Rockets from Cassiopeia

Archive for the ‘ULA’ Category

Down to Earth

Microsoft co-founder and commercial spaceflight pioneer Paul Allen died last week.

Rocket Lab has decided it will operate a launch site from Wallops Island, Virginia.

In Orbit

There have been 9 successful orbital launches since my last post on October 14th:

• October 15 – A Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched two Beidou navigation satellites.
• October 17 – A ULA Atlas V rocket launched a USAF communications satellite.
• October 20 – An ESA Ariane V rocket placed BepiColombo in solar orbit on its way to study Mercury.
• October 24 – A Chinese Long March 4B rocket placed an Earth-observing satellite in orbit.
• October 25 – A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket launched a military satellite.
• October 29 – A Chinese Long March 2C rocket launched an Earth-observing satellite.
• October 29 – A Japanese H-IIA rocket launched carrying a satellite for the UAE.
• November 1 – A Chinese Long March 3B rocket put a new Beidou navigation satellite in orbit.
• November 3 – A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket launch a GLONASS navigation satellite.

A private Chinese rocket startup, LandSpace, failed to put a satellite in orbit on the first launch of their ZhuQue-1 rocket.

Roscosmos completed the accident investigation of the Soyuz abort last month and released the below onboard camera footage. The first crewed return to flight since the accident is expected in December.

Пуск ракеты-носителя «Союз-ФГ» с пилотируемым кораблем #СоюзМС10. Видео с бортовых камер pic.twitter.com/ijPnwbbS4i

— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) November 1, 2018

Both the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have been recovered from safe mode.

In other space telescope news, NASA announced that Kepler will cease operations.

NASA released photographs from the Soyuz flyaround following the most recent crew undocking in October. This was the first detailed flyaround and photographic survey of the ISS since the end of the Shuttle program.

ISS on October 4th, 2018

Around the Solar System

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has run out of fuel and ceased communications.

Check out this amazing GIF of asteroid Bennu from the Osiris-Rex spacecraft. This is an early look at an unexplored world.

Holy rotating Bennu, Batman! I used PolyCam to capture this set of images over a span of five hours on Oct. 23. The images show three views of asteroid Bennu as it rotates 1,800 miles (3,000 km) in the distance. More details: https://t.co/lNqY8Ibire pic.twitter.com/Oaatp1xDXT

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 25, 2018

And here’s a cool video from Hayabusa-2 of a touchdown rehearsal on asteroid Ryugu.

Down to Earth

NASA’s Marshall SpaceFlight Center has a new Director, Jody Singer.

Members of the Jet Propulsion Lab’s media relations team have won an Emmy Award for coverage of the Cassini mission.

Holly Ridings has been named the new chief of the Flight Director office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Veteran NASA astronaut Tim Kopra has left the agency. He flew to space twice, once serving as ISS commander.

SpaceX has announced that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has paid to be a passenger on a test flight around the moon.

In Orbit

The following orbital launches have occurred since my last post.

• September 10 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida carrying a Canadian communications satellite.
• September 15 – ULA launched a Delta II rocket from California carrying several research payloads.
• September 16 – India launched a PSLV rocket carrying two Earth-observation satellites.
• September 19 – China launched a Long March 3B rocket carrying two Beidou navigation satellites.
• September 22 – Japan launched an H-II rocket carrying an HTV cargo freighter bound for the ISS.
• September 25 – ESA launched an Ariane 5 rocket carrying two communications satelites.
• September 29 – China launched a Kuaizhou rocket carrying a small technology demonstration payload.
• October 8 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California carrying an Argentinian Earth-observation satellite.

The HTV-7 cargo vehicle was captured and berthed to the ISS several days after it launched.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the returning ISS Expedition 56 crew has landed safely in Kazakhstan. Now that Drew Feustel, Ricky Arnold, and Oleg Artemyev are home, the next Soyuz is readying for launch. The Expedition 57 crew of Nick Hague and Aleksey Ovchinin are preparing to launch on Thursday, October 11, which will brin ghte ISS crew back up to 5 people.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has entered safe mode due to a failed gyroscope.

Around the Solar System

Still no news from beleaguered Opportunity rover, on the surface of Mars. It has been 4 months.

And now on the other side of Mars, the Curiosity rover is having issues of its own. JPL engineers are troubleshooting an interruption in science data from the larger rover.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully deployed 2 small rovers from the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft onto the surface of asteroid Ryugu.

Out There

Astronomers have detected the first evidence of an exomoon (or moon around a planet around another star) using data from the Kepler and Hubble space telescopes. The planetary system is 8,000 lightyears distant.

A bit of fun exoplanet news: astronomers have discovered a planet in orbit around 40 Eridani A, which is the star system of the fictional planet Vulcan from Star Trek.

And lastly in the busy period of astronomy news, a new dwarf planet has been discovered beyond Pluto.

Down to Earth

In late July, Virgin Galactic conducted a third powered test flight of their new SpaceShipTwo spaceplane.

In a ceremony at Johnson Space Center, NASA announced the names of the astronauts who will fly the first flights of the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Dragon, the first crewed missions from US soil since 2011.

SpaceX installed a shiny new crew access arm to launch complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

Russia has selected a new class of 8 cosmonauts.

United States Vice President Mike Pence visited the Johnson Space Center and gave a speech on future plans for exploration.

Rocket Lab’s next Electron launch has been delayed further.

In Orbit

Operations at the ISS over the past month have included two visiting vehicle departures and one spacewalk. On August 3rd, the latest SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle undocked from ISS and splashed down in the Pacific. On August 22nd, a Russian unmanned Progress freighter undocked from the ISS. On august 15th, two Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Propokyev, conducted a lengthy spacewalk to complete maintenance and science tasks.

There were 8 orbital rocket launches since my last post on July 23rd:

• July 25 – ESA Ariane 5 rocket launched carrying Galileo navigation satellites.
• July 25 – SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from California carrying communications satellites for Iridium.
• July 29 – Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched carrying BeiDou navigation satellites.
• July 31 – Chinese Long March 4B rocket launched carrying an Earth-observing satellite.
• August 7 – SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida carrying an Indonesian communications satellite.
• August 12 – ULA Delta IV Heavy rocket launched from Florida carrying NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.
• August 22 – ESA Vega rocket launched carrying an Earth-observing mission.
• August 24 – Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched carrying more BeiDou navigation satellites.

Around the Solar System

The Martian dust storm is waning but NASA mission teams have yet to hear from the Opportunity rover.

Down to Earth

United Launch Alliance (ULA) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have struck a deal to end a 13-day strike.

Astronaut Drew Feustel received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Purdue University, from space.

In Orbit

Last Wednesday, Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold completed a planned 6-hour and 31-minute spacewalk aboard the International Space Station.

The only orbital rocket launch since my last post on May 15th was a Chinese Long March 4C rocket carrying the Queqiao satellite. Queqiao will be a a communications relay satellite for the upcoming Chang’e 4 lunar rover mission.

China also launched a notable suborbital rocket this past week. A private Chinese company OneSpace Technology, performed the first launch of their OS-X suborbital rocket.

Next week there are some interesting launches planned. On Monday, May 21, Orbital ATK will launch a Cygnus on its way to the ISS from Wallops Island Virginia. On Tuesday, May 22, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket form Vandenberg in California.

Around the Solar System

This is a nice composite of images from Juno’s first 11 orbits of Jupiter.

NASA is planning to send a small helicopter to Mars along with the 2020 rover mission.

Down to Earth

The latest SpaceX resupply craft to visit the space station successfully departed and splashed down yesterday morning, returning a large supply of science to NASA scientists.

The picture below is not from the Dragon splashdown but instead an attempt to return a rocket fairing after a Falcon 9 launch earlier this year.

Falcon 9 fairing opens its parafoil after reentering the atmosphere

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on May 1, 2018 at 10:55pm PDT

Firefly Aerospace, a young space company out of Austin, has made a deal with the USAF to use a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

United States Vice President Mike Pence visited JPL in California.

Some new issues emerged this week regarding the preparations for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for its long-awaited launch.

Hundreds of United Launch Alliance employees are on strike as of Sunday.

In Orbit

Only two orbital launches in the last week:

• May 3 – China launched a Long March 3 rocket carrying a communications satellite.
• May 5 – United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg carrying NASA’s InSight Mars lander. Check out this post from Phil Plait to learn about the lander’s mission.

The astronauts on the ISS have been finding time to post many views of Earth on their Twitter feeds. Here are some of their best from the last week.

Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic
– Van Morrison pic.twitter.com/R8TDg2fYoN

— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) May 1, 2018

Jamming on @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/FEwnthrtee

— Scott D. Tingle (@Astro_Maker) May 1, 2018

On Monday, I captured this amazing image of all the places I called home for the first 32 years of my life. Many of my family and friends are in this photo, somewhere. #Michigan #Indiana #Ontario #Quebec pic.twitter.com/EVqPSdhxua

— A.J. (Drew) Feustel (@Astro_Feustel) May 2, 2018

Снова пролетали над великим Байкалом. Лёд тает на глазах!
.
Once again we flew over lake #Baikal. The ice is melting every day. pic.twitter.com/DpcoLQqxhx

— Anton Shkaplerov (@Anton_Astrey) May 4, 2018

The smoldering cauldron of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. #Italy pic.twitter.com/BJwHxBHPzM

— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) May 4, 2018

The @SpaceX #Dragon CRS-14 cargo ship after undocking from the @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/0UwB2g3nCv

— Oleg Artemyev (@OlegMKS) May 6, 2018

Down to Earth

Elon Musk was busy this week entertaining his fans with tidbits about future SpaceX plans, including the tweet below, as well as this picture on Instagram of a tool for their next larger rocket, the BFR.

And then land on a bouncy house

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2018

NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director, Jim Greene, is now the agency’s new chief scientist.

Check out this music video by Snow Patrol which uses imagery from the ISS and was partially filmed at ESA.

In Orbit

There were three orbital rocket launches since my last post:

• April 10 – A Chinese Long March 4C rocket carrying three reconnaissance satellites.
• April 11 – An Indian PSLV rocket carrying a navigation satellite.
• April 14 – A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying a U.S. Air Force satellite.

On Monday, April 16th, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch carrying NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) space telescope.

Around the Solar System

The International Astronautical Union (IAU) has approved official names for features on Pluto’s moon Charon, some named after iconic sci-fi figures such as Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke.

Because images of Saturn are just so damn stunning, here’s Saturn’s moon Dione as imaged by the late Cassini spacecraft.

Moon Dione and Saturn’s rings edge-on

Down to earth

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may see another launch slip.

The world’s largest airplane, built by Stratolaunch in Mojave, California, was rolled out for runway tests.

Captured new video of @Stratolaunch plane as it reached a top taxi speed of 40 knots (46 mph) with all flight surfaces in place on Sunday. The team verified control responses, building on the first taxi tests conducted in December. pic.twitter.com/OcH1ZkxZRA

— Paul Allen (@PaulGAllen) February 26, 2018

NASA’s next Mars lander, InSight, was delivered to the launch site in California.

The Orion crew access arm was installed on the SLS mobile launcher at KSC.

In Orbit

Alexander Misurkin, Joe Acaba, and Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth safely in their Soyuz last week. There are only three crew onboard the ISS until a new crew launches in two weeks.

Two rocket launches last week:

• February 27 – Japan launched an H-IIA rocket carrying a reconnaissance satellite
• March 2 – ULA launched an Atlas V rocket carrying a new weather satellite for NOAA

Around the solar system

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is still operating normally after its safe mode scare in February.

The amazing engineer’s at NASA’s JPL have figured out how to use the Mar rover Curiosity’s drill, despite the failure of the device in December 2016. The rover should resume scientific drill operations now that the technique has been demonstrated on Mars.

Out There

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a distant water-rich planet, Wasp-39b. The planet is not Earth-like – it is a large planet like Saturn. However, the technique used to detect the atmospheric make-up of Wasp-39b is the best spectrum yet taken of an exoplanet.

Down to Earth

Virgin Galactic conducted their first glide flight of SpaceShipTwo since last August.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy has been attempting to conduct a static fire test ahead of launch, but has scrubbed three days in a row. It has been rescheduled for Monday.

#FalconHeavy static fire update: Looks like static fire is moving to Monday with an approximate target time of 1600 EST (2100 UTC) for the opening of the test window.

— Chris G – NSF (@ChrisG_NSF) January 13, 2018

In Orbit

Launches this past week included:

• Jan 8 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a classified payload for the US government.
• Jan 9 – China launched a Long March 2D rocket carrying two earth-observing satellites.
• Jan 11 – China launched a Long March 3B rocket carrying two global navigation satellites.
• Jan 12 – India launched a PSLV rocket carrying an Earth observing satellite.
• Jan 12 – ULA launched a Delta IV rocket carrying a classified payload for the NRO.
• Jan 13 – China launched a Long March 2D rocket carrying a native Earth observing satellite and a satellite for Saudi Arabia (this was early this morning, so no news reports yet other than the tweet below).

Long March 2D successfully launched Land Survey Satellite 3 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center today. pic.twitter.com/jSMCTPy95Y

— CGWIC (@CGWIC) January 13, 2018

In the case of the SpaceX launch, there have been many reports from reliable journalists over the past week that the classified Zuma payload perhaps did not reach orbit. However, no official statement has yet been forthcoming.

Upcoming launches of interest include a ULA Atlas V from Florida on Jan 19, the next Rocket Lab Electron launch attempt on Jan 20, and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy test flight (possibly on Jan 25?).

On the ISS, the 13th SpaceX Dragon mission ended successfully with release and splashdown. SpaceX ships are currently retrieving the capsule to return its science samples.

ドラゴン宇宙船が、大切な貨物を積んで出発しました。
この1ヶ月は、このドラゴン宇宙船で地上から届けられたさまざまな実験に追われて大忙しでしたが、期限どおりに送り出せて、ホッと一安心です。 pic.twitter.com/L2XKjCGbAZ

— 金井 宣茂 (@Astro_Kanai) January 13, 2018

Down to Earth

Andy Weir, author of the smash hit The Martian released his second novel, Artemis.

Sierra Nevada released video of last week’s successful glide flight of their Dream Chaser space plan:

A long-lost Omega astronaut watch from the Apollo era has been recovered and returned to the Smithsonian.

In Orbit

The Cygnus cargo freighter that launched last week, arrived at the ISS successfully on November 14.

Captain, US Navy, Arriving! SS Gene Cernan joined our crew @Space_Station and greeted us when we opened the hatch. #Cygnus #OA8 pic.twitter.com/UQWnhqbDAc

— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) November 15, 2017

Two rocket launches last week:

• November 14 – A Chinese rocket launched a weather satellite.
• November 18 – A ULA Delta II rocket launched carrying the JPSS-1 weather satellite for NOAA.

Around the Solar System

A new study in Nature analyzes Pluto’s hazy atmosphere and offers an explanation for the planet being colder than expected ( minus 300 deg F instead of minus 280 deg F).

Out There

A newly discovered exoplanet, Ross 128 b, is only 11 light years away and could be in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star it orbits.

Down to Earth

LEGO is releasing a “women of NASA” set.

The Apollo 11 capsule Columbia has started its around the country tour with a new exhibit at Space Center Houston: Destination Moon.

This Lyft commercial referencing the Apollo program is cute, but is missing a shout out to Michael Collins.

Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, conducted the first test fire of their new BE-4 rocket engine.

First hotfire of our BE-4 engine is a success. Huge kudos to the whole @BlueOrigin team for this important step! #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/0gk6k6WuPx

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) October 19, 2017

In Orbit

The ISS Expedition 53 crew completed the second and third spacewalks in their October series. All planned tasks were completed successfully, leaving the space station with some new cameras and a repaired robotic arm. The rest of the year on ISS will be focused on science research, with some critical deliveries onboard a Cygnus resupply and SpaceX Dragon resupply.

Since my last post on October 9th, there have been four orbital rocket launches:

• October 11 – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying two geostationary communication satellites. The first stage was a previously flown booster and was recovered on a droneship.
• October 13 – A Russian Rokot launched carrying an Earth obesrvation payload for ESA.
• October 14 – A Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonaur carrying an unmanned Progress resupply bound for the ISS.
• October 15 – ULA launched an Atlas V rocket carrying a national security payload for the NRO.

The Progress freighter docked successfully two days after launch.

Below are a few of the best pictures taken onboard the ISS from the past two weeks. If you want to help maintain the amazing archive of millions of pictures of Earth taken from ISS, now there’s a way! Check out Cosmo Quest’s new Image Detective project.

On a #spacewalk, the Earth never lets you forget you are 250 miles/400 km high. pic.twitter.com/dMrcQTB5FQ

— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) October 9, 2017

A closer look at infinity in my visor reflection – the Yin & Yang of Earth & Space. Big thanks to @Astro_Sabot for this #spacewalk photo. pic.twitter.com/bBCglelurK

— Randy Bresnik (@AstroKomrade) October 9, 2017

Остров #Муреа или #Моореа, который расположен во Французской Полинезии в Тихом океане. // #Moorea – a high island in #FrenchPolynesia. pic.twitter.com/cJgBhoYnte

— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 12, 2017

Наш космический грузовик #ПрогрессМС06 успешно пристыковался к #МКС / A few hours ago the #ProgressMS07 cargo spacecraft docked to the #ISS pic.twitter.com/P5zsiBk6UI

— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 16, 2017

The Togo, Benin and Nigeria coastline… And inland a little piece of Ghana! #Africa #citylights #VITAmission pic.twitter.com/XALkd35SRC

— Paolo Nespoli (@astro_paolo) October 17, 2017

Аделаида, Южная Австралия. Столица вина, литературы и искусства // Adelaide, Southern Australia. The capital of wine, literature and art pic.twitter.com/x50loeAKcF

— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 17, 2017

https://twitter.com/astro_paolo/status/920369795111051264

The #ISS orbits at an altitude of around 400 km above the Earth, but I still managed to photograph a tiny #airplane pic.twitter.com/XyQJhhAhd4

— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 15, 2017

#IssykKul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the 10th largest lake in the world by volume pic.twitter.com/KlYnQFZoIc

— Сергей Рязанский (@SergeyISS) October 21, 2017

ISS astronauts tried to capitalize on a cultural craze down here on Earth with this recent video:

Out There

Hot on the heels of the Nobel Prize in Physics announcement, LIGO made another big discovery using gravitational waves: the first signal from the collision of two neutron stars was detected and confirmed. Phil Plait has a wonderful poetic post explaining what this means for our understanding of the universe.