Daily Archives: October 2, 2012

A private rocket NASA is counting on to make robotic cargo flights to the International Space Station achieved a key milestone today (Oct. 1), as its first stage rolled out to its Virginia launchpad for the first time.

The first stage of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket arrived today at its pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), which is located at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. The move marks the beginning of on-pad preparations for a series of important trials with Antares that will take place over the next few months, Orbital officials said.

The company aims to perform hot-fire tests of the first stage in four or five weeks, followed by Antares' first test flight about a month later. If all goes well, Antares will then launch Orbital's unmanned Cygnus capsule on a demonstration mission to the space station, officials said.

"MARS has completed construction and testing operations on its launch complex at Wallops Island, the first all-new large-scale liquid-fuel launch site to be built in the U.S. in decades," Orbital president and CEO David Thompson said in a statement.[Gallery: Orbital's Cygnus Spacecraft & Antares Rocket]

The hot-fire operation will demonstrate the readiness of Antares' first stage and launch pad fueling systems to support the upcoming flights.The test involves firing the rocket's dual AJ26 engines which will be held down on the pad for about 30 seconds, generating a combined total thrust of 680,000 pounds (308,000 kilograms), officials said.

Antares is slated to blast off on its maiden journey about a month after the hot-fire test, carring a Cygnus mass simulator whose instruments will gather data about the flight. The rocket will also carry and deploy four minuscule "picosatellites" during the mission, officials said.

Finally, Antares will carry Cygnus aloft on a demonstration mission to the orbiting lab. The capsule will autonomously rendezvous and berth with the space station, delivering about 1,210 pounds (550 kg) of supplies. On its way back down to Earth, Cygnus will carry 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) of disposal cargo from the station, officials said.

If all goes well with these three tests, Antares and Cygnus will be ready to begin making bona fide supply runs to the space station for NASA. Virginia-based Orbital holds a $1.9 billion contract to launch eight such unmanned flights.

NASA also signed a $1.6 billion deal with California-based SpaceX, which is slated to launch the first of its 12 unmanned supply flights to the station this Sunday (Oct. 7). This past May, SpaceX's Dragon capsule aced its demonstration mission, becoming the first private vehicle ever to dock with the $100 billion orbiting complex.

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New Private Rocket Arrives at Virginia Launch Pad for Tests

NASA's proposal to build a small space station at the Earth Moon Lagrange Point-2, which is where the gravity of the Earth and moon cancel out 38,000 miles from the far side of the moon, is coming under some criticism.

The EMLP-2 station proposal

According to the Orlando Sentinel, NASA officials made a presentation to the White House for a space station to be built at the EMLP-2 point using left over International Space Station modules. The station would be serviced by the Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle launched by the heavy lift Space Launch System. A near term purpose for the EMLP-2 station would be for astronauts to teleoperate robotic explorers on the lunar surface, with one mission mentioned a lunar sample return. Later the station could be used as a way station and refueling depot to support deep space missions, to the asteroids and eventually to Mars.

Problems with the EMLP-2 station

The Orlando Sentinel suggests that there are two problems with the NASA proposal. First, because of the great distance the station would be from Earth, problems of resupply and even rescue in case of disaster would be more difficult than with the ISS in low Earth orbit. Also, since the station would be beyond Earth's magnetic field, radiation shielding would be a major issue.

EMLP-2 station a make work project

Paul Spudis, a planetary geologist who writes frequently on space issues, offers a critique of the near term stated purpose of the EMLP-2 station. He suggests that positioning astronauts 38,000 miles from the moon would provide little if any advantage to controllers on Earth where it comes to teleoperating robots on the lunar surface. Spudis suggests that such a station would make sense if it were part of a larger cislunar transportation infrastructure that included a fuel depot supplied, by preference, by rocket fuel refined from lunar ice known to lay in the permanently shadowed craters at the moon's north and south poles.

EMLP-2 station a plot to justify Orion/SLS

John Strickland, a space advocate and a member of the National Space Society Board of Directors, suggests in the Space Review that building what is in effect a smaller version of the ISS at an Earth Moon Lagrange Point is a scheme by NASA to justify the expense of the Orion and Space Launch System. Currently Orion/SLS have a limited number of destinations. Without a lander, astronauts cannot access the lunar surface. Without a long duration habitation module, astronauts cannot visit Earth-approaching asteroids. A station in empty space in the cislunar system is about the only place that the Orion/SLS can go.

Strickland, like Spudis, favors a space station at one of the EMLPs if it could serve as a fuel depot. But he suggests that building such a space station is pointless until reusable launch vehicles and space craft are developed to service such a facility and take advantage of its capabilities to explore further into the solar system.

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NASA Plan to Build Space Station Beyond the Moon Criticized

A private rocket poised to launch its first official cargo delivery run to the International Space Station performed a major engine test this weekend, setting the stage for its planned Oct. 7 liftoff.

The Falcon 9 rocket fired up its nine Merlin engines on Saturday (Sept. 29) for just two seconds during a full dress rehearsal at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ahead of the upcoming flight by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).

"During the static fire test today, SpaceX engineers ran through all countdown processes as though it were launch day," SpaceX officials wrote in an update Saturday. "Post static fire, SpaceX will conduct a thorough review of all data, and the Dragon spacecraft will be mated to Falcon 9 in preparation for next Sunday's targeted launch."

The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch an unmanned Dragon space capsule (also built by SpaceX) on Sunday at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 Oct. 8 GMT). If all goes well, the spacecraft should arrive at the International Space Station on Oct. 10, where it will be grappled by a robotic arm controlled by astronauts and attached to a docking port.

The mission follows a similar demonstration flight to the station in May by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. But Sunday's launch will kick off the company's first official cargo flight for NASA under a $1.6 billion deal that includes 12 such missions. [Photos: SpaceX's 1st Dragon Flight to Space Station]

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX is one of two U.S. spaceflight companies with contracts to provide robotic cargo flights to the International Space Station for NASA. The other firm, Orbital Sciences Corp., of Virginia, has a $1.9 billion contract for eight missions using its new Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. The first Antares rocket rolled out to its launch pad on the Virginia coast today (Oct. 1).

With the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011, the space agency is relying on new privately built spacecraft to ferry American astronauts and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit. The unmanned resupply flights are the first stage of that plan, which also includes purchasing seats for U.S. astronauts on private space taxis once they become available.

SpaceX is one of several companies also seeking to launch astronauts into space for NASA. The company plans to use a crewed variant of its Dragon capsule for the job.

The upcoming Falcon 9 launch will be the fourth flight of the booster for SpaceX and the third flight of a Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon capsule made its first test flight in December 2010, which was followed by a successful round trip to the International Space Station earlier this year during SpaceX's demonstration flight in May.

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Private SpaceX Rocket Test-Fires Engines for Space Station Trip