Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Sea Launch Rocket Success

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After a year of silence, Sea Launch Co. is back in business, inserting a telecommunications satellite into orbit on January 15th. Almost a year ago, a Russian-Ukrainian built Zenit 3SL rocket, launching from the sea-based platform Odyssey, exploded, causing Sea Launch to halt business for the rest of 2007. On Tuesday the company could breath a sigh of relief as they saw the Zenit’s boosters light up the night sky…

It must have been a tough year for Sea Launch after the destruction of one of their rockets, loss of its payload (NSS-8, a Dutch telecommunications satellite) and damage to the launch platform, Odyssey. Sea Launch, a company specializing in commercial launches from a mobile launch pad, spent the last year making repairs to Odyssey (a converted oil rig) so five planned missions could go ahead as scheduled in 2008. The first was a resounding success and all going well, the accident last year wont put a dent in business for the future.

Sea Launch is currently the only sea-based launch company in the world. Launching rockets from a mobile launch platform has many advantages including:

  • Equatorial positioning – rockets launched at or near the equator provides a little extra “push” from the rotational velocity of the Earth, saving on energy required to reach orbit (saving fuel and therefore cost).
  • Safe location – away from populated areas, surrounded by water.
  • Flexible location – not restricted to a site prone to storms or geological instabilities.

There can be some drawbacks with sea-based launches. A launch planned in November 2007 had to be cancelled due to unusually strong ocean currents in the mid-Pacific launch site, so there can be some logistic issues when factoring in not only weather conditions but also ocean conditions. However, this week’s successful launch overcame the troubles of last year’s accident and managed to find calm conditions to send a Thuraya satellite (built by Boeing Satellite Systems International in El Segundo, California) into geosynchronous orbit and improve mobile communication coverage over Asia.

Source: Sea Launch, Space.com

Posted on by Fraser Cain

New Mexico Spaceport Design Unveiled

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Somebody pinch me, because I still can’t believe this is going forward. The world’s first commercial spaceport took the next step today, releasing new plans and illustrations to the public today. With a building that looks like the Millennium Falcon with wings, the spaceport, and its main tenant, Virgin Galactic, are taking this whole “space is cool” concept very, very seriously.

Spaceport America will be a 9,300 square metre (100,000 square foot) hanger and terminal facility located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Construction is expected to begin in 2008, and is expected to be completed by 2009 or 2010.

It was designed by a partnership between the American firm URS Corporation and the British architectural agency Foster+Partners, which has plenty of experience designing airports.

Virgin’s chief, Sir Richard Branson, clearly had a hand in setting some of the environmental requirements of the facility. It was designed to meet the standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum Certification, which is the highest rating you can get from the US Green Building Council. It’ll have solar panels for electricity, a water recycling system and natural earth to provide passive energy for heating and cooling.

The terminal and hanger facility are expected to cost about $31 million, and will also serve as a tourist attraction. It will include Virgin Galactic’s pre-flight and post-flight training facilities, and contain a maintenance hanger for two White Knight 2 aircraft and five Spaceship 2s.

Branson revealed more details about Spaceship 2’s testing as well, saying, “next year will see the first test flights of Spaceship 2 and it is fantastic that we will now have a permanent home to go to, which will be every bit as inspiring for the astronauts of the future as Burt Rutan’s groundbreaking technology.”

So, Spaceship 2 tests next year, and a spaceport completed as early as 2009. Like I said… pinch me.

You can check out a full image gallery of the spaceport here.

Original Source: Spaceport America News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Ariane 5 Lofts Two Satellites

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Two satellites were carried into space Tuesday evening, atop a massive Ariane 5 rocket, which blasted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off at 23:44 UTC, and the satellites were put into their geosynchronous transfer orbits 30 minutes later.

On board the Ariane 5 booster were the Spaceway 3 and BSAT-3a satellites. Spaceway 3 was built by Boeing, and will serve as a broadband data communications satellite to customers in North America. BSAT-3a will provide television services to Japan.

Telemetry after the launch confirmed that the two satellites were accurately placed into their transfer orbits, and ground controllers received communications from both satellites, confirming that they’re healthy and operational.

This was the 3rd of 6 planned launches for 2007, and the 19th consecutive successful launch for the Ariane 5 rocket.

Original Source:ESA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

3 Dead, 3 Injured at SpaceShipTwo Explosion

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What a terrible couple of days for spaceflight. I thought NASA was having a tough time with its drunken astronauts and sabotage, but that pales in comparison to what happened in the Mojave Desert yesterday.

As you’ve probably heard by now, a rocket test facility for Scaled Composites exploded on Thursday, killing 3 workers, and injuring 3 more.

The workers were performing a “cold test fire”, where nitrous oxide was pumped through engine components for SpaceShipTwo. This was supposed to be a fairly routine and safe thing to be testing. It’s not like they were igniting the system. Something obviously went wrong, and the whole engine system detonated. If you look at the associated picture from KCAL, you’ve got to realize that there used to be a flatbed trailer there.

2 of the workers died on the scene, and the others were rushed to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield. 1 died from injuries Friday morning. 2 remain in critical condition, and 1 is in serious condition.

SpaceShipTwo is the follow-on design to SpaceShipOne. This is the spacecraft that won the X-Prize after it reached 100 km in altitude twice within two weeks. Entrepreneur Richard Branson ordered a new, larger version of SpaceShipOne be developed that could carry 7 people into space – the vehicles for his Virgin Galactic space tourism company. And so, Scaled Composites employees were working on the spacecraft’s hybrid rocket engine when the explosion occurred.

Burt Rutan arrived on the scene shortly after the accident, and spoke to reporters. He was surprised that it happened. According to Rutan, this test had been done many times before in the development of SpaceShipOne, and had been done once before for SpaceShipTwo.

I’m sure an investigation will be announced, and I’ll let you know the results once they’re in.

Original Source: CNN News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Dawn Mission Pushed Back to September

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One of my favourite upcoming missions is NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, set to go into orbit around two different asteroids. It was originally supposed to blast off this month, but mission planners have decided to push the launch back to September to minimize any potential disruptions to NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander mission, due for launch in early August.

I actually did an article on Dawn about a year ago. So instead of repeating that here, I’ll just link you to the article.

Original Source:NASA

Posted on by Fraser Cain

NASA’s New Einstein Probes Office

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Albert Einstein made enough predictions about the nature of gravity and relativity that NASA has dedicated a whole office and fleet of spacecraft to him. This week the space agency announced their new Einstein Probes Office, where they’ll be compiling evidence for the strangest stuff in the Universe: dark energy, black holes, and the cosmic microwave background radiation.

The Beyond Einstein program consists of 5 proposed spacecraft; two major spacecraft, and 3 smaller probes. The two major missions are already in the works, and include the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), which will orbit the Sun and measure gravitational waves. Constellation-X will watch matter falling into supermassive black holes.

The smaller probes include missions to investigate the nature of dark energy, the physics of the Big Bang, and the distribution and types of black holes in the universe. NASA has already approved preliminary studies into some of these missions.

NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy have put together a committee to figure out which missions should be launched first, and will release their findings in September, 2007.

Original Source:NASA Goddard

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Genesis II Launches, Deploys Solar Panels

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Along with your jetpack, flying car, and moving sidewalks, a hotel in space is one of the great, undelivered promises of the future. Well, Bigelow Aerospace took another step towards fulfilling that promise last week with the launch of Genesis II, its prototype of an inflatable space hotel.

Genesis II was lofted into space atop Dnepr rocket on Thursday from the SC Kosmotras Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia. Shortly after launch, ground controllers confirmed a strong signal with the vehicle, confirming that it reached orbit.

On Friday, the habitat unfurled its solar panels, and inflated itself to its full width of 2.4 metres (8 feet).

Like it predecessor, Genesis 1, this spacecraft is a 1/3rd scale prototype of a future space hotel, designed to demonstrate various technologies and techniques needed for space tourism. The eventual plan is to put a manned habitat up by 2015, and then connect additional modules together to build up a space station.

Genesis II has 22 cameras, and many new systems that weren’t aboard Genesis I.

Original Source:Bigelow Aerospace

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Servicing Spacecraft Makes an Automated Fly Around

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Launching a spacecraft is a big investment. If anything goes wrong, you’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars of junk in space. And even if the spacecraft is working perfectly, but just runs out of fuel, its communications equipment can’t be directed at the Earth properly.

Boeing took a step forward to solving that problem last week with a test of its Orbital Express system, a spacecraft that will validate on-orbit servicing. During a 5-hour test on June 16, the Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) servicing spacecraft separated from another spacecraft, made an automated fly around, and then re-attached.

The important thing here is that the entire maneuver was done autonomously. It simulated the approach that a servicing spacecraft would take when docking with a spacecraft, making sure to avoid its antennas and cameras.

During its next test, ASTRO will depart and fly to a range of 4 km (2.5 miles) before approaching and performing a free-fly capture with its robotic arm.

Original Source: Boeing

Posted on by Fraser Cain

European Space Jet Unveiled

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The European aerospace firm EADS Astrium revealed its plans for space tourism on Wednesday at a special event in Paris. The company also showed plans for a new space plane that it hopes will take customers up to space as early as 2012.

The Astrium space jet will take off and land from a conventional airport using jet engines. Once it reaches an altitude of 12 km, its rocket engines will ignite, and burn long enough to give it the momentum to reach 100 km of altitude. Passengers on board the plane will then get to enjoy a few moments of weightlessness, with a beautiful view of the Earth. Then it will descend, with its jet engines restarting, bringing it back to a safe landing. The whole journey should take about 90 minutes.

A vehicle like this could also be a precursor to suborbital space planes, which would provide rapid point-to-point transportation across the Earth.

Original Source: EADS Astrium News Release