NASA’s third New Frontiers-class mission, the Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return probe, cleared a crucial decision point for development May 15 and is expected to proceed in preparation for launch to the asteroid Bennu in September 2016. If all goes well, Osiris-Rex (Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resources Identification Security Regolith Explorer) will return samples of the asteroid to Earth in 2023.
NASA’s Ames Research Center will test a 10-in. high deployment system that can launch as many as 24 nanosats at once during piggyback rides on two Defense Department demonstration missions.
The first Canadian command of the International Space Station ends safely with this May 14 parachute landing of Soyuz TMA-07M in southern Kazakhstan. Onboard were Canada's Chris Hadfield, the first of his countrymen to command an ISS mission increment; U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn, and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. Throughout Hadfield's nearly five months in orbit, the retired 53-year-old Canadian air force colonel exhibited his musical talents and skills as a photographer and with social media to share his experiences.
President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget proposal contains a brand-new idea that may be the most exciting and interesting one in the history of exploration—certainly since the Apollo project. Although, there is no Cold War or superpower rivalry to fuel it, the asteroid retrieval mission represents an opportunity to sustain American leadership in human space exploration with technological innovation and engineering prowess.
Scientists have “terabytes” of data from NASA's Kepler extra-solar planet-finder to analyze, but the failure of a second reaction control wheel on the space telescope probably means it will not be able to measure more of the faint flickers of distant stars when a planet passes in front of them.
U.S. Air Force controllers will slot an updated GPS satellite into the mid-Earth-orbit timing and navigation constellation following its successful launch May 15 on this United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 from Cape Canaveral. Liftoff of the 3,600-lb. spacecraft came at the opening of its launch window at 5:38 p.m. EDT. The launch vehicle's Centaur upper stage ignited twice during the 3-hr. 24-min. mission and included a 3-hr. coast phase between burns.
GPS LAUNCH: The U.S. Air Force used an Atlas V 401 rocket to launch another Global Positioning System timing and navigation satellite into medium Earth orbit on May 15, replenishing the constellation of 24 spacecraft. Liftoff of the 3,600-lb. spacecraft from Cape Canaveral came at the opening of its launch window at 5:38 p.m. EDT. The launch vehicle’s Centaur upper stage ignited for the first of two burns — planned to be bounded by a 3-hr. coast phase — at 5:42 p.m. EDT, following burnout and staging of the Atlas common core booster.
Failure of a second reaction control wheel on NASA’s Kepler planet-finding space telescope has ended data collecting with the spacecraft, but not analysis of the “terabytes” of data already captured.
LOS ANGELES — Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser engineering test article (ETA) is being reassembled at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., in preparation for the start of approach-and-landing flight tests later this summer. Sierra Nevada is competing with the lifting body vehicle against alternative capsule designs developed by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Boeing for NASA’s commercial crew program under a $212.5 million Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) contract awarded last August.
HOUSTON — Developers report a favorable conclusion to the first phase of the long-running Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) under way outside the International Space Station, the joint NASA/Canadian Space Agency initiative intended to demonstrate technologies to extend the operations of aging satellites.
HOUSTON — Canada’s first space mission command came to a successful close late May 13, as a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Canada’s Chris Hadfield, U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko departed the International Space Station and descended safely to Earth. Their TMA-07M capsule landed under parachute in southern Kazakhstan at 9:31 p.m. EDT, or May 14 at 8:31 a.m. local time, ending a 146-day mission.
A time-management trick learned by the Skylab 4 crew almost 40 years ago continues to work on the International Space Station today, according to commanders of missions on each orbital laboratory. Gerald Carr, the Skylab 4 commander, told an audience marking the 40th anniversary of the Apollo-era space-station program that his three-man crew held “the first sensitivity group in space” after controllers in Houston overloaded them with work.
HOUSTON — Two U.S. astronauts were preparing for a possible May 11 spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) in response to a significant ammonia coolant leak in the thermal control system radiator of the orbiting lab’s oldest solar power module. The NASA-led ISS Mission Management Team had scheduled a meeting for late May 10 to consider final approval for a 6-7-hr. extravehicular activity (EVA) to replace the suspected source of the leak, a pump and flow control system (PFCS) electronics box, or to carry out further troubleshooting.
LOS ANGELES — U.S. Air Force efforts to improve space systems acquisition are showing clear dividends in terms of enhanced operations and cost savings, according to Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Commander Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski.
The search for evidence of life on alien planets is likely to move closer to Earth, involve greater coordination among more capable space and ground-based observatories and require technologies that can detect the presence of oxygen in distant atmospheres, according to exoplanet experts.
Europe’s Vega light launcher lifted off late May 6 with the European Space Agency’s Proba-V Earth-observation satellite and smaller spacecraft for Vietnam and Estonia, overcoming a weather delay at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana to go two-for-two in successful launches. Liftoff into a 1-sec. window came at 11:06 p.m. local time (10:06 p.m. EDT) Monday, following a weather scrub at the same time on May 3.
Crewmembers on the International Space Station have been experimenting with the use of ultrasound scans to image their spines, a new application for the technology that could prove useful on the ground as well. Briefing members of the Senate Commerce space subcommittee Tuesday, Expedition 35 Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn said the ultrasound instrument can help flight surgeons learn about the sometimes painful spinal recompression experienced by spacefarers when they return to gravity.
