Beacon heard from NanoSail-D (by radio operators in both Huntsville and PA)!

http://twitter.com/NanoSailD/status/27874289243914242

Sail should deploy by an automatic timer 3 days from now

NanoSail-D Ejects - NASA Seeks Amateur Radio Operators' Aid to Listen for Beacon Signal

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=32522

(Press Release)

NASA'S GLORY SATELLITE ARRIVES AT VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE FOR LAUNCH

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The latest Earth-observing satellite developed by NASA, called Glory, arrived Tuesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation for a Feb. 23 launch. Glory was transported by truck from Orbital Sciences Corporation's satellite design, production and testing facility in Dulles, Va.

Glory is NASA's next Earth-observing research mission that will improve our understanding of how the sun and airborne particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate. It will join the Afternoon Constellation or "A-train" of polar-orbiting satellites, a group that includes the Aqua and Aura satellites. Glory will carry two primary instruments, the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) and the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM). APS will measure aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere and will take advantage of the A-train orbit by gathering coincident data with other atmospheric science instruments. TIM will point towards the sun and continue the 32-year data record of the sun's brightness, or total solar irradiance.

"The scientific knowledge gained from Glory will have a significant impact on our understanding of natural and human influences on climate," said Hal Maring, Glory program scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington.

On Jan. 18, Stage 0 of Orbital's Taurus XL 3110 four-stage rocket will be moved to the launch pad and hoisted into position. Stages 1, 2 and 3 will join stage 0 on the pad on Jan 25. The Glory spacecraft will be enclosed in the Taurus XL payload fairing on Feb. 4-5 and transported to the launch pad to be mated to the third stage of the rocket the following day. Once the spacecraft is integrated with stages 1, 2, and 3, the entire unit will be rotated to vertical and hoisted atop stage 0 on Feb. 15.

On Feb. 23, Glory is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 576-E at 2:09 a.m. PST (5:09 a.m. EST). After launch, mission operators will conduct verification tests for 30 days and then begin normal data collection for a period of at least three years. Glory will fly in a low-Earth orbit of 438 miles (705 km) altitude, which is about the distance between Boston and Washington.

Glory is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Launch management is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Orbital is responsible for the Glory satellite's design, manufacture, payload integration and testing, as well as spacecraft operations conducted from its Mission Operations Complex in Dulles, Va. Orbital is also responsible for the mission's launch service with its Taurus XL rocket. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado provided and will operate the TIM instrument. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems in El Segundo, Calif., provided the APS instrument, which will be operated by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.

For more information about NASA's Glory Mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/glory

For more information about NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Pulsar planets? Never heard of those

New Dawn journal is up

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/journal_12_30_10.asp

So one mission at a dwarf planet ends while another one begins. Err, kinda.

Are you referring to the photo ZLD posted? That's Dawn.

Interesting... I thought IKAROS wasn't suppose to pass by Venus till December 18

So this big week in space was apparently 1/3 successful (with the flawless Falcon 9 launch but the setback with Akatsuki and possibly this mission). Darn.

I hope Lightsail has better luck next year

There's nothing online about whether or not Nanosail-D deployed its sails. In fact... There hasn't been ANY update since it was ejected from FASTSAT last weekend. Is NASA even communicating with the spacecraft? (It's Twitter page went silent right after ejection)

SpaceX photo of the Dragon capsule floating in the Pacific after successfuly reentry

If there's an upside to Akatsuki's unfortunate predicament, it's that at least it (and the thousands of names onboard) won't meet a fiery fate in Venus' atmosphere. Inevitable fiery fate by the Sun? Yes. Venus? No. (Assuming, of course, Akatsuki is unable to perform an orbit injection maneuver during the December 2016/January 2017 opportunity as well.)

For the time being, Akatsuki and IKAROS will obviously be in heliocentric orbit together.

It's Nozomi all over again...

EDIT: Nevermind, Hungry beat me to it

Not hearing good news

--Akatsuki ending press conference. No announcement of the meeting until 22:00 and there are reports point out trouble, and it brought back to confirm. It is going to be a long war.

--Akatsuki is unknown or has failed. Gain antenna was in use until now.

New Tweet from @Akatsuki_JAXA: [More] Sagamihara operation room about 28 minutes at 10 December 07, 2010 (Japan time), and received a wave from the Akatsuki. Currently, we went to check the state of the satellite.

Emily posted a helpful chart showing the timeline of events after the orbit insertion burn

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002802/

Communications currently interrupted with the spacecraft since its antenna is facing away from Earth.

We shouldn't officially get an update on Akatsuki's current orbital position till 4 AM, PST (7 AM, EST)

http://twitter.com/Akatsuki_JAXA

Akatsuki begins its orbit insertion burn around Venus in less than an hour. Hopefully everything goes smooth!

New Dawn Journal is up

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/journal_11_30_10.asp

Looks like Nanosail-D has successfully ejected from FASTSAT!

http://twitter.com/NanoSailD/status/11680456701382656

AKATSUKI ready for orbit injection

The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" shifted its attitude at 7:50 a.m. on December 6 to be ready for Venus orbit insertion at 8:49 a.m. on December 7.

On the 7th, we will hold some events to support the AKATSUKI orbit injection. We plan to run the "Venus arrival live broadcast" featuring the AKTSUKI and show the scene of the AKATSUKI Control Room" at a public viewing site. Please come and join the injection moment. (* All time and dates are Japan Standard Time.)

http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f17/topics_e.html

Nanosail-D is set to be ejected from FASTSAT at 10:15 PM, PST tonight. The solar sail will then be deployed 3 days later

http://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/11541869896933376

Unfortunately, there isn't a search database for MSL. Just have your friend re-submit again. Most likely there are scores of duplicate monikers that already make up the 1-million-name list for MSL.

Just thought I'd share that one million names have now been submitted for the MSL mission.

Click on the link in my first post on this thread if you haven't submitted your own name yet