Weekly Blog 5/9

This week in Space News

SpaceX launch of Orbcomm OG2 satellites delayed

The planned launch of six commercial communications satellites for Orbcomm has been delayed.  The planned static fire test on Thursday was called off after SpaceX ran into technical trouble during the countdown.  The static fire test was rescheduled for Friday but was stopped while the rocket was being fueled.  SpaceX announced that the OG2 satellites and rocket was in a safe condition and would be rolled back to the integration facility.

At present a new launch date/time is not available.

Judge rules Russian engine purchases can continue

Judge Susan G. Braden has reversed the injunction she issued in the case that SpaceX filed against the ULA Block Buy.  While SpaceX didn’t explicitly request action to stop ULA buying the engine’s this was the first action taken by the count after the filing of the case.  This follows letters submitted to the court from the Treasury and State departments stating that NPO Energomash was not subject to the sanctions.

Curiosity drills into Martian sandstone

This image recorded by Curiosity's mast-mounted camera shows the drill site at Windjana.
This image recorded by Curiosity’s mast-mounted camera shows the drill site at Windjana.

This week Curiosity successfully drilled into Martian sandstone.  The rock dubbed “Windjana” was selected for the drill site.  Over the next couple of weeks the rover will collect samples of the fine grained samples into a pair of research instruments.

This is the first time Curiosity has drilled into Sandstone, having samples Mudstone previously in 2013.

 

Russian spy satellite launched by Soyuz

This week a Russian Soyuz rocket successfully launched a clandestine payload from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.  Likely a Kobalt-class imaging satellite for the Russian Military.

Station crew members prepare to return home

Three of the station residents have entered their last week aboard the orbiting complex.  Commander Koichi Wakata, Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin will be returning to earth May 13th inside their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft having spent 187 days onboard.

Former Astronaut Kent Rominger answer questions on Twitter

This week Astronaut Kent Rominger who now works for ULA answered questions on Twitter during a #SpaceChat session.  Among the questions asked was one from us regarding SLS

Kent_Twitter_Question

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally

This week I signed up for an online Astronomy course which includes time controlled several robotic telescopes around the world.  Below are a couple of images I have processed so far as part of the course.

If you are interested in leaning more check it out here.


Posted

in

, , , ,

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *