A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport:
** SpaceX to try again to launch a Falcon 9 early Saturday morning with the Cargo Dragon for mission CRS-17 to the ISS. The liftoff is set for 2:48 am EDT (6:48 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The weather forecast gives a 70% chance of acceptable conditions for the 1 second launch window.
The SpaceX webcast will go live about 15 minutes before the launch time.
All systems are currently go and weather is 70% favorable for launch of Dragon’s seventeenth resupply mission on May 4 at 2:48 a.m. EDT, 6:48 UTC.
**Rocket Lab is also set to launch an Electron tomorrow morning with three USAF payloads
Launch readiness review is complete and we are green for tomorrow’s launch of the STP-27RD mission from Launch Complex 1. The launch window opens at [2:00 am EDT] 06:00 UTC / 18:00 NZT, 4 May. Join us then for Electron’s first night launch!🚀
** Interstellar Technologies of Japan successfully launched the MOMO 3 suborbital rocket on Friday. The liftoff is at just after 1:29:00 into this video of the webcast:
[ Update: A nicer video with views from the rocket:
]
The rocket reached beyond the Kármán line according to this Tweet (Google translated):
The launch time of “shift MOMO3 to space quality” is at 5:45:0, and the arrival altitude is 113.4 km as a preliminary value, and the combustion time is about 118 seconds. The detailed values will be determined by the future analysis and will be announced again.
New Shepard had a great mission on May 2, 2019. This particular rocket has flown to space and back 5 times. The mission flew 38 payloads for a variety of schools, universities, government agencies and private companies.
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:
** How NASA is preparing to launch another mission to the moon – PBS News Hour with Miles O’Brien
The Trump administration wants NASA to get back to the moon by 2024, using any means necessary. But will the money and the commitment be there to support the effort? Science correspondent Miles O’Brien talks to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine about technical and political risk, international competition and his broader vision for the agency.
** SpaceX Starlink Satellites in Lower Orbit got FCC Approval: Why Other Firms were Not Happy About It? – Engineering Today:
**The Space Show – Sun, 04/28/2019 – Michael Ciancone talked about his “‘Foreword to Spaceflight’ bibliography, 2019 IAC Washington, DC, Glenn Memorial Symposium, European Service Module for the Orion Program, service module integration, & more”.
** A video from DARPA about the Launch Challenge, which “aims to demonstrate flexible and responsive launch capabilities in days, not years, for our nation’s defense”:
** Great views of earth and vehicles approaching and docking to the station matched with a nice soundtrack:
The International Space Station’s High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) experiment is an external camera platform located on the Columbus module of the space station. In addition to providing beautiful views of Earth, one of the goals of HDEV is to monitor the longevity and quality of its image sensors in the space environment. HDEV operations began April 30, 2014 and only a single bad pixel has been identified. Testing new engineering processes and camera system longevity expanded into having avid Earth-viewing followers and educational activities. To date, HDEV has reached over 300 million total views on UStream. Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st…
** Science and technology payloads heading to the ISS aboard the CRS-17 Cargo Dragon:
When it launches on Friday, May 3, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will carry crew supplies, scientific research and hardware to the International Space Station to support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations. Learn more about the science headed to space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages….
What’s up in the May sky? A meteor shower produced by debris from Halley’s Comet, asteroids named after dinosaurs and a “blue moon” on May 18th. Additional information about topics covered in this episode of What’s Up, along with still images from the video and the video transcript are available at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/…
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.
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.
** 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.
*** 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.
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.
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.
