Archive for the ‘MRO’ Category
Weekly Links
Down to earth
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may see another launch slip.
The world’s largest airplane, built by Stratolaunch in Mojave, California, was rolled out for runway tests.
Captured new video of @Stratolaunch plane as it reached a top taxi speed of 40 knots (46 mph) with all flight surfaces in place on Sunday. The team verified control responses, building on the first taxi tests conducted in December. pic.twitter.com/OcH1ZkxZRA
— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) February 26, 2018
NASA’s next Mars lander, InSight, was delivered to the launch site in California.
The Orion crew access arm was installed on the SLS mobile launcher at KSC.
In Orbit
Alexander Misurkin, Joe Acaba, and Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth safely in their Soyuz last week. There are only three crew onboard the ISS until a new crew launches in two weeks.
Two rocket launches last week:
- February 27 – Japan launched an H-IIA rocket carrying a reconnaissance satellite
- March 2 – ULA launched an Atlas V rocket carrying a new weather satellite for NOAA
Around the solar system
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is still operating normally after its safe mode scare in February.
The amazing engineer’s at NASA’s JPL have figured out how to use the Mar rover Curiosity’s drill, despite the failure of the device in December 2016. The rover should resume scientific drill operations now that the technique has been demonstrated on Mars.
Out There
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a distant water-rich planet, Wasp-39b. The planet is not Earth-like – it is a large planet like Saturn. However, the technique used to detect the atmospheric make-up of Wasp-39b is the best spectrum yet taken of an exoplanet.
Weekly Links
In Orbit
The new National Space Council hosted their second meeting, this time at Kennedy Space Center.
Bigelow Aerospace has announced a new sister company, Bigelow Space Operations, who will market their future goals of launching and operating independent space stations.
The latest HI-SEAS space analog mission in Hawaii was put on hold due to some kind of medical emergency.
In Orbit
The only launch of the week was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg in Californial. The rocket carried three satellites – a payload for the Spanish military and two technology demonstration satellites for SpaceX. The company also tried to “catch” one of the rocket’s discarded payload fairings at sea, but missed slightly. Here is a photo from Instagram of the fairing floating near the SpaceX’s recovery ship.
A Soyuz carrying three space station residents will undock from the ISS on Tuesday morning and return to Earth. Recovery crews are already getting ready out in Kazakhstan.
In a few hours we’ll start pre-staging helos and teams for the landing of @Astro_Sabot @AstroAcaba and Misurkin from @Space_Station. Karaganda, Kazakhstan. pic.twitter.com/SVALfAFaJk
— Bill Ingalls (@ingallsimages) February 25, 2018
Around the Solar System
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had a bit of a scare last week, entering safe mode for about 3 days after a battery malfunction. MRO came out of safe mode on the 23rd and NASA reported that it was being returned to nominal service. MRO is a key asset, as it relays all communications from the two rovers on the surface.
Meanwhile, down on the surface, Opportunity continues to trundle along in Endeavour crater. JPL even announced some new observations this past week.
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft took an image of Earth from 63 million km away. The probe is currently on its way to the asteroid belt.
Out There
I am in love with this unique interpretation of the Hubble Deep Field from the new website Astronomy Sound of the Month. Follow the link and then, with your sound on, move your cursor over the image to hear different notes correlated to the age of each galaxy.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
NASA successfully completed its latest underwater NEEMO mission off the coast of Florida. A crew of astronauts and engineers spent several days in an underwater base testing techniques, gear, and technology for spaceflight. This was the 22nd expedition to the underwater facility.
The Canadian Space Agency announced the selection of their two latest Astronaut Candidates. Jennifer Sidley is a 28-year-old PhD and professor at the University of Cambridge. Joshua Kutryk is a 35-year-old fighter pilot and test pilot with several master’s degrees.
The President of the United States signed an executive order establishing a National Space Council, to guide all of the nation’s endeavours related to spaceflight.
In Orbit
There were five rocket launches since my last post:
- June 18 – China launched a Long March 3B rocket, but placed the communications satellite payload in the wrong orbit.
- June 23 – India launched a PSLV rocket carrying a slew of small satellites.
- June 23 – Russia launched a secret payload on a Soyuz rocket variant.
- June 23 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Bulgariasat-1, from their Florida launch site.
- June 25 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a payload of Iridium satellites, from their Florida launch site.
- June 28 – ESA launched an Ariane 5 rocket carrying payloads for commercial customers.
Yes, SpaceX had a 48 hour turnaround between two launches, to reach 9 launches on the year. Both first stages were recovered.
In a non-orbital launch, NASA launched an experiment sounding rocket from Virginia’s Wallops Island.
A large satellite in geostationary orbit appears to have broken apart, causing concerns about orbital debris in one of the most important Earth orbits.
Around the Solar System
A recent survey of outer solar system bodies, which found several new distant objects, casts doubt on the hypothesized existence of “Planet 9”. However, the lead researchers of the Planet 9 theory have done their own analysis of the new data, and claim that the data can fit the model. The hunt for Planet 9 continues.
The Curiosity rover is still climbing up Mount Sharp in the center of Gale Crater on Mars. Recently, the MRO spacecraft captured this image of the rover from orbit.