“Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner spacecraft is being developed in collaboration with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The Starliner was designed to accommodate seven passengers, or a mix of crew and cargo, for missions to low-Earth orbit.” Boeing’s Starliner capsule completed an uncrewed test flight that failed to reach the space station in December 2019 due to a glitch with its onboard timing system. It got stranded in the wrong orbit and returned to earth. Attempt #2 is scheduled for March 19, 2021 if all goes according to plan. Boeing and NASA said they are targeting March 29 for the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test 2, which is the second attempt for Starliner to meet up with the orbiting lab. The Starliner team is working through several problems with the capsule’s software and is now formally qualifying the flight software. If OFT-2 is successful, a crewed test flight to the orbiting lab will follow, possibly in the summer of 2021. Starliner would then be cleared to fly operational crewed missions.
SpaceX is working toward a high-altitude test flight of its next-generation spaceflight system. The latest prototype of Elon Musk’s Starship underwent a brief test firing of its Raptor engines on January 6th. This test is part of a series of checks, which may include another static fire, leading up to a launch. The first successful flight of significant altitude came last month when SN8 reached approximately the same altitude where commercial jets do much of their cruising. The milestone was followed by a fall back to Earth with SN8 coming in too fast and meeting an explosive end. SpaceX has postponed the launch of its first Starlink mission of 2021 until Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 8:23 a.m. EST (1323 GMT) due to bad weather conditions at sea for its Falcon 9 rocket’s landing.
Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program that includes the Perseverance rover and the ingenuity helicopter drone. It was launched on July 30, 2020 and should touch down in Jezero crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. It will look for signs of past microbial life, cache rock, and soil samples and prepare for human exploration.
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission is directed by NASA to the Applied Physics Laboratory with support from several NASA centers: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, Glenn Research Center and Langley Research Center. DART is a planetary defense-driven test of technologies for preventing an impact of Earth by a hazardous asteroid. The DART Mission, which will be the first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique to change the motion of an asteroid in space, is in Phase C, led by APL and managed under NASA Solar System Exploration Program.
The launch of NASA’s James Webb Space telescope is now targeted for October 31, 2021. It is the largest, most powerful, and complex space telescope ever built and launched into space. It will fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe. A new year brings hope, expectations, and promise with the launch of NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
Webb is NASA’s next great space science observatory, which will help in solving the mysteries of our solar system For more information about Webb go to: https://www.nasa.gov/web
Artemis 1 is expected to launch in November of 2021, a planned uncrewed test flight for NASA’s Artemis program that is the first integrated flight of the agency’s Orion MPCV and Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars. Its primary operations goal is to assure a safe crew module entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery. SLS (Space Launch System) will carry 13 small satellites that will perform their own science and technology investigations. Artemis will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.
