Happy 68th birthday to NASA astronaut Pierre Thuot. Born in Groton, Connecticut, but raised in suburban DC, he earned a bachelor's in physics from Navy in 1977. He became a Naval aviator specializing in the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, doing cruises in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. He attended TOPGUN, and graduated from Naval Test Pilot School in 1983. He also got a master's in systems engineering from USC in 1985. Pierre was selected to NASA in the mission specialist track of Group 11 in 1985. He became a jack of all trades in the Astronaut Office, participating in pretty much every research group. With his selection to STS-36, a DoD mission aboard Atlantis in March 1990, he was the first Group 11 astronaut to fly a mission. He would then be selected to the maiden flight of Endeavour, STS-49, for May 1992. He took part in all three EVAs for the rescue of Intelsat 603. His third and final mission, STS-62 aboard Columbia in March 1994, would be the second U.S. Microgravity Payload mission, the third Shuttle mission with the EDO add-on. Pierre left NASA in 1995, and retired from the Navy as a Captain in 1998. He spent a few years at Orbital Sciences Corporation, and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2004. He has also spent time as an engineer at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. He is married, and has two children.
SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Sunday, May 21 for Axiom Space’s Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 5:37 p.m. ET (21:37 UTC), with a backup opportunity available on Monday, May 22 at 5:14 p.m. ET (21:14 UTC). The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-4 to and from the space station. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct over 20 science and technology experiments in areas such as human physiology, physical sciences, and STEAM to help expand knowledge to benefit life on Earth in areas such as healthcare, materials, technology development, and enable industrial advances.
It truly is amazing that we are already doing this. 11 years ago today, Dragon C2+, the second demonstration flight of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. It had been 17 months since the initial C1 flight, which was conducted standalone and far below the International Space Station. The original plan was for C2 to merely approach the ISS, with C3 being its first attachment. SpaceX asked NASA to combine the C2 and C3 objectives into one flight. Hence the lion's share of the delays between these two missions. Originally set for February 2012, there were delays as SpaceX wanted to thoroughly test their software. If only Boeing had shown the same due diligence. SpaceX conducted the C2 objectives during flight days 2 and 3. On flight day 4, it would approach the ISS. It was grasped with Canadarm2 by Don Pettit, spotted by Andre Kuipers, and was berthed to the common berthing mechanism at Harmony nadir at 12:02pm EDT on May 25. The spacecraft, Dragon C102, brought up 525 kg of cargo, all inside the spacecraft. It included water, food, clothes, and some experiments. It returned 665 kg of cargo, including station hardware, experiments, and EMU hardware. Though unoccupied, DEXTRE would be used to inspect the unpressurized trunk. The mission was originally planned to rideshare two Orbcomm comsats, but those were removed from the mission. The second stage carried a Celestis space burial payload, which included ashes from astronaut Gordo Cooper and actor James Doohan. The second stage re-entered a month after launch. Dragon C102 was unberthed at 5:39am EDT on May 31, and re-entered about 5 hours later, splashing down at 11:42am EDT around 500 km off Baja California. Dragon C102 was promptly retired, and is now on permanent display at SpaceX headquarters. It can usually be seen during SpaceX launch webcasts.
James Chamberlin was born on May 23, 1915, in Kamloops, British Columbia. His father died at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in World War I. He would grow up with an affinity for flight, and would get a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1936, then a master's in the same from Imperial College London in 1939. He would become a major player at Canadian aircraft company Avro, helping produce the Anson multi-purpose turboprop during World War II, then the CF-100 Canuck and CF-105 Arrow interceptor jets after the war. After the Canadian Forces canceled the Arrow in 1959, Jim took his entire team of engineers, quit Avro, and emigrated to the United States to join NASA. He would be head of engineering for Project Mercury, and the project manager for Project Gemini. He became an American citizen in 1964. He advocated for using Gemini to go to the Moon. While his ideas were ultimately rejected, they did grease the wheels for using the lunar orbit rendezvous method with Project Apollo. Jim resigned from NASA in 1970, and joined McDonnell Douglas to work on their proposals for the Space Shuttle. Although their proposal failed, he stayed at the company, becoming their technical director at Johnson Space Center, effectively being their liaison at NASA. He died in Houston on March 8, 1981, aged 65. He left a wife and two children.
Work continues on Artemis 2. 🔊Boom! This month the #European Service Module-2 for @NASA_Orion completed direct-field acoustic testing. The loads and dynamics team confirm #Artemis II D-FAT success, one more test down before launch to the #Moon! 🌓https://t.co/mwTpCTkDZn pic.twitter.com/9hL5JeNtY6— Human Spaceflight (@esaspaceflight) May 23, 2023 The European Space Agency has completed acoustic testing for the European Service Module that will power the Orion capsule for Artemis 2. The tests ensure that it will hold up to the rigors of liftoff, particularly during the SRB phase. The engine section was attached to the core stage of the Space Launch System in March, and it will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center this summer to begin stack assembly. Meanwhile, the crew began training for the mission this week. The mission is currently planned for November 2024. ******** Arabsat 7B, which is subleased to Saudi Arabia, is currently set to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral, tonight at 11:25pm EDT. The weather chances, however, are not great. The 45th Weather Squadron only gives a 30% chance of weather favorability. But they were able to thread the needle with Axiom Mission 2 on Sunday. There was only a 40% chance on that launch, and late concerns about an approaching storm cloud. But that cloud dissipated before it got too close, and the launch occurred without incident. With Axiom Mission 2, 600 humans have now been in orbit around Earth. Rayyanah Barnawi was named that 600th orbital astronaut. Peggy Whitson gave her, John Shoffner, and Ali al-Qarni their astronaut wings as part of their welcoming ceremony upon arrival at the International Space Station yesterday. So there's an achievement they can't take away from a Saudi woman. Hopefully this will continue social liberalization of Saudi Arabia.
Patricia Hilliard was born on March 12, 1963, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. She got a bachelor's in premed biology at hometown Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1985, then her MD from Drexel in 1989. She completed her residency in 1992, then took a fellowship at Texas-Medical Branch, which included working at Johnson Space Center. As part of her post-doctorate research, Dr. Hilliard studied exercise countermeasures for extended microgravity. She would enter practice out of Johnson Space Center, becoming a physician for the Astronaut Corps. She would be selected as an astronaut herself in the mission specialist track of Group 17 in 1998. In addition to medicine, she was also a hobbyist aerobat. She accumulated 1,500 hours of flight time over her career, and flew with her husband, Scott Robertson. On May 22, 2001, she was practicing touch-and-go landings in a Wittman Tailwind light aircraft outside Houston when the wing touched the ground. The plane cartwheeled down the runway and crashed into trees. She suffered burns over 90% of her body, and died two days later, 22 years ago today, aged 38. She was survived by her husband. At the time of her death, she was training for a mission to be flown in 2002, though I can't seem to find which one exactly.
Success for South Korea's Nuri (KSLV-2) rocket, which has deployed NEXTSat-2 and several CubeSats following launch from the Naro Space Center's Launch Complex 2 (LC-2). https://t.co/X1dykCpqGl - by Justin Davenport (@Bubbinski). Livestream: https://t.co/O2q5vV2NEe pic.twitter.com/Yvuj4KzWY1— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) May 25, 2023 Nuri has begun a winning streak. The third flight of South Korea's Nuri rocket, launched from Pad 2, Naro Space Center, at 5:24am EDT yesterday morning, deployed the NEXTSat-2 smallsat and four cubesats into a 550km SSO. Flights for Nuri are going to continue to be rare for now, with singular flights planned for 2025, 2026, and 2027. South Korea is focusing development now on its successor, currently codenamed KSLV-III. Planned to begin operation in 2030, it is targeting a payload capacity of 3,500 kg to GTO, which would put it roughly on par with India's LVM3 rocket. ******** Rocket Lab confirms the purchase of the lease to Virgin Orbit's headquarters and certain production assets, machinery, and equipment within the building, as part of Virgin Orbit's bankruptcy auction."The move is expected to advance the production of our larger launch vehicle,… pic.twitter.com/nkQww1T6ra— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) May 23, 2023 The biggest loser: Virgin Orbit. Its bankruptcy appears to have morphed into Chapter 7. Having failed to find a buyer willing to purchase the entire company and keep it intact, it has sold most of its assets off to Rocket Lab, Vast, and Stratolaunch. The Virgin Orbit sale is in: Rocket Lab gets the company's rocket factory in Long Beach, while Launcher (which announced it was being acquired by Vast Space) will get VO's test facilities in Mojave. Meanwhile Stratolaunch will get the 747 Cosmic Girl as expected— Loren Grush (@lorengrush) May 23, 2023 Rocket Lab will be buying Virgin Orbit's offices and manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California. This includes their 3D printers. The locations were adjacent to offices Rocket Lab already leased. They will be using these facilities to improve development of the Neutron rocket. Stratolaunch will get their carrier plane, Cosmic Girl. OK... time to make this in @KerbalSpaceP— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) May 23, 2023 This gave rocket prognosticators some silly ideas. Vast will get their leases at Mojave Spaceport, giving them prime testing facilities. They will be operated by its Launcher subsidiary. Notably, Virgin Orbit has not yet sold the 6 or so rockets that were in various states of manufacturing and assembly, as well as its intellectual property.https://t.co/YjwtQU4bSw— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) May 23, 2023 Virgin Orbit still needs to dispose of its remaining LauncherOne rockets and parts somehow. Honestly surprised Stratolaunch didn't buy those, too.
While Virgin Orbit is circling the drain, it appears Virgin Galactic is finally ready to take off. Unity has now landed! Best track ever by @thejackbeyer! That thing was directly over his head. Nearly impossible to track. https://t.co/LU3n607g0I— Michael Baylor (@MichaelBaylor_) May 25, 2023 VSS Unity completed its latest test flight, Unity 25, yesterday afternoon. A crew of six was lifted 87.2 km. Of course, that doesn't quite have the same pop as crossing the Karman line, as SpaceShipOne was capable of doing. Still, Virgin Galactic is finally ready to begin actual commercial joyrides. That first flight, Galactic 01, is penciled in for late next month after over 18 months of technical delays. It will carry the same VG crew (pilots Rick Sturckow and Mike Masucci, and safety officer Beth Moses) as Unity 25. They will be joined by three officers of the Italian Air Force on a biomedical research mission. ******** After a series of weather delays, Arabsat 7A is again ready for launch tonight at 11:25pm EDT from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. The 45th Weather Squadron currently only gives them a 40% chance of weather favorability. But things are finally looking up, as it's up to 80% for Saturday night. SpaceX also has two Starlink flights planned next week, with a Cape Canaveral launch Tuesday morning at 6:42am EDT, and a Vandenberg SFB launch penciled in for Wednesday. Cargo Dragon CRS-28 is planned for next Saturday at 12:34pm EDT.
65 years ago today, the U.S. Air Force transferred development of a rocket inertial guidance system from the Titan I project to the Atlas project. The decision was made because Atlas was closer to production and operational use than Titan. The inertial guidance system, developed by Bosch, would completely internalize GNC systems for the Atlas ICBM. Titan I ICBMs would instead be developed with then-conventional radio guidance developed by Bell Labs. The first four squadrons would use radio guidance, and inertial guidance would be planned later. The Titan II hypergolic ICBM would eventually use an inertial guidance system developed by ACDelco. Delco would eventually come back to assist in redeveloping decommissioned Titan II ICBMs into Titan 23G orbital rockets. The original Bosch system was eventually used in Atlas E and Atlas F ICBMs, and their later Atlas E/F orbital rocket modifications.
SpaceX is targeting Saturday, May 27 at 12:30 a.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of the ARABSAT BADR-8 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, OneWeb Launch 17, and seven Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
ISRO successfully launched a GSLV Mk.2 rocket with the next-gen NVS-01 navigational satellite this morning at 1:12am EDT. In the immediate snap press conference, ISRO Chairman Sreedhara Somanath hailed the research teams that did troubleshooting on the Cryogenic Upper Stage issue that caused the failure of the last GSLV Mk.2 launch in August 2021. Currently, there are three more launches of this rocket planned for 2023, and three for 2024. ******** SpaceX has a Starlink launch planned for early Wednesday morning at 1;27am EDT from Pad 4E, Vandenberg SFB. (I had to replace the colon in this time with a semicolon because it kept parsing it as a smiley.) The next Starlink V2 launch is scheduled for Thursday morning at 7:09am EDT from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. That will be followed by the Saturday afternoon launch of Cargo Dragon CRS-28 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center.
Crew Dragon Freedom undocked from the International Space Station yesterday at 11:05am EDT with the Axiom Mission 2 crew. It spent several orbits flying solo, then de-orbited, and splashed down last night at 11:03pm EDT off the Florida Gulf Coast near Panama City Beach. Ali Alqarni, a fighter pilot in the Royal Saudi Air Force, is last out of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft after his first flight to space. https://t.co/x7TbaU25nL pic.twitter.com/swIj1D2sw9— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) May 31, 2023 The order of egress for the crew was Peggy Whitson, then John Shoffner, then Rayyanah Barnawi, and finally Ali al-Qarni. All took the usual non-ISS egress of sliding out of the spacecraft, then being assisted on their first several steps in gravity in a week and a half. All were in good spirits. ******** For a day, there were a total of seventeen humans in orbit, setting a new record. A crew of three (Soyuz MS-23) and two crews of four (SpaceX Crew-6 and Axiom Mission 2) aboard the ISS, and two crews of three (Shenzhou 15 and Shenzhou 16) aboard Tiangong. Crew Dragon Endeavour, which carries SpaceX Crew-6, will be returned to Harmony forward in July. And Cargo Dragon CRS-28 is still planned to launch Saturday afternoon at 12:35pm EDT. ******** Axiom Mission 3, penciled in for November, is filling in its crew a bit. Michael Lopez-Alegria will be returning for his second commercial command; I think he's going to be the first astronaut to fly aboard a Crew Dragon twice. His pilot will be Walter Villadei of the Italian Air Force. Villadei one of the Italian pilots who will be aboard Galactic 01, which is supposed to fly in June. So he could join the elite fellowship of people who have been in space twice in the same year. And stand alone as someone who has gone suborbital and orbital on different flights in the same year. Only one mission specialist has been named: Alper Gezeravci of Turkey. Gezeravci is a Turkish Air Force fighter pilot with experience aboard the F-16. Turkey has said he will perform a baker's dozen of experiments from various Turkish universities. It is unknown when Axiom Space will name the fourth astronaut for the mission. The Axiom Orbital Segment did slip a bit, and is now planned to launch its first segment in Q4 2025. That slip is likely driven by delays in the New Glenn rocket, which has been contracted to launch Axiom's station segments.
Suddenly, SpaceX appears to be giving things a big go at Cape Canaveral. Following the planned Saturday afternoon launch of Cargo Dragon CRS-28, they have put two Starlink flights out of Pad 40 on consecutive days. The next set of Starlink V2 comsats is penned in for Sunday morning at 5:48am EDT. Then a set of Starlink V1 comsats is penned in for early Monday morning at 2:15am eDT. That's three launches in less than 48 hours. If the weather cooperates, it will be the first true test of the 45th Weather Squadron's ability to support such a swift launch cadence. And that's a big if. The 45th Weather Squadron only has a 40% chance of weather favorability for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, though up to 60% for Monday morning. We shall see if it holds out. ******** Indonesian satellite company Pacific Satellite Nusantara (PSN) seems to like the performance of the Falcon 9 for the Nusantara Satu launch back in 2019. They have a new satellite, SATRIA-1, now planned to launch on June 19 at 5:54pm EDT. It will use the Spacebus NEO satellite bus built by Thales Alenia Space with an ion propulsion engine. A second satellite to augment its capacity, Nusantara Lima, is penciled in to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket in Q4 2023. Lima is being built on a Boeing satellite bus. It's a far cry from the Nusantara Dua/Palapa-N2 launch on a Long March 3B rocket in April 2020, which ended in a launch failure.
25 years ago today, Discovery was launched on STS-91 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The orbiter would dock with Mir at the Kristall module and conduct joint experiments over four days, as well as delivering supplies for the remaining crew. They would also pick up the last Shuttle-Mir resident astronaut, Andrew Thomas. Among the crew of six launched on Discovery was cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin. He had already retired officially as a cosmonaut, and visited Mir in his capacity as an executive of Roscosmos so he could personally inspect the station. The mission was also the first use of the aluminum-lithium alloy super lightweight external tank (SLWT). This mission came about 4 1/2 months before the launch of Zarya, the first module of the International Space Station. The current Mir expedition, EO-25, would last another two months, and an additional three expeditions would be flown through 2000.
And the escalation continues. SpaceX launched its latest set of Starlink V2 comsats this morning at 8:20am EDT from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. About an hour before launch, weather favorability suddenly shot up from 15% to 90%. And SpaceX currently still has Cargo Dragon CRS-28 planned for 12:12pm EDT this afternoon from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. Is this really going to happen? Two launches in the same day? (EDIT: The answer is no. Upper level winds in the CRS-28 booster recovery area has scrubbed the launch for the day. They will try again tomorrow morning.) ******** ISRO is getting ready for its latest probe to the Moon. Chandrayaan-3 is currently penciled in to launch on July 12 atop an LVM3 rocket. The mission is essentially a reflight of Chandrayaan-2, which was launched in July 2019 atop the first LVM3 rocket. While it had a successful orbital mission, its lander and rover landing attempt failed that September. ISRO believes the failure was caused by a software glitch. The orbiter component is still in operation. Like the previous mission, the lander is targeted for the lunar south pole. India could become the first to actively explore the area in situ. It is intended to attempt the landing six weeks after arrival at the Moon. ******** The Starliner Crewed Flight Test is approaching. Maybe. It is currently penciled in for July 21. Starliner Calypso will make its second launch. It is uncertain whether or not this will be before or after Crew Dragon Endeavour is moved from Harmony zenith to Harmony forward.
#ComingSoon 👀The Department of the Air Force selected Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, as the preferred location to host the Space Training and Readiness Command Headquarters, along with Space Delta 10.https://t.co/1m0vg1Pf8E— Space Launch Delta 45 (@SLDelta45) June 1, 2023 It was announced last Thursday, and unveiled Saturday, that Patrick Space Force Base will be the operating base for Space Training and Readiness Command, or STARCOM. STARCOM is an evolution of the Air Force's Space Warfare Center. Its command structure, Space Delta 10, will relocate from its temporary headquarters at the U.S. Air Force Academy. There are a total of five delta commands under STARCOM. Space Delta 1 was already permanently located at Vandenberg SFB. Three others, SD 11, 12, and 13, are awaiting permanent encampments. The first two are at Schriever SFB near the Air Force Academy, and 13 is at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. The current commanding officer of STARCOM is Major General Shawn Bratton. ******** Cargo Dragon CRS-28 will get another go later this morning at 11:47am EDT from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. There is a 60% chance of weather favorability from the 45th Weather Squadron, but with medium risk to booster recovery. A scrub would result in a 48-hour turnaround, with favorability on Wednesday morning boosted to 90% with only low-to-moderate risk to booster recovery. Not entirely sure why they aren't bothering with Tuesday.
Richard Searfoss was born on June 5, 1956, in Mount Clemens, Michigan (essentially South Detroit). His family would move to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he became an Eagle Scout. He earned a bachelor's in astronautical engineering from Air Force in 1978, and a master's in aeronautical engineering from CalTech in 1979. Rick would specialize in the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark attack aircraft. He attended the Navy Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River on officer exchange, then became an instructor at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB. He was selected to NASA in the pilot track of Group 13 in 1990. In the Astronaut Office, he would participate in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) and orbiter software development. Rick would pilot Columbia on STS-58 (Spacelab Life Sciences 2) in October 1993, and Atlantis on STS-76 (third Mir docking) in March 1996. He would then command Columbia on STS-90 (Spacelab Neurolab) in April 1998. He left NASA after STS-90, and became a private test pilot instructor at Mojave Spaceport, with FAA registration. He served as a judge for the Ansari X Prize, and was the one to declare SpaceShipOne the winner of the prize. He would also work with engine producer XCOR until its closure in 2017. Rick died at his home in Tehachapi, California, on September 29, 2018, aged 62. Cause of death was never reported. He left a wife and three children. His final rank in the Air Force was colonel. He is buried at the U.S. Air Force Academy Cemetery.
60 years ago today, Baikonur Cosmodrome was having difficulties with its command radio line. This would be a fairly common issue in the lead-up to Vostok 5 and Vostok 6. This particular outage resulted in the missions being delayed several days. An additional few days were tacked on due to uncertainty about solar flare activity. It gave the occupant of Vostok 5, Valeri Bykovsky, time to practice his post-mission press conference. He had to practice how the Politburo wanted him to respond to various question. You didn't think the Soviet Union wanted him to think for himself, did you? I can't imagine how hard he had to bite his tongue after the waste collection system failed during the flight, and he spent half of his five-day mission stewing in his own crap. Meanwhile, the head of cosmonaut training, Nikolai Kamanin, was inspecting a site on the Syr Darya River, near the depot station at Tyuratam which marked the south end of the cosmodrome. They were going to build new cosmonaut quarters near a set of houses granted to Vladimir Chelomei personally by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. For those curious, Tyuratam is known in modern Kazakh as Töretam.
STATIC FIRE! Vulcan conducts its first ignition of its BE-4 engines during the Flight Readiness Firing (Cert-1).https://t.co/6FHkldnYri pic.twitter.com/SpZAWLgl0T— Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) June 8, 2023 Lockheed Martin took a gigantic step forward last night with a flight readiness firing of their debut Vulcan first stage. It was returned to Pad 41, Cape Canaveral, yesterday morning after issues precluded the FRF test last month. The two BE-4 liquid methane-fueled engines were ignited, and burned for six seconds. United Launch Alliance successfully conducted a booster engine flight readiness firing (FRF) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The engine start sequence began at T-4.88 seconds, the engines throttled up to the target level for two seconds and then powered down. pic.twitter.com/S4wuYmkV2E— ULA (@ulalaunch) June 8, 2023 They are now analyzing data from the test. From appearances, it doesn't look like anything unusual took place based on comparison to Raptor engine testing with SpaceX. They are also still working the issue they discovered recently in their Centaur V upper stage, so we don't have a solid timeline for the debut flight with the Astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander. ******** The next launch from Cape Canaveral is going to be a set of Starlink V1 comsats for Shell 5 of the Starlink constellation. It's currently penned in for Pad 40 at 4:01am EDT early Saturday morning. It currently has a 75% chance of weather favorability from the 45th Weather Squadron. The Transporter-8 rideshare mission is set to launch at Pad 4E, Vandenberg SFB, at 5:14pm EDT Monday afternoon. It will carry three space tugs, at least 21 smallsats, and at least 34 cubesats. The second-to-last Delta IV Heavy rocket is ready for launch with NROL-68, an Orion SIGINT satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. It is currently planned to launch from Pad 37B, Cape Canaveral, at 3am EDT on Wednesday, June 21.
SpaceX is targeting Monday, June 12 at 3:10 a.m. ET (07:10 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. If needed, there is an additional launch opportunity the same day at 4:52 a.m. ET (8:52 UTC). Backup opportunities are also available Tuesday, June 13 at 2:45 a.m. ET (06:45 UTC) and 4:26 a.m. ET (8:26 UTC). The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched SES-22, ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1, Hispasat Amazonas Nexus, CRS-27, and four Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
60 years ago today, NASA was studying how to bring the Apollo command module back to Earth following a mission to the Moon. They had already determined that they weren't going to waste fuel on entering Earth's orbit. When they came back from the Moon, they would be going straight to a splashdown. But atmospheric interface at 25,000 mph is extremely aggressive. Both in terms of heat, and in g forces. If it went straight to splashdown, the deceleration up to 30 g would be completely unacceptable. They were already working on aerodynamic re-entry for Project Gemini. But Project Apollo would take it one step further. The idea was the "skip return". The command module would essentially re-enter Earth's atmosphere twice. On the first one, it would be at an angle of attack where it would shed a ton of the return velocity, but not quite enough to fall down. It would be like a super-aggressive orbital insertion. But that orbit would only briefly exit the thick portions of Earth's atmosphere. It would almost immediately pass through a new apogee well below 100 km, and again descend into the atmosphere for a re-entry much more like would be experienced if they were re-entering from LEO. Deceleration during the initial entry would peak just under 6.5 g, while on terminal entry it would remain under 6 g. Project Artemis will use a skip return at the end of its missions as well, though the apogee after the initial entry phase rises higher than in Project Apollo. The fact that Apollo's skip return didn't rise above the Karman line has led some to get overly semantic about it and claim Apollo didn't achieve it.
85 years ago today, Wernher von Braun was discharged from the Luftwaffe. At the time, he was overseeing research in adding liquid-fueled rocket engines to existing airplanes. He particularly worked with the Heinkel He-72 Cadet trainer aircraft and He-112 fighter. About a year later, von Braun was reconscripted as the Wehrmacht geared up for its invasion of Poland, and put in charge of the rocket research facility at Peenemunde.
SpaceX keeps notching the wins. They successfully launched Transporter-8 last Wednesday afternoon, and the SATRIA comsat for Indonesia yesterday afternoon. On the former, they didn't lost Launcher's Orbiter space tug this time. Another set of Starlink comsats is planned to launch early Thursday morning at 1:36am EDT from Pad 4E, Vandenberg SFB. Another one is penciled in for Saturday from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. ******** Before all that, however, we have the penultimate Delta IV Heavy launch early Wednesday morning at 3:29am EDT from Pad 37B, Cape Canaveral. It will be carrying an Orion SIGINT satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The final Delta launch is currently planned for Q1 2024.
Thank you #Mercury for the boost last night! 🤝We're on track following yesterday's #MercuryFlyby 😅 pic.twitter.com/tYROAKuGdz— Bepi (@ESA_Bepi) June 20, 2023 BepiColombo conducted its third fly-by of Mercury yesterday. Its closest approach was 236 km in front of the planet. A trio of images to highlight #BepiColombo's 3rd #MercuryFlyby, featuring a newly named crater and various geological and tectonic curiosities. Enjoy this first-look taste of our flyby! Details & images👉https://t.co/kaQ7zqQ1aZ#ExploreFarther pic.twitter.com/5J0tlGdNvb— BepiColombo (@BepiColombo) June 20, 2023 The probes of the project unleashed most of their instrumentation, and took photographs where Mercury was illuminated. They will go around the Sun an additional four times before the next fly-by in September 2024. That fly-by will begin the final sequence which will culminate in orbital insertion in December 2025.