Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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June 26th, 2016
Long March 7 departs Wenchang coastal spaceport.
Credit: New China
Update: Videos
To view the Chinese reentry module landing via a You Tube/CCTV video, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw4_H33K3vg
Also, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFybXN7aRHM
New booster
China’s maiden voyage of its Long March 7 booster yesterday is a prelude of things to come this year – focused on expanding and upgrading its human spaceflight program.
Rocketing from the country’s new Kennedy Space Center-like Wenchang coastal spaceport, Long March 7 carried mini-satellites, as well as a sub-scale test capsule for future piloted space missions in low Earth orbit and deep space.
China’s prototype reentry module has parachuted to a landing in Badain Jaran Desert in north China.
Credit: New China
Reports from Chinese news agencies say the 2.6 metric ton (2,600 kilograms) reentry module has parachuted to a landing in Badain Jaran Desert in north China.
Recovery operations for test capsule.
Credit: New China
Space lab next
Long March 7 is the booster assigned the duty of launching cargo resupply ships – dubbed Tianzhou – to China’s multi-modular space station to be orbiting in the early 2020s.
Later this year, China is to loft the Tiangong-2 space lab. Following that launch, a two-person Shenzhou-11 craft will link up with the space lab. Early next year, a Long March 7 will loft a Tianzhou supply ship to the Tiangong-2 space lab.
Pre-launch photo shows team members with subscale reentry capsule.
Credit: CAST
Also on tap this year is the maiden blastoff of China’s Long March 5. This booster is scripted to hurl into Earth orbit space station modules, as well as support robotic lunar sample return from the Moon, and hurl a rover to Mars in 2020.
Credit: CCTV
Credit: CCTV
Credit: CCTV
Tiangong-2 space lab being readied for flight.
Credit: CAST
Posted in 
Credit: CNS via GBTimes
UPDATE: Chinese media is reporting the successful launch of the Long-March-7. CCTV (China television) is broadcasting the liftoff of the vehicle, also showing staging of the booster as it roared toward space. Still to come, full technical details on the outcome of this premier mission.
China’s new generation booster is ready for launch between June 25 and 29 from Wenchang – a new launch location in south China’s Hainan Province.
While weather at the launch facility may play a factor, the Long March-7 rocket is expected to blastoff around 20:00 Beijing time (12:00 UTC) on Saturday, according to sources.
Among duties, the Long March-7 is designed to transport cargo for China’s planned space station in the 2020’s. The Long March-7 is a medium-sized rocket that can carry up to 13.5 tons to low Earth orbit.
This maiden voyage of the rocket also carries a subscale version of a new Chinese re-entry capsule for human spaceflight.
Long March-7, a prelude to bigger boosters set to come.
Credit: New China
Mega-moon booster
Meanwhile, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news service, China is planning to start using a huge carrier rocket powerful enough to support piloted lunar missions before 2031.
According to a statement issued on Friday by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technologies (CALT), developer of the country’s Long March rocket series, the country’s Moon rocket would measure over a hundred meters in length and nearly 10 meters in diameter under the current design.
It would have a maximum payload capacity more than five times as high as the current Long March series rockets, the CALT said.
At present, the Chinese rocket capable of lifting the most weight is the Long March-5, which is scheduled to debut in the latter half of this year, in the September-October time frame.
For a fascinating look at the Long March-7 launch preparations, go to these two You Tube videos:
President Barack Obama delivers a speech at the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Thursday, April 15, 2010. Obama visited Kennedy Space Center to deliver remarks on a new course the Administration is charting for NASA and the future of U.S. leadership in human space flight.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Earlier this week, the White House Office of the Press Secretary released “100 Examples of President Obama’s Leadership in Science, Technology, and Innovation.”
Private sector boosterism is on display as SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk discusses space matters with President Barack Obama at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Courtesy: White House
This Impact Report is admittedly a self examination of Obama’s interest and investment in science and technology, a review that includes a section (#84-87) on “Reinvigorating America’s Space Program,” underscoring efforts and elaborating on such areas as:
- Fostering a burgeoning private space sector.
- Driving down the cost of space exploration, while increasing capabilities for NASA’s journey to Mars.
- Extending the life of the International Space Station (ISS).
- Expanding the capabilities of robotic space missions.
As noted by the Wilson Center: “Of course, only the passage of time will allow for anyone to definitively measure the impact of the Obama White House on science, technology, and innovation, and their impacts on our nation in turn, but, according to the Office of the Press Secretary, we have at least 100 things to be thankful for.”
President Obama looks through a telescope during the 2009 White House Astronomy Night.
Credit: Chuck Kennedy
President Barack Obama meets with Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, right, Carol Armstrong, widow of Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, and Patricia Falcone, OSTP Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs, left, in the Oval Office. This gathering marked the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. July 22, 2014.
Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
Furthermore, as the Obama White House folds up shop and the nation decides on the next administration, how the President valued the space program will come under new scrutiny and review.
To read through this IMPACT REPORT: 100 Examples of President Obama’s Leadership in Science, Technology, and Innovation, go to:
Credit: OSTP/White House
Sources: Virgin Galactic, SpaceX via GAO report.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a new report on commercial space: Industry Developments and FAA Challenges.
GAO has taken a look at the U.S. commercial space launch industry noting it has changed considerably since the enactment of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004.
Space tourism
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is required to license or permit commercial space launches; however, to allow space tourism to develop, the act prohibited FAA from regulating crew and spaceflight participant safety before 2012 – a moratorium that was extended to 2023.
The U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, enacted in November 2015, addressed other aspects of the commercial space launch industry.
Licensing workload
GAO testimony and the new report summarizes and updates findings from GAO’s 2015 report, specifically industry developments and FAA challenges, including FAA’s launch licensing workload and budget.
For its 2015 report, GAO reviewed FAA’s guidance on its launch permit, licensing, and safety oversight activities; interviewed FAA officials, industry stakeholders, and experts who were selected on the basis of their knowledge of FAA’s oversight of the commercial space launch industry; and visited spaceports where two 2014 launch mishaps occurred.
Credit: GAO
Resources
To access GAO-16-765T, issued on June 22, go to:
http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/677943.pdf
Testimony on their report is available at:
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-765T
Highlights of the review can be found at:
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) image taken on Sol 1378, June 22, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars is now in Sol 1380.
Over last weekend, the wheeled robot stopped after about 55 feet (17 meters) of a planned drive of 213 feet (65 meters) drive.
“The rover is fine, the drive just tripped one of the very conservative limits on how the rover’s suspension was expected to behave, causing Curiosity to stop and check in with Earth,” reports Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center at Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1378, June 22, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Word is that rover drivers are trying to make up this week some of the lost distance from the weekend plan.
Bedrock targeting
According to a Sol 1378 plan, the rover’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) was to make observations bedrock at the target “Tombua” and a rock named “Ai Ais.”
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1378, June 22, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s Mastcam was then slated to image the two ChemCam targets, as well as use on Sol 1376 the Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) system.
Atmospheric observations
The rover’s Mastcam will on tap to image some veins at a location called “Helgas.” After that, the plan called for driving and collecting some typical post-drive imaging.
Curiosity Mastcam Right image taken on Sol 1378, June 21, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
On Sol 1379, the rover was to use its ChemCam, NavCam, and Mastcam gear to make atmospheric observations. Then in the afternoon, ChemCam had some calibration observations, followed by a few more Mastcam atmospheric observations.
Dust on the deck
Turning back the clock a bit to Sol 1377, the Left Mastcam acquired a mosaic of the rover deck, to serve as a baseline for comparison with future images taken after passing the sand dunes along the path ahead.
Curiosity Mastcam Left image of rover’s deck on Sol 1375, June 19, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Reports Ken Herkenhoff, also of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, sand blown across the rover might remove some of the dust on the rover deck.
Volcanism finding
Meanwhile, NASA announced yesterday that scientists using Curiosity have discovered an unexpected mineral in a rock sample at Gale Crater on Mars.
Analyzing data from an X-ray diffraction instrument on the rover that identifies minerals, scientists detected significant amounts of a silica mineral called tridymite.
Tridymite is generally associated with silicic volcanism.
The discovery of tridymite – led by scientists in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston — might induce scientists to rethink the volcanic history of Mars, suggesting that the planet once had explosive volcanoes that led to the presence of the mineral.
Making tracks
A recently released map of the rover’s traverse indicates that from Sol 1376 to Sol 1378 Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 139.03 feet (42.38 meters).
Since touching down on the Red Planet in August 2012, Curiosity has wheeled itself over 8.10 miles (13.04 kilometers).
As always, dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Report’s cover art credit: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, ca. June 1889.
A new alternative approach to a national security space strategy has been authored by two leading experts in the field.
Their report — Toward a New National Security Space Strategy: Time for a Strategic Rebalancing has been written by Theresa Hitchens and Joan Johnson-Freese.
The report notes that “the United States has the most to gain from a stable and secure space environment, and the most to lose if space becomes a battlefield.”
Grounded discussions for space
In this Atlantic Council Strategy Paper, the authors offer an approach they dub as “proactive prevention”, one that is based on goal achievement and viability.
The just-issued paper is intended to offer a catalyst and starting point for grounded discussions on space security policy for the next administration.
“As technologies further improve the world’s ability to access and operate in space, the new administration will need to rethink how the United States wants to act alongside its fellow nations…This Atlantic Council Strategy Paper does a great job initiating this important conversation at a very important time,” notes James E. Cartwright, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the foreword to the paper.
RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) is launched on Feb. 21, 2008 to destroy the failed National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) L-21 satellite – also known as USA-193. While nations argue anti-satellite strikes are necessary to reduce the danger to humans from falling debris or hazardous materials, many fear this technology can be used against strategic satellites as an offensive capability to disable forces operating on Earth.
Photo credit: US Navy
Strategic advantages
As detailed in the paper, a focus on “proactive prevention” would gain the United States several strategic advantages.
According to the authors, this approach would:
- Provide a chance to stop activities and actions that would degrade the space environment, and consequently impair the beneficial uses of space by all, through development of norms and rules that establish the lines between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors;
- Create space to establish better dialogue, with Russia and China in particular, about U.S. “bright lines” in space, and mutual assurance measures that would reduce risks of misconception and conflict, as well as establish “breakers” to dangerous conflict escalation;
- Avoid the opportunity costs that an arms race in space would engender;
- Buy time (and resources, per avoiding opportunity costs) for private industry, which is in the middle of a renaissance, to develop low-cost solutions to space resiliency that can help the US national security space community get out of the situation of having space be a potential single-point failure in a conflict, as well as complicate an attacker’s abilities to degrade or defeat the advantages provided to the US military by space assets;
- Allow the US Air Force and intelligence community to figure out protection strategies and technologies for those space assets that will be more difficult to commercialize, otherwise disaggregate, or offload missions from; and,
- Allow the US government and industry the time and budgetary leeway to develop next-generation technologies that might keep a leading edge in space, both for commercial benefits and military hedging or advantage.
Theresa Hitchens and
Joan Johnson-Freese.
Courtesy: Atlantic Council
Scholarly look
Theresa Hitchens is a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM).
Joan Johnson-Freese is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
The views presented in this paper are those of the authors alone, and do not represent those of the US government, the Naval War College, or the University of Maryland.
The Atlantic Council, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonpartisan organization that promotes constructive US leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic community in meeting today’s global challenges.
Resources:
To read this informative, wide-ranging and thought provoking report, go to:
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/AC_StrategyPapers_No5_Space_WEB6.17.pdf
Issued by the Atlantic Council, a video detailing the report is available at:
Rocketeer Jeff Bezos.
Credit: Blue Origin
The innovative and pioneer-pushing Blue Origin is ready to fly its New Shepard suborbital vehicle this Sunday.
Blue Origin is an entrepreneurial space firm backed by Amazon.com mogul, Jeff Bezos. This rocket system is undergoing extensive testing – all prelude to offering rides to paying passengers to the edge of space.
You can watch this uncrewed flight of the same New Shepard hardware that’s chalked up three previous missions this Sunday.
Liftoff of suborbital space tourism, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Credit: Blue Origin
Liftoff is planned for approximately 10:15 am ET and the live webcast starts half an hour earlier at 9:45 am ET at:
Retrothrust system
“On this flight, we’ll intentionally fail one string of parachutes on the capsule,” Bezos explains in a company statement. “There are three strings of chutes and two of the three should still deploy nominally and, along with our retrothrust system, safely land the capsule.”
Trajectory profile.
Credit: Blue Origin
But Bezos adds: “Works on paper, and this test is designed to validate that.”
Bezos and his team of rocketeers will also use the upcoming flight to continue pushing the envelope on the booster.
“As always, this is a development test flight and anything can happen,” Bezos points out.
Pushing the envelope
New Shepard last flew on April 2, 2016 reaching an apogee of 339,178 feet or 103 kilometers. It was the third flight with the same hardware.
Capsule for six.
Credit: Blue Origin
Blue Origin technicians pushed the envelope on the last flight, restarting the engine for the propulsive landing only 3,600 feet above the ground, requiring the vehicle’s BE-3 engine to start fast and ramp to high thrust fast.
Reusable rocketry
The New Shepard space vehicle is fully reusable and is flown from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site.
The vehicle is comprised of two elements—a crew capsule in which the astronauts ride and a rocket booster powered by a single American-made BE-3 liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen engine. At liftoff, the BE-3 delivers 110,000 pounds of thrust.
Bounding to the boundary
Named in honor of the first American in space, Alan Shepard, the Blue Origin New Shepard craft is a vertical takeoff and vertical landing vehicle, designed to carry six astronauts to altitudes beyond 100 kilometers, the internationally-recognized boundary of space.
New Shepard is named after America’s first space pilot, Alan Shepard. He flew over 55 years ago on a 15-minute suborbital flight, lifting off on May 5, 1961 and splashing down in the Atlantic under parachute.
Credit: NASA
Blue Origin astronauts would experience weightlessness and views through the largest windows to ever fly in space.
According to the company, astronaut flights will begin following completion of a step-by-step flight test program.
Resources
An animation of the Blue Origin astronaut experience can be found at:
www.blueorigin.com/astronaut-experience.
Take a look at this impressive video of New Shepard’s last flight at:
https://www.blueorigin.com/gallery#youtubeYU3J-jKb75g
Once again, the vehicle’s next liftoff is planned for Sunday, June 19 at approximately 10:15 am Eastern Time and the live webcast is to be available half an hour earlier at 9:45 am ET at:
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on June 17, 2016, Sol 1373.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars is now busily on task during Sol 1374.
A few Sols ago, the robot made a drive of 105 feet (32-meters), executing the maneuver exactly as planned.
That drive has given the rover a good view of the path toward the south, explains Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Another drive of roughly the same distance was planned for Sol 1373, after some rover remote science observations.
Path ahead
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1371, June 14, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity’s Mastcam is imaging the path ahead through all spectral filters, then the robot’s Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and the Right Mastcam will observe Stimson bedrock targets “Sesfontein” and “Swartbooisdrif,” reports Herkenhoff.
On Sol 1374, there is a planned use of software to autonomously acquire another ChemCam observation and the Left Mastcam will take a 3×2 mosaic of the same area.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1373, June 17, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors, including communication relays and rover status.
Curiosity Navcam Left B image taken on Sol 1373, June 17, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New map
A new map has been issued that depicts the Curiosity rover’s location for Sol 1373.
This map shows the route driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity through the 1373 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (June, 17, 2016).
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up.
From Sol 1371 to Sol 1373, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 98.09 feet (29.90 meters). Since touching down in Bradbury Landing in August 2012, Curiosity has driven 8.07 miles (12.98 kilometers).
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
China’s 60-ton medium-size space station is depicted in this artwork.
Credit: CNSA
China has made good on a previously stated interest in opening the airlocks on their future space station to other nations.
China expects that its space station will be operational around 2022 – a few years before the currently orbiting International Space Station is to reach its end-of-life.
The core module of China’s space station –Tianhe-1– is to be launched in 2018.
New agreements
According to a June 16 UN Information Service statement: “The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) have agreed to work together to develop the space capabilities of United Nations Member States via opportunities onboard China’s future space station.”
New agreements set the stage for UNOOSA and CMSA to work together to enable United Nations Member States – chiefly developing countries — to conduct space experiments onboard China’s space station, as well as to provide flight opportunities for astronauts and payload engineers.
Space station utilization
“Space exploration is the common dream and wish of humankind. We believe that the implementation of the agreements will definitely promote international cooperation on space exploration, and create opportunities for United Nations Member States, particularly developing countries, to take part in, and benefit from, the utilization of China’s space station,” said CMSA Deputy Director General Wu Ping in a UN press statement.
Long March 7 first flight
Elements of China’s Long March 7 booster manufactured in Tianjin.
Credit: CASC
Meanwhile, China is set to launch its Long March 7 carrier booster this month, on June 25, according to media reports. This inaugural flight of the booster will depart from China’s new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in southernmost Hainan Island.
This first Long March 7 flight carries a sub-scale version of a new re-entry capsule that is destined to support human spaceflight.
Cargo vessels
Long March 7 is designed to hurl Tianzhou cargo vessels to supplement space station operations. This supply ship is slated to fly early next year, latching up with and refueling the soon-to-be-orbited Tiangong-2 (Temple II) space lab.
Tiangong-2 is being final checked for its boost into Earth orbit this September.
If Tiangong-2 is successfully launched, a two-person Shenzhou-11 mission is to board the space lab this October for a month-long live-in.
A February look at China’s Shenzhou-11 piloted spacecraft in testing.
Credit: CCTV/framegrab via GBTimes.
Enter Long March 5
Lastly, yet another milestone for China will be the September maiden voyage of its Long March 5.
This “heavy lift” booster is not only assigned the duty to hurl space station modules into Earth orbit, it is on tap to enable robotic return sampling of the Moon and rocket a robotic lander/rover mission to Mars in 2020.
For a You Tube video on China’s Long March-7 rocket shipped to Hainan for its maiden flight, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX6DOAYt-HU
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 1371, June 14, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars is now in Sol 1373 – wheeling its way to the south. The robot is now on a heading for rolling up Mount Sharp.
Last weekend, the robot drove roughly 105 feet (32 meters) and is expected to make an additional drive in the days to come.
Through a gap
Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona reports that Curiosity is on this southward path that will eventually take it through a gap in active sand dunes, making it easier for the Mars machinery to traverse.
Over the past few days, the plan called for several Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam observations of the Murray formation to assess variations in texture and chemistry.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Left B image taken on Sol 1372, June 15, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We also planned a small Mastcam mosaic to document some nearby cross-stratification and nodules, and a small MAHLI mosaic of the target “Berg Aukas” before driving away,” Edgar adds. MAHLI stands for the Mars Hand Lens Imager.
Also on the science menu is Mastcam observation to monitor the opacity of the atmosphere.
Climb the mountain head-on
“Now that we’ve skirted our way around the dunes and crossed the plateau, we’ve turned south to climb the mountain head-on,” points out Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
This graphic maps the first 14 sites where NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover collected rock or soil samples for analysis using the rover’s onboard laboratory. It also presents images of the drilled holes where 12 rock-powder samples were acquired. At the other two sites Curiosity scooped soil samples.
“Since landing, we’ve been aiming for this gap in the terrain and this left turn. It’s a great moment for the mission,” Vasavada notes.
Meanwhile, a new Curiosity “self-portrait” has been released showing the robot at the “Okoruso” drill hole on Mars.
May 11, 2016 selfie of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at a drilled sample site called “Okoruso.” Note the veneer of windblown reddish particles on the deck of the robot.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
