It’s funny what you can find in a satellite image. Mike Gartley, a research scientist at Rochester Institute of Technology, spotted the Landsat 5 satellite lurking in a Landsat 8 image of northwestern Brazil. Landsat 5 once flew in the orbit that Landsat 8 now lives in. But in January 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey lowered […]
Orbital 1 Departure: Today, the Robotics Ground Controllers powered up the Mobile Servicing System (MSS) in the hot backup configuration for Cygnus unberthing and release. Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata and FE-3 Hopkins demated Cygnus from the Node 2 Nadir Active Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) and used the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to uninstall …
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Operations: Four CubeSats were successfully launched by JAXA Robotic Flight Controllers from NanoRacks CubSat Deployer (NRCSD) locations 4 and 5 on Saturday, February 15th. The commands to launch the CubeSats from these locations needed to be sent several times in order for the deployer doors to open. Previous attempts last week to …
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Deploys: Four additional CubeSats were deployed overnight from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers (NRCSDs) by JAXA Robotic Flight Controllers, for a total of 12 CubeSats launched this week. Unsuccessful attempts to launch from NRCSD locations 4 and 5 are under investigation by NASA NRCSD Teams. Additional attempts will be made to launch those …
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Deploys: After the failure to launch satellites from 2 NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers (NRCSDs) yesterday, Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) console teams were able to confirm from photographs taken by Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata that the push-pin assemblies on all NRCSDs located on the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) were in …
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Deploys: Following yesterday’s successful launch of four CubeSats, the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Remote Manipulator System (RMS) was used this morning to launch two more satellites. An unsuccessful attempt was made to launch additional satellites from deployers 3 and 5. Ground teams are investigating the anomaly. The remaining satellites in the NRCSDs …
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Deploys: Yesterday the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Remote Manipulator System (RMS) was used to move 8 NanoRacks CubSat Deployers (NRCSDs) from the JEM Airlock to the deploy position. These NRCSDs contain a total of 16 small cube satellites. Today JAXA Robotic Flight Controllers successfully deployed the first 4 CubeSats. The remaining satellites …
Cosmo Shoot Operation: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata set up JAXA’s Cosmo Shoot laptop and 4K camera in the Cupola and captured images of the US west coast, India and the Himalayas, Africa and South America. Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Resonant Inductive Near-field Generation System (RINGS): FE-6 Wakata integrated the RINGS hardware …
Update: Reddit AMA with Bill Cooke has been rescheduled to March 6 at 1 p.m. CST. NASA meteor and fireball experts Dr. Bill Cooke, Danielle Moser and Rhiannon Blaauw are participating in Reddit Ask Me Anything event on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014 at 1 p.m. CST on the Reddit “IAmA” forum. Reddit is a popular online …
