Trio of Radio Amateurs Returns to Earth from the ISS

Story courtesy of the ARRL website at http://www.arrl.org/news/trio-of-radio-amateurs-returns-to-earth-from-the-iss

 

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 47 crew members (NASA Photo)

Three radio amateurs who had been onboard the International Space Station (ISS) for a little more than 6 months landed safely back on Earth, touching down in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz transporter. Expedition 47 Commander Tim Kopra, KE5UDN; Flight Engineer Tim Peake, KG5BVI/GB1SS, and Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, undocked from the space station early on July 18 (the evening of Friday, July 17, in US time zones) in a Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft commanded by Malenchenko, after spending 186 days in space since arriving at the ISS in December. Kopra now has 244 days in space on two flights, while Peake, on his first mission, spent 186 days. Wrapping up his sixth mission, Malenchenko now has logged 828 cumulative days in space, making him second on the all-time list behind Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, RN3DT.

 

As the Soyuz undocked from the station, ISS Expedition 48 officially began under the command of Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. Williams and crewmates Oleg Skripochka, RN3FU, and Alexey Ovchinin will operate the station for 3 weeks until the arrival of the next crew increment. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, KG5FYJ; Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, and Takuya Onishi, KF5LKS, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are set to launch on July 6 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

 

“The crew completed the in-flight portion of NASA human research studies in ocular health, cognition, salivary markers, and microbiome,” NASA said. “From the potential development of vaccines, to data that could be relevant in the treatment of patients suffering from ocular diseases, such as glaucoma, the research will help NASA prepare for human long-duration exploration while also benefiting people on Earth.”

 

The three crew members were on hand on the ISS for the April arrival of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), an expandable habitat technology demonstration. The BEAM was attached to the space station and expanded to its full size for analysis over the next 2 years.

 

While onboard the ISS, Kopra and Peake scored some milestones for the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. On March 10, Kopra conducted the 1000th ARISS school group contact with students in North Dakota. Peake made use of Amateur Radio in his “Principia Mission” outreach, which aimed to directly engage students with communication technologies, inspiring them to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. During his time in space, Peake hosted 10 ARISS school group contacts, including the first to take advantage of the HamTV digital Amateur Radio television (DATV) system when he spoke with students on February 11 at a school in England. The DATV system in the Columbus module of the ISS allowed students at Royal Masonic School, home of GB1RSM, to see as well as listen, as Peake, operating as GB1SS, answered their questions about life in space.

 

Antares AJ-26 main engine failed earlier this year during Stennis testing

I find it very interesting that the engine that exploded during last night's Antares launch has had a checkered past including an explosion on one of the engine test stands back in May of this year at the NASA Stennis facility in Mississippi.

According to the story written by Chris Bergin at NASA spaceflight.com on May 22, 2014, "One of the AJ-26 engines set to launch with a future Antares rocket has failed during testing at the Stennis Space Center on Thursday. Sources claim the engine “exploded” on a Stand located in the E Complex at the famous rocket facility. The failure is currently under evaluation, although it may delay the next Antares launch that is tasked with lofting the ORB-2 Cygnus to the International Space Station (ISS)."
What makes this story even more interesting is that the Antares launch vehicle’s main engine is the Aerojet produced AJ-26 – a rebuilt version of Soviet NK-33, originally intended for the massive N-1 launch vehicle.

The tanking for the Antares was contracted to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau from the Ukraine. Yuzhnoye has extensive knowledge in producing kerosene rocket bodies as the producer of the Zenit launch vehicle.

You can read the complete story at http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/05/antares-aj-26-engine-fails-stennis-testing/

The Sounds of Interstellar Space

As Voyager 1 recedes from the solar system, researchers are hoping the spacecraft will beam back tones from plasma waves, a form of "interstellar music" that reveals conditions in the realm of the stars. Find out what deep space sounds like in a new video below from Science@NASA

 

 

 

Discovery flies for last time, ends chapter in aerospace history

A NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carrying the space shuttle Discovery performs a fly-by, April 17, 2012 at Joint Base Andrews, Md. The aircraft landed at Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Va., before its transfer to the National Air and Space Museum. Discovery completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles .(U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Katie Spencer)

Blog Editor Note: Those that follow me on my twitter account got quite a bit of timely monitoring info during this event. For future events along this line, be sure to follow me on my twitter account: @MilcomMP.

by Airman 1st Class Alexander W. Riedel, Defense Media Activity

FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (AFNS) -- After almost 27 years and 39 flights in Earth's orbit, the space shuttle Discovery arrived at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., April 17 on its way to its final resting place.

The last moments in the air for Discovery began at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., mounted on top of a modified Boeing 747. The retired spacecraft will take final residence in a hangar at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center April 19, in Chantilly, Va.

At its new home, Discovery will stand on the same spot the shuttle Enterprise occupied since the center's opening in 2003, according to Dr. Valerie Neal, the curator at the National Air and Space Museum. Unlike Discovery, Enterprise was only a test vehicle and was never used for space flight, making it a less significant artifact to experts. Therefore, it was moved to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York.

On duty since 1984, Discovery was the third orbiter that was built and is now the oldest shuttle remaining in the fleet.

"Because it started service so early, it flew all different types of missions shuttles were assigned," said Neal. "In our view, it's the champion of the shuttle fleet and really helps tell the story of the shuttle era."

Most visitors will be shocked by the immense size of the orbiter, which on TV often seemed dwarfed by its external tank and booster rockets, Neal said. Others may wonder about the shuttle's outer condition. Its exterior is well worn and the black tiles of its heat shield show the scars that earth's atmosphere inflicted.

"We asked NASA not to clean the exterior or repaint it," Neal said. "We wanted Discovery to be as it was after it flew its last mission."

Changes to the orbiters were minor, Neal said, but included required deinstallation of maneuvering pods, which contained traces of hazardous fuels, and the removal of the shuttle's main engines, which NASA is planning to reuse in the future.

As the shuttle takes its place among the Enola Gay and other iconic aircraft, it also puts a close to a chapter of Air Force history.

"The intention in the 1970s was to put all missions, civil and military, on the shuttle once it became operational," said Rick Sturdevant, the deputy director of history at the Air Force Space Command. "It was supposed to become the only launch vehicle for the U.S., but a lot of Air Force personnel doubted it was a good idea to put all of our eggs in one basket."

"However, as the shuttle approached, Air Force planning intensified with the construction of a shuttle launch complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and a Shuttle Operations and Planning Center at Shriever Air Force Base, Colo.," Sturdevant said. "One of the primary reasons for the creation of what was later to become Air Force Space Command was the intention of administrating and planning shuttle operations for the Department of Defense."

While much of these installations were never used to full capacity, the Air Force provided services, such as range support during launches and tracking of orbital debris in protection of the shuttle.

Sturdevant said he believes the shuttle caused Air Force leadership to think more operationally about space and what the Air Force could do to use space in support of war-fighting capabilities. The shuttle was supposed to become essential in transporting those war-fighting assets into orbit.

"For 30 years, it was the premier aerospace vehicle in the world," said Tom Jones, a former shuttle pilot. "It was the most complex machine ever built and had capabilities in space that have yet to be matched, thirty years after it came onto the scene."

The shuttle established a semblance of routine space flight, Neal said. Space flight seemed like it was no longer going to be extraordinary, but that it was becoming a normal enterprise of the United States.

Two of the originally five sister-ships were destroyed during operations. In 1986, Challenger exploded shortly after take-off, and in 2003, Columbia was torn apart during re-entry into earth's atmosphere. During both accidents, all seven crew members were lost.

"In many ways, the orbiter left a bitter taste in the mouth of many senior Air Force officials," said Dwayne Day, a senior program officer with the National Research Council. "It helped develop a number of important technologies, and delivered numerous important scientific and national security payloads."

But the military did not get as much out of the program as hoped, and stopped DoD shuttle operations after the Challenger tragedy.

"People died in very public ways," said Day, who worked on the Columbia accident investigation board in 2003. "There were no ejection seats, no escape pods," Day said. " If the vehicle was damaged, the crew was doomed. It was a bad situation."

"The shuttle educated the military about having a distributed way of getting into orbit," said Jones. "Challenger only exposed the vulnerability of having only one way of getting your payloads into space."

The Air Force quickly responded and broadened its base, said Jones.

"What the orbiter did gain for the military was cutting-edge experience on human operations in space," explained Jones. "Now, with the classified X 37, which is sort of a derivative of the shuttle, the Air Force is taking full advantage of the lessons learned."

It took a lot more maintenance than was anticipated, said Neal, and maintenance took a long time in between flights, so the shuttle never deployed as routinely as desired.

"It was a very expensive vehicle," said Day. "It was so expensive that it made it difficult to find funding to develop a replacement vehicle."

Retired Air Force Col. John Casper, a former shuttle pilot, said the shuttle lasting legacy will be its contribution to building the International Space Station.

"Sixteen different nations are involved, forming what is often called the largest international program since the cooperation of the Allies in WWII," said Casper. "Another legacy is the Hubble Space telescope, which the shuttle carried into orbit."

For Casper, the transition, from an Air Force squadron to the astronaut corps, was an easy one.

"There is real joy in working as a team and experience tremendous teamwork with people that are very dedicated, very much like it was the Air Force," said Casper about shuttle crews. "It was a talented, educated and disciplined team, that was very passionate about what they do."

Like many missions in the Air Force, shuttle operations called for precision, professionalism and complete immersion in the job, said Jones.

Memories of experiences with the shuttles will always stay with the astronauts, they said.

"To look down onto our home - this great, beautiful planet - was very fulfilling," said Jones. "It is so lovely that tears came to your eyes when you get a chance to reflect upon what you are seeing."

For Casper, flying the shuttle was unlike anything possible on earth.

"The shuttle was not like a fighter. The only time you really flew it like a plane was the landing," said Casper. "And then it could only glide back to earth. There was no way to try the landing again - you only got one chance."

After the Columbia accident, Casper became NASA's Mishap Investigation Team's deputy for the debris recovery operation. While the nation was in shock, he said he lost friends.

"The community of astronauts is very small. We all know each other. Some even flew together in the Air Force," said Casper. "I guess it was also in the Air Force that you find out what happened, try to correct the problem and get back to the mission."

"You can't let it stop you," said Casper. "You can't stop flying planes in the Air Force and you can't stop exploring in space."

But the shuttle mission is over and new technology is needed to move onto bigger and better things, said Casper. But a certain sadness remains for the astronaut and space enthusiasts alike.

"Most shuttles have about 25 to 35 flights," said Casper. "But they were built for 100 flights each. So they're in pristine shape."

Thinking that the shuttles were old and decrepit is a common misconception, said Neal.

"The fleet has, in fact, been constantly updated, to the point that the shuttles that flew in 2011 were hardly the same as in 1984," said Neal. "It was the same airframe, but a lot of the technology inside was new," said Neal.

For Casper, now an assistant for program integration for NASA's Orion program, a strong space program is an essential political and military tool of the future, he said.
"Venturing into space is a demonstration to the world that we have the ability and the will to do so," he said. "It is a necessary extension of aerospace power and the Air Force's mission."

One important mission for the shuttle will continue even at the museum - it will continue to inspire.

"Seeing the U.S. Flag hanging on the hangar wall behind the shuttle, just like it did when it was in its assembly and servicing hangar, you realize that the shuttle is an icon for the United States," Neal said.

Neal's team wanted to make the arrival at the museum as accessible as possible, she said. The transfer from NASA was free to the museum and seeing the shuttle will be free to the public -after all it was the public that has supported and financed the shuttle program all along, Neal insisted.

"This is the spacecraft of your generation, it is an American icon." said Neal. "If you never made it to a launch or landing, you really owe it to yourself to see how the U.S. went into space during your lifetime. Come and take pride and ownership in it."

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is located a few miles south of Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. It is open from 10:00 am - 5:30 pm seven days a week, with the exception of Christmas Day. Admission is free, parking is available for a $15 fee.

The last flight of the space shuttle Discovery flies over Joint Base Andrews, Md. on April 17, 2012. Discovery piggy -backed a ride on a jumbo 747 from NASA KTTS Landing Facility (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Sophia Piellusch)

Wallops Launched Cancelled for Tonight

Thanks to my old friend Keith Stein and the Scan-DC listserv:

NASA has scrubbed tonight's launch attempt for the ATREX mission
because of a payload problem. Next attempt no earlier than Friday night.

Mission information:
http://www.examiner.com/dc-in-washington-dc/video-nasa-studies-earth-s-high-altitude-super-wind-from-virginia

Details on Tonight's Five ATREX/Cloud Release Launches from Wallops

Courtesy of Cmdr Jaycee and the Seesat-L listserv

For those along the US East Coast, NASA is planning to launch five Terrier - Malemute sounding rockets over a five minute span tonight (sometime between midnight to 1:30 AM, EDT) from Wallops Island, Virginia.

"As part the mission, the five rockets will release a chemical tracer that will form milky, white clouds that allow scientists and the public to “see” the winds in space. These clouds may be visible for up to 20 minutes by residents from South Carolina to southern New Hampshire and Vermont."

For more, see:

NASA Jet Stream Study Will Light up The Night Sky
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex-nightlight.html

NASA - Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex.html

NASA to Launch 5 Rockets to Study Jet Stream | ATREX Mission | Space.com
http://www.space.com/14792-nasa-5-rocket-launches-edge-space.html

Draconid Meteor Outburst

Oct. 4, 2011: On October 8th Earth is going to plow through a stream of dust from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, and the result could be an outburst of Draconid meteors.

"We're predicting as many as 750 meteors per hour," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "The timing of the shower favors observers in the Middle East, north Africa and parts of Europe."

Every 6.6 years Comet Giacobini-Zinner swings through the inner solar system. With each visit, it lays down a narrow filament of dust, over time forming a network of filaments that Earth encounters every year in early October.

"Most years, we pass through gaps between filaments, maybe just grazing one or two as we go by," says Cooke. "Occasionally, though, we hit one nearly head on--and the fireworks begin."

2011 could be such a year. Forecasters at NASA and elsewhere agree that Earth is heading for three or more filaments on October 8th. Multiple encounters should produce a series of variable outbursts beginning around 1600 Universal Time (noon EDT) with the strongest activity between 1900 and 2100 UT (3:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT).

Forecasters aren't sure how strong the display will be, mainly because the comet had a close encounter with Jupiter in the late 1880s. At that time, the giant planet's gravitational pull altered the comet's orbit and introduced some uncertainty into the location of filaments it has shed since then. Competing models place the filaments in slightly different spots; as a result, estimated meteor rates range from dozens to hundreds per hour.

One respected forecaster, Paul Wiegert of the University of Western Ontario, says the meteor rate could go as high as 1000 per hour -- the definition of a meteor storm. It wouldn't be the first time. Close encounters with dusty filaments produced storms of more than 10,000 Draconids per hour in 1933 and 1946 and lesser outbursts in 1985, 1998, and 2005.

Meteors from Comet Giacobini-Zinner stream out of the northern constellation Draco--hence their name. Draconids are among the slowest of all meteors, hitting the atmosphere at a relatively leisurely 20 km/s. The slow pace of Draconid meteors minimizes their danger to satellites and spacecraft and makes them visually distinctive.

"A Draconid gliding leisurely across the sky is a beautiful sight," says Cooke.

Unfortunately, many of this year's Draconids will go unseen. Draconids are faint to begin with, and this year they have to complete with an almost-full Moon. Lunar glare will reduce the number of meteors visible from Europe, Africa and the Middle East by 2- to 10-fold. The situation is even worse in North America where the shower occurs in broad daylight—completely obliterating the display.

That isn't stopping a group1 of middle school and high school students from Bishop, California, however. They plan to observe the shower from the stratosphere where the sky is dark even at noontime.

Led by Science@NASA's Tony Phillips, the 15 students have been launching helium balloons to the edge of space since May of 2011. With more than 95% of Earth’s atmosphere below the balloon, the sky above looks almost as black as it would from a spacecraft—perfect for astronomy.

"The students are going to attempt to fly one of our low-light meteor cameras in the payload of their balloon," says Cooke. "I hope they catch some Draconid fireballs for us to analyze. They could be the only ones we get."

Stay tuned for results after Oct. 8th.

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Merritt Island Launch Annex had little known -- but important -- launch role

CAPE CANAVERAL — For 45 years, an unassuming tracking station tucked behind Kennedy Space Center provided critical data, telemetry and voice communication links to hundreds of launching rockets, circling satellites and landing shuttles.

But the station known as MILA -- short for Merritt Island Launch Annex -- supported its last mission this month with shuttle Atlantis' launch and safe return.

In a ceremony Thursday morning, NASA officially decommissioned the aging facility before some components are salvaged for other sites and the rest is demolished.

You can read the rest of the copyrighted article at: Florida Today article

Wallops P-3B Supporting Air Pollution Study

Editor Note: For my friends in the Mid-Atlantic, this aircraft has been flying quite a bit lately. Should be NASA 426, a P-3B (N426NA/A51316), based at Wallops Island. Thanks to Ron Perron for the heads up.

Although the nation’s air has grown significantly cleaner in recent decades, about 40 percent of Americans – 127 million people – live in counties where pollution levels still regularly exceed national air quality standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Most of the areas with the heaviest pollution are in California, but other parts of the country are anything but immune. On the drive down I-95 between Baltimore and Washington D.C., for example, sweltering summer heat and relentless traffic often leave plumes of polluted air stewing over the highway making the area one of the top 20 smoggiest metro areas in the country.

Come July, all that health-sapping pollution will have company: a 117-foot P-3B NASA research aircraft flying spirals over six ground stations in Maryland. The aircraft is part of a month-long field campaign designed to improve satellite measurements of air pollution.

The name of the experiment -- Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER -- AQ) -- is a mouthful, but its purpose is simple.

“We’re trying fill the knowledge gap that severely limits our ability to monitor air pollution with satellites,” said James Crawford, the campaign’s principal investigator and a scientist based at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

The fundamental challenge for satellites measuring air quality is to distinguish between pollution near the surface and pollution higher in the atmosphere. Measurements from aircraft, in combination with ground-based measurements, offer a key perspective that makes such distinctions easier to make.

Twelve to fourteen flights are planned throughout July using two primary planes. The P-3B, a four-engine turboprop that returned recently from a deployment to the Arctic, will carry a suite of nine instruments, while a smaller two-engine UC-12 will carry two instruments.

Both aircraft will measure the colorless gas ozone and a mixture of soot and other substances known as particulate matter. Other instruments on the P-3B will measure pollutants that lead to the formation of ozone such as nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde. A third aircraft, a Cessna operated by the University of Maryland, will also participate in the campaign.

While the UC-12 will cruise at high-altitudes -- about 26,000 feet -- the P-3B will fly corkscrew patterns over six ground stations in Maryland that will bring the plane from its highest altitude of about 15,500 feet to as low as 1,000 feet from the surface.

Sampling will focus on an area extending from Beltsville, Md., in the southwest to the northeastern corner of Maryland in a pattern that follows major traffic corridors, overflies ground measurement sites operated by the Maryland Department of the Environment, and observes conditions over the northern Chesapeake Bay.

The two instruments aboard the UC-12 will look down at the surface, much like a satellite instrument might, and measure particles and trace gases. The P-3B, in contrast, will sample the air it flies through, allowing it to take samples from a variety of altitudes.

The July flights are the first leg of a broader five-year campaign that will bring the aircraft to Houston and other polluted regions during upcoming years.

Measuring Health-Sapping Particles From Above

Overall, the World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes some 2 million premature deaths globally per year. Pollutants can spark a whole range of diseases including asthma, cardiovascular disease, and bronchitis.

Since many countries, including the United States, have large gaps in ground-based networks of air pollution monitors, experts look toward satellites to provide a global perspective. Satellites have attempted to collect information about the main air pollutants that affect human health for more than a decade, yet they have struggled to achieve accurate measurements of the pollutants in the air near the surface – the air people actually breathe.

The problem: Most satellite instruments can't distinguish pollution close to the ground from that high in the atmosphere. In addition, clouds can block the view. And bright land surfaces, such as snow, desert sand, and those found in certain urban areas can mar measurements.

“We’re better with some pollutants than others, but broadly speaking we have difficulty distinguishing between pollutants high in a given column of air, which we can see quite well with satellites, and pollutants at the surface,” said Kenneth Pickering, DISCOVER-AQ’s project scientist.

As a result, questions remain about the vertical distribution of pollutants. How far up in the atmosphere are morning and evening spikes in pollution associated with rush hour noticeable? How does ozone, which peaks near the surface in afternoon, behave at other altitudes throughout the day? When is the best time of the day for satellites to measure various pollutants?

The problem is particularly pronounced for pollutants that are abundant at the surface and higher in the atmosphere. For example, a “code red” air-quality day during the summer might produce very high concentrations of ozone in the bottom few kilometers of the atmosphere, yet generate a change of a mere 1 or 2 percent to a total column of ozone.

Studies suggest that discrepancies of as much as 30 to 50 percent exist between estimates of ground nitrogen dioxide inferred from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), an instrument on NASA’s Aura satellite launched in 2004, and measurements from ground-based instruments.

A Three Dimensional Picture

DISCOVER – AQ will address such problems by helping researchers develop a three-dimensional view of how air pollutants are distributed and move between different levels of the atmosphere throughout the day.

A phalanx of ground-based instruments will offer a critical view of the same patches of air the aircraft are monitoring from above. While NASA sponsors certain ground instruments, other institutions including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Maryland Department of the Environment, Howard University, and Pennsylvania State University manage the instruments at the ground stations.

One of the stations at Edgewood in Maryland is particularly well-suited for monitoring how sea breezes that blow in from the Chesapeake Bay and trap pollutants over land contribute to some of the most severe ozone problems in Maryland, noted Anne Thompson, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University.

It’s rare for researchers to have an opportunity to use such an array of instruments at once. “It’s not just one instrument that’s most important – it’s really the combination of all of them that makes this campaign valuable,” said Jennifer Hains, a research statistician with the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Scientists will use information collected during the DISCOVER-AQ campaign to improve measurements from existing satellites and to help establish parameters for future NASA satellite missions that will monitor air quality.

“Achieving better measurements of the column at a variety of altitudes is critical to connecting what’s happening at the surface to what we’re seeing from above with satellites,” said Scott Janz, a scientist based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Future satellites could play a key role in helping communities meet national air-quality standards. Though ozone and PM2.5 have declined in recent decades across the nation, many areas, including the entire Baltimore-Washington region, still frequently experience days in which air pollution levels exceed standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Over the last five years, for example, Maryland has exceeded ozone standards on average 36 days per year and exceeded PM2.5 standards on average 10 days per year, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. Last year, ozone proved particularly potent and Maryland exceeded ozone standards on 43 ozone days.

Researchers Crack the Mystery of the Missing Sunspots

Maybe we finally have some answers to the prolonged Solar Cycle 23 minimum. Below is from the NASA Science website relased this afternoon.

When solar activity recently plunged into a century-class minimum, many experts were puzzled. Now a group of researchers say they have cracked the mystery of the missing sunspots. Read the full story at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/02mar_spotlesssun/

Next Shuttle launch Set for April 5

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2010/02/nasa-targets-april-5-launch-date-for.shtml

NASA is targeting the launch of Discovery on its next shuttle mission to the International Space Station for April 5, a day after a new crew is scheduled to arrive at the outpost aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Discovery and seven astronauts would blast off from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 6:27 a.m. that day, the middle of a 10-minute, predawn opportunity to put the shuttle on course for a two-day trip to the station.

Discovery had been set to launch March 18. But unusually cold weather, which can damage shuttle steering thrusters, has prevented NASA from moving the orbiter from its processing hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

NASA retires 'queen' of tracking satellite fleet

Article by STEPHEN CLARK on SPACEFLIGHT NOW

More than a quarter-century after a hard-luck launch aboard the shuttle Challenger, the pioneer of NASA's constellation of tracking and communications satellites is being retired from service.

Named TDRS 1, the satellite's last traveling wave tube amplifier recently failed, rendering the craft unable to support most of its users' Ku-band data relay and telemetry needs, according to Roger Flaherty, the Space Network project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

"We are going to relocate TDRS 1 and that relocation process will start on or about the 21st of October," Flaherty said.

TDRS 1 is currently located in a geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles above Earth. At that altitude, satellites' orbits match the speed of Earth's rotation, causing spacecraft to hover over a specific geographic region.

Now positioned at 49 degrees west longitude, TDRS 1 will soon be moved to a nearby temporary slot for final decommissioning activities, according to NASA.

Read the rest of the whole copyrighted story at http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0910/13tdrs/

Are Sunspots Disappearing?

Another day with a spotless sun.

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. The quiet has dragged out for more than two years, prompting some observers to wonder, are sunspots disappearing?

"Personally, I'm betting that sunspots are coming back," says researcher Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona. But, he allows, "there is some evidence that they won't."

Penn's colleague Bill Livingston of the NSO has been measuring the magnetic fields of sunspots for the past 17 years, and he has found a remarkable trend. Sunspot magnetism is on the decline.

"Sunspot magnetic fields are dropping by about 50 gauss per year," says Penn. "If we extrapolate this trend into the future, sunspots could completely vanish around the year 2015."

This disappearing act is possible because sunspots are made of magnetism. The "firmament" of a sunspot is not matter but rather a strong magnetic field that appears dark because it blocks the upflow of heat from the sun's interior. If Earth lost its magnetic field, the solid planet would remain intact, but if a sunspot loses its magnetism, it ceases to exist.

"According to our measurements, sunspots seem to form only if the magnetic field is stronger than about 1500 gauss," says Livingston. "If the current trend continues, we'll hit that threshold in the near future, and solar magnetic fields would become too weak to form sunspots."

"This work has caused a sensation in the field of solar physics," comments NASA sunspot expert David Hathaway, who is not directly involved in the research. "It's controversial stuff."

The controversy is not about the data. "We know Livingston and Penn are excellent observers," says Hathaway. "The trend that they have discovered appears to be real." The part colleagues have trouble believing is the extrapolation. Hathaway notes that most of their data were taken after the maximum of Solar Cycle 23 (2000-2002) when sunspot activity naturally began to decline. "The drop in magnetic fields could be a normal aspect of the solar cycle and not a sign that sunspots are permanently vanishing."

Penn himself wonders about these points. "Our technique is relatively new and the data stretches back in time only 17 years. We could be observing a temporary downturn that will reverse itself."

The technique they're using was pioneered by Livingston at the McMath-Pierce solar telescope near Tucson. He looks at a spectral line emitted by iron atoms in the sun's atmosphere. Sunspot magnetic fields cause the line to split in two—an effect called "Zeeman splitting" after Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman who discovered the phenomenon in the 19th century. The size of the split reveals the intensity of the magnetism.

Astronomers have been measuring sunspot magnetic fields in this general way for nearly a century, but Livingston added a twist. While most researchers measure the splitting of spectral lines in the visible part of the sun's spectrum, Livingston decided to try an infra-red spectral line. Infrared lines are much more sensitive to the Zeeman effect and provide more accurate answers. Also, he dedicated himself to measuring a large number of sunspots—more than 900 between 1998 and 2005 alone. The combination of accuracy and numbers revealed the downturn.

If sunspots do go away, it wouldn't be the first time. In the 17th century, the sun plunged into a 70-year period of spotlessness known as the Maunder Minimum that still baffles scientists. The sunspot drought began in 1645 and lasted until 1715; during that time, some of the best astronomers in history (e.g., Cassini) monitored the sun and failed to count more than a few dozen sunspots per year, compared to the usual thousands.

"Whether [the current downturn] is an omen of long-term sunspot decline, analogous to the Maunder Minimum, remains to be seen," Livingston and Penn caution in a recent issue of EOS. "Other indications of solar activity suggest that sunspots must return in earnest within the next year."

Whatever happens, notes Hathaway, "the sun is behaving in an interesting way and I believe we're about to learn something new."

Next-gen spacecraft stops at Holloman

NASA's next generation of manned spacecraft leaves Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. Aug. 21 enroute to White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The module was escorted on base by 49th Security Forces Squadron Airmen and off base by officers from the New Mexico State Police and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety Motor Transportation Division along with deputies from the Otero County Sheriff's Department. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Michael Means)

HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) -- NASA's next generation of a manned-spacecraft made a stop at Holloman AFB on its way to White Sands Missile Range, N.M. where launch abort tests will be performed.

The Orion Program's Pad Abort One Crew Module arrived here Aug. 19 via a C-17 Globemaster III and left aboard a tractor-trailer Aug. 21 for WSMR. The crew module has a launch abort system used to for the crew to escape from the launch rocket should something go wrong on the pad or during the ascent to orbit.

Holloman AFB was a vital stop because of the base's close proximity to WSMR and its ability to receive aircraft with heavy cargo.

"It would have been pretty much impossible to get this capsule out here if we were unable to land at Holloman," said Jeff Doughty, the Pad Abort One Flight Test Vehicle crew chief.

The base's reliable support also helped in the decision to bring the module through here.

"We've received excellent support from (Holloman)," said David McAllister, the Dryden Flight Research Center lead of operations for the abort flight test. "We feel like we're at home when we're here."

Holloman AFB was just one leg in the spacecraft's journey to WSMR. It was built at NASA Langley, Va., and flown to Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., to have the avionics and instrumentation installed. When installation was complete, the spacecraft was flown to Holloman AFB, then driven to to its final destination at a launch site on WSMR for testing.

Mr. Doughty said the module is going to WSMR to demonstrate that it can be taken away from the launch pad, ensuring astronauts can get away from the pad in the event of an emergency.

Billed as the shuttle replacement program for NASA, the Orion Program is designed to take the next generation of astronauts to space.

NASA is expecting the Orion to be sent into orbit toward the end of 2014 or early 2015.

Space Station Marathon

If you've never seen a spaceship with your own eyes, now's your chance.

The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. No matter where you live, you should have at least a few opportunities to see the biggest spaceship ever built.

Check NASA's ISS Tracker for flyby times at your location.

The ISS has been under construction for nearly 11 years, and it has grown very large and very bright. The station is now more than 350 ft wide (wider than a football field), has 12,600 cubic feet of labs and living quarters, and on Earth would weigh about 670,000 lb. Sunlight illuminating the massive outpost makes it shine fifteen times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

Sometimes it is even brighter than that. Sunlight glinting from the station's flat surfaces (mainly solar arrays) produce dazzling flares as much as six hundred times brighter than Sirius. For astronomers: On the scale of visual magnitudes, space station flares register -8.

"The station flared spectacularly on May 22nd when it passed over my backyard observatory in the Netherlands," reports amateur astronomer Quintus Oostendorp. "I knew the ISS was coming, so I had my telescope ready and I was able see exactly what happened."

At present, the flares are unpredictable. No one knows when they will happen or exactly how bright they will be. Any given flyby could be interrupted by one — and that's what makes the watch so much fun.

The marathon of space station flybys won't stop until mid-to-late July (depending on your location). That gives space shuttle Endeavour, currently scheduled to launch on July 11th, time to reach the space station and join the show. As the shuttle approaches station for docking, many observers will witness a memorable double flyby — Endeavour and the ISS sailing side by side across the starry night sky.

Endeavour is on yet another space station construction mission. This time it will deliver a "space porch" to be added to Japan's Kibo science laboratory module. The porch is not a place where astronauts can sit, relax and watch the stars drift by (although that is not a bad idea); it is a science platform. When an experiment needs to be exposed to the hard vacuum or energetic radiation of space, it can placed outside on the porch to take advantage of the space station's unique research environment. The official name of the porch is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and it will add its own small contribution to the station's reflected luminosity in the night sky.

What now? Check for flyby times, ready your telescope (optional), and let the sightings begin.

Both of my binoculars are at the ready and I look forward to catching the ISS crossing our mountain skies.

For my local office here is a list of ISS passes over southwest North Carolina (obs based on a Murphy NC viewing site).

SATELLITE LOCAL DURATION MAX ELEV APPROACH DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

ISS Sun Jul 05/05:53 AM 2 24 10 above NNW 24 above NNE
ISS Mon Jul 06/10:41 PM 6 54 10 above WSW 10 above NE
ISS Tue Jul 07/05:07 AM 5 26 10 above NNW 11 above E
ISS Tue Jul 07/09:31 PM 5 33 11 above SSW 11 above ENE
ISS Tue Jul 07/11:07 PM 4 17 10 above WNW 10 above NNE
ISS Wed Jul 08/05:31 AM 5 74 10 above NW 12 above SE
ISS Wed Jul 08/09:55 PM 5 50 10 above WSW 12 above NE
ISS Thu Jul 09/04:21 AM 5 28 10 above NNW 10 above E
ISS Thu Jul 09/05:56 AM 4 16 10 above W 10 above S
ISS Thu Jul 09/10:23 PM 1 15 15 above NNW 11 above N
ISS Fri Jul 10/04:49 AM 1 30 30 above SSE 12 above SE
ISS Sat Jul 11/09:38 PM 1 14 14 above NNW 10 above N

Tracking Resources
NASA http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/
Heaven's Above http://heavens-above.com/
Simple Flybys http://spaceweather.com/flybys

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips Credit: Science@NASA

Mystery of the Missing Sunspots, Solved?

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

The sun is in the pits of a century-class solar minimum, and sunspots have been puzzlingly scarce for more than two years. Now, for the first time, solar physicists might understand why.

At an American Astronomical Society press conference today in Boulder, Colorado, researchers announced that a jet stream deep inside the sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots.

Rachel Howe and Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, used a technique called helioseismology to detect and track the jet stream down to depths of 7,000 km below the surface of the sun. The sun generates new jet streams near its poles every 11 years, they explained to a room full of reporters and fellow scientists. The streams migrate slowly from the poles to the equator and when a jet stream reaches the critical latitude of 22 degrees, new-cycle sunspots begin to appear.



Above: A helioseismic map of the solar interior. Tilted red-yellow bands trace solar jet streams. Black contours denote sunspot activity. When the jet streams reach a critical latitude around 22 degrees, sunspot activity intensifies. [larger image] [more graphics]

Howe and Hill found that the stream associated with the next solar cycle has moved sluggishly, taking three years to cover a 10 degree range in latitude compared to only two years for the previous solar cycle.

The jet stream is now, finally, reaching the critical latitude, heralding a return of solar activity in the months and years ahead.

"It is exciting to see", says Hill, "that just as this sluggish stream reaches the usual active latitude of 22 degrees, a year late, we finally begin to see new groups of sunspots emerging."

The current solar minimum has been so long and deep, it prompted some scientists to speculate that the sun might enter a long period with no sunspot activity at all, akin to the Maunder Minimum of the 17th century. This new result dispells those concerns. The sun's internal magnetic dynamo is still operating, and the sunspot cycle is not "broken."

Because it flows beneath the surface of the sun, the jet stream is not directly visible. Hill and Howe tracked its hidden motions via helioseismology. Shifting masses inside the sun send pressure waves rippling through the stellar interior. So-called "p modes" (p for pressure) bounce around the interior and cause the sun to ring like an enormous bell. By studying the vibrations of the sun's surface, it is possible to figure out what is happening inside. Similar techniques are used by geologists to map the interior of our planet.

In this case, researchers combined data from GONG and SOHO. GONG, short for "Global Oscillation Network Group," is an NSO-led network of telescopes that measures solar vibrations from various locations around Earth. SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, makes similar measurements from space.

"This is an important discovery," says Dean Pesnell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "It shows how flows inside the sun are tied to the creation of sunspots and how jet streams can affect the timing of the solar cycle."

There is, however, much more to learn.

"We still don't understand exactly how jet streams trigger sunspot production," says Pesnell. "Nor do we fully understand how the jet streams themselves are generated."

To solve these mysteries, and others, NASA plans to launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) later this year. SDO is equipped with sophisticated helioseismology sensors that will allow it to probe the solar interior better than ever before.

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on SDO will improve our understanding of these jet streams and other internal flows by providing full disk images at ever-increasing depths in the sun," says Pesnell.

Continued tracking and study of solar jet streams could help researchers do something unprecedented--accurately predict the unfolding of future solar cycles. Stay tuned for that!

NASA TV on DishNet

Loren, WA7SKT posted the following on the Hearsat newsgroup:

NASA TV on DishNet in U.S. is no longer available without subscription to programming. This is not due to difference in method of transmission of video and audio, but due to an upgrade of the smart card to combat piracy. NASA TV can still be viewed from the DishNet satellite with an FTA receiver, but no longer with an unscribed DishNet receiver.

Thanks Loren

STEREO Reveals the Anatomy of a Solar Storm in 3D

By Donna McKinney, Naval Research Laboratory, Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Observations from NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft have allowed scientists to reveal for the first time the speed, trajectory, and 3-D shape of solar explosions known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

CMEs are powerful eruptions of plasma and magnetic energy from the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. When these sudden outbursts are directed toward Earth, they can have both breathtakingly beautiful and potentially damaging effects.

"We can now see a CME from the time it leaves the solar surface until it reaches Earth, and we can reconstruct the event in 3-D directly from the images," said Angelos Vourlidas, a solar physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and project scientist for the NRL-led Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) aboard STEREO.

The NRL team has always been a leader in CME research, beginning with the initial discovery by an NRL-built telescope in 1971 (OSO-7). The CME phenomenon was explored in more detail by another NRL-led experiment (P78-1/Solwind) in the 1980s, resulting in the discovery of the characteristic signature (a halo) of Earth-directed CMEs, as well as the association to interplanetary shocks. Then in 1995, the NRL-led LASCO experiment was launched, with greatly increased sensitivity enabling routine observations of Earth-directed CMEs, firmly establishing the solar origin of space weather events.

"The evolution in imaging capability since the discovery in 1971 to now is just astounding. It took 44 minutes to read out the 256x256 pixel image (worse than most cell phone images), whereas now it takes a few seconds to read out the current 2048x2048 pixel image," said Russ Howard, a solar physicist at NRL and principal investigator of the LASCO and SECCHI experiments.

Until now, CMEs were observed near the sun but the next measurements had to wait until the CME arrived at Earth three to seven days later. STEREO's ability to continuously image a CME from its explosive birth to arrival at Earth is the first time this has been achieved and represents a significant advance. Three-dimensional tracking of an evolving CME is critical to determining its structure and predicting if and how it will affect Earth.

STEREO consists of two nearly identical observatories that make simultaneous observations of CMEs from two different vantage points. One observatory "leads" Earth in its orbit around the sun, while the other observatory "trails" the planet.

"The larger the separation between the spacecraft, the larger the structures we can examine," said Vourlidas.

Using the SECCHI telescopes, solar physicists can examine a CME's structure, velocity, mass, and direction in the corona and track it through interplanetary space. Such measurements can help determine when a CME will reach Earth, at what speed and how much energy it will deliver to Earth's magnetosphere.

CMEs carry billions of tons of plasma into space at thousands of miles per hour. This plasma — which carries some of the magnetic field from the corona with it — can create a large, moving disturbance in space that also produces a shock wave. The shock can accelerate some of the surrounding particles to high energies, a form of "solar cosmic rays" that can be hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts. The shock and CME material, which arrive days later, can produce disruptive space weather during and following their interaction with Earth's magnetosphere and upper atmosphere.

The seriousness of the effects depends on the size and speed of the CME when it arrives at Earth. These sun storms can interfere with communications between ground controllers and satellites, pilots flying near Earth's poles and astronauts on the International Space Station. Radio noise from the storm can also disrupt cell phone service. Disturbances in the ionosphere related to CMEs can affect Global Positioning System navigation and, in extreme cases, induced currents in long cables and transformers on the ground can cause power outages.

The STEREO mission employs two nearly identical observatories to provide 3-D measurements of the sun to study the nature of coronal mass ejections. STEREO is the third mission in NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program.

Story at
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=44798

NASA story at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/solarstorm3D.html

NASA Gives a Go for for Hubble Service Mission

To help you monitor this Space Shuttle mission and other NASA communications you can download our exclusive Monitoring NASA and Space Shuttle Communications document at http://www.monitoringtimes.com/Monitoring%20NASA%20and%20Space%20Communications.pdf.

NASA managers completed a review Thursday of space shuttle Atlantis’ readiness for flight and selected an official launch date for the STS-125 mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Commander Scott Altman and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 2:01 p.m. EDT (1801 UTC), May 11, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Atlantis’ launch date was announced following Thursday’s Flight Readiness Review. During the meeting, top NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle’s equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.

Atlantis’ 11-day mission will include five spacewalks to refurbish Hubble with state-of-the-art science instruments. After the astronauts’ visit, the telescope’s capabilities will be expanded and its lifetime extended through at least 2014.

Commander Altman will be joined on the mission by Pilot Gregory C. Johnson and Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Megan McArthur and Mike Massimino. The spacewalkers are Feustel, Good, Grunsfeld and Massimino. McArthur is the flight engineer and lead for robotic arm operations.

For more information about the STS-125 crew and its mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

NASA's Orion Capsule Built and Tested at NSWC Carderock

WEST BETHESDA, Md. (NNS) -- Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock Division engineers, along with a NASA test and evaluation team are conducting initial Post-Landing Orion Recovery Test(PORT) operations, March 23-27.

The team will test a full-scale model of NASA's Orion space capsule at Carderock's pentagon-shaped test pond.

The model, measuring 16.5 feet in diameter and weighing 18,000 pounds, was built by NSWC Carderock in its model fabrication facility. The area is primarily used for Navy ship and submarine model design, fabrication, mission test support, and specialized manufacturing services using computer aided numerically controlled machines, programming, stereolithography, manufacturing, wood and composite material fabrication.

NSWC Carderock, a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command, also uses its model fabrication facility to design ships and systems that are both "state of the art" and easily upgradable.

The PORT objective is to determine what the environment will be like for the astronaut and recovery crews at landing, and incorporate those lessons into the spacecraft design.

The Carderock test pond provides a controlled environment for NASA space crew recovery personnel and 920th Air Wing's Para Rescue Divers for familiarization diving before testing procedures in the uncontrolled waters of the Atlantic Ocean during the week of Apr. 6.

"Divers were in the water March 25, practicing attaching flotation collars," said Richard Banko, Carderock lead engineer and principle Navy-NASA test coordinator. "We're currently testing opening and closing the hatch with the flotation collars in place and then we're going to do night testing, and conduct these evolutions all over again without natural lighting, using only the diver's lighting."

After completing diver familiarization, the crew module will be transported to the National Mall in Washington for display at the National Air and Space Museum.

Alan Rhodes, NASA's Constellation Program Test and Verification officer, had high praise for the quality of work NSWC Carderock personnel provided for their Orion project.

"The Carderock team has gone far above and beyond our expectations in support of this project that I'm almost at a loss for words of praise," said Rhodes. "When you look at where we started planning a year and a half ago, and look at the finished crew model, and its water testing, it's truly amazing how well this model was built, how well it fits within the tolerances we've asked for it."

Carderock engineers and researchers will also participate in the testing when the model is transported to sea and launched by NASA's space shuttle solid rocket booster recovery ship. The team will quantify the seakeeping characteristics of the mock-up.

"It's a test model we will use for years to come, and we have the right team from Carderock to thank for it," said Rhodes.