From the congratulations sent by the NASA Administrator I have learned that three American Universities were involved in this project, the Colorado State University at Boulder, where the spacecraft was built according to the NY Times, the Arizona State University and the UC at Berkeley. This is truly an internationa project.
Tullio

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Next Mars launches: July 23 Tianwen-1, China; July 30 Perseverance, USA.
Tullio

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Tianwen-1 has been launched by a Long March 5 Y4 launcher. It is on its way to Mars.
Tullio

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The Progress 76 cargo ship has ben launched atop a Soyuz launcher from Baikonur and is now heading to the ISS.
Tullio

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Jezero is the new Gale Crater : ''BBC News - Nasa Mars rover: How Perseverance will hunt for signs of past life" https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53378023

Astounding images: "Mars In 4K" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEyAs3NWH4A

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

Perseverance has been launched and is on its way to Mars. Meanwhile ESA BepiColombo is on its way to Mercury. It takes more energy to go to Mercury than to go to Mars because you have to spend the angular momentum of Earth's orbit compared to that of Mercury orbit. Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo figured how to do it with two Venus flybys and three Mercury orbita.
Tullio

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A Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship has been launched from Wallops Island on a Antares launcher and is travelling to the ISS where it shall be grabbed by the Canadarm robotic arm and installed on the Unity space port. Its load is mainly scientific but includes also radishes and a new toilet. It should arrive to the ISS on Monday and be covered by NASA TV.
Tullio

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The Blue Origin New Shepard has launched a crew capsule with no astronauts in and has landed its booster in a SpaceX emulation.

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Expedition 64, two Russians and an American woman astronaut, a microbiologist, has reached the ISS in only three hours. Now there are two Americans and four Russians.
Tullio

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Expedition 63 with two Russian cosmonauts and an America astronaut has landed in Kazakhstan.

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What does the 2020 presidential election mean for space exploration? https://www.space.com/election-2020-space-policy-trump-biden

2nd half of article:

A discussion of Joe Biden's space policy is of course much more speculative, but we can make some educated guesses.

China has launched the Chang'e 5 mission to the Moon. It should recover some piece of lunar soil and bring it back to Earth.
Tullio

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Chang'e 5 lander has landed on the Moon in Oceanus Procellarum and has started digging. A load of soil will be be uploaded to the orbiter, which will start its travel back to Earth.- Then the orbiter will detach a module to bring the soil to a landing place in Mongolia, hoping all goes well.
Tullio

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It looks like Russia has launched a heavy rocket Angara A5 but it is not clear what is its purpose. President Putin has said it is a national security issue.
Tullio

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SLS full engine test today
Hope everything goes well. Looking forward to seeing Artemis-1 launch later this year.

SLS full engine test today
Hope everything goes well. Looking forward to seeing Artemis-1 launch later this year.

AQfter just watching the test it looks like it was a success.

Cheers.

Not so sure.
Engine test ends early

"We have certain boundaries that we need to keep the operations under... the test team was seeing some data that they might not like, so obviously our engines were shut down ahead of the eight-minute scheduled time-frame."

Not so sure.
Engine test ends early

"We have certain boundaries that we need to keep the operations under... the test team was seeing some data that they might not like, so obviously our engines were shut down ahead of the eight-minute scheduled time-frame."

A simple problem with hopefully a simple fix:

SLS: Nasa finds cause of 'megarocket' test shutdown
wrote:

... There are four of these auxiliary power units in the core stage. The hydraulic system that they power is responsible for "gimballing", or pivoting, the four engines so that the rocket can be steered during flight.

"On auxiliary power unit 2, we saw a low indication on the hydraulic reservoir level, and the hydraulic pressure..."

Why can't the very obvious be simply stated: They had a hydraulic leak for Engine #2.

More of a question is for the how and why...

Also, is not this development ohh-sooo-slow and silly expensive because everything is Man-rated-thoroughly-checked to be guaranteed to work first time?

Or is Boeing being more greedy on profits rather than being concerned with getting the overpaid product to actually work well?


Minimum turn-around time to try again is noted to be one month assuming no rework is required...


Fly safe folks!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

A simple problem with hopefully a simple fix:

Get one of the many spare engines out of the store,
replace the faulty one,
take faulty one to w/shop for disassembly and complete check.

SOP

A simple problem with hopefully a simple fix:

Get one of the many spare engines out of the store,
replace the faulty one,
take faulty one to w/shop for disassembly and complete check.

SOP

That might be a Standard Operating Procedure for SpaceX working over a weekend. However, this ain't SpaceX...


Also exception part #2... It ain't a faulty engine.

My understanding is that:

• The RS25 engines all are very well tested, good for many flights yet, and all performed fine;
  
• The failure was with the hydraulics on the core section that gimbal (control the orientation of) Engine #2;
  
• In flight, that very likely would prove fatal. On the ground, that could well cause a fire elsewhere from the lost hydraulic fluid igniting and then that leading to an explosion.
  

With the continuing delays, eye watering expense for an old going-back-to-disposable design, and the continuing hype: All that does not look good for Boeing, or for the way Boeing is putting all this together, or for the Artemis project overall.


For a bit of a giggle and a fair overall summary, see:

SLS Green Run Update! Why the latest news could be VERY bad for NASA and Artemis. EXTREME RANT!!


NASA is working hard to put a positive spin on all this to cover over the Boeing poor results.

Very good that nothing blew up. Very bad for the very obvious embarrassment and obfuscation shown in the aftermath.

Here's hoping they can pull off a full test, without compromise, successfully, soon.


Keep searchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)