Author: ChrisDMarshall
-
Expedition 39 Mission concludes
Yesterday Station Commander Koichi Wakata handed control of the International Space Station to US Astronaut Steve Swanson to begin the final stage of the TMA-11M crews return to earth. Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata have spent the last 188 days on the space station, during which time they saw the departure of Progress M-22M, the…
-
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…
-
Weekly Space Blog 5/2
We are back with our weekly blog, and what an interesting week it has been. SpaceX announce suit against ULA Block Buy On Friday 4/25, SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk announced that SpaceX had filed a suit protesting the bulk buy of Rocket Core’s from ULA. SpaceX made several arguments against the block buy, including the…
-
International Space Station US EVA 26 complete
Earlier today Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson stepped outside the International Space Station for a 1h 36m spacewalk to replace a failed Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM) unit. In addition they completed a get-ahead task to remove two lanyard’s from the Secondary Power Distribution Assembly SPDA doors, this will allow the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator attachment of the Canadarm2 to…
-
SpaceX CRS-3 Report
Well after a four month break I am pleased to say the blog is back and will be updated regularly. The reason for the long hiatus was due to a busy Christmas session quickly followed by the birth of my third daughter Annabella in January. Today’s post will focus on last weeks launch, capture and berthing…
-
Weekly Space Blog 12/14
A lot has been happening this week in Space ISS Coolant Failure This week one of the two coolant systems on the station shutdown when a component reached a preset temperature limit. While not posing an immediate danger to the crew on-board the shutdown did require that NASA shutdown non-critical systems on the station to…
-
Weekly Space Blog 12/7
SpaceX third try a success Following two delays because of technical issues during countdown SpaceX successfully launched the SES-8 spacecraft on Tuesday. This was a critical mission for SpaceX as it was there first to GTO and also the first to require a re-light of the second stage engine to ensure the spacecraft arrived at…
-
Weekly Space Blog 11/16
Beyond Earth: Removing the Barriers to Deep Space Exploration round table This week NASA’s Bill Gerstenmaier moderated a panel discussion to consider the challenges facing the U.S. space exploration program. Panelists include: • Julie Van Kleeck, Vice President, Space Programs, Aerojet Rocketdyne • Charlie Precourt, Vice President & General Manager, ATK Space Launch Division •…
-
Weekly Space Blog 11/9
India’s first Mars Orbiter Mangalyaan launched successfully This week India successfully launched their first Mars Orbiter called Mangalyaan, the spacecraft was launched by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket (PSLV) from India’s launch site, Satish Dhawan Space Center. If all goes well the spacecraft is due to arrive in Sept 2014 and will make India only the fourth nation…
-
Weekly Space Blog 11/2
We are back after a rather long delay due to upgrading to Windows 8.1 and losing everything that was installed on the machine :(… Cygnus completes COTS demo mission The Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft completed it’s final test mission under the C.O.T.S program with a fiery end during re-entry to earth’s atmosphere. Following a week…