Weekly Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 16.10.19

Front Page / Titelseite

Title picture / Titelbild: ESA–S. Corvaja

Euclid completes thermal-vacuum balance tests

This is the first entry in the Euclid Test Campaign Journal, a series of articles covering the main events during testing of the Structural and Thermal Model (STM) and Flight Model (FM) of the spacecraft. The mission, scheduled for launch in 2022,

Reflecting on deep space

Operations image of the week: This 32-metre antenna is undergoing an important transformation. Soon, it will be ready to communicate with spacecraft across deep space

NASA Tests Mars 2020 Rover’s Sky Crane Landing Tech

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission has reached another milestone with a successful separation test of the descent stage that will deliver the six-wheeled robot to the surface of the Red Planet.

NASA Wants to Encourage Private Space Stations

NASA is continuing to take steps to encourage companies to explore space station developments, both on the International Space Station and beyond.

Moon 2024: NASA Wants Ideas for Lunar Spacesuit Tech

NASA is looking to the private sector to help mature and manufacture the spacesuit it will need for its future moon missions, the first of which is targeted for 2024.

Hubble finds water vapour on habitable-zone exoplanet for the first time [heic1916]

With data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, water vapour has been detected in the atmosphere of a super-Earth within the habitable zone by University College London (UCL) researchers in a world first.

India’s Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter at the Moon Is Now Tracking Solar Flares

An Indian spacecraft may be orbiting the moon, but it’s also gathering valuable data about other key players in our solar system.

Boeing Aims to Launch Unpiloted Starliner Test Flight to Space Station in December

Boeing has set a new launch date for the first orbital flight of its new commercial crew vehicle that will soon begin ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

NASA Just Unveiled the Spacesuit to be Worn by First Woman on the Moon

NASA on Tuesday (Oct. 15) unveiled new prototypes of the spacesuits that will be worn by the first woman to walk on the moon.

Hubble observes new interstellar visitor [heic1918]

On 12 October 2019, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provided astronomers with their best look yet at an interstellar visitor – Comet 2I/Borisov – which is believed to have arrived here from another planetary system elsewhere in our galaxy.

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Interstellar Comet Borisov (Video)

NASA’s venerable Hubble Space Telescope turned its eyes to interstellar visitor Comet 2I/Borisov and caught a surprise: The interloper looks a lot like comets from our own solar system.

NASA’s 1st SLS Megarocket Launch to the Moon Could Be Delayed to 2021

NASA is officially targeting 2020 for the first test flight of its long-delayed Space Launch System megarocket, but it may not launch until mid-2021, an agency official said.

European-Russian ExoMars Rover Team in ‘Race Against the Clock’ to Fix Parachutes for 2020 Launch

The European-Russian ExoMars 2020 mission will have to find some parachute fixes fast if it wants to be ready for launch next summer.

NASA Mars lander may be able to save its stuck ‘mole’

A clever workaround seems to be helping the InSight lander burrow into the Red Planet.

via cnet.com https://www.cnet.com

Uncharted territory –
Adding pressure on the mole with the arm scoop appears to be helping. Using my arm in creative ways to get the job done. More to come as my team studies initial hammering test results. pic.twitter.com/2wZccP1uMn
— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) October 9, 2019

Mole Movement! Mars Lander’s Heat Probe Gets a Little Unstuck

The InSight Mars lander’s burrowing heat probe has moved a few centimeters recently, suggesting that a boulder isn’t blocking its path — and that the mission team may be able to get it fully unstuck at some point.

Space Biology, Human Research Day Before Spacewalk

Two astronauts will suit up Friday morning for the second spacewalk in a series of five this month to upgrade International Space Station power systems. In the meantime, the duo and the rest of the Expedition 61 crew are staying on top of ongoing microgravity research today aboard the orbiting lab.

Crew Relaxes Day Before Spacewalk Preps and Cancer, DNA Research

Four of the six Expedition 61 crewmembers are relaxing today before ramping up final preparations for Friday’s spacewalk. The two cosmonauts maintained their normal schedule of Russian science and maintenance activities.

NASA-Chef Bridenstine rechnet mit Wiederaufnahme der US-Flüge zur ISS in der ersten Hälfte 2020

Der Chef der US-Luft- und Raumfahrtbehörde NASA, Jim Bridenstine, rechnet mit der Wiederaufnahme der bemannten Flüge amerikanischer Raumschiffe zur Internationalen Raumstation ISS in der ersten Hälfte des kommenden Jahres. Bei den Vorbereitungen dafür laufe wie bei vielen neuen Dingen allerdings nicht alles nach Plan, sagte er bei einem Besuch […]

Second of Five Power Upgrade Spacewalks Wraps Up

Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan of NASA concluded their spacewalk at the International Space Station at 2:23 p.m. EDT. During six-hour and 45-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts continued the replacement of nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries on the far end of the station’s port truss.

NASA Astronauts Continue the Series of Spacewalks for Power Upgrades

Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch of NASA will continue the series of spacewalks outside of the International Space Station at about 7:50 a.m. EDT to upgrade the station’s solar array batteries. Watch the spacewalk coverage now on NASA TV and the agency’s website.

Internationale Raumstation: Keime könnten All-Touristen gefährlich werden – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft

In den kommenden Jahren sollen Weltraumtouristen ins All fliegen. Doch die Reise könnte für die Hobby-Astronauten bisher unterschätzte Gefahren mit sich bringen. Forscher warnen vor fiesen Bazillen.

ISS-Kosmonaut schickt zwei Nachrichten zur Erde: eine gute und eine schlechte

Der russische ISS-Kosmonaut Alexander Skworzow hat am Montag zwei Nachrichten zu verkünden gehabt: eine gute und eine schlechte. Die gute kam zuerst und lautete: In Russland sind ab sofort alle Fernsehsendungen digital zu empfangen. Das Analog-Fernsehen in dem Riesenreich ist Vergangenheit. Die andere Nachricht war weniger erfreulich, denn Skworzow […]

All-Female Spacewalk Preps, Science and New Commercial Cargo Vehicle Today

NASA has set the first all-female spacewalk for later this week while the Expedition 61 crew works life science today aboard the International Space Station. A new commercial cargo vehicle is also being readied for future delivery missions.

Christina Koch, Jessica Meir Will Venture Outside Station Late This Week

Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will venture outside the International Space Station late this week to replace a power controller that failed during the weekend. The spacewalk, the first ever that will be conducted by two women, is planned for Thursday or Friday.

Wenn die Uni Bochum bei der ISS anruft …

Eine Operation fast so komplex wie ein Raumflug: Gestern war der derzeitige ISS-Kommandant Luca Parmitano 20 Minuten lang mit Lehrern in drei europäischen Ländern verbunden, wobei die Übertragung über die ESA im ESTEC in den Niederlanden geschaltet wurde – dieser Live-Call war von der Bildungs-Abteilung der ESA organisiert worden, namentlich den drei European Space Education Resource Offices in Deutschland, Italien und den Niederlanden.

Koch, Meir Spacewalk Moves to Friday as Crew Adjusts Schedule

NASA is targeting a spacewalk for no earlier than Friday to replace a failed power controller, also known as the battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU). The Expedition 61 crew is adjusting its schedule this week to accommodate the new spacewalk plans at the International Space Station.

read more … https://ift.tt/31p0wuZvia Space Station https://ift.tt/1YeiiOv

Earth / Erde

NASA Launches Long-Delayed ICON Space Weather Satellite to Study Earth’s Ionosphere

NASA’s long-awaited ICON mission has finally taken off after years of delays.

Space Junk Menace: New Guidelines Urged to Help Fight Orbital Debris Threat

We can minimize the chances of a catastrophic cascade of collisions if satellite designers and operators follow a few simple rules, according to the Space Safety Coalition.

SpaceX’s Starlink Constellation Could Swell by 30,000 More Satellites

SpaceX’s Starlink internet-satellite constellation may end up being even bigger than we thought — a lot bigger.

Doing Something Again For The First Time

I first published this two years ago. Yesterday both Jim Bridenstine and Elon Musk noted that they were not alive when humans walked on the Moon – so they do not have memories of that event. Alas, so much of how NASA has conveyed the importance of Artemis – and the way that the media describes it – seems to harken back to events that my fellow Baby Boomers and I resonate with.

China’s Chang’e 4 Completes 10 Lunar Days on Far Side of the Moon

China’s Chang’e 4 mission has completed 10 lunar days of activity on the far side of the moon, returning new images and carrying out science tasks.

When Will The Artemis Open Source Thing Begin?

Keith’s note: So when does the whole “open source” thing begin with regard to NASA’s moon stuff?

This is the 1st Photo of China’s Mars Explorer Launching in 2020

The first picture of China’s new Mars explorer has been unveiled,setting the stage for an ambitious mission the country will launch to the Red Planet next year.

Mars: Spuren austrocknender Teiche

„Salze sind eine Art geochemischer Fingerabdruck der Vergangenheit der von Seen auf der Erde hinterlassenen Becken“, erläutern Willliam Rapin vom California Institute of Technology und seine Kollegen.

River relic spied by Mars Express

Mars may seem to be an alien world, but many of its features look eerily familiar – such as this ancient, dried-up river system that stretches out for nearly 700 kilometres across the surface, making it one of the longest valley networks on the planet.

PIA23438: Colors on the Wind

The Downlink: NASA Works to Save Mars Experiment, Saturn Gets 20 New Moons

Planetary exploration news for busy people

Hubble reveals latest portrait of Saturn [heic1917]

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed Saturn on 20 June 2019 as the planet made its closest approach to Earth this year, at approximately 1.36 billion kilometres away.

Hubble Showcases New Portrait of Jupiter [heic1914]

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals the intricate, detailed beauty of Jupiter’s clouds in this new image taken on 27 June 2019 [1].

Virgin Orbit Could Launch Polish Cubesat Mission to Mars in 2022

Polish scientists are developing a first-of-its-kind cubesat mission to Mars that could launch as early as 2022.

Cassini finds soluble organic compounds in ocean-world Enceladus

Scientists analysing archival data from the international Cassini mission have found evidence of light, soluble and reactive organic molecules in the ice grains ejected by Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.

Hubble explores the formation and evolution of star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Just as people of the same age can vary greatly in appearance and shape, so do collections of stars or stellar aggregates. New observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope suggest that chronological age alone does not tell the complete story when it comes to the evolution of star clusters.

Mysteriously in-sync pulsar challenges existing theories

For the first time, astronomers have detected synchronised pulses of optical and X-ray radiation from a mysterious pulsar some 4500 light years away. The observations indicate that a new physical mechanism might be needed to explain the behaviour of fast-spinning sources like this one, known as transitional millisecond pulsars.

Unexpected periodic flares may shed light on black hole accretion

ESA’s X-ray space telescope XMM-Newton has detected never-before-seen periodic flares of X-ray radiation coming from a distant galaxy that could help explain some enigmatic behaviours of active black holes.

Lawmakers Grill NASA Chief on Moon-by-2024 Budget, Schedule

A key group of congressional budgeters have big questions for NASA chief Jim Bridenstine about his moon-landing goals — and he doesn’t have the answers they want.

NASA’s Long-Delayed Space Weather Mission Just Got Delayed Again

NASA’s long-awaited space weather mission is making scientists wait again — ironically, due to terrestrial weather.

Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX’s Mars-Colonizing Transportation System

How Elon Musk plans to help settle the Red Planet.

Milky Way’s Center Will Be Revealed by NASA’s Webb Telescope

After its launch, Webb will gather infrared light that has penetrated the dusty veil, revealing the galactic center in unprecedented detail.

Scientists Propose New Satellite Tech to Dodge Space Junk from Megaconstellations

New infrared cameras and gel-based thrusters just might help future satellites dodge space debris, a new study finds.

UK’s 1st Moon Rover to Launch in 2021

The United Kingdom is set to make its own giant leap soon, with a very small rover.

Electric and magnetic fields under control for Solar Orbiter

An important stage in the development of ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission was completed between May and June, when a series of tests to validate the electromagnetic compatibility and magnetic properties was carried out on the spacecraft’s flight model.

Moon VIPER: NASA Wants to Send a Water-Sniffing Rover to the Lunar South Pole in 2022

NASA is already pulling together plans for what could become its first long-lived robotic rover on the moon’s surface, designed to sniff out water and targeting a landing date of 2022.

Northrop Grumman Cargo Ship Launch to Space Station Delayed to November

An Antares rocket originally scheduled to launch on October 21 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will now launch after November 2.

Scottish Spaceport to Begin Construction Soon

Construction on a low-cost vertical spaceport in the north of Scotland may commence within a year, pending the approval of a planning application by a local authority.

First-of-Its-Kind Satellite Servicing Spacecraft Launches on Russian Rocket

Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) launched today (Oct. 9) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, kicking off a first-of-its-kind commercial-servicing mission.

Rocket Lab Swaps Satellite Customers for Electron Launch Next Week

The private spaceflight company Rocket Lab will loft a small satellite for the California-based firm Astro Digital from New Zealand next week in a last-minute mission swap for the commercial launch company

Kosmos-Legende, Künstler, Banker und Verschwörungsstheoretiker – Zum Tod von Alexej Leonow

Er war nach Juri Gagarin der wohl legendärste russische Kosmonaut: Alexej Archipowitsch Leonow. Am 18. März 1965 ging er als erster „Weltraumspaziergänger“ über Nacht wie sein großer Landsmann in die Geschichte ein. Jetzt ist er im 86. Lebensjahr gestorben.

Astronauts Mourn Alexei Leonov, the World’s 1st Spacewalker, While On a Spacewalk of Their Own

Alexei Leonov, the world’s first spacewalker, died in a Moscow hospital Friday (Oct. 11), but his legacy lives on aboard the International Space Station where the crew performed a spacewalk today.

Alexei Leonov: Spacewalk Pioneer

Alexei Leonov was the first person to leave the relative safety of his spacecraft and experience the silence of space.

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, Who Was First to Walk in Space, Dies at 85

Soviet-era cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who in 1965 became the first person to walk in space before co-leading the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first joint mission between Russia and the United States, has died at the age of 85.

ASE ehrt Sigmund Jähn und die anderen verstorbenen Raumfahrer

Die Vereinigung der Raumfahrer (ASE) hat am Montag zum Auftakt ihrer 32. Plenartagung in Houston (Texas) ihrer im letzten Berichtszeitraum verstorbenen Mitglieder gedacht. Worte ehrenden Gedenkens sprach ASE-Chef Michael Lopez-Alegeria (USA) für Sigmund Jähn (Deutschland), Owen Garriott und Richard Searfoss (USA) sowie Waleri Bykowski, Gennadi Manakow und Alexej Leonow […]

Exoplanet and cosmology discoveries awarded Nobel Prize in Physics

ESA congratulates 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics laureates Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, who have been awarded the prestigious prize for the first discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star, and James Peebles, honoured for the theoretical framework of cosmology used to investigate the Universe on its largest scales.

Space Explorers From Around the World Gather for Planetary Congress

The largest gathering of astronauts and cosmonauts in history came together for the Association of Space Explorers’ XXXII Planetary Congress, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing.

When Space Experts Say Things Just To Get Quoted

NASA paid SpaceX for safety review after Musk smoked pot, Politico “The episode raises a number of questions, said Pete Garrettson, a recently retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and space strategist. “As a taxpayer why would I pay when I don’t have to?” he asked. “If I was Boeing, I also would have said, ‘Why am I being punished without the same compensation?’ But if the aerospace giant wanted NASA to

Astronauts Debut Mission Patch for SpaceX Dragon Crewed Flight Test

The first astronauts scheduled to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft have provided a first look at their mission patch.

A Soviet Satellite Falls to Earth in ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 10. How Realistic Is It?

The episode “Lines We Cross” ends with an old Soviet satellite crashing to Earth, sparking a new plot point for the show. But how realistic is it? We asked a scientist.

Explore the variable sources in Hubble’s sky

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a new resource for astronomers: the Hubble Catalog of Variables (HCV), which is the first full, homogeneous catalogue of variable sources based on archival data from the iconic observatory.

Gaia untangles the starry strings of the Milky Way

Rather than leaving home young, as expected, stellar ‘siblings’ prefer to stick together in long-lasting, string-like groups, finds a new study of data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft.

How the Universe Stopped Making Sense

What’s going on?

A Cosmic Mystery: Why is the Milky Way Galaxy Getting Gassier?

Using 10 years of data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the team of astronomers concluded that there is more gas coming into our galaxy than leaving it.

How Can a Star Be Older Than the Universe?

Somebody is lying about their age.

NASA Slammed a Rocket Body Into the Moon for Science 10 Years Ago Today

Ten years ago today (Oct. 9), NASA slammed a hunk of space junk into the moon, forever changing our perception of Earth’s nearest neighbor.

In 1983, Carl Sagan Urged NASA to Send a Mission to Saturn and Titan

“We very much hope that NASA will be able to make an early commitment to such a mission,” wrote Sagan to administrator James Beggs.