The Space Race

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Gene Cernan, last man to walk on Moon, dies aged 82
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Cernan

Captain Cernan was one of only three people to go to the Moon twice and the last man to leave a footprint on the lunar surface in 1972.

The final words he spoke there were: "We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return with peace and hope for all mankind."

He was the commander of the Apollo 17 mission at the time.

Cernan had travelled into space twice before that - in 1966 and 1969.

A qualified naval aviator, he was selected into the third group of Nasa astronauts in 1963.

He retired in 1976, going into private business and contributing to US television channels on a variety of issues.

Cernan also produced a documentary film about his life, which he discussed at length in this BBC interview in 2014.

Cernan was born on 14 March 1934, in Chicago.

APOLLO 17
Facts


Lunar Module: Challenger

Command and Service Module: America

Crew: Eugene A. Cernan, commander
Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot
Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot

Launch: December 7, 1972
05:33:00 UT (12:33:00 a.m. EST)
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A

Landing Site: Taurus-Littrow
(20.18N, 30.76E)

Landed on Moon: December 11, 1972
19:54:57 UT (02:54:57 p.m. EST)

EVA Duration: 22 hours 4 minutes
( EVA 1: 7 hr 12 min, EVA 2: 7 hr 37 min., EVA 3 ended at 05:40:56 GMT on December 14.)

Lunar Surface Traversed: 30 kilometers

Moon Rocks Returned: 110 kilograms

LM Departed Moon: December 14, 1972
22:54:37 UT (5:54:37 p.m. EST)

Time on Lunar Surface: 74 hr. 59 min. 40 sec.
[19:54:57 UT December 11, 1972 - 22:54:37 GMT December 14, 1972]

Returned to Earth: December 19, 1972
splashdown at 19:24:59 UT (2:24:59p.m. EST)

Mission Duration: 301 hr. 51 min. 59 sec.

Retrieval site: Pacific Ocean 17° 53' S, 166° 7' W

Retrieval ship: U.S.S. Ticonderoga

Special Payload: Third mission with a lunar roving vehicle (LRV) that could transport two astronauts. The LRV could also carry tools, scientific equipment, communications gear, and lunar samples.

Highlights/Notes:

• First geologist on lunar surface.
• Longest LRV traverse on a single EVA.
• Greatest amount of lunar samples returned to Earth.

 

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Iridium-1 (full webcast)

Latest space news: (Rocket Science in 120, Earth from Space, SpacetoGround)

Atlas V SBIRS GEO Flight 3 (full broadcast)

 

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Latest Space videos:

Atlas V SBIRS GEO Flight 3 Launch Highlights

 

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Russia's space program and NASA are working together on a mission to Venus to try and uncover its mysteries - and look for signs of life.

Called Venera-D, the groundbreaking mission would send an orbiter to study Venus from above for at least three years, plus a lander that will operate for a few hours on the planet's surface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera-D


An international team of scientists tasked with deciding the main goals of the mission will deliver its final report to NASA and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute by the end of the month, David Senske, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. told Space.com.

A series of Russian probes sent to the planet in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, known as the Venera spacecraft, were able to survive no more than a few hours on the surface. Shown are images from the Venera 9 (top) and Venera 10 (bottom) probes that landed on the surface

http://vfm.jpl.nasa.gov/othervenusmissions/veneravegarussia/

 

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Arianespace Flight VS16: Hispasat 36W-1

Liftoff is scheduled for Friday, January 27, 2017 at exactly:

- 22:03:34 p.m., local time in French Guiana

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Russia's space agency said on Wednesday it had ordered extra checks to be made on its Proton-M rockets, meaning it might be forced to delay some satellite launches this year.

Roscosmos, the Russian equivalent of NASA, made the announcement after the Kommersant daily reported that manufacturing problems had been detected in some Proton-M rockets.

It said some launches were likely to be delayed by several months 'in a best case scenario.'

European, U.S. and Asian firms rely heavily on Russia to launch their commercial satellites, and a Roscosmos source told Kommersant that Moscow planned to launch 27 rockets this year, eight of which were Proton-Ms.

Kommersant reported that the problem was linked to components used in the rockets' engines and concerns that some of them were not sufficiently heat-resistant.

 

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Arianespace Flight VS16 / Hispasat 36W-1 (full broadcast) (1 h 36 m)

Launch + highlights (5 mins)

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Dream Chaser mini 'space taxi' arrives at Edwards Air Force Base ahead of 2019 missions to the International Space Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Chaser

The upcoming test campaign will help SNC validate the aerodynamic properties, flight software and control system performance of the Dream Chaser.

It is being prepared to deliver cargo to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract beginning in 2019.

The data that SNC gathers from this test campaign will help influence and inform the final design of the cargo Dream Chaser, which will fly at least six cargo delivery missions to and from the space station by 2024.

3 years ago

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

The first private space station------ Axiom to blast commercial module to the ISS in 2020


Houston-based Axiom Space is working to build the privately-owned orbiting outpost that could one day replace the International Space Station and even bring tourists to space.

Axiom has already been granted NASA approval to attach its first commercial module to the ISS in 2020, and the firm says this could eventually provide the building blocks for their own station.

Axiom is working toward a ‘historic shift,’ in human spaceflight with the Axiom International Commercial Space Station, according to Space.com.

The commercial space station would host astronauts from government agencies along with private companies and individual researchers.

And, the firm would use it to grow the space-tourism business.

According to Axiom, training will start in 2017, with missions to follow in 2019.

‘We are now deep into conversations with our first nonsovereign astronaut customers,’ Axiom’s vice president of strategic development Amir Blachman told Space.com in an exclusive interview.

‘The pace is quick. We’re answering a demand that’s clearly there…the demand is there; the need is there.’

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Axiom has partnered with Made In Space – the California company that created 3-D printed products on the ISS.

Space.com.

 

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[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

NASA is brought back to life in striking coloured photographs

The images, which have been expertly colourised over hundreds of hours of painstaking work, show intense discussions raging at Mission Control as well as astronauts in their space suits.

Gordon Cooper in May of 1963 during project Mercury - the first human spaceflight program of the United States

John Glenn in 1962 during project Mercury, which saw Glenn make three orbits around the Earth on the Friendship 7 mission


The striking transformations were carried out by Irish artist Matt Loughrey as part of his project for 'My Colourful Past', who spent over 300 hours colourising the images.

 

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Latest space news:

 

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Arianespace has successfully launched two satellites: SKY Brasil-1 for AT&T/DIRECTV; and Telkom 3S for Telkom Indonesia as part of a turnkey contract with Thales Alenia Space. The flight took place on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 6:39 p.m. (local time) from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Christophe Sirugue, French Minister of State for Industry, was on hand for the launch. This launch was the second of the year for Arianespace and the first with the Ariane 5 heavy launcher, which also recorded its 77th successful mission in a row.

full coverage

highlights

 

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Progress MS-05 work in progress

SAGE III ready for ozone checkup

The Earth: 4K Extended Edition

India launches record 104 satellites in single mission

 

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BIG space news.


Bob Walker, an adviser to the Trump transition team and a former congressman who chaired the House Science Committee, said Tuesday: “What I hear being discussed is the potential for sometime within the first Trump term being able to go and do an Apollo 8 mission" -- meaning a lunar orbit mission like the one performed by Apollo 8 in December 1968.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...practice-moon-mission/?utm_term=.2055d289cbe2

 

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"Союз-У" with "Прогресс МС-05" rollout

Launch is on Wednesday (22 February)

 

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VA235 / Behind the Scenes

CRS-10 Falcon 9

 

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Progress MS-05 launch

 

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Russias leading aerospace design contractor, Energia, has announced that it will start tourist flights to the moon in 2022.

The firm says it will sell nine places on its Soyuz spacecraft this spring that would allow tourists to fly within the moon's orbit on the way to the International Space Station

Vladimir Solntsev, CEO of Energia, announced the firm's plans this week.

Speaking to RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, Mr Solntsev said: 'In particular, we are ready to sign with one of such companies an agreement in March 2017.

'The flyby around the moon with space tourists could take place within five or six years after the signing of the contract.

https://ria.ru/space/20170222/1488564486.html

 

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Atlas V NROL-79 (launch and highlights) (March 1)

Sentinel-2B (full broadcast and highlights) (March 6)

 

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Valentina Tereshkova's 80th birthday

Documentary (Russian)

 

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Russias leading aerospace design contractor, Energia, has announced that it will start tourist flights to the moon in 2022.

The firm says it will sell nine places on its Soyuz spacecraft this spring that would allow tourists to fly within the moon's orbit on the way to the International Space Station

'The flyby around the moon with space tourists could take place within five or six years after the signing of the contract.

Curious to know if this commercial venture is subject to US / Nato /EU Sanctions ( as applied from Russia's Ukraine annexation adventures ).

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

NASA engineers have successfully simulated the Orion spacecraft’s descent from 25,000 feet in the second of eight tests that will ready its parachutes for human spaceflight.

The test this week dropped a model of Orion from a C-17 aircraft, relying on two drogue parachutes and the three 116-foot-wide main parachutes for a safe landing.

It comes as NASA continues to investigate a request from Donald Trump's administration to asses the feasibility of sending a crew around the moon with the first integrated flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, Exploration Mission-1.

The tests at the US Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on Wednesday simulated what might happen if astronauts had to abort a mission after lift-off.

The model craft was dropped from an altitude of 25,000 feet, mimicking conditions in which Orion is traveling at a relatively slow speed of roughly 130 miles per hour.

During a normal re-entry at the end of its mission, the craft is expected to be traveling about 310mph.

Engineers focused on two main aspects of the system: the deployment of its two 23-foot-wide drogue parachutes, which are used to slow and stabilize the crew module, and the massive main parachutes that will slow the module to a safe landing speed.

This week’s test was the second of eight airdrop tests which are necessary to certify the parachute system for a crewed flight

 

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U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Departs the ISS

Soyuz MS-04 (work in progress)

Delta IV WGS-9 (March 17) launch

full broadcast and highlights

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

The world's oldest and most experienced spacewoman, Peggy Whitson, broke another record on Thursday as she floated out of the International Space Station to set up a new parking spot.

It was the eighth spacewalk of her career, the most ever performed by a woman.

The NASA flight engineer is currently in the midst of her third stint at the International Space Station, and altogether, she's spent more than 500 days off the planet.

This, too, is more than any other woman.


And, midway through the spacewalk, Whitson will surpass the current record for women of 50 hours and 40 minutes of total accumulated spacewalking time, held by former space station resident Sunita Williams.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Whitson