Space exploration news

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Sample from asteroid Bennu will be landing on Sunday.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-finalizes-coverage-for-first-us-asteroid-sample-landing

Samples being collected on Mars by the Perseverance rover are intended to eventually be delivered to Earth. The latest concept involved using "2 Ingenuity-class helicopters" but the proposed budget and schedule have been determined to be unrealistic.

Yep I have been following OSIRIS-REx for a long time; FYI the last update of the MSR plans see the possibility of descope to 1 Ingenuity-class sample retrieval helicopter but even that's been superseded by the Independent Review Board assessment of the current MSR plans (the public report was released on Thursday).

Funnily enough I am wearing the MSR project polo shirt I got from JPL right now.

AoD

 

[SubHuman]

Ottawa signs agreement with U.S. to send Canadian astronaut around the moon

A lunar milestone: Canada will send an astronaut around the moon in deal with U.S.

A Canadian will join Artemis II, a NASA-led mission that is set to fling a capsule carrying four astronauts around the moon and back

www.theglobeandmail.com

The Canadian astronaut who has been assigned to that flight, Jeremy Hansen, was at the Science Centre earlier today.
https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca.../to-the-moon-with-csa-astronaut-jeremy-hansen

CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen at the Ontario Science Centre

CSA Jeremy Hansen speaks about his mission with families at the Ontario Science Centre during a visit to Toronto.

www.asc-csa.gc.ca

 

[kEiThZ]

The Canadian astronaut who has been assigned to that flight, Jeremy Hansen, was at the Science Centre earlier today.

I met Col. Hansen when he came to Toronto to update his centrifuge training. Such a stand-up dude. Truly, a great representative of Canada.

 

[Admiral Beez]

It’s noteworthy that humans have not left low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in Dec 1972, when I was an infant.

 

[SubHuman]

The Artemis II flight around the moon will be no earlier than September 2025.
(When I made the post above, it was supposedly going to happen in November 2024.)
https://spacenews.com/nasa-delays-artemis-2-and-3-missions/

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The Artemis II flight around the moon will be no earlier than September 2025.
(When I made the post above, it was supposedly going to happen in November 2024.)
https://spacenews.com/nasa-delays-artemis-2-and-3-missions/
View attachment 606369

Not the slightest bit surprised - SLS is bit of a white elephant that would be obsolete the moment Superheavy/Starship becomes human-rated. Bloomberg is outright calling for the program to be scrapped:

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Eric Berger at Ars also had some choice words:

The politically incorrect guide to saving NASA’s floundering Artemis Program

To get somewhere, Artemis must avoid going nowhere.

arstechnica.com

AoD

 

[kEiThZ]

From the government that claims to be all about supporting science, research and industry:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/david-florida-laboratory-ottawa-canada-closing-1.7130800