The remains of a giant segment of a Chinese rocket crash-landed in the Atlantic Ocean this week, representing the most significant uncontrolled descent of a piece of human-made space debris in decades.
The core stage of a Chinese Long March 5B (CZ–5B) rocket, which was successfully launched on May 5, spent several days in orbit as part of its mission, before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and falling to Earth, splashing down in ocean waters off the west coast of Mauritania in northwest Africa.
The descent, which was eventually confirmed by the 18th Space Control Squadron, a unit of the US Air Force, was notable not just for its huge mass, but also for the extent of the window of uncontrolled descent, which had space-object trackers guessing just where and when the out-of-control rocket would eventually land.
A Cygnus supply ship built by Northrop Grumman departed the International Space Station Monday, beginning an extended mission in orbit to deploy a pair of CubeSats and perform a NASA-sponsored fire experiment. FULL STORY: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/11/cygnus-departs-station…l-mission/
If schedules hold, United Launch Alliance and SpaceX will highlight this weekend with back-to-back rocket launches, a cadence rarely seen on the Space Coast.
First on the Space Force’s calendar is X-37B, a secretive Department of Defense spaceplane that stays in orbit years at a time, testing new systems and capabilities. The 29-foot vehicle will fly on an Atlas V rocket between 6:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Saturday, though an exact time has not yet been released due to security concerns. Launch Complex 41 will host the attempt.
Though most of the spaceplane’s capabilities are classified, the Space Force said the mission known as Orbital Test Vehicle 6 will host more experiments than ever before. Some of those include testing radiation’s effects on seeds, transforming solar power to transmissible microwave energy, and how space affects different kinds of materials.
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos announced on Sunday that the tanks of a rocket that launched a scientific satellite back in 2011 have disintegrated in Earth’s orbit above the Indian Ocean.
The 18th Space Control Squadron of the US Air Force said on Saturday that it is now tracking 65 separate pieces associated with the rocket’s upper stage. “No indication caused by collision,” the squadron wrote in a May 9 tweet confirming the news.
“Currently we are working to collect data to confirm the quantity and orbit parameters of the fragments,” Russia’s space agency said in a statement, as quoted by Agence France-Presse.
The agency said researchers in a recent study it sponsored found that urea, the main organic compound in urine, would make the mixture for a “lunar concrete” more malleable before it hardens into its sturdy final form.
WASHINGTON — SpaceX on May 6 was awarded an $8.9 million contract modification that gives the U.S. Space Force direct insight into the inner workings of the company’s commercial and civil space missions.
The contract for “non-National Security Space fleet surveillance” gives the Space Force access to SpaceX missions until November.
“This contract provides for non-NSS fleet surveillance efforts across the SpaceX family of launch vehicles for non-NSS missions,” said the contract announcement. The $8.9 million is an addition to an existing $297 million contract awarded to SpaceX in February 2019 for three national security launches.
China plans to send an astronaut to the Moon in about a decade and then build a base there. Its lunar rover on the far side has driven about 450 metres so far.
The next big mission for Beijing is to land a probe on Mars, with liftoff expected this year.
Space agency tests new design that is billed to replace current Shenzhou module, a copy of Russia’s Soyuz.
The U.S. space agency National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are inviting coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to participate in a virtual hackathon May 30–31 dedicated to putting open data to work in developing solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the global Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge, participants from around the world will create virtual teams that – during a 48-hour period – will use Earth observation data to propose solutions to COVID-19-related challenges ranging from studying the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and its spread to the impact the disease is having on the Earth system. Registration for this challenge opens in mid-May.
“There’s a tremendous need for our collective ingenuity right now,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “I can’t imagine a more worthy focus than COVID-19 on which to direct the energy and enthusiasm from around the world with the Space Apps Challenge that always generates such amazing solutions.”
The unique capabilities of NASA and its partner space agencies in the areas of science and technology enable them to lend a hand during this global crisis. Since the start of the global outbreak, Earth science specialists from each agency have been exploring ways to use unique Earth observation data to aid understanding of the interplay of the Earth system – on global to local scales – with aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak, including, potentially, our ability to combat it. The hackathon will also examine the human and economic response to the virus.
