Cygnus Cargo Ship Launches To ISS

An unmanned Cygnus cargo ship blasted off Saturday toward the International Space Station, marking the second supply mission in 24 hours destined to carry food and supplies to the astronauts living in space.

An Antares rocket operated by Northrop Grumman lit up the night sky at 4:01 am (0901 GMT) as it propelled the craft loaded with 7,400 pounds (3,350 kilograms) of gear into space.

On Friday, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched its first cargo mission to the space station since a Soyuz rocket carrying astronauts failed last month. The successful liftoff of the Progress cargo craft toward the orbiting outpost was seen as a rehearsal for the next crewed mission on December 3.

Read more at: Yahoo news

Russia’s Successful Rocket Launch Is A Good Sign For Next Month’s Astronaut Mission

Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, successfully launched a cargo capsule to the International Space Station this afternoon — using the same type of rocket that failed more than a month ago with two astronauts on board. It’s a sign that Roscosmos has potentially fixed the issue that led to the failure and that the rocket may be ready to carry people again. And that’s good news, since the vehicle’s next crewed launch is coming up on December 3rd.

The rocket that launched today was the Soyuz FG, which sent up a Progress capsule filled with food and supplies to the three crew members on board the ISS. It’s technically not the first Soyuz launch since the accident, though. Roscosmos has already launched versions of the Soyuz rocket three times since the October incident, but those vehicles were not in the same configuration as the one that failed. The other flights used variants of the Soyuz-2, an upgraded version of the rocket with modified engines and guidance systems that’s used to carry satellites into orbit. The Soyuz FG is an older version of the rocket that Roscosmos uses to carry people and cargo to the ISS.

Read more at: Verge

National Space Council Gets Report on Human Spaceflight in Low-Earth Orbit

NASA and the Departments of State and Commerce have submitted a report to the National Space Council outlining future opportunities and challenges for human spaceflight in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and its potential economic contributions to the broader field of exploration.

The National Space Council requested NASA lead an interagency effort to produce the report, entitled ‘A Strategy for Human Spaceflight in Low Earth Orbit and Economic Growth in Space,’ during its February meeting.

The report details four overarching goals for human spaceflight in LEO that were developed in collaboration with NASA’s interagency partners

Read more at: NASA

NASA And Philosophers Are Teaming Up To Offer A Phd In The Philosophy Of Space-Travel Safety

What makes a rocket safe? Are you sure—really, really sure? To answer this question to NASA’s exacting standards, you’ll need not just a grasp of engineering, but an understanding of epistemology (the philosophical theory of knowledge) and metaphysics (the branch of philosophy that questions the nature of reality). To truly answer this question, you’ll need to be a philosopher… of safety engineering.

This is the focus of a newly-created PhD project at Glasgow University, co-supervised by philosophers Adam Carter and Neil McDonnell, and NASA researcher C. Michael Holloway. The partnership, highlighted by philosophy blog DailyNous, will provide funding for a student to carefully pry apart such questions as: “How do we establish that a system is safe? In looking at past accidents, what causal frameworks should we employ to analyze and report what went wrong? In looking at proposed systems, what methods of analysis and reporting should we use to establish confidence that it is safe enough?”

Read more at: QZ

Humans Could Be Heading To Mars In 25 Years, NASA Says

About 25 years is how long it could take for NASA to send humans to Mars, officials said Tuesday.

That’s only if the space agency is able to create technology able to sustain deadly radiation and conditions that could eat bones and blind eyes.

“The cost of solving those means that under current budgets, or slightly expanded budgets, it’s going to take about 25 years to solve those,” said former NASA astronaut Tom Jones, who has flown on four space shuttle missions.

There aren’t yet solutions in place to protect astronauts from cosmic rays, solar flares and radiation levels that are so high an outbound trip to Mars would result in the amount of radiation an astronaut might be exposed to over an entire year.

Read more at: USA Today

Virgin Orbit Just Completed A Key Test Of Its Rocket-Carrying Plane

Virgin Orbit just took a vital step towards becoming a signifcant player in the small rocket launch industry, as it drove its “Cosmic Girl” plane down a runway with a rocket attached for the first time.

Richard Branson’s company, a subset of his space tourism-focused Virgin Galactic, hopes to launch small satellites to orbit in the coming years ranging in size from “a loaf of bread” to “a fridge”, Branson noted on Twitter.

To do this, it will use a modified Boeing 747 known as the Cosmic Girl to take a 16-meter-long (52 feet) rocket called LauncherOne to an altitude of 10,500 meters (35,000 feet). Here, the rocket will detach, ignite itsengine, and take its cargo into space.

Read more at: Forbes

Japanese Space Capsule Prototype Survives Fiery Fall to Earth

After leaving the International Space Station last week, a Japanese cargo spacecraft dropped a small capsule of science experiments into the Pacific Ocean before falling to its fiery demise in Earth’s atmosphere.

Before it was intentionally incinerated upon reentry, the HTV-7 cargo resupply ship spent 41 days at the International Space Station. The Expedition 57 crew used the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to send it off on Wednesday (Nov. 7). On board was the HTV Small Re-Entry Capsule (HSRC), a small cone-shaped capsule that would become the first Japanese spacecraft to bring experiments back to Earth from the space station.

Following a deorbit burn, the HTV-7 entered Earth’s atmosphere on Nov. 10 at 4:14 p.m. EST (2114 GMT), and the little capsule separated from its mothership and began its own descent.

Read more at: Space.com

Manned Spacecraft Soyuz MS-11 Passes Vacuum Test

Manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-11, due to be launched from Baikonur on December 3 with another expedition to the International Space Station, has passed vacuum tests, the space rocket corporation Energia (the spacecraft’s designer) has said on its website.

The spacecraft’s systems and compartments have passed vacuum tests. After that the Soyuz MS-11 was moved to a stand where it is to be connected to ground testing systems, Energia said.

Soyuz MS-11 is to take to the ISS Roscosmos’s Oleg Kononeko, NASA’s Anne McClain, and Canadian Space Agency’s David Saint-Jacques.

Read more at: TASS

Human Mission: Isro Looking At Pool Of 10 Experiments In Space

Barely 90 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a human spaceflight mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has begun the process of drawing up a shortlist of experiments it will conduct in the low earth orbit (LEO), where it intends to send Indian astronauts (gaganauts).

Isro is looking at a pool of at least 10 experiments, which could include testing of medical equipment to micro-biological experiments such as biological air filters and biosensors, and from life support and biomedical waste management to monitoring toxic gases.

“While we have indicated 10 areas that we are interested in, we will not restrict experiments to just these areas,” an Isro official said. “Also, we will obtain specific experiments in these areas from various institutions across India,” the official added.

Read more at: Times of India

‘Follow Our Dreams’: 20 Years Since Zarya Launched the International Space Station Era (Part 1)

Twenty years ago, this month, a new era began. On 20 November 1998, a Russian Proton-K rocket—descendent of a family of heavylift boosters which had already launched a half-dozen Soviet space stations and numerous scientific and technological research modules into low-Earth orbit—blasted off from Site 81 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, laden with the first component of the International Space Station (ISS). Measuring 41 feet (12.5 meters) in length and 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) wide, the Zarya (“Dawn”) module would provide power, storage, propulsion and guidance for an infant station which, in time, would grow to become the largest artificial satellite ever launched into space and the grandest and most complex engineering accomplishment in human history.

Read more at: America Space

SpaceX Rehearses Helicopter Landing at Sea

When astronauts splash down into the ocean after their journey to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, recovery teams must be able to transport them to land quickly.

In the unlikely event of an astronaut medical emergency, SpaceX has outfitted its recovery ship, GO Searcher, with a medical treatment facility and a helipad in the center of the vessel.

Recently the company completed helicopter landing and patient loading rehearsals on the ship, practicing how the helicopter will pick up astronauts and fly them to a nearby hospital.

The aircraft will also serve to carry doctors and paramedics to care for the astronauts. This will allow the SpaceX medical team to provide the best possible care to astronauts on the ship, in-flight, and get them safely to a hospital.

Read more at: Spaceref

SpaceX Is Fashioning a Miniature Big Falcon Rocket Out of a Falcon 9

SpaceX is known for thinking big, and its Big Falcon Rocket might be the biggest of its most-audacious plans. But with the rocket primed for interplanetary missions still in development, SpaceX will test out its BFR technology with the help of one of its stalwart vessels: the Falcon 9.

CEO Elon Musk announced on Wednesday the company will build a “mini-BFR Ship” using its trusted Falcon 9, in an effort to asses the viability of the actual BFR.

The goal for the modification is June 2019, Musk said in a follow-up tweet. SpaceX eventually imagines the BFR replacing all current rocketry in its arsenal, including the Falcon 9, so building one in miniature form and having it fly in orbit could be a good test run.

Read more at: Popular Mechanics

Microsatellite Maker Spacety Looks To Fill The Gaps In The New Chinese Market

Spacety is one of China’s first commercial and private satellite companies in China, established in January 2016, following new government policies introduced in 2014 and 2015 to deregulate the nation’s space sector. The company — based in Changsa, the capital of Hunan province — engages in scientific research, provides comprehensive solutions for microsatellites and has been backed by major investors in China. Spacety has seen its satellites fly on four separate missions, with two more launches possible this year.

Yang Feng, founder and CEO of Spacety, spoke to SpaceNews correspondent Andrew Jones ahead of the Oct. 29 Long March 2C launch of four of the company’s satellites alongside the China-France Oceanography Satellite.

Read more at: Spacenews

ANA And Marubeni Join To Build Spaceport In Japan

All Nippon Airways operator ANA Holdings and trading house Marubeni will set up a spaceport in Japan as early as 2021, Nikkei has learned.

The launch site, equivalent to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft, will be for private space travel, and feature 3-km runways for craft that take off horizontally like airplanes.

There are already around 10 spaceports in the U.S. for commercial use, some built for the purpose and others converted from airports. The Japanese corporate alliance aims to secure a foothold in the international space-business race by building Asia’s first space travel hub.

Read more at: Asia Nikkei

Finally Business Time for Rocket Lab with 7 Payloads Launched

Rocket Lab sent its third Electron rocket into orbit on the company’s first fully-commercial mission. Called “It’s Business Time,” the flight successfully took to the skies from Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.

Liftoff took place at 4:50 p.m. New Zealand time Nov. 11 (10:50 p.m. EST Nov. 10 / 03:50 GMT Nov. 11), 2018, which was about 50 minutes into the 4-hour launch window. About 2.5 minutes into the flight, the first stage separated successfully and the second stage ignited properly to bring the satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO).

About 3 minutes into the flight, the carbon-composite payload fairing separated correctly. The vehicle reached orbit about 9 minutes after liftoff. The payloads were brought to a 186-mile (300-kilometer) by 310-mile (500-kilometer) parking orbit at 85 degrees. Some 40 minutes later, the orbit was circularized to a 310-mile (500-kilometer) by 310-mile (500-kilometer) orbit using Rocket Lab’s apogee kick stage, powered by the company’s 3D-printed liquid-propellant-powered Curie engine.

Read more at: Spaceflight Insider

New Space Industry Emerges: On-Orbit Servicing

Imagine an airport where thousands of planes, empty of fuel, are left abandoned on the tarmac. That is what has been happening for decades with satellites that circle the Earth.

When satellites run out of fuel, they can no longer maintain their precise orbit, rendering them useless even if their hardware is still intact.

“It’s literally throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars,” Al Tadros, vice president of space infrastructure and civil Space at a company called SSL, said this month at a meeting in the US capital of key players in the emerging field of on-orbit servicing, or repairing satellites while they are in space.

In recent years, new aerospace companies have been founded to try and extend the lifespan of satellites, on the hunch that many clients would find this more profitable than relaunching new ones.

Read more at: Phys.org

FCC Tells Spacex It Can Deploy Up To 11,943 Broadband Satellites

SpaceX today received US approval to deploy 7,518 broadband satellites, in addition to the 4,425 satellites that were approved eight months ago.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to let SpaceX launch 4,425 low-Earth orbit satellites in March of this year. SpaceX separately sought approval for 7,518 satellites operating even closer to the ground, saying that these will boost capacity and reduce latency in heavily populated areas. That amounts to 11,943 satellites in total for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service.

SpaceX “proposes to add a very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) NGSO [non-geostationary satellite orbit] constellation, consisting of 7,518 satellites operating at altitudes from 335km to 346km,” the FCC said in the draft of the order that it approved unanimously today. The newly approved satellites would use frequencies between 37.5 and 42GHz for space-to-Earth transmissions and frequencies between 47.2 and 51.4GHz for Earth-to-space transmissions, the FCC said.

Read more at: Ars technica

The First Detailed Look At How Elon Musk’s Space Internet Could Work

IT IS no secret that Elon Musk wants to build a space internet. His company, SpaceX, has been granted permission by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set up a vast network of thousands of low Earth orbit communication satellites. But the company has been tight-lipped about the project, known as Starlink.

Now Mark Handley at University College London has created a detailed simulation of what Starlink might look like, which he will present at a conference next week.

Although Musk has said he wants more than half of all internet traffic to go through Starlink – Handley’s simulation suggests that the project will be most appealing to high-frequency traders at big banks, who might be willing to fork out large sums for dedicated, faster connections.

Read more at: New Scientist

FCC Moves Forward With Orbital Debris Reform Amid Soul-Searching About Its Responsibilities

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission pressed forward with plans to firm up its rules about space safety and orbital debris Nov. 15 while at the same time questioning whether it is the right agency to do so.

In a discussion that preceded the approval of four large constellations constituting nearly 8,000 new satellites, three of the FCC’s four commissioners grappled with the telecom agency’s role in addressing the maintenance of different orbits.

The FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking assesses ways to modernize rules established in 2004 when the agency first started requiring debris mitigation plans from companies that wanted to serve customers in the United States using telecom satellites.

Read more at: Spacenews

FCC To Seek Comment On Revised Orbital Debris Guidelines

The Federal Communications Commission will vote this week to consider changes to orbital debris guidelines that could alter deployment plans for some satellite constellations and shorten the orbital lifetime for some experimental satellites.

The notice of proposed rulemaking for “Mitigation of Orbital Debris in the New Space Age”, one of a number of space-related items on the agenda of the FCC’s Nov. 15 open meeting, would seek comment on the first major overhaul of the commission’s orbital debris guidelines since 2004.

“The current period of innovation in the space industry has resulted and will likely continue to result in a significant increase in the number of satellites and types of operations in orbit, both of which have the potential to increase the amount of orbital debris,” the proposed rule states. “Thus, mitigating the growth of orbital debris is more critical than ever to ensure continued, safe operations in space.”

Read more at: Spacenews

Will Megaconstellations Cause A Dangerous Spike In Orbital Debris?

It’s no secret the megaconstellations will have a dramatic impact on space traffic. Experts now are turning their attention to ensuring they don’t also create a dangerous spike in orbital debris.

“In the next decade, people are proposing to launch three times the number of satellites ever launched by anybody for any purpose,” said Ted Muelhaupt, associate principal director for The Aerospace Corporation’s systems analysis and simulation subdivision. “If we do business as usual, as we’ve been conducting it for the last six decades, it won’t work. It’s not just a matter of collisions. If you try to react to every close approach using the standard methodology, you’ll spend all your time ducking and weaving.”

Read more at: Spacenews

Vatican Astronomer Says Space The New Terrestrial Frontier

According to Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Jesuit research astronomer who runs the Vatican’s observatory, global interest in outer space is increasing at astronomical proportions, from mineral harvesting off asteroids, to militarizing the zone and developing artificial intelligence for research.

With the space race taking off internationally, there is a need for clearer parameters to be set for conduct, making space “the next frontier of law,” Consolmagno said.

Noting how 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the United Nations 1967 “Outer Space Treaty” on governing the activities of states in outer space, including the moon and other “celestial bodies,” Consolmagno said the treaty was followed by a major discussion on the “peaceful uses of space.”

Read more at: Cruxnow

Russia Might Actually Build a Nuclear-Powered Rocket

Elon Musk is old news—or rather, old tech. That’s the take by Vladimir Koshlakov, the head of Russia’s Keldysh Research Center and a man who want to build a nuclear-powered rocket (you heard that right).

“Elon Musk is using the existing tech, developed a long time ago,” said Koshlakov, making his weird dig at the SpaceX found in an interview with state-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta. “He is a businessman: he took a solution that was already there, and applied it successfully.”

Koshlakov, meanwhile, is leading the charge to build a new type of space vehicle called the Transport and Energy Module (TEM), featuring a nuclear-powered engine, according to state-owned media outlet Russia Today. However, Russia’s would-be nuclear engine makes use of technology almost as old as the chemical rockets currently in use. So what exactly does a nuclear rocket entail, and why don’t we have them yet?

Read more at: Popular Mechanics

Meteorite Crater Discovered Under Greenland Ice

An international team of researchers, including a NASA glaciologist, has discovered a large meteorite impact crater hiding beneath more than a half-mile of ice in northwest Greenland.

The crater — the first of any size found under the Greenland ice sheet — is one of the 25 largest impact craters on Earth, measuring roughly 1,000 feet deep and more than 19 miles in diameter, an area slightly larger than that inside Washington’s Capital Beltway.

The group, led by researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark worked for the past three years to verify their discovery, which they initially made in 2015 using NASA data. Their finding is published in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science Advances.

Read more at: Spaceref

How Does Northrop Grumman Secure Antares During Powerful Storms?

A powerful “Nor’easter” storm that is hanging off the Atlantic Coast has caused mission managers to push back the flight an additional day. What does Northrop Grumman have in place to handle turbulent weather such as this one?

With the change in the launch schedule, the Antares 230 with the S.S. John Young Cygnus spacecraft is now slated to launch on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 4:01:22 a.m. EST (08:01 GMT). The launch site is Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

The region has experienced turbulent weather over the past few days, raising concerns that the launch vehicle and its payload might be in jeopardy. Mission planners have stated that both Antares and Cygnus are secured, safe and ready for launch when mother nature allows.

Read more at: Spaceflight Insider

Russia To Deliver 3D-Bioprinter To Orbital Outpost In December

A copy of the Organ-Avt bioprinter devised to grow living tissue will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) during the launch of a new expedition from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the orbital outpost, Russia’s Cosmonaut Training Center said on its website on Tuesday.

“The magnetic 3D-bioprinter, the second copy of equipment for which will be delivered to the station aboard a Soyuz MS-11 manned transportation spacecraft,” the Cosmonaut Training Center said in a statement.

The magnetic 3D-bioprinter is devised to grow living tissues and eventually organs and it can also be used to study the influence of outer space conditions on living organisms during lengthy flights. The experiment has been devised by 3D Bioprinting Solutions, a bio-technical research laboratory, which is a Russian start-up and a subsidiary of Invitro company.

Read more at: TASS

China Releases Smart Solution For Verifying Reliability Of Space Equipment Components

The Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences released a smart solution for verifying the operational reliability of space equipment components on Friday.

The selection of space equipment components involves reliability verification, data collection, transmission and comparison.

The smart solution will help shorten the time to verify space equipment reliability, enhance the quality of components and save verification costs. Thanks to the new solution, the selection process is also expected to be shortened to five minutes.

Read more at: Space Daily

Arianegroup To Shed 2,300 Employees As Ariane 6 Nears Completion

European rocket-builder ArianeGroup will lower its headcount by 2,300 between now and 2022 as the new rocket it has been developing since 2014 nears operations.

“The end of the development of Ariane 6 and the need to increase competitiveness in the European rocket launch business compel ArianeGroup to reduce its capacity by the equivalent of 2,300 full-time jobs by 2022,” the company said in a statement.

ArianeGroup told SpaceNews that the reduction won’t involve any forced layoffs, but will be completed through a combination of employee retirements and the expiration of short-term contracts.

Read more at: Spacenews

Major Moves In Dod Space Reorganization To Start In Early 2019

The Pentagon is moving at a good clip to establish a U.S. Space Command and a Space Development Agency in early 2019, said Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

During a meeting with reporters on Thursday at the Pentagon, Shanahan spoke with a sense of urgency about the DoD space reorganization.

“I’d love to make it this year,” he said of standing up a Space Development Agency to take over the procurement of next-generation technologies. While creating a Space Force as a separate military service requires new legislation, the Space Command and the Space Development Agency can be set up using existing executive authorities.

Read more at: Spacenews

Proposed U.S. Space Force Budget Could Be Less Than $5 Billion: Deputy Defense Secretary

The proposed U.S. Space Force, a new military service backed by President Donald Trump, could have an initial budget of less than $5 billion, the deputy defense secretary said on Thursday.

The U.S. Air Force estimated start up costs for a proposed U.S. Space Force will be around $13 billion in the first five years.

The Air Force is the U.S. military branch that currently has responsibility for space.

Read more at: Reuters

Richard Branson Pops into Mojave to Check on Progress of Spaceflight Quest

Some day, Richard Branson might fly to space, gaze out the window, and see stars with his naked eyes, unencumbered by the Earth’s atmosphere or the optics of a telescope.

For the moment, he has to settle for his own fame and a star encased in concrete along the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The British billionaire was in Los Angeles last month for the unveiling of his star on that famous boulevard. While he was in the neighborhood, he popped up to the Mojave Air and Space Port, where Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company are working to make his dream of spaceflight a reality.

Read more at: Parabolic arc

Russian Space Leader Suggests Engineers Test Spacecraft Stalin’s Way

During a meeting this weekend at RSC Energia, the prime contractor for Russia’s crewed spaceflight program, the discussion turned toward development of the Federation spacecraft. This is the oft-delayed program to develop a new generation of crewed spacecraft for the Russian space industry.

Dmitry Rogozin, the leader of Russia’s space program, Roscosmos, was apparently not pleased with ongoing delays to the program. First initiated more than a decade ago, the Federation spacecraft now is unlikely to fly humans before 2023.

Read more at: Ars technica

How do astronauts spend Thanksgiving?

Even in space, astronauts get a taste of Thanksgiving — with all the trimmings.

Although autumn leaves won’t be falling outside and the Macy’s parade won’t be playing in the background, astronauts still get the chance to celebrate this beloved national holiday, and yes, the U.S. crew do still get the day off, NASA  spokeswoman Brandi Dean said via email.

“It’s important that the astronauts feel connected to their friends and family and life back on Earth when they’re in space,” Dean said. “Celebrating holidays is one of the ways we help them do so.”

Thanksgiving is an American tradition, dating back to the 1600s. It’s usually a day where everyone takes off work and gather for a whole day of feasting and of course, giving thanks.

Read more at: Florida Today

Former NASA Administrator Says Lunar Gateway is “a Stupid Architecture”

In recent weeks, NASA officials have been running a charm offensive on their proposed “Gateway” in lunar space, which would serve as a space station in a distant orbit around the Moon. The agency has proposed this interim step in lieu of returning directly to the lunar surface with humans. The agency has even started talking about the Gateway as a “spaceship,” presumably because this sounds more exciting than a “station.”

Public criticism of the proposal has been limited to date, in part because so much of the aerospace community has the potential to earn contracts by either helping to build the lunar space station or supply it with consumables once it is up and running in the mid-2020s.

Read more at: Ars technica

Buran Space Shuttle Marks 30th Flight Anniversary

November 15, 2018 marks 30 years since the Buran reusable spacecraft performed its first and sole flight.

The Buran was part of the Energia-Buran reusable space system. It comprised the orbital spaceship, the Energia super-heavy carrier rocket and the ground-based space infrastructure. The Buran was capable of performing lengthy (up to 30 days) flights, orbital maneuvering, controlled descent and airplane landing on a specially equipped aerodrome.

The groundwork for creating a reusable space system was laid in the mid-1970s at the Energia Research and Production Association (the former design bureau OKB-1 of renowned Soviet Chief Designer Sergei Koroloyov; currently the Energia Space Rocket Corporation based in the town of Koroloyov outside Moscow) under the guidance of Valentin Glushko who was the enterprise’s director and chief designer at that time.

Read more at: TASS

“Safe Passage to Mars” Design Challenge

“Safe Passage to Mars” is a design challenge for undergraduate students. Enabling safe space exploration of Moon, Mars and beyond requires the application of the concepts of Engineering Psychology to design and build hardware (tools, devices, or equipment) which can mitigate critical human performance issues associated with long-duration spaceflight.

Read more at: ISSF

10th IAASS Conference

15 – 17 May 2019 – Los Angeles, USA

The tenth IAASS Conference “Making Safety Happen” is an invitation to reflect and exchange information on a number of topics in space safety and sustainability of national and international interest. The conference is also a forum to promote mutual understanding, trust, and the widest possible international cooperation in such matters. The once exclusive “club” of nations with autonomous space access capabilities is becoming crowded with fresh, and ambitious new entrants. New commercial spaceports and near-spaceports are in operations and others are being built.

Read more at: IAASS Conference

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