Weekly - NASA launches new SPHEREx telescope and more
🟡 Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy.
Our Engagement Palette!
Check out our colour-coded system for our weekly space news:
🟤 Brown: For weeks that are mundane and bland.
🟡 Yellow: For fairly interesting weeks.
🟢 Green: For the most exciting weeks.
This Palette will help you decide if this week’s news is worth your time!
This week ranks yellow 🟡 on the Engagement Palette.
ISRO achieves SPADEX undocking
In January, ISRO successfully docked 2 separate spacecraft, the target and chaser in space, as part of its SPADEX experiment. Last week, ISRO successfully conducted the docking of the 2 spacecraft on its first try. ISRO has now demonstrated both the essential capabilities needed to build its own space station or to send people to the moon.
Replacement for Sunita Williams arrives
Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have been ‘stuck’ onboard the International Space Station for 9 months after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft designed to bring them back was found to be unreliable. A SpaceX craft with 2 crew and 2 empty seats was launched in September 2024 as part of Crew 9, and the 2 stranded astronauts will return to Earth along with that crew. Last week, Crew 10 astronauts arrived at the ISS, which means that Crew 9, including Sunita and Barry, will shortly return to Earth.
NASA launches new SPHEREx telescope
Last week, NASA successfully launched its newest space telescope - SPHEREx. The telescope’s main objective over the next 2 years will be to map as much of the sky as possible in high detail using infrared. Unlike most telescopes like James Webb, SPHEREx is designed to capture vast stretches of the sky instead of specific targets.
