The competition heats up: Boeing has unveiled a design to put small satellites into orbit for as little as $300,000 per launch.
SpaceX is set to begin the countdown tonight for a 3:44 am (Eastern) May 22nd launch of Falcon 9/Dragon.
In an email update, SpaceX reports that they have found the cause of the Falcon 9 launch abort this morning.
During rigorous inspections of the engine, SpaceX engineers discovered a faulty check valve on the Merlin engine. We are now in the process of replacing the failed valve. Those repairs should be complete tonight. We will continue to review data on Sunday. If things look good, we will be ready to attempt to launch on Tuesday, May 22nd at 3:44 AM Eastern.
If this is true, than this entire exercise is an unqualified success and illustrates a certain robustness to SpaceX’s engineering on Falcon 9. Their control computer during the launch process spotted the problem before it caused a complete loss of the vehicle and payload. They can now locate the problem, fix it, and proceed with launch.
Last night Falcon 9’s computers shut the launch down at T minus zero seconds after sensing a high chamber pressure in one first stage engine.
Two thoughts, one good, one not so good.
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No go: Falcon 9 aborted its launch tonight at 4:55 am (Eastern) at T minus zero seconds.
Just after ignition there was a shutdown. They were able to make the vehicle safe, and are trying to figure out what happened. It appears there was a high pressure reading in one engine.
The next opportunity to launch is three days hence, though whether they will go for it then depends on whether they can figure out what caused the shutdown.
Update: More details here.
The competition heats up: WhiteKnightTwo made its 80th flight yesterday.
Falcon 9 is now upright on launchpad for tomorrow morning’s 4:55 am (Eastern) launch. For continual updates, go here.
The Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts has docked successfully with ISS.
Barring weather or another launch scrub, it looks like Saturday will be launch day for Falcon 9 and Dragon
What might have been: “The Eagle has crashed.”
Hitching a ride: The Russians last night launched a new crew to ISS.
Next up: the launch of Falcon 9/Dragon on Saturday.
If you build it they will come: An engineer has proposed using the USS Enterprise from Star Trek as a model for building an interplanetary spaceship for exploring the solar system.
Though similar in scale and appearance to the USS Enterprise (“it ends up that this ship configuration is quite functional,” Dan writes), the “Gen1 Enterprise” would be functionally very different. Firstly, the main nuclear-powered ion engine (boasting 1.5 GW of power) would strictly limit the Enterprise to intra-solar system missions, being incapable of anything approaching faster-than-light speeds. However, Dan claims that the Gen1 would be capable of reaching Mars from Earth within ninety days, and reaching the Moon in three.
The website is Build the Enterprise.
The competition heats up: The assembly of the first test vehicle of XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx suborbital craft has begun.
I will admit to great deal of skepticism about this particular space company. Somehow XCOR always manages to get a great deal of coverage in the space community press, despite what I see as lack of any actual space-related results.
I could be wrong however, and if so, I will be the first to celebrate. This article suggests they might finally start test flights by the end of this year.
SpaceShipTwo to resume flight tests in June after a nine month hiatus.
The long pause in flight tests, as well as the apparent delays in flying the ship with its rocket engine, suggest that there have been engineering issues with the ship and engine that Scaled Composites hasn’t revealed. Hopefully the resumption of testing is an indication that these issues have been overcome.
From the Dawn science team: The battered failed planet Vesta.
The results confirm Vesta as the source of a specific family of asteroids, but more interestingly also identify the actual impact that peeled these asteroids from Vesta’s surface.
Read the whole thing, Dawn has found a lot of interesting stuff.
The competition heats up: Sierra Nevada outlines its test flight plans for Dream Chaser, its reusable manned mini-shuttle.
Winter on Mars has finally ended, and Opportunity is on the move again.
The competition continues to heat up: ATK today announced that it is building its own manned capsule for its Liberty launch system.
The capsule’s first two flights are scheduled in 2014, both abort tests, followed in 2015 by an orbital flight and, finally, a crewed orbital flight. The spacecraft is designed for ten flights each, and ATK plans to build a minimum of four capsules. All flights will be launched by the Liberty launcher, and ATK is not actively exploring adapting the capsule for other [launch vehicles].
Liberty is based on the upgraded shuttle solid rocket boosters that were developed for the Ares rocket, now cancelled.
Curiosity takes a picture of itself on its way to Mars.
It just keeps going and going: Air Force officials declare the on-going X-37B mission, now over 400 days long, “a spectacular success.”
The commercial space industry continues to heat up: A space tug to bring secondary commercial payloads to different orbits.
The SpaceX test launch of Dragon to ISS has now been rescheduled for May 19.
The competition heating up: Aerojet successfully completed a hot-fire test yesterday of its AJ26 engine, to be used in Orbital Sciences Antares rocket.
Boeing’s CST-100 commercial manned capsule successfully completed its second parachute drop test from 14,000 feet on Wednesday.
Europe has decided to build a probe to study Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, Jupiter’s big icy moons.
Known as JUICE, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, the probe will enter orbit around the gas giant planet in 2030 for a series of flybys of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. JUICE will brake into orbit around Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, in 2032 for at least one year of close-up research.
The competition continues to heat up: Europe considers building its own reusable suborbital space plane.
The test flight of Falcon 9/Dragon to ISS will almost certainly not launch on May 7.
It appears they need more time to assess the results of the static engine test on Monday.
Some reasonable and unreasonable theories for what the X-37B is doing in orbit.
Private companies do have the right to mine the asteroids, established by precedent. Hat tip Clark Lindsey.
SEC documents have revealed that the total development costs for Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket have increased to $472 million, $184 million more than what NASA is paying them.
That the company has been willing to commit these extra funds to develop Antares suggests to me that they see a commercial value for the rocket that will exceed these costs. Or to put it more bluntly, they see a market for their rocket that will pay for their investment, and then some.
