Human Space Exploration Update
By: Jimmy Spence, BAHEP
* Congress Mulls Options for Space Station Beyond 2024 The future of the International Space Station beyond 2024 was the focus of a congressional hearing. According to Representative Babin, the head of a congressional subcommittee that oversees NASA, the United States ' ability to send astronauts to Mars in the mid-2030s depends, in part, on cutting back or ending government funding for the International Space Station after 2024. While Bill Gerstenmaier urged Congress to plan a smooth transition from the station to beyond-low-Earth-orbit initiatives, with an eye on preserving U. S. leadership in space.
* NASA twins study researchers take genetic data to next level NASA astronaut Scott Kelly set a U. S. record of 340 days in space for a single mission as he returned to Earth from the International Space Station in March 2016. Though Scott ' s twin brother, retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly remained behind, the two men made and are making a significant contribution to future human deep space travel by serving as subjects in a range of health research projects. The " twin studies " are looking at how long space missions affect genes and how those changes influence physical and psychological well-being.
* Commercial Crew on tight but achievable timeline for crewed flights in 2018 Boeing and SpaceX are showing signs of achieving crewed test flights of their CST-100 Starliner and Dragon space capsules by the end of 2018. Both are developing systems to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station under NASA ' s Commercial Crew Program.
* NASA ' s human spaceflight plans come into focus with announcements of Deep Space Gateway For several years, NASA has been promoting their Journey to Mars and the role the SLS would play in missions to the Red Planet. While cislunar activities were mentioned as part of“ proving ground” objectives, the agency was often light on details of what, exactly, that meant. Now, Bill Gerstenmaier – NASA’ s chief of human spaceflight – presented some of the first concrete details of what will constitute activities in the proving ground. Using the new Space Launch System( SLS), NASA will launch infrastructure for the Deep Space Gateway, a base in cislunar orbit, which will be used for testing transportation systems to take humans to Mars. The Gateway will be launched in pieces on Exploration Missions 2-5, currently slated to take place between 2018-2026, with final testing of the transportation system to take place in 2029.
* Jeff Bezos ' Blue Origin Plans Crewed Launch Within a Year The spaceflight company Blue Origin, which was founded by Amazon. com CEO Jeff Bezos, plans to launch its first crewed flight to suborbital space soon. " We ' re trying to get to our first human flights within the next year. That ' s a laser focus for the team right now," Erika Wagner, Blue Origin ' s business development manager, told the audience at the New Space Age Conference on Saturday( March 11) here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ' s Sloan School of Management. In November 2015, Blue Origin made history when it landed its New Shepard rocket after an uncrewed test flight to suborbital space. This was the first time that any company or country had successfully completed a vertical takeoff and landing with a reusable rocket during a mission to space.
* NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson sets space duration record Early Monday morning, Whitson officially set the US record for most cumulative days in space, surpassing astronaut Jeff Williams ' record of 534 days, according to NASA. Whitson arrived at the space station for her current stint on November 19, 2016, and is due to return to Earth in September. Whitson also is the first woman to command the space station; she has commanded it twice. Her first stint as commander was in April 2008 and she ' s commanding the current crew. She also holds the record for most spacewalks by a female astronaut. Whitson took her eighth spacewalk in March.
38 MOMENTUM / May 2017