THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s $50,000 Reward: Help Map the Moon’s Mysterious South Pole and Win Big.

WELL, GOOD: Russia’s Soyuz rocket launch to ISS called flawless for NASA veteran’s first space trip in decade.

SPACE: NASA needs Boeing’s Starliner, so development most likely will continue.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Biden Admin to SpaceX: Drop Dead! “Biden-Harris would have us lose the New Space Race — putting our entire national security at risk — in a fit of partisan pique against the man whose other company, X, had the temerity to restore free speech to just one social media platform.”

SPACEX’S FULL STATEMENT ON FAA/ENVIRONMENTAL DELAYS. “Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware.”

What is the point of our giant military-industrial-intelligence complex (which relies on SpaceX) if they can’t even tell the Fisheries Service to buzz off?

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chang’e-6 orbiter turns up at Sun-Earth Lagrange point after moon sampling mission. I’m glad they picked L2. L5 would have felt like trespassing.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China plans to build moon base at the lunar south pole by 2035. “The first phase will be completed around 2035 near the lunar south pole, and an extended model will be built by about 2050, according to Wu Yanhua, chief designer of the Chinese deep space exploration project, speaking to media at the event.”

SPACE: SpaceX will try to launch Polaris Dawn civilian crew during early morning hours.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA Postpones Upcoming Mars Mission, Citing Delays With Bezos’s Big Rocket.

“The decision was made to avoid significant cost, schedule, and technical challenges associated with potentially removing fuel from the spacecraft in the event of a launch delay, which could be caused by a number of factors,” NASA wrote in a statement.

EscaPADE will use two identical spacecraft to study how solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment, and learn how it drives the atmospheric escape of the Red Planet, according to NASA.

NASA decided not to fuel the two spacecraft in case New Glenn isn’t ready for launch, avoiding the costly task of removing the fuel. The launch of the EscaPADE mission has to take place when Earth and Mars are aligned. “This is an important mission for NASA, and it’s critical we have sufficient margin in our prelaunch work to ensure we are ready to fly a tight planetary window,” Bradley Smith, NASA’s launch services office director, said in a statement.

Blue Origin has been developing its New Glenn rocket for more than a decade, with its inaugural launch initially planned for 2020.

The next launch window opens in March, assuming New Glenn is finally ready by then.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Crew Dragon launches on Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China is taking a keen interest in lava tubes as possible lunar habitats: China’s lunar plans should be a wake up call to NASA, according to lunar scientist.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China to test lunar-soil bricks in space to pave the way for its planned moon base.

Samples of bricks made of varying compositions from lunar soil simulant will be launched to the Tiangong space station aboard the upcoming Tianzhou 8 cargo mission, according to a report from Chinese state media CCTV.

The bricks will be subjected to three years of exposure tests in space. They will be bombarded by ultraviolet light and cosmic rays and subjected to temperature differences. This will test the strength and durability of bricks in extreme environments and how the materials behave in the vacuum of space.

The experiment is designed to give insight into which composition and which methods of producing bricks from lunar soil will be most suitable for building structures on the moon.

China is not messing around with landing — and staying — on the moon.

EDIT: I’d left the “not” out originally. Sorry for the confusion!

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Elon Musk Set a Timeline for Landing on Mars and I’m Slack-Jawed.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s secretive reusable spaceplane lands after 267 days in orbit.

PROGRESS: SpaceX satellites with Tesat terminals achieve first laser data exchange for U.S. military.

SPACE: NASA Deploys Sail of Experimental Spacecraft Propelled Purely by Light.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China to launch Mars sample return mission in 2028, will follow planetary protection guidelines. “NASA is working on its own, more complex Mars sample return mission. However the program is being reassessed, following projected cost overruns. Studies are being conducted to identify concepts that can deliver samples faster and cheaper than current plans.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Life On A Jupiter Moon? NASA And SpaceX Confirm Launch Plans — What To Know.

NASA and SpaceX have announced that their Europa Clipper mission, which will help planetary scientists determine if Europa could support life, will launch on Thursday, Oct. 10.

The mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA confirmed in an email to media.

Europa—the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 79 moons—has intrigued scientists since a liquid ocean was discovered beneath its icy shell.

The Europa Clipper mission will help scientists determine if Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons, could support life. It will reach the Jupiter system in April 2030 and will spend four years studying Europa during at least 32 close flybys. It will photograph the moon’s icy surface in high resolution during each pass.

The largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission, Clipper is about 16 feet tall and 100 feet wide—roughly the size of a basketball court—primarily thanks to its massive solar arrays.

Flybyes are fine. Just attempt no landing there.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Senegal among new members of China’s ILRS moon base project.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: After Starliner, NASA has another big human spaceflight decision to make.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Last Vega rocket readied for ESA’s Copernicus satellite launch.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Houston, You Have Another Problem? “It looks more and more like China might beat NASA back to the moon.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Evolution Space tests rocket on Spaceport Company sea-based platform.

WOEING: NASA’s Strategic Decision: SpaceX Crew-9 Launching With Empty Seats Following Starliner Adjustments.

AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO BELIEVE:

NASA Statement on the Starliner pulsing noise:

“A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped. The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration…

— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) September 2, 2024