The Navy set a new world record with the firing of an electromagnetic railgun on December 10. Though intended as a military weapon Keith Cowing speculates about the railgun’s off-world applications.
The first report is back of the X-37B following the completion of its first flight.
A nano-sized solar sail, built by NASA and launched in mid-November, appears to have been lost. Sadly, this has been the history of almost all solar sail efforts: failure before the sail can even deploy.
The rise and fall of Rocketplane.
The new colonial movement, in space! South Africa joins the race, launching its own space agency.
So, what was the top secret payload carried by Dragon on its first orbital mission? SpaceX revealed this secret today: their tribute to Monty Python.
A wheel of cheese.
SpaceX is two for two! The Falcon 9 launch today was a success, and was topped off by the successful return of the Dragon capsule after two orbits.
This is big news. Think about it: a private company — not a government — has designed and built a rocket and capsule, capable of carrying astronauts, and successfully launched both and recovered the capsule. Hot dog! True space travel might very well be around the corner at last.
Sad news: It appears that Japan’s Venus probe failed to enter orbit, and might have flown past Venus.
Update: It is confirmed that the spacecraft flew past Venus. There is a chance Japan could try again, when Akatsuka returns to Venus — in about seven years.
The continuing space war: A draft version of NASA’s budget suggests that the lame duck Congress will more or less follow the recommendations of the authorization bill passed in September.
The military’s perspective on the X-37B.
It appears that the next attempt to launch Falcon 9/Dragon is now set for Wednesday.
The status of the Japanese probe Akatsuki in its attempt to go into orbit around Venus remains uncertain. The engines fired as scheduled, but radio signal was not regained at the scheduled time. Engineers are analyzing the spacecraft’s position now to see if it was successfully inserted into orbit.
The Falcon 9/Dragon test launch is likely delayed to at least Thursday. Key quote:
During reviews of vehicle closeout photos this morning, engineers found a possible crack in the second stage engine nozzle. If the nozzle needs to be replaced, the first launch opportunity would be Friday or Saturday. Officials called “remote” a possibility that the problem could be resolved in time to fly Wednesday.
Some educated speculations about the next manned mission in the Chinese space program.
Engineers say that the cause of the Russian rocket failure yesterday appears to have been a programming error.
Bad news for the Russian space industry: A Proton rocket, carrying three Russian Glonass navigation satellites (their version of our GPS) failed at launch, crashing into the Pacific.
It appears that yesterday SpaceShipTwo flew another successful test flight.
From Clark Lindsey, with video: The static test firing of the Falcon 9 rocket today was a success. Actual launch is planned for Tuesday.
In preparation for its Tuesday test launch, SpaceX attempted a static test firing of the Falcon 9 rocket early today, only to abort at the last second. They plan another attempt on Saturday and still hope to launch on Tuesday.
Photos of the X-37B after landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
It’s official: The launch of Discovery is delayed until February.
SpaceX is putting together its own plans to provide NASA a heavy-lift rocket. Key quote:
Fast-track development, multi-use and low cost are key, says [SpaceX owner Elon] Musk. “The development timeframe is on the order of five years and would come to fruition before Obama’s likely second term ends. It has got to fit within a NASA budget that fits in 2008 levels, and it’s got to have operational costs when functioning that is as close to zero as you can make it. That latter point demands that whatever components are in use for super-heavy lift must be in use for launching other satellites for say, geostationary commercial and government customers. If not, then the likelihood of success in my opinion is zero.”
Bad news for the space shuttle: The root cause of the cracks on Discovery’s external tank is still not identified.
After more than seven months in orbit, the unmanned X-37B space plan has successfully returned to Earth. Key quote:
“Boeing and the Air Force are building another X-37B vehicle scheduled for launch in the spring of 2011.”
Update: Since several different reports are listing slightly different totals for the number of days in orbit, I’ve edited my note above to be less precise. I could add up the days myself, but that involves more math than I prefer to do!
Sierra Nevada, one of the new aerospace companies competing for NASA’s commercial crew money, appears to be the frontrunner to use the two X-34 suborbital rockets recently taken out of storage.
Is this finally going to happen? Richard Branson says Virgin Galactic could be flying tourists within a year.
It’s now official: the second test launch of the Falcon 9, with the Dragon capsule, is set for December 7, with a static test firing of the rocket’s engines on December 3.
The military reports that the X-37B’s mission is complete and it will be returning to Earth as early as Friday.
