Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Ron Howard is working on a TV a miniseries based on Elon Musk and his plans to colonize Mars.
Bulgaria has joined ESA as a “cooperating state”.
Orbital ATK has been contracted by Lockheed Martin to provide the launch abort motor for Orion.
Blue Origin will reportedly resume test flights of their New Shepard rocket later this year.
Check out these very creative animations of NASA’s Apollo mission patches (via CollectSpace).
The members of the Made in Space ISS 3-D printer team received their shipment recently. In fact, you can watch them unboxing it on YouTube (via Parabolic Arc):
In Orbit
SpaceX will launch their next ISS resupply mission today, April 13, and will also be giving the barge landing another shot. The static fire test happened on Saturday, which is an important milestone before launch. I suspect they won’t stream imagery of the barge landing live (like last time) but hopefully they will have dramatic imagery of a success or failure to share afterwards! Among other cargo, food, and science that this CRS-6 mission is hauling to the ISS, there is also a cubesat known as Arkyd-3, which is a demonstration mission for the asteroid mining company Planetary Resources.
Brown: next SpaceX CRS flight, SpX-6, will carry 8 CubeSat deployers, including 14 Planet Labs sats and Arkyd-3 reflight. #NRISSWorkshop
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) February 17, 2015
The forecast for the launch window is only 60% as of last night. There is another launch window on Tuesday. Here is Spaceflight Now’s live stream with “mission status center”.
And of course I need to share a few recent tweets and pictures from the ISS:
#Namibia, in southwestern Africa, home to the tallest sand dunes on earth. pic.twitter.com/OMI7419JFR
— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) April 10, 2015
#Riodejaneiro You seem to have much to offer. Need to see up close someday. #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/YG1h1tLhUT
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) April 10, 2015
Moonglint over the Mediterranean. Il riflesso della luna sul Mediterraneo. #HelloEarth pic.twitter.com/Bwv5TbUPa7
— Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) April 11, 2015
Some more #ColorsOfTheEarth! pic.twitter.com/txct9XuEqZ
— Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) April 11, 2015
A touch of everything #SpaceVine. https://t.co/DjBg6F57ki
— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) April 12, 2015
Last glow of the Sun before orbital sunset. L'ultimo bagliore del Sole prima del tramonto in orbita. pic.twitter.com/07AVp5YlnB
— Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) April 12, 2015
Not sure what is going on on this beach in #Mexico but it's a striking image. #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/RUQwMk7F2R
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) April 12, 2015
"Starry Night," it's not quite Van Gogh, but a pretty cool perspective from up here in space. pic.twitter.com/TcAAiiAOQ5
— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) April 13, 2015
Around the Solar System
Curiosity has been very busy in Gusev Crater on Mars ever since the team resolved the issue with the instruments on the robotic arm earlier this year. They recently did a few good drives and got some great images. You can see them and follow along with the mission at The Martian Chronicles blog. I love this picture. Curiosity should be reaching the 10 kilometer mark soon.
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has completed 1,000 orbits of Mars.
Mission planners for ESA’s Rosetta are rethinking their future close flybys of the comet 67P due to the navigation hazard caused by dust. A flyby in March sent the spacecraft into safe mode.
And don’t forget Cassini, still orbiting Saturn taking amazing pictures and doing science!