Starliner Crewed Flight Test has been delayed to next Friday at 6:16pm EDT. United Launch Alliance rolled the Atlas V N22 rocket and Starliner Calypso back to the Pad 41 Vertical Integration Facility yesterday. They will replace the suspect pressure valve in the Centaur upper stage's liquid oxygen tank. ******** Japan has put its second new ALOS Earth observation satellite, ALOS-4, back on the manifest. It will be launched as originally planned, atop an H3-22S rocketat 11:06pm EDT on June 29. The European Space Agency is still targeting late June for the debut flight of the Ariane 6 rocket, but there's no exact date on the manifest yet.
75 years ago today, Sergei Korolev conducted the second test launch of the R-1A missile. The R-1A was very similar to the R-1, being designed off the original plans of the V-2 missile. Most likely via reverse-engineering, since Operation Paperclip took the actual plans. The difference with the R-1A is that the warhead was separable from the rocket. It was expected that the R-1A would have a range of 200 km, which was achieved by the first launch three days prior. But this launch reached a range of 279.6 km. An additional four launches were conducted during May 1949, all of which were successful, with a maximum range of about 300 km. All carried sounding rocket experiments. Future R-1 launches would be with non-separable payloads, while separable warhead research would move to the R-2.
32 years ago today, Endeavour was in the midst of a quandry. The wakeup song for the day had been the main theme of the film Rocky, "Gonna Fly Now". The previous night, Pierre Thuot and Richard Hieb spent less than 4 hours outside the orbiter. With Bruce Melnick operating Canadarm, Thuot got on the end, and was placed in position at the rear end of the comsat while holding a bar implement that, in theory, would be used to wrangle the comsat from there. Once attached, Canadarm would be able to maneuver it from there to attach it to a new Orbus-21S kickmotor in the payload bay. For whatever reason, they were unable to attach the bar to Intelsat 603. For the second attempt, Thuot and Hieb exited the orbiter at 5:05pm EDT. Despite new tactics, neither Thuot nor Hieb could get the bar attached. They returned to the airlock at 10:35pm EDT, after 5 1/2 hours. It was clear they needed a better way to secure Intelsat 603. Fortunately for them, they had extra tools in the payload bay. And two extra EMUs in Endeavour.
32 years ago today, it was do or die for STS-49 and Intelsat 603. The previous day was a rest day for Pierre Thuot and Richard Hieb, as the crew of Endeavour caught up with on-board experiments. Back at Mission Control, they were determining how to finally get their wayward comsat on its new Orbus-21S kickmotor. The trump card was ASEM. The Assembly of Station by EVA Methods equipment package was the most detailed package yet assembled to practice techniques that would be needed to assemble Space Station Freedom. It built upon experience developed during STS-37 a year previous. The two EVAs on that mission, conducted by Jerry Ross and Jay Apt, were the first EVAs undertaken by NASA astronauts since the Challenger disaster. Thuot and Hieb left the orbiter airlock at 5:17pm EDT. They closed the airlock hatch, and it was repressurized, permitting Tom Akers to follow them out. For the first time in the history of spaceflight, three humans were outside their spacecraft. Three humans had been in spacesuits for an EVA before, with Apollo 9, and it would happen on all three Apollo J missions for Service Module exposed experiment retrieval. The Soviets also did it once, but again, with only two cosmonauts leaving their spacecraft; that was the transfer of two cosmonauts from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4 while docked before they implemented docking hatches. They tried a second one with Soyuz 7 and 8, though they weren't able to achieve docking that time. But on those occasions, no more than two were outside. To put their plan into motion, Thuot, Hieb, and Akers put together some of the pieces of ASEM. Akers would be attached to that piece, roughly in the center of the payload bay. Hieb would stand on the guide wire at the starboard hinge of the payload bay doors, with the capture bar tethered to him. And Thuot would ride on Canadarm. All three astronauts would grasp around the rear edge of the comsat to steady it above the payload bay. Then Hieb would untether the capture bar and get it in place, as Thuot and Akers kept it still. Once the capture bar was in place, the astronauts were able to wrangle Intelsat 603 onto its new kickmotor. All the astronauts were back in Endeavour by 1:46am EDT. It is still the only time three humans have been outside their spacecraft at the same time. It hasn't even happened at the International Space Station. And at 8 hours, 29 minutes, it would stand as the longest single EVA for a very long time. Once the astronauts were back in, Intelsat 603 was re-deployed. The kickmotor worked, sending it to GTO as originally planned. It reached its station in geostationary orbit at 34.5°W under its own power on May 21. Intelsat 603 would remain in service for over 20 years, slowly being shifted further east over time. Its final station before decommissioning in January 2013 was 11.5°E. It was lifted to a graveyard orbit about 220 km above geostationary in January 2015.
Creators, get those applications #ReadytoGOES! You have until 3pm ET (1900 UTC) May 14 to apply to attend the #NASASocial for @NOAA’s GOES-U satellite launch on June 25 at @NASAKennedy. https://t.co/FJ90Kv4w3r pic.twitter.com/EFh9hH5TWk— NASA Social (@NASASocial) May 13, 2024 The launch of GOES-U has finally been penned in for June 25 at 5:16pm EDT. NASA is currently soliciting for a media availability event. ******** The next launch attempt for the H3 rocket is penned in for June 29 at 11:06pm EDT. It will finally carry the ALOS-4 Earth observation satellite that was bumped off the second launch after the debut flight failed to reach orbit. I originally postulated that ALOS-4 was set to be a redundancy for just such a contingency. Now all we need to see is if the modifications made for the second flight continue to hold. ******** And the first flight of Ariane 6 is finally beginning to come into view. It is now penciled in for June 15. #Ariane6: We’ve successfully integrated @tuke_sk's satellite with our EXOpod Nova deployer! The satellite is now one step closer to its flight onboard the Ariane 6 maiden launch. pic.twitter.com/2Hbi7ZzO5p— Exolaunch (@Exolaunch) May 13, 2024 Exolaunch will be carrying the cubesats that will be released as part of the flight. It seems integration of the payloads is finishing up, and they are preparing to ship the space tug to French Guiana for integration witht he rocket.
And THERE'S the problems popping up for Boeing again. NASA, @BoeingSpace, and @ulalaunch are now targeting no earlier than 4:43pm May 21 for the launch of the agency's Boeing Crew Flight Test mission.On May 11, the ULA team successfully replaced a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur… pic.twitter.com/2Ra38p2U5B— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) May 14, 2024 ULA replaced the errant valve system in the Centaur liquid oxygen tank on Saturday, and flushed and tested it. Then Boeing detected a leak in the pressurant system in the service module of Calypso. The launch is now pushed back to next Tuesday afternoon 4:43pm EDT.
The original plan for STS-49 was for the rescue of Intelsat 603 to take one EVA, with a built-in second EVA. That would be followed by two EVAs working with the ASEM space station assembly practice package. With Intelsat 603 taking three EVAs, ASEM was reduced to a single EVA. Late into the night on May 14, Tom Akers and Kathy Thornton worked on practicing assembly of truss structures and connecting hardware. Techniques that would be vital for the assembly of Space Station Freedom, which would be the most ambitious space station yet assembled. The EVA ended early in the morning 32 years ago today, at 1am EDT. This day would be spent packing Endeavour up to prepare for the return home the next day. The new orbiter had one more trick up its sleeve. ******** If later concept art and renderings for Space Station Freedom look similar to the International Space Station, that's not entirely unintentional. The ISS is essentially Freedom attached to Mir. For the initial post-Apollo space program, there was a three-point mission plan: A mission to Mars A permanent space station which would act as an assembly location for the vehicle to be sent to Mars A reusable space logistics vehicle, quickly determined to be the Space Shuttle. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew presented these to President Richard Nixon. Faced with budget deficits due to the Vietnam War, Nixon told him to pick one. That one would be the Shuttle. Although the space station was not seriously developed, it would remain on the backburner with NASA. But in the early 1980s, with the final heat-up of the Cold War, the space station was presented to President Ronald Reagan as an answer to Mir, which they already knew the Soviets were planning. Reagan would be the one to christen the station Freedom. He presented it, as originally intended, as a springboard to the stars in 1984. Development continued, and the station evolved. The combination of budget cuts, and the end of the Cold War, would lead NASA, ESA, and NASDA to approach the finally created Roscosmos in 1993 about pooling their efforts together. As such, the successor to Mir would become the logistical core of the new International Space Station Alpha (the "Alpha" was quickly lopped off). NASA would acquire its Functional Cargo Block, Zarya, to bridge the station components. After delays for various reasons, including two Space Shuttle disasters on the American side and constant technical issues on the Russian side, the ISS was effectively completed in 2021.
32 years ago today was the final day of STS-49. The wake-up song was "Son of a Son of a Sailor" by Jimmy Buffett. Endeavour would go through its first re-entry, which was entirely routine. It touched down on Runway 22, Edwards AFB, at 4:57pm EDT. But remember that "one last trick" I mentioned? After main landing gear touchdown, a compartment under the dorsal fin opened, and a drag chute was deployed to aid in slowing Endeavour to a stop. As part of its construction, Endeavour got improvements to its nose gear steering in addition to the drag chute. Columbia, which was in its first Orbiter Maintenance Down Period (OMDP), would get those improvements and the drag chute. Discovery would receive its drag chute during routine post-mission processing. Atlantis would be the last orbiter to fly a mission without a drag chute, as it would go into OMDP following its next mission, STS-46. Yes, NASA still had some Space Shuttle missions out of order. Dan Brandenstein and Bruce Melnick would both retire by the end of 1992. The other astronauts still had plenty more achievements to come. Especially Tom Akers and Kathy Thornton. Their next mission would arguably be the most important Space Shuttle mission of them all: STS-61, the first mission to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope. And they would have their gloves all over it as one of the two EVA repair teams.
50 years ago today, the first Synchronous Meteorological Satellite, SMS-1, was launched atop a Delta 2914 rocket from Pad 17B, Cape Canaveral. The SMS satellites put together visual and infrared imaging for the applications of predicting the weather. The first two were so successful that SMS-3 would become the first of the succeeding operational system, GOES. SMS-1 was placed in a geosynchronous orbit with an inclination of 15.5°, initially centered at 45°W. It would take various positions over the Western Hemisphere before it was retired in 1980.
44 years ago today, NASA announced the selection of Astronaut Group 9, the second group specifically selected for Space Shuttle missions. Nineteen candidates were chosen. Hence the group's nickname, "19+80". The pilots were John Blaha, Charles Bolden, Roy Bridges, Guy Gardner, Ronald Grabe, Bryan O'Connor, Richard Richards and Michael Smith. The American mission specialists were James Bagian, Franklin Chang Diaz, Mary Cleave, Bonnie Dunbar, David Hilmers, David Leestma, Jerry Ross, Sherwood Spring, and Robert Springer. And for the first time, international candidates were selected, with Swiss pilot Claude Nicollier and Dutch scientist Wubbo Ockels chosen on behalf of the European Space Agency. The age range of the group was similar to that of Group 8, with the oldest born in 1942, and the youngest born in 1952; only three mission specialists, and none of the pilots, were born in the 1950s. Most of the astronauts would get to fly before the Challenger disaster, which would claim the life of pilot Michael Smith. Jerry Ross and Franklin Chang Diaz would both fly in the 21st century, each with a mission in 2002, and each one visiting the International Space Station on its earliest construction missions. They would both get to fly seven times. Neither would fly on all five orbiters, however; Chang Diaz never flew on Challenger, and Ross never flew on Challenger or Discovery (he was on Atlantis five times). Four would visit Mir, with Blaha taking a residency for Expedition 22 in 1996. But none would fly on a Soyuz spacecraft. Only four members of the group have died to this point, with Smith being the only one from the pilot track.
63 years ago today, Sergei Korolev and Nikolai Kamanin were arguing over Vostok 2's mission profile. Gen. Kamanin felt that the planned one-day flight was too big of a leap for the Vostok spacecraft after Yuri Gagarin's daring single orbit. Korolev countered that Vostok's landing options would be limited by a shorter mission profile. Anything beyond 2 orbits would mean landing outside the Soviet Union. And a half-day mission would mean retrofire in Earth's shadow, which meant they could not orient the spacecraft automatically. Gen. Kamanin relented, but got a provision to allow for an emergency manual retrofire in the first couple orbits if Gherman Titov felt unwell. Meanwhile, Korolev was working on the next spacecraft, which was codenamed Sever. This was one of the earliest prototypes of what became Soyuz, but was 50% larger than Soyuz would ultimately become. The main difference is that the reentry capsule on Soyuz is smaller, but they added the separate orbital module instead.
Issues with the pressurant in Calypso's service module persist, and the Starliner Crewed Flight Test has been pushed further back to Saturday afternoon at 3:09pm EDT. SpaceX has identical launches for Starlink from Cape Canaveral this week, with Wednesday evening from Pad 40, and Thursday evening from Pad 39A. Both will be at 7:11pm EDT. Meanwhile, they will be launching their first set of dedicated Starshield defense satellites, SpaceX's joint venture with Northrop Grumman for the NRO, early Wednesday morning at 3:22am EDT from Pad 4E, Vandenberg SFB. ******** Even before that, Electron's next launch, "Ready, Aim, PREFIRE!", is planned 13 minutes after Midnight EDT tonight. The payload is the NASA cubesat PREFIRE 1. What I gather from it is that it is like the TIROS-derived close-range meteorological satellites, but in cubesat form. It will be launched from Pad 1B, Mahia.
PREFIRE-1 was delayed due to weather, and is now set to go early tomorrow morning at 2:15am EDT. Seeing double at LC-1 today. Twin fairings for our back-to-back @NASA PREFIRE launches. pic.twitter.com/UrN58SaAI1— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) May 17, 2024 PREFIRE-2 is also being prepped for a later flight, currently penciled in for early June. Its mission name will be "PREFIRE and Ice". ******** Launch rehearsal for Flight 4 complete pic.twitter.com/Gh8s7n4JIQ— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 20, 2024 Meanwhile, Starship SN 29 and Booster 11 were stacked last week for the first time. And yesterday, they were given a full wet dress rehearsal. Elon is expecting it to fly within the next 2 weeks.
43 years ago today, GOES-5 was launched atop a Delta 3914 rocket from Pad 17B, Cape Canaveral. Initially placed at 85°W, it was the second of the formal first-generation GOES satellites, which perfected the technologies combined on the original SMS satellites. It was intended to operate for at least 7 years. There was just one problem. Three years after launch, its primary instrument, the Visible Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer (VISSR), failed. This is the camera that produces the infrared images that allow it to observe cloud cover regardless of whether it's day or night. When VISSR failed, GOES-6 was moved to the center of the US so it could cover the entire nation for infrared. GOES-5 would continue to use its remaining instruments as GOES-EAST, while GOES-WEST was covered initially by GOES-1, then by GOES-4, until they could launch a replacement for GOES-5. The initial replacement, GOES-G, was lost in a launch failure in 1986. GOES-H was launched in 1987, finally taking the GOES-7 number and GOES-EAST position, as GOES-6 returned to GOES-WEST. GOES-5 from there would remain an online backup until 1990. By then, GOES-6's VISSR had also failed, and GOES-7 would have to be the only GOES satellite until the launch of the next-generation GOES-I (GOES-8) in 1994.
Remember when I covered Capt. Edward Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate? Sometimes I wonder if space bigwigs stumble across this thread. Because as it turns out, he went to space last Sunday. WATCH: Ed Dwight, America's first Black astronaut candidate, goes to space at age 90 pic.twitter.com/FSdfoP2KxG— The Associated Press (@AP) May 21, 2024 Blue Origin finally had its first crewed New Shepard mission since a September 2022 engine failure during an uncrewed flight. NS-25 carried six tourists, including Capt. Dwight. Booster NS4 and RSS First Step lifted off at 10:35am EDT, and went to an altitude of 105.9 km. At 90 years, 253 days, he edged out William Shatner's record as the oldest human in space by about a month. ******** That being said, there might be another delay before the next mission, because only two of the three parachutes for RSS First Step inflated during descent. As is typical with spacecraft, one of the three is a contingency, and New Shepard can safely with two parachutes. It certainly didn't seem to hurt Capt. Dwight, as he was jubilant upon leaving the capsule. But Blue Origin will undoubtedly want to know why one of the parachutes didn't inflate before launching their next suborbital joyride.
The Starliner Crewed Flight Test has been delayed. Again. The leak in Calypso's helium pressurant tank has persisted. NASA says it is stable, but they want a more full analysis before proceeding with the launch. It is now set for next Saturday at 12:25pm EDT. ******** Meanwhile, the Electron launch for PREFIRE 1 is back on for early tomorrow morning at 3:15am EDT.
18 years ago today, GOES-13 was launched atop a Delta IV Medium rocket from Pad 37B, Cape Canaveral. GOES-13 was the first of the GOES-N series. It was the first to feature Sun-pointed experiments, particularly one calibrated to extreme UV wavelengths. The launch of GOES-13 was actually long-delayed. Originally intended for a Delta III rocket, its failures led to moving it to the Delta IV Medium. It was further delayed by issues with the maiden flight of the Delta IV Heavy, and a strike by Boeing pad workers. One of its Sun-pointing instruments was damaged by a solar flare in December 2006. Noise in its signal had to undergo troubleshooting in late 2012. On May 22, 2013, GOES-13 suffered a meteoroid strike. It would be out of action for about three weeks. It lost its infrared detectors in 2015, and was deactivated in 2018. In 2020, it was reactivated and transferred to the U.S. Air Force, and then the Space Force. Rechristened EWS-G1, it was moved over the Indian Ocean for tactical weather support. It was decommissioned for good in October 2023, and lifted to a graveyard orbit this past February.
Because if they had enough fuel to de-orbit from a 36,000-km circular orbit, they'd probably be able to stay in orbit and operational for another 20 years. It takes a lot of fuel to get to geostationary orbit, much less maintain position once there. The delta-v required to de-orbit from geostationary orbit is 1,500 m/s, and the fuel required for that much is dependant on the satellite's size. Launching another spacecraft to de-orbit it would be a waste of fuel unless it's being sent specifically to extend the satellite's life, as they have begun to do in recent years.
India's next comsat, GSAT-20, is going to bring 48 Gbps of throughput for HDTV transmission. It will also be their first comsat to reach geostationary orbit from GTO using electric propulsion. It will have an indigenously-produced electric engine fueled by xenon. They wanted to launch it with the LVM3 rocket. Just one problem with that: it was 600 kg too big for LVM3 to get it to GTO. So ISRO contacted SpaceX. It's only penciled in for 2H 2024 on a Falcon 9, so we're just waiting to see when a more solid launch date is set. But we still have a month to go for that to hold true. ******** NASA and ISRO continue discussions about Indian astronaut flight to ISS https://t.co/G6BwaoQagG pic.twitter.com/XG2nhYIY54— SpaceNews (@SpaceNews_Inc) May 26, 2024 And ISRO may be preparing to move closer to NASA in general, with plans to send ISRO astronauts to the International Space Station. This news has been brewing since last June, when NASA and ISRO agreed to a framework for training Indian astronauts for future missions; both solo flights by ISRO, and NASA missions to the ISS. It was a very special moment for me to hand over wings to the four Indian astronaut-designates. They reflect the hopes, aspirations and optimism of 140 crore Indians. India is proud of Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad… pic.twitter.com/i0oseaxd4o— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 27, 2024 This past February Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced the selection of the first four Indian astronauts. (BTW: 140 crore = 1.4 billion.) All four are pilots with the Indian Air Force: Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Shubhanshu Shukla. In addition to possible ISS expeditions, they will also be the first astronauts to fly ISRO's new Gaganyaan manned spacecraft. Gaganyaan bears strong resemblance to Dragon 2, Starliner, and Orion. It will be launched atop the LVM3 rocket. Initial testing has gone well so far, and ISRO is hoping for the first orbital test as soon as this July. They are planning on three unmanned flights, the latter two of which will carry a female-shaped dummy to test g forces before the first crewed flight by the middle of next year. ******** PREFIRE-1 had a successful launch early Saturday morning. PREFIRE-2 is now penciled in for this Saturday. We'll see when they commit to an exact time. The Starliner Crewed Flight Test is still on for Saturday afternoon at 12:25pm EDT.
58 years ago today, Surveyor 1 was launched atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket from Pad 36A, Cape Kennedy. After years of testing, and lots of explosions, Atlas-Centaur was finally operational. The plan was simple: unlike Apollo, which would enter lunar orbit before sending its lander down, it would fly directly to the Moon for one chance at a landing. At an altitude of around 75 km above the lunar surface, a solid-fuel retrorocket would fire for 40 seconds, then jettison. At retrorocket jettison, the lander was predicted to be falling around 110 m/s. Then, on-board liquid-fuel vernier engines would fire to complete descent. The engines would be shut down at an altitude of around 3 metres above the surface, and it would do a soft landing. For Surveyor 1, it all worked perfectly, and it landed in the Flamsteed crater complex on the southern edge of Oceanus Procellarum. During its first lunar day, it transmitted over 10,000 pictures using a black-and-white vidicon tube camera. The only experiments on the first lander were the camera and a strain gauge to test the actual impact force at landing. The landing pad feature had a color wheel, which was part of the spacecraft template for future landers which would carry color cameras. The lander would survive its first lunar night, and its camera sent another 1,000 photos in July 1966. The camera would not survive the second night, but NASA would continue to receive telemetry when it was on the lit side through January 1967.
53 years ago today, the head of cosmonaut training, Nikolai Kamanin, was informed that issues with the cabin atmosphere aboard Salyut 1 were now resolved. Naturally, this upset him. He wasn't aware that problems had developed with its environmental control system. Changes were being made to Soyuz 11, and the Soyuz 7K-OKS spacecraft that would fly it. Its docking mechanism had been reinforced. This added 10 kg to the spacecraft's mass. In addition, the spacecraft would carry an extra day worth of consumables, giving them more opportunities to dock if they fail the first time.
.@NASA, @BoeingSpace, and @ulalaunch scrubbed today’s launch attempt due to the computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count. The ULA team is working to understand the cause.The crew and #Starliner… pic.twitter.com/Lnz5QzUSEz— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) June 1, 2024 The Starliner Crewed Flight Test aborted just after entering the final terminal count. Boeing is initially claiming a ground system issue. Their next opportunity is tomorrow at 12:03pm EDT. But no certainty yet that they will actually try it that quickly.
What if this could've been the design of the Space Shuttle? 55 years ago today, this design was getting savaged by engineers. The straight wing design, for both the booster and the orbiter, was the brainchild of Maxime Faget, an engineer from Douglas Aircraft Company who emigrated to the United States from British Honduras. It was based on the Douglas DC-3 airliner. What engineers liked least about the design is that, during re-entry, it would need to go through the atmosphere at a very high angle of attack; effectively in a stall. Engineers also saw potential issues with its survival of a launch abort. There are rumors that the Air Force quashed the idea in favor of the delta wing design that ultimately won out. This is understood to be merely a rumor.
Frank Curtis Michel was born on June 5, 1934, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He received a bachelor's in physics from the Air Force ROTC at CalTech in 1955, having previously graduated high school right around his 17th birthday. After his initial commitment, during which he flew the North American F-86D Sabre interceptor variant over Western Europe, he returned to CalTech and earned his doctorate in 1962 on the G.I. Bill of Rights. In 1963, he moved to Houston and became a professor at Rice University. It was not long after that he chose to try to join NASA when they looked for their first group of scientist astronauts. He was selected as part of Astronaut Group 4. Already being an Air Force pilot, But he decided not to stick around as Project Apollo got whittled down. He resigned in August 1969. After his resignation, Dr. Michel returned to his professorship at Rice, where he helped found its space sciences department. He would take the Andrew Hays Buchanan chair of astrophysics there in 1974, and serve there until 2000. During that time, he would receive fellowships from universities in France and West Germany. After retiring from Rice, he would spend a year as a visiting professor at the University of Nagoya. Although retired from teaching, he would continue to do research based at Rice. Some of his studies focused on the solar wind and its interactions with Earth's Moon and the interstellar medium. Dr. Michel died on February 26, 2015, in Houston, aged 80. He left his second wife; two children from his first wife, who predeceased him; and three grandchildren. He was buried at Houston National Cemetery.