SpaceXs Dragon Endeavour spacecraft splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean Monday to end Axioms Ax-1 mission. Credit: SpaceX

A SpaceX crew capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Georgia Monday with a retired NASA astronaut and three wealthy businessmen, closing out an extended 17-day mission on the first fully commercial, non-government visit to the International Space Station.

Protected by a thermal shield, the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft plunged back into the atmosphere and withstood a scorching hot re-entry over the southeastern United States. Two drogue parachutes opened up, and then four main chutes unfurled to slow the capsule for a relatively gentle splashdown at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT) Monday in rolling seas northeast of Jacksonville, Florida.

The splashdown capped 17 days in orbit for the four-man crew, led by commander Michael Lpez-Alegra, a retired NASA astronaut and now an employee of Axiom Space, the Houston-based company that managed the mission.

Lpez-Alegra was joined on the flight by Larry Connor, an investor and accomplished aerobatic pilot from Ohio, Canadian businessman Mark Pathy, and Israeli entrepreneur Eytan Stibbe, who became the second person from Israel to fly in space. Connor, Pathy, and Stibbe paid for their rides to orbit.

Dragon, SpaceX, we see splashdown and mains (parachutes) cut, radioed Sarah Gillis, SpaceXs crew operations resource engineer, from the companys mission control center in Hawthorne, California.

We concur, repliedLpez-Alegra, who returned from his fifth mission to space, totaling 275 days in orbit. He has now launched on three different types of vehicles NASAs space shuttle, Russias Soyuz spacecraft, and SpaceXs Dragon ferry ship.

On behalf of the entire SpaceX team, welcome back to planet Earth, Gillis said. The Axiom 1 mission marks the beginning of a new paradigm for human spaceflight. We hope you enjoyed the extra few days in space and thanks for choosing to fly SpaceX.

Lpez-Alegra said the crew was feeling well as the capsule bobbed in the Atlantic Ocean. After teams on fast boats secured the parachutes and inspected the Dragon capsule, SpaceXs recovery ship Megan, named for NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, pulled alongside the spacecraft and lifted it from the sea.

The recovery team then opened the hatch and helped each crew member from the spacecraft. All four stood and smiled, flashing a thumbs-up and walking albeit wobbly and with assistance to a medical evaluation room on the recovery ship.

While readjusting to gravity, private astronauts were expected to fly by helicopter back to shore, then travel to Orlando for more medical checks and to meet their families.

Axiom contracted with NASA and SpaceX for the all-private crew mission to the space station. NASA charged Axiom a daily rate for access to the stations life support system, communications network, and other equipment. NASA is paying some of that back to Axiom in exchange for the return of government freezers and experiment specimens on the Dragon spacecraft.

Axiom paid SpaceX for the ride to and from the station on the Dragon spacecraft, and the launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center.

The arrangement is the first of its kind. Previous visits by private astronauts, or space tourists, to the space station occurred on government-led missions on Russian Soyuz spaceships. Before Axioms flight, 11 people had traveled to the space station as paying passengers on Soyuz missions, but they all flew with a government cosmonaut commander.

More Axiom missions are planned to the station in the next few years, leading up to delivery of the companys own commercial module to the orbiting complex. That module will eventually detach from the International Space Station and become the centerpiece for Axioms privately-owned multi-element outpost in low Earth orbit.

Without those two partners, none of this would be possible, said Derek Hassmann, Axioms operations director, referring to NASA And SpaceX. So just an amazing first step thats leading up to our launch and activation of the Axiom station with the first module being planned for 2024.

I would say, overall, this has been just an amazing success, Hassmann told reporters Monday afternoon. The crew performed beyond expectations. The ground teams were tremendous.

The re-entry and splashdown Monday came about 16 hours after SpaceXs Dragon Endeavour spacecraft undocked from the space station. The capsule backed away from the complex at 9:10 p.m. EDT Sunday (0110 GMT Monday).

The Axiom mission, known as Ax-1, was supposed to last 10 days, with the crew spending eight days at the space station. The mission was extended one day because of timing conflict between the planned undocking of the Ax-1 mission and a previously-scheduled Russian spacewalk.

Then persistent high winds in all seven SpaceXs splashdown zones near Florida kept the crew aloft through last week and the weekend. Mission managers were finally satisfied that conditions would be favorable for a return Monday, and they cleared Ax-1 to depart the station Sunday night.

During their time on the International Space Station, the Ax-1 astronauts brought the crew complement on the research lab up to 11 people, including five Americans, three Russians, one German, one Canadian, and one Israeli occupant. The Ax-1 crewspent the bonus time in orbit finishing up experiments and participating in more outreach events that didnt fit into the original flight plan, Hassmann said.

Despite nearly doubling their stay at the space staton, the paying passengers didnt rack up any late checkout fees.

The contact between Axiom and NASA included an equitable balance to cover potential delays in the undocking and return of the Ax-1 mission, said Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokesperson.

Knowing that International Space Station mission objectives like the recently conducted Russian spacewalk or weather challenges could result in a delayed undock, NASA negotiated the contract with a strategy that does not require reimbursement for additional undock delays, Schierholz said in a written statement.

There were no additional costs for any parties based on the extension of the mission, Hassmann said.

Axiom has not disclosed the price Connor, Pathy, and Stibbe paid for their flight to the space station. But NASAs inspector general has said a seat on a Dragon mission costs roughly $55 million.

The Ax-1 crew members trained for the mission in Houston and at SpaceXs headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

The first private astronaut mission is a harbinger of a transition from government-led spaceflight operations in low Earth orbit to a future generation of commercial space stations. NASA wants to help steer the space industry through the transition by providing the International Space Station as a testbed for markets that must be developed before companies can take launch and operate a revenue-earning destination in orbit.

A major goal for the U.S. space agency is to rely on commercial industry to develop the next orbiting outpost to replace the International Space Station. The Biden administration recently signaled it will support an extension of station operations though 2030, but by then the research labs oldest elements will have been in space 32 years, more than twice their original design lives.

The fraught relationship between the United States and Russia, the two largest ISS partners, in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine has also raised concerns about a replacement for the International Space Station.

Aside from Axiom, several other companies have plans to develop commercial space stations. In December, NASA selected Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman to advance their concepts for a commercial habitat and research facility in low Earth orbit.

Those companies are developing concepts for a standalone station, while Axiom will initially focus on a commercial add-on to the ISS.

The Ax-1 mission was a stepping stone toward that goal.

During their time in space, the Ax-1 crew worked with 26 science payloads and technology demonstration experiments, according to Hassmann. They also conducted more than 30 public outreach events in multiple languages.

The experiments on Ax-1 included investigations into self-assembling technology for future satellites and space habitats, the study cancer stem cells, and the test of a new Japanese air purification device. The crew members also served as experiment subjects for scientists to study how spaceflight affects the human body.

Connor partnered with Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic on research looking at heart health and brain and spinal tissue. Pathy worked with the Montreal Childrens Hospital, Canadian research universities, and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society on technology demonstrations, a sleep study and chronic pain experiment, an eye health investigation, and Earth observations.

Stibbe worked with the Israel Space Agency, the Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, and the Ramon Foundation, an organization established to honor the memory of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut who died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. He alsocarried with him fragments from Ilan Ramons diary that survived the searing heat of re-entry after the fatal breakup of the shuttle Columbia over Texas in 2003.

The end of the Ax-1 mission clears the way for SpaceX to launch the next crew flight to the space station. Three NASA astronauts and a European Space Agency mission specialist are ready for liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 a.m. EDT (0752 GMT) Wednesday.

The four-person crew will ride a Falcon 9 rocket and SpaceXs Dragon Freedom spacecraft into orbit to begin NASAs Crew-4 mission. The expedition on the space station is scheduled to last approximately five months.

The launch of the Crew-4 mission was delayed to await the return of the Ax-1 mission. The Dragon Endeavour spaceship was docked to the same port needed for arrival of the Dragon Freedom capsule.

SpaceX engineers will analyze data from the Ax-1 mission to ensure there were no issues that might affect the launch of the Crew-4 flight Wednesday. Managers planned to meet for a launch readiness review early Thursday to formally give the go-ahead for liftoff of the Crew-4 mission.

The Ax-1 mission was SpaceXs sixth launch to carry people since a Dragon test flight took off in May 2020 with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, ending a nearly nine-year gap in launching astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil.

NASA invested billions of dollars in helping SpaceX develop the human-rated Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX put up its own private funding in a cost-sharing arrangement with the federal government.

Benji Reed, senior director of SpaceXs human spaceflight programs, said Monday the companys fleet of four Crew Dragon spaceships could accommodate up to six astronaut missions per year.

Half a dozen crew flights per year would be great, or more, Reed said. AndIthink we can get to a place where we can sustain that. If theres a market for it, we can definitely do that.

Each Dragon capsule has four seats.In the long-term, SpaceX wants to retire the Falcon 9 and Dragon fleets in favor of the next-generation fully reusable Starship rocket, which could carry many more passengers into space. When asked Monday, Reed offered no estimate on when the Starship might be ready to fly people.

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SpaceX capsule returns to Earth with first all-private space station crew Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

Elon Musks successful takeover bid for Twitter has raised concerns about his plans for the social media platform, because of his political views. Historically those views have teetered left and right, but tend to gravitate towards libertarian. His anti-union stance as CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla has displeased liberals, even if they constitute his best automotive customers.

Objections to The Boring Company, his venture that proposes to build underground transportation networks beneath cities, fall not on ideological grounds but practical ones: some civil engineers just call it pie in the sky.

But there is one skyward thrust of Musks sci-tech empire that attracts almost universal praise the aerospace enterprise SpaceX. The Netflix documentary Return to Space, directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, chronicles the companys development of a recyclable rocket and its collaboration with NASA to get this country back into human space exploration.

Space is his best look, Vasarhelyi says of Musk, tacitly acknowledging his controversial profile that includes expressing doubts about Covid vaccine mandates and hanging out with pal Joe Rogan, the podcaster who has admitted to past use of racist language. If we were doing just an Elon Musk documentary Im sure we would have spent a lot of time going into that. But it wasnt really about that.

The films primary focus is on the first crewed mission for SpaceX in 2020, which aimed to send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. NASA hadnt put any astronauts into space since the last Shuttle flight in 2011. Vasarhelyi and Chin secured remarkable access to document the process, including the crew preparing for the mission and then the blastoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which propelled the companys Crew Dragon space capsule into orbit. And to Musk himself as the launch neared and the rocket took off.

In Return to Space, Musk appears intimately engaged in the details of the SpaceX-NASA mission not surprising, given that he is not only the CEO of SpaceX, but also its chief engineer. He hovers in the background at times, in a black sports coat, or inserts himself occasionally to inquire about technical points or to receive updates on the weather forecast before launch. Theres a faint resemblance to Hugo Drax of Moonraker, if only because of the common space theme and both characters immense wealth.

Elon Musks Crash Course: New York Times Documentary Set At FX

There was reason for Musk to feel comfortable with the filmmakers.

We had friends in common with Elon. We had spent some time together with him [previously], Vasarhelyi notes. SpaceX [access] was a thing, but the real kind of achievement, in many ways, was that NASA access because theyre just so notoriously, I dont know, controlling They ended up making the kind of accommodations that they normally never make.

The directors were permitted to use footage that Behnken and Hurley shot themselves. And they spent considerable time with then-NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

I think we got lucky with Bridenstine because he was the first civilian administrator [of NASA], Vasarhelyi says. He let us shadow him. I think he understood the value of this type of storytelling.

The filmmakers sprinkle some wonderful human touches throughout, including Bridenstines fondness for a certain kind of caffeine-powered soda.

We could always curry favor with him by bringing him Mountain Dew, Vasarhelyi shares. Like, who knew?

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. Many at the time scoffed at the idea of a commercial outfit manufacturing rockets for NASA use, including no less a figure than Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. Critics may have felt they had correctly foreseen the folly of SpaceX when the companys early efforts to create the Falcon rocket ended in spectacular explosions. But that was part of the process.

SpaceX really came at it with this basically new school startup mentality where it was, Fail fast and fail early and learn from your failures, Chin explains. Its kind of fast and furious compared to how people traditionally approached work and development in space travel.

Musk and his aeronautical engineers came up with other innovations besides the rocket itself; they also developed an escape system allowing astronauts in their capsule to separate from the booster rocket, in case of catastrophe after liftoff.

The inherent risk of space flight unites Return to Space with the earlier work of Chin and Vasarhelyi. In The Rescue, they documented the perilous effort to save children trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand; the Academy Award-winning Free Solo tracked climber Alex Honnold as he attempted to ascend Yosemites El Capitan granite rock face without aid of ropes. The rescuers who saved the Thai kids soberly assessed whether their intended plans could work; Honnold choreographed every inch of his climb to lessen the chance of a fatal plunge.

Its a familiar space or terrain for us to examine the process of risk assessment and calculation and mitigation. The heart of any high stakes situation is there is the stakes of the mission, but theres also the stakes of life and death, Chin observes. You have to have a true passion and belief in what youre doing when youre in that situation where you are calculating life and death risks. And thats really interesting to us because thats a look into why people do what they do, and then it also looks at the process.

The mission with Behnken and Hurley came off without a hitch. Earlier this month, SpaceX again in collaboration with NASA launched a former NASA astronaut and three paying customers to the ISS.

The mission is the first to go to the space station on which all of the passengers are private citizens, and it is the first time that NASA has collaborated in arranging a space tourism visit, The New York Times reported on April 8. The flight marked a pivotal moment in efforts to spur space travel by commercial enterprises, NASA officials said.

(If Musk had one eye on the launch, the other was on Twitter. On April 4 it was revealed he had bought a 9 percent stake in the company. On April 9, a day after the latest SpaceX blastoff, he announced he would not seek a seat on Twitters board. Then on April 14 he offered $43 billion to buy Twitter; today a deal was announced that would see him acquire the company for $44 billion).

At one point in Return to Space, Musk sports a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, Occupy Mars. He has articulated an outsized vision not only for SpaceX but for the human race. That would include a return to Earths only natural satellite, most recently visited by Apollo astronauts in late 1972.

Its been now almost half a century since humans were last on the moon. Thats too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the moon, Musk said last April. And then build a city on Mars to become a spacefaring civilization, a multi-planet species.

Vasarhelyi remarks, [Musk] truly believes in these ideas of consciousness, civilization and thinking about these questions.

But as for setting up house on the Red Planet, Vasarhelyi, for one, counts herself out.

I think life on Mars, the filmmaker says, sounds incredibly unpleasant.

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Elon Musk Likes Twitter, But Space Exploration Is His Real Love, As Seen In Netflix Doc Return To Space - Deadline

SKYTRAC Systems Ltd. (SKYTRAC) has announced that the The Exploration Company, a European developer, manufacturer, and operator of modular and reusable orbital vehicles, has selected SKYTRACs Iridium Certus, mid-band, SATCOM terminal for data transmission from their space capsule to the ground.

Nyx, The Exploration Companys space capsule, is a modular, reusable, and on-orbit, refuellable, orbital vehicle that carries cargo and, in the future, potentially even humans. Nyx is designed for missions such as orbiting the Earth for three to six months and landing on the Moon with re-entry capability.

A subscale re-entry demonstrator of Nyx will be launched into space on the maiden flight of the new Ariane 6 rocket later this year. Once in orbit, the space capsule will detach and begin re-entry back towards Earth.

The Exploration Company has selected SKYTRACs DLS-100, cutting-edge data link transceivers, to be installed onboard this capsule demonstrator. Capable of real-time command and control, telemetry streaming, and photo/video transmission the DLS-100 will enable 22 Kbps uplink speeds through the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation.

The ruggedized DLS-100 is optimized for Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) and weighs only 26.2 oz (742.8 g), making it the ideal data link system for a suite of platforms, including a space capsule. As the space capsule is an unrecoverable technology demonstrator, upon collecting and transmitting data, the capsule will impact the ocean.

Starting at an altitude of 360 miles, the space capsule will collect a large amount of data from systems and sensors which will be transmitted over the Iridium satellite network to the ground from SKYTRACs DLS-100, said Thomas Nussmann, Lead Avionics and Power at The Exploration Company. SKYTRACs ruggedized data link will provide the low latency, global, and reliable satellite connectivity the capsule requires to conduct this demonstration successfully.

SKYTRAC is excited to be part of The Exploration Companys mission to democratize space exploration with their innovative Nyx space capsule, said Jeff Sherwood, Director of Business Development at SKYTRAC. We are proud that our DLS-100 can extend beyond traditional aviation applications to provide these global connectivity services to space-based applications.

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SKYTRAC's Iridium Certus SATCOM Terminal Selected By The Exploration Company For Their Nyx Space Capsule SatNews - SatNews

Using state-of-the-art analytical techniques, researchers have detected diverse suites of nucleobases including canonical base pairs (e.g., adenine-uracil, guanine-cytosine, adenine-thymine) and some non-canonical ones (e.g., isoguanine-isocytosine and xanthine-2,4-diaminopyrimidine) in three carbonaceous meteorites: the Murchison, Murray, and Tagish Lake meteorites.

Conceptual image of meteoroids delivering nucleobases to ancient Earth. The nucleobases are represented by structural diagrams with hydrogen atoms as white spheres, carbon as black, nitrogen as blue and oxygen as red. Image credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center / CI Lab / Dan Gallagher.

Two types of chemical building blocks, or nucleobases, are needed to form DNA and RNA.

These are the pyrimidines, which include cytosine, uracil and thymine, and the purines, for example guanine and adenine.

Thus far, only purine nucleobases and uracil have been identified in meteorites.

However, Hokkaido Universitys Dr. Yasuhiro Oba and colleagues identified the final two nucleobases that have eluded scientists.

I wonder why purines and pyrimidines are exceptional in that they do not show structural diversity in carbonaceous meteorites unlike other classes of organic compounds such as amino acids and hydrocarbons, Dr. Oba said.

Since purines and pyrimidines can be synthesized in extraterrestrial environments, as has been demonstrated by our own study, one would expect to find a wide diversity of these organic molecules in meteorites.

We now have evidence that the complete set of nucleobases used in life today could have been available on Earth when life emerged, added Dr. Danny Glavin, a researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.

The newly-discovered pair of nucleobases, cytosine and thymine, have been elusive in previous analyses likely because of their more delicate structure, which may have degraded when scientists previously extracted samples.

In the earlier experiments, scientists created something of a meteorite tea, placing grains of meteorite in a hot bath to let the molecules on the sample extract into the solution and then analyzed the molecular makeup of the extraterrestrial broth.

We study these water extracts since they contain the good stuff, ancient organic molecules that could have been key building blocks for the origin of life on Earth, Dr. Glavin said.

Because of how delicate these two nucleobases are, the study authors were initially skeptical to see them in the samples.

But two factors may have contributed to the new discovery: first, they used cool water to extract the compounds instead of hot formic acid which is very reactive and could have destroyed these fragile molecules in previous samples. Second, more sensitive analytics were employed that could pick up on smaller amounts of these molecules.

The finding doesnt provide a smoking gun as to whether life on Earth got an assist from space or came about exclusively in the prebiotic soup in the planets infancy.

But completing the set of nucleobases that make up life today, in addition to other molecules found in the sample, gives scientists who are trying to understand the beginning of life more compounds to experiment with in the lab.

This is adding more and more pieces; meteorites have been found to have sugars and bases now, said Dr. Jason Dworkin, a researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.

Its exciting to see progress in the making of the fundamental molecules of biology from space.

The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.

_____

Y. Oba et al. 2022. Identifying the wide diversity of extraterrestrial purine and pyrimidine nucleobases in carbonaceous meteorites. Nat Commun 13, 2008; doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29612-x

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Key Components of DNA and RNA Found in Three Meteorites - Sci-News.com

Dublin, April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --The "Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market - A Comprehensive Launch Market Assessment: Focus on End User, Satellite Mass, Platform Type, Propulsion Type, Service Type, and Country - Analysis and Forecast, 2022-2032" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global small launch vehicle market is expected to reach $4,624.0 million by 2032, with a CAGR of 13.34% during the forecast period 2022-2032.

After 2014, the SLV market witnessed exponential growth due to an increase in the number of SLV manufacturers and launch service providers. The increasing number of satellite constellations for applications such as communication, technology development, Earth observation, and remote sensing is expected to be the major driving factor for SLV market growth.

As of February 2022, there were 17 operational small-lift launch vehicles and 99 small launch vehicles under development.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Industry Overview

The use of small satellites for several applications such as Earth observation, communication, and space exploration is expected to drive the growth of the SLV market.

Several programs such as Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) are organized for developing an affordable method for launching small satellites. In addition, with rigorous testing of new technologies and research and development work, ALASA is expected to introduce small launch systems to provide more reasonable, routine, and reliable access to space in less than $1 million per launch.

Market SegmentationGlobal Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Satellite Mass

Satellite mass is a prominent market segment. The 501-2,200 Kg satellite mass segment has the highest market share and is estimated to grow over the forecast years due to the rise in the number of small satellite constellations from various key manufacturers such as SpaceX, Amazon, Cloud Constellation, Urthecast, and ISRO.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Platform Type

The land platform has the highest market penetration in the global SLV market during the forecast period 2022-2032. The market growth is due to cost-effective launch and high success rate.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Propulsion Type

Solid propulsion technology is expected to have the highest market penetration in the global small launch vehicle market during the forecast period 2022-2032. This is due to the high demand for solid propellant rockets, which are much easier to store and handle during launch.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by End-User

The commercial end user is anticipated to witness huge growth over the forecast period. It had a significant market share in 2021 due to the increasing demand for commercial applications such as remote sensing, Earth observation and navigation, surveillance, and satellite internet. The satellite internet constellation is a major project in this segment.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Service Type

The pre-launch services segment had a significant market share in 2021 and is estimated to hold significant market share over the forecast period due to an increase in the number of commercial launches per year.

Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market by Region

In 2021, the contribution of Asia-Pacific held the highest share of the global small launch vehicle market. The region is anticipated to hold a significant share in the global market by the end of 2032.

The majority of the market growth in the Asia-Pacific region is contributed by the market in China owing to the presence of key market players such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and Galactic Energy (Beijing) Space Technology Co., LTD. CASC and Galactic accounted for more than 30 successful SLV launches per year.

Key Market Players and Competition Synopsis

The companies profiled in the report have been selected post-in-depth interviews with experts and understanding details around companies such as product portfolios, annual revenues, market penetration, research and development initiatives, and domestic and international presence in the small launch vehicle market.

Some key players in the global small launch vehicle (SLV) market include Arianespace, Astra Space, Inc., Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab USA, Inc., ABL Space Systems, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace Inc., China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and Interorbital Systems among others.

Recent Developments in Global Small Launch Vehicle Market

Key Topics Covered:

1 Markets1.1 Industry Outlook1.1.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market: An Overview1.1.2 Launch Vehicle Mapping with Satellite/Payload, Orbit, and Launch Site1.1.3 Global Small Satellite Industry Scenario: Business Opportunity for SLV Market1.1.4 Trends: Current and Future1.1.4.1 Cost Advantage in Reusable Launch Vehicle1.1.4.2 Propulsion System1.1.4.3 Modernization in Structure Composition of Small Launch Vehicle (SLV)1.1.5 Spaceports: Capability Analysis1.1.6 Start-Up and Investment Landscape1.1.6.1 Key Start-Ups in the Ecosystem1.1.6.2 Funding Analysis1.1.7 Supply Chain Analysis1.2 Business Dynamics1.2.1 Business Drivers1.2.1.1 Increasing Usage of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Components1.2.1.2 Growing Demand for Small Satellites and Constellations in LEO1.2.1.3 Increasing Cooperation among Space Agencies for Space Missions1.2.2 Business Challenges1.2.2.1 Absence of Efficient and Reliable Micro-Propulsion Systems1.2.2.2 High Cost Associated with Space Launch Vehicles1.2.3 Business Opportunities1.2.3.1 Increasing Developments in Low-Cost Launching Sites1.2.3.2 Emerging Startups in SLV Manufacturing1.2.3.3 Advancements in 3D Printing Technology for Space Industry1.2.4 Key Business Development1.2.5 Partnerships, Collaborations, Agreements, and Contracts1.2.6 Mergers & Acquisitions

2 Application2.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by End User)2.1.1 Market Overview2.1.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by End User)2.1.2 Academic2.1.3 Commercial2.1.4 Government2.1.5 Military and Defense2.1.6 Non-Profit Organization

3 Products3.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Satellite Mass)3.1.1 Market Overview3.1.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Satellite Mass)3.1.2 0-500 Kg3.1.3 501-2,200 Kg3.2 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Platform Type)3.2.1 Market Overview3.2.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Platform Type)3.2.2 Land3.2.3 Air3.2.4 Sea3.2.5 Balloon3.3 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Propulsion Type)3.3.1 Market Overview3.3.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Propulsion Type)3.3.2 Solid3.3.3 Liquid3.3.4 Hybrid3.4 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Service Type)3.4.1 Market Overview3.4.1.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Service Type)3.4.2 Pre-Launch Service3.4.2.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (Pre-Launch Service, by Service Type)3.4.3 Post-Launch Service3.4.3.1 Demand Analysis of the Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (Post-Launch Service, by Service Type)3.5 Product and Pricing Analysis3.5.1 Launch Vehicle Manufacturing3.5.2 Satellite Launch Services3.5.3 Payload Manufacturing and Deployment Cost Analysis

4 Region4.1 Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Region)4.2 North America4.2.1 Market4.2.1.1 Key Small Launch Vehicle Manufacturers and Launch Service Providers in North America4.2.1.2 Business Drivers4.2.1.3 Business Challenges4.2.2 Application4.2.2.1 North America Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by End User)4.2.3 Product4.2.3.1 North America Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market (by Satellite Mass)4.2.4 North America (by Country)4.3 Europe4.4 Asia-Pacific4.5 Rest-of-the-World

5 Market - Competitive Benchmarking & Company Profiles5.1 Competitive Benchmarking5.2 Market Share Analysis5.3 Key Market Players

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/nfqwab

Media Contact:

Research and MarketsLaura Wood, Senior Manager[emailprotected]

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Global Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Market Analysis Report 2022-2032 - Increasing Usage of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Components & Increasing...

The Crew Dragon space capsule astronauts, from front left, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. John Raoux/AP hide caption

The Crew Dragon space capsule astronauts, from front left, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

The journey back to Earth from space is never easy, but the astronauts aboard the SpaceX capsule coming home Monday will have an extra challenge to deal with: no working toilet. The four members on SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor will be wearing diapers as they splash down, in order to prevent anything else from splashing too.

The crew for this mission, known as Crew-2, has been at the International Space Station since April, and have spent nearly 200 days in space. "It's been a very, very intense mission, a lot of things have happened," said expedition commander and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet in a press conference over the weekend. Over the mission, they conducted a series of spacewalks installing solar panels to upgrade the station's powergrid, grew the first green chile peppers in space (and made tacos!) and even hosted a private Russian film crew.

The SpaceX capsule is currently scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on Monday afternoon and return Monday night, although all of that is dependent on the weather. All in all, the four crew members could spend up to 20 hours in the capsule, from the time the hatches are closed until they open again on Earth.

In this weekend's press conference, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur confirmed that the toilets on board Dragon Endeavor are broken. "Of course that's sub-optimal, but we're prepared to manage," she said with a smile. "Space flight is full of lots of little challenges, this is just one more that we'll encounter and take care of in our mission."

This is not the first toilet issue on a SpaceX Dragon capsule. An alarm went off on SpaceX's all-tourist flight earlier this year, signaling a problem with the onboard waste management system. Bill Gerstenmaier, a vice president at SpaceX, later said in a press conference that the spacecraft's urine storage system had become disconnected in flight, allowing pooled urine to enter a fan system. It didn't cause any major problems on that flight.

A similar problem was then found on Crew-2's capsule, which is why it has been taken offline for this return journey home. NASA and SpaceX engineers say they did extensive tests to make sure that the urine leak from April, when the crew was last in the Dragon capsule, would not have harmed the spacecraft over time.

A new SpaceX mission, Crew-3, is set to launch no earlier than Wednesday to continue the work of Crew-2. Gerstenmaier, who was a longtime NASA engineer before joining SpaceX, says that the toilet problem has been fixed for the upcoming launch.

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A broken toilet on SpaceX capsule means astronauts will return to Earth in diapers - NPR

Theresa Cross

November 12th, 2021

An illustration of NASAs Orion spacecraft at the Moon. NASA has selected National Geographic to tell the story of the mission. Credit: NASA

NASA and National Geographic have partnered to help tell the story of the first crewed flight around the Moon in more than a half century.

The agency wants to document and leverage content that will help tell the story of the first crewed Artemis mission, Artemis 2, which is expected to fly humans around the Moon and back to Earth aboard the Orion space capsule. The 10-day mission is slated to lift off atop the second Space Launch System rocket no earlier than May 2024. Aboard will be three NASA astronauts and one Canadian astronaut the first non-American to travel to the Moon.

On Oct. 29, 2021, NASA announced National Geographic won a selection process that started with a call for proposals in November 2020. National Geographic entered into a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA to collaborate with the agency on the project.

Returning humans to the Moon with Artemis 2 will inspire the next generation of explorers, Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, who served as the selection official, said in an agency news release. This time, we are bringing partners and technologies that will create additional opportunities for the world to share in the experience along with our astronauts.

National Geographic plans to use lightweight audiovisual hardware flying inside Orion for this one-of-a-kind opportunity to create an immersive experience in hopes of inspiring the next generation of space explorers.

An infographic showing the expected trajectory of the Artemis 2 mission. Credit: NASA

The mega-media company plans to create a multi-platform story-telling campaign using its portfolio of assists, which include magazines, television and digital content, to share the experiences of the astronauts and mission with the world.

For the Artemis program, NASA plans to first launch the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission as early as February 2022, which involves launching an Orion capsule atop a Space Launch System rocket to place the crew-rated spacecraft into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.

While there wont be any people aboard, this is expected to be the first time a spacecraft designed for people will travel to the Moon since the last Apollo program Moon landing in 1972.

After about a month, the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft is expected to return to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

Artemis 2 is set to be the first crewed flight of the SLS/Orion system in hopes of paving the way for future missions to the Moons surface by the middle of this decade in preparation for testing technology and processes needed for human spaceflight to Mars in the 2030s.

Video courtesy of Orbital Velocity

Tagged: Artemis 1 Artemis 2 Artemis program NASA National Geographic The Range

Theresa Cross grew up on the Space Coast. Its only natural that she would develop a passion for anything Space and its exploration. During these formative years, she also discovered that she possessed a talent and love for defining the unique quirks and intricacies that exist in mankind, nature, and machines.Hailing from a family of photographersincluding her father and her son, Theresa herself started documenting her world through pictures at a very early age. As an adult, she now exhibits an innate photographic ability to combine what appeals to her heart and her love of technology to deliver a diversified approach to her work and artistic presentations.Theresa has a background in water chemistry, fluid dynamics, and industrial utility.

Original post:

National Geographic selected to tell the story of Artemis 2 - SpaceFlight Insider

An international team of volunteers has just begun a 240 day isolation experiment in Russia to simulate a long duration space flight like a trip to Mars. A new virtual reality program developed in Canada will be part of the experiment to help fight the effects of isolation.

A unique facility called "NEK" at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, has been used since the 1960s to study the psychological and physical effects of long duration space flights. A series of simulated missions of various lengths have taken place, the most famous, the Mars 500 mission in 2010/2011 in which an all male crew spent 520 days in isolation.

This latest eight month mission, which includes three men and three women, will include a new VR tool developed at the iSpace Lab at Simon Fraser University, in collaboration withthe Centre for Space Medicine and Extreme Environments in Berlin, to help fight the effects of extreme isolation.

Users will wear 3D goggles and experience flyover views of the Earth both looking down from space and through beautiful environments such as mountain forests. The researchers believe the meditative experience will simulate what astronauts call the "overview effect" that comes from looking down on the Earth from space, as well as a sense of awe when visiting beautiful places.

The immersive technology will provide an escape from the confines of the isolated habitat and hopefully mitigate the psychological pressures of living in isolation.

A journey to Mars takes more than a half a year. During that time, a crew will become more and more isolated from Earth as their distance from home increases to 480 million kilometres, creating a time delay of up to 20 minutes for their communication signals to travel between the two planets. They will be isolated in space and in time.

And Martian explorers will have a different experience from long-duration residents of orbital space stations, like Canadian astronauts Robert Thirsk or David St. Jaques, who spent a half a year in space on the International Space Station, or Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov who spent 437 days on the Mir space station in the 1990s.

They could look out the window anytime and see the beauty of the Earth passing 400 kilometres below, and had more direct access to family and friends.

But on a spacecraft headed to Mars, the Earth is out of sight during the voyage and communication will become more delayed as the distance increases. The crew will also be entirely on their own if something goes wrong because a rescue mission would also take months to reach them. It will literally be life in a tin can with no escape. This could create a profound sense of isolation and potentially interfere with their crew responsibilities or result in personality conflicts.

The psychological challenges of isolation can be formidable, not just for Mars explorers but also, as we've seen, for people cut off from family during COVID lockdowns.A virtual experience may help calm the nerves of astronauts in deep space, but it is also a lesson for those of us on Earth who can appreciate the value of a real walk in the woods, on a beach or any place where the power of nature provides a sense of peace.

So when you finish reading this blog, step away from your computer and take a walk outside. It will be good for you.

Read more:

Canadian VR technology will aid isolation effects on a simulated long duration space flight - CBC.ca

Update your calendars, everyone: NASA isnt going to put people on the moon in 2024. The space agency announced yesterday that it is now aiming to send a crew to orbit the moon, Apollo 8 style, in May 2024, and then land astronauts on the surface, la Apollo 11, sometime in 2025.

If your reaction to this news is something like, Wait a second, what? NASA is trying to land people on the moon again?thats fine. There are many, many, many more pressing matters to occupy Americans minds than what NASA may or may not be doing, and when. The Biden administration isnt really talking it up either.

The current moon effort is called Artemis, named for Apollos sister in Greek mythology, and it arose during the Trump administration: After NASA officials made clear, to Donald Trumps annoyance, that they couldnt pull off a Mars landing before the end of his first term, the president pivoted to the moon, and in 2019 directed NASA to land Americans on the lunar surface in 2024, shaving four years off the agencys then-goal of 2028. The Biden administration embraced the Artemis program in February and, until now, NASA had held onto 2024, reworking the previous administrations promise to take the next man and the first woman to the moon to the first woman and the first person of color. The White House has barely breathed a word of it all year. President Joe Biden hasnt publicly name-checked the program, and during a speech at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland last week, Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned only one moon landingone that happened more than 50 years ago.

NASA is getting geared up to go, Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator under Biden, told reporters with enthusiasm yesterday, to plant another flag, to build habitats, to take what astronauts learn on the lunar surface and use it for future missions to Mars. Americans havent visited the moon since 1972, and the remnants of the Apollo landings sit like ghostly ruinsthe American flags bleached white by the suns rays, the boot prints still etched into the regolith, the rovers coated in a thin layer of moon dust. Thats right: Astronauts actually drove on the moon half a century ago. If NASA could do all that then, repeating a moon landing nowwith all the computing power and other technological advances that humanity has amassed in the accruing yearsseems like it should be a breeze.

Read: What is the Apollo 11 landing site like now?

But as the new delay shows, its not. NASA and its commercial contractors are developing an arsenal of new equipment for these missionsrocket, lander, life-support systemsand they have a tremendous amount of work left to do. The spacesuits that NASA began developing in 2007 wont be ready until at least 2025. The agency is not entirely starting from scratchafter all, it did this 50 years ago!but the effort to return to the moon seems almost like a hassle now. So why is America going back at all?

In the 1960s, NASA had the budget, the political will, and the Cold War momentum to sprout a moon program and pull off a landing in a span of eight years. Some administrations since President John F. Kennedys have vowed to returnGeorge W. Bush, for example, called for a landing in 2020but the special circumstances that fueled the Apollo era have vanished. NASAs funding accounts for just half a percent of the annual federal budget, compared with the 4.5 percent the agency enjoyed during the Apollo days. At every presidential election, NASA braces for a new shift in directive; Barack Obama took a been there, done that stance on the moon, before Trump pivoted right back.

John Logsdon, a longtime space historian who attended the Apollo 11 launch, once told me that the national drive that fueled the Apollo era has weakened. That impulse is certainly less widespread than it was 50 years ago, he said. And indeed, our motivations for traveling beyond Earth seem less intuitive now. In my years as a space reporter, most of the questions that have framed my stories about the American space effort have been fairly straightforward. Who? NASA usually, but, more often these days, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. What? A rocket, a rover, a telescope. When? T-minus minutes for a rocket, seven months for a Mars-bound probe, years for one heading to Jupiter. Where? A launchpad in Cape Canaveral, inside the rings of Saturn, beyond the asteroid belt. The why has often been more difficult to pin down, particularly for the risky, expensive missions that involve putting a human being on board. But there has always been a feeling of certainty in it. Now that human beings have figured out how to leave the planet and go somewhere else, why would we stop?

A few motivations drive American space travel today, some old and some new: national prestige, geopolitical power, economic opportunity, scientific knowledge. But space exploration can achieve each of those goals only to a limited extent. Certain American politicians warn of a new space race with China, but exploration projects these days rely more on international cooperation. The private sector is developing missions to mine the moon for resources, but the commercial market for them doesnt yet exist. Some argue that space travel can lead to better technology on Earth, but thats difficult to imagine now, when the most recent flashy development on the International Space Station consisted of tacos made with green chiles the crew grew on board. And science and discovery, perhaps the purest motivations, are subject to political whims. The Artemis program didnt transpire because a bunch of lunar scientists got together in a room and decided to do it; it exists because Trump sought to bolster his presidential legacy.

Read: The false hope of an American rocket launch

Ignoring the reality of Americas ambivalence toward space travel is becoming much more difficult. Public-opinion surveys in recent years have shown that Americans want the country to prioritize other kinds of space activities; in a Morning Consult poll published in February, survey participants said the United States should focus more on climate-change research and the study of asteroids that could strike Earth. Only 8 percent said sending astronauts to the moon should be a top priority, and 7 percent said the same for a mission to Mars. Gil Scott-Herons words in Whitey on the Moon, from 1970, still resonate: Cant pay no doctor bill / But Whiteys on the moon / 10 years from now Ill be payin still / While Whiteys on the moon.

For years, NASA has insisted that Americans cared about space exploration anyway, and presented the Apollo effort as a product of national unity. (It wasnt; polling shows that the moon program was unpopular for most of the 1960s, with the exception of a survey conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Apollo 11 landing.) As one space-policy wonk told me recently: Theyve been coasting on the fact that a significant amount of people think that space is cool and they dont have to argue why they do this.

During yesterdays call with reporters, Nelson, the NASA administrator, gave a hodgepodge of the usual reasons for a moon mission: bolstering scientific discovery, providing economic benefits, inspiring future generations of scientists and engineers, beating another nation to it. This time its China, which seeks to land its own astronauts on the moon soon. We have every reason to believe that we have a very aggressive competitor in the Chinese, Nelson said, and we want to be the first back. But by trying to highlight the appeal of space travel on all fronts, NASA risks making its rationale so amorphous that it appeals to no one. Over the years, Ive spoken with many people who think deeply about space travel, and when I ask some of them about the whys, they admit, a little sheepishly, that there might be no compelling reason to send people into spacerobots, yes, but people, maybe not. They seem hesitant to even say it aloud, as if to do so were blasphemous. But we shouldnt be afraid to examine why that is, and even dwell on the ambivalence. And the truth is that the reasons are not so clear.

Read: The coming end of an era at NASA

In the end, NASA doesnt need to sell the greater public on a moon mission, only congressional lawmakers who decide budgets. And the agency has tied its future in space to entrepreneurs who dont really need to provide a rationale to the public either. The CEOs of space companies are not beholden to American taxpayers, even though their companies benefit from taxpayer money (and they can make penis jokes to millions of people on the internet without being fired). Until recently, the Artemis effort was tangled up in a turf war between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk: Bezoss Blue Origin had sued NASA over the agencys decision to pick Musks SpaceX to build lander technology for Artemis missions. Blue Origin had pitched its own lander too, and the company accused NASA of a flawed selection process. NASA said it couldnt work with SpaceX until the conflict was resolved last week, when a judge ruled against Blue Origins claim. Now that the matter is settled, Nelson said that he and his leadership team will visit SpaceXs facilities in South Texas early next year to inspect the technology that might put Americans on the moon again in 2025.

When you consider their motivations for space exploration, NASA and SpaceX are an unusual pairing. Musk, as Ive written before, can talk forever about the urgency of turning humankind into a multiplanetary species without incurring much resistance. NASA, a government agency, cant rely on such fringe ideas. Public officials must trot out the usual reasoning that has underpinned the American space effort since its beginnings, and present the wonder of space travel as proof that we can meet any challenge on Earth, as Biden said recently. American leaders have ridden this logic for 50 years. In the next 50, they might have to accept that it isnt as compelling as they think, and that the American populace might prefer some more earthly proof first.

Continue reading here:

Why Is NASA Sending People to the Moon Again? - The Atlantic

News18 IndiaNov 08, 2021 12:13:21 IST

Space tourism has been all the rage of late, with a new billionaire shuttling off into the beyond in intervals of what feels like every other week. But newsflash: theres someone who doesnt see what the craze is all about, and its Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks.

In a Jimmy Kimmel interview, Hanks revealed that before William Shatner, he had been offered a Blue Origin flight to outer space by Jeff Bezos but that he had turned it down. You know, it costs like 28 million bucks or something like that. Im doing good, Jimmy, Im doing good. But I aint paying 28 [million] bucks," a PEOPLE report quoted Hanks as saying.

Crew of Blue Origin's 18 New Shepherd missions. Image credit: Twitter

Whats more, Hanks made light of the situation by saying that a 12-minute space flight could be simulated right there as host Jimmy and himself sat in their seats. The 65-year-old actor jokingly bounced around in his seat as if in a space flight to drive home his point.

Further, Hanks quipped that he didnt need to spend 28 million dollars to get the experience of being in a space flight. He said he would perhaps do it if it were free, just to feel the joy of pretending" to be a billionaire. Hanks take is diametrically opposite to that of Shatner.

William Shatner, who starred as Captain James T Kirk in the original Star Trek series, flew to space on 12 October aboard the companys crewed rocket, becoming the oldest ever astronaut.

Ive heard about space for a long time now. Im taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle," said the 90-year-old actor in a statement by Jeff Bezoss space company. The Star Trek actor had described his trip to the edge of space as the most profound experience." reported AFP.

However, when Shatner was sharing his experience with Bezos, it didnt go quite according to plan. While Shatner spoke about his space experience, Bezos suddenly cut the conversation and turned to a few groups nearby to say, Give me the champagne bottle. Come here. I want one."

The abrupt reaction from Bezos vexed Shatner and made him stop speaking. He then scratched his head and turned away, while Bezos continued to pop the bubbly bottle. The video ends where Bezos turns to put his arm on Shatner.

The rest is here:

Jeff Bezos offered actor Tom Hanks a seat on Blue Origin's spaceflight for 28 million bucks or something - Firstpost

A new video shows NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity as it completed its latest daring brief flight hop in the thinning atmosphere of the Red Planet.

The 23-second flight saw the little Ingenuity helicopter, a partner on the larger Perseverance rover mission, hop 16 feet (5 meters) high and make a sideways maneuver before touching down. At Space.com, we put together images from the flight to create this full video of Ingenuity's 14th flight that captures the drone's shadow on the Martian terrain below, along with its rotors, which were spinning more rapidly than ever before.

The 14th Ingenuity flight on Sunday (Oct. 24) was shorter and flew lower than past ones, because engineers were testing the drone's ability to cope during normal seasonal conditions that see thinning atmosphere of Mars. As temperatures at the chopper's Jezero Crater landing site get warmer, the aircraft's rotors must turn faster to keep it in the air.

Related:It's getting harder to fly the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars

In September, when NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was planning the flight, they said the rotor would need to spin at roughly 2,700 revolutions per minute (RPM), compared with past flights where the drone achieved 2,537 RPM. The greater rotation rate was meant to cope with the thinning atmosphere.

Ingenuity is meant to be a test of flying on Mars, and it has far surpassed its original flight plan. After completing several short hops and longer flights, the drone is well into an extended mission in which it is starting to scout ahead for Perseverance, which is examining a set of layered rocks right now in Jezero Crater.

Future Martian missions will benefit from drones, NASA has said, which have advantages over rovers, landers and potential spacesuited astronauts in that the helicopters can get context from high in the air and they can examine features that may be dangerous to approach on the terrain, such as deep craters or steep hills.

This 14th flight of Ingenuity was originally expected on Sept. 18, but wasdelayed due to an anomalyfound during a pre-flight checkout. Ingenuity found a problem with two of its flight-control servo motors, which adjust the rotor pitch for the helicopter to change position and orientation in mid-air.

Testing on Sept. 21 and Sept. 23 did not see the issue come up again, but Ingenuity stayed grounded for nearly an Earth month because Marsexperienced solar conjunction, an event during which the orbit of the two planets puts the sun in between for several weeks. This can disrupt communicationsbetween the planets, and Mars missions typically suspend most work as a precaution.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Watch NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity take its 14th flight in this full video - Space.com

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NASA and Russia's space agency adjusted the course of the International Space station (ISS) to avoid a collision with debris that was headed.

The fragment was a remnant of a Chinese weather satellite that was destroyed in a missile test 15 years ago, Roscosmos, the space agency, said in a tweet on Wednesday, around the time it adjusted course.

The debris was due to approach the space station some time on Friday if it hadn't moved.

It was due to enter the "pizza box," a flat, rectangular zone 2.5 miles deep and 30 miles wide around the space station inside which any object is "close enough for concern," per NASA.

"It just makes sense to go ahead and do this burn and put this behind us so we can ensure the safety of the crew," said Joel Montalbano, NASA's space station manager, at a press conference on Tuesday, per The New York Times.

Neither NASA nor Roscosmos said how big the fragment was. While a small fragment may not have significantly damaged the station, large bits of space junk have the potential to cause catastrophic damage.

The maneuver raised the space station's orbit by about a mile (1.2 km), Roscmoscos said in a press release Thursday. The ISS fired its rockets for just over six minutes to get out of the way, the Conversation reported.

It took place just a day before Crew-3 mission astronauts Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer arrived on the station.

This is the 29th time the space station has had to dodge a piece of space junk, according to The Times.

Space debris is made up of bits of often defunct spacecrafts broken apart in orbit, per NASA. It can travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, per NASA, about ten times the speed of a bullet.

Even a fleck of paint from a rocket can be dangerous at this speed for instance, if it hits an observation dome.

"Space debris has the potential to cripple the ISS and kill the crew," Robert Frost, Instructor and Flight Controller at NASA, said in a blog post in 2019. But the risk is "highly managed," he said.

Ground-based crews track the biggest pieces of space junk to allow lead time to move the ISS out of the way, as can be seen in this Insider video.

Anything above a third of an inch (1 cm) could penetrate the shields of the ISS's crew modules, according to the ESA. Anything larger than 4 inches (10 cm) could shatter the station to pieces, per ESA.

In this instance, the space junk came from an anti-satellite test conducted in 2007, when China launched a missile against its own weather satellite Fengyun-1C, per NASA.

That collision created about 3,500 pieces of large fragments and many other small ones, per NASA.

It wasn't immediately clear how big were the fragments predicted to cross paths with the ISS this Friday, but ground team only track bigger objects that are bigger than a softball, per NASA.

Collisions with smaller debris can also be damaging and are more unpredictable. In June, NASA said that a small fragment had punched a 0.2-inch (5-millimeter) hole in one of the ISS's robotic arms, Insider's Aylin Woodward previously reported.

Bigger fragments are also getting harder to track as an acceleration of space flight activity has led to a dramatic increase of fragments orbiting the planet.

Last year, NASA moved the ISS after detecting a piece of "unknown space debris" that would have flown within a mile of the space station Insider previously reported.

On that occasion, the astronauts still sealed themselves in a Soyuz rocke capsule, which could act as an escape pod in case the station was damaged.

Continued here:

ISS swerveed to avoid China space junk. Impact would be devastating. - Business Insider

NASA wants you to get excited about the nightmare world next door.

This spring, the agency announced that it would develop two new missions to explore Venus in the early 2030s. One, dubbed VERITAS (short for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), would orbit the planet, peering through its thick clouds. The other, dubbed DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging), would go one step farther, dropping a high-tech probe to plummet through the acrid Venusian atmosphere. Now, NASA has released a new video highlighting the DAVINCI mission and the science it will conduct at our twin planet.

"Venus is waiting for us all, and DAVINCI is ready to take us there and ignite a new Venus renaissance," narrator Giada Arney, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, says in the video.

Related: Here's every successful Venus mission humanity has ever launched

Scheduled to launch in 2029, the DAVINCI mission comprises two main pieces, the video explains. First, the main spacecraft, which will conduct two flybys of the planet to study its atmosphere and the nightside surface. The spacecraft's atmospheric work will focus on observing how the clouds change over time and attempting to identify a mysterious chemical that strangely absorbs ultraviolet light.

The nightside work, meanwhile, will map the surface in infrared light, since the rock releases its absorbed heat during the long night. Scientists hope that data will help them understand how the planet's strange highlands formed.

Seven months after the two encounters, the probe will make a one-hour descent through the clouds, beaming back data all the way down. As the main spacecraft watches, the probe will detect the composition, temperatures, pressures and winds present at each layer of the Venusian atmosphere. Scientists hope that all this data will help them not only better understand the planet today, but also piece together its history and in particular, whether the world once boasted water.

Once the surface comes into view, the probe will also capture high-resolution images of a region called Alpha Regio Tesserae. The surface of Venus contains many patches of tesserae, where the rock has repeatedly broken and folded in a way that happens on Earth only deep in the crust. Scientists hope that by understanding the tesserae and how they ended up on the surface, they can better piece together Venus' history.

All told, the probe will show humans "what it might be like to stand on the Venus surface," Arney said. "The discoveries that emerge from this diverse data set will tell us whether Venus was truly habitable."

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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New NASA video takes you plummeting through Venus' atmosphere - Space.com

Theresa Cross

November 10th, 2021

NASA and Department of Defense teams practice the recovery of a mock Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux

NASAs Landing and Recovery team recently completed its ninth recovery test at sea and is certified to recover the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission next year.

According to NASA, a weeklong test in early November 2021 in the Pacific Ocean aboard the USS John P. Murtha was performed by NASA and Department of Defense teams in order to ensure they are ready to recover the Orion capsule following its splashdown at the conclusion of its roughly month-long uncrewed test flight.

Artemis 1 is currently expected to launch atop the inaugural flight of the Space Launch System no earlier than Feb. 12, 2022, from Launch Complex 39B at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

For the past several years, NASA and DoD have been working together to develop the procedures and hardware necessary to safely recover Orion, not only after this uncrewed flight, but also for future crewed missions onboard the spacecraft., said Melissa Jones, NASA recovery director based out of Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in an agency release.

Testing and checkouts for recovery of the spacecraft were conducted ahead of Artemis 1, a mission that will send the capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.

These system checks are meant to examine the procedures of recovery operations, including the hardware of the capsule.

NASA said once the spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, a team of divers, engineers and technicians are expected to depart the ship on small boats to reach the capsule in order to secure it and tow it to the back of the recovery ship. The area the capsule will be towed into is called the well deck where it will be secured for the trip back to shore.

Currently the actual Orion spacecraft for Artemis 1 is fastened atop NASAs Space Launch System rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The recently fully-integrated system is preparing for final check-outs ahead of the Artemis 1 mission. The next major task for the rocket stack will be a roll out to Launch Complex 39B for a wet dress rehearsal a mock countdown and fueling test before it is returned to the VAB to be readied for its actual flight.

Video courtesy of NASA

Tagged: Artemis 1 Artemis program NASA Orion Space Launch System The Range

Theresa Cross grew up on the Space Coast. Its only natural that she would develop a passion for anything Space and its exploration. During these formative years, she also discovered that she possessed a talent and love for defining the unique quirks and intricacies that exist in mankind, nature, and machines.Hailing from a family of photographersincluding her father and her son, Theresa herself started documenting her world through pictures at a very early age. As an adult, she now exhibits an innate photographic ability to combine what appeals to her heart and her love of technology to deliver a diversified approach to her work and artistic presentations.Theresa has a background in water chemistry, fluid dynamics, and industrial utility.

More here:

NASA's Orion recovery team is certified for Artemis 1 - SpaceFlight Insider

Enlarge / As the Crew-3 mission ascends, a Falcon 9 rocket with a Starlink payload awaits its turn on a nearby launch pad in Florida.

SpaceX

Welcome to Edition 4.23 of the Rocket Report! After a one-week hiatus, this report returns with a superfluity of news. There's a lot to cover, from exciting news in the New Mexico desert to busy times for the Space Coast in Florida as SpaceX gets busy with crewed missions.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

SpinLaunch completes first test flight. The California-based startup uses kinetic energy to launch payloads, and its test projectile reached "tens of thousands" of feet during its first launch, CNBC reports. The company's method uses a vacuum-sealed centrifuge to spin the rocket to a velocity several times the speed of sound before it is released. "It's a radically different way to accelerate projectiles and launch vehicles to hypersonic speeds using a ground-based system," SpinLaunch CEO Jonathan Yaney said.

Spinning and winning ... The company completed its first major test, using a one-third-scale version of its accelerator, on October 22 at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Even so, this version of the accelerator stands 165 feet tall. By using this approach, SpinLaunch aims to build smaller rockets that require less fuel to reach orbit. Its first orbital vehicle is intended to loft about 200 kg to low Earth orbit. SpinLaunch has raised $110 million to date from investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Airbus Ventures, and others. (Submitted by Wickwick, Tfargo04, Biokleen, Rendgrish, JohnCarter17, and Ken the Bin.)

Amazon to launch first Kuiper satellites on ABL. The company intends to launch its first prototype broadband satellites in the fourth quarter of 2022 on ABL Space Systems' RS1 rocket, Ars reports. Amazon's prototype satellites will operate at an altitude of 590 km. Such a launch date would come nearly four years after SpaceX launched its first prototype Starlink satellites.

Impressed by ABL ... The expected Q4 2022 launch of prototype satellites doesn't change that timeline for production satellites, which might not be launched until a year or more after the test versions. While Amazon doesn't have its own rockets like SpaceX does, Amazon said it is "impressed by ABL's unique capabilities" and expects "a long-term relationship" with its newly announced launch partner. Some Project Kuiper satellites will also launch on United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket.

The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger's space reporting is to sign up for his newsletter, we'll collect his stories in your inbox.

Virgin Orbit plans third mission of 2021. The launch company said preparations are well underway for the third LauncherOne mission of this calendar year. This "Above the Clouds" mission will carry both experimental satellites for the US Department of Defense as well as two nanosatellites for Polish company SatRevolution. The air-launched rocket will originate from Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Doubling down in 2022 ... LauncherOne debuted in May 2020 with a failure shortly after engine ignition. However, in January, the rocket completed its first successful orbital flight and followed that up in June with a second mission. Completing three successful flights in a year is a great start and speaks well of the company's logistics and operations planning. Virgin Orbit hopes to double its launch cadence in 2022, and, given the progress demonstrated this year, that seems possible. (Submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea.)

Virgin Orbit reaches agreement to launch from Japan. And it's a good thing that LauncherOne is reaching an operational cadence, as the company has big plans for it. Earlier this month, Virgin Orbit announced an agreement with ANA Holdings to procure 20 flights of the rocket from Japan's Oita Prefecture. ANA owns Japan's largest airline.

More like LauncherTwenty, amirite? ... Under terms of the agreement, ANA and several of its partners will fund the manufacturing of a new set of the mobile ground-support equipment used to prepare Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne system for flight from a pre-existing runway. The hope is to make Oita a LauncherOne-ready spaceport by as soon as the end of 2022, pending appropriate regulatory approvals in the United States and Japan. (Submitted by Ken the Bin.)

Chinese company to buy reusable engines. Rocket Pi of China has signed a deal with Jiuzhou Yunjian to supply engines to power its Darwin-1 reusable launch vehicle, SpaceNews reports. Jiuzhou Yunjian makes liquid-fuel engines (specifically, methane/liquid-oxygen engines). The deal is for both main and upper stages. A single Lingyun-70 will power the first stage of the 2.25-meter-diameter Darwin-1 launcher with a Lingyun-10 engine on the second stage.

One of many contenders ... Rocket Pi exited stealth mode in March, presenting plans to develop Darwin-1 and a larger medium-lift launcher. The Darwin-1 rocket is slated to take flight no earlier than the first quarter of 2023. Rocket Pi is just one of several Chinese private launch companies developing reusable launchers. (Submitted by Ken the Bin.)

Honda develops a prototype rocket engine. Japanese officials with the Honda Motor Company have revealed more details about their plans to potentially expand into the rocket-launch business, Ars reports, and they have completed several test firings of a prototype engine. Honda's basic plan is to develop a small satellite launch vehicle with the capacity to put up to 1 metric ton into low Earth orbit. The goal for this initiative is not to become the next SpaceX but to give Honda engineers freedom to innovate.

Go or no-go decision forthcoming ... As part of internal company discussions about future business opportunities a few years ago, a cohort of Honda's younger engineers expressed an interest in rockets. And so, since late 2019, the company has devoted some of its research and development resources toward developing a rocket engine. Honda plans to support internal development work until about 2025 or 2026, after which point it will make a "go or no-go" decision on whether to proceed with a launch business and complete development of the rocket.

Epsilon 5 rocket lofts nine satellites. The Japanese space agency's Epsilon-5 rocket successfully launched nine small satellites into low Earth orbit on Tuesday, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation reports. Liftoff of the rocket was delayed by four minutes from the original schedule to avoid the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying astronauts returning from the International Space Station.

A lower cost, but not exactly low ... Five Epsilon rockets have been successfully launched since 2013 by JAXA, which developed the Epsilon series with the aim of putting small satellites into orbit at low cost. The cost of the solid-fueled rocket is less than $40 million, and it can put as much as 1.5 metric tons into low Earth orbit. (Submitted by Ken the Bin and tsunam.)

Georgia spaceport decision delayed again. A federal agency has yet again pushed back a final decision on whether to allow the construction of a launch pad for commercial rockets in coastal Georgia, the Associated Press reports. Rather than releasing a decision in early November, the Federal Aviation Administration now plans to do so by December 15. An agency statement cited a delay caused by "ongoing consultation efforts." The final determination was originally expected at the end of July but now has been delayed at least three times.

Pushback from park advocates ... Camden County is in the southeast corner of Georgia. It wants to build the nation's 13th licensed commercial spaceport, and it has spent nearly 10 years and $10 million pursuing that goal. In June, the FAA issued an environmental impact study that concluded building the spaceport would be its "preferred alternative." That drew pushback from the National Park Service and its parent agency, the US Department of the Interior. (Submitted by Ken the Bin.)

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Rocket Report: SpinLaunch spins up, Falcon Heavy to return big time in 2022 - Ars Technica

The mystery of the unknown fuels us to innovate and find answers. Perhaps the biggest mystery throughout the existence of humanity has been outer space. The barriers to space exploration have been astronomical, but the technology has finally arrived and accelerated our ambitions.

For the first time ever, the final frontier looks approachable for both individuals and businesses. Enterprises, with the backing of private money, are starting to acquire the resources and technology to expand their investments into the space economy.

Right now might be the best time to be invested in these companies laying the groundwork for the next trillion-dollar industry.

Space is Going Mainstream

Just a decade ago, rocket launches were a rare occasion and when they happened, it was a big deal. But with the advancement in reusable rocket technology, we now see launches broadcast on TV monthly, as billionaire backed companies race to space.

Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson are fueling the push, turning their focus from their businesses here on Earth, to the stars above. Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are building the foundation for whats to come. Space tourism is not for everyone yet, but the interest is growing as the idea of visiting space is going mainstream.

Of those companies, only Virgin Galactic (SPCE) is publicly traded, so its hard for the average investor to get full exposure. While SpaceX will likely IPO soon, many investors dont know that there are already many under-the-radar stocks that have exposure to the space economy.

Continued . . .

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Space Race Riches: Little-Known Stocks with Huge Profit Potential

SpaceX and Blue Origin get the headlines, but research indicates a handful of lesser-known space stocks may be much more profitable.

One startup has plans to launch a rocket into space every 29 hours 10 times faster than SpaceX. Another is a one-stop rocket shop already under contract to send missions to the moon, Venus and Mars. Shares are projected to spike +100%.

Zacks just-released special report reveals 4 space stocks with extreme upside potential. Be one of the first to see it. Opportunity ends midnight Sunday, November 14.

See Zacks Top Space Stocks Now >>

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Big Bang Growth

It all starts with getting there and advances in technology have made the trip to space much easier. Costs have declined significantly and reusable rockets are making a trip to space more affordable.

The Space Foundation recently released a report in which it claims the global space economy rose to $447 Billion in 2020. This was up 55% over the last ten years. UBS expects that to jump another 80% by 2030.

While tourism is getting all the hype, some other space sub sectors that could experience exponential growth include energy, mining, real estate and hospitality.

Exploring the Space Economy

Its important to highlight two different categories before we get into the specific sub-sectors of the space economy.

First, we have the space-for-earth economy. This involves goods or services that are produced in space, but made for earth. Obviously, most of the current revenues are produced in space at the moment and would fit in this category on the service side.

The space-for-earth economy includes space infrastructure, human space flight, rocket launchers, cellular broadband and satellite companies.

Next, we have the space-for-space economy. Here we have goods and services that are produced in space, for space. This aspect has yet to have any meaningful impact on the space economy, but that will change because of recent technology.

Let's take a quick look at some future space industries.

Energy Think space-based solar power that would allow for solar to be captured 24 hours a day! Not only will energy be produced in space for us down here, but it can be fuel for the space-for-space economy.

Mining The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is thought to contain a massive amount of value in raw materials. According to NASA, the belt is worth $700 quintillion or $100 billion for each human on earth. Cost remains a big hurdle to fulfill this mining dream, but the benefits boggle the mind.

Real-Estate and Hospitality In the not-so-distant future, there will be businesses that involve leasing space-in-space shelter, whether it be space stations or orbiting hotels.

Tourism The billionaire players we discussed above are leading the charge. This movement is bringing the eyeballs and the money to the space tourism industry that is needed to grow. UBS sees the space tourism market at $3B by 2030.

Stocks Already Shooting for the Moon

While many new companies have yet to go public, there are a handful of stocks that investors can choose from. Check out these returns that have come over the last six months in just three space names:

Stock A is a space launch company that provides satellite launch services. The stock took off back in February, moving up over 120% in just a few weeks after it came to market. The stock has come back down to earth, but it was over 30% in October. Is it time for this one to take off again?

Stock B is a spaceflight company that rocketed up over 300% this summer. It has pulled back all the way to levels seen before the move higher. Will another stock launch come into the end of the year?

Stock C delivers capabilities in space infrastructure and earth intelligence. The stock started the year with a 52% move higher, but has since pulled back to 2020 levels. Is it time to get back in?

In Summary

Humans have always had the desire to explore the cosmos, but the barriers of cost and technology were far too great until now. Private enterprises, backed by billionaires that grew up on Sci-Fi, are building the elevators to space. Those that follow will expand access and take humans into the next multi-trillion-dollar economy.

Dont miss out on these opportunities as humans and investors literally go to the moon.

I just released Space Exploration: The Next Trillion-Dollar Industry, a brand-new Special Report to help you capitalize on the emerging space economy. Youre invited to download it today.

In the report I highlight 4 cutting-edge stocks I believe any investor interested in space exploration needs to know about. Most investors have never heard of some of these stocks, but theyre each making tremendous contributions to the new space race.

I encourage you to check out this report today. But don't delay. The deadline to download Space Exploration: The Next Trillion-Dollar Industry is midnight Sunday, November 14.

See 4 space exploration stocks now >>

Good Investing,

Jeremy MullinStock Strategist

Jeremy Mullin has been a professional trader for more than 15 years with specific expertise in profiting from patterns set by High-Frequency Traders. He is the editor of Zacks Counterstrike.

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Is Now the Time to Invest in Space Exploration? - Zacks.com

NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, a medical doctor and veteran of launches on the space shuttle and Russias Soyuz spacecraft, joins three rookie space fliers on SpaceXs Crew Dragon Endurance poised for liftoff on mission to the International Space Station.

The 61-year-old astronaut has logged 161 days in space on two previous missions. Marshburn is ready to more than double his time in space on his next six-month stint on the space station.

Marshburn will join a short but growing list of astronauts who have launched from Earth on three different types of rockets and spacecraft. Hes confident in SpaceXs reliability after the company has strung together more than 100 consecutive successful launches of its Falcon 9 rocket family.

Theres actually a huge flight history because this is the same Falcon thats been launching the cargo vehicles, so I thin theyve proven themselves, Marshburn told Spaceflight Now in a pre-launch interview. Thats not to say that its risk-free. Even a Soyuz thats done so many launches is not risk-free.

He will serve as pilot of the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft, a brand new vehicle in SpaceXs fleet of reusable crew ferry ships. In that role, Marshburn will assist NASA commander Raja Chari in overseeing the spacecrafts systems during the trip to the space station.

If all goes according to plan, the flight to the station will be automated. Chari and Marshburn are trained to take over and manually fly the capsule if something goes wrong.

Chari, mission specialist Kayla Barron, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer are each making their first trip into orbit.

Marshburns advice for his rookie crewmates? Take it slow as you experience microgravity for the first time.

About a third to half of astronauts who fly in space experience symptoms of space motion sickness, which can include nausea, loss of appetite, headaches, and in rarer cases, vomiting. The effects are caused by fluid shifts inside the body and neurovestibular changes triggered when a person reaches the weightless environment of space.

I think the first thing is youre going to be really super excited, and youre going to want to hop out and enjoy this new environment, Marshburn said. So just take it easy, keep your head still.

Then, when youre on the space station, theyre going to have time to get fast and efficient, he said. You just need a little time for your inner ear to catch up to the new environment and whats going on.

Marshburn said he is hugely impressed with his crewmates.

Raja, in particular, he comes from his operational background, and you read his resume my goodness.

Chari is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, and commanded flight test operations of the F-35 fighter jet at Edwards Air Force Base when he was selected to join NASAs astronaut corps in 2017.

He, in my mind, really does demonstrate all the qualities that youd want inacommander, Marshburn said. His technical knowledge of that Dragon is beyond comparison for an astronaut on the outside comingin and soaking up as much as they can.

I really have learned a lot from him, Marshburn said. Ive been to space before, but Im learning from him and my crewmates quite a bit.

Chari said Marshburns presence on the crew has been hugely beneficial during training.

Hes seen life in a small capsule, Chari said. Hes seen life on a larger machine in the shuttle. Hes seen life for a long-duration on the ISS. So hes got that wide breadth of experience to help inform our training.

NASA selected Marshburn in the agencys 2004 astronaut class. He flew to the space station as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavours STS-127 mission in July 2009, and accomplished three spacewalks to position spare parts and perform maintenance on the output.

Marshburn launched on his second flight on Dec. 19, 2012, aboard Russias Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft. On that mission, Marshburn spent nearly 146 days in orbit as a member of the space stations long-term Expedition 34 and 35 crews.

The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT) Wednesday. The launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket was delayed from Sunday to avoid bad weather in downrange abort zones in the Atlantic Ocean.

If the launch happens Wednesday morning, the Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled to dock with the space stations Harmony module around 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), around 22 hours after liftoff.

The mission, designated Crew-3, is SpaceXs third operational crew rotation flight to the space station. They will replace the four-person team of Crew-2 astronauts who arrived at the space station in April on SpaceXs Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.

The Crew-2 mission is scheduled to return to Earth around Nov. 8 for splashdown off the Florida coast, while the Crew-3 astronauts will remain in orbit until next April, when SpaceXs Crew-4 mission will arrive to replace them.

Marshburn and his crewmates will work alongside three other space station crew members who flew to the complex on Russian Soyuz vehicles cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

During his time on the station, Marshburn is likely to head outside the complex for at least one spacewalk before the end of the year to work on the labs S-band communications system. More spacewalks are scheduled early next year, but NASA has not finalized crew assignments for those excursions.

The space station crew will also welcome two arriving spacecraft with non-professional astronauts. A Russian Soyuz mission is due to dock in December with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and two Japanese space tourists, and a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled to arrive in February with former NASA astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria three paying passengers flying under contract with the Houston-based company Axiom Space.

Both missions will be commanded by experienced space fliers, unlike the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission that flew to orbit on a three-day flight in September aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Inspiration4 did not dock with the space station.

Marshburn doesnt expect the space tourist missions will disrupt the research and maintenance work on-board the station.

Weve been planning so that they can get their work done and we can get our work done, he said. Certainly, I would expect that for somebody whos never been to space, if they needed a hand, I could lend a hand Thats actually NASAs plan with our schedule to allow a little bit of time for that.

Weve seen the training, Marshburn said. Weve met them all. Theyre great folks. Theyre passionate about what theyre doing. They want to help. They want itto be successful for the whole station, and for their whole mission.

I dont think itll be a challenge, but were up to the challenge if there is. Were learning for whats going to be coming as more and more private astronauts and spaceflightparticipants fly up.

Marshburn was born in Statesville, North Carolina, and graduated high school in Atlanta. He warned a bachelors degree in physics from Davidson College and a masters degree in engineering physics from the University of Virginia, then attended medical school at Wake Forest University.

After earning his medical degree in 1989, Marshburn worked as a LifeFlight physician and an emergency room doctor, then joined NASA in 1994 as a flight surgeon at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Before becoming an astronaut, Marshburn served as a flight surgeon at mission control for several space shuttle missions and for the Shuttle/Mir program, when NASA astronauts lived and worked on Russias Mir space station in the late 1990s.

Marshburn will be the resident physician on the International Space Station during his six-month stay, overseeing medical equipment and offering first aid to his crewmates, if necessary.

Space is hard on the eyes, so we have he capability of getting something out of the eye, dealing with a corneal abrasions with stuff floating around, Marshburn said. Space is hard on the hands. Our hands are like our feet. So abrasions, strains, sprains in the hands. We have the ultrasound.

If we came down to it, we have a table, an electrical isolation table. We can really get a patient down, we can defibrillate. Wecan do a run of advanced life support. We have the medication, the IV access, the ability to support the airway all of the really serious advanced stuff than an EMT would have to do, say, to get somebody transported to a hospital. We can do that for a limited amount of time.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Tom Marshburn brings extensive spaceflight experience to Crew-3 mission Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket at NASAs Kennedy Space Center early Thursday, checking off another box on the pre-flight checklist before liftoff Sunday with a four-person crew heading for the International Space Station.

But a weather forecast shows a high risk that winds or waves int the Atlantic Ocean could force a launch delay.

The test-firing early Thursday paved the way for a dress rehearsal Thursday night with the four astronauts preparing to ride the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon capsule to the space station.

NASA commander Raja Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn, and mission specialists Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency will put on their SpaceX flight suits and board the Crew Dragon spacecraft on launch pad 39A.

SpaceXs ground support team will help the astronauts through the hatch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The operation serves as a practice run, and is the only time the crew will go inside the spacecraft on the launch pad before launch day.

A line of strong to severe thunderstorms is forecast to push through Floridas Space Coast Thursday evening, but it wasnt clear whether that might impact the schedule for the dress rehearsal.

Running a few hours behind schedule, SpaceX ground teams rolled the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Endurance capsule from SpaceXs hangar to pad 39A early Wednesday. A hydraulic lift raised the 215-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket vertical over the flame trench, setting the stage for the test-firing early Thursday.

SpaceX engineers stationed inside a firing room at Kennedys launch control center gave commands for an automated computer-run sequencer to begin loading kerosene and liquid oxygen into the Falcon 9 rocket after midnight Thursday.

The mock countdown culminated in ignition of the Falcon 9s nine Merlin 1D main engines at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) Thursday. The engines ramped up to full power, producing 1.7 million pounds of thrust for nearly 10 seconds as hold-down clamps kept the Falcon 9 on the ground.

After engine cutoff, SpaceX drained the rocket of its liquid propellant supply, and took steps to safe the Falcon 9 in preparation for the dress rehearsal later in the day.

The preparations this week are leading up to a launch opportunity Sunday at 2:21 a.m. EDT (0621 GMT). The mission, known as Crew-3, will be the third operational SpaceX crew rotation flight to the space station, and the fifth SpaceX mission to carry astronauts into orbit.

But weather conditions, particularly sea states and winds downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, will likely be a factor in determining whether the mission remains on schedule for launch Sunday.

In a pre-launch forecast issued Thursday, the weather team from the U.S. Space Forces 45th Weather Squadron predicted an 80% chance of good conditions at Kennedy Space Center for liftoff Sunday morning.

Forecasters expect a chance of isolated rain showers, and otherwise partly cloudy skies at launch time, with winds from the west at 10 to 15 mph, and a temperature around 66 degrees Fahrenheit. The main weather concerns at the launch site are with low chances of violating the flight through precipitation and cumulus cloud rules.

But the conditions downrange are a different story.

A strong low pressure system producing gale-force winds is currently located southeast of Nova Scotia, near the Falcon 9 rockets flight corridor heading northeast from Kennedy Space Center. The National Hurricane Center gives the system 30% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next five days.

Even if the low pressure center does not become a tropical cyclone, the system is expected to move south and southeast over The Atlantic Ocean. Theres a high risk the weather system could produce winds and waves that exceed the Crew Dragon spacecrafts criteria for splashdown, which could occur in the North Atlantic if theres an emergency or rocket failure during launch.

SpaceX and NASA monitor weather conditions are more than 50 locations along the Falcon 9 rockets ascent track from Floridas coast, up the East Coast, and across the Atlantic toward Ireland.

Teams calculate the probability of violation for each location looking at winds, waves, lightning, and precipitation before determining if conditions are go for launch.

SpaceX and NASA have a backup launch opportunity for the Crew-3 mission at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT) on Wednesday, Nov. 3.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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SpaceX test-fires crew rocket as teams monitor downrange abort zone weather Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

The Aerospace Corporation will hold its next Space Policy Show webinar on November 4, 2021 at 1:00 pm ET.

The topic is: Learning the Risks for Long-Duration Human Space Flight.

More information is on the events website, which says:

How does NASA help prepare for astronauts to remain in isolation and confinement for long-duration space flight to Mars? Enter SIRIUS-21 an 8 month analogue mission that will conduct physiological and psychological experiments with an international crew from the US, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. The Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station (SIRIUS) project will use virtual reality in an environment of sensory deprivation and limited resources; the team will live just like astronauts while performing a number of behavioral and performance experiments. Aerospaces Paul Frakes talks to Ashley Kowalski about her missions 70+ experiments that include cognitive, physical and biological tests and a bit of her own soul searching as she gets ready to embark on this simulated journey from right here on earth.

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LEARNING THE RISKS OF LONG-DURATION HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT (Aerospace Corp), Nov 4, 2021, virtual, 1:00 pm ET - SpacePolicyOnline.com

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have made sub-orbital space travel a reality for those travel adventurers and space explorers with the desire and disposable income to pay up to $450,000 for a ticket. Both of these companies have demonstrated that space tourism is a potentially massive market and, whilst not without risk, can be accomplished safely. As more companies like Space Perspective enter this fledgling market with their own innovative spaceflight solutions, travelers will inevitably be offered more choice as the market segments on price, transportation method and the longevity and quality of the experience, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

It could be argued that at this time segmentation in the space travel market is based on the simple functionality of launching a traveler into space and returning them safely back to earth. From lift off to touch down, a flight in Blue Origins New Shepard lasts 11 minutes, while an expedition on Virgin Galactic lasts between two to three hours. By comparison, Space Perspective plans to offer space tourists a more relaxing and luxurious experience, with a flight into the stratosphere scheduled to last six hours from lift off to touchdown.

Ralph Hollister, Travel and Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, comments: With such vast sums of money currently being paid for a ticket, the companies that can offer the best balance of a luxury experience which you would expect at these price tags with more time onboard, while maintaining a sense of safety and wellbeing throughout the flight, will deliver a better sense of value for money and a richer experience gained which will be more appealing to customers.

Space Perspective plans to deliver a distinctly unique space travel experience focused on price, longevity and luxury. Space Perspective offers a markedly cheaper ticket price with tickets for its Spaceship Neptune being sold at $125,000 a seat. This price point is significantly lower than a current Virgin Galactic seat on its VSS Unity space plane, which costs $450,000.

Hollister adds: Space Perspectives current price point is hardly all inclusive, but it means that space travel is a possibility to a much wider pool of prospective space tourists. According to GlobalDatas macroeconomic database, 43% of US households are in the income bracket of $75,000+. This percentage suggests that there is a sustainable market for space travel in the US at the current pricing level which is where Space Perspective is based and will launch from. However, prices will continue to come down, potentially opening up the market to millions.

Sustainability is a key focus for Space Perspective. The travel experience is contained within a pressurized capsule attached to a balloon supported by hydrogen, which will carefully transport travelers to an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet. This will provide a relaxing journey without the need for jet fueled rockets as a propellant. The capsule, which will also have a bar, will offer space tourists an all-round view of the darkness of space and the curvature of the earth.

Sustainability is now one of the biggest consumer trends driving purchasing decisions, especially in tourism. All tourism companies are under increasing pressure to contribute towards decreasing harmful emissions and Space Perspectives plans not to use jet fuel will appeal to the 45%* of global consumers, who say that environmental issues are now extremely important.

Hollister concludes: The emerging market segment of space balloon tourism is not just exclusive to Space Perspective. Companies such as World View are also looking to become leading players in space balloon experiences. At $50,000 per ticket, the company plans to offer an even lower price point, which will make the market less exclusive and drive further segmentation as companies grab a bigger slice of what is anticipated to be a growing cash rich market.

*GlobalDatas Q3 2021 Consumer Survey.

4,000 of the world"s largest companies, including over 70% of FTSE 100 and 60% of Fortune 100 companies, make more timely and better business decisions thanks to GlobalData"s unique data, expert analysis and innovative solutions, all in one platform. GlobalData"s mission is to help our clients decode the future to be more successful and innovative across a range of industries, including the healthcare, consumer, retail, financial, technology and professional services sectors.

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Space Perspective planning to offer world's first luxury spaceflight experience as 'space balloon tourism' is set to take off, says GlobalData -...