IMAGE OF THE DAY... With city lights in Australia and the Earth's spectacular airglow below him, astronaut Ron Garan spent his last day onboard the International Space Station (ISS) taking pictures from the Cupola (right-side of pic)... This image was one of more than 25,000 photos that he took during his months-long stay onboard the ISS.


NASA / Ron Garan - Twitpic.com

China Manned Space Engineering Office / CCTV

TIANGONG-1 LIFTS OFF... The unmanned prototype of a space station that China plans to launch by the end of this decade will conduct a test docking with an unpiloted Shenzhou spacecraft in November.


China Manned Space Engineering Office

ORION Update... A parachute deployment test for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle was successfully conducted above the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona last week:


NASA


NASA


NASA

APOLLO 18... The movie has already been out in theaters for almost a month now, but just thought I'd post a link to the review of the sci-fi horror flick on my Film Notes section. Also, click here to get some interesting info by NASA on the real Apollo 18 mission. Turns out— Apollo 18 wasn't canceled at all...just renumbered on the flight manifest. Click on that last link above to get more details on this.

VIDEO OF THE DAY... Check out this awesome time-lapse footage showing the International Space Station (ISS) soaring high above the night side of the Earth. Lightning can be seen flashing inside the majority of cloud layers that the ISS passes over, while the lights from all the cities below are so bright they're being reflected off the sides of the orbiting outpost's laboratory modules...more than 200 miles above. This video comes courtesy of the Infinity Imagined Blog.

HERE'S A NEAT INFOGRAPHIC detailing the different components that make up the Space Launch System...as well as how it compares height-wise to historic vehicles such as the Saturn V rocket and space shuttle. This illustration comes courtesy of Space.com:


Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

NASA

PAVING THE WAY FOR THE FUTURE... The deconstruction of Launch Complex 39B (below) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is now complete...clearing the path for future vehicles such as the Space Launch System to soar into Earth orbit and beyond from this 'clean pad'.


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jim Grossmann

NASA

IMAGES OF THE DAY: The Space Launch System (SLS) has finally been unveiled...


NASA


NASA

And here is an animated video of the SLS taking flight:

THE ARES I ROCKET MOVES CLOSER TO BECOMING A REALITY...as the Liberty Launch System?

****

NASA Begins Commercial Partnership with Alliant Techsystems (Press Release)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) of Salt Lake City have agreed to collaborate on the development of the company's Liberty Launch System as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Development Round 2 activities.

The unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) through NASA's Commercial Crew Program will allow the agency and ATK to review and discuss Liberty system requirements, safety and certification plans, computational models of rocket stage performance, and avionics architecture designs. The agreement outlines key milestones including an Initial System Design review, during which ATK will present to NASA officials the Liberty systems level requirements, preliminary design, and certification process development.

"This agreement will provide the opportunity to look at the Liberty system to understand its design solution and risks, its capabilities and how it could be used to fly our NASA crew," said Ed Mango, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager. The program is based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA will provide feedback to ATK based on its human spaceflight experience for advancing crew transportation system capabilities and the agency's draft human certification requirements.

"With this SAA we believe NASA will benefit from gaining insight into the various systems we are developing, and we can benefit from the feedback," said Kent Rominger, vice president, strategy and business development for ATK Aerospace. "In the end, we hope to offer a commercial solution to NASA, the Department of Defense, and other commercial human spaceflight programs."

Source: NASA.Gov

****


ATK

ORION MOVES ONE STEP CLOSER TO FLIGHT... Last Friday, construction began on the first Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) that will launch on its inaugural test flight onboard a Delta IV rocket in the summer of 2013. The first components of the MPCV were welded together at the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana.

Once welding is complete, the Orion vehicle will be transported from Michoud to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida...where major components such as the heat shield will be attached. At KSC, Orion will undergo final construction and checkout procedures prior to soaring into low-Earth orbit less than two years from now.


NASA

NASA TV

IMAGES OF THE DAY... The European Space Agency's (ESA) third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) arrived at its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana almost two weeks ago on August 25. Named Edoardo Amaldi after the late Italian physicist, the ATV is currently scheduled for launch to the ISS on February 29 of next year. The two ATVs that flew before it were named the Jules Verne and Johannes Kepler, respectively.


ESA

SpaceX

RED DRAGON... While SpaceX prepares to launch a Dragon spacecraft on November 30 to dock with the International Space Station for the first time, it has also revealed plans that would involve its privately-made vehicle soaring beyond Earth orbit before the end of this decade. Tentatively called Red Dragon, the capsule would be an unmanned delivery system carrying tons of scientific instruments to the surface of Mars. In fact, the sheer size of Dragon (considering that it’s primarily designed to carry seven astronauts onboard) would allow it to land on the Red Planet with more payload than has been brought to Mars since robotic space probes first began visiting the barren world in the 1960s.

If selected by NASA as a future Discovery-class interplanetary mission, Red Dragon would head to Mars in 2018...possibly by a Falcon Heavy rocket that SpaceX is currently developing and plans to launch on a test flight in 2013.


SpaceX