Orbital debris cloud from explosion of upper stage

January 18, 2013 TopSpacer

The explosion of a Russian Proton Briz-M upper stage last October resulted in a huge debris field in orbit: Upper Stage Explosion Places LEO Satellites at Risk – Space Safety Magazine

The explosion of a failed launch vehicle upper stage on 16 October created thousands of new debris which pose collision risks to hundreds of satellites operating in low Earth orbit (LEO), including the International Space Station (ISS). Fortunately, the threat will be relatively short-lived with the majority of the debris expected to reenter the atmosphere within one year.

Activism

John Batchelor Show: Hotel Mars + Bob Zimmerman [Update]

January 17, 2013 TopSpacer

During this week’s Hotel Mars segment on John Batchelor radio program, Gerald Nordley talked with Batchelor and David Livingston “about Kepler Space Telescope extrasolar planet discoveries, the habitable zone, Earthlike planets, the Kepler naming and identification system and more”: John Batchelor Show Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 1-16-13 – Thespaceshow’s Blog.

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Bob Zimmerman gave his latest science/space news report on the Batchelor show on Wednesday (instead of his usual Tuesday time) : Wednesday 01/16/13 – Batchelor Fourth Hour | John Batchelor Show.

In this show Bob talked about an ice drilling project at Lake Whillans in Antarctica, wildfire damage to an astronomy observatory in Australia, and the announcement of the plan to install a Bigelow expandable module on the ISS.

See the iTunes free Podcast for links to the latest John Batchelor shows.

Update: Here are the topics that Bob discussed during this segment on the Thursday, Jan. 17th show:

Segment 1:
1. Robot demo on ISS delayed due to software issue.
2. An expensive Frankenstein in space.
3. Global warming scientitst James Hansen teams up with Occupy Wall Street!

Segment 2: private aviation and space
1. A river on Mars.
2. 11 pound gold nugget found in Australia.
3. More details about Bigelow’s deal with NASA (and others!) to launch privately-built space station modules.
4. Private space stations vs the Outer Space Treaty.

Astronomy

A Q&A on the latest exoplanet discoveries

January 17, 2013 TopSpacer

This SETI Institute video presents a “discussion of recent Kepler exoplanet findings”:

Rockets

Wayne Hale and Columbia: “The moment of truth”

January 17, 2013 TopSpacer

In the latest entry in his series on the Columbia disaster, former Space Shuttle flight directory and program manager Wayne Hale writes about the actual day of the accident: After Ten Years: The Moment of Truth – Wayne Hale’s Blog.

See also the links to two of his previous posts.

Activism

Open lines at The Space Show

January 17, 2013 TopSpacer

The latest open lines episode of The Space Show is now available on line: Open Lines, Tuesday, 1-15-13 – Thespaceshow’s Blog.

They covered a wide range of topics including ITAR reform, resumption of manufacturing Plutonium 238, space budget, economic and sequestration issues.