A full scale-prototype of Orbex’s Prime launcher. Credit: Orbex
The first launch of the Orbex Prime ‘eco-rocket’ from a remote launch pad in the Highlands of Scotland is expected at the end of the year or in early 2023. A full-scale prototype of Prime, billed as theworld’s most environmentally-friendly rocket, was unveiled to the public for the first time this month.
Orbex Prime, a joint venture between the UK and Denmark, is the first of a new generation of European launch vehicles designed to launch mircosatellites to orbit.
Unveiling a full-size replica May 11 represented a major step forward for the British rocket company as it prepares for the first ever vertical rocket launch to orbit from UK soil.
A spokesperson told Spaceflitght Now that the company was “shooting for the end of 2022 or the start of 2023″.
He said: “There are three aspects which determine when the first launch can take place: readiness of the rocket,availability of a completed spaceport, and a launch license from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
“All three are tracking well, but Orbex are only completely in control of the readiness of the rocket. So, it is really guesswork at this point.”
Prime is the first ‘micro-launcher’ developed in Europe to reach a stage of technical readiness and Orbex has now begun a series of dress rehearsals to develop and optimize launch procedures. To support this, it expects to announce an increase in staff shortly.
Earlier this year, Orbex revealed its first test launch platform at a new test facility in Kinloss, a few miles from the company’s headquarters at Forres in Moray, Scotland.
Prime is a 19-meter-long (62-foot), two-stage rocket that is powered by seven engines. The six on the first stage will propel the vehicle through the atmosphere to an altitude of around 80 kilometers (50 miles). A single, second-stage engine will complete the journey to low Earth orbit (LEO).
Uniquely, Orbex Prime is powered by a renewable bio-fuel/bio-propane supplied by Calor UK. The fuel significantly reduces the rocket’ss emissions compared to other similarly-sized rockets being developed elsewhere.
A study by the U’s’s University of Exeter showed that a single launch of Orbex Prime will produce 96% lower carbon emissions than comparable space launch systems using fossil fuels.
Prime is also reusable and has been engineered to leave zero debris on Earth and in orbit. It will be used commercially to launch groups of small microsatellites or slightly larger individual satellites.
A full-scale prototype of Orbex’s prime launch vehicle. Credit: Orbex
Josef Aschbacher, European Space Agency (ESA) director general, said: “I am deeply impressed with the speed at which the Orbex Prime rocket has been developed as the first full orbital micro-launcher in Europe. But I am equally impressed by the low-carbon footprint technology applied.”
Orbex Prime plans to launch from Space Hub Sutherland, a new spaceport being constructed on the North Coast of Scotland. It was the first vertical spaceport to receive planning permission in the UK and will be brought into operation as a European spaceport later this year.
It is also the first and only spaceport worldwide that has committed to being carbon-neutral, both in its construction and operation.
Chris Larmour, CEO of Orbex, said: “Unveiling the full-scale prototype was a major milestone for Orbex and highlights just how far along our development path we now are.
“From the outside, it might look like an ordinary rocket but on the inside Prime is unlike anything else. To deliver the performance and environmental sustainability we wanted from a 21st century rocket, we had to innovate in a wide number of areas — low-carbon fuels, fully 3D-printed rocket engines, very lightweight fuel tanks and novel, low-mass reusability technology.”
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A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on the Transporter 5 mission. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday packed with 59 small satellites and research experiments, including an innovative commercial water-propelled orbital transfer vehicle from Momentus and a pair of NASA tech demos testing laser communications and proximity operations.
Loaded to the brim with scientific and commercial payloads, the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral at 2:35 p.m. EDT (1835 GMT) Wednesday. SpaceX called a brief hold in the countdown to complete thermal testing for the rocket’s carefully-choreographed payload deployment sequence.
The Falcon 9 rocket headed southeast from Cape Canaveral, then veered south along Florida’s east coast to place the mission’s 59 payloads into polar orbit. The first stage fired its nine Merlin engines for 2 minutes, 16 seconds, then separated from the Falcon upper stage to begin its return to Florida.
The first stage pulsed cold gas nitrogen thrusters to flip around and fly tail-first, then ignited three of the Merlin engines for a boost-back burn at the edge of space to reverse course and head back to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The booster extended titanium grid fins to help steer the rocket back through the atmosphere, then fired three of its engines again for a re-entry burn. After slowing to a velocity less than the speed of sound, the rocket fired its center engine for a final braking maneuver just before a vertical touchdown on four legs at Landing Zone 1, less than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the launch pad.
Less than nine minutes after launch, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 first stage booster returned to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral. This was the eighth flight of this reusable first stage, and SpaceX’s 122nd successful booster landing overall. https://t.co/XaRNoiX1Hepic.twitter.com/QNil3b5DMn
The first stage on Wednesday’s mission — tail number B1061 — made its eighth launch and landing. It debuted in November 2020 on a NASA crew mission carrying four astronauts to space, then launched another four astronauts on a crew flight in April 2021.
SpaceX launched the booster again last June with a radio broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM, last August with a Dragon cargo capsule heading to the International Space Station, and in December with a NASA X-ray astronomy satellite. The booster has now launched three times this year: Feb. 3 with 49 Starlink internet satellites, April 1 with the Transporter 4 rideshare mission, and Wednesday on the Transporter 5 mission.
While the booster returned to Cape Canaveral after Wednesday’s liftoff, the Falcon 9’s second stage engine burned about six minutes to reach a preliminary parking orbit.
After engine cutoff, a self-contained payload from Nanoracks inside a box mounted on the upper stage was programmed to begin a 10-minute experiment to demonstrate metal cutting in orbit. The Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment included three small coupons of corrosion resistant steel, which a robotic arm will attempt to cut using friction milling technology.
Nanoracks says the experiment is a first step in demonstrating metalworks in orbit, which could lead to advancements in space manufacturing and salvaging, including the conversion of used launch vehicle upper stages into orbiting habitats and research platforms.
The metal cutting experiment was expected to complete about 20 minutes after launch, then was supposed to downlink data and imagery to scientists through ground receiving stations.
The Mars Demo-1 payload ready for launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission. Credit: Nanoracks
The upper stage’s work wasn’t finished. Another engine firing occurred 55 minutes into the flight to place the satellite payloads into a near-circular orbit at an altitude of about 326 miles (525 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.5 degrees to the equator.
Then the Falcon 9 began releasing the rest of its commercial and government payloads.
The satellite passengers on the Transporter 5 mission included the first Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle built by a startup named Momentus, which will demonstrate a novel water-based propulsion system.
There was also a Sherpa transfer vehicle from Spaceflight, a company that specializes in brokering rides to space for small satellites, with its own roster of payloads. Another orbital transfer vehicle from the Italian company D-Orbit also separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage to conduct orbital maneuvers before releasing multiple commercial smallsats.
“The orbital transfer vehicle that we call Vigoride is very versatile,” said John Rood, Momentus’ chairman and CEO, in a pre-launch interview with Spaceflight Now. “It can carry small satellites, cube satellites, nanosatellites, pico satellites, all simultaneously, and it uses a water-based propellant and microwave electrothermal thruster.”
Headquartered in San Jose, California, Momentus had to wait longer than it hoped to fly the the first Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle. An earlier version of Vigoride was originally slated to launch in early 2021. The U.S. government withheld regulatory licenses for the Vigoride demo mission, citing national security concerns stemming from the company’s original ownership by two Russian citizens.
The hold-up forced the Russian owners to divest their interest in Momentus, which is now a public company. Rood took the helm of Momentus last year, and the company secured U.S. government approval for the Vigoride demo mission.
Momentus’ Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle. Credit: Niall David / Momentus
Momentus’ orbital transfer vehicle is similar in purpose to space tugs developed by other companies, like Spaceflight and D-Orbit, both of which had their CubeSat carriers on the Transporter 5 mission.
The space tugs can change their altitude, inclination, or other orbital parameters, delivering small payloads to different locations in space than the drop-off orbit of the main rocket. The transfer vehicles can reposition small satellites into orbits more favorable for their missions.
Some transfer vehicles use conventional propulsion, with thrusters powered by liquid propellants. Others are testing electric thrusters, a lower-thrust but higher-efficiency propulsion option.
Rood said the water-based propellant used on Vigoride vehicle provides performance in a “sweet spot” between chemical and electric propulsion, with higher efficiency then conventional rocket fuels, and higher thrust the ion thrusters.
“It’s H20, it’s water as a propellant,” Rood said. “The way this works is similar to the microwave you use in your home. We use microwave energy with a magnetron to heat water vapor to a temperature that’s roughly half the temperature of the surface of the sun.
“The real science comes in to control that resulting plasma, making sure it doesn’t just melt through everything inside, including the nozzle,” Rood said. “And then controlling that plasma to expel it through the rocket nozzle to therefore produce thrust.”
The first Vigoride vehicle carries several customer payloads. The flight plan called for the transfer vehicle to deploy those small satellites, then begin orbital adjustments using its two water-fueled thrusters.
The Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle had an empty weight, or dry mass, of about 270 kilograms (about 600 pounds), according to Rood.
“This microwave electrothermal thruster technology has been in development since the 1980s by university researchers, but Momentus is a real pioneer in bringing it to the marketplace and using it in space.”
Momentus demonstrated a scale version of the thruster in 2019, but the propulsion system on the Vigoride transfer vehicle has many advancements over that test unit.
“This will really be the first full-scale usage of the technology in space,” Rood said. “We expect to learn a lot.”
Momentus also booked a port on the Falcon 9 rocket to accommodate customer payloads, which deployed directly from the upper stage in orbit.
Other payloads on the Transporter 5 mission included five commercial ICEYE radar observation satellites, each nearly 200 pounds (100 kilograms) in mass. There were four small optical Earth-imaging satellites from the Argentine company Satellogic, growing its constellation to 26 operational spacecraft. The Transporter 5 mission launched three microsats from the Canadian company GHGSat, which is deploying a fleet of small satellites to monitor global greenhouse gas emissions.
There were also three formation-flying spacecraft on the Transporter 5 launch for HawkEye 360, a U.S. company building a satellite constellation to detect and locate the source of terrestrial radio signals. HawkEye 360 said earlier this year its RF monitoring satellites detected GPS interference in Ukraine as Russian military forces invaded the country.
Umbra, a startup based in Santa Barbara, California, launched its third radar remote sensing satellite on the Transporter 5 mission. Another California-based company, GeoOptics, also launched two small satellites for its commercial weather monitoring constellation.
There were five Lemur 2 CubeSats on-board from Spire Global to track weather, aviation and maritime activity from space, support data relay services, host an optical payload, and test radio frequency detection technology for the UK Ministry of Defense.
The U.S. military’s Missile Defense Agency had two small tech demo spacecraft on the Transporter 5 mission to test inter-satellite communications links.
NASA had two CubeSat missions launching on the Transporter 5 mission.
One of the CubeSats is named PTD 3, developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center to host a laser communication experiment from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. The Terabyte Infrared Delivery, or TBIRD, experiment will test laser data links between a small satellite and a ground station, helping prove technology that could allow satellite networks to transmit vast volumes of data much faster than through conventional radio systems.
The other NASA payload on the Transporter 5 launch was the CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration, which will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking using two shoebox-sized CubeSats.
One of the CubeSats on the Transporter 5 mission also carried the cremated remains of 47 people, part of a commercial memorial service provided by Celestis.
The launch Wednesday marked SpaceX’s 22nd mission of the year. The next Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for no earlier than June 7, when a Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off from Cape Canaveral with the commercial Nilesat 301 geostationary communications satellite for the Egyptian operator Nilesat.
[…] afternoon’s launch was the eight-times-flown B1061, a booster last used barely eight weeks ago for the April Fool’s Day mission of Transporter-4. That flight delivered around 40 small payloads representing a dozen sovereign nations into orbit, […]
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Inside the VAB the Artemis 1 vehicle is being readied for a return to launch pad 39B and another attempt to complete a crucial pre-flight fueling test. Photo: NASA.
NASA plans to haul its huge Space Launch System moon rocket back to the launch pad June 5-6 for a fourth attempt to load it with 730,000 gallons of supercold propellants in a dress-rehearsal countdown to clear the way for a maiden test flight later this summer, officials said Friday.
Engineers at the Kennedy Space Center have replaced a jammed helium valve in the rocket’s upper stage, tightened bolts to fix a leaky first-stage liquid hydrogen propellant feed line and carried out a variety of other maintenance tasks to ensure a successful tanking test.
At the same time, a vendor beefed up equipment at an off-side plant that feeds gaseous nitrogen to launch pads at both the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, including pad 39B where the SLS rocket will be fueled for its “wet dress rehearsal,” or WDR, countdown.
“Teams have been hard at work preparing the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft to return back to pad 39B,” said Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager at the spaceport. “We’re planning for that to occur on June 6 in preparation for our next wet dress rehearsal.”
If all goes well, the three-day countdown will begin around June 17, leading to propellant loading and the terminal countdown no earlier than June 19.
“We have built in two weather days that could move that date around slightly,” Lanham said. “Again, it is Florida in June. So thunderstorms are expected.”
The Space Launch System rocket is the most powerful launcher yet built for NASA, a gargantuan two-stage booster standing 322 feet tall and tipping the scales at 5.75 million pounds when fully loaded with 730,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel.
Using a pair of extended shuttle-heritage solid-fuel strap-on boosters and four upgraded RS-25 shuttle main engines, the SLS will generate a staggering 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, eclipsing the current heavy-lift record holder, the legendary Saturn 5 that boosted Apollo astronauts to the moon.
Before NASA launches astronauts on the SLS, however, the agency first wants to stage an unpiloted test flight, using the rocket to send an Orion crew capsule on a flight beyond the moon and back.
And before doing that, engineers need to carry out a successful WDR to verify the rocket and the complex ground systems needed prepare it for launch and load it with propellant will work as required. If so, the rocket could be ready for launch on its initial test flight sometime in August.
NASA initially hauled the Artemis 1 SLS out to pad 39B on March 18 for a tanking test on April 3, but trouble with ground equipment triggered a one-day delay. Then the team ran into a gaseous nitrogen shortage, liquid oxygen temperature issues and trouble with an upper stage helium valve.
The helium check valve problem ruled out another attempt to load the second stage, but engineers attempted to fill the first stage with propellants on April 14 only to be blocked again by more trouble with the nitrogen supply, oxygen temperature issues and by a leak in an umbilical where liquid hydrogen enters the rocket.
Two attempts were made to transition from hydrogen “slow fill” to “fast fill,” but in both cases sensors detected higher-than-allowable levels of gaseous hydrogen near the umbilical. The fueling test was called off at that point and on April 15, engineers began hauling the SLS back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for troubleshooting and repairs.
As it turned out, the upper stage helium valve failed to work because a bit of rubber debris had lodged in the mechanism. The valve was replaced and troubleshooters worked to eliminate any additional sources of foreign object debris.
Air Liquide upgraded the company’s gaseous nitrogen delivery system to meet the demands of the SLS rocket and engineers tightened up seals in the leaking hydrogen umbilical to prevent any additional leaks.
“Teams have performed several leak checks,” Lanham said. “We noticed the flange bolts on the … umbilical had loosened over time. So we went in there and retightened the bolts and conducted several leak tests and observed the system to be sure they did not loosen a loosen back up. And all looks good there.”
Testing the fittings at room temperature adds confidence, but engineers will not know for sure if the leak has been stopped until cryogenic liquid hydrogen, at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit, begins flowing through the fitting at the launch pad.
“We have good confidence that we’ve done the right process,” said John Blevins, the SLS chief engineer. “We’ll have to verify that when we get out to the pad and flow the cryos.”
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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft descends toward landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft parachuted to a “picture perfect” landing in southern New Mexico Wednesday, capping a six-day test flight to the International Space Station that NASA’s commercial crew program manager said paves the way for the next Starliner mission to carry astronauts.
The crew capsule touched down at White Sands Space Harbor, co-located with the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range, at 6:49 p.m. EDT (4:49 p.m. MDT; 2249 GMT).
Three red, white, and blue parachutes slowed the capsule to gentle landing velocity of 17.7 mph (28.5 kilometers per hour). Airbags at the bottom of the spacecraft cushioned the jolt of touchdown, ending a long-delayed demonstration mission to the International Space Station.
The Starliner’s landing occurred about four hours after the Starliner capsule undocked from the station.
The Starliner program’s first test flight in December 2019 failed to reach the station. A software programming error caused the spacecraft to burn through much of its propellant after launch, and managers cut short the test flight, which was also plagued with communications issues. The capsule safely returned to the same landing site in New Mexico.
This time, the mood was jubilant among NASA and Boeing officials.
“The test flight was extremely successful,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager. “We met all the mission objectives. Of course, today was a big one with the undocking, the separation sequence, and then the de-orbit burn, entry and landing.”
NASA’s commercial crew program managers the Starliner contract with Boeing. Since 2010, the U.S. space agency has signed a series of cost-sharing agreements and service contracts with Boeing’s Starliner program valued at more than $5.1 billion. Once certified for human spaceflight missions, the Starliner will ferry astronauts to and from the space station.
Next for the Starliner program is a test flight with astronauts.
“When I look at what happened in the flight and the kinds of things we’ll need to work through over the next few months, I don’t see any reason why we can’t proceed toward Crew Flight Test next,” Stich said.
“We have a few things to work on between now and then, but I don’t really see any showstoppers this time relative to last time, when we had challenges to the software and the comm (communications) system.”
The problems found on the 2019 test flight caused a two-year delay in the program. Last year, Boeing moved a Starliner spacecraft to the launch pad for a redo, but engineers discovered stuck valves in the propulsion module during a pre-launch checkout. Teams removed the capsule from its launch vehicle for troubleshooting, and ultimately switched the spacecraft to a new service module before preparing for another try this month.
The mission — designated Orbital Flight Test-2, or OFT-2 — blasted off May 19 from Cape Canaveral top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The spacecraft docked at the station about 26 hours later, and astronauts on the research outpost opened hatches to enter the Starliner capsule Saturday for inspections and testing.
The spacecraft departed the research complex at 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT) Wednesday, then backed away a safe distance before firing four of its rear-facing thrusters for a braking burn at 6:05 p.m. EDT (2205 GMT) to drop out of orbit.
The 58-second deorbit burn set the Starliner spacecraft on course for landing at White Sands. The capsule jettisoned its disposable power and propulsion module to burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. That left the reusable crew module to re-enter the atmosphere for a scorching descent, withstanding temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius).
Approaching White Sands from the southwest, the Starliner spacecraft released two drogue parachutes to stabilize itself before the deployment of three large main chutes. During the last phase of the descent, the capsule let go of its base heat shield, allowing six airbags to inflate for a softer landing.
Touchdown confirmed! Starliner is back home to wrap up a test flight to the International Space Station, landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico six days after launch from Cape Canaveral. https://t.co/TcKCTaaxGrpic.twitter.com/kraJOEhl3P
After touchdown, recovery teams from Boeing and NASA approached the capsule on the desert floor. They temporarily backed off after instruments detected traces of toxic hydrazine vapor, a fuel used by the craft’s rocket thrusters. A few minutes later, officials deemed the spacecraft safe, and teams opened the hatch to begin unloading time-critical cargo packed by the crew on the International Space Station.
The cargo included hardware for tissue engineering research experiments, and three empty air tanks that will be refurbished and flown up to the station on a future mission.
Boeing’s recovery team will prepare the spacecraft for shipment across the country back to the Starliner factory and processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It’s expected to arrive there around June 9 to begin preparations for a future crew mission.
The aerospace contractor has another Starliner crew module that will launch on the next test flight with two or three NASA astronauts. NASA will determine the final crew complement for the Crew Flight Test in the coming months.
“This is what we were hoping for — a soft, safe landing,” said NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, who is training to fly to the space station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Wilmore called the Starliner test flight a “wonderful, successful mission.”
“We’re really pleased with the mission,” said Mark Nappi, a Boeing vice president and manager of the Starliner program. “All of the objectives of the demonstration have been satisfied. The next step is to really dig down into all the details of the mission.”
Engineers are studying why two of the Starliner spacecraft’s Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control, or OMAC, thrusters shut down during a burn soon after launch last week. The thrusters are made by Aerojet Rocketdyne, and generate about 1,500 pounds of thrust for major in-orbit maneuvers.
The Starliner spacecraft has 20 OMAC rocket engines, and had enough redundancy to overcome the thruster failure without any major impacts to the mission. Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said mission control test-fired the suspect OMAC engines after undocking from the station Wednesday, and telemetry data indicated the engines only produced about 25% of their expected thrust.
Engineers will analyze data from the mission to determine the most likely cause of the thruster failures. Nappi said he doesn’t expect the OMAC engine problems to force any design change to the Starliner propulsion system.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to explain these and move on,” Nappi said.
Two smaller Reaction Control System thrusters also stopped working during the Starliner spacecraft’s rendezvous with the station. But those smaller rocket jets worked well after undocking Wednesday, and mission control reactivated the two RCS thrusters.
The RCS and OMAC engines were on the Starliner service module, which burned up during re-entry into the atmosphere.
Boeing’s recovery team approaches the Starliner spacecraft in protective suits to ensure there are no hazardous leaks after landing. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Just before landing, a maneuvering jet on the Starliner crew module also appeared to stop working, Stich said. Boeing engineers will be able to get a hands-on look at that thruster.
The spacecraft’s cooling system also ran into some difficulties during the flight up to the space station. But ground controllers uplinked commands to stabilize the thermal control system, which uses two coolant loops connected to radiators to dissipate heat generated from the spacecraft’s electronics.
The navigation system on the Starliner spacecraft also took longer to configure after the capsule departed the station Wednesday.
“The things that we encountered in flight were really loss of redundancy in several thrusters,” Stich said. “We needed to learn how to manage the cooling loops. We needed to learn how to manage a little bit aligning the navigation system after we undocked today, which we did.
“Then you look at the entry sequence. That went flawlessly, and that system has to work perfectly every time, including the landing system, the parachutes, the airbag system. The cabin temperature was 70 degrees to 74 degrees, which is what we need for the crew.”
Boeing is on track to have the next Starliner spacecraft ready to fly with astronauts by the end of this year, Stich said.
But there’s a lot of work to complete before NASA clears the capsule to launch astronauts. Then officials have to find an opening in the International Space Station’s busy schedule of visiting cargo and crew vehicles, and a slot on ULA’s Atlas 5 launch schedule.
“Certainly, it could move into the first quarter of next year,” Stich said of the Starliner’s Crew Flight Test.
Nappi said Boeing and NASA are “probably several months” from firming up a schedule for the first Starliner crew mission.
The Crew Flight Test will likely last a week or two, Stich said. NASA negotiated with Boeing for an option to extend the Starliner’s Crew Flight Test as long as six months, in case the agency needs the astronauts to serve as members of the space station’s long-duration crew.
Following the Crew Flight Test, Boeing will launch six operational Starliner crew rotation missions to the station. Once the Starliner is operational, NASA wants to alternate between crew rotation flights using Boeing’s crew capsule and SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time in May 2020, operating under a contract similar to Boeing’s deal with NASA.
An instrumented mannequin, nicknamed “Rosie” after the World War II icon Rosie the Riveter, inside the crew cabin of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft while docked at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
Boeing and NASA will complete software updates for the Starliner cockpit displays in the next few months. Later this summer, astronauts will participate in ground tests with Boeing’s spacesuit and the Starliner seats. A comprehensive test of the Starliner’s environmental control and life support systems is also planned this summer, according to Stich.
Engineers will also evaluate the performance of the Starliner’s propulsion system valves on the OFT-2 mission.
Stuck oxidizer isolation valves caused the Starliner’s launch delay from last year. Investigators traced the cause to corrosion generated from a chemical reaction between the valves’ aluminum housing, nitrogen tetroxide propellant vapors, and moisture that got into the propulsion system.
Boeing added a pre-launch nitrogen purge on the Starliner service module to prevent moisture from getting into the valves. Engineers are considering reducing the amount of aluminum in the valve housing for future missions, but Boeing officials believe the Crew Flight Test can go forward without a valve redesign, Nappi said.
“We are not going to rush into anything unsafely,” Nappi said. “We monitor our resources on a weekly basis. We make sure that we’re working the appropriate amount of hours, and we’re not pushing any discipline beyond our limits.”
[…] Her people-hauling duties over, B1061 settled last summer into a more regular routine as a payload-lifter. She launched SiriusXM’s heavyweight SXM-8 broadcasting satellite last June, SpaceX’s CRS-23 Cargo Dragon to the ISS last August, NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) last December and a 49-strong batch of Starlink low-orbiting internet communications satellites in February. […]
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[…] calendar month, achieve a new Falcon 9 turnaround record and execute a pair of Crew Dragon flights to the International Space Station (ISS)—it seemed that the bar had been set very high for May. But the challenge was met in style. No […]
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Live coverage of the unpiloted test flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Transporter 5 mission will launch 59 small payloads from customers around the world. Follow us on Twitter.
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Fifty-nine small satellites and hosted experiments are awaiting launch Wednesday at 2:27 p.m. EDT (1827 GMT) from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The reusable Falcon booster will return to Florida’s Space Coast for landing about eight-and-a-half minutes later. The mission is the fifth for SpaceX’s Transporter smallsat rideshare program.
There is an 80% chance that weather conditions will be favorable for launch Wednesday, according to the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron.
The Falcon 9 rocket will head southeast from Cape Canaveral, then south along Florida’s east coast to place the mission’s 59 payloads into polar orbit. The first stage will fire its nine Merlin engines for 2 minutes, 16 seconds, then separate from the Falcon upper stage to begin its return to Florida.
The first stage will pulse cold gas nitrogen thrusters to flip around and fly tail-first, then ignite three of the Merlin engines for a boost-back burn at the edge of space to reverse course and head back to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The booster will extend titanium grid fins to help steer the rocket back through the atmosphere, then fire three of its engines again for a re-entry burn. After slowing to a velocity less than the speed of sound, the rocket will fire its center engine for a final braking maneuver just before a vertical touchdown on four legs at Landing Zone 1, less than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the launch pad.
The first stage on Wednesday’s mission — tail number B1061 — is making its eighth launch and landing. It debuted in November 2020 on a NASA crew mission carrying four astronauts to space, then launched another four astronauts on a crew flight in April 2021.
SpaceX launched the booster again last June with a radio broadcasting satellite for SiriusXM, last August with a Dragon cargo capsule heading to the International Space Station, and in December with a NASA X-ray astronomy satellite. The booster has launched twice this year — Feb. 3 with 49 Starlink internet satellites and April 1 with the Transporter 4 mission, SpaceX’s most recent smallsat rideshare flight.
While the booster returns to Cape Canaveral after Wednesday’s liftoff, the Falcon 9’s second stage engine will burn about six minutes to reach a preliminary parking orbit.
After engine cutoff, a self-contained payload from Nanoracks inside a box mounted on the upper stage will begin a 10-minute experiment to demonstrate metal cutting in orbit. The Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment includes three small coupons of corrosion resistant steel, which a robotic arm will attempt to cut using friction milling technology.
Nanoracks says the experiment is a first step in demonstrating metalworks in orbit, which could lead to advancements in space manufacturing and salvaging, including the conversion of used launch vehicle upper stages into orbiting habitats and research platforms.
The metal cutting experiment will complete about 20 minutes after launch, then downlink data and imagery to scientists through ground receiving stations.
The upper stage’s work won’t be finished, with another engine firing planned 55 minutes into the flight to place its satellite payloads into a near-circular orbit at an altitude of about 326 miles (525 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.5 degrees to the equator.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral early Wednesday, hours before the launch of the Transporter 5 mission. Credit: SpaceX
Then the Falcon 9 will begin releasing the rest of its commercial and government payloads.
The satellite passengers on the Transporter 5 mission include the first Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle built by a startup named Momentus Space, which will demonstrate a novel water-based propulsion system.
There’s also a Sherpa transfer vehicle from Spaceflight, a company that specializes in brokering rides to space for small satellites, with its own roster of payloads. Another orbital transfer vehicle from the Italian company D-Orbit will also separate from the Falcon 9 upper stage to conduct orbital maneuvers before releasing multiple commercial smallsats.
Other payloads on the Transporter 5 mission include five commercial ICEYE radar observation satellites, each nearly 200 pounds (100 kilograms) in mass. There are four small optical Earth-imaging satellites from the Argentine company Satellogic, growing its constellation to 26 operational spacecraft. The Transporter 5 mission will launch three microsats from the Canadian company GHGSat, which is deploying a fleet of small satellites to monitor global greenhouse gas emissions.
There are also three formation-flying spacecraft on the Transporter 5 launch for HawkEye 360, a U.S. company building a satellite constellation to detect and locate the source of terrestrial radio signals. HawkEye 360 said earlier this year its RF monitoring satellites detected GPS interference in Ukraine as Russian military forces invaded the country.
Umbra, a startup based in Santa Barbara, California, is launching its third radar remote sensing satellite on the Transporter 5 mission. Another California-based company, GeoOptics, will also launch two small satellites for its commercial weather monitoring constellation.
There are five Lemur 2 CubeSats on-board from Spire Global to track weather, aviation and maritime activity from space, support data relay services, and host an optical payload, and test radio frequency detection technology for the UK Ministry of Defense.
The U.S. military’s Missile Defense Agency has two small tech demo spacecraft on the Transporter 5 mission to test inter-satellite communications links.
NASA has two CubeSat missions launching on the Transporter 5 mission.
One of the CubeSats is named PTD 3, developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center to host a laser communication experiment from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. The Terabyte Infrared Delivery, or TBIRD, experiment will test laser data links between a small satellite and a ground station, helping prove technology that could allow satellite networks to transmit vast volumes of data much faster than through conventional radio systems.
The other NASA payload on the Transporter 5 launch is the CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration, which will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking using two shoebox-sized CubeSats.
Read our story on the Nanoracks metal cutting experiment on the Transporter 5 launch.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1061.8)
PAYLOAD: 59 microsatellites, CubeSats, orbital transfer vehicles, and hosted payloads
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: May 25, 2022
LAUNCH TIME: 2:27:00 p.m. EDT (1827:00 GMT)
LAUNCH WINDOW: 57 minutes
WEATHER FORECAST: 80% probability of acceptable weather
BOOSTER RECOVERY: Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: South-southeast, then south
TARGET ORBIT: Approximately 326 miles (525 kilometers), 97.5 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
T+00:00: Liftoff
T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
T+02:16: First stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
T+02:19: Stage separation
T+02:27: Second stage engine ignition
T+02:32: First stage boost-back burn ignition (three engines)
T+03:19: First stage boost-back burn ends
T+03:47: Fairing jettison
T+06:43: First stage entry burn ignition (three engines)
T+07:08: First stage entry burn ends
T+08:00: First stage landing burn ignition (one engine)
T+08:25: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)
T+08:33: First stage landing
T+08:35: Nanoracks Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment initiation
T+55:27: Second stage engine restart
T+55:59: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 2)
T+59:00: GeoOptics CICERO 2 Vehicle 2 separation
T+59:09: SharedSat_2141 separation
T+59:17: Spire’s Lemur-2 Karen_B separation
T+59:18: NASA Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 separation
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
Astronauts on the International Space Station closed the hatch to Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft Tuesday, and ground teams used the lab’s robotic arm to inspect the capsule’s heat shield to clear the vehicle for undocking Wednesday and return to Earth for a late afternoon landing in New Mexico.
The Boeing-owned spacecraft launched last Thursday and docked at the space station Friday night, reaching the orbiting research complex for the first time after officials aborted a test flight in 2019. The unpiloted demonstration mission is set to conclude Wednesday with an automated departure from the space station, followed a few hours later by a parachute-assisted, airbag cushioned landing at White Sands Space Harbor.
NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines closed the forward hatch to the Starliner spacecraft at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) Tuesday. Hines became the first person to enter a Starliner spacecraft in orbit Saturday, when the station crew opened the hatch and began three days of inspections and checkouts inside the capsule’s crew cabin.
Astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station Tuesday. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now
The Outpost Mars Demo-1 payload ready for launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission. Credit: Nanoracks
Nanoracks will fly an experiment with a small articulating robot arm on SpaceX’s Transporter 5 rideshare mission this week to demonstrate metal cutting in orbit, a test lasting just minutes that could advance in-space manufacturing technology to help convert used rocket stages into space habitats.
The Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment is bolted to a stack of dozens of small satellites on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. Instead of deploying from the rocket to begin a standalone mission lasting months or years, the experiment will remain attached to the Falcon 9’s upper stage for a quick demonstration expected to run no more than 10 minutes.
“If you want to go into deep space, go to Mars, go to other places, we’ve got to start building and constructing vehicles in space rather than just launching them all lock, stock and barrel from the ground,” said Marshall Smith, senior vice president of space systems at Nanoracks. “So this is the first step toward that. Our eventual plan is to have multiple flights where we’re doing more welding, cutting, and demonstrating how do we do manufacturing in space — real honest to goodness manufacturing and building in space, rather than launching things pre-packed.”
Nine minutes after launch, as soon as the Falcon 9’s upper stage reaches orbit, the Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment will begin. The payload is self-contained inside a box with a miniature robotic arm developed by Maxar Technologies, fitted with a friction milling end effector.
The technology demonstration is partially funded by NASA and managed by Nanoracks, with assistance from partners including Maxar and United Launch Alliance.
The on-orbit metal cutting experiment is part of the the Outpost program managed by Nanoracks, a company owned by Voyager Space. Nanoracks has developed a successful business helping companies, universities, and research institutions deliver their payloads to orbit. A big chunk of Nanoracks’ business is focused on providing commercial access to the International Space Station.
A next step for Nanoracks is the development of standalone platforms in orbit. Nanoracks, Voyager Space, and Lockheed Martin are partnering on the design of a commercial space station in low Earth orbit under a $160 million contract with NASA. The space agency in December also awarded similar design contracts to industry teams led by Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, an early step in developing a replacement for the International Space Station.
NASA has an agreement with another company — Axiom Space — to add a commercial module to the International Space Station as soon as late 2024. Axiom is eyeing its own privately-owned space station.
Apart from its space station aspirations, Nanoracks says its Outpost program is aimed at transforming used launch vehicle upper stages into controllable platforms in Earth orbit.
“Imagine a future where Nanoracks-built hardware allows the empty fuel tank of any rocket to come back to life after its primary mission, but this time as a facility for robotic manufacturing, satellite servicing, a greenhouse, and more,” Nanoracks says on its website.
“Nobody has actually really done any significant metal work in space, so this will be the experiment where we’re going up, and we’re going to be cutting a metal piece,” Smith said in an interview. “It is the same material that’s used on the outer shell of a ULA Vulcan Centaur (rocket), and we’ll be cutting this piece without leaving any debris in the process.”
The Maxar cutting tool will run at high rotations per minute, melting the metal to create a cut. Thermal sensors and cameras will collect data and monitor the entire process.
There are three coupons of corrosion resistant steel on the Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment.
“It’s a small coupon, we’re talking inches in size, and the point is to demonstrate the cut and make sure we can do it without getting any debris in the area,” Smith said.
If all goes according to plan the experiment will begin just after shutdown of the Falcon 9’s upper stage engine about nine minutes after launch from Cape Canaveral. The cutting demonstration should be finished around 10 minutes later, according to Voyager Space.
While the Falcon 9 continues its flight around the world to release nearly 40 small satellites, the Nanoracks experiment will remain bolted to the rocket, downlinking data and imagery to ground receiving stations. Within a couple of hours after launch, the Falcon 9 upper stage will fire its engine to de-orbit and re-enter the atmosphere, burning up with the Mars Demo-1 payload over the Pacific Ocean.
Artist’s concept of a Nanoracks “Outpost” habitat derived from a salvaged rocket stage in orbit. Credit: Nanoracks
The Transporter 5 mission is set for launch Wednesday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A Falcon 9 rocket will target a polar orbit at an altitude of about 330 miles (530 kilometers).
The space station concept being designed by Nanoracks would launch as a single unit on a heavy-lift rocket. Meanwhile, Nanoracks is developing a system it calls a Mission Extension Kit, which could be integrated on any rocket’s upper stage, turning what would become space junk into a useful asset.
“That allows them, after they’ve done their primary mission, to continue operating almost indefinitely, doing other types of missions where the upper stage can be used for other opportunities — communications, debris monitoring, collecting debris, and those types of things,” Smith said.
The extension kits would provide power, pointing, data handling, and communications, allowing upper stages to be repurposed into habitable “outposts” after ending the launch portion of their missions.
“Eventually, what we’d like to have happen is be able to use upper stages to build more space station capabilities,” he said.
“Maxar’s innovative robotics engineering on Mars Demo-1 represents a critical step toward using new technology to reduce future space debris,” said Chris Johnson, Maxar’s senior vice president of space. “Maxar is excited to partner with Nanoracks on this demonstration, which will test new ways to keep space a safe place to operate and explore for future generations. We are committed to eliminating unnecessary debris while developing on-orbit servicing and manufacturing capabilities, technologies which will revolutionize the space industry.”
Nanoracks originally planned to launch the Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment in late 2020. But the experiment has been reassigned to different SpaceX rideshare missions after delays caused by supplier issues and the COVID pandemic, according to Smith.
It would have been ready for SpaceX’s Transporter 4 mission, which launched April 1, but the payload manifest for that launch was fully booked. So it’s launching on Transporter 5, SpaceX’s fifth dedicated small satellite rideshare flight.
Nanoracks is designing follow-on experiments to Mars Demo-1, including a concept to harvest, cut, refine, and reuse metal from existing space junk, the company said on its website.
“This is an initial step,” Smith said. “There’s going to be quite a bit of work.”
SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft after splashdown May 6, with its heat shield displayed toward the camera. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
SpaceX’s next crew mission to the International Space Station, set for launch in September, will fly with a different heat shield structure than originally planned after a composite substrate failed in acceptance testing due to a “manufacturing defect,” NASA said Tuesday.
The heat shield’s 13-foot-diameter (4-meter) composite structure — located at the bottom, blunt end of the Dragon capsule — is detachable and interchangeable between the reusable spacecraft in SpaceX’s Dragon fleet. SpaceX installs thermal protection tiles on the composite structure to protect the spacecraft from the searing heat of atmospheric re-entry at the end of each mission.
“SpaceX has a rigorous testing process to put every component and system through its paces to ensure safety and reliability,” NASA said. “In early May, a new heat shield composite structure intended for flight on Crew-5 did not pass an acceptance test. The test did its job and found a manufacturing defect. NASA and SpaceX will use another heat shield for the flight that will undergo the same rigorous testing prior to flight.”
NASA purchases crew transportation flights from SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, and oversees SpaceX’s commercial crew and cargo contracts.
The Crew-5 mission will be SpaceX’s fifth operational crew rotation flight to the space station, and the eighth flight of a Dragon spacecraft with astronauts on-board. The four Crew-5 astronauts will replace the Crew-4 astronauts who launched to the space station April 27.
NASA said agency managers and SpaceX officials are “currently in the process of determining hardware allocation” for the Crew-5 mission. That hardware allocation includes the Dragon heat shield, NASA said.
“Crew safety remains the top priority for both NASA and SpaceX and we continue to target September 2022 for launch of Crew-5,” NASA said.
SpaceX did not respond to questions from Spaceflight Now.
The Crew-5 mission will be commanded by NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and piloted by Josh Cassada, both first-time space fliers. Veteran Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, on his fifth trip to space, will join them for a half-year mission on the space station.
Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina is training to fly in the fourth seat, and would become the first Russian to launch on a Dragon spacecraft, assuming the U.S. and Russian governments can finalize an agreement for the mission some time next month. NASA wants to secure a no-funds-exchanged agreement with the Russian space agency to fly Russian cosmonauts to the station on U.S. vehicles in exchange for NASA crew seats on Russian Soyuz missions.
SpaceX has four Dragon crew capsules in its fleet. The Dragon Freedom spacecraft is currently docked at the space station, and the Dragon Endeavour and Dragon Endurance capsules returned from missions to the station April 25 and May 6.
The Dragon Resilience spacecraft, which hasn’t flown since last September, is likely to be flown again on the all-private Polaris Dawn crew mission late this year, according to Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn commander.
NASA said the recent returns of the Dragon Endeavour and Dragon Endurance spacecraft were normal.
The Dragon Endeavour spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean near Florida on April 25, wrapping up a 17-day commercial crew mission to the space station with a retired NASA astronaut and four paying passengers. On May 6, SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico with three NASA astronauts and a European Space Agency mission specialist on the Crew-3 mission, concluding a six-month expedition on the station.
“The system performed as designed without dispute” on the Ax-1 and Crew-3 re-entries, NASA said.
An online report posted by SpaceExplored.com on Monday claimed that a leak of hypergolic propellant — used by the Dragon’s propulsion system — may have contaminated the heat shield, causing damage during the return to Earth. NASA said Tuesday that wasn’t true.
“There has not been a hypergol leak during the return of a crewed Dragon mission nor any contamination with the heat shield causing excessive wear,” NASA said. “SpaceX and NASA perform a full engineering review of the heat shield’s thermal protection system following each return, including prior to the launch of the Crew-4 mission currently at the International Space Station.”
The Crew-4 mission was the first SpaceX astronaut mission to fly with a refurbished composite heat shield structure. The tiles bonded to the substrate are new on the Crew-4 mission, NASA said.
SpaceX has reused “selected” tiles on Dragon cargo missions to the space station, according to NASA.
The next Dragon cargo flight is set for launch June 7 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The SpaceX cargo freighter will launch on top of a Falcon 9 rocket.
The Dragon spacecraft used for cargo and crew missions are similar in design, but the cargo version lacks the seats, touchscreen controls, and some life support systems necessary to accommodate astronauts. The cargo variant also does not have a launch escape system to push itself away from the Falcon 9 rocket in the event of a launch failure.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is the only U.S. vehicle currently certified to carry astronauts to the space station. NASA hopes Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, which launched last week on a long-delayed unpiloted test flight, will soon give the agency a second domestic option for astronaut missions, alongside the SpaceX Dragon and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
A Chinese Long March 2C rocket lifts off May 20 with three communications test satellites. Credit: CASC
A two-stage Chinese Long March 2C rocket launched Friday and delivered three communications test satellites into an orbit about 550 miles (880 kilometers) above Earth.
The Long March 2C rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch base in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) Friday, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., or CASC, the state-owned organization in charge the Chinese space industry.
The liquid-fueled launcher flew south from Jiuquan, then deployed a Yuanzheng 1S upper stage to finish the job of placing the three satellites into the proper orbit for deployment.
U.S. military tracking data confirmed the the satellites were deployed in a near-circular orbit at an average altitude of about 550 miles, with an inclination of 86 degrees to the equator.
Few details about the satellites were disclosed by Chinese officials, but two of the communications spacecraft were manufactured by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd., a commercial company that has previously specialized in building Earth-imaging satellites. The third satellite was built by the China Academy of Space Technology, a government-owned enterprise part of CASC.
“These satellites will carry out tests and verifications of in-orbit communication technologies,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Chinese companies are developing technologies for a large “megaconstellation” consisting of thousands of internet satellites, similar to SpaceX’s Starlink and the OneWeb broadband networks.
The Long March 2C rocket used Friday flew with 13.8-foot-diameter (4.2-meter) payload fairing, a larger than usual nose cone designed to provide more volume to accommodate more satellites on a single mission. China debuted the wider fairing design on a Long March 2C mission last August.
While I was a teenager in that era & remember these first flights with the confidence that America could pull it all off with expertise & certainty of outcome, your SPLENDID & CANDID storytelling reveal that spaceflight…for all the pre-planning that went into it…was NEVER A CERTAINTY and there were always “surprises” & disaster stalking each & every mission & accomplishment. Ben Evans, you have a tremendous gift for writing and bringing these stories to life with a “you are there”…looking over their shoulders & capturing every fascinating nuance of thought & deed as it all became a history of spaceflight! THANK YOU !!!
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[…] mission: astronomical observations, visibility and flying evaluations and medical checks. Sadly, as outlined in yesterday’s AmericaSpace history article, Carpenter’s five-hour, three-orbit mission suffered from severe technical problems, including a […]
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Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator, visits the Psyche spacecraft undergoing processing May 19 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA-JPL/Wes Kuykendall
The launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission, which was set for Aug. 1 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, has been delayed to no earlier than Sept. 20 after ground teams discovered an issue during software testing on the spacecraft, officials said Monday.
The robotic asteroid explorer arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California on April 29 aboard a U.S. military cargo plane. Then ground teams moved the spacecraft, packed inside a climate-controlled shipping container, to a clean room at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility.
Technicians unboxed the Psyche spacecraft and moved it to a handling fixture for a series of hardware and software tests to make sure the probe survived the cross-country trip from California.
But a technical issue interrupted the test campaign, and will delay the launch of the Psyche mission at least seven weeks.
“An issue is preventing confirmation that the software controlling the spacecraft is functioning as planned,” NASA said in a written statement, responding to questions from Spaceflight Now. “The team is working to identify and correct the issue.”
The new launch readiness date for Psyche is no earlier than Sept. 20, according to Gretchen McCartney, a spokesperson at JPL, the NASA center leading the Psyche mission.
The mission has a launch period extending from Aug. 1 into the fall, when Earth is in the proper position in the solar system to make Psyche’s interplanetary journey feasible. The spacecraft is headed for the asteroid Psyche — the spacecraft’s namesake — a metal-rich world in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
NASA and members of the Psyche team did not respond to a question on the exact length of the mission’s interplanetary launch period this year, or when the mission’s next launch period would open after 2022.
Other work required to prepare the Psyche spacecraft for launch included the installation of its deep space transponder, part of the probe’s communications system, after it had to be removed from the spacecraft at JPL for troubleshooting. Ground crews also plan to load more than a ton of xenon gas into the spacecraft’s all-electric propulsion system, then encapsulate Psyche inside the nose cone of its launch vehicle.
A Falcon Heavy rocket provided by SpaceX will blast off from pad 39A at Kennedy and hurl the Psyche spacecraft on an escape trajectory away from Earth, allowing the probe to reach Mars in May 2023 for a flyby maneuver, using the planet’s gravity to slingshot toward its asteroid destination.
The Psyche spacecraft will reach the asteroid Psyche in January 2026, then enter a series of orbits at different distances to map the unexplored world. Psyche, the asteroid, has an irregular shape, an average diameter of about 140 miles (226 kilometers), and is made mostly of nickel and iron metals.
Psyche was assembled and tested at JPL. Maxar Technologies, a builder of commercial communications satellites, provided the spacecraft’s chassis, propulsion system, and solar panels. JPL, with extensive experience in deep space operations, provided Psyche’s flight computer, software, and parts of the communications and power systems.
The three-and-a-half year trip to asteroid Psyche will span 1.5 billion miles (2.4 billion kilometers). The spacecraft is designed to spend at least 21 months studying the asteroid after arrival in 2026.
NASA selected Psyche as a Discovery-class, cost-capped interplanetary mission in 2017, alongside the Lucy asteroid explorer, which launched last year. The Psyche mission’s total cost is nearly $1 billion, including development, launch services, and operations.
Two small spacecraft will hitch a ride to space with Psyche. NASA’s twin Janus probes, each weighing just 80 pounds (36 kilograms), will launch on the same Falcon Heavy rocket as Psyche, but will head off into the solar system to fly by separate asteroids.
A Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off in April 2019 with the Arabsat 6A communications satellite. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Spaceflight Now
The Psyche mission will mark NASA’s first use of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, a heavy-lifter created by connecting three SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosters together. The design gives the Falcon Heavy rocket 5.1 million pounds of ground-shaking thrust at liftoff, generated by 27 Merlin main engines.
SpaceX launched the first three Falcon Heavy missions in 2018 and 2019, but more than three years will have passed between the third and fourth Falcon Heavy rocket flights.
Several Falcon Heavy launches are potentially scheduled before the end of the year, including NASA’s Psyche mission and the commercial ViaSat 3 Americas broadband internet satellite, also slated to launch no earlier than the September timeframe.
The U.S. Space Force has two Falcon Heavy missions that could launch late this year with secret military satellites. One of those missions, USSF 44, had been tentatively scheduled for late June, but has been postponed indefinitely. A Space Force spokesperson said last week he could not provide an updated schedule for the USSF 44 mission.
Another Space Force launch, designated USSF 52, is also assigned to a Falcon Heavy launch. It was originally scheduled to fly after USSF 44 in the October timeframe, but that was before the latest delay in the USSF 44 mission.
All of the delays to the upcoming Falcon Heavy missions have been caused by payload issues.
The Space Force’s USSF 44 mission was supposed to launch in late 2020, and the Space Force has attributed the schedule slips to spacecraft delays.
Viasat’s next-generation broadband satellite, set to beam internet connectivity to the Americas, has faced manufacturing, workforce, and supplier problems the company has partly blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission is the latest Falcon Heavy payload to run into a launch delay.
A classified mapping satellite rode a Soyuz rocket into space Thursday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, the fifth space mission of the year to deploy a Russian military payload in orbit.
The Russian military satellite launched at 4:03 a.m. EDT (0803 GMT) Thursday from Plesetsk, a military spaceport about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow in Arkhangelsk Oblast.
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket began its vertical climb away from Plesetsk with nearly a million pounds of thrust from kerosene-fueled engines, then headed north to target a polar orbit for deployment of its Russian military payload.
The Soyuz jettisoned its four first stage boosters about two minutes into the flight, then a third stage engine took over from the rocket’s core stage about five minutes after liftoff. The third stage deployed its payload into a preliminary orbit ranging in altitude between 210 miles (338 kilometers) and 345 miles (556 kilometers), with an inclination of 97.7 degrees to the equator, according to U.S. military tracking data.
The circumstances of Thursday’s launch — its launch site, the configuration of its launch vehicle, and target orbit — suggest the payload was the Russian military’s third Bars-M digital mapping satellite. The first two spacecraft in Russia’s current generation of Bars-M mapping satellites launched on Soyuz rockets in 2015 and 2016.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not identify the satellite launched Thursday. The Russian military declared the launch successful, and U.S. tracking data confirmed the Soyuz placed its satellite payload into an orbit matching those of the previous Bars-M missions.
Made by TsSKB Progress in Samara, Russia, the Bars-M satellite’s capabilities are classified, but analysts believe it hosts a digital imager, replacing older satellites that carried film cameras that returned to Earth via parachute to be recovered and developed.
The Bars-M satellite’s Karat electro-optical camera was developed by the Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association, and the satellite is expected to operate at least five years, according to documents posted on a Russian government procurement website.
The upgrade allows the Bars-M satellites to remain in orbit longer and send imagery to analysts via radio links.
The last of the old-generation satellites launched in 2005, leaving Russia with a gap in the imaging capability to be filled by Bars-M, which specializes in collecting stereo images to help create maps for use by the Russian military.
The spacecraft launched Thursday was designated Kosmos 2556, continuing the Russian naming scheme for military satellites.
The mission Thursday was the seventh launch of a Soyuz rocket this year, and the fifth space mission to blast off from Plesetsk in 2022.
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Denis Matveev, and astronaut Bob Hines inside the Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. The instrumented mannequin, “Rosie the Rocketeer,” is in the commander’s seat wearing a Boeing spacesuit. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now
Astronauts on the International Space Station floated into Boeing’s Starliner capsule Saturday, becoming the first people to enter the spacecraft in orbit less than a day after it docked at the orbiting research complex for the first time.
The station astronauts will spend several days performing tests and unpacking cargo inside the Starliner spacecraft before it departs and returns to Earth on Wednesday.
NASA astronaut Bob Hines became the first person to enter a Starliner spacecraft in orbit after opening the capsule’s forward hatch at 12:04 p.m. EDT (1604 GMT) Saturday. Two of his crewmates, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Russian cosmonaut Denis Matveev, joined him inside the spacecraft a few minutes later.
The crew members initially wore masks and goggle to protect against potential floating particles inside the Starliner spacecraft. The protective gear is usually worn by space station astronauts when entering a new spacecraft or new module for the first time.
The astronauts removed their protective gear after a few minutes. They snapped photos and inspected the inside of the capsule, and broadcast a brief video tour of the Starliner crew cabin.
“Welcome to Starliner, for the very first time ever in space,” Hines said.
The Starliner spacecraft docked at the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at 8:28 p.m. EDT Friday (0028 GMT Saturday). The capsule completed the automated link-up after holding position near the station longer than planned, giving time for mission control to resolve an issue with its docking mechanism.
“It was really spectacular to see this beautiful vehicle arrive here yesterday,” Hines said.
The Starliner spacecraft “parked out on the doorstep for a little while resolving some minor issues, but these are the kinds of things we expect in flight test, and that is why we do tests,” Hines said Saturday. “If we didn’t find something like that, we’re probably doing something wrong. So it was a highly successful mission yesterday. It was great to have Starliner on-board.”
Hines, Lindgren, and crewmates Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti flew to the International Space Station last month on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Their launch and docking marked the fourth operational flight of SpaceX’s crew capsule carrying astronauts to the space station, and the seventh Dragon crew flight overall, including a 2020 test flight and two all-commercial human spaceflight missions.
Boeing’s Starliner program, meanwhile, is running years behind SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. A 2019 unpiloted test flight was cut short by software problems, and the spacecraft returned to Earth without docking at the space station. Boeing and NASA agreed to launch a second unpiloted demo mission — called Orbital Flight Test-2 — but the launch was delayed from last August by problems with valves in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
Boeing took $595 million in accounting charges to pay for the OFT-2 mission and associated delays.
The OFT-2 mission finally launched Thursday from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. NASA and Boeing managers approved the Starliner spacecraft for approach to the space station Friday, following several technical issues with thrusters and the capsule’s cooling system.
NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to finish the design and development of the Dragon and Starliner vehicles. In total, NASA has signed commercial crew contracts with Boeing valued at more than $5.1 billion, and $3.1 billion in contracts covering similar work with SpaceX.
NASA’s commercial crew program was set up to provide independent U.S. astronaut access to the space station after the retirement of the space shuttle. For nine years after the last shuttle flight until SpaceX’s capsule came online, NASA astronauts rode Russian Soyuz spacecraft to and from the space station.
“Back in 2014, NASA awarded the commercial crew contracts, and this is the day that they envisioned, where we have three human-rated vehicles docked to the space station right now,” Hines said. “So we have the Soyuz docked on the MLM (Multipurpose Laboratory Module), and then we have a Dragon right above us, and the Starliner right behind us.
“This is a momentous day in NASA’s history, and just paving the way for the future as we start enabling commercial flights here in low Earth orbit while NASA pivots to the moon and eventually on to Mars.”
European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this picture of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Credit: Samantha Cristoforetti / European Space Agency / NASA
Hines and Lindgren plan several tests inside the Starliner capsule while it is docked at the space station. They will perform communications checks inside the Starliner spacecraft, and unpack about 500 pounds of cargo, then replace it with about 600 pounds of cargo for return to Earth.
The Starliner is scheduled to undock from the station at 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT) Wednesday, then back away to a safe distance from the complex before a braking burn at 6:02 p.m. EDT (2202 GMT) to drop out of orbit.
The crew module, designed for reuse, will jettison its disposable service module and re-enter the atmosphere on a southwest to northeast trajectory, then deploy parachutes and inflate airbags to cushion for landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico at 6:46 p.m. EDT (2246 GMT).
The OFT-2 mission is a precursor before NASA clears astronauts to fly on the next Starliner mission to the International Space Station.
