Amateur/Student Satellite, Rockets, Space business

Videos: Rocket Lab successfully launches Electron rocket with commercial payloads

November 11, 2018 TopSpacer 1 Comment

Rocket Lab successfully launched an Electron rocket last night (US time) and put 7 small satellites into low earth orbit (see also earlier posting): Rocket Lab reaches orbit again, deploys more satellites | Rocket Lab –

The satellites included:

2 Lemur-2 satellites join a constellation of several dozen Spire Global satellites already in orbit. The constellation provides maritime tracking services and atmospheric weather measurements using the GPS radio-occultation technique.
GeoOptics Inc. satellite, which also makes atmospheric weather measurements. The spacecraft was built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.
2 Proxima “Internet of Things” (IOT) communications satellites from Fleet Space Technologies in Australia.
IRVINE01 educational CubeSat built by high school students in the Irvine CubeSat STEM Program (ICSP) in Irvine, California. (Irvine CubeSat (@irvinecubesat) | Twitter)
NABEO drag sail technology demonstrator from High Performance Space Structure Systems GmBH.

A clip from the webcast when the satellites were being deployed:

Here is the complete Rocket Lab webcast of the launch through spacecraft deployment:

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Events, Rockets, Space Systems

Lots of rocket launches planned for next 10 days

November 10, 2018 TopSpacer

Several rocket launches around the world are scheduled for the next couple of weeks. Most of these will be webcast.

** Rocket Lab Electron – Nov.10/11, 10 p.m.-2 a.m. EST (0300-0700 GMT on 11th) – Rocket Lab is ready to put several commercial smallsats into low earth orbit on the third Electron launch from New Zealand (see earlier posting).

** Northrop Grumman Antares – Nov.15 – Thursday – 4:49 a.m. EST (0949 GMT) Wallops Island, Virginia. The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket will send a Cygnus spacecraft with cargo to the ISS.

** SpaceX Falcon 9 – Nov. 15, 3:46-5:29 p.m. EST (2046-2229 GMT Kennedy Space Center. The F9 will send the Es’hail 2 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit for Es’hailSat of Qatar.

** Russian Soyuz – Nov.16, 1:14 p.m. EST (1814 GMT) – The Soyuz rocket will send a Progress cargo spacecraft to the ISS.

NASA Television | NASA

** SpaceX Falcon 9 – Nov.19, 1:32 p.m. EST; 10:32 a.m. PST (1832 GMT) Vandenberg AFB, California. The F9 will put over 70 satellites from 50+ customers into low earth orbit on the SSO-A mission organized by Spaceflight Services.

Other launches coming up but no times fixed yet:

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk. 3 (GSLV Mk.3-D2) – Nov.14? Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota – India’s biggest rocket is to launch the GSAT 29 communications from .
Chinese Long March 3B – Nov.19? Xichang, China – The LM-3B is to put 2 Beidou navigation satellites into medium earth orbit.
Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL air launch out of Kennedy Space Center. An attempt to launch the ICON spacecraft to study the Earth’s Ionosphere was scrubbed last week and no new target date is set yet.
- NASA’s ICON mission on Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket scrubbed – NASASpaceFlight.com
- NASA Television | NASA

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Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Nov.10.2018

November 10, 2018 TopSpacer

A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government related space news and resource items that I found of interest:

Webcasts:

** Episode T+100: Midterms, and a Thought on Starlink – Main Engine Cut Off

** Episode T+101: Starlink Addendum – Main Engine Cut Off

** The Space Show – Tue, 11/06/2018 – Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics editor, talked about “spaceports, European competition with SpaceX launchers, commercial space and more”.

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Rockets, Space business

Rocket Lab: Launch window opens Nov.11, Interview with Peter Beck, New Zealand factory tour

November 9, 2018 TopSpacer 1 Comment

Rocket Lab is scheduled to launch the third Electron rocket from New Zealand on Sunday, November 11th, during a window between 16:00 – 20:00 NZDT (~~12:00 – 4:00~~ ~~am EST~~) [Whoops, miscalculated. Actual time is 10 pm EST Nov.10 – 2:00 am EST Nov.11] . The Rocket Lab website will provide a webcast of the launch. Find updates on the countdown at Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) | Twitter.

The Everyday Astronaut Time Dodd recently posted an interesting interview with Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck:

And here is a tour of the company’s factory:

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In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, SpaceCasts

Videos: “Space to Ground” ISS report – Nov.9.2018

November 9, 2018 TopSpacer

Here is the latest episode of NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:

On Wednesday, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle “KOUNOTORI” (HTV) cargo module departed from the ISS. The module berthed to the station on September 28th.

https://youtu.be/q4umyxGGRoc

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Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes