Arianespace - Ariane 5 ECA launches TIBA-1 and Inmarsat GX5 satellites

ARIANESPACE - Ariane 5 Flight VA250 Mission poster.

Nov. 26, 2019

Ariane 5 ECA launches TIBA-1 and Inmarsat GX5 satellites

An Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle (Ariane Flight VA250) launched TIBA-1 and Inmarsat GX5 satellites to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) from Ariane Launch Complex No. 3 (ELA 3) at Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, on 26 November 2019 at 21:23 UTC (18:23 local time). TIBA-1 is a civil and government telecommunication satellite for Egypt, owned and operated by the government of Egypt. Inmarsat GX5 is a mobile communications satellite, Inmarsat’s fifth Ka-band Global Xpress (GX) satellite and the most advanced in the GX fleet.

Ariane 5 ECA launches TIBA-1 and Inmarsat GX5 satellites

Payloads:

TIBA-1

TIBA-1 is a civil and government telecommunication satellite for Egypt. It was developed by Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space as co-prime contractors, with Thales Alenia Space acting as the consortium’s lead partner.
TIBA-1 will be owned and operated by the government of Egypt.

Airbus Defence and Space supplied the platform and also assembled and tested the spacecraft. Thales Alenia Space, as lead partner, designed and built the communications payload, which will provide broadband communications in ka band.

TIBA-1 will be the fourth satellite launched by Arianespace for Egypt. It will be deployed by Arianespace into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), subsequently transitioning to its operational orbital slot position at 35.5° East.

Airbus Defence and Space is Arianespace’s direct customer for this mission, continuing a fruitful cooperation between the two companies that extends back to Arianespace’s creation in 1980. TIBA-1 will be the 127th Airbus satellite launched by Arianespace, as well as the 113th main passenger on a launcher from the Arianespace family.

There currently is a total of 22 Airbus satellites in Arianespace’s order book.

TIBA-1 is the 160th satellite launch by Arianespace for Thales Alenia Space, the co-prime and lead partner of this program.

TIBA-1 and Inmarsat GX5 satellites separation

Inmarsat GX5

GX5 is a mobile communications satellite built by Thales Alenia Space for Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications. Inmarsat’s fifth Ka-band Global Xpress (GX) satellite, GX5 will be the most advanced in the GX fleet, which in less than four years has become the gold standard for seamless, globally available, mobile broadband services.

Located in a geostationary orbit at 11° East, GX5 will deliver greater capacity than the entire existing GX fleet (GX1-GX4) combined and will support the rapid growth in customer demand for GX services in Europe and the Middle East, particularly for aviation passenger Wi-Fi and commercial maritime services.

It is equipped with 72 Ka-band fixed spot beams and 4 steerable beams to direct additional capacity where it is needed. GX5 heralds the start of an unprecedented enhancement in the overall capacity and capabilities of the GX network with a further 7 advanced payloads scheduled to launch over the next four years.

This is the 10th time that Inmarsat has chosen Arianespace’s launch services, demonstrating a well-established trust – with the two companies’ relationship dating back to 1981. The mission with Inmarsat GX5 comes two years after Arianespace successfully launched the “condosat” Hellas Sat 3/Inmarsat S-EAN with an Ariane 5.

The Inmarsat GX5 satellite will be the 161st satellite manufactured by Thales Alenia Space to be launched by Arianespace.

Six additional Thales Alenia Space satellites are included in Arianespace’s order book.

Inmarsat: https://www.inmarsat.com/

For more information about Arianespace, visit: http://www.arianespace.com/

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: Arianespace/Airbus Defence and Space/SciNews/Inmarsat/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Astronauts Research Disease Therapies Ahead of Complex Repair Spacewalk

ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.

November 26, 2019

Two Expedition 61 astronauts are getting up to speed with the fine repair techniques they will use next week during the 11th spacewalk of 2019. The International Space Station is also hosting intense biology work this week to improve the health of humans in space and on Earth.

The orbiting lab’s cosmic particle detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), is getting a new thermal control system that requires innovative spacewalking repair techniques. Astronauts Andrew Morgan and Luca Parmitano are studying the careful, deliberate procedures with new tools specifically designed for the job. The AMS, which has exceeded its three-year operational lifespan by five-and-a-half years, was never designed to be repaired in space.

Image above: Astronaut Andrew Morgan points his camera towards himself to take an out-of-this-world “space-selfie” during the second spacewalk to repair the the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Image Credit: NASA.

Morgan and Parmitano will continue the AMS repair job during their third spacewalk together beginning Monday at 6:50 a.m. EST. This will be the third of four planned spacewalks to ensure the astrophysics device continues searching for evidence of dark matter and antimatter for years to come. NASA TV will start its live broadcast at 5:30 a.m.

The Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) in the Japanese Kibo lab module is seeing a lot of biology research work this week. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are looking at blood and cell samples in the LSG to understand the stresses microgravity imposes on organisms. Doctors are looking for advanced therapeutic insights into Earth-bound diseases such as cancer and diabetes as well as space-caused ailments. Morgan and Parmitano are also on life science duty this week assisting the duo in between spacewalk preparations.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

In the Russian segment of the station, Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka attached sensors to his legs to observe how his veins are adapting to long-term spaceflight. Cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov worked on computer hardware and life support gear.

Related links:

Expedition 61: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition61/index.html

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=729

Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7676

Kibo lab module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory

Advanced therapeutic insights: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7906

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Animation (mentioned), Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Global Storms on Mars Launch Dust Towers Into the Sky

NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) logo.

Nov. 26, 2019

Dust storms are common on Mars. But every decade or so, something unpredictable happens: A series of runaway storms breaks out, covering the entire planet in a dusty haze.

Animation above: Side-by-side movies shows how the 2018 global dust storm enveloped the Red Planet, courtesy of the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This global dust storm caused NASA's Opportunity rover to lose contact with Earth. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Last year, a fleet of NASA spacecraft got a detailed look at the life cycle of the 2018 global dust storm that ended the Opportunity rover's mission. And while scientists are still puzzling over the data, two papers recently shed new light on a phenomenon observed within the storm: dust towers, or concentrated clouds of dust that warm in sunlight and rise high into the air. Scientists think that dust-trapped water vapor may be riding them like an elevator to space, where solar radiation breaks apart their molecules. This might help explain how Mars' water disappeared over billions of years.

Dust towers are massive, churning clouds that are denser and climb much higher than the normal background dust in the thin Martian atmosphere. While they also occur under normal conditions, the towers appear to form in greater numbers during global storms.

A tower starts at the planet's surface as an area of rapidly lifted dust about as wide as the state of Rhode Island. By the time a tower reaches a height of 50 miles (80 kilometers), as seen during the 2018 global dust storm, it may be as wide as Nevada. As the tower decays, it can form a layer of dust 35 miles (56 kilometers) above the surface that can be wider than the continental United States.

Image above: The yellow-white cloud in the bottom-center of this image is a Mars "dust tower" — a concentrated cloud of dust that can be lofted dozens of miles above the surface. The blue-white plumes are water vapor clouds. This image was taken on Nov. 30, 2010, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

The recent findings on dust towers come courtesy of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which is led by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Though global dust storms cloak the planet's surface, MRO can use its heat-sensing Mars Climate Sounder instrument to peer through the haze. The instrument is designed specifically for measuring dust levels. Its data, coupled with images from a camera aboard the orbiter called the Mars Context Imager (MARCI), enabled scientists to detect numerous swelling dust towers.

How Did Mars Lose Its Water?

Dust towers appear throughout the Martian year, but MRO observed something different during the 2018 global dust storm. "Normally the dust would fall down in a day or so," said the paper's lead author, Nicholas Heavens of Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. "But during a global storm, dust towers are renewed continuously for weeks." In some cases, multiple towers were seen for as long as 3 1/2 weeks.

The rate of dust activity surprised Heavens and other scientists. But especially intriguing is the possibility that dust towers act as "space elevators" for other material, transporting them through the atmosphere. When airborne dust heats up, it creates updrafts that carry gases along with it, including the small quantity of water vapor sometimes seen as wispy clouds on Mars.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Image Credits: NASA/JPL

A previous paper led by Heavens showed that during a 2007 global dust storm on Mars, water molecules were lofted into the upper atmosphere, where solar radiation could break them down into particles that escape into space. That might be a clue to how the Red Planet lost its lakes and rivers over billions of years, becoming the freezing desert it is today.

Scientists can't say with certainty what causes global dust storms; they've studied fewer than a dozen to date.

"Global dust storms are really unusual," said Mars Climate Sounder scientist David Kass of JPL. "We really don't have anything like this on the Earth, where the entire planet's weather changes for several months."

With time and more data, the MRO team hopes to better understand the dust towers created within global storms and what role they may play in removing water from the Red Planet's atmosphere.

Related articles:

Martian Dust Could Help Explain Water Loss, Plus Other Learnings From Global Storm
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/05/martian-dust-could-help-explain-water.html

'Storm Chasers' on Mars Searching for Dusty Secrets
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/07/storm-chasers-on-mars-searching-for.html

Martian Dust Storm Grows Global: Curiosity Captures Photos of Thickening Haze
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/06/martian-dust-storm-grows-global.html

NASA Encounters the Perfect Storm for Science
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/06/nasa-encounters-perfect-storm-for.html

How a Tiny Curiosity Motor Identified a Massive Martian Dust Storm
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/09/how-tiny-curiosity-motor-identified.html

Dust Storms Linked to Gas Escape from Mars Atmosphere
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/01/dust-storms-linked-to-gas-escape-from.html

For more information about MRO:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/Alana Johnson/JPL/Andrew Good.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz-2.1v launches military satellite

ROSCOSMOS logo.

Nov. 26, 2019

Soyuz-2.1v launches military satellite

A Soyuz-2.1v launch vehicle, with a Volga upper stage, launched an unnamed military satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, on 25 November 2019, at 17:52 UTC (20:52 local time). According to official sources, the satellite was placed into the desired orbit.

Soyuz-2.1v launches military satellite

A Russian government Soyuz 2-1v rocket and Volga upper stage launches an unspecified payload, likely for the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to airspace warning notices.

At the estimated time, the device was launched into the target orbit and adopted for the control of ground-based means of the aerospace forces. A stable telemetric connection has been established and maintained with him, the systems operate normally.

The spacecraft, created on the basis of a unified multifunctional space platform, is launched into the target orbit from which the state of domestic satellites can be monitored. The optical equipment of this satellite also allows you to take pictures of the Earth's surface.

Soyuz-2.1v

The Soyuz-2 launch vehicle replaced the Soyuz-U rockets, which were operated at the Plesetsk cosmodrome from 1973 to 2012. During this period, 435 launches of Soyuz-U carriers were carried out from Plesetsk, during which about 430 spacecraft of various purposes were put into orbit.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/27793/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Roscosmos/Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Celebrating 60 years of the Proton Synchrotron

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

25 November, 2019

A colloquium on 25 November will celebrate the anniversary of CERN’s oldest accelerator

On 24 November 1959, CERN’s Proton Synchrotron became the highest-energy machine in the world when it accelerated a beam to its design energy of 24 GeV for the first time. Today, the PS is still in operation, being one of the main cogs in the CERN accelerator complex.

The Proton Synchrotron: 60 years and counting (Video: CERN)

Find out more about the history of the Proton Synchrotron by watching the webcast today from  2.30 p.m. to 4 p.m. (CET) featuring different speakers talking about pushing the performance as well as the future and upgrades of the machine: https://webcast.web.cern.ch/event/733

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 23 Member States.

Proton Synchrotron (PS): http://home.cern/about/accelerators/proton-synchrotron-booster

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/

Image, Video, Text, Credit: European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Disease Therapy Research Ahead of Cargo Traffic and Spacewalks

ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.

November 25, 2019

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

Thanksgiving week starts with the Expedition 61 crew exploring the stresses microgravity imposes on organisms at the cellular level. The International Space Station is also ramping up for cargo traffic and another spacewalk in December.

The astronauts in the U.S. segment of the orbiting lab focused their attention today on identifying the cellular changes caused by weightlessness. Observations may provide doctors with advanced therapeutic insights into diseases afflicting humans on Earth and ailments that affect astronauts in space.

Image above: Astronaut Andrew Morgan, whose U.S. spacesuit is outfitted with a variety of tools and cameras, holds on to a handrail during the second spacewalk to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Image Credit: NASA TV.

Two more spacewalks are scheduled to service an astrophysics device, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), searching for clues to the origin of the universe. Astronauts Andrew Morgan and Luca Parmitano will continue the complex work on Monday, Dec. 2 at 6:50 a.m. EST to replace the AMS thermal control system.

Russia’s Progress 73 cargo craft will compete its 121-day mission attached to the Pirs docking compartment this Friday and undock for a fiery disposal above the south Pacific. It will be replaced when the Progress 74 resupply ship launches Dec. 6 and docks to Pirs on Dec. 8.

Image above: NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan is seen here tethered to the Starboard-3 truss segment work site during the second spacewalk to repair the International Space Station's cosmic particle detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. During the 6.5 hour spacewalk, Morgan and Station Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency the two successfully cut eight stainless steel tubes, including one that vented the remaining carbon dioxide from the old cooling pump. The crew members also prepared a power cable and installed a mechanical attachment device in advance of installing the new cooling system. Image Credit: NASA.

SpaceX is targeting Dec. 4 for the launch if its 19th commercial cargo mission to the space station. The Dragon space freighter would arrive on Dec. 7 delivering a variety of brand new research gear including Japan’s Hyperspectral Imager Suite, or HISUI.

Related links:

Expedition 61: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition61/index.html

Cellular changes caused by weightlessness: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7906

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=729

Progress 73: https://go.nasa.gov/2GDbLZA

Pirs docking compartment : https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/pirs-docking-compartment

SpaceX: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/spacex.html

Brand new research gear: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/spx19-research

Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7476

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/Yvette Smith.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hi Honey! NASA’s Second Astrobee Wakes Up in Space

ISS - Astrobee Mission patch.

Nov. 25, 2019

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano performed initial tests of the second Astrobee robot, named Honey, aboard the International Space Station. Astrobee is a free-flying robot system that includes three robots and a docking station for recharging, and will be used to test how robots can assist crew and perform caretaking duties on spacecraft.

After Parmitano unpacked and inspected Honey, he placed the robot on Astrobee’s docking station and Honey woke up on the dock, for the first time in space, next to its robotic teammate Bumble. Honey and Bumble are identical, except for their colors. Bumble is dressed in blue and Honey, appropriately, wears yellow.

Because their systems are identical, Honey can take advantage of the work Bumble has done since its initial hardware checkout in April. Station crew and Astrobee’s team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley used Bumble to map the interior of the space station’s Kibo module. The robots need a map to navigate, and the series of mapping exercises were a necessary step before Bumble took its first solo flight in June. 

Honey received Bumble’s mapping data though a software update from Astrobee engineers using a data port on the dock. Even though the robots now have the same software, Honey needs more testing before it’s ready to fly. The third robot, named Queen, launched to the station in July and will be the last of the three to wake up in space. 

Robots like Astrobee will play a significant part in the agency’s mission to return to the Moon under the Artemis program, and other deep space missions, by increasing astronaut productivity and helping maintain spacecraft when astronauts are not aboard.

Related links:

Astrobee: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1891

Robotics: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/robotics/index.html

Kibo module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory

Artemis: http://www.nasa.gov/artemis

Moon to Mars: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image, Text, Credits: NASA/Gianine Figliozzi.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch