#space_agency

Startup Evolution Space has entered into an agreement with NASA's Stennis Space Center to create a manufacturing and testing facility for solid rocket motors. The company plans to begin production in the second quarter of 2024. Solid rocket engine startup Evolution Space has signed an agreement to establish manufacturing and testing operations at NASA's Stennis Space Center. On October 10, the company announced that it had reached an agreement to establish a manufacturing center at the former Mississippi Army Ammunition Facility, acquired by NASA in 2011 after it was deactivated by the U.S. Army. [caption id="attachment_66839" align="aligncenter" width="780"] NASA[/caption] Evolution Space plans to begin production of solid rocket motors in the second quarter of 2024 at a manufacturing center called the Minor Scale Propulsion Center. The company will also test its engines at the E-3 test facility complex in Stennis. “By collaborating with NASA, we will be able to quickly create a facility that significantly enhances the U.S. solid rocket motor manufacturing capabilities,” said Manny Balestero, vice president of manufacturing and engineering at Evolution Space. Startup Evolution Space opens solid rocket motor production center at NASA Stennis Space Center Evolution Space develops solid rocket motors for defense and commercial applications. In the spring, the company successfully launched its engines on suborbital flights from the Mojave Desert and from a floating platform in the Gulf of Mexico, while also testing an offshore launch pad developed by The Spaceport Company for a real launch. Evolution Space also announced it has closed an additional round of funding to continue operations at Stennis while it focuses on its Series A funding round. A company spokesperson said the funding was $1.2 million, but the company could not disclose the names of the investors. Evolution Space became the first solid rocket motor company to operate in Stennis, where it primarily tests liquid rocket motors for NASA and several companies.

The American division of the Japanese company Ispace has revised the design of the lunar lander it is preparing for a NASA mission, postponing the launch of this mission by a year. Ispace Technologies has unveiled a new design for its lunar lander, called APEX 1.0. The vehicle will be used as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission, which was awarded to Draper in July 2022 and which, at the time, planned to use a vehicle called Series-2. The design revision was driven by the needs of NASA's scientific workload. “The demands of extreme conditions were not met by the Series-2 design, especially in vibration resistance. We had to completely rethink the design of the device to take into account the requirements,” said Ispace CEO Ron Garan. The redesign, he said, makes it possible to adapt the device to the widest range of scientific instruments. APEX 1.0 will be able to accommodate up to 300 kilograms of scientific load, with the possibility of increasing to 500 kilograms. The device also supports the ability to launch satellites into lunar orbit, which will be used as part of the CLPS mission to transmit communications from the landing zone on the far side of the Moon. [caption id="attachment_63241" align="aligncenter" width="780"] NASA's[/caption] Japanese company ispace has revised the design of the lunar lander for NASA's CLPS mission Garan noted that there is a lot of interest from other customers in hosting payloads both on the CLPS mission and on subsequent missions. We're talking about rovers, as well as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) experiments. The APEX 1.0 design has passed preliminary design reviews, and Ispace plans to complete design reviews by March 2024. However, a revised lander design will delay the mission. When NASA selected the Draper-led team for the mission last year, the launch was scheduled for 2025. Now the mission's launch has been pushed back to 2026, which has financial implications for the company. In a Sept. 28 statement, Tokyo Stock Exchange-traded Ispace said it was cutting its sales forecast for the current fiscal year through March 2024 by more than 50% to $20.4 million, while the company expects demand for lunar landers to rise. what motivated the decision to move to a new 4,600-square-meter apartment in the United States? If we win a few more contracts, we will have rapid growth, and we need adequate premises for this This facility will be capable of supporting the production of future landers, although assembly, integration, and testing of the mission's lander will be carried out by other partners. Ispace had about 50 employees three and a half months ago, but now the number has reached 85. Ron Garan predicts that the company will have more than 100 employees by the end of the year.

Information is being circulated in the scientific community about NASA's plans to put the New Horizons spacecraft into hibernation mode. The decision will temporarily halt all scientific research in the Kuiper Belt and is causing confusion among scientists and space enthusiasts around the world. What is especially surprising in this case is that the New Horizons program was included in the list of “plans for the next decade” with a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt. The billion-dollar New Horizons spacecraft is at risk of shutting down due to a minor funding shortfall of several million dollars. Moreover, there is no clear plan yet as to when and whether the device’s operation will be resumed. The scientific community and leaders in the field of space exploration have expressed their concerns, but no comments have yet been received from NASA. [caption id="attachment_53534" align="aligncenter" width="780"] NASA[/caption] NASA plans to shut down New Horizons spacecraft Earlier this year, information emerged about the possible existence of a second Kuiper belt in the Solar System, which opens up new opportunities for further research. Although scientific research is underway in this area, NASA wants to suspend the spacecraft until new data is obtained or other discoveries are made. As noted, there was previously a proposal to turn the New Horizons mission into a heliophysics mission and disband the current team. Currently, such an idea has lost its relevance, and, without an alternative plan, NASA wants to simply turn off New Horizons and disband the team responsible for this project. Missing opportunities to make significant scientific discoveries is a major concern for the astronomical community. They hope that watchdogs such as GAO, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), and the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) will begin to scrutinize this decision. Additionally, it is important that the Office of Science and Technology of the President (OSTP) and the NASA Council participate given the potential consequences of NASA's actions. The future of the New Horizons spacecraft remains in doubt. Both the scientific community and space fans are awaiting a resolution to this situation.