A planned test of Starship SN4’s single Raptor engine was completed at 1848 UT today at Boca Chica.
Shortly after the one-minute burn, at 1849 UT, opaque white clouds emerged from leaks along the side and bottom of SN4. At least one of the leaks contained methane fuel; the cloud was ignited, setting off an explosion that damaged the test stand and blew away the prototype.
By 1850 UT it was clear that SN4 was a total loss.
Soyuz launched early Friday with a Russian military payload, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne demonstrated its performance profile Monday in unscheduled water landings, and Florida thunderstorms prevented the launch of Crew Dragon DM-2 on Wednesday.
Orbital News
22 May 2020 0731 UT – Plesetsk Soyuz-2.1b EKS-4 RU MilEOS
25 May 2020 1950 UT – Mojave N744VG LauncherOne Demo (failed)
25 May 2020 1213 UT – Kounotori 9 arrives at ISS
27 May 2020 [2033 UT] – Delay of Canaveral F9 Crew Dragon DM-2
Regional News
24 May 2020 – Boeing lays off 400 in Winnipeg
24 May 2020 – Snowbirds welcomed back to Moose Jaw
25 May 2020 – Manitoba doctors highlight Lyme Disease heart risks
25 May 2020 – Minnesota Space Grant features Augsburg U Aerospace Club
26 May 2020 – Canadian Armed Forces creates new Space Specialist skill badge
26 May 2020 – Picturesque results from U Wisconsin Madison science photo contest
26 May 2020 – Porter Airlines stays grounded through 29 July
27 May 2020 – Minnesota Space Grant features Breanna Keith (Bemidji SU)
27 May 2020 – SciGirls show from Twin Cities PBS nominated for award
28 May 2020 – Kenora’s Sean ‘Stroker’ Gustafson trains fighter pilots
28 May 2020 – Minnesota Space Grant features Akshay Naik (U Minnesota – Twin Cities)
28 May 2020 – Minnesota Space Grant features U Minnesota Duluth rocket team
28 May 2020 – WestJet cheer patrol makes rounds
Further News
18 May 2020 – Perseverance rocket arrives at Canaveral
22 May 2020 – Mitsubishi Aircraft cuts jobs, slows SpaceJet
24 May 2020 – CZ-5 rocket at Wenchang for Tianwen-1 Mars mission
24 May 2020 – Fire at Airbus A220 factory in Belfast
24 May 2020 – NSF feature on rocket launch weather rules
25 May 2020 – EKS-4 launch dumps hardware over Australia
27 May 2020 – Bankrupt OneWeb asks for 48000 satellite slots
27 May 2020 – Boeing restarts 737 line, cuts 12000 jobs
28 May 2020 – China to fly civilian astronauts to planned space station
28 May 2020 – Despite warnings 150 k went to scrubbed launch of DM-2
28 May 2020 – SpaceX tests SN4 engine at Boca Chica
COVID-19 matters
22 May 2020 – Environmental Engineer James Schauer (U Wisconsin) assists WI COVID tests
22 May 2020 – Rezplast in Sudbury makes plexiglas barriers for cars and counters
23 May 2020 – North Dakota Governor pleads for tolerance of mask wearers
24 May 2020 – Medical discrimination against SK patients from outbreak zone
25 May 2020 – U Manitoba fab lab makes faceshields
26 May 2020 – North Dakota to reopen state offices 1 June
26 May 2020 – Winnipeg study shows COVID spreads for about eight days after symptoms
27 May 2020 – Worker at South Dakota Jack Link’s plant dies of COVID
27 May 2020 – Edmonton among cities considered for NHL playoff ‘hub’
27 May 2020 – Manitoba close to full containment of COVID
28 May 2020 – Alberta doctors concerned with provincial PPE plan
Orbital News
17 May 2020 1314 – Atlas V X-37B US Military
20 May 2020 1731 – Tanegashima H-IIB Kounotori-9 ISS Cargo
Regional News
15 May 2020 – Airdrie AB students contact ISS by ham radio
15 May 2020 – None hurt in plane crash 75km from Fort Frances
15 May 2020 – MB seeks businesses to deploy Internet to the North
16 May 2020 – Air Canada lays off 20000, over half the workforce
16 May 2020 – National Microbiology Lab chief takes UK job, cites family
17 May 2020 – Safe pilot, bent wing in Bloodvein MB mishap
18 May 2020 – Medicine Hat air ambulance pleads for funds
18 May 2020 – Wildfires near Dauphin MB
19 May 2020 – Delta will fill planes to 60% for social distance
19 May 2020 – York Space Systems opens new facility in Denver
20 May 2020 – SK wildfire grows to 375 km2
21 May 2020 – Iowa SU features NASA work of Sara Mayne
21 May 2020 – MN astronaut Karen Nyberg talks with Ars Technica
21 May 2020 – U Wisconsin develops nanostructured PVDF spacecraft shield
Further news
15 May 2020 – Artemis Accords would enshrine Space Law concepts in a Treaty
15 May 2020 – China adds satellite internet to space infrastructure priorities
15 May 2020 – NASA Stennis partial reopen
15 May 2020 – Tokyo2021 loses another event – meteor shower satellite fails in orbit
17 May 2020 – Bill Norrie of Calgary sailed across the Pacific
17 May 2020 – Snowbird dead, another injured in Kamloops BC crash
18 May 2020 – NASA Michoud partial reopen
19 May 2020 – Annie Glenn dies in Minnesota, age 100
19 May 2020 – Head rolls at NASA after Artemis procurement probe
20 May 2020 – Skyrora completes Skylark-L rocket engine test
20 May 2020 – WFIRST now called the Roman Space Telescope
21 May 2020 – NASA takes extra time for DM-2 Flight Readiness Review
21 May 2020 – NSF feature on Crew Dragon abort modes
COVID-19 matters
15 May 2020 – COVID patients that need ventilators have 50 to 75% survival rate
15 May 2020 – FDA notice issued on inaccurate Abbott COVID test
15 May 2020 – SaskTel retirees fix donated computers to help keep communities connected
15 May 2020 – SK closes 12 rural ERs on two days’ notice
15 May 2020 – Sudbury library opens phone line for folks that want to chat about books
15 May 2020 – The Forks Market reopens in Winnipeg
15 May 2020 – U Alberta will conduct fall semester online
16 May 2020 – COVID causes blood clots in serious cases
17 May 2020 – Fire contained at Winnipeg hospital
18 May 2020 – Fuse33 Makerspace in Calgary fabs 12000 faceshields
19 May 2020 – Canada-US border closure extended to 21 June 2020
19 May 2020 – Civic honour planned for SD food workers
19 May 2020 – U Wisconsin creates COVID Crush video game
21 May 2020 – 2020 Grey Cup in Regina cancelled due to COVID
21 May 2020 – Privacy problem with ND/SD Care19 phone app
21 May 2020 – Rigid US medical supply chain ignored new test labs
Late News
13 May 2020 – JournoDrone shot down in Butterfield MN
Orbital news
08 May 2020 0549 UT – CNSA next-generation crew capsule lands after deorbit
08 May 2020 – Fregat from 2011 continues disintegration in high orbit
11 May 2020 1533 UT – CZ-5B first stage falls into Atlantic by luck alone
11 May 2020 1608 UT – Cygnus NG-13 departs ISS
12 May 2020 0116 UT – Jiuquan KZ-1A 2x Xingyun-2 EOS/Comm/Demo
Regional news
09 May 2020 – Statement by Winnipeg Airport rebuffed by Transport Canada
11 May 2020 – WestJet cancels flights into July
12 May 2020 – Snowbirds fly over Manitoba
12 May 2020 – MB 150 digital book collection holds hidden gems in aerospace history
12 May 2020 – Vincent Ledvina (U North Dakota) works on Aurora camera
13 May 2020 – Alberta wildfire still burns one year later
13 May 2020 – Budget cut means more layoffs at U Manitoba
13 May 2020 – Dr. Carl Isaacson featured by Minnesota Space Grant
13 May 2020 – U Minnesota Balloon Team featured by Minnesota Space Grant
13 May 2020 – Delta Airlines stops service to Saskatoon
14 May 2020 – Snowbirds fly over Saskatoon and Regina
14 May 2020 – Iowa Space Grant asks colleges for project proposals
Further news
09 May 2020 – USSF buys SpaceX data from other launches
10 May 2020 – Latest Starship SN4 cryotest reaches 750 kPa pressure
11 May 2020 – Virgin Galactic goes on sale to prop up sister airline
12 May 2020 – NASA signs deal for additional Soyuz seat
13 May 2020 – Falcon 9 test fires on pad ahead of ninth Starlink delivery
13 May 2020 – Crew Dragon DM-2 astronauts are in pre-launch medical isolation
14 May 2020 – EPA will not regulate water pollution from perchlorate, oxidizer for solid rockets
14 May 2020 – Intelsat goes bankrupt
14 May 2020 – Artemis program schedule slides into 2021
COVID-19 matters
08 May 2020 – FDA approves Rutgers easy but imperfect COVID spit test
08 May 2020 – Land-O-Lakes co-op opens up Wi-Fi for rural users
08 May 2020 – 3M to make 96 million N95 masks monthly at WI, SD factories
09 May 2020 – COVID spreads at Minnesota Amazon plant
09 May 2020 – Close quarters make COVID hard to fight at Iowa meat plant
09 May 2020 – FDA approves antigen test, faster than virus PCR
09 May 2020 – Lopinavir-ritonavir + ribavirin + interferon beta-1b drug triplet passes Phase II
11 May 2020 – COVID cases mount at Alberta food processors
12 May 2020 – Dr. Susan Kline (U Minnesota) tests drug cocktails against COVID
12 May 2020 – U Saskatchewan plans all-remote fall semester
12 May 2020 – Air Guard flyovers of Minnesota
12 May 2020 – Zyus Life Sciences of Saskatoon wants to print vaccine with plants
12 May 2020 – Rural SK lacks the broadband capacity for everyday needs
12 May 2020 – “MN Masks On” volunteers make masks for hospital visitors
13 May 2020 – Saskatchewan out 2.2 M$ for COVID tests now banned by Health Canada
13 May 2020 – Sask journo in UK takes a trial dose of U Oxford ChAdOx vaccine
14 May 2020 – Mayo and 5000 tests: Convalescent plasma doesn’t hurt COVID patients
Orbital news
20200505 1000 UT – Wenchang CZ-5B NextGen Crew Test Flight
20200507 – CNSA ‘umbrella’ cargo reentry test failed; crew capsule healthy
Regional news
04 May 2020 – Laser strikes Saskatoon plane
04 May 2020 – WY firm Frontier Astronautics gets NASA funds for hybrid rocket pump
07 May 2020 – U Colorado-Boulder gets funds for GLEE LunaSat
Further news
01 May 2020 – Telesat LEO schedule slips, satellite supplier not even settled
01 May 2020 – Astronauts ready to fly Crew Dragon DM-2
03 May 2020 – Crew Dragon succeeds at final parachute test
05 May 2020 – Tom Cruise, SpaceX plan a film on the ISS
05 May 2020 – Virgin Galactic deal will study suborbital passenger flights
05 May 2020 – NASA, Space Force to take asteroid defence measures
06 May 2020 – Failed LAN firewall on ISS replaced
06 May 2020 – Starship SN4 fires engine at Boca China test stand
COVID-19 matters
01 May 2020 – Outbreak at Calgary Amazon warehouse
01 May 2020 – Manitoba Museum lays off 40, closes
01 May 2020 – NIH slashes COVID research funding
02 May 2020 – U Minnesota epidemiologist says pandemic COVID may last 2 years
04 May 2020 – Canadian provinces relax COVID restrictions
04 May 2020 – Meat plants partially reopen
04 May 2020 – ND fab plants enhance COVID measures after LM outbreak
04 May 2020 – U Manitoba researcher talks hospital website privacy risks
05 May 2020 – Alberta meat inspectors demand another plant close
05 May 2020 – U Manitoba med student makes soft, reusable silicone facemasks
06 May 2020 – Massive compost effort in Worthington as food waste piles up
06 May 2020 – North Dakota SU students process COVID tests
06 May 2020 – Outbreak at Saskatoon milk plant
06 May 2020 – Outbreak at Calgary grocery store
07 May 2020 – COVID closes La Loche SK grocer
07 May 2020 – Buried CDC reopen guide sees light of day
Soyuz launched the uncrewed Progress cargo module to the ISS early Saturday, and NASA announced three winning bidders for commercial crew lunar landers Thursday.
COVID-19 science
27 Apr 2020 – CDC officially adds 6 more symptoms of COVID
30 Apr 2020 – Experts welcome news on Remdesivir with caution
30 Apr 2020 – High hopes for antigen tests
Orbital News
25 Apr 2020 0151 UT – Baikonur Soyuz Progress MS-14 ISS Cargo
29 Apr 2020 – ISS Kibo deploys Quetzal-1, Guatemalan cubesat
Regional News
25 Apr 2020 – Kit plane C-GTET survives emergency landing
28 Apr 2020 – JetBlue alters MSP service due to COVID
28 Apr 2020 – Layoffs at U Sask could start 4 May
28 Apr 2020 – VP visits Mayo without mask
Further News
24 Apr 2020 – ViaSat gets FCC approval for 20 MEO netsats
26 Apr 2020 – Al Amal, Emirati Mars orbiter, at Tanegashima for July launch
26 Apr 2020 – SN4 survives cryo test, first Starship to pass
28 Apr 2020 – SpaceX sunshield shadows shiny Starlink sats
29 Apr 2020 – An-225, world’s largest plane, will fly PPE to Québec
29 Apr 2020 – CZ-5B rolled to pad at Wenchang for ~5 May launch
29 Apr 2020 – Electron rocket goes vertical at Virginia spaceport, for tests
30 Apr 2020 – Blue Moon, Starship, and Alpaca selected for lunar lander awards
30 Apr 2020 – FDA approves NASA ventilator
COVID-19 response
24 Apr 2020 – Two SK meat plants close
25 Apr 2020 – Winnipeg seamstress donates facemasks
27 Apr 2020 – MB researcher studies difference in COVID outcomes in men and women
27 Apr 2020 – Sask experts caution against herd immunity strategies
28 Apr 2020 – Alberta pilots fly masks north
28 Apr 2020 – MN, SD meat plants ordered reopened
28 Apr 2020 – Winnipeg fair, Red River Ex, cancelled due to COVID
29 Apr 2020 – Alberta workers call for meat plant closures
29 Apr 2020 – Outbreak prevents Lloydminster from joining SK reopen plan
29 Apr 2020 – U Regina students sell facemasks
30 Apr 2020 – Duluth firms make PPE
30 Apr 2020 – North Dakota SU trains contract tracers
30 Apr 2020 – U North Dakota makes Viral Transport Media reagent
The Artemis program, with its goal to land a woman on the surface of Luna, is operating on a crash schedule. With delays from COVID piling on top of normal engineering problems, Artemis is now very likely to miss its target of landing by the end of 2024. But a mini-space race may allow competition to make up some of the lost time.
NASA’s program to return to the moon requires three primary components: the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket, the Orion crew and service modules, and the Human Landing System (HLS), equivalent to the Apollo Lunar Module. SLS and Orion were ongoing programs, left over from prior NASA strategies for the future of human spaceflight. Though delayed and often-changed, the major requirements and suppliers had been settled on years ago. Not so with the Human Landing System, whose call for bids was hardly open before or after October 2019. After a few months of review, the awards announcement was made on 30 April 2020.
The award does not answer the larger question of which company will get to the moon first in the planned “Artemis III” mission. NASA HLS program leads may decide this key detail by August 2020, and almost certainly by February 2021, as the awardees clear up their plans and development timelines. NASA will work in tandem with each supplier to ensure that each system will be able to be safely tested and delivered, setting broader goals and outcomes, with less emphasis on micromanagement.
Rather than going forward with just one or two of the four publicized submissions, NASA made awards to every team except Boeing (Boeing ‘s proposal did not even reach the last phase of consideration). However, each winner was cited as having potential for delay due to the need for development work on their propulsion systems, and SpaceX was also singled out for missing deadlines for Crew Dragon and other government launches.
It is perhaps bigger news than expected; NASA’s approach for lunar exploration exceeds the minimum requirements to perform a stunt landing on an accelerated schedule. Hiring three teams indicates a solid commitment to a longer-term effort and broad-based infrastructure. This could be the kickstart needed to get humans to permanently retain the ability to travel to other worlds.
The International Space Station is down to three crew with the arrival of Soyuz MS-15 in Kazakhstan, Iran orbited a military satellite, and SpaceX launched another 60 Starlink commsats.
Orbital News
17 Apr 2020 0516 – Soyuz MS-15 lands with Meir, Morgan, Skripochka
21 Apr 2020 – JAXA releases Bepi magnetometer data from Earth flyby
23 Apr 2020 1930 – Canveral Falcon 9 Starlink Commsats
23 Apr 2020 0359 – Shahrud Qased Noor Iran MilSat
Regional news
17 Apr 2020 – U Minnesota student Nibir Sarma wins on Jeopardy!
22 Apr 2020 – WestJet lays off 3000 employees
Further News
17 Apr 2020 0022 – 5.4 earthquake hits Kodiak, spaceport
17 Apr 2020 – Crew Dragon planned to fly Behnken, Hurley to ISS on 27 May 2020
17 Apr 2020 – PS752 families still want investigation
19 Apr 2020 – FAA AST space office reorganized
21 Apr 2020 – All initial Starlink satellites will move to 550km orbits
23 Apr 2020 – SpaceX will beta test Starlink at high latitudes
23 Apr 2020 – SN4 Starship prototype installed at Boca Chica test stand
COVID response
17 Apr 2020 – Winnipeg Mint makes hand sanitizer
17 Apr 2020 – Calgary grocers insist households send one person once a week
17 Apr 2020 – SafeCare Canada of Winnipeg sells COVID tests, pending approval
17 Apr 2020 – Cirrus Aircraft of Grand Forks and Duluth building powered respirators
17 Apr 2020 ~ Manitoba works on solutions to connect students to the Internet
18 Apr 2020 – Bioriginal in Saskatoon makes hand sanitizer
22 Apr 2020 – Pantyhose enhances homemade masks
23 Apr 2020 – Calgary Stampede cancelled due to COVID
23 Apr 2020 – Sudbury Theatre Company makes masks
COVID-19 Science
Lessons learned: Help lungs, roll COVID patients onto sides, stomach
06 Apr 2020 – Mayo Clinic will lead plasma treatment project
09 Apr 2020 – COVID cases at Winnipeg NML slow down viral research
09 Apr 2020 – U Nebraska Medical Center tests antiviral Remdesivir
11 Apr 2020 – Remdesivir also tested in Minnesota
13 Apr 2020 – Alberta hydroxychloroquine study calls for volunteers
13 Apr 2020 – Minnesota test of drug CM4620-IE, may fix cytokine storm
14 Apr 2020 – US serosurvey collects blood samples from diverse volunteers
14 Apr 2020 – Baricitinib tests come with risk of bacterial infection
15 Apr 2020 – Preprint servers move information faster, for good and ill
Orbital News
07 Apr 2020 1306 UT – Dragon 1 CRS-20 departs ISS
09 Apr 2020 0805 UT – Baikonur Soyuz-2.1a Soyuz MS-16, ISS Crew
09 Apr 2020 1146 UT – Xichang CZ-3B Nusantara Dua, Indonesian commsat [failure]
Regional News
09 Apr 2020 – Flights down 97% at Winnipeg airport
10 Apr 2020 – U Nebraska joins forces with OSU NASA UAV study
13 Apr 2020 – Edmonton Airport receives medical supply shipments
16 Apr 2020 – Victims named in Iowa helicopter crash
16 Apr 2020 – Despite recent rehires, 1700 pilots cut at WestJet
Further News
03 Apr 2020 – Starship SN3 destroyed by cryo test
03 Apr 2020 – Crew Dragon launchpad zipline tested
03 Apr 2020 – Tiny thrusters, big contracts
06 Apr 2020 – Boeing to refly Starliner Orbital Flight Test
07 Apr 2020 – How to fit a huge dish inside a nanosat
08 Apr 2020 – Rocket Lab snags falling first stage in prelaunch test
08 Apr 2020 – Masten XL-1 wins 2022 lunar lander slot, 2020 NIAC award
09 Apr 2020 – US House grills ISS National Lab managers
10 Apr 2020 – Boeing, SpaceX suffer cyberattacks
12 Apr 2020 – ESA awards 20 k€ for Solar-powered UV hand sanitizer
12 Apr 2020 – Virgin Orbit nearly ready to fly LauncherOne with final cryo test
13 Apr 2020 – IM-1 mission will land where Apollo 18 didn’t
13 Apr 2020 – Orion 1 in process at Canaveral
13 Apr 2020 – OneWeb will keep a nightlight on until spectrum sale
13 Apr 2020 – Inside SpaceX’s win of lunar launch contract
15 Apr 2020 – Kepler-1649c announced, temperate Earth-sized exoplanet
15 Apr 2020 – Russia flies ASAT missile, no debris, plenty of alarm
16 Apr 2020 – Perseverance progress at T-3 months
16 Apr 2020 – OSIRIS-REx now one test away from asteroid sample
16 Apr 2020 – Boeing to resume production in WA
Regional COVID-19 Stories
03 Apr 2020 – Winnipeg firm Wilder Goods makes masks
04 Apr 2020 – DIRTT of Calgary makes hospital furniture
09 Apr 2020 – Saskatchewan homes make masks
09 Apr 2020 – Edmonton pivots to make COVID supplies
09 Apr 2020 – Price Industries of Winnipeg makes hospital furniture
09 Apr 2020 – Canada Goose makes medical gowns
10 Apr 2020 – American hospitals slash payroll amid crisis
13 Apr 2020 – Major hotspot in Sioux Falls at pork factory
15 Apr 2020 – Alberta beef plant shuts down due to COVID
15 Apr 2020 – Alberta cleaning and reusing N95 masks
15 Apr 2020 – Cummins building 3M designed filter ventilators
15 Apr 2020 – SNOLAB builds open source ventilators
15 Apr 2020 – U Minnesota ventilator gets FDA approval
15 Apr 2020 – Vomela of St. Paul makes face shields, sneeze guards
15 Apr 2020 – Manitoba students affected by digital divide
15 Apr 2020 – tbaytel continues network visits with extra safety measures
16 Apr 2020 – U Minnesota asks for 20 M$ for 30000 COVID tests per day
16 Apr 2020 – SD pork factory owner shuts down WI plant due to COVID
16 Apr 2020 – Midwest governors will coordinate post-COVID reopening
On 7 April 2020, NASA announced the 2020 awardees for its NIAC grants, which support preliminary work in space mission development. One winner is Hbar Technologies of West Chicago, Illinois. The firm’s experts, formerly of Fermilab, will refine a concept, entirely possible with near-future developments in antiproton manufacturing, to use perhaps a dozen grams of antimatter to propel robotic probes to our nearest stellar neighbours, Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri. The specific project of the $125,000 Phase I NIAC grant will focus on how to slow down a part of the probe fleet to allow Proxima Centauri b to be studied in detail. Results are expected within nine months.
