Watch NASA’s Artemis 1 splashdown here, starting at 11AM ET

After 25 days in space, Orion is about to conclude its uncrewed test run to the Moon. The Artemis 1 mission will draw to a close when the NASA spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean close to Guadalupe Island, which is 130 nautical miles off the coast of Baja California. Orion is scheduled to hit the water at around 12:40PM ET. NASA’s livestream will start at 11AM and continue after splashdown as a recovery team picks up the capsule. You’ll be able to watch the stream below.

NASA chose the landing trajectory and splashdown site so as not to pose a threat to people, land or shipping lanes. Just before re-entry, Orion and the European Service Module will separate, with the latter burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.

The crew mobile will carry out a skip entry technique to ensure it accurately arrives at the designated landing site. Orion will edge into the upper part of the atmosphere, then use that and its own lift to “skip” back out before re-entering for the final descent. The atmosphere will reduce Orion’s speed to 325MPH and the 11 parachutes will eventually slow it to a splashdown speed of 20MPH or less.

After multiple delays, Artemis 1 launched on November 15th as a precursor to the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. After carrying out a flyby in which it got as close as 80 miles to the lunar surface, Orion went into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That allowed NASA to test various systems while minimizing fuel consumption — Orion’s cameras took some gorgeous pictures while it was out there too. The spacecraft left the Moon’s gravitational pull on December 6th as it made its way home.

The Biden administration is reportedly drafting an executive order to streamline space rules

The Biden administration is reportedly drafting an executive order designed to modernize federal space regulations. According to Reuters, White House officials have hosted multiple “listening sessions” since November 14th. The goal of those meetings ha…

SpaceX’s first civilian lunar mission will take BIGBANG’S T.O.P and DJ Steve Aoki to the Moon

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has picked his companions for SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission to the Moon over a year after he put out a call for potential private astronauts. He chose eight crew members and two backups from various backgrounds to be part of the mission called “dearMoon,” and while application was open to everyone, some of the names will likely stand out when you review the list. One of the people flying with Maezawa on SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is Choi Seung Hyun, better known as T.O.P. from the Korean boy band BIGBANG. 

DJ Steve Aoki is also part of the crew, as well as Tim Dodd, who’s known for creating space-themed content as a photographer and host of YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut. The other crew members include Rhiannon Adam, a photographic artist from Ireland who now works in London and the US, and Yemi A.D., a designer, director, choreographer and non-profit org founder from the Czech Republic. Brendan Hall, a filmmaker who directed projects for National Geographic, Karim Iliya, a filmmaker who documents whales, birds and other threatened species, and Dev D. Joshi, an actor from India, round up the main crew list. Meanwhile, snowboarding Olympic gold medalist Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as backup crew. 

Maezawa said the project received about a million applications from interested individuals around the world who went through a strict selection process. The inclusion of musicians and other creatives doesn’t come as a surprise, since the billionaire originally intended to bring artists with him on the trip in hopes that it would inspire them to create something that promotes world peace. He didn’t say why he chose T.O.P. specifically, but the star did rap at an astronaut for one of BIGBANG’s music videos.

The dearMoon project was launched in 2018 after Maezawa purchased all the seats for a six-day trip to the Moon from SpaceX. It will fly a single circumlunar trajectory around Earth’s faithful companion and is expected to take place sometime next year, though the actual date depends on Starship’s development. To prepare for the dearMoon mission, Maezawa flew to the ISS last year and spent 12 days on the flying lab shooting videos about life in space. 

UN passes resolution to curb space debris from anti-satellite missile tests

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution today asking countries not to conduct direct-ascent anti-satellite tests (ASAT) that create space junk. The US spearheaded the measure after the International Space Station (ISS) had a close call …

Blue Origin makes another bid for a NASA lunar lander contract

Blue Origin has made another attempt to secure a contract to build a lunar lander for NASA’s future Artemis missions. It teamed up with several other companies for the proposal, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Draper. Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics are also involved.

In 2021, NASA gave SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to use a version of Starship as a lunar lander. Blue Origin challenged that move, claiming that NASA’s “decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base and not only delays, but also endangers America’s return to the Moon.”

Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos wrote in an open letter to NASA administrator Bill Nelson in July last year that his company was willing to waive up to $2 billion in payments in exchange for a fixed-price lander contract. Bezos also complained that the decision to award a single contract gave SpaceX “a multiyear, multibillion-dollar head start” and claimed it “broke the mold of NASA’s successful commercial space programs by putting an end to meaningful competition for years to come.”

NASA had intended to award two lunar lander contracts, but it opted to only issue one due to funding concerns. In August 2021, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit against NASA over its handling of the Human Landing System program. However, a Federal Court of Claims judge ruled against Blue Origin. The lawsuit held up work on SpaceX’s lander and delayed a crewed mission to the Moon until 2025.

Earlier this year, NASA said it would again accept proposals for a second lunar lander project. Now, Blue Origin is taking the agency up on the offer. As The Wall Street Journal notes, Blue Origin will face competition from Northrop Grumman and Leidos Dynetics. Northrop Grumman worked with Blue Origin during the first round of contract bids.

NASA posts high-resolution images of Orion’s final lunar flyby

Orion just made its final pass around the moon on its way to Earth, and NASA has released some of the spacecraft’s best photos so far. Taken by a high-resolution camera (actually a heavily modified GoPro Hero 4) mounted on the tip of Orion’s solar arrays, they show the spacecraft rounding the Moon then getting a closeup shot of the far side. 

The photos Orion snapped on its first near pass to the Moon were rather grainy and blown out, likely because they were captured with Orion’s Optical Navigation Camera rather than the solar array-mounted GoPros. Other GoPro shots were a touch overexposed, but NASA appears to have nailed the settings with its latest series of shots. 

Space photos were obviously not the primary goal of the Artemis I mission, but they’re important for public relations, as NASA learned many moons ago. It was a bit surprising that NASA didn’t show some high-resolution closeups of the Moon’s surface when it passed by the first time, but better late than never.

Orion’s performance so far has been “outstanding,” program manager Howard Hu told reporters last week. It launched on November 15th as part of the Artemis 1 mission atop NASA’s mighty Space Launch System. Days ago, the craft completed a three and a half minute engine burn (the longest on the trip so far) to set it on course for a splashdown on December 11th.

The next mission, Artemis II, is scheduled in 2024 to carry astronauts on a similar path to Artemis I without landing on the moon. Then, humans will finally set foot on the lunar surface again with Artemis III, slated for launch in 2025.