Article by William Harwood July 29, 2021 (cbsnews.com)
• On July 29th, a bit of drama unfolded at the International Space Station (ISS) as the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, replaced the two-decades-old Pirs airlock and
Article by Jak Connor July 13, 2021 (tweaktown.com)
• YouTuber ‘UFO chaser’ posted an image from the International Space Station’s (ISS) onboard live camera on July 3, 2021, at 8:30 am EST that shows ten small black unidentified objects “traveling with the space station above planet Earth”. (see 14 second video below)
• It should be noted that no proof has been provided that these objects are actually “flying” or have been officially declared “UFOs”. The image seen could have easily just had the black dots photo-shopped in to create content for social media.
An interesting image has come out of a known UFO chaser, and the image was sourced from a video shot by the International Space Station (ISS).
The image has been posted on the MrMBB333 YouTube channel that almost has
500,000 subscribers and shows a screenshot taken from the ISS’s onboard live camera on July 3, 2021, at 8:30 am EST. The YouTuber points out that the image shows ten small black objects that remain unidentified at this current time.
The YouTuber claims that the objects are “traveling with the space station above planet Earth”, insinuating that they are unidentified flying objects (UFO). However, no proof has been provided if these objects are flying or officially declared “UFOs”. It should also be noted that due to the current “hype” around UFOs, many images/videos are being posted all around the internet claiming “UFO encounters” – most of the time with very little proof or at least lack high-quality footage.
With the previous point in mind, the image in question could have easily just had the black dots photo-shopped in to create content for social media. For more information on this story, visit this link here.
14 second video of ‘Jeff’ pointing out objects ‘traveling’ with the ISS (‘MrMBB333’ YouTube)
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Article from Agence-France Presse July 4, 2021 (theguardian.com)
• In June, three Chinese astronauts blasted off to become the first crew of the new Tiangong space station in orbit around Earth, where they will remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On July 4th, two of the astronauts conducted the first of two seven-hour spacewalks to work on assembling the Tiangong space station. Fueled in part by a U.S. ban on Chinese astronauts on the International Space Station, the construction of the Tiangong space station is a significant step in China’s ambitious space program.
• China previously landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the Moon. This is China’s first crewed mission into space in nearly five years, and the first time since 2008 that Chinese astronauts have gone outside their spacecraft. China is the third country to complete a spacewalk after the Soviet Union and the US. This is a matter of huge prestige as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party this month with a massive propaganda campaign.
• In this first spacewalk, astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo were tasked with elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module and testing the station’s robotic arm which will be used to transfer future modules around the station. The astronauts also installed foot stops on the robotic arm and carried out other assembly work. The crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training in preparation.
• In a video clip, Liu and Tang were shown opening a hatch and exiting the module separately, wearing newly developed suits. They were supported from inside the station by the mission commander, Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot who is on his third space mission. The video clip showed Liu leaving the cabin, exclaiming: “Wow, it’s too beautiful out here.” The Chinese space agency is planning a total of eleven launches through to the end of next year, including three more crewed missions. They will deliver two more lab modules to expand the station, along with supplies.
• Chinese state television showed footage of the astronauts’ daily lives on Tiangong, including setting up an exercise bike and working out on a treadmill. One crew member was shown eating with chopsticks; another did a handstand and somersault after mealtime. The televised spacewalk garnered 200 million views on China’s social media platform Weibo. One user wrote: “How much I’m moved by each step of achievement is beyond words.”
• President Xi Jinping has said the construction of China’s first space station is opening “new horizons” in humanity’s attempts to explore the cosmos. The Tiangong space station is expected to have a lifespan of at least ten years, and China has said it would be open to international collaboration on the station. The U.S.-run International Space Station is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA says it could remain functional beyond 2028.
Chinese astronauts have performed the country’s first tandem spacewalk,
working for seven hours on the outside of the new Tiangong station in orbit around Earth.
Tiangong’s construction is a significant step in China’s ambitious space programme. China has previously landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the moon.
Last month, three astronauts blasted off to become the first crew of the station, where they will remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On Sunday morning, two of them left the station for about seven hours of work in the 
first spacewalk at Tiangong, the China Manned Space Agency said.
“The safe return of astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to the Tianhe core module marks the complete success of the first spacewalk in our country’s space station construction,” the agency said.
Their tasks included elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module and testing the station’s robotic arm, which will be used to transfer future modules around the station, state media said. The astronauts installed foot stops on the robotic arm and, with its support, carried out other assembly work, the space agency added.
In a video clip of Liu leaving the cabin, he exclaimed: “Wow, it’s too beautiful out here.”
Liu and Tang were shown opening a hatch and exiting the module separately, wearing newly developed suits said to weigh 130kg (20st). They were supported from inside the station by the mission commander, Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot who is on his third space mission.
This was the first of two spacewalks planned for the mission, both expected to last six or seven hours. It was the first time since 2008 that Chinese astronauts have gone outside their spacecraft. Back then, Zhai Zhigang made China the third country to complete a spacewalk after the Soviet Union and the US.
This is China’s first crewed mission in nearly five years, and a matter of huge prestige as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party this month with a massive propaganda campaign. To prepare, the crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training.
2:49 minute video pf first spacewalk on the Chinese space station,
July 4, 2021 (‘SciNews’ YouTube)
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Article by Jeff Foust June 13, 2021 (spacenews.com)
• When the chief executive of the of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority which operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island on the Virginia Coast, Dale Nash, decided to retire, the authority convened a search committee to select Nash’s successor. On June 10th, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and the chairman of the board of the authority Jeff Bingham announced that Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer Jr., a retired Air Force major general, will be the next chief executive and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority starting August 1st.
• In his 32 years in the Air Force, Mercer held a variety of space-related roles including commanding the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base and serving as deputy director of operations for Air Force Space Command. Mercer retired from the Air Force in 2008. Mercer has since served as director of the Interagency Program Office for the Federal Aviation Administration’s ‘NextGen’ program to modernize management of the national airspace system.
• Northam said of Mercer: “Under his leadership, Virginia is poised to maximize the investments we have made in our world-class spaceport and launch into the future as a leader in space exploration, research and commerce.” Indeed, Mercer said that growing the spaceport’s launch business was second only to looking out for the needs of spaceport personnel. Mercer plans to “get aggressive” about bringing more customers to the MARS spaceport.
• The two existing MARS launchpads currently accommodate Northrop Grumman’s two Antares launches a year sending Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, and occasional launches of Minotaur rockets for various government missions.
• But another player has recently begun to operate at Wallops Island – Rocket Lab. The company built a launchpad for its Electron rocket, and in March, it announced it would launch its new medium-class Neutron rocket from Wallops as well. Getting both Electron and Neutron flying regularly from MARS could dramatically increase launch activity. Electron is designed to launch as frequently as once a month, while Neutron may launch six to eight times a year. “Between the Northrop Grumman launches and the Rocket Lab launches, we could be easily doing 20, 25 launches a year within a couple of years,” Nash predicted.
• Certification of an autonomous flight termination system required by NASA will delay the Electron, however. The first Electron launch from Wallops, originally scheduled for 2020, could slip to as late as November.
• Mercer wants to attract additional launch companies to Wallops. “The opportunity to grow in the next one to five years is extraordinary,” he said, citing interest in small satellites from both companies and government organizations like the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency. “I want MARS to be the place of choice for some of these companies that want to get their satellites into orbit.”
• MARS will have to complete with other spaceports for that launch business, in particular Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Mercer suggested he would be open to building additional launch infrastructure at MARS if there is demand for it. Nash said NASA’s master plan for Wallops includes the ability to add two or three more launchpads, which could potentially accommodate larger launch vehicles than Antares and Neutron. The state of Virginia has more than $250 million in building the Wallops Island facility.
• But Mercer noted that there are limits to how large MARS could grow. “Will we ever become a Cape Canaveral? Probably not because of limits on the infrastructure that can be built there. …[B]ut we want to expand as much as we can… That will allow more customers to come to this range.”
WASHINGTON — The new head of Virginia’s commercial spaceport on Wallops
Island says he wants to increase launch activity at the site, while acknowledging that there are limits as to how big it can grow.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced June 10 that Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer Jr., a retired Air Force major general, will be the next chief executive and executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island. Mercer will
take over Aug. 1 when the current head of the authority, Dale Nash, retires.
“Under his leadership, Virginia is poised to maximize the investments we have made
in our world-class spaceport and launch into the future as a leader in space exploration, research and commerce,” Northam said of Mercer in a statement.
Mercer held a variety of space-related roles in his 32 years in the Air Force, including commanding the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base and serving as deputy director of operations for Air Force Space Command. Mercer retired from the Air Force in 2008 and, in
2016, became director of the Interagency Program Office for the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen program to modernize management of the national airspace system.
The authority convened a search committee to select Nash’s successor, which led them to Mercer. “This committee has unanimously selected the best candidate possible to take the helm of Virginia Space,” Jeff Bingham, chairman of the board of the authority, said in a briefing. “Our new CEO and executive director is uniquely qualified to ensure that we deliver on our objectives and work to become increasing active and competitive over the next decade.”
MARS hosts only a few orbital launches a year currently. Northrop Grumman conducts an average of two Antares launches a year from Pad 0-A, sending Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Neighboring Pad 0-B hosts occasional launches of Northrop Grumman Minotaur rockets, including a Minotaur 1 launch of a National Reconnaissance Office mission scheduled for June 15.
Mercer said at the briefing that growing the spaceport’s launch business was a top priority, second only to looking out for the needs of spaceport personnel. “One of the cleanest ways we can begin to grow this business, without doing much in terms of infrastructure, is simply get aggressive about getting out and bringing more customers to our launch port and to our range,” he said.
A big factor in the future of MARS is Rocket Lab. The company built Launch Complex 2, a launchpad for its Electron rocket, next to Pad 0-A. In March, it announced it would launch its new medium-class Neutron rocket from Wallops, using the existing Pad 0-A. That rocket will also be manufactured at a facility to be built nearby.
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Article by Janis Mackey Frayer June 17, 2021 (nbcnews.com)
• On June 17th, the Chinese Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, sending three astronauts on a historic mission to an orbiting space station that China is currently building. It was the first time in five years that China has sent humans into space. (see 1:07 minute video of launch below)
• Shenzhou-12, or “Divine Vessel,” is one of 11 planned missions to complete construction of China’s 70-ton ‘Tiangong’ or “Harmony of the Heavens” space station that should be up and running by next year. The astronauts will remain docked with the main Tianhe section of the station for three months to perform spacewalks, maintenance work and critical testing of life support and other systems.
• “I believe that in the near future, when the Chinese space station is complete, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts taking on joint missions,” China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming said at an earlier news conference. “Exploring the vast universe, developing space activities and building a powerful space nation is our unremitting space dream.”
• The 20 year-old International Space Station, or ISS, which has hosted astronauts from the U.S., Russia and a number of other countries is set to be decommissioned after 2024. China has long been frozen out of and ISS mission due to American concerns over the Chinese space program’s secrecy and connections to its own military. Moscow has hinted that it may withdraw from ISS cooperation in 2025, meaning China could be the only country with a functioning space station.
• The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, also signed an agreement in March with the Chinese National Space Administration to build a base on or around the Moon, which they will call the International Scientific Lunar Station. “All the firsts that the U.S. and the USSR did in the Cold War, China is just ticking them off,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “Now they’re at the point where they’re starting to think, ‘OK, we’re not just copying the West anymore, we’re going to start doing our own thing’. And that’s going to be very interesting to watch.”
• On the day before the launch, the three Chinese astronauts (pictured above) met with reporters from inside a germ-free glass chamber. Veteran Nie Haisheng, 56, was looking forward to his third trip to space, while Liu Boming, 54, took part in a 2011 mission that included China’s first spacewalk. They were joined by 40-year-old Tang Hongbo, who was looking forward to his first journey up to the stars, having been selected for training in 2010.
• After Tianhe’s main module was successfully launched last month, state media reported that President Xi Jinping wrote a letter to congratulate Chinese engineers for a breakthrough that earned a place in the nation’s history. NASA and others scolded Beijing for acting recklessly by allowing a rocket booster from that mission to fall to Earth in a seemingly uncontrolled manner.
• The Shenzhou-12’s launch was covered on state television and celebrated as a matter of prestige ahead of the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary next month. For Xi, the space station holds symbolic value in his vision of his country as “a space power in all respects.”
• But as China pours billions of dollars into its space programs, including an exploration of the dark side of the Moon and its recent landing of a rover on Mars, some analysts fear that its lack of international coordination is creating a dangerously competitive playing field in space. “There is no doubt the U.S. is the most advanced,” Zhou Jianping, the chief designer at China’s Manned Space Agency told NBC News. “Regardless of scale, China develops space programs out of our country’s own need … to fulfil our own dream.”
JIUQUAN, China — A Chinese rocket blasted off from a launch pad in the Gobi
Desert on Thursday, sending three astronauts on a historic mission to an orbiting space station China is building.
Fire and huge clouds of dust could be seen in the distance when the Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule roared away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, as China’s space race with the United States and Russia continues to gather pace.
It was the first time in five years that China has sent humans into space.
For Rong Yi, the rocket’s chief designer, it was hard to see it go.
“We have invested so much energy,” she told NBC News, likening the rocket to raising a child. “But I am thrilled to see it fulfill its duty within 10 minutes.”
Shenzhou-12, or “Divine Vessel,” is one of 11 planned missions to complete
construction of China’s 70-ton Tiangong or Harmony of the Heavens space station that is set to be up and running by next year.
The astronauts will remain docked with the main Tianhe section of the station for three months — China’s longest crewed mission yet — to perform spacewalks, maintenance work and critical testing of life support and other systems.
“I believe that in the near future, when the Chinese space station is complete, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts taking on joint missions,” China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming said at a news conference Wednesday ahead of the launch.
“Exploring the vast universe, developing space activities and building a powerful space nation is our unremitting space dream,” he said.
China has long been frozen out of the International Space Station, or ISS, a project launched 20 years ago that has served as the ultimate expression of post-Cold War reconciliation between Russia and the United States. American concerns over the Chinese space program’s secrecy and connections to its military were largely responsible for that.
But the aging ISS that hosted astronauts from the U.S., Russia and a number of other countries is set to be decommissioned after 2024. As broader U.S.-Russia relations deteriorate, Moscow has hinted that it may withdraw from ISS cooperation in 2025, meaning China could be the only country with a functioning space station.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, also signed an agreement in March with the Chinese National Space Administration to build a base on or around the Moon, which they will call the International Scientific Lunar Station.
1:06 minute video of the launch of the Long March-2F rocket
carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule (‘NBC News’ YouTube)
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Article by Arjun Kharpal May 31, 2021 (cnbc.com)
• On May 30th, the China Manned Space Agency’s Long March 7 rocket carried the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft (pictured above) into orbit from the Wenchang island launch site (in Hainan province). The Tianzhou-2 then successfully docked with the Tianhe core module of China’s Tiangong space station. The Tiangong space station will be made of three modules, including the Tianhe “core”, the Tianzhou-2 and laboratories.
• Over the next two years, China will carry out eleven missions to complete the construction of the space station, and to bring astronauts and supplies up as well. The Tiangong space station is expected to be operational by 2022.
• The Tianzhou-2 carried up astronaut supplies including space suits and food, paving the way for China to launch astronauts to the space station. Shredded pork and kung pao chicken are among the food items transported to space, the Xinhua news agency reported.
• The Tiangong space station will rival the International Space Station, a co-operative effort between the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. China is not involved. Beijing has put a lot of emphasis on ambitious space projects. Last year, China completed its global navigation system called Beidou, a rival to the U.S. government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS). And an unmanned Chinese spacecraft landed successfully on Mars.
GUANGZHOU, China — China has completed another major part of its own space
station, the latest in a string of ambitious extraterrestrial projects from the world’s second-largest economy.
The Long March 7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft took off at 8:55 p.m. local time on Saturday from the Wenchang launch site, according to the China Manned Space agency.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Tianzhou-2 docked with the core module of the space station called Tianhe.
China’s space station will be made of three modules which includes the Tianhe “core,” cargo spacecraft such as Tianzhou-2 and laboratories. China will carry out 11 missions this year and next to complete the construction of the space station, and
bring astronauts and supplies up too. The space station is expected to go into operation in 2022.
The docking of Tianzhou-2 has paved the way for China to launch astronauts to the space station. The cargo spacecraft carried up astronaut supplies including space suits and food. Shredded pork and kung pao chicken are among the food items transported to space, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China’s first self-developed space station will rival the International Space Station, which is a co-operative effort between the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. China is not involved.
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May 31, 2021 (explica.co)
• In the 2017 film “A Space Between Us”, actor Asa Butterfield plays the first human being born outside of Earth – on Mars actually – after his astronaut mother dies in childbirth on the first manned mission to the red planet. In real life, the last manned trip to the Moon was back in the 1970s. Today, humans are once again poised to return to our lunar satellite, and beyond. NASA’s Artemis missions propose the construction of settlements on the Moon. But there are currently rules to prevent space pregnancies from happening. So when might we see the first off-world birth of a human baby?
• Chris Impey, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, says for those first extraterrestrial babies to be born, it is first important to know how the effects of cosmic radiation and low gravity might affect male and female reproductivity, gestation, childbirth and the ultimate health of the mother and the newborn. Professor Impey considers off-planet human births to be plausible, but he thinks it will take about 20 years before it can be done safely. So far, reproductive experiments have been carried out only with animals.
• In 1979, a group of Russian scientists launched a group of male and female rats into space and allowed them to copulate freely for 18 days. While no rat baby was born, it was found that the females had indeed ovulated and that two of them had become pregnant, but were aborted.
• In 2017, instead of launching animals into space to procreate, female mice were inseminated with mouse sperm that had been on the International Space Station for 288 days. While the genetic material was slightly damaged, pregnancy was achieved at a rate similar to that obtained with sperm samples that remained that same length of time on Earth. A year later, NASA launched a sample of human semen into space to analyze how the space environment might affect the sperm. No female has been inseminated with the sample sperm, but even if it were so, they would be born on Earth – not in space.
• So far, no human couple has had sex in space (that is known) and no pregnant woman has embarked on a space trip. But in 1991, two NASA astronauts (Mark Lee and Jan Davis) were married but kept it a secret because of an unwritten rule prohibiting married astronauts from traveling in space together. It was feared that engaging in sexual intercourse could endanger their health. When their secret came to light, the unwritten rule ended up being written. It is assumed that no one has had sexual intercourse in the International Space Station – or anywhere else outside of Earth.
• However, by 2027 a Dutch startup called SpaceLife Origin plans to open a luxury hotel orbiting the Earth in space. It will accommodate 280 clients and 112 crew members, and perhaps it could become the idyllic destination for a couple in love. This same company wants to send a pregnant woman 400 kilometers from Earth as a reproductive experiment. At this distance, it is still not too far for conditions to be very inhospitable, but it is far enough to give birth to the first extraterrestrial human. Of course, there are both ethical and medical impediments to overcome, and SpaceLife Origin has not made firm plans for the endeavor.
Almost 50 years have passed since the last manned trip to the moon. Since then, many people
have wondered why humans did not set foot on our satellite again. The reality is that during all this time they have been numerous space travel, aimed at getting to know the terrain better and making future missions safer for their protagonists. Now, with much already gained in that regard, the return of humans to the moon or even the first manned trip to mars, begin to materialize as a reality. Therefore, it is not surprising that we also begin to ask ourselves new questions. Like, for example, when will the first alien babies?
It sounds like science fiction, but since Neil Armstrong’s first step on selenite terrain we have seen more than enough the arguments of the Jules Verne novels they also come true.
Some projects, such as Artemis missions, from NASA, already propose the construction of settlements on the Moon for the future. It would be a matter of time before, if humans want to thrive there, the first babies are born. What is not clear is when that will happen. Although, with the data in hand, some speculations can be made, such as those recently narrated in The Conversation by the professor of Astronomy
at the University of Arizona Chris Impey.
For those first extraterrestrial babies to be born, it is first important to know how it would affect the extreme environment of space, both to male and female reproductivity, as well as to gestation, childbirth and the health of the mother and the newborn.
The effects of cosmic radiation and low gravity. In fact, it has already been proven with some studies, although they are still very scarce. So far, no human couple has had sex in space (that is known) and no pregnant woman has embarked on a space trip.
Therefore, these types of experiments have been carried out only with animals. One of the first took place in 1979, when a group of Russian scientists launched a group of male and female rats, to copulate freely for 18 days. Of those relationships no baby was born, although it was found that the females had ovulated and that even two of them had become pregnant, but aborted.
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Article by Jason Vermes May 24, 2021 (cbc.ca)
• Chris Hadfield (pictured above), the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station, was a guest on the Canadian-based ‘Cross Country Checkup’ radio show as part of the program’s regular ‘Ask Me Anything’ series, and answered questions from listeners about Mars, UFOs and our responsibility as humans in space.
• One caller asked: “Why are we trying to land on Mars?” Hadfield responded, “Well, I think the fundamental question is that Mars was a lot like Earth four billion years ago when life first formed on Earth. So if it happened here, did [life] happen there? [I]t will be evident somewhere in the geologic record.” Rovers are currently traversing Mars, conducting research and taking samples from the ground. If a rover finds one fossil, “we will know we’re not alone in the universe.” China’s space agency is the latest to land a rover on Mars. On May 19th, the Zhurong rover took its first drive on the planet’s surface.
• Ed Camelot in Edmonton asked, “what’s in it” for the Red Planet? If there is life on Mars, whether fossilized or primitive, Hadfield said it’s important to consider what it would mean for us on Earth, and what responsibilities we have. The 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty offers “fundamental building blocks of the legal system” for space-faring nations. That treaty is a basic framework on international space law, according to the UN, and outlines key principles, including that space exploration should be in the interest of all countries, and that states should avoid harmful contamination of outer space and celestial bodies.
• “We’re very careful with everything we’ve sent so far to Mars to make it — to the absolute best of our ability — to make it sterile so that it won’t inadvertently bring life to Mars or react if there is some sort of primitive life on Mars,” Hadfield said. “If there was intelligent life or advanced life, we would treat it even more thoughtfully and more differently.”
• Hadfield was then asked whether he would ever consider a “one-way trip” to Mars. He said he would happily help with development of technology to enable Earthlings to live somewhere like Mars or the Moon. “[B]ut my question would be: what ship and who with and what is the purpose?” Hadfield said. “We’re going to get there eventually, and I’d love to be part of the team that makes that happen.”
• Byron McDonald from Kamloops, B.C. asked Hadfield about UFOs. “Obviously, I’ve seen countless things in the sky that I don’t understand,” said Hadfield, a former pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the US Navy. “But to see something in the sky that you don’t understand and then to immediately conclude that it’s intelligent life from another solar system is the height of foolishness and lack of logic.” But Hadfield acknowledged the existence of extraterrestrial life is worth thinking about, and that it’s likely that there is life in other parts of the universe. “But definitively up to this point, we have found no evidence of life anywhere except Earth, and we’re looking,” he said. “[I]t’s all really fun to think about.”
• [Editor’s Note] So the first Canadian to command the International Space Station says: “definitively…we have found no evidence of life anywhere except Earth”. Hadfield says presuming that a UFO is of extraterrestrial origin is “the height of foolishness”. Of course, someone in his position has to know the truth about the widespread extraterrestrial presence on our planet and throughout our solar system. What will these astronauts and officials, whom the public has looked to for answers, do when they are revealed to be deep state toadies, lying at every opportunity?
After disclosure, when these liars try to walk back these types of remarks, will the people who have been duped for decades offer them any solace at all? Or will they be thrown onto the garbage heap of history along with all of the other politicians, military officers, scientists, professors and media “news” personalities who have made a career out of lying to the public in order to facilitate the deep state’s cover-up of the extraterrestrial origin of so many UFOs?
I hope these traitors are ALL individually identified and held up to public ridicule and derision, just as they have done to so many honest people who only told the truth about that they had seen and experienced, and had their lives ruined for it.
I will give Hadfield props, however, for his rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ on the International Space Station in 2013. (see video below)
Landing a rover on Mars is “almost indescribably difficult,” according to retired
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.
Despite that reality, scientists have landed a handful of them on the Red Planet.
China’s space agency is the latest to do so, dropping the Zhurong rover on Mars earlier this month. On Saturday, it took its first drive on the planet’s surface.
Hadfield, who was the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station, said conducting research on Mars is crucial to finding out whether we’re alone in the universe.
“Why are we trying to land on Mars? Well, I think the fundamental question is that Mars was a lot like Earth four billion years ago when life first formed on Earth,” he told Cross Country Checkup guest host Jason D’Souza on Sunday.
“So if it happened here, did it happen there? And it will be evident somewhere in the geologic record.”
The rovers currently traversing Mars are conducting research and taking samples from the ground. If a rover finds one fossil, Hadfield said, “we will know we’re not alone in the universe.”
Hadfield joined Checkup as part of the program’s regular Ask Me Anything series, and answered questions from listeners about Mars, unidentified flying objects and our responsibility as humans in space.
5:30 minute clip of Commander Chris Hadfield singing “Space Oddity” (‘Rare Earth’ YouTube)
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Article by Kenneth Garger April 25, 2021 (nypost.com)
• On April 24th, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft blasted off to rendezvous with the International Space Station. But as they approached the space station, US Space Command warned the crew of a possible collision with an unknown object. (see 8 second video below)
• “[T]here wasn’t time to compute and execute a debris avoidance maneuver with confidence, so the SpaceX team elected to have the crew don their pressure suits out of an abundance of caution,” said NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries.
• The object ultimately passed about 28 miles from the spacecraft. Crew Dragon Endeavour made it to the International Space Station and “there was no real danger to the crew or the spacecraft,” assured Humphries.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft had a close call with an unidentified
object before reaching the International Space Station, a report said.
US Space Command warned the crew aboard the spacecraft of a possible collision with an unknown object after launching into orbit on Friday, Futurism reported.
“The possibility of the conjunction came so close to the closest approach time that there wasn’t time to compute and execute a debris
avoidance maneuver with confidence, so the SpaceX team elected to have the crew don their pressure suits out of an abundance of caution,” NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told Futurism.
At its closest point, the object passed about 28 miles away from the spacecraft, the report said.
Ultimately, “there was no real danger to the crew or the spacecraft,” Humphries told the outlet.
Crew Dragon Endeavour made it to the International Space Station on Saturday.
8 second video of object streaking past the Space X capsule (‘Rohan Tom’ YouTube)
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Article by Olivia Burke February 18, 2021 (thesun.co.uk)
• On February 11th, the Russian Federation announced plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with China to collaborate on a series of International Lunar Research Stations (ILRS) or ‘Moon bases’, as proposed by the Chinese. Both countries will carry out preparatory research throughout the 2020s with the aim of establishing Moon bases at the Moon’s south pole in the early 2030s. The bases will initially be populated by robots and will provide a long-term presence on the Moon for short crewed missions in the early 2030s, and a longer-term sustained human presence anticipated to begin between 2036-2045. The U.S. has not been asked to participate.
• The Chinese and Russians plan to use the lunar base to aid the “construction and operation of human’s first sharing platform in the lunar south pole, supporting long-term, large-scale scientific exploration, technical experiments and development and utilization of lunar resources.” The robotic base will potentially incorporate the expertise of other nations as well, who will contribute their own spacecrafts.
• Pand Zhihao, a former researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology, praised, “Russia’s expertises, including liquid oxygen kerosene engine technology as well as a complete, world-beating system for astronaut training, will all no doubt accelerate the program’s advancement.” Russia’s state corporation for space activities, Roscosmos, said the official announcement set to coincide with the Global Space Exploration Conference in 2021, held in St. Petersburg.
• Humans have not set foot on the Moon since the NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. The Americans have been planning to resume settlement of the Moon under the Artemis Accords, pledging to send astronauts back there by 2024. The Russians, however, do not favor the Artemis Accords because it proposes a global legal framework for mining on the Moon, which the Russians liken to colonialism. Roscosmos’ deputy general director for international cooperation, Sergey Saveliev, remarked, “There have already been examples in history when one country decided to start seizing territories in its (own) interest — everyone remembers what came of it.”
• It is also believed that Russia was reluctant to back the Artemis Accords plan due to the Lunar Gateway element – a small orbiting space station and communication hub similar to the ISS. U.S. legislation implemented in 2011 prohibits China from participating with the International Space Station partnership. And it is thought that the Trump Administration further isolated the U.S. from its international allies by unilaterally creating the Space Force.
• NASA’s Artemis Accords have the cooperation and support of Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, and the UAE. “The Artemis Accords have driven China and Russia toward increased cooperation in space out of fear and necessity,” said former Congressional legislative director Elya Taichman.
• China made history in 2019 by becoming the first country to land on the dark side of the Moon. The European Space Agency is said to be closely monitoring the ILRS program in anticipation of joining. It is feared that a China-Russia-European consortium could knock NASA off the top spot as the international leader of space exploration.
RUSSIA and China are joining forces as they prepare to sign a historic deal to build the first moon base after they snubbed the US.
The two countries are to collaborate on the international lunar structure, which was thought up by China – the latest build in the space-race against America.
The purpose of the International Lunar Research Stations (ILRS), is to create a long-term robotic presence on the Moon by the start of the next decade, before eventually establishing a sustained human presence.
An Order of the Government of the Russian Federation detailing the scheme was published on February 11, but the “date to sign the above mentioned MoU has not been determined yet and is currently discussed with the Chinese partners.”
Humans have not set foot on the moon since December 1972, when Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan made tracks on it during an
Apollo 17 mission.
Both countries will carry out the research, beginning with China’s upcoming Chang’e-6, -7, and -8 missions and Russia’s Luna 27 probe.
They plan to use the lunar base to aid the “construction and operation of human’s first sharing platform in the lunar south pole, supporting long-term, large-scale scientific exploration, technical experiments and development and utilisation of lunar resources.”
China and Russia plan that in the early 2030s, the ILRS development will theoretically provide a base for long-term robotic presence on the Moon with the potential for short crewed missions.
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Article by Dan Primack, Miriam Kramer February 17, 2021 (axios.com)
• Houston-based ‘Axiom Space’ aims to be the world’s first commercial space station. Toward that end, it has raised $130 million in capital funding. Axiom represents what many believe is the future of space. Axiom will work with SpaceX, valued at $74 billion, on next January’s planned tourism trip to the International Space Station.
• Axiom’s plan begins with the launch of a commercial module that will be hooked up to the International Space Station in the 2024 time frame. Additional modules will be added to the Axiom module complex in subsequent years to create a commercial wing of the space station. When the ISS is decommissioned in 2028, as planned, Axiom will detach its commercial space base and operate independently as a privately owned space station.
Axiom Space, a Houston-based developer of what would be the world’s first commercial space station, raised $130 million in
Series B funding led by C5 Capital.
Why it matters: Axiom represents what many believe is the future of space, whereby NASA becomes a customer everywhere in low-Earth orbit so that it can focus on the Moon, Mars and beyond.
• Other investors include Declaration Partners, Moelis Dynasty Investments, The Venture Collective, Hemisphere Ventures and Starbridge VC.
• More space bucks: SpaceX raised $850 million last week at around a $74 billion valuation last week, per CNBC. Axiom and SpaceX are working together on next January’s planned tourism trip to the International
Space Station.
The bottom line: “Axiom’s plan for its own space station would begin with the launch of a commercial module that would be hooked up to the International Space Station in the 2024 time frame. Additional modules would be added to Axiom’s complex during the years that follow. If the ISS is decommissioned in 2028, as planned, Axiom would detach its modules and operate them independently as a privately owned space station,” Geekwire’s Alan Boyle reports.
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Article by Simon Green December 30, 2020 (dailystar.co.uk)
• On December 6th, as the SpaceX ‘Dragon’ rocket capsule was delivering cargo to the International Space Station, an unusual “metallic” object can be seen moving up the camera screen before disappearing behind the craft.
• The video clip (see below) was sent to the ‘thirdphaseofthemoon’ YouTube channel run by Blake and Brent Cousins. Despite only lasting several seconds, has been lauded as one of the most eye-opening sightings for months. Blake Cousins told Daily Star that the object seemed to have “three thrusters on the back” but didn’t resemble any kind of aircraft on Earth. “Some people speculated, as I did, that this could be some sort of secret asset in the Space Force yet to be revealed to the public,” Blake suggested.
• Plenty of viewers dismissed the object in the video as nothing more than space debris or satellites. But Blake disagrees, saying that the object is “way too close to the ISS and too large” to be space debris. “If this was space debris, the ISS would be in jeopardy of a collision that would be catastrophic.” Furthermore, “[S]atellites do not resemble anything like this and, again to have it so close to the ISS is dangerous.” “[I]t could be something otherworldly…”
• “This sighting, in my opinion,” says Blake Cousins, “is possibly the best UFO sighting with regards to an ISS encounter with a UFO for the year 2020.” “I also believe that in 2021 there will be a pick-up in UFO sightings due to the fact Elon Musk has HD 4K cameras aboard the SpaceX… and they’re going to be taken aboard the ISS. …[W]e’re going to be seeing clear video and photographs of these anomalous objects surrounding the ISS.” “2021 will be a huge year for UFO sightings.”
A mysterious object has been spotted hurtling past a SpaceX craft in what has been described as the best sighting of the year.
The baffling footage was taken as the Dragon capsule reached the International Space Station to deliver cargo on December 6.
In the clip, an unusual “metallic” object can be seen moving up the camera screen before disappearing behind the craft.
It was sent in to YouTube UFO channel thirdphaseofmoon and, despite only lasting several seconds, has been lauded as one of the most eye-opening sightings for months.
Blake Cousins, who runs the channel, told Daily Star that the object seemed to have “three thrusters on the back” but didn’t resemble any kind of aircraft on Earth.
“Some people speculated, as I did, that this could be some sort of secret asset in the Space Force yet to be revealed to the public,” he suggested.
Conspiracists have often claimed strange sightings in the skies could actually be top-secret aircraft developed by the Space Force, which have yet to be made public.
Object traveling past the ISS (‘thirdphaseofthemoon’ YouTube)
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Article by Kristen Currie and Eric Henrikson December 21, 2020 (krqe.com)
• When it comes to arachnids, NASA scientists noticed that a spider’s web tends to be lopsided with the center slightly displaced towards the upper edge. Also, while resting, spiders tend to point their heads down towards gravity to get to their prey faster.
• NASA wanted to know what a spider would do without gravity. Would the middle of the web be more centered? Would a spider still face down in a zero-gravity environment? So astronauts on the International Space Station did an experiment. They put a few spiders to the test and found that in the absence of gravity, the spider’s webs tended to be more symmetrical and their body position more variable.
• Without gravity, spiders used light as a way to orient themselves. They found that the webs built under lamp light, as opposed to in darkness, were like those build on Earth under the influence of gravity. (see 2:10 minute video on space spiders below)
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Have you ever noticed that a spider’s web tends to be lopsided? Often times, the center is 
slightly displaced towards the upper edge. And while resting, spiders tend to point their heads down – towards gravity – to get to their prey faster.
Well NASA scientists noticed both characteristics and wanted to know – what would a spider do without gravity? Would the middle of the web be more centered? Would a spider still face down in a zero-gravity environment?
After a couple mishaps on board the International Space Station, astronauts put a few spiders to the test. They found that in the absence of gravity, the spider’s webs tended to be more symmetrical and their body position more variable.
The scientists took it a step further observing that without gravity, spiders used light as a way to orient themselves. When comparing darkness to lamplight, they found that the webs built under light were like those build on Earth under the influence of gravity.
2:10 minute video on NASA sending spiders to space (‘KXAN’ YouTube)
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Article by Steve Cowan December 1, 2020 (freenews.live)
• The Chinese probe “Chang’e-5” has successfully collected lunar rock and soil samples from the Moon, and is on its way back to Earth. This feat marks another stage in China’s ultimate plan to establish a permanent base on the Moon. Russia’s Roscosmos and NASA are also planning “lunar cities”.
• The last time humans were on the Moon was on December 14, 1972 when American astronaut Eugene Cernan walked on the lunar surface. In the coming years, we will inevitably witness a substantial increase in the Moon’s active development. However, unlike in the past, space agencies find it too expensive to launch heavy rockets whenever they want to visit the Moon. Today’s space programs will be more inclined to create permanent bases both in the Moon’s orbit and on the lunar surface.
• The Moon is attractive for several reasons. First, as an outpost for flights to other planets in the solar system. Secondly, as a source of minerals – primarily helium-3 which is used to produce thermonuclear fuel. Third, scientists plan to place a radio telescope on the Moon’s far side, protected from Earth’s interference. Using this telescope, scientists hope to discover the ‘cosmic microwave background’ allowing them to reconstruct the events of the universe during the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Fourth, and perhaps the most important benefit of establishing a Moon base, will be to test experimental technologies that will assist human migration to other planets in the future.
• While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty does not specifically regulate the use of space resources, an unratified December 1979 UN General Assembly Agreement does attempt to address the activities of states on the Moon and other celestial bodies. However, on April 6, 2020, President Trump signed an Executive Order approving the commercial development of resources by the US on the Moon and other planets and asteroids of the solar system.
• The first problem with everyone wanting to colonize the Moon is not about science, but the legal and commercial aspects of everyone aiming to use the same locations and resources at the South Pole of the Moon (although it would be technically easier to make shuttle flights to and from an orbital space station). The South Polar Region is ideal because it contains relatively large “cold traps” where permanently shaded areas hold water ice which is essential for everything from drinking and growing food, to obtaining oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for rocket fuel. Also, it is never dark at the South Pole so you can continuously recharge solar panels. On the rest of the Moon’s surface, the night lasts for two weeks.
• Moon base developers suggest that mirrors can be fixed on craters’ edges and direct sunlight to shaded areas. The heated ice will turn into steam, which will go through a pipeline to an electrolysis plant where it is split into hydrogen and oxygen. Experts estimate that there are up to ten billion tons of ice in the cold traps near the South Pole. The water and oxygen needed to sustain a base with only four people would require several tens of tons of water per year.
• Ice can also be found in miniature cold traps, up to a centimeter in diameter, mostly in the circumpolar regions. Up to forty thousand square kilometers of the lunar surface could be covered in water ice. More recently, the SOFIA stratospheric Observatory’s infrared telescope detected signs of molecular water ice filling the voids between the grains of minerals in the lunar soil. If this ice could be harvested, the list of places to build a lunar base would expand significantly.
• The composition of lunar soil is 43 percent oxygen. By combining oxygen with hydrogen taken from other sources or delivered from Earth, you can produce water. For Moon dust to decompose in order to extract the oxygen, it needs to be heated up 900 degrees Celsius (1652 degrees Fahrenheit) which takes a lot of energy. Scientists suggest using giant mirrors that focus sunlight on the shell of a small reactor. Still, it would take years for a lunar facility to generate enough water fuel to send just one Apollo-sized spacecraft into lunar orbit.
• Despite all the difficulties, the European Space Agency (ESA) has already allocated funds to the British company, Metalysis, to finance the extraction of oxygen from lunar regolith. The company, along with scientists from the University of Glasgow, said that they successfully extracted 96 percent of oxygen from artificial lunar soil in experiments on Earth, turning the rest into useful metal powders.
• Unlike the Earth, the Moon does not have an atmosphere and a magnetic field. So structures in lunar bases must protect human inhabitants from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and a stream of meteorites. Shelters could be covered with a multi-meter layer of lunar soil, or the base could be located within a canyon or cave. Scientists have proposed a lava tunnel under the Marius Hills in the central part of the Ocean of Storms.
• The lunar base buildings themselves could be built using 3D printing from regolith particles, or with bricks made by melting regolith using a focusing solar reflector. Researchers calculate it would take three years to manufacture enough regolith bricks to build a two thousand square meter structure. Once built, the base could use a Sun reflector to illuminate residential premises and greenhouses. As part of a closed ecosystem, greenhouse plants would process organic waste and convert carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen. Astronauts on the International Space Station are already hydroponically growing and eating leafy green vegetables on board the station.
Yesterday, the lander of the Chinese probe “Chang’e-5” successfully separated from the orbital module and started landing on the Moon. It must collect and deliver samples of lunar soil to Earth. This is the next stage of an ambitious program, the ultimate goal of which is a permanent base on the satellite. Roscosmos and NASA are also planning “lunar cities.” About what will be the first human settlement outside of our planet is in the material.
To Leave, To Return
The last time humans landed on the Moon was 48 years ago. Then, on December 14, 1972, American astronaut Eugene Cernan, after walking on the lunar surface, said: “We are leaving as we came, and with God’s help, we will return.”
Over the past few years, several countries have declared their readiness to resume lunar programs. The Moon is attractive for several reasons. First, as an Outpost for flights to other planets in the Solar system-it is easier to start from it than from Earth.
Secondly, as a source of minerals-primarily helium-3: it can be used to produce thermonuclear fuel.
Third, on the Moon’s far side, scientists plan to place a radio telescope protected from earth’s interference. And with its help, they discover the cosmic microwave background, which they hope to reconstruct the events of the “dark ages” of the Universe-the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
And last, perhaps most important, the Moon’s base should become an experimental testing ground for testing technologies for human migration to other planets.
Therefore, in the coming years, we will inevitably witness the Earth’s satellite’s active development. But it is too expensive to send heavy missiles there every time. Today, no space agency will finance the sending of crews, as in the Apollo program. Everyone is inclined to create permanent bases — first in the Moon’s orbit and then on its surface. But this is not an easy task.
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Article by Kristin Huang November 26, 2020 (scmp.com)
• With the launch of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar spacecraft and Beijing’s first lunar mission to bring Moon rock samples back to Earth, US Space Force General John Raymond remarked that China was a threat that could block American access to space, and that the US had to strengthen ties with its allies to handle the “threat” from China and Russia over space.
• Meanwhile, a successful mission would make China just the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, after the US and the former Soviet Union. Xu Hongliang, secretary general of China’s National Space Administration, told a space aviation forum on Wednesday that there were more Chang’e missions to come and China was planning to build an international research station on the Moon. Xu also said China would explore small celestial bodies, retrieve samples from Mars and pass by Jupiter and back again. Said Xu, “[W]e welcome international space agencies to participate in China’s future lunar and deep-space exploration cooperation.”
• The space rivalry between the world’s largest two economies is heating up. Beijing has been planning to build its own space station for decades as an alternative to the International Space Station, from which China has been excluded by the US because of security concerns.
• US officials say that China and Russia show threatening behavior regarding space. Raymond referred to an incident in 2007 when China hit and destroyed a disused Chinese weather satellite, testing its own missile capabilities. Until then, space had been considered a “benign domain,” but it was now it is contested. “China and Russia caused this shift in the strategic environment,” said Raymond. China and Russia’s capabilities include jamming of GPS and communication satellites, and directed energy and kinetic destruction of US assets via missiles on the ground.
• Raymond noted that “space really underpins … all of our instruments of national power. [I]t provides huge economic opportunity, scientific opportunity and military opportunity”, and that the US is eager to enhance ties with its allies… in space.” “We have to have different space architectures and we have to have partnerships,” Raymond said. “We’ve got to make sure that we stay ahead of this growing threat.”
• In the first nine months of 2020, China has sent 29 satellites into space – two more than the US. But observers say that China is still lagging behind the US, as private companies such as SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have taken the industry lead.
• China has grappled with launch failures. An optical remote-sensing satellite failed to enter its preset orbit in September, following another failed launch two months earlier, the Kuaizhou-11 commercial solid rocket, with two satellites on board. China also had satellite launch failures in March and April.
Rivalry between China and the United States in space exploration has reached new heights, with a US general saying China was a threat that could
block American access to space.
Just days after the launch of Beijing’s first lunar mission to bring samples back to Earth, US Space Force General John Raymond said the United States had to strengthen ties with its allies to handle the “threat” from China and Russia over space.
Raymond’s comments came as the head of the Chinese space administration said the nation would launch more lunar probes and invite other countries to join China on its missions.
The China-US space rivalry intensified after a Long March-5 rocket carrying the Chang’e-5 lunar spacecraft blasted off from Wenchang, Hainan province, on Tuesday morning.
In the first mission of its kind by any country in more than 40 years, the 8-tonne spacecraft comprises four components designed to bring samples back to Earth.
If the mission is successful, it would make China just the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, after the US and the former Soviet Union. But China’s space ambitions do not stop there.
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November 16, 2020 (satnews.com)
• Orbit Fab is expected to launch the first operational fuel depot, or “gas station” in Earth’s orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 no earlier than in June 2021. ‘Tanker 001 Tenzing’ (pictured above) will store readily accessible fuel propellant to satellite servicing vehicles and other spacecraft the fast growing in-orbit servicing industry. (see 7:10 minute demonstration video below)
• The tanker is one of several payloads to launch on a Spaceflight Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), which is capable of multiple deployments. Spaceflight’s first OTV, Sherpa-FX, is scheduled to debut in December 2020 on a SpaceX rideshare mission, and provides independent and detailed deployment telemetry and flexible interfaces, all at a low cost.
• Orbit Fab’s ‘Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface’ (RAFTI) provides reliable propellant transfer both on the ground and in orbit with a self-driving satellite kit for docking and attachment of two spacecraft without the need for complex robotic arms. The RAFTI interface has been adopted by multiple spacecraft manufacturers to extend the life of their satellites. RAFTI, which is also known as a “Satellite Gas Cap™,” was developed in cooperation with 30 companies and organizations and it is expected to become the industry’s common refueling interface.
• Orbit Fab successfully demonstrated its propellant storage and delivery systems in an unprecedented private transfer of water to the International Space Station. Earlier in 2020, Orbit Fab received a $3 million contract from the US Air Force to fully flight qualify the RAFTI service valve. Orbit Fab also received a National Science Foundation grant to test its docking system.
• RAFTI will support the rapidly proliferating in-orbit servicing industry which saw a five-fold increase since 2018. Gas stations in space are an essential resource to fuel this industry and support the infrastructure in space that enables projected commerce, exploration and national security.
• RAFTI will also support the Air Force and Space Force’s need for space combat logistics capabilities said Orbit Fab CDO, Jeremy Schiel. “Refueling is a requirement in the emerging Space Force architecture and for good reason. You don’t want to run out of fuel in the middle of a confrontation.”
Orbit Fab has signed an agreement with Spaceflight Inc. to launch the 
company’s first operational fuel depot to orbit. Tanker 001 Tenzing, which will provide fuel for the fast growing in-orbit servicing industry, is expected to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 no earlier than in June 2021.
Once launched, Tanker 001 Tenzing will store propellant in sun synchronous orbit, where it will be available to satellite servicing
vehicles or other spacecraft that need to replenish fuel supplies. The tanker
is one of several payloads to launch on a Spaceflight Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle, which is capable of executing multiple deployments. Spaceflight’s first OTV, Sherpa-FX, is scheduled to debut no earlier than December 2020 on a SpaceX rideshare mission and provides independent and detailed deployment telemetry, and flexible interfaces, all at a low cost.
Orbit Fab’s fuel depots are designed to support more sustainable spacecraft through the use of the Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI), which has been adopted by multiple spacecraft manufacturers to extend the life of their satellites. RAFTI, which is also known as a “Satellite Gas Cap™,” was developed in cooperation with 30 companies and organizations and it is expected to become the industry’s common refueling interface.
In today’s contested space domain RAFTI provides reliable propellant transfer both on the ground and in orbit with a self-driving satellite kit for docking and attachment of two spacecraft without the need for complex robotic arms.
7:10 minute ‘Orb Fab Story’: gas stations in space (‘Altium Stories” YouTube)
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Article by Sandra Erwin October 28, 2020 (spacenews.com)
• NASA astronaut and US Air Force colonel Michael Hopkins is the commander of an upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Hopkins is also planning to transfer to the US Space Force.
• “If all goes well, we’re looking to swear him into the Space Force from the International Space Station,” said Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the US Space Force. Raymond is working with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on the details of a planned transfer ceremony as a way to highlight the decades-long partnership between DoD and NASA.
• NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission is scheduled to launch on November 14th from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The crew of four includes Hopkins, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission specialist Soichi Noguchi (all 4 pictured above).
• For more than 60 years, men and women from the five military branches have helped fill the ranks of the NASA astronaut corps. Hopkins was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in 2009. Like hundreds of other Air Force airmen, Hopkins is voluntarily transferring to Space Force. He will be the first member of the Space Force to serve in NASA’s astronaut corps.
WASHINGTON — NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, a U.S. Air Force colonel and the commander of the upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, is transferring to the U.S. Space Force and is expected to be commissioned aboard the International Space Station.
“If all goes well, we’re looking to swear him into the Space Force from the International Space Station,” said Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force.
Col. Michael “Hopper” Hopkins is the commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission scheduled to launch Nov. 14 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The crew of four includes Hopkins, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission specialist Soichi Noguchi.
Col. Catie Hague, a spokesperson for the chief of space operations, told SpaceNews that the service is working with NASA to schedule a transfer ceremony once Hopkins is on board the International Space Station.
Hopkins, like hundreds of other airmen who are now in the Space Force, is transferring voluntarily. He was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in 2009.
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Article by Anna Harnes September 27, 2020 (inquisitr.com)
• According to NPR, the International Space Station almost came into contact with space junk this past week for the third time this year. The debris usually consists of the broken pieces of satellites technology that have been used over the past 63 years of space exploration, travelling at 18,000 miles per hour. So even small objects can have dire consequences. Space debris is quickly becoming a major threat for satellites and extraterrestrial travel — and could have fatal implications.
• Raffi Khatchadourian, a reporter for The New Yorker, detailed the growing problem. One of the first signs that space debris would become an issue was back in 2015, when astronauts realized that an object was projected to hit the ISS at a staggering 31,000 miles per hour. The astronauts only had four hours to move the station, but it was too little time. So those on the craft had move into the capsule “lifeboat” and hope that the object missed. Fortunately, it did.
• “It’s estimated that there are 8,000 metric tons of sort of human-engineered mass zooming around the planet,” Khatchadourian explained. “About 26,000 of those (objects) are of a size that the US military can track, so 10 centimeters or larger. But when you get below the size of 10 centimeters, then you end up with, you know, something like a hundred million pieces that are the size of a millimeter or even a hundred trillion, the size of a micron. At the speeds we’re talking about, something the size of a grain of sand can destroy an entire spacecraft.”
• Scientists have not come up with a plan on how to clear the atmosphere, with suggestions ranging from lasers to nets to the seemingly sci-fi inspired “harpoons or robotic pincers.” Astronomers have long warned about ‘Kessler syndrome’, in which space becomes so crowded that it is unusable. This would have dire consequences for our modern world, which relies on satellites and other objects for a number of necessities.
Space debris is quickly becoming a major threat for satellites and extraterrestrial travel — and could have fatal implications for the latter if the issue is
not stopped.
According to NPR, the International Space Station (ISS) almost came into contact with space junk this past week for the third time this year. The debris usually consists of the broken pieces of technology that have been used over the past 63 years of space exploration — most often from satellites. The trash often travels at speeds of around 18,000 miles per hour, meaning that even small objects can have dire consequences.
In an interview, Raffi Khatchadourian, a reporter for The New Yorker, detailed the growing problem.
Khatchadourian explained that one of the first signs that space debris would become an issue was back in 2015, when astronauts realized that an object was projected to hit the ISS at a staggering 31,000 miles per hour. It was detected late, so the astronauts only had four hours to move the station. It was too little time, so those on the craft had move into the capsule “lifeboat” and hope that the object missed. Fortunately, it did.
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September 24, 2020 (sputniknews.com)
• On September 24th, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov spoke at a press conference organized by the government news agency, Rossiya Segodnya. Flight engineer Kud-Sverchkov will join mission commander Sergei Ryzhikov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins in the ‘Expedition 64’ (all pictured above) to the International Space Station in October. This will be Kud-Sverchkov’s first flight to space.
• Russian scientists join with those from other countries in the search for extraterrestrial life, making plans to launch multiple new scientific missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus, and, earlier this year, announcing the construction of a high-powered telescope that can be used to search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations transmitted in the optical spectrum.
• In 2012, veteran cosmonaut Gennady Padalka told Chinese media that “detailed instructions” had been created at the United Nations “in case of first contact” with extraterrestrial beings. He added at the time that “sooner or later we will meet our like-minded brothers” from another planet.
• However, Kud-Sverchkov sats that Russian cosmonauts have not been given any special instructions when it comes to greeting aliens, but would try to do so in a diplomatic matter. “I think that when meeting intelligence extraterrestrial life, we will exhibit friendliness, goodwill and consideration, just as we do when meeting intelligent and unintelligent life on Earth,” the cosmonaut said.
• The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 14th upon a Soyuz-2.1 ‘carrier rocket’. The spacecraft expected to reach the ISS in a record 3 hours, 20 minutes. The mission will last until April 2021, during which the team will activate the Bartolomeo scientific platform outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus lab module. Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins will be joined by three more NASA astronauts and a Japanese astronaut, who will make their way to the ISS in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule shortly after the Soyuz craft’s arrival.
• A cosmonaut doll knitted by Kud-Sverchkov’s wife will become the expedition’s mascot, named Yuri after Yuri Gagarin, the first human being in space. Mission commander Ryzhikov told reporters that he would take with him a miniaturized set of Gospels, as well as a handful of Russian soil and stones from Mount Tabor, which Christians believe was the site of the transfiguration of Jesus following his resurrection.
• NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins said she plans to collect thousands of microbial samples inside the space station, and revealed that she plans to vote in the US presidential election from aboard the ISS.
As one of the world’s major space powers, Russia has done its part helping humanity search for extraterrestrial life,
recently beginning the construction of a powerful telescope capable of searching for signals coming from distant alien civilisations.
Russian cosmonauts have not been given any special instructions when it comes to greeting aliens, but would try to do so in a diplomatic matter, cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov has said.
“I think that when meeting intelligence extraterrestrial life, we will exhibit friendliness, goodwill and consideration, just as we do when meeting intelligent and unintelligent life on Earth,” the cosmonaut said, speaking at a press conference organized by Rossiya Segodnya, on Thursday.
Kud-Sverchkov will join mission commander Sergei Ryzhikov in Expedition 64 to the International Space Station in
October as a flight engineer. This will be his first flight to space.
The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft will carry the two Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins to the ISS aboard a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 14,
with the spacecraft expected to reach its destination in a record 3 hours, 20 minutes.
Kud-Sverchkov says a knitted cosmonaut doll named Yuri will become the mascot for Expedition 64, with the doll knitted by his wife, and named after Yuri Gagarin, the first human being in space.
Mission commander Ryzhikov told reporters that he would take with him a miniaturized Gospels, as well as a handful of Russian soil and stones from Mount Tabor, which Christians believe was the site of the transfiguration of Jesus following his resurrection.
For her part, NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins said her plans include work collecting thousands of microbial samples inside the space station, and revealed that she plans to vote in the US presidential election from aboard the ISS.
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Article by National Post Staff August 21, 2020 (nationalpost.com)
• On August 19th, Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner was aboard the International Space Station (ISS). While passing over Antarctica and Australia, Vagner was recording video of the aurora australis — the southern lights. But he managed to catch something else, too. A one-minute video appears to show potential UFOs.
• Visible in the video footage are the glowing curve of the Earth and the green of the aurora moving across it. Then a string of four to five lights arranged in a diagonal line appear at the horizon. As the video was shot in a time-lapse, the flash of “objects” that quickly appear and disappear in the video actually lasted some 52 seconds. The objects “appear flying alongside with the same distance,” Vagner tweeted.
• The mission is Vagner’s first aboard the ISS. According to NASA, his work on the station involved maintenance on its orbital plumbing system as well as “exploring ways to improve Earth photography techniques.” He is working alongside Anatoli Ivanishin, also of Russia, and American commander Chris Cassidy.
• Russia’s space agency Roscosmos added to Vagner’s tweet with the note: “An interesting and at the same time mysterious video made by cosmonaut of Roscosmos Ivan Wagner … from the International Space Station.” The video was submitted to Roscosmos for experts at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences to review.
A one-minute video captured by Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner aboard the Interna-tional Space Station (ISS) appears to show potential UFOs, Global News reports.
While passing over Antarctica and Australia, Vagner was recording video of aurora australis — the southern lights — but he managed to catch something else, too.
Space guests, or how I filmed the new time-lapse.
The peak of aurora borealis when passing over the Antarctic in Australia’s longitude, meaning in between them. However, in the video, you will see something else, not only the aurora. pic.twitter.com/Hdiej7IbLU — Ivan Vagner (@ivan_mks63) August 19, 2020
Visible are the glowing curve of the Earth and the green of the aurora moving across it. The “space guests” Vagner refers to appear from nine seconds into the video and last until the 12-second mark, a string of four to five lights arranged in a diagonal line.
Since the video was shot in a time-lapse, the flash of “objects” which quickly appear and disappear in the video actually lasted some 52 seconds. The objects “appear flying alongside with the same distance,” Vagner wrote in further tweets. “What do you think those are? Meteors, satellites or … ?”
It’s unclear precisely when the footage was captured or whether Vagner observed the phenomenon at the time, as he filmed.
1:35 minute video of UFOs over Antarctica (‘Pravda Report’ YouTube)
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Article by Sebastian Kettley July 8, 2020 (express.co.uk)
• On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong (pictured above) and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to stand on the surface of the Moon. A popular story is that Armstrong encountered an extraterrestrial presence on the Moon’s surface that forced NASA to drastically alter its lunar plans. Three Apollo missions were canceled, and Apollo 17 became NASA’s final Moon landing in 1972. The space agency’s goals were refocused on constructing an operational space station in low Earth orbit. An unused Saturn V rocket from one of the canceled missions was repurposed and transformed into Skylab – the US’s first space station – which was operational for about 24 weeks between 1973 and 1974. For the past twenty years, astronauts have been living on the International Space Station.
• The seeming lack of progress in NASA Moon missions led many to question whether the Moon landings ever happened at all, or if something had prevented the agency from returning. On December 18, 2007, the NASA Lunar Science Institute was asked directly whether the reason that NASA had not gone back to the Moon was because Armstrong saw alien base camps on Moon. Astrophysicist and interim director for the institute at the time, Dr David Morrison answered, “Although you would never know this from the distorted perspective of some groups that post crazy claims on the internet, there is no scientific evidence for UFOs or aliens; no aliens or alien artifacts were seen on the Apollo or any other human space missions; and such false claims are irrelevant to the space policy of the United States or NASA.” “Fringe groups who believe in UFOs and aliens do not influence NASA space policy, fortunately.”
• In November 2017, Dr Morrison was asked again if it was true that Armstrong saw an alien base camp on the far side of the Moon, and whether other “missionaries” had been sent to the Moon as well. Dr Morrison replied, “It is not true. …There were no aliens on the Moon. Armstrong and other Apollo astronauts saw no evidence of aliens either on the near-side or the far-side of the Moon.” “You seem to be confusing science fiction with reality.” And “they were not missionaries,” Morrison added.
• “Believe me,” said Dr Morrison, “reality is more interesting than this sort of fantasy. And in addition, it is real.” Morrison claimed that the Apollo program was cut short as a result of drastic budget cuts that made the Moon landing effort unfeasible.”There are many complex issues that have determined our human space program for the past 30 years, mostly dealing with politics, technology, and availability of funding.”
• [Editor’s Note] We know from several sources that Armstrong did see extraterrestrial craft during his visit to the Moon in 1969. Because he was under a strict non-disclosure order, he became close-mouthed and reticent to discuss his feat for the rest of his life, which is strange being the first man to walk on the Moon (as far as the mainstream public is aware).
We know why Armstrong remained quiet about his encounter with alien craft. The question here is why is Dr Morrison claiming that “there were no aliens on the Moon…(there is) no evidence of aliens either on the near-side or the far-side of the Moon,” “… (there is) no scientific evidence for UFOs or aliens…or alien artifacts…”? Is he lying as directed or simply ignorant of the truth? We have learned that the NASA space agency is really two organizations. The NASA that the public sees is merely a front for the Uber-NASA that is far more advanced than its public counterpart. The secret Uber-NASA is one of a handful of secret space programs run by the US government, and one of many out in deep space. This distinction was made at the space agency’s inception in the late 1950s. They brought in former Nazi rocket scientists to create a public space program to get to the Moon using out-dated rocket technology, just to appease the masses. Behind the scenes however, the former Nazis struck a deal to provide the American military-industrial-complex (deep state) with advanced anti-gravity/electromagnetic spacecraft technology so long as American industry assisted the Nazis with the development of the breakaway German colony’s own space fleet under the ice of Antarctica.
High-level NASA administrators know about this hidden history and are sworn to secrecy. Lower level NASA administrators and scientists do not. I would guess that Dr Morrison is not aware of NASA’s secret space program, and is simply regurgitating the disinformation and propaganda that the deep state has instilled into his and the entire mainstream mindset.
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to stand on the surface of the Moon. Three years later, NASA astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the last to do so. In the 50 years since the Moon landing, human space exploration has been limited to low Earth orbit as humans have been living on the International Space Station (ISS) for close to 20 years now.
The seeming lack of progress in sending crews to the Moon has led many to question whether the Moon landing ever happened at all.
Even more bizarrely, many people have suggested over the years NASA did go to the Moon but something has prevented the agency from returning.
A popular myth among online conspiracy theorists is Mr Armstrong saw something on the Moon’s surface that forced the US space agency to drastically alter its plans. Namely, some people believe the astronaut encountered an extraterrestrial or alien presence on the Moon.
On December 18, 2007, NASA was challenged to address the theory, putting to rest rumours of an alien base on the Moon.
A question posed to the NASA Lunar Science Institute read: “If this is not true that Armstrong saw alien base camps on Moon then why no NASA plans for a base station at Moon and there have been no moon missions for the past 20 years or so?”
The question was answered by Dr David Morrison, an astrophysicist who at the time served as the interim director for the institute, now the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute.
He said: “Although you would never know this from the distorted perspective of some groups that post crazy claims on the internet, there is no scientific evidence for UFOs or aliens, no aliens or alien artefacts were seen on the Apollo or any other human space missions, and such false claims are irrelevant to the space policy of the United States or NASA.
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Article by Paul R. La Monica June 22, 2020 (weny.com)
• On June 22nd, Virgin Galactic announced that it has signed a deal with NASA to train private astronauts and coordinate trips to the orbiting International Space Station. Virgin Galactic will develop a new private orbital astronaut readiness program to identify candidates who will pay for a trip to space, arrange for their transportation and provide ground and orbital resources.
• Virgin Galactic will probably use the services of SpaceX or Boeing to actually get astronauts to the space station. Boeing has invested $20 million in Virgin Galactic. The company’s own SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital spaceplane that is incapable of making it to the cislunar ISS. Virgin Galactic says it has already received about 600 reservations for suborbital flights at the approximate price of $250,000 per seat.
• Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will continue to use SpaceShipTwo for suborbital training flights, ranging from private citizens to government-backed scientific and technological research missions, to allow passengers to become familiar with the environment in space, such as G-forces and zero-G.
• Enthusiasm for space commerce is apparent in the stock market. Virgin Galactic stock shares have soared, even though the company continues to lose money. There is even a publicly traded investment fund with a ‘UFO’ brand that invests in companies catering to the business of space travel and exploration, having Virgin Galactic at the top of the list. Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ‘SpaceX’ and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ ‘Blue Origin’ also have space travel companies.
SpaceX won’t be the only private company bringing people to the International Space Station. Virgin Galactic announced Monday that it has signed a deal with NASA to train private astronauts and coordinate potential trips to the ISS.
Shares of Virgin Galactic soared more than 10% on the news. The stock has surged nearly 45% so far in 2020, largely due to optimism about demand for private space travel, even though it continues to lose money.
As part of Virgin Galactic’s deal with NASA, the company will “develop a new private orbital astronaut readiness program,” it said in a statement.
“This program will include identifying candidates interested in purchasing private astronaut missions to the ISS, the procurement of transportation to the ISS, on-orbit resources, and ground resources,” the company added.
Virgin Galactic will likely need the services of SpaceX or aerospace giant Boeing, which is developing the Starliner space capsule and has invested $20
million in Virgin Galactic, to actually get astronauts to the space station.
Virgin Galactic’s own SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital spaceplane that is incapable of making it to the ISS, and the company has only sent five people to space on two suborbital test flights. The company says it has already received about 600 reservations for suborbital flights at the approximate price of $250,000 per seat.
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Article by Dave Basner April 20, 2020 (whoradio.iheart.com)
• While socially distancing at home, Blake Cousins who runs the YouTube channel ‘ThirdPhaseOfMoon’ sits at a computer all day watching NASA’s live stream from the International Space Station. On April 19th, Cousins noticed a large object floating through space near the ISS, and that the NASA feed quickly cut away.
• The footage was filmed as the space station passed over South America. Some commenters were convinced this was something extraterrestrial. Others felt that it was just some space junk. NASA hasn’t commented.
Staying at home has its downsides, but there are also some folks who take full advantage of the opportunity to sit at a computer all day without a boss looking over their shoulder. Some of them play games, others watch movies and some choose to view NASA’s live streams from the International Space Station all day long.
Blake Cousins is one of those people and while watching the footage from the ISS yesterday, he saw something very strange – a UFO. Cousins, who runs the ThirdPhaseOfMoon YouTube channel, shared the clip of a large object floating through space and noted how NASA allegedly cut away from the shot after they noticed the odd scene unfolding in front of them.
10:15 minute NASA video of something moving past the ISS (‘thirdphaseofmoon’ YouTube)
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Article by Zero Hedge February 6, 2020 (safehaven.com)
• One year ago, China’s Chang’e 4 probe and the Yutu-2 rover it carried onboard have been busy photographing and scanning minerals, growing yeast, hatching fruit-fly eggs, and cultivating cotton, potato, and rapeseeds on the dark side of the moon. Last summer, NBC News reported that the Yutu-2 rover had come across a strange “gel-like” substance which the Chinese began to study. (see article here)
• China’s National Space Administration has continued to work on its Tiangong 3 space station and is planning on testing a new manned spacecraft for deep-space missions. That permanent station will reach orbit aboard China’s new Long March 5B rocket in the first half of 2020. The Chinese space agency plans to launch the Chang’e 5 probe into space as early as this year. Wu Yanhua, deputy chief commander of China’s Lunar Exploration Program said, “China, the United States, Russia and Europe are all discussing whether to build a research base or a research station on the moon”.
• But not so fast. Back in 2017, China and Europe made plans to build a moon base together in a move of “international collaboration”. Now, Europe and Russia plan to send a probe to the dark side of the moon and are ‘eyeing’ plans to build a joint moon base on the far side of the lunar surface. Even NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities announced plans in 2017 for a joint moon base as part of NASA’s “deep-space gateway” concept . In 2019, it was leaked that NASA had plans of its own to develop the “Artemis” lunar surface base, which is now being threatened by a U.S. House panel. (see article here)
• These types of discussions have been going on since the 1950’s with a US government project called ‘Horizon’ which sought to establish a moon base by 1966. The idea never materialized. In 1963 at the height of the Cold War, the US and Soviet Union formed a joint project to study and develop a ‘Manned Orbiting Laboratory’. More of a US spy mission than a scientific one, the ‘MOL’ project was canceled in 1969. But now Russia and the US may revive that plan with a base that will orbit the moon similar to how the International Space Station orbits the Earth.
• The status of any plans between Russia, the U.S., China and Europe could be suddenly canceled for political reasons or something else before they ever see the light of day. But it is all good so long as it is done in the spirit of joint exploration, and not weaponization. The last thing we need is another resource-draining arms race in space or a space war.
• [Editor’s Note] How long will this charade go on? All of this is nothing more than a stall – a song and dance played out by puppet space agencies to continue the cover up of scores if not hundreds of bases throughout our solar system, mostly on Mars and the ‘dark side’ of the moon, built and occupied by a variety of secret space programs. Except these bases generally are not “surface bases” but elaborate underground facilities. In fact, the moon itself is a carved out super-base brought here by a race of refugees from the planet Maldek at the time of its explosion (now known as the asteroid belt). These space agencies must know all of this and are now positioning themselves for the inevitable disclosure of the true extent of the vast secret space programs that have been constructed since World War II, and the dawn of a new Era of Space.
One year ago in January, a Chinese robot landed on the dark side of the moon. Since then, the Chang’e 4 probe and the Yutu-2 rover it carried onboard have been busy photographing and scanning minerals, growing yeast, hatching fruit-fly eggs, and cultivating cotton, potato, and rapeseeds in the moon’s low gravity, according to the Daily Beast.
Now, China’s National Space Administration is quietly planning to launch yet another probe into space. Chang’e 5 could blast off as early as this year.
Last year, TMU reported that the Yutu-2 rover came across a strange “gel-like” substance which the Chinese began to study extensively.
The Chinese space agency has continued to work on its Tiangong 3 space station and is planning on testing a new manned spacecraft for deep-space missions. That permanent station will reach orbit aboard the country’s new Long March 5B rocket in the first half of 2020, AFP reported. The mission will not be associated with the International Space Station.
It is worth noting that China and Europe both planned on building a moon base together in a move of “international collaboration” back in 2017. Europe and Russia are also eyeing plans to send a probe to the dark side of the moon to determine if they should build a moon base on the far side of the lunar surface.
And the U.S. hasn’t been quiet when it comes to the space race either with the introduction of Space Force and plans of its own for a joint base with Russia.
For the U.S., this space race to build a moon base is nothing new. A project known as Horizon was supposedly a plan drawn up in the 1950s that seemingly depicts the blueprints for a base on the moon. Project Horizon sought to establish a stationary Army control base on the moon by 1966 but the operation was allegedly shut down and canceled and the idea never materialized further.
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