In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Perseverance rover scientists blame the powdery nature of Mars rock for last week’s failed first sample collection attempt. Cygnus reaches the ISS.
Human Space Exploration
NG-16 arrives at ISS, Northrop Grumman talks Cygnus’ future use
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
Spaceflightnow.com (8/12): Northrop Grumman’s 16th resupply mission spacecraft successfully reached the International Space Station (ISS) early Thursday. NASA astronaut Megan McArthur commanded the ISS’s Canadian robotic arm to grapple the Cygnus freighter at 6:07 a.m. EDT, as it approached for docking with the ISS’s U.S. segment Unity module. Speaking before the berthing, Northrop Grumman’s Frank DeMauro discussed future Cygnus missions to the ISS as well as non-ISS uses for the craft. DeMauro said Cygnus has become more than just a cargo transport, already seeing its technology incorporated into the HALO habitation module for NASA’s upcoming Lunar Gateway station.
Watch NASA fire up its SLS rocket engines to test far-out mission technologies (video)
Coalition Member in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne
Space.com (8/11): On Thursday, August 5, NASA finished its sixth RS-25 engine hot-fire test for the missions that would come after the fourth Artemis flight. The RS-25 engine, made by the California-based aerospace company Aerojet Rocketdyne, was fired at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for 500 seconds (more than eight minutes) to duplicate the time it will take four engines to boost the first stage of the massive SLS rocket.
Space Science
Scientists fine-tune odds of asteroid Bennu hitting Earth through 2300 with NASA probe’s help
Space.com (8/11): Launched in 2016, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is on its way back to Earth to drop off samples of the asteroid Bennu in September 2023. OSIRIS-REx’s stay in proximity to Bennu between December 2018 and May 2021 is also helping experts assess the impact risks that near-Earth objects (NEO) pose to the Earth. Bennu presents only a slight risk, just 1/2700 chance during encounters with the Earth through 2300. Its orbital course will be closely monitored.
NASA blames Mars rover sampling fiasco on bad, powdery rock
Associated Press (8/11): NASA’s Perseverance mission scientists and engineers believe the powdery nature of the Martian rock at the rover’s Jezero Crater landing site prevented the rover from collecting a much anticipated first rock sample. The collection attempt by drilling into a rock sample was attempted at the end of last week. Perseverance will now travel to a new site for a second collection attempt, one that scientists believe will provide a more compatible rock sample coring opportunity. NASA is joining with the European Space Agency (ESA) to return more than 30 samples collected by Perseverance for studies that could reveal whether the Red Planet once hosted biological activity.
NASA’S Juno probe creates stunning map of Jupiter’s largest moon
Futurism (8/11): Launched in August 2011, NASA’s Juno mission achieved orbit around Jupiter in July 2016 for long term, close-up observations of the solar system’s largest planet and its many moons. Observations of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, in July were focused on an icy surface believed to overlay vast oceans and a magnetic field. Lacking an atmosphere despite its large size, Ganymede is especially vulnerable to a hostile space environment.
Other News
NASA renames Plum Brook Station in honor of Ohio astronaut Neil Armstrong
WEWS-TV of Cleveland (8/11): NASA’s Plum Brook Station, a space simulation facility in Sandusky, Ohio, has been formally renamed for the late NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission and the first person to step on the lunar surface. The Neil Armstrong Test Facility renaming ceremony was held Wednesday.
Indian rocket failure blamed on upper stage malfunction
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
Spaceflightnow.com (8/12): India’s latest GSLV Mk.2 rocket launch with an Earth observation satellite experienced a third stage failure after lifting off late Wednesday, U.S. time/early Thursday local time, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast.
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