OrbitalHub

Northrop Grumman dicit:

Northrop Grumman Corporation conducted its second ground test of a 63-inch diameter Graphite Epoxy Motor (GEM 63) in Promontory, Utah. The company developed this new side-mounted rocket motor to add power to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle.

The maximum thrust of the GEM 63 is 373,000 pounds or roughly the equivalent of five B-2 Spirit bombers. Up to five GEM 63 motors can support a single Atlas V launch.

The GEM 63 team developed the motor under a cooperative development program with ULA. Northrop Grumman has been supplying solid propulsion motors for a variety of launch vehicles since 1964 and is ULA’s largest legacy supplier of solid propulsion. Northrop Grumman’s expertise in solid rocket boosters combined with ULA’s history of reliability results in a strong partnership that guarantees assured access to space for national security.

The first ground test, conducted in September 2018, qualified the motor for use as a strap-on booster for the Atlas V. This second test satisfies additional requirements for certification by the U.S. Air Force. The first launch using GEM 63 motors will take place in 2020.

In addition to the GEM 63 motor, Northrop Grumman is also developing a GEM 63XL motor for ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. Both versions of the GEM 63 family use common materials and processes to maintain a high-reliability, low-cost product. The first GEM 63XL case, which is the longest non-segmented, monolithic case ever manufactured, has already been wound at a new facility in Clearfield, Utah, and is currently in the structural qualification process.

Video Credit: Northrop Grumman

NASA dicit:

NASA is a step closer to returning astronauts to the Moon in the next five years following this successful “hot fire” test of flight engine No. 2062 on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. This April 4, 2019 test caps more than four years of testing for the RS-25 engines that will help power the first four missions of the Space Launch System rockets. It also concludes a 51-month test series that demonstrated RS-25 engines can perform at the higher power level needed to launch the super heavy-lift SLS rocket.

Video Credit: NASA

Boston Dynamics dicit:

Handle is a mobile manipulation robot designed for logistics. Handle autonomously performs mixed SKU pallet building and depalletizing after initialization and localizing against the pallets. The on-board vision system on Handle tracks the marked pallets for navigation and finds individual boxes for grasping and placing.

When Handle places a boxes onto a pallet, it uses force control to nestle each box up against its neighbors. The boxes used in the video weigh about 5 Kg (11 lbs), but the robot is designed to handle boxes up to (15 Kg) (33 lb). This version of Handle works with pallets that are 1.2 m deep and 1.7 m tall (48 inches deep and 68 inches tall).

Video Credit: Boston Dynamics

Copenhagen Suborbitals dicit:

In this video we present an overview of Denmark, our workshop, SpacePort Nexø and finally the launch site and flight path of Nexø II, combined with the expected path as predicted by our weather model. The orange line is the actual flight path and the red line is the predicted path.

Video Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

Rocket Lab dicit:

DARPA’s Radio Frequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration (R3D2) mission […] intends to space-qualify a prototype reflect array antenna to improve radio communications in small spacecraft. The antenna, made of a tissue-thin Kapton membrane, packs tightly inside the small satellite for stowage during launch, before deploying to its full size of 2.25 meters in diameter once it reaches low Earth orbit. This high compaction ratio enables larger antennas in smaller satellites, enabling satellite owners to take advantage of volume-limited launch opportunities while still providing significant capability. The mission could help validate emerging concepts for a resilient sensor and data transport layer in low Earth orbit – a capability that does not exist today, but one which could revolutionize global communications by laying the groundwork for a space-based internet.

Video Credit: Rocket Lab

Updated tasks on U.S. EVA 53.

Video Credit: NASA