NASA in the Week of July 26, 2019: Moon Landers, Apollo 11 at 50 and Chris Kraft

This page describes NASA news from the week of July 26, 2019, as reported in the agency's This Week @NASA video.

Looking for a Moon lander

NASA asked American companies for ideas for a human landing system for its Artemis program, which then aimed to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. NASA's own studies pointed to a three-stage lander to carry astronauts between the Moon and the planned lunar Gateway, but the agency invited other approaches that could meet the same long-term goals of reaching anywhere on the Moon and reusing hardware. Artemis missions were meant to use lessons from the Moon to prepare for human missions to Mars.

Aeronautics at Oshkosh

NASA took part in the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture Oshkosh 2019 with forums and exhibits on the latest aeronautics research, a history of the space race during Project Apollo, and updates on current and future science and exploration programs.

Apollo 11 at 50

The 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 continued with a special NASA Science Live episode on July 23, broadcast from the USS Hornet, the aircraft carrier that recovered the Apollo 11 capsule. Splashdown ended the crew's mission but began the study of the samples they brought back; the episode covered what the Apollo missions taught, what scientists are still learning from them, and what Artemis might reveal.

On July 24 — fifty years to the day after Apollo 11 splashed down — the mission's command module pilot, Michael Collins, spoke from Johnson Space Center in Houston with the crew of the International Space Station. The station crew told him they hoped to keep alive the innovative spirit Apollo had sparked, and Collins saluted them in return, remarking that the Apollo team had never realized they were starting something so complex. The station is a multinational laboratory and technology test bed where NASA studies human health and other research needed for future exploration.

A Dragon to the station

On July 25, SpaceX launched its Dragon cargo spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying supplies, equipment and science experiments to the space station on the company's 18th resupply mission for NASA.

Chris Kraft

Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director, died on July 22 at 95. He created the concept of Mission Control and led human spaceflight operations from Project Mercury through Apollo 12. As director of Johnson Space Center, he remained central to the success of the last Apollo missions and the first space shuttle flights. His model of mission operations is still used every day by the International Space Station's mission control team.

Sources

• NASA, NASA Image and Video Library: "Seeking Landers to Return Humans to the Moon on This Week @NASA – July 26, 2019." The spoken words of the station crew and Michael Collins are paraphrased.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.