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

[Cosimo]

AsiaSat-8 has been successfully deployed in orbit.

 

[Cosimo]

With Rosetta arriving in orbit tomorrow some background:

French scientists have created this 'trailer' for Rosetta's arrival at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the 6th of August:

Rosetta will be the first probe ever to rendezvous and enter orbit around a comet.
More:
http://www.universetoday.com/113626...huryumov-gerasimenko-after-decade-long-chase/

 

[Cosimo]

About Rosetta’s Philae lander:

Rosetta’s lander Philae carries 10 instruments. This animation shows four of them in action. First, ROLIS (light green) scans the surface immediately beneath the lander. ROLIS is the Rosetta Lander Imaging System and it will also take images as it descends to the surface.
Then the lander body rotates into position in order to drill into the surface. The drill, SD2, or the Sample and Distribution Device, can drill down 23 cm to collect samples and deliver them to onboard lab for inspection.

Next in the animation is MUPUS, the Multi-Purpose Sensors for Surface and Subsurface Science, to measure heat flow and thermal and mechanical properties of near-surface layers. In reality, this process will take several hours.
Finally in this animation is APXS, the Alpha X-ray Spectrometer. APXS will study the elemental composition of the surface directly below the lander.

Rosetta’s lander Philae is equipped with the CIVA instrument (Comet Infrared and Visible Analyser) of six microcameras to take panoramic pictures and a spectrometer to study composition, texture and albedo of surface samples. This artist’s impression shows Philae using CIVA to create a panoramic of its surroundings. The comet surface is an artist’s impression.

 

[Cosimo]

 

[Cosimo]

ESA's Rosetta Rendezvous Day live event is live now:

http://rosetta.esa.int/

 

[Cosimo]

Final rendezvous burn done, now we wait for around 22 minutes!

 

[Cosimo]

Rosetta has arrived!

 

[Cosimo]

 

[Glaucus]

NASA phase 2 selections have been made
http://www.nasa.gov/content/niac-2014-phase-i-selections/

• Spacecraft/Rover Hybrids for the Exploration of Small Solar System Bodies
• Deep mapping of small solar system bodies with galactic cosmic ray secondary particle showers
• Orbiting Rainbows
• 10 meter Sub-Orbital Large Balloon Reflector
• Low-Mass Planar Photonic Imaging Sensor

Can't say any are knock out exciting for me.

 

[Rroff]

Dunno if this has been posted about (on a tablet so not easy to check quickly) has a lot of people scratching their heads at the moment but if proved correct has a lot of implications:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140006052

 

[Glaucus]

I doubt we will see much from this, as they built two. One was built not to work and it still provided thrust. So I bet after research it'll be some error in the measuring or something along those lines,

 

[Cosimo]

The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator test:

 

[Glaucus]

Awesome, meet roboGlove

Can I have one please.


And dragon v2 will do a launch abort test in November, a on the pad test, atop a mock falcon9 and a second in flight abort in January.

 

[Cosimo]

 

[Cosimo]

Detailed look at the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator test (see video three posts above):

 

[Cosimo]

Looking good:

 

[Cosimo]

Georges Lemaitre, ATV-5 is due to arrive at the station for docking at 14:30 BST. You can watch it live here from 13:00 BST:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/ATV/Watch_ATV-5_docking

 

[Cosimo]

The last ATV arrives at the station:

 

[Cosimo]

Yesterday's launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base:

 

[Cosimo]

Falcon 9 first stage reentering the Earth’s atmosphere and landing in the Atlantic Ocean: