The Space Roundup, Feb 21st 2021
Hello, my dear space lovers!
What a week! Mars, Mars, Mars! :)
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Now, let's get started with the updates of the week! 5,4,3,2,1…liftoff!
Mars!
What can we say about the arrival of Perseverance to Mars? It was a historical moment and the final perfect choreography to touch down. I was profoundly impressed by the event and the quality of the first set of images to arrive from so far. Everything went according to plan, and later on, we received confirmation that the small helicopter Ingenuity was also perfectly fine.
And what's next? During the next days, the team will be performing checks to make sure everything’s ok before starting the real mission and the science. Let’s wait and see what future discoveries these magnificent machines will bring back home.
Perseverance being brought to the Martian surface by its amazing Skycrane. Photo: NASA/JPL
Do you want to become an astronaut?
A couple of weeks ago, after SpaceX announced the #inspiration4 mission for any citizen to go to space, many non-US citizens were dying of jealousy so ESA decided to open an astronaut selection program this week (well, maybe that wasn’t the reason, but it makes sense in my head) - so, if you are European and want to try, here you have the requirements to enter the process. They are even open to accepting a disabled person this time. Wow. By the way, if you DO participate, let me know: I’d be very interested in following you through the selection process.
More launches!
Two missions to the ISS this week! Both Roscosmos and NASA have successfully launched cargo missions to the Station bringing needed fuel, oxygen, experiments, and much more!
SpaceX successfully launched this week, but the booster landing failed this time. We have become so used to them successfully recovering their boosters that this is a surprise … and that’s great! They have successfully recovered the last 24 boosters launched before this failure. The lost booster had already flown six times previously. Talking about SpaceX, last week they raised a round of $850M, bringing the company’s valuation to about $74 billion. This is crucial to maintain the cash-intensive activity of launching a satellite constellation and building the Starship.
New exoplanet?
You know I love exoplanets! This week astronomers have found a candidate to become the closest exoplanet ever found in a habitable zone. Candidate1 or C1 is a super-earth-sized planet orbiting around our neighbor star Alpha Centauri, “just” 4 light-years away from us. The coolest thing is that if confirmed, it is so “close” that we could get direct images of it using powerful current (and upcoming) space telescopes, and that would be a first of its kind. Crossing fingers!
Picture of the week
Apart from Mars, there are other planets! XD It seems we only talk about Mars lately, so I wanted to bring your attention to Jupiter this week. This picture was taken by the Juno spacecraft when it flew by Jupiter. I am completely amazed by it. Isn’t it beautiful? Enjoy!
Credits: NASA
Upcoming launches
Feb 25 - SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink 17
Feb 28 - ISRO PSLV-DL | Amazonia 1, Anand & Saditsat
Feb 28 - SpaceX Starship SN10 | 10 km Flight
And that’s it for this week! :)
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Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut