Space transport roundup – May.2.2019

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport:

** Blue Origin New Shepard flies successfully:

Reports on the flight and the research payloads on board:

New Shepard hardware is produced at Blue Origin’s headquarters in Kent, Wash., and shipped down to Texas for flight. Cornell said people wouldn’t ride in the New Shepard capsule that was tested today, but in an upgraded capsule that’s currently sitting in Blue Origin’s “barn” in Texas.

“Because it’s such a special capsule to us, we actually decided to name the newest capsule that’s just in the barn the ‘RSS First Step,’ ” Cornell said. ” ‘RSS’? Reusable Spaceship, of course. And ‘First Step’ because it is our first capsule that is going to be taking people. It’s going to enable our vision of millions of people living and working in space

** CRS-17 Cargo Dragon launch set for early Friday morning following a fix to the ISS power problem that delayed the flight from Wednesday. However, weather is an issue. Only a 40% chance for suitable conditions for liftoff according to the USAF launch range forecast. This improves to 70% if the launch is postponed till Saturday morning

The rocket will blast off from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can watch the launch on the SpaceX webcast, which will start about 15 minutes before liftoff, currently set to occur during a 1 second window at 3:11:33 am EDT, or 7:11:33 UTC.

There will also be a NASA TV webcast as well.

The CRS-17 Mission press kit provides info on launch events, the payloads and other aspects of the mission.

Note that this Cargo Dragon vehicle also flew on the the CRS-12 mission in August 2017. The Falcon 9 booster is new. The booster will attempt to land on a sea platform not far off the coast of Florida.

** Interstellar Technologies MOMO 3 suborbital launch scrubbed today due to high winds. Next try is set for Friday:

A new launch attempt for the MOMO sounding rocket is tomorrow, May 3rd. A 75-minute launch window would open at 11:15 JST, or 2:15 UTC.

Updates at なつのロケット団公式 (@natsuroke) | Twitter.

** Scott Manley discusses a NASA report on 2 rocket failures caused by a manufacturer’s flawed materials:

In 2009 a Taurus XL rocket failed because the fairing at the top refused to separate, then in 2011 the same things happened again. A multi year investigation traced the problem to materials from a supplier which had been fabricating test results.

** Additional SpaceX:

*** More about Crew Dragon explosion in today’s CRS-17 pre-launch briefing:

Hans Koenigsmann of SpaceX said that the investigation is continuing and he would not speculate on the cause of the explosion. He did say,

  • The explosion started during the preparation for the firing of the SuperDraco thrusters and about a half second before they fired.
  • The Crew Dragon was destroyed.
  • He doesn’t think a SuperDraco itself failed.
  • He doesn’t think that the composite over-wrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) are to blame. These are not the same type of COPVs as the one that caused a Falcon 9 upper stage to explode on the pad in 2016.
  • The site of the test has not yet been fully cleared. There are, for example, pressurized COPVs visible so they must be careful when approaching the site.
  • He said the resulting cloud from the propellant mixture of monomethylhydrazine fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizer became benign as it mixed with air.
  • Several Crew Dragon vehicles are in various stages of construction and so can be modified relatively easily to install the fixes required by the results of the investigation.

More at Dragon was destroyed just before the firing of its SuperDraco thrusters | Ars Technica.

*** Progress towards next Falcon Heavy flight in June: SpaceX’s third Falcon Heavy launch on track as custom booster aces static fire – Teslarati

SpaceX has successfully completed a static fire of its newest Falcon Heavy center core, a sign that the most challenging hardware is firmly on track for a late-June launch target.

Currently penciled in for June 22nd, Falcon Heavy’s third launch is of great interest to both SpaceX and its customer, the US Air Force. Most of the two-dozen payloads manifested on the mission are admittedly unaffiliated with the US military. However, the rideshare – known as Space Test Program 2 (STP-2) – was acquired by the USAF for the branch to closely evaluate and certify SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket for critical military launches. The potential upsides of a successful demonstration and evaluation are numerous for both entities and would likely trigger additional positive offshoots.

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