Video of X-37B passes + Tracking secret spacecraft

The reusable X-37B military spaceplane still in orbit after a year was spotted recently by an amateur spacecraft tracker  (via Spaceports blog):

On Nov 24th and 28th, 2013, Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario captured imagery of the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane in the night sky. Orbiting Earth for over year, the mission’s purpose and capability is “in the black.” — Read more about the secret mission here: http://goo.gl/A9Tkz9

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This article about the Atlas V launch this week of a NRO spysat discusses the tracking of these sorts of secret vehicles by amateur spacecraft observers: Atlas Launch Report | Government spy satellite rockets into space on Atlas 5 – Spaceflight Now

Ted Molczan, an experienced amateur satellite watcher in Canada, believes Thursday’s launch lofted the third radar satellite in the Topaz series.

“Am I convinced? I would say I am 80 percent confident NROL-39 is Topaz,” said Jonathan McDowell, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks global satellite and launch activity.

It is “always possible there is a one-off vehicle in a somewhat similar orbit. Let’s see the amateurs pick it up and get its orbit, then we’ll make a final conclusion,” McDowell said before Thursday’s launch.

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Find more about tracking spacecraft in the HobbySpace Satellite Observing section.

Dava Newman and her Bio-Suits for EVA + Automating space farming

At a TED event this week, Prof. Dava J. Newman of MIT spoke about her skin-tight Bio-Suit designs that would allow for much greater freedom of motion and comfort for walkers in space, on a moon, on Mars, etc.:

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“Behold, a slim-fitting spacesuit to let astronauts move in space.”

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Farming in space and on earth: Air, water, energy and food in a nutshell: Space exploration as driver for sustainable robotic agriculture – Robohub

Carnival Of Space #331 – PhotosToSpace.com

PhotosToSpace.com hosts the latest Carnival Of Space.

The Rocket Company: Final chapters and epilogues

In the final installment in the serialization of the updated version of the book The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr, with illustrations by Doug Birkholz, you can obtain the last four chapters and the two epilogues:

Download these within the next week or so.

See also the electronic version of the updated book is available at  The Rocket Company eBook by Patrick Stiennon, David Hoerr, Peter Diamandis, Doug Birkhol: Kindle Store/Amazon.com

Videos: “This week @ NASA” + “Saturn’s Unique Hexagon in Full View”

Here’s the latest “This week @ NASA” video report:

And here is another cool video of Saturn’s hexagon polar storm:

Everyone can participate in space