Interesting speculation on SLS and potential changes to the Artemis architecture:

Multiple sources have told Ars that the SLS rocket—which has long had staunch backing from Congress—is now on the chopping block. No final decisions have been made, but a tentative deal is in place with lawmakers to end the rocket in exchange for moving US Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama.

So how would NASA astronauts get to the Moon without the SLS rocket? Nothing is final, and the trade space is open. One possible scenario being discussed for future Artemis missions is to launch the Orion spacecraft on a New Glenn rocket into low-Earth orbit. There, it could dock with a Centaur upper stage that would launch on a Vulcan rocket. This Centaur stage would then boost Orion toward lunar orbit.

Disappointing, but not a big surprise. At least they’ve finally shared some info on the heatshield issue:

Although the launch and lunar laps went well, the capsule returned with an excessively charred and eroded bottom heat shield, damaged from the heat of reentry. It took until recently for engineers to pinpoint the cause and come up with a plan.

NASA will use the Orion capsule with its original heat shield for the next flight with four astronauts, according to Nelson, but make changes to the reentry path at flight’s end. To rip off and replace the heat shield would have meant at least a full year’s delay and stalled the moon landing even further, officials said.

During the flight test, NASA had the capsule dip in and out of the atmosphere during reentry, and gases built up in the heat shield’s outer layer, officials said. That resulted in cracking and uneven shedding of the outer material.

When they say “NASA will use the Orion capsule with its original heat shield for the next flight”, are they referring to the original design, or the actual original Artemis I heatshield which has been charred and eroded?

The Mormons have satellites now?

@NABDad@lemmy.world Technology Connections has a great video on these. They’re neat, but not great at turning energy into light, and not great for one’s health when used indoors.

I’m not aware of any TV shows he hosts, but the closest would probably be the Inspiration4 Netflix docuseries.

Ooh, pretty! Any fragments survive until they hit the ground?

I just can’t understand how VIPER’s projected costs are so high. The rover is already built, and its ride to the Moon will be launching whether VIPER is on it or not. What else is there to do?

It would be nice if we could get some samples back within a decade. Looking forward to seeing what architecture they decide on.

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

Seems pretty cool! That required a lot less epoxy than I (and they) expected.

That said, I’m still not convinced that ruggedizing satellites will be worth the bother for marginally cheaper launch costs in the long term. I think SpinLaunch would be better suited for launching raw materials, especially from bodies without an atmosphere, like the Moon or asteroids.

Thanks! I’ve updated the dateful link in the main post.

Edited to add:

Link to tweet from ISRO: https://x.com/isro/status/1864245517234139445

Update from Josef Aschbacher: https://x.com/AschbacherJosef/status/1864283463232246264

During Proba3’s pre-launch preparations at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India, an anomaly in the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph Spacecraft occurred. This propulsion system is part of the attitude and orbit control subsystem of the satellite and used to maintain orientation and pointing in space.

The anomaly is currently under detailed investigation. The use of a software solution by the mission control team at @ESA’s ESEC centre at Redu, Belgium is being evaluated to allow a launch on Thursday 5 December at 11:34 CET (10:34 GMT, 16:04 local time). #Proba3

Not too much info on the anomaly, but now we know it is a propulsion system issue.

It’s not quite a Falcon 9 clone, but it is a kerolox vehicle of a similar size and shape. The engine layout on the booster doesn’t lend itself to propulsive landings, but it seems like it is a could be a stepping stone towards reusability, either with a larger vehicle, or a different engine:

A reusable version of the engine, the YF-100N, is also being developed.

SAST has also revealed plans to develop reusable methane-liquid oxygen launchers. It has conducted a successful vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test using a 3.8-meter-diameter methalox test article

“We found aliens! Wait no, it’s actually just us again…”

Oops, it’s just us Earthlings again.

Thanks for sharing! That was an interesting read. It would be cool if we could one day recover the satellite to study why the batteries un-short-circuited themselves.

What if a child were given raw milk by their parents? Should a child be forced to pay for their parents’ decisions, potentially with their life?

They’ve already got the Shenlong, which is analogous to the X-37. This new spaceplane looks more like Dream Chaser.

Microbes: “It’s free real estate”

I think that they didn’t announce it at the time of. We learned of the test only from a recent statement, several weeks after the mission took place.

Was there a non-Commordore version?