Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

15-21 December (21 December 2009)

ESA plans to launch the EADS Astrium-built 2,100kg Gaia satellite aboard a Soyuz-STB/Fregat from Kourou in 2012 into a deep space orbit beyond the moon to observe billions of objects with magnitudes down to 20 to construct the largest and most precise map of the galaxy, from a location at the second Langrangian point 1.6 million km from the Earth.

ESA has also given the go-ahead for construction of two ExoMars spacecraft with NASA for launch in 2016-2018.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has photographed a flash of sunlight reflecting liquid hydrocarbons on the moon Titan.

Russia and Japan plan to enhance the Japanese Kibo laboratory with Russian equipment.

Russia plans to develop nuclear engines for spacecraft after 2010 for flights to Mars and other planets.

Russia’s Soyuz TMA 17 was launched on 20 December from Baikonur aboard a Soyuz booster carrying Oleg Kotov, Tim Cramer and Soichi Noguchi to the International Space Station, joining the Expedition Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev.

Protostar 2 has been acquired by ESA for $185 million. The Boeing-built satellite is equipped with 22 Ku and 10 S-band transponders.

Arianespace launched an Ariane 5 GS from Kourou on 19 December after two launch scrubs, carrying the European Thalse Alenia-built 4,200kg Helios 2B high resolution satellite. The launch was the 7th and last Ariane 5 mission of the year and the 35th consecutive successful launch. It was the 193rd Ariane launch, including earlier versions.

A Delta 2 booster was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California on 14 December, carrying the NASA WISE satellite to scan the entire sky in infrared light from hundreds of millions of objects.

China launched a CZ-4C booster from Taiyuan on 15 December carrying the YaoGan 8 Weinxing, sun-synchronous remote sensing satellite, following the launch from Jiuquan of YaoGan Weixing 7 five days earlier. The launch also carried a 50kg amateur satellite. It was the sixth launch of the year and the 122nd satellite launch.

Astronomers have discovered two “super-Earth” extrasolar planets orbiting Sun-like stars 28 and 76 light years away. These stars of course cannot be “seen” and such.

A Proton M booster was launched on 14 December from Baikonur carrying three more Glonass navigation satellites to permit the system to maintain at least 18 active satellites. The system should comprise 24 satellites and Russia will slowly add more to create the full constellation.

The White House and NASA are considering making major changes to the agency's current space exploration strategy that could see the cancellation of the Ares 1 and Ares 5 launch vehicles. While there has been no formal announcement, reports by the Orlando Sentinel, Space News, and Science indicate that the White House is considering adding $1 billion to NASA's fiscal year 2011 budget proposal, scheduled for release early next year. New boosters will be derived from Shuttle and EELVs.

Suborbital vehicle developer XCOR Aerospace has won a contract to provide suborbital flight services for the South Korean organization, Yecheon Astro Space Center. The deal is valued at $30 million, with Yecheon forming a "broad coalition" of regional and national organizations to fund the project.

The European Space Agency plans to spend $720 million worth of contracts for three new Earth observation satellites, called Sentinel. A new upper stage for the Ariane 5 and a winged spaceplane demonstrator are planned. The Vinci-powered upper stage for 12,00kg payloads is planned and an Intermediate Experimental Vehicle will be launched aboard the Vega booster.

European Space Agency (ESA) governments on Dec. 17 gave final approval to a two-part Mars exploration program to be conducted with NASA, confirming their commitment to spend 850 million euros ($1.23 billion) on missions in 2016 and 2018, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said. The new mission called ExoMars will involve two spacecraft in 2016 and 2018 launched by Atlas 5 vehicles.

Orbital Scenices has been awarded a contract to build the Intelsat 23 satellite based on the Star 2 pl;atform equipped with 15 Ku-and and 24 C-band tramsponders to be located at 53degW.

Satellite fleet operator SES bested competitor AsiaSat in a Dec. 16 auction for the in-orbit ProtoStar 2 telecommunications satellite, agreeing to pay $185 million in cash in a deal expected to be approved Dec. 18 by the U.S. bankruptcy court handling ProtoStar’s Chapter 11 proceedings,

40 years ago
20 December 1959

The Soviet Union launched a Kosmos 3 booster carrying Cosmos 315, a 716 lb Tselina sigint spacecraft into a 74deg inclination orbit.

9-14 December (14 December 2009)

China launched a Long March 2D booster from Jiuquan on 11 Decembe, carrying a the Yaogan 7 into a sun-synchronous orbit about 400 miles altitude on a science, land resources survey, crop yield and disaster response applications mission. The mission was the fifth satellite launch of the year by the nation and the 120th Long March launch.

As the Virgin Group unveiled its sub-orbital SpaceShip Two, Peter Wegner, director of the Pentagon's Operationally Responsive Space program, said the private firm's conceptual air-launched rocket design is "attractive" for potential small satellite military missions. Virgin Galactic's plans for a small satellite launcher were given a significant boost in July, when Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments took an equity stake in the company. Aabar is investing $280 million and taking a 32 percent stake in Virgin Galactic's holding company. Aabar may also commit up to $110 million more to fund Virgin Galactic's satellite launch vehicle, dubbed LauncherOne, carrying 110 pound satellites for less than $2 million. The first flight “is still several years away”.

The British government announced on 10 December that it will create a national space agency, a long-term goal of space industry advocates in the UK. Lord Drayson, British Science and Innovation Minister, announced the creation of the "bureaucracy busting agency" at a conference Thursday. The agency, whose name has not been announced, will bring together elements of six government departments as well as other organizations. It will replace the existing British National Space Centre, a cross-government organization that coordinates UK civil space activities but does not have the power and influence of a full-fledged agency.

40 years ago
11 December 1969

The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 314 aboard a Kosmos 2 booster from Plesetsk carrying a 716lb military target spacecraft into a 71deg inclination
orbit.

5-8 December (8 December 2009)

Flight tests of the long-awaited Angara booster have been delayed yet again to no earlier than 2012 mainly due to delays to finance for construction of the launch pad. Additional finance if also needed for test design work.

The construction of the engineering model of the first European Space Agency Galileo satellite has been completed by Thales Alenia Space in Rome and the model will be delivered to Astrium UK later this month. Four Galileo satellites will be first be launched.

Russia’s Soyuz TMA 15 landed in Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on 8th December after leaving the International Space Station (ISS), carrying Frank De Winne, Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk. The ISS is crewed by Expedition 22 commander Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev who arrived in early October, the first time the ISS has had two crew since July 2006. The duo will be joined by the Soyuz TMA 17 crew, Russia’s Oleg Kotov, NASA’s Tim Creamer and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi to be launched on 20 December.

Broadband satellite operator, Avanti Communications has signed a 663,000 Euro, five year contract with Satconexion of Spain for broadband services on the Hylas 1,Avanti satellite to be launched in 2010.
NASA’s has added one more Space Shuttle mission, STS 135 Atlantis at the end of the fleet’s manifest for launch in 2011. The original final flight was to have been STS 133 to be flown by a crew headed by astronaut chief, Steven Lindsey. This mission would be used as an emergency if there were problems with STS 133 in space. If there is an emergency, a four-person crew would be flown by a crew headed again by Lindsey.

The Wideband Global SATCOM system satellite WGS 3 was the first to be launched aboard an Delta IV booster rather than the Atlas V of previous launches, on 5 December.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket designed by Burt Rutan was rolled out from a hanger at Mojave, California on 7 December during a classic Virgin Group event. Richard Branson is spending an estimated $250 million on his space venture. The company already has signed up more than 300 would-be spacefliers.. The price for a three-day space tour package, including training, is $200,000. SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry six passengers and two pilots to the edge of outer space, past the 100-kilometer (62-mile) altitude mark. The flight profile will provide about four minutes of weightlessness, and a commanding view of a curving Earth below the black sky of space. Space flight tests will begin next year.

2-4 December (4 December 2009)

New Zealand’s first “space rocket”, Atea 1 with a 2kg payload developed by Rocket Lab Ltd was launched on November 30 it has been revealed. The 6m long rocket was to have reached Mach 5 and 120km.

Russia’s Soyuz TMA 17 will be launched from Baikonur on 21 December carrying Russia’s Oleg Kotov, NASA’s Tim Creamer and Soichi Noguchi.

Three NASA astronauts, Tracy Caldwell, Shannon Walker and Douglas Weelock will on board the International Space Station when the first SpaceX Dragon Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme craft is launched. SpaceX has a contract to launch 12 cargo flights from 2010-2015, carrying a total of 20,000kg.

Princeton University and the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope has announced that they have taken the first direct image of a planet-like object orbiting a star, called GJ 758 B 300 trillion miles away (50 light years).

Northrop Grumman Coporation has been awarded an initial $500,000 contract to design and build a spacecraft bus with a plug-and-play capability to reduce cost. "Plug-and-play capability could change the way spacecraft are built by shortening industry's response time to customers' mission requirements," said Steve Hixson, vice president of Advanced Concepts-Space and Directed Energy Systems for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "It will provide a standard interface for different payload components, much like a laptop computer that immediately recognizes new hardware when it's plugged in."

NASA has budgeted for International Space Station operations until only 2015 but the Augustine Commission recommended that the programme be extended to at least 2020. As a result, Europe and Japanese are planning to build more Automated Transfer Vehicle and H-2 cargo spacecraft respectively. The unit price tag for each HTV is around $200 million, excluding the cost of the H-2B rocket. An ATV spacecraft costs about $300 million, not including the Ariane 5 rocket or mission costs. ATV cargo ships are manufactured by EADS Astrium in Bremen, Germany. The HTV spacecraft is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. More Russian Progress freighters and U.S. commercial supply flights would also be likely if station activities continue until 2020.

The NASA Watch website reported the space agency allegedly withheld information from the White House that the Ares 1 rocket did not meet the agency’s safety goals. The document was apparently withheld for the White House-appointed Review of US Human Spaceflight Plans Committee chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine.

50 years ago
2 December 1959

A weightless flying training program was started by the Mercury astronauts in the F-100 aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Eating, drinking, and psychomotor tests were conducted while the astronauts were in a weightless state.

4 December

Mercury Little Joe 2 was launched from Wallops Island to test the Mercury spacecraft escape tower carrying an unfortunate rhesus money called Sam who survived the experience. The escape motor firing started at T+59s at 96,000ft and reached a speed of Mach 5.5 reaching 53.03 statute miles. Sam reported that he had a “great ride”.

40 years ago

3 December

The Soviet Union launched a Soyuz booster from Plesestk carrying Cosmos 313, a Zenit 2M photo reconnaissance satellite with a recoverable capsule which returned to Earth on 15th December.

4 December

The US Air Force launched a Thorad Agena D carrying a KH-4B surveillance satellite weighing 4,400lb into a 81.44deg inclination orbit. The recoverable film capsule carried 811ft colour film.

29-30 November-1 December (1 December 2009)

Russia launched a Zenit 3SLB booster from Baikonur carrying the 2.48 ton Intelsat 15 communications satellite on 1 December. The Orbital Sciences Corporation-built 22-Ku band satellite will replace 707 providing services for the Middle East and Russia.

Japan launched an H-2A booster from Tanegashima on 28 November carrying the nation’s most advanced spy satellite costing $500 million equipped with two optical instruments. It was the fifth Information Gathering Satellite.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch eight foreign satellites over the next three years, including the Antrix/ISRO Hylas communications satellite.

The most likely doomed Ares rocket project is still planning to launch the Ares 1-X booster - a even have hopes of flying further boosters in 2012 and 2013.

Ball Aerospace &Technologies has been awarded a contract to build a second Global Precipitation Measurement Microwave Imager next year to fly in 2014. The first will be launched in 2013.

The International Space Station outgoing commander, Frank De Winne, Russia’s Roman Romanenko and Canadian’s Robert Thirsk landed in Kazakhstan on 1 December after a 188 day shift. The ISS is now just being crewed by two crew since July 2006. (Jeffrey Williams and Suraev). Oleg Koptov, Tim Creamer and Soichi Noguchi are scheduled to launch aboard Soyuz TMA 17 on 20 December.