What satellite did the Varda capsule fly past during its return last week?
Click for video cued to this point.
Regular reader Rex Ridenoure emailed me today to note that there appears to be another satellite relatively nearby and visible in the video posted in yesterday’s quick links, taken from inside Varda’s capsule during its return to Earth.
The image to the right is a screen capture taken at 7:56 of the video. At that point the object is visible from 7:50 to 8:01 to the west and below. You can clearly see it moving from left to right (east to west). The two solar panels can also be discerned on either side of the satellite’s main body.
It later reappears for only two seconds in the lower right of the view window at 9:18, then is visible again at 10:30 to 10:33, now beginning to pass below but considerably to the north (?).
If anyone has the resources to identify this satellite, as well as its exact distance during this close approach, please comment below. It raises an interesting question on whether its existence was considered when the re-entry time was decided.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for video cued to this point.
Regular reader Rex Ridenoure emailed me today to note that there appears to be another satellite relatively nearby and visible in the video posted in yesterday’s quick links, taken from inside Varda’s capsule during its return to Earth.
The image to the right is a screen capture taken at 7:56 of the video. At that point the object is visible from 7:50 to 8:01 to the west and below. You can clearly see it moving from left to right (east to west). The two solar panels can also be discerned on either side of the satellite’s main body.
It later reappears for only two seconds in the lower right of the view window at 9:18, then is visible again at 10:30 to 10:33, now beginning to pass below but considerably to the north (?).
If anyone has the resources to identify this satellite, as well as its exact distance during this close approach, please comment below. It raises an interesting question on whether its existence was considered when the re-entry time was decided.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The object in the video bears a superficial resemblance to the Varda W-series carrier platform as portrayed on the Varda website. The low relative velocity makes it quite likely that the two objects share a common orbit, as they would from after ejection of the reentry capsule, until it began to respond to reentry heating, which would promptly separate the two and destroy the carrier.
Several YouTube commenters say that it was the Photon module, which would have detached from the Varda craft before reentry. An unrelated satellite would probably have been within camera range for only a very short time.
That’s the Photon spacecraft that deployed the capsule. Built by Rocket Lab.
One of the comments on the video pointed this out.
All: If this is Proton, explain please why it appears to be below the Varda capsule. My guess would be the following:
1. Proton does the de-orbit burn for Varda.
2. The two craft separate.
3. Proton does a second de-orbit burn to bring it down in the ocean.
The result is that Proton is behind Varda, but dropping faster so that ends up below and going past.
That is a pure guess on my part. Anyone more educated in these matters wish to chime in?
At the time where that other object is visible, the Varda capsule is already experiencing obvious atmospheric effects, you can see that the tumble isn’t regular and constant as it would be in vacuum. So whatever the other object is, it’s also re-entering. Which is just confirmation that it must be the service module, because while the odds of a close pass against some other random satellite are astronomical, the odds of a close pass against some other random satellite that happens to be re-entering at the same place and time…
The service module is presumably less aerodynamic than the capsule, and with all the fuel expended, might also have less mass. So at the first real intersection with atmosphere, it’s going to slow down more and end up on a steeper trajectory. The difference won’t be huge, but easily enough to explain why the service module appears below and behind the capsule.
Robert Zimmerman,
My thought at the time I watched the video is similar to your thoughts, except I did not imagine that there was a second burn from the carrier. My thinking was that the reentry capsule was released in an upward direction so that the carrier would travel deeper into the atmosphere and reenter earlier, with less aerodynamics so that the two were not in danger of collision.