Archive for the ‘Proton’ Category
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
The United States federal government remains partial shutdown as it has been since mid-December. This is far more than a story about NASA, of course. But since this is a space blog, here is an article from the Orlando Sentinel about how the current situation is affecting some NASA contractors in Florida.
NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation Center in West Virginia has been renamed for Katherine Johnson, a native of the state.
Nancy Grace Roman, who served as NASA’s chief of astronomy in the 1970’s and is credited with ensuring the Hubble Space Telescope project moved forward, has died at 93 years of age.
The Dragon capsule for “Demo Mission 1” was rolled out to the launch pad in Florida. This test mission will be in preparation for the first flight with astronauts onboard.
Preparing to return human spaceflight capabilities to the United States, Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 went vertical at historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida. pic.twitter.com/igggZdCU9k
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 5, 2019
NASA had to postpone a visit by the head of Roscosmos (Russia’s space agency) due to political pressure.
In Orbit
It’s been a tough time for space telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 is currently inactive due to a malfunction. Also, Russia’s Spektr-R telescope is reportedly out of communication.
There were 10 orbital rocket launches since my last post on December 16th:
- December 19 – an Indian GSLV rocket launched a communications satellite.
- December 19 – an Arianespace Soyuz rocket launched a satellite for the French military.
- December 21 – a Russian Proton rocket launched a military communication satellite.
- December 21 – A Chinese Long March 11 rocket launched a low Earth orbit communications satellite.
- December 23 – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a GPS satellite for the US Air Force.
- December 24 – A Chinese Long March 3C rocket launched an experimental payload.
- December 27 – A Russian Soyuz rocket launched from Vostochny carrying a slew of commercial payloads for various customers.
- December 29 – A Chinese Long March 2D rocket launched a low Earth orbit communications satellite.
- January 10 – A Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched a geostationary communications satellite.
- January 11 – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched carrying communications satellites for Iridium.
On the ISS, things have been busy with the usual ebb and flow of operations. On December 19th, the three person crew of Alex Gerst, Serena Aunon-Chancellor, and Sergey Propokyev returned to Earth in their Soyuz capsule.
Meanwhile, the remaining ISS crew was busy organizing supplies and conducting science delivered on the latest Dragon capsule. The capsule, designated Dragon-16, returned to Earth on Sunday, January 13th, splashing down for recovery in the Pacific Ocean.
Farewell Dragon! #Canadarm2 just released SpaceX-16 capsule, returning experiments to scientists around the World.
Au revoir Dragon! Canadarm2 vient de relâcher la capsule SpaceX-16, qui rapporte des expériences à des scientifiques de partout à travers le monde. pic.twitter.com/3t3BlgIMCo— David Saint-Jacques (@Astro_DavidS) January 14, 2019
Around the Solar System
NASA’s New Horizons probe – famous for its flyby of Pluto in 2015 – successfully imaged a distant Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69, or Ultima Thule. This flyby was many years in the making, even though the object was discovered well after New Horizons launched in 2006.
China successfully landed their second lunar rover, Yutu 2, part of the Chang’e 4 mission, on the far side of the moon.
China has released more images from the Chang’e 4 mission on the far side of the moon, including a panorama and a video from the lander’s descent camera. See more: https://t.co/wFvyJiKA5a pic.twitter.com/Jizn0lT8Wv
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) January 13, 2019
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Russia will stop building the Proton rocket.
The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been officially delayed to 2021.
Virgin Orbit has been granted an FAA launch license for its first launch from California.
In Orbit
There were two orbital rocket launches during the last week. On June 27th, China launched a Long March 2C rocket carrying two satellites into orbit. On July 29th, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, carrying a Dragon cargo craft scheduled for arrival at ISS on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, Rocket Lab was not able to launch last week and has delayed their first commercial flight.
Around the Solar System
Out at Mars, there were no updates on the dust storm of the status of the dormant rover Opportunity.
After weeks of a slow approach, Japan’s probe Hayabusa-2 has arrived at asteroid Ryugu, with gorgeous views of the never before explored rock.
Astronomers have new evidence that the interstellar visitor ‘Omuamua was actually a comet, not an asteroid.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
After much delay over the last year, the US Senate has finally confirmed former Congressman Jim Bridenstine as the new NASA administrator.
Orbital ATK is designing a new rocket for the Air Force, to be named OmegA.
A new Netflix film, Mercury 13, covers the participation (or lack thereof) of women pilots in America’s early space program.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) received over 4,000 applicants to be astronauts in their budding space program.
Former cosmonaut Vladimir Lykakhov, who spent 333 days in space, has died.
Scott Altman and Thomas Jones have been inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame.
In Orbit
Two orbital rocket launches since my last post:
- April 18 – A Russian Proton rocket launched carrying a military communications satellite.
- April 18 – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched carrying NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).