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- The Space Race - Weekly Roundup Sept 24th
The Space Race - Weekly Roundup Sept 24th
Juan Fernández
September 24, 2024
Hi, space fans!
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Space Race Weekly Roundup.
🚀 SpaceX Fined for Launch License Violations
SpaceX has been fined over $633,000 by the FAA due to two separate launch license violations involving the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches in 2023. These infractions included using an unauthorized launch control center and a new propellant tank farm. Despite these issues, SpaceX contends that these were minor changes and has expressed intentions to challenge the FAA's decision legally
China has successfully launched the last pair of backup satellites for its Beidou navigation system using a Long March 3B rocket. These satellites, the 59th and 60th of the Beidou constellation, were sent into medium Earth orbits and are meant to ensure the continuous operation of the system while also conducting experiments for future technological advancements under the Beidou-4 project.
🌑 NASA Awards $4.8 Billion Contract to Intuitive Machines for Lunar Communications and Navigation
Intuitive Machines has secured a NASA contract potentially worth up to $4.8 billion to establish a lunar communications and navigation network, supporting the Artemis program's ambitions for sustainable lunar exploration. This network is set to enhance the capabilities of NASA's Near Space Network, which currently supports missions in Earth orbit and cislunar space. The contract aims to facilitate robust support for various lunar missions, including robotic and crewed landers, and rovers, while reducing reliance on the overburdened Deep Space Network.
🌌 India Elevates Its Space Aspirations
India has committed to an ambitious space strategy with the approval of the Chandrayaan-4 lunar sample return mission, a Venus orbiter, a space station module, and a reusable launcher. This strategy underlines India's broad space ambitions, including advanced lunar operations and deep space exploration, with a significant budget dedicated to developing technologies crucial for future manned missions and enhancing its autonomous space capabilities.
🌑 Earth to Capture a Temporary Mini-Moon
This September, Earth is set to temporarily capture a new "mini-moon," asteroid 2024 PT5, from the Arjuna belt of near-Earth objects with similar orbits to our planet. This small asteroid, only observable with sophisticated equipment like a 30-inch telescope with a CCD camera, will accompany Earth until the end of November. These mini-moons provide valuable opportunities for scientists to study their origins, composition, and potential for future space missions, including resource mining. The capture of 2024 PT5 is an exciting event for astronomers and space enthusiasts, offering a glimpse into the dynamic interactions within our solar system.
👉 Read more
🚀 Space Perspective's Edge of Space Journey
Space Perspective's Neptune-Excelsior capsule, attached to its Space Balloon, achieved a significant milestone by reaching an apogee of 30 km on September 15, 2024. Although the 30 km altitude is way below the recognized boundaries of space, it will allow passengers to witness the blackness of space and the Earth's atmospheric layer, akin to the views astronauts experience. This test flight evaluated the capsule's design, safety, and performance, moving closer to commercial space tourism flights scheduled to start in 2026. The company has already gathered significant interest, with 1800 reservations and a ticket price set at $125,000 for the six-hour journey offering a panoramic view of space.
🛰️ Electron Rocket Launch Advances Global IoT Connectivity
Rocket Lab's Electron rocket successfully launched five new Kinéis nanosatellites on September 20, 2024, from New Zealand, marking a significant step in enhancing global IoT connectivity. This mission, dubbed 'Kinéis Killed the RadIOT Star,' deployed the satellites into a precise low-Earth orbit sequence at 650 km, aiming to improve data transmission coverage, particularly in regions typically underserved by traditional networks.
🌞 NASA and ESA Collaborate to Unravel Solar Wind Mysteries
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s Solar Orbiter have provided crucial insights into the mechanisms that accelerate solar winds, a phenomenon that occurs when charged particles or plasma are expelled from the Sun and accelerate as they move away. This joint observation occurred when both spacecraft, by chance, aligned to observe the same stream of solar wind, allowing scientists to study changes in its speed and temperature over distance. The findings highlighted the role of magnetic waves, specifically Alfvén waves, in transferring energy through the plasma, which appears to be key to the acceleration of the solar wind and its slower-than-expected cooling.
🌌 James Webb Telescope Explores the Extreme Outer Galaxy
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has provided a new glimpse into the Extreme Outer Galaxy, more than 58,000 light-years from the Galactic Center of our Milky Way. Using its NIRCam and MIRI instruments, Webb captured detailed images of the Digel Clouds, areas known for bursts of star formation. These observations revealed young protostars, their dynamic jets, and intricate nebular structures.
🌑 NASA Advances Italian Lunar Habitat Project to Next Phase
NASA has approved the next phase of development for Italy's Multi-Purpose Habitation (MPH) module. The MPH is designed to function both as a lunar base for extended missions and as an emergency shelter. The MPH module, with dimensions of three meters wide by six meters long and weighing about 15 tonnes, will also be equipped with wheels to facilitate mobility across different lunar sites. Capable of hosting two astronauts for missions lasting from 7 to 30 days, the habitat will also conduct scientific experiments autonomously when not in use by crews.
🌌 Astronomers Discover the Largest Black Hole Jets Ever Observed
Scientists have identified the most extensive black hole jet system known, nick-named Porphyrion, which spans a staggering 23 million light-years. This discovery was made possible by observing the alignment and movements of the jets, which stretch approximately 140 times the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy. These colossal jets, emanating from a supermassive black hole, were observed at a time when the universe was less than half its current age, providing crucial insights into the early cosmic environment and its impact on galaxy formation. The presence of such massive jets during the early universe suggests that black hole jets played a more significant role in galaxy formation and the structuring of the cosmic web than previously understood.
📹 Our latest videos
In case you missed them, here are the latest videos we've published on our YouTube channel
🚀 Upcoming Rocket Launches
Mark your calendars! Here are the upcoming rocket launches of this pretty diverse week:
Tuesday, September 24th: Smart Dragon 3 (China Rocket Co. Ltd., China) - Unknown Payload
Wednesday, September 25th: Kinetica 1 (CAS Space, China) - Unknown Payload
Wednesday, September 25th: Falcon 9 Block 5 (SpaceX, USA) - Starlink Group 9-8 mission
Thursday, September 26th: H-IIA 202 (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan) - IGS Radar 8
Thursday, September 26th: Falcon 9 Block 5 (SpaceX, USA) - Crew-9 mission
Friday, September 27th: Long March 2D (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China) - Unknown Payload
Monday, September 30th: Ceres-1 (Galactic Energy, China) - Unknown Payload
Monday, September 30th: Falcon 9 Block 5 (SpaceX, USA) - OneWeb 20 mission
Monday, September 30th: Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat (Russian Space Forces, Russia) - Glonass-K1 No. 18
JUST WOW! 👌🏻
That’s all for this week! Stay tuned for more updates :)
Juan from The Space Race team