A bright fireball was detected at extreme range (hundreds of kilometers) by two NASA meteor cameras located at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in North Carolina, and at Hiram College in Ohio. At such distances (286 miles in the case of the PARI camera), trajectory determination is quite difficult. The fireball was first detected on …
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Closeout Operations: Today, Flight Engineer (FE) 6 Wakata and FE-3 Hopkins closed out the Nanorack Cubesat Deployer (NRCSD) operations. This morning the slide table was moved from the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock into the JEM Pressurized Module (JPM). Later, the crew removed the empty Nanoracks Cubesat Deployers (NRCSDs) and Multi-Purpose Experiment …
This is not a mine, military base, salt farm, or solar plant. As explained in our March 2, 2014, Image of the Day, this is a date orchard near the Orange River in Northern Cape, South Africa. Thanks to all of you who weighed in our February 2014 puzzler. Reader JMR was first to identify […]
Every mission has its little offerings to fate to back up the hard work and attention to detail that goes into prepping for launch. While in Japan, the GPM team adopted the Japanese custom of coloring in one eye of a Daruma doll. I first encountered it when visiting the support control room for the […]
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Operations: Overnight the final 7 CubeSats were successfully launched by JAXA Robotic Flight Controllers from two NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers (NRCSDs). Two Dove CubeSats and ArduSat-2, LitSat-1, LituanicaSat-1, UaPSat-1, and SkyCube CubeSats were launched. A total of 17 CubeSats have been deployed from the NRCSDs this week. The NRCSDs and Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform …
Launches are something special and this one was was spectacular. We were 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the launch pad, the absolute minimum safe distance at the Takesaki Observation Stand. The roof doubles as a tiered deck, and lined up at every available railing was a tripod and a camera. Since we had arrived a […]
On February 27, 2014, we published an Image of the Day of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite soaring above Tanegashima Space Center like a candle in the sky. However, that wasn’t the only spectacular photograph of the night launch that chief NASA photographer Bill Ingalls (@ingallsimages) captured. I collected a few of my favorites below, and […]
Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Operations: Four more CubeSats were successfully launched overnight by JAXA Robotic Flight Controllers from two NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers (NRCSDs). The remaining 7 CubeSats will be deployed overnight. CubeSat format satellites are launched from the ISS for a variety of commercial and national customers. Try Zero-Gravity (Try Zero-G) Experiments: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Wakata set …
When you’re a three person team out in the field, there’s not always enough time to get it all done. We are Launch minus 1 hour. The weather is clear, the rocket is fueled, all systems are GO. In the press room, reporters are grabbing their hard hats and the cameras and heading up to […]
