AFTER FOGGY DEPARTURE, IT’S CLEAR SAILING TO MARS FOR INSIGHT LANDER - Making a fiery climb into a foggy sky Saturday over California’s Central Coast, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket dispatched NASA’s InSight lander on a 301-million-mile voyage to Mars with a package of European-built instruments to probe the inside of the Red Planet. The billion-dollar robotic mission took off at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT; 1105 GMT) Saturday from Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, a secure military post northwest of Los Angeles that had never before hosted a launch to another planet. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 6)
FOURTH US AIR FORCE SBIRS SATELLITE SENDS FIRST IMAGES BACK TO EARTH - The U.S. Air Force's fourth Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite transmitted its first images back to Earth. The milestone, known as "first light," occurred in February when the SBIRS GEO Flight-4 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, turned on its powerful sensors for the first time during space vehicle checkout. SBIRS GEO Flight-4 is the latest satellite to join the Air Force's orbiting missile warning constellation. More (Source: Space Daily - May 5)
SPACE POLICY EDITION: A COMMERCIAL FUTURE FOR THE SPACE STATION? - After announcing it intends to divest from the International Space Station in 2025, NASA quietly released a new report on its transition plans, laying out a series of principles that will set the future of U.S. astronauts in low-Earth orbit. Can a private entity really take over the space station? Where did this idea come from anyway? Will there be new commercial space stations in the near future, and will they serve NASA's needs? Also, the confirmation of Jim Bridenstine as NASA Administrator. More (Source: The Planetary Society - May 5)
PAIR OF UPCOMING NASA SPACEWALKS SET FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IN MAY - Two NASA astronauts are scheduled to venture outside the International Space Station for a pair of six-and-a-half-hour spacewalks May 16 and 30. Experts from NASA will preview the work to be done during the spacewalks in a briefing at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, May 8, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Live coverage of the briefing and spacewalks will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website. More (Source: SpaceCoastDaily.com - May 4)
IS FACEBOOK SECRETLY BUILDING AN INTERNET SATELLITE? SIGNS POINT TO YES - Facebook may be secretly working on its own satellite broadband service. The possible move comes just a few months after SpaceX launched its first two prototype satellites for an internet constellation it hopes may one day be over 11,000 strong. A partially redacted FCC application obtained by IEEE Spectrum outlines a plan for an experimental satellite from a mysterious company called PointView Tech LLC, which IEEE goes on to connect to Facebook. More (Source: CNET - May 4)
LONG MARCH ROCKET LAUNCHES APSTAR-6C COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE FROM CHINA - China on Thursday launched the Apstar-6C communications satellite, successfully inserting the 5-metric-ton spacecraft into a geostationary-transfer orbit. The Long March 3B launch vehicle lifted off from Launch Complex 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at 12:06 p.m. Eastern, in accordance with airspace closure notices published days in advance. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced success of the launch just over an hour after liftoff. More (Source: SpaceNews - May 4)
DRAGON CARGO CRAFT’S RETURN TO EARTH DELAYED TO SATURDAY - A commercial Dragon cargo capsule will remain at the International Space Station until Saturday, three days later than previously planned due to high sea states observed by the SpaceX recovery team in the spaceship’s splashdown zone in the Pacific Ocean. The automated spacecraft is set to return to Earth with more than 4,000 pounds of cargo and experiment specimens, including frozen biological samples such as plants, insects and human tissue. The SpaceX Dragon cargo carrier will also bring back Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot launched on the final flight of the space shuttle Discovery in February 2011, for repairs. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 3)
NASA JUST GREENLIT A SATELLITE CONCEPT STRAIGHT OUT OF STAR WARS - How we get satellites into space is a costly and time-consuming business, but what if we could get the satellite to do the hard work itself? SpaceX and other private space companies have promised to revolutionise the delivery of payloads into space by drastically cutting the costs and time in between launches with the latest in rocket and computer technology. But now, NASA has just greenlighted a project from Cornell University that is truly mind-blowing: a satellite capable of being launched into space in tiny segments, which can then navigate autonomously to a point and self-assemble. More (Source: Siliconrepublic.com - May 2)
KEY CLIMATE SATELLITE TO LAUNCH LATER THIS MONTH - The Trump administration will launch a major climate science satellite mission later this month to track the movement of water around the planet. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On satellites are scheduled to be launched as soon as May 19, NASA announced yesterday. They will monitor the polar ice caps, aquifer storage around the country and other key data related to climate change. The mission will also track changes in deep ocean currents, which drive climate change. More (Source: Scientific American - May 2)
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