Weekly Links
It’s been a busy two weeks since my last news post. Among other things, my wife started her “space mission” (not a real space mission) and I won’t see her again for another 26 days. See my last post before this one for some details on what she is doing. I also travelled to Huntsville, Alabama for a work meeting at Marshall Spaceflight Center this week. Now that I am back home and it is just me and the dog, it’s time to figure out what’s been going on out there in the world of spaceflight during the second half of January.
Down to Earth
Probably the biggest news was the successful reflight of the New Shepard rocket by Blue Origin. The same booster that flew suborbital and returned safely back in November was flown again on a similar mission profile on January 22nd. Here’s their shiny video:
SpaceX had some videos too, but not as shiny as exciting. First was this hover test of the new Dragon capsule:
Second was a parachute test:
In Orbit
There were 3 launches since the SpaceX Faclon 9 launch back on January 17th. First was an Indian PSLV rocket, launched on the 20th with one of their own navigation satellites. Second, a European Ariane 5 rocket launched on the 27nd with an Intelsat communications satellite. Lastly, a Proton rocket launched from Kazakhstan earlier today with an Eutelsat communications satellite.
Meanwhile in the category of fluff pieces, someone at Gizmodo has dubbed the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft the “cutest” cargo hauler to the space station.
Aboard the ISS, the Tims are really getting into the swing of things with their Earth photography. Along with Scott Kelly, the stream of pictures on Twitter from the three of them has been quite good, including some good shots of the snow covered East Coast last weekend. Here are some of my favorites.
#Cairo lights, a cloudy #Mediterranean with lightning and a yellow-green atmosphere under the stars pic.twitter.com/23LFRgDkmi
— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) January 18, 2016
Brandberg Massif in the Namib Desert. #Africa #Explore https://t.co/PgpqSURFID pic.twitter.com/fZ6u0rnhuZ
— Tim Kopra (@astro_tim) January 19, 2016
The dam makes this river look like a dragon’s tail! #SouthDakota #Principia https://t.co/wSPpGavQI1 pic.twitter.com/T029CFwuvk
— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) January 19, 2016
#Amazon River weaving through #Peru. #Explore pic.twitter.com/oFU7W4QEMP
— Tim Kopra (@astro_tim) January 23, 2016
A splash of #EarthArt over the #Bahamas! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/sXPv1sojwR
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 19, 2016
Massive #snowstorm blanketing #EastCoast clearly visible from @Space_Station! Stay safe! #blizzard2016 #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/oq6ewYaTPQ
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 23, 2016
#blizzard2016 clearly seen off the #EastCoast as the sun begins to rise. Hope all OK! #BlizzardJonas #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/7OKW84ADvx
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 24, 2016
Oh and this was a cool thing from Scott Kelly also:
Try this, Mary Poppins! Super-hydrophobic polycarbonate ping pong paddles and a water ball in space! #YearInSpacehttps://t.co/BB0Z35jbVa
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 21, 2016
Around the Solar System
Check out this incredible picture of a Martian sand dune from the Curiosity rover:
Namib dune, Mars
Out There
Unfortunately, there may not actually be a planet orbiting in the Alpha Centauri system… or at least, the previous research that hinted at one may be wrong (but who knows, there may be one there anyway).
Fortunately, there is good news to counteract the bad: new mathematical models indicate there may be a new large planet orbiting far beyond Pluto. Astronomers are busy turning on various search campaigns to see if they can find the theoretical world.