Odie’s epic journey going smoothly

So far, everything is going as planned with the IM-1 mission to the moon. According to the Intuitive Machines X account, the lunar lander Odysseus – Odie to his friends – is scheduled to arrive at the moon at 4:30 p.m. CST (22:30 UTC) on Thursday, February 22, 2024.

At present, Odie is gliding across space between Earth and its target. Unlike its namesake’s journey home from the Trojan War, the IM-1 mission progress has been smooth sailing.

The dedicated spaceflight watchers at The Launch Pad Network are providing live tracking of the IM-1 mission as it approaches the moon. You can watch it via YouTube or at the player embedded above.

Here’s the timeline that Intuitive Machines shared on X on Wednesday:

Flight controllers analyzed the post-Lunar Orbit Insertion engine burn data and updated the anticipated flight maneuver timing, including an expected 1630 CST landing opportunity on Thursday. The landing opportunity will be Odysseus’ hardest challenge yet. The lander continues to… pic.twitter.com/T6ULovaOPf

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 21, 2024

On February 21, Intuitive Machines shared this image on X, showing that the moon is looming large in Odie’s sight!

Odysseus passes over the near side of the Moon following lunar orbit insertion on 21FEB2024. The lander continues to be in excellent health in lunar orbit.
(21FEB2024 1608 CST) pic.twitter.com/UX4kgkv5EW

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 21, 2024

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First views from IM-1 on the way to the moon

Intuitive Machines successfully transmitted its first IM-1 mission images to Earth on February 16, 2024. The images were captured shortly after separation from @SpaceX's second stage on Intuitive Machines’ first journey to the Moon under @NASA's CLPS initiative. pic.twitter.com/9LccL6q5tF

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 17, 2024

IM-1 took its first images, a look back at Earth, on February 16, 2024. Intuitive Machines shared these images on X/Twitter on February 17. You can follow along with their updates here or on X.

The IM-1 mission to land on the Moon has triumphed over numerous challenges, showcasing exceptional resilience, innovation, and teamwork.

Intuitive Machines expects to land on the Moon at 1649 CST on Thursday, February 22nd. pic.twitter.com/gKbek2222S

— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 20, 2024

IM-1 lunar lander launched February 15

The Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar lander rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 out of Kennedy Space Center on February 15. It lifted off at 1:05 a.m. Eastern Time from historic launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Notably, the early morning launch was a return to lunar service for KSC’s Launch Complex 39A, which hosted all but one of the crewed Apollo missions to the moon.

And, if it has the right stuff, then the IM-1 lander – nicknamed Odie – could be the first American spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon’s surface since the final Apollo mission touched down in 1972.

The craft is set for a lunar landing on February 22.

Have spacecraft, will travel

While IM-1 will deliver a handful of NASA science payloads, it will be carrying commercial cargo, too. Intuitive Machines says this mission will be the first of many private payloads it will carry to Earth’s natural satellite:

IM-1 is a trailblazing mission aimed at creating a commercial lunar economy, delivering commercial payloads and NASA science and technology payloads that will pave the way for a sustainable human presence on and around the moon.

The Odysseus lander (or Odie) is a hexagonal cylinder about 13 feet (four meters) tall and five feet (1.5 meters) wide. The 4,200-pound (1,900-kg) vehicle can carry up to 220 pounds (100 kg) of cargo with it to the moon.

Heading for the moon’s South Pole

The lander is heading for the lunar South Pole:

The lander will land on the moon at Malapert, a crater near the South Pole. The landing will take place on February 22. The lander is capable of operating for about 14 Earth days in sunlight.

IM’s contract with NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) includes three missions total. This mission comes just one month after another private company – Astrobotic – attempted to land on the moon. That mission, Peregrine, developed a fuel leak soon after liftoff and eventually crashed back to Earth. Also, Japan’s space agency landed a mission on the moon last month as well, named SLIM, but it landed upside down.

Bottom line: The Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar lander – nicknamed Odie – will land on the moon at 4:30 p.m. CST (22:30 UTC) on Thursday, February 22, 2024.

Via Intuitive Machines

Via NASA

The post IM-1 lunar lander touchdown set for Thursday. Track it live! first appeared on EarthSky.

Spring 2024 is is going to be the season of the cicada

• Researchers predict the emergence of trillions of cicadas across the eastern U.S. this spring.
• Cicadas follow 13- and 17-year cycles. This rare double cicada mega-brood emergence happens only once every 221 years.
• Cicadas are harmless to humans. Though sometimes confused with locusts, their potential harm to plants isn’t too serious. No need to break out the insecticides. On the other hand, cicadas can be loud. Their buzzing reaches up to 106.7 decibels.

Researchers at the University of Connecticut are predicting the emergence of trillions of cicadas – the red-eyed, chirping, winged insects – across the United States this spring. But don’t worry. They won’t all be coming out at once or in the same region.

Cicadas – members of the order Hemiptera along with stink bugs, bed bugs and aphids – spend as long as 17 years underground before emerging as adults. This year, the bugs will dig their way to freedom across 1.5 million acres throughout the Eastern U.S., an area roughly the same size as the state of Delaware.

The UConn researchers describe it this way:

If we accept an estimate of a million cicadas per acre and if the total combined area of a periodical cicada emergence is roughly the size of Delaware, then more than a trillion cicadas will be involved. For 2024, since cicadas will emerge from Maryland to Oklahoma, Illinois to Alabama, clearly, trillions of adult cicadas will be present – but not all in the same place at the same time.

Some cicadas will emerge as early as March, but the big coming-out will be in April and May, depending on the weather.

2024 lunar calendars on sale now. Makes a great gift! Order here.

Rare double cicada mega-brood emergence

CicadaSafari.org says 2024 will be a banner year for cicadas, as two of the biggest broods will emerge at the same time in bordering areas of the Midwest:

The 17-year Brood XIII will emerge in Northern Illinois, while the 13-year Brood XIX will emerge in parts of Southeastern United States. It is not common to have a dual emergence between Broods XIII and XIX. They occur once every 221 years, and the last time these two broods emerged together was in 1803.

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States, and Lewis and Clark started their exploration of the Louisiana Purchase.

The areas where Brood XIII and Brood XIX occur mostly don’t overlap, according to the cicada experts at UConn. However, there could be small areas where both broods are active:

The greatest likelihood of contact between these broods is around Springfield, Illinois. … While there may be scattered woods in which both broods are present, there will be no broad overlap, and it will be impossible, in 2024, to identify any areas of overlap, large or small.

CicadaSafari.org offers tips on where to see cicadas, all kinds of cicada facts and figures, and has a cicada tracking app so amateur entomologists can get in on the cicada action.

Cicadas are subterranean math wizards

A common misconception is cicadas are a kind of locust or grasshopper. They aren’t. With their large red eyes and long body, cicadas do resemble locusts but instead are “true insects” of the order Hemiptera.

Cicadas appear on every continent but Antarctica. There are 190 varieties of cicada in North America, and about 3,400 varieties recorded worldwide so far. Some kinds of cicadas appear every year, while the periodic cicadas appear on 13- and 17-year cycles.

As fryrsquared explains via TikTok, 13 and 17 are prime numbers that can’t be factored. This means Brood XIII with its 17-year cycle and Brood XIX with its 13-year cycle can only emerge together every 221 years.

@fryrsquared The big news story of 2024 that literally no one is talking about ? #2024 #math #maths #circada ? original sound – fryrsquared

Don’t spray the cicadas!

Cicadas are loud but basically harmless to humans and the environment, so there’s no need to break out the insecticide. When they emerge, the only thing they’re interested in is mating and laying eggs, says UConn:

Cicadas do not possess special defensive mechanisms — they do not sting or bite. The ovipositor is used only for laying eggs and the mouthparts are used only for feeding on twigs; thus, periodical cicadas can hurt you only if they mistake you for a tree branch!

Cicadas will fly off when they feel threatened, and the males will make their iconic buzz. That buzz – produced when males flex drum-like organs called tymbals – is loud, reaching up to 106.7 decibels, about the same as a chain saw.

The male cicadas sing during the day to attract females. Dog-day (annual) cicadas tend to sing more in late afternoon and evening. Each cicada species has its own distinctive sound to avoid attracting the wrong cicada. Typically, periodical cicada emergences consist of three species, that can be distinguished by the male songs as well as by slight differences in their appearance. The nymphs of these cicadas feed on the roots of trees and shrubs.

Insects are disappearing

Leaving all insects alone is probably a good idea these days. According to a peer-reviewed study by German biologists published in 2017, the biomass of winged insects has declined by 76% since 1990. The researchers warn this decline in insect populations could have devastating effects across the entire global environment:

For example, 80% of wild plants are estimated to depend on insects for pollination, while 60% of birds rely on insects as a food source. The ecosystem services provided by wild insects have been estimated at $57 billion annually in the USA. Clearly, preserving insect abundance and diversity should constitute a prime conservation priority.

If you take any photos of the cicadas emerging this spring, send them to us!

Bottom line: Trillions of harmless cicadas will emerge in the Eastern U.S. this spring. The song of the cicadas may be loud, but the insects are basically harmless.

Read more: Insects have declined worldwide since 1925

The post Cicadas by the TRILLIONS emerging this spring! first appeared on EarthSky.

A cat’s tail in Beta Pictoris

Beta Pictoris is an astonishing nearby star system. In 1984, it became the very first star discovered to be surrounded by a bright disk of dust and debris. New planets are forming in this debris disk, and so the discovery confirmed astronomers’ theories on how planets form. And this beloved system continues to stun observers. On January 10, 2024, NASA said the enhanced power of the Webb space telescope has revealed an unusual and unexpected feature of the Beta Pictoris debris disk: a trail of dust some a 10 billion miles long (16 billion km long) extending from the star and looking for all the world like the flicking tail of a cat.

The peer-reviewed Astronomical Journal accepted a paper on the new discovery for publication in its February 2024 issue.

Isabel Rebollido of the Astrobiology Center in Spain and the study’s lead author described why this enigmatic star system continues to enthrall astronomers:

Beta Pictoris is the debris disk that has it all: It has a really bright, close star that we can study very well, and a complex cirumstellar environment with a multicomponent disk, exocomets, and two imaged exoplanets.

Overall, the papers’ authors estimate the cat’s tail contains an amount of dust equivalent to a large main belt asteroid.

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Recent collision likely source of cat’s tail

The scientists who discovered the feline feature of Beta Pictoris think it may be evidence of a cataclysmic collision of objects in the star’s highly active debris disk. Moreover, they think it happened relatively recently, within the last 100 years or so.

Marshall Perrin, a co-author of the study at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, describes how the dust trail may have formed:

Something happens – like a collision – and a lot of dust is produced. At first, the dust goes in the same orbital direction as its source, but then it also starts to spread out. The light from the star pushes the smallest, fluffiest dust particles away from the star faster, while the bigger grains do not move as much, creating a long tendril of dust.

The high speed of the particles in the tail led the researchers to believe it consists of lightweight organic refractory material. Organic refractory material is the dark, dusty stuff found on the surface of comets and asteroids orbiting the sun. Indeed, we recently got a good look at some of it when OSIRIS-REx brought a sample of asteroid Bennu back to Earth.

The cat’s tail is bright in infrared

Eyes are the part of a cat one thinks of as glowing, but this cosmic cat’s tail shines too, yet only in the infrared spectrum. Astronomers used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to make the discovery. The researchers were investigating the composition of Beta Pictoris’s previously detected main and secondary debris disks.

Christopher Stark, a co-author of the study at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the team was surprised by what they found:

We didn’t expect Webb to reveal that there are two different types of material around Beta Pictoris, but MIRI clearly showed us that the material of the secondary disk and cat’s tail is hotter than the main disk. The dust that forms that disk and tail must be very dark, so we don’t easily see it at visible wavelengths. But in the mid-infrared, it’s glowing.

Beta Pictoris is an active, busy and chaotic system

In addition, the recent investigation into Beta Pictoris also showed the star’s secondary debris disk is elongated in the opposite direction from the cat’s tail feature. Dust in the tail and the secondary disk share a temperature different from that in the star’s main debris disk. Consequently, this insight led the researchers to speculate a single collision may be responsible for both features.

Beta Pictoris, they said, has a lot going on:

Our research suggests that Beta Pictoris may be even more active and chaotic than we had previously thought. Webb continues to surprise us, even when looking at the most well-studied objects. We have a completely new window into these planetary systems.

See Beta Pictoris for yourself tonight

If you live far enough south on Earth’s globe, you can easily spot the star Beta Pictoris (though not its disk) with the unaided eye. From its distance of 63 light-years away, this star shines at magnitude 3.85, meaning it’s within the range of vision to the eye alone, in a dark sky. It lies in the direction of our constellation Pictor, the painter’s easel, which is visible in the sky now to those in the southern U.S. and similar latitudes. And it’s easy to find! It lies to the northwest of Canopus, another beloved star, and the 2nd-brightest star in Earth’s night sky.

And, while you gaze at its distant light, you can reflect on how Beta Pictoris has refined our understanding of star systems. The exoplanets astronomers have detected in the star’s orbit (Beta Pic b and c) are among the only ones we’ve imaged directly from Earth. We even have a movie of it circling its star.

Additionally, Beta Pictoris was also the first star to confirm other systems harbor comets. And we’ve found at least 30 so far!

Bottom line: Astronomers using the Webb space telescope discovered a cat’s tail of dust extending from the nearby star Beta Pictoris.

Source: JWST-TST High Contrast: Asymmetries, Dust Populations, and Hints of a Collision in the b Pictoris Disk with NIRCam and MIRI

Via NASA’s Webb Space Telescope

Read more:
Exoplanet’s day lasts only 8 hours
Wow! Amazing timelapse of Beta Pictoris b
Astronomers capture 1st direct image of young giant exoplanet

The post Webb sees a cat’s tail in Beta Pictoris first appeared on EarthSky.

SLIM makes soft landing on the moon

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) safely landed its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon – aka SLIM – on the lunar surface. Japan thus became the 5th earthly nation to reach the moon. So, Japan achieved its main objective, landing softly on the lunar surface. But all was not well with the uncrewed craft. Its solar array suffered a glitch. Last we heard, JAXA was rushing to gather data from the moon’s surface, before SLIM goes silent. Mission control is still assessing data to determine if the lander met the second goal, a pinpoint landing within 100 meters (330 feet) of its target.

JAXA issued a quick statement:

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has confirmed that the Small Lunar Lander Demonstration Vehicle (SLIM) landed on the lunar surface at 0:20 a.m. on January 20, 2024 (Japan Standard Time/15:20 UTC on January 19). Communication has been established after landing.

However, the solar cells are not generating electricity, so we are currently prioritizing data acquisition from the lunar surface.

In the future, we will proceed with detailed analysis of the obtained data. We will keep you updated on the future situation.

That’s all.

They also provided a composite video of SLIM’s view of the lunar surface as it descended.

This is an animation made by connecting the images taken by the navigation camera during the Far Moon Descent Maneuver (ADM)!

??????????ADM???????????????????????????????????????#SLIM #JAXA #?????? pic.twitter.com/hojPWUVBpH

— ????????SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) January 15, 2024

This is what the landing should look like.

?Finally from 23:00 JST today?
[SLIM Moon landing: live broadcast ?]

Jan. 19 (Fri) 23:00~ JST
? https://t.co/FTjt0Dm4tk
Please support SLIM as they take on the challenge of a high-precision pinpoint landing?

You can send us your messages using the hashtag #SLIMMoonLive ? pic.twitter.com/L7i1QWOy4v

— JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (@ISAS_JAXA_EN) January 19, 2024

SLIM’s journey to the moon

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) lunar lander reached the surface of the moon during a live broadcast on Friday, January 19, 2024. The Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) descended until circling only 9.3 miles (15 km) above the moon. Then at around 12 a.m. JST Saturday, January 20 (15 UTC or 9 a.m. CST on January 19), SLIM began its landing. Touchdown came 20 minutes later.

The lander entered orbit about a month ago, JAXA said on December 25, 2023:

The lunar orbit of SLIM will be inserted into an elliptical lunar orbit connecting the moon’s north and south poles with a period of approximately 6.4 hours, and altitude of about 370 miles (600 km) at the closest point to the moon (perilune), and 2,500 miles (4,000 km) at the farthest point from the moon (apolune). The orbit change proceeded as planned, and the spacecraft is currently in a normal condition.

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It began its descent Monday

On Monday (January 15) JAXA reported the craft was ready to begin a slow downward creep:

It was therefore decided to move to the landing descent preparation phase on January 10, 2024, and the apolune (the farthest point from the moon) descent maneuver was successfully executed and completed on January 14, 2024, at 17:32 JST (08:32 UTC). The SLIM spacecraft is further confirmed to be inserted into a circular orbit at the planned altitude of approximately 370 miles (600 km).

Then came the big moment on Friday, the landing.

SLIM’s mission objectives are simple yet difficult

Congratulations to @JAXA for making Japan the 5th nation to soft-land on the Moon. And the first to ever land a toy there: @SORAQ_official, a transforming rover designed by Takara-Tomy. Reports are still coming in, but here's the prototype in action: pic.twitter.com/DkbOmMlnR4

— Matt Alt (@Matt_Alt) January 20, 2024

SLIM had basically two tasks to accomplish at the moon, and the first one was just making it to the lunar surface. But not just anywhere on the moon. SLIM’s navigation systems were designed to put the craft within 100 meters of its intended target in Mare Nectaris, the Sea of Nectar. Specifically, it landed near the small impact crater Shioli.

Previous landers were considered on target if they touched down within a few kilometers of their landing zone. JAXA’s SLIM aimed to bull’s-eye the moon using “vision-based navigation” and “navigation, guidance and control.” JAXA designed a three-step process:

1. Initiate the landing descent from lunar orbit and perform precise vision-based navigation to accurately estimate its own position. Utilizing navigation, guidance and control, it will approach the target location above the lunar surface.

2. From above the target location, precise measurements of altitude and terrain-relative velocity will be conducted using the landing radar, which will be integrated into the navigation and guidance system.

3. During the final approach, autonomous image-based obstacle detection and avoidance will be employed to ensure a safe landing, avoiding hazardous rocks and other obstacles.

The second objective was more of a proof-of-concept for SLIM’s small, lightweight design. It’s a compact vehicle, only about 6.5 feet (2 meters) tall and 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide, and weighing just 250 pounds (120 kg). The design is intended to allow more frequent landings on the moon and other planets. So far, the high-performance chemical propulsion system has worked perfectly, nudging SLIM along its way on this shakedown cruise.

JAXA lander planned to tip over

SLIM has a unique approach to landing. It was planned to tip itself onto its side in what JAXA calls a two-step landing. The craft hovered toward the lunar surface, tipping itself to about a 45-degree angle before its main leg touches down. The craft then pitched forward onto a its “front” leg, located at what was moments earlier the top of the craft. We’re still uncertain if the craft followed these exact steps leading to its landing.

The unusual touchdown was meant to allow SLIM to land on a 15-degree slope. This will be an important ability for self-guided landers on future missions to the moon and other solar system destinations featuring uneven and sloping surfaces. In theory, JAXA says the method works well:

Especially for the case of a SLIM-scale spacecraft, the ‘two-step landing method,’ in which the main landing gear first touches the ground and then rotates forward to stabilize, has shown excellent reliable landing results through simulation.

JAXA will continue to share updates once it learns more about the health and operation of SLIM. The landing success was much needed after two private efforts – HAKUTO-R and Peregrine Mission One – failed.

Bottom line: The JAXA Special Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) landed successfully on the lunar surface on January 19, 2024. But the solar panels aren’t working.

Via JAXA

Read more: HAKUTO-R – 1st private moon lander – loses contact

Read more: Failed lunar lander hit Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday

The post Japanese moon lander SLIM safe on lunar surface, but … first appeared on EarthSky.

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Peregrine lunar lander crashed back to Earth

The private aerospace company Astrobotic reported on Thursday (January 18, 2024) that its Peregrine lunar lander has crashed back to Earth. The would-be moon craft burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, somewhere east of Australia, ending a 10-day-long saga that began with Peregrine’s apparent successful launch from Earth on January 8. In its most recent update, its 22nd since launch, Astrobotic reported that it lost telemetry with the spacecraft around 20:50 UTC, or 2:50 p.m. CST on January 18. By yesterday evening, Astrobotic was still awaiting confirmation of the reentry from government entities. It plans a teleconference with NASA at 18 UTC, or 1 p.m. EST on Friday, January 19, to discuss the updates. Listen to the teleconference here.

The bull’s-eye map above shows the most likely location where Peregrine burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, over the South Pacific.

The failed lunar lander began leaking fuel shortly after its launch on January 8 and thus was unable to complete its mission to the moon. Astrobotic’s 20th update on the mission on January 17 said:

Astrobotic has positioned the Peregrine spacecraft for a safe, controlled re-entry to Earth over a remote area of the South Pacific. The team has been continuously monitoring our re-entry analysis with NASA, which indicates a re-entry path over the indicated area below, with no anticipated hazards. A safe re-entry is our top priority …

Astrobotic – which is based in Pittsburgh – has done a great job communicating Peregrine’s situation day by day. Much appreciated! One can only imagine that the team is now ready for a nice long nap …

Welcome home #Peregrine. Thank you for being such a scrappy lil’ lander and for all the Science! @astrobotic you guys rock! ????? pic.twitter.com/IY5EjPL2f4

— Space By Storm (@SpaceByStorm) January 19, 2024

A few of our last shots of @astrobotic's Peregrine lander, firing its thrusters on its way to re-entry. Recorded today, from our station in Australia, between 17:32 and 18:32 UTC pic.twitter.com/INsHCzKpee

— s2a systems (@s2a_systems) January 18, 2024

Peregrine's final ground track. #PeregrineLunarLander pic.twitter.com/ruMyFJA6MP

— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) January 19, 2024

Problems after launch

So Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander launched toward the moon on January 8. But the mission – which was to be the first commercial craft to land on the moon – was leaking fuel. Astrobotic has sent out regular updates with the mission’s progress as they’ve attempted to do some of the science. Four of the five science instruments onboard have been working. Plus, we’ve seen some images the spacecraft has taken on its new and unexpected journey. In its update from Monday, January 15, Astrobotic said:

The spacecraft continues to be responsive, operational, and stable, and remains on its previously reported trajectory toward Earth’s atmosphere. The propellant leak caused by the anomaly has practically stopped. The team continues to work with NASA and U.S. government agencies to assess the final trajectory path in which the vehicle is expected to burn up.

Read more about what Peregrine has achieved and the decision to send it into Earth’s atmosphere in Astrobotic’s 17th update.

After new data from JPL Horizons as well as the latest statement from @astrobotic it's now looking likely that #peregrine will return home, impacting Earth over the Great Barrier Reef on January 18. pic.twitter.com/hV3mGRgHIV

— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) January 13, 2024

A beautiful launch

Initially, there was huge excitement when the Peregrine lunar lander lifted off on January 8, 2024, riding aboard United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. It was the first launch of a lunar lander from U.S. soil in decades. The launch itself was a success, as well as the separation from the Vulcan Centaur rocket. The lander was supposed to touch down on the lunar surface on February 23, 2024.

Lunar lander flight was packed with payloads

Funded in part by NASA, Peregrine Mission One was also carrying several small scientific instruments. The Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and European Space Agency (ESA) also flew science packages on Peregrine.

It launched with the science payloads were a variety of memorial, advertising, archival and citizen participation packages. Included were collections of photos of footprints from around the world, messages from children and even a lunar Bitcoin.

Plus, more poignantly, Peregrine was carrying capsules containing symbolic portions of cremated remains and DNA samples (a service offered by Houston-based Celestis, Inc., for a price), which were meant to go to the moon.

Among the samples is the DNA of legendary sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke.

Peregrine’s path through space

Update #10 for Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/lpLd6KF24Y

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 10, 2024

It didn’t collide with the moon

For a while, according to Astrobotic and other experts on X – the platform formerly known as Twitter – Peregrine was thought to be on a collision course with the moon. But that wasn’t the case.

Update #6 for Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/lXh9kcubXs

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 9, 2024

More Peregrine updates from Astrobotic

Update #5. Mission controllers worked feverishly to save what they could of the crippled spacecraft’s onboard science experiments and gather as much data as possible.

Update #5 for Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/94wy2J0GyA

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

Update #4. Then, minutes later, it became clear Peregrine would not land on the lunar surface, as its propellent was leaking away into space.

Update #4 for Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/6uISAG3Je1

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

Update #3. Mission controllers were able to regain control of the tumbling spacecraft and achieve a stable flight path, allowing Peregrine to charge its batteries. Yet the propulsion anomaly was now identified as a system failure:

Update #3 for Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/z4NK2achGG

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

Update #2. They quickly identified the anomaly as a problem with the propulsion system, threatening the ability to land on the moon:

Update #2 on Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/hS5QsAihh4

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

Update #1. Shortly after deploying from the rocket’s Centaur upper stage, Peregrine’s controllers at Astrobotic reported on X that the lander was unstable, as an unspecified problem prevented the craft from charging its onboard batteries:

An Update on Peregrine Mission One: pic.twitter.com/Q20dGVOMml

— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 8, 2024

Solar system’s smallest rover and tiny robots

The Peregrine lander wasn’t a large vehicle. It stood just 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) tall. And the rover it was carrying to the moon was tiny. Built by Carnegie Mellon University students in Pennsylvania, the Iris lunar rover weighed in at just 4.4 pounds (1.8 kilos). It was the smallest and lightest rover ever sent into space. The Iris website explained:

Iris’s shoebox-sized chassis and bottle cap wheels are made from carbon fiber, contributing to its lightweight design and another first for planetary robotics. Along with testing small, lightweight rover mobility on the moon, Iris is collecting scientific images for geological sciences, as well as UWB RF ranging data for testing new relative localization techniques.

The rover was still enormous compared to the robots the Mexican space agency hoped to send to the moon with Peregrine. Called COLMENA – Spanish for the hive – the project had hoped to test the ability of a swarm of robots to act autonomously:

The five robots each weigh less than 60 grams (0.1 pounds) and measure 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) in diameter. All of their electronics [were to be] less than two centimeters from the rocky rubble on the moon’s surface known as the lunar regolith.

The Peregrine lunar lander was part of NASA’s preparation for Artemis

NASA has been working with several American companies in preparation for future Artemis missions to the moon. NASA calls it the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) project. Part of having a human presence on the moon requires payloads sent to the moon to supply the astronauts with all their needs. As NASA said, these first commercial deliveries are meant to:

… perform science experiments, test technologies and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the moon as it prepares for human missions.

NASA also provided a preliminary timeline – now long since out the window – for the journey to the moon:

After a 3-to-33-day Earth orbit and cruise to the moon, followed by a 4-to-25-day lunar orbit phase, it will descend and land in Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness) adjacent to the Gruitheisen Domes on the northeast border of Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms). It is planned to land 55-110 hours after local sunrise and to operate for about 192 hours.

Bottom line: Peregrine was meant to be the 1st commercial lunar lander. But a fuel leak doomed the mission. Then yesterday – January 18, 2024 – spacecraft made a fiery reentry over Earth.

The post Would-be Peregrine lunar lander has come home first appeared on EarthSky.

First ‘beaver translocation’ in 75 years

State officials in California are betting beavers (Castor canadensis) – the hard-working, once ubiquitous aquatic rodent – can help reinvigorate the towering peaks, deep river valleys and lush mountain meadows of the Sierra Nevada.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said in December 2023 that it had relocated a family of seven beavers within the wilds of the Central Sierra Nevada. It marks the launch of CDFW’s Beaver Restoration Program.

It’s the first time in 75 years that the CDFW has engaged in what it calls beaver translocation activities. Officials moved a breeding pair and their five offspring to Tásmam Koyóm, a valley in the mountains of Plumas County. The area is part of the ancestral lands of the Yamonim Maidu and a place where beavers once thrived.

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Beavers restore wetlands naturally

Charlton H. Bonham, CDFW Director, said his agency hopes a boosted beaver population will combat the state’s wildfire problem while creating habitat for other native species:

Beavers help retain water on the landscape, which increases groundwater recharge, improves summer baseflows, extends seasonal flows and increases fuel moisture during wildfire season, effectively creating green belts that can serve as wildfire buffers or breaks and provide refugia for wildlife.

The wetlands beavers create are absolutely critical to the survival of species that are teetering on the brink of extinction, says the nonprofit organization Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife. But we reap the benefits too.

Beaver dams do more than restore wildlife habitat (their ponds are havens for nearly half the rare species), they also provide people with valuable natural services, such as water cleansing and stabile stream flows.

Relocation helps two environments

Years of preparation went into readying the translocated beavers’ new home. Conservation work – performed by a consortium of state and federal governmental agencies, tribal councils, ecological trusts and other groups – created an enticing environment. At least one local beaver was already calling Tásmam Koyóm home when the relocated animals arrived.

Beavers aren’t always beneficial, of course.

The relocated animals came from Sutter County to the north, where they were damaging habitat of other threatened and endangered species. And the CDFW knows beavers and humans can run afoul of one another. So they’ve prepared a guide on how to coexist peaceably. Financial assistance is even available if human-beaver relations get really out of hand.

Beavers help preserve heritage

California Natural Resource Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot, like the beavers, is eager to see what the future holds:

Beaver relocation will help both to restore the environment and preserve traditional culture of our tribal partners who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial. I’m excited to watch how beavers will improve the health of landscapes in coming decades and support traditional lifeways for our diverse tribal communities.

The Yamonim Maidu people sees efforts like CDFW’s beaver conservation program as key to preserving their heritage:

The Maidu Summit Consortium envisions re-acquired ancestral lands as a vast and unique park system dedicated to the purposes of education, healing, protection, and ecosystem management based upon the Maidu cultural and philosophic perspectives, as expressed through traditional ecology.

The Tule River Indian Tribe has also been an important player in restoring the beaver population. CDFW’s next translocation will bring beavers to the Tule’s land in Tulare County in the Southern Sierra Nevada.

Beavers faced near-extinction

Beavers have had a rough time living with humans.

Today, as many as 15 million beavers call North America’s streams, creeks and rivers home. But the population was between 100 and 200 million before European settlers arrived. The Eurasian beaver has had it even tougher, with an even smaller remnant of the original population remaining. Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife’s website describes the devastation the near-extinction continues to cause:

As beavers were eradicated in past centuries, their dams no longer filtered silt from streams, and kept water on the land longer. As beavers were wiped out, the majority of wetlands were drained, and waterways became disconnected from their floodplains. Rivers became more like canals or sewers, leading to today’s problems with water pollution, erosion, and escalating damage from regional floods and droughts.

April 7 is International Beaver Day!

That’s why the organization established International Beaver Day on April 7 of every year. It’s an opportunity to call attention to efforts to restore beavers to their former glory. They suggest getting involved directly:

Help people learn about these amazing animals on International Beaver Day, April 7th. International Beaver Day is a fine time to hike to a beaver pond, arrange a display of books in your library, show a beaver video, and/or otherwise spread the word about nature’s engineer.

The wetlands beavers create are home to a diversity of species on par with tropical rainforests. Busy beavers just doing what comes naturally restores wetlands far more quickly and efficiently than humans can. And they work cheap.

Today, manmade (mitigation) wetlands cost from $10,000 to $100,000 per acre to build, while each beaver family creates and maintains several acres of wetlands — for free.

Bottom line: Officials in California are relocating beavers (Castor canadensis) to help improve the state’s mountain environment and waterways.

Read more: Why super-size beavers went extinct

Read more: Parachuting beavers created a fire-resistant wetland

The post Can beavers revitalize California’s mountains and meadows? first appeared on EarthSky.

Science has long known why urine from healthy, well-hydrated humans is a sunny yellow. The color comes from urobilinogen, a by-product the body creates as it disposes of 5 million dead red blood cells every second. The mystery was which of the 1,000 or so microbes in our intestinal tracts is responsible for turning potential toxins into what makes our pee yellow while keeping our blood chemistry mellow. On January 3, 2024, the peer-reviewed journal Nature Microbiology published a study that finally identifies the enzyme responsible, as well as the microbes that produce it. The discovery could lead to disease prevention and better medical treatments.

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Why pee is yellow

In the liver, red blood cells at the end of their usefulness break down, creating bilirubin in the process. A little bilirubin is okay, but too much can lead to serious disease and death. The recent research paper that explains how bilirubin is kept in check also describes the risk when it’s not:

In moderate concentrations, bilirubin serves as an important antioxidant with potential health benefits. However, elevated serum bilirubin concentrations can become toxic, leading to jaundice and, in extreme cases, kernicterus, a type of bilirubin-induced neurological damage.

The body’s answer to the excess bilirubin problem is to turn most of it into something less harmful. The body transforms bilirubin into urobilinogen using the newly identified enzyme, bilirubin reductase. According to the researchers, a key gene found in a class of gut-dwelling bacteria known as Firmicutes produce bilirubin reductase.

Yellow pee is a sign of good health

The study also discovered that people whose gut flora lacks the gene for making pee yellow are more prone to certain digestive diseases.

When analyzing human gut metagenomes, we found that bilirubin reductase was nearly universally present in healthy adults. The prevalence of the gene was much lower in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and in infants, especially during the first few months of life when infants are most susceptible to developing jaundice.

Figuring out which intestinal microbes are responsible for making bilirubin reductase wasn’t an easy task. Brantley Hall, assistant professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics and the study’s lead author, described the difficult hunt for Healthline.com:

The gut is a low-oxygen environment, and many of the bacteria in our guts can’t survive if too much oxygen is present, making them difficult to grow and perform experiments on in labs. This ultimately meant that only a handful of bacterial species had ever been identified as being able to metabolize bilirubin, limiting the amount of data that was available.

Opening the door to new medical treatments

Because elevated bilirubin in the blood is linked to jaundice, bowel disease and kidney dysfunction, figuring out how healthy gut bacteria keep bilirubin in check could lead to new medical treatments. Hill told Healthline that the next step is studying how gut microbes regulate bilirubin levels:

We hope to conduct observational human studies to better understand how bilirubin reduction by gut microbes influences the concentration of bilirubin in circulation. We are especially interested in looking at premature infants where jaundice rates are high, and the prevalence of bilirubin-reducing microbes is low.

Bottom line: A recent study revealed why human urine is yellow and why it’s a sign of good health.

Source: BilR is a gut microbial enzyme that reduces bilirubin to urobilinogen

Via Healthline.com

Read more: Futuristic space concrete uses astronauts’ blood (and urine)

The post Why pee is yellow and how that keeps us healthy first appeared on EarthSky.

Bennu sample container finally opened

After months of effort, the curation team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston was able to remove two stubborn fasteners on the canister dropped back on Earth last September, in an historic return by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Those stuck fasteners had prevented researchers from reaching the precious sample of pristine material collected from asteroid Bennu. NASA reported its techs got the lid open on Thursday (January 11, 2024).

Our engineers and scientists have worked tirelessly behind the scenes for months to not only process the more than 70 grams of material we were able to access previously, but also design, develop, and test new tools that allowed us to move past this hurdle.

Workers must still completely take apart the sample container – the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM – before they can access the main sample. When that task is finished, we’ll finally get a look at the material inside, which traveled more than a billion miles to reach Earth.

The remainder of the bulk sample will be fully visible after a few additional disassembly steps, at which point image specialists will take ultra-high-resolution pictures of the sample while it is still inside the TAGSAM head. This portion of the sample will then be removed and weighed, and the team will be able to determine the total mass of Bennu material captured by the mission.

The spacecraft that brought the Bennu sample back home to Earth is still flying, and NASA has renamed the mission and given it a new target. Now called OSIRIS-APEX, the mission’s new goal is reaching the asteroid Apophis. It should arrive there in April of 2029, just as Apophis is closest to Earth.

A glimpse of dust from Bennu

The intrepid OSIRIS-REx spacecraft carried its precious cargo back to Earth: it was the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to earthly scientists, scooped up from the surface of asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft dropped the sample back into Earth’s atmosphere on September 24, 2023, and now the craft is winging its way toward a 2nd asteroid encounter, with infamous asteroid Apophis. Meanwhile, on October 11, 2023, NASA gave us our first glimpse at the sample of asteroid Bennu.

NASA said the rocky asteroid sample from Bennu is an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams. So far, however, the canister containing the main sample has not been opened. Luckily, there was asteroid material covering the outside of the collector head, canister lid, and base. So the scientists do have some bits of Bennu in hand.

The program on October 11 featured scientists talking about what most excites them: we now have a primitive sample of the early solar system! No doubt those science minds are spinning, imagining the insights they might gain from the main Bennu sample, when the canister is finally opened. You can watch the full coverage of the sample reveal, here.

NASA also aired live footage of the sample’s plunge into our atmosphere, and its impact on the Utah desert floor, at a Department of Defense training site. You can watch a replay of that coverage here.

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NASA said on October 11:

The goal of the OSIRIS-REx sample collection was 60 grams of asteroid material. Curation experts at NASA Johnson, working in new clean rooms built especially for the mission, have spent 10 days so far carefully disassembling the sample return hardware to obtain a glimpse at the bulk sample within. When the science canister lid was first opened, scientists discovered bonus asteroid material covering the outside of the collector head, canister lid, and base. There was so much extra material it slowed down the careful process of collecting and containing the primary sample.

‘Our labs were ready for whatever Bennu had in store for us,’ said Vanessa Wyche, director, NASA Johnson. ‘We’ve had scientists and engineers working side-by-side for years to develop specialized gloveboxes and tools to keep the asteroid material pristine and to curate the samples so researchers now and decades from now can study this precious gift from the cosmos.’

Within the first two weeks, scientists performed ‘quick-look’ analyses of that initial material, collecting images from a scanning electron microscope, infrared measurements, X-ray diffraction, and chemical element analysis. X-ray computed tomography was also used to produce a 3D computer model of one of the particles, highlighting its diverse interior. This early glimpse provided the evidence of abundant carbon and water in the sample.

In other words, as expected, an initial look at the asteroid sample revealed it contains much the same materials from which our own planet Earth is made. But there’s a big difference between the asteroid sample and earthly dirt. Earth has been subjected to billions of years of weather – wind and water, both of which cause erosion and change – due the dynamic processes in our earthly atmosphere. Bennu doesn’t have an atmosphere. Its dirt is a pristine example of the early solar system.

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The day the asteroid sample returned

On September 24, after the spacecraft had released the asteroid sample, and when NASA was sure it was on target, a crew on the ground rushed quickly to the landing site. They determined it was safe to transport the asteroid sample to a clean room in Utah.

The drop took place just three minutes ahead of schedule, by the way. Pretty good timing, considering OSIRIS-REx had grabbed its sample from Bennu back in 2020. And the spacecraft had spent a year and a half observing the asteroid from orbit. The spacecraft then left Bennu orbit and aimed back toward Earth in May 2021.

And now the sample has gone to Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the livestream will take place.

Later, a portion of the asteroid sample will be divided up and sent to scientists around the world for study.

Big buzz for asteroid sample!

Your package has been delivered.

The #OSIRISREx sample return capsule containing rock and dust collected in space from asteroid Bennu has arrived at temporary clean room in Utah. The 4.5-billion-year-old sample will soon head to @NASA_Johnson for curation and analysis. pic.twitter.com/Ke0PcDAKt0

— NASA (@NASA) September 24, 2023

After a journey of nearly 3.9 billion miles, the #OSIRISREx asteroid sample return capsule is back on Earth. Teams perform the initial safety assessment—the first persons to come into contact with this hardware since it was on the other side of the solar system. pic.twitter.com/KVDWiovago

— NASA (@NASA) September 24, 2023

TOUCHDOWN! The #OSIRISREx sample capsule landed at the Utah Test and Training Range at 10:52am ET (1452 UTC) after a 3.86-billion mile journey. This marks the US's first sample return mission of its kind and will open a time capsule to the beginnings of our solar system. pic.twitter.com/N8fun14Plt

— NASA (@NASA) September 24, 2023

Congratulations @NASA and the #OSIRISREx team on bringing a piece of space down to earth! What an amazing achievement! pic.twitter.com/ibd09fkIVc

— Chris “Hanks” Sembroski ?? (@ChrisSembroski) September 24, 2023

OSIRIS-REx’s journey to Bennu and back

OSIRIS-REx launched in 2016 and arrived at Bennu in 2018. In 2020, it touched down on the asteroid and scooped up material from the surface. Then, in 2021, the spacecraft left Bennu on its return mission to Earth.

When OSIRIS-REx dropped off the asteroid sample early Sunday morning, the capsule spiraled downward for hours before hitting Earth’s atmosphere. When it first hit the atmosphere, it was speeding at about 27,650 mph (44,500 kph). A heat shield protected the sample inside as the capsule temporarily became a superheated ball of fire.

Eventually, a series of parachutes deployed to slow the capsule further. By the time the capsule impacted the Utah desert, it had slowed down to a speed of 11 mph (18 kph).

Continuing on to Apophis

After OSIRIS-REx fired its thrusters to keep it from colliding with Earth, it continued on its way, heading for Apophis. Apophis is perhaps the most infamous asteroid of our time. On Friday, April 13, 2029, the 1,100-foot (335-meter) space rock will come within 19,662 miles (31,600 km) of Earth’s surface. That’s closer than many Earth-orbiting satellites. As the asteroid encounters Earth’s gravitational field, one result could be asteroid-quakes on Apophis. This passage will also change the orbit of Apophis slightly. Some observers will even be able to see Apophis as it passes.

Some originally believed that Apophis had a chance of colliding with Earth. But that possibility has been ruled out. Apophis will not hit us.

OSIRIS-APEX, now renamed, will reach Apophis in 2029. This extended mission will have OSIRIS-APEX orbiting and studying Apophis for a year and a half.

The spacecraft will venture close enough to the asteroid to stir up loose material on the asteroid’s surface.

Bottom line: After months of effort, the curation team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center removed two stubborn fasteners that had prevented researchers from reaching the precious sample of pristine material from asteroid Bennu.

Via NASA

The post OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample container finally unstuck first appeared on EarthSky.

The U.S. Space Force’s robot spaceplane – the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle – lifted off on its seventh mission Thursday night, December 28, 2023, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It rode to its highest orbit yet aboard a powerful SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, carrying an unspecified cargo of experimental equipment.

The mission will likely be a long one, as the spaceplane’s previous flight lasted 18 months.

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Insane capture! Wow https://t.co/EA7rbZU57X

— Chris Suchan (@ChrisSuchanWOAI) December 29, 2023

‘Secretive’ mission includes seed experiments

The Space Force is so tight-lipped about how it uses its spaceplane – which resembles a one-quarter size Space Shuttle orbiter – the British news agency Reuters and other outlets have taken to calling it the “secretive X-37B.”

Yet the X-37B Mission 7 is mostly concerned with making space travel safe and practical for everyone, according to the Space Force:

The X-37B Mission 7 will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, designated USSF-52, with a wide range of test and experimentation objectives. These tests include operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA.

For the second time, the X-37B will carry a cargo of plant seeds into space to see how they’ll react when grown back on Earth. NASA says the aim of Seeds-2 is to keep future Martians fed and happy:

With the renewed goal of manned Mars exploration, continuous fresh food production during long duration deep space missions can be a critical addition to the processed food system to meet astronauts’ nutritional requirements and to provide potential psychological benefits for crew in the isolation and confinement of deep space.

Space Force says it will also be testing new sensing technology.

X-37B Mission 7, also known as OTV-7, will expand the United States Space Force’s knowledge of the space environment by experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies. These tests are integral in ensuring safe, stable, and secure operations in space for all users of the domain.

The US-China spaceplane rivalry

Originally intended for launch on December 7, X-37B Mission 7 was delayed three times before finally getting off the ground. If it had flown as first scheduled, it would have beaten China’s spaceplane into orbit on its latest mission, which launched on December 14, 2023.

Also a reusable, glide-to-landing spacecraft, the Chinese spaceplane Shenlong – Chinese for “divine dragon” – began its latest mission on December 14, lifting off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Mongolia, atop a Long March 2F rocket. The Shenlong first flew in 2020, 10 years after the first flight of the X-37B.

It’s probably not coincidental the two rival spaceplanes are heading to orbit at roughly the same time.

Air & Space Forces Magazine quoted Space Force General B. Chance Saltzman about the countries’ interest in each other’s secret robotic spacecraft.

It’s no surprise that the Chinese are extremely interested in our space plane. We’re extremely interested in theirs. Because it is a capability; the ability to put something in orbit, do some things, and bring it home and take a look at the results is powerful. And so these are two of the most watched objects on orbit while they’re on orbit. It’s probably no coincidence that they’re trying to match us in timing and sequence of this.

Saltzman made the comments at an aerospace industry conference in December.

The Space Force isn’t saying how long the X-37B’s mission will last. The most recent mission exceeded 900 days on orbit.

Bottom line: The Space Force X-37B spaceplane launched Thursday, December 28, 2023, from Kennedy Space Center. The reusable craft is carrying experiments and test equipment on its latest mission.

The post X-37B spaceplane launched atop SpaceX Falcon Heavy first appeared on EarthSky.

It was a picture-perfect liftoff for the 2nd orbital test flight of the SpaceX Starship. But it ended with a bang. Two, in fact.

The 20-minute test window for the 2nd launch of SpaceX’s mighty Starship opened at 7 a.m. CT (13 UTC) on Saturday, November 18, 2023. After a brief delay, the powerful rocketship lifted off slowly and majestically from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/qXnGXXZP5k

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023

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Unfortunately, neither stage of the test vehicle survived the flight. Following a successful stage separation about 165 seconds into the mission, the main stage flipped itself around for its planned touchdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Then it exploded. The RUD – rapid unscheduled disassembly – came about 30 seconds after stage separation.

Stage separation! pic.twitter.com/PipaCW1PDT

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023

Starship’s 2nd stage continued its journey despite the booster’s explosion. Mission control, however, lost contact with the vehicle soon after. A 2nd stage RUD is suspected. Given the speed and altitude when the 2nd stage stopped communicating, it’s likely it continued well along its planned path.

So I did some back of the envelope math, and based on the velocity and altitude it likely made it to the Atlantic ocean and burned up there

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) November 18, 2023

A replay of the epic launch is available on the SpaceX official Twitter account.

Watch Starship’s second integrated flight test ? https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK https://t.co/cahoRQ72lm

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023

The greatest rocket ever flown

In case you haven’t heard, Starship is the world’s tallest and most powerful rocket. And this 2nd Starship test launch has been anticipated for some months, at least since the first test launch – which sent aloft the most powerful rocket ever flown, in April 2023 – ended in a dramatic mid-air explosion. Among other problems, the launch also obliterated the concrete launch pad beneath the mighty rocket and blew out some windows.

Afterwards, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had questions. And SpaceX could not launch Starship without further FAA approval. In the nick of time, on Wednesday of this week, the FAA granted SpaceX a license to fly its 2nd Starship.

The nod from the FAA – which was much awaited by both space fans and SpaceX – arrived just three days before the hoped-for launch.

We need to replace a grid fin actuator, so launch is postponed to Saturday

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2023

FAA approval at last

In an email statement, the FAA said the aerospace company addressed all the agency’s concerns following Starship’s first test flight in April 2023.

SpaceX recently provided the FAA with additional information regarding operation of a deluge system, addition of a forward heat shield interstage to the vehicle, and expansion of the Area of Potential Effects for cultural resources.

The FAA has given license authorization for the second launch of the @SpaceX Starship Super Heavy vehicle. The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements.https://t.co/gmSbhHGohv

— The FAA ?? (@FAANews) November 15, 2023

Musk said Starship was ready in September

Space fans got excited in September about a possible launch of Starship. It would have been the 2nd launch of a Starship; the first one launched successfully but ended in a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD) – an explosion – over the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2023.

There was excitement for the 2nd launch of Starship, but there were also maritime warnings both in the Gulf of Mexico and near Hawaii. CEO Elon Musk had announced on September 6, 2023 – via X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – that everything was in order.

Then paperwork intervened …

Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval https://t.co/WjENkdudo9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 6, 2023

63 corrective actions needed

Starship must have FAA approval to launch. Finally, on September 8, 2023, the FAA broke its silence. On the day some were hoping to see Starship’s 2nd flight, we instead got a statement from the FAA, saying SpaceX had a lot of work left to do:

The final report cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence.

SpaceX, the agency said, needed a safer approach to testing its monster rocket:

Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices.

For its part, SpaceX said in a quickly issued response (also September 8, 2023) that it was already taking steps to address the FAA’s concerns. The company said it learned “numerous lessons” from the first flight.

And SpaceX said in its September 8 statement that the company must maintain its breakneck pace. It said that rapid pace is key to the company’s success:

This rapid iterative development approach has been the basis for all of SpaceX’s major innovative advancements, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink.

It’s likely SpaceX knew generally what the FAA had to say, as the company said its investigation was overseen by the FAA, NASA and the National Transportation Safety Board.

What went wrong with SpaceX Starship the 1st time?

SpaceX also gave a rundown of how its first attempt to get Starship to orbit went wrong. From the moment the engines ignited, there were problems that continued until the vehicle finally exploded about 39 km (24 miles) over the Gulf of Mexico.

The company provided a brief timeline of the flight and how they’re going to prevent a repeat of its mishaps:

During ascent, the vehicle sustained fires from leaking propellant in the aft end of the Super Heavy booster, which eventually severed connection with the vehicle’s primary flight computer. This led to a loss of communications to the majority of booster engines and, ultimately, control of the vehicle. SpaceX has since implemented leak mitigations and improved testing on both engine and booster hardware. As an additional corrective action, SpaceX has significantly expanded Super Heavy’s preexisting fire suppression system in order to mitigate against future engine bay fires.

Also addressed was the disintegration of a massive reinforced concrete slab under the launchpad during liftoff. SpaceX’s new fire suppression system will prevent another storm of concrete during the next test flight.

SpaceX also made significant upgrades to the orbital launch mount and pad system in order to prevent a recurrence of the pad foundation failure observed during the first flight test. These upgrades include significant reinforcements to the pad foundation and the addition of a flame deflector, which SpaceX has successfully tested multiple times.

So the previous attempt in April 2023 to get Starship to orbit ended in a bang. It also added RUD – rapid unscheduled disassembly – to the list of nerdy things space geeks like to say.

Bottom line: SpaceX’s Starship – world’s most powerful rocket – launched successfully Saturday, November 18, 2023. But it ended with a bang. Two, in fact.

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