Astronomy - USA (2022-02)

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ON MAY 30, 2020,

two astronauts launched

to the International Space Station (ISS)

aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.

Since then, crewed trips via SpaceX’s craft

have become routine. In 2020 and 2021,

the company sent three crews and a total

of 12 more astronauts to the ISS, suc-

cessfully reusing a Falcon 9 rocket and

Crew Dragon capsule to do so. Crew

Dragon has now firmly reestablished

NASA’s ability to put people in orbit

without relying on its Russian partners.

And NASA seems keen to expand its

relationship with SpaceX. On April 16,

the agency announced its selection of

SpaceX’s Human Landing System

(HLS) Starship to return humans to the

Moon via the Artemis program. NASA

had been widely expected to award con-

tracts to two companies to nurture the

growing industry and foster competi-

tion. Instead, SpaceX received the sole

contract, worth $2.89 billion, beating

out its two competitors, Dynetics and

Blue Origin, who had also been work-

ing with NASA to develop crewed lunar

landing craft.

Some didn’t agree with the choice:

On Aug. 13, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit

in the Court of Federal Claims, suing

NASA over its evaluation and choice to

award a single company the entire con-

tract. On Aug. 19, NASA paused develop-

ment of SpaceX’s lander to allow for

litigation. The suit came after Blue

Origins and Dynetics had filed a formal

complaint with the U.S. Government

Accountability Office (GAO), with the

GAO on July 30 releasing a statement that

“NASA did not violate procurement law

or regulation” in awarding a single con-

tract to SpaceX, and the agency’s assess-

ment of all three companies’ proposals

was fair. And on Nov. 4, the court ruled

against Blue Origin and NASA

announced it would resume work with

SpaceX on the HLS Starship.

Meanwhile, the commercial space race

continued to heat up in other ways. On

July 11, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity car-

ried the company’s founder, Richard

Branson, and five others to an altitude of

53 miles (86 kilometers), crossing the

threshold previously required to reach

space and earn commercial astronaut

wings from the U.S. Federal Aviation

Administration (FAA). However, that

same day, the FAA changed its require-

ments to receive commercial astronaut

wings. The new guidelines added a

requirement that crewmembers perform

“activities during f light that were essential

to public safety, or contributed to human

space f light safety.”

Less than two weeks later, on July 20,

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket blasted

off with four passengers, including com-

pany founder and former Amazon CEO

Jeff Bezos and Mercury 13 member

Wally Funk. They reached an altitude of

66 miles (107 km) — above the 62-mile-

high (100 km) Kármán line, internation-

ally recognized as the boundary of space.

Then, late on Sept. 15 Eastern time, the

Inspiration4 mission launched four civil-

ians into orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew

Dragon capsule. The crew spent three

days in space before splashing down in the

Atlantic Ocean. Although operated by

SpaceX, the mission was funded by Jared

Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments.

All three trips are milestones on the

path to a bona fide space tourism indus-

try. With so much progress last year and

more on the horizon, commercial space-

f light will surely remain an area to watch.

Commercial companies

weren’t the only ones reach-

ing for the skies. The China

National Space Administration

(CNSA) also took several

major steps forward in terms

of human spaceflight last year.

On April 29 Beijing time,

CNSA launched the initial

component of its first perma-

nent space station, Tiangong.

The core capsule, called

Tianhe (meaning “harmony of

heavens”), will serve as a res-

idence and control center for

orbiting astronauts, as well as

a scientific laboratory.

But the story didn’t end

there. The Long March 5B

rocket that lofted the station’s

capsule into space fell back

to Earth May 9 (also Beijing

time) in an uncontrolled re-

entry, tumbling into the

Indian Ocean. Despite the

rocket’s harmless demise, the

event drew criticism over

CNSA’s lack of foreknowledge

coupled with the inability to

plan where the debris would

fall. The single previous flight

of a Long March 5B rocket

ended with debris reportedly

impacting villages in the Ivory

Coast in 2020.

Also on April 29, CNSA and

Roscosmos released a joint

statement “acknowledging

mutual interest in the con-

struction of the International

Lunar Research Station (ILRS)

for the peaceful exploration

and use of the Moon.” A doc-

ument released June 16 gives

an initial timeline for con-

struction of the station

between 2026 and 2035,

with crewed landings begin-

ning in 2036.

On June 17, CNSA’s

Shenzhou 12 mission

launched, carrying three

astronauts to the Tianhe

module in China’s seventh

crewed spaceflight. During

their stay, the crew com-

pleted the country’s second-

ever spacewalk.

China is expected to main-

tain its momentum through

2022 as well. Two additional

space station modules will

complete the Tiangong sta-

tion this year, while crewed

Shenzhou launches are also

planned to continue. — A.K.

Passengers aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity, including Richard Branson (foreground), float in space

during their short suborbital trip July 11. VIRGIN GALACTIC

The commercial spaceflight

scene heats up

CHINA’S SPACE PROGRAM