Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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May 8th, 2025
Lights-on or off for the ice-hound?
Image credit: NASA
NASA has been investigating how to get the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Explorer Rover) to the Moon after the project was canceled in July 2024.
Following an evaluation of partnership proposals to land the water-seeking robot on the lunar surface, NASA announced Wednesday that it is now opting to explore “alternative approaches” to plop that machinery on the Moon.
Being abandoned is the Lunar Volatiles Science Partnership Announcement for Partnership Proposals solicitation, which sought opportunities to send VIPER to the Moon at no cost to the government.
A close-up view of the areas that were to be explored by VIPER, showing a nominal traverse route and highlighting permanently shadowed regions that may contain water ice and other volatiles.
Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright
Additional methods
Now NASA wants to explore additional methods to send VIPER to Moon.
In a NASA statement, “the agency will announce a new strategy for VIPER in the future.”
Back last year, NASA said it planned to disassemble and reuse VIPER’s instruments and components for future Moon missions.
Chamber testing
Prior to disassembly, NASA’s opened the door for expressions of interest from U.S. industry and international partners for use of the existing VIPER rover system at no cost to the government.
The VIPER rover heading into the Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) Chamber for testing.
Image credit: Daniel Andrews/LinkedIn
Also last year, Congressional lawmakers are took a budgetary hard-look at the situation, prodded in part, by a save VIPER letter-writing campaign involving thousands of shoot-for-the-Moon supporters.
VIPER completed last October thermal vacuum chamber testing.
At that point in time, NASA had put in $450 million into VIPER.
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Image credit: Interlune
The visionary Interlune company, based in Seattle, Washington, announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program (DOE IP) has agreed to purchase three liters of helium-3 harvested from the Moon for delivery on Earth at approximately today’s commercial market price. The delivery date is no later than April 2029.
The agreement marks the first DOE Isotope Program purchase of a non-terrestrial natural resource.
Interlune will harvest the helium-3 from the lunar soil, or regolith, and return it to Earth for the DOE IP and other customers using the fully operational infrastructure of its pilot plant on the Moon’s surface.
Helium-3, a stable isotope of helium, is extremely scarce on Earth but is available in abundance on the Moon, explains Interlune.
Image credit: Interlune
Dilution refrigerators
Interlune also announced today its first commercial customer. Maybell Quantum, the quantum infrastructure company, has agreed to purchase thousands of liters of helium-3 for yearly delivery from 2029 to 2035. The helium-3 will be used in Maybell’s state-of-the-art dilution refrigerators, which cool quantum devices to near-absolute zero temperatures.
Harvesting system
The Interlune harvesting system includes novel technologies for excavating, sorting, extracting, and separating industrial quantities of helium-3 and other resources from lunar soil or regolith.
According to Interlune, the firm’s harvester is smaller, lighter, and requires less power than other industry concepts, making it less expensive to transport to the Moon and operate once it’s there.
Image credit: Interlune
In another announcement today, Interlune unveiled a full-scale prototype of an excavator for harvesting Helium-3 from the Moon. Working with industrial equipment manufacturer Vermeer Corporation, the hardware is designed to ingest 100 metric tons of Moon dirt, or regolith, per hour and return it to the surface in a continuous motion.
For more information about Interlune and its ambitions, go to my earlier SpaceNews story –Interlune plans to gather scarce lunar Helium-3 for quantum computing on Earth” — at:
Image credit: Mars Guy
That’s the topic of a new Mars Guy video episode. The White House released the president’s 2026 Discretionary Funding Request last Friday.
“In order to beat China back to the Moon, it forfeits the highest priority goal of planetary science by terminating the U.S. led Mars Sample Return mission.”
To view the video, go to: https://youtu.be/zkv_MNSxfNw?si=NlHHcfRLfDn5x4qw
Image credit: Mars Guy
Image credit: Tian et al. (2024)
Lucy poster depicts the spacecraft’s long-term voyage.
Image credit: SwRI
Asteroid experts are pondering the scientific output from the NASA Lucy spacecraft as it shot by its celestial prey – the main belt asteroid named Donaldjohanson.
Hal Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission, said the spacecraft flyby of Donaldjohanson yielded a host of “don’t know” factors about the object.
Panelists describe the Lucy mission on April 22 at a special media event held at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado.
Image credit: Barbara David
As for its shape, Levison said that Donaldjohanson and the other Lucy targets are providing hints about how planets formed.
Asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson is named after American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson who co-discovered the Lucy hominid fossil in northern Ethiopia in 1974.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story –“‘Right now, we are in what has to be a Golden Age of asteroid exploration.’ Scientists celebrate NASA’s latest space rock flyby” – at:
Venera 8 was one of a pair of Venus atmospheric lander probes designed for the spring 1972 launch window. The other mission, Cosmos 482, failed to leave Earth orbit.
Image credit: Hall of Venus/NPO Lavochkin
The fall to Earth of that old Soviet Kosmos 482 hardware is now forecast for May 10, plus/minus 1.1 days.
That’s the word from sharp-eyed satellite tracker Marco Langbroek in Leiden, the Netherlands.
“This object is the lander module from a 1972 failed Soviet Venera mission to Venus,” Langbroek posts on his SatTrackCam Leiden website. “Because of a failure of the upper stage of the rocket that launched it, it got stuck in a very elliptical orbit around Earth in 1972, instead of going to Venus.”
Image credit: Dominic Dirkx/Marco Langbroek
Hard impact
According to recently declassified Russian historic documents unearthed by Anatoly Zak, publisher of an informative website specializing in Russian space activities, Soviet flight control specialists purposely separated the 1,058 pound (480 kilogram) egg-shaped Venus lander from the stranded main spacecraft back in 1972.
“As this is a lander, which is in a semi-globular Titanium protective shell, a bit of a metal bucket,” notes Langbroek, fabricated to survive passage through the thick Venus atmosphere, “it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact.”
Langbroek adds that it likely will be a hard impact.
Venera 8 artwork depicts lander on Venus surface – likely similar to Kosmos 482 hardware.
Image Credit: NPO Lavochkin
Parachute prognosis
“I doubt the parachute deployment system will still work after 53 years and with dead batteries. There are many uncertain factors in whether the lander will survive reentry though, including that this will be a long shallow reentry trajectory, and the age of the object,” Langbroek believes.
On that score, another satellite tracker, Ralf Vandebergh, also of the Netherlands, speculates that his imagery may show the descent lander’s parachute tangling in space. If so, it would be destroyed during the heated plunge to Earth.
Image credit: Ralf Vandebergh
When and where?
The precise reentry date and where the leftover descent craft hardware would fall to Earth are unknowns.
“With an orbital inclination of 51.95 degrees, the reentry can occur anywhere between latitude 52 N and 52 S,” Langbroek points out. However, to what degree solar activity will play in influencing the timing and whereabouts of the reentry is an uncertainty.
“Stronger solar activity will mean an earlier reentry, lower solar activity a later reentry,” Langbroek states.
Coming in over Europe?
Also keeping a watchful eye on the incoming leftover is The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS). Their current predicted reentry time is May 10, 04:42 UTC ± 19 hours.
The CORDS prediction is that the reentry is to occur sometime this weekend, showing the object reentering over Europe at 12:42 a.m. US Eastern Time this Saturday.
Yellow Icon – location of object at midpoint of reentry window
Blue Line – ground track uncertainty prior to middle of the reentry window (ticks at 5-minute intervals)
Yellow Line – ground track uncertainty after middle of the reentry window (ticks at 5-minute intervals)
Pink Icon (if applicable) – vicinity of eyewitness sighting or recovered debris
Note: Possible reentry locations lie anywhere along the blue and yellow ground track. Areas not under the line are not exposed to the debris.
Image credit: CORDS
“Because Cosmos 482 is defunct, we expect it to perform an uncontrolled reentry as Earth’s atmosphere finally causes its orbit to decay, versus landing deliberately in the ocean or in a remote area,” observes The Aerospace “Kickstage” posting.
Because the object was originally designed to land on Venus—a much harsher atmosphere and environment to survive than Earth’s—“it is possible Cosmos 482 could survive reentry to the extent that parts of it strike the surface rather than burn up entirely,” observes the “Kickstage” posting.
Risk is nonzero
As for the risk posed to people on the ground, “while the risk is nonzero, any one individual on Earth is far likelier to be struck by lightning than to be injured by Cosmos 482.”
How likely is it that the decent lander plops down in your yard?
“We definitely do not expect Cosmos 482 to land in your yard specifically. Given the nature of its orbit, most of the Earth is still in play for its reentry, and consequently it is far more likely to land in the ocean or an unpopulated area,” the posting adds.
Soviet Union’s Venera 8 museum display.
Image credit: NPO Lavochkin
Finders keepers?
On the other hand, if the object defies the odds and does land in your yard, please don’t touch it!
“It could potentially be hazardous, and it is best to notify your local authorities,” the posting notes.
As for taking the finders keepers approach, don’t get your hopes up.
“There is a United Nations treaty that governs found debris—the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. It states that countries keep ownership of objects they launch into space, even after those objects reenter and return to Earth. The country that launched the object in this case is Russia, which could request the return of any parts that survived reentry. It is also worth noting that the treaty says that the launching country is also internationally liable for damages,” the Kickstage item explains.
Soviet Venera 8 landing capsule. Venera 8 was one of a pair of Venus atmospheric lander probes designed for the spring 1972 launch window. The other mission (Cosmos 482 – 1972-023A) failed to leave Earth orbit.
Image credit: NASA/NSSDCA
Puzzling out budget ballistics: Image credit: Leonard David
Last week saw the release of President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 proposed budget blueprint. It is viewed as a budgetary bombshell, calling for a 24.3% reduction to NASA’s top-line funding and slashing the space agency’s science budget by 47%.
Reactions to the budget centers on it being reckless and destructive, one that undercuts American leadership in probing our solar system and the universe writ large.
Image credit: White House
Phasing out, retiring, cancelled
Among NASA projects cross-haired by the White House budget:
— Phasing out the government-backed Space Launch System (SLS) mega-booster, retired after an Artemis 3 “rebooting” of humans on the Moon
— Retiring the Orion crew capsule, and doing away with the Gateway lunar space station.
— Cancelling the NASA Mars Sample Return mission, labeled in the White House budget as “grossly over budget and whose goals would be achieved by human missions to Mars.”
More details can be viewed in my new Sky and Telescope story – “Are Proposed Science Cuts a Call-to-Arms? Or Armageddon? – Deep cuts to NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other science-funding institutions are causing grave concerns in the community” at:
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/are-proposed-science-cuts-a-call-to-arms-or-armageddon/
Moon to Mars?
Image credit: NASA
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The just returned to Earth Shenzhou-19 crew arrived in Beijing by plane on Wednesday of last week and are now entering a period of medical quarantine and health evaluation.
Astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze landed on Wednesday at the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said the crew is in good health after living in space for 183 days.
Landing spot change
The mission’s three crew members touched down safely at the Dongfeng landing site, a return that had been postponed by a day due to unfavorable weather conditions on the ground.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
That bad weather did move the planned landing spot for the taikonaut trio from the west zone to the eastern zone of the landing site – a change that meant recovery team members had to quickly scramble to the new location.
Samples back on Earth
The Shenzhou-19 mission generated over 102 samples of 13 types now back on Earth. Studies of samples are expected to produce scientific output in fundamental research, new materials, space radiation effects and hypomagnetic biological mechanisms.
For example, 22 types of experiment samples of space materials are in four categories that include tungsten high entropy alloy, high-strength steel, lunar soil reinforcement material, and gel composite lubricating material.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Twenty of the samples are from life science experiments, and include bone cells and osteoblasts, human bronchial epithelial cells, early embryos of humans and animals, protein samples and fruit flies. This marks the largest variety of biological samples returned to Earth since the Chinese space station began operating in late 2022.
The biologically sensitive samples were rushed to Beijing immediately after the spacecraft touched down at the Dongfeng landing site.
In-orbit exposure
According to China Central Television (CCTV), the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization under the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that the studies of experiment samples will promote the production and application of key materials including those for the next-generation aero-engine turbine blades and nano-electronic components.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Additionally, some of the space material samples had undergone in-orbit exposure to help reveal the mechanisms that cause damage to the samples’ microstructures, their performance degradation, as well as functional failure in space.
CCTV adds that statistics show that over 70 percent of the malfunctions of spacecraft were directly or indirectly caused by the space environment.
Space radiation studies
Pei Weiwei is an associate researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection of Soochow University. After a special handover ceremony was held where scientists received the samples brought back by the Shenzhou-19 space mission, Pei said:
“The carcinogenicity of space radiation has always been a focus of our research, and the epithelial cells of the lungs are the most susceptible to tumors. So we are studying the evolution of lung epithelial cells into tumor cells in space radiation and some of its mechanisms.”
Risk assessment system
Pei added that, based on this data, the aim is to establish a space radiation risk assessment system suitable for Chinese astronauts. “At the same time, we hope to provide some theoretical support for radiation monitoring and a complete radiation protection system,” he told CCTV.
Handover ceremonies between crews.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Pei said that such experiments and related research can also offer new ideas to human health problems back on Earth, such as the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. It will also provide a new theoretical basis and experimental support for exploring health problems such as osteoporosis, muscle atrophy and decreased cardiovascular function, he added.
The recently-arrived Shenzhou-20 crew has now taken over command of the space station.
Go to this informative CCTV video at:
Venera 8 artwork.
Image Credit: NPO Lavochkin
That soon-to-reenter Cosmos 482 is getting increased attention by satellite trackers – and new imagery provides some interesting details.
The former Soviet Union’s Cosmos 482 was lofted back in 1972. But that country’s attempted Venus probe ran amuck during its rocket-assisted toss to the cloud-veiled world.
Image credit: Ralf Vandebergh
Payload leftovers that were marooned in Earth orbit, specifically the spacecraft’s lander module/capsule, were intended to parachute onto the hellish landscape of Venus.
The question is whether or not that module/capsule will remain intact and make it through Earth’s atmosphere to reach the surface?
For more details on what’s being seen prior to the probe’s nose-dive to Earth, go to my new Space.com story — New images of Soviet Venus lander falling to Earth suggest its parachute may be out – at:
Venera 8 was one of a pair of Venus atmospheric lander probes designed for the spring 1972 launch window. The other mission, Cosmos 482, failed to leave Earth orbit.
Image credit: Hall of Venus/NPO Lavochkin
Image credit: Ralf Vandebergh
That soon-to-reenter Cosmos 482 is getting increased attention by satellite trackers – and new imagery provides some interesting details.
The former Soviet Union’s Cosmos 482 was lofted back in 1972. But that country’s attempted Venus probe ran amuck during its rocket-assisted toss to the cloud-veiled world. Payload leftovers were marooned in Earth orbit, specifically the spacecraft’s lander module/capsule intended to parachute onto the hellish landscape of Venus.
Venera 8 was one of a pair of Venus atmospheric lander probes designed for the spring 1972 launch window. The other mission, Cosmos 482, failed to leave Earth orbit.
Image credit: Hall of Venus/NPO Lavochkin
Uncertain factors
“As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact,” reports Marco Langbroek of SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands.
“There are many uncertain factors in this though, including that this will be a long shallow reentry trajectory and the age of the object,” observes Langbroek.
Langbroek now pegs the current nominal forecast for its reentry on May 10, plus/minus 3.1 days.
Venera 8 artwork.
Image Credit: NPO Lavochkin
Compact ball
Meanwhile, satellite tracker Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands, has snagged a first set of images of only the capsule in Earth orbit. “We see a clear compact ball! This set is already fantastic, I think,” he tells Inside Outer Space.
Those first set of high resolution images, Vandebergh said, are compared to a Starlink satellite bus in operational orbit. He notes that Cosmos 482 is roughly 80 miles (130 kilometers) closer than the Starlink bus which, according to data, is around 1.3 meters by 2.7 meters.
Earlier imagery of the lost-to-space Cosmos 482.
Image credit: Ralf Vandebergh
Parachute speculation
Vandebergh said he is stunned by what he is seeing on collected imagery frames.
“Several frames seems to confirm what I thought to see in the 2014 images, [that] there is a compact ball but several frames show a weak elongated structure at one particular side of the ball,” Vandebergh added. He has speculated in the past it was possible that this might be the parachute that came out.
Earlier imagery of the lost-to-space Cosmos 482.
Image credit: Ralf Vandebergh
“It is not impossible that the object is tumbling,” Vandebergh notes, “so the chute would be sometimes visible,” assuming that it is the chute. He cautioned that more time is needed to better analyze what’s showing up in the imagery.
That best analysis of the imagery is a work in progress, Vandebergh concluded, so stay tuned!
Image credit: Marco Langbroek/Dominic Dirkx
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
A U.S. Senate committee is set to vote tomorrow on Jared Isaacman, the Trump Administration’s selectee for NASA administrator.
That’s one small step for Isaacman in true wait-a-minute style deliberation.
On Wednesday, April 30, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee Executive Session to vote on whether to advance Isaacman’s nomination to lead NASA.
Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, President Trump’s nominee to be NASA administrator, appears April 9 before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and testifies that NASA is a “force multiplier for science.”
NASA / Bill Ingalls
Isaacman appeared before the committee on April 9. In written answers to questions, Isaacman revealed more of his views regarding his handling of NASA issues.
Isaacman did call the projected Trump administration’s planned cuts to NASA not “an optimal outcome.”
REPUBLICAN QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD – Go to:
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/5C22B600-2AAB-4ACF-AE89-FA78A04E602D
DEMOCRATIC QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD – Go to:
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/13EEBAAD-3523-45C8-BB97-EB1031A01741
Image credit: NASA
What now?
As for taking over NASA, there’s still some question as to when Isaacman does get confirmed – and what space agency decision-making is still to come.
“Tomorrow is just a committee vote. It could be days, weeks or months before the full Senate votes. We’ll see what the issues are then,” said Marcia Smith, founder and editor of the informative SpacePolicyOnline.com at: https://spacepolicyonline.com/
If days, Smith added, the top job will be seeing if it’s too late for Isaacman to have any influence on the budget request. “Once Trump sends it to Congress he’ll have to support whatever it says.”
To watch the livestream on Wednesday, April 30, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, go to:
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/
Meanwhile, take a look at this just-issued NASA release, “NASA Soars to New Heights in First 100 Days of Trump Administration.” Go to:
Wait-a- minute, Congress at work.
Image credit: Barbara David
