The Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft, launched on May 21, has just reached the International Space Station and was captured by Canadarm2 robotic arm. Astronaut Scott Tingle, assisted by his colleagues Ricky Arnold, and Drew Feustel, will soon begin the slow maneuver to move the Cygnus until it docks with the Station’s Unity node after about two hours.
A few hours ago, the two GRACE-FO twin spacecraft were launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg base. After about ten minutes they successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and entered a polar orbit. Shortly thereafter they started transmitting telemetry signals. SpaceX’s mission continued with the launch of 5 satellites of the Iridium constellation.
An article published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters” reports the discovery of an asteroid in an orbit near Jupiter’s which has a retrograde orbit, which means that it moves in the opposite direction of the solar system’s planets and most of its celestial bodies. Cataloged as 2015 BZ509, it was discovered in 2014 and the analysis of its orbit with a series of simulations led to the conclusion that it came from another solar system.
A little while ago Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage went en route to its destination. This is its ninth official mission, called Orbital-9 or simply Orb-9 but also CRS OA-9, to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.
An article published in the journal “The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series” describes the results of the CARMA-NRO Orion Survey, a high-resolution mapping of the molecular cloud called Orion A, one of the two giant molecular clouds in the Orion molecular cloud complex. A team of astronomers combined the observations of the CARMA and NRO radio telescopes to map the stars but also the gas movements inside the cloud.
