(Space Fellowship) Picture of the Day - Global Map of Mercury
In December 2009, the first high-resolution global map of Mercury was made publicly available. These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. Members of the MESSENGER team and experts from the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) used images from MESSENGER's three Mercury flybys and from the Mariner 10 mission in 1974-75 to create a global mosaic that covers 97.7% of Mercury's surface at a resolution of 500 m [...]
(Space Politics) It’s commercial space week
Well, not really, but it’s close. On Thursday afternoon the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee is planning a hearing titled “Assessing Commercial Space Capabilities”. The witness list and other hearing details haven’t been published on the committee web site as of midday Monday, but this appears to be the hearing Sen. [...](Space Fellowship) This Week On The Space Show
The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week: 1. Monday, March 15, 2010, 2-3:30 PM PDT (21-22:30 GMT) Henry Vanderbilt of Space-Access Society (www.space-access.org) comes to discuss the upcoming conference April 8-10, 2010. Henry Vanderbilt thought space was cool from the start. At age six he was watching a Mercury launch on TV when someone explained that the Atlas rocket cost ten million dollars and they threw it away [...]
(Space Fellowship) Orbital and Aerojet Complete Main Engine Lifetime Testing for Taurus II Space Launch Vehicle
(Orbital) -- Russian Tests of Heritage NK-33 Rocket Engine Confirm Performance and Durability Engine Completes Two Times Normal Firing Duration of a Taurus II Launch Profile -- (Dulles, VA) -- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) and Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, along with Aerojet’s Russian partner, United Engine Corporation/SNTK, announced today that a series of NK-33 rocket engine tests conducted in Samara, Russia, were successfully completed last week in support of the dev [...]
(Space Fellowship) ILS Proton To Launch Intelsat 21 And Intelsat 23
Reston, VA, (ILS)– International Launch Services (ILS) announced two firm missions with the ILS Proton launches of the Intelsat 21 satellite and the Intelsat 23 satellite for Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services. Intelsat 21 is under construction by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems with a launch planned in early 2012. The Intelsat 23 satellite is being built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, and is slated to launch in late 2011. Both missions are p [...]
(Space Fellowship) Phobos flyby images
(ESA) - Images from the recent flyby of Phobos, on 7 March 2010, are released today. The images show Mars’ rocky moon in exquisite detail, with a resolution of just 4.4 metres per pixel. They show the proposed landing sites for the forthcoming Phobos-Grunt mission. ESA's Mars Express spacecraft orbits the Red Planet in a highly elliptical, polar orbit that brings it close to Phobos every five months. It is the only spacecraft currently in orbit around Mars whose orbit reaches far enough fro [...]
(Space Daily) Signature Secures Future Sentinels For GMES
Paris, France (ESA) Mar 15, 2010 - Marking another significant step in the GMES initiative, ESA and Thales Alenia Space recently signed a contract worth euros 270 million to build the second Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 satellites. (Space Daily) Thales Begins Development Of Sentinel 1B And 3B Environmental Satellites
Rome, Italy (SPX) Mar 15, 2010 - Thales Alenia Space has started the development of Sentinel 1B and 3B Earth observation satellites in its Italian and French facilities. These contracts have been awarded to Thales Alenia Space in December 2009, worth 270 million euros, by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. (Space Daily) Flipping The Amoeba
San Francisco CA (SPX) Mar 15, 2010 - In the long evolutionary road from bacteria to humans, a major milestone occurred some 1.5 billion years ago when microbes started building closets for all their stuff, storing DNA inside a nucleus, for example, or cramming all the energy machinery inside mitochondria. (Space Daily) US Lifts Sanctions Against Russian Space Company
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Mar 15, 2010 - The U.S. government has lifted sanctions against the Russian space organization Glavkosmos, the U.S. Federal Register said on Thursday. (Space Daily) Three FASTSAT Instruments Pass Tests
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 15, 2010 - The outer layers of Earth's atmosphere hold many secrets yet to be uncovered and three scientific instruments will fly soon on the FASTSAT-HSV01 satellite and seek to uncover them to benefit us here on Earth. Known as MINI-ME, PISA and TTI, these instruments recently passed a series of important final tests to prove their readiness for spaceflight. (Space Daily) World Space Agencies Confirm Serviceability Of ISS Through 2020
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Mar 15, 2010 - There are no technical constraints to extending the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2020, top international space officials said on Thursday. (Space Daily) Cassini Cruises By Rhea And Helene
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 15, 2010 - Cassini's closest-ever flyby of Saturn's moon Rhea went quite smoothly and teams are busy checking out their data! These flybys never fail to amaze me. And the raw images - which give us an unprocessed first look - are really cool! (Space Daily) China To Conduct Maiden Space Docking In 2011
Beijing (XNA) Mar 15, 2010 - China will launch an unmanned space module, Tiangong-1, in the first half of 2011, and the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft in the second half of the year, to carry out the nation's first-ever space docking, an expert said here Wednesday. (Space Daily) Did The Chilean Quake Shift Earth's Axis
Huntsville AL (SPX) Mar 12, 2010 - Pictures of widespread devastation leave no doubt: Last month's 8.8 magnitude earthquake in coastal Chile was extremely strong. Indeed, say NASA scientists, it might have shifted the axis of Earth itself. (Space Daily) The Great Conveyor Belt Of Sol Running Fast
Huntsville AL (SPX) Mar 15, 2010 - NASA solar physicist David Hathaway reports that the top of the sun's Great Conveyor Belt has been running at record-high speeds for the past five years. "I believe this could explain the unusually deep solar minimum we've been experiencing," says Hathaway. "The high speed of the conveyor belt challenges existing models of the solar cycle and it has forced us back to the drawing board for new ideas." (Space Travel) Go Into The Webb Telescope Clean Room
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 12, 2010 - How often can you say that you've seen the components of a space telescope being worked on at NASA? The answer is probably "rarely, if ever." However, thanks to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., that has now changed. (Space Travel) Bipartisan Legislation Introduced To Close The Space Gap
Washington (AFP) March 11, 2010 - Rep. Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) has joined with Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-New Smyrna Beach) to introduce the Human Space Flight Capability Assurance and Enhancement Act of 2010, bipartisan legislation to minimize the human space flight gap by extending the use of the Space Shuttle, moving forward with a new domestic vehicle and speeding up the development of a "heavy lift vehicle" (HLV) to go beyond low earth orbit. The bill mirrors legislation introduced last week by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas. (Space Travel) US lawmakers urge Obama to save NASA moon program
Washington (AFP) March 11, 2010 - A group of US lawmakers Thursday urged the US administration to save NASA's Constellation project aimed at returning Americans to the moon in the next generation of space travel. (Space Daily) First Station Materials Science Rack Being Processed
Huntsville AL (SPX) Mar 15, 2010 - On Feb. 2, the first materials science sample supporting an U.S. investigator was processed in NASA's Materials Science Research Rack aboard the International Space Station. (Space Fellowship) Picture of the Day - The Coolest Place in the Universe?
The Boomerang Nebula is a young planetary nebula and the coldest object found in the Universe so far. The Hubble Space Telescope image is yet another example of how Hubble's sharp eye reveals surprising details in celestial objects. This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a young planetary nebula known (rather curiously) as the Boomerang Nebula. It is in the constellation of Centaurus, 5000 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae form around a bright, central star when it expels gas in the [...]
(Space Fellowship) Solar 'Current of Fire' Speeds Up
In today's issue of Science, NASA solar physicist David Hathaway reports that the top of the sun's Great Conveyor Belt has been running at record-high speeds for the past five years. The speed-up was surprising on two levels. First, it coincided with the deepest solar minimum in nearly 100 years, contradicting models that say a fast-moving belt should boost sunspot production. The basic idea is that the belt sweeps up magnetic fields from the sun's surface and drags them down to the sun' [...]
(Space Fellowship) Small Fine Arm Deployment Complete; Williams, Suraev Prepare for Departure
(NASA) - Expedition 22 Flight Engineers Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer completed the deployment and calibration of the new small fine arm (SFA). The SFA was assembled then installed inside the Kibo laboratory’s airlock by Noguchi where it was removed with the module’s main robotic arm – the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System. The SFA performs delicate robotics work, is an extension of the Kibo laboratory’s main robotic arm and has [...]
(Space Fellowship) Arabsat 5A is delivered to French Guiana for its Ariane 5 flight
(Arianespace) - The initial passenger for Arianespace’s second Ariane 5 mission of this year is now in French Guiana following a trans-Atlantic flight from Europe earlier this week. Arabsat 5A arrived at Rochambeau International Airport aboard an Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft, delivered from the Toulouse, France facilities of EADS Astrium – which built this communications satellite jointly with Thales Alenia Space as co-prime contractors. Astrium supplied the Eurostar E3000 satellit [...]
(Space Fellowship) Picture of the Day - Bursting at the Seams
Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed 'tiger stripes' near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The tiger stripes are fissures that spray icy particles, water vapor and organic compounds. This mosaic was created from two high-resolution images that were captured by the narrow-angle camera when NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew past Enceladus and through the jets on Nov. 21, 2009. Imaging the jets over time will allow Cassin [...]
(Space Politics) Another step towards export control reform
Speaking at the annual conference of the Ex-Im Bank in Washington on Thursday, President Obama announced that a new proposal for reforming export control policies—the bane of the commercial space industry in the US for a decade now—is in the works: Finally, we’re working to reform our Export Control System for our strategic, high-tech industries, which [...](Space Fellowship) World space agencies confirm serviceability of ISS through 2020
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) - There are no technical constraints to extending the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2020, top international space officials said on Thursday. The heads of space agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States involved in the ISS project met in Tokyo to review the prospects for cooperation over the next decade. "The heads of the agencies expressed their strong mutual interest in continuing operations and utilization [...]
(Space Fellowship) Robotics and Departure Preparations for Station Crew
(NASA) - The Expedition 22 crew members aboard the International Space Station were busy Thursday with robotics activities and preparations for upcoming spacecraft departures. Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer performed a series of checkouts and calibrations on the Kibo laboratory’s newest robotic arm, known as the small fine arm. Once its deployment is complete, the small fine arm will be used on the end of the laboratory’s larger main arm to move small science experiment [...]
(Space Fellowship) First U.S. Sample Processed in Materials Science Research Rack to be Opened at Marshall
(NASA) - On Feb. 2, the first materials science sample supporting an U.S. investigator was processed in NASA's Materials Science Research Rack aboard the International Space Station. The rack allows for the in-orbit study of a variety of materials – including metals, ceramics, semi-conductor crystals and glasses. The first sample was a small, solid rod of composite aluminum and silicon processed at high temperatures to produce an alloy. Development of the research rack was a coopera [...]
(Space Fellowship) Three FASTSAT Instruments Pass Tests
(NASA) - The outer layers of Earth's atmosphere hold many secrets yet to be uncovered and three scientific instruments will fly soon on the FASTSAT-HSV01 satellite and seek to uncover them to benefit us here on Earth. Known as MINI-ME, PISA and TTI, these instruments recently passed a series of important final tests to prove their readiness for spaceflight. These instruments were conceived and built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and were integrated to the satellite [...]
