Keep the shuttle flying

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Fwd: United Launch Alliance Confirms Engine Issue on Latest Atlas Rocket Launch

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: March 25, 2016 at 9:52:14 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: United Launch Alliance Confirms Engine Issue on Latest Atlas Rocket Launch

spacenews.com

United Launch Alliance Confirms Engine Issue on Latest Atlas Rocket Launch
By Jeff Foust, SpaceNews Writer | March 25, 2016 07:00am ET

WASHINGTON — The upper stage of the Atlas V that launched a Cygnus cargo spacecraft March 22 fired for more than a minute longer than planned, apparently to compensate for the premature shut down of the rocket's first stage engine.

United Launch Alliance confirmed March 24 that the Centaur upper stage used on the launch of the Cygnus OA-6 mission burned for longer than scheduled, although the company did not provide a reason for the extended engine firing.

"The Centaur burned for longer than planned," ULA spokeswoman Lyn Chassagne said in a statement provided to SpaceNews. "The team is evaluating the occurrence as part of the standard post-flight data analysis." She later said that burn lasted about 60 seconds longer than planned. [See Launch Photos ffor Orbital ATK's Cygnus OA-6 Mission]

While United Launch Alliance declared the Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral a success, placing the Cygnus in its planned orbit, industry sources and broadcast telemetry suggest that success required an extended burn by the Atlas' Centaur upper stage.

According to a mission summary released by ULA in advance of the launch, the Centaur was scheduled to shut down its RL10 engine 18 minutes and 9 seconds into the mission. However, telemetry of the launch, shown on NASA Television, showed that the engine continued to fire beyond that time, shutting down about 19 minutes and 20 seconds into the mission.

That extended burn appeared to catch launch commentators off-guard, who had advised on more than one occasion that engine shutdown was expected at the planned time. There was no public commentary about the extended burn during the live broadcast beyond a statement that the Centaur continued to "perform very well."

At a post-launch press conference at NASA's Kennedy Space Center early March 23, Vern Thorp, ULA's program manager for NASA missions, suggested that the additional burn was a routine discrepancy from original projections for the burn.

"The pre-launch predictions of exactly when the events are going to occur are based on a preliminary trajectory. Typically it's been developed a few weeks before the launch," he said. "It's not unusual for things to vary a little bit based on the actual conditions of the launch."

But in addition to the extended burn of the Centaur, launch telemetry broadcast on NASA TV indicates that the RD-180 engine in the first stage of the Atlas V shut down prematurely. That telemetry shows booster engine cutoff taking place about 4 minutes and 10 seconds into the mission, about five seconds before the scheduled cutoff time according to the ULA mission summary.

Chassagne confirmed that the first stage burn was six seconds shorter than planned, but did not provide any details about what may have caused the stage to shut down early. Industry sources suggest that the Centaur burn may have extended to make up for any underperformance by the first stage, such as a premature shutdown.

That extended Centaur burn to put the Cygnus spacecraft into the proper orbit contributed to an early shut down of a later burn, after spacecraft separation, to deorbit the stage. Chassagne said that burn ended eight seconds early, causing any debris that survived reentry to splash down in "an uninhabited area of ocean east of the planned landing location" in the ocean south of Australia.

ULA noted that, despite the irregularities, it still considered the launch a success. "The Atlas V's robust system design, software and vehicle margins enabled the successful outcome for this mission," Chassagne said.

"Centaur nailed the orbit," Thorp said at the press conference, noting that the orbit the Centaur placed the Cygnus in was within a "fraction of a kilometer" of the planned orbit. "We got Cygnus where it wants to go."

"Like every mission, we're going to go do a very detailed post-flight review," he added, "to make sure everything performed properly. But from everything we've seen so far, the mission was pretty nominal."

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Four years after final service call, Hubble Space Telescope going strong

Shuttle will ultimately needed to keep Hubble going!

http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/spacenews/files/1ae7cac0d167055e41e1f0da7b0ac6a3-588.html

Sent from my iPad

Friday, March 25, 2016

Fwd: Reviewers approve early design work on new Vulcan rocket

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: March 25, 2016 at 9:55:22 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Reviewers approve early design work on new Vulcan rocket

spaceflightnow.com

Reviewers approve early design work on new Vulcan rocket

http://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Vulcan_441_Side413201562153PM63-1024x639.png
Vulcan is visualized here in its 441 configuration. Credit: United Launch Alliance

CAPE CANAVERAL — Work to create a new all-American rocket, the United Launch Alliance Vulcan-Centaur, has passed its first major hurdle for its first flight in three years, officials announced Thursday.

The Preliminary Design Review for the next-generation vehicle was recently completed and verified that the rocket will satisfy the criteria for the diverse military, civil and commercial missions it will launch.

"The completion of the Vulcan Centaur rocket's PDR is the first of several major and very exciting milestones in the launch vehicle's development," said Tory Bruno, ULA president and chief executive officer. "We have a strong path to get to a 2019 flight test of this new, highly-capable American launch vehicle."

The rocket as currently designed will be powered by a pair of BE-4 liquefied natural gas main engines, made by Blue Origin, for 1.1 million pounds of thrust.

ULA continues to carry the Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-1 kerosene engine as a backup option if the BE-4 is not available in time. A final decision of which engine to pursue will come late this year or early next.

The American-powered first stage stems from the fervor to replace the Russian RD-180 engines used by Atlas 5 and use domestic powerplants.

Sitting atop the Vulcan first stage will be the venerable Centaur upper stage that currently flies on Atlas. The Centaur heritage dates back five decades.

Up to six strap-on solid-fuel boosters from Orbital ATK will tailor each Vulcan to its given payload, continuing the successful dial-a-rocket approach used by Atlas.

"Vulcan Centaur will revolutionize spaceflight and provide affordable, reliable access to space with an American main engine," said Mark Peller, ULA's program manager for major development.

A later iteration of Vulcan will replace Centaur with the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, or ACES, that will offer extended mission durations and be powerful enough to replace the Delta 4-Heavy for its most-challenging NRO missions to directly into geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth.

The rocket will fulfill the entire spectrum of Defense Department payloads in terms of weight and orbits.

Vulcan rockets will be launched from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral in Florida and Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Fwd: Monday’s ExoMars launch photos

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: March 17, 2016 at 11:32:18 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Monday's ExoMars launch photos

Marvel at Monday's Mars launch with these photos
Take a look back at the fiery blastoff of a Russian Proton rocket Monday with the ExoMars 2016 mission to examine the red planet's atmosphere and test new European entry, descent and landing technologies.
The 191-foot-tall (58-meter) rocket took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0931:42 GMT (5:31:42 a.m. EDT) Monday with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander.
Nearly 11 hours later, the rocket's Breeze M upper stage deployed the ExoMars orbiter on a trajectory toward Mars after a series of maneuvers to build up enough energy to escape Earth's gravity.
The ExoMars mission will arrive at Mars on Oct. 19, making it the European Space Agency's second probe to explore the red planet.
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
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© 2016 Spaceflight Now Inc.

ExoMars 2016: Why We Keep Going Back to the Red Planet
By Megan Gannon, Space.com Contributor | March 16, 2016 12:00pm ET
An artist's illustration of the European Space Agency's ExoMars 2016 mission, showing the Trace Gas Orbiter releasing the Schiaparelli lander as it arrives at the Red Planet. This latest Mars mission launched on March 14, 2016 and will arrive on Oct. 19.
Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab
DARMSTADT, Germany —In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported that he observed intriguing thin lines on the surface of Mars.
The discovery of those "canali" proved sensational. It fueled wild speculation that Earthlings were not alone in the solar system. American astronomer Percival Lowell interpreted the channels as canals dug by thirsty Martians desperate to get water flowing through their civilization.
Schiaparelli's canali turned out to be an optical illusion, and nearly 150 years later, scientists can safely say there are no shovel-wielding aliens living on Mars. Though the history of Mars exploration is littered with failures, dozens of robotic spacecraft have successfully made it to the Red Planet over the last 50 years. They've photographed its surface, analyzed its atmosphere and dug into its soil. Scientists now know the topography of Mars in greater detail than many parts Earth. [Read: Europe's 2016 ExoMars Mission Launches Toward Mars]
But humans keep sending missions to Mars because the central question Schiaparelli inspired remains: Is there, or was there ever, life elsewhere in the solar system? The launch Monday (March 14) of the first phase of ExoMars suggests scientists still think Mars might be the best place to look for an answer.
Mission scientists here at the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Operations Centre (ESOC) cheered when the first autonomous signal came in from ExoMars, at around 5:29 p.m. EDT (2129 GMT). It was the first indication that the robotic spacecraft made it through the launch alive. (Liftoff occurred nearly 12 hours earlier, at 5:31 a.m. EDT.)
"It's an amazing first step for us in Europe,"said Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor to ESA's director of science. "Everything's gone great."
The ExoMars mission is led by ESA in partnership with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. The first of the mission's two phases launched Monday (March 14) aboard a Russian Proton rocket. After a series of crucial maneuvers, the mission's orbiter and lander are on a path to Mars, where they should arrive in mid-October.
The 2016 ExoMars mission includes the Trace Gas Orbiter, or TGO, which will circle Mars looking for atmospheric gases that might hint at life below. A landing capsule named Schiaparelli —a nod to that 19th century astronomer — is hitching a ride to Mars on TGO. Its landing on the surface of the Red Planet will pave the way for the second step of the mission, ExoMars 2018, which will put the first European rover on Mars.
A Russian Proton rocket launches the European Space Agency's ExoMars 2016 orbiter and lander into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on March 14, 2016.
Credit: Stephane Corvaja/ESA
"In science, in general, you're trying to get answers, but you get a few answers and then you get even more new questions," said Thomas Reiter, a former astronaut and ESA's director of human spaceflight and robotic exploration. He said that the same is true with Mars.
"The first missions gave some insights into this neighboring planet and its geological formations, and they built up the indications that there could have been life,"Reiter told Space.com. Now, he said, he hopes the technology on ExoMars will be sophisticated enough to find evidence of life on Mars.
ESA and its Russian partners are searching for signs of life that are much subtler than the canals Percival Lowell and others hoped would be on Mars. Today's scientists aren't obsessed with finding earthworks, but the researchers at ESOC for the launch were at least mad about methane.
"We already know the bulk constituents of Mars' atmosphere very well," said Manish Patel, of the Open University in the United Kingdom. "What we don't know about are the trace gases."
Trace gases are gases in concentrations of less than 1 percent. Patel, who is the co-investigator of NOMAD, one of TGO's gas-detecting instruments, noted that scientists talk about Martian methanein parts per billion; the gas is a small component of Mars' already thin atmosphere, which is largely made up of carbon dioxide. But this tiny amount of methane gas has significant implications because it could come from simple life-forms.
About 90 percent of the methane in Earth's atmosphere comes from biological sources. It gets burped out by cows, released from rice fields and spewed by decomposing organic matter in landfills.
Methane should have a lifetime of 300 to 600 years in the Martian atmosphere before getting destroyed by harsh radiation, so the methane found on Mars might be quite young, said ExoMars project scientist Jorge Vago. If the gas indeed comes from simple lifeforms, that means there's a good chance those tiny beings are still around today.
Still, there's the possibility that methane on Mars doesn't require an alien life explanation, but the finding would nonetheless be interesting to scientists. The methane might have gurgled up from a hydrothermal source underground. Scientists have speculated that Mars might have, or have had, the right geological conditions for serpentinization to take place, by which certain minerals like olivine can react with water to produce serpentine. This reaction also produces hydrogen, which, through reactions with carbon dioxide, can produce methane.
ESA's Red Planet probe Mars Express previously detected methane on Mars. And NASA's Curiosity rover also measured spikes of the gas. But ESA officials said TGO has 1,000 times better sensitivity for measuring gases than did previous instruments sent to Mars. And by observing the trace gas levels continually, ExoMars scientists hope to build a 4D, global picture of the Martian atmosphere and understand how it changes seasonally, Patel told Space.com. This way, when they observe a methane plume, the researchers might be able to link it to a source on the ground, Patel added, though he acknowledged that the task is "going to be incredibly difficult."
Identifying sources of methane could also help project managers to pick the landing site for the next ExoMars mission, in which a rover will dig dirt samples 6.5 feet (2 meters) underground, far deeper than any previous rover. There, ESA scientists hope they'll find microbes that have thus far eluded other Mars rovers.
"There's a big chance with the ExoMars rover we will find organics on Mars," Vago said.

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