Fogbow

Jeff Bezos, hours after flying to space: "We need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industry, and move it into space. And keep Earth as this beautiful gem of a planet that it is."

A test of an anti-satellite weapon has spread dangerous debris across space, the US State Department has said.

It accused Russia of conducting the test that has since led to a dangerous cloud of hundreds of thousands of objects being dispersed above Earth.

The accusation came just hours after crew members on the International Space Station – representing both the US and Russian space agencies – were forced to shelter in place as a cloud of debris threatened the floating lab.

“This test will significantly increase the risk to astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station, as well as to other human spaceflight activities,” a State Department spokesperson said.

Out-of-control SpaceX rocket on collision course with moon
Falcon 9 booster, launched from Florida in 2015 to deploy Deep Space Climate Observatory, has followed ‘chaotic’ orbit since

Samantha Lock
Wed 26 Jan 2022 04.11 GMT

A SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after spending almost seven years hurtling through space, experts say.

The booster was originally launched from Florida in February 2015 as part of an interplanetary mission to send a space weather satellite on a million-mile journey.

But after completing a long burn of its engines and sending the NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory on its way to the Lagrange point – a gravity-neutral position four times further than the moon and in direct line with the sun – the rocket’s second stage became derelict.

At this stage it was high enough that it did not have enough fuel to return to Earth’s atmosphere but also “lacked the energy to escape the gravity of the Earth-Moon system”, meteorologist Eric Berger explained in a recent post on Ars Technica.

“So it has been following a somewhat chaotic orbit since February 2015,” Berger added.

This illustration made available by NASA in April 2020 depicts Artemis astronauts on the Moon. On Thursday, April 30, 2020, NASA announced the three companies that will develop, build and fly lunar landers, with the goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2024. The companies are SpaceX, led by Elon Musk; Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos; and Dynetics, a Huntsville, Ala., subsidiary of Leidos. (NASA via AP)
Nasa picks Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build spacecraft to return humans to moon
Read more
Space observers believe the rocket – about four metric tonnes of “space junk” – is on course to intersect with the moon at a velocity of about 2.58km/s in a matter of weeks.

Bill Gray, who writes software to track near-Earth objects, asteroids, minor planets, and comets, has said the Falcon 9’s upper stage will very likely hit the far side of the moon, near the equator, on 4 March.



https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... h-the-moon

Solar Storm Destroys 40 New SpaceX Satellites in Orbit
The geomagnetic incident resulted in the Starlink transmitters drifting back into Earth’s atmosphere, where they will burn up, potentially costing the company about $100 million.

By Robin George Andrews
Feb. 9, 2022

Over the past three years, SpaceX has deployed thousands of satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of its business to beam high-speed internet service from space. But the company’s latest deployment of 49 new satellites after a Feb. 3 launch did not go as planned.

As a consequence of a geomagnetic storm triggered by a recent outburst of the sun, up to 40 of 49 newly launched Starlink satellites have been knocked out of commission. They are in the process of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, where they will be incinerated.

The incident highlights the hazards faced by numerous companies planning to put tens of thousands of small satellites in orbit to provide internet service from space. And it’s possible that more solar outbursts will knock some of these newly deployed orbital transmitters out of the sky. The sun has an 11-year-long cycle in which it oscillates between hyperactive and quiescent states. Presently, it is ramping up to its peak, which has been forecast to arrive around 2025.

This recent solar paroxysm was relatively moderate by the sun’s standards. “I have every confidence that we’re going to see an extreme event in the next cycle, because that typically is what happens during a solar maximum,” said Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at the University of Southampton in England. If a milquetoast outburst can knock out 40 Starlink satellites hanging out at low orbital altitudes, a more potent solar scream has the potential to inflict greater harm on the mega-constellations of SpaceX and other companies.

SpaceX announced the looming destruction of as many as 40 of its satellites in a company blog post on Tuesday night. The company said that after the launch, the satellites were released to their intended orbit, about 130 miles above Earth.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/scie ... storm.html

The sun has an 11-year-long cycle in which it oscillates between hyperactive and quiescent states. Presently, it is ramping up to its peak, which has been forecast to arrive around 2025.

NASA Plans a Fiery End for the International Space Station by 2031
The space agency has announced the timing of the ISS’s demise as part of a long-planned transition to private orbital outposts

By Mike Wall,
SPACE.com on February 3, 2022

The International Space Station’s final nine years are going to be busy.

NASA just released a report outlining the big-picture goals for the rest of the orbiting lab’s operational life, which is expected to end with a controlled deorbit in January 2031.

These goals are: enabling deep-space exploration, conducting research to benefit humanity, inspiring our species to greater heights, leading and encouraging international cooperation and helping the U.S. private spaceflight industry gain more momentum.

“The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity,” Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station at NASA headquarters, said in a statement Monday (Jan. 31). (The orbiting lab has hosted rotating astronaut crews continuously since November 2000.)

“This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit,” Gatens added. “We look forward to maximizing these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow.”

NASA has been laying the groundwork for that transition for some time now. For example, in December 2021, the agency awarded a total of $415 million to three companies—Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman—that are leading efforts to build private space stations in Earth orbit.



https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... n-by-2031/

John Thomas8 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 27, 2022 9:48 am That Artemis thingy? It's launching Monday: