In Today’s Deep Space Extra… A new cargo mission is expected to reach the International Space Station early Wednesday. Astronomers find the most distant star yet and a huge Mercury like planet.
Human Space Exploration
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft embark on second flight to ISS
Florida Today (4/2): A NASA contracted SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon cargo vessel lifted off Monday afternoon from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on a 5,800 pound resupply mission to the International Space Station. Arrival is expected early Wednesday. Both the Falcon 9 core stage and Dragon had flown previous Space Station cargo missions.
New research heading to Space Station aboard 14th SpaceX resupply mission
NASA (4/2): The latest cargo mission to the International Space Station, launched on Monday, will support dozens of science experiments, ranging from a new plant growth strategy for supplying future astronauts with fresh nutrients and cleansing their air of carbon dioxide to slowing bone loss in the absence of gravity. Others will study a new technique for assessing the effectiveness of medications and producing metal structures from powders and heat that does not include a liquid state. A new external space station instrument will study the effects of lightning on weather and climate.
Space Science
Space Review (4/2): After a major reorganization in 2011, the NASA led James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) appeared to be on schedule and budget to meet an October 2018 launch date and remain within an $8 billion development cost cap. Then the project seemed to unravel again, with two recent delays now placing the launch in May 2020. The more recent challenge has been integrating the observatory’s highly technical components and testing them for the launch and ultimately a harsh space environment much too distant for astronauts to attempt repairs.
Rare cosmic alignment reveals most distant star ever seen
Space.com (4/2): This ordinary star discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope resides 9 billion light years from the Earth. The age of the universe is estimated at 13.8 billion years. The find was made with gravitational lensing. “Ordinary” means the star’s fuel is hydrogen, which it is fusing into helium.
A new extrasolar planet has the composition of Mercury, but 2.5 times the mass of Earth
Universe Today (4/1): The unusual extra solar planet K2-229b is a recent rocky planet discovery 339 light years away. Significantly larger and more massive than the Earth, K2-229b has a composition similar to Mercury’s. It circles its star so closely that is also several times hotter than its solar system sibling.
First age-map of the heart of the Milky Way
Science Daily (4/2): The first large-scale age-map of the Milky Way shows that a period of star formation lasting around 4 billion years created the complex structure at the heart of our galaxy.
Other News
Proton, Soyuz engine reinspections complete, Roscosmos says
Space News (4/2): Khrunichev’s Voronezh Mechanical Plant has verified that 58 Proton engines as well as 16 Soyuz engines identified in late 2016 as having possible defective solder joints meet specifications for use. The discovery halted Proton launches for several months. Voronezh did not identify how many defective engines were detected.
Mysterious Russian reconnaissance satellite successfully launched
Spaceflightnow.com (4/2): Russia’s Ministry of Defense acknowledges the launch of a small satellite last Thursday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and what could be a spacecraft developed for defensive purposes and capable of taking high resolution Earth imagery.