How Many Billions is NASA Saving? | This Week in Spaceflight

[00:02] it's canceled some Arteimus hardware, but the Space Coast is in dire need of with Space Shuttle Endeavor on display in its launch configuration, and Rocket Lab launches another Electron in secret. As always, we've got all of that and

[00:15] much more coming up this week in Spaceflight.

[00:33] International Space Station's retirement and the status of commercial space Inspector General thought it would be a assessments. One featuring a report regarding NASA's launch infrastructure

[00:47] evaluation of canceled Arteimus hardware. Let's start with the report on NASA's launch infrastructure. We already covered this in much more detail over on Breaking Space, so make sure to check that out after you finish this video. Of

[01:00] infrastructure at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Wallups flight facility in Virginia. But the majority of the challenges this report studies the Florida Space Coast is split between NASA's KSC on Merit Island and the Cape

[01:14] Canaveral Space Station located at, you guessed it, Cape Canaveral, NASA offers services across both spaceports such as the supply of gaseous nitrogen and for purging, conditioning, and pressurization. Similarly, the opposite

[01:28] is true. Space Launch Delta 45, which is the main group responsible for managing the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, also offers a multitude of services to those launch pads located at NASA's KSC, like range, safety, support, and more.

[01:41] Most, if not all, of the rockets that are launched from the Space Force side of the Space Coast also have to go through NASA's KSC first to get there. is not just launch pads and their commodities, but also roads and bridges

[01:54] that are used to get from one place to another. The report does not shy away from talking about just how bad the state of this infrastructure is. A lot you've got power lines that are well beyond their expected lifetime. Roads

[02:07] that support thousands of trucks and other heavyduty transports that have had little or no maintenance in years. Roads that are too narrow for the newer, bigger, and heavier rockets. Bridges that are too steep for rocket hardware

[02:19] to go over. and a gas supply that gets overwhelmed when giant rockets like New Glenn or SOS are both undergoing launch or test operations. And these problems are only going to get worse as the launch cadence grows as well. And it's

[02:32] everything surrounding a launch. Pre-launch testing also needs a lot of this same infrastructure. Additionally, you have other things like launch scrubs where the rocket is still on the ground and goes through everything just like on

[02:45] launch day, at least until the time of said scrub. though that means you still probably go a lot more in depth into the challenges, but what are the solutions? Well, NASA has been working on these for a while and they're still working on

[02:58] trying to solve these issues. But as the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day and it just takes time to repair and upgrade this infrastructure. Repair funding is also scarce and the budget for it has been dwindling over the last

[03:10] are laws and regulations in place limiting the scope of NASA's partnerships with the commercial companies using the infrastructure. from pressing that subscribe button. However, NASA did get an injection of

[03:23] money to spend on infrastructure as part of the so-called big beautiful bill passed by Congress last year. And in fact, the report recommends NASA to address some of the issues regarding the infrastructure. These problems are also

[03:36] being worked around by the companies themselves that use the pads separate from NASA. For example, SpaceX is building its own power storage at launch complex 39A for Starship and has moved away from receiving supplies of nitrogen

[03:49] and helium via NASA's pipeline service, instead building its own commodity storage on site. One extra problem is that while the planned infrastructure place for the demand expected in the near future, it's not clear whether

[04:02] there'll be enough for the far future. Think for example 10 to 20 years down the road. This too would then create more problems down the line as launch companies are planning to launch a whole lot more from the world's busiest

[04:14] spaceport. The week's second report from NASA's Office of Inspector General is part of a larger audit examining how NASA manages the developed assets of projects terminated prior to launch or operation.

[04:26] the Inspector General decided to issue an evaluation of some of the canceled Arteimus hardware. This entails the Exploration Upper Stage, the SLS Universal Stage Adapter, Mobile Launcher

[04:38] 2, and Gateways Habitation and Logistics Outpost. These are often known as EU, USA, ML2, and Halo, respectively. For every single one of these programs, the problem is the same. They were all over budget and behind schedule, and not just

[04:51] by a little, but by several times their original budget and delivery date. Part of these cost overruns and scheduled delays have been in part due to design changes as NASA asked contractors to modify their designs and as programs

[05:03] came closer to the phase of construction. For example, the EU design changed early on, and at some point, its work was deprioritized in favor of work on the SLS core stage ahead of Artimus 1. Another contributor has been

[05:16] challenges found during development and construction. Just last year, engineers discovered that Halo's primary structure had widespread corrosion, an issue that's still under investigation, and that delayed delivery of the module

[05:28] until July 2028. According to the inspector general, the combined cost overruns of these programs to date adds up to $3.1 billion and have been late by up to seven years. Their assessment is that if these programs had continued to

[05:42] ballooned more and they would have been delivered even later. The big question is what is going to happen to this hardware? NASA has stated some of the plans, but not all of the plans. ML2 will be cannibalized for parts that may

[05:56] Mobile Launcher 1, currently used for SLS block 1 launches. It's unclear what hardware is going to be used for, as there aren't a lot of companies out there that may need this glorified cone, and NASA doesn't have any plans to use

[06:11] it. A similar thing can be said about the EU as well. At one point, it was suggested that Halo, one of the modules of the now cancelled gateway station, could be repurposed to support the moon base that NASA is developing. It's still

[06:23] unclear as to how this could happen, whether the whole module would be landed on the moon or components of it such as support systems and electronics would be repurposed, but we may get some answers sooner rather than later. Other agencies

[06:35] gateway hardware since it was an international program. For example, the European Space Agency was providing two modules and a communication system for conclusion of an ISS issa council

[06:48] intention is to continue design and development of one of the two modules module that had already completed development. The communication system could also be repurposed for a dedicated communications relay system around the

[07:02] moon. Just like with the NASA hardware plans, it's still too early to know exactly what way things will go. least this specific piece of hardware did get to fly. We hand it over to

[07:15] Sawyer with a special on-site report. After 25 missions in space, Space Shuttle Endeavor's mission continues in the form of education here at the California Science Center near Los Angeles. This orbiter exhibit is

[07:28] amazing. It is the first one that is stacked vertically for launch of the the only one like that. Most of what you're about to see is flight hardware. And I mean, there's a reason it's the best orbiter. Come on, let's explore it

[07:43] a little more. We begin with the grand reveal through the fog of wall lips to reveal through the fog of wall lips to reveal OV 105. This is the only time a a NASA or Air Force facility. It's something the museum has wanted to do

[07:56] literally since Space Shuttle Endeavor made its first flight 34 years ago. they're going to retire the space shuttle someday. We should try to get >> And if we do, we should put it in a launch position. We didn't really know

[08:09] did. >> Almost all of the hardware that you see on exhibit is flight heritage hardware. The solid rocket boosters or SRBs are segments from a mix of different shuttle missions. The orange external tank is

[08:24] missions. The orange external tank is ET94, the sister tank of ET93. That tank flew on STS 107, which saw the loss of foam from the tank impact the shuttle's leading edge, leading to the loss of crew. 94 was then used to study what

[08:36] future space shuttle flights. After being kept in case the Aremis program wanted it, the California Science Center came and scooped it up. So, we did have to install about a third of the surface area of the foam with new stuff, but it

[08:51] was all uh modeled after the existing foam and carefully handcarved uh to match the existing texture. >> But is it all spray-on foam insulation exactly. >> And the one thing we did to the tank,

[09:05] tank, but we needed to make it presentable, was paint it orange. In real life, as I'm sure you're aware, the foam would just rust outside and turn that that orange color. Um, but to kind of stabilize it and make it uniform, we

[09:21] put a lot of orange paint on on on top of it. One of the two payload bay doors is open so you can see inside. This is similar to what Endeavor looked like on STS18, including a space hab module and the docking adapter for the ISS. Part of

[09:34] well, so you can see the inner workings of this amazing vehicle. Again, the way that they have it displayed here is really impressive because um it's all those little details that made the spatial program the success that it was.

[09:47] And so you can look at any one part piece of component and there's elaborate >> One thing astronaut Danny Oliva said to look for monkey fur. This part right >> And you wanted to stay away from the monkey fur because that material would

[10:01] you know everything you touch would have like, you know, you get that that that that grease all over the place. and so stay away from the monkey fur. deck here at the top where you can go up the gantry elevator and look inside the

[10:14] The whole thing is secured to the ground by eight pre-stressed studs and hold difference though compared to the ones that kept Endeavor vertical until the SRBs ignited on the pad. >> In real life, uh the hold down studs

[10:28] that connected the boosters to the launchpad were only about 2 1/2 ft long, I believe. Ours are 10 ft long because we have a giant uh concrete pad with seismic isolators underneath. >> The reason California earthquakes turns

[10:42] on launch can actually withstand the earth shaking too. >> If we can withstand flight loads, we can withstand seismic loads. This exhibit keep in mind if you come here, even though the museum is free, there is

[10:56] going to be a reserved time slot that you need to come here and see it cuz otherwise it is going to be an absolute mad house. But again, this is a must-see exhibit. Of the four exhibits that I've seen, this one is, I think, tied for the

[11:09] it does take a little bit more of the cake because we all know Endeavor is the agree with me in the comments. Endeavor best orbiter hands down for NASA spaceflight.com and NSF. I'm Soy Rosenstein.

[11:23] >> From a beautiful spacecraft on display, we go to a beautiful display of stars as there's a new picture of the center of our galaxy, courtesy of the Uklid Space Telescope, showing 60 million shimmering stars. It's the largest and highest

[11:35] resolution picture ever taken of that part of the sky. But it's more than a record-breaking photo as scientists will later use it to cross reference observations from a future space telescope. We'll get into that in a bit,

[11:47] but first let's marvel at the picture and dive into how it was taken. It's not actually just one picture, but nine stitched together into a mosaic. This is very common in astronomy as it allows a telescope to cover a much larger area in

[11:59] great detail. And it's large. It covers the size of 25 full moons or about 5 square°. Impressively, Uklid took only 26 hours to capture the entire image.

[12:11] This is mostly due to its wide field of view. In terms of sharpness and in visible light is comparable to Hubble's wide field camera. But Uklid can see an area of the sky 270 times larger all at once. Do that nine times

[12:26] and you get the image we're looking at today. But it is pretty special that we get to see this image at all. Normally, Uklid is dutifully mapping a third of the sky, staring away from our own galaxy. The telescope's main purpose is

[12:38] to study millions of other galaxies, collecting data which astronomers want to use to find the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Our own galaxy only could suddenly train its eye on the densest region of the Milky Way? Well,

[12:53] it's to help a future space telescope with discovering exoplanets. Later this summer, NASA will launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will focus on several topics, including dark matter and dark energy like Ukid. But it will

[13:06] also search for exoplanets using a method called microl lensing which uses a gravitational effect. When stars line up from our point of view, when one star passes in front of another, the light from the star behind bends slightly as

[13:19] it passes through the other stars gravitational field, distorting the follows from Einstein's general relativity and means that light bends around massive objects. It's called gravitational lensing, and we see it all

[13:33] the time throughout the universe. But what if the star in front has a planet? they should have a similar effect, albeit much less obvious than a star or a galaxy. Roman will look for these subtle effects and use them to find

[13:47] these planets. But it would be really useful to have some long-term data on the stars Roman will observe, which will allow astronomers to do all kinds of things from determining a star's mass to finding isolated black holes and rogue

[13:59] planets that don't orbit any stars at all. So you could observe the Milky Way center on March 23rd, 2025, 2 years before Roman is set to begin observing the same area. Uklid study on its own isn't enough to do all this microlensing

[14:14] science yet. For that, a telescope needs to peer at a star for more than 20 days to spot how an orbiting planet affects the lensing effect. Uklid's 26-hour study isn't going to cut it. But it's still a unique picture that we haven't

[14:27] scientists around the world who can use it for all kinds of studies. Now, we're talking about Roman anyway, so let's quickly check in with how that telescope arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard their Pegasus barge, which

[14:41] Goddess Spaceflight Center in Maryland, where it was constructed. Once in the clean room at Kennedy's payload hazardous servicing facility, NASA will rounds of inspection and testing. Additionally, technicians will fill up

[14:55] the spacecraft tanks with hydroine fuel. Then they will hand it over to SpaceX who will launch it at top a Falcon Heavy no earlier than August 30th. Once in space, Roman will travel to the Sun Earth Lrange point2, which is also home

[15:07] to Uklid and the James Webb Space Telescope. It appears to be a great place to put an observatory. Speaking of web, this week the telescope provided some new insight on three Atlas, the interstellar comet that visited our

[15:19] solar system last year. The object was discovered on July 1st, 2025 by the asteroid terrestrial impact last alert system or Atlas. It's the third traverse our solar system, hence the name 3 I atlas. The comet came closest

[15:34] to the sun on October 29th, and Web studied it a few months later after it was freshly heated by our home star. The heat converted some of the comet's ice into gas, making it easier for Web to study the object's composition. Web

[15:47] found that it's especially rich in dutyium, a variant of hydrogen which has a proton and a neutron instead of just a proton like regular boring hydrogen. 3i Atlas has 30 times more of the stuff than the comets in our own solar system.

[16:00] content leans heavily towards the lighter carbon 12 whereas our own comets contain a lot more carbon 13. All this points towards ancient origins for threei Atlas. The comet likely formed

[16:13] early in our galaxy's history and a very cold system. Heat would have converted the dutyium into regular hydrogen, while carbon 13 levels need generations of stars to increase. The researchers behind this study estimate the comet may

[16:25] be 10 to 12 billion years old and spent most of its early days frozen solid. But just in time for us to notice it and study it with our most powerful telescopes. And soon, we'll have even more telescopes ready to do science and

[16:40] teach us even more about our place in the universe. Now, we'll take a look at starting with Luna landers. This week, Moon Mark1 lander deploying its power

[16:52] tower during a test. The tower extends above the lander's top deck to a total height of 26 m. According to Blue, the test was performed in an analog lunar environment. Now, they didn't say where they did the test, but it looks like it

[17:04] might be the massive thermal vacuum chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center. blue tested Mark1 in that chamber earlier this year and it's also where the Apollo spacecraft were tested. The chamber is truly massive. It's just

[17:16] about tall enough to fit the lander with the power tower fully extended. Almost feel like I should be emphasizing that like power tower. But why do they need a tower like that? Well, NASA is aiming to land on the moon's south pole with the

[17:28] OTMus program. Some places near the poles are exposed to sunlight pretty much all the time, unlike other latitudes which experience the 2e long lunar nights. But the sun comes in at a very low angle near the pole, so you

[17:41] solar arrays to get the best performance out of them. It might be a while before though. The first Mark1 was supposed to launch on New Glenn this year, but as you're probably aware, they might not fly for a while following the recent

[17:55] energetic event at its launchpad. A lander that has a better chance of making it to the moon this year is Intuitive Machines Nova Sea for the IM3 than the last quarter of this year, and it will be the company's third attempt

[18:08] at sticking the landing after both IM1 and IM2 ended up tipping over while landing. This week, Intuitive Machines gave the lander a hat, or that's what lander's top deck. The company will now commence full vehicle integration, after

[18:23] which Nova Sea will perform a hot fire test. Hopefully, it will all go smoothly and find its way to the lunar surface before too long. Upright this time. Asteroid Apoffice is on its way to Earth and Germany's OP systems has started

[18:37] construction of the European Space Ay's mission to study it. The Ramsey's mission will study Apoffice as it passes by our planet in April 2029 at a distance of roughly 31,600 km. That's closer than geostationary

[18:50] satellites. The Ramsey's mission is on a tight schedule as it must be launched in 2028 to arrive at the asteroid in time. To speed up the process, it builds on which is currently on its way to study the aftermath of NASA's Dart mission,

[19:04] which intentionally impacted asteroid Dorphos to change its orbit around asteroid Diddimos. Ramsey's is taking shape in the clean room, although for lightweight carbon fiber tube. All the other spacecraft components will attach

[19:16] to this 40 kg structure. It might not be much, but it's a great start towards is now scheduled for early next year. issa aren't the only ones looking to seize the opportunity to study Apoys as it passes by Earth, though. It really is

[19:30] scientists a chance to investigate how the asteroid is affected by the tidal forces resulting from Earth's gravity during its flyby. First, NASA has repurposed its Osiris Rex mission into Osiris Apex, which will rendevu with the

[19:45] asteroid after its Earth visit and study the aftermath. China is also planning a mission, but they want to study Apoffice during the flyby. Like issa, they're using a completely different strategy, though. While Ramsy's will rendevu with

[19:57] Apous and fly along with it, China's mission will stay in Earth orbit and try asteroid as it whizzes by and observe the asteroid with its instruments. What makes this mission more interesting is the team behind the mission. They're

[20:10] undergrad students from Beijing's Tingua University who are working with a budget of only 2.8 million US. That's also how the mission gets its name. studentled threatening asteroid reconnaissance of Tingua or START for short. The 200 kg

[20:25] small satellite is set to launch on a jutter 3 in early 2028. The next few years will certainly be interesting for those who are interested in asteroids. though. Here's some that are much closer

[20:38] next space flight. The week started off record-breaking launch by Rocket Labs Electron rocket. The mission called Victor's Haze was a rapid response flight in support of the US Space

[20:50] mission is part of the tactically responsive space program which aims to develop rapid space capabilities under which the US military would be able to deploy satellites and other assets into space in a relatively short amount of

[21:03] they could call up a company and quickly develop and launch a mission into space. carried out a few of these demonstration missions with the most recent Victus NOX

[21:15] being launched in 2023 on Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket. In that case, order to launch and the actual launch happening was about 27 hours. For complicated two launch scenario. The first launch for this mission actually

[21:30] occurred a few weeks ago when a Jackal satellite from True Anomaly was launched mission. This spacecraft simulated a enemy country that could be potentially hazardous to US assets in space. Rocket

[21:43] Lab's role was to develop, build, and launch an interceptor-like spacecraft and perform rendevous and proximity operations with True Anomalies Jackal satellite. The Rocket Lab spacecraft called Pummer is based on the company's

[21:55] existing supply chains to quickly develop and build it in time for this electron rocket which helped control timelines and operations much better than otherwise. All in all, Iliad Rocket Lab to be able to go from notice to

[22:09] launch to the actual launch in just 16 hours and 42 minutes. The Puma spacecraft was also fully commissioned in just over 37 hours following its launch, beating the deadline of 72 hours that the US Space Force imposed on the

[22:22] company for the test by quite a good margin. Apart from that mission, Rocket afternoon, carrying out the 10-hour of 10 mission, false inspective, marking the 10th strict satellite launched to low Earth orbit by the Kiwi founded

[22:36] company. This week, SpaceX launched a pair of Starlink missions, deploying 48 orbit. Additionally, SpaceX also launched the first mission of its new we've covered in some of our recent Starship update episodes, is one of

[22:50] SpaceX's newest programs aimed at carrying recoverable payloads into space either for short or long periods of time. This includes on-orbit pharmaceuticals, but it could also include hypersonic testing,

[23:02] point-to-point cargo delivery, and much more. This would be very similar to channel, such as VA's Winnebago spacecraft, which have already carried out similar missions. There is not a lot of information about what exactly SpaceX

[23:16] carried on this Starfall flight other than it was a demonstration mission. We only know of at least one payload which was on this flight which was Starbase Brewing's Micro Brew 2 mission. It carried different kinds of yeasts and

[23:28] environment. Similar to other previous the launches from SpaceX and Rocket Lab, China launched a Chung Jong 7A carrying a classified satellite for communication into geocynchronous transfer orbit.

[23:42] Beyond Earth orbit, issa and Jax's Bey Columbo spacecraft turned off its solar time as it prepares to enter orbit around Mercury. Until now, the probe used highly efficient low thrust iron thrusters located in its transfer module

[23:56] to perform all of its propulsion maneuvers. But once it arrives at Mercury, these will have too little thrust to quickly capture it into orbit. transfer module ahead of time, currently scheduled for September 3rd of this year

[24:09] to leave way for its planetary orbiter to conduct the orbital insertion burn using traditional chemical rocket engines. That orbital insertion burn is currently set to occur on November 21st, so we'll cover those events when they

[24:21] some orbital maintenance with a spacew walk on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica May will spend about 6 and 1/2 hours outside the station replacing a wrist joint on the Canada Arm 2 robotic

[24:35] segment. Regarding launches, we have another active week coming up. There are up to four Falcon 9 launches on tap for next week with up to three Starlic launches and a customer launch carrying Sirius XM's 11th broadcast satellite. We

[24:50] may also have a debut launch and potentially two Goodbye launches. The all solidfueled small satellite launch for a few years. This launch has also been postponed several times with no

[25:03] actually ends up launching this time around. One of the potential goodbyes this week would be with the launch of a Pegasus XL rocket from Northrup Grman launching a satellite to reboost NASA's Swift Space Observatory. The reason it's

[25:16] potentially the last is that this is the last of the Pegasus XL rockets that has been manufactured so far. Northrup has indicated more could be built if there's demand. But the problem is that Pegasus XL hasn't been very sought after in

[25:28] recent years. Another potential goodbye is going to be the last launch of Amazon Leo satellites on board ULA's Atlas 5. This makes it the last launch of Atlas 5 in its 551 configuration. As the only six remaining Atlas rockets are supposed

[25:42] to be dedicated to launches of Boeing Starlininer. Considering the state of that program, it's still up in the air whether those launches will occur or not. So, it's perhaps not a full goodbye to Atlas 5, but definitely a goodbye to

[25:54] its 551 configuration and a goodbye to a satellite launcher family that first reached orbit in 1958. As always, schedules can be fluid, so we recommend download the app on your phone so you can keep up to date with the launches

[26:09] and other spaceflight events. I've been Ryan Katon for NSF. Thanks for watching and goodbye. Can you see that 35.8° C? I would love to be frozen solid like C? I would love to be frozen solid like that three eye atlas.