Using WhiteKnightTwo to launch cargo, including an update on revisions to SpaceShipTwo’s design.
More details on both SpaceX’s Merlin engine test yesterday as well as Orbital Sciences’ test firing of its Antares AJ-26 rocket engine on Monday.
SpaceX has successfully tested an upgraded version of its Merlin rocket engine. Video at the link.
A human-powered helicopter was successfully flown for 50 seconds on June 21, setting a new world record. Video below the fold.
This effort is an attempt to win the $250,000 AHS Sikorsky Prize, which requires a human-powered helicopter to fly for one minute at a height of three meters. The prize was first announced in 1980, and has remained unclaimed for the past 32 years.
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The second phase of NASA’s robotic refueling demo on ISS has successfully proven that a robot can remove a satellite fuel cap not designed for refueling.
The fuel cap design is a duplicate of that used by several climate research satellites presently in orbit. These satellites were not designed to be refueled, but if they could be refueled, their usefulness in orbit could be doubled, even tripled. This test is intended to demonstrate that a robot could refuel them.
The last phase of this robotic demo will take place in August, when the robots will attempt to pump a simulated fuel into the demo satellite.
China’s astronauts successfully undocked, backed away from their space station, and then completed a manual docking early today.
China isn’t only going up: A three man crew took a Chinese submersible to a depth of 22,800 feet in the Mariana Trench earlier this week, the record for that nation.
NASA has delayed the first test flight of Orion’s launch abort system by two years to 2017.
NASA officials have been warning since last year that work on Orion would be slowed to keep pace with the development of SLS and its launch infrastructure. The agency has proposed trimming Orion’s $1.2 billion budget back to $1 billion for 2013. With the high-altitude abort test facing at least a budget-driven delay, the Langley team has proposed conducting one or more less-expensive tests in its place. Ortiz said conducting a hot-fire test in 2015 or 2016 would “keep the [launch abort system] project moving forward and help alleviate risk.”
I predict that Dragon will not only test its launch abort system first, it will have humans flying on it before Orion. And Dragon will do this for a fraction of the total cost that Orion and SLS spend per year. I also predict that when Dragon does this, Congress will finally begin noticing this disparity, and SLS will die unlaunched.
An evening pause: This is something every visitor to New York should try to do. The first time I did it was back in the mid-1970s during my college days. It was around 2 am in the morning when we started from Brooklyn. We crossed to Manhattan, had a meal at a 24 hour Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, then walked back, watching the sunrise over Brooklyn.
The second phase in the robotic satellite refueling demo on ISS has gotten underway.
The competition heats up: Test firing of SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motor has begun.
The uncertainty of science: According to this article, the water-ice discovery announced yesterday at Shackleton Crater is insufficient for human settlement.
The latest LRO data indicate “that water is not there … in a way that would facilitate human exploration,” says planetary scientist Maria Zuber, who led the team analyzing the data.
If the signatures the team saw in the soils on the crater floor do indicate water, how much water might there be? Roughly 100 gallons – enough to fill two or three residential rain barrels – spread over a surface of about 133 square miles. Leave the swim-suit at home. “This is not like Mars,” says Dr. Zuber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, in an interview. On the red planet, explorers would find thick layers of icy soil in many locations just by turning over a shovelful or two of topsoil. [emphasis mine]
This story seems to answer my question about Zuber’s participation in the water in Shackleton paper as well as the previous paper saying there is much less water on the Moon than previously believed. It also raises questions about the journalism work of many of the other stories published in the past few days, which heavily touted the possibility of water in Shackleton.
I intend to dig into this story a bit more. Stay tuned.
Astronomers have videotaped the fly-by of a 23-foot-wide asteroid as it zipped past the Earth on May 29 at a distance of only about 12,000 miles. The video is below the fold.
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The competition heats up: Excalibur Almaz has signed a deal to use Xcor’s Lynx suborbital craft to train its astronauts.
Since Xcor has not yet flown Lynx, and Excalibur Almaz as a lot of work to do to make its Soviet-era modules flyable, I would bet that this news release is mostly public relations hype, centered as much on raising investment funds for both companies as it is about training astronauts.
The competition heats up: SpaceShipTwo was in the air on Friday, as WhiteKnightTwo did a 1.5 hour test flight with the ship attached to its belly.
This was the second flight of WhiteKnightTwo in three days, and is in line with Virgin Galactic’s test flight schedule announced in May. If the test flights go well, expect that first rocket-powered flight of SpaceShipTwo later this year.
The competition heats up: Excalibur Almaz has announced its plans for a privately funded trip to the Moon.
Congress has pulled all funding for the Eisenhower memorial, the design of which is strongly opposed by the Eisenhower family.
The first manually flown docking by Chinese astronauts is now scheduled for June 24.
The competition heats up: A new company has announced plans to use the Gemini capsule design from the 1960s to provide crew and cargo capability to orbit.
“Since this is an existing and proven design we could begin construction six to eight weeks after funding and complete a flying prototype ten to thirteen months later,” said WestWind President Bill Jolly.
Mars Odyssey is out of safe mode and should be back in full operation by next week.
Want to invest in a spacesuit company? Now you can! (Hat tip Clark Lindsey.)
The answer is 43: An IBM supercomputer today became the fastest in the world.
The competition heats up: China’s Shenzhou-9 capsule successfully docked with Tiengong-1 today and the crew has entered the space module.
The X-37b that has been in orbit for the past 15 months successfully returned to Earth in a runway landing today.
Video of the landing below the fold.
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China has successfully put into orbit its first three person crew, including its first female astronaut, on its first manned space docking mission.
Despite the continuing lack of an agreement, Kazakhstan today gave Russia permission to resume launches from the Baikonur spaceport.
Their new as yet unfinished spaceport in Vostochny must appear increasingly important to the Russians.
On exhibit in New York: A mock mission to Mars, built by an artist using, among other things, duct tape.
We have a date: China’s next manned mission, with one female astronaut aboard, will launch Saturday.
