TOP NEWS

ESA Group Nominates Josef Aschbacher As Next ESA Director-General; Ratification Vote Set For Dec. 16-17

Josef Aschbacher of Austria, director of Earth observation at the 22-nation European Space Agency (ESA), has been nominated as the next ESA Director-General by a vote of ESA governments, a selection that’s expected to be ratified by these same governments in mid-December, government and industry officials said.

Aschbacher’s selection followed a five-month recruitment process by a committee led by Anna Rathsman of Sweden, chairman of ESA’s council and director-general of the Swedish National Space Agency.

Read more at: spaceintel report

Roscosmos Chief Confirms Detection of Faulty Detail in Russia’s Soyuz Rocket in Kourou

A faulty detail from suppliers was discovered in Russia’s Soyuz-ST-A rocket at Kourou spaceport, but emergencies were prevented thanks to the incorporated control system, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos, said on Tuesday.

“The ‘faulty valve’ would be launched with the rocket, and it would return to Earth being just a heap of mishap metal, that would be the problem. There are always some flaws, but in our case, they cost too much. Happily, the low-quality detail was timely detected by the quality control system. However, in general, I do note a sharp decline in our suppliers’ responsibility and quality of their work,” Rogozin wrote on Facebook.

Read more at: Sputnik news

Russia Should Look Again At Terms Of ISS Participation – Space Industry Official

Russia should consider revising the terms of its participation in the International Space Station, a Russian space industry executive said on Thursday, because it wants to focus on forming its own orbiting outpost after 2024.

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has said it will remain part of the ISS until 2024 and that it is open to extending its participation beyond then.

Read more at: Reuters

SPACE HAZARDS & STM

Lunar Gateway Instruments to Improve Weather Forecasting for Artemis Astronauts

One of the first things people want to know before taking a trip is what the weather will be like wherever they are headed. For Artemis astronauts traveling on missions to the Moon, two space weather instrument suites, NASA’s HERMES and ESA’s ERSA, will provide an early forecast. Weather in this case means energized, subatomic particles and electromagnetic fields hurtling through the solar system.

The instrument suites, named after two of Artemis’s half-siblings in Greek Mythology – Ersa, the goddess of dew, and Hermes, the messenger of the Olympian gods – will be pre-loaded on the Gateway before the first two components are launched: the Power and Propulsion Element and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost.

Read more at: NASA

Astroscale To Test Space Junk Cleanup Tech With ‘ELSA-D’ Launch In 2021

Technology that could help humanity get a handle on the growing space-junk problem will get an orbital test early next year.

The End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission will launch in March 2021 atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, representatives of the Japan-based company Astroscale announced last week.

“We now have the launch in our sights,” ELSA-d project manager Seita Iizuka said in a statement.

Read more at: Space.com

New Insights on Health Effects of Long-Duration Space Flight – 30 Scientific Papers From More Than 200 Investigators

The historic NASA Twins Study investigated identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly and provided new information on the health effects of spending time in space.

Colorado State University Professor Susan Bailey was one of more than 80 scientists across 12 universities who conducted research on the textbook experiment; Mark remained on Earth while Scott orbited high above for nearly one year. The massive effort was coordinated by NASA’s Human Research Program.

Read more at: scitech daily

Europe Signs $102M Deal To Bring Space Trash Home

The European Space Agency says it is signing a 86 million-euro ($102 million) contract with a Swiss start-up company to bring a large piece of orbital trash back to Earth.

The agency said Thursday that the deal with ClearSpace SA will lead to the “first active debris removal mission” in 2025, in which a custom-made spacecraft will capture and bring down part of a rocket once used to deliver a satellite into orbit.

Read more at: ABC news

ISRO And Russian Satellites Barely Miss Collision; How Dangerous Is This?

India’s Cartosat 2F weighing over 700kg dangerously approached the Kanopus-V spacecraft at 1.49 UTC, on Friday, according to the Russian Space Agency. In a tweet, Roscosmos has said that the minimum distance between both Russian and foreign satellite was 224 meters. Both satellites are meant for Earth’s remote sensing.

According to a source that spoke to Zee Media, 1 kilometer is an ideal distance between satellites in orbit, whereas 224 meters is scary and can be counted as a near miss. Generally, when two satellites are predicted (based on calculations) to make a close pass, a decision is taken to manoeuvre one of them away in advance(usually days ahead).

Read more at: DNA India

NEW SPACE/COMMERCIAL

Why Space Tourism From Dubai Could Be A Reality By 2023

Tourist flights into outer space could be departing from Dubai by the end of 2023, according to the CEO of EOS-X Space.

And Kemel Kharbachi, who has already had initial discussions with Dubai Tourism, told Arabian Business ambitious plans for the emirate include a 80 – 100 million Euros site to launch commercial operations as well as making the city the company’s global space hub.

He said: “This is the democratisation of space travel. In the next decade it will be more affordable and we will be there for that.”

Read more at: Arabian business

Elon Musk Explains Cause Of Spacex Starship SN8 Issue During Latest Test

Over the past couple of months, SpaceX teams at the South Texas Launch Facility located in Boca Chica Beach have been working on preparing the next Starship prototype for a higher altitude test flight. SpaceX is working towards creating a gigantic reusable spacecraft capable of transporting one hundred passengers on voyages to the Moon and Mars. Developing such ambitious spacecraft comes with challenges. Engineers are building multiple prototypes to test out. Starship SN8 (Serial No. 8) is a prototype that teams have been preparing for weeks, to launch it on a 15-kilometer test flight above Boca Chica’s sandy beach.

Read more at: tesmanian

New FAA Documents Reveal Spacex’s Latest Plans For Launching Starship Prototypes On Suborbital Flights From South Texas — And Potential Hurdles To Orbit

The Federal Aviation Administration has published several key documents and a new website tied to SpaceX’s future in Boca Chica, Texas.

The aerospace company is moving briskly at the site to develop, build, and launch a nearly 400-foot-tall launcher called Starship-Super Heavy. If the system — a steel spaceship and rocket booster — is realized as founder Elon Musk has envisioned, it could reduce the cost of access to low-Earth orbit by about 1,000-fold, revolutionize travel, send people to the moon, and maybe help populate Mars.

Read more at: Business insider

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