered an icing issue on a purge line and would aim for a possible early Tuesday morning launch, but that weather conditions were unfavorable. On Monday night, Blue Origin announced that launch had been postponed. With the mission, dubbed NG-1, Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: fellow tech innovator Musk. Musk's company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, which have become vital for the commercial sector, Pentagon and NASA. Space-themed merchandiseAstronaut training experiences"SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town, and so having a competitor... this is great," G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, earlier told AFP, expecting the competition to drive down costs. Upping the high-stakes rivalry, SpaceX also plans another orbital test this week of Starship -- its gargantuan new-generation rocket. - Landing attempt - Blue Origin will now attempt to land New Glenn's first-stage booster on a drone ship stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX has made such landings now routine, but this will be Blue Origin's first shot at the sci-fi feat. High seas last week caused the New Glenn launch to be pushed back several days. Meanwhile, the rocket's upper stage will fire its engines toward Earth orbit, reaching a maximum altitude of roughly 12,000 miles above the surface. A Defense Department-funded prototype of an advanced spaceship called Blue Ring, https://lnkd.in/dtZEPNgv

[Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Launches Massive New Glenn Rocket Into Orbit On 1st Flight] Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket just earned its wings. New Glenn launched for the first time ever this morning (Jan. 16), rising off a pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station here on Florida's Space Coast at 2:03 a.m. EST (0703 GMT). About 12.5 minutes later, the rocket's upper stage reached orbit the main goal of today's test flight, which the company called NG-1. Blue Origin also tried to land New Glenn's reusable first stage on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, which is nicknamed Jacklyn, after company founder Jeff Bezos' mother. The booster managed to fire up three of its engines in a reentry burn as planned, but it didn't stick the landing. A successful landing would have been something of a surprise; the company had stressed repeatedly in the leadup to launch that this was a secondary goal that was unlikely to be achieved on NG-1. Like many rockets, the 320-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn took a long road to the launch pad. Its first flight was initially projected to take place in 2020, but development of the rocket's powerful BE-4 first-stage engines slowed the timeline. New Glenn's reusable first stage could help it compete with SpaceX's venerable Falcon 9, the world's first orbital-class reusable rocket. New Glenn has also been tapped to help launch Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband internet satellites, which could become a competitor to SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation. Amazon already has a license to launch over 3,000 Kuiper satellites. Both Blue Origin and Amazon were founded by Bezos, who has flown to suborbital space aboard the company's smaller New Shepard space tourism rocket. New Glenn is capable of carrying 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO). Flying aboard New Glenn's first mission instead was a test version of Blue Origin's upcoming "Blue Ring" spacecraft. The spacecraft will be able to transport payloads to geostationary orbit, cislunar orbit (orbits close to and around the moon) and even interplanetary orbits, according to a Blue Origin description. That's all future work, however. The immediate take-home message from today's flight is that a powerful new orbital-class rocket has proved itself in flight. Source: https://lnkd.in/gie92Nm9 #galaxyaerosgh #space #spaceexploration #SpaceNews

Firefly announced Nov. 25 that it is planning to launch its Blue Ghost 1 lander mission during a six-day window in mid-January. The spacecraft will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Florida. The announcement of the launch date came after the spacecraft completed testing in October at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Blue Ghost aced environmental testing and proved the lander is performing 100% as expected,” Jason Kim, chief executive of Firefly, said in the statement announcing the launch date. “While we know there will be more challenges ahead, I’m confident this team has what it takes to softly touch down on the lunar surface and nail this mission.” The company had previously been planning a launch of the spacecraft in the fourth quarter of 2024, but did not offer a more specific date. Speaking at a meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) Oct. 29, Joseph Marlin, chief engineer of Firefly’s Elytra Dark spacecraft, again offered a launch date of the fourth quarter but said he could not be more specific, suggesting it was based on launch vehicle availability. “SpaceX is still sorting out its schedule,” he said then. Blue Ghost is the company’s first lunar lander mission. The spacecraft will carry 10 NASA payloads through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. NASA awarded Firefly a task order for the mission in February 2021 valued at $93.3 million, with a launch originally projected for 2023. Firefly has not announced if there are any non-NASA payloads on the spacecraft. The mission, called “Ghost Riders in the Sky” by the company, will last about 60 days. That includes a 45-day transit to the moon where the spacecraft first operates in phasing orbits around the Earth before going to the moon and entering orbit there. The spacecraft is intended to land near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature within Mare Crisium on the northeastern part of the near side of the moon. The lander is designed to operate for a full two-week lunar day and several hours into the lunar night. At one point this fall, as many as three commercial lunar lander missions were slated to launch in the fourth quarter of the year, but now none of them will do so. Japanese company ispace announced Nov. 12 in an earnings release for its fiscal second quarter that its Mission 2 lunar lander, once projected to launch in December, is now planned for launch no earlier than January. Like Firefly, the lander will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Intuitive Machines, though, may still beat Firefly to the surface of the moon. The IM-2 mission, like IM-1 that launched in February 2024, will take a more direct route to the moon, with a landing about a week after launch. At the LEAG meeting, Firefly’s Marlin said the two companies have been in discussions about how to deconflict their landings, like ensuring communications don’t interfere with one another. #CLPS #Falcon9 #BlueGhost