One of the earliest cracks in the Sino-Soviet split formed 62 years ago today. The People's Republic of China had paid the Soviet Union for the acquisition of two R-1 ballistic missiles for study. What Qian Xuesen was expecting was a more advanced rocket. What he got was essentially two near-identical copies of the original V-2 rocket. He would know. Qian worked in the American rocket program, and studied the V-2 personally. I'm fairly certain this would play no small role in China refusing to turn over a Sidewinder missile they had captured from the Americans in the Second Strait of Taiwan Crisis in 1958.
11 years ago today, JAXA launched the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) atop an H-IIA 2022 rocket from Pad Y-1, Tanegashima Space Center. Upon successful orbit insertion, it was rechristened Kaguya. After an initial orbit with an apogee of 144,750 miles, its orbit was further raised at the next perigee for lunar capture. After an initial 100x11,741 km polar orbit around the Moon on October 3, its perilune was lowered eventually into a circular 100km orbit. On October 9 and October 12 respectively, Kaguya released two subsatellites: Okina and Ouna. Okina was designed to relay signals from Kaguya from behind the Moon. This also enabled accurate Doppler shift measurements, allowing for more accurate gravometric study of the Moon's far side. Ouna was specifically used for interferometry, using a different approach to assist Okina in gravometric study of the Moon. An extended mission for Kaguya in early 2009 was cut short when a reaction wheel failed. Its orbit was lowered in February 2009, and it impacted the Moon near Gill crater on June 10, 2009.
38 years ago today, an LGM-25C Titan II ICBM exploded in its silo. During maintenance at a nuclear weapons site in rural Arkansas, a socket fell off a wrench and rolled down Silo 374-3. It bounced off the bottom of the silo and hit the missile, puncturing the pressurized fuel tank of the first stage. The incident occurred at 6:30pm CDT. 8 1/2 hours later, when a serviceman entered the silo to turn on an exhaust fan, arcing from the fan ignited the leaking fuel, causing the missile to explode. The only fatality was the serviceman who entered the silo, Senior Airman David Livingston. He was posthumously promoted to Sergeant. 21 other airmen were injured. The explosion blew the lid off the silo, and launched the second stage into the air. It then exploded, sending the 9-Mt W-53 thermonuclear warhead further into the air. It reached an apogee of 200 metres, and landed 100 feet away from the silo. Since it was unarmed, the warhead did not detonate. It was sufficiently built that it withstood the impact without leaking any radioactive material. The silo was buried with gravel and abandoned. The explosion was ruled a complete accident, and no one was disciplined. The warhead was taken to Little Rock AFB. Its ultimate disposition is unknown. Since the missile was destroyed without the warhead, it was considered a "broken arrow" incident. It is the most recent known broken arrow incident associated with the American nuclear arsenal. President Reagan would announce the retirement of the Titan II weapons system the next year. The remaining missiles associated with Little Rock AFB would be the last to be deactivated in 1987.
58 years ago today, the third flight of the Scout rocket took place from Pad 18A, Cape Canaveral. This Scout was a military rocket launched by the Air Force. Such rockets were dubbed "Blue Scout". The launch itself went without a hitch; it was a suborbital flight reaching an altitude of 16,600 miles, the highest yet. Just one problem: the radiation payload suffered a radio malfunction, and didn't return any data.
11 years ago today, Dawn was launched atop a Delta II Heavy rocket from Pad 17A, Cape Canaveral. A targeted mission to the Asteroid Belt began in 2001, when this mission was selected for research. It would use the NSTAR ion thruster developed for the Deep Space 1 technology mission. It was canceled multiple times, as recently as 2006, but the probe's manufacturer, Orbital Sciences (now part of Northrop Grumman), offered to finish the satellite at cost and eat any overruns to ensure the mission flew. The probe would be the most distant to use solar panels until the launch of Juno. It features 392 square feet of solar panels. After its launch, it took a 17-month cruise to Mars, conducting its gravity assist after aphelion, a rare use. From there, it took another 2 1/2 years to get to the asteroid 4 Vesta. It entered orbit there on July 16, 2011. As I have mentioned before, Vesta is an oblong asteroid that is not at hydrostatic equilibrium. For that reason, it is not considered a dwarf planet. Dawn would spend 14 months in orbit around Vesta, taking myriads of photographs and getting other information. Among its most important geological features are Rheasilvia crater at its South Pole, the Snowman Craters near the North Pole, and an ancient crater now known as Feralia Planitia. In September 2012, Dawn departed Vesta, and took another 2 1/2-year cruise to Ceres. entering its initial orbit on March 6, 2015. The mission at Ceres has taken a total of ten distinct phases. It is currently in its final orbit, with a periapsis of 35 km, and an apoapsis of about 4,000 km. The most notable feature is Occator crater. It was originally known as "Piazzi", named for the man who discovered Ceres, after it was discovered as a bright spot on its surface by Hubble. That bright spot is one of the outlets for outflows from its internal sea. Other notable features include Kerwan crater, Hanami Planum, Vendimia Planitia, and Ahuna Mons. The Dawn mission is winding down, and will cease when its reaction control fuel runs out. At this point, it could be any day now, though no announcement has been made. It is believed its current orbit is stable, so it will not land on Ceres.
This is a specific scene in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. Based on the 1979 book by Tom Wolfe, it documents the golden age of test pilots and the early space program from the breaking of the sound barrier through Project Mercury. Part of this scene is the Mercury Seven astronauts taking issue with the lack of certain features, from the mundane (note Alan Shepard, played by Scott Glenn, exclaiming, "We want a window!") to potential make-or-break issues (the emergency hatch). 59 years ago today, NASA approved additional funding to direct McDonnell to make modifications to the Mercury spacecraft, including adding an emergency hatch, and an observation window. Other modifications included changes to the controls, and a new parachute design.
Richard F. Gordon, Jr., was born on October 5, 1929, in Seattle, Washington, and raised there as well. After receiving a degree in chemistry from Washington in 1951, he entered the Navy, and became an aviator. He trained in an all-weather squadron at NAS Jacksonville, and was the first test pilot of the F-4H Phantom II interceptor. He won the Bendix Trophy in May 1961 for the fastest transcontinental flight, taking just over 2 hours, 47 minutes to complete the flight from LA to New York City. Gordon was a finalist for the New Nine astronaut group in 1962, and was finally selected in the third group in 1963. As part of Gemini 11 with commander Pete Conrad, he completed two spacewalks totaling nearly three hours outside the capsule. He was chosen in the rotation to backup Apollo 9 as command module pilot, putting him in Apollo 12 with Conrad and Alan Bean. While they walked on the Moon, he took multitudes of photos of the lunar surface, including close-up studies of prospective future landing sites. Gordon would continue in the rotation to backup Apollo 15 as Commander, and potentially command Apollo 18. When that mission was canceled, he transferred to the advanced programs department, where he helped with early design for the Space Shuttle. He retired from NASA and the Navy (as Captain) in 1972. His first private job was as executive vice president of the New Orleans Saints. He left the Saints in 1976, and from there worked several jobs in the oil industry, developing safety techniques. He has also been involved in the March of Dimes, Boy Scouts, and Boys and Girls Clubs. Gordon died on November 6, 2017, aged 88. His second wife died eight weeks before he did, and his first wife died in 2014. He was survived by five of his six children from his first marriage, and his two stepchildren from his second, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Russia just suffered a manned launch failure. Apparently, there was an issue with upper stage ignition for the Soyuz-FG rocket carrying Soyuz MS-10 to the International Space Station. This was after the rescue shroud was separated, so they needed to use the service module's engines to escape. This sounds very similar to what happened to Soyuz 18a in 1975. It is being reported that the re-entry module has landed, and the crew is safe. Rescue crews are on their way, in contact with the crew. The capsule landed about 20 km east of Jezkazgan, Kazakhstan. EDIT: Apparently, the failure was much earlier than originally assumed, at booster separation. That explains why it didn't make it out of Kazakhstan. We'll have to wait for more details.
Now we know the crew survived, let's look at the failure again. Onboard view showed the crew getting shaken around - which can happen - but the staging was clearly off-nominal. pic.twitter.com/zaso6u1yW8— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) October 11, 2018 Here are some pictures from the launch feed. I did note that suddenly there was some serious jostling in the capsule before the feed inside the capsule was cut off from the live feed. I suspect that was the rescue shroud launching. I knew something didn't look right around when booster separation occurred. It looks like there may have been an issue with booster separation, and it may have caused recontact with the core stage. The important thing is that the crew is safe. I'm sure we'll get more details eventually.
BREAKING First view of #SoyuzMS10 crew members after Soyuz landing https://t.co/DOq9Gx3tLq pic.twitter.com/RocU3A5IkL— AIRLIVE (@airlivenet) October 11, 2018 This tweet was 35 minutes ago. The crew is currently on a helicopter back to Baikonur. From there, they will go to Moscow. The American astronaut, Nick Hague, will be flown straight back to Houston.
50 years ago today, the Manned Spacecraft Center and Marshall Spaceflight Center began requesting design bids for Phase A of the Integrated Launch and Re-Entry Vehicle program, which would eventually become the Space Shuttle. The chosen nomenclature was the same as that used by the Air Force for their spaceplane projects to that point. The usual suspects were all invited to bid on the development contracts.
Roscosmos has released the results of its State Commission into the failure of the Soyuz-FG rocket carrying Soyuz MS-10 last month. What appears to have happened is a sensor failure in one of the boosters. If you see the photo above, taken from rocketcam footage not normally aired live (they probably should start doing that), one of the boosters did not fall away from the rocket at separation. As a result, it slid down the core stage, puncturing its tanks and leading to the abort. The sensor that failed would've opened a liquid oxygen vent valve at the top of the booster, which would've pushed the top end away as it fell away from the rocket. I was not aware they used a passive separation system like that. If you recall the Space Shuttle, they actually had thrusters at the top of the solid rocket boosters to push them away from the stack at separation. The failure occurred right after the escape tower had been nominally jettisoned. This resulted in thrusters on the launch fairing itself containing the Soyuz spacecraft being used to separate the spacecraft from the failing rocket. Yet another system I--or probably most Americans who follow space exploration--was unaware of. This means all possible abort modes have been used to rescue Soyuz spacecraft from rocket failures. Soyuz 18-1 used the spacecraft's service module after fairing separation. Soyuz T-10-1 used the escape tower while on the launch pad. And now Soyuz MS-10 has used the fairing thrusters to escape during an in-between period in the launch process. Soyuz-FG will be tested with the Progress MS-10 launch on November 16. It had been moved off a Soyuz-2 rocket prior to the Soyuz MS-10 failure. If that succeeds, then Soyuz MS-11 will be launched NET December 3. The next Cygnus launch, Cygnus NG-10, is scheduled NET November 15. The next Dragon launch, SpaceX CRS-16, is scheduled NET December 4.
56 years ago today, Grumman Aerospace (now Northrop Grumman) was awarded the contract to design and build the Lunar Excursion Module, later shortened as simply the Lunar Module (LM). Grumman began work on their own for a manned lunar landing vehicle in the late 1950s. Earlier designs involved such things as three landing legs instead of four, and fuel cell power instead of batteries. As late as 1966, NASA was planning on keeping one astronaut in the LM to maintain communications until they realized communication would be reliable enough to maintain the LM remotely while both astronauts were outside. Not including test articles, a total of 15 LMs were built. Ten, along with two of the test articles, were flown. (Test articles were used as ballasts in both unmanned Saturn V launches.) The last one, LM-15, was scrapped; while LM-14 is only listed as incomplete, whereabouts unknown. LM-2, intended for a canceled unmanned test flight, is at the National Air and Space Museum. LM-9, intended for Apollo 15 before it was change from a H mission to a J mission, is at Kennedy Space Center's Apollo/Saturn V Center. LM-13, intended for Apollo 18, was finished, and is on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island. It was used in From the Earth to the Moon for their lunar EVA scenes.
16 years ago today, Russia attempted to launch the then-largest comsat ever built, Astra 1K, atop a Proton-K rocket from Site 81/23, Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch failed when the Blok DM3 upper stage failed to ignite, leaving the comsat stranded in its initial parking orbit. It would be de-orbited two weeks later. The failure called into question the use of larger comsats, and the future of the Blok D upper stage, which was never really a stable platform in the first place. For the former, this was merely a speed bump. For the latter, the Blok D would largely be relegated to the Zenit launch platform. Though there is still an available model of the Blok D for Proton use, most Proton launches that need an upper stage use the Briz upper stage family now. A replacement for this satellite, Astra 1KR, was launched in 2006 atop an Atlas V 411 rocket.
38 years ago today, Soyuz T-3 was launched atop a Soyuz-U rocket from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome. It would be the first Soviet mission in nine years to carry three cosmonauts, as Soyuz-T was reconfigured to permit three cosmonauts to ride in the capsule with new lighter pressure suits. They would dock with Salyut 6. In addition to some minor experiments, the primary task of the mission was maintenance of the station, to try to squeeze one more long-term expedition out of it. They would remain on the station for two weeks, and land on December 10, about 80 miles from Jezkazgan.
58 years ago today, the U.S. Air Force made the decision to move the Boeing X-20 Dyna Soar spaceplane from the Titan I ICBM to the Titan II ICBM. The move would doom the cryogenically-fueled Titan I as a launch platform. It had already begun deployment at the time of this decision. But the shift in Administrations brought in Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense. He preferred storable fuels for the nuclear arsenal, and pushed for the hypergolic Titan II and solid-fueled Minuteman to be used instead. With Atlas already proven as a space launcher, the removal of X-20 as a possible payload for spaceflight meant Titan I would never be used as an orbital system. Once the system was fully stood down in 1965, 33 would be distributed as museum pieces, while the remaining unused 50 would be destroyed to live up to coming arms reduction treaties, all by the end of 1972. As for the X-20, McNamara would cancel it in 1963 after a brief study suggested Gemini would be a more cost-effective platform for a manned military space program than the X-20. By the end of the decade, even that would be canceled in favor of fully automating space reconnaissance, ultimately with the KH-9 and later KH-11 systems.
I mentioned the only British launch ever conducted took place from Woomera Test Range, in the inland portions of the state of South Australia, in the early 1970s. But that was not the only orbital launch conducted from Australia. In the mid 1960s, the United States donated several PGM-11 Redstone missiles which had been given two small upper stages, becoming the Sparta rocket. Most were used as sounding rockets to test re-entry vehicles. But one was reserved for an orbital launch attempt. 51 years ago today, that orbital launch attempt took place as a Sparta rocket launched WRESAT from Woomera. It achieved a 1,250x200-km polar orbit, and remained in orbit for six weeks. The first stage of the rocket was found in the Simpson Desert, in the east-central portion of the Outback, in 1990. Today, RAAF Woomera Range Complex is still used for aeronautical research (currently for the F-35), but is also subcontracted for Aboriginal land use, as well as mining.
53 years ago today, Hamilton Standard conducted its first operational test of the A7L Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit Portable Life Support System backpack. In the test, a man entered a vacuum chamber, and walked on a treadmill for three hours to simulate metabolic load during a moonwalk. Pictured above is a stripped-down A7L without its iconic white Integrated Thermal Micrometeoroid Garment. The pressure suit itself was designed by International Latex (ILC-Dover). The PLSS backpack for the A7L pressurized oxygen at a minimum of 3.7 PSI for breathing, and maintained a set relative humidity. A lithium hydroxide canister in the backpack removed carbon dioxide and other contaminants from the suit's atmosphere. It also fed cooled water through the suit's active-cooled undergarment. The A7L was designed to use either the PLSS or an umbilical system to feed air into the suit. When the command module pilot conducted a spacewalk, they would not wear the active-cooled undergarment, instead using an air-cooled garment. A further update for the J missions, the A7LB (termed A9L by ILC-Dover), would provide for more oxygen, water, and lithium hydroxide for the longer J-mission EVAs. The suits would be slightly re-designed to store food and drinking water in and around the helmet so it can be consumed during the EVA. A simplified A7LB would be used for Skylab, using a new umbilical system designed by A7L life support system competitor AlliedSignal instead of the PLSS backpack.
55 years ago today, the X-20 Dyna Soar spaceplane program was officially canceled, and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program was given approval to proceed. The Manned Orbiting Laboratory was to use the Gemini spacecraft, as well as a unique Air Force-commissioned spacesuit with the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU). The MOL would carry reconnaissance-class cameras and radar equipment. The atmosphere of the spacecraft and MOL was planned to be heliox, an 80/20 blend of helium and oxygen used in medicine and deep-sea diving.
This past weekend, NASA announced that Voyager 2 had also left the Solar System. Unlike Voyager 1, its plasma detection device, the Plasma Spectrometer (PLS), is still operating. The other probe's version failed before it encountered Saturn in 1980. Last month, the PLS detected a plummet in material from the solar wind, coinciding with a spike in cosmic radiation.
This is a simulation someone made of what Pluto would look like at natural illumination. The images made of Pluto during the New Horizons encounter were all long exposures to enhance features, bringing them at or above where illumination would be if they were approximately at the distance Earth is from the Sun. In reality, Pluto has on average about 0.06% of the sunlight that Earth gets. But that is not quite as dark as you would imagine. NASA has a website about this. Apparently, the illumination of Pluto at high Noon is about the same as the illumation of the sky on Earth approximately five minutes before sunrise or after sunset. In two weeks, New Horizons will arrive at the asteroid 2014 MU69. (No, it has not been named yet, though it does have the unofficial nickname "Ultima Thule", and the MPC number of 486958.) This image is the first one taken from the probe of Ultima. There is absolutely no certainly on the true nature of Ultima. Some think it may actually be a binary object. Considering how small it is, we may not know for sure until the day of the encounter. If at all.
For those wondering, I did a fairly comprehensive series of write-ups on Apollo 8 five years ago. ******** 53 years ago today, Luna 13 was launched atop a Molniya-M rocket from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome. Three days later, the probe achieved a soft landing just south of dead center on Oceanus Procellarum. It would be active on the surface for four days, and take five panoramas of the lunar surface at the landing site.
39 years ago today, the European Space Agency launched the first Ariane 1 rocket from Pad ELA-1, Guiana Space Centre. The rocket had a capacity to GTO of 1,850 kg. The first payload was just a sensor package to analyze the rocket's performance. It was successfully placed in GTO, and remained in orbit for just short of 10 years. The rocket was manufactured by French-owned Aerospatiale, currently a part of Airbus.
Closer and closer, New Horizons approaches "Ultima Thule". The encounter is only three days away now. I will hopefully be able to post the first close-ups some time Tuesday evening.
Still reeling from the Americans winning the moon race, it was 49 years ago today that the Soviet space program began plans to seize the endurance record, at that point claimed by the Americans since Gemini 7. The idea was to get the mission, Soyuz 9, launched on April 22, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. Vasily Mishin wanted Pyotr Kolodin and Georgi Grechko to fly the mission. Higher powers, however, wanted the mission flown by Andrian Nikolayev and Vitali Sevastyanov. Elsewhere, cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev, commander of Voskhod 2 and the oldest of the first cosmonauts, was in the hospital with what is suspected to be a stomach ulcer. Considering they ultimately removed his appendix, 2/3 of his stomach, and a lot of his colon, chances are pretty good it was an infection. Belyayev would never recover, and died on January 10, 1970, at age 44. As for Soyuz 9, it would ultimately fly on June 1, 1970, with Nikolayev and Sevastyanov.