Well, so much for that. Crew Dragon CRS-25 was taken off the manifest yesterday. During final checkouts, elevated hydrazine levels were detected around one of the spacecraft's Draco thrusters, suggesting a link. They unfueled the spacecraft so they could examine it. There is no timetable to put it back on the manifest at this time. This does not affect the launch of Nilesat 301, still said for tomorrow afternoon at 5:04pm EDT.
Update from NASA on the SpaceX CRS-25 Dragon launch delay, which is because of “elevated vapor readings of mono-methyl hydrazine (MMH) were measured in an isolated region of the Draco thruster propulsion system.” pic.twitter.com/f1eD3c5ICu— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) June 6, 2022 NASA and SpaceX are fairly sure they've narrowed down the issue with Cargo Dragon C208, the spacecraft being used for Crew Dragon CRS-25. They are working on fixing it, and aiming for NET June 28 to attempt to launch again. Yeah, that's three weeks. It'll probably edge a couple days later since June 28 is currently set for the SES-22 launch. Today's launch for Nilesat 301 currently has a 60% chance of launch favorability from the 45th Weather Squadron.
It seems that Astra's quality control isn't quite up to par. They attempted the TROPICS 1 launch for NASA with Rocket 3.3 LV0010 from Pad 46, Cape Canaveral, at 1:43pm EDT yesterday afternoon. About a minute prior to SECO, the Aether engine of the upper stage cut off. It began a slow tumble, at an altitude of around 550 km but about 1 km/s short of orbital velocity. It's unlikely a second launch planned for later this month will go forward. ******** The next Starlink launch is planned for Friday morning at 10:50am EDT. It is atop B1060.13, which appears will be swapping the position as life leader with B1058.13 for a while. The latter is planned for a Starlink launch in July. Meanwhile, SpaceX's planned launch for the Bundeswehr, SARah 1, is penned in to launch from Vandenberg SFB Saturday morning at 9:50am EDT. It will launch atop B1071.3. There are some unidentified rideshares tagging along. Late Saturday night, a comsat launch for Globalstar is set from Cape Canaveral at 12:30am EDT.
Starship is ready to go. Kind of. One step closer to the first orbital flight test of Starship https://t.co/MEcQ6gST6Q pic.twitter.com/jxqEsM62gc— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 13, 2022 Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration granted SpaceX a mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact for the Starbase site to be an orbital launch facility for Starship. By "mitigated", that means SpaceX has to do over 75 mitigations to ensure local wildlife and vegetation is protected. Some say this is a rubberstamp that ignores local sensitive wildlife. Others cite it as proof that American bureaucracy is needlessly stymieing American commercial space development. For his part, Elon is ready to hit the ground running. We will have a second Starship stack ready to fly in August and then monthly thereafter— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2022 His plans involve the first orbital launch attempt as early as July, with eyes ultimately on monthly launches. He is aiming to do a series of test fires with a Super Heavy booster, gradually including more and more Raptor engines until it is firing all 33. SpaceX recently upgraded the Raptor engine to the Raptor 2 design, which adds 100,000 lb-f of thrust. Each engine now is up to 510,000 lb-f of thrust at sea level. This will bring it to its originally-intended launch power of 16.8 million ib-f of thrust. As noted previously, the plan for the first test flight is to achieve orbital velocity for Starship, then immediately de-orbit, go through re-entry, and have Starship essentially ditch in the Pacific ocean north of Hawaii. The Super Heavy booster will simulate a return to a point in the Gulf of Mexico off South Padre Island, soft-landing on the ocean as early Falcon 9 first stage boosters did. Both articles will be recovered and towed back to SpaceX facilities for analysis.
Lucy has gotten another target. Technically. Back in March, astronomers discovered that asteroid 15094 Polymele, which is in the Greek camp of Trojan asteroids at the Sun-Jupiter L4 Lagrangian point, has a satellite. The satellite is estimated to be 5 km across, and orbits Polymele at a distance of 200 km. Polymele itself is estimated to be 21 km across. There were already two perceived binary asteroids among its targets. Polymele will be the second encounter of Lucy's Greek camp phase. That encounter will take place on September 15, 2027. Meanwhile, testing continues regarding Lucy's stuck solar panel. Though they haven't been able to get the wayward solar array completely locked in position, they have been able to deploy it even more than they initially were. NASA thinks the guide wire used to deploy the panel lost tension and dislodged from its spool. Power generation remains over 90% of its intended capacity of 18,000 watch at Earth distance from the Sun. NASA is hopeful they can eventually get that solar wing to fully latch, but are confident they will be able to complete the full mission even if they can't. Lucy completed its first trajectory correction maneuver last Tuesday, and is on track for its first fly-by of Earth on October 16. ******** Nuri's second launch attempt is still targeted for a launch window opening early tomorrow morning at 2am EDT. The next Starlink launch is currently targeting Friday afternoon at 12:08pm EDT.
Globalstar actually launched three minutes earlier than originally planned. I guess they found a window in the weather. Because as the first stage cam showed, they were surrounded by thunderstorms. It was pretty spectacular to see from above. With the Starlink launch Friday afternoon, that marked two launches from Cape Canaveral in around 36 hours. ******** The second Nuri test launch is pushed back to late tonight at 2am EDT. The next Ariane 5 ECA launch is set for Wednesday afternoon at 5:03pm EDT. It is carrying satellites for Malaysia and India. CAPSTONE has finally been penned in for a launch Saturday morning at 6am EDT. Rocket Lab has not publicized its mission name yet. ******** Psyche has been pushed back about seven weeks. It is now set to launch on September 20. The mission timeline still has the probe reaching Mars on May 23, 2023, and entering orbit around asteroid 16 Psyche on January 31, 2026. So they may have found an even more efficient trajectory for the mission.
As part of the Psyche mission, one of the side projects that was going to go with it was EscaPADE, a smallsat follow-on to MAVEN that would've been left at Mars during that fly-by in May 2023. Apparently, it was pulled off the flight shortly after it was assigned to a Falcon Heavy. They probably couldn't figure out how to get it to enter orbit around Mars on its own as Psyche and Janus flew by. They are now aiming to include it as a rideshare for another Mars mission during the 2024 launch window. ******** The second Nuri launch attempt appears to have been a success. Following a delay of one hour, it lifted off at 3am EDT. It achieved orbit successfully, and released the dummy satellite. The four cubesats are awaiting deployment from last I've seen. The next planned launch for Nuri is in January, though they could always push those plans up if they like the data from this launch. It will carry an actual satellite designed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). ******** The extra payload launched with SARah 1 on Saturday morning was actually four smallsats for the DoD. They were all given USA designations, and are currently classified.
Today's Ariane 5 ECA launch is still on target for 5:03pm EDT. It has a 100-minute launch window. ******** In three days the first launch of the Artemis program lifts off. Rocket Lab will be launching the CAPSTONE mission with the main objective being to validate the power and propulsion requirements for maintaining its near rectilinear halo orbit as predicted by NASA’s models. pic.twitter.com/la94cEaHsY— Andrew (@Cosmic_Andrew1) June 22, 2022 With the mission patch for the CAPSTONE launch released, it seems they will not be applying a name to the launch. First time for everything, I guess. The prime mission for CAPSTONE will be to verify the near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) that is planned for the Project Artemis Lunar Gateway; that it can be maintained with predicted expenditures of fuel. It is currently still targeting launch on Saturday morning at 6am EDT. ******** The next LauncherOne launch is scheduled for next Thursday, June 30, at around 1am EDT. It will be Virgin Orbit's first nighttime launch. The mission, "Straight Up", will carry a couple collegiate cubesats and a joint US-Canadian military smallsat. The mission is titled for the first #1 hit of American singer Paula Abdul, who got her debut with Virgin Records.
Forgoing another countdown rehearsal, NASA plans to return the first Space Launch System rocket to its assembly hangar at the Kennedy Space Center next week for a hydrogen leak repair and continued preparations for liftoff on the Artemis 1 moon mission. https://t.co/zo0HyBCW3t pic.twitter.com/ohtWOthWIB— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) June 23, 2022 Artemis 1 is preparing to return to the Vehicle Assembly Building once more. Hopefully for the last time. The latest Wet Dress Rehearsal, which culminated on Tuesday, was again not without its hiccups, though it did accomplish almost all of its tasks this time. There was a recurrence of a hydrogen leak in a quick disconnect valve connected to the engine conditioning plumbing. They also did not test the hydraulics that gimbal the SRB engine nozzles. They were able to complete fueling of the Space Launch System core stage and the ICPS upper stage, loading over 750,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. NASA is not planning to do any more rehearsals. The next time Artemis 1 is rolled out to Pad 39B, it will be to launch. The earliest opportunity available for the Artemis 1 mission right now is August. As noted previously, there is a window of roughly two weeks each month when they will be able to launch. ******** The Ariane 5 ECA launch yesterday went without a hitch, though it was delayed about 45 minutes due to weather. The next launch campaign at Guiana Space Centre will be the debut flight of the updated Vega-C rocket, currently planned for Thursday, July 7, at 7:13am EDT. It will be carrying a cadre of Italian, French, and Slovenian cubesats, and a new laser geodesy target.
NASA’s Artemis team hot-fired hydraulic power units on the SLS moon launcher at the Kennedy Space Center today in a successful test of the solid rocket booster steering mechanisms.This was a test left unaccomplished after a practice countdown Monday.https://t.co/G7ZtwchjOR pic.twitter.com/4sBNAEt1XI— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) June 25, 2022 NASA completed the one test that was pending on Artemis 1 today: testing the hydraulics for the gimbaling the Solid Rocket Booster engine nozzles. The hydrazine that is used in the SRB hydraulics will be drained early next week as the first step in the rollback of the stack to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The leaky quick disconnect valve will still need to be repaired. No idea if NASA will officially aim for August for a launch attempt. ******** The CAPSTONE launch is set for 5:50am EDT Monday morning.
BepiColombo completed its second fly-by of Mercury in the early hours last Thursday morning. We hope you're enjoying our new #MercuryFlyby images! The entire sequence will be in the Planetary Science Archive ~Monday, & we look forward to sharing more sights and sounds of #Mercury with you once our scientists have taken a look at our data 🎧🎶 😉 https://t.co/yvQfQkYPQy pic.twitter.com/da7DQIpWOR— Bepi (@ESA_Bepi) June 24, 2022 Wait, wrong pictures again. #BepiColombo's first sighting of the giant Caloris basin, shadows cast at sunrise, and a rare candidate volcano are our top picks from yesterday's #MercuryFlyby. #ExploreFarther 👉https://t.co/lAd9TQvBs9 pic.twitter.com/5LtUR5t3yP— BepiColombo (@BepiColombo) June 24, 2022 During this fly-by, they were able to get images of the massive Caloris basin. They also made note of Heaney crater, which is believed to potentially be a volcanic caldera. The spacecraft complex will fly free for nearly a year until its next swing by Mercury on June 20, 2023. ******** CAPSTONE has been pushed pack one more day. It is now set to launch tomorrow morning at 5:50am EDT. The next Falcon 9 launch will carry the SES-22 comsat for SES World Skies. It is planned for launch on Wednesday afternoon at 5:04pm EDT. The 45th Weather Squadron is giving it an 80% chance of launch favorability. The next Atlas V campaign will be USSF-12, which is planned for Thursday atop an Atlas V 541 rocket with a two-hour launch window opening at 6pm EDT. It is predicted for 70% launch favorability.
There have been some colossal impacts in the history of the Solar System. A large impact on Earth is believed to have formed the Moon from its ejecta. Uranus is believed to have sustained a massive impact that caused it to flip over on its side, tilting its physical polar axis roughly along its orbital plane. Satellite impacts are believed to have created Saturn's rings. One nearly destroyed Mimas. But one of the most physically impressive of these impacts is Caloris, on Mercury. Caloris is such a large feature (over 1,500 km in diameter) that it is technically classified as a planitia instead of a crater. It is believed to have been formed by an impact that took place 3.8-3.9 billion years ago. The object that created it is thought to have been at least 100 km wide. The crater is demarcated by a ring of mountains referred to as Caloris Montes. The impact was so massive that it sent ripples through the planet, breaking up the terrain on the opposite side. It has since been largely covered up by craters, but some of the ripple lines can still be discerned. The impact basin was originally discovered by Mariner 10 in 1974. Its name was suggested by NASA scientist and former astronaut candidate Dr. Brian O'Leary. When it was analyzed during the MESSENGER mission, it was discovered to be larger than originally estimated with the discovery of Caloris Montes. This increased its diameter by nearly 250 km. Caloris has been identified as a source for the tenuous atmosphere that surrounds Mercury but is constantly stripped away.
#CAPSTONE is on its way to the Moon! A flawless launch by Electron and great first burns by Photon's HyperCurie engine. Stay tuned for mission milestones and updates on the way to lunar orbit in the coming days and weeks. 🚀🌑🛰️ pic.twitter.com/KHwww02Blj— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) June 28, 2022 CAPSTONE Is on its way to the Moon. It launched successfully at 5:55am EDT. The first two burns of the Photon stage's HyperCurie engine worked as well. Now, HyperCurie will burn every 24 hours at perigee to raise its apogee further. In five days it will be on its way to Earth-Moon L2. ******** Meanwhile, Psyche has been delayed until 2023. NASA has been having difficulty verifying the software for the probe's GNC systems. They are not going to be able to do so in time to meet the August 2022 launch window. So moving it up was all for nothing. The window in 2023 will be for the slower route that will place the probe at asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029.
Relativity Space is preparing for the debut flight of the Terran 1 rocket. Sensational ✨ angle of stage 1 being installed onto the MDC mount at LC-16 in Cape Canaveral, FL. #RelativitySpace #GLHF [Captured by @TrevorMahlmann📸] pic.twitter.com/Lu6oTtRv7a— Relativity Space (@relativityspace) June 23, 2022 The first rocket was test mounted last Thursday, and pulled out and re-mounted yesterday. The manifest says Q3 2022 currently, but it looks like it could fly at any time. This mission is named "Good Luck, Have Fun". It will carry no payload. Terran 1 is a smallsat launcher that should have a capacity of about 1,480 kg to LEO, and 900 kg to a polar SSO. Relativity Space has leased Pad 16 at Cape Canaveral SFB, and a site at Vandenberg SFB referred to as "Building 330". Terran 1's first stage is powered by nine Aeon 1 engines. They are liquid methane-powered, and have a total thrust of 207,000 lb-f. An uprated Aeon 1R is already in the works that will increase its thrust by 50%. The second stage AeonVac engine will have a force of 28,300 lb-f of thrust in a vacuum, and is also liquid methane-powered. Terran 1, Flight 2 flight articles are well under way and looking mighty stellar at our #factoryofthefuture in Long Beach, CA. 👀🌴 #FactorySnaps #3DPrinting pic.twitter.com/KT0EV8ZCXK— Relativity Space (@relativityspace) June 23, 2022 If this launch is successful, Terran 1 will be the first liquid methane-powered rocket to achieve orbit. Relativity Space could fly up to five more flights by the end of 2022. They already have a contract with Iridium for annual flights through 2030 to bolster their satellite telecom constellation.
Burns of the Photon space tug carrying CAPSTONE continue to go well. If they are keeping the information right on Wikipedia, then the transfer orbit is currently 1,500x70,000 km. Photon will release CAPSTONE once it reaches an apogee that would permit capture by the Moon, and it will propel itself from there. CAPSTONE does have science instrumentation, in addition to being a general proof-of-concept for the LRHO planned for the Project Artemis Lunar Gateway. It will make observations of both poles of the Moon, and also test RCS technology. ******** The launches of SES-22 on Wednesday, and the Singaporean satellites by PSLV-CA yesterday, both went well. The USSF-12 launch was scrubbed due to weather. They will try again this evening at 6pm EDT. Same 60% chance of weather favorability, though that should be updated later this morning. SpaceX is planning three Starlink launches in four days around next weekend. There's next Thursday at 6:30pm EDT from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral; next Friday from Pad 4E, Vandenberg SFB; and maybe next Sunday from either pad on the Cape, though I'd think Pad 39A would be more likely. ******** NASA has finally put Cargo Dragon CRS-25 back on the manifest. It is now scheduled for Thursday, July 14, at 8:30pm EDT. They are still researching the hydrazine leak. I think the leak itself has been corrected, they are just checking for any possible damage caused by it in case they need to replace any parts.
There was a touch of drama around CAPSTONE recently. When the Photon space tug completed its burns and released CAPSTONE, CAPSTONE lost contact after completing its initial deployments. Contact was re-established the next day, and I haven't seen the cause yet. This delayed the first trajectory correction maneuver (TCM-1) to this morning. It is currently on its way out to 1.5 million km, from which it will fall back toward Earth, then head to the Moon and enter its planned near-rectilinear halo orbit at Earth-Moon L2.
The debut launch of Vega-C went well yesterday, though weather delayed the launch to 9:13am EDT. The fourth stage dropped four cubesats in an SSO, then fired to bring LARES 2 and two more cubesats up to an orbit of about 5,800 km. The success of this flight will clear the way for the premiere of Ariane 6, which I have noted before uses the first stage of Vega-C as its strap-on SRMs. However, its maiden flight has slipped to April 2023. The maiden flight of Vulcan with the Peregrine commercial lunar lander is currently penciled in for December 2022. But that depends on continuing issues with development of the Blue Origin BE-4 liquid methane-fueled rocket engine. ******** Meanwhile, Cargo Dragon CRS-25 is finally set for launch, and is scheduled for tonight at 8:44pm EDT from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. The 45th Weather Squadron currently gives it a 70% chance of weather favorability. And the next Starlink launch is set for Saturday morning at 10:50am EDT from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. It currently has a 60% chance of weather favorability. Another Starlink launch is set for next Thursday at 1:13pm EDT from Pad 4E, Vandenberg SFB.
NASA also finalized a no-funds-exchanged agreement with Roscosmos, allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly to the space station on US capsules & US crews to fly on Russian vehicles.Cosmonaut Anna Kikina will fly on SpaceX's next Dragon flight to the station.https://t.co/fsEpQ5J5pk pic.twitter.com/82KAzWY9Gb— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) July 16, 2022 Anna Kikina is finalized to fly on SpaceX Crew-5. NASA and Roscosmos confirmed their original deal yesterday, which will exchange Kikina's flight for an American flight on Soyuz MS-22. Both flights are planned for September 2022. NASA has already chosen Group 22 recruit Frank Rubio for Soyuz MS-22. Hopefully, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Rogozin don't do anything stupid to jeopardize this, or anything else with the ISS, any further. The latter certainly won't as the head of Roscosmos. As an aside to that news, Rogozin was sacked as head of the agency. It is unknown where he will go from here. One can hope he's headed to the gulags for unnecessarily enflaming tensions any more than Putin already has. It's already cost Roscosmos all their commercial space business. ******** Meanwhile, things are going well on planning for the Starliner Crewed Flight Test. It is currently penciled in for December 8, with Barry Whitmore as commander, and Sunita Williams as pilot. Michael Fincke has been shuffled to backup commander. Honestly, I'm disappointed that Sunita won't get to command the flight. Though she will be the first woman on an orbital spacecraft's debut flight. Jeanette Epps remains the only crew scheduled for Boeing's first operational mission, Starliner-1. NASA continues to assume the position of waiting for CFT-1 to be flown before filling out Boeing's manifest. But it's likely that Fincke will command Starliner-1 if CFT-1 is successful in the same way as SpaceX DM-2 in Summer 2020. It will probably also carry a Group 22 astronaut as pilot, and also have an astronaut from ESA, CSA, or JAXA. Since Matthew Dominick has been in the backup rotation for Boeing already, he'd be a likely candidate for CFT-1 pilot, or even commander if they don't choose Fincke.
64 years ago today, Dr. James Killian, science advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was issued a memorandum by Dr. Hugh Dryden, the Director of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. In the letter, Dryden highlighted the research NACA had already conducted that would be relevant to the expansion of scope that its transition to NASA would represent. Things like high-temperature structural design, controls at high altitudes, and various issues involving atmospheric entry. This was, in particular, connected to work on the developing North American X-15 rocket plane, which Dryden saw as an important first step in particular to manned spaceflight. Dryden would become deputy director of NASA, with Dr. Keith Glennan being appointed its first Administrator.
Happy 79th birthday to NASA astronaut Roy Bridges. Born in Atlanta and raised in nearby Gainesville, Georgia, he received a bachelor's in engineering science from Air Force in 1965, and a master's in astronautics from Purdue the next year. He would serve a long tour during the hottest period of the Vietnam War, flying 262 combat missions in the North American F-100 Super Sabre. Roy was selected as an astronaut in the pilot track of Group 9 in 1980. Flying as pilot on Challenger during STS-51-F in July 1985, he was the first pilot in Group 9 to fly a mission; only David Leestma in the mission specialist track flew sooner (STS-41-G in October 1984). He was scheduled to pilot Challenger again for STS-61-G, the deployment of Ulysses. Obviously, that didn't happen. In fact, Roy resigned from NASA after the Challenger disaster, and returned to the Air Force, where he was put in charge of the Eastern Space and Missile Center (what is now Space Launch Delta 45) at Patrick AFB. He would hold various commands, including high-level offices in Air Force Systems Command and Air Force Material Command, before retiring as a Major General in 1996. After that, Roy returned to NASA in an executive role. In 1997, he became Director of Kennedy Space Center. He was shifted to Director of Langley Research Center in 2003 before retiring in 2005. He has most recently held executive positions involving missile systems at Northrop Grumman. He is married, and has two children.
NASA has selected SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from LC-39A in Florida no earlier than October 2026. The contract is worth $255 million.NASASpaceflight spoke to Dr. Jonathan McDowell about the mission! https://t.co/PGMiUntkCS pic.twitter.com/L4ZQYECKN9— Thomas Burghardt (@TGMetsFan98) July 19, 2022 The Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope has a target date and a launch vehicle. Now termed the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named after the first Chief of Astronomy at Goddard Spaceflight Center, it is currently set to be launched atop a Falcon Heavy rocket, and the window to launch it opens in October 2026. It will ultimately join the James Webb Space Telescope at Sun-Earth L2. The mission has been modified somewhat. Originally planned to primarily be an infrared telescope, its wavelength range as been shifted to include just about the entire visible light spectrum; its wavelength range is now 480 nm to 2.3 microns. Where the spectrum for Webb begins at orange, for Roman it will go all the way to blue. This is likely because they have decided to go the Hubble route and modify a spare KH-11 KENNEN reconnaissance satellite. Roman is currently described as having a similar resolution to Hubble, but with a field of view that's 100 times larger. It will also have a high-bandwidth Ka-band transmitter with an optimal data rate of 290 megabits per second. One of the original hopes for Roman was to have a serviceable telescope like Hubble; one that could be refurbished on-site with robotic servicing missions. It's unknown if this is still in the cards now that the mission is set to go to Sun-Earth L2.
We. Are. Going.NASA has set a NET launch date for SLS on Artemis I of August 29, 2022.📸 for @NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/KIQLUCxGAR— Nathan Barker (@NASA_Nerd) July 20, 2022 For the 53rd anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon, NASA has announced a launch date for Artemis 1. They have decided to go during the August window, and have set Monday, August 29, as the launch date. It will have a two-hour window opening at 8:33am EDT. When the mission launches will determine how long the mission lasts. Depending on launch day, the mission could last 26-42 days. A mission launched on August 29 will be a full 42-day mission profile. The immediate next opportunity, on September 2, will be a 39-day mission profile. Given requirements for turnaround, the other launch attempt for that window will be September 5, which will also be a 42-day mission profile. The next window of opportunities will open on September 19. I have not seen yet when the Artemis 1 stack will be rolled back out to Pad 39B yet. And undoubtedly there will be one more full dress rehearsal, this time with a static fire of the RS-25 main engines.
108 years ago today, astronomer Seth Nicholson discovered the Jupiter moon Sinope with the main telescope at Lick Observatory near San Jose, California. Officially classified as Jupiter IX for over 60 years, it was known unofficially as "Hades" from 1955 until 1975, when the International Astronomical Union recognized its current name. It is named after a Greek nymph who was venerated at a site on the Black Sea in present-day Turkey; according to legend, she tricked both Zeus and Apollo into guaranteeing her eternal virginity. Sinope is one of the furthest out of Jupiter's known natural satellites, and orbits the planet in retrograde. Its mean orbital distance from Jupiter is around 24 million km, and it takes nearly 25 Earth months to complete an orbit. That's about 5 1/2 orbits around Jupiter for every time Jupiter completes an orbit around the Sun (11.86 Earth years). It is believed that its cohort of satellites, the Pasiphae group, so named for a satellite discovered six years before, were captured asteroids formed outside the Jovian system. Sinope itself is thought to pass in and out of resonance with Jupiter approximately every 10 million years. Sinope was never observed by Galileo, and the only observations we have of it come from ground-based telescopes.
17 years ago today, Discovery was launched on STS-114, the return to flight mission from the Columbia disaster, from Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center. Talk about deja vu. Prior to STS-107, the original plan was for commander Eileen Collins, pilot James Kelly, and mission spacialists Soichi Noguchi and Steven Robinson to ferry a crew swap. They would be exchanging the Expedition 6 crew of Ken Bowersox, Nikolai Budarin, and Don Pettit for the Expedition 7 crew of Yuri Malenchenko, Ed Lu, and Alexander Kaleri. It also would've carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Raffaello, bringing it to the International Space Station for the first time. The RTF was largely a carbon copy of the original flight, but with the crew exchange removed. Instead, the original main crew of four would be joined by Andrew Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, and Charles Camarda. In addition to Raffaello, Discovery would also carry the new Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS). Attached to Canadarm, it could reach around the orbiter to scan its ventral side for any undue damage. During the OBSS observation, NASA discovered two protruding gap fillers. Gap fillers were used to brace thermal tiles during ascent, and had no real need during re-entry. In fact, if they protruded too far, they could cause undue heating during re-entry; this was observed on STS-28 and STS-73. The mission already had three planned EVAs. The first was an in situ demonstration of repair techniques in case damage was discovered on the orbiter after ascent. The second EVA replaced a failed gyroscope on the ISS. The third was to install an External Stowage Platform. The third EVA was amended to remove the protruding gap fillers. It was a concern that sharp tools might damage the EMU spacesuits, but Soichi Noguchi and Stephen Robinson were able to remove the gap fillers with no tools and minimal force. A loose insulation blanket was identified under the commander's windshield. But wind tunnel tests determined it would not be an issue, so they did not add a fourth EVA. Discovery would return on August 6 following an 11-day mission. Several foam strikes were identified by long-range cameras and Shuttlecam launch footage. A small area of damage was identified that affected a single heat shield tile, but OBSS examination determined that did not represent a mortal risk to the orbiter or its crew. The foam strikes led to further examination of the external tank. Many at NASA believed that improper procedure in preparing the foam on the outside of the external tank at Michoud Assembly Facility was to blame for the Columbia disaster. But similar foam strikes were happening even with greater oversight on procedure. X-ray examination of another external tank revealed that cracks in the foam were actually natural, and caused by thermal dynamics during application. NASA officials would formally apologize to Michoud workers in early 2006. Still, further mitigation was needed. This, combined with Hurricane Katrina directly affecting operations at Michoud in August and September 2005, would result in the next Shuttle mission not taking place for nearly a year. This would be the last mission for Collins, Kelly, Thomas, and Lawrence, as well as the only mission for Camarda.