International Space Fellowship

This Week On The Space Show

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:24:25 +0000

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week: 1. Monday, February 8, 2010, 2-3:30 PM PST (20-21:30 GMT) Robert Zimmerman returns to discuss the new proposed space policy as part of the 2011 U.S. budget. Robert Zimmerman is a well known and respected space historian and author. He also wrote a weekly UPI column which can be found by doing a Google for "Zimmerman bibliography" and click on "A Zimmerman Bibliography". [...]

Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:12:37 +0000

(NASA) - Spacecraft: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Launch Vehicle: Atlas V-401 Launch Pad: Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Date: Feb. 9, 2010 Launch Window: 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. EST At Launch Complex 41, preparations for the launch of SDO aboard the Atlas V continue to go well and are on schedule. Connection of launch vehicle ordnance was done today, and launch vehicle closeouts for flight are under way. The SDO team has also performed its ordnance activities and has [...]

First journey for Alphabus

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:10:09 +0000

(ESA) - The service module of the new Alphabus generation of telecommunication satellites has completed its first journey – from Cannes to Toulouse, in France. The three-day trip was completed last Friday. The exceptional convoy was made up of a 20 m-long lorry carrying the satellite container, several escort cars and a police escort to close off streets and redirect traffic as they passed through urban areas. This platform will be used for the Alphasat I-XL satellite being built by [...]

Boeing's 4th WGS Satellite Passes Key Integration Milestone

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:05:52 +0000

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., (Boeing) -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] in late December successfully integrated the satellite bus and payload module for the fourth of six Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellites the company is building for the U.S. Air Force. WGS-4's broadband communications payload was mated with a high-power Boeing 702 platform at the company's Satellite Development Center in El Segundo, the world's largest satellite-manufacturing facility. Over the next few months, the WGS team will conduct fin [...]

Launch campaign activity moves into full swing for another active year with Ariane 5

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:03:33 +0000

(Arianespace) - Arianespace is laying the groundwork for another busy year with its workhorse Ariane 5, as the first mission of 2010 moves into its second phase of preparations and the follow-on flight’s launch vehicle is delivered to French Guiana. The heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA for Arianespace’s kick-off mission of 2010 was transferred from the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building to the Final Assembly Building this morning, readying it to receive a dual-satellite payload. [...]

Picture of the Day - STA Over the Launchpad

Matt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:11:25 +0000

During the early morning countdown for the launch of space shuttle Endeavour today, it was back and forth, yes and no, red and green, no and no-go. And all because of weather. As per standard procedure, an astronaut flies the Shuttle Training Aircraft to monitor weather conditions around the launchpad. Today it was especially important in helping make the decision if the weather was acceptable for launching the shuttle. Amazingly, photographer Romeo Durscher captured this beautiful shot a [...]

Solar Dynamics Observatory: The 'Variable Sun' Mission

Matt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:29:40 +0000

For some years now, an unorthodox idea has been gaining favor among astronomers. It contradicts old teachings and unsettles thoughtful observers, especially climatologists. "The sun," explains Lika Guhathakurta of NASA headquarters in Washington DC, "is a variable star." But it looks so constant... "Understanding solar variability is crucial," says space scientist Judith Lean of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "Our modern way of life depends upon it." Enter the Solar Dynam [...]

Color Between Saturn's Moons

Matt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:18:58 +0000

Two of Saturn's moons straddle the planet's rings in this color view. Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) is closest to the Cassini spacecraft here. Epimetheus (113 kilometers, or 70 miles across) is on the far side of the rings. Saturn's shadow cuts across the middle of the rings. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images w [...]

Satellite View of "Snowmageddon"

Matt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:12:17 +0000

Nicknamed “snowpocalypse” and “snowmageddon,” an exceptionally severe winter storm dropped several feet of snow around the Washington, DC area in early February 2010. Crashed and abandoned cars littered roads as airlines canceled hundreds of flights. Even the DC Metro underground train system stopped functioning in places. Authorities urged residents to stay indoors, but hundreds of thousands lost electricity. The Washington Post reported that the snow-induced standstill might last u [...]

Launch of NASA's Shuttle Endeavour Sparks Early Monday Sunrise

Matt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:53:15 +0000

Space shuttle Endeavour lit up the predawn sky above Florida's Space Coast on Monday with a 4:14 a.m. EST launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle's last scheduled night launch began a 13-day flight to the International Space Station and the final year of shuttle operations. Endeavour's STS-130 mission will include three spacewalks and the delivery of the Tranquility node, the final major U.S. portion of the station. Tranquility will provide additional room for crew members and ma [...]

Where did today’s spiral galaxies come from?

Matt — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:20:51 +0000

Hubble shows that the beautiful spirals galaxies of the modern Universe were the ugly ducklings of six billion years ago. If confirmed, the finding highlights the importance to many galaxies of collisions and mergers in the recent past. It also provides clues for the unique status of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The astronomers think that these peculiar galaxies did indeed become spirals through collisions and merging. Although it was commonly believed that galaxy mergers decreased sig [...]

NASA, GM Take Giant Leap in Robotic Technology

Matt — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:47:56 +0000

NASA and General Motors are working together to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries. Engineers and scientists from NASA and GM worked together through a Space Act Agreement at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston to build a new humanoid robot capable of working side by side with people. Using leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies, future robots could assist astronauts during [...]

Artificial Archipelagos, Dubai, as Seen from Space

Matt — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:37:48 +0000

The municipality of Dubai is the largest city of the Persian Gulf emirate of the same name, and has built a global reputation for large-scale developments and architectural works. Among the most visible of these developments—particularly from the perspective of astronauts on board the International Space Station—are three human-made archipelagos. The two Palm Islands (Palm Jumeirah and Palm Jebel Ali) appear as stylized palm trees when viewed from above. The World Islands evoke a rough ma [...]

Progress 36 Docks to Station

Matt — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:30:56 +0000

The ISS Progress 36 unpiloted spacecraft docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station at 11:26 p.m. EST Thursday using the automated Kurs docking system. The new resupply ship brings to the orbiting laboratory 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,683 pounds of spare parts and supplies for the Expedition 22 crew. Flight Engineers Maxim Suraev and Oleg Kotov monitored the approach of Progress from Zvezda [...]

New Hubble Maps of Pluto Show Surface Changes (Movie)

Matt — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:27:18 +0000

NASA today released the most detailed set of images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto. The images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show an icy and dark molasses-colored, mottled world that is undergoing seasonal changes in its surface color and brightness. Pluto has become significantly redder, while its illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter. These changes are most likely consequences of surface ices sublimating on the sunlit pole and then refreezing on the oth [...]

Picture of the Day - The Orion Nebula

Matt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:46:07 +0000

This dramatic image offers a peek inside a cavern of roiling dust and gas where thousands of stars are forming. The image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, represents the sharpest view ever taken of this region, called the Orion Nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. These stars reside in a dramatic dust-and-gas landscape of plateaus, mountains, and valleys that [...]

Orbital Sciences Corporation Statement on NASA's New Direction

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:57:47 +0000

(Orbital) -- Company Strongly Supports Obama Administration Proposals for Future Civil Space Initiatives in New Space Age (Dulles, VA) – Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, announced today the company’s strong support for the Obama Administration’s new direction for the country’s civil space programs, as outlined in the recently-released GFY 2011 proposed budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). [...]

NASA Administrator Names Braun NASA Chief Technologist

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:54:10 +0000

WASHINGTON, (NASA) -- NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden named Robert D. Braun the agency's Chief Technologist, effective Wednesday, Feb. 3. Braun serves as the principle advisor and advocate on matters concerning agency-wide technology policy and programs. The appointment comes as NASA launches a bold new initiative that targets technologies that could be transformational in their ability to improve the capability, reduce the cost, and expand the reach of future human and robotic missions [...]

Station Crew Prepares for Docking

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:50:33 +0000

(NASA) - The ISS Progress 36 (P36) unpiloted spacecraft launched at 10:45 p.m. EST Tuesday (9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Baikonur time), loaded with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,683 pounds of spare parts and supplies. On Thursday shortly before 11:30 p.m., P36 will dock automatically to the aft port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station using the Kurs docking system. As the Progress made its way to the orbiting c [...]

Lockheed Martin Responds To The FY2011 NASA Budget Proposal To Cancel Orion

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:47:36 +0000

Bethesda, MD, (Lockheed Martin) -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) today released the following statement regarding the FY2011 budget request to cancel the Orion Project as part of NASA’s Constellation Program: We are keenly disappointed in the Administration's budget proposal for NASA that would cancel Project Orion as part of an elimination of NASA's Constellation Program. Orion’s maturity is evident in its readiness for a first test flight in a matter of weeks. In fact, Orion can be ready [...]

NASA Extends Cassini's Tour of Saturn

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:44:44 +0000

PASADENA, Calif., (NASA) -- NASA will extend the international Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons to 2017. The agency's fiscal year 2011 budget provides a $60 million per year extension for continued study of the ringed planet. "This is a mission that never stops providing us surprising scientific results and showing us eye popping new vistas," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The historic traveler's stunn [...]

A Little Telescope Goes a Long Way

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:41:06 +0000

(NASA) - NASA astronomers have successfully demonstrated that a David of a telescope can tackle Goliath-size questions in the quest to study Earth-like planets around other stars. Their work, reported today in the journal Nature, provides a new tool for ground-based observatories, promising to accelerate by years the search for prebiotic, or life-related, molecules on planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. The scientists reported on a new technique used with a relatively small Earth [...]

Merging Galaxies Create a Binary Quasar

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:30:13 +0000

Carnegie Institution - Astronomers have found the first clear evidence of a binary quasar within a pair of actively merging galaxies. Quasars are the extremely bright centers of galaxies surrounding super-massive black holes, and binary quasars are pairs of quasars bound together by gravity. Binary quasars, like other quasars, are thought to be the product of galaxy mergers. Until now, however, binary quasars have not been seen in galaxies that are unambiguously in the act of merging. But images [...]

Picture of the Day - Mystery of the Fading Star

Matt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:00:27 +0000

Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have found a likely solution to a centuries-old riddle of the night sky. Every 27 years, a bright star called Epsilon Aurigae fades over period of two years, then brightens. Although amateur and professional astronomers have observed the system extensively, the nature of both the bright star and the companion object that periodically eclipses it have remained unclear. The companion is known to be surrounded by a dusty disk, as illustrated i [...]

The Stars behind the Curtain

Matt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:37:15 +0000

ESO is releasing a magnificent VLT image of the giant stellar nursery surrounding NGC 3603, in which stars are continuously being born. Embedded in this scenic nebula is one of the most luminous and most compact clusters of young, massive stars in our Milky Way, which therefore serves as an excellent “local” analogue of very active star-forming regions in other galaxies. The cluster also hosts the most massive star to be “weighed” so far. The clouds of NGC 3603 provide us with a fam [...]

Raytheon Supports Young Rocketeers in 2010 TARC Challenge

Matt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:31:28 +0000

Students on 669 teams from 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands are preparing to launch their hand-designed rockets in the world’s largest rocket contest — the eighth annual Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC). As part of Raytheon’s ongoing commitment to math and science education, the company will once again host the 2010 winning team of TARC to attend a “fly-off” at the Farnborough International Air Show in July against teams from the U.K. and France. [...]

James Webb Space Telescope Sunshield Design Achieves Significant Landmark

Matt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:05:52 +0000

The James Webb Space Telescope's five-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield has passed its critical design review, certifying that its design is complete and meets mission requirements. By achieving thermal, deployment and stray-light targets, the sunshield is now ready for manufacturing. Sunshield manufacturing and test plans were also evaluated and approved as part of the review, which took place Jan. 11-14 at the company’s Redondo Beach, Calif., space systems manufacturing facility. The Ob [...]

SpaceX completes Dragon spacecraft cargo loading milestone for delivery services to ISS

Matt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:54:09 +0000

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) recently conducted a three-day long demonstration of cargo loading and unloading procedures for its Dragon spacecraft, which NASA has contracted to provide delivery services to the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2010. SpaceX hosted a group of NASA personnel at its corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, CA, including astronauts Marsha Ivins and Megan McArthur, and other key personnel from NASA‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston.The tests co [...]

Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Trailing Debris

Klaus Schmidt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:47:20 +0000

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before. Asteroid collisions are energetic, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour, or five times faster than a rifle bullet. The comet-like object imaged by Hubble, called P/20 [...]

ISS Progress 36 Launches to Space Station

Klaus Schmidt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:40:55 +0000

(NASA) - The ISS Progress 36 spacecraft launched at 10:45 p.m. EST (9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Baikonur time), loaded with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,683 pounds of spare parts and supplies. On Thursday shortly before 11:30 p.m., Progress will dock automatically to the aft port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station using the Kurs docking system. Aboard the station Tuesday, Flight Engineers Maxim Suraev and Oleg Kotov [...]

Kazakhstan to diversify satellite suppliers in future

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:01:15 +0000

ASTANA, (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan will not name Russia as a privileged supplier of satellites and will announce international tenders after the launch of its KazSat-2, the head of the Kazakh space agency said on Tuesday. Kazakhstan launched its first satellite, KazSat-1, in June 2006; however, its control systems failed last June. Astana is set to launch KazSat-2 in December 2010. "KazSat-2 will be made at the Khrunichev R&D center in Russia under a contract signed in 2006, and over 8 [...]

CSF Welcomes New NASA Human Spaceflight Plan

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:57:16 +0000

Washington, D.C., (CSF) – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation welcomes the decision today by President Barack Obama to place U.S. human spaceflight on a new trajectory with major investments in technology, science, exploration, and commercial spaceflight. As part of this plan, NASA’s new competitive commercial crew initiative will invest $6 billion over five years for multiple companies to develop human spaceflight capabilities that will take astronauts to and from the International Space [...]

NASA Selects Commercial Firms to Develop Crew Transportation Concepts for Human Spaceflight

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:54:58 +0000

NASA has awarded $50 million through funded agreements to further the commercial sector's capability to support transport of crew to and from low Earth orbit. This step is the first taken by NASA consistent with the president's direction to foster commercial human spaceflight capabilities. "The president has asked NASA to partner with the aerospace industry in a fundamentally new way, making commercially provided services the primary mode of astronaut transportation to the International Spac [...]

Station Crew Does Science, Awaits Spacecraft

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:51:41 +0000

(NASA) - The Expedition 22 crew continued its regular science and maintenance duties Monday while awaiting the impending arrivals of the ISS Progress 36 cargo ship and space shuttle Endeavour. The Progress, which is due to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Tuesday, rolled out to its launch pad early Monday. Filled with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,683 pounds of spare parts and supplies, Progress 36 is scheduled to dock to [...]

Intelsat 4 Satellite Experiences Anomaly

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:43:49 +0000

Luxembourg, (Intelsat) - Intelsat S.A. announced today that its Intelsat 4 satellite (IS-4), located at 72° East Longitude, experienced an anomaly on 1 February 2010 at approximately 00:18 GMT. Intelsat is working with affected customers to identify restoration capacity. Intelsat and Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, the manufacturer of the IS-4, are working together to identify the cause of the anomaly. Launched in 1995, the Boeing 601 satellite was expected to reach its end-of-service [...]