Space Songs: Through the Distance
National Air and Space Museum on April 30, 2020 sponsored
"a YouTube concert event, sharing songs about
space and isolation to celebrate how extreme situations
can bring out the very best in us all and why there’s
no challenge we can’t face together. This recorded
concert, hosted by Tested’s Adam Savage, [featured]
special guests and performances by Sting, Clipping,
Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, Dan Deacon, Ben Gibbard
of Death Cab for Cutie, Valerie June, Lukas Nelson,
Grace Potter, and Vagabon."
It's
a Whole New Outer Space Out There
Blue Origin & Virgin
Galactic expected
to fly customers to suborbital space in 2020
Blue
Origin and Virgin
Galactic have been promising for over
a decade to provide flights to suborbital
space for paying customers. This could finally
be the year one or both companies fulfill
these promises.
Virgin Galactic has now transferred most
of their operations to Spaceport
America in New Mexico. (There are two
new SS2 vehicles under construction in Mojave.)
That is where they will fly "spaceflight
participants" to greater than 80 kilometers
in altitude aboard SpaceShipTwo rocketplanes.
..
The company carried out the first
drop glide test of a SpaceShipTwo from
the New Mexico facility on May 1, 2020.
No word yet on when the first suborbital
spaceflight from Spaceport America will
happen. A SpaceshipTwo vehicle has not flown
to space since the flight of VSS Unity on
Feb.22.2019:
..
They will soon begin test flights in New
Mexico, low atltitude at first and then
to space.
Blue Origin flew New Shepard to over 100
kilometers on Dec.11.2019:
..
The company says it needs to carry out
a few more test flights before a New Shepard
will carry people on board. Initially these
will be company employees.
===
Follow the latest developments in this
NewSpace era with a subscription to NewSpace
Watch.
Run the Satellite
Tracking Tool from BINARY
SPACE right here at HobbySpace
in your browser. (Windows 10 users must instead get the
SpaceTracker
app here.) The program allows you to track a large
set of satellites in both low earth and geostationary
orbits. (Note: the program requires Microsoft
Silverlight, Version 5 or higher, as well as the latest
version of your browser. Currently the program works on
the Microsoft® Windows® platform only.) The Satellite
Observing section provides additional information
and web resources about the hobby of satellite tracking
and watching.
_560x428.jpg){kind=tracking}
_560x428.jpg){kind=tracking}
