The Soyuz-2.1a rocket arrives at Launch Pad No. 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday. Credit: Roscosmos

Russian launch crews stood up a Soyuz rocket Sunday on its launch mount in Kazakhstan for a scheduled liftoff Wednesday with approximately 5,500 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of supplies, experiments, fuel and several small satellites to be released by spacewalking cosmonauts at the International Space Station later this year.

The Soyuz-2.1a rocket emerged from an assembly building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome around sunrise Sunday, then trekked on a specialized train car to Launch Pad No. 31 at the historic space base, where technicians hydraulically hoisted the booster vertical. Access platforms raised into position around the Soyuz rocket for final launch preparations.

The launcher is topped with the Progress MS-06 supply ship, an unpiloted logistics freighter heading on a two-day voyage to the International Space Station.

Liftoff is set for 0920:13 GMT (5:20:13 a.m. EDT) Wednesday, or 3:20 p.m. local time at Baikonur.

The modernized Soyuz-2.1a booster, featuring redesigned third stage propellant tanks and a digital flight control computer, will deliver the Progress MS-06 spaceship to orbit less than nine minutes later. Immediately after separating from the Soyuz third stage, the resupply craft will extend its power-generating solar arrays and navigation antennas, kicking off a series of thruster burns to rendezvous with the space station.

Docking with the space stations Zvezda service module is scheduled for 1142 GMT (7:42 a.m. EDT) Friday after a radar-guided automated final approach.

Designated Progress 67P in the space stations sequence of crew and cargo vehicles, the upcoming Russian resupply mission will reach the research outpost nearly halfway through the visit of a SpaceX Dragon capsule that delivered nearly 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of experiments and equipment June 5.

The Progress MS-06 spaceship will carry around 2.5 metric tons (5,500 pounds) of cargo and supplies to the space station, according to a statement released by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

The supplies include dry cargo inside the ships pressurized compartment, fuel to refill the stations propulsion system, potable water, and high-pressure gases to replenish the research labs breathable atmosphere, Roscosmos said.

Four small satellites are set to launch inside the Progress MS-06 spacecrafts cabin for release by cosmonauts on a spacewalk later this year.

The Progress MS-06 supply ship will remain at the space station until December, when it will undock with a load of trash and re-enter the atmosphere for a destructive plunge over the South Pacific Ocean.

More photos of Sundays Soyuz rocket rollout are posted below.

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Soyuz booster rolls out for launch with space station cargo freighter - Spaceflight Now

Jason Rhian

June 11th, 2017

Much publicity has been given to efforts to make Kennedy Space Center a Multi-User Spaceport but what does that mean exactly and how do commercial companies stand to benefit from this new policy? Photo Credit: NASA

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. Anyone who spends time in or around Floridas Space Coast has heard one phrase repeatedly use in the past few years Multi-User Spaceport. What does that mean? To find out, SFI spoke with two NASA representatives intimately aware with the agencys efforts to expand the diverse array of organizations operating out of the center.

What does this mean for the space agency? How do private space companys stand to gain by becoming a member of this new effort? To find out, SpaceFlight Insider spoke to Kennedy Space Centers Director of the Center Planning and Development Directorate, Tom Engler andPhilip Meade, the Chief ofthe Spaceport Management Integration Division.

SFI: In terms of the SLS,we saw the X-37B coming in, weve seen race cars out there, weve seen motorcycles, the Global Flyer, and now the Air Force is using the Shuttle Landing Facility. SpaceX is using 39A, which of course is where Apollo 11 launched from, and youve got the OPFs, which Boeing had basically taken over. So theres a lot more participants, more people in the mix out at Kennedy now, but its still your property. So SpaceX has launched commercial missions off of 39A. How does that work in terms of your normal operations. I mean, are you working with SpaceX now, even though these missions really have nothing to do with NASA?

Meade: So the real answer is that theres a new normal. The normal has changed. And becoming a multi-user spaceport is not just something we woke up one day and said, Look, were a spaceport. It was an intentional strategy that the center undertook to become a multi-user spaceport. Associated with that is developing all of the processes, all of the procedures, policies, all the different operational capabilities required to be a multi-user spaceport, because doing the type of work that we do out hereyou know, its large.

It has the ability to impact other users of the spaceport very easily, so theres a strong need to have that core integration and management function of the spaceport. And so when you ask how does our new normal account for that, the new normal is really that we are the manager, operator, the integrator of the spaceport.

So we have that as a new core role for us, so rather than just being purely programs that are NASA programs that operate out herethey manage and integrate within themselveswe now have to have, in addition to that, an overarching layer of spaceport management and integration, which is my organization, to make sure that youre coordinating among all of the different users, and making sure that they get their services that they need.

SFI: One of the hardest questions Im going to have is Why? Why is NASA doing this, because again, this really has nothing to do with NASA. So what is the benefit for the agency, and I guess in the larger scheme, the American taxpayer?

Dr. Phillip T. Meade spoke at length with SpaceFlight Insider, explaining how both commercial companies and NASA were working to diversify the space agencys Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: Jason Rhian / SpaceFlight Insider

Meade:I think the real benefitand Tom is a great salesman of this as well, so you can probably get his take on this, toobut it really is about the American public, it is about the American taxpayer. If you look at the space policy thats been created, theres a strong encouragement for us to help and encourage and grow the ability for America to compete and to excel within the global space market. And so weve been encouraged by the federal government to make the maximum use or maximum availability of our assets for supporting commercial space.

SFI: Would you say that the concept there is that if you have a single product and no one needs that product anymore, youre in more jeopardy, but whereas if a facility like Kennedy has a diverse array of individuals both collaborating and working there, its more stable and productive and more likely to survive changes in the future?

Engler:I think theres a little bit of that in there, and I think that by utilizing some resources that we probably would demolished or let go, we do keep those around for potential future use by NASA if in the future we want to share those; or if a partner thats using them goes away and we find theyre suddenly available and we have a programmatic need for them, so there is that piece of it. But we believeand this is kind of a philosophical stancewe believe its in the nations best interests to have a healthy space capability, healthy access to space.

Thats not just NASA, but the commercial capability, so our ability to put satellites up thereour ability to continue to push the technological boundaries to do innovation and develop new technologies and new capabilities to bring high-paying jobs into the economy through these different companiesI feel like thats a very valuable thing for America, and so having a healthy space industry in the United States and being a true competitor and leader within the global space market, we believe is the best interests of the United States as a whole, and obviously the American taxpayer.

SFI: Boeing of course is benefitingfrom this. Space Florida is another winner, if you want to say that, SpaceX, of coursetheyre all benefitingfrom these really high-end facilities that you support for launch and other operations.How do you see the response to that, and is there an ROI (return on investment) on that?

Engler:So I think from our perspectiveand Phil hit the nail on the headour leadership, from the President in 2010 on down to Center Director and Deputy Center Director at the time set the vision for us, to become that multi-user spaceport. And so, by doing so, we created an environment that allowed multiple companies to be successful here.

You hit the nail on the head with a couple of them. What wed kind of like to highlight with that is, as a center, we have four companies here, doing human spaceflight activities, separate and distinct. In the context of human spaceflight, theres only been three countries that ever flew to space: the United States, China, and Russia. Now at Kennedy we have four companiesSpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed-Martin with Orion, and Boeing with CST-100performing human spaceflight operations and development and capability here at Kennedy Space Center.

The creation of the environment weve developed here, weve made an environment that has allowed these companies to come in here and be successful, and that makes America a better spacefaring nation than it probably ever has been before.

SFI:youve got United Launch Alliance

Engler:We do, and we supply services to them through the Spaceport Integration Services Division. The ability to support these launches and having the infrastructure here that really minimized their investment into the development of a spaceport is a win-win for everybody. So we have people that come incompanies that come in, use the capabilities, and pay for pieces of that capability as theyre using it, so it helps us from a cost perspective, and having that capability already there prevents them from having to develop a massive, expensive capability to do things like develop and deliver GN2 [gaseous nitrogen] as an example, or helium.

Having the ability to supply that to all the launch pads is a tremendous enabler for these companies. And so ULA, SpaceX, SLS, and now Blue [Origin] are all going to take advantage of all the infrastructure we have here and the talents weve developed over the last 50-plus years as an entity that launches rockets to space, so theres so many benefits to both sides to having these companies here, so its really a win-win for everybody having them here.

Its been a great benefit to the center, and Id like to thinkand the feedback Im gettingis that its been a benefit to these companies as well, so all in all its been a very positive relationship, and I think it will just continue to grow and get better as we go on.

Meade:If you look at the space industry, a basic analysis of the industry tells you that theres a huge barrier to entry to launch, and its not just because of the technology involved in the rocket, its the infrastructure. We help to shorten both the time required for that buildup of the ground infrastructure as well as the costs associated with that for these companies, so they can get to market faster and become profitable faster and also not have to sink so much in up front on developing a lot of this infrastructure.

SpaceX is just one of the organizations that has benefited from NASAs Multi-User Spaceport initiative. Photo Credit: SpaceX

SFI:The last question we have for this portion of the interview is, can you tell us a little bit about the coordination involved when youve got DoD and these commercial companies all working out of KSC? What are the differences between the Shuttle era and the Apollo era before that and now, when weve got Falcon 9s and Falcon Heavies ready to lift off from 39A?

Meade:Theres two answers to this question. The world had changedand Ill probably talk about that secondbut if you talk about the way things were done under Shuttle, and if you talk about using a traditional flight termination system with the Air Force Range, then things have not changed that significantly than how they were done with Shuttle.

We have a very tight partnership with the 45th Space Wing, we coordinate with them a lot. We participate in their meetings, were part of their scheduling process, as theyre part of our scheduling process. All of the range infrastructure capabilities are constantly coordinated between the two groups, between Kennedy Space Center and the 45th Space Wing. All of that still happens the way it always has.

The big differentiator, the big change thats occurred is a lot of these commercial companies are going to automated flight termination systems. And when you go to an AFTS, now all of a sudden, a lot of the range infrastructure, a lot of the range coordination and scheduling that was required previously you no longer have.

Theres still range assets that they use, theres still a significant role, an important role that the Air Force plays in launches from Kennedy Space Center, but the huge bottleneck that used to be therefrom only one user at a time could actually operate on the range, and youd have to block off multiple days, and there was a two-day turnaround time between when one user of the range could use it and the next user couldwere entering into a time period where you honestly could have two different companies launch a rocket on the same day from Kennedy Space Center.

I honestly believe theres nothing thats stopping us from doing that today, assuming that other resources like the pipeline and other things like that are deconflicted. So one of the things that Toms working really hard on is a small-class launcher capability here at Kennedy Space Center

SFI: 39C?

Thomas O. Engler serves as the director of the Center Planning and Development Directorate at NASAs John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: Jason Rhian / SpaceFlight Insider

Engler:39C or 48/49, thats part of our Notice of Availabilitythat we have two launch sites available if a private investor wanted to come in and build a small rocket launch pad, 48 and 49 are perfect locations for that. And that would allow a company to come in and do their own launches from there or allow it to become a multi-user small launcher pad. It creates diversity and allows companies to be a little more flexible from a launch perspective than they would be with just 39C. It opens up a lot of possibilities with the development of an additional small-launcher pad launch site.

Meade: Theres no reason a rocket couldnt launch from 48 and on the same day, SpaceX could launch from [39]A.

SFI: You think we could see thattwo launches on a single day?

Meade: Yes.

Engler: I agree with Phil. Its just a matter of deconflicting time frames and ensuring that when one launch happens that theres enough of a separation between launches that one launch doesnt endanger people on the other launch pad during their prep work.

SFI:Have you seenhave there been any bites toward your call for 48 or 49?

Engler:Weve had several expressions of interest, yeah.

SFI:Thank you. Moving on to the OPFs. One of the OPFs is currently used for Starliner and the other two are used by Boeing for the X-37B. Can you provide our readers with some of the details about how diversification is helping NASA achieve its objectives?

Engler:So if you look at it from the perspective of the fact that we have two companies here supporting commercial crew directly. So SpaceX and Boeing are developing capabilities to fly humans to space from the United States for the first time since the end of the Shuttle program. That directly supports NASA.

Indirectly, you get the support of those companies to the overall evolution of commercial space in general, so if you ever hear Mr. Bigelow speak from Bigelow Aerospace, the thing thats limiting him right now from launching his capabilities to orbit is reliable transportation for crew at a commercial level to orbit.

So the development of commercial crew and having that capability here will be that enabler for that next evolution of commercial space, which would be to potentially privately-held space stations and probably further development that I cant even begin to imagine, or if I did, it would probably sound crazy if I tried to imagine it. Over time, theres space mining, theres all these things that are floating out there that depend on reliably, easily getting people to space.

SFI: I dont think a lot of our readers are going to think youre crazy, I think a lot of our readers are like, Why arent we already doing this?

Engler: Well, its a great question, and were doing a lot of work to make that happen here at Kennedy. And, again, having created that environment here, having created the partnerships, having four separate companies doing human spaceflight here ought to excite your readers to the point where theyI mean it excites us to no end, the sea change thats occurred here. Weve all said thatits going to sound immodestbut we have become the epicenter of human spaceflight in the world here at Kennedy Space Center.

By having these companies be here, creating that environment for them and allowing them to work and do the things they need to do here to develop those capabilitiesit really speaks a lot to how far Kennedy has come since 2010 and the inception of the multi-user spaceport concept.

Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is being developed and produced at Orbiter Processing Facility 3, something made possible by KSCs Multi-User Spaceport initiative. Image Credit: Boeing

Meade: As early as the Vision for Space Exploration, when it came out, the plan from a NASA and U.S. Government perspective was [to] turn over low-Earth orbit to commercial industry so that NASA can then go and focus on putting footprints on other worlds.

SFI: Moon, Mars, and Beyond.

Meade:Exactly. So thats a big part of what were leveraging and dependent on from the Boeings and the SpaceXes, is to be able to, through the commercial crew program, take our astronauts up to the International Space Station, be able to make access to low-Earth orbit a little more routine, and free us up to then focus on trips to Mars and developing the SLS and that architecture. It is definitely helping us achieve our goals.

SFI: NASAs giving up all these assets, so theyre not theirs anymore. Thats technically correct, but what kind of access does NASA have to 39A, to the OPFs, now that theyre not technically their property anymore? Whats that like?

Meade: So Im going to correct you just a little bit

SFI: Please do!

Meade:Technically it is our property, so we havent given over any title to land or property at Kennedy Space Center. What weve done is Toms group has developed leases and these other mechanisms that we have at our disposal to basically rent out or lease property. Now its long-term leases in most cases because we need to help to be able to help these companies close a business case.

Its long-term leases, but its still NASA property. And so with that, we still retain ownership, long-term, and the secondarily it also means that we retain some of the responsibilities from a protection of life safety standpoint and from an overall spaceport management integration perspective. We do have the ability to enter these facilities. We would not do so just willy-nilly.

You know, its like youre a landlord, you dont just walk into someones house

SFI: Youd contact them first

Meade:We have good coordination with them, and we have individuals in my organization that are assigned to directly work with each partner that we have, and they have a good relationship. They help them get what they need, and theyre the ones that are the boots on the ground, typically, if we have to gain entry in or go in and do something. On Pad A for example, we still have a lot of facilities and systems that are required by Pad B, and so theres an awful lot of interchange between NASA and SpaceX in terms of going in and working on those systems, but we coordinate with them and schedule around them because we dont want to interfere with their ops schedule and what theyre doing.

If there were a fire, for example, our fire [department] would still have the ability to go into their facility and put out the fire. EMS, same thing: if theres some sort of medical emergency, and so we do have that ability, and we still retain that. A bit part of our goal, and a lot of what Tom and I have been working on over the past few years is trying to create this environment that Tom was talking about where its very much conducive to commercial entities wanting to come here and work and do business.

Which means that we treat them with the appropriate amount of respect and respect their operations, respect their schedules, respect their business cases, and actually partner with them in achieving their goals rather thanwere not trying to be this government overlord thats trying to mandate or have a heavy thumb on stuff.

A lot of the processes that I talked about earlierwe radically changed the safety requirements and came up with three different categories of safety requirements depending on what type of facility youre in to try and minimize the amount of oversight that we would have; minimize our need to intrude on their operation or be involved in it; and minimize their requirement to actually have to come to us and ask permission for much. We try to give them the maximum autonomy possible.

SFI: I think that answers the first of my general questions, which was how have these agreements changed from when it was McDonnell-Douglas out here, Lockheed, Rockwell, and so on?

Engler:At the time, those were more contracts than agreements, so the big change for us is having these companies on center as partners, us providing services to them, and sometimes them providing services to us. Having these companies out here has created an environment where were able to utilize our on-site contractors and civil service staff to help support them when they need it, and when they dont, were off doing other things, so its a different environment from that standpoint because weve gone from a contracting relationship to a partnership relationship, which is where we are with these companies.

Engler and Meade noted the close working relationship that the agency has with all of the partners operating out of KSC. Photo Credit: NASA

Meade: In some cases, its literally flipped. Whereas McDonnell-Douglas, for example, if you go back that far, they worked for us. So we were the customer and they worked for us. Nownot so much with the partnership agreements, per se, but through the services agreementswe work for the commercial entities. So we actually act as a subcontractor to them in many cases. SpaceX, for example, may choose to buy propellants from us for a launch. We become a service provider to them and we subcontract to them for those propellants for that launch.

SFI: So I imagine that actually could be used to offset NASAs expenses here at Kennedy.

Engler: Well, really what it does is it allows them to buy into a service that we already have here, it doesnt necessarily offset costs. They pay for what they use and it doesnt necessarily save us any monies, per se, but it does allow them to work and have ready access to those propellants.

We have Air Liquide outside the gate here providing GN2 is big enabler for these guys because they dont have to create that capability on their own, so weve got that in partnership with Air Liquide. Under that contractual relationship, they supply the propellants, and so they pay for what they use, which is a nice thing. We dont underwrite them, and when theyre using electricity from FP&L [Florida Power & Light], they paying the bills for that, and water from Cocoa Water, and all that kind of stuff, so its just the capabilities we provide, Phils group manages that interaction with them to ensure we give them services at the time that they need it.

SFI: How might NASA use the SLF [Shuttle Landing Facility] in the future?

Meade:Theres plans to use SLF. Its built into the agreement with Space Florida that we still have the ability to land our NASA aircraft out there. Weve got a Guppy coming in next week, weve got a NASA Guppy thats coming in, bringing in something for the Orion service module.

Its still an asset we have at our disposal, to be able to bring things in. You know, once we start launching our astronauts, Im sure theyll be using that runway to land their T-38s. Its still a capability that we have. None of our current vehicles plan on reentering from space and landing there, its more of an aircraft capability for us at this point.

SFI: Can you give our readers a little more about the future, to bring more companies in and the diversification that we might see out here? Some sneak peeks, if you will.

Engler: So what Id point to is a Notice of Availability that we have that has opened up a number of different development categories for companies, so anywhere from clean energy to research and technology and research and development to launch and landing to payload processing and vehicle processing. So those sites are all available, theyre all on the master plan, you can go to the KSC Master Plan website. Itll show you the development map that we have, and so basically every development category thats on that master plan site is available for development.

The Notice of Availability is open, its almost done with its first year, and weve had a number of responses to that already. Its open for two years, total, and well have another one that follows that. It allows companies to come in and propose to building at KSC, so when you look at the ability to foster development between what we have and then what Space Florida has at the SLF, theres a lot of development that still can occur here to continue to diversify Kennedy Space Center to enhance the multi-user spaceport that weve created.

To see us do more and more activities hereits really exciting to look at what might be here a year from now that isnt here now. And then see that keeping on growing and moving forward and continuing to do the basics of getting Americans to space and getting the world to space through Kennedy Space Center, its a really exciting time to be here. And its only going to get better!

Meade:Yeah, if you look at our long-term vision, its really about what we call creating an ecosystem. We want to have a healthy ecosystem out here for all the different pieces, parts, components to doing spaceflight. We want to have manufacturing out here, we want to have lab services out here right on hand, we want to have people actually launching the rockets, we want to have people developing payloads.

Really, its about the whole supply chain. And so when you ask, What are we thinking about in the future? if you look at the economics for how that ecosystem has to develop, it has to start with [?] launcher. Weve got those, were starting to launch. Were now starting to push down that supply chain, so Toms out there beating the bushes trying to push further down that supply chain to get those people to come down here and create those R&D capabilities and other further-down parts of that supply chain.

SFI: That brings up a very good question. Youve got all these components, but now youve got right outside your gate Exploration Park. OneWebtheyre building satellites out here. Were you guys involved with that, or was that just something that happened because of the assets that you havewould you say thats an outgrowth of the multi-user spaceport concept?

Meade: Id say thats certainly part of it. And obviously having that here at Kennedy is a nice addition to the Kennedy Space Center, its another manufacturing capability. Not on a scale like Blue [Origin], but from a satellite perspective, its as big. Blues development site is in Exploration Park as well, and its part of what were trying to do here at Kennedy.

Again, weve made that land available to Space Florida as part of the Exploration Park ecosystem out there, and obviously its now borne fruit between Blue and Space Florida and OneLab. Building on that over time, we fully expect to see more of those kinds of capabilities being built here by private companies that want to take advantage of the environment that we have developed here at Kennedy as a multi-user spaceport.

Tagged: Kennedy Space Center Lead Stories Multi-User Spaceport NASA Phil Meade Tom Engler

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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Insider Q & A: From concept to reality KSC as a Multi-User Spaceport - SpaceFlight Insider

Lloyd Campbell

June 11th, 2017

The 70-meter antenna at the Madrid Deep Space Network Complex (MDSCC) in Spain. Photo Credit: NASA

The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) comprises three sites across the globe which provide telecommunications with interplanetary spacecraft located throughout the Solar System and beyond.

The complexes, located in California, Spain, and Australia, are spaced roughly equidistant from each other, approximately 120 degrees apart in longitude from the neighboring site. This spacing allows continuous communications with any spacecraft while the Earth rotates. All of the sites are located in a semi-mountainous terrain which helps shield them from unwanted radio interference.

Each site contains a minimum of four large antennas ranging from 26 meters up to 70 meters in diameter and is capable of providing continuous radio communications with several spacecraft at the same time. A single processing center at each complex contains all the equipment needed to operate the antennas, receive and process data, as well as send commands to the spacecraft for course corrections, instrument control, and so on.

The large parabolic dishes at each site, as well as the sensitive systems that detect and amplify the signals, allow technicians here on Earth to receive very faint signals from spacecraft millions of miles away.

The antennas pick up not only the faint signals from spacecraft millions of miles away but also receive a lot of background radio noise. Background radio noise, or static, is emitted by almost all objects in the universe; therefore, just in the Solar System, you have the Sun, the eight planets and their associated moons, numerous dwarf planets, and other celestial objects (e.g., comets, asteroids, etc.) all producing static.

In order to clean up the transmission that the antenna receives, each site uses special techniques to distinguish the spacecraft telecommunication from the background noise. Once complete, the data is sent to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where further processing takes place. Once JPL completes its work, the data is sent on to the mission team for each spacecraft.

In order to receive theweak spacecraft signals from far away, large antennasare needed. Each DSN site has one 70-meter (230-foot) diameter antenna capable of tracking and communicating with a spacecraft that has traveled millions, even billions, of miles from Earth. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is currently over 12 billion miles (over 20 billion kilometers) from Earth and is still being tracked by the DSN 70-meter antenna.

Originally built as a 64-meter (210-foot) antenna, the Goldstone Observatory antenna was expanded to 70 meters to allow it to track Voyager 2 during its encounter with Neptune.

In addition to the mammoth 70-meter antenna, each of the three DSN complexes has multiple 34-meter (111-foot) diameter antennas.

Two types of 34-meter antennas are used: the first is a high-efficiency antenna, whereas the second type is a waveguide antenna. The waveguide antenna has five additional mirrors that reflect the radio signal to an equipment room below. The advantages of this design are that the sensitive electronics are stored in a climate controlled room right at the antenna site instead of outdoors. Also, maintenance and upgrades are much easier to perform with this design.

Last of all is the 26-meter (85-foot) antenna which is used for tracking spacecraft in orbit around Earth up to 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) above the surface. Originally built to support the Apollo missions, they utilize a special mount that allows them point lower on the horizon than the larger antenna.

Spacecraft that are millions, even billions, of miles from Earth cant send their signals to a specific point that far away. The radio waves disperse over a wider field and, by the time they reach Earth, one antenna receives only a part of that faint signal.

In order to gather in the entire signal, the DSN engineers came up with antenna arraying where multiple antennas at different complexes work together as a single antenna.

The first use of arraying by the DSN was employed for theVoyager 1, Voyager 2, and Pioneer 11spacecraft. Experimental arrays were also used when the two Voyager probes zoomed past Jupiter in 1979 and again when Pioneer 11 encountered Saturn that same year.

Utilizing what they had learned, the DSN engineers developed better techniques to increase the sensitivity of their arrays, and by the time Voyager 1 and Voyager 2had encountered Saturn in 1980 and 1981, respectively, all three of the complexes used arraying extensively to receive data from the speeding spacecraft.

When Voyager 2 flew by Neptune in 1989, the DSN engineers had honed their techniques such that they were able to combine their own array of antennas at their Goldstone site with 27 antennas at the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico.

The 64-meter antenna diagram. Image Credit: NASA

The predecessor of the DSN was built in January 1958 by JPL for the U.S. Army to provide them with required telecommunication facilities for their then soon-to-be-launched Explorer 1 satellite.

At 10:48 p.m. EST on Jan. 31 (03:48 GMT on Feb. 1), 1958,Explorer 1 became the first successfully deployed U.S. satellite, and the portable tracking stations that were deployed by JPL in Nigeria, Singapore, and California received telemetry data which assisted mission controllers to track the spacecraft.

At the time, all three branches of the armed forces had their own space-exploration programs, and, in October 1958, NASA was formed to combine all of their programs into one civilian organization. Two months later, JPL was transferred to NASA, and one of their first designated projects was to develop robotic spacecraft to perform lunar and planetary exploration.

NASA soon proposed the concept of the Deep Space Network a dedicated communications facility that would support all deep space missions. Designed to be independent of the robotic missions it supported, the DSN would design and build the network and provide its services to the individual missions.

The network benefits were two-fold: each mission and the DSN would be focused on their equipment only, and it eliminated each robotic mission from developing their own communications systems.

While originally designated for only use with robotic missions, the DSN also played a part in the historic Apollo missions to the Moon.

Manned missions had their own dedicated communications network named the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN) for receiving and sending of lunar communications and telemetry data. The MSFN sites were designed by the DSN, and both networks had sites that were located in proximity to each other.

Throughout the Apollo missions, DSN antennas were used for all of the television broadcasts from the surface of the Moon. Neil Armstrongs historic words Thats one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind were actually received by a 64-meter wide DSN antenna, named the Mars antenna, located at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC) in California.

During the Apollo 13 emergency, the DSN complexes all played an important role in maintaining constant communication with the crew.

While the television images of men on the Moon were historic, many unmanned missions beamed memorable images and data back to the DSN.

Years before the two Voyager probes took us on a tour of the Solar System, Mariner 4 sent back the first ever close-up pictures of Mars during its flyby in 1964. Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet when it went into orbit around Mars in 1971. It sent back the first detailed images of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos.

Canberra (Australia) Deep Space Network Complex (CDSCC). Photo Credit: NASA

Viking 1 and Viking 2 traveled to Mars in 1975, arriving at the planet in 1976. They released landers which soft-landed and sent back the first pictures from the surface of the Red Planet.

Since then, numerous orbiters, landers, and rovers have sent back extraordinary images of the Martian surface. Opportunity, a rover which landed in January 2004 on a 90-day mission, is still performing and returning images and data from the surface 13 years later. The Curiosity rover is nearing its fifth anniversary of roaming the Martian surface as it moves about the Gale crater.

NASA is keeping the DSN facilities very busy with a number of active missions still ongoing. With better designs increasing the reliability of the spacecraft and rovers, its becoming almost commonplace for missions to be extended beyond their initial timelines. For example, Cassini, a mission to Saturn and its rings, was originally scheduled for a 4-year mission and, after two extensions,will finish up its 13-year mission this year.

In that nine-year span, NASA has launched many additional missions, all of which require communications time with the DSN. In all, there are 35 active missions requiring the DSN for communications today. With more spacecraft being built that are expected to transmit even heavier data streams, along with more missions being extended, that number of active missions can be expected to increase.

While the DSN has been spectacularly reliable in the past, a few issues have cropped up recently, including one where the Cassini spacecraft was supposed to make a course correction. However, when the time came to transmit the course correction commands to Cassini, there was a problem with the communications link, so Cassini never got its instructions and missed the course correction. The problem, it turned out to be, was with the DSN and not the spacecraft.

While new antennas, equipment, and infrastructure have been put in place since the original complexes were built, some of the equipment, like the 70-meter dish, are over half century old.

Like other areas of NASA, the DSN has been asked to do more with less. The problem in the future for them will be how to maintain necessary communications while still maintaining and upgrading their equipment to support the increasing demands being made on them, all within a shrinking budget.

If you would like to see which spacecraft the Deep Space Networkis communicating with at any given time, then go to the NASA website: DSNNow

Tagged: Deep Space Network Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA The Range

Lloyd Campbells first interest in space began when he was a very young boy in the 1960s with NASAs Gemini and Apollo programs. That passion continued in the early 1970s with our continued exploration of our Moon, and was renewed by the Shuttle Program. Having attended the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on its final two missions, STS-131, and STS-133, he began to do more social networking on space and that developed into writing more in-depth articles. Since then hes attended the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, the agencys new crew-rated Orion spacecraft on Exploration Flight Test 1, and multiple other uncrewed launches. In addition to writing, Lloyd has also been doing more photography of launches and aviation. He enjoys all aspects of space exploration, both human, and robotic, but his primary passions lie with human exploration and the vehicles, rockets, and other technologies that allow humanity to explore space.

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Deep Space Network providing communications for over 50 years - SpaceFlight Insider

Indias new GSLV Mk.3 launcher delivered to orbit the GSAT 19 communications satellite Monday, and these photos show the rocket lifting off from a launch pad on the eastern Indian coastline powered by two side-mounted solid rocket boosters.

The GSLV Mk.3 took offat 1158 GMT (7:58 a.m. EDT) Monday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, a spaceport on Indias east coast around 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Chennai.

The 142-foot-tall (43-meter) rocket soared into mostly clear skies over Sriharikota, where launch occurred at 5:28 p.m. local time, on 2.2 million pounds of thrust from solid rocket boosters. A liquid-fueled core stage and cryogenic upper stage later fired to propel the GSAT 19 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit.

Mondays flight was the maiden orbital test launch of the GSLV Mk.3, which completed a suborbital demo mission in December 2014 without a functional upper stage. The GSLV Mk.3 is Indias most powerful rocket to date, doubling the capability of Indias GSLV Mk.2 launcher to lift up to 8,800 pounds (4 metric tons) into geostationary transfer orbit, the drop-off point for most communications satellites.

Read our full story for details on the mission.

These photos show the GSLV Mk.3 rollout out to the Second Launch Pad at Sriharikota, followed by Mondays liftoff.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Photos: India's GSLV Mk.3 debuts with on-target test flight - Spaceflight Now

Artist's illustration of a fusion-driven rocket powering a spacecraft to Mars. The company Princeton Satellite Systems is working to develop small fusion drives that could make such missions a reality.

Fusion-powered rockets that are only the size of a few refrigerators could one day help propel spacecraft at high speeds to nearby planets or even other stars, a NASA-funded spaceflight company says.

Another use for such fusion rockets is to deflect asteroids that might strike Earth and to build manned bases on the moon and Mars, the researchers say.

Rockets fly by hurling materials known as propellants away from them. Conventional rockets that rely on chemical reactions are not very efficient when it comes to how much thrust they generate, given the amount of propellant they carry, which has led rocket scientists to explore a variety of alternatives over the years. [Superfast Spacecraft Propulsion Concepts (Images)]

An option now used in spacecraft is the ion drive, which generates thrust by using electricity to accelerate electrically charged ion propellants. Ion drives are far more efficient than chemical rockets, but are limited by the amount of electricity they can harvest via solar panels or generate using radioactive materials.

Instead of chemical rockets or ion drives, scientists have also suggested using fusion rockets propelled by the same nuclear reactions that power stars. These rockets would not only be efficient, but also generate vast amounts of electricity.

However, so far, no one has built a fusion reactor that generates more energy than it consumes. Moreover, the fusion reactors that are under development are huge, making them difficult to hoist into space.

But now, researchers funded by NASA are developing small fusion rockets.

"It's technology that enables really interesting robotic and human missions to Mars and Pluto, and it is also potentially a way of getting into interstellar space," said Michael Paluszek, president of Princeton Satellite Systems in Plainsboro, New Jersey.

The large fusion reactors under development today, such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), usually strive to generate hundreds of megawatts of power. In contrast, Paluszek and his colleagues at Princeton Satellite Systems are designing reactors meant to produce only a dozen megawatts or so. This humbler goal results in a smaller, lighter reactor that is easier to build and launch into space "for practical robotic and human missions," Paluszek said.

In addition, these small fusion reactors are much cheaper than larger devices. Paluszek noted that, whereas modern fusion experiments might cost $20 billion, a prototype fusion rocket the researchers plan to develop should cost just $20 million. So far, they have received three NASA grants to fund the project, he said.

The aim for the fusion drives is to get about 1 kilowatt of power per 2.2 lbs. (1 kilogram) of mass. A 10-megawatt fusion rocket would therefore weigh about 11 tons (10 metric tons).

"It would probably be 1.5 meters [4.9 feet] in diameter and 4 to 8 meters [13 to 26 feet] long," Paluszek said.

Nuclear fusion requires extremely high temperatures and pressures to force atoms to fuse, a process that converts some of the mass of the atoms into energy. The fusion reactors that Princeton Satellite Systems is developing uses low-frequency radio waves to heat a mix of deuterium and helium-3, and magnetic fields to confine the resulting plasma in a ring. (Deuterium is made of hydrogen atoms that each have an extra neutron; helium-3 is made of helium atoms, each of which is missing a neutron; and plasma is the state of matter found in stars, lightning bolts and neon lights.)

As this plasma rotates in a ring, some of it can spiral out and get directed from the fusion rocket's nozzle for thrust. "We can get very high exhaust velocities of up to about 25,000 kilometers per second [55.9 million mph]," Paluszek said.

The large amounts of thrust this fusion rocket may deliver compared to its mass could enable very fast spacecraft. For instance, whereas round-trip crewed missions to Mars are estimated to take more than two years using current technology, the researchers estimated that six 5-megawatt fusion rockets could accomplish such missions in 310 days. This extra speed would reduce the risks of radiation that astronauts might experience from the sun or deep space, as well as dramatically cut the amount of food, water and other supplies they would need to bring with them.

In addition, the fusion reactors could also help generate ample electricity for scientific instruments and communications devices. For instance, whereas NASA's New Horizons mission took more than nine years to get to Pluto and had little more than 200 watts of power to work with once it arrived, broadcasting about 1,000 bits of data back per second, a 1-megawatt fusion rocket could get a robotic mission to Pluto in four years, supply 2 million watts of power and broadcast more than 1 million bits of data back per second, Paluszek said. Such a mission could also carry a lander to Pluto and power it by beaming down energy, he added.

"With the amount of power fusion rockets can provide, you can think of science that can't be done now with other technologies, such as powering a lander to drill through the ice on Jupiter's moon Europa," Paluszek said.

A 10-megawatt fusion rocket could also deflect an asteroid about 525 feet (160 m) in diameter coming at Earth, spending about 200 days to travel there and 23 days nudging it off course, Paluszek said. Fusion rockets could even enable an interstellar voyage to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, although the trip might take 500 to 700 years, he said. (Alpha Centauri lies about 4.3 light-years from the sun.) [Gallery: Visions of Interstellar Starship Travel]

Previous research suggested this kind of fusion rocket in the 1960s, but the designs proposed for them would not stably confine the plasmas, Paluszek said. About 10 years ago, reactor designer Sam Cohen figured out a magnetic-field design "that could make stable plasmas," Paluszek explained.

One drawback of the kind of nuclear reactor that Princeton Satellite Systems is developing is that radio waves do not penetrate deeply into plasma. "We're limited to something like 10 meters [33 feet] in diameter," Paluszek said. To generate large amounts of power with this strategy, the researchers have to rely on multiple reactors.

Another pitfall is that, while this fusion reactor generates less deadly neutron radiation than most fusion reactors under development, it still does produce some neutrons, as well as X-rays. "Radiation shielding is key," Paluszek said.

In addition, helium-3 is rare on Earth. Still, it is possible to generate helium-3 using nuclear reactors, Paluszek said.

Princeton Satellite Systems is not alone in pursuing small fusion reactors. For instance, Paluszek noted that Helion Energy in Redmond, Washington, also intends to fuse deuterium and helium-3, while Tri Alpha Energy in Foothill Ranch, California, aims to fuse boron and protons.

"Fusion can enable new and exciting science missions that are too expensive and difficult to do with today's technology," Paluszek said.

The researchers have not yet demonstrated fusion with their device, but aim to do so by 2019 to 2020. Paluszek detailed his company's research June 3 at The Dawn of Private Space Science Symposium in New York.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article Space.com.

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Will Mini Fusion Rockets Provide Spaceflight's Next Big Leap? - Space.com

Bart Leahy

June 10th, 2017

Artists impression of the asteroid Apophis approaching the Earth. Image Credit: Dan Durda FIAAA

Apophis, an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier, will make a close approach to Earth in 2029. It will come withinapproximately 18,300 miles (29,500kilometers), less than one-tenththe distance from Earth to the Moon. A group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is designing a mission to study that asteroid up close as it passes by.

The good news is, according to NASAs Center for Near Earth Objects, Apophis is not going to strike Earth in 2029, but having a rock that big and that close is too good an opportunity not to study. The student mission, called Surface Evaluation & Tomography (or SET), is designed to investigate:

Possible positions of 2004 MN4 (Apophis) on April 13, 2029. (Click to enlarge) Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A group of 20 students is designing the SET mission as part of a space systems engineering course. The first slide in one student presentationreads: Mission Motivation: Apophis is coming!

The name Apophis comes from Egyptian mythology and is the god of chaos and evil. Appropriately enough, Set is the god sent to thwart him. A rock the size of Apophis would, indeed, bring a lot of chaos were it to crash into Earth.

The engineering class is being led by Professor of planetary sciences Richard Binzel, along with David Miller, the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics,who recently returned to MIT after serving as chief technologist for NASA. Binzel, who also led a student project to build an instrument for OSIRIS-REx, and Miller challenged their students to build a major science robotics mission combining planetary defense with scientific learning.

The students proposed design would operate using primarily proven, off-the-shelf hardware, including the spacecraft bus (Orbital ATK LEOStar3, which flew on Dawn and Deep Space 1) solar panels, and instruments. The instruments would include heritage hardware from New Horizons (LORRI), OSIRIS-REx (RALPH), Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (SHARAD), and Lucy (TES).

Earlier in the semester, the students performed a System Requirements Review (SRR) and Preliminary Design Review, leading up to their high-powered Critical Design Review, which was attended by officials from NASA Headquarters as well as engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

To reach Apophis in time for rendezvous, a spacecraft would have to launch in August 2026. The objective of the orbital mission is to get closeenough to Apophisto conduct measurements before, during, and after the 2029 event.

The student-designed mission is the first significant attempt to study Apophis from space, in part because asteroid defense is not precisely NASAs responsibility. Millersays,That kind of falls between the cracks at NASA.

The SET mission, like the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that will orbit the asteroid Bennu later this decade, could teach scientists more about the construction of asteroids, which were some of the early building blocks of the Solar System. New information could lead to a deeper understanding of the formation of the Solar Systemand planets in other star systems.

The primary importance of the SET mission would be to improve human knowledge about close-approaching asteroids with the hope of learning how to defend against them. The bad news is that this exciting, student-driven study is not being funded by NASA or any other space agency yet.

Binzel hopes Project Apophis will serve as a kickstarter, with the goal being to encourage NASA Centers and major contractors to consider their own response, perhaps basing formal funding proposals closely following the student design. Apophis is coming so close that Earths gravity is going to tug and redirect its path. The Earth is going to give it a big thunk.

When asked if there were plans to submit SET as a formal proposal to NASA, student team member Alissa Earle told Spaceflight Insider:Right now we are mostly focused on getting the idea out there to get the scientific community thinking about how to take advantage of this once per 1,000-year opportunity. Whether it ultimately ends up looking like the SET Mission or something completely different, the most important thing is that we find a way to effectively watch and learn from this natural experiment.

Even if the mission does not become a reality, this mission-design experience has been a useful learning experience for Earle and the rest of her MIT classmates: For me, it was really interesting to see the starting steps of how missions get designed and to work with the engineering students. We all wanted to design a really great mission but the scientists and engineers approached the problem from different directions. This class offered a great opportunity to [] see how a mission goes from a vague idea (we should send a spacecraft to study Apophis) to a mission design (like the SET Mission).

Tagged: Apophis Asteroids Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT planetary defense The Range

Bart Leahy is a freelance technical writer living in Orlando, Florida. Leahy's diverse career has included work for The Walt Disney Company, NASA, the Department of Defense, Nissan, a number of commercial space companies, small businesses, nonprofits, as well as the Science Cheerleaders.

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MIT students studying mission to asteroid Apophis - SpaceFlight Insider

Jim Sharkey

June 9th, 2017

From left to right: NASA Associate Administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate Steve Jurczyk, Benjamin Fried of teamCU-E3, Kyle Doyle of teamCislunar Explorers, Wesley Faler of Team Miles, and NASA Ames Research Center Director Eugene Tu. Photo Credit: Dominic Hart / NASA

On Thursday, June 8, NASA announced the three winning teams of the semi-final round of the space agencys Cube Quest Challenge. In addition to winning $20,000 each in prize money, the three teams have also secured spots to launch their spacecraft on Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) the first flight of NASAs Space Launch System (SLS) with the Orion spacecraft.

The CubeSats will be placed in the Orion Stage Adapter, the ring that connects the spacecraft to the SLS rocket, and deployed after Orion separates from SLS and begins its journey into deep space. The adapteris capable of carrying a total of 13 CubeSats. Once deployed, they will compete in deep space for a share of a $5 million prize in the final stage of the Cube Quest Challenge.

The three teams are the following:

We are delighted in the profound achievements of these teams, said Steve Jurczyk, STMD associate administrator. Each team has pushed the boundaries of technology and innovation. Now, its time to take this competition into space and may the best CubeSat win.

According to NASA, the final phase of the Cube Quest Challenge comprises two portions: the Deep Space Derby and the Lunar Derby. In the Deep Space Derby, teams must demonstrate communications from a range of at least 2.5 million miles (four million kilometers), which is more than 10 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The Lunar Derby requires teams to achieve a lunar orbit and compete for near-Earth communications and longevity achievements. Prizes will be awarded for orbiting the Moon, communicating the fastest and farthest, and surviving the longest.

EM-1 is currently scheduled to launch in late 2019. The Deep Space and Lunar derbies will conclude one year after the CubeSats are deployed.

Opening our first SLS test flight beyond the Moon to citizen inventors and the scientific community creates a rare opportunity for these small spacecraft to reach deep space, said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. These CubeSat-class payloads are expanding our ability to explore by demonstrating affordable and innovative capabilities relevant to future deep space missions.

The Cube Quest Challenge is part of NASAs Centennial Challenges program. The challenge is managed at NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

SLS secondary payloads infographic. Image Credit: NASA

Tagged: Cube Quest Challenge EM-1 NASA Space Launch System The Range

Jim Sharkey is a lab assistant, writer and general science enthusiast who grew up in Enid, Oklahoma, the hometown of Skylab and Shuttle astronaut Owen K. Garriott. As a young Star Trek fan he participated in the letter-writing campaign which resulted in the space shuttle prototype being named Enterprise. While his academic studies have ranged from psychology and archaeology to biology, he has never lost his passion for space exploration. Jim began blogging about science, science fiction and futurism in 2004. Jim resides in the San Francisco Bay area and has attended NASA Socials for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover landing and the NASA LADEE lunar orbiter launch.

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3 CubeSats win rides on 1st flight of NASA's SLS - SpaceFlight Insider - SpaceFlight Insider

HYDERABAD: ISRO is in the process of further improving the capability of its GSLV-Mk III so that it can use this heaviest rocket for human space flight mission once government approval comes, a top scientist said here.

GSLV-Mk III is really the vehicle that will be the workhorse in the coming years for primarily launching geo-synchronous missions and also very heavy spacecraft in near-earth missions, K Kasturirangan, former chief of ISRO, told PTI.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) earlier this week successfully launched from the Sriharikota spaceport, the first developmental flight of GSLV-MK III, capable of launching four-ton class satellites.

"ISRO is in the process of further improving the capability of this vehicle. It could go up to a ten-ton kind of capability," said Kasturirangan.

It was during his tenure as ISRO Chairman the GSLV-Mk III was configured and the programme secured approval by the Space Commission in the early part of the previous decade.

"So, this will be a level of vehicle which India will use for most of the requirements of geo-synchronous missions. It can take to up to four tons and, hopefully with improvements in some of the areas, one can go even beyond four tons," he said.

"With this we want to build our communication satellites. So, it's very tailored for future communication satellites to be launched by India. We will not have to depend on any other foreign launch agency," according to him.

Kasturirangan said ISRO is trying to do a "man-rating sort of thing" (or human rating), which is a certification of a spacecraft or launch vehicle as worthy of transporting humans.

So as and when there is a need and the country takes a decision on going for human space flight, it would have an "autonomous ability" to access the space through this vehicle in those missions, he said

"Certainly, it's a very elegantly-configured system (GSLV-Mk III). I am sure this will certainly serve us for a long time to come in the context of a variety of missions and also make us much more self-reliant in respect to accessing space," he said.

On opportunities for ISRO to tap into the market of launching four-ton class satellites from foreign customers, Kasturirangan said: "I am sure India will be one of the important contenders for taking some share of the market. India can provide a competitive market for that kind of launches with GSLV Mk III".

But he was quick to add that New Delhi would have competitors from (launch vehicle providers in) France, (some other parts of) Europe, the United States, China and Russia.

"There are contenders...many of them are established over the years. At this stage, we have to explore the market and slowly get into it," Kasturirangan said.

He, however, added that foreign customers find working with Indians for launch services a "very good experience" given their culture and attitude, which are appreciated by many countries.

Read the rest here:

ISRO readying GSLV-Mk III for human space flight: Kasturirangan - Economic Times

The Orion crew module is hoisted above a test fixture at Kennedy Space Center in Florida (left); the service module flight model for Exploration Mission-1 arrives in Germany.

Engineers building spacecraft are used to a bit of pressure, but the team assembling and testing Orion at locations across the United States and abroad are preparing for the kind of pressure they like.

In the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Orions crew module is being assembled, a team from NASA and Lockheed Martin is getting ready for Orions proof pressure testing, an evaluation that will helpverify the structural integrity of Orions underlying structure known as the pressure vessel. The work is an important milestone on Orions journey toward its mission beyond the moon atop the Space Launch System rocket in 2018. Last week, the team moved it to a new testing structure in advance of the evaluation.

At NASA Glenns Plum Brook Station in Ohio, engineers started testing a structural representation of the service module with sound pressure and vibration to make sure the component, which powers, propels, cools and provides consumables like air and water in space for Orion, can withstand the noise and shaking of launch. Meanwhile, at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, engineers are already in the thick of a series of teststhat began earlier this month where a representative Orion crew capsule withcrash test dummiesinside is dropped in Langleys Hydro Impact Basin to understand what the spacecraft and astronauts may experience when landing in the Pacific Ocean after deep-space missions. Langley engineers have already completed three tests in the series and will next add spacesuits and helmets to the test dummies inside to gather more data.

While the stateside team continues to put the crew module through its technical paces, the European team manufacturing Orions service module has also been making progress. This week the first flight module of the Orion service module, provided by ESA (European Space Agency), was delivered by Thales Alenia Space to the Airbus Defence and Space, which is building it, to its location in Bremen, Germany. There, elements of the service module will be integrated before its shipped to Florida for integration with the rest of the Orion spacecraft early next year.

Direct Field Acoustic Testing is being conducted on the flown Orion crew module. Credit: Lockheed Martin

Engineers at Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martins facility near Denver are assessing a new acoustic test methodon the space-flown Orion crew module.

Direct Field Acoustic testing uses more than 1,500customized, high-energy speakers configured in a circle around thevehicle.This test simulates the intense acoustic loads Orion will experience during launch and ascent on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.If this test method passes all necessary evaluations it will be used to verify Orions ability to withstand SLS acoustic loads during its next mission, Exploration Mission-1.

Orion is lowered onto a work stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Engineers loaded the Orion pressure vessel, or underlying structure of the crew module, into a work stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 2. The pressure vessels seven large pieces were welded together at the agencys Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans between September 2015 and January 2016. It will fly thousands of miles beyond the moon on Exploration Mission-1.

The pressure vessel provides a sealed environment to support astronauts and is key for future human-rated crew modules. The Orion team will test the pressure vessel to make sure its structurally sound and then begin outfitting it with the spacecrafts other systems and subsystems. Over the next 18 months, more than 100,000 components will arrive to Kennedy for integration into Orion. Check out more photos of Orions trip to Kennedy.

NASAs Super Guppy aircraft will transport the underlying structure of Orion from New Orleans to the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The pressure vessel, or underlying structure, of Orion for Exploration Mission-1 is heading to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The pressure vessel was assembled at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where technicians welded together its seven large aluminum pieces in detailed fashion over the course of about four months. It will travel to Kennedy on the agencys Super Guppy aircraft. Once it arrives, engineers will unload it into a fixture in the Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building where it will undergo testing and be outfitted with Orions systems and subsystems.

NASA has selected Charlie Lundquist as deputy manager of the agencys Orion Program.

NASA has selected Charlie Lundquist as deputy manager of the agencys Orion Program. Along with Program Manager Mark Kirasich, Lundquist will be responsible for oversight of design, development and testing of the Orion spacecraft, as well as spacecraft manufacturing already underway at locations across the county and in Europe. Lundquist has served as manager of the Orion crew and service module office since 2008.

Charlie has outstanding program management skills and has played pivotal roles in many of Orions accomplishments, including Orions successful flight test last year, said Kirasich. As we manufacture and deliver hardware and software for Orions next mission during the coming months and years, his leadership will be essential.

Lundquist began his NASA career in 1993 at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston in the Space Station Freedom Program and quickly transitioned into the International Space Station Program, where he managed the Russian Vehicle Project Office, serving as lead negotiator for all technical discussions between NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. In 1997, he became deputy manager of the Element Integration Office for the space station, leading the multi-disciplinary team responsible for certifying the Unity module, the first U.S. element of the space station, for flight. In 1999, Lundquist was named deputy chief of Johnsons Life Sciences Research Laboratories, developing and administering NASAs operations and clinical research process to pursue research objectives aimed at improving health care systems and practices in space. He also served in several other positions in spaceflight research and the Constellation Program.

A native of Dallas, Lundquist received a bachelors degree in electrical engineering in 1984 from the University of Texas at Austin, a masters degree in biological science in 1996 from the University of Houston in Clear Lake and completed PhD coursework in biomedical sciencesunder a NASA fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, in 2001. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including NASAs Exceptional Service Medal and Silver Snoopy Award, as well as the JSC Directors Award of Excellence.

NASA is working with ESA and its contractor Airbus to provide the Orion service module for Exploration Mission-1.

NASAs Orion Program continues to mark progress at facilities around the country toward the next flight of the spacecraft. Engineers at NASA Glenn Research Centers Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, are preparing a structural representation of the ESA (European Space Agency)-provided service module for several months of testing to ensure the component, which supplies Orions power and propulsion, can withstand the trip to space. The test article recently arrived from Europe. Meanwhile, technicians at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans are continuing the process of welding together the seven pieces of Orions pressure vessel for its next mission. See the latest images of Orion progress here.

At Michoud Assembly Facility, technicians welded together Orions barrel and aft bulkhead inside a tooling structure.

Engineers at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans continue to weld together the primary structure of the Orion spacecraft for Exploration Mission-1. Technicians recently joined the spacecrafts barrel section, which is the round middle part of the spacecraft, to the aft bulkhead, which is the bottom portion of the crew module. Orions primary structure is composed of seven large pieces that are put together in detailed order. Orions three cone panels next will be welded together. Once completed, the structure will be shipped from Michoud to the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Orions systems and subsystems will be integrated and processed before launch atop NASAs Space Launch System rocket.

NASA has appointed Mark Kirasich to be manager of the agencys Orion Program. Credits: NASA/Bill Stafford

NASA has appointed Mark Kirasich to be manager of the agencys Orion Program. The Orion spacecraft is being developed to send astronauts to deep space destinations, such as an asteroid and ultimately to Mars, launching on the agencys Space Launch System rocket.

Kirasich has been deputy Orion Program manager since 2006. He now will be responsible for oversight of design, development and testing of the Orion spacecraft, as well as spacecraft manufacturing already underway at locations across the country and in Europe for ESA (European Space Agency).

Mark brings a wealth of knowledge about NASAs human spaceflight efforts to the Orion Program manager position, said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. By overseeing the team and the work needed to send Orion to deep space, and working directly with our international partner ESA to provide the spacecrafts service module, his leadership will be essential to enabling humans to pioneer farther into the solar system and continue our journey to Mars.

Kirasich began his NASA career in 1983 at Johnson Space Center as a member of the space shuttle flight operations team, quickly advancing to the position of lead space shuttle payload officer in mission control. In 1996, he was selected as a flight director in charge of planning and executing NASA human spaceflight missions, serving in that capacity for multiple space shuttle missions and International Space Station expeditions.

I have seen firsthand Marks impact on the Orion Program, and previously in key operations leadership roles at Johnson, and I look forward to having him help us extend the success of Orions 2014 flight test forward, said JSC Director Ellen Ochoa.

Kirasich succeeds Mark Geyer, who became JSCs deputy director in August.

A native of Chicago, Kirasich received a bachelors degree in electrical engineering in 1982 from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and a masters degree in electrical engineering in 1983 from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including NASAs Outstanding Leadership Medal and Space Flight Awareness Award, as well as a JSC Directors Commendation.

Across the country, elements of the Orion spacecraft are coming together for the first integrated mission with the Space Launch System. At NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, welding began in September on the next Orion destined for space. Next month, NASA will see the arrival of a test version of Orions service module, provided by ESA, for testing and analysis at the agencys Plum Brook Station, near Sandusky, Ohio.

For more information about Orion,click here.

Engineers at Lockheed Martins facility near Denver examine Orion upon its arrival. Credit: Lockheed Martin

NASAs Orion spacecraft that flew into space in 2014 has completed its trek from the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Littleton, Colorado, facility of Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin. Engineers will perform final decontamination of the crew module, continue post-flight analysis and evaluate a new acoustic technology to determine if the method can produce enough energy to simulate the acoustic loads Orion will experience during launch and ascent atop NASAs Space Launch System rocket. Check out images of Orion and read more about the acoustic testing here.

Mars enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASAs journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASAs InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year.

The fly-your-name opportunity comes with frequent flier points to reflect an individuals personal participation in NASAs journey to Mars, which will span multiple missions and multiple decades. The InSight mission offers the second such opportunity for space exploration fans to collect points by flying their names aboard a NASA mission, with more opportunities to follow.

Last December, the names of 1.38 million people flew on a chip aboard the first flight of NASAs Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to deep space destinations including Mars and an asteroid. After InSight, the next opportunity to earn frequent flier points will be NASAs Exploration Mission-1, the first planned test flight bringing together the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule in preparation for human missions to Mars and beyond.

Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 8. To send your name to Mars aboard InSight, go to: http://go.usa.gov/3Aj3G

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Orion - NASA Blogs

A Proton rocket lifts off Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the EchoStar 21 communications satellite. Credit: Khrunichev

An EchoStar communications satellite designed to link Europeans with voice and broadband data services rode into orbit on top of a Russian Proton rocket Thursday, deploying into an on-target orbit after nine hours of maneuvers by the launchers Breeze M upper stage.

The 191-foot-tall (58-meter) Proton/Breeze M rocket took off at 0345:47 GMT Thursday (11:45:47 p.m. EDT Wednesday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, heading to the east from the historic Central Asia launch base into partly sunny skies.

Liftoff occurred at 9:45 a.m. local time at Baikonur, when the Protons six RD-276 main engines, consuming a mixture of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, ignited with a rush of orange-brown exhaust and powered the launcher airborne with 2 million pounds of thrust.

The Proton dropped its three main stages and payload fairing in predetermined zones downrange from Baikonur, and a Breeze M upper stage ignited five times, first to enter a preliminary parking orbit around 100 miles above Earth, then to steer the EchoStar 21 communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit, the drop-off point for most large telecom spacecraft.

The Breeze Ms guidance computer intended to deliver EchoStar 21 into an orbit ranging between 1,429 miles (2,300 kilometers) and 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) in altitude, with an inclination of 30.5 degrees to the equator.

International Launch Services, a Virginia-based company owned by Russias Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, managed Thursdays Proton mission. ILS is responsible for marketing and sales of Proton rockets on the global commercial market.

Officials declared the launch a success more than nine hours after liftoff, when the Breeze M upper stage released EchoStar 21 in orbit.

We have been honored to have served EchoStar for nearly 20 years now, dating back to the launch of the EchoStar 4 satellite on Proton in 1998, said Kirk Pysher, ILS president, in a post-launch press release. The ILS team is very proud to have played a role in the expansion of the EchoStar satellite fleet and enabling connectivity across Europe, with the successful launch of EchoStar 21. Our sincere thanks to all of the EchoStar 21 team members who played a vital role in the success of this mission.

Built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California, the EchoStar 21 satellite weighed around 15,200 pounds (6.9 metric tons) at liftoff, making it one of the most massive commercial communications craft ever launched, and the heaviest commercial payload ever flown on a Proton rocket.

Thursdays launch was the first by a Proton rocket since June 9, 2016, when the Intelsat 31/DLA-2 communications satellite launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Russian officials grounded the Proton to study an upper stage engine problem, then the launchers return to service was delayed several more months due to a recall of Russian rocket engines found to have defects.

EchoStar 21 was transported to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in November for a planned Dec. 28 launch, but authorities grounded the mission to scrub Russias rocket propulsion industry after discovering widespread quality control problems.

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, strengthened inspection and quality requirements after recalling 71 rocket engines used on the Protons second and third stages. The engines, manufactured byVoronezh Mechanical Plant VMZ under contract to Proton-builder Khrunichev, were found to have substandard solders using metals that were not as heat-resistant as specified in the engine designs.

The general director of VMZ was dismissed, according to Roscosmos, and new engines were installed for the EchoStar 21 launch.

Russian authorities directedofficials from NPO Energomash, which builds first stage engines for the Soyuz, Atlas 5 and Antares rockets, to take charge of engine production at VMZ to improve quality control, production discipline and the culture at the troubled plant.

NPO Energomash will also upgrade monitors on engine performance during test-firings before installation on the Proton rocket, Roscosmos said.

Four more Proton launches are planned before the end of the year, including two additional commercial ILS missions with the Amazonas 5 and AsiaSat 9 communications satellites for Madrid-based Hispasat and Hong Kong-headquartered AsiaSat, respectively. There are two Russian government payloads also slated for Proton flights later this year.

EchoStar 21s 15-year mission will help expand a mobile voice and data relay communications network over the European Union and neighboring countries for EchoStar Mobile Ltd., a Dublin-based subsidiary of Colorado-based EchoStar Corp.

Based on the SSL 1300-series satellite bus, EchoStar 21 will fire its on-board thruster in the coming weeks to circularize its orbit nearly 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) over the equator. The spacecraft will also extend its power-generating solar panels, unfurl a 59-foot (18-meter) reflector built by Harris Corp. once on station, and activate its S-band communications payload for in-orbit tests.

EchoStar 21 will enter service in geostationary orbit at 10.25 degrees east longitude, a perch with coverage over Europe.

The umbrella-shaped Harris-built antenna will allow users on the ground to connect with the satellite via compact receivers, helping customers on-the-go make voice calls, send emails and browse the Internet.

EchoStar 21 joins 25 other spacecraft owned, operated, or leased by EchoStar and its subsidiaries, the fourth-largest commercial geostationary satellite fleet. The new spacecraft was supposed to launch in early 2016 before Proton delays slipped the liftoff to this month.

Space Systems/Loral said in a statement after Thursdays launch that EchoStar 21 is performing post-launch maneuvers according to plan after ground controllers established contact with the satellite.

The launch of EchoStar 21 is a major milestone in the continued expansion of our satellite fleet, said Anders Johnson, executive director of EchoStar Mobile and president of EchoStar Satellite Services. EchoStar 21 will provide capacity to EchoStar Mobile for commercial wholesalers with a new, advanced network for reliable, IP-based MSS (Mobile Satellite Services) voice and data services in Europe. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of all of the team members from EchoStar, SSL, ILS and Khrunichev, who played a role in the successful launch of EchoStar 21.

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Proton rocket successfully returns to flight after year-long grounding - Spaceflight Now

The 2017 NASA astronaut candidates. Front row, from left: Zena Cardman, Jasmin Moghbeli, Jonny Kim, Raji Chari and Loral O Hara. Back row, from left: Frank Rubio, Matthew Dominick, Warren Hoburg, Robb Kulin, Kayla Barron, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins.Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz

NASA has picked 12 engineers, scientists and pilots to begin basic training for future spaceflight assignments from more than 18,300 applicants, adding U.S. military combat veterans, two medical doctors, a submarine officer, an MIT professor, an expert on submersibles, a SpaceX launch engineer, a field biologistand a planetary geologist to the agencys astronaut ranks.

Vice President Mike Pence, lawmakers and political dignitaries welcomed the 12 astronaut candidates Wednesday at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The new cadre of astronaut candidates are part of NASAs largest astronaut class since 2000, and they will begin two years of training in August before becoming full-feldged members of the astronaut corps and eligible for flight assignments.

These are 12 men and women whose personal excellence and whose personal courage will carry our nation to even greater heights of discovery and who I know will inspire our children and our grandchildren every bit as much as your forebears have done so in this storied American program, Pence said.

Pence reiterated the White Houses plans to reestablish the National Space Council, a multi-agency panel that waslast active during President George H.W. Bushs administration. Pence will chair the council, which will include representatives from civilian and military agencies, the private sector and academia.

America needs a National Space Council once again, Pence said. Twice before in our nations history, our nation has had a federal body charged with advising the president on national policy and strategy for space.

Pence did not offer specifics of the White Houses vision for NASA, but President Trumps fiscal year 2018 budget request proposes a $19.1 billion budget for the space agency next year, a $561 million reduction from NASAs current-year spending.

The budget request calls for a $170 million cut in Earth science spending, the elimination of five Earth science missions, the shuttering of NASAs education office, and the cancellation of a planned mission to retrieve a boulder-sized piece of an asteroid and return it to the vicinity of the moon for astronaut visits.

NASAs Space Launch System and Orion capsule, designed for deep space human exploration, would receive a multibillion-dollar budget, and the robotic Mars 2020 rover and Europa Clipper probe are kept on track in the White House proposal. A Europa lander would be terminated.

We will continue to unlock the mysteries of space, but to do so, we most reorient our civilian space program toward deep space exploration and provide the capabilites for America to maintain a constant presence in low Earth orbit and beyond, Pence said.

NASA released biographies of the 12 new astronaut candidates, who applied for the space program after NASA posted astronaut job openings in December 2015.

Here are brief overviews of the 12 new astronaut candidates provided by NASA:

As American astronauts, you may yet return our nation to the moon, you may be the first to travel to Mars, (and) you may have experiences that we can only imagine, Pence said.

NASA culled the 12 finalists from more than 18,000 applicants, a record level of interest in the astronaut job opportunities that bested the number of applications for the space agencys 1978 astronaut class, the first to include women and minorities.

Getting down from 18,000 to some manageable number was a feat in and of itself, said astronaut Chris Cassidy, deputy chair of the astronaut selection board. We physically interviewed 120 people here in Houston obviously these 12 were a part of that and thats when it really gets hard.

The would-be space explorers are a diverse group, hailing from different personal backgrounds and boasting a range of professional experiences.

Five of the astronaut candidates hold doctorate degrees, and seven are current or former military officers.

Jonny Kim, a former Navy SEAL and currently an emergency physician, said NASA told the incoming astronauts they would likely initially train to fly on commercial SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsules to the International Space Station.

Asked if he would ride on a CST-100 Starliner crew craft owned and operated by Boeing, a SpaceX rival, SpaceX engineer Robb Kulin said yes.

Ill ride on whatever spacecraft I can go on, said Kulin, who helped design parts of SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket and most recently led SpaceXs launch chief engineering office. Im pretty confident in the processes, as a whole, to get us there safely.

Two of the astronaut candidates have experience in NASAs robotic exploration programs. Watkins, a former college rugby player, worked on NASAs Curiosity Mars rover and other missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Chari was an intern at two NASA centers as a student at the Air Force Academy, assigned to teams developing the Spitzer Space Telescope and a Mars sample return mission.

I think one (area) that was a bigger focus in this selection was skills that are appropriate for longer-tern spaceflight, so stays on the ISS that are six months or longer, or possible deeper space exploration missions, said OHara, a subsea systems engineer.We have a little more of a remote and extreme environment skillset than maybe previous classes did.

Bob Hines, the oldest of the group, said he attended Space Camp as a child, which fanned the flame and grew his interest in spaceflight. But his lifelong passion has been aviation, and he only became interested in the astronaut corps recently as a pilot based at Johnson Space Center.

Matthew Dominick was deployed on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific Ocean when he learned of his selection to become an astronaut.

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NASA unveils new class of 12 astronauts - Spaceflight Now

Derek Richardson

June 8th, 2017

Falcon 9 core 1029 arrives at SpaceXs horizontal integration hangar just outside Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A to be integrated with the second stage in advance of the BulgariaSat-1 mission. Photo Credit: SpaceX

Keeping up with its current launch pace of once every two weeks or so, SpaceX announced it was targeting June 17, 2017, for the launch of BulgariaSat-1. Liftoff is slated for the beginning of a two-hour window opening at 2:20 p.m. EDT (18:10 GMT) at Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida.

This will be the second time the Hawthorn, California-based company will utilize a flight-proven Falcon 9 to send a satellite into orbit. The first was in April 2017 with the launch of SES-10.The first stage that will be used for the BulgariaSat-1 mission, core 1029, first flew on Jan. 14, 2017, during the Iridium-1 mission to send 10 Iridium NEXT satellites to space.

SpaceX, if it launches BulgariaSat-1 on time, will only barely miss its record turnaround time for a launch pad, which is currently set at 13 days, 2 hours, 49 minutes between the TurkmenSat-1 and CRS-6 missions in 2015, which both used Space Launch Complex 40 in nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The next mission will miss the record by just under 20 hours.

The June 17 mission will see the first geostationary communications satellite owned by a Bulgarian company, Bulsatcom, sent into space. The 8,800 pound (4,000 kilogram) satellite was built by SSL on its SSL 1300 satellite platform. It will provide high-definition television broadcasts and fixed satellite services to the Balkans, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from a geostationary orbital slot of 2 degrees East.

The Falcon 9 will send BulgariaSat-1 into a geostationary transfer orbit where thesatellitesonboard propulsion will finish the job of circularizing its orbit.

Once the first stage finishes its job, some two minutes into flight, it will likely place itself on a trajectory to land on SpaceXs Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship Of Course I Still Love You downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. It will then be towed back to Port Canaveral several days later for potential refurbishment and reuse.

Tagged: bulgariasat-1 Bulsatcom Core 1029 Falcon 9 Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A Lead Stories SpaceX

Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a blog about the International Space Station, called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team during the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter. His passion for space ignited when he watched Space Shuttle Discovery launch into space Oct. 29, 1998. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized his true calling was communicating to others about space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has worked to increase the quality of our content, eventually becoming our managing editor.

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'Flight-proven' Falcon 9 to launch BulgariaSat-1 June 17 - SpaceFlight Insider

Jason Rhian

June 8th, 2017

SpaceX CEO and Founder has issued a tweet noting that the companys Falcon Heavy rocket could take to Floridas skies as early as September. Photo Credit: Mike Deep / SpaceFlight Insider

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. In a response to a question on the social media platform Twitter, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) founder and CEO Elon Musk stated that, if everything goes according to plan, the first flight of the Falcon Heavy could take place assoon as this fall.

According to the entrepreneur: All Falcon Heavy cores should be at the Cape in two to three months, so launch should happen a month after that

A rough estimate of this timeline places that flight in September.

Musk first mentioned the Falcon Heavy in September 2005, with its first flight planned for 2013. However, the Hawthorne, California-based NewSpace firm has been busy with developing the infrastructure needed at four launch sites, perfecting and evolving its Falcon 9 family of launchers as well as carrying out an impressive 2017 launch manifest (with seven flights having taken placeso far this year).

Musk has noted in the past that the Falcon Heavy, with its three core stages and their 27 Merlin 1D rocket engines, has proven to be a rather challenging vehicle to produce. Even more so, considering that, like the Falcon 9, the Falcon Heavys three core stages have been shown carrying out a reentry and landing making any flight of the new launcher no less than three times as complex.

SpaceX has stated that it is working to have Cape Canaveral Air Force Stations Space Launch Complex 40, damaged during the Amos-6 explosion, repaired and returned to service later this summer. After this has happened, Falcon 9 flights should launch from SLC-40, with Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A being used to launch the Falcon Heavy. SpaceX entered into a 20-year lease with NASA to use historic LC-39A in 2014.

Tagged: Elon Musk Falcon Heavy Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A SpaceX The Range Twitter

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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Musk: Launch of Falcon Heavy could take place as soon as September - SpaceFlight Insider

File photo of an X-37B spaceplane being encapsulated inside the nose cone of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket before its first test flight in April 2010. Credit. U.S. Air Force

A month after an X-37B mini-space shuttle glided to a landing on Kennedy Space Centers runway in Florida, the U.S. Air Force announced Tuesday that the spaceplanes next mission will launch in August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the first time.

The previously-unannounced launch agreement will use a Falcon 9 rocket to loft one of the Air Forces two Boeing-built X-37B spaceplanes, reusable craft that have circled Earth for a combined 2,085 days on four previous flights.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, displaying a model of the unpiloted spaceplane, disclosed the services launch plans for the fifth X-37B mission during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.

This is the model of the X-37, which will be going up again, Wilson said. Its a reusable vehicle and will be going up again on top of a SpaceX launcher in August.

Managed by the Air Forces Rapid Capabilities Office, the X-37Bs are about one-quarter the size of a space shuttle orbiter. Built by Boeings Phantom Works division, each spaceship has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters) and a length of more than 29 feet (8.9 meters).

The X-37B weighs about 11,000 pounds (5 metric tons) and has typically orbited Earth at altitudes between 200 and 250 miles (320 to 400 kilometers).

The X-37Bs, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, take off nestled inside the payload fairing of a conventional rocket, then open payload bay doors and deploy a power-generating solar panel in orbit. The spaceplanes glide back to Earth for a runway landing.

The crafts four previous missions lifted off on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets from Cape Canaveral, each mission spending progressively longer periods in orbit.

The X-37Bs took off inside the short version of the Atlas 5 rockets 5-meter-class payload fairing without the aid of strap-on solid rocket boosters, a configuration ULA calls the Atlas 5-501. The Falcon 9s standard payload shroud is approximately the same diameter and length of the Atlas 5s short 5-meter fairing.

The most recent flight, named OTV-4, ended May 7 with the X-37Bs first touchdown on the former space shuttle landing strip at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida after 718 days in orbit. The previous three missions landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the Air Force and Boeing have relocated X-37B launch, landing and processing operations to the Florida spaceport, taking over two former space shuttle hangars near the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building.

The X-37Bs missions in space are largely secret, and the robotic spaceships landing last month was the first time the Air Force did not announce the crafts scheduled return ahead of time. Breaking with disclosures ahead of earlier flights, the Air Force also did not reveal which of the two spaceplanes flew the OTV-4 mission.

Military officials did not identify Tuesday which spacecraft is slated for the fifth X-37B flight.

We are very excited for the next fifth X-37B mission, said Randy Walden,the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. We look forward tocontinued expansion of the vehicles performance and are excited to continuehosting experimental payloads for the space community.

The Air Force said in a statement Tuesday that the fifth X-37B flight will include several firsts.

This mission will be the programsfirst launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Upgrade launch vehicle, the Air Force said. The program alsocontinues to build upon its fourth mission collaboration with experimentpartners.

The Air Force Research Laboratory will test experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipes on the X-37Bs fifth long-duration spaceflight, military officials said.

Other objectives of the flight remain secret.

The ability to launch the Orbital Test Vehicle on multiple platforms willensure a robust launch capability for our experiment designers, Walden said in a statement. We are excited about this new partnership on creating flexibleand responsive launch options and are confident in SpaceXs ability toprovide safe and assured access to space for the X-37B program.

SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket was certified by the Air Force to launch the militarys sensitive and costly national security payloads in 2015. Since that milestone, the Air Force has awarded contracts to SpaceX for launches of two Global Positioning System navigation satellites, and at least a dozen more launch contracts are up for grabs by SpaceX and ULA through 2019.

Before SpaceX was certified, the Air Force gave launch contracts ULA in sole-source block buy awards.

But the rocket contract for the fifth X-37B mission was not listed in a roster of planned competitive space launch procurements provided by Air Force officials in recent months.

SpaceX has up to a half-dozen launches on its schedule before the X-37B mission in August, primarily deployments of commercial communications satellites. The company aims to resume flights from Cape Canaverals Complex 40 launch pad by September after crews repair damage to the facility from a Falcon 9 rocket explosion in September.

Until then, all Falcon 9s launched from Florida will take off from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, the starting point for the Apollo moon missions and most space shuttle flights.

Officials have not specified which Florida launch pad will host the Falcon 9s liftoff with the fifth X-37B flight, and SpaceX said last week that they have not determined which mission will be the next to depart from pad 40.

Wilson, who has been the top civilian in the Air Force for three weeks, told lawmakers Tuesday the hotly-competitive U.S. launch market is driving launch prices down, giving the military two certified contractors to ensure a backup provider is available if one launch vehicle runs into trouble.

The Pentagon instituted the assured access to space policy after a string of launch failures in the 1990s, and ULAs Atlas and Delta rocket fleets offered the military launch redundancy until SpaceXs Falcon 9 arrived on the market.

We had a huge problem in the 1990s with access to space, and the country, at that time, made a significant investment in space capability, and the ability to launch, and it paid off and is showing results, Wilson said. The benefit now is that were seeing competition, and its bringing the price down for access to space.

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US Air Force taps SpaceX to launch next X-37B spaceplane mission - Spaceflight Now

Ocean McIntyre

June 7th, 2017

This artists concept shows planet KELT-9b orbiting its host star, KELT-9. It is the hottest gas giant planet discovered so far. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Six hundred and fifty light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus, a bright, young, Type-A, blue, main-sequence star designated KELT-9 burns brightly. More than twice as massive as the Sun and nearly twice as hot, KELT-9 is a rare star one of a group of stars making up less than one percent of the total stars in the universe. According to a paper published this week in Nature,thisunusual starhosts an equally unusual exoplanet.

Using data from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) administered by Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio; Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennesee; Lehigh University of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), scientists determined there tobe a very strange, and very hot, exoplanet orbiting the bright KELT-9 star. The exoplanet was discovered after theynoted a repeated dimming of the star approximately every 36 hours.

KELT is made up of two robotic wide-field telescopes. KELT-North at the Winer Observatory about an hour outside of Tucson, Arizona, and KELT-South at the Sutherland astronomical observation station about 230 miles (370 kilometers) north of Cape Town, South Africa.

Photo Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

The exoplanet it found, KELT-9b, is a hot Jupiter gas giant. It was expected to be roughly the same size as Jupiter, but further study proved it to be 2.8 times more massive and half as dense.Its thought that the large size of KELT-9b is due to both its proximity to the star KELT-9and the radiation KELT-9gives off. This combination has caused the planet to become superheated and to puff up.

Scott Gaudi, an Ohio State University astronomy professor, workedon the study at the Jet Propulsion Lab, in Pasadena, California, while on sabbatical. Gaudi has spent the last two decades searching for exoplanets, and, according to him, KELT-9b is one of the strangest exoplanets Ive ever seen.

With this discovery, KELT-9 became the seventh Type A star located to host an exoplanet. In addition, it is also the brightest star to host an exoplanet thus far.

Up until this discovery, WASP-33b was believed to be the hottest exoplanet, but KELT-9b is nearly 20 percent hotter. In addition, it receives nearly 700 times as much radiation from its host star than WASP-33b does. The ultraviolet radiation within the orbit of KELT-9b is beyond extreme. Because it is so close to its host star, it is presumed to be tidally locked the same face of the planet is always facing the star.

The temperatures on KELT-9b on the side of the planetfacing away from the star are estimated to be 6,830 degrees Fahrenheit (3,777 Celsius), whereas the star-facing side reaches temperatures approximately 7,820 Fahrenheit (4,327 Celsius). At this temperature, combined with the extreme UV radiation and stellar proximity, the surface of the planet is quite likely a molecular pandemonium with its surface atmosphere literally being evaporated.

Molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane cant form at all on the star-facing side of the planet. On the side facing away from the star, some molecules may be able to recombine, but probably only temporarily. The completely inhospitable environment of KELT-9b has made it a searing hot, puffy planet writhing in ions that it is possibly shedding its atmosphere much like a comets tail but on a more massive level.

As if the sheer heat of KELT-9b wasnt enough of an oddity, theres its orbit. Instead of orbiting its host star along its axial plane, KELT-9b is orbiting its star nearly perpendicular to it in a pole to pole orbit.

With the mass of a planet and the atmosphere of a star, all indications are that KELT-9b could very well be some type of hybrid planet-star or, at the very least, a new class of planet. Scientists are looking forward to studying KELT-9b in depth, with both the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes as well as with continued observations with the KELT North and South.

This discovery has raised many new questions about the evolution of stellar systems like this. Especially considering what might happen when KELT-9 reaches the end of its life. After a 500-million-year sequence lifetime, KELT-9 will exhaust its hydrogen and become a red giant star, swelling to three times its current size.Scientists are already hypothesizing about what might become of the exoplanet KELT-9b at that time. It might be swallowed by the red giant or, perhaps, just remain as a scorched remnant of a planet with its atmosphere and volatiles completely stripped away. There is a possibility that there exists a population of close-in super-Earth remnant core planets orbiting subgiant stars.

It is hoped that with the launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in March and October 2018, respectively, some of these questions maybe answered.

CGI animation of planet KELT-9b orbiting its host star, KELT-9. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Tagged: Exoplanet KELT KELT-9 KELT-9b The Range

A native of the Greater Los Angeles area, Ocean McIntyre's writing is focused primarily on science (STEM and STEAM) education and public outreach. McIntyre is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador as well as holding memberships with The Planetary Society, Los Angeles Astronomical Society, and is a founding member of SafePlaceForSpace.org. McIntyre is currently studying astrophysics and planetary science with additional interests in astrobiology, cosmology and directed energy propulsion technology. With SpaceFlight Insider seeking to expand the amount of science articles it produces, McIntyre was a welcomed addition to our growing team.

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Astronomers find exoplanet hotter than most stars - SpaceFlight Insider

Mike Howard

June 7th, 2017

Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly detailed what he had to do to become an astronaut with NASA during an event held on Monday, June 5. Photo Credit: Mike Howard / SpaceFlight Insider

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. More and more, NASA and its family of contractors are focusing their attention on the Red Planet, and an event held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Monday, June 5, showed off some sporty new wheels that any astronaut would love to use when cruising the flash-frozen plains of Mars.

The event, part of the Visitor Complexs Summer of Mars celebration, unveiled a Mars rover concept vehicle and was hosted, in part, by former shuttle astronauts Scott Kelly and Jon McBride.

Photo Credit: Mike Howard / SpaceFlight Insider

Kelly, who completed one year on the International Space Station in March of last year (2016), spoke for about an hour, noting that when one is working on large goals, the best way to achieve them is through a series of small, manageable steps.

Children need inspiration and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex worked with Parker Brothers Concepts, along with NASA scientists, to develop the Mars concept rover which is poised to tour the U.S. East Coast in July and August in an effort meant to help provide that inspiration. This summer, the Visitor Complex will also provide free admission to students who are entering the fifth grade this fall.

Besides his one-year stint on board the International Space Station, Kelly flew to orbit as the pilot on STS-103 and as the commander of STS-118. Photo Credit: Mike Howard / SpaceFlight Insider

Mondaysevent was held at the Visitor Complexs Rocket Garden and includedLisa Hultquist the senior director of sales,marketing, content, and education for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

For his part, Kelly noted that missions like his one-year stay on the ISS are critical on NASAs Journey to Mars.

Theres a lot more stuff, especially about human physiology, that we need to know if were going to go to Mars; its going to take over six months to get there. Youre going to have tospend over a year on the surface; its going to take over six months to get back thats a lot of time in space, Kelly said. [] so theres a lot more that westill needto learn before we make that journey.

Video courtesy of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

Tagged: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Parker Brothers Concepts Scott Kelly Summer of Mars The Range

Mike Howard was born on Florida's Space Coast in 1961, growing up on the beaches near the Kennedy Space Center when rockets first started to fly into space. As a small boy, one of the first photographs he took was in July 1969 - of the Apollo 11 launch to the Moon with his father's Nikon. With over 20 years of professional photographic experience Howard has been published in various media including Florida Today, Air and Space Magazine and has worked with SpaceX and Space Florida as well as other news outlets. In 1998 his company started offering destination wedding photography services in the Cocoa Beach area and in 2005 Michael Howard Photography L.L.C. was formed.

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'Custom' ride on the road to Mars unveiled at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex - SpaceFlight Insider

How many of our kids dream of going into space? How many dream of just getting through the next day?

As a kid of the 60s, Ive been inspired by NASA and the space program for as long as I can remember. It was the reason I went into engineering. I dreamed of endless possibilities.

But for many, the possibilities were far from endless. It was a daily struggle to survive. It still is.

I was born a couple weeks after Dr. King gave life to the Dream and only a couple days before the horrific bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church and vicious murders that ended the lives of four little girls and two young boys.

As a nation, how do we reconcile our ability to land a man on the moon within a decade and our inability to end the systematic, violent oppression committed over centuries?

How is it possible for otherwise loving people to ignore the dehumanizing effects that result from segregating and isolating others? People who say they harbor no ill-will against the oppressed, but perpetuate a culture of ill-will.

Dr. King spoke of the strange paradoxes of a nation founded on the principle that all men were created equal, fighting to maintain a culture of institutionalized segregation and discrimination.

This culture persists today.

On what is being called Discrimination Sunday, Texas legislators would have made their Jim Crow-era counterparts proud. One of the bills passed by the Texas House, SB2078, includes an amendment preventing transgender K-12 children from using bathrooms matching their gender identity.

Perhaps we should not be surprised.

Bathrooms and public spaces were used like a weapon during the Jim Crow era, as segregationists preyed on fears that African Americans would assault white women and children or pass on diseases. Many of the same scare tactics used to justify segregating African Americans are being used today against transgender people, including children.

These scare tactics were used to great effect in Houston and North Carolina and adopted as a model by other states trying to pass anti-transgender legislation.

How is it possible states can pass this type of legislation despite the overwhelming evidence debunking false claims about safety?

This is not just about bathrooms. And weve been here before.

In her enlightening book, Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly introduced us to the extraordinary contributions African American women made to NASA and our space program. It was also a stark reminder of the culture of normalcy around segregation and discrimination that endured into the Space Age.

African American women like Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson made great contributions scientifically and in breaking down barriers of segregation and discrimination. They took a stand.

I ask that the people of Texas take a stand this time with transgender children and their families.

Segregation and separate but equal are a thinly veiled rejection of the truth that we are all created equal. Segregation dehumanizes. It isolates and denigrates physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

State Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston spoke passionately against the legislation:

Thankfully, the lessons of the past are not lost on all.

Businesses including IBM, Dell, Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and many others recognize the value of diversity and signed a letter opposing this harmful legislation.

As a parent to a young transgender child and the CEO of an aerospace company, I appeal to the millions of companies and organizations in Texas and elsewhere to do the same.

To those who may have been silent about injustices in the past it is never too late to speak out.

To those who may have made the wrong choice in the past it is never too late for redemption.

And as we speak out against injustice, we know of a wondrous power:

So now, through this redemptive power of love, we can dream of endless possibilities.

Peter and Sarah Tchoryk live in Michigan and have three kids and three grandkids. They strive to create meaningful opportunities for all kids and fulfill the Dream.

Start your workday the right way with the news that matters most.

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A Letter to Texas on Spaceflight, Dreams, and Transgender Kids - HuffPost

Financial Times

Second Tim Peake space flight under threat over cost dispute Financial Times Tim Peake's second flight to space has been called into question because of haggling over how much money the UK should contribute to the European Space Agency. It was announced by the government in January that the UK-born astronaut would follow ...

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Second Tim Peake space flight under threat over cost dispute - Financial Times

A powerful new launch vehicle climbed into space from Indias east coast Monday, delivering a multi-beam communications satellite to orbit on its first full-up test flight, setting marks for the heaviest rocket and spacecraft ever launched from India.

The upgraded Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, named GSLV MK.3, lifted off at 1158 GMT (7:58 a.m. EDT) Monday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, a spaceport on Indias east coast around 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Chennai.

The 142-foot-tall (43-meter) rocket soared into mostly clear skies over Sriharikota, where launch occurred at 5:28 p.m. local time, on 2.2 million pounds of thrust from two side-mounted solid rocket boosters.

Turning on an easterly trajectory, the GSLV Mk.3 exceeded the speed of sound and ignited two liquid-fueled Vikas engines on its core stage just prior to the flights two-minute point.

The GSLV Mk.3s twin strap-on boosters the second-largest operational solid-fueled rocket motors in the world burned out and jettisoned at T+plus 2 minutes, 20 seconds, followed around a minute later by the separation of the rockets clamshell-like nose cone, which shielded the GSAT 19 communications satellite aboard the launcher during its flight through the lower atmosphere.

A cryogenic hydrogen-fueled upper stage engine took control of the mission at T+plus 5 minutes, 22 seconds, for a nearly 11-minute firing to finish the job of placing GSAT 19 into an arcing oval-shaped transfer orbit stretching more than 20,000 miles above Earth.

Indian engineers tested the new rockets solid rocket boosters and twin-engine core stage on a suborbital demonstration flight in December 2014, but the scaled-down test launch carried a dummy upper stage.

Since the 2014 test flight, engineers finished development of the high-thrust CE-20 cryogenic engine, an extension of the hydrogen-burning powerplant on Indias smaller GSLV Mk.2 rocket.

The engine performed flawlessly on Mondays flight, according to the Indian Space Research Organization, and placed the 6,913-pound (3,136-kilogram) GSAT 19 communications satellite into an on-target orbit.

The GSLV Mk.3s guidance computer aimed to deliver GSAT 19 to an orbit stretching from a low point of 105 miles (170 kilometers) to a high point of 22,353 miles (35,975 kilometers), with an inclination of 21.5 degrees.

Officials declared the launch a success in remarks soon after the GSAT 19 satellite deployed from the GSLV Mk.3s upper stage. The separation occurred around 16 minutes after liftoff, an event captured in video from an on-board camera as the rocket sailed through space in orbital darkness.

Today is a historic day, said A.S. Kiran Kumar, ISROs chairman. We have been able to successfully put the satellite into orbit, and I take this opportunity to congratulate the entire team, which has relentlessly worked many decades for this program from 2002.

The GSLV Mk.3 is designed to loft satellites as heavy as 8,800 pounds (4 metric tons) into geostationary transfer orbit, the drop-off point for most large communications and broadcasting satellites.

That is around twice the capability of the GSLV Mk.2, Indias next-biggest rocket, vaulting the countrys space program a step closer to self-reliance. Despite Indias string of 38 straight successes with its smallest operational rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, and an improving track record for the GSLV Mk.2, the countrys heaviest satellites must launch on foreign-made boosters, usually Arianespaces Ariane 5 launcher.

Kiran Kumar said Mondays flight was a great success in the maiden attempt.

Now, GSLV Mk.3 has successfully put GSAT 19 (into orbit), which is a next-generation satellite with multi-beams, and well be looking forward to operation of the satellite.

The GSLV Mk.3 can place nearly 18,000 pounds, or 8 metric tons, into a low-altitude orbit almost 400 miles, or 600 kilometers, above Earth, according to ISRO.

That is just shy of the lift capability of United Launch Alliances basic Atlas 5 rocket configuration without strap-on boosters, but well short of the capacity of the Atlas 5s more powerful versions, the Ariane 5, and SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket.

I am proud to be Indian by having the opportunity to work in this marvelous development, said K. Sivan, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, headquarters for Indias rocket programs.

Sivan said engineers spent the last two-and-a-half years since the GSLV Mk.3s suborbital test flight checking the readiness of the upper stages CE-20 engine and its C25 cryogenic stage. Crews also fine-tuned the aerodynamic shape and flight characteristics of the launcher, he said.

I have no words to express my joy to see GSLV Mk.3 in its maiden full-fledged flight successfully placing GSAT 19 in orbit, said S. Somanath, director of ISROs Liquid Propulsion Systems Center.

Today, on this mission, we have seen a flawless performance of the C25 stage, the fully indigenously-developed gas generator cycle cryogenic engine and stage, really a marvel of technological development, Somanath said.

He added that India has mastered cryogenic engine technology with the successful flight demonstration of the CE-20 engine, which generates 44,000 pounds of thrust in vacuum, twice the power of the U.S.-built Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 cryogenic engine used on Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets.

ISRO officials said the GSLV Mk.3 will be operational in a couple of years. They hope launches with the new rocket can be sold commercially and internationally, claiming it is significantly less expensive than similar-sized launchers currently on the market.

Meanwhile, ISRO engineers are looking at growing Indias launch capacity to haul up to 13,000 pounds, or 6 metric tons, to geostationary transfer orbit, officials said after Mondays mission.

Construction and outfitting of a second vehicle assembly building at Sriharikota is nearing completion, officials said. It will be employed on the next GSLV Mk.3 flight, helping ISRO achieve a more rapid launch cadence.

The GSAT 19 satellite shot into space by the GSLV Mk.3 Monday is designed for a 10-year mission. Its own thruster will guide into a circular geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator, where its Ku-band and Ka-band payload will support television broadcasts, data networks and other broadband services over India.

GSAT 19 also hosts a radiation spectrometer to monitor the environment in geostationary orbit.

Indias next launch is set for June 23, when a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will carry Indias Cartosat 2E Earth-imaging observatory and a package of more than 20 smaller satellites into orbit for universities and companies in the United States, Japan and several European nations.

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India's launcher fleet gets an upgrade with successful test flight - Spaceflight Now

Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

A commercial Dragon cargo craft wrapped up a two-day trip to the International Space Station on Monday with a glacial laser-guided final approach before astronauts grasped the supply ship with a robotic arm, completing the refurbished capsules second journey to the orbiting research complex.

The resupply freighter was captured by the Canadian-built robot arm, under the control of astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer, at 9:52 a.m. EDT (1352 GMT) Monday, a few minutes ahead of schedule.

Ground teams at mission control in Houston planned to maneuver the cargo capsule to a berthing port on the Earth-facing side of the stations Harmony module later Monday, where it will be firmly bolted to the outpost for a one-month stay.

Since launching Saturday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, the Dragon spaceship completed a series of orbit-adjustment burns to fine-tune its approach to the space station. The automated rendezvous Monday appeared to go normally, delivering 5,970 pounds (2,708 kilograms) of equipment and experiments, including a habitat with 40 mice to help scientists evaluate the effectiveness of a therapeutic drug designed to promote bone growth.

Researchers will study the response of the mice to the treatment, called NELL-1, and send back 20 of the live animals to Earth on the Dragon spacecraft when it departs the station July 2. The other 20 will remain on the space station, allowing scientists to conduct comparative studies of their bones and other tissues.

Other gear aboard the Dragon supply ship includes an X-ray astrophysics experiment to observe neutron stars, the most dense objects in the universe, which form when certain types of stars explode in supernovas at the end of their lives.

Engineers will also test a new type of power-generating solar panel carried inside the Dragon capsules unpressurized trunk. The Roll-Out Solar Array deploys like a party favor, making for a lighter, more compact design than conventional fold-out arrays used on most satellites.

Several thousand fruit flies for a cardiac experiment, an upgrade for the space stations microscope, an Earth-viewing platform, and food and provisions for the space stations crew were also on the Dragon, which was the first SpaceX cargo capsule to fly to the research lab a second time.

The spacecraft first launched in September 2014 and spent 34 days in orbit before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX replaced the crafts heat shield and much of its avionics, but the structure, propulsion system and other parts of the capsule are the same.

We want to thank the entire team on the ground that made this possible, both in Hawthorne (SpaceXs headquarters in California) and in Houston, really around the whole world, from support in Canada for this wonderful robotic arm, Kennedy Space Centers launch support, to countless organizations which prepared the experiments and cargo, Fischer said shortly after Dragon arrived at the space station.

These people have supplied us with a vast amount of science and supplies, really fuel for the engine of innovation we get to call home, the International Space Station, Fischer said.

The Dragon was the first reused spacecraft to reach the space station since the shuttle Atlantis arrived on its final mission in July 2011.

We have a new generation of vehicles now, led by commercial partners like SpaceX, as they build the infrastructure that will carry us into the future of exploration, Fischer said.

Mondays rendezvous of the Dragon capsule came a day after another commercial supply ship, Orbital ATKs Cygnus, departed the space station after a month-and-a-half there. The Cygnus spacecraft is heading for a destructive re-entry over the South Pacific Ocean on June 11, disposing of the stations trash.

But the craft will first deploy several CubeSats and conduct a fire experiment in orbit.

The Dragon spacecraft will return to Earth next month with nearly 2,000 pounds of cargo and research specimens, aiming for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles.

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Dragon supply ship delivers to space station for second time - Spaceflight Now