Jul 30 2009
From The Space Library
After receiving clearance to return home, astronauts aboard the orbiting Space Shuttle Endeavour successfully deployed two sets of small satellites. Endeavour had undocked from the ISS on 28 July in preparation for the return flight of STS-127. Endeavour’s crew first deployed a pair of small satellites from the Shuttle’s payload bay—the student-built DRAGONSAT (Dual RF Astrodynamic GPS Orbital Navigator Satellite), part of a study to demonstrate autonomous rendezvous and docking technologies, as well as GPS systems. The crew later jettisoned the two 19-inch (48-centimeter) spheres that comprised the Naval Research Laboratory’s ANDE-2 (Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment-2) mission. Although identical in size, each sphere had a different mass. Researchers planned to observe differences in the spheres’ orbits, as part of a study of the density of Earth’s atmosphere.
Tariq Malik, “Shuttle Astronauts Deploy Satellites Ahead of Landing,” Space.com, 30 July 2009, http://www.space.com/7078-shuttle-astronauts-deploy-satellites-landing.html (accessed 26 August 2011).
NASA announced that NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. and JAXA President Keiji Tachikawa had signed an agreement defining the terms of the two space agencies’ cooperation on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. NASA intended the GPM mission to build on the success of the NASA-JAXA TRMM. GPM would begin to measure global precipitation, a key factor in climate. NASA described GPM as a cornerstone of the multinational Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Precipitation Constellation. The GPM mission’s spaceborne core observatory would provide the reference standard, unifying the measurements of a constellation of multinational research and operational satellites carrying microwave sensors. Using a Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), operating at Ku- and Ka-band frequencies, and a multichannel Global Precipitation Measurement Microwave Imager (GMI), operating at from 10 to 183 GHz, the GPM mission would provide uniformly calibrated precipitation measurements globally, every 2 to 4 hours, contributing to scientific research and societal applications. Additionally, for the first time, the observatory’s sensor measurements would make detailed observations of precipitation-particle-size distribution. The agreement made NASA responsible for the GPM core-observatory spacecraft bus, the GMI that it would carry, and a second GMI. A Low-Inclination Observatory provided by a partner agency would carry the second GMI. JAXA would supply the DPR for the core observatory, an H-2A rocket for the core observatory’s launch, and data from a conical-scanning microwave imager that would deploy on the upcoming Global Change Observation Mission satellite.
NASA, “NASA and JAXA Sign Agreement for Future Earth Science Cooperation,” news release 09-177, 30 July 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jul/HQ_09_177_NASA_JAXA_Agreement.html (accessed 10 August 2011).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
