Space Station Systems | NASA | 1988
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky sketches out a small space station in his 1883 Свободное Пространство (“Free Space”)
This animation of radar images shows the Tiangong-1 space station tumbling out of control on March 27th, 2018. The re-entry will be on or around April 1st, located somewhere between 43°N and 43°S. It is expected that at least some of the 8.5 ton spacecraft will impact the Earth’s surface.
Image credit: Fraunhofer FHR
Tiangong-1 Reentry
It is a well known scientific principle that any measurement or prediction will always have an associated uncertainty. In the case of most reentering objects, the uncertainty associated with predicting reentry location is extremely large and precludes an accurate location prediction until shortly before the reentry has occured. In general, it is much easier to predict an accurate reentry time rather than an accurate reentry location. Based on Tiangong-1’s inclination, however, we can confidently say that this object will reenter somewhere between 43° North and 43° South latitudes.
Tiangong-1: Chinese space station will crash to Earth within months
An 8.5-tonne Chinese space station has accelerated its out-of-control descent towards Earth and is expected to crash to the surface within a few months.
The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was launched in 2011 and described as a “potent political symbol” of China, part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower.
It was used for both manned and unmanned missions and visited by China’s first female astronaut, Liu Yang, in 2012.
But in 2016, after months of speculation, Chinese officials confirmed they had lost control of the space station and it would crash to Earth in 2017 or 2018. China’s space agency has since notified the UN that it expects Tiangong-1 to come down between October 2017 and April 2018.
1977 NASA concept art shows a space station under construction, with an expended shuttle external tank as a core component of the base.
NASA, ISS partners quietly completing design of possible Moon-orbiting space station
Last month, experts from five space agencies held a behind-the-scenes meeting in Tsukuba, Japan, they home of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. In the following few months, the designs for the largest international undertaking in human spaceflight since the ISS will be reviewed by space agencies. Engineers might also begin constructing the first full-scale prototype of the near-lunar habitat here on Earth to assess the ability of proposed modules to support the crew.
The ISS partners also made a crucial decision in Tsukuba to assemble and operate the proposed cis-lunar station in a so-called Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit, or NRHO. This giant, egg-shaped loop extends 70,000 kilometers from the Moon at its farthest point and comes as close as 1,500 kilometers at the nearest. An NHRO would enable the station to save propellant for orbital corrections and avoids the blocking of sunlight by the Moon from reaching the station’s solar panels, while always keeping the spacecraft within a line of sight to ground controllers on Earth.
A company you’ve never heard of plans to build the world’s first private space station
Not many people have heard of Axiom Space outside a small segment of the space community.
The company didn’t exist until 2016, and only has a half-dozen employees. Yet it only takes a quick glance at the company’s publicity materials or a chat with one of its representatives to see that the name Axiom fits well.
An axiom is a statement that is established, accepted or self-evidently true, and that’s how the company talks about its future. They aren’t planning to build the first private space station—they’re doing it. They aren’t hoping to launch a mutlipurpose module to the International Space Station in 2020—they are. An Axiom-sponsored astronaut isn’t projected to visit the station in 2019—he or she is.
It’s all so straightforward and matter-of-fact, you find yourself asking: Does Axiom know something I don’t?
Quite possibly. The company, led by Mike Suffredini, who managed NASA’s ISS program for 10 years, and Kam Ghaffarian, the CEO of SGT, a major NASA contractor responsible for ISS operations and astronaut training, has big ambitions that could potentially re-shape the space industry. Will they be able to pull it off?
Chinese officials have announced that this morning’s launch of the Tiangong-2 space station was successful. For more on this mission, read Andrew Jones’ coverage:
China will take another step on its long march to a permanent orbital outpost with the launch of the Tiangong-2 orbital module from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The launch, to be conducted by a Long March 2F – is set to take place at XX:XXUTC from the 921 Launch Pad of the LC43 Launch Complex. The new orbital outpost will enable the crews to remain in orbit for 30-day missions.
Model of a Bernal sphere space colony, 1976. (NASA)
a shining beacon in space, all alone in the night
Installed on the Almaz space station in 1970s, the R-23M Kartech was derived from a powerful aircraft weapon. The original 23-millimeter cannon was designed by Aron Rikhter for the Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder supersonic bomber. That gun is relatively well known. However, its space-based cousin had largely remained in obscurity.
[…]
The early Soviet space station project code-named Almaz (“diamond”) became the first real candidate for defensive space weaponry. The habitable outpost was intended almost exclusively for military purposes, starting with reconnaissance. Along with some state-of-the-art spy equipment, such as cameras and radar, Almaz would carry the cannon in its arsenal.
[…]
Only after the fall of the USSR did Russian sources revealed that the cannon had actually fired in orbit. It happened on Jan. 24, 1975, onboard the Salyut-3 space station. Worried about how firing a giant cannon would impact the outpost itself, Soviet officials scheduled the test firing just hours before the planned de-orbiting of the station, and long after the departure of the crew on July 19, 1974. The outpost ignited its jet thrusters simultaneously with firing the cannon to counteract the weapon’s powerful recoil. According to various sources, the cannon fired from one to three blasts, reportedly firing around 20 shells in all.
kreuzaderny