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UAE taps Japan’s MHI for Asteroid Mission

Asteroid exploration is not for the faint of heart, and the latest mission announced in a long line of asteroid explorers does not shy away from a challenge. The UAE has become the latest nation to set their sights on asteroids close to home, with an ambitious mission lined up to explore not one, but 7 Near Earth Asteroids.

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Hera Beats the Weather – Sets Sights on Dual Asteroid

The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft has lifted off on a unique mission to the binary asteroid pair Didymos and Dimorphos. The probe will seek new insights into planetary defense techniques that could protect the Earth from asteroid impacts in the future, following up on NASA’s DART mission which intentionally struck Dimorphos in September of 2022.

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FAA Waives Hera Launch – Falcon 9 Remains Grounded

Falcon 9 currently finds itself in the midst of its third grounding in 2024. Following a successful launch of the Crew-9 mission and crew aboard Crew Dragon Freedom on September 28th, the Falcon 9 second stage experienced an anomaly during its deorbit burn, causing it to fall outside of the designated safe zone.

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Crew-9 Launches Two Astronauts to ISS

SpaceX’s ninth crew rotation to the International Space Station is underway, carrying two crew members uphill to the orbiting laboratory. Crew-9 evaded stormy weather to lift off on September 28th, 2024 at 1:17 PM EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

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Crew-9 Set to Launch with Two Astronauts

In periods of uncertainty, one thing is clear in spaceflight – the show must go on. With this mantra in mind, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are preparing to launch on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station.

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SpaceX Makes Adjustments For Crew Dragon’s Future

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has been a resounding success, both for SpaceX itself and for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. After ending a 9-year gap in the United States’ crewed launch capability, the spacecraft has become the de facto leader in the developing commercial orbital economy.

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Polaris Program Aims High with First Commercial Spacewalk

On September 10, 2024, one of the farthest-reaching civilian missions in human history lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, aiming to smash records and push boundaries in support of human spaceflight objectives. The Polaris Dawn mission, launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9, also completed the first commercial spacewalk, with Commander Jared Isaacman and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis exiting the spacecraft for an extravehicular activity (EVA) lasting just under two hours.

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New Glenn Comes Together, but Plans Change

On Friday, September 6th 2024, NASA announced an official delay of the EscaPADE mission’s launch to March of 2025. The agency specified that the decision came at potential risk to spacecraft health in the event that the twin Mars orbiters had to be unfueled following a launch delay. Regardless, work continues towards the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn.

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BepiColombo Completes Mercury Flyby on New Trajectory

The joint European/Japanese BepiColombo mission completed its fourth encounter with Mercury on Wednesday, September 4th 2024. The flyby was the latest of many gravity assists the mission needs to decelerate itself into Mercury orbit, and took the spacecraft closer to the planet’s surface than ever before.

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ISS Crews Face Upcoming Shakeups amid Curtailed Seat Exchanges

In an age marked by aggression and deterioration of relationships, it appears that the end of a long standing practice, seat exchange on partner vehicles, is coming to an end – thrusting the station into a period of uncertainty as it faces the twilight years of its operation.

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NASA Identifies Lunar Cargo and Mobility Gaps

The development of NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture is a continuous process, one which is always seeking to strengthen our approach to sending humans to Mars and beyond. In June, NASA released a pair of white papers that give a glimpse into this year’s analysis: Lunar Surface Cargo and Lunar Mobility Drivers and Needs.

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Moon to Mars Part II: Evolving to Mars

Artemis’ stated goal to “prepare for human missions to Mars” is an ambitious undertaking, with visible consequences on its organization. With Artemis entering flight across its various programs, and hardware which will eventually support its primary missions in flow, we have entered a unique era for spaceflight.

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Pressure Mounts as New Glenn Nears Launch Date

2024 is far from over and another new rocket is still expected to earn its wings: Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
If all proceeds according to plan it could happen in less than 60 days. However, substantial milestones remain incomplete, raising questions on the rocket’s readiness.

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InternationalNews and UpdatesPolicy

Australia Joins US-Led Landsat Next Program

As the United States prepares to shift from the legacy Landsat program to the next generation Landsat Next constellation, new players in space have been integrated with the program to support broad reaching global observation. Australia has formally joined the United States-led Landsat Next satellite program as a core partner, building on nearly half a century of collaboration in satellite land imaging across the globe. 

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CFT Continues Safely: Starliner and the Commercial Crew Return Process

Boeing’s Crew Flight Test mission is continuing its stay aboard the International Space Station. On July 25, NASA and Boeing held a press conference to provide an update on the mission including ongoing tests, the current status of the spacecraft, and upcoming events.

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A Graceful Exit, Part 2: What Comes After ISS?

The end of the International Space Station will mark a tectonic shift in human spaceflight. The ISS program united the efforts of fifteen nations, including a landmark union between the United States and Russia, and citizens from eight other countries have since visited the orbiting laboratory. Now, approaching retirement, we begin to ask the question of what comes next?

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Meet The Pressurized Rover

In April of this year, the United States and Japan signed a formal agreement to collaborate on the first of a new kind of spacecraft for the Artemis Program: a pressurized rover. Acting like a camper van for astronauts to live in as they roam across the surface of the Moon, the pressurized rover is a dramatic new capability for the Artemis Program.

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Europe Eyes Future in Commercial Space

Throughout the tremendous rise of the commercial space ecosystem, Europe has been eyeing numerous partners in the private sector to facilitate access for the continent in a new and changing world – one that could rewrite the narrative for future space exploration.  

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Blue Origin, SpaceX, ULA Selected for National Security Missions

In an announcement on June 13th, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin were selected for the Department of Defense’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 program. All three providers are now eligible to compete for a series of 30+ launches, with a combined value of $5.6 billion.

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Starliner Launches first Crew to ISS

On June 5, 2024 at 10:52 AM, America’s newest crew capable spacecraft lifted off from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. 61 years, 21 days, 1 hour, 48 minutes and 1 second since Atlas LV-3B 130-D launched Gordon Cooper into orbit aboard Faith 7, the mighty Atlas V continues the dream.

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Boeing and NASA Prepare for Crewed Flight Test

On May 6th, 2024, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is set to fly for the third time, this time carrying its most important cargo to date: a human crew. Flown by veteran NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, this mission intends to fully certify the vehicle for human flight.

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ESA’s 2022 Astronaut Class Graduates

On Monday, 22 April, ESA celebrated the graduation of its class of 2022 astronaut candidates. The ceremony, held at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, signified the successful completion of basic training for the five European astronaut graduates and the Australian Space Agency’s first astronaut, all now eligible for spaceflight assignments.

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Op-Ed: Human Health Research, the Key to the Commercial Space Revolution

If one word can summarize the past five years of human spaceflight, it’s “commercialization.” The early 2020s have been defined by a dramatic shift in the way we think about space exploration, particularly as NASA moves beyond LEO to procure new capabilities for its groundbreaking Artemis program.

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A Shake Up For Mars Sample Return

On April 15th 2024, NASA hosted a media teleconference giving updates on the current status of the agency’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. MSR is a vital step in providing high fidelity environmental data which could dramatically inform the technology and methodology for a planned human mission to the Red Planet.

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News and Updates

Preparing for Totality

If you want to experience the true beauty and awe of the upcoming total solar eclipse, you have to be within the path of totality. There is no compromise. Totality is a unique experience, it is a truly cosmic event where the concept of daytime slips away from you, plunging the world into a momentary 360 degree twilight. It’s a night and day contrast, a captivating reminder of the majesty of the Solar System. 

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NASA’s Newest Ocean Mission Takes Flight

After nearly nine years of planning, preparation, and even once being slated for cancellation entirely, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Earth-observation mission lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on February 8, at 1:33:36 AM.

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ESA Shuffles Copernicus Sats Amidst Launcher Uncertainty

Amidst schedule delays and uncertainties surrounding the return to flight of the Vega launch vehicle, the European Space Agency and European Commission are considering the purchase of an American Falcon 9 rocket to launch their Sentinel-1C climate satellite, with a decision expected in the coming days or weeks.

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Japan Becomes Fifth Nation to Land on the Moon

On January 19th 2024, JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) successfully touched down on the surface of the Moon. This makes Japan the fifth nation in history to conduct a successful soft landing on the surface of the Moon, following Russia, the United States, China, and India.

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Blue Fire in Rocket City

Blue Origin made some noise in Huntsville, as the former Saturn V test stand, Test Stand 4670, saw its first firing from its new operators. The short test, which took place on August 3rd, lasted between 30 and 40 seconds according to locals who heard the test firing. It has yet to be confirmed if the test was a BE4 or BE3-U. This marked the first test firing on 4670 since 1998.

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