SPECTACULAR IMAGES SHOW HURRICANE EUGENE BECOME FIRST MAJOR HURRICANE OBSERVED BY GOES-16 - NOAA's new GOES-16 satellite observed its first major hurricane on Sunday when Hurricane Eugene rapidly intensified into a Category 3 in the eastern Pacific Ocean well to the west of Mexico's Pacific coastline. Major hurricanes are Category 3-5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and in general, make for some of the most spectacular satellite imagery given their extreme intensity. GOES-16 has been in testing mode since the beginning of the year and has seen a number of storms both over the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific Oceans. More (Source: The Weather Channel - Jul 10)
BIRDS-1 CONSTELLATION OF FIVE CUBESATS DEPLOYED - On Friday, July 7, 2017 five CubeSats carrying amateur radio payloads were deployed from the Japanese Kibo module on the International Space Station. ISS astronaut Jack Fischer KG5FYH @Astro2fish tweeted: Another great example of International Cooperation today on @Space_Station –launched 5 micro-satellites from 5 countries off the JAXA arm! The BIRDS-1 constellation consists of five 1U CubeSats (BIRD-B, BIRD-J, BIRD-G, BIRD-M and BIRD-N). They launched to the ISS on a SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-11 on June 3, 2017. The satellites are made of the exactly same design and use the same amateur radio frequency. More (Source: AMSAT UK - Jul 8)
JAXA, NASA APPROVE REPLACEMENT FOR FAILED HITOMI ASTRONOMY SATELLITE - The Japanese space agency is moving ahead with a smaller-scale X-ray astronomy satellite to replace the failed Hitomi observatory, which spun out of control about a month-and-a-half after its launch last year. The X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission, or XARM, could launch as soon as March 2021, filling a potential gap in astronomers’ X-ray vision of the universe, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 8)
GHANA LAUNCHES ITS FIRST SATELLITE INTO SPACE - GhanaSat-1, which was developed by students at All Nations University in Koforidua, was sent into orbit from the International Space Centre. Cheers erupted as 400 people, including the engineers, gathered in the southern Ghanaian city to watch live pictures of the launch. The first signal was received shortly afterwards. It is the culmination of a two-year project, costing $50,000 (£40,000). It received support from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The satellite will be used to monitor Ghana's coastline for mapping purposes, and to build capacity in space science and technology. More (Source: BBC News - Jul 8)
PHOTOS: THAT'S NO MOON. IT'S A SPACE STATION. - This composite of seven images taken in less than one second shows the International Space Station in silhouette against the sun as it passes above the Deseret News' office in Salt Lake City on Thursday. According to NASA, the station is the largest human made object ever to orbit the Earth. It measures 357 feet end to end, which is almost the length of a football field including the end zones, and weighs almost a million pounds. More (Source: Deseret News - Jul 8)
SURPRISE, RELIEF AS CHINA’S KEY SATELLITE MAKES IT TO ORBIT DESPITE ROCKET LAUNCH FAILURE - Chinese space authorities say an important communication satellite is now where it should be after it veered off course during a failed rocket launch last month. The ChinaSat 9A probe was steered towards its target orbit on Wednesday, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said. It had ended up in the wrong orbit after the unsuccessful launch of the Long March 3B, or CZ-2B, on June 19. More (Source: South China Morning Post - Jul 7)
“GECKO GRIPPER” TECH TO CLEAN UP SPACE JUNK - Watch your backyard closely on a warm Florida morning, and you can see geckos climbing the fence to greet the Sun, looking for an insect snack before the mid-day heat sets in. The same gripping technique that geckos use to scale smooth surfaces such as fences could soon be grappling with space junk in orbit. Hao Jiang (Stanford University) and colleagues recently proposed using “gecko grippers” to grab space debris in an effort to clean up near-Earth space. More (Source: Sky & Telescope - Jul 7)
I WONDER IF IT HAS ROOM SERVICE? HERE’S THE SPACE HOTEL THAT WON A RECENT NASA COMPETITION - Looking to the future of space exploration, there really is no question that it will involve a growing human presence in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This will include not only successors to the International Space Station, but most likely commercial habitats and facilities. These will not only allow for ventures like space tourism, but will also facilitate missions that take us back to the Moon, to Mars, and even beyond. With this purpose in mind, an interdisciplinary team of MIT graduate students designed a space habitat known as the Managed, Reconfigurable, In-space Nodal Assembly (MARINA). This module would serve as an privately-owned space station that would be occupied by two anchor-tenants for a period of ten years; a luxury hotel that would provide orbital accommodations, and NASA. More (Source: Universe Today - Jul 6)
THREE LAUNCHES IN 12 DAYS! SPACEX LOFTS HEAVY COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE - For the third time in 12 days, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully took off from Earth and sent a satellite payload into orbit. The rocket launched from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:38 p.m. EDT (2338 GMT) today (July 5). The Falcon 9 sent the Intelsat 35e satellite to a high-up geostationary transfer orbit; the craft will eventually make its way to geostationary orbit, about 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) above Earth. More (Source: Space.com - Jul 6)
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