But he, himself, is clearly not gone. Earlier this week, Rogozin authored an op-ed in Forbes about Crew Dragon and Russia’s plans in space. Roscosmos has since published an English version, and in it Rogozin is far less complimentary of SpaceX and NASA.
“Elon Musk did not bring us down—he brought down his compatriots.”
More time was allotted for the United Launch Alliance team to make repairs to ground system equipment. Liftoff atop an Atlas V rocket is set for 6:15 a.m. PT (9:15 a.m. ET, 1315 UTC). https://go.nasa.gov/2JvRbLq
Our newest water-seeking rover just booked a ride to the Moon’s South Pole.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic has been selected to deliver VIPER to the Moon in 2023 in preparation for future #Artemis missions to bring humanity to the lunar surface: https://go.nasa.gov/2YsxZFw
After sending NASA astronauts to the ISS, SpaceX is focusing back on the Mars-colonizing Starship project.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tells me that despite the pandemic, the agency will do its utmost to meet the 2024 Artemis lunar return deadline.
“We continue to assess the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our missions, but we strongly believe that we can still meet the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told me via a headquarters’ spokesperson.
Yet NASA has also experienced shakeups in its human spaceflight directorate that could hinder meeting Artemis’ goals. Case in point, Doug Laverro, Associate Administrator of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, departed less than a month ago.
Continue reading “What A Trump Loss In November Would Mean For NASA’s Lunar Return” »
Good idea. I wonder how much of his attention will shift from Mars to the Moon.
Elon has tweeted out that early Starships will stay on the moon as part of moon base alpha.
The SpaceX plan is what Nextbigfuture described in last months article “A Sky Full of Starships”.
Continue reading “Early SpaceX Starship Will Stay as Moon Bases” »
In the March 1988 issue of Popular Mechanics, the legendary science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote an article describing his vision for humanity’s return to the moon.
WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is performing well enough on orbit to give NASA confidence that the mission can last until August, an agency official said June 9.
Ken Bowersox, the acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA, told an online meeting of two National Academies committees that NASA had been monitoring the health of the Crew Dragon spacecraft since its launch May 30 on the Demo-2 mission, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station.
NASA, he noted, had not set a length for the mission, saying they wanted to see how the Dragon performed in space. “The Dragon is doing very well, so we think it’s reasonable for the crew to stay up there a month or two,” he told members of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board.
WASHINGTON — For the second time in less than 18 months, SpaceX has abandoned plans to build a manufacturing facility at the Port of Los Angeles for its next-generation Starship launch vehicle.
In a March 27 letter obtained by SpaceNews, SpaceX notified the Port of Los Angeles that it was terminating a lease approved just a month earlier for a parcel of land at the port. News of the lease termination was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The letter, signed by Bret Johnsen, SpaceX’s chief financial officer, served as a 45-day notice of SpaceX’s intent to terminate the lease, making the effective end date of the lease May 11. The letter did not explain why the company was terminating the lease.
A week after their arrival, SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have given their first interview from the International Space Station.
