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2020 was an epic year and with all the shutdowns due to the pandemic for manufacturers. For machinists and tool and die makers, it definitely is a year we are happy to see pass, but there is a lot to look forward to in 2021 especially for anyone working in the aerospace sector. Here, I am going to share six huge space events that anyone might get excited about, but should make those of us in manufacturing, precision machining, or tool and die making really have our sights on the aerospace and defence sector. Why should you care? The US government puts it like this on https://www.selectusa.gov/aerospace-industry-united-states “In 2018, the industry contributed $151 billion in export sales to the U.S. economy. Its positive trade balance of nearly $88 billion that year was the largest trade surplus of any manufacturing industry, supporting high-wage jobs for hundreds of thousands of American workers. At the end of 2018, foreign direct investment (FDI) into the U.S. aerospace industry totalled nearly $22 billion. “The U.S. aerospace industry is the largest in the world and offers a skilled and educated workforce, extensive distribution systems, diverse offerings, and strong support at the local and national level for policy and promotion. The U.S. aerospace industry directly employs about 509,000 workers in scientific and technical jobs across the nation and supports more than 700,000 jobs in related fields. Investment in the U.S. aerospace industry is facilitated by a large pool of well-trained machinists, aerospace engineers, and other highly-skilled workers with experience in the aerospace industry.” Now that we can see this is a growing sector and with all the talk of the Space Force, for any machinist who is looking to excel in his or her particular trade and wants to be at the cutting edge and honing their skills, the aerospace industry must be on the radar. Let's look at six exciting events happening in American space flight. An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover landing safely on Mars. | CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH Perseverance rover Mark Feb 21, 2021, on your calendar because that's when the Perseverance rover is scheduled to plummet to the surface of the red planet. The perseverance rover has two primary objectives to its mission: search for evidence of microbial life on Mars and test a battery of new technologies that need to be proven in order to facilitate humans going to Mars in the future. The perseverance rover has a mini helicopter that will launch from it to scan the mars environment. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test mission, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Orbital Flight Test with be Starliners maiden mission to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for a 6:26 a.m. EST launch on Dec. 20, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky) Boeing Starliner flight Another day I feel is an important day for American Aerospace is March 29, 2021. This is when Boeing has scheduled its first of two tests that are to happen in 2021 of the new Starliner Liner spacecraft, which are in direct competition with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle. Having two competing companies like Boeing and SpaceX is just going to foster more opportunities for North American manufacturing. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab NASA double asteroid redirection test DART July 22, 2021, is going to be a day where sci-fi becomes reality. That is the launch window date when NASA plans on intentionally colliding a spacecraft with an asteroid to see if we can move it. This is to help earth prepare for such an event and this will also teach us a lot about asteroid mining and the possibilities to come in the near future. While Nasa intends to launch the spacecraft in July 2021 it will only reach its destination in the fall of 2022. Image credit: NASA/Desiree Stover Nasa James Webb space telescope October 31, 2021, is going to be another pretty exciting day because that is when NASA plans on launching the $9 Billion dollar successor to the Hubble telescope called the James Webb Space Telescope. This telescope is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble and will be orbiting the sun in a specific orbit called the Lagrange point or L2, which is a million miles from earth. This is a huge investment in the human collective knowledge and the craftsmanship and engineering this machine took is mind-boggling. Image credit -NASA Nasa Artemis 1 Nasa by use of North American manufacturing plans on sending people back to the moon by 2024. November 2021 will be the first mission in certifying NASA’s Orion Spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS). It is being sent on a 3-week orbit around the moon and, if this mission is successful, it will be the first step in preparation for a crewed launch by 2023. A look at Launch Pad 39A modifications. SpaceX starship In December 2020, SpaceX had some very successful tests of its next-generation spacecraft called the starship. This is a massive spacecraft meant for deep space exploration and is being engineered for the NASA mars mission. A lot of this advanced manufacturing is taking place in Texas because of SpaceX and so many other aerospace manufacturers being in those areas. SpaceX hasn’t released the 2021 test dates yet for Starship, but stay tuned because there are undoubtedly some milestones to take place with Starship in 2021. Here is a great Video put out buy Smarter Every day where they visit ULA factory and see some of the highly skilled manufacturing taking place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0fG_lnVhHw&t=1532s Video of ULA Facility manufacturing rockets Hopefully, you found this article informative and it gave you something to look forward to that is a direct result of North American manufacturing. Maybe it will inspire you to reach a little further at work honing your skills with the goal of working at the cutting edge. Either way, I feel there are a lot of opportunities to look forward to in our sector for toolmakers and machinists while we manufacture the world!

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