International Space Fellowship

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 [...]

Picture of the Day - Huygens on Titan

Matt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:01:40 +0000

In 2005 the robotic Huygens probe landed on Titan, Saturn's enigmatic moon, and sent back the first ever images from beneath Titan's thick cloud layers. This artist's impression is based on those images. In the foreground, sits the car-sized lander that sent back images for more than 90 minutes before running out of battery power. The parachute that slowed Huygen's re-entry is seen in the background, still attached to the lander. Smooth stones, possibly containing water-ice, are strewn ab [...]

This Week On The Space Show

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:04:48 +0000

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week: 1. Monday, March 8, 2010, 2-3:30 PM PST (20-21:30 GMT) Replay from Thursday, March 4 with Erik Seedhouse Erik Seedhouse is an aerospace scientist whose ambition has always been to work as an astronaut. After completing his first degree in Sports Science at Northumbria University the author joined the legendary 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, the world’s most elite airbo [...]

Static testing of L110 liquid core stage of GSLV- MkIII launch vehicle conducted

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:52:56 +0000

(ISRO) - Indian Space Research Organisation conducted the static test of its liquid core stage (L110) of GSLV Mk III launch vehicle, for 150 seconds at its Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) test facility at Mahendragiri at 16:00 hrs March 5, 2010. While the test was originally targeted for 200 seconds it was stopped at 150 seconds since a deviation in one of the parameters was observed. About 500 important parameters were monitored during the static test. The next static test for 200 s [...]

Second Ariane 5 for launch in 2010 enters its assembly process at Kourou

Klaus Schmidt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:46:43 +0000

(Arianespace) - The Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s second dual-payload flight of 2010 has begun its assembly as the Spaceport in French Guiana is once again the center of activity for two parallel missions. This latest Ariane 5 began taking shape earlier in the week as its cryogenic core stage was positioned over a mobile launch table in the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building. It was then joined by the vehicle’s two solid boosters for mating. The second mission of 2010 will u [...]

Expedition 22 Preparing for Upcoming Soyuz and Shuttle Activities

Klaus Schmidt — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:56:42 +0000

(NASA) - Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev will complete their stay onboard the International Space Station on March 18. They will undock their Soyuz TMA-16 from the orbiting laboratory at 4:03 a.m. EDT and land in Kazakhstan about 3 1/2 hours later. Staying behind will be new station commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi. The three crew members will become the Expedition 23 crew. Joining them two weeks later will be ne [...]

Boeing Transfers US Portions of International Space Station to NASA

Klaus Schmidt — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:53:22 +0000

HOUSTON, (Boeing) -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] today officially turned over the U.S. on-orbit segment of the International Space Station (ISS) to NASA with the signing of government form DD-250 at the conclusion of an Acceptance Review Board meeting in Houston. Often referred to as "handing over the keys," the DD-250 is equivalent to a final bill of sale that formally transfers ownership. Through today's review board, NASA and Boeing verified the delivery, assembly, integration and activation of all [...]

GOES-P Satellite Sends 1st Signals From Space

Klaus Schmidt — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:50:57 +0000

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., (Boeing) -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] has received the first on-orbit signals from the third Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) built by Boeing for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The satellite, GOES-P, is healthy and ready to begin thruster firings to move to its on-orbit test location. GOES-P is a Boeing 601 satellite that will provide enhanced Earth-observation and weather-monitoring services. GOES-P launched on a Delta [...]

Picture of the Day - Winds of Change

Matt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:20:45 +0000

This is a composite image of NGC 1068, one of the nearest and brightest galaxies containing a rapidly growing super-massive black hole. The X-ray images and spectra obtained using Chandra's High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer show that a strong wind is being driven away from the center of NGC 1068 at a rate of about a million miles per hour. This wind is likely generated as surrounding gas is accelerated and heated as it swirls toward the black hole. A portion of the gas is [...]

Inspections, Science and Maintenance for Station Crew

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:07:18 +0000

(NASA) - The Expedition 22 crew members aboard the International Space Station were busy Thursday with inspections and a variety of experiments and scheduled maintenance activities. Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi conducted hatch seal inspections on Pressurized Mating Adapter 3, which was relocated during the STS-130 mission. The leak checks pave the way for the crew members to reopen the newly relocated module for long-term stowage of items not needed immediately. Fl [...]

Student Teams Ready to Battle Lunar Terrain at NASA's 17th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:05:20 +0000

WASHINGTON, (NASA) -- More than 100 student teams from around the globe will drive their specially crafted lunar rovers through a challenging course of rugged, moon-like terrain at NASA's 17th annual Great Moonbuggy Race in Huntsville, Ala., April 9-10. Some 1,088 high school, college and university students from 20 states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, Bangladesh, Serbia, India and Romania are expected to participate in the race at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Students begin to [...]

Robot vs. Robot: Live In Washington and Across the Nation

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:03:28 +0000

WASHINGTON, (NASA) -- NASA, in cooperation with local technology firms and sponsors, launches a nationwide series of high school robotics competitions that begin March 5 and 6 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place N.W., in Washington. The two-day event runs daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST. It is free and open to the public. NASA Television will carry opening ceremonies starting at 9 a.m. March 5. The student competition is called "For Inspiration and Recogniti [...]

Is That Saturn's Moon Titan or Utah?

Matt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:01:48 +0000

Planetary scientists have been puzzling for years over the honeycomb patterns and flat valleys with squiggly edges evident in radar images of Saturn's moon Titan. Now, working with a "volunteer researcher" who has put his own spin on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, they have found some recognizable analogies to a type of spectacular terrain on Earth known as karst topography. A poster session today, Thursday, March 4, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, di [...]

Orbital To Acquire General Dynamics' Satellite Development and Manufacturing Business

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:59:27 +0000

(Orbital) - Transaction to Strengthen Companys Competitive Position in Medium-Class Satellites for Operational National Security and Advanced Scientific Space Missions (Dulles, VA) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the spacecraft development and manufacturing business of General Dynamics Corporation’s (NYSE: GD) subsidiary, GD Advanced Information Systems [...]

NASA Launches GOES-P to Monitor Earth's Weather

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:57:40 +0000

(NASA) - NASA's partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, will continue as the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-P, launches aboard a Delta IV rocket from Space Launch Complex 37-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. "We've had a long-standing relationship with NOAA," said Andre Dress, the GOES N-P deputy project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Benefits of developing these satellites in a [...]

Biggest, Deepest Crater Exposes Hidden, Ancient Moon

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:52:14 +0000

(NASA) - Shortly after the Moon formed, an asteroid smacked into its southern hemisphere and gouged out a truly enormous crater, the South Pole-Aitken basin, almost 1,500 miles across and more than five miles deep. "This is the biggest, deepest crater on the Moon -- an abyss that could engulf the United States from the East Coast through Texas," said Noah Petro of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The impact punched into the layers of the lunar crust, scattering that mat [...]

Lava likely made river-like channel on Mars

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:46:07 +0000

(NASA) - Flowing lava can carve or build paths very much like the riverbeds and canyons etched by water, and this probably explains at least one of the meandering channels on the surface of Mars. These results were presented on March 4, 2010 at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by Jacob Bleacher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Whether channels on Mars were formed by water or by lava has been debated for years, and the outcome is thought to influence the like [...]

NASA's Kepler Mission Celebrates One Year in Space

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:41:30 +0000

(NASA) - One year ago this week, NASA's Kepler mission soared into the dark night sky, leaving a bright glow in its wake as it began to search for other worlds like Earth. "It was a stunning launch," recalled former Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Following Kepler's spectacular nocturnal launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket at 7:49 p.m. Pacific Time (10:49 p.m. East [...]

Herschel Finds Possible Life-Enabling Molecules in Space

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:38:41 +0000

(NASA) - The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed the chemical fingerprints of potentially life-enabling organic molecules in the Orion nebula, a nearby stellar nursery in our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel is led by the European Space Agency with important participation from NASA. The new data, obtained with the telescope's heterodyne instrument for the far infrared -- one of Herschel's three innovative instruments -- demonstrates the gold mine of information that Herschel will provide on ho [...]

Mars Dunes: On the Move?

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:36:29 +0000

PASADENA, Calif., (NASA) -- New studies of ripples and dunes shaped by the winds on Mars testify to variability on that planet, identifying at least one place where ripples are actively migrating and another where the ripples have been stationary for 100,000 years or more. Patterns of dunes and the smaller ripples present some of the more visually striking landforms photographed by cameras orbiting Mars. Investigations of whether they are moving go back more than a decade. Two report [...]

Phobos Flyby Success

Klaus Schmidt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:33:11 +0000

(ESA) - Mars Express encountered Phobos last night, smoothly skimming past at just 67 km, the closest any manmade object has ever approached Mars’ enigmatic moon. The data collected could help unlock the origin of not just Phobos but other ‘second generation’ moons. Something is not right about Phobos. It looks like a solid object but previous flybys have shown that it is not dense enough to be solid all the way through. Instead, it must be 25-35% porous. This has led planetary scientis [...]

Picture of the Day - Iceberg Collision in Antarctica

Matt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:50:03 +0000

An oblong iceberg roughly as big as Rhode Island called B-09B (center right in this image) collided with the edge of the Mertz Glacier in eastern Antarctica this month breaking away a new iceberg (top left) that is nearly as large at B-09B. This image from Feb. 20, 2010, is one of a series of images from NASA's Aqua satellite that showed the progression and aftermath of the collision. The floating ice tongue of the glacier is created as ice flows down from Antarctica and onto the water. G [...]

An Island of Stars in the Making on the Outskirts of Orion

Matt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:04:02 +0000

The delicate nebula NGC 1788, located in a dark and often neglected corner of the Orion constellation, is revealed in a new and finely nuanced image that ESO is releasing today. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, the latter’s powerful winds and light have had a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it home to a multitude of infant suns. All the stars in this region are extremely young, with an average age of only a million y [...]

Kazakhstan says Russian Proton launches to continue for now

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:38:34 +0000

ASTANA, (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Kazakhstan are currently working on the Baiterek launch pad at the Baikonur space center. The pad is designed for the launch of Angara carrier rockets running on environmentally friendly fuel consisting of oxygen and kerosene, compared to the toxic heptyl used in Proton launch vehicles. "We should speak about the gradual reduction or full termination of launches of Proton carrier rockets, operating on heptyl, after Baiterek is put into operation," Talgat Mus [...]

NASA’s International Space Station Program Wins Collier Trophy

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:34:55 +0000

(NASA) - The International Space Station Program has won the 2009 Collier Trophy, which is considered the top award in aviation. The National Aeronautic Association bestows the award annually to recognize the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America. “We are honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “We're proud of our past achievements to build and operate the spa [...]

NASA Mars Orbiter Speeds Past Data Milestone

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:32:16 +0000

PASADENA, Calif., (NASA) -- NASA's newest Mars orbiter, completing its fourth year at the Red Planet next week, has just passed a data-volume milestone unimaginable a generation ago and still difficult to fathom: 100 terabits. That 100 trillion bits of information is more data than in 35 hours of uncompressed high-definition video. It's also more than three times the amount of data from all other deep-space missions combined -- not just the ones to Mars, but every mission that has flown past [...]

Successful flight testing of advanced Indian sounding rocket

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:29:28 +0000

(ISRO) - Indian Space Research Organisation successfully conducted the flight testing of its new generation high performance sounding rocket today (March 3, 2010) at 08.30 Hrs, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), SHAR. Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV-D01), weighing 3 tonnes at lift-off is the heaviest sounding rocket ever developed by ISRO. It carried a passive scramjet engine combustor module as a test bed for demonstration of Air- Breathing propulsion technology. The success [...]

Winds of Change: How Black Holes May Shape Galaxies

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:22:21 +0000

(Harvard) - New observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory provide evidence for powerful winds blowing away from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy. This discovery indicates that "average" supermassive black holes may play an important role in the evolution of the galaxies in which they reside. For years, astronomers have known that a supermassive black hole grows in parallel with its host galaxy. And, it has long been suspected that material blown away from [...]

ASTRA 3B is “topped off� for Arianespace’s year-opening flight

Klaus Schmidt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:08:34 +0000

(Arianespace) - Satellite preparations for Ariane 5’s initial launch of 2010 have moved into a new phase with the fueling of ASTRA 3B – which is one of two passengers to be orbited by the heavy-lift vehicle on March 24. Propellant loading of ASTRA 3B was performed in the Spaceport’s S5 satellite preparation facility, readying this EADS Astrium-built spacecraft for integration with its Ariane 5 ECA launcher. ASTRA 3B is a state-of-the-art Ku- and Ka-band spacecraft designed for t [...]