SEE A LOST THERMAL SHIELD ZIP AHEAD OF THE SPACE STATION - Last week, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson set a new record for spacewalks by a female astronaut when she and International Space Station commander Shane Kimbrough floated outside the ISS. During the spacewalk, a thermal shield meant to be installed on the station got loose and floated away. Dutch astronomer Marco Langbroek managed to catch an impressive video of the shield cruising ahead of the ISS through space. Langbroek posted the video on Wednesday. You can see the shield as a small streak of light cutting at an angle across the camera's view. More (Source: CNET - Apr 8)
RUSSIA HINTS AT PLANS TO ABANDON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AND BUILD RIVAL BASE WITH CHINA - RUSSIA could be planning to abandon the International Space Station and build its own with the help of China. The country’s Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, is also weighing up whether it’s necessary to have people in orbit and decide whether they could be replaced by robots. Andrei Ionin, chief analyst of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, told Russian press that “the Russian segment of the ISS may separate from the station after 2024”. More (Source: The Sun - Apr 7)
OLD WEATHER SATELLITE HEADED TO 'GRAVEYARD ORBIT' - A satellite that's watched Earth for 20 years is retiring to a so-called graveyard orbit high above the Earth that puts out-of-commission satellites out of harm's way. Although the satellite, Meteosat-7, was only designed for about five years of use, it's sent meteorological data back to Earth for nearly two decades. Satellites in low-Earth orbit save enough fuel to redirect downward and eventually burn up in the atmosphere, to reduce crowding in active orbits. But some satellites like this retiring one, called Meteosat-7, are too high to make it to that final burn-up stage without carrying way too much extra fuel. More (Source: Space.com - Apr 6)
DR KARL: HOW DO YOU CLEAN UP 60 YEARS OF SPACE JUNK? - Whenever there is a collision between a big bit and a little bit, you get another couple of hundred little bits. Spacecraft have actually been destroyed by collisions with space junk. And the International Space Station has had plenty of close calls. It's had to move its 400-tonne bulk out of the way more than a dozen times before incoming space junk could destroy it. At other times the threat of the space junk wasn't realised until it was too late to move the Space Station. The crew had to put on their space suits and take shelter in the Soyuz re-entry space craft, ready to abandon ship and make an emergency landing on Earth. More (Source: ABC Online - Apr 5)
PHOTOS: CYGNUS SPACECRAFT READIED FOR LAUNCH TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - These photographs span March 9 through the 17th as the news media got an up-close viewing of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus cargo ship at Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Processing Facility, placement aboard a mobile transporter and delivery to the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket assembly building for hoisting and mating. Cygnus is carrying 7,626 pounds of crew logitics and new science for the International Space Station, the seventh such freighter launched by Orbital ATK under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. More (Source: SpaceFlight Now - Apr 5)
BOEING UNVEILS CONCEPT DESIGNS FOR ITS MARS TRANSPORTER AND DEEP SPACE HABITAT THAT WILL LAUNCH IN T - A new generation of space stations which will allow humanity to reach out further into the universe could become a reality within the next three years. The first base - known as the Deep Space Gateway - will orbit between Earth and the moon and is expected to launch as early as 2020. The habitat will support critical research and open up opportunities for future exploration of deep space, as well as a return to the moon and missions to Mars. Nasa has teamed up with six companies to develop deep space vehicles as part of its NextSTEP program. More (Source: Daily Mail - Apr 5)
WHERE OLD SATELLITES GO TO DIE - Meteosat-7, EUMETSAT's oldest operational meteorological satellite, tomorrow begins its final journey to the great graveyard orbit in the sky. After almost 20 years of service – a remarkable feat, given its expected lifetime of five years – a series of manoeuvres will be carried out to take the satellite out of its current geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the Earth, to its new and final resting place. So, what is the "graveyard orbit," why do we need one and how will Meteosat-7 get there? More (Source: Phys.org - Apr 4)
EUTELSAT SATELLITE RETURNED TO FACTORY AS FRENCH GUIANA UNREST CONTINUES - Protests roiling the South American home of Europe’s primary spaceport prompted Airbus Defence and Space to send Europe’s first high-power, all-electric satellite back to France until Arianespace resumes launching. Airbus flew the Eutelsat-172b satellite to Cayenne, French Guiana last last month in anticipation of its upcoming launch. But Arianespace has suspended launches from the Guiana Space Centre as labor strikes and civil protests have spread throughout the French overseas department, blocking roads and disrupting normal commerce. More (Source: SpaceNews - Apr 4)
THE IMAGES COMING FROM NOAA'S NEW WEATHER SATELLITE ARE STUNNING - Crisp images coming from the newest addition to NOAA's family of weather-observing satellites are a stunning example of the beauty of our world and how far technology has advanced over the past couple of decades. The federal agency launched the 16th member of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) line of satellites in November 2016, and we started getting regular images from the new satellite earlier this year. Two of the most noticeable differences between GOES-16 and its predecessors is how much clearer the pictures are and how much faster we get them compared to the satellites in operational use now. More (Source: Forbes - Apr 2)
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