SpaceX's Dragon to return from International Space Station

SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule is headed back to Earth after spending one month attached to the International Space Station, marking the start of a big day for the private spaceflight company that also includes a satellite launch and bold rocket landing attempt.

The uncrewed Dragon supply ship carrying hardware and experiments back from the station cast off from the space station at about 2:10 p.m. EST today, Feb. 10. Dragon will splash down in the Pacific Ocean at 7:44 p.m. EST, where a recovery ship is standing by to retrieve the capsule. If all goes according to plan, the splashdown should occur just hours after SpaceX is due to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) space weather satellite into orbit. SpaceX also hopes to try toland the rocket on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after delivering the satellite to space.

"Tuesday will be a busy day, but SpaceX has planned and prepared for this scenario," SpaceX representatives told Space.com via email on Monday. "We have separate operations and recovery teams on both coasts, so we are equipped to handle both events [the Dragon and Falcon 9 landings] simultaneously." You can watch the launch of DSCOVR live on Space.com via NASA TV starting at 5 p.m. EST today. SpaceX is also expected to carry a live webcast of the launch. [See photos of the Dragon cargo launch]

Dragon launched to the space station atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on Jan. 10. The capsule linked up with the laboratory about two days later, delivering fresh supplies to the crewmembers onboard.

SpaceX attempted to land the first stage of Dragon's Falcon 9 rocket on the drone ship in the Atlantic in a reusable rocket test similar to the one the company is attempting today. The rocket stage landing wasn't successful. The Falcon 9 exploded when it crash-landed on the drone ship.

The Dragon capsule is currently the only robotic cargo spacecraft capable of bringing items back to Earth from the International Space Station. Other spacecraft, such as Europe's ATVs and Russia's Progress vehicles, deliver supplies to the station, but those vehicles burn up harmlessly in Earth's atmosphere after departing the laboratory.

Today will mark the end of SpaceX's fifth official supply run to the station once Dragon splashes down in the Pacific. The company currently holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly 12 uncrewed missions to orbit using the Dragon and Falcon 9.

The private spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp. also holds a cargo contract with NASA; however, Orbital's flights are currently on hold due to a rocket accident that destroyed one of the company's Cygnus spacecraft seconds after launching toward the station in 2014.

Link:

SpaceX's Dragon to return from International Space Station

Test flight of tiny European space shuttle a success

A European mini-space shuttle prototype launched into space Wednesday (Feb. 11) and then zoomed back to Earth in a daring test of innovative technologies for future reusable spacecraft.

The European Space Agency's car-sizeIntermediate eXperimental Vehicle(IXV) blasted off atop a Vega rocket from the European Spaceport in French Guiana at 8:40 a.m. EST (1340 GMT) Wednesday. The spacecraft was initially expected to launch at 8 a.m. EST, but a problem with telemetry delayed the liftoff within the one hour and 45 minute launch window. The craft came back to Earth about 100 minutes after launch, making a parachute-assisted splashdown in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at about10:20 a.m. (1520 GMT).A recovery ship is stationed near the splashdown zone and is on its way to collect the IXV, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said.

"It [the test flight] couldn't have been better, but the mission itself is not yet over," Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of ESA, said through a translator after splashdown was confirmed. "Now it's going to be necessary to analyze all of the data that was collected throughout the flight." [Photos: Europe's IXV Reusable Space Plane Prototype]

The experimental vehicle is a wingless "lifting body" rather than a true space plane. It measures 16.4 feet long by 4.9 feet high by 7.2 feet wide (5 by 1.5 by 2.2 meters) and weighs almost 2 tons (1,814 kilograms) when fully fueled, ESA officials said.

During today's suborbital flight, the IXV was expected to reach a maximum altitude of about 261 miles (420 kilometers), then barrel back intoEarth's atmosphereat a speed of 16,800 mph (27,037 km/h). The vehicle was also designed to use an advanced infrared camera and more than 300 other sensors to assess how its thermal protection, guidance and other key systems perform during re-entry.

ESA considers IXV an important step along the path to mastering autonomous, controlled re-entry technology.

"Such a capability is essential for developing a wide range of space transportation applications, including space planes, reusable launcher stages, planetary probes and sample return, cargo and crew transport vehicles," ESA officials wrote in anIXV mission FAQ. "Mastery of re-entry technology could also be useful in innovative future missions for Earth observation, microgravity experimentation, high-altitude atmospheric research and servicing and disposing of future-generation satellites."

IXV is considered "intermediate" because it follows the 1998 flight of the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) capsule and precedes an envisioned space plane project called PRIDE (Program for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator for Europe).

The "PRIDE space plane will be similar to, but smaller and cheaper than, the U.S.s X-37B but, unlike the X-37B, would be managed under civil auspices," ESA officials wrote. (The roboticX-37B space plane, which has flown three space missions to date, is operated by the United States Air Force.)

"It would be launched by Europes Vega light rocket, orbit robotically, operate in orbit and land automatically on ground in a runway," they added. "The mission will focus on system and technology performance verification under all flight conditions hypersonic, supersonic, transonic and subsonic."

Excerpt from:

Test flight of tiny European space shuttle a success

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft splashes down after trip to ISS

Commercial space flight took another step forward Tuesday (10.02.2015) as the SpaceX Dragon freighter safely returned to earth from the International Space Station (ISS).

The unmanned craft left the ISS at 2:10 p.m. EST (19:10 GMT) and splash-landed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California just over five hours later. The vehicle was carrying nearly 1,700 kilograms (almost 2 tons) of cargo - including scientific materials, research equipment, 3D printed parts and even a faulty spacesuit. There were no astronauts on board.

The smooth landing was another victory for United States-based commercial space flight company SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk, who also heads electric car company Tesla Motors. It was the fifth successful roundtrip mission to the ISS performed by the company for NASA.

Landings becoming routine

Currently, the Dragon craft is the only space cargo vessel in the world that is capable of making the return trip back to earth. For scientists and researchers with experiments returning from the ISS onboard, the safe landing was a relief.

The pioneering work of SpaceX appears to be making commercial space travel with private companies viable. Space travel experts in Germany say they only pay passing attention to successful launches and landings now.

"It's becoming more routine for us," said Johannes Weppler, a scientist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). "We notice it and are happy when things are successful - but it's not that we are anticipating these things," he told DW.

Weppler praised SpaceX, adding that he has high confidence in the quality of the company's work. "They have put on a program that is very impressive and has a lot of potential for the future," Weppler said.

Still a risky buisness

But Weppler acknowledged that there are still risks involved with each launch and landings performed by private space companies. Yesterday's successful mission by SpaceX comes just three months after a spectacular failure by another private US space company, Orbital Sciences.

View original post here:

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft splashes down after trip to ISS

Europe's mini-space shuttle splashes down

Europe's prototype space plane has splashed down in the Pacific on schedule after a 100-minute flight to test key re-entry technologies.

"The mission has come to an end according to plan... it couldn't have been better," European Space Agencychief Jean-Jacques Dordain said in a live webcast.

The car-sized craft tests new technologies and systems that it is hoped will enable Europe to build a space vehicle that can re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

Ireland has part funded the mission, while staff at the Dublin office of engineering firm Curtiss-Wright have built the systems to gather, store and transmit the data generated by 300 sensors on board.

Europe has the technology to send spacecraft into space, but not to bring them back to Earth.

The lack of such knowledge has left European space agencies dependent on other nations for astronaut transport and held back Europe's ambitions to return samples from asteroids or other planets.

Thenew space vehicle, the IXV, was launched to test new systems and technologies for atmospheric re-entry, the most difficult and risky part of any return space flight.

Watch an interactive video about IXVhere.

The unmanned space planeblasted off from French Guiana and will travel 420km into space, before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere at 27,000km per hour and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

The IXV's new aerodynamic shape, navigation and guidance controls, and thermal protection panels were all be put through their paces.

Read more:

Europe's mini-space shuttle splashes down

Anti-geyser testing completed for SLS liquid oxygen tank

10 hours ago by Kimberly Henry NASA and Boeing engineers conduct anti-geyser testing and monitor data from those tests in a control room at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Credit:NASA/MSFC

Goodbye, geysers! NASA engineers have successfully finished anti-geyser testing for the liquid oxygen tank that will help fuel the agency's new rocket, the Space Launch System, on the journey to Mars.

More than 120 hours of anti-geyser testing have been completed on a full-scale, 40-foot replica of the SLS liquid oxygen tank feed systemwhich will be housed in the rocket's core stageat one of the test stands at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The core stage, towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.5 feet, will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicle's RS-25 engines.

"Geysering occurs when heat enters the liquid oxygen feed system, causing the liquid to boil and form large oxygen gas bubbles that rapidly expel," said Chad Bryant, propulsion manager in the Stages Office at Marshall, where the SLS Program is managed for the agency. "This rapid expulsion of boiling liquid can momentarily displace large volumes of heavy liquid that crash back down, causing a damaging hammer effect on the system.

"One of the largest risks with a liquid oxygen feed system of this scale is the potential of creating a geyserthat's why this kind of testing is so important," he added. "This gives us the confidence that the operations we have in place for propellant loading, conditioning and draining will successfully suppress geysers in the system during flight vehicle operations."

Those operations include using helium. The system is filled and thermally conditioned by pumping liquid oxygen up the engine feed lines and into the tank, allowing heat to escape up and out the top of the tank vent. As liquid level rises in the tank, helium is injected into the feed lines, introducing fluid circulation throughout the liquid oxygen system. This circulation is the key to maintaining uniform fluid temperature and eliminating localized propellant heating. "We've used enough liquid oxygen on the test article to fill the SLS oxygen tank eight timesit's very thorough testing," Bryant said.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

Data from the test series will be used in the development and demonstration of the liquid oxygen procedures for SLS core stage green run operations at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and the first flight of the rocket from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Green run testing of the SLS core stage is the first time the RS-25 engines are assembled into a single configuration with the core stage and fired at nearly full power.

"Anti-geyser testing really provided valuable insights into system-specific behaviors and data for model validation," said Jacob Parton, anti-geyser test conductor. "Building the test article had its challenges, but testing went quite well. The NASA and Boeing teams did a fantastic job."

The Boeing Company of St. Louis is the prime contractor for the SLS core stage, including its avionics. The test series began in August and wrapped up in late January.

Read the original post:

Anti-geyser testing completed for SLS liquid oxygen tank

Red Wings hammer Buzzers

Faint playoff hopes still alive

By Mark Newman, News Staff

The Hamilton Red Wings played their best game of the season on home ice Monday night, an 8-1 drubbing of the St. Michaels Buzzers.

It was the teams third win in a row and kept alive their slim shot at a post season birth.

We had all four lines going, said Red Wings head coach Mike Galati, whose troops dominated the Buzzers at both ends of the ice. From start to finish (it was) the most complete 60 minutes since Ive been here.

Laine McKay, Lucas Condotta, Matt Smith, Ryan Punkari, Kris Hamlin, Josh La France, Rylee St. Onge and Otis Goldman scored for Hamilton, while Cameron Wright was the only Buzzer to get the puck pas Red Wings goalie Jordan Cartney, who turned in a solid effort with 24 saves.

The Red Wings are chasing the Buzzers and the Buffalo Junior Sabres for the seventh and eighth (and final) playoff spots in the Ontario Junior Hockey Leagues South-West Conference.

As of Tuesday afternoon the 20-30 Red Wings had 41 points while St. Mikes had 46 points and Buffalo had 45 points.

The Red Wings are healthy and have four games left in the regular season.

Galati feels the team can go unbeaten for the rest of the campaign.

View original post here:

Red Wings hammer Buzzers

NASA TV to Air Interactive Women in STEM Event

NASA experts, including crew members aboard the International Space Station, will answer questions about science, technology, education and mathematics (STEM) disciplines during a forum called "Women in STEM: STEM in the Global Science Community" from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 17.

The event will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website, and take place in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The forum will discuss the role of STEM in the global science community and STEM's importance to future exploration. Event participants will highlight scientific endeavors taking place on the space station and in the global science community that are fulfilling the dual role of preparing humans for the journey to Mars and providing real benefits to life on Earth.

The event is open to the public, but seating is very limited. Anyone may participate in the conversation virtually by asking questions via Twitter using the hashtag #asknasa.

Media also can ask question during the panel discussion through a phone bridge by contacting NASAs Office of Communications no later than 11 a.m. at 202-358-1100.

The forum panelists are:

-- Ellen Stofan, NASA chief scientist

-- Cady Coleman, NASA astronaut

-- LaNetra Tate, principal Investigator for advanced manufacturing and nanotechnology, Space Technology Mission Directorate

Read the original:

NASA TV to Air Interactive Women in STEM Event

NASA Prepares New Sounding Rocket Motor For First Test Firing

NASA engineers are preparing a new Peregrine sounding rocket motor for its first hot-fire test set for February 10 in the east test area at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Peregrine sounding rocket motor started as a NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) project and was designed in-house by NASA engineers, but was built in cooperation with commercial suppliers from across America. Peregrine aims to improve performance by 15 percent and reduce flight issues encountered by current sounding rockets used for everything from science observations to technology development. Peregrine is the first motor developed by NASA for the suborbital program under the agencys Science Mission Directorate.

We took everything weve learned from flying sounding rockets for more than 50 years and put it into this effort, said Philip Franklin, the Marshall propulsion engineer who manages the Peregrine project. To hold down costs and enhance reliability, Peregrine is made with established technologies and materials, but to infuse innovation, many young engineers helped design the Peregrine rocket.

NASA has flown sounding rockets since 1959 to provide up to 30 minutes at high altitudesto make valuable observations of the sun, stars, and atmosphere or to test out instrumentation or engineering equipment before use on more expensive space missions. Wallops Flight Facility is responsible for designing the vehicle systems and configurations around the Peregrine. It is designing and building payloads and implementing a three-flight test program following the successful static fire.

The motor is a NASA designed sustainer motor alternative that could be used to support NASA suborbital science missions at the completion of the test flight program, said Chuck Brodell, Peregrine development manager at NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The rocket motor, which burns solid rocket propellant, is 20 inches in diameter and stands 18.6 feet tall. When the rocket motor is test fired in a horizontal position, it will reach up to 30,000 pounds of thrust.

Well use the test data from this static test firing to evaluate the Peregrine motors performance and prepare for its first test flight, said Lisa Tunstill, a systems engineer who helped design Peregrine.

This data will help prepare the rocket for a flight test from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility targeted for March 2015.

For more information on NASA sounding rockets, see:

Continued here:

NASA Prepares New Sounding Rocket Motor For First Test Firing

Moores Law Chips Confidence

Only a fourth of semiconductor business leaders believe Moore's Law will continue for the foreseeable future in an otherwise upbeat survey conducted by KPMG.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Moores Law in April, the semiconductor industry faces the question of whether it can continue to innovate at the pace Gordon Moores landmark paper predicted. Some dont think so.

In fact, only a fourth of the business leaders surveyed for my firms annual semiconductor industry survey expect the benefits of Moores Law to continue for the foreseeable future. More than half said Moores Law will no longer apply at various nodes less than 22 nanometers, while 16 percent said it already has ended.

The uncertainty surrounding Moores Law offers one of a few points of caution in an otherwise confident outlook from semiconductor company leaders globally. Interestingly, their confidence level is at its highest level in five years, according to KPMGs research.

Our survey found that a higher percentage of semiconductor leaders expect their companys revenue to grow in 2015 compared to the prior years survey (81% vs. 77%). However, respondents predict a more moderate growth rate for this year, with most predicting growth of just 1-5%, which is consistent with analyst predictions.

However, not all respondents are in line with the moderate outlook some (20%) are predicting that their companies will grow revenue at rates higher than 10%. Double-digit growth has been the case in certain sectors such as memory and among the best performing companies in the wireless, data communications and automotive space.

With three consecutive years of revenue growth, we believed the time was right this year to ask semiconductor business leaders about the stage and health of the current industry cycle. The responses provided three takeaways:

Our survey also asked respondents which segments of the industry will be most attractive for growth. Not surprisingly, sensors rated as the most attractive technology segment. They are becoming more widespread in a number of high growth applications, as the emphasis on the Internet of Things at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas demonstrated.

Semiconductor business leaders rated microprocessors and other logic next most attractive, followed by optoelectronics. Memory also scored well, riding the wave of increased storage needs and favorable supply-and-demand dynamics.

Medical topped the list of attractive end markets with major areas of opportunity such as imaging, health monitoring, and medical devices. Networking and communications rated high as well, with the ongoing investment in data center and communications infrastructure. Also highly rated were the consumer, computing, automotive, and industrial markets.

Go here to see the original:

Moores Law Chips Confidence

WaferApp makes file sharing as easy as a fist bump, when it works

If youre like us, you have files all over the place tablets, phones, computers, hard drives. Its never easy transferring and managing files between devices.Were oftenstuck sending emails to ourselves or waiting for an upload to Dropbox to sync just so we can download something on another device. A man named Pulkit Madan believes he has the missing key to moving files, and its calledWaferApp.

With WaferApp, file transfers are done in just a tap. To transfer files from your phone to computer, bumpthe phone against the spacebar. For phone to phone, it just takes a shake. You dont need a phone capable of fancy NFC transfers or anything.

To transfer files to your computer, bumpthe phone against the spacebar. For phone to phone, it just takes a shake.

Its the sensors in your smartphone that serve as the tollbooth, allowing photos, documents, and the like to move freely between devices as dictated. When the phone sensors feel the shake or tap, it sends the files you want to move up into the cloud. A matching algorithm waits for the green light of the motion-triggered command and quickly routes the incoming files to it. Once the file is on the second device, it remains until you remove it manually. Madan assured that the file is instantly removed from our cloud servers after the transfer is completed, so it doesnt remain floating in the ether for too long.

Related:How to send files from Android to Mac OS X

To make the whole process work, youll have to allow location information to be shared from your browser and in the app. We gather as much possible information from the browser about the location of the computer and same with the phone, and pair them up to complete the transfers, Madan explains.

This understandably may raise some privacy concerns. Aside from worrying about what data exactly is being gathered from the browser and device, data leaks are a fear. The files are moving between two trusted devices, but the possibility of another swooping in and snagging something of value persists when there isnt a clear indication that the connection is secure.

Madan believes WaferApp creates a tight enough connection to combat any worries. We have tried to make it as secure and accurate as possible and having been improving each day as the usage increases. We use an encryption system to encrypt files that you send using an RSA 2048 encryption. As far as the connection security is concerned we try our best to find the perfect match and in case it fails, we will ask you to tap or shake again. Its his hope that thisis enough to stop potential false positives that would result in datatransferring out of turn or to the wrong place

Related:Decrypt This: Professional-grade encryption for the average person

Make no mistake, WaferApp is still a work in progress. In our testing, the Android app crashed on several occasions and retrieving transferred files was not always as easy as promised. But for an app in the early stages of its existence, itspromising.

Here is the original post:

WaferApp makes file sharing as easy as a fist bump, when it works