Senior NASA officials believe the Space Launch System (SLS) is unaffordable at current cost levels, making the agency’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon unsustainable if nothing changes, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Welcome to Biz Briefs! In this edition, Open Cosmos and GHGSat completed big raises, SpaceX and Rocket Lab signed launch contracts, Northrop Grumman and Space Forge announced a strategic partnership on space manufacturing, SES partnered to bring communications to cruise ships and rural Alaska, Nova Scotia invested in Maritime Launch Services, and much more as the World Satellite Business Week conference generated a late summer blizzard of space news.

A small, family-run Colorado tool manufacturer filed a lawsuit against Boeing last month, alleging that Boeing stole designs for specialized tools that the aerospace giant then used on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the International Space Station (ISS), and its commercial aircraft programs. Wilson claimed that Boeing’s flawed versions of the tools caused leaks that cost NASA hundreds of millions of dollars — and endangered lives.

The satellite will launch from Kennedy Space Center with Artemis I

BOCA RATON, Fla. (Terran Orbital Corporation PR) — Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, integrated the Lunar Infrared imaging spacecraft, also known as LunIR into NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). With its unprecedented power and capabilities, SLS is the only rocket that will be able to send the Orion capsule, astronauts, and cargo directly to the Moon on a single mission. LunIR will fly by the Moon and collect surface thermography as a secondary payload on Artemis 1 – a test mission for SLS. After the flyby, the 6U satellite will conduct technology demonstrations related to deep-space operations for future Mars missions.

NASA Mission Update

The Flight Readiness Review for NASA’s Artemis I mission has concluded, and teams are proceeding toward a two-hour launch window that opens at 8:33 a.m. EDT Monday, August 29, from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B in Florida. 

Live coverage of events will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website, with prelaunch events starting Monday, Aug. 22. The launch countdown will begin Saturday, Aug. 27, at 10:23 a.m.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Of the six launches known to be scheduled to close out August, there’s only one – Artemis I — that truly matters in any real sense. The others will be duly recorded but little remembered in what could be the busiest launch year in human history.

PARIS (ESA PR) — With the rocket now on the launchpad, the Artemis I Moon mission is getting real: 29 August is the first opportunity for the SLS rocket to blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s launchpad 39B in Florida, USA.

This first Artemis mission will put NASA’s Orion spacecraft and its European Service Module to the test during a journey beyond the Moon and back. The spacecraft will enter lunar orbit, using the Moon’s gravity to gain speed and propel itself almost half a million km from Earth – farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled.

Jack Black, Chris Evans, Yo-Yo Ma and more to headline launch day coverage

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA will provide coverage of prelaunch, launch, and postlaunch activities for Artemis I, the first integrated test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the ground systems at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This uncrewed flight test around the Moon will pave the way for a crewed flight test and future human lunar exploration as part of Artemis.

The SLS rocket is targeted to launch during a two-hour window that opens at 8:33 a.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 29, from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy.

NASA Mission Update When Artemis I launches to the Moon and back there will be A LOT of science hitching a ride! From CubeSats designed to hunt for water deposits on the lunar surface to experiments on how life responds to space – and so much more. The Artemis I mission consists of the Space Launch System rocket that will send the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back […]

by Erika Peters
NASA’s Johnson Space Center

HOUSTON — Join NASA’s Orion spacecraft on its first mission around the Moon using the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW) to track the spacecraft’s flight as it happens.

On the web, users can follow AROW to see where Orion is in relation to the Earth and the Moon and follow Orion’s path during the mission.