Deep Space Network Threatened by Fires

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Location of the DSN facilities as the Earth rotates (in this image, it is daytime in Asia and Australia). (NASA)

The Deep Space Network (DSN) is critical to NASA’s communications with space missions throughout the solar system, and even those that have left the solar system. It will also be critical to the upcoming Artemis mission to the Moon.

The radio telescopes that make up this system are located in three spots to ensure communications cannot disappear because of the Earth’s rotation – Madrid, Spain; Barstow, California; and Canberra, Australia. The image above shows you the spread of those locations.

One of the California DSN radio telescopes was damaged last year due to human error and is undergoing repairs until approximately 2028. Even so, the US facility is still able to perform its duties. And now the DSN facility in Spain is being threatened by wildfires. As a result, the facility has been evacuated for now.

As with the ongoing fires on this side of the Atlantic, as well as past fires threatening NASA sites, the world is a dangerous place and putting hardware anywhere has its risks. To stay in the game, we rely on the redundancy of these hardware sites, the resilience of space programs, and realistic budgeting to rebuild after such losses.

NASA has shown its ability to bounce back in the past, so whatever happens in Spain should not be a long-term blow to present and future space missions. Even so, we do not need to continually test the system with climate change, the weakening of the NASA program through continual cuts, and more budget threats on the horizon.

As C.S. Lewis said, “the doors of hell are locked on the inside.”

Note: Although C.S. Lewis is remembered primarily as a religious writer, he was also a science fiction writer with stories of space travel. Hence, I think I can creatively use his quote here.

Pic of the Week: Psyche Spacecraft Approaching Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): This composite of images shows how Mars appeared as a thin crescent as the Psyche spacecraft approached the planet. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

This week’s image is from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which was doing a flyby of Mars last month for a gravity assist on it way to asteroid Psyche in 2029. What you are seeing is a composite photo of the crescent of the planet as the Psyche spacecraft approached it. NASA shared the photo on July 17, 2026.

You can see much more related to this flyby at this NASA link.

Space Quote: A Spacecraft is Going to Mars, But Will It Have Any Cargo?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

“Early cost estimates are approximately $2.1 billion, and NASA will continue refining that figure through the acquisition process.”

-NASA statement quoted by Politico regarding the estimated cost to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars. These costs would only cover the recently disclosed Space Reactor-1 Freedom spacecraft, but not the payload of three helicopters called SkyFall. This comes at a time when NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is meeting with Congress and stating the agency does not need any additional funds at this time. Congress has been good at restoring funds the White House has tried to cut, so maybe Mr. Isaacman feels lucky he has what he has and does not want to seem ungrateful. It appears Congress is making a trip to Mars possible and not the White House, no matter what the president might say on stage about the importance of America’s space program.

A Day in Astronomy: The End of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The first two space shuttle passengers – astronauts John W. Young, left, commander, and Robert L. Crippen, pilot, who flew on the space shuttle orbiter 102 Columbia for the first orbital flight test. (NASA)

On this day in 2011, NASA ended the space shuttle program after 30 years. The space shuttles took 852 passengers on 135 missions. The passengers included astronauts from the U.S. and 60 different countries.

The first space shuttle flight was on April 12, 1981 when Columbia launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was only a two day mission to test whether the shuttle system would work, but it set the stage for the 134 flights that followed.

Commenting later on NASA’s Artemis program, Mr. Crippen stated:

We do need to get out of Earth orbit. We need to go back to the Moon. It is the right thing to do. We need to learn to live and work off this planet. There are still some great things we can do on the Moon. And then, eventually fly on to Mars.

Go to this link for more about this first space shuttle mission.

Image (Credit): Mission patch for first space shuttle flight. (NASA)

Space Stories: Marooned Moon Astronauts, NASA’s Cancelled Contract, and New Horizon Ends Hibernation

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Commander Gene Cernan during the Apollo 17 lunar landing mission in December 1972. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Forbes: “Astronauts Marooned On Moon Could Be Abandoned Under Current NASA Plan“

NASA’s working masterplan for the upcoming lunar landings has a fundamental flaw that could prove fatal to the first American astronauts set to touch down on the Moon in 2028, say experts at the NASA Office of Inspector General, an independent watchdog empowered by Congress to oversee the space agency. During the race to explore the south pole of the Moon, these inspectors say, “While NASA is taking steps to prevent catastrophic events from occurring during the Artemis [Moon] missions, at some point in the future, astronauts will likely encounter a life-threatening emergency in space.” But under NASA’s landing blueprints, they warn, “should the astronauts encounter a life-threatening emergency in space or on the lunar surface, NASA does not have the capability to rescue the stranded crew.”

—Fox35 Orlando: “NASA Cancels $73 Million Moon Lander Mission with Contractor Draper‘”

NASA has canceled a $73 million commercial lunar lander mission after years of delays and cost overruns, ending the project before the spacecraft ever launched. The agency and contractor Draper mutually agreed to terminate the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Task Order CP-12, a mission that began in 2022 and was intended to deliver scientific payloads to a crater near the moon’s south pole…NASA has already paid about $43 million under the contract and said those funds cannot be recovered because they were legally obligated under the agreement.

—CNN: “Pluto Flyby Mission Wakes Up After Long Sleep Nearly 6 billion Miles from Earth“

A groundbreaking mission that explored Pluto and distant solar system objects in unprecedented detail has awakened from its longest sleep ever — and it’s 5.9 billion miles (9.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer. The mission’s flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, confirmed that New Horizons is in great shape and ready to transmit a stream of science data gathered during hibernation from its location in the region of icy objects known as the Kuiper Belt.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.