JAHNIVERSE 96 AEROPUZZLER 6 LOOKING BACK 94 Newton vs. Einstein Why not let him fl y? First jet operations from a carrier

YEAR-IN-REVIEW Researchers, industry persevere through the pandemic.

Commercial Crew breakthrough PAGE 61

DECEMBER 2020 | A publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org SPACE AND MISSILES

will have NASA teams embedded in their projects Commercial Crew successes lead the as part of the 10-month base period disclosed in the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Part- way in a pivotal year nerships Appendix H Broad Agency Announce- BY JESUS A. OROZCO AND CHRISTOPHER R. SIMPSON ment. In May, NASA and SpaceX launched U.S. as- The Space Operations and Support Technical Committee focuses on tronauts in a Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 operations and relevant technology developments for crewed and uncrewed missions in Earth orbital and planetary operations. rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As- tronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken arrived at NASA launch ushered in the era of com- the International Space Station 19 hours later on mercial spacefl ight, the U.S. Space Force the Demo-2 mission. The Crew Dragon remained launched its fi rst payload and three gov- docked to the ISS for 63 days before bringing the A ernments launched Mars missions while astronauts back to Earth; the capsule splashed the covid-19 pandemic paralyzed the world for down in the Gulf of Mexico. Neil Mallik, network most of the year. director of the Human Space Flight Communi- The Space Force completed the military’s cation and Tracking Network at NASA’s Goddard next-generation communications constellation Space Flight Center in Maryland, said that NASA with its March launch of the Advanced Extremely evolved to support “commercial human space- High Frequency-6 satellite. It was the fi rst launch fl ight missions while maintaining a focus on safe- for the space warfare service branch, which was ty ... [considering] contingency operations and founded in December 2019. The Space Force also launch escape scenarios [which] drove unique The SpaceX Crew welcomed its fi rst 86 members into its ranks — all Dragon capsule with implementations of the space network, specif- graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy. In Au- NASA astronauts Bob ically, the ability to provide a rapid repointing of gust, the service released its fi rst doctrine, which Behnken and Doug [a tracking and data relay satellite] in the event of describes the Space Force’s fi ve core competencies Hurley onboard was off-nominal performance from the Falcon 9.” retrieved shortly after the as space security, combat power projection, space Dragon splashed down Jon Rodriguez, the Flight Dynamics Facili- mobility and logistics, information mobility and in the Gulf of Mexico. ty mission lead for Demo-2 and part of the HSF space domain awareness. The Demo-2 mission was CTN at Goddard, said that he hoped the “SpaceX In April, NASA disclosed the three U.S. compa- followed in November DM-2 launch provided a small respite to those nies that will develop the Artemis program’s hu- by the fi rst operational who were able to watch” during the “dark and Commercial Crew launch man moon landers planned to land astronauts on and docking with the uncertain time” of the covid-19 pandemic. the moon beginning in 2024. The three companies station, a mission dubbed The Demo-2 mission’s success also allowed for are Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX. All three Crew-1. NASA SpaceX and NASA to launch the Crew-1 mission on Nov. 15. Looking toward Mars, the United Arab Emirates Space Agency designed and developed the Hope orbiter for the Emir- ates Mars Mission that launched in July to study daily and seasonal weath- er cycles on Mars. It was the fi rst mission to Mars by an Arab country. Also in July, China launched the Tianwen-1 mission, which consists of an or- biter, a lander and a rover. NASA launched the Per- severance rover and In- genuity helicopter in July; they are expected to reach Mars in February 2021. ★

Contributors: Neil Mallik and Jon Rodriguez

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