Expedition Space: Space Launch, Events, News

In visible light NGC 1333 is seen as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud. This Hubble Space Telescope close-up frames a region just over 1 light-year wide at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Hubble's stunning image of the stellar nursery was released to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the space telescope's launch. via NASA https://ift.tt/6WVk57q

No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into night in this gorgeous view of ocean and clouds over our fair planet Earth. Instead, the shadow line or terminator is diffuse and shows the gradual transition to darkness we experience as twilight. With the Sun illuminating the scene from the right, the cloud tops reflect gently reddened sunlight filtered through the dusty troposphere, the lowest layer of the planet's nurturing atmosphere. A clear high altitude layer, visible along the dayside's upper edge, scatters blue sunlight and fades into the blackness of space. This picture was taken in June of 2001 from the International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of 211 nautical miles. Of course from home, you can check out the Earth Now. via NASA https://ift.tt/AI92UOd

by Jeff Foust ORLANDO — An alleged close approach between satellites from OneWeb and SpaceX led to a meeting between the companies and the Federal Communications Commission, but the companies don’t completely agree on what resulted from that discussion. OneWeb officials said in early April that they had to move one of their satellites to avoid a close approach with a SpaceX Starlink satellite. The OneWeb satellite, OneWeb-0178, was one of 36 satellites launched March 25 on a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia. As the spacecraft was raising its orbit, it was projected to come close to Starlink-1546, a satellite launched in September 2020 and currently in an orbit of about 450 kilometers. OneWeb said that initial estimates of the potential conjunction provided by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron (SPCS) March 30 projected that the two satellites would come within about 60 meters of each other, with a 1.3% chance of a collision, on April 3. Chris Mc...

by Debra Werner SAN FRANCISCO – LeoLabs’ announced April 22 that two S-band radars in Costa Rica have begun tracking objects in low Earth orbit and delivering data to customers. “The Costa Rica Space Radar completes our coverage of low Earth orbit,” Dan Ceperley, LeoLabs CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews . “It’s the first radar in our network that tracks objects in low inclination orbits.” LeoLabs operates six phased-array radars at four sites. The Silicon Valley firm operates one UHF radar in Texas and another in Alaska. In Costa Rica, like in New Zealand, LeoLabs operates two S-band radars on a single site to detect and track small space objects. Having a second S-band radar site “is the key for us being able to track and maintain custody of objects smaller than 10 centimeters,” said Ed Lu, LeoLabs co-founder and vice president of strategic projects . Since it was founded in 2015, LeoLabs has been mapping spacecraft and debris in low Earth orbit. The firm’s initial radars...

by Brian Berger F or nearly two decades, I have been working to develop revolutionary spacesuit technology called the BioSuit system, which enhances astronaut performance by creating pressure through compression directly on the skin rather than with pressurized gas . If NASA is to truly explore Mars and its mountains, astronauts need flexibility and mobility not offered by the heavy and bulky suits that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon. We envision astronaut athletes, modular life support systems, advanced cheetah-like robotic scouts, and team members on earth immersed in near real-time scientific data. Our focus is just one piece of a vast, complex, and expensive undertaking to land human boots on Mars and beyond. A human mission to Mars will require new technology to enable exploration and, undoubtedly, it will require strong leadership. President Biden recently selected Bill Nelson and Pam Melroy as administrator and deputy administrator for NASA. As someone who...

by Debra Werner SAN FRANCISCO – Albedo, the space startup planning to offer Earth imagery with a resolution of 10 centimeters per pixel, raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Initialized Capital. Additional investors include Liquid 2 Ventures, Soma Capital, Jetstream and Rebel Fund. “The funding will be used to hire more engineers on both the space and ground teams, as well as to continue the development of the first satellite with our partner suppliers,” Topher Haddad, Albedo co-founder and CEO, told SpaceNews. In its April 22 funding announcement, Albedo also revealed a slate of angel investors: retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom Sheridan; Keith Masback, former CEO of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation; Lookout co-founder Kevin Mahaffey; Daniel Kan, Cruise co-founder and chief product officer; Immad Akhund, Mercury co-founder and CEO; James Park, Fitbit cofounder and former CEO; and Harsh Patel, former Galvanize CEO. One of the firm’s goals was to attract ...

by Jason Rainbow TAMPA, Fla. — OQ Technology, a Luxembourg space startup created to connect internet of things (IoT) devices to 5G technology, has signed a multi-launch deal with rideshare specialist Spaceflight to loft its own small satellites. The company has been running tests on satellites owned by Denmark’s Gomspace, demonstrating narrowband spectrum capabilities on the 3GPP standards used by terrestrial wireless providers. OQ Technology’s first satellite will launch this year, according to founder and CEO Omar Qaise, followed by another in the 2021/2022 timeframe to provide “latency tolerant” services. Those services, supported by hosted payloads on other satellites, will be for customers that do not need more than a few updates from sensors per day. Agriculture customers, for instance, that can wait a few hours for data about humidity or soil temperature. OQ Technology announced April 6 that Lithuania-based NanoAvionics is building a satellite called MACSAT, based on its ...

by Brian Berger S pace is vital to the mission and spirit of Earth Day. One might even say that Space is really all about Earth. From Space, we monitor forests, deserts and regions under stress in order to better protect them. Space provides precision navigation of long distances to reduce fossil fuel consumption, Space greatly enhances agriculture, reducing hunger. And, Space exploration helps us better understand our place in the Universe. The Environmental Movement, of which Earth Day is a centerpiece, was sparked into existence by a single photograph. In 1968, an Apollo 8 astronaut snapped a simple picture of the Earth over the Moon’s limb and dubbed it “Earthrise.” This image of our fragile, blue, jewel-like home amidst the vast emptiness of black space, altered the perception of millions of people, leading to an awareness of humankind’s vulnerability and stewardship of our precious planet. While not the original mission of Apollo, this unexpected societal revelation only happ...

by Jeff Foust KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA’s acting head says the agency’s relationship with Russia remains good despite comments by Russian officials in recent days that the country could abandon the International Space Station as soon as 2025. Yuri Borisov, Russian deputy prime minister, said on Russian television April 18 that Russia could withdraw from the ISS partnership in 2025 . He cited increasing problems with the station as a reason for considering leaving the station, but said Russia would first perform a “technical inspection” and that the other partners would be “fairly notified” about its decision. Officials since backed off from a firm 2025 date for exiting the ISS partnership, but have talked about proposals to develop a Russian national space station as its successor to the ISS. Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos, said April 21 his agency plans to revise a research and power module originally intended for the Russian segment of the ISS in the mid-2...

No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into night in this gorgeous view of ocean and clouds over our fair planet Earth. Instead, the shadow line or terminator is diffuse and shows the gradual transition to darkness we experience as twilight. With the Sun illuminating the scene from the right, the cloud tops reflect gently reddened sunlight filtered through the dusty troposphere, the lowest layer of the planet's nurturing atmosphere. A clear high altitude layer, visible along the dayside's upper edge, scatters blue sunlight and fades into the blackness of space. This picture was taken in June of 2001 from the International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of 211 nautical miles. But you can check out the vital signs of Planet Earth Now. via NASA https://ift.tt/3awVOmt

by Sandra Erwin WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command has close ties to other military space organizations in Colorado, but if it has to move to Alabama it could continue to do its job without major disruption, Gen. James Dickinson told lawmakers April 21.   Dickinson’s comments came in response to questions from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces. Lamborn has led the fight to reverse the decision to relocate U.S. Space Command’s headquarters from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. He has argued that the decision the Air Force announced in January was politically motivated. Lamborn challenged Dickinson, who has led U.S. Space Command since August, to explain how a costly relocation made any sense given that much of the military’s space workforce and industrial base currently reside in Colorado — near Peterson Air Force Base, Schriever Air Force B...

by Jeff Foust ORLANDO — The Biden administration’s nominee for NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, got a friendly reception from former colleagues on the Senate Commerce Committee during a confirmation hearing April 21 but offered few specifics about how he would run the agency. During a hearing that lasted more than two and a half hours and included two other non-NASA nominees, senators of both parties expressed their support for Nelson, the former Florida senator who previously was the top Democrat on the committee. No members showed any sign of opposing his nomination to lead the space agency. The closest thing to a point of contention in the hearing was the recent NASA award of a contract to SpaceX for the Human Landing System (HLS) program . NASA announced April 16 it was awarding a single “Option A” contract for development and demonstration of a crewed lunar lander because of constrained budgets, after previously indicating it would select two companies to maintain competition...

by Sandra Erwin WASHINGTON — Each of the satellites in the Space Development Agency’s mesh network known as the Transport Layer could have as many as five laser links so they can talk to other satellites, airplanes, ships and ground stations.   Realizing that goal will require “affordable” optical terminals that can be mass produced and comply with basic technical standards, said Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency. Speaking via video April 21 at a conference hosted by C4ISRNET, Tournear said he is soliciting information from commercial suppliers about the state of the technology and their ability to mass produce small laser links for SDA’s satellites. Tournear last year identified laser intersatellite links as one of the most critical technologies in SDA’s constellation. Laser links use optical technologies to route data traffic. They provide much higher transmission data rates than traditional radio-frequency links and are harder to intercept. A net...

by Jeff Foust KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA has delayed the scheduled April 22 launch of the Crew-2 commercial crew mission by a day because of weather not at the launch site but at potential abort locations in the Atlantic Ocean. NASA announced early April 21 that the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft had been rescheduled for April 23 at 5:49 a.m. Eastern. A launch at that time would allow the spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station at about 5:10 a.m. Eastern April 24. While weather conditions are favorable at the launch site here for an April 22 launch, agency officials said their decision was based on forecasts of high winds and high waves at locations in the Atlantic where the spacecraft would splash down in the event of an abort during launch. “Although the weather is probably going to look great here at the launch site, we’re worried about those downrange winds and wave heights in case of an abort,” Bob Cabana, director of...