A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs (find previous smallsat roundups here):
In order to contact Libertas, a “wake-up command” was sent up by U.Va. An acknowledgement packet — a unit of data that must be decoded — was sent back, responding to the ground station signal. Due to technical difficulties with the University’s ground station caused by a series of lightning storms, the Virginia Tech ground station was able to listen in and receive the response signal. By achieving this one-way communication, Libertas is currently the only CubeSat which has responded to a signal, showing that it is alive and working.
“Initially from deployment, we don’t know if the satellite is on, or whether something broke,” [Uni. Virginia student Connor Segal] said. “You don’t know if maybe the antenna didn’t deploy or the board was hit with a cosmic ray, so the initial step is establishing contact and seeing whether the satellite is alive or not.”
Though the team has not made two-way communication with the satellite, meaning they have not received data, Segal is happy with where the team is at.
See previous entries about the Virginia CubeSat program here, here, here, and here. This video shows the deployment of the three CubeSat Constellation spacecraft
Three Virginia CubeSat Constellation spacecraft deployed from the ISS on July 9, 2019.
Here is the latest Space to Ground report from NASA on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Animation of the EVA this week on which Expedition 60 Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan of NASA installed the second docking adapter for commercial crew vehicles:
** ORBIT – A Journey Around Earth in Real Time [4k] – Includes musical soundtrack.
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 (find previous space policy roundups here):
Earth’s Moon: Lunar Prospecting Advice – LeonardDavid.com – testimony to the National Space Council by Clive Neal, Professor of Lunar Geology at the University of Notre Dame, on innovative space initiatives and using the resources of the Moon.
** VP Pence participates in National Space Council meeting –
Vice President Mike Pence chairs the sixth meeting of the National Space Council and delivers remarks on expanding space exploration and strengthening the United States’ leadership in commercial space at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center National Air and Space Museum.
** The Space Show, 08/20/2019 – Rand Simberg talked “about tardigrades on the Moon, Planetary Protection, and defining important OST legal terms which ma control who and what gets done in space in the future”.
A Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula at 12:12 am, 20 August 2019 NZST (12:12 pm, 19 August 2019 UTC). The mission, named ‘Look Ma, No Hands,’ included the first satellite in a new maritime surveillance constellation for UNSEENLABS. The launch also saw satellites deployed for rideshare provider Spaceflight, including the BlackSky Global-4 satellite and two United States Air Force technology demonstrators.
At approximately 54 minutes after lift-off, all payloads were successfully deployed by Electron’s Kick Stage to a 540 x 540 km orbit at a 45-degree inclination. The mission was Rocket Lab’s eighth launch overall and the company’s fourth launch for 2019, taking the total number of satellites deployed by the company to 39. The launch also continues Rocket Lab’s track record of 100% mission success for customers, further cementing the company’s status as the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch.
The launch vehicle also carried critical instrumentation to inform development efforts for Rocket Lab’s recently announced plans to recover and re-use of Electron’s first stage.
** Scott Manley discusses Rocket Lab’s plans for recovering and re-flying the Electron boosters:
** Long March 3B launches comm-sat but then the spacecraft failed shortly after deployment from the rocket’s upper stage:
** Three smallsats launched August 17th by new Chinese rocket developed by a “commercial” subsidiary of the government’s primary organization for launch systems, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).
The Jielong 1 rocket was developed by China Rocket Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of CALT, a government-owned enterprise. CALT builds most of China’s workhorse Long March rocket family, which includes the country’s oldest and most-flown launchers.
In a statement after Saturday’s launch, which Chinese officials did not publicize in advance, CALT said the Jielong 1 rocket measures 64 feet (19.5 meters) tall and nearly 4 feet (1.2 meters) in diameter. At takeoff, the rocket weighs around 51,000 pounds, or 23.1 metric tons.
The new rocket can lift up to 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of payload into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit, according to CALT.
The Jielong 1 rocket is the fourth new Chinese solid-fueled smallsat launcher to debut in the last 10 months. All have roughly the same carrying capacity to low Earth orbit.
** Last week Virgin Galactic invited media to see the inside of the terminal at Spaceport America, including the sections where the SpaceShipTwo flights will be controlled and a lounge and restaurant for the spaceflight adventurists and their families.
Regarding the flight test status of the SpaceShipTwo, Jeff Foust reports:
While WhiteKnightTwo is at the spaceport, the company’s existing SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity, is still in Mojave, having made its last flight to space nearly six months ago. Mike Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, said that work is continuing there to outfit the cabin interior for commercial flights, along with other upgrades, like the installation of a new digital flight control system.
The company didn’t say when VSS Unity will arrive here—when it’s ready WhiteKnightTwo will fly back to Mojave to pick it up—but when it does arrive Moses said the company will first perform a couple glide flights to test the new flight control system as well as get familiar with operations from a new spaceport.
After that, “we’ll be ready for rocket-powered flights,” he said. There are eight hybrid rocket motors stockpiled at the spaceport, he noted, although he didn’t commit to a specific number of test flights before commercial operations will begin. In documents filed last month in association with the company’s planned merger with holding company Social Capital Hedosophia, Virgin stated it expected commercial operations to begin in the first half of 2020 (see “A new path for space investment?”, The Space Review, July 29, 2019).
There was a goal in this recent launch (Saturday, June 29, 2019) of reaching the 80 KM altitude goal, but SARGE was unable to do so. If you were able to watch the YouTube launch, live, then you saw the rocket lifted off beautifully (our best launch, actually) and then a few nanoseconds and a few thousand feet into the launch, an anomaly occurred and the rocket began to “swim” back and forth. It did this a couple of times, and then the guidance and directional systems corrected it, and the rocket flew to about 14,000 feet and successfully deployed the drogue and then the parachute, and flew back to the launch site for a safe and soft landing. All payloads and the rocket were recovered in good condition. The rocket will be ready to fly again in October. The Exos team has since met to discuss what caused the anomaly, and what we have learned from it.
All lessons that may have been learned are prodded with the intent of making the rocket even better, and the next launch even higher. We considered this launch, in the end, to be a success, even though SARGE failed to reach our 80 KM altitude goal. This is because the data received from the flight will help get the navigational and directional control systems perfected sooner than without this invaluable data. Once navigation and control are balanced correctly, Exos should reach the 80 KM goal, expected in October.
If you would like to view the video recap of our latest launch, you can do so, here.
** ULA set to launch a GPS navigation satellite on a Delta IV from the Cape on Thursday. This will be the final flight of the Delta IV in the single core configuration. Liftoff is scheduled for 9:00 amd EDT (1300 GMT).
** ULA now has payloads for first two Vulcan Centaur rockets. Last week, Sierra Nevada announced that the Dream Chaser would make its first cargo trip to the ISS via a launch on a Vulcan (see previous Space Trans Roundup). This week, Astrobotic announced that the company’s Perigrine lunar lander will launch on the first Vulcan First launch expected in 2021.
Boeing and SpaceX said Aug. 19 that they expect to carry out critical test flights of their commercial crew systems this fall, with SpaceX still hopeful of launching astronauts to the International Space Station this year.
*** Elon’s presentation on Starship/Super Heavy Booster designs postponed so as to wait for milestone in the assembly of the orbital demo Starship under construction in Boca Chica Beach, Texas:
Will probably make sense to do this when Starship Mk 1 has 3 Raptors, moving body fins & landing gear installed, which is hopefully mid September
Note that Starship Mk 1 refers to the Starship orbital demonstrator under construction at the Boca Chica Beach, Texas facility. Mk 2 refers to the demonstrator being built in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
The Starship upper stage separates from the Super Heavy Booster first stage. The design may have changed from this most recent artist’s rendering released by SpaceX.
*** Starhopper’s hop to 200 meters still delayed by FAA permit request processing:
Previously expected to occur as early as August 12th, Starhopper – an ungainly testbed for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft – remains grounded in spite of its apparent flight-readiness. News of the next hop test’s additional delays comes some four days before Elon Musk had planned to present an updated overview of Starship and Super Heavy in Boca Chica, Texas, and it seems that both events may have to wait.
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Previously expected to occur as early as August 12th, Starhopper – an ungainly testbed for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft – remains grounded in spite of its apparent flight-readiness. News of the next hop test’s additional delays comes some four days before Elon Musk had planned to present an updated overview of Starship and Super Heavy in Boca Chica, Texas, and it seems that both events may have to wait.
Recent views of activites at Boca Chica Beach:
SpaceX crews are hard at work, re-shaping the diameter of the nosecone to fit the base.(a worker is barely visible inside the nose cone, 2nd photo) Meanwhile StarHopper is good to go and waiting per approval by FAA, for a second and last historical hop. pic.twitter.com/cQtXOjirRk
Based on some basic analysis of recent photos of SpaceX’s East Coast Starship facility, situated in Cocoa, Florida, SpaceX has almost certainly begun fabricating and staging hardware that will eventually become part of the company’s first Super Heavy booster prototype.
This is by no means surprising but it does confirm the reasonable assumption that SpaceX is already working hard to ensure that the first Super Heavy booster(s) can be assembled as quickly as possible. Additionally, SpaceX appears to have started clearing brush in the process of preparing to transport the Florida orbital Starship prototype (“Mk2”) to SpaceX’s Pad 39A launch facilities, dozens of miles away.
Based on some basic analysis of recent photos of SpaceX’s East Coast Starship facility, situated in Cocoa, Florida, SpaceX has almost certainly begun fabricating and staging hardware that will eventually become part of the company’s first Super Heavy booster prototype.
This is by no means surprising but it does confirm the reasonable assumption that SpaceX is already working hard to ensure that the first Super Heavy booster(s) can be assembled as quickly as possible. Additionally, SpaceX appears to have started clearing brush in the process of preparing to transport the Florida orbital Starship prototype (“Mk2”) to SpaceX’s Pad 39A launch facilities, dozens of miles away.
Speaking at the 2019 AIAA Propulsion & Energy Forum, SpaceX Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability Hans Koenigsmann was significantly more confident that the company is just days or weeks away from wrapping up a serious Crew Dragon failure investigation.
On April 20th, flight-proven Crew Dragon capsule C201 experienced a catastrophic failure mode – largely a surprise to SpaceX – that completely destroyed the vehicle milliseconds prior to a planned static fire test. Given the obvious mortal danger such a failure would have posed to any crew aboard, SpaceX’s plans to conduct its first crewed Crew Dragon launch (Demo-2) in Q3 2019 were thrown out the window. Thankfully, Hans believes that SpaceX is just shy of concluding that investigation, “hopefully” permitting the launch of a critical abort test and Demo-2 before 2019 is out.
The event marked the first time a fully integrated NASA and SpaceX team worked together on the ship to go through an end-to-end practice run of how the teams will recover and extract the astronauts when they return from the space station in Crew Dragon. Hurley and Behnken were taken out of the spacecraft, given a mock medical evaluation and then transported to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip, or airport.
“We’re making sure that the team integrates together — that’s a key to any successful mission,” said Ted Mosteller, the NASA recovery director in charge of the agency’s team for the Commercial Crew Program. “We worked on successfully doing what we need to do to take care of the crew once they return to Earth.”
JRTI has two possible destinations: Port of Brownsville, Texas or Port Canaveral, Florida. Both options are roughly 1800 mi (3000 km) from the Panama Canal’s western mouth and, extrapolating from the first major leg of the journey, should take Alice C around 8 days to tow JRTI across the finish line. Barring mishaps, the drone ship should thus be able to arrive at its new home sometime in the final week of August – roughly August 27th to the 31st.
The event marked the first time a fully integrated NASA and SpaceX team worked together on the ship to go through an end-to-end practice run of how the teams will recover and extract the astronauts when they return from the space station in Crew Dragon. Hurley and Behnken were taken out of the spacecraft, given a mock medical evaluation and then transported to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip, or airport.
“We’re making sure that the team integrates together — that’s a key to any successful mission,” said Ted Mosteller, the NASA recovery director in charge of the agency’s team for the Commercial Crew Program. “We worked on successfully doing what we need to do to take care of the crew once they return to Earth.”
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:
Host Mat Kaplan in a long and fascinating conversation with Nicholas de Monchaux, author of Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo. This great book is about much more than creation of the suits that allowed humans to walk and work on the Moon. Jason Davis shares pointers on looking for LightSail 2 overhead, while Bruce Betts provides a solar sail update in this week’s What’s Up. And you might win a Planetary Radio t-shirt!
SmallSat was last week which meant a flurry of announcements. This year was launch heavy, so I break down some announcements from SpaceX, Arianespace, and Rocket Lab.
** The Space Show/Hotel Mars – Wed, 08/14/2019 – John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston interview Dr. Jeffrey Foust of Space News about “SLS, delays, NASA, congressional support, NASA leadership changes, Artemis 1 launch to the Moon, lunar gateway”.
** The Space Show – Fri, 08/16/2019 – Dr. Garrett Erin Reisman discussed “his astronaut experiences, human spaceflight from both the engineering and medical perspective. We talked about student interest in HSF and classes, private human spaceflight and SpaceX life support work.”
