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 [...]
Editor’s Pick
Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Sharing for the 21st Century
By Mr. Davis Florick, Col Lina Cashin, Mr. Robert A. Sims, Mr. Jason Sturch, and Maj C. Patrick Dozier of United States Strategic Command As space becomes more congested, maintaining a timely and accurate picture of space activities simultaneously becomes both more important and difficult. With an ever-increasing number of space-faring entities, comes the expectation of the utmost protection for [...]
Space Safety Magazine, Issue 7, Spring 2013
Inside the Spring 2013 Issue of Space Safety Magazine The Time to Organize Space is Now! How the Lithium-Ion Battery Grounded Boeing’s “Dream” The Day After Fukushima: Interview with Prof. Satoshi Tadokoro HeLa Cells: Immortal Space Travellers Under Pressure: A Brief History of Pressure Suits Part 2 Training for Fear: Interview with Mindy Howard iDocking: Interview with Iacopo Baroncini Safety [...]
Identifying Space Debris: Further Adventures in East Texas
By Merryl Azriel, Tereza Pultarova, and Dean Gentz Ever since Dean Gentz found a 35 cm titanium sphere in his backyard, he’s been on a quest to find out what it is and where it came from. Gentz noted the hand-machining and the safety wire holes around the plug. He photographed the sphere and took it to work to perform [...]
Is It Space Junk? Texan Electrician Finds Mysterious Sphere in his Backyard
By Tereza Pultarova and Dean Gentz It was late February 2013 when Dean Gentz, an American electrician, spotted a strange object in his cow pasture near the tiny town of Buna, east Texas. First, he didn’t pay any special attention to it thinking it was most probably just another toy his nephews and nieces had left around. When he finally decided to [...]
Sequestration and Espionage: Public Loses Access to NASA
What happens when the world’s largest space agency gets hit by simultaneous arbitrary budget cuts and accusations of security lapses? It starts pulling up the drawbridges, that’s what. On March 13, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden issued a new policy on NASA personnel travelling to conferences: they can’t. In response to sequestration cuts that went into effect March 1, NASA decided that [...]
UN Report: Space Debris in Low Earth Orbit May Be Reaching the Tipping Point
A report from the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), which is meeting during the 50th Session of the Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), states that the debris situation in low Earth orbit (LEO) may be reaching a catastrophic tipping point. This tipping point, known as the Kessler Effect, was [...]
Everything You Wanted to Know about Space Tourism but Were Afraid to Ask
For at least the past ten years, space tourism has been the next big thing coming. With all the private human space flight companies announcing, postponing, and re-announcing the dates of the foreseen commencements of their operations, the public might have grown a little bit tired of waiting. One American news website even wrote earlier this month that with XCor [...]
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 [...]
Preventing a Repeat of Columbia
The disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia following reentry of STS-107 on February 1, 2003 was a disaster and a tragedy. But it is important to remember that this tragedy did not stand on its own; it followed 17 years after another Shuttle disaster, the explosion of Challenger moments after its launch. Although the direct technical causes of the two accidents [...]
