SpaceX News

[WLJ]

Here's Marcus House's weekly update

 Now We FINALLY Know! The Truth Behind SpaceX Starship's Explosive Mystery!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw8qwvCS3FU

[WLJ]

Raptor dance

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1745953103927464027

[WLJ]

Update on Peregrine
Sad end 

In an update posted on social media Jan. 13, Astrobotic said it has been monitoring the trajectory of Peregrine over the last several days. Its Vulcan Centaur launch placed it on a highly elliptical orbit that took out beyond the orbit of the moon, with the original intent of swinging back around the Earth before going out to, and entering orbit around, the moon.

“Our analysis efforts have been challenging due to the propellant leak, which have been adding uncertainty to predictions of the vehicle’s trajectory,” the company said in a statement. “Our latest assessment now shows the spacecraft is on a path towards Earth, where it will likely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”

The company did not disclose a time or location for the reentry. Independent analysts, using available tracking data, estimate a reentry late Jan. 18 near Australia.

Peregrine lunar lander on Earth reentry trajectory
https://spacenews.com/peregrine-lunar-lander-on-earth-reentry-trajectory/

[WLJ]

Chris Bergin - NSF reposted
Sawyer R.
@thenasaman
The latest forecast from SLD-45 shows a greater than 95% chance of "go" conditions for the launch of Axiom-3!

Since it's a crew mission they're keeping an eye on the weather at abort zones.

Liftoff is set for 5:11pm EST

Watch live preps on SCL: https://youtube.com/live/Jm8wRjD3x

https://twitter.com/thenasaman/status/1747306484289995205

[WLJ]

Chris Bergin - NSF
@NASASpaceflight
Static Fire coming up.

Live here: http://nsf.live/spacecoast

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1747401118508863898

[WLJ]

24 hour delay, no word yet on why.

Chris Bergin - NSF reposted
Sawyer R.
@thenasaman
Welp today wasn't the day to launch Axiom 3 and the 4 person crew.

The good news is tomorrow might be that day! The new targeted T-0 is 4:49pm EST on Thursday from LC-39A in Florida.

Weather is 90% favorable

Read up on the mission before launch: https://nasaspaceflight.com/2024/01/axiom-

https://twitter.com/thenasaman/status/1747664540282544241

[WLJ]

Live

 SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Axiom Mission 3 Crew to ISS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHYD95rxU-E

[WLJ]

Japan going for it again. Hope they nail it this time.
Suppose to go live 08:55am EST

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) lunar lander mission. The lander will demonstrate precision landing technology.[6] By 2017, the lander was planned to be launched in 2021,  but this was delayed until 2023 due to delays in SLIM's rideshare mission, X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM).

It was successfully launched on 6 September 2023 at 23:42 UTC (7 September 08:42 Japan Standard Time). If the mission is successful, Japan will become the 5th country to soft land on the surface of the Moon.

On 1 October 2023, the lander executed its trans-lunar injection burn. It entered orbit around the Moon on 25 December 2023 and is expected to land on 19 January 2024.

JAXA - SLIM MOON LANDING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU53KT6x4IQ

[WLJ]

19 minutes

[WLJ]

I really like this graphic they're using, shows you everything the lander is doing.

[WLJ]

It's down
No word yet on in what condition.
Worrying me that's it taking so long

[WLJ]

They just ended the coverage
Still no word and the graphic showed it upside down or on it's side?

Edit: Looking at some post it's suppose to be on it's side.
.

[WLJ]

Still nothing from JAXA
Deep Space Network is showing data flow but not sure if that's data from the carrier or the lander or both since the graphic shows both for that antenna.

https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

[WLJ]

Guess this means it's still alive.
But why is JAXA being so tight lipped?

SOURCE

SMART LANDER FOR INVESTIGATING MOON
FREQUENCY BAND

S
DATA RATE

16.38 kb/sec
POWER RECEIVED

-120 dBm
(1.0 x 10-18 kW)

[WLJ]

Listening to a JAXA conference
So far

Soft landed
Solar cell (panels?) is not generating elec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU53KT6x4IQ

Edit: Elec problem could be because it landed in a unfavorable attitude. (I find it hard to believe they wouldn't know already yay or nay on that)
If they can't the power going they only have few hours of power.

Edit: So far been mostly softball questions
Edit: shutting down some systems to conserve power

[WLJ]

During the news Conference I've had the DSN website up on the 2nd monitor and haven't noticed any data to or from SLIM for a while.

[WLJ]

Speculation it rolled over with the solar panels facing away from the sun. It did land on a slope. If so it may come back to life after the sun moves to that side in a week or so.

[WLJ]

Some people have way too much time on their hands

Some of the comment are gold

Chris Bergin - NSF
@NASASpaceflight
Whoa! Aleqsandre Abuselidze (@Aleksmay2003
) shared pictures of his latest hobby project with us - a model of Starship and the launch tower, built from 300,000 matches!

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1749110230053449973

Not very accurate if you ask me

[WLJ]

One of the two rovers, which was ejected immediately before landing and is working, send back a picture of SLIM
Houston Tsukuba we have a problem

JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
@ISAS_JAXA_EN
The Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2 / SORA-Q) has successfully taken an image of the #SLIM spacecraft on the Moon. LEV-2 is the world’s first robot to conduct fully autonomous exploration on the lunar surface.

https://twitter.com/ISAS_JAXA_EN/status/1750418819242426394

[WLJ]

The front nozzle fell off

Japan’s SLIM lands on the Moon upside down, power issues cast doubt on lander’s survival (Updated)
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/01/slim-landing/

At a press conference on Jan. 25, 2024, 05:00 UTC, JAXA officials reported that during descent, SLIM had arrived at an altitude of 50 meters,  and had slowed to hover. At around this time, the spacecraft suffered an anomaly which caused terminal damage to one of the two main engines. Before the anomaly, officials say that SLIM was targeting a touchdown within 3 or 4 meters of the target.

    Because one of #SLIM main engine nozzles fell off, balance was lost, probably leading to the tumble pic.twitter.com/49S5qzxmV9

    — Dawoon Jung (@dirkpitt2050) January 25, 2024

[MillCreek]

I wonder if this means that the solar cells will not receive sufficient sunlight to charge up the batteries, regardless of the position of the sun.

[cordex]

I wonder if this means that the solar cells will not receive sufficient sunlight to charge up the batteries, regardless of the position of the sun.

My first thought was whether the little rover might be able to bump it over to a better orientation.  I'm guessing not, though.

[RocketMan]

My first thought was whether the little rover might be able to bump it over to a better orientation.  I'm guessing not, though.

That was my first thought, too.  Further reading about the rover made me think it's too small and not powerful enough to shift the lander.

[WLJ]

That was my first thought, too.  Further reading about the rover made me think it's too small and not powerful enough to shift the lander.

Far too small and just not capable

LEV-1 is a small hopper 2.1kg
LEV-2 is a round roller type and barely bigger than baseball being 8cm in dia

[WLJ]

Some talk of if they re-establish power and comms that MAYBE they could tap on the maneuvering thrusters to right it. Haven't seen a firm yay or nay on even if that would work or even possible.

Edit: Looking again at the location of the thrusters highly doubtful

The fact one of the nozzles is missing could indicate it landed harder than expected.