Japanese who conducted a successful orbital flight
1. Number of orbital launches will exceed 100 for the first time since 1990.
2. SpaceX. - Will miss their 30 launches target, but will exceed 25. - FH will launch at least twice, with at least one success.
- Construction at Boca Chica will begin in ernest. - First Starlink test satellites will launch
3. Blue Origin. - More progress on BE-4. - More New Shepard flights.
- Glimpses of new hardware when their factory at the Cape is open. - Will demonstrate something unexpected and dramatic (like they did with NS)
4. Space science. - TESS will launch and return 1st science data, with multiple exoplanets (easy win ).
- More interstellar objects like `Oumuamua will be found (algorithms will be tweaked as we now know they exist).
- Another planet will be confirmed around Proxima Centauri (maybe; dependent on HARPS time allocation).
- Firm launch date for JWST before end Q2 2019.
- In the next observing run of LIGO (late 2018) there will be a 10+ minute alert before a NS/NS merger allowing much better observation of the kilonova.
As we're 75% through the year, I thought I'd see how I'm doing so far:<snip>Quote- Construction at Boca Chica will begin in ernest. - First Starlink test satellites will launchI think both of these will class as a "fail"<snip>
Quote4. Space science. - TESS will launch and return 1st science data, with multiple exoplanets (easy win ). This is slightly tricky: has launched fine; the 1st science data will be on the ground and will include lots of exoplanets, but the public data release isn't until Jan 2019.--- Tony
50 exoplanet candidates:QuoteIn just six weeks of science observations, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has already found 50 possible new worlds for scientists to examine.http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/09/14/nasa-tess-exoplanet-spacecraft-finds-new-worlds/#.W51MuUxFy74
In just six weeks of science observations, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has already found 50 possible new worlds for scientists to examine.
TESS finds planets by watching the dip in light as a planet passes in front of its parent star. It began science observations on July 25 and the first set of information was available to astronomers on September 5, but the first step in examining TESS’ data is to eliminate false positives. Sometimes a possible “planet” will actually be a binary star blocking its companion’s light, or it could be sunspots on the star’s surface, no second body needed.While most of these planetary candidates will be discarded upon future analysis, principal investigator George Ricker at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told Astronomy there are likely six new bona-fide planets lurking in this data alone. Ricker says that usually five to 20 percent of planetary candidates turn out to be true planets, once the transit method is followed up by the radial velocity method on the ground (which observes the influence of an orbiting object). And even amateurs can help with the search, he said.“We make alerts available to astronomers worldwide, and we continue to do that, because there are a lot of amateurs with superb instruments they can use for the initial parts of the screening,” Ricker said, adding the process will likely take months or years due to the number of planetary candidates – suspected rocky planets and larger ones – to double-check.
Quote from: jebbo on 09/14/2018 09:16 am- First Starlink test satellites will launchThere are the 2 Starlink forerunners in orbit. Tinitin-A and Tintin-B that gone up with the Paz Satcom bird in February.
- First Starlink test satellites will launch
Quote from: jebbo on 09/14/2018 09:16 amQuote- TESS will launch and return 1st science data, with multiple exoplanets (easy win ). This is slightly tricky: has launched fine; the 1st science data will be on the ground and will include lots of exoplanets, but the public data release isn't until Jan 2019.Does this count?
Quote- TESS will launch and return 1st science data, with multiple exoplanets (easy win ). This is slightly tricky: has launched fine; the 1st science data will be on the ground and will include lots of exoplanets, but the public data release isn't until Jan 2019.
- TESS will launch and return 1st science data, with multiple exoplanets (easy win ).
With most of the year over, <snip>
Quote from: A_M_Swallow on 12/22/2017 02:54 pm2018 is the year NASA returns.To the public NASA went away with the crash of Columbia in 2003. A few more missions occurred and then the Space Shuttles stopped. As the readers of this website know since then NASA has been returning to manned flight by getting companies to develop new space vehicles.The business press has discovered that California is going into recession. When companies fire people and close down the ordinary press will report it. Bad news in an election year is disliked by politicians, so they will look for good news. In 2018 NASA may have lots of good news.In previous years COTS and Commercial Resupply Services have transported cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).In January/February the Falcon Heavy is due to have a test flight. This will be the biggest American rocket currently flying. (Saturn V has retired and SLS is still in development.)In the spring/summer Lunar CATALYST partner Moon Express hopes to land 30kg of payload on the Moon.Commercial Crew Program company SpaceX plans to send a Dragon 2.0 to the ISS in spring 2018. A Boeing CST-100 is due at the ISS in summer 2018. Later flights will carry people.In 2018 NASA's back. It will return to the International Space Station and is preparing to return to the Moon.Oh the good ol' days, seriously people they're not gonna come back, not how you want them tohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk&feature=youtu.be&t=59s
2018 is the year NASA returns.To the public NASA went away with the crash of Columbia in 2003. A few more missions occurred and then the Space Shuttles stopped. As the readers of this website know since then NASA has been returning to manned flight by getting companies to develop new space vehicles.The business press has discovered that California is going into recession. When companies fire people and close down the ordinary press will report it. Bad news in an election year is disliked by politicians, so they will look for good news. In 2018 NASA may have lots of good news.In previous years COTS and Commercial Resupply Services have transported cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).In January/February the Falcon Heavy is due to have a test flight. This will be the biggest American rocket currently flying. (Saturn V has retired and SLS is still in development.)In the spring/summer Lunar CATALYST partner Moon Express hopes to land 30kg of payload on the Moon.Commercial Crew Program company SpaceX plans to send a Dragon 2.0 to the ISS in spring 2018. A Boeing CST-100 is due at the ISS in summer 2018. Later flights will carry people.In 2018 NASA's back. It will return to the International Space Station and is preparing to return to the Moon.
Quote from: AbuSimbel on 12/22/2017 05:02 pmQuote from: A_M_Swallow on 12/22/2017 02:54 pm2018 is the year NASA returns.To the public NASA went away with the crash of Columbia in 2003. A few more missions occurred and then the Space Shuttles stopped. As the readers of this website know since then NASA has been returning to manned flight by getting companies to develop new space vehicles.The business press has discovered that California is going into recession. When companies fire people and close down the ordinary press will report it. Bad news in an election year is disliked by politicians, so they will look for good news. In 2018 NASA may have lots of good news.In previous years COTS and Commercial Resupply Services have transported cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).In January/February the Falcon Heavy is due to have a test flight. This will be the biggest American rocket currently flying. (Saturn V has retired and SLS is still in development.)In the spring/summer Lunar CATALYST partner Moon Express hopes to land 30kg of payload on the Moon.Commercial Crew Program company SpaceX plans to send a Dragon 2.0 to the ISS in spring 2018. A Boeing CST-100 is due at the ISS in summer 2018. Later flights will carry people.In 2018 NASA's back. It will return to the International Space Station and is preparing to return to the Moon.Oh the good ol' days, seriously people they're not gonna come back, not how you want them tohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk&feature=youtu.be&t=59sIt is now September 2018 three quarters of the way through the calendar year.I did not allow sufficient time for the inevitable delays. SpaceX may get an unmanned Dragon 2 to the ISS this year but the manned trip has been delayed until next spring (2019). Lunar CATALYST has not succeeded yet but the teams are still trying for 2019.The good old days will not come back but I noticed at the end of the video AbuSimbel linked Princess Elsa created an ice palace.I am optimistic so the song 'An Elephant Fly' from the film Dumbo applies.