Tag: NASA
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Astronauts complete second spacewalk to upgrade Space Station
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover have completed their second EVA (extravehicular activity, or spacewalk) outside the ISS in less than one week to continue upgrading the orbital outpost and accomplish miscellaneous tasks during US EVA-70. The duo performed a previous spacewalk last week dedicated largely to communications upgrades for the European Space Agency’s…
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Spacewalkers upgrade station cameras, complete battery work
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Victor Glover works outside the International Space Station on Feb. 1, 2021. Image: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now. Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover floated back outside the International Space Station Monday and completed solar array battery replacement work that began four years ago. They also installed three new video…
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NASA decides to redo SLS Green Run Static Fire
As expected, but now official, NASA has announced the decision to redo the Green Run Hot-Fire test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The Core Stage was fired for 67 seconds on January 16 in the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis before the test was…
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Deep Space Network upgrades and new antennas increase vital communication capabilities
NASA’s Deep Space Network, commonly referred to as the DSN, has welcomed a new dish, Deep Space Station 56, to its family of powerful ground listening stations around the world. The now-operational 34-meter antenna joins the network’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex located 60 kilometers west of Madrid, Spain while other dishes within the network…
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Coronal heating & solar wind, returns from solar missions shed light on Sun’s mysteries
It’s one of the greatest mysteries in solar physics. Dubbed the coronal heating problem, the issue arises from the fact that the solar corona, or Sun’s atmosphere, is millions of degrees hotter than the layers directly below it. This goes against modeling that suggests the corona should be far cooler than the layers below it.…
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Virgin Orbit sends 10 satellites to orbit, building on Paul Allen’s air-launch legacy
LauncherOne lights up its rocket engine after its release from a carrier airplane. (Virgin Orbit Photo) Eight months after an unsuccessful first attempt, Virgin Orbit finally lived up to its name today and used an innovative air-launch system to put 10 satellites in orbit. With backing from British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne system…
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LauncherOne reaches orbit on second attempt with NASA CubeSats
After an eight month stand down to resolve issues revealed during the first mission of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, the company made their second orbital launch attempt on Sunday, January 17. The air-launched rocket successfully carried ten CubeSats to their target orbit for NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program. The cosmic girl aircraft took…
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NASA SLS Core Stage aborts high-stakes Green Run static fire
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program and Core Stage prime contractor Boeing were ready for the big moment of the rocket’s Green Run campaign and the biggest moment in the 10-year old program, a static firing of the stage. After a year of test cases at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, visits from hurricanes,…
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From supernova to something much more intriguing at the core of galaxy 253-3
On 14 November 2014, a bright flash flagged the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, or ASAS-SN — a global network of 20 telescopes managed at Ohio State University in the U.S. The flash originated in galaxy ESO 253-3, located 570 million light-years away. The sudden burst of energy was examined by astronomers and categorized…
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Boeing says assembly complete on first set of new space station solar arrays
An artist’s concept shows the International Space Station with new solar arrays in place. Credit: Boeing Engineers from Boeing and a team of subcontractors have finished building the first pair of six new solar arrays to bolster the International Space Station’s aging electrical system ahead of their launch to the orbiting outpost as soon as…