Tag: EM-3
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NASA Selects Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX Human Landers for Artemis
NASA has selected three companies to develop Human Landing Systems (HLS) to support future crewed moon landings. Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX will develop their designs over a ten month period, before a down-selection to one or two vehicles that will fly uncrewed demonstration missions. The Artemis III mission will then utilize one of these…
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Boeing negotiating with NASA on future SLS Core Stage production
Now that the first of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stages has shipped from the factory, prime contractor Boeing is refining production plans for the second flight article and continuing negotiations with the civilian space agency for future production. The production team at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans is applying lessons…
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Administration proposes the end of EUS while Administrator considers full Exploration manifest rewrite
Alongside last week’s Trump Administration budget proposal to cancel future Space Launch System (SLS) upgrades, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced additional changes are being considered which would overhaul the early manifest of Exploration flights. The Administration’s new budget proposes defunding the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) and related projects beginning with Fiscal Year 2020 that starts…
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Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems readies SRBs for first SLS flights
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems continues production of solid rocket booster (SRB) segments for the first launches of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at their Promontory Propulsion Systems facility in Northern Utah. Mixing of solid propellant for the SLS boosters and casting it in each of the ten segments for the second flight set is…
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Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems readies SRBs for first SLS flights
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems continues production of solid rocket booster (SRB) segments for the first launches of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at their Promontory Propulsion Systems facility in Northern Utah. Mixing of solid propellant for the SLS boosters and casting it in each of the ten segments for the second flight set is…
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Navigating the twists and turns steering SLS Development
This year’s decision to increase and extend use of the initial “Block 1” operating configuration of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) booster also impacts the space agency’s near-term plans for evolution of the launch vehicle’s design. The Congressional commitment to a second Mobile Launcher for SLS, along with the ability of SLS Block 1 to…
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NASA updates Lunar Gateway plans
NASA management updated the agency’s human exploration plans for the 2020s to the NASA Advisory Council’s (NAC) Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Committee last month at the Ames Research Center in California. The focus of the evolving plans for the next decade is launch, assembly, and operations of a human-tended space station in high lunar…
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NASA evaluates EM-2 launch options for Deep Space Gateway PPE
While NASA engages spacecraft industry help in studying concepts for design, development, test, and evaluation of the Power Propulsion Element (PPE), it is also studying where the anchor component of the proposed Deep Space Gateway (DSG) would orbit the Moon and how it would get there when launched as a part of Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2).…
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SLS EM-1 & -2 launch dates realign; EM-3 gains notional mission outline
Following a series of issues over the last year with the Core Stage for the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket, the launch dates for both the EM-1 and EM-2 flights are beginning to align, with EM-1 now targeting No Earlier Than 15 December 2019 and EM-2 following on 1 June 2022. Additionally,…
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Orion deep in processing for EM-1, planning for following missions
As US Vice President Mike Pence visited the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), one of the welcoming party, the Orion crew module, is fast taking shape ahead of its Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) flight. With major processing milestones – such as the mating of the heatshield with the Crew Module, NASA managers are already thinking ahead to…