HOW LONG WOULD A FIDGET SPINNER SPIN IN SPACE? - Like most parents of young children, I've been forcibly made aware of the "fidget spinner" fad. Despite FiveThirtyEight declaring them "over," my kids brought home two new ones from a birthday party on Saturday, adding to three others that we currently own, plus a couple more that were lost at school. Inevitably, bloggers have used fidget spinners as a jumping-off point to talk about science, notably Rhett Allain's two posts measuring the spin time and measuring the moment of inertia.   More
(Source: Forbes - Jun 19)

FALCON 9 LAUNCH DELAY SETS UP POTENTIAL SPACEX ‘DOUBLEHEADER’ NEXT WEEKEND - SpaceX has pushed back the liftoff of a Bulgarian television broadcast satellite on the company’s second previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket until at least Friday, giving ground crews time to replace a valve on the launcher inside a hangar at its Florida launch pad. The schedule slip sets up a potential SpaceX “doubleheader” with another Falcon 9 rocket being prepared for launch next Sunday, June 25, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 19)

EXCLUSIVE: MEET THE WORLD’S FIRST SUICIDE SATELLITE - The world’s first “suicide” satellite, whose destruction will help prevent the spread of more damaging belts of space debris, will launch later this month. The Italian company D-Orbit will launch a mission June 23 to test out a self-decommissioning satellite called D-Sat, a first for the satellite industry. After the satellite’s mission is complete, it will use a rocket system to lower itself back into Earth’s atmosphere so it can self-destruct. D-Orbit hopes that a similar system could help prevent future satellites from becoming new space debris.   More
(Source: The Daily Caller - Jun 19)

CHINA'S ROBOTIC CARGO SHIP COMPLETES 2ND AUTO-REFUELING TEST IN SPACE - China's Tiangong-2 space lab and Tianzhou-1 vehicle have completed a second refueling test, Chinese space officials said. This second robotic refueling trial wrapped up Thursday (June 15) after about two days "and cemented technical results from the first refueling," according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. Tianzhou-1, China's first cargo spacecraft, was lofted into Earth orbit on April 20 from the Wenchang spaceport in south China’s Hainan Province.    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 18)

SPACE STATION WELCOMES FOOD AND SUPPLIES FROM RUSSIAN SHIP - A robotic Russian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station Friday (June 16), delivering tons of fresh food and other supplies for the orbiting lab's crew. The Progress 67 spacecraft linked up with the space station in a smooth docking at 7:37 a.m. EDT (1137 GMT) as both vehicles sailed 258 miles (415 kilometers) over the Philippine Sea. "Progress completes as smooth a journey as you can imagine," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during live commentary.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 18)

PROGRESS CARGO FREIGHTER DOCKS WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - A Russian Progress supply ship sailed to an automated docking Friday with the International Space Station two days after departing the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, delivering approximately three tons of fuel, spare parts and water to the orbiting outpost and its three-person crew. Docking of the Progress MS-06 cargo craft to the station’s Zvezda service module occurred 1137 GMT (7:37 a.m. EDT) after a radar-guided autopilot approach as the vehicles soared 258 miles (415 kilometers) over the Philippine Sea.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jun 17)

ISRO SET TO LAUNCH BACK-UP SATELLITE - In an attempt to keep India’s regional navigation satellite system fully operational, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing to launch a back-up for IRNSS-1A, one of the seven satellites in the constellation, that has been hobbled by the failure of the atomic clocks on board. The PSLV C39 mission, scheduled for late July or early August, will carry the new satellite named IRNSS-1H into orbit, K. Sivan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, told The Hindu.   More
(Source: The Hindu - Jun 17)

AALTO-2 NO LONGER RESPONDS TO COMMANDS - Astronauts at the International Space Station released Aalto-2 into orbit on 25 May. The first satellite signal was detected from Japan on the same day, and later that evening the satellite had already made contact with the Otaniemi ground station. During the first days, the satellite team confirmed that Aalto-2's antennae and sensors had opened and the energy system charged its batteries. Since Aalto-2 follows the path of the International Space Station, there is only about 10 minutes of control time from Otaniemi each day. Four days after the release, disturbances began to appear in the satellite's signal.   More
(Source: Phys.org - Jun 16)

RUSSIAN ROCKET SPARKS DEADLY FIRE: HOW IT HAPPENED - After a successful launch of Russia's Progress cargo spacecraft headed to the International Space Station, falling fragments caused a fire on Kazakhstan's steppes, killing one and injuring another who tried to extinguish the fire. The uncrewed Progress spacecraft launched toward the International Space Station yesterday (June 14) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the craft deployed its solar arrays and began its long series of orbits to rendezvous with the space station.   More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 16)

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