Japan’s Hayabusa2 sample return capsule parachuted into the Woomer Prohibited Area in Australia on Saturday carrying soil and rock samples from the asteroid Ryugu.

Video Caption: The Chang’e-5 ascender automatically docked with the orbiter-sample return vehicle on 5 December 2020, at 21:42 UTC (6 December, at 05:42 China Standard Time). At 22:12 UTC (6 December, 06:12 CST), the sample container, containing the soil collected from the Moon, was transferred from the ascender to the sample return vehicle. Chang’e-5 will orbit the Moon for a few days, waiting for adequate window to return to Earth. […]

China’s Chang’e-5 sample return spacecraft made a safe touchdown on the lunar surface at 10:11 EST (15:11 UTC) 01 December 2020. LRO passed over the site the following day and acquired an off-nadir (13° slew) image showing the lander centered within  a triangle of craters. The LROC team computed the coordinates of the lander to be 43.0576° N, 308.0839°E, –2570 m elevation, with an estimated accuracy of plus-or-minus 20 meters. The […]

TOKYO (JAXA PR) — The capsule onboard the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 re-entered the atmosphere at around 2:28 JST on December 6, 2020.  After that, as a result of searching the capsule body with a helicopter, it was found in Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia at 4:47 JST on December 6, 2020. The capsule collection work is scheduled to be carried out on the morning of December 6, 2020 Japan time. […]

There are 14 launches scheduled around the world before Christmas Day. The schedule includes a SpaceX Dragon mission to the International Space Station on Dec. 6 and the resumption of launches for OneWeb’s satellite broadband constellation on Dec. 17.

The schedule also includes flight tests of the following vehicles:

• SpaceX’s Starship 8 prototype to 12.5 km (Dec. 7)
• Astra’s Rocket 3.2 rocket (Dec. 10)
• Russia’s Angara heavy-lift booster (Dec. 11)
• Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crewed suborbital space plane (Dec. 11)
• Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne (Dec. 19).

The full schedule is below. Thanks to Spaceflight Now’s excellent launch schedule page for much of the information.

Launch dates and times are subject to change without warning. And remember, no wagering!

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) has issued its first operator licenses for space launch activities to a domestic software developer and an American engineering services company.

AEB awarded the licenses to Essado de Moraise Ltda. of Franca, Brazil, and Orion Applied Science & Technology LLC (https://orionast.com/) of Manassas, Va., the space agency said in a press release.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Blue Origin PR) — Blue Origin’s BE-7 engine program continues its testing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. This week, the program accomplished the fourth thrust chamber test of its high-efficiency engine. The hotfire testing further validates the engine that will power Blue Origin’s  National Team Human Landing System (HLS) in support of NASA’s Artemis program. 

On Friday, Virgin Galactic unveiled new flight suits for the pilots who will fly SpaceShipTwo. The company worked on the suits with Under Armour, which also designed similar garments for passengers. The press release refers to the pilot garments as spacesuits 16 times even though they do not meet any accepted definition of the word. Per Marriam-Webster: space suit: a suit equipped with life supporting provisions to make life in […]

TOKYO (ispace PR) – Today, on December 3, 2020, at 1:00PM EST, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that it has awarded contracts to both ispace, inc. (ispace) and the company’s subsidiary, ispace Europe S.A. (ispace EU), to acquire regolith from the lunar surface to be purchased by the space agency.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Fresh off a stinging report saying that it failed to properly oversee a state-owned facility rife with fraud, waste and abuse, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) Board of Directors approved spending up to $20 million on capital improvements to Spaceport America.

MOSCOW (Roscomos PR) — Today, December 2, 2020, at the Yu.A. Gagarin, a meeting of the Interdepartmental Qualification Commission (ICQC) took place. By the decision of the commission, the qualification of a test cosmonaut was awarded to Konstantin Borisov, Alexander Gorbunov, Alexander Grebenkin, Alexei Zubritsky, Sergei Mikayev, Kirill Peskov and Oleg Platonov. They completed a two-year general space training course and successfully passed the State exam.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected two SmallSat missions – a study of Earth’s outer most atmosphere and a solar sail spaceflight test mission – to share a ride to space in 2025 with the agency’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP).

The missions – the Global Lyman-alpha Imagers of the Dynamic Exosphere (GLIDE) and Solar Cruiser – were selected as Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Missions of Opportunity. GLIDE will help researchers understand the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere – the exosphere – where it touches space. Solar Cruiser demonstrate the use of solar photons for propulsion in space.