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SpaceX’s battle with regulators escalated last week, when the FAA announced it was fining the company a total of $633,009 for two alleged violations of its launch license that occurred more than a year ago.
While this is undoubtedly just a misstep on SpaceX’s part, the company strongly refuted the allegations in a letter to top congressional leaders. The company argues that the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation’s (AST) inability to process a “relatively minor” license renewal is further evidence that the agency can’t keep up with the rapid growth of the space industry, and SpaceX in particular.
CEO Elon Musk made his position clearer on the X platform: “The fundamental problem is that unless there are fundamental reforms to the FAA, humanity is going to be trapped on Earth forever.”
Image credit: SpaceX
NASA wants to establish a permanent human settlement on the moon, but for now astronauts need a direct line of sight with Earth to communicate with home.
NASA is looking to change that with its development of the Near Space Network, and is willing to pay billions of yen to private companies to provide continuous communications with the moon.The program got a boost last week when NASA announced that it had awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines to build and deploy a constellation of navigation and communications satellites for lunar and orbital missions.
The contract has a maximum potential value of $4.82 billion, but Intuitive Machines is guaranteed $150 million at launch.
Image credit: Intuitive Machines (Opens in new window)
One year ago, NASA made history when the OSIRIS-REx capsule became the first American mission to deliver asteroid samples to Earth. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security – Regolith Exploration Mission (OSIRIS-REx) landed in Utah after a nearly three-year journey from the asteroid Bennu. The capsule brought back about 250 grams (8.8 ounces) of rock and dust.
Read on to learn more about the mission, why NASA chose Bennu, and what the samples may teach us about the formation of our solar system.
The sample return capsule landed in the Utah desert on September 24, 2023. Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
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