September 9th, 2023
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Details of Virgin Galactic’s fourth successful suborbital flight in four months have been released by the space travel firm. The completion of its second private astronaut flight, the mission flew three of Virgin Galactic’s first customers. “Galactic 03” was the third flight of Virgin Galactic’s inaugural commercial spaceflight season. The September 8 flight […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3943 duties. “The rover is currently driving across bumpy terrain consisting of rounded bedrock sticking up between dark sand and drift as she drives south, and slightly uphill, along the Mt. Sharp Ascent Route,” reports Sharon Wilson Purdy, a planetary Geologist at Smithsonian […]
China’s Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China’s Hainan Province is in construction mode to put in place a new-generation launch complex. These new facilities will support the country’s human Moon exploration enterprise, according to Liao Guorui, the Wenchang launch commander. As noted by China Central Television (CCTV), the Wenchang site involves technological breakthroughs, including […]
The FAA has closed the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy mishap investigation. The final report cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023 mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence. “The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica,” a FAA […]
Success at today’s Friday, September 8 Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceflight. This is the company’s fourth spaceflight in four months. Who was onboard? “We are excited to announce the successful completion of ‘Galactic 03’. This marked our fourth successful spaceflight in four months, and the three crew members onboard were the first from our Founder Future […]
The General Accounting Office (GAO) finds that original Space Launch System (SLS) cost baselines, or committed costs, were tied to the launch of Artemis I. “Without a baseline to track these production costs for upcoming missions, future program costs are less transparent and harder for NASA and Congress to monitor,” the GAO report explains. “NASA […]
China’s blossoming space exploration agenda includes sending the country’s astronauts to the Moon, a master plan that calls for a target time before 2030. For the last several months, China space experts have repeatedly rolled out how-to-do humans-to-the-Moon exploration. Although cited as preliminary, their strategy is bolstered by Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar […]
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) has generated oxygen for the 16th and final time aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on August 7th. Its operations are concluding. Since 2021, MOXIE has generated a total of 122 grams of oxygen. MOXIE was built and operated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. […]
India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon Lander site has been eyed by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 lander/rover touched down on the Moon on August 23, 2023. NASA’s LRO high-powered LROC system acquired this oblique view (42° slew angle) of the lander four days later. The Chandrayaan-3 […]
