Image (Credit): The Challenger Shuttle crew from left to right – Teacher-in-Space payload specialist Sharon Christa McAuliffe; payload specialist Gregory Jarvis; and astronauts Judith A. Resnik, mission specialist; Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, mission commander; Ronald E. McNair, mission specialist; Mike J. Smith, pilot; and Ellison S. Onizuka, mission specialist. (NASA)
This week’s image shows the seven members of the Challenger Shuttle crew who perished less than two minutes into their flight on January 18, 1986. NASA determined that a leak in one of two Solid Rocket Boosters ignited the main liquid fuel tank.
I’ve always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don’t hide our space program. We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute. We’ll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue. I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: “Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it.’‘
You can learn more about each of the crew members at this NASA site.
A long-standing idea in planetary science is that water-rich meteorites arriving late in Earth’s history could have delivered a major share of Earth’s water. A new study by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and University of New Mexico argues that the Moon’s surface record sets a hard limit on that possibility: even under generous assumptions, late meteorite delivery since about 4 billion years ago could only have supplied a small fraction of Earth’s water...In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by Dr. Tony Gargano at USRA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute and the University of New Mexico analyzed a large suite of Apollo lunar regolith samples using high-precision triple oxygen isotopes. Earth has erased most of its early bombardment record through tectonics, and constant crustal recycling. The Moon, by contrast, preserves a continuously accessible archive: lunar regolith, the loose layer of debris produced and reworked by impacts over billions of years
The four astronauts who will soon become the first humans in more than half a century to fly on a lunar mission have begun the quarantine process – a crucial sign that NASA believes a launch could be imminent. Sequestering themselves away from others for the next several days ensures that the three Americans and one Canadian selected for a mission known as Artemis 2 are at low risk of becoming sick and jeopardizing the mission. The crew members have entered quarantine in Texas as NASA makes final preparations in Florida to ready the towering rocket that will get the mission off the ground as early as February.
The Long March 3B departed Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 11:55 Eastern (1655 UTC) on January 16. Amateur footage confirmed the rocket left the pad on schedule. Then came silence. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) waited nearly 12 hours before acknowledging what observers already suspected. “The specific cause is under further analysis and investigation,” state media Xinhua reported…Less than 12 hours after the Long March 3B failure, Galactic Energy attempted something the company had been working toward for months: the first flight of its Ceres-2 rocket. After repeatedly postponed launch windows, the solid-fueled rocket finally lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:08 p.m. Eastern on January 16 (0408 UTC, January 17). It didn’t work. Galactic Energy confirmed an anomaly had occurred and that investigation was underway.
Credit: Taken from a 2024 NASA Office of the Inspector General report – NASA’s Readiness for the Artemis II Crewed Mission to Lunar Orbit (IG-24-011)
“What they’re talking about doing is crazy…We could have solved this problem way back when…Instead, they keep kicking the can down the road.”
-Statement by former astronaut Charlie Camarda, who does not believe the upcoming Artemis II mission is safe for the astronauts given his concerns about the Orion’s heat shield, as quoted by CNN. The news story cites others who state that the Orion heat shield issue has been resolved and the mission is ready to go. The Artemis II mission is set to launch as early as February 6th.
Image (Credit): The visual message on the Pioneer 10 and 11 plaques. (NASA Ames)
On this day in 2003, NASA heard its last message from Pioneer 10, the Jupiter space probe. Launched in 1972, it was the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter on its way to the outer planets. It is also one of only five spacecraft to leave our solar system.
If all goes well, in about 2 million years the Pioneer 10 spacecraft will encounter the star Aldebaran. Maybe some civilization in that solar system will be arguing about this object floating through the neighborhood the way we have argued about the origins of the interstellar object we call 3I/ATLAS.
Image (Credit): Mission patch for Pioneer 10 and 11. (NASA)
Image (Credit): NASA’s SLS and Orion spacecraft moving from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. (NASA)
This week’s image shows NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft making its way from the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B via the crawler-transporter. All of this is in preparation for the Artemis II mission, which will take four astronauts around the Moon. The flight could launch as early as February 6th.
NASA has reported that the Artemis II mission will include various items to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, including:
a 1-inch by-1-inch swatch of muslin fabric from the original Wright Flyer the Wright Brothers used to make the first powered flight in 1903;
a 13-by-8-inch American flag, which flew with the first shuttle mission, STS-1, the final shuttle mission, STS-135, and NASA’s first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX Demo-2;
a flag that was set to fly on NASA’s Apollo 18 mission is included in the flight kit and will make its premiere flight with Orion;
a 4-by-5-inch negative of a photo from the Ranger 7 mission, the first U.S. mission to successfully make contact with the lunar surface;
soil samples collected from the base of established Artemis I Moon Trees planted at NASA’s 10 centers;
an SD card including the millions of names of those who participated in the “Send Your Name to Space” campaign, bringing the public along on this journey; and
Our Awesome Universe 