One small dish for man
An evening pause: The title can be translated as “One small dish for man.”
Tag: ISS
NASA used Orbital Sciences’ Taurus 2 rocket for the failed launch of its Glory climate satellite in 2011, even though the agency knew the company had not fixed the problem that caused the loss of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory in 2009.
NASA used Orbital Sciences’ Taurus XL rocket for the failed launch of its Glory climate satellite in 2011, even though the agency knew the company had not fixed the problem that caused the loss of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory in 2009.
The investigators believed there was as much as a 50% chance the faulty component — a fairing separation system for ejecting the protective shroud that covered the satellite during launch — would fail again. Sadly, it did, destroying Glory. More significant for the future, however is this:
Other Orbital vehicles, including the air-launched Pegasus and a new Antares rocket, use a version of the same fairing separation system that is most likely responsible for the combined $700 million loss of two key climate-study satellites. Orbital’s original name for Antares was Taurus II.
So far, NASA has not accepted the Antares shroud-separation configuration for operational flights. Dulles, Va.-based Orbital says it has made a number of changes to its frangible joint fairing separation system in the wake of the Glory launch failure, including modifications to the frangible rail used on Antares. The company is developing that rocket under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to carry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
If NASA isn’t satisfied with Orbital’s design changes to this system, it could significantly delay the launch of Cygnus and Antares to ISS.
Update: I had mistakenly referred to the Taurus 2 in the first sentence when the rocket used to launch Glory and OCO was the Taurus XL. This is now corrected.
SpaceX has pinpointed the cause of the Falcon 9 engine shutdown during its October 7 Dragon launch.
SpaceX has pinpointed the cause of the Falcon 9 engine shutdown during its October 7 Dragon launch.
At the moment, however, they are not telling anyone what that cause is. They are telling us that the next Dragon launch is going to happen in late February or early March, which is slightly earlier than previous reports.
Russia and the U.S. have named the two astronauts who will spend a year in space beginning in 2015.
Real progress: Russia and the U.S. have named the two astronauts who will spend a year in space beginning in 2015.
This mission will also make room for a Russian tourist flight during that same time period.
Sources in Russia indicated that the contract for Sarah Brightman’s space tourist flight has not yet been signed.
Sources in Russia indicated today that the contract for Sarah Brightman’s space tourist flight has not yet been signed.
Brightman will have turned 55 by that time, which means she will become one of the 20 oldest cosmonauts of the world, among which there is now only one woman (Barbara Morgan, which made a shuttle flight in 2007). “It is not known how the next three years, which the singer will spend in permanent travel around the world, will affect her health,” the source said. It is most likely that only Russian cosmonauts will take part in the 2015 ISS mission, who will take all three spaces in the Soyuz, he said.
The story focuses on the publicity gained for Brightman by making her announcement, but the actual scoop, assuming the source is correct, is that she doesn’t have a contract.
“Long-term budget pressures on NASA mount.”
Why SLS will surely die: “Long-term budget pressures on NASA mount.”
Whether the cheaper, more efficient, and competitive commercial space program will survive remains unknown. It could be that our brilliant Congress, which wants SLS, will keep that very expensive program alive just long enough to choke the life out of the commercial space program. Then, with the government part of private space dead from lack of support, they will suddenly be faced with the gigantic bill from the NASA-built SLS and will, as they have done repeatedly during the past four decades, blanch at paying the actually construction and launch costs, and will kill that too.
Three astronauts safely returned to Earth today after a 125-day stay on ISS.
Three astronauts safely returned to Earth today after a 125-day stay on ISS.
More on why that communications cable was cut at Russian mission control.
More on why that communications cable was cut at Russian mission control.
It appears that because of routine maintenance of other equipment, the company that controlled the cable was supposed to mark it so that the repair crew would leave it alone. That repair company is now claiming that the marking never happened.
The Russians have repaired the severed cable that had cut off their communications with ISS and space.
The Russians have repaired the severed cable that had cut off their communications with ISS and space.
The article notes that this failure was never a critical problem for ISS, pointing out that there was a back up communications route in the U.S., and that the astronauts on board are trained to work independent of the ground. Though both these points are true, what the article doesn’t mention is that much of the American half of ISS has been built to be run from the American mission control. It is not like Mir, which was designed to be as self-sufficient as possible. The result is that though a communications break in Russia is not really critical, a communications break in the U.S. might be.
The accidental cutting of a communications cable has cut off Russia’s mission control from ISS and many of its satellites.
The accidental cutting of a communications cable has cut off Russia’s mission control from ISS and many of its satellites.
They have rerouted communications to ISS through mission control in Houston, so the station has not been seriously effected by this accident.
The orbital debris from the exploded upper stage of the failed Proton launch in August now totals over 100 pieces.
The orbital debris from the exploded upper stage of the failed Proton launch in August now totals over 100 pieces.
Realtime coverage of today’s spacewalk on ISS.
Realtime coverage of today’s spacewalk on ISS.
Update: It appears the spacewalk was a success. The astronauts installed a bypass radiator to isolate the radiator where it is believed the coolant leak is located.