Approximate flight path of N6483B, lost 10 Oct 2019. Search and rescue operations are covering 85 km of the James River valley. (FAA / SkyVector / The Fargo Orbit)
Civil Air Patrol and the US Air Force continue to search for the pilot of a missing Cessna 172, N6483B, lost en route to Oakes, North Dakota after departure from Aberdeen Regional Airport at about 10 October 2019 0315 UT, just before a blizzard began to cross the plains. Weather and crop cover has hampered the response effort.
Michelle Brekke of Boeing Crew Space Transportation serves as Grand Marshall of the University of Minnesota homecoming parade (University of Minnesota/GopherSports)
A Proton-M rocket launches from Baikonur 08 October 2019 1017 UT, with Eutelsat 5 West B commsat and the MEV-1 mission extension robot aboard (Credit: Roscosmos)
This image of the Florida Keys was collected by Landsat 8 in 10.60-11.19 µm infrared on 07 May 2013, and was one of the first datasets released for Landsat Collection 2, on 30 September 2019. (Credit: USGS / The Fargo Orbit)
On 30 September 2019, The US Geological Survey released new samples of Landsat data, leading up to Landsat Collection 2, a global multi-instrument survey of Planet Earth. Data processing will continue all through next year and is expected to be fully available in 2021.
Space Command ceremony, 29 Aug 2019 (Credit: WH.gov)
The United States Space Command, which first operated 1985-2002, resumed 29 Aug 2019. President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Secretary of Defense Esper joined Gen. John “Jay” Raymond and CMSgt. Roger Towberman in a brief ceremony at the Rose Garden of the White House, about 2020 UT.
After a brief speech from the President, the Defense Secretary signed an order establishing the United States Space Command. Raymond presented the President with a commemorative plaque, and Towberman unfurled the new flag for the Unified Combatant Command.
United States Space Command is presently headquartered with its major component, Air Force Space Command, at Peterson AFB, Colorado. Midwest locations that will participate in the new command include Offutt AFB, Nebraska and Cavalier AFS, North Dakota.
Midwest Express Airlines has returned to service with a flight between Milwaukee and Grand Rapids on 28 Aug 2019.
The inaugural flight departed General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee at 1631 UT and landed at Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids at 1655 UT. The 24-minute flight reached a maximum altitude of 5200m and speed of 222 m/s.
Midwest Express MKE-GRR, 28 Aug 2019 1631 UT (FlightAware)
The plane then returned to Milwaukee in 29 minutes, with takeoff at 1826 UT and landing at 1855 UT, with the same top speed of 222 m/s and a peak altitude of 4875 m.
Midwest Express GRR-MKE, 28 Aug 2019 1826 UT (FlightAware)
The new Midwest Express will fly from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids, Omaha, and Cincinnati. Reservations are not yet open, though an August 6 press release from the airline stated that revenue service will begin by the end of 2019. In the meantime, Elite Airways has returned the plane to charter flight service.
Outage regions for the Global Positioning System, 8 June 2019. (Credit: FAA)
Passenger airline flights were affected Saturday and Sunday 8 and 9 June 2019, due to an expected minor signal outage, plus a glitch with a particular type of GPS receiver. The affected planes were mostly Bombardier CRJ-200 and CRJ-700s, but also included CRJ-900s, as well as Boeing 737 and 767s.
Reports on Airliners.net indicate particular concerns with GPS receivers supplied by Rockwell Collins. In case the airplane’s barometer were to fail, the onboard GPS receiver must be able to track altitude accurately enough to maintain normal operations in the Class A airspace above FL180. This requires a GPS vertical accuracy within 500 feet (152 meters), and that the GPS constellation be in fairly good alignment – which, every now and then, just doesn’t happen.
That’s what occurred this weekend over a region over the Great Lakes and extending out over much of North Dakota and Manitoba, such that certain areas can expect, in theory, up to 40 minutes of signal loss on Sunday. The FAA estimated still further regions in the US could be affected by the outage. As affected planes wait for a technical fix, they are flying below 18000 feet, or simply being replaced by unaffected aircraft.
Airliners with the strictest requirements for their their GPS accuracy had to rely on alternative navigation modes when operating in the red region. (Credit: FAA)
In addition to highlighting the performance of one supplier’s GPS solution in an edge case, the incident also serves to highlight an increasing dependence on GPS for airline operations. Aviators have expressed concern about the trend of airports turning off their ILS, VOR, and NDB navigation systems. Many of these decisions assume that GPS will always be available, which may well be more than 98% correct. It’s the last 2% that may lead to unexpected problems.
Space Journalist Elizabeth Howell defends a dissertation in Space Studies at the University of North Dakota, 30 May 2019. The topic of the presentation is “Can You Hear Me, Major Tom? Open Issues In Extra-Vehicular Activity Communications”
The presentation focused on two researched hypotheses: 1. Do large groups correct human operational errors better than small groups? 2. Does one leadership style correct errors better than another?
Howell performed a literature review to evaluate the first hypothesis. A keyword-selected pool of 107 published studies was reduced to 31 with a 10-question evaluation method, and then just two using an additional question, which together only underscored a known issue, that the English-language literature on aerospace human factors does not include extensive information on error handling and leadership in large groups. The hypothesis could not be evaluated, as more research is needed – more relevant studies that are done on, for example, 50-member Antarctic research stations, than three-member isolation teams. Being focused on the issues of a spacecraft crew, Howell’s concept is that further studies on groups of 6 to 13 people, similar to the largest Shuttle-ISS missions, is most appropriate.
Direct data from University of North Dakota research was used to evaluate the second hypothesis against rubrics obtained from the literature, particularly a set of 11 universal human values and 3 leadership styles. Audio recordings of simulated spacewalks (extravehicular activity or EVA) performed during two ILMAH missions – the simulated Mars habitat operated by the University. Howell lead an effort to transcribe and qualitatively evaluate the data against established sets of human values, to determine the leadership style of each member of the mission. However, for a number of reasons, in particular the 5-person sample size, the study results may not necessarily be significant. It was also found that while one style of leadership was the most effective in resolving errors, it also found that individuals no not rigidly adhere to the leadership types. However, this method could be applied to existing transcripts of space missions, including Apollo, and further research may refine its applicability to a wider range of historical or cultural contexts.
As with all science, it is work that never quite seems finished. However, some promising questions Howell has received from NASA Goddard may indicate that similar strategies may be applied to NASA’s archives of human spaceflight communications in the future.
Cessna Citation N832R drifts off the scopes, 24 May 2019. Credit: FlightAware
Air Traffic Controllers are searching for a Cessna Citation, registration number N832R, which was feared to be lost in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of the Bahamas Friday night (0000 UT 25 May 2019)
The flight, between St. Louis, Missouri and the plane’s likely home base of Fort Lauderdale, FL, went off course, veering over the Gulf of Mexico, then suddenly vectoring left across Southern Florida.
Experts suggest the plane may have lost cabin pressure during its climb, not quite reaching its planned cruising altitude of 12.5 km. While pilots are trained to reduce their flight level during oxygen failures, the effects of hypoxia may not always be noticed in time to achieve recovery.
Pressurization failures are a hazard for high flying jet aircraft, especially those like the Cessna Citation, which are regularly commissioned for business travel and may not necessarily have a dedicated ground crew, especially away from home.
