Here are our tidbits for September 16, 2017. Enjoy!

Kennedy Space Center Back in Business

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has finally reopened in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Lack of potable water had been a problem all week.

All clear declared for Kennedy Space Center! Operations resume Sat., Sept. 16. Thanks for staying with us through Hurricane #Irma! — NASA Kennedy / KSC (@NASAKennedy) September 16, 2017

Chinese Space Station

China conducted its third and final refueling test of its unoccupied Tiangong-2 space station with its robotic Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft today.

China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft and Tiangong-2 space lab complete their third and last in-orbit refueling https://t.co/r3f9DbVjt0 pic.twitter.com/sqO37RayEd — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) September 16, 2017

This was a fast docking test, where the two spacecraft docked in just 6.5 hours instead of 2 days according to Andrew Jones of GBTimes.com, who also reports that 250 kilograms (kg) of propellant was transferred.

Tianzhou-1 completed its 3rd & final orbital refuelling test at 12:17 UTC today, transferring 250 kg of propellant to Tiangong-2 space lab pic.twitter.com/TnCK68ZDUC — Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) September 16, 2017

Tianzhou-1 now will be deorbited.

Tiangong-2 has been in space for exactly one year. It hosted a two-person crew for 30 days last fall, but has been empty the rest of the time. It and its predecessor, Tiangong-1, are steps in China’s plan to place a three-module 60-ton space station in orbit in the early 2020s. The schedule has been delayed because of the Long March 5 launch failure this past July. LM-5 is needed to launch the modules. LM-5 has been launched only once successfully. The failure was on the second attempt. No new launch date has been announced for the next attempt or what it will carry.