Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Downlink/2024/December

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	The Downlink	The WikiProject Spaceflight Newsletter
		1 November 2021 — 31 December 2023

Special Issue 1
Spaceflight Project • Project discussion • Members • Assessment • Open tasks • Popular pages • The Downlink
Special Announcement The Downlink's first run was from December 2010 to March 2011, after which it was revived from October 2020 to October 2021. The second revival (volume 3 onwards) will mostly continue with the second volume's style. Depending on how many editors participate during and following volume 3, volume 4 onwards may see significant changes to format and style. This special issue is intended to cover the most important changes from the last issue to 31 December 2023. The next special issue will be published some time in January 2025. After that, special issues will only be published for significant events (decided by consensus at The Downlink talk page). My apologies for the length.
In the News 2021 The DART mission was launched on 24 November. It successfully impacted Dimorphos on 26 September 2022. A new record for the largest numbers of people in space (19) was set on 11 December, with ten people on the ISS, three on the Tiangong Space Station, and six on New Shepard flight 19. The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December. An international partnership between NASA, ESA, and CSA, it reached its destination in January 2022. Its first image was made public on 11 July 2022. 2022 Boeing launched its Starliner capsule on 19 May. The planned launch of the Rosalind Franklin rover using the Russian Kazachok lander was cancelled in March due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The CAPSTONE lunar orbiter, verifying the orbital stability of the Lunar Gateway, was launched on 28 June. It reached its destination on 14 November. Danuri, South Korea's first lunar orbiter, was launched on 4 August. It entered lunar orbit on 16 December. Blue Origin's uncrewed NS-23 flight was launched on 12 September. A failure resulted in a pause to all New Shepard launches for over a year. On 3 October, the ISRO declared that the Mars Orbiter Mission had died. Construction of Tiangong was finished on 31 October with the installation of the Mengtian module. Artemis 1 was launched on 16 November. It was the first flight of the Space Launch System and first lunar mission for the Orion spacecraft. On 11 December, the Hakuto-R Mission 1 was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket. Planned to land on the moon in April 2023, a failure in the propulsion system resulted in the mission being terminated on 12 May 2023. It crashed into the moon on 25 April 2023. In December, NASA announced that the InSight lander had ceased communications with Earth. The mission was declared over on the 21st. 2023 The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer was launched on 14 April. Starship was launched for the first time on 20 April. Several engines on the booster failed, ending the mission before stage separation. A new record for largest number of people in space (20) was set on 25 May, with eleven people on the ISS, three on Tiangong, and six on VSS Unity. A new record for largest number of people in orbit (17) was set on 30 May, with six people on Tiangong and eleven on the ISS. The ESA's Euclid telescope on 1 July by a Falcon 9. EchoStar XXIV was launched on 29 July, becoming the heaviest geostationary satellite ever launched at 9 tonnes (8.9 long tons; 9.9 short tons). OSIRIS-REx successfully returned samples collected from Bennu on 24 September. NASA's Psyche spacecraft was launched on 13 October on board a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. Dinkinesh was revealed to be a binary pair of asteroids on 1 November following a flyby by the Lucy spacecraft. Starship flight test 2 successfully saw Starship reach space, but the first stage exploded shortly after separation and the second stage was lost after eight minutes. The United States broke the record for most launches by a nation (108). The record was previously held by the Soviet Union since 1982.
Featured Content 2021 The article Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was promoted to Featured Article status on 17 November 2021. It was nominated by Balon Greyjoy. The article Jim Lovell was promoted to Featured Article status on 26 December 2021. It was nominated by Hawkeye7 and Balon Greyjoy. The article Apollo 5 was promoted to Featured Article status on 15 December 2021. It was nominated by Wehwalt. The image "Earthrise over Compton crater" was promoted to Featured Media status on 14 November 2021. It was nominated by Yann. 2022 The article Apollo 17 was promoted to Featured Article status on 22 February 2022. It was nominated by Wehwalt. The article Apollo 6 was promoted to Featured Article status on 23 May 2022. It was nominated by Wehwalt. The article NERVA was promoted to Featured Article status on 17 May 2022. It was nominated by Hawkeye7. The article Apollo 10 was promoted to Featured Article status on 12 August 2022. It was nominated by Wehwalt and Tyrol5. The article Sally Ride was promoted to Featured Article status on 10 August 2022. It was nominated by Hawkeye7 and Askeuhd. The article Kathryn D. Sullivan was promoted to Featured Article status on 27 September 2022. It was nominated by Hawkeye7 and TommyBoy. The article Ulf Merbold was promoted to Featured Article status on 19 November 2022. It was nominated by Kusma. The article Rhea Seddon was promoted to Featured Article status on 14 November 2022. It was nominated by Hawkeye7. The article Anna Lee Fisher was promoted to Featured Article status on 22 December 2022. It was nominated by Hawkeye7 and Balon Greyjoy. The article Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was promoted to Featured Article status on 16 December 2022. It was nominated by Balon Greyjoy. The video "DART Impact" was promoted to Featured Media status on 24 October 2022. It was nominated by Bammesk. The images "Gumdrop Meets Spider" and "Schweickart Apollo 9 EVA" were promoted to Featured Media status on 3 November 2022. They were nominated by Bammesk. The image "SpaceX CRS-20 mission" was promoted to Featured Media status on 30 November 2022. It was nominated by Bammesk. 2023 The article Shannon Lucid was promoted to Featured Article status on 12 January 2022. It was nominated by Hawkeye7.
Article of the Month Article for November 2024. Decision was made unilaterally. Apollo 15 postal covers incident The Apollo 15 postal covers incident, a 1972 NASA scandal, involved the astronauts of Apollo 15, who carried about 400 unauthorized postal covers into space and to the Moon's surface on the Lunar Module Falcon. Some of the envelopes were sold at high prices by West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger, and are known as "Sieger covers". The crew of Apollo 15—David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin—agreed to take payments for carrying the covers; though they returned the money, they were reprimanded by NASA. Amid much press coverage of the incident, the astronauts were called before a closed session of a Senate committee and never flew in space again.	Image of the Month Image for November 2024. Decision was made unilaterally. Apollo 4 Liftoff The Apollo 4 unmanned mission lifts off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. This was the first flight for the enormous Saturn V rocket that would eventually take humans to the Moon.
Members New Members: James Denesuk (1 November 2021) | Lord Landyn II (2 November 2021) Nigos (7 December 2021) | Thitut (24 December 2021) KING WIKIPEDIAN DCCLXIV (3 January 2022) | Nrl103 (7 January 2022) Mameyn (8 January 2022) | TheSpaceWarlock5 (24 January 2022) SpacePod9 (27 January 2022) | Mortadella42 (12 February 2022) Harshdeep2021 (17 February 2022) | TaylorJO (24 March 2022) Lduffy92 (29 March 2022) | DirkJandeGeer (10 April 2022) ChekhovsGunman (4 June 2022) | PrecariousWorlds (27 June 2022) Timothytyy (1 August 2022) | Cameronburgess24 (26 August 2022) Darkcoucou (9 September 2022) | SpaceHist65 (19 September 2022) QuicksmartTortoise513 (31 October 2022) | Jesterr35 (19 December 2022) WiredAlexandria (20 January 2023) | Standing Alone (1 February 2023) Natalius (7 February 2023) | EnormityOP (31 March 2023) Horizon206 (18 April 2023) | Eco2004 (21 April 2023) AgrMohit (22 April 2023) | Cocobb8 (27 April 2023) Advocate marshallow (29 April 2023) | Gio1206bot (4 June 2023) Redacted II (8 June 2023) | TNM101 (9 June 2023) Aquabluetesla (11 June 2023) | Michael4278397 (20 June 2023) AzorzaI (12 July 2023) | SynnerInChief (4 August 2023) Footy2000 (8 August 2023) | Editingwithcoffee (11 August 2023) Akshadev (26 August 2023) | SalineBrain (24 October 2023) Binull (24 October 2023) | FrostyAnimations126 (28 November 2023) Explodingtnt30 (9 December 2023) | Ergzay (26 December 2023) RIP B1058 (29 December 2023) Number of active members: 175. Total number of members: 399. Launches Since Previous Downlink All times stated here are in UTC. See current lists: here, here, and here. Due to the length of this issue, only a few launches are included here. 2021 Falcon 9 Block 5 – DART (24 Nov. at 06:21:02) (success) Ariane 5 – JWST (25 Dec. at 12:20) (success) 2022 Long March 2F – Shenzhou 14 (5 Jun. at 02:44:10) (success) SSLV – EOS-02 (7 Aug. at 03:48) (launch failure) Space Launch System Block 1 – Artemis 1 (16 Nov. at 06:47:44) (success) 2023 Qaem 100 – Nahid-1 (4 Mar.) (launch failure) H3-22S – ALOS-3 (7 Mar. at 01:37:55) (launch failure) Ariane 5 – JUICE (14 Apr. at 12:14:29) (success) Starship – no payload (20 Apr. at 13:33:08) (launch failure) Starship – no payload (18 Nov. at 13:02:53) (launch failure) Chŏllima 1 – Malligyong-1 F3 (21 Nov. at 13:42:28) (success)	Article Statistics This data reflects values from the 31 December 2023. Spaceflight articles by quality and importance Quality Importance Top High Mid Low NA ??? Total FA 7 27 14 8 56 FL 2 4 4 10 FM 119 119 A 1 1 GA 11 28 36 54 129 B 18 86 175 174 2 455 C 46 133 492 585 15 1,271 Start 24 150 1,057 2,422 362 4,015 Stub 10 218 2,146 235 2,609 List 13 129 87 228 1 12 470 Category 1,147 1,147 Disambig 1 44 45 File 222 222 Portal 55 55 Project 109 109 Redirect 7 4 37 113 1,194 1,355 Template 1 1 504 506 Other 32 32 Assessed 126 570 2,121 5,736 3,427 626 12,606 Unassessed 1 1 3 268 273 Total 127 570 2,122 5,739 3,427 894 12,879 WikiWork factors (?) ω = 43,749 Ω = 4.91 Changes
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