As of late October, NASA was reviewing the details of the proposals to determine that they meet the Human Landing System requirements ahead of the Continuation Review scheduled for December 2020. In April, NASA announced the selection of Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to compete to land the first woman and the next man on the moon in the first of NASA’s planned series of Artemis lunar missions. The spacecraft completed 33 revolutions, testing onboard equipment, before landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Boeing, the second Commercial Crew provider, worked on assembling the Starliner crew and service modules for its next uncrewed launch, after an uncrewed Starliner could not reach the station last December due to an issue with the mission clock. The Demo-2 mission marked final certification of the Dragon design, and cleared the way for the November launch of the Crew-1 operational mission. Design engineers carried out these simulations whereas typically the operations staff are a different group. SpaceX utilized an innovative approach to the mission design by relying on ground-based simulations to determine where significant events and phases should start and end. In space transportation, the uncrewed SpaceX Dragon In-Flight Abort Test in January verified performance of the Super Draco abort engines, clearing the way for the May launch of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station in the Demo-2 mission. DARPA has equipped the demonstration vehicles with parachutes for purposes of the test flights, but operational versions would not require recovery parachutes. The first Gremlin flight, in November 2019, met its test objective of proving the aircraft could be released from the wing of a C-130, but the vehicle crashed at the conclusion of the test when its main parachute did not deploy. In July, a Gremlin vehicle flew in formation with a C-130, approaching to within 38 meters of the C-130 before parachuting to the ground. The FAA in November lifted the grounding order so airlines could begin the changes to software and pilot training required to clear the planes to resume commercial service.Īs of November, DARPA was working to resume flights over the Utah desert with one of the four remaining Dynetics-built X-61A Gremlin Air Vehicles, the objective for this round being to grasp and hoist a Gremlin onto a C-130, followed by two Gremlins on a subsequent flight. Boeing resumed production of 737 MAX aircraft in May and in June conducted recertification flight tests after design changes. The jets were grounded worldwide in March 2019 following the second fatal crash in a span of four months. The FAA in November lifted the grounding order on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft so airlines can begin making the changes to software and pilot training required to clear the planes to resume commercial service. The Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Technical Committee addresses the aerodynamic performance, trajectories and attitude dynamics of aircraft, spacecraft, boosters and entry vehicles. The planet that we live on.Aerospace Sciences X-61A Gremlin flights, Commercial Crew and Mars missions mark eventful year By CHRISTOPHER KARLGAARD AND SOUMYO DUTTA |December 2020 Venus: the planet that is second in order of distance from the sun and has a diameter of about 7,500 miles (12,100 kilometers)Įarth: the planet that is thirds in distance from the sun. Mercury: the planet that is nearest the sun and has a diameter of about 3000 miles (4700 kilometers) Pluto: a celestial object that orbits the sun at an average distance of 3.7 million miles (5.9 million kilometers) and has a diameter of about 1500 miles (2300 kilometers) and is often considered one of the planetsĪny large heavenly body that orbits a star (as the sun) Makemake: a dwarf planet that orbits within the Kuiper belt with a mean distance from the sun of 46 astronomical units (6.85 billion kilometers) and a diameter of approximately 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) Haumea: a dwarf planet that orbits within the Kuiper belt with a mean distance from the sun of 43 astronomical units (6.45 billion kilometers) and a diameter of approximately 890 miles (1,430 kilometers) A heavenly body similar to a planet but too small to clear other objects from its orbitĬeres: a dwarf planet that orbits within the asteroid belt with a mean distance from the sun of 2.7 astronomical units (260 million miles) and a diameter of 590 miles (950 kilometers)Įris: a dwarf planet with a mean distance from the sun of 67 astronomical units (6.2 billion miles) and a diameter of 1500 miles (2400 kilometers)
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