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OTD in 1966, @NASA_Astronauts Elliot See & Charlie Bassett died in an accident which almost spelled the end of Project Gemini & changed the careers of the men who would one day walk on the Moon.
The post “Who Was In NASA 901?” Remembering the Accident That Almost Claimed Project Gemini first appeared on AmericaSpace.
[…] of musical rockets is about to play out throughout the East and West Coasts within the coming days, as a veteran Falcon 9 easily took flight at 6:13 p.m. EST Monday from storied Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Cape […]
[…] game of musical rockets is set to play out across the East and West Coasts in the coming days, as a veteran Falcon 9 smoothly took flight at 6:13 p.m. EST Monday from storied Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Cape […]
@SpaceX has successfully launched its 6th #Falcon9 of February & hit the magical number of 4,000 Starlinks right on the nose.
The post SpaceX Misses Monday Triple-Header, As Falcon 9 Launch Schedule Realigns first appeared on AmericaSpace.
Watch our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-1 mission at 6:13 p.m. EST (2313 GMT) on Feb. 27 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX is set to launch the first batch of next-generation Starlink internet satellites Monday from Cape Canaveral, deploying 21 bigger, heavier, more capable spacecraft to boost capacity for the global broadband network.
A Falcon 9 rocket will haul the 21 Starlink satellites into a 230-mile-high (370-kilometer) orbit after lifting off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:13:50 p.m. EST (2313:50 GMT) Monday.
SpaceX delayed the launch from earlier Monday afternoon to wait for radiation levels to abate following a solar storm that sparked dramatic auroral displays visible across Northern Europe and Canada. There’s a 95% chance that local weather at Cape Canaveral will be acceptable for liftoff Monday.
The new Starlink satellite design debuting on Monday’s launch, called “V2 Mini,” will have four times the communications capacity of early generations of Starlink satellites, known as Version 1.5, SpaceX said.
The upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellites are an intermediate step between SpaceX’s original Starlink satellite design, and an even larger spacecraft platform SpaceX plans to deploy using its new-generation Starship rocket. The Starship has nearly 10 times the payload lift capability of a Falcon 9 rocket, with greater volume for satellites, too.
SpaceX could attempt to launch the huge Starship rocket into space for the first time as soon next month from South Texas. But the program has faced developmental delays, and SpaceX decided to build miniature versions of the upgraded Starship-compatible Version 2 Starlink satellites to fly on Falcon 9 rockets.
“The V2 satellites launched on Falcon 9 are a bit smaller, so we affectionately refer to them as ‘V2 Mini’ satellites,” SpaceX said. “But don’t let the name fool you, a V2 Mini satellite has four times the capacity for serving users compared to its earlier counterparts.”
The Starlink V2 satellites will be capable of transmitting signals directly to cell phones, a step forward in connectivity from space that other companies are also pursuing. The V2 Mini satellites have more powerful phased array antennas than older Starlink satellites, and introduce E-band for backhaul links with gateway stations.
“This means Starlink can provide more bandwidth with increased reliability and connect millions of more people around the world with high-speed internet,” SpaceX said.
The mission Monday is known as Starlink 6-1 in SpaceX’s Starlink launch sequence. Heading southeast from Cape Canaveral, the Falcon 9’s guidance system will aim to place the 21 Starlink satellites on a path that will take the satellites between 43 degrees north and south latitude.
Unlike most of SpaceX’s Starlink missions, which place their satellites in lower-altitude transfer orbits, the Starlink 6-1 mission will inject the 21 V2 Mini satellites into an orbit closer to their final operating altitude, minimizing the time needed for the spacecraft to use their own propulsion to maneuver into their final orbital positions.
The Starlink V2 Mini satellites also carry an argon-fueled electrical propulsion system using Hall thrusters for on-orbit maneuvering. The new propulsion system has 2.4 times the thrust and 1.5 times the specific impulse, or fuel efficiency, of the krypton-fueled ion thrusters on the first generation of Starlink satellites.
The argon Hall thrusters were developed by SpaceX engineers, the company said, and are the first of their kind to operate in space. The electric propulsion system is highly efficient, but low thrust, generating an impulse by accelerating argon gas through the engine using electricity.
SpaceX says the argon thrusters can put out about 170 millinewtons, or about 0.04 pounds, of thrust. That’s less than the weight of a AA battery. The entire thruster unit weighs less than 5 pounds, or 2.1 kilograms
Argon gas is cheaper than the krypton fuel used on the first generation of Starlink satellites. Before the Starlink network, most electric thrusters for in-space propulsion relied on more expensive xenon gas.
Each Starlink V2 Mini satellite weighs about 1,760 pounds (800 kilograms) at launch, nearly three times heavier than the older Starlink satellites. The are also bigger in size, with a spacecraft body more than 13 feet (4.1 meters) wide, filling more of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing during launch, according to regulatory filings with the Federal Communications Commission.
Once deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket, the Starlink V2 Mini satellites will unfurl two solar array wings to a span of about 100 feet (30 meters). The original Starlink satellites each have a single solar array wing, with each spacecraft measuring about 36 feet (11 meters) end-to-end once the solar panel is extended.
The enhancements give the Starlink V2 Mini satellites a total surface area of 1,248 square feet, or 116 square meters, more than four times that of a Starlink V1.5 satellite.
The full-size Starlink V2 satellites, which will launch on the Starship rocket, will have more than double the surface area of a Starlink V2 Mini spacecraft, according to SpaceX filings with the FCC.
SpaceX added dark paint and visors to earlier Starlink satellites to reduce their reflectivity. The mitigations were installed on Starlink satellites after the first batch of spacecraft launched in 2019 were brighter than expected, raising concerns from scientists that thousands of the satellites could interfere with ground-based astronomy.
But the dark paint was not as effective as hoped, and SpaceX removed the visors from later Starlink satellites to allow them to use laser inter-satellite communications links. Ground teams also changed the orientation of the Starlink satellites to minimize reflections of sunlight that could reach the ground at twilight.
Later Starlink satellites used dielectric mirror film on spacecraft surfaces, which directs reflected sunlight away from Earth. The new generation of Starlink satellites include a combination of mirrors and a new type of low-reflectivity paint, and the solar arrays are designed to adjust their pointing when the spacecraft fly over regions of Earth at dawn and dusk.
“So, while our V2 Mini satellites are larger than earlier versions, we’re still expecting them to be as dark or darker once the full range of mitigations are implemented and the satellites reach their operational orbit,” SpaceX said in a document describing the new satellite design.
But the new larger satellites may still be “somewhat bright” immediately after launch, when they’re flying close together in a so-called “train” formation, the company said. SpaceX said measurements, modeling, and analysis show the brightness mitigations will be effective in reducing the V2 Mini satellites’ reflectivity, but engineers won’t know for sure until scientists observe the satellites after launch.
“What we learn from early observations will help us improve and refine mitigations,” SpaceX said.
“As our track record demonstrates, SpaceX will work tirelessly to refine design/manufacturing/materials and, but as our track operational mitigations and continue to work with astronomers toward reducing the brightness of our satellites,” SpaceX said.
The company said it will make the mirror film and dark paint material available at cost to other operators deploying large constellations of satellites in orbit.
Like the previous series of Starlink satellites, the upgraded V2 Mini spacecraft use an “autonomous collision avoidance system” to help avoid impacts with other objects in orbit. Collisions in low Earth orbit could generate thousands of small fragments that would exacerbate the orbital debris problem.
The new Starlink satellite design is part of SpaceX’s second-generation Starlink constellation, called Gen2.
The FCC granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2.
SpaceX began launching older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites into the Gen2 constellation on Dec. 28. The launch Monday will be the first to deploy a brand new spacecraft design.
“With the recent authorization of our second-generation network, or ‘Gen2,’ SpaceX will provide even faster speeds to more users,” SpaceX said.
The FCC previously authorized SpaceX to launch and operate up to 12,000 Starlink satellites, including roughly 4,400 first-generation Ka-band and Ku-band Starlink spacecraft that SpaceX has been launching since 2019.
The Gen2 satellites could improve Starlink coverage over lower latitude regions, and help alleviate pressure on the network from growing consumer uptake. SpaceX says the network has more than 1 million active subscribers, mostly households in areas where conventional fiber connectivity is unavailable, unreliable, or expensive.
The Starlink spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents with testing underway at a research station in Antarctica.
With the 21 satellites set for launch Monday from Florida, SpaceX will pass the milestone of 4,000 Starlink spacecraft launched to date, including test vehicles and prototypes no longer in service and already removed from orbit.
SpaceX will continue launching more Starlink V1.5 satellites for at least some time. A cluster of 51 Starlink V1.5 satellites is awaiting launch on another Falcon 9 rocket this week, after the Starlink launch from Florida, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
That mission, known as Starlink 2-7, was delayed from Monday afternoon until no earlier than Tuesday. But it could face additional delays as SpaceX prioritizes the Crew-6 astronaut mission awaiting liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA requires time after a Falcon 9 launch to review data before clearing a crew mission for liftoff. The extra oversight is a standard part of NASA’s human spaceflight missions. There is presumably enough time for NASA to complete a data review after the Starlink 6-1 launch Monday evening before the next Crew-6 launch attempt Thursday.
SpaceX intended to launch as many as three Falcon 9 rockets Monday — Crew-6 from Kennedy Space Center, and then two two Starlink missions. But the Crew-6 launch was scrubbed minutes before liftoff due to a problem with the rocket’s engine ignition system, and SpaceX called off the Starlink launch from California because of bad weather.
SpaceX currently has more than 3,600 functioning Starlink satellites in space, with almost 3,200 operational and roughly 400 moving into their operational orbits, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an expert tracker of spaceflight activity and an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The first-generation Starlink network architecture includes satellites flying a few hundred miles up, orbiting at inclinations of 97.6 degrees, 70 degrees, 53.2 degrees, and 53.0 degrees to the equator. Last year, most of SpaceX’s Starlink launches have released satellites into Shell 4, at an inclination of 53.2 degrees, after the company largely completed launches into the first 53-degree inclination shell in 2021.
The launch Monday will target one of the orbital shells for the Gen2 Starlink constellation at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator. Launching more satellites into the lower inclination orbit will accelerate internet coverage over the tropics and other lower latitude regions.
For Monday’s countdown, SpaceX’s launch team will be stationed inside a launch control center just south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX will begin loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the 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.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will vector its 1.7 million pounds of thrust — produced by nine Merlin engines — to steer southeast over the Atlantic Ocean.
The Falcon 9 rocket will exceed the speed of sound in about one minute, then shut down its nine main engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The booster stage will separate from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then fire pulses from cold gas control thrusters and extend titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere.
Two braking burns will slow the rocket for landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” around 400 miles (640 kilometers) downrange approximately eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The reusable booster, designated B1076 in SpaceX’s inventory, will launch on its third mission to space.
The Falcon 9’s reusable payload fairing will jettison during the second stage burn around three minutes into the flight. A recovery ship is also on station in the Atlantic to retrieve the two halves of the nose cone after they splash down under parachutes.
Landing of the first stage on Monday’s mission will occur just as the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cuts off to deliver the Starlink satellites into a preliminary parking orbit. Another upper stage burn 54 minutes into the mission will reshape the orbit at a higher altitude ahead of payload separation.
Separation of the 21 Starlink spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for 64 minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s guidance computer aims to deploy the satellites into an orbit at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator, with an altitude ranging between 227 miles and 232 miles (365-by-373 kilometers). After separating from the rocket, the 21 Starlink spacecraft will unfurl solar arrays and run through automated activation steps, then use their ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) above Earth.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1076.3)
PAYLOAD: 21 Starlink V2 Mini satellites (Starlink 6-1)
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Feb. 27, 2023
LAUNCH TIME: 6:13:50 p.m. EST (2313:50 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 95% chance of acceptable weather; Low risk of upper level winds; Low risk of unfavorable conditions for booster recovery
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone ship northeast of the Bahamas
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Southeast
TARGET ORBIT: 227 miles by 232 miles (365 kilometers by 373 kilometers), 43.0 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
MISSION STATS:
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Feb. 27 with delay of Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SpaceX released the first photos of the company’s upgraded Starlink internet satellite design, with 21 of the heavier, higher-capacity internet satellites set to ride a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral on Monday.
The new Starlink satellite design, called “V2 Mini,” will have four times the communications capacity of early generations of Starlink satellites, known as Version 1.5, SpaceX said.
The upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellites are an intermediate step between SpaceX’s original Starlink satellite design, and an even larger spacecraft platform SpaceX plans to deploy using its new-generation Starship rocket. The Starship has nearly 10 times the payload lift capability of a Falcon 9 rocket, with greater volume for satellites, too.
SpaceX could attempt to launch the huge Starship rocket into space for the first time as soon next month from South Texas. But the program has faced developmental delays, and SpaceX decided to build miniature versions of the upgraded Starship-compatible Version 2 Starlink satellites to fly on Falcon 9 rockets.
“The V2 satellites launched on Falcon 9 are a bit smaller, so we affectionately refer to them as “V2 Mini” satellites,” SpaceX said. “But don’t let the name fool you, a V2 Mini satellite has four times the capacity for serving users compared to its earlier counterparts.”
The Starlink V2 satellites will be capable of transmitting signals directly to cell phones, a step forward in connectivity from space that other companies are also pursuing. The V2 Mini satellites have more powerful phased array antennas than older Starlink satellites, and introduce E-band for backhaul capacity.
“This means Starlink can provide more bandwidth with increased reliability and connect millions of more people around the world with high-speed internet,” SpaceX said.
The first batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites is scheduled for launch Monday at 6:13 p.m. EST (2313 GMT). SpaceX pushed back the launch time from earlier in the afternoon due to concerns about space weather, which could interfere with rocket and spacecraft computer systems. A Falcon 9 rocket rolled out to Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and was raised vertical Sunday in preparation for liftoff.
The mission is known as Starlink 6-1 in SpaceX’s Starlink launch sequence. The Falcon 9’s guidance system will aim to place the 21 Starlink satellites into an orbit about 230 miles (370 kilometers) above Earth, on a path that will take the satellites between 43 degrees north and south latitude.
Unlike SpaceX’s previous Starlink missions, which placed their satellites in lower-altitude transfer orbits, the Starlink 6-1 mission will inject the 21 V2 Mini satellites into an orbit closer to their final operating altitude, minimizing the time needed for the spacecraft to use their own propulsion to maneuver into their final orbital positions.
The Starlink V2 Mini satellites also carry an argon-fueled electrical propulsion system using Hall thrusters for on-orbit maneuvering. The new propulsion system has 2.4 times the thrust and 1.5 times the specific impulse, or fuel efficiency, of the krypton-fueled ion thrusters on the first generation of Starlink satellites.
The argon Hall thrusters were developed by SpaceX engineers, the company, and are the first of their kind to operate in space. The electric propulsion system is highly efficient, but low thrust, generating an impulse by accelerating argon gas through the engine using electricity.
Argon gas is cheaper than the krypton fuel used on the first generation of Starlink satellites. Before the Starlink network, most electric thrusters for in-space propulsion relied on more expensive xenon gas.
Each Starlink V2 Mini satellite weighs about 1,760 pounds (800 kilograms) at launch, nearly three times heavier than the older Starlink satellites. The are also bigger in size, with a spacecraft body more than 13 feet (4.1 meters) side, filling more of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing during launch, according to regulatory filings with the Federal Communications Commission.
Once deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket, the Starlink V2 Mini satellites will unfurl two solar array wings to a span of about 100 feet (30 meters). The original Starlink satellites each have a single solar array wing, with each spacecraft measuring about 36 feet (11 meters) end-to-end once the solar panel is extended.
The enhancements give the Starlink V2 Mini satellites a total surface area of 1,248 square feet, or 116 square meters, more than four times that of a Starlink V1.5 satellite.
The full-size Starlink V2 satellites, which will launch on the Starship rocket, will have more than double the surface area of a Starlink V2 Mini spacecraft, according to SpaceX filings with the FCC.
SpaceX added dark paint and visors to earlier Starlink satellites to reduce their reflectivity. The mitigations were installed on Starlink satellites after the first batch of spacecraft launched in 2019 were brighter than expected, raising concerns from scientists that thousands of the satellites could interfere with ground-based astronomy.
But the dark paint was not as effective as hoped, and SpaceX removed the visors from later Starlink satellites to allow them to use laser inter-satellite communications links. Ground teams also changed the orientation of the Starlink satellites to minimize reflections of sunlight that could reach the ground at twilight.
Later Starlink satellites used dielectric mirror film on spacecraft surfaces, which directs reflected sunlight away from Earth. The new generation of Starlink satellites include a combination of mirrors and a new type of low-reflectivity paint, and the solar arrays are designed to adjust their pointing when the spacecraft fly over regions of Earth at dawn and dusk.
“So, while our V2 Mini satellites are larger than earlier versions, we’re still expecting them to be as dark or darker once the full range of mitigations are implemented and the satellites reach their operational orbit,” SpaceX said in a document describing the new satellite design.
But the new larger satellites may still be “somewhat bright” immediately after launch, when they’re flying close together in a so-called “train” formation, the company said. SpaceX said measurements, modeling, and analysis show the brightness mitigations will be effective in reducing the V2 Mini satellites’ reflectivity, but engineers won’t know for sure until scientists observe the satellites after launch.
“What we learn from early observations will help us improve and refine mitigations,” SpaceX. said.
“As our track record demonstrates, SpaceX will work tirelessly to refine design/manufacturing/materials and, but as our track operational mitigations and continue to work with astronomers toward reducing the brightness of our satellites,” SpaceX said.
The company said it will make the mirror film and dark paint material available at cost to other operators deploying large constellations of satellites in orbit.
Like the previous series of Starlink satellites, the upgraded V2 Mini spacecraft use an “autonomous collision avoidance system” to help avoid impacts with other objects in orbit. Collisions in low Earth orbit could generate thousands of small fragments that would exacerbate the orbital debris problem.
The new Starlink satellite design is part of SpaceX’s second-generation Starlink constellation, called Gen2.
The FCC granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2.
SpaceX began launching older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites into the Gen2 constellation on Dec. 28. The launch Monday will be the first to deploy a brand new spacecraft design.
“With the recent authorization of our second-generation network, or ‘Gen2,’ SpaceX will provide even faster speeds to more users,” SpaceX said.
The FCC previously authorized SpaceX to launch and operate up to 12,000 Starlink satellites, including roughly 4,400 first-generation Ka-band and Ku-band Starlink spacecraft that SpaceX has been launching since 2019.
The Gen2 satellites could improve Starlink coverage over lower latitude regions, and help alleviate pressure on the network from growing consumer uptake. SpaceX says the network has more than 1 million active subscribers, mostly households in areas where conventional fiber connectivity is unavailable, unreliable, or expensive.
The Starlink spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents with testing underway at a research station in Antarctica.
With the 21 satellites set for launch Monday from Florida, SpaceX will pass the milestone of 4,000 Starlink spacecraft launched to date, including test vehicles and prototypes no longer in service and already removed from orbit.
SpaceX will continue launching more Starlink V1.5 satellites for at least some time. A cluster of 51 Starlink V1.5 satellites is awaiting launch on another Falcon 9 rocket this week, after the Starlink launch from Florida, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.
Led by a three-time space shuttle flier and former Navy submarine officer, the four-man team set to ride into orbit Monday on SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft rode to the launch pad in Florida in new black Tesla Model Xs and took their seats inside the commercial crew capsule Thursday night for a countdown dress rehearsal.
The four-man crew, commanded by veteran NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, completed the practice countdown run early Friday, then departed pad 39A to return to crew quarters. With the crew members safely away from the pad, SpaceX began loading densified kerosene and liquid oxygen into the Falcon 9 rocket and completed a seven-second test-firing of its booster’s nine Merlin engines.
With the dress rehearsal and static fire test, SpaceX checked off two more milestones on the path to launch of NASA’s Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for 1:45 a.m. EST (0645 GMT) Monday. Assuming launch occurs Monday, the Crew-6 astronauts will arrive at the International Space Station with docking Tuesday at 2:38 a.m. EST (0738 GMT).
Bowen, 59, is a retired U.S. Navy captain who served on submarines before NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 2000. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Bowen has logged 40 days in space on three space shuttle missions, most recently in 2011 on the final flight of the shuttle Discovery.
Pilot Warren “Woody” Hoburg, will sit to Bowen’s right during the the Dragon spacecraft’s launch and docking. The 37-year-old is from the Pittsburgh area, and earned a Ph.D in computer science and electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Hoburg was a professor at MIT before he joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2017, and is making his first flight to space on the Crew-6 mission.
Mission specialists Sultan Alneyadi and Andrey Fedyaev, both spaceflight rookies, round out the crew.
Alneyadi, 41, was selected as one of the United Arab Emirates’ first two astronauts in 2018, and will become the first person from the Arab world to live and work on the International Space Station for a long-duration flight. Fedyaev, also 41, is a former Russian Air Force pilot who will serve in the Russian segment of the ISS, riding to and from the outpost on a NASA-funded mission as part of a seat exchange agreement between the U.S. space agency and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency.
The four crew members will live on the space station until late August.
Bowen and his crewmates put on their custom-fitted SpaceX-made pressure suits for the dress rehearsal Thursday night, then left their crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center for the 20-minute car ride to pad 39A. They rode an elevator up the launch pad tower and walking across the crew access arm to board the Dragon spacecraft.
The dress rehearsal is a customary step before all SpaceX astronaut launches, giving the crew members and their ground support team an opportunity to practice their procedures before the real countdown.
The astronauts rode to the launch pad in two black Tesla Model Xs, a new addition to SpaceX’s astronaut support fleet. The company previously used white Tesla Model Xs for astronaut transportation to and from the launch pad.
SpaceX followed the crew practice run with a hold-down test-firing of the Falcon 9’s Merlin 1D main engines at 5:45 a.m. EST (0145 GMT) Friday.
Static fire complete. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fired up its nine Merlin 1D engines at 5:45am EST (1045 GMT). This test-firing is a key step in preparation for launch Monday from Kennedy Space Center with a crew of four heading to the space station. https://t.co/9xM99tOGp1 pic.twitter.com/lkCbVAnzE8
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) February 24, 2023
Kerosene and liquid oxygen flowed into the Falcon 9 beginning about 35 minutes prior to ignition time for Friday’s static fire test. SpaceX engineers in Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center at Kennedy observed and managed the operation.
With the static fire test complete, SpaceX drained the propellants from the Falcon 9. Engineers analyzed the data collected during the test-firing to make sure all systems performed well.
The Crew-6 mission will be SpaceX’s sixth operational crew rotation flight to the space station, and SpaceX’s ninth human spaceflight mission overall, including the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, and two fully commercial astronaut missions.
The Dragon Endeavour spacecraft set to fly on the Crew-6 mission will be going to space for the fourth time, more than any other SpaceX crew capsule to date. The same vehicle was used on the Demo-2 test flight with Hurley and Behnken in 2020.
The Falcon 9 booster assigned to the Crew-6 launch, numbered B1078, is making its first flight.
The arrival of the Crew-6 mission at the space station will temporarily raise the size of the lab’s crew to 11. Bowen’s crew will replace the Crew-5 mission, which has been at the station since October.
The Crew-5 mission — commanded by NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, with pilot Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina — will return to Earth on their SpaceX-owned Dragon spacecraft around March 6, weather permitting. The Dragon spacecraft will target a splashdown off the coast of Florida.
When the mission takes off, the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft will head northeast from Florida’s Space Coast to line up with the space station’s orbital track. Flying parallel to the U.S. East Coast, the Falcon 9 will shed its first stage about two-and-a-half minutes into the mission, allowing the booster to descend back to a landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket’s single-engine upper stage will fire more than six minutes to place the Dragon spacecraft and four crew members in a preliminary orbit. The Dragon will separate from the rocket a few minutes later, open its nose cone to reveal its docking mechanism, then execute a series of Draco thruster burns to fine-tune its path to the space station.
The Dragon capsule will dock with the zenith, or upward-facing, port on the space station’s Harmony module around 2:38 a.m. EST (0738 GMT) Tuesday, assuming the launch occurs Monday.
There’s a 95% chance of favorable weather for launch of the Crew-6 mission Monday, according to the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral. NASA and SpaceX have a backup launch opportunity Tuesday.
There is a low risk of unfavorable upper level wind shear, and a low to moderate risk of adverse weather conditions along the Falcon 9’s ascent corridor northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX officials will watch the downrange weather to ensure it is acceptable for landing of the first stage booster, and safe enough for the Dragon capsule to splash down in the event of an in-flight abort.
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SpaceX transported a Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft to pad 39A on Wednesday, Feb. 22, for final preparations to carry a four-man crew to the International Space Station on NASA’s Crew-6 mission.
After completing the quarter-mile trip from SpaceX’s hangar, the Falcon 9 was raised vertical on pad 39A using hydraulic pistons early Thursday, Feb. 23, in preparation for a static fire test Friday.
The 215-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket is powered by a brand new first stage booster, numbered B1078 in SpaceX’s inventory. The Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is going for its fourth flight to space after debuting on the Demo-2 mission in 2020, SpaceX’s first human spaceflight mission.
The Falcon 9 is set to take off Monday, Feb. 27, at 1:45 a.m. EST (0645 GMT) with NASA commander Steve Bowen, pilot Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Bowen is a veteran of three space shuttle missions, while the other crew members are spaceflight rookies.
The Crew-6 mission will be SpaceX’s sixth operational crew rotation flight to the space station, and SpaceX’s ninth human spaceflight mission overall, including the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, and two fully commercial astronaut missions.
See our Mission Status Center for comprehensive coverage of Crew-6 flight to the International Space Station.
Additional photos of the Falcon 9 rocket’s rollout to pad 39A are posted below.
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[…] B1078 core is ready to rise into Florida’s post-midnight darkness at 1:45 a.m. EST Monday, followed by 12-times-flown B1061 from the West Coast, lower than 13 hours later at 11:31 a.m. PST, with each boosters returning to […]
[…] B1078 core is set to rise into Florida’s post-midnight darkness at 1:45 a.m. EST Monday, followed by 12-times-flown B1061 from the West Coast, less than 13 hours later at 11:31 a.m. PST, with both boosters returning to […]
@SpaceX is looking to a Monday launch double-header. Mother Nature pledges superb Florida weather for NASA's Crew-6, tempered by poorer conditions on the West Coast for a Starlink-laden veteran booster.
The post Good Florida Weather Expected as SpaceX Heads into Month-End Launch Week first appeared on AmericaSpace.
[…] Grumman Corp. Cygnus resupply freighter and crewed missions within the type of AxiomSpace, Inc.’s all-private Ax-2 and the long-awaited Crew Flight Test (CFT) of Boeing’s CST-100 […]
[…] Grumman Corp. Cygnus resupply freighter and crewed missions in the form of AxiomSpace, Inc.’s all-private Ax-2 and the long-awaited Crew Flight Test (CFT) of Boeing’s CST-100 […]
Crew-6 is targeting a Monday launch to @Space_Station at 1:45 a.m. EST, with four spacefarers from three nations, including @Astro_Woody & @Astro_Alneyadi.
The post Crew-6 Ready for Monday Launch to Space Station, Busy Six-Month Expedition first appeared on AmericaSpace.
A Russian Soyuz crew ferry ship blasted off from Kazakhstan Thursday, kicking off an unpiloted but critical flight to the International Space Station to replace a damaged Soyuz and provide an eventual ride home for three of the lab’s crew members.
Lighting up the pre-dawn sky, the Soyuz 2.1a booster carrying the Soyuz MS-23/69S crew ship shot away from the sprawling Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:24 p.m. EST (5:24 a.m. local time Friday), kicking off a 9-minute climb to space.
If all goes well, the Soyuz, loaded with equipment and supplies in place of a crew, will carry out an automated rendezvous with the space station, docking at the Russian Poisk module at 8:01 a.m. Saturday.
The spacecraft originally was scheduled for launch next month to ferry two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut to the lab complex to replace another Soyuz that was expected to carry three other station fliers — Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio — back to Earth to wrap up a six-month mission.
But on December 14, their Soyuz was hit by a presumed micrometeoroid that ruptured a coolant line. Russian engineers called off the planned return to Earth after concluding the lost coolant could lead to higher-than-normal, possibly unsafe internal temperatures.
Instead, managers ordered engineers to speed up processing for the Soyuz MS-23 vehicle and, after a delay caused by additional problems with a Progress cargo ship, moved launch to Thursday.
The original MS-23 crew — Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Laral O’Hara — now plan to fly in September aboard the next Soyuz in the sequence, replacing Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio.
Liftoff of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, heading for the International Space Station to replace a disabled Soyuz crew ferry ship and provide a ride home for a three-man crew later this year. https://t.co/D0Ym3hg4P8 pic.twitter.com/8pjjrjqwCp
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) February 24, 2023
Prokopyev and company originally planned to spend six months in space as part of a normal crew rotation. But the damage to their ship and the decision to replace it means they’ll now have to stay in space for a full year.
In any case, the Soyuz MS-23 launching Thursday was critical to providing the trio with a safe ride home at the end of their extended mission as well as serving as the crew’s lifeboat in case of an emergency that might require an immediate evacuation of the space station.
Since the MS-22 vehicle was damaged in December, NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have been forced to rely on a less-than optimal “plan B.”
In case of an emergency before the replacement Soyuz arrives, Rubio would squeeze into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and join that ship’s four crew members for a quick descent to Earth.
Prokopyev and Petelin would attempt re-entry in the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. With just two crew members aboard, not as much cooling would be required and Russian engineers are confident the ship could carry out a safe re-entry.
But assuming Thursday’s launch and rendezvous go well, the station will again have two healthy crew lifeboats for use as needed.
Against that backdrop, NASA and SpaceX are gearing up to launch a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the station early Monday carrying Crew-6 astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and Emerati astronaut Sultan Alneyadi.
Crew-6 will replace four other station crew members — Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina — who plan to return to Earth around March 6 aboard their Crew-5 Dragon.
[…] 1. “Crew-6 Arrives in Florida, Heads for Monday Pre-Dawn Launch to Space Station” AmericaSpace, 22 Feb. 2023, https://www.americaspace.com/2023/02/22/crew-6-arrives-in-florida-heads-for-monday-pre-dawn-launch-t… […]
Live coverage of preparations for the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission carrying NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg, Emirati astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev on a flight to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
[…] mission to the ISS. Laden with 7,777 pounds (3,528 kilograms) of experiments, payloads and supplies for the Expedition 68 crew of Commander Sergei Prokopyev and his Russian comrades Dmitri Petelin and Anna Kikina, together […]
Live coverage of the test flight of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX has postponed the launch of another batch of Starlink internet satellites from Thursday as the company’s team in Florida prioritizes preparations for the launch of a four-man next week bound for the International Space Station.
The Starlink 6-1 mission was slated to take off Thursday afternoon from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, using a Falcon 9 rocket to inject another group of SpaceX internet satellites into a low Earth orbit inclined 43 degrees to the equator.
But SpaceX said late Wednesday that the Starlink 6-1 mission would be delayed from Thursday to no earlier than Sunday, and perhaps longer, while ground teams ready a different Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff from nearby pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The launch from pad 39A is scheduled for 1:45 a.m. EST (0645 GMT) Monday with a multinational crew heading for the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 rocket will haul SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour crew capsule into orbit with commander Stephen Bowen, pilot Warren “Woody” Hoburg, both from NASA, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
The crew of four will embark on a six-month expedition on the space station. Known as Crew-6, the mission is the sixth operational crew rotation flight SpaceX will launch to the station under contract to NASA, and the ninth SpaceX human spaceflight mission overall, including the first crew test flight in 2020 and two fully commercial astronaut missions.
SpaceX tweeted Wednesday night that the company is completing pre-launch checkouts and setting up for launch of the Starlink 6-1 mission no earlier than Sunday.
“If weather and all other aspects of Crew-6 are go, we’ll stand down from Sunday’s launch attempt of Starlink,” SpaceX tweeted.
SpaceX is planning another Falcon 9 launch on a Starlink mission, Starlink 2-7, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California no earlier than Monday, following the Crew-6 launch from Florida.
The upcoming Starlink missions will add to the more than 3,600 working Starlink satellites currently in orbit, providing high-speed, low-latency internet services to SpaceX customers around the world.
Preparations for the Crew-6 launch at Kennedy Space Center continue this week. The Falcon 9 rocket, with a brand new first stage booster, rolled out of its hangar Wednesday night and was raised vertical on pad 39A early Thursday.
A test-firing of the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines is scheduled for 5:45 a.m. EST (1045 GMT) Friday on pad 39A.
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Relativity Space plans to skip a final test-firing of its first fully stacked Terran 1 rocket at Cape Canaveral and proceed with a launch attempt March 8 for the methane-fueled, 3D-printed launcher, the company said Wednesday.
The first Terran 1 rocket will take off from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where Relativity engineers and technicians have run the launch vehicle through tests to ensure it is ready for flight. The rocket arrived at Cape Canaveral last June after Relativity built the two-stage vehicle and its engines in California.
Relativity has a three-hour launch window reserved with the U.S. Space Force’s Eastern Range on March 8. The launch window opens at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT). The company said Wednesday it has received a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, the regulatory agency overseeing commercial space launches.
The tests on the launch pad have included multiple fueling demonstrations and test-firings of the Terran 1 first stage, culminating in an 88-second hold-down firing on the launch pad in October. Relativity returned the Terran 1 booster to a nearby hangar and attached it with the rocket’s second stage, with plans to perform a test-firing of the fully integrated launch vehicle before moving forward with a launch attempt.
But a company spokesperson said Wednesday teams will proceed with a launch attempt without completing the final static fire test of the full 110-foot-tall (33.5-meter) rocket. The company believes the tests already performed on the Terran 1 rocket are enough to move forward with a launch countdown, the spokesperson said.
Without performing the final hold-down test-firing, Relativity accepts an increased chance of an abort on the first launch attempt. The spokesperson said the company is trying to balance the risk of wear and tear on the Terran 1 rocket from continued testing with the risk of proceeding with the test flight.
Computers check the health of all launch vehicle systems, including engines, before giving the command to release the rocket for flight. If there’s a problem, the countdown will abort and the engines will shut down on the pad. If all systems are working normally, hold-down restraints will release to allow the Terran 1 to climb off the launch pad and climb into orbit.
About 85% of the 20,458-pound (9,280-kilogram) structural mass of the Terran 1 rocket is manufactured with 3D printing technology, including its Aeon engines, fed by methane fuel and super-cold liquid oxygen. 3D printing allows Relativity to manufacture rockets with 100 times fewer parts than launch vehicles built using conventional methods, the company says.
“We are on the launch pad almost ready to go with the world’s first 3D printed rocket,” tweeted Tim Ellis, Relativity’s co-founder and CEO. “It’s been a truly wild ride to get to this point, and certainly way harder than I ever imagined going into it — but all the feels from me and our team as we embark on this historic launch. There is a very bright future ahead for Relativity Space!”
The nine Aeon 1 engines on the first stage of the Terran 1 rocket will generate about 207,000 pounds of thrust at full power.
A company spokesperson said Relativity has completed six ignitions and more than 185 seconds of Hotwire time for all nine Aeon 1 engines on the first stage of the Terran 1 rocket, with no ignition failures, premature engine shutdowns, or engine swaps. The engines and the Terran 1’s autogenous pressurization system, which uses self-generated gases to maintain pressure in the propellant tanks, have performed well during the ground tests, Relativity said.
Overall, Relativity has completed 191 Aeon 1 hotfire tests with 10,900 seconds of run time during engine qualification and acceptance testing on a firing stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
The second stage of the Terran 1 rocket, powered by a single “Aeon Vac” engine optimized for firings in space, completed a full “mission duty cycle” simulating the burn it will perform on the test flight. Relativity also completed structural loads testing on the first and second stages of the Terran 1 rocket, and functional testing on stage separation and other “flight-critical” mechanisms.
The expendable Terran 1 rocket can carry up to 2,755 pounds, or 1,250 kilograms, of cargo to a low-altitude orbit. That’s significantly more than other commercial small satellite launchers, such as Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle. Relativity says it sells a dedicated launch on a Terran 1 rocket for $12 million.
The first Terran 1 test flight will not carry a customer payload. It’s purely a test flight, which Relativity has nicknamed “Good Luck, Have Fun.”
Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Relativity Space is also developing a larger reusable rocket called Terran R, designed to haul more than 20 metric tons of cargo to low Earth orbit. Like the Terran 1, the larger Terran R will take off from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral.
The Terran R will be powered by a larger engine Relativity is developing called the Aeon R.
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[…] the third outing for B1076, certainly one of SpaceX’s latest additions to its Falcon 9 fleet, which came online only last November when it lofted the CRS-26 Cargo Dragon mission to the ISS. Laden with 7,777 kilos (3,528 kilograms) […]
[…] launch marks the third outing for B1076, one of SpaceX’s newest additions to its Falcon 9 fleet, which came online only last November when it lofted the CRS-26 Cargo Dragon mission to the ISS. Laden with 7,777 pounds (3,528 […]
Four spacefarers from three nations, including @Astro_Woody & @Astro_Alneyadi, are in Florida gearing up for their launch to @Space_Station no sooner than 1:45 a.m. EST Monday.
The post Crew-6 Arrives in Florida, Heads for Monday Pre-Dawn Launch to Space Station first appeared on AmericaSpace.
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
Two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an Emirati flew to the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday to begin preparations for launch early Monday on a SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to replace four crew members aboard the International Space Station who are wrapping up a five-month stay.
Launch had been planned for Sunday, but NASA and SpaceX managers ordered a 24-hour slip during a flight readiness review Tuesday to allow more time to close out a handful of open technical issues. Launch now is targeted for 1:45 a.m. EST Monday.
Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said he expects the open items to be cleared by the end of the week.
“When we looked at the work remaining to go on the vehicle, getting Dragon and Falcon 9 ready to go, we were a little bit behind on that work and so we need a little bit more time to do that,” he told reporters after the FRR concluded.
“We’re taking our time each step of the way getting Dragon ready to go, doing the proper analysis, getting Falcon 9 ready to go, and making sure we’ll go fly when we’re ready.”
Earlier Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian engineers hauled a Soyuz rocket and crew ferry ship to the pad, setting the stage for launch to the lab complex Thursday evening.
Three station crew members — Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio — had planned to return to Earth next month to wrap up their own six-month station visit. But their Soyuz MS-22 ferry ship was disabled by a presumed micrometeoroid impact December 14 that ruptured a critical coolant line.
The Russians are launching an unpiloted replacement Soyuz, MS-23, at 7:24 p.m. Thursday to give Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio a fresh Soyuz that will carry them back to Earth in September after nearly a full year in space. They’ll be replaced by the original MS-23 crew, who will fly up on the next Soyuz in the sequence.
Assuming an on-time launch Thursday, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is expected to carry out an automated rendezvous with the space station, docking at the lab’s upper Poisk module around 8 p.m. Saturday.
At the same time, SpaceX and NASA will be gearing up to launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket at pad 39A early Monday.
The ship’s crew — commander Stephen Bowen, pilot Warren “Woody” Hoburg, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and United Arab Emirates flier Sultan Alneyadi — landed at the spaceport’s 3-mile-long Launch and Landing Facility runway a few minutes before 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to begin final preparations.
“I’ve had the privilege over the past couple of years of training with an incredible crew,” Bowen, a former submariner and veteran of three shuttle flights, told reporters at the runway. “They are just the most amazing people. And it’s just an incredible honor to be here. We’re really looking forward to our mission.”
If all goes well, SpaceX will haul the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon out of the company hangar and up to the top of pad 39A Wednesday. Bowen and company plan to don their pressure suits and strap for a dress-rehearsal countdown late Thursday, culminating in a simulated launch early Friday.
A few hours later, after the crew departs, SpaceX engineers plan to test fire the Falcon 9’s first stage engines, setting the stage for launch Monday. If all goes well, the Crew Dragon will catch up with the space station early Tuesday, docking to the Harmony module’s upper port at 2:29 a.m.
Standing by to welcome them aboard will be the crew Bowen and company is replacing — Crew-5 commander Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina — along with Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio.
Prokopyev and his crewmates were launched to the station last September and originally planned to spend six months aboard the lab. But on December 14, a presumed micrometeoroid impact resulted in a massive coolant leak.
After a detailed analysis, Russian engineers concluded the spacecraft could not be relied on to safely carry its three crew members back to Earth without overheating. Instead, engineers worked to ready the Soyuz MS-23 for launch ahead of schedule to replace the damaged MS-22 ferry ship.
In an unlikely coincidence, a Russian Progress cargo ship docked at the station suddenly lost its coolant February 11, two months after the Soyuz incident. The Progress undocked last Friday and plunged back into the atmosphere Saturday, breaking up as expected over the southern Pacific Ocean.
Analysis of post-undocking video and photography showed what the Russians concluded may have been another impact, similar to but larger than the one that damaged the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, or possibly the site of a leak caused by some earlier problem after launch.
In any case, the replacement Soyuz will dock at the same port vacated by the damaged Progress. At that point, all the station crew members once again will have independent lifeboats — Crew Dragon and Soyuz — for use in the event of an emergency that might require an immediate evacuation.
Russia’s space agency said Tuesday that preliminary data suggest a coolant leak on a Progress cargo freighter docked at the International Space Station earlier this month was caused by “external influences” — possibly something that occurred during its launch last year, according to a senior NASA space station manager.
It was the second time in two months that a Russian spacecraft docked at the space station suddenly leaked coolant fluid, following the loss of coolant from a Soyuz crew ferry spacecraft in December. The two leaks were similar, both originating from each spacecraft’s thermal control system, spewing a cloud of frozen coolant into space.
The Progress MS-21 cargo ship undocked from the space station Friday, as scheduled, six days after Russian ground controllers first detected a loss of pressure in the spacecraft’s cooling system. Cameras operated by Russian cosmonauts inside the station and remote controlled cameras outside the complex captured high-resolution images of the Progress MS-21 spacecraft, revealing a 12-millimeter hole where the coolant fluid flowed out of the cooling system Feb. 11.
The Progress MS-21 completed a de-orbit burn Saturday and descended back into the atmosphere over the remote South Pacific Ocean, burning up and discarding several tons of trash and other no-longer-needed items from the space station.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, posted an update on its Telegram channel Tuesday, claiming the preliminary conclusion of the investigation into the damage to the Progress MS-21 supply ship indicated it was caused by an “external influence,” and not a manufacturing defect.
The coolant leaks on the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft Feb. 11 and the Soyuz MS-22 crew capsule Dec. 14 were unlike anything that has happened in the more than 25-year history of the space station. Russian space agency managers decided to launch a fresh Soyuz spacecraft to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 vehicle after its coolant leak.
“According to preliminary data from RSC Energia (prime contractor for the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft), the Progress MS-21, like the Soyuz MS-22 before, was exposed to external influences,” Roscosmos said. “Such conclusions are made on the basis of photographs that show changes on the outer surface of the ship, including on the radiator of the instrument-aggregate compartment and solar panels.”
Roscosmos said managers cleared the new Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, a replacement for the damaged Soyuz, for launch Thursday at 7:24 p.m. EST (0024 GMT Friday) on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket.
Ground teams at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan rolled the new Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft and its Soyuz booster to their launch pad Tuesday. The Soyuz MS-23 capsule, originally slated to launch a crew of three in March, will fly to the station.a few weeks earlier than originally planned without any people on-board.
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock at the Poisk module on the Russian segment of the space station at 8:01 p.m. EST Saturday (0101 GMT Sunday). Assuming the new Soyuz completes its automated docking as planned, the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft will depart the complex next month to head for a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan.
Russian commander Sergey Prokopyev, cosmonaut Dmitri Petelin, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will return to Earth on Soyuz MS-23 after the launch of Soyuz MS-24 with their replacement crew in September. Their expedition was extended by six months after Russian space officials shuffled the schedule of missions to the space station in the wake of the Soyuz coolant leak.
Without a functioning internal cooling system, Russian engineers are concerned about overheating of computers and other internal components on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft during the flight from the space station back to Earth. Engineers deemed the damaged Soyuz safe enough to use for an emergency evacuation of the space station, but extended the stay of its three-man crew at the complex from March until September, when they will ride the new Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft back to Earth.
The coolant leaks on the Soyuz MS-22 and Progress MS-21 spacecraft were unlike anything that has happened in the more than 25-year history of the space station. Russian officials initially blamed the Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak on a likely impact from a tiny piece of rock from deep space, called a micrometeoroid. After the leak on the Progress cargo freighter earlier his month, it’s not clear if Roscosmos officials still believe in the micrometeoroid explanation for the Soyuz MS-22 leak.
Dana Weigel, NASA’s deputy program manager for the ISS, said Tuesday that the U.S. space agency is also analyzing data to find the cause of the leaks.
She told reporters she did not interpret the Russian space agency’s statement about an “external influence” on Progress MS-21 as specifically pointing to micrometeoroid damage.
“I actually don’t interpret that was micrometeoroid damage over the spacecraft,” Weigel said, referring to the Roscosmos statement on Progress MS-21. “I think what they’re really trying to understand is are there any signs or signatures that somewhere along the spacecraft’s journey, whether it’s launch or launch vehicle separation, there’s some other external influence or damage that could have occurred that could have been a factor there.”
The Progress MS-21 cargo ship launched in October, carrying fuel, food and supplies to the space station. The coolant leak Feb. 11 occurred, presumably in a coincidence, shortly after docking of the new Progress MS-22 supply ship.
In the next phase of the investigation, Russia’s space agency plans ground experiments to simulate the damage observed on the Soyuz MS-22 and Progress MS-21 vehicles.
The launch and docking of the new Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft will occur as NASA and SpaceX gear up for launch of a four-man crew from Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Monday. The multinational Crew-6 mission, consisting of crew members from the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia, will launch on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket, kicking off a six-month mission on the International Space Station.
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[…] JRTI departed Port Canaveral last Monday, bound for a recovery position some 470 miles (750 kilometers) offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. Tonight’s mission marked the drone ship’s third Falcon 9 “catch” of 2021, following on the heels of a pair of missions launched late last month and more recently just two weeks ago. […]
[…] for SpaceX’s fifth flight of February and 12th mission of the year looked good, notching up from an expected 65-percent favorability earlier this week to 75 percent, according to the L-1 update issued by the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Space […]
@SpaceX has successfully launched its 2nd GEO-bound commercial mission of 2023, with others to follow.
The post SpaceX Launches Inmarsat-6 F2, Other GTO-Bound Missions Wait in Wings first appeared on AmericaSpace.
[…] mission of 2023 into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), following Friday’s 10:59 p.m. EST rise of a three-times-used Falcon 9 booster with the heavyweight Inmarsat-6 F2. The 10,000-pound (5,500-kilogram) “hybrid” […]
Russian cosmonauts will try to take pictures of the location where coolant leaked out of a Russian Progress cargo ship earlier this month when the supply freighter departs the International Space Station Friday night, as scheduled, to head for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.
The Progress MS-21 cargo ship is scheduled to undock from space-facing Poisk module on the Russian segment of the space station at 9:26 p.m. EST Friday (0226 GMT Saturday), keeping a departure date that has been set for months. But the routine undocking will take special significance after the Progress MS-21 cargo ship suddenly leaked coolant last Saturday, Feb. 11, soon after the docking of a fresh Progress resupply spacecraft to a different port on the space station.
The timing of the leak soon after the docking of another Progress supply ship was presumably a coincidence, but it was the second time in less than two months that a Russian spacecraft suddenly lost its coolant fluid while docked at the international research complex. Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 crew ferry ship leaked coolant in December, an incident that Russian space agency officials previously blamed on a likely high-speed impact from a micrometeoroid, or a tiny fragment of rock from deep space.
Russian engineers continue analyzing the cause of the coolant leak on the unpiloted Progress MS-21 cargo ship, and officials have not said whether both leaks were caused by the same failure, or if both spaceships suffered untimely hits by space junk or micrometeoroids. The coolant on both vehicles is used to dissipate heat generated by internal spacecraft electronics, and maintain comfortable operating temperatures for computers, cargo, and people inside.
The 58-foot-long (17.6-meter) Canadian-built robotic arm inspected the damaged thermal control system radiator Progress MS-21 spacecraft’s rear instrumentation compartment earlier this week, according to Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency. Russian space officials decided to move ahead with the planned undocking and re-entry of the Progress MS-21 spacecraft, which is carrying trash and other unnecessary space station equipment for disposal.
“The reason for the coolant leak is continuing to be investigated between our NASA specialists and Roscosmos counterparts,” said Jeff Arend, manager of the International Space Station systems engineering and integration office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “An inspection was completed earlier this week using the Canadarm 2 to gather imagery of the suspected area, and the teams are evaluating that imagery.”
Once the Progress spacecraft backs away from the space station, Russian cosmonauts will send commands to the supply ship to rotate its orientation by about 180 degrees to enable additional visual inspections of the area where the coolant leak occurred, Arend said Friday.
Then the cargo vehicle will move a safe distance away from the space station and fire its engines for a de-orbit burn at 11:03 p.m. EST (0403 GMT), setting up for a re-entry into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean around 11:45 p.m. EST (0445 GMT). Most of the Progress spacecraft and its cargo will burn up during re-entry. Progress MS-21 launched Oct. 25 and docked at the space station two days later with more than 2.5 tons of cargo, fuel and water.
The damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, meanwhile, is set to be replaced by a new Soyuz crew ferry ship that could launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan later this month or in March. That launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft was postponed from Sunday, Feb. 19, to give Russian engineers more time to evaluate the cause of the Progress coolant leak.
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft will launch without any crew members. When it docks at the station, it will be the lifeboat for Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who will have their stay on the station extended by nearly six months until September, when they will return to Earth on Soyuz MS-23 after the launch of Soyuz MS-24 with their replacement crew.
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