Bryant A.M. Baker' Blog

The US Department of Commerce plans to develop a space safety system to track satellites orbiting Earth.  China plans to develop a fully reusable version of its Long March 9 rocket. And a recent study discovered that asteroid Phaethon has a sodium tail, rather than a dust tail, as previously believed. This much and more, in today's space brief! 5.  Commerce Department to Rely on DoD Data for Space Safety System The US Department of Commerce is currently developing a space safety system to track the increasing number of satellites orbiting Earth. The department is looking to use data from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to help with this task. The DoD currently tracks thousands of objects in space and has extensive experience in space situational awareness. The Commerce Department's space safety system will focus on providing warnings for potential collisions in space, and will be the first of its kind to be created in the US. The system will use data from a variety of...

SpaceX's Starship prototype has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the United States' recently updated its National Near-Earth Object (NEO) Preparedness Strategy, and the United States and South Korea has a new agreement to enhance space cooperation.  All this and more on today's space brief. 5.  FAA Grounds SpaceX's Starship: What Happened and What's Next? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded SpaceX's Starship prototype after its explosive landing during a test flight in Texas on March 30. The FAA stated that the investigation into the incident is ongoing, and the company must demonstrate compliance with safety regulations before any further test flights can take place. The Starship is a next-generation spacecraft designed for deep space exploration and travel. SpaceX plans to use the Starship to send humans to Mars in the near future. The prototype that exploded was a high-altitude test vehicle, designed to reac...

On today's space brief, The Japanese space agency JAXA has lost contact with its lunar lander, the first iSpace mission to the Moon.   Space Force, the newest branch of the US military, is considering using commercial data to help monitor satellites and space debris in Earth's orbit.   And scientists have measured the first seismic waves on Mars, revealing new information about the planet's internal structure.   All this and more, let's get started. 5.  Japanese Lunar Lander Mission in Trouble: Contact with Spacecraft Lost Earlier today, the Japanese space agency JAXA announced that it has lost contact with its lunar lander, the first iSpace mission to the Moon. The mission, launched last year, was intended to test new technologies for future lunar exploration and to search for resources that could be used to support human settlements on the Moon. The iSpace lander was supposed to touch down on the lunar surface near the South Pole, an area that has been identifi...