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Manned Mission to the Planet MERCURY ("Half Base") KSP RSS Episode 6 – Video

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Manned Mission to the Planet MERCURY ("Half Base") KSP RSS Episode 6
Three kerbals come in for a fast landing on closest planet to the Sun with Apollo hardware. The lander/base will be resupplied with the help of the already under construction yet-to-be-named...

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Manned Mission to the Planet MERCURY ("Half Base") KSP RSS Episode 6 - Video

Rocket Booster Aiming For Ocean Barge In Redo Of SpaceX Test

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CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami/AP) The 1-million-mile destination for a space weather satellite isnt what has the space community excited. Its the rockets ocean landing that everyone will be monitoring after Sundays launch.

The SpaceX company will take a second stab at landing a booster on a platform floating off the Florida coast; last months experiment ended in a fireball.

The close, but no cigar attempt on Jan. 10 was caused by an insufficient amount of hydraulic fluid. SpaceX added extra fluid for Sundays sunset landing attempt. But the booster will fly back faster this time given its particular course, and company officials are less certain of success in this attempt to demonstrate rocket reusability.

So on one side we fixed the problem, on the other side this trajectory is a lot more aggressive and a lot more difficult, SpaceX vice president Hans Koenigsmann said Saturday. He stressed that the test is secondary and entirely separate from the primary mission of launching the Deep Space Climate Observatory for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

Excellent weather is forecast for the 6:10 p.m. launch.

The Deep Space Climate Observatory is the revitalized version of the Earth-observing spacecraft conceived in the late 1990s by then Vice President Al Gore. It was called Triana back then, after the sailor who first spotted land on Christopher Columbus famed voyage.

The Triana program was suspended, however, and the spacecraft put in storage in 2001. The spacecraft was tested seven years later and refurbished for this new $340 million mission known as DSCOVR, pronounced discover, a joint effort by NASA, NOAA and the Air Force.

DSCOVR will travel to the so-called Lagrange point, or L1, a spot 1 million miles from Earth and 92 million miles from the sun, where the gravity fields are neutralized.

The spacecraft will observe Earth from this ideal vantage point scientists expect wow pictures of the home planet but its primary objective will be to monitor outbursts from the sun that could disrupt communications and power back on Earth.

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Rocket Booster Aiming For Ocean Barge In Redo Of SpaceX Test

Gorgeous Sunrises, Auroras, Landscapes and More from Space Station Crew

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Almost disappearing behind the solar panels before sunrise: the US East coast from DC to Boston. #HelloEarth. Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti

The Expedition 42 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) continues to delight us with stunning views of Our Beautiful Earth from Space.

Heres a collection of a few of the newest sunrises, auroras, landscapes, nightlifes and more snapshots from the multinational crew of six astronauts and cosmonauts living and working aboard the ISS orbiting some 250 miles (400 kilometers) overhead.

And dont forget that at sunset tonight (Feb. 8), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is due to blastoff at 6:10 p.m., EST, if all goes well carrying the DSCOVR space weather satellite about a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away to the L1 Lagrange point.

The Falcon 9 will blastoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, pictured below:

From Key West to the Gulf of Mexico and #Atlanta, a very nice, clear, half moonlit night. Credit: NASA/Terry Virts. KSC and Cape Canaveral launch pads along Florida east coast at right.

Tens of millions of you are included in the lead sunrise photo of the U.S. East Coast taken by ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

And heres a speechless sunrise from today taken by NASA astronaut Terry Virts.

#speechless from this #sunrise. Credit: NASA/Terry Virts

Always happy to see this lovely sight that has become familiar in #Patagonia. Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti

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Gorgeous Sunrises, Auroras, Landscapes and More from Space Station Crew

SpaceX readies for launch at Cape Canaveral

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SpaceX plans to try again Sunday night to land its used rocket on an unmanned barge in the Atlantic Ocean after launching it into space, an experiment seen as a big step toward making space launches dramatically less expensive.

The company is scheduled to launch its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:10 p.m., to carry a space-weather monitoring satellite into space.

Officials said Sunday there was a less than 10 percent chance that bad weather would delay the scheduled sunset launch.

The satellite, called the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) will help NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Air Force better monitor events such as geomagnetic storms caused by changes in the Sun's wind.

Minutes after the rocket's launch, SpaceX will attempt to land its next big dream, with ramifications for the space industry worldwide. At stake is SpaceX's plan to make its rockets reusable, which would revolutionize launches and reduce costs.

"I don't think it's too strong to say it really is a game-changing event," said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "I think it's going to have a huge impact on the industry from a cost perspective."

If SpaceX succeeds, Stallmer and others in the industry think a price-driven space competition could spur a new boom in private and government satellite launches. Worldwide, virtually all rockets are used only once, and the rockets themselves are by far the largest factor in launch costs.

SpaceX has been coy about what it expects to save. But industry observers note that the company now charges $61 million for most launches, which already is the industry's lowest rate, and say the company might be able to get that bill to less than $10 million.

Others, however, suggest the actual savings of recycling rockets might not be great because the rockets could need significant overhauls before reuse.

"I've heard a wild range of numbers [for savings] from nothing to an order of magnitude of 10," Stallmer said.

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SpaceX readies for launch at Cape Canaveral

Astronaut Barry Wilmore delivers a special message to USS Theodore Roosevelt – Video

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Astronaut Barry Wilmore delivers a special message to USS Theodore Roosevelt
EARTH #39;s ORBIT (Jan. 26, 2015) NASA Astronaut and Navy Captain Barry Wilmore delivers a special message to the crew aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). Wilmore also provided a guided ...

By: U.S. Navy

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Astronaut Barry Wilmore delivers a special message to USS Theodore Roosevelt - Video

NASA Space News, International Space Station Shuttle …

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Drastic reductions in Arctic sea ice in the last decade may be intensifying the chemical release of bromine into the atmosphere, resulting in ground-level ozone depletion and the deposit of toxic mercury in the Arctic, according to a new NASA-led study.

The connection between changes in the Arctic Ocean's ice cover and bromine chemical processes is determined by the interaction between the salt in sea ice, frigid temperatures and sunlight. When these mix, the salty ice releases bromine into the air and starts a cascade of chemical reactions called a "bromine explosion." These reactions rapidly create more molecules of bromine monoxide in the atmosphere. Bromine then reacts with a gaseous form of mercury, turning it into a pollutant that falls to Earth's surface.

Bromine also can remove ozone from the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere. Despite ozone's beneficial role blocking harmful radiation in the stratosphere, ozone is a pollutant in the ground-level troposphere.

A team from the United States, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, led by Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., produced the study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research- Atmospheres. The team combined data from six NASA, European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency satellites; field observations and a model of how air moves in the atmosphere to link Arctic sea ice changes to bromine explosions over the Beaufort Sea, extending to the Amundsen Gulf in the Canadian Arctic.

"Shrinking summer sea ice has drawn much attention to exploiting Arctic resources and improving maritime trading routes," Nghiem said. "But the change in sea ice composition also has impacts on the environment. Changing conditions in the Arctic might increase bromine explosions in the future."

The study was undertaken to better understand the fundamental nature of bromine explosions, which first were observed in the Canadian Arctic more than two decades ago. The team of scientists wanted to find if the explosions occur in the troposphere or higher in the stratosphere.

Nghiem's team used the topography of mountain ranges in Alaska and Canada as a "ruler" to measure the altitude at which the explosions took place. In the spring of 2008, satellites detected increased concentrations of bromine, which were associated with a decrease of gaseous mercury and ozone. After the researchers verified the satellite observations with field measurements, they used an atmospheric model to study how the wind transported the bromine plumes across the Arctic.

The model, together with satellite observations, showed the Alaskan Brooks Range and the Canadian Richardson and Mackenzie mountains stopped bromine from moving into Alaska's interior. Since most of these mountains are lower than 6,560 feet (2,000 meters), the researchers determined the bromine explosion was confined to the lower troposphere.

"If the bromine explosion had been in the stratosphere, 5 miles [8 kilometers] or higher above the ground, the mountains would not have been able to stop it and the bromine would have been transported inland," Nghiem said.

After the researchers found that bromine explosions occur in the lowest level of the atmosphere, they could relate their origin to sources on the surface. Their model, tracing air rising from the salty ice, tied the bromine releases to recent changes in Arctic sea ice that have led to a much saltier sea ice surface.

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Mir – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Mir Mir on 9 February 1998 as seen from the departing Space ShuttleEndeavour during STS-89 Mir insignia Station statistics COSPAR ID 1986-017A Call sign Mir Crew 3 Launch 20 February 1986 23 April 1996 Launch pad LC-200/39, and LC-81/23, Baikonur Cosmodrome LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center Reentry 23 March 2001 05:59 UTC Mass 129,700 kg (285,940 lbs) Length 19m (62.3ft) from the core module to Kvant-1 Width 31m (101.7ft) from Priroda to the docking module Height 27.5m (90.2ft) from Kvant-2 to Spektr Pressurised volume 350 m Atmospheric pressure c.101.3kPa (29.91inHg, 1 atm) Perigee 354km (189nmi) AMSL Apogee 374km (216nmi) AMSL Orbital inclination 51.6 degrees Average speed 7,700m/s (27,700km/h, 17,200mph) Orbital period 91.9 minutes Orbits per day 15.7 Days in orbit 5,519 days Days occupied 4,592 days Number of orbits 86,331 Statistics as of 23 March 2001 (unless noted otherwise) References: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Configuration Station elements as of May 1996.

Mir (Russian: , IPA:[mir]; lit.Peace or World) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, owned by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986to1996. It had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft. Until 21 March 2001 it was the largest satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station after Mir's orbit decayed. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space.

Mir was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and set the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days until 23 October 2010 when it was surpassed by the ISS.[13] It holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short term visits.

Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986, and followed by six further modules. Proton rockets were used to launch all of its components except for the docking module, which was installed by space shuttle mission STS-74 in 1995. When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays attached directly to the modules. The station was maintained at an orbit between 296km (184mi) and 421km (262mi) altitude and traveled at an average speed of 27,700km/h (17,200mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day.[6][7][8]

The station was launched as part of the Soviet Union's manned spaceflight programme effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space, and, following the collapse of the USSR, was operated by the new Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA). As a result, the vast majority of the station's crew were Russian; however, through international collaborations such as the Intercosmos, Euromir and Shuttle-Mir programmes, the station was made accessible to astronauts from North America, several European nations and Japan. Mir was deorbited in March 2001 because of a lack of funding. The cost of the Mir programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime (including development, assembly and orbital operation).[14]

Mir was authorised in a decree made on 17 February 1976 to design an improved model of the Salyut DOS-17K space stations. Four Salyut space stations had already been launched since 1971, with three more being launched during Mir's development. It was planned that the station's core module (DOS-7 and the backup DOS-8) would be equipped with a total of four docking ports; two at either end of the station as with the Salyut stations, and an additional two ports on either side of a docking sphere at the front of the station to enable further modules to expand the station's capabilities. By August 1978, this had evolved to the final configuration of one aft port and five ports in a spherical compartment at the forward end of the station.[15]

It was originally planned that the ports would connect to 7.5 tonne modules derived from the Soyuz spacecraft. These modules would have used a Soyuz propulsion module, as in Soyuz and Progress, and the descent and orbital modules would have been replaced with a long laboratory module.[15] However, following a February 1979 governmental resolution, the programme was consolidated with Vladimir Chelomei's manned Almaz military space station programme. The docking ports were reinforced to accommodate 20tonne (22short tons) space station modules based on the TKS spacecraft. NPO Energia was responsible for the overall space station, with work subcontracted to KB Salyut, due to ongoing work on the Energia rocket and Salyut 7, Soyuz-T, and Progress spacecraft. KB Salyut began work in 1979, and drawings were released in 1982 and 1983. New systems incorporated into the station included the Salyut 5B digital flight control computer and gyrodyne flywheels (taken from Almaz), Kurs automatic rendezvous system, Luch satellite communications system, Elektron oxygen generators, and Vozdukh carbon dioxide scrubbers.[15]

By early 1984, work on Mir had ground to a halt while all resources were being put into the Buran programme in order to prepare the Buran spacecraft for flight testing. Funding resumed in early 1984 when Valentin Glushko was ordered by the Central Committee's Secretary for Space and Defence to orbit Mir by early 1986, in time for the 27th Communist Party Congress.[15]

It was clear that the planned processing flow could not be followed and still meet the 1986 launch date. It was decided on Cosmonaut's Day (12 April) 1985 to ship the flight model of the base block to the Baikonur cosmodrome and conduct the systems testing and integration there. The module arrived at the launch site on 6 May, with 1100 of 2500 cables requiring rework based on the results of tests to the ground test model at Khrunichev. In October, the base block was rolled outside its cleanroom to carry out communications tests. The first launch attempt on 16 February 1986 was scrubbed when the spacecraft communications failed, but the second launch attempt, on 19 February 1986 at 21:28:23 UTC, was successful, meeting the political deadline.[15]

The orbital assembly of Mir began in February 1986 with the launch of the core module on a Proton-K rocket. Four of the six modules which were later added (Kvant-2 in 1989, Kristall in 1990, Spektr in 1995 and Priroda in 1996) followed the same sequence to add themselves to the main Mir complex. Firstly, the module would be launched independently on its own Proton-K and chase the station automatically. It would then dock to the forward docking port on the core module's docking node, then extend its Lyappa arm to mate with a fixture on the node's exterior. The arm would then lift the module away from the forward docking port and rotate it on to the radial port that the module was to mate with, before lowering it down to dock. The node was equipped with only two Konus drogues, however, which were required for dockings. This meant that, prior to the arrival of each new module, the node would have to be depressurised to allow spacewalking cosmonauts to manually relocate the drogue to the next port to be occupied.[6][17]

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Mir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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