Shuttle prototype Enterprise was damaged on Sunday while being transported by barge to its New York City museum home.
The shuttle prototype Enterprise was damaged on Sunday while being transported by barge to its New York City museum home.
Tag: spaceflight
The military has given NASA two Cold War era spy space telescopes with mirrors comparable to Hubble’s.
Big news: The military has given NASA two Cold War era spy space telescopes with mirrors comparable to Hubble’s.
They have 2.4-meter (7.9 feet) mirrors, just like the Hubble. They also have an additional feature that the civilian space telescopes lack: A maneuverable secondary mirror that makes it possible to obtain more focused images. These telescopes will have 100 times the field of view of the Hubble, according to David Spergel, a Princeton astrophysicist and co-chair of the National Academies advisory panel on astronomy and astrophysics.
Since astronomers have over the past dozen years been remarkably uninterested in launching a replacement for Hubble, they now find themselves in a situation where they might have no optical capabilities at all in space. Hubble is slowing dying from age, and NASA doesn’t have the money to build a new optical space telescope, especially since with any new space telescope proposal the astronomical community has had the annoying habit of demanding more sophistication than NASA can afford.
This announcement however might just save astronomy from becoming blind. Because these spy telescopes are already half built, it will be difficult to add too many bells and whistles. Hire a launch rocket, build the cameras and spectrographs based on the instruments already on Hubble, and get the things in orbit quickly.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister paid a call at that country’s under-construction Vostochny spaceport today, enthusing about its possibilities.
Kazakhstan better be worried: Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister paid a call to that country’s under-construction Vostochny spaceport today, enthusing about its possibilities.
Prediction: When Vostochny is completed in 2015, Russia will threaten to abandon its historic launch site in Baikonur. They might do it too, if Kazakhstan refuses to ease its rental terms.
Some details and photos of Sierra Nevada’s captive carry test flight last week of Dream Chaser.
Some details and photos of Sierra Nevada’s captive carry test flight last week of Dream Chaser.
A fascinating look at the space race and what the future held, written in 1959.
A fascinating look at the space race and what the future held, written in 1959.
The article, reprinted by Forbes, is amazingly detailed, optimistic, yet also cool-headed about the future. For example, consider this quote about the future of manned spaceflight:
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Using video game software, Surrey Satellite has devised a way for nanosatellites to seek each other out and then dock to form a larger satellite.
The competition heats up: Using video game software, Surrey Satellite has devised a way for nanosatellites to seek each other out and then dock to form a larger satellite.
If the STRaND-2 satellites are able to dock with one another, it opens up a whole new world of space engineering. Instead of building one large spacecraft, as in conventional satellite manufacturing, or using microsatellites flying in formation as is being developed currently, dockable satellites would be modular “space building blocks” according to [Surrey]. Satellites could be made as plug-and-play components that could be sent up in segments using smaller, cheaper rockets or piggybacked with other payloads and then linked together. This would not only be a cost savings, but would allow for much greater design flexibility. It would also make it much easier to repair, maintain, refuel or upgrade satellites. Today, a satellite with a failing power system is an expensive write off. Tomorrow, it would simply a matter of sending up a new power module.
Even the fight against space junk would benefit, since a dockable micro-satellite with a booster pack could easily dock with a dead satellite and either return it to the Earth’s atmosphere or out to a space disposal area.
A targeted SETI observation of Gliese 581, the nearest star with exoplanets in the habitable zone, has found no evidence of alien communications.
Radio silence: A targeted SETI observation of Gliese 581, the nearest star with exoplanets in the habitable zone, has found no evidence of alien communications.
This was a proof of concept experiment, and though they detected nothing, they also did not rule out the possibility of alien life, as their radio telescope wasn’t sensitive enough to do so. You can download the actual paper here.
How to bake bread in space.
Iran is finishing construction on a new space launch facility.
What does this mean? Iran is finishing construction on a new space launch facility.
SpaceX has tentatively scheduled its first operational cargo flight to ISS for September 24.
We’ve only just begun: SpaceX has tentatively but quickly scheduled its first operational cargo flight to ISS for September 24.
Intelsat has reported a delay in deploying one of the solar panels of its new communications satellite launched earlier today.
Intelsat has reported a delay in deploying one of the solar panels of its new communications satellite launched earlier today.
Sea Launch successfully put an Intelsat communications satellite into orbit today from its floating launch platform in the Pacific.
The competition heats up: Sea Launch successfully put an Intelsat communications satellite into orbit today from its floating launch platform in the Pacific.
This is the company’s second successful launch since it was reorganized after bankruptcy.