At first it seemed SpaceX proved the adage that the third time is the charm. Today’s third attempt to launch a Starship prototype to 10 kilometers and land it safely back on Earth appeared to work, but several minutes after landing, it exploded, the same fate as its two predecessors. Still, it was a step forward in Elon Musk’s development of a system to take people to the Moon and Mars.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is inviting applications from people who want to join him on a trip around the Moon on SpaceX’s Starship. Another billionaire is choosing companions to fly with him to Earth orbit later this year on a different SpaceX system, but Maezawa is going bigger. He bought all the seats on a SpaceX Starship for a week-long trip around the Moon in 2023. Anyone who signs up by March 14 will get further instructions on the selection process.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a busy place these days. Trying to find the best times to send up new spacecraft is becoming a challenge. Coupled with impacts from storm-related electrical outages in Texas, NASA is delaying the launches of the next SpaceX Crew Dragon, Crew-2, and the second uncrewed test of Boeing’s Starliner, OFT-2. All of this at a time when NASA is warning about the need to have multiple ways to get U.S. astronauts to the ISS to ensure an American is always aboard.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 28-March 6, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris continued to shower NASA with good vibes this week. Biden used the Mars program as an example of America’s can-do spirit while Harris chatted with NASA astronaut Victor Glover aboard the International Space Station and praised the renaming of NASA’s Headquarters after Mary Jackson, the first African American woman engineer at NASA.
The heads of NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, spoke via telecon today. NASA is trying to get Russia to agree to launch U.S. astronauts on its Soyuz spacecraft, beginning in just a few weeks, to the International Space Station (ISS) on a no-cost basis. Instead, NASA would trade launching Russian cosmonauts on the new U.S. commercial crew systems with the goal of ensuring that least one American and one Russian are always aboard ISS. No announcement was made as to whether Russia has now agreed to that plan.
A new poll from Morning Consult finds that the public wants the government to focus its space research agenda on monitoring Earth’s climate, not human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Overall it ranked space research and exploration 25th in a list of 26 priorities for the Biden Administration. However, it also wants the United States to keep its competitive edge in space over countries like Russia and China.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tamped down, but did not reject, rumors that former Florida Senator Bill Nelson (D) will be the next NASA Administrator. The rumor started circulating on Twitter yesterday. Asked about it today, she said the White House has nothing to report about who will be asked to serve or when an announcement will be made.
NASA released first-of-its-kind video today of the Mars Perseverance rover as it descended through the Mars atmosphere to a safe landing on the surface. The first panoramic image of Perseverance’s new home in Jezero Crater and audio of a wind gust were also released.
NASA is postponing the second Hot Fire test of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage. Last week NASA confirmed the test was scheduled for February 25, but today said an issue developed over the weekend with a valve and they need time to investigate. A new date was not announced.