The Space Roundup - Aug 29th, 2021
Hello, my dear space lovers!
How are you doing today? Let’s dive into all the amazing stories going on in the space arena
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An important milestone for the JWST
This week the James Webb Space Telescope has reached a very important milestone: it has completed all the final tests needed before shipping it to the launch site. It can now be packaged and sent sailing through the Panama Canal to French Guiana, where it is going to be launched later this year (final launch date yet unknown). Hurray for the biggest space telescope ever built! :)
China
China is now officially researching how to build kilometer-scale spacecraft. WOW. This just blows my mind. They are investing in studies to find ways to build, launch and assemble massive structures in orbit. One of the possible applications would be space-based solar power stations I’ve previously talked about, but also bigger space stations. This is an amazing line of work that is truly exciting.
Blue Origin
Blue Origin, a legal firm that also builds rockets (just kidding!), successfully launched its 17th New Shepard rocket. This time it was a scientific mission carrying NASA’s sensors to land on the moon and more experiments. This week we’ve also seen for the first time the new tank for the first reusable upper stage they are planning to build - what they call “project Jarvis” … the images look familiar, right? XD
Bad news from Russia
The Russian Luna-25 mission to the Moon’s surface (which was planned to launch next October), is now postponed to May 2022 due to a set of problems found during crucial tests. Sad. Very sad. Anyways, we’ve been waiting for this mission for more than 45 years now since the last time the Russians touched down on the Moon, so I guess we can wait a bunch more months!
Space magnets for junk removal!
This week Astroscale finally tested in orbit its space junk removal system by magnetically capturing a small satellite that they brought to orbit in March as part of its ELSA-d mission. The test was a success and I am extremely happy for them! This kind of junk-removal mission is extremely important for the future of humankind. Now they can move on to harder tests to validate that their technology can be applied at scale to keep cleaning the space for all of us. Go, Astroscale!
Indian Power
On August 28, ISRO successfully conducted the first hot test of the System Demonstration Model (SDM) of the Gaganyaan Service Module Propulsion. Gaganyaan is the Indian crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the basis of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. Go, ISRO!
Agnikul Cosmos, the first company to build a single-piece 3d-printed rocket engine, has partnered with EOS, the German 3D printer maker, to print their rocket engines fully in-house. This is a massive step forward, very strategic, and will help them move faster with end-to-end building capacity. Go, Agnikul!
Success and failure
Just a couple of hours ago, SpaceX successfully launched the CRS-23 mission: it was its 23rd cargo mission to the International Space Station. Yes, you heard it right: 23 cargo missions since October 2012. Amazing! It launched and recovered the booster faultlessly and we’re getting used to that kind of perfection, but remember: this IS ROCKET SCIENCE and it is hard.
This has been sadly confirmed last night by the Astra team, who failed to reach orbit again on their third attempt. They have collected a ton of data that will help them in their next attempt, but, man! This is hard! Go, Astra!!
Pic of the week
Today I wanted to share this picture of Jupiter in infrared light. Apart from being incredibly beautiful, it’s of great help for scientists to study its weather and atmosphere. This pic was taken by the Juno spacecraft.
Launches of the week
Tuesday, August, 31st - Rocket Lab "Love At First Insight"
Friday, September 3rd - Firefly Alpha DREAM (Demo Flight)
And that would be it for this week! Did you enjoy the Space Roundup? Share it with your friends! Did you find it boring and useless? Share it with your enemies! XD
Once again, thanks to my Patreon supporters.
Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut