The Space Safety Community gathered in Montreal for the 6th IAASS conference “Safety is not an Option” on May 21. Hosted by McGill University, the conference started with a plenary session chaired by Paul Kirkpatrick, head of the IAASS Technical Training Committee, and Rahm Jakhu, head of IAASS Legal and Regulatory Committee. Tommaso Sgobba, IAASS President, opened the conference with a [...]
Articles written by: Andrea Gini
IAASS Publishes New Text: Safety Design for Space Operations
The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) has just published the book “Safety Design for Space Operations” (Elsevier, 2013). The book comes four years after “Safety Design for Space Systems,” a university level textbook recently translated into Chinese. With contributions from more than 40 authors, chosen from among the best in their respective fields, the project was coordinated by IAASS President Tommaso Sgobba, and edited by Dr. Firooz Allahdadi, Isabelle [...]
The Columbia Disaster and Space Program Safety
The sixth issue of Space Safety Magazine is dedicated to one of the most tragic events in human spaceflight: the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew. As you will learn from the Special Report “Remembering Columbia,” the Shuttle was destroyed upon reentry by a flux of super-heated air coming through a breach in the reinforced carbon-carbon left wing leading edge [...]
Space Safety Magazine, Issue 6, Winter 2013
Inside the Space Safety Magazine, Issue 6, Winter 2013 The Columbia Disaster and Space Program Safety Space Politics, the European Way Building the World’s First Automated Space Debris Tracker What if There IS Life on Mars? Interview with Margaret Race To the Stratos and Beyond - Interview with Felix Baumgartner Under Pressure: A Brief History of Pressure Suits Looking Far Into the Future Interview with Alastair Reynolds [...]
Remembering Columbia
February 1st 2013 will be the 10th anniversary of one of the most significant events in the history of human spaceflight: the Columbia accident. This anniversary is a poignant reminder of the costs of neglecting space safety. The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its entire STS-107 crew is one of the most catastrophic events in the modern space [...]
AEOLDOS – Aerodynamic End Of Life Deorbit System for CubeSats and Small Satellites
Source: Clyde Space AEOLDOS is a lightweight, foldable ‘aerobrake’ for CubeSats and small satellites. Once the spacecraft has reached the end of its operational life, the lightweight aerobrake, made from a thin membrane supported by tape measure-like struts, springs open to generate aerodynamic drag against the extremely thin upper atmosphere that still exists in near-Earth space. As the satellite falls [...]
The Mighty Saturn Rocket
On November 9, 1967, 45 years ago, the mighty Saturn V made its unmanned maiden flight. Powered by five F-1 rocket engines on its first stage, five J-2 rocket engines in its second and one more J-2 in its third stage, the Saturn V had a lift capability of 130 metric tons, allowing it to carry crew and equipment to [...]
USAF General Warns on Budget Cuts
William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command, warned against funding cuts to future space programs, with possible consequences to next-generation Space Situational Awareness (SAA) systems. According to Shelton the new Joint Space Operations Management System (JMS), designed to increase USAF capability to track objects in Earth’s orbit, is threatened with a major funding reduction by the US Congress, on the grounds [...]
Suffredini Comments on Dragon Anomalies
SpaceX’s first cargo delivery to the International Space Station (ISS) in October was troubled by several anomalies, including the failure of one of the nine Falcon 9 engines. Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager, released some comments during the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee of November 14 and 15. According to SpaceX, the rocket’s computer shut down one of the first [...]
Selective Laser Melting: The Future of Space Manufacturing
NASA is using selective laser melting (SLM), a 3D printing technology, to build parts for the next generation heavy lifter Space Launch System (SLS). The new technology allows precision manufacturing of very complex parts starting from CAD design. “[SLM] takes metal powder and uses a high-energy laser to melt it in a designed pattern,” said Ken Cooper, advanced manufacturing team lead at the Marshall Center. ”The [...]
