Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Andy Weir, author of the smash hit The Martian released his second novel, Artemis.
Sierra Nevada released video of last week’s successful glide flight of their Dream Chaser space plan:
A long-lost Omega astronaut watch from the Apollo era has been recovered and returned to the Smithsonian.
In Orbit
The Cygnus cargo freighter that launched last week, arrived at the ISS successfully on November 14.
Captain, US Navy, Arriving! SS Gene Cernan joined our crew @Space_Station and greeted us when we opened the hatch. #Cygnus #OA8 pic.twitter.com/UQWnhqbDAc
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) November 15, 2017
Two rocket launches last week:
- November 14 – A Chinese rocket launched a weather satellite.
- November 18 – A ULA Delta II rocket launched carrying the JPSS-1 weather satellite for NOAA.
Around the Solar System
A new study in Nature analyzes Pluto’s hazy atmosphere and offers an explanation for the planet being colder than expected ( minus 300 deg F instead of minus 280 deg F).
Out There
A newly discovered exoplanet, Ross 128 b, is only 11 light years away and could be in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star it orbits.