Tag: competition

Dragon has been successfully berthed with ISS.

9:05 am

Dragon has successfully berthed with ISS.

The naysayers will focus on the thruster problems on Friday. The yaysayers will focus on the fix and berthing today. The bottom line, however, is that this mission once again proves that SpaceX is a real player in the space business. Every other company has to match its achievements, most especially in price. The result will be the eventually lowering in the cost to low Earth orbit, which will then make all things possible.

And in fact, we are already seeing this, with the appearance of many new private companies or organizations, proposing all sorts of new space efforts, such as mining asteroids or sending people to Mars. The lower cost allows dreamers to consider their wild new ideas more doable. And they then go ahead and try to do it.

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SpaceX has announced that they now have all of Dragon’s thrusters operating and are go for docking with ISS.

4:21 pm

SpaceX has announced that they now have all of Dragon’s thrusters operating and are go for docking with ISS.

They have not announced when the docking will occur, but with the solar panels operating the capsule can function in orbit for a considerable time, giving them breathing room. And time will be necessary as both NASA and the Russians are nervous about letting any spacecraft approach ISS and will want a good number of tests to make sure all is well. The Russians are especially nervous, since they had the unfortunate experience of several collisions when they operated their space station Mir.

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After successfully reaching orbit, there appears to be a problem with the Dragon capsule.

8:45 am

Bad news: After successfully reaching orbit, there appears to be a problem with the Dragon capsule.

They have not yet released any information about what happened. The link above says that it appears to be related with the communications link, but NASA and SpaceX have as yet released no information other than to say they will hold a press conference in a few hours.

UPDATE: it appears the problem is with Dragon’s thrusters. Engineers have delayed the deployment the capsule’s solar panels while they try to get the thrusters activated. See the second link above.

UPDATE: Solar panels have been successfully deployed.

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China’s next manned mission is now set for this summer.

12:47 pm

The competition heats up: China’s next manned mission is now set for this summer.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will take flight sometime between June and August, the program said in a statement. It will deliver its crew to the Tiangong 1, where it will spend two weeks conducting tests of the station’s docking system and its systems for supporting life and carrying out scientific work.

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An investigation of the Sea Launch launch failure on February 2 has pinpointed the failure to faulty parts made in the Ukraine.

10:54 pm

An investigation of the Sea Launch launch failure on February 2 has pinpointed the failure to faulty parts made in the Ukraine.

The article is interesting in that it seems to reveal some friction between Russia and Ukraine, with the investigators making it a point to blame the Ukrainian components while specifically saying that “there was nothing wrong with the Russian-made equipment.”

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The Antares hot fire test of the rocket’s first stage was successfully completed tonight.

9:03 pm

The competition heats up: The Antares hot fire test of the rocket’s first stage was successfully completed tonight.

The 29-second hot fire test took place at 6:00 p.m. (EST) on February 22, 2013 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s (MARS) Pad 0A, which was designed and built over the last several years to accommodate liquid-fuel space launch vehicles. The primary goals of the test were to ensure that the launch complex’s fueling systems and the Antares stage one test article functioned properly in a fully operational environment, that engine ignition and shut down commands operated as designed, and that the dual AJ26 first stage engines and their control systems performed to specifications in the twin-engine configuration. The test included a full propellant loading sequence, launch countdown and engine ignition operation. The pad’s high-volume water deluge system flowed throughout the entire period of the test to protect the pad from damage and for noise suppression.

The first stage will now be prepped for a full scale test launch of Antares, expected in about six weeks. If that is successful, Orbital Sciences will then follow with a flight of the Cygnus capsule to ISS.

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An outline of the cuts NASA would do if sequestration occurs on March 1 includes shutting down commercial crew while leaving the Space Launch System untouched.

8:06 am

An outline of the cuts NASA proposes if sequestration occurs on March 1 includes shutting down commercial crew while leaving the Space Launch System untouched.

I am in favor of sequestration, as it will only bring NASA’s budget back to the numbers the agency received in 2005, numbers that were then totally sufficient to build Constellation and fly the shuttle. Now that the cost of the shuttle is gone there should be sufficient cash today for everything NASA wants to do.

To favor the very expensive and not very useful SLS system over the new commercial crew contracts however is madness. I suspect this letter is meant as a lobbying sledge hammer to try to convince Congress to cancel sequestration. If it is serious, however, than say good-bye to any manned American spacecraft for at least another few years, as I expect the new private companies will not disappear, but their effort will be slowed significantly as they search for alternative funding.

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The hot fire test of the Antares first stage tonight was aborted at the last second.

11:41 pm

The hot fire test of the Antares first stage tonight was aborted at the last second.

The planned first stage propulsion system “hot fire” test of Orbital’s new Antares medium-class rocket was halted in the final seconds of the countdown by the rocket’s flight computer, which detected an anomalous condition. The Antares team will evaluate the data from the test to determine the nature of the abort. A new date for the test has not been determined.

With any new rocket this kind of thing is to be expected. The concern here is the tight schedule that Orbital Sciences is under to get Antares and Cygnus operational. Long delays will not be good for them, considering the politics in Congress. Every delay will be used by certain politicians to get this program cut so the money can go to the very expensive Space Launch System that feeds the jobs in their districts.

Update: It appears the issue was that the computer detected a low pressure reading and aborted the burn. (A similar issue occurred on several of SpaceX’s early launches as was very quickly corrected.) A rescheduled hot burn is expected to take place next week.

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Russian investigators, having pinpointed the cause of a December 2012 launch failure, have cleared the Proton rocket to resume commercial launches in March.

8:12 am

Russian investigators, having pinpointed the cause of a December 2012 launch failure, have cleared the Proton rocket to resume commercial launches in March.

It is interesting that this failure of the Proton’s Briz-M upper stage was not related to two previous failures of that same upper stage. It is also interesting that the article does not describe what actions have been taken to correct the problem.

If I was a future Proton launch customer I would be very concerned. Three launch failures all related to the Briz-M upper stage, and all from different causes. This appears to suggest some fundamental problems with the stage itself, or with the company that manufactures it.

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Comparing the price of Falcon 9 with the Atlas 4.

4:54 pm

Comparing the price of the Falcon 9 with the Atlas 4.

Today’s launch was conducted aboard the “plain Jane” version of the Atlas V, the 401, which has no strap on boosters, a single upper stage engine and a 4 meter fairing. It was originally awarded to Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services in 2007 for a $124 million fixed fee contract. By contrast the first NASA science launch awarded to the SpaceX Falcon 9, that of the Jason -3 satellite for 2014, was for $82 million. With current pricing for similarly equipped Atlas V 401 vehicles for NASA launches at roughly $150 million, based on awards from 2011, the difference is hardly trivial.

In other words, Falcon 9 is almost half the price. No wonder satellite companies are flocking to buy a launch on it.

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