Baikonur Cosmodrome. A different view point.

Dear follower,

today I'm proposing an article written by Alexander Kagalnitskiy who spent some days in the Baikonur cosmodrome during the last take-off of Soyuz to the International Space Station and which share to us these feelings about this great event, enjoy:

This past May 2013, I had the unique opportunity to participate in the 6-day tour to the Baikonur space center to witness a manned space rocket launch. The unusual part about it was the fact that I went there as a tour leader from the tour company where I work – “Country of Tourism LTD”. We had a rare chance to provide travel services for a large group of tourists from all over the world! Since this was my first time actually going to Baikonur, I was a bit worried at first, as I was responsible for the entire group. The worry however, went away completely when I realized how united and passionate everyone was.

          The city of Baikonur is fairly small. It only houses around 70000 people, but that doesn’t affect the population’s friendliness, or the fact that the entire city somehow plays a role in the space industry. One might find it a bit disturbing, or unsettling, however I find it amusing and somehow romantic, that on the background or the Soviet era buildings, and monuments dated back to the 1950’s, the most advanced modern science is being put to work. Walking down the city streets, you will hardly notice the fact that only a few kilometers away, they develop, build, service and launch real rockets into space! On a first glance, one might consider Baikonur one of the desert towns, abandoned by progress, where the time has stopped ticking many years ago. It’s like the entire city is frozen in the Soviet time, and is feeling quite comfortable there. When you look closer though, you start to realize that this is not at all true. Progress has not stopped, and the time is still flowing. Nevertheless, this is a very unique and interesting place! 

Every corner is filled with a monument, landmark of some sort, or a real rocket just sitting on a stand on an empty square. One of the original Soyuz rockets is pretty much free for anyone to climb on! Where else will you see that? They have statues of the first space heroes, starting with Korolev and Gagarin, and continuing with the ground layers of the city. You cannot afford to forget your camera when leaving your hotel for a walk! You are guaranteed to see something new and interesting everywhere you go!

                As a tour leader, I had the chance to work with some amazing people, organizing the excursions for my group. The organizational process was quite difficult, but very doable with the help of my local colleagues. Every day we had to face a new unexpected issue, but considering how many people were in  the group, we resolved every single one of them smoothly, and at the end, everyone was happy with their experience. Being one of the organizers, that is the highest reward I could get!

                It’s funny, but when you ask the locals how they feel about the whole space thing, most of them just shrug. I guess when you’ve been living next door to something all your life, at some point you just stop bothering about it. The cosmodrome exists right outside the city, and the people exist inside. And that seems to be the extent to which the majority of locals are interested or concerned. Of course, they love tourists, because they bring money into the small city, but on the other hand, it seems they would have been just fine without all the commotion… It truly is an amazing contrast.

                Locals aside, the tour was amazing! Being one of the organizers, I had the inside information on everything, which made it a lot more predictable, but for the rest of the group, every new day was an adventure. We did not disclose the detailed itinerary right away, in order to sustain that pleasure of conquering the unknown. Turns out we made the right choice! When the group found out that we’re taking them to the press conference with the astronauts, they went ballistic! Not many dared to even dream of such an honor! When we went to see the rollout of the rocket, everyone appreciated how close we stood to the train tracks, which was only a couple of meters away! On the day of the launch we went to the actual Launchpad, where the rocket proudly stood, awaiting her astronauts and getting all fueled-up for the flight. At that point we were also allowed to stand as close as about 20 meters from it! As far as I know, that’s unheard of in tourism world. All those little things made for a huge impression. When everything was said and done, I couldn't help to smile, as I saw all the happy and excited faces!

                All-in-all, I recommend everyone interested in space, or technology, or history to attend a rocket launch in Baikonur! You will see it all, from the landmark-filled city and the full of artifacts museums, to the in-depth interactive displays of the rocket technology and the real perks, such as the press conference, the rocket rollout, and of course, the launch! Our company “Country of Tourism LTD” has been organizing these tours for many years, and now that I actually took part in one of them, I can say with full assurance, that this is the absolute best experience for a true space fanatic! Nowhere else in the world you will see and do the things you see and do with this tour!

©2013 Alexander Kagalnitskiy, “Country of Tourism LTD” adventure@bestrussiantour.com

[Update] Video of the new launch from Baikonur for a Proton-M rocket

Dear follower,

few days ago, the Soyuz rocket has been launch from Baikonur to the International Space station. Today an other rocket will lift-off from the same place in Kazakhstan.  This commercial launch will be the 81st Proton mission since the first commercial flight in April 1996. The rocket will carry on the 22nd SES commercial satellite and the 16th Astrium built satellite launched on Proton.

 Credit: http://www.federalspace.ru

Credit: http://www.federalspace.ru

Credit: http://www.federalspace.ru 

Update : Success of the Proton-M rocket launch !!!! enjoy the video 

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Cassini finds activities on the Saturn's moon, Dione

Dear followers,

The +NASA Cassini spacecraft which explores activities on Dione since 2004 has found some interesting data. The following picture, obtained from Cassini, shows the topography of a mountain known as Janiculum Dorsa on the Saturn's moon, Dione. 

Credit: +NASA 

Scientists have found more evidence for the idea that Dione was likely active in the past. It could still be active now.

Actually, "A picture is emerging that suggests Dione could be a fossil of the wondrous activity Cassini discovered spraying from Saturn's geyser moon Enceladus or perhaps a weaker copycat Enceladus," said Bonnie Buratti of +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who manages the Cassini science team that studies icy satellites. The presence of a subsurface ocean on Dione would boost the astrobiological potential of this once-boring iceball.

Many other little moons in our solar system thought to have a subsurface ocean, such Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa which are among the most geologically active worlds in our solar system.

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9 Months for Curiosity on Mars in 1 minute

Dear follower,

today, I would talk to you about Curiosity, the +NASA rover launched in November 2011 from Earth and landed on Mars in August 2012, yes, 9 months ago !! it's a very long time. After some troubles few weeks ago, and a cut of communications, the Curiosity rover is still working and sending interesting data by exploring the Mars surface.

Today, I would propose you a time lapse video of the 9 months of Curiosity rover summarized in 1 minutes. This work has been performed using data from +NASA and +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Credit: Karl Sanford

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Docking to ISS and welcome onboard to Soyuz crew !

Dear follower,

after the successful of lift-off of the Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazacktsan yesterday night, the docking was performed with success and the three member of the crew in now on-board.

You can watch the docking and the hatch opening to the International Space Station on the following video:

It's good to know them safe and on-board ISS, while the sensor trouble revealed in our previous post. Enjoy this video! It's just awesome !!!

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Successful Soyuz launches with the new crew for Space station

Dear follow,

as we proposed you fews hours ago, you should watch in live the successful launch of Soyuz which carry on the US astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and European Space Agency astronaut +Luca Parmitano to the International Space Station.
If you miss this great event we propose you this video of the take-off !
Enjoy !!!

They will join Expedition 36 crew members Chris Cassidy of +NASA and cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, who have been onboard the station since March.

Take-off of Soyuz in 3h30 !! Live video here

Dear followers,

tonight at 9:30 CEST, 10:30 GMT the spacecraft Soyuz will takes off and carry on three astronauts to ISS as we explained you this morning.

You could follow the takeoff in live with this link provided by +European Space Agency, ESA 

http://spaceinvideos.esa.int/esalive

Enjoy the take-off !!! It will be awesome !!!

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Soyuz takeoff in few hours, the crew is ready: Video !

Dear followers,

we said you yesterday that the preps have start for the final launch of the Soyuz to the International Space Station.

+NASA has proposed to us the video of the crew preps with the Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency, Karen Nyberg from +NASA and +Luca Parmitano from +European Space Agency, ESA . 

The spacecraft will takeoff from Baikonur, Kazakhstan around 10:00 pm GMT. This post will be updated with the live streaming of the takeoff, so stay tune.

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Conjunction of triple planets : Jupiter, Venus and Mercury

Dear follower,

yesterday night, a rare spectacular event happened: people all around the word could see 3 planets in the sky in same time: Jupiter, Venus and Mercury.
This kind of event is very rare; actually the last time it happened was in May 2011 and it won't happen again until October 2015.
For people who could not see it I will propose you some picture taken by fans and a video:

Credits: Chri Schur

Credits: Thierry Legault

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Volare mission to ISS

Dear follower,

next week, we said you that the incoming month will be strongly busy by many launch and docking on ISS. Today, the processes of launch of  the Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station have started from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan as shown in the picture. The expedition 36/37 Soyuz will bring the Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, the flight Engineers +Luca Parmitano of the +European Space Agency, ESA , and Karen Nyberg of +NASA .

Credits: NASA, B. Ingalls

The three cosmonauts, Yurchikhin, Nyberg, and, Parmitano, will remain aboard the station until mid-November and eat great food in the space station ! ;)

We will propose more news and details soon so stay tune.

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Busy incoming month for ISS

Dear follower,

as we said you, yesterday, that the next launch of ATV is coming. However, this event is one of a series during this next month for the International Space Station.

- May 28th:  Soyuz 35 TMA-09M launch which will carry on 3 astronauts, Karen Nyberg from +NASA, Luca Parmitano from +European Space Agency, ESA and Fyodor Yurchikhin from the Russian space agency.

- June 5th: ATV-4 launch with Ariane 5.

- June 11th: Progess 51 undocking from the International Space Station

- June 15th: ATV-4 docking on the International Space Station

- June 26th: Russian EVA

We will propose dedicated article for each event so stay tune.

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Docking sensor still to be fixed on ISS before next ATV approach

Dear follower,

on June 5th, the European ATV should take off withe Ariane 5 to the International Space Station. However, the engineers are still working on a potential problem with a Laser Radar Reflector (LRR) which allows the spacecraft’s autonomous approach to the station. On April 26, Progress M-19M cargo docked at the ISS with one of its KURS (docking system) folded, due to a failure in the deployment mechanism.

The +European Space Agency, ESA didn't communicated about the possible issue or the solutions to fix the problem. However, Josh Byerly from +NASA  revealed that the Progress’ stowed antenna that may have caused the damage in the vicinity of the docking area, where are located the ATV’s navigation aids.

Engineers were not able to assess the potential damage on ISS because the area where the reflector is located is not visible from inside the station. Only external cameras of departing spacecraft could take a look to the critical area.  In the worst case scenario, ATV carries a backup docking system using telegoniometers that emit laser light at a different wavelength.

Although it is still to be confirmed, it is likely that the next crewed Soyuz set to launch on May 28 would be used to fly a replacement of the device.

We should get more news soon, so stay tune.

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Same Water on Earth and Moon

Dear follower,

the water inside the Moon’s mantle came from primitive meteorites. The Moon is thought to have formed from a disc of debris left when a giant object hit the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, very early in Earth’s history. Scientists have long assumed that the heat from an impact of that size would cause hydrogen and other volatile elements to boil off into space, meaning the Moon must have started off completely dry as depicted on the following video .... or not finally ...

However, new research finds, the same source thought to have supplied most of the water on Earth. The findings raise new questions and lead to rethink the models about the forming of the Moon. 

Actually, +NASA  spacecraft and new research based on samples from the Apollo missions have revealed that the Moon has water both on its surface and below. In order to find the origin of the Moon’s water, scientists looked at melt inclusions found in samples brought back from the Apollo missions. Melt inclusions are tiny dots of volcanic glass trapped within crystals called olivine. The crystals prevent water escaping during an eruption and enable researchers to get an idea of what the inside of the Moon is like. 

The researches were performed by Erik Hauri of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, James Van Orman of Case Western Reserve University, and Malcolm Rutherford from Brown and have been published.

The researchers say, that there are some important processes we don’t yet understand about how planets and satellites are formed: “Our work suggests that even highly volatile elements may not be lost completely during a giant impact,” . “We need to go back to the drawing board and discover more about what giant impacts do, and we also need a better handle on volatile inventories in the Moon.”

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ISS switches from Windows to Linux to improve reliability

Dear follower,

the United Space Alliance, which handles the computers boarded on the International Space Station in association with +NASA , has announced that the Windows XP computers aboard the ISS have been switched to +Linux . “We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable.”

Credit: 

This changing, it's not a surprise. +Linux  is the scientific community’s operating system of choice. The +CERN Large Hadron Collider is controlled by Linux. +NASA and +SpaceX ground stations use Linux. Actually, for critical applications that require absolute stability, which most scientific experiments are, Linux is the obvious choice. The fact that the entire OS is open source and can be easily customized for each experiment is obviously a very big draw, too.

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Bright explosion ever observed on the Moon

Dear followers,

+NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions due to meteorites hitting the lunar surface. This phenomenon is called "Lunar meteor showers"; and it have turned out to be more common than anyone expected. Actually hundreds of impacts are detected every year.

Credit: Nasa

"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before."

Dear follower, you should know that anyone looking at the Moon at the moment of impact could have seen the explosion; no telescope required.

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Asteroid 1998 QE2 close to Earth on May 31th

Dead followers,

next Friday, on May 31th 2013, the asteroid 1998 QE2 will be close to Earth, closer than about 5.8 million kilometers, or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. The asteroid was discovered on August 19th 1998, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program near Socorro, New Mexico. 

The Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be an outstanding radar imaging target for the Goldstone and Arecibo telescope in order to obtain a series of high-resolution images that could reveal a wealth of surface features. The closest approach of the asteroid occurs on May 31 at 1:59 p.m. Pacific (4:59 p.m. Eastern / 20:59 UTC).

"Whenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin. We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid's distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise." said Lance Benner , the principal investigator for the Goldstone radar observations from +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory  in Pasadena, Calif.

+NASA  places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the U.S. has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects. Last year, the NEO budget was increased from $6 million to $20 million.

In 2016, +NASA  will launch a robotic probe, called the OSIRIS-REx to the asteroid (101955) Bennu. Aside from monitoring potential threats, the study of asteroids and comets enables a valuable opportunity to learn more about the origins of our solar system, the source of water on Earth, and even the origin of organic molecules that lead to the development of life. 

+NASA  recently announced developing a first-ever mission to identify, capture and relocate an asteroid for human exploration. Using game-changing technologies advanced by the Administration, this mission would mark an unprecedented technological achievement that raises the bar of what humans can do in space. Capturing and redirecting an asteroid will integrate the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration capabilities and draw on the innovation of America's brightest scientists and engineers. 

More information about asteroid radar research is at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ 

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Kepler Space Telescope is down

Dear followers,

bad news for the search for exo-planets. The U.S. space telescope Kepler which has increased the discovery of new planets since 2009, is paralyzed by a technical problem. This dysfunction could spell the premature end of his four-year mission, +NASA said yesterday (May 15th 2013).

Kepler is the first telescope dedicated to the search for planets sisters of the Earth in other solar systems in our galaxy, the Milky Way. So far it has detected 2,740 potential exo-planets which 122 were confirmed to the day using telescopes and other equipment.

Credit: wikipedia

+Kepler Space Telescope is blocked by the malfunction of a mechanism which allows the telescope to focus on a given point in the sky towards said John Grunsfeld, the head of the science division of the U.S. space agency. "The telescope was put into safe mode" to ensure that the solar panels facing the sun to recharge the batteries and continue to communicate with Earth, he said.

Engineers found last week that it did not move despite gyroscope controls from the ground. This problem had already occurred in July with another gyro Kepler has stopped working, said the head of NASA.

"Unfortunately Kepler is not a place where you can send astronauts" to fix it, he said, explaining that the engineers' carefully examined the data (...) to see if it is possible to resume the scientific activities of the telescope. " But "we are not yet ready to declare the end of Kepler," insisted John Grunsfeld, arguing that "in all respects the Kepler mission was a success."

In April, astronauts had announced the discovery by Kepler, two exoplanets with the greatest similarity to Earth ever recorded and where water could remain liquid and potentially allow life to exist.

An Atlas 5 rocket successfully took-off from Cape Canaveral

Dear follower,

2 days ago, in Baikonur the Proton rocket had liftoff. Today, in Cape Canaveral, the Atlas 5 has successfully carried a replacement Global Positioning System satellite for the United States Air Force.
The Centaur upper stage completed its second burn and released the Global Positioning System 2F-4 satellite into the navigation network.

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II 

Credit: NASAgovVideo

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The crew of expedition 35 to ISS is back on Earth

Dear followers,

the Canadian astronaut +Chris Hadfield, commander of the just-completed Expedition 35 aboard the International Space Station, landed safely few hours ago in Kazakhstan along with the other crew members Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko after five months in orbit. 

Credit: Mikhail Metzel

On aboard the ISS, Commander +Chris Hadfield took hundreds of photographs. Moreover he conducted conferences with students on Earth thanks to Hangout on +Google+ , he took his stories to social media, catching the attention of the world. 

His videos answered questions about everyday existence in zero-gravity with a dose of science mixed with humor.

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Proton rocket is taking-off in few minutes

Dear followers,

after the last processes, Proton rocket is taking-off in few minutes from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

The Eutelsat 3D communications satellite are carrying on. The live streaming video of the take-off could be find here:

http://spaceflightnow.com/proton/eutelsat3d/status.html

Stay tunes !

Beautiful annular solar eclipse on May 10th

Dear follower,

as we said you few days ago, a beautiful annular solar eclipse occurred on May 10th. This eclipse could be observed in Australia and Pacific area.

Many pictures of this event could be find on the web, but I would propose you some of the best of them. 

 Credit Geof Sims 

Credit Joerg Schoppmeyer

Moreover, a great video issued from russian satellite Elektro-L has been proposed

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ESA's Vega launcher performes new success with commercials satellite and micro-satellite

Dear follower,

after the successful launch of +NASA few days ago, +European Space Agency, ESA scores a second flight with the newest launch vehicle, Vega from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Two Earth observation satellites, ESA’s Proba-V and Vietnam’s VNREDSat‑1A, were released into different orbits, demonstrating the rocket’s versatility. Estonia’s first satellite, the ESTCube‑1 technology demonstrator, was also released into orbit.

After releasing the first satellite Proba-V, the upper stage performed a third burn and the top half of the egg-shaped Vega Secondary Payload Adapter was ejected. After a fourth burn to circularize the orbit at an altitude of 704 km, VNREDSat-1A was released around 2 hours into flight. ESTCube‑1 was ejected from its dispenser few minutes later.

ESTCube-1 is Estonia’s first satellite. This 1.3 kg CubeSat was designed and built by students from the University of Tartu with a contribution from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It will deploy a 10 m-long tether to demonstrate electrostatic movement through the plasma flow, which could lead to electrostatic solar sails for propellant-less interplanetary travel.

Android Phone satellites sent by NASA down

Dear followers,

few days ago, we said you that +NASA has sent very small satellites called nano-satellite based on +Nexus one smartphone.  During the first day in orbit, the 3 satellites sent pictures taken in the space environment by the CMOS sensor. Both backgrounds received 100%, now receiving medium and high resolution packets.
here is presented 2 pictures received the April 24th.

The mission successfully ended Saturday, April 27, 2013, after predicted atmospheric drag caused the PhoneSats to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up. No one has been able to hear from the satellites since, which confirms the predictions.

The PhoneSat team is continuing to develop the PhoneSats using consumer technology to greatly increase the capability of the satellite whilst developing with a low cost.
A next versions are launching late this year so stay tuned !!

Mars Curiosity rover back to work after 5 weeks break

Dear followers,

+NASA's Curiosity rover is back in business after a weeks-long communication gap caused by solar interference. The rover had been on its own since early April, when Mars slipped behind the Sun from Earth's perspective.

Sun can disrupt communications between the two planets in this alignment, which is known as a Mars solar conjunction, so Curiosity's handlers at Mission Control had temporarily stopped sending commands to the one-ton rover. Now, +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory  engineers from +NASA  and academics from the University of Leicester in UK will be unable to send commands to the rover due to solar interference from the Sun.

Curiosity landed inside the red planet's huge Gale Crater in August last year, kicking off a two-year surface mission to determine if Mars has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. The rover has already checked off its main mission goal. Before conjunction, Curiosity collected samples from a hole it drilled 6.4 centimetres into a rocky outcrop called John Klein.

The rover's analysis of these samples allowed mission scientists to determine that Mars was indeed habitable billions of years ago. Curiosity's post-conjunction plan involves drilling another hole nearby, to confirm and extend scientists' understanding of the John Klein area, mission officials have said.

When that work is done, Curiosity will likely begin the 10 kilometres trek to the base of Mount Sharp, the mysterious 5.4 km-high mountain that rises from Gale's center. Mars solar conjunctions occur every 26 months, so veterans of NASA's Mars missions are used to dealing with them, the report said.

Solar eclipse of May 10, 2013

Dear follower,

after an Lunar eclipse few days, a solar eclipse will take place on May 9 - 10 (UTC), 2013. This solar eclipse will be an annular solar eclipse with a magnitude of 0.9544. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. 

Actually, an annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of light coming from the Sun. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region thousands of kilometers wide.

Annularity will be visible from northern Australia and the southern Pacific Ocean, with the maximum of 6 minutes 3 seconds visible from the Pacific Ocean east of French Polynesia.

So Australian and Pacific followers, we are waiting from great images from you ! ;)