The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond

Cosimo · 21 Dec 2011 at 17:55

Docking with ISS is on Friday at 15:20 GMT.

Cosimo · 22 Dec 2011 at 17:26

Progress on building the Orion spacecraft:

Cosimo · 23 Dec 2011 at 07:21

Comet Lovejoy as seen from about 240 miles above the Earth's horizon on Wednesday, December 21st:

Cosimo · 23 Dec 2011 at 18:50

Soyuz TMA-03M has docked with the ISS and the space station is now fully staffed with the six member Expedition 30 crew:

Cosimo · 24 Dec 2011 at 09:03

Onwards and upwards!

Merry Christmas

Cosimo · 27 Dec 2011 at 19:06

The GRAIL twins are nearly at their journey’s end. The twin spacecraft will be placed in orbit around the moon on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Cosimo · 31 Dec 2011 at 09:18

Happy New Year

Cosimo · 1 Jan 2012 at 10:57

As of 23:00 GMT last night, GRAIL-A is in an orbit of 56 miles by 5,197 miles around the moon that takes approximately 11.5 hours to complete:

GRAIL-B will perform main engine burn to place it in lunar orbit at 22:00 GMT today.

Cosimo · 2 Jan 2012 at 08:46

GRAIL-B achieved lunar orbit at 10:43 GMT last night.

By the end of February both satellites will have been maneuvered into circular 34 mile high orbits. They will then begin three months of close formation flying to map the moon's gravitational field.

Cosimo · 5 Jan 2012 at 15:56

We've nearly come to the end of the Phobos-Grunt saga with it expected to fall to earth in ten days time:

"As of Wednesday morning, the fragments of Phobos-Grunt are expected to fall January 15, 2012. The final date could change due to external factors," said spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

In an embarrassing setback, the $165-million probe designed to travel to the Mars moon of Phobos and bring back soil samples, blasted off on November 9 but failed to leave the Earth's orbit.

The military space forces' monitoring centre had earlier predicted in November that the probe, which is gradually descending and slowing down, would fall to Earth in January or February.

Space forces spokesman Zolotukhin said the probe is now circling at an altitude of between 184 kilometres (114 miles) and 224 kilometres (139 miles) above Earth.

The Russian space agency said in December that it expected the 13.5-tonne probe to fall to Earth between January 6 and 19, but that it would only be possible to predict the exact time and place a few days in advance.

It said that 20 to 30 fragments weighing a total of no more than 200 kilograms were expected to fall to Earth, with the spacecraft's highly toxic fuel burning up on entering the Earth's atmosphere.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-stranded-mars-probe-fall-earth.html

Cosimo · 6 Jan 2012 at 19:18

“A Room with a View”

The earth from the Cupola. The lake just above the camera at centre is Egirdir Golu in Turkey. To the right is the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) and below that a docked Soyuz spacecraft.

Cosimo · 9 Jan 2012 at 16:57

Another ISS goodie:

Space Station Flying by the Moon

The International Space Station can be seen as a small object in upper left of this image of the moon in the early evening Jan. 4 in the skies over the Houston area flying at an altitude of 390.8 kilometers (242.8 miles). The space station can occasionally be seen in the night sky with the naked eye and a pair of field binoculars.

Image credit: NASA/Lauren Harnett

Cosimo · 13 Jan 2012 at 10:12

The successful Mars Science Laboratory manoeuvre took place on Wednesday:

MSL is due to arrive on August 5th.

Cosimo · 14 Jan 2012 at 10:22

Phobos-Grunt expected back home tomorrow:

MOSCOW — Uncertainty about where a doomed Russian Mars probe might crash back to Earth grew Friday when the Roscosmos space agency changed its prediction thousands of miles (kilometres) from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

Roscosmos said the 13.5-tonne Phobos-Grunt probe would probably begin its fatal descent on Sunday evening Moscow time rather than in the afternoon as initially thought.

This meant that "Phobos-Grunt will enter the atmosphere over Argentina and have its fragments splash down in the Atlantic Ocean," an unnamed space official told the Interfax news agency.

The latest estimate on a Roscosmos graphic showed the $165-million craft splashing down at 8:22 pm (1622 GMT) about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) due south of Buenos Aires -- a spot within geographic proximity of the Falkland Islands.

The previous Roscosmos map released on Thursday had shown fragments of the ill-fated craft coming down between the northwestern shores of Madagascar and the east coast of Africa.

"The change in the time and location of the landing ... is based on the diminishing altitude of the vessel's orbit, solar activity and atmospheric conditions," Roscosmos said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...docId=CNG.99b68c356d880250606ce3d7cc9eb233.a1

Cosimo · 15 Jan 2012 at 09:45

Fuzz said:
Website has been OcUK'd... Sigh..

Working again and it's just gone over the Baring Sea and heading towards Chile over the Pacific.

Cosimo · 15 Jan 2012 at 16:11

Jokester said:
Any idea where that places it?

They appear not to be saying at the moment:

MOSCOW: Russia's space agency called off all predictions of the likely crash site of its ill-fated Mars probe last night - only hours before the 13.5-tonne spacecraft was due to begin its fatal descent.

Roscosmos said on its website that fragments of the stranded Phobos-Grunt voyager would probably fall to Earth today between 1.36am and 9.24am (AEDT).

But it cancelled its weekend forecast of the debris splashing down in the Pacific off the western coast of Chile. Two earlier updates had the fragments falling into the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

"The operations support group is keeping continuous watch of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft's descent from orbit," the brief Roscosmos statement said.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ash-landing-site/story-e6frg6so-1226244868495

If anyone knows Russian then we should get some updates from here:

http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=18564

Cosimo · 15 Jan 2012 at 17:50

Fuzz said:
Very conveniently in the middle of the Ocean Hmmm

Not like they are going to scare North Africans and half of Europe..

I hope it's not further along that orbit line.

Cosimo · 15 Jan 2012 at 18:04

Fuzz said:
Too late by the looks of it...

US STRATCOM claiming PhobosGrunt already reentered and crashed in Pacific in last few minutes. Unconfirmed by Roscosmos.

Looks like Roscosmos has been hit by a piece.

Cosimo · 15 Jan 2012 at 18:13

Russia’s Phobos-Grunt, whose mission to a Martian moon went astray before circling the Earth, has finally dropped into the Pacific Ocean, reports RIA Novosti news agency citing sources in Russia's Defense Ministry.

*The stray probe plunged into the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean at 17:45 GMT (21:45 Moscow time), says the press service of Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces in the Defense Ministry.

http://rt.com/news/mars-land-probe-russian-841/

Cosimo · 15 Jan 2012 at 18:20

Translation from RIA Novosti:

MOSCOW, January 15 - RIA Novosti. Fragments of the station "Phobos-Grunt" fell into the Pacific, told RIA Novosti on Sunday, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry troops ASD Col. Alexei Zolotukhin

According to the main center of conditions in space exploration Space Command troops ASD, the point of falling fragments of the device" Phobos-Grunt "was held at the Pacific Ocean" - said Zolotukhin

He said that the wreckage of the machine down at 21.45 GMT.

According to the controls, the debris fell in 1250 kilometers to the west of the island of Wellington.

** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond