Author: ChrisDMarshall
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When will Falcon 9 Return to Flight
It has been 9 weeks since the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch failure, and with the exception of one update from Elon Musk on 20th July we have not heard anything further on the return to flight of the Falcon 9. The initial investigation found that a strut in the second stage oxygen tank failed at…
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Important Step forward for Manned Space Flight
Today on the International Space Station the crew had the opportunity to eat Lettuce that had been grow on the station. While they have grown vegetables before on the station this was the first time they actually were able to harvest and eat them, previous tests had been returned to Earth for testing. As we…
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Technological Breakthroughs needed to visit other Solar Systems
The more we look into the Universe the more obvious it becomes that our Solar System and potentially our own Earth is not as unique as we once thought. Just this week NASA released news about Kepler-452b which is very similar to Earth both in size, its parent Star and its distance from the star. Today we are…
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ULA launches WGS 7 satellite
This evening United Launch Alliance launched the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) military communications satellite aboard its Delta IV rocket. The launch, which was delayed yesterday due to stormy weather, proceeded with a smooth countdown this afternoon resulting in the Delta IV lifting off at 8:07 pm EDT. Once in orbit the 2nd stage will…
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TMA-17M Docks with ISS
Following the successful launch earlier the Soyuz TMA-17M carrying Oleg Kononenko, Kimiya Yui and Kjell Lindgren arrived at the international Space Station following a four orbit journey. After the launch it became clear that as with TMA-14M one of the solar panels had not deployed correctly, this didn’t impact the docking and as before the…
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Soyuz TMA-17M launches to ISS
Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren launched this evening from Baikonur Cosmodrome towards the International Space Station. Once in orbit the spacecraft deployed its solar panels and KURS docking antenna’s before beginning the six hours, four orbit chase of the ISS. We will follow up with an article…
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SpaceX releases preliminary data on 6/28 Falcon 9 failure
More than three weeks ago during the launch of the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station the Falcon 9 second stage suffered an anomaly that resulted in the lost of the spacecraft and its payloads. Today Elon Musk announced that the preliminary investigation into the accident indicates that a strut inside the Liquid Oxygen…
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Is No News Good News for the #SpaceX accident
On the 5th July Elon Tweeted the following Expect to reach preliminary conclusions regarding last flight by end of week. Will brief key customers & FAA, then post on our website. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2015 However it is now 11 days later and we still haven’t heard any news on what caused…
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Ariane 5 launches two satellites
In the second launch of the day an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA rocket lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana carrying the Star One C4 and MSG-4 satellites. The flight was delayed from the original launch date due to oil contamination which has since been resolved, the countdown today ran smoothly allowed the rocket to lift…
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Latest GPS Satellite launched by ULA
This morning a United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying the latest GPS 2F satellite to orbit. The rocket used the 401 configuration, which is the simplest version of the Atlas V family. Due to the configureability of the Atlas V family of rockets these numbers represent a four meter payload…