Space Roundup Nov 29th, 2020
Hello, dear space lovers!
This week we’ve witnessed China’s successful launch of the Chang’e-5 mission that is going to go to the Moon, gather 2kgs of rocks, and bring them back to Earth. How cool is that? Next week we’ll see it land its lander to start drilling the surface looking for relevant geological materials. As I write this newsletter, it is approaching the moon to deliver the lander in the upcoming days. Fingers crossed!
SpaceX successfully launched its 100th mission. Wow. And this concrete rocket, a Falcon 9, has already been launched 7 times! That level of reusability has never been achieved before. Amazing.
Talking about reusability, Rocketlab successfully recovered the first stage of their latest rocket from the sea. Now they’ll clean it and will try to use it again on future missions.
EXCITEMENT NEXT WEEK! SpaceX’s SN8 Starship prototype performed its static fire tests and now is ready for the next step: a 15km “hop” that according to Elon Musk has ⅓ chances to be successful. Whether it’s successful or not, it’s going to be a great spectacle for sure!
Also next week, on Dec 5th, NASA and SpaceX are launching an unmanned resupply mission to the International Space Station. What makes it special is that apart from supplies and payloads, it will transport the first permanent, commercial addition to the ISS: The Nanoracks Bishop Airlock. It offers 5x the current volume that can be moved in and out of the Space Station today. Massive upgrade!
Aaaaand in the same week we upgrade the ISS, one of Russia’s top contractors says the ISS is close to ruin and suggests they should build another one (huh?)
On the next day, Dec 6th, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2, which left the asteroid Ryugu about 300 million kilometers from Earth a year ago, is expected to reach Earth and drop a capsule containing the precious samples it collected there. Go, Hayabusa!
Space Picture of the week
NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula. Credit: Josep Drudis
Can you see the bat? :) NGC 6995, or the Bat Nebula, is 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. Emission from hydrogen is shown in red while oxygen and nitrogen are shown in blue.
Weekly events
Nov. 29 - Soyuz • Falcon Eye 2: Falcon Eye 2 is a high-resolution Earth-imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates built by Airbus Defense and Space.
Dec. 1 - Chang'e 5 Lunar Landing: the Chinese spacecraft is scheduled to land on the Moon.
Dec. 5 - Falcon 9 • SpaceX CRS 21 - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Dragon 2 spacecraft on its first cargo resupply mission to the ISS.
Space Jobs
And that’s it for this week! :)
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Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut