They ended up losing the core stage. It was testing the aggressive high-speed landing with three engines firing on landing, the one that allowed the first stage from last week's GovSat launch to survive its ocean landing. But only one engine fired, and it crashed. I saw pictures with the drone ship intact, so it may have missed the drone ship entirely. I'll have to verify that later. As for the Tesla... Third burn successful. Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt. pic.twitter.com/bKhRN73WHF— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2018 The second stage's TMI burn overperformed. It's not headed to Mars. It's actually headed to the Asteroid Belt. Its aphelion is 2.61 AU, which means it could potentially encounter Vesta or Ceres someday. (Though its current orbit is directed near Ceres' aphelion, so it'll take a few million years for their orbits to more closely align. Vesta's orbit, however, is entirely inside the Tesla's aphelion, so is more possible, though still not likely.)
the #spacex solar orbit insertion burn as seen from @mmtobservatory... pic.twitter.com/3KOHgOltiS— Dr. T. E. Pickering 🔭 (@te_pickering) February 7, 2018
Someone in Arizona was claiming they could see the burn unaided. ******** 10 years ago today, Atlantis was launched on STS-122 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The primary payload was the Columbus laboratory module, the European Space Agency's centerpiece contribution to the International Space Station. Columbus is primarily used for microgravity, physiology, and biology experiments. Columbus was attached to the station at Harmony starboard. As part of the mission, a planned single-astronaut crew exchange took place, with French astronaut Leopold Eyharts replacing American astronaut Daniel Tani.
49 years ago today, TACOMSAT (OPS-0757) was launched atop a Titan IIIC rocket from Pad 41, Cape Kennedy. TACOMSAT was placed in a geostationary orbit as an experimental military communications satellite. In addition to conveying TV, phone, and teletype signals, it experimented with gyroscopic stabilization, whereas operational comsats of the time were cylinders that were spun to maintain stabilization. It would operate for the next 8 years.
59 years ago today, Discoverer 1 was launched atop a Thor-Agena rocket from Pad 75-3-4, Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was the first use of a Thor IRBM as an orbital booster, the first use of the Agena upper stage, and the first attempt by anyone to launch a satellite into polar orbit. The payload was a KH-1, a prototype reconnaissance satellite. It did not, however, contain a camera or a film capsule. The KH-1 re-entered three days later. Its recovery capsule boilerplate may have survived re-entry and crashed in the Soviet Union-Norway-Finland frontier. The Russians believed they had recovered it at the end of 1959, but got no information from it.
53 years ago today, the Soviet Union decreed a re-organization of its military-industrial complex. As part of the decree, OKB-301, the former Lavochkin design bureau which was absorbed by OKB-52 (the Chelomei bureau) in 1962, was separated once more into its own bureau. Sergei Korolev put one of his deputies, Georgi Babakin, in charge of Lavochkin, and transferred the Soviet interplanetary programs to the bureau. OKB-301 was originally known as a major producer of Soviet aircraft during World War II. Prior to its founder's death it was working on Russia's original intercontinental cruise missile concept, the La-350 Burya. Now known as the Lavochkin Association, to this day it is responsible for the design of Russian interplanetary probes, and also designed the vaunted Fregat upper stage.
Speaking of Chelomei, I looked back just now and realized that is the first time I have ever mentioned that name. Vladimir Chelomei was yet another Ukrainian aeronautics engineer used by the Soviet Union. During World War II, he designed jet engines, and also worked on some of the earliest Russian cruise missile designs. After working on early concepts for drone aircraft in the 1950s, OKB-52 was established with Chelomei in charge in 1955. It would get a huge ally 59 years ago today when Sergei Khruschev, the son of then-Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev, was hired into OKB-52. Chelomei would continue to have influence even after Khruschev's fall from grace. During the 1960s, he would play a key role in the Universal Rocket series, designing the UR-100 and UR-200 series. UR-100 would become the basis of the Strela and Rokot orbital launch systems. Although it was designed by a different design bureau (OKB-23, now Khrunichev), Chelomei would become a major supporter of using the heavy-lift UR-500 rocket, now known as Proton, to launch space stations. Sergei Korolev did not want to use a dirty hydrazine-fueled rocket. But he had little choice, as Leonid Brezhnev compelled Korolev and Chelomei to coordinate more closely. Chelomei would design the Almaz-style military space stations, of which Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 both had successful missions. He would also design the TKS military spacecraft concept, though that was never used for manned missions beyond a couple unmanned modules visiting later Salyut stations. Today, OKB-52 is known as NPO Mashinostroyeniya. In addition to building smaller-yield rockets and missiles for Russia, including the aforementioned Strela and Rokot, it also produces rocket components for India's space and defense programs. They are also the designers of the current Zirkon hypersonic cruise missile. Mashinostroyeniya was one of the Russian entities sanctioned by the United States and the European Union in 2014 in connection with Russia's meddling in Ukraine and their annexation of Crimea (how ironic). Those sanctions are still in force as of January 2018. Chelomei himself died in 1984 at the age of 70. He received the Order of Lenin four times over during his life.
46 years ago today, an astrophysics satellite named Thor-Delta 1A was launched atop a Thor-Delta N rocket from Pad 2B, Vandenberg Air Force Base. The satellite's mission was to conduct astronautical surveys in ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma ray spectra. It was designed by ESRO. It would last for nearly eight years before re-entering at the beginning of 1980. It was the last use of the Thor rocket with the Delta upper stage before its reclassification as the Delta rocket.
32 years ago today, Soyuz T-15 was launched atop a Soyuz-U2 rocket from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was simultaneously the first mission to Mir, and the final mission to Salyut 7. Mir was launched before the Soyuz-TM spacecraft was ready, so they decided to do a two-fer with the last Soyuz 7K-ST spacecraft. Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov would first visit Mir, spending seven weeks aboard the new station. This would be tricky, as they did not have the new Kurs docking system, but needed the aft docking port free for incoming Progress modules. So they calibrated on the aft docking port, the only port outfitted with the older Igla docking system, before manually maneuvering to the forward docking port. As part of this first mission, they would outfit the core module of Mir, receiving two Progress modules in the process. After the first visit to Mir, they would undock and transfer to Salyut 7, where they spent another seven weeks. There, they would collect several experiments, including two spacewalks to collect exposed experiments. The crew then returned to Mir for three more weeks. In that time, they finished outfitting the new space station with experiments re-purposed from Salyut 7, and conducted observations of Earth. The crew returned on June 26, landing 55 km NE of Arkalyk. During the mission, Kizim became the first human to spend a cumulative total of one year in space.
56 years ago today, astronaut Donald K. "Deke" Slayton was officially grounded from active flight status by NASA. The U.S. Air Force would follow suit shortly after. Slayton was originally scheduled to fly the second orbital Mercury flight. However, over the summer of 1961, he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. He spent nine months changing his diet and lifestyle to correct the issue, to no avail. NASA would create the initially unofficial position of "Chief Astronaut" following his grounding. It would soon be made official as the head position of the Astronaut Office. He would hold that position until November 1963, when Alan Shepard was grounded, and took the position in his stead. After Shepard's grounding, Slayton was repositioned as Assistant Director of Flight Crew Operations. He would take over as Director in 1966. This position put him in charge of crew assignments: he was the one who ultimately chose all the crew assignments for the Apollo program. During his grounding, he resigned from the Air Force in 1964 to continue in NASA as a civilian; in doing so, he forfeited 20 years worth of pension. He refused to give up on flying. He quit smoking and coffee, and severely curtailed his drinking, continuing a strict exercise regimen. In 1970, his atrial fibrillation disappeared. Slayton was reinstated to flight status by NASA and the FAA in 1972. With his reinstatement with NASA, Slayton chose himself to be the docking module pilot for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. He resigned from his position as Director of Flight Crew Operations in February 1974 to train for the mission.
60 years ago today, Explorer 3 was launched atop a Juno I rocket from Pad 5, Cape Canaveral. Explorer 3 was virtually technologically identical to Explorer 1, and aided in further cosmic ray detection and mapping of the radiation belt discovered by Explorer 1. A different paint scheme was applied to the satellite package's hull to aid in temperature control for the instrumentation. The satellite had two different transmitters. The low-power transmitter was able to be powered for up to 105 days. The satellite re-entered after 93 days, and worked the entire time. It was considered a complete success.
57 years ago today, a state commission was held in the Soviet Union in preparation for the launch of Vostok 1. Part of the decisions made: the APO destruct system was removed. The unmanned/dog-occupied Korabl-Sputnik capsules were expendable, but they decided they would not expend human life in such a fashion. Only one of the figures in attendance disagreed. Instead, they figured out procedures for emergency contingencies, including asking for international assistance should an emergency landing place the cosmonaut in foreign territory. The launch window was set for April 10-20, 1961. Photos taken from Korabl-Sputnik 4 and Korabl-Sputnik 5 were shown to those in attendance. They included a clear photo of Iskenderun, Turkey. After the manned program, Vostok would be repurposed into the Zenit photoreconnaissance satellite, which would be used until 1994. The first Zenit-2 satellites would use the Vostok variant of the R-7 rocket. Later Zenit-2 variants and Zenit-4 would use the Voskhod rocket. Zenit-6 and Zenit-8 would use the Soyuz-U rocket. The last Zenit-8 satellite was saved as a demo satellite to be launched on the first test flight of the Soyuz-2 rocket in 2004.
Even though Gorbachev was breaking the walls down and the Soviet Union was crumbling around them, the Soviet space program was still looking to keep up with the American Joneses in the 1980s. 32 years ago today, Tupolev, a leading aeronautics design bureau, revealed an idea called the Tu-2000, a competitor to the Rockwell X-30 National Aerospace Plane. Both the X-30 and Tu-2000 were eyed as test beds for single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceplanes and intercontinental high-speed commercial airliners. The Tu-2000 was also seen as a technology test bed for the Tu-360 intercontinental bomber. Although a mock-up was built in 1992, they never had the supercomputer access to fully flesh out the scramjet technology to make the design workable. It would become collateral damage to the fall of the Soviet Union. Which is okay. Even with supercomputers, Rockwell and NASA were never able to make scramjets work either. It's something NASA is still trying to flesh out to this day.
As SpaceX gets set to launch their latest Dragon cargo mission to the ISS, CRS-14 (scheduled 4:30pm EDT today), they are preparing to launch the seemingly final model of the Falcon 9, the Block 5. Block 5 will make its debut with Banghabandhu-1, a comsat for Bangladesh, NET April 24. In addition to uprated engines, increasing performance by 8%, the landing system has been buffed for improved durability. Greater resistance to re-entry heating has been included for the engines, landing legs, and aerodynamic grid fins. The new grid fins are now cast titanium. Block 5 will also be used for the core stage of Falcon Heavy, and the coming manned flights of Dragon 2. The first unmanned flight is aiming for August. ******** One of the last Block 4 launches, currently the last known new Block 4 first stage, will be for NASA. Scheduled for April 16 is TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. It will be launched into a high-Earth orbit entirely above the Clarke belt at roughly 67,000 x 233,000 miles. It will become part of the exoplanet survey. TESS will be the first exoplanet satellite to use a steady-light-source CCD, an innovation created for ESA's CHEOPS satellite, which is to be launched later this year. While CHEOPS is intended to observe already-discovered exoplanet systems, TESS is using it to discover new exoplanet systems.
21 years ago today, Progress M-34 was launched atop a Soyuz-U rocket from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome. The cargo craft docked as planned two days later at the Kvant docking port at the aft position of Mir. Along with fuel and other consumables, it carried two new Orlan spacesuits, three fire extinguishers, Vika oxygen candles, and parts for the general life support system. It would remain docked with Mir for 2 1/2 months.
19 years ago today, USA-142, intended as part of the missile early-warning constellation, was launched atop a Titan IVB rocket from Pad 41, Cape Canaveral. Originally destined for geostationary orbit, the first and second stages of its Inertial Upper Stage failed to fully separate. As a result, it spun out of control. The satellite was still used for several weeks, testing the system's radiation hardening as it passed through the Van Allen radiation belts multiple times each day. But the probe became unusable when its reaction control fuel was prematurely spent. It's believed the errant second stage burn caused an RCS fuel leak, venting its hydrazine. It was the last use of Pad 41 for Titan. It would be demolished and turned into a clean pad for use with the Atlas V rocket.
56 years ago today, the Soviet Union issued a decree authorizing the creation of the R-36 missile and the N-1 rocket. The R-36, still the backbone of the Russian nuclear missile fleet, was also used as the base of the Tsyklon orbital rocket family. It was eventually phased out for that purpose, as its capacity overlapped that of the cleaner-burning Soyuz rocket. Yuzhmash, the Ukrainian design bureau behind the R-36, is currently working on a new version, dubbed Cyclone-4M. There are plenty of good reasons for them to change to the English name. Not the least of which is the fact that it's going to be launched from Canada. Maritime Launch Services, a joint-venture of three American companies, has acquired 15 hectares (37 acres) of land near Canso, Nova Scotia (the east tip of the province), to build a spaceport. Their hope is to provide commercial launch services with a focus on polar orbit payloads. For this purpose, Yuzhmash is actually utilizing a first stage derived from the Zenit launch system, which is fueled by RP-1 kerosene instead of Tsyklon's original hypergolic fuels. It will still use a hypergolic second stage. It's estimated to have a capacity of 3,000 kg to an operational sun-synchronous polar orbit.
17 years ago today, Endeavour was launched on STS-100 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The main objective of the mission was to attach the Canadarm2 remote manipulator system to the outside of the International Space Station, along with a Mobile Base System (MBS) which would eventually allow Canadarm2 to operate virtually anywhere along the space station's structure. It also brought up the second visit from the European Space Agency's Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, in this case the first visit of Raffaello. It left 2,100 kg of goods on the ISS. During the mission, Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian to take part in a spacewalk.
A hobbyist photo processor by the Twitter handle landru79 is having a lot of fun with the images taken by the Rosetta probe. One of his montages has gotten a lot of headlines. #ROSETTA 😍 OSIRIS #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO new albums 😍--ROSETTA EXTENSION 2 MTP030-- Miércoles 1 Junio 2016 all filters stacked pic.twitter.com/Bf173Z5g79— landru79 (@landru79) April 23, 2018 It looks like a snowy landscape on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This GIF was assembled from a series of images taken by Rosetta while it was orbiting the comet on June 1, 2016, about three months before it landed. The images were actually taken over the period of 25 minutes, so the "footage" is actually greatly sped up. Much of the background action is actually a star field. landru79 released a second version that arranges the images in such a way that the star field is fixed. Si apilamos todo el set alineando con las estrellas de fondo se distingue mejor que son estrellas y q es polvo (olvidaos de rayos cósmicos ) #ROSETTA 😍 OSIRIS #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO new albums 😍--ROSETTA EXTENSION 2 MTP030-- Miércoles 1 Junio 2016 all filters stacked😉 pic.twitter.com/UyZ628JxKP— landru79 (@landru79) April 24, 2018 The mission scientists believe the dust flying around in the foreground is actually diamond dust. These are hardly his only images. He has several images and montages from Rosetta, Cassini, and Curiosity. #ROSETTA 😍 #OSIRIS NAC #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO Domingo 10 Abril 2016 11x Orange Near-IR_FFP-IR Blue uncal. filters pic.twitter.com/hZ2Bn8VaBL— landru79 (@landru79) April 26, 2018
47 years ago today, the Soviet space program was discussing ideas to deal with the docking issues preventing Soyuz 10 from connecting with the Salyut 1 space station. Vasili Mishin wanted to send Soyuz 11 with two cosmonauts and two spacesuits to examine the docking collar prior to attempting to dock again. They would then send Soyuz 12 for an actual mission to dock with the Station. One problem: the space suits for the DOS space station program (the eventual Sokol suits) were not ready. It would be two months before the suits would be ready just for training. They reckoned that they would not be able to keep Salyut 1 usable past June. Of course, a full three-man Soyuz 11 mission would successfully dock with Salyut 1 at the beginning of June. Only for the crew to die on the way back to Earth.
58 years ago today, the Midas II satellite was launched atop an Atlas-Agena A rocket from Pad 14, Cape Canaveral. The launch was the first successful use of the Agena upper stage with the Atlas rocket; the first attempt, with Midas I that February, failed after the Agena stage failed to separate from the rocket. While the launch went without a hitch, Midas II failed two days later. It was a test for a missile launch detection system.
53 years ago today, the ninth Saturn I launch occurred from Pad 37B, Cape Kennedy. It carried the AS-104 Apollo CSM boilerplate, as well as the Pegasus 2 micrometeoroid detection satellite. The payloads were placed in a roughly 450x300-mile orbit. The launch had some minor malfunctions, but the mission itself achieved all its objectives. Pegasus 2 re-entered in 1979, while AS-104 re-entered in 1989.
Alan LaVern Bean was born on March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, Texas, in the Texas Panhandle, and was raised in Fort Worth. He graduated from the Navy ROTC at Texas in 1955, and flew carrier aircraft for the rest of the decade. In addition to carrier time, he spent two different tours at air bases in the Florida panhandle, most of which was spent flying the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Bean was selected in Astronaut Group 3 in 1963. After backing up Gemini 10, he was assigned to the Apollo Applications Program, where he played an integral role in designing the Orbital Workshop. After the death of original Apollo 12 LM Pilot Clifton Williams, Commander Pete Conrad personally requested Bean to be his replacement. Conrad had been his instructor at Naval Test Pilot School. He played an important part in that mission as well, remembering a key contingency that allowed the Saturn V to continue launch after being struck by lightning. After that, they explored Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, and visited Surveyor 3. Scottish by ancestry, he took a piece of the MacBean tartan to the Moon. Contrary to rumor, he did not leave any of it on the Moon. He kept some of it, and returned some to the St. Bean Chapel in Scotland After Apollo 12, Bean returned to the Apollo Applications Program, where he was assigned Commander of the second manned mission, Skylab 3. During this mission's third EVA, he tested a prototype maneuvering unit that would help with the development of the Manned Maneuvering Unit during the Shuttle era. After serving as backup Commander for Apollo-Soyuz, Bean retired from the Navy as a Captain, but continued with NASA with an executive training role in the Astronaut Office. He left NASA in 1981, after which he took up painting full-time. His work was exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum as part of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. Bean suffered an illness earlier this month while travelling in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was returned to Houston, but died on Saturday. He was 86. He was survived by his second wife, and two children from his first marriage.
53 years ago today, Luna 6 was launched atop an R7-Molniya rocket from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome. Luna 6 was intended to make a soft landing on the Moon using airbags. Its mid-course correction the day after launch went awry, causing the probe to completely deplete its propellant. As a result, it flew by the Moon at a distance of 160,000 km (99,000 miles), and went into solar orbit. The ground crew did send commands to simulate an actual landing, and signals from the probe indicated that it performed otherwise nominally. It was tracked to a distance of 600,000 km from Earth before losing contact. It would be another 8 months, and three attempts, before the Soviet Union would succeed at a soft landing on the Moon.
48 years ago today, Soyuz 9 landed following a record 18-day mission with cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev and Vitali Sevastyanov. Flight directors were appalled by their physical condition. Sevastyanov and Mr. Tereshkova were barely able to stand, and almost completely unable to walk. Nikolai Kamanin had to fight to get them to a hospital instead of subjecting them to official ceremonies immediately after landing. The physical issues did not go unnoticed. The Soviets would attempt to devise exercise regimes to prevent muscular degeneration when Salyut 1 launched. The Americans had already been working on similar apparatus for Skylab since the Gemini 7 endurance flight. The exact length of the mission was 17 days, 16 hours, 58 minutes. Soyuz 9 remains the longest-duration flight for a solo manned spacecraft. No Apollo mission would be longer, and the longest solo Shuttle flight was one hour shorter.