Archive for the ‘Venus’ Category
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Sierra Nevada Corporation completed a successful free-flight landing test of their Dream Chase space plane. The test was the first free-flight since 2013, when they had a landing gear issue during their first test.
XCOR Aerospace, a company that spent over a decade trying to develop their own space plane, has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy (i.e., their assets will be auctioned off).
Another veteran astronaut of the Apollo era has passed away. Apollo 12 Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon died last week at 88 years old. In addition to orbiting the moon, Gordon flew on the Gemini 11 mission with Pete Conrad and later worked on the Space Shuttle program.
During an engine test last week, SpaceX had an incident with a qualification unit of their new Merlin engine design. The engine basically blew up but no one was injured.
If you get up before dawn tomorrow, you will have a chance to see a conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter. They will rise very close together in the East.
In Orbit
Three orbital rocket launches since my last post:
- November 5 – China launched two new Beidou navigation satellites.
- November 8 – ESA launched a Vega rocket carrying an earth-observing satellite for Morocco.
- November 12 – Orbital ATK launched an Antares rocket from Virginia carrying a Cygnus cargo freighter to the International Space Station. It will arrive on station Tuesday morning.
Not to be fouled by boats or planes today…Cygnus is on it's way to the ISS! #OA8
first run of photos here: https://t.co/0S76qAM8Mt pic.twitter.com/Xhy9MS2Mkh
— Trevor Mahlmann (@TrevorMahlmann) November 12, 2017
Around the Solar system
You can vote on a name for the small object 2014 MU69, which will be visited by the New Horizons probe in early 2019.
A study gives new explanation to why Saturn’s watery moon Enceladus is so geologically active.
Weekly Links
Down to Earth
Legendary astronaut Gene Cernan has died at the age of 82. Captain Cernan had an incredible career in the Navy and then at NASA, where he flew on three important missions: Gemini 9, Apollo 10, and Apollo 17. Gemini 9 had Cernan’s harrowing spacewalk (the second for an American); Apollo 10 was the dress rehearsal for the moon landing, in which Cernan and Stafford got to within just miles of the lunar surface before a planned abort; Apollo 17 is of course known as the final mission to the surface of the moon. If you haven’t read Cernan’s autobiography or seen the recent biography about him (both called The Last Man on the Moon) you should put them both on your list.
NASA administrator Charlie Bolden resigned last Thursday – as is tradition for most presidential appointees – the day before inauguration of president Donald J. Trump. NASA is currently being run by acting administrator Robert Lightfoot.
Andy Weir, author of The Martian, announced on social medial that he will be working with CBS on a new show set in Houston’s mission control.
CBS picked up my TV show pilot! Working with Aditya Sood again (producer of "The Martian") again. Should be fun! 🙂 https://t.co/9EqCcZGF1P
— Andy Weir (@andyweirauthor) January 17, 2017
In Orbit
A small Japanese rocket, which would have been the smallest ever to make orbit, failed during a launch attempt last Saturday, January 14th. The rocket was carrying a single small cubesat.
However, two rockets did make successful launches within the last week. First, SpaceX had a spectacular return to flight on Saturday, January 14th, placing 10 satellites into orbit for Iridium after a flawless launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg in California. They even stuck the landing on the first stage recovery.
Lastly, on January 20th, United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V carrying a USAF satellite, GEO 3.
Meanwhile, a failure investigation has narrowed down the loss of a Russian Soyuz rocket last month to an oxidizer pump, leading the Russian space agency to make some part replacements on both the next manned and unmanned flights. Hopefully we will see Soyuz rockets flying to the ISS again soon!
Around the Solar System
The Japanese probe in orbit of Venus, Akatsuki, has made observations of a massive standing wave in the planet’s atmosphere.