Category Archives: Rockets

Rockets

Videos: Recent rocket launches – SpaceX Falcon 9, Ariane 5, Russian Soyuz and Rokot

** Dec. 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 Dragon Resupply Mission (CRS-16) from Cape Canaveral: Falcon 9 successfully lofts CRS-16 Dragon enroute to ISS – Booster spins out but soft lands in water – NASASpaceFlight.com

[ Update 3: Another good view of the booster. Shows it clear detail the stage when it starts to spin and wobble,  the engine struggling to maintain control, and ends with the legs deploying and the soft landing:

Update 2: Another view of the water landing:

Update: Video from Elon showing the landing from a camera on the booster:

]

Unfortunately, a stuck hydraulic pump on a guide fin caused the first stage to miss the landing pad and go into the water offshore:

The return trajectories of the boosters always aim for the water offshore. Then, if everything is working OK, the engine and fins at the last minute will guide the rocket over to the pad, which lies just beside the beach.

** Dec.4: Ariane V launched two satellites – GSAT-11 for ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), and GEO-KOMPSAT-2A for KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute): Ariane 5 conducts dual passenger launch with GSAT-11 and GEO-KOMPSAT-2A – NASASpaceFlight.com

** Dec.3: SpaceX Falcon 9 SSO-A mission puts 64 satellites into orbit after launch from Vandenberg AFB in California. First stage lands for third time: Spaceflight Successfully Launches 64 Satellites on First Dedicated Rideshare Mission – Spaceflight

** Dec.3: Russian Soyuz takes three new crew members to the ISS: NASA Astronaut Anne McClain and Crewmates Arrive Aboard Space Station | NASA

** Nov.29: Russian Rokot launches from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia with three military satellites: Russian Rokot launch vehicle lofts three military satellites – NASASpaceFlight.com

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Rockets, Space Systems

Videos: Successful Indian and South Korean rocket launches

India’s launch of the country’s HysIS Earth observation satellite and 30 secondary small satellites on a PSLV rocket was a success on Wednesday:

See also:

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The SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of over 60 smallsats previously scheduled for launch on the same day as the PSLV was postponed to next Sunday due to high altitude winds. (See earlier posting about the two missions.)

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Meanwhile, South Korea successfully carried out a suborbital launch of a single-staged rocket. The goal of the flight was to test a domestically developed 75 ton thrust engine that will be used for the three-stage orbital Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2). The kerosene/liquid oxygen powered engine appears to have performed as planned:

See

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Amateur/Student Satellite, Rockets, Space Arts

Two rockets set to orbit dozens of payloads including space artworks

There are two rocket launches scheduled for this Wednesday that will each carry large collections of small satellites into low earth orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 is set to lift off from Southern California with “more than 60 satellites from more than 30 organizations” in the SSO-A mission brokered by Spaceflight Services of Seattle, Washington.

The liftoff time is set for 10:31:47 am local Pacific Time and 1:31:47 pm EST and 1831:47 GMT. SpaceX aims to land the Falcon 9 first stage on a platform floating on the Pacific. This will be the first reusable F9 booster to fly three times.

The SSO-A collection of payloads includes two unusual spacecraft.

The Enoch cubesat is a tribute to Robert H. Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut, who was killed in a plane crash in December 1967 before he had a chance to go to space: SpaceX to Launch CubeSat Containing “Soul” of First African American Astronaut – IEEE Spectrum

… Enoch contains a 24-karat-gold canopic jar with a bust of Lawrence. Canopic jars were used by ancient Egyptians to house the organs of the deceased for use in the afterlife. This jar was blessed at a Shinto shrine in Japan and “recognized as a container for Lawrence’s soul,” according to the museum.

“[Lawrence is] someone who has a mostly untold story, who I look at as a hero but who wasn’t necessarily considered one when I was a child in school,” says Tavares Strachan, the artist behind Enoch, in an interview with IEEE Spectrum.

The project is sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Another space artwork to fly on the SSO-A mission is the Orbital Reflector designed by artist Trevor Paglen and sponsored by the Nevada Museum of Art. The spacecraft is an inflatable space mirror that will be visible by naked eye from the ground.

The Orbital Reflector space sculpture.

The low orbits of most of these spacecraft means the friction with the atmosphere will limit their time in orbit to relatively short periods. For example, the large cross-section area of the Orbital Reflector will reduce its lifetime to a few months. The much smaller Enoch should last 5 to 10 years.

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Meanwhile, at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is set to launch India’s Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite (HySIS) plus a collection of small satellites. These include a dozen from Spaceflight: Spaceflight Arranges Launch of 12 Satellites Aboard India’s PSLV C43 – Spaceflight.

Liftoff is set for 0400 GMT on November 29th or 11 p.m. EST on November 28th.

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Commercial use of small satellites is growing fast, e.g. earth imaging company Planet has 21 satellites on the two launches including five  company birds on the Falcon 9  and two university CubeSats that the company sponsored.

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Rocketry, Rockets, Space Models

Video: First flight of BPS Space’s Falcon Heavy model rocket

I’ve posted a few times about Joe Barnard‘s scale model rocket projects that seek to emulate realistically the takeoff and landing characteristics of SpaceX rockets. Here is a report on the first flight of the Falcon Heavy model:

Find more about Joe’s projects at BPS.space.

You can also support his efforts at BPS.space is creating Rockets | Patreon.

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Rockets, Space business

Videos: Recent rocket launches

I posted back on November 10th about several upcoming rocket launches. Here are videos of the missions so far.

** Rocket Lab Electron – 7 smallsats to LEO – Nov.11

** India’s GSLV Mk.3-D2 launch of GSAT 29 comm-sat to GEO – Nov.14

** SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Es’hail comm-sat to GEO + Landing of first stage booster – Nov.15

As seen from outside the Cape:

SpaceX webcast:

** Russian Soyuz/Progress ISS cargo mission – Nov.16

NASA webcast:

** Northrop Grumman Antares/Cygnus ISS cargo mission – Nov.17

As seen from outside Wallops Island

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The SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg AFB set for Monday the 19th has been postponed for a few days to check out some issues with the rocket.  A Chinese Long March 3B launch of 2 Beidou navigation satellites is expected on Monday.

See the Launch Schedule at SpaceflightNow.com for a list of many more launches schedule during the rest of November and December.

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