NASA’s James Webb telescope gets hit by a micrometeroid

Astronomers everywhere have high hopes for NASA’s James Webb telescope. It’s supposed to give us an insight into the first stars and galaxies that ever formed and into the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets. That is why NASA and its partners had engineered it to be able to withstand harsh situations, such as being bombarded by micrometeroids flying at extremely high velocities. Between May 23rd and May 25th, a micrometeoroid that’s larger than expected hit one of the telescope’s primary mirror segments. The event was significant enough for NASA to pick up a “marginally detectable effect in the data,” but not enough to affect the telescope’s performance. 

In NASA’s announcement, it said that the James Webb team performed an initial analysis and found that it still performs at a level that “exceeds all mission requirements.” The space agency explained that its engineers relied on simulations and did actual test impacts on mirror samples when it was building the telescope to make sure it was adequately fortified. For instance, the telescope’s flight teams can perform maneuvers to turn its optics away from known meteor showers. The recent impact it sustained was classified as an unavoidable chance event, though, and the micrometeoroid was larger than what engineers could have tested on the ground. 

The good news is that James Webb has the capability to adjust mirror positions in order to correct and minimize the results of impacts like this. Its engineers have already made the first of several adjustments to make up for the damage on the affected segment. The agency has also formed a team of engineers to look into ways to mitigate effects of hits this scale in the future. Seeing as James Webb is meant to be Hubble’s replacement and is expected to provide us invaluable data over the next 10 years — or 20, if everything goes well — NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency will most likely do the best they can to protect the space telescope. 

Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA Goddard, said:

“With Webb’s mirrors exposed to space, we expected that occasional micrometeoroid impacts would gracefully degrade telescope performance over time. Since launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeoroid strikes that were consistent with expectations and this one more recently that is larger than our degradation predictions assumed. We will use this flight data to update our analysis of performance over time and also develop operational approaches to assure we maximize the imaging performance of Webb to the best extent possible for many years to come.”

China’s Shenzhou-14 mission arrives at Tiangong space station for final construction

China’s Shenzhou-14 mission has successfully docked with the country’s Tiangong space station on Sunday. According to CNN, the three-person crew of the spacecraft arrived at the Tianhe “Harmony of the Heavens” crew module at 5:42PM local time after launching from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert earlier in the day. The arrival marks the start of a six-month stay at the station for the mission’s astronauts that will see China attempt to make significant progress toward the completion of Tiangong.

The country hopes to finish building the station by the end of the year. Next month, it will launch the first of two lab modules that will expand Tiangong’s capabilities, with the latter to follow in October. The modules will allow Chinese astronauts to conduct microgravity and life science research. After the country completed its first-ever tandem spacewalk last year, the Shenzhou-14 crew will conduct multiple EVAs to prepare the station for expansion. Among the three astronauts is Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman to make it to space nearly a decade ago during the country’s Shenzhou-9 mission.

Once complete, the entire t-shaped structure will be about a fifth of the size of the International Space Station, with long-term accommodation for three astronauts. According to Reuters, China is exploring the possibility of allowing commercial space flights to visit Tiangong. It has also invited international space agencies to visit the station. The successful launch of Shenzhou-14 caps off a busy week in space travel, with NASA preparing to begin testing its next-generation SLS rocket again and Blue Origin successfully completing its fifth crewed flight on Saturday.

Watch Blue Origin’s fifth crewed New Shepard launch at 9AM ET

After delaying the planned launch from May 20th due to an issue with backup systems, Blue Origin is finally ready to send New Shepard on its next journey to the edge of space. The NS-21 mission is New Shepard’s 21st flight and its fifth with passengers on board. It takes place today at 9AM ET and you can watch it live below. The stream will start an hour before launch.

The passengers include electrical engineer and former NASA test lead Katya Echazarreta, who will become the first Mexican-born woman and youngest American woman to fly to space. She’s making the trip as part of Space for Humanity’s sponsored Citizen Astronaut Program. 

Civil production engineer Victor Correa Hespanha, meanwhile, will become the second Brazilian to reach space. The other passengers are business jet pilot Hamish Harding, co-founder of private equity firm Insight Equity Victor Vescovo, Dream Variation Ventures co-founder Jaison Robinson and investor Evan Dick, who was part of the NS-19 mission in December.

Blue Origin’s first crewed flight took place last July, with founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and, at the time, the youngest and oldest people to travel above the Kármán line on board. William Shatner became the oldest person to reach space on the second crewed mission. Subsequent flights took place in December and March.

NASA chooses two companies to develop next-gen spacesuits

NASA’s going to need new suits to accompany astronauts to the Moon for its Artemis I mission, and now we know who’s going to be making them: Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace. The two companies will develop next-generation suits that’ll be used both for spacewalks on the ISS, in addition to Moon exploration. NASA says it has defined the technical and safety standards around the new “xEMU” equipment (Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit), but it’s up to these partners to deal with “design, development, qualification, [and] certification” as well as building the necessary support equipment.

According to NASA, the new suits could be ready as soon 2025, following testing in either the ISS or a simulated environment. While the space agency is also gearing up for other new equipment, like lunar landers from SpaceX and more companies, having new suits is among its most important tasks for future missions. Currently, astronauts are still relying on space gear designed around 45 years ago for the Space Shuttle program. In an August 2021 report, NASA noted that its xEMU plans likely won’t hit its original 2024 target, and that it has spent around $420 million developing the new suits.

James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images will be revealed on July 12th

Just over six months after the James Webb Space Telescope launched, we’ll get our first look at full-color images captured by the telescope. The European Space Agency says the imagery and first spectroscopic data will be unveiled on July 12th.

“The release of Webb’s first full-color images will offer a unique moment for us all to stop and marvel at a view humanity has never seen before,” Webb deputy program director Eric Smith said. “These images will be the culmination of decades of dedication, talent, and dreams — but they will also be just the beginning.”

JWST required several months of preparation before starting science work. The process included cooling the telescope to its operating temperature, calibrating instruments and aligning the mirrors. The ESA, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci) spent over five years figuring out what Webb should capture first in order to show off what the observatory can do.

NASA has shared some images that JWST captured during the preparation phase, but it’s unclear exactly what the full-color images will look like. “Of course, there are things we are expecting and hoping to see, but with a new telescope and this new high-resolution infrared data, we just won’t know until we see it,” STScI lead science visuals developer Joseph DePasquale said.

After the observatory captures its first images proper, it will start scientific observations. Astronomers will analyze data captured by the JWST’s infrared sensors and publish papers on their findings.

Watch NASA’s Mars helicopter complete a record-setting flight

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter is still pushing boundaries long after its first Mars liftoff. As CNETnotes, the space agency has shared video of Ingenuity’s milestone 25th flight on April 8th, when it broke duration and speed records. The robotic helicopter flew at 12MPH for just over two minutes and 41 seconds, providing footage of the Red Planet’s rippling sands and rock fields as part of the 2,310-foot journey. The footage you see below was sped up to cut the viewing time to 35 seconds.

The video doesn’t include the very start and end of the trip, but for good reason. The navigation camera switches off whenever Ingenuity is within three feet of the Martian surface to prevent dust from interfering with the navigation system. The autonomous flier receives flight plans from JPL, but it uses a combination of the camera, a laser rangefinder and an inertial measurement unit to adapt to real-life conditions.

Ingenuity has flown three times since. It’s currently preparing for a 29th flight following a brief scare in early May, when the mission team lost communication after the helicopter switched to a low-power state. NASA isn’t easily deterred, then — expect the aircraft to keep flying for a while to come.