SpaceWatchtower: July 2022

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Citizen Science: Help NASA Find Martian Clouds & Exo-Planets

Clouds drifting over “Mont Mercou,” a cliff face on Mars studied by the NASA Curiosity Mars Rover. This is a combination of several images, color-corrected, from just after sunset on 2021 March 19.
(Image Sources: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

Two Citizen Science projects, recently announced by NASA, could help scientists find clouds on Mars and find planets orbiting other stars. And, prizes are even being offered for successful submissions in the Exo-planet search project!

Cloudspotting on Mars

Using the Citizen Science Platform Zooniverse, the new Citizen Science project Cloudspotting on Mars could help scientists understand a fundamental mystery about Mars’ atmosphere: according to a NASA news release, “why the planet’s (Mars) atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s even though ample evidence suggests the planet (Mars) used to have a much thicker atmosphere...”

“The air pressure is so low that liquid water simply vaporizes from the planet’s surface into the atmosphere. But billions of years ago, lakes and rivers covered Mars, suggesting the atmosphere must have been thicker then.”

NASA asks members of the general public to sort through data collected by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to identify Martian clouds. Like Earth, Mars has clouds made of water-ice (H2O).

But, due to the much colder environment, Mars also has clouds composed of carbon dioxide (CO2 – similar to “dry ice”). By learning more about how all of these clouds form, scientists hope to better understand the structure of the Martian atmosphere.

“We want to learn what triggers the formation of clouds – especially water ice clouds, which could teach us how high water vapor gets in the atmosphere – and during which seasons,” said Marek Slipski, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Using 16 years of data, compiled by the Climate Sounder instrument (which studies the atmosphere in infrared light) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, Citizen Scientists are best equipped to identify the significant cloud “arches” in the data. While scientists have tried using computer algorithms to identify these cloud arches, they have found that it is much easier, and more reliable, for humans to spot the Martian cloud arches data by eye.

Go to the following Internet link to find out how you can participate in the Cloudspotting on Mars project:

Link >>> https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marek-slipski/cloudspotting-on-mars/classify

Ultralight Starshade Structural Design Challenge

This is a different type of Citizen Science project. And, the top five submissions will share a prize purse of $7,000!

With the great success of the Sun-shield on the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA is now looking for ways to extend such protection to Earth-bound telescopes. In this case, the Earth-bound telescopes would be shaded from light coming from distant stars, in the hope that the much dimmer light from planets circling those stars could be found.

The Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exo-planets (HOEE) project would reinvigorate ground-based telescopes, which may have been considered inferior to the new space telescopes that have been launched in recent decades. An Ultralight Starshade, launched into Earth orbit, would be a key component to making such Hybrid Observatory system a reality.

According to a NASA news release: “The Ultralight Starshade Structural Design Challenge asks participants to develop a lightweight starshade structure that could be used as part of the HOEE concept. The ideal design would allow for compact packaging and successful deployment once in its Earth orbit. It must also have the lowest possible mass so that chemical thrusters can keep it aligned during observations and propulsion systems can change its orbit to observe different targets – all while using as little fuel as possible.”

“The hybrid observatory might help us answer some of the most pressing questions about extraterrestrial life,” said Dr. John Mather, senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. “Observing many systems would help answer the question of why configurations like our own are rare and why none is quite like home. It is truly exciting that the public can be part of this revolutionary effort. I can’t wait to see what ideas they bring to the table.”

As previously mentioned, the Ultralight Starshade Structural Design Challenge has a combined prize purse of $7,000. The individual prizes are:

First Place - $3,000

Second Place - $2,000

Third Place - $1,000

Fourth Place - $750

Fifth Place - $250

The DEADLINE to submit an entry in the Ultralight Starshade Structural Design Challenge is Monday Evening, 2022 August 22 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time (EDT) / Tuesday Morning, 2022 August 23 at 3:59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Challenge finalists will be announced on 2022 August 29. The 5 winners will be announced on 2022 September 5.

Go to the following Internet link to find out how you can submit an entry in the Ultralight Starshade Structural Design Challenge:

Link >>> https://grabcad.com/challenges/nasa-challenge-ultralight-starshade-structural-design

Internet Links to Additional Information ---

NASA News Release - "Help NASA Scientists Find Clouds on Mars"

Link >>> https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/help-nasa-scientists-find-clouds-on-mars

NASA News Release - "NASA Seeks Public's Designs to Throw Shade in Space"

Link >>> https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-seeks-public-s-designs-to-throw-shade-in-space

Mars: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -

Link 1 >>> https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/

Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter

Exo-Planet: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanet

Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exo-planets (HOEE):

Link >>> https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2022/Hybrid_Observatory_for_Earth_like_Exoplanets/

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss

Wednesday, 2022 July 27.

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Informal Science Educator & Communicator (For more than 50 years! - Since Monday Morning, 1972 June 12):
Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project Director, Friends of the Zeiss: Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/
SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/
Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991.
Formerly Trustee, Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh: Link >>> http://www.planetarium.cc Buhl Observatory: Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2016/11/75th-anniversary-americas-5th-public.html
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago: Link >>> http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear: Link >>> http://johnbrashear.tripod.com
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries: Link >>> http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc

* Other Walsh-Authored Blog & Web-Sites: Link >>> https://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/gawweb.html

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

NASA Delays VIPER Moon Rover Launch to 2024

Artist's rendering of what the NASA VIPER Rover would look like during lunar night. (Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org, By NASA - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-viper-lunar-rover-to-map-water-ice-on-the-moon, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83402525)

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

Monday (2022 July 18), NASA announced a one-year delay in the launch of the VIPER Rover, that would search for water-ice in craters near the Moon's South Pole. NASA has ordered additional tests on the Moon Lander, called Griffin. Both VIPER and Griffin are manufactured by Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh.

Originally scheduled for launch in November of 2023, VIPER and Griffin are now scheduled for launch in November of 2024. They will be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The VIPER mission is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

NASA requested the one year delay in the VIPER mission, to allow additional ground testing of the Griffin Lunar Lander. The additional testing is to reduce the risks to the VIPER mission, by this completely new lander spacecraft. Consequently, NASA will provide Astrobotic with an additional $67.8 million , for a new total project cost of $320.4 million.

Earlier this month, NASA briefly lost contact with another mission headed toward the Moon. The CAPSTONE lunar orbiter (a 12-unit cubsat launched by private company Rocket Lab) will test and verify the lunar orbital stability, in anticipation of the planned Lunar Gateway Space Station (which will be used by astronauts on their way to the Moon). After losing contact with CAPSTONE for one day, on July 5, NASA officials may want to be even more careful with the much larger and more expensive VIPER.

“Through CLPS, NASA has tasked U.S. companies to perform a very challenging technological feat – to successfully land and operate on the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, in a news release. “VIPER is NASA’s largest and most sophisticated science payload to be delivered to the Moon through CLPS, and we've implemented enhanced lander testing for this particular CLPS surface delivery.”

NASA considers VIPER, as well as other CLPS missions, as a fundamental part of the mission to send men and women back to the Moon via the Artemis spacecraft. CLPS payloads will provide the foundation of information needed to explore the Moon and environs.

The primary mission of VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is to prospect for resources at and near the Moon's South Pole. In particular, VIPER will be looking for water-ice that may be found in areas of craters which are permanently shaded from sunlight. Future missions could use such water (H2O) for drinking, producing oxygen (O2), and rocket fuel.

The South Pole of the Moon has been a great interest to NASA, ever since it was determined that water-ice may exist in the permanently shaded areas of craters in or near the South Pole. However, even after the completion of the first manned missions to the Moon, a lot was still unknown about the Moon's South Pole.

About 40 years ago, American Lunar Society Founder Francis G. Graham (today he is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Kent State University) participated in a national research project to better map the area near the Moon's South Pole. As part of the project, he took photographs of the Moon's South Pole area using the historic 10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope at the original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science and technology museum from 1939 to 1991.

Later this year, Astrobotic will be launching another mission to the Moon. Iris, a small rover built by Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), will be the smallest, first American, first university-built, and first student-built rover on the Earth's Moon.

A commercial spin-off from CMU, Astrobotic will open a Moonshot Museum on Pittsburgh's Lower North Side in October. This new museum will be located adjacent to Astrobotic's manufacturing facility. In addition to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education for young people, this museum will allow the general public to watch Moon rovers being constructed.

Internet Links to Additional Information ---

NASA VIPER Rover -

Link 1 >>> https://www.nasa.gov/viper

Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIPER_(rover)

Griffin Lunar Lander: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobotic_Technology#Griffin_lander

NASA CAPSTONE Lunar Orbiter: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPSTONE

NASA Lunar Gateway Space Station: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Gateway

NASA Artemis Program: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program

Related Blog-Posts ---

"CMU to Build 1st Univ.-Based Space Mission Control." Mon., 2022 April 18.

Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2022/04/cmu-to-build-1st-univ-based-space.html

"Library to be Established on the Moon !" Mon., 2018 May 21.

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2018/05/library-to-be-established-on-moon.html

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss

Tuesday, 2022 July 19.

* Other Walsh-Authored Blog & Web-Sites: Link >>> https://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/gawweb.html

Thursday, July 14, 2022

1st James Webb Space Telescope Images Released by NASA

$an undulating, translucent star-forming region in the Carina Nebula is shown in this Webb image, hued in ambers and blues; foreground stars with diffraction spikes can be seen, as can a speckling of background points of light through the cloudy nebula$

This stunning, infra-red image of the Carina Nebula was one of the first images received from the newly-activated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This huge, swirling cloud of dust and gas is both a stellar nursery and home to some of the brightest and most active stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. (Image Sources: NASA, European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute)

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

This week, NASA has released the first full-color images from the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is much larger than the Hubble Space Telescope, is designed to seek stars and galaxies shortly after the “Big Bang”, the creation of our Universe approximately 13.8 billion years ago. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST), along with most traditional terrestrial telescopes, observe using visible light. The JWST is designed to use the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to search where visible light telescopes cannot.

The scientists have been pleasantly surprised at how well the JWST is operating, with some gorgeous first images, including the image of the Carina Nebula at the beginning of this blog-post.

Internet links to additional First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope are located near the end of this blog-post.

As one NASA scientist, Jane Rigby, put it at a Tuesday news conference: “I had the very emotional reaction of ‘Oh my goodness, it works. And it works better than we thought.” Astrophysicist Jane Rigby works at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and is Operations Project Scientist for the JWST.

In addition to the images released to the public, 13 research projects have already begun using JWST. This research ranges from objects in our own Solar System to exo-planets (planets orbiting other stars), the evolution of stars, black holes, and galaxies, and intergalactic space.

JWST has already made one discovery regarding exo-planet WASP-96b, which was not made with ground-based telescopes or with the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore were quite surprised when the readings from JWST indicated that this exo-planet has water, probably water vapor in the atmosphere as it is very close to its host star. There was also evidence of clouds in the atmosphere. The study of exo-planet atmospheres was included in the design of JWST.

Due to the very close proximity of exo-planet WASP-96b to its host star, the planet is unlikely to have any life. However, exo-planets that might be life-bearing candidates will likely be found in the future with JWST, even if life on a particular planet cannot be proven at such a great distance.

One minor disappointment was when scientists realized that one of the hexagonal mirrors had been damaged more than expected by a micro-meteoroid strike in late May. NASA officials have taken steps to ensure that the distortion from the damaged mirror is barely noticeable. NASA is considering what other steps can be taken to ameliorate the cosmic dust and micro-meteoroids that are encountered by JWST.

Over the last few decades, NASA has had much success with the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope (albeit, after an optics correction), several missions to Mars, and the New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond. The James Webb Space Telescope took a lot of time to construct at a pretty hefty price tag, but NASA got it right again! The James Webb Space Telescope will provide new scientific information and discoveries, paid for by American, European, and Canadian taxpayers and freely given-away for the benefit of all human-kind!

More About the Telescope

JWST is the largest space telescope ever launched. With a primary mirror size of 21.3 feet / 6.5 meters, it is much larger than the HST primary mirror: 7.8 feet / 2.4 meters.

The JWST mirror is comprised of 18 gold-plated beryllium, hexagonal segments. A 5-layer Sun-shield, the size of a tennis court, protects the mirror from any heat radiated by the Sun, Earth, or Moon. Made of silicon and aluminum-coated Kapton, this Sun-shield should keep the JWST primary mirror and related instruments at a temperature no higher than 50 degrees Kelvin / -370 degrees Fahrenheit / -223 degrees Celsius. To search for the earliest galaxies and stars in the Universe, using infrared, the telescope mirror must be extremely cold and shielded from heat.

After the 2021 Christmas morning launch of JWST, the telescope traveled 930,000 statute miles / 1.5 million kilometers from Earth to a point in Deep Space known as L2. L2 is the second Lagrange Point of the Earth – Sun system. A Lagrange Point is a site where the gravity between two large bodies, in this case the Earth and the Sun, is relatively balanced; satellites can stay at such a point with minimum energy usage. It is a point in Deep Space where the JWST can remain, somewhat easily, in an orbit and away from the heat of the Earth and the Sun.

The JWST mission has four key goals:

Search for light from the very first stars and galaxies that formed in our Universe, shortly after the Big Bang. The Universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old; JWST is expected to find light from stars and galaxies approximately 13.5 billion years in the past (13.5 billion light-years from Earth).
Study the formation and evolution of galaxies.
Study the formation of stars and planetary systems..
Further study planetary systems, looking for the origins of life.

The Hubble and James Webb space telescopes are different in mission duration. The Hubble Space Telescope has had the advantage of being in a close Earth orbit, where Space Shuttle astronauts have been able to service and upgrade the telescope. With the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program, the ability to service and upgrade the HST seems to have ended. As the HST is now, it is expected to last until some tine in the 2030s.

The JWST, being placed much further away from the Earth, cannot be serviced or upgraded by current space technology. To stay at the L2 orbital site, which is a somewhat unstable orbit, rocket propellant must be used. JWST has 10 years of rocket propellant on-board, to maintain the L2 configuration of the telescope. So, 10 years is the upper limit of the mission duration.

The nominal science mission is officially 5 years, with the hope that the telescope can continue to be used for research for 10 years. Once the JWST spacecraft reached L2, there was a 6-month commissioning phase, before the official science mission began. The commissioning phase included the careful, and very risky, unfolding of the huge telescope mirror, very crucial Sun-shield, and related instruments.

The JWST is named after James Webb, the second Administrator of NASA. James Webb ran NASA from February of 1961 until October of 1968, for seven years retiring just before the first manned flight of the Apollo spacecraft.

He was in charge of NASA during all Mercury and Gemini flights. And, he was Administrator during the investigation of the tragic fire, which killed three astronauts, during a ground test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft on Friday, 1967 January 27.

The James Webb Space Telescope, originally designed to cost $1 billion to $3.5 billion, had many cost over-runs, throughout the many years of development and delays. With the launch of JWST, the final cost of the project was $10 billion.

More than 30 years ago, even before the 1990 launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, planning had begun on JWST. Construction of JWST began in 2004, after having been named to honor James Webb in 2002.

In 1993, when the U.S. Congress killed the Superconducting Super Collider project for particle physics in Texas, scientists had feared the same thing would happen to JWST. But, former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) helped to save JWST at that time.

The launch of JWST had been expected some time between 2007 and 2011. Due to continual cost over-runs, the launch kept being delayed. In 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cancel the JWST project, due to the continual cost over-runs. Scientists and space enthusiasts, including teachers and school children, successfully rallied to save the project.

As it took many years to develop and construct the JWST, planning for the next great space telescope has just begun. In November, a committee convened by the independent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has recommended that another huge space telescope should be designed and built to study exo-planets (planets orbiting stars other than our Sun) and search for signs of life. It is projected that this new telescope would be launched some time in the 2040s.

First Images from JWST: Link >>> https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

NASA Gallery of More First Images from JWST: Link >>> https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images/gallery

Internet Links to Additional Information ---

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) -

Link 1 >>> https://jwst.nasa.gov/

Link 2 >>> https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/main/index.html

Link 3 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope

L2 - Second Lagrange Point in Earth - Sun System:

Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point#L2

Related Blog-Post ---

"Finally! Live-Stream: Christmas Launch of Next Great Space Telescop." Fri., 2021 Dec. 24.

Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2021/12/finally-live-stream-christmas-launch-of.html

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss

Thursday, 2022 July 14.

* Other Walsh-Authored Blog & Web-Sites: Link >>> https://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/gawweb.html

Friday, July 8, 2022

NASA Beginning Tests of Low-Boom SST

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Low-Boom_Flight_Demonstrator.jpg

NASA is beginning tests of the experimental, X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology Low-Boom Demonstrator, manufactured at Skunk Works by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. (Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org, By Lockheed Martin Corporation - https://images.nasa.gov/details-Flying_002%20Photo%20credit%20Lockheed%20Martin, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68018117)

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

Supersonic Transport (SST) passenger aircraft service across the Atlantic Ocean ended shortly after the beginning of the 21^st century. One reason service ended was the intrusive Sonic-booms heard when the jets flew overhead. Now, NASA is beginning tests of a SST aircraft, designed to minimize those Sonic-booms, which could dramatically reduce transport times within and beyond the Continental United States.

NASA's experimental X-59 QueSST ("Quiet SuperSonic Technology") has been designed specifically to solve the problem of loud Sonic-booms heard on the ground, when a jet aircraft exceeds the Sound Barrier. It is part of NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator Project.

The QueSST has been designed by the Lockheed Martin Corporation, at their “Skunk Works” facility in Palmdale, California. NASA awarded the $247.5 million contract, for design, construction, and delivery of the X-59, to Lockheed Martin on 2018 April 2.

Officially, Skunk Works is known as the company's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), which was formerly known as the Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. Skunk Works was responsible for the development of World War II-era aircraft such as the P-38 Lightning (1939) and the P-80 Shooting Star (1943), as well as Cold War-era aircraft such as the U-2, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, F-22 Raptor, and F-35 Lightning II. The name Skunk Works comes from the moonshine factory in the comic-strip Li'l Abner, which is meant to denote an autonomous group working on advanced and / or secret projects.

In February of 2016, NASA and Lockheed Martin started preliminary designs for the X-59. The first prototype aircraft was delivered to NASA last year, with testing to begin this year.

The objective is to find a Sonic-boom sound level that is acceptable to the general public on the ground (or water surface, for that matter). It is not physically possible for an aircraft to fly faster than the Speed of Sound without some type of Sonic-boom. So, a “Low-Boom” Sonic-boom is the goal for the X-59.

The expectation is that the X-59 will reach Mach 1.42 (1.42 times the Speed of Sound) / 937 miles-per-hour / 1,510 kilometers-per-hour, at an altitude of 55,000 feet / 16,800 meters.

This is expected to provide a 75 Perceived Level Decibel (PldB) “thump”, in place of the loud Sonic-boom. By flying the X-59 over populated areas, NASA is optimistic that these test flights will demonstrate that people will accept low-boom SST aircraft over-flying the interior of America.

NASA's QueSST Mission has two specific goals ---

Design and build NASA’s X-59 research aircraft with technology that reduces the loudness of a Sonic-boom to a gentle thump to people on the ground;
Fly the X-59 over select U.S. communities to gather data on human responses to the sound generated during Supersonic flight and deliver that data set to U.S. and international regulators.

NASA has organized the QueSST Mission within two of the agency's aeronautical programs ---

Advanced Air Vehicles Program;
Integrated Aviation Systems Program.

Four NASA research facilities have been involved in the QueSST project ---

Samuel Pierpont Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia;
John Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland;
Ames Research Center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley;
Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center inside Edwards Air Force Base, California.

The British and French governments co-sponsored the Concorde SST, which began flying commercial passenger service in the last millennium. Concorde provided service from 1976 January 21 until the aircraft's retirement on 2003 October 24.

The Concorde aircraft could reach a speed of Mach 2.04 (2.04 times the Speed of Sound) / 1,346.511 miles-per-hour / 2,167 kilometers-per-hour. It may be that NASA officials believe a slower SST is more likely to meet Sonic-boom noise levels acceptable to the general public.

Commercial flights began between Paris (Charles de Gaulle Airport) and London (Heathrow Airport). Trans-Atlantic service, which was the most lucrative market, soon also started to Washington (Dulles International Airport) and New York City (John F. Kennedy International Airport).

The only other passenger SST was the Russian Tupolev TU-144, which provided commercial service from November of 1977 until a 1978 May airliner crash.

A larger and faster U.S. SST was canceled by the Boeing Corporation in 1971. Environmental problems, Sonic-booms, and the eventual ban of any SST flying over the Continental United States finally led to the cancellation of the Boeing 2707.

Internet Links to Additional Information ---

NASA X-59 QueSST Aircraft -

Link 1 >>> https://www.nasa.gov/X59

Link 2 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_X-59_QueSST

Link 3 - Short NASA Video: >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRdKx4X0-ak

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works

Aviation Pioneer & Astronomer Samuel Pierpont Langley:

Link >>> https://johnbrashear.tripod.com/bio/LangleySP.htm

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeis

Friday, 2022 July 8.