Vol 45, Week 39

NASA & NEWSPACE

• NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that the Artemis 3 vehicle is on track for Nov 2026 fueling tests while opening national bidding for the new U.S. Space Academy.
• SpaceX to receive up to US$950 million from NASA for three additional crewed flights to ISS running through 2030 (Crew-15, -16, -17). 
• Firefly Aerospace opened its new cleanroom facility in Texas to accelerate production of its Blue Ghost lunar landers and Elytra orbital vehicles.

GLOBAL REPORTS

• China, which holds the record for most rocket launches in single day (3 Long Marches in ~19 hours), recently launched 4 different rockets in 45 hours.
• ESA and ISRO extended and expanded space cooperation agreements through 2032, which include space weather, human and robotic space exploration, and space sustainability.
• JAXA published a technical review confirming its RV-X reusable rocket successfully completed its vertical takeoff, hovering and landing flight tests.

BEYOND EARTH

• A JWST study found that the rings of Chariklo—a 250-km-wide centaur between Saturn and Uranus—drastically changed over a decade as one thickened and the other vanished.
• Scientists using data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft discovered that Jupiter’s bow shock dynamically reforms itself to block and deflect incoming solar wind particles.
• On track for early 2027 (possibly January) science operations, the Roman Space Telescope’s 300-megapixel infrared camera was successfully powered on.