🎵Space Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah🎵 | Continuum
Nuclear rockets, Crew 6 gets a new date, and a bad orbital neighborhood
Hello Continuum readers and Celestial Citizens,
Alright this first space headline of the week is for all you deep-track Beatles fans out there!
Recently, NASA announced that they would Let It Be and put a pause on completing the deployment of the second solar array on LUCY. The satellite, bound for Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, launched in 2021. LUCY was ready to say Here Comes the Sun when it successfully unfurled one solar array, but the other got stuck and didn’t quite Come Together. Despite LUCY’s cry for Help! and…after several failed attempts, the array still sits at 98% deployment and will have to Wait for any further attempts at fixing the issue. Hey, at least it’s not as bad as Fixing a Hole. NASA has deemed this “an acceptable level of risk” and that “further deployment activities are unlikely to be beneficial at this time,” letting the satellite continue on its merry way Across the Universe. The team will reevaluate the situation in 2024, after collecting more data on the array's behavior throughout The Long and Winding Road of Lucy’s journey. Looks like this won’t stop LUCY in the Sky with Diamonds from targeting a 10th space rock to add to the collection!
Before I embarrass myself too much further, here’s the space beat you actually came here for…
Top Headlines
Propulsion – By 2027, we may be seeing a nuclear rocket! NASA and DARPA are teaming up to develop a working nuclear rocket that will “expand the possibilities for future human spaceflight missions”… aka getting to Mars. This was followed up by the announcement of the successful hot fire tests of NASA’s RDRE (rotating detonation rocket engine). Although not nuclear, this new engine uses less fuel and yields more power by relying on detonation. To learn more and see video of the test, check out the full announcement from NASA.
A Year in Space – The MS-22 crew may have to take a raincheck on Earth plans as they might be spending a full year aboard the ISS. “Stuck” on the ISS because of the coolant leak, the current plan to get cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelinand, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio home is to launch an uncrewed Soyuz to the ISS. This is currently scheduled for next month. The catch: once the Soyuz arrives, it (and the MS-22 crew) will remain docked until a replacement crew is ready to launch… which is currently scheduled for sometime in September. If this schedule holds, Frank Rubio will be the first NASA astronaut to spend a year in space. It’s a long time away from home – but what a title to hold! We’ll continue watching this story, and hope for a safe return for all.
Women in Space – Blue Origin announced that Lauren Sanchez, American media personality and girlfriend of Jeff Bezos, will be leading an all-female crew on the next Blue Origin suborbital launch. Although the current identities of the other five crew members are unknown, Sanchez said that they will be “women who are making a difference in the world and who are impactful and have a message to send.”
Crew 6 – Mark your calendars, Crew 6 has a new launch date! The latest SpaceX and NASA mission is planned for February 26 and will see an international crew of four flying on a SpaceX Dragon capsule to the ISS. The crew includes: NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Sultan Al Neyadi and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Neyadi’s seat is part of an agreement with Axiom Space, while Fedyaev is part of the crew swap agreement with Roscosmos.
Bad Orbital Neighborhood – In what was an incredibly close call, thousands of pieces of space debris were almost added to low Earth orbit (LEO) last week. LeoLabs, a company working to monitor LEO, announced that “two large, defunct objects” nearly collided, missing each other by 20 feet (6 meters). Although the two objects in question are of Russian origin, space debris should be an international concern. The more crowded it gets up there, the more dangers it poses to us, both in space and on Earth.
Goodbye GEOTAIL – GEOTAIL, a NASA-JAXA collaboration that gathered an “immense dataset on the structure and dynamics of [Earth’s] magnetosphere” is officially over, after its team could not recover the information on its data recorder, which had failed last November. This closes a highly successful run: the satellite orbited the planet for 30 years, greatly exceeding its initial four year plan.
Yum! – A good meal can make or break your day, and in space, where “days” can seem endless, this feels vitally important. Eleven finalists have been selected in Phase 2 of NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge. Each awardee will receive $20,000 and at the end of phase 2, up to 8 finalists can receive $150,000 to continue their work. Among the finalists, are teams working with fungal proteins and closed loop systems. There are a lot of impressive candidates, but we don’t see anyone working on an updated version of astronaut ice cream… 🤔
Bob and Doug – For their “bravery in NASA’s SpaceX Demonstration Mission-2 to the International Space Station in 2020,” astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken were awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on Tuesday by Vice President Kamala Harris. This is the first time in almost 17 years that this has been awarded. We couldn’t think of a better duo to have received the accolade, and we’re looking forward to more awardees in this new chapter of our relationship with space!
The JWST Download
Peering back a billion years to see a spiral galaxy.
We’re getting strong space winter vibes from this cloud of ice!
Water, water everywhere, even around an asteroid.
Finally looking inside a “planet forming disk.”
Keep calm and carry on, JWST’s NIRISS instrument is now glitch free.
And as always, the OG comes through - check out Hubble’s picture of the Soul Nebula.
The Big Bang theory might not be broken after all.
A Global Space
China – The country announced that it will be working on a new lunar rover to explore the Moon’s south pole. Tentatively scheduled to launch in 2026, the rover would be a part of China’s Chang’e 7 mission, to explore the Moon’s south pole and far side. Its Yutu 2 rover, which made the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, is still going strong, sending back new pictures to ring in the lunar new year. Between building new ground stations in Antarctica and sending a spy balloon over sensitive military installations in the western US, it’s easy to see why relations between US and China are testy, especially when it comes to dominance in space. For a look at the history of why the two countries don’t collaborate in space, check out this Wall Street Journal video.
Europe / ESA – ESA announced last week that they no longer would be sending astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station, with Director General Josef Aschbacher stating, “For the moment we have neither the budgetary nor the political, let’s say, green light or intention to engage in a second space station; that is participating on the Chinese space station.” For now, it seems that ESA’s top priority is figuring out how to guarantee “access to space for Europe by European launchers,” especially after the recent Vega C failure, Ariane 6 delay, and loss of Soyuz accessibility as a result of fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And ESA isn’t just focused on launch capabilities – they’re also seeking “strategic autonomy” in space situational awareness and space traffic management.
Canada – Canada and its space program CSA have played an important part in NASA’s history – the legs of the Apollo lunar module were built in Quebec, and CSA created the arms on the ISS, as well as a variety of sensors and instruments on JWST. Looking ahead - what will the country’s place be in the future of space exploration? Read this Op-Ed by Shelli Brunswick of The Space Foundation to find out.
India – Looking for coverage on the civil Indian space landscape so you can keep pace with all the latest developments? Check out and subscribe to the new monthly newsletter from Jatan’s Space.
MOONSHOT
If we’re going to get to space, we’re going to need a lot of help. In our Moonshot section, we’ll share highlights from some of the commercial companies that are taking us there:
Get ready to hear a lot about SpaceX in the coming weeks. With a completed wet dress rehearsal for Starship – crews are getting ready for a static fire test of all 33 Raptor engines in its Super Heavy booster. This could happen as soon as next week and is one of the final technical milestones before the Starship vehicle is ready for an orbital launch attempt - that and an FAA launch license. The company has also launched Starshield - which will focus exclusively on serving government entities. For defense and intelligence agencies, Starshield is offering “custom-built spacecraft, sensors, and secure communications services” via its Starlink network. As always, it seems like this may be another big year for the company.
After the failure of the Virgin Orbit launch, Cardiff-based space company Space Forge “forges” on. They are hard at work on ForgeStar-1, the next version of their satellite, to be launched in Florida later this year. Their first satellite, ForgeStar-0, “passed every test and every validation activity” but was a casualty of the launch. Virgin Orbit also “forges” on, raising $10 million as a “financial stopgap.”
Astrobotic has completed testing on its Peregrine lunar lander! Currently, the lander is planned to be on the inaugural launch of ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket.
Rocket Lab successfully launched its first Electron booster from US soil last week. Taking off from NASA’s Wallops flight facility, the “Virginia Is for Launch Lovers” mission successfully brought three Hawkeye 360 satellites into orbit. The first of three Hawkeye launches, here’s hoping the next two go swimmingly!
As part of NASA’s 2022 TechFlights solicitation, NASA has selected nine space technologies for flight testing “to advance innovations that address mission needs for both the agency and the commercial space industry.” Among the tech selected is a device from Paragon, which will test its capability to capture and separate liquid condensation from cabin air in zero gravity to support spacecraft temperature and humidity control.To see the full list of innovations, check out NASA’s press release here.
Orbital Sidekick, a hyperspectral imaging startup, has raised $10 million, in an investment round led by Energy Innovation Capital. They will be launching their “six-satellite Global Hyperspectral Observation Satellite constellation” or GHOSt later this year.
As Axiom trains their AX-2 crew, they have suggested that upcoming missions will be primarily government-backed as opposed to individual customers.
The Exploration Company, a European startup that’s developing reusable orbital vehicles for flying goods and people to space, has raised ~$44 million. They are hoping to test their small reentry demonstrator “Bikini” on the inaugural Ariane 6 later this year.
Space Reads!
Can’t get enough stellar content? Here are some pieces of space-adjacent news we’ve been reading:
How old will you be when the Dragonfly mission reaches Titan in 2034? And why does space fill us with “anticipatory nostalgia”? Check out this highly introspective piece from Marina Koren at The Atlantic.
If you think cartography is dead, then you haven’t been looking at space maps. Learn more about the map of the matter of our universe from PopSci.
This space isn’t big enough for… all of us? Why cislunar space is about to become the new hot real estate market from NBC News.
What will the space economy look like in 2023? Check out Jason Rainbow’s piece for SpaceNews, accompanied by AI generated images from Midjourney!
And speaking of AI, even SETI is getting into the game by applying machine learning algorithms to our search for life in space.
A big thank you to Evan Yee for writing this edition with me, AJ Link for co-hosting Continuum podcast, and Victor Figueroa for his podcast editing expertise! We hope you enjoyed reading & listening to Continuum this week and will share it with your friends. And if you really, really like us, then consider becoming a paid subscriber or gifting a subscription to someone who you’d select as a crewmate for Artemis 2. Until next time…
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum
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