OrbitalHub

Lockheed Martin dixit:

“Human spaceflight, some consider the ultimate test. There is only one chance to do it right, no room for error. To prepare for this challenge, we expose the system to the same environments as they would be exposed to in flight. This approach of ‘Test Like You Fly’ is critical to the safety and success of Orion. Come learn about Orion and the testing campaign to prove out the safest system for human spaceflight.”

Video Credit: Lockheed Martin

ESA dixit:

“Europe’s Vega launch vehicle operating from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has a flawless record. Vega serves a wide range of missions and payload configurations, responding to different market opportunities. It is the ideal launcher for most scientific and Earth observation missions, benchmarked to loft 1500 kg into a 700 km-altitude circular orbit at 90° inclination.

Based on this success a more powerful Vega, Vega-C, now in development is set to launch in mid-2019 offering greater performance at no additional cost. Vega-C shares technology with Europe’s other new launcher Ariane 6. The P120C solid fuel motor will be used as the first stage for Vega-C and two or four will be used as strap-on boosters for Ariane 6.”

Video Credit: ESA

ESA dixit:

“Since the very first module Zarya launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 20 November 1998, the International Space Station has delivered a whole new perspective on this planet we call home. Join us as we celebrate 20 years of international collaboration and research for the benefit of Earth with ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s longest timelapse yet.

In just under 15 minutes, this clip takes you from Tunisia across Beijing and through Australia in two trips around the world. You can follow the Station’s location using the map at the top right-hand-side of the screen alongside annotations on the photos themselves.

This timelapse comprises approximately 21 375 images of Earth all captured by Alexander from the International Space Station and shown 12.5 times faster than actual speed.”

Music Credit: Orbital Horizons – Matt Piper

Video Credit: ESA

ESA dixit:

“Timelapse of the Russian Progress MS-10 cargo spacecraft launched on 16 November 2018 at 18:14 GMT from Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, taken by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst from the International Space Station.

The spacecraft was launched atop a Soyuz rocket with 2564 kg of cargo and supplies. Flying at 28 800 km/h, 400 km high, the International Space Station requires regular supplies from Earth such as this Progress launch. Spacecraft are launched after the Space Station flies overhead so they catch up with the orbital outpost to dock, in this case two days later on 18 November 2018.

The images were taken from the European-built Cupola module with a camera set to take pictures at regular intervals. The pictures are then played quickly after each other at 8 to 16 times normal speed. The video shows around 15 minutes of the launch at normal speed. The Progress spacecraft delivered food, fuel and supplies, including about 750 kg of propellant, 75 kg of oxygen and air and 440 l of water.”

Video Credit: ESA

Wikipedia dixit:

“InSight is a robotic lander designed to study the interior of the planet Mars. The mission launched on 5 May 2018 and is expected to land on the surface of Mars at Elysium Planitia on 26 November 2018, where it will deploy a seismometer and burrow a heat probe. It will also perform a radio science experiment to study the internal structure of Mars.

The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. The lander was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems and was originally planned for launch in March 2016. The name is a backronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.

InSight’s objective is to place a stationary lander equipped with a seismometer called SEIS produced by the French space agency CNES, and measure heat transfer with a heat probe called HP3 produced by the German space agency DLR to study the planet’s early geological evolution. This could bring new understanding of the Solar System’s terrestrial planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars — and the Earth’s Moon. By reusing technology from the Mars Phoenix lander, which successfully landed on Mars in 2008, it is expected that the cost and risk will be reduced.”

The mission countdown clock is displayed on the InSight Mars home webpage https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/.

Video Credit: NASA

We are NASA – and after 60 years, we’re just getting started!

Video Credit: NASA