The final Rockot booster converted from an intercontinental ballistic missile launched into space Friday (Dec. 27) carrying a trio Russian satellites and a military payload into orbit.
The Rockot, a launch vehicle based on Russia's RS-18 ballistic missile, launched three Gonets-M communications satellites into space from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The rocket also reportedly carried a military payload called Blits-M, a glass sphere designed to serve as a laser reflector, according to Russianspaceweb.com , which tracks the Russian space industry.
Other things to check out:
NC astronaut breaks record for longest single space flight by a woman
CHARLOTTE — Astronaut Christina Koch has set the record for longest time spent in space in a single space flight by a woman, logging her 289th day in space.
Anchor Blaine Tolison got to speak with Koch Friday morning ahead of her record-breaking milestone while she was on the International Space Station.
NEW RECORD! NASA astronaut @Astro_Christina now has a place in the record books for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, eclipsing former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson's record of 288 days. @AstroPeggy went back to zero gravity to say #CongratsChristina . pic.twitter.com/Z7XWNCeDhi
Seismic Sensors in Orbit - Eos
Imagine it's 3:00 a.m. along the Pacific Northwest coast—it's dark outside and most people are asleep indoors rather than alert and going about their day. Suddenly, multiple seismometers along the coast of Washington state are triggered as seismic waves emanate from a seconds-old earthquake. These initial detections are followed rapidly by subsequent triggering of a dozen more instruments spread out both to the north, toward Seattle, and to the south, toward Portland, Ore.
Within a few seconds of the seismometers being triggered, computers running long-practiced seismic location and magnitude algorithms estimate the source of the shaking: a magnitude 7.0 earthquake 60 kilometers off the Washington coast at a depth roughly consistent with the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) interface, along which one tectonic plate scrapes—and occasionally lurches—past another as it descends toward Earth's interior.
Hot Super-Earth and Exo-Neptune Found Orbiting Sun-Like Star | Astronomy | Sci-News.com
Using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and three ground-based spectrographs, astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period super Earth and a Neptune-mass planet circling a nearby Sun-like star.
* * *
The newfound planets orbit HD 213885 (also known as TOI-141 and TIC 403224672), a 3.8-billion-year-old G-type star located some 156 light-years away.
The inner planet, named HD 213885b (TOI-141b), is 1.74 times larger than Earth and 8.8 times heavier, making it a so-called super Earth.
While you're here, how about this:
NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 26 December 2019 - Back to Work - SpaceRef
Expedition 61 Flight Engineers (clockwise from bottom) Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir of NASA and cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos brush up on their emergency response skills. The three crewmates practiced quickly entering their Soyuz crew ship and simulated emergency undocking and descent procedures in the unlikely event they would need to evacuate the station. Credit: NASA. (Dec. 19, 2019)
It is back to work for the six-member Expedition 61 crew from the U.S., Russia and Italy after celebrating Christmas aboard the International Space Station.
These Star Wars-Style Lasers Could Track Space Junk In Earth's Orbit To Prevent Deadly Collisions
The Earth's orbit is cluttered with millions of pieces of space junk whizzing around the planet at 20,000 miles per hour. Reportedly , more than 400 satellites were launched in 2014 alone. Needless to mention, the sudden burst in the number fueled by companies like SpaceX, Boeing and Airbus have plans to deploy thousands of communications satellites into Earth-encircling orbits over the next few years.
* * *
Keeping track of all the satellites orbiting 38,000 kilometres above our heads is a NASA priority. However, a new system based on the neural network has provided a better way to keep track of these hazardous objects with telescopes. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping have reportedly developed a new laser tracking system that can detect debris as small as three feet wide, improving on the current methods by around 1,500 times.
NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 23 December 2019 - Biology Studies and Housekeeping - SpaceRef
The six Expedition 61 crewmembers aboard the International Space Station started Christmas week exploring how weightlessness affects biology. The orbital residents also focused on housekeeping and lab maintenance tasks.
* * *
CBEF-L (Cell Biology Experiment Facility - Left) configuration change: The crew worked on steps to change the CBEF-L configuration from 'G' (sample tray and centrifuge) to 'F' (large centrifuge), but were not able to accomplish all the tasks within the time allocated. The ground is working on plan revisions to accommodate the tasks.
Nations Collaborate to Remove Space Debris from Low Orbit
While the odds of navigating an asteroid field are not as bad as 3,720 to one—as C-3PO famously told Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back —space debris is a growing problem in low Earth orbit with millions of pieces of spacecraft, flecks of paint, jettisoned engineers, decommissioned satellites and more flying around at 18,000 miles per hour.
There are no international space laws to clean up debris, but Europe, the United States, China and other countries have committed to working together to ensure the problem doesn’t get worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment