# The Space Race



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 10, 2015)

There is some reading to start then loads of pictures, clickable links to wiki for more detailed info and videos.

*A brief history of rocketry*

Today's rockets are remarkable collections of human ingenuity that have their roots in the science and technology of the past. They are natural outgrowths of literally thousands of years of experimentation and research on rockets and rocket propulsion.

One of the first devices to successfully employ the principles essential to rocket flight was a wooden bird. The writings of Aulus Gellius, a Roman, tell a story of a Greek named Archytas who lived in the city of Tarentum, now a part of southern Italy. Somewhere around the year 400 B.C., Archytas mystified and amused the citizens of Tarentum by flying a pigeon made of wood. Escaping steam propelled the bird suspended on wires. The pigeon used the action-reaction principle, which was not stated as a scientific law until the 17th century.

About three hundred years after the pigeon, another Greek, Hero of Alexandria, invented a similar rocket-like device called an aeolipile. It, too, used steam as a propulsive gas.














Hero mounted a sphere on top of a water kettle. A fire below the kettle turned the water into steam, and the gas traveled through pipes to the sphere. Two L-shaped tubes on opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas to escape, and in doing so gave a thrust to the sphere that caused it to rotate.

Just when the first true rockets appeared is unclear. Stories of early rocket like devices appear sporadically through the historical records of various cultures. Perhaps the first true rockets were accidents. In the first century A.D., the Chinese reportedly had a simple form of gunpowder made from saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal dust. To create explosions during religous festivals, they filled bamboo tubes with a mixture and tossed them into fires. Perhaps some of those tubes failed to explode and instead skittered out of the fires, propelled by the gases and sparks produced by the burning gunpowder.





The Chinese began experimenting with the gunpowder-filled tubes. At some point, they attached bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with bows. Soon they discovered that these gunpowder tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced from the escaping gas. The true rocket was born.
The date reporting the first use of true rockets was in 1232. At this time, the Chinese and the Mongols were at war with each other. During the battle of Kai-Keng, the Chinese repelled the Mongol invaders by a barrage of "arrows of flying fire." These fire-arrows were a simple form of a solid-propellant rocket. A tube, capped at one end, contained gunpowder. The other end was left open and the tube was attached to a long stick. When the powder was ignited, the rapid burning of the powder produced fire, smoke, and gas that escaped out the open end and produced a thrust. The stick acted as a simple guidance system that kept the rocket headed in one general direction as it flew through the air. It is not clear how effective these arrows of flying fire were as weapons of destruction, but their psychological effects on the Mongols must have been formidable.
Following the battle of Kai-Keng, the Mongols produced rockets of their own and may have been responsible for the spread of rockets to Europe. All through the 13th to the 15th centuries there were reports of many rocket experiments. In England, a monk named Roger Bacon worked on improved forms of gunpowder that greatly increased the range of rockets. In France, Jean Froissart found that more accurate flights could be achieved by launching rockets through tubes. Froissart's idea was the forerunner of the modern bazooka. Joanes de Fontana of Italy designed a surface-running rocket-powered torpedo for setting enemy ships on fire.








By the 16th century rockets fell into a time of disuse as weapons of war, though they were still used for fireworks displays, and a German fireworks maker, Johann Schmidlap, invented the "step rocket," a multi-staged vehicle for lifting fireworks to higher altitudes. A large sky rocket (first stage) carried a smaller sky rocket (second stage). When the large rocket burned out, the smaller
one continued to a higher altitude before showering the sky with glowing cinders. Schmidlap's idea is basic to all rockets today that go into outer space.

Nearly all uses of rockets up to this time were for warfare or fireworks, but there is an interesting old Chinese legend that reported the use of rockets as a means of transportation. With the help of many assistants, a lesser-known Chinese official named Wan-Hu assembled a rocket- powered flying chair. Attached to the chair were two large kites, and fixed to the kites were forty- seven fire-arrow rockets.

On the day of the flight, Wan-Hu sat himself on the chair and gave the command to light the rockets. Forty-seven rocket assistants, each armed with torches, rushed forward to light the fuses. In a moment, there was a tremendous roar accompanied by billowing clouds of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Wan-Hu and his flying chair were gone. No one knows for sure what happened to Wan-Hu, but it is probable that if the event really did take place, Wan-Hu and his chair were blown to pieces. Fire-arrows were as apt to explode as to fly.

*Rocketry Becomes a Science*
During the latter part of the 17th century, the scientific foundations for modern rocketry were laid by the great English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Newton organized his understanding of physical motion into three scientific laws. The laws explain how rockets work and why they are able to work in the vacuum of outer space. Newton's laws soon began to have a practical impact on the design of rockets. About 1720, a Dutch professor, Willem Gravesande, built model cars propelled by jets of steam. Rocket experimenters in Germany and Russia




began working with rockets with a mass of more than 45 kilograms. Some of these rockets were so powerful that their escaping exhaust flames bored deep holes in the ground even before lift-off.

During the end of the 18th century and early into the 19th, rockets experienced a brief revival as a weapon of war. The success of Indian rocket barrages against the British in 1792 and again in 1799 caught the interest of an artillery expert, Colonel William Congreve. Congreve set out to design rockets for use by the British military.

The Congreve rockets were highly successful in battle. Used by British ships to pound Fort McHenry in the War of 1812, they inspired Francis Scott Key to write "the rockets' red glare," words in his poem that later became The Star- Spangled Banner.

Even with Congreve's work, the accuracy of rockets still had not improved much from the early days. The devastating nature of war rockets was not their accuracy or power, but their numbers. During a typical siege, thousands of them might be fired at the enemy. All over the world, rocket researchers experimented with ways to improve accuracy. An Englishman, William Hale, developed a technique called spin stabilization. In this method, the escaping exhaust gases struck small vanes at the bottom of the rocket, causing it to spin much as a bullet does in flight. Variations of the principle are still used today.

Rockets continued to be used with success in battles all over the European continent. However, in a war with Prussia, the Austrian rocket brigades met their match against newly designed artillery pieces. Breech-loading cannon with rifled barrels and exploding warheads were far more effective weapons of war than the best rockets. Once again, rockets were relegated to peacetime uses.

*Modern Rocketry Begins*
In 1898, a Russian schoolteacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. In a report he published in 1903, Tsiolkovsky suggested the use of liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve greater range. Tsiolkovsky stated that the speed and range of a rocket were limited only by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases. For his ideas, careful research, and great vision, Tsiolkovsky has been called the father of modern astronautics.
Early in the 20th century, an American, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), conducted practical experiments in rocketry. He had become interested in a way of achieving higher altitudes than were possible for lighter-than-air balloons. He published a pamphlet in 1919 entitled A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. It was a mathematical analysis of what is today called the meteorological sounding rocket.

Goddard's earliest experiments were with solid-propellant rockets. In 1915, he began to try various types of solid fuels and to measure the exhaust velocities of the burning gases. While working on solid-propellant rockets, Goddard became convinced that a rocket could be propelled better by liquid fuel. No one had ever built a successful liquid-propellant rocket before. It was a much more difficult task than building solid- propellant rockets. Fuel and oxygen tanks, turbines, and combustion chambers would be needed. In spite of the difficulties, Goddard achieved the first successful flight with a liquid- propellant rocket on March 16, 1926. Fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline, the rocket flew for only two and a half seconds, climbed 12.5 meters, and landed 56 meters away in a cabbage patch. By today's standards, the flight was unimpressive, but like the first powered airplane flight by the Wright brothers in 1903, Goddard's gasoline rocket was the forerunner of a whole new era in rocket flight.





Goddard's experiments in liquid-propellant rockets continued for many years. His rockets became bigger and flew higher. He developed a gyroscope system for flight control and a payload compartment for scientific instruments. Parachute recovery systems were employed to return rockets and instruments safely. Goddard, for his achievements, has been called the father of modern rocketry.

A third great space pioneer, Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) born on June 25, 1894 in Hermannstadt (Transylvania), and died on December 28, 1989 in Nuremberg, Germany, published a book in 1923 about rocket travel into outer space. His writings were important. Because of them, many small rocket societies sprang up around the world. In Germany, the formation of one such society, the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel), led to the development of the V-2 rocket, which was used against London during World War II. In 1937, German engineers and scientists, including Oberth, assembled in Peenemunde on the shores of the Baltic Sea. There the most advanced rocket of its time would be built and flown under the directorship of Wernher von Braun.





The V-2 rocket (in Germany called the A-4) was small by comparison to today's rockets. It achieved its great thrust by burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol at a rate of about one ton every seven seconds. Once launched, the V-2 was a formidable weapon that could devastate whole city blocks.

Fortunately for London and the Allied forces, the V-2 came too late in the war to change its outcome. Nevertheless, by war's end, German rocket scientists and engineers had already laid plans for advanced missiles capable of spanning the Atlantic Ocean and landing in the United States. These missiles would have had winged upper stages but very small payload capacities.

With the fall of Germany, many unused V-2 rockets and components were captured by the Allies. Many German rocket scientists came to the United States. Others went to the Soviet Union. The German scientists, including Wernher von Braun, were amazed at the progress Goddard had made.

Both the United States and the Soviet Union realized the potential of rocketry as a military weapon and began a variety of experimental programs. At first, the United States began a program with high-altitude atmospheric sounding rockets, one of Goddard's early ideas. Later, a variety of medium- and long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles were developed. These became the starting point of the U.S. space program. Missiles such as the Redstone, Atlas, and Titan would eventually launch astronauts into space.

On October 4, 1957, the world was stunned by the

news of an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union. Called Sputnik I, the satellite was the first successful entry in a race for space between the two superpower nations. Less than a month later, the Soviets followed with the launch of a satellite carrying a dog named Laika on board. Laika survived in space for seven days before being put to sleep before the oxygen supply ran out.
A few months after the first Sputnik, the United States followed the Soviet Union with a satellite of its own. Explorer I was launched by the U.S. Army on January 31, 1958. In October of that year, the United States formally organized its space program by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA became a civilian agency with the goal of peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of all humankind.

Soon, many people and machines were being launched into space. Astronauts orbited Earth and landed on the Moon. Robot spacecraft traveled to the planets. Space was suddenly opened up to exploration and commercial exploitation. Satellites enabled scientists to investigate our world, forecast the weather, and to communicate instantaneously around the globe. As the demand for more and larger payloads increased, a wide array of powerful and versatile rockets had to be built.

Since the earliest days of discovery and experimentation, rockets have evolved from simple gunpowder devices into giant vehicles capable of traveling into outer space. Rockets have opened the universe to direct exploration by humankind.


.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................


When i was 3 1/2     i watched through a TV shop window with my Dad when Neil Armstrong stepped on to the Moon..........
by the last Apollo misson in 1972 i was 6 and we had our own telly.   So...some of my earliest recollections is of space travel.




August 21, 1957           First intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)R-7 Semyorka





October 4, 1957           First artificial satellite
First signals from space               Sputnik 1






November 3, 1957              First animal in orbit (dog Laika)Sputnik 2






January 31, 1958        First US satellite, detection of Van Allen radiation beltsExplorer 1-ABMA







March 17, 1958           First solar powered satelliteVanguard 1-NRL






December 18, 1958               First communications satelliteProject SCORE-ABMA






January 2, 1959                   First rocket engine restart in Earth orbit
                                           First lunar spacecraft
                                           First detection of solar windLuna 1




January 4, 1959                       First human-made object in heliocentric orbitLuna 1


February 17, 1959                   First weather satelliteVanguard 2-NASA (NRL)1






February 28, 1959                  First satellite in a polar orbitDiscoverer 1-USAF/ARPA

June 25, 1959                     First spy satellite to carry a camera (failed to achieve orbit)Discoverer 4-USAF/ARPA







August 7, 1959                       First photograph of Earth from orbitExplorer 6-NASA















September 14, 1959                          First impact into another celestial body (Moon)Luna 2







October 7, 1959                        First photos of far side of the MoonLuna 3









April 1, 1960                  First Imaging weather satelliteTIROS-1-NASA









The first television image of Earth from space transmitted by the TIROS-1weather satellite in 1960.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	






July 5, 1960                    First successful US spy satellite (returned intelligence data)GRAB-1-NRL






August 11, 1960             First satellite recovered intact from orbitDiscoverer 13-USAF/ARPA






August 12, 1960           First passive communications satelliteEcho 1A-NASA







August 18, 1960           First successful recovery of film from an orbiting satellite
                                    First aerial recovery of an object returning from Earth orbitDiscoverer 14-USAF/ARPA

August 19, 1960              First animals and plants returned alive from spaceSputnik 5

















*1961–1969*

February 12, 1961                  First launch from Earth orbit of upper stage into a heliocentric orbit
                                              First mid-course corrections
                                              First spin-stabilisationVenera 1








April 12, 1961                        First human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin)
                                              First orbital flight of a manned vehicleVostok 1







May 5, 1961                          First pilot-controlled space flight (Alan Shepard)Freedom 7







May 19, 1961                        First planetary flyby (Venus)Venera 1 pic above


March 7, 1962                      First orbital solar observatoryOSO-1-NASA













July 10, 1962                           First active communications satelliteTelstar-AT&T







August 12, 1962                    First ship-to-ship radio contactVostok 3 / Vostok 4








September 29, 1962                First artificial satellite constructed by a non-superpower
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


Canada — Alouette 1







December 14, 1962                First planetary flyby by a US mission (Venus)Mariner 2-NASA







June 16, 1963                       First woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova)
                                            First civilian in spaceVostok 6








June 19, 1963                        Five-day human spaceflight recordVostok 5







July 19, 1963                              First reusable piloted spacecraft (X-15, _suborbital_)X-15 Flight 90-NASA

















July 26, 1963                              First geosynchronous satelliteSyncom 2-NASA











December 5, 1963                           First satellite navigation systemNAVSAT-USN







August 19, 1964                          First geostationary satelliteSyncom 3-NASA







October 12, 1964                        First multi-person crew (3)Voskhod 1
March 18, 1965                        First extra-vehicular activity ("space walk")Voskhod 2








March 23, 1965                             First piloted spacecraft orbit changeGemini 3-NASA





 Young and Grissom



July 14, 1965                                 First Mars flybyMariner 4-NASA








August 29, 1965                      Eight-day human spaceflight recordGemini 5-NASA











December 15, 1965                First orbital rendezvous (station-keeping, no docking)2Gemini 6A / Gemini 7-NASA








December 18, 1965                14-day human spaceflight recordGemini 7-NASA







February 3, 1966                        First soft landing on another celestial body (Moon)
                                                First photos from another celestial bodyLuna 9








March 1, 1966                        First impact into another planet (Venus)Venera 3







March 16, 1966                              First spacecraft dockingGemini 8 / ATV-NASA









Gemini 8 and target vehicle  AGENA



April 3, 1966                             First artificial satellite to orbit another celestial body: the MoonLuna 10







September 12, 1966                          First direct-ascent rendezvous on first orbit
                                                     Record highest apogee, 1,374 kilometers (854 mi), for piloted Earth orbitGemini 11/ATV-NASA







November 12–14, 1966                   First 5.5 hr extra-vehicular activity
                                                         First demonstration of practical work capabilityGemini 12-NASA





Edwin E Aldrin    BUZZ



October 30, 1967                              First docking of two remote-controlled spacecraftCosmos 186/ Cosmos 188










December 7, 1968                           First orbital ultraviolet observatoryOAO-2-NASA







December 21, 1968                             First human-crewed spaceflight to, and orbit of, another    celestial object: the MoonApollo 8-NASA











January 16, 1969                          First crew exchange in spaceSoyuz 4 /
Soyuz 5







July 20, 1969                                  First humans on the Moon
First space launch from another celestial bodyApollo 11-NASA










http://www.space.com/26563-apollo-1...eo.html#ooid=htb2V5cDqu14grEXjbLsYx8Ge5OWFQGz



November 19, 1969                       First precisely targeted piloted landing on the Moon (Surveyor 3 site)
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	






First man to dance on the Moon (Pete Conrad)









The Soviet Union had attempted an earlier rendezvous on August 12, 1962. However, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 only came within five kilometers of one another, and operated in different orbital planes. _Pravda_ did not mention this information, but indicated that a rendezvous had taken place.

*1970–1975*

September 24, 1970                        First robotic automatic sample return from another celestial body: the MoonLuna 16






November 23, 1970                          First remote-controlled mobile vehicle on another celestial body: the MoonLunokhod 1






December 12, 1970                           First X-ray orbital observatoryUhuru (satellite)-NASA






December 15, 1970                             First soft landing on another planet (Venus)
First signals from another planetVenera 7






April 23, 1971                                  First human-crewed space station launchedSalyut 1 departing from Soyuz 11






June 29, 1971                                  First human-crewed orbital observatory (Orion 1)
23-day manned space recordSoyuz 11 / Salyut 1






July 31, 1971                                  First mobile vehicle lunar rover driven by humans on the MoonApollo 15-NASA






November 14, 1971                           First spacecraft to orbit another planet: MarsMariner 9-NASA





November 27, 1971                          First impact into MarsMars 2




December 2, 1971                        First soft Mars landing
First signals from Mars surfaceMars 3    MARS 3 was identical to MARS 2 as pictured above.




March 3, 1972                        First human-made object sent on escape trajectory away from the SunPioneer 10-NASA




July 15, 1972                      First mission to enter the asteroid belt and leave inner solar systemPioneer 10-NASA



November 9, 1972               First commercially operated domestic satellite in geostationary orbit



Canada — Anik A1-Telesat






November 15, 1972                   First orbital gamma ray observatorySAS-2-NASA






May 25, 1973                                   28-day human-crewed space recordSkylab 1-NASA







July 28, 1973                           56-day human-crewed space recordSkylab 2-NASA






November 16, 1974                   84-day human-crewed space recordSkylab 3-NASA






December 3, 1974                           First Jupiter flybyPioneer 10-NASA






February 5, 1974                        First planetary gravitational assist (Venus flyby)Mariner 10-NASA




March 29, 1974                          First Mercury flybyMariner 10-NASA


July 15, 1975                              First multinational human-crewed mission9Soyuz 19Apollo–Soyuz Test Project
pic is Apollo


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## 64K (Feb 10, 2015)

"Anybody out there have any technical or other experience of rocket propulsion?"

I believe @RealNeil retired from the Aerospace Industry.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 10, 2015)

One short vid on V2 rocket failures
*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdBh54MoZRE







Post War........ Pre Space Race*


*The first images from space    V2 launched by the US on Oct 10 1946






V-2 Rocket Films Earth (1946)

A fantastic piece of history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sykfqa3MKAghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sykfqa3MKAg


*
The Naval Research laboratory did a lot of rocketry research.    V2 technology helped them design *Sounding Rockets *for upper air research but V2's had limitations...read the article, its very good.

It gives an insight  into a Rockoon for example, a mix of rocket and balloon

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4401/ch4.htm






*VIKING ROCKET,* second test,* Sept. 6, 1949*













*Cajun Rocket   1956*





Height2.64 metres (8.66 ft)
Diameter200 millimetres (8 in)
Mass75 kilograms (166 lb)
StagesOne
Launch history
StatusRetired
Launch sitesWallops Island, Fort Churchill,Eglin AFB, others
Total launches802
Failures33
First flightJune 20, 1956
Last flightOctober 6, 1976



*MANNED SPACE FLIGHT*


*Project Mercury






*



*Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1959 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a solo human into Earth orbitand return the person safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from theUS Air Force by the newly created civilian space agencyNASA, it spanned twenty unmanned developmental missions involving test animals, and successful missions completed by six of the seven Mercury astronauts.











This shows the escape system to eject crew  *( notably no such system was used with the Shuttle program)
*








*

*Project Gemini   







Project Gemini was NASA's second human spaceflightprogram. It was a United States government civilian space program started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury andApollo. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten crews flew low Earth orbit(LEO) missions between 1965 and 1966. It put the United States in the lead during theCold WarSpace Race with the Soviet Union.











Project Apollo























*


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## revin (Feb 10, 2015)

It's not really rocket propulsion, but we were working on parts for the new EMALS, electromagnetic launch system for aircraft carriers, which has also been carriered over to surface weapons.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 10, 2015)

revin said:


> It's not really rocket propulsion, but we were working on parts for the new EMALS, electromagnetic launch system for aircraft carriers, which has also been carriered over to surface weapons.



http://www.ga.com/emals

come on then....................top secret info please     

Arent these systems being designed for mass transport systems.?
Dont they use it to accelerate/decelerate roller coaster rides ?


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## revin (Feb 10, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> http://www.ga.com/emals
> 
> come on then....................top secret info please


 _We couldn't talk about it till_ ,and don't think any public, or even most militray had any idea about this 5 years ago  especially since we were making part's, because of getting it ready to deploy for retro-fit on A/C's, and "Ground Based Attack Systems"


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 10, 2015)

*Human Space Flight Vehicles*
Escape rocket in action
*










WOW   *look at the size of ISS

Heres some stuff about *Saturn V*.  The largest manned rocket...............so far













The *Saturn V* (spoken as "Saturn five") was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA between 1966 and 1973. The three-stage liquid-fueled launch vehicle was developed to support the Apollo program for human exploration of theMoon, and was later used to launch Skylab, the first American space station. The Saturn V was launched 13 times from theKennedy Space Center in Florida with no loss of crew or payload. The Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status and still holds records for the heaviest payload launched and largest payload capacity to low Earth orbit (LEO) of 118,000 kilograms (260,000 lb).[3][4]

The largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with Boeing, North American Aviation,Douglas Aircraft Company, and IBM as the lead contractors. Von Braun's design was based in part on his work on the Aggregateseries of rockets, especially the A-10, A-11, and A-12, in Germany during World War II.

To date, the Saturn V remains the only launch vehicle able to transport human beings beyond low Earth orbit. A total of 24astronauts were launched to the Moon, three of them twice, in the four years spanning December 1968 through December 1972.


Here is an ace video of the launch of a Saturn V.  The mission was Apollo 8.   Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit and go to the Moon.











*Delta iv Heavy* launch 2013










*Delta iv *Heavy launch 2014  ( 2 mins after launch the craft weighs 1/2 what it did on the pad)
















Delta ii   Failure    1997

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_aHEit-SqA


The Russians had a monster as well  * N1 *







3rd July 1967      look what happened................shit.
Check the time on the vid, its nearly 4th July.            Dates are so significant in the space race.












An excellent video about how advanced the N1 was and how much the US benefited from it.
If you like this kind of thing you will love this one. The USSR learned through testing so a lot of failures.












Ariane 5


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 11, 2015)

*Reusable Launch systems*

Ive added pics to what is on wiki, loads of clickable bits on wiki



*NEXUS *        never built   1960's






*Spacex         * currently still undergoing tests






Unfortunately one of these crashed in January...look how close it got though.   Amazing footage.    I so hope they make it work soon.











A *reusable launch system* (or *reusable launch vehicle*, *RLV*) is a launch system which is capable of launching a launch vehicle into space more than once. This contrasts withexpendable launch systems, where each launch vehicle is launched once and then discarded.

No true orbital reusable launch system is currently in use. The closest example was the partially reusable Space Shuttle. The orbiter, which included the main engines, and the two solid rocket boosters, were reused after several months of refitting work for each launch. The external tank and launch vehicle load frame were discarded after each flight.[1][2]

Orbital RLVs are thought to provide the possibility of low cost and highly reliable access to space. However, reusability implies weight penalties such as non-ablative reentry shielding and possibly a stronger structure to survive multiple uses, and given the lack of experience with these vehicles, the actual costs and reliability are yet to be seen.

In the first half of the twentieth century, popular science fiction often depicted space vehicles as either single-stage reusable rocket ships which could launch and land vertically (SSTOVTVL), or single-stage reusablerocket planes which could launch and land horizontally (SSTO HTHL).

The realities of early engine technology with lowspecific impulse or insufficient thrust-to-weight ratio to escape Earth's gravity well, compounded by construction materials without adequate performance (strength, stiffness, heat resistance) and low weight, seemingly rendered that original single-stage reusable vehicle vision impossible.

However, advances in materials and engine technology have rendered this concept potentially feasible.

Before VTVL SSTO designs came the partially reusable multi-stage NEXUS launcher by Krafft Arnold Ehricke. The pioneer in the field of VTVL SSTO, Philip Bono, worked at Douglas. Bono proposed several launch vehicles including: ROOST,ROMBUS, Ithacus, Pegasus and SASSTO. Most of his vehicles combined similar innovations to achieve SSTO capability. Bono proposed:


Plug nozzle engines to retain high specific impulse at all altitudes.
Base first reentry which allowed the reuse of the engine as a heat shield, lowering required heat shield mass.
Use of spherical tanks and stubby shape to reduce vehicle structural mass further.
Use of drop tanks to increase range.
Use of in-orbit refueling to increase range.
Bono also proposed the use of his vehicles for space launch, rapid intercontinental military transport (Ithacus), rapid intercontinental civilian transport (Pegasus), even Moon and Mars missions (Project Selena, Project Deimos).

In Europe, Dietrich Koelle, inspired by Bono's SASSTO design, proposed his own VTVL vehicle named BETA.

Before HTHL SSTO designs came Eugen Sänger and hisSilbervogel ("Silverbird") suborbital skip bomber. HTHL vehicles which can reach orbital velocity are harder to design than VTVL due to their higher vehicle structural weight. This led to several multi-stage prototypes such as a suborbital X-15.Aerospaceplane being one of the first HTHL SSTO concepts. Proposals have been made to make such a vehicle more viable including:


Rail boost (e.g. 270 m/s at 3000 m on a mountain allowing 35% less SSTO takeoff mass for a given payload in one NASA study)[3]
Use of lifting body designs to reduce vehicle structural mass.
Use of in-flight refueling.
Other launch system configuration designs are possible such as horizontal launch with vertical landing (HTVL) and vertical launch with horizontal landing (VTHL). One of the few HTVL vehicles is the 1960s concept spacecraft Hyperion SSTO, designed by Philip Bono.[4] X-20 Dyna-Soar is an early example of a VTHL design,[_citation needed_] while the HL-20 and X-34 are examples from the 1990s.[_citation needed_] As of February 2010, the VTHL X-37 has completed initial development and flown an initial classified orbital mission of over seven months duration.[_citation needed_] Currently proposed VTHL mannedspaceplanes include the Dream Chaser and Prometheus, both circa 2010 concept spaceplanes proposed to NASA under theCCDev program.[_citation needed_]

The late 1960s saw the start of the Space Shuttle design process. From an initial multitude of ideas a two-stage reusableVTHL design was pushed forward that eventually resulted in a reusable orbiter payload spacecraft and reusable solid rocketboosters. The external tank and the launch vehicle load framewere discarded. Early studies from 1980 and 1982 proposed in-space uses for the tank to be re-used in space for various applications[1][2] but NASA never pursued those options beyond the proposal stage.

During the 1970s further VTVL and HTHL SSTO designs were proposed for solar power satellite and military applications. There was a VTVL SSTO study by Boeing. HTHL SSTO designs included the Rockwell Star-Raker and the BoeingHTHL SSTO study. However the focus of all space launch funding in the United States on the Shuttle killed off these prospects. The Soviet Union followed suit with Buran. Others preferred expendables for their lower design risk, and lower design cost.

Eventually the Shuttle was found to be expensive to maintain, even more expensive than an expendable launch system would have been. The cancellation of a Shuttle-Centaur rocket after the loss of Challenger also caused an hiatus that would make it necessary for the United States military to scramble back towards expendables to launch their payloads. Many commercial satellite customers had switched to expendables even before that, due to unresponsiveness to customer concerns by the Shuttle launch system.

In 1986 President Ronald Reagan called for an airbreathingscramjet plane to be built by the year 2000, called NASP/X-30that would be capable of SSTO. Based on the research project*copper canyon* the project failed due to severe technical issues and was cancelled in 1993.

This research may have inspired the British HOTOL program, which rather than airbreathing to high hypersonic speeds as with NASP, proposed to use a precooler up to Mach 5.5. The program's funding was canceled by the British government when the research identified some technical risks as well as indicating that that particular vehicle architecture would only be able to deliver a relatively small payload size to orbit.

When the Soviet Union imploded in the early nineties, the cost of Buran became untenable. Russia has only used pure expendables for space launch since.

The 1990s saw interest in developing new reusable vehicles. The military Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") program "Brilliant Pebbles" required low cost, rapid turnaround space launch. From this requirement came the McDonnell DouglasDelta Clipper VTVL SSTO proposal. The DC-X prototype for Delta Clipper demonstrated rapid turnaround time and that automatic computer control of such a vehicle was possible. It also demonstrated it was possible to make a reusable space launch vehicle which did not require a large standing army to maintain like the Shuttle.

In mid-1990, further British research and major reengineering to avoid deficiencies of the HOTOL design led to the far more promising Skylon design, with much greater payload.

From the commercial side, large satellite constellations such asIridium satellite constellation were proposed which also had low cost space access demands. This fueled a private launch industry, including partially reusable vehicle players, such as Kistler, and reusable vehicle players such as Rotary Rocket.

The end of that decade saw the implosion of the satellite constellation market with the bankruptcy of Iridium. In turn the nascent private launch industry collapsed. The fall of the Soviet Union eventually had political ripples which led to a scaling down of ballistic missile defense, including the demise of the "Brilliant Pebbles" program. The military decided to replace their aging expendable launcher workhorses, evolved from ballistic missile technology, with the EELV program. NASA proposed riskier reusable concepts to replace Shuttle, to be demonstrated under the X-33 and X-34 programs.

The 21st century saw rising costs and teething problems lead to the cancellation of both X-33 and X-34. Then the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and another grounding of the fleet. The Shuttle design was now over 20 years old and in need of replacement. Meanwhile the military EELV program churned out a new generation of better expendables. The commercial satellite market is depressed due to a glut of cheap expendable rockets and there is a dearth of satellite payloads.

Against this dire backdrop came the Ansari X Prize contest, inspired by the aviation contests made in the early 20th century. Many private companies competed for the Ansari X Prize, the winner being Scaled Composites with their reusable HTHLSpaceShipOne. It won the ten million dollars, by reaching 100 kilometers in altitude twice in a two-week period with the equivalent of three people on board, with no more than ten percent of the non-fuel weight of the spacecraft replaced between flights. While SpaceShipOne is suborbital like the X-15, some hope the private sector can eventually develop reusable orbital vehicles given enough incentive. SpaceX is a recent player in the private launch market which has partially reusable vehicles













Here is a Space Shuttle launch compilation and its ace.













Check the picture below,
Looks familiar doesnt it ? Actually its the Russian contender. I wonder who influenced who in their designs for this? given what we already learned about the N1.  Aaaaand we had been spying on each other for years.


*The Buran    Buran programme.*







Being transported by Antonov

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxLQ6rSpQFQ

For comparison Shuttle on board a 747

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYEZ_fquY44



On the launch pad 1988








And this is what hapenned













The USSR efforts, 80 minutes of epic footage and interviews.











The secret Soviet Space program   there a couple of quite graphic scenes in this one, not too alarming but might disturb young kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYyETnopXpY


Shenlong   Chinesespace shuttle








*IXV*     ESA,s contender

It launched today, heres a video of it launching, it splashed down in thre Pacific Ocean. Next landing is scheduled to be on solid ground.

They used 3 descent parachutes the first of which deployed when the craft was still supersonic.

*VV04  *










http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31114629


http://us.tomonews.net/is-this-the-...-reusable-unmanned-spacecraft-191473972527104


----------



## Drone (Feb 11, 2015)

I'll just leave this here


----------



## krusha03 (Feb 11, 2015)

And on the other side of the spectrum, I am working on this kind of a satellite


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 11, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> And on the other side of the spectrum, I am working on this kind of a satellite




I thought only Taiwanese 6 year olds could build electronic equipment that fast. ! 

@krusha03  is it the design or assembly you are involved in ?


----------



## krusha03 (Feb 11, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> I thought only Taiwanese 6 year olds could build electronic equipment that fast. !
> 
> @krusha03  is it the design or assembly you are involved in ?


worked on the operation and validation of the propulsion system on the satellite in that video and designed, built and tested the engineering model of the propulsion system for the next satellite mission due in 1 year


----------



## dorsetknob (Feb 11, 2015)

Quote "Anybody out there have any technical or other experience of rocket propulsion ?"

use to own and ride a BSA A65 rocket

Not quite what you had in mind  But it was fun


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 11, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> Quote "Anybody out there have any technical or other experience of rocket propulsion ?"
> 
> use to own and ride a BSA A65 rocket
> 
> Not quite what you had in mind  But it was fun




I'll try and find a pic of my hardtailed BSA and put it on the nostalgic hardware thread.  !!!


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 11, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> worked on the operation and validation of the propulsion system on the satellite in that video and designed, built and tested the engineering model of the propulsion system for the next satellite mission due in 1 year



So that is for the tiny stabilization motors ?
what kind of propellant?
Who launches them ?
can you put an interesting link up so i can feed my hungry head please.


----------



## Drone (Feb 11, 2015)

moar


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 11, 2015)

* History of Manned Space Stations


A space station is a manned satellite designed to remain in low Earth orbit for a long period of time. In general, space stations have the ability for other spacecraft to dock to them. As of 2012, the International Space Station and Tiangong 1 are the only operational space stations currently in orbit. Previous stations include the Salyut and Almaz series, Skylab, and, most recently, Mir.[1]

Space stations are used to study the effects of long-term space flight on the human body. They also serve as a platform for extended scientific studies.[2] All space stations have been designed with the intention of rotating multiple crews, with each crew member staying aboard the station for weeks or months, but rarely more than a year. As of 2012, Vladimir Titov, Musa Manarov, and Valeriy Polyakovhave completed single missions of over a year, all aboard Mir.[3]

Space stations have been used for both military and civilian purposes. The first military-use space station was Salyut 2, which was launched by the Soviet Almaz program in 1973.[4] The Soviet Union also claimed the first civilian space station with the launch of Salyut 1. As of 2012, Russia, China, and private companies are building space stations.

MIR     5511  days in orbit     crew of  3





Salyut 1    175 days in orbit  crew of 3





Salyut  2     13 days in orbit     0 crew





Salyut 3   213 days in orbit    crew of 2*
The Salyut 3, although called a "civilian" station, was equipped with a "self-defence" gun
*
Salyut 4    770 days in orbit    crew of 2










Salyut  5    412 days in orbit   crew of 2*
Salyut 5 carried Agat, a camera which the crews used to observe the Earth. The German_Kristall_ furnace was used for crystal growth experiments aboard the station
*
Salyut   6    1764  days in orbit   crew of 3





Salyut 6 with docked Soyuz and Progress spacecraft

Salyut   7   3216   days in orbit   crew of 3







Skylab      2249   days in orbit   crew of 3




*
pic taken by the last crew to leave. There were plans to upgrade but the Shuttle delays prevented it.
*
ISS   








*
.................................................................................................................................................
*

*
*US Manned Orbiting Laboratory   * 1967   cancelled









*Almaz station   integrated into Salyut program*
*










*
* Polyus battlestation.    *1987 failed to reach orbit   (Orbital Weapons Platform)
*






The Mir 
*

*




*
pic taken by departing Shuttle Endeavour 1998

The evolution of MIR









  1986









   1987









   1989

*








1990









1995










1995   
Space Shuttle (STS 74) delivered the docking module
















1996



Space Crash    








Damaged solar arrays on Mir'sSpektr module following a collision withProgress-M34 in September 1997







MIR in orbit






 23 march 2001 MIR breaks up on reentry












ISS














1. *It took an astounding 136 space flights on seven different types of launch vehicles to build it.

*2. *It flies at 4.791 miles per second (7.71 km/s). That's fast enough to go to the Moon and back in about a day.

*3. *It weighs almost 1 million pounds including visiting spacecraft. Picture 120,000 gallons of milk in supermarket cartons in your mind.

*4. *It has 8 miles of wire just to connect the _electrical power system. _That will be enough to connect a hairdryer in Newark, New Jersey, to a power plug in New York City.

*5. *It has a complete surface area the size of a US football field, which actually makes it almost as large as the Tantive IV, the Corellian Corvette that carried Princess Leia.






*6. *It has more livable space than a 6-bedroom house.

*7. *It has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a 360-degree bay window.

*8. *It's been the _spaceport_ for 89 Russian Soyuz spacecraft, 37 Space Shuttle missions, three SpaceX Dragons, four Japanese HTV cargo spacecraft, and four European ATV cargo spacecraft.

*9. *All its research experiments and spacecraft systems are housed in a bit more than one hundred telephone-booth sized racks.






*10. *The US solar array surface area on the is 38,400 sq. feet (.88 acre), which is large enough to cover 8 basketball courts

*11. *According to NASA, "there are 52 computers controlling the ISS." Just for the US segment, there are "1.5 million lines of flight software code run on 44 computers communicating via 100 data networks transferring 400,000 signals."

*12. *Its internal pressurized volume is 32,333 cubic feet, which is about the same of a Jumbo Boeing 747.

*13. *The ISS crews have eaten about 25,000 meals since 2000. That's a staggering "_seven_ tons of supplies per _three astronauts _for _six months."_That's 32,558 Big Macs.

*14. *211 people from 15 countries have visited the ISS so far.

*15.* When it reaches the end of its life, some of the most modern Russian modules—like _Nauka—_will be reused to make a third space station to support interplanetary mission to Mars, the Moon and Saturn, serving as a launching and return point.



*Tiangong 1       2011










Tiangong 2        est 2016







Tiangong  3    est 2022    *might look like this
*
*
http://img.techpowerup.org/150217/612b2a18abbc150d1fd16feaa4813ae0_large.jpeg


----------



## krusha03 (Feb 11, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> So that is for the tiny stabilization motors ?
> what kind of propellant?
> Who launches them ?
> can you put an interesting link up so i can feed my hungry head please.


Nah the propulsion system onboard that satellite (called Delfi-n3xt) was a technology demonstrator and in theory it is used for changing the orbit (adding deltaV). It used cool gas generators with solidified nitrogen. attitude control (if that is what you mean by stabilization) is done using small reaction wheels and magneto torquers. This was launched by a Dnepr rocket (video below)










What kind of information or links you want to see? Look for QB50 project which is an upcoming project by the EU where 50+ cubesats are launched from all over the world as secondary payload using Cyclone-4. For technical in-depth information you can look into publications from the 4s symposium and small satellite conference or even university repositories (example http://repository.tudelft.nl/)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 11, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> Nah the propulsion system onboard that satellite (called Delfi-n3xt) was a technology demonstrator and in theory it is used for changing the orbit (adding deltaV). It used cool gas generators with solidified nitrogen. attitude control (if that is what you mean by stabilization) is done using small reaction wheels and magneto torquers. This was launched by a Dnepr rocket (video below)
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Wow...what a launch !


----------



## krusha03 (Feb 11, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Wow...what a launch !


As most russian rockets its a converted icbm launched from a military site (that's why you dont see the ground and crew from our uni was not allowed on site)


----------



## Drone (Feb 12, 2015)

NOAA's DSCOVR satellite atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on Wednesday, February 11, 2015










Launch is not really exciting but the science is really interesting:

DSCOVR's destination is Lagrange 1 - a point in the Earth-sun system some 1.5 million km from Earth, where the gravitational forces between the sun and Earth create a relatively stable place for a space vehicle to orbit. A spacecraft can orbit the Lagrange 1 point just as it can orbit a planet. Lagrange 1 lies far beyond Earth's magnetic environment, making it a perfect place to measure the constant stream of particles from the sun [solar wind] as they pass by.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 12, 2015)

*Propellants and Trajectory*
the path followed by a projectile flying or an object moving under the action of given forces.






A trajectory is the path followed by a projectile.

In ballistics, the easiest way to describe a trajectory is by its _x_- and _z_-components, with the _z_ component being affected by local gravity. Ignoring air resistance, a particle that is fired from the origin at time _t_ = 0, where 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 is the initial velocity and 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 is the initial angle made with the _x_-axis, the trajectory of a particle is described by












(1)











(2)

where _t_ is the elapsed time and _g_ is the gravitational acceleration, and its velocity components are











(3)













Rockets don't go straight up














This 30-second exposures make up a composite shot of four different rockets launching for the M-TeX and MIST experiments. The rocket salvo occurred on Jan. 26, 2015, at the Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska.




Sometimes they come straight back down











there are loads of crash compilations on youtube


Do some reading about trajectory and orbit

http://history.nasa.gov/conghand/traject.htm


*What is rocket fuel ?*
Dont get put off by the intro btw
*









*


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 12, 2015)

*Spacex  Dragon*












http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...onal-Space-Station-Earth.html#v-4044336276001







The next attempt will not be until April, which will be the next Falcon 9 rocket that will be fitted with the landing legs necessary to make a landing attempt.







DSCOVR


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## Drone (Feb 14, 2015)

space x flacon 9 pics


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 15, 2015)

*Germany
*
A video  about      Werner von Braun   thats an enjoyable and interesting hour long.
*








*


*Union of Soviet Socialist Republics*













*United States of America*













*What the Brits were doing*.  3 parts on youtube.  Proper blokes with spanners, brilliant stuff.


----------



## Drone (Feb 16, 2015)

Russia's ISS Progress 58 resupply ship rolls out to the launch pad in preparation for its Tuesday launch to the ISS.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 16, 2015)

Feb. 17            Soyuz • Progress 58P
Launch window: 1100 GMT (6:00 a.m. EST)
Launch site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
A Russian government Soyuz rocket will launch the 58th Progress cargo delivery ship to the International Space Station. Delayed from Feb. 3. [Jan. 4]


*Oct 2014  progress 57*

http://www.space.com/27581-russian-...ch.html#ooid=FzcnllcTowK9RM5dw_t6exG2JsPBMsN-
this launch vid shows docking with ISS as well.



*Progress 1     28th January 1978*

a Soviet unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft which was launched in 1978 to resupply the Salyut 6 space station. It was the maiden flight of the Progress spacecraft, and used the Progress 7K-TG configuration.





ts payload of 2,300 kilograms (5,100 lb) consisted of 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) of propellant and oxygen, as well as 1,300 kilograms (2,900 lb) of food, replacement parts, scientific instruments, and other supplies.


----------



## Drone (Feb 17, 2015)

Progress 43 spacecraft, 2011






Progress 53 Undocks From Zvezda, April 2014 ...






... and separates from the Station

More


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 18, 2015)

*Private Enterprise in Space*


LOTS MORE TO ADD......CHECK BACK


*Ansari X Prize*

The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-century aviation prizes, and aimed to spur development of low-cost spaceflight.


*SpaceShipOne  * june 21 2004 first private craft in space
*



*













http://www.virgingalactic.com/


*16-P*


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 21, 2015)

*MORE SPACEX*











OCTAWEB  Falcon 9  Merlin 1 D engines





Falcon 9





Falcon 9 static test





1 hr before launch Falcon 9







On March 7, 2013, SpaceX’s Grasshopper doubled its highest leap to date to rise 24 stories or 262.8 feet (80.1 meters), hovering for approximately 34 seconds and landing safely using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control.







A mannequin cowboy dressed in black, nicknamed Johnny, rode SpaceX's Grasshopper reusable rocket during its highest ever test flight on March 7, 2013.The flight in Texas reached a height of 263 feet (80 meters).






The Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon capsule attached on top is lifted into the vertical position during a rollout demonstration test at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This image was taken Oct. 2, 2012.







The SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft makes its relative approach to the International Space Station prior to grapple by the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, controlled by Expedition 33 crew members. This image was taken Oct. 10, 2012.







SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands next to the company's Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted SpaceX's Dragon capsule into orbit in December 2010.



























The private Dragon capsule built by SpaceX is seen at the end of the International Space Station's robotic arm during its undocking on Oct. 28, 2012, inthis camera view. The Dragon capsule made the first commercial cargo delivery to the space station for NASA





















3rd March 2015
*SpaceX rocket lifts off with world's first all-electric satellites: Mission launches 'two for the price of one' thanks to cheaper fuel*

A SpaceX rocket has lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida carrying the world's first all-electric satellites
The two spacecraft will reach their desired orbit in August of this year and will maintain itusing ion propulsion
Without chemical fuel their weight was drastically reduced, allowing both to be launched on the same rocket rather than costly separate launches








The satellites are unique in that they are powered solely by ion propulsion, as opposed to chemical propellant that is usually favoured.
he lighter of the two satellites, ABS 3A, will reach its destination by the end of August, while the Eutelsat 115 West B spacecraft will take a few weeks longer. 

In space, the two satellites were released one by one in opposite directions, so as to avoid a collision.

Once in their desired orbits, about 22,300 miles (35,800km) above Earth, they will be able to remain operational for at least two decades.

To get there, they will use what is called a ‘supersynchronous transfer orbit’, which involves performing a large elliptical ‘loop’ around Earth to reach this relatively distant location.

Once they reach their orbits, they will remain in one position over a particular part of the world, providing coverage to certain areas. 





The two satellites are seen here before launch. ABS 3A is on the top, and the Eutelsat 115 West B is on the bottom of the payload. The latter was slightly heavier to support the weight of the former.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-one-thanks-cheaper-fuel.html#v-4088021929001


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 23, 2015)

*Antares   NASA
FAIL




*
The Antares rocket was due to launch an unmanned Orbital-3 Cygnus spacecraft to deliver more than 5,000lbs of supplies to the International Space Station on 28 October.

This included science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions - as part of a £1.2 billion ($1.9billion) deal with Nasa.

Outfitted with a new, more powerful upper-stage engine, the Antares rocket was packed with 5,055 pounds (2,293 kg) of supplies, science experiments and equipment, a 15 percent increase over previous missions.

But just seconds into the launch a turbopump in one of the engines failed, leading the rocket to experience the catastrophic failure.




























Repairs to the launch pad and its facilities are expected to cost between £8.3 million and £12.8 million ($13 million and $20 million).

And in a separate release, Orbital confirmed they would launch a new Antares rocket by the end of 2016.


'Under the new approach and in line with Orbital's existing CRS contract, all remaining cargo will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2016,' said the company.

'There will be no cost increase to Nasa and only minor adjustments will be needed to the cargo manifest in the near term.'

Orbital also confirmed they will seek a new propulsion system upgrade for Antares, as it was believed the Russian engines used on the October launch were the reason for the failure.

The company will perform a 'hot fire' test of the new engines next year to ensure they work as planned

The rocket was carrying equipment that would have helped hunt for asteroids to mine and also a number of Earth-observation satellites.

Organisations said more than £125 million ($200 million) worth of equipment was destroyed in the huge explosion.

*Launch of Antares Rocket with Cygnus CRS-2 Spacecraft to ISS
Success










Manifest*
Total weight of cargo: 3,293 pounds (1,494 kg)


Crew supplies: 1,684 pounds (764 kg)
Crew care packages
Crew provisions
Food

Hardware: 783 pounds (355 kg)
Crew Health Care System hardware
Environment Control and Life Support equipment
Electrical Power System hardware
Extravehicular Robotics equipment
Flight Crew Equipment
PL Facility
Structural & Mechanical equipment
Internal Thermal Control System hardware

Science and research: 721 pounds (327 kg)
CubeSats and deployers
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Dynamic Surf Hardware
Human Research Program resupply

Computer supplies: 18 pounds (8.2 kg)
Command and Data Handling
Photo and TV equipment

Spacewalk tools: 87 pounds (39 kg)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 23, 2015)

*H-11A   JAPAN




*
Japanese Main Large-scale Launch Vehicle

H-IIA is Japan's primary large-scale launch vehicle equipped with high-performance engines with liquid oxygen and hydrogen as propellants. Its operability is highly flexible as it can launch payloads (mainly satellites) of various weights, and inject them into different orbits in the space. Therefore, it is categorized one of the world top-level launch vehicles both in technology and launch costs.
JAXA (NASDA at that time) successfully launched the H-IIA F1 in Aug. 2001, and full-scale operations for launching practical satellites started with the H-IIA F3. However, the H-IIA F6 failed in Nov. 2003. After a thorough investigation, the cause of the failure was found to be the sold rocket booster (SRB-A).

JAXA performed numerous experiments and tests to modify the troubled parts, including the shape of the injector. H-IIA F7 launched in 26 Feb. 2005 and could carry a satellite into the scheduled orbit.





DesignationMass (tonnes)Payload (tonnes to GTO)Addon modules
H2A2022854.12 SRB-A(SRB)
H2A2022 (discontinued)[4]3164.52 SRB-A (SRB) + 2Castor 4AXL(SSB)
H2A2024 (discontinued)34752 SRB-A (SRB) + 4 Castor 4AXL (SSB)
H2A20444564 SRB-A (SRB)
H2A212 (cancelled)4037.52 SRB-A (SRB) + 1 LRB
H2A222 (cancelled)5209.52 SRB-A (SRB) + 2 LRBs

                                                                                  .
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




*Flight 23







Flight 19






Flight 25  Oct 7 2014








*

Lots of info









Next scheduled launch March 26 2015   carrying a Japanese spy satellite.
*
*


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 24, 2015)

*PSLV    India     Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.*

@btarunr 












































PSLV-C20 (25 Feb 2013)
Delivering 7 satellites in to space










GSLV GSAT-5P  24 th December 2010
FAIL
the second launch failure for India's space programme of 2010

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) exploded in the first stage of flight, leaving a trail of smoke and fire behind it.

It had just lifted off from the Sriharikota space centre on Saturday in Andhra Pradesh state, and was carrying a GSAT-5P communications satellite.
A similar rocket on a developmental flight plunged into the Bay of Bengal in April. The ISRO said that accident was caused by a rotor seizing and a rupture in the turbine casing, probably due to excessive pressure and thermal stresses.










Next scheduled launch March 9 2015
to launch the fourth of a planned series of seven satellites under the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System. Similar to the U.S' GPS and Russian GLONASS spacecraft, these satellites will provide navigational services to India and surrounding countries. The PSLV will place the spacecraft in a geosynchronous orbit.


----------



## HammerON (Feb 24, 2015)

Sub'd and thanks for the updates


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 24, 2015)

*North Korea*








NADA, North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration, sounds a lot like NASA, America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration. And their logo looks a lot like NASA's too.

"To put into practice the idea and principle of the DPRK government to develop the space for peaceful purpose," is NADA's mission statement according to the state-run Korea Central News Agency. The logo's symbolism is truly North Korean. The "Giant Bear Constellation" on it represents the "will of the space scientists of the DPRK to glorify Kim Il Sung's and Kim Jong Il's Korea as a space power."







this is funny
http://v.theonion.com/onionmedia/videos/videometa/178/zen_mp4.mp4




this isn't funny
* Unha-3 rocket*











North Korea's first orbital space launch attempt occurred on August 31, 1998 and was unsuccessful. This launch attempt was performed by a Paektusanrocket. The particular vehicle used in the first attempt was named the _Taepo Dong 1_. It used a solid motor third stage, a Scud-missile-based second stage, and a Rodong-1 based first stage. Rodong-1 was a North Korean-developed stage thought to be a scale-up of the old Soviet Scud missile. TaepoDong 1 stood 22.5 metres tall, was 1.8 metres in diameter, and weighed about 21 tonnes.

The next launch vehicle, the _Unha-2_, is believed to be a three-stage rocket derived from North Korea's Taepodong-2 ballistic missile - a missile that first flew, unsuccessfully, in 2006. The rocket failed after 40 seconds. TaepoDong 2's new first stage is thought to be powered by four engines, one of which powered the country's earlier Taepo Dong 1 first stage. The four engines may produce 112 tonnes-force (1,100 kN) of liftoff thrust, sufficient to rapidly lift the 78 tonne carrier rocket.[6] According to Japanese reports, the second stage splashed down in the Pacific Ocean approximately 3,200 kilometers from the launch site.[7]

The January 3, 2013 internet edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the Workers' Party official newspaper, quoted a scientist saying there would be six more satellite launch vehicles. Reports say the Unha 4 and 5 are intended to launch earth observation satellites, Unha 6, 7 and 8 would presumably place into orbit communications satellites and Unha 9 would carry a lunar orbiter.






























*NORTH KOREA COULD HAVE 100 NUCLEAR WEAPONS BY 2020, US RESEARCHERS CLAIM*




A self-propelled suface to air missile during a drill shown in a North Korean drill

North Korea appears poised to expand its nuclear program over the next five years and in a worst case scenario could possess 100 atomic arms by 2020, US researchers warned last week. 

And cutting-edge European companies could be unwittingly contributing to Pyongyang's suspect nuclear program with their equipment diverted to the isolated country via China, they said.

Unveiling the first results of what will be a 15-month study, Joel Wit, senior fellow at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said some of their conclusions were very 'disturbing.'

Using satellite imagery, North Korean media reports and their deep knowledge of nuclear programs, Wit, and veteran nuclear non-proliferation expert David Albright, have drawn up three possible scenarios based on the progress that Pyongyang from 2009 to 2014. 

In the first scenario, Pyongyang would almost double its stockpile to about 20 weapons, including plutonium-based weapons which have been miniaturized sufficiently to be mounted on its Rodong-class medium-range ballistic missile, capable of reaching Japan.

In the second - and most likely scenario - North Korea continues its current trajectory and manages to produce 50 weapons by 2020. It would also make significant advances in miniaturisation technology enabling it to mount warheads on intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

In what Wit dubbed 'the worst case scenario,' the North Korean stockpile would grow more rapidly to 100 weapons and make 'significant advances' in weapons designs to enable it to potentially deploy battlefield and tactical weapons.


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## krusha03 (Feb 24, 2015)

Fan Fact - North Korea also landed a man on the Sun 

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/35032/north-korea-confirms-it-has-landed-a-man-on-the-sun/index.html


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 24, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> Fan Fact - North Korea also landed a man on the Sun
> 
> http://www.tweaktown.com/news/35032/north-korea-confirms-it-has-landed-a-man-on-the-sun/index.html





He went at night time.........thats cheating.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 25, 2015)

*European Space Agency   ESA
*
The European Space Agency (ESA; French: _Agence spatiale européenne_, ASE) is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, with 21 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a staff of more than 2,000 with an annual budget of about €4.28 billion / US$5.51 billion (2013).[3]

ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight, mainly through the participation in the International Space Station programme, the launch and operations of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon, Earth observation, science, telecommunication as well as maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana, and designing launch vehicles. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle.


The Ariane Family





Ariane 1    24 December 1979














Ariane 5                        As of November 2014, the Ariane 5 commercial launch price for launching a "midsize satellite in the lower position" is approximately US$60 million





Ariane 5 launch   
ABS-2 and Athena-Fidus










Ariane 5 launch: onboard camera












Ariane 5 fail     1996


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 28, 2015)

*Stratolaunch
Biggest aircraft in history begins construction:*

 Microsoft co-founder provides glimpse of his proposed megaplane that will launch rockets into orbit


The world has received its first glimpse of a gigantic airplane that will serve as an airborne launch pad for putting satellites - and eventually people - into orbit.
The aircraft, which has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 metres) and will be powered by six 747-class engines, is currently being assembled at Mojave, California.
Dubbed the Roc, the megaplane is the brainchild Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who is creating it under start-up firm Stratolaunch Systems.







The Roc's 385 feet (117 metres) wingspan compares to 320 feet for the Hughes H-4 Hercules and 225 feet for the Boeing 747-8.
Each of the twin fuselages of the Roc is 238 feet long and, when complete, will be supported by 12 main landing gear wheels and two nose gear wheels. 
Stratolaunch has produced computer-generated images and videos of the Roc, but the TV footage is the first time images of the real vehicle have been shown.



Wingspan: 385 feet (117 metres)

Engines: Six 747-class engines

Fuselage length: 238 feet (72 metres)

Weight: 1,200,000 lb (544,311 kg)

Maximum speed: 460 knots, 530 mph (850 km/h)

Maiden launch: Flight testing will begin in 2016. The first launch of the space launch vehicle is likely to take place in 2018.

Satellite delivery: Initially, the system is intended to deliver satellites weighing up to about 13,500lbs (6,124 kg) into orbits between 112 miles and 1,243 miles (180 km and 2000 km) above Earth.

Launch sites: Several sites are under consideration, including Kennedy Space Center, Wallops Island and Vandenberg AFB. 















Allen has previously said his Rock project would 'keep America at the forefront of space exploration and give a new generation of children something to dream about'.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 3, 2015)

*SPACE DEBRIS and Kessler Syndrome.....


laser broom






*
The Kessler syndrome (also called the Kessler effect, collisional cascading or ablation cascade), proposed by the NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978, is a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade—each collision generating space debris which increases the likelihood of further collisions.  One implication is that the distribution of debris in orbit could render space exploration, and even the use of satellites, unfeasible for many generations.
*










*
A 20-year-old military weather satellite apparently exploded in orbit Feb. 3 2015 following what the U.S. Air Force described as a sudden temperature spike.

The "catastrophic event" produced 43 pieces of space debris, according to Air Force Space Command, which disclosed the loss of the satellite Feb. 27in response to questions from _SpaceNews_.

The satellite, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13, was the oldest continuously operational satellite in the DMSP weather constellation. *[Worst Space Debris Events of All Time]
















*
Launched in 1995, DMSP-F13 provided thousands of hours of weather imagery to Air Force and Navy forecasters before transitioning to a backup role in 2006. The Air Force said its sudden loss would have minimal impact.

"Because this satellite was no longer used by the National Weather Service or the Air Force Weather Agency, the impact of the loss of this satellite is minimal," the Air Force said. "We anticipate real-time weather data for tactical users will be slightly reduced without this satellite, but its data was not being used for weather forecast modeling."

The Air Force still has six DMSP satellites in service following the launch last April of DMSP-F19. A seventh satellite, DMSP-F20, was under consideration for a 2016 launch as recently as November.

Air Force Space Command said DMSP-F13's power subsystem experienced "a sudden spike in temperature" followed by "an unrecoverable loss of attitude control." As DMSP operators were deciding to "render the vehicle safe" the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, identified a debris field near the satellite.

The Air Force said it is continuing to track the debris and will issue conjunction warnings if necessary.

"While the initial response is complete, JSpOC personnel will continue to assess this event to learn more about what happened and what it will mean for users within this orbit," said Air Force Col. John Giles, the Joint Space Operations Center’s director.

DMSP-F13 flew in a 800-kilometer sun-synchronous polar orbit popular for weather and spy satellites.

The first public indication of a problem with DMSP-F13 came from T.S. Kelso, a senior research astrodynamicist for Analytical Graphics' Center for Space Standards and Innovation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who noted Feb. 25 that there had been "another debris event with 26 new pieces" in addition to five previously cataloged  DMSP-F13 objects.
*
*
Envisat






*Envisat* ("*Environmental Satellite*") is an inoperative Earth-observing satellite still in orbit. It was launched on 1 March 2002 aboard an Ariane 5 from the Guyana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, into a Sun synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 790 km (490 mi) (± 10 km (6.2 mi)). It orbits the Earth in about 101 minutes with a repeat cycle of 35 days. After losing contact with the satellite on 8 April 2012, ESA formally announced the end of Envisat's mission on 9 May 2012

Envisat is the European Space Agency's (ESA) largest civilian Earth observation satellite put into space.


With a mass of 8,211 kg (18,102 lb) that drifts at 785 km (488 mi), an altitude where the debris environment is the greatest—2 catalogued objects can be expected to pass within about 200 meters of Envisat every year—and likely to increase. It could easily become a major debris contributor from a collision during the next 150 years that it will remain in orbit.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 8, 2015)

Bumping because i have added to previous posts

set your mouse to scroll and let the loveliness slide by       




*NEIL A*rmstrong................1st man on the moon,
*NEIL A *  turn it round

*ALIEN                *


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## krusha03 (Mar 8, 2015)

Nice going man


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 18, 2015)

Today is the 50th anniversary of Mans' first steps in space.

I found a fantastic article that the BBC have produced including an interview.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_9035/index.html





Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov is a retired Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and Air Force Major General. On 18 March 1965, he became the first human to conduct extra-vehicular activity, exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for a 12-minute spacewalk.





 It  is a remarkable chapter in the Space race..............another first for the USSR.



Vostok spacecraft.




















Colour footage


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 25, 2015)

First pictures inside huge Siberian cosmodrome from where Russia hopes to beat the US to Mars


*Putin's pet project set to rival Cape Canaveral in fame - and help Russia win the 21st century space race*
*Built across 342 square miles, the cosmodrome will have 17 launch pads and a new 'satellite city' for 25,000 people*
*Russian president has said he wants it to 'confirm the high scientific and technological status' of the country *
*But building works are beset by problems - and the first unmanned launch, planned for December, looks in doubt*
*Should it not be ready in time, it will be a huge embarrassment for Putin and his £3.4billion investment in the project*




















Ankara 5   expected launch 2018





The 551 square kilometre Vostochny - or Eastern - spaceport is being built near Uglegorsk town, in Amur region, close to the Chinese border.
The Russian president described it as one of the 'biggest and most ambitious projects' ever undertaken.
When complete it will largely replace Baikonur in Kazakhstan for which Russia pays an annual rent of around £77.4million.
Crucial to the scheme is the futuristic green field 'space city' of Tsiolkovsky complete with school, kindergarten, theatre and aqua park.
It will house 25,000 elite space workers in Russia's most modern new town.
Behind the new cosmodrome is Putin's aim of a permanent Russian base on the moon, which Russian experts have referred to as the 'seventh continent', eyeing it for economic potential. One timetable in Moscow suggests a lunar 'orbital station' by 2026, capable of housing four cosmonauts.

An initial construction of a Moon 'hotel' will enable two week-long manned visits by a succession of crews by 2030 while the permanent lunar base - five years later - 'will help start using lunar resources and prepare for industrial use of natural treasures of earth's natural satellite'.
A key driving force is obtaining helium-3 to send back to earth, a potentially hugely valuable source of energy.

But Lev Zeleny, director of the Russian Space Research Institute, warned Putin there are limited sites for the first base on the Moon's inhospitable terrain, where night temperatures make Siberia seem warm. Russia is examining sites near the Moon's north pole.
'There are not that many good places for a base. Fingers of one hand are enough to count such good places, and there will be competition for sure,' he said, urging Putin to act ahead of China, the US and Europe.

The Kremlin plans recall a famous Cold War headline from Soviet propaganda mouthpiece Tass following the landing of unmanned Luna 9 in 1966: 'The Moon speaks Russian.'



VIDEO
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-Russia-hopes-beat-Mars.html#v-4133273737001













*

*


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 31, 2015)

*United Launch Alliance Wants Your Vote to Name New Rocket



*
Pluto
*




*
Here's your chance to name a rocket.

United Launch Alliance — the rocket company that launched NASA's New Horizons probe to Pluto — is asking people around the world to help name a new kind of booster. People have until April 6 to vote on three names — Eagle, Freedom or GalaxyOne — for the ULA rocket that the company plans to use for most of its future launches.

VOTE HERE
https://www.polleverywhere.com/voteula

full article here
*http://www.space.com/28969-united-launch-alliance-rocket-name-vote.html?cmpid=559185*


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 1, 2015)

NASA Earth Observing Fleet 
A full list of the satellites and their missions is available at Nasa’s Scientific Visualisation Studio website.

Nasa scientists in Maryland, US have created a satellite visualisation

It shows dozens of Earth-observing satellites currently orbiting our planet

They include Landsat 7 and 8, part of Nasa's long-serving series

And the ISS can also be seen sweeping diagonally across Earth

Many Earth-observing satellites orbit pole to pole to see the whole planet
*An excellent animation*
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov//vis/a000000/a004200/a004274/fleet_withSMAP07_640x360_30fps.m4v


The ISS has a diagonal orbit that keeps it relatively near the equator (shown), which enables various command centres across the world to stay in contact with the crew. As the Earth rotates underneath, the ISS appears to move up and down in curves, although in reality it is always moving in one direction


----------



## RealNeil (Apr 2, 2015)

I was part of the HRSI & LRSI surface insulation team on the Space Shuttle Program. I began working for Rockwell International Space Division, and I eventually retired from Boeing Aerospace 24 years later. (Boeing bought Rockwell out)
It was my dream job and if you were interested, you could learn something every single day that you went to work. Many of the technologies that we developed are in use worldwide today.
Here is a little fact sheet that our PR guys gave out to visitors back in the day. It gives facts about the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) and the pumps that injected fuel into them from that huge center fuel tank that was part of the launch stack.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 9, 2015)

*Blue Origin*

Blue Origin, the secretive private spaceflight company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, will begin suborbital flight tests this year of an innovative new spaceship — a milestone made possible by the firm's rocket engine success.









CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO
http://www.space.com/13672-blue-ori...op.html#ooid=c2MDB5cDo6ZPtoSah-R-s1fxu2a7rvTS


An engine test as well.
http://www.space.com/23815-secretiv...eo.html#ooid=tyY2J5cDp95PIGU9JLYfW2NtTeMmedJ5


The full article (which isnt very long and is well worth reading)  
http://www.space.com/29044-blue-ori...ship-tests.html?cmpid=NL_SP_weekly_2015-04-08


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 14, 2015)

SPACEX due for launch.........3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT).  link to live stream at the end of this post.

Check post #30 in this thread for lots more Spacex stuff.






The company will launch a Falcon 9 rocket in order to send a Dragon capsule, packed with 4,300 pounds of supplies (including materials for 40 different scientific experiments and an espresso machine for the astronauts), up to the space station — the sixth of 12 resupply missions SpaceX is carrying out for NASA. The capsule will arrive there on Wednesday, and return with waste and other cargo in about five weeks.

The Falcon 9, meanwhile, is made up of two parts: a 138-foot-tall first stage, which burns for the first few minutes of flight, lifting the craft up to an altitude of about 50 miles before separating and falling back to Earth; and a smaller, 49-foot-tall second stage, which burns for another six minutes, carrying the Dragon into orbit before disconnecting and falling back down to Earth, as well.

Normally, both of these stages — as well as the stages that make up other rockets in general — break up into pieces as they plummet downward, eventually sinking into the ocean and becoming unusable. But on Monday, as the first stage falls back to Earth, SpaceX will fire its engines in order to stabilize and guide it in for a controlled landing.

The plan is to land it on an autonomous uncrewed barge, which is being stationed east of Cape Canaveral. As the rocket descends, steerable fins affixed to its outside will help guide it and slow it down. As it nears the barge, a set of legs will unfold from the bottom of the rocket, and if all goes to plan, it'll slow down to a speed of about 4.5 miles per hour before gently landing on them, fully upright.






NASA's webcast of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch will begin at 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT). SpaceX will also host a webcast of the Falcon 9 launch. The launch video stream will begin at about 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) and run through 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT). You can view it directly from SpaceX at: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 15, 2015)

They got a bit closer this time, a perfect launch and separation but the landing is the trickiest bit.






https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/7A1A...p4?versionId=1t0RwgC6OwOAcJT4TQOd4zOemeP9waxc


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## dorsetknob (Apr 16, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> The plan is to land it on an autonomous uncrewed barge, which is being stationed east of Cape Canaveral. As the rocket descends, steerable fins affixed to its outside will help guide it and slow it down. As it nears the barge, a set of legs will unfold from the bottom of the rocket, and if all goes to plan, it'll slow down to a speed of about 4.5 miles per hour before gently landing on them, fully upright.



Watched the landing   

did the landing rocket not look as tall as that barge is long ?

Call Me Stupid but is there not going to be a very serious stability problem landing such a tall rocket on such a relatively small unstable platform that is that Barge at sea


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 16, 2015)

A better vid has been released today, notice the stability thrusters at the top, it really is remarkable what they are trying to do..........and so close. Next time i reckon they will do it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32330383

.

I would think that as they perfect the process it could be landed on solid ground.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 18, 2015)

Apparently "leaked" footage of SpaceX recent landing attempt and a good read in the link.
The camera is placed on the barge....i reckon it's pretty cool.

A deleted tweet by Musk says that the rocket appeared to be suffering from 'stiction in the biprop throttle valve, resulting in control system phase lag.'
This means the valve controlling the flow propellent and oxidiser to the engine wasn't moving fast enough.
As a result, the actions from rocket's computers couldn't be acted upon in time to correct the tilt of the booster caused by a gust of wind.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...firm-got-perfect-landing.html#v-4179693639001


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 22, 2015)

*The battery powered rocket powerful enough to blast satellites into orbit*







It is set to be a greener way to launch satellites.
Rocket Lab, a privately-held company financed by weapons maker Lockheed Martin and other high-tech investors has unveiled a battery powered rocket.
The low-cost Electron launch system for small satellites will be the first rocket powered by batteries when it blasts off later this year.

Rocket Lab's idea for making a lighter, simpler liquid rocket is its Rutherford engine. Named after New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford, it's an electric turbopump engine that burns a mixture of liquid oxygen and RP-1 rocket fuel, which is a highly refined type of kerosene. Unlike conventional engines, in the Rutherford, the gas-powered turbine to run the pump is replaced with a brushless DC motor and lithium polymer batteries, and provides enough fuel for the Rutherford to generate 4,600 lbf (20,462 N) of thrust and a specific impulse of 327 seconds.




The company says that the Rutherford is also notable as the first oxygen/hydrocarbon engine to use 3D printing for all its primary components, including the regeneratively cooled thrust chamber, injector, pumps, and main propellant valves.

The Electron itself is a two-stage rocket measuring 1 m (3.2 ft) in diameter and 20 m (65.6 ft) high, and is designed to lift a 100 kg (220 lb) payload into a 500 km (310 mi) Sun-synchronous orbit. This is due, in part, to its extremely light carbon-composite construction, which, according to Rocket Lab, gives it a dry weight that's lighter than a Mini Cooper. These composites not only allow for bespoke construction with the tanks and other components designed with strength only in the needed directions, but also for tanks compatible with liquid oxygen combined with a proprietary thermal protection system for the cryogenics.

According to Rocket Lab, there are not only nine Rutherford engines in the first stage producing 34,500 to 41,500 lbf (153,464 – 184,602 N) of thrust, but the second stage uses a variant of the Rutherford engine designed to work more efficiently in the vacuum of space. The vacuum variant differs only in nozzle shape, with the same basic engine design for both stages providing for faster production.

more here including a vid
http://www.rocketlabusa.com/index.html


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 29, 2015)

Out of control Russian spacecraft plunging back to Earth: Official reveals unmanned cargo craft has 'started descending'

*Progress M-27M will fall to Earth in a matter of days, experts have said*
*The ISS-bound spacecraft suffered a glitch after launching yesterday*
*It is now spinning out of control with 'nowhere to go' except down*






Progress 59 launched into space  vid





'Almost immediately after spacecraft separation, a series of telemetry problems were detected with the Progress 59,' Nasa spokesperson Rob Navias said during a televised broadcast from Mission Control.
Orbital parameters were due to be sent from a Russian Ground Site, allowing for a eight 'rendevous burns' to be performed over the next five hours of flight.
But, once Progress had arrived on orbit, only confirmation of its solar array deployment and some of the navigational antennas were made.
Meanwhile, Nasa's Mission Control reported that a video camera on Progress showed it to be spinning at a 'rather significant rate.'


More reading and a vid of the launch
http://www.space.com/29243-russian-cargo-spacecraft-malfunction-progress59.html


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

Out of Control and on an uncontrolled  re entry

Tin Hat and Bunker Time ?  wonder where Ground Zero may be

http://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=40619


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

Mr President   okebama

Its come to our (NSA) Attention that there is a Rouge Russian Missile/rocket  heading our way

Can we Deploy /Test our
*Patriot advanced capability (PAC-3) missile*





We don't want this Russian rocket  to Land/crash   in the Good old USA


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## Caring1 (Apr 29, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> Mr President   okebama
> 
> Its come to our (NSA) Attention that there is a Rouge Russian Missile/rocket  heading our way



Rouge or rogue?
bit of lippy on it?
It must be someone elses turn to have space junk land on them, one is enough for my country, we had skylab crash land quite a few years ago.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 29, 2015)

This is good...from wiki

*Re-entry[edit]*
Skylab's demise was an international media event, with merchandising of T-shirts and hats with bullseyes,[22] wagering on the time and place of re-entry, and nightly news reports. The _San Francisco Examiner_ offered a $10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab delivered to its offices; the competing _Chronicle_ offered $200,000 if a subscriber suffered personal or property damage.[23] NASA calculated that the odds of station re-entry debris hitting a human were 1 to 152 and the odds of any particular person being hit were 1 in 600 billion,[24]although the odds of debris hitting a city of 100,000 or more were 1 to 7 and special teams were readied to head to any country hit by debris and requesting help.[23]

We assume that Skylab is on the planet Earth, somewhere.

Charles S. Harlan, Skylab mission controller[22]
In the hours before re-entry, ground controllers adjusted Skylab's orientation to try to minimize the risk of re-entry on a populated area.[23] They aimed the station at a spot 810 miles (1,300 km) south southeast of Cape Town, South Africa, and re-entry began at approximately 16:37 UTC, July 11, 1979.[3]:371 The Air Force provided data from a secret tracking system able to monitor the reentry.[25] The station did not burn up as fast as NASA expected, however. Due to a 4% calculation error, debris landed southeast of Perth, Western Australia,[3]:371 and was found between Esperance and Rawlinna, from 31° to 34°S and 122° to 126°E, about 130–150 km radius aroundBalladonia. Residents and an airline pilot saw dozens of colorful fireworks-like flares as large pieces broke up in the atmosphere.[22] The Shire of Esperance facetiously fined NASAA$400 for littering, a fine which remained unpaid for 30 years.[26] The fine was paid in April 2009, when radio show host Scott Barley of Highway Radio raised the funds from his morning show listeners and paid the fine on behalf of NASA.[27][28]




Fragment of Skylab recovered after its re-entry through Earth's atmosphere, on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center
Seventeen year-old Stan Thornton found 24 pieces of Skylab at his home in Esperance. A Philadelphia businessman flew him, his parents, and girlfriend to San Francisco, where he collected the _Examiner_ prize.[3]:371[22] In a coincidence for the organizers, the annual Miss Universepageant was scheduled to be held a few days later, on July 20, 1979 in Perth. A large piece of Skylab debris was displayed on the stage.[29]Analysis of the debris showed that the station had not disintegrated until 10 miles above the Earth, much lower than expected.[22]

After the demise of Skylab, NASA focused on the reusable Spacelab module, an orbital workshop that could be deployed with the Space Shuttle and returned to Earth. The next American major space station project was Space Station _Freedom_, which was merged into theInternational Space Station in 1993, and launched starting in 1998. Shuttle-_Mir_ was another project, and led to the U.S. funding Spektr,Priroda, and the _Mir_ Docking Module in the 1990s.

and a news report


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## dorsetknob (Apr 29, 2015)

Caring1 said:


> Rouge or rogue?
> bit of lippy on it?
> It must be someone elses turn to have space junk land on them, one is enough for my country, we had skylab crash land quite a few years ago.



there are Europeans   up there sometimes EVEN Females


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 29, 2015)

Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying an attempt to contact the craft Wednesday ended in failure. No further attempts are expected Wednesday, the source said.

"To be honest, only a miracle can save the ship. There is no telemetry, and the spacecraft has not been able to get out of its spinning and be stabilized, so a maneuver involving distance or manual docking is becoming extremely dangerous," the source told RIA Novosti.

The news agency added that the craft is expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up in about a week.


----------



## RCoon (Apr 30, 2015)

Blue Origin's first space flight


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 30, 2015)

Nice one @RCoon you beat me to it.

*Blue Origin* is an American privately funded Aerospace manufacturer set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal of dramatically lower cost and increased reliability. It is employing an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its prior work. The company motto is "Gradatim Ferociter", Latin for "Step-by-Step, Ferociously". Blue Origin is developing a variety of technologies, with a focus on rocket-powered Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicles for access to suborbital and orbital space.[1]


heres another perspective










post #48 on page 2 has more stuff


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 3, 2015)

*US Air Force's Next X-37B Space Plane Mystery Mission to Test Thruster*







The U.S. Air Force will test an innovative spacecraft thruster this month when it launches the latest mystery mission of its robotic X-37B space plane.

A Hall thruster will be one of the payloads riding on the X-37B space plane  when it launches on May 20, Air Force officials revealed this week. The mission, called AFSPC-5, will lift off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station using an Atlas V rocket provided by launch provider United Launch Alliance. The exact mission details of the Air Force's X-37B space planes, also known as Orbital Test Vehicles, have to date been shrouded in secrecy.

The details about the Hall thruster experiment aboard the upcoming X-37B mission, which will be the fourth of its kind, were outlined by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Space and Missile Systems Center, and Rapid Capabilities Office. [USAF's Mystery X-37B Space Plane in Photos]

The Hall thruster is a modified version of thrusters used on the Space and Missile Systems Center's three Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellites. It is a type of electric propulsion device that ionizing and accelerating a noble gas, typically xenon, to produce thrust. WhileHall thrusters generate relatively low thrust when compared to that of conventionally fueled rocket engines, they make up for it in fuel economy with a much greater specific impulse.

While producing comparatively low thrust relative to conventional rocket engines, Hall thrusters provide significantly greater specific impulse, or fuel economy.

This results in increased payload carrying capacity and a greater number of on-orbit maneuvers for a spacecraft using Hall thrusters rather than traditional rocket engines, according to an update from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The most recent X-37B mission, called Orbital Test Vehicle 3 or OTV-3, launched in December 2012 and returned to Earth on Oct. 17, 2014, racking up about 675 days in space. That mission also marked the first time an X-37B was reused on a space flight.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 6, 2015)

Spacex news

SpaceX has launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft (shown) for the first time today. This was not a proper 'operational' launch, though, but instead it was a 'pad abort test' from a launch pad in Florida - a vital test to prove the spacecraft can safely carry astronauts







The eight engines each produced 15,000 pounds of thrust to lift the spacecraft to about 5,000ft (1,500 metres) above the ground






Once at peak altitude, the spacecraft separated from the trunk section, seen here. For future flights, this will carry fuel and cargo






Here the spacecraft is seen fully separated from its trunk section. At the time its nose was pointing horizontally, so it needed to rotate to get its heat shield - the bottom of it - pointing towards the ground






It's hoped that future astronauts won't have to go through this parachute routine, as the thrusters on the spacecraft should be sufficient to land it safely on the ground





*HOW THE LAUNCH UNFOLDED *
0 seconds: The eight SuperDraco engines ignited simultaneously and propelled the spacecraft off the pad.

0.5 seconds: After half a second, the Crew Dragon pitched towards the ocean and continue to fire its engines. It reached 100mph (160km/h) in just one second.

5 seconds: The engines cut off and the Dragon coasted for 15 seconds to its highest point, 5,000ft (1,500 metres) above the launch pad.

21 seconds: The ‘trunk’ (cargo section at the bottom) of the spacecraft was jettisoned, and the vehicle began a slow rotation to point its heat shield - its base - towards the ground again.

25 seconds: Small ‘drogue’ parachutes were deployed to stabilise the vehicle.

35 seconds: Three main parachutes deployed to slow the spacecraft for splashdown.

99 seconds: Dragon splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean about one mile (1.6km) offshore.









aaaaaaand a vid........which is excellent, not long.
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2015/05/06/spacex-dragon-escape-test.cnnmoney/


posts #30 and #49 have more Spacex pics and info if you like this sort of stuff.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 7, 2015)

Russian space officials warn stricken spacecraft might not burn up entirely in the atmosphere










Russian space agency Roscosmos believes some fragments of its out of control spaceship may hit Earth on Friday.
It claims most of the Progress spaceship will burn up in the atmosphere, as is the case with all space cargo carriers once they have delivered their shipments to the ISS.
But there is a chance some small parts will crash on to land - although no one knows where or when these fragments will hit.

Russian flight controllers have since been unable to regain command of the wayward ship, which is carrying three tons of supplies to the ISS.
'The space ship will completely burn up in the layers of the atmosphere and only a few small parts of elements of its construction could reach the surface of our planet,' the space agency said.
While some have claimed that citizens are at risk of being struck by pieces of the ship, CBS News space consultant, William harwood, said the chances were 'very close to zero.'
Russian ballistics experts are now working with Nasa and Esa to track the craft's path. But the event isn't as rare as believed, according to Nasa.
'Several hundred objects with more than 200 metric tons are tracked in space as they reenter each year,' a spokesperson for Nasa told DailyMail.com.
'About every week, a rocket body or spacecraft re-enters. Typically, objects with a mass of at least four metric tons re-enter uncontrolled at least once per year.'

Progress is not designed to be able to return to Earth, so if it does re-enter Earth's atmosphere it's likely most of it would burn up during the intense heat of re-entry as it lacks a heat shield.


Track it here and see if it might hit your house     
http://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=40619


or you might choose not to......one of its predicted paths is right over my house
http://www.n2yo.com/progress-cargo-reentry.php


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 8, 2015)

Satellite Update.  Progress M-27M








Based on its trajectory, The North American Aerospace Defence Command had plotted re-entry for 8.59am, 15 miles north of Margate in Kent and 20 miles south-east of Clacton in Essex. 
However, it actually burned up in the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 02.04am.
'The Progress M-27M spacecraft ceased to exist at 05:04 Moscow time (0204 GMT) on 8 May 2015. It entered the atmosphere... over the central part of the Pacific Ocean,' Roscosmos said in a statement.
The European Space Agency last night disagreed with Norad's calculations and said the spaceship was more likely to hit the atmosphere either late last night or in the early hours of this morning. 


Almost all similarly-sized spacecraft disintegrate in the atmosphere or land in the oceans, which cover most of the Earth's surface.
A special commission is looking into the incident, the deputy head of Roscosmos has said.
Sources in the space industry told Russian news agencies that the accident was caused by a problem with the Soyuz rocket carrying the cargo ship into orbit, rather than the supply vessel itself.
Russia has recently suffered a series of glitches exposing shortcomings in its space programme.
A Progress supply ship crashed in Siberia shortly after launch in 2011. Moscow has also lost several lucrative commercial satellites.





I have taken my tin hat off....phew!!


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## dorsetknob (May 8, 2015)

Sh*T   Missed no 10 and 1600


Spoiler:  Primary + secondary TARGETS 



10 Downing St and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 10, 2015)

Explosion of US Military Satellite May Endanger Spacecraft











       epic gif.


The February explosion of an American military satellite may cause some problems for orbiting spacecraft after all, a new study reports.

The U.S. Air Force's 20-year-old Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13) craft blew apart on Feb. 3 after experiencing a power-system faillure. Analyses by the European Space Agency and other organizations found that the cloud of space junk generated by the explosion shouldn't pose much of a threat to their missions, but the new research suggests that not all spacecraft are in the clear.

Study leader Francesca Letizia, a graduate student at the University of Southampton in England, and her team spotted 100 new chunks of debris produced by DMSP-F13's violent end. This number suggests that the explosion also created more than 50,000 pieces smaller than 1 millimeter in diameter, the scientists said.


"Even though many of these objects will be no bigger than the ball in a ballpoint pen, they can disable a spacecraft in a collision because of their enormous speed," co-author Hugh Lewis, also of the University of Southampton.


The team mapped out the spread of DMSP-F13's cloud using new modeling techniques that treated the pieces of debris as a fluid.

"Treating the fragment band as a fluid allows us to analyze the motion of a large number of fragments very quickly, and much faster than [using] conventional methods," said co-author Camilla Colombo, who's based at Southampton as well.

The researchers then used these maps to assess the collision risk to spacecraft circling Earth. They found that smaller pieces of DMSP-F13 debris could indeed hit some satellites, particularly American and Russian satellites that reside in sun-synchronous or polar orbits.




Such orbits are very useful for remote sensing missions that want to maintain the same Sun angle on targets on the Earth's surface


"Our work has shown that the introduction of a new cloud of small-sized debris into orbit will have increased the risks for other spacecraft in the vicinity, even if the risk from the larger fragments has been discounted," Lewis said.

The new study was published in the Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics.

T.S. Kelso, a senior research astrodynamicist at the Center for Space Standards & Innovation, a research arm of orbit-modeling software provider AGI, tweeted April 23 that the explosion has thus far created 149 pieces of debris.

http://www.space.com/9818-expanding...on.html#ooid=NuY3N4cDqgyJAShNLbTZk2va-oWy7lfw


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 11, 2015)

*Women in Space.........*heros to a man


Spoiler











The first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, blazed a trail for the many female spaceflyers who would follow. Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut, was selected from more than 400 applicants to launch on the Vostok 6 mission June 16, 1963







In June 1983, NASA astronaut Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman in space when she launched on the STS-7 mission of the space shuttle Challenger






The first woman to complete a spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), was Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, who spacewalked during her second flight to orbit in July 1984.






Astronaut Kathy Sullivan of NASA became the first American woman to make a spacewalk when she floated outside the space shuttle in October 1984.






British chemist Helen Sharman became the first British person to fly in space when she visited the Mir space station aboard the Soyuz TM-12 in 1991.






NASA astronaut Mae Jemison flew on space shuttle Endeavour in September 1992, becoming the first black woman to travel to space.






Roberta Bondar became Canada's first female astronaut when she flew on the STS-42 space shuttle mission in 1992.






The first Japanese woman in space was Chiaki Mukai, representing the National Space Development Agency of Japan, who flew on the STS-65 flight of the spaceshuttle Columbia in July 1994





Doctor Claudie Haignere was the first (and only) French woman to travel to space when she flew to the Russian space station Mir in 1996






NASA astronaut Eileen Collins was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission, a role that required an astronaut to have at least 1,000 hours of experience piloting jet aircraft. Collins commanded the STS-93 space shuttle mission in July 1999, and went on to command a second time in July 2005






The first female member of an International Space Station crew was NASA astronaut Susan Helms, who served as a flight engineer during the Expedition 2 mission from March to August 2001. It was just the second mission of the fledgling space laboratory.






Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari became the first female space tourist when she funded her own way to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule in 2006 through the firm Space Adventures






NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson was the first woman to command the International Space Station when she took the helm of the outpost in April 2008. She commanded the station's Expedition 16 mission while serving a six-month tour of duty in orbit.






South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon became her country's first space traveler when she rode to the International Space Station on Russia's Soyuz TMA-12 in April 2008.






The woman who has made the longest single spaceflight is NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who lived and worked in orbit for 195 days while serving on theInternational Space Station's Expedition 15 mission in 2007.






The woman who has spent the most total time in space is Peggy Whitson, who has logged 376 days, 17 hours and 22 minutes in orbit over the span of two tripsto the International Space Station






China's first female astronaut Liu Wang waves to supporters while clad in a spacesuit just before boarding the Shenzhou 9 space capsule for a successful June 19, 2012 launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.






Four women serving together on the International Space Station on April 14, 2010, represented the highest number of women in space simultaneously. Clockwise from lower right are NASA astronauts Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, both STS-131 mission specialists; and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Expedition 23 flight engineer; along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, STS-131 mission specialist.


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## Peter1986C (May 12, 2015)

Samantha Christoforetti's stay in the ISS has been lengthened so she may have a record of her own in that regard. She is Italy's first woman in space, btw.

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=81647


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 12, 2015)

@Chevalr1c
i will have to look up for her then.

And then look her up.

and Italy’s first woman in space, Samantha Cristoforetti,


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## Peter1986C (May 12, 2015)

Her Twitter account is great.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 19, 2015)

X-37B Space Plane's Rocket Ride Explained  (through the medium of vid)

The U.S. Air Force's AFSPC-5 mission is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket on May 20th, 2015. It will blast off from Space Launch Complex-41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.



 



Vid is less than 2 mins unfortunately
http://www.space.com/29436-x-37b-sp...eo.html#ooid=4xdHM1dTqUhdzkqlwchErwlorEBb_dT9

The NASA payload, called the Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space (METIS) investigation, aims to test how the space environment affects certain materials.
"By exposing materials to space and returning the samples to Earth, we gain valuable data about how the materials hold up in the environment in which they will have to operate," said METIS principal investigator Miria Finckenor, a materials engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. [See photos of the X-37B's fourth mission]

Another quick vid...look at the landing speed when it last landed in October 2014 after spending 674 days in orbit
http://www.space.com/27478-secretiv...eo.html#ooid=Y0Y21kcTpMgq85Ix9u-26ogeEXZnEjHO


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 23, 2015)

Blast into space at 100mph in 1.2 seconds: SpaceX releases dizzying new footage of its Dragon launch abort test
The vid at the bottom of this post was only recently released.




The test was called a 'pad abort test', and took place from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

It involved the manned vehicle launching to safety from a simulated emergency on the launch pad. The flight lasted just 99 seconds, eight seconds shorter than planned, but still successfully demonstrating how the crew would be carried to safety.

For example, if the rocket carrying the spacecraft was in danger some reason, Dragon would have to separate from the rocket and launch its crew away. For a spacecraft to be deemed safe for humans to travel in, it must be able to pass this test.

Previous manned rockets used a 'rocket tower' - essentially a long spike - on the top to carry a spacecraft to safety in an emergency.

But SpaceX's revolutionary design uses eight 'Draco thrusters' on its side, which will one day also be used to land the spacecraft softly on the ground so it can launch again.

The engines can each produce 15,000 pounds of thrust, and are expected to lift the spacecraft to about 5,000ft (1,500 metres) above the ground.







I like this vid a lot, make sure to watch it on full screen   












Apollo Pad Abort Test 2 in 1965,  for comparison, how it was done *50 years ago*


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 29, 2015)

The biggest rocket on Earth takes shape:     *Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS)*

Watch Nasa build the engine that could take man to Mars in two minute timelapse. Four RS-25 engines will power NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, on missions to deep space, including to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.
















There will be two versions of the rocket.

The smaller, 70-metric-ton SLS will stand 321 feet tall, provide 8.4 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, weigh 5.5 million pounds and carry 154,000 pounds of payload.
The massive 130-metric-ton-configuration will be the most capable, powerful launch vehicle in history.
Towering a staggering 384 feet tall, it will provide 9.2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and weigh 6.5 million pounds.
It will be able to carry payloads weighing 286,000 pounds to orbit.












Testing will resume in April after upgrades are completed on the high pressure industrial water system, which provides cool water for the test facility during a hot fire test.

Eight tests, totaling 3,500 seconds, are planned for the current development engine.

Another development engine later will undergo 10 tests, totaling 4,500 seconds.

The second test series includes the first test of new flight controllers, known as green running.

The first flight test of the SLS will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system.

As the SLS is upgraded, it will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system.

Nasa has signed a $2.8 billion contract with Boeing to build the giant rocket it is hoped will take us into deep space.

'Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the Space Launch System (SLS) – the largest ever - will be built safely, affordably and on time,' said Virginia Barnes, Boeing SLS vice president and program manager.







For that first flight test, the rocket will be able to launch 70 metric tons (77 tons) of payload into low-Earth orbit, almost three times what the space shuttle could carry.

From there, SLS will be evolved to a configuration that will be able to carry 130 metric tons (143 tons), more weight than any rocket ever has been able to carry.

'Depending on how large you make it, it can only go so fast, which in some cases limits where you can go.

'Today, if you want to send a mission to the outer planets, you have to be able to make it fit within that box. With SLS, we're about to make that box much larger.

'With the space shuttle, for example, we were able to launch missions like NASA's Hubble Space Telescope that were about the size of a school bus.

'With SLS, you can design a spacecraft even larger than the space shuttle that carried Hubble.

'It's going to open up an entirely new way of thinking about how we plan and design planetary science missions.'

'The Space Launch System could be really game-changing for space science,' said ACO manager Reggie Alexander.

'For some missions, it makes it much easier and quicker to carry them out.

'A Mars sample return mission, for example, could be flown using only one rocket instead of three.

'But for other destinations, SLS lets you do things we could only dream of before – like collecting samples from the geysers of Saturn's moon Enceladus.'


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 3, 2015)

NASA now aims to launch a flight test on Thursday (June 4) of an innovative "flying saucer" that could help humans land on Mars in the future, and you can watch the dramatic action live.

The space agency's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) test vehicle is scheduled to launch from the Hawaiian island of Kauai no earlier than 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT; 0730 local Hawaiian time) on Thursday, borne aloft by a giant balloon. You can watch the test live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). The launch was originally slated for Tuesday, but NASA delayed the flight test twice, first to today and then to Thursday, due to rough ocean conditions.













Once launched, it will take more than two hours for the balloon to get high enough for the LDSD test to proceed, so you'll have to be patient. Coverage of the flight test will likely cut out about 30 minutes after liftoff, then resume 20 minutes before the LDSD test vehicle is dropped from the balloon and begins flying freely, NASA officials said.






http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/06/nasa-ldsd-test-mars-landing-tech/

http://www.space.com/29542-flying-saucer-test-flight-watch-live.html?cmpid=NL_SP_weekly_2015-06-03


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## revin (Jun 16, 2015)

Legacy Rocket Engine Test-Fired For Behemoth NASA SLS | Video

This was an astounding *500* second burn test of the RS-25. Shuttle was aprox a 300 sec. burn,
It was said it's "similar" to the Shuttle's Main Engine, so not sure what has been changed.
Although it's not the most awesome Apollo F-1, ........it'll do !! Enjoy


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 26, 2015)

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches and (hopefully) lands again on Sunday.






check how long it tries to stabilize before finally falling over
http://www.space.com/29111-spacex-r...eo.html#ooid=VvOXNqdDrp0H38NnyAboWPS7J_2nZrr7


SpaceX is hoping it will be third time lucky on Sunday, when it once again attempts to land a reusable rocket on a barge.

This time, a new drone ship named 'Of Course I Still Love You' will be waiting in the Atlantic Ocean, taking over from the original barge, 'Just Read the Instructions'.

Both ships have been named after vessels in the Iain Banks novel 'The Player of Games.'





The rocket launch is planned for 10:21am EDT (4:21pm CET) on Sunday from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

After the Falcon first stage gives the launch vehicle a boost into orbit, it will separate, and fall back to Earth, attempting an upright landing on a barge.






*WHAT WENT WRONG DURING THE PREVIOUS TWO ATTEMPTS? *
SpaceX' first two landing attempts took place in January and April this year. 

Both ended with an explosion, although April's attempted landing was an improvement on the first. 

The rocket hovered over the platform, but touched down at an angle, causing it to fall over and explode 

January's landing attempt saw the rocket crashing into the platform without ever hovering. 

Since then, SpaceX says it has taken steps to prevent the sources of the previous two failures, which were a lack of hydraulic fluid in January and a broken throttle valve April.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 28, 2015)

Spacex webcast launch and landing today

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 28, 2015)

A launch failure this time

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33305083

The accident happened about 2 1/2 minutes into the flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A billowing white cloud emerged in the sky, growing bigger and bigger, then fiery plumes shot out of where the rocket was supposed to be, and pieces could be seen falling into the Atlantic. More than 5,200 pounds of space station cargo were on board, including the first docking port designed for future commercial crew capsules.
"We appear to have had a launch vehicle failure," announced NASA commentator George Diller. Data stopped flowing from the Falcon 9 rocket around 2 minutes and 19 seconds, he said. No astronauts were on board.

The rocket shattered while traveling at 2,900 mph, about 27 miles up. Everything appeared to go well in the flight until the rocket went supersonic.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk later said an over pressurization occurred in the liquid-oxygen tank of the rocket's upper stage.

Losing this shipment — which included replacements for items lost in two previous failed supply flights — was a huge setback for NASA in more than one way. The space agency is counting on private industry to transport cargo — and eventually astronauts — to the orbiting lab. The California-based SpaceX is one of the contenders.

"This is a tough day," said NASA's top spaceflight official, William Gerstenmaier. He said there was nothing common among the three accidents, "other than it's space and it's difficult to go fly."




















Russia expects to take another crack at launching supplies on Friday from Kazakhstan. And the Japanese Space Agency is on track to send up supplies in August.

But it wasn't immediately clear whether Russia's plans to launch three more men on July 22 would stay on track. Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield — a former station commander — said the supply situation could prompt another delay in sending up the crew. The Soyuz mishap in April already has delayed the trip by two months.

"You don't want to launch another crew if there's not going to be enough food, enough water," Hadfield said in an online chat. But Gerstenmaier said the crew flight would go on as planned.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 2, 2015)

A Russian cosmonaut has broken the record for the longest total time spent in space by a single person.

Gennady Padalka, who is the current commander of the International Space Station, has now been in orbit for more than 804 days across five missions.

It beats the old record of 803 days, nine hours and 41 minutes set by fellow cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev across six missions from 1998 to 2005, who has since retired.

Gennady Padalka






Padalka is seen here performing a spacewalk on the ISS on 12 August 2012. The veteran spacewalker has participated in an impressive nine spacewalks during his distinguished career.





*Space Flight Records*
Of the 25 people who have spent the most time in space, the top 23 are Russian - with only the 24th and 25th spots occupied by Americans.
This is thanks in large parts to the long stays the Soviet Union undertook aboard the Mir station in the 1990s.
This is despite Russia and the Soviet Union sending a total of just 120 people to space, compared to the 334 sent by the US.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 3, 2015)

It looks like a robotic cargo ship will actually make it to the International Space Station this time.









Russia's Progress 60 freighter launched smoothly toward the orbiting lab
	
atop a Soyuz rocket at 12:55 a.m. EDT (0455 GMT) Friday (July 3) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, starting its resupply run off on the right foot after two consecutive cargo-mission failures.

Last Sunday (June 28), SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded less than three minutes after liftoff, scuttling the company's latest unmanned supply flight. And the previous Progress mission, Progress 59, crashed back to Earth in early May after the third stage of its Soyuz booster suffered a glitch. [See photos of the failed Falcon 9 launch]

VID of the launch
http://www.space.com/29843-russia-p...ch.html#ooid=s3NHIwdjq4nM29gawx90MHaOPyV4GMY1


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## RCoon (Jul 3, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> It looks like a robotic cargo ship will actually make it to the International Space Station this time.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It always impresses me when the Russians launch something that isn't supposed to explode, usually explodes, but for some bizarre reason doesn't end up exploding. Gratz to Russia!


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 8, 2015)

Stuff in Space tracks thousands of satellites, spent rockets and debris as they orbit the Earth in real time


(Click on the link for interactivity)
Stuff in Space  allows users to see exactly what objects are floating around out there, giving their location, orbit and speed.





Most of the junk can be seen clustered in a low orbit around the Earth, perilously close to the orbit of the International Space Station.
These include fragments of the first ever collision between two intact satellites in orbit – Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251.
The derelict Cosmos 2251 ploughed into the Iridium 33 in 2009, sending a shower of debris into higher orbits around the Earth.
The remains of rockets and other satellite debris can also be seen in higher orbits.
Satellites and telescopes, termed payloads, are highlighted on the debris map in red while spent rockets are shown in blue and other debris is grey. 
Some of the most distant manmade junk to appear on the debris map are disabled astronomy satellites like the Astron UV space telescope launched by the USSR in 1983 which is currently 160,000km (99,000 miles) from Earth.
A piece of rocket booster used to launch the Chandra X-ray Observatory by Nasa also sits around 71,000km (44,117 miles) from Earth.
According to Nasa all this debris poses an increasing risk to spacecraft and safe operations in space.
It said: 'Operational spacecraft are struck by very small debris routinely with little or no effect.
'Debris shields can also protect spacecraft components from particles as large as 1cm in diameter.
'The probability of two large objects, greater than 10cm (4 inches) in diameter, accidentally colliding is very low.
'Orbital debris poses a risk to continued reliable use of space based services and operations and to the safety of persons and property in space and on Earth.'
According to Nasa, there is an estimated 500,000 pieces of space debris in orbit around the Earth that are between 1cm and 10cm in size. The number of particles smaller than 1cm exceeds 100 million.
Nasa uses found based radar systems and telescopes to track space debris in orbit and assess the risk it poses to missions, satellites and the space station.
Much of the debris orbiting the Earth are the remains of rocket boosters, nuts, bolts and lumps of aluminium slag from rockets left behind by spacecraft.
Old satellites that have now become defunct are also posing a growing risk as their orbits slowly decay back towards Earth.
Debris created by accidental collision between the US and Russian satellites and the deliberate destruction of a satellite by China in 2007 have also created large amounts of debris.



This image shows the orbit of the Astron space telescope that was launched by Russia in 1983. Now defunct it is adding to the junk orbiting the planet and is one of the furthest out pieces of debris to be shown in the tracking system


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## rtwjunkie (Jul 8, 2015)

SpaceX is not likely to get ANYone to agree to fly on one of their rockets.  They are having all the teething problems the U.S. and Russia had in the 40's and 50's trying to get rocket after rocket to stop exploding or crashing.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 20, 2015)

Today marks the day Man first stepped on the Moon.





Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin spent a total of 21 hours on the Moon, two-and-a-half of them outside the landing module.
After re-joining the Columbia mothership the astronauts - including Collins - left the Moon's orbit on 22 July and returned to Earth on 24 July.
The three men spent the next 21 days in quarantine at an American military base - a procedure dropped in subsequent missions since no alien organisms were found.
The Moon landing marked the pinnacle of the space race and American investment in the space programme declined accordingly.
A further 10 astronauts travelled to the Moon in another six missions with the final manned lunar landing, Apollo 17, completed in December 1972. 


more info and a couple of historic vids
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2635000/2635845.stm


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## Ferrum Master (Jul 20, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> SpaceX is not likely to get ANYone to agree to fly on one of their rockets.  They are having all the teething problems the U.S. and Russia had in the 40's and 50's trying to get rocket after rocket to stop exploding or crashing.




And there are no Nazi German scientists to employ and solve the problems too anymore . Remember the engine that Tu-95 Bear uses still was constructed by a Austrian from Junkers fab...

I remember Elon Musk made fun about Antares using NK33 engines from USSR N1... Being a thing from 60ties and so on... I guess karma struck back...

There are no differences whenever they made the designs by hand at the drawing board(and Stalins threat sending all bureau to some gulag in Siberia in case of failure), than using modern CAD software now... The physics have not changed that much in this department, hell it is rocket science... It just much faster and easier to design one now, but debugging and making the design real and alive hasn't changed much...


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 21, 2015)

SpaceX reveals broken strut caused its rocket to explode - and says launches won't restart until at least September


A flawed steel strut holding a helium pressurisation bottle likely gave way, dooming a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last month, company chief Elon Musk has revealed.
The June 28 accident destroyed an unmanned Dragon cargo ship about two minutes after it lifted off from Florida for the International Space Station.
SpaceX founder, Musk, said flights will not resume until September at the earliest.






The company also plans to delay the debut flight of its heavy-lift Falcon rocket from this year to spring 2016.
It said it will use different struts to hold the helium bottles and also test each unit prior to flight, rather than rely on materials certifications.
Future Dragon ships also will include new software to deploy parachutes in case of a launch failure, potentially saving the cargo. 
A similar system already had been planned for passenger versions of Dragon under development in partnership with Nasa, Musk said.

The flawed strut, provided by a vendor Musk declined to name, held a bottle of helium needed to pressurise the rocket's upper-stage liquid oxygen tank.
The privately-held company, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has flown 18 successful missions with the Falcon 9 before last month's failure.
Initial analysis pointed to a problem with the rocket's second-stage motor liquid oxygen tank, SpaceX said.
'There was an overpressure event,' Musk wrote on Twitter after the accident.









'There's a huge, huge question about the cause of this failure,' said Carissa Christensen, managing partner of The Tauri Group, a Virginia-based space and technology consultancy.

'Not from a point of view of finger-pointing, but for understanding if we should expect new vehicles to operate reliably from the beginning.'


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 23, 2015)

The Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft carrying the new ISS crew blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday evening after a two months delay. The image above shows the trail left behind by the rocket as it carried the three astronauts towards the space station orbiting 250 miles above the Earth






The mission, which is the 45th expedition to the ISS, was not without hiccups though as one of the solar panels on the Soyuz capsule did not deploy properly.

Officials decided to press ahead with the rendezvous with the space station as planned, however, as the starboard array had deployed along with its navigational antenna.

The capsule docked with the space station at 10.45pm EDT (3.45am BST) last night as it passed 250 miles (400km) above the Pacific Ocean near Ecuador.

At 12.56am EDT (5.56am BST), the hatches between the Soyuz capsure and the space station were opened and the two crews greeted each other.


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## revin (Jul 24, 2015)

The Crew Portrait For ISS Expedition 45 Is _Star Wars _Themed


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 2, 2015)

*Spacecraft carrying three astronauts embarks on historic journey to the International Space Station*






A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three astronauts has successfully blasted off towards the International Space Station.

The trio - including the first Danish citizen to fly into space - blasted off in the Soyuz rocket on schedule at 0437 GMT (1237 EDT) from the same launchpad that Yuri Gagarin used for his historic entry into the cosmos in 1961.

The take off also marked the 500th launch from the Gagarin launchpad in Kazakhstan, named after the Soviet space pioneer.

'The crew is doing well, everything is in order onboard,' relayed mission control.

Veteran cosmonaut Sergei Volkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos is leading a team that also includes first-time flyers Aidyn Aimbetov from Kazakhstan and Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency.











They are expected to make the journey to the ISS in two days, docking on Friday. Volkov will stay on at the ISS, while both Aimbetov and Mogensen will return to Earth next week.

Mogensen is the first Dane to enter space while Aimbetov, who replaced British singer Sarah Brightman after she pulled out of the mission in June, is the third from his country to do so.

'It's a great honour for me to represent Denmark as an astronaut,' Mogensen said last month.

The launch from Baikonur is the first since July 23, when Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and US astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yu of Japan blasted off into space.
Prior to that, Russia had put all space travel on hold after the failure of the unmanned Progress freighter in late April. The doomed ship lost contact with Earth and burned up in the atmosphere, forcing a group of astronauts to spend an extra month on the ISS.

Space travel is one of the few facets of international cooperation between Russia and the West that has remained unaffected by the Ukraine crisis.


VIDEO of launch
https://www.rt.com/news/314055-soyuz-launch-500th-manned-space/


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 3, 2015)

*Atlas V rocket launches secure military 'smartphone for soldiers' satellite in perfect weather conditions














*
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station this morning at 6:18 in perfect weather. It carries a military satellite designed to let soldiers around the globe communicate secretly.
Launching 19 minutes later than planned after resolving a technical problem during fueling, the United Launch Alliance rocket lit up the dark sky as it roared from Launch Complex 41 with 2.5 million pounds of thrust.

As the 21-story rocket arced southeast over the Atlantic Ocean, the morning's first light enveloped the exhaust plume and surrounding atmosphere in a glowing white oval that stretched as the rocket plowed forward, producing stunning images.
On top of the rocket was the fourth satellite in the Navy's $7.6 billion Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS.
The system is designed to help troops on the move and in combat make secure calls and send texts, video or other mission data, enabling hand-held radios in the field to work much like smartphones.
Using commercial cellphone technology, the MUOS program promises a tenfold increase in capacity for the Navy's 'narrowband' communications network.
However, that capability is about 18 months behind schedule, however, and won't be deemed fully operational until late next year or early 2017.

MUOS-4 is the latest addition to a network of orbiting satellites and relay ground stations that is revolutionizing secure communications for mobile military forces. Users with operational MUOS terminals can seamlessly connect beyond line-of-sight around the globe and into the Global Information Grid. MUOS' new smart phone-like capabilities include simultaneous, crystal-clear voice, video and mission data, over a high-speed Internet Protocol-based system. 

The addition of MUOS-4 completes the initial constellation and provides the MUOS network with near-global coverage, extending the reach of communications further toward the North and South poles than ever before.

This morning, the MUOS-4 satellite separated from its Atlas V rocket approximately three hours after its successful launch. 

Over the next few days, MUOS-4 will transition to reach its geosynchronous orbit location approximately 22,000 miles (37,586 km) above the Earth. 

The satellite's solar arrays and antennas will then be deployed, and on-orbit testing will start for subsequent turn-over to the Navy for test and commissioning to service.




'The most dangerous part of a satellite's life is launch and getting into orbit. I really want to thank our entire team whose hard work prepared MUOS-4 for this mission-critical event and the Atlas team who ultimately carried us safely to our transfer orbit,' said Iris Bombelyn, vice president of Narrowband Communications at Lockheed Martin. 

'We look forward to completing our on-orbit health checks and delivering this important asset to the U.S. Navy and these new capabilities to our mobile forces.' 


The program is overcoming challenges developing the new technology and integrating it with a network of four ground stations and thousands of Army radios that will be upgraded to use the improved communications capabilities.

The fourth MUOS satellite — the second launched by United Launch Alliance this year — gives the constellation nearly global coverage.

That will allow troops to communicate with commanders wherever they are, no longer being limited to connections within a single satellite's footprint.

After three burns by the rocket's Centaur upper stage engine, the 15,000-pound spacecraft separated as planned just under three hours after liftoff.

The mission was delayed two days by Tropical Storm Erika as it approached Florida


*



















*


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## Drone (Sep 3, 2015)

iriss mission liftoff


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## RealNeil (Sep 3, 2015)

An old photo from my 40GB IDE drive on the shelf.

"Shuttle Orbiter Discovery, taken from the International Space Station."

After Columbia took off from KSC (and an errant piece of ice from the main tank came off during launch and struck the leading edge of the left wing, damaging it fatally) NASA insisted that future flights to the international space station would include a roll maneuver within camera distance of the ISS for an inspection of it's exterior flight surfaces prior to docking.
Any dangerous damage would be discovered and measures could be taken to mitigate any loss of life.

You can see vapor trails behind the Orbiter in this pic showing movement created by the OMS Pod rockets. (Orbital Maneuvering System)
This picture makes a good desktop background for those that may want it.


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## Drone (Sep 4, 2015)

Atlas V


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 5, 2015)

Boeing today opened a massive facility in Florida to develop its Apollo-star, spacecraft, which it has named 'Starliner'. The Starliner CST-100 is expected to begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within two years.
Orbiter Processing Facility 3 (OPF-3) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 





Until earlier today, Boeing's still-under-development capsule was known simply as the CST-100, an abbreviation for Crew Space Transportation and 100 kilometres, the threshold of space.

Boeing is one of two private U.S. companies contracted by Nasa to transport space station astronauts from Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX, the other company, is developing an enhanced version of its cargo-carrying Dragon capsule 0 a super Dragon.

Nasa wants its astronauts launching from U.S. soil again rather than hitching expensive rides from Kazakhstan with the Russian Space Agency. That hasn't happened since the last shuttle flight in 2011. By adding the workweek of a single new crew member to the capabilities of the space station, the amount of research time available to astronauts in orbit will double to about 80 hours a week. Nasa had used the facility for 20 years as a shuttle processing hangar and for the extensive preps and testing of the space shuttle main engines in the engine shop.

The Starliner name was revealed by the commander of the last shuttle flight, Chris Ferguson, now deputy manager of operations for Boeing's commercial crew program. 'We get asked a lot, 'When are you going to pick a name for that wonderful spacecraft?'' Ferguson told the crowd.

'Well, I've always said, 'Just wait. It's coming.' Well, guess what? The wait is over.'





Pictured is the concept of the floor of the Starliner CST-100 assembly facility that Boeing envisions at Kennedy Space Center





In choosing the name, Starliner CST-100, Boeing wanted to give a nod to the next generation of space and the next 100 years of flight





Starliners will fly from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard Atlas 5 rockets, which are built and flown by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing

'Please welcome the CST-100 Starliner,' Ferguson said as a temporary wall behind him rose and revealed, to dramatic music and flashing lights.

In choosing the name, Boeing wanted to give a nod to the next generation of space and the next 100 years of flight for Boeing, Ferguson said.

Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden, also a former shuttle skipper, talked up the space agency's plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, with Boeing and SpaceX picking up the get-crews-to-orbit slack.

'If you're not excited, then there's something wrong with you, to be quite honest,' Bolden said.

The most senior astronaut present, Gemini and Apollo's Thomas Stafford, liked what he saw.

'It's a great name,' said Stafford, 79, who flew to the moon on Apollo 10, two months before the first manned moon landing in 1969.

He said the spacecraft is reminiscent of the capsules from the Apollo moon program.

Nasa's commercial crew contract with Boeing to certify, test and fly the Starliner capsules totals $4.2 billion. The SpaceX contract is worth $2.6 billion

Pictured is engine testing for the Starliner


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 8, 2015)

Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) was the first high orbital test flight for the Orion spacecraft. The flight tested systems that are critical to crew safety. EFT-1 is a significant step forward for America’s space program; it’s our first step on a journey to deep space.








Lockheed Martin is prime contractor building Orion, NASA’s next-generation spacecraft designed to transport humans to destinations beyond low Earth orbit and bring them safely home. Orion is the most reliable, safe and affordable option to provide human spaceflight to destinations in deep space such as asteroids, the moon, and Mars.










This video was recorded during NASA’s Orion return through Earth’s atmosphere.  The video provides viewers a taste of what the vehicle endured as it returned through Earth’s atmosphere during its Dec. 5 flight test.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 10, 2015)

China is planning the first ever landing of a lunar probe on the far side of the Moon, an engineer has said.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Lunar_Exploration_Program





The lunar far side would be an excellent place to site a radio telescope







The Chang’e 4 mission is planned for sometime before 2020, Zou Yongliao, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ moon exploration department, told state broadcaster CCTV in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Zou said the mission’s objective would be to study geological conditions on the moon’s far side.

That could eventually lead to the placement of a radio telescope for use by astronomers, something that would help “fill a void” in man’s knowledge of the universe, Zou said.

Radio transmissions from Earth are unable to reach the moon’s far side, making it an excellent location for sensitive instruments.

China’s next lunar mission is scheduled for 2017, when it will attempt to land an unmanned spaceship on the moon before returning to Earth with samples. If successful, that would make China only the third country after the United States and Russia to have carried out such a manoeuvre.

China’s lunar exploration programme, named Chang’e after a mythical goddess, has already launched a pair of orbiting lunar probes, and in 2013 landed a craft on the moon with a rover on board.

China has also hinted at a possible crewed mission to the moon.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and has powered ahead with a series of methodically timed steps, including the deploying of an experimental space station.



Mans first sight of the dark side of the Moon




The first image returned by Luna 3 showed the far side of the Moon was very different from the near side, most noticeably in its lack of lunar maria (the dark areas)

The camera took 29 pictures over 40 minutes on 7 October 1959, from 03:30 UT to 04:10 UT at distances ranging from 63,500 km to 66,700 km above the surface, covering 70% of the lunar far side. Seventeen (some say twelve) of these frames were successfully transmitted back to the Earth (tracking stations in Crimea and Kamchatka), and six were published (frames numbered 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, and 35). They were mankind's first views of the far hemisphere of the Moon.

The imaging system was developed by P.F. Bratslavets and I.A. Rosselevich at the Leningrad Scientific Research Institute for Television and the returned images were processed and analyzed by Iu.N. Lipskii and his team at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute. The camera AFA-E1 was developed and manufactured by the KMZ factory



Spoiler: Maps of dark side



http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/luna/moon_farsidemap.htm


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 11, 2015)

Elon Musk's SpaceX today gave the first look inside the Space Dragon, which Nasa hopes will begin ferrying US astronauts to the International space Station.






The capsule measures about 20 feet tall by 12 feet in diameter, and will carry up to 7 astronauts at a time.





SpaceX's revolutionary design uses eight 'Draco thrusters' on its side, which will one day also be used to land the spacecraft softly on the ground. Two of the thrusters are shown here. They are also the first rocket engines to be designed entirely by 3D printing





The thrusters on the side will ultimately be used to enable the spacecraft to land softly back on the launch pad, shown in the illustration on the left, even when returning from a regular operational flight. And they may also be used on future missions to Mars,







'Dragon made history in 2012 when it became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the space station, a feat previously achieved only by governments,' SpaceX said.






'But Dragon was also designed from the beginning to carry people, and today SpaceX is finalizing the necessary refinements to make that a reality.' 

'Crew Dragon was designed to be an enjoyable ride,' SpaceX said - despite the images showing a rather basic seating plan.






'With four windows, passengers can take in views of Earth, the Moon, and the wider Solar System right from their seats, which are made from the highest-grade carbon fiber and Alcantara cloth.'

The craft will replace the Russian Soyuz craft US astronauts currently have to hitch a ride on. 

Within two years Nasa hopes that two private space companies - SpaceX and Boeing - will begin taking astronauts into orbit, reducing its reliance on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. 

Unlike Soyuz, the Crew Dragon will use thrusters to land, instead of splashing down in the ocean. 

According to SpaceX, 'This system also enables Dragon v2 to land propulsively on Earth or another planet with the precision of a helicopter, making possible interplanetary trips that would otherwise be constrained by ocean landings.'

The Crew Dragon features an advanced emergency escape system (which was tested earlier this year) to swiftly carry astronauts to safety if something were to go wrong, experiencing about the same G-forces as a ride at Disneyland. 






Crew Dragon Crew Dragon has an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) that provides a comfortable and safe environment for crew members. 
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/104840main_eclss.pdf


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 14, 2015)

Boeing has announced that the first satellite with all-electric propulsion is now fully operational. 







Launched last March, the ABS-3A 702SP (small platform) satellite was formally handed over to its owner, Bermuda-based telecommunications company ABS, on August 31. It will provide communications services to the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

ABS-3A launched on March 1 atop a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida along with EUTELSAT 115 West B. The geosynchronous comsat's key technology is its Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS). Previously, hybrid systems that use a mix of chemical and ion propellants have been sent into orbit, but this is the first time a satellite has been deployed with an all-electric drive.

Boeing says that the technology is based on 210,000 hours of ion propulsion flight experience and is 10 times more efficient than liquid-fueled rockets. Four 25-cm (9.8-in) thrusters using xenon as a propellant allow the 702SP satellite to maintain stationkeeping while using only 5 kg (11 lb) of fuel per year. This is a great saving because the satellite needs less fuel and smaller thrusters, which reduces launch costs.

After launch, the XIPS drive allowed ABS-3A to power itself into geosynchronous orbit, where it is stationed at 3° West longitude. A second 702SP satellite (ABS-2A) for ABS is scheduled to launch next year.

"With a successful launch, testing, and execution of orbit operations, we were able to deliver the first 702SP to ABS about one month earlier than planned," says Mark Spiwak, president, Boeing Satellite Systems International. "The 702SP product line was designed to bring the latest technology into the hands of customers seeking adaptable and affordable solutions. In addition, the 702SP’s patented dual-launch capability helps customers share launch costs, which can significantly lower overall expenses for a satellite owner."


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 16, 2015)

The second of possibly five orbital launches by China in September, took place at 04:45 UTC on Monday with the launch of another “remote sensing” satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. China used a Long March-2D launch vehicle from the 603 Launch Pad of the LC43 Launch Complex to orbit the Gaofen 9 satellite.







This launch comes two days after the launch of an unknown spacecraft – unofficially claimed to be the Communications Engineering Test Satellite -1 (TJSSW-1), from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The mission of Gaofen-9 will be similar to the Gaofen-8, with spy sat models being turned over to a semi-civilian role.

As it was mentioned by the Chinese authorities, Gaofen-9 will provide sub-meter class resolution optical images for city planning, road network design, land ownership determination, etc. purposes

This launch was the 222nd Chinese orbital launch and the 209th launch of the Long March launch vehicle family. It was also the 78th orbital launch from the Jiuquan Satellite launch Center, the 1st launch from this space center in 2015 and the 6th orbital launch for China this year.










The Chinese *Xinhua News Agency *reported that the Gaofen-9 spacecraft is a remote sensing satellite, capable of providing photographs with a resolution of less than 1 meter (3.3 ft.). It will be used in land survey, urban planning, road network design, agriculture, and disaster relief.

“Developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, Gaofen-9 can also serve key national strategies such as the Belt and Road Initiative and national defense,” Xinhua added.

The Gaofen-9 satellite is based on the compact CAST-2000 platform. It is a civilian version of the Yaogan 2 type military reconnaissance satellite.

The satellite was placed into a nearly circular orbit averaging about 397 miles (639 kilometers), at an inclination of some 98 degrees.


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## Drone (Sep 17, 2015)

I'm posting this as if I know what it is






Just kidding. Of course I know what it is. It's Orion spacecraft pressure vessel for Exploration Mission-1


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 5, 2015)

*Atlas V Rocket Launches Successfully With Military Satellite (VIDEO)*
After a brief delay caused by techincal issues, the United Lanch Alliance succesfully lauched the Atlas V Rocket into orbit.

An unmanned Atlas V rocket was successfully by United Launch Alliance from Florida on Wednesday to put a next-gen communications satellite belonging to the U.S. military into orbit.

Launching 19 minutes off schedule due to technical issues, the 20-story tall rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:18 a.m.







On top of the rocket was the fourth satellite in the U.S. Navy's $7.3 billion Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS, which is utilizes commercial cellphone technology to help troops make secure calls and send texts, videos or other mission data, essentially allowing handheld radios in the field to work much like smartphones.

The U.S. Navy notes the MUOS network will eventually replace the Navy's Ultra High Frequency Follow-On satellite system, providing 16 times more capacity than the current network.

"MUOS is a game-changer in communications for every branch of our military," said Iris Bombelyn, vice president of Narrowband Communications at Lockheed Martin, which built the satellites as part of a joint operation with Boeing Co
Weighing nearly 15,000 pounds, the MUOS satellite needed the most powerful version of the Atlas rocket, which was outfitted with five strap-on solid rocket motors built by GenCorp Inc's Aerojet Rocketdyne.

The MUOS satellite launched on Wednesday completes the operational system. A fifth spacecraft is slated for launch in July 2016, according to the U.S. Navy, which will server as a spare.
















The Atlas V rocket's exhaust plume lit up a low deck of clouds, providing spectators with a unique light show


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 13, 2015)

The Atlas V rocket has successfully launched the NROL-55 spy satellite and 13 cubesats into orbit.




VID
http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-tel...tv.html#ooid=I2YW4zeDpkIQ9rimulG19mf9lFWgTE0z

An American spy satellite and 13 tiny "cubesats" shared a rocket ride to orbit this morning, lighting up the predawn sky over their California launchpad.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket blasted off today (Oct. 8) from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:49 a.m. EDT (0949 GMT; 8:49 a.m. local California time), lofting the secret NROL-55 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that operates the United States' spy satellites.

The 13 cubesats tagged along as part of the NRO's GRACE (Government Rideshare Advanced Concepts Experiment) secondary payload. Nine of the tiny spacecraft were sponsored by the NRO, while NASA sponsored the other four. [‪Photos: Atlas V Launches NROL-55 on Secret Mission]


"That was a great launch and I'm very excited," Andres Martinez, program manager for NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program, said just after liftoff during NASA's live launch commentary. "Small satellites provide NASA the ability to rapidly develop and launch groundbreaking technology into space."

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the classified NROL-55 satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, as well as 13 tiny cubesats for the NRO and NASA, during a pre-dawn launch on Oct. 8, 2015.
Credit: United Launch Alliance
the secretive NROL-55 mission, which is classified. But NRO and NASA officials have revealed details about the GRACE cubesats, which are mostly demonstrating new tech in Earth orbit.

For example, two of the NRO cubesats, known as AeroCube-5C and AeroCube-7, will test out tracking and laser-communications technologies. These spacecraft weigh just 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kilograms) apiece, NRO officials said.

AeroCube-7 was developed with NASA funding, via the agency's Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration project. This cubesat will use a 6-watt laser to beam data from low Earth orbit (LEO) to the ground.

NASA-sponsored cubesats are ARC-1 (Alaska Research CubeSat 1), BisonSat, AMSAT Fox-1 and LMRST-Sat (Low Mass Radio Science Transponder-Satellite).

The 2.2-lb ARC-1, which was developed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will help test out new cubesat control and communications systems.

BisonSat is the first cubesat to be built by students at a Native American tribal college; it was designed at Salish Kootenai College, which is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. The 2.2-lb. BisonSat will conduct a variety of Earth observations from orbit, but its main mission is educational.

http://www.space.com/30777-us-spy-s...ch.html#ooid=I2eTZydToVx615b7_d38F3UKHTivuBDj

NASA sees big potential in tiny, inexpensive cubesats, the basic building block of which is a cube measuring just 4 inches (10 centimeters) on a side. Indeed, the space agency plans to launch such minuscule craft to the moon, near-Earth asteroids and Mars in the next few years


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 23, 2015)

Experts reveal hi-tech extra-terrestrial cyberbattles to control surveillance satellites


Space is rapidly becoming an extra-terrestrial battleground for corporate espionage and other types of cyber attack as hackers seek to gain commercial advantage from rival networks operating in the $330-billion space economy.

At the same time, a mounting threat from orbiting junk hurtling through space and threatening spaceships and satellites is pushing up the cost of commercial ventures and could be a brake on future investment.

Industry-watchers say the many and varied challenges are driving up costs that might soon become prohibitive.






But if the challenges are clear, hard solutions from the industry are few.

Three-quarters of investment in the space economy comes from the booming commercial sector that is attracting companies like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Facebook and Google, according to the nonprofit Space Foundation.

The amount of data now being beamed between satellites supporting commercial networks on earth is growing rapidly, making them a ripe target for cyber attacks, said Luca del Monte, a senior strategist at the European Space Agency, and one of many experts who attended the annual International Astronautical Congress last week in Israel.

Space presents a double opportunity for hackers - the hardware up in orbit and the information it transmits.

Satellites were becoming 'trophy attacks' for hackers, said one space insurer.

Companies are increasingly having to arm themselves against malware planted inside their hardware before it is sent up - again something that drives up overheads.

With intense competition to get satellite networks up and operational in space, companies are finding themselves shopping in less reliable markets.







'To build so many satellites, you can no longer rely on the usual supplier next door,' del Monte said.

'There will be a big geographical extension, into Asia, countries you don't control. 

'So you need to examine each component you get and make sure it has no bugs or a latent virus that will activate in space,' he said.

He speaks from experience. 

In one case, his agency received microcircuits made of material whose composition, under the microscope, was found to have been tampered with at a fundamental level

Current policies do not include the risk of data breach by hackers, he said, but coverage is starting to be offered.

'Satellites are becoming trophy attacks for hackers. It's increasingly a cause for concern,' said Bensoussan.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 29, 2015)

Russia is to send a manned mission to the moon in 2029, meaning it may beat the United States in the race to return to the lunar surface.







The head of Russia's state-controlled Rocket and Space Corporation Energia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energia




 which builds all of the country's manned spacecraft, announced it was building a new vehicle designed specifically for moon missions.
The maiden flight for the new lunar spacecraft is scheduled for 2021 and in 2023 it will dock with the International Space Station before making an unmanned mission to the moon in 2025.

Vladimir Solntsev, president of RSC Energia, which is 38 per cent owned by the Russian state, told a space technology conference in Moscow that it would land humans on the moon in 2029. It is the first time a firm date has been set for Russia's plans to land human's on the lunar surface but the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, has previously said it would send a manned mission to the moon before 2030.


According to Russian media, Mr Solntsev said: 'A manned flight to the moon and lunar land is planned for 2029.'

Currently Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which are built by RSC Energia, are the only vehicles capable of sending humans into space.



TMA-M (manned version)

Nasa has been relying upon the system to send its astronauts to the International Space Station along with regular supplies of cargo.  In a statement posted on the RSC Energia website, Mr Solntsev said: 'The high-priority line of activities for Russian manned programs in the next 10 to 20 years is lunar exploration.

'Russia develops a new-generation advanced transportation spacecraft, in the nearest future development of other elements of the lunar program will also begin.'

The new spacecraft is expected to be built using composites specifically designed for lunar missions.

Russia has never landed a human on the moon and plans to do so drawn up in the 1960s were never completed after Nasa's Apollo moon landings.

Instead the country has concentrated on sending a series of unmanned probes to the lunar surface. However, it has not sent a spacecraft to the moon since the sample return mission Luna 24 in 1976.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_24

However, the country's new effort to send cosmonauts to the moon could see it beating US in its attempts to return to the lunar surface. Nasa had been planning to return humans to the lunar surface as part of its long-term plans to send astronauts to Mars. However, the plans were scrapped in 2010 favour of landing on an asteroid in an announcement by US President Barack Obama.





In the 1960s the Soviets began developing their own designs for a manned mission to land on the moon with its N1-L3 Lunar Lander. However, the project never flew and was eventually cancelled.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK_(spacecraft)



Hit by major funding issues, a mission to the moon was seen as being a low priority although some officials have indicated Nasa may send future missions to orbit the dusty satellite. A recent study funded by Nasa has, however, also suggested Nasa is still hopeful about establishing a human presence on the surface of the moon. The Evolvable Lunar Architecture Plan 
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/07/evolvable-lunar-architecture-is-well.html 
outlined a cut price way of building a base on the moon for around $10 billion using private rockets and mining water ice from the poles. The study, conducted by NexGen Space LLC, said it would be possible to land humans on the moon within the next five to seven years and establish a base within 19 years.

A number of former Nasa staff have also suggested that the space agency is quietly planning a mission to the moon as part of its build up to Mars. However, Russia's ambitious plans to return to the moon could now trigger a new race to exploit the minerals and other resources on the lunar surface.

Two weeks ago, the European Space Agency said it was interested in joining Russia's attempts to colonise the moon.

ESA and Roscosmos said they were working together to send a lander to the moon's south pole to look for water.

The Lunar 27 mission will launch in 2020 and its primary mission will be to look for deposits of water ice in craters on the surface, which could be used by future manned colonies on the moon.

Professor Igor Mitrofanov, one of the lead scientists on the project at the Space Research Institute in Moscow, told the BBC: 'We have to go to the Moon. 

'The 21st Century will be the century when it will be the permanent outpost of human civilisation, and our country has to participate in this process.' 



*WILL RUSSIA SEND THE FIRST WOMAN TO THE MOON? *
Six Russian women have been sent into a mock spaceship to begin a unique experiment testing how an all-female crew would interact on a trip to the Moon and back.

For eight days, the female volunteers will live inside a wood-panelled suite of rooms at Moscow's Institute of Biomedical Problems, renowned for its wacky research into the psychological and physical effects of space travel.

The institute in 2010 locked six male international volunteers in an isolation experiment lasting 520 days, to simulate a flight to Mars and back.

The volunteers include scientific researchers, a doctor and a psychologist.

The test period simulates a flight to the Moon and back, with the women carrying out 10 experiments covering psychology and human biology.

Russia sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 but has lagged behind since.

Sergei Ponomaryov, the experiment's supervisor, called the latest experiment an effort to make up for lost time.

He said: 'We consider the future of space belongs equally to men and women and unfortunately we need to catch up a bit after a period when unfortunately there haven't been too many women in space.' 



I will be 63  

летать летать, как ветер мои российские друзья


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 2, 2015)

International Space Station celebrates 15 years of nonstop human presence

First permanent crew moved in on Nov. 2, 2000, and 220 people have visited representing 17 countries
Complex has grown from three to 13 rooms since 2000, and Nasa hopes to keep the complex running until 2024


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## dorsetknob (Nov 2, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> летать летать, как ветер мои российские друзья



И тот ветер будет результатом капусты, тушатся


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## Drone (Nov 3, 2015)

little bit sci-fi-esque but optimistic video:


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 3, 2015)

Residents of Yuanxi village in south China woke up recently to find their electricity supply had been cut off.

Rather unexpectedly, the culprit was debris that had fallen from a rocket launched in Sichuan, south-west China, earlier that day, reported People's Daily Online.

The debris is now awaiting collection by the relevant department. However, local officials are also looking for a second piece of the rocket, which they believe may have fallen in the area.





Lift-off! Debris was part of the CZ-3B rocket used to launch the APSTAR-9 communications satellite







China's CZ-3B rocket was used to launch the APSTAR-9 communications satellite into space in the early hours of October 17.

The rocket was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, south-west China.

Initial reports of the operation indicated that the launch was successful and the satellite was fully functioning.

However, moments after take off, part of the launch rocket broke away and landed in Yuanxi, south China, approximately 1,258 miles away.

Local residents reported hearing two loud booms before their electricity cut out.

Around 7am the next morning, a giant piece of rocket debris was found on a small path in the isolated village.

It had severed the electricity cables while falling out of the sky.

The debris has been identified as the fairing, the part of the rocket used to increase streamlining.

It measures approximately 34 feet long and has a radius of close to 15 feet.

Although multi-stage launch rockets generally break apart after launch, it is not clear whether or not this was a fault or as a result of poor planning.



im not sure the chinese bots that watch us will like the link but lets see.


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 4, 2015)

Russia going to the moon or anywhere else is a huge waste of resources for them. Better just stay on the ground and play with the babies.


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## R-T-B (Nov 4, 2015)

Easy Rhino said:


> Russia going to the moon or anywhere else is a huge waste of resources for them. Better just stay on the ground and play with the babies.



Yeah, if the moon was rich in some rare metal or something you might have a counterarguemnt to your point...  as it stands pretty much spot on.  Waste of time but a helluva lot of fun (and not on my taxpayers dollars this time.  )


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 4, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> Yeah, if the moon was rich in some rare metal or something you might have a counterarguemnt to your point...  as it stands pretty much spot on.  Waste of time but a helluva lot of fun (and not on my taxpayers dollars this time.  )



They want to go here,  The.Pole-Atkin crater.

The existence of a giant far side basin was based on early probe images (namely Luna 3 and Zond 3),

Luna 3 1959






Zond 3 1964







_South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, the biggest and most ancient lunar basin. Arrow identifies the location of interesting wrinkled ridges within Aitken crater. Image width is 250 km. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University._





The url for the new South Pole-Aitken Basin Landing Site Database is http://www.lpi.usra.edu/nlsi/SPA_Basin_Landing_Site_DB/







Topographical map of the South Pole–Aitken basin based on Kaguya data.  Red represents high elevation, purple low elevation. The purple and grey elliptical rings trace the inner and outer walls of the basin. (The black ring is an old artifact of the image.)

Kaguya


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 4, 2015)

R-T-B said:


> Yeah, if the moon was rich in some rare metal or something you might have a counterarguemnt to your point...  as it stands pretty much spot on.  Waste of time but a helluva lot of fun (and not on my taxpayers dollars this time.  )



I'm not sure where you live but up until recently Russia has received foreign aid from most rich countries!


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## Drone (Nov 4, 2015)

Unfortunately some images and videos links are dead ...


Anywho

Xenon thrusters (sounds sexy doesn't it?)


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 4, 2015)

Time to invest in Xenon futures.


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## dorsetknob (Nov 4, 2015)

Easy Rhino said:


> Time to invest in Xenon futures.


Oops misread that as ""Time to invest in Xeon cpu's""


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## Drone (Nov 4, 2015)

I agree, Xenon thrusters + magnetic fields = awesome engine. Like Neil deGrasse Tyson said "chemical rockets are so yesterday".
Lasers, plasma, ions all the way!


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## R-T-B (Nov 5, 2015)

Easy Rhino said:


> I'm not sure where you live but up until recently Russia has received foreign aid from most rich countries!



"Up until recently"

I don't think the USA is sending them money this year.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 5, 2015)

The last time the UK govt gave money to Russia they gave Putin £4.5 million to encourage Russian ministries to be more “efficient, effective and transparent” and improve the country’s “business environment”.
*2011

*
Russia tells US: We don't want your aid money
* 2012*

*http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...sia-tells-us-we-dont-want-your-aid-money?lite
*

It may hang heavy with some Americans but it will always remain an historical fact that the Russians won the race to space.

This thread bears testimony to that fact.

wiki gives an excellent summary.....this is just 1957-1969
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_exploration_milestones,_1957–1969






A chart of selected space milestones as accomplished by the USSR and the USA.


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 8, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> The last time the UK govt gave money to Russia they gave Putin £4.5 million to encourage Russian ministries to be more “efficient, effective and transparent” and improve the country’s “business environment”.
> *2011
> 
> *
> ...



Russia stopped accepting US money in 2012 but up until that point they had accepted billion and billions of dollars from the US. Obviously that money is still being used today. Anyway, Russia never put people on the moon so they lost the space race. Also, while Russia was trying to do that they they had millions starving in the streets.  And many still starve today. Probably best to get things straight on the ground before spending billions to reach Mars...


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 8, 2015)

Easy Rhino said:


> Russia never put people on the moon so they lost the space race



The race to put man on the moon was pretty much fruitless, grossly expensive (and one sided) as was proved by the US missions there, golf, really?

The race to build habitable space stations and do valuable science? well, read the thread and thank the USSR.

Or are you saying the US "won" the Moon at no cost ?



Spoiler


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 8, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> The race to put man on the moon was pretty much fruitless, grossly expensive (and one sided) as was proved by the US missions there, golf, really?
> 
> The race to build habitable space stations and do valuable science? well, read the thread and thank the USSR.
> 
> ...



Going to the moon wasn't valuable science? Also, USA is super rich so going on a trip to the moon is like blowing a wad in Vegas to us.


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## dorsetknob (Nov 8, 2015)

Easy Rhino said:


> USA is super rich



On June 30, 2015, debt held by the public was $13.08 trillion or about 74% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[5][6][7][8] Intragovernmental holdings stood at $5.07 trillion, giving a combined total gross national debt of $18.15 trillion or about 102% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[7] $6.2 trillion or approximately 47% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were the People's Republic of China and Japan at about $1.3 trillion and $1.2 trillion respectively for the two countries.

from wilki


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 8, 2015)

Easy Rhino said:


> Going to the moon wasn't valuable science? Also, USA is super rich so going on a trip to the moon is like blowing a wad in Vegas to us.



As much was learned from probes, orbiters and landers as was from the manned lunar missions at a lot less cost, men died remember. 

Arrogance also played a large part in men landing on the Moon.


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## dorsetknob (Nov 8, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Arrogance also played a large part in men landing on the Moon.



Arragance was the main reason America put a man on the moon

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. A number of political factors affected Kennedy's decision and the timing of it. In general, Kennedy felt great pressure to have the United States "catch up to and overtake" the Soviet Union in the "space race." Four years after the Sputnik shock of 1957, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space on April 12, 1961, greatly embarrassing the U.S. While Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, he only flew on a short suborbital flight instead of orbiting the Earth, as Gagarin had done. In addition, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in mid-April put unquantifiable pressure on Kennedy. He wanted to announce a program that the U.S. had a strong chance at achieving before the Soviet Union. After consulting with Vice President Johnson, NASA Administrator James Webb, and other officials, he concluded that landing an American on the Moon would be a very challenging technological feat, but an area of space exploration in which the U.S. actually had a potential lead. Thus the cold war is the primary contextual lens through which many historians now view Kennedy's speech.

from the NASA Archives
http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 8, 2015)

quoted from Oxford Universiity Press

http://blog.oup.com/2014/07/apollo-11-moon-landing/

sending men to the moon in 1969 did not make sense to a majority of Americans in the first place, let alone continuing with an ambitious effort to send astronauts on to Mars or permanent space colonies, as advocates urged. In fact, with the exception of a brief period following Apollo 11, poll after poll in the late 1960s revealed a public that disapproved of the high cost of the moon race, the rush to complete it before 1970, and the misplaced priorities it represented. Beneath all the celebratory rhetoric and vague notions that Apollo somehow changed everything was a realization that it really had not changed much at all. It certainly did not inaugurate any “new era” in history, as many assumed it would. Instead, Americans grew indifferent to the program shortly after the first landing, as the rapid dismissal of Armstrong from the national consciousness indicated. In 1970, the final three planned Apollo missions — what would have been Apollos 18, 19, and 20 — were cancelled, and few Americans complained. 



40 Years After Moon Landing: Why Is It So Hard to Go Back?

http://www.space.com/7015-40-years-moon-landing-hard.html


----------



## Drone (Nov 9, 2015)

The Orion spacecraft service module stacking assembly interface ring and stack holding stand are secured on a special transportation platform and are being loaded into NASA's Super Guppy aircraft at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 9, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> As much was learned from probes, orbiters and landers as was from the manned lunar missions at a lot less cost, men died remember.
> 
> Arrogance also played a large part in men landing on the Moon.



Going to the moon was about beating Russia there. Like I said, it didn't matter if it made financial sense, we just wanted to show that we could do it. But going to the moon has actually been a very important learning experience now that many are pushing to put people on Mars.


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## lilhasselhoffer (Nov 9, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> On June 30, 2015, debt held by the public was $13.08 trillion or about 74% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[5][6][7][8] Intragovernmental holdings stood at $5.07 trillion, giving a combined total gross national debt of $18.15 trillion or about 102% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[7] $6.2 trillion or approximately 47% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were the People's Republic of China and Japan at about $1.3 trillion and $1.2 trillion respectively for the two countries.
> 
> from wilki



I'm going to do something radical here, and ask for you to review your own posts for logical consistency.  

You've compared an apple, an orange, and a banana here.  Your conclusion is therefore that a banana is a crap apple, which is a true but useless statement.


1) In the 1970's the US had a National debt.
2) Said national debt of 2015 bears no weight on our debt in the 1970's.
3) The space race was about the US measuring up to Soviet Union.
4) Science completed on the moon, during all of our visits, has been vital to the understanding of our universe.
5) Human life, in this context, is not nearly as valuable as one would like to imagine.

Let's start with the national debt.  Here's a good pictographic source:
http://goldsilverworlds.com/money-s...-gold-price-ratio-long-term-charts-till-2012/

It seems like we've been operating with a debt for longer than anyone here has been alive (assuming you aren't 70+ years old).  Despite this, the US has managed to amass great wealth and power.  I'm not saying that arrogance hasn't come back to bite us, but we've effectively managed to place ourselves in a situation where forcing us the pay that debt back would destroy us and our debtors.  Nothing quite like MAD (mutually assured destruction) to make pushing the button look like a bad idea to everyone.  I'm not saying this is great, but it is a thing.


The science done for the missions is amazing.  We had to advance rocketry (read: why we can launch satellites now), we developed new technologies (microwaves, velcro, and tang are pretty awesome in my book), and most importantly we did science.  How do we know that the moon is traveling away from the Earth; that's bouncing light off of a mirror an measuring travel time to get accurate distance.  How do we know what the surface composition is (lunar regolith); that's samples brought back from those astronauts.  Why can't we get back there now; unfortunately that's because of rovers.  It's a fraction of the cost to send a rover somewhere, they can stay there longer, and they can do all of that without potential contamination.  NASA's great problem is monetary, and the simple fact that their rovers have become such a monetary boon that nobody wants to risk sending the, significantly more costly and less effective, astronauts.  Seriously, money is the biggest motivation here. 


Finally, to the point of human life I'd suggest you reevaluate.  This is going to be callous, but how many people died in early planes?  What about early automobile accidents?  How about voyages across the ocean to find "the new world."  Heck, what about those who died when the Europeans brought their diseases to the new world?  I'm sorry, but you're going to need to do better here.  As callus as it sounds, we are a relatively fast breeding and numerous species.  Losing even a few hundred represents a statistical anomaly.  More humans are killed in their bathrooms every year than the space program has lost in its entire existence.  Sorry, but until I see you claiming that we need bathroom guards your point is irrelevant.


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## dorsetknob (Nov 9, 2015)

No Need to review my post
Easy Rhino said


Easy Rhino said:


> Also, USA is super rich



Grammar tense    =  Present = USA is super rich
Grammar tense    =  Past  =  USA  was super rich
Grammar tense    =  Future  =  USA  will be broke

My post related to the present as referred to by Easy Rhino and as such needs no review



lilhasselhoffer said:


> 2) Said national debt of 2015 bears no weight on our debt in the 1970's.


For all your maths (Meaningless)  the debt of the 70's has rolled and Accumulated into the Debt of 2015

That's the way it works   Debt from one year is carried over into the next year and the next + accumulated interest on that DEBT  pay the total debt off and sure then it does not get carried over to the next year


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 9, 2015)

Easy Rhino said:


> But going to the moon has actually been a very important learning experience now that many are pushing to put people on Mars.



We should learn that putting men on other planets is too expensive.


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## dorsetknob (Nov 9, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> We should learn that putting men on other planets is too expensive.



Yes Expensive 
BUT there is Some Need for Grunts on the Ground
Situations will arise where  said grunts will need to make decisions no machine can make in the time window available for such decisions to be made

Need i point out it was the 3 grunts that made instant decisions on Apollo 12  that...................well we know the rest


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## lilhasselhoffer (Nov 9, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> No Need to review my post
> Easy Rhino said
> 
> 
> ...




There's a reason that I asked for logical consistency, rather than pedantic conjugation (though you are right on that point).  Here's the logic.



CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> The race to put man on the moon was pretty much fruitless, grossly expensive (and one sided) as was proved by the US missions there, golf, really?
> 
> The race to build habitable space stations and do valuable science? well, read the thread and thank the USSR.
> 
> ...



This is what was being responded to.  In that context, the US is rich.  It was one of the world's two super powers (at the time).  It did things that were immeasurably costly, instead of simply (the US spent money developing a zero G pen, while the Russians simply used a pencil).  We were competing to see who had the largest e-peen, before there was a thing such as the internet.  In the context of the original space race, this is what was happening.

You've taken what was perhaps very poorly worded, and you've made it a statement about today.  A today in which the USSR doesn't exist (but had to exist for the conversation), and the next manned moon mission is likely to be from China.


I don't argue that the US is likely past our glory days.  Hell, our country managed to dig a gigantic debt hole without even providing our citizens with healthcare like the EU.  Let's be really honest though, this is about space.  Our country could theoretically stop all war efforts, shrink the army by 98%, reduce foreign aide, and subsequently erase national debt in the next two decades, but that wouldn't revitalize the space program.  It definitely wouldn't suddenly increase the amount of manned missions to the moon.  That's why I cited 3 different things for comparison.  National debt, the propensity for manned space flights, and the US's massive ego are three separate issues.  You've conflated the three, without really understanding them.

I don't honestly blame you here.  It's easier to cite debt as a motivation for a lack of funding to NASA.  The reality is that it isn't debt which limits us.  We proved that even with debt, we would rise to a challenge.  At the same time, the rest of the world "needing" military intervention so the US can feel safe (read: something I thoroughly don't subscribe to) has drained our need to compete with anyone else, especially when its something we've already done.  I cite logical consistency because you've conflated debt with a lack of space missions, whereas it's ego which would trump any debts to revitalize our space program.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 9, 2015)

@lilhasselhoffer you have a very confusing way of confusing a simple matter, confated or otherwise.



Space Race News

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/11/super-strypi-spark-inaugural-launch/

Super Strypi conducts inaugural launch – Fails during first stage




Developed by a partnership of Sandia National Laboratories, Aerojet Rocketdyne and the University of Hawaii, the Super Strypi – which is also known as the Spaceborne Payloads Assist Rocket Kauai, or SPARK – forms part of the Low Earth Orbiting Nanosatellite Integrated Defense Autonomous System (LEONIDAS) program to develop a low-cost system to place small payloads into orbit for the US Department of Defense at relatively short notice.


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 9, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> We should learn that putting men on other planets is too expensive.



I do not disagree! 

Also to dorsetknob, the USA is super rich. Super in debt but still super rich


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## lilhasselhoffer (Nov 9, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> No Need to review my post
> Easy Rhino said
> 
> 
> ...



1) I will apologize for misunderstanding.  Apparently Easy Rhino wasn't referring to the historical context.  I made an error, by assuming when I tried to understand their position. 


2) I don't think you respect math because you don't seem to be able to do it.  This point extends to reading graphs.  I'm being blunt here, because you seem to have a kindergarten grasp of economics and math in general.  Especially the fact that debt rolls over as a matter of course.  As you seem to hate numbers so, allow me to twist the knife.  The US budget last year was $3.18 Trillion.  That would pay for a hell of a lot of missions if we were so inclined.

National debt indicates how much more we spend, versus that which we take in.  It can be nullified or added to with each budget.  Yes, the US is in debt but not a paralyzing one such as you seem to propose.  Most certainly not one that would view a couple of trips to the moon as any real expense.  

As to your inability to read a graph, I'll make this simple.  We had a national debt when the first astronauts landed on the moon.  It didn't stop us then.  This is immensely hard to miss, assuming you took even a cursory glance at the graph.  If not, then let me be even more plain, running a national debt has never stopped the US from buying a single bomb or gun.  If the race to get back to the moon mattered we'd find the monetary means to do it.  As I said earlier, we could make that national debt disappear is we gave everyone else in the world the finger.  Even if we did, and it took 20 years, the simple truth is that in year 21 we wouldn't have a huge push to do anything.  There definitely wouldn't be a push for manned exploration.  To conjecture that debt is a direct influence on this shows such a fundamental misunderstanding of politics and economics as to warrant question to the validity of any of your assertions.



Every time I justify something with numbers you issue the same challenge.  You issue a distaste for thought.  I'm getting tired of the joke, because ignorance is the only thing you seem to pedal.  "The US national debt is high, therefore the US must not have a lot of economic power" is you attempting to use a number incorrectly to justify an idea.  I'm going to issue the same challenge you continue to issue me.  If you cannot think clearly, then stop talking.  You comment on US economics, without a grasp of them.  You comment that math is not something you need to prove a point, then when you attempt to use it fail because you don't understand what the numbers mean.  Help me understand, what is it that you've brought to the conversation?  It isn't a fact based opinion.  It isn't an understanding of US economic.  It isn't even anything more than a trollish comment that the US is poor.  Help me here, what's the end game.  Other than a banner for ignorance I'm not seeing the point.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 23, 2015)

Nasa give SpaceX its first contract to send astronauts to the International Space Station.








Elon Musk's rocket manufacturing company was given the green light to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming years.
The announcement was a formal step in a process that began earlier this year when Boeing was given the nod by NASA to send crew to the orbiting outpost by late 2017.







The announcement of $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion for SpaceX was made in September 2014.
Boeing announced in January that it would be the first, sending a piloted mission aboard its CST-100 Starliner capsule by late 2017.
However, NASA said that 'determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time.'
SpaceX is already flying cargo missions to the ISS, and is working on a crew version of its Dragon capsule to carry astronauts.
The announcement marked the 'second in a series of four guaranteed orders NASA will make under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts,' the US space agency said.
'The Boeing Company of Houston received its first crew mission order in May.' 

The ISS is expected to remain operational until 2024.

Since the shuttle program ended in 2011, the world's astronauts have relied on Russia's Soyuz capsules for transport at a pice of some $70 million per seat.
'The authority to proceed with Dragon's first operational crew mission is a significant milestone in the Commercial Crew Program and a great source of pride for the entire SpaceX team,' said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating office of SpaceX.
'When Crew Dragon takes NASA astronauts to the space station in 2017, they will be riding in one of the safest, most reliable spacecraft ever flown. We're honored to be developing this capability for NASA and our country.'

Crew Dragon will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from NASA’s historic Launch Pad 39A where American astronauts shot to space and the Moon atop America’s Saturn V Moon rockets and the Space Shuttle orbiters.

At a later date NASA will decide which company will fly the first commercial crew rotation mission to the ISS.

Both the CST-100 and Crew Dragon will typically carry a crew of four or five NASA or NASA-sponsored crew members, along with some 220 pounds of pressurized cargo. Each will also be capable of carrying up to seven crew members depending on how the capsule is configured.







SpaceX Crew Dragon will blast off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for missions to the International Space Station. Pad 39A is undergoing modifications by SpaceX to adapt it to the needs of the company’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, which are slated to lift off from the historic pad in the near future. A horizontal integration facility (right) has been constructed near the perimeter of the pad where rockets will be processed for launch prior of rolling out to the top of the pad structure for liftoff. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com


Restoring America’s ability to once again launch US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from US soil on US rockets took another significant step forward when NASA ordered the first the agency’s firstcommercial crew rotation mission from the Hawthorne, California based-company SpaceX. NASA and SpaceX hope that the blastoff with a crew of up to four astronauts will take place by late 2017.
The new Nov. 20 award from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) office to launch the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule follows up on an earlier commercial crew rotation mission award this past May to the Boeing Company of Houston to launch its CST-100 Starliner astronaut crew capsule to the ISS.





First view of the Boeing CST-100 ‘Starliner’ crewed space taxi at the Sept. 4, 2015 Grand Opening ceremony held in the totally refurbished C3PF manufacturing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. These are the upper and lower segments of the first Starliner crew module known as the Structural Test Article (STA) being built at Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) at KSC. Credit: Ken Kremer /kenkremer.com


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 25, 2015)

The Amazon.com entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has claimed success on the second flight of his New Shepard spaceship.







VIDEO
https://www.blueorigin.com/#youtube9pillaOxGCo

Both parts of New Shepard - the capsule and its propulsion unit - landed safely, Mr Bezos' company said.

On the maiden outing in April, the propulsion module was lost on the way down because of a hydraulic failure.

True to his way of working, the US billionaire gave no specific notice of the flight, stating last week only that another mission would occur "very soon".

This means all the video and information about the event have come out directly from Mr Bezos' space operation, Blue Origin.






New Shepard has the capability to transport six individuals to just above 100km in altitude. It reached this mark during Monday's test, ascending to 329,839ft (100.5km).

Its propulsion unit is designed to take off and land vertically so that it can be used time and time again.

Following the test flight, that unit touched down just 4.5ft (1.4m) off the centre of the target pad.






The pressurised passenger capsule separates from this booster at high altitude, its momentum carrying it into space, before it too comes back to make a soft touchdown via a set of parachutes.






The astronaut vessel would also be put back into service.

The idea of a fully re-usable space vehicle has been a hard one to realise.

A number of concepts have been tried, with varying degrees of success. But nobody has yet taken a design to full commercial exploitation - something Mr Bezos aims to change.





New Shepard's astronaut module, unmanned at this stage, landed safely via parachutes





The propulsion unit also landed safely, lowering itself vertically






New Shepard is likely to fly in the first instance as a platform for science, allowing researchers to run experiments during the few minutes of weightlessness experienced in the capsule at the top of its arc. This commercial offering could start as early as next year.

These unmanned missions would help prove the vehicle's readiness to carry fare-paying passengers.

The business model being proposed is similar to that of Virgin Galactic and Xcor - two other American companies that are also developing sub-orbital vehicles.

Their offering differs in that they will be flying rocket planes that take off and land from a conventional runway.

Despite his somewhat secretive approach, Mr Bezos has announced a number of major space initiatives of late.

His company Blue Origin will provide the engines for the next generation of the rocket that today launches Nasa's interplanetary probes and many of America's national security missions.






Blue Origin has also taken control of one of the historic launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Mr Bezos wants this to be the home of a big re-usable rocket that could deliver people and satellites into orbit.

Last week, the self-confessed space geek put on display a refurbished Saturn V rocket engine.

The power unit, which helped hurl the Apollo 12 mission off Earth in 1969, had been recovered by the entrepreneur from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin_New_Shepard


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 26, 2015)

Unashamedly replaying this video because it is so brilliant,


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 5, 2015)

Boeing 747 'Cosmic Girl' will be the mothership for LauncherOne







Future missions of Virgin Galactic's LauncherOne satellite carrier will see it 'piggybacking' on a 747 jumbo jet.

The Boeing plane, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, will be used to carry the firm's craft to high altitude before the craft blasts into space.

The 747-400 will be modified so the LauncherOne can be mounted underneath its wing, meaning the launcher has an increased maximum payload capacity of up to 881lbs (400kg). The rocket will be mounted to the carrier aircraft under the left wing, near to where a fifth engine on the jet can be carried. Rather than launching from a traditional spaceport, by 'piggybacking' on the Boeing jet, LauncherOne could be deployed from commercial airports. It will be released at an altitude of approximately 35,000ft (10,668 metres). 

Once released from the jet, the LauncherOne rocket will fire up its single main stage engine, a 73,500 lbf, LOX/RP-1 rocket engine called the 'NewtonThree.'  Typically, this engine will fire for approximately three minutes. 

After stage separation, the single upper stage engine, a 5,000lbf LOX/RP-1 rocket engine called the 'NewtonFour' will carry the satellite into orbit.

This second stage will burn multiple times for almost six minutes.

Both the NewtonThree and the NewtonFour have been designed, tested and built by Virgin Galactic.

At the end of this sequence, LauncherOne will deploy the on-board satellite into its orbit. 

Both stages of LauncherOne will be safely deorbited, and the carrier aircraft will return to a predetermined airport, where it can be prepared for its next flight. 


Initial inspections and tests of Cosmic Girl have already been completed and, prior to the start of the wing modification, a regularly scheduled maintenance check will be conducted by VT San Antonio Aerospace.

According to the company's engineers, the 747-400 is an 'ideal' launchpad because of its rocket carrying capacity. 

It also has long range and all-weather capability, and most importantly, can take off from most commercial airports.

LauncherOne is described by the company as 'an affordable dedicated ride to orbit for small satellites'. 






It is aimed at commercial and government customers and cost under $10 million (£6.6 million). 

Virgin Galactic boss George Whitesides added: 'Air launch enables us to provide rapid, responsive service to our satellite customers on a schedule set by their business and operational needs, rather than the constraints of national launch ranges.

'Selecting the 747 airframe provides a dedicated platform that gives us the capacity to substantially increase our payload to orbit without increasing our prices.'

Virgin Galactic founder said .


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 7, 2015)

*After Weather Cooperates, Atlas Rocket Launches Cygnus Cargo Craft to ISS*

it took four tries for the weather to cooperate, but on Sunday afternoon, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft loaded with 3.3 metric tons of critical crew supplies launched toward the International Space Station. Riding to orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for the very first time, Cygnus lifted off right at the start of a 30-minute window at 4:44 p.m. EST (21:44 UTC). This is the first Cygnus to reach orbit following the destruction of an Antares rocket in October 2014. 

*



*

"The countdown was exceptionally smooth, said Vern Thorp, the NASA mission manager for United Launch Alliance. "It was one of those countdowns that makes it look kind of boring."

Three consecutive launch attempts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday were called off due to high winds, clouds and precipitation at Cape Canaveral, Florida. A bleak forecast yesterday prompted controllers to scrub several hours ahead of launch time in order to give ground crews extra rest.

Today, Air Force forecasters predicted a 70 percent chance of favorable weather, and winds at launch time were within acceptable limits. 

"We're done talking about the winds for the week, Thorp said. "We've been talking about winds all week, and that's enough."

Following liftoff, the Atlas quickly disappeared into cloud cover. But NASA TV viewers were treated to stunning live views courtesy of cameras aboard the rocket. A shot from the Centaur upper stage showed the sun slowly dipping toward Earth's horizon as the vehicle crossed the Atlantic Ocean into nightfall.




*Centaur-Cygnus sunset*
The sun dips lower on the horizon as a United Launch Alliance Atlas V Centaur upper stage pushes an ISS-bound Cygnus supply spacecraft across the Atlantic Ocean.






At the time of liftoff, the International Space Station was near Bermuda. The crew, including current station commander Scott Kelly, viewed the launch from the station's window-filled Cupola:




 A couple of Raspberry Pis are on the way to the International Space Station at last, after a resupply launch delayed three times due to bad weather finally hauled itself into orbit.




Raspberry's Astro Pi space case
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/astro-pi-flight-case/

The original launches suffered rain last Thursday and high winds on Friday and Saturday, but things finally went smoothly Sunday evening for the Cygnus launcher.

The Raspberry Pis are joining Brit astronaut Tim Peake, with students last year offered a competition to have some of their code run in space under the Astro Pi competition.

As Raspberry explained back in May, the space-bound Pis needed some fairly dramatic case-mods for the space environment.

“There is a rule that any surface, that the crew can touch, must not reach or exceed 45 degrees Celsius. Our Jonathan Bell and SSTL’s Nimal Navarathinam did extensive thermal simulations to work out the requirements”, the company says.

Without gravity, convection isn't as efficient on the ISS as on Earth (it relies solely on fan-driven air-flow). Having an all-over heatsink helps avoid any part of the case exceed that 45°C upper limit






The successful launch also broke an altitude record for the devices, as the company later Tweeted


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 8, 2015)

China's dream of leading the way in space technologies took a giant leap forward as its revolutionary 'near-space' airship successfully took to the skies for the first time over Inner Mongolia.

The blimp, called 'Yuanmeng', is billed by the Chinese media as the world's first airship to be built equipped with sustainable energy panels and whose flight can be controlled remotely, according to a report by People's Daily Online.

The ship, which will be able to carry out data relay, communication, high-def observation and spatial imaging functions, flew for 22 hours at a peak of 65,000ft during its first test flight in mid-October before returning to earth.






The project to design and launch the 60,000 cubic feet behemoth - the same volume as ten professional swimming pools - was jointly developed by Nanjiang Space and Beijing University of Astronautics and Aeronautics (BeiHang).

The bright silver craft, which was lifted into the skies using helium, runs on the solar energy it generates through its panels during orbit and can carry up to around 660 lbs of weight on board. 

'Near-space' is a region of the Earth's atmosphere between 65,000 ft and 328,000 ft, and is too high for traditional aircraft to penetrate safely.

'The biggest challenge for the near-space airship is the big temperature difference in the day and night,' said Yu Quan, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering - an issue that the new craft is trying to solve.






Liu Dongxu, associate manager of Nanjiang Space, said: 'Near space offers a bridge between aviation and space exploration.'

'We had little previous experience to draw upon in terms of the environment we are dealing with. It has very specific requirements for the material and the overall performance of the aircraft.'

Finding precisely the right material to allow the craft to reach near-space has been a challenge for scientists over recent years, but it appears that the problem is nearing a solution.

Interestingly, given China's recent history of purely designing space technologies for military uses, it has been announced that the new craft will be used for civilian purposes as well.

China has made no secret of its desire to innovate in the field of space exploration, crystallised in the promise made by President Xi Jinping to pursue to 'space dream of the Chinese nation' in 2013.

Expert scientists have previously estimated that China spends over $1 billion dollars (roughly $6 billion yuan) on its space programme every year. 


The first portion of China's long awaited space station, Tiangong 2, could be launched as early as next year, as well plans for three more blimp test flights to be sent into near space during 2016.

The purported success of the appropriately-named 'Yuanmeng' - which translates as 'to fulfill a dream' in English - may come as a surprise to NASA, which launched a contest to design and build a similar craft at the end of 2014. 

Entries for the agency's '20-20-20 Airship contest' were meant to be submitted by January this year, but no results or updates from the contest's organisers have so far been announced.
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AAS...22441805K


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 11, 2015)

For the first time an ISS crew has landed after dark and only the sixth in the history of the Soyuz






Their return to Earth comes just days before Britain's first official astronaut Tim Peake 
will blast off for the ISS from Kazakhstan with American Tim Kopra and Russian Yuri Malenchenko. 15/12.15





Recovery crews quickly removed the astronauts from the capsule before they were carried to waiting all terrain vehicles (pictured)







The 141 day mission to the International Space Station was Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui's first mission into space, yet he looked happy to be back safely on Earth




I saved the best pic till last





Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA captured this image from aboard the International Space Station, of the Dec. 11, 2015 undocking and departure of the Soyuz TMA-17M carrying home Expedition 45 crew members Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) after their 141-day mission on the orbital laboratory. They landed safely in Kazakhstan at approximately 8:12 a.m. EST (7:12 p.m. Kazakhstan time).

Expedition 46 continues operating the station, with Kelly in command. Along with Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, the three-person crew will operate the station for four days until the arrival of three new crew members. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) are scheduled to launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Dec. 15.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 15, 2015)

All the best Tim


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 17, 2015)

Launch embiggens Galileo satnav fleet






http://livestream.com/ESA/galileo11-12/videos/107207642

Europe is now two satellites closer to firing up its Galileo satnav system following the launch today of Galileos 11 and 12.

The pair blasted off from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, atop a Soyuz rocket at 11:51 GMT. While the Russian lifter hoisted the satellites into low orbit, the final task of getting them to their final Medium Earth Orbit at an altitude of roughly 23,500km is a job for the restartable, autonomous Fregat upper stage.





The satellites and Fregat (right) separate from the Soyuz upper stage (left). Artist's impression by ESA/J.Huart

The Galileo project kicked off in earnest back in October 2011, with the launch of two operational satellites as part of the In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase of the programme. Two further IOV satellites were sent heavenwards in October 2012, before the "Full Operational Capability" (FOC) launches commenced.

With today's lift-off, the Galileo FOC fleet aloft now comprises eight satellites. Galileos 5 and 6 launched in August 2014. Galileos 7 and 8 departed planet Earth back in March 2015, followed by Galileos 9 and 10 in September.

The full-fat system, comprising 24 operational satellites and six orbiting spares, is due to be up and running by 2020, offering one-metre accuracy. The European Space Agency says: "The Galileo navigation signals will provide good coverage even at latitudes up to 75 degrees north, which corresponds to Norway's North Cape - the most northerly tip of Europe - and beyond.

"The large number of satellites together with the carefully optimised constellation design, plus the availability of the three active spare satellites per orbital plane, will ensure that the loss of one satellite should have no discernible effect on the user.


*BIG BUT*

The US military has announced that if ... 
Galileo doesn't comply / match the US GPS system crippling regimes, such as over a war zone - which might be the whole world - they will destroy Galileo satellites.

Meanwhile we have the Russian GLONASS system - currently GLONASS-K - GLONASS compatible GPS receivers can acquire satellites up to 20% faster than devices that rely on US-GPS alone. It is less accurate than the US-GPS system but now covers the world. GLONASS has better performance in dense urban areas.

Many smartphones sold in the Far East are Glonass ready. GARMIN has dual system receivers (see their web site) but activating GLONASS may require changing the Satellite System setting to GPS+GLONASS from the Setup System menu.

The standard-precision GLONASS signal offers horizontal positioning accuracy within 5–10 metres, vertical positioning within 15 metres (49 ft), a velocity vector measuring within 10 centimetres per second (3.9 in/s), and timing within 200 ns, all based on measurements from four first-generation satellites simultaneously - the minimum required by receivers.
The Chinese Beidou system - whose name translates as "Big Dipper" - the system is able to pinpoint locations to within 33 feet (10 m). The US' GPS system currently relies on 24 satellites, China aims to have 35 in the constellation by 2020.

Thankyiu @dorsetknob for feeding my head with this.


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## Finners (Dec 22, 2015)

Anyone watching the spacex launch and attempted landing right now?


----------



## dorsetknob (Dec 22, 2015)

yes at space.com 
nice clean first stage landing  (successful )


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## Finners (Dec 22, 2015)

Impressive indeed! 

What happens to the second stage now? Is that recovered?


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## dorsetknob (Dec 22, 2015)

Second stage is de orbited and returned to earth It burns up in atmosphere


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 7, 2016)

The first step on the journey to Mars......a preview video from CES








SLS will stand 322ft (98 metres) tall, provide 8.4 million pounds of thrust at lift-off, weigh 5.5 million pounds.

It will also carry 70 metric tons or 154,000 pounds of payload.
To get off the ground, Block 1 requires twin solid rocket boosters, powerful engines, flight computers, avionics and the core stage.

The core stage, towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet, will carry cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicle's four RS-25 engines.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 10, 2016)

*January 17th*

Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX will attempt to land its next Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Pacific Ocean, seeking another milestone a month after landing a booster on the ground in a spaceflight first..

The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a NASA ocean-monitoring satellite, is set to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Jan. 17.

About two minutes after liftoff, the first stage of the rocket will separate, flip around, fire engines to slow its fall, deploy landing legs and attempt to touch down on a floating landing pad in the Pacific Ocean.


EPIC FOOTAGE of the first success


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 12, 2016)

The space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has finally found the crater created by the impact of the Apollo 16 mission's S-IVB rocket stage back in April 1972, NASA officials announced last month.

The impact crater, which is about 130 feet (40 meters) wide, lies on the moon's Mare Insularum, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) southwest of Copernicus Crater, one of the most famous and prominent features on the lunar near side, said team members with LRO's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC).






The spot is just south of Mare Imbrium, the large circular dark area first visible when the moon waxes to about half-full. (A mare is a dark basaltic plain on the moon caused by long-ago volcanic eruptions.)

The S-IVB was the third stage of NASA's huge Saturn V rocket, which blasted the Apollo astronauts to the moon. Beginning with the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, S-IVBs were sent to impact the lunar surface. Earlier Apollo missions had placed seismometers on the moon, allowing scientists to study the object's interior structure when the leftover rocket stages hit.

The S-IVBs' impact sites were estimated from old tracking data. LRO, which has been circling the moon since 2009, had previously found the spots where the booster stages used with the Apollo 13, 14, 15 and 17 missions had landed.

But nobody was quite sure where Apollo 16's S-IVB fell, because contact with the stage was lost for a short time when it was on its way down. As it happened, the actual impact site was off by about 19 miles (30 km) from the place where tracking systems of the day predicted it would be, LROC team members said.





Two images showing the impact site of the Apollo 16 mission's S-IVB rocket stage, which hit the lunar surface in April 1972. Each image shows a swathe of the moon 1,300 feet (400 meters) wide; north is up.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University


Craters caused by S-IVB crashes are much shallower than the holes gouged out by asteroids and comets.

"The craters from the booster impacts are unusual because they are formed by very low-density projectiles traveling at relatively low velocity (2.6 km per second; 5,800 mph)," LROC team members wrote in a description of the Apollo 16 S-IVB discovery images.

"The S-IVB booster can be imagined as an empty soda can hitting the surface — just an outer metal shell with very little interior mass (all of the fuel was used to send the astronauts toward the moon and the tanks were empty)," they added. "During the impact, much of the energy went into crushing the booster, and only a shallow crater was formed."


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 13, 2016)

*Space Missions to Watch in 2016*

*Jan. 17: Launch of Jason-3 Earth-observing satellite*
On Sunday (Jan. 17), the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Jason-3 satellite is scheduled to launch to Earth orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.







*Feb. 7: SpaceX's return-to-flight cargo mission*
SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly at least 12 robotic resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) using the Falcon 9 and the company's uncrewed Dragon capsule. The first six such flights went perfectly, but the seventh ended just minutes after liftoff on June 28, 2015, when the Falcon 9 broke apart in the Florida skies.





*March 14: Launch One for Europe's ExoMars mission*
The European Space Agency (ESA) is scheduled to launch the first part of its ExoMars mission on March 14, blasting the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on a seventh-month journey toward the Red Planet along with a technology-demonstrating lander






*March 18: Astronauts launch toward International Space Station*
NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams and cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka are slated to launch toward the ISS on March 18. The trio will blast off in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

*April: Maiden launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket*
At some point in April, SpaceX plans to launch its huge Falcon Heavy rocketfor the first time, with the liftoff taking place from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 224-foot-tall (68 meters) Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful booster in the world when it's operational, capable of lofting 53 metric tons to low Earth orbit, SpaceX representatives say.






*Summer: End of NASA's Dawn mission?*
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been orbiting Ceres since March 2015, studying the heavily cratered dwarf planet's mysterious bright spots and other intriguing features. Last month, Dawn finished spiraling down to its final science orbit, and is now taking pictures and making measurements from an altitude of just 230 miles (375 km).





*July 4: Juno arrives at Jupiter*
NASA's Juno spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Jupiter on July 4, nearly five years after the probe blasted off.
The solar-powered Juno will map out Jupiter's magnetic and gravitational fields precisely, revealing key details about the giant planet's evolution and structure — including whether or not it has a solid core, NASA officials have said.





*Sept. 3: NASA asteroid-sampling probe blasts off*
Another NASA spaceflight milestone comes on Sept. 3, with the scheduled launch of the agency's Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer mission, or OSIRIS-REx for short.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will head toward a 1,650-foot-wide (500 m) asteroid named Bennu, and, if everything goes according to plan, will arrive at the potentially hazardous space rock in 2018. OSIRIS-REx will snag at least 2.1 ounces (60 grams) of Bennu material and bring the sample back to Earth in 2023.





*Sept. 30: Historic Rosetta comet mission ends*
The first mission ever to orbit and land on a comet will wrap up on Sept. 30, when ESA's Rosetta spacecraft spirals down onto the surface of the 2.5 mile-wide (4 km) Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko





*Late 2016: Europe's satellite-navigation system up and running*
Europe's own version of the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS) should be operational by the end of the year, ESA officials say.

Four more spacecraft for Europe's Galileo satellite-navigation network are slated to launch this year, allowing the system to start providing initial services sometime in 2016. Galileo, which is civilian-run (in contrast to the military-run GPS network) will eventually consist of 30 Earth-orbiting satellites — 24 operational spacecraft, plus six spares. Twelve Galileo satellites have been launched to date.












*All year: Testing of future crewed spaceships*
This year, engineers and technicians will continue to develop and test a variety of spacecraft designed to help humanity explore the final frontier.

Suborbital vehicles such as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, XCOR Aerospace's Lynx rocket plane and Blue Origin's New Shepard system will be put through their paces, as will orbital craft such as Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane, SpaceX's Dragon V2 capsule and Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule.

Indeed, SpaceX and Boeing are working to get Dragon V2 (which is an advanced version of the company's robotic Dragon cargo capsule) and Starliner ready to carry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station beginning in 2017; Dragon V2 may make its maiden flight, an uncrewed test, before 2016 is done. (In September 2014, the space agency awarded SpaceX and Boeing $2.6 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, to get the two capsules ready to fly.)

And NASA will continue developing its Orion crew capsule, which will help get agency astronauts to deep-space destinations such as asteroids and, eventually, Mars. (SpaceX has also said Dragon could journey to Mars, as well as a variety of other destinations throughout the solar system.)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 14, 2016)

The U.S. Air Force said Jan. 13 it has chosen to invest up to $241 million in rocket propulsion systems Orbital ATK and SpaceX pitched as a way to end Air Force dependence the Russian-built rocket engine it uses to launch most U.S. national security payloads. 





A Blue Origin's BE-3 engine undergoes testing at the company's West Texas facility in 2013. Credit: Blue Origin 

Orbital ATK won the biggest share of the money awarded Jan. 13. The Dulles, Virginia-based company stands to receive at least $46.9 million, and perhaps as much as $180 million, to develop three rocket propulsion system prototypes intended for use on an Orbital ATK next-generation launch vehicle.
Specifically, Orbital ATK 
https://www.orbitalatk.com/
will combine the Air Force money with at least $31 million, and as much as $124 million, of its own to develop the GEM 63XL strap-on solid rocket motor, the Common Booster Segment solid rocket motor, and an extendable nozzle for Blue Origin’s BE-3U upper stage engine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphite-Epoxy_Motor








SpaceX, meanwhile, will get at least $33.6 million, and perhaps as much as $61 million, to continue development of its methane-fueled Raptor engine. SpaceX is expected to match the Air Force’s investment in Raptor with at least $67 million, and as much as $123 million, according to the Air Force contract announcement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_rocket_engine_family




Raptor



The Air Force is under pressure to end its dependence on the RD-180, the Russian-built engine that powers the main stage of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 15, 2016)

A 'space shurttle' design has been selected by Nasa as the third private craft to carry out cargo missions to the International Space Station. 
On Thursday, Nasa announced Sierra Nevada Corp. will join SpaceX and Orbital ATK in launching cargo to the International Space Station.
These flights, yet to be finalized, will run through 2024, and marks a second chance for the Nevada-based company, which is developing a mini shuttle called Dream Chaser.














How the Dream chaser Will work: Each craft can be reused 15 times.









First (almost) successful freefall landing.












UK astronaut Tim Peake will take a walk in space today. Scheduled for 12.55 GMT and due to last more than six hours, the spacewalk calls for Peake and his Nasa partner Tim Kopra to traverse nearly the entire length of the space station to replace a broken power unit, fit a new valve, and lay tens of metres of cable.







LIVE COVERAGE
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 17, 2016)

*First flower grown in space*


Revealed today by U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly, who is currently completing the first full year in space, the flower is an edible zinnia - which can be used in salads.









The flowers were grown inside the Veggie lab aboard ISS which was installed in early May 2014.
While the ISS crew had previously raised two crops of romaine lettuce and arugula, the zinnias were the first flowering plants grown in space.
Explaining the significance of successfully growing a plant, Veggie project manager Trent Smith said: 'The zinnia plant is very different from lettuce. 






'It is more sensitive to environmental parameters and light characteristics. It has a longer growth duration between 60 and 80 days. 
'Thus, it is a more difficult plant to grow, and allowing it to flower, along with the longer growth duration, makes it a good precursor to a tomato plant.'







Other plants, such as squash (pictured) have also been grown aboard the ISS, though no other plants have flowered while in space







The Veggie garden was installed on the ISS in May 2014, and will soon be used to grow further crops of lettuce before tomatoes are planted in 2018.


Following the success of the zinnia flowers, another crop of romaine lettuce will be grown alongside Chinese cabbage, followed by dwarf tomatoes in 2018.
Growing the tomato plants will be a crucial stage for NASA and its aims of traveling to Mars, as such long missions will likely require astronauts to produce food without contact with Earth.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 18, 2016)

Share on Facebook (5,311) Tweet  Share (30) Pin 
SpaceX's latest attempt to land its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on a ship in the ocean failed again tonight, but it was a close call — an issue with one of the rocket's leg-locking mechanisms caused it to tip over after landing, bringing the test to a fiery end. Elon Musk just posted a dramatic video to Instagram that shows the incident up close in footage recorded from the platform; it's worth watching as a demonstration of just how precise the landing needs to be.
"Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn't latch on one [of] the four legs, causing it to tip over post-landing," Musk says. "[The] root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff."
Although this was another failure, SpaceX does appear to be making progress toward its goals. The company launched and landed the Falcon 9 on solid ground last month, in a historic landing that hints at a less expensive future for commercial space flight.
SpaceX successfully launched a new satellite into orbit to map Earth's oceans today (Jan. 17), but the spaceflight company's bold plan to land a rocket on a robotic ship at sea after the liftoff came up just short, narrowly missing a successful touchdown.

VIDEO
http://www.space.com/31649-spacex-r...ch.html#ooid=JtNjU5MDE6pwim5VIutRoLSQOqRNDoke




The first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket managed to reach its landing target, an "autonomous spaceport droneship" called "Just Read the Instructions," but toppled over on the deck, company representatives said. The touchdown attempt came during the successful launch of the Jason-3 ocean-monitoring satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California — the primary objective of today's activities.
"Unfortunately, we are not standing upright on the droneship at the moment, but the good news is that the primary mission is still on track," SpaceX lead mechanical design engineer John Federspiel said during the company's launch webcast today. [See photos of SpaceX's  Jason-3 Satellite Launch on a Falcon 9] 
"First stage on target at droneship but looks like hard landing; broke landing leg. Primary mission remains nominal," SpaceX representatives said via the company's Twitter account, @SpaceX. "After further data review, stage landed softly but leg 3 didn't lockout. Was within 1.3 meters of droneship center," they added in a later tweet.





The first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is seen here lying on its side on the drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" after a near-miss landing attempt on Jan. 17, 2016.
Credit: Elon Musk Twitter
View full size image


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 20, 2016)

India launches.


An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was successfully launched on Wednesday, Jan. 20, carrying the fifth spacecraft for the country’s indigenous Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). Liftoff took place as planned at 9:31 a.m. IST, 04:01 GMT, 11:01 p.m. EST (Jan. 19) from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), located in Sriharikota, India







*This is the fifth one of the constellation of seven satellites of IRNSS*
PSLV-C31 successfully put into orbit IRNSS-1E, the fifth satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) after its succesful launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), SHAR, Sriharikota, on Wednesday morning.
PSLV-C31 for the eleventh time used ‘XL’ version of PSLV.
IRNSS-1E, with a liftoff mass of 1425 kg, carried navigation payload and ranging payload, according to an ISRO release.
Some 19 minutes after it lifted off from Second Launch Pad of the SDSC at 9.31 am,, PSLV-C31 placed the satellite in precise orbit.
"PSLV C-31 rocket has successfully launched IRNSS-IE satellite in orbit," ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said.



























The IRNSS-1E spacecraft being integrated with the PSLV-C31 launch vehicle. Image Credit: ISRO


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 23, 2016)

Who wants to see something ACE ?






BLUE ORIGIN does it again











"The very same New Shepard booster that flew above the Karman line and then landed vertically at its launch site last November has now flown and landed again, demonstrating reuse," the businessman said.
"This time, New Shepard reached an apogee of 333,582ft (101.7km) before both capsule and booster gently returned to Earth for recovery and reuse."
One hundred kilometres is regarded as the official boundary of space. New Shepard does not achieve the velocities that would allow the system to make orbit and stay up, but Mr Bezos says his Blue Origin space company is working on a family of rockets that would make this possible.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 25, 2016)

NASA’s Juno spacecraft bound for a rendezvous with Jupiter in July has set a record as the most distant solar-powered space probe ever flown.





*Technicians work on one of the Juno spacecraft’s three solar panels before launch. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC*


Juno broke the record previously held by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft Jan. 13 as it flew about 493 million miles (793 million kilometers) from the sun, NASA said in a press release announcing the milestone.

When it enters orbit around Jupiter on July 4, the Juno spacecraft will become the first solar-powered mission to reach the gas giant, beginning 20 months of commissioning and science observations aimed at studying the structure of the planet’s interior and atmosphere.

Juno carries three large solar panels, each one 9 feet wide and 29 feet long, to generate electricity.
Shortly after the mission’s launch in 2011, the solar power system could convert sunlight into 14 kilowatts of energy. When Juno reaches Jupiter, which orbits five times farther from the sun than Earth, the spacecraft must operate on 500 watts.

Half of Juno’s electricity budget goes to its thermal system to keep the spacecraft at a comfortable temperature. The balance goes toward communications, computers, propulsion and operating the probe’s seven scientific instruments and color camera.

All eight probes that previously explored the realm of the solar system now occupied by Juno relied on nuclear power sources, but the U.S. government’s stockpile of space-grade plutonium was diminishing when engineers designed Juno, prompting a decision to build three huge solar panels for the spacecraft.
Juno’s solar panels are arranged in a triangular shape in space. All together, the panels have an area of about 635 square feet, ISS has a total of about 27,000 sq feet.

Juno’s solar panels consist of 18,698 individual cells, each measuring approximately 3.7 inches by 2.25 inches. The rectangular cells are made of silicon and gallium arsenide.





Artists impression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft)


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 29, 2016)

Yesterday marked the 30 th anniversary Of the Challenger disaster.

In Memory....Heroes.




Front row from left are Michael J. Smith, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, and Ronald E. McNair. Back row from left are Ellison Onizuka, school teacher Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 2, 2016)

Nasa workers handled a special delivery as the massive Super Guppy aircraft opened to reveal the smaller - but equally precious - Orion capsule.
The Super Guppy, which landed on Monday at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, enables Nasa to fly spacecraft components around the world.
This time, the jumbo plane, with a 156 feet wingspan, was carrying the Orion space crew module, destined to fly at the top of the Space Launch System (SLS).
By the time it is completed in 2018, the SLS will be the biggest and most powerful rocket in the world and will be capable of sending humans to Mars.






Its cargo compartment is 25 feet tall, 25 feet wide and 111 feet long, and can carry more than 26 tons








Orion (pictured inside the Super Guppy) is set to go on an uncrewed test flight beyond the moon in 2018. The capsule will travel for about three weeks, taking off from the Kennedy Space Center and touching down off the San Diego coast in the Pacific Ocean












Nasa plans to send astronauts on a first crewed flight aboard Orion in 2021. Then, the space crew module will be used for other missions in the 2020s.
Ultimately, Nasa hopes that a journey to Mars will be within reach in the 2030s.

Monday's delivery brought Orion's underlying structure, also known as the pressure vessel, to the Kennedy Space Center.
The pressure vessel was first assembled in Nasa's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. It took about four months for technicians to build it from seven large aluminum pieces.


The structure will fly on top of the SLS for a first uncrewed test flight in 2018. The flight, dubbed Exploration Mission-1, is meant to enable Nasa to test the spacecraft's ability to accomplish future missions into deep space.
It will be a three-week journey beyond the moon.
SLS and Orion will take off from Nasa's Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center. Orion will leave Earth's orbit and travel in the direction of the moon for several days.
The capsule will then orbit around the moon for about six days before traveling back to Earth. It will return to the atmosphere at 25,000 mph, reaching temperatures as high as 5,000 degrees Farenheit.
Nasa expects Orion to touch down off the San Diego coast in the Pacific Ocean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_Mission_1


SLS  Space Launch System.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 7, 2016)

Orion will undergo proof-pressure testing where the structural welds are stress tested to confirm it can withstand the environments it will experience in space. The team will then use phased array technology to inspect the welds to make sure there are no defects. Additional structural tests will follow including proof-pressure testing of the fluid system welds followed by x-ray inspections







With almost exactly 42 years between the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, which launched on 7 December 1972, and the first flight of Orion, the technology has moved on considerably.
On the surface the two space capsules look the same - they are cone-shaped, and have a large heat shield to protect the astronauts from the intense conditions during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere.








The  heat shield will use a new material called AVCOAT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCOAT

http://www.textronsystems.com/capabilities/missile-space/thermal


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## Drone (Feb 9, 2016)

Not really space race this time around, I'd call it knowledge race:

LISA Pathfinder will test key technologies for space-based observation of *gravitational waves* - ripples in the fabric of spacetime that are predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

4K liftoff timelapse


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 10, 2016)

More epic Blue Origin footage


The rocket hit an altitude of 333,582 feet (63 miles) before 'gently' returning to Earth in west Texas











* Blue Origin*


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## Drone (Feb 10, 2016)

Not as interesting as @CAPSLOCKSTUCK posted stuff but space related anyway:


On 15 January ESA astronaut Tim Peake and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra stepped outside of the International Space Station to replace a failed power regulator and install cabling.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 10, 2016)

Happy Birthday to this thread......


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## Drone (Feb 11, 2016)

^ congrats!


My pants are little bit wet now because ....


Black hole enthusiasts, galaxy cluster aficionados, and X-ray astronomers have much to be excited about. On Friday, Feb. 12, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will be launching their sixth satellite dedicated to X-ray astronomy, ASTRO-H, from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, Japan. The observatory carries a state-of-the-art instrument and two telescope mirrors built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

ASTRO-H is expected to provide breakthroughs in a wide variety of high-energy phenomena in the cosmos, ranging from the superheated material on the brink of falling into a black hole to the evolution of vast galaxy clusters. It is equipped with four advanced instruments covering a broad energy range, from low-energy, or "soft," X-rays around 300 eV to soft gamma rays up to 600 keV. For comparison, the energy of visible light spans about 2-3 eV.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 11, 2016)

@Drone i try and watch every launch, here is a link to this one.


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## Drone (Feb 12, 2016)

Time-lapse: The Assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope Primary Mirror

It’s targeted to launch from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket in 2018.










The Making of a Mockup: Work Begins on NASA SLS Core Stage Pathfinder















And new image of Earth from Scott Kelly


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 14, 2016)

The next commercial cargo mission to the International Space Station is being delayed by mold. - 





The agency decided to disinfect every bag as a precaution, including those that had already been stowed inside the Cygnus.
That work will push back the mission, previously set for launch on an Atlas 5 for March 10, to March 22. The source of the mold wasn't clear.
-




The International Space Station's robotic arm prepares to grapple the Cygnus cargo spacecraft as it arrives at the station Dec. 9, in this image taken by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.
Credit: NASA -


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 17, 2016)

Launch of ASTRA -H (delayed) scroll to 33 min for launch


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## Drone (Feb 19, 2016)




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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 19, 2016)

Branson's space venture Virgin Galactic plans to press launch its new SpaceShipTwo craft later today

The six-passenger, two-pilot winged space plane has been designed to take passengers on five-minute voyages into suborbital space, and will reach altitudes of about 62 miles (100 km)







In a *statement released yesterday* on the Virgin Galactic website, the firm wrote: 'Our new vehicle will remain on the ground for a while after her unveiling, as we run her through full-vehicle tests of her electrical systems and all of her moving parts.'


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## Drone (Feb 22, 2016)




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## Drone (Feb 23, 2016)

ESA astronaut Tim Peake took this image from the ISS on his six-month Principia mission.

On the left is the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft that bought Tim Peake, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and commander Yuri Malenchenko to the Space Station on 15 December 2015. It docked to the Russian Rassvet module after Yuri manually approached and made contact with the International Space Station.

Next to the Soyuz is the Cygnus supply spacecraft that arrived at the Space Station six days before the Tims and Yuri on 9 December. Cygnus is uncrewed and flies to the Space Station in an automated mode. The spacecraft is then grappled by the 16-m Canadarm and moved to berth with a docking port, here on the US Unity module.

The picture shows how close the spacecraft are to each other – when they arrive and leave they fly at speeds of 28 800 km/h, just like the International Space Station. Cygnus is scheduled to leave the Station 19 February, the Canadarm has already been moved into position ready for its release and deployment. The Cygnus will burn up harmlessly on reentry into Earth’s atmosphere with waste materials from the Space Station. The astronauts have been busy preparing for its departure loading it with waste.

The difference in the spacecraft’s solar arrays are obvious. The Soyuz solar array unfolds in a traditional  accordion style, whereas the Cygnus uses a newer fan-like technique resulting in the circular ‘umbrella’ formation.

In the background Earth can be seen with the new day beginning to the left of the image. For the people living in the darker regions it was night at the time Tim took this picture.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 23, 2016)

Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo vessel was released from the robotic arm on the International Space Station (pictured) after being packed with rubbish. The spacecraft, together with its cargo of garbage and human waste from the space stations toilets, is due to end its journey by burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.







A statement released by Nasa said astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra released the Cygnus spacecraft using the ISS's Canadarm2 at 7.26am EST (0.26 GMT).
'Earlier, ground controllers at Nasa's Johnson Space Center had maneuvered Cygnus into place for its departure,' it explained.
'Once the spacecraft is a safe distance from the station, its engines will fire twice, pushing it into Earth's atmosphere where it will burn up over the Pacific Ocean.'


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 27, 2016)

SES has confirmed that SpaceX's next launch attempt from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station of a Falcon 9 rocket will occur Sunday.28th Feb.







Live feed of launch
http://www.spacex.com/webcast

The Luxembourg-based company took to Twitter today, saying "SES and SpaceX are now targeting to launch #SES9 on Sunday."
Sunday's launch window opens at 6:46 p.m. Eastern time, according to the tweet. An earlier forecast issued by the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron showed near-perfect conditions for the window that extends to 8:20 p.m.
SpaceX and and SES will use Monday as a backup date in the event of a third scrub.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 29, 2016)

Computers automatically abort a Falcon 9 launch attempt at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016.


VIDEO
http://bcove.me/90hjltar


CAPE CANAVERAL — A Falcon 9 rocket lit its engines Sunday night but failed to get off the pad asSpaceX scrubbed its third attempt in five days to launch a commercial communications satellite fromCape Canaveral Air Force Station.
No new target date was immediately set, but the Eastern Range said a fourth attempt to launch the SES-9 satellite would not occur before Tuesday.
CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that a low thrust alarm led computers to cut off the rocket’s nine Merlin 1D main engines about a second before it would have lifted off from Launch Complex 40.


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## Drone (Mar 1, 2016)

Mayak, the crowd funded Russian satellite is being developed by a group of young scientists and will become the brightest 'star' in the night sky.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 3, 2016)

SpaceX

The Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron has issued a 90 percent "go" forecast for Friday's Falcon 9 launch attempt.
Forecasters expect slight chances of thunderstorms to clear by midday. Cumulus clouds are the primary concern listed in a Wednesday update 

Some historic pics
*T+0:01:13: Mach 1*







*T+0:01:24: Max Q*
*




The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.



T+0:02:36: MECO






The Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.



T+0:02:40: Stage 1 Separation




The Falcon 9’s first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.


T+0:02:47: First Ignition of Second Stage





The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for an approximately 6-minute burn to put the rocket and SES 9 into a preliminary parking orbit.


T+0:09:01: SECO 1





The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket shuts down after reaching a preliminary low-altitude orbit. The upper stage and SES 9 begin a coast phase scheduled to last more than 18 minutes before the second stage Merlin vacuum engine reignites.



T+0:27:55: SECO 2





The Merlin engine shuts down after a short burn to put the SES 9 satellite in the proper orbit for deployment. SpaceX has programmed the engine to burn until the second stage’s propellant tanks are nearly empty instead of timing the engine cutoff to put the SES 9 spacecraft into a specific orbit. The adjustment allows the rocket to put SES 9 into the highest orbit possible.


T+0:31:24: SES 9 Separation




he SES 9 satellite separates from the Falcon 9 rocket in an orbit with a predicted high point of about 39,300 kilometers (24,400 miles), a low point of 290 kilometers (180 miles) and an inclination of 28 degrees. Due to the decision to burn the second stage nearly to depletion, there is some slight uncertainty on the orbital parameters based on the exact performance of the launcher.*


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 4, 2016)

Spacex will try again in 90 minutes.







Live feed
http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Technical webcast


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## Finners (Mar 4, 2016)

Watching the live stream now, about 5 mins to launch. I dont really understand why I keep reading they are not confident of landing it this time.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 4, 2016)

SpaceX coverage is always great.


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## Finners (Mar 4, 2016)

Haha they lost feed last time on landing, now we all have to wait to see if they landed the first stage again.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 5, 2016)

A fantastic launch and a successful delivery by Falcon 9.

As anticipated the landing was a fail.











*The final frame of video from the drone ship, showing the craft's approach - but its fate is unknown

*




*The craft goes supersonic as it heads off to deliver the SES satellite into orbit
*




*The secondary Merlin engine fired as planned, taking the satellite high into orbit, and jettisoning the fairing from the craft.
*

There is no  footage of the 4th landing attempt....here are the first 3
*







*


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## Drone (Mar 6, 2016)




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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 11, 2016)

Europe and Russia are to begin their journey to Mars next week with a mission designed to analyse the red planet's atmosphere and look for signs of life.
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) is set to blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Proton rocket on 14 March.






ExoMars is a joint endeavour between the European Space Agency (Esa) and Russia's Roscosmos space agency, comprising two craft - the TGO and the Schiaparelli landing demonstrator.
If all goes to plan, TGO will make a detailed inventory of Mars' atmospheric gases, with particular interest in rare gases such as methane. 
Methane could provide one of the biggest clues to whether life exists on Mars.
On Earth, the chief source of methane is bacteria. Billions of flatulent microbes, including many that thrive in the guts of animals such as cattle and termites, belch out the gas.
But methane can also be released by volcanic activity and geological chemistry.








The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has super-sensitive instruments for detecting minute traces of methane and other atmospheric gases.
It will look for methane 'hotspots' over the Martian surface, and, crucially, test whether the gas is likely to be the product of biology or geology.
This is because methane breaks down in sunlight after a matter of a few hundred years, meaning any detected must have been made recently.
The aim of ExoMars is to determine whether the gas is coming from a geological or biological source such as volcanoes or microbes, for example, in order to build on 'inconclusive' readings taken by Nasa's Curiosity rover.
Concentrations of methane have been observed in 2003 and 2006 in three specific regions of Mars: Terra Sabae, Nili Fossae and Syrtis Major, and data suggest that water once flowed over these areas.
Deep liquid water areas below the ice layer would be able to provide a habitat for microorganisms, or a favourable place for the hydro-geochemical production of methane.
Meanwhile, Schiaparelli will demonstrate a range of technologies to enable a controlled landing on Mars, which will pave the way for a manned mission to Mars.






The huge Proton rocket is carried from the fueling station to the launchpad at Baikonour spaceport using a train that is specially designed to carry the enormous vehicles








After a seven-month cruise, the lander will separate from the TGO on 16 October and land on Mars on 19 October. 
TGO will then enter orbit around Mars and will serve as a data relay for the second ExoMars mission, which will involve a rover and laboratory on Martian soil, planned for launch in 2018.
Esa said the launch of ExoMars 2016 will mark the start of a new era of Mars exploration for Europe.
Both Europe and Russia's fortunes have been mixed when it comes to Mars missions before, with Esa's Mars Express mission successfully putting a spacecraft into orbit in 2003, but its Beagle 2 lander failing to communicate with Earth.
Russia's Phobos-Grunt mission suffered a failed launch and none of the Soviet Union's missions to Mars were successful, *New Scientist* reported. 
Both space agencies hope to enjoy similar glory to Nasa, whose most recent probe, Maven,  is currently analysing the planet's upper atmosphere






Artist's impression of the interior of the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module. Schiaparelli, part of the ExoMars 2016 mission, will launch with the TGO, arriving at the Red Planet in October. Schiaparelli carries a small science payload, called DREAMS (Dust Characterisation, Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the Martian Surface)

http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46475-trace-gas-orbiter/


Launch window: 14 to 25 March 2016
Launch vehicle: Proton-M/Breeze-M
Launch mass: 4,332 kg (including fuel) 
Instruments: Orbiter (3732 kg, including 135.6 kg science payload) and Schiaparelli (600 kg)
Dimensions: Orbiter: 3.5 x 2 x 2m with 17.5m solar arrays tip-to-tip. 
Schiaparelli: 1.65 m diameter 
Live *streaming* of the launch will begin on 14 March at 08:30 GMT (09:30 CET). 
The launch is scheduled for 09:31 GMT (10:31 CET) on 14 March with first acquisition of signal expected at around 21:29GMT (22:29 CET).


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 12, 2016)

EXOMARS rollout in preparation for launch on Monday.


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## alucasa (Mar 12, 2016)

You know, it's be AWESOME to be in space.

At the same time, I wonder how many things we wouldn't be able to do in space. For an example, you shouldn't burp in zero gravity because you will vomit afterwards.

And what if you get diarrhea?

etc...

/cool life


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## dorsetknob (Mar 12, 2016)

alucasa said:


> At the same time, I wonder how many things we wouldn't be able to do in space. For an example, you shouldn't burp in zero gravity because you will vomit afterwards.
> 
> And what if you get diarrhea?



Newtons laws of motion (sic pun ) predict 

If you puke your travel backwards at about the same speed
if you violently expunge while trouser less your Travel forwards at about the same speed
either way your fellow Astronauts rapidly bundle you into the Airlock and Vent   then message HOUSTON
"" Houston we have a problem""


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 14, 2016)

Heads up for the imminent Mars launch


*streaming*


*08:30 GMT / 09:30 CET* Morning programme, including live launch coverage
*11:00 GMT / 12:00 CET* Afternoon programme, including regular live updates on the status of the mission, a series of dedicated presentations on the scientific goals and operational challenges and milestones of the ExoMars missions, and informal question and answer sessions 
*21:10 GMT / 22:10 CET* Evening programme, including confirmation of spacecraft separation, solar array deployment and first acquisition of signal
*21:45 GMT /22:45* *CET*  End of event




EDIT

THE LAUNCH

http://www.space.com/32255-blast-of...eo.html#ooid=0wMmkwMjE6tQhp_BYSdGmpH7UjmFcpFg


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## Drone (Mar 14, 2016)

Video of ExoMars 2016 liftoff by Телестудия Роскосмоса










Their official channel has other interesting stuff: (Russian)


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 16, 2016)

Nasa reveals an experiment to start a  fire in space






The test will happen after a Cygnus resupply vehicle undocks from the ISS and moves to a 'safe distance' on March 22.

Located somewhere on the vehicle, a sealed box containing a cotton-fiberglass composite will then burst into flames.
Nasa says understanding how fire spreads in a microgravity environment is critical to the safety of astronauts who live and work in space.
And while Nasa has conducted studies aboard the space shuttle and ISIS, risks to the crew have forced these experiments to be limited in size and scope.
The new series of tests, dubbed Saffire, are designed to provide a better understanding of microgravity fire on a much larger scale.
'A spacecraft fire is one of the greatest crew safety concerns for Nasa and the international space exploration community,' says Gary Ruff, Saffire project manager.
Saffire will involve far larger flames than previous experiments and will investigate the way fire spreads on a range of combustible materials.
Because the experiments will be conducted away from the space station, there is no risk to the astronauts aboard.

Each Saffire experiment will be remotely operated inside a 3 by 5 foot module, split into two compartments.
One side of the module is an avionics bay that contains sensors, high definition video cameras and signal processing equipment.
The other side contains the hardware required to ignite a large flame and burn the fabrics and materials inside.
When the experiments begin, Saffire I and III will burn one large 16 by 37-inch piece of SIBAL cloth, which is a blend of fiberglass and cotton.
This material has been studied in previous microgravity combustion experiments, although at a much smaller size.
The SIBAL cloth will be burned from the bottom to see how the flame spreads.
If the flame extinguishes itself, scientists will light it at the top and see what happens as the flame moves opposite to the airflow.

Saffire II, scheduled to launch in June from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, will ignite a mix of nine different samples of materials used routinely on the space station.
These include flame retardant fabrics used for astronaut clothing, station Plexiglas window samples with edge variations and structures used for storage containers and silicone composites.
The Saffire I payload will hitch a ride on a resupply mission to the space station in an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo vehicle from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
When Cygnus arrives, astronauts will unload their supplies, but Saffire will remain on board Cygnus.
'Within the first day after Cygnus pulls away from the space station, we will begin the experiment, which will run autonomously once the RUN command is sent,' says Steven Sinacore, deputy project manager.
It will only take a few hours to run the experiments, but Cygnus will remain in space for seven days to ensure complete data transmission back to the Saffire operations team on the ground.'
Eventually, Saffire, along with Cygnus, will be destroyed upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.


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## Drone (Mar 16, 2016)

ExoMars  news (Russian)









My translation in a nutshell: They had difficulties with Бриз-М booster but now everything seems to be in order. Бриз-М got separated from the main module now and ExoMars is on its proper orbit. In October 2016 it will reach Mars just like it was planned. It seems that the second Mars mission, when they will send rover with new equipment and better robotic drilling system, is delayed (from 2018 to 2020 but maybe not).

In the meanwhile:

РКН Союз-ФГ and ТПК Союз ТМА-20М rollout: (Союз = Soyuz)


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## Drone (Mar 17, 2016)

Some images of ExoMars 2016 & Soyuz TMA-20M


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## Drone (Mar 17, 2016)

Soyuz TMA-20M is already set on Gagarin's Start


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## Drone (Mar 18, 2016)

Edit:

ExoMars spotted in space


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 18, 2016)

COVERAGE AT 20.30 GMT

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos are preparing for launch to the International Space Station. Their six-month journey will begin with a lift off in a Soyuz spacecraft at 5:26 p.m. EDT Friday, March 18 (3:26 a.m. on March 19 in Baikonur).






NASA Television will broadcast launch coverage live. For the NASA TV schedule and where to watch live and replays, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Below is the launch timeline for the crew in EDT:
*March 18*
11:26 a.m.    Crew departs Cosmonaut Hotel (L-6)
11:41 a.m.    Batteries installed in booster
12:11 p.m.    Crew arrives at Site 254
12:26 p.m.    Tanking begins
12:56 p.m.    Crew suit up
12:21 p.m.    Booster loaded with liquid oxygen
1:56 p.m.      Crew meets family members on other side of the glass
2:21 p.m.      First and second stage Oxygen fueling complete
2:26 p.m.      Crew walkout from 254 and boards bus for the launch pad (L-3)
2:31 p.m.      Crew departs for launch pad (Site 1)
2:51 p.m.      Crew arrives at launch pad (Site 1)
3:01 p.m.      Crew boards Soyuz; strapped in to the Descent module
3:51 p.m.      Descent module hardware tested
4:06 p.m.      Hatch closed; leak checks begin
4:26 p.m.      Launch vehicle control system prep; gyro activation (L-1)
*4:30 p.m.     NASA TV Launch Coverage Begins*
*4:40 p.m.     NASA TV: Crew pre-launch activities played (B-roll)*
4:41 p.m.      Pad service structure components lowered
4:42 p.m.      Clamshell gantry service towers retracted
4:49 p.m.      Suit leak checks begin; descent module testing complete
4:52 p.m.      Emergency escape system armed
5:11 p.m.      Suit leak checks complete; escape system to auto
5:16 p.m.      Gyros in flight readiness and recorders activated
5:19 p.m.      Pre-launch operations complete
5:20 p.m.      Launch countdown operations to auto; vehicle ready
5:21 p.m.      Commander’s controls activated
5:22 p.m.      Combustion chamber nitrogen purge
*5:23 p.m.      ISS FLIES OVER THE BAIKONUR COSMODROME*
5:23 p.m.      Propellant drainback
5:23 p.m.      Booster propellant tank pressurization
5:25 p.m.      Ground propellant feed terminated
5:25 p.m.      Vehicle to internal power
5:26 p.m.      First umbilical tower separates
*Auto sequence start*
5:26 p.m.      Ground umbilical to third stage disconnected
5:26 p.m.      Second umbilical tower separates
5:26 p.m.      Launch command issued
*Engine Start Sequence Begins*
5:26 p.m.      Engine turbopumps at flight speed
5:26 p.m.      Engines at maximum thrust
*5:26 p.m.     Launch of SOYUZ TMA-20M to the ISS*
*10:30 p.m.   Docking Coverage Begins on NASA TV*
*11:11 p.m.   Docking to the ISS*
*MARCH 19*
*12:30 a.m.  Hatch opening coverage begins on NASA TV*
*12:55 a.m.  Hatch opens*

*



*


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## Drone (Mar 18, 2016)

watch live

deleted


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## Drone (Mar 19, 2016)

I removed live video because it's 'un-live' now lol. Here it is:










New images:











Some unique footage by roscosmos (Russian), duh but I'm too lazy to translate it so .. just watch it lol


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## Drone (Mar 19, 2016)




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## Drone (Mar 22, 2016)

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope completed primary mirror sits in the cleanroom at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and supported over it on the tripod is the secondary mirror.






Engineers completed the stacking of the Orbital ATK CRS-6 launch vehicle when the Cygnus cargo spacecraft was bolted to the top of the Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.










Biggest rockets ever (Russian)

My translation: Soviet rocket N-1 and American rocket Saturn-5.

N-1's height is 105 meters. This superheavy rocket was designed for getting large space station into space to build a spaceship to fly to Venus and Mars. Unfortunately project was scrapped. Otherwise we'd have known much more about Venus and Mars by now.

Saturn 5's weight is 3000 tons, and height is 110 meters. The total number of launches - 13 (9 times to the Moon).


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## Drone (Mar 23, 2016)




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## Drone (Mar 25, 2016)

Specialists working on "Прогресс МС-02" (cargo spacecraft)










"Союз-2.1а" with "Прогресс МС-02" will launch on 31st March. Can't wait!


----------



## Drone (Mar 25, 2016)




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## Drone (Mar 27, 2016)

Shitload of cool shit:

"Восточный" - general rehearsal before 31st March launch










Cygnus Cargo Supply Spacecraft Safely Reaches the ISS










Cygnus Cargo Supply Spacecraft Mated to the ISS










Explore Space Station in 360










Click for ISS virtual tour


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 29, 2016)

Japan's 'Hitomi' satellite

* Space agency admits it has LOST its $273 million black hole probe**
*

Space scientists are desperately scouring the skies after losing track of a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar Japanese satellite that was sent to study black holes.
The ultra-high-tech 'Hitomi' - or eye - satellite was supposed to have been communicating from orbit by now, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) said, but no-one can say where it is.
The device briefly made contact with ground crews but has since disappeared, with American researchers reporting it could have broken into several pieces








Jaxa has around 40 technicians on the case, trying to locate the spacecraft and establish some kind of communication with it, an agency spokesman told AFP on Monday.

'We know approximately where it is,' the spokesman added, but scientists were still trying to work out its precise location.
The satellite, developed in collaboration with Nasa, the US space agency, and various other groups, was launched on 17 February and was designed to observe X-rays emanating from black holes and galaxy clusters.
Black holes have never been directly observed, but scientists believe they are huge collapsed stars whose enormous gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape.
The announcement last month that gravitational waves had been detected for the first time added to evidence of their existence after scientists found the waves had been caused by two enormous black holes colliding.
The lost satellite, which cost 31 billion yen ($273 million), including the cost of launching it, was supposed to orbit at an altitude of about 360 miles (580km).
The Japanese rocket carrying the satellite was launched by the country's mainstay H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.






The 'Hitomi', or Astro-H satellite, was launched aboard the H-IIA rocket (pictured) along with three smaller satellites - Horyu-4 and ChubuSat 2 and 3 in February. It was set to enter Earth's orbit at an estimated altitude 360 miles (580 km) - far above the International Space Station's orbit of around 250 miles (400 km)


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## Drone (Mar 29, 2016)

traumatizing news indeed










Now some good news:

РКН Союз-2.1а with ТГК Прогресс МС-02 are 100% ready and have been rolled out. Just 2 days till launch! YAY!


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 30, 2016)

Images show 200ft tall cylinder being built for world’s most powerful rocket







Over the past week, Nasa has taken great strides toward this achievement, marking the completion of welding on hardware for the massive liquid oxygen tank (pictured above) for the Space Launch System (SLS)

As one of two tanks necessary to power the SLS, the liquid oxygen tank will be part of the core stage, which stands more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet.
Liquid oxygen coupled with a separate tank of cryogenic liquid hydrogen will feed the powerful rocket’s Rs-25 engines.
As of last week, welding for the confidence hardware of the liquid oxygen tank has been completed.
Photos of the massive structure show just how big one of these tanks really is.
On the Vertical Assembly Center at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the welding was competed, engineers standing nearby are dwarfed in comparison.


----------



## Drone (Mar 31, 2016)

This is the day:

Launch










and full coverage


----------



## Drone (Apr 1, 2016)

First animals in space (Russian)

My translation:

First animals in space were dogs Dezik (Дезик) and Tsygan (_Цыган_, "Gypsy"). On July 1951 Dezik and Tsygan were the first to successfully fly on rocket R-1B (successful sub-orbital flight, altitude ~ 100 km). First animals that orbited Moon were turtles.

You can read about space dogs here and about rocket R1 here











Space to ground video:


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 2, 2016)

*Blue Origin*  to launch its reusable rocket again in toughest test flight yet.

It's not yet known at what time the flight will occur in Van Horn, Texas, but Bezos said Blue Origin will attempt a few new manoeuvres with this launch.






One change will be a restart the New Shephard rocket engines 'fast at high thrust' just 3,600 feet from the ground, just before landing.
Bezos said if the engine doesn't restart, then the rocket will hit the ground in six seconds.
The company will also trial new software that controls one of the capsule's control systems.
Bezos added there will be drones present to capture the view. 
Blue Origin successfully launched the New Shepard rocket for the first time in November, and repeated the take-off successfully just two months later.
The rocket hit an altitude of 333,582 feet (63 miles) before 'gently' returning to Earth in west Texas. 








In addition to testing the engine and a new software for the crew capsule, the launch will also take two microgravity experiments — developed by theSouthwest Research Institute and the University of Central Florida — to suborbital space.
Also, before the end of this year, Blue Origin is planning to begin tests on its BE-4 rocket engine, which it says would end dependence on Russian-made engines.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 3, 2016)

A successful Blue Origin launch, the third


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 4, 2016)

They finally released the video....................STUPENDOUS.....


----------



## Drone (Apr 7, 2016)

Unfortunately I've missed Roskosmos's  live stream (Progress MS-02 docking ISS, April 2). But luckily they didn't delete the video so here it is:










Interesting info on (cargo resupply missions):

Progress MS-01 and 02 and SpaceX (pics, diagrams, facts ... everything's inside)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 8, 2016)

More on BEAM.........and link to launch.

An unmanned SpaceX Falcon rocket is set to launch later today, carrying a capsule full of supplies with the pioneering pod in its trunk.

Bigelow Aerospace is behind the experiment, which will get a ride to the International Space Station (ISS) with another private space company.

It will be SpaceX's first station delivery since a launch accident halted shipments last June.

Following the launch, SpaceX will try once more to land its Falcon 9 on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The launch and landing attempt is scheduled to take place at 16:43pm EDT (20:43 GMT) and can be watched live on Nasa TV.

The inflatable pod demo is meant to pave the way for moon bases and Mars expeditions, as well as orbiting outposts catering to scientists and tourists in just a few more years.







The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or Beam, will be the first inflatable habitat to ever be attached to the ISS.

'Expandables' like Beam, also called 'inflatables', are ideal because they are lightweight and take up minimal space on a rocket.
They expand after being deployed in space to potentially provide a comfortable area for astronauts to live and work.

'The journey to Mars is complex and filled with challenges that Nasa and its partners are continuously working to solve,' Nasa said.

'Before sending the first astronauts to the red planet, several rockets filled with cargo and supplies will be deployed to await the crews' arrival.'

Once attached to the station, the soft-sided Bigelow compartment will be inflated to the size of a small bedroom.

Made up of aluminum and soft fabric, Beam is designed to pack down into a relatively compact 5.7ft (1.7 metres) long and just under 7.75ft (2.4 metres) in diameter when stowed for the flight into space.

When it is attached to the station's structure and inflated, it will expand to 12ft (3.7 metres) long and 10.5ft (3.2 metres) in diameter.

Nasa outlined the four possible ways it might expand in a video.

The inflation is going to be done very slowly so Nasa can monitor the expansion process and maintain the safety of the crew and the station.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, B for short, will stay there for two years, with astronauts occasionally entering it.

It will be the first time an astronaut steps inside an expandable habitat structure in space.

'It's not just historic for our company, which obviously is the case, but I think it's historic for the architecture,' said Robert Bigelow, founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace and owner of Budget Suites of America.


----------



## Drone (Apr 8, 2016)

Beam











"loaded dragon"






Tim Copra posted a new image from ISS.










ISS 360: Harmony (Node 2)










Ariane 6










Old but nice video: «Зенит» with «Фрегат» booster rollout


----------



## Finners (Apr 8, 2016)

pretty damn impressive!


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 8, 2016)

Absolutely brilliant. Two major successes within a few days of each other.


----------



## Drone (Apr 9, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Apr 10, 2016)

LIVE NOW: Coverage of Rendezvous and Capture of SpaceX Dragon Cargo Craft to Space Station, 5:30 a.m. EDT, NASA TV

Check NASA gov




yesterday video


----------



## Drone (Apr 11, 2016)

Bad news for Kepler .. Hope it's fixable










Russian cosmodrome ЦЭНКИ (COSGBI - Center for Operation of Space Ground-Based Infrastructure) trailer/teaser call it whatever you want










CCCP space programs (historical footage; Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova, Alexey Leonov)










SpaceX Dragon Reaches ISS with New Supplies


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 11, 2016)

Drone said:


> Bad news for Kepler .. Hope it's fixable


Does NASA have
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




Phone Number


----------



## Drone (Apr 11, 2016)

Maybe we should borrow some spacecraft, spacesuit, some tools and a jetpack and fix it ourselves


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 11, 2016)

Drone said:


> Maybe we should borrow some spacecraft, spacesuit, some tools and a jetpack and fix it ourselves



Where do i sign?


----------



## Drone (Apr 11, 2016)

Ok our team 

dorsetknob
CAPSLOCKSTUCK
me

to do list:

primary mission

refill Kepler's liquid hydrogen fuel tank
fix reaction wheel

spare parts we'll need

1 reaction wheel






1 hydrogen fuel tank







secondary optional mission:

fix Herschel space telescope:

1 extra liquid helium tank


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 11, 2016)

Don't forget we will need Accommodation so we need to build a Habitat ( somewhere that does not have a Clanger infestation )





Ps we could invite * @Toothless 



*

*is this the Telescope that needs fixing*


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 11, 2016)

I can bring sandwiches.


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 11, 2016)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> I can bring sandwiches.


and * @Toothless A Soup Dragon *


----------



## Drone (Apr 11, 2016)

In the meanwhile Rosetta is 415 million km from the Sun and 285 million km from Earth, maybe we should check her out too


----------



## Toothless (Apr 11, 2016)

dorsetknob said:


> and * @Toothless A Soup Dragon *


I bake and break stuff.


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 11, 2016)

@Drone 
Update

The Kepler space telescope is back in action after mysteriously shifting into emergency mode last week.
"Mission operations engineers have successfully recovered the Kepler spacecraft from Emergency Mode (EM)," said Charlie Sobeck, Kepler's mission manager at NASA's Ames Research Center.
"On Sunday morning, the spacecraft reached a stable state with the communication antenna pointed toward Earth, enabling telemetry and historical event data to be downloaded to the ground. The spacecraft is operating in its lowest fuel-burn mode."
The telescope is situated 75 million miles from Earth and is used to scan the galaxy for exoplanets circling distant stars. It finished its last mission on March 23 and was placed in a Point Rest State, which keeps the telescope's communications antenna pointed towards ground stations while using the least possible amount of fuel.

Last week, the telescope was supposed to be orientated to look at the center of the Milky Way as part of a mission which is looking for exoplanets and wandering planetary bodies near the heart of our galaxy. But NASA engineers performing a check found Kepler locked in EM after an unexplained fault.

Engineers at the Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, Ball Aerospace, and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado are now going over the telescope's systems and analyzing how much fuel is left in the distant instrument.

"It was the quick response and determination of the engineers throughout the weekend that led to the recovery," Sobeck said. "We are deeply appreciative of their efforts, and for the outpouring of support from the mission's fans and followers from around the world."

Frankly, it's a miracle the telescope has lasted this long. The telescope maintains its orientation using four reaction wheels that rotate to provide stable aiming of the scope's 95-megapixel camera, and in 2012 one of the wheels stopped working.

NASA wasn't too worried, since the telescope had been designed to work with three. But in 2013 a second wheel failed, causing the telescope to lose orientation. After months of careful calculations, NASA worked out a way to stabilize the instrument by using the pressure of solar wind against the telescope's solar panels counterbalanced by the two remaining wheels.
The telescope has been in operation since December 2009 and was only supposed to last for three and a half years. NASA engineers are experts at interesting hacks to keep hardware going, but these latest problems do indicate the telescope might be nearing the end of its useful life.


----------



## Toothless (Apr 11, 2016)

After Hubble they need to name the next telescope "Bubble"


----------



## dorsetknob (Apr 11, 2016)

I thought with nvida sponsership it was Kepler then maxwell then Pascal 

Oops wrong SponserThread  and telescope


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 11, 2016)

dorsetknob said:


> @Drone
> Update
> 
> The Kepler space telescope is back in action after mysteriously shifting into emergency mode last week.
> ...




Does this mean we're not going?


----------



## RealNeil (Apr 12, 2016)

Toothless said:


> After Hubble they need to name the next telescope "Bubble"



Big bubbles, no troubles,....


----------



## Drone (Apr 12, 2016)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Does this mean we're not going?


I thought we did it 


Good news: maybe we can use this new propulsion method 










NASA engineers are conducting tests to develop models for the Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transport System (HERTS) concept. An electric sail could potentially send scientific payloads to the edge of our solar system, the heliopause, in less than 10 years.






In this concept, long, very thin, bare wires construct the large, circular E-Sail that would electrostatically repel the fast moving solar protons. The momentum exchange produced as the protons are repelled by the positively charged wires would create the spacecraft's thrust.



duh: it's actually protons but guy in the video says photons. Anyone else noticed that?


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 12, 2016)

YURI GAGARIN






1st man in space...55 years ago
As repoted today











A better documentary/dramatization


----------



## Drone (Apr 12, 2016)

Happy Cosmonautics Day, cosmonauts and astronauts!








On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit Earth in his Vostok spacecraft that launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, now in Kazakhstan. ESA astronaut Tim Peake was launched into space from the very same launchpad as Yuri Gagarin and now, 55 years later, he tweeted this picture of himself on the International Space Station reading Yuri's autobiography_ Road to the Stars_.






The book is a special copy, signed by Gagarin himself, and it flew to space in 1991 with British astronaut Helen Sharman to the Russian space station Mir. The book is now signed by the current crew on the International Space Station, as well as the crew on Mir during Helen’s mission.

******

12 April has become a worldwide day of celebration of human spaceflight. Cosmonauts on the International Space Station are given a day off on this day.

Today Oleg Skripochka, Yuri Malenchenko, Alexei Ovchinin are given a break from their busy schedules in space – aside from their obligatory daily exercise. They congratulate all Earthlings with World Cosmonautics Day











Life Over Earth: Astronaut's 'Most Incredible' Space Station Experiences


----------



## Drone (Apr 12, 2016)

After Sentinel-1A, last 3 April 2014, Sentinel-1B will be launched next 22 April on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.










Gyroscopes in space










Little bit old video (October 2015) Proton-M with Turksat-4В rollout


----------



## Drone (Apr 13, 2016)

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is being built to test the avionics system that will guide the world's most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS will launch crews of up to 4 astronauts in the agency's Orion spacecraft on missions to explore multiple, deep-space destinations, including Mars.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 14, 2016)

On the 35th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch, the last remaining external fuel tank set sail today from its factory in New Orleans to Los Angeles and a remarkable museum attraction in the making.















External tanks — 28 feet in diameter and 154 feet long — were the structural backbone of the shuttle vehicle on launch, holding the twin solid rockets while being the reservoir of a half-million gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for the orbiter main engines. The tanks were the only expendable part of the shuttle system, separating from the orbiters while on suborbital trajectories and burning up in the atmosphere on the way back down.


https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/...tank-in-existence-heads-to-california-museum/


----------



## Drone (Apr 15, 2016)

Glyn Collinson explains the 4 states of matter making a cup of tea as an example 
And from 3:40 the media clips & explanation on the birth & construction of the ULA Atlas V Centaur MMS rocket










Space Station Live: Everything's Coming up Veggie










Latest episode of Space to Ground










Old video: Soyuz-U with Progress M-28M rollout


----------



## Drone (Apr 16, 2016)

Soyuz assembly, video by Roskosmos

Two new videos from Nasa


----------



## Drone (Apr 18, 2016)

The hardware is for the engine section, and is the first major SLS flight component to finish full welding on the VAC. The engine section is located at the bottom of the rocket's core stage and will house the four RS-25 engines for the first flight of SLS with NASA's Orion spacecraft in 2018.

new videos:



















ISS 360: Columbus


----------



## Drone (Apr 20, 2016)

A view from below in High Bay 3 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, shows three work platforms installed for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
















Soyuz rocket will take Sentinel-1B, three CubeSats and Microscope into orbit. *Liftoff is on 22 April 2016*.











ISS 360: Kibo


----------



## Drone (Apr 22, 2016)

latest episode of Space to Ground










Earth day










Image gallery is here:

*Vostochny Cosmodrome*

Rocket Soyuz-2-1A with booster Volga and three satellites (Mikhailo Lomonosov); (Aist); (SamSat)
Russian Federal Space Agency decided to roll out it on April 23. and lift off is on April 27.
General tests are today













Old videos: _Plesetsk Cosmodrome:_ Soyuz-2.1a roll out










edit: Sozyuz-2.1 lift off from _Plesetsk Cosmodrome_


----------



## Drone (Apr 22, 2016)

*Watch live: Sentinel-1B launch*


----------



## Drone (Apr 25, 2016)

They postponed the launch so many times that I actually missed it 

Sentinel-1B lifts off










But I didn't miss this one 

Soyuz-2.1а with Lomonosov, AIST, SamSat-218 Rollout










The launch is on Wednesday ! (April 27)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 28, 2016)

SpaceX plans to send an unmanned Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018.

The announcement was made on Twitter today and is a first step in achieving founder Elon Musk's goal to fly people to another planet.








If SpaceX is successful, it will beat all other world space agencies in landing a new robot on Mars. Nasa, which is aiming for a human mission to Mars in the 2030s, said it will provide technical support for SpaceX's first foray, known as Red Dragon.

The company said it will provide details of its Mars program at the International Astronautical Congress in September.

'Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system,' Musk posted on Twitter. 

'Red Dragon Mars mission is the first test flight.'

He said that with an internal volume about the size of a sports utility vehicle, the Dragon spacecraft would be uncomfortable for people making the long journey to Mars.

Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur who helped to found Tesla Motors and PayPal, started SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of slashing launch costs to make Mars travel affordable.

SpaceX intends to debut its Mars rocket, a heavy-lift version of the Falcon 9 booster currently flying, later this year.


----------



## Drone (Apr 28, 2016)

Yaaaay! After so many delays finally!

A Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket carrying Lomonosov, Aist-2D and SamSat-218 satellites lifts off from the launch pad at the new Vostochny Cosmodrome outside the city of Uglegorsk, about 200 km from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region on Thursday, April 28, 2016. 

*



*​
The Soyuz 2.1a booster blasted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far Easter in the early hours Moscow time on Thursday. The three satellites the rocket was carrying orbited several hours later.


----------



## Drone (Apr 28, 2016)

Orion Crew Module for Exploration Mission-1 Lifted to Test Stand






******

An array of four T6 thrusters – known as the Solar Electric Propulsion System –  being fitted to BepiColombo's Mercury Transfer Module at ESA's ESTEC Test Centre during April 2016. The MTM is a dedicated transport spacecraft that will carry Europe's Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter together to the innermost planet from the Sun over the course of a 6.5-year cruise phase.











******

ISS 360: Tranquility (Node 3)










******

Sentinel-1B's first image

















********

Replay of the Sentinel-1B launch coverage from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The second satellite in the Sentinel-1 mission lifted off on a Soyuz rocket on 25 April 2016 at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST) to provide 'radar vision' of Earth for Europe's environmental Copernicus monitoring programme.

(watch and/or download Sentinel-1B launch replay) 1 h 8 min (MP4 file is ~ 2 GB)






******

A Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket, carrying Lomonosov, Aist-2D and SamSat-218 satellites (today's launch image)






*****

Space Station Live: The Doctor is In










***

Good morning from ISS


----------



## Drone (Apr 29, 2016)

Simulators Offer Astronauts Glimpse of Future Flight










NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston in 360










Some old stuff I missed

Europe's 11th and 12th Galileo satellites prepared for launch in the clean room at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The satellites were launched on a Soyuz rocket on 17 December 2015.
















The Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over to central western Namibia, an area surrounding the Namib Naukluft Park, in this image taken on 28 January 2016.


----------



## Drone (May 4, 2016)

Sentinel-1B lifts off







ISS Flyover of Morocco










ExoMars is on its way


----------



## Drone (May 8, 2016)

Earth from Space: Zachariae Isstrom










Even SpaceX Didn't Expect Its Rocket To Land This Time, But It Did 










360 View: See Inside Habitat Simulating Deep Space Mission for Astronauts










360 View | First Stage Landing on Droneship


----------



## Drone (May 14, 2016)

new random stuff:

Earth Expeditions: Inside NASA's Flying Air Quality Lab (360° video)










SpaceX Dragon Heads Home from ISS with Valuable Science Data










The first ever *manned Soyuz-MS* spacecraft before launch (Russian)

launch date:  June 24
crew: Russia's cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and NASA's astronaut Kathleen Rubins.


----------



## Drone (May 16, 2016)

New images by ESA:














Europe's 13th Galileo satellite was fuelled with hydrazine on 5 May 2016 inside the S3B payload preparation facility of Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The 14th satellite was similarly fuelled the following day ahead of a shared launch by Soyuz from French Guiana on 24 May.









A drill designed to penetrate 1–2 m into the lunar surface is envisaged by ESA to fly to the Moon's south pole on Russia's Luna-27 lander in 2020.






Informative gif from NASA

*****

Here's amazing video by Roscosmos:

The first launch from Vostochny Cosmodrome (28 April, post #254 on this page). *Unique video from on-board cameras*:


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 17, 2016)

*International Space Station Marks 100,000 Orbits of Earth*


----------



## Drone (May 18, 2016)

The first launch from Vostochny Cosmodrome (28 April, posts #254,260 on this page)

Now full extended version 










View from onboard cameras is poetic like spirit leaving a body it doesn't need anymore


----------



## Drone (May 20, 2016)

Brand new videos from all the space agencies (NASA, ESA, ROSCOSMOS)





























Soyuz-2.1a launch from Vostochny Cosmodrome 28th of April, 2016 (all cameras)


----------



## Drone (May 22, 2016)

CubeSats, stasis in space and other latest news


----------



## dont whant to set it"' (May 23, 2016)

*India Test Reusable Launch Vehicle Prototype*
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016...sable-spaceplane-makes-its-first-test-flight/
Found it here: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/military/read.main/173878/


----------



## Drone (May 23, 2016)

India's first-ever indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD launched successfully










Пилотируемое освоение космоса/Human space exploration





*Watch the launch of Galileo-13/14*


Europe takes its next step in creating its own navigation satellite constellation on Tuesday 24 May, with the launch of the 13th and 14th Galileo satellites.  The pair is scheduled to lift off at 08:48 GMT (05:48 local time, 10:48 CEST) on 24 May from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Soyuz launcher.

Streaming begins at 08:28 GMT (10:28 CEST) on 24  May for the liftoff, then resumes at 12:23 GMT (14:23 CEST) to cover the satellites' separation.


----------



## Drone (May 24, 2016)

Liftoff replay. Just watching this atm. (distance 13 400 km, altitude 2800 km)


----------



## Drone (May 26, 2016)

Rewatch the full coverage of the liftoff of Europe's 13th and 14th Galileo satellites, which lifted off at 08:48 GMT (05:48 local time, 10:48 CEST) on 24 May from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Soyuz launcher.

Part 1
Part 2


*************

At Baikonur launch site preparations continue for the launch of the latest version of Russia's manned spacecraft Soyuz MS.

Between 20th and 25th May 2016 the spacecraft passed leak test in a vacuum chamber.

The launch is scheduled for 24th June 2016











***********

During Soyuz-2.1a launch from Vostochny Cosmodrome, Stage 3 operation was provided by the engine made in Voronezh Mechanical Plant. Time of engine's work is just 250 seconds. But the colossal task is to deliver payloads into space. Creating a rocket engine is a unique production that solves many problems: reliability, safety, efficiency.

(Russian)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 26, 2016)

The International Space Station had been set to get an extension today with Nasa blowing up its new inflatable habitat module.

Nasa astronaut Flight Engineer Jeff Williams began manual deployment of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (Beam) this morning at around 10.30 BST. 


But the operation was cancelled midway due to over-running and a number of other factors, including the module not taking the shape it was expected to.

The half-inflated module has now been capped, ready to resume inflation tomorrow after checks and analysis of the day’s events from engineers on the ground. 







Initial steps saw vent valves closed in order to hold the pressure inside Beam, with restraining straps around the module released.

Beam was then inflated in short bursts - often only just one second at a time - with pressure values constantly fed back to mission control in order to keep everything stable, leading to extended periods of waiting.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 29, 2016)

NASA successfully inflated a new experimental room aboard the International Space Station Saturday,


----------



## Drone (May 29, 2016)

Next Space Station Crew Trains Near Moscow










Future Human Spaceflight (Russian)


----------



## Drone (May 30, 2016)

BEAM Expansion Time Lapse










SpaceX's Water Landings Are Becoming Routine










Latest NASA videos


----------



## Drone (Jun 1, 2016)

Orbital ATK Conducts Test of Antares First Stage










Next Space Station Crew Continues Pre-launch Training Tradition in Russia


----------



## Drone (Jun 3, 2016)

Earth from Space: Southern Maine










Narrated 3D tour of the International Space Station


----------



## Drone (Jun 6, 2016)

latest episode of Space to Ground











Baikonur Cosmodrome (June 5): Rollout of rocket «Протон-М» with «Бриз-М» booster and telecommunication satellite Intelsat DLA-2










Launch is on Wednesday (June 8)


----------



## Drone (Jun 8, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Jun 9, 2016)

June 9* Full coverage* of delayed launch of РКН Протон-М with Intelsat DLA-2 (_almost_ live, just 3 hours late, yeah yeah I was sleeping)










Launch only


----------



## Drone (Jun 11, 2016)

new episode of space to ground:










Cygnus Packed for Space Station Mission on This Week @NASA – June 10, 2016


----------



## Drone (Jun 12, 2016)

ISS timelapse and UK from space


----------



## Drone (Jun 13, 2016)

*A top secret eavesdropping satellite* constructed to support America's national defense plowed a dazzling path to orbit Saturday riding atop the immense firepower of the* mightiest rocket in the world* – the _triple barreled Delta IV Heavy_ powerhouse.










A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) soared to space under mostly sunny sunshine state skies from Space Launch Complex-37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on June 11.

Launch Broadcast










Highlights










*************************

More innocent space news:

Tim Peake's dizziness experiment


----------



## Drone (Jun 14, 2016)

_Cosmonautics 2047
_
Earth & Moon Space tourism; Space hotels; Lunar base; manned Venus flyby; manned mission to Mars;











Timelapse: Sentinel-1B prepares for liftoff (April 2016)


----------



## Drone (Jun 14, 2016)

A crane lifts the structural test article of the launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) after final manufacturing on a 30-foot welding tool at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The LVSA will connect two major sections of the upper part of NASA's Space Launch System - the core stage and the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) - for the first flight of the rocket and the Orion spacecraft. SLS will be the world's most powerful rocket and carry astronauts in NASA's Orion spacecraft on deep-space missions, including the journey to Mars.

Orion Dives Deep for the Sake of Safety










NASA Ignites Fire Experiment Aboard Space Cargo Ship


----------



## Drone (Jun 15, 2016)

This image shows the LISA Pathfinder launch composite (spacecraft plus propulsion module) at the IABG test center in Ottobrunn, near Munich, Germany, on 31 August 2015, before it was shipped to the launch site. In January 2016, seven weeks after launch, LISA Pathfinder reached its operational orbit around ‘L1’, the first libration point of the Sun-Earth system, a virtual point in space some 1.5 million km from Earth toward the Sun.


----------



## Drone (Jun 17, 2016)

SpaceX Rocket Crashes in Latest Landing Attempt










Amazing collage video by ROSCOSMOS










Cygnus Leaves Station and Begins Fire Research


----------



## ste2425 (Jun 17, 2016)

Those videos are brilliant, but my god the music. It's like im back at school...


----------



## Drone (Jun 18, 2016)

Tim Peake Blood Draw










Earth from Space: Southern Tibetan Plateau










Space to Ground: How Fires Spread in Space : 06/17/2016


----------



## Drone (Jun 18, 2016)

part 2:

Crew Leaves Station After 186 Days in Space




















watch it (almost) live: (just finished)


----------



## Drone (Jun 20, 2016)

The 5th launch of the year for Arianespace, and the 3rd in 2016 using an Ariane 5, took place on Wednesday, June 18 at 18:38 pm local time from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. This mission was the heavy-lift launcher's 72nd consecutive success. It set a payload lift record to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for the Ariane 5 ECA by lofting a total mass of *10 730 kg*.











***********







ESA astronaut Tim Peake, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and commander Yuri Malenchenko landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan on Saturday, 18 June in their Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft. The trio spent 186 days on the ISS.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 23, 2016)

India successfully launched a rocket carrying 20 satellites


The rocket blasted off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota carrying satellites from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia, the most in a single Indian mission.

Most of the satellites are intended to observe and measure the Earth's atmosphere, while another aims to provide services for amateur radio operators.







Among the 20 satellites launched on Wednesday were 13 from the US including one from a Google-owned company and two from Indian universities.

Last month India successfully launched its first mini space shuttle as it joined the global race to make reusable rockets.

In 2013 India sent an unmanned rocket to orbit Mars at a cost of just $73 million compared with NASA's Maven Mars mission which had a $671 million price tag.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 28, 2016)

A booster for the most powerful rocket in the world has been fired up in the Utah desert.

The key component of Nasa's Space Launch System successfully fired up for its second qualification ground test at Orbital ATK's test facilities in Promontory, Utah.

It is the last full-scale test for the booster before SLS's first uncrewed test flight with NASA's Orion spacecraft in late 2018, a key milestone on the agency's Journey to Mars.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 2, 2016)

Russia has revealed plans for its own new space station to replace the ISS when it comes to an end.

Called the Russian Orbital Station, or ROS, it will will include three modules, with an option to add two more at a later date. It is believed the station could become integral to Russia's plans to return to the moon and build a lunar base by 2030.





The Russian Nauka module, which is set to be launched to the ISS next year would form the basis of the new station.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauka_(ISS_module)


According to Russian space expert Anatoly Zak, writing at Popular Mechanics, the detailed plans for the Russian station have been revealed for the first time. 

Previously the Russians had mulled a station called Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex (OPSEK). 

The new station would be formed by disconnecting a yet to launch Russian module called Nauka, currently scheduled to launch in December 2017.








'According to RKK Energia, the prime Russian contractor on the ISS, the new outpost would begin with the separation of the Nauka from the rest of the old station in mid-2020s.


----------



## Drone (Jul 4, 2016)

Russian Docking System Tested Aboard the ISS










Expedition 48-49 Crew Final Launch Preparations in Kazakhstan











Space to Ground (new episodes)


----------



## Drone (Jul 4, 2016)

ISS Timelapse by ISAA - Entering Mediterranean through Gibraltar










A trailer by ROSCOSMOS
















The Soyuz MS spacecraft is transported from a hangar to the launchpad ahead of its launch scheduled for July 7 at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan

here's rollout video:


----------



## Drone (Jul 5, 2016)

SLS Booster


----------



## Drone (Jul 6, 2016)

Tim Peake, Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra landed on Earth on 18 June after 186 days in space (high quality images by ESA)
















*****

And this is new:

ТПК Союз МС crew press-conference:


----------



## Drone (Jul 7, 2016)

Almost live (3 hours late) full coverage:

Expedition 48-49 launches to the ISS










Launch only











plus some photos:


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 7, 2016)

Frequent visitors to this thread will enjoy this BBC oldie " 1965-1966 Man in Space"


----------



## Drone (Jul 7, 2016)

Expedition 48-49 - *9 minutes to Space* (2 versions)



















I translate the captions:

высота - altitude

дальность - distance

скорость - velocity

перегрузка - g-force

невесомость - weightlessness

орбита ИСЗ - satellite orbit


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## Drone (Jul 8, 2016)

Lol I've just watched and analyzed both versions. It's kinda cool to look at that numbers. 27 011 km/h, so they got to 202 km altitude (artificial satellite orbit) just in 9 minutes with 1836 km distance [at 8:48 they hit weightlessness, g-force suddenly drops from 3 to 0]


edit: captions at the bottom say:


отделение 1-й ступени - first stage separation
отделение 2-й ступени - second stage separation
отделение ТПК - manned spacecraft separation


----------



## Drone (Jul 9, 2016)

A Peek Inside SLS






QM-2 infographic explains everything you need to know about the 5-segment solid rocket motor designed for the SLS







***********










Expedition 48-49 Crew  [Rubins, Ivanishin and Onishi]  Docked & Welcomed to ISS



















************


ISS timelapses by Riccardo Rossi from ISAA


----------



## Drone (Jul 13, 2016)

ISS Timelapse - Super Typhoon Nepartak










Highlights mid-2016


----------



## Drone (Jul 13, 2016)

Crew members on the ISS re-installed the first 3D printer in orbit. The goal of having the printer on the orbiting laboratory is to demonstrate that additive manufacturing can be used to make a variety of parts and tools in space, reducing the need to send replacements from Earth.






In this view looking up from the floor of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 4 levels of new work platforms are now installed on the north and south sides of High Bay 3. The G-level work platforms were most recently installed, at about the 14th floor level.










Astronauts Talk about Research on the ISS


----------



## Drone (Jul 14, 2016)

Nostalgic video:










NASA's Juno spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter after being launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on August 5, 2011










July 14, 2016: Baikonur cosmodrome engineers are assembling Союз-У carrier rocket and Прогресс МС-03 cargo spacecraft.

Rollout is on July 15 and launch is on July 17.


----------



## Drone (Jul 15, 2016)

Earth from Space: Sundarbans web










Space-to-Ground: A New Crew Arrives: 07/15/2016










SpaceX | First-stage landing | Onboard camera










Alien Enthusiasts Say NASA Covers Up UFO Sightings










edit: new image from ISS. St. Petersburg and Tampa, US


----------



## Drone (Jul 16, 2016)

Союз-У carrier rocket rollout. Yay!


----------



## Drone (Jul 17, 2016)

Progress cargo spacecraft successfully launched and headed to ISS  Just finished watching live stream.

full coverage


----------



## Drone (Jul 18, 2016)

SpaceX Launches Resupply Mission to the ISS


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 18, 2016)

SpaceX nails its FIFTH rocket landing: Falcon 9 returns to launch pad after sending new-style docking port to the ISS


----------



## Drone (Jul 18, 2016)

Awww maaaaan, what a bummer, I totally forgot about this:

United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket has completed the US Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) constellation. The launch occurred at Friday, June 24, 2016, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

full broadcast:










highlights:










rocket cam:











**********


New image by ESA:






Sentinel-2B being prepared for testing in the Large Space Simulator at ESA's technical heart in the Netherlands. The 15 m-diameter simulator mimics the cold and heat of space. The satellite was shipped from Airbus Defence and Space's Friedrichshafen facility in Germany to ESA's test centre in June 2016. Here, it's being put through a stringent environmental test campaign to make sure it's ready for its life in space. In 2017, Sentinel-2B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-2A, in orbit around Earth to provide multispectral imagery for a multitude of applications, from monitoring the health of the world's vegetation to mapping regions struck by natural disaster.


----------



## Drone (Jul 18, 2016)

Digging up some old stuff:






The final of four MMS spacecraft being released from its Centaur upper stage (March 12, 2015)










A short video showing the August 3, 2004 launch of NASA's MESSENGER mission to Mercury


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## Drone (Jul 18, 2016)

part 2:

Two views of launch of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket on January 19, 2006, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
New Horizons was the fastest spacecraft ever launched, leaving Earth at ~ 36000 mph.











Space Shuttle flight 35 (STS-31), narrated by the astronauts, launched on 24 April 1990. This mission launched the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).












On Oct. 15, 1997, a seven-year journey to the ringed planet Saturn began with the liftoff of a Titan IVB/Centaur carrying the Cassini orbiter and its attached Huygens probe.


----------



## Drone (Jul 19, 2016)

*Russian Resupply Ship Arrives at Space Station*

Two days after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the unpiloted Russian ISS Progress 64 cargo ship automatically docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment on the Russian segment of the ISS July 18. The new Progress is delivering three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the six crewmembers comprising the Expedition 48 crew. The Progress will remain attached to the station until late January, when it will undock and commanded to deorbit so it can burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.


----------



## Drone (Jul 19, 2016)

*Edited raw footage compilation of the launches of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity*. Shot with HD cameras on a tracker at Kennedy Space Center. | NASA | Date: 07.21.2009










*3D-video* of the launch of Soyuz-U carrier rocket with Progress MS-03 cargo spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome | Roscosmos | Date: 07.17.2016


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 19, 2016)

SpaceX has applied for permission to build new landing pads at the Cape Canaveral HQ it leases from Nasa.

It would allow all three main rockets of the firm's upcoming Falcon Heavy to land back at base before being prepared for reuse. 






The space launch company is now seeking federal permission for two new areas for landing spent rockets, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The company told the Sentinel that the new landing areas are needed to prepare for the possibility of landing three rockets – all within minutes of each other.

'SpaceX expects to fly Falcon Heavy for the first time later this year,' the company said in a statement responding to questions. 

'We are also seeking regulatory approval to build two additional landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 

'We hope to recover all three Falcon Heavy rockets, though initially we may attempt drone ship landings' at sea.

Exactly how the rocket will take flight and return to Earth has been detailed in a new promotional video.

It is estimated that each flight of the rocket will eventually cost about £56 million ($85 million).

For comparison, Nasa's comparable Space Launch System, which admittedly is more powerful, will cost about £330 million ($500 million) per launch. 

To do this, SpaceX plans to return most of the rocket back to the launchpad, enabling its boosters to be used on multiple flights. 

The rocket is designed with a central core booster that is derived from the smaller Falcon 9 rocket - which has already completed many successful flights.

Strapped to either side are two additional Falcon 9 rocket cores. 

Once they have exhausted most of their fuel, the two side boosters are released.

The video shows how they will then spin around in Earth's atmosphere and descend in a controlled manner back to Earth.


----------



## Drone (Jul 21, 2016)

New image from ISS:







Some old stuff:

*Venus Express* is ESA's first spacecraft to voyage to our nearest planet; it was built around the design of Mars Express, making it quicker and cheaper to develop. In particular, Venus Express is observing the Venusian atmosphere and clouds in unprecedented detail and accuracy. Venus Express was launched on 9 November 2005.











Watch the replay of the launch of *MetOp-B* from Baikonur cosmodrome on-board a Soyuz launcher on 17 September 2012.
MetOp-B is the second in the series of 3 identical polar-orbiting weather satellites to provide data for weather forecasting and climate monitoring. MetOp-A was launched in 2006, MetOp-B will be followed by MetOp-C, which is scheduled for launch in 2016.


----------



## Drone (Jul 22, 2016)

Latest videos by NASA/ESA


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 23, 2016)

Inside Apollo 11's command module: Stunning new Smithsonian 3D scan

To mark the 47th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission, the Smithsonian has revealed a stunning high resolution 3D model of the command module 'Columbia,' the spacecraft that carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon. 
















The digital model is accessible through the Smithsonian X 3D website, which includes a free browser and the ability to download the data for use in modeling programs and to print using a 3D printer. The model will also be featured in the museum's upcoming "Destination Moon" exhibition.


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## Drone (Jul 24, 2016)

Atlas V Lifts Off: Launch sends the Solar Dynamics Observatory toward space (Feb. 11, 2010)










India's 'Mars Orbiter Mission' blasts off (Nov. 5 , 2013)















SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the Jason-3 spacecraft. (Jan. 17, 2016). NASA launched Jason-3 into orbit for NOAA















NASA Kepler Mission Launch (March 6, 2009)


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## dorsetknob (Jul 24, 2016)

Is Our @RCoon oft to space or is he just blagging NASA publicity


----------



## Drone (Jul 25, 2016)

*Rocket Science in 2 minutes: Orbital Mechanics* by UnitedLaunchAlliance










*SpaceX Dragon CRS-9 chasing the ISS*







*Tale of Two Ships*










*Dawn Launch*

Dawn spacecraft thundered off the launch pad aboard a Delta II rocket on the first part of its journey to the asteroid belt. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., 27th September 2007


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## Drone (Jul 25, 2016)

Herschel and Planck spacecraft launched on May 14, 2009, from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
Herschel will explore, with unprecedented clarity, the earliest stages of star and galaxy birth in the Universe. Planck will look back to almost the beginning of time itself, gathering new details to help explain how our Universe came to be.

************************










XMM-Newton is an orbiting X-ray observatory. It was launched by the ESA from Kourou on 10 December 1999 by an Ariane 5 rocket.


************************










When Spitzer launched (25 August 2003) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, members of the Spitzer team were poised two miles away with an infrared camera. At that distance, the Delta II Heavy rocket carrying Spitzer was barely a speck, but in the infrared, the heat in the rocket's plume is extremely bright.

This clip shows the launch of Spitzer in the infrared, including the cooling of the plume after the rocket flies out of frame. The reason it looks like the clouds light up and come down to meet the rocket is because the clouds are reflecting/scattering the bright infrared light of the hot rocket engines below.

**********************










During the test, force is increasingly applied to the top of a composite barrel to evaluate the structural integrity of the test article.

*********************











NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on a mission explore to near-Earth asteroid Bennu, a carbon-rich body that may contain clues to the origins of life.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 25, 2016)

@Drone

mega thanks....infra red rocket launches !!!!!

i just had an eyegasm............


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## Drone (Jul 26, 2016)

Pioneer 1 Explosion & Blowup (1959)










Pioneer 4 Launch (1959)










IBEX launch (October 19, 2008)










Themis Spacecraft aboard a Delta Rocket, Feb 17, 2007


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## Drone (Jul 27, 2016)

Launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia (July 23, 2009) with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

STS-93 was the first mission in space shuttle history to be commanded by a woman, Eileen Collins.

****************










NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer spacecraft (Dec 14, 2009) lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a mission to map the entire sky at four infrared wavelengths, cataloging hundreds of millions of objects.

***************










Space shuttle Atlantis and its 6-member crew began an 11-day delivery flight to the ISS on Nov 16, 2009.


----------



## Drone (Jul 29, 2016)

Just for fun another episode with Nye:










********************

Flying Down to Hadley Rille, Apollo 15 Moon Landing, 1971










**********










**********










**********


----------



## Drone (Jul 29, 2016)

******

In preparation for launch, the NROL-61 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is mated to an Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility.










*Atlas V carrying NROL-61 lifts off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL., July 28 2016*

Highlights










Rocket Cam










Full coverage


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 31, 2016)

SpaceX has received a second contract from Nasa to take astronauts to the International space Station.

The award is seen as another important step in returning U.S. astronaut launches from U.S. soil.

Currently, Russian Soyuz craft are Nasa's only option since the end of the Space Shuttle programme.

It is the fourth and final guaranteed order NASA will make under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts. 

Boeing received its two orders in May and December of 2015, and SpaceX received its first order in November 2015. 

Both companies have started planning for, building and testing the necessary hardware and assets to carry out their first flight tests, and ultimately missions for the agency.

At a later time, NASA will identify which company will fly the first post-certification mission to the space station. Each provider's contract includes a minimum of two and a maximum potential of six missions.









SpaceX is building four Crew Dragon spacecraft at its Hawthorne facility -- two for qualification testing and two for flight tests next year. 

The company also is in the process of modifying Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from which the company will launch future crewed missions to the space station.

A standard commercial crew mission to the station will carry as many as four crew members and about 220 pounds of pressurized cargo, and remain at the station for as long as 210 days, available as an emergency lifeboat during that time. 


The fourth Falcon 9 rocket carried the Thaicom 8 communications satellite into orbit in May this year before landing safely, marking the company's fourth successfully landing.

Now the company has begun testing this rocket as it prepares to meet its goal of relaunching a 'reusable' rocket by October.


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## Drone (Aug 1, 2016)

Next century, an asteroid called Bennu could fly between the moon and Earth, possibly threatening life on Earth. So of course, NASA wants to study it.










*******************************************

NASA marches on with test of RS-25 engine for New Space Launch System


----------



## Drone (Aug 1, 2016)

A nice collection of HD videos of NASA's STS launches (125,127,128,135)





































********************************************

DSCOVR Launches Aboard SpaceX Falcon 9


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 2, 2016)

Virgin Galactic says it has received an operating license for its space tourism rocket from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The firm says the operating license awarded by the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation will ultimately permit commercial operations.

The company said Monday the licensing process involved a review of the system's design, safety analysis and flight trajectory analysis.







statement released yesterday


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## Drone (Aug 3, 2016)

Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building @ NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, platform installation reached the midpoint in High Bay 3, with installation of the F north and south platforms










Five summers in the making, the Future Heavy rocket successfully launched from Fort Carson Army Post on July 24, 2016. At just over 50 feet tall, it is *the largest sport rocket ever launched*. It carried 19 payloads built by student teams ranging from kindergarten through college. Over 300 students had a hand in creating the rocket and its payloads. The event was sponsored by ULA, Ball Aerospace and the Space Foundation.

/removed/

Engineers and astronauts conducted testing in a representative model of the Orion spacecraft @ NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to gather the crew's feedback on the design of the docking hatch and on post-landing equipment operations.













CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> That Future Heavy rocket video is brilliant, i often watch the amateur launches on y/t but that one is a stonker.
> 
> Nice one @Drone



Not a problem glad we could watch it. Dunno why but ULA just removed the video


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 3, 2016)

That Future Heavy rocket video is brilliant, i often watch the amateur launches on y/t but that one is a stonker.

Nice one @Drone


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## Drone (Aug 4, 2016)

ULA re-added Future Heavy video










not 100% space-related but new interesting videos by NASA

NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins Talks About Microbes


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 9, 2016)

In June, Nasa conducted a crucial test of a booster for its Space Launch System. Nasa was also testing out a revolutionary new camera, recording the rocket booster in never before seen detail.

Nasa’s new High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) shows rocket motor plumes in brilliant detail.
http://gameon.nasa.gov/files/2015/11/FS_HiDyRS-X_150504.pdf







The camera was created to overcome the problem that exists when trying to film rocket motor tests.

The plumes created are extremely loud, as well as bright, making them difficult to record without drastically cutting down the exposure settings on the camera.

Unlike most cameras, which only use one exposure at a time, the HiDyRS-X records multiple, slow motion video exposures simultaneously.

The camera was used during the massive booster test, called QM-2, at Orbital ATK’s test facility in Utah.

This is the Space Launch System’s final test before it is scheduled to launch in a test flight in 2018.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 10, 2016)

80 seconds of your life....its all i ask for


EPIC VID


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 12, 2016)

This week Nasa named its six partners for developing craft to house a human crew in deep space.

Concept habitats will be built here on Earth, to help the space agency gain a better insight into the needs and opportunities for extensive manned missions around the moon and beyond. 


Nasa has released artists' impressions from its six contenders, which come from well-established aerospace firms already working with space agencies on satellite and probe technology.

Included in the mix is Bigelow Aerospace, the Nevada-based firm behind the inflatable pod recently installed on the International Space Station, as well as long standing partners Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

The partnerships are part of Nasa's 'NextSTEP' programme, which will see a mix of private and public expertise and resources combined to push the existing boundaries of manned space exploration, initially testing a manned habitat near the moon as a testing ground for Mars and beyond.

‘The NextSTEP partnerships are a large contribution to the dual objectives of advancing deep space habitation development and stimulating commercial activities in low-Earth orbit,’ said Jason Crusan, Nasa’s director of Advanced Exploration Systems.




Boeing







Lockheed Martin







Orbital ATK  Cygnus







Sierra Nevada Corp. Dream Chaser







Ixion







Bigelow


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## Drone (Aug 12, 2016)

A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral (on June 11, 2008) carrying NASA's Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST).
















**********

NEW videos: DSI


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## Drone (Aug 13, 2016)

New video:

The Air Force's AFSPC-6 payload, encapsulated inside a 4-meter diameter payload fairing, is transported and mated to a Delta IV rocket at Space Launch Complex-37. AFSPC-6 will deliver two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites to near-geosynchronous orbit. The twin GSSAP spacecraft, built by Orbital ATK, will support U.S. Strategic Command space enhanced awareness operations.











Old stuff:

Delta II rocket carrying _Dawn_ spacecraft






_New Horizons_ atop an Atlas V booster on Jan. 19, 2006.


----------



## Drone (Aug 14, 2016)

The private spaceflight company launched the satellite for Japanese company SKY Perfect JSAT on Aug. 14, 2016. SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of the rocket on the company's drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.






Full webcast: (lift-off stars around 17 min)
















The vertical landing on the reconverted deck barge in the Atlantic Ocean was especially challenging because the JCSAT-16 satellite had to be carried into a highly elliptical orbit some 36000 km above the Earth's equator.


----------



## Drone (Aug 15, 2016)

Latest space news/videos


----------



## Drone (Aug 17, 2016)

Latest space news/videos


----------



## Drone (Aug 17, 2016)

Nasa Exploring Beyond:















NASA Successfully Launches Student Experiments from Wallops














NASA Commentator Lori Meggs at the Marshall Space Flight Center talks to Dr. Alan Hargens, professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California, San Diego, about back pain and injury that many astronauts experience during and after long-duration missions.











ESA astronaut Tim Peake inaugurated Futures Day at Farnborough International Airshow


----------



## Drone (Aug 17, 2016)

Part 2: A couple of old/new videos I forgot to watch/post. Some might be not 100% launch/blast-off related but they all got something to do with space anyway:


NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, at 11:35 a.m. Tuesday, May 17 2016










Rosetta Plush Toy Reaches Stratosphere










See a Massive Rocket Fuel Tank Built in A Minute










What Is a Sounding Rocket?


----------



## Drone (Aug 19, 2016)

Latest videos:




























Delta IV AFSPC-6 launched today

(Almost) Live Launch Broadcast


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 19, 2016)

Thanks for the heads up on the launch.


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## dorsetknob (Aug 19, 2016)

clicked link wah................... 20 min to launch   ta very much
Always Nice to See non *Nuclear* tipped Rockets launch


----------



## Drone (Aug 20, 2016)

latest episodes of space to ground




















NASA conducted another firing of an RS-25 development engine (the first one is in post#328 on this page)















NASA hopes to sell International Space Station










************






Atlas V rocket with NASA's Juno spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, August 5, 2011. Photo credit: Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance


----------



## Drone (Aug 20, 2016)

Outside the ISS, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA installed a new docking port onto the forward end of the Harmony module during a spacewalk on August 19. The first of two IDA was installed and latched in place onto Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 on the forward end of Harmony, the same place that space shuttles used to dock during the shuttle era. The new docking port will be the port of call for the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 “Starliner” commercial crew vehicles that are under development. The docking adapter was launched in July aboard a SpaceX/Dragon cargo vehicle. A second docking adapter for the U.S. commercial crew vehicles is being constructed and will ultimately be placed on the space-facing side of the Harmony module. Williams and Rubins will conduct a second spacewalk on Sept. 1 to retract a thermal radiator on the port truss of the station and install the first of several HD cameras outside the complex.












dorsetknob said:


> clicked link wah................... 20 min to launch   ta very much



Specially for you Delta IV AFSPC-6 Launch Highlights


----------



## Drone (Aug 25, 2016)

On 24 August 2016, Ariane 5 flight VA232 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two satellites, Intelsat-33e and Intelsat-36, into their planned orbits.

full











highlights











Other news:


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## Drone (Aug 26, 2016)

I've updated Intelsat launch video (see post above).


Lots of stuff for today, here's part 1:


Here's a new episode of SpacetoGround












Spitzer Space Telescope Begins 'Beyond' Phase






read here













New images from ISS















Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center conducted a splashdown test of the Orion Crew Module Ground Test Article on Aug. 25, 2016. The goal of this series of tests to gather data on simulated splashdowns in stressful landing scenarios.











(full)


----------



## Drone (Aug 26, 2016)

Part 2

The SpaceX CRS-9 Dragon cargo craft departed the ISS Aug. 26 after 5 weeks at the complex. Dragon delivered critical science experiments and the first IDA to which U.S. commercial spacecraft will link up to in the future.











**************


ULA Innovation: Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage



















A Concept to Study How Space Affects Multiple Generations


----------



## Drone (Aug 26, 2016)

part 3:

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Roscosmos cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov will launch to the ISS Sept. 23 aboard the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

At Baikonur launch site the spacecraft passed leak test in a vacuum chamber.










****

Some old stuff:

The WMAP Spacecraft (Delta II rocket) was launched on June 30, 2001. It was an almost perfect launch, on time to the second. This photo is taken at Kennedy Spaceflight Center Launch, Pad 17B.







It's the only video of that launch


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 27, 2016)

SpaceX Dragon capsule lands in Pacific carrying 12 moustronauts








A SpaceX Dragon capsule that helped prepare the International Space Station for future commercial astronaut flights has returned to Earth after a stay of more than a month.

A robotic arm released the unmanned capsule packed with 3,000 pounds of cargo at 6:11 a.m. EDT. The capsule then fired thrusters several times to move a safe distance away from the station orbiting about 250 miles up.

Among the cargo brought back from space Friday were a dozen mice from a Japanese science experiment — the first brought home alive in a Dragon. Samples from mice euthanized as part of an experiment by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly also were on board.

Results were returned from an experiment that studied the behavior of heart cells in microgravity, and from research into the composition of microbes in the human digestive system, NASA said. Findings from both could help keep astronauts healthy during deep space exploration missions.

Recovery crews planned to lift the Dragon onto a ship and return it to port in Long Beach, California, where time-sensitive cargo like the mice would be removed. The spacecraft then will be shipped to a SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas, for post-flight processing


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 1, 2016)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its pad during a test Thursday morning at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. No one was injured.

Witnesses reported seeing a fireball, hearing multiple explosions, feeling shock waves in buildings several miles away at Kennedy Space Center and seeing a plume of smoke rising from Launch Complex 40 just after 9 a.m









http://www.floridatoday.com/story/t...09/01/explosion-reported-spacex-pad/89710076/


----------



## dorsetknob (Sep 1, 2016)

Whats the Warranty on Refurbished Falcon 9 rockets ??? (This was the Refurbished Rocket ??? )


----------



## dorsetknob (Sep 1, 2016)

Re 


CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its pad during a test Thursday morning at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. No one was injured.



Its not all bad News 
Here is the good news part relating to the Above Story

A launchpad explosion at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida during a SpaceX rocket test has just destroyed Facebook's $200m Amos-6 satellite.


----------



## dont whant to set it"' (Sep 1, 2016)

@CAPSLOCKSTUCK  good to know it was only a test, alltough we may not know if it had payload (du.my one or not). Or do we ,oh but can we and we can imagine a Cold War.
Sorry fo using "we" instead of the "I"


----------



## dorsetknob (Sep 1, 2016)

dont whant to set it"' said:


> good to know it was only a test, alltough we may not know if it had payload (



It had a payload !!!
Payload was Facebook's $200m Amos-6 satellite.

Here is a more sucessfull test launch


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 1, 2016)

dont whant to set it"' said:


> @CAPSLOCKSTUCK  good to know it was only a test, alltough we may not know if it had payload (du.my one or not). Or do we ,oh but can we and we can imagine a Cold War.
> Sorry fo using "we" instead of the "I"





it was scheduled for launch on saturday so it is a catastrophic blow. Not only has the launch vehicle been lost but the payload too. It will take time to rebuild the satellite and then reschedule a launch. Dont forget this is the system that could carry Americans back to space so it is a massive event.


The so-called "static fire" test is a standard pre-launch milestone that SpaceX performs. It serves as a countdown rehearsal that fuels the rocket and is intended to culminate in a brief firing of the rocket's nine Merlin main engines, while the rocket remains held down on the pad.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 8, 2016)

An American astronaut who set the US record for cumulative time in orbit has safely returned to Earth along with two Russian cosmonauts, following a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.

NASA's Jeff Williams, aged 58, logged a total of 534 days in space over four missions aboard the research outpost, commanding the station during British astronaut Tim Peake's time on the ISS.

The ISS commander landed in Kazakhstan at 7:13am local time (1:13am GMT) this morning aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule along with cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.


----------



## Drone (Sep 9, 2016)

ISRO successfully launches advanced weather satellite INSAT-3DR










OSIRIS-REx


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 15, 2016)

China is set to launch a second experimental space station, as it looks to have a manned station by 2022, state media said.

The Tiangong 2 is scheduled to launch just after 22:00 local time on Thursday from the Gobi desert.






artists impression

Next month two astronauts will go to the station to conduct research. Translated as Heavenly Palace 2 it is about 15m long and can have other missions dock with it.

The astronauts that will come on board next month are to spend a full month up there - a longer period of time than possible on Tiangong 1.

The programme for a space station kicked off in earnest with the 2011 launch of the Tiangong 1 which was a smaller prototype able to host astronauts, but for a shorter period of time.

It ended its data service earlier in 2016 but is still circling the earth's orbit, gradually coming closer. It is projected to burn upon entry in the atmosphere in the second half of 2017.

Eventually, Tiangong 3 is to be the final step on the way to a manned station. Around the year 2022 is the scheduled timeframe and the success of Thursday's launch will be crucial for any of those future ambitions.


https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/09/china-launch-tiangong-2-orbital-module/


----------



## Drone (Sep 16, 2016)

Latest episode of spacetoground











Soyuz MS-02 last preparations






























Gaia launch (2013) full replay


----------



## Drone (Sep 22, 2016)

On 16 September 2016, Vega flight VV07 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana to deliver Earth observation satellites into low orbit.
Four SkySat microsatellites for Terra Bella were released followed by PeruSAT-1, Perus's first Earth observation satellite.















Rosetta's final path










NASA SLS Booster Nozzle Plug Pieces Fly During Test


----------



## Drone (Sep 24, 2016)

new ESA videos:



















useful info




























image of the day:

The Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local galaxy, or DXL, sounding rocket launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on Dec. 13, 2012, to study the source of certain X-rays observed near Earth.


----------



## Drone (Sep 24, 2016)

More informative videos:

Journey to ISS part 2 & 3 by ESA (part 1 is in the post above)



















Another (old) video explaining how rocket engines work


----------



## Drone (Sep 30, 2016)

new videos by NASA




























and Roscosmos

Progress MS-4 is planned to be launched on October 20, 2016 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Sep 30, 2016)

The UN has signed a deal with Sierra Nevada to send one of its Dream Chaser space planes on a 14-day mission into low Earth orbit in 2021. It is the first time the UN has launched its own space mission and will allow developing nations to take part.






Developing countries will be the first to be offered a chance to take part in the 14-day mission, but any member state of the UN will be able to participate.

Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Mexico, Simonetta Di Pippo said: 'The space arena is growing increasingly diverse as private industry actors become more involved in space technologies and exploration.

'At UNOOSA we are committed to helping all countries benefit from space technologies and capabilities.

'I am pleased that SNC has partnered with us to provide such tangible opportunities in pursuit of this goal.

'It's great to see a company like SNC bring their expertise to UNOOSA's holistic approach to capacity building and our goal of bringing the benefits of space to all.'



2 years ago


----------



## Drone (Oct 6, 2016)

On 5 October 2016, Ariane 5 flight VA231 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites, Sky Muster II and GSAT-18, into their planned orbits.

full










highlights










launch only


----------



## Drone (Oct 10, 2016)

*Blue Origin* Flight 4 & 5 full coverage:



















Technicians moved a giant fuel tank from the Vertical Assembly Center where the tank recently completed friction stir welding to an adjacent work area at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. More than 1.7 miles of welds have been completed for core stage hardware at Michoud. This liquid hydrogen fuel tank is the largest piece of the core stage that will provide the fuel for the first flight of NASA's new rocket, *SLS*, with the Orion spacecraft in 2018. The tank is > 130 feet long, and together with the liquid oxygen tank holds 733000 gallons of propellant to feed the vehicle's four RS-25 engines to produce a total of 2 million pounds of thrust. SLS will have the power and capacity to carry humans to Mars.











Soyuz MS-02 will transport three members of the *Expedition 49* crew to ISS. MS-02 will be the 131st flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew will consist of a Russian commander and flight engineer, as well as an American flight engineer.

Training:


----------



## Drone (Oct 13, 2016)

ExoMars arrival seen by Mars Express










Simulated view of Schiaparelli's descent images






Launch Windows










Watch 60-Seconds of Major SLS Hardware Being Moved and Put in the Test Stand at NASA Marshall










Orion Solar Array Wing Passes First Test










Orion service module undergoes vibration tests










Soyuz MS-03 crew






ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet (right) with his fellow Expedition 50/51 crewmates NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson (left) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy (center), stand underneath a Soyuz rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome.


----------



## Drone (Oct 14, 2016)

MS-02 crew in Cosmonautics museum, Baikonur Cosmodrome

Guide shows Gagarin's uniform, spacesuit, Ivan Ivanovich (the mannequin who beta tested space), cosmonauts' IDs, computers/control panel and launch key that were used then.










Training and preparations


----------



## Drone (Oct 14, 2016)

new videos by ESA/NASA


----------



## Drone (Oct 15, 2016)

new NASA videos:

ISS over Hurricane Nicole (true speed)










Everything about Living in Space: Interview with NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, who spent 165 days in space during Expeditions 40 and 41 in 2014










New images of Antares Rocket: Raising/Rollout/Integration


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 16, 2016)

Tomorrow two Chinese asronauts will take off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre for a 30 day visit to Tiangong 2 space station.

See post # 362


----------



## Drone (Oct 16, 2016)

Progress MS-02 leaves the ISS










Expedition 49-50 Crew Prepares for Launch in Kazakhstan


----------



## Drone (Oct 17, 2016)

Soyuz Spacecraft Rolled Out for Oct. 19 Launch


----------



## Drone (Oct 18, 2016)

NASA Space Station Cargo Launches from Virginia on Orbital ATK Resupply Mission


















ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet during training on Soyuz docking simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow, Russia, October 2016.













Growing Plants and Vegetables in a Space Garden (Russian)


----------



## Drone (Oct 19, 2016)

The Soyuz MS-02 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the ISS at 4:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 19 (2:05 p.m. Baikonur time). At the time of launch, the space station was flying 252 statute miles over the south Atlantic, east of Brazil. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko are now safely in orbit. Over the next 2 days, the trio will orbit the Earth 34 times before docking to the space station's Poisk module at 5:59 a.m. Friday, Oct. 21.


****************

Meanwhile China's Shenzhou-11 docked with Tiangong-2 Spacelab


----------



## Drone (Oct 21, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Oct 22, 2016)

New videos:

Tiangong-2: Experiments carried out on third day










Space Launch System

















Some other stuff:















RL 10 Engine by Aerojet Rocketdyne

***********

Proton-M and GLONASS-M rollout, cosmodrome Baikonur, December 2009.


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 22, 2016)

"" THE VID"" i want Drone to post is

The Rastafarian /Jamaican Astronaut rolling a Spliff in zero gravity


----------



## Drone (Oct 22, 2016)

@dorsetknob  have you ever heard of Zambian "space program" ?


edit: And this link too


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 24, 2016)

70 years ago today

The photograph was taken on the 24 October 1946 by a camera on board a US Army rocket that launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

The US had employed a group of surrendered German rocket scientists towards the end of the Second World War, who used a Nazi missile to carry a Devry 35-millimetre camera to capture the image.








Air & Space Magazine.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 26, 2016)

Long March 5

China will debut its newest and largest rocket on November 3rd. This test flight will launch Shijian-17, an experimental satellite that will perform experiments with ion propulsion for station keeping.


















Here is a superb article about Long March 5
http://spaceflight101.com/spacerockets/long-march-5/


----------



## Drone (Nov 4, 2016)

Latest space videos:


----------



## the54thvoid (Nov 4, 2016)

commanderpa said:


> You may as will quit star gazing



Reported as a 'Bot'.

If you're not a Bot, post something fucking relevant.


----------



## the54thvoid (Nov 4, 2016)

commanderpa said:


> You are a crude dirty monkey now .


----------



## Drone (Nov 8, 2016)

New videos: Soyuz MS-03 and Galileo system status


----------



## Drone (Nov 11, 2016)

Small Sats are the Next Big Thing










Expedition 50-51 Crew: Training (Nov. 2)










Expedition 50-51 Crew Prepares for Launch in Kazakhstan










Soyuz MS-03: Fairing


----------



## Drone (Nov 14, 2016)

Soyuz MS-03 (last preparations, rollout is today/tomorrow)










ULA's Atlas V launches the WorldView-4 launch for Digital Globe (full broadcast) (3 h)










Atlas V WorldView-4 Launch Highlights ( 2mins)


----------



## Drone (Nov 14, 2016)

The Soyuz spacecraft moved into vertical position, on 14 November 2016, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad 1, in Kazakhstan.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and commander Oleg Novitsky will be launched 17 November for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.

















Old stuff:

A team of NASA, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Lockheed Martin engineers conducted a hotfire test of Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 engine E-15 on the E-1 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center on January 17, 2014. The AJ26 engines are used to power the first stage of Orbital's Antares rocket for its supply missions to the ISS.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 17, 2016)

Launch of Ariane 5 ES with Four Galileo Satellites











stream
https://livestream.com/ESA/galileos15-18


----------



## Drone (Nov 17, 2016)

@CAPSLOCKSTUCK here's full replay by ArianceSpace ( > 2 hours)











Other brand new videos by NASA and ULA


----------



## Drone (Nov 17, 2016)

*Arianespace Flight VA233 / Galileo FOC-M6 - SAT 15-16-17-18*

Transfer of Ariane 5 flight VA233 from the BAF to the launch pad







Ariane 5 flight VA233 on launch pad






Ariane 5 liftoff on flight VA233











Highlights


----------



## Drone (Nov 17, 2016)

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and Roscosmos commander Oleg Novitsky were launched to the ISS on 17 November from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft. Thomas, Peggy and Oleg will spend 6 months in space working and living on the ISS.


----------



## Drone (Nov 18, 2016)




----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 18, 2016)

Peggy Whitson, oldest woman in space





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38021422


----------



## Drone (Nov 18, 2016)

Yup and the video from NASA


----------



## Drone (Nov 19, 2016)

New footage with Taikonauts



















Taikonauts on Tiangong-2 greet ESA and Thomas Pesquet


----------



## Drone (Nov 20, 2016)

GOES-R Will Revolutionize Weather Forecasting


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 22, 2016)

ISS is 18








On November 20, 1998 the very first module of the ISS, renamed Zarya instead of the Functional Cargo Block, blasted into orbit from Russia, followed by a second module two weeks later. It wasn't until November 2, 2000 that humans moved on board – and have never left since – but NASA counts its birthday from the Zarya launch










https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/overview/index.html


----------



## Drone (Nov 26, 2016)

Footage shows launch failure of China's rocket 20 years ago










Rocket Science in 120: Propulsion










Expedition 50-51 Crew Docks to the ISS (Nov. 19)










U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Departs the Space Station Headed for a Destructive Reentry (Nov. 21)










China successfully launched the Tianlian I-04 satellite on Tuesday (Nov. 22) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.


----------



## Drone (Nov 26, 2016)

Work in progress for Progress MS-04

Heh nice pun. Launch is on December 1


----------



## Drone (Nov 28, 2016)

Soyuz's 50th anniversary! Congrats!










The first Soyuz was launched on November 28, 1966.


----------



## Drone (Nov 29, 2016)

Soyuz MS-04 completion and rollout. Launch is on Thursday


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 2, 2016)

No Christmas dinner on ISS


Russia's space agency says an unmanned cargo ship has crashed, 383 seconds after it blasted off en route to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

It came only hours after a keynote speech by Vladimir Putin to legislators in which he claimed Russia was successfully charting its way in the world despite Western sanctions.

The spacecraft, which was scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Saturday, was carrying rocket fuel and oxygen tanks, when it took off from the former Soviet cosmodrome at Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft lost contact with control and an explosion was reported near Biysk, in Siberia, around the time the spacecraft vanished.

It is not clear if the spacecraft came down in the Tuva Republic, in Siberia, or came down in neighbouring Mongolia or even the Pacific Ocean.


The loss will be seen as acutely embarrassing in Moscow, and especially for Rogozin who clamed 'issues of quality' over space launches had been stabilised after a series of failures.

NASA said: 'Our astronauts and the Russian cosmonauts are safe aboard the station. Consumables aboard the station are at good levels.'

Interfax reported the International Space Station has enough food reserves to continue working until the arrival of a reserve cargo rocket







Technical mishaps have complicated plans to extend the periods during which the ISS is fully staffed with six astronauts. Russia's Soyuz capsules offer the only way for global astronauts to reach the space station since the American space shuttle program was retired in 2011.

A similar incident with the Soyuz-U launch occurred in August 2011 when the third-stage engine failed due to the clogging of a fuel line, said Russian sources.


----------



## Drone (Dec 2, 2016)

New NASA and ESA videos



















Informative videos with CNN's Rachel Crane


----------



## Drone (Dec 4, 2016)

United Launch Alliance 10th anniversary


----------



## Drone (Dec 4, 2016)

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity Spaceship Makes 1st Solo Glide Flight


----------



## Drone (Dec 6, 2016)

^ duh video removed




Old images and video:  Azerspace-1 Launch 07.02.2013




















New video:

GÖKTÜRK-1 Launch Dec. 5 2016











New image from ISS


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 6, 2016)

Drone said:


> ^ duh video removed




theres one here


https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...-years-after-fatal-crash.225694/#post-3564894


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 6, 2016)

In celebration of Soyuz first launch on 28th November 1966 heres a video demonstrating the Korolev Cross – a beautifully geometric display named after the legendary Soviet rocket designer Sergei Korolev.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev


----------



## alucasa (Dec 6, 2016)

I wonder if there are still those who believe Earth is flat.


----------



## Drone (Dec 8, 2016)

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket carrying the eighth installment of the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite for the United States Air Force lifts off from Space Launch Complex-37. This was ULA's 11th launch in 2016 and the 114th successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006. WGS satellites are an important element of a new high-capacity satellite communications system providing enhanced communications capability to our troops in the field.

payload mate & mission profile




















full coverage (1h 25 m)










highlights


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 8, 2016)

We've lost a hero.

Former senator John Glenn, a war hero who went on to become the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, has passed away at the age of 95.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn


Glenn passed away on Thursday afternoon surrounded by family at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, over a week after he was first hospitalized for an unknown illness









In 1962, Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth (left). In 1998, he returned (right) to study its effects on the elderly, making him the oldest man to go into space at the age of 77






Glenn sits next to the Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962 space capsule atop an Atlas rocket just before he was launched into space to make the first orbit around the Earth


----------



## Drone (Dec 16, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Dec 16, 2016)

New:


----------



## Drone (Dec 18, 2016)




----------



## Drone (Dec 19, 2016)

Atlas V EchoStar XIX Live Launch Broadcast










Highlights











*************************

China's first dark matter satellite performing better than expected in first year


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 20, 2016)

Japan's space agency said it had successfully launched a solid fuel rocket named Epsilon-2.

The rocket is the latest in Tokyo's effort to stay competitive in an industry that has robust growth potential and strong security implications.









The 26-meter-long rocket, launched at about 8 p.m. (1100 GMT) from the Uchinoura Space Centre in southern Japan.

It then released a satellite for studying radiation belts around the earth soon after the lift-off, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

The Exploration of Energisation and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) mission will be operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), studying Earth’s magnetosphere. 

The Epsilon-2 three-stage rocket is part of a new generation of solid propellant rockets and makes it possible for launch costs to be reduced up to one third, according to JAXA.













https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/12/20/epsilon-erg-mission-status-center/


----------



## Drone (Dec 20, 2016)

This composite image, made from 10 frames, shows ISS as it transits Sun, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, from Newbury Park, California.


----------



## Drone (Dec 22, 2016)

On 21 December 2016, Ariane 5 flight VA234 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites, Star One-D1 and JCSat-15, into their planned orbits.
























full:


----------



## Drone (Jan 2, 2017)

Freeze!


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 4, 2017)

India is set to launch a rocket carrying 103 satellites next month in a record single mission.

The rocket will blast off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota carrying three Indian satellites and 100 from countries including from the US, France and Germany, the Press Trust of India said.

If it succeeds, India will set a world record as the first country to launch the most satellites in one go and leave behind Russia, which launched 39 satellites in a single mission in June 2014.

Last June, India set a national record after it successfully launched a rocket carrying 20 satellites, including 13 from the US.

In May, it successfully launched its first mini space shuttle as it joined the global race to make reusable rockets.

It sent an unmanned rocket to orbit Mars in 2013 at a cost of just $73 million, compared with NASA's Maven Mars mission which had a $671 million price tag.

ISRO is also mulling the idea of missions to Jupiter and Venus, according to PTI.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/sc...tes-at-one-go-in-February/article16987921.ece


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 16, 2017)

Gene Cernan, last man to walk on Moon, dies aged 82
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Cernan










Captain Cernan was one of only three people to go to the Moon twice and the last man to leave a footprint on the lunar surface in 1972.

The final words he spoke there were: "We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return with peace and hope for all mankind."

He was the commander of the Apollo 17 mission at the time.

Cernan had travelled into space twice before that - in 1966 and 1969.

A qualified naval aviator, he was selected into the third group of Nasa astronauts in 1963.

He retired in 1976, going into private business and contributing to US television channels on a variety of issues.

Cernan also produced a documentary film about his life, which he discussed at length in this BBC interview in 2014.

Cernan was born on 14 March 1934, in Chicago.







*APOLLO 17*
*Facts*


Lunar Module: Challenger

Command and Service Module: America

Crew: Eugene A. Cernan, commander
Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot
Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot

Launch: December 7, 1972
05:33:00 UT (12:33:00 a.m. EST)
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A

Landing Site: Taurus-Littrow
(20.18N, 30.76E) 

Landed on Moon: December 11, 1972
19:54:57 UT (02:54:57 p.m. EST) 

EVA Duration: 22 hours 4 minutes
( EVA 1: 7 hr 12 min, EVA 2: 7 hr 37 min., EVA 3 ended at 05:40:56 GMT on December 14.)

Lunar Surface Traversed: 30 kilometers 

Moon Rocks Returned: 110 kilograms 

LM Departed Moon: December 14, 1972
22:54:37 UT (5:54:37 p.m. EST)

Time on Lunar Surface: 74 hr. 59 min. 40 sec.
[19:54:57 UT December 11, 1972 - 22:54:37 GMT December 14, 1972]

Returned to Earth: December 19, 1972
splashdown at 19:24:59 UT (2:24:59p.m. EST) 

Mission Duration: 301 hr. 51 min. 59 sec. 

Retrieval site: Pacific Ocean 17° 53' S, 166° 7' W

Retrieval ship: _U.S.S. Ticonderoga_

Special Payload: Third mission with a lunar roving vehicle (LRV) that could transport two astronauts. The LRV could also carry tools, scientific equipment, communications gear, and lunar samples. 

Highlights/Notes:

First geologist on lunar surface.
Longest LRV traverse on a single EVA.
Greatest amount of lunar samples returned to Earth.


----------



## Drone (Jan 20, 2017)

Iridium-1 (full webcast)










Latest space news: (Rocket Science in 120, Earth from Space, SpacetoGround)




























Atlas V SBIRS GEO Flight 3 (full broadcast)


----------



## Drone (Jan 21, 2017)

Latest Space videos:





































Atlas V SBIRS GEO Flight 3 Launch Highlights


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 22, 2017)

Russia's space program and NASA are working together on a mission to Venus to try and uncover its mysteries - and look for signs of life.

Called Venera-D, the groundbreaking mission would send an orbiter to study Venus from above for at least three years, plus a lander that will operate for a few hours on the planet's surface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera-D


An international team of scientists tasked with deciding the main goals of the mission will deliver its final report to NASA and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute by the end of the month, David Senske, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. told Space.com.






A series of Russian probes sent to the planet in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, known as the Venera spacecraft, were able to survive no more than a few hours on the surface. Shown are images from the Venera 9 (top) and Venera 10 (bottom) probes that landed on the surface

http://vfm.jpl.nasa.gov/othervenusmissions/veneravegarussia/


----------



## Drone (Jan 25, 2017)

Arianespace Flight VS16: Hispasat 36W-1

Liftoff is scheduled for Friday, January 27, 2017 at exactly:

- 22:03:34 p.m., local time in French Guiana


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 26, 2017)

Russia's space agency said on Wednesday it had ordered extra checks to be made on its Proton-M rockets, meaning it might be forced to delay some satellite launches this year.

Roscosmos, the Russian equivalent of NASA, made the announcement after the Kommersant daily reported that manufacturing problems had been detected in some Proton-M rockets.

It said some launches were likely to be delayed by several months 'in a best case scenario.'







European, U.S. and Asian firms rely heavily on Russia to launch their commercial satellites, and a Roscosmos source told Kommersant that Moscow planned to launch 27 rockets this year, eight of which were Proton-Ms.

Kommersant reported that the problem was linked to components used in the rockets' engines and concerns that some of them were not sufficiently heat-resistant.


----------



## Drone (Jan 28, 2017)

Arianespace Flight VS16 / Hispasat 36W-1 (full broadcast) (1 h 36 m)











Launch + highlights (5 mins)


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 29, 2017)

Dream Chaser mini 'space taxi' arrives at Edwards Air Force Base ahead of 2019 missions to the International Space Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Chaser









The upcoming test campaign will help SNC validate the aerodynamic properties, flight software and control system performance of the Dream Chaser.






It is being prepared to deliver cargo to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract beginning in 2019.

The data that SNC gathers from this test campaign will help influence and inform the final design of the cargo Dream Chaser, which will fly at least six cargo delivery missions to and from the space station by 2024.










3 years ago


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 1, 2017)

The first private space station------ Axiom to blast commercial module to the ISS in 2020


Houston-based Axiom Space is working to build the privately-owned orbiting outpost that could one day replace the International Space Station and even bring tourists to space.

Axiom has already been granted NASA approval to attach its first commercial module to the ISS in 2020, and the firm says this could eventually provide the building blocks for their own station.

Axiom is working toward a ‘historic shift,’ in human spaceflight with the Axiom International Commercial Space Station, according to Space.com.

The commercial space station would host astronauts from government agencies along with private companies and individual researchers.

And, the firm would use it to grow the space-tourism business.

According to Axiom, training will start in 2017, with missions to follow in 2019.

‘We are now deep into conversations with our first nonsovereign astronaut customers,’ Axiom’s vice president of strategic development Amir Blachman told Space.com in an exclusive interview.

‘The pace is quick. We’re answering a demand that’s clearly there…the demand is there; the need is there.’

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Axiom has partnered with Made In Space – the California company that created 3-D printed products on the ISS.















Space.com.


----------



## Drone (Feb 3, 2017)




----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 7, 2017)

NASA is brought back to life in striking coloured photographs

The images, which have been expertly colourised over hundreds of hours of painstaking work, show intense discussions raging at Mission Control as well as astronauts in their space suits.





Gordon Cooper in May of 1963 during project Mercury  - the first human spaceflight program of the United States






John Glenn in 1962 during project Mercury, which saw Glenn make three orbits around the Earth on the Friendship 7 mission


The striking transformations were carried out by Irish artist Matt Loughrey as part of his project for 'My Colourful Past', who spent over 300 hours colourising the images.


----------



## Drone (Feb 10, 2017)

Latest space news:


----------



## Drone (Feb 15, 2017)

*****************


Arianespace has successfully launched two satellites: SKY Brasil-1 for AT&T/DIRECTV; and Telkom 3S for Telkom Indonesia as part of a turnkey contract with Thales Alenia Space.  The flight took place on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 6:39 p.m. (local time) from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Christophe Sirugue, French Minister of State for Industry, was on hand for the launch. This launch was the second of the year for Arianespace and the first with the Ariane 5 heavy launcher, which also recorded its 77th successful mission in a row.

full coverage










highlights


----------



## Drone (Feb 15, 2017)

Progress MS-05 work in progress










SAGE III ready for ozone checkup










The Earth: 4K Extended Edition










India launches record 104 satellites in single mission


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 16, 2017)

BIG space news.


Bob Walker, an adviser to the Trump transition team and a former congressman who chaired the House Science Committee, said Tuesday: “What I hear being discussed is the potential for sometime within the first Trump term being able to go and do an Apollo 8 mission" -- meaning a lunar orbit mission like the one performed by Apollo 8 in December 1968.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...practice-moon-mission/?utm_term=.2055d289cbe2


----------



## Drone (Feb 20, 2017)

"Союз-У" with "Прогресс МС-05" rollout










Launch is on Wednesday (22 February)


----------



## Drone (Feb 21, 2017)

VA235 / Behind the Scenes










CRS-10  Falcon 9


----------



## Drone (Feb 22, 2017)

Progress MS-05 launch


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 23, 2017)

Russias leading aerospace design contractor, Energia, has announced that it will start tourist flights to the moon in 2022.

The firm says it will sell nine places on its Soyuz spacecraft this spring that would allow tourists to fly within the moon's orbit on the way to the International Space Station

Vladimir Solntsev, CEO of Energia, announced the firm's plans this week.

Speaking to RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, Mr Solntsev said: 'In particular, we are ready to sign with one of such companies an agreement in March 2017.

'The flyby around the moon with space tourists could take place within five or six years after the signing of the contract.







https://ria.ru/space/20170222/1488564486.html


----------



## Drone (Mar 8, 2017)

*Atlas V NROL-79 *(launch and highlights) (March 1)



















Sentinel-2B (full broadcast and highlights) (March 6)


----------



## Drone (Mar 8, 2017)

Valentina Tereshkova's 80th birthday

Documentary (Russian)


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## dorsetknob (Mar 8, 2017)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Russias leading aerospace design contractor, Energia, has announced that it will start tourist flights to the moon in 2022.
> 
> The firm says it will sell nine places on its Soyuz spacecraft this spring that would allow tourists to fly within the moon's orbit on the way to the International Space Station





CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> 'The flyby around the moon with space tourists could take place within five or six years after the signing of the contract.


Curious to know if this commercial venture is subject to US / Nato /EU Sanctions ( as applied from Russia's Ukraine annexation adventures ).


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 12, 2017)

NASA engineers have successfully simulated the Orion spacecraft’s descent from 25,000 feet in the second of eight tests that will ready its parachutes for human spaceflight.

The test this week dropped a model of Orion from a C-17 aircraft, relying on two drogue parachutes and the three 116-foot-wide main parachutes for a safe landing.

It comes as NASA continues to investigate a request from Donald Trump's administration to asses the feasibility of sending a crew around the moon with the first integrated flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, Exploration Mission-1.









The tests at the US Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on Wednesday simulated what might happen if astronauts had to abort a mission after lift-off.

The model craft was dropped from an altitude of 25,000 feet, mimicking conditions in which Orion is traveling at a relatively slow speed of roughly 130 miles per hour.

During a normal re-entry at the end of its mission, the craft is expected to be traveling about 310mph.

Engineers focused on two main aspects of the system: the deployment of its two 23-foot-wide drogue parachutes, which are used to slow and stabilize the crew module, and the massive main parachutes that will slow the module to a safe landing speed.

This week’s test was the second of eight airdrop tests which are necessary to certify the parachute system for a crewed flight


----------



## Drone (Mar 20, 2017)

U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Departs the ISS










Soyuz MS-04 (work in progress)










Delta IV WGS-9  (March 17) launch

full broadcast and highlights


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 30, 2017)

The world's oldest and most experienced spacewoman, Peggy Whitson, broke another record on Thursday as she floated out of the International Space Station to set up a new parking spot.

It was the eighth spacewalk of her career, the most ever performed by a woman.









The NASA flight engineer is currently in the midst of her third stint at the International Space Station, and altogether, she's spent more than 500 days off the planet.

This, too, is more than any other woman.


And, midway through the spacewalk, Whitson will surpass the current record for women of 50 hours and 40 minutes of total accumulated spacewalking time, held by former space station resident Sunita Williams.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Whitson


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 20, 2017)

China has launched its first cargo spacecraft which is set to bring six tonnes of supplies to the country's space station.

The launch took place today at 7.41pm Beijing time (12.41am BST) and the cargo would be sent to China's space station, the Tiangong 2.

Tianzhou 1 is also expected also carry out experiments before it falls back to earth, reports the People's Daily Online. 








Tianzhou 1 is able to carry cargo and satellites and would conduct a gravitation experiment on its journey to the Tiangong 2.

It was carried into orbit today by a Long March 7 rocket.

Measuring 34 feet long and 10 feet in diameter, Tianzhou 1 is expected to operate in orbit at 236 miles above the earth before then docking with the Tiangong 2 space station.


----------



## Drone (Apr 20, 2017)

*Tianzhou 1*




























*Atlas V OA-7 Launch Highlights & Rocket CAM*


----------



## Drone (Apr 20, 2017)

Soyuz MS-04 (rollout, launch, highlights)


----------



## Drone (Apr 21, 2017)

new videos:


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Apr 24, 2017)

Veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson has just broken the record for the longest time spent in space by any American. 

The 57-year-old astronaut has previously broken records for being the oldest woman in space and for being the woman who has taken the most space walks.

The Nasa flight engineer is currently in the midst of her third stint at the International Space Station, where she is investigating the medical implications of space travel.







Dr Whitson broke the record at 1.27AM ET (6.27AM BST) today, logging 535 days in orbit.

She is expecting a call from Donald Trump and Ivanka from the Oval Office on Monday later today.

Dr Whitson has overtaken US astronaut Jeff Williams, who spent a total of 534 days in space.

By the time she lands back on Earth in September, Dr Whitson will have spent 666 days in orbit.


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## dorsetknob (Apr 24, 2017)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Dr Whitson will have spent 666 days in orbit.



"Doom" 666 sign of the Beast


CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> , where she is investigating the medical implications of space travel.


Will she come back Mutated beyond Belief  only kidding ( i hope )


----------



## Drone (Apr 29, 2017)

latest stuff:


----------



## Drone (May 1, 2017)

SpaceX 10th rocket for top secret mission 










space junk


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 4, 2017)

Two test shuttles were found inside a derelict Soviet warehouse near the Cosmodrome Baikonur, 125 miles east of the Aral Sea.

They were both developed as part of Moscow's Buran programme which was shut down in 1993 - but neither of the craft were sent to space.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)


In the same building, photographers pictured a vast Energia rocket, designed to propel the Buran, an unmanned space plane, into orbit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energia


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 13, 2017)

i just found this and its awesome


----------



## Drone (May 13, 2017)

Here's full documentary it covers absolutely everything about Buran. It's from Discovery Channel Russia.

You can turn on subtitles and change them from Russian to English.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 22, 2017)

New Zealand will launch its first ever test rocket tomorrow as the nation makes plans to join the commercial space race.

The nation has never had a space programme - but could soon be launching commercial rockets more often than the US.

Commercial space company Rocket Lab plans to launch 50 rockets a year from New Zealand within just a few years. 







The company's Electron rocket is unusual in many respects. It carries only a small payload of about 150 kilograms (331 pounds).

It's made from carbon fiber and uses an electric engine. Rocket Lab says each launch will cost just $5 million, a tiny fraction of a typical rocket launch.

Unlike SpaceX, which aims to build a rocket that's fully reusable, Rocket Lab's rockets are disposable.

Beck said they are light and use relatively little fuel. Customers who have signed up so far include NASA and Moon Express.








Electron Rocket (pictured) was designed by the California-based company Rocket Lab and features a 3D-printed engine


https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/05/rocket-labs-electron-inaugural-flight-new-zealand/


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 24, 2017)




----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 25, 2017)

New Zealand has launched a rocket 

The rocket, with 3D printed engines, was fired into space from a remote part of the North Island on Thursday afternoon.

Californian aerospace company Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket from the Mahia Peninsula, which reached space three minutes after it was launched at 4.20pm local time. While it didn't reach orbit, as hoped, Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck said the early stages of the mission went well, with the rocket reaching space after three previously failed launches.


----------



## dorsetknob (May 25, 2017)

Did the Sheep Astronaut survive  

no Seriously   good to see Another country achieve some form of Space Capability


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 1, 2017)

The flight plan for the ill-fated 1970 Apollo 13 mission which had to be altered following the an emergency on board has been unearthed.

The 352-page document bears the annotations made by all three crew members recording in detail the actions they had to take after an explosion ripped off part of their space ship.

Apollo 13 was to be the third mission to land on the moon, but just under 56 hours into flight, an oxygen tank explosion forced the crew to cancel the lunar landing and move into the Aquarius lunar module to return back to Earth. 







The incredible document from the mission will be sold next month at auction, where it is predicted to fetch between £23,343 and £31,124 ($30,000 — $40,000). 

The mission notes include the crucial changes made to the flight plan that ensured the stricken craft defied the odds and returned to Earth rather than float out to space.

Just under 56 hours into the mission, an oxygen tank explosion resulted in a major loss of electrical power to the command and service module.

The crew had to cancel the lunar landing and move into the Aquarius lunar module.

They used it as a lifeboat in order to survive a four day journey around the moon and return back to Earth.

With Nasa experts working around the clock and under tremendous pressure, an alternate flight plan had to be rapidly developed which resulted in the safe return of the crew despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

The flight plan, which measures 8.5in by 10in, is divided into seven sections consisting of timelines, consumables and food logs.

The notations in black felt-tip pen were by Lovell, in blue ball-point pen by Swigert and in pencil by Haise.

There is an element of foreshadowing as a problem with the tank gauge is noted nine hours before the oxygen tank exploded.
















The pre-ordained flight plan for hours 55 to 56 - the time of the explosion - has been crossed out with annotations made in haste as alternative plans were developed in light of the disastrous event.

The meal log at the back of the flight plan was altered because the loss of power caused by the explosion meant they could not boil water to rehydrate food.














http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...atures-crew-notes-explosion-article-1.3291509


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 20, 2017)

Today marks 48 years since man first set foot on the Moon


----------



## dorsetknob (Jul 20, 2017)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Today marks 48 years since man first set foot on the Moon



watched it "LIVE on Black and white TV"


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## RealNeil (Jul 23, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> watched it "LIVE on Black and white TV"



Me too.
My whole family did.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jul 25, 2017)

dorsetknob said:


> watched it "LIVE on Black and white TV"





RealNeil said:


> Me too.
> My whole family did




My Dad tells me we were on holiday during the first landing and we watched it through the window of a TV rental shop in Aberaeron. I can remember holding my Dads hand.


I was 3 and a half


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 13, 2017)

NASA has completed flight preparations for the four engines of the massive rocket that could one day carry astronauts to Mars.

According to the space agency, the engines are now ready to be integrated into the rocket’s core stage – the largest ever built.

The enormous rocket, dubbed the Space Launch System (SLS), will fly with the Orion spacecraft’s Exploration Mission-1 in 2019, in an unmanned test journey ahead of future crewed missions.







‘NASA’s priority is to deliver hardware for the first flight of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft,’ said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

‘This year, the SLS team has constructed major parts of the rocket, such as the in-space stage, which is already at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the four RS-25 engines, core stage structures, and solid rocket booster segments.’

The five structures that make up the huge core stage are now complete, NASA says.

This includes the section where the RS-25 engines will be installed.

The SLS rocket will use upgraded RS-25 engines, which have proven their capabilities over 135 shuttle missions.

Those to be used for EM-1 have supported a total of 21 missions so far, according to NASA.


They’ll be attached to the core stage ahead of green run testing, which will be the final test before the first mission.

‘NASA has transformed these phenomenal engines that served so well in the past for a new bold mission – the first integrated launch of SLS and Orion,’ said Steve Wofford, the SLS liquid engines manager at Marshall.







‘For engines needed beyond the first four flights, we are working with our industry partner Aerojet Rockedyne to streamline manufacturing and make future engines more affordable.’

NASA recently completed the welding on the liquid hydrogen tank, marking the last of the five parts to be built for the rocket’s core stage.

The enormous core stage will be taller than a 20-story building, and carry more than 700,000 gallons of propellant.

‘To make these massive propellant tanks, NASA and our industry partner Boeing have used the largest robotic rocket welding tool to build the thickest pieces ever welded with self-reacting friction stir welding,’ said Steve Doering, SLS stages manager at Marshall.









‘Now, we are moving from manufacturing major structures for the core stage to outfitting them to do their jobs and make the rocket fly.’

To test the liquid oxygen flight tank’s weld strength, the space agency filled the tank with 200,000 gallons of water, and subjected it to pressures and forces similar to those of a real flight.

Soon, the tank will be subjected to proof testing using gaseous nitrogen.

‘This rocket is happening now,’ said Honeycutt.

‘The Space Launch System team has made great progress and has an exciting year ahead as NASA conducts crucial structural tests at Marshall, assembles the core stage and the four RS-25 engines at Michoud and delivers more hardware to the launch pad at Kennedy.’


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## RealNeil (Oct 13, 2017)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> ‘This rocket is happening now,’ said Honeycutt.



Thanks for the post. It's a good read.

Having worked on the Space Shuttle Orbiter builds, one thing that I learned before I retired was that they never stop trying to make what they do better than before.
They're always trying new ideas, and nothing is too far-fetched for serious consideration. 
That they'll succeed is only a matter of time and effort. They have the proper mindset and lots of talent.

My youngest son is working for a company that provides robotics for the Tesla Automobile Assembly lines. 
He has an internship with NASA (in his spare time) working on the development of colonialization on Mars. 
This is volunteer work, but he says it's exciting.


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## Irony (Oct 14, 2017)

How did I never discover this thread until now! Oh my god I love every bit of this, I found it this morning and already read thru most of it. Keep it coming


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 19, 2017)

The firm that sent the first inflatable space module to the International Space Station has revealed an even bigger project - a space station orbiting the moon.

Bigelow Aerospace has revealed it is working with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to send an inflatable habitat to low lunar orbit by 2022.

































http://www.ibtimes.com/bigelow-aerospace-ula-announce-inflatable-lunar-orbit-habitat-2022-2603432


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## Drone (Oct 19, 2017)

Packing Dragon timelapse










NASA Tests RS-25 Flight Engine for Space Launch System










ATLAS V NROL-52 Launch Highlights, Aerial View & full broadcast


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 24, 2017)

There is a  'spacecraft cemetery' where  used satellites are buried by crashing them into a remote region in the Pacific Ocean.

'Point Nemo' (Latin for 'no one'), also known as the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility, is more than 1,600 miles from any spot of land.













Between 1971 and mid-2016, space agencies all over the world dumped at least 260 spacecraft into the region, according to Popular Science.






The graveyard has amassed the remains of at least 260 craft - mostly Russian - since it was first used in 1971. 

The spacecraft 'buried' there include:

- A SpaceX rocket

- Five European Space Agency cargo ships, including the Automated Transfer Vehicle Jules Verne

- Six Japanese HTV cargo craft

- More than 140 Russian resupply craft

- Six Russian Salyut space stations

- The Soviet-era MIR space station





http://uk.businessinsider.com/spacecraft-cemetery-point-nemo-google-maps-2017-10?r=US&IR=T


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 7, 2017)

China plans to launch a futuristic, re-usable 'space plane' for the first time in 2020, according to Chinese media reports.

The vehicle is designed to carry heavy payloads into orbit more than 20 times over its lifetime and will be capable of daily launches.

Unlike many spacecraft, the new vehicle will have wings and launch into the air from a runway like a traditional aircraft, the reports claim.








According to a statement from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), as reported by state news outlet China Daily, the reusable spacecraft will launch in the next three years.

Based on a number of reports, the spaceraft will take off from the runway and then switch to ramjet propulsion when higher in the atmosphere.

The vehicle will use rocket motors to exit Earth's atmosphere and move into the planet's orbit.

It will use its wings to help it land horizontally, vastly reducing the time needed to recycle its components and get it back into orbit, the CASC said.

The reusable launch vehicle can carry large payloads into orbit, return to the earth and be reused many times, said Chen Hongbo, director of the research and development centre at the CASC's China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

He said the craft will combine its first and second stages together, meaning it will work differently to the US-made reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.



The new vehicle's two stages will be recoverable, while a Falcon 9 can only recover its first stage.

China's reusable craft is designed to be used over 20 times, Mr Hongbo said.

The CASC statement says that, initially, the cost for each launch will be cut 80 per cent using the new craft, with savings rising to 90 per cent in future.







'The reusable launch vehicle will mainly provide service for a 300 to 500 kilometer [185 to 310-mile) high orbit,' Mr Hongbo said.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 7, 2017)

Former Apollo 12 astronaut Richard Gordon, one of a dozen men who flew around the moon but didn't land there, has died aged 88.

Richard 'Dick' F. Gordon Jr. was a test pilot chosen in NASA's third group of astronauts in 1963. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_F._Gordon_Jr.


He flew on Gemini 11 in 1966, walking in space twice. During Apollo 12 in November 1969, Gordon circled the moon in the command module Yankee Clipper while Alan Bean and Charles Conrad landed and walked on the lunar surface.

Gordon died Monday at his home in California, according to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.














In this September 1966 photo provided by NASA, Gordon Jr., pilot for the Gemini XI spaceflight, sits astride the spacecraft during a spacewalk, while attaching a tether from the Gemini capsule to the Agena vehicle


----------



## RealNeil (Nov 8, 2017)

RIP Richard


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 11, 2017)

NASA has accelerated plans to test its launch abort system for the Orion capsule.

The space agency revealed it will conduct the test in April 2019, to assess the rocket-powered tower’s ability to get astronauts to safety in the event of an emergency during ascent.

And, it’ll be the only time NASA runs a fully active test of the system ahead of a manned launch.







NASA recently reviewed the EM-1 launch schedule, and revealed this week that it is targeting December 2019 for the unmanned precursor mission, with plans to put crew on board in the early 2020s. 

In the April 2019 test, a booster provided by Orbital ATK will take off from the Cape Canaveral launchpad carrying a fully functional launch abort system (LAS), and a 22,000 pound Orion test vehicle.

It will ascend to 32,000 feet at Mach 1.3 (more than 1,000 miles per hour) – and then, the LAS’ reverse-flow abort motor will fire.







The LAS contains a fairing assembly and the launch abort tower.

The first component is a shell made up of lightweight composite material that protects the capsule from the heat, wind and acoustics of the launch, ascent, and abort environments, according to NASA.

The second contains the system’s three motors, which drive the capsule away from an emergency, reorient the capsule, and pull the LAS away from the crew module.

In a normal launch, however, only the LAS jettison motor would fire, allowing the LAS to clear the Orion capsule as it continues its journey, NASA says.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 13, 2017)

A test version of a 'mini space shuttle' has soared over the Mojave Desert in a major step forward.

Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser was carried to an altitude of 10,000 feet by the civilian version of the Army's CH-47 Chinook, and then dropped to glide to the ground and land on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in a test of its autonomous landing systems.

The uncrewed Dream Chaser made a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base during the free-flight test at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, NASA officials said in a statement















The Dream Chaser is preparing to deliver cargo to the International Space Station beginning in 2019.

The data that SNC gathered from this test campaign will help influence and inform the final design of the cargo Dream Chaser, which will fly at least six cargo delivery missions to and from the space station by 2024.

The testing is designed to validate the aerodynamic properties, flight software and control system performance of the Dream Chaser.






'The Dream Chaser had a beautiful flight and landing!" Sierra Nevada representatives said.



























A second round of Dream Chaser flight tests at NASA's Armstrong Research Center is slated to continue through the end of the 2017 calendar year.

The test campaign will help SNC validate the aerodynamic properties, flight software and control system performance of the Dream Chaser.



It is being prepared to deliver cargo to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract beginning in 2019.

The data that SNC gathers from this test campaign will help influence and inform the final design of the cargo Dream Chaser, which will fly at least six cargo delivery missions to and from the space station by 2024.









SOME  very interesting   HISTORY

The new spaceplane stage has been set by decades of NASA work done at Langley Research Center on horizontal-landing, or HL, lifting bodies.

Sporting a design reminiscent of the upward-flexing pectoral fins on breaching manta rays, HL vehicles feature rudimentary wings.

As the craft settles through Earth's atmosphere from orbit the chubby, cigar-like fuselage generates lift from more air pressure on the bottom than on the top.

Flying Wingless First championed for flight testing by NASA engineer H. Dale Reed in the early 1960s, the HL concept went through a number of design changes and improvements, eventually resulting in a series of experimental piloted aircraft.

The Northrop HL-10 – referring to the tenth design evaluated by Langley engineers – was built to assess specific structural refinements. Langley laboratories and wind tunnels hosted a variety of early studies on scale models before any full-scale craft were constructed.

The HL-10 would be one of five 'heavyweight' lifting body designs flown at NASA's Flight Research Center (now known as Armstrong Research Center) from July 1966 to November 1975 to demonstrate a pilot's ability to maneuver and safely land a wingless vehicle.

The information the lifting-body program generated contributed to a database crucial to the genesis of the space shuttle program.

A New Kid Spurred by the Soviet Union's development of its subscale, unmanned BOR-4 – a testbed for the country's would-be Buran space shuttle – by the 1980s Langley had set to work on a HL-10 successor, known as the HL-20, or 'Personal Launch System (PSL).'

By 1990s, a 29-foot full-size, non-flying HL-20 model was built by the students and faculty of North Carolina State University and North Carolina A & T University to study crew-seating arrangements, habitability, equipment layout and how best to enter and exit.

Although never flight-tested, the PSL did ultimately deliver: its design would be the basis for development of Sierra Nevada's Corporation's (SNC) Dream Chaser.


https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/11/...m-chaser-performs-critical-glide-test-flight/


----------



## Drone (Dec 9, 2017)

Latest videos:


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 12, 2017)

US PresidentTrump directed NASAon Monday to send Americans to the Moon for the first time in decades, a move he said would help prepare for a future Mars trip.
'This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint,' Trump said at the White House as he signed the new space policy directive.
'We will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps someday to many worlds beyond.'

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the newly revitalized National Space Council, have previously vowed to explore the Moon again, but offered few details.
Trump was joined at the White House by several current and former astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, and former U.S. Sen. and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt, the second-last man on the moon.







https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...calls-for-human-expansion-across-solar-system


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 20, 2017)

SpaceX founder Elon Musk unveiled a first glimpse of his company's new megarocket — the Falcon Heavy — which is expected to launch on its maiden flight next month.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 23, 2017)

The first person to fly freely and untethered in space, has died at the age of 80.






NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II died on Thursday in California, NASA's Johnson Space Center announced Friday. No cause of death was given.
McCandless was famously photographed in 1984 flying with a hefty spacewalker’s jetpack, alone in the cosmic blackness above Earth, while becoming the very first astronaut to fly unattached to this spacecraft in a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
He traveled more than 300 feet away from the space shuttle Challenger during that historic spacewalk.   
McCandless said he was not nervous about the mission, and the he was 'grossly over-trained.'






McCandless helped develop the jetpack and was later part of the shuttle crew that delivered the Hubble Space Telescope to orbit.
He also served as the Mission Control capsule communicator in Houston as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969.







Born in Boston on June 8, 1937, McCandless moved to California during his youth and graduated from Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Long Beach.
McCandless graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a bachelor of science degree in 1958.
In 1965, he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
He also received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Houston at Clear Lake in 1987.   
As a naval aviator, he took part in the Cuban blockade in the 1962 missile crisis.
McCandless was selected as one of just 19 individuals for astronaut training during the Gemini program in April 1966, and he was a backup pilot for the first manned Skylab mission in 1973.


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Dec 29, 2017)

i predict a busy 2018 for this thread, theres a lot going on.


The Falcon Heavy is expected to blast off early next year. Now SpaceX has raised the rocket for the first time on the same pad as the Saturn V Apollo 11 moon rocket.







It is now expected to undergo a static fire test will be the first time that all of Heavy's 27 Merlin engines will be fired at once.



Elon Musk announced the latest addition to his company SpaceX's arsenal - the 'Big F***ing Rocket' (BFR) - and it could revolutionise transport on Earth as well as in space.
Musk said the vessel would both take off and land vertically, like a space rocket, and for Earth travel, will take off from floating launchpads moored outside major cities. 
It would fly most routes - New York to Tokyo, for example - in about 30 minutes, and anywhere in under an hour, and Musk says the 'cost per seat should be about the same as full fare economy in an aircraft.'


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 4, 2018)

Falcon Heavy drone footage


----------



## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 6, 2018)

Elon Musk has announced SpaceX will launch 'the world's most powerful rocket' later this month with his own electric car on board.
The Falcon Heavy 'megarocket' will fire beyond orbit from the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral.
Musk said the launch vehicle will blast off at the 'end of the month' on an unmanned mission with a unique payload - the billionaire's cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster, which will be fired toward Mars.
The rocket will use 27 engines and three separate re-usable cores that will return to Earth after liftoff during the test flight, which is set to be one of the firm's most technically complex challenges to date.

A photo of the unusual cargo - Musk's cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster - was released last month.
Images released by SpaceX show an original Roadster perched on a large cone inside the Falcon Heavy on what appears to be a secure mount to keep it stationary as the rocket makes its maiden flight.
'Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring,' Musk said in December.  






'Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.
'The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.'
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will lift off and enter Earth's orbit, before two of its booster rockets separate off and return to Earth at Cape Canaveral in controlled landings.
The rocket's central core will then separate from the main module, containing Musk's car, and begin its own controlled descent back to Earth, landing on the firm's 'Of Course I Still Love You' drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.
The main module will continue its trajectory into 'deep space', the billionaire said, with a destination set for the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away.
Musk has said the payload 'will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent.'


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 7, 2018)

Veteran U.S. astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon and even smuggled a corned beef sandwich into orbit during one of his six missions in space, has died at age 87, NASA said on Saturday.  
Young, a former U.S. Navy test pilot, in 1972 became the ninth of 12 people ever to set foot on the moon.






Young became one of the most accomplished astronauts in the history of the U.S. space program. He flew into space twice during NASA's Gemini program in the mid-1960s, twice on the Apollo lunar missions and twice on space shuttles in the 1980s.
He retired in 2004 after 42 years with the U.S. space agency.
The Apollo 16 mission in April 1972, his fourth space flight, took Young to the lunar surface.
As mission commander, he and crewmate Charles Duke explored the moon's Descartes Highlands region, gathering 200 pounds (90 kg) of rock and soil samples and driving more than 16 miles (26 km) in the lunar rover to sites such as Spook Crater.  







http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/06/us/john-young-obit/index.html


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 13, 2018)

Virgin Galactic has completed another successful glide test of its VSS Unity spaceplane, putting the company on track to send tourists into space within months.

The test, which comes more than three years since the firm's fatal crash, saw the craft manoeuvre safely to the ground from an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,000m).

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has claimed VSS Unity, the second version of the company's SpaceShipTwo, will take people on suborbital test flights by April.







Yesterday's glide test, VSS Unity's seventh, saw the craft sent up from California's Mojave Air and Space Port attached to a twin-fuselage White Knight carrier airplane.

Once the pair reached 50,000ft (15,000m), Unity was released for an unpowered descent back to the spaceport.

The test saw Unity reach its top glide speed, hitting Mach 0.9 (670 mph/1080kph) after it was pushed into a sharp descent upon release from its mothership.






*VIRGIN GALACTIC SPACE FLIGHTS*
Unlike other commercial spaceflight companies, such as Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic initiates its flights without using a traditional rocket launch.

Instead, the firm launches VSS Unity and other craft from a carrier plane, dubbed VMS Eve.

On commercial flights, pair will travel up to 50 miles (80 km) above the Earth's surface, an altitude defined as the edge of outer space by Nasa.

'Within seconds, the rocket motor will be engaged' and Unity will fly approximately three and a half times the speed of sound into suborbital space, according to Virgin.

'After the rocket motor has fired for around a minute, the pilots will safely shut it down.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 14, 2018)




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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 22, 2018)

New Zealand joins the Space Race

New Zealand has joined the list of spacefaring nations, courtesy of a US-Kiwi startup called Rocket Lab.





 Founded in New Zealand by CEO/CTO Peter Beck, the company has spent 12 years developing a launch capability for on cubesat-sized payloads up to 150 kg for not many millions of dollars. In May last year, the outfit successfully launched its Electron rocket, but a glitch prevented it from reaching orbit. But on Sunday, January 21st, an Electron named “Still Testing” launched from the company's own launch site on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island delivered three satellites to orbit. One is an Earth-imaging cubesat owned by Planet Labs, and the other two will collect ship tracking and weather data for Spire Global. 






Rocket Lab is competing with more than a dozen privately funded space companies, including Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, to develop launch vehicles capable of carrying small payloads of up to about 500kg into space.  The Electron rocket is disposable. It is made of lightweight carbon composite material and has 3D-printed engines to reduce costs and assembly times. It is 17m long, roughly a quarter of the size of rivals such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which can carry satellites the size of a van into orbit. Each Rocket Lab launch costs about $5m, compared to $62m for SpaceX, the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk.






skip to 14.15










https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 25, 2018)

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy roared to life for the first time on Wednesday.  All 27 of the Falcon Heavy's Merlin engines fired up for the first time simultaneously





Musk said the launch vehicle will blast off at the 'end of the month' on an unmanned mission with a unique payload - the billionaire's cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster, which will be fired toward Mars.

The rocket will use 27 engines and three separate re-usable cores that will return to Earth after liftoff during the test flight, which is set to be one of the firm's most technically complex challenges to date.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 30, 2018)

SpaceX will launch the worlds biggest rocket on Feb 6th.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 12, 2018)

You had one job........



A record-setting Russian spacewalk ended with a critical antenna facing the wrong way outside the International Space Station.

Cosmonauts Aleksandr Misurkin, 40, and Anton Shkaplerov, 45, had to venture outside to swap out an old comms module with a new communications rod.

But when they installed the antenna, designed to improve comms with Russia's Mission Control in Moscow, it was left facing 180 degrees from its intended position.

The trouble arose toward the end of a spacewalk lasting more than eight hours - the longest ever by Russians and the fifth longest overall.

Nasa's Mission Control has reported the antenna is still working, but Russian space officials are now assessing whether the device needs re-positioning

Issues arose after Misurkin and Shkaplerov successfully replaced an electronics box to upgrade the antenna on Friday.

The new antenna - a long boom with a 4-foot (1.2-metre) dish at the end - had been folded up before the repair work. 

The pair watched in dismay as the antenna got hung up on the Russian side of the complex and could not be extended properly.





The cosmonauts pushed, as flight controllers tried repeatedly, via remote commanding, to rotate the antenna into the right position.

Finally, someone shouted in Russian, 'It's moving. It's in place.'

The cosmonauts pushed, as flight controllers tried repeatedly, via remote commanding, to rotate the antenna into the right position.

Finally, someone shouted in Russian, 'It's moving. It's in place.'

Nasa Mission Control said from Houston that the antenna wound up in a position 180 degrees farther than anticipated.


The spacewalk dragged on so long - lasting 8 hours and 13 minutes - that Misurkin and Shkaplerov ended up surpassing the previous Russian record of 8 hours and 7 minutes, set in 2013.

It was only supposed to last six-and-a-half hours.

'Are you kidding us?' one of them asked when they heard about the record.



Nasa still holds the world record, with a spacewalk just shy of nine hours back in 2001.

*2001: EVA #195 (8 hours 56 min). The Longest Spacewalk in history.*
*Spacecraft:* STS-102 EVA 1
*Spacewalkers:* James Voss (United States), Susan Helms (United States)
*Start:* Sunday, 11 March 2001 05:12:00
*End:* Sunday, 11 March 2001 14:08:00
*Remarks:*
Voss and Helms prepared Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 for repositioning from Unity’s Earth-facing berth to the port-side berth to make room for Leonardo, the Italian Space Agency-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. They also removed a Lab Cradle Assembly from Discovery’s payload bay and installed it on the side of Destiny, and installed a cable tray to Destiny for later use by the station’s robot arm (Canadarm2). After re-entering the shuttle’s airlock, Voss and Helms remained ready to assist if any troubles installing the docking port were encountered by the crew inside the shuttle. This was the longest spacewalk in history of spacewalking.





https://ourplnt.com/longest-spacewalks/


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## Hood (Feb 12, 2018)

Great thread! Very informative.  I've noticed that since the Feb. 6th launch of Falcon Heavy, a whole lot of "conspiracy theorists", "flat-Earthers", and other fools, are loudly proclaiming that it's all a hoax.  Several Youtube videos about how the launch of the Tesla Roadster was completely faked with CGI techniques, etc.  Are these people for real, or just sad losers trying to generate more clicks?  Hard to believe that people can be this obtuse.  I know they've always been with us on the "lunatic fringe", but as the  space race gets more publicity , the more vocal and numerous the idiots become.  It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad and common, and it makes me wonder about the human race.


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## dorsetknob (Feb 12, 2018)

Hood said:


> Several Youtube videos about how the launch of the Tesla Roadster was completely faked with CGI techniques, etc. Are these people for real, or just sad losers



Traffic Wardens the world over are licking their pencils and wishing they can slap a ticket/violation on this Abandoned Tesla as its probably not got a parking permit


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 12, 2018)

Hood said:


> Great thread! Very informative.  I've noticed that since the Feb. 6th launch of Falcon Heavy, a whole lot of "conspiracy theorists", "flat-Earthers", and other fools, are loudly proclaiming that it's all a hoax.  Several Youtube videos about how the launch of the Tesla Roadster was completely faked with CGI techniques, etc.  Are these people for real, or just sad losers trying to generate more clicks?  Hard to believe that people can be this obtuse.  I know they've always been with us on the "lunatic fringe", but as the  space race gets more publicity , the more vocal and numerous the idiots become.  It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad and common, and it makes me wonder about the human race.




I volunteered to be the test pilot but backed out when i discovered theres no ashtray in a Tesla.  Hundreds of millions of years and not a single puff on a fag.............no chance.



Hood said:


> Great thread! Very informative.




Since i started this thread 3 years and 2 days ago it has had one view every 40 minutes.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 23, 2018)

NASA s $1 billion (£720 million) Mobile Launcher rocket tower is 'leaning', according to the space agency.

During recent upgrades to the 350-foot (106-metre) structure, Nasa added a number of connecting arms, but it appears the extensions have put the tower on a slight tilt.

Nasa has acknowledged 'some deflection and imperfections' in the column but says the launcher is 'structurally sound' and does not need any design modifications.

The Mobile Launcher cost $234 million (£167 million) to build and is currently undergoing renovations worth $678 million (£485 million) to prepare it for the maiden launch of Nasa's Space Launch System mega-rocket in 2019.

The lean likely means the already well over-budget tower won't be used for more than one or two launches due to safety concerns, experts claim.

NasaSpaceFlight


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 1, 2018)

High-speed footage from ESA’s latest tests to create ultra-durable spacecraft shielding reveals the  moment a bullet travelling 4 miles per second bursts into a ‘cloud of fragments and vapour’ after piercing one of the candidate materials.

The space agency is working to develop shielding made from thin layers of metal that can protect its craft from cosmic debris.





Spacecraft shielding often relies on a technique known as the Whipple Shield. This uses multiple layers separated by 10-30 centimeters. While aluminium shields are currently used to protect spacecraft, the ESA researchers are investigating whether fibre metal laminates could prove an efficient material.




Whipple shield used on Stardust probe.


This uses multiple layers separated by 10-30 centimeters. While aluminium shields are currently used to protect spacecraft, the ESA researchers are investigating whether fibre metal laminates could prove an efficient material.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 9, 2018)

Speaking at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Colorado, Jeff Ashby, a former NASA astronaut who is director of safety and mission assurance for Jeff Bezos' space firm Blue Origin, said the firm is now 'a year out' from human flights.













It comes as Richard Branson claimed in October he will travel to space on his Virgin Galactic craft within six months.










Elon Musk is also expected to soon reveal the launch schedule for a manned version of his Dragon capsule that will ferry astronauts to the International Space station under a NASA contract next year.


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## Drone (Apr 12, 2018)

Yuri Gagarin Became The First Human In Space, 57 Years Ago Today


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## Drone (Jul 25, 2018)

ESA launches four satellites on an Ariane 5


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## Drone (Aug 12, 2018)

Parker Solar Probe Mission Launches to Touch the Sun


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## Drone (Sep 19, 2018)




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## Drone (Oct 12, 2018)

Earthrise: What It's Like to Escape Our Planet | Op-Docs (video by The New York Times)










Inside NASA's Last Moon Mission










This Is How the Apollo Program Began










Soyuz rocket failure / Astronauts escape malfunctioning Soyuz rocket


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## Drone (Oct 20, 2018)

Apollo 1's Fatal Fire Almost Ended the Program










BepiColombo launch highlights


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## Drone (Nov 20, 2018)




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## Drone (Dec 14, 2018)




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## Drone (Jan 1, 2019)




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## Drone (Jan 4, 2019)




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## Drone (Jan 20, 2019)




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## Drone (Feb 5, 2019)

ISS










Shuttle Support


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## Drone (Feb 22, 2019)




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## Drone (Jun 3, 2019)




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## dont whant to set it"' (Dec 10, 2019)

Blue Origin Will Launch (and Land) a Reusable Spacecraft Wednesday. Watch It Live
					

Liftoff time is 12:43 pm ET (1743 GMT)




					www.space.com
				



If weather permits it's gonna be launched today at 1630 hours GMT


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## dont whant to set it"' (Dec 18, 2019)

Nasa building supersonic plane that goes as fast as Concorde – without the sound
					

Plane expected to make sound of a 'a gentle thump' if it can be heard at all




					www.independent.co.uk
				



Really , has it been about 30 years since Nasa last purposely built experimental aircraft , as there were conversions from other aircraft into research platform ,nameing a few:  Boeing 747 , LM skunworks sr-71 ... .


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 28, 2019)

New Space
					

Once dominated by government and military programs, space innovation is charging into the private sector.




					graphics.reuters.com
				






dont whant to set it"' said:


> Nasa building supersonic plane that goes as fast as Concorde – without the sound
> 
> 
> Plane expected to make sound of a 'a gentle thump' if it can be heard at all
> ...


There's one huge problem with that: low speed maneuverability and payload capacity...

Concorde died because it wasn't economical to operate:
1) It was only cleared to operate between two airports.
2) It could only go supersonic over the Atlantic.
3) It couldn't seat very many people and the cost per flight was high resulting in seats costing over $2000 each minimum.

X59 addresses #1 and #2 at the cost of #3.  #3 was the largest factor in discontinuing it.  If they couldn't fill the aircraft every time it left the runway, it was incurring debt for British Airways.  That pressure to fill seats in an era where more, smaller aircraft were getting popular because it gave commuters more flight options was taking off...yeah...doom.

I really don't see the point of X59.  We know how to make supersonic aircraft quieter.  The only reason why we haven't done it is because it's pointless.  If you're not moving a great deal of stuff with that performance, there's no reason to design around the philosophy.


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## dont whant to set it"' (Dec 28, 2019)

So bring back smoking  tobbaco on airlines then?
Asumming it could be ultralight and able to supercruise whilest serving more than just a couple points to a couple points across the pond. Sounds like in today's market the Concord might of turned a profit at 1/4 of today's fuel prices.
Let: I have not factored in A,B,C,...  checks.


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 28, 2019)

dont whant to set it"' said:


> So bring back smoking  tobbaco on airlines then?
> Asumming it could be ultralight and able to supercruise whilest serving more than just a couple points to a couple points across the pond. Sounds like in today's market the Concord might of turned a profit at 1/4 of today's fuel prices.
> Let: I have not factored in A,B,C,...  checks.



In that mindset, some are spending millions on making space tourism and reusable rockets. And it seems viable. As the results and even competition emerges.

Taking that into account making a civil supersonic jet isn't that unreachable as it seems. We have more advanced polymers now, better metallurgy and PC's to make more efficient aerodynamic designs versus the cold war era more like epeen design purpose.

On other hand I agree with Ford, that Nasa is doing stupid with that design. It looks more like a spending money for the sake of spending it and telling the obvious.

It is more easy to make a civil B-1 Lancer design, that already works fine, and instead of the 57t capable bomb bay put a cabin.


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## Drone (Jul 30, 2020)




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