The search for evidence of life on alien planets is likely to move closer to Earth, involve greater coordination among more capable space and ground-based observatories and require technologies that can detect the presence of oxygen in distant atmospheres, according to exoplanet experts.
Europe’s Vega light launcher lifted off late May 6 with the European Space Agency’s Proba-V Earth-observation satellite and smaller spacecraft for Vietnam and Estonia, overcoming a weather delay at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana to go two-for-two in successful launches. Liftoff into a 1-sec. window came at 11:06 p.m. local time (10:06 p.m. EDT) Monday, following a weather scrub at the same time on May 3.
Crewmembers on the International Space Station have been experimenting with the use of ultrasound scans to image their spines, a new application for the technology that could prove useful on the ground as well. Briefing members of the Senate Commerce space subcommittee Tuesday, Expedition 35 Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn said the ultrasound instrument can help flight surgeons learn about the sometimes painful spinal recompression experienced by spacefarers when they return to gravity.
SPACEX LEASE: SpaceX signed a three-year lease for land and facilities at New Mexico’s Spaceport America for flight testing its reusable Grasshopper vertical-takeoff-and-landing rocket. Gov. Susana Martinez announced the agreement Tuesday, noting that the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company wants to expand its test envelope now that it has completed low altitude tests at its facility in McGregor, Texas.
The launch of the European Space Agency (ESA) Proba-V Earth observation satellite atop a Vega light launcher was scrubbed May 3 due to unfavorable weather over the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s equatorial spaceport in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. The mission, which was constrained to a 1-sec. launch window at 11:06:31 p.m. local time, is also carrying Vietnam’s VNREDSat-1 Earth observation spacecraft and the ESTCube-1 solar-sail demonstrator for Estonia.
U.S. China-watchers believe the U.S. can expand cooperation with China in space without harming national security, and in fact ease the tense relationship in a manner comparable to the approach President Richard Nixon used in the run-up to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.
Inexpensive satellites little bigger than a Rubik's Cube have been the provenance of university and small research projects for more than a decade. Increasingly, innovations from the smartphone world are showing how these classroom projects can play outsized roles in space science.
NEW DELHI — India’s space agency has plans to start a new facility for production of cryogenic engines and components for its future rockets. The cryogenic engine manufacturing unit, to be established at the aerospace division of the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) in Bengaluru three years from now, is estimated to cost around $25 million (1.4 billion rupees), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief K. Radhakrishnan says.
SPACESUIT AWARD: NASA will spend an estimated $4.38 million with ILC Dover on the design, manufacture and test of a next-generation spacesuit, under a contract announced April 25. Designed to improve astronaut capability during extravehicular activities, the Z-2 suit will operate at higher pressure than previous models, to improve productivity. It will also be designed to work with existing airlocks and new designs in development at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) are backing studies to address a range of health and performance issues confronting astronauts assigned to long-duration spaceflight, ranging from the vision impairments that have surfaced recently with International Space Station crew members to fundamental concerns like nutrition. The $17 million in grant awards to 23 principal investigators associated with 18 U.S. university, government and private-sector institutions will span from one to three years.
The five-segment solid rocket booster under development by ATK and Marshall Space Flight Center as part of NASA’s Block 1 Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket has completed a Preliminary Design Review that supports an unpiloted test flight with the Orion crew vehicle in 2017.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital reusable spaceplane went supersonic Monday morning during a 16-sec. flight test of its hybrid rocket motor. The short-duration flight over Mojave, Calif., with two test pilots from Scaled Composites at the controls, brings SS2 a major step closer to its first flight into space, and ultimately to flights with paying tourists and researchers in the pressurized cabin.
