Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
Polar Moon Station Tour: 'Water-Based' Architecture Example | Lockheed Martin
"Science fiction is becoming reality. The Artemis program is taking us back to the Moon, and this time we'll establish a presence that will eventually take us farther into space than ever before. The building blocks of space infrastructure required to carry humanity on this journey are in development today."
"Dive into our vision of a water-based lunar architecture on the Moon that demonstrates our commitment to sustainable space exploration. This journey to the Moon is not just for knowledge, but securing our future, enabling Mars exploration, permanent bases and returning valuable resources to Earth."
"Jump in our rover and take a tour of the lunar south pole to see the infrastructure needed to maintain a permanent presence on the Moon. Highlights include:"
"Transportation: technology like the Orion spacecraft to transport humans to and from the Moon."
"Mobility: vehicles to explore the Moon’s surface."
"Power: a grid providing continuous power regardless of the Sun’s position."
"Habitation: reliable, lightweight and spacious shelters made of inflatable softgoods technology."
"Space Resources: water ice harvesting and regolith mining to support life on the Moon."
"Our approach for a responsible and effective path forward is water-based, nuclear-enabled and commercially-invested. To learn more about our vision for humanity's future in space, visit:"
China's iSpace JD-2 Reusable Engine Tests for SQX-3 Rocket Successful
Commercial rocket firm Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., also known as iSpace, successfully completed a high-altitude 200-second long-range hot test assessment of its Jiao Dian Two (JD-2) liquid oxygen methane engine on August 1, 2024. The JD-2 engine is a self-developed main engine for i-Space’s medium to large reusable liquid carrier rocket, named SQX-3.
The JD-2 engine has met the longest working time requirement for the SQX-3 reusable launch vehicle. This recent test series has verified the performance and reliability of the JD-2 engine in an extended working state with the combustion chamber pressure exceeding 111% of the rated condition. This was the eighth hot test assessment for the JD-2 engine, effectively validating its reusability performance. This marks a major milestone for the JD-2 engine's design goals.
JD-2 incorporates technologies like torch ignition, 3D printing, fully electric valves, and intelligent fault diagnosis. It is currently the most advanced domestically developed liquid oxygen methane rocket engine with the highest thrust.
iSpace made history as the first privately-funded Chinese company to reach orbit in 2019 with the solid-fueled Hyperbola-1 rocket.
In addition to iSpace, other Chinese companies, such as Galactic Energy and CAS Space, are conducting similar tests of reusable rocket engines.
China opened up its space sector to private and commercial activity in 2014.
China's Tiangong space station is expected to provide an opportunity for commercial launch vehicles to gain contracts to deliver cargo.
Additionally, China's Guowang low-Earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite megaconstellation (described as an expanded Chinese version of Starlink) is also expected to provide many valuable opportunities for commercial ventures.
Video Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA) Watcher
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Hardware Highlights Spring 2024
Every day, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope moves closer to completion. This video highlights examples of the important hardware milestones from part of this journey. Components and systems are built separately, tested, and then integrated with larger parts of the spacecraft to carefully build the full telescope. Roman’s foundation is the primary structure, or spacecraft bus. It houses electronics and support systems. Like the chassis of a car, everything is built up from this aluminum hexagon.
This video, covering the spring of 2024, opens with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s integration and testing complex. The flight versions of the Solar Array Sun Shield panels are unpacked in Goddard’s largest clean room and placed into special racks to safely hold them. Multiple copies of hardware often exist, most for testing purposes; flight hardware is the version that will actually fly in space on the final spacecraft.
The flight solar panel arrays are the only ones covered with delicate solar cells. The Outer Barrel Assembly, also flight hardware, arrives at Goddard and is unpacked from its shipping container. This structure will surround and protect Roman’s primary mirror from stray light.
Fitted to the front of the spacecraft, the Deployable Aperture Cover is another element of light protection. It will cover the aperture during launch and then deploy in space to shield the aperture from sunlight. To ensure that it is ready, engineers deploy it in a large thermal vacuum chamber. Once the hardware is deployed, the chamber will evacuates all the air and generates high and low temperature extremes to simulate the conditions in space.
The Wide Field Instrument is Roman’s primary one and it will capture enormous images of distant objects. Assembled by BAE Systems in Colorado, it undergoes environmental testing at their facilities, proving that it can function in space, before traveling to Goddard for integration with the rest of the spacecraft.
The Coronagraph Instrument, a technology demonstration that will be able to directly image planets outside our solar system, was developed and built at JPL in California. After comprehensive testing there, JPL carefully transported the Coronagraph across the country to Goddard, where a team of JPL and Goddard engineers carefully unpacked it and performed a thorough inspection as well as continued testing.
Finally, the Optical Telescope Assembly is a combination of the 7.9- foot (2.4- meter) primary mirror, the smaller secondary mirror, and many additional optical elements designed to direct the focused beam of light to Roman’s two instruments. The assembly was built at L3Harris in New York and went through testing at their facilities in preparation for sending it to Goddard. The Optical Telescope Assembly will be the last major piece of hardware to arrive at Goddard this fall.
To learn more about all these systems and where they fit into Roman, visit:
Launching no later than May 2027, Roman is NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission. An infrared survey telescope with the same resolution as Hubble but at least 100 times the field of view, Roman is being built and tested at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Partners from around the globe are contributing to this effort.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer: Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Videographers: Sophia Roberts (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.)
Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Public affairs officer: Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC)
A Decade of Global Precipitation Measurement: US-Japan Cooperation | NASA Goddard
Through rain and snow, hurricane, typhoon and monsoon, flash flood and bomb cyclone, for ten years, the joint NASA-JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement mission has measured a lot of water. GPM’s Core Observatory satellite launched from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan in early 2014, becoming the first satellite to be able to see through the clouds and measure liquid and frozen precipitation from the Equator to polar regions using a radar. Now in its tenth year of operation, we look at ten events brought to light by this groundbreaking mission.
NEOWISE: The Legacy of NASA’s Asteroid-Hunting Telescope | NASA/JPL
The NEOWISE mission, NASA’s asteroid-hunting space telescope, is retiring in summer 2024 after over a decade of discovering, tracking, and characterizing near-Earth objects (NEOs)—asteroids and comets that come close to Earth’s orbit. Without a propulsion system to boost its orbit, NEOWISE, short for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in the coming months. In this video, mission leaders explain how NEOWISE has vastly improved our understanding of the solar system, better prepared us to predict potential impact events, and paved the way for a new mission: NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor.
Originally launched in 2009 as the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the telescope completed its primary mission to conduct an all-sky survey in the infrared spectrum. The spacecraft detected asteroids, stars, and examples of the faintest galaxies in space. It was then put into hibernation in 2011. NASA re-awakened it in 2013, launching its second career and giving rise to its modified name, NEOWISE. On Aug. 8, 2024, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will send a command to once again put the spacecraft into hibernation before its re-entry, expected in late 2024 or early 2025.
NASA/JPL-Caltech; WISE-NEOWISE movies compiled by Dan Caselden; WISE imagery: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/Judy Schmidt; 10 years of NEOWISE data animation: IPAC/Caltech/University of Arizona; select asteroid animations from NASA Eyes on Asteroids; asteroid 2014 HQ124 radar imagery: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arecibo Observatory/USRA/NSF; Orion Nebula: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech; International Space Station footage: NASA Johnson Space Center; comet NEOWISE images: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab/Parker Solar Probe/Brendan Gallagher, and NASA/Bill Dunford
NASA's Space to Ground: For the Gold | Week of Aug. 2, 2024
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. The next cargo mission to resupply the residents living and working aboard the International Space Station is counting down to a launch at 11:29 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 8,200 pounds of science, supplies, and hardware for the station. Cygnus will orbit Earth for just over a day-and-a-half before approaching the orbital outpost where the Canadarm2 robotic arm will be waiting to capture the spacecraft at 6 a.m. on Monday.
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
China's Chang'e-5 Moon Samples Shown Abroad for First Time in Thailand
The lunar samples brought to Earth by China's Chang'e 5 spacecraft in 2020 have captivated visitors at a fair in Bangkok, Thailand's capital city, sparking awe and enthusiasm for the future of space discovery.
Chang'e-5 Moon Landing Site: Mons Rümker, region of Oceanus Procellarum—a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon.
The Chang'e-5 lunar sample return mission was the first of its kind since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. This successful mission made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the former Soviet Union. India has plans for its own lunar sample return mission later in this decade.
Chang'e-5 Earth Launch: November 23, 2020
Chang'e-5 Moon Landing: December 1, 2020
Chang'e-5 Earth Landing: December 16, 2020
Chang'e-5 landed in China's Inner Mongolia region.
The English Channel and The North Sea| International Space Station
The English Channel and the North Sea separate the island of Great Britain from the northwest European nations of The Netherlands, Belgium, and France in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above.
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
NASA's Artemis II Moon Rocket Core Stage Arrives at Kennedy Space Center
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage for the Artemis II mission is inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Tugboats and towing vessels moved the barge and core stage 900-miles to the Florida spaceport from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where it was manufactured and assembled.
The 212-foot-tall core stage arrived at NASA Kennedy’s Complex 39 turn basin wharf on July 23rd, 2024. Team members with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program safely transferred it from the agency’s Pegasus barge, onto the self-propelled module transporter that is used to move large elements of hardware. It was then rolled to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) transfer aisle where teams will process it until it is ready for rocket stacking operations.
In the coming months, teams will integrate the rocket core stage atop the mobile launcher with the additional Artemis II flight hardware, including the twin solid rocket boosters, launch vehicle stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft.
The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.
Check the NASA Artemis II Mission page for updates:
NASA's "Espacio a Tierra" | Marineros estrella: 26 de julio 2024
Espacio a Tierra, la versión en español de las cápsulas Space to Ground de la NASA, te informa semanalmente de lo que está sucediendo en la Estación Espacial Internacional.
Monitoring North American Wildfires by Satellite | NOAA
Roughly 100 wildfires are raging out of control across the western United States and hundreds more are burning in Canada, destroying homes, forcing evacuations, and affecting air quality. NOAA satellites have been closely monitoring these blazes, including California’s Park Fire, which is currently the largest active wildfire in the U.S.
The Park Fire, which started on July 24, 2024, is believed to have been ignited by arson. A suspect has been arrested, accused of pushing a burning car into a gully, sparking the blaze. As of Aug. 1, the fire has consumed 392,480 acres across Butte, Plumas, Shasta, and Tehama counties. Fueled by very dry grass and brush, and driven by strong winds, the fire was only 18% contained.
Video Credits: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, CIRA
Startrails above the Víctor Blanco Telescope in Chile
Startrails circle the southern sky in this timelapse video of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Cerro Tololo, Chile, at work.
The 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope was commissioned in 1974. It is a near twin of the Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. In 1995 it was dedicated and named in honor of Puerto Rican astronomer Víctor Manuel Blanco. It is also part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a visible and near-infrared survey that aims to probe the dynamics of the expansion of the Universe.
What's in the Night Sky Tonight? August 2024 | BBC Sky at Night Magazine
What's in the night sky tonight? Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel discuss August 2024's astronomy and stargazing highlights, including a lunar occultation of Saturn, the Perseid meteor shower and the glorious sights of the Summer Milky Way.
What's Up for August 2024: Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL
Examples of skywatching highlights in the northern hemisphere for August 2024: Mars and Jupiter have a super close meetup, the conditions look good for the Perseid meteors, and how to observe a stellar nursery—the Lagoon Nebula.
0:00 Intro
0:14 Moon & planet highlights
1:14 Perseid meteor shower peaks
1:51 Observing the Lagoon Nebula (M8)
3:59 August Moon phases
Video Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
In August, a flock of star-studded figures soars overhead. Look for the Vega and Lyra constellations that point to Epsilon Lyrae and the Ring Nebula. You can also spot three bright summer stars: Vega, Deneb, and Altair. They form the Summer Triangle. Keep watching for space-based views of these and other stars and nebulas.
“Tonight’s Sky” is a monthly video of constellations you can observe in the night sky. The series is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning: Caltech/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University.
Tour of the Artemis Moon Rocket Mobile Launcher: Part 2 | Kennedy Space Center
Point-of-View: You are an astronaut about to launch around the Moon.
Walk the path of our NASA Artemis II astronauts onto the crew access arm of Mobile Launcher 1, explore the emergency egress system, and stand in the flame trench used to deflect the 8.8 million pounds of thrust from NASA's Space Launch System during liftoff.
Head to part 1 to start from the beginning and walk the pad surface, ride up the elevator, and stroll the highest level of the launcher tower for a stellar view of Kennedy Space Center.
Mobile launcher 1 is the ground structure that is used to assemble, process, and launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for missions to deep space destinations, such as the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
During preparations for launch, the crawler-transporter picks up and moves the mobile launcher into High Bay 3 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The launcher is secured atop support posts and the crawler moves out. The Orion spacecraft is stacked atop the SLS rocket and processed on the mobile launcher.
The mobile launcher consists of a two-story base that is the platform for the rocket and a tower equipped with a number of connection lines, called umbilicals, and launch accessories that provide SLS and Orion with power, communications, coolant, fuel, and stabilization prior to launch. The tower also contains a walkway for personnel and equipment entering the crew module during launch preparations.
The launcher rolls out to the pad for launch on top of the crawler-transporter, carrying SLS and Orion. After the crawler-transporter makes its eight-hour trek to the pad just over four miles away, engineers lower the launcher onto the pad and remove the crawler-transporter. During launch, each umbilical and launch accessory releases from its connection point, allowing the rocket and spacecraft to lift off safely from the launch pad.
Fun Facts:
Total height above ground: 380 feet
Tower: 40 feet square, about 355 feet tall, 662 steps
Tower floor levels: every 20 feet for personnel access to vehicle and ground support equipment
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