Author: ChrisDMarshall
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Expedition 42 has ended
The crew of the Soyuz TMA-14M undocked from the International Space Station today bringing to an end the Expedition 42 mission on the station. Astronaut Barry Wilmore and Cosmonauts Elena Serova and Alexander Samokutyaev spent 167 days aboard the station during which time they performed six EVA’s and saw the arrival of three cargo vehicles…
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SLS takes another step forward
Earlier today the largest Solid Rocket Booster ever was fired up at Orbital ATK’s test facility in Promontory, UTAH. Based on the Solid Rocket Boosters that carried the Space Shuttle into orbit for 30 years this booster has been upgraded to support NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS). While the Booster is based on the…
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NASA’s New Horizons within One AU of Pluto
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is now less than one AU from Pluto and moving closer by 873,000 miles per day. This week it made a slight course correction to ensure it is able to complete the scientific objectives as it flies past the planet in July. Launched in Jan 2006 the spacecraft has traveled past Jupiter on…
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NASA’s Dawn Arrives at Dwarf Planet Ceres
In the first of two NASA missions to arrive at a Dwarf Planet this year NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft, which previously visited the asteroid Vesta, successfully inserted itself into orbit. First launched in 2007, the spacecraft uses three Xenon Ion Thrusters for propulsion. After launch it traveled to the asteroid Vesta where is spent 14 months…
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Beyond ISS – Part One
Introduction In six or maybe ten years the International Space Station (ISS) will come to the end of its operational life. To ensure that we can continue the permanent occupation of space that has been going on since 31 October 2000 we need to define what happens beyond ISS. Given how long it takes to plan, fund…
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What does the future hold for Antares
Following the failure last year of the Antares rocket during the Orb3 resupply mission to the International Space Station Orbital ATK have had to select a different rocket engine for the rocket. They have elected to use the RD-181 engine from Russia company NPO Energomash, they are expecting the first pair to be delivered later…
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Busy Eight Days for ISS Astronauts
NASA Astronauts Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore stepped outside the International Space Station three times over an eight day period to perform maintenance on the outside of the station. The changes are all geared to the reconfiguration of the station to allow the arrival of a new Inflatable module and two docking adapters to be…
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SpaceX Dual Satellite Launch
SpaceX hit another milestone this week with their first Dual Satellite launch, following a smooth countdown the Falcon 9’s engines roared to life for an on-time launch on the first attempt. The first stage completed its job and the Merlin Vacuum (MVac) engine took over to deploy the vehicle to its initial orbit. After a…
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Is NASA out of the Space Business?
It is now 2015 and in July it would have been four years since an American Spacecraft launched a crew into space. I have heard many people say that NASA is no longer in the space business because of this. In this article we will explore not only the missions that are currently operating in…
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SpaceX launches DSCOVR spacecraft
Following a three day delay due to a faulty radar and uncooperative weather SpaceX successfully launched the long delayed Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this week. This was the first deep space mission for SpaceX and the Falcon 9 with the DSCOVR spacecraft travelling to the Sun-Earth Lagrangian Point…