The cargo transport vehicle is in the middle of shake table testing at NASA’s Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. It will be the payload onboard United Launch Alliance’s second certification flight of the Vulcan rocket.
The company, a subsidiary of RTX, is designing a new spacesuit that can be used on board the International Space Station. The suit was contracted as part of NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services contract.
The mission, nicknamed “Four of a Kind” was also deemed a successful recovery mission. Liftoff of the Electron rocket from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand occurred at 19:34 UTC.
Two of the four crew members will exit a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft using spacesuits currently under development. The launch is set for no earlier than early 2024.
The Falcon 9 launch was the second in a back-to-back series for the company Sunday evening. Liftoff occurred at 9:57 p.m. PST (12:57 a.m. EST, 0557 UTC).
A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 8:10 p.m. EST (0110 UTC). A second Falcon 9 is due to soar skyward from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California later tonight.
One of two engines powering a Japanese moon lander during its descent to the surface Jan. 19 suffered a malfunction of some sort just 160 feet above the lunar surface that sharply reduced its power, the Japanese space agency said Thursday.
A robotic Japanese moon lander touched down on the lunar surface Friday, but it immediately suffered a power glitch of some sort that prevented its solar cells from generating the electricity needed to keep it alive in the harsh lunar environment.
The first U.S. lander bound for the Moon since 1972 burned up in Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday. The unfortunate ending for Astrobotic’s spacecraft was deemed the most responsible choice given its hopes of reaching the Moon were dashed less than a day after it launched.