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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is delaying its planned launch of a satellite on its new flagship H3 rocket due to expected bad weather at the launch site in southwestern Japan
By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press
June 28, 2024,
TOKYO -- Japan’s space agency said Friday its planned launch this weekend of a satellite on its new flagship H3 rocket will be postponed until Monday due to expected bad weather.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said it is postponing the launch because of rain and thunder predicted for Saturday night when the rocket was to be moved to the launch site at the Tanegashima Space Center on a southwestern Japanese island.
The launch was initially scheduled for Sunday.
The rocket will be carrying an Advanced Land Observation Satellite, ALOS-4, tasked primarily with Earth observation and data collection for disaster response and mapmaking, as well as with monitoring military activity, such as missile launches, with an infrared sensor developed by the Defense Ministry. The ALOS-4 is a successor to the current ALOS-2 and can observe a much wider area. Japan will operate both for the time being.
The launch will be the H3’s third, after a successful launch on Feb. 17 that followed a shocking failed debut flight a year earlier when the rocket had to be destroyed with its payload — a satellite that was supposed to be the ALOS-3.
Japan sees a stable, commercially competitive space transport capability as key to the country’s space program and national security.
JAXA and its main contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been developing H3 as a successor to its current mainstay, H-2A, which is set to retire after two more flights. MHI will eventually take over H3 production and launches from JAXA and hopes to make it commercially viable by cutting the launch cost to about half of the H-2A.
By Ashima Grover
Jun 28, 2024
With no fixed date of their rescue in sight, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore face a new scare as a decommissioned satellite breaks up in low-Earth orbit.
A Russian-owned decommissioned satellite endangered several ISS astronauts after it fractured near the space station. US Space Command confirmed the heart-rending news via a June 27, 2024, press release
RESURS-P1 (#39186) broke up in low-Earth orbit on Wednesday, June 26, at approximately 1000 MT (1600 UTC), leaving behind more than 100 pieces of trackable debris, US Space Command notified. The alarming development forced astronauts aboard the International Space Station to take emergency shelter. According to NASA's Space Station Office, once the Russian Earth observation satellite broke up in an orbit near the ISS, US astronauts were directed to take shelter in their spacecraft for approximately an hour.
US Space Command further added that “USSPACECOM has observed no immediate threats and is continuing to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.” At the time of writing, US space agencies didn't indicate any particular cause for the event.
Also read | NASA's ISS spacesuit nightmare builds up while Sunita Williams is still stuck in space
Space-tracking firm LeoLabs said late Wednesday that it had detected a “debris-generating event in Low Earth Orbit.” Their early estimations of the breakup indicated that it occurred between 9:05 a.m. and 8:51 p.m. ET.
“The ~6,000 kg satellite was in a nearly circular orbit at ~355 km at the time of the event,” LeoLabs subtweeted on X/Twitter. A following update notified the agency is “now tracking at least 180 fragments” from the event. This number is expected to escalate in the coming days.
US astronauts, including Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, take shelter in their spacecraft amid Russian satellite fracture
This tense revelation has come to light while NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are still stuck in space, on board their Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Following the standard protocol procedure, Mission Control guided crew members to take shelter in their spacecraft. Therefore, Williams and Wilmore presumably took refuge in the Starliner capsule. Their Boeing-built spacecraft lifted off on June 5 and docked at the ISS module Harmony.
Also read | Boeing blames missing paperwork as potential cause of Alaska Air mishap, incites NTSB row
The astronaut duo is currently held back in space as NASA manages “small helium system leaks and thruster performance.” Although initially scheduled for an 8-day mission, Williams and Wilmore's stay has been prolonged for over three weeks due to technical issues. Meanwhile, NASA has firmly maintained the spacecraft can safely return to Earth with the astronauts if needed.
Space debris is just another constant dilemma plaguing the ISS, with a looming consequential spacesuit situation. Postponed spacewalks, water leaks in spacesuit helmets, and Collins Aerospace, a key spacesuit designer NASA selected in 2022 to upgrade its suits based on a 40-year-old design, “descoping” its work on the deal are some other setbacks NASA is facing at the moment.
China's Chang'e-6 collects 1,935.3 grams of samples from the moon's far side
China's Chang'e-6 mission collected 1,935.3 grams of samples from the moon's far side, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Friday.
The samples were handed over to research teams from the Chinese Academy of Sciences at a ceremony held by the CNSA in Beijing.
The researchers will carry out the storage and processing of the lunar samples as planned and initiate scientific research work.
The return capsule of the Chang'e-6 probe, carrying the world's first samples collected from the far side of the moon, landed in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on June 25.
"We have found that the samples brought back by Chang'e-6 were more viscous compared to previous samples, with the presence of clumps. These are observable characteristics," Ge Ping, deputy director of the CNSA's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, who is also the spokesperson for the Chang'e-6 mission, told the press at the ceremony.
CNSA said it will continue to organize scientific research on the samples, sharing China's lunar exploration achievements with the international community.
Based on the lunar sample management rules released by the CNSA and the experience in dealing with the applications for lunar samples collected by the Chang'e-5 mission, applications for the Chang'e-6 samples are expected to open to domestic research institutions and scientists in about six months, Ge said.
Regarding international applications, Ge noted that China has always maintained a positive and open attitude and China welcomes scientists from all countries to submit applications per relevant procedures.
Previously, significant scientific achievements have been made through in-depth research on the lunar samples brought back by the Chang'e-5 mission, in areas such as lunar formation and evolution, space weathering, and resource utilization, the CNSA said.
Researchers have published more than 80 achievements in important domestic and international journals, including the discovery of the new lunar mineral Changesite-(Y), the sixth discovered on the moon, and the "youngest" basalt on the moon, which was determined to be about two billion years old and extended the "life" of lunar volcanism 800-900 million years longer than previously known.
(With input from Xinhua)
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