Felix Baumgartner, supported by the Red Bull Stratos team, took a 90 minute helium balloon ride in a capsule to an altitude of 29,455 meters on July 30. Then he jumped out. Baumgartner is preparing for a record breaking skydive from an altitude of 36,576 m in August. In March, he successfully completed a similar test from 21,818 m. The [...]
Archive for July, 2012
Copenhagen Suborbitals Sea Launch A Success – Mostly
On July 27, the DIY organization Copenhagen Suborbitals launched SMARAGD-1 from the Baltic Sea. After a couple false starts, when a boat wandering into the safety range and then the payload ran out of power and had to be recharged, SMARAGD-1 made a beautiful lift off. Landing was less beautiful, with the nose cone snapping off after stage two separation. “The payload [...]
Astronauts to Sleep Better With Blue Light
George C. Brainard, professor of neurology at Jefferson Medical College, is developing new LED lamps for the International Space Station with the purpose of improving astronauts’ sleep rhythms. Sleep patterns are affected by spaceflight due to a noisy environment, weightlessness, and station maneuvers occurring during rest periods, not to mention a new sunrise every 90 minutes as the station races [...]
Rockot Back in Business After Failure
Almost a year and a half after a launch failure, Russia’s Rockot booster returned to flight on Saturday, successfully delivering four satellites. The light-weight launcher lifted off on July 28 from Plesetsk. It carried a pair of Gonets-M communications satellites and a MiR (Yubileiny-2) remote-sensing spacecraft. Roscosmos confirmed that both Gonets payloads and MiR successfully reached the orbit. The launch was initially planned for December 2011, then for [...]
Federal Aviation Administration to Hold Talks With Commercial Space
The US Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) is charged with registering and regulating commercial spaceflight. When it comes to commercial crew ventures, such as the plethora of suborbital tourism companies that have sprung up across the US, AST has been charged with a hands-off role. Taking a watch and learn approach, AST is merely responsible for [...]
HTV-3 and Progress M-15M Dock with ISS
On July 27, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle 3 (HTV-3) was captured and berthed to the International Space Station. On July 28, the Russian Progress M-15M cargo ship made a successful automated dock testing a new system that had failed less than a week earlier. The HTV-3, which launched aboard a H-IIB from Tanegashima Space Center on July 20, arrived [...]
Odyssey Back on Track for Curiosity Landing
Source: NASA NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted its orbital location to be in a better position to provide prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover. NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying Curiosity can send limited information directly to Earth as it enters Mars’ atmosphere. Before the landing, Earth will set below the Martian horizon from [...]
Suitports could be the new airlock
NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s Advanced Exploration Systems team are in the midst of developing new spacesuits that can be used by future astronauts to explore extraterrestrials bodies such as Mars, the Moon, or asteroids. The Z-1 prototype goes one step further: it can can replace not only existing spacesuits but airlocks as well. The Z-1 is donned via a rear [...]
Closer Look at HTV-3
The Japanese HTV-3 that launched on Saturday is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station with its 4 tons of cargo on July 27. Below, a closer look at this series of supply vessels. Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration Staff WritersMore Posts
NASA’s Space Launch System Passes Review
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is intended to launch the new Orion capsule, putting NASA back in the business of launching humans to space. On July 25, SLS passed a combined System Requirements and System Definition Review. ”The in-depth assessment confirmed the basic vehicle concepts of the SLS, allowing the team to move forward and start more detailed engineering design,” said [...]
