RUSSIA’S PIRS MODULE DISCARDED AFTER 20 YEARS OF SERVICE AT SPACE STATION - Wrapping up nearly 20 years of service as a docking port and airlock, Russia’s Pirs module departed the International Space Station Monday under tow from a Progress supply ship and headed for a destructive re-entry in Earth’s atmosphere, clearing the way for arrival of a larger science lab later this week. Russia’s Progress MS-16 cargo freighter undocked from the space station at 6:55 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT) Monday as the outpost soared 260 miles (418 kilometers) over northern China. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 27)
FAREWELL, PIRS; ISS MODULE DECOMMISSIONED, SET FOR DESTRUCTIVE REENTRY - After nearly 20 years in orbit serving as a docking port and airlock for the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), the Pirs module — also called Stykovochny Otsek 1, or Docking Compartment 1 (DC-1) — will become the first habitable element of the station to be decommissioned and permanently removed from the orbital complex. Under the plan, Pirs will be undocked from the nadir port of the Zvezda service module at 06:56 EDT / 10:56 UTC on Monday, July 26 ahead of a fiery destruction in Earth’s atmosphere at 10:51 EDT / 14:51 UTC later that day. More (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jul 26)
BOEING STARLINER ISS LAUNCH: HOW TO WATCH DO-OVER TEST FLIGHT LIVE - If at first you don't succeed, try, try again to send your spacecraft back into orbit to dock with the International Space Station. On July 30, Boeing is set to relaunch its Starliner crew capsule (minus any humans on board) for a second attempt at reaching the ISS, after its first try in late 2019 failed to reach the station. Software defects and a communications link problem led to a premature end to the original test flight, though the CST-100 Starliner capsule landed safely back on Earth. More (Source: CNET - Jul 26)
SKYWATCHER SPOTS RUSSIA'S NAUKA SCIENCE MODULE HEADED TO SPACE STATION (PHOTO) - A British astrophotographer captured a stunning view of Russia's largest addition to the International Space Station yet, the Nauka science module, just hours after its launch into orbit on Wednesday (July 21). Martin Lewis, who posts his images on the website Skyinspector.co.uk, took the photo shortly after 21:00 UTC (5 pm EDT) on Wednesday (July 21) from his back garden in St. Albans, some 20 miles (35 kilometers) north of London, using his home-built 222mm Dobsonian telescope. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 25)
SOLAR FLARES OFF LARGE SOLAR ARRAYS AND ISS ROLL-OUT SOLAR ARRAYS (IROSA) - On July 16, 2021, Philip Smith, an enthusiast astrophotographer in Manorville NY, has recorded through his telescope the International Space Station passing over his house.
Here is the story:
"I recorded and imaged a "SOLAR FLARE" on one of the ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) on the port 6 (P6) truss on 07-16-21 at 4:05am EST. The ISS max pass was 64° from N/W to S/E. The imaging all took place from my backyard observatory in Manorville NY, USA. After looking over my recorded ISS video, I was very happy to see I just imaged a part of ISS history that is now part of the new solar panel system."
"The ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) are lightweight, flexible. This new type of solar array provides much more energy than traditional solar arrays at much less mass. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet with the European Space Agency (ESA) completed a six-hour and 45-minute spacewalk on Friday (June 25), during which they install the second of six new International Space Station (ISS) Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSA). My imaging configuration was an Edge HD 14" telescope with an Baader Red 610 nm Longpass Filter 1.25" on a ZWO ASI174MM (mono) camera at full sensorI 1936 x 1216 and Baader Planetarium Carl Zeiss 1-1/4" 2x Barlow Lens."
You can see more of Philip's images on his FaceBook page. More (Source: - Jul 24)
CHINA’S SPACE STATION IS PREPARING TO HOST 1,000 SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS - China launched the core of its space station in April, and sent three astronauts up in June. But although it probably won’t be complete until late 2022, there is already a long queue of experiments from across the world waiting to go up. Scientists in China told Nature that the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has tentatively approved more than 1,000 experiments, several of which have already been launched. More (Source: Nature - Jul 24)
RUSSIA DELAYS DETACHING OLD SPACE STATION DOCKING PORT WHILE TESTING NEW RESEARCH MODULE IN ORBIT - The departure of Russia's Pirs module from the International Space Station has been delayed until Saturday (July 24) as engineers continue to conduct in-flight tests on its replacement. The 20-year-old Pirs was scheduled to leave the orbiting lab tomorrow (July 23) to open a slot for the Russian Multipurpose Research Module, also known as Nauka, which launched on Wednesday (July 21). But the 22-ton (20 tonnes) Nauka has experienced a few issues during its journey to the orbiting lab, necessitating a change of plans. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 24)
IMPAIRED GOES-WEST SATELLITE RETURNS TO SERVICE - The GOES-West weather satellite has returned to service after being down yesterday due to an anomaly. Initially known as GOES-17, and GOES-S before that, an on-board computer reset triggered by the satellite forced it into a safe-hold mode at 1:37 am ET yesterday. In this phase, all of GOES-17’s instruments were automatically turned off. This morning, NOAA announced that GOES-17 is out of safe-hold mode and that engineers expect its six instruments to return to normal operations soon. More (Source: Weatherboy - Jul 24)
REPROGRAMMABLE SATELLITE FUELLED PRIOR TO LAUNCH - A sophisticated telecommunications satellite capable of being completely repurposed in orbit has been fuelled ready for its launch on 30 July. Developed under an ESA Partnership Project called Quantum, the satellite is pioneering a new generation of fully reconfigurable satellites that can respond while in orbit to changing demands on Earth during their 15-year lifetimes. More (Source: Phys.org - Jul 23)
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