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)

WEST COAST SET TO GET FANCY NEW HIGH-TECH WEATHER SATELLITE - NOAA and NASA are just under a month away from launching the U.S.'s second latest-generation weather satellite -- and this one's for us West Coasties. The first one, GOES-R (Now GOES-16) was launched in 2016 and now sits operational over the East Coast. The new GOES-S Satellite launches on March 1 and will eventually be centered at 137 degrees West over the West Coast, giving weather forecasters a vastly more detailed view of the our region's weather, allowing for much better forecasts.   More
(Source: KOMO News - Feb 6)

TIANGONG-1 SPACE LABORATORY TO CRASH TO EARTH BETWEEN MID-MARCH AND MID-APRIL - ESA’s Space Debris Office has issued a new updated forecast for the imminent atmospheric re-entry of China’s Tiangong-1 space laboratory, which appears to have been floating in space out of control for almost two years. The office, located at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, coordinates ESA’s research relating to space debris. As part of its activities, it also keeps a close eye on the upcoming re-entry of China’s Tiangong-1 space station, which is expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere soon, but there are fears that some of its components may strike the ground.    More
(Source: SpaceFlight Insider - Feb 6)

SPACEX RECEIVES COMMERCIAL LAUNCH LICENSE FOR FIRST FALCON HEAVY FLIGHT - The Federal Aviation Administration has approved a launch license for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket set for blastoff Tuesday, giving the U.S. government’s regulatory green light for the heavy-lifter to dispatch Elon Musk’s used electric sports car on a one-way trip into deep space. Dated Feb. 2, the FAA launch license clears a final regulatory hurdle for the Falcon Heavy’s test launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window Tuesday opens at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) and extends until 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT).   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Feb 5)

SUPER BOWL 2018: EVEN ASTRONAUTS ARE WATCHING THE BIG GAME - It's official: Super Bowl LII is truly out of this world. That's because even astronauts in space are watching the big game. NASA astronaut Joe Acaba on the International Space Station posted a photo on Twitter tonight (Feb. 4) showing the big game on the orbiting laboratory's big projection screen, which allows astronauts to watch films and TV shows using a high-definition projector. The only question left is who are the astronauts rooting for in the football championship: The Philadelphia Eagles or the New England Patriots?   More
(Source: Space.com - Feb 5)

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