The DJ has been revealed as one of eight people selected by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to join him on a commercial space flight around the moon. The trip, organized by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and dubbed “Dear Moon,” is planned for 2023.
“Life is crazy,” Aoki said in a clip recorded to capture his reaction to the news. “I’m going to go to the… moon!”
According to Maezawa, a “space enthusiast” and online fashion retail mogul, the project marks the world’s first-ever civilian lunar orbital mission. He’ll be footing the bill for the 10 people he picked—including two backup crew members—who were reportedly selected from a pool of 1 million applicants. At the time of writing, Maezawa has a net worth of $1.7 billion, per Forbes.
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The “Dear Moon” crew will operate a reusable launch vehicle developed by SpaceX, The Washington Postreports. The ship will fly around the moon—but will not land directly on it—before returning to Earth. The expedition is expected to last just under six days.
Another high-profile musician joining Maezawa on SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is Choi Seung Hyun, the K-pop superstar from the boy band BIGBANG, better known as T.O.P.
You can check out the “Dear Moon” schedule and flight plan here.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (center) and the eight people he selected for his “dearMoon project,” plus two chosen as backups, are seen in a promotional image from the dearMoon project website.
dearMoon project
Tokyo — Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Friday that K-Pop star T.O.P. will be among the eight people who will join him on a flyby around the moon on a SpaceX spaceship next year. The Japanese tycoon launched plans for the lunar voyage in 2018, buying all the seats on the spaceship. He began taking applications from around the world in March 2021 for what will be his second space journey after his 12-day trip to the International Space Station on the Soyuz Russian spaceship last year.
The eight people Maezawa selected for his “dearMoon project” are T.O.P., who debuted as a lead rapper for the K-Pop group Big Bang; American DJ Steve Aoki; filmmaker Brendan Hall and YouTuber Tim Dodd, also of the United States. The other four are British photographer Karim Illiya, Indian actor Dev Joshi, Czech artist Yemi AD and Irish photographer Rhiannon Adam. American Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were chosen as backups.
T.O.P.’s real name is Choi Seung-hyun. The 35-year-old started out as an underground rapper before joining Big Bang, one of the world’s top boy bands, in 2006.
T.O.P. said in a video released by the dearMoon website that he has always fantasized about space and the moon since he was a child and, “I cannot wait.”
“When I finally see the moon closer I look forward to my personal growth and returning to the earth as an artist with an inspiration,” he said.
Maezawa made the announcement on his Twitter and the dearMoon Project website on Friday, after he tweeted last week saying he held an online meeting with Elon Musk and that his “major announcement about space” was underway.
He and the others would be among the first to travel on the SpaceX vehicle. The trip is expected to take about a week. The spaceship will not make a lunar landing but is expected to come within 120 miles of the moon’s surface while circling it for three days.
The trip is expected next year, though the exact schedule has not been disclosed.
After a smooth rendezvous, Japanese space tourist Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant, piloted by a Russian commander, docked with the International Space Station for a 12-day stay in 2021.
NASA
The billionaire initially launched a high-profile campaign to recruit a soulmate for his first journey to the moon, but after receiving applications from nearly 28,000 would-be romantic partners from around the globe, he pulled the plug on that idea. Maezawa said he’d cancelled his involvement in the “Full Moon Lovers” project for personal reasons, noting his regret at disappointing those who had applied to appear on the show.
Maezawa made his fortune in retail fashion, launching Japan’s largest online fashion mall, Zozotown. In 2019, he resigned as CEO of the e-commerce company Zozo Inc. to devote his time to space travel. Forbes magazine estimates his wealth at $1.9 billion.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Orion capsule and its test dummies swooped one last time around the moon Monday, flying over a couple Apollo landing sites before heading home.
Orion will aim for a Pacific splashdown Sunday off San Diego, setting the stage for astronauts on the next flight in a couple years.
The capsule passed within 80 miles (130 kilometers) of the far side of the moon, using the lunar gravity as a slingshot for the 237,000-mile (380,000-kilometer) ride back to Earth. It spent a week in a wide, sweeping lunar orbit.
Once emerging from behind the moon and regaining communication with flight controllers in Houston, Orion beamed back photos of a close-up moon and a crescent Earth — Earthrise — in the distance.
“Orion now has its sights set on home,” said Mission Control commentator Sandra Jones.
The capsule also passed over the landing sites of Apollo 12 and 14. But at 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) up, it was too high to make out the descent stages of the lunar landers or anything else left behind by astronauts more than a half-century ago. During a similar flyover two weeks ago, it was too dark for pictures. This time, it was daylight.
Deputy chief flight director Zebulon Scoville said nearby craters and other geologic features would be visible in any pictures, but little else.
“It will be more of a tip of the hat and a historical nod to the past,” Scoville told reporters last week.
The three-week test flight has exceeded expectations so far, according to officials. But the biggest challenge still lies ahead: hitting the atmosphere at more than 30 times the speed of sound and surviving the fiery reentry.
Orion blasted off Nov. 16 on the debut flight of NASA’s most powerful rocket ever, the Space Launch System or SLS.
The next flight — as early as 2024 — will attempt to carry four astronauts around the moon. The third mission, targeted for 2025, will feature the first lunar landing by astronauts since the Apollo moon program ended 50 years ago this month.
Apollo 17 rocketed away Dec. 7, 1972, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, carrying Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ron Evans. Cernan and Schmitt spent three days on the lunar surface, the longest stay of the Apollo era, while Evans orbited the moon. Only Schmitt is still alive.
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This story has been updated to show that NASA now estimates the flyover of Apollo sites was 1,200 miles above the moon, not 6,000 miles.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
BEIJING — Final preparations were being made Monday to send a new three-person crew to China‘s space station as it nears completion amid intensifying competition with the United States.
The China Manned Space Agency said the Shenzhou-15 mission will take off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 11:08 p.m. Tuesday night.
The six-month mission, commanded by Fei Junlong and crewed by Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, will be the last “in the construction phase of China’s space station,” agency official Ji Qiming told reporters Monday.
Fei, 57, is a veteran of the 2005 four-day Shenzhou-6 mission which was the second in which China sent a human into space. Deng and Zhang are flying in space for the first time.
The station’s third and final module docked with the station earlier this month, one of the last steps in a more than decade-long effort to maintain a constant crewed presence in orbit.
The astronauts will overlap briefly onboard the station, named Tiangong, with the previous crew, who arrived in early June for a six-month stay.
Tiangong has room to accommodate six astronauts at a time. Previous missions to the space station have taken about 13 hours from liftoff to docking.
Next year, China plans to launch the Xuntian space telescope, which, while not part of Tiangong, will orbit in sequence with the station and can dock occasionally with it for maintenance.
No other future additions to the space station have been publicly announced.
The permanent Chinese station will weigh about 66 tons — a fraction of the International Space Station, which launched its first module in 1998 and weighs around 465 tons.
With a lifespan of 10 to 15 years, Tiangong could one day find itself the only space station still running if the International Space Station adheres to its 30-year operating plan.
China’s crewed space program is officially three decades old this year, but it truly got underway in 2003, when China became only the third country after the U.S. and Russia to put a human into space using its own resources.
The program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, and has proceeded methodically and almost entirely without outside support. The U.S. excluded China from the International Space Station because of its program’s military ties.
China has also chalked up successes with uncrewed missions, and its lunar exploration program generated media buzz last year when its Yutu 2 rover sent back pictures of what was described by some as a “mystery hut” but was most likely only a rock. The rover is the first to be placed on the little-explored far side of the moon.
China’s Chang’e 5 probe returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s in December 2000 and another Chinese rover is searching for evidence of life on Mars. Officials are also considering a crewed mission to the moon.
No timeline has been offered for a crewed lunar mission, even as NASA presses ahead with its Artemis lunar exploration program that aims to send four astronauts around the moon in 2024 and land humans there as early as 2025.
China’s space program has also drawn controversy. Beijing brushed off complaints that it has allowed rocket stages to fall to Earth uncontrolled after NASA accused it of “failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris” when parts of a Chinese rocket landed in the Indian Ocean.
China’s increasing space capabilities also feature in the latest Pentagon defense strategy.
“In addition to expanding its conventional forces, the PLA is rapidly advancing and integrating its space, counterspace, cyber, electronic, and informational warfare capabilities to support its holistic approach to joint warfare,” the strategy said.
The U.S. and China are at odds on a range of issues, especially self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing threatens to annex with force. China responded to a September visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by firing missiles over the island, holding wargames in surrounding waters and staging a simulated blockade, something that could trigger an American military response.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Orion capsule entered an orbit stretching tens of thousands of miles around the moon Friday, as it neared the halfway mark of its test flight.
The capsule and its three test dummies entered lunar orbit more than a week after launching on the $4 billion demo that’s meant to pave the way for astronauts. It will remain in this broad but stable orbit for nearly a week, completing just half a lap before heading home.
As of Friday’s engine firing, the capsule was 238,000 miles (380,000 kilometers) from Earth. It’s expected to reach a maximum distance of almost 270,000 miles (432,000 kilometers) in a few days. That will set a new distance record for a capsule designed to carry people one day.
“It is a statistic, but it’s symbolic for what it represents,” Jim Geffre, an Orion manager, said in a NASA interview earlier in the week. “It’s about challenging ourselves to go farther, stay longer and push beyond the limits of what we’ve previously explored.”
NASA considers this a dress rehearsal for the next moon flyby in 2024, with astronauts. A lunar landing by astronauts could follow as soon as 2025. Astronauts last visited the moon 50 years ago during Apollo 17.
Earlier in the week, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with the capsule for nearly an hour. At the time, controllers were adjusting the communication link between Orion and the Deep Space Network. Officials said the spacecraft remained healthy.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Orion capsule reached the moon Monday, whipping around the far side and buzzing the lunar surface on its way to a record-breaking orbit with test dummies sitting in for astronauts.
It’s the first time a capsule has visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago, and represents a huge milestone in the $4.1 billion test flight that began last Wednesday.
Video of the looming moon and our pale blue planet more than 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) in the distance left workers “giddy” at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control, according to flight director Judd Frieling. Even the flight controllers themselves were “absolutely astounded.”
“Just smiles across the board,” said Orion program manager Howard Hu.
The close approach of 81 miles (130 kilometers) occurred as the crew capsule and its three wired-up dummies were on the far side of the moon. Because of a half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers in Houston did not know if the critical engine firing went well until the capsule emerged from behind the moon. The capsule’s cameras sent back a picture of the Earth — a tiny blue dot surrounded by blackness.
The capsule accelerated well beyond 5,000 mph (8,000 kph) as it regained radio contact, NASA said. Less than an hour later, Orion soared above Tranquility Base, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969. There were no photos of the site because the pass was in darkness, but managers promised to try for pictures on the return flyby in two weeks.
Orion needed to slingshot around the moon to pick up enough speed to enter the sweeping, lopsided lunar orbit. Another engine firing will place the capsule in that orbit Friday.
This coming weekend, Orion will shatter NASA’s distance record for a spacecraft designed for astronauts — nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth, set by Apollo 13 in 1970. And it will keep going, reaching a maximum distance from Earth next Monday at nearly 270,000 miles (433,000 kilometers).
The capsule will spend close to a week in lunar orbit, before heading home. A Pacific splashdown is planned for Dec. 11.
Orion has no lunar lander; a touchdown won’t come until NASA astronauts attempt a lunar landing in 2025 with SpaceX’s Starship. Before then, astronauts will strap into Orion for a ride around the moon as early as 2024.
Mission manager Mike Sarafin was delighted with the progress of the mission, giving it a “cautiously optimistic A-plus” so far.
The Space Launch System rocket — the most powerful ever built by NASA — performed exceedingly well in its debut, Sarafin told reporters. He said teams are dealing with two issues that require workarounds — one involving the navigational star trackers, the other the power system,
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket caused more damage than expected, however, at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. The force from the 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of liftoff thrust was so great that it tore off the blast doors of the elevator, leaving it unusable.
Sarafin said the pad damage will be repaired in plenty of time before the next launch.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard early Wednesday, bringing the U.S. a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago.
If all goes well during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon, and then the capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific in December.
After years of delays and billions in cost overruns, the Space Launch System rocket thundered skyward, rising from Kennedy Space Center on 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of thrust and hitting 100 mph (160 kph) within seconds. The Orion capsule was perched on top, ready to bust out of Earth orbit toward the moon not quite two hours into the flight.
The moonshot follows nearly three months of vexing fuel leaks that kept the rocket bouncing between its hangar and the pad. Forced back indoors by Hurricane Ian at the end of September, the rocket stood its ground outside as Nicole swept through last week with gusts of more than 80 mph (130 kph). Although the wind peeled away a 10-foot (3-meter) strip of caulking high up near the capsule, managers gave the green light for the launch.
NASA expected 15,000 to jam the launch site, with thousands more lining the beaches and roads outside the gates, to witness NASA’s long-awaited sequel to Project Apollo, when 12 astronauts walked on the moon from 1969 and 1972. Crowds also gathered outside NASA centers in Houston and Huntsville, Alabama, to watch the spectacle on giant screens.
“For the Artemis generation, this is for you,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said shortly before liftoff, referring to young people who were not alive for Apollo.
NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard early Wednesday.
The liftoff marked the start of NASA’s Artemis lunar-exploration program, named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister. The space agency is aiming to send four astronauts around the moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025.
The 322-foot (98-meter) SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, with more thrust than either the space shuttle or the mighty Saturn V that carried men to the moon. A series of hydrogen fuel leaks plagued the summertime launch attempts as well as countdown tests. A fresh leak erupted at a new location during Tuesday night’s fueling, but an emergency team managed to tighten the faulty valve on the pad. Then a U.S. Space Force radar station went down, resulting in another scramble, this time to replace an ethernet switch.
Orion should reach the moon by Monday, more than 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) from Earth. After coming within 80 miles (130 kilometers) of the moon, the capsule will enter a far-flung orbit stretching about 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond.
The $4.1 billion test flight is set to last 25 days, roughly the same as when crews will be aboard. The space agency intends to push the spacecraft to its limits and uncover any problems before astronauts strap in. The mannequins — NASA calls them moonequins — are fitted with sensors to measure such things as vibration, acceleration and cosmic radiation.
“There’s a fair amount of risk with this particular initial flight test,” said mission manager Mike Sarafin.
The rocket was supposed to have made its dry run by 2017. Government watchdogs estimate NASA will have spent $93 billion on the project by 2025.
Ultimately, NASA hopes to establish a base on the moon and send astronauts to Mars by the late 2030s or early 2040s.
But many hurdles still need to be cleared. The Orion capsule will take astronauts only to lunar orbit, not the surface.
NASA has hired Elon Musk’s SpaceX to develop Starship, the 21st-century answer to Apollo’s lunar lander. Starship will carry astronauts back and forth between Orion and the lunar surface, at least on the first trip in 2025. The plan is to station Starship and eventually other companies’ landers in orbit around the moon, ready for use whenever new Orion crews pull up.
Reprising an argument that was made during the 1960s, Duke University historian Alex Roland questions the value of human spaceflight, saying robots and remote-controlled spacecraft could get the job done more cheaply, efficiently and safely.
“In all these years, no evidence has emerged to justify the investment we have made in human spaceflight — save the prestige involved in this conspicuous consumption,” he said.
NASA is waiting until this test flight is over before introducing the astronauts who will be on the next one and those who will follow in the bootsteps of Apollo 11′s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Most of NASA’s corps of 42 active astronauts and 10 trainees were not even born yet when Apollo 17 moonwalkers Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the era, 50 years ago next month.
“We are jumping out of our spacesuits with excitement,” astronaut Christina Koch, 43, said just hours before liftoff. After a nearly yearlong space station mission and all-female spacewalk, she’s on NASA’s short list for a lunar flight.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
After repeated fuel leaks, two hurricanes and a pair of launch delays, engineers refueled NASA’s $4.1 billion Space Launch System rocket for a third launch try early Wednesday. The Artemis 1 launch would kick off a long-awaited maiden flight to send an uncrewed Orion capsule to circle the moon.
A two-hour launch window opens at 1:04 a.m. EST.
Using a slower, so-called “kindler, gentler” fueling procedure to minimize pressure spikes that contributed to earlier leaks, the launch team began loading 730,000 gallons of ultra-cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel for the SLS core stage at 3:55 p.m. EST.
The Space Launch System rocket, poised for blastoff from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center.
NASA
Engineers were optimistic the new procedures would ensure a smooth transition from slow to “fast fill,” the point during earlier fueling attempts when a sharp ramp-up in pressure caused leakage in quick-disconnect umbilical seals at the base of the rocket’s core stage.
“We are more confident than we have ever been in our loading procedures and how to do it in such a way that puts the least amount of pressure on the seals,” said Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of Exploration Ground Systems at the Kennedy Space Center.
“We’re allowed to have a momentary transient as we up (the) pressure, because … it would just be for a short time period. And that’s really the worst case that we saw during (the most recent) tanking test. So feeling pretty good right now about that going into it.”
This time around, the rocket’s tanks were filled without incident. But late in the countdown, a valve used to replenish hydrogen in the core stage developed an intermittent leak. A three-man “red crew” was sent to the pad to tighten bolts around the valve in a bid to minimize the leakage and keep the countdown on track.
Engineers remained hopeful the 322-foot-tall SLS’s four hydrogen-fueled main engines could ignite on time at 1:04 a.m. Wednesday, followed seconds later by ignition of two upgraded shuttle-heritage solid-fuel boosters.
At that instant, computer commands will be sent to detonate four massive explosive bolts at the base of each booster, freeing the 5.7-million pound SLS to climb away atop 8.8 million pounds of thrust, briefly turning night into day as it roars skyward on a slightly northeasterly trajectory.
Rapidly accelerating as it consumes propellant and loses weight, the SLS was expected to be moving faster than sound less that one minute after liftoff. One minute after that, the two strap-on boosters were expected to burn out and fall away leaving the four engines powering the core stage to continue the climb to space.
Eight minutes after liftoff, the flight plan called for the the SLS second stage and the attached Orion capsule to separate from the core stage in an initial elliptical orbit tilted 34 degrees to the equator. The core stage, meanwhile, will be left to fall back into the atmosphere to break up over an unpopulated stretch of the Indian Ocean.
Two critical “burns” were required of the single engine powering the Interim Cryogenic Propulsions Stage, or ICPS: one to raise the low point of the initial orbit and a second to propel the Orion out of Earth’s gravitational clutch and on to the moon. The 18-minute-long trans-lunar injection, or TLI, burn was expected about 90 minutes after launch.
The Orion capsule was expected to separate from the ICPS about two hours after launch, voyaging on to the moon for a 60-mile-high flyby Monday, using lunar gravity to fling it into a distant orbit that will carry it farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft.
The Artemis 1 mission is the first in a series of SLS/Orion flights intended to establish a sustained presence on and around the moon with a lunar space station called Gateway and periodic landings near the south pole where ice deposits may be reachable in cold, permanently shadowed craters.
Future astronauts may be able to “mine” that ice if it’s present and accessible, converting it into air, water and even rocket fuel to vastly reduce the cost of deep space exploration.
More generally, Artemis astronauts will carry out extended exploration and research to learn more about the moon’s origin and evolution and test the hardware and procedures that will be necessary before sending astronauts to Mars.
Oxygen and hydrogen fuel lines enter the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage through retractable umbilicals extending from protective housings known as tail service masts (left). Leaking seals in quick-disconnect fittings where the umbilicals attach to the core stage triggered multiple delays during the rocket’s testing. Engineers were optimistic revised fueling procedures will prevent problematic leaks during fueling Wednesday.
NASA
The goal of the Artemis 1 mission is to put the Orion spacecraft through its paces, testing its solar power, propulsion, navigation and life support systems before a return to Earth December 11 and a 25,000-mph plunge back into the atmosphere that will subject its protective heat shield to a hellish 5,000 degrees.
Testing the heat shield and confirming it can protect astronauts returning from deep space is the No. 1 priority of the Artemis 1 mission.
If all goes well with Artemis 1, NASA plans to launch a second SLS rocket in late 2024 to boost four astronauts on a looping free-return trajectory around the moon before landing the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface near the south pole in the Artemis 3 mission.
That flight, targeted for launch in the 2025-26 timeframe, depends on the readiness of new spacesuits for NASA’s moonwalkers and a lander being built by SpaceX that’s based on the design of the company’s reusable Starship rocket.
SpaceX is working on the lander under a $2.9 billion contract with NASA, but the company has provided little in the way of details or updates and it’s not yet known when NASA and the California rocket builder will actually be ready for the Artemis 3 lunar landing mission.
But if the Artemis 1 test flight is successful, NASA can check off its requirement for a super-heavy-lift rocket to get the initial missions off the ground and on to the moon.
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA remained on track for Wednesday’s planned liftoff of its new moon rocket, after determining that hurricane damage provided little extra risk to the test flight.
Hurricane Nicole’s high winds caused a 10-foot (3-meter) section of caulking to peel away near the crew capsule at the top of the rocket last Thursday. The material tore away in small pieces, rather than one big strip, said mission manager Mike Sarafin.
“We’re comfortable flying as is,” based on flight experience with this material, Sarafin told reporters Monday night.
Liftoff is scheduled for the early morning hours of Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with test dummies rather than astronauts on board. It’s the first test flight for the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA, and will attempt to send the capsule into lunar orbit.
The nearly monthlong $4 billion mission has been grounded since August by fuel leaks and Hurricane Ian, which forced the rocket back into its hangar for shelter at the end of September. The rocket remained at the pad for Nicole; managers said there wasn’t enough time to move it once it became clear the storm was going to be stronger than anticipated.
Sarafin acknowledged Monday night that there’s “a small likelihood” that more of the pliable, lightweight caulking might come off during liftoff. The most likely place to be hit would be a particularly large and robust section of the rocket, he noted, resulting in minimal damage.
Engineers never determined what caused the dangerous hydrogen fuel leaks during the two late summer launch attempts. But the launch team is confident that slowing the flow rate will put less pressure on the sensitive fuel line seals and keep any leakage within acceptable limits, said Jeremy Parsons, a deputy program manager.
The space agency plans to send astronauts around the moon in 2024 and land a crew on the lunar surface in 2025.
Astronauts last visited the moon in December 1972, closing out the Apollo program.
A microwave oven-size NASA satellite, meanwhile, arrived Sunday in a special lunar orbit following a summer liftoff from New Zealand. This elongated orbit, stretching as much as tens of thousands of miles (kilometers), is where the space agency plans to build a depot for lunar crews. The way station, known as Gateway, will serve astronauts going to and from the lunar surface.
The satellite, called Capstone, will spend six months testing a navigation system in this orbit.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s moon rocket needs only minor repairs after enduring a hurricane at the pad and is on track for its first test flight next week, a top official said Friday.
“Right now, there’s nothing preventing us” from attempting a launch on Wednesday, said NASA’s Jim Free, an associate administrator.
The wind never exceeded the rocket’s design limits as Hurricane Nicole swept through Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, according to Free. But he acknowledged if the launch team had known in advance that a hurricane was going to hit, they likely would have kept the rocket indoors. The rocket was moved out to the pad late last week for its $4.1 billion demo mission.
Gusts reached 100 mph (160 kph) atop the launch tower, but were not nearly as strong farther down at the rocket. Computer models indicate there should be no strength or fatigue issues from the storm, even deep inside the rocket, Free noted.
NASA had been aiming for an early Monday launch, but put it on hold for two days because of the storm.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket, known as SLS for Space Launch System, is the most powerful ever built by NASA. A crew capsule atop the rocket, with three test dummies on board, will shoot for the moon — the first such flight in 50 years when Apollo astronauts last visited the moon.
NASA wants to test all the systems before putting astronauts on board in 2024 for a trip around the moon.
Two previous launch attempts, in late summer, were thwarted by fuel leaks. Hurricane Ian also forced a return to the hangar at the end of September.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The normally bright and glowing moon will appear an eerie red early Tuesday, in the last total lunar eclipse for the next three years. The so-called “Beaver Moon,” as November’s full moon is known, will reach its peak illumination at 6:02 a.m. EST, during the lunar eclipse.
NASA said the total lunar eclipse — when the sun, Earth and moon align so that the moon goes into Earth’s shadow — will occur on Nov. 8, Election Day. The eclipse will begin at 3:02 a.m. ET, and totality — when the moon is within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow and appears a bright red, earning it the nickname of “blood moon” — will last from about 5:17 a.m. to 6:42 a.m. Eastern.
The blood moon stage of the eclipse will be visible from North and Central America, Ecuador, Colombia and western areas of Venezuela and Peru. Those in Hawaii will be able to see every stage of the eclipse, NASA said.
A map showing where the November 8, 2022, lunar eclipse is visible. Contours mark the edge of the visibility region at eclipse contact times. The map is centered on 168°57’W, the sublunar longitude at mid-eclipse.
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
In a video posted on Twitter, NASA said the eclipse will provide a little “celestial magic.”
“You will be able to see the entire eclipse unfold before sunrise, weather permitting, as the moon exits the dark part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra,” NASA said.
No special equipment will be required to watch the eclipse, although being in an area away from bright lights will make it more visible. Those who have binoculars on hand will get the added perk of being able to see the ice planet Uranus, “just a finger’s width away from the eclipsed moon,” NASA said.
There are plenty of reasons to watch the skies in November: a total lunar eclipse, the Leonid meteors, and chances to see Mars, Saturn, and the star Spica! Check out the best times to spot these celestial bodies: pic.twitter.com/hmYGKio4Mq
The last total lunar eclipse was in May. That eclipse created what’s known as the “super flower blood moon,” which only happens when there is a total lunar eclipse as the full moon is at its closest point to Earth. Millions were able to spot the giant red-looking space object from the Americas, Europe and Africa.
On the 50th anniversary, two legends tell the story of the momentous 1969 moon walk: Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong and “CBS Evening News” anchor Walter Cronkite — the man who made history and the man who reported it. Hosted by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s moon rocket is back on the pad for another launch attempt, following more repairs.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket departed its hangar in the middle of the night and completed the 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trip shortly after sunrise Friday.
NASA is aiming for a launch attempt on Nov. 14, sending an empty crew capsule around the moon and back in a dramatic flight test before astronauts climb aboard in a couple years.
Forecasters are keeping their eyes on potential tropical weather that could interfere.
It is NASA’s biggest step yet to get astronauts back on the moon by 2025. The space agency is nearing the 50th anniversary of its last human moon landing: Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Although shorter, this early version of the rocket is even more powerful than the Saturn V that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon.
Fuel leaks have kept the rocket grounded since August. Then Hurricane Ian forced the rocket back to the hangar at Kennedy Space Center at the end of September. NASA used the time to make repairs and replace critical batteries.
NASA still does not know why hydrogen keeps leaking every time the rocket is fueled, but engineers are confident they can manage any future leaks, said Cliff Lanham, a senior manager.
Liftoff would be in the wee hours for the next three launch opportunities. While NASA prefers a daytime launch for test flights to capture as many pictures as possible, it’s not a requirement. Radar and infrared cameras should provide ample coverage, said Jim Free, a NASA associate administrator.
The $4.1 billion mission will last close to a month, culminating with a splashdown in the Pacific. Test dummies are on board to measure radiation and vibrations.
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WASHINGTON — James A. McDivitt, who commanded the Apollo 9 mission testing the first complete set of equipment to go to the moon, has died. He was 93.
McDivitt was also the commander of 1965’s Gemini 4 mission, where his best friend and colleague Ed White made the first U.S. spacewalk. His photographs of White during the spacewalk became iconic images.
He passed on a chance to land on the moon and instead became the space agency’s program manager for five Apollo missions after the Apollo 11 moon landing.
McDivitt died Thursday in Tucson, Arizona, NASA said Monday.
In his first flight in 1965, McDivitt reported seeing “something out there’’ about the shape of a beer can flying outside his Gemini spaceship. People called it a UFO and McDivitt would later joke that he became “a world-renowned UFO expert.” Years later he figured it was just a reflection of bolts in the window.
Apollo 9, which orbited Earth and didn’t go further, was one of the lesser remembered space missions of NASA’s program. In a 1999 oral history, McDivitt said it didn’t bother him that it was overlooked: “I could see why they would, you know, it didn’t land on the moon. And so it’s hardly part of Apollo. But the lunar module was … key to the whole program.”
Flying with Apollo 9 crewmates Rusty Schweickart and David Scott, McDivitt’s mission was the first in-space test of the lightweight lunar lander, nicknamed Spider. Their goal was to see if people could live in it, if it could dock in orbit and — something that became crucial in the Apollo 13 crisis — if the lunar module’s engines could control the stack of spacecraft, which included the command module Gumdrop.
Early in training, McDivitt was not impressed with how flimsy the lunar module seemed: “I looked at Rusty and he looked at me, and we said, ‘Oh my God! We’re actually going to fly something like this?’ So it was really chintzy. … it was like cellophane and tin foil put together with Scotch tape and staples!”
Unlike many of his fellow astronauts, McDivitt didn’t yearn to fly from childhood. He was just good at it.
McDivitt didn’t have money for college growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He worked for a year before going to junior college. When he joined the Air Force at 20, soon after the Korean War broke out, he had never been on an airplane. He was accepted for pilot training before he had ever been off the ground.
“Fortunately, I liked it,” he later recalled.
McDivitt flew 145 combat missions in Korea and came back to Michigan where he graduated from the University of Michigan with an aeronautical engineering degree. He later was one of the elite test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base and became the first student in the Air Force’s Aerospace Research Pilot School. The military was working on its own later-abandoned human space missions.
In 1962, NASA chose McDivitt to be part of its second class of astronauts, often called the “New Nine,” joining Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and others.
McDivitt was picked to command the second two-man Gemini mission, along with White. The four-day mission in 1965 circled the globe 66 times.
Apollo 9’s shakedown flight lasted 10 days in March 1969 — four months before the moon landing — and was relatively trouble free and uneventful.
“After I flew Apollo 9 it was apparent to me that I wasn’t going to be the first guy to land on the moon, which was important to me,” McDivitt recalled in 1999. “And being the second or third guy wasn’t that important to me.”
So McDivitt went into management, first of the Apollo lunar lander, then for the Houston part of the entire program.
McDivitt left NASA and the Air Force in 1972 for a series of private industry jobs, including president of the railcar division at Pullman Inc. and a senior position at aerospace firm Rockwell International. He retired from the military with the rank of brigadier general.
Four SpaceX astronauts returned to Earth after staying at the International Space Station for six months. They studied how to grow vegetables in space and the effects of space travel in humans.
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There is an art installation on the Moon called Fallen Astronaut by Paul Van Hoeydonck. The plaque pays tribute to the men of the US and Soviet space programs who have lost their lives during space missions.
Truth Seekers, Billy Carson and Thomas Mikey Scrøder Jensen have combined forces with the top anomaly hunters in the world to form the United Family Of Anomaly Hunters(UFAH). Their mission is to provide enough evidence of past and present life on Earth other celestial bodies inside our own solar system.
Press Release –
Jun 24, 2016
Coral Springs, FL, June 24, 2016 (Newswire.com)
– The United Family Of Anomaly Hunters (UFAH) is a non profit organization with active members around the world. Their sole purpose is to help bring disclosure to the world about past and current civilizations on planets and moons in our solar system. Their primary focus is on Mars, only because Mars has the most available raw data to work with, but the UFAH team scour the massive public domain image databases of various space agencies to bring the general public the highest quality anomalous discoveries in our entire solar system.
Billy Carson is a well known activist and truth seeker in the conscious community. He is also the founder of 4biddenknowledge, which is one of the largest conscious networks online. Mr Carson is also the CEO of First Class Space Agency based in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Billy Carson’s space agency is involved in research and development of alternative propulsion systems and zero point energy devices. Thomas Mikey Scrøder Jensen is one of the worlds top anomaly hunters. Some of his discoveries have been published in the media all over the world. Thomas is also a producer and has produced many documentaries on the discoveries of the UFAH team as well as many other interviews with highly qualified individuals. His most current work is a 2 hour documentary entitled: “Baltic Sea Anomaly: The Unsolved Mystery.” The documentary features the Ocean X team that discovered the Baltic Sea Anomaly in 2011 along with some of the worlds top researchers in this field.
Billy Carson calculates that collectively the group has cataloged close to 50,000 anomalies in our solar system. These anomalies are all 100% referenced back to official images from NASA, Cal-tech, European Space Agency(ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO). The team is very strict on what they put out and all anomalies can be researched and vetted by the general population.
Jim Barnes, Director of Media Relations
Billy Carson calculates that collectively the group has cataloged close to 50,000 anomalies in our solar system. These anomalies are all 100% referenced back to official images from NASA, Caltech, European Space Agency(ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO). The team is very strict on what they put out and all anomalies can be researched and vetted by the general population.
The group claims to have pioneered two new fields of science. Astro-archeology and Astro-anthropology. Billy Carson feels that these will be actual college courses in the not so distant future.
Most of the members have dedicated almost all of their free time and resources to the task of bringing disclosure to the world about what they have discovered. Team member, Joe White of Art Alien Magazine was recently featured as a researcher on two episodes of the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series. Many of the teams findings have been used as research material in actual movies and documentaries. Most recently, Hollywood producer, Jose Escamilla used their research in his critically acclaimed documentary entitled “UFO: The Greatest Story Ever Denied III – UFOs from Outer Space”.
The organization has even put out a mobile app named UFAH, and it is available on the app store for Apple and on GooglePlay for Android devices. If you want to learn more about the United Family Of Anomaly Hunters(UFAH), you can look up and join their groups on Facebook or visit them online at http://UFAH.Space
UFAH Facebook groups and their founders: Mars Discoveries And Solar System Anomalies – Founder Billy Carson Mars Moon Space Photo Zoom Club – Founder Thomas Mickey Scroder Jensen Space, Technology & Anomalies Research (S.T.A.R.) – Founder MišaDrezgić Martian Archaeologist – Founder Brian Hopjins Exclusive Mars Images – Founder Rami Bar Ilan WhatsUpInTheSky.com – Will Farrar Lunar Anomaly Research Society – Founder Bret Colin Sheppard Earth Anomaly Research Society – Founder Karen Christine Patrick Annunaki History – Founder Billy Carson Martian Genesis – Founder MartineGrainey Alien Life Group – Founder Neville Thompson Mars Anomalies – Founder Chris Moroney ArtAlien Magazine – Founder Joe White Mars – A Civilization Lost – James Tracy
