Weekly Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 11.06.20

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Preparing the Perseverance Mars Rover to Collect Samples on the Red Planet

The samples Apollo 11 brought back to Earth from the Moon were humanity’s first from another celestial body. The upcoming Perseverance rover mission will collect the first samples from another planet.

Our New Map of Every Mars Landing Attempt, Ever

The Planetary Society has a new improved guide to all the places we’ve landed—or crashed—on Mars, plus planned locations for the upcoming Perseverance, Tianwen-1, and Rosalind Franklin rover missions.

Happy birthday, Falcon 9! SpaceX’s workhorse rocket debuted 10 years ago today

SpaceX’s famous Falcon 9 rocket has now been flying for a decade.

Life on Mars? Meet the new rover built to give us the answer

NASA’s Curiosity rover has shown that Mars was habitable billions of years ago. And NASA is about to launch another rover, called Perseverance, to look for signs of Red Planet life.

NASA erteilt Auftrag für Gateway-Modul

Die US-Luft- und Raumfahrtbehörde NASA hat der Northrop Grumman-Tochter Orbital Science Corporation in Virginia den Auftrag zum Bau eines Wohn- und Logistik-Moduls für die Gateway-Station erteilt, die einmal bemannt den Mond umkreisen soll. Wie das Unternehmen mitteilte, beläuft sich das Auftragsvolumen auf 187 Millionen Dollar.

NASA Awards Northrop Grumman Artemis Contract for Gateway Crew Cabin

NASA has finalized the contract for the initial crew module of the agency’s Gateway lunar orbiting outpost.

Northrop Grumman snags $187 million to design NASA’s lunar Gateway habitat for astronauts

NASA has awarded Northrop Grumman $187 million to design the habitat module for Gateway, the agency’s planned moon-orbiting space station.

NASA spacecraft swoops down low over asteroid Bennu to eye sampling site

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft recently swooped down to take a look at a sample site on asteroid Bennu.

Record breaker! Briefcase-size satellite spots alien planet

A satellite the size of a briefcase successfully detected an alien world, potentially paving the way for a future network of bantam planet-hunting spacecraft.

China will begin constructing its space station in 2021

The Chinese space agency is building a brand new space station, and they’re going about it in a suitably impressive way: an ambitious schedule of 11 planned launches crammed into only two years. When it’s done, the 66-ton space station will host crews of three astronauts for up to six months at a time, lasting …

Bennu und Ryugu: Zwei Asteroiden und ihre rabiate Vergangenheit

Es wird Zeit, wieder mal über Asteroiden zu reden. Denn da ist den letzten Jahren ja einiges passiert. Beziehungsweise passiert mit den Asteroiden ja immer etwas, aber in den letzten Jahren haben wir genau hingesehen. Die NASA hat im Rahmen der Mission OSIRIS-REx den Asteroid “Bennu” besucht. Und die japanische Raumfahrtorganisation JAXA ist mit der Hayabusa-2-Mission zum Asteroid “Ryugu” geflogen. Beide Raumsonden haben Landeeinheiten abgesetzt und beide Sonden sollen Proben vom Asteroid zur Erde zurück bringen. Vor allem haben wir nun aber auch detaillierte Bilder beider Himmelskörper:

Tower Extension Test a Success for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

To test the James Webb Space Telescope’s readiness for its journey in space, technicians successfully commanded it to deploy and extend a critical part of the observatory known as the Deployable Tower Assembly.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flies by the sun in 5th close encounter

NASA’s daring Parker Solar Probe made its fifth daring flyby of the sun this weekend.

Parker Solar Probe Signals Successful Fifth Encounter of the Sun

On June 9, 2020, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe signaled the success of its fifth close pass by the Sun, called perihelion, with a radio beacon tone. The spacecraft completed the fifth perihelion of its mission two days prior, flying within 11.6 million miles from the Sun’s surface, reaching a top speed of about 244,225 miles per hour, which matches the spacecraft’s own records for closest human-made object to the Sun and fastest human-made object, set during its fourth orbit on January 29.

Die ersten drei US-Weltraumtouristen für die ISS stehen schon fest

Die ersten drei Weltraumtouristen, die mit SpaceX zur Internationalen Raumstation ISS fliegen, stehen bereits fest. Das berichtet der TV-Sender CNBC unter Berufung auf den Chef des Raumfahrtunternehmens Axiom Space, Michael Suffredini. Die Namen sollen in etwa einem Monat bekanntgegeben werden. Das Trio fliegt mit einem professionellen Astronauten […]

NASA Assigns Astronaut Kate Rubins to Expedition 63/64 Space Station Crew

NASA has assigned astronaut Kate Rubins to a six-month mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 63/64 crew.

Space Station Instrument Helps Researchers to Understand Lightning

Lightning flashes from a storm cloud to strike the ground. Such bolts represent only a small part of the overall phenomenon of lightning.

Advanced Station Science Benefiting Humans

The five-member Expedition 63 crew aboard the International Space Station continues exploring how microgravity phenomena may benefit humans on and off Earth.

Science Stepping Up on Station for Earth and Space Benefits

The three NASA astronauts and two Roscosmos cosmonauts that comprise the Expedition 63 crew are keeping the International Space Station humming with space research. Less than a week into their stay on the orbiting lab, Flight Engineers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are still orienting themselves with station systems and operations. Meanwhile, the duo is beginning to step up their advanced science activities to benefit people on and off Earth.

Stable foams and unstable muscles – a month of European Space Station science

European experiments have been looking at how human muscles react to living in weightlessness or used the lack of gravity’s pull to investigate foams. A recap of the European science run on the International Space Station in May.

Crew Starts Week on Communications Gear and Orbital Plumbing

The five-member Expedition 63 crew aboard the International Space Station started the workweek servicing a variety of communications gear. The quintet also worked on spacewalk gear, orbital plumbing and microgravity research.

New SpaceX Crewmates Wrap Up First Workweek Aboard Station

The Expedition 63 crew and its two newest crewmates aboard the International Space Station wrapped up the workweek studying a wide range of space phenomena.

Japan’s HTV-9 Cargo Craft Helps Supply the Space Station

Japan’s resupply ship, the H-II Transfer Vehicle-9 (HTV-9), is pictured attached to the International Space Station’s Harmony module.

Space Bubbles, Advanced Optics Benefiting Earthlings, Astronauts

NASA Flight Engineers Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have nearly finished unpacking Japan’s HTV-9 cargo craft which arrived May 25. They have been carefully transferring several tons of new station hardware and science experiments and distributing it throughout the station.

Earth from Space: Colourful Queensland

This week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme features a Copernicus Sentinel-2 image over part of Channel Country – a pastoral region located mostly in southwest Queensland, Australia.

Safeguarding our oceans

image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission, takes us over the green algae blooms swirling around the Baltic Sea.

TASS: Videokonferenz der ISS-Partner über Zusammenarbeit bei der Mond-Forschung

Auf Vorschlag von NASA-Chef Jim Bridenstine wollen die Partnerländer des ISS-Programms am 9. Juni bei einer Videokonferenz über ihre Zusammenarbeit bei der Erforschung des Mondes beraten, meldet die Moskauer Nachrichtenagentur TASS am Freitag. Dabei gehe es um den Beitrag der Raumfahrtorganisationen Russlands, Kanadas, Europas und Japans zum […]

NASA to Announce Selection of Company to Fly VIPER Rover to Moon

NASA will announce the commercial provider selected to deliver NASA’s new water-hunting mobile robot, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to the South Pole of the Moon during a media teleconference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 10.

The ‘mole’ on Mars is finally underground after a push from NASA’s InSight lander

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the first mole to burrow into the surface of Mars, scientists hope.

Finally! Mars InSight’s Mole is Now Underground

It looks like the InSight Lander’s Mole instrument is making some progress. After months of perseverance, the team operating the instrument has succeeded in getting the Mole at least some distance into the ground. That’s a victory in itself, considering all the setbacks there’ve been. But it’s too soon to celebrate: there’s quite a ways …

Three New Views of Mars’ Moon Phobos

Taken with the infrared camera aboard NASA’s Odyssey orbiter, they reveal temperature variations on the small moon as it drifts into and out of Mars’ shadow

The Red Planet’s Holden Crater

Exquisite layering is revealed emerging from the sand in southern Holden Crater. Sequences like these offer a window into Mars’ complicated geologic history.

Mars’ moon Phobos looks like cosmic candy in these NASA photos

New thermal imagery of the Mars moon Phobos could help shed light on the satellite’s mysterious origin.

Hubble makes surprising find in the early Universe

Ancient explosion in Milky Way’s core lit up gas outside the galaxy

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is further probing the remnants of a massive space explosion visible from Earth 3.5 million years ago.

Hubble Catches Cosmic Snowflakes

The stars of the globular cluster NGC 6441 sparkle peacefully in the night sky, about 13,000 light-years from the Milky Way’s galactic center.

ESA moves ahead on low-cost reusable rocket engine

ESA’s Prometheus is the precursor of ultra-low-cost rocket propulsion that is flexible enough to fit a fleet of new launch vehicles for any mission and will be potentially reusable.

SpaceX startet neue Gruppe von Starlink-Satelliten

Der SpaceX-Konzern hat in der Nacht zu Donnerstag eine weitere Gruppe von Starlink-Internetsatelliten gestartet. Die Falcon 9-Trägerrakete stieg um 3:25 Uhr deutscher Zeit vom Weltraumbahnhof Cape Canaveral (Florida) auf. Die Erststufe der Rakete, die wohlbehalten auf eine schwimmende Plattform zurückkehrte, kam dabei zum fünften Mal zum […]

China launches 2 rockets in 2 days, lofting 4 satellites to orbit

While NASA and SpaceX were busy supporting the historic Demo-2 mission last weekend, the Chinese were making space strides of their own.

Testing for Ireland’s first satellite

Image: Testing for Ireland’s first satellite

South Korean satellite shipped to Cape Canaveral for Falcon 9 launch next month

A communications satellite built for the South Korean military arrived at Cape Canaveral this week from an Airbus factory in France to begin final preparations for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in July.

‘Kerbal Space Program 2’ won’t launch until fall 2021

Sorry Kerbonauts, you’ll have to wait until fall 2021 for the physics-based spaceflight simulator “Kerbal Space Program 2.”

NASA Announces Challenge Seeking Innovative Ideas to Advance Missions

NASA has opened a pilot Entrepreneurs Challenge to invite fresh ideas and new participants in supporting development of new instruments and technologies to advance the agency’s science exploration goals.

Einladung an die Medien: Erdbeobachtung ermöglicht rasche Reaktion auf COVID-19

Die ESA und die Europäische Kommission laden Medienvertreter dazu ein, am 5. Juni ab 11:00 CEST einer Online-Veranstaltung zu folgen, auf dem die „Rapid Action Coronavirus Earth Observation“-Plattform, kurz RACE, vorgestellt wird. Dieses Dashboard bietet Zugang zu wichtigen Umwelt-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialindikatoren, anhand derer man die Auswirkungen von Ausgangssperren im Zuge der Coronavirus-Maßnahmen messen sowie die Entwicklung nach der Aufhebung solcher Ausgangssperren überwachen kann.

NASA Invites Media to Launch of Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover

Media accreditation is open for the launch of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, designed to better understand the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

Erste Coronavirus-Fälle in Baikonur

Auf dem Kosmodrom Baikonur (Kasachstan) sind erste Coronavirus-Fälle aufgetreten. So seien acht Personen ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert worden, meldet die Nachrichtenagentur RIA Nowosti unter Berufung auf die Stadtverwaltung. Sie gehörten zu einer Gruppe von 14 Menschen, die in Kontakt mit einer erkrankten Person aus dem Dorf Tjuratam […]

Rogosin vermisst ein Wort der Dankbarkeit seitens der USA für die Aufrechterhaltung der ISS nach Einstellung des Shuttle-Programms

Der Generaldirektor der GK Roskosmos, Dmitri Rogosin, hat sich über das Verhalten der USA nach dem Start von Crew Dragon zur Internationalen Raumstation ISS beklagt. Dem großen Jubel vom 30. Mai nach zu urteilen haben die Amerikaner gewaltig darunter gelitten, dass sie beim Transport ihrer Besatzungen […]

WSJ: NASA-Generalinspektion ermittelt gegen Loverro

Die Generalinspektion der US-Luft- und Raumfahrtbehörde NASA ermittelt gegen den ehemaligen Direktor für bemannte Programme, Doug Loverro. Er stehe in dem Verdacht, dem Boeing-Konzern bei der Ausschreibung für den Landeapparat des Artemis-Mondprogramms Vorteile verschafft zu haben, berichtet The Wall Street Journal. Die NASA-Inspektoren überprüften, ob Loverro dem Konzern über […]

Offenbar nur geringes Interesse am Kosmonauten-Beruf in Russland – 1.404 Bewerbungen auf neue Ausschreibung

Der einst hochbegehrte Beruf eines Kosmonauten stößt derzeit offenbar nur noch auf geringes Interesse in Russland. Auf die jüngste Ausschreibung, die am 1. Juni abgelaufen ist, haben sich lediglich 1.404 Bewerber gemeldet, teilte die GK Roskosmos am Montag mit. Nur 156 davon hätten zudem alle erforderlichen Dokumente pünktlich eingereicht, darunter […]

NASA astronaut Victor Glover explains why sometimes we can’t just stick to space

As Americans took to the streets in protest and NASA astronauts took to the skies on a commercial spacecraft, some space fans had a question: “Can’t we just do space?”

SpaceX Crew Dragon docking depicted on new Houston postmark

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has arrived at the International Space Station, both in orbit and on a new postmark.

Orbital space ageing tests offered for space age materials

Exposure to space can be bad for the health of many materials. ESA and French space agency CNES are offering European researchers the chance to study the harmful effects of space directly, by flying material samples on Bartolomeo, Europe’s new ‘front porch’ aboard the International Space Station.

Hubble Looked as Far Back in Time as it Could, and Still Couldn’t See the First Generation of Stars in the Universe

Astronomers don’t know exactly when the first stars formed in the Universe because they haven’t been observed yet. And now, new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest the first stars and galaxies may have formed even earlier than previously estimated. Why? We *still* haven’t seen them, even with the best telescope we’ve got, pushed …

Why a physicist wants to build a particle collider on the moon

A physicist proposes that the moon is a great place to build a particle collider and conduct high-energy physics experiments.