Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

18-19 December (19 December 2008)

NASA plans to launch the first 327ft high Ares 1 test flight in July 2009 but might have to delay the launch until October due to Space Shuttle schedules, including the planned 12 May launch of the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. 

Russia will launch 39 rockets from Baikonur and Plesetsk in 2009, with a higher rate of flights to the International Space Station, with four manned Soyuz TMA crew transfers and five Progress tankers, including one carrying an attached small research module to the Russian segment.

NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre has selected SRA International Inc to provide a Spacecraft Command Language system for the Constellation programme.

The loss of Britain’s Beagle 2 Mars lander on Christmas Day 2003 was probably caused by incorrect software which caused the spacecraft to burn up in the atmosphere, says the New Scientist.

Astronomers have seen the effects of dark energy on the most massive collapsed objects for the first time using the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

President in Waiting Barack Obama’s transition team are considering the use of the Atlas V and Delta IV as launchers for manned spacecraft as the replacement of the Space Shuttle, rather than the flawed plan to use the new rocket, Ares 1.

The Earth’s upper atmosphere has reached to “extraordinarily low altitudes” of about 260 miles barely reaching a high of 500 miles according to data from NASA ion and neutral sensors aboard a US Air Force satellite. The new data compares with typical altitudes of 400-600 miles.

Astronomers have observed over 200 active galactic black holes for the first time, liking them to donut holes powered by discs of hot material. In another development astronomers have “found water” in a galaxy more than 11 billion light years away, four more million miles than an earlier finding of another source. Of course the water cannot actually be confirmed as the distance is 587849981249911000000000 miles away.  

NASA and Ad Astra Rocket Company in Texas have signed an agreement that could lead to the testing of a new plasma based space propulsion technology on the International Space Station. The system is called the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket engine (VASMIR).

If NASA does retire the Space Shuttle fleet in late 2010, the orbiters Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour will be offered for display permanently at various sites in the with probably one at the Kennedy Space Centre, another at the national Museum of the US Air Force. How about one outside the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington?

The Euroconsult “ Government Space Markets, World Prospects to 2017” indicates that governments have entered a new phase of investment, committing to the development of a new generation of programmes worldwide. Government space programmes have reached a high of $62 billion with the prospects of a growth of 4.5% per year to 2010, reaching $70 billion. Manned spaceflight is the most expensive market with $11.6 billion in 2007, an $8 increase over 2006.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected carbonates in several location suggesting that any microbial life that might have existed when the planet was wetter. This does not confirm anything about “life on Mars” which will not bother the popular press, which will no doubt blow it out of proportion yet again.

Boeing has received a contract to launch the fourth COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) satellite from Thales Alenia as prime contractor of the Italian Space Agency. The satellite will be launched in 2010 from Vandenberg AFB, California on a Delta 2-7420-10. Boeing launched three satellites fromVandenberg during a 17 month period between June and October 2008.

50 years ago
18 December 1958

An Air Force Atlas B rocket was launched from Pad 11 at Cape Canaveral on a unique mission carrying a payload called Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment (SCORE) attached to the rocket into orbit demonstrating broadcasting to the Earth from orbit. President Eisenhower recorded a message that was relayed by Score - the first communications message from space.

40 years ago. 19 December 1968

A Thor Delta was launched from Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral, carrying the Intelsat 3F2 communications satellite into a geostationary orbit located at 15deg over Brazil, later repositioned at 25degW and 96degW.

The Soviet Union launched a Cosmos booster from Plesetsk, carrying a magnetospheric research satellite into a 71deg inclination orbit.

Apollo 8
British media headlines:
“Moa Flu All Clear For The Spacemen”
“Borman The Steadfast”
“Apollo Practice”
“Astronauts Kiss Wives Goodbye”
“Apollo Wives Say Farewell”
“Space Cash Crisis As The Moon Shot Nears”
“Weather Go For Moonshot”
“Apollo Team Hit Foul Fuel Snag”
“They’re Raring to Go!”
“Go On Or Turn Back? 40 Seconds to Decide”
“All Set For Apollo Moon Shot”
“Go Ahead For The Moon After Hitch”
“Target For Tonight –The Moon”
“Apollo’s Crew On Their Way To The Moon”
“199,000 Miles To Go”
“They’re On Their Way”
“I Can See The Whole World Says Moon Man”
“Out Of This World”
“Off On Man’s Greatest Venture”
“Only 150,000 Miles To Go”
“Out Of This World And Doing Fine”
“This Is Your World”
“Astronauts Feel Fine After Early Fears Of Asian Flu”
“Flu Alarm Midway To The Moon”
“A-OK For Rings Around The Moon”
“Yes, They’re Going In On A Moonbeam”
“Moon Team Crosses The Great Divide”
“Lunarnauts! And Spot On”
“It Looks Like Plaster of Paris”
“Round They Go Smiling”
“Story Of The Creation Heard From The Moon”
“The Earth is Getting Larger”
“We’re Sure Longing For Home”
“Nodding To God On The Way Round The Moon”
“Back From Moon In Time For Breakfast”
“Mooncraft On Course For Splashdown”
“Into The Eye Of The Needle”
“Happy Splashdown!”
“Moonship Set For The Last Lap Home”
“And Now For Apollo 9, 10 And Touchdown!”
“Final Peril”
“Fireball from Space Bang On Target”
“Masters Of The Moon”
“Great! Great!! Great!!!”
“The World Salutes America”
“Mooncraft Returns To Earth Exactly On Time
“Moonship’s Final Bullseye”
“Now For The Moon Landing”

THE SPACE DIARY WILL RESUME ON 29 DECEMBER AND WILL COVER THE NEWS FROM 20 DECEMBER.
WISHING YOU A JOYFUL AND BLESSED CHRISTMAS.
TIM FURNISS

 

17 December (17 December 2008)

New Mexico Spaceport Authority near Las Cruces has received an operation license from the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation and the $200 million facility will be completed in late 2010. The spaceport will be used first by Virgin Galactic for SpaceShipTwo sub-orbital space tourist trips. Flight International has been provided with the first video footage of the Scaled Composite’s Virgin Galactic’s space tourist vehicle, the WhiteKnightTwo moving under its own power, using two Pratt&Whitney Canada PW308A engines. A flight test of the spacecraft is scheduled for 19 December, says Flight.

NOAA, NASA and France’s CNES agency will release valuable new data from the Jason 2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission satellite, which watches closely the rate of global sea-level rise and monitor changing ocean features around tropical cyclones. The Jason 2, which was launched on 20 June, will also provide forecasts short-term severe weather events, including tropical cyclones. Other data will include sea level rise rates, which at present are nearly twice as fast than the previous 100 years.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corporation are still in a strop about losing the contract to build up to four meteorological, environmental, space and solar science satellites worth $1.09 billion, which will be built by Lockheed Martin. The first launch will be in 2015. Boeing - which built the previous fleet of satellites - is protesting vehemently. Why? It the lost contract and that’s it. The new spacecraft will provide 50 times more weather and climate data than any current satellite. 

XCOR has successfully completed the first test firing of the rocket engine to power the Lynx suborbital launch vehicle at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Hamilton Standard will team as a junior partner with Oceaneering International for the new spacesuits for the Constellation programme.

Apollo 8
British media headline previews:
“Apollo Crew Take Flu Precautions”
“Apollo Standby Mission Plan”
“Fit For The Moon”
“The Christmas Card From Outer Space”


 

16 December (16 December 2008)

China launched its fifth YaoGan remote sensing satellite from Taiyuan aboard a Long March 4C booster on 15 December for scientific research, land resources surveying, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention. It is thought that the satellites are also used for high-resolution military observation. The first of the series was launched in April 2006.

Russia will launch the Coronas-Photon satellite from Plesetsk on 29 January carrying Russian instruments including those from Ukraine and India. The satellite is the third Corona to be launched. Coronas 1 and F were launched in 1994 and 2001. The satellite is also part of the international Living with a Star space research programme, which provides data on solar variability and its effects to improve “space weather” which can harm spacecraft and space travellers and cause problems with radio transmissions and electric power grids.

The final components for Space-X’s first Falcon 9 booster have been sent to Cape Canaveral for its maiden flight from Pad 40 next year. The company is competing with Orbital Sciences and PlanetSpace for the Commercial Re-supply Services (CRS) contract to be awarded on 23 December.

The Planetary Society is urging the Obama Administration  to set a firm schedule for human Mars missions or to other destinations, using hardware developed for the Constellation project to return humans to the moon.

New Mexico Spaceport Authority has received its launch license for vertical and horizontal launches from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation. This is a critical step moving forward with Spaceport America, the USA’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.

40 years ago

16 December 1968
The Soviet Union launched a Molniya booster from Plesetsk carrying a Molniya 1 communications satellite in to a highly elliptical orbits of 506-39,573km at an inclination of 65deg.

Apollo 8
British media headline previews
“Crying for the moon”
“A Man Made Miracle for Christmas”
“This Week: Man’s Most Reckless Adventure”
“US Begins Moon Trip Count”
“Tension at Space City”
“What the Moon Men Really Face”
“Madness Or Great Adventure?”
“Apollo Men Fit As Countdown Begins” 

 

13-15 December (15 December 2008)

NASA and Ad Astra Rocket Company are teaming to conduct a flight test aboard the International Space Station  of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetosplasma Rocket engine.

Vietnam’s first remote sensing satellite, VNREDSAT 1 will be launched in 2012. The cost the project is about $110 million.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour has at last returned to the Kennedy Space Centre from Edwards AFB, California where it landed after its mission to the International Space Station on 30 November.

President-elect Barack Obama has appointed a NASA Review Team for four space policy “experts”, Lori Garver, ex-NASA associate administrator;  Roddy Olvera Young, Dan Goldin’s NASA press secretary: Edward Heffernan, a senior NASA staffer between 1994-2001; Alan Ludwig, another NASA staffer; and George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society. The priority of the team is to advise on the future of the Space Shuttle and the Constellation project.

Meanwhile, an estimated 3,500 Kennedy Space Centre jobs are expected to be lost during the gap between the Space Shuttle and Constellation projects should the Shuttle will be grounded soon.

Two of four Europeans who will join four Russians for the 105-day simulated Mars mission organised by Russia’s Institute for Biomedical Problems and ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight in March 2009. The six will be sealed in a simulated spacecraft in preparation for a 520-day Mars 500 with another six-member crew later in 2009.

The 700lb Marisat F2 maritime communications satellite launched on 14 October 1976 was decommissioned on October 29 it has been announced. It was used to connect the South Pole Station to the rest of the world. Three Marisat satellites were launched.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance has officially completed its two-year primary mission returning 73 terabits of data. The spacecraft will continue to return data for two years.  


50 years ago
13 December 1958

A tiny squirrel monkey weighing about 1.2kg, named Gordo was launched aboard a Jupiter IRBM from Cape Canaveral to a height of 310 miles, travelling 1,500 miles along the Atlantic missile range. Gordo, wearing a customised spacesuit equipped with a thermometer and microphone (he didn’t report “I am go!”) suffered no ill effects. Sadly, despite surviving the 10,000mph re-entry over the South Atlantic, the spacecraft’s parachute failed and was lost. It is suspected that Gordo was alive when he splashed down.

40 years ago
14 December 1968

The Soviet Union launched the 325kg Cosmos 259 from Kapustin Yar aboard a Cosmos booster into a 48deg inclination orbit to study the influence of the ionosphere on VLF transmissions.

15 December 1968

A Thor Delta was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying ESSA 8 meteorological satellite into a 102deg inclination orbit.

Apollo 8
British media headline previews:
“Man’s First Trip to the Moon - This Week”
“Are they being reckless?”
 

12 December (12 December 2008)

Following the full-duration test firing of the Space-X Falcon 9 first stage engine, the smallest engine, called Draco was successfully test fired for 10 minutes in a vacuum chamber, on the longest firing so far. Space-X’s Dragon spacecraft will use 18 Draco thrusters for attitude control.

NASA’s hopes that in June 2018, the first Ares V test flight into Earth orbit will also include the Altair lunar lander for in-orbit test firings.

The British National Space Centre has solicited industry bids for a nine-month Phase A study of its 2014 Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecom Experiment (Moonlite), with a study budget of one million pounds, hopefully being granted the full $100 million maximum budget by 2010.

The Orlando Sentinel newspaper reports that NASA’s Administrator Mike Griffin is not a happy bunny. He is not co-operating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team which he considers unqualified to judge Griffin’s programme. Griffin is apparently telling NASA employees and contractors what they can say to Obama’s transition team and even warned aerospace executives not to criticise the moon programme. Latest reports from Griffin are that he was fully cooperating with the Obama administration and was "appalled" by a report that he was obstructing efforts by the president-elect's transition team.

Discovery News’ space correspondent Irene Klotz is puzzled about the delay in returning the Space Shuttle after its recent mission: "I got curious about how the weather actually turned out on Dec. 1, the day the shuttle likely would have landed if a 24-hour delay had been ordered. Apparently, I wasn't the only one, because Bill Johnson, the news chief at KSC, had the report on the ready: North to northwest winds up to 10 knots. Visibility: Unlimited. In other words,  a good day for landing. The response from JSC was not so warm. "Wow, you're the weather forecaster now," sneered one public affairs officer whom I'll not name on the condition that he promise to refrain from using sarcasm in the future when responding to uncomfortable questions like, "Why didn't NASA wait a day to see if the weather in Florida got better?"

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed its primary, two-year science phase. The spacecraft has found signs of a complex Martian history of climate change that produced a diversity of past watery environments. The orbiter has returned 73 terabits of science data, more than all earlier Mars missions combined.

40 years ago

12 December 1968

The US Air Force launched a Thor Agena D from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying an Agener-based NRO/CIA reconnaissance satellite into an 81deg inclination low Earth orbit, which returned a film capsule to Earth on 28 December. Another payload was a 60kg signals intelligence satellite.

11 December (11 December 2008)

Globalstar expects that 42 of the 50 satellites in the mobile satellite constellation will be unable to provide two-way communications in early 2009 after a generic fault was found on the spacecraft. However, one way tracking and messaging services are not affected.

Russia is to fly a cosmonaut from India in 2013 aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft in preparation of a national manned flight in 2015 launched by an Indian booster. The first Indian spaceperson was Rakesh Sharma who flew aboard the Soviet Union Soyuz T11 in April 1984 to Salyut 7 on a 7day 21hr mission. The Soyuz for the Indian mission will be modified and will splashdown, presumably in the Indian Ocean. Two US citizen, Indian-born NASA astronauts, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams have flown on the Space Shuttle. Chawla was one of the seven astronauts who perished aboard the Shuttle Columbia. India has hopes to fly a manned mission to the moon by 2020 and has hopes for a Chandrayan 2 mission to land a rover on the moon.

International Launch Services (ILS) delivered the Group of Canada Ciel 2 communications satellite aboard a Proton Breeze M booster from Baikonur on 10 December. The flight was the sixth ILS launch of the year, the 49th for the company and 340th launch of a Proton. Ciel is based on a Thales Alenia Space Spacebus 4000 spacecraft bus and will be stationed at 129deg in geosynchronous orbit.
 

10 December (10 December 2008)

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Glazkov, the 82nd human in space has died aged 69. He flew only one mission, Soyuz 24 with commander Viktor Gorbatko, launched on 7 February 1977 on an 18-day mission at the Salyut 5. The mission featured the purging of the toxic fuel leak in the space station on the previous mission. This was the first such procedure. Glaxkov trained other crews, was a flight director, a deputy director of flight activities and finally, the first deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, helping the training of the US Mir mission astronauts and working on the first phase of the International Space Station. He was also a space author, including a science fiction story, which was illustrated by cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov. 

The thrust oscillation (TO) of the Ares 1 booster will be controlled by a Tuned Mass Absorber, as a passive as opposed to active system to reduce the potential loss of vehicle to 1 in 150,000. Several options have been calculated to mitigate TO on Ares first stage reaching the Orion crew cabin. Again, is this thing ever going to fly?  Cutting the cost to the minimum should not be an option. For what its worth, here is the schedule for the Ares V: RFP January 2009; Concept review April; Phase 1 contracts 2ndQ, Functional feasibility review August, Preliminary requirements review March 2010; Concept design review and level two system requirement review, December 2010;  Level three system review, 2011; Authority to proceed, 2011; Level three system requirement review, 2012; Phase 2 DDT&E and production contracts, March 2012; Ares V elements’ preliminary design review, 3rdQTR to 1st QTR 2014; Ares V elements’ critical design review, 2016; Ares V test flight 2018; first lunar mission December 2019.

Meanwhile, NASA plans to develop a 100 ton to low Earth orbit heavy-lift booster using a highly modified ET with new five segment SRBs and a Crew Exploration Vehicle launcher which will comprise of in-line SRBs and a second stage with a cryogenic engine. Two CEV launchers will be developed, one a 25t booster for flights to the International Space Station and 35t version for lunar missions.

The Boeing Delta IV Heavy for the United Launch Alliance (ULA), which was to have been launched from Pad 37 at Cape Canaveral in July has been pushed yet again, this time into 2009. ULA plans to launch 13 Delta launchers from Cape Canaveral next year, with five more from Vandenberg AFB.

The US Air Force is to restructure the multi-million dollar Transformational Satellite Program, TSAT to stop using the taxpayers dollars poorly. Boeing or Lockheed Martin will be awarded the contract for the satellites to either Boeing or Lockheed Martin. However, a new request for proposals will have to be released or maybe even cancelled when it became obvious that the system was going to be much like the existing Milstar and Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites due to technology and budget issues.  

Virgin Galactic will test launch the WhiteKnightTwo carrier craft for the new SpaceShipTwo before Christmas. The first 100 customers have paid $200,000 each for the sub-orbital trip and they and prospective customers want to have room to experience weightless in the cabin - not being strapped in a seat. There are plans for two stages to be added to the WhiteKnightTwo, which could launch a 200kg satellite into orbit.

Aerojet tested a 150lbf thrust, high performance storable bipropellant engine under a contract from NASA for its In-Space Propulsion Technology Program.

Russia plans to launch to have launched 27 satellite missions in 2008, one more than in 2007. Two more missions will fly on 10th and 25th December.

Intelsat and an investment group led by Convergence Partners plan to operate new satellite service costing $250 million, called Intelsat New Dawn, to provide fixed satellite services to serve Africa and improve communications on the poorest continent.

The Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour is having a long wait to return to the Kennedy Space Centre after the STS 125 mission, which landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California on 30 November. Bad weather has kept it grounded. It looks like it will fly later today.

The W2M communications satellite, built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Antrix, with EADS Astrium, will be launched on 20 December aboard an Ariane 5. ISRO will also control the early orbit operations.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has “discovered” carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star, leading to the usual OTT stories about a star 63 light years away – 635878499812499 miles.


40 years ago
10 December 1968

The Soviet Union launched a Zenit 2 an area survey reconnaissance satellite from Baikonur, aboard a Voskhod booster into a 65deg inclination orbit. The recoverable Voskhod-based capsule landed after eight days. 





 

9 December (9 December 2008)

Russia will launch a Proton M booster from Baikonur on 10 December carrying the Thales Alenia Space-built Canadian Ciel 2 communications satellite, while at Kourou, French Guiana the ninth and last Ariane 5 of 2008 will be launched on 20 December, carrying Hot Bird TM9 and W2M communications satellites for Eutelsat.

The annual liquidation of secret equipment and pyrotechnic devices, which have passed its service life at the Baikonur Cosmodrome has been completed for this year but due to the disbandment of the Space Force unit at the base all equipment and explosives kept in military warehouses are being destroyed. Baikonur will be replaced by a new cosmodrome in the far east of Russia, ending the career of the oldest space base, which was in inaugurated on 12 January 1955.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com entrepreneur, is progressing with his Blue Origin, “New Shepard” (named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut) vertical rocket vehicle comprising a Crew Capsule and Propulsion Module. Secret flight-testing began in 2006 and an unmanned flight could take place in 2011 with a piloted flight in 2012. Experiment investigators are being solicited. The craft will carry 120kg per experiment racks and will be capable of supporting remote sensing, atmospheric science, Earth observation, atmospheric sampling, magnetosphere measurements and in-cabin science, physiology, gravitational biology and microgravity research. NASA has shown an interest in the project.

China and Russia plan to co-operate in a project to explore Mars and one of its moons, Phobos using an Russian orbiter and a Chinese sub-satellite, called Yinghuo which carry out remote sensing of Red Planet. Arrival at Mars will be in October 2009.

A Phase A study for a British-led MoonLITE mission to send four penetrator darts into the lunar surface from a lunar orbiter. The Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecom Experiment mission will employ penetrator darts to measure moonquakes, the thickness of the crust and core. The mission might determine whether organic material or water is present in polar regions.
 

5-8 December (8 December 2008)

For what it’s worth, NASA has released a draft request for proposals for the first phase of the Ares 5 heavy lift booster for the Constellation project. There will be bids on five Ares 5 work packages.

Development of the South Korea Space Launch Vehicle 2 (KSLV) has been cancelled after the import of Russian technology “has become impossible” despite the fact that Russia is assisting with the KSLV 1, which still has not been launched. The latest lift-off date is June 2009. The rocket was to have been launched 2005 but the costs have spiralled from W359.3 billion to W509.7 billion, three times the original budget.

The crews of Space Shuttle missions STS 130 and 131 to fly in 2009 and 2010 have been named. STS 130 Endeavour will deliver a third connecting module to the International Space Station (ISS) and a seven-windowed cupola to be used as a control room for robotics. The commander is veteran George Zamka, whose pilot will be Terry Virts, the only first timer on the mission. The mission specialists are Robert Behnken, British-born Nicholas Patrick, Kathy Hire and Stephen Robinson. STS 131 Atlantis will deliver research and science equipment, new sleeping quarters and logistics module, which will return aboard the Shuttle. The commander is veteran Alan Pointdexter, with rookie pilot James Dutton. The mission specialists are veterans Rick Mastracchio, Clayton Anderson and Stephanie Wilson, with rookies, Dorothy “Dottie” Metcalf-Lindeberger and Japanese Space Agency astronaut, Naoko Yamazaki.

Flight Global.com reports that the first flight of the Virgin Galactic White Knight carrier aircraft will be no earlier than 15 December and the SpaceShipTwo’s roll-out will be in April 2009. There have been integration issues with the White Knight’s four Pratt&Whitney engines.

RT Scitech reports that the 20-year old Buran space shuttle could be resurrected to replace the Space Shuttle when the fleet retires because there is a vital need for a viable space transporter before the potential arrival of NASA’s  Constellation fleet. America and Russia are thinking of ways to revive the Buran programme. Nice idea but……!

The five tonne, three billion yuan Chinese-built and launched Venezuelian communications satellite, Simon Bolivia, which was launched on 30 October and which was to be operational in February 2009, has experienced serious problems and if the transfer of the satellite to the Venezuelian government delayed or made impossible it will be a serious another blow for China’s aspirations of supplying and launching international satellites, following the failure on 11 November of Nigeria’s Nigcomsat 1 communications satellite.     

Arianespace and ViaSat has signed a contract for the launch of ViaSat 1 in 2011. The 6,000kg spacecraft will be based on a Space Systems/Loral will be equipped with Ka-band transponders. The spacecraft will 86th US spacecraft to be launched by Arianespace.

NASA tested a Space Shuttle SRB for 123s in Utah on 4 December to evaluate possible performance changes for the Ares 1 “SRB” first stage including performance on a new nozzle.

China plans to launch Shenzhou 8, 9 and 10 before 2012 to demonstrate rendezvous and dockings in preparation for “spacelab” type missions.

Vietnam plans to develop a space technology, small satellite assembly, testing and training zone and a ground station at Hoa Lac-tech Park, 30km outside Hanoi.

As expected, NASA has delayed the launch of the mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) from 2009 to 2011 due to cost overruns and technical “challenges”. The mission could now cost over $2 billion. Alan Stern, the former associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, said “this has gotten to be epidemic this decade”. NASA and the European Space Agency has signed a strategic partnership for future robotic Mars spacecraft in the hope that costs can be shared. In addition to NASA’s MSL, ESA’s 1.2 million Euro ExoMars is scheduled for launch in January 2016. A joint Mars Sample Return Mission is likely to cost up to $8 billion. Remember those heady days in the 80’s when a Mars sample return mission was planned?
50 years ago

6 December 1958
The US Army Ballistic Missile Agency and NASA launched Pioneer 3 towards a fly-by of the moon aboard a Juno 2 booster from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft failed to fly-passed the moon but did reach an altitude of 102,360km before falling back to Earth. Pioneer 3 measured radiation in the outer Van Allen radiation belt.  As a result of a premature shutdown of the first stage engine 3.7seconds early and the injection angle was 71deg instead of 68deg. Pioneer 3 re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on 7 December.

40 years ago

5 December 1968
A Thor Delta was launched from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral carrying the 108kg European Highly Eccentric Orbiting Satellite (HEOS) 1 into a 20,020-202,780km, 60deg inclination orbit to examine the Earth’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere.

7 December 1968
An Atlas Centaur was launched from Pad 36B at Cape Canaveral carrying the 2,012kg Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), equipped with 11 X-ray, Ultraviolet and Infrared instruments.

8 December 1968
NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre test pilot Joseph Algranti was forced to eject from a Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) at Ellington AFB. The craft was destroyed. It was the second accident of an LLTV. Neil Armstrong ejected from an LLTV on 6 May 1968.







    


 
 

4 December (4 December 2008)

The Indian Space Research Organisation is to develop a new satellite launcher, a variant of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which will launch payloads weighting 500kg into low Earth orbits. The three-stage rocket will cost 40% less than the PSLV, which costs Rs100 crore per launch.

NASA has booked its first Russian Soyuz TMA launches under a modified contract which will allow a series of launches to the International Space Station after 2011 when an earlier agreement would have ended the Russian launches. The new launches are scheduled for 2011 in September and November. If the Space Shuttle is grounded in 2010, the Soyuz will be the only transporter for the ISS until proposed cargo spacecraft such as Space-X’s Dragon. The controversial Ares and Orion spacecraft are unlikely to fly no earlier than March 2015 the very earliest – if the programme will survive as it is.

Russia is introducing new flight paths from Plesetsk to minimise damage to the environment during the impacts of spent rocket stages. From 2000-2008 out of 73 launches, 27 of which carried heptyl propellants - Tsyklon 3, Cosmos 3M and the Rokot. Production of new Tsyklon and Cosmos 3M boosters has ceased, with nine Kosmos 3M left to be launched. It is hoped that the Angara booster fleet will actually be developed after almost a decade since its introduction at a Paris Air Show. The only launches from Plesetsk by 2012 will be of the “clean” Soyuz 2 and the Angara boosters. During Plesetsk’s operation over 2,000 launches have taken place, including missiles and an estimated 18,000 tonnes of scrap metal, 744 tonnes of oxididant, 652 tonnes of kerosene and 340 toons of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (heptl) have been spread across the launch range.

Russia will launch Express AM44 and MD1 communications satellites on 11 February aboard a Proton M booster from Baikonur.

NASA’s Swift Gamma-ray Explorer, launched in 2004 has studied over 380 gamma ray bursts, 80 exploding stars and six comets.

Canada has proposed to build a lunar rover for NASA, which would have a pressurised cabin for use by astronauts returning to the moon after a hiatus from 1972.

After Craig Couvault’s departure from Av Week, Miles O’Brien is leaving CNN after 16 years. What’s happening? Is it just the depression?

The US Air Force’s Defense Support Program (DSP) F23 satellite, which was only launched in January 2008 is drifting out of its orbit says the Russian Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, says Space.com.
 

40 years ago
4 December 1968

The US Air Force launched a Titan 3B from Vandenberg, carrying the KH-8-18 reconnaissance satellite into a 106deg inclination orbit. The spacecraft deployed a recoverable film capsule on 12 December.

 
 

3 December (3 December 2008)

Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has won an order to build the ST-2 communications satellite for the Singapore Telecommunications and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom . The contract for Mitsubishi marks the first for a Japanese satellite manufacturer to enter the commercial communications business. ST-2 will be based on the DS2000 spacecraft bus which was first used on the Japanese Engineering Test Satellite 8 and was also used for the MTSAT 2 and Superbird C2.

Russia launched a Molniya M booster from Plesetsk on 2 December carrying Cosmos 2446, a probable military early warning reconnaissance satellite. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Kazsat , launched in June 2006 has lost control and “it’s gone”, said a spokesman. KazSat 2, being built by Russian Institute of Space Engineering and Europe’s Alcatel Alenia Space, will be launched in 2009..

RocketShip Tours has started selling $95,000 flights into space aboard the XCOR Lynx two-seat suborbital spaceplane. The company has booked firm 20 flights, which will be flown by ex-NASA Space Shuttle astronaut pilot and commander, Rick Searfoss. There could eventually be four flights a day making Searfoss a record holder for the number of flights into space.

Space Exploration Technologies (Space-X) has added to DragonLab Falcon 9-boosted missions to its manifest for launches in 2010-11.  The lab will provide pressurised and non-pressurised accommodation for experiments.

NASA has awarded a $1.1 billion contract to Lockheed Martin to build a new generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Administration satellites called GOES-R which will be based on the company’s A2100 geosynchronous spacecraft bus. A fleet of A2100 spacecraft bus-based satellites are in orbit providing meteorological and communications applications. The first of the new generation satellite will be launched in 2015, proving 50 times more data than the existing GOES spacecraft. 

Iran plans to send animals into space aboard sub-orbital Kavoshgar 3 and 4 rockets. Kavoshgar 2 is operational.


40 years ago
3 December 1968

The Soviet Union launched the 325kg Cosmos 257 aboard a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk into a 70deg inclination orbit as a target spacecraft for the planned development of an air defence system.

The Apollo 8 crew aiming for lunar orbit after launch on 21 December are given anti-Mao flu shots in case the epidemic spreading across the USA reaches them. The crew is restricted to “limited exposure” to other people except vital personnel. The back-up crew headed by Neil Armstrong also had jabs. The experience of the tetchy Apollo 7 crew, especially commander Wally Schirra, who caught colds in space, resulted in a more sensitive approach.
 

2 December (2 December 2008)

Alliant Techsystems (ATK) in Utah has been awarded a $26.1 million contract from the US Air Force to develop a Space Threat Testbed, which will allow agencies including the DoD and the National Reconnaissance Office to test equipment in an environment simulating varying Earth orbits. The work, which will also involve ATK facilities in Tennesee and California is expected to be completed in 2013.

Goodrich has also been awarded a contract from the DoD for the first operational satellite for an Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) system. ORS Sat 1 which will be built at the company’s facility in Danbury will provide space capabilities that “benefit the warfighter”. The satellite system “will provide valuable operational capability to commanders in the field”. ATK will provide the satellite bus.

China launched a Long March 2D booster from Jiuquan on 1 December carrying the Yaogan 4 to provide Earth resources services, including land surveying, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention and relief. It is suspected by some analysts that the satellite will also conduct military reconnaissance. The first Yaogan was launched in 2006 and was followed by two more in 2007. These were suspected to be an SAR satellite, an optical reconnaissance spacecraft and another SAR craft.

The Washington Centre for Defense Information is reported by AV Week to have concerns about a lack of Defense Support Program (DSP) services after the potential failure of a satellite launched in November 2007 and which has drifted out of station. There are possibly five Northrop Grumman DSPs in orbit. The other concern is that the first dedicated Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) has been delayed and will be launched no earlier than 2010.

The likely first space tourist to fly with a private space tourism company in 2010 is a British  banker Per Wimmer who will pay 50,000 pounds to take a trip with XCOR’s Lynx craft which will fly to an altitude of 200,000ft on a 30 minute trip. The Lynx carries a pilot and one tourist. Chasing XCOR are Virgin Galactic (which charges 100,000 pounds) and Space Adventures with whom Wimmer has also booked a flight. It looks like XCOR may still be the first.
 

29-30 November, 1 December (1 December 2008)

 India’s first lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan 1 is still having overheating problems, with a 10% rise because of the alignment of the sun and the moon and its operations will be reduced by 50% for a month.

Barack Obama want to know how much it will cost to continue with the Constellation project and especially its troubled Ares 1 booster and whether or not to take a new direction using Delta IV and Atlas boosters. It is reported that if Ares is scapped, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will depart from NASA.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University will fly a Soil Preparation System (SPS) aboard a 2009 Sino-Russian mission to return samples of the Martion moon, Phobos. The 400g SPS, about the size of a cigarette packet will collect a small “pebble” about 1mm in size.

Endeavour STS 126 landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California on 30 November after a 15d 20hr 29m 37s mission mostly spent on the International Space Station (ISS). The STS 126 crew returned with ISS flight engineer Gregory Chamitoff, replaced by Sandra Magnus who was launched on Endeavour. She joined Mike Finke and Yuri Lonchakov on the ISS. The next ISS mission, STS 119 Discovery, scheduled for no earlier than 12 February 2009, will assemble the fourth integrated starboard Integrated Truss Segment and the fourth set of solar arrays and batteries. STS 119 will be commanded by Lee Arnchambault with pilot Dominic Antonelli and the crew will fly Educator Astronaut/Mission Specialists, Joseph Acabca and Richard Arnold. The other mission specialists are Steven Swanson and John Phillips, with ISS Expedition 18 Crewman Koichi Wakata who will replace Sandra Mangus who will return aboard STS 126. Meanwhile, the new Russian model of the Progress tanker was forced to dock under manual from the ISS on Sunday.

Boeing is quaking in its boots about the contract for next-generation GOES weather satellite fleet. While Boeing is the incumbent but its reputation has been hit by a record of cost overruns, quality control problems and poor performance. The $1 billion contract could go to Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman.

The University of California have performed computer simulations, which calculate that the properties of helium and hydrogen inside Jupiter and believe that the giant planet has a rocky core surrounded by ice that is more that twice in size than previously thought.

Wilhelm Raithal, one of Wernher von Braun’s team of German rocket scientists has died aged 95. Raithal worked on Redstone and Jupiter rockets - and made a major contribution with the “ablation concept” for re-entry. He was later director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre from 1974-86.

40 years ago
29 November 1968

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 255, a Zenit 2 recoverable reconnaissance satellite, which flew a routine eight-day mission.

The European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) launched a 104ft Europa booster from Woomera, Australia carrying an Italian 49kg technology satellite on the first all-up Europa three-stage rocket, with a British Blue Streak first stage, a French Coralie second stage and a German Astris third stage on a first trial. The Astris stage exploded at T+150s and satellite was lost. The 220 million pounds ELDO project was pretty well doomed. Good ‘ol Britain couldn’t wait to get out of ELDO anyway.

30 November 1968
The Soviet Union launched a 600kg upper atmosphere research satellite, Cosmos 256, from Plesetsk aboard a Kosmos booster.