OrbitalHub

Wikipedia dicit:

Dragon is a reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. Dragon is launched into orbit by the company’s Falcon 9 two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle.

During its maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit. On 25 May 2012, a cargo variant of Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with and attach to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, and Dragon began regular cargo flights in October 2012. With the Dragon spacecraft and the Orbital ATK Cygnus, NASA seeks to increase its partnerships with domestic commercial aviation and aeronautics industry.

On 3 June 2017, the CRS-11 capsule, largely assembled from previously flown components from the CRS-4 mission in September 2014, was launched again for the first time, with the hull, structural elements, thrusters, harnesses, propellant tanks, plumbing and many of the avionics reused while the heat shield, batteries and components exposed to sea water upon splashdown for recovery were replaced.

SpaceX has developed a second version called Dragon 2, which includes the capability to transport people. Flight testing is scheduled to complete in the first half of 2019 with the first flight of astronauts, on a mission contracted to NASA, scheduled to occur later the same year.

Video Credit: NASA

Wikipedia dicit:

Helios-A and Helios-B (also known as Helios 1 and Helios 2) are a pair of probes launched into heliocentric orbit for the purpose of studying solar processes. A joint venture of West Germany’s space agency DFVLR (70 percent share) and NASA (30 percent), the probes were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on December 10, 1974, and January 15, 1976, respectively. Built by the main contractor Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, they were the first spaceprobes built outside both the United States and the Soviet Union to leave Earth orbit.

The probes set a maximum speed record for spacecraft of 252,792 km/h (157,078 mph; 70,220 m/s). Helios-B flew 3,000,000 kilometres (1,900,000 mi) closer to the Sun than Helios-A, achieving perihelion on April 17, 1976, at a record distance of 43.432 million km (26,987,000 mi; 0.29032 AU), closer than the orbit of Mercury. Helios-B was sent into orbit 13 months after the launch of Helios-A. The Helios space probes completed their primary missions by the early 1980s, and continued to send data up to 1985. The probes are no longer functional but remain in their elliptical orbits around the Sun.

Tom Bridgman (GST): Lead Visualizer

Kathalina Tran (SGT): Lead Writer

Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems Inc.): Technical Support

Ian Jones (ADNET Systems Inc.): Technical Support

Video Credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

This visualization of Lee Lincoln scarp is created from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographs and elevation mapping. The scarp is a low ridge or step about 80 meters high and running north-south through the western end of the Taurus-Littrow valley, the site of the Apollo 17 Moon landing. The scarp marks the location of a relatively young, low-angle thrust fault. The land west of the fault was forced up and over the eastern side as the lunar crust contracted. In a May 2019 paper published in Nature Geoscience, Thomas Watters and his coauthors provide evidence that this fault and others like it are still active and producing moonquakes today.

Music by Killer Tracks: Smoke and Mirrors – Gresby Race Nash

Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer

David Ladd (USRA): Producer

Tom Watters (Smithsonian/Air and Space): Scientist

Video Credit: NASA Goddard

NASA dicit:

Fifty years ago, Apollo 10 launched from Cape Kennedy on May 18, 1969. The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the Moon.

The crew members were Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Eugene Cernan. Objectives included a scheduled eight-hour lunar orbit of the separated lunar module, or LM, and descent to about nine miles off the moon’s surface before ascending for rendezvous and docking with the command and service module, or CSM, in about a 70-mile circular lunar orbit. Pertinent data to be gathered in this landing rehearsal dealt with the lunar potential, or gravitational effect, to refine the Earth-based crewed spaceflight network tracking techniques, and to check out LM programmed trajectories and radar, and lunar flight control systems. Twelve television transmissions to Earth were planned. All mission objectives were achieved.

Video Credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

NASA’s Orion, Space Launch System (SLS), and Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) programs are continuing work on one of the most complex and sophisticated space systems ever built. Across America and in Europe, teams are developing and building the spacecraft, rocket, and infrastructure necessary to send humans to deep space destinations including the surface of the Moon and beyond.

Some major recent milestones include: Orion – Crew Module Uprighting System Test at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina; European Service Module Solar Array Expanded; Fit Check in the Super Guppy Aircraft; Ascent Abort-2 Launch Abort System Stacking and Integration at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Test in Elkton, Maryland. SLS – Liquid Oxygen Tank and Forward Skirt join at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Liquid Hydrogen Tank Structural Test Article Unload from Pegasus Barge at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; RS-25 Engine Testing at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; Core Stage-1 Engine Section and Boat Tail Completed and Mated at Michoud. EGS – at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center: Core Stage Intertank Umbilical Swing Testing; Launch Pad 39B Upgrades; Crawler Engine Maintenance.

Video Credit: NASA Johnson

Wikipedia dicit:

The Blue Origin Blue Moon is a robotic space cargo carrier and lander for making cargo deliveries to the Moon. Designed and operated by Blue Origin for use on the Blue Moon mission aimed for 2024, Blue Moon derives from the vertical landing technology used in Blue Origin’s New Shepard sub-orbital rocket.

The lander is planned to be capable of delivering 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) to the surface of the Moon. The cargo vehicle could also be used to support NASA activities in cis-lunar space, or transport payloads of ice from Shackleton Crater to support space activities. The first projected mission for the craft would be a 2024 lunar south pole landing. It is proposed that a series of landings could be used to deliver the infrastructure for a Moon base.

Blue Origin began development work on the lander in 2016, publicly disclosed the project in 2017, and unveiled a mock up of the Blue Moon lander in May 2019.

Video Credit: Blue Origin