See you next summer? … NASA chose an experienced, all-male crew with military backgrounds. The individuals were revealed inside a darkened Teague Auditorium where hundreds of friends, family members, and NASA employees cheered enthusiastically: NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, commander; ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, pilot; NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, mission specialist; and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, mission specialist. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Artemis III could launch as early as summer 2027, but much work remains before then.
But will New Glenn be ready? The Artemis III mission involves a lot of moving parts, the most significant of which is arguably a Blue Origin demonstration lander launching on a New Glenn rocket. Ars spoke with the Artemis program manager, Jeremy Parsons, to gather more information about this specific element of the mission. The nominal plan is to launch the test lander (essentially a crew module of the Blue Moon Mk2 vehicle) on New Glenn.
Dual path going forward … But of course, two weeks ago, the New Glenn rocket exploded on its launch pad in Florida, causing significant infrastructure damage there. Parsons said NASA is going to work closely with Blue Origin with the intent, for now, of launching on New Glenn. “It’s going to be a dual path,” Parsons said. “They’re really getting in and clearing out SLC-36 right now, and a lot of the key hardware is in really good shape. That being said, we’re going to be working with them hand in hand every single day, and we are bringing every assessment to bear. Like, if I needed to fly on another vehicle, what would that look like?” Vulcan and Falcon Heavy are options.
Amazon gets deadline reprieve. The Federal Communications Commission has waived a requirement for Amazon to launch half of its satellite broadband constellation by the end of July, a key regulatory reprieve that buys the tech giant time to get more of its spacecraft into orbit, Ars reports. It has been apparent for some time that Amazon would not meet the FCC’s requirement to launch half of its satellites—1,616 spacecraft—by the end of next month. Amazon filed an application in January requesting the FCC extend the deadline to July 2028 or waive it altogether. The commission decided on the latter option, removing any time limit for the 50 percent deployment milestone, but keeping the July 2029 deadline in place for the entire constellation.
Wanted: A road to space … Building satellites isn’t the biggest problem for Amazon Leo; it’s launching them. The company has stacks of satellites—each a little more than a half-ton in mass—awaiting rides to space on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan launch vehicle. Both rockets are grounded after recent anomalies. Amazon has booked launches on other rockets, but none have the lift capacity to put as many satellites into orbit as Vulcan and New Glenn, each of which can deliver more than 40 Amazon Leo platforms to space in one go. United Launch Alliance’s soon-to-retire Atlas V rocket has done most of the heavy lifting for Amazon Leo to date, but just one more Atlas V is available to Amazon. It will launch in the coming weeks from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with 29 satellites.
Next three launches
June 12: H3 | H3-30 test flight | Tanegashima Space Center, Japan | 00:53 UTC
June 13: Falcon 9 | Starlink 10-54 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 12:27 UTC
June 15: Kinetica 1 | Unknown Payload | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China | 03:40 UTC
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