31st March (31 March 2008)
A Khrunichev-International Launch Services Proton Breeze M booster was launched from Baikonur on 15 March, carrying the Lockheed Martin built SES Americom-Echostar Corporation satellite, AMC 14 but the flight failed during the burn of the second stage.
Also on 15 March, the US Air Force launched a Delta II booster from Cape Canaveral, carrying a Navstar satellites.
The second EVA of the STS 123 Endeavour mission was made on 15 March, featuring the attachment of the robot arms for the Dextre remote manipulator, featuring astronauts Richard Minnehan and Mike Foreman in a 7hr 8min EVA.
Khrunichev and Proton OAO Motors will inject 500 million roubles to develop more RD-275 engines for the Proton PM booster.
Russia pans to launch a series of three new Meteor M satellites starting in 2012 for oceanographic observation.
STS 123 Endeavour astronauts Rick Linnehan and Garrett Reisman completed a 7hr 1min EVA at the International Space Station on 14 March install the 4.2 ton Japanese Kibo laboratory at the orbital space base, with the help of Endeavour’s robotic arm.
The first Atlas V to be launched from Vandenberg AFB, California flew on 13 March. The Atlas V 411 booster carried a National Reconnaissance Office satellite, NROL-28 from Complex 3 East
STS 123 Endeavour docked to the International Space Station on 12 March.
China plans to launch a moon lander in 2013 and to return lunar samples during another mission in 2017, which will feature a lunar rover. A second lunar orbiter, Change’ 2 will be launched in 2009.
NASA launched STS 123 Endeavour on 11 March on a 16 day, five EVA mission to install Japan’s Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS) and Canada’s Dextrous robot manipulator. The crew comprises commander Domonic Gorie, pilot Gregory Johnson, flight engineer-mission specialist (MS) Michael Foreman and MS Robert Behnken, Richard Linnehan, Japan’s Takao Doi and ISS Expedition Crew member Garret Reisman. There were two minor problems during the ascent relating to two RCS thrusters and the Flash Evaporator System. The mission is the 258th manned spaceflight and the 152nd by USA.
South Korea’s astronaut Ko San, who was selected to fly to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA in September has been replaced by female cosmonaut Yi So-yeon. Ko San committed two violations while training at Russia’s Star City. He took a training manual back home to his country and also reviewed a manual containing information he was not authorised to read.
The SETI Institute’s Seth Shostak has been quit frank about the chances of finding life in space. Astrobiolgists have many very vocal critics and describe the search for life in the stars as nothing more than a hope. It’s true that incontrovertible proof of ET life is still lacking but there are just two paths – either we will find biology elsewhere or we won’t. So we continue the search – “astrobiology is only useful in proving the hypothesis by enduring endless failure to reach it ultimate goal.”
The Pentagon is concerned that China is developing a multi-dimensional programme to “limit the use of space assets”, including an operational ASAT system which was tested last year.
China’s third manned spaceflight, featuring the first EVA by the country, will be launched aboard Shenzhou 7 in late September-October. The spacecraft will also deploy small research satellite.
Arianespace launched an Ariane 5 ES booster from Kourou on 8 March local time carrying the first European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, Jules Verne, to the International Space Station (ISS). The cargo ship will only dock with the ISS after the after the completion of the STS 123 Endeavour mission scheduled.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $5.7 million contract from the Pentagon to design clusters of small, individually-launched satellites to establish a network of Future Fast Flexible Fractionated Free-flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange or F6 to be produced by the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA).
President Putin will establish a government-sponsored Rocket and Space Industry Research and Test Centre.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken images of what might be an ancient lakebed in Holden crater containing megabreccia and clay sediment. Holden crater is of six candidate sites for the landing of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover to be launched in 2009.
Saturn’s moon, Rhea may have a faint ring around it composed of the remnants of a collision with a comet, researchers hypothesise.
The Doritos company is inviting the British public to shoot a 20 TV advertisement that will be beamed from the 500MHz Ultra High Frequency Radar at the EISCAT Space Centre in Norway towards 47 Ursa Major.
SpaceDev has won a contract from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre for the research and development for its next generation proprietary annular hybrid rocket.
British students are being offered an opportunity to get involved in two space science experiments that will be flown aboard a Soyuz TMA and the International Space Station
28th March (28 March 2008)
NASA has rescinded a plan to cut the budget by $4 million for the continuing operation of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity after protests.
India plans to fly an astronaut aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA spacecraft to gain experience for its plan to operate an autonomous manned spacecraft. India’s Rakesh Sharma flew aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in April 1984.
Five US companies have been awarded a total of $1.5 million to evaluate NASA Altair project lunar lander designs to carry four astronauts to the moon’s surface, launched aboard an Ares V.
XCOR Aeerospace plans to develop a space tourist suborbital spaceplane, Lynx at a cost of $10 million with fares of about $100,000 for the 60km altitude trip.
The merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio has been approved but it still needs FCC approval.
Saturn’s moon Titan “may have” an ocean of water and ammonia under its surface, according to observations by NASA Cassini orbiter. The “evidence” is that key landmarks have shifted from “their expected positions by as much as 30km”, suggesting that the moon’s crust is decoupled from its core by an ocean. Coupled with the presence of organic compounds on Titan, “makes it - like Europa - a “potential habitat for life” according to the theory of evolution.
In another “fairy story” lapped up by popular media, salt deposits “discovered” on Mars by NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter “could help scientists identify 200 prime locations providing evidence of past life in the southern regions, consistent with chloride minerals formed (theoretically) 3.5 billion years ago”.
The fifth and final spacewalk of the STS 123 mission was completed by Robert Benhken and Mike Foreman on 22-23 March. The 6hr 2min sortie featured the stowing of the boom which was used to perform inspections of the exterior of the orbiter and to install a materials science experiment on the outside of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module. The duo also inspected a balky joint on the solar array.
STS 123 mission specialists Bob Behnken and Mike Foreman completed a 6hr 24min EVA on 21 March replacing a faulty circuit breaker and testing a new heat-shield repair technique.
Meanwhile, NASA has discovered a problem that might delay future Space Shuttle flights due to concerns about External Tanks Titanium Ice Frost Ramps.
Russia’s Roskosmos plans to land a spacecraft on the moon in 2012-15 and an automatic lunar station in 2016-20, says the agency’s chief, Anatoli Perminov. A manned flight to Mars could be made in 2035.
Iridium Satellite plans a new series of spacecraft, called NEXT.
Sea Launch despatched another Zenit 3SL booster from the Odyssey platform in the Pacific Ocean on 19 March, carrying the Boeing-built Direct TV 11 satellite.
Americans in Orbit-50 Years organisation plans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first US manned orbitial flight by John Glenn in 1962. It plans to launch Howard Chipman and Veronique Koken.
Meanwhile, the US Space Adventures organisation will purchase Zero Gravity Corporation, which uses a modified Boeing 747 for weightlessness experiences for paying customers. There are plans to eventually provide sub-orbital and orbital missions.
The legendary science fiction writer, Sir Arthur C. Clarke died in hospital near his home in Sri Lanka on 19 March, aged 90. Clarke predicted the use of geostationary orbiting communications satellites in 1945. He wrote over 100 books and the film “2001 Space Odyssey” which became an icon.
NASA astronaut David Low died of colon cancer on 16 March. The mission specialist astronaut flew three missions, STS 32 in 1990, STS 43 in 1991 and STS 57 in 1993. He left NASA in 1996 to work at Orbital Sciences Corporation in the Launch Systems Group. His father George Low was NASA manager of the Apollo programme.
UK/US astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope has “made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in an extrasolar planet”, HD 189733, 63 light years away (that is 635,878,499,812,499 miles away). Before we get too excited, the discovery has been described as “an exciting step towards showing that we can detect these signature molecules”. Scientists are not saying they have found life but no doubt the popular press will go overboard as usual.
NASA is still having problems with serious vibration and oscillation issues with the Ares 1 booster. It is a repeat of the early Space Shuttle dynamic overshoot launch loads - which were causing all sorts of problems for the Shuttle and its payloads - which NASA only finally found a solution for in 1992 when the design of the Shuttle was finally frozen.
NASA’s Constellation Program has selected five space companies to receive contracts for 210 day independent evaluations of NASA’s design concept for a Altair lunar lander crewed by four astronauts in 2020.
STS 123 Endeavour astronauts Richard Linnehan and Robert Behnken completed the third EVA at the International Space Station on 18 March to assemble the tool-handling assembly for the $200 million Dextre multi-manipulator, the final part of the Canadian Canadarm remote manipulator system.
SES Americom is examining options to salvage the AMC 14 communications satellite that was stranded in a low orbit after the failure of a Proton Breeze M launch.
The planned Sea Launch flight of a Zenit 3SL booster carrying Direct TV 11 was scrubbed on 17 March.
Germany and Brazil have signed an agreement to develop a 500kg, $157 million Multiple Application Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite to be launched in 2013 to monitor the Amazon region. The satellite will be able to return images at night and in difficult conditions such as heavy fog, smoke from forest fires and cloud.
The Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) has awarded Khrunichev and Astrium to build the Express AM4 communications satellite to be launched in 2010 stationed at 80degE in geosynchronous orbit. The 14kW satellite will be equipped with 63 active L, C, Ku and Ka band transponders. AM4 is based on the Astrium Eurostar E3000 spacecraft bus. The 421 million rouble contract will feature a Proton M-Breeze M launch.
40 years ago
21 March 1968
The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 208 aboard a Voskhod booster from Baikonaur carrying a recoverable Zenit 2 reconnaissance satellite into a 205-287km, 64deg inclination orbit. The recoverable film capsule returned on 2 April. The launch also featured a Nauka sub-satellite.
22 March 1968
The Soviet Union launched a Tsyklon booster from Baikonur carrying Cosmos 209, a 3,800kg Navy radar reconnaissance satellite into a 876-927km, 65deg inclination orbit.
27 March 1968
The first man in space, Yuri Gagarin was killed in the crash of a Mig 15 trainer, together with an instructor, Victor Seryogin. The aircraft hit the ground ast an angle of 70deg and was broken into small pieces. Gagarin was identified by a a mole on a body part. It was suggested that the plane was caught in the vortex of another jet plane.
50 years ago
26 March 1958
The third USA-IGY satellite, Explorer 3 was launched aboard a Juno 2 booster from Cape Canaveral to collect radiation belt and micrometeorite impacts. It re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on 27 June.
27 March 1958
President Eisenhower approved plans for the Advanced Research Projects Agency to undertake several space projects including further IGY satellites and three lunar probes.
