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NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) recently received approval for continuation of operation following the completion of its primary 3-year mission to measure the height of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Launched into Low Earth Orbit in September 2018, ICESat-2 is capable of making extremely precise location and elevation measurements with its only science instrument, which is called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, or ATLAS. ATLAS works by sending laser pulses at exactly 532 nanometers in wavelength towards the surface 10,000 times per second and recording how many pulses are reflected as well as the time it takes them to be received to within a billionth of a second. This level of precision enables measurements of the Earth’s surface beneath the satellite to within about an inch. The data collected by the satellite informs scientists of the effects of climate change on the polar regions as well as other regions on the planet.

NASA this week performed a fifth wet dress rehearsal (WDR) with its massive Space Launch System (SLS) ahead of its greatly anticipated maiden flight. The purpose of WDR is to simulate launch day operations through the countdown all the way to T-9 seconds to verify fueling procedures, ground and vehicle communications, and various actuators and sensors. The first several attempts at WDR earlier this year revealed several leaks at connections and valves used for loading propellant. There were a few minor issues remaining at the end of this week’s WDR but mission managers have determined these can be fixed with relative ease and no further WDR is required before launching an uncrewed flight around the moon later this year. This is a major milestone in the development of the largest rocket NASA has ever built.

From big to small, next week, Rocket Lab will be launching NASA’s CAPSTONE mission, which stands for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment. The primary payload is a “cubesat”, a 55 pound mini refrigerator-sized satellite that will evaluate the trajectory and orbit for future missions under NASA’s Artemis program to return humans to the moon, and as a staging area for missions to Mars.

SpaceX is racking up lots of records with the furious launch cadence of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which is the only orbital class rocket with a reusable first stage, or booster. On Friday, SpaceX started a launch campaign with three Falcon 9 launches in three days, beginning with a another batch of Starlink satellites into orbit from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. This launch has a number of notable milestones, such as the following:

– 1st booster to fly for a 13th time
– 100th re-flight of a booster
– 124th booster landing
– 50th consecutive landing (a record)

SpaceX has recently certified the Falcon 9 booster for 15 flights, up from 10. NASA has even flown crew on reused boosters, signaling a high level of confidence in the safety and performance of the vehicle.

SpaceX makes it look easy, but it is not. There are many things that can go wrong but everything has to go right to get off the pad, out of the atmosphere, and into orbit. Recently, Astra, a startup launch provider, had a launch attempt to send a pair of hurricane monitoring satellites for NASA into orbit from KSC. Astra’s rocket, called Rocket 3, has successfully taken payloads to orbit on previous attempts, but on this occasion the second stage shut down early and the payloads fell back to Earth. NASA has two additional pairs of these satellites it plans to launch with Astra. That is, of course once they identify and fix the issue leading to the second stage failure on this flight.

NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, has exceeded everyone’s expectations for what this tiny vehicle is capable of doing. Originally designed for up to 90 seconds of flight over 5 flights, it has made 28 flights as of the end of April, with a total flying time of nearly one hour, covering over 4 miles of ground as high as 39 feet in altitude and as fast as 12.3 MPH. Its main mission was to demonstrate the first powered, controlled flight on another planetary body. Having swiftly accomplished that goal it received a new mission as a scout for the Perseverance rover’s science targets. Now in its second year of operation, it is nearing Martian winter, and daily sunlight levels are diminishing. The Ingenuity operations team never expected the copter to last this long but have adapted their approach to power management, letting it shut down each night when overnight temperatures drop below 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and wake up and reset itself each morning. All of these amazing accomplishments are a testament to the teams that built and operate this incredible machine.

In a recent flight, Ingenuity spotted the backshell and parachute that were discarded during Perseverance’s descent to the surface last February. This imagery is of particular interest to the Mars Sample Return team, who is keen to know how the structure and materials performed during entry. Perseverance, or Percy, is equipped with 43 collection tubes for rock and soil core samples to be left on the surface for return to Earth for analysis in a series of missions starting later this decade. In other Percy news, since February, the rover has had a rock lodged in one of its wheels that has been tagging along for over 5 miles of driving.

NASA on Wednesday announced two private companies have been selected to build the next generation of spacesuits for astronauts working outside the International Space Station (ISS) and soon on the Lunar surface. These two companies, Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, will be competing for up to $3.5B in contracts to provide equipment, services, and maintenance through 2034. Each company is expected to demonstrate their respective suits by 2025, likely with a spacewalk outside ISS by a crew member.

The term “spacesuit” doesn’t really do it justice though. It is a tiny spacecraft built around a human. Since space is a vacuum it has to carry its own atmosphere and life support system for air pressure, oxygen, CO2 scrubbing, etc. It also has to have thermal protection to keep the astronaut comfortable when exposed to direct sunlight at 250 degrees Fahrenheit and also minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade of the Earth. Further, it needs video and communication systems as well as propulsion to return to safety in the event of a broken tether. For Lunar missions, the external material of the suit needs to be able to stand up to the abrasiveness of lunar dust, or regolith, and the suit also needs to provide the mobility required for surface activities. Indeed, a spacesuit is a complex and expensive piece of equipment.