A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is on its way to deliver the second commercial crew docking port and about 5,000 pounds of science investigations and supplies for the International Space Station after a 6:01 p.m. EDT Thursday launch from Florida.
NASA Breaking News
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The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft will attempt another launch atop the Falcon 9 rocket today at 6:01 p.m. EDT. If the weather cooperates for a liftoff from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Dragon will arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday at 10 a.m. with over 5,000 pounds of cargo for the Expedition 60 crew.
Less than a week into their mission, astronauts Drew Morgan and Luca Parmitano are exploring how living in space impacts their visual perception and spatial orientation. The duo took turns wearing virtual reality goggles today testing how they evaluate motion and distance while free-floating.
NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Nick Hague, who have been in space since March, split their schedule today between science and maintenance work. Koch set up cameras in the Columbus lab module to record Morgan and Parmitano during their experiment work. She then measured airflow throughout the station’s U.S. segment.
Hague started his day on plumbing replacing urine-recycling tanks in the Tranquility module. In the afternoon, he stowed algae samples into a science freezer and serviced a 360-degree camera that records cinematic, virtual reality experiences for audiences on Earth.
Cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Alexander Skvortsov researched cardiac activity in the station’s Russian segment this morning. Afterward, Commander Ovchinin worked on communications gear before moving on to a space physics experiment. Skvortsov continued unloading the Soyuz MS-13 crew ship and updating the station’s inventory system.
All six crewmates started Thursday morning measuring their body mass. A device applies a known force to a crewmember with the resulting acceleration providing an accurate value of their body mass in microgravity. The mass measurement principle is based on Newton’s Second Law of Motion stating that force equals mass times acceleration.
Mark Garcia
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The Radio Club de Chile has announced the reactivation of the AMSAT-CE Foundation.
The Government of Chile has announced a plan to renew the Chilean Air Force Fasat Charlie satellite, along with promoting the construction of several micro and nano satellites.
This motivated the AMSAT-CE Foundation to propose that the CESAR-1 project of Chilean radio amateurs can be reactivated, modernized and completed, as part of the government plan.
Radio Club de Chile has supported AMSAT-CE since its begining and the Vice-President of Radio Club of Chile, José Tijoux CE3BCO, has just joined the Board of Directors of AMSAT-CE continuing and strengthening the space activity of Chilean radio amateurs .
The AMSAT-CE Foundation was created in 1993 and its first project is CESAR-1 which stands for CE (Chile) Satellite of Radiocommunication.
AMSAT-CE is designing and building five satellites, to be used by radio amateurs around the world, which will allow a series of scientific experiments in the field of digital communications, as well as gravimetric and orbitgraphic studies.
Of these five satellites, one will be the engineering prototype, three will be flight units, and the remaining one will be used to check or replicate on the ground the operation of the units that are in space.
The CESAR-1 satellite will be a 23 cm cube with a mass of about 12 kg and is planned to have five main experiments:
• A real-time digital transponder (Digipeater) using AX.25 at 9,600 kbps
• An electronic message box (Store and Forward) using AX.25 at 9.6 kbps)
• A 145 MHZ to 436 MHz band FM transponder
• A link to two terrestrial repeaters that will enable low power stations operating on 147 MHz FM to access the satellite
• An on-board GPS receiver, which will collect information for gravimetric and orbitgraphic research.
The orbit of CESAR-1 will be low, polar and heliosynchronous (about 800 km high).
AMSAT-CE
https://www.amsat-ce.org/
https://twitter.com/AmsatChile
Radio Club de Chile
http://www.ce3aa.cl/amsat-ce/
https://twitter.com/RCDECHILE
m5aka
AMSAT-UK
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A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station Wednesday, July 31. Live coverage of the resupply craft’s launch and docking will begin at 7:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
NASA Breaking News
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A drone moves high above downtown Reno, Nevada on the afternoon of June 23, 2019 as part of NASA’s TCL-4 (Technology Capability Level) operation.
NASA Image of the Day
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