On Friday, August 18, NASA launched the third in a series of three advanced, Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, known as TDRS-M, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida. This latest addition to the fleet will augment a space communications network that provides the critical path for high data-rate communication to a host of spacecraft including the International Space Station and its resupply vehicles, the Hubble Space Telescope and many of NASA’s Earth-observing fleet spacecraft.
Category: Astronomie
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ESA’s Space Operations Centre – “Where missions come alive”
ESA’s European Space Operations Centre links people with spacecraft travelling to the frontiers of human knowledge.
Our world is about systems, communication and exploration; our passion is for humanity’s voyages into the Universe.
And even the grandest journey begins with just a few steps.
More about ESOC:
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESOC -
New Crew Launches to the Space Station on This Week @NASA – July 28, 2017
Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot was in Kazakhstan on July 28 to observe the launch to the International Space Station of our astronaut Randy Bresnik with his crewmates – Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos, and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency. The trio is scheduled to spend more than four months on the station working on hundreds of science and technology experiments. Also, New 4K Footage of Spacewalk, NASA Technologies Showcased at AirVenture Event, Preparing to Chase the Total Solar Eclipse from the Sky, and Another Successful RS-25 Engine Test!
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Vita mission liftoff
ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and Roscosmos commander Sergey Ryazansky launched to the International Space Station on 28 July from Baikonur Cosmodrome on their Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft.
Paolo, Randy and Sergey will spend five months in space working and living on the International Space Station.
Follow Paolo and his mission via http://paolonespoli.esa.int and the mission blog http://blogs.esa.int/vita for updates.
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NASA’s RS-25 Rocket Engine Fires Up Again
Engineers conduct the third in a series of RS-25 flight controller tests on July 25, 2017, for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The more than 8 1/2 minute test on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi signaled another step toward launch of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS rocket, powered by four RS-25 engines, along with the Orion spacecraft will take astronauts on a new era of exploration beyond Earth’s orbit into deep space.
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Earth from Space: special edition
Discover more about our planet with the Earth from Space video programme. In this special edition, Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of the CNES French Space Agency, and Josef Aschbacher, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes, join the show to discuss how cooperation will further benefit Earth observation and the Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.
More about ESA Earth observation:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth -
Ariane 6
At the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the new launch facilities for ESA’s Ariane 6 launcher are being built. With the Ariane 6 launcher and the upgrade of the Vega to Vega C, Europe expands its launching capacities by creating versatile launchers that meet market demands. At the same time ESA supports both institutional missions and European industry as both Ariane 6 and Vega C will be fully European. With Ariane 6 and Vega C, Europe secures its independent access to space for years to come.
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Lisa Pathfinder end of Mission
The LISA Pathfinder mission ends on 18 July 2017 after a successful demonstration of the technology needed to detect gravitational waves in space. These vibrations in spacetime, first predicted by Einstein over a hundred years ago, are produced by huge astronomical events – such as two black holes colliding – and will allow scientists to open new windows into our universe.
The success of the LISA Pathfinder mission has paved the way for the newly selected LISA mission which, when built and launched, will detect gravitational waves from objects up to a million times larger than our Sun.
The film features interview soundbites from Dr Paul McNamara, LISA Pathfinder Project Scientist, at the European Space Agency’s European Technology and Science facility (ESTEC) in The Netherlands.
More about LISA Pathfinder:
http://sci.esa.int/lisa-pathfinder/ -
Celebrating 100 Years of NASA Langley: A Storied Legacy, A Soaring Future
NASA Langley – 100 Years: Something happened 100 years ago that changed forever the way we fly, the way we explore space and how we study our home planet. That something was the establishment of what is now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, which commemorates its 100th anniversary on July 17, 2017.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first human to step foot on the moon and who learned how to do so by training at Langley said, “If a competition were held to determine the organization that had accomplished the largest number of advancements to aeronautic and aerospace progress, my nomination would be this place.”
This 45-minute documentary looks back across the 100 years, updates us on work being done at Langley today, and takes a peek into the future.
Find out more about NASA Langley’s centennial at: https://www.nasa.gov/langley/100 -
ESA Euronews: The space veteran
It’s an age when many of us would be considering winding down, and cutting back on physical exertion. Not so for Paolo Nespoli, who is about to embark on his third space mission at the age of 60, which makes him Europe’s oldest astronaut. At the end of July he will voyage to the International Space Station (ISS), where he will remain for some months.
This video is also available in the following languages:
French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgsbYsudY9c
German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucqrT7VYSkc
Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91b_CcXqvAA
Italian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a87NU2XMPUE
Portuguese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0uSAfZEYNY
Hungarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMtHuhq13ek
Greek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doCcnvm2R3E -
Vice President Pence Visits Kennedy on This Week @NASA – July 7, 2017
Vice President Mike Pence spoke to employees on July 6 at our Kennedy Space Center in Florida, highlighting the public/private partnerships transforming the center into a multi-user spaceport, and changing the way we do business in low-Earth orbit. Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot and Kennedy Director Bob Cabana accompanied the Vice President on tours of several facilities currently being leased by private space companies. The tour showcased hardware, systems and infrastructure, that will soon facilitate U.S. based astronaut launches and eventual missions to deep space. Also, SpaceX Dragon Released from Space Station, Happy July 4th from Space, and 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge!
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Vice President Pence Visits NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
Vice President Mike Pence visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today and addressed employees at the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building. The vice president also toured Kennedy to learn more about the center’s work as a multi-user spaceport for commercial and government clients, and he saw the agency’s progress toward launching from U.S. soil on spacecraft built by American companies. He visited the Neil Armstrong Operation’s and Checkout Building to see NASA’s Orion spacecraft that will travel past the moon, and eventually on to Mars atop the Space Launch System rocket.
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BepiColombo’s journey to Mercury
Animation visualising BepiColombo’s 7.2 year journey to Mercury.
This animation is based on a launch date of 5 October, marking the start of the launch window in October 2018. It illustrates the gravity assist flybys that the spacecraft will make at Earth, Venus and Mercury before arriving at Mercury in December 2025.
More about the journey:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo/Journey_to_Mercury -
President Trump Reestablishes the National Space Council on This Week @NASA – June 30, 2017
President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on June 30 to reestablish the National Space Council. To mark International Asteroid Day on June 30, we aired a special television program with information about the work our Planetary Defense Coordination Office and other NASA-funded programs do to find, track and characterize Near Earth Objects. These are asteroids and comets in the vicinity of Earth’s orbit that could pose an impact threat to our planet. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office also issues alerts and helps coordinate any U.S. government response to an impact threat. The broadcast was part of a 24-hour Asteroid Day program from Broadcasting Center Europe. Also, NASA Testifies at Congressional Hearings, and Colorful Clouds in Space!
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Happy 4th of July, from NASA
From NASA to you, we wish you a safe and happy Independence Day. In this video, we simulated rocket and engine sounds to reflect the cannon booms in the music.
Here is a chronological list of the engines and rocket launches we highlighted:
RS-25 Engine Test, SLS Booster Nozzle Test, Delta ll Rocket Launch, Rocket Sled Test, SpaceX Dragon Capsule Abort Test, SLS Booster Test, Orion Abort Tower Separation Animation, Orbital ATK Cygnus Launch, Atlas V Rocket Launch
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ESA’s ESTEC Open Day 2017
The date is fixed: you are invited to visit ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands for its annual Open Day on Sunday, 8 October.
The theme this year is Bringing Space to Earth. Visit us to meet astronauts and mission experts, see how we simulate space on the ground, and discover the knowledge and technologies brought back to Earth from space.
For now, please save the date. You can register to attend #OpenESTEC from 3 July.
In place for more than half a century, the ESTEC European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk on the North Sea coast is ESA’s largest establishment, focused on developing technology, planning missions and testing satellites.The hub of our continent’s space effort, this is where the majority of European space projects are born, developed and tested in advance of their flights into orbit.
Find out more: http://www.esa.int/estec
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Visions of human spaceflight and robotic exploration
Visions and clips from ESA’s future for human spaceflight and robotic exploration. Exploring is about visiting new places and coming back with new experiences and knowledge to help us on Earth.
Our strategy includes three destinations where humans will work with robots to gather new knowledge: low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station, the Moon – our closest neighbour, and our third destination Mars.
The exploration programme includes Europe’s service module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft around the Moon, a landing on the Moon with Roscomos’ Luna lander and ESA’s Exomars rover on Mars.
A deep-space gateway farther afield than the International Space Station is considered as a springboard for exploration beyond the Moon.
Watch a longer version of ESA’s future for human spaceflight and robotic exploration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irQYp6GFMfs -
Human spaceflight and robotic exploration future
ESA’s vision for human spaceflight and robotic exploration is part of humanity’s road to the stars. Exploring is about visiting new places and coming back with new experiences and knowledge to help us on Earth.
Our strategy includes three destinations where humans will work with robots to gather new knowledge: low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station, the Moon – our closest neighbour, and our third destination Mars.
The exploration programme includes Europe’s service module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft around the Moon, a landing on the Moon with Roscomos’ Luna lander and ESA’s Exomars rover on Mars.
A deep-space gateway farther afield than the International Space Station is considered as a springboard for exploration beyond the Moon.
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Alexander Gerst training for his second ISS mission
In 2018, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst from Germany will be travelling to the International Space Station for the second time. During this long-duration spaceflight – which is called the Horizons mission – he will have the role of Space Station commander. Alexander is currently in training at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
Connect with Alexander: http://alexandergerst.esa.int
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Infrared webcam hack – using an infrared webcam to observe the world in a new way
This video, part of a series of ESA teaching resources called ‘Teach with space’, demonstrates an experiment that can be performed by students to observe everyday objects in infrared light. This is achieved by modifying a cheap webcam to allow it to block visible light and receive infrared light.
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Catching speeding stars
This video reveals the evolution of stars in our Galaxy over the past million of years.
It starts from the positions of stars in the sky 1 035 000 years ago, which were calculated using data from the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution, or TGAS, one of the products of the first Gaia data release. The video follows the evolution of stellar positions until the present day, ending with a view of the sky as measured by Gaia between 2014 and 2015.
Highlighted in yellow are the trajectories of six special stars: these are hypervelocity stars, moving through the Galaxy at several hundred of km/s. While it might not be apparent from the video, which shows the motions of stars as projected on the sky, they are moving through space much faster than the galactic average.
Scientists spotted these speeding stars from the TGAS data set of two million stars with the help of an artificial neural network – software that mimics a human brain – and they are looking forward to finding many more in future Gaia data releases.
These stars owe their high speeds to past interactions with the supermassive black hole that sits at the centre of the Milky Way and, with a mass of four million Suns, governs the orbits of stars in its vicinity. Having travelled great distances through the Galaxy, they provide crucial information about the gravitational field of the Milky Way from the centre to its outskirts.
One of the six stars (labelled 1 at the end of the video) seems to be speeding so fast, at over 500 km/s, that it is no longer bound by the gravity of the Galaxy and will eventually leave. The other five stars are somewhat slower (over 400 km/s for the stars labelled 2, 3, 4 and 6, and 360 km/s for the star labelled 5) and are still bound to the Galaxy.
These slightly slower stars are perhaps even more fascinating, as scientists are eager to learn what slowed them down – the invisible dark matter that is thought to pervade the Milky Way might also have played a role.
The stars are plotted in Galactic coordinates and using a rectangular projection: in this, the plane of the Milky Way stands out as the horizontal band with greater density of stars. The stripes visible in the final frames reflect the way Gaia scans the sky and the preliminary nature of the first data release; these artefacts are gradually washed out in the video as stars move across the sky.
Read more on our website:
Artificial brain helps Gaia catch speeding stars –
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Artificial_brain_helps_Gaia_catch_speeding_starsMore about Gaia:
http://sci.esa.int/gaia/Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/
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NASA Spacecraft Fire and Combustion
In this episode, NASA experts discuss Spacecraft Fire and Combustion Research.
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Thomas Pesquet au salon du Bourget (in French)
L’astronaute de l’ESA Thomas Pesquet, de retour sur terre, répond depuis le salon du Bourget aux questions à propos de la mission Proxima durant laquelle il a passé six mois à bord de la station spatiale internationale. Au cours de la mission, il a travaillé sur plus de 60 expériences scientifiques pour l’ESA, pour le CNES et pour les partenaires de l’ISS.
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ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who recently returned from the International Space Station, answers questions from the public at the Paris Air and Space Show 2017 about his six-month Proxima mission in which he took part in over 60 scientific experiments for ESA and France’s space agency CNES and the ISS partners.
More about the Proxima mission:
http://www.esa.int/proximaConnect with Thomas:
http://thomaspesquet.esa.intMore about ESA at Le Bourget 2017:
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Exhibitions/Le_Bourget_2017 -
ESA Euronews: Salon du Bourget 2017
Dans ce numéro de Space, nous profitons du Salon international du Bourget, évènement incontournable de l’aéronautique et de l’aérospatial, pour rencontrer ceux qui mènent les grandes missions d’aujourd’hui et de demain : les responsables de l’ESA et de la NASA, mais aussi l’astronaute français Thomas Pesquet qui vient de rentrer sur Terre après avoir passé six mois en orbite.
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ESA Euronews: Le Bourget 2017
Il Salone dell’aeronautica di Parigi-Le Bourget dal 1909 è uno dei più grandi eventi al mondo dedicati al settore aerospaziale. Degli oltre 2.200 espositori internazionali e 285 delegazioni ufficiali provenienti da tutto il mondo, 137 sono italiani. Qui il nostro inviato Jeremy Wilks ha incontrato il Capo della NASA per parlare della missione su Marte, il capo dell’ESA per discutere dei viaggi su Mercurio e sul Sole, e per scambiare quattro chiacchiere con l’astronauta francese dell’ESA Thomas Pesquet, che è appena tornato a terra dopo mesi nello spazio.
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ESA Euronews: Le Bourget 2017
O Salão de Aeronáutica de Paris é um ponto de encontro incontornável para o setor aeroespacial. Falámos com os responsáveis da ESA e da NASA, mas primeiro conversámos com Thomas Pesquet, o astronauta da ESA que acabou de regressar à Terra após 6 meses no espaço.
O momento é de recuperar, depois da massa óssea e muscular que perdeu durante a sua missão. Mas Thomas Pesquet é como um herói para os franceses. Portanto, nada mais natural do que ter o presidente Emmanuel Macron a saudá-lo num evento de dimensão mundial.
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What’s Happened So Far – Mid Year @NASA – June 16, 2017
2017 is shaping up to be another year of unprecedented exploration, amazing discoveries, technological advances and progress in development of future missions – and we’re just six months into the year. Here are some of our top stories of 2017, so far – Mid-Year at NASA!
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Thomas Pesquet at Le Bourget
Interview with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet at the Paris Air and Space Show, on the science of his Proxima mission and some career advice for his younger followers, 19 June 2017.
More about ESA at Le Bourget:
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Exhibitions/Le_Bourget_2017 -
2017 Administrator’s Agency Honor Awards Celebrate NASA’s Best of the Best
During the 2017 Administrator’s Agency Honor Awards Ceremony on June 15 at Langley Research Center, NASA’s Acting Administrator, Robert Lightfoot, presented Distinguished Service and Distinguished Public Service Medals to individuals who have made extraordinary and indelible contributions to the agency’s mission success. These awards are NASA’s most prestigious and distinguished honors.
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ECSAT: Space for daily life
ECSAT (European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications) is the European Space Agency’s centre in the UK. With a commercially driven ethos, it supports European and Canadian industry in developing commercial satcom products and services, downstream applications and the ‘spin-out’ of space into non-space sectors.
ECSAT also the home of ESA’s Climate Office and has units dedicated to space exploration and technology development, one of which oversees the ESA–Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory.
More about ECSAT:
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ECSAT -
ESA astronauts spacewalk training
Matthias Maurer, ESA’s newest astronaut, has been training with Tim Peake at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. During practical and theory classes they’ve learned skills necessary to perform a spacewalk, also known as EVA, or Extra Vehicular Activity – much of which is already familiar to Tim, who worked outside the Station in January 2016. They also spent time in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a pool housing replica International Space Station modules which allows astronauts to experience near weightless conditions.
Connect with ESA’s Astronaut Corps:
http://www.esa.int/astronauts -
The future of the Orion constellation
This video reveals how our view of the Orion constellation will evolve over the next 450 000 years.
Amid a myriad of drifting stars, the shape of Orion as defined by its brightest stars is slowly rearranged into a new pattern as time goes by.
The portion of the sky depicted in the video measures 40 x 20º – as a comparison, the diameter of the full Moon in the sky is about half a degree.
The video is based on data from ESA’s Gaia and Hipparcos satellites, as well as additional information from ground-based observations.
A speeded-up version of the video is available here: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/59209
Full story: The future of the Orion constellation http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/The_future_of_the_Orion_constellation
The evolution of two million stellar positions on the entire sky is shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87lgSRVUSxM
Copyright: ESA/Gaia/DPAC CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/
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Vice President Pence Tours NASA’s Historic Mission Control in Houston
As part of his visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center on June 7, to welcome America’s newest astronaut candidates, Vice President Mike Pence took a tour of the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center and was briefed on current human spaceflight operations.
The Vice President also joined Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot and Johnson Center Director Ellen Ochoa to announce the 12 men and women who were selected to the 2017 astronaut class from more than 18,300 applicants. The new astronaut candidates could one day be performing research on the International Space Station, launching from American soil aboard spacecraft built by American companies, and traveling to the moon or even Mars with the help of NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
Get more information on astronaut selection and information on the candidates after their introduction at: https://www.nasa.gov/2017astronauts.
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NASA’s New Astronauts to Conduct Research Off the Earth, For the Earth and Deep Space Missions
After receiving a record-breaking number of applications to join an exciting future of space exploration, NASA has selected its largest astronaut class since 2000. Rising to the top of more than 18,300 applicants, NASA chose 12 women and men as the agency’s new astronaut candidates. Vice President Mike Pence joined Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa, and Flight Operations Director Brian Kelly to welcome the new astronaut candidates during an event June 7 at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The astronaut candidates will return to Johnson in August to begin two years of training. Then they could be assigned to any of a variety of missions: performing research on the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and departing for deep space missions on NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
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ESA astronauts training in Houston
Four ESA astronauts have recently been training at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre (JSC) in Houston, Texas. For ESA’s newest astronaut Matthias Maurer, it was a chance to inspect a mock-up of NASA’s future space vehicle Orion alongside Tim Peake and Luca Parmitano, both experienced astronauts. Tim and Matthias have undergone spacewalk training in the neutral buoyancy pool. Alexander Gerst is also at JSC, training for his 2018 long-duration mission to the ISS.
Connect with the astronauts: http://www.esa.int/astronauts
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Thomas Pesquet: Post-flight press conference (in French)
Replay of the press conference (in French) with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet held at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, on 6 June 2017. Thomas returned to Earth on 2 June 2017 after completion of his six-month Proxima mission to the International Space Station.
Thomas took part in more than 60 experiments during his mission. His experiments are helping to understand the human brain, ocean currents and radiation in space, how atoms behave and tested new spacecraft materials. Other highlights included his two spacewalks to improve and maintain the Space Station.
This press conference was originally broadcast on the ESA Livesteam channel: https://livestream.com/ESA/events/7463026
More about Proxima: http://www.esa.int/proxima
Connect with Thomas: http://thomaspesquet.esa.int -
Contributors to sea-level rise
The physical processes causing global sea-level rise are highlighted in the animation. The main causes are thermal expansion of oceans, as they accumulate the excess heat caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the melting of ice from the ice sheets and glaciers, as well as changes in land water storage such as lakes. Regionally, sea level changes vary quite dramatically. The reasons for this are different to the global causes of sea-level changes and include changes to sea water density, influenced by salinity and temperature.
The Climate Change Initiative Open Data Portal: http://cci.esa.int
Credits: Planetary Visions
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Thomas Pesquet: Undocking and landing
Highlights from ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s return to Earth at the end of his six-month Proxima mission to the International Space Station on 2 June 2017.
After farewells and hatch closure, Thomas and his Expedition 50/51 crewmate and Soyuz commander Oleg Novitsky undocked from the International Space Station at 12:47 CEST (10:47 GMT). Just a few hours later their spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere, landing in the Kazakh Steppe at 16:10 CEST (14:10 GMT). Thomas and Oleg were helped out of the Soyuz by a recovery crew and, after medical checks, they were flown to Karaganda airport where they received the traditional welcoming ceremony. Thomas then flew directly from Karaganda to Cologne, in Germany, home to the European Astronaut Centre, to start post-flight testing.
Thomas and Oleg spent 196 days in space. Thomas took part in more than 60 experiments during his Proxima mission. His experiments are helping to understand the human brain, ocean currents and radiation in space, how atoms behave and tested new spacecraft materials. Other highlights included his two spacewalks to improve and maintain the Space Station.
More about the Proxima mission: http://www.esa.int/proxima
Connect with Thomas: http://thomaspesquet.esa.int -
Full Space Station tour with Thomas (in French)
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s in-depth tour of the International Space Station in French, recorded during his Proxima mission.
Thomas performed around 60 scientific experiments for ESA and France’s space agency CNES and other Station partners.The mission is part of ESA’s vision to use Earth-orbiting spacecraft as a place to live and work for the benefit of European society while using the experience to prepare for future voyages of exploration further into the Solar System.
More about the Proxima mission: http://www.esa.int/proxima
Connect with Thomas Pesquet: http://thomaspesquet.esa.int
