The Space Roundup - May 2nd, 2021
Hello, my dear space lovers!
What a week full of space awesomeness!
Before we start I wanted to thank my Patreon supporters and welcome all new subscribers of the week: you rock! :)
Now, are you ready? 5,4,3,2,1...lift-off!
What’s going on with Russia?
Several weeks ago, they signed an agreement with the US to extend peaceful cooperation in space at least until 2030, then they started to say they would move away from the ISS, then they wanted to start cooperating with China to build a lunar base, and earlier this week they’ve announced their plans to start their own space station, withdrawing from the ISS in the next couple of years. This behavior is very confusing to me, to be honest. Let’s see where they end up going with this and let’s hope this is for the best?
Mars updates
The Martian helicopter Ingenuity has performed its third and fourth flights this week, pushing the envelope with a final flight of more than 250 meters lasting almost two minutes. The next step would be assisting the Perseverance rover exploring the red planet together, like to friends on a road trip. How exciting is this?
China
China has been very active this week. First, they launched several satellites to orbit, my favorite of which is the space mining + space debris removal test. It is a small satellite that can maneuver to actively capture debris with a net.
Additionally, they launched the first module of their brand new space station, a 16-meter long module that is now successfully orbiting the Earth.
SpaceX at war?
SpaceX, which successfully launched and landed a Falcon 9 again this week (carrying the 1500th Starlink satellite), but scrubbed the launch of the Starship SN15 prototype, has been “attacked” by its opponents in the contracts to win the Human Landing System for the Moon.
Both Blue Origin and Dynetics have filed a formal protest against the decision to award SpaceX the contract. We don’t know the impact yet (I suspect nothing major?), but it’s ugly to see this kind of behavior.
“Hot” records!
Today I want to talk a bit about NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Launched in 2018, it is the first-ever mission planned to "touch" the Sun. This week it will set two new records: one for the closest distance to the Sun (just 10 million kilometers - 6.5 million miles) and another for spacecraft speed (more than 530.000 km/h - 330,000 mph)! Remember: this is the fastest human-made object.
“Cool” research and a frozen space antenna!
The Australian Space Agency and the European Space Agency announced this week that they are going to build a new Deep Space antenna…but this time, it is a cryogenic antenna as cold as -263 celsius to gain more than 40% better data return.
Microbes beneath Mars’ surface? That’s what a new study suggests. We’ll need to double-check, martian rovers! :)
Stars and anti-stars (stars made of anti-matter): maybe you haven’t heard of that term before, but it is worth reading about it. Scientists have identified 14 stars that could be made of antimatter. Read more here.
Picture of the week
This week I share an amazing picture by Michael Seeley (@Mike_Seeley). This is SpaceX Falcon 9 last week crossing the Moon.
Upcoming launches & events
Let’s see what we have in the week ahead: two SpaceX launches!
Monday, May 3rd - SpaceX - SN15 10km test flight
Tuesday, May 4th - Falcon 9 • Starlink V1.0-L25
And that’s it for this week! :)
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Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut