Engineer Guy – Building the Titantic
An evening pause: Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Tag: commercial
Antares launches; Falcon 9 aborts
Of the two launches scheduled for tonight, Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket was the only one to launch, lifting off on schedule at 9:16 pm (Eastern). This was the company’s third launch this year.
SpaceX’s launch however aborted at T-2 seconds. No word on why the rocket’s computer’s shut down, or when they will reschedule.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race remain unchanged:
25 China
15 SpaceX
10 Russia
4 ULA
4 Europe (Arianespace)
The Antares launch however puts the U.S. back into a tie with China, 25-25, in the national rankings.
Canvas – The Simpsons theme song
An evening pause: About two years ago I said to Diane that I’d never seen any of The Simpsons animated TV show. Neither had she. Since then we have watched all the available episodes on DVD, covering most of the first twenty seasons.
What first impressed us about the show was how actually normal and family-oriented it was, in the beginning. It was not the “edgy” ugly portrayal of America its reputation had implied.
Over time that theme was more and more lost, though whenever the writers went back to those roots the show shined. Even so, what was most impressive was how the show managed somehow to remain fresh, for most of that time period. Except for a period around season nine, the satire and jokes remained solid for almost all of the first twenty years.
Since the last ten years have not been put on DVD, we won’t likely see them. No matter. Twenty years of The Simpsons was great, but it was more than enough.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman, who used numerous musical quotes from the series to find many great evening pauses.
Two launches scheduled for tonight, 27 minutes apart
The numerous launch scrubs this past week has created an unprecedented situation tonight, two orbital launches scheduled only 27 minutes apart from two different East Coast spaceports.
First Northrop Grumman will try again to launch its Cygnus cargo freighter to ISS from Wallops Island, Virginia, with the launch scheduled for 9:12 pm (Eastern). The first launch attempt last night was aborted 2:21 seconds before liftoff “after receiving off-nominal data from ground support equipment.”
Second, SpaceX will try to launch two Air Force GPS satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with the launch scheduled for 9:43 pm (Eastern). This launch has been delayed several times because of the repeated launch scrubs of ULA’s Delta 4 Heavy rocket, attempting to launch a military reconnaissance satellite. ULA’s launch had priority for the range, but with it delayed due to the investigation over the T-7 second launch abort on September 30th, the SpaceX’s GPS launch moves up in line.
The first will be live streamed on NASA TV, the second by SpaceX. I have embedded the live streams for both below the fold.
» Read more
Cygnus launch scrubbed less than 3 minutes from launch
The scrubs keep coming! Northrop Grumman’s launch team tonight scrubbed the launch of its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo freighter at T-2:21 minutes.
It appears, listening to the countdown, that the abort came from the engineers monitoring the propellants on the first stage, but this remains preliminary. More information is needed. (Update: It appears the issue was related to ground support equipment, not the rocket itself.)
They can recycle and launch tomorrow from Wallops Island, but this is also not confirmed. SpaceX also wishes to launch at almost the exact same time tomorrow from Cape Canaveral, and I am not sure both launches can occur simultaneously.
Don Gibson – Woman Sensuous Woman
An evening pause: Performed live 1971.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Starship prototype #8 on launchpad
Capitalism in space: The eighth Starship prototype, with landing flaps (looking just like fins) has now been moved to its launchpad in preparation for static fire tests followed by a 50,000 foot or nine mile hop.
According to Elon Musk, SpaceX will static fire SN8 twice before attempting its 15 km (~50,000 ft) launch debut. More likely than not, SpaceX will attempt a triple-engine static fire with the Starship as-is, install SN8’s nosecone and forward flaps, and attempt a second static fire while only drawing propellant from tbe rocket’s smaller header tanks (one of which is located in the tip of its nose).
Previously the hop was supposed to go to 60,000 feet, or 11 miles. It appears they’ve scaled it back slightly.
If all these tests go well, the company’s license for the flight opens as soon as October 11th, though it is likely it will not happen quite that soon. More likely by the end of the month, or early in November. Regardless, the prototype looks quite impressive with its flaps, and in fact is now beginning to resemble a spaceship, not a silo.
Crew for next Dragon manned flight name capsule “Resilience”
Capitalism in space: The crew for next Dragon manned flight, scheduled now for October 31st, have given the capsule the name “Resilience.”
Before arriving at Resilience, Hopkins and his crewmates filled a whiteboard with a long list of “good ideas” for their spacecraft’s name and then narrowed down their choices, he said.
“We wanted to make sure that the name fit,” Hopkins said in an interview with collectSPACE, following Tuesday’s press conference. “We got it down to two or three names and they were all very close in terms of that we liked them and could have been really happy with them, [but] at the end of the day, it was the one that just felt right.”
The crew of the first Dragon manned capsule named it Endeavour, to honor the shuttle spacecraft they had both flown in. The names of these capsules is not merely symbolic. Both capsules will be reused, like the shuttles, and thus deserve names to mark them when they fly again.
What is not clear yet is exactly how many capsules SpaceX will build, nor exactly how many times each capsule will be reused. The latter will of course help determine the former. It will take a few years and multiple flights to find out. Eventually however SpaceX will have its own fleet of manned spaceships, available not only to NASA but to private customers.
Firefly completes static fire test of its Alpha first stage
Capitalism in space: Firefly Aerospace today released video footage showing the first successful static fire test of the first stage of its Alpha rocket.
I have embedded one of the videos, showing the test from multiple camera angles, below the fold.
The test is very impressive, and suggests strongly that they are on schedule to meet their target launch date for their first orbital test flight sometime between November ’20 and May ’21. It also suggests that this dark horse smallsat rocket company, once considered dead after filing for bankruptcy, might actually beat to orbit its closest competitors, Virgin Orbit and Astra. The latter two have already completed their first launch attempts, but both ended in failure.
Regardless, it appears the race between these three rocket companies is tightening. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if all three achieve their first orbital launches in the six to eight months.
» Read more
SpaceX launch aborts at T-18 seconds
Capitalism in space: SpaceX’s attempt to launch another 60 Starlink satellites today aborted at T-18 seconds due to what they called “out-of-family ground sensor reading.”
They have not announced a new launch date as yet.
The U.S. has had little luck getting any of its launches off in the past month. Many have been delayed or scrubbed, for either technical reasons or weather. Hopefully tonight’s launch of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo freighter to ISS will avoid these issues and get off the ground.
Endless technical issues force Delta 4 Heavy launch scrubs
BUMPED and revised to include the September 30th launch abort.
Can we count the ways? For what has become a string of seemingly endless technical issues, ULA on September 29th was forced to once again scrub the launch of a military reconnaissance satellite because of a technical issue with its Delta 4 Heavy rocket and launchpad.
Apparently when they tried to move the launchpad’s mobile gantry away from the rocket they discovered “a hydraulic leak in the ground system.”
On the evening of September 30th (tonight) they tried again, only to have an abort at T-7 seconds, just as the engines were to ignite as planned.
They have been trying to get this bird off the ground now for more than a month. Here is a chronology of the launch scrubs, with all the various technical issues described.
August 26: Scrub because of “several problems,” the primary cause being a “pneumatics system issue.” This same countdown also had a long hold because of two blown fuses in a launchpad heater.
August 29: Aborted at T-3 seconds, due to “a torn diaphragm in one of three pressure regulators” in the launchpad. During the countdown they also had holds to deal with a fuel valve issue, a fuel sensor issue, and a temperature payload issue.
September 26: Scrubbed because of issue with the launchpad “swing arm retraction system.”
September 27: Scrubbed because of a continuing issue with the launchpad “swing arm retraction system.”
September 29 (just after midnight): A lightning strike forced a scrub. This was the only scrub not caused by technical issues.
September 29 (just before midnight): Scrubbed because of a hydraulic leak in the ground system.
September 30: Aborted at T-7 seconds. Under investigation. No new launch date yet announced.
This string of seemingly minor and apparently easy-to-fix problems does not reflect well on the quality control systems at ULA. I understand that this is rocket science, and thus difficult. At the same time engineers have now been doing launches for more than a half century, and this tale of woe above is more reminiscent of the early days of rocketry in the 1960s, when you might have a dozen or more scrubs because of these kinds of technical issues. You’d think by now ULA’s launch engineers would have worked these kinks out.
From a customer perspective this list of issues is also troubling, considering that the Delta 4 Heavy costs the customer more than any other commercial rocket. Granted it can put up a lot of payload, but the Falcon Heavy can put up more, and do it for less than half the cost and far more reliably. If I was ULA’s customer I would not be very satisfied with the product I am getting, even if the launch turns out to be a complete success.
The delays are also impacting other launches. SpaceX has had to repeatedly delay the launch of a GPS satellite on its Falcon 9 because for scheduling reasons the ULA launch must come first.
Andy Kaufman does Elvis Presley
An evening pause: Time from some silliness, from the Johnny Carson Show, 1977.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Changes in engineering and procedures for next manned Dragon flight
SpaceX is making several engineering and operational changes involving flights of its manned Dragon capsule, based on the company’s experience during the first manned flight several months ago.
First, they are reinforcing the heat shield in one area.
After a successful test flight that ended when NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 2, the company noticed “a little more erosion than we wanted to see” in a few areas of the capsule’s heat shield, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, said during a press call this week. He said there “was nothing to be concerned with at all times. The astronauts were safe, and the vehicle was working perfectly.”
Second, they are revising the software used to determine the altitude when the capsule’s drogue parachute is released.
Koenigsmann said the company is refining how it measures the capsule’s altitude as it returns to Earth. During the August test flight, the drogue parachutes deployed at a slightly lower altitude than the company expected, but still well within safety parameters, he said.
Finally, they are going to more strictly enforce a 10-mile “keep-out zone” in the ocean where the capsule splashes down. They do not want to see another crowd of recreational boats swarming the landing zone, as happened when the capsule returned to Earth in August.
Emerson Lake & Palmer – From The Beginning
An evening pause: Performed live 1997 in Rio de Janeiro.
Hat tip Roland.
NASA & SpaceX set Oct 31st for next manned Dragon mission
Capitalism in space: NASA and SpaceX have now scheduled Oct 31st as the target launch date for the first operational manned Dragon mission to ISS, the second manned Dragon mission overall.
This new date delays the launch a week from the previous announced schedule, and was done to give some space between its launch and the launch of a manned Soyuz on October 14th and the return of a different Soyuz with the present ISS crew on October 21st.
George Strait – Amarillo By Morning
An evening pause:
I ain’t a dime but what I got is mine.
I’m not rich but Lord I’m free.
Hat tip to Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas, who doesn’t know he suggested this. This song is something he plays for his guests during commercial breaks so they don’t have to listen to commercials. I decided after last Thursday’s appearance it needed to be an evening pause.
U.S. military okays use of Falcon 9 reused boosters
Capitalism in space: U.S. military has approved the use by SpaceX of previously launched Falcon 9 first stages in future military launches.
The contract revisions will save the military over $50 million.
China and Russia launch a bunch of satellites
Russia today used its Soyuz-2 rocket to launch three communication satellites plus 19 commercial smallsats.
This was the first time Russia used the Soyuz-2 for these particular small communications satellites, as previously they had been launched by a variety of smaller rockets.
China in turn today used its Long March 4B to place two Earth resource satellites into orbit.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
25 China
15 SpaceX
10 Russia
4 ULA
4 Europe (Arianespace)
China has moved ahead of the U.S. 25 to 24 in the national rankings.
These numbers should change again in the next few days. The U.S. has had a number of scrubs and launch delays in the past few days. ULA has been repeatedly pushing back the previously delayed launch of a National Security Agency reconnaissance satellite due to a variety of problems related to its Delta 4 Heavy rocket. The launch is now set for just after midnight tonight (Monday night). [UPDATE: Launch scrubbed due to lightning and poor weather. Tentatively rescheduled for 11:58 pm (Eastern) on September 29.]
SpaceX meanwhile had to scrub a launch this morning (September 28) of another 60 Starlink satellites due to weather. No new launch date has yet been announced.
Northrop Grumman also has had to scrub tomorrow’s Antares launch of a Cygnus cargo freighter because of poor weather at Wallops Island. It is now set for the evening of October 1st.
SpaceX also has a scheduled launch tomorrow morning of a GPS satellite on its Falcon 9 rocket. This is also threatened by weather. There is also no word whether the ULA launch scrub will cause this launch to be delayed.
Funny or Die – This Is Why Eating Healthy Is Hard
An evening pause: Masks anyone?
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Tuba Skinny – Yes Sir That’s My Baby
An evening pause: Performed live on Royal Street, New Orleans, April 9, 2012. Don’t you wish we could return to this kind of free world?
Hat tip Tom Biggar.