NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

September 7, 2024

Small Moon Deimos

Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, named for the figures in Greek mythology Fear and Panic. Detailed surface views of smaller moon Deimos are shown in both these panels. The images were taken in 2009, by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, NASA's long-lived interplanetary internet satellite. The outermost of the two Martian moons, Deimos is one of the smallest known moons in the Solar System, measuring only about 15 kilometers across. Both Martian moons were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer working at the US Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. But their existence was postulated around 1610 by Johannes Kepler, the astronomer who derived the laws of planetary motion. In this case, Kepler's prediction was not based on scientific principles, but his writings and ideas were so influential that the two Martian moons are discussed in works of fiction such as Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, written in 1726, over 150 years before their discovery.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

NASA, Boeing Welcome Starliner Spacecraft to Earth, Close Mission

Sep 07, 2024

NASA and Boeing safely returned the uncrewed Starliner spacecraft following its landing at 10:01 p.m. MDT Sept. 6 at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, concluding a three-month flight test to the International Space Station.

“I am extremely proud of the work our collective team put into this entire flight test, and we are pleased to see Starliner’s safe return,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“Even though it was necessary to return the spacecraft uncrewed, NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible.

NASA looks forward to our continued work with the Boeing team to proceed toward certification of Starliner for crew rotation missions to the space station.”

The flight on June 5 was the first time astronauts launched aboard the Starliner. It was the third orbital flight of the spacecraft, and its second return from the orbiting laboratory.

Starliner now will ship to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for inspection and processing.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program requires a spacecraft to fly a crewed test flight to prove the system is ready for regular flights to and from the orbiting laboratory.

Following Starliner’s return, the agency will review all mission-related data.

“We are excited to have Starliner home safely. This was an important test flight for NASA in setting us up for future missions on the Starliner system,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

“There was a lot of valuable learning that will enable our long-term success.

I want to commend the entire team for their hard work and dedication over the past three months.”

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched on June 5 aboard Starliner for the agency’s Boeing Crewed Flight Test from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

On June 6, as Starliner approached the space station, NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters.

Following weeks of in-space and ground testing, technical interchange meetings, and agency reviews, NASA made the decision to prioritize safety and return Starliner without its crew.

Wilmore and Williams will continue their work aboard station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew, returning in February 2025 with the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-boeing-welcome-starliner-spacecraft-to-earth-close-mission/

NASA Sets Coverage for Crew Launch; Trio to Join Expedition 71

Sep 06, 2024

NASA astronaut Don Pettit will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft, accompanied by cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, to the International Space Station where they will join the Expedition 71 crew in advancing scientific research.

Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner will lift off at 12:23 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 11 (9:23 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Coverage will stream on NASA+, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms including social media.

After a two-orbit, three-hour trajectory to the station, the spacecraft will automatically dock at 3:33 p.m. at the orbiting laboratory’s Rassvet module.

Shortly after, hatches will open between the spacecraft and the station.

Once aboard, the trio will join NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko.

NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):

11:15 a.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

12:23 p.m. – Launch

2:30 p.m. – Rendezvous and docking coverage begins on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

3:33 p.m. – Docking

5:30 p.m. – Hatch opening and welcome remarks coverage begins on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

5:50 p.m. – Hatch opening

The trio will spend approximately six months aboard the orbital laboratory as Expedition 71 and 72 crew members before returning to Earth in the spring of 2025.

This will be the fourth spaceflight for Pettit and Ovchinin, and the second for Vagner.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-crew-launch-trio-to-join-expedition-71/

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CubeSats are pictured after being deployed into Earth orbit

Sep 06, 2024

Tiny satellites, also known as CubeSats, are pictured after being deployed into Earth orbit from a small satellite orbital deployer on the outside of the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module.

The CubeSats were delivered aboard the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter and will serve a variety of educational and research purposes for public and private organizations around the world.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/cubesats-are-pictured-after-being-deployed-into-earth-orbit/

NASA Evaluates Deployed Advanced Composite Solar Sail System

September 5, 2024

The view from one camera onboard the spacecraft shows the reflective sail quadrants supported by composite booms.

Since deploying its sail last week, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft continues sending images and data, helping the team better understand how the boom technology demonstration performed.

The primary objective of the demonstration is to conduct the deployment operation and use it to inform the use of large-scale sails for future missions.

The mission team is continuing to analyze the incoming data and prepare for the next steps in the technology demonstration over the next couple of weeks.

Currently orbiting Earth, the spacecraft can be seen with its reflective sails deployed from the ground. As part of the planned deployment sequence, the spacecraft began flying without attitude control just before the deployment of the booms.

As a result, it is slowly tumbling as expected. Once the mission team finishes characterizing the booms and sail, they will re-engage the spacecraft’s attitude control system, which will stabilize the spacecraft and stop the tumbling.

Engineers will then analyze flight dynamics before initiating maneuvers that will raise and lower the spacecraft’s orbit.

Those interested in spotting the sail can view the spacecraft using a new feature in the NASA mobile app.

Its visibility may be intermittent in the night sky, and it could appear at variable levels of brightness while tumbling.

NASA invites the public to share their own photos of the spacecraft online with the hashtag, #SpotTheSail.

Image caption: The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System has four black-and-white wide-angle cameras, centrally located aboard the spacecraft.

Near the bottom of the photo, the view from one camera shows the reflective sail quadrants supported by composite booms.

At the top of the photo is the back surface of one of the spacecraft’s solar panels. The five sets of markings on the booms close to the spacecraft are reference markers to indicate full extension of the sail.

The booms are mounted at right angles, and the solar panel is rectangular, but appear distorted because of the wide-angle camera field of view. Credit: NASA

https://blogs.nasa.gov/smallsatellites/2024/09/05/nasa-evaluates-deployed-advanced-composite-solar-sail-system/

NASA removes ESCAPADE from inaugural New Glenn launch

September 6, 2024

NASA has decided not to launch a pair of Mars-bound smallsats on the first flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn in October out of concerns that the rocket may not be ready in time.

NASA announced Sept. 6 that the agency will halt pre-launch preparations for the twin Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) smallsats.

The spacecraft were scheduled to launch on the first flight of New Glenn between Oct. 13 and 21 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The agency made the decision now, more than a month before launch window opens, before loading the spacecraft with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants.

NASA had concluded that it could not push back the spacecraft fueling and thus needed to decide now if New Glenn could be ready in time for the October launch window.

“The decision was made to avoid significant cost, schedule, and technical challenges associated with potentially removing fuel from the spacecraft in the event of a launch delay, which could be caused by a number of factors,” NASA stated.

An industry source familiar with the decision said that Blue Origin believed that New Glenn would be ready for a launch during the nine-day mid-October window, although the company still has significant work to complete testing and integrate the rocket.

That schedule required that those final activities go largely as expected, while first launches of new rockets often encounter issues.

NASA was seeking more margin in that schedule before committing to fueling the spacecraft, given the difficulties in removing the propellants if New Glenn missed the October window.

“This is an important mission for NASA, and it’s critical we have sufficient margin in our prelaunch work to ensure we are ready to fly a tight planetary window,” said Bradley Smith, Launch Services Office director at NASA Headquarters, in a statement.

NASA said the next possible launch date for ESCAPADE, again on New Glenn, would be in the spring of 2025.

The agency did not disclose details of that alternative trajectory, including when the spacecraft would reach Mars.

A launch then would be outside the traditional Mars launch window that is open this fall but is not available again for roughly two years.

Agency officials emphasized they still planned to launch ESCAPADE, a low-cost mission to study the interaction of the Martian magnetosphere with the solar wind, despite the delay.

“We’re committed to seeing ESCAPADE safely into space, and I look forward to seeing it off the ground and on its trip to Mars,” said Nicky Fox, NASA associate administrator for science, in a statement.

“We’re supportive of NASA’s decision to target the ESCAPADE mission for no earlier than spring 2025 and look forward to the flight,” Blue Origin said in a statement.

The company said that the first flight of New Glenn will instead carry unspecified technology for its Blue Ring orbital transfer vehicle, and also serve as its first certification launch for the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch program.

That was intended to be on the second New Glenn flight in December, but the company will instead move up that launch to November.

Blue Origin had not previously disclosed the payload or schedule for that second launch.

An industry source said Blue Origin isn’t expected to slow down or significantly change launch preparations beyond any tweaks needed to accommodate the change in payload.

That includes a static-fire test of the upper stage, rolled out to the pad Sept. 3, early next week. The launch itself could slip by as little as a few weeks, to early November.

https://spacenews.com/nasa-removes-escapade-from-inaugural-new-glenn-launch/

SpaceX launches third batch of satellites for NRO’s proliferated constellation

September 6, 2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sept. 5 launched the NROL-113 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex-4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:20 p.m. Eastern.

NROL-113 was the third batch of satellites of a new imaging satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman.

The number of satellites on this mission was not disclosed.

The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster performed its 20th flight. Following stage separation, it landed on a drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

The NRO designs and operates classified U.S. government surveillance and intelligence satellites. SpaceX launched the first two batches of the agency’s proliferated constellation in low Earth orbit in May and June.

The NROL-113 emblem’s blue circles artistically depict a proliferated constellation of satellites.

The tagline, “Strength in Numbers,” describes the NRO’s new strategy of a large overhead architecture — numerous, smaller satellites designed for capability and resilience.

Additional launches supporting NRO’s proliferated architecture are expected through 2028.

The completion of three launches over just four months, said the NRO, “highlights the rapid pace of deployment for this program.”

https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-third-batch-of-satellites-for-nros-proliferated-constellation/

China's mysterious space plane returns to Earth after 268 days in orbit

September 6, 2024

China's mysterious space plane has returned to Earth after spending over 8 months in orbit.

The reusable spacecraft landed at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in a remote section of northwest China on Friday (Sept. 6).

It launched from the same site atop a Long March 2F rocket on Dec. 14, 2023, on its third mission, and spent 268 days in orbit, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua.

While the exact capabilities of the space plane remain largely unknown, Xinhua states the craft will "pave the way for more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future."

It's unknown what exactly China's space plane was doing on this most recent mission  — or on any other mission, for that matter.

As with seen in previous missions, spacecraft trackers on the ground observed the space plane releasing a small object into orbit.

"This object could be a subsatellite deployment, or it could be a piece of hardware ejected prior to end of mission and deorbit (the space plane's first flight did something similar)," said astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in a post on X (formally Twitter).

The space plane appeared to conduct what is known as rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) with the object, meaning it tested capabilities to meet up with and get close to the object in space, SpaceNews reported.

These operations can be used to repair or perform upkeep on friendly satellites, and it is believed that military superpowers are refining these techniques to potentially tamper with adversary satellites during any future orbital combat.

China's space plane launched on this recent mission just two days before the scheduled launch of the U.S. Space Force's own reusable orbital vehicle, the X-37B.

That launch was scrubbed with about 30 minutes remaining in the countdown, and the X-37B would go on to launch two weeks later, on Dec. 28, 2023, on its seventh mission.

Like with China's space plane, the capabilities and missions of the X-37B are largely classified; it is known to be an orbital test bed for new technologies, but that's about it.

India is also developing its own reusable orbital space plane named Pushpak.

https://www.space.com/china-space-plane-lands-268-days