NUSTAR FLIES: NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is in orbit and sending back signals following its June 13 air-launch over the central Pacific Ocean aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket dropped from the belly of an L-1011 Stargazer aircraft that took off from Kwajalein Atoll. Ignition took place at approximately 12 p.m. EDT. NuSTAR separated 13 min. later, and the first signals from the spacecraft were received by NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System at 12:14 p.m.
HOUSTON — The enthusiasm for a Mars sample return mission remains high in Europe as well as in the U.S., but it can only be realized if the brightest minds in the global planetary science community can marshal the resources to overcome the technical and political obstacles, according to space agency officials who gathered here June 12 for a NASA-sponsored workshop.
Has rescheduled liftoff of the MSG-3 meteorological spacecraft to July 5 from June 19 to give satellite fleet operator Hughes Network Systems time to conduct additional checks of its EchoStar 17.
HOUSTON — A growing collaborative effort between NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Houston Technology Center (HTC) to establish high-tech startups by leveraging the skills of laid-off shuttle and Constellation program workers as well as other active professionals is beginning to take advantage of synergies with the region’s other economic strong suits: energy, medicine, information technology and emergent nanotechnology.
NUSTAR: NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuStar) high-energy X-ray observatory is on track for an 11:30 a.m. EDT launch June 13 by an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket dropped from a converted L-1011 commercial jet south of the Kwajalein atoll. During a teleconference from Kwajalein, NASA Launch Director Omar Baez said the drop, at 3:30 a.m. local time, will take place in a 120-mi. square “box” south of Kwajalein from an altitude of 41,000 ft.
HOUSTON — NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is canceling the over-budget Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer (GEMS) astrophysics mission, following the denial this week of an appeal from the Goddard Space Flight Center-led science team, the agency announced June 7. Congress is being formally notified that the 2009 mission selection, capped at $119 million, not counting launch costs, is being canceled, says Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics division director.
HOUSTON — A multinational crew of four is scheduled to evaluate a range of asteroid exploration strategies following a June 11 descent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aquarius Reef Base undersea habitat off Key Largo, Fla., for a 12-day stay.
HOUSTON — The success of the SpaceX/Dragon resupply mission to the International Space Station has not been lost on Ad Astra Rocket Co., a seven-year-old venture focused on the development of advanced electric plasma propulsion systems for commercial in-space transportation. “That is the proof in the pudding,” says Jared Squire, Ad Astra’s senior vice president for research, of the nine-day SpaceX pathfinder mission nurtured by NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. “That type of relationship works.”
NASA will get a little slack from Congress on how it may procure commercial crew transportation for astronauts headed to the International Space Station (ISS), but apparently no more money.
Sierra Nevada Corp. will attempt the first free flight of its Dream Chaser commercial-crew spacecraft this summer, including an autonomous approach and landing at Edwards AFB, Calif., following this captive-carry test of the flight vehicle. An Erickson Air-Crane heavy-lift helicopter carried the composite 25,000-lb. vehicle through an hour-long test May 30 designed to assess its aerodynamic performance.
A Sea Launch Zenit 3-SL orbited the Intelsat 19 telecommunications satellite early June 1 from the Odyssey floating launch pad, setting up a replacement in orbit next month for the aging Intelsat 8.
The U.S. Congress is closer than ever before to reversing a 14-year-old law aimed at limiting dual-use satellite technology that the industry complains has put U.S. exports at a competitive disadvantage.
John Glenn is the kind of pilot who makes it home. The world held its breath on Feb. 20, 1962, as he reentered the atmosphere after circling the Earth three times. There was an indication that the heat shield on his Mercury capsule Friendship 7 wasn't attached properly, threatening a tragic end to the first U.S. orbital human spaceflight, but he got home safely.
The first commercial spacecraft to reach the International Space Station approaches its berthing site at the end of the Canadarm2 (see pp. 34-37). SpaceX's Dragon cargo carrier is a true trailblazer, built with a combination of private funds from the deep pockets of dot.com entrepreneur Elon Musk and U.S. government seed money supplied by NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program.
