1. Space Flight

Category Archives: Space Flight

James Webb Space Telescope Assembly Practice Runs Start

Posted on by

Faced with the complicated job of putting together the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, NASA and lead contractor Northrop Grumman are starting to run practice assembly tests using a "pathfinder" telescope.

The technique was used during the construction of NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which launched in 1999, and was apparently quite successful because the telescope remains scientifically productive today, said Jon Arenberg, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) chief engineer at Northrop Grumman.

"It helps us do a number of things, obviously how to handle such a large structure, how to attach the mirrors," Arenberg told Space.com. "So this allows us to wring out a 140,000-lb. [63,500 kilograms] stand and robot assembly process." [Photos: Building the James Webb Space Telescope]

"This is an example of practice makes perfect, so we practice, practice, practice so when we get the flight hardware, it goes off as smoothly as possible," he added.

The pathfinder's design is fairly similar to that of the actual JWST, but there are some differences, Arenberg said. For example, the pathfinder lacks two winglike parts on either side of a backplane that holds a large part of the telescope together.

Hardware tests

JWST is the highly anticipated successor to NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope. When it's up and running, the infrared-optimized JWST will probe the atmospheres of exoplanets, study the universe's first galaxies and investigate how stars and planets form, among other things, NASA officials say.

But the telescope has received criticism for cost and development overruns. Around the turn of the century, JWST was projected to cost up to $3.5 billion and launch no later than 2011, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released in 2014.

The coming months will be crucial to the success of JWST, as components are starting to be completed and shipped for testing and assembly.

One major sign of success came in July, when load testing was finished on the observatory's primary mirror backplane support structure, the device that holds the telescope's mirror segments and science instruments. The backplane support was scheduled to be shipped to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland at the end of 2014 to be placed in its clean room and begin receiving mirrors.

See more here:

James Webb Space Telescope Assembly Practice Runs Start

15 Amazing Space Missions to Watch in 2015

Posted on by

Space fans have a lot to look forward to next year.

Closely watched spacecraft are expected to start pumping out science, whileprivate spaceflightcompanies have a number of launches on the books for 2015. A Mars rover will celebrate its third anniversary chugging along on the Red Planet, and a Japanese spacecraft will have another chance to make it into orbit around Venus. Next year could also mark the return of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station after a launch accident in October 2014.

Here are Space.com's major missions to keep an eye out for next year: [The Most Important Spaceflight Stories of 2014]

XCOR Aerospace and the Lynx space plane: Through 2015

XCOR Aerospace the company building the Lynx space plane has been making steady progress with the Lynx for the last few years. The plane is designed to take commercial customers and science payloads on flights to suborbital space. Lynx has room for one pilot and one passenger (as well as scientific experiments) on each flight, which reaches 330,000 feet (100 kilometers) into the air.

SpaceX reusable rocket landing on ocean platform: No earlier than Jan. 6

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is planning to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean no earlier than Jan. 6, after launching an uncrewed Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station. This will mark the first time anyone has ever attempted this kind of reusable rocket test, SpaceX representatives have said. SpaceX is also planning three more cargo launches in 2015 under a contract with NASA.

DSCOVR satellite launching to space: No earlier than Jan. 29

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is set for launch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 23. The satellite is designed to monitor solar wind from about 900,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. The DSCOVR mission is a partnership among NOAA, NASA and the U.S. Air Force, and some version of the mission has been in process for more than 10 years.

Europe's IXV space plane prototype test flight: Feb. 11

See more here:

15 Amazing Space Missions to Watch in 2015

India's Prototype Space Capsule Passes Big Test

Posted on by

BANGALORE, India In a two-in-one mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted the first experimental flight of itsnext-generation launch vehicle and demonstrated the re-entry and recovery of a prototype crew capsule.

The Dec. 18 maiden flight of theGeosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3(GSLV-3) began with a liftoff at 9:30 a.mlocal time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centeron the southeastern coast of India and was over in 20 minutes.

ISRO said in a statement that this "suborbital" experimental mission was intended to test the vehicle performance during the critical atmospheric phase of its flight. The vehicle carried a passive, or nonfunctional, cryogenic upper stage. [See photos from India's space capsule test flight]

The rocket carried a 3,775-kilogram unmanned crew module built by Indian industry. The module, designed to accommodatethree astronauts, separated from the rocket at an altitude of 127 kilometers and, after being slowed by parachutes, splashed down in the Bay of Bengal.

The 42.4-meter tall GSLV-3 is a three-stage vehiclewitha liftoff weight of 630 metric tons. The first stage consists oftwo solid-rocket motors, each with 200 tons of propellant. Its second stage uses two restartable engines, with 110 tons of liquid propellant.

As designed, the cryogenic upper stage of the rocket features a propellant loading of 25 tons of liquid-oxygen and -hydrogen. But in this flight only the first two stages were fired; the cryogenic upper stage was inert. Themissionobjective was to test the first two stages they had never flown before and validate the rockets aerodynamic stability during the ascent phase through the atmosphere.

ISRO said in a statement that the flight aimed "to validate the re-entry technologies envisaged for crew module and enhance the understanding of blunt body re-entry aerodynamics and parachute deployment in cluster configuration." Withthe success the rocket "has moved a step closer to its first developmental flight with the functional cryogenic upper stage."

"It has been a significant day for ISRO," the agency's chairman, Koppilli Radhakrishnan, said in a post-launch speech. "The performance of solid and liquid stage motors and the unmanned crew module was as expected."

Radhakrishnan said the rocket's cryogenic upper stageis still in development and that he is confident the first full-fledged flight will take place in two years. Once ready, he said, the GSLV-3will be able to launch satellites weighing 4 tons and could be used for the Indian manned spaceflight program.

The GSLV-3, indevelopment since 2002, was initially expected to become operational by 2010 or 2011, with its first flight in 2009 or 2010. The demonstrationflight was pushed back several times, one reason being the failure of the home-made cryogenic upper stage during a2010 flight of the current-generation GSLV.

Read the original here:

India's Prototype Space Capsule Passes Big Test

Space station team eager to begin record yearlong flight

Posted on by

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are gearing up for launch March 27 to kick off a record one-year stay aboard the International Space Station, an orbital marathon both men say is crucial for planning future flights beyond Earth orbit and, eventually, to Mars.

While four cosmonauts logged flights longer than one year between 1987 and 1999, the upcoming flight will be a first for the international lab complex and the first to focus on the long-term biological effects of the space environment using state-of-the-art medical and scientific research equipment and procedures.

"If we're ever going to go beyond low-Earth orbit for longer periods of time, spaceflight presents a lot of challenges to the human body with regard to bone loss, muscle loss, vision issues that we've recently realized people are having, the effect on your immune system, the effect of radiation on our bodies," Kelly said Thursday during a news conference in Paris. "Understanding those effects are very important.

"If a mission to Mars is going to take a three-year round trip, we need to know better how our body and our physiology performs over durations longer than what we've previously on the space station investigated, which is six months. Perhaps there's a cliff out there with regards to some of these issues that we experience and perhaps there aren't. But we won't know unless we investigate it."

A veteran of three previous space flights, including a shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and a 159-day stay aboard the station in 2010-11, Kelly is the twin brother of Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut who flew four shuttle missions and who is married to former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Kornienko also is a station veteran, logging 176 days aboard the outpost in 2010.

Astronaut Scott Kelly, left, and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko strike a pose during training for launch next year on a record year-long mission aboard the International Space Station.

NASA

"The last long-time space mission was on the Mir (space) station and it brought major data for investigations and research about how humans will feel during long-term flights into space," he said. "I hope that our mission will be an opportunity for others who will follow in our footsteps and take space exploration further."

Originally posted here:

Space station team eager to begin record yearlong flight

Elon Musk's next trick: Landing a rocket upright on a barge in the middle of the sea

Posted on by

Ambitious plan: billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: Supplied

And now for Elon Musk's next trick.

The billionaire entrepreneur is on the verge of attempting an audacious manoeuvrethat could make his next space flight notable not just for the takeoff, but for the landing.

Typically rocket boosters have their few minutes in the fiery, 3-2-1 spotlight, propelling the rest of the stages into the great beyond, before petering out and crashing unceremoniously into the sea.

A screen grab from a video a drone shot showing a prototype reusable rocket launch and land itself.

But Musk thinks that ditching one of the most expensive parts of the rocket is an unnecessary waste.

Advertisement

So SpaceX, his start-up space company, has designed a rocket he hopes will be able to launch, then return to Earth, touching down softly on the bullseye of a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Musk, the founder of Paypal and Tesla Motors, said that the odds of pulling off such an unprecedented feat "are not great - perhaps 50 per cent at best." But if SpaceX is able to one day stick the landing of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket with consistency, it would mark a significant advancement for space flight.

Musk's Falcon 9 can launch, but can it land? Photo: AP

Excerpt from:

Elon Musk's next trick: Landing a rocket upright on a barge in the middle of the sea

Wonkblog: Elon Musks next trick: Landing a rocket upright on a barge in the middle of the sea

Posted on by

And now for Elon Musks next trick.

The billionaire entrepreneur is on the verge of attempting an audacious maneuver that could make his next space flight notable not just for the takeoff, but for the landing.

Typically rocket boosters have their few minutes in the fiery, 3-2-1 spotlight, propelling the rest of the stages into the great beyond, before petering out and crashing unceremoniously into the sea.

But Musk thinks that ditching one of the most expensive parts of the rocket is an unnecessary waste.

So SpaceX, his startup space company, has designed a rocket he hopes will be able to launch, then return to Earth, touching down softly on the bullseye of a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Musk, the founder of Paypal and Tesla Motors, said that the odds of pulling off such an unprecedented feat are not greatperhaps 50 percent at best. But if SpaceX is able to one day stick the landing of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket with consistency, it would mark a significant advancement for space flight.

For years, Musk has been working on a way to land and reuse rockets. In two previous launches this year, the company completed soft landings in the ocean, briefly hovering over the water before toppling over.

Unfortunately, it sort of sat there for several seconds then tipped over and exploded, Musk said during a forum at MIT in October. Its as tall as a 14-story building. When a 14-story building falls over, its quite a belly flop.

On its next trip to resupply the International Space Station, scheduled for Jan. 6, SpaceX aims to land the rocket on a barge 300 feet long by 170 feet wide, using its engine thrust to slow down from a velocity of about 3,000 mph. In tests, the company has practiced launching the rocket hundreds to thousands of feet into the air and then reeling it back down slowly, as if tethered to kite string before landing square on the landing pad.

But stabilizing such a large rocket coming back from a great distance at high speeds isnt easy like trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm, Musk said.

Go here to read the rest:

Wonkblog: Elon Musks next trick: Landing a rocket upright on a barge in the middle of the sea

Playing Elite on the day NASA detailed its mission to Mars

Posted on by

It was an interesting day to try my hand at virtual reality space flight and fight.

Sitting in a lounge chair in a downtown New York hotel room, with an Oculus Rift headset strapped to my face and high-end flight stick and throttle in my hands, I couldn't help but be reminded of the day's big news from NASA.

I spent the time leading up to this scheduled appointment with the team behind Elite: Dangerous, watching a historic, live press conference from NASA.

It's called Orion, the gathering of administrators and rocket scientists told the world, and if it succeeds it will take people to Mars.If everything works out, if there are no issues and a team can be put together, it would be another six years at least before Earth said goodbye to its intergalactic explorers.

As a fan of science fiction, growing up on Star Trek and Star Wars and Heinlein, it's hard to keep the butterflies away when NASA starts talking about a Mars landing.

I thought about it during my short walk to the hotel to see Elite, a space combat and exploration game built on the premise that a future society splits in two, some sticking around Earth and the rest breaking away to the distant edges of the universe.

When I arrived, I couldn't help but ask David Braben, the director on this game and co-writer of the original title, about the real world news and its timing.

"It's great and exciting and fun," Braben said, launching us into a conversation about the game's astrophysics, the state of our universe and the game's AI-driven procedurally generated universe.

"The night sky is a blizzard of stars," he said. "We have been unbelievable lucky the solar system hasn't had a close encounter with another star, but within another thousand years there will be.

"Systems pass through each other, some of those could cause serious change."

See the article here:

Playing Elite on the day NASA detailed its mission to Mars

Daniel Glavin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center discusses the discovery of organic – Video

Posted on by


Daniel Glavin of NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Center discusses the discovery of organic
Daniel Glavin of NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Center discusses the discovery of organic matter on Mars and other recent results from the MSL Curiosity rover. ...

By: Dqdein Ltoov

More here:

Daniel Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center discusses the discovery of organic - Video

2014s top space stories

Posted on by

By Miriam Kramer

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen from the Rosetta orbiter on Nov. 20, 2014. The Philae lander soft-landed on the surface of the comet on Nov. 12.(ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM CC BY-SA IGO 3.0)

From accidents to soaring daredevils to space capsules, 2014 was a big year in spaceflight.

Humanity soft-landed a probe on the face of a comet for the first time, while Virgin Galactic experienced a tragedy making it a bittersweet 12 months for people involved with space.

Here are Space.com's most important spaceflight stories of 2014:

NASA's Orion capsule debut

NASA successfully launched an uncrewed test of its Orion spacecraft, built to take humans to deep-space destinations like Mars or an asteroid, for the first time. The space capsule designed to carry four astronauts is the first spacecraft built by NASA to take humans to the Red Planet eventually.

Orion made two orbits of Earth during its approximately 4.5-hour test in early December. The flight was designed to help engineers test key systems onboard the spacecraft that could be needed during eventual crewed missions. The capsule reached an altitude of about 3,600 miles, marking the first time a NASA spacecraft built for humans has been out of low-Earth orbit in more than 40 years. [Images of Orion Test Flight]

NASA's Space Launch System the agency's mega rocket built to take Orion into deep space also hit a big milestone in 2014. Completing a critical design review that will allow engineers building the rocket to go forward.

Private rocket explodes after liftoff in Virginia

Read more here:

2014s top space stories

Space Station's 3D Printer Makes Wrench From 'Beamed Up' Design

Posted on by

The 3D printer aboard the International Space Station has wrapped up the first phase of its orbital test run by cranking out a ratchet wrench whose design was beamed up from Earth.

The wrench, along with the 19 other objects built by the orbiting 3D printer thus far, will travel to Earth early next year, where engineers will compare the objects with ground samples produced by the same machine before it launched, NASA officials said.

"We can't wait to get these objects home and put them through structural and mechanical testing," Quincy Bean, of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a statement. "We really won't know how well this process worked in space until we inspect the parts and complete these tests." [10 Ways 3D Printing Could Transform Space Travel]

The 3D printer arrived on the space station in September as part of the 3D Print project, a collaboration between NASA and the California-based startup Made in Space, which designed and built the machine. The printer was installed in the station's Microgravity Science Glovebox on Nov. 17, then printed out its first part a piece for the printer itself called an extruder plate a week later.

All the other parts made by the printer during its first month of operations came from designs installed on the machine before its launch. So sending the wrench's file up from Earth marked another milestone, NASA officials said.

"For the printer's final test in this phase of operations, NASA wanted to validate the process for printing on demand, which will be critical on longer journeys to Mars," 3D Print program manager Niki Werkheiser, also of NASA Marshall,said in the same statement. "In less than a week, the ratchet was designed, approved by safety and other NASA reviewers, and the file was sent to space where the printer made the wrench in four hours."

The wrench measures 4.5 inches long by 1.3 inches wide (11.4 by 3.3 centimeters), and consists of 104 layers of extruded plastic, space agency officials said.

NASA has high hopes for 3D printing, saying in-space manufacturing technology could bring down the cost of spaceflight significantly and make voyaging spacecraft more self-sufficient. (Carrying a printer and some raw "feedstock" material would be easier and cheaper than lugging a huge cache of spare parts, the thinking goes.)

The 3D Print project is one step toward this ambitious goal. And the machine's work aboard the space station isn't done yet; phase two should start early next year.

"For our next phase of operations, we are working with the astronaut office to identify existing tools that we can make with the printer," Werkheiser said. "We can't wait until it is routine to see station astronauts use tools that they built in space."

Originally posted here:

Space Station's 3D Printer Makes Wrench From 'Beamed Up' Design


  1. Space Flight