Astronomy Folk | Planets, Meteors, Comets, Telescopes: January 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

One Cargo Craft Docks, Another Begins Trip to Station

The Expedition 26 crew of the International Space Station enjoyed a little free time Friday morning following a busy Thursday that saw the launch of a Russian cargo craft and the capture, attachment and hatch opening of the Japanese Kounotori2 H-II Transfer Vehicle.

The ISS Progress 41 cargo craft launched at 8:31 p.m. EST Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. When it arrives at the station's Pirs docking compartment Saturday at 9:39 p.m., Progress will deliver three tons of f [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24816/one-cargo-craft-docks-another-begins-trip-to-station.html

This Week On The Space Show

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week:

1. Monday, January 31, 2011, 2-3:30 PM PST (22-23:30 GMT)
Meidad Pariente, ME from Israel comes to discuss the issue of GEP satellite collisions.
Meidad Pariente, 40, is one of Israel's leading space entrepreneurs.� As a student, he worked as an AMOS-1 Satellite operator, and after graduation he joined AMOS-2 systems engineering group, where he was responsible for integrated fun [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24819/this-week-on-the-space-show.html

Russian Cargo Ship Arrives at Station

The ISS Progress 41 cargo craft docked to the station?s Pirs docking compartment Saturday at 9:39 p.m. EST. The Progress is carrying 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,080 pounds of spare parts and supplies to the station.

The unpiloted Progress vehicle performed the automated docking using its onboard Kurs automated rendezvous system. Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka monitored the cargo craft?s arrival inside the Zvezda servi [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24821/russian-cargo-ship-arrives-at-station.html

Challenger astronauts memorialized on the Moon

Friday was the 25th anniversary of the loss of the Shuttle Orbiter Challenger, which I already wrote about as part of a post about Apollo 1 and Columbia. But I wanted to add that after that event in 1986, seven craters on the Moon were named after the astronauts:

This mosaic of LRO images is about 190 km wide, so these craters are actually quite large. Interestingly, these craters are themselves inside a much larger 524-km wide impact basin… named Apollo.

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Full story at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/nvzw63lYFbE/

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Russian Cargo Ship Blasts Off Towards Station

The ISS Progress 41 cargo craft launched at 8:31 p.m. EST Thursday (7:31 a.m. Baikonur time Friday) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The Russian resupply craft will dock to the station?s Pirs docking compartment Saturday at 9:39 p.m. The Progress is carrying 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,080 pounds of spare parts and supplies to the station.

Nine minutes after launch, the Progress separated from the third stage of its Soyuz rocket, placing [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24809/russian-cargo-ship-blasts-off-towards-station.html

Intensive preparations for ATV freighter launch to Space Station

The fuel and most of the cargo are loaded and ATV has been hoisted to the top of Ariane 5 as teams on four continents prepare for the 15 February launch of Johannes Kepler from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

With launch scheduled in just 18 days, experts from ESA, partner agencies and industry teams are in the busy final stage of making Johannes Kepler ready for space.

ATV was removed from the container and, on 25 January, was lifted to the top of the Ariane 5 launcher tha [...]