Here is the latest Space to Ground weekly report from NASA about activities related to the International Space Station:
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Category Archives: Space Systems
Videos: “Space to Ground” for Dec.23.2017
Here is the latest “Space to Ground” report from NASA on activities related to the International Space Station:
A Christmas on the ISS:
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Videos: SpaceX Falcon 9 launch makes for awesome light show over SoCal
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully placed 10 Iridium satellites into polar orbits on Saturday evening from Vandenberg AFB in California. The launch produced an amazing light show visible over much of Southern California.
Note that the second light spot visible in the plume is the first stage making a controlled descent. This previously flown booster did not land on a sea-going platform but did otherwise follow a landing style return. SpaceX has run out of storage space for this generation of boosters, which will only be re-flown once. A new version will be introduced in a few months that can be flown a dozen times with only inspection between flights and many more with some refurbishment.
Update: In this view, the two clam shell-like fairings around the satellites can be seen after they separate from the rocket. SpaceX has been developing ways to fly back and recover the fairings. In the video, firings of the cold-gas thrusters on the fairings can be seen:
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Student CubeSat Structures Competition – National Space Society and EXOS Aerospace
The National Space Society‘s Enterprise in Space, a “NewSpace education” initiative, and EXOS Aerospace are sponsoring the student CubeSat Structures Competition –
Experiments that fly in space need a structure to hold them. These structures can be of many shapes and sizes depending on the type of rocket that will take them to space. To mark the first steps of the collaboration between the National Space Society’s Enterprise In Space (EIS) program and EXOS Aerospace Systems and Technologies, Corp. and the initiative to send hundreds of student experiments into space, we are offering this worldwide search to find the perfect CubeSat structure!
Whether you create your CubeSat using 3-D printing, innovative technologies, or new types of materials, you will have fun meeting the challenge of creating a lightweight, strong and easy to duplicate CubeSat. If your design is chosen in the semifinalist design challenge, you will be given the opportunity to build the structure and send it to EXOS for evaluation.
Applicants must be students 18 years or older. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 1, 2018.
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Videos: Dragon berths to the ISS + Russian Soyuz with 3 new ISS crew members + “Space to Ground” report
This morning the SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle that launched on Friday from Cape Canaveral caught up with the International Space Station (ISS) and was captured by a robotic arm under the control of NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba. They carefully brought the Dragon up to the Harmony module and attached it. This video shows highlights of the rendezvous, capture, and berthing:
The Dragon is carrying 4800 pounds (2177 kg) of science/technology experiments and equipment plus supplies for the crew and station maintenance: NASA Sends New Research to Space Station Aboard Resupply Mission | NASA
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Also today, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with three new crew members for the Station: Three New Crew Members on Voyage to International Space Station | NASA
The Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA’s Scott Tingle, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is scheduled to dock to the space station’s Rassvet module at 3:43 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19. Coverage of docking will begin at 3 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website, followed at 5 a.m. by coverage of the opening of hatches between the spacecraft and station.
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And here is the latest episode of NASA’s weekly Space to Ground report on activities related to the ISS:
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