Space Roundup Jan 24th, 2021
Hello, dear space lovers! How are you all doing?
This has been a week full of interesting stuff, so let's get started with the updates of the week! 5,4,3,2,1 - Liftoff!
Successful launches!
This week we have seen three commercial companies successfully reaching orbit.
First, it was the turn for Virgin Orbit with its LauncherOne mission. Launching a rocket from a plane? Yes, they did it! They are now the third commercial company to reach orbit.
Then, Rocket Lab launched a microsatellite to orbit in its 1st mission of 2021.
And finally, SpaceX crushing records as usual: their latest booster launched and landed for an eight-time, only 36 days after the previous launch. Getting close to monthly reusability! How crazy is this?! Amazing!
Talking about crushing records, SpaceX is about to crush the record for most satellites launched on one rocket. As I write this newsletter, they are getting ready to launch 143 satellites in a single flight. The power of sharing a ride, reducing costs is extremely important for the LEO economy.
Moon bound!
Orion is ready to fly! Lockheed Martin has now completed assembly and testing of Orion, the capsule that is going to the Moon as part of the Artemis 1 mission later this year. It is now being handed over and transferred to NASA’s EGS to be prepped and fueled for launch.
Northrop Grumman and Thales have started THIS SAME WEEK the construction of the Habitation module (HALO) of the lunar Gateway… this is happening, team!
A busy week for Northrop Grumman, to be honest! They also successfully performed a fire test of their solid motor for ULA’s Vulcan rocket that will fly to the Moon for several commercial missions.
Moon? Do you know what’s on the moon now? Yes! The Chinese robots :) After the 14 days of a full lunar day in which it’s traveled a distance of more than 600 meters, China’s Chang’e-4 rover and lander are now going to sleep to resist the cold lunar night. This long “day” was spent studying micro-scale surface thermo-physical properties of the moon.
Talking about China, the Chinese startup I-Space successfully completed a landing buffer test of its new reusable rocket Hyperbola-2, marking an important breakthrough in reusable "SpaceX-like" launch technology.
Picture of the week
Today I want to share one of my favorite space pics ever. It is The Butterfly Nebula:
NGC 6302 contains a super hot dying star in the center, with a surface temperature of about 250.000ºC and it lies about 4,000 light-years away from us.
Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble
Upcoming launches & events
Very well packed week ahead!
Jan. 24 - Space X - Falcon 9 • Transporter 1 Mission
Jan 25 - Space X - Starship 10km test flight?
Jan. 27 - NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover to take a spacewalk together outside the International Space Station
Jan. 29 - Space X - Falcon 9 • Starlink V1.0-L17
Jan 30 - ExPace - Jilin-1-02D | Kuaizhou-1A
Jan 31 - NASA SLS Green Run Hot Fire
And that’s it for this week! :)
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Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut