Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

29-30 April (30 April 2008)

Eutelsat Communications has purchased unprecedented insurance for future launches of satellites aboard Chinese Long March boosters, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Flight International reports that the European Space Agency plans a $787,000 investigation to use micro and nano satellites weighing from 100kg to 10kg as telecommunications antennae.

Andrews Space has been awarded a contract by NASA to work on design solutions for the Vision of Space Exploration, focussing on Mars entry, descent and landing technologies and techniques.

Space Systems/Loral and ICO Global Communications have successfully deployed the Harris Corporation-built 12m diameter antenna gold-plated mesh reflector on the Loral 1300 spacecraft-bus-based ICO G1 satellite, at 27ft high and 100ft wide, weighing 15,000 pounds - the largest commercial satellite launched.

nasaspaceflight.com reports that NASA is still trying to find a solution to the thrust oscillation on the Ares 1 booster (based on a Space Shuttle SRB) and are looking at a reaction control system, isolation mounts between the first and second stage and a tuned mass damper. With all of its experience with the Space Shuttle SRB it seems strange that NASA has a problem. Surely this would have been anticipated at an earlier stage.

NASA and given the go-ahead for Australia’s University of Queensland to continue its collaboration on 5 Mach hypersonic propulsion programmes.

24-28 April (28 April 2008)

SPACE DIARY

The Indian Space Research Organisation launched a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Shriharikota on 28 April carrying a cluster of ten satellites, including Cartosat 2A, a minisatellite and eight nanosatellites developed by foreign agencies.

A Soyuz-Fregat booster was launched from Baikonur on 28 April carrying the second European Galilieo satellite navigation pathfinder, GIOVE B, built by EADS Astrium into a 23,200km, 56deg orbit. GIOVE-A, built by Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) was launched in 2005. The two missions were for the Galileo In-Orbit Validation project.

Arianespace has offered to launch all the operational European Galileo navigation satellites using a combination of Ariane 5 and Soyuz boosters, capable of carrying four and two satellite respectively. The first four-satellite launch will inaugurate the project aboard an Ariane 5 in 2010.

The first Sea Launch Zenit 3SL Land Launch mission was made on 27 April from Baikonur, carrying Israel’s 1.3 tonne Amos 3 communications satellite en route to geosynchronous orbit. The launch was grounded on 24 April when the supporting arm of the launcher did not fully separate from the booster.

China launched a Long March 3C booster from Xichang on 25 April carrying the country’s first data relay satellite, Tianlian 1 into a geosynchronous orbit. One of its major functions will be to support the country’s manned spacecraft Shenzhou, which is expected to launch a three-person crew, including China’s first spacewalker in the autumn.

Astronomers from Penn State and the University are using an optical telescope and mathematical data to look for theoretical Earth-like planets in the “habitable” zone of a star. The stars cannot be seen as such but some basic data about them can be. Happy hunting.

Europe’s Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle which is docked to the 308 ton International Space Station has used its engine to raise the orbit of the space base in the first of four planned boost during its mission, raising the altitude by 2.8 miles, consuming 537 pounds.

The mobile tower of Cape Canaveral’s venerable Titan III launch pad 40 has been demolished in preparation for the complex to be readied for the launches of the Space-X Falcon 9 booster.

Krunichev Space Centre and International Launch Services are starting a quality standard project to provide better services to customers, following the loss of the AMC 14 satellite on a Proton Breeze M booster.

Runway 22 at Edwards AFB, California where Space Shuttle missions STS 124 to 126 could land if it is not possible to land at the KSC and has been replaced by a temporary runway adjoining 22.

The shoulder arm of the venerable NASA Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity has lost its ability to complete side-to-side motions.

Boeing’s Network and Space Systems unit of the Integrated Defense Systems of the company reported revenues off $2.693 billion in the first quarter of 2008, down from $2.778 billion.

Russia’s federal space agency believes there might be an inherent fault in the Soyuz TMA spacecraft, after the second time a capsule has experienced problem on landing. NASA and Russian investigators believe that the dangerous descent and landing of Soyuz TMA 11 on 19 April was due to the propulsion module not separating cleanly from the crew module.

The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch the 690kg Cartosat 2A remote sensing satellite on 28 April, together with a unique combination of the national 82kg IMS 1 satellite, plus eight nanosatellites weighing between 3 to 16kg. It will be th3e 13th PSLV flight.

Space Adventures, which arranges tourist missions to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA spacecraft is planning further services, including a two-week excursion on the ISS and a six-day flight around the moon with Amercian and Russian astronauts. The Lunar Mission service could start in 2012 and would cost $100 million compared with $35 million orbital missions. The company has identified Ras Al Khaimah for suborbital tourist flights costing $102,000. Tickets for Virgin Galactic flights start at $200,000

The European Union has now cleared the 2.4 billion Euro public bailout of the Galileo navigation/GPS satellite system. The project is the largest European project since the Airbus and will cost 4.5 billion Euro.

40 years ago 23 April 1968

A United Nations sponsored treaty to assist astronauts in space accidents was signed in Moscow by Russia, the USA and many European based countries.

24 April 1968

The Soviet Union launched a Tsyklon booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying the 1,400kg Cosmos 217 ASAT target spacecraft into a 140-179km, 62deg orbit but it did not separate from the upper stage but a FOBS flight was scheduled anyway.

It is hoped that Britain’s Black Arrow which will launch a 220lb satellite into a 300 mile orbit from Woomera, Australia in 1969 but the three million pound is over budget. It is hoped that Black Arrow will launch three satellites eventually. Meanwhile, it is proposed that A Blue Streak and Black Arrow upper stage could be used to launch 1,000lb satellites into synchronous orbit.

25 April 1968

The Soviet Union launches Cosmos 218 from Baikonur aboard an R-36 booster for a one-day Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) test flight into a 49deg inclination, 123-162km orbit.

26 April 1968

The Soviet Union launches a Cosmos booster from Kapustin Yar carrying Cosmos 219, a 300kg magnetosphere research satellite into a 48deg inclination, 215-1,745km orbit.

Pete Knight flies the X-15A to an altitude of 63km on a technology mission.

50 years ago 25 April 1958

The first successful launching of an inflatable sphere, 12ft in diameter, was made by a Nike Cajun rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia.

27 April 1958

Pravda reports that Sputnik’s Laika took three times as long as expected for her heartbeat to return to normal, possibly due to zero-G affecting her nerve centres. Cosmic ray intensity was 40% greater at 400 miles compared with the perigee altitude of 135 miles.

28 April 1958

A Vanguard rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carrying another satellite of the same name failed to orbit its payload due to a third

22-23 April (23 April 2008)

India will launch a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota on 28 April, carrying the Cartosat 2A remote sensing satellite.

Malaysia’s plan to fly a second astronaut to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz TMA mission has been cancelled due to lack of funds.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has unveiled the first flight model of the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), which will be launched from the Tagenashima-based Tsukuba Space Centre to the International Space Station aboard an H-IIB booster in the summer of 2009. Like the European ATV, the Japanese vehicle will carry cargo. At 16.5 tonnes, the HTV will be the heaviest payload launched by Japan.

Space Daily reports that the failed SES AMC 14 satellite stranded in the wrong orbit after a botched Proton launch in March could be purchased by the US Department of Defense to use it in a 10deg inclination orbit. However, the DoD might be being conned as SES is trying to offload AMC before an SES competitor or even a customer buys it from underwriters.

A UK Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL)-British National Space Centre project to launch a student experiment into space has reached the semi-final phase. The winner will be announced at the IAF in Glasgow in October. The payload will be only 1kg and will be given 100,000 pounds funding. The piggyback payload will be launched in 2010.

The dangerous landing of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft returning from the ISS, could have been caused by shorted hand controller causing the craft to perform an emergency mode and a possible failed explosive bolt and smoke in the cabin. The spacecraft made a back-up ballistic descent, landing 260 miles off target, landing close to a ground fire lit by Kazak farmers burning grass off the steppes. The craft’s ballistic return resulted in an 8g force for a minute. The propulsion module did not jettison properly, preventing the heat shield from taking the brunt of the re-entry heat but the crew cabin. Similar incidents occurred on previous landings in 2003 and 2007.

Russia will introduce a new generation of ballistic missile early warning system satellites the first of which will be launched in late 2009.

The Space Shuttle mission STS 119 to fly on an International Space Station mission in 2009 will perform a special thrust oscillation test designed to provide launch vibration data for the Ares 1 booster.

Russia says that the failure of the Proton Briz M launch carrying the AMC 14 communications satellite was caused by a rupture of the gas duct between the gas generator and the propellant pump turbine in the Briz main engine.

40 years ago 22 April 1968

The Soviet Union launched a Proton K/D from Baikonur carrying Soyuz K spacecraft as part of an unmanned test for a planned Lunar L1 Zond manned lunar fly-by mission but the launch failed when the second stage shutdown prematurely.

50 years ago 23 April 1958

The US Air Force launches a Thor Able missile from Cape Canaveral on a ballistic flight to test re-entry technologies carrying a mouse in the nosecone which was not recovered as the flight did not reach its planned splashdown downrange.

18-21 April (21 April 2008)

18-21 April

Soyuz TMA 11 landed on 19 April after returning from the International Space Station with Expedition Crew members Yuri Malenchnko and Peggy Whitson aswell as “space guest”, South Korea’s Yi So-Yeon on a paying mission. However the landing was 475km from the prime zone and 20 minutes late. The G forces during the ballistic re-entry reached 8gs, enough for an untrained passenger to black out. However, the crew training enabled them to take some of it in their their stride – but Yi will be hospitalised for a week for medical checks.

Arianespace’s commercial launch market lead has been demonstrated with another flawless Ariane 5 ECA launch from Kourou, French Guiana, carrying the Brazilian and Vietnamese satellites, Star One C2 and Vinisat 1. The 4,100kg Star One was based on an Thales Alenia Space Spacebus 3000B3 and will be located at 70degW in geosynchronous orbit. It is equipped with Ku, C and X-band transponders. The 2,600kg Vinisat was Vietnam’s first comsat, based on a Lockheed Martin A2100A spacecraft bus to be located at 132degE, carrying Ku and C-band transponders.

Using a mathematical model, the UK’s University of East Anglia says that the odds of finding life on Earth-like planets are low, “given the time it has taken for beings such as humans to evolve” - based on the unproven theory of evolution, of course which says that the Earth is teeming with a variety of complex life which apparently came out of a primordial sludge billions of years ago. However, the Open University’s astrobiologist says too much time has been spent on “dithering about how to define what a living organism is”! Life is a “self-sustaining system capable of the theory of Darwinian evolution” but it cannot be self-sustaining without oxygen, food and water. Creation has all the answers.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reports that ESA will consider applications from all 17 European Union states for a new class of astronauts - however the good old UK will not have any astronauts unless its changes its position regarding funding human flights. Applications open on 19 May. Flight International reports that Martin Rees, the President of the UK’s Royal Society, the national academy of science says that manned spaceflight is irrelevant and should be abandoned. Great UK PR Rees.

NASA hopes to build manned moon bases for stays of up to six months at a time, says the agency’s Advanced Capabilities Division.

NASA will not use Russian Progress tankers for cargo flights to the International Space Station after 2011 and will turn to the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme.

Russia’s Roskosmos space agency plans to modernise the Progress unmanned tanker craft and once the new technologies have been tested, they will be incorporated into the manned Soyuz TMA spacecraft.

NASA SpaceFlight.Com reports that the maiden flight of the Ares 1-X in April 2009 will be delayed due to conflicts with the Space Shuttle schedule and to concerns about the stability of the new rocket on a Shuttle Mobile Transporter during roll-out. More seriously, thrust oscillation on the upper stage of the Ares 1 is causing concern, as well as the booster J2-X engine. The weight allocation for the Ares 1 has so far been reduced from 54,722lbs to 51,290lbs.

40 years ago 18 April 1968

The Soviet Union launched the 6,300kg Cosmos 214 aboard a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk on a Zenit 2 reconnaissance satellite mission featuring a film capsule return. The orbit was 200-375km with an inclination of 81deg.

The 385kg Cosmos 215 was launched into a 255-403km, 48deg orbit aboard a Kosmos booster from Kapustin Yar on a mission to monitor the ionosphere.

20 April 1968 The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Baikonur carrying a Zenit reconnaissance satellite with a recoverable film capsule into a 51deg inclination, 198-287km orbit. The capsule landed in the river Volga and sank. 85% of the film was ruined.

21 April 1968 The Soviet Union launched a Molniya booster from Baikonur carrying another Molniya 1 communications satellites into a routine highly elliptical 405-40,099km, 64deg inclination orbit.

15-17 April (17 April 2008)

China will launch a three-crew Shenzhou 7 spacecraft in the second half of 2008, featuring the nation’s first spacewalk. It will also perform dockings with a small piggyback satellite.

There are reports that a Russian military satellite has been deliberately destroyed in orbit, creating even more space debris. This coincided with a Russian report that 2007 saw the creation of a record amount of space debris after seven spacecraft and upper stage explosions adding 3,800 pieces of debris in Earth orbit.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Expedition Crew commander aboard the International Space Station has clocked up a US female space experience record of 374 days on two missions.

Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) air-launched a Pegasus booster on 16 April, carrying a US Air Force Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite on the 39th flight of a Pegasus booster since 1990 and the 25th consecutive successful flight.

NASA is extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two more years, which will feature 60 more orbits and 26 fly-bys of Titan, seven of Enceladus and one each of Dione, Rhea and Helene.

Russia says it will need $5 billion to complete its segment of the International Space Station by 2015. The ISS is expected to remain operational until 2020. What a waste. Russia plans to add five new modules to 2015 and to eventually construct a space base in orbit to send spacecraft to the moon and Mars.

A planned international lunar observatory comprising 100,000 antennas, called the Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer to probe into the theoretical period after the theoretical Big Bang when the universe was apparently made up of hydrogen and helium only, with no stars or galaxies about 13.7 billion years ago. The first launch of a rocket from the new Russian cosmodrome in Vostochny is planned for 2015.

The US Air Force has ordered three more Minotaur launch vehicles from Orbital Sciences worth $40 million. Two vehicles are Minotaur IVs and one a Minotaur 1. The US Air Force has now ordered 24 vehicles 14 of which have been launched since January 2000.

Russia says that flight tests of the Angara booster will start in 2010 from Plesetsk. A larger Angara 5 – rather like a US Delta IV - is also planned. The larger booster will carry 175 tonnes compared with 25 tonnes for the Angara 1. Of course, we have heard these pronouncements many times before.

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract to build the Japanese Broadcasting Satellite System, B-SAT 3b based on the A2100 spacecraft bus.

Digital Globe has selected a Boeing Delta II booster for launch from Vandenberg, California in 2009, carrying the WorldView 2 commercial high resolution imaging satellite.

Flight International reports that Reaction Engines-Airborne Engineering and the University of Bristol have developed and test-fired a 30kg thrust Static Test Expansion/Deflection Rocket Nozzle (STERN).

A United Launch Alliance, Lockheed Martin Atlas V 421 booster was launched from Cape Canaveral on 14 April carrying a Space Systems/Loral-built ICO Global Communications G1 spacecraft towards geosynchronous orbit. The 27ft tall ICO G1 features a 12m tall unfurlable mesh S-band reflector providing 16kW of power to the 6,634kg. The spacecraft will be located at 92degW in geosynchronous orbit.

Russia’s federal space agency Roskosmos chief, Anatoli Perminov is getting a but twitchy about the launch of Soyuz TMA 13 later this year and is suggesting that the craft should be designated TMA 14!

The European Space Agency has signed contracts worth 500 million Euros for the European Union-led Global Monitoring and Security “GMES” programme second and third Sentinal satellites, following the first contract awarded to Thales Alenia Space for Sentinel 1 in 2007. EADS Astrium will build the vegetation imager. A total of 12 satellites will eventually be launched.

Thales Alenia Space has been awarded a contract to build the first European Earth observation GMES programme satellite, Sentinel 3.

Flight International reports that the European Space Agency is considering a robotic cargo lunar lander to deliver 1,700kg of equipment for a manned moon base. Meanwhile, NASA’s 45,000kg Altair lunar lander, will now 4,500kg cargo with four crew, rather than 6,000kg.

Manned Mars missions may be impossible due to the radiation dangers and potentially serious cancer cases, says the Georgetown University Medical Centre, Washington DC.

40 years ago 17 April 1968

The US Air Force launched a Titan IIIB-Agena D from Vandenberg AFB carrying a KH-8 reconnaissance satellite into an 111deg inclination, 127-421km orbit, for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Great Britain – as it was called at the time – before becoming a series fragmented regions of the dreadful European Union today – bales out of space. “Britain Quits The Space Race”. “No Backing for ELDO after 1972”, “2,000 Jobs in Danger”. “72 million pounds down the drain”. GB could have helped to establish a 1960s version of Arianespace but baled out of space, eventually leaving it to France to form Arianespace much later. Britain’s Blue Streak ICBM was to have been the European Launcher Development Organisation’s (ELDO) first stage. ELDO was to compete with America for the competition to commercially launch satellites. The minister who axed Blue Streak? Anthony Wedgwood Benn MP who’s still around today.

10-14 April (14 April 2008)

10-14 April

Three rookie space travellers docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on 10 April. Launched aboard Soyuz TMA 12 were commander Sergei Volkov – the first son of a previous space traveller, Alexander Volkov. Coincidentally, the first US son of the previous astronaut, Richard Garriott, son of Owen Garriot, will fly aboard a Soyuz TMA to the ISS in October. The other Soyuz TMA 12 crew are flight engineer Oleg Kononenko and South Korean female visitor, Yi So-yeon, the 7th space tourist. Space tourist flights are likely to be cancelled in 2010 due to increases in operational space crews on the ISS. South Korea plans to recruit pilot astronauts by 2017.

Wealthy would-be astronauts could buy a flight on a Soyuz TMA spaceflight with a professional cosmonaut, providing a flight would not interfere with International Space Station operations. A traditional space tourist flight on a Soyuz can cost about $30-40 million but hiring a flight would be much more costly, although if two tourist flew it could be cheaper. However, the commander would also have to act as flight engineer.

NASA’s first Ares 1 booster will be launched on 15 April 2009 carrying a four-segment Space Shuttle SRB with an empty upper segment, a replica of a second stage with an Orion mock-up crew module and a launch abort system reports Florida Today.

The level of funding for the Russian segment of the International Space Station is half what it should be, said Energia head, Vitali Lapota. There is a 50% shortfall, he said. 100 billion roubles is earmarked to 2015 but a further 120 billion roubles is required. Lapota also reported that the launch of two power-generation modules have been delayed for several years. Two thirds of power generated by the Russian segment is consumed by the nation and the rest needs to be purchased from the USA which provides 20 times the power provided by Russia. Lopota said that funding for the Soyuz spacecraft is $500 million compared with $1.2 billion for China and $6.3 billion for the USA.

Russia’s Energia warns that launches from the planned Vostochnyy site in Amur, in the far east of the country could result with first stages landing in industrial regions.

Russia unveiled a monument in Moscow to celebrate the flight of Sputnik 2 and its passenger, the female dog Laika. Laika is standing on the top of a rocket.

Russia’s “fairy” rocket Angara has a “problem” with its engine and there are different views as what to do with it. It had been hoped that the rocket – introduced at a Paris Air Show in the mid-1990s – would be a new manned launches capable of carrying up to 22 tons. There is no sign of it yet. Angara is getting a more of a joke these days.

The launch of two Russian Yamal 300 satellites to provide services to the Gazprom company have been delayed at least 10 months.

The first Russian Progress cargo tanker with a digital control system will be launched on 14 May. A similar system will be added to the Soyuz.

Siberian scientists are to spend 18 months underground in Krasnoyarsk to “simulate” aspects of a journey to Mars as part of an experiment operated by the “International Centre of Closed Ecosytems of the Molecular Biology and Biophysics Research Institute of the Russian Acanemy of Sciences”. A previous experiment lasted 13 months in the late 1970s. SES Americom’s AMC 14 satellite has been declared a total loss and is likely to receive a $150 million payout. A ground spare, AMC 1R will be launched later.

Arianespace has won a new launch contract to fly Japan’s Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation System, B-SAT.

The Space Foundation’s Space Report reveals that worldwide space budgets and revenues totalled $251 billion in 2007, with satellite based products and services, as well as US Government expenditures making up 80% of the revenues.

The Ukraine’s space industry’s output has increased by 13% in 2007. $49.5 million will be allocated for 2008, a 300% increase on 2007.

Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates’ sale to the USA’s Alliant Techsystems has been blocked by the Canadian government mainly because the sale would threaten Canadian ownership of the Radarsat 2 satellite.

Gen Corp Aerojet has won a NASA contract to develop a 5,5000lbf LOX-methane engine for NASA’s Altair lunar lander programme.

Russia wants its partners on the International Space Station to extend the exploitation of the ISS to 2020. To what extent NASA will be involved in the ISS remains to be seen, as it has its sights on the moon. Russia is planning to add further modules to the ISS.

Spanish and UK scientists have “discovered” a “possible” terrestrial planet orbiting a star in Leo about 30 light years away – that is 30 times 5878499812499 miles distance.

50 years ago 13 April 1958 The second satellite to be launched, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 2 re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Launched on 3 November 1958, it carried the first animal into orbit. The female husky, Laika who had no chance of recovery died soon after. The spacecraft operated for seven days. Laika’s heartbeat had taken three times as long to return to normal.

40 years ago 14-15 April 1968 The Soviet Union launched two unmanned Soyuz spacecraft to simulate a planned manned rendezvous and docking flight to be made by Soyuz 2-3, featuring a crew transfer. The spacecraft entered into 180-200km class orbits with inclinations of 51deg.

7-9 April (9 April 2008)

SPACE DIARY

7 April-9 April

Russia launched its 419th Kosmos booster, from Plesetsk on 8 April carrying a German radar surveillance satellite, the fourth in a series. Kosmos boosters have launched over 700 satellites during a 40- year career. The rocket will be succeeded by the Soyuz 2 and possibly the enigmatic Angara which has had a 10 year career without ever being launched!

NASA now says that the Ares 1 rocket’s SRB first stage’s severe vibration at launch will now not be as strong as thought, thanks to a plan to include shock absorbers. Meanwhile, Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) and Aerojet have completed the first static firing of the launch abort rocket for the Ares 1 spacecraft.

As reported earlier, EADS Astrium is to acquire Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), which offers expertise in small and micro satellites. SSTL employs 270 staff at Guildford and has built 27 launched satellites.

The first six of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite fleet has completed 25 years service after being deployed into orbit by the Space Shuttle STS 6 in 1983. There are now six TDRS spacecraft in orbit.

Russia’s navigation services market will be worth $6.6 billion by 2015. There are 18 operational satellites so far and another six will be added in two launches in 2008 and the first of two updated satellites in 2009.

40 years ago 7 April 1968

The Soviet Union launched Luna 7 aboard a Molniya booster from Baikonur, which entered a 140-870km, 42deg lunar orbit. It was the final flight of the second generation Lunar series.

9 April 1968 The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 211 aboard a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk into a 199-1,532km, 81deg inclination orbit on a technology mission for air and space defence.

28 March - 6 April (6 April 2008)

The Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS 124 has been scheduled for no earlier that 31 May, carrying the Japanese Kibo pressurised module. The STS 125 Atlantis to make the final servicing mission at the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed until October, resulting in delays of the International Space Stations missions STS 125 to October, STS 126 to November and STS 119 to February 2009.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is aiming for a manned spaceflight in 2014-15.

The European Space Agency’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Jules Verne docked to the International Space Station on 3 April.

NASA is considering reconfiguring the Commercial Orbital Transportation (COTS) programme for the International Space Station to become an interim crew transfer vehicle to fill the gap between the retirement of the Space Shuttle and the introduction of the controversial and troubled Orion-Ares project. Space-X and Orbital Sciences (OSC) have both got $500 million contracts to service the ISS. Space-X plans to launch its first COTS mission in 2010 using the Falcon 9 booster.

Using the UK’s Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii have observed “old” galaxies more than “ten billion light years” from our own galaxy but they appear to us as they were formed four billion years after the Big Bang. Just why they appear to us as they were four billion years away is a puzzle to these astronomers but not to those that believe in a creation of mature and active universe much earlier and the resulting expansion.

The French newspaper Les Echo reports EADS may purchase Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). Meanwhile, Sir Martin Sweeting , Chairman of SSTL has won the 2008 Sir Arthur Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award. SSTL was established by the University of Surrey in 1985 has launched 27 missions in 25 years. Martin was the first space executive I interviewed after I joined Flight International in 1984.

A communications satellite to be operated by Venezuela and Uruguay will be launched late this year by a China Great Wall Industry Long March 3B booster from Xichang. The Venesat 1 project will cost $241 million with Uruguay contributing 10% of the funding.

Russia’s Progress space company is developing an advanced Bion-M for the Samara-based enterprise with the European Space Agency. The new Bion will be able to operate for six months rather than the 14 days of the previous models. The first launch will be in 2010. There have been 11 Bion missions since 1973, carrying 37 kinds of biological species, including single-cell organisms, plants, rats, tortoises and monkeys.

Japan has begun recruitment for three new astronauts to work on the International Space Station.

Spaceport Sweden and Virgin Galactic are continuing to study the potential of using Kiruna as a base for the proposed space tourist service which could complement the main operational base in New Mexico.

US astronomers have found 10 more “extrasolar planets” which transit stars. Another detection method, which claims to have discovered 270 planets so far is measuring the gravitation pull of the “planet” on the stars. However, this work is purely theoretical since the distances are huge - even one light year is 5878499812499 miles away. You can’t actually “see” the stars - or the planets.

The European Space Agency has sent resumes of 40 volunteers to take part in the Russian Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, two of which will join four Russians to conduct a 520-day simulation of a Mars mission.

Europe’s Vega new smaller launcher project reached a new milestone on 27 March with the Zefiro 23 second stage motor completing its second and final test lasting 14 seconds reaching 95 tonnes thrust.

The planned Ares 1 first stage, using a Space Shuttle-based solid rocket booster, should create vibration levels affecting the crew, provided relatively mechanical fixes can be designed reports Aerospace Daily. Scott Horowitz – a four-time Space Shuttle commander and pilot – says his “best guess” was that vibrations will be lower. What a way to design a new booster. It’s the Space Shuttle story all over again – remember the trouble the Shuttle had, with damaged hardware and payloads during the launch phase? It took NASA until 1992 to sort that problem. A Space Shuttle mission in 2009-2010 will “help retire the risk” of Ares 1 first stage thrust oscillations with an SRB instrumented to simultaneously measure, sound pressure level and acceleration. The astronauts could be shaken to death.The Orion capsule is too heavy for Ares 1. Both vehicles have grown in weight. The House Committee on Science and technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics is also concerned. The US Government’s Accountability Office, an investigative arm of the Congress has expressed deep concerns about the Ares 1 problem. There are “considerable unknowns” and it is “doubtful whether NASA will get its extra $2 billion during the next to years to overcome the flaws. NASA thinks that putting weight on springs in parts of the bottom end of the rocket will dampen the vibrations underneath the astronauts’ seats. Former astronaut Kathy Thornton – associate dean of engineering at the University of Virginia believes that biggest problem is that NASA is hell-bent on a schedule to reach the moon in 2020 without an obviously low budget. Is this really the NASA that sent men to the moon?

The United Launch Alliance has won a $124 million contract to launch the first US Air Force Mobile Users Objective System (MUOS) aboard an Atlas V from Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral in early 2010. MUOS is the next generation narrowband and tactical communications satellite series providing simultaneous voice, video and data.

The UK’s Surrey Satellite company, $28 milion, 660kg SSTL-built European Space Agency Giove-A Galileo navigation system pathfinder satellite, has reached a milestone of 27 months in orbit and has been described a full success.

The remarkably successful five-EVA, 15 day 18hr 10min mission of the STS 123 Endeavour at the International Space Station ended at the Kennedy Space Centre on 27 March GMT.

NASA’s 8,000 contractors at the end of the Space Shuttle programme in 2010-11 could be reduced by about 6,400, to 1,600-2,300 in 2013 according to the agency’s Workforce Transition Report.

A Russian Kosmos booster was launched from Plesetsk on 27 March carrying the fourth in a series of German military synthetic aperture radar satellites called SAR-Lupe 4 built by OHB-System. A fifth and final spacecraft will be launched later this year.

Alan Stern who became NASA’s Science Mission Directorate associate administrator in 2007 has resigned and will be replaced temporarily by Ed Weiler. It is suspected that Stern was disappointed at NASA’s lukewarm support to continue with the Mars Exploration Rovers.

Space Exploration Technologies, Space-X has made the first of three engine static firing test of the for the Falcon 9 booster.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a “surprising organic brew” containing “most of the ingredients needed for life” based on the theory of evolution. The “brew” contains water vapour, carbon dioxide and organic material 20 times denser than expected. The final ingredient - water - has yet to be found.

Odyssey Moon Limited has signed up with Celestis Inc, the lead supplier of memorial launches of deceased persons remains into space, to fly memorial capsules and modules to into lunar orbit and the surface. Celestis arranged for some of the ashes of the famous astronomer Dr Eugene Shoemaker to be carried aboard the Lunar Prospector in 1999. The spacecraft later impacted at the moon’s south pole and Shoemaker’s remains were the first to be laid to rest on another celestial body.

Alliant Techsystems and Ad Astra are exploring co-operation in advanced launch systems and solid rocket motors, from Alliant and advanced plasma propulsion technologies.

40 years ago

3 April 1968 The Soviet Union launched a 4,720kg Voskhod booster from Plesetsk, carrying a Zenit 2 reconnaissance satellite with a recoverable film capsule on an eight day mission in a 200-373km, 81deg inclination orbit.

4 April 1968 NASA launched its second Saturn 5 on a test flight but things did not go to plan. The spacecraft comprised a Command and Service Module and a Lunar Module test article. Two of the J-2 engines of the second stage shut down early and the S4B third stage fired longer to compensate, placing the spacecraft into a 177-362km. The re-ignition of the S4B engine failed and the planned trans-lunar flight was aborted. The Apollo spacecraft’s Service Propulsion System made a 442s burn resulting in a free-return orbit of 22,259-33.3km and the command module landed in the Pacific Ocean after a flight lasting 9kh 50min.

Bill Dana flew the X-15A to a maximum altitude of 35 miles at a speed of 5,808.

50 years ago

2 April 1958 President Eisenhower proposes the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency.

5 April 1958 The US Air Force launched an Atlas ICBM on a fully successful flight of 600 miles from Cape Canaveral.

40 years ago

6 April 1968 The US Air Force launched an Atlas F booster from Vandenberg carrying OV1-13 and 14 technology satellites into a 590-9,200km, 100deg inclination class orbits.