Outer-Space.org

Category: Space

  • TMA-15M arrives at International Space Station #ISS

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Following a four orbit, six hour journey to the International Space Station, the crew of TMA-15M Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti have arrived safely, a series of leak checks will now be performed before the hatches between the two vehicles can be opened and the crew can enter the station. Below are screen grabs…

  • Expedition 42 crew launched successfully

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    This afternoon Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti began there six hour, four orbit journey to the International Space Station.  Launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-15M liftoff occurred on time at 14:01 pm EST.  Docking and hatch opening will occur later today, we will post again following each event. Below are some screen captures from the…

  • Humans vs Robots for Space Exploration

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Last week the European Space Agency achieved an important milestone in the history of Space Exploration with the first landing on a Comet. The lander named Philae was released from it’s parent spacecraft Rosetta and seven hours later touched down in the surface. Due to some complications the spaecraft ended up bouncing and landed two…

  • Philae Lands on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Today the European Space Agency and it’s partners around the world successfully landed the Philae spacecraft on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The Philae lander was launched on 2 March 2004 aboard ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft which has travelling billions of miles since then and has been in orbit around 67P since August this year (see previous post).…

  • AJ26 Turbo Pump most likely doomed Cygnus launch

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Orbital announced today that the preliminary findings of the Accident Investigation Board (AIB) point to a Turbo pump failure in one of the two AJ26 main engines on the Antares rocket. Because of this Orbital will no longer use the AJ26 engines and will instead accelerate the migration to a new engine on the Antares.  Due…

  • Orbital CRS-3 Update 11/03/2014

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Over the weekend, Orbital confirmed the participation of the following individuals who will serve on the Antares launch failure Accident Investigation Board (AIB), which is being led by Orbital under the oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The composition of the AIB is as follows: Chairman David Steffy, Chief Engineer of Orbital’s Advanced Programs…

  • Orbital CRS-3 Update 10/31/2014

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Antares Data Review It is a travel day for the remainder of Orbital’s Antares data review team who were on site at Wallops Island supporting the initial “quick look” flight data evaluation on Wednesday and Thursday. At this point we believe the on-site data review process has progressed as far as necessary, so the team…

  • Virgin Galactic suffers in-flight anomaly

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo took off today for the first powered flight in almost nine months, after a three hour delay waiting for the weather to cooperate the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane took off and 45m later dropped the SS2 vehicle. Soon after the SS2 began it’s powered flight something went wrong causing the vehicle to crash.…

  • Orbital CRS-3 Update 10/30/2014

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Launch Site Status: Based on initial sweeps conducted by an Orbital safety team, it appears a significant amount of debris remains on the site and it is likely substantial hardware evidence will be available to aid in determining root cause of the Antares launch failure. Some of the Cygnus cargo has also been found and…

  • Atlas V launches successfully with GPS IIF-8 satellite

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    This afternoon ULA successfully launches another GPS IIF satellite aboard it’s workhorse Atlas V vehicle. This was the third launch attempt around the world within a 24 hour period following the Orbital Antares accident yesterday and the successful Soyuz launch early this morning EDT. This was the 8th GPS IIF satellite to be launched by…