Space Stories: Starliner Beats SpaceX on Costs, NASA Administrator Ignores Regulators, and Blue Origin Rebuilding Beyond Impressive

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Here are some recent NASA-related stories of interest.

—Florida Sentinel: “Boeing Starliner Costly But Cheaper for NASA Than SpaceX Switch, Audit Says“

Boeing’ Starliner costs and delays remain the target of the latest audit from NASA’s Office of the Inspector General, but remains a cheaper option for the agency than relying solely on SpaceX for its commercial crew needs. The audit releasedJune 30 dinged the beleaguered spacecraft’s tumultuous and still uncertain path toward certification and wars that the timetable for its use to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station is running short.

—Newser: “NASA Chief Defies FAA With ‘High-Risk’ Flight“

NASA chief Jared Isaacman took to the skies over Washington in a vintage fighter jet on July 4, even after federal regulators flagged the plan as too risky. The Federal Aviation Administration rejected a request on June 30 to let four 1970s-era Northrop F-5 Tiger II jets participate in the National Mall flyover for America’s 250th birthday, calling the aircraft “very high-risk” and citing concerns about flight controls, ejection scenarios, and past crashes, the Wall Street Journal reports.

—Benzinga: “NASA’s Jared Isaacman Says Blue Origin’s New Glenn Recovery Is ‘Beyond Impressive’“

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Blue Origin has devoted significant resources to cleaning up and rebuilding its launch pad after a late-May explosion of a New Glenn rocket, as the agency weighs how the setback could affect lunar missions tied to the Artemis program. “Blue Origin’s response to the situation is almost beyond impressive, and that’s not just a NASA assessment,” Isaacman told reporters Wednesday afternoon, according to Ars Technica. He said U.S. Space Force officials also have been deeply involved in Blue Origin’s planning since the May 28 test anomaly damaged New Glenn’s only operational launch pad.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Finalists Announced in Astronomy Photographer Contest

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): New Zealand photographer Evan McKay’s entry “Te Hoho Rock Moonrise.” (Evan McKay – Aotearoa/New Zealand)

The finalists have been named in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s annual ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. One of those photographs is provided above. It competed in the Skyscapes category, which is one of nine competition categories. The photo was taken at Cathedral Cove, Waikato, North Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Here are a few words about this image from photographer Evan McKay:

On this particular night I only had a small window to capture the sky before the Moon started to rise, so I decided to make the most of it. I got my mount polar-aligned during twilight and then started shooting the sky panorama from this location. The Moon began to rise soon after I finished the sky, so I then captured the foreground. The moonlight gave me the best of both worlds and did a fantastic job lighting up the foreground. To enhance the sky, I shot a separate panorama using a dual narrowband filter and blended it in to bring out the nebulae.

The judges will announce the winners of the competition on September 17, with an event to follow the next day.

You call see all of the finalist photos at this competition link.

Volunteers Needed for Moon and Mars Simulation

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A crew inside NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog. (NASA)

Do you need to get away from the ordinary for something more stimulating (and possibly away from the constant political news)? How about going into isolation to assist NASA with future Moon and Mars missions?

NASA is looking for a few hardy souls to start a new virtual space mission in August 2027 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Volunteers must meet a variety of criteria, including being between 30 and 55 years old and willing to spend approximately 14-months on this mission, which includes 12 months in two different confined habitats and two months of pre- and- post-mission training and data collection. Oh yeah, you cannot have a history of sleepwalking or taking sleeping aids.

The volunteers will basically live and work in isolation and confinement while performing simulated missions related to interplanetary transit and planetary surface operations. This will also include simulated rover missions and spacewalks.

You can read all about it on this NASA info page, which includes an email address to ask more questions as well as an application form.

It’s not for everyone, but maybe it’s for you.

By the way, even if the White House cuts off the funding after you start the program, at least you will still be in Houston rather than half-way on your way to Mars with no way to get back.

Podcast: The Future of Space Stations

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Design of Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station. (Blue Origin)

The latest podcast episode of the Planetary Society’s Planetary radio had an informative discussion about space stations, including why we need them and who should be financing them. The episode, What’s Going on with Commercial Space Stations, is a conversation between Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy for The Planetary Society, and Clayton Swope, Deputy Director of the Aerospace Security Project and Senior Fellow for The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Mr. Swope wrote an story last month for CSIS titled “NASA Changes Course on Commercial Space Stations.” In it, he notes that NASA’s recent change to its program for commercial space stations was due to greater skepticism about the private sector’s ability to make a business case for a space station and then properly construct one in a timely fashion. This is the crux of his discussion with Casey Dreier, which is fun to follow.

Should the federal government continue to take the lead on both the financing and construction of manned space stations to replace the International Space Station (ISS) once it is retired? And why do we even need another manned space station? Does it serve a commercial purpose that cannot be replicated with robots? Or is it more akin to our nation’s support and participation in the Olympics, where we can show American prowess while hopefully taking sports to a new level?

The conversation covers a fair amount of ground, while the Planetary Radio website offers a variety of background links as well as some useful information on the proposed commercial space stations, including:

  • Axiom Station,
  • Orbital Reef,
  • Starlab,
  • Cygnus spacecraft captured by Canadarm2, and
  • Sierra Space LIFE habitat.

NASA and the private sector will need to find a way to make this Earth-orbiting commercial space station a viable option before the ISS is little more than a shooting star. NASA has already killed the Moon’s space station earlier this year (aka Gateway), demonstrating that it is willing to move quickly and break things.

Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of Gateway orbiting the Moon. (NASA)

Pic of the Week: Fourth of July Colors

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory that provide a red, white, and blue version of the universe. (NASA/CXC/SAO)

If you are looking for some images for the upcoming Fourth of July celebrations, then this week’s pic will give you everything you need. The red, white, and blue of these images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory should put you in the right spirit.

The images from the top clockwise are Cassiopeia A, the ZwCl 0024+1652 galaxy cluster, spiral galaxy NGC 4736, and nebula NGC 3603. You can learn more about each of these images at this NASA site.

Happy Fourth of July!