Weekly Links
Down to Earth
NASA has finalized an agreement with Boeing to use the extra seats on two Soyuz flights to the ISS over the next year and a half for additional US astronauts. There is some contractual stuff going on here, but basically NASA is going to use seats that Roscosmos was going to leave empty to save money.
Virgin Galactic has spun off its LauncherOne program into a new company called Virgin Orbit.
Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin is now getting in on the new moon missions also. According to the Washington Post (owned by Bezos), Blue Origin has floated a proposal to the new US presidential administration that they want to help support NASA missions to the moon with their Blue Moon concept.
PBS News Hour did a brief segment on all of this new interest in lunar missions:
In Orbit
Two rocket launches since my last post:
- United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg California, carrying two satellites for the NRO.
- China launched one satellite on their new Kaituozhe-2 rocket.
It’s hard to keep up with the current ISS crew, the members of Expedition 50, as they tweet like its all they do in what little spare time they have. Here’s a selection of the best pictures from just the last week.
Lots of celebrations at the moment… 100 days in space
https://t.co/ZL6CSITv3B #Proxima pic.twitter.com/U2wzcU2wLT
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) February 27, 2017
Hello Nice! Too bad we can't see the carnival parades from up here
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) February 28, 2017
Good night from @Space_Station. Tokyo and our @JAXA_en friends at Tsukuba Space Center. #CitiesFromSpace pic.twitter.com/WVG01eYJfa
— Shane Kimbrough (@astro_kimbrough) February 28, 2017
Barcelona is pretty in the morning light. I drove there as a student, I flew there as a pilot! https://t.co/WvY4iAvOPv #Proxima pic.twitter.com/CTNxC1Bmzq
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) March 1, 2017
At the other end of the world, New Caledonia is a jewel of the Pacific. #Proxima #FridayIsland https://t.co/SjJ8UWnfuq pic.twitter.com/LPYGrMpmkN
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) March 3, 2017
Our Cupola window opened on the Strait of Gibraltar. The gate to the Mediterranean is always open! https://t.co/hcWWj3mXk3 #Proxima pic.twitter.com/RzvSmrXS7d
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) March 4, 2017
Sun starting to set on New York City – Upper New York Bay, Central Park, and LaGuardia. #citiesfromspace #airportsfromspace pic.twitter.com/4qkhoL69C2
— Shane Kimbrough (@astro_kimbrough) March 5, 2017
The Dead Sea, the lowest point of the Earth, but certainly not the least beautiful https://t.co/fc1RiXKozn pic.twitter.com/XWS6dmqJR7
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) March 6, 2017
Beautiful San Diego and the City of Coronado California from @Space_Station. It looks like Petco Park is ready for some baseball! pic.twitter.com/6jwWa6nwjV
— Shane Kimbrough (@astro_kimbrough) March 6, 2017
Around the Solar System
NASA’s MAVEN probe in orbit of Mars executed an avoidance maneuver of about 0.4 m/s to avoid colliding with the moon Phobos. That velocity change is small, about on the order of the debris avoidance maneuvers we do with the ISS.
Check out these dust devils spotted by Curiosity rover on Mars.
Did you know that Saturn’s moon Enceladus is half cratered and half smooth? Check out this recent image from NASA’s Cassini probe to see for yourself.