NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory and its Taurus booster lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. A contingency was declared a few minutes later. Image credit: NASA TV
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As Ian reported earlier this morning, NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite failed to reach orbit after its 4:55 a.m. EST liftoff Tuesday from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. At a press conference, officials said preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate about three minutes into the flight. The fairing, or nosecone, is a clamshell structure that covers the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere. “The fairing has considerable weight, and when it separates off you get a jump in acceleration,” said John Brunschwyler from Orbital Sciences Corporation, the rocket’s manufacturer. “We did not have that jump of acceleration and as a direct result of carrying that extra weight, we could not make orbit. And so, the initial indications are that the vehicle did not have enough Delta V to reach orbit, and landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean.”
Brunschwyler added, “Our whole team, at a very personal level, is disappointed in the events of this morning….Certainly for the science community it’s a huge disappointment. It’s taken so long to get here.”
Watch the launch video below:
A mishap investigation board has convened, and will endeavor to determine the cause of the failure. “We need to come to a most probably cause for this failure,” said NASA’s Expendable Launch Vehicle launch director Chuck Dovale. “Our goal will be to find a root cause, and we won’t fly the Glory mission until we have that data known to us.” Glory is the next Earth science mission, set to launch in June of 2009, and will collect data on aerosols and black carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere and climate system.
Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was intended to help target the key locations on our planet’s surface where CO2 is being emitted and absorbed. The project has been in the works for eight years.
NASA’s Expendable Launch Vehicle launch director Chuck Dovale said the countdown proceeded normally. “Stage zero ignition occurred at 1:55:31. All indications were nominal. The motor burned for 1 minute 24 seconds, then the first stage ignited. That proceeded normally, and burned 2 minutes and 43 seconds. Stage 1 separation occured five seconds later, and allowed second stage to ignite. At that point we expected to see fairing separate. We got indications that the sequence was sent, but shortly after that we started getting indication that the fairing did not separate.”
Brunschwyler explained how the fairing separates and what indications the team received about the anomaly.
“The fairing separates by a sequence of electrical pulses,” he said, “and the clamshell fairing is a two piece device that separates with four pulses from an electrical box, two primary pulses and two redundant pulses, which separate the longitudinal fairing rails, or the vertical part of the fairing. About 80 milliseconds later, the base joint is severed in a similar fashion. We have confirmation that correct sequence was sent. We had good power, and also healthy indications from electronics box that sent the signal. Three minutes into the flight, we had observed various pieces of telemetry, which we tried to correlate. When the fairing comes off, we have wires that break to give indication it has separated, but those indications did not change.”
There are also temperature sensors, but Brunschywler said the most significant data was no jump in acceleration from less weight if the fairing had properly separated.
“We constantly take altitude and velocity measurements. The vehicle didn’t fly over any land and all indications are it landed just short of Antarctica,” he said. “We’ll know a more accurate location tomorrow.” Brunschyler said since all the stages had burned, there shouldn’t be much, if any, hazardous hydrazine fuel left on board the rocket.
“OCO was an important mission to measure critical elements of the carbon cycle,” said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “Over the next several days, weeks and months we will carefully evaluate how to move forward and advance science, given our evaluations of the assets that are on orbit now, assets from our international partners and the existence of flight spares, in order to thoughtfully put together flight program, to as rapidly as possible to pick up where OCO left off and advance Earth systems science.”
The OCO launches on board a Taurus booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base (NASA TV)
[/caption]This morning (Tuesday), shortly after 2am PST (10am GMT), the launch of Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission resulted in failure. According to reports from NASA, a “launch contingency” was declared shortly after the Taurus rocket upper stage finished firing T+12 minutes, 30 seconds into the flight. The rocket nose cone fairing failed to separate as expected, therefore the satellite could not be released. Further news is pending, but it appears that the failed Taurus XL upper stage plus OCO satellite remains in orbit. The OCO mission is declared lost…
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was launched by a Taurus XL rocket at 1:55:30 am PST from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, set for a polar orbit at an altitude of 438 miles (704 km) to begin an important and detailed study into the carbon dioxide content of our atmosphere. The satellite was designed to provide NASA with an insight to the sources of human and natural carbon emissions, as well as pin-pointing our planet’s carbon “sinks”. Unfortunately, the opportunity to gather valuable data with this about the global impact of carbon emissions with the advanced OCO mission has been lost.
At 2:16 am (PST), NASA launch commentator George Diller confirmed that a launch contingency had been implemented:
“This is Taurus launch control. It appears that we have had a launch contingency. We don’t have the exact nature of the loss of mission, but NASA launch director Chuck Dovale has directed that the launch contingency plan be implemented. We will try to bring you any additional information as soon as we have it.” — Chuck Dovale (courtesy of Spaceflight Now)
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (NASA)A few minutes later, Diller went into some more detail about the failure to get the OCO into orbit. The casing (or fairing) failed to separated successfully, trapping the satellite inside the Taurus XL upper stage. NASA scientists continued to ascertain what condition the spacecraft was in, but any hopes of a successful outcome to the contingency were dashed when Diller said, “Right now, we do know that we have not had a successful launch tonight and will not be able to have a successful OCO mission.”
A terribly sad night for NASA and a terrible set-back to efforts to understand the full impact of human activity on the Earth’s atmosphere.
Special thanks to @govertschilling and @Zurack for their help with notifying me of the situation and forwarding me links via Twitter.
Solar Collecting Satellite. Image courtesy of Mafic Studios.
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Is space-based solar power (SBSP) a technology whose time has come? The concept and even some of the hardware for harnessing energy from the sun with orbiting solar arrays has been around for some time. But the biggest challenge for making the concept a reality, says entrepreneur Peter Sage of Space Energy, Inc., is that SBSP has never been commercially viable. But that could be changing. Space Energy, Inc. has assembled an impressive team of scientists, engineers and business people, putting together what Sage calls “a rock-solid commercial platform” for their company. And given the current looming issues of growing energy needs and climate change, Space Energy, Inc. could be in the right place at the right time.
“Although it’s a very grandiose vision, it makes total sense,” Sage told Universe Today. “This is an inevitable technology; it’s going to happen. If we can put solar panels in space where the sun shines 24 hours a day, if we have a safe way of transmitting the energy to Earth and broadcasting it anywhere, that is a serious game changer.” If everything falls into place for this company, they could be producing commercially available SBSP within a decade.
The basic concept of SBSP is having solar cells in space collecting energy from sun, then converting the energy into a low intensity microwave beam, sending it down to Earth where it is collected on a rectenna, and then fed into the power grid to provide electricity. Almost 200 million gigawatts of solar energy is beamed towards the Earth every second, which is more energy than our civilization has used since the dawn of the electrical age. We only need a way to harness that energy and make it usable.
Space Energy, Inc.’s vision is to help create an energy-independent world, and improve the lives of millions of people by bringing a source of safe, clean energy to the planet from space. They are looking to become the world’s leading, and perhaps the first, SBSP enterprise. Solar collector beaming energy to Earth. Image courtesy Mafic Studios.
“The biggest challenge for SBSP is making it work on a commercial level in terms of bottom line,” said Sage, “i.e., putting together a business case that would allow the enormous infrastructure costs to be raised, the plan implemented, and then electricity sold at a price that is reasonable. I say ‘reasonable’ and not just ‘competitive’ because we’re getting into a time where selling energy only on a price basis isn’t going to be the criteria for purchase.”
Currently, there are times in the US when electricity is sold wholesale for close to a dollar a kilowatt during peak usage or times of emergency when power needs to be shipped around the national grid. Sage said SBSP will never be cost comparable with the current going rate of 6 or 7 cents a kilowatt due to the enormous set-up costs.
“We believe we can get it to a reasonable price, a fair market price as the demand for energy increases,” Sage said.
A huge energy gap is looming for our world, and that too, will change the energy game.
According to a white paper written by aerospace engineer James Michael Snead, “The End of Easy Energy and What Are We Going To Do About It,” in order to meet the world’s projected increase in energy needs by 2100 which likely will be at least three times what is being produced today, today’s sustainable energy production must expand by a factor of over 25. Under that scenario, even if the US were to build 70 new nuclear plants, add the equivalent of 15 more Hoover Dams, expand the geothermal capacity by 50 times what it is today, install over a million large land or sea wind turbines covering 150,000 square miles, build 60,000 square miles of commercial solar voltaic farms, and on top of that convert 1.3 billion dry tons of food mass to bio fuels, still only 30% of the power needs would be filled by 2100, or perhaps even earlier.
“Looking at every single technology we can as a civilization to try and fill the energy gap in a clean and resourceful, sustainable way, technologies like SBSP have to be made to work,” said Sage. Peter Sage. Image courtesy Space Energy, Inc.
He says this is an important point. “We’re not setting ourselves up to compete with coal, or nuclear, or ground based solar or wind. I don’t want to pick a fight with any of those industries saying that we’re trying to take a piece of their pie. What we’re saying is that right now, from a responsible perspective in terms of being a good steward for the environment, we need to look at every single source of energy that we can get our hands on, primarily green, and develop it regardless, because we’re going to need it. SBSP is one of the few forms of energy that has the ability to be base-load, i.e., 24-7, and it’s the only form of energy that can be broadcast on demand.”
The first phase of Space Energy, Inc.’s plan is to launch a small prototype satellite into low Earth orbit. “This will help validate the numbers we are speculating on at this point, but also validate several different aspects of what SBSP can do,” said Sage. “From a successful demonstration, we are hoping to close power purchase agreements with one of several entities we are in discussions with at present. And on the strength of that we should be able to put the first commercial satellite in orbit.”
With regards to the timetable, Sage was hesitant to commit to a schedule. “As timetables go, everything needs to be flexible, but we are looking to close the financing for the demonstrator during the first quarter of this year (2009). The demonstrator is a 24 to 36 month project and, from there, we will start the commercial build-out of the main satellite, which could take up to four years to be operational.”
Satellites in orbit collecting solar power. Image: National Space Society.
That’s an aggressive schedule. But Sage said since their plan is being driven from a commercial basis, they can run their operation differently than government agencies who don’t necessarily operate with the bottom line in mind. “Our board members and entrepreneurial group certainly have a lot of experience running commercial entities. We know what we’re doing. We’re in a market that we hope to pioneer, and everyone feels confident that we have what it takes. We certainly have the passion, vision and enthusiasm to make this happen.”
What are the biggest hurdles to overcome in this project? “If you would have asked me that question a few months ago,” Sage replied, “I would have said a combination of meeting the right people who could understand the vision and scope of what it is what we’re doing, and raising the initial financing for the demonstrator. Those hurdles, at this point, really seem to be taken care of. The more we have our technical teams talk with investors, the more people understand that we’re real and this isn’t some sort of Star Trek giggle factor. Right now, with the level of due diligence that’s been done not only on SBSP itself, but with ourselves as a commercially viable entity, we’re on the forefront of many people’s agenda in terms of how to move this forward. We see a straight path to making this a reality.”
Sage said no new technology is needed for the demonstrator, which will be a working, small prototype, but challenges do remain to move forward beyond that. “Obviously, there are technical challenges because something of this scale has never been done before. We know we can do wireless power transmission, as NASA did some pretty significant tests on this in the 1970s. We know the physics of wireless power transmission, and how everything should work from geostationary orbit.”
While the demonstrator won’t be of any scale where energy could be sold commercially, it would be a proof of concept.
“Once we’ve demonstrated that we can wirelessly beam power accurately to the ground in a safe, controlled, effective manner, and in a way that can be metered and measured,” said Sage, “we will have taken a massive step forward to prove that SBSP is a technology of the future that has the potential to really fill a gap in the world’s energy needs.”
Some have equated developing SBSP to what was accomplished with the Apollo program.
“There are so many positive spinoffs to SBSP as a game changing foundation of space commerce, that just by addressing a lot of the challenges that lay ahead, we will be blazing a trail for many other opportunities for a low earth orbit economy,” Sage added. A rectenna on Earth collects microwaved energy from space solar collectors. Image courtesy Mafic Studios.
Space Energy, Inc. recently attended the World Future Energy Summit and has been overwhelmed with the response.
“We’ve had discussions with many different entities, both governmental and private, in the Middle East; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Dubai, many areas around Europe, and many of the world’s top investment firms. I don’t think we’re going to be short of people that will want to support us.” Sage added that in general, SBSP has strong support in Washington DC, and that SBSP recently was added to a list of technologies being studied by the Obama administration.
SBSP has ability to literally change the course of history, and impact the quality of life for people everywhere. Sage said this project is an entrepreneurs’ dream.
“I speak for our entire team here, we’re not just focused on how much money are we going to make,” Sage said. “We’re focused on the fact that this is an inevitable technology and someone is going to do it. Right now we’re the best shot. We’re also focused on the fact that, according to every scenario we’ve analyzed, the world needs space based solar power, and it needs it soon, as well as the up-scaling of just about every other source of renewable energy that we can get our hands on.”
“Space based solar power will happen whether we crack cold fusion, or whether we suddenly go to 80% efficiency on ground based solar power (currently its only at 50%),” Sage continued. “It has to happen based on the nature on what it is. With that in mind, I’ve been willing to put everything I have on the line to be able to make this work, and that was three years, ago. To see how far we’ve come in the past six to eight months has been amazing.”
NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide is ready for launch. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, is scheduled for liftoff aboard a Taurus XL rocket on February 24 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California at 1:51:30 a.m. PST. The spacecraft’s final polar orbit will be 438 miles. Carbon dioxide is the leading greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate. OCO will provide the first complete picture of human and natural carbon dioxide sources as well as their “sinks,” the places where carbon dioxide is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored.
OCO will map the global geographic distribution of the CO2 sources and sinks in the atmosphere and study their changes over time. The new observatory will dramatically improve global carbon dioxide data, collecting about eight million precise measurements every 16 days for at least two years.
CO2 is a critical component of the Earth’s atmosphere. Since the beginning of the industrial age, the concentration of CO2 has increased by about 38%, from about 280 parts per million to over 380 parts per million. Scientific studies indicate that CO2 is one of several gases that trap heat near the surface of the Earth. These gases are known as greenhouse gases. Many scientists have concluded that substantial increases in the abundance of CO2 will generate an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature. Historical records provide evidence of this trend, which is often called global warming. Current research indicates that continuing increases in atmospheric CO2 may modify the environment in a variety of ways. These changes may impact ocean currents, the jet stream and rain patterns. Some parts of the Earth might actually cool while the average temperature increases, and so this phenomenon is also called climate change.
OCO should help determine how much human-produced CO2 is contributing to climate change.
A simulated view of the debris clouds shortly after the collision on Feb. 10, 2009. Image courtesy of Analytical Graphics, Inc. (www.agi.com)
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The collision this week involving an active U.S. commercial Iridium satellite and an inactive Russian Cosmos 2251 satellite in low Earth orbit has, if nothing else, raised public awareness of the growing problem of space debris. But how and why did this collision happen? If NORAD, the U.S. Air Forces’s Space Surveillance Network, NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office and other entities are tracking space debris, did anyone know the collision was going to occur? Those who analyze data and track satellites say predicting collisions is difficult because of changes in satellite orbits which occur due to solar radiation and the gravitational effects of the Moon and Earth. Therefore, the orbit analysis is only as good as the data, which may be imprecise. “The main problem here is the data quality for the data representing the satellites locations,” said Bob Hall, Technical Director of Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI), the company that released video and images on Thursday recreating the collision event. “Given the uncertainty in the accuracy of the TLE orbital data, I do not believe anyone was predicting or necessarily expecting an event.”
AGI has tools that run automatically every day such as SOCRATES – (Satellite Orbital Conjunction Reports Assessing Threatening Encounters in Space) which is based on the current space catalog supplied by NORAD to look for close approaches.
“This analysis is performed automatically every day and you can easily go in and search it,” Hall told Universe Today. “Because the analysis is performed with the public two-line element (TLE) set satellite catalog, the analysis is only as good as that imprecise data is. So when it shows conjunctions on any given day (and for Tuesday this Iridium event was not even in the ‘top 10’ close approach predictions!) this has to be taken with some uncertainty.”
Hall said the closest approach predicted for last Tuesday’s Iridium-Cosmos event was predicted to be 584 meters. “Again, as close as that sounds (and it is), there were at least 10 other on-orbit conjunction predictions that day alone with smaller miss distances,” Hall said. Simulation of the satellite debris break-up. Image courtesy of Analytical Graphics, Inc. (www.agi.com)
The crash occurred on Tuesday 485 miles above northern Siberia in a crowded polar orbit used by satellites that monitor weather, relay communications and perform scientific surveys.
The International Space Station, as well as most satellites can be maneuvered out of harm’s way to avoid a possible collision, but a defunct satellite like the Russian Cosmos 2251 has no such ability.
Even with the uncertainties of tracking orbiting satellites, one group, the Secure World Foundation, is calling for the need to establish a civil space traffic control system.
“Unfortunately, it appears that there was data warning about the possibility of this collision beforehand,” noted Brian Weeden, Technical Consultant for Secure World Foundation. “However, it must be stressed that close approaches between satellites somewhere in Earth orbit occurs on almost a weekly basis…and until this event, have never before resulted in an actual collision.”
Weeden agreed that in every case it is impossible to give a definite answer on whether or not two objects will actually collide, only probabilities and potential risks.
“Getting the right information to the right authorities in time to make the right avoidance maneuver decision is a very complicated process that doesn’t entirely exist yet,” Weeden said. “The Secure World Foundation is working with many other organizations around the world to try and develop this process.”
The Secure World Foundation endorses the creation of a space traffic control system.
“This collision underscores in a dramatic way the importance of instituting an international civil space situational awareness (SSA) system as soon as possible,” said Dr. Ray Williamson Executive Director of Secure World Foundation.
Williamson said that such a civil SSA system could have been used to warn the Iridium operations managers of the danger of collision and allow them to take evasive action. “In the absence of reliable ways to clear debris from orbit, it will be increasingly important to follow all active satellites to prevent future preventable collisions,” he added.
Before this collision, another collision event happened in 1996, when a French spy satellite called Cerise was severely damaged by a piece of debris from the rocket that launched it.
The United States tracks debris or micro-meteorites down to 10 cm wide, but objects as small as a scrap of peeled-off paint can pose a threat once they start hurtling at orbital speeds through space.
On Tuesday, a communications satellite in the Iridium fleet suffered complete obliteration at the hands of a defunct Russian satellite Cosmos 2251. Although satellites have been hit by space junk in the past (four times since 1996), this is the first time a satellite has suffered a direct hit… from another satellite. The aftermath of the collision was messy and US Space Command is tracking hundreds of pieces of debris. There is some concern the ex-satellite parts could collide with other active satellites or even the International Space Station (although the odds are still well within safety margins for the crew), but much effort is being put into tracking and modelling the new space junk additions.
If you thought AGI was quick at assembling those superb satellite animations only a day after the event, you’ll be even more impressed with the company who lost their expensive piece of kit. Iridium has a replacement satellite. A spare. Already in orbit. And plans are afoot to “plug the hole” in the satellite phone network. Now that’s what I call service!
The Iridium constellation - a robust satellite network (AGI)It’s probably to be expected, especially when considering competition in the communication industry, but it is an amazing feat to have a backup plan enacted only a couple of days after losing an expensive satellite. But this isn’t only a plan, it’s a satellite, already in orbit, waiting to be powered up and redirected to its predecessor’s old orbit (or at least fulfil it’s coverage on the ground).
Although Iridium was concerned about patchy service for some customers, the satellite network’s mesh design will lower the likelihood of any service outages. So put your satellite phone away, the signal should still be strong.
“The Iridium service hole patch addresses a significant portion of outages that customers otherwise might have experienced,” said Iridium spokesperson Liz DeCastro. “Due to the mesh design of the Iridium network, the company expects further impact to customers to be limited.”
So it sounds as if it’s a sturdy network that can easily deal with one lost component, but the best was yet to come in the press release. “The company also is taking the necessary steps to replace the lost satellite with one of its in-orbit spares, and the operational planning stage is underway,” DeCastro added.
Naturally, Iridium is investigating the incident, saying that they are working “with the appropriate government agencies”. At this time it is unclear whether Iridium will be seeking compensation from the Russian government, but this is a possibility. After all, dead satellites should either be de-orbited or moved from the paths of operational satellites. Unfortunately for Iridium 33, Cosmos 2251 was left at an altitude used by commercial satellite companies.
There may be no LEO traffic control, and there is certainly no “right of way” in space, the responsibility to dispose of space junk lies with the satellite’s last owner. In this case, that would be Russia.
Predicated satellite debris trajectory. Image courtesy of Analytical Graphics, Inc. (www.agi.com)
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The unprecedented collision between two large satellites on February 10 has created a cloud of debris that likely will cause problems in Earth orbit for decades. To help understand the collision and potential future problems of the debris, Analytical Graphics, Inc., (AGI) of Philadelphia, working with its Colorado Springs-based research arm the Center for Space Standards & Innovation, has used its software to reconstruct the event, creating images and providing an interactive tool that allows the user to view the collision from any position or time. “We’ve worked around the clock since the collision to create these images and a video of the event,” Stefanie Claypoole, Media Specialist with AGI told Universe Today. “Our software can also assess the possibility of additional collisions by applying breakup models for debris prediction.”
AGI also has a video recreation of the event.
Debris cloud and predicated trajectories. Image courtesy of Analytical Graphics, Inc. (www.agi.com)
The collision occurred at approximately 1656 GMT between the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 communications satellites. They collided about 800 km (490 miles) above Earth, over northern Siberia. The impact between the Iridium Satellite LLC-owned satellite and the 16-year-old satellite launched by the Russian government occurred at a closing speed of well over 15,000 mph. The low-earth orbit (LEO) location of the collision contains many other active satellites that could be at risk from the resulting orbital debris. New debris, in red and previous debris, in green. Image courtesy of Analytical Graphics, Inc. (www.agi.com)
AGI and CSSI have a downloadable interactive viewer that allows users to recreate the event from any vantage point, or time.
Another tool called SOCRATES (Satellite Orbital Conjunction Reports Assessing Threatening Encounters in Space) is a service for the satellite operator community run by CSSI. What SOCRATES allows users to run conjunction analysis reports on satellites over a 7-day period, and identify close-approach situations and compare it against the entire NORAD TLE (two-line element sets) space catalog on an individual satellite or multiple satellites.
An iridium satellite flar as seen from the ISS. Credit: Don Pettit, NASA
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A commercial Iridium communications satellite collided with a Russian satellite or satellite fragment, on Tuesday, creating a cloud of wreckage in low-Earth orbit, according to CBS News. A source quoted in the article said U.S. Space Command is tracking about 280 pieces of debris, most of it from a non-operational Russian satellite. It appears the International Space Station is not currently threatened by the debris, but it’s not yet clear whether the debris poses a risk to any other satellites in similar orbits. Iridium operates a constellation of approximately 66 satellites, along with orbital spares, to support satellite telephone operations around the world.
Neither NASA or Iridium Satellite LLC has officially released any information about the collision, and a spokesman for U.S. Space Command was not aware of the incident. But one NASA manager who asked not to be named, seemed to confirm the collision and said, “Everybody is saying the risk (of further collisions) is minimal to NASA assets.” UPDATE: The Spaceflightnow.com article has been updated with quotes from a statement by Iridium and U.S. Strategic Command, that confirm the collision took place.
In an article on Spaceflightnow.com, Nicholas Johnson, NASA’s chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, confirmed the collision. “They collided at an altitude of 790 kilometers (491 miles) over northern Siberia Tuesday about noon Washington time,” said “The U.S. space surveillance network detected a large number of debris from both objects.”
Iridium Satellite System. Credit: Spaceflightnow.com
The Iridium spacecraft are in orbits tilted 86.4 degrees to the equator at an altitude of about 485 miles while the ISS orbits Earth at an altitude of about 215 miles in an orbit tilted 51.6 degrees to the equator. Other civilian science satellites operate in polar orbits similar to Iridium’s and presumably could face an increased risk as a result of the collision.
Johnson said the collision is unprecedented. “Nothing to this extent (has happened before),” he said. “We’ve had three other accidental collisions between what we call catalog objects, but they were all much smaller than this and always a moderate sized objects and a very small object. And these are two relatively big objects. So this is a first, unfortunately.”
The Delta II rocket lofts the NOAA-N Prime spacecraft into the night sky over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Photo credit: NASA/Carleton Bailie, ULA
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Just a few notes on a couple of NASA launches; one was a go, and the other is a no-go for now. The NOAA-N Prime spacecraft got off the ground early Friday morning, lifting off at 2:22 a.m. PST, after working through technical problems that delayed the launch twice. The spacecraft successfully reached its polar orbit, and was renamed NOAA-19. The new satellite will collect data about the Earth’s surface and atmosphere to aid in weather forecasts, climate observations and search and rescue operations. Watch the launch video. On the other side of the coin, the launch of space shuttle Discovery on a space station assembly mission, which was delayed earlier this week from Feb. 12 to Feb. 19 because of concerns about hydrogen flow control valves, has now been slipped to no earlier than Feb. 22 to give engineers more time to complete testing, NASA officials said today.
Each shuttle has three of these valves, one for each main engine. They operate like lawn sprinklers, popping up as required to route hydrogen gas into pipes leading to the external tank to maintain the internal pressure needed to feed propellant to the main engines.
During the launch of Endeavour last November, one of the three flow control valves allowed more hydrogen to pass through than expected, while the other two worked fine. There was no problem with Endeavour’s ascent, but mission managers want to understand the issues better before sending Discovery to the space station to bring up the final solar array on STS-119. Attired in training versions of their shuttle launch and entry suits, the STS-119 crew members await the start of a training session in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at Johnson Space Center, Houston. Image: NASA
For more information on Discovery, check out NASA’s STS-119 web page, and here’s where you’ll find more info on NOAA-19.
An iridium flare from an orbiting satellite. Credit:HobbySpace.com
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If you enjoy satellite spotting and are a fan of the social networking mini-feed Twitter here’s something just for you. Robert Simpson at Orbiting Frog has created a Twitter feed that reports upcoming visible transits of interesting objects orbiting over several cities in the world, such as Amsterdam, Belfast, Chicago, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rome, San Francisco,Sydney, and Vancouver. And he is willing to take requests for creating feeds for cities all over the planet. Rob creates the feeds with data from the Heaven’s Above website to determine when the International Space Station (ISS) and Hubble will be visible in the relevant location. When an overhead pass approaches a certain location, an alert appears on the Twitter feed. You will get 30-45 minutes warning on the sighting opportunity. So, if you’re a Twitter-aholic like me, check out Orbiting Frog’s website.
What’s really great is that the Tweet alerts only appear when the weather in your location is good enough to allow the transit to be seen. The weather data comes from Yahoo! Weather. Each Tweet provides information on the magnitude and elevation of the orbiting object so you’ll know where to look (and how hard you have to squint to see it!)
Rob says if you live within 20 miles of one of these cities, the data in the feed will still be correct for your location. Within 50 miles of one of these cities then the data will still be only a minute out in most cases.
To make a request for adding a particular city, check out Orbiting Frog.
Rob also has info on how to subscribe to an RSS feed for the same info if you’re not into Twitter. But, personally, I think Twitter is going to take over the universe, and resistance is futile, so you might as well join in.
