desarrollo defensa y espacio

El caza Т-50: los secretos del avion invisible"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 00:13:00 +0000

Perspective Aviation Complex of Frontline Aviation

http://pakfa.tass.com/

SpaceX delivers for Intelsat 35 on heavyweight Falcon 9 mission

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 19:58:00 +0000

Credit: SpaceX

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rumbled into the sky Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, flexing the rocket’s muscles and lofting a massive Intelsat satellite to orbit supporting wireless communications, television broadcasting and trans-Atlantic data relays.

Recovering from back-to-back countdown aborts earlier in the week, the two-stage, 229-foot-tall (70-meter) launcher lit nine Merlin 1D main engines and rocketed away from pad 39A at the Florida spaceport at 7:38 p.m. EDT (2338 GMT) Wednesday.

The slender white booster pivoted 1.7 million pounds of thrust from its main engines to steer eastward from the Space Coast, powering through the speed of sound as the kerosene-fueled first stage climbed above the stratosphere.

The nine-engine first stage shut down less than three minutes after liftoff, and the booster dropped away with the help of pneumatic pushers for a destructive plunge into the Atlantic Ocean.

Wednesday’s mission — the third SpaceX launch in 12 days — carried the Boeing-built Intelsat 35e communications satellite toward a perch in geostationary orbit 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) over the equator.

The commercial spacecraft weighed around 14,900 pounds (6,761 kilograms) at launch, the heaviest payload SpaceX has ever launched to such a high orbit. SpaceX committed all of the Falcon 9’s propellant to send the Intelsat satellite into the highest orbit possible, a ride designed to minimize the spacecraft’s own fuel consumption as it maneuvers into its final operating position.

The lift requirement left no fuel in the Falcon 9’s first stage to brake for landing, and the rocket was not equipped with landing legs or fins needed for an intact recovery.

Two firings of the upper stage’s single Merlin engine placed the Intelsat 35e spacecraft into a temporary oval-shaped orbit that ranges as far as 26,700 miles (43,000 kilometers) from Earth, according to Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive.

After a half-hour trek across the Atlantic, the Falcon 9 deployed Intelsat 35e around 32 minutes into the flight. An on-board camera beamed back a live view of the satellite receding into the blackness of space.

Intelsat confirmed later Wednesday night that the spacecraft radioed controllers via a ground station, suggesting the satellite was healthy following the fiery journey into space.

“Thanks Intelsat!” Musk tweeted. “Really proud of the rocket and SpaceX team today.”

Wednesday’s launch wrapped up a busy two weeks for SpaceX, in which the company deployed 12 satellites on three Falcon 9 rockets, including a previously-flown booster that sent the first Bulgarian-owned communications spacecraft into orbit June 23 from pad 39A.

Two days later, a Falcon 9 rocket took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and successfully placed 10 next-generation Iridium voice and data relay satellites into orbit.

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Spaceflight Now

SpaceX intended to launch the Intelsat 35e mission Sunday, but software errors led to computer-triggered aborts at T-minus 10 seconds during back-to-back countdowns Sunday and Monday.

John Insprucker, the Falcon 9’s principal integration engineer who provided launch commentary on SpaceX’s webcast, said ground software halted Monday’s launch attempt because a measurement in the first stage avionics system did not match a pre-programmed limit in a ground database.

He said engineers confirmed the rocket was OK to fly without any changes to flight hardware, and officials modified the limit for Wednesday’s launch attempt.

The countdown Wednesday sailed through the T-minus 10 second software readiness check, and the rocket’s 32-minute ascent appeared to go smoothly.

The weight and destination orbit of Intelsat 35e maxed out the lift capability of the current configuration of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, according to Ken Lee, Intelsat’s senior vice president of space systems.

Besides the need to fly the rocket without recovery equipment, the Falcon 9’s upper stage was programmed to continue firing until its propellant tanks were nearly empty during the engine’s second burn. Rockets typically aim for a certain altitude and shut off their engines after reaching their target.

That left some uncertainty in where Intelsat 35e would end up, and Lee said in a pre-launch interview that the Falcon 9 rocket needed to send the satellite into an orbit stretching to a peak altitude of at least 19,405 miles (31,230 kilometers), per an agreement between SpaceX and Intelsat.

It turns out the Falcon 9 exceeded that requirement, placing its satellite passenger into a better-than-predicted orbit.

Intelsat 35e’s own rocket thruster will reshape its orbit in the next few weeks at a circular altitude of nearly 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers). The satellite will raise the low point of its current transfer orbit, which currently swings as low as a few hundred miles up, and shift its ground track from the tropics to a path directly over the equator.

The satellite will park itself at 34.5 degrees west longitude, where it will remain in lock-step with Earth’s rotation during a 15-year lifetime.

The Intelsat 35e satellite is pictured preparing for shipment from its Boeing factory in El Segundo, California, to Cape Canaveral for launch. Credit: Intelsat

Hosting C-band and Ku-band communications payloads, Intelsat 35e is the fourth “Epic-class” relay satellite developed and launched by Intelsat, joining three previous versions orbited by European Ariane 5 rockets.

The latest generation of Intelsat satellites carry all-digital payloads, giving the company added flexibility in how it beams video, voice and data signals.

“In this version, what we do is we actually digitize all the traffic that comes to the spacecraft, and once you’re in a digital domain, you can do so many things,” Lee said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. “You can put it into the beams that you want to, or you can put it into all the beams, or any one of the beams for different connectivity.”

Intelsat 35e can process about 20 gigabits of data per second, routing television programming and mobile phone calls across its field-of-view. Intelsat said its newest satellite will primarily support wireless communications operators in Africa and Latin America, offer broadband services to cruise ships, and broadcast television to Caribbean customers for the French company Canal+.

Parts of Europe and North America will also fall inside Intelsat 35e’s communications coverage area.

Intelsat did not disclose the cost of the Intelsat 35e, but a spokesperson said the company’s Epic satellites typically cost between $300 million and $425 million each.

“Companies including Orange, INWI, Tele Greenland, Sonatel, Marlink, Speedcast, ETECSA and eProcess will be among the first to deploy services on the satellite once it is placed into service,” Intelsat said in a press release after Wednesday’s launch.

Intelsat 35e will replace the aging Intelsat 903 satellite at the 34.5 degrees west position. The older satellite, which launched on a Russian Proton rocket in March 2002, will be repositioned to a new coverage area before the end of the year, Intelsat said.

Artist’s illustration of the Intelsat 35e satellite in orbit, with its antenna reflectors and solar arrays extended. Credit: Intelsat

SpaceX will slow its rapid-fire launch campaign in the coming weeks as it gears up for the next Falcon 9 launch from the Kennedy Space Center. That mission is scheduled to blast off Aug. 10 with several tons of supplies and experiments for the International Space Station, followed by up to two more Falcon 9s later in August from California and Florida.

SpaceX’s three launches in a little more than 12 days, including two from the same pad, gave the company 10 successful Falcon 9 flights just past the halfway mark of 2017.

The launch record this year has already set a record for the most launches by SpaceX in a single year. The previous high was eight flights, achieved last year before a Falcon 9 rocket exploded at Cape Canaveral, destroying an Israeli-owned communications satellite, damaging SpaceX’s primary launch pad, and grounding the company’s rockets more than four months.

“Our priority is to reliably launch our customers,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, in a statement following Wednesday’s mission. “SpaceX is able to attempt three launches for three customers in 12 days not only because we have the rockets, launch pads and droneships at the ready, but because we have the teams on the ground to get the job done.

“We are pleased with the progress we are making this year to launch and recover our rockets, which is key towards achieving full and rapid rocket reusability,” Shotwell said.

Before Wednesday’s expendable Falcon 9 launch, the last two missions featured booster landings at sea on separate SpaceX barges stationed in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

As for Intelsat, one of the world’s biggest and oldest commercial satellite operators, the company currently has no further missions booked with SpaceX, Lee said.

“Nevertheless, when there is an opportunity, we consider SpaceX to be a viable option for us, and we’ll engage them,” Lee said. “If the payload works out right with them, then we don’t have any reservation using SpaceX.”

Experiment devoted to neutron star research installed on space station

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 01:35:00 +0000

Artist’s concept of a pulsar (blue-white disk in center) pulling in matter from a nearby star (red disk at upper right). The stellar material forms a disk around the pulsar (multicolored ring) before falling on to the surface at the magnetic poles. The pulsar’s intense magnetic field is represented by faint blue outlines surrounding the pulsar. Credit: NASA

A NASA instrument built to help astronomers learn about the structure and behavior of neutron stars, super-dense stellar skeletons left behind by massive explosions, has been mounted to an observation post outside the International Space Station after delivery aboard a SpaceX supply ship earlier this month.

Since its arrival inside the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule, the X-ray astronomy experiment has been transferred from the spacecraft’s unpressurized carrier to a platform on the space-facing side of the space station’s starboard truss backbone, powered up and checked to ensure it can point at stellar targets as the research outpost orbits around Earth.

The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER, is now going through alignment checks and test scans, allowing scientists to fine-tune the instrument. The calibrations should be complete next month, and NICER’s ground team has penciled in July 13 as the first day of the instrument’s 18-month science mission.

NICER’s developers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center crammed 56 individual X-ray mirrors inside the instrument’s shell, with matching silicon detectors that will register individual photons of X-ray light, measuring their energies and times of arrival.

NASA says NICER is the first mission dedicated to neutron star research. Astronomers discovered neutron stars in 1967, decades after scientists first predicted their existence.

Neutron stars are left behind after lower-mass stars exploded in violent supernovas at the ends of their lives. The material from the star ends up crammed into an object the size of a city, and astronomers say one of the densest stable forms of matter in the universe resides in the deep interiors of neutron stars.

The NICER instrument. Credit: NASA

Scientists compare the density of a neutron star to packing the mass Mount Everest into a sugar cube. One teaspoon of neutron star matter would weight a billion tons on Earth, according to NASA.

NICER flew to the space station inside the rear trunk of a SpaceX Dragon supply ship, which launched June 3 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and berthed with the orbiting outpost June 5.

The station’s Canadian-built robotic arm extracted the NICER experiment from the Dragon spacecraft June 11, and the instrument rode to its mounting location on an external platform — EXPRESS Logistics Carrier-2 — on a mobile rail car down the station’s truss.

Mission controllers in Houston commanded and monitored the multi-day transfer from the ground, with the help of the station’s two-armed Dextre robot.

The space station’s robotic arm installed NICER on its mounting plate June 13, and controllers powered up the instrument’s electronics the next day, verifying all systems were OK. Range of motion tests were completed Friday after engineers needed extra time to release troublesome launch restraint bolt

NASA experiment dedicated to neutron star research installed on space station after delivery by SpaceX this month. https://t.co/hUe7VEhd5p pic.twitter.com/FYvbsm8xP5
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) 20 de junio de 2017

NICER rode to the space station with two other experiments in Dragon’s trunk.

One of the payloads, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory, will test a new solar array design could be used on future commercial satellites, making the power generators 20 percent lighter and able to fit into a launch package four times smaller than conventional fold-out solar panels.

A commercial Earth-imaging platform developed by Teledyne Brown was also stowed in Dragon’s trunk. The Multiple User System for Earth Sensing, or MUSES, can host high-definition and hyperspectral cameras for Earth-viewing.

The MUSES payload was robotically moved to its new home on the space station before NICER, and the solar array testbed was unfurled for seven days of testing this week.

The installation of NICER clears the way for nearly a month of calibrations before it can start regular science observations.

“Neutron stars are fantastical stars that are extraordinary in many ways,” said Zaven Arzoumanian, NICER’s deputy principal investigator and science lead at Goddard. “They are the densest objects in the universe, they are the fastest-spinning objects known, they are the most strongly magnetic objects known.”

The NICER science team wants to know the structure and composition of neutron stars, which are so extreme that normal atoms are pulverized, freeing subatomic particles like neutrons, protons and electrons.

“As soon as you go below the surface of a neutron star, the pressures and densities rise extremely rapidly, and soon you’re in an environment that you can’t produce in any lab on Earth,” said Slavko Bogdanov, a research scientist at Columbia University who leads the NICER light curve modeling group.

A view of the space station’s Canadian-Built robotic arm removing NICER instrument from its berth inside SpaceX’s Dragon capsule last week. Credit: NASA

Unlike black holes, which develop from explosions of stars more than 20 times the mass of the sun, neutron stars can be directly observed.

A partnership between NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Naval Research Laboratory, NICER should give scientists their first measurements of the size of a neutron star.

“They emit light all across the spectrum, from radio waves to visible light up to X-rays and gamma rays, primarily in narrow beams from their magnetic poles,” Arzoumanian said. “Just like the Earth, the magnetic poles on a neutron star are not necessarily aligned with the spin of the star, so you can get narrow beams that sweep as the star spins, just like a lighthouse.

“And if we happen to be in the path of the sweep we see a flash everytime one of these beams go by and the stars from a distance appear to be pulsing, so they’re called pulsars,” Arzoumanian said.

Scientists will also demonstrate the potential of using the timing of pulses from neutron stars for deep space navigation.

“We’re going to look at a subset of pulsars in the sky called millisecond pulsars,” said Keith Gendreau, NICER’s principal investigator at Goddard. “In some of these millisecond pulsars, the pulses that we see are so regular that they remind us of atomic clocks.”

Atomic clocks are the basis of the Global Positioning System satellites, according to Gendreau.

NASA calls the navigation demonstration the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or SEXTANT.

Jason Mitchell, SEXTANT’s project manager at Goddard, said his team aims to use predictable pulsar signals to locate the space station with a precision of 6 miles, or 10 kilometers, without the aid of GPS satellites or on-board navigation solutions.

“That’s a small step compared to GPS, but it’s a giant step for using only pulsar measurements, and that will help us get into deep space,” Mitchell said.

“Our goal is to turn the G in GPS into galactic, and make it a Galactic Positioning System,” he said.

https://spaceflightnow.com

Chinese broadcasting satellite ends up in wrong orbit after rocket failure

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 00:27:00 +0000

File photo of a previous Long March 3B launch. Credit: Xinhua

Ground controllers could try to salvage a Chinese television broadcasting satellite deployed in a lower-than-planned orbit Sunday by a Long March 3B rocket.

A brief statement from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., a state-run contractor for China’s space program, confirmed an anomaly in the Long March 3B rocket’s third stage left the Chinasat 9A communications satellite in the wrong orbit following a liftoff from the Xichang space center.

An investigation into the cause of the launch failure is underway, CASC said.

The contractor said the Chinasat 9A satellite separated from the Long March 3B’s third stage after the anomaly and deployed its electricity-generating solar panels and antennas. The spacecraft is apparently healthy and in contact with engineers on the ground, who are taking “relevant efforts” to control the satellite, according to CASC.

Officials did not elaborate on what went wrong on the Long March 3B’s third stage, which is powered by a dual-nozzle YF-75 engine that burns a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

Sunday’s launch mishap was the first time one of China’s Long March 3-series rockets has failed to deliver a payload into its intended orbit since August 2009. Variants of the Long March 3 rocket, which include configurations with and without strap-on boosters, logged 49 straight successful launches in the last seven-and-a-half years.

China’s other Long March rockets, which use the same engine technology as the Long March 3-series, have suffered failures in recent years. A Chinese Earth observation satellite was destroyed during the botched launch of a Long March 4C booster Sept. 1, and a Long March 2D placed a pair of commercial Earth-imaging spacecraft into a lower-than-intended orbit in December, but those satellites recovered from the rocket mishap.

A diagram of China’s Long March 3 family of rockets. The Long March 3B, center, features four strap-on boosters. Credit: China Great Wall Industry Corp.

U.S. military tracking data indicated Chinasat 9A is orbiting around Earth at altitudes ranging between 120 miles (193 kilometers) and approximately 10,165 miles (16,360 kilometers), significantly lower than intended.

The rocket’s upper stage aimed to release Chinasat 9A in an egg-shaped elliptical orbit with an apogee, or high point, around 35,800 kilometers (22,300 miles) above Earth.

Chinasat 9A carried its own fuel to circularize its orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator following its deployment from the Long March 3B. If the satellite is able to overcome the altitude deficit after Sunday’s launch, it will have to consume more of its on-board propellant supply than expected, likely shortening its useful life.

In addition to the orbit-raising maneuvers needed to reach its final operating position, Chinasat 9A must also reshape its orbit, which is currently tilted 25.7 degrees to the equator, into one that always hovers over the equator.

The 184-foot-tall (56-meter) Long March 3B rocket lifted off with Chinasat 9A at 1611 GMT (12:11 p.m. EDT) Sunday from the Xichang launch base in southwestern China’s Sichuan province.

The liquid-fueled launcher, comprised of a three-stage core and four strap-on boosters, turned east from Xichang after blasting off at 12:11 a.m. Monday, Beijing time.

Chinese media did not release any photos of the launch, but an amateur video from Xichang shared on Twitter shows the rocket taking off just after midnight.

【ZX-9A】2017年6月19日00:12，长征三号乙运载火箭发射中星9A直播卫星 pic.twitter.com/eUpgbBYehg
— ChinaSpaceflight (@cnspaceflight) 18 de junio de 2017

The early portion of the mission went according to plan, and the Long March shed its four boosters and first stage a few minutes after liftoff. A second stage firing also apparently performed well, and the third stage took over nearly six minutes into the flight for the first of two burns needed to place Chinasat 9A into a geostationary transfer orbit.

The third stage’s first engine firing was expected to cut off around 10 minutes after liftoff to propel Chinasat 9A into a preliminary low-altitude orbit, and a second burn a few minutes later was supposed to send the spacecraft toward its high-altitude target.

Chinasat 9A, with a launch mass estimated in excess of 11,000 pounds (5 metric tons), was scheduled to separate from the Long March 3B’s third stage less than a half-hour after liftoff.

Based on the DFH-4 satellite design built by the China Academy of Space Technology, Chinasat 9A is China’s first domestically-made communications satellite for direct-to-home television broadcasting, according to China Satcom, the craft’s owner and operator.

Chinasat 9A was supposed to enter service later this year in geostationary orbit over the equator at 101.4 degree east longitude, where its orbital velocity would match the speed of Earth’s rotation, making the satellite remain fixed over the same geographic coverage area.

The satellite’s 24 Ku-band transponders are designed to provide television broadcasts and other media services to China Satcom customers in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the company said.

Proton-M returns to flight with launch of EchoStar

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 18:17:00 +0000

Launch of the Proton-M / EchoStar 21 mission rocket. Photo Credit: Roscosmos

After a delay of nearly one year, International Launch Services (ILS) launched the EchoStar 21 communications satellite atop a Proton-M rocket from Site 81/24 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff took place at 11:45 p.m. EDT on June 7 (03:45 GMT on June 8), 2017.

The mission is tasked with delivering the EchoStar 21 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The flight will last slightly more than nine hours, counting from launch until spacecraft separation.

EchoStar 21 has come a long way to get to this point. The project dates back to 2005 when TerreStar Networks, Inc. finished final design reviews for the TerreStar-1 satellite that was launched into space in 2009. The TerraStar-2 spacecraft was ordered in 2006 and was renamed to EchoStar 21 in 2012 when Englewood, Colorado-based company EchoStar acquired all of TerreStar Network’s assets.

PROBLEMS AND DELAYS

An agreement to launch the EchoStar 21 satellite was signed with ILS in May 2013, initially targeting the end of 2015 for liftoff. However, the mission has faced several delays. First, it was postponed to June 2016; however, in May of that year, it was rescheduled to August 29, 2016.

Later, on July 28, it was decided the launch needed to be postponed to October 2016 due to the prolonged investigation into the problem with the Proton-M’s second stage that occurred after the June 9, 2016, liftoff. Then it was rescheduled for December 2016 before being delayed into 2017.

Then in early 2017, problems were discovered with the launch vehicle’s engines, prompting further investigation.

Finally, in late May 2017, a firm launch date of June 7 (June 8 local time) was set. By this time, Proton had experienced its longest delay in its history: about 364 days. The record before this was 247 days in 1966 into 1967

The Proton-M / EchoStar 21 mission rocket on the launch pad. Photo Credit: Roscosmos

PROTON-M

The 190-foot (58-meter) tall Proton-M booster measures some 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) in diameter along its second and third stages. Its first stage has a diameter of 24.3 feet (7.4 meters). The total overall height of the rocket’s three stages is about 138.8 feet (42.3 meters).

The first stage consists of a central tank containing the oxidizer surrounded by six outboard fuel tanks. Each fuel tank also carries one of the six RD‑275M engines that provide power for the first phase of flight. The cylindrical second stage is powered by three RD-0210 engines along with a single RD‑0211 engine.

A single RD-0213 engine and a four-nozzle vernier engine powers the third stage. Guidance, navigation, and control of the Proton-M during operation of the first three stages is carried out by a triple-redundant closed-loop digital avionics system mounted in the third stage.

Topping off the rocket is the Breeze-M upper stage. It is powered by a pump-fed gimbaled main engine. This stage consists of a central core and an auxiliary propellant tank (APT) that is jettisoned in flight after the depletion of its fuel. The stage’s control system includes an onboard computer, a three-axis gyro stabilized platform, and a navigation system

THE MISSION

The countdown that led the Proton-M rocket to the ignition of its engines commenced about 11.5 hours ahead of liftoff. The launch vehicle and its systems were activated about six hours before the launch, enabling fueling operations. The campaign entered its final phase approximately 45 minutes before ignition when final checkouts of all systems were performed and the launch abort system armed.

The last five minutes of the pre-launch phase was the most crucial as the automated countdown sequence began, switching the launch vehicle to internal power. About two minutes before liftoff, propellant tank pressurization took place and engineers had their last opportunity to conduct health checks of the rocket’s Breeze-M upper stage. With all systems declared “go”, the Proton-M ignited its six RD-275M boosters to begin climbing toward space.

Photo Credit: Roscosmos

Maximum dynamic pressure, or max Q, occurred about 62 seconds after liftoff. It was at this point the vehicle endured its maximum stresses.

Stage one and two separated less than a minute later at two minutes after liftoff. The second stage continued burning for about 3.5 minutes before it too cut off and separated.

At this point, the third stage had taken control. It fired at 5 minutes, 26 seconds after liftoff. Nineteen seconds later, the payload fairing jettisoned, revealing the Breeze-M upper stage and the EchoStar 21 satellite.

At 9 minutes, 41 seconds after leaving the launch pad in Baikonur, the third stage cut off and separated from the Breeze-M. About 1.5 minutes after that, it too ignited to finish the climb to orbit.

Fifteen minutes, 32 seconds after liftoff, Breeze-M with EchoStar 21 was in a parking orbit. The first of five burns the upper stage needed to do was complete.

After coasting for 54 minutes, the Breeze-M ignited again and burned for about 18 minutes. This intermediate orbit had a low point of 168 miles (270 kilometers) and a high point of 3,107 miles (5,000 kilometers).

The Breeze-M and EchoStar 21 then coasted again for about two hours before the third upper stage ignition occurred. This burn started 3 hours, 37 minutes, and 36 seconds after liftoff; it continued for just under nine minutes. At its conclusion, the APT jettisoned.

About 1.5 minutes later, the fourth burn started. This seven-minute burn concluded at a mission elapsed time of 3 hours, 47 minutes, 53 seconds.

Coasting again, the Breeze-M upper stage had a five-hour break before its final burn.

That burn occurred 8 hours, 52 minutes, 58 seconds after leaving Baikonur. The primary objective of this 4.5-minute burn was to change the inclination of the vehicle and satellite from 51.5 degrees relative to the equator to just 30.5 degrees. The low point of its orbit was now 1,429 miles (2,300 kilometers) and the high point was 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers).

At 9 hours, 13 minutes mission elapsed time, the EchoStar 21 satellite separated from the Breeze-M.

The 6.8-metric ton EchoStar 21 is based on SSL’s 1300 spacecraft platform and features two deployable solar arrays and a large un furlable reflector.

Once the spacecraft’s onboard propulsion to circularize its orbit, EchoStar 21 will be in a geostationary orbit at the 10.25 degrees East orbital slot where it will provide its services for 15 years.

EchoStar describes the newest addition to its in-orbit fleet as a state-of-the-art S-band satellite designed to provide mobile connectivity throughout Europe.

This was the first ILS Proton launch in 2017 and the 94th ILS Proton launch overall. Additionally, six EchoStar satellites have now been launched by the company atop Proton rockets.

In total, 413 Proton rockets have launched since 1965. Since 2001, 90 Proton-M variants have launched using the Breeze-M upper stage.

This was the third launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2017. The next mission from that spaceport will be the Progress MS-06 cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. It will take to the skies at 5:20 a.m. EDT (09:20 GMT) on June 14, 2017.

The Proton-M / EchoStar 21 mission rocket on the launch pad. Photo Credit: Roscosmos,

Photo Credit: Roscosmos,

Photo Credit: Roscosmos

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com

SpaceX successfully boosts top secret U.S. government satellite into space

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 01 May 2017 22:52:00 +0000

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fired into space from Florida’s Atlantic coastline Monday with a clandestine payload for a U.S. government spy agency, then returned to Cape Canaveral for a pinpoint landing.

Climbing away from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with 1.7 million pounds of thrust at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT), nine Merlin 1D engines gave the Falcon 9 rocket a thundering sendoff, darting through low clouds about a half-hour after sunrise along Florida’s Space Coast.

Sound waves from the rocket’s kerosene-fueled engines rattled windows at the spaceport’s press site around three miles from the pad, and the Falcon 9 left behind a contrail of white exhaust twisted by upper level winds as it soared into the stratosphere and turned northeast from Cape Canaveral.

The nine Merlin main engines shut down around T+plus 2 minutes, 18 seconds, and the lower part of the rocket separated from the Falcon 9’s second stage a few seconds later. A single Merlin powerplant on the upper stage ignited and throttled up to full thrust to guide the mission’s secretive satellite passenger into orbit, and an aerodynamic fairing covering the payload jettisoned on time just shy of the flight’s three-minute point.

SpaceX’s live webcast of the launch ceased covering the second stage’s trip into orbit at that time, and long-range tracking cameras followed the 14-story first stage booster’s journey back to Earth.

The National Reconnaissance Office, which owns the payload launched Monday, requested the information blackout during the rest of the launch sequence in a bid to keep the satellite’s final orbit and purpose secret.

Credit: SpaceX

Spectacular video from ground-based trackers and a camera on-board the Falcon 9 booster showed the stage’s cold gas nitrogen control thrusters regularly pulsing to flip the rocket into a tail-forward orientation. Telemetry data from SpaceX’s webcast indicated the booster reached a peak altitude of more than 100 miles — about 166 kilometers — over the Atlantic Ocean before dropping back to the Earth.

Three of the Merlin engines at the base of the launcher ignited for “boost-back” and “entry” burns to slow the rocket’s descent, and grid fins helped stabilize the first stage as it encountered a thicker air stream deeper in the atmosphere. The booster’s center engine started up seconds before touchdown for a final braking maneuver, and four landing legs extended as the rocket approaching Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The rocket landed around nine minutes after liftoff, settling on a concrete pad around 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of where the Falcon 9 took off. SpaceX intends to inspect the rocket, which was an all-new vehicle Monday, and ready it for another mission.

The commercial launch company’s first mission dedicated to a U.S. national security payload was declared a success.

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk confirmed a good launch and landing on Twitter around 20 minutes after liftoff, and the National Reconnaissance Office issued a statement later Monday morning.

“Thanks to the SpaceX team for the great ride, and for the terrific teamwork and commitment they demonstrated throughout,” said Betty Sapp, director of the NRO. “They were an integral part of our government/industry team for this mission, and proved themselves to be a great partner.”

Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

The launch was the 33rd flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, and the fifth SpaceX mission of 2017. Thirty-two of the Falcon 9’s launches have been successful, a tally that does not include an on-pad explosion last year that destroyed a commercial communications satellite during pre-flight preparations.

With Monday’s rocket-assisted landing, SpaceX has retrieved one of its first stage boosters intact 10 times in 15 tries. Landing attempts at Cape Canaveral, which are possible on missions with light payloads going to low orbits, have a four-for-four record.

The Falcon 9 rocket was supposed to take off Sunday, but the SpaceX launch team called off the launch less than a minute before liftoff, blaming a faulty sensor on the booster’s first stage. SpaceX said technicians replaced the sensor in time for another countdown Monday.

The identify of the classified National Reconnaissance Office payload remains a secret, but the spy organization revealed some information about the mission Sunday.

An NRO spokesperson confirmed to Spaceflight Now on Sunday that the launch, codenamed NROL-76, was booked with SpaceX through a third party contractor. The NRO official said Ball Aerospace, a spacecraft manufacturer based in Boulder, Colorado, arranged the launch with SpaceX under the auspices of a “delivery in orbit” contract with the U.S. government spy agency.

In the satellite business, a delivery in orbit contract typically describes an arrangement where a spacecraft builder hands over control of a payload the the end user — in this case, the NRO — once the mission is declared ready for operations in orbit.

he NROL-76 mission patch “depicts Lewis & Clark heading into the great unknown to discover and explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory,” the NRO said. Credit: NRO

A copy of the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial launch license for Monday’s flight obtained by Spaceflight Now suggested the mission aimed to put its payload into low Earth orbit, a regime several hundred miles above Earth. The exact parameters of the orbit were not disclosed, but hazard notices released to pilots and sailors ahead of the flight indicated the rocket was expected to travel northeast from Cape Canaveral, seemingly heading for a high-inclination orbit that will allow the spacecraft to pass over the bulk of the world’s population as it flies around Earth.

Ted Molczan, an experienced observer of satellite movements, said the publicly available information points to the payload on Monday’s launch being a small imaging satellite built by Ball Aerospace. In a post to an online forum, he wrote a radar-equipped spacecraft “would make sense” in the type of orbit targeted Monday.

Commercial and government-operated reconnaissance satellites with optical cameras typically fly closer to the poles in so-called sun-synchronous orbits. Radar imagers are not subject to the restrictions of optical cameras, capable of seeing through clouds and taking pictures day or night.

A network of amateur observers around the world was on standby to find the spacecraft after Monday’s launch, an exercise that usually yields an accurate estimate of the satellite’s altitude and ground track. The U.S. military does not release orbital data on classified satellites owned by the United States and its allies.

Most NRO missions launch on ULA’s Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets, and SpaceX will be eligible to win more NRO satellite deployment contracts later this year. The Air Force is managing head-to-head competitions between ULA and SpaceX for the rights to national security launches, and six upcoming flights with NRO payloads are to be competed in the next two years, along with seven Air Force missions.

SpaceX already won contracts to launch two GPS navigation satellites under the Air Force’s new competitive launch procurement strategy.

Monday’s launch clears the way for two more SpaceX launches later this month.

A Boeing-built commercial communications satellite owned by Inmarsat of London is set for liftoff no earlier than May 15 from pad 39A, and SpaceX’s next Dragon resupply mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for launch as soon as May 31.

Three more NRO missions are set for launch later this year, all on ULA rockets.

The NROL-42 and NROL-52 missions are targeted to lift off on Atlas 5 rockets Aug. 14 and Aug. 31 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and from Cape Canaveral, respectively. A Delta 4 launcher is due to send the NROL-47 payload into orbit from Vandenberg on Dec. 20.

Blue Origin details new rocket’s capabilities, signs first orbital customer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 02:50:00 +0000

Stephen Clark

Artist’s concept of the New Glenn rocket. Credit: Blue Origin

Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos revealed new details of his space company’s reusable orbital-class booster Tuesday, releasing an animation illustrating the rocket’s liftoff from Cape Canaveral and announcing a contract with Eutelsat to put a commercial communications satellite on one of the launcher’s first missions.

Speaking at the Satellite 2017 industry conference in Washington, Bezos said Blue Origin’s towering New Glenn rocket, named for pioneering astronaut John Glenn, could launch by 2020 and be reused up to 100 times.

Paris-based Eutelsat, one of the largest satellite telecom operators in the world, has signed up as the first paying customer for a New Glenn launch in 2021 or 2022.

“Eutelsat is one of the world’s most experienced and innovative satellite operators, and we are honored that they chose Blue Origin and our New Glenn orbital launch vehicle,” Bezos said in a statement.

“Eutelsat has launched satellites on many new vehicles and shares both our methodical approach to engineering and our passion for driving down the cost of access to space,” Bezos said. “Welcome to the launch manifest, Eutelsat, can’t wait to fly together.”

The New Glenn’s primary base will be at Cape Canaveral, where Blue Origin is constructing a cavernous rocket factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Blue Origin has started preliminary earthmoving work for a launch pad at Complex 36, a former Atlas rocket facility at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and plans to install an engine test stand at neighboring Complex 11.

The animation released by Blue Origin on Tuesday shows the New Glenn rocket taking off from Complex 36 on the power of seven BE-4 main engines, burning a mixture of liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen. The engines each produce about 550,000 pounds of thrust at full throttle, combining to generate 3.85 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

The first stage engines will give way to a single modified BE-4 engine on the New Glenn’s second stage to deliver satellites, and eventually crews, into orbit, while the booster flips around and reignites to slow its descent toward a barge positioned offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Blue Origin.

The New Glenn first stage will have aerodynamic fins, or strakes, for improved steering and extend six landing legs just before touchdown.

The recovery maneuver is familiar to industry officials and space enthusiasts, bearing similarity to the landings pioneered by rival SpaceX.

Blue Origin held a patent on its plans to land rocket boosters on ships in the ocean using rocket thrust to slow the vehicles down for landing, but SpaceX disputed the validity of the patent claims by pointing to academic papers and proposals dating back decades outlining concepts to recover rockets on ocean-going vessels for refurbishment and reuse.

Blue Origin in 2015 canceled the claims disputed by SpaceX, which achieved its first rocket landing at sea in April 2016.

Excited to announce we have signed our 1st #NewGlenn customer. Welcome to the launch manifest @Eutelsat_SA pic.twitter.com/fTeKKneYnJ
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) 7 de marzo de 2017

The two-stage New Glenn variant, shown in the animation, will stand 270 feet (82 meters) tall and haul nearly 29,000 pounds, or 13 metric tons, to geostationary transfer orbit, the drop-off point for most communications satellites, like the platforms owned and operated by Eutelsat. The rocket’s payload capacity to low Earth orbit, a few hundred miles in altitude, will be nearly 100,000 pounds, or 45 metric tons, Bezos said.

With the addition of an optional third stage for deep space missions, the New Glenn’s height will increase to 313 feet (95 meters).

Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine in development to power the New Glenn rocket is scheduled to perform its full-scale hotfire test later this year at the company’s remote West Texas test site.

Bezos tweeted two pictures of the first fully-assembled BE-4 engine Monday, adding that the second and third copies are “following close behind.”

United Launch Alliance has tapped the BE-4 engine as its preferred powerplant for the next-generation Vulcan rocket scheduled for a maiden launch in 2019. ULA is paying Aerojet Rocketdyne, a traditional engine-builder, to continue developing its kerosene-fueled AR1 engine as a backup option.

“We are very close to selecting,” said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA, in a Feb. 16 presentation at the University of Texas at El Paso. “And if the testing that happens in the next couple of months is successful, we’ll probably end up on that Blue Origin (engine).”

The BE-4 and AR1 will employ a staged combustion cycle, a more efficient engine cycle than currently available on other U.S. liquid hydrocarbon rocket engines. Staged combustion engines currently flying include the Russian RD-180 on ULA’s Atlas 5, which the Vulcan will replace.

It’ll be very exciting because it’ll bring that advanced Russian engine cycle technology to America, and it will make it much much better because this engine will be additively manufactured,” Bruno said. “It will be much more produceable. It will be much lighter, and it will be much much more affordable.”

Blue Origin’s first production engine, the BE-3, burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and flies on the company’s suborbital New Shepard rocket. The New Shepard has launched successfully six times, including five straight vertical liftoffs and landings with the same reusable single-stage booster in 2015 and 2016.

The first fully-assembled BE-4 engine. Credit: Blue Origin

Eutelsat has taken chances on new rockets before, placing its satellites on the inaugural launches of the Atlas 3, Atlas 5, Delta 4 and Ariane 5 ECA boosters in the early 2000s.

In a statement Tuesday, Eutelsat said the contract with Blue Origin “reflects Eutelsat’s longstanding strategy to source launch services from multiple agencies in order to secure access to space.”

Eutelsat said the New Glenn launcher will be compatible with “virtually all” of its satellites, allowing the company to assign a spacecraft to the mission 12 months ahead of time.

“Blue Origin has been forthcoming with Eutelsat on its strategy and convinced us they have the right mindset to compete in the launch service industry,” said Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of Eutelsat. “Their solid engineering approach, and their policy to develop technologies that will form the base of a broad generation of launchers, corresponds to what we expect from our industrial partners.

“In including New Glenn in our manifest, we are pursuing our longstanding strategy of innovation that drives down the cost of access to space and drives up performance,” Belmer said in a statement. “This can only be good news for the profitability and sustainability of our industry.”

https://spaceflightnow.com

Atlas 5 powers covert reconnaissance payload to orbit on its 70th mission

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 20:25:00 +0000

Performing a successful spacelift mission for the U.S. spy satellite agency, an Atlas 5 rocket delivered a surveillance package into orbit today believed by analysts to be another pair of tandem sleuths to scoop up radio signals from adversarial ships at sea.

Liftoff came at 9:49:51 a.m. local time (12:49:51 p.m. EST; 1749:51 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as the 191-foot-tall vehicle headed for space on its 70th mission.

The kerosene-fed RD-180 main engine powered the rocket off the pad at Space Launch Complex 3-East on South Vandenberg with 860,000 pounds of thrust.

It was a four-minute flight for the first stage before the cryogenic Centaur upper stage took over. The mission went into a news blackout once the 14-foot-diameter nose cone enclosing the payload was jettisoned about five minutes of liftoff.

The Centaur likely conducted two firings separated by a long coast period to achieve the 63-degree orbit for release of the payloads, thought to be two formation-flying satellites that will operate 700 miles above Earth.

The discard stage then was expected to be de-orbited into the Pacific, several hundred miles off Chile, to avoid space junk and a future uncontrolled re-entry.

Official launch portrait. Credit: United Launch Alliance

But analysts and satellite observers agree that today’s launch marked the eighth time since 2001 than an Atlas rocket of some configuration has deployed satellites to refresh the Naval Ocean Surveillance System, or NOSS. It was ULA’s fifth NOSS launch.

“NOSS satellites locate and track ships at sea by detecting their radio transmissions and analyzing them using the TDOA (time-difference-of-arrival) technique,” said Ted Molczan, a respected monitor of spacecraft.

“Normally, under favorable circumstances, these satellites reach magnitude +5, observable with 7×50 binoculars. Occasionally, they brighten to magnitude +2 to +4, readily visible to the un-aided eye. Rarely, they rival the brightest stars.”

Atlas launches for NOSS over the last 15.5 years have come from both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral in Florida. This was the sixth to originate on the West Coast, and NOSS was the original customer that sparked revitalization of the SLC-3E pad in the late 1990s.

The current era is distinguished by two satellites, launched by the same rocket, working in tandem. The pairs of satellites, weighing an estimated 14,000 pounds at launch, orbit in close proximity to each other as they circle the Earth.

Previous generations of NOSS missions featured three satellites working as triplets. There were 11 of those launches to reach orbit between 1976 and 1996.

The NROL-79 mission logo. Credit: NRO

The NRO is the secretive government agency responsible for the country’s fleet of spy satellites. Agency officials don’t publicly disclose the identities or uses of satellites carried aboard its launches.

The NRO was created in 1961 and operated in total secrecy as a black organization until its existence was declassified in 1992. It began acknowledging in advance the launches of its payloads in 1996.

Today, the agency operates imaging and eavesdropping spacecraft, naval surveillance birds and data-relay satellites for the constellations.

The satellites serve as the country’s eyes and ears, operating in various orbits, to collect data for civilian leadership and warfighters.

“These systems provide the foundation for global situational awareness, and address the nation’s toughest intelligence challenges. Frequently, NRO systems are the only collectors able to access critical areas of interest, and data from overhead sensors provides unique information and perspectives not available from other sources,” according the agency.

“The NRO’s key customers and mission partners include: policymakers, the armed services, the intelligence community, Departments of State, Justice and Treasury, and civil agencies. All of them depend on the unique capabilities NRO systems provide.”

NRO duties range from monitoring the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and tracking international terrorists to developing highly accurate military targeting data and bomb damage assessments.

“With its vigilance from above, the NRO gives America’s policymakers, intelligence analysts, warfighters and homeland security specialists the critical information they need to keep America safe, secure and free,” the NRO says.

The NRO has at least four more launches planned this year.

Today marked the 141st successful Atlas program launch in a row spanning more than two decades, the 70th for an Atlas 5 and the 117th in 123 months for United Launch Alliance.

In its 70 trips to space, the Atlas 5 has performed 26 flights dedicated to the Defense Department, 16 commercial missions, 14 for NASA and 14 for the National Reconnaissance Office.

This was the 46th time that the NRO had acknowledging one of its launches in advance since starting that practice in 1996, and the 24th to fly from Vandenberg.

** ATLAS 5 LAUNCHES FOR NRO **

AV-009: NROL-30 using Atlas 5-401 (June 15, 2007) Cape
AV-015: NROL-24 using Atlas 5-401 (Dec. 10, 2007) Cape
AV-006: NROL-28 using Atlas 5-411 (March 13, 2008) Vandenberg
AV-025: NROL-41 using Atlas 5-501 (Sept. 20, 2010) Vandenberg
AV-027: NROL-34 using Atlas 5-411 (April 14, 2011) Vandenberg
AV-023: NROL-38 using Atlas 5-401 (June 20, 2012) Cape
AV-033: NROL-36 using Atlas 5-401 (Sept. 13, 2012) Vandenberg
AV-042: NROL-39 using Atlas 5-501 (Dec. 5, 2013) Vandenberg
AV-045: NROL-67 using Atlas 5-541 (April 10, 2014) Cape
AV-046: NROL-33 using Atlas 5-401 (May 22, 2014) Cape
AV-051: NROL-35 using Atlas 5-541 (Dec. 13, 2014) Vandenberg
AV-058: NROL-55 using Atlas 5-401 (Oct. 8, 2015) Vandenberg
AV-065: NROL-61 using Atlas 5-421 (July 28, 2016) Cape
AV-068: NROL-79 using Atlas 5-401 (March 1, 2017) Vandenberg

NROL-79 was the first of back-to-back NRO missions by Atlas 5 from the West Coast. NROL-42 is planned for June using a powerful variant with four strap-on solid rocket boosters.

“We are already pressing on with L-42,” said Lt. Col. Eric Zarybnisky, 4th Space Launch Squadron commander and the Air Force launch director at Vandenberg. “We have received the booster and some other flight hardware. So we will launch L-79 and roll right into L-42. In fact, we are going to start working L-47, a Delta out here, shortly after that. So no rest for the weary here at Vandenberg for a little while.”

The next Atlas 5 will occur from Cape Canaveral on March 19 to send a commercial cargo ship to the International Space Station.

https://spaceflightnow.com

Historic launch pad back in service with thundering blastoff by SpaceX

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 01:54:00 +0000

Watch Falcon 9 lift off from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39A on a space station resupply mission. The rocket’s first stage then returned to land at neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX sent a cargo capsule with nearly 5,500 pounds of experiments and supplies on a three-day trip to the International Space Station on Sunday, firing the automated spaceship through low-hanging clouds and into orbit from the same launch pad where Apollo astronauts began voyages to the moon.

A kerosene-fueled 213-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket powered the cargo freighter into space, soaring on a northeasterly course from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 9:39 a.m. EST (1439 GMT) atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

A few minutes later, the first stage booster nailed an on-target landing back at Cape Canaveral in the first such return to the launch base in daylight.

The launch — the first SpaceX has conducted from pad 39A — was timed for the Dragon cargo carrier align its course with the orbital path of the space station.

The historic launch complex, situated about a half-mile (750 meters) from the Atlantic Ocean, was the departure point for 94 missions before Sunday.

Originally constructed in the 1960s for the Apollo moon program, pad 39A hosted 12 Saturn 5 blastoffs on test flights, all of the moon landing missions and the uncrewed launch of NASA’s Skylab space station from 1967 through 1973.

NASA’s fleet of space shuttles launched from the pad 82 times, including the first and last flights of the program in 1981 and 2011.

The launch pad has remained dormant since the last shuttle mission took off July 8, 2011, and SpaceX signed a 20-year lease to take over the facility as a commercially-operated launch complex in 2014.

“It was really awesome to see 39A roar back to life for the first time since the shuttle era, and it was extremely special that this first launch off of 39A was a Dragon mission for NASA heading to the space station,” said Jessica Jensen, a Dragon mission manager who spoke with reporters after Sunday’s launch.

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Imagem

NASA decided it no longer needed pad 39A after the shuttle’s retirement. Nearby launch pad 39B, previously built for Apollo and shuttle flights, will be home to NASA’s Space Launch System, a government-owned heavy-lift rocket that will launch astronaut crews on deep space expeditions.

“This pad would have just sat here and rusted away in the salt air had we not had the use agreement with SpaceX to continue to enable commercial operations for our nation,” said Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center.

The concrete foundation of pad 39A dates back to the Apollo era of the 1960s, while the 347-foot-tall (106-meter) fixed service structure and lightning tower were emplaced before the first shuttle launch.

“It gives me a little bit of chills when I walk out there and see stuff that’s left over from Apollo,” said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of flight reliability.

Since SpaceX took over, changes to pad 39A have included the construction of the new rocket hangar outside the south gate to the facility, where space shuttles and Saturn 5 moon rockets arrived on top of tracked crawler-transporters after rollout from the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building.

The hangar can accommodate five Falcon 9 rocket cores at a time, according to SpaceX.

“We’ve taken good care of this pad during the refurbishment and the rebuild,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, in remarks to reporters at the launch site Friday. “We saved precious things that needed to be saved. We’ve upgraded things to make them usable in the contemporary era. It’s hard to express how excited I am to be here, just two-and-a-half years after we got the lease.”

SpaceX sped the pad to completion after a rocket explosion damaged the company’s other Cape Canaveral launch facility — Complex 40 a few miles to the south — and grounded Falcon 9 flights until the booster returned to service last month in a mission from California.

Other additions at the pad include the installation of RP-1 kerosene fuel tanks and the construction of the massive transporter-erector, which is sized to accommodate SpaceX’s powerful triple-body Falcon Heavy rocket when it debuts later this year.

An access arm to allow astronauts to board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, a human-rated ship in development to launch people as soon as next year, will be added to pad 39A in the coming months.

SpaceX tested many of the launch pad’s new parts Feb. 12 during a countdown rehearsal in which the Falcon 9 rocket was fueled before a hold-down engine firing.

Engineers returned the two-stage launcher to SpaceX’s hangar, added the Dragon spacecraft, then rolled the fully-assembled vehicle back to the pad Thursday for further tests and the loading of final cargo.

But some features of the launch pad — like the quick partial retraction of the transporter-erector “strongback” umbilical tower at liftoff — were not been exercised until Sunday.

“This is a huge deal for us,” Jensen said. “We completely modernized the way the pad is built, so yeah, it’s super exciting, and you’re always a little bit nervous. We’ve run tons of tests to ensure that the hold-downs released properly, and the strongback throws back in a different way than it used to at pad 40.

“We’ve had tons of ground tests, but we’ve never mated an actual rocket with a payload on top for that,” she added. “So to watch it happen for the first time was just amazing.”

The mission’s takeoff was delayed from Saturday after SpaceX managers ordered a last-minute abort to investigate unexpected readings from the Falcon 9 upper stage engine’s backup steering mechanism.

Ground crews lowered the rocket at pad 39A overnight to replace parts of a redundant actuator on the second stage’s Merlin engine thrust vector control system, which directs the powerplant’s thrust to point the launcher in the right direction.

The rocket was raised upright again around six hours before launch, and the SpaceX launch team, working from a control center around 13 miles (21 kilometers) to the south, oversaw filling of the Falcon 9 with super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants in the final hour of the countdown.

Scattered rain showers around the Kennedy Space Center threatened to hold up the launch, but all weather criteria toggled “green” in time for the day’s instantaneous launch opportunity.

Eight minutes after it blasted off, the Falcon 9’s first stage booster made a dramatic vertical landing at a recovery site around 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of pad 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the first time a SpaceX rocket has touched down on land in daylight.

An overcast deck of clouds prohibited ideal viewing of the launch and return, but the rocket’s nine Merlin engines sent a wave of window-rattling sound across the spaceport on the trip up, and twin sonic booms heralded the booster’s final descent as it became visible to spectators just before touchdown.

SpaceX plans to inspect the landed rocket and prepare it for another flight some time in the future. The company now has eight flown first stage boosters in its inventory, recovered after landings at Cape Canaveral and at sea. Seven of those are considered flight-worthy, according to Jensen.

The SES 10 satellite, a commercial broadcasting spacecraft, is in Cape Canaveral preparing for a launch on a Falcon 9 rocket in March that will fly with a previously-used first stage booster for the first time.

Once in orbit, the Dragon supply freighter unfurled two power-generating solar array wings to a span of 54 feet (16 meters). The spacecraft was scheduled to open a navigation bay later Sunday and fine-tune its course toward the space station with a series of thruster firings ahead of its arrival at the outpost early Wednesday.

French-born European Space Agency flight engineer Thomas Pesquet will grapple the approaching cargo craft around 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) Wednesday with the space station’s robotic arm after the automated ship flies within about 30 feet, or 10 meters, of the research complex.

The Canadian-built robot arm, under the command of ground controllers in Houston, will transfer the gumdrop-shaped logistics freighter to a berthing port on the station’s Harmony module a few hours later.

Once bolts drive closed to firmly connect the SpaceX cargo craft to the space station, astronauts inside the orbiting science lab will open hatches and begin unpacking the 3,373 pounds (1,530 kilograms) of supplies, experiments and provisions inside.

Meanwhile, the robot arm and the station’s two-armed Dextre handyman will remove three payloads — totaling more than 2,100 pounds (more than 950 kilograms) — from the Dragon’s unpressurized trunk for placement on platforms on the outpost’s huge structural truss.

The Dragon spaceship deploys from the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage in orbit. Three unpressurized payloads are seen inside the Dragon capsule’s trunk. Credit: SpaceX

One of the payloads is NASA’s $92 million Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 3, or SAGE 3, an ozone monitor that comes with a separate ESA-built “hexapod” mounting plate designed to point the instrument at Earth’s limb, or horizon, at sunset and moonset.

The sunlight and moonlight passing through the layers of the upper atmosphere will help tell scientists about the condition of the ozone layer and allow researchers to track pollutants and particles suspended high above Earth.

SAGE 3, developed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, is the latest in a series of ozone measurement sensors developed by NASA since 1979. Previous space missions studying ozone showed a decline in the distribution of the gas over Earth’s poles, and researchers tied the ozone depletion to chlorofluorocarbon, a chemical used in cleaning agents, refrigeration and air conditioning.

An international treaty called the Montreal Protocol that went into force in 1989 banned chlorofluorocarbons, and scientists have observed the depletion stop and watched the ozone layer begin to recover.

“How does SAGE 3 fit into that? We’re going to make measurements from the space station that show the recovery is on track,” said Michael Cisewski, SAGE 3 project manager at NASA. “I think that, from a science perspective, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

“SAGE 3 will also measure other important stratospheric gases and atmospheric aerosols, which are components of pollution that also impact the radiation balance of our planet,” said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth science division.

The other experiment package carried inside the Dragon capsule’s external bay is sponsored by the U.S. military’s Space Test Program, hosting more than a dozen investigations for NASA and the Defense Department.

Among STP-H5’s investigations are NASA’s Raven autonomous space navigation demonstration designed to support future satellite servicing missions and NASA’s Lightning Imaging Sensor.

The Raven payload is made up of three sensors — optical, infrared and laser trackers — to autonomously follow visiting cargo vessels arriving and departing from the space station.

The Raven payload seen before launch. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Benjamin Reed, deputy director of NASA’s satellite servicing program at Goddard Space Flight Center, called Raven a “three-eyed” instrument.

“The Raven module will be observing visiting vehicles as they approach in all three wavelengths,” Reed said. “We will be generating range, bearing and pose estimates of those visiting vehicles on-board with sophisticated algorithms and on-board processing, based on the input that the sensors are receiving.”

Raven is a follow-up to a NASA experiment that tried out satellite refueling techniques using a boilerplate test panel outside the space station.

The satellite servicing demonstrations will refine the technologies needed for future robotic missions to refuel, refurbish, upgrade and reposition satellites, beginning with NASA’s Restore-L spacecraft in development for launch in 2020 to gas up the aging Landsat 7 environmental observatory in orbit.

Raven will try out the navigation equipment needed for Restore-L, and missions like it, to approach another object in orbit without any input from the ground and latch on to it, even if the target was never designed for a docking.

Landsat 7 was launched in 1999 before any such refueling mission was ever proposed, so it is not equipped with markings or a docking port.

“These technologies are quite difficult, and that is why NASA is taking the lead, pushing the envelope, (and) doing the hard work first,” Reed said. “Once we have developed it on missions like Raven, we will then transfer that technology to U.S. industry that is interested in taking this on commercially.”

The Lightning Imaging Sensor, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in partnership with the University of Alabama in Huntsville, will take pictures and log lightning strikes from the space station’s perch nearly 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.

Based on a spare camera made for the U.S.-Japanese Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, the instrument cost $7 million to refurbish and will detect lightning day and night in a belt between 56 degrees north and south latitude.

“Lightning actually occurs somewhere on Earth some 45 times every single second,” Freilich said. “Understanding the processes which cause lighting and the connections between lightning and subsequent severe weather events like convective storms and tornadoes … are keys to improving weather predictions and saving lives and property in this country and throughout the globe.”

A bevy of biological experiments are packed inside the Dragon supply ship.

Scientists are sending 40 mice into orbit to examine how bone fractures heal in the absence of gravity, and search for the biological reasons why most animals, including humans, cannot regrow lost limbs.

“We’re trying to understand what happens in the body as the bones start healing,” said Rasha Hammamieh, the rodent research project’s chief scientist from the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research.

The military is co-sponsoring the bone health experiment, with an eye toward learning lessons that could be applied to helping injured soldiers recover from catastrophic bone injuries.

There are also implications for civilians, such as elderly patients with osteoporosis.

“Up in space, you lose bone,” said Melissa Kacena, co-investigator for the bone experiment and an associate professor of orthopedic surgery, anatomy and cell biology, and biomedical engineering at Indiana University. “In fact, astronauts lose about 1 to 3 percent of their bone density in a month. Someone with advanced osteoporosis loses closer to 1 percent per year.”

Kacena added that scientists want to test drugs on rodents that might be able to “rebuild your bone systematically, so it could have applications not only for bone healing, but also for osteoporosis.”

Astronauts on the space station will euthanize the mice and return them to Earth for comparison with a control group that remained on the ground.

Bacterial and stem cell researchers also had a stake in Sunday’s launch.

“We are excited to put MRSA, which is a superbug, on the International Space Station and investigate the effects of microgravity on the growth and mutation patterns of these bugs,” said Anita Goel, chairman and science director of Nanobiosym, which developed the experiment with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space.

“I have this hypothesis that microgravity will accelerate the mutation patterns. If we can use microgravity as an accelerator to fast forward and get a sneak preview of what these mutations will look like, then we can esssentially build smarter drugs back on Earth.”

A science team led by a Mayo Clinic biologist is sending human adult stem cells to the space station, pursuing research that could help transplant patients and stroke victims.

“We know stem cells grow differently using simulated microgravity,” said Abba Zubair, medical and scientific director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. “Primarily, our focus is to see if microgravity actually can help stem cells to expand faster, so that we can grow more of them to bring back to use for human application.”

The Dragon spaceship will remain at the space station until around March 21, when it will detach and head for a re-entry and parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, where SpaceX will safe the capsule, transfer it back to port, and begin removing the returned cargo.

The resupply mission is SpaceX’s tenth cargo launch to the space station. The company has two multibillion-dollar cargo contracts with NASA covering at least 26 round-trip missions.

SpaceX’s next launch is scheduled within the next two weeks — perhaps as soon as Feb. 28 — with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite. That flight will also blast off from pad 39A.

http://spaceflightnow.com

Live coverage: European launcher heads to orbit from French Guiana

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 23:35:00 +0000

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with the Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S communications satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below;

El flujo de video en vivo de Arianespace comienza aproximadamente a las 2120 GMT (4:20 p.m. EST).

02/14/2017 19:38

Thales Alenia Space confirms the Telkom 3S satellite is also sending telemetry to engineers on the ground. Both satellites launched tonight are functioning as intended in the early phases of their missions.

02/14/2017 19:32

Airbus Defense and Space confirms the Sky Brasil 1 satellite is in contact with ground controllers, verifying it's alive following tonight's blastoff.

02/14/2017 19:24

Arianespace has confirmed success on tonight's Ariane 5 launch.

"Arianespace is delighted to announce that Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S have been separated as planned in the targeted geostationary transfer orbit," said Stephane Israel, chairman and CEO of Arianespace. "For the first time this year, and the 77th in a row, Ariane 5 has performed flawlessly, so well done and congratulations to all."

02/14/2017 19:21 Telkom 3S separation

Telkom 3S separation confirmed. The new satellite will offer television broadcasts, mobile backhaul and broadband services over Indonesia, Malaysia and Southeast Asia for up to 18 years.

02/14/2017 19:09

Plus+29 minutes, 30 seconds. The Sylda dual-payload adapter has jettisoned, setting the stage for separation of Telkom 3S at Plus+39 minutes, 43 seconds.

02/14/2017 19:08 Sky Brasil 1 separation

Separation of Sky Brasil 1 confirmed, beginning a 19-year mission for DirecTV Latin America.

The Ariane 5's Sylda 5 dual payload adapter will be separated next, revealing the Telkom 3S spacecraft for its deployment in a few minutes.

02/14/2017 19:05 Second stage cutoff

Plus+25 minutes, 20 seconds. The rocket's second stage shut down as scheduled. The upper stage is now maneuvering into the correct orientation for deployment of Sky Brasil 1.

02/14/2017 19:04

Plus+24 minutes. The rocket is surpassing a speed of 20,500 mph. Shutdown of the upper stage is about a minute-and-a-half from now. A tracking station in Malindi, Kenya, is now in contact with Ariane 5.

02/14/2017 19:02

Plus+22 minutes. The upper stage will shut down at Plus+25 minutes, 16 seconds, after reaching a target orbit with a low point of 155 miles, a high point of 22,205 miles, and an inclination of 4 degrees. The rocket is now being tracked by a ground station in Libreville, Gabon.

02/14/2017 18:58

Plus+18 minutes. Everything is going well with the burn of the upper stage HM7B engine as the Ariane 5 races across the Atlantic Ocean at 8.31 kilometers per second, or about 18,600 mph.

02/14/2017 18:54

Plus+14 minutes. This upper stage engine is about 5 minutes into a planned 16-minute burn. Ariane 5 is at an altitude of 151 kilometers. A tracking station on Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean has picked up signals from the Ariane 5.

02/14/2017 18:50

The Ariane 5 has passed over the horizon from Kourou and is now out of range of the Galliot tracking station near the launch pad.

02/14/2017 18:49 Staging

Plus+9 minutes, 15 seconds. The main cryogenic stage's Vulcain engine has cut off and the spent stage has separated. It will fall back into the atmosphere into the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa.

And the upper stage's HM7B engine is now firing to inject the Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S satellites into orbit.

02/14/2017 18:47

Plus+7 minutes, 30 seconds. Altitude is 176 km, downrange distance is 1,040 km and velocity is 5.04 km/s.

02/14/2017 18:46 Launch image

02/14/2017 18:45

Plus+5 minutes, 20 seconds. Altitude is 161 km, downrange distance is 515 km and velocity is 3.25 km/s.

02/14/2017 18:43

Plus+3 minutes, 30 seconds. Separation of the rocket's nose cone has been confirmed. The Ariane 5 core stage will continue burning until about Plus+9 minutes into the mission.

02/14/2017 18:42

The solid rocket boosters have been jettisoned from the Ariane 5 rocket's core stage after consuming approximately 480 metric tons of propellant. The liquid-fueled Vulcain 2 main engine continues to fire to propel the vehicle and its satellite payload to space.

02/14/2017 18:41

The vehicle is on the proper heading as it rides the power of the twin solid rocket boosters and main stage liquid-fueled engine.

02/14/2017 18:40 Liftoff

Liftoff of an Ariane 5 rocket carrying Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S, communications satellites heading for coverage zones over Brazil and Indonesia.

02/14/2017 18:38 Minus-60 seconds

A fast-paced series of events leading to launch will begin at Minus-37 seconds when the automated ignition sequence is started. The water suppression system at the launch pad will start at Minus-30 seconds. At Minus-22 seconds, overall control will be given to the onboard computer. The Vulcain main engine will be readied for ignition with hydrogen chilldown starting at Minus-18 seconds.

The residual hydrogen burn flares will fire beneath the Vulcain engine at Minus-5.5 seconds to burn away any free hydrogen gas. At Minus-4 seconds, onboard systems take over and the two inertial guidance systems go to flight mode. Vulcain main engine ignition occurs at Minus-0 seconds with checkout between Plus+4 and 7 seconds. If there are no problems found, the solid rocket boosters are ignited at Plus+7.0 seconds for liftoff at Plus+7.3 seconds.

02/14/2017 18:38 Minus-2 minutes

The Vulcain main engine supply valves are being opened. And the ground valves for engine chilldown are being closed.

02/14/2017 18:36

The scheduled launch time has been loaded into the rocket's main computer system. The main stage tank pressures should now be at flight level.

02/14/2017 18:36

With the live broadcast back underway, pressurization has begun for the main cryogenic stage's liquid oxygen and hydrogen tanks. Also, final pyrotechnic arming is starting.

02/14/2017 18:35

Arianespace's webcast is again experiencing technical problems. We're awaiting the resumption of the live video stream from Kourou.

02/14/2017 18:34

Minus-5 minutes. All status panel lights remain green, indicating no problems right now that could prevent blastoff at 2139 GMT.

02/14/2017 18:34

Arianespace's webcast has resumed after experiencing technical difficulties.

02/14/2017 18:33

Minus-6 minutes. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen supplies of the main cryogenic stage are being verified at flight level. Also, the pyrotechnic line safety barriers are being armed.

02/14/2017 18:33

Minus-7 minutes and counting. The synchronized sequence has started. Computers are now in control of this automated final phase of the launch countdown to prepare the rocket and ground systems for liftoff. There are three computers running the countdown - one aboard the Ariane 5 and two redundant computers at the launch complex.

The launch time is set for 2139:00 GMT (4:39:00 p.m. EST; 6:39 p.m. French Guiana time). Liftoff actually occurs even seconds later with ignition of the solid rocket boosters.

02/14/2017 18:32

Minus-8 minutes. The last weather briefing before the countdown enters the synchronized launch sequence indicates all parameters are acceptable for liftoff at 2139 GMT (4:39 p.m. EST).

02/14/2017 18:30

Minus-9 minutes. The Synchronized Sequence is being prepped for activation. This computer-run sequence assumes control of the countdown at the Minus-7 minute mark to perform the final tasks to place the rocket and pad systems in launch configuration.

At Minus-4 seconds, the rocket's onboard computer will take over control of main engine start, health checks of the powerplant and solid rocket booster ignition commanding for liftoff.

02/14/2017 18:29

Minus-10 minutes. Today's launch will deliver the Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S communications satellites to an orbit targeting a planned high point of 22,205 miles, a targeted low point of 155 miles and an inclination of 4 degrees.

The satellites were built by Airbus Defense and Space and Thales Alenia Space, respectively, and will use their on-board engines to raise their orbits to maintain altitude nearly 22,300 miles over the equator.

The Sky Brasil 1 broadcasting satellite, occupying the upper position in the Ariane 5's dual-payload stack, will serve Brazilian markets with direct-to-home television programming for DirecTV Latin America, a subsidiary of AT&T.

Sky Brasil 1 will separate from the Ariane 5's second stage at T+plus 27 minutes, 25 seconds.

A Sylda 5 adapter will be discarded a few minutes later, revealing the 7,826-pound Telkom 3S spacecraft, the mission’s other satellite passenger.

Telkom 3S is designed to support video, data broadband and mobile telecom services over Indonesia, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia for Telkom Indonesia. Separation of the Telkom 3S spacecraft from the Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled at T+plus 39 minutes, 43 seconds.

The payloads have a combined mass of approximately 23,109 pounds, or 10,482 kilograms, including the barrel-shaped Sylda dual-payload adapter.

02/14/2017 18:24

Minus 15 minutes. All parameters continue to look good for launch in 15 minutes. A communications check between ground stations and the rocket has concluded.

Some statistics on today's flight:

235th launch of an Ariane rocket since 1979
285th Arianespace mission
91st launch of an Ariane 5 rocket since 1996
60th launch of an Ariane 5 ECA rocket since 2002
66th flight of a Vulcan 2 engine
192nd flight of an HM7B engine
78th Ariane 5 launch targeting GTO
10th AT&T/DirecTV satellite launched by Arianespace
116th Airbus Defense and Space satellite launched by Arianespace
3rd Telkom Indonesia satellite launched by Arianespace
146th Thales Alenia Space satellite launched by Arianespace
2nd launch from the Guiana Space Center in 2017
1st Ariane 5 launch in 2017

02/14/2017 18:10

Minus-30 minutes. The Ariane 5's first and second stages are now loaded with cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

The 17.7-foot-diameter first stage's Vulcain 2 engine burns 149.5 metric tons, or about 329,000 pounds, of liquid oxygen and 25 metric tons, or about 55,000 pounds, of liquid hydrogen. The cryogenic upper stage's HM7B engine consumes about 14.7 metric tons, or more than 32,000 pounds, of oxygen and hydrogen.

The fluids are stored at super-cold temperatures and naturally boil off in the warm tropical atmosphere in French Guiana. More propellant is slowly pumped into the rocket for most of the countdown to replenish the cryogenic fuel.

The topping sequence ends in the final few minutes of the countdown as the fuel tanks are pressurized and the fueling system is secured.

Built by a consortium of European contractors led by Airbus Safran Launchers in Vernon, France, the Vulcain 2 engine generates up to 300,000 pounds of thrust during its 9-minute firing. It burns about 320 kilograms, or 705 pounds, of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant per second.

The engine's nozzle has an exit diameter of 2.1 meters, or about 6.9 feet. It weighs more than 4,600 pounds and its liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen turbopumps spin at 12,300 rpm and 35,800 rpm, respectively.

The Vulcain 2 replaced the Vulcain engine used on the initial version of the Ariane 5. The newer engine produces 20 percent more thrust.

The Ariane 5's upper stage is powered by an HM7B engine, a modified version of the HM7 engine used on the upper stage of the Ariane 4 rocket. The 364-pound HM7B engine is manufactured by Airbus Safran Launchers in Ottobrunn, Germany.

The HM7B engine produces more than 14,500 pounds of thrust in vacuum.

The Ariane 5 configuration with a Vulcain 2 engine and HM7B-powered cryogenic upper stage is known as the Ariane 5 ECA.

The Ariane 5's twin solid rocket boosters are packed with propellant near the launch site in French Guiana before they are assembled and positioned on each side of the cryogenic core stage.

With the rocket now fully fueled for launch, the vehicle weighs 1.7 million pounds. At liftoff, the rocket produces 2.9 million pounds of thrust.

02/14/2017 17:39

Minus-60 minutes.

Track the major milestones on today's launch with this timeline of major flight events. Deployment of the Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S satellites will occur within 40 minutes of liftoff.

02/14/2017 15:51

See photos of the Ariane 5 during yesterday's rollout to the pad, along with a few snapshots of the rocket after arriving in the ELA-3 launch zone.

02/14/2017 15:09

Minus-3 hours, 30 minutes. The Ariane 5 rocket's first stage, known by the French acronym EPC, is currently being filled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The second stage, or ESC-A, is also receiving the same mix of liquid propellants. The first stage Vulcain 2 engine and the upper stage HM7B engine both consume the super-cold fuel.

The cryogenic propellant will be gradually pumped inside the rocket to maintain proper levels as the fuel evaporates over the rest of the countdown.

The Ariane 5's supply of cryogenic liquid helium, used to pressurize the rocket's propellant tanks, was loaded aboard the launcher Monday.

02/14/2017 07:23

The Ariane 5 countdown is officially getting underway in French Guiana with launch crews arriving at the space base to prep the rocket and ground systems for liftoff at 2139 GMT (4:39 p.m. EST; 6:39 p.m. local time).

The launch window extends for 86 minutes.

The 91st Ariane 5 mission will loft the Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S communications satellites destined to provide TV, broadband and data services over Brazil and Indonesia.

Sky Brasil 1, manufactured by Airbus Defense and Space, is set to begin a mission broadcasting direct-to-home television programming to millions of homes and businesses in Brazil for DirecTV Latin America, a subsidiary of AT&T.

The more than 13,000-pound (6-metric ton) Sky Brasil 1 satellite, designed to function for up to 19 years, is mounted in the upper position of the Ariane 5 rocket's dual-payload stack. It is heading for a slot in geostationary orbit at 41.3 degrees west longitude.

The smaller of the two satellite passengers on Tuesday's flight is Telkom 3S, a 7,826-pound (3,550-kilogram) communications craft built by Thales Alenia Space and owned by Telkom Indonesia.

Telkom 3S will broadcast television signals, broadband Internet and mobile communications services over Indonesia, Malaysia and neighboring parts of Southeast Asia from a position in geostationary orbit nearly 22,300 miles (about 35,800 kilometers) above Earth's equator at 118 degrees east longitude.

Tuesday's launch will be the first Ariane 5 flight of the year, and Arianespace's second launch of 2017.

The countdown is due to begin at 1016 GMT (5:16 a.m. EST), with clocks programmed for liftoff of the Ariane 5 ECA rocket at 2139 GMT (4:39 p.m. EST), or 6:39 p.m. local time at the launch site in French Guiana.

A check of electrical systems occurred around 1106 GMT (6:06 a.m. EST).

Workers will also put finishing touches on the launch pad, including the closure of doors, removal of safety barriers and configuring fluid lines for fueling. The flight program for today's launch will be loaded into the rocket's computer.

The launch team will begin the process to fuel the rocket with super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants around 1716 GMT (12:16 p.m. EST). First, ground reservoirs will be pressurized, then the fuel lines will be chilled down to condition the plumbing for the flow of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which are stored at approximately minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit and minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively.

It will take approximately two hours to fill the Ariane 5 core stage tanks.

A similar procedure for the Ariane 5's cryogenic upper stage will commence at 1756 GMT (12:56 p.m. EST).

Chilldown conditioning of the Vulcain 2 first stage engine will occur at 1821 GMT (1:21 p.m. EST), and a communications check between the rocket and ground telemetry, tracking and command systems is scheduled for 2024 GMT (3:24 p.m. EST).

A final weather briefing will come at T-minus 10 minues, and then the computer-controlled synchronized countdown sequence will begin seven minutes before launch to pressurize propellant tanks, switch to on-board power and take the rocket's guidance system to flight mode.

The Vulcain 2 engine will ignite as the countdown clock reaches zero, followed by a health check and ignition of the Ariane 5's solid rocket boosters seven seconds later to send the 1.7 million-pound launcher skyward.

Five seconds after blastoff, the rocket will begin pitching east from the ELA-3 launch pad, surpassing the speed of sound less than a minute into the mission. The Ariane 5's twin solid rocket boosters will jettison 2 minutes, 20 seconds after liftoff.

Once above the dense atmosphere, the launcher's payload fairing will fall away at an altitude of more than 70 miles -- about 112 kilometers. The Ariane 5's first stage will shut down 8 minutes, 55 seconds after liftoff, followed moments later by stage separation and ignition of the hydrogen-fueled cryogenic HM7B upper stage engine.

The rocket's upper stage will fire for more than 16 minutes, accelerating to a velocity of 21,000 mph, or more than 9.3 kilometers per second, to reach an orbit with a planned high point of 35,736 kilometers (22,205 miles), a targeted low point of 250 kilometers (155 miles) and an inclination of 4 degrees.

The release of Sky Brasil 1 is scheduled for 27 minutes, 25 seconds, after liftoff. The rocket's barrel-shaped Sylda 5 dual-payload adapter will be jettisoned a few minutes later.

Telkom 3S will separate from the lower portion of the payload stack at 39 minutes, 43 seconds.

02/14/2017 06:06 Launch preview

Two commercial communications satellites heading for orbits more than 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth are scheduled for launch from a jungle launch facility in French Guiana at sunset Tuesday on top of an Ariane 5 rocket.

The Sky Brasil 1 and Telkom 3S spacecraft are mounted inside the Ariane 5's nose cone for launch at 2139 GMT (4:39 p.m. EST; 6:39 p.m. French Guiana time) Tuesday, just before sunset at the South American space base. The launch window extends for 86 minutes.

The 180-foot-tall (55-meter) Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to the launch pad around midday Monday, trekking along dual rail tracks 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) from the Guiana Space Center's final assembly building to the ELA-3 launch zone.

Fastened on a mobile launch table, the rocket was towed behind a diesel-powered Titan truck for the journey.

Technicians secured the rocket and its launch platform at the pad after completing the transfer Monday afternoon, connecting the Ariane 5 with the facility's propellant lines, electrical system and ground telemetry links ahead of the start of the final countdown Tuesday morning.

http://spaceflightnow.com

Earth from Space

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:04:00 +0000

https://livestream.com/ESA/efs

Atlas V to Launch SBIRS GEO Flight 3 for the U.S. Air Force

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 02:57:00 +0000

VIDEO PREVIEW of what to expect during tomorrow evening's Atlas 5 launch of next SBIRS early-warning spacecraft
(ULA video) pic.twitter.com/a1qGLDIRNo
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) 19 de enero de 2017

Rocket/Payload:A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will launch the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) GEO Flight 3 mission for the U.S. Air Force.

Date/Site/Launch Time:Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The 40-minute launch window opens at 7:42 p.m. EST.

Live Broadcast: Tune in to ULA’s live launch day broadcast beginning at 7:22 p.m. EST.

Launch Notes: SBIRS GEO Flight 3 will be ULA’s first launch of 2017 and the 69th Atlas V mission overall.

This mission marks the 34th Atlas V mission in the 401 configuration; the two previous SBIRS GEO missions also launched on the Atlas V 401 rocket.

Mission Description: SBIRS, considered one of the nation's highest priority space programs, is designed to provide global, persistent, infrared surveillance capabilities to meet 21st century demands in four national security mission areas including: missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness.

L-minus 5 hours: Preview tonight's #SBIRSGEO3 launch with a look back to SBIRS GEO 2 and its successful deployment 3 years ago
(ULA video) pic.twitter.com/bbnAzX9Jpx
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) 20 de enero de 2017

L-minus 6 hours: Fly around Complex 41 where the Atlas 5 rocket stands poised to launch #SBIRSGEO3 at 7:42pmEST (0042 GMT)
(ULA video) pic.twitter.com/N2yIckz6rm
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) 20 de enero de 2017

VIDEO: Range stops tonight's Atlas 5 #SBIRSGEO3 countdown at the end of the launch window due to aircraft in restricted airspace. pic.twitter.com/vJTyK7TBvZ
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) 20 de enero de 2017

SpaceX failure probe complete; flights to resume Sunday from California

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 04:49:00 +0000

File photo. Credit: NASA

After an exhaustive investigation, SpaceX engineers have identified the most likely cause of the spectacular explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket during a pre-launch test Sept. 1 that destroyed the booster and its $195 million satellite payload, the company announced Monday.

SpaceX engineers believe the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station mishap was triggered by the failure of a high-pressure helium tank, one of three used to pressurize the second stage liquid oxygen tank.

Putting corrective actions in place, the company said Monday it plans to resume flights with a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles on Jan. 8 to boost 10 Iridium NEXT satellite telephone relay stations into orbit.

It is not yet known when SpaceX plans to resume flights from Cape Canaveral. Launch complex 40 at the Florida Air Force station was heavily damaged in the Sept. 1 mishap, and the company plans to use a repurposed space shuttle launch pad at the nearby Kennedy Space Center for its next Falcon 9 flight from Florida.

Sources indicate the first flight from Kennedy will be another commercial mission. The next SpaceX flight to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, the company’s 10th under contract to NASA, is expected to take place some time after the commercial mission.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket uses super-cooled, or “densified,” liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene fuel to provide additional performance during ascent. To achieve and maintain the desired low temperatures, propellant loading begins just 35 minutes before launch.

To push propellants to the rocket’s engines, the Falcon 9 uses highly pressurized helium stored in aluminum bottles, wrapped in a tough, insulating carbon composite material. The bottles, known as composite overwrap pressure vessels, or COPVs, are mounted inside the propellant tanks, submerged in frigid liquid oxygen and chilled kerosene.

On Sept. 1, about five minutes before a planned test firing of the Falcon’s nine Merlin 1D first stage engines — a routine pre-launch test for SpaceX — the second stage suddenly exploded in a spectacular conflagration that was caught on video and widely seen around the world.

The rocket and it’s $195 million payload, a commercial communications satellite, were destroyed, causing heavy damage to launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Just 93 milliseconds elapsed from the first signs of trouble to the explosion.

“Investigators scoured more than 3,000 channels of video and telemetry data covering a very brief timeline of events,” SpaceX said in a statement posted to its website. “Because the failure occurred on the ground, investigators were also able to review umbilical data, ground-based video, and physical debris.

“To validate investigation analysis and findings, SpaceX conducted a wide range of tests at its facilities in Hawthorne, California and McGregor, Texas.”

SpaceX is generally tight-lipped when it comes to technical details, and the statement posted Monday provided only a general overview of the team’s findings. It said accident investigators “concluded that one of the three composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) inside the second stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank failed.”

“Specifically, the investigation team concluded the failure was likely due to the accumulation of oxygen between the COPV liner and overwrap in a void or a buckle in the liner,” the company said.

Investigators believe those extremely low temperatures may have caused some of that trapped oxygen to solidify. In any case, when the tank was pressurized, trapped oxygen pushing against the carbon overwrap fibers likely generated friction “leading to ignition and the subsequent failure of the COPV.”

Liquid oxygen has a temperature of around minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit, but SpaceX chills the propellant to around minus 340 degrees for use aboard the Falcon 9. The RP-1 kerosene fuel, which normally is stored at a room temperature 70 degrees, also is chilled. The lower temperatures increase the propellants’ density.

A rocket engine’s thrust is directly proportional to the rate propellants are consumed and expelled. By “densifying” the Falcon 9 propellants, more fuel can be stored and pumped through the engines, increasing performance.

While earlier rockets, including the Titan 2 booster used to launch NASA’s Gemini spacecraft in the 1960s, used propellant cooling to increase density, and thus engine performance, the upgraded Falcon 9 is believed to be the first utilizing super-cooled cryogenic oxygen.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in 2015, when propellant cooling was first implemented in the Falcon 9, that “we’re sub-cooling the propellant, particularly the liquid oxygen, close to its freezing point, which increases the density quite significantly.”

Failure investigators “identified several credible causes for the COPV failure, all of which involve accumulation of super chilled LOX or SOX (solidified oxygen) in buckles under the overwrap,” the company said in its statement.

“The corrective actions address all credible causes and focus on changes which avoid the conditions that led to these credible causes. In the short term, this entails changing the COPV configuration to allow warmer temperature helium to be loaded, as well as returning helium loading operations to a prior flight proven configuration based on operations used in over 700 successful COPV loads.”

The company did not provide any details about those earlier helium loading procedures but said it plans to redesign the helium bottles in the long term “to prevent buckles altogether, which will allow for faster loading operations.”

The Sept. 1 failure was the second involving the Falcon 9’s second-stage helium pressurization system.

During a June 2015 launch to deliver supplies to the space station, a strut holding a second-stage helium tank in place inside the liquid oxygen tank failed, allowing the helium bottle to shoot up and crash into the top of the oxygen tank, triggering a catastrophic rupture.

It was SpaceX’s first outright Falcon 9 failure in 19 launchings dating back to the rocket’s maiden flight in June 2010. After taking steps to ensure all internal struts met design specifications, SpaceX launched nine successful missions in a row before the Sept. 1 launch pad disaster, all of them using densified propellants.

http://spaceflightnow.com

Chinese Earth observation satellites launched into lower-than-planned orbit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 07:20:00 +0000

Two commercial Earth-imaging satellites launched by a Chinese Long March 2D booster Wednesday are flying in lower-than-planned orbits after an apparent rocket mishap, according to tracking data published by the U.S. military.

The two SuperView 1, or Gaojing 1, satellites are flying in egg-shaped orbits ranging from 133 miles (214 kilometers) to 325 miles (524 kilometers) in altitude at an inclination of 97.6 degrees.

The satellites would likely re-enter Earth’s atmosphere within months in such a low orbit, and it was unclear late Wednesday whether the craft had enough propellant to raise their altitudes.

The high-resolution Earth-observing platforms were supposed to go into a near-circular orbit around 300 miles (500 kilometers) above the planet to begin their eight-year missions collecting imagery for Siwei Star Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., a government-owned entity.

The 1,234-pound-pound (560-kilogram) satellites lifted off at 0323 GMT Wednesday (10:23 p.m. EST Tuesday) from the Taiyuan space center in northern China’s Shanxi province on top of a 13-story Long March 2D rocket, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

The launch occurred at 11:23 a.m. Beijing time, marking China’s 22nd attempted space launch of the year, and the 21st rocket mission to reach orbit.

But the two-stage launcher did not put the SuperView 1 satellites into the expected orbit, raising concerns among outside observers that the Long March 2D ran into problems.

The mission also carried a small amateur radio satellites made by Beijing high school students.

The SuperView 1 satellites are designed to collect optical black-and-white imagery with a resolution of less than 20 inches (about 50 centimeters), making them the highest-resolution civilian Earth-observing satellites launched by China.

The satellites can capture imagery in nearly 7.5-mile-wide (12-kilometer) swaths, turning to observe multiple locations on a single pass, or record images of the same point from multiple angles, allowing processors on the ground to generate stereo three-dimensional images

.Artist’s concept of Beijing Space View’s planned constellation of optical and radar imaging satellites. The spacecraft illustrated at upper left is one of the SuperView 1 satellites launched Wednesday. Credit: Beijing Space View

Color images from the SuperView 1 satellites will have a resolution of around 6 feet, or 2 meters, according to information released by Beijing Space View Technology Ltd., which holds exclusive rights to distribute and sell SuperView 1 imagery globally for mapping, land use, urban planning, agricultural, oil and gas exploration, maritime, security, defense and intelligence applications, the company said.

Beijing Space View’s sister-company Siwei WorldView is a joint venture between Siwei Surveying and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd., Navinfo and DigitalGlobe, the Colorado-based owner of the WorldView and GeoEye commercial Earth observation satellites.

The two distributors sell high-resolution imagery commercially in the Chinese market from China’s own civilian-operated remote sensing observatories and international satellites like the WorldView and GeoEye series, South Korea’s Kompsat family of spacecraft, Japan’s ALOS satellite, the Spanish-owned Deimos missions, and Kazakhstan’s KazEOSat 1 Earth observation platform.

The SuperView 1 satellites — if they can be salvaged and commissioned — would have given China its own commercial imaging spacecraft.

Two more SuperView satellites are scheduled to launch in mid-2017, and Siwei Star aims to have a fleet of more than two dozen Earth observation craft in orbit by 2022, including 16 SuperView-type optical satellites, four platforms with even better optical imaging capabilities, four X-band synthetic aperture radar satellites to observe through clouds and darkness, and multiple video and hyperspectral imaging spacecraft.

http://spaceflightnow.com

Mission Status Center: Live coverage of Delta 4 countdown and launch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 01:28:00 +0000

12/07/2016 21:49

The next Delta 4 launch is planned for March from Cape Canaveral. It will be the mission to launch the Air Force's Wideband Global SATCOM 9 communications satellite into orbit using the same type of rocket used tonight -- the Medium+ vehicle with four strap-on solid boosters.

United Launch Alliance's next mission is just eight days away. That is when an Atlas 5 rocket will launch the commercial EchoStar 19 broadband satellite from the Cape. Launch is planned for Dec. 16 at 1:26 p.m. EST (1826 GMT).

12/04/2016 11:53 WEATHER: Favorable forecast for Wednesday's Delta 4 launch from Florida

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Air Force meteorologists are expecting good weather to launch the Delta 4 rocket with a military communications satellite Wednesday evening from Cape Canaveral. Read our ful story.

12/05/2016 20:23 PREVIEW: Upgraded satellite for communications among U.S. military forces to launch

CAPE CANAVERAL -- The backbone of the U.S. military's global communications network, relied upon by soldiers, ships, jets, aerial drones and allied nations around the world, will receive a new satellite with unprecedented capacity following its launch Wednesday atop a Delta 4 rocket. Read our launch preview story

12/06/2016 02:00 TIMELINE: Delta 4/WGS 8 launch events

Follow the Delta 4 rocket's ascent into orbit from Cape Canaveral's Complex 37 launch pad with the U.S. Air Force's WGS 8 communications satellite. Liftoff is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:53 p.m. EST. See the timeline

12/06/2016 15:08 LRR: Final readiness review clears Delta 4 and WGS 8 for launch

Sporting upgraded internal electronics to provide 90 percent more capacity than its sister-satellites, the U.S. military's eighth Wideband Global SATCOM communications satellite will be launched into space Wednesday aboard a Delta 4 rocket.

The United Launch Alliance vehicle is scheduled for liftoff at 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT) from Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral. The evening's launch window will remain open for 49 minutes.

If the launch slips to Thursday evening for some reason, the launch window moves one minute later.

Government and contractor managers convened the Launch Readiness Review today to assess preparations for the mission and granted approval to enter into the countdown on Wednesday as planned.

The mobile service tower will be rolled back from the 217-foot-tall rocket shortly before noon EST and fueling operations will commence at 2:30 p.m. EST.

We will have complete live play-by-play coverage of the count and launch on this page, as well as a webcast of liftoff

A reminder that if you will be away from your computer but would like to receive countdown updates, sign up for our Twitter feed to get text messages on your cellphone. U.S. readers can also sign up from their phone by texting "follow spaceflightnow" to 40404. (Standard text messaging charges apply.)

WGS 8 will join the growing constellation of WGS satellites in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth that provide global communications coverage to the U.S. military and allies.

The $426 million satellite furthers bolsters the primary communications network that provides "anytime, anywhere" connectivity to soldiers, ships, aircraft and unmanned drones.

"Warfighters use WGS for tactical communications, performing numerous military operations (and) humanitarian missions," said Thomas Becht, civilian deputy director and business manager for the Air Force's Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate at the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles.

Boeing is the builder of the WGS fleet and ULA has launched all of the craft to date. The final two in the series will be deployed by the end of 2018.

WGS 8 carries the first Wideband Digital Channelizer at the heart of its communications package, essentially doubles the available capacity as compared previous WGS satellites.

"It's an additional satellite, so 1/8th of the constellation, plus the satellite has nearly twice as much capacity as the previous ones," said Charlotte Gerhart, the Air Force's WGS 8 program manager.

This will be the 34th Delta 4 rocket launch since 2002 and the 28th Delta 4 to fly from Cape Canaveral.

The two-stage rocket was processed in the Horizontal Integration Facility, then rolled to the pad. It was hydraulically raised into the vertical position atop the launch table on Oct. 18.

A countdown dress rehearsal and fueling exercise occurred on Nov. 16 and the payload, already encapsulated in the rocket's five-meter nose cone, was transported to the pad for mating with the rocket on Nov. 21.

Weather forecasters give an 80 percent chance of acceptable launch conditions. Clouds too thick to safely fly through are the only concern threatening the weather rules.

12/07/2016 13:14

Tower rollback is underway at Complex 37 to reveal the 217-foot-tall Delta 4 rocket for tonight's launch.

12/07/2016 13:40 Gantry rolled back for launch

The 330-foot tall mobile service tower has been retracted at Cape Canaveral's pad 37B for this evening's launch of the Delta 4 rocket that will place the Wideband Global SATCOM satellite No. 8 into space for the Air Force.

The wheeled structure moved along rail tracks to its launch position about the length of a football field away from the rocket. The 9-million pound tower shielded the Delta from the elements during the its stay on the pad, provided workers 360-degree access to the various areas on the vehicle and was used to attach the solid rocket boosters and payload during the launch campaign. The tower is 90 feet wide and 40 feet deep.

Crews will spend the next couple of hours securing the complex for launch before leaving the danger area around the pad. All workers must be clear of the area for the start of hazardous operations in the countdown, which include fueling the Delta 4's first and second stages with supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants

Testing of communications links between the rocket and Air Force Eastern Range will occur after fueling is accomplished. Steering checks of the RS-68A engine and upper stage RL10B-2 powerplant are on tap in the last hour of the count.

A build-in hold is slated for T-minus 4 minutes, during which time teams will go through final polling to grant clearance to launch. The Delta 4 will transition to internal power as the count resumes, ordnance will be armed and the propellant tanks pressurized as clocks target the main engine ignition time at T-minus 5 seconds.

Liftoff remains scheduled for 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT).

"This launch will significantly enhance the WGS constellation, providing vital wideband communications anytime, anywhere to U.S. warfighters and our international partners through broadcast, multicast and point to point connections," said Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, Space and Missile Systems Center commander and Air Force program executive officer for Space.

"WGS 8 maintains the core capability to support X- and Ka-band communications simultaneously, while also increasing communication capacity."

The satellite will be operated in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above Earth to provide communications to all branches of the U.S. military and some allied nations.

"The demand for ever-increasing reliable and secure satellite communications has been at the forefront of the WGS mission," said Greaves. "WGS provides communication connectivity across all mission areas, including air, land and naval warfare."

12/07/2016 14:42

The rocket's guidance system is being turned on and tested for launch.

12/07/2016 14:53 L-6 hours

Now 6 hours till launch. The countdown is proceeding well and the launch team is not reporting any issues. A full weather briefing to mission managers will occur in about an hour.

12/07/2016 14:59 Launch events preview

12/07/2016 15:18 Photos: Delta 4 and WGS 8 ready to fly

Some shots of the vehicle taken a little while ago during tower rollback. Credit: Alex Polimeni

12/07/2016 15:43 Weather forecast still 80% GO

In the pre-fueling weather update, all conditions are favorable at Cape Canaveral for liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket.

The odds of acceptable weather for an on-time launch this evening at 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT) are 80 percent. A cloud thickness violation is the only concern, but those conditions are not expected until early tomorrow. The worry is if the clouds move in early.

12/07/2016 15:48

At the launch pad, clearing of personnel is underway in preparation for the start of fueling operations this afternoon and liftoff at 6:53 p.m. EST.

12/07/2016 15:53 Countdown in built-in hold

T-minus 4 hours, 15 minutes and holding. The countdown has entered a 15-minute-long built-in hold, a pre-planned pause designed to give the team time to catch up on any work that could be running behind schedule. Once the clocks resume ticking, the main countdown for this evening's launch operation will begin.

12/07/2016 16:04

The launch team is reporting on station for the start of fueling operations. Some 170,000 gallons of cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be loaded today.

12/07/2016 16:07

Team is GO to begin fueling operations.

12/07/2016 16:08 Countdown has resumed

T-minus 4 hours, 15 minutes and counting. The team is ready for cryogenic fueling as the countdown is underway for today's opportunity to launch the Delta 4 rocket with the Wideband Global SATCOM satellite.

A final planned hold is scheduled into the countdown at the T-minus 4 minute mark.

Liftoff remains targeted for 6:53 p.m. EST.

12/07/2016 16:33 Fueling ops underway

A "go" has been given to start the cold gas chilldown conditioning of the liquid hydrogen system. This is the precursor to filling the vehicle with propellant.

12/07/2016 16:47 MST rollback gallery

A photo gallery of today's gantry rollback for the Delta 4 rocket launch is posted here.

(ULA pic)

12/07/2016 17:03 CBC LH2 tanking begins

The cold gas chilldown conditioning of the liquid hydrogen system has been accomplished. Liquid hydrogen propellant will begin to flow into the Common Booster Core in "slow-fill" mode. That is sped up to "fast-fill" after a small portion of the tank is loaded.

Chilled to Minus-423 degrees Fahrenheit, the liquid hydrogen will be consumed by the RS-68A main engine along with liquid oxygen during the first four minutes of the launch.

12/07/2016 17:08 CBC LOX chilldown

And now the chilldown of the liquid oxygen system on Delta's Common Booster Core is starting. This preps the tank and pumping to guard against shock when the supercold oxidizer begins flowing into the rocket a short time from now. The first stage will be loaded with 40,000 gallons of supercold LOX.

12/07/2016 17:10

Liquid hydrogen flow is confirmed. About 110,000 gallons of LH2 will fill the rocket's first stage.

Still targeting 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT) for launch today.

12/07/2016 17:20 Upper stage LH2 chilldown

The launch team is preparing to start fueling the Delta 4 rocket's upper stage. And with that the "go" has been given to start the chilldown conditioning of the upper stage liquid hydrogen system.

12/07/2016 17:21

CBC liquid hydrogen tanking operation is switching from "slow-fill" to "fast-fill" mode.

12/07/2016 17:27 CBC LOX tanking

The CBC liquid oxygen chilldown is complete. "Slow-fill" mode is beginning to load a small percentage of the tank. The process then speeds up to the "fast-fill" mode until the tank is nearly full.

12/07/2016 17:33

SMC Commander @SMC_CC

A beautiful sight. #DeltaIV WGS-8 satellite on the pad and proceeding toward 1853ET launch today. @ulalaunch @45thSpaceWing @AF_SMC

3:26 PM - 7 Dec 2016

43 43 Retweets 67 67 likes

12/07/2016 17:38

View image on Twitter

Follow

Tory Bruno ✔ @torybruno

Mission coin

10:19 PM - 6 Dec 2016

28 28 Retweets 113 113 likes

12/07/2016 17:43

CBC liquid oxygen tanking operation is switching from "slow-fill" to "fast-fill" mode.

12/07/2016 17:43 Upper stage LOX chilldown

The "go" has been given for the upper stage liquid oxygen chilldown in advance of filling that tank.

12/07/2016 17:47 Upper stage LH2 tanking

After chilldown of the upper stage liquid hydrogen system, the clear was given for loading the rocket's tank with 14,000 gallons. The launch team is actively filling the upper stage's liquid hydrogen tank with propellant for the RL10 engine.

12/07/2016 17:53 L-3 hours

Now three hours till launch. The Delta 4 rocket is being loaded with supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as the countdown rolls on for launch at 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT).

Complex 37 has two giant sphere-shaped fuel tanks to store the cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The LOX tank holds 250,000 gallons and LH2 sphere about 850,000 gallons.

The cryogenics are fed from the storage tanks through pipelines to the pad. For the Common Booster Core, the propellants are routed up to the launch table upon which the rocket sits. Tail service masts, the large box-like structures at the base of the vehicle, feed the oxygen and hydrogen to the booster via separate umbilicals.

The upper stage receives its cryos from the middle swing arm that extends from the Fixed Umbilical Tower to the front-side of the rocket.

12/07/2016 17:59 Upper stage LOX tanking

Chilldown of the upper stage liquid oxygen system is complete for loading the rocket's tank with 6,000 gallons of supercold LOX.

This is the last of the rocket's four cryogenic supplies to be filled in today's countdown to launch.

12/07/2016 18:12 CBC LH2 loaded

Fast-filling of the CBC liquid hydrogen tank has completed. After post-filling checks and valve tests, the tank will be placed in topping mode. The launch team will confirm the propellant is conditioned for flight.

12/07/2016 18:18 CBC LOX loaded

The CBC liquid oxygen loading just finished. The tank has been loaded with its supercold oxidizer that is chilled to Minus-298 degrees F. Topping will be completed as the count rolls on.

12/07/2016 18:52 Upper stage LOX loaded

Loading of the upper stage liquid oxygen tank has been accomplished.

12/07/2016 18:52 L-2 hours

Two hours and counting! Still targeting 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT) for launch tonight.

This is the 8th satellite for the Wideband Global SATCOM military communications network that began launching in 2007. WGS is the backbone of the Defense Department's information grid that spans the world.

12/07/2016 19:04 Upper stage LH2 loaded

The vehicle is fully fueled! Loading of the upper stage liquid hydrogen tank has been accomplished as fueling wraps up this evening at Complex 37.

The 900,000-pound rocket stands fueled and ready for launch at 6:53 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

12/07/2016 19:33 L-80 minutes

Now entering into the final 80 minutes of the countdown to launch of Delta 376 and the eighth Wideband Global SATCOM military communications satellite for the U.S. Air Force.

All is quiet in the launch control room, activities are on schedule and the team is not reporting any technical concerns.

12/07/2016 19:37

The flight slews and commanding tests for the vehicle steering systems are being performed. The Common Booster Core, the strap-on solid rocket motors and upper stage engine nozzle steering checks are being run through pre-launch test patterns.

12/07/2016 19:45

Steering checks are complete

12/07/2016 19:53 L-60 minutes

Now entering the final 60 minutes until the Delta 4 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral at 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT). Here's a look at some stats about the mission. This will be:

The 376th Delta rocket launch since 1960
The 34th Delta 4 rocket mission since 2002
The 6th Medium+ (5,4) configuration to fly
The 52nd main engine from RS-68 family used
The 10th RS-68A main engine flown
The 52nd-53rd-54th-55th GEM-60 solid rocket motors flown
The 475th production RL10 engine to be launched
The 37th RL10B-2 engine launche
The 28th Delta 4 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral
The 36th launch from Pad B at Complex 37
The 19th use of Delta 4 by the Air Force
The 101st Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle flight
The 114th United Launch Alliance mission since 2006
The 82nd ULA launch from Cape Canaveral
The 45th ULA launch for the Air Force
The 27th Delta 4 under the ULA banner
The 11th ULA launch this year
The 4th launch of the Delta family in 2016
The 8th Wideband Global SATCOM satellite
The 2nd Block 2-Follow On WGS satellite
The 6th WGS on Delta 4

http://spaceflightnow.com

Video: Atlas 5/GOES-R pre-launch news conference

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 02:18:00 +0000

Preview the deployment of the advanced GOES-R weather satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in the pre-launch news conference held at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, Nov. 17.

Briefing participants are:

* Stephen Volz, assistant administrator for satellite and information services at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

* Greg Mandt, GOES-R system program director at NOAA

* Sandra Smalley, director of NASA’s Joint Agency Satellite Division

* Omar Baez, NASA launch director

* Scott Messer, program manager for NASA Missions at United Launch Alliance

* Clay Flinn, launch weather officer from the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

GOES-R mission briefing

The GOES-R mission briefing details this new observatory that the improve the quality of weather forecasts across the United States.

Briefing participants include:

* Steven Goodman, GOES-R program scientist from NOAA

* Joe Pica, director of the Office of Operations at the National Weather Service

* Sandra Cauffman, deputy director of NASA’s Earth Science Division

* Damon Penn, assistant administrator for response from FEMA

GOES-R coverage.

http://spaceflightnow.com

Galileos 15-18 launch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 00:14:00 +0000

Science & Technology / Space · Less event details

Date

Thu, Nov 17 2016 9:30 AM ART — Thu, Nov 17 2016 3:00 PM ART

About

Two flagship European space programmes will combine on 17 November, as four Galileo navigation satellites are carried into orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket for the first time. Liftoff of Ariane flight VA233 is scheduled for 13:06 GMT (14:06 CET, 10:06 local time) on Thursday. The first Livestream transmission is scheduled for 12:36–13:29 GMT (13.36–14.29 CET), covering the liftoff, ascent and first phases of flight. There will be a follow-up Livestream transmission at 16:30–17:45 GMT (17.30–18.45 CET), to cover the satellite separations and confirmation of success.

European Space Agency

Galileo system status

Next Thursday 17 November at 10.06 Kourou Time/14.06 CET an Ariane 5 will launch Galileo satellites for the first time. Equipped with a specially designed dispenser, the European launcher will deploy four satellites: Galileo Sat 15,16,17 and 18. This video explains the current status of the Galileo system. It includes an interview with Paul Verhoef, ESA Navigation Programme Director.

Soyuz crew launcher rolled out for liftoff from Kazakhstan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 23:44:00 +0000

The Soyuz booster that will send the International Space Station’s next three residents into orbit later this week rolled out of an integration hangar early Monday and rode a railroad car to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The rocket will lift off at 2020 GMT (3:20 p.m. EST) Thursday from Baikonur, heading to orbit on a two-day chase of the space station, setting up for a radar-guided rendezvous and docking Saturday.

The Soyuz MS-03 spaceship, the third in a line of upgraded Russian crew capsules, will take the longer two-day route to the space station to continue tests of the modernized spacecraft. In recent years, Russia has typically launched Soyuz crews on a six-hour rendezvous trajectory, allowing the craft to reach the complex on the same day as launch.

Continuing a tradition dating back to the dawn of the Space Age, the Soyuz rocket emerged from its hangar at Baikonur mounted on a transport train for the trip to the launch pad.

The rollout Monday came a day after technicians installed the Soyuz capsule on the front end of the rocket. Last week, ground crews placed an aerodynamic fairing, which will jettison a few minutes into the flight, over the Soyuz spacecraft before moving the vehicle to the rocket assembly hangar.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, a 45-year-old Russian Air Force pilot and native of Belarus, will occupy the center seat of the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft as commander. About to fly to the space station for the second time, Novitskiy spent 143 days in orbit on the Expedition 33 and 34 mission in 2012 and 2013.

In the capsule’s left seat will be French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, a European Space Agency astronaut who will serve as Novitskiy’s co-pilot during the flight to the space station. Pesquet, 38, was a spacecraft engineer at CNES, the French space agency, and an Air France commercial airline pilot before his selection as an astronaut in 2009.

Veteran NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, 56, will launch in the the right seat of the Soyuz spaceship on her third spaceflight. Whitson first lived on the space station as a flight engineer and science officer on the Expedition 5 mission in 2002, the launched again in 2007 to command the Expedition 16 mission.

Whitson, a native of Iowa, has accumulated more than 376 days in space during her two previous flights.

Docking of the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft with the station’s Rassvet module on Saturday is scheduled for around 2201 GMT (5:01 p.m. EST). Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough and flight engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko will welcome the three new crew members.

Whitson will command the station’s Expedition 51 crew next year after the departure of Kimbrough, Ryzhikov and Borisenko.

The Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft will remain docked to the space station until April or May.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet address media before departing their training complex at Star City, Russia, for the launch site in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA/Stephanie Stoll

The arrival of the three fresh residents will kick off a busy couple of months on the space station.

“There will be quite a bit of traffic and crew time associated with that,” said Sam Scimemi, NASA’s space station program director at NASA Headquarters.

An Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo craft that arrived at the outpost in October is set to depart the complex Nov. 21 with a load of trash. Before heading for a destructive re-entry, the Cygnus supply ship will deploy several CubeSats and conduct a fire experiment inside a self-contained box within the craft’s pressurized module.

A Russian Progress cargo and refueling freighter is set for launch Dec. 1 from Baikonur, with docking expected Dec. 3.

Then a Japanese HTV supply mission will blast off aboard an H-2B rocket Dec. 9, setting up for its automated rendezvous and capture with the space station’s robotic arm Dec. 13.

The HTV mission will deliver six lithium-ion batteries to kick off a multi-year effort to replace the space station’s aging nickel-hydrogen battery system. The battery changeout will require at least two spacewalks in January, and perhaps as many as four EVAs if astronauts run into any trouble.

“During the next increment, they will be busy,” Scimemi said Monday during a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations subcommittee. “There are going to be some challenges. We’ve got two EVAs scheduled to install the batteries, and another couple of EVAs as contingency if they don’t go so well.”

Other activities, aside from a heavy slate of science experiments, will include maintenance on the station’s carbon dioxide removal assembly, activation of a new galley, and preparations to relocate a docking port on the complex, Scimemi said.

Photos of the Soyuz rocket’s rollout Monday are posted below, including images of the launch pad’s gantry towers enclosing the booster backdropped by nearly full moon.

http://spaceflightnow.com

China- launches Yunhai Satellite

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 03:29:00 +0000

China successfully launches Yunhai-1(01) satellite for environment monitor

Published: 2016-11-11 23:33

Last Modified: 2016-11-12 11:22

Location: Jiuquan,China;

Duration: 0'51

Source: China Central Television (CCTV)

Restrictions: No access Chinese mainlan

Shotlist

Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, northwest China - Nov 12, 2016

1. Yunhai-1(01) satellite lifted off by Long March-2D

2. Animation of Yunhai-1(01) in orbit

3. Various of launch controllers

Storyline

China successfully launched a Yunhai-1(01) satellite with a Long March-2D carrier rocket Saturday from its Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The Yunhai-1(01) satellite is mainly designed for detecting environmental elements in the atmosphere and ocean, the space environment, disaster prevention and reduction, and scientific experimentation.

Both the satellite and its carrier rocket are designed and made by the Shanghai Institute of Spaceflight Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Saturday's is the 240th flight of China's Long March carrier rockets.

NOTE: VIDEO EDITED

http://www.cctvplus.com

Video ,Commercial satellite launched to image the Earth in high-resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 00:37:00 +0000

A companion to the world’s most powerful private Earth-imaging satellite rocketed into space today from the U.S. west coast atop an Atlas 5 to double the amount of high-resolution imagery available on the commercial market and satisfy the demands of customers clamoring for more.

The 10-year mission of the WorldView 4 satellite began at 10:30:33 a.m. local time (1:30:33 p.m. EST; 1830:33 GMT) as the United Launch Alliance booster powered away from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after an extended wait to fly.

The launch was postponed eight weeks by a 12,500-acre wildfire that scorched Vandenberg in late September and the lengthy repairs to the base’s power grid in the aftermath.

Today’s liftoff culminated an 8-hour countdown highlighted by retraction of the mobile service gantry and the loading of 66,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the two-stage vehicle.

Following the signature status check — “Go Atlas,” “Go Centaur,” “Go WorldView 4” — declaring readiness in the final seconds, the main engine rumbled to life and 189-foot-tall rocket gracefully ascended from the pad.

Mission success! A video from this morning's WorldView-4 launch for @digitalglobe. Thrilled to be a part of this mission. @lockheedmartin #space #SeeMore #AtlasV #WV4 #rocketsofinstagram

Un vídeo publicado por United Launch Alliance (@ulalaunch) el 11 de Nov de 2016 a la(s) 4:50 PST

A fog bank remained off the coast, giving mostly clear skies with only wispy high cirrus clouds as backdrop for the Atlas 5 heading downrange.

The first stage fired for four minutes before the Centaur upper stage took over for its 11-minute burn to accelerate the 5,479-pound payload into the targeted sun-synchronous orbit.

WorldView 4 was released from the launcher just 19 minutes after liftoff.

It marked the 137th successful launch in a row for the Atlas program spanning 23 years, the 66th for the Atlas 5 over the span of 14 years and extended United Launch Alliance’s mission record to 112 in nearly 10 years.

WorldView 4, built by Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California, and owned by DigitalGlobe of Westminster, Colorado, radioed home healthy system data 45 minutes after its launch.

The Centaur upper stage, still operating after releasing the primary payload, on its next orbit deployed seven cubesats, collectively called ENTERPRISE, for a National Reconnaissance Office rideshare effort, then fired its main engine again to escape Earth and enter solar orbit for a permanent, safe disposal.

The cubesats will perform a variety of experiments and demonstrate high-tech operational concepts for students, national laboratories and government entities, according to the NRO.

In the coming weeks and months, the WorldView 4 craft will settle into its 383-mile (617-km) operational orbit with a period of 97 minutes, open the telescope aperture and undergo a rigorous testing and commissioning period. It should begin taking commercial imagery for retail early next year.

And it will come not a moment too soon for clients seeking DigitalGlobe’s 30 centimeter commercial imagery, a resolution unmatched by competitors in the marketplace.

The make and model of a car can be identified using that quality of space imagery.

An artist’s concept of WorldView 4. Credit: DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe currently offers the highest resolution imagery of the Earth’s surface — seeing objects 31-cm or just one-foot across — with its WorldView 3 satellite launched by Atlas 5 two years ago.

But that craft’s capacity is mostly reserved for the company’s biggest customer — the U.S. government. The addition of WorldView 4 will effectively double the amount of 30-cm imagery that can be taken commercially from space, opening the floodgates to sell the data to other customers.

WorldView 4 has a backlog of orders to fill from foreign governments, intelligence agencies and commercial clientele waiting to buy such data, and allowed to do so by U.S. authorities.

“We are especially pleased with the unprecedented early demand for WorldView 4,” said Jeffrey Tarr, DigitalGlobe chief executive officer.

Customers for the company’s special direct-access program are given priority reach to the entire WorldView constellation and new clients have been signing up to receive WorldView 4 imagery even before the craft was launched.

“Importantly, WorldView 4 will substantially increase our ability to image the world with resolution, accuracy and clarity far beyond that of all other commercial providers, enabling us to better serve our international defense and intelligence customers and unlock new commercial use cases,” Tarr said.
WorldView 1 caught this sequence of images of the Atlas 5 launching WorldView 3 from Vandenberg in 2014. Credit: DigitalGlobe
+

DigitalGlobe gives customers confidentiality in targeting areas to survey, guaranteed access and data distribution rights, and pre-event and post-event imagery for emergency management in a crisis.

“With the additional 30 cm capacity that we’re bringing online with WorldView 4, and the investments we’ve made in our constellation Direct Access Facility program, we are meeting the growing demand from new and existing customers alike,” Tarr said.

WorldView 4 is designed to see objects as small as 1-foot-wide (31 cm) in panchromatic mode and has a color capability with 4-foot resolution (1.24 m). It will image 263,000 square miles (680,000 square km) of the Earth’s surface per day, doubling the capacity of WorldView 3 now in service providing the same quality high-res data.

The craft uses the Global Positioning System satellite network and onboard star trackers to determine its precise location in orbit relative to the spot on Earth being observed. The imaging options include shooting targeted scenes, large-area collections or long, narrow strips of land.

Built around Lockheed Martin’s LM 900 small satellite design, WorldView 4 stands 18 feet (5.5 meters) tall and has a wingspan of 26 feet (8 meters) when the five power-generating solar arrays are extended.

WorldView 4 in the factory. Credit: Lockheed Martin

Harris Corp., which built the camera system on WorldView 4, says the primary mirror was manufactured to an accuracy of 1/1000th of a human hair. It has an aperture of 3.6 feet (1.1 meters).

The imaging system, known as SpaceView 110, is capable of counting all of the people on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco from the Hollywood sign in Southern California.

Control Moment Gyroscopes will enable unmatched agility for the satellite, allowing it to slew in just 10.6 seconds from one target to another 125 miles (200 km) away.

It features a 3200-Gb solid state onboard storage capability and will communicate with the ground via X-band for data transmissions and S-band for control functions.

DigitalGlobe was founded in 1992 under the name WorldView Imaging Corp. and merged with rival GeoEye and its satellite fleet in 2013. Today, it serves three main customer groups: U.S. government, international defense and intelligence organizations, and commercial buyers.

“Our business with the U.S. government has been renewed for 15 consecutive years, under various contract vehicles, each of which has contributed to growth of the company,” said Tarr.

“DigitalGlobe and its team members are proud to provide a mission-critical service to the NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) and end-users across the U.S. government with our best-in-class constellation and ground infrastructure.”

All five of DigitalGlobe’s sub-50cm high-resolution imagery satellites were launched by Delta 2 and Atlas 5 rockets since 2007. Photos by ULA

On the purely commercial front, the company recently struck deals with the Uber taxi service and the Esri mapping firm.

“We’ve seen customers realize the value of our high-resolution, high-accuracy 30-centimeter imagery in identifying road-related features not visible with less-capable satellites, enabling better mapping and safer navigation,” said Tarr.

The market for commercial imagery includes agriculture, mining, oil and gas, scientific researchers and land developers.

Looking ahead, DigitalGlobe has partnered with Saudi Arabia to field a cluster of small imaging satellites, sharing the capacity 50-50. Launch is expected in 2019.

“This new fleet, which we’ve now named Scout, will tip and cue our high-resolution satellites to help monitor some of the world’s volatile regions,” Tarr said.

The company also plans to start a $600 million investment some time in the next two years to replace the combined capacity of the aging WorldView 1 and WorldView 2.

“This industry-leading, multi-satellite system will deliver WorldView-class resolution, area coverage and positional accuracy with unprecedented revisit,” Tarr said.

All 66 launches by the workhorse Atlas 5 rocket for the Defense Department, National Reconnaissance Office, NASA and commercial clients. Photos by Pat Corkery, Jeff Spotts, Ben Cooper, Walter Scriptunas II, James Murati, Gene Blevins, Bill Hartenstein, Alex Polimeni and Justin Ray

Today’s launch was the sixth of eight planned this year by the Atlas 5 rocket.

The vehicle’s next flight is targeted for Nov. 19 from Cape Canaveral to deploy the advanced GOES-R geostationary weather satellite for NASA and NOAA.

Another Atlas 5 is scheduled from Vandenberg in January for the National Reconnaissance Office to deploy the classified NROL-79 payload. It had been planned for this December, but was delayed by the wildfire’s impacts to the manifest

http://spaceflightnow.com

Live coverage: Atlas 5 countdown and launch journal

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 04:12:00 +0000

Live coverage of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight to deploy the WorldView 4 imaging satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

VIDEO: Previewing tomorrow's WorldView 4 launch from California atop Atlas 5 rocket https://t.co/FF5UuunZRE
(Lockheed Martin video) pic.twitter.com/IGsL1s6tf7
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) 11 de noviembre de 2016

LRR: Countdown clocks will begin ticking in the middle-of-the-night Friday morning to ready an Atlas 5 rocket at America's western spaceport to launch a commercial Earth-imagery observatory.

The Launch Readiness Review today formally gave approval to proceed into countdown operations at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to deploy the WorldView 4 satellite for DigitalGlobe.

Friday's liftoff is targeted for 10:30 a.m. local time (1:30 p.m. EST; 1830 GMT) at the opening of a 15-minute launch opportunity.

A live launch webcast can be viewed on this page.

Air Force meteorologists, as of this morning, now give 90 percent odds that the weather will allow the launch to occur. High pressure has been dominant over the region for the past several days, keeping a weather system to the northwest. At launch time Friday, the forecast calls for mostly clear skies with just some high-level cirrus, light south‐southeasterly winds of 5 to 8 knots and temperatures between 67 and 72 degrees F.

"Team V is thrilled to be launching again following the devastating wildfires we experienced in September. We are excited to launch the Atlas 5 WorldView 4 mission from Vandenberg's Western Range and are looking forward to a safe and successful mission," said Col. Chris Moss, 30th Space Wing commander at Vandenberg and the launch decision authority.

It will be the 12th Atlas 5 to fly from Vandenberg.

The launch countdown begins at 2:30 a.m. local time for the start of an eight-hour sequence to prepare the launch pad and rocket for flight.

This is United Launch Alliance's 112th flight, the 9th just this year, and the company's 19th for a commercial client.

Video: Preview briefing on NASA’s CYGNSS mission to improve hurricane forecasting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 02:59:00 +0000

Learn about the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System — NASA’s fleet of hurricane-tracking satellites — launching together on Dec. 12 from Cape Canaveral aboard a Pegasus rocket. The eight small satellites comprising the CYGNSS constellation will help improve hurricane intensity, track and storm surge forecasts.

This NASA news conference held Nov. 10 details the CYGNSS mission and its science objectives.

http://spaceflightnow.com

Atlas 5 rocket to launch space station cargo delivery mission in March

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 17:50:00 +0000

File photo of Atlas 5 launch. Credit: ULA

CAPE CANAVERAL — Calling on the Atlas 5 rocket to flex its muscles one more time, Orbital ATK will partner with United Launch Alliance once again to send a massive load of supplies to the International Space Station astronauts early next year.

In what becomes the first rocket flight booked under ULA’s new RapidLaunch contracting service to substantially shorten the time between signing a contract and liftoff, this new launch is scheduled to occur just four months from now.

The Atlas 5 will launch the Cygnus cargo freighter to the station in March, departing from Cape Canaveral on Orbital ATK’s commercial OA-7 cargo-delivery mission.

“This plan…allows NASA to again capitalize on the operational flexibility built into Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft to assure the space station receives a steady and uninterrupted flow of vital supplies, equipment and scientific experiments,” Orbital ATK said in a statement today.

It will be the third such launch for the rocket and automated ship, following successes last December and this past March, as part of Orbital ATK’s space station resupply contract issued by NASA to ensure a steady supply line to the station from U.S. soil.

But with NASA’s other commercial delivery firm — the SpaceX fleet and Dragon capsules — currently grounded and having already missed a planned November cargo run, the agency is relying on Orbital ATK, the Russians and Japanese to bring the needed food, clothing, spare parts and experiments to the space station.

The new Atlas 5 launch will enable Orbital ATK to deliver a heavier load of cargo and NASA believes in the dependability of the rocket.

“Following a successful Antares launch for the recent OA-5 Commercial Resupply Services mission and subsequent rendezvous and berthing of the Cygnus spacecraft with the International Space Station, Orbital ATK has responded to NASA’s needs for enhanced schedule assurance for cargo deliveries and maximum capacity of critical supplies to the space station in 2017 by once again partnering with United Launch Alliance to launch Cygnus aboard an Atlas 5 for the upcoming OA-7 mission in the spring timeframe,” Orbital ATK said in a statement today.

“The company will be ready to support three cargo resupply missions to the station next year, and will work with NASA to finalize the flight schedule.”

Cygnus at the space station. Credit: NASA

A Cygnus reached the station last month with over 5,000 pounds of supplies after launching atop Orbital ATK’s own Antares rocket. It was the first such flight for the booster in two years, a lull instigated by the 2014 explosion of an Antares and Orbital ATK’s decision to replace the main engines with a different design.

But the more-powerful Atlas 5 rocket can launch over 7,700 pounds of provisions inside a Cygnus, and the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday night that NASA has pushed Orbital ATK to buy another Atlas 5 for its greater lift capacity and reliability record.

Sources told Spaceflight Now that the Atlas 5 would launch the OA-7 mission in March and that Orbital ATK was working with Kennedy Space Center to book facility time to process the Cygnus.

It was not immediately clear if NASA or Orbital ATK would pay for the extra costs associated with the Atlas 5 rocket.

Orbital ATK is under contract to deliver over 63,000 pounds of supplies to the space station via 10 missions through 2018. A follow-on contract has awarded a minimum of six missions through 2024.

“Orbital ATK’s remaining missions to be conducted in 2017 and 2018 under the CRS-1 contract will launch aboard the company’s Antares rockets from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia,” the company statement says.

Atlas 5 was the gap-filler during Orbital ATK’s Antares problem period, prompting the firm to buy one, then two ULA rockets to fulfill its obligations to the space station program.

Flown 65 times since 2002, the Atlas 5 has performed 25 flights dedicated to the Defense Department, 14 commercial missions, 13 for the National Reconnaissance Office and 13 for NASA.

The new Cygnus launch will be accommodated by ULA’s plan to bolster its vehicle production and create more launch opportunities on the manifest. A spring launch slot was available for Orbital ATK to reserve on short notice.

http://spaceflightnow.com

Japanese weather observatory successfully boosted into orbit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 19:10:00 +0000

The H-2A rocket set to launch with the Himawari 9 weather satellite rolled out to its launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center on Tuesday. Credit: MHI

A sophisticated new Japanese weather satellite will ride an H-2A rocket into orbit Wednesday to start a 15-year mission tracking cyclones and helping meteorologists predict storm movements across the Asia-Pacific and Australia.

The Himawari 9 weather observatory is set to begin its trek to geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth on Wednesday from the Tanegashima Space Center, a spaceport nestled on the southern flank of Tanegashima Island in southern Japan.

Himawari 9 is the second of two identical weather satellites owned by the Japan Meteorological Agency to offer more detailed and more timely imagery of storms, clouds and other weather systems to forecasters in Japan and across the Western Pacific.

Liftoff of the 174-foot-tall (53-meter) H-2A rocket, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is set for 0620 GMT (2:20 a.m. EDT) Wednesday at the opening of a launch window that extends until 0918 GMT (5:18 a.m. EDT).

Launch is set for 3:20 p.m. Japan Standard Time, and it will take nearly a half-hour for the H-2A rocket to place Himawari 9 into an initial geostationary transfer orbit, an egg-shaped loop around Earth with a high point of 22,354 miles (35,976 kilometers), a low point of 155 miles (250 kilometers) and a tilt of 22.4 degrees to the equator.

Japanese officials delayed the launch 24 hours due to a poor weather forecast that could have prevented rollout of the H-2A rocket from its integration hangar Monday.

The weather improved Tuesday, and ground crews at Tanegashima rolled out the H-2A rocket on its mobile launch table around 1630 GMT (12:30 p.m. EDT). The 1,600-foot (500-meter) journey from the vertical assembly building to the launch pad took about 40 minutes to complete, and technicians planned to plug the launch platform into ground electrical and propellant supplies before fueling begins in the final hours of the countdown.

Once the launch team checks out the rocket’s systems and loads it with cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, an automated countdown sequencer will take over the final steps before liftoff.

The H-2A rocket will light its core LE-7A main engine, then ignite two strap-on solid rocket boosters to climb away from the launch pad atop nearly 1.4 million pounds of thrust.

The rocket’s flight computer will command the engine and booster nozzles to pivot moments after liftoff, directing the launcher on an easterly trajectory over the Pacific Ocean.

The H-2A will exceed the speed of sound in less than a minute, then the two solid rocket boosters will consume all their pre-packed propellant at T+plus 1 minute, 38 seconds. Ten seconds later, the boosters will fall away from the H-2A’s foam-covered core stage.

The two halves of the rocket’s clamshell-like nose cone will peel away at an altitude of 88 miles (142 kilometers) at T+plus 4 minutes, 5 seconds, revealing the Himawari 9 satellite to the space environment.

The LE-7A main engine, producing nearly 250,000 pounds of thrust, will shut down at T+plus 6 minutes, 36 seconds, after reaching a velocity of nearly 11,000 mph (4.9 kilometers per second).

Eight seconds later, the first stage and second stage will separate, followed by ignition of the upper stage’s hydrogen-fueled LE-5B engine at T+plus 6 minutes, 50 seconds. The powerplant will burn until T+plus 12 minutes, 12 seconds, to reach a preliminary low-altitude parking orbit, and then start up again at T+plus 23 minutes, 50 seconds, to climb to higher altitude.

The second LE-5B engine burn should end at T+plus 27 minutes, 7 seconds, after injecting the 7,700-pound (3,500 kilogram) Himawari 9 satellite into its intended orbit.

Deployment of Himawari 9 should occur at T+plus 27 minutes, 57 seconds, around 163 miles (263 kilometers) over the Pacific Ocean southeast of Hawaii.

Artist’s concept of the Himawari 8 and 9 satellites in orbit. Credit: MELCO

Built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Himawari 9 will maneuver into a circular orbit nearly 22,300 miles (35,700 kilometers) over the equator a few weeks after launch.

At that altitude, the spacecraft’s orbital velocity will match the rate of Earth’s rotation, allowing it to hover over Asia and the Pacific Ocean to collect real-time views of clouds and storms over the Eastern Hemisphere.

Himawari 9 will be parked at 140 degrees east longitude for a mission expected to last up to 15 years. It is Japan’s ninth geostationary weather observatory since the first satellite in the Himawari, or sunflower, series launched in 1977.

Japan launched the identical Himawari 8 weather satellite in October 2014, and a successful launch of Himawari 9 will allow Japan’s weather agency to retire the last pair of meteorological satellites — dubbed MTSAT 1R and MTSAT 2 — that have been in space in 2005 and 2006.

Forecasters from India to Australia have been relying on Himawari 8’s imagery since it entered service in 2015.

Himawari 8 and 9 carry advanced U.S.-built imaging cameras supplied by Harris Corp. The imagers can observe Earth in 16 visible and near-infrared color bands, while the previous generation of Japanese weather satellites were sensitive to five bands.

The new satellites can take a full picture of East Asia and the Western Pacific every 10 minutes, an improvement over the half-hour update times available with Japan’s MTSAT weather satellites.

The spacecraft’s imager can take pictures of certain areas, such as all of Japan, at even faster refresh rates — every 2.5 minutes.

There are also improvements in resolution with the Himawari 8 and 9 satellites, allowing meteorologists to see finer details at the centers of typhoons and better resolve volcanic ash and smoke plumes, fog and low-lying clouds.

http://www.space.com

WATCH LIVE NOW! ExoMars Mars Landing Webcast by ESA

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 15:23:00 +0000

The European Space Agency will have live coverage of the ExoMars lander's touchdown on Mars in a series of webcasts. First, a Social TV program will cover the arrival and landing from 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) and will be off an on ahead of ESA's main program. The main program follows in two parts, one from11:44 a.m. – 12:59 p.m. EDT (1544–1659 GMT) and the other from 2:25 – 4:03 p.m. EDT (1825–2003 GMT). The webcasts are among a series of broadcasts by ESA to chronicle the ExoMars arrival. You can watch the webcast directly from ESA here and in the window below. Preview Story: High Stakes: Europe Aims for 1st Successful Mars Landing Today

ExoMars at Mars

Three days before arriving at Mars on 19 October 2016, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will release its entry, descent and landing demonstrator, Schiaparelli, towards the Red Planet. ExoMars is several missions in one. Its orbiter is a science and relay mission. The TGO will search for evidence of gases, such as methane, that may be associated with geological or biological processes. The Schiaparelli lander is a technology demonstrator to test key technologies for future missions

Mars arrival orbits

This animation shows the relative orbital paths of ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), the Schiaparelli Entry, descent and landing Demonstrator Module and ESA's Mars Express on 19 October 2016, when TGO and Schiaparelli arrive at Mars. At the start of the animation, TGO and Schiaparelli are shown already separated, which is set to occur at 14:42 GMT (16:42 CEST) on 16 October. The animation covers the time period between approximately 12:30 GMT (14:30 CEST) and 19:00 GMT (21:00 CEST)

Schiaparelli’s descent to Mars

Visualisation of the ExoMars Schiaparelli module entering and descending through the martian atmosphere to land on Mars. Schiaparelli will enter the atmosphere at about 21 000 km/h and in less than six minutes it will use a heatshield, a parachute and thrusters to slow its descent before touching down in the Meridiani Planum region close to the equator, absorbing the final contact with a crushable structure. The entire process will take less than six minutes:

http://livestream.com