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 US launched a spy satellite plus more 12 small satellites.
On September 13, 2012 at 21:39 UTC the "Atlas-5” rocket-carrier was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California's Central Coast, USA.
The launch was performed by United Launch Alliance supported by the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command.
The rocket orbited the NROL-36 classified payload.
The "Atlas-5” rocket also orbited 12 small satellites:
SMDC-ONE 2.1 (Space and Missile Defense Command-ONE 2.1), SMDC-ONE 2.2 (Space and Missile Defense Command-ONE 2.2), STARE’ Aeneas, OUTSat, Aerocube-4, Aerocube-4.5 F1, Aerocube-4.5 F2 и CP5 (California Polytechnic), CINEMA 1 (Cubesat for Ion, Neutral, Electron, Magnetic), CSSWE (Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment) and CXBN (Cosmic X-ray Background Nanosat).
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Date: 15.09.2012
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The Japanese “Kountori 3” spacecraft left the ISS.
On September 12, 2012 the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), Kountori 3 left the International Space Station.
Using the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), Kountori 3 (HTV3) was moved to the releasing point below the station and released from the SSRMS at 15:50 UTC.
After the release, the unmanned supply spacecraft performed separation maneuvers to depart from the ISS proximity. The Kountori 3 is scheduled to reenter the atmosphere on September 14.
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Indian rocket orbited a French satellite.
On September 9, 2012 at 04:23 UTC the PSLV C-21 rocket-carrier was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island, India's primary launch site on the country's east coast about 50 miles north of Chennai. The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket orbited the French "Spot 6” commercial Earth imaging satellite and the student-built "Proiteres” microsatellite for the Osaka Institute of Technology in Japan.
The Spot 6 satellite will collect high-resolution imagery, resolving objects as small as 1.5 meters. Spot 6 was built by Astrium Satellites of France.
Looking through: 2012 |
Date: 11.09.2012
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U.S. and Japanese Astronauts performed the 2nd spacewalk.
On September 5, 2012 astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide performed their second spacewalk. They completed the installation of a Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) that was hampered last week by a possible misalignment and damaged threads where a bolt must be placed. They also installed a camera on the International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2.
The spacewalk lasted 6 hours and 28 minutes.
The MBSU is a heavy component that is used to relay power from the station’s solar arrays to its systems.
Sunita Williams surpassed Peggy Whitson during the September 5 excursion for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. Whitson worked outside for 39 hours and 46 minutes over the course of six spacewalks. Williams has conducted six spacewalks for a total of 44 hours and 2 minutes.
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The 55th Anniversary of Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
In July 2012 Russian Post issued the postal stationery (a post card) devoted to the 55th Anniversary of Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
The post card depicts the "Soyuz -2” rocket-carrier.
Total edition is 13 000 post cards.
The card was postmarked with the special official cancellation also devoted to the 55th Anniversary of Plesetsk Cosmodrome as well as the "Day of the town of Mirniy” special official cancellation.
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Rocketry pioneer Fridrikh Tsander in a new postage stamp.
On August 9, 2012 the Russian Post issued a postage stamp devoted to the 125th birthday Anniversary of Fridrikh Tsander, a pioneer of rocketry and spaceflight in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. He designed the first liquid-fuelled rocket to be launched in the Soviet Union, GIRD-X, and made many important theoretical contributions to the road to space.
The stamp depicts a portrait showing Fridrikh Tsander and his model of winged rocket that he believed would be suitable for interplanetary flight.
The size of stamp is 42 X 30 millimeters.
The stamp is printed by sheets of 15 (3 X 5) stamps.
Total edition is 525 000 stamps (35 000 sheets).
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U.S. and Japanese Astronauts performed a spacewalk.
On August 30, 2012 U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide performed almost a record long spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS), NASA reported. The spacewalkers spent 8 hours and 17 minutes in the outer space doing maintenance work on the ISS. The longest spacewalk of 8 hours and 56 minutes was made by U.S. astronauts Susan Helms and James Voss in 2001. Williams and Hoshide, however, failed to fulfill their task of installing a new Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) on the International Space Station’s s-zero truss as they had difficulties driving the bolts to secure the equipment.
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NASA launches twin probes to study radiation belt.
On August 30, 2012 the "Atlas-5” rocket-carrier was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. The launch was performed by United Launch Alliance supported by the 45th Space Wing of US Air Force. The rocket orbited two NASA's RBSP (Radiation Belt Storm Probes) satellites.
The two satellites are the first dual-spacecraft mission created to investigate the hazardous regions of near-Earth space, known as the radiation belts.
These two belts, named for their discoverer, James Van Allen, encircle the planet and are filled with highly charged particles. The belts are affected by solar storms and coronal mass ejections and sometimes swell dramatically. When this occurs, they can pose dangers to communications, GPS satellites and human spaceflight.
The RBSP satellites will spend the next two years looping through every part of both Van Allen belts. By having two spacecraft in different regions of the belts at the same time, scientist
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Looking through: 1524 |
Date: 01.09.2012
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Neil Armstrong passed away.
Neil Armstrong, one of the most famous men of the 20th century and the first human to walk on the Moon, died after complications from cardiovascular surgery on August 25, 2012. He was 82.
Born August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Armstrong was a naval aviator in the Korean War, flew the X-15, served as command pilot for Gemini 8 in 1966 and led Apollo 11 to the Sea of Tranquility in 1969.
Looking through: 1637 |
Date: 27.08.2012
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Russian cosmonauts performed a spacewalk.
On August 20, 2012 Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yury Malenchenko completed a five hour and 50 minute spacewalk having carried out all planned maintenance tasks on the International Space Station (ISS).
The cosmonauts moved the "Strela-2” cargo boom from the "Pirs” docking compartment to the "Zarya” module and installed micrometeoroid debris shields on the exterior of the "Zvezda” service module.
They also launched the "Sphere” microsatellite and collected a number of bio specimens from the surface of a docking module as part of the "Biorisk” scientific experiment.
The unique Biorisk experiment studies the impact of vacuum, subzero and hot temperatures and radiation on biological objects. It is impossible to simulate these processes on Earth.
Both Padalka and Malenchenko are veteran cosmonauts with a lot of exp
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