"This Article examines the growing number of soon-to-be-ubiquitous constellations of small satellites and the special problems they pose. It also suggests some legal reforms to combat the dilemmas and temper an otherwise dangerous renewal of an unconstrained and unproductive international race to space."
"As the numbers of rocket launches and commercial aircraft flights increase, the probability of a catastrophic collision between an aircraft and reentering space debris is also growing. ... From a broad economic perspective, space companies are externalizing some of their risks and costs and imposing them on the aviation industry."
I’m not working this program so I can’t speak to this particular thing, but I have worked several launches on console in Mission Control.
A scrub this late, at least for me with Space Shuttle, was so hard mentally! You get into a mindset when, over many hours (our ascent shifts ended ~ 1 hr after Post Insertion, so we arrived on console ~ 7 hrs before launch), you psych yourself up for liftoff. It’s very deflating to be so close & not go! #nasa
@absolutspacegrl@thejapantimes What I do not understand, the programs are that expensive - why crucial Systems are not designed with redundancy. Especially - like I read it from the media - it was a ground computer system failure. Why there is no secondary system to take over?
@schnedan@thejapantimes There is redundancy but some failures happen prelaunch where you either don’t have time to troubleshoot, don’t understand the failure (STS-114 ECO sensors), or both.
There are Launch Commit Criteria (LCC) that have an effectivity- if x happens at T-4 hours, you do y. If x happens at T-1 hour, you do z, etc.
In this case it sounds like there was no time, and you don’t want to mess with bad software on ascent. That could create much bigger problems.
Preparations for NASA’s Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Launch are in progress.
Launch time: 12:25 pm ET
"The two NASA astronauts aboard, flight commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, will test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, including launch, docking, and return to Earth. After a one-week stay docked to the International Space Station, the Starliner and crew will land under parachutes in the western United States."
Starliner launch is now scheduled for 10:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday, June 5.
"The ULA team identified an issue with a single ground power supply within one of the 3 redundant chassis that provides power to a subset of computer cards controlling various system functions, including the card responsible for the stable replenishment topping valves for the Centaur upper stage."
The faulty chassis have been replaced with a spare unit.
Zooming in on a peculiar white rock in Neretva Vallis
This is a combination of three SuperCam RMI images and one Mastcam-Z image taken by the #Perseverance mars rover.
The images were taken two days ago on Sol 1164.
Last minute change to the Boeing CFT manifest — a urine processor on the ISS failed, apparently, and Boeing is taking a new one up for them. They had to pull off crew suitcases to make room.
#PPOD: To end our week, we look back at this beautiful picture of Titan and Saturn taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on May 22, 2015. Processed using calibrated near-infrared (MT2, CB2) filtered images. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill
Nuts, bolts, rivets, springs, metal sheets, brackets, cables, connectors, wave-guides, antennas, all designed by naturally intelligent (NI™) beings and assembled by their dexterous hands to form a multi-functional creature that was sent to operate on an inhospitable planet 15 light-minutes away, and which is presently capturing images of what appears to be an epic "selfie" at a hill in the middle of a long since dry ancient riverbed.
@stim3on
Ah, good catch, and you had already mentioned a selfie being captured earlier. The metadata wouldn't fit in the post, so it slipped my attention. Its from that Sol, yes.