Watch scientists discuss the latest research on killer asteroids

Astronomers, astronauts and other near-Earth object experts from around the world are gathering next week in Luxembourg to talk about asteroids. If you tune in to the Asteroid Foundation’s live event on International Asteroid Day (which is June 30), you can hear about the latest in space rock research. The four hour event will consist of panel discussions on future missions, advances in technology, how scientists track and discover asteroids and what resources might be gleaned from asteroids. It will be moderated by Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project, the astronomer Phil Plait, Asteroid Day’s editorial director Stuart Clark and Patrick Michel, director of research at CNRS of the Côte d’Azur Observatory.

“Asteroid Day reminds the world of just how important these celestial objects are. They hold the keys to understanding the formation of the Solar System, provide stepping stones we will utilize to explore our solar system, and occasionally they hit our planet,” said Dr Dorin Prunariu, Vice-Chair of the Asteroid Foundation in a press release. The Asteroid Day event will also feature pre-recorded interviews from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which is currently on its way back to Earth after collecting samples from the asteroid Bennu.

Detecting asteroids is a tricky science, and scientists still manage to miss a large number that are potentially dangerous. NASA has detected nearly 16,000 near-Earth objects, which are objects within approximately 45 million kilometers of our planet’s orbit. As The Conversation notes, while extinction-level asteroids are very rare, smaller space rocks such as the one that hit Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 or the 10,000-ton space rock that hit the Russian city of Chelyabinsk are also capable of doing damage. And there have been plenty of near misses. Scientists estimate that in 2029, a 1,120 feet asteroid known as Apophis will miss Earth by a mere 19,000 miles.

You can stream Asteroid Day’s program on June 30 at 11 am CET (or 5 am EDT) on Asteroid Day’s website, TwitchTV or YouTube.

NASA picks three companies to develop lunar nuclear power systems

NASA and the Department of Energy have awarded contracts to three companies that are designing concepts to bring nuclear power to the Moon. The agencies will award Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse and IX around $5 million each to fund the design of a fission surface power system, an idea that NASA has been working on for at least 14 years. 

The three companies are being tasked with developing a 40-kilowatt class fission power system that can run for at least 10 years on the lunar surface. NASA hopes to test the system on the Moon as soon as the end of this decade. If the demonstration proves successful, it could lead to nuclear energy powering long-term missions on the Moon and Mars as part of the Artemis program. “Developing these early designs will help us lay the groundwork for powering our long-term human presence on other worlds,” Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

Under the 12-month contracts, Lockheed Martin will partner with BWXT and Creare. Westinghouse will team up with Aerojet Rocketdyne, while IX (a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy) will work with Maxar and Boeing on a proposal.

Lockheed Martin was one of three companies chosen by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency last year to develop nuclear-powered spacecraft. The Defense Department has also sought nuclear propulsion systems for spacecraft.

NASA finally succeeds with its Artemis 1 wet launch test

NASA encountered a couple of issues while conducting the Artemis 1 “wet dress rehearsal,” but it still checked off a major milestone by the time the test had ended. The agency was able to fully fuel all the Space Launch System’s propellant tanks for the first time and was able to proceed to terminal launch countdown. “Wet dress rehearsals,” as they’re called, are tests that simulate a rocket launch without the rocket actually lifting off. The launch team had to cut short three previous attempts at fueling the SLS earlier this year due to various leaks and other issues that have already been corrected. 

This attempt wasn’t flawless either: NASA had to put fueling on hold a couple of times since the rehearsal started on Saturday. Fueling was first put on hold on early Monday morning due to an issue with the rocket’s backup supply of gaseous nitrogen. The team was able to repair the valve for the gaseous nitrogen line, however, and fueling recommenced a couple of hours later. As CNN notes, though, a few issues popped up just as the team was finishing up the fueling process on Monday afternoon. They discovered a hydrogen leak and had to find options to seal it after their first solution didn’t work. Plus, the flare stack, which burns excess liquid hydrogen from the rocket, caused a small fire in the grassy area around the launch site. 

In the end, the launch controllers came up with a plan to mask data associated with the leak so as not trigger a hold by the launch computer. That wouldn’t fly in a real launch scenario, but they wanted to get as far into the countdown as possible to gather the data they need. They were successfully able to resume the 10-minute final launch countdown after an extended hold and got to T-29 seconds before they had to end the test completely. The launch team originally planned to let the countdown get to until T-33 seconds before the launch is supposed to occur. They then intended to restart the timer and repeat the countdown until around T-9 seconds before launch. 

Regardless, they successfully performed several critical operations needed for launch during the test, including handing over control from the ground launch sequencer to the automated launch sequencer controlled by the rocket’s flight software. NASA will now assess the data collected from the test to determine whether it can finally set an official launch date for Artemis 1, which will send an unmanned Orion spacecraft on a mission to fly around the Moon, with the earliest possible date being sometime in August. The agency will hold a conference about the test today, June 21st, at 11AM, and you can watch the stream live on its website.

NASA begins fourth Artemis 1 rocket ‘wet dress rehearsal’ fueling test today

With repairs complete and the rocket in place at its designated launch pad, NASA is ready to once again attempt a critical fueling test of its next-generation Space Launch System. Per Space.com, the Artemis 1 “wet dress rehearsal” will begin at 5PM ET today with a call to stations for ground personnel at Kennedy Space Center.

Over the next 48 hours, technicians will attempt loading the rocket’s first and second stages with cryogenic fuel. Provided there aren’t major setbacks, they will then try to load it with propellant starting Monday morning. If the test is successful, the Artemis 1 mission could get underway as early as July 26th.

For the oft-delayed SLS, this is its second trip to historic Launch Pad 39B. Following an initial attempt at the wet dress rehearsal on April 1st, NASA tried to complete a modified version of the fueling test on April 14th, but that was cut short after the agency discovered a hydrogen leak in the rocket’s mobile launch tower. NASA eventually decided to move the SLS back to the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs and to give a critical nitrogen supplier time to complete capacity upgrades.

Once the wet dress rehearsal is complete, NASA can finally move forward with Artemis 1. The mission will send an unmanned Orion capsule on a flight around the Moon. The next two Artemis missions would feature human astronauts, with an eye toward a lunar landing sometime in 2025 or 2026.

SpaceX faces more Starship delays as NASA seeks launch safety assurances

The explosive demise on SN-10 last year broke more than SpaceX’s Starship prototype. It’s also spurred NASA to put a pin in plans for the vessel to use Cape Canaveral as a backup launchpad, at least until the company can provide evidence that another blow up on the pad won’t damage infrastructure critical to resupplying the ISS.

The situation is this: Plans for the primary launchpad SpaceX wants in Boca Chica, Texas for the upcoming Starship rocket is already facing lengthy regulatory delays (though the review phase is expected to wrap up next week). The Army Corps of Engineers in April also denied the company’s application to expand Galveston-area launch site after SpaceX failed to provide required documentation. 

The company has also been rapidly constructing a secondary launch pad at its Cape Canaveral facility but those plans are now on hold. The problem is that SpaceX’s new Starship launch pad sits just a few hundred feet from NASA’s launchpad 39A, you know, the only NASA launch pad currently in existence that SpaceX’s Dragon Crew is approved to launch from. Should another Starship — which relies on an mix of liquid nitrogen and methane as fuel that is unfamiliar to regulators — go kablooey, the explosive force and ship shrapnel could damage launch complex 39A. And with no 39A, we have no more crewed missions to the ISS until it gets fixed.

“We all recognize that if you had an early failure like we did on one of the early SpaceX flights, it would be pretty devastating to 39A,” Kathy Lueders, NASA’s space operations chief, told Reuters. 

SpaceX, which has already invested heavily in the construction of its now-paused platform, has offered to try to “harden” pad 39A against the forces imparted by both successful and unsuccessful Starship launches as well as build up launch complex 40, located about 5 miles away, with crew launching capabilities. Both of those options would still require agency approval as well as months if not years of construction to get ready. 

Astra 的火箭發射再次失敗，NASA 損失兩枚氣象立方衛星

Astra 稍早為 NASA 發射兩枚名為 TROPICS 的氣象立方衛星到低地軌道，起初由發射過程一直到上下級火箭分離都一切順利，然而就在最後階段火箭即將入軌時，上級火箭卻意外熄火了，使得 TROPICS 無法進入軌道，與上級火箭一同焚毀在大氣中。…