Space.com
• Chelsea Gohd
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins made history as commander of her mission to the International Space Station. Her appointment brings renewed attention to diversity in astronaut leadership and to who gets represented in the next generation of human spaceflight.
NASA
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NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins made history as commander of her mission to the International Space Station. Her appointment brings renewed attention to diversity in astronaut leadership and to who gets represented in the next generation of human spaceflight.
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China has outlined a roadmap to land astronauts on the moon before 2030, setting its timeline against NASA’s stated goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028. The parallel targets sharpen the competition between the two space programs, though the article provides no further details of China’s plan.
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China’s AutoFlight says it completed a world-first autonomous formation flight involving five eVTOLs across two weight classes. Separately, NASA unveiled the crewed X-70 Fractal, a 10,000-pound experimental aircraft designed to carry up to 907 kg of test payloads and fly at Mach 0.75 and up to 45,000 feet.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk are scheduled to install the International Space Station’s final roll-out solar array during a spacewalk on Nov. 5. The Houston flight-control team approved the excursion, which will advance work to modernize the orbital laboratory’s power system.
China and the United States are again competing to send people to the moon, in a contest that carries stakes beyond exploration. The report frames lunar leadership as a potential source of geopolitical influence and economic and military advantage, with China seeking a larger role in space.
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NASA says the X-70 Fractal will serve as an experimental aircraft, but the announcement provides little detail on its design, schedule or research objectives. The program adds a new aircraft to NASA’s flight-research portfolio; further specifics will determine what technologies it is intended to advance.
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NASA says the subsonic X-70 Fractal will be a modular, crewed research aircraft for testing advanced flight controls and other experimental technologies. The agency says the aircraft’s rapidly reconfigurable controls will support flight research, with its first flight under NASA planned within the next two years.
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