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--- transportation:spacecraft [2026/05/28 00:42] – [China] timb
+++ transportation:spacecraft [2026/06/05 21:28] (current) – [Safety] timb
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 https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/24/nasa_tries_trundlebot_mastcam_to/
+== After 11 years at Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft went out with a whisper ==
+“I think the team has really experienced the loss of a loved one with the end of the mission.”
+Stephen Clark – Jun 4, 2026 9:21 AM
+NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was in excellent shape when it disappeared behind Mars on December 6 of last year. The routine passage, called an occultation, was supposed to last less than an hour, but ground teams didn’t hear from the spacecraft when it was supposed to regain contact with Earth.
+The loss of communication triggered contingency plans for engineers to try to restore a link with MAVEN, which orbits Mars more than 200 million miles from Earth. To no avail, they listened for faint signals and uplinked commands in the blind. Hopes of saving the mission faded over time, and NASA officials announced Wednesday that they’re giving up on it.
+“NASA has ceased efforts to search for the MAVEN spacecraft and are beginning activities to decommission the mission,” said Mike Moreau, MAVEN’s project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
+https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/after-11-years-at-mars-nasas-maven-spacecraft-went-out-with-a-whisper/
+== NASA's Mars MAVEN probe is dead ==
+The last time the agency heard from the probe was in December.
+Mariella Moon - June 4, 2026 7:56 am EST
+NASA has officially ended the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, six months after it lost contact with the probe. MAVEN was the agency's first program dedicated to studying the Martian atmosphere and its evolution. It launched in 2013 from Cape Canaveral and entered the Martian orbit nearly a year later in 2014. The probe's primary science mission was scheduled to last one year, but it ended up spending more than 11 years in orbit, sending back data from Mars. NASA even used it as an antenna for the Mars 2020 mission, which brought the Perserance rover to the planet.
+The last time the agency heard from MAVEN was on December 6, 2025, before it suddenly lost signal after passing behind Mars. But NASA didn't quickly give up on the probe and examined its options first. It formed an anomaly review board in February to assess MAVEN's probable state and to figure out if there are any viable ways to recover it. Unfortunately, the board ultimately determined that the spacecraft is no longer able to perform science missions and to relay data back to Earth.
+Read More: https://www.engadget.com/2187315/nasa-ends-maven-mars-mission/
+== NASA Just Delivered the Mars Orbiter Update Nobody Wanted to Hear ==
+The agency's efforts to regain contact with the MAVEN spacecraft have culminated in unfortunate news.
+Ellyn Lapointe - June 4, 2026, 11:15 am ET
+After more than a decade in space, a vital Mars satellite suddenly went dark in December. NASA has spent the last six months trying to reestablish contact with the orbiter, but now, the agency has finally thrown in the towel.
+NASA formally ended the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission on Wednesday, explaining that the spacecraft is “not recoverable” and is “no longer capable of performing its science and data relay mission.” This is the update the planetary science community has been dreading for months. The data MAVEN collected over its 11 years in Mars orbit significantly advanced our understanding of the Red Planet, helping researchers unravel the mystery of how its ancient water and atmosphere depleted.
+“The science MAVEN has given us is key to informing what kind of radiation protection and safety measures we must take before sending humans to Mars,” Louise Prockter, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C., said in an agency statement. “The data collected from MAVEN will continue to provide valuable insight into Mars for decades to come.”
+https://gizmodo.com/nasa-just-delivered-the-mars-orbiter-update-nobody-wanted-to-hear-2000767425
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 https://gizmodo.com/falling-rocket-parts-more-likely-to-cause-deaths-1849165671
+== Safety officials finally have a good idea of what a big rocket explosion can do ==
+Overpressure from the Blue Origin blast shattered windows at a hangar about a mile away from the pad.
+Stephen Clark – Jun 5, 2026 6:55 AM
+Last week’s explosion of a New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was clearly a setback for Blue Origin and NASA, but it was a learning experience for safety officials looking to open up the spaceport to hundreds more launches per year.
+The launch base on Florida’s Space Coast is gearing up for a flurry of new arrivals. SpaceX is building multiple launch pads for its super-heavy Starship rocket, which will operate within a few miles of launch pads operated by SpaceX rivals Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance. Two other companies, Stoke Space and Relativity Space, are also developing launch sites along a narrow stretch of coastline at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
+All of them have, or will soon have, rockets burning methane or liquified natural gas, replacing legacy launch vehicles fueled by kerosene, liquid hydrogen, or solid propellants. There are good technical reasons for making the switch, but until last week, engineers had scant real-world data on the damage that millions of pounds of methane and liquid oxygen would cause if a fully loaded rocket exploded on the launch pad or soon after liftoff.
+By 2036, the Space Force projects that the spaceport could support up to 500 launches per year, five times last year’s total. The combination of these lofty launch forecasts and the Space Force’s conservative safety protocols has caused some tension at the Cape Canaveral spaceport.
+https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/safety-officials-finally-have-a-good-idea-of-what-a-big-rocket-explosion-can-do/
 ====== Security (General) ======