Bill Whittle — The Deal
A short seven minute commentary by Bill Whittle explaining why some of us do difficult and challenging things, while others do not.
Tag: spaceflight
After concluding eight years of science observations in orbit around Venus, Venus Express is about to begin a series of atmospheric plunges to test the engineering of aerobraking at the extreme.
After concluding eight years of science observations in orbit around Venus, Venus Express is about to begin a series of atmospheric plunges to test the engineering of aerobraking at the extreme.
They plan to dive into Venus’s hellish atmosphere as low as 80 miles, where they hope not only to get data about this little studied region but to also learn more about the engineering of aerobraking. The article also gives a nice overview of the knowledge that Venus Express gathered in the past eight years.
Debris from the Proton launch failure yesterday has been found in China.
Debris from the Proton launch failure yesterday has been found in China.
The vagueness of yesterday’s Russia reports suggested to me the possibility that the rocket might have fallen into another country’s territory, something the Russians would normally not like to advertise. It appears, however, that most of the satellite and rocket has burned up before hitting the ground.
This report clarifies some details about the failure. It was the Proton’s third stage that failed, not the Briz-M stage that has caused failures in the past. This is also the 6th failure of a Proton since December 2010, a poor launch record that strongly indicates serious quality control problems in the manufacture of this rocket.
Update: Inmarsat, one of the Proton rocket’s biggest customers, is considering dumping the Proton for future launches. To do so will be expensive and will likely delay the launch of their next two satellites, both of which were scheduled for launch on a Proton in 2014. Nonetheless, it appears they are considering it.
A Russian Proton rocket crashed today nine minutes after launch.
When it rains it pours: A Russian Proton rocket crashed today nine minutes after launch.
Considering the tensions between the U.S. and Russia over space, combined with the increasing competition for the launch market created by SpaceX’s lower prices, another Proton failure now is something the Russians could do without. Moreover, the Russians were planning a lot of Proton launches in the next few months to catch up from last year’s launch failure. Many of these scheduled launches were commercial and were going to earn them hard cash. This failure definitely hurts, and will certainly be used as justification by their government in increase its control over that country’s aging aerospace industry.
New reports suggest that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo will be incapable of flying to an altitude of 100 kilometers.
A new report suggests that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo will be incapable of flying to an altitude of 100 kilometers.
Amid its political kerfuffle with the U.S., Russia has significantly increased the government budget of its space industry.
The competition heats up: Amid its political kerfuffle with the U.S., Russia has significantly increased the government budget of its space industry.
The new space policy, which pledges 1.8 trillion rubles toward modernization and development efforts throughout the Russian space industry, appears to be a step toward ensuring Russia is free to pursue its own interests in space after its ISS obligations are fulfilled in 2020. Rogozin tweeted that Russia will discuss cooperative space projects with China at a summit meeting in Beijing on May 19. [emphasis mine]
A space station partnership with China would make enormous sense, as China’s station designs are based on Russian space station engineering. The two would likely would work together quite well. Moreover, both systems were designed intelligently as prototype interplanetary spaceships, something that was not done for the U.S. part of ISS. Thus, ISS does not function well for testing the engineering for future space projects, something that the Russians are very conscious of.
In an effort to reassure its ticketholders, Virgin Galactic sent them email on May 10 disputing the story that they have discovered cracks in WhiteKnightTwo.
In an effort to reassure its ticketholders, Virgin Galactic sent them an email on May 10 disputing the article that said there are cracks in WhiteKnightTwo’s wings.
The email was interestingly sent before the article was published, which of course meant that it could not directly address any of its findings.
The story above also has a link to an article detailing the many predictions by Virgin Galactic about when they will begin commercial flights, going back to 1999. To put it mildly, their track record has not been good.
ULA today stated that they have enough Russian engines in stock to complete the 36 launch U.S. military bulk buy.
ULA today stated that they have enough Russian engines in stock to complete the 36 launch U.S. military bulk buy.
Whether they will actually complete that bulk buy remains unknown.
Read the full transcript of Tuesday’s briefing in Russia on the subject of the U.S./Russian cooperation in space.
Read the full transcript of Tuesday’s briefing in Russia on the subject of the U.S./Russian cooperation in space.
It is very worthwhile reading the entire thing. The text makes it very clear that Russia is not kicking us out of ISS, as has been wrongly reported by several news agencies. It also makes clear that the Russians consider the Obama administration’s actions childish, thoughtless, and unproductive. They also emphasize how the U.S. government is generally an “unreliable” partner in these matters, something that I have noted before when our government has broken space agreements with Europe.
The text also clarifies the GPS situation. The stations we have in Russia are in connection with scientific research, something they wish to do also in the U.S. If an agreement isn’t reached, that research will cease. Actual use of GPS for navigational purposes will not be effected.
Side note: NASA says that they have not yet received any official notice from Russia concerning the briefing above. This might be because Rogozin’s briefing was meant merely as a shot across the bow, or it could be that the Russians have not yet gotten around to doing it. We shall see.
On Tuesday Virgin Galactic rolled WhiteKnightTwo out of its hanger “as part of a gearing up process.”.
Is it cracked or not? On Tuesday Virgin Galactic rolled WhiteKnightTwo out of its hanger “as part of a gearing up process.”.
Though the above article is very vague about what is being done, this article explains that they are doing taxi tests of new landing gear. The timing, however, makes me suspect that this is also a public relations ploy to counter yesterday’s reports about cracks in the vehicle’s wings.
Three astronauts safely returned from ISS on Tuesday evening.
Three astronauts safely returned from ISS on Tuesday evening.
NASA has chosen the four shuttle engines that will be used to launch SLS on its first mission in 2021.
What a waste: NASA has chosen the four shuttle engines that will be used to launch SLS on its first mission in 2021.
All four engines were used multiple times on many shuttle missions. They will fly once on SLS, at a cost of many billions, and then end up destroyed when that giant rocket’s first stage falls into the ocean. Worse, no one has really defined what the goal of that first launch will be. It might merely be a test launch, with no humans on board.
To me, it would be wiser to put the engines into storage and wait until we have a new reusable capability that could take advantage of the reusable engineering of these engines. Throwing them away on a pork-barrel boondoggle like SLS seems so stupid.