SpaceX on Saturday unveiled its first-generation extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuit, which will be donned by astronauts aboard the Polaris Dawn mission, scheduled for no earlier than this summer. Polaris Dawn—a five-day, four-person orbital mission to research human health both in space and on Earth—is the first of three potential human spaceflights under the Polaris Program.

SpaceX and entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who founded the program in February 2022, held a discussion accompanying the announcement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acquired in October..

While the mission has no firm launch date, SpaceX on Saturday confirmed that Polaris Dawn would be the next crewed mission the company will fly.

What Is Polaris?

The Polaris Program is the brainchild of Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of integrated payments provider Shift4 who is also a pilot and astronaut, with more than 7,000 flight hours and multiple experimental and ex-military aircraft ratings. Isaacman in 2012 founded Draken International, a private air force that trains pilots for the U.S. Armed Forces.

Isaacman purchased flights from SpaceX in February 2022 to launch the program and is funding Polaris Dawn himself.

Named after the constellation of three stars more commonly known as the North Star, or Polaris, the program comprises three potential missions, one for each star. The effort aims to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities with an eye toward future missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond. Simultaneously, it will raise funds and advance research into issues facing humanity on Earth, such as cancer.

Polaris Dawn, the first of the three missions, was announced in 2022 and expected to fly later that year. It has since been delayed multiple times, most recently from February to mid-2024, due in part to SpaceX’s development of the specially designed EVA spacesuits.

Polaris Dawn and a second mission without a timeline, simply called Mission II, will be flown using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. Both vehicles are already in use by NASA and a handful of commercial customers, such as Axiom Space.

Falcon 9, a reusable two-stage rocket, is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket and has been lauded for driving down launch costs in flying 330 times. Crew Dragon, which is capable of carrying up to seven passengers, in 2020 restored NASA’s ability to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) with the first Commercial Crew rotation mission. It has flown a total of 46 missions, visiting the ISS on 42.

Polaris is expected to culminate in a third mission comprising the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Like Falcon 9, the spacecraft is designed to be fully reusable and has so far attempted three orbital test flights, each more successful than the last.

Isaacman has been outspoken about Polaris’ aim to make human spaceflight accessible to all. The new SpaceX suits, for example, are designed to fit a range of body types and accommodate all spacewalkers.

At the same time, the billionaire aviator is focused on solving problems on Earth. Since its founding, Polaris has worked closely with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and helped fund research into childhood cancer.

Civilians in Space

Polaris Dawn is notable for its four-person crew, which includes the first SpaceX employees expected to actually reach space.

Mission specialist Sarah Gillis oversees the company’s astronaut training program, while mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon manages crew operations. Gillis, trained to be a classical violinist, joined SpaceX in 2015, while Menon is a seven-year NASA veteran. But both have been part of past Crew Dragon flights. Menon in particular was influential in developing Dragon’s crew and emergency response capabilities.

Joining the SpaceX employees will be pilot Scott Poteet, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with more than 3,200 flying hours in the F-16, A-4, T-38, T-37, T-3, and Alpha Jet.

Isaacman himself will serve as Polaris Dawn mission commander, a role he also filled for  SpaceX’s 2021 Inspiration4 mission: the first all-civilian mission to space. Poteet, who previously served in roles at Isaacson’s companies Shift4 and Draken, was mission director for that flight, which raised $250 million for St. Jude.

To prepare for Polaris Dawn, crewmembers lived inside the decompression chamber at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for two days, summited the 16,800-foot peak of Illinizas Norte volcano in Ecuador, and experienced 9 Gs of force while training on three different kinds of fighter jets.

The mission will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will spend up to five days in orbit, performing about 40 experiments and testing of hardware and software. Like Inspiration4, it is a charitable effort, with the goal of raising additional funds for St. Jude.

“Fifty or 100 years from now, people are going to be jumping in their rockets, and you’re going to have families bouncing around on the moon with their kids at a lunar base,” said Isaacman in an article on the St. Jude website. “If we can accomplish all of that, we sure as heck better tackle childhood cancer along the way.”

Polaris Dawn aims to fly higher than any SpaceX Dragon mission to date, a height that hasn’t been reached since the end of the Apollo program half a century ago.

The crew will also attempt to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown. Isaacman during the discussion on X said the mission will target an apogee of 1,400 kilometers, or about 870 miles, more than double the orbital height reached by Apollo 17. That orbit would place the crew just inside the Van Allen radiation belt, where it hopes to research effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.

“The benefit of being at this high altitude is that we can better understand the impacts of that environment…on both the human body…as well as on the spacecraft,” said Menon during the discussion on X.

Suit Up

The Dragon capsule will complete seven elliptical orbits until reaching its apogee before descending to a circular orbit at about 700 kilometers (435 miles). At that altitude, crewmembers will attempt the first commercial spacewalk. It would also be the first time four astronauts have been exposed to the vacuum of space at the same time, according to SpaceX.

The spacewalk will mark the first use of SpaceX’s EVA spacesuit in low-Earth orbit, a key milestone that is expected to inform future iterations of the design for long-duration missions.

It’s an evolution of SpaceX’s Intravehicular Activity (IVA) suit that has been modified to enable both intra and extravehicular use. In other words, personnel won’t need to change clothes when moving from the confines of the spacecraft to the harsh environment of space.

The EVA suit adds greater mobility, seals and pressure valves, a helmet camera, and textile-based thermal material, which regulates suit temperature and can be controlled using a dial. Boots were constructed from the same thermal material used to shield Falcon and Dragon from exposure.

“There was a lot of work on both the materials of the suit, developing a whole new layer that we needed to add for thermal management as well as looking at the thermal condition for the crewmembers themselves, and making sure that they were at a comfortable temperature inside the suit,” said Chris Drake, manager of SpaceX’s spacesuit team, on Saturday.

The 3D-printed helmet incorporates a new visor designed to reduce glare as well as a state-of-the-art, heads-up display (HUD). The HUD is active only during spacewalks and displays spacesuit pressure, temperature, and humidity, as well as a mission clock to track how long the astronauts are exposed to the vacuum of space.

Already, SpaceX is developing a second-generation EVA suit for missions to the moon and Mars. It estimates that millions of suits will be required to one day build a lunar base or Martian city.

“This is important because we are going to get to the moon and Mars one day, and we’re going to have to get out of our vehicles and out of the safety of the habitat to explore and build and repair things,” Isaacman said during the discussion on X.

The Dragon capsule has also required modifications to prepare for the landmark spacewalk. SpaceX on Saturday said a structure called “Skywalker” has been attached near the capsule’s hatch to act as a mobility aid. Handrails and foot rails have been installed inside the spacecraft, with a ladder interface added to the hatch opening.

SpaceX also installed a cabin pressurization system that allows the interior of the capsule to withstand the vacuum of space as air is sucked out during the spacewalk. A repressurization system will stabilize it once the astronauts return.

Why It Matters

In addition to achieving the first commercial spacewalk and the highest orbital altitude ever recorded, Polaris Dawn hopes to test Starlink laser-based communications in space for the first time. Data from the test could help develop space communications for future missions.

In addition, Polaris and SpaceX selected 38 scientific experiments from 23 partner institutions—including NASA, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University—intended to advance the understanding of human health in space and on Earth.

The crew will use ultrasound to study decompression sickness, for example, and will research spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome: a disease unique to humans who fly in space that can have severe debilitating effects. Upon landing, astronauts will undergo tests to study anemia—an unavoidable effect of traveling to space—and other conditions that might impact humans on Earth.

The scientific aims of the Polaris Program differ from the commercial spaceflight ventures offered by companies such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which could be classified more aptly as space tourism operations.

Tickets for those companies’ orbital and suborbital offerings, some of which involve research, can range from the hundreds of thousands of dollars to the millions. Isaacman and SpaceX’s Inspiration4, meanwhile, raised a quarter of a billion dollars for cancer research.

Isaacman has been particularly outspoken when it comes to accessibility in spaceflight. And by taking on much of the risk himself, the billionaire businessman has lessened the pressure on SpaceX. Isaacman’s funding of Polaris Dawn has allowed the company to focus on developing the spacesuits and other technology necessary to ensure the mission runs smoothly.

Polaris Dawn also represents a critical juncture for SpaceX’s Starship, the lynchpin of the company’s planned human spaceflight offerings. The largest rocket ever built is not quite ready to fly humans. But when it is, the third Polaris mission is expected to be its maiden voyage.

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The post What Is Polaris Dawn? Breaking Down the Upcoming SpaceX Mission appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, a semireusable vessel to the ISS that has been marred by nearly a decade of delays, will finally make its first crewed flight test on Monday, barring any further hiccups. Boeing on Friday confirmed that NASA gave Starliner the “go to proceed.”

If the mission—intended to be Starliner’s final test flight—is successful, NASA will work to certify the spacecraft for routine, six-month crew rotation missions to the space station, beginning with Starliner-1, scheduled for 2025. Starliner’s crew capsule is designed to be reusable over 10 missions.

Commercial Crew is one of the linchpins of U.S. space exploration efforts. The program—a public-private partnership between NASA and companies such as Boeing, SpaceX, and Blue Origin—transports and swaps out the astronaut crews responsible for critical research on the orbital laboratory.

Used by astronauts and private companies from around the world, the space station is the only facility that allows researchers to investigate the effects of long duration spaceflight as NASA gears up for future missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

Since crew rotation missions began in 2020, all eight missions—including Crew-8, which is still in progress—have been facilitated by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The missions have also used the company’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Boeing—which since 2014 has battled SpaceX for supremacy in the commercial crew program—has yet to launch a crewed flight of its Starliner, which NASA views as a redundant but important alternative to Crew Dragon. But the manufacturer on Monday has a chance to throw its hat in the ring.

“As the final flight test for Starliner, NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test will validate the transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, in-orbit operational capabilities, and return to Earth with astronauts aboard,” NASA said in a mission profile on its website.

A successful crewed flight test would represent the final barrier to the start of Boeing’s commercial contract with NASA, under which the partners are obligated to complete six crew rotation missions. These would represent the manufacturer’s first commercial human spaceflight missions. SpaceX, so far, has flown astronauts to the space station 11 times.

A Decade of Delays

Commercial Crew is NASA’s effort to transport astronauts to the ISS from American soil, using U.S.-built rockets and spacecraft. By involving private companies such as Boeing, a rarity for the agency in years past, the idea was to reduce costs and complexity while keeping missions safe and on schedule.

Boeing unveiled the concept for the CST-100 Starliner—with CST standing for Crew Space Transportation and 100 denoting the Kármán Line, a boundary 100 kilometers above the Earth informally considered to be the edge of space—in 2010. The manufacturer claimed the spacecraft could be operational within five years.

That prediction did not come to fruition. By 2014, NASA had narrowed down its search for a reusable Commercial Crew capsule to two candidates: Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

Each company was awarded billions of dollars to build and certify an aircraft by 2017, the year they were expected to be ready for a first crewed flight test. Boeing’s $4.2 billion contract includes six service missions plus uncrewed and crewed test flights to the space station.

Neither company met its deadline. But Crew Dragon made its first flight with astronauts in 2020. The same can not be said for the Starliner program, which for nearly a decade has been bogged down by delays.

The first uncrewed Starliner Orbital Test Flight Mission, scheduled for 2017, was delayed three times to 2019. Half an hour into that flight, an anomaly forced NASA to abort a planned docking with the space station. Though the mission to the orbital laboratory was scrapped, the spacecraft was safely recovered.

A second uncrewed orbital test flight, OFT-2, was also delayed more than a year due to valve problems late in the initial countdown. It eventually launched in 2022, reaching the ISS for the first time and meeting all mission objectives.

The prelude to Starliner’s first crewed test flight sounds like a familiar tune. The mission was pushed back several times in 2023, culminating in an indefinite delay caused by a pair of issues discovered just weeks before a planned launch in July.

All told, the program has overrun planned costs by $1.5 billion. According to a NASA Office of the Inspector General report, the space agency committed to additional flights and payments not specified in its original contract, in a bid to keep Boeing as a contractor.

The delays to Starliner have forced NASA to put all of its eggs in SpaceX’s basket, jeopardizing Commercial Crew missions should Crew Dragon—which so far has proven reliable—experience issues. But with the agency giving its all clear last week, the long-awaited rocket spacecraft appears set to finally make its debut.

The Mission

Starliner was designed and built by Boeing with the help of more than 425 suppliers. Early missions, including next week’s planned flight, will be launched by United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V launch vehicle. But the spacecraft is billed as “launch vehicle agnostic,” compatible with vehicles in the medium-lift launch class.

Starliner’s unique weldless structure was devised with reusability in mind. Its service modules are expendable, but its crew module can be reused up to 10 times, according to Boeing. The crew module can fit seven crewmembers, but NASA missions will include four or five astronauts.

Combined, the crew and service modules have 40 reaction control system thrusters, which aid in control and steering. While the vehicle is designed to be autonomous, Boeing has trained the crew to be able to take over.

The service module has an additional 20 orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters and four launch abort engines, which, combined with a pusher abort system, provide an escape route in the case of emergency during launch or ascent. Stacked on top of Atlas V, the spacecraft stands just over 170 feet.

Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams will command next week’s planned mission. Both are experienced NASA astronauts with multiple spaceflights in the books. During the crewed test flight, Wilmore and Williams will be the first to launch on Starliner and Atlas V and manually control Starliner.

The astronauts’ goal will be to validate the transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, and in-orbit capabilities, for future missions. 

Before, during, and after their weeklong stay on the space station, the crew will perform an array of tests designed to support the spacecraft’s certification. These include evaluations of equipment such as suits and seats from prelaunch through ascent, as well as assessments of communications, manual and automated navigation, life support systems, and thrusters while aboard the orbital lab.

Boeing has been “tasked with operating the entire mission,” including launch, in-orbit operations, landing, recovery and refurbishment. The company is also responsible for crew training, mission planning, spacecraft and launch vehicle assembly, and testing and integration.

Starliner arrived at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 16, where it will launch from historic Space Launch Complex-41. To this point, the launch pad has only hosted uncrewed spacecraft. The spacecraft has already been stacked, with crew preparations well underway.

About 15 minutes into the mission, the Starliner capsule will separate from the booster. Orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters will kick in about 30 minutes in, performing an engine burn to align it in orbit and start the approximately daylong sojourn to the space station.

Cameras onboard the capsule will pick out the moving laboratory from among a sea of fixed stars as it approaches to within a few hundred feet over the following few hours. Once flight controllers give the all clear, Starliner will approach and dock autonomously with one of two Boeing-built docking adapters—another critical test.

NASA will provide continuous coverage leading up to the docking through the opening of the hatch. On Thursday, four crewmembers already aboard the space station will relocate a Crew Dragon capsule to a different docking port, making way for the SpaceX rival’s alternative.

After spending a few days evaluating the spacecraft and its systems, Wilmore and Williams will return to Starliner, which will slowly undock from the space station and position itself over the Pacific Ocean. The service module will slow it from orbital speeds of about 17,500 mph as the crew module detaches. It will then accelerate back to Earth into a parachute landing in the Western U.S., touching down at just 4 mph.

What It Means

Starliner’s first crewed test flight has plenty of implications for Boeing, NASA, and U.S. ambitions in space more broadly.

On the commercial side, failure could deal a blow to the aerospace giant, which is under contract for six NASA service missions following the flight. The company also has ambitions to attract other customers, such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, describing NASA as Starliner’s “anchor customer.”

The test flight comes as Boeing rival SpaceX continues to thrive. Before Boeing completes its first crewed mission to the space station, its rival has already completed 11 such missions—eight crew rotation missions and three private astronaut missions with customer Axiom Space—and is preparing to fly astronauts to the moon on NASA’s Artemis III.

In addition, Boeing plans to sell the extra fifth seat on its NASA missions to private and commercial- or government-sponsored astronauts. Any ambitions for private commercial spaceflight will depend on next week’s mission.

NASA would also suffer from another setback to Starliner. The space agency hopes for the space station to be continuously crewed as it uses the orbital laboratory to explore future missions to more distant destinations, such as the moon or Mars. At the moment, it is too reliant on SpaceX.

“Our hearts and souls are in this spacecraft, and a little part of us will be lifting off with Butch and Suni,” said Dana Hutcherson, deputy manager of NASA Commercial Crew and a 13-year veteran of the program.

NASA envisions visiting spacecraft such as Starliner being used as “safe havens” in the event of a contingency aboard the space station, such as depressurization, fire, or potential collision.

One such contingency took place in December 2022, when the Soyuz MS-22 capsule that transported NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to the space station sprung a coolant leak, stranding Rubio and two Roscosmos cosmonauts in orbit for months. Rubio’s 355 consecutive days aboard the ISS—his first stint in space—are now a NASA spaceflight record.

SpaceX has been a reliable partner for NASA, having not suffered an incident in service thus far. But the agency wants a contingency plan. For example, in Rubio’s case, NASA was prepared to get its astronaut home in an extra seat on a scheduled Crew Dragon launch. The backup spacecraft was not needed, but it could have rescued Rubio had Roscosmos not delivered a replacement Soyuz in time.

Boeing is also developing launch vehicles for planned NASA lunar landings during Artemis II and Artemis III. Starliner is further intended to transport personnel to the Orbital Reef, a new space station under development by Blue Origin in partnership with NASA.

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The post What to Know About Boeing Starliner’s First Crewed Test Flight appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Kalmbach portfolio is highly synergistic with Firecrown. 

Firecrown proudly stands as one of the leading transportation media providers, serving the aviation, boating, and logistics industries with renowned brands such as FLYING, Boating, Yachting, Salt Water Sportsman and FreightWaves. 

The acquisition includes Trains, Model Railroader, Classic Toy Trains, Classic Trains, Garden Railways, and Trains.com, the space enthusiast brand Astronomy, as well as FineScale Modeler, Kalmbach Books, and its digital e-commerce stores. 

The rail titles fit perfectly in the Firecrown portfolio and the breadth of experience of our staff. 

Trains.com is the world’s most trafficked railroad news and entertainment website, and the print magazines in its portfolio are the most read in the category. In recent years, Trains.com has built an extensive video portfolio, tailoring content around the love of trains and model railroading. 

Kalmbach has deep ties in the railroad community, having published magazines and books about railroads and model trains for over 90 years. There isn’t a deeper connection in the rail enthusiast community than the one that Kalmbach built. The Firecrown staff will work diligently to continue and build on that connection moving forward.

Additionally, the rail and aviation communities have a great deal in common. Besides the obvious—both being transportation modes and having similarities in business models—the enthusiast audience is vast in both categories. We believe that “railfans” and “avgeeks” are kindred spirits. 

With the acquisition, Firecrown plans to invest significantly in Trains’ business editorial coverage, increasing the cadence and depth of coverage of the rail industry. FreightWaves, one of Firecrown’s brands, provides a playbook to help achieve this. 

There will be a substantial increase in daily update videos, news content and analysis, virtual events, and business analysis for the rail industry, modeled after the FreightWaves media brand’s success covering the logistics industry. 

Firecrown also becomes the new owner of Astronomy, the largest magazine serving the space community. Published for over 50 years, Astronomy has become the go-to source for amateur and professional astronomers. 

Firecrown plans to retain all of the editorial and content resources of the former Kalmbach Media brands and open a new office in Wisconsin to accommodate the teams currently working on them. 

“We are excited to have found a new home for these storied and well-respected brands,” said Dan Hickey, CEO of Kalmbach Media. “While these are always difficult decisions, it is great to know that their stewardship moving forward will be under the guidance of a company and leader dedicated and passionate about their continued growth and expansion.” 

An Exciting Time for ‘Astronomy’ 

The emphasis on space exploration has created massive interest in all things space. This is expected to increase as private companies and government agencies accelerate the second “space race.” 

Amateur astronomy is also experiencing a renaissance as new digital telescopes come to market. Telescope and astrophotography manufacturers are introducing smart telescopes that make the hobby more accessible and enjoyable than ever. 

These new technologies have enabled even the most inexperienced astronomers to take photos of deep-space objects such as nebulas, galaxies and clusters—all with a button on an app. 

More impressively, these digital telescopes built for amateurs rival and often exceed the capabilities of professional telescopes, which can cost 100 times more. This is the Instagram generation’s answer to astronomy. 

Astronomy may seem like an outlier to Firecrown’s portfolio, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The aviation and space communities have a substantial overlap. 

Pilots and aviation enthusiasts are often drawn to the cosmos, dreaming of space flight and exploration. Firecrown plans to broaden Astronomy’s coverage of space exploration and anticipates significant collaboration between the FLYING and Astronomy editorial teams. 

Over the past three years, FLYING has rapidly expanded its editorial coverage of space flight and exploration with great success. 

Some of the most trafficked stories on FLYINGMag.com are about space exploration and missions. This is a huge opportunity to make space a core focus of our portfolio. 

E-commerce 

Kalmbach has expanded beyond media to include e-commerce in the past few years. It has two media properties, one focused on railroad hobbyists and the other on the astronomy community. As part of this transaction, Firecrown is acquiring both. 

Firecrown plans to expand the product lineup at Kalmbach’s hobby store (which will be rebranded) to include a greater selection of railroad-fan merchandise. 

Firecrown has even bigger plans for the astronomy e-commerce operation, MyScienceShop.com.

This past February, Firecrown acquired the largest e-commerce store for NASA collectibles, the Space Store. The plan is to merge MyScienceShop into the SpaceStore, creating a “space enthusiast superstore.” 

The product lineup of the two e-commerce stores is very different. 

MyScienceShop has focused on products that enable space enthusiasts to explore and express their curiosity about the science and love of space. In contrast, the Space Store provides high-quality collectibles for the NASA and space mission community. By merging two properties and products into a single entity, the Space Store will have the largest selection of space-focused products anywhere in the universe. 

To Me, This Whole Transaction Is Personal 

I love all things transportation—trucks, airplanes, boats, and trains. 

I’ve always been fascinated by how people and products move. This is really in my blood. While I grew up around trucks, I also had a deep love for trains. I’ve built my share of model railroad layouts and even had the chance to work around the rail industry—first in intermodal operations at U.S. Xpress and then through my work at FreightWaves.  

But that isn’t even the most exciting part of this whole deal. 

This transaction takes me back to when I was a young kid. My love of transportation is only matched by my passion for astronomy. The first two magazines I ever subscribed to were FLYING and Astronomy. 

Each of the Firecrown brands reflects not only my passions but the passions of each employee. We will work to give our audiences the best reporting, information and merchandise available.

The post Firecrown Media Grows Again with Addition of ‘Trains,’ ‘Astronomy’ appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The space agency this week confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Titan, the fourth initiative under its New Frontiers program, is a “go” for 2028. According to NASA, teams can now begin finalizing the mission’s design. After that, they will begin construction and testing of the spacecraft and science instruments it will carry.

The aim of Dragonfly is to explore “promising locations” on Titan in search of prebiotic chemical processes—those that took place before life formed and may have contributed to its inception—that are common to both Titan and ancient Earth. In other words, the mission could help NASA uncover how life in the solar system came to be.

“Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Exploring Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft outside of Earth.”

After a revised mission budget and schedule were conditionally approved in November 2023, the release of NASA’s fiscal year 2025 budget request confirmed that Dragonfly will cost $3.35 billion and launch in July 2028. That cost is about triple what was initially proposed in 2019, and the launch date two years later.

NASA attributed the rising costs to multiple revisions of the mission in 2020 and 2022, when agency funding was curtailed. For example, it had to allocate additional funding toward a new heavy-lift launch vehicle—intended to shorten the transit time between Earth and Titan—due to the delayed launch. The COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain snarls were also cited as factors.

Dragonfly is a dual-quadcopter with eight rotors that flies like a drone, albeit one about the size of a car. It is expected to arrive on Titan in 2034, where, over the course of a two-year expedition, it will investigate whether the moon could be habitable.

As one of the solar system’s few ocean worlds, researchers believe Titan could harbor water- or hydrocarbon-based life. Its thick, hazy atmosphere—unique among moons in the solar system—resembles that of Earth and has allowed complex organic materials to form on its surface.

Unlike Earth’s moon, which can accommodate solar-powered vehicles, Titan’s dense atmosphere necessitates a different energy source. Dragonfly will use a space nuclear power system, similar to those powering NASA’s Curiosity rover and New Horizons probe, that can be recharged at night. Most activities will be performed during the daytime, which on Titan lasts eight Earth days.

Titan is expected to have a greater range capability than any existing rover, covering tens of miles within an hour. According to NASA, it will fly hundreds of miles over two years, making one “hop” per Titan day (equivalent to 16 Earth days). However, Dragonfly will spend much of its time on the moon’s surface, making measurements and collecting samples.

The mission would represent the first time NASA has flown a vehicle for science on another planet’s moon. In 2022, the agency’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter completed several firsts and record-breaking flights on the Red Planet, earning the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab a Robert J. Collier trophy. Ingenuity earlier this week was officially retired into a stationary testbed following its final flight in January.

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The agency is asking “the NASA community,” including its Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other agency centers, to collaborate on “out-of-the-box” designs, using existing technology, that could return the samples.

NASA on Monday released its response to a September 2023 Independent Review Board (IRB) report analyzing Mars Sample Return and its costs. It estimated the mission’s budget at $8 billion to $11 billion, with the high end of that range being more than double previous estimates of $4.4 billion.

Under those constraints, Nelson said, the mission would not return samples until 2040, which he said is “unacceptable.”

“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken,” said Nelson. “The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away. Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet—which has never been done before—and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”

Nelson also pointed to Congress’ recent budget cuts as a contributing factor in the agency’s current challenges.

The agency’s response to the IRB report includes an “updated mission design with reduced complexity; improved resiliency; risk posture; [and] stronger accountability and coordination.”

It said it will solicit proposals from the industry that could return samples in the 2030s, with responses expected in the fall. These alternative mission designs, NASA said, would reduce cost, risk, and mission complexity. It is unclear exactly what kind of solution the agency is seeking. But it emphasized leveraging existing technologies that do not require large amounts of time and money to develop.

Without more funding, according to NASA, Mars Sample Return could dip into money allocated for projects at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other centers. Projects such as Dragonfly, a mission to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, could be discontinued, warned Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Plans for a Mars sample return mission have been proposed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2001. The samples are expected to help researchers understand the formation and evolution of the solar system and habitable worlds, including our own. They could be used to learn whether there was ancient life on Mars and aid in the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars in 2021 and has been collecting samples since. Originally, the plan was to return them to Earth in 2033 using a rocket, orbiter, and lander. However, the IRB report found that the orbiter and lander likely would not leave the Earth until that year.

A Sample Retrieval Lander would deploy a small rocket to collect samples from Perseverance, using an ESA-provided robotic arm. Sample recovery helicopters—based on the successful Ingenuity autonomous Mars helicopter and also capable of collecting samples—would serve as backup.

A Mars Ascent Vehicle, which would be the first rocket to launch off the Mars surface, would carry samples to the planet’s orbit, where they would be captured by an Earth Return Orbite—also designed by ESA—and brought back to Earth.

The initiative would be the first international, interplanetary mission to return samples from another planet and, according to NASA, would return “the most carefully selected and well-documented set of samples ever delivered from another planet.”

Earlier this year, the space agency marked the 20-year anniversary of its twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers’ arrival on the Martian surface, where they provided the first compelling evidence that the red planet once held water.

NASA’s Curiosity rover is currently surveying a region of the planet thought to have been carved by a river billions of years ago. Its explorations could lead to further discoveries about life on Mars.

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NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have agreed to facilitate missions to the moon using a crewed lunar rover designed, built, and operated by Japan. The enclosed and pressurized rover is designed to serve as a mobile habitat and laboratory for human personnel.

In exchange, NASA will set aside space for two JAXA astronauts on future moon landing missions under its Artemis program. Artemis is essentially the successor to the Apollo program, with the aim of initiating a new generation of lunar exploration.

NASA expects the rover, which will give crews more time to work on the lunar surface, to land on the moon during the Artemis VII mission, which is tentatively scheduled for 2030 or 2031. The agency anticipates it will have a 10-year lifespan and be used on subsequent Artemis missions. Japan will design, develop, and operate the rover, while NASA will provide launch and delivery to the moon.

“America no longer will walk on the Moon alone,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “With this new rover, we will uncover groundbreaking discoveries on the lunar surface that will benefit humanity and inspire the Artemis generation.”

Nelson and Masahito Moriyama, Japan’s minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, signed the agreement Tuesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The following day, President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced “a shared goal for a Japanese national to be the first non-American astronaut to land on the moon on a future Artemis mission, assuming important benchmarks are achieved.”

A crewed, pressurized rover called the Lunar Cruiser has been under development by JAXA and Toyota since 2020. The vehicle uses hydrogen fuel cell technology found in the automaker’s electric vehicles. It could transport astronauts across the lunar surface for up to 30 days and cruise for up to 6,200 miles, providing ample time to perform research and conduct experiments. The partners are further developing systems to automate most of the driving and navigation.

The Lunar Cruiser’s tires are made from metal, and an onboard fuel cell uses solar energy and stored water to produce hydrogen and oxygen, generating electricity. The rover can also convert electricity stored in its battery pack back into hydrogen and oxygen.

According to NASA, two astronauts will use the vehicle to traverse the moon’s south pole during Artemis VII. Toyota expects it to be ready for launch by 2029.

“The pressurized rover will be a powerful contribution to the overall Artemis architecture as Japan and the U.S. go hand in hand with international and industry partners to the lunar surface and beyond,” said JAXA president Hiroshi Yamakawa.

The lunar rover arrangement falls under a framework agreement signed between the U.S. and Japan in 2023, which signifies the countries’ “mutual interest in peaceful exploration.”

The agreement covers a wide range of activities from science to exploration and will include Japanese participation in NASA’s Dragonfly mission, which will study Saturn’s largest moon, called Titan, using a dual-quadcopter lander. JAXA will also contribute to the development of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. In return, NASA will help develop JAXA’s SOLAR-C sun-observing satellite.

The U.S. space agency will allocate crew space for a JAXA astronaut on a future Artemis mission to deploy Gateway, a lunar orbital space station. An agreement between the two calls for Japan to supply the space station’s environmental control and life support systems and cargo transportation.

Artemis I—an uncrewed lunar flight test of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion capsule—splashed down in December 2022 after a 25-day, 1.4 million-mile jaunt around the moon and back. However, issues unearthed during the flight have delayed Artemis II, a crewed lunar flyby, and Artemis III, intended to be the first crewed lunar landing in half a century, to September 2025 and 2026, respectively.

Artemis III astronauts would become the first humans to visit the moon’s south pole, where they will collect lunar samples, images, and other data. NASA describes the mission as “one of the most complex undertakings of engineering and human ingenuity in the history of deep space exploration.”

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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission, which concluded in September, sent NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi on a 186-day trip to the International Space Station, where they rendezvoused with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. But it was anything but a vacation.

“I used to joke about the fact that a lot of times in our videos, when we show what’s going on, we spend about a third of our time showing the fun stuff,” Bowen told FLYING at a media event at NASA Headquarters alongside his three crewmembers. “Work is way more than a third of the time we spend up there.”

The mission included several firsts. Rubio, for example, set the U.S. record for most consecutive days in space by the end of his 355-day stay, which was extended six months after the capsule that brought him to the space station was damaged. AlNeyadi became the first Arab to complete a spacewalk.

But the astronauts also conducted more than 200 experiments during their stay at the orbital lab—many of which could address pressing needs on Earth and far, far beyond.

To the Space Station and Back

Crew-6 began with the launch of a SpaceX Dragon Endeavor capsule, strapped to a Falcon 9 rocket, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Bowen, Hoburg, AlNeyadi, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev were its occupants. Rubio had launched previously aboard a Soyuz MS-22.

Bowen, a veteran of multiple trips to the space station, was right at home. But for Rubio, Hoburg, and AlNeyadi, Crew-6 was their first time in space.

“Learning to fly for the first couple days is pretty difficult,” Rubio said.

For AlNeyadi, adjusting to the lack of spatial awareness was the biggest challenge

“Everything is very quick aboard the space station…We have 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day,” AlNeyadi told FLYING.

Bowen said the orbital lab has come a long way since his first visit in 2008. He was part of several assembly missions, which doubled the space station’s occupancy from three to six, installed technology such as a water recycling system, and delivered research and stowage modules. Crews also replaced the laboratory’s batteries several times.

“We were part of that first step of really making the space station functional,” Bowen told FLYING. “We did a lot of things with just three people on board. But as soon as we got up to six people, the ability to do the actual science—the business of the space station—exploded.”

The astronauts spent the next six months growing plants, researching tissue chips for heart, brain, and cartilage tissue, and conducting hundreds of other experiments for ISS Expedition 69. NASA expeditions refer to the crew occupying the space station—Rubio, Bowen, Hoburg, and AlNeyadi were the 69th such team.

After finishing their work, the astronauts began reentry, splashing down on September 4 after 186 days.

“Becoming a plasma meteorite when you’re coming home is pretty exciting stuff,” said Rubio.

But the research and experiments the crew performed are expected to have an impact long after the mission’s conclusion.

Charting the Future

Despite Rubio’s excitement, launch and reentry may have been the dullest segment of the mission—the crew had more than 200 experiments to fill their time.

“The work is continuous; the work is ongoing,” said Bowen. “Maintaining the space station, like you maintain your house, takes a big chunk of your time. The amount of science we can do now is incredible. Every day we were up there, there’s four of us in the [U.S. Orbital Segment] working.”

Just days after the astronauts’ arrival, they received a cargo vehicle full of materials for experiments. Crewmembers worked throughout the day, sometimes together and sometimes individually, coming together at dinnertime to debrief.

“We are testing hundreds of technologies, and many of them are becoming spinoffs for humanity when utilized here on Earth,” AlNeyadi told FLYING.

For example, astronauts studied how they could grow plants such as tomatoes in harsh and unforgiving environments, either on Earth or in space. They also applied experimental medications to heart cells and printed biological material such as knee cartilage, using technology that could one day print organs for patients on the blue planet.

The crew even ran competitions with university students. Competing teams were able to program a flying robot and control its flight on the space station from Earth.

Perhaps the most consequential research involved a water recycling system, which allowed the astronauts to drink their own urine for the majority of their stay (move over, Bear Grylls). The system may sound outlandish, but it could hold real benefits for humanity.

“Imagine taking the same technology and providing it to people in need in remote areas where they lack water,” said AlNeyadi.

The experiments will also play a key role in NASA’s Artemis program: a series of missions intended to return Americans to the moon for the first time in half a century. According to the crew, learning to live and work in space will be essential for those journeys. Artemis II will send astronauts into lunar orbit in 2025, while Artemis III will attempt to land them on the moon’s surface the following year.

“Knowing that you’re affecting the future of humanity and inspiring future generations, that’s super important to us,” said Rubio.

As important as their work was, the astronauts would not have been able to complete it without finding ways to blow off a little steam.

One method was to simply go outside. Each crew member got the opportunity to complete a spacewalk, including AlNeyadi, who became the first Arab to accomplish the feat.

“Getting in the suit, going outside, and doing important repairs on the station while seeing those views of Earth was just very special,” said Hoburg.

The crew had to get creative at times—Bowen baked pies for Pi Day, and Rubio cut the other astronauts’ hair. But they found plenty of ways to exercise and have fun—and by the end of the mission, they had become a family.

“What a great group of people I had to hang out with for six months,” said Bowen. “It was just incredible.”

A Collective Effort

Crew-6 included the first astronaut of Salvadoran heritage to reach space (Rubio) and the first Arab to complete an extravehicular activity (AlNeyadi). Those feats are symptoms of a broader trend: the globalization of space exploration.

At one point during Expedition 69, there were 11 astronauts aboard the orbital laboratory, which is designed for a maximum of seven. Occupants hailed from the U.S., UAE, Russia, Denmark, and Japan.

“It’s a very intense period when you’re handing over to a new crew, because you’re basically teaching them a whole new lifestyle in a few weeks,” said Rubio.

But the transition was also a welcome development, according to Bowen.

“We actually get a chance to meet a lot of our colleagues around the world before we ever fly,” he said. “So having that crew come on board, I knew every one of them. It was a lot of fun. It’s just great to have new people on board—and it’s another sign you’re going home too.”

AlNeyadi said the UAE already has benefited greatly from its activities in the final frontier. The country’s space agency has only been around for two decades. But in that short time, it has sent a satellite, Martian probe, and the nation’s first astronaut, Hazza Al Mansouri, into space.

“That was an eye opener for everybody. After that, everybody—every young student in the school—wanted to be an astronaut,” said AlNeyadi, who was appointed UAE minister of youth this month.

The Emirati’s own trip has had an impact too. For example, he said it helped catalyze the UAE’s participation in NASA’s Lunar Gateway project, which aims to build a space station orbiting the moon. The country is the fifth to join the partnership.

NASA is also increasingly relying on private industry to help fill certain gaps for Artemis, a contrast to the government-heavy Apollo program. Rubio said he helped certify all SpaceX launch and recovery assets before his mission, a reflection of the agency’s tight relationship with it, Blue Origin, and other commercial partners.

The hope is that greater collaboration can kick off a groundbreaking new era for space travel, one in which humans are continuously occupying the final frontier.

Bowen shared a story about a pair of glasses he found floating aboard the space station, which he mistook for his own. They weren’t Rubio’s or Hoburg’s either, and AlNeyadi didn’t wear glasses. As the crew soon realized, they belonged to an astronaut who had stayed at the orbital lab years ago: a relic of humanity’s persistent effort to uncover the mysteries of space.

Crew-7 astronauts—picking up where Crew-6 left off—splashed down earlier this month, a few days after the Crew-8 team arrived. Perhaps they too will discover the remnants of explorations past. Undoubtedly, they will build on the foundations of previous missions and push humanity forward.

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January marks the 20th anniversary of twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity’s arrival on the Martian surface, where the vehicles searched for the first evidence of water on the red planet. Designed to last 90 days, Spirit was active until 2010, while Opportunity’s final communication came 15 years after landing.

Opportunity—nicknamed “the little rover that could”—was built to travel 1,100 yards but ultimately zigzagged nearly 30 miles across the Martian surface, covering a marathon-length distance by 2015. The rover finally succumbed to a planetwide dust storm in 2018.

“This was a paradigm shift no one was expecting,” said John Callas, former project manager of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which managed the Mars Exploration Rover mission, in a media release commemorating the anniversary. “The distance and time scale we covered were a leap in scope that is truly historic.”

Before Spirit and Opportunity, scientists had no definitive proof that the network of channels visible from Mars’ orbit were formed by liquid water. The twin rovers delivered it—and set the stage for later and future explorations.

The Search for Life

The golf cart-sized twin rovers touched down three weeks apart on opposite sides of Mars: Spirit landed on January 3, while Opportunity followed on January 24. They arrived draped in airbags, bouncing along the surface dozens of times before coming to a stop. 

Immediately, the rovers got to work snapping panoramic images—these were beamed back to scientists, who used them to select targets to investigate. Five-foot-high, mast-mounted cameras gave the vehicles a 360-degree, two-eyed, humanlike view of the terrain.

The rovers’ robotic arms moved like a human’s with elbows and wrists. They could position instruments directly up against rock and soil scientists chose to investigate. A mechanical “hand,” meanwhile, held a microscopic camera that functioned like a geologist’s magnifying glass. A Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) acted as a hammer, exposing the insides of rocks.

Spirit and Opportunity ultimately returned more than 217,000 raw images, illuminating the Martian surface like never before. Shortly after landing, Opportunity discovered Martian “blueberries”—spherical pebbles of mineral hematite that formed in acidic water. Spirit years into its mission unearthed evidence of ancient hot springs, which may have housed microbial life billions of years ago.

Over the course of their mission, the twin rovers found that Mars not only supported fresh water but also hot springs and even acidic and salty pools at different points in its history. The findings were—and still are—considered groundbreaking.

“Our twin rovers were the first to prove a wet, early Mars once existed,” said Matt Golombek, former project scientist of the JPL. “They paved the way for learning even more about the red planet’s past with larger rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance.”

Lasting Legacy

Opportunity’s final transmission came in 2018. But the twin rovers’ impact will last forever.

“It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars,” said former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “And when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity and a little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration.”

NASA engineers’ work on Spirit and Opportunity unlocked practices for exploring Mars that continue even today, such as the use of specialized software or 3D goggles. Their experience countering roadblocks along the mission—of which there were many—has helped them plan safer, longer drives. It also allowed teams to quickly put together the more complex daily plans required to operate two later NASA rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.

NASA approved the development of the SUV-sized Curiosity “thanks in part to the science collected by Spirit and Opportunity.” Its 2012 mission determined that the chemical ingredients needed to support life were present on Mars billions of years ago, when the red planet is thought to have been painted blue by water.

Perseverance landed on Mars in 2021 on a mission to collect rock cores to return to Earth. The project to check for signs of ancient life is part of a joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) campaign called Mars Sample Return.

Perseverance carried with it NASA’s Ingenuity, an autonomous, remotely commanded Mars helicopter. Not long after, it made the first powered flight on another planet. Ingenuity has now flown more than 25 times, including a record-breaking flight spanning 2,000 feet at 12 mph. The diminutive rotorcraft earned the reader’s choice honor in FLYING’s 2022 Innovation and Editor’s Choice Awards.

Read More: 2022 FLYING Innovation and Editor’s Choice Awards

The career of Abigail Fraeman—who was a high school student when she was invited to JPL on the night of Opportunity’s landing—perhaps best encapsulates the lasting impact of the twin rovers.

Fraeman went on to become a Mars geologist, returning to JPL years later to lead the Opportunity science team. Now, the accomplished researcher serves as deputy project scientist for Curiosity. She is one of many who were deeply affected by Spirit and Opportunity’s accomplishments.

“The people who kept our twin rovers running for all those years are an extraordinary group, and it’s remarkable how many have made exploring Mars their career,” Fraeman said. “I feel so lucky I get to work with them every day while we continue to venture into places no human has ever seen in our attempt to answer some of the biggest questions.”

Twenty years after Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the Martian surface, Perseverance is one month away from entering its fourth year on the red planet. But NASA isn’t stopping there. The next step? The return of humans to the moon via the Artemis program, followed by the first steps on Mars charted by the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture.

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Peregrine Mission One, an expedition to the moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, lifted off Monday morning and appeared to be progressing as planned. But a few hours into the spaceflight, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, whose Peregrine lander was destined for the lunar surface, released a series of updates on X (formerly Twitter) that cast doubt on the mission’s aims.

Peregrine—which is carrying a total of 20 payloads, five of them from NASA—was expected to attempt a lunar landing on February 23, but that will no longer be the case. The lander would have become the first built by a private company to land on the moon.

Peregrine lifted off Monday morning at 2:18 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard the Vulcan Centaur V, a heavy-lift launch vehicle built by United Launch Alliance and a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

After climbing to about 310 miles, the lander successfully separated from the rocket and powered on. Astrobotic made contact and began receiving telemetry from Peregrine, which is now flying solo toward the moon. In other words, all appeared to be in order.

But in the following hours, Astrobotic issued a string of updates, each more deflating than the last.

The company’s engineers discovered an issue with Peregrine’s propulsion system that is causing a “critical loss of propellant,” which affects the spacecraft’s ability to orient its solar panels toward the sun. Interestingly, the system is not considered novel.

“The Peregrine lander’s propulsion system uses a hypergolic propellant mixture, combining hydrazine fuel and a solution of nitric oxide and nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer,” wrote Stephen Clark of the website Ars Technica. “This is a tried-and-true architecture because hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide immediately combust upon contact with one another, meaning the propulsion system doesn’t need an ignition source.”

On Monday afternoon, the firm posted the first image from Peregrine in space on X, depicting the warped Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) meant to protect it. Astrobotic called this the “first visual clue” confirming its hunch that the propulsion system is the root of the problem. It later hypothesized that a valve between the spacecraft’s helium pressurant and oxidizer failed to reseal after actuation, though this was not because of the launch.

According to Astrobotic, the propellant leak is causing Peregrine’s altitude control system (ACS) thrusters to burn “well beyond their expected service life cycles” in order to stop the lander from tumbling into space. An update posted Tuesday afternoon announced the final blow.

“Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon,” Astrobotic said.

However, the mission was not a complete bust. As of Thursday morning, Peregrine continues to fly toward lunar orbit, and the company said all of the ship’s payloads are communicating or powering up as intended. It also confirmed that a crescent shape in a photo the lander snapped on Tuesday is, indeed, Earth.

Peregrine is carrying scientific payloads from NASA and other space agencies, universities, companies, and individuals. The cargo comes from seven nations, including the first lunar or lunar surface payloads from the Mexican, German, English, and Hungarian space agencies.

The mission was intended to search for water, measure radiation and lunar surface conditions, and prepare NASA for Artemis, a series of launches that will attempt to return American astronauts to the moon as soon as 2025.

But although they shot for the moon and missed, Astrobotic and NASA still have the opportunity to land among the stars, so to speak.

Shooting for the Moon

Outside observers, aware of Peregrine Mission One’s aim to reach the lunar surface, may consider the mission’s result a failure. But that certainly isn’t the view of Astrobotic.

“Obviously, if we don’t achieve that final goal—the soft landing and all of our payloads being activated—there’ll be huge disappointment across the team and our partners and suppliers, who worked tirelessly and tremendously to get to this point,” Andrew Jones, director of landers and spacecraft for Astrobotic, told FLYING before Peregrine took flight. “But we’ve learned so much up to here, and I think we’ve played a huge part in paving the way for our ambitions of making space accessible.”

Landing on the moon is an essential piece of Astrobotic’s mission. The company envisions a democratized space, one where private firms and individuals could easily—and cheaply—move people and goods to the lunar surface and back using Peregrine and its variants. Manifesting that will require proof of concept in the form of a moon landing.

Jones and his team began developing the lander in 2019, using a combination of built-in-house components and parts manufactured by hundreds of suppliers across the U.S. The project was bolstered by $108 million in funding from NASA, which awarded Peregrine the first CLPS contract to put a lander on the moon as a service.

Jones told FLYING Astrobotic conducted “thousands of hours” of analysis on the lander and its mission profile prior to Monday’s launch. These included hundreds of tests of its components, materials, avionics, propulsion, communications, power system, and other features. A full-size structural test model and thousands of lines of code helped prepare the team for potential failure scenarios.

Despite this, the mission did not quite go as planned. Astrobotic is one of 14 vendors eligible to carry NASA payloads to the moon through the CLPS, and it had hoped to be the first to do so.

“To be the first commercial company to land on the moon, it shows that anything’s possible,” Jones told FLYING. “Up until now, it’s always been the purview of governments and large entities to do this. To be able to say that a commercial company like us—that’s not huge, that’s not got millions in the bank—that we can actually do it says a lot for the industry.”

But while Peregrine stopped short of its goal, Jones balked at calling that outcome a failure.

“No matter the outcome of this mission, it’s important that we continue to strive for regular, routine access to the lunar surface,” he said. “There’s always going to be roadblocks. There’s always going to be hiccups along the way. But I think every mission that we do, every lesson that we learn, makes the objective closer and easier to achieve.”

Fortunately for Jones, Astrobotic will have another shot at that objective later this year. The company was also picked by NASA to launch the space agency’s 1-ton VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) to the lunar south pole aboard its Griffin lander. The mission, which will search for water, will cost NASA an estimated $500 million—far more than it invested in the Peregrine mission.

Beyond that, Astrobotic will send a lander tethered to a lunar rover to the moon as early as 2026 to demonstrate LunaGrid-Lite, a proprietary power transmission system. The mission is part of a $35 million NASA tipping point partnership. It will also provide a cargo accommodation system to the Blue Origin National Team, which is developing a lunar lander for humans and large cargo to be used on the Artemis missions.

“I think we’ll have to [establish a presence on the moon], partly because of what we want to do beyond the moon…I think there’s going to be a larger presence on the moon from a scientific [standpoint], as well as just commercial people wanting to experience and live there,” Jones said.

‘Shots on Goal’

NASA researchers were well aware of the risks going into Monday’s launch, the first in its manifest of CLPS missions. CLPS aims to establish a commercial marketplace for science, exploration, and “technology development investigations” on the moon’s surface and in lunar orbit, as well as to expand the lunar economy to support crewed Artemis moon missions.

The CLPS marked a shift in emphasis for the space agency, looping private companies into an industry historically dominated by government agencies and programs. Thomas Zurbuchen, a former associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and key architect of the program, characterized the CLPS strategy as “taking shots on goal.”

But as the saying goes, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. Zurbuchen and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson were among those who applauded Peregrine Mission One, despite it not quite reaching its goal.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration for the Science Mission Directorate, added: “Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow. We will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development of the moon.”

To Kearns’ point, the success rate for lunar landings is estimated to be at or below 50 percent, and Astrobotic’s attempt was America’s first in half a century. India in 2019 smashed its Vikram rover into the lunar surface before successfully landing the spacecraft in August, while Russia had a failed moonshot—its first in 47 years—that same month.

NASA researchers had hoped Peregrine’s findings would help them understand how solar radiation affects the lunar surface, as well as provide data to its Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer), which is expected to arrive at Peregrine’s planned lunar landing site in 2026. Those goals will go unmet, but the agency has plenty more opportunities to learn.

Astrobotic isn’t the only private U.S. company shooting for the moon. In fact, Monday’s launch kicked off one of six planned CLPS missions to the moon in 2024. 

Three of the remaining five journeys will use the Nova-C private lander from Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which could achieve the first commercial soft landing in March should Astrobotic fall short. A fourth will be flown by another Texas-based startup, Firefly Aerospace. Rounding out the manifest is Astrobotic’s VIPER mission. Two additional CLPS missions are scheduled for 2025 and 2026.

NASA officials have tempered expectations for the first batch of landers, given that no private firm has soft landed on the moon. But if delays—which plagued Monday’s launch and others—and unmet expectations become the norm, the future of the Artemis program could be murky.

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During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, NASA officials announced that the Artemis II and Artemis III moon missions—planned for this year and next, respectively—will be pushed to September 2025 and September 2026. Artemis II is expected to put NASA astronauts in lunar orbit, while Artemis III aims to land them on the moon, where they would become the first humans to visit the lunar south pole.

The Artemis program is effectively the descendant of the Apollo missions, which concluded decades earlier. But unlike Apollo, it represents a shift toward leveraging private sector companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, for key vehicle components.

Despite speculation that the Artemis lunar landing could be pushed to Artemis IV—which NASA affirmed is still on track for 2028—the space agency said no changes will be made to the flight plan of either mission, and no flights will be added. However, for a variety of reasons, many related to safety, both Artemis II and III will fly later than initially planned.

As Jim Free, associate administrator of NASA, put it: “We’ll launch when we’re ready.”

Safety First

Attending Tuesday’s press conference were Free, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Deputy Associate Administrator of the Moon to Mars program Amit Kshatriya, and Associate Administrator of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate Catherine Koerner. The four officials—plus representatives from NASA industry partners such as SpaceX and Lockheed Martin—fielded questions from media about why the missions were delayed.

According to NASA, several issues discovered during Artemis I, which carried the agency’s reusable Orion capsule around the moon in 2022, are causing delays to Artemis II. These center around the spacecraft’s heat shield, abort capabilities, and electrical systems and could pose threats its occupants.

Kshatriya said heat shield erosion during Artemis I caused pieces of the thermal cover to fly off—an outcome not predicted by NASA. The agency said it discovered the issue while rewatching the watershed flight and has spent “the bulk of 2023” working to understand its root cause.

Orion is also dealing with a design flaw in the motor valve circuitry for its life support system, which was tested and approved for Artemis II but not the subsequent mission. The spacecraft’s digital motor controllers are hampering its carbon dioxide scrubber, which absorbs the gas to provide breathable air for astronauts. Artemis I did not test any life support systems, but they will be added to Artemis II along with a new abort system.

Further, NASA found a deficiency in Orion’s batteries. The issue won’t hinder the spacecraft’s ability to separate from the booster in an emergency, but the agency said it could cause unexpected effects.

“We’re still very early in that investigation,” said Kshatriya.

The effort to replace and retest the faulty components will be tremendous, NASA said, but essential for Orion to fly on Artemis II and beyond. Nelson said the revised mission timeline will “give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges.”

Even more work will need to be done for Artemis III, which NASA said will introduce several new components and systems: a human landing system (HLS), docking module, propellant transfer system, and spacesuits to name a few. Kshatriya said the timeline for that mission remains “very aggressive.”

Free said NASA expects the development of SpaceX’s Starship HLS and Axiom’s next-generation spacesuits will take additional time. The agency has also yet to solve the issue of propellant transfer, or in-flight refilling, which involves a spacecraft drawing fuel from another spacecraft or stationary outpost.

A SpaceX representative attending the media briefing estimated the company will need to complete ten refueling missions before Starship HLS lands on the moon, which the company hopes will happen in 2025. 

The representative added that SpaceX’s Starship—the largest and most powerful rocket ever built—is working toward a NASA tipping point demo to explore propellant transfer between tanks. The company does not consider this a propellant test mission, but the maneuver will be studied during Starship’s third orbital test flight, expected in February.

When asked, the representative did not provide a minimum number of Starship orbital test flights needed before a lunar landing. But the propellant transfer flight, whenever that happens, will be the one that matters most.

“We’ve been building the machine to build the machine,” the representative said.

Free added that development of NASA’s Gateway space station—which is expected to fly on a future Artemis mission—and the Block 1B variant of its Space Launch System (SLS) also necessitated delays. 

But NASA officials said the larger gaps between the missions will allow the agency to incorporate more lessons from previous flights into each increasingly complex Artemis project. SpaceX and Blue Origin, for example, will be required to develop cargo variants of their human lunar landers as part of their obligations for Artemis IV, NASA said Tuesday.

A Clearer Outlook?

When one questioner mentioned the space industry’s doubts about the new timeline—arising from previous Artemis delays—Free explained what makes NASA so confident.

He said the agency now has a better understanding of Orion and other Artemis vehicles. The bigger reassurance, however, is the industry’s support: Free said 11 industry and contractor partners attended Tuesday’s press conference, and all of them contributed to the revised mission schedule.

Kshatriya pointed to the SLS core stage delivery to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility as a sign of readiness, adding that the spacecraft’s booster segments are ready to stack and the upper stage is “ready to go.” Further, NASA’s European Space Agency (ESA) partners will ship a service model to the agency in a few months, he said.

Nelson, meanwhile, dispelled fears that China could beat the U.S. to a moon landing. He expressed confidence that the rival superpower would not reach the lunar surface before Artemis III. But with the delay, the two competitors’ schedules are undoubtedly more aligned.

Nelson also pointed to the agency’s recent progress, most notably a partnership with the United Arab Emirates to build the airlock for Gateway and the launch of Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions.

The NASA administrator emphasized that Artemis will only be the beginning of the new era of American spaceflight. The agency is also developing its Moon to Mars program, which Nelson said will rely on international partners to land an American on Mars. Reaching the moon, he said, will be the first step toward missions to the red planet in the future.

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