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Blue Origin launched its first crewed New Shepard mission in nearly two years Sunday, but the flight was not without incident. The suborbital vehicle lifted off from the company's West Texas site at 10:35 a.m. Eastern, landing back at the site nearly 10 minutes later after reaching a peak altitude of 106 kilometers. During the capsule's descent, one of three parachutes failed to open fully, but the company noted the spacecraft is able to land safely with two parachutes. The NS-25 mission was the first New Shepard flight to carry people since August 2022 as the company recovered from a mishap on a payload-only flight in September 2022. The flight carried six people, including Ed Dwight, selected in 1961 as the first Black astronaut candidate but who did not get a chance to fly to space until now. [SpaceNews]
The first crewed flight of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner has slipped again. NASA announced late Friday that the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, which had been scheduled to launch this Tuesday, has been delayed to no earlier than Saturday. The delay will give NASA and Boeing more time to review data and procedures regarding a helium leak in a thruster in the spacecraft's service module. That leak prompted an earlier delay in the mission. The CFT mission will send two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station for more than a week in a final test of the spacecraft before NASA certifies it for crew rotation missions. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force is preparing to roll out a program to more tightly integrate commercial capabilities into military units. Col. Richard Kniseley, senior materiel leader of the Space Systems Command's Commercial Space Office, said Friday that the first contracts for the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) could be awarded later this year. Under CASR, private sector equipment will be embedded into military units, used in both training exercises and actual operations. Participating companies would receive funding as well as access to threat intelligence, a valuable asset in a rapidly evolving space landscape. [SpaceNews]
An Indian insurer is entering a space insurance market roiled by a series of large claims. Tata AIG said last week it has started providing satellite in-orbit third-party liability insurance covering bodily injury and property damage, building on the 22-year-old company's expertise in the aviation market. Tata AIG plans to later provide first-party property damage coverage for satellite and launch vehicles during pre-launch, launch and in-orbit operations. The entry of the insurer comes as the field is facing about $2 billion in claims in the last 12 months from the first ViaSat-3 and the first four O3b mPower satellites, among others. Insurance rates jumped as much as 100% for some space risks in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022, according to one underwriter. [SpaceNews]
A startup has developed an energy-efficient computer chip architecture that could enable new spacecraft capabilities. Efficient Computer, a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon University, says its chip architecture is far more energy efficient than traditional designs. While initial chip releases won't be space-qualified, the company plans to put them in space over the next couple of years, enabling applications like onboard processing of Earth observation data and artificial intelligence. [SpaceNews]
The first of a pair of NASA Earth science cubesats is scheduled to launch this week. A Rocket Lab Electron is slated to launch the first Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment, or PREFIRE, as soon as Wednesday, followed by an identical cubesat on another Electron within three weeks. The twin PREFIRE cubesats will measure thermal emissions in the Earth's polar regions to improve climate models. The unusual approach of devoting a launch to a single cubesat is needed to place the cubesats into specific orbits to monitor polar regions. [SpaceNews]
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China launched four high-resolution Earth observation satellites late Sunday. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:06 p.m. Eastern and placed the four satellites into their planned sun-synchronous orbits. The four Beijing-3C satellites, built by the China Academy of Space Technology, are part of a Chinese commercial Earth observation constellation operated by Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Co. Ltd. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX set another reuse record on its latest Starlink launch. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 8:32 p.m. Eastern and placed 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the 21st for this Falcon 9 booster, the first booster to complete 21 flights. [Space.com]
Elon Musk traveled to Indonesia to formally inaugurate Starlink service in the country. Musk met with Indonesian ministers in Bali Sunday to mark the beginning of Starlink internet services in the country, a few weeks after Indonesian government officials said they would soon grant a license for Starlink. Musk also signed an agreement to use Starlink to enhance connectivity for health and education in Indonesia, but neither the company nor the government disclosed details about that agreement. [AP]
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is putting a case against SpaceX on hold while it addresses a lawsuit about the constitutionality of such proceedings. The NLRB told a federal judge last week it was suspending a case regarding what it considered illegal firings of company engineer. Doing so, the agency said, was intended to expedite a lawsuit filed by SpaceX challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB's enforcement procedures. [Reuters]
The head of NASA's planetary science division is moving temporarily to the agency's exploration directorate. NASA said Friday that Lori Glaze will take a six-month detail as acting deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. Glaze has been head of the planetary sciences division for six years. She will be replaced temporarily by Gina DiBraccio, deputy director of the heliophysics science division at the Goddard Space Flight Center. [NASA]
| | The Week Ahead
Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: - Mahia Peninsula, N.Z.: Scheduled launch of an Electron rocket carrying the first of two PREFIRE Earth science satellites at 3:15 a.m. Eastern.
- Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Rescheduled launch of a Falcon 9 on the NROL-146 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.
- Washington: The House Armed Services Committee marks up its version of the National Defense Authorization Act starting at 10 a.m. Eastern.
- Los Angeles: The Space Tourism Conference will examine various aspects of space tourism.
- Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 10:33 p.m. Eastern.
Wednesday-Thursday: - Brussels: A European Space Summit includes joint meetings of ESA and European Union bodies to discuss space issues.
Wednesday-Sunday: Thursday: Saturday: - Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Rescheduled launch of an Atlas 5 carrying the Boeing CST-100 Starliner on the Crew Flight Test mission at 3:09 p.m. Eastern.
Monday-Friday, May 31: | | | |
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