SPACE STATION DIGITAL AMATEUR TELEVISION SIGNAL NOT BEING SEEN ON THE GROUND - The signal from the digital amateur television (DATV) transmitter aboard the International Space Station (ISS) cannot be detected on the ground, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has reported. The unit indicates that it is functioning, however. So far, ARISS has been at a loss to pin down the problem. “A series of steps are currently being undertaken to try to diagnose the problem,” a May 10 announcement from ARISS said. “However, if an actual failure occurred, only a ground-based evaluation will fully diagnose the problem. The ARISS International team is working diligently to bring [the system] back to full operation as soon as practical.” The ISS DATV system is known variously as “HamVideo” and “HamTV.” More (Source: ARRL - May 11)
SPACEX SCRUBS LAUNCH OF LATEST FALCON 9 ROCKET, WILL TRY AGAIN FRIDAY - SpaceX has long touted reusability as the key to reducing launch costs, and eventually, making its way to the Red Planet. But so far, it has relaunched 11 of its workhorse Falcon 9 rockets, one time each. And it has taken at least several weeks to turn those around for the next launch. On Friday afternoon, the Hawthorne space company will debut the latest and final substantial upgrade to the Falcon 9 — the so-called Block 5 version — which the company says will be capable of being used 10 times, with minimal refurbishment. More (Source: Los Angeles Times - May 11)
SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW HAWAII VOLCANO LEAKING LAVA, TOXIC GAS - New photos taken by a NASA satellite offer a unique perspective on the continuing eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, which since Thursday has destroyed dozens of homes and forced some 1,800 residents to flee the area. Taken on Sunday by an instrument aboard the space agency's Terra satellite, the two false-color photos show fissures along the volcano's East Rift Zone that are leaking lava and the toxic gas sulfur dioxide. More (Source: NBC News - May 9)
UNIVERSE’S COOLEST LAB SET TO OPEN UP QUANTUM WORLD - Quantum physicists are about to get their own playground in space. NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory, scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on 20 May, is set to be the coldest place in the known Universe. Researchers will use the lab to probe quantum phenomena that would be impossible to observe on Earth. The US$83-million mission will be used to study quantum mechanics on the macroscopic scale by making a state of matter known as a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC). More (Source: Nature - May 9)
FIRST LAUNCH OF ENHANCED VERSION OF SPACEX’S FALCON 9 SET FOR THURSDAY - The launch of Bangladesh’s first communications satellite on top of a new version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for Thursday, officials said Monday, after a data review following a hold-down engine firing last week. SpaceX confirmed the target launch date in a tweet Monday, and the launch window Thursday opens at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT) and extends until 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT). More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 9)
IT’S BEEN OVER 60 YEARS SINCE GAGARIN'S ORBIT, SO WHY AREN'T WE VACATIONING IN SPACE YET? - Mankind’s hunger to experience outer space was ignited with Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering orbit in 1961. Neil Armstrong’s moon walk further fueled the idea we'd soon be vacationing there. So what happened to the space tourism dream? Of the seven space tourists to date, Dennis Tito was first in 2001 and Guy Laiberte the last, less than a decade later. More (Source: RT - May 7)
BANGABANDHU SATELLITE-1 LAUNCH SCHEDULE AFTER TEST RESULTS - Though the test results of Bangladesh's first satellite, Bangabandhu-1 was expected to be in hand by Saturday evening, the SpaceX authorities are yet to provide its results, said Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Dr Shahjahan Mahmood today. Talking to UNB, he said, "We did not receive the results of the test yet as SpaceX was still analyzing the data. After they provide us the certificate of evaluation, we will seek date for launching." More (Source: The Daily Star - May 7)
SPACEX DRAGON CAPSULE RETURNS TO EARTH FROM SPACE STATION - A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is returning to Earth today (May 5) with more than 2 tons of NASA gear from the International Space Station. The capsule's splashdown capped a busy day for NASA, which began its weekend with a launch to Mars. The Dragon capsule left the space station this morning at 9:23 a.m. EDT (1323 GMT) when it was released by the orbiting laboratory's robotic arm. The spacecraft is packed with over 4,000 lbs. (1,800 kilograms) of experiment samples and other gear to Earth for NASA, and is returning to Earth two days late. More (Source: Space.com - May 6)
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)
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