ULA dicit:
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket carrying the Air Force’s WGS-10 mission lifts off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on March 15, 2019. ULA has been the exclusive launch provider for all ten WGS satellites.
Video Credit: ULA
Wikipedia dicit:
Expedition 59 is the 59th Expedition to the International Space Station, started on 14 March 2019 with the arrival of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft carrying Aleksey Ovchinin, Nick Hague and Christina Koch. Ovchinin and Hague were originally meant to fly to the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-10, but had to return minutes after takeoff due to an unforeseen anomaly. The three will subsequently transfer to the Expedition 60 crew, with Ovchinin as commander, after the undocking of the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft, scheduled for July 2019.
Researchers on Expedition 59 will conduct experimentation on tissue chips because the microgravity environment can replicate the effects of aging and disease. The expedition will also conduct experiments on regolith stimulants and Earth’s atmospheric carbon cycle. Lastly, the expedition will also test Astrobee robots designed to conduct routine chores aboard the ISS.
Video Credit: Roscosmos
NASA dicit:
“NASA has successfully tested an advanced air-to-air photographic technology in flight, capturing the first-ever images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft in flight. The images, originally monochromatic and shown here as composite colored images, were captured during the fourth phase of Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights, or AirBOS, which took place at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The flight series saw successful testing of an upgraded imaging system capable of capturing high-quality images of shockwaves, rapid pressure changes which are produced when an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound, or supersonic. Shockwaves produced by aircraft merge together as they travel through the atmosphere and are responsible for what is heard on the ground as a sonic boom.
The system will be used to capture data crucial to confirming the design of the agency’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane, or X-59 QueSST, which will fly supersonic, but will produce shockwaves in such a way that, instead of a loud sonic boom, only a quiet rumble may be heard. The ability to fly supersonic without a sonic boom may one day result in lifting current restrictions on supersonic flight over land.”
Video Credit: NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
NASA dicit:
“The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft undocks from the International Space Station on March 8, 2019 after nearly 5 days aboard the orbiting laboratory during the company’s Demo-1 mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and descends to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Just over 5 hours later, the uncrewed spacecraft splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida and is recovered by SpaceX teams.”
Video Credit: NASA
NASA dicit:
“Demonstration Mission-1 (Demo-1) was an uncrewed flight test designed to demonstrate a new commercial capability developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The mission began March 2, when the Crew Dragon launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and racked up a number of “firsts” in less than a week.
First commercially-built and operated American crew spacecraft and rocket to launch from American soil on a mission to the space station.
First commercially-built and operated American crew spacecraft to dock with the space station.
First autonomous docking of a U.S. spacecraft to the International Space Station.
First use of a new, global design standard for the adapters that connect the space station and Crew Dragon, and also will be used for the Orion spacecraft for NASA’s future mission to the Moon.
NASA and SpaceX teams gathered in the early morning hours at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, to follow the spacecraft’s return journey and ocean splashdown.”
Video Credit: NASA
Subscribe to blog posts using RSS