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Tag: NASA

  • Weekly Space Blog 6/22

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Lots of great news this week Herschel ends operations This week the Herschel team send the final commands to shutdown the spacecraft following a series of tests that were performed on the spacecraft after the primary mission finished because of the depletion of the helium coolant that cooled the primary instruments.  Since April the team…

  • Touch Tomorrow festival

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Yesterday we visited Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for the Touch Tomorrow festival, there were lots of activities for the kids to do and some fun exhibits for everyone to learn about advances in robotics. The event sponsored by NASA was an opportunity for people to learn about the Space Launch System (SLS), visit a Moon…

  • Active NASA missions

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    As we close out another year we are going to take a look at some of the other NASA missions that are active in the Solar System exploring other planets.  While the future looks a little uncertain at the moment due to the growing budget crisis there are plenty of spacecraft still in operation. Voyager…

  • Mars Exploration Rovers

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Tomorrow NASA will be launching the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) to begin an eight month journey to the red planet.  Today we take a look at it’s predecessors the highly successful Mars Exploration Rovers. Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Launched in 2003 the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity were sent to explore the surface and geology…

  • NASA Budget

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    This week the new Budget was signed into law and NASA’s funding for the Commercial Crew development has been slashed.  So what does this mean for the future? As we are currently looking at Commercial Space and the different teams who are involved it seems appropriate to review this further and see what real impact…

  • Commercial Space – Part Six

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Today we continue our look at Commercial Space with Boeing and there contribution to the CCDev/CCDev2 programs. Boeing Working with Bigelow the CST-100 will provide crew and cargo missions to the International Space Station.   The CST-100 was first announced by Robert Bigelow in June 2010, just last month NASA announced that Boeing had signed an…

  • Commercial Space – Part Five

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Today we look at Blue Origin and there contribution to the CCDev/CCDev2 programs. Blue Origin Blue Origin are working on the New Shepherd sub-orbital craft to provide customer’s trip to the edge of space, allow a period of time of weightlessness before returning to the launch site.  Unlike Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo this will be a…

  • Commercial Space – Part Four

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Now we move onto the NASA Commercial Crew Development (CCDev/CCDev2) providers. Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) SNC are currently working on the Dream Chaser spacecraft, designed to lift off on top a man-rated launcher with Delta-V as the current preferred booster.  The craft is designed to transport up to seven astronauts as well as cargo.  Exact…

  • Commercial Space – Part Two

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    Today we continue our look at the Commercial Space Industry and what Orbital Sciences Corporation has to offer. Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital is not a new comer to the Space Launch business having been started in 1982 and completed 62 space launch missions since.  They currently offer the air launched Pegasus rocket, the ground launched…

  • Commercial Space – Part One cont.

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    ChrisDMarshall
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    This morning during the press conference for the Soyuz docking Bill Gerstenmaier NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations confirmed that SpaceX had provided them with the final Dragon Spacecraft software which will be used for orbital operations.  NASA are now reviewing the software and Bill estimated that they should be able to set an actual…