And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to [email protected], and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, sign up to be a host. Send and email to the above address.
The Falcon Heavy Rocket will be the most capable rocket in the world. only exceeded by the American Saturn V moon rocket which landed the first astronauts on the lunar surface in 1969. Credit: SpaceX
[/caption]Elon Musk, the CEO and chief rocket designer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announced today (April 5) that SpaceX will build and launch the world’s most powerful rocket – dubbed the Falcon Heavy – within two years.
Musk said that he expects SpaceX will launch the first Falcon Heavy by late 2012 or early 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
“We are excited to announce the Falcon Heavy and only recently completed the design,” said Musk.
“Falcon Heavy will carry more payload to orbit or escape velocity than any vehicle in history, apart from the Saturn V moon rocket, which was decommissioned after the Apollo program. This opens a new world of capability for both government and commercial space missions.”
Musk unveiled the design plans for the privately developed, 227 foot tall heavy lift rocket at a briefing for reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
Falcon Heavy would lift from 100,000 to 120,000 pounds to orbit, about three times the performance of the Falcon 9. It is comprised of three nine- engine Falcon 9 first stage booster cores and would utilize upgraded Merlin 1D engines currently being tested at the SpaceX rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. The Falcon booster cores would be the first to have cross feed propellant capability enabling significant enhancements in payload performance, Musk explained.
“We expect to launch a lot, maybe 20 launches per year,” said Musk. He thinks that the launches would be spilt about equally between the current Falcon 9 and the new Falcon Heavy allowing SpaceX to compete in the full gamut of opportunities for commercial rocket providers. The Falcon Heavy could even be used for interplanetaryscience missions to Mars and elsewhere in the Solar System (watch for follow up article).
With over 3.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, Falcon Heavy will be the most capable rocket flying. By comparison, the liftoff thrust of the Falcon Heavy equals fifteen Boeing 747 aircraft at full power. Credit: SpaceX
The Falcon Heavy would also be launched from Cape Canaveral after upgrading the existing Falcon 9 pad at the Cape. Indeed a majority of launches is expected from Florida vs. California.
“The Falcon Heavy will have more payload capability than any rocket since the Saturn V moon rocket.”
Musk said the Falcon Heavy will be dramatically cheaper and more cost effective compared to current rockets and set new world records in affordability and cost per pound. “The cost will be about $1000 per pound to orbit.” That price is a long sought and near mythical goal. It is also a critical selling point during these times of flat, very tight and declining budgets.
SpaceX says they are offering the Falcon 9 for some $50-60M and the Falcon Heavy for $80-$125M per launch. They say this compares to the projected Air Force average cost of $435M per launch for the 2012 budget year.
“The Falcon Heavy will be about one third the cost of the Delta IV Heavy and with twice the performance. That’s about 6 times more cost effective,” Musk stated. “That’s a pretty huge leap in capability.”
SpaceX will finance the cost of the first demonstration launch. The rocket will only loft several small payloads unless some organization is willing to take a gamble for a reduced cost. Without being specific, Musk added that SpaceX has had “strong interest from U.S. government agencies and commercial entities” for the second launch and beyond. “No one wants to be first.” Comparison of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy offerd by SpaceX. Credit: SpaceX
Ensuring reliability is key to SpaceX future. Musk explained that the Falcon Heavy is also designed to meet NASA human rating standards, unlike other satellite launch vehicles. The rocket is designed to meet higher structural safety margins of 40% above flight loads, rather than the 25% level of other rockets, and triple redundant avionics.
To date, SpaceX has launched two Falcon 9 rockets. NASA has awarded SpaceX with a $1.6 billion contract to conduct a minimum of twelve Falcon 9 flights with the Dragon spacecraft to deliver at least 20,000 kg of cargo to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) after the Space Shuttle is retired.
Musk said that there is a lot to be learned and applied from using high volume production techniques used in the automotive industry while maintaining stringent quality control.
The date of the frist Falcon Heavy launch is expected to depend greatly on regulatory requirements, just like the maiden launch of the Falcon 9.
The Falcon Heavy is SpaceX’s entry into the heavy lift launch vehicle category. Capable of lifting over 32,000 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and over 19,500 kg to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), the Falcon Heavy will compete with the largest commercial launchers now available. It consists of a standard Falcon 9 with two additional Falcon 9 first stages acting as liquid strap-on boosters. With the Falcon 9 first stage already designed to support the additional loads of this configuration and with common tanking and engines across both vehicles, development and operation of the Falcon Heavy will be highly cost-effective. Credit: SpaceX
Watch a SpaceX YouTube video about Falcon Heavy here:
"What A Ride It's Been!" Image Credit: Brian Basset
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“Red and Rover” pay tribute to the space shuttle program, racing alongside the space shuttle as it lands for the final time later this year. Cartoonist and space exploration supporter Brian Basset created this commemorative drawing for NASA, to honor the shuttles. A poster commemorating the program’s 30th anniversary will feature Basset’s cartoon and a patch selected as part of a contest among NASA employees to honor the program.
“The U.S. space program has been the one constant throughout my entire life,” Basset said. “I was humbled and honored when given the opportunity to create the art for the commemorative Space Shuttle Program 30th anniversary poster.”
“Red and Rover” is a great cartoon series about the unconditional love between a boy and his dog. The two often dream of going to space together. But it won’t be on a space shuttle.
This video provided by the Solar Dynamics Observatory provides a side-by-side comparison of the Sun from precisely two years ago (left, from SOHO in 2009) to the present (right, from Solar Dynamics Observatory, showing March 27-28, 2011) which dramatically illustrates just how active the Sun has become. The comparisons shown in two similar wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, reveal how the Sun now sports numerous active regions that appear as lighter areas that are capable of producing solar storms. Two years ago the Sun was in an extremely quiet solar minimum. The Sun’s maximum period of activity is predicted to be around 2013, so activity will likely continue to ramp up.
April showers? Yes! The 16th to the 26th this month brings us the April Lyrid Meteor Shower, with the peak occurring on April 22nd.
The meteors in this shower tend to be bright and leave persistent trains as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. In recent years the shower has averaged 10 to 20 meteors per hour.
You may think that this sounds like a fairly mediocre shower and not worth bothering with, but it has been known for the Lyrids to surge and rates rise rapidly to over 100 per hour! This is what makes this shower so interesting and difficult to predict. Will it be a biggy this year or not?
Lyrid meteors radiate from a point (radiant) in the constellation of Lyra and this is where this shower gets its name. The best time to look for Lyrid meteors will late in the evening on April 22nd after 10 pm as the constellation of Lyra rises up from the northeast horizon.
This will give you 2 or 3 hours of meteor watching before the waning gibbous moon rises and starts to wash out the sky. But still, it’s well worth staying up to see as many bright meteors as possible.
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launching from the very same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin when he became the first human in space 50 years ago blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, just a week shy of the April 12th anniversary. The launch took place on time on April 5, 2011 4:18:20 a.m local time (6:18:20 p.m. EDT on April 4), sending two cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station: Soyuz commander Alexander Samokutyaev, flight engineer Andrey Borisenko and NASA astronaut Ron Garan. The rocket bore the image (see below) and name of Gagarin to celebrate his historic flight.
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The crew should reach the ISS on Wednesday.
Soyuz launch for Expedition 27. Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi
Expedition 27 crew members from top, Russian Flight Engineer Andrey Borisenko, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan, and Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev wave farewell from the bottom of the Soyuz rocket prior to their launch to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Photo Credit (NASA/Carla Cioffi)
A current view of Saturn (middle) and also at opositions from the last six years from present (left) clockwise to bottom left. Credit: Efrain Morales Rivera, Jaicoa Observatory, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
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April is Global Astronomy Month, and as a highlight, the “Lord of the Rings” is back prominently in the night sky! This past weekend, Saturn reached opposition, when it is closest to the Earth in its orbit. Opposition means Saturn is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, so it rises in the east at sunset and sets in the west at sunrise – meaning it will be in the sky all night long! Saturn is also the only planet visible before midnight in April. But the beautiful ringed planet will be looking even brighter that it has been for the past few months.
Special thanks to Efrain Morales Rivera for sending us this montage of Saturn images, showing a current view of Saturn in the middle and the ringed planet at oppositions from the last six years.
Around opposition there is a phenomenon known as the Seeliger Effect, which might actually be a couple of different effects combining to enhance the brightness of Saturn: Since the Earth is smack dab in the middle of the Sun and Saturn, sunlight is coming from directly behind us and directly at Saturn. And there’s also the phenomenon called coherent backscattering, which is where if you shine a beam of light at something that is made from a lot of separate particles (like Saturn’s rings) the light is reflected back with greater intensity from the direction directly opposite the beam. The middle image of Saturn in the montage above reveals brighter rings from the Seeliger Effect, as well as highlighting the ‘Serpent storm’ in the northern hemisphere.
There are also several other fun observing events for Global Astronomy Month:
On April 9 the Global Star Party will unfold as darkness sweeps around the Earth. This is the night to set up your telescopes and share the wonders of the sky with others.
From April 10 to 16 it’s Lunar Week, to turn your gaze turns toward Earth’s natural satellite, and take a close-up look the Moon’s craters and “seas”.
April 12th is Yuri’s Night — and a very special one too, as it is the 50th anniversary of the first human in space.
The month closes with the Lyrid Meteor shower. On April 21/22 get comfortable in something warm and spend
the night scanning the sky for meteors caused by debris left behind by Comet Thatcher.
Sidewalk astronomy back in 1921 in New York City. Credit: Wikipedia
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You’re probably familiar with Sidewalk Astronomy – where amateur astronomers set up telescopes on street corners or other public places to share free views through a telescope with those who might not otherwise have the chance. These are great opportunities for public education about astronomy and the Universe in which we live. We just got a note from a long-time sidewalk astronomer, Jay Horowitz, who has a plan to set up telescopes on A LOT of street corners. He wants to share telescope views of the skies with people all over the US. But he needs a little help to make his plan come to fruition.
“ I want to give thousands of people the opportunity to see firsthand the universe in which we live, turning young minds on to the power of science and sparking curiosity and awe in adults,” Jay wrote us in an email. And so, he has set up a Kickstarter page – and you might be familiar with this new “crowd sourcing” way to fund creative projects.
Kickstarter projects are efforts by people to do something they love, something fun, or at least something of worthwhile and of note. But they might not have the funds to do it. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.
Check out Jay’s Astronomy On The Road Kickstarter project, where his goal is to take science around the country in 2011 and 2012. He’s looking to raise money for a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a solar telescope, and fuel for transporting the telescopes between locations. He and his group will provide free views of the skies in schools, libraries, and on city streets all over the United States.
“The telescopes will always be used for public education and will never be for private use, even down the road,” Jay said.
There are also some notable prizes for those who donate, including lunch with some of the big names in astronomy.
Jay’s Sidewalk Astronomy resume is impressive: he founded a successful sidewalk astronomy group in New York City and also volunteered as a telescope operator and educator at an observatory, and taught astronomy in the Dominican Republic.
A new opportunity is available to students to have their experiments flown to the ISS. Credit: NAS
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Just a bit of a traffic jam at the International Space Station has prompted a 10-day delay of the targeted launch for space shuttle Endeavour’s 25th and final mission, STS-134. Originally scheduled for April 19, the shuttle launch is now scheduled for 3:47 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 29. The delay removes a scheduling conflict with a Russian Progress supply vehicle scheduled to launch April 27 and arrive at the station April 29. Current restrictions do not allow a Progress to dock to the station while a shuttle is there.
Meanwhile, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft emblazoned with Yuri Gagarin’s face and name is scheduled to liftoff today (Monday, April 4, 2011) at 6:18:20 p.m. EDT (22:19 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, bringing two cosmonauts and one astronaut to the ISS to round out the current Expedition 27 crew, returning the crew size to 6. On board will be Soyuz commander Alexander Samokutyaev, flight engineer Andrey Borisenko and NASA astronaut Ron Garan.
The Soyuz will launch from the same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin when he became the first human in space 50 years ago on April 12, 1961. The Russian Space Agency is dedicating this launch of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft to the anniversary. You can watch the launch on NASA TV.
NASA managers will hold a Flight Readiness Review on Tuesday, April 19 to make sure everything is go for the April 29 launch date for STS-134. The primary goals of Endeavour’s mission are to deliver critical supplies and equipment to the International Space Station, along with a $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics experiment. Four spacewalks also are planned to carry out needed maintenance on the orbiting lab complex.
The shuttle launch is already generating a lot of interest – not only because it is Endeavour’s final flight, but also because Commander Mark Kelly’s wife, Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords, is hoping to be present at Kennedy Space Center for the liftoff. She was shot in the head in January of this year, but has recovered sufficiently to consider attending her husband’s final shuttle launch.
One other item of note: NASASpaceflight.com is reporting that a Soyuz flyaround is being considered again while the space shuttle is docked at the ISS. NASA had requested such a flyaround during the previous shuttle mission, STS-133, to be able to take images—both engineering and documentary – of the ISS with spacecraft from each of the partnering space agencies present. Japan’s HTV-2 has now departed, so if the flyaround is approved to take place during the STS-134 mission, that spacecraft would, of course, be missing from the family photo.
The crew of STS-134 arrive at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: Jason Rhian
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CAPE CANAVERAL – The crew who will fly on the last flight of the space shuttle Endeavour, NASA’s youngest orbiter, arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:15 p.m. EDT (slightly ahead of schedule and ahead of a weather front) to conduct the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). This roughly week-long exercise trains the astronauts in launch-related elements that they will need to be aware of during launch.
Arriving in their T-38s – the crew’s commander, Mark Kelly, arrived last and made brief comments regarding the upcoming flight. The STS-134 mission is the next-to-last flight of the shuttle program.
The crew conduct safety drills at launch complex 39A. Photo Credit: NASA
The STS-134 commander, Mark Kelly, was not present for the entire training cycle for this mission due to the shootings in Tucson, Arizona that saw his wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords seriously injured. Kelly took some time off to be with her. During this time, Rick Sturckow was assigned as a backup commander for the flight.
Kelly eventually rejoined his crew as they prepared for the mission. This was because of the rapidly approving condition of his wife. He attributed this to some of the misfortune that befell space shuttle Discovery as she was prepared for her final flight. Discovery had several mechanical issues that needed to be addressed before the orbiter was cleared for its Feb. 24 launch.
“The timing of the incident coincided with the launch slip (of STS-133, Discovery’s last flight),” said Commander Mark Kelly. “When I rejoined the crew, I really had not missed that much training and managed to integrate myself fairly well back into the flow.”
The crew for this mission consists of Kelly as the flight’s commander, Pilot Greg Johnson and Mission Specialists, Mike Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and ESA astronaut (but under the Italian Space Agency for this mission) Roberto Vittori.
Weather played a big part during this TCDT. It determined that the crew arrived early; it also required that the crew hold one of the scheduled press conferences indoors (it was originally planned to have it at the launch pad) and it cut short the flight time that the commander and pilot had in the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA).
Severe storms blew into Space Coast area shortly after the crew arrived. Launch Complex 39A, with Endeavour on it, was caught as the powerful, but brief storm passed by. NASA engineers thoroughly reviewed the orbiter and determined that there was minimal, if any, damage. Weather played a big part in the TCDT for this mission. Photo Credit: Jason Rhian
