Tag: Astrogram

NASA Ames Astrogram – May/June 2024

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Swarming for Success: Starling Completes Primary Mission by Tara Friesen After ten months in orbit, the Starling spacecraft swarm successfully demonstrated its primary mission’s key objectives, representing significant achievements in the capability of swarm configurations.  Swarms of satellites may one day be used in deep space exploration. An autonomous network of spacecraft could self-navigate, manage scientific experiments, and execute maneuvers to respond to environmental changes without the burden of significant communications delays between the swarm and Earth.  The four CubeSate spacecraft that make up the Starling swarm have demonstrated success in autonomous…

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NASA Ames Astrogram – March/April 2024

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Astrogram banner Advanced Composite Solar Sail System Successfully Launches On April 23, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System CubeSat mission launched successfully aboard an Electron rocket launched by Rocket Lab and carried Ames’ payload from Māhia, New Zealand. The CubeSat was subsequently delivered to a Sun-synchronous orbit around Earth. Ames has pioneered the use of CubeSats and small satellites to run innovative, cost-effective missions and test technologies in space, providing leadership in cost-effective spaceflight missions for NASA. An artist’s concept of NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit. NrediASA/Aero…

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NASA Ames Astrogram – November/December 2023

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Astronaut Candidates Visit Ames and Learn about Heat Shields and More NASA astronaut candidates visited the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley on Nov. 8 to learn about the center’s unique facilities and contributions to NASA missions, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. Pictured here at the Arc Jet Complex, where spacecraft thermal protection systems are tested, are the 10 members of NASA’s current astronaut candidate class and two United Arab Emirates astronauts who are training with NASA. From left: Nichole Ayers, Mohammad Almulla (UAE), Marcos Berríos, Nora Almatrooshi (UAE),…

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