|
|
Post by swamprat on Apr 30, 2018 2:13:37 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Apr 30, 2018 15:46:02 GMT
New Shepard has successful 8th test flight
By Deborah Byrd in HUMAN WORLD | SPACE | April 30, 2018
Blue Origin’s suborbital rocket New Shepard made its 8th test flight on April 29, going up from the company’s launch site in West Texas. Watch mission highlights here.
Blue Origin‘s suborbital rocket ship – New Shepard – flew again for the 8th time this weekend (April 29, 2018), launching from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility. Known as Mission 8 (M8), the mission featured a reflight of the vehicle flown on Mission 7. For the second time, Blue Origin’s test dummy Mannequin Skywalker flew to space. In an email sent last night, Blue Origin said the test dummy was:
"… conducting astronaut telemetry and science studies.
The Crew Capsule reached an apogee – greatest distance from Earth – of 351,000 feet (66 miles, 107 km) – the altitude we’ve been targeting for operations.
We look forward to sharing upcoming test flights as we continue our progress toward human spaceflight."
Blue Origin was started in 2000 by Amazon’s founder, billionaire Jeff Bezos (@jeffbezos on Twitter). Space tourism is one of Blue Origin’s business goals. Like Elon Musk and SpaceX, Bezos wants to change commercial spaceflight by developing reusable rockets to bring costs down. The company’s motto is Gradatim Ferociter! That’s Latin for:
"Step by Step, Ferociously."
The April 29 test flight also carried research payloads for NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and commercial customers. Learn more about the payloads at Blue Origins’ blog here: www.blueorigin.com/news/news/payload-customers-on-new-shepards-8th-test-flight
A replay of the livestream from Sunday’s test flight is at the URL below:
earthsky.org/space/blue-origin-new-shepard-8th-test-flight-apr-29-2018?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=8a00800e1c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-8a00800e1c-394368745
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on May 4, 2018 2:50:48 GMT
In the early morning hours of May 5, millions of Californians will have an opportunity to witness a sight they have never seen before - the historic first interplanetary launch from America's West Coast. On board the 189-foot-tall (57.3-meter) United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will be NASA's InSight spacecraft, destined for the Elysium Planitia region located in Mars' northern hemisphere. The May 5 launch window for the InSight mission opens at 4:05 am PDT (7:05 EDT, 11:05 UTC) and remains open for two hours. "If you live in Southern California and the weather is right, you'll probably have a better view of the launch than I will," said Tom Hoffman, project manager for NASA's InSight mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "I'll be stuck inside a control room looking at monitors -- which is not the best way to enjoy an Atlas 5 on its way to Mars." Continue www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2018-069 |
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Jun 13, 2018 2:30:22 GMT
Falcon Heavy
This one is pretty cool. The guy is talking about the sounds you hear during the launch and then also the re-entry of the booster rockets. Even without headphones, it's awesome. You can start watching at about the 3 minute mark to see and hear the launch. Then watch the rest of the way through to hear the sonic booms when the boosters come back. It's spectacular. You can see the boosters land in the small screen, and then consider how far the cameramen are away from the landing pads. It takes a fair bit of time for the sound waves to reach them. But wow! Then you can hear the rocket engine noise of the boosters that were fired to land them.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImoQqNyRL8Y
|
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Jun 29, 2018 14:56:58 GMT
SpaceX Launches Used Dragon Cargo Ship to Space Station, Flexing Reusability MusclesBy Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | June 29, 2018
A two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lit up the early-morning Florida sky as it launched the company's robotic Dragon capsule toward the International Space Station (ISS) on a delivery mission for NASA at 5:42 a.m. EDT (0942 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It will arrive at the space station early Monday (July 2).
The liftoff was the second for both the Dragon and the Falcon 9's first stage; the capsule previously visited the ISS in July 2016, and the booster helped launch NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite this past April. The 10-week turnaround was the shortest ever for a landed and relaunched SpaceX first stage, company representatives said.
SpaceX did not attempt today to land the booster for a second time. The booster is a "Block 4" Falcon 9 variant, which SpaceX is phasing out in favor of the recently debuted "Block 5." So, the company surrendered the first stage to the ocean. In fact, today marked the last-ever flight of a Block 4 Falcon 9, SpaceX representatives said.
To date, SpaceX has pulled off 25 first-stage touchdowns and reflown 14 such landed boosters. These activities are in service of the company's ambitious long-term vision.
"From the get-go, SpaceX has set out to make spaceflight more like commercial air travel — we want to make it safe [and] affordable and [to do it] utilizing vehicles that can be reflown repeatedly," Jessica Jensen, SpaceX's director of Dragon mission management, said during a prelaunch news conference yesterday (June 28).
"This the key to the future of a civilization where we have thousands to millions of people exploring the stars and living out on other planets," she added.
SpaceX also pulled off a reuse double play in December 2017, sending a used Dragon toward the ISS atop a Falcon 9 with a flight-proven first stage.
Lots of science on board
If all goes according to plan, the Dragon will arrive at the orbiting lab early Monday morning. ISS crewmembers will then begin off-loading the 5,900 lbs. (2,700 kilograms) of supplies packed aboard the capsule.
More than half of that stuff — 3,874 lbs. (1,757 kg), to be exact — is scientific gear, NASA officials said during yesterday's press conference.
One prominent piece of that research equipment is NASA's Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) instrument, which will measure the temperature of vegetation around Earth with a precision of just a few tenths of a degree. ECOSTRESS' observations will help scientists understand how plants respond to heat stress and lack of water, NASA officials said. The sharp-eyed instrument will also help keep tabs on urban heat waves, volcanic activity and wildfires.
"We'll be able to see a bonfire on a beach," ECOSTRESS principal investigator Simon Hook, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.
Also aboard Dragon is an experiment designed to determine if microgravity-cultured cells can serve as a model system to assess the effectiveness of certain cancer-treatment drugs. Another investigation aims to engineer algae for growth in microgravity.
"The cultivation of algae offers potential as a system for recycling carbon dioxide, which is one of the things we need in our life-support systems," David Brady, NASA's assistant program scientist for ISS, said during yesterday's news conference. "And it also potentially could provide food for crewmembers on long space voyages."
Then there's the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON), a joint effort of the German space agency (known by its German acronym, DLR) and Netherlands-based aerospace company Airbus. The nearly spherical, 11-lb. (5 kg) CIMON is an astronaut assistant endowed with artificial intelligence that can see, hear and talk. Its main mission aboard the ISS involves demonstrating "cooperation between humans and intelligent machines in the form of a technology experiment," DLR officials wrote in a description of the project.
A one-month stay
Dragon will stay attached to the ISS for a month, eventually returning to Earth for an ocean splashdown (and subsequent recovery by ship) on Aug. 2. Dragon — the only currently operational ISS cargo craft designed to survive the fiery voyage through Earth's atmosphere — will haul 2,860 lbs. (1,297 kg) of science gear during its return trip, Brady said.
Today's launch kicked off SpaceX's 15th ISS resupply mission, known as CRS-15, under its multibillion-dollar deal with NASA. ("CRS" stands for "commercial resupply services.")
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems holds a similar deal with NASA; the company makes its cargo runs using robotic Cygnus spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets. (NASA signed that resupply contract with the Virginia-based company Orbital ATK, which Northrop Grumman recently acquired.)
SpaceX plans to fly used first-generation Dragon capsules through the CRS-20 mission, Jensen said. After that, the company will switch to its "Dragon 2" spacecraft, the variant SpaceX is developing to make crewed flights to and from the ISS under a different NASA contract. (Aerospace giant Boeing also holds a commercial-crew contract with the space agency.)
But Dragon 2's resupply flights will still be robotic, Jensen said.
"What we'll basically be doing is changing out seats and consoles for cargo accommodation," she said.
Editor's note: SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station Monday, July2, at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT). You can watch its arrival live here, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT): www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html
www.space.com/41028-spacex-launches-cargo-mission-space-station.html
|
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Jun 29, 2018 22:35:38 GMT
 Photo courtesy of Denise Drylewicz. |
|
|
|
Post by SuzyQ on Jun 30, 2018 18:57:58 GMT
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2018 20:53:44 GMT
haha saw that..this one just happened last 2 days..
|
|
|
|
Post by lonegunman on Jul 1, 2018 3:43:58 GMT
That was a major failure of the launch motor. The launch motor is a solid fuel section about 18 inches long and same circumference of the missile. It accelerates the missile out of the tube and falls away after 5-7 seconds. It must have exploded rather than burn naturally.That surely messed up the inside of the Frigate ! Wonder how many were hurt ?
Lone
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2018 5:18:22 GMT
That was a major failure of the launch motor. The launch motor is a solid fuel section about 18 inches long and same circumference of the missile. It accelerates the missile out of the tube and falls away after 5-7 seconds. It must have exploded rather than burn naturally.That surely messed up the inside of the Frigate ! Wonder how many were hurt ? Lone Luckily, there were no serious injuries to the sailors onboard the vessel, but the ship itself has suffered significant damage, according to a task group commander. Footage of the explosion and subsequent fire has been posted online. A Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) reportedly failed to launch from the German air defense frigate FGS Sachsen, as the rocket booster burned out while the missile was still inside its canister. The German Navy said that the crew's quick reaction brought the situation under control. The incident occurred in a Norwegian exercise range off the coast of Norway. Reasons for the incident remain unknown. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2018 17:44:25 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Aug 2, 2018 21:05:37 GMT
Space-X is Going to Have Some Competition...
Phantom Express: 10 Tests in 10 Days
August 1, 2018
The world's newest spaceplane -- the Boeing Phantom Express, just completed a major development milestone. The Phantom Express is designed to launch itself into space and return to Earth with responsive, 24-hour turnaround capabilities.
Recently, Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne, the engine provider, passed a series of engine tests with flying colors. Aerojet Rocketdyne test fired the engine 10 times in a 10-day test period to demonstrate the engines quick-turn reusability
Prior launch vehicles needed months of preparation between launches -- the Phantom Express's turnaround time between launches will be less than 24 hours.
Launching the Phantom Express will also be a bargain compared to the costs to launch traditional rockets. The Phantom Express will be able to make frequent 3,000-pound deliveries to low-earth orbit more affordably, an ideal solution for military and commercial purposes.
The Phantom Express will increase the speed and lower the price tag of delivering items to space.
Learn more about how The Phantom Express will launch the United States into the future:
watchusfly.com/boeing-phantom-express-moves-closer-becoming-reality/
|
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Oct 9, 2018 19:56:23 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by swamprat on Oct 11, 2018 13:00:45 GMT
Astronaut and Cosmonaut Survive 'Ballistic' Fall to Earth After Failed Soyuz Launch
By Rafi Letzter, Staff Writer | October 11, 2018
NASA and Roscosmous attempted to send two new crew members to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft early this morning (Oct. 11). The attempt went very wrong.
But NASA TV reports that astronaut Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin are "in good condition" after a booster problem resulted in their Soyuz spacecraft making an unexpected, sharp return to Earth.
As of 6:09 a.m. ET, NASA representative Brandi Dean reported on NASA TV that, according to Russian officials, search and rescue teams had reached the crew and that they had emerged from the unexpectedly downed capsule. Search and rescue teams were reportedly "working with them to get them ready to leave."
Earlier, just minutes after the 4:40 a.m. ET launch, a problem occurred with one of the boosters carrying the Soyuz capsule to space from its launch site in Kazakhstan.
That led to the Soyuz falling back to Earth in what NASA termed "ballistic descent mode" at "a sharper angle than we would try to land via."
Nonetheless, by 5:20 a.m., Dean had reported over NASA TV that the crew had made contact with a search and rescue team and were, at least according to Russian sources, "in good condition."
Dean has repeated that precise wording several times.
According to Dean, this sort of landing would have subjected the crew to g-forces higher than what they would normally have to withstand, but was within the realm of "modes that we're familiar with" and that crews have dealt with before.
On April 19, 2008, a Russian Soyuz returned from a successful trip to the ISS in much rougher fashion than usual. The crew of three went through a descent that NASA similarly described as a ballistic trajectory. In similar fashion to what NASA described today, the spacecraft entered the atmosphere at a steeper angle than typically intended, in what Live Science sister site Space.com reported was an "uncontrolled spin."
That descent subjected NASA's Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and South Korean astronaut So-yeon Yi to more intense g-forces than usual and deposited them safely but far afield of their intended landing site.
Then as now, however, NASA emphasized that the landing itself wasn't out of control, but rather it was one of several backup modes that crews train for and for which the spacecraft is designed.
In an interview later published on NASA's website, astronaut Alexander Kaleri, who was not part of the crew, said of that ballistic descent, "This was not a failure, as you understand; it was not a failure per se, it was one of the possible modes of descent."
These sort of landings used to be the norm, and in fact expected, in the early days of spaceflight. As Florida Today reported in 2008, in the early 1960s, Mercury astronauts and Vostok cosmonauts used the atmospheric drag of ballistic trajectories to slow their spacecraft enough to safely deploy parachutes.
Now, however, Soyuz enters such a trajectory only as a backup when other systems have failed. And the experience can be dramatic; Whitson reported reading 8.2 gs "on the meter" during her ballistic descent. That means she and her crew were subjected to forces 8.2 times the strength of Earth's gravity. In that environment, a 150-pound (68 kilograms) person would feel as though they weighed 1,230 pounds (558 kg).
The last time a Soyuz mission was aborted was Sept. 26, 1983, when a rocket became engulfed in flames on the launchpad more than a minute before launch. Crew members fired emergency rockets close to the last possible moment, ejecting the crew vehicle to safety.
www.livescience.com/63804-soyuz-iss-launch-abort.html
|
|
|
|
Post by HAL on Oct 11, 2018 18:41:11 GMT
Swamp, Glad to see you're still with us. HAL.  |
|
