August 21, 2022

Astronaut Visits Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale for ‘Space Day’ (Source: WSVN)
Engineers and an astronaut had the chance to educate Broward County students. It was “Space Day” at Rock Island Elementary School, Friday. Students learned about the final frontier from employees at Blue Origin and heard from an actual astronaut. “We’re so excited to come down here and share our story about our launch to space with all these kids. They’re future astronauts and future space kids,” said Sharon Hagle, founder of Spacekids Global.

Hagle was aboard a Blue Origin flight in March. Students asked her and Blue Origin employees about space exploration and beyond. “To have the experience of an actual astronaut here, it’s amazing, so I foresee many of our scholars, especially our young ladies, looking at STEM as a real career in the future,” said Cormic Priester, the principal of Rock Island Elementary. The event was streamed live throughout the district, so students in all Broward schools could make their own postcard to space. (8/19)

SpaceX Dragon Cargo Ship Returns to Earth From Space Station (Source: Space.com)
A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship returned to Earth with an ocean splashdown on Saturday (Aug. 20) carrying tons of science gear from the ISS. The uncrewed Dragon space capsule splashed down off the coast of Florida on time at 2:53 p.m. EDT after just over a month at the space station. "Splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing SpaceX's 25th cargo resupply mission to the space station," SpaceX wrote in a mission update. "Once Dragon has been retrieved by SpaceX's recovery team, the critical science aboard the spacecraft will be transported via helicopter to KSC and provided to researchers." (8/21)

‘Spaceport in a Box’ to Launch UK’s First Rocket From Home Turf (Source: Sunday Times)
When British space firm Skyrora started designing its first rocket five years ago, it had no idea where it would launch it. The UK has never sent a rocket into space from home turf. Every British satellite currently in orbit has left the planet from foreign soil — often blasting off from somewhere in America, or Kourou in French Guiana, or Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Lee Rosen, Skyrora’s chief operations officer, said: “We really didn’t know where we were going to be able to launch from.” Necessity, as is so often the case, was the mother of invention. Skyrora, based in Edinburgh, started developing a “spaceport in a box” — a mobile launch system which can be packed into a dozen shipping containers and taken where needed to support launch operations. Its initial blast-off point is Unst. (8/21)

NASA Asks Industry for Input on ISS Deorbit Capabilities (Source: Space News)
NASA is requesting information from industry on its capabilities and interest in developing a spacecraft that would deorbit the International Space Station at the end of its life. NASA issued the request for information (RFI) late Aug. 19, asking companies to supply information about how they could develop a spacecraft that would be used to perform the final reentry maneuvers at the end of the station’s life, pushing it into the atmosphere to break up over the South Pacific Ocean.

Under a nominal deorbiting scenario provided by NASA in the RFI, the spacecraft would attach to the forward port on the Node 2 module a year before reentry. During this time, the station’s altitude would gradually decay from atmospheric drag and maneuvers from thrusters on the station’s Russian segment, descending below 220 kilometers, the altitude below which only thrusters can provide attitude control for the station.

The deorbit vehicle would first place the ISS into an elliptical orbit of 145 by 200 kilometers to minimize the period in which the station has to rely on thrusters for attitude control. It would then make a final burn to lower the perigee to 50 kilometers, ensuring “atmospheric capture” or breakup of the station upon reentry. (8/21)

Hawaii Seeks end to strife over astronomy on Sacred Mountain (Source: ABC News)
For more than 50 years, telescopes and the needs of astronomers have dominated the summit of Mauna Kea, a mountain sacred to Native Hawaiians that's also one of the finest places in the world to study the night sky. That’s now changing with a new state law saying Mauna Kea must be protected for future generations and that science must be balanced with culture and the environment.

Native Hawaiian cultural experts will have voting seats on a new governing body, instead of merely advising the summit's managers as they do now. The shift comes after thousands of protesters camped on the mountain three years ago to block the construction of a state-of-the-art observatory, jolting policymakers and astronomers into realizing the status quo had to change.

There's a lot at stake: Native Hawaiian advocates want to protect a site of great spiritual importance. Astronomers hope they'll be able to renew leases for state land underneath their observatories, due to expire in 11 years, and continue making revolutionary scientific discoveries for decades to come. Business and political leaders are eager for astronomy to support well-paying jobs in a state that has long struggled to diversify its tourism-dependent economy. (8/20)