‚It’s Going to Be Historic‘: New Horizons Team Prepares for Epic Flyby of Ultima Thule
In less than 10 weeks, NASA’s New Horizons mission will explore the most distant target ever visited by a spacecraft. In the early-morning hours of Jan. 1, 2019, New Horizons will ring in the New Year by flying past the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) officially called 2014 MU69 but nicknamed Ultima Thule, a city-size rock regarded as a frozen relic from the birth of the solar system. Although scientists have a rough size estimate for Ultima Thule — about 23 miles (37 kilometers) wide — they don’t have much more information. They aren’t sure if it’s elongated, if it has a moon or ring system or even if it’s a single object. Indeed, some of the very limited observations of Ultima Thule suggest it might actually be two close-orbiting bodies. [NASA’s New Horizons Mission in Pictures]
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via Space.com https://www.space.com- October 25, 2018 at 06:48PM
Sojus Fehlstart / Soyuz launch failure
Russian official says Soyuz rocket failure caused by an errant sensor
Although the official report on the cause of a Soyuz rocket failure won’t be released until Thursday, a Russian official disclosed its central conclusion a day early, the country’s news agency TASS reports. Sergei Krikalev, the executive director of „manned programs“ for Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos, said a sensor on board the rocket failed to properly signal the separation of the first and second stages. As a result, one of the side-mounted rocket boosters did not separate properly from the vehicle and collided with the rocket.
Read more… https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/russian-official-says-soyuz-rocket-failure-caused-by-an-errant-sensor/
via arstechnica https://arstechnica.com/ October 31, 2018 at 18:50PM
Krikaljow: Sensorschaden war Ursache für Sojus MS-10-Absturz
Die Ursache für den Absturz des Raumschiffes Sojus MS-10 vom 11. Oktober steht nun amtlich fest. Ein defekter Sensor, der die Abtrennung der ersten von der zweiten Sojus-FG-Raketenstufe signalisiert, habe zu dem Fehlstart geführt, teilte der Amtierende Direktor für die bemannten Programme des Raumfahrtstaatskonzerns GK Roskosmos, Sergej Krikaljow, am Mittwoch auf einer Festveranstaltung zum 55. Jahrestag des Moskauer Instituts für Medizinisch-Biologische Probleme (IMBP) mit.
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via Gerhard Kowalski https://ift.tt/2wJFMB0 October 31, 2018 at 10:34AM
Havarie-Kommission gibt am 31. Oktober die Ursachen des Sojus MS-10-Fehlstarts bekannt
Offenbar sind die Ursachen des Fehlstarts des Sojus MS-10-Raumschiffes vom 11. Oktober geklärt. Die Havarie-Kommission unter Leitung von Oleg Skorobogatow werde ihre Untersuchungsergebnisse am kommenden Mittwoch bekannt geben, melden Moskauer Medien.
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via Gerhard Kowalski https://ift.tt/2wJFMB0 October 27, 2018 at 08:21AM
Defekter Sensor verursachte Fehlstart von Sojus-Rakete
Ein defekter Sensor hat nach vorläufigen russischen Angaben den Fehlstart der bemannten Sojus-Rakete am 11. Oktober verursacht. Das sagte der Leiter der bemannten russischen Raumfahrt, Ex-Kosmonaut Sergej Krikaljow, in Moskau. Deshalb habe es Probleme bei der Trennung der ersten von der zweiten Raketenstufe gegeben, erklärte er.
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via DW.COM https://www.dw.com- October 31, 2018 at 06:47PM
Defekter Sensor: Absturzursache für Sojus-Absturz ermittelt
Ein defekter Sensor habe nach vorläufigen russischen Angaben den Fehlstart der bemannten Sojus-Rakete am 11. Oktober verursacht. Das sagte der Leiter der bemannten russischen Raumfahrt, Ex-Kosmonaut Sergej Krikaljow, am Mittwoch nach Berichten der russischen Medienagentur Sputnik. Krikaljow trat in Moskau bei einer Festveranstaltung des russischen Instituts für medizinisch-biologische Probleme auf.
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via heise online https://www.heise.de- October 31, 2018 at 06:47PM
Neuer Aufbruch zum Mond – Erstes Servicemodul für das Orion-Raumschiff ist fertig
Bis heute waren zwölf Menschen auf dem Mond – allesamt NASA-Astronauten, die sich im Rahmen des Apollo-Programms der amerikanischen Raumfahrtbehörde zwischen 1969 und 1972 auf diese beispiellose Reise gemacht haben. Am 21. Juli 2019 jährt sich die erste Mondlandung zum 50. Mal, seit dem 14. Dezember 1972 hat kein Erdenbürger mehr den Erdtrabanten betreten. Das könnte sich in absehbarer Zukunft ändern: Die NASA möchte mit ihrem Orion-Programm ein Raumschiff entwickeln und bauen, das für unterschiedlichste Zwecke im Erd-, Mond- oder auch Marsorbit eingesetzt werden kann. Das sogenannte MPCV (Multi-Purpose-Crew-Vehicle) soll erstmals 2020 vom Kennedy Space Center in Florida mit dem Space Launch System SLS, der neuen Schwerlastrakete der NASA, zu einem unbemannten Flug starten, den Mond mehrfach umrunden und anschließend wieder zur Erde zurückkehren. Ein zentraler Teil aller Orion-Raumschiffe ist das Europäische Servicemodul ESM, das im Auftrag der NASA von der Europäischen Weltraumagentur ESA zu wesentlichen Teilen in Deutschland gebaut wird. Ohne das ESM kann das neue Crew-Raumschiff Orion nicht fliegen.
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via DLR Portal – News-Archiv Raumfahrt https://ift.tt/2MixW72 October 31, 2018 at 03:02PM
Tschüss Europa, hallo Mond!
Das europäische Servicemodul (ESM), das dem Orion-Raumschiff auf seiner ersten Mission um den Mond Energie und Schub geben wird, tritt Anfang nächster Woche in Bremen seine Reise in Richtung USA an. An Bord des großen Transportflugzeugs Antonov An-124 wird es am frühen Morgen des 5. November starten und am 6. November im Kennedy Space Center in Florida ankommen.
Entwickelt und gebaut in Deutschland und Italien, ist das ESM der europäische Beitrag zur Rückkehr zum Mond.
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via ESA Germany https://ift.tt/2x4SuLK October 31, 2018 at 02:08PM
Rekord: So nah war noch keine Sonde an der Sonne – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft
Die Nasa-Sonde „Parker Solar Probe“ hat einen neuen Rekord aufgestellt. Kein Raumfahrzeug kam der Sonne bisher näher. Und in den kommenden Tagen wird es noch heißer für das Nasa-Gerät.
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via SPIEGEL ONLINE – October 30, 2018 at 05:50PM
A NASA Spacecraft Just Broke the Record for Closest Approach to Sun
A NASA sun-studying spacecraft just entered the record books. In April of 1976, the German-American Helios 2 probe made spaceflight’s closest-ever solar approach, cruising within 26.55 million miles (42.73 million kilometers) of the sun. But NASA’s Parker Solar Probe zoomed inside that distance today (Oct. 29), crossing the threshold at about 1:04 p.m. EDT (1704 GMT), agency officials said.
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via Space.com https://www.space.com- October 29, 2018 at 09:04PM
Hubble working again / Hubble arbeitet wieder
„Hubble“: Weltraumteleskop arbeitet laut Nasa wieder
Wochenlang schlummerte „Hubble“ im Notfallmodus, nun hat das Weltraumteleskop seine Arbeit wieder aufgenommen – und beobachtet eine Galaxie.
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via SPIEGEL ONLINE http://www.spiegel.de- October 29, 2018 at 07:02PM
Hubble Space Telescope returns to science operations
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope returned to normal operations late Friday, 26 October, and completed its first science observations on Saturday, 27 October. The observations were of the distant, star-forming galaxy DSF2237B-1-IR and were taken in infrared wavelengths with the Wide Field Camera 3. The return to conducting science comes after successfully recovering a backup gyroscope that had replaced a failed one three weeks earlier.
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via ESA Science & Technology http://sci.esa.int- October 29, 2018 at 05:23PM
Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Action After Gyroscope Glitch
The Hubble Space Telescope is back. The iconic scope resumed normal operations Friday (Oct. 26) after a three-week hiatus caused by issues with two orientation-maintaining gyroscopes, NASA officials announced in an update Saturday (Oct. 27).
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via Space.com https://www.space.com- October 29, 2018 at 12:40PM
Hubble Space Telescope Update
The mission engineers and scientists for the Hubble Space Telescope have been working to correct some technical issues with the gyros that point the venerable space telescope. Hubble went into safe mode a couple of weeks ago and now seems to be back to resuming normal operations. Join Tony Darnell and Carol Christian as they discuss what happened with Hubble, how the problems were discovered and a fix found. We’ll also explore other topics related to Hubble, such as, how much longer will it be around? Will Hubble last long enough to overlap JWST?
See video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qhaNjlAS-U
via – October 27, 2018 at 06:44PM
NASA’s Planet Hunter Kepler / NASAs Planetenjäger Kepler
Number of Habitable Exoplanets Found by NASA’s Kepler May Not Be So High After All
The tally of potentially habitable alien planets may have to be revised downward a bit. To date, NASA’s prolific Kepler space telescope has discovered about 30 roughly Earth-size exoplanets in their host stars‘ „habitable zone“ — the range of orbital distances at which liquid water can likely exist on a world’s surface. Or so researchers had thought. New observations by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia spacecraft suggest that the actual number is probably significantly smaller — perhaps between two and 12, NASA officials said today (Oct. 26). [Photos: Gaia Spacecraft to Map Milky Way Galaxy]
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via Space.com https://www.space.com- October 28, 2018 at 12:26PM
NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope, Passes Planet-Hunting Torch
After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
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via Kepler News and Features http://www.nasa.gov/- October 30, 2018 at 08:08PM
Top Science Results from the Kepler Mission
Planets outnumber stars.
Kepler has proven there are more planets than stars in our galaxy — and knowing that revolutionizes our understanding of our place in the cosmos.
Small planets are common.
Kepler has shown us our galaxy is teeming with terrestrial-size worlds, and many of them may be similar to Earth in size and distance from their parent stars. The most recent analysis of Kepler’s discoveries concludes that 20 to 50 percent of the stars in the sky are likely to have small, possibly rocky planets that are in the habitable zones of their stars where liquid water could pool on the surface. We still have much to learn about whether any of them could host life.
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via Kepler News and Features http://www.nasa.gov/- October 30, 2018 at 08:08PM
Kepler By the Numbers – Mission Statistics
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via Kepler News and Features http://www.nasa.gov/- October 30, 2018 at 08:08PM
NASA’s First Planet Hunter, the Kepler Space Telescope: 2009-2018
NASA’s Kepler space telescope spent nine years in space, collecting an unprecedented dataset for science that has revolutionized our understanding of our place in the cosmos. It found our galaxy teeming with planets — more planets even than the stars — and stunned the world with many other first-of-a-kind discoveries. Profoundly, Kepler found planets that are in some ways similar to Earth, raising the prospects for life elsewhere. What did it take to lift a mission of this magnitude off the ground and keep it going? Here is a walkthrough the odyssey of the Kepler mission — from the earliest kernel of an idea, through its obstacles and into its most stunning moments of discovery and success. As NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, Kepler’s legacy will live on for generations.
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via Kepler News and Features http://www.nasa.gov/- October 30, 2018 at 08:08PM
RIP, Kepler: NASA’s Revolutionary Planet-Hunting Telescope Runs Out of Fuel
The most prolific planet-hunting machine in history has signed off. NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which has discovered 70 percent of the 3,800 confirmed alien worlds to date, has run out of fuel, agency officials announced today (Oct. 30). Kepler can no longer reorient itself to study cosmic objects or beam its data home to Earth, so the legendary instrument’s in-space work is done after nearly a decade.
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via Space.com https://www.space.com- October 30, 2018 at 08:23PM
Kepler Planet Hunting Mission Ends
„After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations.”
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via NASA Watch http://nasawatch.com/- October 31, 2018 at 01:18AM
Volker Nawrath 