In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s Saffire-1 experiment provided ground-based researchers with imagery from a major fire in the microgravity of space last week.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Europe’s Orion service module shipment to U.S. delayed by three months
Space News (6/17): The European Space Agency’s service module contribution to the NASA Orion crew capsule that is slated for a late 2018 unmanned test flight will reach the U.S. for pre-launch testing three months later than originally scheduled, according to the report. The new arrival date on U.S. shores was declared as late April 2017 rather than January, following a June 16 program review that involved NASA’s Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin and ESA’s service module prime, Airbus Defence and Space. Exploration Mission-1 is to launch the Orion/service module combination atop NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket on a trip around the moon and back to Earth.
China recruits public for space capsule experiment
China.org (6/17): Four volunteers, three men and a woman have started a ground-based simulation of a six-month space mission. The physical and psychological health of the volunteers will be monitored while they are encamped in Shenzhen. Their simulated space enclosure includes a variety of plants to supplement their diet. The participants were selected from more than 2,100 volunteers.
Space Science
This is what it looks like when fire burns inside a spacecraft
Ars Technica (6/17): NASA’s Saffire-1 experiment provided ground-based researchers with imagery from a major fire in the microgravity of space last week. A cotton/fiberglass cloth sample was ignited aboard Orbital ATK’s unmanned Cygnus re-supply capsule hours after it departed the International Space Station. Cameras and sensors in Cygnus captured the action and are relaying the data back to Earth before the capsule burns up in the atmosphere on June 22. The capsule launched Mar. 23 on a NASA contracted re-supply mission to the six-person space station.
NASA’s 1976 Viking mission to Mars did all that was hoped for it, except find Martians
The Washington Post (6/18): No would could completely rule out the possibility a Martian creature might go hopping by. That was the outlook in the summer of 1976, as NASA prepared for the landing of the camera- and instrument-equipped Viking 1 on July 4. Then a first for a fully operational Mars spacecraft, there was hope that Viking 1 and its companion Viking 2 would confirm the presence of biological activity.
Methanol, a building block of life, found around newborn star for 1st time
Space.com (6/17): One of life’s building blocks, methanol, is evident in the planet-forming environment of a newborn star, according to scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array in Chile. The first-time detection suggests the ingredient may be widely present in other planet-forming regions. The sun-like star TW Hydrae lies 170 light years from the Earth.
Low Earth Orbit
Soyuz spacecraft brings home three-man Space Station crew
Spaceflightnow.com/CBS (6/18): Russia’s Soyuz TMA-19M space capsule landed early Saturday, descending into central Kazakhstan with NASA’s Tim Kopra, the European Space Agency’s Tim Peake and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. The three men landed safely with parachute assistance after 186 days aboard the International Space Station. Their U.S., Russian and Japanese replacements are preparing to launch in early July.
China opens space station to rest of the world with United Nations agreement
GB Times (6/17): A United Nations agreement signed by China would open Beijing’s planned space station to astronauts, spacecraft and science experiments from other nations. Wu Ping, Deputy of China’s Manned Space Agency, made the presentation before the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space annual session in Vienna last Tuesday. The core of China’s space station is set for launching in 2018. The European Space Agency has shown interest, according to the report.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Ariane 5 rocket launches satellites for EchoStar and Indonesia’s BRI bank
Space News (6/18): A pair of telecommunications satellites, one for Dish Network and another for the BRI bank, of Indonesia, were placed into geostationary transfer orbit by an Arianespace Ariane-5 rocket launched from Europe’s Guiana Space Center spaceport on Saturday. It was the heaviest payload for an Ariane 5 to the transfer destination so far.
Why Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is building the world’s largest airplane
Washington Post (6/20): Vulcan Aerospace, led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is well underway with the assembly of the world’s largest airplane. Stratolaunch, with a wingspan of 385 feet, is designed to rise 35,000 feet from the runway with a launch vehicle strapped beneath for release and ignition. Vulcan believes Stratolaunch rivals the personal computer in innovative potential when it comes to space applications. When the large plane will take to the skies, however, is unclear.
Suborbital
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin live-streams its spaceship’s risky test flight
Geek Wire (6/19): With 15,000 viewers watching a live stream feed of the test flight early Sunday, Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle rose from its West Texas base to 331,501 feet before descending to a vertical landing for a fourth time. The uncrewed passenger capsule separated and demonstrated a safe landing with two rather than three parachutes. The successful flight spanned 10 minutes. “Picture perfect. That’s exactly what we want,” said Blue Origin engineer Geoffrey Huntington, who provided launch commentary for the web audience.
Jeff Bezos ready to beat Richard Branson in the billionaire space race
The Daily Beast (6/18): Bezos’s Blue Origin and an accelerating New Shepard flight test program has the Seattle-based company nearing suborbital passenger space travel, perhaps overtaking rival pioneer Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of June 20-25, 2016
Spacepolicyonline.com (6/19): The U.S. Senate Commerce, Justice and Science Committee deliberations over 2017 appropriations, which include the budgets for NASA and NOAA, resume this week. The European Space Agency’s first British astronaut, Tim Peake, will participate in a news conference Tuesday. Peake returned from 186 days aboard the International Space Station early Saturday with NASA’s Tim Kopra and Russia’s Yuri Malenchenko. Also, Saturday may feature the first launch from China’s new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island.