Astronomy

Russia released their Proton rocket this week with the three new satellites that will be used to help fix the navigation system and restore it to full domestic service. The rocket took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1932 GMT.

The Proton’s three lower stages completed their burns in the mission’s first nine minutes, and the Block DM upper stage later fired twice to push the payloads to their orbital destination. The Block DM deployed the three 3,000-pound Glonass satellites about three-and-a-half hours after launch to complete the Proton rocket’s seventh flight of the year, according to the Russian Space Agency.

It looks like NASA will not be able to choose a new contender for the resupply contracts for the space station if the U.S. House approves the $516 billion domestic spending measure becomes law. At least seven firms submitted proposals in November for $175 million in funding NASA plans to award by February under its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program. The COTS program, established in 2006, aims to foster development of commercial space transportation services capable of delivering cargo and eventually crew to the International Space Station.

Astronomers are alerting everyone to the best meteor shower of the whole year – which will begin on December 13th and carry into the 14th. David Levy and Stephen Edberg stated that the Geminid Meteor Shower will be amazing and that, “If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor.”