Jessica Watkins was born on May 14, 1988, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Raised in Boulder, Colorado, she earned a double bachelor's in geology and environmental science from Stanford in 2010. She was a star player on Stanford's women's rugby team, and also took part in international competition, leading the USA Eagles to a third-place finish in the 2009 Rugby Sevens World Cup. While at Stanford, she also did an apprenticeship at Ames Research Center, where she helped with research for the Phoenix lander on Mars. She would eventually earn a doctorate in geology from UCLA. She also did post-doctorate research at CalTech, where she was also an assistant coach for their women's basketball team. Jessica was selected to be an astronaut as part of Group 22 in 2017; she is currently NASA's youngest active astronaut. She took part in in the NEEMO 23 underwater research mission in November 2019. Led by Samantha Cristoferetti, it was the first all-female NEEMO mission. She was selected to SpaceX Crew-4 in November 2021. She will become the first Black woman to reside on the International Space Station.
Crew Dragon Endeavour splashed down in the Atlantic just off the mouth of the St. Mary's River at 1:06pm EDT yesterday with the crew of Axiom Mission 1. The egress for the mission shows just how efficient SpaceX's recovery crews have gotten. Splashdown to hatch opening took only 37 minutes. Inspiration4 also had that amount of time from splashdown to hatch opening. The astronauts were understandably a bit wobbly after 2 1/2 weeks in microgravity. Both Michael Lopez-Alegria and Larry Connor needed to be supported once they got out of the spacecraft. ******** ' SLS is back inside the VAB. Target is to roll back out to 39B mid-late May for the next WDR (#4) attempt in early June.https://t.co/R5aFaZWY47https://t.co/feDM8pqVyD https://t.co/kh0902H5Cs— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) April 26, 2022 Meanwhile, Artemis 1 has been rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The plan was always to roll it back after the Wet Dress Rehearsal. But now, they will be preparing it for another Wet Dress Rehearsal. The main problem is valve issues in the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. Though they also found leaks in the fueling system on the mobile support structure. The plan is to roll it back out in a month, and do another Wet Dress Rehearsal in early June. They're saying June for launch, but I can't see that happening now. It's gotta be delayed to at least July at this point. ******** SpaceX Crew-4 is still go for tomorrow morning at 3:52am EDT. The 45th Weather Squadron gives a 90% chance of weather favorability, but with slightly elevated risks along the ascent corridor for abort recovery. Meanwhile, the next Rocket Lab launch, "There and Back Again", is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 5:30pm EDT. It will carry 27 cubesats and four picosats. The main thing here is that Rocket Lab is actually going to try to snag the Electron first stage with a helicopter this time.
OSIRIS-REx continues its return to Earth. As it stands, it is set to fly-by Earth and drop off its return capsule, with up to 2 kg of material from asteroid 101955 Bennu, on September 24, 2023. The bus probe already has its next target. And it's a big one. On Monday, its extended mission, OSIRIS-APEX, was announced. APEX stands for Apophis Explorer. Its target: asteroid 99942 Apophis. Apophis is one of the highest-profile targets we could've ever asked for. Early in the 21st century, it was believed there was a very high probably that it would strike Earth in 2036. With unprecedented levels of study, it's now believed it will not impact Earth any time in the next 100 years. In fact, it's going to pass even closer to Earth in 2029 (around 36,000 km) than in 2036. We actually have more certainty of Apophis' orbit than we do on the orbit of Bennu. But it's estimated that an asteroid of its size, around 370 m at its largest point, strikes Earth every 80,000 years. So it remains an object of great importance for planetary defense concerns. With that study, they found that the OSIRIS-REx bus probe could transfer to the orbit of Apophis. It will reach Apophis in April 2029. The rendezvous will begin before Apophis' fly-by of Earth on April 13, 2029. An ion engine burn in October 2023, not long after the sample return, will modify OSIRIS-APEX's trajectory so its 2029 fly-by of Earth will co-align its orbit with that of Apophis, enabling it to enter the asteroid's orbit around April 21. This fly-by of Apophis is supposed to be visible to the naked eye from Earth, with an estimated magnitude of about +3. Though it would be fairly fast. After orbiting it for 18 months, it will conduct a collection maneuver on the asteroid. While it won't actually be able to collect any material for return to Earth, the impact of the collection mechanism will allow it to do a spectrographic analysis of subsurface materials.
Cool launch this morning of astronauts heading to the ISS. I had a well-timed reflux attack (don't say that very often) and waiting for it to subside, ended up turning the PC on @ T-22:00. Perfect landing for the first stage and the video did much better than usual staying on for both the drone ship and the stage 1 cameras. They had two different stuffed animals to indicate low-gravity in the capsule, a monkey and a very weird looking big-eyed turtle. Seems like the cable the turtle was attached to was winding around a couple of the people, seemed dangerous (relatively speaking).
SpaceX has dropped in another Starlink launch. It will take place this afternoon at 5:27pm EDT. The 45th Weather Squadron gives it an 80% chance of launch favorability. It's going to be launched by B1062.6. If it goes even within a few days of that, it will set a new gold standard for swift re-use. Today would be 21 days after B1062.6's last launch, which was Axiom Mission 1 on April 8. ******** SpaceX has meted out the next three previously-unassigned Falcon Heavy cores. Core B1068 will be used for the ViaSat-3 Americas comsat, which is penciled in for August 15. It will use side boosters B1052.5 and B1053.3. Yes, they're turning B1052 back into a Falcon Heavy side booster. Core B1070 will be used for USSF-52, which is penciled in for October. Its side boosters will be B1064.2 and B1065.2. Of course, those will first be used for USSF-44, which is still presumed to go in June, but doesn't have a firm date set yet. That one I think is a bit more under wraps. B1074 will be used for Psyche. It will use new side boosters B1072 and B1075. Its launch has been solidified for August 1 at 2pm EDT. SpaceX has another Starlink launch penned in for next Thursday at 6:12am EDT. They also have May 8 and May 16 penciled in, with a possible fourth May launch on the manifest.
The latest Electron launch, "There and Back Again", was supposed to launch about an hour after the Starlink launch yesterday. I guess there were some sort of weather concerns. It's now set for tomorrow evening at 6:35pm EDT. CAPSTONE, which doesn't have a Rocket Lab mission name yet, is still penciled in for a range of May 3-15. I'm guessing each month has a range of launch opportunities, like with Artemis 1. Speaking of Artemis 1, it's been delayed to August. ******** Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 is still locked in for May 19 at 6:54pm EDT. Hopefully they won't screw anything up this time. After it leaves—presuming it gets there, mind you—Cargo Dragon CRS-25 is scheduled for June 7 at 11:25am EDT. In addition, the next SpaceX Transporter rideshare, Transporter-5, will be May 25 at 2:35pm EDT. It will carry four different payload dispensers, and it's up to at least 57 individual payloads.
🛰 #ICYMI: The Psyche spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center last week! Over the next three months, the spacecraft will undergo additional preparations before launching aboard a @SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Aug. 1.#MissionToPsyche: https://t.co/lzeOfm8A17 pic.twitter.com/PpTEAP7gz8— NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) May 3, 2022 Speaking of Psyche, it arrived at Kennedy Space Center last Friday. It is undergoing final testing before it can be integrated with Falcon Heavy core B1074. Psyche is going to be the first spacecraft to use Hall effect thrusters (HET) beyond the Earth system. The Hall effect has to do with using magnetic fields to ionize plasma. It supposedly requires more electrical powers than other ion thrusters. But the design used for Psyche will supposedly produce satisfactory thrust with 900 watts of power dedicated to the propulsion system. The solar panels, which are rated to produce 20 kilowatts at Earth orbit, will supposedly be able to produce 2,300 watts of power when it reaches asteroid 16 Psyche in 2026. ******** Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Meanwhile, back at the ranch: SpaceX is packing up B1074, the center core for this mission, after a good static fire last week.The test facility in McGregor, TX is critical to SpaceX's success, and @NASASpaceflight is following along via https://t.co/ussbUOZGHU https://t.co/NiX4cpb0x7 pic.twitter.com/lhRFZ3BPnM— Kerbal Space Academy (@KSpaceAcademy) May 3, 2022 Falcon Heavy core B1074 completed its testing in McGregor, Texas, last week, and is currently in transit to Kennedy Space Center as well. I honestly don't know when SpaceX will attempt to recover a Falcon Heavy core again. And the side boosters for the Psyche launch, B1072.1 and B1075.1, are scheduled to return to Landing Zones 1 and 2 (respectively in that order).
Things are gearing up for Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2. Today, the Orbital Flight Test-2 #Starliner spacecraft will make its way from the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility to the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41. Follow @BoeingSpace, @ULALaunch, and @Commercial_Crew for updates throughout the day. https://t.co/W7zESqkFT1— NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) May 4, 2022 Spacecraft 2, which has not yet been officially named, was delivered to Pad 41 earlier this morning. By the end of the day, it will be atop its Atlas V N22 booster. As the spacecraft that flew OFT-1, Calypso, was named, I'd like to think we'll get a name for this one at some point. It's still aiming for launch on May 19. ******** MDA completes first commercial sale of #Canadarm3 technology to @Axiom_Space's Axiom Station, which will be the world’s first commercial space station in orbit. @csa_asc https://t.co/lEnprL9vS5 pic.twitter.com/VJ8uAV2ZnY— MDA Space (@MDA_space) May 3, 2022 Meanwhile, MDA, the Canadian aerospace firm behind Canadarm, has announced that it sold 32 Canadarm3 interfaces to Axiom Space for the Axiom Orbital Segment. According to MDA, the interfaces for Canadarm3 are compatible with Canadarm2. This will permit Canadarm2 to be utilized to help assemble the components of the Axiom Orbital Segment when it is attached to the International Space Station. In the future, the Axiom Orbital Segment could use the interfaces with its own robotic arm. It could acquire a Canadarm3 of its own, or even take Canadarm2 with them once the ISS is decommissioned. ******** The Dream Chaser spaceplane, Tenacity, is taking shape and will be the first vehicle in our Dream Chaser fleet of orbital vehicles. Making space more accessible one innovation at a time.https://t.co/rnsPpaHKvz#SierraSpace #DreamChaser #Tenacity #DreamsWorthChasing pic.twitter.com/N6FARQo4gK— Sierra Space (@SierraSpaceCo) April 30, 2022 Sierra Space gave an update last Saturday on the first Dream Chaser, Tenacity. Its airframe is largely complete, and now just needs its outer shell assembled. Being assembled in Colorado, it will soon be shipped to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for testing. SNC Demo-1 is still planned for Q1 2023; they hope to get it done that February. Though it may be at the mercy of Blue Origin depending on further delays in the BE-4 engine. There are also rumors circulating that Sierra may be working on a DoD variant that would be a successor to the X-37B.
Crew Dragon Endurance splashed down early this morning at 12:43am EDT in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast from Tampa. SpaceX Crew-4 has actually been shortened by a month, and will end in September. The launch of Crew-5 will also take place in September. This will get it back to the desired timeframes, but will also result in Samantha Cristoforetti not taking command of ISS Expedition 68. The full crew of SpaceX Crew-5 has not yet been solidified. We're still waiting on official word on NASA on cancelling Roscosmos' seat option and giving that seat to Jeanette Epps instead.
It seems that the Vega rocket has seen its last flight. After two failures in 2019 and 2020, a bunch of Vega's customers jumped ship to either Vega-C or other platforms. So the updated Vega-C rocket is eyeing a debut next month with the Italian LARES 2 geodesy satellite and several cubesats. With Vega-C using the Avio P120C SRM as its first stage, it will also serve as a late checkout for a system to be used by the Ariane 6 rocket, which will use the P120C as its strap-on SRM. If the launch goes well, ESA might launch up to two more in quick succession thereafter. A pair of Pléiades-Neo spysats, and a set of 10 SpaceBelt comsats, are still penciled in for Q2 2022. Ariane 6 is currently penciled in for a Q3 2022 debut, with an Ariane 62 (2 SRMs) scheduled to launch a cache of experimental satellites into LEO. ******** The first two Starlink launches for this week were pushed back a bit. The first one is currently set for tomorrow evening at 6:23pm EDT from Pad 4E, Vandenberg SFB. It will be launched by booster B1063.5. The second one, scheduled to launch from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral, is now set for Saturday afternoon at 4:38pm EDT. It will be the debut launch for booster B1073.1. The launch originally set for May 18 hasn't budged any. We just don't know which booster it will use yet. Maybe we'll get surprised with a swift turnaround for B1073.2. Who knows? USSF-44 still doesn't have a solid date penned in, but with its classified payload, it might not until they send out both drone ships to catch the side boosters. All that is known is that it will be the first Falcon Heavy launch to attempt a direct injection into geostationary orbit. And although an exact date hasn't been nailed down yet, OneWeb is believed to have its first Falcon 9 launch some time this Summer. One of the advantages for launching with SpaceX is that the satellites are manufactured at Kennedy Space Center, something I have noted before.Their plant is south of KSC Visitor Complex, across the street from Blue Origin's New Glenn manufacturing facility..
i-Space, the "independent" rocket company behind the Chinese Hyperbola-1 rocket, can't seem to catch a break. They had a launch attempt early Friday morning, which carried a Jilin-1 spysat. It didn't make it to orbit. As per the usual, a reason for the failure is unlikely to be forthcoming. That's three straight launch failures for the Hyperbola-1 rocket, all over the past 15 months. This might mean curtains for i-Space. ******** SpaceX had successful Starlink launches on Friday and Saturday. Their next launch is still set for Wednesday morning, and will have a one-hour launch window opening at 6:10am EDT. It has an 80% chance of weather favorability. This launch is set to be on booster B1052.5. So it will have at least one more solo flight before being turned back into a Falcon Heavy side booster for the ViaSat-3 Americas launch. Starliner OFT-2 is still up for Thursday evening at 6:54pm EDT. The 45th Weather Squadron is giving it a 70% chance of weather favorability.
54 years ago today, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center director Christopher Kraft and Apollo program manager George Low were discussing the mission profiles for Project Apollo. Specifically, Kraft was having doubts about the feasibility of the E mission type. It was designed to use the S-IVB stage to lift the CSM and lunar module into a high geocentric orbit. But he had doubts that all the objectives could be completed. It's likely he was also concerned about repeated exposures of the astronauts to the Van Allen radiation belts. These concerns, combined with delays in the lunar module, led to the creation of the "C-prime" mission type, which would make HEO testing redundant. Chris would make his first allusion to such a plan in this meeting, expressing his desire to find "the quickest way to the Moon" with time running out on Kennedy's dream.
Yesterday, NASA and JPL held a press conference on the InSight lander on Mars. The situation is pretty grave. When it landed at Elysium Planitia around Thanksgiving 2018, it had a power capacity of 600 watts from its solar panels, supplemented by a 5 kW/h battery. But not long after being granted a mission extension at the beginning of 2021, its power generation began to plummet, to the point that generation is nowhere near enough to fully charge its battery.. Really, the writing was already on the wall. This is a comparison of two selfies taken by its Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) that's on Wikipedia. The fact of the matter is, cleaning of the solar panels by local winds has not been as helpful as it was with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. This is why you don't put solar panels on a static lander on Mars. More than one commenter on the webcast asked why they didn't use an RTG instead. Anyway, by February 2021, battery storage was peaking at 27% of capacity. Today, it's down to 10%. Note I never said there was anything wrong with the batteries themselves. It simply can't generate enough power to charge the battery sufficiently anymore. JPL is cutting the extended mission short. They will end scientific operations over the summer, and they expect contact to be lost with InSight by the end of the year, That being said, they have hailed its achievements in Martian seismology. It has proven that seismology studies can be undertaken on Mars, detecting quakes frequently. Just two weeks ago, they detected a quake that was equivalent to Magnitude 5 on Earth. For now, they are throwing as much energy as the lander can muster at its seismograph, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS). ******** Speaking of swan songs, the final launch of B1049.11 has been set. The launch of Nilesat 301 has been penciled in for June 10. All the nearby Falcon Heavy launches have been pushed to the second half of 2022. Another launch has been added with USSF-67. And USSF-44 has been pushed all the way back to December. That one has to be payload issues.
Interesting. No one has ever suggested that Mars has plates and it's mantle or whatever passes for it is supposedly far less active than Earth's. Would be interesting to know what drives these marsquakes.
It probably doesn't need to have tectonic plates to have seismic activity. The Moon has been known to have some seismic activity. Even without a dynamic core like that of Earth, there is still settling with gravity over time. There will certainly be follow-ons from InSight. Hopefully they bring along an RTG next time. ******** Things are still going forward witht he planned launch of Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2 tonight at 6:53pm EDT. The weather favorability is holding at 70%. NASA officials said Wednesday they will wait until the conclusion of the OFT-2 demonstration mission to finalize astronaut assignments on the first Starliner crew flights to the International Space Station.Read more: https://t.co/i07yUm1MgR pic.twitter.com/wXsBTqiLpN— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 19, 2022 What is interesting is that it appears NASA has completely nuked the crew assignments for the Starliner's crewed flights, even with the Crewed Flight Test currently hoped to happen by the end of the year if OFT-2 goes well. CFT and Starliner-1, the first operational flight, now have no crew attached to them. NASA is saying they will decide who will fly once they determine a more solid schedule. Currently, only Barry Whitmore, Michael Fincke, Sunita Williams, and Matthew Dominick are assigned to the Boeing side of Commercial Crew. But the fact that nobody is now attached to any of the flights gives the impression that they may be on a footing to get rid of Starliner if OFT-2 doesn't go in a satisfactory manner. So a lot is riding on this mission. If thing go well, then Spacecraft two, which is still not named yet, will also be used for Starliner-1. The spacecraft from OFT-1, Calypso, will be used for the Crewed Flight Test.
Starliner OFT-2 finally launched last night at 6:54pm EDT. Its exact launch time was attenuated by 71 seconds. ULA reported that the Atlas V first stage slightly overperformed, taking some of the load off for Centaur. Starliner was placed in an initial 180x74km orbit. 19 minutes after separation from Centaur, Starliner finally completed a nominal orbital burn, placing it in a 362x180km transfer orbit to begin its chase of the International Space Station. Two of the 12 engines on the service module failed, but the others were able to compensate. Now, as with SpaceX DM-1, Starliner will complete the originally-scheduled pre-approach tests. Docking is currently planned for 7:10pm EDT at Harmony forward.. It is carrying 245 kg of supplies and ballast. The supplies are small amounts of food and some minor EVA gear. Spacecraft 2—no, it still isn't named yet—will return with 270 kg, returning some spent air tanks. Spacecraft 2 is planned to spend four days docked to the ISS, and land at White Sands Missile Range on Wednesday.
Transporter-5 is still on track to launch this afternoon at 2:27pm EDT. It is carrying a total of 74 unique payloads in four different dispensers. The 45th Weather Squadron gives it an 80% chance of weather favorability. It's being launched by B1061.8, which is set to return to Landing Zone 1. Guess I'll be getting a sonic boom this time around. ******** Last week, Roscosmos hinted that they might permit cosmonaut Anna Kikina fly on SpaceX Crew-5. They will make that decision official by mid-June. Meanwhile, SpaceX failed a new heat shield structure in QA testing for Crew Dragon Endurance. They have another one ready, and are testing it now. No delay in Crew-5, which is scheduled for September, is anticipated. Things appear to be going well for Starliner OFT-2. They closed the capsule last night, and it's scheduled to undock and land this afternoon. Then the analysis begins to see if we will finally get a crewed mission later this year.
Starliner OFT-2 successfully landed at White Sands Space Harbor at 6:53pm EDT, just four minutes short of a six-day mission. Just like the one thing that went right with OFT-1, it seems to have gone perfectly. NASA even had some spectacular high-res infrared coverage of re-entry and descent. Now begins the process of analyzing the data. There wasn't anything obviously glaring about this mission, so hopefully we will indeed get to the Crewed Flight Test by the end of the year. The intended plan was for SpaceX and Boeing to alternate rotation flights. So if the CFT happens this year and goes well, then Boeing's first operational rotation, Starliner-1, could happen as soon as next Spring, with SpaceX Crew-6 happening in Fall 2023. Of course, they would need to repopulate the crew for Starliner-1, as well as CFT. If NASA is satisfied by the results from OFT-2, then an announcement on who will fly which mission should be forthcoming. ******** CAPSTONE finally has a solid launch date. Though not a Rocket Lab mission name yet. It is now penned to launch from Mahia Pad 1B on June 9 at 5:20am EDT. That's about five hours before SpaceX's next launch, Cargo Dragon CRS-25, also set for June 9 at 10:45am EDT. It will include nine cubesats for deployment from the International Space Station, and will likely carry the next set of iROSA solar arrays. ******** The next test flight for South Korea's Nuri orbital rocket is set for June 15 at 2am EDT from Pad 2, Naro Space Center. It will carry four cubesats from South Korean universities, a performance verification payload, and 1,300 kg of ballast, targeting a standard polar SSO. Naro Space Center is located about 25 miles south of Yeosu and 100 miles SW of Busan on South Korea's southern shore.
KARI has given KPLO the name Danuri as it nears it's August 2022 launch.Danuri will be used to prove and test KARI's technologies for lunar exploration.Article: https://t.co/CGUg6CNVZR— Lee Kanayama (@Falcon_1e) May 28, 2022 South Korea is preparing to join the interplanetary exploration club. Kinda sad that they were beaten to it by the United Arab Emirates. The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) has been on the drawing board since 2014, when the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) completed a feasibility study with NASA for a lunar orbiter mission. KPLO—now named Danuri, a combination of Korean words that roughly translates to "hope for the Moon"—represents the first phase of a Korean Lunar Exploration Program (KLEP). Danuri will carry multiple cameras, a magnetometer, a gamma ray spectrometer, and a communications experiment that is described as "delay-tolerant networking", hoping to apply Internet principles to interplanetary communication. It will be powered with 700 watts of solar panel capacity, and be placed in a 100km circular polar orbit around the Moon with a 30-newton main engine. Originally planned for launch in December 2018, Danuri experienced a variety of delays. It is now scheduled for August 2 at 7:37pm EDT atop a Falcon 9 rocket. If Danuri goes well, Phase 2 of the KLEP will involved a lunar lander with a 20kg Korean-built lunar rover. They hope to launch it from South Korea atop a Nuri rocket by 2025.
47 years ago today, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) and European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) merged to form the European Space Agency (ESA). At that point, ESRO was largely reliant on NASA and the US Air Force to launch their payloads. ELDO was having difficulty actually developing an European rocket. The ESA convention was initially signed by ten nations: the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Spain's membership was most interesting, as they were just beginning to break away from the past of Generalissimo Franco, and wouldn't be a member of the European Union proper until 1986. ESA would not begin to function as a unified space agency until 1980 when the instruments of ratification were finally deposited.
The launch of Nilesat 301 is now penned in for next Tuesday at 5:03pm EDT. But it's no longer going to be the swan song of B1049.11. It's been moved to B1062.7. It's also listed to be landing on a drone ship. B1049.11 is only listed now as "awaiting assignment". So no idea what's going on with it. I'm imagining they discovered something wrong. Too bad Kennedy Space Center already has a Falcon 9 set for its rocket garden. ******** The next Ariane 5 rocket is set for its next launch campaign. A pair of comsats, MEASAT-3d for Malaysia and GSAT-24 for India, are set to launch at 5:03pm EDT on June 22 from Pad A-3, Guiana Space Centre. MEASAT-3d is replacing two comsats, MEASAT-3 (2006) and MEASAT-3c (2009). The debut for Ariane 6 is still set for Q3 2022, and there are three more possible Ariane 5 launches penciled in for possible launch during the second half of this year.
62 years ago today, NASA entered into a contract with North American Rocketdyne to develop the J-2 liquid hydrogen-fueled engine. After initial successes with with testing of the RL-10, which was being developed for the Centaur upper stage, it was determined that it was time to scale up a liquid hydrogen engine. While the initial RL-10 had 15,000 lb-f of thrust, they knew that larger applications—like going to the Moon—would require a lot more power. There were two main aims for development of the J-2: 200,000 lb-f of thrust, and engine restart capability. The latter was accomplished by allowing evaporating liquid hydrogen to fill a start tank. This could be held for up to six hours on-orbit, and the engine typically held enough helium pressurant for three restarts. The final thrust for the J-2 would be around 232,000 lb-f of thrust in a vacuum. This would prove sufficient for its ultimate final use on the S-IVB stage. A cluster of five J-2 engines would also be used for the S-II second stage of the Saturn V rocket. An upgraded version, the J-2S, increased thrust to 256,000 lb-f for later Saturn V missions, but was never used. It was also an early competitor to power the Space Shuttle orbiter. A later version, the J-2X, had 294,000 lb-f of thrust, and was considered for Ares-family rocket upper stages for Project Constellation. It's been tested as recently as 2013, but was ultimately replaced by modern evolutions of the RL-10 for the Space Launch System.
Congratulations to Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace for being selected to move forward with their spacesuit design, which will unlock new capabilities for missions to the @Space_Station, @NASAArtemis missions to the Moon, and eventually missions to Mars. https://t.co/UDL3x7omVs pic.twitter.com/IppfBZoLXl— NASA (@NASA) June 1, 2022 NASA has awarded Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace contracts to design the next generation of extravehicular mobility units. The spacesuit designs are under a new program called Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS). The idea is to get the next generation of spacesuits ready for the International Space Station, the Project Artemis Lunar Gateway, Project Artemis missions on the surface of the Moon, and eventually on Mars. With Axiom involved, undoubtedly they will likely use, or even test, the technology at the Axiom Orbital Station as well. Both companies will gain access to NASA's EVA Technical Library, permitting them to build on past technologies and experience. The contracts would be valued at up to $3.5 billion in total.
NASA to buy 5 more astronaut missions from SpaceX https://t.co/dyTkF1Ngnb pic.twitter.com/DKYNhUDCaz— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) June 2, 2022 Even with the seeming success of Starliner Orbital Flight Test 2, NASA is stockpiling flights on Crew Dragon. Yesterday, NASA announced they were purchasing five additional Crew Dragon flights to the International Space Station. This goes with three flights they purchased in February to make up for Boeing's increasing delays. If Starliner succeeds with joining the rotation as originally intended, with a first operational mission in spring 2023, then this will give NASA flights to the ISS into 2030, when NASA currently hopes to retire the ISS. Of course, the extra flights also give the agency redundancy on their transportation needs.
Artemis 1 is being rolled out to Pad 39B again after fixes to the upper stage and to leaks in the mobile launch platform's plumbing. At least we know the Crawler still works. The current target for the next Wet Dress Rehearsal attempt is June 19. ******** The Nilesat 301 launch has slid a day. It's now set for Wednesday afternoon at 5:04pm EDT. The 45th Weather Squadron is giving it an 80% chance of launch favorability. Cargo Dragon CRS-25 has also slid a day. It's set for Friday morning at 10:22am EDT.