All Eyes on India's Cryo Engine as
GSLV Rocket Readies for Liftoff (Source: Times of India)
All eyes at the Sriharikota spaceport will be on the indigenous
cryogenic engine which forms the third and upper stage of the GSLV-D6
rocket that will lift off at 4.52pm on Thursday with GSAT-6, a 2,117kg
communication satellite. This will be the ninth flight of the
Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle and the third development flight
using a cryogenic engine. The success-failure score of the development
flights has been 1-1. (8/26)
Orion Parachute System Withstands
Failure Test (Source: NASA)
NASA successfully completed a dramatic test of the Orion spacecraft’s
parachute system and its ability to perform in the event of a partial
deployment on re-entry. On Wednesday, Aug. 26, a test version of Orion
touched down in the Arizona desert after engineers intentionally failed
two different parachutes used in the sequence that stabilizes and slows
the spacecraft for landing. (8/26)
U.S. Air Force Eyes Blast Detection
Satellite (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force hopes to build an experimental satellite that would
detect nuclear explosions and monitor the space environment from
geosynchronous orbit, the service said in an Aug. 24 announcement. The
Space Test Program Satellite (STPSat) -6 would be the latest in a
series of spacecraft developed under a Defense Department program to
field space capabilities quickly in response to emerging military
needs. (8/26)
DoE to Crank Out New Plutonium-238 in
2019 (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Department of Energy will start producing new plutonium-238
for deep space missions around 2019, but production will ramp up
slowly, and NASA still has not committed to setting aside any of the
isotope for small missions.
Early next year, the refinery at DoE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee will restart for the first time in 27 years to
produce a test-batch of the isotope, which powers nuclear batteries
needed for space missions that cannot rely on solar arrays. (8/26)
More Than 100 Billion Billion
Earth-Like Planets Might Exist (Source: New Scientist)
Your existence is unbelievably unlikely. Think of everything that
happened for you to be born: your parents met, a particular sperm
fertilised a particular egg, ultimately giving rise to the specific
sequence of genes that is you. But if it hadn’t happened that way,
someone else would be reading this in your place. We’re unique,
but that doesn’t make us special: there are 7 billion other humans on
the planet. Now, thanks to a glut of data on planets in other star
systems, astronomers are starting to realize the same is true of Earth
itself. (8/26)
How Kubrick and Clarke Designed the
Future (Source: New Scientist)
Half a century ago, Stanley Kubrick wrote to Arthur C. Clarke about a
movie idea. Clarke was enthusiastic: “The ‘really good’ science-fiction
movie is a great many years overdue.” So began their collaboration on
Journey Beyond the Stars.
The film acquired several nicknames (“How the Solar System was Won” was
a favourite), before its release in 1968 as 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a
vision of the future it stands the test of time: a tribute to a writer
who dreamed up communications satellites long before a satellite was
launched, and a director who, even as Sputnik circled the Earth, was
working through reels of Japanese sci-fi to find the effects he would
need to imagine his way into space. Click here.
(8/26)
Why Scott Kelly Will Be Taking Russian
Spacecraft for a Spin (Source: ABC)
American astronaut Scott Kelly is spending one year in space but he'll
get to briefly leave the International Space Station this week when he
takes a short ride in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which is being
moved to make room for the arrival of additional crew members.
The ride will take about 25 minutes, beginning when the Soyuz TMA-16M
spacecraft undocks from the Poisjk module on Friday at 3:12 a.m. and
moves to the station's Zvezda port, freeing up room for three new crew
members to park their spacecraft when they're set to arrive at the
station on Sept. 2, NASA officials said. (8/26)
Space Club Invites Kolcum Award
Nominations (Source: NSCFL)
The National Space Club Florida Committee each year recognizes area
representatives of the news media and other communications
professionals for excellence in telling the space story along Florida's
Space Coast and throughout the world with a Harry Kolcum Memorial News
& Communications Award.
The award is named in honor of Harry Kolcum, the former managing editor
of Aviation Week & Space Technology, who was Cape bureau chief from
1980 to 1993, prior to his death in 1994. Kolcum was a founding member
of the National Space Club Florida Committee. Nominations for this
year’s honorees will be accepted through Friday, Sept. 18. Click here.
(8/26)
Buzz Aldrin, Florida Tech to Establish
Space Institute (Source: Florida Today)
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin on Thursday will visit the Florida
Institute of Technology for a ceremony formally establishing a space
institute in the astronaut's name. The Buzz Aldrin Space Institute at
Florida Tech, to open this fall, will focus on Mars settlement through
Aldrin's concept of "Cycling Pathways to Occupy Mars," according to a
media advisory.
Aldrin will join the Melbourne university's faculty as a Research
Professor of Aeronautics and serve as a senior faculty adviser for the
institute. Florida Tech President and CEO Anthony Catanese and Aldrin
will host the 2 p.m. signing ceremony and a media briefing about the
institute. (8/26)
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