Space Station Orbit to Be
Adjusted Ahead of Resupply Mission (Source: RIA Novosti)
The orbit of the International Space Station will be raised Thursday by
nearly two kilometers to ensure safe docking of a Russian cargo
spacecraft in February. "The thrusters will be fired up at 5:54 a.m.
Moscow time and will remain switched on for 493 seconds, giving the
station a boost of 1.12 meters per second,” the official said. “As a
result, the average altitude of the ISS will be increased by 1,940
meters,” he said. (1/14)
GPS Turns 20
(Source: AFSPC)
The Global Positioning System (GPS) Directorate celebrated the 20th
Anniversary of achieving Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for GPS
Dec. 8, 2013. In 1973, the Navstar Global Positioning System
Joint Program Office (JPO), headed by then-Colonel Bradford Parkinson,
developed the GPS architecture and initiated efforts to field a
prototype system to prove the concept of space-based global navigation
would work. Since that time, GPS has evolved from an idea, to a
prototype, to a global utility. It continues to evolve, with
modernization bringing forth new capabilities for the 21st century.
(1/14)
Powering a Starship With
a Black Hole (Source: Discovery)
Interstellar flight certainly ranks among the most daunting challenges
ever postulated by human civilization. The distances to even the
closest stars are so stupendous that constructing even a scale model of
interstellar distance is impractical. For instance, if on such a model,
the separation of the Earth and sun is 1 inch, the nearest star to our
solar system (Proxima Centuri) would be 4.3 miles away!
The fastest object ever built by the human species is the Voyager 1
space probe, moving at a speed of 18 miles per second. If it were
heading toward Proxima Centuri (which it’s not), Voyager 1 would reach
our nearest stellar neighbor in about 80,000 years. Clearly, if
interstellar travel is to be accomplished on human timescales, much
greater speeds are required. Click here.
(1/14)
France Presses For New
European Rockets (Source: Aviation Week)
The success of new rockets in India and the U.S. is fortifying a French
argument for developing a more affordable three-stage rocket, rather
than a two-stage solid-fueled one. The urgency of beginning work on the
next-generation rocket hit home Jan. 5 with the flawless first flight
of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which lofted
a small national communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer
orbit (GTO) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the country's
eastern coast. (1/13)
Remember When George W.
Bush Wanted to Send People to the Moon Again by 2020?
(Source: National Journal)
"Establishing an extended human presence on the moon could vastly
reduce the cost of further space exploration, making possible ever more
ambitious missions," George W. Bush said on Jan. 14, 2004, such as
sending humans to Mars for the first time. The 10-year anniversary of
Bush's ambitious plans comes during a bleak time for U.S. space
exploration.
The Space Shuttle program was dismantled in 2011, extinguishing hopes
for sending American astronauts to space without collaboration with
international space agencies. This year's proposed budget for NASA,
outlined in an appropriations bill Monday night, was a slim $17.6
billion, just $2 billion more than it was in 2004. Although the budget
includes money for asteroid detection, it shrinks funding for a
planetary science program that creates and oversees missions to outer
planets and moons. Editor's Note:
And remember how he planned for us to get there, and with what money?
(1/14)
Wallops Island Launches
Postponed Due to Weather (Source: Virginian-Pilot)
The launches of three suborbital rockets from the Wallops Flight
Facility scheduled for this morning for the Department of Defense have
been postponed to Wednesday. The Terrier-Orion suborbital rockets won’t
launch today because of rain, a NASA news release says. On Wednesday,
the rockets are expected to launch within 20 seconds of each other
between 1 and 5 a.m., a NASA news release says. If weather causes
another postponement, the rockets could launch Thursday through
Saturday. (1/14)
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