7/30/2023 0 Comments Last nasa space shuttle launch![]() ![]() (The first of the trio of missions, Polaris Dawn, will launch no earlier than September this year Isaacman first flew to space on another SpaceX mission he funded, called Inspiration4, in September 2021.) Polaris is a private program of space missions, funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, aiming to fly Isaacman and other commercial astronauts he selects using SpaceX's Dragon and Starship vehicles. SpaceX's Hubble effort would be in conjunction with the Polaris Program. Any such effort would happen at no cost to NASA, per the terms of the agreement discussed in September 2022. To be clear, there is no approved Hubble rescue mission yet. NASA and SpaceX are assessing whether Dragon missions could safely boost the orbit of, and perhaps also otherwise service, the Hubble Space Telescope. ![]() Related: How are Hubble Space Telescope images made? The press conference was discussing the SpaceX proposal, being conducted under an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA. Webb launched in 2021 and is now operating in deep space to look even further back in time than Hubble's pioneering "deep field" studies showing early galaxy evolution.Īt its current altitude close to Earth, Hubble has a 50% probability of falling back to our planet in 2037, Patrick Crouse, Hubble project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said during a September 2022 briefing. Now it is working alongside the even more powerful NASA James Webb Space Telescope to uncover detailed information about our solar system and the deep universe. Hubble's groundbreaking research has brought in a Nobel Prize and thousands of peer-reviewed papers. NASA retired the 30-year-old shuttle fleet in 2011, leaving no current servicing options. Hubble remains in good health otherwise, thanks to five space shuttle missions to service the telescope and boost its orbit, the last of which happened in 2009. Its altitude - 335 miles (540 km) above Earth as of late 2022 - is now roughly 38 miles (60 km) lower than its initial orbit. Hubble continues to fall gradually thanks to drag induced by Earth's atmosphere, which is whisker-thin, but not non-existent, so high up. Hubble flew to space in April 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. (Image credit: Made In Space Europe/Momentus) Related: Silicon Valley Bank collapse ripples across space industryĪrtist's illustration of a Made In Space Europe robotic arm fixed to a Momentus Vigoride spacecraft. Momentus has about 180 days, until late September, to bring up its share price again. The market capitalization of Momentus is also $40 million, so Payload's report said fundraising for more cash "will be a challenge."Ī further issue arose in March, when the Nasdaq gave Momentus a delisting warning, as the space startup's shares have declined below $1 each, according to CNBC. Space Force, spending is roughly equivalent to five months of runway, according to Payload. Momentus, however, is spending roughly $8 million a month and has just $40 million of cash on hand, its quarterly results showed while cash flow is coming in from several service agreements and the U.S. Vigoride would eventually move Hubble's orbit up by 31 miles (50 kilometers), then turn to a new task of cleaning up orbital debris in the vicinity of Hubble. After the tug reaches space, it would use Astroscale technology for rendezvous, proximity operations and docking to reach the telescope. The Astroscale-Momentus proposal for Hubble would also use Vigoride, which would launch on a yet-to-be-determined rocket. Momentus, which started operations in 2017, has launched several demonstration flights of a space tug called Vigoride aboard SpaceX rideshare missions. ![]()
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