Laurel Kornfeld

February 26th, 2017

This composite of enhanced-color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left) was taken by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. This image highlights the striking differences between Pluto and Charon. The color and brightness of both Pluto and Charon have been processed identically to allow direct comparison of their surface properties and to highlight the similarity between Charons polar red terrain and Plutos equatorial red terrain. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale. The image combines blue, red, and infrared images taken by the spacecrafts Ralph / Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC). Image & Caption Credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI

A set of naming themes for features on Pluto and its five moons, informally used by the New Horizons mission, has been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which has overseen the naming of celestial objects and their surface features since 1919.

The themes chosen for each object in the Pluto system emerged from the missions Our Pluto campaign, organized in conjunction with NASA and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, in early 2015.

Our Pluto, which sought public suggestions for names of features the spacecraft was expected to reveal in its July 2015 flyby of the system, received IAU endorsement ahead of the flyby.

This image, taken by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. Styx (initially designated P5) is the innermost of the moons found by Hubble over a period of seven years up to Styxs discovery in 2012. This image was taken with Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 on July 7, 2012. Image Credit: NASA / ESA / L. Frattare (STScI)

Specific themes selected during the Our Pluto project were assigned to Pluto, Charon, Nix, Hydra, Styx, and Kerberos. Several continue the focus on mythologies of the underworld, ruled by the Roman god Pluto, while others commemorate both historic and fictional exploration.

New Horizons revealed Pluto to be an unusually active geological world with flowing glaciers, cryovolcanoes, ice mountains, canyons, cliffs, and a large nitrogen glacier. Charon is no longer geologically active, but many diverse features were found on its surface as well as on the surfaces of the smaller moons.

Imagine the thrill of seeing your name on a future map of Pluto and its moons. Months after the Pluto flyby, the New Horizons mission continues to engage and inspire, said Jim Green, director of NASAs Planetary Science Division.

Noteworthy names informally assigned to features on the systems worlds, such as Sputnik Planitia and Cthulhu Regio on Pluto have excited imaginations worldwide.

Mission principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute applauded the successful partnership and process between New Horizons scientists and the IAU that resulted in approval of wonderful, inspiring, and engaging naming themes for features on Pluto and its moons and said mission scientists look forward to submitting specific names for individual features on each world.

Tagged: Charon International Astronomical Union NASA New Horizons Pluto The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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Name themes for Pluto system features approved by IAU - SpaceFlight Insider

The NROL-79 commemorative poster. Credit: United Launch Alliance

Taking a U.S. national security satellite payload into space is the primary objective of the 70th Atlas 5 booster that will be launched Wednesday.

The United Launch Alliance rocket, flying for the 35th time in its basic two-stage version with no solids, is scheduled for liftoff around 9:50 a.m. local time (12:50 p.m. EST; 1750 GMT) from California.

Although the launch windows duration is withheld, officials say the days liftoff opportunity will close by 10:30 a.m.

Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base is the point of origination for the mission, known as NROL-79.

The launch customer is the National Reconnaissance Office, the government agency responsible for the countrys spy satellites.

While the launch is hardly a secret, what the payload is atop the rocket is classified. The NROL-79 spacecrafts purpose and final orbit have not been disclosed.

Things are proceeding well on the booster side, doing some of the final closeouts that we have to do, working through the weekend to make sure all of those things are finalized, Lt. Col. Eric Zarybnisky, 4th Space Launch Squadron commander and the Air Force launch director, said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon.

Monday we have a pretty full schedule of readiness reviews. Then we go into what we call a crew sync day. Because the time of day of launch being early in the morning, we give folks (Tuesday) to get some rest and (then) go into the launch Wednesday morning.

The eight-hour countdown begins before 2 a.m. local time.

We are postured for another successful Atlas launch, said Col. Christopher Moss, Vandenbergs 30th Space Wing commander and the launch decision authority. These missions are critical, and our team is excited to be a part of something that will have a global impact.

The mission marks the 14th time an NRO payload has been launched by Atlas 5.

For its 70th launch, the Atlas 5 vehicle will be flying in its 401 variant with a four-meter-diameter nose cone, no solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage. It will come off the pad generating over 860,000 pounds of thrust.

This is a pretty common 401, said Zarybnisky. It is the 35th 401 so far, so we have a lot of experience both here and on the East Coast with this particular version of the rocket.

Originally slated to launch Dec. 1, the flight was postponed by last Septembers massive wildfire and electrical grid damage at Vandenberg. That held up the previous Atlas 5 launch of the commercial WorldView 4 satellite and delayed the start of the NROL-79 campaign at the pad by two months.

We were actually able to deliver the booster during the fires. We were able to offload the booster, and there really was no issues for this mission, specifically, but the WorldView 4 mission was delayed due to the fires and the subsequent build back up of the Range and the electrical infrastructure, Zarybnisky said.

Then, a problem with the upper stage had to be rectified, causing a one-month slip.

This mission has obviously been a little protracted than we would normally have. We moved the launch date twice once due to the fires, that obviously drove some changes to our schedule, and then we had a technical issue during one of our wet dress rehearsals that we had to work through. We successfully fixed that issue, proved it out in a second wet dress rehearsal and we are moving forward, Zarybnisky said.

Still, the mission is occurring within three months of the launch date selected more than two years ago.

Schedule is important and we try to make sure things happen on time, but at the end of the day mission success is really what we are focused on, Zarybnisky said.

Zarybnisky added: The infrastructure is ready to support. We had a great WorldView 4 launch and I expect this one to go just as well.

The 4th Space Launch Squadron, a team of about 75 military and civilian personnel, is the governments on-site group that oversees the rocket preparations from the point it arrives at Vandenberg until liftoff. The engineers and missile maintenance professionals give assurance that processing and testing of the vehicle performed by United Launch Alliance goes properly.

For Capt. Albert Vasso, launch mission manager in the squadron, that means cat-herding issues as they arise and working across the base to efficiently resolve them.

Another squadron member, Capt. Jonathan Crow, EELV lead engineer, works with ULA during the launch campaign to make sure the rockets technical aspects are satisfactorily met.

I get to be on console during day of launch, give one of the gos that says yes, the booster is ready, the infrastructure is ready and we are ready to put this extremely important mission on orbit,' said Zarybnisky.

The 4th Space Launch Squadron was formed in 1994 to support Titan missions at Vandenbergs Space Launch Complex 4, then re-chartered in 2003 for the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 launch systems from Slicks 3 and 6.

This launch is the first of three that ULA has scheduled in a 19-day period in March from both coasts using Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets.

See earlier NROL-79 coverage.

Our Atlas archive.

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Atlas 5 rocket to provide spacelift for US National Reconnaissance Office - Spaceflight Now

Jason Rhian

February 26th, 2017

Saturn V rocket at Space Center Houston in Texas. Photo Credit: Jason Rhian / SpaceFlight Insider

HOUSTON With smartphones, the internet, and an array of ever-sophisticated electronic toys, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to hold the attention of the public. Space Center Houston is working to counter these distracting influences withan array of exhibits and interactive activities as well as a fleet of vehicles that helped make space travel a reality.

The operators of Space Center Houston provided us with the best setting from which to learn what the location is working on to highlight the historic achievements of the past, the promising events that are taking place at present, and the exciting possibilities that lie on the horizon.

To find out more about the centerseducational outreach efforts, click here.

Video courtesy of SpaceFlight Insider

Tagged: Johnson Space Center Space Center Houston The Range Tracy Lamm

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 Exclusive: Space Center Houston inspiring new generation of explorers - SpaceFlight Insider

Derek Richardson

February 24th, 2017

NASA is looking into the possibility of adding a crew to the first flight of the Space Launch System. The EM-1 mission is currently planned on being uncrewed. Image Credit: Nathan Koga / SpaceFlight Insider

NASA is taking ahard look at having crew fly on the first integrated mission of the agencys Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy-lift rocket and Orion spacecraft. At present, NASA is only undertaking a feasibility study, reviewing what risks would be incurred, what needs to be added to allow for this happen, and what potential benefits could be had.

Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot announced on Feb. 15, 2017, that he was ordering a study on the feasibility of adding crew. It was to be lead by William Gerstenmaier, NASAs Associate Administrator for Human Exploration System Directorate.

Should NASA decide to add crew to EM-1, its flight plan would essentially follow the proposed plan for EM-2. The main difference would be instead of the Exploration Upper Stage (which would not be ready in time for EM-1) performing a trans-lunar injection burn, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System would. (Click to enlarge) Image Credit: NASA

In a Feb. 24, 2017, teleconference, Gerstenmaier, along with Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development William Hill, addressed a number of questions and concerns about the potential crew addition stressing that this is only a feasibility study and the baseline Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) flight is still moving forward as originally planned.

When we get done with this, we wont come out with a hard recommendation one way or the other, Gerstenmaier said. Were going to talk about essentially the advantages and the disadvantages of adding crew to EM-1.

According to Gerstenmaier, the White House asked NASA to look into the option, adding that there has been no guarantee of more money for a possible crewed flight.

The baseline schedule currently calls for a Block 1 SLS to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into a distant retrograde lunar orbit in late 2018 EM-1. The flight would last about 20 days. Then, in August 2021, the EM-2 flight would see a Block 1B SLS, with a new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), send a piloted Orion on a shorter 8-day free return trajectory around the Moon.

The mission being studied would send two crew members in Orion on a similar trajectory that EM-2 would have performed. It would involve a day in high-Earth orbit to verify critical systems, such as life support, before performing a trans-lunar, free return trajectory burn using the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) a modified Delta IV upper stage.

Well get a chance to test systems in a very rigorous way with [a]crew on board, Gerstenmaier said. Some of the life support systems will get to see crew interaction with the vehicle, which helps us get to an overall readiness standpoint.

The study will look into what systems will need to be added to EM-1 which were not already included, such as life support, crew displays, and an active Launch Abort System (LAS) none of which are planned to fly on the baseline mission. Additionally, it will look into what hardware may have to be changed as well as additional tests that will need to be done.

The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) is transported to a pressure test area at United Launch Alliances Decatur, Alabama, manufacturing facility. It will be used as an upper stage on the first SLS flight. (Click to enlarge) Image Credit: NASA

For example, the ICPS, while it is powerful enough to perform the mission requirements, is not human rated. The study will have to look at what will need to be changed to alleviate some risk. This might also include adding more debris protection for the highly elliptical orbit.

We think we can set up a profile that limits crew risk exposure, so if something doesnt go right with the upper stage, then we can abort out of that and send the crew home safely, Gerstenmaier said.

Gerstenmaier said that they might lose the mission, but they can still protect the crew. He has asked the team performing the study to look how feasible that is.

It is going to be a risk balance, Hill said. Well take a look at the risk versus thebenefits. If we can fly the EM-2 profile on EM-1, that opens up EM-2 to do more because we have at least some experience and we can do more with that as opposed to the profile we earlier anticipated with flying crew on EM-2.

Additionally, Gerstenmaier said that they are looking at ways to reduce the risks associated with this prospective mission. One way would be to accelerate theAscent Abort-2 test to early 2019.

Other ways the SLS and Orion team has already been attempting to buy-down risk include testing hardware on board the International Space Station. There is a carbon dioxide removal system on the outpost that has been running for over 2,000 hours so far. Later, a waste management system will be sent to the orbiting laboratory for tests as well.

An artists rendering of the SLS being assembled inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. (Click to enlarge) Image Credit: NASA

We recognize this will be an increased risk, and we take that increased risk, and we take it against the benefits that we gain by doing this, and we say, hey, is that something thats worthwhile for us to go do?, Gerstenmaier said. Then we have an agency-wide discussion on whether this is the appropriate risk for us to take.

Gerstenmaier said that one of the main questions the study will be looking at is what the agency would gain by a crewed EM-1 flight. Does it significantly advance its overall capability to take people to the Moon regularly? He also said there are astronauts on the team that will be contributing directly to this discussion.

Knowing that adding crew to EM-1 will cause a delay from the current late 2018 launch date, Gerstenmaier said he arbitrarily limited the study to changes that would allow for a mission to launch no later than late 2019.

If it goes much beyond 2019, then basically the plan weve got today with EM-2 with [a]crew is probably as good of [a]plan as we have and theres not a tremendous advantage [to add crew to EM-1], Gerstenmaier said.

There was also an option of accelerating EM-2 instead of crewing EM-1, but that was ruled out because of the extensive changes to ground systems that would be needed. There simply isnt enough time between launching a 322-foot (98-meter) tall Block 1 SLS and the 364-foot (111-meter) tall Block 1B to change out the hardware.

Roughly 33 months is the minimum time between EM-1 and EM-2, Gerstenmaier said. Thats driven by the fact that we have to change the Mobile Launch Platform to accommodate the 40-foot taller rocket associated with EM-2.

Regardless of what the agency ultimately decides to do, however, Gerstenmaier said that this study gives NASA an opportunity to step back and evaluate what it is doing on EM-1.

This is a great opportunity for us to step back, reflect on what were doing, look at the overall plan again and see if [there are] any changes we want to make [while] moving forward, Gerstenmaier said.

Tagged: EM-1 EM-2 Lead Stories Moon NASA Orion Space Launch System

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. 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 that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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EM-1 could become Apollo 8 for the 21st century - SpaceFlight Insider

STORY WRITTEN FORCBS NEWS& USED WITH PERMISSION

NASA managers said Friday they hope to know within a month or so whether it might be feasible or advisable to put two astronauts on board the first test flight of a huge 322-foot-tall Space Launch System super booster scheduled for its maiden launch late next year.

The study, requested by the Trump administration, already is underway, but William Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters, said major technical challenges will need to be resolved, and the agency will need more money to make it happen.

Its going to take a significant amount of money, and money that will be required fairly quickly to implement what we need to do, he told reporters. So its a question of how we refine the funding levels and the phasing of the funding for the next three years and see where it comes out.

If the feasibility study doesnt pan out, he said, we still have a very exciting mission.

The current plan calls for launching a Block 1 SLS rocket in late 2018 Exploration Mission 1, or EM-1 to boost an unpiloted Orion capsule on a three-week flight beyond the moon and back to a high-speed re-entry and splashdown.

EM-2, featuring an astronaut crew, would be launched atop a Block 1B SLS rocket in the late 2021 timeframe. Unlike the EM-1 rocket, the Block 1B version of the SLS would feature a more powerful, human-rated exploration upper stage, or EUS.

The long-range plan, with its roots in the Obama administration, is to use the SLS to send astronauts beyond the moon in the mid 2020s, first to rendezvous with a robotically retrieved asteroid, or chunk of an asteroid, and then to orbit Mars in the 2030s.

The long gap between the SLSs initial test flight and the piloted EM-2 mission, driven in large part by NASAs budget and a variety of technical hurdles, has raised concerns in some quarters about maintaining public and congressional support in a program with years between flights and competing demands on agency funding.

President Trumps transition team asked NASA to look into the possibility of either moving EM-2 earlier or adding astronauts to EM-1. Hill said the latter option was more realistic than the former because of major infrastructure modifications that will be needed to support the larger Block 1B SLS.

But there are major technical challenges with speeding up Orion development for an earlier-than-panned human mission.

We know there are certain systems that needed to be added to EM-1 to add crew, said Bill Gerstenmaier, director of space operations at NASA Headquarters, including a life support system, a waste management system, operational cockpit displays and an operational abort system, all big-ticket items.

In addition, the interim upper stage used by the Block 1 SLS is not certified for human flights. While a similar stage has flown flawlessly atop Delta 4 rockets, additional tests would be required and procedures put in place to ensure crew safety if a malfunction occurs.

So we have a good, crisp list of all the things we would physically have to change from a hardware standpoint, Gerstenmaier said. Then we asked the team to take a look at what additional tests would be needed to add crew, what the additional risk would be, and then we also wanted the teams to talk about the benefits of having crew on the first flight.

The risk-benefit trade will be a crucial element of the review. NASAs Aerospace Advisory Panel met Thursday and in a statement, chairwoman Patricia Sanders cautioned the agency not to pursue an early piloted mission without strong technical justification.

NASA should provide a compelling rationale, in terms of benefits gained in return for accepting additional risk, and fully and transparently acknowledge the tradeoffs being made, she said. If the benefits warrant assumption of additional risk, we expect NASA to clearly and openly articulate their decision process and rationale.

In a Feb. 17 memo to agency employees, acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot raised the possibility of adding astronauts to Exploration Mission-1.

I know the challenges associated with such a proposition, like reviewing the technical feasibility, additional resources needed, and clearly the extra work would require a different launch date, he wrote. That said, I also want to hear about the opportunities it could present to accelerate the effort of the first crewed flight and what it would take to accomplish that first step of pushing humans farther into space.

The SLS-Orion missions, coupled with those promised from record levels of private investment in space, will help put NASA and America in a position to ensure this nations world preeminence in exploring the cosmos, he wrote.

In its initial configuration, the SLS Block 1 rocket will be made up of two shuttle-heritage five-segment solid-fuel boosters provided by Orbital ATK and a huge first stage powered by four hydrogen-burning RS-25 space shuttle main engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

The Block 1 version features an interim upper stage derived from United Launch Alliances Delta 4 rocket powered by a single hydrogen-fueled Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10B2 engine.

Even in its initial configuration, the giant SLS rocket will generate a ground-shaking 8.8 million pounds of thrust 15 percent more than NASAs legendary Saturn 5 moon rocket enough to boost the 5.75 million-pound rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere. Together with the second stage engine, the SLS Block 1 will be able to put 154,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit.

NASA eventually plans to build a Block 2 version of the SLS feature advanced strap-on boosters with a liftoff thrust of 9.2 million pounds.

Gerstenmaier said the agency was not under any political pressure to put astronauts aboard EM-1, saying this is something well go evaluate and well see what the results look like coming out the other side.

But it will not be easy. To convert the EM-1 Orion into a piloted version, life support and other critical systems will be required, along with extensive testing, adding to the missions price tag and inevitably delaying the flight. The flight would be limited to two astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the moon lasting eight to nine days.

Gerstenmaier said if the study shows the Orion spacecraft cannot be prepared for flight before the end of 2019 it likely would make more sense to stick with the original timeline and fly EM-1 uncrewed.

NASAs current deep space exploration program has its roots in presidential politics and agendas dating back to the shuttle Columbias destruction during re-entry in 2003.

In the wake of the disaster, the Bush administration directed NASA to finish the International Space Station and retire the shuttle by the end of the decade and to focus instead on building new rockets and spacecraft for a return to the moon in the early 2020s. Antarctica-style moon bases were envisioned as both a science initiative and as stepping stones to eventual flights to Mars.

NASA came up with the Constellation program and began designing a new Saturn 5-class super rocket to boost lunar modules and habitats to the moon, along with a smaller rocket to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit. The crew capsule was called Orion and the plan was to link up with the lunar lander/habitat in Earth orbit and then head for the moon.

After the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama ordered a review of NASAs human space program. A presidential panel concluded Constellation was over budget and unsustainable, suggesting instead that NASA adopt a flexible path architecture, bypassing the moon in favor of a manned flight to an asteroid and an eventual flight to orbit Mars.

The Obama administrations Office of Science and Technology Policy ultimately approved a two-tiered approach to human spaceflight. It retained the Constellation programs Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, and ordered NASA to build a single large rocket what became the Space Launch System for deep space exploration.

At the same time, the agency has awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop piloted spacecraft, on a commercial basis, to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The idea is to encourage private industry to develop low-Earth orbit while NASA focuses on deep space exploration.

More recently, the Obama administration specified an asteroid retrieval mission to robotically haul a small asteroid, or part of one, back to the vicinity of the moon for hands-on exploration by astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft. Such missions would set the stage for an Orion, attached to a habitation module of some sort, to make an eventual flight to orbit Mars or its moons.

NASA staged a successful uncrewed test flight of the Orion capsule using a Delta 4 rocket in December 2014. Known as Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1, the heavily instrumented Orion capsule was boosted into an orbit with a high point of about 3,600 miles above the Earth. From there, the spacecraft plunged back to Earth, hitting the atmosphere at some 20,000 mph to test its heat shield and other safety systems.

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NASA studying whether to add astronauts to first launch of new super booster - Spaceflight Now

Jose Flores

February 25th, 2017

Aerojet Rocketdyne tests its staged-combustion rocket engine, the AR1, at NASAs Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Photo Credit: Aerojet Rocketdyne

Aerojet Rocketdyne set the record for the highest chamber pressure of any United States-produced liquid oxygen and kerosene main combustion system during a Feb. 22, 2017, test at NASAs Stennis Space Center.

The record was set during a series of successful test firings of theAR1sstaged combustion system.This particular testcombined the engines preburner with the main injector in order to validate injector design parameters and performance.

Staged-combustion testing is a critical step in proving our design for AR1 and reestablishing U.S. preeminence in hydrocarbon space launch propulsion, said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake in a press release.

Drake said Aerojet Rocketdyne has been working on the engine program since 2014 and remains on target to deliver a flight-qualified engine in 2019.

The latest testing validates our flight design and provides high confidence as we move further into AR1 engine manufacturing, Drake said.

Both Aerojet Rocketdyne with its AR1 and Blue Origin with its BE-4 engine are working toward developing oxidizer-rich staged-combustion engines to end U.S. reliance on Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines. Establishing independence from the Russian engineis becoming increasingly important as relations between the two countriesremain strained.

AR1 is the lowest risk, lowest cost and fastest path to end U.S. reliance on Russian engines for the launch of Americas national security and civil space missions, Drake said.

The AR1 is a 500,000-pound (2,200-kilonewton) thrust-class liquid-oxygen/kerosene engine and is slated to be completed in 2019.

Tagged: Aerojet Rocketdyne AR1 Lead Stories RD-180 Stennis Space Center

College student and long time space enthusiast, Jose has been a constant visitor to Cape Canaveral since he moved to central Florida. He joined the SFI team in the hopes of becoming more involved in the coverage of spaceflight and space exploration.

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Aerojet Rocketdyne conducts record setting AR1 test - SpaceFlight Insider

Jim Siegel

February 25th, 2017

Kennedy Space Centers Ismael Otero explains how the 2.8-million-gallon (10.6-million-liter) thermal energy storage tank in the background lowers energy costs within the complex by storing water that is chilled during off-peak nighttime hours to be later used to cool buildings during the daytime. The project was originally proposed by an intern a few years ago and construction was completed in Fall 2016. The large silver pipes shown behind Otero on either side of the tank carry the chilled water to and from the chiller building located about just a few yards to his right. Photo Credit: Jim Siegel / SpaceFlight Insider

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. NASA is currently working under an initiative to better utilize the energy that helps power the locations facilities. This includes a large thermal energy storage tank that was recently installed.

In contrast to most home central air conditioning systems that use a refrigerant to cool air, large commercial buildings and office parks often use chilled water as a coolant to cool and dehumidify interior environments.

Kennedy Space Centerscooling system includes a large central chiller building that uses electricity to chill water that is then pumped to most of the buildings in the complex. The water returns to the chiller to be again cooled, a closed-loop process that constantly operates to provide a comfortable interior work area for employees.

As explained in a press briefing by KSC project manager Ismael Otero, the complex recently installed a large 2.8-million-gallon (10.6-million-liter) thermal energy storage tank outside the chiller building. This allows KSC to store water to be chilled during off-peak nighttime hours for use during the day when electricity costs are higher.

The 90-foot (27-meter) high tank has concrete walls that are up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) thick and is coated with a tough external foam membrane to minimize the warming effects of the hot Florida sun.

The Thermal Energy Storage Tank Project, one of many at KSC aimed at improving energy and environmental efficiency, saves about a quarter of a million dollars annually in energy costs, Otero said.

Furthermore, the project also earned a $1.5 million rebate from Florida Power & Light. That rebate, in turn, is funding other energy saving projects funds within the KSC complex. Most notably, according to Dan Clark of the NASA Sustainability Team, is an initiative to replace over a hundred external lights with amber LED lights, which has a wavelength invisible to sea turtles.

Young sea turtles become disoriented by conventional nighttime lighting, Clark said.

The new LED lights will contribute to maintaining an eco-friendly environment for these and other creatures that share KSC with NASA.

Tagged: Kennedy Space Center Kilowatts and Sea Turtles: NASA's Thermal Energy Storage Project NASA The Range

Jim Siegel comes from a business and engineering background, as well as a journalistic one. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and executive certificates from Northwestern University and Duke University. Jim got interested in journalism in 2002. As a resident of Celebration, FL, Disneys planned community outside Orlando, he has written and performed photography extensively for the Celebration Independent and the Celebration News. He has also written for the Detroit News, the Indianapolis Star, and the Northwest Indiana Times (where he started his newspaper career at age 11 as a paperboy). Jim is well known around Celebration for his photography, and he recently published a book of his favorite Celebration scenes. Jim has covered the Kennedy Space Center since 2006. His experience has brought a unique perspective to his coverage of first, the space shuttle Program, and now the post-shuttle era, as US space exploration accelerates its dependence on commercial companies. He specializes in converting the often highly technical aspects of the space program into contexts that can be understood and appreciated by average Americans.

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Kilowatts and Sea Turtles: NASA's Thermal Energy Storage Project - SpaceFlight Insider

Laurel Kornfeld

February 25th, 2017

Using the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS in Spain, for the first time, the dynamical properties of asteroids 2004 VN112 and 2013 RF98were observed spectroscopically. The data suggest a possible common origin and gives a clue to the possible existence of a large planet deep in the Kuiper Belt.Image Credit: IAC

Observations of two extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs) suggest they were once part of a binary asteroid system that was perturbed by one or more undiscovered super-Earth planets that may still be lurking even further in the outer Solar System.

A team of researchers at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and at Complutense University of Madrid, both in Spain, conducted spectroscopic observations of ETNOs 2004 VN112 and 2013 RF98, faint asteroids that orbit more than 150 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. One AU is equal to the average Earth-Sun distance of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).

Approximately 21 ETNOs in similar orbits have been discovered since 2000.Because these objectsorbits have similar dynamical parameters, several scientists recently proposed they are being perturbed by one or more massive planets orbiting the Sun as far as 700 AU.

Last year Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin at Caltech predicted the existence of one super-Earth at around 700 AU based on the orbits of seven of the 21 known ETNOs.

The hypothesized outer solar system planet is referred to by some scientists as Planet Nineand by others as Planet X. The latter is the conventional term used to refer to theorized but undiscovered objects.

Using the OSIRIS spectrograph on the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), the research team, in cooperation with astronomers Gianluca Lombardi and Ricardo Scarpa, observed the two faint asteroids, successfully determined their apparent magnitudes, identified their compositions, and then refined the orbit of 2013 RF98.

Several striking similarities were found between the two objects. Their spectra used to determine whether their surfaces have ices, silicates, and highly processed carbon compounds were practically identical and very similar to those of two other ETNOs:2000 CR105and 2012 VP113.

The similar spectral gradients observed for the pair 2004 VN112[and]2013 RF98 suggests a common physical origin, said. Julia de Leon, the lead author of a paper on the findings published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. We are proposing the possibility that they were previously a binary asteroid which became unbound during an encounter with a more massive object

Sedna, the only other ETNO to have been spectroscopically observed, did not match the other four and is believed to have a different origin, having likely come from the inner Oort Cloud.

All five are among the seven ETNOs whose orbits led Brown and Batygin to hypothesize the existence of a distant, more massive planet.

To test the theory that these two objects were once partners in a binary asteroid system, the researchers conducted numerous computer simulations measuring how the poles of their orbits would separate once perturbation by a larger object pulled them apart.

The simulations supported the notion that a 10 to 20 Earth-mass planet orbiting between 300 and 600 AU from the Sun could have separated the two asteroids approximately five million to 10 million years ago.

A sequence of images taken with the Gran Telescopio Canarias to identify one of the ETNOs studied, 2013 RF98. The left image shows how the asteroid moved during four consecutive nights. On the right is the visible spectra obtained with the GTC of the two objects, 2004 VN112 and 2013 RF98. The red lines show the gradients of the spectra. Image Credit: Julia de Len / IAC

Tagged: 2004 VN112 2013 RF98 extreme trans-neptunian objects Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias Planet nine Planet X Sedna The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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Data on 2 distant asteroids tease possibility of massive planet - SpaceFlight Insider

Derek Richardson

February 24th, 2017

A drone captures never-before-seen views of a test firing of an RS-25 engine at NASAs Stennis Space Center. Photo Credit: NASA

Engineers at NASAs Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, conducted a test of the RS-25 engine on the A-1 Test Stand. In addition to collecting performance data on the engine that will help power the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, a NASA drone revealed never-before-seen imagery of the more than six-minute-long firing.

The test was conducted by Aerojet Rocketdyne and Syncom Space Services personnel. Aerojet Rocketdyne is NASAs prime contractor for the RS-25 engines. Syncom Space Services is the prime contractor for Stennis facilities and operations.

The RS-25 is a remarkable engine that continues to undergo testing at Stennis to ensure that the Space Launch System rocket will have the performance necessary to safely take our astronauts into deep space, said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake.

A drone captures never-before-seen views of a test firing of an RS-25 engine at NASAs Stennis Space Center. (Click to enlarge) Photo Credit: NASA

Viewsof the test stand came from an overhead drone, which captured the re-purposed Space Shuttle-era engine firing in action for the first time from above the A-1 stand.

Never before has drone technology been used to give us a birds-eye view of our engine test, Drake said.

Development engine No. 0528 ran for380 seconds(about 6minutes, 20 seconds) allowing engineers to monitor various engine operating conditions. According to NASASpaceflight, the engine was throttled to 109 percent of the originally designed power level for 205 seconds, 100 percent for nine seconds, and 80 percent for 118 seconds.

This was the 12th test of the RS-25 to confirm it meets the added requirements and performance beyond what was needed to support the Space Shuttle program.

The test is another step in the development of the rocket that will eventually launch humansbeyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. Four RS-25 engines, along with a pair of five-segment solid rocket boosters, will power the SLS at launch on deep space missions to the Moon or Mars.

The engines for the first four SLS flights will be former SpaceShuttle Main Engines, which were also tested at Stennis.

The RS-25 engine continues to perform flawlessly, which is a testament to the dedication and hard work of the hundred of employees across the country supporting this program, said Dan Adamski, RS-25 program director at Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Engineers are conducting an ongoing series of tests this year on both development and flight engines to ensure the design, outfitted with a new controller, can perform at higher levels under a variety of conditions and situations. The engine controller unit controls the internal engine functions during the flight and enables proper communication between the SLS and the RS-25.

According to NASASpaceflight, three more firings of engine 0528 are planned one on March 24, April 27, and May 16 before it is removed for other engines to be tested. There is an option for a fifth test on the engine in June if needed. After that, flight engines will begin firing on the stand.

Stennis is also preparing its B-2 Test Stand for the core stage of the first SLS flight, known as Exploration Mission 1. The testing will involve installing the flight stage on the stand and firing its four RS-25 engines simultaneously.

EM-1 is expected to launch in 2018 to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. However, NASA is currently studying the feasibility of adding peopleto the first mission, which would likely delay EM-1 by at least a year.

Video courtesy of NASAs Marshall Center

Tagged: A-1 Test Stand NASA RS-25 Space Launch System Stennis Space Center The Range

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. 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 that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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RS-25 engine test firing seen from drone - SpaceFlight Insider

The nine WGS mission patches. Credit: Air Force logos; Spaceflight Now graphic

CAPE CANAVERAL A military communications satellite, built with international funding from Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and New Zealand, has been stacked atop a Delta 4 rocket to launch into a worldwide information-relay network operated by the U.S.

WGS 9, the ninth installment of the Wideband Global SATCOM communications satellite system, will be boosted into a super-synchronous transfer orbit by the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Medium+ (5,4) configured rocket with four strap-on solids.

Liftoff is planned for March 8 during a window of 6:48 to 7:53 p.m. EDT (2248-2353 GMT).

The allies bought this satellite in exchange for access to the planet-spanning constellation, similar to the groundbreaking deal with Australia that paid for the construction and launch of WGS 6.

Each of the partners receive resources commensurate with their investment with WGS 9Commensurate investments from these partners equate to approximately 3 percent of the WGS constellation bandwidth, according to answers provided by the Air Forces Space and Missile Systems Center.

The international participation gives communications interoperability between allied forces, funds expansion of the constellation and allows each partner nation to make a modest investment to receive immediate access to worldwide services that would be too expensive to construct on their own.

The WGS 9 deal was signed in 2012 to begin construction of the satellite.

In accordance with the terms of the partnership, the international partners gained access to the WGS constellation upon enactment in 2012.

WGS is the Department of Defenses highest capacity communications satellite system. The spacecraft create a global grid to provide the needed coverage and connectivity in support of operations by U.S. and allied forces around the world.

Boeing builds the WGS satellites, which began launching in 2007.

The new bird, valued at $424 million, will be maneuvered into a circular geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator to enter service from an undisclosed position.

Just like WGS 8 launched in December, No. 9 carries the second Wideband Digital Channelizer at the heart of its communications package, enabling a 90 percent improvement in available bandwidth compared to previous sister-satellites.

Already shrouded in the rockets 47-foot-tall, 17-foot-diameter composite nose cone, the WGS 9 spacecraft was hauled to Complex 37 overnight and hoisted atop the Delta 4 launch vehicle today.

The fully assembled rocket stands 217 feet tall.

The international partners funded the procurement of the ninth WGS satellite. The United States funded the launch, operation and sustainment of WGS 9, according to SMC.

The satellite was flown to Florida in early January from Boeings manufacturing facility in El Segundo, California. After arriving, it was taken to the commercial Astrotech processing facility to undergo pre-flight preps.

Final testing, loading of maneuvering propellant and encapsulation in the Delta 4s nose cone was accomplished with the satellite.

Todays transfer to the pad saw the 13,000-pound satellite move from Titusville, through the Kennedy Space Center and over to Cape Canaveral Air Force Stations Complex 37.

Since rolling from its hangar a month ago, the Delta has undergone attachment of the four solid boosters and a pre-launch testing campaign. A fueling exercise was performed just last week.

Delta 377 will be the rocket familys first of 2017.

See earlier WGS 9 coverage.

Our Delta archive.

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Delta 4 receives communications satellite payload for launch into space - Spaceflight Now

ESA astronaut Homas Pesquet tweeted this image of the Dragon spacecraft hovering just below the space station Thursday. Credit: Thomas Pesquet/ESA/NASA

Running a day late after aborting a rendezvous to resolve a navigation glitch, SpaceXs Dragon cargo craft made a smooth final approach to the International Space Station on Thursday, floating in range of the research labs robot arm for capture to deliver 2.7 tons of supplies and research experiments.

The Dragon spacecraft took four days to travel to the complex after blasting off from the Kennedy Space Centers launch pad 39A on Sunday, hauling food rations, space station repair equipment, and science investigations designed to monitor Earths ozone layer, study lightning and test out new automated navigation tools for a future satellite servicing mission.

The 23-foot-long (7-meter) Dragon supply ship approached the space station from below, pausing at predetermined hold points to allow for status checks by ground controllers. Mission control centers in Houston and at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, gave a green light for the spacecraft to move to a capture box around 10 meters, or 33 feet, beneath the outpost.

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet unlimbered the space stations Canadian-built robotic arm to grapple the Dragon cargo carrier at 5:44 a.m. EST (1044 GMT), a few minutes earlier than projected in Thursdays timeline.

Capture of the SpaceX-owned supply vessel occurred as the space station sailed over the northwest coast of Australia.

Looks like weve got a great capture, radioed space station commander Shane Kimbrough, who assisted Pesquet. Thomas did a great job flying it.

Great job with Dragon capture, and sorry about the delays, responded astronaut Mike Hopkins from mission control in Houston. Now the real work starts.

The mission delivered a record payload of scientific hardware for a SpaceX resupply mission, a manifest that includes 40 mice researchers will study to learn about bone healing in microgravity, a field that might have applications for victims with catastrophic bone injuries and patients with osteoporosis.

Were trying to understand what happens in the body as the bones start healing, said Rasha Hammamieh, the rodent research projects chief scientist from the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research.

The military is co-sponsoring the bone health experiment, with an eye toward learning lessons that could help injured soldiers.

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

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

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

Bacterial and stem cell researchers also have a stake in the mission.

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

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

The stations robotic arm placed the Dragon spacecraft on the Earth-facing port on the Harmony module a few hours later, and bolts drove closed to create a firm connection. Station astronauts planned to verify no leaks between the station and Dragon spacecraft, then open hatches leading into the supply ship later Thursday to begin unloading time-sensitive specimens and research payloads.

Dragon has now officially arrived at ISS, Pesquet said. Were very happy, indeed, to have it on-board and very much looking forward to the goodies, and the tons of science of cargo it carries.

Thursdays capture marked the 10th time a Dragon spaceship has reached the space station, counting a demonstration flight in 2012.

The Dragon spacecraft automatically aborted an attempted rendezvous Wednesday due to an incorrect value in the capsules relative GPS navigation system. SpaceX engineers fixed the problem in time for another approach Thursday.

While astronauts unpack Dragons pressurized cabin, the stations robotic arm will pull two research experiment platforms and a mounting base out of the ships external payload bay for placement on the outposts huge structural truss.

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

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

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

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

How does SAGE 3 fit into that? Were going to make measurements from the space station that show the recovery is on track, said Michael Cisewski, SAGE 3 project manager at NASA. I think that, from a science perspective, it doesnt get any better than that.

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

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

Among STP-H5s investigations are NASAs Raven autonomous space navigation demonstration designed to support future satellite servicing missions and NASAs Lightning Imaging Sensor.

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

Benjamin Reed, deputy director of NASAs satellite servicing program at Goddard Space Flight Center, called Raven a three-eyed instrument.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Dragon spacecraft will remain at the space station for around 30 days, detach in late March and re-enter the atmosphere for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, bringing home blood and urine specimens, the euthanized mice and other hardware needed back on Earth.

The Dragons arrival is the first of three resupply missions going to the space station in the next month.

A Russian resupply ship launched early Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on track for an automated radar-guided docking with the station early Friday.

Meanwhile, an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo vessel is being prepared for blastoff March 19 atop an Atlas 5 booster from Cape Canaveral with another supply delivery.

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SpaceX supply ship completes journey to space station - Spaceflight Now

The International Space Station is set to receive its second cargo shipment in less than 24 hours Friday with the automated linkup of a Russian Progress refueling and resupply freighter.

The Progress MS-05 spaceship is closing in to dock with the space stations Pirs module at 0834 GMT (3:34 a.m. EST) Friday, two days after blasting off from Kazakhstan on top of a Soyuz rocket.

The radar-guided docking should be completed by the Progress cargo crafts on-board computer, but cosmonauts inside the space station will be standing by to take manual control if the autopilot runs into trouble.

Fridays docking will come less than a day after a commercial SpaceX-owned Dragon supply ship arrived at the space station, pulling within range of the research labs robotic arm for capture and berthing to the Harmony module on the U.S. section of the complex.

The Russian Progress spacecraft will dock with the Earth-facing Pirs module on the Russian segment, where it is slated to remain until mid-June, when it will depart and burn up in Earths atmosphere to dispose of the space stations trash, making way for the next logistics mission.

The Progress MS-05 mission, known as Progress 66P in the space stations visiting vehicle manifest, is carryingaround 5,820 pounds, or 2,640 kilograms, of cargo and propellant to replenish stocks on the space station.

About 2,903 pounds (1,317 kilograms) of the material is dry cargo spare parts, food, clothing and experiments and another 1,940 pounds (880 kilograms) is propellant for refueling of the space stations fuel tanks.

The mission will also deliver 926 pounds (420 kilograms) of fresh water and about 51 pounds (23 kilograms) of oxygen.

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Watch live: Russian freighter closing in on space station - Spaceflight Now

The OA-7 Cygnus launch poster. Credit: United Launch Alliance

CAPE CANAVERAL An Atlas 5 booster core and Centaur upper stage have been stacked to launch another commercial freighter with supplies and scientific research gear to the International Space Station next month.

The United Launch Alliance rocket is scheduled to fly March 19 to deploy Orbital ATKs seventh Cygnus ship for NASAs privatized cargo-delivery program.

Itll be the third time an Atlas 5 has launched a Cygnus carrying its maximum load of cargo amounting to about 7,700 pounds.

Preparations at Cape Canaverals Vertical Integration Facility began yesterday when the first stage was erected aboard the mobile launch platform. The pre-stacked interstage, Centaur and boattail assembly was hoisted into place this morning to complete the basic buildup of the Atlas 5.

The rocket will be powered on and fully tested in the next two weeks to verify all systems are functioning properly. The encapsulated Cygnus will be delivered to the assembly building and attached in early March.

The 194-foot-tall rocket will be rolled out to the Complex 41 launch pad on March 17.

The Cygnus was loaded with its initial complement of cargo over the last 10 days at Kennedy Space Centers Space Station Processing Facility. The cylindrical modules hatch was then closed before the vessel was turned vertically and mated to its propulsion tug on Valentines Day.

Next, the craft will be fueled at the nearby Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility and the hatchway reopened to allow the insertion of late-load cargo.

The spacecraft will weigh nearly 16,000 pounds at launch.

Cygnus will be the third resupply ship scheduled to visit the station in a one-month period, a flurry of flights by its commercial counterpart SpaceX, a Russian Progress craft and then the Cygnus.

The Atlas 5s launch on March 19 is targeted for 10:56 p.m. EDT (0256 GMT), the opening of a half-hour available window.

Known as Orbital ATKs OA-7 mission, the Cygnus is scheduled to make a March 23 rendezvous with the International Space Station and be grabbed by the 58-foot-long Canadarm2. It will be attached to the stations Unity module for a 90-day stay.

See earlier OA-7 Cygnus coverage.

Our Atlas archive.

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Commercial space cargo ship's ride to orbit assembled for March 19 launch - Spaceflight Now

February 23, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt

After lifting off from historic LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, FL, on Sunday morning, SpaceXs Dragon capsule for the SpX-10/CRS-10 mission is making a second approach to the International Space Station during rendezvous and berthing operations following an abort on Wednesday. The mission is delivering thousands of pounds of supplies, hardware, food, and experiments to the ISS.

Launch and quick-look pad 39A condition:

Since launch on Sunday morning from the Kennedy Space Center, Dragon had enjoyed an issue-free ride to the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of an abort just hours prior to capture, blamed on a relative GPS hardware issue, on Wednesday. The issue was fixed to allow for a second arrival attempt on Thursday.

Cruising to orbit on her Falcon 9 first and second stages, the SpX-10 Dragon spacecraft had slipped into her preliminary orbit without issue.

Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 first stage successfully flew itself backto the Cape Canaveral Air Force Stations Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) for the third landing of a SpaceX rocket on land.

In the immediate hours after liftoff, teams performed a quick assessment of Launch Complex 39A, starting the process of documentation of all elements of the pad damaged during Sundays launch.

Damage to the launch pad is always expected following the liftoff of a rocket generating over a million pounds of thrust.

However, the Falcon 9s ~1.71 million pounds of thrust is relatively nothing compared to the ~7 million pounds of thrust LC-39A endured during its days with the Space Shuttle program, and SpaceX officials in the post-launch news conference were confident that only cosmetic damage would be present at LC-39A.

Accordingly, the quick look condition of the pad on Sunday afternoon noted that the launch complex appeared to be in excellent condition.

With the U.S. federal holiday on Monday, teams began a more thorough and extensive inspection on Tuesday of the launch pads systems and support services an inspection that will reveal just how much work and time it will take to refurbish the historic pad ahead of the currently planned albeit unlikely for the 28 February launch of the Echostar XXIII mission.

Rendezvous and berthing:

Following orbit insertion, Dragon performed a series of trajectory adjustment burns over the capsules three-day chase with the orbital outpost to properly align itself 6 km from the Station on Wednesday morning for final approach operations.

Following approval from NASA, SpaceX controllers commanded Dragon to begin its final approach sequence with the HA4 Approach Initiation burn at 03:16:00 EST at which time the ISS crew began actively monitoring the spacecraft.

Notably, this was deemed to have occurred 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

This was a potential sign of a problem, as Dragon then opted to abort her approach as a bad value in an ISS State Vector and a relative GPS error was noted by her flight computer.

The ability for Dragon to maintain proper alignment with the ISS is provided by the Relative Navigation System which was developed by SpaceX and debuted on CRS-3 on 20 April 2014.

The spacecraft was 1.2 km from the Station when the abort was called.

Dragons abort corridor saw her move into a racetrack around the Station, allowing for a second attempt to take place in 24 hours.

With the Thursday attempt going to plan, a series of maneuvers started with the 7-second HA4 burn that changed Dragons relative velocity to the ISS by 0.3 m/s.

This was followed by the HA4-MC1 and the HA4-MC2 burns designed to keep Dragon properly aligned with her targeted 350 m hold point.

Once Dragon arrived at the 350 m hold point she fired her thrusters to hold relative position with the Station at which time controllers at SpaceXs Mission Control Center (MCC-X) in Hawthorne, CA, commanded Dragon to perform a 180 degree Yaw maneuver to place the craft into the proper orientation for grapple at the end of the approach sequence.

After the yaw maneuver, MCC-X and MCC Houston (MCC-H) controllers confirmed the health of Dragons systems, after which the spacecraft departed the 350 m hold point.

The next hold point for Dragon was at 250 m below the ISS, where controllers once again confirmed the health of Dragons systems as well as the crafts orientation before giving a go to press ahead toward capture.

At any point during this phase of the approach sequence at a hold point or otherwise ground controllers, as well as the Station crew, also had the ability to manually abort Dragons approach through the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Ultra High-Frequency Communication Unit (CUCU) if an off-nominal condition presents itself.

For the rendezvous, once a go to proceed is given, Dragon left the 250 m hold point and arrived at the 30 m hold point.

Once here, teams will perform final assessments of Dragons readiness to close to the capture point 10 m below the ISS.

Under the ideal plan, Dragon will depart the 30 m hold point and arrive atthe 10 m Capture Point (CP).

Once Dragon arrives at the CP, ISS Commander Shame Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet working in the Robotic Work Station in the Cupola lab will extend the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) arm toward Dragons grapple fixture.

After receiving a Go for Capture from Houston, Kimbrough and Pesquet will use the SSRMSs camera on the Latching End Effector (as overviewed in a detailed presentation available in L2) to precisely move the SSRMS to grapple posture.

At this point, Kimbrough and Pesquet will inhibit the Stations thrusters and Dragon will be commanded to free drift mode.

Kimbrough and Pesquet will then move the SSRMS over the Dragons grapple fixture pin and trigger the capture sequence.

Assuming a nominal, prime timeline, capture is expected at 06:00EST (11:00 UTC).

The backup capture window, should something preclude capture in the prime window, opens at 07:03:22 EST and closes at 08:20:08 EST.

After capture, a series of initial post-grapple checkouts will occur before Kimbrough and Pesquet carefully translates Dragon to its pre-install position 3.5 m away from Node-2 Harmonys nadir port.

Once at the pre-install position, Station crewmembers will take camcorder and photographic footage of Dragon for post-launch and rendezvous engineering evaluation.

Kimbrough and Pesquet will then move Dragon to 1.5 m from Node-2, at which point the ISS crew will wait for the final go for berthing call to move Dragon the rest of the way into the Common Berthing Module interface to begin securing the spacecraft to the Station.

Under the current plan, the CRS-10 Dragon will remain berthed to the ISS until late March, at which point it will reenter Earths atmosphere and splashdown for recovery in the Pacific Ocean.

The next cargo resupply mission set to dock to the ISS is the Progress MS-05 spacecraft which launched just hours ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is scheduled to dock on Friday morning at 08:34 UTC (03:34 EST).

The next U.S.-launching resupply mission to the Station is Orbital ATKs OA-7 Cygnus mission on 20 March.

(Images: SpaceX; NASA)

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CRS-10 Dragon making second rendezvous and berthing attempt with Station - NASASpaceflight.com

Derek Richardson

February 22nd, 2017

Soyuz-U launch vehicle together with the cargo transport spacecraft Progress MS-05. Photo Credit: Roscosmos

Lifting off under clear, blue skies at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz-U rocket completed its final launch by sending the Russian Progress MS-05 cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station (ISS).

Liftoff took place at 12:58 a.m. EST (05:58 GMT) Feb. 22, 2017, from launch site 1/5, also known as Gagarins Startthe same launch pad that sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space.

Progress MS-05 is moved to the horizontal position before being encapsulated inside the Soyuz-U fairing. Photo Credit: Roscosmos

After a flawless nine-minute flight into space, Progress MS-05, also called Progress 66P, separated successfully from the second stage of the storied Soyuz-U. Itwill spend two days, about 34 orbits, catching up with the ISS. Docking with the Pirs module is expected at around 3:34 a.m. EST (08:34 GMT).

The cargo ship is carrying about 5,400 pounds (2,450 kilograms) of supplies, consumables, and propellant. It will stay attached to the outpost until June before departing and performing a de-orbit burn to re-enter Earths atmosphere.

This was the first successful Progress launch since the ill-fated Progress MS-04 rocket. On that flight, due to a malfunction in that Soyuz-U rockets second stage, the spacecraft failed to reach orbit.

An investigation laterdeterminedthat a failure in the RD-0110 engines oxidizer pump had caused the whole assembly to disintegrate 22 seconds before achieving orbital velocity. While an exact root cause was not determined, investigators believe the pump was destroyed from either a foreign object or an improper assembly.

The Soyuz-U, the worlds longest-serving rocket, has been flying since May 1973. Since then, it has launched 786 times, including this final flight. While its record isnt perfect, it has completed 765 of its missions successfully. Additionally, in 1979, 47 Soyuz-U rockets launched, a record for the highest launch rate for any orbital-class rocket.

It is based on the iconic R-7 rocket design. The 167.7-foot (51.1-meter) tall Soyuz-U has a core stage with four strap-on liquid-fueled boosters, and a second stage. Each booster sports a single RD-117 engine that produces 188,502 pounds (838.5 kilonewtons) of thrust.

The core has an RD-118 that produces 182,770 pounds (813 kilonewtons) of thrust. The second stage has a single RD-0110 that produces 67,000 pounds (298 kilonewtons) of thrust. All of the engine types burn liquid oxygen and kerosene.

Soyuz-U launch vehicle together with the cargo transport spacecraft Progress MS-05. Photo Credit: Roscosmos

Seconds before liftoff, the core stage engine and also the four strap-on boosters ignited and throttled up to full power. Once the countdown reached zero, the launch mount released the rocket and it soared skyward, leaving behind the snow-covered Kazakh steppe where Baikonur is located.

About 20 seconds after leaving the pad, the rocket began pitching over toward its designated orbit. The boosters fell away after burning for about 118 seconds while the core stage continued to burn for nearly another three minutes.

At around 2 minutes, 39 seconds, the payload fairing jettisoned, revealing the Progress MS-05 spacecraft.

Two seconds after the first stage completed its burn, the second stages RD-0110 engine began to fire in what is known as hot staging. This means the engine ignites while the previous stage is still attached. Once ignition was confirmed, pyrotechnics between the two stages officially detached the core stage.

Using the lone RD-0110 engine, the second stage burned for another four minutes to place Progress MS-05 into a preliminary orbit. Eight minutes, 49 seconds after leaving Kazakhstan, the rocket completed its ascent. Seconds later, the spacecraft separated from therocket and deployed its solar arrays and antennas.

This completed the final chapter in the history of the Soyuz-U. It has since been replaced by the similar-looking Soyuz-2 and crew-rated Soyuz-FG rockets.

This was the 157th Progress mission since the cargo freighter design began flying in 1978. Back then, it was servicing the Salyut 6 space station. Progress MS-05 was the 68th of various models to be sent to the ISS.

Video courtesy of (Roscosmos)

Tagged: Expedition 50 International Space Station Lead Stories Progress MS-05 Roscosmos Russia Soyuz-U

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. 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 that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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Soyuz-U completes swan song with launch of Progress MS-05 - SpaceFlight Insider

Laurel Kornfeld

February 23rd, 2017

This artists concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets diameters, masses, and distances from the host star. Image & Caption Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

A star system, approximately 40 light-years from Earth, with seven Earth-sized planets, including three in the habitable zone, has been discovered by NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope.

Named TRAPPIST-1 because it was discovered by the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile, the star is an ultra-cool M-type dwarf star with eight percent the mass of our Sun and half its temperature, located in the direction of the constellation Aquarius.

NASA announced the discovery at a news conference on Wednesday, February 22, at 1 p.m. EST. Researchers who took part in the news conference, which was followed by a question and answer period, include the following:

The TRAPPIST-1 system consists of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a red dwarf star. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt (IPAC)

All seven planets orbit closer to the star than Mercury orbits the Sun. Their densities indicate they could all be rocky worlds while their cool temperatures indicate that under the right atmospheric conditions, all could host liquid water on their surfaces.

Being rocky and capable of harboring liquid water are two of the primary conditions necessary for life as we know it to exist.

Scientists are especially interested in the three planets located in the stars habitable zone, as they are the ones most likely to have liquid water.

Three of the planets were discovered in May 2016 by scientists in Chile using TRAPPIST. Following the discovery, several other ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatorys (ESO) Very Large Telescope, as well as NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope were trained on the system.

Spitzer not only confirmed the presence of the first two planetsbut also discovered five more orbiting the same star. The data provided by Spitzer enabled the scientists to accurately determine the planets sizes and estimate the masses of all but one.

With knowledge of their masses and sizes, the scientists were able to make decent estimates of their densities. By knowing or closely estimating a planets density, the scientists were able to gain an insight as to whether the planet is gaseous or rocky.

This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life, Zurbuchen stated during the news conference. Answering the question are we alone is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal.

Four of the systems planets were observed with the Hubble Space Telescope, which found no evidence for their having the puffy, hydrogen-heavy atmospheres typical of gaseous planets.

The TRAPPIST-1 system provides one of the best opportunities in the next decade to study the atmospheres around Earth-size planets, noted Nikole Lewis, who co-led the Hubble study of the system.

Imagine standing on the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f. This artists concept is one interpretation of what it could look like. Image & Caption Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

TRAPPIST-1s seven planets orbit so close to each other that a person standing on one of them would be able to see the disks of the others in the sky. The close orbits also mean the planets perturb one another. Their layout is more akin to that of Jupiters moons than to that of the Solar System.

Mercury orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.39 AU (astronomical units, with one AU equal to the average Earth-Sun distance: 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers). In contrast, the closest TRAPPIST-1 planet orbits its star at 0.01 AU and the furthest at 0.06 AU.

While the planets densities suggest they are rocky, the question of whether they have water will require additional observations. Some scientists think that the systems outermost planet is icy, though its mass has not yet been determined.

The TRAPPIST-1 habitable zone in comparison to the Solar System. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As an infrared telescope, Spitzer is ideal for studying this system because the star glows in infrared wavelengths. During the last quarter of 2016, Spitzer observed the system for 500 hours, monitoring transits of the planets in front of the star.

Because the planets are in such close orbits around TRAPPIST-1, some or all of them may be tidally locked, which means that they always present the same side to the star and the opposite side away from the star.

That configuration may cause extreme temperature variations that could limit the planets habitability. It could also result in extreme weather events, with strong winds blowing from one side of a planet to the other side.

Additionally, red dwarf stars, especially young ones, can experience superflares that emit high levels of radiation, which can strip away a planets atmosphere and prevent life from getting started.

However, unlike Proxima Centauri, TRAPPIST-1 is a quiet, middle-aged star.

This chart shows, on the top row, artist concepts of the seven planets of TRAPPIST-1 with their orbital periods, distances from their star, radii, and masses as compared to those of Earth. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, T. Pyle (IPAC)

NASAs K2 extended Kepler exoplanet search mission is now studying the TRAPPIST-1 system while Spitzer and Hubble will conduct follow-up observations in preparation for study by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to launch in 2018.

The highly sensitive JWST will be capable of probing the planets atmospheres in a search for bio-signatures, as well as detecting evidence of water, methane, oxygen, ozone, carbon dioxide, and various other gases; plus, it will analyze their surface pressures and temperatures.

Another research team is constructing Speculoos, a more powerful version of TRAPPIST, which will search for planetary systems around other red dwarf stars.

Findings of the TRAPPIST-1 study have been published in the journal Nature.

Various visual simulations, including Exoplanet Surface in 360 VR, as well as additional photos and videos, and the TRAPPIST-1 system in the free, downloadable desktop app, Eyes on Exoplanets, or onmobile, TRAPPIST-1 system in 3D,can all be accessed at this website.

Video Courtesy of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This 360-degree panorama depicts the surface of a newly detected planet, TRAPPIST 1-d, part of a seven-planet system some 40 light-years away. Explore this artists rendering of an alien world by moving the view using your mouse or your mobile device.

Video & Caption Courtesy of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Tagged: Exoplanets Lead Stories NASA Spitzer Space Telescope TRAPPIST TRAPPIST-1

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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Spitzer discovers star system with seven orbiting Earth-sized planets - SpaceFlight Insider

Ground crews have mounted the fully-fueled Sentinel 2B spacecraft, the next mission in Europes multibillion-dollar Copernicus Earth observation satellite fleet, on top of a Vega rocket inside a protective gantry on its launch pad in French Guiana for blastoff next month.

The satellite was encapsulated inside the Vega rockets Swiss-made composite nose shroud Feb. 15, then transferred to the Vega launch pad Feb. 18, where the four-stage booster was already assembled and awaiting the arrival of the payload.

Sentinel 2B is scheduled to lift off at 0149 GMT March 7 (8:49 p.m. EST March 6) on top of the Vega rocket, which will fly on its ninth mission since debuting in February 2012.

Next months launch will be the third Arianespace mission of the year, and the first Vega launch of 2017.

The Sentinel 2B spacecraft carries a sharp-eyed camera sensitive to 13 different nuances of color designed to paint a broad swath 180 miles (290 kilometers) wide as the satellite circles Earth in polar orbit at an altitude around 488 miles (786 kilometers) above the planet.

Built by Airbus Defense and Space, Sentinel 2B follows the identical Sentinel 2A Earth observatory launched in June 2015.With two Sentinel 2 platforms in orbit, users will be able to glimpse the same location on Earth every five days.

The European Commissions Copernicus program has several lines of Sentinel satellites. While the Sentinel 2 series is devoted to land imaging roughly equivalent to the U.S. governments Landsat missions other Sentinel satellites carry radar and atmospheric sensors to monitor pollution, ice sheets, oil spills and other environmental concerns.

Sentinel 2B will be the fifth Copernicus satellite launched overall since the Sentinel deployments began in 2014.

ESA manages the satellites and launches for the Copernicus program on behalf of the European Commission, the EUs executive body.

The satellite was fueled with its supply of in-orbit maneuvering propellant before encapsulation inside the Vega rockets payload fairing, giving Sentinel 2B a launch mass around 2,500 pounds (about 1,140 kilograms).

Once hoisted into the Vega launch pads mobile gantry, the fairing and Sentinel 2B were lowered on top of the rockets fourth stage. Ground crews successfully completed functional checks of the satellite Feb. 19.

Sentinel 2B is designed for a mission of at least seven years.

The images below show fueling of Sentinel 2B, encapsulation of spacecraft inside the fairing, and its arrival at the Vega launch pad before attachment atop the 98-foot-tall (30-meter) rocket.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Europe's next Sentinel land imaging satellite mated to rocket booster - Spaceflight Now

It's no secret the UK is keen to take a significant slice of the growing space industries pie. And on Tuesday, the government set out its plans for the future.

If brought into law, the Draft Spaceflight Bill would allow horizontal flights to the edge of space from spaceports across the UK. Scientists will be able to "conduct vital medical experiments" in zero gravity.

The draft legislation also seeks to encourage commercial space businesses and the creation of a "space launch market" in the UK. The aim is to start commercial spaceflight from a UK spaceport by 2020.

British astronaut Tim Peake, who spent six months at the International Space Station in 2016, has done much to invigorate the British space community.

"With millions inspired by Tim Peake's mission last year, and ambitious plans underway to study and explore the Solar System, our future in space is bright," write the authors of the draft bill.

Space: the Europe that works

It is also one way for the UK to remain part of European operations. The European Space Agency (ESA), of which the UK is a member, is sometimes referred to as the Europe that works.

Some within ESA say that's because the UK gets a better rate of return for its investments in European space activities than it thinks it does with the European Union. The ESA and the EU are separate bodies.

The UK space industry is worth about 16.5 billion euros (13.7 billion). It employs more than 38,500 people directly. The government says the UK is "a world-leader in satellite technology and services."

And with companies like Reaction Engines it is fast being recognized as a leadinginnovator in rocket propulsion technology too.

"The UK has always prioritized the full range of scientific activities, commercial activities and using space to support the development of the economy and give value to citizens," says David Parker, a former head of the UK Space Agency and now ESA's head of human spaceflight. "So if you think about the weather forecast or using satellite communications in disasters, those humanitarian uses of space have always been high on the UK's agenda. And it's a commercially important sector of the economy."

It's a sentiment echoed clearly in the draft bill: "As we prepare to leave the European Union, we must ensure that the decisions we take now put the UK in a position to build a strong, resilient, well balanced economy that works for everyone."

And that also means "capturing a portion" of global space market worth a potential 30 billion euros ($31.6 billion).

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UK stakes its claim on the global space market with draft spaceflight legislation - Deutsche Welle

Lloyd Campbell

February 21st, 2017

Visualization of LauncherOne in flight. Image Credit: Virgin Galactic

Last week, Virgin Galactic continued to test the first stage engine of its air-launched LauncherOne. The NewtonThree (N3) engine recently completed a long-duration test at full thrust.

The N3 produces about 73,500 pounds (327 kilonewtons) of thrust. It ispowered by liquid kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Previous firings include a full thrust, 90-second firing in the fourth quarter of 2015 and multiple full thrust firings throughout 2016.

LauncherOnes second stage is powered by an N4 engine. It produces 5,000 pounds (22 kilonewtons) of thrust and is also powered using RP-1 and LOX. For most launches, the second stage will be ignited multiple times with a coast phase in between the burns.Combined, thesecond stage is capable of firing for almost sixminutes.

To try and minimize space debris in orbit, both LauncherOne stages will be de-orbited and will burn up in the atmosphere.

LauncherOne is an air-launch system that was originally designed to be flown to its launch altitude by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft. However, Virgin Galactic has now employed a Boeing 747-400 to be used.

Dubbed Cosmic Girl, the aircraft will take LauncherOne to an altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) where it will be released. Then the two-stage launcher will take the payload the rest of the way using its rocket engines.

Visualization of Virgin Galactic 747-400 Cosmic Girl with LauncherOne under its wing. Image Credit: Virgin Galactic

The swap to Cosmic Girl had two advantages: first, it freed up WhiteKnightTwo to be dedicated to the companys SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceflight vehicle program; second, it doubled the size of the payload LauncherOne could carry.

NewtonThree hot-fire engine test in October 2015. Image Credit: Virgin Galactic

With the growing popularity of CubeSats and other smaller satellites among colleges, small companies, and even some government agencies, a large launch vehicle is not necessarily required anymore.

LauncherOne is designed to take those smaller payloads into orbit. Currently, it can take up to 441 pounds (200kilograms) of payload to a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) and up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) to other low-Earth orbits.

Virgin Galactic currently has multiple contracts with different customers that will launch aboard LauncherOne including NASA, Sky and Space Global, and OneWeb Ltd.

Currently, most of those smaller payloads launch alongside bigger primary payloads on larger rockets to keep launch costs down. However, that limits their destinations in orbit as they have to take the flight path that the primary payload is taking.

With a low-cost launcher like LauncherOne, the customer can get its payload to its preferred orbit and at a reasonable cost. Virgin Galactic expects to take payloads to SSOfor under $10 million.

As an added benefit, the frequency of launches using this system is expected to be much higher than a traditional launcher due to the lack of maintenanceandpreparation to a launch pad between flights.

Additionally, weather concerns are much less since the aircraft carrying the launch vehicle can go above, or around, weather systems that would keep traditional launch vehicles grounded.

LauncherOne is expected to start carrying payloads into orbit as early as 2018.

Video Courtesy of Virgin Galactic

Tagged: LauncherOne Lead Stories NewtonThree Virgin Galactic

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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Virgin Galactic continues to test LauncherOne engine - SpaceFlight Insider

A Soyuz rocket and Progress supply ship packed with nearly 3 tons of cargo, provisions and fuel for the International Space Station rolled out to a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday.

The Progress MS-05 cargo freighter is set for liftoff Wednesday at 0558:33 GMT (12:58:33 a.m. EST; 11:58:33 a.m. Baikonur time) on a two-day trip to the space station.

The launch will be the last mission of the Soyuz-U version of Russias most-flown rocket. The Soyuz-U was a workhorse for the Russian space program, launching nearly 800 times with military spy satellites, cosmonaut crews and space station resupply missions to a series of Russian orbital outposts since 1973.

Newer versions of the expendable Soyuz booster are now flying with upgraded engines.

Wednesdays launch will be the first Soyuz-U flight, and the first Progress cargo launch, since a rocket failure doomed a Russian resupply mission Dec. 1 on the way to the space station.

Russian investigators believe foreign object debris or a manufacturing defect in the third stages RD-0110 engine led the failure, which caused the Progress MS-04 spaceship to crash in Siberia downrange from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The most likely cause of the contingency was the third stage liquid oxygen tank opening as a result of exposure of (RD-0110) engine destruction elements that occurred (as a) result of fire, and further destruction of the oxidizer compound pump, the Russian space agency, or Roscosmos, said in a Jan. 11 statement.

The oxidizer pump fire could have been caused by the introduction of foreign object debris into the pump cavity, or a violation of engine assembly procedures, Roscosmos said.

Engineers replaced the third stage RD-0110 engine on the Soyuz-U booster flying Wednesday with a powerplant from a different manufacturing batch after the inquiry discovered some engines produced by the same contractor were made with substandard alloys.

The automated Progress MS-05 cargo freighter, known as Progress 66P in the space stations visiting vehicle manifest, will reach orbit around 8 minutes, 49 seconds, after liftoff Wednesday. Docking with the International Space Stations Pirs module is set for 0834 GMT (3:34 a.m. EST) Friday.

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Soyuz booster rolled out to snowy Baikonur launch pad - Spaceflight Now