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NASA deems SpaceX Dragon worthy of the ISS, locks in April 30th launch date
A month ago to the day, SpaceX informed us all that it was aiming to launch its Dragon spacecraft skyward on April 30th, and rendezvous with the ISS a few days later. Now NASA's finally finished its flight readiness review and has given Elon Musk's capsule the green light to hit that launch window. The capsule will hitch a ride on one of the firm's Falcon 9 rockets and will launch from Cape Canaveral just after noon ET -- from there it'll perform a flyby of the station to check its sensors and flight systems before its inaugural docking with the ISS. Wanna watch the magic happen? Live video of the launch starts at 11AM on NASA TV, and night owls can watch the docking itself occur May 3rd at 2AM.
SpaceX Dragon will dock with the ISS in May, for realsies this time
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has announced that the company's Dragon craft has a NASA-approved date to dock with the International Space Station. With the original mission postponed from November last year, it's now penciled in for launch on April 30th, arriving at the ISS's front door on May 3rd, packed to the gills with fresh supplies. If successful, it'll strengthen Elon Musk's case for SpaceX to send a man into space... and beyond.
Russian space probe crashes in Pacific Ocean, fish reportedly startled
On the plus side, the fish needed additional space probe parts. On Sunday night, fragments of Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe landed in the Pacific Ocean 1,250 kilometers to the west of Wellington Island in southern Chile around 17:45 GMT. The probe, which experienced a failure with its launch rocket machinery on November 8, had become marooned in Earth's orbit, destined to crash back home. The cause of the incident remains unknown and stands as the latest in a series of gaffes by the Russian space program, including an impact in Siberia by a supply ship bound for the International Space Station and the loss of three navigation satellites in the past year. It's unknown whether the probe was carrying any radioactive alien materials, but stay tuned to Engadget for your up-to-the-second guide on how to fight the Cloverfield monster in the year to come.
Air Force X-37B space plane books additional time on orbital cruise, orders another margarita
If your secret space plane's in orbit and doing its secret thing well enough, why bother bringing it home? This appears to be the mindset of the Air Force regarding its experimental X-37B space plane, the billion-dollar robotic vehicle's orbital flight being extended beyond the 270 days it was initially designed for. While the Air Force has stated that the vehicle is meant only for conducting orbital science experiments, analysts say the X-37B is capable of much more, and could perform additional tasks such as acting as an orbital spy, sneaking up on and tampering with enemy satellites or hauling small batches of supplies to the International Space Station. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the X-37B could stay in orbit for that much longer. Although the Air Force said last year that the X-37B could last nine months above the heavens before its power and fuel ran out, an inside source commented that "it sips power and fuel like a Prius." Click through the break for the full X-37B schematics, which -- crazily enough -- look nothing like a Prius.
Europhysics Letters publishes first paper submitted from space, your homework excuses now deemed invalid
Couldn't find the resources? Too much commotion? Had to run your pup to the vet? Save it. Alexander Alexandrovich Skvortsov took the time to detail a series of experiments aboard the International Space Station back in July of 2010, and rather than just noting 'em in his flip-pad, he worked with Sergey Alexandrovich Volkov to submit the work to a highly-regarded journal on the 27th of October, 2011. Unsurprisingly, EPL (Europhysics Letters) has just published the work, making it the first piece of its kind to ever hit the public after being submitted... from space. For those curious, the paper itself reports on "the measurements of the speed of sound within complex plasmas." And now we all feel dumb.
Angry Birds to ride Russian rockets into space, follow iPads bound for bored cosmonauts
Slingshots and unbridled rage might be enough to launch Rovio's furious fowl across the battlefield, but they'll need some outside help if they hope to break free of Earth's atmosphere -- it's time to call the cosmonauts. Two upcoming Russian space launches are scheduled to ferry a pair of iPads and a plush Angry Birds toy to the International Space Station. The twin tablets will fly on an unmanned resupply vehicle early next week, and the irritated avian is playing the part of a jocular gravity indicator in a manned mission next month -- part of a russian tradition of hanging a toy by a string to signal when the vessel has escaped the Earth's gravity. NASA told collectSPACE that the iPads are only slated for recreational purposes, but mentioned that various tablets were being evaluated for future use. The plush bird? It's coming home; cosmonaut Shkaplerov's five year old daughter can't be expected to give up her toys forever, can she?
Daily Update for October 26, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
China readies its own space station module for launch
Presumably feeling a little left out after being turned down from the global love-in that is the International Space Station, China's decided to go it alone. The ever-expanding nation will be ready to launch the first module of it's very own space station, the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace), by the end of this month. The initial launch will be unmanned, delivering an 8.5-ton module ready for docking practise and other interactions with three more spacecraft that are planned to join it later this year. Pegged for completion by 2020 and with a complete weight of over 60 tons, the Tiangong will look positively petite compared to the hulking 419-ton ISS, but is also said to be significantly cheaper. Meanwhile, we still await China's take on the Robonaut.
Space radar captures echoes of Perseid meteor shower (video)
We all know lasers make a "pew pew" sound, but shouldn't there be a sound effect button for high-speed burning meteors? Well, the US Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas just recorded its own, capturing echoes of the Perseid meteor shower last Friday night. Every year, the Earth orbits directly into a cloud of debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which burn up as they fly through the atmosphere at a staggering 133,200 mph. Similar to the sound of a lightsaber slicing through the air, they make some pretty sweet sound effects -- perfect for your next auto-tune experiment. Check out the audio with some ISS pics thrown in for good measure after the break.
Boeing's CST-100 to shoot non-NASA astronauts into space by 2015
Day job just too darn terrestrial? Maybe you should score a gig at Boeing, which'll apparently sling two of its very own into space come 2015. What'll be their chariot? The company's CST-100 -- you know that spiffy capsule that can hurtle a lucky seven humans 100km into the dark abyss. Strapped to ULA's Atlas V, the crew will follow two unmanned missions, eventually reaching the International Space Station. If that all goes to plan, commercial service will start in 2016. Now about those extra five seats...
NASA robotic gas station successfully installed -- our Jetsonian dreams (almost) fulfilled
So we won't be zipping around with wife and kids in a flying car anytime soon, but NASA brought us ever closer to a Jetsonian future, yesterday, with the installation of its Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) experiment. Fifteen minutes into their spacewalk, Mike Fossum and Ron Garan successfully installed the appropriate hardware on the International Space Station for pumping fuel to satellites in space. Using the Canadian-born Dextre (aka Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator) as a gas station attendant, the RRM will eventually be used to refuel and perform minor repairs to satellites in orbit, potentially extending the time they can stay aloft. Now that that's underway, how 'bout y'all get to work on making Rosie a reality?
UrtheCast to stream live HD footage of Earth from ISS, like Stickam for space
Space nerds, get your browsers ready -- UrtheCast will soon be streaming HD video of Earth straight from the ISS. The system will actually consists of a pair of cameras, one still and one video, that will be mounted on the Russian arm of the station. The still shots will be very wide, covering about 30 miles with a resolution of 18-feet per pixel. Much more exciting will be the three feet per-pixel stream of 3.25fps video that will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You probably won't be able to see yourself waving as the ISS passes overhead, but you should be able to spot your cardboard box fort house. The feeds won't be your typical boring NASA fare either -- you'll be able to search, rewind, and tag objects or events, and UrtheCast is providing APIs for developers to build upon the service. The project won't be launching until June 28th, so bide your time by checking out the video and PR after the break.
Spy satellites become reluctant space celebs, get their own paparazzi
Not only do American military satellites have to put up with the constant threat of ultrasonic space droppings, now they must also suffer the prying lenses of a couple of Frenchmen. Thierry Legault and Emmanuel Rietsch have spent the past two years turning consumer-grade components into a system that can keep up with the zippy and supposedly secret movements of craft like the X-37B space plane and the NROL-49 low-Earth orbit spy sat. Hit the source link and you'll see videos of the International Space Station, which they also managed to capture with steady-ish focus as it hurtled through space-time. Looks like nothing will thwart these guys, except maybe nano-satellites.
iPhone rides Atlantis into space, where no one can hear its ringtone scream
Smartphones have been going to space for a while now -- well, technically near space in most cases -- but in decidedly DIY ways, including a "shuttle" made out of Styrofoam beer coolers. But the actual Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to complete its final voyage with a pair of space-ready iPhone 4's aboard. After docking with the International Space Station, astronauts use the phones, not to become Foursquare's Mayor of Space, it seems, but to run an app called SpaceLab for iOS. Designed by Houston's Odyssey Space Research, the app contains a number of navigation tools that will test the iPhone cameras and gyroscopes, alongside a self-monitoring experiment that will reveal the effects of radiation on the devices. The Space Shuttle launch is tentatively scheduled for July 8, but in the meantime even earth-bound astro-nots (aww) can pick up the app for $1 by following the source link.
NASA's new cooling pump doesn't need moving parts, set to chill out in space next month
It's pretty easy to cool down an overheating desktop computer with an extra fan, but what do you do if there's no air? That's the hurdle NASA's engineers are hoping to clear with a new prototype pump that the agency unveiled last week. The pinkie-sized instrument relies upon a technology known as electrohydrodynamic (EHD)-based thermal control, which uses electric fields to inject coolant through small vents on a thermal cold plate, before moving the extra heat to a radiator and spreading it far away from any temperature-sensitive areas. With no moving parts, the lightweight cooler uses only about half a watt of power and can be sized to work with small electric components or lab-on-a-chip devices. The challenge is to make sure that the pump can survive the vibrations of a rocket launch, though NASA will put it to the test during a rocket mission on June 9 and in 2013, when an EHD thermal cold plate will be placed on the International Space Station. Start your countdown clock and blast past the break for a full press release. [Thanks, Kevin]
Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off one last time (video)
NASA's Endeavour shuttle marked its final launch today, lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, a fortnight after an initial takeoff was scrubbed over concerns surrounding an auxiliary power unit heater. A six-member crew lead by commander Mark Kelly and some tiny satellites are on-board for the STS-134 mission, which involves the delivery of the massive cosmic ray-collecting Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and some spare parts to the International Space Station. NASA's 134th flight is the penultimate mission for the current fleet of shuttle -- Atlantis will liftoff for a final time in July. Video of the smoke-filled majesty after the break.
SIM-sized satellites to lift off with Endeavour this afternoon
They won't be beaming GPS or radio signals back to Earth anytime soon, but these one-inch-square satellites could one day travel to distant planets -- without fuel. Developed over a period of three years by a team of undergraduates at Cornell University, the Sprite chips could eventually be used for communication, flying in clusters like tiny space plankton. After hitching a ride on-board the final space shuttle Endeavour mission this afternoon, the three prototype satellites will be mounted outside the International Space Station, where they'll sit for the next few years, exposed to conditions found only beyond our atmosphere. Perhaps someday we'll even see some "Spprite" KIRFs by the time China's own space station is ready to hit the launchpad in 2020.
China unveils space station, launching by 2020
China's been making its mark on the world for years, but there's still one massive piece of real estate where the country's citizens haven't hung their ubiquitous red flag: space. The China Manned Space Engineering Office hopes to change that within the next decade, however, unveiling a model of its first space station on Monday. The station's current moniker is Tiangong (Chinese for "heavenly palace") but the space agency is asking the public to suggest alternatives at kongjianzhan@vip.qq.com through July 25th. At 60 tons, the complete facility is significantly smaller than the 419-ton International Space Station, so residents should probably keep the man cave tidy in case Chinese astronauts need some room to stretch out while not connecting to the PlayStation Network. We're working on our own list of names for little Tiangong here, but feel free to share your submissions after the break.
First Orbit offers a glimpse at Yuri Gagarin's spaceflight 50 years later (video)
It's been exactly 50 years to the day -- in some places, anyway -- that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's maiden voyage set off an international space race that defined an era, and while only Gagarin knew exactly what it was like to be the first man in space, documentarian Christopher Riley is giving us a glimpse of what the world might have looked like from the porthole of Vostok 1. As we reported before, First Orbit is a mashup of sorts that features original audio recordings from Gagarin's flight, coupled with footage taken by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli from aboard the International Space Station. The result is nothing short of stunning, but you don't have to take our word for it -- in fact, go ahead and grab yourself some popcorn, hit the play button, and prepare to be amazed.
Panasonic's AG-3DA1 camera will shoot 3D video, Robonaut vlogs on the International Space Station
NASA's Robonaut 2 is something of a celebrity around these parts, owing to his dashing good looks and insatiable appetite for publicity, which can now be put to good use with a new toy the landlubbers are sending his way: a professional 3D camera. The human-aiding robot that presently calls the International Space Station home will soon be joined by Panasonic's AG-3DA1, a full 1080p 3D video recorder with twin lenses and dual 2 megapixel 3MOS sensors. Panasonic is also loading up the next Space Shuttle Atlantis flight to the ISS (scheduled for June 28th) with 25.5-inch 3D LCD monitors and rugged Toughbook laptops to help with documenting proceedings aboard the research vessel. The new shooter costs a whopping $21,000, and though it's not clear whether NASA paid for it or Panasonic just decided to be charitable, the space agency should have the cash to splash after deciding to shelve the James Cameron-approved project to slap a zoom-equipped 3D imager on its next Mars rover. We're just wondering if the human world is quite ready for 3D video blogs from its favorite robotic astronaut.
