NASA’s Kepler space telescope has once again entered safe mode, most likely due to an attitude error. The spacecraft, during a scheduled semi-weekly contact, was found oriented with the solar panels facing the sun, slowly spinning in the Sun’s direction. The spin made it difficult to communicate with the space telescope. “This is something that we’ve been expecting for a [...]
News
Roscosmos Neglects to Mention Loss of Military Satellite
The Breeze-KM Upper Stage that lifted off with a Rockot launch vehicle from Plesetsk on January 15, has apparently encountered a previously unreported problem affecting the deployment of the three military communications satellite carried onboard. The three Strela 3M Rodnik satellites are derived from the Strela satellite family created in the Soviet Union during the 1960s. Rodnik satellites have a useful [...]
China Reportedly Performs ASAT Test Disguised as Sounding Rocket (Updated)
A story from the Free Beacon states that China conducted a test of new anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon on Monday according to officials. The missile, which was identified as the new Dong Ning-2 ASAT missile, was launched from the Xichang Space Launch center. While Chinese authorities have not officially acknowledged the test, they have confirmed that a test of a sounding [...]
Branson Claims SpaceShipTwo is Environmentally Benign
Virgin Galactic’s founder Richard Branson has intervened about the environmental impact of SpaceShipTwo from Singapore, where he was attending the international summit organized by Carbon War Room, on May 13. Carbon War Room is an environmental charity organization, founded by Branson himself with other entrepreneurs in 2009, fostering market-based incentives to reduce carbon emissions. “We have reduced the (carbon emission) [...]
Expedition 35 Crew Comes Back to Earth after 5 Months
Expedition 35, composed of Canadian Chris Hadfield, American Tom Marshburn, and Russian Roman Romanenko, has safely touched ground in Kazakhstan as of 2:31 GMT, on May 14 after 146 days in orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS). “For me this was just a personification of what the International Space Station is, and what the people mean to it,” said [...]
Successful EVA Fixes Ammonia Leak
Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn ventured outside the International Space Station (ISS) to inspect and replace a pump controller box, which was the suspected source of an ammonia coolant leak, on May 11. The two astronauts investigated the cooling loop of power channel 2B on the ISS’s far port truss (P-6). The system appeared to be clean [...]
ISS Ammonia Loop Springs a Leak
On May 9th, the current crew of the International Space Station reported seeing white flakes being vented from an area near the station’s P6 truss structure. Further investigations using handheld cameras and remotely operated external cameras have revealed that the source of the leak was an ammonia loop, which is used for cooling the power channels onboard the station. As the [...]
Biomass Satellite Selected as ESA’s 7th Earth Explorer Mission
ESA announced on May 7th that the “Biomass” satellite will become the 7th Earth Explorer satellite as part of the Living Planet program. The satellite, scheduled for launch in 2020, contains a fully polarimetric, interferometric P-band synthetic aperture radar, and is designed to measure the amount of carbon present in the global biomass. Little is known of these factors, particularly [...]
Vega Delivers 3 Satellites on its Confirmation Launch
The European lightweight launcher Vega has successfully completed its second flight, deploying three satellites into different orbits, on May 6. “Vega has confirmed that it is ready to deliver a high-quality service for small payloads to low Earth orbit,” said Antonio Fabrizi, European Space Agency’s (ESA) Director of Launchers. “Europe now has the capability to serve both the government and commercial [...]
NASA Reveals Vision for Manned Mission to Mars at H2M Summit
Mars has been at the center of media attention in recent times, especially since the landing of Mars Science Laboratory, and with various private companies envisioning to send astronauts there. The second annual Human 2 Mars Summit (H2M) in Washington D.C., from May 6 to 8, is attempting to shed some light on the challenges surrounding future exploration of the red [...]
