The issue that caused the scrub this morning was a technical issue with the engine ignitors on the transporter-erector. They could've gone for late tonight, but there were concerns with range conditions. So the launch has been rescheduled for early Thursday morning at 12:34am EST. The Starlink launch at 1:38pm EST is still go, and still has a 95% chance of weather favorability. This launch will carry the first Starlink V2 satellites. These satellites will be much larger than the v1 satellites at 1,250 kg each. And this launch will carry 21 of them to their destination. The game-breaker app is that T-Mobile users will be able to directly connect to Starlink V2 satellites with their mobile phones. This will provide limited services to areas not directly covered by the T-Mobile network.
Donald Kent Slayton was born on March 1, 1924, in Sparta, Wisconsin. He grew up on a farm, and did not have electricity for his entire childhood. He also lost part of his left ring finger while maintaining a horse-drawn hay mower. Pearl Harbor occurred during his senior year of high school, and he chose the Army Air Corps over the Navy because he wanted to fly. He moved to San Antonio after graduating, and entered an aviation cadet program; his medical exam was delayed because of the severed finger, but he was ultimately cleared. Deke was sent to World War II to battle out of the recently-liberated Italy in 1943, and his convoy had to dodge the Kriegsmarine on the way into the Mediterranean. He flew bomber missions over the Balkans out of various points in Italy with the North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, doing battle over the Balkans and France; at one point, he narrowly escaped an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. When he returned to America from his first tour in May 1944, he threw himself into pilot instruction. But he was selected to fly the new Douglas B-26 Invader light bomber, and was shipped to Japan in July 1945. He would fly some of the final bombing runs of World War II. After spending a year doing pilot training in the southeast US, Deke left the Army in November 1946. Using the GI Bill of Rights, he earned a bachelor's in aeronautical engineering from Minnesota in 1949. He went to work for Boeing, helping design the state-of-the-art B-52 Stratofortress intercontinental jet bomber and the KC-97 Stratofreighter jet tanker, a predecessor to the KC-135. While at Minnesota, he joined the Air Force Reserve. He tried to re-enlist for Korea, but concerns about his vision delayed his return to flight status. He would ultimately serve in maintenance command. In 1952, he transferred to the full U.S. Air Force, and he would take maintenance roles in West Germany after Korea. Deke went through Air Force Test Pilot School in 1955. He would spend the next few years testing the latest fighter jets, all the way up to the Convair F-106 Delta Dart. He was selected as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts by NASA in 1959. I've covered his astronaut career in detail previously. As a tl;dr he was medically grounded due to a-fib, and instead put in charge of the Astronaut Office. He essentially ran the show on the astronaut side all the way through Project Apollo. He would resign from the Air Force at the end of 1963 after he was disqualified from flight status; his final rank was major. After Apollo-Soyuz, Deke managed the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests. He was desired by NASA to manage the Orbital Flight Tests as well, but Deke had issue with the size of Astronaut Group 8, feeling a crew of 2 would be enough for most satellite deployment missions. He retired from NASA in 1980, but would advise the first two Space Shuttle missions. After retiring from NASA, he served as president of Space Services, one of the first commercial space operations. During the 1990s, he wrote his autobiography, and also worked with Alan Shepard on the book Moon Shot, one of the most important biographical books about the Space Race. Deke was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1992, and died in League City, Texas, on June 13, 1993, aged 69. He was survived by his second wife, and a son from his first marriage.
Crew-6 is set to reattempt their launch to the ISS tonight.Overview:https://t.co/ZSQ3U92jmX Clogged TEA(-TEB) filter was at fault for the scrub, which also reminds me I need a new Kettle. 😉 pic.twitter.com/Alcgyovpg1— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) March 1, 2023 SpaceX verified the cause of the scrub for SpaceX Crew-6 as a clog in the ground side plumbing. They replaced the clogged filter, flushed the system with nitrogen, and are ready for the next attempt, early tomorrow morning 12:34am EST. The next OneWeb launch by SpaceX will be next Thursday at 2:05pm EST. The next Starlinl launch is planned out of Vandenberg SFB tomorrow afternoon at 1:52pm EST. Cargo Dragon CRS-27 is planned for next Saturday night 8:36pm EST. And a dual comsat launch for SES is planned for St. Patrick's Day at 8:35pm EDT. (F*** daylight saving time.) ******** Meanwhile, JAXA has sorted out the problems for its H3 rocket, and the debut launch is back on for next Thursday night at 8:38pm EST. Apparently, the issue was not with the SRMs, as some originally thought. There was a power supply issue detected in the liquid fuel engines that caused the rocket to halt before igniting the SRMs.
The launch of SpaceX Crew-6 went off without a hitch at 12:34am EST this morning. Booster B1078.1 stuck its landing on Just Read the Instructions. The zero-g indicator for this flight is named Suhayl (سهيل). It is the Arabic word for the star Canopus, a southern hemisphere star of the constellation Carina and the second-brightest star (besides any planets) in the night sky. Historically, its appearance in Arabia heralds winter. Shortly after launch, the launch director told the crew that they needed to get their sushi orders in for Cargo Dragon CRS-27. I don't know if that was a joke, or if they're actually sending sushi. I guess we'll see.
Endeavour is on its way to its fourth initial docking with the International Space Station with SpaceX Crew-6. Prior to launch, SpaceX noted that Endeavour was on a backup system for its docking hooks, as one of the primary drivers had anomalous readings. Its forward cover is open, initial propulsion checks were good, and it's completed its first phasing burn to approach the ISS. Next four crewed US craft after Crew-6. Boeing Starliner CFT-1; Dragon Axiom-2; Dragon Polaris Dawn; Dragon Crew-7. pic.twitter.com/CNn7WjmZUq— Space Shuttle Almanac (@ShuttleAlmanac) February 23, 2023 SpaceX continues to prepare for its approaching missions. In addition to Polaris Dawn, complete crews have been named for Axiom Mission 2 and SpaceX Crew-7. Joining commander Peggy Whitson for Ax-2, planned for May, will be pilot John Shoffner, and Saudi mission specialists Ali al-Qarni and Rayyanah Barnawi. Shoffner is an investor and race car driver. He became a maverick investor after spending over 20 years at telecom manufacturer Dura-Line. He had four top-five in-category finishes at the Nuremburg 24 Hours race in the 2010s, with his top overall finish being 13th in 2019 (12th in a higher category). Al-Qarni is a fighter pilot in the Royal Saudi Air Force who specializes in the Saudi model of the Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle. Barnawi is a biomedical researcher involved in breast cancer research. Of note is that Barnawi is female. So Saudi Arabia is indeed still edging closer to liberalization of its treatment of women. Still not fully convinced, personally. As for Crew-7, it will be commanded by Astronaut Group 22 recruit Jasmin Moghbeli. Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen will be the first foreign pilot of a Crew Dragon mission. They will be joined by Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov. Roscosmos officially decided that Konstantin Borisov will become the part of #Crew7 mission, and Alexander Grebenkin will fly to the ISS with #Crew8. https://t.co/Y8XckEd9h9 pic.twitter.com/dFFCouLgtn— Katya Pavlushchenko (@katlinegrey) March 2, 2023 Roscosmos has also named Alexander Grebenkin to fly on Crew-8. Crew-7 is planned to fly in August. Crew-8 will be some time in 2024; exactly when is dependent on how the Starliner Crewed Flight Test goes.
52 years ago again, the People's Republic of China launched Shijian 1 atop a Long March 1 rocket from Pad 2A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Shijian translates as "practice". SJ-1 was a comsat experiment, and was visually identical to the early Telstar comsats. Shijian would become a general name for Chinese technology demonstration payloads, and some iterations became series; such as Shijian 6 for ELINT, Shijian 11 for infrared reconnaissance, and Shijian 16 for SIGINT. Shijian 1 was placed in an 1833x265km orbit, and re-entered in June 1979. This would be the last use of the original Long March 1 orbital rocket, which would be replaced by the Feng Bao and Long March 2 rockets.
The first H3 rocket lifted off from Pad Y2, Tanegashima Space Center at 8:37pm EST last night. The first stage performance was as expected, but the second stage apparently failed to ignite. And there is a reason a reflight of the payload was also set to be the second launch of the H3 rocket. Now JAXA and Mitsubishi just have to figure out what went wrong this time. ******** Meanwhile, the debut flight of Relativity Space's Terran 1 rocket is still go for tomorrow afternoon at 1pm EST. The mission, "Good Luck, Have Fun", does not have a disclosed payload. If it succeeds, it will be the first launch of an orbital-class liquid methane-fueled rocket.
Relativity Space used the entire launch window to get the first Terran 1 off the ground, but kept having issues with liquid oxygen temperatures in the second stage. Currently, they are planning their next launch attempt for Saturday afternoon at 1pm EST. It will be a three-hour launch window. Meanwhile, SpaceX is planning to launch the next set of OneWeb comsats this afternoon at 2:13pm EST from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. It will be an RTLS landing for Booster B1062.13 at Landing Zone 1. ******** As for the drama on the Russian side, Soyuz MS-23 arrived at the International Space Station, and docked with the Poisk airlock on February 26. The seat liners for Soyuz MS-22 have already been moved to MS-23. The current plan is for Soyuz MS-22 to undock from Rassvet nadir and return on March 28. After that, Soyuz MS-23 will be moved to Prichal nadir on April 9.
Launch attempt of Terran 1 aborted at 19:42:00 UTC - engines ignited but shut down before liftoff— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) March 11, 2023
Virgin Orbit appears to be in dire straits. Operations have always been slow, with only two launches each in 2021 and 2022. But after the Start Me Up mission failed out of Cornwall this past January, they are in trouble. On Wednesday, they put almost their entire staff on furlough while Richard Branson sought more funding. Since going public in June 2021, its stock has plunged 93%. Its IPO was $10. It finished today around 64 cents.
Relativity Space is ready for another round of launch testing for the Terran 1 rocket. The next window opens tomorrow night at 10pm EDT, and will last three hours. Meanwhile, a similar but smaller rocket is about to be tested by an Indian commercial space concern, AgniKul Cosmos. Their rocker, Agnibaan, is supposedly also entirely 3D-printed, but is fueled by RP-1. Its payload capacity is intended to be 100kg. AgniKul is hoping to begin testing from Kodiak Island soon.
And now...(drumroll)...the fully deployed reflector! This 3.5 m diameter structure made from knitted material is the eyes and lens of the radar and allows the satellite to capture images of what’s happening on Earth. 😍💛🛰️ #SAR #Satellite #StrongerTogether #Earth pic.twitter.com/n9kLIiuxi4— Capella Space (@capellaspace) March 21, 2023 It really is amazing what they can stuff in the top of an Electron rocket. Rocket Lab conducted their second launch from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport last Thursday evening at 6:38pm EDT. They deployed two commercial SAR reconnaissance satellites for Capella Space. They will return to New Zealand early Friday morning with a launch for Black Sky at 3:45am EDT. ******** SpaceX currently has two Starlink launches and a launch for the Space Development Agency for the rest of March. The long-awaited ViaSat-3 Americas comsat launch atop a Falcon Heavy rocket is finally penned in as well. It will actually be a dual satellite launch, also carrying the Aurora 4A comsat for Astranis. Aurora-4A will further release a cubesat-size comsat for Indonesia. That launch is planned for April 8 at 6:25pm EDT. Their next rideshare, Transporter-7, is currently penciled in for April 9. ******** The European Space Agency is planning on launching its furthest solo interplanetary mission thus far, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), on April 13 at 8:15am EDT atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket. The outbound trip will include three flybys of Earth and one of Venus. Once it gets on its final outbound trek, it will also fly by asteroid 223 Rosa. JUICE is planned to reach Jupiter July 2031, then enter orbit around Ganymede in December 2034. It will join Europa Clipper, which will launch next year, but beat JUICE to Jupiter by 15 months, arriving in April 2030. Europa Clipper was originally planned to launch on the Space Launch System. But lack of availability due to Project Artemis, plus the launch stresses that would've been imparted specifically by its SRBs, resulted in the mission being moved to Falcon Heavy in July 2021. The launch vehicle switch saved NASA over $2 billion, half of which would've been needed to mitigate the SRB vibration issues in the spacecraft. Both JUICE and Europa Clipper will have orbits around Jupiter that will draw it no closer than Europa, to minimize radiation exposure sourced from Io. Once JUICE enters orbit around Ganymede, it will eventually be crashed on Ganymede, likely in 2035. I don't know what NASA plans to do with Europa Clipper at the end of its mission.
Terran 1 launched for the first time last night at 11:25pm EDT from Pad 16, Cape Canaveral. The first stage performed beautifully, and proved that a 3D-printed rocket could get through maximum dynamic pressure. But the second-stage AeonVac engine failed to ignite after first-stage separation. So, for now, it has not sniped the landmark of first methane-fueled rocket to orbit. Speaking of SpaceX, they have thrown another Starlink launch on the manifest. A set of Starlink V1 satellites will launch from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral, late Friday morning at 11:33am EDT. This is in addition to the next Starlink V2 launch penciled in for next Thursday. SpaceX may squeeze another set of Starlink V1's in as well. The next set of OneWeb satellites will launch from India atop an LVM3 rocket at 11:30pm EDT Saturday night. ******** In the meantime, Russia may be beginning to see tangible consequences to its actions. Kazakhstan has seized assets at Baikonur Cosmodrome connected to the redevelopment of Site 45 for the Soyuz-5 rocket. Apparently, Soyuz-5 was being developed as a joint Russian-Kazakh project to replace the Zenit rocket. But Russia hasn't been paying its bills in connection to the project. The first Soyuz-5 rocket was originally planned to launch in 2021. More recently, construction work was supposed to begin at Site 45 last year. Some pundits believe Kazakhstan may see Russia's distraction with Ukraine as an opportunity to finally get out from under their thumb. At times in recent memory, higher Russian officials have used similar rhetoric against Kazakhstan that they have used against Ukraine. For now, the agreement in principle for Russia to use Baikonur Cosmodrome through at least 2050 remains in force. But this could be an interesting complication to the situation.
Man, that thing sure was a beautiful shade of blue as it rose up off the pad and into almost-space. You could definitely tell the 2nd stage engine was having trouble way before they declared "an anomaly". Not sure I'd say it failed to ignite - it just didn't stay lit for long or as much as it should have; but there was fire. Also found it hilarious when they showed the control room, and it was instantly obvious this was not NASA, or even spaceX - folks dressed like regular people instead of in fancy suits/outfits, half looking like they had just come off a shift at the brewery (I'm saying a lot of cool long beards) or from their substitute teaching gig. They did not look happy when the 2nd stage engine flame fizzled out.
60 years ago today, Marshall Spaceflight Center began testing of the environmental control system for the Apollo Command Module. Computer analysis suggested that the system could be maintained in general at an internal temperature of 294-300 K (69-80 °F), even during re-entry ionization on the outside surfaces. The one major variance they saw was actually estimated to be on the launch pad in Florida, where they saw the potential for temperatures as high as 302 K (84 °F).
52 years ago today, the Martin Marietta X-24A undertook its 24th flight, piloted by John Manke. Dropped from under the wing of a B-52, the powered flight reached an altitude of around 21.5km. Its top speed of 1,667 km/h was the fastest ever achieved by the platform. Originally being similar in design to the M2 and HL-10, it would see some of the same stability issues. It would only fly four more times before being completely redesigned into the X-24B.
Whoever is running the show at United Launch Alliance needs to be fired. The first piloted flight of Boeing’s Starliner astronaut ferry ship is slipping from late April to at least July 21 to allow more time to close out paperwork and to carry out an additional test of the spacecraft’s parachute deploy system. https://t.co/uqLII6gM7c pic.twitter.com/HY9Nf693Xq— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) March 31, 2023 The Starliner Crewed Flight Test has slipped to NET July 21. Boeing has decided they want to do one more parachute test. And they still have outstanding clerical work connected to OFT-2. Meanwhile, the debut flight for Vulcan has hit a new snag. Recently, there was an anomaly with an engine test for the new Centaur V upper stage. I mean, they've been using those engines for 60 years. It shouldn't be that difficult to deal with. ULA chief Tory Bruno has said Vulcan will fly as soon as Centaur V is ready. Of course, we don't even know if its payload, the Peregrine lunar lander, is ready. For now, they have not taken it off its currently-scheduled target of May 4.
28 years ago today, the first operational Orbcomm satellites, FM1 and FM2, were launched on a Pegasus Hybrid rocket dropped from its L-1011 Stargazer carrier aircraft flying out of Vandenberg AFB. This was the beginning of what Orbcomm described their OG1 system. A total of 35 were launched, almost all on Pegasus rockets. Both of these satellites are retired, but 24 of the OG1 system are still in use. The Pegasus Hybrid is the original Pegasus rocket with modified tail fins so they could be launched from Stargazer instead of the original B-52 carrier. A total of four were launched this way, with all successes. Two were launched from Vandenberg, one from Cape Canaveral, and one from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.
Congratulations to Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman of NASA, and Jeremy Hansen, as the #NASA Artemis 2 crew in ‘24! This is a great honor, a proud moment for you and for the nation. Your role in carrying out America’s effort in space will be one of high inspiration! pic.twitter.com/oTYpWgB6JY— Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) April 3, 2023 NASA has announced the crew for Artemis 2. It will be commander G. Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The only rookie on the flight will be Hansen, who is Canadian. Wiseman flew an ISS expedition in 2014. Koch had an 11-month stay on the ISS through most of 2019 and into 2020. Glover was pilot on the first operational Dragon flight, and also stayed aboard the ISS. All four were born in the 1970s, with Koch the youngest, born in 1979.
1643151582299815936 is not a valid tweet id Virgin Orbit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. After failing to secure funding during its recent shutdown, they laid off 85% of their workforce. Another branch of Virgin is offering them $31.6 million in debtor-in-possession financing to fund continued operations during a potential sale, though that has to be approved by bankruptcy court. This does not affect Virgin Galactic, which is a separate subsidiary. Though who knows what they're up to these days?
51 years ago today, the Soviet comsat Molniya 1-20 was launched atop a Soyuz-Molniya rocket from Pad 43/4, Plesetsk Cosmodrome. What's interesting about this launch is that it was a rideshare with France, one of the earliest joint-ventures between the Soviet space program and CNES. The French rideshare satellite, SRET-1, was a technology demonstration for a French-indigenous navigation system. Both satellites were placed in Molniya orbits, whose perigee were at the low-Earth orbit level. Both had re-entered by the end of February 1974.
The news seems to be coming fast today. SpaceX are targeting NET April 10 at 12:55 UTC for the launch of Starship’s Orbital Test Flight! 🚀📹: SpaceX pic.twitter.com/zq6j6LWlYy— Primal Space (@thePrimalSpace) April 4, 2023 SpaceX has identified April 10 as the earliest opportunity for their Starship orbital flight test. The planned launch time is 8:55am EDT. According to an FAA Operations Plan Advisory released just now, the Starship orbital test flight is targeting Monday, April 10, no earlier than 8:10 AM CDT (13:10 UTC).Note: this does not mean that the launch license has been issued.https://t.co/RGVYfHbCMT pic.twitter.com/jrLFTKhaZL— Thomas Burghardt (@TGMetsFan98) April 4, 2023 The FAA has cleared that launch window out of Space Padre, along with backup opportunities at the same time for the next two days. The FAA has not yet announced that SpaceX has been awarded an orbital launch license for Space Padre. But given this announcement, that is likely imminent now.
It’s nice to be stacked again…-@NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/jczEgVlHfR— Nic Ansuini (@NicAnsuini) April 5, 2023 Super Heavy Booster 7 and Starship 24 have been stacked at the Orbital Launch Mount at Space Padre. Hopefully for the last time. What I am hearing is that the FAA might officially release its orbital launch permits for the launch tomorrow. ******** A bit back, I mentioned a mysterious Turkish probe labeled IMECE. For the longest time, it had no rocket or launch site listed for it. As it turns out, it's on the Transporter-7 dedicated rideshare mission. Planned for early next Wednesday at 2:45am EDT, it's carrying three space tugs, 16 smallsats, 20 separate cubesats, and three separate picosats.