Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking skydive has begun. You can watch it live here.
Update: Baumgartner is safely on the ground, having jumped from more than 24 miles altitude.
I am thrilled to announce that the new ebook edition of my first book, Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, is now officially available for sale for only $5.99 from Mountain Lake Press. The direct link to Mountain Lake Press’s sales page is here and on the right. Within two weeks the book will also be available at all retailers, but if you buy it direct from Mountain Lake Press, I will make a little extra money, which would be very much appreciated.
In creating this ebook edition I made sure that all the graphics from the original but out-of-print hardback were included. Valerie Anders, the wife of astronaut Bill Anders, added her own thoughts in a new foreword. I also added a new introduction discussing how the history of space exploration has evolved since the book’s initial publication in 1998. As I noted,
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The Orbcomm communications satellite that was put in the wrong orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket Sunday has fallen to Earth.
According to the company insurance will cover most of the loss. They also said that “had Orbcomm been the primary payload on this mission, as planned for the upcoming launches, we believe the OG2 prototype would have reached the desired orbit.” This appears to be a strong endorsement of the Falcon 9 rocket from the company, which has a contract with SpaceX to launch 17 more satellites on two Falcon 9 launches, scheduled for 2013 and 2014.
How Huygens bounced on Titan. With animation.
Felix Baumgartner’s record-setting skydive of 23 miles has been postponed until Sunday due to weather concerns.
It’s official: Singer Sarah Brightman has purchased a ticket to fly to ISS in a Soyuz capsule.
The astronauts on ISS have opened the hatch to Dragon one day early.
At 9:04 am (Eastern) the Dragon capsule successfully completed a hard docking with ISS.
Has Voyager 1 already left the solar system?
New data from the spacecraft indicate that the historic moment of its exit from the solar system might have come and gone two months ago. Scientists are crunching one more set of numbers to find out for sure.
The Google Lunar X-Prize: One competitor has unveiled its full-size prototype rover, designed to hunt for water in the craters of the Moon.
The company, Astrobotic Technology, is consider to be in second place in the race to build the first private lunar rover.
An update on the Falcon 9 engine problems.
Based on SpaceX’s press release, the rocket functioned as designed to overcome the engine failure. Nonetheless, it behooves them to find out why that engine shut down prematurely.
More worrisome for the company is the failure the Falcon 9 rocket to place in its proper orbit a secondary payload, an Orbcomm communications satellite. The satellite ended up in too low an orbit, probably because of the engine failure during launch. Orbcomm has a contract with SpaceX to launch a whole series of these satellites. This failure now, right at the get-go, won’t do them much good in terms of public relations.
Confirmed: One engine of the Falcon 9 exploded during launch.
Video at the link. The other 8 engines picked up the slack — as designed — and got Dragon into orbit.
This spectacular engine failure will of course have to be reviewed. However, if I were a commercial satellite company looking for a rocket to get my satellites into orbit, this failure would be recommendation, not a deterrent. The Falcon 9 demonstrated that even if one engine fails (and this one did by blowing up!), the rocket can survive the failure and make it to orbit. If that isn’t clear proof that this is a well designed and well built rocket, nothing is.
Another success for SpaceX: Dragon is now in orbit.
It’s now official: NASA and the Russians have agreed to fly a two-person year long mission on ISS beginning in the spring of 2015.
NASA has denied that this agreement has any connection with the Sarah Brightman/Russian deal, but I still wonder. Either way, it is very good news. Not only will they finally be using ISS appropriately, a mission like this will generate some real excitement for space exploration that the repeated boring six month expeditions to ISS have failed to do. Even better would be to schedule a two year mission, simulating a journey to and from Mars.
How private funding has and will drive exploration.
An update on Sierra Nevada’s effort to build its reusable shuttle Dream Chaser.
And from what I can tell, it is all engines firing, full speed ahead!
Deep Impact fired its engines today to adjust its orbit, giving it the option of visiting a near Earth asteroid in the future.
The press release is very vague about this future mission. I suspect there is a question of funding, which means that even if they can go to the asteroid, they might not have the funds to staff the mission.
The competition heats up: The Dragon capsule has been attached to the Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for Sunday’s launch.
Irony of ironies: In order to buy her seat on a Soyuz capsule Sarah Brightman outbid NASA, bumping its astronaut out.
This was a win-win for the Russians. They get paid more by Brightman than by NASA (over $51 million), and they finally get that year long mission they’ve been campaigning for for years. Because Brightman has taken one of NASA’s seats, the U.S. agency was forced to agree to the extended mission in order to maintain a presence on the station throughout that time period. Otherwise, their astronaut would come home and be replaced by Brightman, but for only ten days.
The head of Russia’s manned program said today that the first yearlong mission on ISS will begin in March 2015.
This appears to be another case of the Russians trying to use the media to pressure NASA into agreeing to the mission. I hope it works.
Felix Baumgartner has set October 8 as the day he will attempt his record-setting sky-dive from almost 23 miles high.
The weather in Gale Crater on Mars: warmer than expected.
The competition heats up: The first stage of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket was rolled to the launchpad today for testing.
Europe’s ATV cargo freighter finally undocked successfully from ISS on Friday.
The competition heats up: The rollout to the launchpad of the first stage of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket has been delayed until Saturday.
The rollout had been scheduled for today, but had to be scrubbed due to a battery problem in the transporter for moving the rocket. Once on the pad, they will then spend the next 4 to 6 weeks preparing for a hold down firing test. And if that test goes well, they will follow it up with the first launch of Antares before the end of the year.
The undocking of Europe’s ATV cargo freighter from ISS has been delayed again.
No explanation, which is worrisome. Then again, this might be nothing.
Isn’t competition wonderful? The head of Russia’s space agency said today that they need to reorganize their industry in order to compete.
Key quote: “Unless we act now – we will cease to be competitive,” he warned.
I wonder why? Could it be there is a company out there selling launch capability at half the cost?
Scientists are proposing that Europe send a probe to Titan and sail it on that planet’s methane lakes.
This concept had been proposed to NASA last year but it was rejected when the Obama administration shut down the planetary program.
The failed undocking of Europe’s ATV cargo craft from ISS earlier this week occurred because the astronauts used the wrong computer code.
They have rescheduled the undocking now for Friday.
