OrbitalHub

ESA dixit:

“As a result of a deep cracking cutting across the Larsen C ice shelf, a huge iceberg was spawned on 12 July 2017. Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission was used to monitor the rift’s progress, a network of fractures in the ice and the calving event. Since then, the large tabular iceberg – known as A68 – has drifted about 5 km from the ice shelf. Images from Sentinel-1 also show that a cluster of more than 11 smaller icebergs have now also formed, the largest of which is over 13 km long. These ‘bergy bits’ have broken off both the giant iceberg and the remaining ice shelf.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), reproduced from Hogg and Gudmundsson (2017)”

Video credit: ESA

ESA dixit:

“Having detailed knowledge of the shape of the seafloor is essential for generating nautical charts for navigation. It is also needed for exploration, fishing, coastal management and for understanding ocean currents that transport heat, nutrients and pollutants. While mapping the seafloor was traditionally carried out using sonar on ships, optical satellite data provide global, high-resolution maps that show ridges, valleys and sediments.”

Video credit: ESA

ESA dixit:

“On 18 September 2017, ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli shot this beautiful time-lapse showing the Moon rising above the Earth’s horizon together with Mercury, Mars, the star Regulus, and Venus. ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli is currently working and living on board the International Space Station as part of his long duration Vita mission.”

Video credit: ESA

ESA dixit:

“On 12 September 2017, 710 photos were taken by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli to create this time-lapse of the Earth (from Africa to Russia) as seen from the International Space Station. ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli in currently working and living aboard the Station as part of his long duration Vita mission.”

Video credit: ESA

NASA dixit:

“NASA scientists and engineers named their new CubeSat after the mythological Norse god of the dawn. Now, just days from launch, they are confident the shoebox-sized satellite Dellingr will live up to its name and inaugurate a new era for scientists wanting to use small, highly reliable satellites to carry out important, and in some cases, never-before-tried science. Dellingr will study how the ionosphere, a region in Earth’s upper atmosphere, interacts with the Sun. Before launch, Dellingr is required to visit to the Magnetic Test Facility at NASA Goddard to test the spacecraft’s magnetometers – key instruments for measuring the direction and strength of the magnetic fields that surround Earth. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch this August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station where it will be deployed later into a low-Earth orbit.

Music credit: ‘Cycle of Life’ by Philippe Lhommet [SACEM] from Killer Tracks”

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng

Wikipedia dixit:

“Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Limited known as its brand name AsiaSat is a commercial operator of communication spacecraft. AsiaSat is based in Hong Kong but incorporated in Bermuda. It is a red chip company, as it was (jointly) controlled by Chinese state-owned CITIC Group indirectly. It had a market capitalization of HK$3.251 billion on 30 June 2017.

In December 2013, AsiaSat commissioned AsiaSat 9 to be built by Space Systems/Loral, originally intending it to be launched in Q2 2017 in order to replace AsiaSat 4 at 122 degrees east. In early 2015, AsiaSat reported a nine percent revenue drop, and a 27 percent drop in contracts, pointing to a regional oversupply of satellite communication services in the Asian regions it serves. At that time, AsiaSat had four commsats in operation and had recently launched two more, AsiaSat 6 and AsiaSat 8, which had added 22 percent additional bandwidth capacity into the shrinking market. Although revenues were down just nine percent—to HK$1365 billion—2014 profits declined by 25 percent over 2013, to HK$559 million.”

Video credit: Roscosmos