SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket stands vertical on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of a launch attempt with ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is expected to roll a Falcon 9 rocket back into its hangar at Cape Canaveral for troubleshooting, postponing the planned launch of a Japanese commercial moon lander for an unspecified period. SpaceX provided no details about the reason for grounding the rocket.
The company planned to launch the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket this week with a privately-developed moon lander owned by the Tokyo-based company ispace. SpaceX announced late Tuesday that teams would delay the launch from Wednesday to 3:37 a.m. EST (0837 GMT) Thursday. Officials decided late Wednesday the rocket launch will be postponed indefinitely.
“After further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review, SpaceX is standing down from Falcon 9’s launch of ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,” SpaceX said in a brief statement. “A new target launch date will be shared once confirmed.”
A statement from ispace said the issue causing the delay involves the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Multiple sources familiar with the mission said SpaceX planned to lower the Falcon 9 rocket horizontal and roll it back to the hangar just south of pad 40, where technicians will perform more tests and resolve the problem.
Data on marine tracking websites also indicated SpaceX’s recovery ship “Doug” had left the location where it would retrieve the Falcon 9’s payload fairing after launch of ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander, suggesting the delay could last more than a few days. SpaceX planned to land the first stage booster back at Cape Canaveral about eight minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has launched 54 missions so far this year, 53 with the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket one with a Falcon Heavy, made by combining three modified Falcon 9 first stage boosters together. The number of SpaceX missions in 2022 far exceeds the company’s previous record of 31 space launches in a calendar year. SpaceX set that record just a year ago.
The company plans as many as eight Falcon 9 rocket launches in December, a tally that assumes the mission with ispace’s Hakuto-R moon lander is able to fly soon. SpaceX has two launches scheduled from Florida next week — one with the next batch of Starlink internet satellites and another with 40 spacecraft for OneWeb’s broadband constellation.
It was not immediately clear what, if any, impact the Hakuto-R launch delay might have on other Falcon 9 missions scheduled for December.
The Hakuto-R lander developed by the Japanese company ispace is enclosed inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX suffered few technical delays throughout most of 2022, but the problem with Hakuto-R’s rocket is the second Falcon 9 rocket issue in less than two weeks that has kept a mission on the ground.
A Falcon 9 was supposed to launch Nov. 18 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 52 Starlink internet satellites, but SpaceX announced on the eve of the mission that managers decided to stand down from the launch to evaluate data from a test-firing of the rocket. A new target launch date for that Starlink mission has not been announced, but two other Falcon 9 flights from California appear to have jumped ahead of it on SpaceX’s calendar, indicating it will likely not occur until January.
The Hakuto-R mission aims to become the first privately-developed spacecraft to land on the moon. The one-ton lander carries several payloads, including a small rover from the United Arab Emirates that will be deployed on the lunar surface. Another tiny mobile robot to be deployed by ispace’s lander comes from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
According to ispace, the first Hakuto-R lander will take about five months to travel from Earth to the moon, utilizing a low-energy transfer orbit that requires the spacecraft to expend less fuel than if it took a direct route to the moon.
A 31-pound (14-kilogram) hitchhiker payload from NASA will share the ride to space on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The secondary payload, called Lunar Flashlight, will fly its own independent trajectory toward the moon to enter orbit and map the locations of water ice deposits hidden in permanently-shadowed craters at the lunar poles. Future explorers on the moon could tap into water ice deposits to make rocket fuel, drinking water, and breathable oxygen.
The Hakuto-R lander developed by the Japanese company ispace is enclosed inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
A commercial moon craft developed by the Japanese company ispace is awaiting launch from Cape Canaveral before dawn Wednesday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will send it on a five-month trajectory culminating in a lunar landing attempt next year, an achievement that could make ispace the first private company to accomplish the feat.
The one-ton robotic Hakuto-R lander is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:39 a.m. EST (0839 GMT) Wednesday. The Falcon 9 rocket will send the spacecraft on a course taking it a million miles from Earth, well beyond the moon, on a long-duration but fuel-efficient voyage before it slips into lunar orbit next April.
Once in orbit around the moon, ispace’s lander will fire its main engine to autonomously descend to the lunar surface, targeting a landing in the northern hemisphere of the moon’s nearside.
The moon lander mission is the culmination of 12 years of engineering development and fundraising, an effort that included starts, stops, and wholesale changes in scope.
The Google Lunar X Prize, the sweepstakes that offered a $20 million grand prize to the first privately-funded team to put a lander on the moon, was the original impetus for Takeshi Hakamada to establish the company that eventually became ispace. Hakamada’s group, called Hakuto, worked on designing a lunar rover to ride to the moon on another lander. But the Google Lunar X Prize shut down in 2018 without a winner, leading some of the teams to dissolve or struggle to find new purpose.
Hakamada redirected ispace’s efforts to design and develop its own moon lander, a reboot the firm calls Hakuto-R. Hakuto means “white rabbit” in Japanese.
“Since then, our mission shifted from only the Lunar X Prize to a broader transportation business,” Hakamada said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. “We are aiming to launch our first mission Nov. 30. This is going to be the first private mission to land on the moon, and we are going to bring payloads from the government side and also the private sector, too. This is going to be opening the door for future commercial cislunar industries.”
As of July, the company had secured $237 million in equity financing and bank loans to pay for the Hakuto-R lunar transportation program, although ispace has not disclosed the cost of the mission launching this week. The company says it “specializes in designing and building lunar landers and rovers.”
The goal of ispace is to “extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the moon,” according to the company’s website.
Artist’s illustration of ispace’s Hakuto-R lander on the moon Credit: ispace
The first Hakuto-R lander, which ispace calls Mission 1, will carry about 24 pounds (11 kilograms) of customer payloads to the moon’s surface, according to Hakamada. By far, the largest of the payloads is a rover from the United Arab Emirates developed by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center. While the rover takes up most of the Hakuto-R lander’s payload capacity, it is still small in stature, measuring just 21 inches by 21 inches (53-by-53 centimeters).
The lander is also hauling an even smaller mobile robot developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Japanese toy company Tomy. The so-called transformable lunar robot weighs just a half-pound (250 grams) and is some 3 inches (80 millimeters) wide before it deploys tiny wheels to roll across the lunar surface and collect data and imagery to aid in the design of a future pressurized rover to transport astronauts on the moon.
A payload from NGK Spark Plug, another Japanese company, will test the performance of solid-state batteries. The Hakuto-R landing craft also has payloads from three Canadian companies: Wide-angle cameras from Canadensys, an artificial intelligence flight computer from Mission Control Space Services, and a demonstration for NGC Aerospace’s crater-based autonomous navigation system.
First, ispace’s lander has to reach the moon. Government-led missions from the United States, the Soviet Union, and China have landed on the moon, but ispace is using a commercial business model.
“Our mission is privately funded,” Hakamada said. “However, we have some relationships with governments, like our payload from the UAE Space Agency and MBRSC, and we also have a JAXA payload as well. But even these payloads are commercial contracts, with no R&D funding from the government, so totally different than the past engagement with the government.”
Hakamada’s investors include Suzuki, Japan Airlines, the Development Bank of Japan, Konica Minolta, Dentsu, and numerous venture capital and equity funds.
Engineers from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai prepare to integrate the Rashid rover on ispace’s Hakuto-R lander. Credit: MBRSC
The fundraising allowed ispace to purchase parts for its Hakuto-R lander from suppliers around the world. The hydrazine-fueled propulsion system comes from ArianeGroup, which also helped ispace perform final assembly of the lander in Germany. Draper, a Massachusetts-based company, is providing guidance, navigation, and control software for the landing, a similar role Draper filled on NASA’s Apollo missions. The solar panels were supplied by Sierra Space.
“As our first mission, my strategy was to accelerate the speed to go to the market,” Hakamada said. “In order to do that, we recognized that becoming the systems integrator is key to accelerate the speed of development. If we develop each of the components, it takes time. There is technology for this, and the important point is how do you integrate the technology into one system with enough funding.”
The first Hakuto-R lander, which ispace calls its Series 1 design, weighs about 2,200 pounds (1 metric ton) fully fueled for launch. About two-thirds of its launch mass is hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants to feed the lander’s engines. With its legs extended, the lander stands 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) and 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) wide.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will head east from Cape Canaveral over the Atlantic Ocean, and shut down its first stage booster less than two-and-a-half minutes into the flight. The reusable first stage, flying for the fourth time, will return to Cape Canaveral for a propulsive landing.
The Falcon 9’s second stage will fire two times to send the Hakuto-R lander on a speedy trajectory to carry it far away from Earth. Separation of the lander from the Falcon 9 upper stage is scheduled 46 minutes into the mission. That will be followed by activation of the spacecraft’s systems and extension of its four landing legs.
A 31-pound (14-kilogram) hitchhiker payload for NASA, called Lunar Flashlight, will deploy from the Falcon 9 nearly 53 minutes after launch. The Lunar Flashlight is led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and will fly itself to a looping halo orbit around the moon. Its mission will test a laser system to shine into eternally dark craters near the lunar poles. The spacecraft will measure the light reflected off the lunar surface, revealing the composition and quantity of water ice and other molecules hidden on dark crater floors.
The primary landing site for ispace’s first lunar lander is Atlas crater, located on the southeastern edge of Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of Cold, on the near side of the moon. This region is located at the top-center of this map. Backup landing regions are also labeled. Credit: ispace
With a series of course correction maneuvers, the ispace lander will take a similar but independent track toward its destination. It will reach a maximum distance a million miles, or 1.5 million kilometers, away from Earth before gravity pulls it back toward the moon. The Hakuto-R lander will fire thrusters to be captured into lunar orbit, then set up for the final descent to the surface around the end of April.
“We call it a low-energy orbit because we can reduce propellant consumption using this orbit, having an assist from the gravity of the sun,” Hakamada said. “In order to reduce the launch mass and reduce launch cost, we selected this orbit. But this orbit is similar to several recent mission to use similar trajectory, like the CAPSTONE mission by NASA or the Korean lunar orbiter as well. So we don’t think there is a lot of risk on this orbit.”
The target landing site is Atlas crater, located in a region on the nearside of the moon called Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of Cold.
Assuming the landing is successful, the spacecraft is designed to operate for about 10 days after touchdown. long enough to deploy the UAE’s moon rover and JAXA’s mobile robot. The stationary landing craft will relay communications signals from the deployable payloads back to Earth. The mission will end when sun sets on the landing site to begin the two-week-long lunar night.
Aside from the payloads mounted on lander, ispace aims to fulfill a contract with NASA with the first Hakuto-R mission. NASA awarded contracts in 2020 to purchase lunar regolith from commercial companies, including a $5,000 deal to ispace. All of the agreements were relatively low in monetary value.
The initiative is part of NASA’s Artemis moon program. NASA wants to eventually contract with commercial companies to acquire resources, such as minerals and water, that could sustain a future moon base. The transfer of ownership of lunar soil from a private company to NASA will help officials on both sides of the transaction sort through legal and regulatory issues.
“It’s only the conceptual transfer of ownership,” Hakamada said. Bits of dust kicked up by the landing engine are expected to settle on the footpads of the lander’s legs.
“The regolith will come in and cover the pad, and we declare the capture of the lunar regolith, and then transfer the ownership of the regolith on this pad. We don’t move this regolith somewhere else, we don’t expect that for this first mission.”
Hakamada said ispace has a second contract to sell lunar regolith to NASA on the company’s next lunar landing mission, scheduled for 2024. On that mission, ispace may attempt to scoop up some soil from the lunar surface.
While the first Hakuto-R Series 1 lander is a purely commercial mission, ispace is working with Draper and other space companies to develop a larger robotic moon lander to transport up to a half-ton of cargo to the moon for NASA. Draper and ispace won a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, contract earlier this year to deliver multiple NASA science instruments to the moon’s surface in 2025.
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A camera on one of the Orion spacecraft’s solar array wings captured this view of the crew module Monday, Nov. 28, with the Earth and the moon in the background. Credit: NASA
At the halfway point in NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, the unpiloted Orion moonship is chalking up a near-flawless flight, mission managers said Monday, beaming back spectacular images of Earth disappearing from view as it was eclipsed by the moon.
“The spacecraft is operating just tremendously well so far, and we’re really happy with its performance overall across all the subsystem areas,” said Howard Hu, NASA’s Orion program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Only a handful of minor technical issues have cropped up since launch November 16, including now-understood “funnies” with the capsule’s star tracker navigation system, erratic coolant flow in one thermal control system loop due to a gas bubble and a radiation-induced flight computer reset.
The computer automatically rebooted itself as programmed and is working normally. Mission Manager Mike Sarafin called the glitch “a gift handed to us from the flight environment,” because it confirmed the system’s ability to recover from a radiation hit “as it was designed.”
Only one “anomaly team” is still on the job as engineers troubleshoot a minor glitch with a power distribution system component. But Sarafin said the issue is not a serious problem “because we have appropriate levels of redundancy. … We just don’t quite understand what the hardware is telling us.”
Monday afternoon, the Orion capsule reached a point in its “distant retrograde orbit” around the moon some 268,562 miles from Earth — nearly 43,000 miles above the lunar surface — setting a new distance record for a human-rated spacecraft. The previous record of 248,654 miles, set by the Apollo 13 crew in 1970, was surpassed Saturday.
A few hours earlier Monday, a camera mounted on one of Orion’s solar arrays captured a view of the blue-and-white Earth slowly passing behind the moon in a deep space eclipse, disappearing from view in a stunning celestial display.
“I was in the control center for a majority of those images, the ones including the Earth and the moon, and it’s really hard to articulate what the feeling is,” said Flight Director Rick LaBrode. “It’s just amazing to be here and see that.”
If all goes well, Orion will break out of the distant retrograde orbit with a rocket firing Thursday, setting up a close lunar flyby next Monday. That maneuver, in turn, will fling the spacecraft back toward Earth for a high-speed re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego on December 11.
NASA plans to follow the Artemis 1 mission by launching four yet-to-be-named astronauts on a shakedown flight around Earth and moon in late 2024, setting the stage for two astronauts to land near the lunar south pole in the 2025-26 timeframe.
Sarafin said NASA would revisit target dates and possible crew assignments for the Artemis 2 mission after the Artemis 1 test flight is complete. In the meantime, Hu said, “our performance across the board continues to be outstanding.”
“We continue to … generate 20 percent more power than we really need, we still have a tremendous amount of propulsive capability,” he said. “We are looking at other performance measurements across the spacecraft, and those are all going very well. So really happy where we are halfway through the mission.”
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Chinese astronauts Deng Qingming, Fei Junlong, and Zhang Lu (left to right) undergo training before launch on the Shenzhou 15 mission. Credit: China Manned Space Agency
Three Chinese astronauts will strap into a Shenzhou spacecraft and rocket into orbit Tuesday in pursuit of China’s Tiangong space station on a six-month mission to transition the space lab from construction into an operational phase.
Veteran commander Fei Junlong will be joined by rookie astronauts Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu for liftoff at 10:08 a.m. EST (1508 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch base, a remote military-run spaceport in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China.
Freezing temperatures are forecast for the launch, which is scheduled for 11:08 p.m. Beijing time, when the Earth’s rotation brings the Jiuquan launch site underneath the orbital plane of the Tiangong space station. None of China’s astronaut missions have launched so late in the year. China’s nine crew launches since the country’s first human spaceflight in 2003 have blasted off in June, September, or October.
The China Manned Space Agency said ground equipment at the launch site was “completely updated and modified” to better withstand the cold temperatures. Engineers have developed procedures to ensure propellant tanks remain at proper temperatures during the countdown, and added insulation to specific sections of the rocket.
Chinese officials revealed the identities of the astronauts on the Shenzhou 15 mission Monday. In contrast to the U.S. and Russian space programs, China typically keeps its crew assignments secret until the day before launch.
Fei, 57, commanded the Shenzhou 6 mission in 2005, China’s second crewed flight to low Earth orbit. He spent nearly five days in orbit, and is ready to launch into space again more than 17 years later.
“Today, I am very proud and excited to be able to go to space again for my country,” Fei said in brief remarks to news media gathered at the Jiuquan launch site. “Especially when we are about to enter our own Chinese space station, I am deeply proud and proud of our great motherland.”
Shenzhou 15 astronauts train for spacewalks in an underwater environment. Credit: China Manned Space Agency
“The Shenzhou 15 mission is not only the last of the construction period of China’s space station, but also the beginning of the next new stage,” Fei said. “During the half-year flight, we will conduct more on-orbit tests, and the operation, maintenance and repair of equipment.”
Chinese officials said the Shenzhou 15 astronauts will head outside the Tiangong space station for three or four spacewalks to complete tasks that Fei described as “more arduous” and “more complicated” than previous Chinese spacewalks.
“Therefore, we have carried out a lot of targeted training on the ground,” said Fei, a major general in the Chinese Air Force. “Through the training, we also have enough confidence to complete this key link between the past and the future.”
Fei and his crewmate Deng Qingming, a 56-year-old former Chinese Air Force fighter pilot, were selected in China’s first class of astronauts in 1998. But Deng had to wait a quarter-century for his first flight to space.
“We deeply know that it is thousands of aerospace science and technology workers who support us to fly,” Deng said. “Here, I would like to pay tribute to all Chinese astronauts and thank you for your hard work. We will definitely complete this mission successfully.”
Zhang, 46, is another former fighter pilot in the Chinese Air Force. He joined China’s astronaut corps in 2010.
“I am very much looking forward to experiencing the wonderful feeling brought by weightlessness, very much looking forward to building our own space home as soon as possible with my own hands, and very much looking forward to presenting the beauty of space in my eyes to all my friends and family members,” Zhang said.
A Long March 2F rocket and the Shenzhou 15 spacecraft stand on their launch pad at the Jiuquan space center in northwestern China. Credit: China Manned Space Agency
The three-man Shenzhou 15 crew will replace the Shenzhou 14 astronauts, who launched June 5 and are due to return to Earth next week. Shenzhou 14 commander Chen Dong, astronaut Liu Yang, and crew member Cai Xuzhe launched June 5 and to take the place of the Shenzhou 13 mission that ended in April.
This time, the crew handover between the Shenzhou 14 and 15 astronauts will occur aboard the Tiangong space station. The arrival of Shenzhou 15 will temporarily raise the station’s crew size to six.
“Currently the space station combination is in stable status, with all equipment functioning well, ready for the rendezvous and docking, and the crew handover,” said Ji Qiming, assistant to the director of the China Manned Space Agency. “All pre-launch preparations are in order.”
During their six-month mission, the Shenzhou 14 astronauts saw the arrival of the second and third major elements of the Tiangong space station. China launched the Wentian science lab July 24, then the Mengtian module Oct. 31. The modules initially docked with the forward port of the station’s Tianhe core module, then were moved to radial ports using a robotic arm to give the Tiangong outpost a distinctive “T” shape.
China launched the unpiloted Tianzhou 5 cargo ship to the space station Nov. 12. The Shenzhou 14 astronauts also completed three spacewalks to further outfit the space station.
“They witnessed many historical moments of China’s manned spaceflights,” Ji said, speaking about the Shenzhou 14 crew.
Artist’s illustration of China’s Tiangong space station as it will appear after docking of the Shenzhou 15 spacecraft, with three pressurized permanent modules, two Shenzhou crew vehicles, and one Tianzhou cargo ship. Credit: CASC
Chinese ground teams rolled the 191-foot-tall (58-meter) Long March 2F rocket to the launch pad Nov. 21 in preparation for the Shenzhou 15 mission. Gantry arms enclosed the launcher as technicians completed final processing and inspections on the rocket. Loading of several hundred tons of toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants into the rocket began Monday.
The three astronauts will climb into the Shenzhou 15 crew module about two to three hours before liftoff.
A core stage engine and four strap-on boosters will ignite to generate 1.4 million pounds of thrust, driving the rocket and crew eastward from Jiuquan in pursuit of the Chinese space station. The Long March 2F will consume thousands of gallons of toxic, corrosive propellants to accelerate the 8.5-ton Shenzhou 15 spaceship into orbit.
The second stage of the rocket will deploy the crew craft about 10 minutes into the mission. Moments later, Shenzhou 15 is programmed to unfurl its solar panels to begin producing its own electricity.
The spacecraft will fire thrusters to fine-tune its approach to the Chinese space station, culminating in an automated docking at the Tianhe core module later Tuesday. The astronauts will open hatches and float into the Tianhe core module to begin their work.
“According to the plan, the Shenzhou 15 spacecraft will execute … fast autonomous rendezvous and docking procedures. The spacecraft will dock with the forward port of the Tianhe core module to form a three-module and three-ship combination, which is, by far, the largest configuration of China’s space station with a total mass of near 100 (metric) tons,” Ji said.
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off with the EOS 6 satellite. Credit: ISRO
India launched a satellite Saturday to measure ocean winds and water temperatures, adding a key data source for weather forecasters tracking tropical cyclone development around the world.
The new ocean monitoring spacecraft, named EOS-06 or Oceansat 3, took off Saturday at 1:26 a.m. EST (0626 GMT) aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, India’s workhorse rocket. The PSLV launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Chennai.
The 145-foot-tall (44-meter) PSLV launched in its most powerful configuration, called the PSLV XL, with six strap-on solid rocket boosters adding to thrust from a solid-fueled core stage motor. Four of the strap-on boosters lit as the rocket lifted off from the Indian spaceport, and two more boosters ignited 25 seconds later to give the PSLV maximum power of roughly 2 million pounds of thrust.
The rocket jettisoned the first four strap-on boosters about 70 seconds into the flight, then shed the two air-lit motor casings about 20 seconds later. The core stage burned out and separated at T+plus 1 minute and 48 seconds, and the second stage’s liquid-fueled engine took over the mission.
The second stage Vikas engine fired more than two minutes. The rocket released its clamshell-like nose cone during the second stage burn, revealing the EOS-06 spacecraft to the environment of space for the first time. Burns by the PSLV’s solid-fueled third stage and liquid-fueled fourth stage finished the job of placing the EOS-06 satellite into orbit.
The PSLV initially headed southeast from the Indian spaceport over the Bay of Bengal, then vectored its thrust to turn south over the Indian Ocean, a so-called “dogleg” maneuver to avoid flying over Sri Lanka. The rocket targeted a polar sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 458 miles (738 kilometers).
The EOS-06 satellite deployed from the PSLV’s fourth stage about 17 minutes into the mission. A live camera view from the rocket showed the 2,462-pound (1,117-kilogram) spacecraft cast free of the upper stage. Moments later, the satellite extended its solar panels to begin recharging batteries.
EOS-06, formerly known as Oceansat 3, was developed by the Indian Space Research Organization as a follow-up to India’s Oceansat 2 mission, which launched in 2009. EOS 6 will take measurements of ocean color, ocean winds, and sea surface temperatures with three on-board instruments.
S. Somanath, chairman of ISRO, said the rocket’s performance was “exceedingly good” after blastoff Saturday. He said the PSLV placed the EOS-06 spacecraft into its intended orbit “very precisely.”
“The health of the satellite is normal and its has started generating power,” said Thenmozhi Selvi K, ISRO’s project director for the EOS-06 mission. “Its applications include … weather forecasting, wind velocity, cyclone detection, cyclone tracking, maritime security.”
A 13-channel visible and near-infrared imaging system on EOS-06 called the ocean color monitor will scan the world’s oceans for algal blooms and map concentrations of phytoplankton that drive marine ecosystems. Ocean color data will also help scientists track water pollution, fish populations, and sediment distribution. The imager has a resolution of 1,180 feet, or 360 meters, and will provide global coverage every two days.
India’s EOS 6, or Oceansat 3, satellite during encapsulation inside the PSLV’s payload fairing. Credit: ISRO
A thermal infrared instrument on EOS-06 will measure sea surface water temperatures, a major factor in the formation and strengthening of tropical storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones.
The satellite’s other ocean monitoring instrument is a scatterometer, a rotating Ku-band radar antenna that will bounce microwave radar beams off the ocean surface to determine the water’s roughness. Data processors can derive wind speed and direction from the radar returns, feeding information to meteorologists about conditions away from coastlines and buoys.
Similar scatterometer instruments are mounted aboard European weather satellites flying in polar orbit.
A NASA research satellite named QuikSCAT produced ocean wind data widely used in tropical cyclone forecasting, but its microwave radar stopped spinning in 2009. The scatterometer on India’s Oceansat 2 satellite ceased operations in 2014. A NASA scatterometer instrument launched to the International Space Station in 2014 stopped working in 2016.
There are differences in each scatterometer instrument — they do not all operate at the same frequency or in the same orbit. Forecasters prefer to have several wind-measuring satellites in orbit to cross-calibrate data, ensuring measurements are as accurate as possible. Once scientists confirm the accuracy of EOS-06’s wind measurements, the data could be used by forecasters predicting the formation of tropical cyclones.
India’s EOS-06 satellite also hosts an instrument for the U.S.-French Argos network to relay environmental data from remote weather stations and help track global wildlife movements.
After releasing its primary payload into space Saturday, the PSLV’s fourth stage fired thrusters to reduce its altitude to around 317 miles (511 kilometers), setting up for deployment of eight rideshare payloads.
Artist’s illustration of the EOS 6 satellite. Credit: ISRO
The rideshare satellites included INS 2B, or India-Bhutan SAT, a joint project between India and Bhutan. The 40-pound (18-kilogram) spacecraft carries communications and optical imaging payloads.
A 36-pound (16-kilogram) satellite from the Indian remote sensing company Pixxel was also launched Saturday, along with two 3-pound (1.5-kilogram) Thybolt CubeSats for an Indian startup named Dhruva Space.
Four nanosatellites for a data relay constellation owned by the Swiss company Astrocast were also on the PSLV mission, known as PSLV-C54. The satellites grow Astrocast’s constellation to 14 spacecraft providing services such as tracking shipping containers, remote control of agricultural equipment, and remote monitoring of critical infrastructure. Spaceflight, a Seattle-based launch services broker, arranged for Astrocast’s satellites to ride on the PSLV mission.
The launch Saturday marked the 56th flight of an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, and was ISRO’s fifth and final space launch attempt of 2022.
A camera on NASA’s Orion spacecraft captured this view Saturday as the capsule flew a quarter-million miles from Earth. Credit: NASA
NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine Friday to slip into a distant lunar orbit, putting it on course to range farther from Earth than any of the Apollo astronauts flew in humanity’s first exploration missions to the moon.
The unpiloted capsule fired its space shuttle-era main engine for 88 seconds at 4:52 p.m. EST (2152 GMT) Friday. The hydrazine-fueled engine produced about 6,000 pounds of thrust to nudge the Orion spacecraft into a distant retrograde orbit around the moon in the third of five main engine burns of the Artemis 1 mission.
The distant retrograde orbit insertion burn, or DRI burn, Friday changed the spacecraft’s velocity by 247 mph (398 kilometers per hour) as Orion flew about 57,000 miles (92,000 kilometers) from the moon.
The previous major engine burn by the Orion spacecraft occurred Monday, Nov. 21, as the capsule flew just 80 miles (130 kilometers) above the lunar surface. The powered flyby maneuver leveraged the moon’s gravitational force to direct it toward the distant retrograde orbit, or DRO. In the DRO, the Orion spacecraft will have an average distance of about 43,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) from the moon.
The DRO has its name because it is not a low-altitude orbit like the Apollo capsules of the 1960s and 1970s flew in, and because Orion will move around the moon in the opposite direction the moon travels around Earth.
Mission planners chose the orbit for the Artemis 1 mission for several reasons. First, the Orion spacecraft’s propulsion system does not have the capability to steer the capsule into a low-altitude orbit around the moon as the Apollo missions did. And the DRO is stable because it is near the balance point between the pull of gravity from Earth and the moon, reducing the fuel Orion needs to burn to maintain its orbit once it arrives.
The Orion spacecraft will spend about six days in the distant retrograde orbit performing tests and checkouts, long enough to complete one-half of a lap around the moon. On Saturday, the capsule broke the distance record for a spacecraft designed to carry humans into space and return them to Earth, according to NASA.
The record was previously set on NASA’s Apollo 13 mission, which reached a distance of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers) from Earth when it looped around the far side of the moon with a three-man crew in 1970. Apollo 13’s moon landing was aborted when one of its oxygen tanks exploded on outbound journey from Earth, and the spacecraft steered onto a “free return” trajectory that took it farther from Earth than any of the other Apollo missions.
The Artemis 1 mission profile carried the Orion spacecraft into a distant retrograde orbit around the moon, flying at an average 43,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) from the lunar surface. The Orion spacecraft will return to Earth for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at the end of the mission. The engine burn Friday is represented by the No. 10 label in this NASA infographic. Credit: NASA
While there are no humans on-board Artemis 1, there are three instrumented mannequins inside the Orion spacecraft’s pressurized cabin to gather data on accelerations, vibrations, and radiation on the flight to the moon and back.
The Orion spacecraft will reach its greatest distance from Earth Monday, Nov. 28, at more than 268,500 miles (432,000 kilometers). On Thursday, Dec. 1, the capsule will fire its engine again to exit the distant retrograde orbit and swing back toward the moon for another low-altitude powered flyby Dec. 5 on the return leg to Earth.
Splashdown of the Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean is scheduled for Dec. 11.
In the days preceding the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn, flight controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston performed more testing of the Orion spacecraft’s star trackers, cameras that are used to help the capsule determine its position and orientation in space. Engineers have been evaluating data from star trackers to determine how their images are affected by flashes from thruster firings, a phenomenon known as “dazzling.”
On Thursday, the Orion spacecraft fired its auxiliary engines for 17 seconds for an outbound trajectory correction maneuver. This small burn changed the spacecraft’s velocity by about 8.9 feet per second.
Other tests performed earlier in the week included a checkout of the Orion reaction control system engines to evaluate their performance in standard and non-standard thruster configurations.
The Artemis 1 mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16 aboard the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket, a super-heavy lift launcher designed to propel astronauts crews toward the moon.
Artemis 1 is a test flight before NASA commits to flying astronauts on the SLS moon rocket and Orion spacecraft. If the Artemis 1 mission concludes successfully, the space agency plans to fly three U.S. astronauts and a Canadian astronaut around the far side of the moon on the Artemis 2 mission as soon as late 2024. That will be followed by lunar landing missions later in the 2020s, and construction of a mini-space station in orbit around the moon.
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship during its rendezvous with the International Space Station on Sunday. Credit: NASA TV
A day after launching from Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule approached the International Space Station for an automated docking Sunday with more than 7,700 pounds of supplies and experiments.
The Dragon supply ship autonomously linked up with the zenith, or space-facing, docking port on the space station’s Harmony module at 7:39 a.m. EST (1239 GMT) Sunday to wrap up a 17-hour pursuit of the complex. The cargo capsule launched at 2:20 p.m. EST (1920 GMT) Saturday on top of a Falcon 9 rocket.
The mission marks SpaceX’s 26th resupply flight since 2012 to deliver cargo to the space station, and is the first flight of SpaceX’s newest Cargo Dragon capsule, designated Dragon C211. This is the final reusable Cargo Dragon spacecraft SpaceX plans to build to meet NASA’s cargo transportation needs for the station through 2030.
The CRS-26 mission is packed with hardware, supplies, and experiments for the space station and the seven-person crew living on-board the complex. The largest element of the cargo load is NASA’s second pair of new roll-out solar arrays to augment the space station’s power system.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada on-board the space station monitored the Dragon spacecraft’s automated rendezvous, ready to send commands to the capsule to hold its approach or abort the docking in the event of a problem.
After docking Sunday, astronauts on the space station will open hatches and begin unpacking cargo inside the pressurized compartment of the Dragon spacecraft.
Among the food inside: Ice cream, spicy green beans, cranapple desserts, almond pumpkin pie, and candy corn for a belated Thanksgiving feast.
Two new ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or iROSA units, are packed inside Dragon’s unpressurized trunk cargo bay to upgrade the space station’s power system. Astronauts on the station will venture outside the complex next month to help install and deploy the new roll-out arrays, which will augment power produced by the station’s original solar arrays. The existing solar array wings launched on space shuttle missions between 2000 and 2009.
Built by Redwire, the solar arrays are rolled up on spools like yoga mats during launch. The space station’s robotic arm will remove the spools from their mounting posts inside the Dragon spacecraft’s rear cargo bay and move them to attachment points on the lab’s left-side and right-side solar power truss.
The roll-out solar panels will open up to partially cover the existing arrays. This pair of iROSA units follows the launch of the first two in 2021. The final two roll-out solar arrays are scheduled to launch on a SpaceX resupply mission next year.
Other cargo on the CRS-26 mission includes experiments to test the growth of dwarf tomatoes on the space station, a portable hand-held microscope that will help astronauts collect medical imagery of their own blood samples, and a technology demonstration to gather data on the construction of flexible structures in space.
There are also eight CubeSats developed by teams in Brazil, United States, Canada, Italy, and Taiwan on-board the Dragon capsule. Astronauts will remove the small satellites from their cargo containers and place them in the Japanese Kibo lab for transfer outside the station through an airlock. The CubeSats will be released into orbit using a Nanoracks deployer mechanism.
The Dragon spacecraft will remain docked at the space station for about a month-and-a-half before departing the research outpost in mid-January for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida.
Here’s a breakdown of the CRS-26 cargo manifest, provided by NASA:
• Total Cargo: 7,777 pounds (3,528 kilograms)
2,636 pounds (1,196 kilograms) of unpressurized payloads (iROSA)
2,341 pounds (1,062 kilograms) of crew supplies
2,066 pounds (937 kilograms) of science investigations
[…] conditions improved still further, eventually blessing CRS-26 with 70-90-percent favorability across three days from Saturday to Monday. “Deep moisture does not look to be present,” noted the 45th, “with only a small […]
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule climb into space from Florida on Saturday. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX launched an all-new Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule Saturday from Kennedy Space Center on a mission to deliver new roll-out solar arrays, belated Thanksgiving treats, CubeSats, and a cornucopia of experiments to the International Space Station.
The 215-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket thundered to life and lifted off from pad 39A at 2:20:43 p.m. EST (1920:43 GMT). The commercial launcher broke the sound barrier in less than a minute as it arced northeast from Florida’s Space Coast, lining up with the orbital plane of the space station.
The launch was timed for roughly the moment Earth’s rotation brought the launch site under the space station’s orbital path, setting up for a docking of the Dragon cargo capsule at the complex at 7:30 a.m. EST (1230 GMT) Sunday.
The mission took off powered by a brand new Falcon 9 first stage booster — tail number B1076 in SpaceX’s fleet — that fired for two-and-a-half minutes to propel the Dragon spacecraft into the upper atmosphere. The Dragon capsule itself was also a new vehicle — designated Dragon C211 — the third and final planned Cargo Dragon in SpaceX’s fleet of new-generation Dragon spaceships.
SpaceX has four human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft in its inventory, and last week the company announced it will build one more Crew Dragon for astronaut missions beginning in 2024.
The booster stage re-entered the atmosphere and landed on a football field-sized drone ship about 200 miles (300 kilometers) northeast of Cape Canaveral, completing its first trip to space. The Falcon 9’s upper stage gave the Dragon cargo ship enough velocity to enter low Earth orbit, setting up for separation of the supply freighter from its launch vehicle nearly 12 minutes into the mission.
On-board camera views showed the Dragon spacecraft flying away from its rocket, then firing Draco thrusters to prime its propulsion system for a series of engine burns to match orbits with the space station. The cargo ship then opened its nose cone to reveal a docking mechanism and navigation sensors needed for the rendezvous and docking with the orbiting complex Sunday.
Liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on the CRS-26 mission, carrying new solar arrays, fresh food, CubeSats, and a cornucopia of experiments to the International Space Station. https://t.co/uZfRHzccRVpic.twitter.com/OCs8mRQ8mZ
SpaceX called off the first launch attempt for the resupply mission Tuesday due to rainfall and cloud cover at the Florida spaceport. The Falcon 9 rocket remained on the launch pad at Kennedy to await the next launch opportunity Saturday. SpaceX was unable to launch the cargo mission around the Thanksgiving holiday, a period of busy travel in the United States, because the Federal Aviation Administration wanted to ensure airspace is clear for commercial airline traffic.
After docking Sunday, astronauts on the space station will open hatches and begin unpacking cargo inside the pressurized compartment of the Dragon spacecraft.
Among the food inside: Ice cream, spicy green beans, cranapple desserts, almond pumpkin pie, and candy corn for a belated Thanksgiving feast.
The mission is SpaceX’s 26th Dragon cargo flight under a series of multibillion-dollar Commercial Resupply Services contracts with NASA. It’s the sixth SpaceX cargo mission under the most recent CRS contract, which carries the Dragon cargo program through the CRS-35 mission slated for some time in 2026.
The CRS-26 mission is packed with about 7,700 pounds (3.5 metric tons) of hardware, supplies, and experiments for the space station and the seven-person crew living on-board the complex. The largest element of the cargo load is NASA’s second pair of new roll-out solar arrays to augment the space station’s power system.
The cargo on the CRS-26 mission includes clothing, food and sanitary items for for the space station crew, plus a slew of experiments, including a demonstration aimed at growing dwarf tomatoes on the orbiting laboratory. Previous plant growth experiments, part of the “Veggie” series of science investigations, have focused on growing leafy green vegetables to provide astronauts with a source of fresh food. The experiments also gather data for future expeditions into deep space, such as flights to the moon and Mars, where astronauts could grown their own food.
“We are testing tomatoes, looking at the impacts of light spectrum on how well the crop grows, how delicious and nutritious the tomatoes are, and the microbial activity on the fruit and plants,” says Gioia Massa, NASA life sciences project scientist and principal investigator for the tomato experiments, called Veg-05. “We also are examining the overall effect of growing, tending, and eating crops on crew behavioral health. All of this will provide valuable data for future space exploration.”
SpaceX’s newest first stage booster — B1076 — has completed its first flight to space. The rocket landed on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” about 200 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral. https://t.co/uZfRHzcKHtpic.twitter.com/fpl7ezQMS7
The CRS-26 mission will also deliver Moon Microscope, a kit that includes a portable hand-held microscope that can help astronauts collect medical-grade imagery of their own blood samples, then send the data to the ground for analysis by flight surgeons. The mission also carries a tech demo experiment called Extrusion that will test how liquid resin in microgravity can create shapes and forms impossible to make on Earth, due to the influence of gravity. “The capability for using these forms could enable in-space construction of structures such as space stations, solar arrays, and equipment,” NASA says.
Another experiment on the CRS-26 mission will study how yogurt, fermented milk, and a yeast-based beverage could be used to produce nutrients to maintain crew health on long-duration space missions.
Eight small CubeSats are stowed inside the Dragon spacecraft for NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and companies in Italy and Taiwan. The CubeSats will be transferred by the space station crew to the Japanese airlock for release into low Earth orbit with a Nanoracks deployer.
SpaceX’s 26th resupply mission is also hauling exercise equipment, life support hardware, and a new integrated GPS and inertial navigation system unit to the 450-ton research outpost. The Dragon spacecraft’s rear cargo bay holds the two roll-out solar arrays to be installed outside the space station.
“Of critical importance to us is the two new solar arrays that we’ll be doing spacewalks at the end of November and early December to install and deploy on-board the International Space Station,” said Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS program manager. “In addition to the two solar arrays that are to be delivered on SpaceX-26, we have some life support equipment being delivered, some GPS hardware, some exercise hardware, and some medical equipment. This mission will say docked to the International Space Station about 45 days … All in all, we’re looking forward to an exciting mission.”
While crew members inside the space station unpack cargo from the Dragon’s internal cabin, the station’s Canadian robotic arm will reach into the cargo ship’s trunk to remove the two new solar array units. The arrays are rolled up on spools, and together weigh more than a ton. Two astronauts will venture outside the space station for a pair of spacewalks to assist in the deployment of the new solar arrays.
Dragon separation. The unpiloted Cargo Dragon capsule has deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket to begin its pursuit of the International Space Station. SpaceX’s 26th cargo mission to the station is set to dock there at 7:30am EST (1230 GMT) tomorrow. https://t.co/uZfRHzcKHtpic.twitter.com/xbnGVVTxoT
The first two ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or iROSA units, launched in June 2021 on SpaceX’s CRS-22 resupply mission. They were unfurled during a pair of spacewalks later that month on the P6 segment on the port side, or far left end, of the station’s solar power truss. One of the iROSA arrays launching on CRS-26 will go on the port-side P4 truss segment just inboard of the P6 section, while the other solar array will be mounted on the starboard-side S4 truss area.
The iROSA arrays are being extended over six of the the station’s eight existing solar array wings, canted at angles to partially cover the older solar panels. Fully deployed, the roll-out solar arrays stretch 63 feet long and 20 feet wide (19-by-6 meters), about half the length and half the width of the station’s current solar arrays. Despite their smaller size, each of the new arrays will generate about the same amount of electricity as each of the original solar panels.
A mounting bracket plugs the new arrays into the station’s power channels and rotary joints, which keep the solar wings pointed at the sun as the spacecraft races around Earth at more than 17,000 mph. Ahead of the CRS-26 mission, astronauts completed spacewalks to install the mounting brackets to receive the new solar arrays.
The International Space Station has eight power channels, each fed with electrical power generated from one solar array wing extending from the station’s truss backbone. The original solar panels launched on four space shuttle missions from 2000 to 2009. As expected, the solar panel efficiency has degraded over time.
When all six iROSA units are deployed on the station, the power system will be capable of generating 215 kilowatts of electricity to support at least another decade of science operations. The enhancement will also accommodate new commercial modules planned to launch to the space station.
Two ISS Roll-Out Solar Array units inside the Space Station Processing Facility last year at Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
Here’s a breakdown of the CRS-26 cargo manifest, provided by NASA:
• Total Cargo: 7,777 pounds (3,528 kilograms)
2,636 pounds (1,196 kilograms) of unpressurized payloads (iROSA)
2,341 pounds (1,062 kilograms) of crew supplies
2,066 pounds (937 kilograms) of science investigations
653 pounds (296 kilograms) of vehicle hardware
55 pounds (25 kilograms) of spacewalk equipment
26 pounds (12 kilograms) of computer resources
The new roll-out solar arrays were developed by Deployable Space Systems in Goleta, California, under contract with Boeing, which oversees space station engineering and maintenance work under a separate contract with NASA. Deployable Space Systems was acquired last year by Redwire, a space infrastructure company based in Jacksonville, Florida.
The solar arrays give the space station one of its most significant mid-life upgrades since NASA and its international partners completed large-scale assembly of the complex in 2011. The six new solar array wings, coupled with 24 new lithium-ion batteries launched to the station on a series of Japanese resupply missions, will help ensure the lab’s power system, can support continued operations through 2030.
The final pair of roll-out solar arrays are scheduled to launch on SpaceX’s CRS-28 cargo mission next year.
At the end of the CRS-26 mission, the reusable Dragon capsule will undock from the station and head for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida in early January with several tons of cargo.
The launch Saturday was the 54th SpaceX mission so far in 2022. SpaceX aims to launch around a half-dozen Falcon 9 rockets from Florida and California by the end of December to reach the company’s goal of 60 missions this year.
The next Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 30, carrying a commercial lunar lander into space for the Japanese company ispace. The privately-developed spacecraft will attempt to become the first commercial mission to make a soft landing on the moon next year.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch SpaceX’s 26th resupply mission to the International Space Station. Follow us on Twitter.
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After a launch attempt earlier in the week was scrubbed due to bad weather, SpaceX will try again Saturday to send a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station with nearly four tons of supplies and experiments. Liftoff on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center is set for 2:20 p.m. EST (1920 GMT).
SpaceX called off the first launch attempt for the resupply mission Tuesday due to rainfall and cloud cover at the Florida spaceport. The Falcon 9 rocket remained on the launch pad at Kennedy to await the next launch opportunity Saturday.
SpaceX was unable to launch the cargo mission around the Thanksgiving holiday, a period of busy travel in the United States, because the Federal Aviation Administration wanted to ensure airspace is clear for commercial airline traffic.
There is a 70% chance of favorable weather for Saturday’s launch attempt. The main weather concerns are rain showers and cumulus clouds.
Assuming the Dragon capsule takes off Saturday, it will dock with the Harmony module on the International Space Station at 7:30 a.m. EST (1230 GMT) Sunday. Astronauts on the space station will open hatches and begin unpacking cargo inside the pressurized compartment of the Dragon spacecraft.
When it lifts off, the Falcon 9 rocket will head downrange northeast from Kennedy, powered by nine Merlin engines generating 1.7 million pounds of thrust. The rocket will shut down its first stage booster about two-and-a-half minutes into the mission, allowing the booster to descend to landing on a drone ship about 186 miles (300 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean about seven-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.
The booster, tail number B1076, is making its first flight to space on the CRS-26 mission. The Dragon capsule, also brand new, will deploy from the Falcon 9’s upper stage about 12 minutes after liftoff to begin the journey to the International Space Station.
Stationed inside a firing room at a launch control center at Kennedy, SpaceX’s launch team will begin loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the 215-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 vehicle at T-minus 35 minutes.
Helium pressurant will also flow into the rocket in the last half-hour of the countdown. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines will be thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s guidance and range safety systems will also be configured for launch.
Credit: SpaceX
After docking of the new cargo capsule, astronauts at the space station will open hatches and unpack supplies, experiments and other equipment stowed inside the Dragon spacecraft’s pressurized compartment. At the end of the mission, the reusable capsule will undock from the station and head for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida in early January with several tons of cargo.
The payloads on-board the Dragon capsule include two new ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or iROSA units, to upgrade the space station’s power system. Astronauts on the station will venture outside the complex next week to help install and deploy the new roll-out arrays, which will augment power produced by the station’s original solar arrays. The existing solar array wings launched on space shuttle missions between 2000 and 2009.
The solar arrays are rolled up on spools like yoga mats during launch. The space station’s robotic arm will remove the spools from their mounting posts inside the Dragon spacecraft’s rear cargo bay and move them to attachment points on the lab’s left-side and right-side solar power truss.
The roll-out solar panels will open up to partially cover the existing arrays. This pair of iROSA units follows the launch of the first two in 2021. The final two roll-out solar arrays are scheduled to launch on a SpaceX resupply mission next year.
Other cargo on the CRS-26 mission includes experiments to test the growth of dwarf tomatoes on the space station, a portable hand-held microscope that will help astronauts collect medical imagery of their own blood samples, and a technology demonstration to gather data on the construction of flexible structures in space.
Live coverage of the flight of the Space Launch System moon rocket and Orion spacecraft on NASA’s Artemis 1 mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
NASA TV Coverage of Orion's DRO Insertion Burn
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NASA’s Orion spacecraft, pictured by a solar array wingtip camera, with the moon in the background. Credit: NASA
NASA’s unpiloted Orion moonship, sailing smoothly toward a remote lunar orbit after a spectacular low-altitude flyby Monday, is operating in near-flawless fashion, mission managers reported Monday, out-performing expectations on a flight needed to pave the way toward the first piloted mission in 2024.
An analysis of the huge Space Launch System rocket that boosted the Orion capsule on its way early Wednesday showed it performed almost exactly as expected, taking off atop 8.8 million pounds of thrust and producing a ground-shaking shock wave that literally blew the doors off launch pad elevators.
The core stage’s four upgraded space shuttle main engines and twin solid-fuel boosters propelled the 322-foot-tall rocket out of the atmosphere and into space almost exactly as planned. At main engine cutoff, the SLS was within 3 miles of its target altitude and within 5 mph of the predicted velocity.
“When you think about the size of the system that we have and how much performance it puts out when the engines are full at throttle … the core stage engine shutdown missed by seven feet per second, which is simply remarkable,” said Artemis 1 Mission Manager Mike Sarafin.
The rocket’s upper stage provided a trouble-free boost out of Earth orbit, sending the Orion spacecraft on its way to the moon.
“The vehicle continues to operate exceptionally, we have seen really good performance across the board on all our subsystems and systems, and certainly really happy with the performance,” said Orion program manager Howard Hu. “Today was a terrific day.”
He had reason to be pleased. Early Monday, the capsule reached its target, using its main engine to set up a low-altitude flyby that carried the spacecraft within about 80 miles of the lunar surface.
Cameras mounted on the tips of the spacecraft’s solar arrays captured stunning views of Earth, looking like a blue-and-white marble in the deep black of space, slowly setting on the lunar horizon as the spacecraft sailed out over the far side of the moon and out of contact with flight controllers.
Using the moon’s gravity to fling it back toward deep space, the Orion sailed directly over the Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquility before heading out toward the intended “distant retrograde orbit” that will carry it farther from Earth than any previous human-rated spacecraft.
“In terms of overall system failures, we haven’t seen a single thing on the rocket or on the spacecraft that would have caused us to question our reliability or our redundancy, which is why this has largely been a nominal mission,” Sarafin said.
“There have been a number of things where our plans and our predicts didn’t quite match what we thought from an engineering and from a modeling standpoint … but overall, it’s been largely a green-light flight.”
That said, engineers are wrestling with two relatively minor glitches: engineers have to periodically restart the capsule’s star tracker navigation sensors after unexpected automatic resets; and an issue with an electrical power distribution system component. Neither is expected to affect the mission.
Looking ahead, the Orion must execute another critical engine firing Friday to actually enter the planned distant retrograde orbit, then carry out a third burn December 1 to break away from that trajectory. A fourth engine firing December 5 is needed to set up another close lunar flyby.
That burn, the “return powered flyby” maneuver, will slingshot Orion back toward Earth for a high-speed re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego on December 11.
Asked how he felt about the mission given its smooth, relatively problem-free start, Sarafin said “we are on flight day six of a 26-day mission, so I would give it a cautiously optimistic A-plus.” But he quickly added, “we’re taking it very seriously. I will rest well on December 11, after splashdown and recovery is complete.”
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ABL Space Systems’ RS1 rocket on its launch pad in Alaska. Credit: ABL Space Systems
The first test flight of ABL Space Systems’ new small satellite launcher from Alaska has been delayed until no earlier than December after technical issues cut short three launch attempts in the last week.
ABL conducted three countdowns during a week-long launch period at the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska, to try to send aloft the company’s first RS1 rocket, an orbital-class launcher designed to haul payloads of more than one ton into low Earth orbit.
The RS1 rocket stands 88 feet (27 meters) tall, and is the newest in a line of privately-developed small satellite launchers. ABL aims to join Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, Firefly Aerospace, and Astra in a new generation of commercial companies that have successfully launched payloads into orbit. None of those companies successfully reached orbit on their first attempt.
ABL is not providing any publicly-accessible live video coverage for its first orbital launch attempt, but the company posted periodic updates on Twitter. A Nov. 14 launch attempt was scrubbed about 30 minutes before liftoff time due to unexpected data during propellant loading on the RS1’s first stage, later found to be caused by a leaking valve in the pressurization system.
A second launch attempt Nov. 17 was aborted at T-minus 1.8 seconds during ignition of its nine kerosene-fueled E2 first stage engines. ABL said that abort was triggered an issue with conditioning of liquid oxygen, the cryogenic oxidizer used on the RS1 rocket.
Another countdown Monday, Nov. 21, also aborted during engine startup sequence. That was the final launch attempt available to ABL until the company’s next series of launch dates begins Dec. 7.
In recent months, ABL teams at Kodiak have completed a static test-firing of the RS1 rocket’s first stage and a series of fuel loading demonstrations to prepare for the first test flight. The two-stage rocket is capable of placing a payload of nearly 3,000 pounds (1,350 kilograms) into a low-altitude equatorial orbit, or about 2,138 pounds (970 kilograms) into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) polar orbit, according to ABL.
The RS1 rocket’s lift capability puts it on the upper end of the range of new small satellite launch providers, slightly exceeding the performance of Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket, which reached low Earth orbit on its second test flight Oct. 1 following launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Firefly’s Alpha rocket deployed its CubeSat payloads into a lower-than-expected orbit, and the small satellites soon re-entered the atmosphere.
Rocket Lab’s Electron booster, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, and Astra’s Rocket 3 launch vehicle have smaller payload capacities. Astra has retired its Rocket 3 vehicle and is now developing a larger launcher called Rocket 4.
ABL says a dedicated launch on its RS1 rocket costs $12 million, more than the price of a Rocket Lab mission but below the price of a larger rocket such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The scale of the RS1 rocket is “small enough to simplify development, manufacturing, and operations, but large enough to deliver a per-satellite launch cost at a fraction of a smaller vehicle,” ABL says.
Founded in 2017, ABL is headquartered in El Segundo, California, and is backed by venture capital funds and money from Lockheed Martin. ABL reported a valuation of $2.4 billion last year during its most recent fundraising round, with a backlog of more than 75 missions, primarily from a bulk order of up to 58 launches from Lockheed Martin. ABL also has a contract to launch a NASA small satellite tech demo mission, and is one of 13 companies in NASA’s roster of providers for venture-class launch services.
The U.S. Space Force added ABL to its roster of 11 companies eligible to win contracts to launch the military’s small satellite payloads over a nine-year period.
For its first test flight, ABL’s RS1 rocket will fly south from Kodiak Island over the Pacific Ocean with two small shoebox-size CubeSats for OmniTeq, a Texas-based company that provides rideshare launch services with plans to deploy a constellation of small satellites to provide maritime communications services. ABL aims to release the two small satellites into a polar orbit.
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