Audit Report: Will the Artemis Astronauts Have Spacesuits?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA OIG

A new audit report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) expressed some concerns about whether the contractor, Axiom Space, will have spacesuits ready in time for the planned lunar landing.

The audit report, NASA’s Acquisition of Next-Generation Spacesuit Services, states:

NASA faces challenges in ensuring next-generation spacesuits are available to meet the Agency’s current schedules for the Artemis lunar landing mission in 2028 and prior to the ISS’s decommissioning in 2030. NASA’s original schedules to demonstrate the lunar and microgravity spacesuits in 2025 and 2026, respectively, were overly optimistic and ultimately proved unachievable, as evidenced by delays of at least a year and a half for both spacesuits. Based on our analysis, if Axiom experiences design and testing delays in line with the historical average for recent space programs, the Artemis and ISS demonstrations may not occur until 2031.

That is a damning conclusion at a time NASA is struggling with other Artemis timetables. All of the pieces need to come together soon, including the necessary equipment for the lunar surface. It also does not help that NASA is completely reliant on one contractor for these spacesuits. Even the lunar lander has two competing contractors.

NASA Administrator Isaacman has one more item now keeping him awake at night.

De-orbit is a Polite Word for the End of Bluebird 7

Posted on by onespaceman2000
image (Credit): The Bluebird satellites being launch in the news few years. (AST)

Sunday’s failed satellite launch by Blue Origin will have a number of repercussions.

  • Rocket Company Issues: Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will be grounded while the Federal Aviation Administration investigates the matter.
  • Satellite Company Issues: AST, the owner of the Bluebird 7 satellite placed in the wrong orbit, will now need to “de-orbit” its satellite. This means the satellite will be burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere. It also means that the roll out of AST SpaceMobile will be delayed, which has impacted the company’s stock.
  • Artemis Issues: The timeline for Artemis III, where NASA tests the lunar landers, may need to be delayed, at least for Blue Origin. Of course, SpaceX is having its own problems getting its Starship ready.
  • Astronomy Issues: The Bluebird satellites have been controversial because of their large size. This will only add to the growing light pollution from orbiting satellites that impact ground-based astronomers. So, in this case, with the loss of Bluebird 7 the astronomers get a reprieve for now.

So, three negative outcomes and one position outcome. A turnaround on all of these issues will take time, including the design of the satellite itself. While it appears each generation of the Bluebird satellite is getting larger, this could be a fixable problem given that AST stated it is willing to work with the National Science Foundation to limit the damage to the night sky.

Plenty of issues arising out of one launch.

Stay tuned.

Space Stories: Blue Origin Brings Satellite to Wrong Orbit, Space Force Preparing for Moon Base, and Japan Refocuses After Deletion of Lunar Gateway

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NG-3 mission patch. (Blue Origin)

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—Associated Press: “Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket is Grounded After Launching Satellite into the Wrong Orbit“

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, blamed a bad engine Monday for a failed weekend launch that left a satellite in the wrong orbit, dooming it. Launches of the huge New Glenn rocket are grounded until Blue Origin and the Federal Aviation Administration complete their investigation.The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday. The recycled first-stage booster performed well, landing on an ocean barge several minutes into the flight. But the upper stage was unable to put the satellite into a high enough orbit to begin operations.

—Breaking Defense: “With Eyes on Future NASA Moon Base, Space Force Launches Cislunar Acquisition Task Force“

The Space Force is launching a new acquisition task force to study how the Defense Department should move into cislunar space as it looks to support a planned NASA moon base, according to Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, senior advisor to Air Force Secretary Troy Mink for space acquisition. “We’re going to stand up a Cislunar Coordination Office on the Space Force acquisition side,” he told the annual Space Symposium here on April 15, who said the new office will bring together program managers and engineers to “build road maps” for “acquiring the necessary technology and a schedule for action.”

—South China Morning Post: “Japan to Focus on Lunar Rover After US Halts Moon Space Station“

A US move to freeze the Lunar Gateway orbiting space station could render Japan’s new technologies redundant – but its space agency is expected to be diplomatic in its response. The Lunar Gateway project was initially planned as an installation that would orbit the moon as part of the United States’ Artemis programme, which recently made headlines for a record-breaking journey that went deeper into space than anyone had ever flown before…On March 24, however, Nasa announced it was freezing the project to focus on the construction of a base on the lunar surface, with future crewed missions to Mars in mind…The agency is now expected to focus all its attention on the third element of its collaboration with Nasa, the pressurised lunar rover that is being developed with Toyota to allow astronauts to drive on the moon.

A Day in Astronomy: Apollo 13 Sets a Distance Record

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Image (Credit): Apollo 13 mission patch. (NASA)

On this day in 1970, the Apollo capsule traveled to the farthest point from Earth of any Apollo mission. It was an unbroken record until last week, with the Artemis II mission exceeded this distance by 4,105 miles.

Of course, that was a great achievement in an otherwise troubled Apollo mission. The Apollo 13 crew, consisting of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot John L. “Jack” Swigert and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, would never make it to the surface of the Moon. That is a story worth reading (as well as a movie worth watching).