A MAN-MADE METEOR SHOWER LAUNCHED BY SATELLITE COULD OPEN THE 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES IN TOKYO - Japanese research company ALE is bidding to create an artificial meteor shower for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. The project, Sky Canvas, goes beyond your average fireworks display: It involves launching a satellite into space “loaded with about 500 to 1,000 ‘source particles’ that become ingredients for a shooting star,” the company explains. The company, which is aiming to launch its first satellite in the second half of 2017, outlines how the project works: When the satellite stabilizes in orbit, we will discharge the particles using a specially designed device on board. More (Source: Quartz - May 23)
GOT $25,000? THEN YOU CAN BUILD A SATELLITE -- AND A SPACEX COFOUNDER WILL HELP YOU LAUNCH IT - Fine print: Shipping and handling is extra. About $2 million extra. America's new-space industry is suffocating -- but that's OK. Vector Space Systems is here to save it. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to talk over the future of spaceflight with Jim Cantrell, the original rocket scientist at Elon Musk's SpaceX . Cantrell has been working in the space industry for nigh on 30 years now, and for organizations as varied as StratSpace (a business development company assisting "new-space" start-ups), CNES (France's version of NASA), NASA (our version of NASA), and SpaceX itself. More (Source: Fool.com - May 23)
CHINA REVEALS DESIGN FOR PLANNED TIANGONG 3 SPACE STATION - The China National Space Administration (CNSA) presented several slides of the design of its future space station, called Tiangong 3—meaning “Heavenly Palace” in Chinese. The station is expected to be built between 2018 and 2022. According to the released slides, the station’s core module, “Tianhe 1” (which means “galaxy”), will include a laboratory with integrated modular racks for storing scientific equipment. It will also have five docking ports and a robotic arm. More (Source: SpaceFlight Insider - May 23)
SPACEX TARGETING THURSDAY AFTERNOON LAUNCH, LANDING - SpaceX may fire up a Falcon 9 rocket's engines on Monday in a test preparing for a planned 5:40 p.m. Thursday blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch of a Thai communications satellite — and an attempted rocket landing to follow — should look much like SpaceX's May 6 launch of a Japanese communications satellite, but with the action unfolding in daylight instead of darkness. The roughly 7,000-pound Thaicom 8 satellite built by Orbital ATK will beam TV channels and Internet service to Thailand, India and parts of Africa from a position 22,300 miles above the equator. More (Source: Florida Today - May 22)
ONE YEAR IN SPACE: X-37B SPACEPLANE CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY WITHOUT FANFARE - Orbiting the world in seclusion for the past year, the Air Force’s mysterious X-37B spaceplane marks the anniversary of its launch today. The stubby-winged craft was boosted into space by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on May 20, 2015, departing Cape Canaveral for a 20-minute ride into a 200-mile-high orbit inclined 38 degrees. Today, the maneuverable craft operates in a 220-mile orbit, a higher altitude it briefly held last fall and roughly the same perch occupied twice by the previous X-37B mission, according to satellite-tracking hobbyist Ted Molczan. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - May 21)
SATELLITE SPOTS OIL SLICK THAT COULD BE FROM EGYPTAIR PLANE - A European satellite spotted a potential oil slick in the area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea where an EgyptAir jet disappeared with 66 people on board, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday. The image, taken by satellite Sentinel-1A at 1600 GMT on Thursday, shows a slick about 2 km (1.2 miles) long, roughly 40 km southeast of the aircraft's last known location. A second image taken at 0400 GMT on Friday showed that the slick had drifted by about 5 km. More (Source: Reuters - May 21)
ROBERT BIGELOW IS BUILDING HOTELS IN SPACE (NO, REALLY) - Robert Bigelow built his first hotel in Las Vegas, before moving to Texas, and then the rest of the Southwestern United states. Now, the founder of the Budget Suites of America chain is expanding his empire further—his next extended stay rental property is currently attached to the International Space Station. Bigelow first started his space company, Bigelow Aerospace, in 1999 to develop habitats for use as research labs for corporations and countries without space programs, housing for missions to Mars, or even as hotels for tourists on the final frontier. In April the longtime space buff’s dream took a giant leap forward with the successful delivery of BEAM, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, to the space station (ISS). More (Source: Fortune - May 20)
THIS CRAZY PHOTO FROM THE SPACE STATION HELPS PUT CANADA’S WILDFIRE IN PERSPECTIVE - The Fort McMurray wildfire has captured devastation on a scale most of us can't comprehend. Images from the ground and satellites have helped quantify the destruction, but this shot from the International Space Station somehow ties the scale of the destruction together much more clearly. The photo was taken by an Expedition 67 crew member on May 14th, from 240 miles away. (Yes, the astronauts have some pretty sweet cameras.) The lower-angle shot shows a huge plume of smoke engulfing Fort McMurray -- the town isn't really visible, the smoke is so dense. More (Source: Yahoo News - May 20)
SENTINEL SATELLITE PICTURES A 'CLEAR SKIES' AFRICA - This is not a natural state, of course; there is always a weather system bubbling up somewhere. But if you have access to a lot of images acquired over the course of several months, it becomes possible to construct a mosaic. This one was produced from observations made by the EU's new Sentinel-2a satellite, which is now routinely mapping Planet Earth. It is a powerful capability. Sensitive across 13 spectral bands (colours) and able to see details as small as 10m across - the spacecraft's camera "carpet maps" the land surface beneath it. Every strip is 290km wide. More (Source: BBC News - May 19)
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