Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

26-28 November (28 November 2009)

The first two Soyuz launchers have arrived at Kourou, French Guiana to inaugurate the new medium-lift satellite launch service.

NASA has proposed a robotic rocket-plane to explore Mars descending from an orbiter. The Aerial Regional Scale Environmental Surveyor has been proposed for the Discovery programme along with a nuclear-powered robot sailing board to plough the seas of Saturn’s moon Titan. 

Thirteen years after the ALH84001 Martian meteorite life story emerged, scientists feels vindicated as their data shows the meteorite is no smoking gun but is full of evidence that supports the existence of life on the surface of Mars, or in subsurface water pools, early in the planet's history. Scientists are desperate to find life elsewhere and will continue with the hype."We conclude that the vast majority of the nanocrystal magnetites present in the carbonate disks could not have formed by any of the currently proposed thermal decomposition scenarios. Instead, we find there is considerable evidence in support of an alternative allochthonous origin for the magnetite unrelated to any shock or thermal processing of the carbonates."


The Space Shuttle Atlantis crew returned to Earth on 27 November with Nicole Stott after 91 days in the International Space Station. Mission time was 10 days 19 hrs 37 min. 

SES has selected Astrium Satellites to build four direct-broadcast TV satellites under a contract worth $753 million. The satellites will be delivered in six-month intervals starting 2012. Three of the satellites will replace Astra satellites at 28.2deg and one at 31.3deg. Astrium was viewed as the favorite in the competition because it built the Astra 2B satellite, one of the three Astra spacecraft now located at 28.2 degrees east. Astrium also built the Astra 1M satellite, located at SES’s other core orbital slot, 19.2 degrees east, and is scheduled to deliver the Astra 3B satellite in early 2010. Astra 3B will operate at SES World Skies’ 23.5 degrees east slot. Thales Alenia Space has built two satellites for SES, one of which was lost due to a rocket malfunction. The other, the Astra 5A, was launched in 1997 and was originally ordered by Nordic Satellite Co. of Sweden. SES later purchased a 90 percent stake in the company and renamed it SES Sirius.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch 36 satellites during the 11th space plan. 

China will launch its second moon probe, Chang’e 2 in 2010, which will orbit the moon 100km closer to the moon that Chang’e 1. A lunar-lander and rover are planned for the Chang’e 3 mission before 2013, landing in Sinus Iridium.

In a discovery that may solve the mystery behind the source of moon's water, evidence from NASA's LCROSS mission suggests that most of the water was delivered by comets that slammed into the Earth's satellite billions of years ago. Previous missions had also found hints of lunar water but its source was never clear. One idea is that it forms when hydrogen atoms from the solar wind latch onto oxygen atoms in the lunar soil, creating hydroxyl and water. According to the data revealed recently at the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group meeting, a gathering of 160 lunar scientists in Houston, the evidence is mounting in favour of an alternative explanation - comet impacts. The first line of evidence comes from compounds that vaporise readily, called volatiles. LCROSS found spectral signs of volatiles containing carbon and hydrogen - likely methane and ethanol - as well as others such as ammonia and carbon dioxide, journal New Scientist reported.

SpaceX will launch its first nine-main engine Falcon 9 booster early next year from Cape Canaveral. The booster will carry a dummy Dragon spacecraft. Twelve Dragon spacecraft will supply the International Space Station under a Commercial Re-supply Services  $1.6 billion contract from NASA. Orbital Sciences also has a contract to supply the ISS using a Cygnus spacecraft launched aboard a Taurus 2 rocket from Wallops Island. The first Cygnus spacecraft will be launched no earlier  than March 2011.


50 years ago
28 November 1959

During a severe geomagnetic storm, two Geiger tubes of the Explorer 7 satellite found anomalies in the outer radiation zone at about 1,000 km. 

Commander M. Ross and Dr C. Moore flew Stato-Lab High balloon to a height of 81,000 feet. The crew used a 16in telescope and spectroscope and observed water vapour in the atmosphere of Venus. 

40 years ago
28 November 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Proton booster from Baikonur carrying a Luna spacecraft but the first stage of the booster failed. The flight was to test the Block D upper station of the planned N1 booster. 




 



 
 

24-25 November (25 November 2009)

International Launch Services launched a Proton Breeze booster from Baikonur on 24 November carrying Eutelsat’s Thales Alenia Space-built 12,405 W7 communications satellite. It was the 55th ILS Proton launch and ILS has a backlog of 24 satellites to launch, with another Proton launch in December carrying DirecTV 12. Seven to eight more satellites will be launched in 2010.

The third and final EVA of the STS 129 Atlantis mission was completed on 23 November featuring the EVA crewmen Randy Bresnik and Robert Satcher. The five-hour, 42-minute spacewalk involved the installation of an oxygen tank on the International Space Station's Quest airlock module, to set up a materials science space exposure experiment and to carry out a variety of station assembly tasks.

50 years ago
26 November 1959
An Atlas Able booster was launched from Cape Canaveral, carrying Pioneer P3 en route to the moon but the Atlas broke up at T+45sec when the payload shroud detached prematurely.

40 years ago
22 November 1969

A Thor Delta booster was launched from Cape Canaveral carrying the first British Skynet military communications satellite into a geostationary orbit.

The Soviet Union launched a Cosmos 2 booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 311, a military target weighing 325kg into a 71edg inclination, 297-484km.

The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 312 aboard a Cosmos booster on an upper atmosphere mission in a 74deg inclination, 1,141-1,175km.


 




 

  


 

21-23 November (23 November 2009)

Russia launched a Soyuz U booster from Plesetsk on 21 November carrying a Cosmos military satellite, Kosmos 2455, while veteran cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, says that efforts to produce a new manned spacecraft are not in sight. An order for a new spacecraft has been requested but there are still no concepts. Last month, space agency head Anatoly Perminov proposed building a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets. He offered few specifics and the proposal “sounded more like a plea for funds than a specific project”, said Tyurin, adding that the failure to develop new space technologies would relegate Russia to a secondary role in the near future. "Very soon, no one will need the Russian space programme," he said. "Our partners already have got all they could from us. They won't take us into the future."

The STS 129 Atlantis spacewalkers, Michael Foreman and Randy Bresnik completed their second EVA on 22 November lasting 6hr 8min at the International Space Station to install an antenna assembly and relocate a measurement unit.

Virgin Galactic will unveil the first of a planned five Scaled Composite-built Space Ship 2 spacecraft on 2 December, which will be tested for the first time late December or January 2010. Five spacecraft will be built and the first paying flights to space will be made in 2011 from Spaceport America, New Mexico. SpaceShip2 will be able to carry six passengers and two pilots, and will reach 4,200 kilometers per hour (2,600 miles per hour) using a single hybrid rocket motor. It will launch at 15,200 meters (50,000 feet) from its mother ship, WhiteKnight2, and will use a feathered re-entry system, feasible due to the low speed of re-entry. All seats will recline back during landing to decrease the discomfort of G-forces.

Wayne Hale, a programme director for the Space Shuttle programme, says that it was clearly an oversight for the United States to have allowed at least a five-year gap between the last scheduled flight of the shuttle and the next generation of spacecraft, the two-stage Ares 1 rocket and Orion crew capsule. A prototype of the Ares 1 rocket was launched by NASA last month - but certainly not perfectly. “My biggest regret is that we haven't already built the successor to the shuttle. The shuttle was supposed to last for 10 years; it's now going to last almost 30," Hale says. "We do have a plan to build a successor vehicle, but there is going to be a gap now of a few years before we have that built, between the time we retire the shuttle and the new vehicle is ready to go flying."NASA officials hope to keep the ISS flying until 2015, or possibly as long as 2020.

The United Laun ch Alliance launched an Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral on 22 November carrying the Intelsat 14 communications  satellite which will be located at 45degW in geosynchonous orbit equipped with 40 C-band and 22 Ku-band transponders, to replace Panamsat PAS-1R. Panamsat merged with Intelsat. Intelsat 14 was built by Space Systems/Loral under a contract signed in 2007, and is based on the 1300 bus. It will be the 112th satellite to be operated by Intelsat, including two Horizons satellites, and a number of spacecraft acquired after launch, but excluding leased capacity on other companies’ satellites.
In addition to its commercial communications payload, Intelsat 14 will also carry an experiment for the US Department of Defense. 

Konstantin Feoktistov, a designer of the Voskhod manned spacecraft and who flew the first mission with two other cosmonauts on 12 October 1964 has died aged 83 on 21 November. The other crewman were the late Vladimir Komorov - who was killed aboard Voskhod 2 in a crash landing in 1965 - and medical doctor Boris Yegorov.




 








 






 
 

18-20 November (20 November 2009)

The first spacewalk by the STS 129 Atlantis was completed on 19 November, featuring Mike Foreman and rookie Robert Satcher. The due spent 6hr 37min installing a spare communications antenna, routing cables and lubricating parts of the mobile base system and Kibo robotic arm. 

The USA and China will explore potential co-operation on space science exploration it was announced during a meeting between President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao.

NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation have signed an agreement to for the American space agency to use data from India’s Oceansat 2, which was launched on 23 September by a Polar  Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota.

Luxembourg based SES is to invest $75 million in an 03b broadband data satellites in medium equatorial orbits, launched aboard Soyuz rockets in 2012. The satellites will be built by Thales Alenia Space.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis docked to the International Space Station on 18 November following a launch from the KSC on 16 November, carrying 27,00lbs of cargo including spares, gyroscopes, pumps and other cargo.

Japanese engineers have devised a plan to combine parts from two partially-failed ion engines to resume the 950lb Hayabusa asteroid probe's journey back to Earth using the neutralizer of Thruster A and the ion source of Thruster B to provide enough power to guide the 950-pound spacecraft home next June. Hayabusa launched in 2003 with four ion engines. While the operation still needs monitored carefully, the project team has concluded the spacecraft can maintain the current return cruise schedule back to the Earth around June of 2010, if the new engines configuration continues to work as planned. Hayabusa spent three months exploring asteroid Itokawa in late 2005. The probe took 1,600 pictures and collected about 120,000 pieces of near-infrared spectral data and 15,000 data points with its X-ray spectrometer to investigate the small potato-shaped asteroid's surface composition.

Arianespace and International Launch Services command the lion's share of the commercial launch industry, after Sea Launch suspended operations after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. The companies launch commercial satellites to geostationary transfer orbits on Ariane 5, Soyuz, Proton and Zenit rockets. Arianespace and ILS can now launch about 21 commercial communications satellites per year, based on combined average flight rates. Up to 28 payloads could be launched annually if both providers ramped up operations. Those numbers don't include the expected addition of the Soyuz rocket to Arianespace's fleet next year.The Ariane 5 is launching two satellites at a time about seven times each year. The Proton launches on commercial missions six to eight times per year. The maximum flight rates for the vehicles are nine missions annually for Ariane and 10 commercial flights per year for Proton, according to company officials."It is clear there are less satellites to launch than in the past," said Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace. "And with ILS and Arianespace, we cover all the needs of our customers. So I do not see the need to have other launch companies in this market."Frank McKenna, president of ILS, agrees that two able providers could efficiently handle the demands of satellite operators worldwide. 18-20Launch providers like Arianespace and ILS say they can meet the demands of communications companies, especially with the forecasts of reducing launch rates."We will see about the future of Sea Launch. But today, with just 14 new launch service contracts since the beginning of the year, with 8 to Ariane 5 and 6 to 8 on Proton, (we) cover all the needs," Le Gall said."For the medium-to-heavy-lift end of the business, 20 (launches) a year is a very, very good year. What I'm seeing in the manifest in 2011 and '12, doesn't really seem to totally support that," McKenna said. Arianespace's backlog currently extends out three years, including 25 Ariane 5 and 10 Soyuz launches. Le Gall said the company's schedule is filled up for the next two years. ILS has acquired seven payloads from Sea Launch over the last year. That company's manifest now totals 25 satellites to be launched, including a multi-mission agreement with SES of Luxembourg. ILS still have a couple of openings in 2011, according to McKenna. But leaders of the world's largest satellite operators have made repeated statements lambasting the state of the commercial rocket industry. Eutelsat and Intelsat have both kept contracts with Sea Launch and Land Launch despite the company's financial trouble. Both companies say they would like to see more variety in the launch market. Sea Launch officials are thankful for the support and agree with the strategy.
"Now we don't see any operator complaining about launch prices anymore. What they're worried about is access to space," Karlsen said. "Whether they pay $100 million or $120 million for a launch probably is not going to make that big of a difference for a 6,000-kilogram (13,228-pound) satellite's business plan," Karlsen said. "But if they don't have their suppliers and can't get access to space, then that will make a huge difference on their business plans."

50 years ago
20 November 1959

The US Air Force launched a Thor Agena A booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, carrying Discoverer 8 on a spy satellite mission equipped with a KH-1 spacecraft on the first generation low resolution photo surveillance film capsule. The mission failed as the orbit negated a recovery.
 

11-17 November (17 November 2009)

The Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched from the KSC on 16 November on the 129th Shuttle mission, heading for the  ISS to deliver 15 tons of cargo and space parts. The crew comprises commander veteran Charles Hobaugh, rookie pilot Barry Wilmore and mission specialists, Leland Melvin, Michael Forman, Randolph Bresnick and Robert Satcher. Sather, Wilmore and Bresnick are rookies. The crew will return with space station flight engineer Nicole Stott after a three-month shift. With just six missions left on NASA's shuttle manifest between now and the end of fiscal 2010, Atlantis' mission is one of two devoted primarily to delivering critical spare parts and equipment - orbital replacement units - that are too large to be delivered by European, Russian or Japanese cargo ships, including two spare gyroscopes, a space pump module, nitrogen tank and a n ammonia reservoir for cooling. Atlantis is also carrying two cargo pallets. On 12 November, the Russian docking module, Poisk was attached to ISS providing a fourth docking port for the nation’s segment.

The Director General of the Sri Lankan Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Priyantha Kariyapperuma and Professor Sir Martin Sweeting of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), signed a landmark agreement today. This agreement starts a Sri Lankan national space capability by providing an SSTL Earth Observation satellite and commencing the definition and design of Sri Lanka’s first communications satellite.
Sea Launch, the commercial launch company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, announced Wednesday that it has secured financing to continue operations into next year. An investor known only as Space Launch Services, LLC, has provided Sea Launch with up to $12.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep the company operating as it continues with its restructuring. The company said it projects exiting from Chapter 11 in the first quarter of 2010. A major investor in Sea Launch, Boeing, is not expected to have a stake in the restructured company when it emerges from Chapter 11.

China launched a Shijian research satellite on 12 November aboard a Long March 2C booster into a 93deg inclination orbit. No information was released. 

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev says that he will prioritise the development of nuclear energy on spacecraft. Anatoly Perminov, the head of Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, said last month that the agency has planned to develop spacecraft with a megawatt-class nuclear power set.
He said “the project would advance Russia's astronautic technology to a world-leading level. The project, he said, also would greatly reinforce the performance of Russia's new manned spacecraft while decreasing energy consumption”. Perminov said the draft design of the spacecraft would be finished by 2012, and at least 17 billion rubles (more than 580 million U.S. dollars) were needed for further development over the next nine years. Design work should be completed by 2012, the actual nuclear power device should be developed by 2015, and the spacecraft should be put into service by 2018.

Preliminary data from NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) has uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. LCROSS  and the rocket stage impacted in the Cabeus crater on 9 October. "We are ecstatic," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. "Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water."

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta made its final Earth fly-by of the Earth at a speed of 29,925mph, to reach the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimemnky comet in 2014. The spacecraft carries a laboratory called Philae that will hopefully land on the comet.

The Constellation project seems doomed – the first operational Ares booster won’t fly until 2015-17 - a “special team” has been formed to look at other alternatives. According to documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, there are five options: A "side mount" heavy-lift rocket that uses the same engines, boosters and fuel tanks as the shuttle but replaces the orbiter with a carrier. It's considered the cheapest and fastest alternative but cannot be upgraded. There are also safety issues because the capsule is mounted on the side of the fuel tank instead of on top of it. A shuttle-derived "In-Line" rocket advocated by the so-called "Direct" group of free-lance engineers and hobbyists. It's based on an old NASA design that uses the shuttle's hardware but puts engines underneath the tank and the capsule on top. Two versions of the Ares V "Lite," smaller versions of the Ares V cargo rocket and meant to carry both crew and cargo. The difference between the two versions is the number of engines and the size of the first stage. Both make use of NASA's work during the past four years but would require big changes to assembly and launchpad infrastructure at KSC. An all-liquid-fuel heavy-lift rocket described as a modern version of the Saturn V that carried the Apollo astronauts. It's a powerful new design using Russian-made engines and kerosene as the main fuel for the first stage. Considered the cheapest alternative to operate, it cuts costs by doing away with solid-rocket boosters. KSC was originally designed to handle liquid-fuel rockets.

International Launch Services has received a contract from Sirius XM to launch XM-5 aboard a Proton booster in 2010. It is the tenth contract this year. The 6,000kg satellite will be located at 85degW.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) hopes that the ambitious plans will help ease the country’s energy problems as well as providing a solution for global warming. A select group of companies and researchers have been given the task of designing and building the Space Solar Power System (SSPS). The plan is to create a miles-wide array of photovoltaic panels, like the solar panels used on Earth, and place it in a geostationary orbit. A test version of the orbital solar panels is expected to be launched in 2020. The final version should be in space in 2030, and will create about one gigawatt of energy – the equivalent of a mid-sized nuclear power plant.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation reports that the total investment in the commercial human spaceflight sector has risen by 20% since January 2008, reaching a cumulative total of $1.46 billion, according to a new extensive study performed by the Tauri Group and commissioned by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Revenues and deposits for commercial human spaceflight services, hardware, and support services has also grown, reaching a total of $261 million for the year 2008. The analytic study, performed by the Tauri Group of Alexandria, Virginia, was based on aggregated data from a comprehensive survey of 22 companies engaged in commercial human spaceflight activities, including most Commercial Spaceflight Federation members."Total investment in the commercial human spaceflight sector has risen by 20% since January 2008, reaching a cumulative total of $1.46 billion, according to a new extensive study performed by the Tauri Group and commissioned by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Revenues and deposits for commercial human spaceflight services, hardware, and support services has also grown, reaching a total of $261 million for the year 2008. The analytic study, performed by the Tauri Group of Alexandria, Virginia, was based on aggregated data from a comprehensive survey of 22 companies engaged in commercial human spaceflight activities, including most Commercial Spaceflight Federation members. Deposits and revenue for direct commercial human spaceflight services, such as flights of private citizens to the International Space Station and deposits on suborbital commercial human spaceflights, rose to $50.0M in 2008, compared to $38.8M in 2007 and $28.8M in 2006. Investment of $1.46 billion has been committed to the industry since January 2008, of which approximately $624 million has been spent to date and about $838 million is available. Sources of investment include individuals and angel investors (about 52%), private equity (about 30%), government (about 15%), and corporate reinvestment (about 4%). Revenue for commercial spaceflight hardware sales, development, and support services, increased to $211M in 2008, compared to $206M in 2007 and $123M in 2006. (This category includes sales of hardware and services directly intended for commercial human spaceflight; sales of commercial human spaceflight-related products and services to customers in other industry sectors; and sales and services that develop technologies and corporate capabilities that can be leveraged for commercial human spaceflight applications. Total facility space expanded to 1,180,000 square feet (over 20 football fields) in 2008, compared to 762,100 square feet in 2007.The commercial human spaceflight industry reached an employment level of 1,186 workers in 2008, not including employees at these 22 companies who are engaged in activities unrelated to commercial human spaceflight.


40 years ago

12 November 1969
The Soviet Union launched a Soyuz booster from Plesetsk carrying a Zenit 2 reconnaissance satellite with a recoverable capsule and for the first time with a Nauka external experiment container.

14 November
The second Apollo mission to land men on the moon was launched by a Saturn 5 booster on 14 November from KSC’s Pad 39A, carrying Apollo 12 commanded by Pete Conrad with command module pilot, Dick Gordon and LMP Alan Bean. The vehicle was hit twice by lightning at T+36 and 52secs. The mission was aimed at the Ocean of Storms close to the landing place of the unmanned Surveyor 3 which landed in April 1967. The Apollo Lunar Module, Yankee Clipper landed on 19 November.

15 November

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying a Zenit 4 reconnaissance satellite with a recoverable film capsule.

16 November

The first attempt by China to launch a satellite failed after the second stage of a Long March failed after T+69sec. The 170kg satellite was a technology spacecraft .











 

 

7-10 November (10 November 2009)

Asia Broadcast Satellite will acquire the Mabuhay Satellite Corporation’s Space Systems/Loral-built FS-1300-based in-orbit Agila 2 satellite that was launched in August 1997 equipped with 30 C-band, 25 Ku-band transponders located over the Pacific Ocean.

Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology company, SSTL has been selected by the European Space Agency to build the European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) to be launched no earlier than 2013. Ten universities in Europe will be involved.

Despite the global economic crisis, markets for communications and Earth observation satellites and their launchers are buoyant, according to Forecast International’s latest payload forecast to 2017. However, very little business work will go to Cape Canaveral, which is seemingly “moon stuck” and facing layoffs in the Space Shuttle programme. The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 and Delta 4 boosters have lost business to Arianespace and the Russian Proton boosters. The planned   Atlas 5 launch on 14 November will be the first for 11 years for an Intelsat satellite. However, Atlas V and Delta IV rockets for military missions could require 161 launches for the next ten years. The US Air Force has a $927 million single contract with ULA for Atlas and Delta missions for the first time. Space-X plans to operate launches of Falcon boosters starting later in 2010.

Euroconsult says that revenues have already reached a billion dollars in 2009 and could quadruple within a few years. "The sector is establishing itself as one of the principal boosts for re-launching global economic growth after the recession." About 260 new meteorological and terrestrial observation satellites will be launched in the next ten years. “This number is double the 128 satellites sent into orbit between 1998 and 2008. Growth to $27.4 billion is estimated for the decade to come, compared to the $20.4 billion in the last ten years. Profits of a billion dollars have been made from sales of data satellites alone in 2009 and the forecasts indicate that in 2018, profits deriving from the business in images will leap to $3.9 billion dollars, an increase of 16 percent every year.”

The first two Russian Soyuz boosters to be launched from Kourou’s French Guiana Space centre will soon arrive for operations in 2010, to join with ESA’s Vega booster. Arianespace has ordered 14 Soyuz boosters.

South Korea will launch its first meteorological-communications satellite aboard an Ariane booster from Kourou in March 2010. The $304 million geostationhary satellite was build by Korea Aerospace Research Institute and Europe’s Astrium.

China will launch a commercial communications satellite , Apstar 7 aboard a Long March 3B booster from Xichang in 2012. The satellite is being built by Europe’s Thales Alenia Space company. CGWIC has launched 36 foreign satellites.

NASA and ESA nave signed a “letter of intent” to co-operate on Mars missions: 2016: A European-led orbiter to study trace gases, including methane, in Mars' atmosphere. The mission would also put a static meteorological station on the surface. Critically, Europe would handle the entry, descent and landing (EDL) of this station - a capability it has yet to demonstrate. 2018: European and American rovers would be despatched to Mars. 2020: "Under consideration" is a network of landers focused on geophysics and the environment. This means that a Mars sample return mission will not be tried well after 2020 – so we can forget about manned Mars missions well after. The space age is dwindling fast.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation says that the commercial human spaceflight sector has risen by 20% from January 2008 to $1.46 billion. Commercial human spaceflight from flights and deposits on future flights rose to $50 million in 2008 against $38.8 million in 2007. 

Russia’s Energia company is doubling production of Soyuz manned spacecraft and production of Progress craft will increase by 50%.

Hopes are fading for the return of the 950lb Japanese space probe’s re-entry capsule to Earth with possible precious samples of the asteroid Itokawa in 2010 aboard the Hayabusa spacecraft. The craft was the3 first spacecraft to take off from an asteroid.    

50 years ago
8 November 1959
The US Air Force launched a Thor Agena D carrying the 1,750lb Discoverer 7 KH-1/Agena payload from Vandenberg AFB into an 81deg inclination orbit on the first generation low- resolution mission but the satellite tumbled and the recoverable film capsule was lost.

40 years ago
8 November 1969
A Scout B booster was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying the German 156lb Azur magnetosphere research satellite into a 102deg inclination orbit to examine the Van Allen belts and solar particles.
 

3-6 November (6 November 2009)

NASA’s Cassini Saturn orbiter made the closest fly-by of the moon, Enceladus on 2 November on Cassini’s deepest plunge yet to the heart of the plume shooting out from the south polar region.

NASA has delayed the planned Ares 1-Y test flight to 2014 and will make an Ares 1-X Prime five-segment flight in 2012, which might also test the abort system from Pad 39B. Meanwhile, 7,000 workers will be laid off in 2010-11 when the Space Shuttle retires. The first piloted Ares-Orion flight has been pushed to 2014-15.

Tsien Hsue-shen, the founder of China’s space and rocket programmes died aged 98 on 31 October.


50 years ago
4 November

NASA launched a Little Joe A booster from Wallops Island, Virginia on a Mercury project reaching an 8 mile altitude on a planned abort under high aerodynamic loads, on a repeat mission that took place on 21 August 1959.

5 November
The Mercury Seven astronauts were fitted with pressure suits at the B.F. Goodrich company in Akron, Ohio.

A Jupiter C booster was launched from Cape Canaveral on an R&D flight to 310 miles and a range of 1,299 miles.

The third powered flight of the X-15 (No 2) experienced an engine fire and an explosion on landing after a flight to 8 miles altitude.   


40 years ago
4 November 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk, carrying Cosmos 308 into a 168-253 mile, 71deg inclination orbit on a military target mission for the AMB forces.  
 

31 October-2 November (2 November 2009)

The European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer series satellite, the 658kg, Thales Alenia Space-built Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity and the solar physics Proba 2 were launched on 2 November aboard a Eurocot Rokot/Breeze KM booster from Plesestsk, Russia on 2 November, into sun-synchronous 760km and 725km orbits, operated by CNES and SMOS/ESA agencies respectively.

NASA’s 327ft tall $445 million Ares 1-X launched on 28 October was a bit a botched job, with two of the three parachutes partially deployed. The Ares flight could very well be the first and last of the project.

Inteslat won the 29th October bidding for the in-orbit ProtoStar 1 with a $210 million bid. The Space Systems Loral-built, 22Ku and 38 C-band transponder satellite was launched in July 2008.

Barcelona-based Galactic Suite space hotel will offer a $4.5 million, three-night stay in orbit within 15 years. Virgin Galactic plans to sign up. Firstly, Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branston has to start his Virgin Galactic sub-orbital space tourist service. This seems to have stumbled a bit and things seems to have gone a rather quiet.


50 years ago
1 November 1959

The Goodrich-made spacesuits which were to be used by the Mercury spacecraft astronauts were delivered to NASA. The first manned development system tests were completed at the AiResearch Manufacturing Division, Garrett Corporation. Tests were conducted in the altitude chamber to determine proper functioning of all system valves and components. A McDonnell subject was clothed in a Mercury-type presure suit for these tests. Preliminary data from these tests indicated that the system functioned satisfactorily.

2 November

Planning of advanced spacecraft systems began  - the preliminary design of a multi-man (probably three-man) capsule for a circumlunar mission, with particular attention to the use of the capsule as a temporary space laboratory, lunar landing cabin, and deep-space probe; mission analysis studies to establish exit and re-entry corridors, weights and propulsion requirements; and test program planning to decide on the number and purpose of launches.

The manned Dyna-Soar project office formulated a three-step approach, involving the development of a suborbital glider, an orbital system and an operational weapon system. A compromise with the Secretary of Defence on the role of Dynasoar was agreed.  Step 1 would involve suborbital tests of a manned glider, weighing between 2980kg and 4270 kg, boosted by a Titan I ICBM. Step 2 would involve use of the larger Titan C booster to take the same vehicle up to orbital velocity. Step 3 would be an operational weapons system, boosted by the Titan C. The schedule agreed was for 19 air-drops of the glider from a B-52 to begin in April 1962; the first unmanned suborbital flight in April 1962; the first of 8 manned suborbital flights in July 1963; and the first manned orbital flight from LC40 at Cape Canaveral in August 1965.