Page 12 - aruba-today-20201217

A12 science
Thursday 17 december 2020

World's space achievements a bright spot in stressful 2020

a close friend of Israel's first
astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who
died aboard space shuttle
Columbia in 2003.
Will Tom Cruise be joining
them? The actor was in
talks with NASA this year
about filming a movie at
the space station.
"This is the true beginning of
private spaceflight and will
get the ball rolling toward
multiple private missions
to orbit per year," Lopez-
Alegria said in an email.
"I've been preaching for
almost a decade __ that
commercial human space-
flight is the next giant leap."
Two other space-travel
companies — Jeff Bezos'
Blue Origin and Richard
Branson's Virgin Galactic
— are still conducting test
flights and have yet to set
firm dates for launching
customers on short flights
to the edge of space and
In this May 30, 2020, file photo, a SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, back.
lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Associated Press NASA is still targeting a No-
vember debut of its new
By MARCIA DUNN high-priority missions re- NASA's Osiris-Rex space- transporter, Boeing, is moon rocket, the Space
AP Aerospace Writer mained on track, led by craft vacuumed up hand- scrambling to get its Star- Launch System, with an Ori-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. the U.S., China and the fuls of gravel from asteroid liner capsule back in action on capsule that will launch
(AP) — Astronauts blasted United Arab Emirates in a Bennu in October for return after a software-spoiled without a crew.
into orbit from the U.S. for stampede to Mars in July. in 2023. test flight in December The Trump administration
the first time in nearly a de- The UAE's first interplanetary Elon Musk's SpaceX, mean- 2019. The do-over — again had set a 2024 deadline
cade, three countries sent spacecraft, an orbiter, will while, was buzzing in 2020. with no one on board — is for the first moon landing
spacecraft hurtling toward scrutinize the Martian at- In May, it became the targeted for spring. If the re- by astronauts since NASA's
Mars, and robotic explor- mosphere. first private company to pairs work and the capsule Apollo program a half-cen-
ers grabbed rocks from the NASA's Perseverance rov- put people into orbit, an finally reaches the space tury ago.
moon and gravel from an er is set to land Feb. 18 at achievement previous- station, the first Starliner as- Just this month, NASA intro-
asteroid for return to Earth. an ancient river delta and ly claimed by just three tronauts could be flying by duced the 18 astronauts
Space provided moments lakebed where micro- global superpowers. The summer. who will train for the moon
of hope and glory in an scopic life may have once two test pilots were the Musk capped the year with program named for Arte-
otherwise difficult, stressful flourished. The rover will drill first NASA astronauts to fly a stratospheric test flight of mis, the mythological twin
year. into the dry crust, collecting a new brand of spaceship Starship, the rocketship he's sister of Apollo.
It promises to do the same samples for eventual return in almost 40 years and the building to carry people to It remains to be seen how
in 2021, with February's to Earth. first to blast off from Florida the moon and Mars. The President-elect Joe Biden
landings at Mars and next China's orbiter-rover duo since the shuttle program Dec. 9 demo went bet- might alter the lunar-land-
fall's planned launch of the Tianwen-1 — quest for ended in 2011. ter than anyone imagined ing program.
Hubble Space Telescope's heavenly truth — also will In November, four more until a fiery explosion at "Whatever else can be said
successor — the next- hunt for signs of bygone life. astronauts rode a SpaceX touchdown. Even so, Musk about the four years of the
generation James Webb The European and Russian Dragon capsule to the In- was ecstatic. Trump administration, they
Space Telescope. space agencies skipped ternational Space Station. At the same time, SpaceX have been positive for
Boeing hopes to catch up the 2020 Mars launch win- Three weeks later, SpaceX is expanding its Dragon- the U.S. civilian space pro-
with SpaceX in the astro- dow, their life-sniffing Mars launched its biggest cargo riding clientele. Late next gram," noted John Logs-
naut-launching depart- rover grounded until 2022 shipment yet to the space year, SpaceX expects to don, professor emeritus at
ment, while space tour- because of technical issues station for NASA. launch the first privately fi- George Washington Uni-
ism may finally get off the and COVID-19 restrictions. "This is an impressive nanced Dragon flight in a versity's Space Policy Insti-
ground. China also set its sights on achievement which Ameri- deal arranged by Houston- tute.
"2021 promises to be as the moon in 2020, landing cans should be proud of," based Axiom Space. "No prior major programs
much of a space explora- and then launching off the astronaut-turned-senator Axiom's Michael Lopez- were cancelled, the hu-
tion bright spot, perhaps lunar surface in December Mark Kelly said of the Drag- Alegria, an ex-NASA astro- man exploration program
even more," said Scott with the first moon rocks on capsule double-header. naut and former president was given clear direction,
Hubbard, NASA's former collected for return to Earth Until the SpaceX flights, of the Commercial Space- and funding for existing
"Mars Czar" now teaching since the 1970s. Russia's three-person Soyuz flight Federation, will ac- programs was increased."
at Stanford University. Japan brought back piec- capsules were the only way company Israeli business- "This is a legacy that the
Although the coronavirus es of asteroid Ryugu — its to get astronauts to the man Eytan Stibbe and two Biden administration can
pandemic complicated second asteroid batch in space station once NASA's other paying customers to build on, so that in future
space operations around a decade. More asteroid shuttles shut down. the space station. Stibbe, years there can be a contin-
the globe in 2020, most samples are on the way: NASA's other hired crew a former fighter pilot, was ued string of successes."q