April 20th, 2019
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The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has invited international partners for cooperation on the country’s Chang’e-6 lunar mission and an asteroid exploration effort. China announced its cooperation plan for the future Chang’e-6 mission, offering to carry a total of over 40 pounds (20 kilograms) of solicited payloads. The orbiter and lander of the Chang’e-6 mission […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2383 duties. A recent drill pre-load test was successful, so a go has been given for a drill attempt at “Kilmarie,” reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA/JPL in Pasadena, California. The new drill location is nearby the last drilling area at “Aberlady.” Recent imagery taken […]
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued Priority Open Recommendations: NASA. In March 2018, GAO identified 18 priority recommendations for NASA. Since then, NASA has implemented 10 of those recommendations by, among other things, taking actions to better align its strategic sourcing practices with those used by leading commercial companies and improving controls over […]
Luxembourg-based Intelsat reports that its Intelsat 29e (IS29e) is now a total loss, reporting earlier that the spacecraft suffered an anomaly. Late on April 7, the Intelsat 29e propulsion system experienced damage that caused a leak of the propellant on board the satellite resulting in a service disruption to customers on the satellite. That event […]
If you want boots on Mars by 2033, forget it. A new study has found that a 2033 departure date for a Mars orbital mission is “infeasible under all budget scenarios and technology development and testing schedules.” However, 2035 may be possible under budgets that match 1.9 percent real growth, but carries high risks of […]
Next week, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will attempt to look for the crash site of Israel’s Beresheet Moon lander. The spacecraft careened into the lunar surface on April 11, a crash landing apparently due to a “manual command” that was entered into the spacecraft’s computer. “This led to a chain reaction in the spacecraft, […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2380 duties. The science team has been focused on determining which target in the vicinity of “Aberlady” will become the focus of the next drill campaign, reports Brittney Cooper, an atmospheric scientist at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Target 3 “In the end, target 3 […]
A preliminary investigation of what caused Israel’s Beresheet crash landing on the Moon April 11 has found it appears that a “manual command” was entered into the spacecraft’s computer. “This led to a chain reaction in the spacecraft, during which the main engine switched off, which prevented it from activating further,” according to a SpaceIL […]
NASA’s plan to plant boots on the Moon is underway – and the call is to send astronauts to the Moon’s South Pole by 2024. The floors of polar craters there reach frigid temperatures because they’re permanently in shadow. “The South Pole is far from the Apollo landing sites clustered around the equator, so it […]
A Russian entrepreneurial group – StartRocket — has got its eyes on the sky – to create an in-orbit system that would allow advertisements, logos, special product offerings and messages to be constantly posted. Making use of a cluster of cubesats, the orbital display can reach a potential audience of 7 billion – everyone on […]
