NASA is reverting to hard aluminum-copper alloy Al 2219 for use in the core stage of America’s next heavy-lift launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), reports NASASpaceflight.com. The change is a move away from more recent super lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy Al 2195 that the Agency used in manufacturing the lightest external tank design of the Space Shuttle, also known as the [...]
Articles written by: Hubert Foy
Russian Meteor Explosion vs. Hiroshima Bomb: The Real Comparison
On February 15 at 3:20:26 UTC, a supersonic flying space rock, roughly the size of a van or a small truck, entered Earth’s atmosphere, exploded at 24,140 meters over Russia’s Chelyabinsk, and produced a total destructive blast power of 500 kilotons. This means the destructive power yield was 30 times the blast yield of the U.S. atomic bomb, named Little [...]
Eutelsat Adopts Anti-Jamming Tech In Upcoming Satellite
Paris-based commercial satellite fleet operator Eutelsat Communications recently announced plans to deploy an experimental cutting-edge TV channel interference mitigation function for the first time on its upcoming EUTELSAT 8 West B satellite. The satellite is scheduled for launch in 2015 and will be stationed over the Middle East and North Africa where Eutelsat has suffered deliberate jamming of its satellites [...]
Reanalysis of 1883 Observations Suggests a Billion-Ton Comet Buzzed Earth
On 12 August 1883 at 8:00 a.m., Mexico’s Zacatecas Observatory’s boss Jose A. Bonilla was preparing to study the Sun’s corona when he observed an amazing phenomenon. He saw several distant objects that were close together and crossing the solar disc. In the space of two hours, while the sky was clear and he was able to observe, he counted [...]
NASA, ESA Try Out “Interplanetary Internet” Technology
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have successfully demonstrated an ”interplanetary” communication network that one day may enable internet-like communications between space mission controllers and deep space spacecraft or robotic rovers on another planet. U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, commander of the International Space Station’s Expedition 33 mission, used NASA’s experimental Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol to transmit two-way messages [...]
ESA STE-QUEST Mission Could Help Unravel Origin of Flyby Anomaly
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) proposed Space-Time Explorer and Quantum Equivalence Principle Space Test (STE-QUEST) mission could help unravel the mystery of the flyby anomaly. Flyby anomaly occurs when a spacecraft taking advantage of the gravitational boost provided by an Earth flyby experiences a tiny extra boost in velocity. The anomaly was first observed in 1990 when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft velocity [...]
Count Down to Nov. 1 Spacewalk to Repair Radiator Ammonia Leak
In addition to their usual daily science and maintenance tasks, Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA and Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide of Japan living aboard the Earth’s orbiting laboratory International Space Station (ISS) are currently preparing hard for a Nov. 1 spacewalk. The spacewalk is needed to repair an ammonia leak on electrical power channel 2B, which is located [...]
Effectiveness of Post Mission Disposal Rule Could Curtail LEO Debris Creation
Although predicting the future debris environment is very difficult, a new NASA study demonstrates the effectiveness of the 25-year Post Mission Disposal (PMD) rule currently in place in limiting the future debris population in low Earth orbit (LEO). “Controlling the growth of the orbital debris population is a high priority for NASA, the United States, and the major space-faring nations [...]
Surviving Ebullism at 39 km: Baumgartner Jump Holds Promise for Space Suits
In the early 1800s, laboratory experiments on normal healthy animals exposed to near vacuum environments revealed catastrophic consequences. A vacuum is characterized by the absence of life-sustaining characteristics present on Earth’s surface like oxygen, warmth, and pressure. Those experiments established that an altitude at and above roughly 19.2 km, having a barometric pressure about one sixteenth of that at sea level, gas bubbles [...]
Severe Weather Delays Baumgartner’s Launch to Tuesday
The much awaited launch of the world’s most celebrated B.A.S.E. jumper Felix Baumgartner to an unprecedented altitude has been postponed from the morning of Monday October 8 to, most likely, Tuesday morning. Baumgartner arrived at the Roswell Red Bull Stratos launch site in New Mexico on Friday to begin launch preparations when the professional meteorologist Don Day delivered the news of a 24-hour [...]
