January 25th, 2023
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That human-rated Soyuz MS-23 that will fly uncrewed as a replacement craft for a compromised Soyuz now docked at the International Space Station has completed vacuum chamber testing. The Soyuz MS-23 has also been tested for leaks and is now in a workplace for further pre-flight preparation, according to Russia’s Roscosmos in a Telegram posting. […]
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In China’s Collaborative Design and Simulation Hall of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, lunar spacecraft specialists are conducting collaborative demonstration and design of plans for the Chang’e-6, Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8 Moon missions. These lunar missions are to be carried out successively in the next 10 years. This fourth phase of lunar exploration has been detailed […]
Russia’s space station plans were detailed by Roscosmos head, Yuri Borisov, noting they are open to international cooperation on the Russian Orbital Station (ROS). The start of deployment of the ROS is in 2027. Borisov spoke at the plenary session of the Royal Readings – 2023, adding that Russia will support the work of the […]
The “rebooting of the Moon” by human explorers is pegged for NASA’s Artemis III mission with the crew footing their way around the lunar south pole. The lunar south pole is located on the rim of Shackleton crater, a 13 mile (21 kilometer) diameter feature. Moreover, the Moon’s south pole is surrounded by summits with […]
China’s robotic Moon explorer, Yutu-2, or the Jade Rabbit-2, continues to send back images from the lunar far side. The Chang’e-4 Moon mission lander and rover touched down on the Moon on January 3, 2019. Four years on, the lunar rover Yutu-2, named after the pet rabbit of the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e, has collected […]
New details regarding China’s Long March 9 booster have been discussed by a leading rocket designer from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. According to China Daily, the overall, baseline structural design for the nation’s super-heavy carrier rocket is a large, three-stage rocket about 360 feet (110 meters) tall. Long March 9’s liftoff […]
A commemorative plaque has been mounted on the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE for short. The plaque is a tribute to Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei who was the first to view Jupiter and its four largest moons through a telescope in January 1610. The plaque replicates several pages of […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3716 duties. The robot recently executed a “short bump” (a drive) that placed the Mars machinery in front of a possible, next-up drill target, reports Elena Amador-French, A Science Operations Coordinator at NASA/JPL in Pasadena, California. Before the science team commits to drilling […]
China’s Moon exploration program calls for launch next year of a new Queqiao-2 relay satellite. That relay spacecraft is slated to provide key relay communication services for its future Chang’e lunar missions over the next decade, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). According to China Central Television (CCTV), the design life of China’s […]
Due to the compromised nature of Russia’s Soyuz MS-22, a seat liner from that craft has been transferred to the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft. Doing so provides lifeboat capabilities in the event NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio would need to return to Earth because of an emergency evacuation from the International Space Station. […]
