22 years ago today, Endeavour was launched on STS-67 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The primary payload was ASTRO-2, the second launch of the ASTRO astronomy payload. It would carry three ultraviolet telescopes. It represented the only time an orbiter other than Columbia carried the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) package. At 16 1/2 days, it was by far Endeavour's longest mission.
58 years ago today, Pioneer 4 was launched atop a Juno II rocket from Pad 5, Cape Canaveral. Pioneer 4 was one of four lunar probes launched by NASA during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). This one was quite simple: a Geiger-Mueller tube, and a photovoltaic sensor that would trigger a basic photography experiment. All were battery-powered. This one was the only one to escape Earth's gravity, as NASA was still learning the basics of interplanetary flight at the time. It made it to a fly-by of the Moon at a distance of about 59,000 km. Since it needed to be within 30,000 km of the Moon for the photovoltaic sensor to trigger, the photography experiment did not take place. Because of battery power constraints, they lost contact with the probe shortly after the fly-by, at a distance of 658,000 km. It was the first probe intentionally placed into solar orbit.
51 years ago today, Sergei Korolev's design bureau, OKB-1, was re-organized into TsKBEM (ЦКБЭМ), the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Machine Building. Without Korolev in charge, there was no prioritization of projects within TsKBEM. At one time, they were working on various ICBM projects, several versions of the Soyuz spacecraft, and the N-1 lunar rocket. The bureau was placed under the leadership of Vasily Mishin, Korolev's deputy and one of the leads in designing the R-7 rocket itself.
23 years ago today, USA-100, the 15th GPS Block IIA satellite, was launched atop a Delta II 7925 rocket from Pad 17A, Cape Canaveral. The launch would complete the initial operational Global Positioning System constellation. Block IIA satellites were a slight technology improvement over Block II. There would be three further incremental improvements to GPS Block II satellites. Block IIIA will begin launches next year.
Around that time I was on a Long Haul Fiber Optic pre-engineering job in Northern Ca. We had an intense one week intro on using Trimble GPS gear. Chaos was the order of the day as some [many] of the final printouts were unusable. This was before the satellites were released for general public use.
SpaceX did something rare these days. They launched a Falcon 9 rocket without landing legs. Early Thursday morning, they launched Echostar XXIII from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. The satellite is a spare from a canceled DISH Network project that would've provided service to China. Instead, it will provide service to Brazil. It is the first Falcon 9 FT rocket to launch without landing legs, as they needed more fuel for the launch than would be required to attempt a landing. ******** Speaking of landings, SpaceX has finally put the first launch of a re-used liquid-fuel rocket on the manifest. SES-10 will be the payload on Monday, March 27, with a four-hour launch window opening at 4:58pm EDT. The Luxembourgish comsat operator has been a passionate supporter of SpaceX, and has been outspoken in their desire to be the first customer of their reused first stages since their first successful landing in December 2015. This first re-launch will use the first stage that launched Dragon CRS-8 last April. It was recovered on one of their drone ships. SES-10 is intended to replace AMC-3 and AMC-4, both of which have gone far beyond their original life expectancies. In doing so, the more advanced satellite will increase SES's capacity over Latin America. It is unknown if they will attempt to recover this first stage yet again. I suspect they will.
*cracks his knuckles* First post on the new forum. 50 years ago today, NASA made a decision on the disposition of SA-204, the Saturn IB rocket that held the Apollo 1 CSM during its fatal testing accident two months before. After examination, it was determined that SA-204 was undamaged. Really, the only thing damaged was the command module, so it really wasn't in any danger. NASA determined that SA-204 would be used for what became Apollo 5, the first unmanned test of the Lunar Module. The original Saturn IB rocket for that particular mission, SA-206, would ultimately be used for Skylab 2, the first manned mission to Skylab.
30 years ago today, the Air Force attempted to launch FLTSATCOM-6 atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket from Pad 36B, Cape Canaveral. They made the mistake of launching it into a thunderstorm, and the rocket was struck by lightning shortly after launch. It went haywire and pitched down, causing the fairing to break off. It was destroyed by range safety. Only one Atlas-Centaur rocket based on the Atlas G would be launched after this, also carrying a FLTSATCOM satellite.
52 years ago today, the SNAP-10A research satellite was launched atop an Atlas-Agena rocket from Pad 4E, Vandenberg AFB. The satellite was the first, and only, nuclear fission reactor ever launched into orbit by the United States. It was placed into a 1,300-km polar orbit. The reactor itself had a power output of 500 watts, generating a total of 39 kilowatts of power. The reactor powered an experimental 8-millinewton ion engine. After 43 days, a voltage regulator failed. The satellite shut down its reactor, and went into safe mode. Its orbit is believed to last 4,000 years. However, beginning in 1979, the spacecraft began to break apart. It has shed at least 50 trackable pieces of debris. It is unknown if containment of the remaining uranium or spent nuclear waste has been breached. While the U.S. only launched this nuclear reactor, the Soviet Union would launch a total of 33 nuclear fission reactors into low Earth orbit. Not all of those went well.
The next step is at hand for SpaceX. On Sunday, April 16, SpaceX is currently scheduled to take their first classified mission for the U.S. Air Force. The launch, atop a Falcon 9 FT rocket from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, will be of NROL-76 for the National Reconnaissance Office. It will mark the first time that SpaceX will integrate a payload vertically on one of their rockets. Pending a pre-launch test firing a few days before, its launch window is scheduled to open at 7am EDT on that date. ******** After last week's successful reflight of a Falcon 9 first stage, Elon Musk outlined his next big task: Incredibly proud of the SpaceX team for achieving this milestone in space! Next goal is reflight within 24 hours.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2017 That's not just launching multiple rockets on consecutive days: that's launching the same first stage on consecutive days, Gotta give him credit: Elon Musk has ambition.
33 years ago today, Challenger was launched on STS-41-C from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The primary task of the mission was the retrieval and repair of the Solar Max satellite. Before that, however, they had to deploy the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF). LDEF was an experiment to see the reaction of several materials, as well as plant seeds, to a vacuum. To achieve attitude control without contaminating the experiments with exhausted fuel, LDEF used a technique called gravity gradiometry to maintain attitude control. It was supposed to remain in orbit for 11 months, and be retrieved by Discovery on STS-51-D. But schedule slip caused by the satellite deployment issues of 1984 and 1985 delayed retrieval to 1986, eventually to STS-61-I, again with Challenger. Obviously, that didn't happen either. With the return-to-flight, LDEF was finally retrieved in January 1990 by Columbia on STS-32. In addition to the materials experiments, the tomato seeds that were on LDEF mostly germinated when planted back on Earth despite nearly six years in a vacuum. Also, bacteria left in conditions similar to those found in meteorites were found to remain relatively intact, an important study in the idea of panspermia, that planets could be germinated by meteorites that originally came from bodies that supported life.
Apparently there was a slight delay .... he'll be buried at Arlington this morning, you can watch on NASATV @ 9:00 (sched says 9:30, their twitter says 9)
A liquid-fueled rocket is not as simple as just throwing fuel and oxidizer in tanks and feeding the engines. The most important part is how you feed the engines, especially with the voracious appetites of their turbopumps. That's where pressurant comes into play. I've mentioned pressurant before. In 2014, when they attempted to bring the old International Cometary Explorer back to Earth from heliocentric orbit, it was thwarted because the probe's pressurant was vented. It had enough fuel, but without the pressurant, it couldn't do anything. Pressurant is a gas used to pressurize liquid fuel tanks to feed its engines. Typically, nitrogen or helium is used for this task. It's important to use a relatively inert gas for this purpose, so helium has become more popular in recent years. A perfect example: 52 years ago today, the launch of a Luna spacecraft failed when the supply lines of the nitrogen pressurant for the oxidizer tank of the Blok I upper stage was breached, venting the nitrogen gas. It failed to orbit, and re-entered over Siberia. This particular attempt was the seventh of the lunar lander phase of the Luna program, all failures so far.
36 years ago today, Columbia was launched on STS-1, the first Space Shuttle mission, from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The crew for the flight was commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen. Young, at the time the "Chief Astronaut, would be the only Gemini-era astronaut to fly in the Space Shuttle era. Crippen was the first of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory transfers to fly, and would command three missions himself. I posted about this four years ago, including a video that I had annotated. Since then, I had re-done my Google account, losing that video in the process. Although the mission proper went smoothly, there were some serious physical issues with the orbiter. Several thermal tiles on the dorsal side fell off during launch. It was determined they were not vital. But unseen, severe damage was sustained on the ventral side. An overpressure wave from SRB ignition bent the rear tail flap, which was not discovered until the flight ended. Young is on record as saying that if he had known about it, he would have initiated an abort, ejected himself and Crippen, and ditched Columbia in the Atlantic. In addition, an improper gap filler ducted plasma from re-entry into one of the wheel wells. Young would later erroneously state that the damage caused by the plasma breach was not reported in the mission's anomaly report, when it was indeed reported. A lot of the damage was connected to insufficient sound suppression at Pad 39A, and the water-based sound suppression system was augmented for STS-2. The mission lasted 54 hours, and the orbiter reached a final orbit of 166 miles circular. The primary mission was a general check of Columbia's systems. It would land at Edwards AFB in California two days later.
19 years ago today, Columbia was launched on STS-90 from Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center. On-board was the Spacelab module, outfitted with an experiments package called "Neurolab". The mission was specifically to study the effects of microgravity on the nervous system. This mission marked the first time that the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines were fired during launch to assist in the ascent sequence. This would be used frequently for ISS construction flights. The mission would land 16 days later at Kennedy Space Center. It would be the final use of the original Spacelab module.
50 years ago today, a Martin Marietta X-23A PRIME lifting body was launched atop an Atlas rocket on a ballistic test flight from Pad 3E, Vandenberg AFB. The X-23A was to test the feasibility of a lifting body for use in orbital spaceflight, to see if a fully maneuverable re-entry with an aerodynamic body was possible. This was the third test flight. In both of the previous two launches, the descent itself went well, but the recovery parachute failed to completely deploy, precluding the intended recovery of being snatched out of the air by a passing airplane. In this case, the recovery parachute finally deployed completely, and the craft was recovered. It's currently at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. A fourth test launch was canceled. The X-23A would be used to design the manned X-24. However, that one was not designed to be launched on a rocket, only being air-dropped for landing tests.
Peggy Annette Whitson was born on February 6, 1960, in Mount Ayr, Iowa. She received a double bachelor in biology and chemistry from Iowa Wesleyan in 1981, She would then get a biochemistry Ph.D. from Rice in 1985, and would continue there as a post-doctoral scientist. During this time, she married fellow researcher Dr. Clarence Sams. In 1988, NASA hired Whitson in a non-astronaut role at Johnson Space Center. She would eventually serve as a project scientist for the Shuttle-Mir program. In 1996, she would be selected as an astronaut herself. Whitson flew her first mission with STS-111 in 2002, being left on the International Space Station as part of Expedition 5. She spent six months on board the ISS, conducting 21 experiments as Science Officer, and also conducted a spacewalk to install insulation on Zvezda. Between missions, Whitson spent two weeks at the Aquarius underwater laboratory in 2003. In October 2007, she returned to ISS on Soyuz TMA-11. She became the first female commander of ISS with Expedition 16. She would also conduct four spacewalks, taking the female EVA record. Whitson was taken off active duty following the ballistic re-entry of Soyuz TMA-11 in April 2008. She would become the Chief Astronaut in October 2009, and hold that position until July 2012, when she was cleared to fly again. She is currently the Commander of ISS Expedition 51. She was recently cleared to stay an additional three months, and is scheduled to return to Earth in September 2017 with Soyuz MS-04. Today, she will become the most experienced NASA astronaut by cumulative time, at 534 days in space.
14 years ago today, Soyuz TMA-2 was launched to the International Space Station from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome. On-board was the abbreviated Expedition 7 crew of Yuri Malenchenko and Edward Lu. With the Columbia disaster, the U.S. and Russia agreed to staff the ISS with a minimal crew of 2 until station construction could resume. Expedition 6 (the crew Nikolai Budarin, Ken Bowersox, and Don Pettit) was originally intended to land in March 2003 aboard Atlantis on STS-114. Malenchenko and Lu would have been joined by Alexander Kaleri on that mission. The original Soyuz TMA-2 was supposed to be a "taxi flight" to replace Soyuz TMA-1. Its crew would have been Gennady Padalka, Oleg Kotov, and Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque. Instead, Expedition 6 would land in Soyuz TMA-1. The Expedition 7 crew would return to Earth in Soyuz TMA-2 along with Pedro Duque, who filled the third seat on Soyuz TMA-3. For the next three years, the primary crew exchange mechanism would be for a new Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to bring three travelers: two for the new expedition, and a visitor who would return with the expedition being replaced. Malenchenko is still active to this day, and has been to the ISS a total of five times--one of the first construction missions, and four expeditions. This would be Edward Lu's final of three spaceflights; he spent some time at Google, and is currently the chairman of the B612 Foundation. Pedro Duque also retired as an astronaut following this mission, but would eventually return to the European Space Agency, where he is currently their analog to the NASA position of "Chief Astronaut".
The end is nigh. Cassini made the first of 22 passes between the cloud tops of Saturn and the innermost edge of its rings early this morning. Just in case the area is more populated than predicted, they turned the antenna away from Earth and into the probe's path. It is expected to make contact with Earth again tomorrow morning when it emerges from behind Saturn. If all went well, there will be an additional 21 passes. Four of them will graze the inner edge of the D ring, the innermost of the main ring structures. The last five will skim the planet's upper atmosphere, utilizing aerobraking to lower its apokrone. It will then pluge into Saturn for good on September 15, 2017, where it will burn up within a minute of atmospheric interface. If things went wrong on this pass—a 3% chance, the kind of risk NASA would never take at any time except the end of a mission—then the fragments of Cassini will eventually re-enter Saturn (there's nothing that will stop that now), but NASA will not be able to control when that happens.
I mentioned once that the crew of the Apollo side of Apollo-Soyuz was incapacitated during splashdown due to an encroachment of fuel vapors into the crew cabin. The poisoning causing serious lung issues for all three astronauts, and nearly killed CM pilot Vance Brand. The Soviets had a similar issue with Soyuz 10. Fuel vapors filled the re-entry module of the Soyuz spacecraft after its aborted docking with Salyut 1, briefly incapacitating Test Engineer Nikolai Rukavishnikov. 46 years ago today, Rukavishnikov was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, along with as 5,000 rubles (at the time about US$5,500) and a Volga automobile, likely the brand new GAZ-24. His crewmates, Vladimir Shatalov and Aleksei Yeliseyev, were already previous winners of the award, both being veteran cosmonauts themselves. Rukavishnikov actually got into the Soviet space program by being one of the younger engineers working for Sergei Korolev. He'd fly three times in total, but his second attempt at a space station mission, Soyuz 33, was the one that suffered severe engine issues, precluding docking for the second time for him. Rukavishnikov would continue to work for Korolev's design bureau throughout and after his cosmonaut career. He died of a heart attack in 2002, aged 70.
28 years ago today, Atlantis was launched on STS-30 from Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center. The primary task of the mission was the launch of Magellan, NASA's latest probe to Venus. Unlike the previous Mariner and Pioneer-Venus probes, Magellan would take a leisurely 15-month cruise to Venus. It was originally intended to take a direct six-month path to Venus, boosted by the Centaur-G upper stage. The banning of the liquid hydrogen-fueled Centaur-G from Shuttle use following the Challenger disaster led it, as well as Galileo and Ulysses to follow, to be put on the weaker solid-fueled Inertial Upper Stage. The probe would arrive at Venus in August 1990.
16 years ago today, the XM-1 Roll comsat was launched atop a Zenit-3SL rocket from the Sea Launch platform Ocean Odyssey in the territorial waters of Kiribati. Along with XM-2 Rock, which was launched two months before, it provided the service for XM Satellite Radio. It continued use when XM and Sirius merged in 2008. XM-1 was retired to a graveyard orbit in 2016. I believe XM-2 is still in service.
14 years ago today, MUSES-C was launched atop an M-V rocket from Kagoshima Space Center. Upon successful escape from Earth, it was reclassified Hayabusa, the Japanese word for peregrine falcon. Hayabusa was originally set to visit the asteroid 4660 Nereus (Sound familiar?), but launch delays forced a change to 1998 SF36, which was later reclassified 25143 Itokawa, after Japanese rocketry pioneer Hideo Itokawa. Hayabusa would make it to Itokawa in 2005. As noted before, the release of a hopper lander, MINERVA, failed. However, the probe itself landed on Itokawa and collected samples. The fuel system was not suited for the mission, and it was out of control at aphelion. They were able to initiate the return phase in early 2007, though it took two years for the ion thrusts to produce enough thrust to get Hayabusa back to Earth. The probe would return to Earth on June 13, 2010. It released a recovery capsule, which parachuted to a landing within Woomera Test Range in Australia. The main probe would burn up on re-entry. Scientists would find 1,500 particles that were verified to be from Itokawa.