The Space Review

[Orionid]

Why the China-Russia space alliance will speed up human exploration of Mars
by John Wolfram Monday, May 17, 2021


A Long March 5B rocket lifts off in April carrying the core module of China’s new space station. China and Russia have recently agreed to cooperate on space exploration activities, including missions to the Moon. (credit: Xinhua)

On March 9, the China National Space Administration and the Russian space agency Roscosmos signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the joint construction of a permanent research station on the Moon. Their explicit goal is to make this a base of future space exploration operations, with the implicit goals of planning a crewed mission to Mars and boldly challenging US leadership in space. Could this latest and largest step in the emerging “new space race” ultimately accelerate the landing of humans on Mars?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4176/1

[Orionid]

Build back better
by Robert G. Oler Monday, May 17, 2021


SpaceX’s Starship SN15 on its successful flight May 5, going to an altitude of ten kilometers before landing safely, unlike four previous vehicles. (credit: SpaceX)

History loves ironies and maybe the future will as well. SpaceX stuck the first landing of its Starship prototype on the 60th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s first flight into space. A long road remains, but the event prompts a simple question: “What if Starship works?”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4177/1

[Orionid]

Redundancy now, or redundancy never?
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 17, 2021


Lunar lander concepts by Blue Origin (left) and Dynetics. The two companies have filed protests with the GAO about NASA’s award of a single Human Landing System contract to SpaceX, while a Senate bill would require NASA to select a second company. (credit: Blue Origin/Dynetics)

A month after NASA selected SpaceX for the sole Human Landing System (HLS) award (see “All in on Starship”, The Space Review, April 19, 2021), the reverberations continue. NASA’s decision April 16 to make a single “Option A” award for the development and flight demonstration of lunar lander to SpaceX surprised many in the industry and, given the high stakes of the competition, was one that the losing companies were unlikely to accept easily.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4178/1

[Orionid]

Review: Amazon Unbound and its insights into Blue Origin
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 24, 2021



Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire
by Brad Stone
Simon & Schuster, 2021
hardcover, 496 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-9821-3261-3
US$30.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982132612/spaceviews

The good news is that you can now buy a seat on a New Shepard suborbital flight. The bad news is that you probably can’t afford it. Blue Origin announced early this month it would offer a single seat on the first crewed flight of New Shepard, scheduled for July 20, which it would auction off. Last week, the company unsealed the bids it received in the first phase, and moved into a more open bidding phase. As of early May 24, the current high bid was $2.8 million, with the bidding set to conclude with a live auction June 12.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4179/1

[Orionid]

Why the US should ban kinetic anti-satellite weapons
by Matthew Jenkins Monday, May 24, 2021


A proliferation of kinetic anti-satellite weapons to countries like India, which tested one in 2019, raise questions about the long-term sustainability of low Earth orbit. (credit: DRDO)

The United States has long been the world leader in developing and leveraging space-based technology. While the gap between the US and other countries has shrunk in recent years, the United States remains the nation most dependent on space-based capabilities. As of June 2020, the total number of active satellites in orbit was 2,787, of which 1,425 belong to the US, 382 to China, and 172 to Russia. All other states account for the remaining 808.[1] At no time in the history of space exploration has space been more congested, contested, and competitive.[2] Since the 1960s, the global economic system has become increasingly dependent on precision timing provided by space-based capabilities, which facilitate air travel, communications, banking, and numerous other core sectors in the global economy.[3] A guiding objective in the National Space Policy published last December is to preserve the space environment to enhance space activities’ long-term sustainability.[4] Given this emphasis and the particular dependence of the US on space-based technologies, policymakers should lead the global charge to ban the use of kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons development and testing through international legislation and multilateral cooperation of all nations who have a stake in ensuring the continued use of space for the benefit of all humanity.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4180/1

[Orionid]

Red planet scare
by Jeff Foust Monday, May 24, 2021


An image released last week by the China National Space Administration showing the Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars. (credit: CNSA)

Sometimes a Mars rover is just a Mars rover, but sometimes it’s not.

When China landed its Zhurong rover in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars May 14, many celebrated the technical achievement. China is just the second country, after the United States, to land a spacecraft on Mars and sustain its operations (the Soviet Union’s Mars 3 landed in 1971, but lost contact less than two minutes after touchdown, while Britain’s Beagle 2 may have landed safely in 2004 but never deployed its solar panels and antenna.) Scientists looked forward to what Zhurong’s instruments might reveal, such as its ground-penetrating radar designed to search for subsurface ice deposits.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4181/1

[Orionid]

Necessary but not sufficient: Presidents and space policy 60 years after Kennedy
by Wendy N. Whitman Cobb Monday, May 24, 2021


Sixty years after John F. Kennedy called for landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, the influence of presidents on space policy remains important, but alone is not sufficient. (credit: NASA)

On May 25, 1961, still in the first months of his presidency but stung by recent failures at the Bay of Pigs and elsewhere, President John F. Kennedy prepared to address the Congress. Seeking a way to move the United States forward in the Cold War, Kennedy stated:

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4182/1

Note: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, next week’s issue will be published on Tuesday, June 1.

[Orionid]

Review: Beyond
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, June 1, 2021



Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space
by Stephen Walker
Harper, 2021
hardcover, 512 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-297815-8
US$29.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062978152/spaceviews

For all the rhetoric in recent months about a new space race developing between China and the United States, there’s little agreement about what exactly constitutes that race. Sending humans (back) to the Moon? Humans to Mars? A base on the Moon? The original Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union was, in retrospect, a little more clear cut, with the two companies striving to be the first to land humans on the Moon, played out in a series of firsts—first satellite, first spacewalk, etc.—from 1957 to 1969.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4183/1

[Orionid]

The revival of the suborbital market
by Sam Dinkin Tuesday, June 1, 2021


“Mannequin Skywalker” occupies a seat on a New Shepard suborbital vehicle earlier this year that, in July, will carry the winner of an ongoing auction to the edge of space. (credit: Blue Origin)

With the bidding for taking the first human-crewed suborbital flight of the New Shepard at $2.8 million, and the bidding not closing until June 12, a healthy market may be available, at least temporarily, for suborbital flights with paying spaceflight participants.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4184/1

[Orionid]

Should India join China and Russia’s Lunar Research Station?
by Ajey Lele Tuesday, June 1, 2021


An illustration of what the proposed China-Russia international lunar research station might one day look like. (credit: CNSA)

Last week, South Korea signed the Artemis Accords, becoming the tenth country to join. It was the latest sign of the ongoing global efforts to study the Moon and beyond, involving both state-centric programs and multilateral collaborations.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4185/1

[Orionid]

An aggressive budget for more than just Earth science
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, June 1, 2021


NISAR, a synthetic aperture radar Earth science mission being jointly developed by NASA and the Indian space agency ISRO, will be a pathfinder for the Earth System Observatory series of missions to follow later in the decade. (credit: NASA)

Even before President Biden took office in January, it was clear that his administration was going to emphasize Earth science at NASA. The Biden campaign had identified climate change as a major priority across the government, and the Democratic party platform last summer included, in its brief discussion of space policy, “strengthening” Earth observation missions at both NASA and NOAA (see “Moon 2020-something”, The Space Review, November 9, 2020).
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4186/1

[Orionid]

Review: Light in the Darkness
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 7, 2021



Light in the Darkness: Black Holes, the Universe, and Us
by Heino Falcke with Jörg Römer
HarperOne, 2021
hardcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-06-302005-4
US$27.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006302005X/spaceviews

Even though the term “black hole” was introduced less than 60 years ago, the phenomenon has long since transcended astrophysics into popular culture. Almost everyone is familiar with the term, associating it not just stars and galaxies but also, more figuratively, with things from which one cannot escape, ravenously consuming everything in its path.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4187/1

[Orionid]

Revisiting the past’s future: ongoing ruminations about “For All Mankind”
by Emily Carney and Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 7, 2021


In the second season of “For All Mankind”, Skylab is the US space station in low Earth orbit, regularly serviced by—and refueling—space shuttles. (credit: AppleTV+)

Apple TV+’s “For All Mankind” finished its second season in April. That season was set entirely in 1983, in an alternate history where NASA builds a moonbase and ends up at the inflection point between peace and nuclear war. Two obsessive fans of the show who haven’t found enough opportunities to discuss it sat down and talked about it some more. Here is their extended commentary and speculation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4188/1

[Orionid]

Venus is hot again
by Jeff Foust Monday, June 7, 2021


An illustration showing the various phases of the DAVINCI+ probe entering the atmosphere of Venus and descending towards the surface. (credit: NASA GSFC visualization and CI Labs Michael Lentz and colleagues)

Planetary scientists who study Venus went into the competition for NASA’s Discovery program with high hopes. Two Venus mission concepts, an orbiter and an atmospheric probe, were finalists. With NASA having announced its intent to select two missions in this round—a move to space out the competitions and thus reduce the workload on the scientific community of preparing proposals—scientists were optimistic at least one would be selected, ending a long drought of NASA missions to the planet.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4189/1

[Orionid]

Peeking behind the iron curtain: National Intelligence Estimates and the Soviet space program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, June 7, 2021


The massive N1 rocket being elevated at its pad. American satellites photographed several launch vehicles on the pad during the late 1960s and early 1970s. (credit: Pavel Shubin, “Rocket Space System N1-L3”)

During the Cold War, the US intelligence community had a vast array of intelligence assets collecting information about the Soviet space program, from satellites to listening posts to radars pointed into space. Information was gathered up and processed and combined and then turned into products for decision makers. One of the major focuses at the time was the Soviet manned lunar landing program. American intelligence analysts had determined by around 1967 that the Soviet program, based on its huge N1 rocket, was not competitive with Apollo. Nevertheless, analysts in the US intelligence community maintained close tabs on Soviet space progress and regularly reported their assessments in a regular series of highly secret documents known as National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs). Now, new versions of several NIEs on the Soviet space program produced during the height of the space race have been released, and they shed further light on what the Soviets were doing, as well as some of the sources and methods used by the US intelligence community to keep tabs on their activities.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4190/1