Space.com
• Hanneke Weitering, Robert Z. Pearlman
NASA launched Apollo 7 on Oct. 11, 1968, carrying astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham into orbit. It was the first Apollo mission with a crew in orbit and marked the American return to spaceflight after the Apollo 1 tragedy.
Human Spaceflight & Space Stations
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NASA launched Apollo 7 on Oct. 11, 1968, carrying astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham into orbit. It was the first Apollo mission with a crew in orbit and marked the American return to spaceflight after the Apollo 1 tragedy.
Honda is proposing a robotic lab assistant for future commercial space stations, extending the company’s work in robotics beyond its better-known mobility products. The available report provides no details on the robot’s capabilities, development timeline or any station partnership.
The report brings together Artemis II crew photographs, spoken observations, drawings and annotations, creating a scientific record of the mission’s lunar observations. That material is now available to the science community and the public for further study.
High activity
NASA has issued a long-awaited call to industry for private space stations, saying it will not give up its presence in low Earth orbit. The move invites companies to develop commercial platforms that could support NASA’s continued orbital operations.
European Space Agency member governments will meet in Rome on Dec. 15 to discuss investment in a program that would use European hardware to carry astronauts to and from orbit. Securing the one-day meeting is itself a step for Director-General Josef Aschbacher, but the gathering is not expected to produce a financing decision.
The Italian Space Agency is examining the possibility of building an orbital platform capable of generating artificial gravity. The concept would create an in-space research facility, though the available details do not specify its design, timeline, funding or intended research program.
Northrop Grumman’s robotic Cygnus XL is scheduled to leave the International Space Station on Oct. 9, ending a six-month stay. The departure will be streamed live, marking the end of the spacecraft’s current cargo mission.
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