Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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April 6th, 2025
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
In Earth orbit since October 2024, China’s Shenzhou-19 crew continues to perform in-orbit mechanical, robotic, medical tests.
China’s Shenzhou-19 space travelers — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze – have been at work on the country’s Tiangong space station for more than 150 days.
A newly issued video from China Central Television (CCTV) shows the trio carrying out experiments on equipment withdrawal, sample collection, and component reassembly and reuse.
Pipe inspection robots
CCTV notes the crew has tested pipe inspection robots to help realize self-examinations of the orbital outpost in the future.
Also completed are medical experiments such as blood collection, centrifugal treatment, and cryopreservation, and coordinated an eye tracker and a laptop to record data on their eye movements in the station’s microgravity environment.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Emergency response training
The station’s regenerative life support system is being maintained, with the Sheznhou-19 crew carrying out physical examinations on themselves, including blood routine and blood biochemistry tests, body weight measurement, and intraocular pressure checks. The station’s exercise equipment continues to be utilized to gather data on what effects the micro-gravity environment has on human bodies.
Lastly, reports CCTV, the astronauts performed emergency response training by donning and doffing pressure suits in case there’s need to respond to emergency situations.
Go to this new video detailing crew experiments and investigations at:
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Vanguard 1 microsatellite. Image credit: NASA
Reflect back decades ago to the heady Space Race rivalry between the former Soviet Union and America. For the entire world, it was the Sputnik moment, the orbiting of the first artificial satellite of Earth by the Soviets.
Sputnik 1’s liftoff on October 4, 1957 sparked worries, made all the more vexing by the embarrassing and humiliating failure later that year of America’s first satellite launch. The Navy’s Vanguard rocket went “kaputnik” as the booster toppled over and exploded.
An emotional rescue for America came via the first U.S. artificial satellite. Explorer 1 was boosted into space by the Army on January 31, 1958.
Nevertheless, despite setbacks, Vanguard 1 did reach orbit on March 17, 1958 as the second U.S. satellite.
Image credit: NRL
Still up there
And guess what? While Explorer 1 reentered Earth’s atmosphere in 1970, the Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Vanguard 1 microsatellite is still up there. It just celebrated 67 years of circuiting our planet.
Now there’s interest in recovering the tiny spacecraft and haul it back home from whence it came!
Go to my new Space.com story – “Vanguard 1 is the oldest satellite orbiting Earth. Scientists want to bring it home after 67 years” – at:
China lunar robotic missions at the Moon’s south pole, scouting for evidence of water.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Moon exploration plans are being detailed, a step-by-step program leading to the development of the country’s International Lunar Research Station.
Headed for the Moon around 2026 is the robotic Chang’e-7 mission, built to explore the lunar south pole, specifically to gather data regarding the evidence of water. If confirmed, such deposits could enable future lunar exploration goals by providing drinking water, oxygen and rocket fuel production capabilities.
The subsequent mission in 2028, Chang’e-8, is to test technologies for building habitats using lunar soil.
China is moving forward on lunar soil brick technology to support the International Lunar Research Station, or ILRS, on the Moon. Chang’e-8 is also to spearhead the building of communication systems and energy systems.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Brick by brick
In a China Central Television (CCTV) interview, Wu Weiren, chief designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program said: “Now we have developed the world’s first device that produces bricks made of lunar soil. This system harnesses sunlight, collects solar energy, and transmits it to the Moon using fiber optics.”
Wu added that, by concentrating the sunlight, temperatures between 1400 to 1500 degrees Celsius, can be attained, which is sufficient to melt lunar soil.
“Our device then utilizes 3D printing technology to shape the molten material into bricks of various specifications. This approach allows us to utilize resources found on the Moon, free from transporting water and other materials from the Earth,” Wu told CCTV.
China lunar research station planning underway.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Once verified, the lunar soil brick technology will provide key support for the ILRS, Wu said.
Higher stage
“I hope more countries, more international scientific research institutions and more foreign scientists will participate in the construction of our entire project,” said Wu.
“I think in the next 10 to 20 years,” Wu continued, “we should mainly take the international lunar research station as a starting point or as a guide to push the lunar exploration program to a higher stage.”
Artwork depicts China lunar research station. Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Wu took part Tuesday in an exhibition at the National Museum of China that highlights two decades of China’s lunar exploration program.
For details, go to this CCTV video at:
Image credit: Fram2/Inside Outer Space screengrab
That first-ever pole to pole orbital voyage of the Fram2 crew continues to go well.
Entrepreneur Chun Wang, mission commander, is posting video and images and commentary regarding the flight. He is joined by three others, Australian adventurer Eric Philips, filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, and German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge.
Image credit: Fram2/Inside Outer Space screengrab
In an X posting Wang said the ride to orbit was much smoother than he had anticipated. “Apart from the final minute before SECO, I barely felt any G-forces—it honestly felt like just another flight.”
Wang said he had imagined it would feel like being in an elevator that suddenly drops, but that sensation never came. “If I hadn’t set free Tyler, the polar bear zero-gravity indicator, I might not have realized we were already weightless. I think being tightly strapped into our seat buckets made the transition less noticeable.”
Image credit: Fram2/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Space motion sickness
The first few hours in microgravity weren’t exactly comfortable for the Fram2 crew.
“Space motion sickness hit all of us—we felt nauseous and ended up vomiting a couple of times. It felt different from motion sickness in a car or at sea. You could still read on your iPad without making it worse. But even a small sip of water could upset your stomach and trigger vomiting,” Wang explains.
Image credit: SpaceX
Movie night
“Rabea spent some time on the ham radio, making contact with Berlin. No one asked opening the cupola on the first day—we were all focused on managing the motion sickness. We had a movie night watching our own launch and went to sleep a bit earlier than scheduled. We all slept really well.”
Image credit: Fram2
Wang added that by the second morning, he felt completely refreshed.
“The trace of motion sickness is all gone. We had breakfast, took a few X-ray images, and opened the cupola three minutes after midnight UTC—right above the South Pole.”
To view video from onboard the Fram2, go to:
https://x.com/satofishi/status/1907345866421395867
https://x.com/satofishi/status/1907225381721227312
Australian adventurer Eric Philips takes a space walk across Dragon cupola.
Image credit: Fram2/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Image credit: Fram2/SpaceX
The upcoming crewed flight of the Fram2 mission into polar orbit from Florida is a risky undertaking in many ways.
Riding atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, the Fram2 crew — commander Chun Wang, vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, vehicle pilot Rabea Rogge, and mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philips — face multiple challenges.
Fram2 is the first human spaceflight over the Earth’s polar regions.
Image credit: SpaceX
Unique risks
“It’s an exciting mission with lots of important firsts…but of course also with some unique risks,” said Jan Osburg, a RAND senior engineer in the engineering and applied sciences department and a specialist in space safety.
Osburg told Inside Outer Space that risks include dealing with the radiation environment and the unusual orbit.
Image credit: Fram2
“If anything goes wrong that would preclude the capsule from reentering, they can’t get to an in-orbit safe haven like the International Space Station, both due to their different orbit and due to the airlock for this flight having been replaced with the Dragon Cupola, like during the Inspiration4 mission a few years ago,” Osburg advised.
Robust design
Not having an airlock, Osburg said, also means the crew would have to transfer to a rescue vehicle via space walks, if that rescue vehicle – another Crew Dragon, for example — could be launched in time. “Not sure if they will carry the new SpaceX EVA suits with them just for such a dire contingency, though,” he said.
Image credit: SpaceX
On the other hand, the Crew Dragon seems to be a very robust design, Osburg added, “and the crew, while new to spaceflight, are experienced explorers and should be used to extreme environments and high-risk decision-making.”
Dogleg maneuver
Regarding the radiation environment given the polar flight, Osburg said he assumes the Dragon spacecraft, including its avionics, has been extensively tested for its ability to withstand the higher radiation environment. Additionally, the medical implications should be manageable due to the short exposure time of a few days, he said.
At the latitude flown by the Fram2 crew, they are susceptible to high-energy charged particles penetrating the Earth’s magnetosphere.
On departure from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the trajectory to attain a polar orbit likely requires a “dogleg” maneuver during ascent, said Osburg.
SpaceX has done this maneuver a couple of times with un-crewed missions already, Osburg added, to avoid overflying Florida’s Gold Coast. “This costs fuel, but the Falcon 9 can do it,” and even land the booster’s first stage on a droneship afterwards.”
To avoid overflying Florida’s Gold Coast. Image of how that trajectory could look like, based on a previous Falcon 9 flight. This August 30, 2020 mission marked SpaceX’s first launch to a polar orbit from the East Coast, and the first polar launch from Florida in decades.
Image via Jan Osburg
High inclination
According to a Fram2 press statement, with the exception of the Apollo lunar missions, the Earth’s North and South Poles have not been fully visible to other astronauts in orbit, including those onboard the International Space Station. To date, the highest inclination achieved by human spaceflight has been the Soviet Vostok 6 mission, at 65-degrees, in 1963.
Vostok 6 was piloted by the first woman into Earth orbit, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.
The Fram2 mission is named after the original Fram ship that first reached the Earth’s polar regions in the 1800s.
Image credit: Fram2
Research activities
Throughout the nearly four-day mission, among an array of over 20 research activities, the Fram2 crew will capture data about the polar regions.
In collaboration with the University Center of Svalbard, Fram2 will support the SolarMaX Mission to film aurora-like phenomena to create an open-source database of aurora photographs for researchers and citizen scientists.
The crew has also teamed up with Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS International), to host Fram2Ham, a polar history focused competition for the ham radio community.
One biomedical experiment has been developed by the Falak for Space Science and Research, a nonprofit organization in Saudi Arabia. The study will examine how microgravity affects the eye’s microbiome, specifically investigating bacterial behavior, antibiotic resistance, and biofilm formation.
SpaceX is targeting Monday, March 31, at 9:46 p.m. Eastern Florida Time for Falcon 9’s launch of the Fram2 crew to a polar orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
For live coverage, go to: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=fram2
Image credit: Isar Aerospace/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Intent on becoming a launch service provider for small and medium-sized satellites, the first flight of the Isar Aerospace booster ended in failure.
The Isar Aerospace mission “Going Full Spectrum” was the first flight of an orbital launch vehicle from continental Europe. The first test flight lifted off from Andøya Spaceport in Norway. The first test flight did not include any customer payloads.
Image credit: Isar Aerospace
Isar Aerospace was founded in 2018 and granted a Launch Operator License by the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Go to livestream replay of the first test flight of Isar Aerospace at:
https://www.youtube.com/live/bykfQ3J4NNc?si=wOZ2MgshvyHEA33T
Also, go to this video of the crash of the booster, and thanks to Don Davis for the posting at: https://www.facebook.com/karthik.naren.nkkn/videos/9506094676150357/?idorvanity=796630247386464
Image credit: Isar Aerospace/Inside Outer Space screengrab
In a March 30 post-liftoff posting, the company stated: “After ignition of its first stage and liftoff at 12:30 PM CEST, launch vehicle successfully cleared the launch pad, was terminated at T+30 seconds and fell directly into the sea in controlled manner.”
“First test flight met set goals, substantial amount of flight data and experience will pave the way for future missions. Launch pad at Andøya Spaceport remains intact. Spectrum launch vehicles #2 and #3 already in production.”
Image credit: Isar Aerospace
CEO and Co-founder Daniel Metzler:
“Our first test flight met all our expectations, achieving a great success. We had a clean liftoff, 30 seconds of flight and even got to validate our Flight Termination System. With this result, we feel confident to approach our second flight.”
For more information, go to:
https://isaraerospace.com/newsroom-first-test-flight
Lastly, First Orbital Rocket Launched From European Soil, Becomes First Rocket To Crash In European Waters by Scott Manley
Can we figure out what happened?
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Experiments onboard China’s space station are being readied to study planaria, a kind of flatworm with amazing regeneration abilities.
“The planarias can regrow complete heads or tails when cut, making them ideal models for studying tissue regeneration,” reports China Central Television (CCTV. Planaria is a kind of flatworm with amazing regeneration abilities. The planarias can regrow complete heads or tails when cut, making them ideal models for studying tissue regeneration.
According to the researchers from the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, the new experiment will utilize the “small universal biological cultivation module” of the “life ecosystem experiment cabinet” aboard the orbiting outpost.
Researchers will study the specific effects of the space environment on the regeneration process and physiological behavior of planaria to gain a deeper understanding of this mechanism.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Age-related degenerative diseases
China’s space station has previously hosted zebrafish and fruit flies. The specimens allow researchers to study the effects of microgravity on the proteins in bones and muscles, and how hypomagnetic and microgravity conditions impact living organisms’ genes and behavior patterns.
As reported by China Daily, an upcoming Chinese Shenzhou piloted spacecraft will carry dozens of planarian fragments into orbit. “Studying planarians holds significant implications for combating cellular aging and age-related degenerative diseases in humans,” the posting added.
China established its own space station system after the launch of the Tianhe core module in April 2021, followed by the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules in 2022.
For information on the planarian experiment, go to:
At the European Space Agency’s ESTEC installation, Belbruno describes his unorthodox way to plot out unique trajectories through art. Image credit: Edward Belbruno
The heaven’s above is a tapestry of mystery and beauty.
For Ed Belbruno the universe around us is more than eye-catching. It’s a medium for infinite fine art, artistic renderings that can capture weak stability boundaries and how to use them for spacecraft missions to the Moon and beyond.
Belbruno is a visiting research collaborator in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University.
Showings of his art are being sponsored by the European Space Agency and have been displayed at several ESA installations.
Edward Belbruno’s Low Fuel Route to Moon artwork, chalk pastel on paper (1986). (Image credit: Edward Belbruno)
Ballistic capture via paint brush
“It is exciting that my pastel painting, ‘Low Fuel Route to the Moon’ (1986), is featured in the exhibition touring ESA,” Belbruno told Space.com. “This is because it actually gave rise to the first transfer to the Moon that arrives at the Moon in ballistic capture…that is, a spacecraft using this would be automatically captured into lunar orbit without any fuel,” he said.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Capturing the cosmos on canvas – Astrophysicist and artist Ed Belbruno explains how art helps scientists communicate their work to the public and even discover solutions to spaceflight and astronomy problems” – at:
Image credit: Naval History and Heritage Command
Eye-patch on and crank up your best “grrr.”
And while you’re at it, plop down a stack of doubloons and conjure up visions of “Captain” Jack Sparrow!
Talk about “high crimes” and misdemeanors. The growing pace of space as a commercial resource brings with it the prospect for misdeeds, corruption, piracy, and war.
The Center for the Study of Space Crime, Policy, and Governance (CSCPG) is looking into the risks of piracy in space and solutions to this potentially devastating economic and legal problem.
They call it “speculative non-fiction” – to learn more, go to my new Space.com story – “Space pirates already have their sights set on the ‘high seas’ of Earth orbit. Can we stop them?” – at:
Image credit: Naval History and Heritage Command
Blue Ghost lunar lander.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
The Blue Ghost Mission 1 spacecraft sitting on the Moon completed more than 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight), and operated just over 5 hours into the super-chilly lunar night.
Final data from the lunar lander was received on March 16.
“This achievement marks the longest commercial operations on the Moon to date,” Firefly Aerospace, builder of the lander, noted in a statement.
Blue Ghost captured imagery of the lunar sunset and provided critical data on how lunar regolith reacts to solar influences during lunar dusk conditions.
Artwork credit: Firefly Aerospace/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Rising from the dead?
Could Blue Ghost rise from the dead given the next burst of daylight at the landing site?
“We did not design our mission 1 hardware to survive the rest of the lunar night, so we don’t expect Blue Ghost to survive,” said Risa Schnautz, Firefly’s director of marketing and communications. “This capability can be a major mission architecture driver for both a lander and its payloads and was not required for this mission.”
On the other hand, Schnautz told Inside Outer Space that Firefly Aerospace ground operators will check back in early April “when there’s daylight again to see if there are any signs of life. It’s of course possible, but not expected.”
Photo taken from the Blue Ghost lander’s top deck shows X-band antenna (left), the Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (center), and the Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder mast (right). Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
Successful operations
All 10 NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) instruments successfully operated on the lunar surface and collected their science data after Blue Ghost Mission 1’s arrival on the Moon on March 2.
Throughout the mission, Blue Ghost transmitted more than 119 gigabytes (GB) of data back to Earth, including 51 GB of science and technology data, “significantly surpassing Firefly’s mission requirements,” the Cedar, Texas-based group added.
Here are the key payload milestones completed on the lunar surface by Blue Ghost, according to Firefly Aerospace:
LuGRE: Integrated on Blue Ghost’s antenna gimbal on the top deck, LuGRE successfully acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, from satellite networks such as GPS and Galileo, on the way to and on the Moon’s surface for the first time. This achievement suggests GPS-like signals could be used to navigate future missions to the Moon and beyond.
NGLR: The Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR) mounted on Blue Ghost’s antenna gimbal successfully reflected laser pulses from Earth-based Lunar Laser Ranging Observatories (LLROs), allowing scientists to precisely measure the Moon’s shape and distance from Earth, expanding our understanding of the Moon’s inner structure.
Every single Firefly employee’s name is etched on the Blue Ghost lunar lander plaque and is now on the Moon’s surface.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
LEXI: Mounted on Blue Ghost’s top deck on another Firefly-developed gimbal, the Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) captured a series of X-ray images to study the interaction of solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field, providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces surrounding Earth affect the planet.
LMS: Blue Ghost also deployed four tethered Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) electrodes on the surface, reaching a distance up to 60 feet from the lander, and deployed a six-foot mast above its top deck to enable the payload team to measure electric and magnetic fields and learn more about the Moon’s composition up to 700 miles, or two-thirds the distance to the Moon’s center.
RadPC: Integrated below Blue Ghost’s top deck, RadPC demonstrated a computer that can withstand space radiation while in transit to the Moon, including through the Earth’s Van Allen Belts, and on the Moon’s surface.
RAC: Mounted above Blue Ghost’s lower deck, the Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) instrument examined how lunar regolith sticks to a range of materials exposed to the Moon’s environment, allowing the industry to better test, improve, and protect spacecraft, spacesuits, and habitats from abrasive regolith.
Image captures LISTER in operation on the Moon.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace/NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
SCALPSS: Mounted below Blue Ghost’s lower deck, the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) instrument captured images during the spacecraft’s lunar descent and touchdown on the Moon, providing insights into the effects engine plumes have on the surface for future robotics and crewed Moon landings.
LISTER: Also mounted below Blue Ghost’s lower deck, the Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) payload drilled about three feet into the surface to measure the temperature and flow of heat from the Moon’s interior. This pneumatic, gas-powered drill is now the deepest-reaching robotic planetary subsurface probe.
Lunar PlanetVac: Deployed on Blue Ghost’s surface access arm, the Lunar PlanetVac successfully collected, transferred, and sorted lunar regolith from the Moon using pressurized nitrogen gas, proving to be a low cost, low mass solution for future robotic sample collection.
Lunar PlanetVac deployed by Blue Ghost.
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
EDS: Also deployed on Blue Ghost’s surface access arm, the Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) successfully lifted and removed lunar regolith using electrodynamic forces on the glass and thermal radiator surfaces. These results confirm EDS as a promising solution for dust mitigation on future lunar and interplanetary surface operations.
What next?
In looking ahead, Firefly Aerospace said it is ramping up for annual missions to the Moon.
“The team has begun qualifying and assembling flight hardware for Blue Ghost Mission 2, which will utilize Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander stacked on an Elytra Dark orbital vehicle for operations in lunar orbit and on the far side of the Moon,” the company said in a statement.
Blue Ghost Mission 2
Artwork: Firefly Aerospace
For more information on Firefly Aerospace, go to:
