Rockets from Cassiopeia

Archive for the ‘Venus’ Category

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.

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.

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.