Archive for August, 2015

News Years Day 2019:  Kuiper Belt Flyby for New Horizons

News Years Day 2019: Kuiper Belt Flyby for New Horizons

As it speeds away from its historic encounter with Pluto, NASA has identified the most promising target for the New Horizon’s next flyby, and it might present a scheduling issue for mission scientists and space enthusiasts who happen to be college football fans, at least for New Year’s Day 2019. That is when New Horizons […]

Posted in: Outer Planets
The Buzz Aldrin Space Institute at FIT: Aiming For Mars

The Buzz Aldrin Space Institute at FIT: Aiming For Mars

Since leaving the moon in 1969, Buzz Aldrin has never been far from space advocacy, lending his name to a number of projects,  and showing up at conferences long after other legendary astronauts have retired to a quieter life.  That simply wasn’t in the cards for the second man on the Moon, in part because […]

Posted in: Mars, SLS / Orion
India Roars to Orbit With GSLV-D6

India Roars to Orbit With GSLV-D6

Shirking off rainy weather, India’s GSLV-D6 rocket lifted off today at 4:52 PM IST from the Sriharikota Space Center, carrying the 2,117 kg GSAT 6 communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit on its way to a final position at 83 East. The flight, the 9th of the series overall, appears to have been flawless, marking […]

Dawn Images “Lonely Mountain” From New Orbit at Ceres

Dawn Images “Lonely Mountain” From New Orbit at Ceres

(Full image here) NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has arrived at its new mapping orbit, and is beginning to send back spectacular images of the dwarf planet’s surface in rich detail. From JPL: “At its current orbital altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers), Dawn takes 11 days to capture and return images of Ceres’ whole surface. Each […]

Posted in: Asteroids, Space Science
NASA Educates Congress in Response to SpaceX Accident Inquiry

NASA Educates Congress in Response to SpaceX Accident Inquiry

Following the SpaceX CRS-7 failure on June 28th, it was only a matter of time before Congress injected itself into the accident investigation efforts. If it were only a matter of being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, there would be little reason to draw attention to the issue and even less to complain. When the […]

Posted in: Congress, SpaceX
India Begins Coundown to Important GSLV Launch

India Begins Coundown to Important GSLV Launch

India has started the countdown towards a planned Thursday liftoff of its Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV rocket. Scheduled at 4:52 PM India Standard Time (7:32 AM EDT) from the the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the GSLV will be carrying GSAT-6, a 2117 kg communications satellite to geostationary transfer […]

Posted in: India Space
Blue Origin a Step Closer to Landing at Cape Canaveral

Blue Origin a Step Closer to Landing at Cape Canaveral

SpaceX may not have discovered “unicorns dancing in the flame trench” of pad 39A as Elon Musk famously suggested, but the world’s leading NewSpace company looks increasingly likely to have a new, and perhaps equally daring neighbor at Cape Canaveral. Florida Today reports that Space Florida is closer to signing a deal with Blue Origin […]

Posted in: Blue Origin
Japanese Cargo Vessel HTV-5 On the Way to ISS

Japanese Cargo Vessel HTV-5 On the Way to ISS

After waiting out several days of rainy weather, a Japanese H-IIB rocket took advantage of a weather window which may end in a Super Typhoon and lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 7:50 PM JST/ 7:50 AM EDT, carrying the HTV-5 cargo vessel to the International Space Station. Accompanied by its characteristic banshee-like […]

NASA Orders Two More Cygnus Cargo Vessels, but Does SpaceX Have the Upper Hand?

NASA Orders Two More Cygnus Cargo Vessels, but Does SpaceX Have the Upper Hand?

Following another delay in selecting winners for the second round of its Commercial Resupply Program (CRS2), NASA has ordered two more Cygnus cargo missions from Orbital ATK (SpaceNews). That order raises the total number of missions from eight in the original $1.9 billion dollar to ten. Terms of the two order extension have not been […]

HTV-5 Launch to ISS Now Scheduled for Wednesday

HTV-5 Launch to ISS Now Scheduled for Wednesday

The next supply mission to the International Space Station will have to wait a few more days. Over the weekend, Mitsubishi Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) elected to delay Sunday’s planned launch of the H-II Transfer Vehicle “KOUNOTORI5” or  (HTV5), due to concerns over weather at the Tanegashima Space Center. The new […]

π