Next Cygnus/Antares launch to ISS set for October 27
Orbital Sciences has now scheduled the launch of its next cargo run to ISS for Monday October 27.
Tag: commercial
Next Angara test flight in December
The competition heats up: According to one Russian official, the next test flight of Russia’s new Angara rocket will take place before the end of December.
Another Russian news story says that the Angara test program will involve ten flights and that the target cost for the rocket’s most powerful configuration will be around $100 million. Depending on how much payload this configuration can put in orbit, this price makes it very competitive with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
Composing Mozart’s “Requiem,” from Amadeus
An evening pause: From Amadeus (1984).
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, who described this as “a portrayal of divinely inspired genius.” Be sure to check out Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
India begins tests of larger rocket engine
The competition heats up: Indian engineers have successfully completed their first tests of a new more powerful upper stage engine for their biggest launch rocket.
Taking a big step forward in the development of bigger and more powerful locally-built rocket engines, the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) on Monday successfully conducted the first ‘cold flow test’ on the CE-20 cryogenic engine, which will power the upper stage of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mk III (GSLV-Mk III). “It’s a milestone,” LPSC director Dr K Sivan told ‘Express’ here on Tuesday, confirming that the test had gone as planned at the LPSC facility in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu. The first ‘hot test’ – where the engine will be fired for a few seconds- will be performed in three weeks’ time, Sivan said.
In a cold test, the propellants are not ignited. On Monday, the fuel, Liquid Hydrogen (LH2), and the oxidiser, Liquid Oxygen (LOX), were injected into the chambers for the checking of various parameters.
In related news, Mangalyaan has taken another global view of Mars.
A Mandelbrot set zoom animation out-take
An evening pause: The creator of this computer animation calls this an out-take and explains why:
What is a Mandelbrot zoom blooper? It’s what happens when you commit 6 months of computing time on three computers to create something that doesn’t turn out the way you expect! The color rotations that begin at 1:36 were unintentional. However, the side effect is that the animation is much more psychedelic than expected due to the color cycling and also brings out details that are not apparent with still images.
I just find it fascinating how this illustrates the endlessly deep and infinite complexity of existence.
Hat tip tdub.
Court allows work on commercial crew to go forward
The court today ruled that NASA’s contract awards to SpaceX and Boeing for manned ferries to ISS can continue despite Sierra Nevada’s protest.
The decision on the protest itself is still pending.
China to launch two payloads to the Moon
The competition heats up: On Thursday China plans to send a capsule on a mission around the Moon and back to Earth to test its heat shield.
The rocket’s upper stage, which will also round the Moon but not return to Earth, will also carry a privately funded cubesat designed to study the radiation levels during the entire journey.
Twenty minutes after launch on October 23, (at 1:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern time), the Long March’s upper stage will separate from the test capsule, and both will continue on a trajectory that takes them around the moon. The capsule will return to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on October 31. In early discussions with the Chinese, LuxSpace was told that the upper stage [carrying the private cubesat] would re-enter the atmosphere as well, but it’s now expected to enter a wide, looping orbit around Earth. The main battery is only designed to last 10 days, although it may go longer.
Radio receivers on Earth will be able to tune in to 4M’s signal shortly after separation, and will be able to follow it as it rounds the moon, coming as close as 7,500 miles to the surface. The payload also includes a radiation sensor that will take measurements throughout the journey into Earth-moon space. Anyone with the proper equipment will be able to receive the compressed radiation data and decode it.
Though this private mission is definitely breaking new ground by sending a small payload to lunar space for very little money, the article is incorrect when it states that this is the first privately funded Moon mission. In 1997-1998 HGS 1, a Hughes commercial communications satellite that was placed in an incorrect orbit by a Russian rocket, was sent on a wide elliptical orbit to fly past the Moon twice and thus use this sling shot effect to get the satellite into a usable orbit.
Proton launches commercial satellite
The competition heats up: Russia’s Proton rocket successfully launched a Russian commercial communications satellite into orbit today.
Though reports suggest the launch went as planned, not a lot of information has as yet been released.
Animals standing up for the first time
An evening pause: I think this is a good way to start the week, watching new life experience a real beginning.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
George Harrison and Eric Clapton – While my guitar gently weeps
An evening pause: From a 1987 concert (from which I have posted a previous evening pause), with a little help from Ringo Starr, Phil Collins, and Elton John.
Hat tip to Keith Douglas.
Argentina joins space club
The competition heats up: Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket on Thursday launched two commercial satellites into orbit, including Argentina’s first home-built communications satellite.
Virgin Galactic outlines near term test flight schedule
The competition heats up: In a newspaper interview, the CEO of Virgin Galactic has outlined the company’s flight plans for SpaceShipTwo in the coming months, leading hopefully to its first commercial flights.
“We expect to get to space altitude in a short number of flights, assuming the rocket performs as expected,” Whitesides told the Journal. “Scaled made it to space in four flights with SpaceShipOne. I believe it will be a little more than that for us, but not dramatically so.”
Once SpaceShipTwo successfully reaches space, Scaled Composites will turn over the rocket to Virgin Galactic for its commercial operations based in New Mexico. Virgin has already taken control of the mothership, which it flew to Spaceport America for some initial test operations in September. “Once we take control of SpaceShipTwo, we expect to do some more testing here in New Mexico, but that will primarily be efficiency testing rather than technology testing,” Whitesides said. “It will give pilots an opportunity to train at this airfield after Mojave to practice things like coming in on final approach.”
As much as I have expressed strong skepticism in recent months of Virgin Galactic’s promises, I truly hope this happens, and soon.