Well, it’s already time for this week’s Satellite Sunday feature. I must admit that when I started this space-flavored blog, I didn’t anticipate that April would be such a eventful month for the space industry. One might say I’ve thrown myself into theFIRE by starting a weekly spot during such a high traffic time, but that is the theme of this blog after all!
There’s no room for slouching this week either because on April 24th, our Hubble space telescope celebrated 20 years of starry-eyed service to humanity. When Hubble was originally launched in 1990, it’s highly anticipated first pictures would reveal that the $2.5 billion telescope had a slight vision problem, Space shuttle missions would have to be sent to fit Hubble with new glasses to counteract a microscopically flawed mirror.
By 1993 the telescope was delivering the sharpest images ever taken of the cosmos, inspiring millions with it’s unique perspective of the universe. After a final shuttle servicing mission in May 2009, Hubble’s keen eye is now 100x sharper than it was 20 years ago. Here’s a look back at some of our favorite jaw-dropping images!
Happy Birthday Hubble!
Well, it’s already time for this week’s Satellite Sunday feature. I must admit that when I started this space-flavored blog, I didn’t anticipate that April would be such a eventful month for the space industry. One might say I’ve thrown myself into theFIRE by starting a weekly spot during such a high traffic time, but that is the theme of this blog after all.
I love space secrets! Nothing gets the imagination moving quite like withheld information. It allows you to consider all kinds of mind-boggling possibilities, that may be in your best interests not to know.
The X-37B was launched last night, with intentions not fit for public knowledge. This picture shows the x-37B, built by Boeing’s “Phantom Works” advanced-concepts shop, looking a little too innocent in the belly of the space shuttle. Once considered as a potential life boat for the ISS, the vehicle was later passed over to the Department of Defense for what I can only conclude to be secret defensive space purposes.
The X-37B recharging its sinister battery
The experimental unmanned space plane is designed to make orbital passes and automated landings that could go unnoticed by opposing territories. The Iranian government has even come to regard the mini-shuttle as a “secret space warplane.” The truth is never usually as interesting as anything we could imagine, so lets all take a moment to enjoy the mystery.
The space shuttle Discovery landed on Tuesday, and even though that last post almost knocked the space-stuffin’ right outta me, I couldn’t resist doing a little write-up on the mission. After all, there are only 3 more shuttle missions to write about.
The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on April 5th for its 2 day journey to rendezvous with the International space station. The eldest shuttle at 26 years young, delivered 7 astronauts and some vital equipment when it docked with the ISS on April 7th. The crew would unpack and install new goodies for the nearly complete space station during their 10 days on board. First came a set of new gyros on April 8th, fresh ammonia tanks on the 9th, followed by a shiny new research window on the 10th, not to mention over 25,000 pounds of other food and science supplies transferred throughout the week.
The Discovery crew joined 3 other astronauts already in orbit, making this the first time 4 female astronauts have worked together in space, which I have no doubt, boosted morale and increased productivity. Naoko Yamazaki would become the second Japanese woman in space, and with veteran Soichi Noguchi, flight engineering Expedition 23 to the ISS, it would also be the first time 2 Japanese astronauts served together on board. I found this great video of mission highlights that will give you a feel for what life has been like in space over the past 2 weeks.
The shuttle departed the ISS on April 17 and returned home on April 20th. The landing was delayed due to some bad weather, independent of the plumes erupting from Iceland. However, the delays made for a record breaking mission when Discovery landed its longest flight to date, 15 days and 2.8 hours!
While Atlantis is rolling out to the launch pad for its final flight on May 14th, Discovery will begin its overhaul to prepare for the last shuttle flight ever in November. NASA will then decommission the shuttle fleet and donate Discovery to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
This incredible picture taken by Soichi Noguchi is one of the coolest space pics I’ve ever seen. The blurring makes you feel like you took the picture yourself with your own crappy camera, looking out over some orange alien world! Is that the reflection of Naoko Yamazaki in the top right, or just a control panel?
This Sunday I’ll be introducing a new segment called Sunday’s Satellite. Every week I will feature a new orbiter, and explore how these sophisticated spacecraft assist humanity from their heavenly vantage. For my first choice, although I was tempted to start at the beginning with Sputnik, I decided to skip ahead to some satellites with a little more flare, the Iridium Satellite Constellation.
Most of us have witnessed a satellite pass at some time in our lives. They are those stars that wander steadily across the sky, probably taking secret government pictures of your underwear. Thousands of man-made satellites now orbit the earth, providing services we take for granted everyday. Their reflective solar panels and antennas catch the sun at favorable angles and they become visible in the night sky. Some orbiters flash erratically as they roll or tumble through space, and while most appear no brighter than the average star, Iridium’s network of communications satellites can produce flashes that appear over 55x brighter than Venus, a phenomena known as an Iridium flare.
The first time I saw an iridium flare, I braced myself for the end of the world. It was a cloudier night, with only a few clear bright stars, when suddenly something lit up the clouds with an increasing intensity. In those 3 seconds of unreal brightness, I envisioned Earth being incinerated by a gamma ray burst, or some hard, fast comet aimed right at my head. Instead, the light disappeared into the clouds, and I was left with a mystery. I wondered what could have produced such an intense burst of light, and finding out the answer would spark my interest in satellites and astronomy. My search would bring me to heavens-above.com, a website that tracks visible satellites based on the user’s location. I could now pinpoint when and where in the sky a flare would happen, and that kind of information could make me a shaman in some tribes!
Every other night I would drag my roommates out flare hunting, exciting the neighbors with my incessant sky watching. We were lucky enough to see a shuttle re-entry, the International Space Station, AND an Iridium flare, all in one beautiful, clear night! Like a nerdy master of ceremonies with his cue cards, I introduced every passing act during its procession across the sky. If you have never seen a flare for yourself, I found a video that represents the experience quite well. Notice a likeness to the end of days?
The Satellites
The Iridium constellation is a network of 66 communications satellites that provides voice and date coverage to every corner of the planet. The satellites have the unique ability to send seamless transmissions between themselves, which means that communication is possible in areas like the poles and open oceans, where land based coverage isn’t currently provided. Today the network is the only mobile satellite service that offers complete world coverage, and the first provider to relay data between its satellites in orbit.
The program began in the 1980’s fueled by Motorola, and originally called for 77 space vehicles, the atomic number of Iridium, plus several spares in a lower orbit ready in the event of a failure. This global communications grid would cross-link satellites using microwave bands in the electromagnetic spectrum, a characteristic still unique to the fleet. Most notably, they are designed with 3, highly reflective, silver coated main mission antennas, fixed at a 40 degree angles from the body of the spacecraft. These door-sized antennas are responsible for flaring, as they momentarily reflect the intensity of the sun, and spark a religion in some remote tribe. Calculating when, where and how brightly these flashes will occur requires some very intense computational mathematics, performed at the click of a button thanks to sites like Heavens Above.
The vehicles were produced and launched during an ambitious launch campaign in 1997 and ’98, their fast production made possible by innovative new methods that mass-produced the orbiters on a gimble. During an especially productive period, the company was churning out a new satellite every 4.3 days at a record low-cost of only $5 million per vehicle. All 66 satellites and 6 spares were delivered into their low earth orbits of 750km, by Russian, Chinese and US rockets, achieving a perfect success rate of 15/15 launches. However the failures of Iridium would soon overshadow its successes, when its over-priced services failed to catch on with a public already at-play with their new cellular phones. The company would buckle under enormous debt, and file for bankruptcy only a few years later. The $7 billion network was sold for a mere $25 million, with Boeing now in-charge of satellite operations. Services were triumphantly restored in 2001, with new technologies and new satellites launched the next year. Today the constellation is an invaluable tool to government agencies, aerospace and maritime industries, and disaster relief efforts.
An Iridium satellite made headlines recently when it was involved in the in world’s first orbital collision involving active satellites. Iridium 33 and Russian satellite Kosmos 2251 collided at speeds of 27000 kph over Siberia, creating an orbiting debris field of over 500 pieces. The incident fueled concerns that the cluttering of space is becoming a serious problem for the future of the space industry. For now, the orbit of every stray screw and panel is carefully observed in an attempt to protect our assets in orbit, but sooner or later we are probably going to need a fleet of trash collecting recycle-sats. A Sunday’s satellite for 2015?
While the space shuttle Discovery flies high above, we here down on Earth wish the crew a happy and safe 29th!! May your birthday bumps next week be cushioned and well-calculated.
Almost everyday I think about how amazing it is that there are actually people living and working in space. We have had a continual human presence in space for almost 10 years, and I think we should all take more time to recognize how cool it is that there is a real space station flying over our heads 16 times per day at over 27 000 km/hr! The space station is an incredible feat of human ingenuity that now shines brighter than Venus, but today we celebrate our intrepid space shuttles.
On this day 29 years ago the first space shuttle was launched, and the day also happens to mark the 49th anniversary of the first human space flight. Since 1981 the shuttle fleet of 6 sleek space planes have been boosting billions of dollars worth of planetary probes, satellites, telescopes and space station components into orbit. Now in the middle of it’s 131st mission, here’s a look back at the launch that started it all.
The launch of space shuttle Columbia was the realized, idealistic vision of NASA’s Space Transportation System (STS). A fleet of reusable space planes that could ferry astronauts to orbit and land as gracefully as a bird. Construction began on Columbia in 1975, and in its life it would fly 27 pioneering missions for mankind until her tragic end in February 2003, when a damaged heat shield led to disaster on reentry. New precautions are now taken to ensure the remaining shuttles, Discovery Atlantis and Endeavour, will not meet a similar fate. Here’s a picture I came across of Columbia in her birthday suit.
As I write these words, the shuttle Discovery is delayed at the ISS, undergoing rigorous inspection to be sure its return on Monday is as safe as possible. Discovery’s next flight is scheduled to be the last space shuttle ever flown when NASA retires the fleet this year. With plans to return to Apollo-style capsules, it wont be long before everyday images of the space shuttle will start to look almost retro, with a historical stylish charm.
There are only 3 remaining shuttle missions left in this epic chapter of human history, and if you have never seen the space shuttle yourself, flying visibly over your head several times a day, I encourage you to click here to find out when the next visible passes are. Try to catch it next week when the shuttle separates from the ISS. It appears as 2 bright stars chasing each other across the night sky, and it is definitely one of the coolest thing I have ever seen.
And now, to mark the day, here’s what birthday candles look like in micro-gravity… Happy Birthday Space Shuttle, and Merry Russian Cosmonauts Day too!!
Today is the first day of the life of this blog, and most serendipitously, today is also my day of birth. Yes, on this day 27 years ago I had the inspired idea that I might start a new life for myself outside the womb, and for 27 years now I have been on a path to know truth and reason in this expanse of seemingly infinite chaos. ALL will be explored in good time, but for now its time to party like a ten year old, CUZ IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!
I started my day with what is becoming my annual straight razor shave. To me nothing ushers in a new year like an impossibly smooth shave from an eighty year old man. A trembling razor to my throat reminds me of how good it is to be alive, and that we owe our lives to the morality of our community. It reminded me of an old short story “Lather and nothing else” about a barber who contemplates murdering his confident client. Not a relaxing memory as my barber scrapes his vintage blade across my tentative face. It was hard not to imagine a grizzly barber shop murder in the style of Sweeny Todd. However, just as in that short story, there was lather, and nothing else. Warm lather too! So I wasn’t murdered on my birthday, but I did return home with one of his wife’s lovely meat pies.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying food, a lot of food. For breakfast, a bagel with smoked salmon, cream cheese and a glass of extra pulp orange juice. Lunch, a banana split and a face plant into an angel food cake, and finally an extravagant dinner at a fancy restaurant. Oysters, escargot and steak au poivre, I even learned how to fold a napkin into a handsome shirt. It’s always so much fun to dress up and pretend your of the upper class, but at the end of the night its all just pretend… for now. I’m just getting started though!
Well, it’s already time for this week’s Satellite Sunday feature. I must admit that when I started this space-flavored blog, I didn’t anticipate that April would be such a eventful month for the space industry. One might say I’ve thrown myself into theFIRE by starting a weekly spot during such a high traffic time, but that is the theme of this blog after all!
theRefiner'sFIRE 
