ESA SWARM Launch: Lift off!

Replay of the Swarm liftoff on a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia at 12:02 GMT (13:02 CET) on 22 November 2013.

The three-satellite Swarm mission aims to provide new information on the sources of the magnetic field inside Earth. This includes understanding how the magnetic field is related to the motion of molten iron in the outer core, how the conductivity of the mantle is related to its composition and how the crust has been magnetised over geological timescales.

It will also investigate how the magnetic field relates to Earth’s environment through the radiation belts and their near-Earth effects, including the solar wind energy input into the upper atmosphere.

Danish Space Alliance ready for lift off

Examples of potential space business areas for Aquaporin Inside membranes are: Drinking water in space suits, in space capsules and on space stations, clean technical water for specific use e.g. cooling of space suits and spacecraft systems, water for humidity control, batteries and other applications, and water purification of local sources on foreign celestial bodies for future exploration.

Aquaporin A/S and Danish Aerospace Company ApS have created a new promising Joint Venture company in the space sector under the name Aquaporin Space Alliance (ASA).



The new company will commercialize the Aquaporin Inside technology in space applications and space programs together with European and US-based entities. (See video)

Aquaporin Inside membranes offer a broad field of applications within the European and US space programs primarily in Manned Space programs such as those of ESA and NASA and within the new growing private sector space. The membranes use aquaporin molecules for transport of water across a membrane.

Aquaporins are Nature's own water filter and facilitate rapid, highly selective water transport in nature. The physiological importance of the aquaporin in human is perhaps most conspicuous in the kidney, where approximately 150-200 litres of water are reabsorbed from the primary urine each day.

Examples of potential space business areas for Aquaporin Inside membranes are: Drinking water in space suits, in space capsules and on space stations, clean technical water for specific use e.g. cooling of space suits and spacecraft systems, water for humidity control, batteries and other applications, and water purification of local sources on foreign celestial bodies for future exploration.

"Water and exercise are absolutely essential to keeping astronauts alive and fit on space voyages. With the combination of Aquaporin's cutting-edge Aquaporin Inside membrane technology and Danish Aerospace Company's extensive space know-how and exercise technology, Aquaporin Space Alliance is ready to provide radical new solutions to the Space Industry capable of keeping astronauts on future manned missions to asteroids and Mars healthy all the way", says Thomas A. E. Andersen, CEO of ASA.

Aquaporin holds core expertise and patents in the field of aquaporin membranes, and is currently in the process of enhancing scope and manufacturing capabilities to prepare for commercial sales of its membranes by the end of 2013.

Over the last year, the company has been delivering test membranes to selected industrial collaboration partners, NASA in the US.

Danish Aerospace Company holds key expertise in deploying advanced technology in space projects together with customers in the space field and has done so successfully for 25 years.

ESA Galileo: Soyuz Rocket lift off with 2 DLR Satellites on board

ESA ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi: Nasa Viseo of Launch Lift-off

The European Space Agency's third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from the Arianespace launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, at 12:34 a.m. EDT Friday, beginning a six-day journey to the International Space Station.

The 13-ton "Edoardo Amaldi" spacecraft, named in honor of the 20th-century Italian physicist who is regarded as one of the fathers of European spaceflight, is delivering 7.2 tons of propellant, water and supplies to the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory.

ESA ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi: Europe’s smart supply ship on its way to Space Station

ESA’s ATV Edoardo Amaldi lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, today at 04:34 GMT (05:34 CET, 01:34 local) on an Ariane 5 launcher, operated by Arianespace, heading towards the International Space Station.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle, the most complex spacecraft ever produced in Europe, is now en route to deliver essential supplies to the orbital outpost. It will also reboost the Space Station’s orbit while it is attached for about five months.

ATV Edoardo Amaldi is the third in a series of five supply ships developed in Europe to fulfil its obligation towards the exploitation costs of the Station.

This vessel is the first to have been processed and launched within the target rate of one per year.

• Max cargo capacity: 7.6 tonnes of dry and liquid supplies
• Mass at launch: About 20 tonnes depending on cargo manifest
• Dimensions: 10.3m long and 4.5m wide - the size of a large bus
• Solar panels: Once unfolded, the solar wings span 22.3m
• Engine power: 4x 490-Newton thrusters; and 28x 220N thrusters
• Capability: The ship finds and docks with the ISS autonomously
• No re-use: The vehicle is destroyed with ISS rubbish at mission end

US Air Force Reusable Rockets: Giant Leap From Spaceport America

Lockheed Martin’s Reusable Booster System Flight Demonstrator Program is under way, designed to advance the affordability, operability and responsiveness of future spacelift capabilities over current expendable launchers. 

This image shows how the vehicle would land.

CREDIT: Lockheed Martin

Billed as the nation’s first dedicated commercial spaceport, New Mexico's Spaceport America is becoming a desirable location to experiment with new types of reusable booster systems.

Armadillo Aerospace, of Heath, Texas, used the site on Dec. 4 to test their STIG A reusable suborbital rocket technology. The rocket shot to a projected suborbital altitude of 137,500 feet (about 42 kilometers) above the Earth.

The STIG A flight demonstrated a number of technologies that Armadillo is assessing for a human-passenger suborbital program, said Neil Milburn, vice president of program management at Armadillo Aerospace.

Armadillo's test program is geared toward providing a way for civilians to access suborbital space through a partnership with Space Adventures Ltd., a space tourism firm based in Vienna, Va.

NASA Mars Science Lab and Curiosity Rover Launches

The Atlantic Ocean provides a backdrop as the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket clears the tower at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Sealed inside the rocket's protective payload fairing is NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft, beginning a 9-month interplanetary cruise to Mars.

Liftoff was at 10:02 a.m. EST Nov. 26. MSL's components include a car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for signs of life, including methane, and help determine if the gas is from a biological or geological source.

Image Credit: NASA/Darrell L. McCall

NASA Shuttle: The End of an Era of Achievement and Awe

Workers measured and marked in bright red the letters "MLG" at the spot where space shuttle Atlantis' main landing gear came to rest after the vehicle's final return from space.

Securing the space shuttle fleet's place in history on the STS-135 mission, Atlantis safely and successfully rounded out NASA's Space Shuttle Program on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Main gear touchdown was at 5:57:00 a.m. EDT, followed by nose gear touchdown at 5:57:20 a.m., and wheelstop at 5:57:54 a.m. On the 37th shuttle mission to the International Space Station, STS-135 delivered more than 9,400 pounds of spare parts, equipment and supplies in the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module that will sustain station operations for the next year.

STS-135 was the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis, which has spent 307 days in space, orbited Earth 4,848 times and traveled 125,935,769 miles.

Image Credit: NASA/Kyle Herring

NASA: Shuttle Discovery lifts off succesfully

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery, with its seven-member crew, launched at 11:59 p.m. EDT Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The shuttle Discovery will deliver supplies, equipment and a new crew member to the International Space Station.

Inside the shuttle's cargo bay is the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, a pressurised "moving van" that will be temporarily installed to the station.

The module will deliver storage racks; materials and fluids science racks; a freezer to store research samples; a new sleeping compartment; an air purification system; and a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert. The name "Colbert" received the most entries in NASA's online poll to name the station's Node 3. NASA named the node Tranquility.

Shortly before liftoff, Commander Rick Sturckow said, "Thanks to everyone who helped prepare for this mission. Let’s go step up the science on the International Space Station!"

The 13-day flight will include three spacewalks to replace experiments outside the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory, install a new ammonia storage tank and return the used one. Ammonia is needed to move excess heat from inside the station to the radiators located outside.

Sturckow is joined on the STS-128 mission by Pilot Kevin Ford, Mission Specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas and European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang. NASA astronaut Nicole Stott will fly to the complex aboard Discovery to begin a three-month mission as a station resident. She replaces NASA's Tim Kopra, who will return home on Discovery. Ford, Hernandez and Stott are first-time space fliers.

The mission marks the start of the transition from assembling the space station to using it for continuous scientific research. Assembly and maintenance activities have dominated the available time for crew work. As completion nears, additional facilities and the crew members to operate them will enable a measured increase in time devoted to research as a national and multinational orbiting laboratory.

Discovery's first landing opportunity at Kennedy is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 10, at 7:09 p.m. EDT. This mission is the 128th space shuttle flight, the 30th to the station, the 37th for Discovery and the fourth in 2009.