August 7, 2017 by Chris Bergin and William Graham

The Vostochny Cosmodrome a key part of Russias future space launch ambitions has undergone a maintenance period ahead of what will be its second launch. The new launch site is currently dedicated to Soyuz rockets, but will eventually be the future site for the Angara and super heavy launch vehicles. Vostochny Work:

Vostochny, whose name means Eastern, is built on the site of the former Svobodny missile base. Svobodny, which was the farthest East of Russias cold war missile bases, was occupied by UR-100K missiles until its closure under the START-II treaty during the 1990s.

After its closure as a missile base, Svobodny was used between 1997 and 2006 for a series of five orbital launches via the Start-1 rocket,a derivative of the Topol missile. Svobodny was closed in 2007 by order of Vladimir Putin, as the Russian Space Agency, Roskosmos, considered the little-used site redundant and expensive to maintain.

As the most southerly of Russias launch sites, Russias primary launch site, Baikonur, has been the most suited for launches to lower-inclination orbits. With the other Russian site, Plesetsk, too far North to provide a practical alternative, all of Russias geostationary missions go through Baikonur, as well as launches tothe International Space Stationand beyond Earth orbit.

While Vostochnys latitude of 51.8 degrees North is still higher than Baikonurs 45.9 degrees, meaning that low-inclination launches will need to expend more fuel adjusting their inclination during flight, it is still usable for geosynchronous missions.

Most importantly, Vostochny will allow Russia to reduce its dependence upon Baikonur a site which, since the breakup of the Soviet Union, it has been forced to lease from Kazakhstan.

Such will be the reliance on the new site, Roscosmos plans to move 45 percent of Russias space launches to Vostochny by 2020, with Baikonurs share dropping from 65 percent to just 11 percent. This swing will continue to grow until a projected 90 percent of Russian launches start taking place outside of Baikonur.

Its build up towards that key role is being staggered, withonly Soyuz rockets launched from Vostochny for the opening years.

That maiden flight, attended byVladimir Putin, was conducted in 2016, with a Soyuz 2-1A and Volga upper stage lofting the Mokhailo Lomonosov research satellite and two small secondary payloads.

The gap to the next launch will be a lengthy oneo, with the current schedule showing a Soyuz 2-1B/Fregat is set to launch in November with a host of payloads.

The following month apair of Kanopus-V satellites will also be launched from the new site, atop a Soyuz-2-1A/Fregat.

Launches, again only involving Soyuz rockets, will ramp up in 2018.

The first Angara launch from Vostochny is not currently expected until 2021. TsSKB Progress proposed Rus-M vehicle was to have had two pads at the site, however its development was canceled in 2011.

The Soyuz pad at Vostochny, Site 1S, is the eighth Soyuz pad to be built across four different launch sites, following the two complexes at Baikonur, four at Plesetsk and one at Kourou.

Designated 371SK14, the launch equipment resembles that at Kourou, with a mobile service tower instead of retractable arms with gantries that enclose the rocket as used at Plesetsk and Baikonurs older pads.

Roscosmos recently noted that systems at the new base had undergone a maintenance period noted as an annual maintenance of technological equipment at the launch and technical complexes and on the equipment of the launching and technical complexes.

As part of the maintenance, specialists replaced the oil in the hydraulic system of the Mobile Service Tower, the compressed gas receivers were filled up to the operational volumes, joint inspections of all the systems of the launch complex were carried out.

Engineers also worked on the propellant loading facilities, including for the Fregat upper stage that will be in action with the next few launches.

All routine maintenance work at the launch and technical complexes and the filling and neutralizing station were completed in full, and the equipment is ready for the next launch.

Annual maintenance is the most critical stage in the life cycle of rocket and space technology. This is a traditional work for all cosmodromes, added the Russian Space Agency. The previous annual technical maintenance of the technological equipment of the space center Vostochny was carried out in the third quarter of 2016.

(Images via Roscosmos).

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Vostochny Cosmodrome undergoes maintenance work - NASASpaceflight.com

Jim Sharkey

August 6th, 2017

This artists concept shows hot Jupiter WASP-121b, which presents the best evidence yet of a stratosphere on an exoplanet. Image & Caption Credit: Engine House VFX, At-Bristol Science Centre, University of Exeter

Researchers working with data from NASAs Hubble Space Telescope have found the strongest evidence to date for the existence of a stratosphere the layer of an atmosphere in which temperature increases with altitude on an exoplanet (a planet outside of the Solar System). The new study was published in the August 3, 2017, issue of the journal Nature.

This result is exciting because it shows that a common trait of most of the atmospheres in our solar system a warm stratosphere also can be found in exoplanet atmospheres, said Mark Marley, the studys co-author who is based at NASAs Ames Research Center. We can now compare processes in exoplanet atmospheres with the same processes that happen under different sets of conditions in our own solar system.

The researchers studied WASP-121b, an example of a type of exoplanet called a hot Jupiter. The planets mass is 1.2 times the that of Jupiter and its radius is 1.9 times Jupiters. Wasp-121b is much closer to its star than Jupiter is to the Sun. While it takes Jupiter 12 years to revolve once around the Sun, WASP-121 orbits its star once every three days. If the exoplanet were any closer to its star, the stars gravity would rip it apart. WASP-121s atmosphere is heated to 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,500 degrees Celsius), hot enough to boil some metals.

An earlier studyfound possible signs of a stratosphere on the exoplanet WASP-33b and other hot Jupiters. The new study provides the strongest evidence yet because scientist observed the signature of hot water molecules for the first time.

Theoretical models have suggested stratospheres may define a distinct class of ultra-hot planets, with important implications for their atmospheric physics and chemistry, said Tom Evans, lead author and research fellow at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Our observations support this picture.

The scientists studied the atmosphere of WASP-121 by using Hubbles spectroscopy capabilities to analyze how different molecules react to specific wavelengths of light. For example, water vapor in the planets atmosphere behaves in predictable ways depending on the temperature of the water.

The top of the planets atmosphere is heated to a blazing 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,500 Celsius), hot enough to boil some metals. Image & Caption Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STSci)

A stars light can penetrate deep into a planets atmosphere, raising the temperature of the gas there. The gas then radiates its heat into space as infrared light. If there is cooler water vapor at the top of the atmosphere, the water molecules will block certain wavelengths of light from escaping into space. If, however, the water molecules at the top of the atmosphere have a higher temperature, they will glow at the same wavelengths.

The emission of light from water means the temperature is increasing with height, said Tiffany Kataria, the studys co-author based at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Were excited to explore at what longitudes this behavior persists with upcoming Hubble observations.

In Earths stratosphere, ozone gas traps ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, raising the temperature of this layer of the atmosphere. Other bodies within the Solar System also have a stratosphere. For example, methane is responsible for heating the stratospheres of Jupiter as well as Saturns moon Titan.

In planets of the Solar System, the change in temperature within a planets stratosphere is approximately 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 56 degrees Celsius). On WASP-121b, the temperature in the stratosphere rises by 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (560 degrees Celsius). Researchers do not yet know which chemicals are responsible for the temperature in WASP-121bs atmosphere. Vanadium oxide and titanium oxide are possible candidates because they are commonly found in brown dwarfs failed stars that share some characteristics with exoplanets. Compounds such as these are expected to be found on only the hottest of hot Jupiters because high temperatures are required to keep them in a gaseous state.

This super-hot exoplanet is going to be a benchmark for our atmospheric models, and it will be a great observational target moving into the Webb era, said Hannah Wakeford, the studys co-author who worked on this research while at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Video courtesy of NASA

Tagged: Ames Research Center exoplanet Hubble Space Telescope NASA The Range

Jim Sharkey is a lab assistant, writer and general science enthusiast who grew up in Enid, Oklahoma, the hometown of Skylab and Shuttle astronaut Owen K. Garriott. As a young Star Trek fan he participated in the letter-writing campaign which resulted in the space shuttle prototype being named Enterprise. While his academic studies have ranged from psychology and archaeology to biology, he has never lost his passion for space exploration. Jim began blogging about science, science fiction and futurism in 2004. Jim resides in the San Francisco Bay area and has attended NASA Socials for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover landing and the NASA LADEE lunar orbiter launch.

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Hubble spots exoplanet with glowing water atmosphere - SpaceFlight Insider

A ring-shaped warp-drive device could theoretically transport a football-shaped starship (center) to effective speeds faster than light. The concept was first proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994.

Scientists, engineers and exploration advocates will gather in central California this week to help plan out humanity's journey to the stars.

The action is happening in Monterey Monday through Wednesday (Aug. 7 through Aug. 9), at a conference called Starship Congress 2017.

"Our question for Starship Congress 2017 is what role the moon can play to catalyze humankind's venturing forth to explore interstellarly," conference organizers wrote in a description of the event. "Furthermore, this year's theme builds on a key take-away from the Starship Congress 2015 summit at Drexel University: In order to make interstellar space exploration interesting to everyone, what must we do to make space accessible for everybody?"

The speakers include physicist Miguel Alcubierre, who in 1994 proposed a type of real-life warp drive that could theoretically enable faster-than-light travel without breaking the laws of physics; planetary scientist Franck Marchis; scientist and sci-fi author David Brin; and Richard Obousy, co-founder and director of Icarus Interstellar, a nonprofit dedicated to helping make interstellar flight a reality by 2100. (Icarus Interstellar is organizing the conference.)

To learn more about Starship Congress 2017, visit the conference page here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/starship-congress-2017-tickets-33352347770

Space.com's Mike Wall will be in attendance, keeping tabs on the most exciting developments.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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Interstellar Spaceflight Conference Launches Monday - Space.com

Tomasz Nowakowski

August 6th, 2017

Artists rendering of the SOCRATES satellite utilized for the quantum communication experiment. Image Credit: AES

A team of researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Tokyo, Japan, has recently reported that they succeeded in demonstrating the first quantum communication between a microsatellite and a ground station. The signal was sent by a quantum communication transmitter on board the SOCRATES satellite.

The instrument, known as the Small Optical TrAnsponder, or SOTA, is the worlds smallest and lightest quantum communication transmitter. It has a mass of roughly 13.22 pounds (6 kilograms) and its dimensions are 7 by 4.5 by 10.6 inches (17.8 by 11.4 by 26.8 centimeters). This shoebox-sized tool is capable of transmitting a laser signal to the ground at a rate of 10 million bits per second from an altitude of about 370 miles (600 kilometers) while orbiting at a speed of approximately 15,660 mph (25,200 km/h).

SOTA was launched into space as part of the Space Optical Communications Research Advanced TEchnology Satellite (SOCRATES) microsatellite in May 2014. The missions main goal was to test a standard microsatellite bus technology applicable to missions of various purposes. SOTA has successfully completed its objectives by demonstrating its quantum communication capabilities.

We are proud to say that the SOTA mission fulfilled all the success levels as foreseen and more than doubled its originally designed working life of one year, Alberto Carrasco-Casado of NICTs Space Communications Laboratory told Astrowatch.net.

SOTA transmitter. Photo Credit: NICT

According to Carrasco-Casado, four different success levels were established for the SOTA instrument: minimum success, success, full success, and extra success. The minimum success level required a basic check-up of all the lasercom subsystems, while the success level consisted of acquiring the laser beams transmitted from SOTA to the ground station by using different wavelengths and performing basic communication tests.

In order to achieve the full success level, a real data transmission from SOTA to the ground station by using error correcting codes to deal with variable atmospheric conditions was needed. When it comes to the most desired extra success level, SOTA needed to successfully conduct lasercom experiments with different ground stations around the world and the quantum-limited communication experiment that was recently described in the Nature Photonics journal.

The main achievement of SOTA was to be the first lasercom terminal in a microsatellite. Being such a tiny lasercom terminal, we could test several technologies and perform different experiments, Carrasco-Casado noted.

The scientists used three wavelengths for communications: 800-nm, 980-nm, and 1,550-nm bands each of them through a different aperture (small lenses to transmit the 800-nm and 980-nm band lasers, and a 5-cm Cassegrain telescope to transmit the 1,550-nm laser). Also, they used two different pointing technologies: a coarse-pointing gimbal for the 800-nm and 980-nm band lasers, and an additional fine-pointing system for the 1,550-nm, the latter being able to deliver a higher power to the ground.

The researchers were able to gather a great deal of atmospheric-propagation data using these technologies, which is critical to characterize the atmospheric channel for future missions. They managed to replicate the experiments in different ground stations around the world (Canada, Germany, and France), thereby achieving promising results.

For instance, regarding the French ground station, the French Space Agency (CNES) group demonstrated an adaptive-optic system to compensate the atmospheric perturbations suffered by the SOTA signals. Finally, they were able to carry out the first quantum-limited communication experiment from space.

All these technologies are key for the future development of space optical communications and quantum communications, Carrasco-Casado said.

He underlined that space lasercom will play a more and more important role in satellite communications in the future, and all the technologies that SOTA demonstrated are key to these future developments. For example, the SpaceX constellation plans to use over 4,000 satellites, and those satellites will use laser communications to communicate with each other. Moreover, many other constellations and communication networks are being designed at the moment where free-space lasercom plays a key role, with private companies like Google or Facebook investing a great deal of effort in their deployment.

If Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and lasercom systems can be miniaturized following the heritage of SOTA, this technology could be spread massively, enabling a truly secure global communication network. Prior to the commercialization of this technology, research organizations like NICT have to demonstrate its feasibility, which was the goal of the SOTA mission. In line of this endeavor, NICT is also actively collaborating in the standardization of lasercom technologies through the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), and the data obtained with SOTA is another important result of this mission, Carrasco-Casado concluded.

Currently, the Space Communications Laboratory and the Quantum ICT Advanced Development Center in NICT are working together toward future missions that will leverage the expertise and knowledge acquired with the SOCRATES/SOTA mission in technologies related to space laser communications, quantum communications, and physical-layer cryptography.

Tagged: quantum communication SOCRATES The Range

Tomasz Nowakowski is the owner of Astro Watch, one of the premier astronomy and science-related blogs on the internet. Nowakowski reached out to SpaceFlight Insider in an effort to have the two space-related websites collaborate. Nowakowski's generous offer was gratefully received with the two organizations now working to better relay important developments as they pertain to space exploration.

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Scientists demonstrate first quantum communication with microsatellite - SpaceFlight Insider

Jason Rhian

August 6th, 2017

NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski conducts an unplanned EVA to repair a damaged solar array on the International Space Station during STS-120. Photo Credit: NASA

Those suffering from an inferiority complex probably shouldnt read the new book, The Sky Below. An in-depth review of the many adventures of former NASA shuttle astronaut Scott Parazynski, it covers his many accomplishments and at the same time keeping a very conversational tone. For those interested in the background of some of Americas more recent space flyers it has much to offer.

Perhaps the first of these is what impels (perhaps propels is a better word considering one of his past occupations) the eternally-young looking Parazysnki to achieve all that he has.

Image Credit: Amazon

The Sky Below, covers how Parazynski has, starting at an early age, traveled the world, became a medical doctor,coached louge in the 1988 Calgary Winter Games, became the only astronaut to climb Mount Everest and rescued the International Space Station during one of the more risky extra-vehicular activities in recent memory. Those are just the high points.

Parazynski, along with Suzy Flory, detailed some of his many, many experiences in his new book, The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space and Speed by Little A, an imprint of Amazon Publishing.

SpaceFlight Insider wanted to not just discover what caused him to produce the book, but to also find out a bit more about the man behind all of these achievements. We asked Parazynski to chat with us and he readily agreed.

SFI: Thanks for joining us today Scott!

Parazynski: My pleasure.

SFI: So,can you tell us about what got you started on drafting this book? Was this something youd wanted to do for a long time

Parazynski: I had a lot of encouragement from family and friends about the wonderful and crazy experiences that Ive had in my life. Throughout the years I had jotted down certain things that had happened in my life, but Id never written them all down as one, comprehensive story and really figured out what it might be.

SFI: Youve done some astonishing things, I mean, really, your book begs the question Is there anything he cant do? One thing that our readers would probably be most interested in, however, was the unplanned EVA on [STS] 120. Is that and other elements of your on orbit experiences covered at length in your book?

Parazynski: They will be immersed in the 120 solar array repair and the incredible team work that went into solving that problem. Much of the book, actually, is dedicated to my five space flights and, of course, the epic of all epics was the solar array repair. So, theres a lot of detail on that. If your viewers visit the Kindle store and get the enhanced eBook, they can actually see enhanced video from that day, video from launches and imagery throughout my space career as well.

This includes things that have rarely been seen, while theyre public domain, for various reasons, they didnt get the distribution that others did. There are some really neat pictures from my flight career that I think people will be interested in.

SFI: Should it present itself, are you interested in another journey beyond Earths atmosphere should it present itself via commercial means?

Parazynski: Im so bullish on the commercial space flight industry that Ive done some consultant work for the NewSpace companys that have emerged. So, I would love to get the chance to fly again if that opportunity were to present itself. I dont know if thats practical or likely or not, but Im real excited about the fact that were entering an age when so many more people will have the opportunity to fly in space.

I think one of the strong points of this book is that it focuses not just on the great successes, but also overcoming obstacles that we encountered along the way as well. Ive always said that the pathway to success is scattered with a few failures. I talk about all of that throughout the course of the book.

The Sky Below is available at Amazon.com and wherever books are sold and is highly recommended. The book is available as a hardcover, softcover, as an audio book as well as a Kindle in Motion EBook.

Video courtesy of NASA / ISS Mania 11

Tagged: Astronaut Mount Everest Scott Parazynski STS-120 The Range The Sky Below

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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Review: The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space and Speed - SpaceFlight Insider

Joe Latrell

August 5th, 2017

Artists rendition of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in space. Image Credit: Northrop Grumman

The much delayed and over budget next-generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has suffered another setback prior to itsjourney to the launch pad: the October 2018 launch may be in conflict with Europes BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Both spacecraft are to be flown on Ariane 5 boosters, but the spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, cannot support two flights in the same month. BepiColombo has priority due to the tight launch window to reach Mercury. This will result in the JWST having its launch date pushed back to 2019 at the earliest.

The JWST is a space-based infrared telescope. To operate properly, it needs to maintain a temperature of 37 kelvins (236 C / 393 F). In order to achieve this when in space, the telescope relies on a large tennis court sized sunshield to protect it from external heat and light sources, such as the Sun as well as the Earth and Moon.

Light gathered from the segmented 6.5-meter (21-foot) diameter mirror is directed to the four science instruments: Fine Guidance Sensor / Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS), Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), and Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). Due to the requirement of the MIRI to operate at an even lower temperature than the other science instruments, it will utilize a cryocoolerto decrease its temperature to less than 7 kelvins (266 C / 447 F).

While smaller than telescopes here on Earth, the JWST is the most powerful space telescope ever constructed and is the science successor to the Hubble telescope.

Originally projected to cost $1.6 billion, the telescopes price tag has ballooned to over $8.8 billion. Several factors, from delays in choosing a launch vehicle to management issues, contributed to the soaring costs. Additionally, the vehicle proved harder to construct than originally envisioned. For example, during vibration testing, the spacecraft experienced several anomalies that required NASA engineers to stop the test. After analysis and modifications, the tests resumed and the JWST was given a clean bill of health.

Despite the technical issues and threats of cancellation, the project continued and the cost estimates grew. A launch delay into 2019 will only add to that dollar figure.

Artists depiction of the BepiColombo mission, with the MPO (left) and MMO (right). Image Credit: NASA

BepiColombo is a mission to explore the planet Mercury that is being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission is actually two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The objective is a comprehensive study of Mercury, including the planets surface, magnetic field, and interior structure.

The MPO is a solar-powered spacecraft carrying 11 scientific instruments. These instruments include laser altimeters, spectrometers, magnetometers, as well as several cameras. It has a mass of 1,150 kilograms (2,540 pounds) and is capable of producing 1,000 watts of power for onboard instruments.

The MMO has a mass of 285 kilograms (628 pounds) and carries five scientific payloads. Built mostly by Japan, this spacecraft will study plasma particles including high-energy ions and electrons emanating from the planet. A third spacecraft, the Mercury Surface Element (MSE), a small lander craft, was removed due to budgetary issues.

The two Mercury spacecraft are scheduled to arrive at the planet in 2025 after performing numerous flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury. The craft must launch sometime between October 5, 2018, and November 28, 2018, to reach the planet as scheduled.

Both missions as slated to fly on the Ariane 5 booster. The 52-meter (171-foot) vehicle is capable of lifting over 10,500 kilograms (23,100 pounds) to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

Currently, the JWST is undergoing low-temperature checks at NASA Johnson Space Centers Chamber A. The temperature of the chamber is steadily being reduced to approximately 20 kelvins (253 C / 424 F) the same temperature that the JWST will be when operating in space. These tests will validate that the JWST instruments can operate properly at the extremely low temperatures.

Unlike Hubble, the JWST will be positioned at the Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L2) which is 1,500,000 kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. That location is currently beyond NASAs manned space capabilities; therefore, precluding the JWST from being serviced on orbit.

The new WebbCam overlay displays the temperatures in Houston and in Chamber A, in degrees Fahrenheit, degrees Celsius, and on the Kelvin scale. Image & Caption Credit: NASA

Tagged: BepiColumbo ESA James Webb Space Telescope Lead Stories NASA

Joe Latrell is a life-long avid space enthusiast having created his own rocket company in Roswell, NM in addition to other consumer space endeavors. He continues to design, build and launch his own rockets and has a passion to see the next generation excited about the opportunities of space exploration. Joe lends his experiences from the corporate and small business arenas to organizations such as Teachers In Space, Inc. He is also actively engaged in his church investing his many skills to assist this and other non-profit endeavors.

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James Webb Space Telescope may be delayed again - SpaceFlight Insider

A heavy-duty crane towering over launch pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in recent weeks has removed several large sections of a disused structure once needed to install satellites and space station modules into space shuttle cargo bays.

A demolition crew hired by SpaceX, the launch pads current tenant, has plucked pieces of the rotating service structure and lowered them to the ground since the facility hosted its most recent launch July 5. Officials took advantage of a quiet period in SpaceXs launch schedule to make progress on disassembling the structure, which is not required for Falcon rocket flights.

SpaceX said the rotating service structure is on track to be completely gone by the end of the year. NASA retains ownership of the historic launch complex, and will sell scrap metal from the demolition work, which started in minor form last year and has accelerated in recent weeks.

NASA added the moveable gantry at pad 39A in the late 1970s before the first space shuttle mission blasted off from the site in 1981. After a space shuttle rolled out to the pad from the space centers Vehicle Assembly Building, the rotating structure would wheel into position to cocoon the orbiter, giving workers the ability to load cargo into the shuttles bus-sized payload bay and pump maneuvering fuel into the ships propellant tanks.

The gantry would then rotate around 120 degrees on a vertical hinge into liftoff position in the final 24 hours before a shuttle launch.

The rotating service structure stood at a maximum height of 189 feet (57 meters) above the surface at pad 39A before the demolition started. The structure itself, which looms over the pad deck, extended 130 feet (39 meters) tall.

Originally built in the 1960s for the Apollo moon program, pad 39A hosted 12 Saturn 5 rocket flights including Apollo 11 and 82 shuttle missions departed from the seaside launch complex.

NASA decided it no longer needed pad 39A after the shuttles retirement. Nearby launch pad 39B, also built for Apollo and shuttle flights, will be home to NASAs Space Launch System, a government-owned heavy-lift rocket that will launch astronaut crews on deep space expeditions.

The shuttle-era structures at pad 39B were dismantled in 2010 and 2011.

SpaceX signed a 20-year lease agreement with NASA in 2014 to take over pad 39A, which re-entered service in February with a Falcon 9 launch to resupply the International Space Station. Eight SpaceX missions have lifted off from pad 39A so far this year.

The next Falcon 9 rocket launch is scheduled for Aug. 13, again from pad 39A, on another station cargo run.

SpaceX says Falcon 9 flights from Florida will move to nearby pad 40 later this year, once repairs of that facility are completed after a rocket explosion last year. That will free up pad 39A for more extensive renovations and upgrades for the inaugural flight of SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket, a triple-body booster designed to heave massive payloads into space.

Elon Musk, SpaceXs founder and CEO, said last month that the first Falcon Heavy test flight is scheduled for November.

The taller fixed service structure will remain in place at pad 39A. It is not needed for Falcon flights with satellites and robotic payloads, but SpaceX will connect an access arm and white room to the tower to allow astronauts to board human-rated Dragon capsules.

Along with Boeing, SpaceX has a crew transportation contract with NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the space station and end U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for the job. The latest schedule calls for the first two astronauts to fly on a Crew Dragon spaceship no earlier than June 2018, and officials said the crew access arm should be added to the fixed tower at pad 39A in late fall.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Shuttle-era structure dismantled piece-by-piece at pad 39A - Spaceflight Now

Laurel Kornfeld

August 4th, 2017

Artists impression of NASAs New Horizons spacecraft, en route to a January 2019 encounter with Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69. Image & Caption Credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI

New Horizons second target Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69 may actually be a binary system composed of two objects that either touch one another or orbit very close together, according to observations conducted by mission scientists when the KBO passed in front of a star on July 17, 2017.

Members of the New Horizons team observed the occultation by deploying a network of telescopes along the path of MU69s shadow in a remote part of Argentina.

Their goal was to capture its shadow, thereby obtaining data about the KBOs size, shape, orbit, and environment as well as information that will enable accurate refining of the spacecrafts trajectory.

MU69 is thesecond targetof NASAs New Horizons spacecraft and part of its approved extended mission by the space agency. It will be the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft.

The probe famously flew by the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, obtaining a plethora of images and data about the binary Pluto-Charon and their four small moons.

The July 17, 2017, occultation was the third of three such events this year, all of which were carefully observed by mission scientists after they used both the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agencys (ESA) Gaia satellite to pinpoint exactly where MU69s shadow would fall on Earth each time.

Based on data collected during the first occultation in June, mission scientists raised the possibility that MU69, located a billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto and more than four billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, might actually be a swarm of many small objects rather than a single object.

However, observations conducted during the third occultation indicate the object is either two objects closely orbiting each other, a contact binary in which the two objects actually touch one another, or a single, strangely shaped object missing a large chunk of material.

Mission scientists think it or both objects may be shaped like a skinny football a shape formally described as an extreme prolate spheroid.

LEFT: An artists concept of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69, the next flyby target for NASAs New Horizons mission. This binary concept is based on telescope observations made at Patagonia, Argentina, on July 17, 2017, when MU69 passed in front of a star. New Horizons scientists theorize that it could be a single body with a large chunk taken out of it, or two bodies that are close together or even touching. RIGHT: Another artists concept of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69, which is the next flyby target for NASAs New Horizons mission. Scientists speculate that the Kuiper Belt object could be a single body with a large chunk taken out of it, or two bodies that are close together or even touching. Images & Captions Credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI / Alex Parker

Two of Plutos small moons, Kerberos and Hydra, as well as Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, are single objects composed of two lobes.

This new finding is simply spectacular. The shape of MU69 is truly provocative, and could mean another first for New Horizons going to a binary object in the Kuiper Belt, said mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. I could not be happier with the occultation results, which promise a scientific bonanza for the flyby.

New Horizons will fly by MU69 on January 1, 2019.

From observations of the third occultation, scientists now have a better handle on MU69s size, which they estimate to be no longer than 20 miles (30 kilometers) if the KBO is a single object.

If MU69 is a binary composed of two objects, each one is estimated to have a diameter of nine to twelve miles (1520 kilometers).

Stern credited the successes of the occultation observations to the Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia Observatory, which provided crucial information about the path of MU69s shadow on Earth on all three occasions.

Occultation data and images are available on New Horizons KBO Chasers site.

Tagged: KBO 2014 MU69 Kuiper Belt Object NASA New Horizons The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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New Horizons' KBO target may be a binary - SpaceFlight Insider - SpaceFlight Insider

Vector a private spaceflight startup based out of Tucson, Arizona just successfully pulled off another test flight of one of its micro-rockets, launching the 40-foot-tall vehicle this morning from a spaceport in Georgia. Its the second flight of the vehicle: a full-scale prototype of one of the companys rockets, the Vector-R. And though the vehicle didnt reach orbit, it puts Vector one step closer to its goal of rapidly launching tiny satellites to space starting in 2018.

The Vector-R is one of two rockets that the company hopes to start launching on a regular basis in the years ahead. Its designed to launch very small payloads weighing up to 145 pounds into lower Earth orbit. Vectors other rocket under development is the Vector-H, a slightly larger vehicle that can carry payloads weighing over 350 pounds into orbit. Once testing is done, Vector hopes to launch these two rockets hundreds of times a year in order to get small probes into space as quickly as possible.

We hope to get these two vehicles running and milk the hell out of them.

Were not going to be the guys developing new rockets, Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder of Vector, tells The Verge. We hope to get these two vehicles running and milk the hell out of them... Were going to be building the same thing over and over like the McDonalds of rocket business.

Vector seems to have the credentials and resources to meet its goal. Formed last year, the company boasts an impressive team with extensive spaceflight experience. Cantrell is a member of SpaceXs original founding team, and hes working with engineers who come from Boeing, Virgin Galactic, and more. In its latest round, Vector raised $21 million, totaling more than $30 million in overall funding. Its also racked up numerous customers that include a few major players in the aerospace industry. Todays launch was fully funded by Vectors customers and carried test payloads from NASAs Ames Research Center, the Center for Applied Space Technology, and Astro Digital a company that specializes in small imaging satellites.

Todays launch also marks the first rocket flight ever out of Camden Spaceport, located near the coast of Georgia. The site was once used by NASA in the 1960s to do ground-based testing of rocket motors, but since then it hasnt seen much action. Camden County officials have been vying recently to turn the site into a commercial spaceport, and in May, the Georgia state government passed legislation to help foster the growth of the site. The spaceport is still very new, though, so there isnt much equipment on the ground to support launches. Where were launching from in Camden, theres really no infrastructure there whatsoever, says Cantrell. Were proving we can go anywhere really and launch these rockets. Vectors first test flight was done in Mojave, California.

Ultimately, Vector hopes to capitalize on what is being hailed as the small satellite revolution. Satellite companies are building and operating space probes that are much smaller than your typical, bus-sized satellite, with some ventures like Planet making imaging satellites that are about the size of a shoebox. Normally, these tiny probes have to ride-share to space, though. They hitch a ride to orbit on the launch of a much larger satellite and are deployed only after that satellite has been released. But Planet, for instance, can fit eight of its satellites on a Vector-R or 20 on a Vector-H no larger rocket required.

So far, the company says it has seen an enthusiastic response from potential customers about this strategy. Were already seeing signs that the existence of rockets like ours would create its own demand, says Cantrell.

Vectors prices are minuscule compared to larger rocket launch providers. Typical rocket launches will run tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, but Vectors rockets will start at around $1.5 million and $3 million per flight. Cantrell is confident the team will be able to make these rockets fast enough to launch between 400 and 500 a year. The key, he says, is that theyre easy to make. Theyre just dead simple. Were really building the simplest rocket possible and the smallest rocket possible, says Cantrell. Technologically its like the Model T versus the modern Mercedes. [Other rocket companies are] all using Mercedes-level technology.

Cantrell says the company is aiming to do up to six test flights before commercial launches begin next year. The next test will tentatively occur in December.

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Private spaceflight startup Vector pulls off second test of its micro-rocket - The Verge

STORY WRITTEN FORCBS NEWS& USED WITH PERMISSION

A NASA post advertising an opening for a new Planetary Protection Officer provided a field day for headline writers who apparently couldnt resist having a bit of fun at the agencys expense by suggesting, in large type, that whoever filled the post would be defending Earth from aliens. And making good money to boot.

While true in the broadest possible sense the aliens in question are microbes not sentient beings one had to read the actual stories to find out the office is part of a long-standing program to make sure NASA spacecraft dont contaminate other planets with any earthly bugs and ensure that any samples returned to Earth are properly isolated and pose no threat to our ecosystem.

Catharine Cassie Conley is the outgoing Planetary Protection Officer, the seventh to hold the post. She came on board in 2006 and, like her predecessors, reports directly to the NASA administrator.

https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/overview

As the Planetary Protection Officer for NASA, I am responsible for ensuring that the United States complies with Article IX of The Outer Space Treaty, she said in a NASA interview.

Article IX specifies that planetary exploration should be carried out in a manner so as to avoid contamination of the bodies we are exploring throughout the solar system, and also to avoid any adverse effects to Earth if materials are brought back from outer space.

As she told the New York Times in a 2015 interview, If were going to look for life on Mars, it would be really kind of lame to bring Earth life and find that instead.

No matter. NASAs search for the agencys eighth Planetary Protection Officer and the advertised salary of up to $187,000 per year were enough to trigger a flurry of stories.

NASA has a job opening for someone to defend Earth from aliens and it pays a 6-figure salary, Business Insider headlined its web story.

The piece included a graphic from the movie Independence Day showing a giant alien spaceship in the process of destroying New York City. The caption: A typical day in the office for a planetary protection officer isnt this exciting.

The Independent in the United Kingdom headlined its story: NASA offering six-figure salary for new planetary protection officer to defend Earth from aliens.

Even former shuttle commander Mark Kelly got in on the fun, tweeting Thursday night I nominate Bruce Willis.

Followers then suggested Men in Black star Will Smith, Matt Damon of Martian fame, Peter Cushing, the evil Star Wars general, Jodie Foster, who met aliens in the movie Contact, Bill Pullman, who portrayed the president in Independence Day, and even the fictional Jack Bauer of the long-running series 24.

But planetary protection is serious business at NASA, guiding how missions are designed and implemented. Consider the agencys Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn.

Now at the end of a 20-year mission the past 13 in orbit around Saturn Cassini is virtually out of fuel and without propellant, NASA cannot control the probes orientation or change its trajectory.

Instead of simply letting the spacecraft die, leaving it at the mercy of unpredictable gravitational interactions, flight controllers earlier this year used most of the probes remaining fuel to put it on a trajectory that will impact Saturn next month, ensuring its destruction.

Thats because at least one of Saturns moons Enceladus has a sub-surface ocean that could be an abode for life. If NASA simply let Cassini die, it eventually could crash into Enceladus, depositing microbes from Earth. And heat from the spacecrafts three plutonium-powered radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs.

The RTGs were built to withstand a launch pad explosion and all three likely would survive an impact on Enceladus where more than likely (they would melt) through the ice shell, over time, and then youre in the sub surface, said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters. Its going to be laying there, and its going to end up in the ocean.

And that includes tens of thousands of microbes that hitched a ride to Saturn aboard Cassini.

Human microbes can withstand all kinds of things, but having the right environment where heat is available is really the way they could multiply and grow, Green said in an interview Wednesday. So, having that system in the ocean is not good. Even though it might be a remote chance, its not zero.

NASA ended the Galileo Jupiter probe the same way, crashing it into the giant planets atmosphere in 1995 to make sure it could not one day hit Europa, another moon with a sub-surface ocean, or any others that might be habitable.

The Juno probe currently in orbit around Jupiter faces the same fate when its mission ends as will the Europa Clipper, a spacecraft currently on the drawing board that will study the intriguing moon during multiple flybys in the 2020s.

Mars, of course, is a major concern when it comes to planetary protection, the target of multiple satellites, landers and rovers over several decades. No one yet knows whether some form of microbial life might exist at the red planet, either on or below the surface, and NASA scientists want to find out, if possible, before humans make the trip.

Once astronauts arrive, its game over, Green said. Its then the clash of two potentially different ecosystems.

For me as a scientist, I want to get in there and I want to understand the environment before we bring our environment with us, he said. Answering the question is Mars alive today, is there a living population, is actually something thats very important for us to try to pull off. And thats very hard to do.

Astronauts, of course, will live in isolated habitats, almost like theyll be quarantined, Green added. So there will still be areas all over Mars thatll be very pristine and could maintain an ecosystem, you know, perhaps theres life in the aquifers, and itll take maybe a couple of centuries before its totally game over.

This is the kind of thing we need to guard against, and getting in there and understanding the environment the best we can is the first thing we want to do.

Green and his fellow planetary scientists are equally concerned about making sure any Mars rocks returned to Earth are handled safely. When the Apollo astronauts brought rocks back from the moon, the samples and the astronauts were initially quarantined. Green said NASA is considering a variety of options to isolate Mars rocks.

Were looking at either constructing or using an existing bio-level 4 facility, he said. This is a facility that would be used for the most extreme virus or bacteria or something that could sweep the world and kill the population. There are facilities like that (and) were going to have to either develop our own or tag onto something like that.

He said some researchers dont believe life currently exists on Mars and theyd be delighted to just lift the top of every one of the rock tubes and that would make them publicly available if they didnt die the next day!

But thats not how its going to work, he said. Were going to bring them in and examine the heck out of them. (Even) if it had zero biological contamination associated with it, is going to be a number of years before anybody will be able to analyze the samples outside that facility.

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Planetary protection is serious business at NASA - Spaceflight Now

Lloyd Campbell

August 4th, 2017

A file photo of the CRS-4 Dragon capsule arriving at the International Space Station in 2014. That same pressure vessel was used in the CRS-11 Dragon capsule, which arrived at the outpost June 5, 2017. Photo Credit: NASA

SpaceX is set to send its next supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) as early as Aug. 13, 2017. That mission, CRS-12, will mark the end of an era as it will be the last new first-generation Dragon spacecraft to fly.

The CRS-12 mission will bring supplies and science experiments to the Expedition 52 crew currently on board the ISS before returning cargo and science back to Earth in September.Dragon spacecraft have visited the orbiting outpost 11 times since 2012, carrying well over 40,000 pounds (18,000 kilograms) of cargo to date.

The only blemish on the capsules record occurred during the CRS-7 flight, which launched June 28, 2015. After a successful liftoff, and an almost complete Falcon 9 first stage burn, a strut attached to a high-pressure hydrogen bottle in the second stage failed. That failure led to the second stage oxygen tank to over-pressurizing, causing it to burst and the entire booster to fail. The Dragon capsule survived the breakup but was destroyed when it impacted with the Atlantic Ocean several minutes later.

All subsequent SpaceX resupply missions since CRS-7 have been completed successfully.

For the CRS-11 mission, SpaceX utilized a thoroughly inspected and refurbished pressure vessel that was previously flown for the CRS-4 mission in 2014. For the second time that particular vehicle made a successful delivery of cargo to the ISS, and returned experiments back to Earth. This was the first flight of a previously-flown spacecraft since the Space Shuttles last flight in July 2011.

The company plans to only use previously-flown first-generation Dragon spacecraft for future cargo missions to the ISS.Since SpaceX will no longer be manufacturing complete Dragon 1 spacecraft, resources will be freed up to allow the company to focus more of its efforts on completing the development of the Dragon 2 spacecraft, which will provide crew transportation to the ISS and for other missions.

The long-delayed first flight of a Dragon 2 spacecraft is currently expected to occur sometime in the first half of 2018. The new spacecraft is capable of carrying up to seven people into Earth orbit. For NASA missions taking crew to and from the ISS, it will only carry four astronauts. The remaining area inside of the spacecraft will be used for pressurized cargo.

While SpaceX is developing Dragon 2 for crew, it is expected to have a cargo-only version for resupply missions to the space station. It is unclear when the NewSpace company will make the transition from Dragon 1 to Dragon 2 cargo missions. The company is currently under a contract to send 20 missions to the outpost, which will be completed with CRS-20 no earlier than 2019. A follow-up contract calls for at least six more cargo delivery missions.

Tagged: CRS-12 Dragon International Space Station Lead Stories NASA SpaceX

Lloyd Campbells first interest in space began when he was a very young boy in the 1960s with NASAs Gemini and Apollo programs. That passion continued in the early 1970s with our continued exploration of our Moon, and was renewed by the Shuttle Program. Having attended the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on its final two missions, STS-131, and STS-133, he began to do more social networking on space and that developed into writing more in-depth articles. Since then hes attended the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, the agencys new crew-rated Orion spacecraft on Exploration Flight Test 1, and multiple other uncrewed launches. In addition to writing, Lloyd has also been doing more photography of launches and aviation. He enjoys all aspects of space exploration, both human, and robotic, but his primary passions lie with human exploration and the vehicles, rockets, and other technologies that allow humanity to explore space.

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SpaceX launching last new first-generation Dragon cargo ship - SpaceFlight Insider

Curt Godwin

August 3rd, 2017

An artists concept depicting one of the twin Voyager spacecraft. Humanitys farthest and longest-lived spacecraft are celebrating 40 years in August and September 2017. Image & Caption Credit: NASA

Well past their expected lifetime, and farther from Earth than any other human-designed spacecraft, the Voyager robotic explorers are approaching another significant milestone: 40 years of operation. The two interplanetary travelers, each launched in 1977, have traveled billion of miles and expanded humanitys understanding of the Solar System and beyond.

Voyager 1 launches aboard a Titan IIIE on Sept. 5, 1977. (Click to enlarge) Photo Credit: NASA

Beginning in the 1960s, scientists realized that a coincidental alignment of the outer planets would allow a visit by a single spacecraft. Utilizing a gravitational assist by each, the spacecraft would be able to alter its trajectory and speed to allow the encounters with very little expenditure of fuel.

This plan, coined the Grand Tour, was initially to be a single spacecraft with multiple, redundant systems designed to survive the journey. High costs, however, induced a change to the program resulting in the twin Voyager spacecraft each with a primary mission to Jupiter and Saturn, with an extended mission to the remaining outer planets on the table should funding and conditions allow.

Though christened the first of the line, Voyager 1 was actually the second of the pair to launch. Lifting off from Launch Complex 41 (LC-41) atop a Titan IIIErocket on September 5, 1977, the spacecraft was set on a course to visit the two largest planets in the Solar System: Jupiter and Saturn.

Reaching the Jovian system 18 months later, Voyager 1 provided data leading to many monumental discoveries.

One of the most surprising findings was the presence of active volcanoes on Jupiters moon Io. These features the first of their kind found anywhere beyond Earth were unexpected and were determined to be the primary source of material interacting with Jupiters strong magnetic field.

After collecting scientific and photographic data on other moons in the Jovian system, Voyager 1 continued on its journey to Saturn, a destination nearly 20 months and 401 million miles (646 million kilometers) distant.

Adding to the observations already collected by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 made its fair share of discoveries at the Ringed Planet. Unexpectedly, Saturn was found to have a significantly different concentration of helium in its upper atmosphere as compared to Jupiter. This discrepancy may be attributed to the helium molecules sinking through the lighter hydrogen and collecting deeper in the planet.

Beyond the planet itself, a primary target in the Saturnian system was the moon Titan. Long known to harbor a thick atmosphere, the moon was such a vital target that mission planners opted to plot a trajectory to allow for the best observations of Titan rather than travel a path that would have taken it to Pluto in 1986.

An image of Voyager showing the location of the Golden Record. Image Credit: NASA

Voyager 2 launches aboard a Titan IIIE on Aug. 20, 1977. Photo Credit: NASA

Voyager 2, though second in number, was launched 16 days before its speedier sibling. Perched atop a Titan IIIE, the interplanetary spacecraft lifted off from LC-41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 20, 1977.

Like its counterpart, Voyager 2s early targets included Jupiter and Saturn. However, unlike Voyager 1, Voyager 2s trajectory allowed for some flexibility the spacecraft could be repositioned to make further observations of Titan, or it could be adjusted to also visit the outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune.

At Jupiter, Voyager 2 witnessed the same volcanic activity on Io, as well as discovered a few, faint rings around the gas giant. Data collected at Europa lead scientists to believe the ice-encrusted moon holds a deep below the surface, and several new moons were discovered before the spacecraft sped out of the system on its way to Saturn.

Upon reaching the second-largest planet in the Solar System more than two years later, Voyager 2 confirmed many of Voyager 1s discoveries, in addition to collecting atmospheric and temperature data.

With its primary mission complete, Voyager 2 was given the go-ahead to begin its extended mission by visiting Uranus and Neptune.

The spacecraft became the first man-made object to visit Uranus (January 1986) and Neptune (August 1989), providing scientists with their first-ever close observations of the two planets, and earning the record of being the first spacecraft to fly by four different planets.

The 64-meter-wide antenna dish in Goldstone, Calif. was expanded to 70 meters in the 1970s. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In order for NASA to communicate with the two Voyager spacecraft, the space agency had to expand its Deep Space Network (DSN) of radio communication antennas.

One legacy of those antennas used for the Voyager mission is still visible in the Mojave Desert, California: NASAs Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex.

At Goldstone, in the 1970s, construction crews began building new dishes and expanding old ones to enable NASA to communicate with the two probes as they traveled farther out into deep space. These dishes now dominate the landscape; the largest of them is 230 feet (70 meters) in diameter a true colossus, which was expanded from its original 210-foot (64-meter) width.

The smaller dishes at the complex are 112 feet (34 meters) in diameter, which were also increased in size from their original 85-foot (26-meter) diameters.

Expansions of antenna dishes were also carried out at NASAs other DSN sites around the world, located in Madrid (Spain) and Canberra (Australia). The Voyager program helped to accelerate these upgrades to the network.

In a sense, Voyager and the DSN grew up together, said Suzanne Dodd of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), director of the Interplanetary Network Directorate and Voyagers project manager since 2010. The mission was a proving ground for new technology, both in deep space as well as on Earth.

By the late 1970s, NASA began to explore the concept of antenna arrays by combining the signals from multiple dishes pointed toward the Voyager probes, thereby giving them the equivalent sensitivity of one giant antenna.

With their primary missions complete, and their planetary targets investigated, the two spacecraft began their journey into interstellar space.

Indeed, Voyager 1 now more than 13 billion miles (20.92 billion kilometers) from Earth and on a northbound trajectory out of the Solar System was the first of the pair to reach interstellar space, generally accepted to have occurred on August 25, 2012.

Voyager 2, traveling slightly slower than its partner, is on a southbound exit, but it will probably not reach interstellar space until late 2019 or early 2020.

Though the spacecraft have exceeded expectations, their power supply continues to drain and will no longer be able to provide electricity to the explorers scientific instruments by the mid-2020s. Moreover, the computers and systems designed to support operations rely on an increasingly rare skill: the ability to work with 1970s-era hardware.

The technology is many generations old, and it takes someone with 1970s design experience to understand how the spacecraft operate and what updates can be made to permit them to continue operating today and into the future, stated Suzanne Dodd in a release issued by NASA.

Nevertheless, the two groundbreaking spacecraft have provided invaluable information to scientists.

I believe that few missions can ever match the achievements of the Voyager spacecraft during their four decades of exploration, noted Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASAs Science Mission Directorate at NASA, in the release. They have educated us to the unknown wonders of the universe and truly inspired humanity to continue to explore our solar system and beyond.

This montage of images of the planets visited by Voyager 2 was prepared from an assemblage of images taken by the two Voyager spacecraft. Image & Caption Credit: NASA/JPL

Video courtesy of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Tagged: Heritage Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lead Stories NASA Voyager

Curt Godwin has been a fan of space exploration for as long as he can remember, keeping his eyes to the skies from an early age. Initially majoring in Nuclear Engineering, Curt later decided that computers would be a more interesting - and safer - career field. He's worked in education technology for more than 20 years, and has been published in industry and peer journals, and is a respected authority on wireless network engineering. Throughout this period of his life, he maintained his love for all things space and has written about his experiences at a variety of NASA events, both on his personal blog and as a freelance media representative.

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Our Spaceflight Heritage: 40 years after launch, NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft continue to return valuable data - SpaceFlight Insider

Laurel Kornfeld

August 3rd, 2017

This artists impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. Image & Caption Credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser

The exoplanet closest to the Solar System, Proxima b, is located in its stars habitable zone but may be unable to support life because radiation from its host star is likely to strip away its atmosphere, according to a new study based on a computer simulation.

A group of scientists led by Katherine Garcia-Sage of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, created a computer model that placed Earths atmosphere, magnetic field, and gravity at the location of Proxima b.Using data obtained by NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, they determined the level of radiation emitted by the host star, Proxima Centauri.Their goal was to determine the fate of Earth if it orbited in Proxima bs location.

At its orbit, the exoplanet Proxima b likely couldnt sustain an Earth-like atmosphere. Credits: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

The nature of the real Proxima bs atmosphere is unknown because scientists have not observed the planet passing in front of its star. Observation of transits is the method researchers use to learn about planets atmospheres.

We decided to take the only habitable planet we know of so far Earth and put it where Proxima b is, Garcia-Sage said.

A stars habitable zone is defined as the distance an orbiting planet can have liquid water on its surface. But being in a habitable zone does not guarantee a planet is habitable.

To be habitable for life as we know it, a planet must have an atmosphere one that regulates climate, maintains a surface pressure capable of supporting liquid water, enables the presence of lifes chemical building blocks, and protects it from dangerous radiation and space weather.

Significantly closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, Proxima b is subject to the stars regular flares and intense radiation hundreds of times the amount Earth receives from the Sun. In the computer model, that radiation stripped away the planets atmosphere at a rate up to 10,000 times greater than solar radiation does to Earth.

Red dwarf stars like Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1, another star with planets in its habitable zone, emit extreme ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes gases in the atmosphere of an orbiting planet. The process removes electrons from its atmosphere, creating a stream of electrically-charged particles that are energetic enough to completely escape the planets gravity.

The high level of radiation that planets such as Proxima b are exposed to is enough to strip away heavier elements in an atmosphere, such as nitrogen and oxygen, in addition to hydrogen.

This was a simple calculation based on average activity from the host star, Garcia-Sage said. It doesnt consider variations like extreme heating in the stars atmosphere or violent stellar disturbances to the exoplanets magnetic field things wed expect provide even more ionizing radiation and atmospheric escape.

Two other factors that could affect the rate of atmospheric loss were also inputted into the computer model. These are the temperature of the planets neutral atmosphere, also known as its thermosphere, as well as the size of the area on the planet that experiences atmospheric escape.

Stellar radiation was found to heat up the thermosphere, increasing the rate of atmospheric loss.Areas on a planet over which atmosphere is lost are known as polar caps.The level of atmospheric escape is affected by a planets magnetic field lines. If the magnetic field lines at a planets magnetic poles are closed, the size of the polar cap is limited, and charged particles remain trapped, reducing the escape level.In contrast, if magnetic field lines are open, the escape rate of charged particles increases.

If Proxima bs thermosphere has very high temperatures and its magnetic field must remain open, it could lose an atmosphere equivalent to Earths in just 100 million years. Low thermosphere temperatures and a closed magnetic field extend the duration it would take to lose an Earth atmosphere to slightly more than two billion years.

Proxima b is estimated to be approximately four billion years old.

Jeremy Drake of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who took part in the study, said the level of atmospheric loss on Proxima b makes its habitability implausible and calls into question the habitability of Earth-like planets orbiting other red dwarf stars.These cool stars, the most common in the galaxy, have topped scientists searches for habitable worlds.

NASAs Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) coalition, which is charged with searching for life on exoplanets, and NASAs Astrobiology Institute contributed to the study. Those findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Tagged: Alpha Centauri Chandra X-ray Observatory Proxima b Proxima Centauri The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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Stellar radiation may preclude Earth-like atmosphere on Proxima b - SpaceFlight Insider

Jason Rhian

August 2nd, 2017

A recent rash of stories would have you believe that NASA is in need of someone who can defend the Earth from Alien attack. How accurate are these stories and what is the truth behind NASAs Office of Planetary Protection? Image Credit: Twentieth Century Fox

It never fails. Let the news cycle get a little slow and someone decides to get creative with the facts. Such was the case Wednesday, Aug. 1 on, when supposedly credible and professional sites such as USA Today and Newsweek dropped the ball and resorted to good ole fashioned clickbait-ing. It was a sign of the times that highlighted the current state of journalism in the U.S.

According to USA Today, NASA is hiring a Planetary Protection Officer to Protect Earth from Alien Harm (note to USA Todays editors, get a Thesaurus you should always use synonyms instead of the using the same word over and over again). Of course, as soon as one clicks the link they are hit up by a tsunami of ads.

Newsweek apparently opted to up the ridiculous ante by having a disco-themed score added to their video that leads their story on the subject (once you get past the advertising that is). Their article is likely to make Woodward and Bernstein blush with jealousy (or, more likely, embarrassment for what this story says about the current plight of their profession). One NASA official made his thoughts about the rash of articles that are spreading misinformation about the position plain.

Depictions showing aliens attacking Earth have nothing to do with NASAs Office of Planetary Protections, making their use 100 percent false. With their use, the decline that journalistic ethics has been on continues to erode. Image Credit: Nathan Moeller / SpaceFlight Insider

While Im far from hopping on a fake news bandwagon, I am growing tried of legitimate media trivializing stories, such as the most recent NASA wants to pay someone $180k to protect us from aliens, NASAs Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications Bob Jacobs said via a Facebook post. Seriously, are we devolving into little more than clickbait media environment without any attention to fact?

So what are the facts and is NASA actually looking for its own version of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones to defend us from aliens? In a word no. According to the official post on USA Jobs, the Planetary Protection Officers duties include the following:

The Planetary Protection Officer (PPO) is responsible for the leadership of NASAs planetary protection capability, maintenance of planetary protection policies, and oversight of their implementation by NASAs space flight missions. The PPO also supports the Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Technical Authority and serves as a principal advisory resource for the Chief, SMA and other senior officials on matters pertaining to planetary protection. The PPO is the Agencys focal point for interactions with external organizations on matters related to planetary protection. Primarily the Planetary Protection Officer performs the following:

Leads planning and coordination of activities related to NASA mission planetary protection needs.Leads independent evaluation of, and provides advice regarding, compliance by robotic and human spaceflight missions with NASA planetary protection policies, statutory requirements and international obligations.

Advises the Chief, SMA and other officials regarding the merit and implications of programmatic decisions involving risks to planetary protection objectives.In coordination with relevant offices, leads interactions with COSPAR, National Academies, and advisory committees on planetary protection matters.Recommends and leads the preparation of new or revised NASA standards and directives in accordance with established processes and guidelines.

In essence, the job makes sure that any potential contamination that comes in from the probes NASA sends out into the solar system does not come back with extraterrestrial biological contamination. So, think lessIndependence Day and moreAndromeda Strain.

In terms of what the office does, their duty is to ensure that unknown and potentially hazardous organisms dont find their way back to Earth. The office also works to preserve life that has evolved on distant worlds or in the oceans of moons in our own solar system. Spacecraft such as Galileo, that orbited the gas giant Jupiter and Cassini (which has been in operation around the ringed planet Saturn Since July of 2004) have and will end by taking plunges into the clouds of these massive worlds (Galileo was safely deorbited in 2003).

Are you musing at this point that our response to the reporting that has appeared on this subject is too harsh? Business Insider used art from the 1996 Twentieth Century Fox film Independence Day to promote this article, you know, giant spaceship, over New York, shooting a death ray (no were not joking). How one can tie a job posting about a science position where one considers biological contamination issues to a ginormous alien death machine destroying New York defies all definitions of honesty.

What makes the so-called reporting on this matter all the more disappointing is the fact that it isnt even a new position. It has been around for at least a decade, with people actually handling the responsibilities of the position for much longer.

While Jacobs might not have much time for bloggers pretending to be journalists, he had some salient points about NASAs Office of Planetary Protection.

Consider how many people have the technical and scientific credentials to execute the job.By the way, if you know of anyone qualified, encourage them to apply. Lets leave the alien hunting to someone on the SyFy channel, Jacobs told SpaceFlight Insider, denoting why the position pays so well.

The mainstream media no longer has qualms about hunting down a teenage blogger for making a funny meme that mocked them, nor do they see anything wrong about posting pictures of the Greys working out at Area 51 in regards to a story about the prevention of possible biological contamination. Perhaps the reporting originated from the same place where those Greys tend to use their probes. While the over-sensationalizing of this mundane job listing might achieve the short term goal of gaining them a few more clicks it also means the continued degradation of how the public views the media.

Video courtesy of NASA

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not, necessarily reflect those of SpaceFlight Insider

Tagged: Cassini Galileo NASA Office of Planetary Protection Newsweek The Range USA Today

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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Insider Fact Check: Is NASA hiring someone to protect Earth from aliens? - SpaceFlight Insider

August 2, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt

With a busy year already in the books, the Eastern and Western Ranges in the United States are readying for the next salvo of missions from SpaceX and United Launch Alliance following a stand down of launch operations to provide time for maintenance. Specifically for the Eastern Range, the stand down period allowed the Air Force to complete more than 70 operations that will enable the Range to maintain its commitment and support to its users.

Eastern Range maintenance and stand down:

While not usually visible to the public, this years first semi-annual multi-day stand down period on the Eastern Range became a much more noticeable affair thanks to SpaceXs rapid fire pace of missions which from 1 May through 5 July averaged an impressive one launch every two weeks off of LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

With this rapid pace of missions, the last month has been a newly strange time on the Eastern Range with a total launch drought of 39 days (assuming a 13 August launch of SpaceXs CRS-12 mission to the Space Station) seeming like a time of nothings happening.

Indeed, that could not be further from the truth.

While part of the launch drought is due to pacing and mission order, with United Launch Alliances (ULAs) and NASAs TDRS-M mission delaying from 3 Aug, the stand down period known as recapitalization was initiated by the U.S. Air Force and the Eastern Range itself so that critical maintenance work could be performed on Range assets.

Eastern Range recapitalization is used as a predictable pause in operations for range users and the range itself so we can perform semi-annual maintenance requirements encompassing critical engineering projects, more intrusive maintenance actions and infrastructure work, said Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, 45th Space Wing Commander.

During recapitalization, we can perform maintenance and sustainment actions not possible during our busy launch schedule that includes not only launches, but daily pre-launch major milestone operations.

The planning process is collaborative in nature and includes all range users in determining the dates for range closure.

This collaborative nature became a prime talking point for those eagerly following the Intelsat 35e launch by SpaceX in July.

An initial launch attempt on 2 July was halted by a faulty ground computer at T-9 seconds pushing the next attempt to 3 July.

When that attempt was stopped by the same ground computer at T-9 seconds again, SpaceX opted to forgo a launch attempt on 4 July in favor of additional testing of the ground computer to ensure the issue didnt repeat a third time.

This caused some to wonder when the hard cutoff for Range down time was and how far into July SpaceX could continue to attempt to launch Intelsat 35e.

In the end, the 5 July attempt was a success, and according to Brig. Gen. Monteith, the range down period began the very next day.

The first Eastern Range recapitalization period of 2017 was conducted July 6-18. More than 70 planned tasks were accomplished 26% quicker as opposed to working these items around an active range, noted the Brig. Gen.

Of the work performed in the 12-day stand down period of recapitalization, some of these efforts included work to the Range Communications Facility Corridor Military Construction and replacing the uninterruptable power supply at the Falcon launch support facility.

Moreover, the Digital Range Communications Switch enhancement projects and server re-host for the 45th weather squadron were also completed.

This period also allowed us to focus on maintaining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station infrastructure as well as training and testing our crews so we can continue keeping pace with our high launch ops tempo, notes Brig. Gen. Monteith.

This work is not only necessary to the continued smooth operation of the Range, but also represents a concerted effort to avoid unanticipated issues and outages at the Range.

Range recap has proven successful in our ability to plan longer periodic, more intrusive, maintenance and sustainment projects on a stable schedule.

Not only does range recap allow us to take care of our mission critical assets, but it supports Air Force Space Commands commitment to sustaining the worlds premier spaceport of choice as our team drives to executing 48 launches a year.

The semi-annual maintenance ability to maintain Range readiness was seen last year with 2016 being the healthiest in range history at Cape Canaveral with 34 consecutive days of no significant instrumentation issues.

Launch schedule shuffle:

While the down period prevented SpaceX from launching missions, it did not stop them from getting some needed work accomplished at LC-39A mainly fixing the ground computer that twice stopped the Intelsat 35e countdown and removing a significant portion of the no-longer-needed Shuttle eras RSS while prepping for their first mission following the Range closure.

The CRS-12 flight, now scheduled to launch from LC-39A at 12:57 EDT on Sunday 13 August, will serve to end the 39 day launch drought in the U.S.

In fact, SpaceX has advanced the CRS-12 launch date from 14 August and in turn has also advanced the static fire date from 9 to 8 August.

The original mission that was to have been the first off the ground from the Range stand down was another NASA mission, TDRS-M. Up until last week, that was still the case, with TDRS-M originally maintaining its status as being more important in terms of launch order over CRS-12.However, when it became known that the replace and repair option for TDRS-Ms omni S-band antenna would take 10 days longer than originally expected, with a launch not possible until at least 20 August, priority in the launch order shifted to CRS-12 which at that point was targeting 14 August for launch.

With CRS-12 now at the top of the pecking order, SpaceX and NASA reviewed their schedules and determined it was possible to pull the mission one day back to the right to the 13th.

Likewise, as TDRS-M repairs progressed, NASA realized that the craft would actually be ready by 18 August, not the 20th. However, the TDRS-M date remains Under Review.

With CRS-12 now set for 13 August and TDRS-M for 18 August, the knock on effect to the launch manifest began to bear out on both coasts.

The first major shift occurred on the Western Range, with ULA having to move the 14 August scheduled launch of the NROL-42 mission by nearly a month to 11 September.

The shift of NROL-42s launch on an Atlas V 541 from SLC-3E did not impact SpaceXs plan for the Formosat 5 satellite launch for Taiwans National Space Organization which held steady on its planned 24 August launch date.

Back on the Eastern Range, the realignments of CRS-12 and TDRS-M did not have an effect on the Minotaur 4 launch on 25/26 August with the U.S. militarys Operationally Responsive Space program 5 mission, also called SensorSat.

However, the first flight of the Air Forces X-37B spaceplane aboard the Falcon 9 did move from its 28 August target to 7 September with processing notes acquired by L2 noting that the timeline to a 7 September launch is tight and had nothing to do with CRS-12s slip.

However, exactly which pad OTV-5 will now launch from is unknown.

Recent statements by Elon Musk of a planned November debut for SpaceXs heralded Falcon Heavy rocket point to SLC-40 being on track for an August completion making a 7 September OTV-5 mission a contender for first flight from SLC-40 after the AMOS-6 static fire conflagration.

Regardless of the pad OTV-5 uses, ULA is now expected to return on 25 September for the NROL-52 launch from the Cape, delayed in the wake of TDRS-M from 31 August.

This will then be followed two days later by SpaceXs SES-11/EchoStar 105 mission on 27 September.

(Images: SpaceX, Air Force, NASA, and Chris Gebhardt andBrady Kennisonfor NASASpaceFlight.com)

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Eastern Range ready to return with two key launches after stand down - NASASpaceflight.com

Jason Rhian

August 1st, 2017

Artists impression of Breakthrough Starshot spacecraft on its way to Alpha Centauri. Image Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives

In the NewSpace era, one hears all manner of predictions and brash claims, but few come to fruition. Most of these efforts see Chapter 11 before they ever take to the skies. One program, dubbed Breakthrough Starshot, is looking to send mankinds space exploration efforts far beyond the Solar System by using the worlds smallest spacecraft.

On June 23, 2017, these spacecraft, called Sprites, which were funded through a 2011 Kickstarter campaign, were launched atop a PSLV-XL rocket. Well, actually, they piggybackedon OHB System AGs Max Valierand Ventasatellites.

These spacecraft redefine the meaning of the word small, encompassing3.5-by-3.5 centimeters and weighing in at a whopping four grams. The company described the craft as the worlds smallest fully functional space probes.

Eventually, every mission that NASA does may carry these sorts of nanocraft to perform various measurements, Starshots Zac Manchester said via a company-issued release. If youre looking for evidence of life on Mars or anywhere else, for instance, you can afford to use hundreds or thousands of these things it doesnt matter that a lot of them might not work perfectly. Its a revolutionary capability that will open up all sorts of opportunities for exploration.

A prototype Breakthrough Starshot Sprite spacecraft. (Click to enlarge) Photo Credit: Zac Manchester / Breakthrough Initiatives

The company has caught the attention of Scientific American and other established organizations.

Despite its diminutive size, these Sprites have what they need to get the job done each containssolar panels, computers, sensors, and radios that will allow them to carry out their various functions.

With engineers looking for ever smaller classifications to describe spacecraft by (cube, small, and nano being just some of the names that have been used to help classify these satellites), the company has dubbed Sprites as the next step in terms of spacecraft miniaturization. Built atCornell University and incorporated into theMax Valierand Ventasatellites (built by the Bremen-basedOHB System AG), the Sprite is Manchesters pride and joy.

These Sprites remain affixed to the satellites and could, one day, be used to explore further than mankind has been able to explore so far. By all accounts, these Sprites are performing as advertised, communicating back to stations located in California and New York. While having satellites piggyback their way to orbit is nothing new, this flight is meant to validate the spacecraft communications systems.

These systems would (most likely) be first used in three-dimensional antennas in deep space to monitor space weatherthat could threaten Earthly power-grids and orbiting spacecraft. So how would these Sprites enable interstellar space exploration?

Larger interplanetary probes would deploy swarms of Sprites around planets, moons, and asteroids. These would seek out promising locales that could contain desirable minerals or locations that could support life.

Breakthrough Starshot is just one of the efforts under Breakthrough Initiatives (which also includes Breakthrough Listen) and was announced byYuri Milner and Stephen Hawking on April 12, 2016 (the same day of the month that Yuri Gagarin began his fateful voyage and the crew of STS-1 launched from Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A).

The project is an engineering program designed to prove the concept of spacecraft which would be propelled by light and accelerated to about20 percent of light speed and reach Proxima Centauri 4.2 light-years away in just over 20 years after their launch. The craft would targetthe exoplanet Proxima b and other planets in our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. If everything goes as planned, the craft would capture images as well as measurements of those distant worlds.

Breakthrough Starshot, the $100 million initiative aiming to send robotic missions to nearby stars by the mid-21st century, has achieved what might prove to be a Sputnik moment in successfully lofting its first spacecraft the smallest ever launched and operated in orbit, Manchester said.

Video courtesy of Breakthrough

Tagged: Alpha Centauri Breakthrough Starshot PSLV-XL The Range Zac Manchester

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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Could Breakthrough Starshot be humanity's first interstellar mission ... - SpaceFlight Insider

NASA is looking for a Planetary Protection Officer to protect the planet from potential alien contamination. The U.S. governments official employment site posted the job advert, open to U.S. citizens and nationals for applications until August 14.

The job comes with a six figure salary$124,406 to $187,000 per yearand security clearance is listed as "secret." The role involves stopping astronauts and robots from getting contaminated with any organic and biological material during space travel.

NASA maintains policies for planetary protection applicable to all space flight missions that may intentionally or unintentionally carry Earth organisms and organic constituents to the planets or other solar system bodies, and any mission employing spacecraft, which are intended to return to Earth and its biosphere with samples from extraterrestrial targets of exploration the job advert reads. This policy is based on federal requirements and international treaties and agreements.

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The job, initially, is a three-year contract thatmay be extended for a further two years. During this time, NASA will be planning several missions, including one to Jupiters icy moon Europa, where it will search for signs of alien life.

The Planetary Protection Officer (PPO) is responsible for the leadership of NASA's planetary protection capability, maintenance of planetary protection policies, and oversight of their implementation by NASA's space flight missions, the job spec says. The successful candidate will have to work with several different branches of NASA and external organizations that are involved in planetary protection.

According to the job listing, the main responsibilities are:

Leads planning and coordination of activities related to NASA mission planetary protection needs. Leads independent evaluation of, and provides advice regarding, compliance by robotic and human spaceflight missions with NASA planetary protection policies, statutory requirements and international obligations.

Advises the Chief, SMA and other officials regarding the merit and implications of programmatic decisions involving risks to planetary protection objectives.

In coordination with relevant offices, leads interactions with COSPAR, National Academies, and advisory committees on planetary protection matters.

Recommends and leads the preparation of new or revised NASA standards and directives in accordance with established processes and guidelines.

Candidates must have broad engineering expertise, and should be an expert in planetary protection: This includes demonstrated technical expertise to independently form technically sound judgments and evaluations in considerably complex situations. Candidates should also have a degree in physical science, engineering or mathematics.

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Nasa Is Hiring a Planetary Protection Officer to Save Earth from Aliens - Newsweek

A portrait of Neil Armstrong aboard the Lunar Module Eagle on the lunar surface just after the first moon walk.NASACorbis via Getty Images

Live with history long enough and it starts to seem immutable. In 2019, a full 50 years will have elapsed since Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon; the near-half-century that has gone by since that transformative July night in 1969 has made it nearly impossible to conceive of anyone else in Armstrong's role. Imagining Pete Conrad or John Young as first men on the moon (instead of the third and ninth, respectively) seems as odd as imagining James Madison as the first President.

But the fact is, in the mid-1960s, when NASA was flying the two-man Gemini spacecraft that preceded the three-man Apollo, Conrad and Young and more than a dozen other men had just as good a chance as Armstrong of getting the prime seat on the prime mission. Armstrong even had a worse chance than the rest of themor at least he did on March 16, 1965, when he and his co-pilot Dave Scott took off aboard Gemini 8, both men's rookie ride into space.

Gemini 8 was supposed to be a three day mission that would include a rendezvous and docking with an unmanned spacecraft, and a pair of spacewalks by Scott. Instead it was all over in less than 11 hours, and the most memorable thing the two men accomplished was the simple business of staying alive.

That flight, only four years into America's now-long history of flying human beings in space, was the the first time NASA came closehorribly closeto losing a crew during a mission. The near-miss was owed to a very simple mechanical breakdown that almost pushed both the Gemini spacecraft and the astronauts themselves beyond the point that either could survive.

The fact that they did survive was due to the quick thinking and nimble piloting of Armstrong and Scott, and to the men at the consoles in Mission Control, who knew enough to offer whatever guidance they could during the unfolding crisis and then stand back and let the pilots work. That was enoughenough so that four years later Armstrong would indeed walk on the moon and, two years after that, so would Scott.

Episode Two of the TIME podcast Countdown tells the story of Armstrong's and Scott's harrowing day, and of what it took for them to get out of it with their lives.

Read the rest here:

Neil Armstrong: The Spaceflight That Almost Killed Him | Time.com - TIME

Aleksandra Mir Space Tapestry: Earth Observation & Human Spaceflight at Modern Art Oxford, installation view.

The huge monochrome drawings are inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and the artists who depicted Halleys Comet in 1066. Much like a graphic novel,Space Tapestrytells an episodic visual story of Space travel. Mir has brought together a team of collaborators aged 18 to 24, to draw the work collectively in her studio. At Modern Art Oxford, Mir presentsSpace Tapestry: Earth Observation & Human Spaceflight.

The drawings contemplate the future possibilities of Space and the evolution of advanced technology particularly satellites and human space flight in relations to our daily lives. The works explore the balance of technological progress and humanistic objectives, expressed through the works layered and participatory execution.

Faraway Missions, another chapter of Space Tapestry, which is 200 meters in total, is presented at Tate Liverpool, 23 June 15 October.

The production ofSpace Tapestryis supported by the UK Space Agency, the Science & Technology Facilities Council and Arts Council England.

Aleksandra Mir

Born 1967, Lubin, Poland, citizen of Sweden and USA and based in London, Aleksandra Mir has an international practice of 25 years and has held numerous exhibitions worldwide, including The Space Age, a retrospective at M-Museum, Leuven, 2013 and the 34m mural Drawing Room, London, 2014. She has developed many large-scale collaborative projects on space exploration. Her most well known project, First Woman on the Moon 1999, has been touring for 17 years and is included in the collections of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Tate.

Writing via press release courtesy of the artist and Modern Art Oxford

30 Pembroke Street OX1 1BP Open:11am-6pm Tue-Sat, noon-5pm Sun

Arte Fuse is always looking for guest writers. Please submit your story to info@artefuse.com.

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Aleksandra Mir Space Tapestry: Earth Observation & Human Spaceflight at Modern Art Oxford - Arte Fuse

July 31, 2017 by Philip Sloss

The Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) team at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida is continuing construction and testing to get ready to support upcoming Exploration Mission launches. Testing at the Launch Equipment Test Facility (LETF) is in full swing delivering launch vehicle umbilicals and swing arms to the Mobile Launcher (ML). LEFT to ML for SLS:

Construction and outfitting of systems on the ML are pointing towards multi-element verification and validation (V&V) testing next year, a major milestone that will confirm the GSE (Ground Support Equipment) is ready to receive the first SLS rocket.

A major test site for these preparations is the LETF, located in the KSC Industrial Area.

Most of the hardware that connects the SLS launch vehicles and Orion spacecraft to the Mobile Launcher is going through testing there to gather release loads data and verify the functionality of the umbilical connections and the swing arms.

Over the past nine to ten months weve significantly grown the team and have really been producing most of these umbilicals, Jeremy Parsons, GSDO Senior Project Manager for the LETF said in an interview with NASASpaceflight.com.

Where were at now is where pretty much at the apex of the mountain of work. So were at that precipice and then were getting ready to come down on the other side. Weve delivered a significant number of the umbilicals already and we have some of the hard work left.

The team at the LETF recently finished the Core Stage Forward Skirt Umbilical (CSFSU) and Core Stage Intertank Umbilical (CSITU); the CSFSU was lifted up and attached to the ML tower in late June and testing on CSITU wrapped up shortly after that.

That umbilical is ready to be driven up the road to the ML construction site so it can be hung up on the tower.

It will be shipped to Mobile Launcher and as of right now August 11th is the lift date, Sam Talluto, GSDO Deputy Project Manager for the Mobile Launcher said at the time of the interview earlier this month.

So far weve completed a total of fifteen of nineteen umbilicals, starting off with ten each Vehicle Support Posts, thats eight primary support posts and two spares, Jeff Crisafulli, GSDO Engineering Manager for the LETF added. Thats [also] two each Aft Skirt Electrical Umbilicals, the Orion Service Module Umbilical, and then of course the Core Stage Forward Skirt Umbilical and Core Stage Intertank Umbilical.

So that leaves the two TSMUs (Tail Service Mast Umbilicals), the VS (Vehicle Stabilizer), and then obviously the ICPSU (Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage Umbilical) and the CAA (Crew Access Arm) seal, Parsons noted. The CAA seal will only be a couple of day test. The setups will be more extensive and well be able to deliver that to the VAB, so its not time-critical.

Right now we have three elements that are in-flow actively testing. We just finished up our TRR, which is our Test Readiness Review for the [Liquid Oxygen] TSMU so were now into testing for that. Were well underway testing on the Vehicle Stabilizer and we just finished up our Delta Test Readiness Review to begin cryogenic operations on the ICPSU. So were in the final phase of testing for that. Those are all in the final stretch there.

After the ICPSU completes its testing, the other tail service mast, the liquid hydrogen TSMU will start into its test flow. The last EM-1 hardware that is planned to go through the LETF is the Crew Access Arm seal, which docks the White Room on the arm to access hatches on the Orion spacecraft.

Its just the seal for the white room, Parsons continued. The crew access arm itself is going to be delivered directly to the Mobile Launcher. We have that set to be deliveredprobably towards the end of September directly to the Mobile Launcher. So the seal will actually be delivered to the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) directly.

That will be probably towards the end of this calendar year and it will be the last element probably out of the LETF, but were not putting a high schedule pressure on it at this point because we need to get the umbilicals out and this will able to follow on after that and can be installed at pretty much any point in the VAB.

Mockups for the White Room and Orion launch abort system ogive panels will be used at the LETF for testing the seal.

Around the same time as the CSFSU was attached to the ML tower in late June, the CSITU completed testing at the LETF. As the name implies, the CSITU will attach to the SLS Core Stage intertank; the primary function of the umbilical is to safely carry hydrogen gas venting from the hydrogen tank away from the vehicle and the tower.

The umbilical will provide other services such as environmental control, power and data to vehicle systems in the intertank.

The LETF is a full test facility so what we tested there, we did initial tests with liquid nitrogen. To get to a lower temperature we tested with liquid hydrogen. The liquid nitrogen tested with the simulant of oxygen temperatures and then liquid hydrogenobviously we tested at full hydrogen temperatures to simulate what we would actually see during launch day, Parsons noted.

We test electrical connectivity at the interfaces of the plate, we have sensors all up and down the plate to test temperatures, to test all sorts of things. We test primary disconnect loads, we test secondary failure modes, so we go through all of those.

Loads to the vehicle are our primary concern and deliverable to the program so we have multiple, six axis load cells reporting all the simulated vehicle loads, Crisafulli added.

One of the other large tests we did was we had to tune the hydraulic control system for that particular arm to basically make sure it swings at the right rate of speed to get itself out of the way of the launch envelope of the vehicle. All of that was highly successful.

Once the testing of all the launch accessories for EM-1 at the LETF is complete, the test facilities there will go through a maintenance period; however, they will remain ready to support any additional testing in support of the EM-1 launch campaign. The LETF will play a similar critical role in getting ready to support the EM-2 launch, which will require testing new and modified umbilicals.

Mobile Launcher:

Construction and outfitting of the Mobile Launcher continues at the Launch Complex 39 East Park Site on the northern periphery of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

From a structural standpoint were installing the steel supports for the cryo system, steel supports for the environmental control system, we have lots of piping and tubing that is going in at this time, Cliff Lanham, GSDO Senior Project Manager for the Mobile Launcher said.

Structural mods are [also] continuing on some of the major structural girders as well as on the tower to support launch accessories the umbilicals.

The launch platform and tower were originally under construction to support the Constellation programs Ares I crew launch vehicle; after cancellation, the work was repurposed for the SLS. Workers are also installing equipment into the base platform and the tower to support launch operations.

From a GSE (Ground Support Equipment) installation standpoint, we have roughly a thousand items from pneumatics panels to electrical cabinets that have to go in along with cameras and those sorts of things, Lanham explained.

Right now were at just over 50% percent complete of the installation of those [overall]; of that, I would say [were about] 75 percent [complete] in the base and about 35 percent complete on the tower.

Lanham provided an overview of some of the laundry list of the different types of commodities and services that are going onto the ML.

From a pneumatics systems [standpoint], weve got gaseous oxygen, weve got gaseous nitrogen, weve got helium. [For] cryo systems, we have [liquid] hydrogen and oxygen.

Then some of the other systems, from an electrical standpoint, we have ground special power, hazgas (hazardous gas) leak detection, Kennedy ground control systems, launch release systems, range safety control systems, sensor / data acquisition systems, thermal systems, weather systems, handling and access, and communications systems.

As an example of drilling down at a systems level, Lanham also outlined some of the types communications services on the ML.

Wifi, telephones, OIS (Operational Intercommunications System), which is our operational system for the test teams to use to communicate with the LCC, the launch control center, so all those systems fall under comm.

With outfitting work still ongoing, for now launch accessories like the umbilicals are only being structurally attached to the tower, addedTalluto.

After all the umbilicals are hung and surveyed then the tubing and piping pneumatics, hydraulics, all that stuff will catch up.

(Images via NASA and L2 SLS Sections the latter including a master LETF and ML Update Section full of images and videos from the test sites. To join L2, click here:https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/)

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Preparing the Mobile Launcher to be armed and ready for SLS - NASASpaceflight.com