Weekly Links
Down to Earth
A new Kickstarter campaign seeks to build replicas of the Apollo guidance computer DSKY (Display and Keyboard) interface.
NASA’s 15th Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) mission started last week at Johnson Space Center. Four crew members will spend 45 days isolated on a simulated deep space mission.
The much anticipated Falcon Heavy launch is now less than 48 hours away. Eric Berger of Ars Technica has an excellent discussion about the new rocket and what it could mean for the industry (if successful).
In Orbit
Four successful orbital rocket launches since my last post
- Jan 31 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying GovSat-1 from Florida.
- Feb 1 – Russia launched a Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying multiple satellites.
- Feb 2 – China launched a Long March 2D rocket carrying the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES).
- Feb 3 – Japan launched an SS-520-5 rocket and placed a satellite in orbit. This was the second flight of the small Japanese launcher that failed on its inaugural launch last year.
A spacewalk conducted by Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov on the International Space Station broke the Russian record for longest spacewalk, at 8 hours and 13 minutes.
An amateur astronomy discovered a NASA satellite that had been missing for over 10 years.
Around the Solar System
NASA published a beautiful composite panorama from the Curiosity rover looking back down the slopes of Mt. Sharp.
Curiosity also took a new selfie, looking the other direction.
Out There
Astronomers have announced that using gravitational microlensing they have discovered evidence of planets in another galaxy for the firs time.