Daily Archives: May 24, 2021

Acting Secretary of the Air Force John P. Roth, tours Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., May 17, 2021. During his visit, Roth toured several facilities at CCSFS and met with Airmen and Guardians supporting space launch operations. (U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Thomas Sjoberg)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA The acting Secretary of the Air Force, John P. Roth, and the Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force Gen. John W. Jay Raymond, visited Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, May 17, 2021.

During the visit, Roth and Raymond toured the Morrell Operations Center, the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC), and the Spaceflight Operations Processing Center.

U.S. Space Force Guardians and our space systems are absolutely vital for homeland defense, global operations with partners and allies, and many comforts that have become normal in the American way of life, Roth said.

One of the goals of the visit for Roth and Raymond was to educate congressional leaders about the U.S. Space Force and its missions. Members of the House of Representatives participated in the tour including several members of the House Armed Services Committee.

Formerly known as the 45th Space Wing, Space Launch Delta 45 (SLD 45) operates the Eastern Range and aims to provide on demand launch support for commercial mission partners and Department of Defense missions. SLD 45 does this by providing launch partners with weather analysis, mission assurance, and operating range support radar and equipment.

Over the past year, this support has enabled numerous successful launches, including the third crewed space flight in less than a year.

Im grateful for the support of the Congressional members who joined us and their willingness to learn more about the Space Force and the Guardians who defend the ultimate high ground, said Roth. The Nation is making efforts to improve our space defense architecture and deter conflict in space from a position of strength.

During a tour of United Launch Alliances ASOC, the dignitaries learned about the Atlas 5 rocket and the plan to launch the United States fifth Space Based Infrared Geosynchronous satellite on May 18. The satellite will enhance a constellation that provides 24/7 global strategic missile warning capabilities that contribute to national defense.

In January 2020, the SBIRS constellation detected 16 ballistic missiles launched from Iran toward two U.S. installations in Iraq.

Recalling the event, Raymond said, The critical missile warning provided by Guardians allowed U.S. service members and coalition partners to seek shelter and mitigated the risk of casualties, and ultimately saved lives.

Roth and Raymond concluded their visit by recognizing Airmen and Guardians for all they do to support the USSF.

Assured access to space is a vital national interest; it underpins our security and economic prosperity, Raymond said. I couldnt be more proud of the Space Launch Delta 45 team!

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Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Chief of Space Operations Visits Cape Canaveral Space Force Station - SpaceCoastDaily.com

5:27am, 21 May 2021

A rivalry that has been a stable of rugby in Japan reaches its conclusion on Sunday when Sean McMahons Suntory Sungoliath take on Robbie Deanss Panasonic Wild Knights in the last Top League final.

While global knowledge of the league has grown through its lifetime, interest in the decider is quite literally out of this world.

The final seconds to kick-off will be beamed in from the International Space Station, counted down by the stations commander, Japanese astronaut Akihito Hoshide.

With the league going fully professional next year, the game is the closing chapter of a semi-professional format that has operated since 2003.

Suntory and Panasonic have shared nine of the 19 titles, with the Sungoliath twice edging the Wild Knights in finals.

Deans, who has been associated with the Wild Knights since the 2013-14 success, is bidding to add a fourth Top League to five Super Rugby titles.

The former Wallabies and Crusaders coach presides over a squad with a heavy Australian influence.

Centre Dylan Riley, No.8 Jack Cornelsen, loose forward Ben Gunter, winger Semisi Tupou and veteran lock Dan Heenan all have strong Aussie affiliations.

Heenan, who has been at the club for 14 years, could be playing the final match of a career that, while significant in its achievements, has largely been out of the sight of his homeland.

Suntory is missing former Wallabies vice-captain Samu Kerevi due to injury, but the final will give his compatriots McMahon and Harry Hockings the chance to showcase their wares in case Wallabies coach Dave Rennie decides he needs either in preparation for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

While he often treads a fine line, McMahons destructive ability at the breakdown is key, with the former Test flankers ability to slow down opposition ball thwarting Kubota in last weeks semi-final.

Hockings and English lock Tom Savage have also been a key part of Suntorys dominance this year.

Their battle against Heenan and the Wild Knights England Test second row, George Kruis, will be critical to the outcome.

Suntory have averaged 58 points per game and in Beauden Barrett (162) has the competitions leading point-scorer.

The final is his last chance to show why he should be the flyhalf when the All Blacks assemble in July.

Panasonic boasts the leagues most miserly defence, having conceded just 16 tries in 10 matches.

Their attack is led by Japanese winger Kenki Fukuoka, who has bagged 13 tries, including two hat-tricks.

The 28-year-old plays the final 80 minutes of his career at Tokyos Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, before walking away to fast-track medical studies as Japan struggles under the weight of COVID-19.

While grim reminders of the of the pandemic are ever present, and only a small crowd will attend, Fukuoka is providing a feel-good factor.

It is a story the populace has embra ced to the extent that most of Japan will be willing the World Cup star to success.

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International Space Station to play starring role in Top League final - RugbyPass

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Bengaluru: Moon check. Mars check. Crewed missions check. Its own space station first module launched, work underway to launch operations by next year. On the agenda: Asteroids, Jupiter by 2035, and Uranus at the far end of the solar system after 2040.

Chinas ambitious space programme has made giant strides in recent years. In its latest feat, China became only the third country to perform a successful soft landing on Mars when its Zhurong rover reached the Red Planet this week.

Over the past few years, China has also performed a soft landing on the Moon (Change 3) as part of its lunar exploration programme Change. Only the US and former Soviet Unionhave pulled this off before.

China is the only nation apart from the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union to bring back lunar rocks to Earth (Change 5), and the first country ever to land a rover (Change 4) on the far side of the moon a mission it pulled off in 2019.

The upcoming Chinese space station is another manifestation of the countrys ambitions to go deeper into the universe. After a decade of tests and two prototypes, the country launched the first core module of the space station into orbit earlier this year.

However, this particular mission landed China in a spot of controversy because it did not correctly deorbit the core booster stage of the rocket that launched the module. Amid doubts about where exactly the debris from the 18-tonne rocket would land, many voiced concerns about the aggressive nature of Chinese expansion into space.

The rocket finally fell into the Indian Ocean off the Maldives on 9 May, with much of it burnt during re-entry into the Earth.

The Chinese space programme was initiated in 1956, when the countrys first rocket research institution was founded. It launched its first rocket carrying white mice into space on 19 July 1964.

Its first crewed mission took place in 2003, making it the third country again after the US and the USSR, the protagonists of the Cold War space race to carry out an independent manned space flight.

Also Read:India must boost start-ups to catch up with Chinas private space firms

Chinas latest launch for its space station did not come without prototypes.

The Tiangong (translating to Heavens Palace) programme, which began in 1992, is Chinas attempt to create a Soviet-style space station along the lines of Mir, a historic mission that stayed in space for 15 years.

The space station will be assembled and operated entirely by one nation, unlike the International Space Station (ISS).

After planning and construction, the first prototype, Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011. Once in orbit, it was visited multiple times by Chinas Shenzhou modules, which carried crew members for test flights and laboratory experiments.

After extending its two-year mission multiple times, the Chinese authorities finally conceded in 2016 that they had lost control of the station. It slowly decayed in its orbit, ultimately burning up in the Earths atmosphere in 2018.

China launched the Tiangong-2 prototype, a much more sophisticated orbiting laboratory, in 2016. This spacecraft, too, was visited by both crew and cargo vehicles, and was deorbited as planned, with controlled re-entry, in 2019.

Currently, China is assembling the Tiangong-3 space station, which will be the final functional version. It will weigh 66,000 kg and begin operations by 2022 at an orbit of about 350-450 km.

The completed module will be T-shaped, and is expected to be operational for 10 years. Its design contains multiple modules, including the Tianhe core module, with science labs. The dockable Shenzhou crew capsule or lifeboat and the Tianzhou robotic cargo ship will also be a part of the station on either ends of the core module.

The country launched Tianhe, which translates to Harmony of the Heavens, on 28 April atop a Long March-5B Y2 rocket, from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the Hainan province. The cylindrical module is the largest spacecraft China has ever developed so far, and will make up the central core of the space station.

The core module contains the main living area for the future crew of the space station. It is 16.6m long and 4.2m wide, with life support. It can support six astronauts, and will provide power and propulsion to the station.

To finish assembling the station, China plans to perform 10 more launches over this year and the next one. These will include two more module launches, four crewed missions, and four cargo vessels.

The Chinese National Space Agency has confirmed that the next launch will be that of the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft in May, followed by the Shenzhou-12 crewed craft in June. Three astronauts will stay in orbit for three months aboard the Shenzhou-12.

In September, the Tianzhou-3 cargo craft will be launched, followed by Shenzhou-13 with three astronauts who will stay in the Tianhe module for six months.

In 2022, there will be two more crewed spacecraft with three astronauts each, who will stay in the module for six months.

Designed to function for 10 years, the Tiangong-3 is expected to function for at least 15 with good maintenance.

Also Read:Chinas Mars landing will be a greater feat with the release of more data

China has accomplished two interplanetary landings that only the former Soviet Union and the US have done so far: On the surface of the Moon and Mars.

The Change (pronounced Chung-uh) missions are named after the Moon goddess Change in Chinese mythology. The programme was launched in 2004, and has so far spawned five successful missions.

Change-1 and 2 were orbital missions, while Change-3 and 4 were lander-rovers. These four made up phases 1 and 2 of the programme. Phase 3 was sample-return, carried out by Change-5.

Three more missions are expected to follow as part of Phase 4, which focuses on building a lunar research station.

Change-6, to be launched in 2023 or 2024, will study the lunar composition, strength, subsurface geography, topography, and more, to finalise a landing site for a station. This is also a sample-return mission, overlapping with Phase 5.

Change-7, to be launched in 2023, will head to the South Pole and conduct a study on resources. It will consist of an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a small flying probe. The mission will be one among many heading to the lunar South Pole over the upcoming years, including those from India and Japan.

Change-8, expected to take off in 2027, will attempt to develop and extract natural resources in-situ on the Moon. It is expected to include payloads like a 3D printer and a sealed biological experiment.

It will consist of a lander, rover, and a flying robot, and will operate as a technology demonstrator for the construction of a lunar science base.

Chinas Mars mission is called Tianwen (Questions to Heaven) after a classic poem. Its orbiter was among three that reached Mars this February. Once in orbit, it surveyed the Utopia Planitia landing site in the northern hemisphere for a couple of months until the Zhurong rover landed this month. The CNSA has since released the first photos taken by the lander.

The astro-biolgoical rover will study the geology and topography of Mars, as well as its atmosphere and magnetism.

China also plans to send another lander to Mars in 2028, and perform a sample-return mission.

Asteroids are on Chinas radar as it plans a number of other deep space missions. A proposed mission, called ZhengHe, will collect a sample from the asteroid 469219 Kamooalewa, which orbits near Earth, and drop it to Earth before heading to the asteroid 311P/PANSTARRS for a year-long flyby study.

The country is also planning to send an orbiter to Jupiter by 2030, expected to reach the planet by 2035. The proposed mission to Jupiter is called Gan De, and will study the magnetic field and the atmosphere of Jupiter, as well as the surface, ice, and tectonics of the largest Jovian moon Ganymede.

There is also a proposed mission to Uranus, that will be aimed to arrive at its destination around 2040.

Apart from these, China is planning five deep space probes that will be scientific in nature, to be developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. These will study a wide variety of Earth, solar, and space phenomena.

These include a space-weather observatory mission in collaboration with the European Space Agency, called the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), a global Water Cycle Observation Mission (WCOM), the Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Thermosphere mission (MIT), the X-ray mission scanning for exotic high-energy phenomena called the Einstein Probe (EP), and the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) to study solar eruptions and other explosive phenomena on the surface of the Sun.

There are other scientific missions in the pipeline, including the X-ray Timing and Polarization (XTP) probe to test the fundamental laws of physics in extreme space conditions, and the Search for Terrestrial Exo-Planets (STEP) to find Earth-like exoplanets close to the Sun, and a probe to study solar magnetism called the Solar Polar ORbit Telescope (SPORT) mission.

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)

Also Read:2 Indians are trying to predict how junk flies in space, could help ISRO protect satellites

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The Discovery Channel is offering the chance to fulfill a lifelong goal for many people traveling to space.

The network is hosting a contest titled Who Wants To Be An Astronaut? giving people an opportunity to apply for a chance to board a flight to the International Space Station to visit space.

Were not looking for rocket scientists, the network writes. This is an opportunity for regular people to have the chance to travel to space and share that journey with the world.

Folks interested in competing for a chance to see space can apply here. The network encourages applicants to include a short video describing yourself and why you deserve a chance to travel to space, what it would mean to you and why you want to participate.

To be an eligible applicant, you must be a U.S. citizen or a legal U.S. resident, be 18 years of age or older, be of a fitness level commensurate with space flight. Applicants must also be able to read, write and be fluent in the English language for purposes of training, as well as be willing to undergo a psychological, physical and background examination before being cleared to participate fully.

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Who wants to be an astronaut? Discovery Channel contest offers chance to win a trip to space - MassLive.com

After a week of speculation, the core stage of a Chinese Long March 5 rocket, dubbed CZ-5B, landed inan uncontrolled reentryin the Indian Ocean near the Maldives. The rocket had transported part of China's new space station into orbit.

But its core stage about 30 meters long and 5 meters in diameter could have landed anywhere, even on land.

A year ago, a pipe from a previous Long March 5 rocket reportedly landed on someone's house in Cote D'Ivoire. Hence, all the fear andcriticism this year.

Nelson is not alone with his opinion. But the picture is more complicated than that. And the US is by no means innocent.

"There is no doubt," saysAlice Gorman, an associate professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and author ofDr Space Junk vs the Universe, that "China has been a bit naughty."

Chinese aerospace experts rejected any international concern before the rocket core came down on May 9. One expert, Song Zhongping, wasquoted in the Global Timesas saying that it was "completely normal" for rocket debris to return to Earth.

And Zhongping is right it is quite normal for bits of rocket, satellites and even space stations to splash back down. And China's not even the worst offender. There are other nations and commercial companies doing it, too.

The majority of space junk lands somewhere in the ocean. That's simply because there's more ocean than land.

Mission designers will target specific regions, such as the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area (SPOUA), near Point Nemo.

Point Nemo is one of the Earth's "poles of inaccessibility." It is the farthest point from land in any direction on the planet.

Ina blog post from 2018, the European Space Agency writes that more than 260 spacecraft have fallen in that zone since 1971. The number increases annually.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Point Nemo is known as the "spacecraft cemetery." But it's not the only ocean region where spacecraft fall.

"Point Nemo? It's sort of there, but it's like everywhere in the South Pacific between New Zealand and Chile," saysJonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, USA.

"The punchline is that it's not very concentrated," McDowell told DW. "And, more and more now, people are using [other spots].

Where and how you come down depends on where and how you go up.

On some missions, the main stage of a rocket will remain "suborbital" in space at over 100 kilometers (62 miles) above sea level but below Low-Earth Orbit at about 160 km, and that makes it easier to drop rocket stages in a controlled way.

Even then, however, things can get precarious, especially when rockets are launched in-land, rather than from a coast.

A number of boosters have fallen near populated areas in China, once near an elementary school, and at a test site in Kazakhstan. Both cases released toxic orange clouds of what's called "BFRC."

Once a rocket enters orbit, things get more complicated. And the deeper a rocket goes, the harder it gets to deorbit.

It's more expensive, because you have to keep the rocket alive, as it were, with extended battery life and/or a restartable engine that gets fired after the rocket has delivered its "payload" a satellite or supplies for the International Space Station.

But only then can you control its reentry. Many rocket stages just get left up in orbit.

It all depends. And it bears repeating that China's not the only "naughty" nation. McDowell estimates there are about 20 Falcon 9 upper stages "in orbit as junk that will eventually reenter" in some form or other.

There is a trend in the industry to change, says McDowell. It wants to leave less debris in space for fear of a growing congestion that could either interfere with earthly communications systems or impede further space exploration.

But that means more stuff will have to come down. There is even talk of deorbiting the International Space Station in 2028, and dropping it at a final resting place in the South Pacific.

The impact on the ocean is despite assertions that space junk becomes nice, natural habitats for marine life largely unknown.

When junk falls atBaffin Bay, an icy point off Greenland, the threat to local seal, whales, bears and walrus, is under-researched.

In the South Pacific, scientists havediscovered and revived 100-million-year-old microbial lifeat theSouth Pacific Gyre essentially the same region as Point Nemo.

That microbial life may mean little to our daily lives, but microbes at extreme environments, such as hydrothermal vents, do sustain other life, such as the yeti crab, and may have even played their part in the origins of our own, human life.

"Some spacecraft fuels are toxic hydrazine, for example. But cryogenic fuels are not toxic," says Gorman. "There are metals like beryllium and magnesium, they are usually in alloy form, but beryllium is pretty nasty no matter what."

So, there are potential environmental impacts, says Gorman, "but I don't think people have thoroughly assessed that yet."

(This article by author Zulfikar Abbany was originally published on Deutsche Welle.)

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

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Sea burials: Where space stations, rockets rust in peace - YourStory