Top Space News – March 2019

This March has witnessed iconic moments in history. Sync your calendar with our solar system, and let’s start our journey to take a look at the space news this month.

March 2: SpaceX successfully launched its first Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS), and now the mission is underway. This flight, known as Demo-1, is unscrewed. But if all goes well, Crew Dragon will likely carry astronauts to and from the orbiting lab for the first time this summer.

This will be a crucial moment in the history of Space X as it will be their first mission to test whether they will be able to have a human-crewed mission as well as be their first opportunity to test and highlight their opportunity to initiate commercial space flights in conjunction with their Dear Moon Project. We at AstroReality hope this mission is a resounding success as it will lead to further investment into the space industry.

March 14: Three new Expedition 59 crewmembers launched to the International Space Station in the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Hammock Koch and Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket at 3:14 p.m. EDT.

The primary mission of the expedition is to get them safely to the International Space Station,  while on board they will be doing many different tests and experiments while utilizing the environment of space.

March 15: United Launch Alliance launched the 10th Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft atop a Delta IV rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for the U.S. military. It lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The WGS 10 will be the fourth Block II follow-on satellite, which is able to support communications links from X-band and Ka-band spectra. A single WGS satellite can support data transmission rates over 6 Gbps, and WGS-10 with its advanced digital channelizer may support over 11 Gbps.

This is a Great start to a nationwide internet connection not only expanding connection capabilities across the board, creating a vast new amount of opportunities to people to connect and share and create in areas and places they would have not have been able to before. Hopefully in the future having poor cell service just means that you are really really far away from earth or deep underground.

March 18-22: 50th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in the Woodlands, Texas. Since its beginning in 1970, when it was called the Apollo 11 Lunar Science Conference, the meeting has been a significant focal point for planetary science research, with nearly 1800 planetary scientists and students representing 41 countries attending the conference each year.

We at AstroReality are very proud to have our LUNAR Pro displayed in LPI’S library for scientific research and studies. It was featured in the “News and Noteworthy” section of their weekly newsletter. Our LUNAR Pro has also been used in the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration virtual institute. Now it is available to purchase on our website. 

Get your LUNAR today with 10% OFF using code SPRING10.