In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA to announce its next class of astronauts today. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is set to launch tomorrow with DoD and NASA experiments. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to open new Gateway attraction.
Human Space Flight
NASA will announce its next astronaut class on Monday and you can watch it live
Space.com (12/5): NASA will introduce its next class of astronaut candidates in Houston on Monday at 12:30 p.m. EST. More than 12,000 Americans applied for the opportunity to train for future missions to establish a sustained human presence at the Moon to prepare for future human expeditions to Mars as well as serve aboard the International Space Station (ISS). NASA will air the announcement ceremony over NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/nasalive.
China’s manned Moon landing possible before 2030: scientist
Xinhuanet of China (12/5): Ye Peijian, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a lunar spacecraft designer, made the 2030 prediction on China’s CCTV. “I personally think that as long as the technological research for manned Moon landing continues, and as long as the country is determined (to achieve the goal), it is entirely possible for China to land people on the Moon before 2030,” said Ye. (Editor’s note: Xinhuanet is a Chinese government-owned news source).
Space Station dodges space debris from decades-old Pegasus rocket
Space.com (12/3): The International Space Station (ISS) maneuvered early Friday to avoid a piece of debris that originated from a Pegasus rocket launched in May of 1994, whose second stage broke apart in June of 1996. The 161-second maneuver to lower the ISS’s altitude was executed using thrusters on a Progress cargo vehicle docked to the ISS’s Russian segment.
Space Science
Venus shines at its highest in the night sky this week. How to see it
Space.com (12/5): See neighboring planet Venus at its brightest in the night sky to the southwest as the sun sets in the coming days. Venus, near the Moon, is also in the company of Saturn and Jupiter in the night sky at dusk.
Other News
ULA set to launch Atlas V on long duration mission for Space Force
Coalition Members in the News – Northrop Grumman, United Launch Alliance
NASASpaceflight.com (12/4): United Launch Alliance (ULA) is preparing for the 90th launch of an Atlas V rocket and their fifth and final mission of 2021. Launching from SLC-41 (Space Launch Complex 41) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the STP-3 mission will loft two experimental satellites for the U.S. Space Force. The mission will also test several new technologies onboard the company’s Atlas V launch vehicle during the longest duration mission for an Atlas rocket to date. Liftoff is scheduled for December 7 at 4:04 AM EST (9:04 UTC).
U.S. was not blindsided by Russia’s anti-satellite test, say officials
Coalition Member in the News – L3Harris
SpaceNews.com (12/5): Russia’s mid-November anti-satellite test prompted alarm and global criticism as it introduced at least 1,500 new pieces of orbital debris into low Earth orbit. Officials said December 4 at the Reagan National Defense Forum that the U.S. military for years has watched Russia’s attempts to demonstrate it could destroy a satellite with a ground-based weapon, so the November 15 missile test did not come as a complete shock. At the event, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said Russia attempted to do this several times in recent years and failed, so it was predictable that they would keep trying until they scored a hit. “It’s part of a pattern,” said Cooper, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces.
Arianespace launches Galileo navigation satellites in final mission before Webb
Spaceflightnow.com (12/5): Two European Galileo navigation satellites were launched from the European Spaceport in French Guiana atop Soyuz ST-B Fregat on Saturday at 7:19 p.m. EST. Next up for launch from the spaceport is the launch of the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) planned for December 22.
Kennedy Space Center’s new Gateway attraction to showcase future of space travel
Coalition Members in the News – Boeing, United Launch Alliance
Spectrum News 13 of Orlando (12/3): A March 2022 opening for a new public attraction, Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex, is planned for the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex (KSCVC). The multi-level 50,000 square foot display is focused on the future as well as the past of space exploration. The display will include the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) Orion capsule, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, and United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of December 5-11, 2021
Coalition Member in the News – United Launch Alliance
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/5): NASA will introduce its 2021 astronaut candidate selections on Monday at 12:30 p.m. EST from Houston’s Ellington Airport www.nasa.gov/nasalive. Two Japanese space tourists are to launch from Kazakhstan on Wednesday at 2:38 a.m. EST, aboard a Soyuz rocket for a 12-day round trip to the International Space Station (ISS). They are entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and film producer Yozo Hirano. They will be in the company of veteran cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard is to launch with six passengers from East Texas on Thursday at 10 a.m. EST. The passenger manifest includes Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of the late Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and Michael Strahan, a host of ABC’s Good Morning America. The Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer, a NASA led satellite mission in partnership with the Italian Space Agency, is set to launch Thursday at 1 a.m. EST, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). In Washington, Congress last week updated an earlier budget continuing resolution that will be effective through February 18 and preventing a shutdown of the federal government.
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