Daily Archives: October 5, 2012

A private company is headed back to the International Space Station.

On Sunday night, SpaceX will attempt to launch another Dragon capsule full of food, clothes and science experiments for the astronauts at the space station. The company hopes to repeat the success of its test flight in May.

Rainy weather could keep the company's Falcon rocket grounded. Forecasters said Thursday there's a 60 per cent chance of favourable conditions for the 8:35 p.m. launch from Cape Canaveral.

This is the California company's first official launch under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. The contract calls for 12 deliveries.

The Dragon will spend a few weeks at the space station before being cut loose at the end of October with a full load of science experiments and old equipment. It will parachute into the Pacific.

Among the items going up and coming back on the Dragon are a dozen student experiments that flew aboard the SpaceX capsule in May, but were not properly activated by the station crew. NASA offered this second chance.

NASA is counting on private business to help keep the space station stocked, now that the shuttles are retired. The governments of Russia, Japan and Europe also provide periodic supply runs.

A second company, the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., hopes to launch its Antares rocket with a mockup capsule by the end of this year, out of Wallops Island. The first test flight to the space station, by Orbital Sciences, is targeted for early 2013.

SpaceX or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is run by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who's also the chief executive officer of the electric car-maker, Tesla Motors. He is working to modify the Dragon capsule in order to carry astronauts back and forth to the space station, within three to five years. Americans currently hitch rides on Russian rockets.

Read more:
Space station-bound SpaceX rocket to launch Sunday

The Canadian-built robotic arms built for NASA's space shuttle fleet and the International Space Station are about to get two new siblings.

Last week, the Canadian Space Agency showed off the Next-Generation Canadarm (NGC) prototypes, which were unveiled after three years of development at Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates. The mechanical limbs are the successors to the shuttle fleet's Canadarm and station's Canadarm2, which played pivotal rolls in the station's construction for more than a decade.

The CSA and MDA plan to use this technology to position Canada for newer space business opportunities in areas such as in-orbit refuelling of satellites, said Gilles Leclerc, the agency's director-general of space exploration.

"We prepared all these new systems so that we will be well-positioned for the next thing in space," Leclercsaid.

However, the Canadian government's $53.1 million contribution to the arm project (as well as supporting testbeds and simulators) has only brought them to the prototype stage so far. The arms will require more money for launch configurations and a ride to orbit.

Fuelling competition

One of the prototype arms spans 49 feet (15 meters), the same length as the space station's Canadarm2. But the new arm is lighter and has two sections that telescope into each other. This makes it more suitable to fold up inside the smaller spacecraft of the future. [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

The other NGC prototype arm is a miniature, at 8.5 feet long(2.58 meters). Like the station's Dextre robot, which it is modelled after, it will be able to refuel satellites, grapple tools and manipulate items such as blankets that cover satellites.

Manufacturer MDA has spent several years touting the benefits of satellite refuelling, which the company says would save money since satellites could be kept aloft longer if they can receive more after launch.

In March 2011, MDA signed a $280 million agreement with Intelsat SA to advance this concept, but the deal was scuppered in January 2012 after receiving lukewarm interest from potential customers.

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Canada Unveils Next-Generation Robotic Arms for Spaceships

The Dragon capsule being attached to Falcon 9 rocket last Sunday.

The first launch of a new space era is scheduled to take place on Sunday night as SpaceX prepares to deliver its first NASA-contracted cargo load to the International Space Station.

Sundays launch known as Commercial Resupply Services-1 will mark the first of 12 contracted flights for SpaceX, totaling $1.6 billion. Like the space start-ups previous launch and ISS test-docking from earlier this year, the company will use a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to deliver about 1,000 pounds to the ISS and bring back more than 1,200 pounds of research equipment and supplies.

Sundays scheduled launch is for 8:35 PM EDT. The company performed a static firing of the nine Merlin engines last Saturday, and on Tuesday went through final rehearsal with the entire vehicle being transported to the launch pad and lifted to its vertical positioning.

So far SpaceX has had two successful orbital flights with the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft. Though the company reminds everybody that space travel is incredibly complicated, from launch to recovery. There was a technical setback before the launch for the demonstration flight in May, where asmall mechanical failure within the turbo-pump feeding fuel to the engine caused the launch to be aborted less than one second before liftoff. The scrubbed first attempt was a reminder that theres more than a few wires and a simple four-cylinder under the hood.

Now the 157-foot-tall Falcon 9 and Dragon are mated together (pictured above) in the adjacent hangar at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida awaiting final preparations ahead of the launch. With the nighttime launch, the day will be filled with final cargo being loaded into the Dragon on Sunday morning.

Seven and a half hours before launch, the switch is turned on for Falcon 9 and Dragon. With systems and computers powered up, the launch pad is evacuated and the rocket is autonomously fueled a little less than four hours before launch. The liquid oxygen tank is filled first and the RP-1 (kerosene) is topped off afterwards. Because the liquid oxygen is constantly venting from the tanks, it is continuously topped off before the launch occurs.

With 10 minutes and 30 seconds left to launch, the terminal countdown begins. At this point the systems are autonomous. There are three separate teams that must give the go-ahead during the countdown, with NASA mission control in Houston and SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California both polled to make sure everything looks good on their screens. With everybodys approval and two minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock, the launch director gives the final go-ahead for liftoff.

At Cape Canaveral, the Air Force range safety officer will make sure the physical area at the launch pad and surroundings are clear, and at 8:34 PM EDT, one minute before launch, the flight computer is activated. Five seconds later the water deluge system will inundate the launch pad with a flow rate of 30,000 gallons per minute. The water acts as a liquid blanket to suppress the acoustic waves that are produced by the engines during ignition.

With three seconds left on the clock, the nine Merlin engines will ignite producing 850,000 pounds of thrust to lift the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft off of the pad and up towards orbit.

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How SpaceX Will Keep the Space Station in Business

The Canadian-built robotic arms built for NASA's space shuttle fleet and the International Space Station are about to get two new siblings.

Last week, the Canadian Space Agency showed off the Next-Generation Canadarm (NGC) prototypes, which were unveiled after three years of development at Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates. The mechanical limbs are the successors to the shuttle fleet's Canadarm and station's Canadarm2, which played pivotal rolls in the station's construction for more than a decade.

The CSA and MDA plan to use this technology to position Canada for newer space business opportunities in areas such as in-orbit refueling of satellites, said Gilles Leclerc, the agency's director-general of space exploration.

"We prepared all these new systems so that we will be well-positioned for the next thing in space," Leclerc said.

Space news from NBCNews.com

Sitcom's crewwent to great lengths toprovide a sense ofreality and make sure no one got hurt.

However, the Canadian government's $53.1 million contribution to the arm project (as well as supporting testbeds and simulators) has only brought them to the prototype stage so far. The arms will require more money for launch configurations and a ride to orbit.

Fuelling competition One of the prototype arms spans 49 feet (15 meters), the same length as the space station's Canadarm2. But the new arm is lighter and has two sections that telescope into each other. This makes it more suitable to fold up inside the smaller spacecraft of the future. [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

The other NGC prototype arm is a miniature, at 8.5 feet long (2.58 meters). Like the station's Dextre robot, which it is modeled after, it will be able to refuel satellites, grapple tools and manipulate items such as blankets that cover satellites.

Manufacturer MDA has spent several years touting the benefits of satellite refueling, which the company says would save money since satellites could be kept aloft longer if they can receive more fuel after launch.

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Canada unveils two new space 'Canadarms'