spacetoday.net: space news from around the webin association with SpaceNews


NASA postpones decision on asteroid mission design
Posted: Thu, Dec 18, 2014, 7:50 AM ET (1250 GMT)
Asteroid capture illustration (Rick Sternbach/KISS) NASA has pushed back a decision on what option it will choose for its planned Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), asking teams at the agency to study additional issues about the two proposed concepts. NASA associate administrator Robert Lightfoot said Wednesday that he originally planned to make a decision on which of two options for the mission to pursue after receiving briefings about them earlier this week. However, the two options were so closely matched that he asked teams to take the next two to three weeks to study them further, with a decision thus pushed back to January. In one option, a robotic spacecraft would redirect an entire asteroid, up to ten meters across, into orbit around the Moon. An alternative option would send a robotic spacecraft to a larger asteroid and grab a boulder a few meters across from its surface to send back to lunar orbit. Lightfoot suggested the second option tested more technologies that could be used for later exploration missions, but also carried with it additional cost and complexity.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief
Senate hearing raises doubts of Artemis
Posted: Sat, Sep 6 8:50 AM ET (1250 GMT)

NASA names new associate administrator
Posted: Sat, Sep 6 8:46 AM ET (1246 GMT)

President Trump moves Space Command HQ to Alabama
Posted: Sat, Sep 6 8:44 AM ET (1244 GMT)

news links
Saturday, September 13
SpaceX, Northrop Grumman to launch supplies to ISS
Spectrum News — 5:52 am ET (0952 GMT)
Cornell-led space tech startup acquired by Pasteur Labs
Cornell Univ. — 5:51 am ET (0951 GMT)
How China Is Transforming Space Power
The Diplomat — 5:46 am ET (0946 GMT)


about spacetoday.net   ·   info@spacetoday.net   ·   mailing list