SpaceX and other space exploration companies have had a busy week, with a successful static fire test of the Starship rocket, a two-person spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS), and more. Here’s what happened this week in spaceflight.
SpaceX conducted the first static-fire test of the Starship’s Raptor engine on Thursday, the latest milestone in SpaceX’s plans to develop a fully re-usable launch vehicle capable of bringing humans and cargo to Mars. This test was the first of several that SpaceX plans to conduct, and it lasted just over two minutes. The company did not release any details about the test other than to confirm it had occurred, but it is a promising sign that the Starship program is progressing.
On Tuesday, astronaut Sergey Ryzhikov and his Russian cosmonaut colleague Sergey Kud Sverchkov completed a seven-hour spacewalk outside of the ISS. The pair was tasked with replacing a pair of failed batteries on the outpost as well as deploying a communications antenna, and they accomplished their goals on time. This was the fifth spacewalk in the Expedition 64 mission and the second in two weeks. The two were back inside the ISS by 3 p.m. EST.
Elsewhere in the solar system, the NASA Mars 2020 mission continues to progress, with the spacecraft now less than 20 million kilometers from the Red Planet. After this week’s trajectory-correction maneuver, the mission is now on track for a Feb. 18 arrival at Mars. The spacecraft is carrying the Perseverance rover, a vehicle that will explore the Jezero Crater and search for signs of ancient microbial life.
The week concluded with the launch of the unmanned Resilience spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Dec. 5th. The craft is carrying four astronauts—commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi—and is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Monday, Dec. 7th. The team will conduct research, perform maintenance and engage with the public during their six-month stay.
Overall, this past week has been full of meaningful progress in space exploration. From the successful test of the Starship rocket to the Resilience’s launch on Saturday, it’s been an exciting seven days that demonstrate humanity’s continued desire to explore and better understand the universe beyond our planet.
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