Author: ChrisDMarshall
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PMM relocated on ISS
This morning the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 moved the Permanent Multipurpose Module from the Unity module to the Tranquility module. The module which was previously flown as a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) aboard the Space Shuttle was left at the station in February 2011 to provide additional storage space. The was moved to continue the…
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NASA announces Europa Mission Instrument Selection
This afternoon NASA announced the Instruments that will be flown to Europa in 2020s. The NASA selectees are: Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS) — principal investigator Dr. Joseph Westlake of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Maryland. This instrument works in conjunction with a magnetometer and is key to determining Europa’s ice shell…
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UPDATE – LightSail falls silent
Last week the Planetary Society launched the first privately funded Solar Sail spacecraft as a secondary payload on a Atlas V rocket. During the first couple of days the spacecraft was transmitting data back to Earth during various passes over the ground stations. However the teams have not heard from the spacecraft since, they are…
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LightSail in orbit
The first privately built Solar Sail spacecraft LightSail is now in orbit. Built by the Planetary Society the spacecraft was launched as a secondary payload on the Atlas V that launched earlier today. The successful deployment of the CubeSat was confirmed by the Societies Jason Davies via Twitter. Official #LightSail deployment time: 17:05:40.620, hh:mm:ss.sss (UTC).…
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Atlas V launches military’s X-37B space plane
Following a smooth countdown today United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V launched the military’s X-37B space plane. The rocket lifted off from SLC-41 and carried the space plane to orbit before deploying it, the rocket also carried a secondary payload of Cubesat’s including The Planetary Societies LightSail test. The Planetary Society is currently raising money…
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And it gets worse – Progress ISS Re-boost also failed
Just as we thought things couldn’t get worse for Russia we were wrong. The planned International Space Station re-boost by the Progress M-26M failed when the engines on the spacecraft failed to start. The spacecraft which has been docked at the station since 17th February 2015 was supposed to raise the orbit of the station…
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Russia suffers second launch failure in 2 weeks
An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton-M rocket lifted off from Pad 39 in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan early this morning carrying a Mexican communications satellite (MexSat-1). The initial part of the flight appeared to be nominally however at approximately 500 seconds something went wrong on the rocket’s third stage resulting in the loss of the satellite. The…
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Why we need multiple providers for Space Access
It became clear again this week why it is critical that we have multiple providers to access Space. With the Progress 59 (M-27M) failure recently the International Partners involved in the ISS have now had to rescheduled several future flights to accommodate the loss of the vehicle and allow time for the investigation into the loss…
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SpaceX completes Dragon 2 pad abort test
SpaceX completed another CCiCap milestone today with the successful Launchpad Abort Test of there Dragon 2 capsule. The capsules 8 SuperDraco engines propelled the vehicle away from the launchpad to a splashdown in the Atlantic ocean. The purpose of the test was to verify the design of the launch escape system a critical element for…
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Blue Origin Launches New Shepard
Blue Origin completed the first test flight of there New Shepard rocket yesterday, the New Shepard rocket uses their BE-3 engine which recently completed testing. The rocket is design to be fully re-usable, unfortunately they were not able to recover the main stage this time due to a hydraulic issue after the crew capsule was…