FINAL DELTA 2 ROCKET LAUNCHES $1 BILLION ICE PROBE - Ending a 30-year run as one of America's most successful rockets, a United Launch Alliance's 155th and final Delta 2 roared to life for the last time Saturday carrying a $1 billion NASA satellite into orbit to measure the thickness and extent of polar ice sheets, changes in sea level and the height of forest canopies and clouds. The ICESat-2 satellite -- the acronym stands for Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite 2 -- is the most sophisticated ice-monitoring spacecraft ever launched, equipped with advanced electronics and a laser that will fire 10,000 pulses per second at the ground below and then capture the faint reflections. More (Source: CBS News - Sep 15)
JAPAN DELAYS LAUNCH OF NEW SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP AGAIN - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) unexpectedly delayed a vital cargo launch to the International Space Station just an hour before the rocket was scheduled to lift off. The agency has not yet provided a new launch date or an explanation for the delay. The mission had already been postponed from a liftoff originally scheduled for Sept. 10 (Sept. 11 local time) by a typhoon near the launch site at Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. After the weather delays, the agency calculated a range of launch windows lasting through the end of October. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 15)
SCIENTISTS EAGER TO RENEW GLOBAL ICE MEASUREMENTS WITH ICESAT 2 MISSION - The satellite awaiting launch early Saturday from California aboard the final flight of the venerable Delta 2 rocket should allow scientists to more precisely track changes in our planet’s ice sheets, using six green laser beams to chart the height and slope of polar ice and glaciers, providing a key input into climate change research. Researchers who plan to analyze data from the new satellite say a better understanding of Earth’s ice will help them learn about our planet’s changing climate, and help predict how melting ice will contribute to rising sea levels. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 15)
STUDENT-LAUNCHED SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY ORBITS EARTH - Since its successful launch and deployment earlier this year, the Brown Space Engineering’s EQUiSat cube satellite has been continuously transmitting information down to Providence. A team of students at BSE has been collaborating on the project since its conception nearly eight years ago. As the team receives and records data from EQUiSat, BSE is already in the preliminary stages of preparing their next big cube satellite project, which is tentatively set for mid-2021, said current Project Manager Jacob Leiken ’20. More (Source: The Brown Daily Herald - Sep 14)
RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY TO NASA: INVESTIGATION INTO SPACE STATION LEAK IS UNDER WAY - Two weeks after astronauts and cosmonauts repaired an air leak at the International Space Station, investigators are still trying to figure out how the tiny hole got there. According to a new joint statement from NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency, Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin invited NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine to meet in a teleconference on Wednesday (Sept. 12) to discuss the investigation. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 14)
NASA TO LAUNCH SATELLITE TRACKING EARTH'S MELTING ICE ON SATURDAY - NASA is set to launch its Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2 — that will track Earth's melting poles and disappearing sea ice — on Saturday, 15 September. The satellite with a three-year mission is scheduled to launch at 6.16 pm IST on Saturday, with liftoff aboard a Satellite Delta II rocket from the Space Launch Complex-2 (SLC-2), the US space agency said in a blog post late on Tuesday, 11 September. More (Source: Firstpost - Sep 13)
HURRICANE FLORENCE: HOW SATELLITES ARE TRACKING THE MONSTER STORM FROM SPACE - As Hurricane Florence makes its way toward the U.S. East Coast, several satellites are monitoring the dangerous storm system with a variety of instruments. From tracking wind speeds, rainfall and temperatures to capturing breathtaking views of the spinning monstrosity of a storm, a fleet of satellites run by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is providing weather forecasters with the tools they need to keep people safe. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 13)
JAPAN'S HTV LAUNCH RESCHEDULED - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has rescheduled the launch of a cargo spacecraft from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan to 5:21 p.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 13 (6:21 a.m. Sept. 14 Japan standard time). Live coverage of the launch will begin at 4:45 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency's website. The unpiloted H-II Transfer Vehicle-7 (HTV-7) is loaded with more than five tons of supplies, water, spare parts and experiments for the crew aboard the International Space Station. More (Source: Space Ref - Sep 12)
HUGE HURRICANE FLORENCE LOOMS LARGE IN NEW VIEWS FROM SPACE (VIDEO) - As Hurricane Florence intensified into a major, Category 4 storm in the Atlantic Ocean today (Sept. 10), astronauts and satellites have spotted the enormous weather system from space. NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold shared views from the International Space Station, which orbits around 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth. "A few moments later, #Isaac & the outer bands of #Helene were also visible," Arnold tweeted, referring to two other hurricanes swirling to the east of Hurricane Florence. Last Thursday (Sept. 6), Arnold shared his first photos of Hurricane Florence, taken when it was still a Category 2 storm. More (Source: Space.com - Sep 11)
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