The European Space Agency’s (ESA) fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is undergoing its final preparation phase for the planned Ariane 5 launch from Guiana Space Center (CGS) in June 2013. “After fueling has finished (towards end of April) ATV-4 will depart for the ‘Batiment Assemblage Finale’ for the final stage of preparation,” said ATV Operations Interface Manager and Launch Campaign [...]
Post Tagged with: “cargo”
Dragon Returns to Earth
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo vessel successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just under six hours after departing the International Space Station. The trip was entirely nominal. As usual, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk kept followers up to date via Twitter: “Recovery ship has secured Dragon. Powering down all secondary systems. Cargo looks A ok.” The capsule now travels to Los Angeles [...]
Dragon Postponed Reentry to March 26 Due to Weather Conditions
The SpaceX Dragon space capsule is scheduled to return to Earth on March 26, after docking at the International Space Station (ISS) for more than three weeks. “The actual removal of Dragon from the space station begins at 4:05 a.m. [EDT], with release scheduled for 6:56 a.m. Dragon will conduct a series of engine burns to take it away from [...]
A Day Late, ISS Expedition 34 Crew Makes Perfect Landing
International Space Station Expedition 34 crewmembers Kevin Ford, Evgeny Tarelkin, and Oleg Novitskiy had expected to be back on Earth on March 15. But bad weather at their landing site forced the crew to postpone their homecoming. One day later, the trio landed their Soyuz TMA-06M on the Kazakh steppe in the midst of fog in freezing winter temperatures. On [...]
Orbital Delivery: Complete Guide to Unmanned Cargo Spacecraft
The International Space Station gets it supplies from an ever-growing array of unmanned cargo ships, including the Japanese HTV, the European ATV, the Russian Progress, and the commercial Dragon that just rendezvoused with ISS after a brief thruster scare. There are yet more on the way, with the next ship to launch being Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus demonstration mission, now that [...]
Embry-Riddle University to Offer Commercial Space Operations Degree
During the 16th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference, Florida based Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest accredited Aviation and Aerospace academic institute, announced that it would offer an undergraduate degree in Commercial Space Operations. With this new undergraduate program, the university plans to supply skilled graduates to the expanding commercial space industry, for areas such as space policy, operations, [...]
Antares Hot Fire Test Aborted at Last Second
Orbital Sciences Corporation was all set to perform a hot fire test of its Antares rocket on February 13. The test is the last before Orbital launches its Cygnus cargo ship aboard the rocket on its demonstration mission to the International Space Station, making it the second commercial cargo ship to rendezvous with ISS, after SpaceX’s Dragon. But Orbital will [...]
Progress Cargo Arrives At ISS 3 Hours After Launch
A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the robotic Progress 50 resupply ship was successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS) from Baikonour Cosmodrome, on February 11th. Progress spacecraft are disposable Soyuz vehicles designed in 3 segments with a propellant module instead of the central crew return capsule used on the manned Soyuz vehicle. The cargo ship delivered nearly 3 tons [...]
NASA Seeks Commercial Partners for Mining Robot
NASA has announced that it is looking for commercial partners to invest in its RASSOR mining robot project. Just one week after Deep Space Industries announced that it would be entering the asteroid mining business, NASA revealed that it is developing hardware for the extraction of space-based materials. RASSOR, which stands for Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot, has a mass of 45kg, [...]
NASA Approves Next Falcon 9 Mission Following October Anomaly
NASA feels certain of SpaceX’s capacity to safely deliver another supply cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 1 from Cape Canaveral, although the joint investigation into Falcon 9’s rocket engine malfunction is still open. Mike Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager, reported that the rocket engines are now “good to go” during a press conference on ISS status [...]
