Virgin Galactic has begun paying rent — under protest — for its use of a New Mexico spaceport.
Virgin Galactic has begun paying rent — under protest — for its use of a New Mexico spaceport.
Tag: spaceflight
Iran today claimed it has successfully flown a monkey on a suborbital rocket flight.
Iran today claimed it has successfully flown a monkey on a suborbital rocket flight.
The only sources for this story come from Iranian sources, so I remain unsure whether it actually happened.
The robotic refueling demo on ISS successfully did a simulated refueling on Friday.
The robotic refueling demo on ISS successfully did a simulated refueling of a satellite on Friday.
The first nighttime photos from Mars.
The first nighttime photos from Mars.
DARPA’s project to harvest parts from abandoned geosynchronous satellites.
Salvage in space: DARPA’s project to harvest parts from abandoned geosynchronous satellites.
The Russian foreign minister today denied that there is any friction between Kazakhstan and Russia over the use of the Baikonur spaceport.
NASA engineers today test fired a major component of a refurbished Saturn 5 engine.
Back to the future: NASA engineers today test fired a major component of a refurbished Saturn 5 engine.
Engineers at Lockheed Martin are adding structural braces to fix the cracks found in the first Orion capsule.
Engineers at Lockheed Martin are adding structural braces to fix the cracks found in the first Orion capsule.
Engineers have designed a “doubler” to place over the cracks to ensure the craft can sustain loads from pressure, launch and landing. Geyer said two of the structural aids, similar to devices regularly used on airplanes, could be added to the spacecraft. “We’ve come up with a great plan to basically bridge over those cracks to distribute the load so we don’t see any issues on orbit,” Geyer said.
How reassuring.
Happy 10th anniversary to the Opportunity rover on Mars!
Happy 9th anniversary to the Opportunity rover on Mars!
Talk about getting your money’s worth: The rover was planned as a 90 day mission.
Russia is now threatening to abandon its Baikonur launch site due to restrictions demanded by the Kazakhstan government.
Russia is now threatening to abandon its Baikonur launch site due to restrictions demanded by the Kazakhstan government.
The restrictions include a limitation in the number of Proton launches, which Russia claims will cost them half a million dollars in sales. The problem is that the new Russia launch site in Vostochny will not be ready until 2015. If Russia pulls out of Baikonur before then, there will be no way to launch humans to ISS for at least the next two years.
An update on the Chinese manned program.
An update on the Chinese manned program.
The original script called for [the space station] Tiangong 1 to be followed by Tiangong 2, which would have been a module of the same basic design as Tiangong 1. Tiangong 2 was expected to have tested more advanced life-support systems than Tiangong 1, but there would be no major changes to the spacecraft. It was expected that two or three crews would be launched to this module.
Towards the end of the decade, China would then launch Tiangong 3, which was slated to be an entirely different class of spacecraft. It would be larger and more capable. Tiangong 3 was expected by some analysts to be a precursor to the types of modules to be used in China’s future space station, slated for launch around 2020.
According to Yang’s presentation, we can forget about Tiangong 2. Or at least, we can forget about Tiangong 2 as it was originally planned. China still plans to launch a mission with this name, but it would seem that the large laboratory module originally known as “Tiangong 3” has now been designated as the new Tiangong 2.
In other words, China is accelerating the admittedly slow pace of their manned program.
Planetary Resources has released a video showing off the prototype of their Arkyd-100 space telescope.
The competition heats up: Planetary Resources has released a video showing off the prototype of their Arkyd-100 space telescope.
As I noted when this company first appeared, for the foreseeable future they are going to be a manufacturer of space telescopes, not an asteroid mining company. At the same time, they, like Deep Space Industries, are going to drive satellite development towards lower cost and smarter design, which in the long run will make asteroid mining practical and profitable.
After a short delay due to software issues, the satellite servicing demo on ISS has begun.
After a short delay due to software issues, the satellite servicing demo on ISS has begun.
The actual refueling is scheduled to take place late Thursday.
The plans and proposed launch schedule of the new asteroid mining company, Deep Space Industries.
The plans and proposed launch schedule of the new asteroid mining company, Deep Space Industries.
They aim to do their work using cubesats, which will keep everything cheap and simple, with the first launches by 2015, and the first sample return missions by 2016. Their new manufacturing technology appears to be a variation of 3D printing, though the descriptions so far released remain vague on details.
We should have even more information later today, after their press conference, aired live on youtube here at 1 pm (eastern).
A NASA engineering team is restarting the agency’s 1960s research into nuclear powered engines for deep space missions.
A NASA engineering team is restarting the agency’s 1960s research into nuclear powered engines for deep space missions.
If completed and put into use, these engines could easily revolutionize the exploration of the solar system. Forgive me, however, if I remain skeptical, not because I lack faith in the technology but because I lack faith in NASA’s ability to finish anything.
Orbital Sciences has published an updated schedule for its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule.
The competition heats up: Orbital Sciences has published an updated schedule for its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule.
Key dates:
February: Hotfire test of the Antares first stage.
March: First test flight of Antares.
May/June: First test flight of Cygnus, on Antares, docking with ISS.
Third quarter 2013: First operational flight of Cygnus to ISS.
Another asteroid mining company will announce its plans tomorrow, Tuesday.
The competition heats up: Another asteroid mining company will announce its plans tomorrow, Tuesday.
As I mentioned earlier today, it is important to maintain a skeptical attitude to each of these new commercial space companies, even as we cheer them on enthusiastically. For example, I am very curious how this company has come through with a “breakthrough process for manufacturing in space.” What could this be, and why has no one thought of it before?
Not all is golden in commercial space: The failure of the Oklahoma spaceport deal.
Not all is golden in commercial space: The failure of the Oklahoma spaceport deal.
It is important that we restrain our enthusiasm for private space and always look with skepticism at any new proposed private effort. It appears that this was something that Oklahoma officials failed to do when they first established their spaceport for Rocketplane, a company now bankrupt.
Kepler shut down for ten days to save the mission.
Uh-oh: Kepler has been shut down for ten days to save the mission.
The spacecraft was launched with four so-called reaction wheels that spin to help keep the telescope pointing at its target fields of stars. One of these, reaction wheel No 2, failed in July 2012, leaving three to do the maneuvers, including a quarterly roll to a new orientation. Now reaction wheel No 4 has shown early indications that it might fail, prompting its NASA controllers to attempt some long-distance maintenance. They hope that by resting the wheels, their lubricant will spread to ease increased friction.
If this wheel fails permanently, the Kepler mission would be over, as it would be impossible to orient the spacecraft with enough precision with only two wheels.
The competition heats up: On Friday Aerojet successfully completed a hotfire test of the AJ26 engine to be used by Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket.