Archive for the ‘Chandra’ 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 big news this week was the aborted ascent of Soyuz MS-10, planned to take Nick Hague and Aleksey Ovchinin to the International Space Station. The abort occurred 2 minutes into the flight, at about the time that the first stage boosters separated from the core stage. The crew survived via the successful activation of the abort system and they were rescued after a safe landing downrange in Kazakhstan. NASA and Roscosmos will be investigating the incident in order to safely return to flight. In the meantime, three crew members of the Expedition 57 mission remain safely aboard the ISS.
Former space shuttle astronaut Rick Searfoss died last week at 62.
The US Mint has announced the design for an Apollo 11 commemorative coin.
The new Neil Armstrong biopic First Man was released this weekend, to largely positive reviews.
The US Air Force announced major funding contracts for three rocket companies to develop new boosters: Northrop Grumman, United Launch Alliance, and Blue Origin.
In Orbit
The only orbital launch since my last post a week ago was a Chinese Long March 2C carrying two reconnaissance satellites.
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is now also in safe mode, following an anomaly last week. Hubble, which went into safe mode on October 5th, is yet to resume scientific observations.
Around the Solar System
A new study finds that there are likely blades of ice – or penitentes – around the equator of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
JAXA has delayed sample return operations at asteroid Ryugu with the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft, citing a need to study the terrain further.
Out There
Astronomers have discovered a star in our galaxy with almost no “metal” content (meaning elements other than hydrogen and helium). This likely means the star is from the very first age of the universe.