Monthly Space News Recap - September 2024
Top 5 of the month's most interesting space updates
NASA deploys solar sail
Recently, NASA announced that its demonstration ‘solar sail’ technology or Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) was successfully deployed in space. The spacecraft which was launched in April has large reflective sails that push the spacecraft forward not using wind, but the energy of the photons emitted from the sun. The spacecraft will now be put through multiple tests by the team to check its manoeuvrability and more.
China reports to have produced water from lunar soil
Last month, Chinese scientists made a groundbreaking discovery. They have been reported to have generated water from lunar soil. While experimenting with samples collected by the Chang’e-5 moon mission in 2020, they found that lunar soil contains high amounts of Hydrogen, which when reacts with other elements at very high temperatures, forms water vapour. This is a massive discovery as it has brought the possibility of a sustainable moon base closer than ever to reality.
Boeing Starliner returns to Earth empty
The infamous Starliner spacecraft by Boeing put 2 astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore in the ISS on June 5th. It was supposed to bring them back 8 days later but due to numerous gas leaks and malfunctioning thrusters, the return was delayed for months until NASA decided that the craft would come back to earth empty and the astronauts would return in 2025 on a SpaceX craft. Last month, Starliner detached itself from the ISS and made a safe return to Earth. All went smoothly and there were no malfunctions, but it was a safe decision by NASA to not take a risk.
SpaceX completes first-ever civilian spacewalk
This September, SpaceX conducted the launch of its much-awaited Polaris Dawn mission that successfully performed the first civilian spacewalk in history. The 4 member all-civilian crew were put into orbit on a crew-dragon spacecraft for 5 days, and the spacewalk was conducted on the 3rd day. A spacewalk is an activity performed by astronauts outside their spacecraft, and until now, it has only been done by professionals. Only 2 members performed the spacewalk, one at a time, the other 2 remained in the craft. All 4 landed safely back on Earth.
19 people are in space now. New record!
Recently, 3 new astronauts docked at the International Space Station onboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. This may seem trivial, but it now means that there are 19 humans orbiting in space currently (including the ISS and Tiangong space station) This beats the previous record of 17 people.
