Nice photo today from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) showing the ball-shaped Sfera satellite that will be deployed during today’s EVA.
Manmade Meteorite – Gennadi & Yuri will throw out this ball during today’s spacewalk, to study orbital drag & decay twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/…
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) August 20, 2012
More details on these interesting mini-micro-tiny sats via NASA:
The Sfera satellite (also known as Vektor-T calibration sphere) is a simple sphere for determining atmospheric density by tracking and measuring its drag. It will be in orbit for 2-5 months, and will burn up completely upon re-entry.]
Automated Transfer Vehicle page
ATV blog archive
NASA Orion page
NASA Artemis
Airbus Orion page
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