Weekly Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 16.01.2020

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The first cookies baked in space are back on Earth!

Following a ride home on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, the first food to be baked in space (a batch of cookies, of course) has landed back on Earth.

A Mars sample-return mission is coming. Scientists want the public to know what to expect.

The first pristine pieces of Mars won’t be coming down to Earth for at least another decade, but the time to start preparing society for the epic arrival is now, scientists say.

In photos: The amazing spacewalks of Expedition 61

The astronauts of Expedition 61 have tackled some historic spacewalks at the International Space Station, including the first all-woman spacewalk and four of the most challenging spacewalks ever.

Two new satellites will launch this year to track Earth’s rising oceans

A new satellite will provide more detailed information about rising sea levels and other changes in Earth’s oceans. Meet Sentinel-6/Jason-CS.

Why SpaceX’s Starlink satellites caught astronomers off guard

Astronomers have had five years to brace for the impact of SpaceX’s Starlink internet-satellite megaconstellation, but the first few batches of the spacecraft still managed to catch the community off guard.

Crew Ready for Spacewalk While Working Earth and Fire Research

The first of three spacewalks planned for January begins Wednesday to continue upgrading International Space Station power systems and a cosmic ray detector. While the spacewalkers ready their suits and tools, the rest of the Expedition 61 crew is on science and maintenance duty today.

Spacewalkers Begin Work to Upgrade Power Systems

Two NASA astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 6:35 a.m. EST Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are venturing out into the vacuum of space for about six-and-a-half hours to finish replacing nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries that store and distribute power generated by the station’s solar arrays on the station’s port truss. The lithium-ion batteries provide an improved power capacity for operations with a lighter mass and a smaller volume than the nickel-hydrogen batteries.

Astronauts Eye Wednesday Spacewalk as Space Science Continues

The first spacewalk of 2020 is set for Wednesday and the Expedition 61 crew is finalizing spacesuit checks and procedure reviews. The residents aboard the International Space Station also had time set aside for more microgravity research today.

Eye Checks, Pain Studies and Spacesuit Checks Wrap up Workweek

The Expedition 61 crew is continuing more research today into how the human body adapts to living in microgravity. U.S. spacesuits aboard the International Space Station are also being readied for the first of three spacewalks planned to start Jan. 15.

Crew Working Life Science, Looks Ahead to Upcoming Spacewalks

NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir and Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) started Thursday collecting their blood samples. The duo spun the samples in a centrifuge and stowed them in a science freezer for later analysis. The astronauts also joined cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov for a series of eye checks throughout the day.

SpaceX tests rocket for critical Crew Dragon in-flight abort launch on Jan. 18

SpaceX has fired up the booster that will fly the company’s upcoming in-flight abort test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon faces critical test for future astronaut flights Saturday

SpaceX is gearing up for the last major Crew Dragon test flight before the company launches astronauts into space.

Astronauts spot smoke from growing Australian wildfires from space

As the deadly Australian wildfires spread smoke around the world, astronauts in space are closely watching the burns advance.

Another pair of eyes provides a sobering perspective on the fires ravaging Australia.

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano took images such as this one on 12 January from his vantage point of the International Space Station.

Rippling ice and storms at Mars’ north pole

ESA’s Mars Express has captured beautiful images of the icy cap sitting at Mars’ north pole, complete with bright swathes of ice, dark troughs and depressions, and signs of strong winds and stormy activity.

Stormy activity at Mars’ icy north pole

The landscape here is a rippled mix of colour. Dark red and ochre-hued troughs appear to cut through the icy white of the polar cap; these form part of a wider system of depressions that spiral outwards from the very centre of the pole.

Mars’ north polar ice cap in 3D

This image shows shows part of the ice cap at Mars’ north pole in 3D when viewed using red-green or red-blue glasses.

PIA23443: Ganymede

First sighting of hot gas sloshing in galaxy cluster

ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has spied hot gas sloshing around within a galaxy cluster – a never-before-seen behaviour that may be driven by turbulent merger events.

Switching on the CHEOPS instrument

The science instrument on ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, CHEOPS, was successfully activated on 8 January, marking the beginning of the mission’s in-orbit commissioning.

NASA Rings in the New Year with $22.6 billion

NASA’s final 2020 budget rejected every major cut proposed by the Trump Administration, increased funding for popular congressional projects such as the Space Launch System, and underfunded several key administration proposals, including a human-qualified lunar lander and low-Earth orbit commercialization projects.

Cheops seen by SAINT-EX telescope

ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is shown here as a long streak against a backdrop of stars as it orbits the Earth after its successful launch on 18 December 2019.

NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover Closer to Getting Its Name

155 students from across the U.S. have been chosen as semifinalists in NASA’s essay contest to name the Mars 2020 rover, and see it launch from Cape Canaveral this July.

Wörner: ESA strebt keinen eigenen bemannten Zugang zum All an

Die Europäische Weltraumorganisation ESA strebt ungeachtet ihres Rekordbudgets von 14,4 Milliarden Euro keinen vollen eigenen bemannten Zugang zum All an. Das sei die Entscheidung der 22 Mitgliedsländer, teilte ESA-Generaldirektor Johann-Dietrich Wörner am Mittwoch auf einer Pressekonferenz in Paris mit. Daran werde sich auch in absehbarer Zeit nichts […]

The problems with modern physics

Modern physics has many achievements to be proud of, but mysteries still abound, and sometimes we feel more in the dark than we did 100 years ago. Here are some of the major issues that modern physics is still trying to understand.

Mapping the cosmic journey of phosphorus with Rosetta and ALMA

Astronomers using the combined powers of ESA’s Rosetta mission and the ground-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have traced the journey of phosphorus – one of life’s building blocks – from star-forming regions to comets.

Huygens landing spin mystery solved

Fifteen years ago today, ESA’s Huygens probe made history when it descended to the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan and became the first probe to successfully land on another world in the outer Solar System. However, during its descent, the probe began spinning the wrong way – and recent tests now reveal why.

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