France secured its two biggest export agreements in recent memory with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in July, including an €800 million ($1.05 billion) sale of two high-resolution spy satellites built by EADS-Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. The satellites are small enough to launch on a European Vega rocket and are said to be similar to France's twin Pleiades spacecraft, putting the UAE in an elite club of nations cable of taking high-resolution images of sub-meter-sized objects from space.
Earth and the Moon show two sides in these parallel images, both collected July 19 by the Cassini and Messenger spacecraft. In the image at left, Cassini was 898 million mi. away when its wide-angle camera caught the Earth system floating below Saturn's main rings. Also visible are the F, G and E rings, the latter two overexposed to show up better. The rings' shadows can be seen as “breaks” in the planet's bright limb. At the highest resolution, the Moon shows up in the image as a bump on Earth's right side.
Russia’s Progress 50 cargo capsule departed the International Space Station’s (ISS) Russian segment on July 25, opening a berthing port for the July 27 arrival of a replacement freighter carrying a NASA space suit repair kit among its nearly 3 tons of supplies. Progress 50, filled with trash and unneeded equipment, departed the station’s Pirs docking port at 4:43 p.m. EDT, destined for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.
DENVER — Dextre, the multipurpose dexterous manipulator that rides at the end of the International Space Station’s robotic arm, will acquire some new tools and tasks by year’s end. Among the cargo tucked into Japan’s fourth H-II Transfer Vehicle scheduled for launch to the ISS on Aug. 4 is Phase II hardware for NASA’s Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), a testbed the size of a window air conditioner bolted onto the station truss that mimics operational satellites.
NASA will expand its probe into the water leak that prompted an abrupt end to a July 16 spacewalk outside the International Space Station with the creation of a five-member mishap investigation board.
FIZZY COMET: Observations using NASA’s Spitzer space telescope have revealed what most likely are strong carbon dioxide emissions from Comet ISON ahead of its anticipated pass through the inner solar system later this year, the agency announced. Images captured last month with Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera indicate carbon dioxide is “fizzing” away from what has now been dubbed the “soda-pop comet,” along with dust, forming a tail 186,400 mi. long. Scientists estimate the comet is emitting about 2.2 million lb. [1 million kg] of gas and about 120 million lb.
India’s Insat-3D weather satellite is getting ready for liftoff on July 25 from Europe’s spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. “The satellite has been installed on [an] Ariane 5 launcher for Arianespace’s heavy-lift mission and the final payload integration is under way,” a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) says. The Indian spacecraft is integrated in the lower payload position for Ariane 5’s dual-launch mission, along with Europe’s Alphasat telecommunications platform.
A private company plans to mount the first commercial mission to the Moon as a step toward a private lunar sample return flight around 2020. Moon Express, Inc., a strong contender in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition, says it will mount a follow-on mission to the Moon’s South Pole in partnership with the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), one of the piggyback customers for its X-Prize entry.
After receiving initial FAA certification in March of a system combining satellite-based communications with helicopter health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS), Honeywell aims to evolve the capability for inflight broadband connectivity on passenger airliners.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off July 19, carrying the second of the U.S. Navy’s new narrowband communications satellites. Liftoff occurred at 9:00 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite, made by Lockheed Martin, was lofted from an Atlas V 551, meaning it used a 5-meter fairing and five strap-on solid-rocket boosters. A 44-min. launch window opened at 8:48 a.m. EDT, but the launch was put on hold temporarily due to high upper-level winds.
More space programs are set to feel sequestration's effects, particularly on the civilian side as lawmakers responsible for NASA are increasingly—and bitterly—at odds. Last week, Senate appropriators, led by Democrats, recommended $18 billion for the agency for 2014. But despite his stated approval of the legislation, senior Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) voted against the measure in committee because it adheres to Senate Democrats' overall federal budget allocations.
The nine USAF fighter squadrons grounded since April by the 2011 Budget Control Act's automatic sequestration cuts are flying again, but whether they will remain so after September—and whether there will be anyone to fly or maintain them starting
Carbon in its many forms is transforming manufacturing, from electronics to structures. Aerospace uses carbon in fiber form, but new nano-structured materials are emerging that promise improved properties and expanded applications.
ELECTROSPRAY PROPULSION: Three organizations may get a chance to fly their electrospray microthrusters on a future orbiting testbed, following their selection for “game-changing” development grants from NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. Picked to negotiate for grants are projects proposed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Busek Company, Inc., of Natick, Mass., and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
SPACE SELFIES: NASA’s Messenger Mercury probe and Cassini Saturn explorer are maneuvering into place to image the Earth on July 19 and 20. Cassini will take its pictures between 2:27 p.m. and 2:42 p.m. PDT July 19, when the probe will be nearly 900 million mi. (1.5 billion km) from Earth. The portrait is part of a mosaic of images of the Saturn system backlit by the Sun, in which the viewing geometry allows for highly detailed study of Saturn’s famous ring system.
