NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Oct 3, 2023

MyCn 18: The Engraved Hourglass Planetary Nebula

Do you see the hourglass shape or does it see you? If you can picture it, the rings of MyCn 18 trace the outline of an hourglass although one with an unusual eye in its center. Either way, the sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one featured here. Pictured, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the Hubble images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process that are helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas like MyCn 18.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

Army’s JTAGS mission transfers to USSF

Oct. 2, 2023

The U.S. Army’s Joint Tactical Ground Station missile warning system mission officially transferred to the U.S. Space Force Oct. 1.

This mission transfer from the Army to the Space Force follows the Army Satellite Communications transfer in August 2022, which consolidated all military SATCOM capabilities under one service for the first time ever. 

"I cannot emphasize enough my appreciation for the exceptional teamwork displayed by the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command during this mission transfer," stated Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of Space Operations Command. "Now, it is our responsibility to uphold the same level of mission accomplishment with JTAGS as a fully integrated component of our broader missile warning mission."

JTAGS are forward-deployed space ground systems that receive, process, and disseminate direct downlinked infrared data from overhead sensors. They provide real-time warning, alerting and cueing information on ballistic missile launches. JTAGS process satellite data and disseminate ballistic missile warning or special event messages to warfighters in support of regional combatant commanders over multiple theater communication systems. 

The JTAGS mission will fall under Space Delta 4 at Buckley Space Force Base until Space Operations Command officially stands up the 5th Space Warning Squadron in the near future.

Space Operations Command is the fight-tonight force and first Field Command of the U.S. Space Force. SpOC’s mission is to protect America and our allies in, from and to space…now and into the future.   

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3545006/armys-jtags-mission-transfers-to-ussf/

In a first-ever for space junk, Dish Network was fined $150,000 for leaving a retired satellite to orbit indefinitely in the wrong place

Oct 2, 2023

The Federal Communications Commission announced Monday it has fined Dish Network $150,000 for a retired satellite that was left in the wrong place in space as concerns about space trash grow.

The FCC said it was the first enforcement action it's ever taken regarding space debris, or defunct human-made objects that are no longer used but left in space.

Dish reached a settlement with the FCC, in which the company admitted liability for not properly disposing of its EchoStar-7 satellite at the end of its mission. EchoStar-7 was initially launched in 2002.

In a statement, the FCC said Dish left the retired satellite at a "disposal orbit well below the elevation" that was required. Under a plan approved by the FCC in 2012, Dish committed to relocating the satellite at the end of its mission to about 186 miles above its operational geostationary arc.

Instead, after realizing in 2022 that the satellite was low on propellant and would not be able to reach that altitude, Dish retired the satellite only about 76 miles above that operational arc. The FCC said the lower disposal orbit could pose space debris concerns.

"Orbital debris in space jeopardizes the nation's terrestrial and space-based communication systems by increasing the risk of damage to satellite communications systems," the FCC said in its consent decree.

Loyaan A. Egal, the FCC Enforcement Bureau chief, said it was a "breakthrough settlement" that shows the agency "has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules."

"As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments," he said.

In a statement provided to Insider, a Dish spokesperson noted that the FCC's Enforcement Bureau "made no specific findings that EchoStar-7 poses any orbital debris safety concerns."

"DISH has a long track record of safely flying a large satellite fleet and takes seriously its responsibilities as an FCC licensee," the spokesperson said.

As more and more companies send objects into space, there are increasing concerns about space trash.

NASA last month awarded the company TransAstra an $850,000 contract to work on the possibility of cleaning up space garbage with a large "capture bag" that the company calls Flytrap.

"Space junk is one of the greatest perils that astronauts face in low Earth orbit today," Joel C. Sercel, a former astronaut and the founder of TransAstra, previously told Insider.

Space junk has also already crashed on land, prompting fear that it could someday strike a person.

https://www.businessinsider.com/dish-network-fined-first-ever-fcc-enforcement-against-space-junk-2023-10

https://www.businessinsider.com/dish-network-fined-first-ever-fcc-enforcement-against-space-junk-2023-10

Air Force Research Lab awards design contracts for nuclear powered spacecraft

October 3, 2023

Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin and Westinghouse Government Services won contracts from the Air Force Research Laboratory to advance technologies for nuclear powered space vehicles.

The project is part of an AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate program called Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-orbit Nuclear Power, or JETSON.

The goal of the project is to advance nuclear fission technology to produce small power reactors for space vehicles. AFRL is seeking a reliable and constant source of electricity for satellites.

The contracts were announced Sept. 29.

Intuitive Machines, a startup based in Houston that specializes in space infrastructure, received a $9.4 million contract to design a spacecraft concept that employs compact radioisotope power system, electric or hybrid propulsion.

Westinghouse Government Services, based in Hopkins, South Carolina, won a $16.9 million contract to “mature relevant technologies, conduct analyses, trade studies, and explore risk reduction strategies to investigate how a high power, nuclear fission-system could be implemented from a subsystem, spacecraft, and architecture standpoint.”

Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, was awarded a $33.7 million contract “to mature the technical design of the JETSON spacecraft systems and subsystems to a preliminary design review level of maturity, and to fully develop the overall program development and test program planning through critical design review.”

All three contracts extend through December 2025.

The three vendors were selected by NASA in June 2022 for phase 1 studies of fission surface power systems, small nuclear reactors intended to support later phases of the Artemis lunar exploration campaign. Each team received $5 million for initial design studies.

https://spacenews.com/air-force-research-lab-awards-design-contracts-for-nuclear-powered-spacecraft/

65 Years Ago: NASA Begins Operations

OCT 02, 2023

On Oct. 1, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officially began operations. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act the previous July, creating NASA to lead America’s civilian space program in response to Soviet advances in space exploration. T. Keith Glennan and Hugh L. Dryden were sworn in as NASA’s first administrator and deputy administrator, respectively. As its core, the new agency incorporated the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), founded in 1915 to advance aeronautics research in the United States. The NACA elements included three large research laboratories and two small test facilities. Projects and facilities transferred from other agencies to augment NASA’s capabilities. Within days of opening, NASA began work on America’s first human spaceflight program.

In a filmed address delivered to all NACA employees shortly before the transition, Glennan explained that the change to the new organization should not affect their daily lives, even though the new agency would over time take on more responsibilities. Indeed, the transition for the existing 8,000 NACA employees proved rather seamless. They went home on Sept. 30 as NACA employees and reported for work on Oct. 1 as NASA employees, without change to their daily routines. On Oct. 1, Glennan addressed the 170-member headquarters staff in the courtyard of the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., that served as NASA’s first headquarters.

Three NACA research laboratories – Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia; Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in Mountain View, California; and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio – and two small test facilities – the Muroc Dry Lake in California’s high desert for high-speed flight research, and one for sounding rockets at Wallops Island in Virginia – transferred to NASA on Oct. 1, with a total of 8,000 employees and an annual budget of $100 million. By Dec. 31, 1958, NASA had absorbed elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama, the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., including its Project Vanguard, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology. These added 420 employees and 2,300 contractors to the workforce and brought the agency’s appropriations to more than $330 million. It also acquired a high-priority rocket engine development project from the U.S. Air Force. Over time, the Agency established or incorporated additional centers and facilities to meet the growing needs of the nation’s space program. Today, 10 field centers across the nation work together to accomplish NASA’s varied missions.

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President Eisenhower gave NASA overall responsibility for developing America’s human spaceflight program. The new agency inherited two large top priority projects in this arena. The first involved developing a spacecraft capable of carrying a single human into space and returning him safely to Earth. Engineers at Langley had conducted studies in this area since 1952, and on Oct. 8, 1958, Glennan gave the formal approval for the formation of a team at Langley to develop this capability. On Nov. 5, the Space Task Group (STG) formally came into existence, with Robert R. Gilruth named as project manager and Charles J. Donlan as his assistant. Thanks to their previous work, the STG released the specifications for the crewed capsule on Nov. 14, mailing them three days later to 20 prospective companies that had expressed an interest in bidding on the project that NASA formally named Project Mercury on Nov. 26. On Jan. 9, 1959, NASA selected the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis to develop the spacecraft. The second major high-priority project involved the development of a 1.5-million-pound thrust rocket engine to power a future large space booster. The new agency inherited studies conducted by the U.S. Air Force, and by mid-December, NASA selected the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation to develop the F-1 engine that later powered the Saturn V moon rocket.

The new agency inherited satellite programs from other agencies. The first of these, part of a program of lunar orbiters inherited from the U.S. Air Force, launched on Oct. 11, 1958, under the auspices of NASA although the Air Force conducted the operations. Pioneer 1 blasted off aboard a Thor-Able rocket from a fledgling launch facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Although it did not achieve its intended mission to orbit the Moon due to a rocket malfunction, Pioneer 1 did reach a then record altitude of about 70,000 miles. The probe returned scientific data confirming the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts until it burned up on reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere 43 hours after launch. Two other Pioneers met similar fates in November and December. Pioneer 4, although it missed the Moon, became the first American spacecraft to enter solar orbit in March 1959. In the subsequent decades, NASA launched spacecraft to unlock the mysteries of the universe, dispatched probes to make close up observations of every planet in the solar system, sent men on voyages to the Moon, built a space station to maintain a permanent human presence in space, and today is preparing to return astronauts to the Moon.

https://www.nasa.gov/history/65-years-ago-nasa-begins-operations/

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