BigSoccer IN SPACE!!! (The BigSoccer Space Exploration Thread)

31 years ago today, Intelsat 602 was launched atop an Ariane 4 44L rocket from Pad A-2, Guiana Space Centre.

This was actually first of the Intelsat 6 series. It was, at the time, the largest commercial comsat yet devised. Each satellite could carry 120,000 simultaneous telephone circuits, and transmit three television channels.

It was tested at 37°W longitude, with its initial operational placement at 24.5°W in 1992. It would later be moved over the Middle East at 62°E in 1997, with various Near East positions in the early 2000s before moving to 150.5°E in 2005 on a two-year sublet to Indosat.

Over time, its inclination marginally increased for unknown reasons, causing it to wobble slightly in its observed place. It did not noticeably affect performance. Its last operational location was 178°E. It was retired and lifted to a graveyard orbit in July 2012.

This was the second flight of the 44L variant of the Ariane 4. At the time, it was the biggest of ESA's big guns, with its four liquid-fueled boosters giving the rocket a capacity of 4,720 kg to GTO.

 

55 years ago today, the White House relayed a plan from NASA that the repurposed Gemini 6A would be launched during Gemini 7, and that the two spacecraft would rendezvous while in orbit.

Gemini 6 was thwarted three days previous when its intended Agena Target Vehicle failed to make orbit. NASA and spacecraft contractor McDonnell had already been working on contingencies for a manned spacecraft rendezvous at that point.

In addition to the rendezvous test, the second mission would serve as a demonstration of rapid manned spacecraft launch.

To this day, the ultimate interval of 11 days between Gemini 7 and Gemini 6A—which would've been 8 days if not for the pad abort three days earlier—has yet to be matched on American soil. Unlike the multiple times in the 60s that the Soviets would launch manned spacecraft on consecutive days, getting up to three in as many days with Soyuz 6, 7, and 8.

Maybe that's something Elon can pull off someday.

 

Yesterday, NASA had a briefing on USCV-1, and gave some insight on the issue that caused its most recent delay.

It turns out that inspection of the engines in B1062.1, which is set to carry the next two GPS Block IIIA satellites in consecutive launches, had masking lacquer obstructing vents in one of the engines. It turned out that B1061.1, the first stage that will carry Resilience, also had masking lacquer—a chemical similar to nail polish—in two of its engines.

SpaceX says inspections revealed masking lacquer — material similar to red nail polish used during treatment of components — obstructing vent ports in Falcon 9 rocket engines.

The blockage disrupts how the engines ignite and could lead to damage.

Story: https://t.co/NeB5lsTEHU pic.twitter.com/yltTKl6j9Z

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) October 29, 2020

As it turns out, masking lacquer is used by a third-party vendor to anodize the aluminum components in its engines. Usually, the lacquer is removed, and confirming said removal is part of the inspection process.

They apparently missed some millimeter-sized vents in a couple engines.

Instead of re-cleaning the engines in situ, they have replaced all affected engines with confirmed clean engines. The affected engines will probably be re-cleaned and used in the future.

 

29 years ago today, Intelsat 601 was launched atop an Ariane 4 44L rocket from Pad A-2, Guiana Space Centre.

If that sounds familiar...who am I kidding?

For reasons that seem lost to history—I've spent the past two days looking—the first satellite of the Intelsat 6 series was the last to actually fly. It began operations initially at 27.5°W, then replaced Intelsat 602 at 34.5°W in 1997.

In 2002, it was moved to the other side of Europe at 32.9°E, then again to 64.25°E that same year. In 2007, it was sold to Europe*Star, and moved to 47.5°E to serve Eastern Europe.

It was retired and lifted to a graveyard orbit in 2011.

 

And on Wednesday morning, I made sure the collector head was in there nice and snug! pic.twitter.com/a7Xx2kHb1K

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 29, 2020

NASA had another media event yesterday to highlight the supposed completion of the OSIRIS-REx mission.

They decided the safest thing to do with the jammed door on the TAGSAM collector was to put the collector in the recovery capsule and close it. That was accomplished Wednesday morning.

This means they will not be able to determine exactly how much of a sample they have. The required maneuver depended on TAGSAM being deployed from OSIRIS-REx. They couldn't do it with the collection door stuck open.

Keep in mind, they wanted a minimum of 60 grams.

TAGSAM's capacity is around 2,000 grams. And it was overstuffed.

This could be the largest autonomous sample collection ever if all goes well and it makes it back to Earth in 2023.

And it won't even begin the journey until March.

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It wasn't that long ago that Ariane 6 was targeting the end of 2020 for its first flight. Now it is the second quarter of 2022. https://t.co/Xh5jTPaUW3

— Michael Baylor (@MichaelBaylor_) October 29, 2020

Ugh... Airbus is getting a case of the Boeings.

While Vega-C is still planned for a maiden flight in June 2021, Ariane 6 has been delayed an additional year to 2Q 2022. The payload for the maiden flight is also now TBD.

If you told me two years ago that Starship had a chance to beat the Ariane, Vulcan, New Glenn, and SLS to orbit I probably would have laughed a little... now? .....

— Neotopiaman (@neotopiaman) October 29, 2020

Another tweet I saw gave me a new term to throw out there: institutional inertia.

It's hardly limited to the American military-industrial complex.

 

60 years ago today, the US Air Force released the "Orthographic Atlas of the Moon".

A group of scientists and astronomers, led by Gerard Kuiper, put together the best telescopic photographs of the lunar surface that they could compile, creating the "Photographic Lunar Atlas". Scientists with the Air Force would use that atlas to make their best guesses at lunar topology.

This would create a new baseline for selenography, as future exploration efforts would radically increase the resolution.

 

So NROL-101 had a bit of an adventure yesterday.

First, they started rolling its Atlas V out to Pad 41.

They rolled it back in from about a quarter of the way out due to high winds.

(It feels super nice in Florida right now, BTW.)

Then they rolled it all the way out to the pad.

Then they rolled it all the way back in again because they think the high winds damaged part of the mobile support structure.

It's now set to launch tomorrow at 5:54pm EST. The 45th Weather Squadron has a 70% chance of favorable weather.

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Speaking of the 45th Weather Squadron...

I went to check the launch weather report this morning. I have a direct link to the 45th Weather Squadron website for that purpose.

It took me to the Patrick AFB website front instead.

They changed the domain. Instead of patrick.af.mil, it is now patrick.spaceforce.mil.

I also checked Vandenberg, but their page is currently inaccessible. I think they messed up the domain change there. But Peterson AFB in Colorado has also been switched to the spaceforce.mil domain.

I think the base changeover, delayed since March, might finally be imminent.

 

39 years ago today, Venera 14 was launched atop a Proton-K/Blok D rocket from Site 200/39, Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Paired with Venera 13, it reached Venus on March 5, 1982. Its lander set down in the Southern Hemisphere, to the east of Phoebe Regio.

It actually carried equipment to sample the soil in the scant time it had to live. It collected some of the soil, and put it in a chamber that was allegedly cooled to 30 °C, and maintained at a pressure of 0.05 atmospheres.

Presuming that was relative to Venus, that would still be around 5,000 hectopascals, nearly 5 times sea level atmospheric pressure on Earth.

The sample's composition was measured by an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, and was determined to be similar to tholeiitic basalts found at the bottom of Earth's oceans.

An acoustic microphone was used to measure the wind. They guessed the wind speed at the site was around 1 mph. At an atmospheric pressure of 9.5 megapascals, I'd imagine much higher than that would hit like a Mack truck.

The lander lasted 57 minutes on the surface.

As for the bus probe, it went into heliocentric orbit and continued to send transmissions throughout 1982. In November, its engines were tested in preparation for the Vega missions which would fly by Venus on their way to Halley's Comet.

Meaningful telemetry with the bus probe ended in March 1983, and the carrier signal cut off that April.

 

NROL-101 is on for late this afternoon. They finally rolled it back out to the pad around 5pm yesterday.

Both it and the GPS Block IIIA launch tomorrow still have 70% weather favorability.

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Also on the manifest is the next Indian PSLV-DL rocket, which will carry a variety of European and American payloads.

I've probably already mentioned this before, but in recent years, ISRO has really focused on diversifying its configurations with their workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. This will be the second flight with the two SRM configuration.

The original PSLV, premiered in 1993 and now known as the PSLV-G (G for "Generic". Yes, seriously.), only had six SRMs. The updated PSLV (which debuted in 2007) kept the same core rocket, but changed up the SRMs.

The updated S12 SRMs are much larger than the original S9's. They are stronger (around 5,000 lb-f more thrust each), and last 26 seconds longer. This translates to the six-SRM PSLV-XL having 200 kg more payload capacity to SSO than the PSLV-G.

It makes the PSLV more viable for smaller GTO payloads, and even small extraterrestrial missions like Chandrayaan to the Moon in 2008, and Mangalyaan to Mars in 2013.

(Chandrayaan-2 was launched by a GSLV Mark III, and Chandrayaan-3 will be launched with that as well.)

PSLV can now be launched as just its Core-Alone (CA), or with pairs of SRMs up to six. Both the four-SRM PSLV-QL and two-SRM PSLV-DL debuted in 2019. PSLV-CA has a capacity to SSO of 1,100 kg, while PSLV-XL has a capacity to SSO of 3,800 kg.

The original S9 SRMs were gradually exhausted, with the final PSLV-G rocket launched in 2016.

 

I think that ground system valve was the thing that was at issue from the rocket moving shenanigans earlier this week.

It is interesting that, for once, they are apparently deferring to SpaceX. But even if the issue didn't require multiple days to troubleshoot, the GPS launch may be more important.

 

"It's really special today because we flew an airplane in here, but the plan is for us leave on top of a rocket." - @VicGlover of @NASA_Astronauts anticipates the Nov. 14 liftoff from @NASAKennedy of the NASA @SpaceX Crew-1 mission. pic.twitter.com/H2bUXWY68f

— NASA (@NASA) November 8, 2020

The crew of USCV-1 arrived at Kennedy Space Center yesterday.

The main concern right now with everything on the Cape is Tropical Storm Eta. It's not because of possible damage, but because of creating conditions that might impact the launch windows.

As it stands right now, Eta is predicted to go out past the Keys, then go mostly north along the Florida peninsula and make landfall around Cedar Key, well north of Tampa, Friday night. But it's been a broad storm in its later stages, so even out in the Gulf, it could still impact Cape Canaveral just enough.

Currently, the NROL-101 Atlas V launch on Wednesday evening has only a 40% chance of favorable weather. It goes up to 50% the next day. We probably won't get our first official 45th Weather Squadron forecast for USCV-1 until Wednesday.

 

The Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon were lifted upright overnight ahead of a static test firing of its first stage engines planned for later today: https://t.co/HbvPdyRt0j pic.twitter.com/Psis2bVCVC

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) November 10, 2020

Falcon 9 B1061.1 has been erected at Pad 39A this morning in preparation for its static fire.

The USCV-1 flight readiness review is currently underway, and the static fire will be the last piece of that puzzle. It's expected to conclude one hour after the static fire.

The tracking for Tropical Storm Eta is slowing it down, but tending to pull it away from the Florida peninsula for its final landfall. Still, one of the ensemble models has it hitting Tampa and then going back into the Gulf of Mexico. So who knows what will happen?

None of them have it getting much stronger than it is now, which is essentially barely a tropical storm with its biggest threat being torrential rain.

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NROL-101 has been pushed back a day. It's now set for Thursday afternoon at 5:18pm EST.

The first new Cargo Dragon, CRS-21, is currently set for December 2 at 12:50pm EST. It's going to launch on B1058.4, the same rocket that lofted DM-2.

There was supposed to be a Vega launch this week, but it's been pushed back to Sunday night at 8:44pm EST. Part of its payload is a tethered satellite disposal experiment by an American company named TriSept.

The control satellite, Augury, is expected to take nine years to de-orbit from its planned SSO.

The tethered satellite, Alchemy, will use a technology termed "Terminator Tape". The tether is supposed to drastically increase its drag. They are hoping it will re-enter in 45 days.

TriSept is not a new company. They've been involved in integrating cubesats for launch since the mid 1990s. They were chosen as a preferred payload integrator for NASA's Venture Class Launch Services, their current cubesat initiative, and will work with Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, and Firefly.

 

While the static fire for B1061.1 was delayed as SpaceX decided to swap a purge valve on the second stage, NASA and JAXA completed the flight readiness review for USCV-1, certifying the Crew Dragon platform for ISS crew rotations.

The rocket has already been re-erected, and static fire is planned for some time today.

As for Tropical Storm Eta, people don't know what's going on for certain. Now they're saying it's turning back toward the peninsula, again targeting Cedar Key, but is accelerating. It's supposed to make landfall as a tropical storm tomorrow afternoon, and will be clear by Friday morning.

That could potentially delay the GPS Block IIIA launch, but would improve the chances of USCV-1 Saturday night.

This storm seems to have set meteorology back a couple generations.

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Resilience will bring some modifications to Crew Dragon.

As it turns out, Endeavour deployed its parachutes a little later than expected, at an altitude of 15,000 feet instead of 18,000 feet. Post-flight evaluation found that the intake port to the barometer used to determine when the parachutes should deploy clogged. It will have a larger intake port from now on.

They also determined that ablation of the heat shield was more than expected around one of the trunk latch points. The heat shield has been reinforced around the trunk latches.

It turns out, the mission hard limit of 110 days for DM-2 was due to the expectations of solar panel decay. Solar panels do not last forever due to the constant repeated heating and cooling during orbit; 16 times more than solar panels on Earth's surface would experience, and to greater extremes in either direction.

The trunk on Resilience will be mounted with much more durable solar panels rated for a minimum mission duration of 210 days.

As for landing, a 10-mile no-go zone will be established once landing is set, and more Coast Guard assets will be employed to make sure private vessels don't intrude on recovery this time.

Resilience is planned to dock at Harmony forward, but might move to Harmony zenith at some point to make room for Starliner DM-2.

Assuming it makes it to the International Space Station.

The CRS-21 Cargo Dragon is planned to dock at Harmony zenith after its launch early next month, and will be gone by the time Starliner DM-2 is planned to launch.

 

As we speak, Tropical Storm Eta is making landfall around Cedar Key. It's accelerated even faster, and will cross over Jacksonville on its way out into the Atlantic just after Noon.

It shouldn't be much of an issue at all anymore. In fact, the 45th Weather Squadron is now giving NROL-101 80% weather favorability for its launch tomorrow afternoon.

USCV-1 has 60% weather favorability for its Saturday night launch window as the next cold front approaches Florida. By then, Eta shouldn't even be much of a factor for the abort zones.

EDIT: Forecasts have been updated, with NROL-101 getting 90% favorability, and USCV-1 getting 70%.

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The first Firefly Alpha rocket has been delivered to Vandenberg AFB. It's currently scheduled for a maiden launch NET December 22 with a total of 26 smallsat payloads.

It is intended to be a direct competitor to India's PSLV in the smallsat market, with a payload of 600 kg to a polar SSO, or one metric ton to LEO.

The first launches will be conducted from Pad 2W at Vandenberg. But they have also reserved Pad 20, the old backup Titan II launch site, at Cape Canaveral.

 

21 years ago today, the GE-4 comsat was launched for GE Americom atop an Ariane 4 44LP rocket from Pad A-2, Guiana Space Centre.

It was initially placed at 101°W to serve the Western Hemisphere. Following the 2001 acquisition of GE Americom by SES, it was renamed AMC-4.

In 2010, it and AMC-2 were replaced by SES-1, the first comsat launched under the auspices of SES World Skies. While AMC-2 was retired and boosted to a graveyard orbit, AMC-4 was moved to 134.9°W and put in standby as a backup. It remains there to this day.

 

USCV-1 has been delayed a day. It is now set to launch at 7:27pm EST Sunday night. The given reason is expected high onshore winds which could make first-stage recovery more difficult.

The probability for favorable weather is currently 60%.

NROL-101 did go off at 5:32pm EST last night. The GEM-63 SRMs appear to have worked flawlessly.

 

It's looking good for a launch attempt for USCV-1 today.

At least initially. The L-1 forecast from the 45th Weather Squadron gives it a 50/50 shot at favorable weather, but 80% for the next backup window Wednesday night.

But it's a beautiful morning here in Central Florida anyway.

Soichi Noguchi will become the first astronaut who has been launched to space in the Shuttle-era ACES pressure suit, the Russian Sokol pressure suit, and the SpaceX pressure suit.

There's going to be very few that will be able to join him in this club. Hopefully Sunita Williams will eventually be one of them, at least with the Boeing pressure suit.

Eventually.

Maybe.

But who knows if there will be Americans flying on Russian spacecraft in the future? Just because there aren't any seats reserved in the immediate near future doesn't mean it won't happen again.

And with Orion using a modified ACES pressure suit, there will surely be more astronauts who will travel to space in both ACES and the SpaceX pressure suit.