The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond

Cosimo · 24 Jun 2014 at 07:30

One Martian year on:

Cosimo · 26 Jun 2014 at 07:38

More testing:

Cosimo · 28 Jun 2014 at 08:10

Cosimo · 29 Jun 2014 at 16:56

Merlin5 · 29 Jun 2014 at 17:09

Nasa has sent a flying-saucer shaped vehicle high into the earth's atmosphere in an effort to discover future Mars landing technologies.

The Low Density Supersonic Decelerator was sent into the atmosphere via a helium balloon and then ditched in the Pacific after its flight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28080556

Cosimo · 1 Jul 2014 at 08:40

A look at how a payload is prepared for launch:

This one launches later this morning.

Glaucus · 1 Jul 2014 at 10:58

Held at 46 seconds, no water flow for deluge.
Scrubbed, only a 30 second launch window.

Cosimo · 1 Jul 2014 at 12:14

Launch prep, shame about the scrub:

Cosimo · 2 Jul 2014 at 13:34

Launch OK today:

Cosimo · 3 Jul 2014 at 07:51

A nice recap of the Delta II OCO-2 Launch:

Cosimo · 3 Jul 2014 at 08:27

Merlin5 said:
Nasa has sent a flying-saucer shaped vehicle high into the earth's atmosphere in an effort to discover future Mars landing technologies.

The Low Density Supersonic Decelerator was sent into the atmosphere via a helium balloon and then ditched in the Pacific after its flight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28080556

Shame that we didn't get an video of the test but we do get to see the LDSD in this recovery video:

Cosimo · 5 Jul 2014 at 08:13

Cosimo · 7 Jul 2014 at 14:08

Rollout of Soyuz-2-1B with spacecraft Meteor-M ? 2, ICA-PN2 (Relek), Ukube-1, SkySat-2, TechDemoSat-1 , AISSat-2, and DX-1 satellites:

Due for launch tomorrow.

Glaucus · 8 Jul 2014 at 21:27

AMA with Buzz Aldrin, it's finished but still worthy of a read.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2a5vg8/i_am_buzz_aldrin_engineer_american_astronaut_and/

Cosimo · 9 Jul 2014 at 13:34

Launch of Soyuz-2-1B with spacecraft Meteor-M ? 2, ICA-PN2 (Relek), Ukube-1, SkySat-2, TechDemoSat-1 , AISSat-2, and DX-1 satellites:

Glaucus · 10 Jul 2014 at 03:26

The Planetary Society has announced lightsail, it is now on SpaceXs launch rosta. ~April 2016 on board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
The sail is 32 metres square and just 4.5 microns thick. Put that in perspective average human hair is 100microns thick. Aluminium foil is roughly 18-50microns thick.

CubeSats are tiny, low-cost satellites that have opened up new avenues of space research for universities and small organizations. To help CubeSat applications reach the next level, The Planetary Society is testing an elegant propulsion method called solar sailing that could help CubeSats maneuver in Earth orbit and reach interplanetary destinations.

LightSail-1 is a citizen-funded mission scheduled to launch in 2016 aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy.

It wild also fly with Georgia Tech Proxy 1, which is an experimental craft that is testing formation flying. It will launch and then orbit lightship, taking photos etc. All autonomously.

They are also hoping to send a test sail up in may 2015, but low earth orbit still within drag of atmosphere, so will fall back to earth, but will test the sail unfolds and all the other subsystems.

Cosimo · 10 Jul 2014 at 14:08

The first launch of the Russian LV "Angara-1.2PP" rocket:

Cosimo · 11 Jul 2014 at 08:17

Launch tomorrow at 18:14 BST.

Cosimo · 11 Jul 2014 at 08:55

Up and ready to go:

Cosimo · 12 Jul 2014 at 07:14

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

The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond