Weekly Space Blog 8/24

WISE approved for asteroid survey
NASA announced this week that the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft will be taken out of hibernation to start a three year mission to search for Near Earth Objects.  While the primary instruments on the vehicle required frozen hydrogen to operate which ran out in 2011 the other instruments do not and these will be used for the new mission named NEOWISE.  The science team will be contacting the vehicle in September to begin operations again.

Dream Chaser Captive Carry Test

Credit: NASA / Ken Ulbrich
Credit: NASA / Ken Ulbrich

This week the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser spacecraft completed a two hour captive carry test over Edwards Airforce base.  This was the first time that a fully operation version of the vehicle had flown and gave engineers the chance to review all systems before a series of approach and landing tests will be performed.  Initial tests will be fully automated before crewed tests are performed.

The Dream Chaser vehicle is one of three competing for the chance to launch US crews to the International Space Station.  Personally I hope there is a way to fund all three vehicles to give the US unprecedented access to space for the future.

 

Gaia spacecraft at launch site
The European Galaxy Explorer spacecraft Gaia has arrived in French Guiana to begin three months of flight preparations before a November launch aboard a Soyuz Rocket.  Once launched the vehicle will be placed a million miles from Earth and will use dual telescopes to map the precise locations of stars.  For more information on the vehicle and missions check out it’s page here.

Hubble Time-lapse Movie
This week Astronomers released a movie showing 13 years of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of super-heated gas 5,000 light years long.  The gas is being ejected from a super-massive black hole for more information and to see the movie check out the press release here.

Starbirth as seen by ALMA
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have released the image below showing material streaming away from a newborn star.  For more information on the observations check out the full article here.

Starbirth as seen by ALMA © ESO
Starbirth as seen by ALMA
© ESO

Curiosity Movie of Mars Moons
This week NASA released a video capture by the Mars Curiosity Rover of the Mars moons Phobos passing in front of Deimos.  This is the first time any vehicle on the surface of Mars has captured one of the moons passing in front of the other.  For information and to see the movie check out the article here.

Another successful Russian Spacewalk concludes
Once again Russian Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin ventured outside the International Space Station for a spacewalk.  Unlike the walk last week that broke the record for longest by a Russian team this walked came in just short of 6 hours.  The pair were able to successfully complete the objectives set out for them including one that didn’t look possible during to misalignment of the parts.

The spacewalk was the 173rd in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the eighth of Yurchikhin’s career and the third for Misurkin.

Spitzer Space Telescope celebrates ten anniversary
The Infrared Space Telescope was launched into space ten years ago this week, the fourth of the four Great Observatories launched by NASA it continues to show us the dark side of the cosmos with it’s infrared vision.  For more information on it’s mission and to see the images it has returned check out the mission page here.

Fermi Space Telescope enters extended mission
Meanwhile the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope celebrated it’s five year in space by entering into an extended mission to perform a deeper study of the high-energy cosmos.  The vehicle has already provided Astronomers with a detailed potrait of gaint black holes in distance galaxies and even details of thunderstorms on Earth.  For more information on Fermi check out it’s mission page here.

And Finally
The Astronaut Class of 2013 met with the media this week for the final time before they embark on their two year training program.  Check out the release here including video’s and interviews with the eight.


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