Set to launch later this year, the Peregrine team reveals a meaningful mission patch design for the world’s first commercial lunar landing

PITTSBURGH (Astrobotic PR ) — Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One (PM1) is set to be the first US lander (and first commercial lunar lander) to touch down on the Moon since the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago. In anticipation of Peregrine’s launch into space later this year, Astrobotic has released a commemorative mission patch filled with some meaningful Easter (or more appropriately, peregrine) eggs.

The focal point of the patch is the peregrine falcon, majestically jetting towards its lunar destination. There are seven craters in the patch’s Moon design, representing the seven nations that are joining Astrobotic on its mission. The phase on the patch’s Moon graphic matches the real Moon’s phase that people will see at the time of Peregrine’s touchdown.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — Twenty finalists have been selected for the main role in the scientific and educational project  under the working title ” Challenge “, which will be partially filmed in space. In total, about 3,000 applications were submitted for the competition.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 9, 2021 (Aerojet Rocketdyne PR) – Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AJRD) today announced that, at a special meeting held on March 9, 2021, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s stockholders approved the merger agreement providing for the proposed acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne by Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT). Approximately 99.76% of the shares whose holders were present in person or by proxy at the special meeting were voted in […]

By Danielle McCulloch and Nicole Quenelle
NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program

EDWARDS, Calif. — At one-sixth that of Earth, the unique gravity of the lunar surface is one of the many variable conditions that technologies bound for the Moon will need to perform well in. NASA will soon have more options for testing those innovations in lunar gravity thanks to a collaboration with Blue Origin to bring new testing capabilities to the company’s New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket system.

PARIS (ESA PR) — Improvising new stuff from the stuff you have is part of an astronaut’s job description – think Apollo 13’s crew refitting CO2 filters to save their own lives, or stranded Mark Watney in The Martian, feeding himself on the Red Planet. Now plans are underway to manufacture items in orbit, and ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst argues this could make a big difference to living and working in space.

Alexander – who has spent just under a year in orbit, becoming the second European to command the International Space Station (ISS) – spoke at ESA’s Workshop on Advanced Manufacturing, which included a special session on out-of-Earth manufacturing.

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I Award
Funding: up to $125,000
Study Period: 9 months

FarView – An In Situ Manufactured Lunar Far Side Radio Observatory
Ronald Polidan
Lunar Resources, Inc.
Houston, Texas

We propose to perform an end-to-end system-level study of how to build a very large low frequency (5-40 MHz) radio observatory, “FarView,” on the lunar farside using lunar regolith materials. FarView will be a sparse array of ~100,000 dipole antennas populating a ~20×20 km area.

The innovative technology elements enabling FarView will be the near exclusive use of ISRU and on-site manufacturing of almost all system elements for the radio array, including power generation and energy storage systems.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos State Corporation, and Kejian Zhang, Head of the China National Space Administration, on March 9, 2021, by videoconference, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the governments of Russia and China between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the creation of the International Scientific Lunar station (MNLS).

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA has assigned astronaut Mark Vande Hei to an upcoming mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 64/65 crew. Vande Hei, along with cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, are scheduled to launch Friday, April 9, on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded contracts to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) for two launches each under its National Security Space Launch Phase 2 agreements. SpaceX will receive $159,721,445 to launch the USSF-36 and NROL-69 missions from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launches are expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023. ULA will […]

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — Stacking is complete for the twin Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters for NASA’s Artemis I mission. Over several weeks, workers used one of five massive cranes to place 10 booster segments and nose assemblies on the mobile launcher inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers with Exploration Ground Systems placed the first segment on Nov. 21, 2020, and continued the process until […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Power and in-situ resources are two things humans will need as they explore deep space. How future astronauts use these commodities depends on the technology at hand. That’s why NASA is looking to U.S. universities for lunar-focused research to bring about advancements in in-situ resource utilization and sustainable power solutions. NASA selected six project proposals under its first-ever Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) solicitation.

MOJAVE, Calif. — A new Chief Executive Officer will take the controls of the Mojave Air and Space Port (MASP) in April.

Todd Lindner, former Director of the Jacksonville, Florida, Aviation Authority’s Cecil Spaceport, was selected by members of the Mojave Air and Spaceport board of directors from more than 100 applications.

A veteran pilot, Lindner will be the first person with airport management experience to manage the Mojave Air and Space Port.

“With 30 years of aviation management experience, Todd Lindner understands the unique financial and operating requirements of an air and spaceport,” said Jim Balentine, president of the MASP board of directors.