NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman takes a photo of the BCAT-5 hardware setup in the Japanese Kibo Module. (Credit: NASA)
Sierra Nevada Statement Oct. 26, 2013 Today, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) performed its first free-flight approach-and-landing test of the Dream Chaserspacecraft. The vehicle successfully released from its carrier aircraft, an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter, as planned at approximately 11:10 a.m. Pacific Standard [sic] Time. Following release, the Dream Chaser spacecraft automated flight control system gently steered the vehicle to its intended glide slope. The vehicle adhered to the design flight trajectory […]
Dorothy Chen, YouTube Space Lab winner, presents findings from her study on the anti-fungal properties of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis in space at the 2013 International Space Station Research and Development Conference. (Credit:
CASIS)
By Laura Niles
International Space Station Program Science Office and Public Affairs Office
YouTube is a great place to find blooper, snuggly kitten or music videos. Now, it’s also a place to post grand ideas for microgravity research studies. Two of those ideas actually got to fly to the International Space Station. The YouTube Space Lab competition provided just such an opportunity, and three students saw their research performed aboard the orbiting laboratory.
NASASpaceflight.com reports that a test flight of the Dream Chaser min-shuttle went awry earlier today at Edwards Air Force Base in California: Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser ETA (Engineering Test Article) conducted her maiden flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center on Saturday. However, the Commercial Crew prospect – after enjoying a perfect flight in the air – suffered a mechanical failure during landing, resulting in her flipping over on […]
This conceptual image shows NASA’s Orion spacecraft approaching the robotic asteroid capture vehicle. The trip from Earth to the captured asteroid will take Orion and its two-person crew an estimated nine days. (Credit: NASA)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected new dates to resume the Asteroid Initiative Idea Synthesis Workshop, which was postponed due to the recent government shutdown. The new workshop dates are November 20-22, 2013.
European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during the Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions-3 (InSPACE-3) study run. (Credit:
NASA)
ISS Weekly Science Highlights
Week of Oct. 14, 2013
Via John Love, Lead Increment Scientist
Expedition 37/38
Aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg prepared the Vascular study hardware for operations where she will perform the first of two blood draws. This research is done to determine the impact of long-duration spaceflight on the blood vessels of astronauts. Spaceflight accelerates the aging process, and we must understand this to determine the need for specific countermeasures. Data will be collected before, during and after spaceflight to assess inflammation of the artery walls, and changes in blood vessel properties and cardiovascular fitness. This experiment also will contribute to obtaining a better understanding of the mechanisms that might contribute to premature aging of the cardiovascular system, and detect early markers of potential atherosclerosis (condition in which fatty material collects along the walls of arteries) and inflammation.
Sources report there was an engine tested at the Mojave Air and Space Port on Thursday evening. Estimates are that the static hot fire lasted about 20 seconds and possibly as long as 30 seconds. The hot fire took place at the same site where alternative hybrid motors for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo have been tested in the past. (See “Virgin Galactic Clarifies Status of SpaceShipTwo Engine“.) My best guess is […]
Russian media are reporting that the latest screw up by disaster-prone Khrunichev involves the long-delayed Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), which was originally set to be launched to the International Space Station next April. “The Energia Corporation is completing factory tests of this product,” a source told Interfax-AVN earlier this week. “But the module cannot be accepted the way it is. When the electrical tests are over it will be returned to […]
Interorbital engine qualification test. (Credit: Interorbital Systems)
MOJAVE 10.21.13 (Interorbital PR) — At dawn on October 21, 2013, Interorbital Systems conducted a short-burn flight qualification run of its main rocket engine in a spectacular hot-firing at the Mojave Spaceport. An incandescent 24-foot beam of fire thundered from the engine’s ablative combustion chamber, generating 7,500-lbs of thrust.
The votes are in up in Stanford, and Generation Orbit has won the $100,000 first prize in the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace Business Plan Competition. The Atlanta-based company is developing an air-launched rocket system to serve the micro- and nanosat market. Fund for the first prize was put up by the NASA Ames Emerging Commercial Space Office. ELIGOS of Princeton, N.J., claimed the $25,000 second prize, which was sponsored by […]
