Another picture-perfect launch, and a good recovery for debutant first stage B1076.1. It is planned to serve a few more solo launches, then eventually be converted into a Falcon Heavy side booster for the Echostar 24 comsat launch, currently penciled in for March 2023 with B1073.5 (currently waiting for Emirates Mars Mission next week) and a core that is currently in production.
Two days after Lucy's latest gravity assist at Earth, it was followed by an unknown object. After it was found, it was given a provisional minor planet designation of 2022 UQ1. Initially, it was thought to be the closest approach to Earth by a potential small asteroid or comet of 2022. And by an object that had previously gone undetected. Once its trajectory was analyzed, however, it was found that this object was actually the Centaur upper stage that sent Lucy on its way. Its fly-by of Earth ended up quite a ways off from where Lucy ended up, owing to the probe's subsequent mid-course corrections. It flew by at an altitude of 2,700 km above the planet, and on a trajectory that sent it inward into the solar system. Its new orbit has a perihelion of around 77.6 million km, not far beyond Mercury, and with its inclination relative to the Sun raised by 1.2°.
After further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review, we're standing down from tomorrow's launch of @ispace_inc's HAKUTO-R Mission 1; a new target launch date will be shared once confirmed— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 1, 2022 Sometimes, things just don't seem to go your way, An inspection found issues with something for the Hakuto-R launch on Tuesday. Further analysis led SpaceX to bring it and Booster B1073.5 back to the hanger. Hopefully, they will figure out what's going on. They need this booster for the Falcon Heavy launch of the EchoStar-24 comsat, currently penciled in for March. ******** 📷 Iconic photo: a proud moment for ESA, European industry and international partners. A view of our home planet and Moon from the #EuropeanServiceModule, powering @NASA_Orion on the #Artemis I lunar mission 👉 https://t.co/wtlOL3coLD #OrionESM #ForwardToTheMoon #ExploreFarther pic.twitter.com/CQc8dft2Mn— European Space Agency (@esa) December 1, 2022 Artemis 1 is slowly working its way around the Moon. Its departure burn is currently planned for 4:53pm EST this afternoon. That will send it down toward the moon for another powered fly-by on Monday that will return it to Earth. If you look at the way Artemis 1 has, and will be, flying, it almost looks like the new powered fly-by will put it almost at a dead stop relative to Earth. And it effectively will be, once it leaves the Moon's gravitational influence. It will almost be like the scene in Star Trek Into Darkness where the Enterprise is falling straight down toward Earth. Except, realistically, the trip down will take about six days If all goes well, it will return to Earth in the early afternoon next Sunday, December 11. Splashdown is aimed in the Pacific just off San Diego.
With stuff shuffling around due to the issues with B1073.5, the next SpaceX launch is actually going to be their first OneWeb launch. It's now penned in for Tuesday afternoon at 5:37pm EST from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. It is set atop B1069.4. Nice. Interestingly enough, they are planning to launch a Starlink flight from Pad 40 only a few hours later, at 8:29pm EST. They really want to get two launches in a day. Transporter-6 is currently on the backburner. But another launch for O3b mPOWER has been penciled in for December 15.
34 years ago today, Discovery was launched on STS-53 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The mission would be the last classified DoD mission that involved a major satellite deployment. That payload was USA-89, the third Shuttle deployment of a satellite in the Block 2 Satellite Data System (SDS-2) constellation. A fourth launch for the constellation would be conducted with a Titan IVA rocket in 1996. The mission also carried several unclassified payloads, both within the orbiter and exposed in Getaway Special canisters in the payload bay. The week-long mission was the second for NASA associate administrator Bob Cabana, and fourth and final mission for Guion Bluford.
That Starlink flight for Tuesday night has been swapped out in favor of Hakuto-R. I guess they are satisfied that Booster B1073.5 is okay. It is now scheduled for early Wednesday morning at 3:04am EST. OneWeb is still go for tomorrow afternoon at 5:37pm EST. Both launches have at least 90% chance of weather favorability. And they will both feature RTLS landings at Landing Zone 1. Meanwhile, ABL Space Systems is ready to resume their debut flight campaign, and will make another attempt with their RS1 rocket from Kodiak Island on Wednesday. It will be a 2hr launch window opening at 5pm EST (1pm AKST). And Artemis 1 is scheduled to be conducting its powered fly-by of the Moon to return to Earth today at 11:43am EST.
Artemis 1 has begun its return home. It flew 128 km above the surface of the Moon during its return powered fly-by. It will soon leave the Moon's gravitational influence, and begin its freefall back to Earth toward a splashdown on Sunday. There was a brief issue with the power system during the communications blackout prior to the burn, but it was swiftly compensated for. Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft aced its test flight but still hasn't tested life support https://t.co/X479fO54uT pic.twitter.com/PW2ufbc79l— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) December 6, 2022 Some are taking issue with the fact that the one system not being tested on Orion is the life support system. There isn't an imminent need for it, since it's not carrying anything living on-board. The systems planned for Orion on future Artemis missions are essentially the systems currently in use on the International Space Station. The only part of the system being tested on Artemis 1 is the nitrogen delivery system. Engineers have stated that the oxygen delivery system is functionally identical, so anything learned from what is being tested is applicable to that side. ******** The OneWeb launch has been pushed back a day, and is now scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 5:32pm EST. Hakuto-R is still set for early tomorrow morning. So the two launches in a day are now set to be on the same actual calendar day. ESA is planning a triple-launch next Tuesday at 5:30pm EST. It will carry two comsats for Intelsat and a weather satellite for EUMETSAT. SpaceX has also put two launches on the manifest for next week. In addition to the O3b dual comsat launch, they are also planning a joint NASA/CNES Earth observation satellite launch for next Wednesday.
50 years ago today, Apollo 17 was launched atop a Saturn V rocket from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. What ultimately became the final mission of the lunar exploration phase of Project Apollo was going to have to pull out all the stops. After the following three lunar missions had been culled, the scientific community demanded that one of the astronauts from NASA Group 4, "The Scientists", be placed on this flight. Dr. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt was planned to be the lunar module pilot of Apollo 18. Interestingly enough, all the other remaining members were in the Apollo Applications Program for Skylab. Acquiescing to the demand, NASA swapped Dr. Schmitt into Apollo 17, replacing Joe Engle. No big deal. Engle was already an astronaut anyway because of the X-15 program. He would wait for the Space Shuttle. So in the end, veteran astronaut Gene Cernan (seated) would be bringing two rookies: LM pilot Dr. Jack Schmitt (left) and CM pilot Ron Evans (right). The original plan for a landing location prior to Apollo 13 and the resulting mission shuffling after its quagmire was the Marius hills, a set of suspected volcanic domes in Oceanus Procellarum. They also considered Copernicus crater, though that was rejected because Apollo 12 collected samples believed to be from the ejecta of the impact that created it. The final selection was a result of Apollo 15. While he was flying over the moon, CM pilot Al Worden noticed features that he identified as volcanic in nature in the vicinity of the Littrow valley. Thus, Taurus-Littrow was selected as the landing location. Liftoff was planned for 9:53pm EST the previous night. The launch was delayed nearly three hours because the launch sequencer forgot to pressurize the S-IVB stage. It would ultimately launch at 12:33am EST. It was the only nighttime launch of Project Apollo. Technically, the only other evening launch NASA had conducted previously was Gemini 10. But at 6:20pm EDT in July, that's not much of a "nighttime" launch. TLI took place at 3:46am EST. The burn was extended to 5 minutes, 51 seconds, to compensate for the launch delay so they could arrive at the Moon approximately at the time planned based on the original launch time. After CSM America extracted lunar module Challenger from the S-IVB stage, it was re-ignited to impact the Moon. Its impact, in the middle of Day 4, was detected by all four seismometers left with the ALSEP packages of the previous four missions. As they departed Earth, the crew began to take many photographs of our home planet. With the timing of their launch, they were able to see the entire face of Earth illuminated during the outbound flight. This gave them spectacular imaging opportunities. One of those images, which prominently shows Africa and Antarctica, is among the most recognized photos of Earth to this very day. Everybody, say it with me! "But you already knew that." The crew actually slept through what was the late morning and afternoon at Mission Control; they were woken up for Day 2 before 4pm EST. The flight crew decided to shorten Day 2 of the mission to compensate for the launch delay since the longer TLI burn would largely erase the delay on the outbound flight. The crew was put to bed again to end Day 2 around 2am EST the next day. ******** One of the experiments in America was the Biological Cosmic Ray Experiment (BIOCORE). Five pocket mice were implanted with cosmic ray detectors under their scalps, and sealed individually in metal tubes with their own life support system, food, and water. Officially, they were only identified with serial numbers: A3305, A3326, A3352, A3356, and A3400. The crew nicknamed them Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey. I have no idea which was which. A3352 died during the mission. At the end of the mission, only two of the survivors were active and lively. The other four were killed after the mission, and all five were dissected. Three were found with lesions, one of them on the liver. But none were believed to have been caused by cosmic radiation; it's thought the lesions that were found may have been present prior to the mission. The studies found no damage caused by cosmic radiation to their eyes or their brains. The four survivors share the animal lunar orbit record with Ron Evans. Naturally, Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt could not share that record. Since they were destined for the lunar surface.
The crew of Apollo 17 were woken for Day 3—yes, Day 3—of the mission at 9:40am EST by CAPCOM Robert Parker. He promptly handed his duties off to Gordon Fullerton. As part of the morning news dump, one of the stories was rumors that Penn State football head coach Joe Paterno might be hired to coach an NFL team. The Nittany Lions went 10-1 in the regular season that year, and were waiting to face Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl. They would go on to lose the Sugar Bowl, 14-0. Oklahoma was subsequently sanctioned for fielding ineligible players during the season, and ordered to forfeit seven games, including the Sugar Bowl win. Joe Pa refused to accept the forfeiture, and it's still in the record books as a loss. They also reported on the nascent MLB Players Association getting heated with the Commissioner's Office. The second mid-course correction took place just after Noon EST. It was extremely brief, and increased its velocity by 10 ft/sec. The crew entered LM Challenger for the first time around 5pm EST. They went back to bed around 1am EST to end the day.
Day 4 of Apollo 17 began with a lot of nerves. The wakeup call was made at 9:15am EST. No answer. CAPCOM Robert Parker called them multiple times, but they simply didn't wake up. During the later Apollo missions, only one member of the crew wore the biomed harness in the spacecraft during sleep cycles. Commander Gene Cernan was the one wearing it. His pulse was 49 bpm, suggesting he was indeed still asleep. As for the other two, who knew? Gordon Fullerton took over at CAPCOM, and finally got an answer from Jack Schmitt at 10:20am EST. They did indeed sleep through the wakeup calls. Jack joked that they had a party the previous night. Part of the news drop: peace talks between the US and North Vietnam are stalled. Former president Harry S Truman remains in the hospital with a serious heart issue. He would die the day after Christmas, aged 88. By then, this mission would be over. Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench was in the hospital after a spot was found on his lung in an X-ray. A benign growth would be surgically removed, with little effect to his career or life going forward. (As of this post, he's still around at age 75.) There was a Boeing 737 crash at Chicago Midway Airport, with 18 out of 61 passengers surviving; one of the fatalities was a congressman. During the day, the crew did another checkout of LM Challenger. They noticed something askew about the docking mechanism. The flight crew decided to re-engage it after lunar orbit insertion the next day. At around 8:30pm, the crew reset the clocks in the CSM and LM computers so that everything would re-align for the coming engine burns on Day 5. After that, they took images of the shrinking Earth with various filters. The crew was put to bed at 2:30am EST. This time, with Ron Evans wearing the biomed harness.
OneWeb confirms ground teams have made contact with all 40 internet satellites launched Thursday on a SpaceX rocket.A senior OneWeb official said the company has booked a fourth launch with SpaceX, adding to a three-launch deal signed earlier this year.https://t.co/gzgeiH4Zb3 pic.twitter.com/FpIJt0WSpV— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 9, 2022 OneWeb #15 finally launched yesterday at 5:27pm EST. Booster B1069.4 then landed at Landing Zone 1. OneWeb has confirmed it has established contact with all 40 deployed satellites. They have also tacked a fourth launch onto their contract with SpaceX, adding to the original three they bought from their erstwhile competitor. One of the things SpaceX did to accommodate OneWeb was build a new dispenser. This allowed OneWeb to send up 40 of their satellites in one launch, instead of the capacity of 36 with the original dispenser built by Sweden's Beyond Gravity. OneWeb has another launch atop the LVM3 rocket penciled in for February. SpaceX currently has two dedicated OneWeb launches set for the first half of 2023, and is also planning to throw a few on a rideshare with five Iridium NEXT comsats some time next year.
During Day 5, Apollo 17 did their lunar orbit insertion (LOI-1) burn, then circularized their orbit around the Moon (LOI-2). From here, the details of what's going on in free flight are going to get murky. Apollo 17 is the one mission NASA's antiquated History website did not complete the PAO transcript for. Instead, they have a rich website, "Apollo in Real Time". Which, at least to me, has a scale and interface that is pretty intimidating. And it's not like I'm a luddite or anything. My life is steeped in technology. It's my profession. (BTW, I figured out at this point that they literally did change the clocks ahead three hours with the transcript as well. I'll go back and correct some times on Day 5 later.) Not much was missed. Before going to bed, the entire stack of CSM America and LM Challenger was put into Descent Orbit Insertion. Honestly don't get why they did it this way. The crew was woken up at 7:38am EST, and immediately began preparation for the landing. Commander Gene Cernan and LM pilot Jack Schmitt undocked in Challenger during LOS on orbit 12. Landing at Taurus-Littrow took place at 2:55pm EST. The first EVA began at 6:54pm. Once both Cernan and Schmitt were on the surface, they unstowed the lunar rover. They accidently broke off the right rear fender, something that happened on Apollo 16 as well. This would result in them being covered in dust when riding it. Next up was ALSEP deployment. And for all the difficulties they had with the necessary drilling in previous missions, they never figured it out in time for Apollo 17 to get it right. This would result in a shortened expedition phase. A visit to Emory crater was canceled, and they instead focused on Steno crater. They finished by deploying two explosives packages that would be detonated later. The first EVA lasted 7 hours, 12 minutes.
Overnight, ground control thought of a fix for the broken fender on the lunar rover. They called in Apollo 16 commander John Young for his expertise. They ultimately devised a fix consisting of four stiff maps taped together. The crew on Challenger wasn't roused for Day 7 until 2:48pm EST. EVA-2 began with the opening of the hatch at 6:28pm. There were three different stations scheduled for visits. Station 2, Nansen crater, was the furthest away at 7.6 km from Challenger. It remains the furthest distance that astronauts have travelled from the spacecraft they were stationed from. This was the absolute limit of their ability to walk back on their own should the rover fail. At station 3, commander Gene Cernan took a unique sample that was to be sealed and kept unexposed until they had better techniques to analyze it. That sample, core sample 73001, was finally opened in February 2022, and it was also examined by CT scan. The site was renamed "Ballet crater" in 2019 because Jack Schmitt had considerable difficulty with his footing at the site, leading to jokes about him inspiring Houston's ballet group. At station 4, Shorty crater, Cernan and Schmitt found unusual orange soil. It is now believed that it is ancient solidified lava from an eons-old volcanic event that was excavated by the impact that formed Shorty crater, which itself is believed to only be 20 million years old. EVA-2 would stand as the longest single EVA for a very long time, at 7 hours, 37 minutes. The makeshift fender would hold up almost to the end of EVA-3, leading Cernan and Schmitt to receive honorary lifetime memberships with the Auto Body Association of America.
As with the previous day, debriefing from EVA-2 carried through what was nighttime at Mission Control. The crew didn't have dinner until around 4am EST. The only news they had was something they could've been told the previous morning: the New York Jets had been eliminated from the NFL playoffs after a loss on Monday Night Football to the Oakland Raiders. Not that it would've mattered. No one was beating the Miami Dolphins that year anyway. The surface crew of Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt began their sleep period at 6:18am. The wakeup call was made 8 hours later exactly, at 2:18pm. As part of the afternoon news read, they got status on President Truman, as well as some scores from the World Hockey Association, including the Houston Aeros, who beat the Alberta Oilers, 6-4. (Yes, as in the Edmonton Oilers. Houston didn't make the jump to the NHL when they took several WHA teams in 1979. They've been trying to get a hockey team going ever since. I remember the Solar Bears playing the Aeros in the IHL in the 1990s.) The clock began on EVA-3 at 5:25pm EST. The outward ride went northeast to the base of North Massif. The furthest point of the trek, station 6, was named Tracy's Rock, after Cernan's daughter. They would stop at three more stations on the way back. One of the last samples taken was a large breccia rock which was dubbed Friendship Rock. Pieces of the sample were sent dozens of different nations for study. The third EVA lasted 7 hours, 15 minutes. At the end, Gene Cernan made a dedication as the last human on the Moon, for now. Lunar module Challenger was re-pressurized at 12:34am EST.
The Challenger crew debriefed on EVA-3 during dinner, then went to sleep at 5:14am EST. When they were called to start the day at 1:24pm EST by CAPCOM Gordon Fullerton, Commander Gene Cernan and LM pilot Jack Schmitt sang back "Good Morning to You". Jack would then read a poem that was a return trip-flavored pastiche of A Visit From St. Nicholas. They lifted off from Taurus-Littrow at 5:54pm EST. This time, they were able to control the camera on the lunar rover to follow the ascent stage's travel better. They docked with CSM America at 8:10pm EST. A few minutes later, they were read a message sent to them by President Richard Nixon. After unloading a total of 115 kg of samples, Challenger was jettisoned at 11:51pm EST. It was subsequently remotely de-orbited. The entire crew would go to sleep at 4:38am EST.
The crew spent the previous day expending their remaining lunar camera film, just as the previous J missions did. Day 10 was to be the day that began their return to Earth. The wake-up call came at 11:24am EST. CAPCOM Robert Parker played "Light My Fire" by The Doors as their wake-up music. As the crew had breakfast, Parker reported on what the crew's families were up to at their homes as they prepared for Christmas and the return of the astronauts. The top of the news: Houston broke their all-time record low that morning, the first time in recorded history the city had a temperature in the 20s °F. The national Christmas tree was lit by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (not knowing he would very shortly be getting coal for Christmas). A 747 sucked some birds into its jet engines after taking off in Miami, and had to turn around and make an emergency landing; it skidded off the runway, but fortunately no one was hurt in the landing, with four hurt going down the emergency slide. The trans-Earth injection (TEI) burn took place behind the Moon at 6:35pm EST. It lasted 2 minutes, 23 seconds. When CSM America emerged from behind the Moon at 6:49pm, the crew of Apollo 17 was on their way home. They sent photos and video of areas of the far side that were illuminated. At 7:30pm, Commander Gene Cernan summed up the heritage of Project Apollo: The crew would go to bed at 1:03am EST, beginning to bring their sleep periods back to something that would be more normal once back on the ground.
This week, SLD 45 made history once again! The SLD 45 Commander approved a first of its kind T-0 simultaneous orbital launches from the ER.On Friday, 12/16, the ER was scheduled to attempt the launch of two Earth-to-orbit missions with approximately 33 minutes between launches. pic.twitter.com/LNVXcesXqv— Space Launch Delta 45 (@SLDelta45) December 16, 2022 Whoa... Space Launch Delta 45 was prepared to launch the O3b mPOWER double-comsat launch AND a Starlink flight within minutes of each other. Something that would've blown away previous turnaround records, much less bring the first two-launch day to Cape Canaveral in 56 years. They have claimed a new capability that, on paper, will permit them to support two launches from different pads at the Eastern Range simultaneously. Since that, SpaceX decided to shift the Starlink flight to tomorrow. The O3b mPOWER launch is scheduled for this afternoon at 4:21pm EST, with a 90% chance of weather favorability. The Starlink launch is scheduled for tomorrow at 4:32pm EST. It has a 60% chance of launch favorability with slightly elevated risk to recovery weather. Sunday afternoon has an 80% chance of launch favorability, but higher risk to recovery weather. Both A Shortfall of Gravitas and Just Read the Instructions are out to catch the respective boosters, B1067.8 and B1058.15. How many more times will B1058.15 fly?
The previous day at 1:07pm EST, CM Pilot Ron Evans got his EVA to retrieve the film from the service module lunar observation cameras outside America. Jack Schmitt remained in the hatch of America to assist. The EVA lasted 65 minutes. Now, 50 years ago today, it was Day 12, their last full day in space. The crew was woken up at 8:53am EST. The wake-up music was "We've Only Just Begun" by The Carpenters. They were really feeling the sarcasm as the mission, and the lunar program, drew to its conclusion. Back home, things were getting colder, in more ways than one. Houston set a new all-time record low that morning with 22°F at Houston Intercontinental Airport. Peace talks with North Vietnam were broken off as Hanoi accused the Americans of dropping fresh mines in a key harbor. As prime time approached, Apollo 17 conducted a final press conference where the crew members gave their last impressions of the mission. Lunar Module Pilot Dr. Harrison Schmitt: Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans: Commander Eugene Cernan: As the night drew to a close, right before Midnight, they got the evening news. The Liberty Bowl was drawing to a close, with Georgia Tech beating Iowa State, 31-24. Iowa State would later score a touchdown, but fail a two-point conversion, losing the game, 31-30. They also reported that President Truman's kidneys were failing, as his own end drew near. The crew would go to bed in space for the last time at 12:32am EST.
Apollo 17 was originally supposed to be an all-Navy crew. That was lost when Joe Engle was replaced as LM Pilot. That didn't stop ground control from playing "Anchors Aweigh" as the wake-up music for Day 13. Hey, two out of three ain't bad. The call came in at 8:01am EST. At that point, they were 40,000 miles above Earth and travelling just under 2 miles/second, but accelerating. CM America jettisoned the service module at 1:56pm EST. Entry began at 2:11pm, with America reaking a peak velocity of 24,609 mph. Descent went perfectly. As if they'd done it before. They splashed down in the South Pacific, not far from American Samoa, and 4 miles away from the recovery vessel, aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga. They were on-board the ship within an hour of splashdown. And with that, NASA began to bring their ambition closer to home. To developing space around Earth. America is on display at Space Center Houston, the visitor center for Johnson Space Center. The National Air and Space Museum took possession of all three astronauts' Extravehicular Mobility Units; only Gene Cernan's EMU is on display. Ron Evans' suit is in storage there, while Dr. Schmitt's EMU is actively being preserved, as that one was in the best condition post-flight. A private German company tried to get a couple rovers landed near the Apollo 17 landing site as part of the Google Lunar X Prize. The company shut down after the Lunar X Prize campaign ended without a winner.
Meanwhile, back in the present day, there was some drama at the International Space Station with a Soyuz spacecraft. Again. A few days ago, Soyuz MS-22 sprung a leak, with livestreams showing tons of fluids flying out of it. It was quickly sourced to the radiator system in the service module, not its onboard water, fuel, or oxygen. It's not critical with regards to the station itself, and may not even be to the crew since they'll be in their Sokol spacesuits during re-entry anyway. With an English translation in Katya's tweet thread.The damage could have been caused by MMOD hit on the Soyuz MS-22 external cooler radiator.Options TBD: To land the crew on this ship in March 2023, as planned, or send Soyuz MS-23 in automatic mode to replace Soyuz MS-22. https://t.co/oMgEkBUOBA— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) December 19, 2022 Today, Roscosmos confirmed the leak, and suspects it was merely a micrometeoroid strike. Remember, last time a Soyuz spacecraft sprung a leak at the ISS, they initially accused NASA of sabotage before figuring out it was likely incompetence on the part of a technician at RKK Energia. Roscosmos is considering two options. One would be to land the crew in Soyuz MS-22 anyway. The other would be to launch Soyuz MS-23 ahead of time without a crew to take over the Soyuz MS-22 mission, and return Soyuz MS-22 uncrewed, or even with some cargo. In addition, sending Soyuz MS-23 without a crew would permit them to send up some extra supplies. Soyuz MS-22 is planned to end in March 2023, so they have plenty of time to decide a course of action.
Just about 10 minutes. ETA: An anomaly has occurred. The aircraft has splashed down and the payload is lost.
My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me. pic.twitter.com/wkYKww15kQ— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 19, 2022 The InSight lander on Mars has met its end. The image in that tweet was actually sent four days before, on December 15, and contact was lost shortly after. As I have noted previously, the fact that it is a static lander made cleaning accumulating dust off its solar panels extremely difficult, and it eventually got to the point that it simply didn't have enough power to remain on. It's probably why the rovers since Spirit and Opportunity have switched to RTG batteries. Curiosity, which has been on Mars for over 10 years, has lost about 10% of its electrical and thermal output on its mmRTG. But it's still more than triple the power available to the Mars Exploration Rovers at their peak. I have seen no estimates on how long it or Perseverance could last barring a technical failure. ******** All that is known so far about the Vega-C failure Tuesday night is that the Zefiro 40 second stage sputtered less than 10 seconds after ignition. It splashed down in the Atlantic about 900 km north of Kourou. The Vega failure in 2019 was also a second stage failure. I'm sure we'll get a more exact cause soon. Even if the issue wasn't the first stage, which is also the booster for the Ariane 6 rocket, this will likely cause all sorts of problems for the European Space Agency. And possibly push more ESA payloads to other carriers. ******** The next Starlink launch, next Wednesday at 4:45am EST, is going to be the first launch for Shell 5 of the system. This is a second series of polar orbit launches, this time at 560 km. The launch will be from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. It will be lifted by B1062.11. Hopefully the sonic booms won't wake too many people up.
Last launch of the year, kids! SpaceX is targeting Thursday, December 29 for launch of the ISI EROS C-3 mission to a low-earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff is targeted for 11:38 p.m. PT (07:38 UTC on December 30). A backup launch opportunity is available on Friday, December 30 with a 56-minute window opening at 11:37 p.m. PT (07:37 UTC on December 31). The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, Transporter-5, Globalstar FM15, and two Starlink missions. After stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.