NASA

NASA has put a Spaniard in charge of the project for its future lunar base: Carlos García-Galán from Malaga

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Dressed in a jacket, light blue shirt and gold tie, Carlos García-Galán He did not occupy another chair at the NASA conference held in Washington. Escorted by the administrator Jared Isaacman and other top-level officials, the engineer from Malaga spoke before the press in the middle of the presentation of the agency’s new lunar turn. His presence at that time placed him at the forefront of a roadmap that redefines NASA’s priorities on the Moon. The context of that scene helps understand its relevance. Hours before,Isaacman had presented a roadmap that changes the focus of the agency. It is no longer just about returning to the Moon, but about establishing a sustained presence on its surface. The proposal involves deploying in three phases the initial elements of a permanent lunar base, with stable infrastructure and a logic that is more industrial than experimental. The man from Malaga who now pilots the Moon Base program This change of course also redefines the role of those who must execute it. In this context appears García-Galán, whose official position within NASA is “executive program” at the lunar base. This is a high-level management position, responsible for coordinate and guide program development, not an operational role on the ground. His role will be to lead the project from the agency structure, not to direct a facility on the lunar surface. García-Galán, remember, is not a newcomer, but an engineer who has developed his career within NASA and has been assuming responsibilities for years to get to this point. His presence in the announcement is linked to that trajectory, which now places him in one of the great bets of the US space agency at this stage. His career within NASA helps to understand why he has come this far. Before this appointment, García-Galán, according to LinkedInheld the position of “deputy manager” of the Gateway program, until now a relevant piece in the agency’s lunar architecture. With more than 27 years of experience In manned space flights, he has worked on the design, integration and operation of complex systems, participating in programs such as the International Space Station and the Orion spacecraft. His experience at Gateway also helps explain this appointment. In that program, García-Galán was involved in integration and management tasks within an environment with multiple partners and components. The new approach towards a lunar base requires precisely this ability to order diverse pieces, from missions to infrastructure, something that fits with the profile that has been developed within the agency in recent years. The program that he will now supervise is divided into several phases with a common objective: establishing a sustained presence on the lunar surface. NASA proposes a sequence of missions that will go deploying infrastructurefrom mobility and energy systems to communications networks and habitats. The idea is to advance progressively towards a base capable of sustaining longer-term human stays. Images | NASA (1, 2, 3) In Xataka | Elon Musk knows that TSMC is overwhelmed: Terafab is his idea to completely change the global chip industry

NASA chose it for a critical spacecraft system

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After some delays and problems, the Artemis II mission will take off next April 1, 2026 towards the Moon after half a century without humanity setting foot on the Earth’s satellite. And well, the reality is that the four people who will travel will not touch the Moon: they will simply circle it in a 10-day mission that will put humanity one step further: they will be the human beings who have been the furthest from Earth. And in that ship there will be critical technology made in Spain. Because the Orion ship consists of two modules: a crew capsule manufactured by Lockheed Martin for NASA and the European Service Module, provided by the European Space Agency, with the German Airbus Defense and Space as main contractor. That’s where the Madrid piece is: the thermal control unit, which is carried out by Airbus Crisa. TCU arrives from Tres Cantos. The Airbus Crisa plant in Tres Cantos (Madrid) has designed, manufactured and validated the Thermal Control Unit (TCU) of the European Service Module. As explains the Madrid company on its website, this piece will allow the supply of air and water to the astronauts, while ensuring that the temperature on board remains within comfortable levels for astronauts and equipment. As account for El Mundo Fernando Gómez-Carpintero, general director of Airbus Crisa, Orion does not carry one TCU but two. “Both are identical and redundant, that is, the ship carries two units because all the systems are duplicated in case one fails.” After all, it is the life support of the crew capsule: it monitors and regulates the conditions inside, providing propulsion, communications and energy. ESA module breakdown. THAT Why it is important. Because as recognizes NASA itselffor the first time in history has entrusted a non-American company with the construction of a crucial element for a United States manned space mission. Among the chosen European ones is Airbus Crisa from Tres Cantos and also with a critical component Who is Airbus Crisa. CRISA was born in 1985 independently, but since 2000 is integrated within the Airbus group. Its activity focuses on the development and manufacture of electronic components for space missions, both for the Airbus group and for third parties. In 2012, ESA launched the public tender and in 2014, Airbus Crisa signed the contract. As tells its directorwith Artemisa 1 its units recorded impeccable operation. His resume includes his participation in some of the most ambitious space missions of recent years, such as electronics for the James Webb Space Telescope, monitoring Martian rovers Curiosity and Perseverancecomponents for the Ariane and Vega rockets and also for ESA’s Gaia star mapper or the electronics of the SPAINSAT NG antennaEurope’s most advanced military secure communications satellites. Spain and the moon are old acquaintances. Spain’s connection with lunar exploration is not new. Without going any further, in the Apollo mission the antenna through which we received Neil Armstrong’s first words It was from Fresnedillas de la Oliva (Madrid). Its successor is still in Madrid today, but has changed location: now It is in Robledo de Chavela and remains operational as part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. However, Airbus Crisa’s contribution to Artemis II represents a qualitative leap: we are talking about critical components integrated into a manned spacecraft. In Xataka | Artemis: launch plans and everything we know about the mission to return man to the Moon In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | Airbus Crisa and NASA

In 2003, NASA suffered a serious accident that killed seven people. The person in charge: a PowerPoint

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On January 16, 2003, NASA’s STS-107 mission was underway. The space shuttle Columbia was launched with its seven crew members into low orbit to test the effects of microgravity on the human body. Those seven people never returned to Earth. The tragedy could have been avoided, but years later the analysis of everything that happened those days has left a terrible conclusion: a presentation of PowerPoint He killed those seven people. The launch, as said James Thomasseemed to be perfect. The crew began to carry out their task, and were expected to spend 16 days in space performing 80 experiments. Just one day after the mission began, NASA officials realized that something had not gone right. NASA has a protocol for reviewing the launch with external cameras. After 82 seconds, a piece of spray foam insulation (SOFI) fell off one of the ramps that attached the shuttle to its external fuel tank. As the crew rose at 28,968 kilometers per hour, the piece of foam collided with one of the tiles on the outer edge of the ship’s left wing. The insulating foam coming off was nothing new: it had happened on the four previous missions and was the reason the cameras were deployed to analyze the launch. The problem is that the blow had occurred in the layer that protected the ship during its re-entry to Earth. The slides of yore What did NASA do? Study the possibilities and conclude that there were three: First, the astronauts could have done a spacewalk to check the helmet. Second, NASA could have sent another shuttle to pick up the crew. Third, they could risk simply re-entry. Those responsible for the mission analyzed the situation with Boeing engineers and created a report in the form of a PowerPoint presentation with 28 slides. The conclusions revealed something important: it was assumed that the wing tiles could tolerate foam impacts, but that assumption had been made under very particular conditions. The pieces of foam in the tests were 600 times smaller than those that had hit the Columbia. To reflect those details, the engineers created this slide: At NASA they listened to the explanation, and the engineers believed they had conveyed the risks well. However, NASA believed that the engineers, even without being certain, suggested that there was no damage that would put the lives of the crew in danger. The option they chose was the third. Columbia would re-enter on February 1, 2003, at 9:16 AM (EST). At 9 that day, Dallas residents saw how the ferry had disintegrated into pieces. The entire crew died. The investigation into the tragedy revealed that NASA and engineers had had the right information, but had made a bad decision. Edward Tufte, a Yale professor, explained that the problem had been with that damn slide and the way it had been presented. The title already seemed to indicate that the risk was not particularly high, but the slide also had four cascading points with no detailed explanation of what they meant: interpretation was left to the reader’s discretion. It was not clear whether the first point (1) was the main one, or if the rest of the points had the same relevance. The different font sizes, strange hierarchy, and text density didn’t help. There were over 100 vague words and adjectives (“sufficient,” “meaningful”), making the slide too open to audience interpretation. The biggest problem is in the last two points, where it was indicated that what they had tested in the preliminary tests was very different from what had happened. NASA itself indicated in your report after the investigation that they had relied too much on PowerPoint. The expression ‘death by PowerPoint’ has been used for years to indicate how there are presentations that induce boredom or fatigue due to their information overload. A bad design and the overuse of points to order each data are common problems in this and other similar applications. Unfortunately, in this case that expression became tragically true. In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. In Xataka | Boeing was trying to put the Starliner fiasco behind it: NASA has just classified the 2024 incident at its highest level

NASA already has a new date for its manned mission around the Moon

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Since Apollo 17, no human being has traveled to lunar orbit again. More than five decades have passed since that last manned flight to the satellite, and the return has not been exactly quick or easy. He Artemis program accumulates delays, technical reviews and calendar adjustments, and the Artemis II has also had to stop recently due to a problem detected in the rocket’s helium system. Even so, there is an important novelty: after completing the repairs,NASA has already pointed out a first launch opportunity for this mission that will once again take astronauts to the Moon’s environment. The Date. Following a flight readiness review, the US space agency announced that it is working with April 1, 2026 as the first opportunity to launch Artemis II. That initial attempt is scheduled for 6:24 p.m. (Eastern time in the United States), which in mainland Spain is equivalent to 12:24 a.m. on April 2. This schedule comes after repairing a problem in the rocket’s helium system, an element that regulates the pressure of the fuel tanks and which forced the vehicle to be removed from the platform to replace a defective seal. Artemis II launch window schedule for April 2026 How launch windows work. In space exploration we do not work with rigid dates, but with periods of opportunity. A launch window is the interval in which the rocket can take off to follow the planned trajectory and meet the mission objectives. That margin depends on very precise orbital calculations that take into account the position of the Earth, the destination and the energy necessary to complete the trip. If the vehicle cannot take off within that interval, the attempt is canceled and you must wait for the next available window. Guaranteed launch? Although there is a calendar with concrete opportunities, each attempt still depends on several factors that must be aligned at the last moment. Technical teams continue to work in both the assembly building and the Kennedy Space Center launch infrastructure, and the rocket itself must return to the pad before beginning the final sequence. During a press appearance, Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, remembered that there is still work to be completed and that the launch will depend on what the hardware itself indicates. Added to all this is the time, because in a mission like this you cannot operate with the risk of lightning, precipitation, hail or excessive winds. Ground travel. The Space Launch System rocket must first return to the Kennedy Space Center pad from the assembly building. Once there, teams must prepare the vehicle and facilities for the takeoff attempt within the available window. This type of operation requires continuous reviews and coordination between different systems, so it is not always possible to attempt a launch the next day. In fact, Lori Glaze noted that, within the first six days of April, the agency anticipates around four real attempt opportunities. The return. When it finally takes off, Artemis II will mark the return of a human crew to the Moon’s environment for the first time since 1972. The mission will take on board American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen, on a flight of about ten days around the satellite. The plan is for the Orion spacecraft to circle the far side of the Moon, the region we never see from Earth, before beginning the return journey. This flight will serve to check the operation of the systems in real conditions before the next steps of the Artemis program, which aims to take astronauts back to the lunar surface on subsequent missions. Images | POT In Xataka | We already know what we will eat on the moon: Madrid stew. An American team manages to grow chickpeas in lunar regolith

If we want to live on the Moon we need oxygen and NASA already knows how to extract it: with a giant mirror

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Goodbye, Mars, the Moon has returned make it a priority. Really, except for an Elon Musk obsessed with terraform the red planetthe rest of the countries and even NASA had something between their minds: returning to the Moon. And come back in a big way, too, laying the foundations to create a settlement. For this we need oxygen, and NASA has just taken a great leap for humanity in the project to harvest oxygen from the lunar regolith. And all thanks to a giant mirror. In short. The Moon is a mine. Not only does it have enormous potential to obtain energy through photovoltaics, but it also has a huge amount of resources in its soil. The satellite is covered in ‘lunar dust’, also known as regolith, and part of its composition is oxygen. With current technology you can’t separate the chaff from the grain, but that’s where NASA’s carbothermal oxygen production reactor, or CaRD, project comes into play. The mirror | Photo: NASA The prototype installed on Earth is a reactor that has a huge precision mirror that concentrates a beam of sunlight on a reactor, heating its interior to temperatures of about 1,800ºC. The enormous amount of energy generated causes a carbothermic reaction which produces, among other elements, oxygen. It is the evolution of the high-power laser that NASA development in 2023, but unlike that tool that needs an enormous amount of energy, and other solutions based on electrolysismirrors are nourished by the sunlight they can concentrate. Regolith. According to According to the US agency, the technology “has the potential to produce several times its own weight in oxygen each year and in an automated manner, which will allow for a sustained human presence and the creation of a lunar economy.” And that lunar dust not only has oxygen. The regolith is composed of O2, but also metals. If the different components can be separated, we can obtain other resources and, in addition, the resulting dust as waste can be used as construction material for make bricks and roads. In fact, there are projects to ‘dope the regolith with bacteria to be able to cultivate directly in the lunar soil. The ESA approach. These advances by NASA occur while the rugged steps of the Artemis program which plans to take humans to lunar orbit this year, with future missions in which we will set foot on the satellite again. But as we said, the ESA also wants its piece of the pieand relies on electrolysis to separate metals from oxygen. Regolith and urine cement: the best cement | Photo: ESA The problem, as we said before, is the enormous amount of energy necessary to carry out the process. This molten salt electrolysis heats the regolith to 950ºC with calcium chloride to achieve the same objective that NASA has: release oxygen and separate it from iron and aluminum. And it is also collaborating with NASA to ensure that human presence in the medium term, experimenting with a mixture between human urine and regolith to create cement. Everyone wants a piece of cheese. But the one who has plans as ambitious as those of the United States with the Moon is… China. The Asian giant is completing phases of the space race dizzying speedwith launches every two by three and some very aggressive plans. Before 2030 it wants to send its first astronauts to orbit the satellite, with a manned moon landing scheduled for 2029/2030. Furthermore, together with Russia, they are building the International Lunar Research Station that they want to have in operation by 2030, complete by 2035 with thousands of scientists on board and with a nuclear reactor as a heart to get stable energy. When the enormous problem posed by the get oxygen stably on the Moona giant step will have been taken in international ambitions to place a long-term base on the satellite. That is, furthermore, SpaceX’s new plan. Elon Musk confirmed a few days ago that Mars was no longer the priority because quick results are needed, and the Moon is a much more favorable scenario. There are many eyes focused on the same objective, one we haven’t stepped on since 1972. Images | NASA, ESA In Xataka | Faced with the need to look for weapons against superbacteria, science has opted to send viruses into space

If the question is whether there was life on Mars, NASA has a new explanation: it depends

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NASA’s Curiosity rover has been shedding light on Mars since August 2011, making authentic discoveries on its surface, in your clouds and of course, about its potential habitability. And if its younger brother Perseverance found a few months ago “the clearest sign of life we ​​have seen on Mars”, one of Curiosity’s latest discoveries is not so clear. What Curiosity found. Since 2012, Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater, a place where there was a lake billions of years ago. In March 2025, while the rover’s integrated laboratory was analyzing a clay rock there, they found the presence of decan, undecan and dodecan. What’s that? Alkanes, that is, long chain hydrocarbons formed by hydrogen and carbon atoms. Why is it important. Because Curiosity’s discovery is the largest organic compounds ever found on the red planet and its size is such that its existence can hardly be explained by simple chemistry. On Earth, these types of hydrocarbons are usually fragments of fatty acids produced by living beings. However, on Mars, its origin is not so clear: it is reasonable to think of a biological origin, but with current evidence there is no confirmation. Biology or geology? The degradation of fatty acids causes the appearance of these hydrocarbons one way or another, but their presence does not imply that they necessarily come from a living organism. In fact, on Earth they can also be generated by geological processes. In short: detecting organic molecules on Mars does not mean finding life. Correlation does not imply causation. A “reasonable” hypothesis. So they analyzed the known non-biological sources of these organic molecules looking for an explanation for these quantities found. Since none of them fully explained this abundance, in this recent study published in Astrobiology that the research includes have raised a “reasonable” hypothesis: that living beings could have formed them. Among the known sources are molecules from meteorites that crash into the surface of Mars, cosmic dust, geological chemistry such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis plausible on early Mars or ultraviolet radiation, which in addition to destroying organic components can also form them, are some of the candidates. The method. To reach these conclusions, the team of scientists combined laboratory experiments, mathematical models and data from the rover, which allowed them to go back in time 80 million years to estimate how much organic matter existed at the beginning, before cosmic radiation destroyed it. The amount they were able to reconstruct far exceeds what unknown non-biological processes can generate. Of course, it does not affirm that there was life, nor are there fossils or biomarkers of course. In fact, their conclusion is clear: more studies are needed to conclude on the absence or presence of life on Mars. In Xataka | There are those who believe that 50 years ago we found life on Mars (and then accidentally destroyed it) In Xataka | China is getting closer to surpassing NASA in its Martian mission. And just invited other countries to join Cover | NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA just classified the 2024 incident at its highest level

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When NASA launched the Commercial Crew programdid so with a clear idea: to partner with private companies that would design and operate their own ships under fixed-price contracts. Boeing and SpaceX have been part of this scheme since its origin, with the aim of guaranteeing regular manned access to low orbit. The Starliner manned test flight in June 2024 was to complete the technical validation process of the Boeing capsule before its certification, but anomalies detected during the mission completely altered the initial plan. Now, when officially classifying This test as a “Type A Incident”, NASA places what happened at the highest level of its incident scale and recognizes that the magnitude of the episode goes beyond a simple technical setback. What happened in 2024. On June 5, 2024, the CST-100 Starliner took off heading to the International Space Station on its first crewed flight with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board. The mission was initially planned to last between eight and fourteen days as a comprehensive test of the system. However, during the approach They detected helium leaks and failures in the thrustersand NASA explained that a loss of maneuverability occurred as the crew approached the station, although control was regained before docking. The stay ended up extending up to 93 days and, after reviewing the flight data and performing tests on the ground, The space agency decided that the vehicle would return in September 2024 without the astronautswhich finally returned to Earth in March 2025 aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission. A devastating report. The independent investigation team, formed in February 2025, examined the technical, organizational and cultural factors that contributed to the problems with the test flight. According to their conclusions, there was a combination of hardware failures, gaps in the qualification processes, leadership errors and cultural dysfunctions that generated risk conditions incompatible with the safety standards of the agency’s manned flight program. NASA has indicated that it accepts this document as the final report and that work to identify the technical root cause continues. What does “Type A mishap” (Type A Incident) mean? NASA uses this category as the highest level within its incident system. Let us remember that this definition includes cases such as damages exceeding 2 million dollars, the loss of control or destruction of a vehicle or the loss of human life. In the case of the Starliner flight, there were no injuries and, according to the agency, the mission regained control before docking, but there was a loss of maneuverability during the approach and associated financial damages. The designation recognizes that there was potential for a major mishap and that the conditions generated cannot be dismissed as a simple technical mismatch. SpaceX Dragon 2 NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was explicit in addressing the cultural dimension of the problem. “It is decision-making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight,” he declared at the press conference. The head of the agency maintained that the classification as “Type A mishap” seeks to “make things clear” and ensure that what happened is recorded appropriately for future learning. He also admitted that allowing the program itself to initially investigate itself was “incompatible with NASA’s safety culture,” a practice that, he explained, it has decided to correct. Boeing’s response. In a statement released after the report’s publicationthe company stated that it remains “committed to NASA’s vision of having two commercial crew providers” and thanked the agency for the research. Boeing maintains that in the 18 months since the test flight it has made progress in corrective actions to address the technical challenges detected and has driven cultural changes within the team. Images | POT In Xataka | NASA’s megarocket no longer leaks: Artemis 2 passes its vital test and clears the path to the Moon

NASA has seen that it accelerates and slows down to the rhythm of the seasons

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On the icy and remote islands of Svalbard archipelago In Norway, the Earth hides ice colossi with behavior that fascinates science. And they are not frozen static masses, but rather incredibly dynamic frozen rivers that have been under the watchful eye of NASA satellites. Something really important because he has been able to capture an amazing phenomenon on the Stonebreen Glacier: a flow pattern that simulates a seasonal “beat”, and that even has a very characteristic red color. A transformation phenomenon. The recent article published by the NASA Earth Observatoryreveals how this glacier transforms during the warmer months. The data show a brutal choreography in which the ice moved at speeds of up to 2,590 meters per year in the summer of 2020. Although the real question here is what exactly makes this glacier “beat” with such force and how we have managed to measure it with such precision. Melt water. Glaciologist Chad Greene, a key researcher in this discovery, explains that the secret of this heartbeat lies in the water. During the summer, melt water penetrates to the base of the glacier and this water dramatically increases the hydrostatic pressure, acting as a powerful lubricant between the immense mass of ice and the bedrock. In this way, by losing friction, the glacier slides towards the ocean at dizzying speeds. Scientists call this phenomenon “upwelling.” While the vast majority of the planet’s glaciers flow at a more or less constant speed, only 1% of global glaciers experience this type of cycle of rapid advance and subsequent dormancy. Coincidentally, Svalbard is one of the places in the world where this anomalous behavior is most common. ITS_LIVE. Tracking the movement of a glacier millimeter by millimeter is not a simple task at all, and to achieve this, scientists have used this technology, which is a monumental initiative. developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This system acts as a large, high-resolution global radar and to this end, it automatically processes millions of pairs of optical and radar images obtained by satellite constellations such as NASA’s Landsat and ESA’s Sentinel using a powerful algorithm called autoRIFT. A long process. It is not something that can be done in two days of analysis, but to achieve this result it has been necessary to process more than 36 million pairs of images collected since 1982. By processing this data, the tools are capable of generating maps where the colors reveal the movement: intense red to identify fast flows and pink for slower progress. A fragile giant. The science behind Stonebreen has been fascinating researchers for years, since previous studies already warned about the precarious situation of the glacier. In 2017, Strozzi’s team documented how the glacier underwent significant frontal destabilization, and after a slow retreat that lasted until 2011, it experienced a strong acceleration driven by the loss of thickness and, possibly, the intrusion of unusually warm ocean water. The problem is that part of the glacier is anchored below sea level for six kilometers from its front. This particularity makes it extremely vulnerable both to melting and to erosion by the ocean itself in front of it. Its relevance. In a context of climate emergency like the one we live in, understanding these beats is vital. As Noël’s team has already demonstrated, the low altitude of the glaciers in Svalbard is directly correlated with a very high variability in ice mass loss, which can be a disaster as sea levels rise. That is why these projects are very important, since they allow almost real-time research, not only of the wonderful seasonal “heartbeat” of nature, but it is our best predictive tool to calculate exactly how the melt will behave and, consequently, how it will affect the entire ecosystem. Images | Vince Gx In Xataka | So much ice has melted in Greenland that plankton has grown by 40%. It’s not good news

NASA had been refusing to allow its astronauts to carry iPhones for decades. For Artemis II you have made a historic decision

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Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, has announced an important change for astronauts: the crew will be allowed to carry their personal smartphones. The objective is simple, to allow both photographs and videos recorded during space missions to be shared. what has happened. The publication has been informal and outside the official NASA press page. Via X, Isaacman has revealed that the crew of Crew-12 and Artemis II you will be able to fly with “modern smartphones”. “NASA astronauts will soon fly with the latest smartphones, starting with Crew-12 and Artemis II. We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and videos with the world. Equally important, we are challenging legacy processes and enabling modern hardware for spaceflight on an accelerated timeline. This operational urgency will serve NASA well as we strive to achieve the highest value science and research in orbit and on the lunar surface. This is a small step in the right direction.” Without detailing models or limitations, it makes it quite clear that soon we will see more than one iPhone flying over a ship far from our planet. What was happening until now. Historically, NASA has only allowed Nikon cameras (a Japanese company with which it has had an agreement for more than a decade) to be brought on board. Initially with some of their DSLRs, and recently with the Nikon Z9, the latest generation mirrorless authorized for Artemis. Because. For decades, NASA has operated under an extremely strict security framework for any object boarding a manned spacecraft. The devices must not interfere with critical systems, their batteries have to meet very specific requirements to minimize the risk of fire, they cannot contain materials that can fragment in microgravity and they must pass certification processes associated with an exact hardware model. For the first time, the agency will allow the use of mobile phones on a manned mission certified by its own procedures, marking a significant shift in how NASA evaluates and accepts commercial technology on board. When. The departure of Artemis II, after some delayis scheduled for the month of March. After several dress rehearsals, NASA is not prepared to return to the Moon, because of old ghosts like the complexity of liquid hydrogen. It will not be the first time that a modern mobile phone travels to space, but it will be the first time that its use is authorized within a manned mission managed directly by NASA. Until now, mobile phones and tablets had flown on SpaceX missions under more flexible operating frameworks, serving as a background to evaluate their behavior during the mission. In Xataka | When the United States decided to go to the Moon, it did so no matter what the cost. And that included 60% of all its chips

Critical dress rehearsal leak forces NASA to delay Artemis II

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If we learned something with Artemis I in 2022 is that liquid hydrogen is possibly the biggest enemy of NASA’s patience in its missions. And in the last few hours the US space agency has confirmed what many of us feared after a difficult weekend: the launch of Artemis IIthe mission that must take astronauts around the Moon, officially delayed until March. An accumulation of errors. These days NASA had on its agenda to do a ‘general rehearsal’ for the launch of this new mission that aims to test its equipment to take the final leap: put man on Mars in the future. And everything seemed to be ready, with the astronauts in strict quarantine since January 23. But in the end, Florida’s weather reminded us again that it reigns supreme with freezing temperatures and strong winds that forced these plans to stop. Some specific limits. A priori, these adverse conditions should not be a problem for cutting-edge operation, but the reality is that the SLS rocket has very strict operating limits: it cannot safely load fuel if the temperature drops below 4.4ºC for more than 30 minutes. Something that eliminated the launch window that It was scheduled between February 6 and 7moving hope to February 8. The coup de grace. But if the weather was already a big problem, in the last few hours the last major inconvenience has arrived while retrying to refuel under more favorable conditions. It was none other than a leak of liquid hydrogen that was detected at the umbilical interface of the rear service mast while the test was being carried out. Something that has forced everything that was being done to stop, and logically to make decisions that are very hard. Safety first. Although the agency managed to complete many of the test objectives, the hydrogen concentration exceeded safety limits, forcing the rocket to be drained. Administrator Jared Isaacman has been blunt– Crew and vehicle safety is the top priority, so no launch window will be forced. A ‘dejà vu’. For fans of the Artemis show, this sounds painfully familiar. The situation is almost a carbon copy of what was experienced with Artemis I in 2022and although at that time it was not the weather, there were recurring technical failures such as propellant leaks and problems with the pressure fans that caused multiple cancellations of the general rehearsal. Because of those technical problems, they were forced to return the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building for much more thorough checks, pushing the April launch to the end of August. Now the similarity lies in the complexity of liquid hydrogen, an ultracold and extremely difficult to contain fuel that remains the Achilles heel of these missions. What will happen now? For now, with all these problems behind us, the launch window that lasted until February 11 has been completely ruled out. This forces us to look for a new date that NASA aims for sometime in March 2026although without specifying a specific day. To do this, they must still analyze data and above all have a successful general rehearsal to validate the safety of the operation. As far as the astronauts are concerned, it no longer makes sense for them to remain quarantined at the Kennedy Space Center, so they will return to Houston until there is a new firm launch date. Images | POT In Xataka | Claude begins to seem unstoppable: NASA has already used him to plan routes for the Perseverance rover on Mars

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