Plus: New Glenn sends ESCAPADE on its way to Mars.
Welcome to our roundup of top SpaceNews stories, delivered every Friday! This week, the Schenzhou-20 crew returned to Earth, Blue Origin's New Glenn launched the ESCAPADE mission, Project Kuiper rebranded as Amazon Leo and more.
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OUR TOP STORY
| By Andrew Jones
Three Chinese astronauts have safely returned to Earth in the recently-launched Shenzhou-21 spacecraft after their own spacecraft was declared unsafe. The Shenzhou-20 crew returned to Earth in the spacecraft which launched the Shenzhou-21 astronauts Oct. 31.
Shenzhou-20 astronauts — commander Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie — were extracted from the return module around 30 minutes later by recovery crews. The astronauts thanked the country and its space professionals when interviewed immediately by on-site state media reporters.
The three crew members were initially scheduled to return to Earth Nov. 5, but their departure from the Tiangong space station was postponed due to their Shenzhou-20 spacecraft suffering a suspected small space debris impact.
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CIVIL
| In a strongly worded letter to Acting Administrator Sean Duffy on Nov. 10, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Science Committee, said efforts to close offices and labs at the Maryland center have accelerated since the start of the government shutdown and are putting missions at risk.
MethaneSAT, a mission led by the Environmental Defense Fund with participation from the New Zealand Space Agency, stopped communicating in orbit in June, 15 months after its launch. The project formally declared the mission over July 1. An investigation into the failure said the spacecraft malfunctioned likely because of a "solitary event" in either its avionics unit or electrical power subsystem.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed Nov. 10 that the 70-meter antenna at the Deep Space Network (DSN) site in Goldstone, California, has been offline since Sept. 16, with no timetable for its return to service.
| LAUNCH
| | Blue Origin successfully launched a NASA Mars mission on the second flight of its New Glenn booster Nov. 13, landing the vehicle's first stage in the process. The primary payload for NG-2 was NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, a pair of small satellites that will go to Mars to study space weather conditions there.
Rocket Lab has delayed the first launch of its reusable Neutron rocket to 2026, saying it wants to maximize the chances that the flight will be a success. Rocket Lab had been working toward a first launch before the end of this year.
Firefly Aerospace says contamination in a fluid line caused the loss of an Alpha first stage being tested for an upcoming launch, pushing back that mission to no earlier than the end of this year. The first stage was on a test stand at the company's Briggs, Texas, facility on Sept. 29 when it exploded. | | |
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COMMERCIAL
| Project Kuiper has shed its seven-year-old code name, emerging as Amazon Leo Nov. 13 as the company nears the start of initial broadband services from the low Earth orbit constellation next year.
Two European companies, Atmos Space Cargo and Space Cargo Unlimited, announced Nov. 12 that they will cooperate on a mission launching next year to demonstrate microgravity research and manufacturing capabilities.
Virgin Galactic says it remains on schedule to complete development of its next-generation suborbital spaceplane and begin commercial flights before the end of 2026. The company said it expects to begin test flights of its first Delta-class spaceplane in the third quarter of 2026, with commercial research flights beginning in the fourth quarter. |
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