By Leejay Lockhart
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

Building structures on other planets is challenging for many reasons, including that it is difficult to send supplies from Earth. Typical construction materials such as concrete and steel are too heavy and bulky to launch on a rocket to the Moon and especially Mars. A solution to that problem is using local materials already at the destination.

AI SpaceFactory – an architectural and construction technology company and winner of NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge – will collaborate with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to mature new planetary construction technologies. NASA announced the partnership, and 19 others across the agency, under the 2020  Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO).

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Expedition 1 and Crew-1. These historic International Space Station missions lifting off 20 years apart share the same goals: advancing humanity by using the space station to learn how to explore farther than ever before, while also conducting research and technology demonstrations benefiting life back on Earth.

Crew-1, made up of NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, continues the legacy of two decades of living and working in low-Earth orbit by becoming space scientists for the next six months.

KIEV (State Space Agency of Ukraine PR) — The State Space Agency of Ukraine has signed the NASA Artemis Agreement on the Principles of Cooperation in Civil Exploration and the Peaceful Use of the Moon, Mars, Comets and Asteroids and has joined the space agencies of other participating countries.

Thus, Ukraine became the ninth signatory of the Artemis Agreements.

The agreements contain a set of principles that will guide the signatory states in their participation in NASA’s Artemis program, namely:

MAGNA, Utah, Nov. 13, 2020 (Northrop Grumman PR) – Three of Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE: NOC) 63-inch-diameter Graphite Epoxy Motors (GEM 63) rocket boosters were used for the first time today to help successfully launch and deploy the National Reconnaissance Office launch 101 (NROL-101) on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle.

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla., Nov. 13, 2020 (ULA PR) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the NROL-101 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) lifted off on Nov. 13 at 5:32 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

UPDATE: The launch has been delayed until Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:27 p.m. EST. due to concerns over forecasted on-shore winds that could affect recovery operations.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission with astronauts to the International Space Station. This is the first crew rotation flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket following certification by NASA for regular flights to the space station as part of the agency’s  Commercial Crew Program.

The launch is targeted for 7:27 p.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 15 7:49 p.m. EST Saturday, Nov. 14, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA TV live coverage will begin at 3:30 3:15 p.m. For NASA TV downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — Teams completed the final major review today for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission that will launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station. At the conclusion of the review, NASA and SpaceX agreed to target launch for 7:27 p.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 15, due to onshore winds and first stage booster recovery readiness. NASA TV coverage will begin […]

• Billionaire once predicted deadly coronavirus would largely disappear by April
• Musk called government efforts to contain spread of COVID-19 “fascist”
• He twice defied orders from health officials on closing his Tesla auto plant

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Elon Musk, who just six weeks dismissed the possibility that he would be infected with COVID-19, might in fact have caught the deadly virus. On Thursday, the SpaceX CEO tweeted:

Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD,” Musk tweeted on Thursday.

PARIS (IAF PR) — The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) is proud to announce the launch of the IAF Digital Library: the world’s largest repository with more than 50 000 digital papers delineating the legacy of 70-year of space achievements and international cooperation for the benefit of humanity.

The IAF Digital Library is an umbrella project which was initiated in 2016 as part of the long-term vision of the IAF President’s Global Innovation Agenda announced by Dr. Le Gall, and finds its concretization today as a core mission of Prof. Ehreunfreund’s IAF
Global Advocacy Agenda.

CHELMSFORD, UK, November 11, 2020 (Teledyne e2v)  – Teledyne e2v, a part of the Teledyne Imaging Group, will supply image sensors and detectors to the recently announced grouped proposal of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) industrial policy committee to place six Copernicus Sentinel satellite missions in space. As the sensor partner for Thales Alenia Space, the UK team will develop, manufacture and supply variants of their Capella CMOS visible image sensor from Chelmsford.

These new Teledyne e2v CMOS image sensors, designed for space applications, feature a large area resolution of 2048 x 2048, 10µm pixels, are radiation tolerant, operating in the UV-NIR wavelengths.

CANBERRA (Scott Morrison/Karen Andrews PR) — The Morrison Government is continuing to put industry at the heart of the Australian space sector, to create jobs and grow the economy, with Virgin Galactic’s Chief Operating Officer Enrico Palermo to become the new Head of the Australian Space Agency.

KAMUELA, Hawai’i, 12 November 2020 (ILOA Hawaii PR) – The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA Hawaii) has contracted Intuitive Machines (IM) of Houston TX to fly its ILO-X payload on the IM-1 Nova-C lander mission set to launch in the fourth quarter of 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to Vallis Schröteri, also known as Schroter’s Valley (24.53° N, 50.49° W).