Weekly Links
Sorry for the delayed post this week. It has been a busy month, as I prepare for my trip to the 31st Space Symposium in just over a week. Plus, I recently got a new Amazon Kindle and have been diving into the world of spaceflight historical fiction (I know, I was surprised too!). I recently finished reading both Zero Phase and Public Loneliness by Gerald Brennan. Check them out!
The most exciting space news since my last post on March 20th of course was the launch of Soyuz TMA-16M last Friday. Here’s a video of the launch. More on what’s been going on ISS under “In Orbit”, below.
Down to Earth
United Space Alliance is having a public contest to vote on the name of their new rocket, which they hope will replace their medium lift Atlas V and Delta IV rockets by the 2020s.
Speaking of naming contests, the SETI Institute has launched the “Our Pluto” campaign for the public to help suggest names for features on Pluto, which will soon be discovered by the New Horizons spacecraft. From what I can tell, NASA and the IAU are onboard, so the names may actually become official.
Ellington Airport, just a few miles from the Johnson Space Center, has a new agreement with Sierra Nevada Corporation to land unmanned Dream Chaser spaceplanes here in Houston. If Sierra Nevada is awarded the CRS-2 contract, this could provide a nice logistical advantage for the ISS program.
The next SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, which is another cargo resupply flight to ISS, has been delayed to April 13 (a 3-day slip).
NASA has selected “Option B” for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The mission will involve an unmanned robotic mission retrieving a small boulder from the surface of a Near Earth Object (NEO) which will be visited later by astronauts in lunar orbit.
In Orbit
Lots of rocket launches in late March, in addition to the Soyuz launch that sent Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko, and Gennady Padalka to ISS. The list of launches includes: an Atlas V with a new GPS satellite, A Japanese reconnaissance satellite on an H-II rocket, two European Galileo navigation satellites on a Soyuz rocket, and at least one other Indian, Russian, and Chinese rocket. The Chinese launch reportedly included a test flight of a new mini-space plane. The number of rocket launches this year now stands at 21 to orbit, with no failures.
As for that Soyuz flight to the ISS, it was a picture perfect launch, rendezvous, and docking, with Kelly and crewmates arriving at ISS only 6 hours after departing Kazakhstan. The number of humans off-world is now back up to 6, and the number of people tweeting from space is now at 4, with Kelly joining Cristoforetti, Virts, and Shkaplerov. Here’s a sample of their recent posts:
A clear moonlit Mediterranean turns into an impressive #thunderstorm over Turkey. https://t.co/S5BeysqJUg
— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) March 31, 2015
Emergency training today with the full 6 person Expedition 43 crew. pic.twitter.com/3zZFMnDqUH
— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) March 30, 2015
Colorful #aurora dancing behind our Soyuz. #spacevine https://t.co/7GLtz3sem9
— Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) March 30, 2015
Soyuz 42S launch as seen from @Space_Station. It's quieter than in person, but a very cool view! pic.twitter.com/KDHlHA24FK
— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) March 27, 2015
Commands respect even from #space: we just flew over typhoon #Maysak. pic.twitter.com/w86GnxmaO2
— Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) March 31, 2015
Around the Solar System
The annual Lunar and Planetary Science conference took place in March, which usually means interesting news from spacecraft exploring the solar system. Some of the best stories from this year’s LPSC are:
- The possibility that the bright spots seen by Dawn on Ceres are in fact plumes of some kind.
- Awesome high resolution images of Mercury, as MESSENGER moves into the last month of its mission.
- New evidence for past hydrothermal activity on Mars, which may lead to key sites to search for life.
Out There
I was excited to learn that there are still astronomers diligently watching the Alpha Centauri system, with HST even, to try to confirm the potential worlds detected orbiting there several years ago. The latest data indicates that perhaps there are two worlds, not just one, orbiting Alpha Centauri B. Unfortunately, the data is not strong enough to say they are there for sure… yet.