TINY 'BLACK MAGIC' SATELLITE PACKS ORIGAMI-LIKE RADAR DISH - NASA challenged engineers to pack an entire satellite dish into a cereal box with Radar in a CubeSat (RainCube), a technology-demonstration mission scheduled for launch in 2017 that will measure rain and snowfall on Earth from space. Until now, most satellite dishes have been parabolic, which means that bigger dishes led to better radio transmissions. But radio-frequency engineers have been known to call the forces guiding communications over the air "black magic" because of their complicated physics, NASA said in a statement — and new CubeSat technology must fit that magic into a new, tiny package.   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 24)

THANKSGIVING IN SPACE: SPACE STATION COMMANDER SHANE KIMBROUGH PLANS FEAST - After a normal workday in orbit Thursday, International Space Station commander Shane Kimbrough plans to host an American Thanksgiving Day dinner of turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes and all the trimmings with his U.S., French and Russian colleagues. “Of course Thanksgiving, in my world, is not complete without some football,” Kimbrough said in a video update from orbit Monday. “So we’re going to have mission control send up some live football games for us to watch to complete the experience of Thanksgiving.    More
(Source: CBS News - Nov 24)

BLOW IT UP: INFLATABLE SPACE STATION HABITAT SHOWS PROMISE IN EARLY TESTS - An inflatable space habitat that could save weight and volume on future missions is showing how well it can do its job. The verdict: So far, it works, and that gives the habitat a better chance of being part of future space efforts. Called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, the habitat is an inflatable spheroid made of fabric that starts off folded into a shape like a flattish cone with the top cut off. It was originally launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 8.    More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 23)

U.S. WEATHER SATELLITE'S LAUNCH PROMISES 'QUANTUM LEAP' IN FORECASTS - A U.S. weather satellite that will "revolutionize" forecasting blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Saturday, promising to deliver continuous high-definition views of hurricanes and other storms over the Western Hemisphere. A detailed stream of images provided by the satellite is expected to sharpen weather forecasts, provide more advanced warning of floods and better tracking of wildfires, plumes and volcanic ash clouds. Carried atop an Atlas 5 rocket, the GOES-R satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:42 p.m. EST.    More
(Source: Reuters - Nov 22)

ASTRONAUTS RELEASE CYGNUS SPACE FREIGHTER FROM STATION - Expedition 50 robotic arm operators Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) commanded the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft at 8:22 a.m. EST while the space station was flying 251 miles over the Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of Colombia. Earlier, ground controllers detached Cygnus from the station and maneuvered it into place for its departure. Once Cygnus is a safe distance away from the station, ground controllers at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and at Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, will activate the Saffire-II experiment. Cygnus also will release four LEMUR CubeSats from an external deployer on Friday, Nov. 25, sending them to join a remote sensing satellite constellation that provides global ship tracking and weather monitoring.   More
(Source: NASA - Nov 22)

'FIRE IN SPACE' EXPERIMENT KICKS OFF ABOARD US CARGO SHIP - How does fire act in space? Researchers will soon find out by trying to ignite nine different materials aboard an unmanned spaceship on its way to a fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, NASA said Monday. The fire experiment is the second of its kind aboard a Cygnus cargo ship operated by the US company Orbital ATK. The first experiment took place in June. The controlled blazes will take place aboard a vessel that left the International Space Station, packed with 1.5 tons of garbage, at 8:22 am (1322 GMT) on Monday.    More
(Source: Phys.org - Nov 22)

US, RUSSIAN AND FRENCH CREW ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION FOR 6-MONTH STAY - The International Space Station (ISS) received three new crewmembers today (Nov. 19), with the arrival of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, astronaut Peggy Whitson of NASA and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA) arrived at the space station at 4:58 p.m. EST (2158 GMT), docking their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft to the orbiting laboratory’s Rassvet module. The hatches linking the Soyuz and the ISS are scheduled to open at about 7:35 p.m. EST today (0035 GMT Sunday); you can watch that event live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, with coverage starting at 6:45 p.m. EST (2345 GMT).   More
(Source: Space.com - Nov 20)

ATLAS 5 LAUNCHES THE MOST ADVANCED U.S. WEATHER SATELLITE IN HISTORY - Revolutionizing the way American meteorologists see the weather, likened to the advancement from black and white television to modern high definition TV, a new observatory was successfully launched Saturday by an Atlas 5 rocket to serve as the linchpin to forecasting what tomorrow will bring. The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R, or GOES-R, roared away from Cape Canaveral at 6:42 p.m. EST (2342 GMT). The launch was delayed an hour while engineers verified a potential concern with a component on another rocket was no threat to the Atlas, then worked an undisclosed problem with the Eastern Range.   More
(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 20)

THE MORNING DOWNLOAD: SILICON VALLEY SATELLITES MAY BRING INTERNET FOR ALL - Good morning. Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has filed a proposal with the Federal Communications Commission to launch, eventually, 4,000 satellites to provide internet access for the world. An initial launch of 800 satellites would cover the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as The Guardian reports. Mr. Musk has been talking about his plans for a satellite network for a few years, saying that he wants to proceed gradually so as not to overextend himself, his company or the technology. Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google also have satellite ambitions, working together and separately. Google has chipped in $1 billion to help Mr. Musk. Facebook’s first satellite was destroyed in September, when a SpaceX rocket preparing to bring it to space exploded.   More
(Source: Wall Street Journal - Nov 19)

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