Space

NASA and SpaceX this week will focus on closing out an assessment of changes made to the toilet aboard the Crew-3 Dragon spacecraft prior to its scheduled Oct. 31 launch to the International Space Station.

Japan successfully launched the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA rocket on the morning of Oct. 26 local time from the Tanegashima Space Center.

A team of heritage and new space companies headed by Blue Origin and Sierra Space plan to build, launch and operate an International Space Station-class commercial outpost in low Earth orbit that can be tailored and expanded to accommodate a broad array of scientific, technological, business, entertainment and other pursuits.

After conducting four crewed spaceflights, including a commercial mission without NASA oversight, SpaceX has won Russia’s backing to fly cosmonauts on its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Israel Aerospace Industries is adding a miniaturized, 1,500-lb. geostationary communications satellite to its product line.

With the initial Space Launch System (SLS) assembly now complete at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the agency is looking to a Feb. 12-27 launch window for its uncrewed Artemis I test flight to the Moon.

Russia’s Progress MS-17 cargo capsule carried out a successful autonomous redocking with the International Space Station’s Russian segment Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module early Oct. 22 to complete a nearly 29-hr. relocation to set up Nauka propellant line leak checks.

The successful mission of a Russian movie crew to the International Space Station (ISS) Oct. 5-16 suggests the state space corporation Roscosmos is poised to resume a space tourism program. But despite the busy delivery schedule at the end of 2021, new space travelers are likely to fly Russian ships no earlier than 2023.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Ahead of NASA’s selection of up to four proposals to support development of commercial space stations, a team led by Nanoracks unveiled plans on Oct. 21 for a four-person outpost called Starlab, with initial operational capability expected by 2027.

The French ministry of armed forces is poised to improve its military communications with the upcoming launch of the Syracuse 4A satellite.

An Ariane 5 heavy launcher is to send the SES-17 satellite into orbit during the night of Oct. 22-23 local time at Arianespace’s Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport, as Thales seeks to capture half of the crucial North American inflight connectivity market.

The U.S. Space Force has taken the next step to create a "deterrence layer" of orbital space vehicles that will keep track of enemy spacecraft.

South Korea successfully launched its first domestically developed and manufactured launch vehicle to space on Oct. 21, but the Korea Space Launch Vehicle II “Nuri” failed to place a dummy satellite into orbit as planned.

In testimony before the U.S. House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Oct. 20, NASA made it clear the agency faces significant strategic and technical challenges in developing a nuclear propulsion capability to lead the way for the human exploration of Mars by the end of the 2030s.

Scotland is hoping that its space industry can contribute more than £4 billion ($5.53 billion) to its economy by 2030.

Attempts to fully unfurl and latch a solar array on NASA’s recently launched Lucy asteroid probe will resume no earlier than the end of next week, NASA said on Oct. 19.

Science fiction becomes science fact as iconic Star Trek actor flies in space.

Actor returns from spaceflight deeply touched by experience.

The mission, which is costing NASA $981 million, including the launch, is the first to the Trojan asteroids.

The Australian location will provide good coverage of launch corridors from East Asia, and improve space coverage in the Southern Hemisphere.

Boeing is nearing the end of a winding technical analysis of a valve problem that scotched plans for an uncrewed orbital flight test of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in August.

NASA has named an astronaut flight training hangar in honor of the late John Young, who launched on six space missions and served as commander of the Apollo 16 Moon landing and the first space shuttle mission.

NASA has selected the small Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) from 18 space telescope proposals for further development and launch in 2025 to investigate the origin of chemical elements in the Milky Way.

The Lucy spacecraft, which launched on Oct. 16 on a mission to explore seven Jupiter Trojan asteroids, may have an issue with one of its 24-ft.-dia. solar arrays, the agency said on Oct. 17.