Ariane 5 launch with Yahsat Y1A and Intelsat New Dawn: Launch countdown interrupted

Ariane Flight VA201

The launch countdown for tonight?s Ariane 5 mission with the Yahsat Y1A and Intelsat New Dawn satellites was interrupted prior to liftoff when an anomaly detected during the automated checkout procedure stopped the sequence before ignition of the solid boosters.

The synchronized countdown was conducted as planned, including the startup of Ariane 5?s cryogenic main engine.� Following the normal procedures for an Ariane 5 launch, this cryogenic engine?s operation  [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25347/ariane-5-launch-with-yahsat-y1a-and-intelsat-new-dawn-launch-countdown-interrupted.html

GREAT Spectrometer Readied For Flight on SOFIA

Scientists recently completed a series of nighttime, ground-based testing of the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies, or GREAT, spectrometer in preparation for a series of astronomical science flights on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy in April. With the SOFIA 747SP aircraft positioned on the ramp outside NASA?s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility, the upper door covering the telescope was opened and GREAT?s interaction with the telescope was evaluated [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25350/great-spectrometer-readied-for-flight-on-sofia.html

Science Activities and Shuttle Preparations for Station Crew

The three-member Expedition 27 crew spent Wednesday performing science and maintenance and preparing for STS-134.

Commander Dmitry Kondratyev worked on several Russian experiments. He participated in Typology, which studies how a crew member works in weightlessness. Kondratyev also worked on Rusalka which measures carbon dioxide and methane in the Earth?s atmosphere. He copied data from the Identification experiment which studies the loads placed on the International Space Station during s [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25353/science-activities-and-shuttle-preparations-for-station-crew.html

When beauty and science collide

I’ve been posting a lot of nice astronomical images lately, but sometimes one comes along and blows me completely away. How fantastically gorgeous is this?

Holy Haleakala! [Click to galactinate.]

That spiral galaxy is NGC 6872, and as you can see in this image from the Gemini South telescope it’s getting its clock cleaned by the littler spiral — IC 4970 — just to the right. The two are undergoing a galactic collision, a colossal event playing out over hundreds of millions of years. NGC 6872 is currently the victim here; its spiral arms are clearly distorted and being flung wide by the gravitational interaction. However, the smaller IC 4970 will be the ultimate loser in this battle: it will fall into the bigger galaxy, be torn apart, and eventually consumed in its entirety, becoming a part of NGC 6872. Bigger galaxies do this to smaller ones all the time; the Milky Way is in the process of eating several small galaxies even as you read this I have details in articles linked below; see Related Posts).

Full story at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/31/when-beauty-and-science-collide/

Kounotori2 Departs Station

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency?s Kounotori2 H-II Transfer Vehicle, which arrived at the International Space Station on Jan. 27, departed the station Monday. Expedition 27 Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman used the station?s robot arm to grapple Kounotori2 and unberth it from the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node. The cargo craft was released at 11:46 a.m. EDT.

Kounotori2 , which delivered more than four tons of supplies and equipment to the station, was carrying [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25332/kounotori2-departs-station.html

Tuesday Night De-Orbit for Kounotori2

After the Expedition 27 crew?s daily planning conference with flight control teams around the world, Flight Engineer Cady Coleman began her workday Tuesday aboard the International Space Station with the Nanoskeleton experiment. Coleman set up a camera and prepared a test sample for this experiment, which looks at the effect of gravity on oil flotation, sedimentation and convection on crystals generated in microgravity.

In the wake of Monday?s grapple and release of the Kounotori2 H-II T [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25334/tuesday-night-de-orbit-for-kounotori2.html

TEXUS 49 lifts off with four German experiments on board

The TEXUS 49 sounding rocket lifted off from the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna in northern Sweden on 29 March 2011 at 06.01 CET. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) rocket, carrying four German experiments for medical and materials research, reached an altitude of 268 kilometres.

The experiments were subjected to close to six minutes of microgravity during the twenty-minute long flight before the payloads were parachuted back to Earth, as scheduled.

Alloys in microgravity


The TRACE+ [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art25337/texus-49-lifts-off-with-four-german-experiments-on-board.html