FIRST 3D TOOLS PRINTED ABOARD SPACE STATION - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have manufactured their first tool using the 3D printer on board the station. This is another step in the ongoing process of testing and using additive manufacturing in space. The ability to build tools and replacement parts at the station is something NASA has been pursuing keenly. The first tool printed was a simple wrench. This may not sound like ground-breaking stuff, unless you’ve ever been in the middle of a project only to find you’re missing a simple tool. A missing tool can stop any project in its tracks, and change everybody’s plans. The benefits of manufacturing needed items in space are obvious.   More
(Source: Universe Today - Jun 17)

NOAA, NASA PLANNING FALL LAUNCH OF NEW WEATHER SATELLITE - ASA are set to launch the first in a new generation of weather satellites this fall. The GOES-R series, short for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R Series, are scheduled to launch between 2016 and 2025. The first satellite, GOES-R, is scheduled to launch Nov. 4, 2016. Kathryn Miretzky of Science and Technology Corporation spoke about the satellite at the 44th Conference on Broadcast Meteorology in Austin on June 15. She said the GOES-R satellites will use an advanced baseline imager (ABI). This means the satellite will be able to give a “full disk” image of the earth every 15 minutes, and images from the continental United States every five minutes. Resolution of the images will be 0.5 to 2 kilometers each.   More
(Source: KVUE.com/ - Jun 16)

SPACEX FALCON 9 LAUNCHES FROM CAPE CANAVERAL; LANDING UNSUCCESSFUL - The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket met a violent end Wednesday morning, but not before helping a pair of communications satellites fly gracefully into orbit. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on time at 10:29 a.m., rumbling southeast over the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX had hoped to achieve a fourth consecutive landing of a Falcon 9 booster on a ship stationed down range, a feat that would have made such landings start to look routine. But the booster came in too fast, resulting, CEO Elon Musk said, in a “RUD”: Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly. In other words, it crashed.   More
(Source: Florida Today - Jun 16)

MUOS-5 SATELLITE ENCAPSULATED FOR LAUNCH - Lockheed Martin reports that its fifth Mobile User Objective System satellite for the U.S. Navy has been encapsulated in its protective launch vehicle fairing. The satellite launch, aboard an Atlas V rocket, is scheduled to take place on June 24 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. "Like its predecessors, MUOS-5 has two payloads to support ... new Wideband Code Division Multiple Access waveform capabilities, as well as the legacy Ultra High Frequency satellite system, used by many mobile forces today," said Mark Woempner, program director of Lockheed Martin's Narrowband Communications mission area. "On orbit, MUOS-5 will augment the constellation as a WCDMA spare, while actively supporting the legacy UHF system."   More
(Source: UPI - Jun 15)

SPACEX SET FOR FALCON 9 DUAL SATELLITE LAUNCH - SpaceX will launch its sixth mission of the year Wednesday, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a pair of communications satellites – Eutelsat 117 West B and ABS-2A – into orbit. Liftoff from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral is expected during a 44-minute window that opens at 10:29 local time (14:29 UTC). Wednesday’s launch is the twenty-sixth launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vehicle; coming less than three weeks after the previous mission, which deployed the Thaicom 8 satellite in late May.   More
(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Jun 15)

PRIVATE CARGO SHIP LEAVES SPACE STATION TO IGNITE RECORD-BREAKING FIRE EXPERIMENT - A private cargo ship left the International Space Station today (June 14) and will soon host the biggest fire-in-space experiment ever conducted. The robotic Cygnus spacecraft, which was built by Virginia-based company Orbital ATK, undocked from the orbiting lab at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). At about 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT), when the freighter is a safe distance from the ISS, controllers on the ground will deliberately light a large fire inside Cygnus to test how flames spread in microgravity. The fire experiment — called the Spacecraft Fire Experiment-1, or Saffire-1— will spark the biggest human-made fire in space. -    More
(Source: Space.com - Jun 15)

1ST HIGH ORBIT REMOTE SENSING SATELLITE PUT INTO USE - China's first high orbit remote sensing satellite, Gaofen-4, went into use after six months of in-orbit testing, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced Monday. Gaofen-4 is China's first geosynchronous orbit high-definition optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated. Unlike from Gaofen-1 and Gaofen-2 in low orbits around the earth, Gaofen-4 is orbiting at 36,000 kilometers. High orbit satellites have the advantage of being able to snap "grand scenarios." Low orbit satellites, in contrast, can see more detail at faster speed.   More
(Source: China.org.cn - Jun 14)

THIS IS WHERE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL GO TO DIE - The cold void of the ocean floor is the closest thing Earthlings can come to the conditions of space. Nothing really lives there, and nothing ever visits. It’s freezing, dark and empty. However, off the coast of New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean is home to what may be the most exclusive scientific burial ground in the world: the so-called Spacecraft Cemetery has become the final resting place for hundreds of manmade space objects. There are thousands of satellites and pieces of debris orbiting the Earth at any given moment, but what happens when they run out of fuel or complete their missions? Essentially, they need to get out of the sky and out of the way of other spacecraft.   More
(Source: Popular Science - Jun 14)

LONG MARCH 3C LAUNCHES CHINA'S 23RD BEIDOU SATELLITE - China launched its Beidou G7 navigation and positioning satellite at 15:30 UTC on Sunday, atop a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province. The satellite is the 23rd of the Beidou constellation (BDS) and will enter a geostationary orbit nearly 36,000 kilometres above the Earth. According to state news agency Xinhua, the satellite will, after entering its designed work orbit and finishing in-orbit testing, improve the stability of the system, preparing for BDS to offer global coverage.   More
(Source: gbtimes - Jun 13)

Previous Next