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Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Fwd: JSC Today - Tuesday, September 9, 2014



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From: "Nakamura, Stacey T. (JSC-NC211)" <stacey.t.nakamura@nasa.gov>
Date: September 9, 2014 3:55:16 PM CDT
To: "Nakamura, Stacey T. (JSC-NC211)" <stacey.t.nakamura@nasa.gov>
Cc: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: JSC Today - Tuesday, September 9, 2014

 

 

From: JSC Today [mailto:jsc-jsctoday@mail.nasa.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 6:00 AM
To: JSC-Today
Subject: JSC Today - Tuesday, September 9, 2014

 

 

 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Recent JSC Announcement

Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:

JSCA 14-020: Key Personnel Assignment - Dr. Janet Kavandi

Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.

Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx

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   Organizations/Social

  1. Watch the Hispanic Heritage Month Prezi

Senior staff was treated yesterday to a preview of Hispanic Heritage Month with a special Prezi. (Prezi is like PowerPoint, but way better.) Now you can enjoy the show, too! Click the link below and make sure your speakers are on. You can click through manually or set the auto play for four seconds.

We encourage all managers to show this video at their directorate/division/branch meetings.

JSC's Hispanic Heritage Month 2014 is brought to you by the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity and Hispanic Employee Resource Group (HERG). For more information or to get involved, contact the HERG.

HERG Officers http://prezi.com/embed/60obt6dqzmh4/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=1&a...

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  1. Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today at Noon

"Think!" reminds Al-Anon members that just as kids go back to school, we school our thoughts to calmly process events and inputs. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We will meet today, Sept. 9, in Building 32, Room 146, from 12 noon to 12:45 p.m. Visitors are welcome.

Event Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2014   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:12:45 PM
Event Location: B. 32, Rm. 146

Add to Calendar

Employee Assistance Program x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx

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  1. 3-D Printing and EWB-JSC

What does "correct normals" mean? What is "watertightness?" What is fused deposition versus laser sintering? How do you choose between ABS and PLA plastic versus Inconel steel?

Is 3-D printing in your present or in your future? Stop by the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) weekly chapter meeting tomorrow, Sept. 10, in Building 7, Room 141, from noon to 1 p.m. and hear EWB-JSC Chapter Vice President Jake Mireles review the state of the technology; the exciting ways 3-D printing is impacting our lives; as well as some pointers on successful design and printing of 3-D objects. Plus, learn about the fantastic opportunities EWB-JSC offers to serve others with your engineering talents. All are welcome. No RSVP required.

Event Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2014   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 7, Room 141

Add to Calendar

Mike Ewert x39134

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  1. Env. Brown Bag - Cycling to Work

Hot on the heels of last month's introduction to cycling as a commuting alternative, today we will talk about how to make cycling a commuting reality. Center Operations Director Joel Walker will talk about what JSC is doing to remove cycling roadblocks. The second half of the meeting will be a workshop to answer two questions: What do cyclists need from JSC to make it work?; and how to set up a cycling mentoring program. If you have any interest in biking to work or anywhere around JSC, please come today, Sept. 9, from noon to 1 p.m. to Building 45, Room 751, and provide input. This is a chance to talk directly with JSC leadership about cycling and connect personally with people who can help you make bicycle commuting a reality.

Event Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2014   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 45, Room 751

Add to Calendar

Michelle Fraser-Page x34237

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  1. JSC Lunarfins SCUBA Club Meeting

Dr. Bob Sanders, University of Texas Medical Branch/NASA, specialist in emergency medicine and undersea and hyperbaric medicine, will speak on pulmonary barotrauma and diving (lung overpressure injuries). He will then answer questions from members at our Sept. 10 meeting. Please join us at Clear Lake Park Recreational Center at 7 p.m. Come early to meet club members!

Event Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2014   Event Start Time:7:00 PM   Event End Time:8:30 PM
Event Location: Clear Lake Park Recreation Center

Add to Calendar

Barbara Corbin x36215 http://www.lunarfins.com

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   Community

  1. Can You Help?

We need a few volunteers to help staff a NASA exhibit at the George R. Brown Convention Center this weekend. The American Society of Bone and Mineral Researchers is having a conference, and our JSC researchers will be attending. They could use some help staffing a NASA exhibit. No need to be an expert—simply share your knowledge about NASA, our programs and our future plans with people who may have little exposure to NASA. What could be easier?

Sign up in V-CORPs for one or more of these available times, and share your story about your space program!

Friday, Sept. 12

    • 9:30 a.m. to noon
    • 2 to 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 13         

    • 9:30 a.m. to noon
    • 2 to 4:30 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 14            

    • 9:30 a.m. to noon
    • 2 to 4:30 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 15          

    • 9:30 a.m. to noon
    • 2 to 3 p.m.

Questions? Contact the V-CORPs administrator.

V-CORPs 281-792-5859

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  1. JSC Child Care Center Has a Few Openings

JSC's Child Care Center has openings available to dependents of JSC civil servants and contractors.

Immediate openings:

    • Children who are 11 to 28 months old
    • Children who are currently 3 to 5 years old

Program Details:

1. Open 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Open Flex Fridays, but closed on federal holidays.

2. Competitive pricing with other comparable child cares, but Space Family Education, Inc., includes more amenities.

3. Additional security. Badges required to get on-site, and an additional security code is required to get in the school's front door.

4. Accelerated curriculum in all classes with additional enrichment and extracurricular programs.

5. Convenience. Nearby and easy access for parents working on-site at JSC.

6. Breakfast, morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack are all included.

7. Video monitoring is available from computers, androids and iPhones.

Interested parties should send an email with parent contact information and the child's date of birth.

Brooke Stephens 281-792-6031

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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles.

Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.

 

 

 

NASA and Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – September 9, 2014

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Boeing's New Spaceship Makes Strides Ahead of NASA Space Taxi Decision

 

Miriam Kramer – Space.com

The private spaceflight company Boeing has been hard at work designing a capsule that could deliver NASA astronauts to the International Space Station sometime in the next three years. And pretty soon, everyone will find out if all that hard work has paid off.

NASA Awards Contracts To Virgin Galactic And Other Suborbital Providers

 

Alex Knapp - Forbes

NASA announced on Monday that it has awarded four American suborbital space companies to carry payloads to the "boundary of space."

According to NASA, each of the four selected companies will receive an "indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for integration and flight services." The contracts are worth a minimum of $100,000, have a duration of three years and include two year extension options.

Space crew returning from ISS guaranteed safe welcome on Earth

ITAR-TASS News Agency

The Soyuz will land 148km south-east of Zheskazgan (Kazakhstan) scheduled for 6.25am Moscow time on September 11

MOSCOW, September 9. /ITAR-TASS/. A space crew - Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artyomyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson, have been guaranteed safe welcome on Earth when they return from the ISS back to the Earth in a descending apparatus of the Soyuz-TMA-12M spaceship on September 11.

NASA sensor to aid hurricane forecasts from ISS

James Dean – Florida Today

A science instrument launching soon from Cape Canaveral will use the International Space Station as a perch to improve hurricane forecasts. Called ISS-RapidScat, the sensor placed outside the station will measure the speed and direction of ocean surface winds around the globe, expanding the coverage from existing satellites. "We'll be able to get global monitoring every day, and we'll be able to provide better forecasting capabilities to operational agencies such as (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)," said Ernesto Rodriguez, the instrument's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

 

 

Europe's Arianespace Claims 60% Of The Commercial Launch Market

 

Alex Knapp – Forbes

 

Today, European commercial launch provider Arianespace has announced that it has signed four new commercial launch contracts. This marks an impressive 11 launch contracts signed so far this year for the company, with two current contracts under negotiation to be completed by the year's end.

 

 

NASA's expert in Alabama is skeptical that meteorite hit Nicaragua Saturday night

 

Lee Rope - Huntsville Times

 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Something other than a meteorite likely caused the 40-foot-wide crater near the Nicaraguan capital of Managua Saturday night, NASA's meteorite expert in Alabama says. A space object capable of creating a crater that big would have created a fireball brighter than the moon and visible for miles, Dr. Bill Cooke said Monday. No such fireball was reported.

 

 

SpaceX rocket successfully blasts off, Asian satellite in tow

 

Rachel Feltman - Washington Post

After delaying the mission because of an explosive (but unrelated) launch in August, commercial spaceflight company SpaceX has launched its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit carrying a new telecommunications satellite for Asia. The rocket model, which has previously been used for three successful cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral at 1 a.m. local time on Sunday, Sept. 7.

 

Miso Soup, Seaweed Salad Eyed as Japanese Astronaut Food

June Hongo – The Wall Street Journal

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has selected 33 Japanese dishes including wagyu beef keema curry, miso soup and hijiki seaweed salad for development as future astronaut food. According to the agency, the new menu items will be officially certified and prepared after JAXA tests them in accordance with its Certification Standards of Japanese Space Foods.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

Boeing's New Spaceship Makes Strides Ahead of NASA Space Taxi Decision

 

Miriam Kramer – Space.com

The private spaceflight company Boeing has been hard at work designing a capsule that could deliver NASA astronauts to the International Space Station sometime in the next three years. And pretty soon, everyone will find out if all that hard work has paid off.

NASA is expected to announce its pick (or picks) for a contract that will enable a commercial company (or companies) to fly manned missions to the International Space Station by 2017 any day now, and Boeing's astronaut-carrying CST-100 capsule is in the running. People working with the commercial spaceflight company's capsule have been working diligently to make sure that they meet their goals ahead of the commercial crew announcement.

"Obviously, we're very anxious to get to the announcement, but the team has just been outstanding," John Mulholland, Boeing commercial crew program manager, told Space.com.

Boeing is competing with three other spaceflight companies for the commercial crew contract, technically called the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract (CCtCap). Sierra Nevada Corp., SpaceX and Blue Origin are also still in the running for the chance to fly humans to the International Space Station from the United States for the first time since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. At the moment, NASA astronauts fly to space aboard Russian-built Soyuz space capsules.

The upcoming announcement marks the last in a series of awards put in place by NASA in 2010.

If chosen for the contract, Boeing representatives already have a specific plan for how they are will get astronauts flying from American soil aboard a CST-100 spacecraft. Company representatives are planning to launch a pad abort test in 2016, with an uncrewed flight scheduled for early in 2017. The first crewed flight to the station should take place in mid-2017.

The CST-100 program recently completed a major milestone. The spacecraft made it through its critical design review of integrated systems, paving the way for the final design that could fly to space. The company met all of its CCtCap goals on time and on budget ahead of the announcement, Mulholland said.

Boeing is already crafting test materials for the spacecraft, and if all goes according to plan, in October, representatives with the company will start building pieces of the capsule that could fly to space.

"The challenge of a CDR is to ensure all the pieces and sub-systems are working together," Mulholland said in a statement. "Integration of these systems is key. Now we look forward to bringing the CST-100 to life."

NASA's space taxi needs

The continued development of the CST-100 as it stands now is dependent on winning one of NASA's commercial crew program contracts, according to Mulholland. Without the money provided by NASA for the commercial crew program, Boeing will most likely not be able to finish the development of the capsule on the time scale planned today.

"Right now, the focus of the entire team is preparing to execute given an award," Mulholland said. "Obviously, if we weren't selected, we would stand back and evaluate our ability to close the business case without that backstop of NASA development funding. I doubt that we could close that case and continue, but it is something we would look at."

Boeing representatives are also looking into partnering with other companies for future spaceflight ventures to the International Space Station and beyond.

A market beyond NASA

Boeing is working out a deal with the space tourism company Space Adventures to fly a commercial space tourist to the space station in much the same way as tourists have flown to the orbiting outpost aboard Soyuz spacecraft.

The CST-100 designed to launch toward the International Space Station atop an Atlas 5 rocket and would most likely come equipped with five seats, Mulholland said, however, NASA will need only four of those seats for astronauts. The fifth could potentially be reserved for a Space Adventures tourist bound for the space laboratory.

The private spaceflight company Bigelow Aerospace is also looking to strike a deal with Boeing that would see astronauts from around the world flying to Bigelow-built inflatable space stations orbiting Earth.

"We're really excited about the prospects — given a selection in commercial crew — to go out and partner with Bigelow and some other potential country or customer that might not be part of the existing space station program that wants to be a space-faring nation," Mulholland said. "So there are a lot of interesting prospects there."

 

 

NASA Awards Contracts To Virgin Galactic And Other Suborbital Providers

 

Alex Knapp - Forbes

NASA announced on Monday that it has awarded four American suborbital space companies to carry payloads to the "boundary of space."

According to NASA, each of the four selected companies will receive an "indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for integration and flight services." The contracts are worth a minimum of $100,000, have a duration of three years and include two year extension options.

The four companies selected for the contracts are:

Virgin Galactic, which is best known for developing its space tourism business with its SpaceShipTwo craft. However, in addition to carrying passengers, the company is also actively working to offer the use SpaceShipTwo for scientific research. The company is also developing LauncherOne, which will aim to deliver small satellites into orbit.

Masten Space Systems, which is working to develop vertical takeoff, vertical landing unmanned spacecraft. The company is probably most famous for winning the $1 million Lunar Lander X-Prize in 2009. It was also recently awarded a contract from DARPA to work on developing a reusable spaceplane.

UP Aerospace, which focuses on developing suborbital rockets for the delivery of research payloads. The company most recently launched a suborbital rocket for NASA in November of 2013, and its next launch is scheduled for October 7, 2014.

Paragon Space Development Corporation, which has developed hardware for over 70 space flight missions. Paragon is partnered with another company, World View Experience, which aims to use balloons to take commercial passengers to the "edge of space" – about 120,000 feet above the surface.

"We've made tremendous progress in working toward the goal of regular, frequent and predictable access to near-space at a reasonable cost with easy recovery of intact payloads," NASA's Michael Gazarik said in a press release. "These proven flight service providers will allow for payloads from organizations including NASA, industry, academia, and other government agencies to be tested on flights to the edge of space before being committed to demonstration in the harsh environment of space itself."

 

 

Space crew returning from ISS guaranteed safe welcome on Earth

ITAR-TASS News Agency

The Soyuz will land 148km south-east of Zheskazgan (Kazakhstan) scheduled for 6.25am Moscow time on September 11

MOSCOW, September 9. /ITAR-TASS/. A space crew - Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artyomyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson, have been guaranteed safe welcome on Earth when they return from the ISS back to the Earth in a descending apparatus of the Soyuz-TMA-12M spaceship on September 11.

"Around 200 army servicemen, fourteen helicopters Mi-8, three planes AN-13 and AN-26 and six cross-country vehicles will ensure safety of the space crew when the landing apparatus touches down 148 kilometers south-east of Zheskazgan (Kazakhstan) scheduled for 6.25am Moscow time on September 11," assistant troops commander of the Central Military District Colonel Yaroslav Roschupkin told ITAR-TASS.

"Aviation forces, search and rescue facilities of the Central Military District have arrived to the assigned area where the descending apparatus is to touch down. Emergency rescue groups on board cross-country vehicles and helicopters with a special equipment on board have been deployed in the main and reserve areas of landing," Colonel Roschupkin said.

NASA sensor to aid hurricane forecasts from ISS

James Dean – Florida Today

A science instrument launching soon from Cape Canaveral will use the International Space Station as a perch to improve hurricane forecasts.

 

Called ISS-RapidScat, the sensor placed outside the station will measure the speed and direction of ocean surface winds around the globe, expanding the coverage from existing satellites.

 

"We'll be able to get global monitoring every day, and we'll be able to provide better forecasting capabilities to operational agencies such as (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)," said Ernesto Rodriguez, the instrument's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

 

The $32 million instrument will launch in the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon capsule scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station no earlier than Sept. 19. A launch date may be confirmed today.

 

Florida Today rocket launch schedule

 

The launch begins a NASA push to leverage the station for Earth observations that in addition to weather forecasts could improve air quality monitoring and climate change models.

 

RapidScat will be followed later this year by a $15 million laser instrument called the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, or CATS, which will measure clouds and tiny aerosol particles in the atmosphere.

 

"Clouds are one of the largest uncertainties in predicting climate change, because clouds are the key regulator of the planet's average temperature," said Matthew McGill, CATS principal investigator from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "For scientists to create more accurate climate models, they have to include better representations of clouds."

 

Two more Earth-observing instruments are expected to launch in 2016, and another two by 2018.

 

"We're really observing a maturing of the space station as an Earth science platform," said Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the ISS program at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

NASA already collects data about Earth from 17 satellites, most flying in polar orbits that cross the same place at the same time every day to monitor changes over time, or in high orbits that stare down from a constant location over the equator.

 

The space station, circling Earth on a trajectory angled 51.6 degrees north or south of the equator, doesn't cross the poles and passes different parts of Earth at different times each day, at a lower altitude of about 260 miles.

 

NASA said the orbit complements what other spacecraft provide.

 

"It gives you a different perspective," said Steve Volz, associate director for flight programs in the Earth Science Division at NASA headquarters. "You need multiple angles to get a complex system understood."

 

NASA also called the station a cost-effective platform for trying out instruments that might be applied to more expensive standalone satellites, though none of the new instruments has any confirmed follow-on mission.

 

The station already has power and data connections on board, and a steady flow of resupply vehicles that can provide rides to space.

 

"That can let you test a new technology before making an investment in a free flyer," said Robinson.

 

Europe's Arianespace Claims 60% Of The Commercial Launch Market

 

Alex Knapp – Forbes

 

Today, European commercial launch provider Arianespace has announced that it has signed four new commercial launch contracts. This marks an impressive 11 launch contracts signed so far this year for the company, with two current contracts under negotiation to be completed by the year's end.

According to the company, these four contracts bring Arianespace's total launch backlog to 38 satellite launches for 29 different customers. The value of these combined orders exceeds $5.82 billion. The company claims to now hold 60% of commercial launch market.

All four launches satellites are between 3,300 and 3,500kg and will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket with other, heavier satellites, whose launches are already on the books. The Ariane 5 is capable of delivering 10,000kg of payload to geosynchronous transfer orbit, over twice as much as its competitor SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. This ability to lift two larger satellites at once helps the company stay competitive with other providers.

"Dual manifesting allows Arianespace to be very competitive on price," a company spokesperson told me. "It is part of our business model."

The Optus 10 satellite being prepped for launch at Arianespace's launch center. (Credit: Arianespace)

In 2016, Arianespace will be launching communications satellite JCSAT-1 for its customer SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation. The satellite will be used to broadcast TV signals for its customers. This will be the 29th satellite that Arianespace has launched for SKY Perfect since 1989.

For Korean satellite communications provider, KTSat, Arianespace will be launching Koreasat 7. This satellite, to be launched in 2016, will provide communications services to customers in Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and India. This will mark the third KTSat launch performed by Arianespace.

In 2017, Arianespace will be launching the telecommunications satellite Hylas 4 on behalf of its customer, the London-based Avanti Communications. Hylas 4 will be builtd by Orbital Sciences and will provide TV and data services to Africa, Europe and Latin America.

During the third quarter of 2016, Arianespace will launch IntelSat 36 on behalf of telecommunications service provider Intelsat. This will be the 55th satellite that Arianespace has launched for Intelsat. The satellite will deliver data services to customers in Asia and Africa.

"We are very honored by our customers' renewed confidence, as well as the new customers we have added to our clientele," Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël said in a statement. "The eleven contracts signed so far this year, and the two exclusive negotiations under way, clearly demonstrate the pertinence of Arianespace's product offering, which strikes an optimum balance between reliability, availability and cost."

Arianespace has had 256 successful launches since it was founded in 1980. Its next launch is scheduled for September 11, where it will be taking two telecommunications satellites into orbit.

Today, European commercial launch provider Arianespace has announced that it has signed four new commercial launch contracts. This marks an impressive 11 launch contracts signed so far this year for the company, with two current contracts under negotiation to be completed by the year's end.

According to the company, these four contracts bring Arianespace's total launch backlog to 38 satellite launches for 29 different customers. The value of these combined orders exceeds $5.82 billion. The company claims to now hold 60% of commercial launch market.

All four launches satellites are between 3,300 and 3,500kg and will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket with other, heavier satellites, whose launches are already on the books. The Ariane 5 is capable of delivering 10,000kg of payload to geosynchronous transfer orbit, over twice as much as its competitor SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. This ability to lift two larger satellites at once helps the company stay competitive with other providers.

"Dual manifesting allows Arianespace to be very competitive on price," a company spokesperson told me. "It is part of our business model."

In 2016, Arianespace will be launching communications satellite JCSAT-1 for its customer SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation. The satellite will be used to broadcast TV signals for its customers. This will be the 29th satellite that Arianespace has launched for SKY Perfect since 1989.

For Korean satellite communications provider, KTSat, Arianespace will be launching Koreasat 7. This satellite, to be launched in 2016, will provide communications services to customers in Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and India. This will mark the third KTSat launch performed by Arianespace.

In 2017, Arianespace will be launching the telecommunications satellite Hylas 4 on behalf of its customer, the London-based Avanti Communications. Hylas 4 will be builtd by Orbital Sciences and will provide TV and data services to Africa, Europe and Latin America.

During the third quarter of 2016, Arianespace will launch IntelSat 36 on behalf of telecommunications service provider Intelsat. This will be the 55th satellite that Arianespace has launched for Intelsat. The satellite will deliver data services to customers in Asia and Africa.

"We are very honored by our customers' renewed confidence, as well as the new customers we have added to our clientele," Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël said in a statement. "The eleven contracts signed so far this year, and the two exclusive negotiations under way, clearly demonstrate the pertinence of Arianespace's product offering, which strikes an optimum balance between reliability, availability and cost."

Arianespace has had 256 successful launches since it was founded in 1980. Its next launch is scheduled for September 11, where it will be taking two telecommunications satellites into orbit.

 

 

NASA's expert in Alabama is skeptical that meteorite hit Nicaragua Saturday night

 

Lee Rope - Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Something other than a meteorite likely caused the 40-foot-wide crater near the Nicaraguan capital of Managua Saturday night, NASA's meteorite expert in Alabama says. A space object capable of creating a crater that big would have created a fireball brighter than the moon and visible for miles, Dr. Bill Cooke said Monday. No such fireball was reported.

No one was hurt when something blasted the crater into the ground near Nicaragua's airport and an air force base, a government spokeswoman said. There appeared to be no sign of the meteorite itself, but experts at the scene said it could have disintegrated or buried itself in the soil.

Cooke, who runs NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, said a meteorite can't be ruled out "with absolute certainty," but the information available now "suggests that some other cause is responsible" for the hole.

 

 

SpaceX rocket successfully blasts off, Asian satellite in tow

 

Rachel Feltman - Washington Post

After delaying the mission because of an explosive (but unrelated) launch in August, commercial spaceflight company SpaceX has launched its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit carrying a new telecommunications satellite for Asia.

The rocket model, which has previously been used for three successful cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral at 1 a.m. local time on Sunday, Sept. 7.

This is actually the second AsiaSat payload that SpaceX carried: In August, the Falcon 9 was used to put AsiaSat 8 into orbit. Sunday's launch carried AsiaSat 6, which will provide television and broadband coverage for the Asia-Pacific region. With the help of SpaceX, AsiaSat now has a total of five satellites in orbit.

It takes a lot of coordination to launch a rocket. The timing has to be perfect, allowing the satellite on board to slip into its intended orbit. (In this case, the time slot was 12:50 a.m. to 4:04 a.m.). Weather conditions need to be clear and favorable as well, and the Falcon 9 was lucky to slip by a lightning warning for the area.

The ultimate goal of SpaceX is to create space transport that's reusable and fit for human cargo. The company has already been able to retrieve the first half of the two-stage Falcon 9 from ocean landings on several occasions, but hasn't attempted to do this on the AsiaSat missions. It could be awhile before we see astronauts hitching a ride to ISS on a SpaceX rocket, but the Falcon 9 is certainly breaking new ground in commercial spaceflight.

 

 

Miso Soup, Seaweed Salad Eyed as Japanese Astronaut Food

June Hongo – The Wall Street Journal

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has selected 33 Japanese dishes including wagyu beef keema curry, miso soup and hijiki seaweed salad for development as future astronaut food.

 

According to the agency, the new menu items will be officially certified and prepared after JAXA tests them in accordance with its Certification Standards of Japanese Space Foods.

 

There are already 28 Japanese and Japan-made food products certified by JAXA, including white rice, ramen noodles, miso-flavored mackerel and yokan sweet bean-paste desserts. The foods are intended to be carried aboard spaceships by Japanese astronauts in their bonus meal containers.

 

The most recent Japanese astronaut to spend time in orbit was Koichi Wakata, who completed 188 days aboard the International Space Station on May 14. Other Japanese astronauts are scheduled to spend time on the space station in 2015 and 2016.

 

Seeking to "enrich the variety of Japanese space food," the agency invited companies to come up with new menu items in July 2013. To meet space-use standards, the food had to be easy to prepare and not liable to scatter in bits and pieces. Sushi isn't an option because the food has to be preservable for 18 months in normal temperature.

 

Some of the other newly selected items include soy sauce, mochi rice cake, and Japanese spiny lobster in chili sauce.

 

 

END

More at www.spacetoday.net

 

 

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