Io, Io, it's off to work we go... 18 years ago today, Galileo made its last closest approach to Io, during its 33rd orbit around Jupiter. It was to be its closest, at a distance of just 102 km above its surface. It went into safe mode 28 minutes before closest approach, and was inactive for the rest of the fly-by. Coming out of safe mode, mission scientists discovered its camera was destroyed, finally rendered inoperable after years of radiation damage. Very little scientific benefit was derived from the fly-by. But it did send the probe to its ultimate demise two orbits later.
1218234258747219968 is not a valid tweet id Freaky-deaky. As part of the Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort test campaign, SpaceX conducted a dress rehearsal for crew transport and ingress with the DM2 crew today. And check out the SpaceX pressure suits. These are the same suits that were put on the dummy launched aboard Elon Musk's car in the Falcon Heavy test launch. The IFA is scheduled for tomorrow, NET 8am EST. It has a four-hour-long launch window. The SuperDraco ignition will take place during the max Q window, after which the first stage of the Falcon 9 will shut down. The rocket will definitely break up, and likely explode, over the Atlantic. SpaceX is planning on recovering the rocket's debris, as they would have in the past for a failed landing test.
Vasili Pavlovich Mishin was born on January 18, 1917, in suburban Moscow. If ever there could be a paragon for the failures of Communist bureaucracy, here you go. And being born only a few months before the October Revolution, it's the only world he ever knew. He studied mathematics at the Moscow Aviation Institute, and was among the younger of the rocket scientists to be the first to receive the Soviet Union's share of the spoils of the Great Patriotic War. (That's Russia's name for World War II, but I'd like to think most of the people who read this part of the forum knew that already.) Mishin spent his early career as one of Sergei Korolev's most trusted understudies, and had a front-row seat for his rivalry with Valentin Glushko. As an engineer, he had his hands on many of the Soviet Union's early triumphs, like the R-7 ICBM, Sputnik, Vostok, and Voskhod. Then Korolev died, and Mishin was put in charge of OKB-1. And that's where it all fell apart. What Mishin had in engineering skill and talent, he utterly lacked in management and organizational skills. Even then-Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev commented that he couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag. He was ultimately blamed for the failure of the N-1 moon rocket, and the fatal accidents of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11. Historians tend to agree that the blame is rightly earned. Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov personally blamed Mishin for Soyuz 1, and the death of Vladimir Komarov. With failures mounting, he ultimately turned to the bottle. I have no idea what for, but he ended up in the hospital in 1974. At this point, he was replaced as the head of TsKBEM by Glushko. Mishin returned to the Moscow Aviation Institute, becoming a professor. He would have to live with his failures for a very long time. But not before spilling his guts. He sold his diaries from his time at OKB-1 and TsKBEM in 1993. Excerpts were donated to the National Air and Space Museum in 1997, and NASA got full copies donated after his death. Cold comfort, but at least Mishin long outlived Glushko. He died on October 10, 2001, aged 84. He was survived by his wife and three daughters.
The Crew Dragon IFA was delayed to tomorrow due to weather issues. Sustained winds expected to persist during today's launch window, and rough seas in the recovery areas. But tomorrow's window is 6 hours instead of 4.
47 years ago today, NASA officially halted production of the Saturn V rocket. It directed Boeing to begin winding down operations at Michoud Assembly Facility, and planned minimal security at the plant for surplus equipment storage. Of course, that would change by the end of the year when Boeing won the contract to construct the external tank for the Space Shuttle.
The Crew Dragon In Flight Abort demonstration appears to have gone well. The Falcon 9 rocket launched at 10:30am EST. It went through its nominal launch profile through max Q and post-max throttle-up. Crew Dragon separating from Falcon 9 during today’s test, which verified the spacecraft’s ability to carry astronauts to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency on ascent pic.twitter.com/rxUDPFD0v5— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 19, 2020 The first stage then shut down at T+1:26, and the Crew Dragon's SuperDraco engines ignited instantaneously, pulling it away from the booster. As anticipated, and as I expected, the Falcon 9's first stage exploded 11 seconds after cutoff. The second stage survived the first stage's destruction, and remained intact to impact in the Atlantic, where it also exploded. Crew Dragon reached a velocity of Mach 2.2 during separation, and hit an apogee of 40 km. Its acceleration was estimated under 5.5 g. Trunk separation and all parachute operations occurred as expected, and the capsule splashed down just over 9 minutes after launch. If everything checks out, then SpaceX will finally be able to solidify a schedule for the manned Demonstration Mission 2 (DM2) to the International Space Station. Part of the coming judgments will be NASA deciding whether DM2 will remain a test mission, or be extended to a full six-month crew rotation. The latter would require a little extra training, so Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken would know about operating the experiments in orbit. NASA has said that such an extension is not necessary, but are keeping their options open for the moment.
42 years ago today, Progress 1 was launched atop a Soyuz-U rocket from Site 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome. As the first autonomous logistics flight, the future of Soviet ambitions for long-term spaceflight hung on its success. It successfully docked to the aft port of Salyut 6 two days later. It brought 1,300 kg of food and equipment, and 1,000 kg of oxygen and propellant. It remained docked for over two weeks, while cosmonauts Georgi Grechko and Yuri Romanenko unloaded the pressurized portion of the spacecraft, and reloaded it with used equipment and trash. The spacecraft undocked on February 6, and re-entered two days later over the Pacific.
Earlier this month, much ado was made about the graduation of the most recent class of NASA astronauts: Astronaut Class 22. Originally known as "The 8-Balls", they were eventually re-christened "The Turtles". Twelve astronaut candidates were chosen, birthdates ranging from 1975 to 1988. They would be joined later by two Canadians selected to train with them by the Canadian Space Agency. On the NASA side, there were six from the DoD (3 Navy, including a SEAL; one each Air Force, Army, and Marines). One of the civilians was already a NASA pilot. The Canadian side was one Canadian Forces pilot and one researcher. One of the civilians was selected from SpaceX. Ironically, that one didn't make it. (And before I go any further, no, they didn't die.) Robb Michael Kulin was born on December 7, 1983, in Anchorage, Alaska. Kulin had some rather eclectic interests. He spent some time in his 20s as an Alaskan fisherman. (No, he wasn't in the crab fishery, so don't go binge-watching Deadliest Catch looking for him.) He also researched ice at various spots in Antarctica. He got a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Denver, and a doctorate in materials science from UC-San Diego. In 2011, Kulin joined SpaceX. He eventually took charge of their Chief Engineering Group, so he probably had his hands on the engineering of the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. In August 2018, just about half-way through Group 22's training, Kulin suddenly resigned from NASA. The only reason he gave was "personal reasons". I'm not sure anyone ever got any more details. He's the first astronaut candidate to resign from NASA before completing training in 50 years. (Two resigned from the XS-11 group in 1968 prior to completion of training.) But Kulin's presence in modern space exploration would not be lost. This past April, he joined Firefly Aerospace. They are building a series of small-payload rockets. Their first rocket, the Firefly Alpha, is scheduled to launch a cubesat dispenser in April 2020 from Pad 2W, Vandenberg AFB. Kulin is now the Director of Engineering in charge of the Alpha program. They have also leased Pad 20 at Cape Canaveral, both for future launches and for a manufacturing facility. If their first couple launches this year succeed, they hope to gear up production and launch capabilities to be able to launch two rockets a month beginning early next year. They also have an uprated Beta rocket in design; originally three clustered Alphas, it is now a larger single-stick rocket with the 500,000-pound-force Aerojet-Rocketdyne AR1 kerosene-fueled engine on its first stage. A future Gamma rocket is hoped to be able to achieve a high level of reusability, including recovering and reusing its upper stage.
Sometimes I stumble upon the most interesting things. As it turns out, Firefly had a scheduled static fire test of the first stage of the Alpha rocket yesterday. I swear, I had no idea it was happening when I wrote up on it Tuesday. Oddly, they deleted their tweets about it after announcing they were loading propellant. They characterized it as a "small fire" before deleting all related tweets. Some say that an explosion definitely happened. Security cam footage of the "small fire" on the test stand, as Firefly put it. This was during the first Alpha Stage 1 Qual Static Fire test.(Small, by Texas standards?) https://t.co/OyAFgPyXh0— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) January 23, 2020 So who knows what will happen with Firefly now?
Firefly just released a statement on their engine test last night: Yesterday evening we attempted to hotfire test the Alpha first stage for the first time. Unfortunately, after the four Reaver engines ignited, an engine bay fire developed (flame jet to the left in video). The system immediately shut itself down and the fire was quickly pic.twitter.com/YGYcEshrd9— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) January 23, 2020 More information on the test here: https://t.co/cBfF0p1EtR.— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) January 23, 2020 According to the statement and video, a fire broke out in the engine compartment immediately upon ignition. The engines cut off well short of the planned 5-second test, and the fire suppression system put out the fire. Apparently, no one outside Firefly knew they were doing a test, and someone called 9-1-1, summoning the local fire department. Part of their statement was to swear closer coordination with local emergency response. No one was hurt, and the rocket is intact.
The preliminary report has been released on the In-Flight Abort test of Crew Dragon, and things are looking superb. All eight SuperDraco engines were able to pressurize and ignite instantly upon command, and exerted a force of 3.3 g. It got the capsule and trunk up from 1,200 mph to 1,500 mph in about 7 seconds, and it was already nearly a mile above the Falcon 9 when it exploded. It splashed down 42 km downrange (a number I never saw in initial reporting, else I would've included it then). Despite rough seas, the capsule was back in Port Canaveral within 9 hours of splashdown. Among the last housekeeping items remaining before SpaceX commits to Demonstration Mission 2, their actual manned test to the International Space Station, are two remaining parachute drop tests at White Sands. But things are looking good for the mission to occur as early as April.
26 years ago today, the Deep Space Program Science Experiment, Clementine, was launched atop a Titan 23G rocket from Pad 4W, Vandenberg AFB. It was very odd that a probe to the Moon was launched into polar orbit. But part of the reason is because they wanted the probe in a lunar orbit around the Moon. After two transfer orbits, it was captured in orbit around the Moon a month after launch. Clementine was a joint mission between NASA and the DoD. It mapped the Moon with a high-resolution camera, and with LIDAR. It actually achieved full mapping at a resolution ranging from 7-20 metres per pixel. It also carried UV and near-infrared cameras. Another experiment, a "bistatic radar experiment", was the one that discovered water deposits in the permanently-shadowed craters around the Moon's poles. In May 1994, Clementine left Lunar orbit, and returned to a highly-eccentric orbit around Earth in preparation to be placed in heliocentric orbit to approach the asteroid 1620 Geographos. The fly-by would've taken place four months after the lunar mission ended. At this point, it suffered a computer glitch, and spun up to 80 rpm, using most of its fuel. It would remain in a highly-eccentric orbit around Earth, testing components for the effects of exposure to the Van Allen radiation belts. The mission ended a year later.
Happy 70th birthday to former NASA astronaut Dr. David Hilmers. Born in Clinton, Iowa, he went into the Marine Corps in 1972 after graduating summa cum laude with a Mathematics degree from Cornell. He played multiple sports at Cornell, including football. He became a Marine aviator, flying in the navigator position on A-6's in the Mediterranean. He got a master's in electrical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1977. He was selected to NASA in 1980 in the mission specialist track, and early on specialized in integrating upper stages for satellite deployment from the Space Shuttle. His first mission was STS-51-J, the maiden voyage of Atlantis, in 1985, which was a DoD mission to deploy a DSCS comsat with the Inertial Upper Stage. Hilmers always said before each mission that he "had no plans past MECO", summing up the uncertainty latent in spaceflight. Before the Challenger disaster, he was assigned to STS-61-F, the original mission to deploy Ulysses to Jupiter. Most of his crew was instead shifted to the RTF, STS-26 on Discovery in 1988. He would also fly STS-36 aboard Atlantis in 1990, which deployed USA-53, believed to be an upgraded KH-11 reconnaissance satellite; the only IMINT satellite believed to have been deployed by the Space Shuttle in its DoD missions. In 1992, Hilmers was selected to replaced the recently-deceased Sonny Carter in STS-42 aboard Discovery. That mission was the first International Microgravity Laboratory mission. After STS-42, he retired from NASA and the Marine Corps (final rank Colonel), and decided to get into medicine. He got his MD from Baylor in 1995, and a master's in Public Health from Texas-Houston (not the University of Houston) in 2002. Hilmers is currently a practicing pediatrician with surgical privileges at multiple hospitals in the Houston area. He is married, and has two children.
Is this the right place to put this? If I can intrude for a second, this might be interesting but will probably turn out to be nothing, I hope. Keep your hard-hat on if you're in Pittsburgh (so... Tuesday ) 2/ On Jan 29 at 23:39:35 UTC, these two objects will pass close by one another at a relative velocity of 14.7 km/s (900km directly above Pittsburgh, PA). Our latest metrics on the event show a predicted miss distance of between 15-30 meters. pic.twitter.com/Hlb1KeQ50U— LeoLabs (@LeoLabs_Space) January 27, 2020
Sure it is. I was concerned when I started hearing reports about this potential collision. If this had taken place, it could've turned into the real-life equivalent of the film Gravity. Fortunately, it appears not to have come to pass. Thankfully our latest data following the event shows no evidence of new debris. To be sure, we will perform a further assessment upon the next pass of both objects over Kiwi Space Radar occurring later tonight.— LeoLabs (@LeoLabs_Space) January 30, 2020 We are pleased to report that in the first several radar passes of the two objects after the close approach, we see no evidence of new debris. This event has served to highlight the collision risks caused by derelict satellites in LEO.— LeoLabs (@LeoLabs_Space) January 30, 2020
The mission of the Spitzer Space Telescope ends today after 16 1/2 years. Launched atop a Delta II Heavy 7920 rocket from Pad 17B, Cape Canaveral, on August 25, 2003, it was the only of the Great Observatories not launched by the Space Shuttle. Its primary mission was as a far-infrared telescope, utilizing cooling with liquid helium, and placement in an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit that pulled it slowly away from the massive heat bank of Earth's presence. The primary mission lasted nearly six years; it ran out of liquid helium in May 2009. At that point, a second phase, the Spitzer Warm Mission, began. The warm mission would focus on near-infrared studies that could be conducted without the liquid helium. This would still be useful for discovering weak objects such as brown dwarfs, and even exoplanets; it was during this phase that Spitzer discovered the Earth-size exoplanets orbiting the star known as TRAPPIST-1. In October 2016, NASA initiated a new phase called Spitzer Beyond. The meat of this phase was to locate points of interest for NASA's next major telescope project, the James Webb Space Telescope. It would also explore the growing challenges of angling the telescope more tightly toward Earth as it approaches opposition relative to the Sun, limiting its ability to conduct research as the angles required to keep contact pulled its solar panels away from facing the Sun. Spitzer is now approaching opposition, when it will be unable to communicate with Earth. NASA has decided to take this opportunity to end the mission. A command will be sent to reboot Spitzer in safe mode, and it will be left derelict in perpetuity.
45 years ago today, Grumman presented a proposal to NASA on a cheaper external tank for the Space Shuttle. The tank had a core of Nomex, aluminum-alloy tanks, and an exterior of e-glass and epoxy. While indeed cheaper than Martin Marietta's approved External Tank, it was also heavier. And Martin Marietta was already making manufacturing improvements in its approved design that cut at least half a ton off its weight with no decrease in durability. This does not include later general improvements, such as 1983's Lightweight Tank (LWT) model which shifted from aluminum to titanium construction. The Grumman proposal didn't get very far.
For the past few years, there's been some breathless speculation regarding the United Kingdom's future role in the European Space Agency in the post-Brexit world. Now that Brexit is a reality, what has changed? For the moment, very little. The European Space Agency is not an organ of the European Union. Though the EU does have some coordination with ESA, and provides some funding (direct EU funding of ESA will be 25.2% in FY 2020), it does not have much in the way of government oversight. That is handled directly by ESA's member states, which include several non-EU members (most notably: Switzerland). In general, Brexit was not going to affect the UK's membership in the European Space Agency. The only real issue is regarding the Galileo navigational satellite system, which is an EU program. The main thing is, the UK had a high degree of input in the program. Airbus produced many of the components for the system in Portsmouth. With the UK making the decision to leave the system for now, that production needs to be moved, though enough components have been manufactured to finish the first generation of the system. That being said, Airbus last month made a commitment to expand production interests in the UK post-Brexit. The exact composition of such an investment is not yet known, though the UK did add 2,000 aerospace jobs in 2019. Another note is that the United Kingdom Space Agency is ramping up independent work in space research. This is not something new that should concern ESA. Most ESA member states have their own space agencies; most notably, France's CNES, which was infamous for working with ESA, NASA, AND the Soviet space program, in the 1980s. The UKSA only formed in 2010, but has received boosts in funding in recent years. Currently, they are planning a commercial spaceport to be constructed in Sutherland, on the northern coast of Scotland. Such a spaceport would only be able to launch polar orbit satellites. (Only God knows what they'll do if Scotland gains independence someday.) Currently, they are working with Orbex, one of those private rocket companies that have been cropping up in recent years. Their rocket design, named Prime, is a propane-fueled small-payload rocket that is proposed to lift up to half a metric ton into an SSO. They are planning a maiden flight in 2021.
15 years ago today, USA-181 was launched atop an Atlas IIIB rocket from Pad 41, Cape Canaveral. USA-181 was the designation for a pair of SIGINT satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office as part of its Naval Ocean Surveillance System. The launch was the final launch of the classic Atlas rocket with its original balloon tank design. Its successor, the Atlas V, would shift from monocoque balloon tanks to a sturdy isogrid tank design Although its maiden flight was in 2002, at this point the Atlas V had only been launched four times. The primary reason for the lack of initial use was to exhaust the remaining Atlas II and Atlas III rockets; the last four Atlas II rockets were launched in 2004.
18 years ago today, the International Space Station had a major f***-up. A communications breakdown occurred between the control computers on the Zvezda module and the prime gyroscopes on the Z1 truss, which were connected to the American computer systems. As a result, gyroscopic control was lost, and the station began to tumble. Experiments were shut down, and they were able to direct the solar panels on Z0 manually to maintain power. They were able to restore gyroscopic control after about 6 hours.
SpaceX isn't the only concern looking to pollute the night sky with a ton of low-orbiting small satellites. Yes, that was a facetious reference to their growing Starlink constellation. OneWeb is also launching a satellite internet constellation. It conducted a successful test launch of six satellites last February with a Soyuz-2 rocket from Guiana Space Center. Now, they are proceeding with the production run, and looking to launch 34 satellites at a time, up to 14 times this year. If things go smoothly, they could have seven launches from Baikonur, five launches from Vostochny (which would mean the first time Vostochny has more than one launch in a year), and two launches from Kourou. All but one of the launches will be on Soyuz-2 rockets with Fregat upper stages. The wild card will be the launch on the maiden flight of the Ariane 6 rocket. The production satellites are being popped out like Tic-Tacs at a facility at Exploration Park, the industrial park behind Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. It's next-door neighbors with Space Florida's main office, and across the street from Blue Origin's Florida rocket factory where they'll produce the New Glenn rocket. The dispenser will deploy the first two satellites toward the end of the first orbit, then release them four at a time over the next two hours. Once all the satellites are released, the Fregat will de-orbit. OneWeb is expecting to come online when they're around 300 satellites, and envisions having up to 2,000 satellites in orbit. Which would be about 1/6th the size of the Starlink fleet Elon Musk envisions. Good luck, astronomers. The first operational launch is scheduled to take place off Site 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, 4:42pm EST today. It will likely be webstreamed, and would be a night launch for them (03:42 local time tomorrow).
How can Boeing be so bad at software being HQ'd in Seattle? Must be using their SC team Following the anomaly that occurred during the December Boeing Starliner Orbital Fight Test (OFT), NASA and Boeing formed a joint investigation team tasked with examining the primary issues, which occurred during that test. Those issues included three specific concerns revealed during flight: An error with the Mission Elapsed Timer (MET), which incorrectly polled time from the Atlas V booster nearly 11 hours prior to launch. A software issue within the Service Module (SM) Disposal Sequence, which incorrectly translated the SM disposal sequence into the SM Integrated Propulsion Controller (IPC). An Intermittent Space-to-Ground (S/G) forward link issue, which impeded the Flight Control team’s ability to command and control the vehicle. [...] Regarding the first two anomalies, the team found the two critical software defects were not detected ahead of flight despite multiple safeguards. Ground intervention prevented loss of vehicle in both cases. https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcr...-starliner-orbital-flight-test-investigation/
It's Boeing. They can't seem to do anything right these days. They probably withdrew from DARPA's XS-1 reusable rocket plane program purely out of shame. If I were NASA, I would have them on a very short leash. Or consider swapping Starliner out for Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser. ******** Another mission to the Sun is about to commence. The European Space Agency has built the Solar Orbiter. It is set to launch atop an Atlas V 411 rocket from Pad 41, Cape Canaveral, tomorrow night at 11:03pm EST. In terms of proximity to the Sun, it won't be anywhere near as ambitious as the Parker Solar Probe. It will take a final perihelion of 0.284 AU, just inside the orbit of Mercury, after fly-bys of Venus and Earth. From there, it will make future fly-bys of Venus that won't draw it closer, but instead raise its inclination relative to the Sun. It will be the first opportunity to see the higher latitudes of the Sun since Ulysses, and will give a much better vantage as well. Through the end of the primary mission, Solar Orbiter will reach an inclination of 25°. If the mission is extended beyond 2027, it will inevitably make future fly-bys of Venus that will further raise its inclination. Solar Orbiter and Parker will be able to coordinate observations throughout their respective missions. Speaking of Parker, it is a couple weeks past its fourth perihelion, its first since Venus fly-by number two. Its next fly-by of Venus will be on July 11, and will shave another 5.2 million km off its perihelion, increasing its velocity at perihelion to 129 km/sec (464,400 km/h).
10 years ago today, Endeavour was launched on STS-130 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The primary mission was the installation of Node 3, Tranquility, on the International Space Station. Built by Thales Alenia Space, it is primarily a living space for the NASA side of the station. It has its own life support system, a toilet, and several locations to attach future modules. It was attached to the station at Unity starboard. Its game-breaker app is the Cupola, a large observation port. It was brought up separately on this mission, and attached at Tranquility nadir. It is used by astronauts and cosmonauts to photograph Earth. This is a feature that has been ubiquitous to NASA space station ideas, and was one of the hallmarks of the original Space Station Freedom. The Leonardo module is attached at Tranquility forward, and the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module is attached at Tranquility aft. Both are currently used for station storage. It also temporarily housed PMA-3 until it was permanently moved to Harmony zenith in 2017.
20 years ago today, ISAS attempted to launch ASTRO-E, an X-ray telescope, atop an M-V solid-fuel rocket from Uchinoura Space Center. About 40 seconds into flight, the exhaust bell burned through, rendering the rocket unable to gimbal the engine to control its flight path. The rocket was destroyed by range safety. The telescope would be re-flown 5 years later. And that was a whole different adventure.