BOULDER, Colo. (BioServe PR) — When SpaceX CRS-23 launched to the International Space Station on August 29, it carried with it a milestone for the University of Colorado Boulder: the 80th mission to fly a payload from BioServe Space Technologies. BioServe, based in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, designs and builds life science research and hardware for experiments in space microgravity environments. They partner with […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Shares of space infrastructure and manufacturing conglomerate Redwire (RDW) surged by 16.57 percent on Friday during the company’s first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock price rose by $1.74 to $12.24.

The debut came after shareholders of Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. overwhelmingly backed a merger with Redwire on Wednesday. Genesis Park was a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that was already traded on NYSE that was established by investors with the goal of finding a company with which to merge and take public.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. and HOUSTON, Sept. 1, 2021 (Genesis Park PR) — Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. (“GPAC”) (NYSE: GNPK), a U.S. publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, and Redwire, LLC (“Redwire” or the “Company”), a leader in mission critical space solutions and high reliability components for the next generation space economy, announced that at GPAC’s extraordinary general meeting held today (the “Extraordinary General Meeting”), GPAC’s shareholders voted to approve the previously announced proposed business combination between GPAC and Redwire (the “Business Combination”), as well as all other proposals related to the Business Combination. Approximately 97% of the votes cast at the meeting, representing approximately 73% of GPAC’s outstanding shares as of the record date, voted to approve the Business Combination.

• The DLR is strengthening and modernizing its test infrastructure at the Lampoldshausen site with the renovation and expansion of the ESA large test bench P5.
• The installation of a methane tank is an important milestone.
• This means that tests of rocket propulsion systems with the fuel combination of liquid oxygen and methane will also be possible in the future.
• The commissioning of the converted ESA test bench P5 is planned for 2022.

LAMPOLDSHAUSEN, Germany (DLR PR) — The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is making a central component of its extensive test infrastructure fit for the future: It expands the ESA large test bench P5 at the DLR site in Lampoldshausen. In this way, the next generation of space propulsion systems can also be tested flexibly and reliably.

By Karl B. Hille
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

GREENBELT, Md. — Swarms of small satellites could communicate amongst themselves to collect data on important weather patterns at different times of the day or year, and from multiple angles. Such swarms, using machine learning algorithms, could revolutionize scientists’ understanding of weather and climate changes.

Engineer Sabrina Thompson is working on software to enable small spacecraft, or SmallSats, to communicate with each other, identify high-value observation targets, and coordinate attitude and timing to get different views of the same target.

by Leah Cheshier
International Space Station Program Research Office
NASA Johnson Space Center

HOUSTON — Most often, communications delays between the International Space Station crew and ground are nearly unnoticeable as they are routed from one Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to another as the station orbits about 250 miles above Earth. As NASA prepares to explore the Moon, about 240,000 miles away, and eventually Mars, which averages about 245 million miles away, NASA is developing tools to increase astronaut autonomy to operate spacecraft or systems without assistance from the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston because communication delays from Earth will last longer.

The T2 Augmented Reality (T2AR) project demonstrates how station crew members can inspect and maintain scientific and exercise equipment critical to maintaining crew health and achieving research goals without assistance from ground teams.

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA Member States have agreed upon the boundary conditions for Europe’s upcoming exploitation of Ariane 6 and Vega-C and request ESA to propose a roadmap for new and innovative space transportation solutions for the next decade and a framework for associated short cycle demonstrations.

The Resolution agreed upon by ESA Member States mid-August sets the conditions for the first three years of stabilised exploitation of Europe’s new launch vehicles, Ariane 6 and Vega-C at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. 

New concepts could expand human exploration of the deepest parts of the solar system faster than ever before.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (Aerospace Corporation PR) — Space exploration remains a herculean effort due to the immense challenges imposed by time and distance. While missions to near-Earth objects have been successfully accomplished using traditional means of propulsion, the outermost planets in our solar system are 2 to 3.7 billion miles from the Sun. Reaching them within any reasonable time frame requires propulsion systems that exceed the capabilities of conventional propulsion methods.

HAWTHORNE, CA, September 3, 2021 – Teams from SpaceX and Inspiration4 met yesterday at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California to evaluate the readiness of the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, ground systems, recovery assets, crew training, and other key elements of SpaceX’s human spaceflight system for Inspiration4 – the historic first all-civilian human spaceflight mission to orbit. Upon conclusion of the Flight Readiness Review, teams are proceeding toward a targeted launch on Wednesday, September 15 UTC (September 14 EDT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A backup launch opportunity is available on Thursday, September 16 UTC (September 15 EDT). Both 24-hour launch windows start at 12:00 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif., September 2, 2021 (Firefly Aerospace PR) — Today we conducted the first-ever test flight of our Alpha booster. Prior to the anomaly, we had a countdown and lift off at 6:59 pm local time. While we did not meet all of our mission objectives, we did achieve a number of them: successful first stage ignition, liftoff off the pad, progression to supersonic speed, and we […]

Video Caption: Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket suffered an in-flight anomaly on its debut launch. Shot on September 2nd, 2021 from the press site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Video and Pictures from Jack Beyer (@TheJackBeyer) and Michael Baylor (@NextSpaceFlight). Edited by Jack Beyer.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — Perseverance will obtain additional imagery of the sample tube before potentially completing the process of collecting its first scientifically-selected Mars sample.

Data received late Sept. 1 from NASA’s Perseverance rover indicate the team has achieved its goal of successfully coring a Mars rock. The initial images downlinked after the historic event show an intact sample present in the tube after coring. However, additional images taken after the arm completed sample acquisition were inconclusive due to poor sunlight conditions. Another round of images with better lighting will be taken before the sample processing continues.