My first email was on Friday March 27, 2020 at 4:19 PM titled "Weekly Update".
Just checking in from my quarantine, it wasn’t a great week
for SpaceX’s Commercial Crew. On 3/18, SpaceX launched another 60 Starlink
satellites but the Falcon9 rocket lost an engine during ascent. They were
pushing the envelope of reusability by using the first stage core for the 5th
time. But now they and NASA say a review of what happened needs to be done
before launching people on the Falcon9. SpaceX always planned on using brand
new Falcon9 cores for crewed launches.
A second issue arose when SpaceX was doing one of their
parachute tests on 3/24. The Dragon capsule mass simulator hanging below a
helicopter became unstable and the pilot cut it lose before the chutes were
armed. The mass simulator crashed to the ground and was destroyed.
No official word on whether the mid to late May date for
DM-2 will be delayed. The “Everyday Astronaut”, one of my YouTube space
experts, feels the mission will be pushed back until July.
NASA has shut down many of its centers. Work on the “green
run” test of the SLS 1st stage and preparation of the James Webb
Telescope have been stopped. Fortunately, work on the Perseverance Mars rover
continues. NASA must launch it in the mid July to early August timeframe or
wait 26 months for another opportunity. I’m hoping China with their Mars rover
and the United Arab Emirates with their Mars orbiter, called HOPE, launching on
a Japanese rocket, both make their July launch dates.
There was a positive tweet on March 13 from the Insight
burrowing probe, the mole, on Mars. Apparently by pushing on the back of the
mole scientists successfully got the mole to go deeper. But there has been no
update on the depth attained. So the old 14 inch depth might still be the limit
of progress.
As always, Ad Astra, hope everyone is doing well, Jim
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