Archive for the ‘Atlas V’ Category
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Microsoft co-founder and commercial spaceflight pioneer Paul Allen died last week.
Rocket Lab has decided it will operate a launch site from Wallops Island, Virginia.
In Orbit
There have been 9 successful orbital launches since my last post on October 14th:
- October 15 – A Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched two Beidou navigation satellites.
- October 17 – A ULA Atlas V rocket launched a USAF communications satellite.
- October 20 – An ESA Ariane V rocket placed BepiColombo in solar orbit on its way to study Mercury.
- October 24 – A Chinese Long March 4B rocket placed an Earth-observing satellite in orbit.
- October 25 – A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket launched a military satellite.
- October 29 – A Chinese Long March 2C rocket launched an Earth-observing satellite.
- October 29 – A Japanese H-IIA rocket launched carrying a satellite for the UAE.
- November 1 – A Chinese Long March 3B rocket put a new Beidou navigation satellite in orbit.
- November 3 – A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket launch a GLONASS navigation satellite.
A private Chinese rocket startup, LandSpace, failed to put a satellite in orbit on the first launch of their ZhuQue-1 rocket.
Roscosmos completed the accident investigation of the Soyuz abort last month and released the below onboard camera footage. The first crewed return to flight since the accident is expected in December.
Пуск ракеты-носителя «Союз-ФГ» с пилотируемым кораблем #СоюзМС10. Видео с бортовых камер pic.twitter.com/ijPnwbbS4i
— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) November 1, 2018
Both the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have been recovered from safe mode.
In other space telescope news, NASA announced that Kepler will cease operations.
NASA released photographs from the Soyuz flyaround following the most recent crew undocking in October. This was the first detailed flyaround and photographic survey of the ISS since the end of the Shuttle program.
ISS on October 4th, 2018
Around the Solar System
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has run out of fuel and ceased communications.
Check out this amazing GIF of asteroid Bennu from the Osiris-Rex spacecraft. This is an early look at an unexplored world.
Holy rotating Bennu, Batman! I used PolyCam to capture this set of images over a span of five hours on Oct. 23. The images show three views of asteroid Bennu as it rotates 1,800 miles (3,000 km) in the distance. More details: https://t.co/lNqY8Ibire pic.twitter.com/Oaatp1xDXT
— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 25, 2018
And here’s a cool video from Hayabusa-2 of a touchdown rehearsal on asteroid Ryugu.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
The latest SpaceX resupply craft to visit the space station successfully departed and splashed down yesterday morning, returning a large supply of science to NASA scientists.
The picture below is not from the Dragon splashdown but instead an attempt to return a rocket fairing after a Falcon 9 launch earlier this year.
Firefly Aerospace, a young space company out of Austin, has made a deal with the USAF to use a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
United States Vice President Mike Pence visited JPL in California.
Some new issues emerged this week regarding the preparations for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for its long-awaited launch.
Hundreds of United Launch Alliance employees are on strike as of Sunday.
In Orbit
Only two orbital launches in the last week:
- May 3 – China launched a Long March 3 rocket carrying a communications satellite.
- May 5 – United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg carrying NASA’s InSight Mars lander. Check out this post from Phil Plait to learn about the lander’s mission.
The astronauts on the ISS have been finding time to post many views of Earth on their Twitter feeds. Here are some of their best from the last week.
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic
– Van Morrison pic.twitter.com/R8TDg2fYoN— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) May 1, 2018
Jamming on @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/FEwnthrtee
— Scott D. Tingle (@Astro_Maker) May 1, 2018
On Monday, I captured this amazing image of all the places I called home for the first 32 years of my life. Many of my family and friends are in this photo, somewhere. #Michigan #Indiana #Ontario #Quebec pic.twitter.com/EVqPSdhxua
— A.J. (Drew) Feustel (@Astro_Feustel) May 2, 2018
Снова пролетали над великим Байкалом. Лёд тает на глазах!
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Once again we flew over lake #Baikal. The ice is melting every day. pic.twitter.com/DpcoLQqxhx— Anton Shkaplerov (@Anton_Astrey) May 4, 2018
The smoldering cauldron of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. #Italy pic.twitter.com/BJwHxBHPzM
— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) May 4, 2018
The @SpaceX #Dragon CRS-14 cargo ship after undocking from the @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/0UwB2g3nCv
— Oleg Artemyev (@OlegMKS) May 6, 2018
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Elon Musk was busy this week entertaining his fans with tidbits about future SpaceX plans, including the tweet below, as well as this picture on Instagram of a tool for their next larger rocket, the BFR.
And then land on a bouncy house
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2018
NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director, Jim Greene, is now the agency’s new chief scientist.
Check out this music video by Snow Patrol which uses imagery from the ISS and was partially filmed at ESA.
In Orbit
There were three orbital rocket launches since my last post:
- April 10 – A Chinese Long March 4C rocket carrying three reconnaissance satellites.
- April 11 – An Indian PSLV rocket carrying a navigation satellite.
- April 14 – A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying a U.S. Air Force satellite.
On Monday, April 16th, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch carrying NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) space telescope.
Around the Solar System
The International Astronautical Union (IAU) has approved official names for features on Pluto’s moon Charon, some named after iconic sci-fi figures such as Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke.
Because images of Saturn are just so damn stunning, here’s Saturn’s moon Dione as imaged by the late Cassini spacecraft.
Moon Dione and Saturn’s rings edge-on