SOYUZ ROCKET POSITIONED ON LAUNCH PAD FOR STATION RESUPPLY FLIGHT - A Russian Soyuz booster and an automated Progress resupply ship reached their launch pad Friday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, two days before firing into orbit test out a new expedited rendezvous sequence that will culminate in the Progress spacecraft’s docking with the International Space Station just three-and-a-half hours after launch. The Soyuz-2.1a rocket, a modernized version of Russia’s venerable Soyuz launcher, rolled out of its assembly hangar — known by the Russian acronym MIK — at the Baikonur Cosmodrome before sunrise Friday.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 10)

SIERRA NEVADA'S MINISHUTTLE IS GO FOR SPACE STATION SUPPLY DELIVERIES IN 2020 - The International Space Station will have a new spacecraft visitor starting in 2020 now that Sierra Nevada has received NASA approval to send its Dream Chaser cargo carrier to the orbiting laboratory. The Nevada-based commercial space company said Wednesday that it has the go-ahead from NASA to finalize the spacecraft, which looks like a mini space shuttle, for cargo resupply missions beginning in late 2020. More News Headlines 'Starman' in Tesla heads toward sun SpaceX Falcon 9 booster at sea likely destroyed, sources say Small asteroid will pass very close to Earth on Friday “SNC has been successfully completing critical design milestones as approved by NASA, and having a timetable for the first launch is another important step achieved for us,” Sierra Nevada Corp. CEO Fatih Ozmen said.   More
(Source: WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando - Feb 10)

SPACE STATION SUPPORTERS PREPARE FOR BUDGET BATTLE - As the administration prepares to release a fiscal year 2019 budget proposal that may call for ending International Space Station operations in the mid-2020s, advocates for the station in Congress and industry are making the case for keeping the station operating well beyond that. The budget proposal, scheduled for release Feb. 12, is rumored to contain language calling for the end of NASA funding for ISS operations by 2025, based on a draft of a budget document leaked last month. Neither NASA nor the administration have confirmed those plans.   More
(Source: SpaceNews - Feb 10)

QTUM TO LAUNCH CUBESAT FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM - Qtum Foundation announced a collaboration with the SpaceChain Foundation to launch a standardized CubeSat, which will carry Qtum‘s blockchain software technology on a Raspberry Pi device. The electricity required for cryptocurrency mining — or tallying cryptocurrency transactions in exchange for a small fee — has increased exponentially over the years. According to Digiconomist, Bitcoin mining power consumption had increased 56.2 percent over four months to hit 47.07 TWh, costing $2.3 billion per year and consuming 0.21 percent of the world’s electricity.   More
(Source: Satellite Today - Feb 9)

NASA TO AIR RUSSIAN SPACE STATION CARGO SHIP LAUNCH AND DOCKING - Loaded with three tons of food, fuel and supplies, a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 3:58 a.m. EST (2:58 p.m. Baikonur time) Sunday, Feb. 11, to resupply the International Space Station. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docking to the space station will be carried live on NASA Television the agency’s website beginning at 3:30 a.m.    More
(Source: Southgate Amateur Radio Club - Feb 9)

UNIQUE DANISH NANO-SATELLITE IN ORBIT AROUND THE ARCTIC - A new Danish nano-satellite has been launched into space to test its ability to monitor ships and aircraft in the Arctic. The satellite Ulloriaq (meaning “star” in Greenlandic) was launched successfully into space on February 2. Ulloriaq weighs approximately eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) and measures 300 x 200 x 100 millimeters (11.8 x 7.9 x 3.9 inches). The satellite will fly over the Arctic 16 times a day, once every hour and a half, from an orbital path approximately 540 kilometers (336 miles) above the Earth.   More
(Source: The Maritime Executive - Feb 8)

EUROPE’S STATION LAB IN SPACE 10 YEARS; CREW STUDIES EYES AND MUSCLES - To commemorate today’s event, ESA’s former Director of Human Spaceflight Feustel Beuchl called up to astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei today and asked about the status of Columbus operations. Scientists Lars Karlsson and Alexander Stahn inquired about a pair of ESA-sponsored experiments researching airway inflammation and circadian rhythms. Wednesday’s science onboard the station looked at how living in space affects vision and muscles. Two cosmonauts used special optical equipment to peer inside each other’s eyes this morning.    More
(Source: NASA - Feb 8)

DON’T GIVE UP ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - It has been over six years since I last floated in zero gravity through the tunnel that connects the space shuttle to the International Space Station. I visited this orbiting laboratory on four occasions between 2001 and 2011. Every time I approached the station, I was in awe of its complexity and its beauty. But more than anything, I was in awe of the fact that we had the nerve to even attempt to build something of this magnitude. It was the United States that led the international coalition of 16 nations to build the space station. Constructing this outpost in outer space took dozens of missions spanning well over a decade to complete, and considerable money. It is clearly one of the more complicated engineering projects humans have undertaken...   More
(Source: New York Times - Feb 8)

SPACEX LAUNCHES ITS POWERFUL FALCON HEAVY ROCKET FOR THE FIRST TIME - SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, this afternoon and soared to space, carrying its payload — CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster — into orbit. The Falcon Heavy’s flight still isn’t quite over yet, but the rocket has shown its prowess and is likely ready to begin missions for customers. Adding to the launch’s success, two of the Falcon Heavy’s rocket cores successfully touched down back on Earth after takeoff. The two outer boosters broke away mid-flight and returned to the Cape, touching down around 1,000 feet from one another on SpaceX’s concrete landing pads — Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2. The center core then broke away from the vehicle’s upper stage, but it’s not yet clear whether it landed as intended on one of SpaceX’s autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean. That means SpaceX has now landed a total of 23 — and possibly 24 — rockets upright.   More
(Source: The Verge - Feb 6)

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