Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

30 September (30 September 2008)

The STS 125 Atlantis, the final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed to no earlier than February 2009 after a major failure of the Side A Control Unit/Science Data Formatter of the epic satellite. Attempts will be made to switch over operations to the Side B system but if this fails there will be no mission unless a replacement control system can be fitted. The next Space Shuttle mission is therefore likely to be STS 126 Endeavour to the International Space Station, probably in November from Pad 39A. Atlantis is likely to be parked on Pad 39B, which is being modified for the Constellation programme’s Ares 1-X.

Meanwhile, hundreds of employees at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility where the External Tank (ET) for the Space Shuttle is assembled will be laid off. Two thousand employees are still working on the building of ten remaining ETs.

NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander has imaged snows falling on the surface…..Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle, Jules Verne was commanded to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on 30 September.

Russia’s space agency does not regard China as a competitor in space after the flight of Shenzhou 7. “Indeed, Russia and China co-operated with the development of the spacesuits for the Chinese mission, one of which was made in Russia”. The countries are planning co-operation in moon and Mars exploration. The Phobos-Grunt Mars sample return mission will incorporate a Chinese instrument. Russia is playing a role on the China’s lunar orbiter mission.   



 

27-29 September (29 September 2008)

At last the private Space-X company completed a fully successful flight of its Falcon 1 booster from Omelek Island, Kajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean on 27 September. The two stage liquid oxygen-kerosene powered rocked, powered by a SpaceX Merlin 1C first stage engine and second stage, Space-X Kestral engine, carried a mass simulator payload weighing 165kg. It was the fourth attempt to fly a successful mission. Space-X founder, Elon Musk said it “was one of the best days of my life”.

The first spacewalk by a Chinese astronaut was completed on 27 September, with taikonaut Zhai Zhigang performing an EVA lasting about 15 minutes fully outside from a $4 million orbital module from where Zhai was assisted by Liu Boming. Also, a small 40kg monitoring satellite was deployed from Shenzhou 7 and transmitted images of the spacecraft. The spacecraft landed safely after a 68hr flight on 28 September. China now aims to launch a “simple laboratory” in 2011 and a space station in 2020.

The Space Shuttle is still up in the air. There have been calls for it to be grounded in 2010, a possible extension of a year to 2011 and even keeping it operational until 2015, when it is hoped - repeat hoped – the Orion project will be operational (highly unlikely given the mess the project is in). So, will NASA really allow itself to rely on Russian Soyuz craft to do the crew ferry work? Watch this space. It ain’t over yet. This story will run for many more months. Read NASA Watch’s latest story about Ares. NASA has an agreement to use Russian Soyuz TMA spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the International Space Station to 2011 and it is hoped to 2015, when Ares is on line, which is a big if. Why can’t the Shuttle be kept flying until 2015? “We started shutting down the Space Shuttle four years ago. That horse has left the barn” said NASA’s Wayne Hale in a blog. It is possible that two Space Shuttle orbiters could continue to fly two or three missions to the International Space Station beyond 2010 in tandem with the development of Ares. One of the missions would deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on STS 134. The possibility of a longer extension of the Space Shuttle career has not yet been fully rejected however. Can NASA seriously sit back and watch Russia and China take over manned space flight for five or more years? Meanwhile, $1,000,000,000 will be available to accelerate the initial operating capability of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and Ares 1. Meanwhile, there are serious questions about the future of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project to supply the ISS.

Gene Cernan, the last man to leave the moon isn’t impressed with the present plans for expensive space tourism. The 74 year-old veteran said that expensive 15 minute trips to 62 miles altitude “will not give passengers a true space experience”, in an interview with Britain’s The Sun newspaper. “It sounds exciting and there are people who can pay the money but that is not going into space”, said Cernan. He said real space tourism will begin in Earth orbit. “Let people spend a week in space. Just going up to 62 miles to say “I’ve been in space” is just like a carnival ride”.

The European Union may want to be a space power but member countries and industry seem unwilling to provide the astronomical costs. EU ministers realise that they need to develop instruments and financial schemes for European space policy but the 27 EU ministers have no idea how to reach the goal. Take a look at the history of the Galileo navigation satellite programme: just two technology satellites and a planned operational service now in 2013. Many EU ministers are not prepared to pump money into space anymore. The main problem is the incredible waste of money thanks to the incredible bureaucracy of the EU, which is turning into a nightmare - sliming its way into everybody’s daily lives in Europe like a cancer. In the UK the influence is felt greatest in the policy of “political correctness” which is leaving this country (it used to be called Great Britain) almost paralysed with fear of criminal charges for just making a simple statement of fact. In the 1960s, there was a “Common Market” in Europe. It’s a pity it didn’t stay that way.

Fourteen Russian Glonass navigation satellites are in operation, with another out of action for a while. A full constellation of 23 satellites in planned, which may increase to 30 by 2011.

Flight International reports that the maiden flight of Virgin Galactic Scaled Composite’s White Knight Two mother ship has been delayed possibly to the end of 2008. Captive flights of White Knight and SpaceShipTwo will begin “well into 2009”.
 

26 September (26 September 2008)

China’s third manned spaceflight was launched from Jiuquan on 26 September carrying Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, all aged 42, aboard Shenzhou 7. The trio are the joint 480th space travellers. Zhai Zhigang will make the country’s first EVA during the three-day mission. The flight is the 261st manned spaceflight. The crew will deploy a small monitoring satellite and a data relay satellite. China is to begin the mass production of Shenzhou starting at No 8. The craft will serve a shuttles to the planned space station and may also transport astronauts and cargoes for other countries.

Orbital Sciences and the US Air Force launched a Minotaur II+ from Vandenberg AFB, California in support of the Missile Defense Agency Near-Field Infrared Experiment.

Russia successfully launched three Uragan-M Glonass satellites aboard a Proton booster from Baikonur on 25 September.

United Launch Alliance performed a successful first hot-fire of the new Pratt&Whitney Rocketdyne liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen RS-68A engine for the Delta IV Heavy, which will increase thrust from 660,000lbs to 700,000lbs. The new engine will be used for the first time in 2011.

The European Commission and the European Space Agency has announced 11 preferred bidders from 21 that applied for the 30-satellite Galileo satellite navigation system that will now not be operational until 2013 at a cost that has risen from 3.4 million Euro to 4.8 billion, including two ground stations.


50 years ago
26 September 1958

A Vanguard rocket (SLV 3) reached 265 miles altitude but was destroyed 9,200 miles downrange re-entering the atmosphere over Central Africa.

40 years ago
26 September 1968

A US Air Force Titan 3B was launched from Pad LC41 carrying three OV2 magnetosphere research satellites into 35,113-21,818, 184-114 and 22,229-35,786km orbits. The satellites weighed 205, 10 and 13kg and were placed in 12, 26 and 3deg inclinations. Also orbited was the 163kg LES 6 technology satellite placed in a 35,000 circular orbit, inclined at 12deg.  

 

25 September (25 September 2008)

China’s Shenzhou 7 astronauts, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng are set for launch today on the nation’s third manned spaceflight and first to feature a spacewalk. The crew will use traditional Chinese medicine, taikong yanxin, to combat potential space sickness.

The Ukraine and the USA will launch a new rocket in 2010 to carry cargo to the International Space Station, while Germany will co-operate with the Ukraine in the development of robotic devices.

The launch of final Space Shuttle flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope, STS 125, has been delayed until 14 October, while the International Space Station mission, STS 126 will fly no earlier than 16 November.

A Sea Launch Zenit 3SL booster was launched from the Odessey Launch Platform in the Pacific Ocean on 24 September carrying a Space Systems/Loral 1300 hybrid spacecraft, the 4,690kg Galaxy 19 communications satellite with 52 transponders, weighing 4,690kg. Galaxy 19 will be positioned at 154degW.

The Japanese internet tycoon, Daisuke Enomoto who aspired to fly on board a Soyuz TMA to the International Space Station on a 10 day trip and making a spacewalk,  wants his $21 million back after failing a health check earlier this year.
 

24-25 September (24 September 2008)

Space Exploration Technologies (Space-X) has delayed the planned launch of its Falcon 1 booster from 23 September to 28th after concerns about a static firing conducted on 20 September. A liquid oxygen supply line needs to be replaced.

The next flight of a Soyuz TMA 13 spacecraft is scheduled for 12 October from Baikonur, carrying Soyuz commander Yuri Lonchakov, International Space Station (ISS) commander NASA’s Mike Finke and space tourist Richard Garriott. Everything has been made to prevent the repetition of the ballistic descent during the landing of TMA 10 and 11 in October 2007 and April 2008. Soyuz TMA 12 is attached to the ISS. Two TMA 13 crew will make a EVA to ensure there is no damage to the exterior of the spacecraft before it leaves the ISS.

While the White House is sticking to its guns to retire the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010, Democratic Presidential candidate, Barak Obama believes that the Shuttle should continue flying, with potential alternative commercial crewed craft. Relying on the Russian Soyuz TMAs alone to carry US crew, as well as Russian and international personnell is very risky. The danger is that Russia could wield its powerful arm too far.

The Space Security 2008 study by Project Ploughshares reports that while routine space operations are always an issue regarding space debris, the anti-satellite test performed by China in January 2007 and an American missile intercept of a failed US satellite created a serious problem in February this year.

NASA Space Watch’s Keith Cowing reports that despite the space agency’s hype about the PDR for the Ares 1 rocket by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, “many participants seem to have a different view”. There were too many people involved in planning, meetings were too large, the PDR was not mature enough and had been rushed, screening rules changed day by day. Declaring the PDR complete was “arrogant and wrong”, he said.

Sea Launch has signed the launch services agreement with 03b Networks for at least two Medium Earth Orbit communications satellites with the first launch no earlier than 2010.

NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity is aiming for a new target, a crater 20 times larger than where it explored for last two years, seven miles SE of its present location.

The European Space Agency’s Venus Express orbiter has provided images to form the first 3D picture of the fierce winds across the southern hemisphere.

The satellite phone company, Iridium Holdings which has 300,000 subscribers has been acquired by an affiliate equity firm Greenhill&Co for $591 million.


40 years ago
23 September 1968

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Baikonur, carrying Cosmos 243, a Zenit 2M area survey photo-reconnaissance satellite on a 9-day mission into a 213-293km, 71deg inclination orbit with a return film capsule. Also launched was a sub-satellite, Nauka, which was placed into a 199-274km orbit. 







 

 

20-22 September (22 September 2008)

United Space Alliance (USA) at the Kennedy Space Centre ceased working on the Ares 1 and Ares 1-X rocket but a short truce was arranged while Alliant Technsystems and the USA sort out the problem. Pad 39B will become the Ares launch pad.

Meanwhile, a rare event occurred at Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Centre with two Space Shuttles on the two launch pads at Merritt Island. Atlantis will be launched from Pad 39A on the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission on 10 October, while on Pad 39B, Endeavour is prepared for a potential four-crew rescue flight. The orbital servicing will hopefully extend the career of the HST to at least 2013, 13 years after its launch.

ILS International Launch Services launched a Proton M Breeze booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 20 September carrying a five tonne Telesat Canada Nimiq 4 communications satellite heading for a position in geosynchronous orbit. Nimiq 4 is based on an EADS Astrium Eurostar 3000 spacecraft bus.

France plans to buy 10 Soyuz ST boosters to fly from a dedicated launch pad at Kourou. The final order could reach 20 boosters.

Russia plans to launch six Glonnass navigation satellites in two launches in September and December, creating a constellation of 19 satellites. Thirty satellites should be in orbit by 2011. A completed system will include 24 satellites and six in-orbit spares. Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin has added $2.6 million to the project.

Tourists will not be allowed to witness the launch of Shenzhou 7 for security and confidentiality. Gansu’s Jiuquan Tourism Bureau had earlier indicated that tourists who are normally allowed to visit the launch site would be allowed to watch the launch.

Major General Aleksandr Yakushin has been appointed first deputy commander and chief of staff of Russian Space Troops.

Anatoli Perminov, the head of the Russian Federal Space Agency plans to involve Cuba and other Latin American countries in space programmes, including participation in the Glonnas navigation satellite system and Earth remote sending spacecraft.

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken an image of a rare alignment of two spiral galaxies, one of which is 780 million light years away. The distance between the two has not yet been calculated. The larger background galaxy is about the size of the Milky Way and is ten times larger the foreground galaxy.

40 years ago
20 September 1968

The Soviet Union launched a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 242, an operational radar target for AMB forces into a 272-406km, 71deg inclination orbit. The spacecraft decayed on 13 November. 

 

18-19 September (19 September 2008)

The Indian Space Research Organistion (ISRO) plans to launch a second moon mission, Chandrayan 2 in 2011-12. The mission will feature a rover, which will perform chemical analysis. The mission will include Russian, US, German, French, Swedish and British instruments. The spacecraft weight will be 590kg at launch. Meanwhile, the 590kg Chandrayan 1 lunar orbiter is scheduled for launch on 19 October from Sriharikota, carrying 11 instruments, including those from the USA, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria.

Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) has received an order from the US Air Force for an Orbital/Suborbital Program 2 Minotaur IV mission in 2010 carrying a technology demonstration payload. The new order brings to 25, the number of space and target vehicles supplied for the US Air Force, including 14 flown Minotaurs since January 2000. 

John Auburn, the aerospace business development director and chairman of UK Space is urging the UK Government to “reinstate a robust national space programme to guarantee national security in an increasingly complex international environment”. Auburn adds, “there should be a much stronger focus on the contribution of space to UK national civil security, with rigorous monitoring of threats to military and civil space assets and infrastructure and strengthened collaboration with European space security organisations.

Anatoli Perminov, the chief of Roskosmos says that Cuba and Venezuela could join the Glonass satellite navigation system. Glonass was developed in the 1980s for missile targeting to compete with the USA’s GPS system. Meanwhile, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has boosted finance for Glonass by $2.61 million.

The Associated Press reports that the Pentagon plans to buy two commercial reconnaissance satellites in a move to use more private spacecraft. The US Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Intelligence Directors Office of the Secretary of Defense could buy satellites worth $1.7 million to be launched by and after 2012. However, a new Government satellite system would compete and recreate the already operational fleets of private company spacecraft such as GeoEye and Digital Globe. The Government satellites are called the Broard Area Space-Based Imagary Collection satellite system, BASIC with a best resolution of 16in and are to bridge a potential gap caused by the cancellation in 2005 of the NRO Future Imagary Architecture system.

NASA has selected Hammers Company to develop the Landsat Data Continuity Mission Operations system costing $14.9 million to be launched in July 2011.

Steve Bennett, Britain’s ever-optimistic and visionary lecturer at University of Salford and the founder of Starchaser, a potential space tourist vehicle, has been awarded a 130,730 pounds grant to develop an eco-friendly rocket engine to power a launch escape system for commercial space rockets. The award was provided by The Grant for Research and Development (GRAND) of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, which has assisted almost 600 companies to develop their ideas into solid commercial potential. The system is powered by the eco-friendly hydrogen peroxide. The University of Salford and Starchaser have established a successful Outreach Programme working with schools in the area.


40 years ago
18 September 1968

The US Air Force launched a Thorad Agena D from Vandenberg AFB, carrying a 4,400kg KH-4A reconnaissance satellite with a recoverable film capsule, into a 167-393km, 83deg inclination orbit. Two other satellites were orbited: the 60kg SRV 749 radar monitoring spacecraft and the OPS 8595 signals intelligence satellite. 

29 September 1968

The launch of a Delta booster from Cape Canaveral’s pad 17A failed after a control system failure, resulting in the loss of the 293kg Intelsat 3 F-1.
 

16-17 September (17 September 2008)

It is highly likely that the Space Shuttle’s career could be extended 2015, rather than being grounded in 2011. NASA cannot really operate and have space street cred if it doesn’t have a manned spaceflight presence. There is talk of a dream extension of flight to 2016 - when it is hoped (repeat hoped) that Orion will be operational. There could be another 13 Shuttle flights. Meanwhile, NASA SpaceFlight.com also reports that the Ares 1 booster development is being hit by constant design changes with calls from officials to also stop fiddling with the Orion spacecraft design, with a PDR delayed possibly to 2010. The Orion project was thwarted from the beginning with a totally underestimated budget and timetable. Orion is no more than an Apollo capsule with microchips. It could end up being a disaster. The President should cancel the Orion show or inject a realistic budget.

NASA is considering a proposed fission-powered system to generate up to 40kW for a future moon base, featuring a nuclear reactor buried under the moon’s surface where regolith would act a radiation shield. Two 50ft power converters would transfering the reactor’s heat energy to electricity.

The first Chinese astronaut to walk in space will be 42 year-old People’s Liberation Army colonel, Zhai Zhigang. The Shenzhou 7 mission will be relatively short at 68hrs. Zhai will make a 40 minute EVA. The launch is planned for 25 September, landing on 28th. The other taikonauts are Liu Bomin g and Jing Haipeng, who were back-ups for the Shenzhou 6. Five chief commanders will for a main unit for the launch of Shenzhou VII. The commander in chief will be Chang Wanquan, with four deputy commanders, Zhang Jianqi, heading the General Equipment Department; Ma Xingrui, general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation; Jiang Jinheng, assistant dean of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Sun Laiyan, deputy director of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence and director of the China National Space Administration.

South Africa ordered a reconnaissance satellite from Russia, named SumbandilaSat but cancelled the order.

NASA will launch another Mars Scout spacecraft in 2013 to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere. The original launch date was 2011. The $485 million Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) will particularly study how the planet lost most of its atmosphere over its history. Of course, it could have always had a thin atmosphere. 

Astronomers have imaged an extrasolar planet orbiting “a star like our own sun” says the University of Toronto. 1RXS J160929.210524 is 500 light years away and has an estimated size of eight times that of Jupiter. It is 330 astronomical units from the star, which is a “mystery”. By the way, 500 light years is 5005878499812499 miles away. It is amazing what you can “see” at that distance.


NASA has released plans for a Solar Probe Plus mission which will be announced in January 2009.

40 years ago
16 September 1968

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 214, a 6,300kg Voskhod-based high resolution Zenit 4 reconnaissance satellite, which was placed into a 198-326km, 65deg inclination orbit. The mission lasted eight days.
 

12-15 September (15 September 2008)

Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin says he will authorise R45 million for the federal civilian space programme for the next three years, including funds for a new cosmodrome in the Amur and for continued flights of the Soyuz TMA for ferrying crews to the International Space Station.

The proposed O3b Networks Limited broadband satellite system may have hit a problem because the proposed Ellipso satellite system from the 1990s, which collapsed still exists as a company and there might be potential patent infringements.

US Representative Rep Dave Weldon plans to fight NASA’s attempts to buy spacecraft from Russia by undercutting the space agency’s push to get permission to more Soyuz TMA flights. NASA administrator Mike Griffin fears the loss of Soyuz services would mean no American presence on the orbiting space base. Republican presidential John McCain also opposes a deal with Russia as a result of the invasion of Georgia. Griffin hopes to get an exemption.

Marshall Space Flight Centre has completed the first test of NASA’s Ares 1 ullage settling motor on 11 September.

John Mankins a former NASA scientist has used radio waves to transmit solar power of a distance of 92 miles between two Hawaiian islands in a demonstration.

China will launch three taikonauts aboard the ShenZhou V11 spacecraft aboard a Long March 2F booster from Jiuquan, no earlier than 25 September on a mission, which will feature the country’s first EVA. The launch window closes on 30 September.


40 years ago

14 September 1968
The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Baikonur carrying Cosmos 240, a military reconnaissance satellite based on a Voskhod-based spacecraft, Zenit 2 into a 203-283km, 51deg inclination orbit.

The Soviet Union launched a Proton K booster from Baikonur carrying Zond 5, based on a Soyuz spacecraft which flew into a path of 200km to 385,000km on the first successful circumlunar flight with recovery. The flight was a test for planned manned flight to beat America to the moon before a manned Apollo flight. Zond 5 reached 1,950km, taking images of the full Earth from space. The craft also carried biological specimens included turtles. The spacecraft landed after a 20g re-entry, landing in the Indian Ocean. The flight spurred NASA to fly Apollo 8 to orbit the moon in December.
 

10-11 September (11 September 2008)

NASA has completed the preliminary design review for the Ares 1 booster for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate said, “this is a critical step for the development” of the rocket. However, there are still doubters about the current design, given the previous glitches and technical problems. For example, NASA intends to hold a follow-up review next summer to fully incorporate the thrust oscillation - vibration in the first stage - as a risk. Also, the J-2X engine for the first stage of the Ares 1will be the first element to kick off the CDR. NASA has awarded Pratt&Whitney Rocketdyne to provide additional sea-level and simulated-altitude ground tests for the J-2X rocket engine.  

Thales Alenia has signed a contract with RASCOMSTAR-QAF for the construction for first satellite to provide “adequate continuity capacity”. The satellite is based on a Spacebus 4000 B3 platform with 12 Ku and eight C band transponders and will be located at 2.85degE in geosynchronous orbit.

Russia launched another Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station from Baikonur aboard a Soyuz booster on 11 September. The craft will dock at the rear-facing port of the Zvezda service module, where the European Space Agency’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle undocked on 2 September.

Space Exploration Technologies has been cleared by the US Air Force at Cape Canaveral to use the refurbished Pad 40 for launches of the company’s planned Falcon 9. The original pad was first used in 1965.

A new company, 03b Networks plans to operate a constellation of 16 satellites, built by Thales Alenia Space in 8,000km equatorial orbits, providing Ka-band broadband wireless networks to customers between latitudes of 40deg north and south, primarily in regions such as Africa, with potential users numbering three million by 2010. 03b is   joined by Google, HSBC and Liberty Global. Other partners, including Allen&Company, have injected $20 million into the project.

Turkey’s satellite operator plans to operate two more Turksat satellites, 4A and 5As, spreading coverage to the eastern coast on the USA and as far to the Arabian Peninsula to Central Africa. Turksat 4A and 5A will be launched in 2008 and 2014.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) has completed as in-orbit test campaign analysing signals from the Galileo navigation system pathfinder spacecraft, GIOVE B for the European Space Agency. SSTL has also retested the GIOVE A for ESA. GIOVE A was the first European Medium-Earth Orbiting spacecraft.

40 years ago
10 September 1968

The US Air Force launched a Titan IIIB booster from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying a KH-8-Agena reconnaissance satellite into a 125-404km, 106deg inclination orbit. The film capsule returned on 25 September.


 





 

9 September (9 September 2008)

The crew of the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission to be launch in October “face a higher-than-usual chance of taking a hit from space debris says NASA. The region in which the Hubble orbits at 560km, is populated by a high number debris. The odds of a hit are 1:185, says Shuttle manager John Shannon.

The satellite and digital broadcasting analyst, Euroconsult has reported a 9.5% growth in satellite market revenues reaching $8.9 billion. The publication's is titled “World Satellite Communications & Broadcasting Markets Survey, Market Forecasts to 2017”.

International Launch Services will launch Canada’s Nimiq 4 communications satellite aboard a Proton M/Breeze on 19 September from Baikonur. The spacecraft is based on a Eurostar E3000 spacecraft bus built by EADS Astrium. Nimiq is equipped with 32 Ku-band and 8 Ka-band transponders and will be placed at 12.5deg inclination in geostationary orbit. The launch will be the 4th ILS launch this year, the 47th Proton launch for ILS and carries the 10th Eurostar platform.

One of the 80x30cm face sheets on the S1 radiator on the International Space Station has peeled back. This has not affected heat rejection, engineers are looking carefully that the sheet will not come loose and become a debris hazard. It is possible that the damage was caused by a thruster cover which came loose from the Service Module.

The launch of ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) has been delayed a month after a fault was found on the Russian Rokot rocket.

Yesterday’s Diary entry regarding the launch of a disaster monitoring satellite was in error. The Chinese Long March 2C booster launched from Taiyuan carried two satellites, Huan Jing 1A and 1B into 650km sun-synchronous orbits. 

Scientists estimate that valleys on Mars were carved out more than 3.5 billion years based on theoretical climate models which suggest catastrophic events such as asteroid impacts which could have created warm and wet conditions on Mars, causing massive deluges and flooding from hundreds and thousands of years. Remember, this is not fact. It is yet another theory. An alternative theory is catastrophic flooding over a relatively short time! It keeps scientists busy anyway.



  


 

5-8 September (8 September 2008)

NASA seems resigned that plans to buy seats aboard Russian Soyuz TMA crew ferries to the International Space Station will come to a halt after 2011 because contracts for further craft need to be signed by early next year. This could result in part of the US segment of the station being unmanned in 2012. This could also affect international partners. An additional problem is of course Russia’s invasion on Georgia. A new US Adminstration may or may not want to abrogate the international agreements. It is all up in the air as they say. NASA administrator, Mike Griffin is “very pessimistic” and suggests that the Space Shuttle’s career will have be extended a little.

GenCorp company Aerojet has successfully hot-fired the NASA Orion Crew module 160lb thrust monopropellant engine. The altitide/pulse programme has consisted of 87 starts, 2,118 engine pulses and more the 200lbs of propellant usage. The engine will also be used on the Orion service module.

South Africa’s SunSpace enterprise at the University of Stellenbosh is expecting to build a fourth satellite. Its microsatellite range weigh from 50kg to 500kg.

Dubai Space Investment Company has been given the go ahead to build a 1.72 million sq ft Dh380 million space centre or theme park, called SpaceWorld UAE in 2010.
The Space Shuttle missions 125 and 126 have been slightly delayed with STS 125 on the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission on 10 October with the STS 126 International Space Station assembly mission, flying on 12 November.

The European Space Agency’s spacecraft Rosetta en route to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, flew past the asteroid S2867 Steins on 5 September. Steins is a 5km across object with a shape like a cut diamond.

A United Launch Alliance Delta II booster was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on 7 September, carrying the General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems-built GeoEye satellite into a 680km sun-synchronous orbit. The 1,955kg satellite has a resolution of 41cm per pixel, the highest resolution of a commercial imaging satellite. The project is supported by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency under the Next View programme.

China launched its first disaster monitoring satellite aboard a Log March 2C from Taiyuan on 6 September, while the nation announced that the third manned spaceflight by the nation would be launched between 25 and 30 September. There will be a three-person crew, one of which will make the nation’s first EVA. The flight is designated Shenzhou 7.

The cooling of relationships between the US and Russia has not affected the supply of Zenit boosters for the Sea launch project, nor components for the Atlas V. 

50 years ago
6 September 1958
The third Argus small atom bomb was detonated over the Atlantic Ocean. Radiation was detected by instruments aboard the Explorer 4 satellite.

40 years ago
5 September 1968
The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 239 aboard a Voskhod booster from Baikonur carrying a Zenit 2 surveillance satellite weighing 6,300kg into a 201-274km, 51deg inclination orbit. The high resolution satellite based on a Voskhod spacecraft landed after eight days.
 
 

4 September (4 September 2008)

Roberto Amaral, the director general of Brazil’s Alcantara Cyclone Space Institute has blamed bureaucracy for funding delays. “Techno-bureaucrats” robbed our people of the dream of a national rocket by denying budgets. An $18.3 million budget in 1995 fell to $1 million in 1999 and 2002 the figure was $0.9 million. The VLS 1 satellite launcher has failed three times with the final attempt in August 2003. Amaral said that the US annual space budget was $29.12 billion. “ So through the dearth of resources and bureaucracy our remote sensing satellites, CBERS 1, 2 and 3B are the result of Chinese investment, with the satellites also being launched aboard Long March boosters.

Meanwhile, in Russia Oleg Bakanlov, the former USSR minister of mechanical engineering says, “we have wasted 20 years and if the funding of the Russian space effort remains as it is for a further 5-10 years, we shall have to start our space technology from scratch”.

Russia’s new generation satellite launcher, the Angara is making slow progress as it has since the mid-1990s, with the completion of the RD-191 rocket engine development by the Glushko Energomash R&D association. The Angara fleet will carry payloads between 1.5 to 25 tonnes.

Eutelsat Communication’s W5 satellite has lost operation of one of its two solar arrays, reducing power to 50%, says the spacecaft’s builder Thales Alenia. All high-power DTH transmissions have been shut down.

Astronomers using a combination of telescopes in Hawaii, California and Arizona have taken the closest look at a black hole in the centre of the Milky Way, which is among the highest resolution observations, the equivalent of a baseball seen on the surface of the moon from a distance of 240,000 miles. 

 









 

2-3 September (3 September 2008)

Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean one of the six national astronauts to join the NASA corps in 1983 and flew as a mission specialist on STS 52 in October 1992 and STS 115 in September 2006 has been appointed the president of the Canadian Space Agency. MacLean was the second Canadian to make a spacewalk.

NASA and Pratt and Whitney successfully completed a series of hot fire altitude test using liquid methane on the RS-18 engine at White Sands, New Mexico for the R&D programme for NASA’s Constellation.

NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander has begun analysis of a sample of soil from the deepest trench so far…The Hubble Space Telescope has observed a “magnetic monster” in an erupting galaxy with filaments formed by a strong magnetic field…ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has located particles close to a rotating neutron-star in the Crab Nebula.

Aurora Flight Services have been awarded a contract from Orbital Sciences to build composite structures for the Minotaur IV.

The GeoEye satellite to be launched by a United Launch Alliance Delta II from Vandenberg AFB, California will be launched no earlier than 7 September.

The European Space Agency’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle launched to the International Space Station on 9 March aboard an Ariane 5 booster has ended it mission.

China will launch three taikonauts no earlier that 17 September. The third manned Chinese flight will feature a crew of three, one of whom will make the first national EVA.
 

30 August-1 September (1 September 2008)

North Korea celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first launch of the three-stage Taepodong ballistic missile, with plans for further satellite launches following the 1998 launch of the Kwangmyoungsong satellite. 

News agencies are reporting that NASA administrator Mike Griffin has ordered a study that would enable the Space Shuttle to continue until 2015. The Orlando Sentinal and NASA SpaceFlight.com report that the first launch of the Ares 1 booster is unlikely to be made until 2015.

As expected NASA’s troubled Orion programme will likely reach its Preliminary Design Review in late 2009, rather than the planned September 2008.

Having completed its 90-day prime mission near the Mars northern plains, NASA’s Phoenix lander is continuing its operations for another month, having confirmed the presence of water ice, alkaline soil, sodium, magnesium, perchlorate and chloride.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to develop of manned “space shuttle” which crewed by national astronauts. The first unmanned test flight could be as early as 2010. An unmanned Mars mission is panned as early as 2012.

A Russian Dnepr rocket was successfully launched from Baikonur carrying five Rapid Eye Earth imaging satellites in sun-synchronous orbits. The spacecraft were built by Canada’s MDA and the UK’s Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). The satellites will provide a variety of agricultural and land information.

Japan will use space for defence purposes. There is a plan to launch early warning, communications and reconnaissance satellites by about 2015. Japan has already launched first generation fleet of reconnaissance satellites.