Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

29 January (29 January 2009)

The European-Indian built W2M communications satellite launched by Arianespace on 20 December 2008 has “suffered a major anomaly affecting its power subsystem” and is a write-off. The ISRO-EADS Astrium satellite which was located at 16deg in geosynchonous orbit and will be replaced in 2010 by W3B.

The five-year Mars Exploration Rover Sprit has malfunctioned with “unexpected behaviour” with the memory and electronic system, which resulted in the spacecraft losing its orientation, failing to locate the sun, possibly the result of a hit by a cosmic ray.

The European Commission and the European Space Agency have signed an agreement to proceed with the Segment 2 of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES). ESA's new Sentinel missions will provide information for all domains for GMES, starting with the all-weather, day and night radar imaging from Sentinel-1 for land and ocean services. Sentinel-2 will deliver high-resolution optical imaging for land services and Sentinel-3 will provide services for for ocean and global land monitoring. Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 will provide data for atmospheric composition monitoring from geostationary and polar orbits, respectively. A Ground Segment, facilitating access to Sentinel and Contributing Mission data, complements the GMES Space Segment which will provided the following services: marine environment focus on marine safety and transport, oil spill monitoring, water quality, weather forecasting and the polar environment. For the land environment focus on water management, agriculture and food security, land-use change, forest monitoring, soil quality, urban planning and natural protection services. Atmospheric services focus on air quality ultraviolet radiation forecasting, and climate change studies and emergency response services provide help to mitigate the effects of natural and man-made disasters, flood, forest fires, earthquakes and humanitarian aid. Security services provide support for peacekeeping efforts, maritime surveillance and border control.

Scientists are hoping that NASA will go ahead with a planning to extend the lifetime of the Cassini Saturn orbiter to 2017. The spacecraft was planned to cease operations on 30 September 2010. The spacecraft arrived in orbit about the ringed planet in June 2004 and has provided data to 255 US and European scientists. Riding piggback on Cassini was the European Space Agency’s Huygens spacecraft which made a landing on the Saturnian moon, Titan during an astounding landing providing a collection of incredible data. It was was specifically designed to survive landing on land and on liquid and to withstand impact and provide data for at least three minutes. However, due to the low speed impact, it continued providing data for more than two hours after it landed.

28 January (28 January 2009)

NASA has found funding to leave the 50ft robotic Orbiter Boom Sensor System aboard the International Space Station, which is used as an EVA platform for astronauts to perform maintenance.

A renovated building at the Kennedy Space Centre, which was built in 1964 to test the Apollo CSM and LM spacecraft will be used to assemble the Orion crew module for the return to the moon by 2020 - that is of course if President Obama clears the Constellation programme. The 70,000 sq foot building is being used as warehouse.

The output of Russia’s rocket and space industry grew by 13% in 2008 with 42 launched spacecraft. Wages grew by 21% and profit increased by 30%.

Russian satellite launches in 2009 will include those for Canopus V, Meteor M, Spectre R, Phobos-Ground and Electro. Spectre is a unique radio telescope with a diameter of 10m. There will also be launches of Express AM44 and MD1 and three Gonets spacecraft. A new generation Sterkh satellites will complement the Cospas-Sarsat search and rescue system and three Glonass M navigation satellites will be launched as well as a Resource P Earth observation satellite.

The anniversary of the Islamic Revolution will see the expansion of communications reaching villages. The country has the capability of launching small satellite in low Earth orbit. Telephone lines will be provided to a large number of villages, with the aim of providing services for 50% of villages in 2009. Iran’s first satellite Omid will be launched before the end of March. The country has already tested its first satellite launcher. There are plans for various satellites covering remote sensing, monitoring natural disasters and topography.

India’s next moon orbiter, Chandrayaan 2 will be launched aboard a Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle rather than the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle that launched the first spacecraft.

South Africa’s 80kg, R26 million remote sensing satellite, Sumbaandilasat will be launched from a submarine on 25 March into a 500km orbit to monitor floods, oil spills and fires.

50 years ago
28 January 1959

The USA launches a Nike-Cajun from Wallops Island, Virginia carrying a 12ft diameter test inflatable sphere to a height of 57 miles.

One hundred and ten test pilots from the US Air Force, Navy and Marine corps were included in the first screening for the Mercury project to fly a man into space initially on sub-orbital missions, leading to orbit flight.

Rocketdyne demonstrated a one million pound thrust liquid propellant rocket combustion chamber at full power.

40 years ago
28 January 1969

NASA associate administrator George Mueller told a press conference that the Soviet Union’s space budget was 50% more than America’s. The NASA budget was 2,500 million pounds sterling but was actually 1,666 million pounds and “going downward”. Mueller said, “I expect the Russians will produce further space spectaculars”. As for moon flights, he said “diamonds and other precious stones may in plentiful supply”.

27 January (27 January 2009)

Sergey Ivanov, Russia’s deputy prime minister says there is a chronic problem providing the country’s space industry with Russian-made electronic components. He cited problems with three satellites including KazSat 1, adding that chief designers must be 100% reliable for technical performance, reliability and control of all stages of the development of rocket and space systems.

The overall failure rate of satellite launches in 2008 was just 4.35%, the best year since 1992 – and sixth best year of all time. Russia plans to set a world record of 39 launches in 2009. Four manned Soyuz TMA missions to the International Space Station will be made from two launch pads, No 1 and 31 at Baikonur in 2009.

The University of Colorado and the SpaceDev company have formed a not-for-profit organisation, eSpace dedicated to creating entrepreneurial space companies commercialising aerospace technologies.

The Pratt&Whitney Rocketdyne LOX-LH
Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine (CECE) for the Constellation project’s Altair lunar lander has accumulated 3,000s of operation during 11 hot fire tests throttling from 104 to 8 percent of maximum power of 13,800lbs.

Irvine and San Francisco universities have confirmed what NASA knew in 1965. Astronauts spending months in space aboard the International Space Station (and or course the legendary Soviet-Russian Mir space station) suffer significant loss of bone strength. Thirteen long-term travellers at the International Space Station who spent from four to six months in orbit suffered a 14% hip bone strength. Three astronauts suffered 20-30% loss – comparable to older women with osteoporosis. Without preventive measures some astronauts risk age-relate fractures.

NASA’s associate administrator, Chris Scolese will serve as the space agency’s administrator until a successor to Mike Griffin in selected by the White House.

40 years ago

27 January 1969
Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was told he could never dive further than 100 fathoms due to injuries to his legs during decompression but was one of the topside leaders on the Sealab 3 expedition, which was regarded as the “Apollo 8 of the man-in-sea programme”. Carpenter said, “the moon is lifeless but the seas swarm with 20,000 species of plant and plankton and 100,000 species of marine invertebrates and 11,000 species of fish, while half the Earth’s population lives in chronic protein starvation - yet experts believe that our oceans could yield 200 million toms of fish a year - four times an annual catch in 1969”. This puts the International Space Station in a different perspective. How about in International Undersea Station?

Dr Fred Singer, the deputy assistant of the US Interior Department proposed that astronauts could fly on a two year mission to the Martian moon, Deimos, capture it and bring it back to Earth’s orbit. Astronauts would orbit Mars and tie up Deimos for the journey. The mission would be made within 15 years after the Apollo moon landings – 1987.
27

24-26 January (26 January 2009)

What looks to be the final Space Adventures tourist flight aboard a Soyuz TMA to the International Space Station will take place on 25 March with Charles Simonyi making his second trip into space, marking another space milestone. However, Space Adventures solo Soyuz missions could continue with a cosmonaut commander and two space tourists. Google’s Sergey Brin has paid a $5 million down payment for a mission. Commercial sub-orbital space tourist missions are planned by Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo carrying six tourists and XCOR’s Lynx with two tourists, costing $200,000 and $95,000 respectively in 2010-2011.

The Japanese space agency launched an H-2 booster from Tanegashima on 23 January - the first of an H-2 for 11 months - carrying prime satellite Ibuki (GOSAT), the first satellite dedicated to observing the concentration of greenhouse gases in space from a 666km orbit. The rocket also carried seven smaller sub-satellites.

The first manned launch from Vostochnyy in the Amur Region near the town of Uglegorsk will be made no earlier than 2018, says Russian deputy prime minister, Sergey Ivanov - who has admitted that the management of the Glonass navigation satellite has been inefficient and the planned commercial capabilities are not being realised -“We cannot put up with such a state of affairs” he said, adding “we much meticulously fulfil all approved plans and meet the schedules”. Plans for the gigantic began 15 years ago and not much has changed yet. Indeed, Roskosmos will make more specific plans closer to 2020-25!

An X-ray camera built by the UK’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation has detected its first X-ray signature from the moon.

The Space System’s division of Lockheed Martin reported net sales of $8.03 billion in 2008, compared with $8.20 billion in 2007. The 2008 profit was $953 million against $856 million in 2007. The overall Lockheed Martin operating profit was $5.1 billion on net sales of $42.7 billion in 2008.

Russia will reimburse Kazakhstan $65 million for the loss of the country’s first satellite and a second satellite will be built using western companies, says the National Space Agency. The satellite will be launched 2011.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to develop an air-launch satellite system called the Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer in co-operation with the Mitsubishi and IHI companies by 2014.

The Laser and Optics Research Centre of the US Air Force Academy has developed a ground-based system using holographic adaptic optics to allow ground-based optical telescopes to see satellites more clearly from the Earth.

40 years ago

25 January 1969
The Soviet Union launched a Tsyklon booster from Baikonur carrying an 8,800lb Navy radar satellite, which reached 100km before the launcher failed.

23 January (23 January 2009)

Russia plans to launch the 10 tonne, Lavochkin NPO-built Fobos-Grunt spacecraft in October on a 11month mission to the Mars moons Deimos and Phobos on a Zenit booster, ending the mission with a landing on Phobos, collecting samples and returning them to the Earth in a small re-entry capsule. Later plans include a Mars lander and a Martian rover called Marsokhod. Missions to the moon and Venus are also on the agenda.

The Vostochnyy Cosmodrome in the Amur Region of far-eastern Russia, which will be completed in 2015 will extend 750 sq metres and employ 15,000 workers.

NASA’s Constellation project will launch the first Ares booster from The Kennedy Space Centre in the summer on a 25 mile, two minute mission test ending with a first stage recovery under a parachute.

Some scientists believe that the moon once faced the other way! Apparently an asteroid flipped it around.

Major General Jonathan Scott Gration’s hope to become the next NASA Administrator has faded away apparently because of objections from the Senate led by Bill Nelson -who hijacked a Space Shuttle mission in January 1986 for a trip in space.

40 years ago

23 January
Cosmonauts celebrating the Soyuz 4/5 mission in a motorcade on their way to the Kremlin were shot at during a botched attempt to assassinate President Brezhnev. A youth dashed into the motorcade, raised both hands and fired five shots. Cosmonaut Georgi Beregovoi was cut by broken glass in the car he was travelling in while Vladimir Shatalov, Boris Volynov and Yevgeny Khrunov were protected by their heavy winter clothing despite shots that ripped through their coats. “Moscow Sensation. Shots at Spacemen. Youth with two pistols opens fire”. “Cosmonaut Tells Of Kremlin Shooting”. Little else was released about the incident.

The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 264 from Baikonur aboard a Voskhod booster carrying a 13,800lb Zenit 4M high resolution military surveillance satellite into a 129-183 mile, 69.9deg inclination orbit which returned a fim capsule after 13 days in space. The satellite also carried radio astronomy and gamma ray experiments.

21-22 January (22 January 2009)

Outgoing NASA administrator, Mike Griffin says that China could attempt a manned circumlunar flight in 2015 using the planned Long March 5 booster, which like the Ariane 5 ECA will also be able to fly two large satellites into geosynchrous orbit. China plans to use the booster for a manned circumlunar flight using a departure stage and a Shenzhou spacecraft. It is reported that Shenzhou 8 will be launched in 2010 to dock with the free-flyer, Tiangong.

Using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists have “discovered” that the northern polar region “is a very high degree of purity”. This begs the question – is Mars much younger than people think and therefore the solar system and the universe likewise. The polar regions contain two to three million cubic kilometres with 95% purity.

The South African National Space Agency Bill has been put into law and a national space agency pulling together all activities is likely to result.

A NASA Mars Sample Return mission could be flown in 2011 and another Mars lander in 2016. Remember those 1980s plans for a manned mission before 2000?

Sea Launch will launch the Intelsat 17 communications in 2010 as the first of five contracted missions for Intelsat.

The much-delayed STS 125 final Hubble Space Telescope mission targeted for May could lose its slot after the delayed delivery of additional replacement Hubble
hardware.

Former cosmonaut Talgat Musabayev, the head of the Kazakhstan’s space agency, has requested money for a second KazSat satellite after the failure of first satellite.

NASA says that satellite data shows that the Antarctic is warming, not just in the coasts but in nearly all the continent.

Space tourists will find it difficult to fly to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz TMA spacecraft after 2009, says Roscosmos chief Anatoli Perminov. He plans to fly four manned Soyuz flights and five Progress tankers. A Russian tourist will lose out but a Kazakh tourist may get his flight.

40 years ago

22 January 1969
NASA 64lb Orbititing Solar Observatory, OSO 5 was launched aboard a Thor Delta from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral into a 334-347km, 33deg inclination orbit. “Britain Aids US Satellite”. “Space-watcher”. “Sun spy launched”. “Observatory in Space”.

The US Air Force launched a Titan 3B from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying an NRO-USAF KH-8 recoverable reconnaissance satellite into an 88 by 670 mile orbit, which was recovered on 2 March.

“Russia may build a space laboratory 800 miles up. The flight of Soyuz 4/5 would lead directly to permanently orbiting scientific stations, launching centres for interplanetary probes and space hotels”, reports the Daily Telegraph.

16-19 January (19 January 2009)

16-20 January

Life on Mars continued!……British Sun newspaper reports: “Alien bugs are responsible for strong plumes of methane gas”. NASA: “The discovery indicates the planet is either biologically or geologically active”. Britain’s “Mars professor” Colin Pillinger wants to send a fleet of six Beagles “to investigate life” on the Red Planet for 130 million pounds. However, scientists have cautioned that methane could also be created by past or present geological activity and that the methane discovery alone is not proof of Martian life. It has been suggested that NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory could be retargeted to the “methane vent”.

The European Space Agency’s Data Relay Satellite System (EDRS) has a 80 million Euro shortfall and this will affect the space agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicles and the Kopernikus Global Monitoring for Environment and Security satellites called Sentinals.

Russia’s Cosmonaut Training Centre in Zvezdnyy is being transferred to the Russian Defence Ministry and is being renamed after the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, while the Space Vehicle Testing and Control Centre at Plesetsk will be named after Gherman Titov, the second man in orbit.

South Korea plans to join with Japan starting in 2012 with joint work on the International Space Station’s Japanese science module, Kibo. Korea plans to launch is first homemade rocket this year and a 700-ton booster by 2017, flying a probe to the moon.

The first launch by United Launch Alliance for a Delta IV Heavy was made on 17 January from Cape Canaveral’s Pad 37, carrying an National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellite to be designated as NROL-26. The first Delta IV was launched in December 2004.

China plans to place 30 navigation satellites by 2015, with ten of then in 2009-10. The first Chinese navigation satellite, Beodou was placed into a geostationary orbit in October 2000 and five into “Navstar” orbits.

Japan plans to launch an ELINT satellite to track enemy missiles particularly from possible attacks from North Korea.

The American synthetic aperture radar instrument aboard India’s Chandrayaan lunar orbiter has enabled scientists to see inside the coldest and darkest lunar craters where ice could exist.

The SES Astra 5A communications satellite, formerly known as Sirius 2 operating at 31.5 degrees had stopped operating and its most of its customers are being switched to an Astras satellite at 23.5deg.

40 years ago
16 January 1969
The Soviet Union’s spacecraft Soyuz 4 and 5 docked together in orbit and for the first time in history spacemen transferred by spacewalk into another spacecraft. Soyuz 4’s lone cosmonaut,Vladimir Shatalov was joined by Soyuz 5’s Alexei Yelesyev and Yevgeny Khrunov leaving Boris Volynov in Soyuz 5. British newspaper headlines: “Soviet spy in sky panics US”. Cosmotel Space Walk!” “A first! Russians switch ships”. “Dramatic link-up for a workshop in orbit and Moscow is back in the moon race”. Soviet Crew Switch Spaceships”. “A shock on TV – “You raped me!” “A Very Big Stride Forward”. “Walk About In Space”. “Soviet cosmonauts’ link give them three space firsts”.

17 January
Soyuz 4 lands 40km from its target carrying three of the four cosmonauts involved in the Soyuz 4/5 mission, leaving Boris Volynov aboard Soyuz 5. “Happy landing for three space men”. “Three of the astronauts come down to earth. Safe Home - By Space Ferry. Lone Boris left to pilot Soyuz 5”. “Snowy landing by three Soviet astronauts”. “Hitch-hike space heroes are back”. “Spacemen return to hugs and fur hats”. “Russia plans further space achievements”. “Soyuz, Soyuz, wherefore thou art..?” The headline is followed by a humorous “Romeo and Juliet” skit. “Second up, first down from space”. “Space is so safe”. “Cosmotel may be base for Russian moon trip”. “Space Gap Fear By Americans”.

18 January
“Has Russia staked the richer claim?”. “Russia may build space laboratory 800 miles up. Russian scientists and commentators predicted in Moscow yesterday that the successful space flights of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 would lead to permanently orbiting scientific station, launching centres for planetary probes and space hotels”. Meanwhile, Soyuz 5 landed with the lone Boris Volynov. It was revealed much later that Volynov had experienced a re-entry that nearly ended in disaster. The propulsion module failed to properly detach from the descent module in which Volynov was lying. He was not wearing a pressure suit because all the crewmen of the 4/5 mission were not equipped with them. The spacecraft re-entered front on! As the flailing spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere Volynov thought that he was to die but the re-entry caused the propulsion to fully detach and the descent module swung round to the correct orientation but like Soyuz 1, the parachute tangled but eventually deployed fully. However, the landing 600km off course provided another surprise. The soft-landing rockets failed and the landing was very hard. Volynov lost several teeth. He crawled out of the cabin and sheltered in a peasant hut before a rescue team reached him.

20 January
Another Soviet Union attempt to fly around the moon and back to Earth with a Zond spacecraft launched from Baikonur aboard a Proton booster failed at T+510s.

15 January (15 January 2009)

The Space Shuttle Discovery is now on Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre for the launch of missions STS 119 to the International Space Station on 12 February. The crew is: commander Lee Archambault, pilot Tony Antotelli and mission specialist Joe Acaba, Ricky Arnold, John Phillips and Koichi Wakata who will replace Sandy Magnus as an ISS crewmember.

The Roscosmos space agency; Rosidgromet, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology; the Communications Ministry and other federal agencies are planning the Artcic project to create a space monitoring and communications system for the Arctic and a remote sensing system.

The final Russian Tsyklon 3 booster, based on the R36 ICBM, will be launched from Plesetsk on 29 January carrying the Coronas Photon satellite to monitor global warming. Tsyklon uses a propellant that is poisonous and highly toxic. Russia plans to use new Angara 1.1 and 1.2 for launches from Plestetsk after testing of smaller version in 2010.

The United Launch Alliance scrubbed the launch Delta IV Heavy from Cape Canaveral for a second time on 14 January and will attempt another launch today.

Barack Obama is reported to have selected Air Force Major General Jonathan Gration as the new NASA Administrator. His only “space” experience was in 1982 working for NASA’s deputy administrator, Hans Mark.

ESA plans to launch two flagship space telescopes on one Ariane 5 booster in 2009; a far-infrared observatory called Herschel and Plank, which will study cosmic microwave background radiation; and three Earth resources satellites; and the first Soyuz and Vega boosters from Kourou. Another satellites include Goce, which will be the first ESA Earth Explorer satellite; SoilMoisture and Ocean Salinity mission (SMOS) and Cryostat 2, a radar satellite to ice thickness on both the land an sea.

Don’t get TOO excited (tell that the newspapers)….NASA will announce yet another “life on Mars” story today. “Alien microbes are living under the Martian soil”. Of cause methane is also created by volcanic process which have been at work in the planet’s early history. One British scientist believes the mini-Martians may be in a form suspended animation and could be revived! Another, Colin Pillinger believes the methane can only point to the presence of life on the planet. Remember the 1996 fiasco of the “Life on Mars” rock in which Pullinger starred? Pillinger is more conservative this time: “It’s not proof but it makes it worth a much closer look”.

Orbital Science Corporation (OSC) has won a contract to build a communications satellite called New Dawn, to be launched in 2011 for Intelsat and Convergent Partners to provide services to Africa. The spacecraft will be based on the Star 2 platform, will generate 4.8kw with 16 Ku-band and 14 C-band transponders and will be placed at 32.9degE.

Pratt&Whitney Rocketdyne has tested the Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine for the Constellation programme’s lunar lander, which has a thrust range of 10-100% with a maximum of 13,800lbs. This followed tests in 2006, which produced pressure oscillations.

Aviation Week and Space Technology’s space editor Craig Couvault who was declared redundant by the magazine has joined Spaceflight Now and has shown his expertise already with a story about two secret covert satellites that have been in geostationary orbit for two years conducting deep space inspection of two crippled military satellites.

40 years ago
15 January 1969
The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5, with three crew, commander Boris Volynov, flight engineer Aleksey Yeleseyev and research engineer Yevgeny Khrunov, who will dock with Soyuz 4 to establish an “experimental space station”. British Headlines: “Three men blast off to join Shatalov”. “They’re off – and space chase is on”. “Russia Set For A First Space Link-Up”. “Four Russian cosmonauts wheel in space and wife awaits their safe return”. “Cosmonauts all set for rendezvous in space”. “Russia may swap men in space”. “Soyuz may be boarded in space”. “Russian companions in space”.

13-14 January (14 January 2009)

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has slated NASA’s financial oversight office, describing it as not understanding the role of an auditor. Out of 70 NASA programme audits in 2006-07 only one audit identified potential cost savings. The GAO says that third-party experts are needed to help NASA.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has won a contract from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute to launch the Korea Multipurpose Satellite 3 (Kompsat 3) aboard an H2A booster from Tanegashima, together with a domestic satellite. The Kompsat contract worth $90 million is Japan’s first for a foreign country. The H2A has flown 14 H2A’s with one failure. Japan hopes to reduce the cost of launches to $60-70 million.

EADS Astrium has acquired the Guildford-based Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), born as the innovative University of Surrey’s space laboratory headed by Sir Martin Sweeting. The company is now owned by EADS Astrium NV a company in the Netherlands and both companies have worked closely together. The acquisition will enhance long-term research collaboration between the University of Surrey and Astrium and “will further advance the University’s cutting edge space research capacity. The sale will support the already-strong presence that Guildford and England’s South East have in the aeronautical and space industries, creating a centre of expertise for space technology. This will allow for the region to benefit from the Government’s commitment to invest in the UK space industry”.

India’s Chandrayaan lunar orbiter has returned over 40,000 images of the moon in two months with a best resolution of 5m.

Space-X’s first Falcon 9 booster was removed from Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral at the end of the first phase of pathfinder tests for the launcher and ground systems. More trials are scheduled. Space-X plans to build a large integration hanger close to the pad.

Russia is preparing for tests for the Universal Rocket Module for the new Angara fleet of launch vehicles.

President Elect Barack Obama’s Transition Team is favouring Major General Scott Gration as NASA’s new Administrator. Gration was an early Obama supporter.

40 years ago
13 January 1969
The first Soviet manned space flight launch scrub featured Soyuz 4 with a lone crewman, Vladimir Shatalov at Baikonur after technical problems with a TV camera and a gyro.

14 January 1969
Shatalov is successfully launched aboard Soyuz 4 aboard a Soyuz booster from Baikonur into a 51deg inclination, 213-224km orbit. British headlines: “Russians Set For Triple Swop In Space”. “Russian in space - all set for a link-up”. Russia goes for Space hitch hike”. “Russian in space may try docking”. “Woman may join Russia’s space whirl”. “Space Mystery Trip May End In Link-Up”. ”Soyuz flight to prelude space station”. “Mystery mission of piloted Soviet spacecraft”.

9-12 January (12 January 2009)

Northrop Grumman has merged its Integrated Systems and Space Technology sectors creating a $10 billion business.

SpaceX is considering making the Falcon 9 booster fully reusable using a fly-back first stage and to provide a hanger-to-pad-to-launch in 60 minutes. 2008 saw the successful flight of the fourth Falcon 1. 2009 will see the first flight of Falcon 9, from Cape Canaveral. The booster will carry the COTS Dragon cargo carriers to the International Space Station and could eventually be manned-rated.

Russia plans to develop a new manned spacecraft to replace the venerable Soyuz manned spacecraft, which first flew with a single cosmonaut in 1967 - in which Vladimir Komorov killed on landing. The latest spacecraft is the TMA. The new craft – developed with ESA - will carry a four to six crew and will be launched from a new cosmodrome at Vostochny in the Amur region.

A mysterious mega-loud radio noise in the universe is preventing observations of the “first stars”, which has “really thrown us a curve”. Astronomers were expected to find a faint signal but it was a “booming noise six times louder” than expected. Primordial stars or known radio sources have been ruled out. “The noise complicates efforts to detect the first stars, thought to have been formed 13 billion years ago. Maybe there was not a “big bang” but an instant Creation. Genesis 1.

NASA has awarded the University of Colorado one of three grants to build a $6 million instrument on the $80 million Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Experiment Explorer to be launched in 2011.

NASA says that extending the life of the Space Shuttle past its planned 2010 retirement would cost $15 billion from 2011-2015 but the money would have to come from another source than NASA’s budget. The outgoing NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin says it can be done but whether it ought to be done is another matter. Even if the Shuttle continued in service, NASA would still need the continued service of Russia’s Soyuz TMA crew spacecraft and Progress tankers.

Vietnam’s $100 million VNREDSat 1 will be launched in 2012 to map the county’s resources and its environment as well as monitoring natural disasters. While Vietnam’s Vinasat 1 communications satellite was launched in April 2008 was built by Lockheed Martin VNREDSat will be built in France.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has awarded the United Launch Alliance (ULA) a $96 million contract to launch an Atlas 5 from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying a reconnaissance satellite. ULA’s first launch of the year will feature a Delta IV Heavy from Cape Canaveral with another NRO satellite on 13 Janaury.

Flight International reports that the Virgin Galactic White KnightTwo space tourist vehicle has experienced technical problems during aerial manoeuvres. Virgin Galactic denies the report.

40 years ago
10 January 2009

NASA announced the crew of Apollo 11, which was planned to be the first manned landing on the moon. The crew was Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin, all veterans of Gemini missions. “Men who will land on the moon”, “2 Chosen for moon Landing”. “First on the moon?”. “Three men named for moon landing team”. “On the moon this summer” “Three For Moon Landing” “Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin – the first men on the moon”. “First For The Moon”.

The Soviet Union launched the 1,128kg Venus 6 (Venera) aboard a Molniya booster from Baikonur on 10 January. Venera 6’s 405kg entry capsule entered the Venusian atmosphere under a parachute on 17 May, transmitting from 51min of data.

Scott Carpenter, the fourth American in space who became an aquanaut had to give up deep sea diving after finding that too rapid decompression affected his legs. He spent 30 days 205ft under water aboard Sealab II in 1965.

The US Air Force came to the conclusion that there were no such things as flying saucers from other planets it was revealed in a 1,500 page, 208,000 pounds sterling study.

America’s Apollo 8 crew, Frank Borman, James Lovell and Bill Anders said that space flights “are no task for women”. Borman said, “I have never been one who felt it was required for women to go into space”. Just to confuse people, Borman later said, “I don’t know when the first reporters will go but I hope they will wear mini-skirts”! The crew were treated to a ticker tape welcome in New York. “The three Moon heroes star in the great Earth spectacular”. “Computer-tape welcome!”

12 January
The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 263 aboard a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk carrying a 4,720kg Zenit 2 reconnaissance satellite into a 200-325km, 65deg inclination orbit on an eight-day mission.

7-8 January (8 January 2009)

Eric Knight, an inventor and entrepreneur has created a concept that might enable human exploration of Mars in “handful” of years rather than 20 proposed by NASA. “Mars on A Shoestring” would use Space Shuttles.

Space-X has scheduled five Falcon 9 launches in 2009, including a flight for a “Government customer” and two demonstration launches for the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme.

Arianespace plans from six to eight missions by Ariane 5s including launches of Hershcel-Plank and Terrestar 1 and the maiden flight from Kourou of a Soyuz booster which should open the way for eight missions by Soyuz boosters in 2010. The European Space Agency’s Vega booster will also make it maiden flight from Kourou.

NASA’s Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope has discovered 12 new gamma-ray-only pulsars and gamma ray pulses from 18 others, while the space agency’s Swift satellite has identified gas molecules in gamma-ray burst. Swift is revealing differences between nearby galaxies and those far away, providing data which will help clarify the relationship between a galaxy and its central black hole.

It is almost certain that the NASA Adminstrator, Mike Griffin will be replaced by former four-mission Space Shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden. An internal study by NASA reveals that the Space Shuttle could be kept operational until 2015 but it would cost $11 billion and increase the likelihood of an accident – with the remaining nine missions having odds of 1:6 of an accident, which could affect the Constellation project to return to the moon. It is likely that the present plan to retire the Shuttle in 2010 will stand - with the likelihood of the final Shuttle mission being pushed to 2012, which creates a conundrum for the space agency. This would cost $5 billion and the 2015 plan will cost $11 billion.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch four nano and small satellites in 2009 for Singapore, the Netherlands, Italy and Algeria, charging Euro 20,000 per kg.

The Milky Way galaxy is more massive and spins faster than at first thought. The solar system rotates around the galaxy at 960,000km/h, which equates to a 50% higher mass of three trillion solar masses.

Russia and China will launch a joint Mars mission in October, using a Russian Zenit booster with the spacecraft reaching the Red Planet in August 2010. The Chinese Yinghuo 1 (Firefly) orbiter and the Russian Phobos-Grunt unmanned lander to land on the moon Phobos. Also, China second lunar orbiter will be launched later this year rather than next.

The accompanying satellite of China’s Shenzhou 7 orbital module has completed its planned mission of 100 days in space after flying around the orbital module with its movement adjusted 13 times, from 7.6 to 3.8km, also taking images of the module.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is leading an international project to launch the Astrosat satellite late this year to study distant galaxies and black holes. It will be the first astronomical satellite to be launched by India, featuring the “best ultraviolet telescope ever flown”.

The Astrosat, scheduled for launch towards the end of the year, will be the country's first satellite entirely dedicated to astronomy. Astronomers are excited about the prospects thrown up by the Astrosat, which is expected to give India an edge in observing the universe. The satellite will be a multi-wavelength observatory in space with instruments surveying the sky in ultraviolet, soft x-rays and hard x-rays bands.

3-6 January (6 January 2009)

The remarkable NASA Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity are celebrating five years on the Red Planet and are still operating. Spirit landed on 3 January 2004 and Opportunity 21 days later. The craft were the first of “humanity’s first overland expedition on another planet.

The United Launch Alliance of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which provides launches of Delta and Atlas booster has despatched 21 boosters from December 2006 and in 2009, there are plans top launch 19 Delta II, Delta IV and Atlas V missions comprising 14 from Cape Canaveral, Florida and five from Vandenberg, California. The first launch will be made from Cape Canaveral featuring a Delta IV Heavy on 13 January, the first rocket launch from Canaveral for seven months. NASA and the Air Force looking to speed the turnaround of Atlas V launches from 65 to 45 days.

Russia is investing $578 million to design and construct the Angara space rocket complex at Plesetsk for flights by various models of the rocket for low Earth orbit, medium and high as well as elliptical. The first flight test is scheduled for 2011.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch the Megha Tropiques weather satellite probably aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Shriharikota in 2009, four year later than planned. The 500kg Meghha Tropiques will carry a high-frequency microwave scanning radiometer (MADRAS), a multi-channel microwave instrument (SAFHIR) providing humidity profiles and another multi-channel instrument providing radiation budget data.

PlanetSpace, which lost out for the NASA International Space Station Commercial Resupply Services programme may protest about the decision to selected Orbital Sciences (OSC) and SpaceX. PlanetSpace came second in the process but there were concerns about management weaknesses.

Inspection of images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which were used by Britain’s Open University to map the Elysium Planitia, revealed a region in the equator where a ring system up to 23 metres across made of stones. Similar systems have been seen on Earth, which are the result of repeated freezing and thawing of ice. University College in London says that the circles could be interesting targets to look for evidence of past water on Mars.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to develop the Mark III Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) to fly in 2010-2011 to carry heavier communications satellites weighing over four tonnes - and also to send three Indian astronauts into orbit for a week-long flight in 2015. There is a possibility that the Mark II GSLV could carry two astronauts earlier.

NASA says that during the launch of STS 126 not all debris was captured by the Debris Containment System (DCS) and could have impacted the safety of the launch. As a result, the anomaly of the DCS is being studied before the launch of STS 119.

50 years ago
5 January 1959
Transmissions from the Soviet Union’s Lunik 1 ceased 373,125 miles from the Earth. The Luniks were later known as Lunas beginning at No 4.

40 years ago
5 January 1969
The Soviet Union launched a Molniya booster from Baikonur carrying the 1,128kg Venera 5 en route to Venus which it reached on 16 May, deploying a 405kg capsule which descended under a parachute, returning data for 53 minutes en route to the surface. The craft carried a medallion with the coat of arms of the USSR and a metal illustration of Lenin.

The British magazine New Scientist called the Apollo 8 mission “an indulgent adventure…cavorting in an extravagant fashion”. It asked, “what can be reasonable about squandering 10,000 millions of pounds on what could be construed as an indulgent adventure while two thirds of the world remained undernourished”. The article admitted that 13 leading scientists gave Apollo 8 almost universal enthusiasm. Meanwhile, the British Interplanetary Society said that man was likely to land on Mars within ten years and Pluto by 2000.

It was reported that Werner von Braun was to give evidence in the trial in Essen of three former SS officers charged with murdering 100 people in a concentration camp during the 1939-45 war.

20-23 December-2 January (2 January 2009)

NASA has released a comprehensive 400-page report on the final minutes of the STS 107 Columbia mission in which seven astronauts were killed during re-entry on 1 February 2003 as the spacecraft broke apart at 200,000ft over Texas. The space agency said that the crew were aware of their predicament for 40s but had no control of Columbia before they lost conscious due to loss of cabin pressure. The seat inertial reel mechanisms on the crews’ shoulder harnesses were not locked. The crew were wearing their pressure suits but had not completed suiting up. One astronaut did not have a helmet on, three were not wearing gloves, none had lowered their visors and one crewperson was not seated. The depressurisation occurred so rapidly that the crew had no time to configure their suits fully. The unconscious or deceased crew were exposed to cyclical rotation motion while restrained only at the lower body and while the helmets were not designed to conform fully to the head and consequently, lethal trauma occurred to the unconscious or deceased, due to lack of upper body support and restraint during the rapid rotation of the crew compartment after breakup. The accident was the result of the leading edge of the left wing of Columbia being breached by a large piece of heat reflecting foam during launch. The breach allowed re-entry hot gases, which burned into the hole. Columbia finally broke apart 200,000ft over Texas.

Space Systems/Loral has been awarded a contract tp build Intelsat 17 which will replace Intelsat 704 in 2010 to be stationed over the Indian Ocean. The satellite will be based on the SS/L 1300 spacecraft bus.

Virgin Galactic has signed a 20-year lease to operate from Spaceport America in south New Mexico. Virgin plans to launch paying passengers at a cost of $200,000 per seat on sub-orbital flights into the edge of space. The news coincides with the beginning of the test programme in Mojave, California of the WhiteKnightTwo launch vehicle, which will carry SpaceShipTwo.

Meanwhile, Space Adventures which offers flights into orbit aboard Russian Soyuz TMA spacecraft carrying one space tourist on missions to the International Space Station, with two professional astronauts for shifts in space at a new cost of $35-$45 million is now offering a walk in space at $45-$55 million. Space tourists will be carried when appropriate depending on schedules but plans are also afoot to fly TMA flights into solo orbits with possibly two tourists per flight with a professional commander.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama are being urged to use upgraded Atlas V and Delta IV as the launchers for the Constellation project instead on the Ares vehicles. The Atlas and Deltas could be ready to fly in 2013, two years earlier than the Ares. NASA’s administrator, Mike Griffin says that the Atlas and Delta boosters are not suitable to launch astronauts to the moon and would be too expensive to be upgraded. Griffin is unlikely to be NASA’s administrator much longer.

Russia is in the process of creating a “NASA” bringing together major programmes, in particular the new Vostochnyy spaceport in the Amur Region. The nation is planning to launch 39 missions in 2009, 50% of them being for civilian and commercial purposes and to build new manned spacecraft that will be able to carry six persons from Vostochnyy using a new booster. The number of Russian manned spaceflights in 2009 will be doubled.

Arianespace launched the Eutelsat HotBird 9 and W2M on 20 December on the sixth and last flight of the year for the launch agency. The launch was the 42nd by an Ariane 5 an the 28th successful successive launch of the booster.

Russia’s new Glonnas-K satellites, which will be introduced in 2010 will reduce the cost of launches considerably reports the Russian military news agency.

India plans to launch an astronaut in 2013. Meanwhile, NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, one of 10 instruments on board India’s Chandryaan 1 lunar orbiter has discovered iron-bearing minerals, such as pyroxene “in abundance”. India plans to launch a lunar lander in 2012 and Mars mission in 2013.

Russia launched a Proton M booster from Baikonur on 25 December, carrying three Uragan Glonass navigation satellites (Cosmos 2447-2449) creating a 20 satellite fleet. Four more Glonass will be launched in 2009.

NASA Constellation project managers are considering using the Space Shuttle Main Engines and Solid Rocket Boosters to launch the Ares V first stage.

Space-X and Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) have been awarded contracts for the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS). Planet Space lost out. The total value of the contract is about $3.5 billion. Space-X will fly 12 missions and OSC six. The launchers will be the OSC Taurus 2 and the Space-X booster. The contract is good news for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, which will be the base. A test flight will be made in 2010 and an operational mission in October 2011.

International Space Station crewmembers Yuri Lonchakov and Mike Finke completed a spacewalk from the Pirs docking module on 23 December including the installation of a probe on the attached Soyuz TMA spacecraft to avoid a repeat of two earlier “off-nominal” re-entries. An electromagnetic energy probe was installed as well as other items but the European astrobiology experiment Expose-R failed to transmit and was returned to the station.

China launched the Fengyun 2-06 geostationary meteorological satellite aboard a CZ-3A booster from Xichang on 23 December.

International Launch Services (ILS) have been awarded a contract to launch two Eutelsat communications satellites in 2009-10. The first to fly will mark the 50th commercial launch of a Proton booster.

The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully conducted the flight acceptance hot test of the Indigenous Cryogenic Engine at the Liquid Propulsion System’s Centre at Mahendragiri.

Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft for the SpaceShipTwo suborbital space tourist vehicle flew its inaugural test on 28 December.

Image Fortress Space Archives is to launch an online digital library of space images, films and video from all sources in the world. (www.internationalspacearchives.com).

Kazakhstan will ban foreign visitors to the Baikonur, Gvardeysy, near Almaty and two regions in Kyzylorda until 2015.

Former government minister and space traveller Claudia Haignere, aged 51 was hospitalised after an overdose. Her husband, Jean-Pierre is also a veteran space traveller. Some newspapers reported that the incident was a suicide attempt.

Caltech says that it is no longer crazy to ask what happened before the Big Bang after having proposed a mathematical model to explain an anomaly in what is believed to be a Universe of uniformally distributed radiation and matter. This is as usual totally theoretical and takes us nowhere. What’s wrong with “ In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth”. Genesis 1.1. That’s what God says. That’s good enough for millions of people and it makes far more sense than a Big Bang.

After the delay to the launch of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, the space agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory will be next in the queue for a launch aboard an Atlas in October-November 2009.

NASA Press Release: “The rovers Spirit and Opportunity may still have big achievements ahead as they approach the fifth anniversaries of their memorable landings on Mars. Of the hundreds of engineers and scientists who cheered at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2004, when Spirit landed safely, and 21 days later when Opportunity followed suit, none predicted the team would still be operating both rovers in 2009."The American taxpayer was told three months for each rover was the prime mission plan," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The twins have worked almost 20 times that long. That's an extraordinary return of investment in these challenging budgetary times."The rovers have made important discoveries about wet and violent environments on ancient Mars. They also have returned a quarter-million images, driven more than 13 miles, climbed a mountain, descended into craters, struggled with sand traps and aging hardware, survived dust storms, and relayed more than 36 gigabytes of data via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. To date, the rovers remain operational for new campaigns the team has planned for them.”

India plans to develop the Mark III Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) could create the cheapest GEO commercial launcher by 2010. The cost of Indian launch vehicles is already 20-30% lower than other countries.

50 years ago
2 January 1959
The Soviet Union launched the 3,255lb Lunik 1 in an attempt to hit with moon but the spacecraft missed the moon by 5,998km and became the first spacecraft to enter solar orbit. Lunik 1 was preceded by four failed launch attempts in June, September, October and December 1958.

40 years ago
21-27 December
What was regarded by many people as the greatest manned space flight in history thus far - even surpassing Apollo 11 in 1969 - was launched on 21 December with Apollo 8 landing back on Earth on 27 December after ten orbits of the moon. The mission returned probably the greatest image in history - Earthrise. The Christmas reading from Genesis 1 of the Holy Bible by Frank Borman, James Lovell and Bill Anders was the icing on the cake.

26 December
The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 262 aboard a Cosmos booster from Kapustin Yar with a 352kg solar studies payload into a 48deg inclination orbit on the 119th and final satellite launch of 1968.