International Space Fellowship

Picture of the Day - The Wizard Nebula

Matt — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:27:21 +0000

This image of the open star cluster NGC 7380, also known as the Wizard Nebula, is a mosaic of images from the WISE mission spanning an area on the sky of about 5 times the size of the full moon. NGC 7380 is located in the constellation Cepheus about 7,000 light-years from Earth within the Milky Way Galaxy. The star cluster is embedded in a nebula, which spans some 110 light-years. The stars of NGC 7380 have emerged from this star-forming region in the last 5 million years or so, making it [...]

Falcon 9 Successful Static Fire (Video)

Matt — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:59:32 +0000

On Saturday, March 13, SpaceX successfully completed a test firing of the inaugural Falcon 9 launch vehicle at Space Launch Complex 40 located at Cape Canaveral. Following a nominal terminal countdown, the launch sequencer commanded ignition of all 9 Merlin first stage engines for a period of 3.5 seconds. Just prior to engine ignition, the pad water deluge system was activated providing acoustic suppression to keep vibration levels within acceptable limits. The test validated the launch p [...]

SpaceX And Space Systems/Loral Sign Contract For Falcon 9 Geosynchronous Transfer Mission

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:15:39 +0000

Hawthorne, CA – (SpaceX) – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), have signed an agreement for the launch of an SS/L manufactured satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as early as 2012. For this mission, Falcon 9 will launch from the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral and insert the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Space Systems/Loral is the world's leading provider of GEO commercial satellites with 40 percent of the high-power market [...]

Station Crew Members Prep for Undocking, Future Arrivals

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:11:43 +0000

(NASA) - Soaring high over the Earth in the International Space Station, the astronauts and cosmonauts of the Expedition 22 crew began a new week Monday, the final week in space for two of their number. Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev will depart the station Thursday aboard the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft. They will undock from the orbiting complex and take a three-and-a-half-hour ride that will culminate in a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan early [...]

Arabsat-5A and COMS begin their preparation for second Ariane 5 mission of 2010

Klaus Schmidt — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:06:48 +0000

(Arianespace) - The two satellites for Arianespace’s second Ariane 5 flight of 2010 have begun their checkout at the Spaceport – which currently is hosting two parallel missions for the industry’s workhorse launch vehicle. Both Arabsat-5A and COMS are now undergoing processing in the Spaceport’s S5 preparation facility following their deliveries to French Guiana this month. Arianespace’s mission with Arabsat-5A and COMS is planned for late April using a heavy-lift Ariane 5 E [...]

Picture of the Day - Global Map of Mercury

Matt — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:54:18 +0000

In December 2009, the first high-resolution global map of Mercury was made publicly available. These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. Members of the MESSENGER team and experts from the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) used images from MESSENGER's three Mercury flybys and from the Mariner 10 mission in 1974-75 to create a global mosaic that covers 97.7% of Mercury's surface at a resolution of 500 m [...]

This Week On The Space Show

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:04:23 +0000

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week: 1. Monday, March 15, 2010, 2-3:30 PM PDT (21-22:30 GMT) Henry Vanderbilt of Space-Access Society (www.space-access.org) comes to discuss the upcoming conference April 8-10, 2010. Henry Vanderbilt thought space was cool from the start. At age six he was watching a Mercury launch on TV when someone explained that the Atlas rocket cost ten million dollars and they threw it away [...]

Orbital and Aerojet Complete Main Engine Lifetime Testing for Taurus II Space Launch Vehicle

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:54:44 +0000

(Orbital) -- Russian Tests of Heritage NK-33 Rocket Engine Confirm Performance and Durability Engine Completes Two Times Normal Firing Duration of a Taurus II Launch Profile -- (Dulles, VA) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) and Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, along with Aerojet’s Russian partner, United Engine Corporation/SNTK, announced today that a series of NK-33 rocket engine tests conducted in Samara, Russia, were successfully completed last week in support of the dev [...]

ILS Proton To Launch Intelsat 21 And Intelsat 23

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:50:50 +0000

Reston, VA, (ILS)– International Launch Services (ILS) announced two firm missions with the ILS Proton launches of the Intelsat 21 satellite and the Intelsat 23 satellite for Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services. Intelsat 21 is under construction by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems with a launch planned in early 2012. The Intelsat 23 satellite is being built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, and is slated to launch in late 2011. Both missions are p [...]

Phobos flyby images

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:47:45 +0000

(ESA) - Images from the recent flyby of Phobos, on 7 March 2010, are released today. The images show Mars’ rocky moon in exquisite detail, with a resolution of just 4.4 metres per pixel. They show the proposed landing sites for the forthcoming Phobos-Grunt mission. ESA's Mars Express spacecraft orbits the Red Planet in a highly elliptical, polar orbit that brings it close to Phobos every five months. It is the only spacecraft currently in orbit around Mars whose orbit reaches far enough fro [...]

Picture of the Day - The Coolest Place in the Universe?

Matt — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:23:14 +0000

The Boomerang Nebula is a young planetary nebula and the coldest object found in the Universe so far. The Hubble Space Telescope image is yet another example of how Hubble's sharp eye reveals surprising details in celestial objects. This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a young planetary nebula known (rather curiously) as the Boomerang Nebula. It is in the constellation of Centaurus, 5000 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae form around a bright, central star when it expels gas in the [...]

Solar 'Current of Fire' Speeds Up

Matt — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:04:54 +0000

In today's issue of Science, NASA solar physicist David Hathaway reports that the top of the sun's Great Conveyor Belt has been running at record-high speeds for the past five years. The speed-up was surprising on two levels. First, it coincided with the deepest solar minimum in nearly 100 years, contradicting models that say a fast-moving belt should boost sunspot production. The basic idea is that the belt sweeps up magnetic fields from the sun's surface and drags them down to the sun' [...]

Small Fine Arm Deployment Complete; Williams, Suraev Prepare for Departure

Klaus Schmidt — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:55:13 +0000

(NASA) - Expedition 22 Flight Engineers Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer completed the deployment and calibration of the new small fine arm (SFA). The SFA was assembled then installed inside the Kibo laboratory’s airlock by Noguchi where it was removed with the module’s main robotic arm – the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System. The SFA performs delicate robotics work, is an extension of the Kibo laboratory’s main robotic arm and has [...]

Arabsat 5A is delivered to French Guiana for its Ariane 5 flight

Klaus Schmidt — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:34:28 +0000

(Arianespace) - The initial passenger for Arianespace’s second Ariane 5 mission of this year is now in French Guiana following a trans-Atlantic flight from Europe earlier this week. Arabsat 5A arrived at Rochambeau International Airport aboard an Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft, delivered from the Toulouse, France facilities of EADS Astrium – which built this communications satellite jointly with Thales Alenia Space as co-prime contractors. Astrium supplied the Eurostar E3000 satellit [...]

Picture of the Day - Bursting at the Seams

Matt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:53:35 +0000

Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed 'tiger stripes' near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The tiger stripes are fissures that spray icy particles, water vapor and organic compounds. This mosaic was created from two high-resolution images that were captured by the narrow-angle camera when NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew past Enceladus and through the jets on Nov. 21, 2009. Imaging the jets over time will allow Cassin [...]

World space agencies confirm serviceability of ISS through 2020

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:15:25 +0000

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) - There are no technical constraints to extending the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2020, top international space officials said on Thursday. The heads of space agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States involved in the ISS project met in Tokyo to review the prospects for cooperation over the next decade. "The heads of the agencies expressed their strong mutual interest in continuing operations and utilization [...]

Robotics and Departure Preparations for Station Crew

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:10:36 +0000

(NASA) - The Expedition 22 crew members aboard the International Space Station were busy Thursday with robotics activities and preparations for upcoming spacecraft departures. Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer performed a series of checkouts and calibrations on the Kibo laboratory’s newest robotic arm, known as the small fine arm. Once its deployment is complete, the small fine arm will be used on the end of the laboratory’s larger main arm to move small science experiment [...]

First U.S. Sample Processed in Materials Science Research Rack to be Opened at Marshall

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:07:25 +0000

(NASA) - On Feb. 2, the first materials science sample supporting an U.S. investigator was processed in NASA's Materials Science Research Rack aboard the International Space Station. The rack allows for the in-orbit study of a variety of materials – including metals, ceramics, semi-conductor crystals and glasses. The first sample was a small, solid rod of composite aluminum and silicon processed at high temperatures to produce an alloy. Development of the research rack was a coopera [...]

Three FASTSAT Instruments Pass Tests

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:02:11 +0000

(NASA) - The outer layers of Earth's atmosphere hold many secrets yet to be uncovered and three scientific instruments will fly soon on the FASTSAT-HSV01 satellite and seek to uncover them to benefit us here on Earth. Known as MINI-ME, PISA and TTI, these instruments recently passed a series of important final tests to prove their readiness for spaceflight. These instruments were conceived and built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and were integrated to the satellite [...]

Crisium's Region of Interest

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:57:18 +0000

(NASA) - The region of interest located in Mare Crisium is a compelling Exploration site for many reasons. First, this site was visited by several Soviet landers - Luna 23 and Luna 24 both touched down in Crisium. Luna 24 succeeded in returning a 170 gram sample in 1976. Though the amount was small, it provided a wealth of information and an interesting mystery. The Luna 24 basalt has a titanium dioxide content of about 1%, placing it among the lowest abundances of any lunar basalt sampled. [...]

Proposed Mission Would Return Sample from Asteroid "Time Capsule"

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:50:54 +0000

(NASA) - Meet asteroid 1999 RQ36, a chunk of rock and dust about 1,900 feet in diameter that could tell us how the solar system was born, and perhaps, shed light on how life began. It also might hit us someday. "This asteroid is a time capsule from before the birth of our solar system," said Bill Cutlip of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., one of the leaders of Goddard's effort to propose a mission called OSIRIS-REx that will return a sample from RQ36. If selecte [...]

GeoEye Selects Lockheed Martin To Build Next-Generation Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite System

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:44:27 +0000

SUNNYVALE, Calif., (Lockheed Martin) -- Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a core business area of the Lockheed Martin Corporation [NYSE: LMT], announced today that it has been selected by GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY) to build the company's next-generation, high-resolution Earth imaging satellite system known as GeoEye-2. Financial terms are not being disclosed at this time. Lockheed Martin has begun start-up activities and procurement of long-lead components to support the earliest possib [...]

Cassini Data Show Ice and Rock Mixture Inside Titan

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:40:03 +0000

PASADENA, Calif., (NASA) -- By precisely tracking NASA's Cassini spacecraft on its low swoops over Saturn's moon Titan, scientists have determined the distribution of materials in the moon's interior. The subtle gravitational tugs they measured suggest the interior has been too cold and sluggish to split completely into separate layers of ice and rock. The finding, to be published in the March 12 issue of the journal Science, shows how Titan evolved in a different fashion from inner planets [...]

REXUS 7 and 8 student research rockets launched successfully

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:36:08 +0000

(DLR) - On Thursday, 4 March 2010 at 11:15 CET, the research rocket Rexus 8 (Rocket EXperiment for University Students), a joint project of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC), launched from SSC's Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, in Sweden. Students from the Technical Universities of Berlin (Technische Universität Berlin; TUB) and Munich (Technische Universität München; TUM) and from the Royal Institute of Tech [...]

Picture of the Day - Young stars sculpt gas with powerful outflows

Matt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:53:41 +0000

This Hubble Space Telescope view shows one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. At the centre of the region is a brilliant star cluster called NGC 346. A dramatic structure of arched, ragged filaments with a distinct ridge surrounds the cluster. A torrent of radiation from the hot stars in the cluster NGC 346, at the centre of this Hubble ima [...]

Mysterious Cosmic 'Dark Flow' Tracked Deeper into Universe

Matt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:10:26 +0000

Distant galaxy clusters mysteriously stream at a million miles per hour along a path roughly centered on the southern constellations Centaurus and Hydra. A new study led by Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., tracks this collective motion -- dubbed the "dark flow" -- to twice the distance originally reported. "It takes, on average, about an hour of telescope time to measure the distance to each cluster we work with, not to mention the years required [...]

Station Crew Works with Robotics, Prepares for Spaceflight Transports

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:55:19 +0000

(NASA) - The Expedition 22 crew of the International Space Station began installing a robotic arm Wednesday while preparing for upcoming spacecraft departures and arrivals. Inside the Japanese Kibo Laboratory, Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer used the Japanese Kibo laboratory’s 33-foot-long main arm to move a smaller robotic arm, known as the small fine arm, out of Kibo’s airlock and into place for deployment. Over the next two days, the two flight engineers will perform [...]

Kepler Mission Manager Update

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:50:57 +0000

(NASA) - The Kepler spacecraft has been performing well since the Safe Mode event of Feb. 2, 2010. Engineers on the anomaly response team are continuing to analyze the telemetry from the event to develop root cause and mitigations. Several mitigations are under consideration and are being prepared for implementation. The mitigations should minimize impact to science activities, should a similar event occur that caused the Feb. 2, 2010 Safe Mode entry. The project team continues to prepare fo [...]

Picture of the Day - Snapshot of the ISS

Matt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:14:09 +0000

On March 13, 2008, the International Space Station passed across the field-of-view of Germany's remote sensing satellite, TerraSAR-X, at a distance of 195 kilometers, or 122 miles, and at a relative speed of 34,540 kilometers per hour, or more than 22,000 mph. In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar g [...]

China's fourth space center to be completed by 2015

Klaus Schmidt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:09:47 +0000

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) - China's fourth space center, Wenchang, will be put into service between 2014 and 2015, not in 2013 as it was previously announced, the CCTV channel reported on Tuesday. Located in a forest of coconut palms on the northeast coast of the Hainan tropical island, Wenchang will be the country's first low-latitude space center. Its latitude of only 19 degrees north of the equator will contribute to lower fuel consumption and maximum payload. "The construction of the fourt [...]

Inaugural Falcon 9 / Dragon Flight Hardware Update

Klaus Schmidt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:06:17 +0000

Today SpaceX performed our first Static Fire for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. We counted down to an T-2 seconds and aborted on Spin Start. Given that this was our first abort event on this pad, we decided to scrub for the day to get a good look at the rocket before trying again. Everything looks great at first glance. As part of the abort, we close the pre-valves to isolate the engines from the propellant tank and purge the residual propellants. The brief flames seen on the video are normal [...]

Station Crew Focuses on Robotics and Command Change

Klaus Schmidt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:59:23 +0000

(NASA) - Robotics and handover activities took center stage Tuesday aboard the International Space Station as Expedition 22 draws to a close and the crew prepares for new residents and a visit by space shuttle Discovery. After breakfast and a checkout of station systems, Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi began his day with a ham radio call to students at Ikaruga Elementary School in the town of Taishi, Hyogo, Japan. Afterwards, Noguchi joined Commander Jeff Williams and fellow flight eng [...]

Historic Deep Space Network Antenna Starts Major Surgery

Klaus Schmidt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:54:10 +0000

(NASA) - Like a hard-driving athlete whose joints need help, the giant "Mars antenna" at NASA's Deep Space Network site in Goldstone, Calif. has begun major, delicate surgery. The operation on the historic 70-meter-wide (230-foot) antenna, which has received data and sent commands to deep space missions for over 40 years, will replace a portion of the hydrostatic bearing assembly. This assembly enables the antenna to rotate horizontally. The rigorous engineering plans call for lifting about [...]

ASTRA 3B begins its integration with launcher hardware for Ariane 5’s March 24 mission

Klaus Schmidt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:47:38 +0000

(Arianespace) - Satellite preparations for Arianespace’s first mission of 2010 have transitioned into their final phase, with the ASTRA 3B payload making its first contact with Ariane 5 launcher hardware. During activity inside the Spaceport’s S5 payload integration building, ASTRA 3B was installed atop a two-piece adapter unit that will serve as the satellite’s interface with Ariane 5. This clears the satellite for integration in Ariane 5’s payload “stack,” which will be co [...]

Picture of the Day - A Mosaic of Cassiopeia

Matt — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:54:02 +0000

This mosaic of images from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explore, or WISE, in the constellation of Cassiopeia contains a large star-forming nebula within the Milky Way Galaxy, called IC 1805 or the Heart Nebula, a portion of which is seen at the right of the image. IC 1805 is more than 6,000 light-years from Earth. Also visible in this image are two nearby galaxies, Maffei 1 and Maffei 2. In visible light these galaxies are hidden by dust in IC 1805 and were unknown until 1968 when Paolo [...]