Spaceports

Orbital Sciences Corporation offers civil, military, and commercial space flights

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:49:00 +0000

Headquatered in in the Dulles area of Loudoun County, Virginia, Orbital Sciences Corporation has built 569 launch vehicles with 82 more to be delivered by 2015. 174 satellites have been built by the company since 1982 with 24 more to be delivered by 2015. Orbital has a 40% share of the interceptor market, 55% share of the small communications satellite market, and a 60% share of the small launch vehicles market.

On Sunday, April 21, 2013 Orbital Sciences successfully launched a test flight, putting the company on a path to becoming the second commercial entity to transport cargo to the international space station. The 131-foot Antares rocket made its maiden voyage from a recently completed launch complex on Wallops Island, off the Virginia coast known as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The blast-off capped a roughly $1 billion investment.

However, failing to be selected for NASA's Commercial Crew Development phase 2 solicitation award, Orbital announced in 2011 that they will wind down their efforts to develop a commercial crew vehicle. The firm does hope to expand the use of the commercial Antares booster to various commercial configurations

NASA funds prototype pizza synthesizer

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:30:00 +0000

The Japanese arm of Domino's Pizza two years ago announced plans to build the first commercial pizzeria on the moon drawing up plans for a two-story, dome-shaped lunar eatery. While most saw this news as far-fetched at the time, 3D bio-printing may make lunar Pizza Huts reality sooner rather than later, especially as new technology may enable print pizzas for the American space agency.

Enter Contractor: Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain John Luke Picard was constantly ordering tea. Contractor’s company, Systems and Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.

Contractor's initial grant from NASA, under its Small Business Innovation Research program, is for a system that can print food for astronauts on very long space missions. For example, all the way to Mars or deep space asteroids.

Pizza is the first candidate for 3D bioprinting food because it can be printed in distinct layers, so it only requires the print head to extrude one substance at a time.

It works by first “printing” a layer of dough, which is baked at the same time it’s printed, by a heated plate at the bottom of the printer. Then it lays down a tomato base, “which is also stored in a powdered form, and then mixed with water and oil,” says Contractor. Finally, the pizza is topped with the delicious-sounding “protein layer,” which could come from any source, including animals, milk or plants, according to QUARTZ.

“One of the major advantages of a 3D printer is that it provides personalized nutrition,” says Contractor. “If you’re male, female, someone is sick—they all have different dietary needs. If you can program your needs into a 3D printer, it can print exactly the nutrients that person requires,” noted RT.

More from The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

Japan Space Agency to launch Kounotori 4 cargo spacecraft to ISS August 4, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 06:22:00 +0000

The H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 4 (H-IIB F4) carrying the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV4, a cargo transporter to the International Space Station) will be launched on August 4, 2013, (Sunday, Japan Standard Time.) The launch time will be around 4:48 a.m. (JST.) It will be blasted off from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegahsima Space Center.

Kounotori 3 launched July 12, 2012 successfully to the International Space Station as seen in the YouTube video above.

The European Space Agency will launch the Albert Einstein ATV4 cargo and propulsion spacecraft atop an Ariane 5ES from Centre Spatiale Guyanaise, French Guiana on June 5, 2013.

The planned launch of the Kounotori 4 cargo spacecraft from Japan in August will most likely push the launch of the US Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares booster with the commercial cargo Cygnus spacecraft from Wallops Island, Va. into the fall on its first 'full-up' mission to the International Space Station.

NASA ISIS to probe the sun's chromosphere

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:12:00 +0000

NASA is getting ready to launch a new mission, a mission to observe a mysterious region of the solar atmosphere that may be crucial to understanding what powers space weather.

The Pegasus XL rocket

On June 26, 2013, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. aboard an Orbital Sciences Corporation PegasusXL.

IRIS will tease out the rules governing the lowest layers of the solar atmosphere -- historically some of the hardest to untangle. Known as the solar interface region, this is one of the most complex areas in the sun's atmosphere: all the energy that drives solar activity travels through it.

NASA IRIS mission set for June

The interface region lies between the sun's 6,000-degree, white-hot, visible surface, the photosphere, and the much hotter multi-million-degree upper corona. Interactions between the violently moving plasma and the sun's magnetic field in this area may well be the source of the energy that heats the corona to its million-degree temperatures, some hundreds and occasionally thousands of times hotter than the sun's surface. The chromosphere is also considered a candidate as the origin for giant explosions on the sun such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections.

Mission logo design

IRIS will use high-resolution images, data and advanced computer models to unravel how solar gases move, gather energy and heat up through the lower solar atmosphere. Outfitted with state-of-the-art tools, IRIS will be able to tease apart what's happening in the solar interface region better than ever before.

Soyuz TMA-09M: One Week to Launch

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

The crew for the Expedition 36 initiated a final training phase in the processing facility. Fyodor Yurchikhin (Roscosmos, Russia), Luca Parmitano (ESA, Italy) and Karen Nyberg (NASA, USA) had training sessions onboard the spacecraft, acquainted with the onboard documentation and the content of cargoes launched and also made a fitting of the Sokol-KB space suits and individual liners.

The crew will launch to the International Space Station on May 28, 2013 aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft.

NASA-Bigelow Space Act Agreement to be discussed by Gerstenmaier and Bigelow

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:37:00 +0000

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas are holding a media availability at 1:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 23, to discuss the agency's Space Act Agreement with the company for its insight on collaborating with commercial industry on exploration beyond Earth orbit. Participating in the media event are:

William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator, human exploration and operations, NASA

Robert Bigelow, founder and president, Bigelow Aerospace

Under the agreement, Bigelow will work with a variety of commercial space companies to assess and develop options for innovative and dynamic private and public investments to create infrastructure to support domestic and international governmental exploration activities alongside revenue generating private sector enterprises. Bigelow will deliver its analysis by the end of this year.

The agreement includes a two-phased approach that will help NASA assess potential opportunities for collaboration. During the first phase, Bigelow will leverage its existing relationships with other private companies and its expertise from continuing operations in space to form common objectives between the private sector and NASA. In the second phase, Bigelow will create a series of options for public-private collaboration that lower costs and takes advantage of rapid implementation.

NASA and Bigelow have previously announced an addition of a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable habitat addition to the International Space Station to be lofted to space sometime in the next 36-months.

Next Steps in Human Exploration to Mars

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:15:00 +0000

A hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives' Science, Space and Technology Committee is scheduled for 2 p.m. EST, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 and will feature astronomers known for their expertise in moon and Mars exploration, as well as a former NASA official and a co-founder of The Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to space exploration.

The purpose of the hearing is to examine possible next steps in human space flight and how these options move the United States closer to a human mission to Mars and beyond. In particular, the committee will explore whether the Administration's proposed asteroid rendezvous is a better precursor for an eventual human mission to Mars compared to an Apollo-like follow-on missions to return to the Moon (PDF document).

The panel is organized by the Subcommittee on Space, and will be held at the 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. You can watch the broadcast live here.

Paul Spudis, a geologist specializing in lunar science at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston
Steve Squyres, a Cornell University astronomer who is principal investigator of NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars
Douglas Cooke, former associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate who now owns the Cooke Concepts and Solutions consulting company
Louis Friedman, co-leader of the Keck Institute for Space Studies Asteroid Retrieval Mission Study and co-founder and executive director emeritus of The Planetary Society

Bion-M space research lands with casualties

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:28:00 +0000

After spending a month in orbit around the earth, the Russian Bion-M space capsule carrying a menagerie of small animals has returned home, many of its passengers dead from among the 45 mice, eight Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos, a handful of snails and numerous other species to test how long stretches in a zero-gravity environment affect living creatures, reported the Kyiv Post.

Russian television showed the capsule and some of its inhabitants after it landed Sunday in a planted field near Orenburg, about 750 miles southeast of Moscow. A number of the creatures on the Bion-M either expired from the stresses of spaceflight or because of equipment technology failure.

Bion-M1 was Russia's first mission in 17 years dedicated to launching animals into space and the longest flight of its kind in the history of that country's space science program. The last "Bion" mission carried rhesus monkeys, geckos and amphibians into orbit for 15 days in 1996.

Most rodent space travelers perished

The Bion-M trip was to test the effects of microgravity - the condition of near weightlessness popularly known as zero gravity - on living organisms' skeletons, nervous systems, muscles and hearts, according to The Australian.

During its 30-day flight, more than 70 physiological, morphological, genetic and molecular-biological experiments were conducted in support of long-duration human interplanetary flights including Mars missions.

One of the areas researchers will be focused on is how being in outer-space impacted animals' reproductive processes, said a report by Space.com. Some future missions could literally take years to complete, so sex en route would be likely.

Numerous scientists from different countries, including the United States, France, Kazakhstan, Germany and Ukraine are already awaiting the arrival in Moscow of the Bion-M surviving animals so they can study their health status at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The research is designed to advance human spaceflight.

British Astronaut Assigned 2015 ISS Stay

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:16:00 +0000

Britain's first official astronaut, Major Tim Peake, 41, has been selected to fly on a five-month mission on the International Space Station in 2015, it is believed. The go-ahead for the flight will be seen as a major boost for the UK's space industry. Peake graduated as a European Space Agency astronaut more than two years ago and has been waiting for a space mission since then, Ian Sample writes for The Guardian.

UK Astronaut Major Tim Peake

Peake, who is married with two sons, is considered to be Britain's first official astronaut because in the past those UK citizens who have flown in space have either been privately funded for their missions – such as Helen Sharman who flew on a Russian rocket in 1991 – or have taken out American citizenship, such as Nick Foale and Piers Sellers, who have both flown on the US space shuttle.

Details of his Peake's space station flight are expected at a press conference on Monday, May 20, 2013 at the Science Museum in London. More from The Telegraph and the European Space Agency.

Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies working with FAA to investigate UFOs

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:58:00 +0000

Mike Gold - Director of Operations for Bigelow Aerospace is asked by Shepard Johnson about the Bigelow's involvement with FAA UFO reports. Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) is referenced in the FAA Federal Aviation Regulations / Aeronautical Instruction Manual (FAR/AIM) as a place where pilots can submit UFO reports. Location: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum May 16, 2013.

Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), a sister company to Bigelow Aerospace, is a research organization that focuses on the identification, evaluation, and acquisition of novel and emerging technologies as they specifically relate to spacecraft. BAASS is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Russia In Space: The Past Explained, The Future Explored, by Anatoly Zak

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:34:00 +0000

Russia In Space: The Past Explained, The Future Explored is a newly published book making a unique attempt to visualize space exploration's future through the eyes of Russian space engineers and to describe that nation's plans in space authored by Anatoly Zak, a writer and illustrator in the history of space exploration.

Zak presents the Russian vision for the future of space exploration in the next 40 years, against a backdrop of the dramatic history of the post-Soviet collapse and the remarkable recovery of the nation's space program.

Based on actual documents, rather than on guesswork, it is the first comprehensive illustrated book dedicated to the Russian vision for the future of manned spaceflight from the dawn of manned spaceflight until today. Russia In Space is lavishly illustrated with images of unparalleled artistic quality and technical accuracy. The book is available now at Apogee Prime.

Director's Cut: "Come Fly With Landsat"

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:44:00 +0000

Highlights of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission observations collected on April 19, 2013. The six selections in this video all come from the same continuous data collection as the satellite passed over Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The selections in this video feature the Volga River in Russia, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq, the cities of Medina and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Mt. Elgon and Lake Victoria in Uganda and Kenya, and the Great Dyke of Zimbabwe.

A joint U.S. Geological Survey and NASA mission, LDCM launched on Feb. 11, 2013, and is still in its onboard calibration and checkout phase. The images shown here are considered test data. Once LDCM completes its check-out phase in late May, the satellite will be handed over to the USGS and renamed Landsat 8. After this point, the satellite will be considered operational and data will be available from USGS at no cost over the Internet.

Albert Einstien ATV-4 to launch to ISS June 5

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:36:00 +0000

The European Space Agency's ATV Albert Einstien (ATV-4) is set for launch on June 5, 2013 and will deliver the most diverse-ever cargo mix to the International Space Station -- around 1400 different items -- ranging from food, spare parts, crew supplies and clothing to scientific experiments and other vital items. Albert Einstein will be launched on an Ariane 5ES rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana (#ATV)

Parmitano tells story of an ISS flight engineer

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:28:00 +0000

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano is a flight engineer for Expedition 36 and 37. What does a flight engineer do? Luca explains the multiple roles he will fulfil in space during his six-month Volare mission.

SpaceX Fairing Separation Test

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:47:00 +0000

Video of SpaceX's 5.2m fairing—designed in-house by SpaceX—undergoing testing in the world's largest vacuum chamber at NASA Glenn Research Center -- Plum Brook Station. SpaceX's fairing is used to protect a satellite during launch. Separation occurs when the rocket is traveling over 4x faster than a speeding bullet, nearly 10x the speed of sound. The video is in slow motion. More from InnerSpace.

Soyuz TMA-09M Crew at Baikonur Cosmodrome for Final Preperation

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:23:00 +0000

Expedition 36/37 Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg, Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and backup crew members Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency participated in traditional ceremonies at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow on May 16, 2013.

Afterward, they departed for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to complete training for their launch to the International Space Station in the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft on May 29, 2013 Kazakh time. After arriving in Baikonur, they are scheduled to conduct a series of prelaunch activities over the next two weeks as they prepare for liftoff to the orbital outpost.

ISS Commander Chris Hadfield's First News Conference Since Returning to Earth

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:16:00 +0000

Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield answered several questions from media in his first news conference since returning to Earth. Topics included scientific and research benefits of the International Space Station, re-adaptation to gravity and the social media success of his mission. Here is the event in its entirety. Credit: CSA

“When I got out of the capsule, I could actually feel the weight of my lips, and I didn’t realize that while in orbit I had learned how to speak with a weightless tongue.” - ISS Commander Chris Hadfield, (May 16, 2013).

NASA Connects Space Station and "Star Trek Into Darkness" Crews in Google HangOut

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:26:00 +0000

Astronaut Chris Cassidy, from aboard the International Space Station participated in a Google+ hangout with fellow astronauts at Johnson Space Center and cast members of the new film, "Star Trek Into Darkness" to discuss how work aboard the ISS is turning science fiction into reality.

The astronauts and Star Trek cast asked questions of each other and fielded questions from social media followers at several locations, including the Intrepid Museum in New York City (home of the space shuttle Enterprise) and the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

OSIRIS-REx mission to launch 2016

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:21:00 +0000

NASA's Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) will study asteroid Bennu. It will launch in 2016, arrive at the asteroid in 2018 and a minimum of 2 ounces of it will be returned 5 years later.

Significant Lunar Meteoroid Impact Analyzed

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:58:00 +0000

NASA researchers who monitor the Moon for meteoroid impacts have detected the brightest explosion in the history of their program.

U.S. Space Exploration Policy eventually calls for extended astronaut stays on the lunar surface. Unlike during the Apollo Program, when the astronauts were on the moon for just a couple of days, astronauts of the next decade will live and work on the moon for up to several months. Spacecraft, vehicles, habitats, and EVA suits must all be designed to withstand the stresses posed by the harsh lunar environment over this period of time.

Meteoroids, and the ejecta produced when they create impact craters, are part of this environment. We must characterize this environment well enough for effective designs to be developed. This not only applies to manned activities of the next decade, but also to the robotic exploration missions planned for the remaining years of this decade. They too must be well-engineered so that they may complete their missions with success. Knowledge of the environment is of major importance.

The NASA LADEE mission, to be launched from Wallops Island, Virginia to the moon, September 5, 2013, will be an important spacecraft for meteoroid impact research.

US SENATE HEARING: "Partnerships to Advance the Business of Space" Today@10

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:01:00 +0000

The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space today announced it will hold a hearing on Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. titled “Partnerships to Advance the Business of Space." The hearing will be webcast live via the Senate Commerce Committee website. Refresh the Commerce Committee homepage 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time to automatically begin streaming the webcast.

The witness panel includes: Mr. N. Wayne Hale Jr., Director of Human Spaceflight, Special Aerospace Services, NASA Flight Director & Program Manager (ret.) ; Ms. Patti Grace Smith Aerospace Consultant/Advisor, Patti Grace Smith Consulting, L.L.C.; Captain Michael Lopez-Alegria USN (ret.), President Commercial Spaceflight Federation; and, Dr. Steven H. Collicott Professor, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics College of Engineering, Purdue University. Tweets about the hearing at #SpaceBiz.

Exo-Planet Explorer TESS to launch in 2017

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

With the Kepler Space Telescope experiencing operational troubles despite the planned 2016 extended mission plan, the space science community must now look ahead to 2017 to a new exo-planet explorer.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky. In a two-year survey of the solar neighborhood, TESS will monitor more than 500,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. No ground-based survey can achieve this feat.

TESS stars will be 30-100 times brighter than those surveyed by the Kepler satellite; thus,TESS planets will be far easier to characterize with follow-up observations. For the first time it will be possible to study the masses, sizes, densities, orbits, and atmospheres of a large cohort of small planets, including a sample of rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars. TESS will provide prime targets for characterization with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as well as other large ground-based and space-based telescopes of the future.

TESS will serve as the "People's Telescope," with data releases every 4 months, inviting immediate community-wide efforts to study the new planets. The TESS legacy will be a catalog of the nearest and brightest main-sequence stars hosting transiting exoplanets, which will forever be the most favorable targets for detailed investigations.

“TESS will carry out the first space-borne all-sky transit survey, covering 400 times as much sky as any previous mission,” principal investigator George Ricker said last month. “It will identify thousands of new planets in the solar neighborhood, with a special focus on planets comparable in size to the Earth.”

"TESS has just accelerated our chances of finding life on another planet within the next decade,” noted Sara Seager, a professor of planetary science and physics at MIT and TESS mission science advisor. Seager's current focus is on exoplanet atmospheres and interiors.

"Exoplanets are planets orbiting stars other than the sun. Astronomers have found nearly 1000 exoplanets so far; most are larger than Earth. For thousands of years, people have wondered, “Are there other planets like Earth out there?” For the first time in human history we are on the verge of being able to answer this ancient question," Seager has said.

Kepler Space Telescope in 'Safe Mode'

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:05:00 +0000

Courtesy Kepler Mission, painting by Jon Lomberg.

The Kepler Space Telescope, an instrument that altered our sense of our place in the universe by revealing that Earth-sized planets orbited other stars, has suffered a malfunction with a mechanism that helps point the telescope.

Kepler Space Telescope

Space engineers are struggling to regain control of the Kepler space telescope, which has lost its ability to aim accurately at the star systems it has been scanning for planets similar to Earth, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Wednesday, March 15, 2013 as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

NASA officials were not ready Wednesday to say Kepler’s mission was done, but said in a conference call with reporters that the spacecraft went into “safe mode” on Sunday because of an error in its position. They are still working to see if it is possible to restore the telescope’s ability to precisely point in particular directions.

“Unfortunately, Kepler is not in a place where I can go up and rescue it or any other astronaut,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “We’re looking at the data carefully. We’re not ready to call it mission over.”

Diagram showing the current number of
Kepler exoplanetary candidates, listed
by size.

If no remedy can be devised, the malfunction could end a mission that since 2009 has found 2,740 possible planets around other stars, including about 280 that are the size of Earth. It was originally designed to last four years, but NASA had recently extended the mission to 2016.

The $600-million Kepler mission now has astronomers estimating that one in six stars in the Milky Way has an Earth-sized planet circling it. The space telescope's the discoveries have lent credence to the idea that the Milky Way galaxy hosts as many as 500 million planets orbiting in a star's habitable zone, where life would be theoretically possible and 17-billion planets throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.

NASA's Kepler mission recently discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the "habitable zone," the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.

Space Killers: asteroids studied in Russia

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Russian with English subtitles (44-min.).

The Future Belongs to SpaceX and Elon Musk

noreply@blogger.com (JackKennedy) — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:48:00 +0000

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, is the world's leading space entrepreneur. Hear how Musk plans to send millions of people to colonize Mars, as Michelle Fields talks to the tech innovator about the future of space exploration, scientific innovation and doing business in California during a recession.