SPACE STATION SUFFERS SHORT CIRCUIT, POWER SYSTEM DEGRADED - The International Space Station has taken a power hit, and spacewalking repairs may be needed. First, though, a replacement part must be delivered via rocket. NASA said Monday the six astronauts were left with one less power channel Friday. A short circuit in equipment on the station's framework is to blame. The short apparently tripped a current-switching device, resulting in the loss of one of eight channels used to power the orbiting lab. The affected systems were switched to alternate lines. NASA spokesman Dan Huot said the crew has been operating normally and is in no danger. A similar failure in 2014 required spacewalking repairs. More (Source: ABC News - Nov 17)
CHINA TO LAUNCH DARK MATTER SATELLITE IN DECEMBER - China is planning to launch its Dark Matter Particle Explorer Satellite, developed to study dark matter and high-energy particles in space, in mid-December after it left Shanghai today for the launch centre in the country's northwest Gansu Province. Developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite left Shanghai with its carrier Long March 2-D rocket and is expected to be launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre. More (Source: IBNLive - Nov 16)
UPCOMING ARISS CONTACT WITH KILUUTAQ SCHOOL - An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Kiluutaq School, Umiujaq, Nunavik Quebec, Canada on 17 Nov. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 16:47 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time.The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over the west coast of the U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. More (Source: Southgate Amateur Radio Club - Nov 15)
ATLAS V STACKED FOR FIRST INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION LAUNCH - The award is named for Aviation Week’s late managing editor and Cape Canaveral bureau chief, who was also a founding member of the local Space Club and mentor to many space reporters. The award is bestowed each year to a journalist and communications professional for excellence in telling the space story. CBS Radio News correspondent Peter King, of Orlando, received the news half of the award. His two decades of space reporting span the International Space Station’s construction and include the first network radio report of the Columbia accident in 2003. “As a kid, I never dreamed that I’d wind up in this far off, mythical place that I used to see on TV called Cape Canaveral or Kennedy Space Center,” King said during a ceremony at the Radisson Resort at the Port. More (Source: Florida Today - Nov 15)
THE WT1190F OBJECT REENTERED AS PLANNED - The first imagery is in of the re-entry of artificial object WT1190F south of Sri Lanka at 6:18 UT today, coming from a trans-Lunar orbit is presented in this Youtube video. Imagery is from a research aircraft organized by UAE Space Agency, IAC, NASA, ESA. More (Source: N2YO.com - Nov 13)
SUBMIT A QUESTION TO NASA ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY AND COSMONAUT MIKHAIL KORNIENKO - On Tuesday, November 17, at 12:10 p.m. EST, AOL.com will be interviewing NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko LIVE from the International Space Station. You can submit your question to be considered for our live chat with both astronauts using the Twitter hashtag #AskScottKellyOnAOL. Just tweet from your personal account with a question, and be sure to include the hashtag. You can ask anything from "What does space food taste like?" to "How did you decide to become an astronaut?" More (Source: AOL.com - Nov 13)
WT1190F TO HIT EARTH ON FRIDAY THE 13TH - WT1190F is an unusual object that is not a Near Earth Asteroid but almost certainly a small (1-2 meter) artificial object. It is moving in the Earth-Moon system (i.e. in a very elliptic orbit around earth) and its orbit is under influence of Solar Radiation Pressure, which shows that it is very light weight for its size. This fact, and the geocentric rather than Heliocentric orbit with apogee at twice the distance to the Moon, suggests it is some piece of hardware from a past Lunar mission. More (Source: N2YO.com - Nov 13)
MASSIVE SATELLITE WEB WILL PRODUCE DAILY IMAGES OF THE ENTIRE EARTH - Imagine that it floods in Houston. You want to see how bad it is—what roads are blocked—so you hit up something like Google Earth for live satellite pictures of your city. It's futuristic, but not too far off thanks to a collaboration between private companies, NASA and the International Space Station. The biggest problem is obvious: furnishing fresh global satellite photos requires a massive infrastructure—enough orbiting lenses to pass over of each inch of Earth at least once daily. Satellites are very expensive, and so is launching them into space. More (Source: Chron.com - Nov 13)
RADIO BUG TO KEEP NEW IRIDIUM SATELLITES GROUNDED UNTIL APRIL - The first launch for Iridium’s next-generation mobile communications fleet has been pushed back four months — from December until April — to resolve a technical problem inside the spacecraft’s Ka-band communications payload. The announcement Oct. 29 means Iridium will miss a long-targeted timetable to begin launching the Iridium Next constellation in 2015. Matt Desch, Iridium’s CEO, told investment analysts the problem is rooted inside Ka-band transmit-receive modules made by ViaSat and delivered to spacecraft prime contractor Thales Alenia Space. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Nov 12)
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