Archive for the ‘Earth photography’ Category
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will take advantage on an open seat in an upcoming Soyuz flight to ISS and fly their first homegrown astronaut into orbit.
The US Air Force has awarded a contract to SpaceX to launch a DOD satellite on a Falcon Heavy in 2020.
Last week the President of the United States signed Space Policy Directive 3, which establishes a formal National Space Traffic Management Policy.
In Orbit
There were no orbital rocket launches or major mission events at the International Space Station last week. However, the NanoRacks Remove Debris (or RemDeb) satellite was deployed from the ISS. This satellite will demonstrate techniques for reducing orbital debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Resistance wasn’t futile. @NanoRacks REMDEB satellite deployed on Wednesday morning from @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/v9e5LYEo2W
— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) June 22, 2018
The ISS crew continues to be busy with maintenance and science as always. Here’s a selection of some of their most interesting photos posted to Twitter last week.
The first photo I took out the window of our #Soyuz after launch. I have no idea where it is. But I was surprised to see the Earth move much faster in the lower Soyuz orbit, compared to ISS. #Horizons pic.twitter.com/AK7dh44S3l
— Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) June 18, 2018
Sergey demonstrates how we use miniaturized astronauts for spacewalking. #EVA51 pic.twitter.com/iuudJSSuPn
— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) June 18, 2018
Moon over Lake #Malawi #Africa. If that isn’t the title of a song, it probably should be. #Tanzania #Mozambique #Zambia pic.twitter.com/5Q0nZ8ow7x
— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) June 19, 2018
Saw my first Aurora Australis on this mission today, my silent magical old friend. 6 nose prints on the window, despite being busy with #science. Quite fittingly, the ship in the foreground is the one that carried @AstroSerena, Sergey & me into space almost 2 weeks ago. #Horizons pic.twitter.com/vlQNvQwUDM
— Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) June 20, 2018
The alluring #Azores and a sprinkling of popcorn clouds on a blue, marble floor. #Portugal pic.twitter.com/JDeX3VBHut
— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) June 21, 2018
I think I finally found the answer to a question I've been asked a 1000 times. "Can we see the Great Wall of China from the #ISS?" Next to impossible with the naked eye. But I tried with an 800 mm tele lens. Still tough to spot. What do you think, is this it? #Horizons pic.twitter.com/NdlJvRCCNP
— Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) June 21, 2018
#Palmanova is an unusual town in northeastern #Italy. It is an excellent example of star fort of the late Renaissance. pic.twitter.com/YRb5e1AEb9
— Oleg Artemyev (@OlegMKS) June 22, 2018
In upcoming launches, Rocket Lab will attempt to launch their next Electron rocket on Tuesday (New Zealand time) and SpaceX will launch their next Dragon resupply to ISS next Friday.
Around the Solar System
Japan’s Hayabusa-2 continues to get closer to its destination, asteroid Ryugu. Some more detailed images of the unexplored rock were downlinked last week.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has been slowly lowering its orbit around asteroid Ceres to get new unprecedented views of the dwarf planet.
The large dust storm on the surface of Mars continues, with no contact from the rover Opportunity. Rover Curiosity continues to operate in Gale Crater, sending back this recent dusty “selfie.”
Data from Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft, which orbits Venus, has returned some interesting results about the variability of the planet’s day-night cycle.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Legendary astronaut and moonwalker, Alan Bean, died at age 86.
Air Force test pilot and Shuttle astronaut, Don Peterson, died at age 84.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo had another powered test flight.
Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut who had been serving at SpaceX as the director of space operations, has taken a new faculty position at USC.
NASA obtained imagery of the volcanic eruption in Guatemala.
The President of the United States signed Space Policy Directive 2, which aims to reduce the regulatory burden on commercial spaceflight.
In Orbit
A number of orbital rocket launches since my last post on May 20th:
- May 20 – An Orbital ATK Antares rocket launched with a Cygnus cargo freighter on its way to the ISS.
- May 22 – a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg carrying satellites for Iridium and a gravitational science satellite for Germany.
- June 2 – A Chinese Long March 2D rocket launched carrying a pair of Earth-observing satellites.
- June 4 – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida carrying a communications satellite for SES.
Notable rocket launches coming up include a Soyuz rocket with 3 astronauts launching form Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning.
The Cygnus spacecraft was successfully captured by the ISS robotic arm on May 24 and installed on a docking port, delivering tons of supplies.
#tbt! The @OrbitalATK #Cygnus brings the goods to @Space_Station and @Astro_Maker uses #Canadarm to go out and grab them. pic.twitter.com/WtVWGZeVXL
— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) May 31, 2018
NOAA’s new GOES-17 weather satellite has a serious problem that will prevent it from retrieving all the intended data.
On June 3rd, three crew members undocked from the ISS and landed back in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz after 168 days in space.
Around the Solar System
The discovery of an asteroid in a retrograde orbit (backwards) has raised questions about whether it could be a captured interstellar object.
The Curiosity rover on Mars is back to drilling samples, after that particular instrument had been held in reserve for about a year.
A new study of Pluto data from New Horizons finds that there are likely dunes made of solid methane on its surface.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy launch has been delayed until October.
Two New Space rocket companies, Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab, have both been awarded contracts to fly NASA cubesat missions.
Mark Geyer will replace Ellen Ochoa as director of the Johnson Space Center at the end of May.
Tom Wolfe, the author of The Right Stuff, has died at 88-years old.
In Orbit
There were two orbital rocket launches since my last post:
- May 8 – China launched a Long March 4C rocket carrying an Earth-observing satellite.
- May 11 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a communications satellite for Bangladesh.
The Falcon 9 rocket was the first “Block 5” version, which is the final upgrade of the design.
A collaboration between JAXA, the University of Nairobi, and the UN deployed the first Kenyan cubesat from the ISS last week.
Tomorrow morning, at roughly 8 AM Eastern, ISS astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel will be venturing out the airlock on a scheduled EVA to perform maintenance and upgrades.
Check out this picture of the erupting Hawaiian volcano, Kilauea, taken by the astronauts on ISS:
It is easy to see the activity on Hawaii’s #Kilauea Volcano from @Space_Station. We hope those in the vicinity of the eruption can stay out of harm’s way. pic.twitter.com/osTn3fH073
— A.J. (Drew) Feustel (@Astro_Feustel) May 14, 2018
Around the Solar System
The Mars Cube One cubesats, on their way to Mars as part of the InSight mission, turned around and took this image of home this week.
A new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy includes a re-analysis of data from the Galileo spacecraft which orbiter Jupiter in the 90s. The magnetic anomalies seen during close fly-bys of the moon Europa seem to confirm the existence of water plumes, which could be sampled by the upcoming Europa Clipper mission.
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!
.
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
Former astronaut Bruce McCandless II died at 80 years old. McCandless was selected as an astronaut in 1966 but didn’t fly until 1984 on STS-41-B. McCandless is probably best known as the first astronaut to do an untethered EVA using the MMU on that first flight. He flew again on STS-31 in 1990.
SpaceX released photos of the first Falcon Heavy rocket being readied for flight, as well as its payload.
Falcon Heavy at the Cape pic.twitter.com/hizfDVsU7X
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2017
Red Roadster for Mars!
Elon's car is ready for the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy in January, taking a billion year elliptic Mars orbit. The cavernous carbon fiber fairing closes like a clam shell to form the bulbous nose of the Rocket. From Elon: https://t.co/ZBtF5GE7LF pic.twitter.com/lesBm62MrK
— Steve Jurvetson (@dfjsteve) December 22, 2017
The Falcon Heavy rocket was temporarily vertical on the launch pad for fit checks ahead of its January launch.
NASA completed a parachute drop test of the Orion spacecraft in Arizona. The test used only 2 of the 3 parachutes, to validate a parachute failure case.
NASA conducted a water suppression system test at launch pad 39B at KSC in preparation for SLS flights. Check out the video below:
NASA has selected two finalists for a new robotic planetary mission. The mission will either be a comet sample return or a Titan quadcopter.
The new American Girl doll will be an aspiring astronaut, with space suit and all.
In Orbit
There were five orbital rocket launches since my last post, two weeks ago:
- Dec 23 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg in California, carrying communications satellites for Iridium.
- Dec 23 – JAXA launched an H-IIA rocket carrying two scientific satellites.
- Dec 23 – The Chinese space agency launched a Long March 2D rocket carrying an Earth-observing payload.
- Dec 25 – The Chinese space agency launched a Long March 2C rocket carrying payloads for the Chinese military.
- Dec 26 – Roscosmos launched a Zenit rocket carrying a communications satellite for Angola.
The Anogosat-1 payload initially had a problem and lost comm with ground control. However, reports in the past day or two indicate that communications have been restored.
#Angosat-1 developer confirms restoring communications with the spacecraft, says all systems work fine. (Let's hope it stays that way). Details: https://t.co/fh44NZsfta
— Anatoly Zak (@RussianSpaceWeb) December 29, 2017
The SpaceX launch was their 18th and last of the year – in 2016 they launched only 6 rockets. The launch was just after sunset and created spectacular views from the LA metro area. The video below from a drone is one of the best examples:
Meanwhile, the Soyuz rocket that launched on December 17th arrived at ISS successfully on Wednesday. The ISS crew has now returned to a full complement of 6. One of their Christmas treats was an onboard screening of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Space Station movie night, complete with “bungee cord chairs”, drink bags, and a science fiction flick! pic.twitter.com/IPZ2thI8rw
— Mark T. Vande Hei (@Astro_Sabot) December 24, 2017
Also aboard the space station, the Progress 67P freighter undocked from the ISS this week and re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, carrying trash. The freighter will be replaced by 69P in February.
Here are some more pictures from the astronauts aboard the ISS the enjoy on your holiday weekend (as always, follow them on Twitter here).
Hello Little Rock, Memphis, Jackson, New Orleans, Birmingham, Miami, and many places in between! #SpaceIsCloserThanYouThink pic.twitter.com/SdVScsxWv2
— Mark T. Vande Hei (@Astro_Sabot) December 17, 2017
Hello to Jamaica from @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/KKg63dW3ge
— Mark T. Vande Hei (@Astro_Sabot) December 23, 2017
Фотографии моей Родины: Балаклава, Севастополь и Крымский мост. Контролирую строительство моста из Космоса. 🚀Подтверждаю, все идет по графику! 😉
The images of my Homeland from space: Balaklava, Sevastopol and the Crimean bridge. pic.twitter.com/pDqTMbotaX
— Anton Shkaplerov (@Anton_Astrey) December 28, 2017
凍てついたカナダの大地。
宇宙ステーションのロボットアーム、通称「カナダアーム2」と、その子アーム「でくスター」が、一段と映えます。 pic.twitter.com/PIjnFx6EDn— 金井 宣茂 (@Astro_Kanai) December 29, 2017
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
LEGO is releasing a “women of NASA” set.
The Apollo 11 capsule Columbia has started its around the country tour with a new exhibit at Space Center Houston: Destination Moon.
This Lyft commercial referencing the Apollo program is cute, but is missing a shout out to Michael Collins.
Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, conducted the first test fire of their new BE-4 rocket engine.
First hotfire of our BE-4 engine is a success. Huge kudos to the whole @BlueOrigin team for this important step! #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/0gk6k6WuPx
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) October 19, 2017
In Orbit
The ISS Expedition 53 crew completed the second and third spacewalks in their October series. All planned tasks were completed successfully, leaving the space station with some new cameras and a repaired robotic arm. The rest of the year on ISS will be focused on science research, with some critical deliveries onboard a Cygnus resupply and SpaceX Dragon resupply.
Since my last post on October 9th, there have been four orbital rocket launches:
- October 11 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying two geostationary communication satellites. The first stage was a previously flown booster and was recovered on a droneship.
- October 13 – A Russian Rokot launched carrying an Earth obesrvation payload for ESA.
- October 14 – A Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonaur carrying an unmanned Progress resupply bound for the ISS.
- October 15 – ULA launched an Atlas V rocket carrying a national security payload for the NRO.
The Progress freighter docked successfully two days after launch.
Below are a few of the best pictures taken onboard the ISS from the past two weeks. If you want to help maintain the amazing archive of millions of pictures of Earth taken from ISS, now there’s a way! Check out Cosmo Quest’s new Image Detective project.
On a #spacewalk, the Earth never lets you forget you are 250 miles/400 km high. pic.twitter.com/dMrcQTB5FQ
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) October 9, 2017
A closer look at infinity in my visor reflection – the Yin & Yang of Earth & Space. Big thanks to @Astro_Sabot for this #spacewalk photo. pic.twitter.com/bBCglelurK
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) October 9, 2017
Остров #Муреа или #Моореа, который расположен во Французской Полинезии в Тихом океане. // #Moorea – a high island in #FrenchPolynesia. pic.twitter.com/cJgBhoYnte
— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 12, 2017
Наш космический грузовик #ПрогрессМС06 успешно пристыковался к #МКС / A few hours ago the #ProgressMS07 cargo spacecraft docked to the #ISS pic.twitter.com/P5zsiBk6UI
— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 16, 2017
The Togo, Benin and Nigeria coastline… And inland a little piece of Ghana! #Africa #citylights #VITAmission pic.twitter.com/XALkd35SRC
— Paolo Nespoli (@astro_paolo) October 17, 2017
Аделаида, Южная Австралия. Столица вина, литературы и искусства // Adelaide, Southern Australia. The capital of wine, literature and art pic.twitter.com/x50loeAKcF
— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 17, 2017
https://twitter.com/astro_paolo/status/920369795111051264
The #ISS orbits at an altitude of around 400 km above the Earth, but I still managed to photograph a tiny #airplane pic.twitter.com/XyQJhhAhd4
— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 15, 2017
#IssykKul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the 10th largest lake in the world by volume pic.twitter.com/KlYnQFZoIc
— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 21, 2017
ISS astronauts tried to capitalize on a cultural craze down here on Earth with this recent video:
Out There
Hot on the heels of the Nobel Prize in Physics announcement, LIGO made another big discovery using gravitational waves: the first signal from the collision of two neutron stars was detected and confirmed. Phil Plait has a wonderful poetic post explaining what this means for our understanding of the universe.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts has published a “coffee table book” of images he took while aboard the ISS during Expeditions 42 and 43.
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO team.
Canadian company MDA has acquired DigitalGlobe and the new merged corporation will be changing their name to Maxar Technologies. MDA is the company that build the Canadarms and DigitalGlobe is a major provider of orbital imagery for users like Google.
In Orbit
Three rocket launches since my last post. All of them occurred today, October 9th:
- China launched a Long March 2D rocket carrying a Venezuelan satellite.
- SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 10 new communication satellites for Iridium.
- Japan launched an H-2A rocket carrying a native navigation satellite.
Things have been quite busy up on the ISS. Astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Randy Bresnik executed the first of a series of spacewalks last week to maintain the station’s robotic arm. They will go out again tomorrow, October 10th, to continue the work. Here are a few pictures from last week’s EVA:
Without the @space_station lights it would be really, really dark out there. #Goodnight everybody! pic.twitter.com/bS1KcSXNiY
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) October 9, 2017
Salute to the entire #spacewalk team for getting the robotic arm back in great shape. Image credit: @Astro_Sabot pic.twitter.com/RuuO8HoHCz
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) October 9, 2017
On a #spacewalk, the Earth never lets you forget you are 250 miles/400 km high. pic.twitter.com/dMrcQTB5FQ
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) October 9, 2017
NASA has announced plans to keep the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) on the ISS for longer than planned and use it as a logistics module.
Out There
A recent study of “Tabby’s Star” using NASA’s orbiting observatories Spitzer and Swift has a new theory for the unexplained dips in brightness: dust. The new hypothesis is compelling because the telescopes detected differences in the dimming at different wavelengths, which implies something transparent like dust.
Weekly Links
I’m back from my own personal August recess and catching up on almost a month of space news. Here’s your headline dump for August 14 to September 9! A lot has happened
Down to Earth
The Trump Administration has named Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine as their nominee for NASA administrator.
The Chinese and European astronauts conducted a joint survival training exercise off the coast of China.
Sierra Nevada Corporation conducted a “captive carry” flight of their Dream Chaser spaceplane.
Last week an ESA Ariane 5 rocket had a pad abort. The agency is still investigating.
In Orbit
The Dragon capsule launched two days earlier docked with the ISS on August 16th.
The day after the cargo. arrival, cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy conducted a successful spacewalk to do space station maintenance as well as some small satellites deployments.
Then on September 3rd a Soyuz returned to Earth, safely carrying Jack Fischer, Peggy Whitson, and Fyodor Yurchikhin to the steppes of Kazakhstan. Both Yurchikhin and Whitson now have accumulated over 600 days in space.
.@AstroPeggy , Fyodor and @Astro2fish right before leaving last night… say ciao to #Earth for us! #Expedition52 #VITAmission pic.twitter.com/c2yPKBJuEl
— Paolo Nespoli (@astro_paolo) September 3, 2017
Meanwhile on the ground, a dedicated team of flight controllers was riding out Hurricane Harvey in Houston’s Mission Control Center to ensure the successful undocking and return of the crew.
Speaking of hurricanes, the ISS crew has taken some incredible imagery of Irma has it makes its way across the Caribbean and now Florida.
Tonight, far too many people in #Irma’s path and in its wake. pic.twitter.com/bWQMxae9GV
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) September 8, 2017
Lots of launches while I was out. Here’s a worldwide rundown:
- August 16 – Russian Proton rocket launched carrying a communication satellite.
- August 18 – ULA Atlas V rocket launched from Florida carrying a NASA tracking and data relay satellite.
- August 19 – Japanese H-II rocket launched carrying a communications satellite.
- August 24 – SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg carrying a payload for the government of Taiwan.
- August 26 – Orbital Minotaur rocket launched from Florida carrying a payload for the U.S. Air Force.
- August 31 – India attempted to launch a rocket carrying a navigation satellite, but the payload never made it to orbit.
- September 7 – SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida carrying the fifth X-37B flight for the U.S. Air Force.
Around the Solar System
Congratulations to the engineers and scientists on the New Horizons project; the International Astronomical Union has selected many of their original choices for features on Pluto as official names!
Good news for Mars enthusiasts: there is new talk at NASA of planning a robotic Mars sample return mission for the middle of the 2020s.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Rocket Lab released some information about their failed test launch last month. It turns out the issue was due to some ground segment hardware and they should be able to recover and continue with another test launch soon.
SpaceX is removing the Rotating Service Structure (RSS) at pad 39A at KSC. The RSS was needed for Space Shuttle launches from the historic pad. The RSS from 39B has already been removed in preparations for the SLS program.
The much anticipated launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may get delayed from late 2018 into 2019 due to a launch site conflict down in French Guiana, where JWST will be launched on an ESA rocket.
A Japanese rocket launch was cancelled this week due to an unspecified glitch. JAXA was trying to launch a new GPS satellite.
In Orbit
This morning, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon resupply capsule to the ISS. The launch was flawless with a successful first stage landing at Landing Zone 1. The Dragon will rendezvous with the ISS on Wednesday.
Among the cargo on the Dragon capsule is a new experimental super computer, a cosmic ray detector, and a slew of other experiments.
The 6-person Expedition 52 crew is really hitting their stride with their on-orbit photography, with daily Twitter updates to enjoy. The mission will wind down with the return of Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer in early September, followed shortly by the launch of the second half of the Expedition 53 crew.
I’m so proud to be a part of this international team -Expedition 52: Fyodor Yurchikhin, @Astro_Paolo, @AstroPeggy, @SergeyISS, @AstroKomrade pic.twitter.com/5lW84CoO9Q
— Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) August 12, 2017
If you get the angle just right…it makes a river look like it’s on fire. Now that’s just cool. #EarthShapes pic.twitter.com/Dbz1BfegL6
— Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) August 6, 2017
Opposing colours blend into each other in the desert in northern Mali / Colori opposti si fondono nel deserto nel nord del Mali #VITAmission pic.twitter.com/sjJo30qXiU
— Paolo Nespoli (@astro_paolo) August 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/Astro2fish/status/895770661628465152
#Aloha Oahu, Hawaii. Another gorgeous place on our planet. I love the way the clouds dance around, over and on the beautiful island. pic.twitter.com/PNCM0d8Li3
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) August 11, 2017
Nestled between the continent of Africa and Madagascar the stunning Mayotte Island is ringed by its eye-catching reef. pic.twitter.com/IXGl5eaJ2p
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) August 14, 2017
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Leonardo DiCaprio is going to produce a new TV series based on The Right Stuff.
NASA’s new TDRS-M satellite had a mishap during pre-flight processing. Launch has been rescheduled while repairs are conducted.
Virgin Galactic conducted another drop test of their SpaceShipTwo vehicle at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
NASA’s fourteenth crew of the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) program started their 45-day mission yesterday.
Crew trained & ready! @HERA_XIV mission to simulated asteroid starts TONIGHT @NASA! Hatch doors close in 5, 4, 3, 2… engaging autotweet pic.twitter.com/Qst1G4p3v7
— HERA XIV (@HERA_XIV) August 5, 2017
Rocket startup Vector Space Systems conducted a test launch of their suborbital rocket on Thursday. Here’s a short video of liftoff.
In Orbit
The International Space Station crew is back up to 6 after a new Soyuz launched from Kazakhstan and docked just a few hours later. The three new ISS crew members, Sergey Ryazanskiy, Paolo Nespoli, and Randy Bresnik, are all spaceflight veterans.
There are now 5 active Twitter users on ISS, sharing their thoughts, activities, and views with us! Check out their posts at this feed.
Signing the wall at the Baikonur Cosmodrome Museum. You can even spot @StationCDRKelly on it! #SpaceflightTradition pic.twitter.com/NJDC55SKFj
— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) July 25, 2017
Spied this cool view through the Japanese Airlock, great capability for us to pass science in & out to space! https://t.co/yKBNxgYJYq pic.twitter.com/ZTvCitMWtU
— Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) July 26, 2017
Technology evolves: our Soyuz Procedure Books are now on a tablet (we still carry the paper versions, just in case…) #Poyekhali #VITAmission pic.twitter.com/1DfQOHxhpq
— Paolo Nespoli (@astro_paolo) July 26, 2017
Doing some arts and crafts tonight to prep for our 6-person crew picture next week. Can’t wait for the crew to bump up to 6! pic.twitter.com/Z4S3ChrW0O
— Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) July 27, 2017
Got an interesting pic of the launch… @AstroKomrade, @Astro_Paolo & @Ryazanskiy_ISS are now on our six! See you in a few hours guys! pic.twitter.com/7wZn09oNjM
— Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) July 28, 2017
638 days in space and the view is still amazing! Soaking up some sunset time in the cupola… pic.twitter.com/AiReQzkjJZ
— Peggy Whitson (@AstroPeggy) August 6, 2017
In addition to the Soyuz launch, the only other rocket launch in the past two weeks was a European Space Agency Vega rocket. The rocket launched on August 2 from French Guiana carrying two earth observing satellites.
Around the Solar System
In case you had forgotten that there are two active NASA rovers on the surface of Mars, here are some beautiful panoramas from Opportunity, on the edge of Endeavour crater.
Results are in of the stellar occultation observation of object 2014 MU69, and astronomers think it may actually be a binary, rather that single piece of rock. 2014 MU69 is the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) that the New Horizons spacecraft will visit in 2019.
New evidence suggests there may be more water hidden beneath the surface of the moon than previously thought.
Out There
Speaking of moons, a new paper analyzing the light curve data from Kepler of a distant star shows the possibility of a large planet with a large moon in orbit. Hubble is scheduled to do follow up observations in October to confirm the finding.