Space News thread

[Edmond]

Nick all this technology off everyone

The US just nicked the rocket scientists, much better than only nicking their technology.

[harrybarracuda]

The US just nicked the rocket scientists, much better than only nicking their technology.

Nicked them? I think they went quite willingly rather than get hung.

[harrybarracuda]

How many of these Flat Earth, QAnon nutcases will think this is all a big cover up?

NASA accidentally broadcasts simulation of astronaut in distress | Science & Tech News | Sky News

[OhOh]

Boeing Starliner Stuck on Space Station as More Leaks Discovered

Victor Tangermann

Wed, June 12, 2024 at 9:15 PM GMT+7

"Boeing Leaks

After years of delays and technical problems, Boeing's Starliner finally made it to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board last week.

But when exactly it'll be able to undock and deliver its crew of two back to the surface remains to be seen.

Teams have discovered an astonishing five different helium leaks so far, each representing yet another thorn in the spacecraft's already cursed development. The gas is "used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire" while navigating through space, according to Boeing.

NASA is giving Boeing another four days, extending Wilmore and Williams' mission onboard the ISS from June 14 to no earlier than June 18, though it's unclear whether the leaks are to blame for the delay. Boeing is still "assessing what impacts, if any, five small leaks in the service module helium manifolds would have on the remainder of the mission," according to an update.

Boeing has been through hell and back in its attempts to get its first crewed test flight off the ground, including countless delays, scrubs, technical screwups, and an unsuccessful uncrewed test flight back in 2019.

Where that leaves Starliner's future viability for providing NASA with a reliable way to get astronauts to the space station remains to be seen. While it has managed to dock with the ISS, its mission isn't over until Wilmore and Williams are safely back on the ground.

Hole Story

Last month, officials discovered the first helium leak, which was later underplayed by officials and determined not to be severe enough to delay its journey to the ISS.

On its way up, the capsule sprang even more helium leaks. Even docking procedures didn't initially go as planned, with Boeing calling off its first attempt due to reaction-control thrusters malfunctioning.

There's a lot we still don't know about Starliner's current status. Fortunately, engineers have determined that the capsule will have plenty of helium for its return mission, roughly ten times as much as it needs to maneuver through the near vacuum of space.

"While Starliner is docked, all the manifolds are closed per normal mission operations preventing helium loss from the tanks," Boeing explained in its update.

Meanwhile, NASA is making the most out of the situation.

"The additional time in orbit will allow the crew to perform a spacewalk on Thursday, June 13, while engineers complete Starliner systems checkouts," ISS officials tweeted, referring to two different space station crew members."

Boeing Starliner Stuck on Space Station as More Leaks Discovered

[Takeovers]

I want to add an information on the Starliner flight. The service module, which is the propulsion module, is known to be defective. It has not been upgraded after the catastrophic failure of the first test flight. A new service module has been developed but will only be used on the next flight. Which means, assuming NASA certifies Starliner after this flight, the first regular crew flight with 4 astronauts will fly with a new, untested service module. Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it?

[Takeovers]

How many of these Flat Earth, QAnon nutcases will think this is all a big cover up?

NASA accidentally broadcasts simulation of astronaut in distress | Science & Tech News | Sky News

BTW, the EVA activity planned for today has been cancelled. Something like the astronaut felt "discomfort" with the spacesuit. No details so far. Things are getting weird on the ISS.

[DrWilly]

An incredible image taken on 7 June 2024 of the ISS, featuring Boeing’s Starliner among six vehicles docked to the orbiting outpost. Credit: MAXAR Technologies.

[OhOh]

Putin signs into law joint building of lunar base with China as Beijing expands circle of friends in Moon exploration

By Fan Anqi

Published: Jun 13, 2024 09:01 PM

"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday officially signed into law his country's cooperation with China on the construction of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project, as Beijing proactively advocates global participation in the joint exploration of the vast universe, with the latest effort being the inclusion of Egypt and Bahrain in China's next Chang'e mission.
The relevant document was published on a Russian official legal information portal on Wednesday, Sputnik reported. Earlier in March, the Russian government submitted to the parliament's lower house a bill to ratify the agreement with China.

Some 12 more countries and international organizations have signed on to the ambitious initiative, Sergey Savelyev, deputy general director for International Cooperation at Russian state space agency Roscosmos, said in May, according to media reports.

This will bring the total number of ILRS partners to more than 30 countries and organizations. The ILRS is already reported to have attracted over 20 signatories from various countries and organizations.

Chinese researchers said that basalt will be considered as a material to build the lunar base, the same material that was used to "knit" the Chinese national flag that was proudly unfurled on the far side of the moon on June 4.

Using local materials on the moon to build the base will save a large amount of costs compared to sourcing materials from the Earth, and the lunar surface is rich in basalt, which can be cut into sheet or tube forms for construction purposes, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

After China carried out a perfect landing of the Chang'e-6 probe on the far side of the moon and brought precious lunar soils back to the Earth, the country's national space administration announced on Tuesday that a payload co-developed by Egypt and Bahrain will board China's next lunar mission - the Chang'e-7, which is scheduled to launch around 2026 to survey the lunar south pole environment, China Central Television reported Tuesday.

The payload is a lunar surface material hyperspectral imaging instrument, the report said.

The international payloads that the Chang'e-7 mission is scheduled to bring include six from seven countries and organizations, namely Egypt, Bahrain, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand, and the US-based International Lunar Observatory Association.

With China's repeated success in deep space exploration, the prospects for its international cooperation will further expand, Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times.

"For one thing, China has, through a series of successful space missions, demonstrated an exceptionally high capability and reliability. This serves as a prerequisite for a good partnership, where richer samples and more ideal scientific results can be better achieved," Wang noted.

Furthermore, China has always maintained an open and inclusive attitude toward international cooperation, which is rare in today's complex global landscape, experts said. While the US is busy chanting the "China threat" rhetoric in a so-called space race, China has been walking steadily step by step and produced rich, concrete results, they noted.

Commenting on China and Russia jointly building the ILRS, Wang said it will have a "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" effect.

Russia's advantage lies in its expertise in astrophysics and chemistry from its past experience with lunar exploration missions during the Soviet era. China can bridge Russia's gap in resources and talents with its abundant economic and engineering advantages.

China's rapid growth in aerospace technology has led to the development of reliable engineering resources, including a space station, various kinds of spacecraft and carrier rockets. With well-planned investments and a growing pool of young talent, China and Russia can complement each other well in the field, Wang said. "

Putin signs into law joint building of lunar base with China as Beijing expands circle of friends in Moon exploration - Global Times

[DrWilly]

You’ve got a China thread and a Russian thread, keep your global times c n p for them!

[OhOh]

^

A space topic, in the Space news thread.

[Edmond]

A space topic, in the Space news thread.

Yeah, it's surprising he's still allowed to post in here, to be honest.

[DrWilly]

^

A space topic, in the Space news thread.

Space news. Not propaganda.

[helge]

Space news. Not propaganda.

[harrybarracuda]

Putin signs into law joint building of lunar base with China as Beijing expands circle of friends in Moon exploration

That's fucking hilarious considering he's run Russia's space programme into the ground.

Is he going to dip into the money he's stolen to pay for it?

[S Landreth]

For now, it is unclear exactly when flight commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams will make their return from space.

[helge]

There is "technical complications"

It's a Boeing

[S Landreth]

From NASA

NASA, Boeing Adjust Timeline for Starliner Return

https://twitter.com/Commercial_Crew/...05775361135045

[OhOh]

China's Chang'e-6 safely returns to Earth with first-ever lunar far side samples

Historic feat proves technology maturity, enhance potentials for intl cooperation

By Deng Xiaoci and Fan Anqi

Published: Jun 25, 2024 02:09 PM

"Chang'e-6 - China's latest leap of moon exploration - has claimed full success, as the returning capsule of the craft, carrying the first batch of lunar samples collected from the far side of the moon in human history, safely touched down in designated landing site in the Siziwang Banner, in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Tuesday afternoon at 2:07 pm.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday extended congratulations on the complete success of the Chang'e-6 mission that brought back the world's first samples collected from the moon's far side. It marks "another landmark achievement in China's endeavor to become a space and sci-tech power," Xi noted.

In the congratulatory letter, Xi also stressed the hope to strengthen international exchange and cooperation in carrying out major aerospace engineering projects including deep-space explorations.

According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), as planned, after the necessary ground processing work is completed, the recovered Chang'e-6 returner will be airlifted to Beijing, where the sample containers and payload will be extracted. The CNSA will hold a handover ceremony at an appropriate time to officially transfer the lunar samples to the ground application system. Subsequently, the samples will undergo storage, analysis and related research work.

After successfully completing the Chang'e-6 mission, the Queqiao-2 relay satellite will carry out scientific exploration missions at an appropriate time. It will use its onboard instruments, including an extreme ultraviolet camera, an arrayed neutral atom imager, and an Earth-Moon Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) experiment system, to collect scientific data from the moon and deep space, the CNSA said in a statement sent to the Global Times.

Stargazers from all over the world have paid close attention to the 53 day-long round trip of Chang'e-6, and applauded Tuesday for the unprecedented feat of it retrieving precious lunar samples from the far side of the moon, while suggesting that these samples would not only help enhance the humanity's understanding of the Earth's natural satellite but also create new opportunities for international cooperation in space studies, including those with the US.

"I do think a successful conclusion to this very complex mission [Chang'e-6] will show that Chang'e-5 was not just a fluke, and that Chinese space engineers really have mastered the challenges of carrying out these very difficult missions far from Earth, it's a real step forward in the maturity of the Chinese space effort," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the US, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"The successful execution of the Chang'e-6 mission has achieved breakthroughs in key technologies such as retrograde lunar orbit design and control, rapid intelligent sampling on the lunar far side, and ascent from the lunar far side. These technological advancements lay a foundation for future deep space exploration missions," Kang Guohua, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The mission not only sets a new record for China's lunar exploration program but also has a profound impact on the global aerospace field. Through the Chang'e-6 mission, China has demonstrated its leadership and influence in space exploration, Kang said noting that lunar soil from the far side of the moon holds immense value for scientific research and deep space exploration due to its uniqueness.

Since no human probe has directly landed on and sampled from the far side, the soil from this area offers a distinct perspective. The South Pole-Aitken Basin is the oldest and deepest large impact basin on the moon, and samples from here can help scientists study the moon's origin and evolution more deeply, potentially providing critical clues about the formation and evolution of the solar system, he said.

Potential of intl collaboration in space

This year marks the 20th anniversary of China's lunar exploration program. China stands ready to continue working with like-minded international partners to explore humanity's common domain of the outer space, realize the shared dream of people around the world to discover more about the moon, and strive to advance the world's common endeavor of peacefully using the outer space, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said on Tuesday, commenting on Chang'e-6's success.

The Chang'e-6 mission hosted four international payloads to the moon, including the European Space Agency (ESA)'s lunar surface ion composition analyzer, France's radon detection instrument, Italy's laser corner reflector, and a CubeSat from Pakistan, the CNSA revealed to the Global Times.

Pakistan's CubeSat, the country's inaugural lunar satellite, has sent back the first images it captured on May 10. It also achieved its goal of "successful separation and obtaining telemetry," marking the smooth completion of Pakistan's first-ever lunar project.

ESA's lunar surface ion composition analyzer, jointly developed with the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully completed seven scientific detections after it started up on June 2, with the total detection time exceeding 3 hours, thus achieving the scheduled goal of detecting the lunar surface for at least 1 hour. This payload conducted negative ion detection on the lunar surface for the first time internationally, and the joint team is currently conducting scientific data analysis.

For the French payload, Philippe Baptiste, chairman of the French National Center for Space Studies, said it would still take some time to get all the data, but they are looking forward to it, as "the last time France was on the moon with an active instrument, it was in 1970," Baptiste was quoted as saying in a CGTN report.

The Chang'e-6 mission and its collection of precious samples from the far side of the moon will create more opportunities for cooperation between China and Western countries in space, according to space observers. And it is highly likely that NASA would again greenlight its researchers to access to these precious samples retrieved by the Chang'e-6 mission, however, the difficulties still lie in the US' domestic legal barriers, they said.

McDowell said he would be happy to see sharing of data between China and the US. The US space observer pointed out however that "the political winds here in the US are still strongly against allowing any large-scale cooperation."

In a November 29 statement, NASA said it has certified its intent to the US Congress to "allow NASA-funded researchers to apply to the China National Space Administration for access to lunar samples returned to Earth on the Chang'e 5 mission." However, NASA made it clear that this allowance applies specifically to Chang'e 5 mission samples and "the normal prohibition on bilateral activity with (the) PRC (People's Republic of China) on NASA-funded projects remains in place."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told the Global Times on June 7 at a regular press conference that China is always open toward space exchanges and cooperation with the US. There are, however, difficulties in China-US space cooperation at the moment, which are caused by US domestic legislation such as the Wolf Amendment that prevents normal exchanges and dialogue between Chinese and US space agencies, Mao said.

In a rarely seen friendly move, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson reportedly sent congratulations to China over the Chinese spacecraft's landing on the lunar surface earlier this month, saying he was impressed with its fourth successful moon landing, the Washington Post reported on US local time Monday.

"I've been fairly pointed in my comments that we're in a space race with the Chinese, and that they are very good," he said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. "Especially in the last 10 years, they've had a lot of success. They usually say what they mean, and they execute on what they say."

However, the China space hawk continued its narrative of creating a new space race with China, by claiming that despite China's many achievements in space - which include an occupied space station in low Earth orbit and landing a rover on Mars in 2021 - the US remains on track to return astronauts to the lunar surface ahead of its chief rival, according to the report.

In a key step toward that goal, NASA intends to fly four astronauts around the moon late next year, and then land people on the surface in late 2026 for the first time since the last of the Apollo missions, in 1972.

Despite competition between the US and China, the two countries will have to find a way to coexist on and around the moon, Nelson was quoted as saying."

China's Chang'e-6 safely returns to Earth with first-ever lunar far side samples - Global Times

[helge]

Where's Harry ?