SpaceIL‘s Beresheet lunar spacecraft successfully fired its engine to extend its orbit to the Moon:
🌗 Moon Travel Report #6 🌗
Another successful maneuver! The engine was activated for 60 sec & all systems are functioning👍🏽. #Beresheet is on an elliptical orbit, will meet the #moon – the furthest point from #Earth: 405,000 k”m. #IsraelToTheMoon@ILAerospaceIAI@ILSpaceAgency
This diagram shows the change in the orbit with the 20.3.2019 burn:
A graphic timeline of the major events in the Beresheet mission.
When the spacecraft’s orbit reaches the Moon on April 4th, another firing of the engine will slow the vehicle down sufficiently to put it into a highly elliptical orbit around the Moon. After several orbits, another burn will circularize the orbit. Finally, on April 11th the engine will fire to slow the vehicle such that it falls towards the surface. At 5 meters above the lunar ground, the engine will cut off and the Moon’s low gravity will pull the spacecraft slowly down to the surface.
SpaceIL founder Yonatan Winetraub gives the basics of how the spacecraft’s engine firings get it to the Moon:
This video shows the full sequence of orbital maneuvers from launch to landing:
SpaceIL is a non-profit volunteer organization in Israel that began a quest for the Moon as an entrant in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. Thought the GLXP ended last year without a winner, SpaceIL raised sufficient funds to continue with development of the spacecraft and to buy a secondary payload ride on the SpaceX Falcon 9 that launched in February.
** Progress towards first flight of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne air launch system:
LauncherOne’s first stage lit up our Mojave test site on Friday for the first hot-fire in our final series of full-scale, integrated system tests. pic.twitter.com/eYFbj4CSTa
** Update from Copenhagen Suborbitals, the volunteer non-profit organization is moving step-by-step towards the launch of a person on a suborbital space flight:
“Firefly is pleased to enter into an MOU with Airbus to formulate an integrated market offering that will provide Airbus customers rapid deployment of Airbus manufactured satellites,” said Firefly CEO Dr. Tom Markusic. “We are very impressed by the versatility and low cost of the Airbus ARROW platform and Airbus’s investment in leading edge satellite mass production capabilities. We look forward to working closely with Airbus to bring economical launch solutions to their customers. This initial MOU covering several launches is the first step of a long-term relationship which will provide Airbus customers the highest level of flexibility for their small satellite launches.”
Frederic Sotenberg, Head of Constellations Launch Solutions at Airbus Space Systems, said, “Our partnership with Firefly will provide launch options with direct access to specific orbits, flexibility, and short notice. The Alpha vehicle addresses an unmet need in small satellite launch and will provide a further option for our customers in addition to legacy medium and large launchers in Europe.”
**** NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine talked with Elon Musk of SpaceX in the crew access bridge at Pad 39A at Cape Kennedy on the day before the recent Crew Dragon demo flight:
**** The Crew Dragon docks to the ISS in this time lapse:
**** The Falcon 9 booster used to launch crew dragon is shown being lifted from the landing platform to the dock at Port Canaveral (via www.USLaunchReport.com):
This is four times speed. We think they may have a new crane operator. Port Canaveral purchased a huge new tower crane that can move the boosters much more easily.
While Musk noted that adding or enabling that capability during missions with astronauts would be entirely dependent upon NASA’s approval, the idea would be to trigger Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco abort thrusters in the event of a partial or total failure of the spacecraft’s parachutes. Although Crew Dragon is already capable of keeping its passengers safe if one of its four parachutes fails to properly deploy, the loss of any additional drag would likely create a situation where the force of impact on the ocean surface could severely injure or kill astronauts, much like a car crash without airbags. To prevent this, Crew Dragon could fire its thrusters at the last second, canceling out or at least minimizing the force of impact.
If this is implemented, it would be the first time that an orbital crew system has a backup during both launch (the Crew Dragon capsule can abort at any point from liftoff to orbital insertion) and landing.
**** The options for launching NASA’s Orion capsule with a Falcon Heavy or other rocket are discussed by Scott Manley:
**** Raptor engine on StarHopper may fire for the first time this week after it was installed last week on the vehicle:
On Friday, the company sent a notice to nearby residents saying it planned to conduct testing of the vehicle as soon as the week of March 18, and that it would be closing the main roadway of Highway 4 to non-residents during the tests. This “safety zone perimeter” is part of an agreement with the local county, and has been set up out of an abundance of caution.
On Sunday, company founder Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter that SpaceX was indeed close to beginning tests. Musk said that integration work remained to be done on test vehicle and its Raptor rocket engine, and that the first hops would lift off, but only “barely.” Eventually the “Starhopper” test vehicle will have three engines, but for now it appears as though the company will start with just one.
Note that the nosecone for the StarHopper was badly damaged in a windstorm last January but Elon now says a new one will not be built. The Starhopper will only do low altitude flights with slow ascent and descent so the nosecone serves no particular purpose other than to make the vehicle resemble a rocket ship.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that the company’s South Texas workforce has already begun to fabricate the first orbital-class Starship prototype, while Hawthorne engineers and technicians are in the midst of performing small-scale testing of the vehicle’s unprecedented stainless steel heat shield.
To be assembled out of hexagonal tiles of (presumably) stainless steel, Starship’s metallic heat shield will be one of the most crucial aspects of the orbital spacecraft, particularly with respect to ensuring that it’s extraordinarily easy to reuse. To survive extreme interplanetary-velocity reentry conditions at Mars, Earth, and beyond and remain in a functional, flight-ready condition after landing, SpaceX will need to implement the world’s first orbital-class, large-scale metallic heat shield with an immature technology known as transpirational cooling.
According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the company has plans to both build and launch BFR’s Starship upper stages and Super Heavy boosters at facilities located in Boca Chica, Texas and Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Indicative of SpaceX and Musk’s rapidly evolving plans for the next-generation, ultra-reusable launch system, the to stainless steel over carbon composites appears to continue to have a range of trickle-down consequences (or benefits) throughout the rocket’s design, production, launch, and operations. Given the 3+ radical, clean-sheet design changes the BFR program has undergone in about as many years, it’s hard to definitively conclude much about the latest iteration. Nevertheless, Musk’s indication that stainless steel BFRs may now be built simultaneously at multiple locations suggests that the construction of steel Starships and Super Heavies could be radically easier (and cheaper) than their composite predecessors.
Space historian and author Rod Pyle joins us once more to talk about settling our solar system via Space 2.0. We go in to the private space sector, NASA and the recent SLS/Orion announcements as well as some fun stories from Rod.
1. Monday, March 18, 2019; 2-3:30 pm PDT (4-5:30 pm CDT, 5-6:30 pm EDT): No show for today. Monday is for special and timely programs only.
2. Tuesday, March 19, 2019; 7-8:30 pm PDT (9-10:30 pm CDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT): We welcome back Ed Wright who will talk some about the Space Access Conference but also tell us about the upcoming 50th special event for The Space Studies Institute.
3. Wednesday, March 20 2019; Hotel Mars. See Upcoming Show Menu and the website newsletter for details. Hotel Mars is pre-recorded by John Batchelor. It is archived on The Space Show site after John posts it on his website.
5. Friday, March 22, 2019; 9:30-11 am PDT (11:30 am -1 pm CDT, 12:30-2 pm EDT): There is no show this Friday as we moved the program to Thursday evening.
6. Sunday, March 24, 2019; 12-1:30 pm PDT (3-4:30 pm EDT, 2-3:30 pm CDT): We welcome back Chris Carberry of Explore Mars, Inc. to discuss this years Human2Mars upcoming event.
Some recent shows:
** Fri, 03/15/2019 – 09:30 – David Shayler discussed “human spaceflight history, space stations, Gemini as a teaching mission, commercial space, humans to the Moon and Mars, orbital human spaceflight, the importance of a space future and more”.
** Tue, 03/12/2019 – Chris Blackerby, COO of Astroscale, talked about “removing space debris, business plans, effective development strategies, making a profit, risk, technology development, propulsion and more”.
A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest:
