OrbitalHub

Credits: Rocket Lab

Carnival of Space #132 is hosted by Stephen Tilford at Steve’s Astro Corner.

This week you can read about space elevators, type 1A supernovas, the case for life on Mars, another player in the space race from New Zealand, and much more.

Credits: The Planetary Society

After its first solar sail spacecraft Cosmos-1 was lost due to a faulty launch vehicle, the Planetary Society remained committed to the mission of building a solar sail spacecraft.

The new solar sail project, called LightSail, will consist of three spacecraft.

The first spacecraft, LightSail-1, is designed around a CubeSat spacecraft bus, has a thirty-two square meter sail, and will demonstrate the concept of solar sail navigation. The Planetary Society estimates that LightSail-1 will be ready for launch by the end of 2010. LightSail-1 will fly as a secondary payload on another mission, which is the traditional method of deploying micro and nano satellites, in order to decrease the cost of the mission. While LightSail-1 is a test platform for new technologies, LightSail 2 and 3 will carry scientific payloads in orbit.

You can be part of the LightSail program. Visit The Planetary Society website and see how you can help make a dream reality.

Credits: Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/Caltech)

Carnival of Space #131 is hosted at Starry Critters.

This week you can read about the origin of bulgy galactic middles, how the remaining space shuttle missions will finish building the ISS, black hole powered space travel, variable stars, the Allen Hills Meteorite, and much more.

Expedition 21 crew landed in Kazakhstan on December 1, 2009. The crew was met by the Russian Search and Recovery Forces in all-terrain vehicles.

Read more about the International Space Station…

Soyuz TMA-15 and its crew left the International Space Station on November 30, 2009. Onboard the spacecraft were Commander Roman Romanenko, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, and CSA astronaut Robert Thirsk.

Read more about the International Space Station…