Tag: spaceflight

NASA and the Russians have agreed to fly a two-person year long mission on ISS beginning in the spring of 2015.

6:58 pm

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.

0 comments

Deep Impact fired its engines today to adjust its orbit, giving it the option of visiting a near Earth asteroid in the future.

6:01 pm

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.

0 comments

In order to get a seat on a Soyuz capsule Sarah Brightman outbid NASA, bumping its astronaut out and thus forcing the U.S. agency to finally agree to a year long mission.

7:12 pm

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.

1 comment

The rollout to the launchpad of the first stage of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket has been delayed until Saturday.

11:21 pm

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.

2 comments

The head of Russia’s space agency said today that they need to reorganize their industry in order to compete.

11:13 pm

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?

0 comments

A computer glitch prevented the undocking of the European ATV-3 cargo vehicle from ISS today.

9:17 am

A computer glitch prevented the undocking of the European ATV-3 cargo vehicle from ISS today.

Undocking of the European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, from the aft port of the Zvezda module had been scheduled for 6:35 p.m. EDT (GMT-4). Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko attempted to send a command to begin the undocking sequence on time, but the command apparently never reached the docking mechanism.

I am not sure what will happen if they cannot pin down the problem. For example, it is unclear whether the cargo vehicle can be reprogrammed to be manually controlled. Also, it presently blocks a docking port. Is that port needed for the next ATV freighter as well as for other craft, such as Progress freighters? If so, this could become a serious problem.

0 comments
1 … 727 728 729 730 731 … 798