Category Archives: Space Systems

Living in Space, Space Systems, SpaceCasts

Videos: “Space to Ground” ISS report – April.6.2018

April 6, 2018 TopSpacer

Here is the latest Space to Ground report from NASA on activities related to the International Space Station:

This cool video shows a time lapse (90 minutes into 2 minutes) of the SpaceX Dragon approaching the ISS for capture by the robotic arm this past Wednesday:

This video is about the entrepreneurial company Alpha Space, which

owns and operates the MISSE, an orbiting commercial science facility permanently installed on the exterior of the International Space Station. Alpha Space, a woman- and minority-owned company, serves the Space Research, Testing, and Materials Science communities with turn-key, fixed price services that make getting science and test elements safely into space, and data and materials back to earth, as simple and inexpensive as possible. If it fits, it flies.

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Rockets, Space Systems

Videos: Lots of rockets flying this week

April 6, 2018 TopSpacer

A sampling of the rockets flying this past week:

** Virgin Galactic‘s SpaceShipTwo “Unity” flew under its own rocket power for the first time on Thursday when it fired its hybrid motor (solid fuel + liquid oxidizer) after dropping from the WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane: VSS Unity First Powered Flight: A major step forward – Virgin Galactic

** A SpaceX Falcon 9 on Monday sent a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with almost 3 tons of science and technology R&D materials and equipment plus other supplies for the crew: New Research Heading to Space Station on 14th SpaceX Resupply Mission | NASA

Note that both the Falcon 9 first stage booster and the Dragon spacecraft had flown before, illustrating the progress SpaceX is making towards routine reuse of space transport systems.

On Wednesday the Dragon caught up with the ISS and was captured by the station’s robotic arm of the station under the control of Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai, who .brought it in for berthing to the Harmony module:

** On Thursday an Arianespace Ariane V rocket sent two large communications satellites towards geostationary orbits: Mission success: Flight VA242 orbits DSN-1/Superbird-8 for SKY Perfect JSAT and HYLAS 4 for Avanti Communications – Arianespace

** Last Saturday, a Black Brant IX sounding rocket with the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment or ASPIRE, launched on a suborbital flight from NASA Wallops on the Virginia coastline: Mars Parachute Test Successfully Launched from Wallops | NASA

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Living in Space, Space Systems, SpaceCasts

Video: “Space to Ground” ISS report – March.30.2018

March 30, 2018 TopSpacer

NASA has released this week’s Space to Ground report on activities related to the International Space Station:

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Chinese space, Space Systems

Following the demise of China’s Tiangong-1 space station

March 29, 2018 TopSpacer

The Chinese derelict Tiangong-1 space station will soon hit Earth’s atmosphere as it makes an unpowered, uncontrolled reentry. Much of it will be burnt up but some of the 9 tonne spacecraft will reach the ground (or more likely, the ocean waves). The current estimate is that the station will meet its doom sometime on April 1st (and that’s no joke).

The Virtual Telescope’s WebTV is offering updates on the space station’s return: Watch China’s Tiangong-1 Space Station in Real Time As It Nears Its Demise – Space.com.

It’s unclear how much of Tiangong-1 will survive the journey, but it’s possible some pieces will fall to the ground. The station has an orbital inclination between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south latitudes, so it could fall anywhere within those bands. But experts point out that Tiangong-1 is much smaller than the NASA Skylab space station, parts of which crashed into remote areas of Australia in 1979, so most of it may burn up during re-entry. Tiangong-1 weighs only 8.5 metric tons (9.4 tons), compared to Skylab’s 100 tons.

Tracking of the station’s orbit is available at

More about Tiangong-1:

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