Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

24 February (24 February 2009)

India has approved a 1.7 billion pounds sterling budget to launch a two-man crew aboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) into a 275km Earth orbit by 2015 for seven days. An unmanned test flight is planned for 2013-14. India also plans to land men on the moon in 2020. Critics say that with 76% of the Indian population - 1.1 billion - living on $2 a day (with child malnutrition levels on par with sub-Africa) say that launching Indians into space is a waste. However, India is concerned about China’s plans to conquest space, which will require a vibrant Indian space programme to combat the danger.

The National Security Space Office is interested in finding out whether Virgin Galactic and other fledgling space tourist companies could be applied to military requirements. The US Marine Corps is looking at a sub-orbital spacecraft that can transport up to 13 marines through space to any location on the Earth within two hours.

An Orbital Science Corporation (OSC) Taurus booster was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory but the mission failed after the third stage firing when the payload fairing failed to separate. In another story, OSC has warned investors that developing the new Taurus 2 satellite launcher and the Cygnus cargo spacecraft to service the International Space Station will reduce profits in the 2009 financial year. OSC allocated $2 billion in Taurus 2 and Cygnus.

Robert Wood, an electrophoresis engineer with McDonnell Douglas who backed up the three missions flown by Charlie Walker aboard the Space Shuttle and who was slated to fly aboard STS 61M which was later cancelled, was killed in a car crash died in St Louis on 19 February.

21-23 February (23 February 2009)

A 13 hour long Flight Readiness Review for the STS 119 Discovery mission resulted in a delay of the launch beyond 27 February probably to mid-March due to continued concerns about the gaseous hydrogen Flow Control Valve issue. A similar problem occurred to STS 126 last year.

Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) posted a record revenue and operating income $22.4 million on $310.9 million revenue for the 4th quarter creating a 2008 income of $1.17 billion on income of $89.9 million.

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has observed its first gamma-ray burst with the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the highest-energy initial emissions ever seen. The explosion designated GRB 080916C in the constellation of Carina.

40 years ago
22 February 1969

“Russian Satellite Threat”. The Daily Telegraph, London. “The Defense Department is concerned at the prospect that Russia may go ahead with development of nuclear bombs delivered by orbiting satellites. This is known in the USA as the fractional orbital delivery system….against which the US ought to be prepared to defend itself, despite the former Defense Secretary, Robert McNamara saying that the “system is too inaccurate to do serious damage to American missile sites”.

“Unfrivolous space”. The Daily Telegraph, London. “The American astronauts who expect to land on the moon this year are quietly ignoring NASA’s ban on nicknames for spacecraft, which used to be common in the early days. They are calling the strangely-shaped lunar module which will carry two of the men to the moon’s surface, the Spider. The official name for the Spider used to be the LEM, or Lunar Excursion Module. But even this was apparently felt too frivolous and was changed to the LM, or Lunar Module”.

19-20 February (20 February 2009)

NASA and the European Space Agency are to concentrate of further exploration of the planets Jupiter and Saturn with proposals for the Europa Jupiter System Mission and the Titan Saturn Mission System. The Europa mission will explore the icy moon and its subsurface water ocean, while the Titan mission will orbit the Saturnian. ESA is also independently planning a Cosmic Vision programme mission during 2015-2025. The finalists for the mission are called Laplace and Tandem, to orbit and land on Jupiter’s moon Europa and orbit Saturn’s moon Titan and eventually land on it after also exploring the surface of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus.

The much-delayed STS 119 mission to the International Space Station could be delayed further that the latest date of 27 February by concerns about impact test results on the 90deg “elbow” in the main propulsion system. There are still continuing concerns about the Flow Control Valve issue.

The European Space Agency has named the second Automated Transfer Vehicle for the International Space Station after the German astronomer and mathematician Joannes Kepler (1571-1630).

The Indian Space Research Organistion plans to start demonstration flights of a reusable launch vehicle by 2012 with flight tests of a scramjet engine demonstration Reusable Vehicle Technology vehicle.

Spacehab has changed its name to Astrotech Corporation.

Boeing’s Space Exploration division has submitted proposals to NASA for the Ares 5 Phase 1 Design Support starting with the launch vehicle payload shroud.

Britain’s persistent and patient space engineer, Alan Bond who introduced the Reaction Engines company’s reusable Hotol launcher to the world but who was thwarted by the lack of enthusiasm of the Government in the 70-80s has been buoyed by a one million grant from the European Space Agency for the renamed Skylon which could fly 12 tons into orbit and fly back to the runway from which it took off from. The money will provide support for core technologies, including the Sabre air-breathing rocket engine. Fortunately, Bond has the support of an enthusiastic science minister, Lord Drayson – at last. Many British companies are working on the project including EADS Astrium, the German space agency and the University of Bristol.

Following the satellite collision in Earth orbit the space debris issue has come back to the fore with long term predictions of a swarm of debris which will not only increase but will could form a complete coverage of the Earth. NASA space debris expert Nicholas Johnson says that there are 19,000 objects in orbit around the Earth but only 900 are actual satellites and by 2050 things will become critical. In the short term, satellites could be fitted with de-orbit motors and Johnson foresees an electro-dynamic 10-mile long tether like a flycatcher. The European Space Agency has started a $64 million Space Situational Awareness programme.

40 years ago

19 February
The Soviet Union launched Proton K booster from Baikonur carrying a 12,300lb moon rover called Lunakhod but the first stage failed 15km downrange.

17-18 February (18 February 2009)

Mistubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has unveiled the rocket body of the new 56m (185ft) tall 5.2m wide H-2B booster, which will be able to launch heavier satellites as well as HTV cargo deliveries up to the International Space Station weighing up to 16.5 tonnes as well as 8 tonne satellites competing with Ariane 5 and Sea Launch for business. The H-2B will launch its first commercial payload, South Korea’s Arirang 3 multi-purpose satellite in 2011.

Another comical report from the ever-hopeful Astrobiology Magazine: An alien astronomer could have detected life on Earth in an ice age.

Iran plans to launch a manned spaceflight in 2021 and there are plans for the launches of seven more satellites under development.

Liberty Media Corporation plans to invest $530 million in loans to Sirius XM receiving an equity interest.

The Indian Space Research Organisation has been awarded Rs 4,459 crore for the latest financial year, an increase of Rs 960 crore over last year. Major projects are the development of a semi-cryogenic engine for advanced launch vehicles, the continuation of the Chandrayan 1 mission around the moon and the GSLV III development. Rs 50 crore has been allocated for manned spaceflight and Rs 270 crore for the seven-satellite Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System.

The European Space Agency has started a $64 million programme to monitor space debris, called Space Situational Awareness. There are an estimated 13,000 satellites and other man-made objects in orbit. The “collision” of a Russian Cosmos and US Iridium satellite illustrated the danger. It is now thought that the collision was tangential. Russia says that there were just 38 fragments rather the 600 reported by the USA.

Konrad Dannenberg another of the original German team of Operation Paperclip who were transferred to Fort Bliss, Texas to work for the US Army has died aged 96. He was the deputy manager of the Saturn programme.

NASA has awarded Aurora Flight Sciences and its partner Vertigo Inc a Small Business Innovative Research Phase 1 contract to develop an innovative autonomous balloon launcher to operate from the Martian surface released by a NASA Mars lander to sample the atmosphere and produce video data.

Astronomers says that in the next decade a delicate measurement of primordial light could reveal “convincing” evidence for the “popular” cosmic inflation theory, which proposes that a random, microscopic density fluctuation in the fabric of space and time gave birth to the universe in a hot Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. How about: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. Now that makes far more sense.

50 years ago
17 February 1959

The US Navy launched the spherical Vanguard 2 from Cape Canaveral aboard a Vanguard booster. It was the first satellite designed to observe and record the cloud cover of the Earth and was a forerunner of the television infrared observation TIROS satellites. The satellite was the first full-scale Vanguard satellite, with a diameter of 20 inches and weighing 21 pounds. It is still in orbit.

A USAF committee headed by Dr Allen Hyknek of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory reccommended that “the USAF continue to take a positive approach to UFOs, investigate reported sightings by all scientific ways and keep the public aware. However, “of the unknown objects sighted no scientific evidence supports the conclusion that the objects were (alien) spacecraft”.

40 years ago
17 February 1969

America’s space programme was opposed by 49% of the population according to a Harris Poll, with only 39% were in favour. 55% thought it was not worth the $4,000,000,000 a year. Women, older people and the poorly educated tended to oppose strongly. Among the reasons: God never intended us to go into space”.

18 February
Angela Croome, a science correspondent of the Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote: “Philosophically the most thrilling, technologically challenging prospect offered by space exploration is the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe.” She writes off Venus because it is too hot to support life and therefore concentrates on Mars. “If the job is muffed man may have to wait for thousands of years for another opportunity - that is until, until spacecraft are capable of travelling to the nearest star”. Yes, the life in space OTT was alive and well in the 60s too! Croome is worried about a Russian plan to land a craft on Mars, which could within a matter of weeks contaminate the Red Planet and “thus wreck all chance of studying any Martian life for all time”.

13-16 February (16 February 2009)

Japan plans to launch an infra-red early warning satellite to detect missile launches, with the additional capability of providing monitoring wild fires, volcanic activity and natural disasters with a resolution of 40cm or less. An Optical Test 5 satellites will be launched in 2014 before the launch of any operational satellites. Further satellites in the IGS programme will be launched starting in 2014. Three IGS satellites have been launched, two providing 1m resolution images and one synthetic aperture radar data. IGS 4A (Optical 3) will be launched in 2010.

It has been confirmed that Charles Simonyi, who flew a Space Adventures mission to the International Space Station in 2007 has been assigned a seat in Soyuz TMA 14 on 26 March to become the first tourist to make a second mission.

South Korea’s Foreign Office has dismissed North Korea’s claim the its is pursuing a “peaceful space programme”, claiming that following its launch of a satellite the country is planning a test-firing of a rocket. A UN resolution prohibits North Korea form launching further missiles. A nuclear test was made in 2006 and test firings of the long-range Taepodong were followed by a successful satellite launch last month.

A symposium in Chicago entitled “Cosmic Cradle of Life” at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago will present the theory that processes of star and planet formation and the production of complex organic molecules in intersteller space laid the foundation for life on Earth. Biochemist Steven Benner of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution has created a new genetic code of four molecules that are basic building blocks of our DNA but which cannot make copies of themselves but Benner says that he will be able to in about two years. New types of life could exist on the Earth and on planets. Just to hype up the “life in space” argument, other scientists said that there could be one hundred Earth-like planets in our galaxy and over 300 extra-solar planets have been detected. Based on this data the American Association of Science in Chicago says each Sun-like star has one Earth-like planet. OTT and clutching with straws.

The STS 119 mission to the International Space Station has been delayed yet again to no earlier than 27 February so engineers can have more time to assess the safety of the Shuttle’s external tank pressurization system.

The Indian Air Force and ISRO will operate a dual-use surveillance and navigation satellite in the end of 2010.

Space Systems/Loral has been awarded a contract by SES Satellite Leasing in the Isle of Man and to build a high-power communications satellite called QuetzSat 1 for EchoStar Corporation’s subsidiary, Dish Mexico to be launched in 2011 based on an SS/L 1300 spacecraft bus to be located at 77degW.

Progress M66 docked with the International Space Station’s Pirs ailock module on the Russian segment on 13 February, carrying two and a half tons of food, water, propellant and other supplies including a new Russian Orlan spacesuit.

The electrical output from the solar panels on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit have increased from 210 watt-hours to 240.

A stimulus package worth over a billion dollars in additional funds have been awarded to NASA for 2009-2010 and another $400 million for exploration projects which could be used to reduce the gap between the Space Shuttle and its eventual successor. The last Shuttle mission will be STS 133 in 2010 with a possible additional mission, STS 134. The first manned Orion mission launched aboard an Ares booster is scheduled for no earlier than 2015 to fly to the International Space Station, with the first crew rotation manifested as Orion 4 in 2016. The Space-X Dragon is being studied as well, while a further study will be made into the possibility of an extension of the Shuttle programme. The possibility of using Atlas V and Delta IV boosters being used for ISS flights is being studied as is a proposal of using a Shuttle Derived vehicle called Jupiter.

The UK’s Surrey Satellite Technology Limited company - which as recently taken over by EADS Astrium – and Virgin Galactic are examining a proposal to develop a small four-stage air-launched rocket using Virgin’s WhiteKnightTwo as the first stage to launch 50-200kg satellites into 400km polar orbits. This will return the UK to satellite capability since the 1971 launch of a Black Arrow carrying the Prospero satellite from Australia’s Woomera rocket range.

The first Lockheed Martin-built US Air Force Milstar communications satellite is still operating 15 years after its launch, five years beyond its design life. Launched on 7 February aboard a Titan IV booster from Cape Canaveral on 7 February 1994 and has been repositioned five times and provided 125,000 hours of voice, data, imagery and video teleconference services.

Arianespace launched another Ariane 5 ECA booster from Kourou, French Guiana on 12 February carrying Eutelsat’s Hot Bird 10 DTH satellite to be stationed at 13deg East over Europe and the SES New Skies/SES Americom New Skies 9 satellite at 177degW over the Pacific Ocean. Hot Bird 10 is equipped with 64-Ku band transponders and was built by EADS Astrium based on a Eurostar E3000 spacecraft bus, while New Skies 9 was built by Orbital Sciences. The Ariane 5 also carried two French-built space-based infra-red optical early warning imagery satellites placed into 22,300-375km elliptical orbit. The launch was the first of a possible six to eight Ariane 5 missions in 2009. The next mission, Flight 188, will carry The Herschel infra-red observatory and the Plank sateelite to observe leftover radiation from the theoretical “Big Bang”.

40 years ago
13 February 1969

The US National Research Council recommended that the US civil satellite programme budget should be doubled or even trebled from the present $100 million, with a 1970 budget of $135 million awaiting clearance.

American reconnaissance satellites revealed that Russia was building more nuclear submarines on one shipyard than America is building in all its facilities. Meanwhile the Soviet anti-ballistic missile defences at Tallin and Mosco’s Galosh explains the present Pentagon pressure on a go-ahead on America’s 2,500 million-pound sterling Sentinel anti-ballistic missile screen.

14 February
Britain’s The Daily Mail ace space correspondent, Angus MacPherson reporting on the plans for a Venus and Mars probes to be launched during 1969: “If there are any Little Green Men on Venus or Mars they are in for one hell of a flying saucer scare…..Two Russian probes will be heading to Venus while two Amercian spacecraft will be heading for Mars. The surface of Venus must be a pitch-black greenhouse weighed down by 80 to 100 times air pressure on Earth. The thought of landing men in such an inferno makes summer’s trip to the moon like a safe, comfortable jaunt. Mars is much more hopeful with temperatures of 70degF on the equator…In 1969 Man should finally answer his age-old question. Is there life on other worlds?”

10-12 February (12 February 2009)

In the first known incident in space history two satellites have collided with each other in orbit. The defunct 1,980lb Russian Cosmos 2251 military satellite and an operational 1,232 pound USA Iridium 33, one of a constellation of 66 phone satellites in constellation spacecraft collided 491 miles up over Siberia on 10 February. NASA is tracking two large clouds.

The International Space Station was shaken by strong vibrations which loosened objects on 14 January it was revealed by the Space.com website. The crew was surprised and amazed during a routine 2min22sec manoeuvre by harmonic vibrations and spent a time collecting items that were shaking off the walls. A Space Shuttle extension study is reviewing three options: retire the fleet in 2010 or extend the programme to 2012 or 2015.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch a manned flight carrying a crew of three by 2015 using an uprated GSLV Mk III. The maiden flight of the new booster will be made in 2010.

Following the launch of the Omid satellite by Iran, Iranian students have been barred from satellite related courses in French universities.

Russian launched the Progress M66 from Baikonur on 10 February en route for the International Space Station carrying fuel and science equipment.

NASA has selected Orbital Sciences to launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), high energy X-ray telescope in 2011 aboard a Pegasus XL booster from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

The Iranian Space Agency plans to launch astronauts into orbit during the “Fifth Development Plan” which spans 2010-2015.

The European Space Agency has extended the operations of the Mars Express and Venus Express orbiters and the four-Cluster satellite fleet investigating the magnetosphere.

Russia launched a Proton Breeze M booster from Baikonur on 11 February carrying the Russian Satellite Communications company’s Express AM44 and Express MD1. The 5,582lbs AM44 was built by Reshetnev the former NPO PM company and MD1, weighing 2,513lbs was built by Khunichev. AM44 carries 16 Ku-band and 10 C-band transponders and MD1 eight C-band and one L-band transponders. The satellite communications payloads were built by Europe’s Thales Alenia. The next Proton launch will carry a military communications satellite.

Sirius XM - formed by the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM-Satellite Radio - is filing for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, DIRECTV increased its revenue in the forth quarter of 2008 to $5.31 billion.

NASA has confirmed that the Space Shuttle STS 134 will carry the ambitious European lab for the particle physics,
Anti-Matter Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station on 16 September 2010.

6-9 February (9 February 2009)

Several Russian space companies plan to form a massive in organisation during the second half of 2009 as the first step for a planned state corporation like NASA. The companies so far involved are the Motor Design Bureau (KBOM), General Machine Building Design Bureau (KBTM), Transport/Chemical Machine Building Design Bureau (KBTKhM), Kosmotrans research and production, Vympel Design Bureau and the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the centre for ground-based infrastructure operation (TsENKI).

Arianespace the top commercial launcher company has won a contract to launch two Thales Alenia-built Yamal 401 and 402 satellites, each weighing 4,900kg for the Russian Gazprom company based on the SpacebusC3 platform aboard two Ariane 5 rockets in 2011.

The Iran government has dismissed Western concern over concerns about the launch of the Hope satellite, adding that it has no military application.

The STS 119 Discovery mission has been delayed yet again to no earlier than 22 February or possibly a two month delay due to the ongoing Flow Control Valve issue. NASA Watch blames the extremely finicky, double-checking programme manager, John Shannon who is making the flight crew’s life a pain in the ….

Mike Griffin, the former NASA administrator is firmly opposed switching from the Ares fleet to upgraded Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles, the Delta IV and Atlas 5, which apparently present twice the risk. NASA’s problem is that the first crewed Ares flight has been pushed from 2014 to possibly 2017, which will result in a seven-year gap between the Shuttle and the first Constellation manned flight. America does not want to be depending on Russia to carry NASA crews to the International Space Station. An obvious answer is to continue Shuttle launches for a longer period. Will NASA really sit back and not send American’s into space on domestic boosters from 2010-2017 but depend on Russian Soyuz and Proton and later Angara boosters? The next step for manned spaceflight for America and the rest of the world is going not going to be futuristic spacecraft but “back to the future” for a long time. The budgets and technology for futuristic vehicles does not exist - remember those 1990s Eagle comic-like vehicles, the DC-X, VentureStar, the Orient Express and the other vehicles. The budgets are not available and the technology needs one giant leap, which is simply beyond us today.

The United Launch Alliance has launched NASA-NOAA N-Prime meteorological satellite aboard a Delta II from Vandenberg AFB, California on 6 February marking the 20th anniversary of the first launch of the booster carrying a Navsat GPS satellite.

The ever-hopeful Journal of Astrobiology reports that astrophysicist Duncan Forgan has calculated that up to 37,964 worlds in our galaxy are hospitable enough to accommodate life at least as intelligent as ourselves formed by evolution on 361 planets, 31,513 easily formed and 38,000 with life passed onto planets by asteroids passing closely. If this isn’t OTT try this - these life forms would not be mere amoeba but fully-fledged intelligent life at least as advanced as humans. What a load of codswallop.

Russia says that the International Space Station partners, USA, Canada and Japan have agreed to continue its operation until 2020. It has been reported that NASA would pull out in 2015. Whenever the ISS is shut down it was be an amazing waste of hardware. One hopes that somehow it will be taken over by an commercial group of companies, which can provide launch services such as Russia’s manned Soyuz, Progress and Protons or USA man-rated Delta IV or Atlas 5. If the ISS is abandoned it will be a criminal waste of resources as NASA’s second quest for the moon won’t get off the ground without more funding.

40 years ago
6 February 1969

A Thor Delta was launched from Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral carrying the 645lb Intelsat 3F3 into a geostationary orbit eventually stationed at 83deg over the Pacific Ocean.

An international fleet of nine sounding rockets were launched by Japan’s NASDA, America’s NASA and France’s CNES featuring Lambda, Nike Cajun, Dragon, Aerobee 150 vehicles from Tanegashima, Fort Churchill, Biscarosse, Wallops Island. Another Biscarosse was launched on 7 January.

Britain announces that the world’s biggest radio telescope would be built at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Laboratory in Cambridge with 2,100,000 million pounds funding, comprising a 5km network.

7 February
The Soviet Union launched a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 265, a military target into a 169-283 mile, 71deg inclination orbit.

8 February
Two more sounding rockets were launched from White Sands and Fort Churchill using an Aerobee 150 to observe Venus and a Nike Apache to study the ionosphere.

Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra announced that he would leave the Mercury Seven astronaut team in October. “I do not think I have got enough steam for another two years of this”, he said.

9 February
The US Air Force launched a Titan IIIC from Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral carrying the 1,600lb Tacsat technology communications satellite into a geosynchronous orbit stationed at 1deg.

5 February (5 February 2009)

The NOAA-N Prime meteorological satellite and its delta II booster were stranded on the launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California for a second time on 5 February due to concerns about the status of equipment which feed conditioned air into the booster’s payload shroud.

The STS 119 Discovery mission may be delayed further from 19 February due to concerns about flow control valves that channel gaseous hydrogen.

After declaring its civilian credentials with its launch of a satellite, a day later Iran declared the flight proves “the power of Islam” and proved the “uselessness of enemies sanctions”, adding “scientific power means national power and “the Iranian nation is already emerging as a role model for all freedom-seeking and independent nations worldwide. Thank God the programme is going according to plan” with the Omid satellite. “We intend to put our satellites in Medium Earth and Geostationary orbits in future” for communications and remote sensing applications.

After Arianespace won a contract to launch Spain’s Hispasat 1E on 3 February and the European Space Agency awarded a contract worth over four billion Euro to Astrium Space Transportation and Arianespace to provide 35 Ariane 5 ECA boosters for services starting in 2010, the launcher company has announced the receipt of two more satellite launches for Arabsat 5C and 6B in 2010-2012. The 5C and 6B satellites are the sixth and seventh built by Astrium and Thales Alenia and will be based on the Eurostar E3000 platforms. 5C will be located at 20degE in geosynchronous orbit and 6B at 26degE. Arabsat 5C will be equipped with 26 C-band and 12 Ku-band transponders, with a spacecraft power of 19kW at the end of its 15 year lifetime, while 6B accommodate 36 active Ku-band transponders for Direct-to-Home services. This will have a spacecraft power of 10.5kW at the end of its 15-year lifetime.

40 years ago
5 February 1969

The US Air Force launched a Thorad Agena booster from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying a 2,000kg KH-4B surveillance spacecraft with a recoverable film capsule into a 147-275km, 81deg inclination. Also orbited were an 60kg SRV satellite for ABM monitoring in a 1,391-1,428km orbit and a signals intelligence satellite.

“Grants totalling 67,000 pounds were provided to the Science Research Council toward the establishment of infra-red astronomy as a practising science in Britain. This infant branch of astronomy, developing rapidly in the USA has already led to new discoveries and, like radio astronomy 15 years ago is bound to produce some surprises.” The Guardian.

“US Halts Work On Sentinel”. The Daily Telegraph. “Mr Melvin Laird, the Secretary of Defence ordered all major work on the controversial 2,500 million pounds Sentinel anti-ballistic missile defence system to protect American cities from a nuclear attack”.

3-4 February (4 February 2009)

NASA plans to operate unmanned communications and navigation satellites in lunar orbits to support first robotic missions operated by the space agency, other governments and later private ventures, expanding communications services for human lunar missions by 70% by the end of 2020, says the Johnson Space Centre. The space agency has started to work with the communication satellite industry on bandwidth and architecture needs. The network - named LunaCorp, which is the name of a once-planned private lunar rover exploration company - will likely be operated commercially by an organisation such as Intelsat, with the US government as the major stockholder. NASA would develop low rate data, voice, biomedical data, vehicle safety and health monitoring systems while LunaCorp will augment high-rate data service for telemetry, navigation, video, science data, surface-to-surface communications and biomedical imaging.

NASA plans to launch an unmanned Altair lunar lander in June 2018 for the Constellation Project’s return to the moon in preparation for a manned landing in 2020. Over four years the space agency will have spent $42 million 2012. The Constellation project should be called “To the Moon on a Shoestring”. There is no way this is going to succeed unless the project gets a realistic budget and let’s face it 2020 is a heck of a long time for things to change anyway.

Iran launched a home-built satellite called Omid (Hope) aboard a Safir 2 booster marking the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Although the satellite carries a message of “peace and brotherhood” there are concerns about military applications, especially as Iran is developing a nuclear programme. However, a statement from the foreign ministry said, “the launch of this satellite had economic purposes and respects international regulations and not militarising space”. Iran says “we have a divine view of technology unlike the dominating powers of the world who have Satanic views”. The launch will take a week to confirm as the payload weighs about 44-88 pounds and is in a low 155-310 miles orbit. However, if confirmed, the rocket could fire a warhead up to 3,000km in range of Israel and parts of Europe. Iran tested the Safir 2 in August 2008 with a dummy satellite called Kavoshgar attached to the missile and operates a missile called Shahab 3 with a range of 2,000km, close to Israel US forces in the region. Iran’s first satellite called Sina 1 was launched by Russia in October 2005 and another satellite launch is planned for 20 March. Neighbouring Iraq launched a satellite aboard a “Scout” class three-stage rocket from Al-Anbar on 5 December 1989. Although it made six orbits, the satellite failed to detach from the upper stage. However, the launch needs to be confirmed by NATO.

The European Space Agency has awarded a contract worth over four billion Euro to Astrium Space Transportation and Arianespace to provide 35 Ariane 5 ECA boosters for services starting in 2010. There are now 49 Ariane rockets under production. Arianespace has won a contract to launch Spain’s Hispasat 1E.

The Corot satellite has detected the smallest terrestrial planet so far. It is apparently twice the size of Earth and orbits a sun-like star every 20hrs.. The surface of the planet, Corot-Exo-7b is possibly covered with lava or water vapour with temperatures of 1000 to 1500degC. The planet was detected as it transited its parent star. How do astronomers have such certainties? Michael Fridlund from ESA explains: “It is about 130 parsec away and 1 parsec is 3.26 light years so about 425 light years. One uses methods that have existed for a 100 years like spectroscopy to say something about the star Exo-7b is orbiting. It is only that today these methods have become so refined. We can now detect single photons from such distances. And we can measure the impact of the shadow from Exo-7b as it sweeps across the Earth (although we need the most accurate photometer ever constructed on a spacecraft above the Earth's atmosphere). From the spectrum we can measure the movement of the star due to the planet (changes the velocity of the star with a few m/s). This gives us exo-7b's mass. From the duration and shape of the passage of the planet in front of the star we gets its physical size. Then we can calculate its density and estimate its likely composition “from theory”. We get its temperature from its distance to the star (of which we know its flux), and we can then start to develop a hypothese about its formation and evolution although this latter work has only started. So we know a lot - for the first time as what concerns terrestrial planets!” The star is 4255878499812499 miles away. The reality is we can’t actually “see it”, so much depends on theory hence those pretty pictures of the exo-planets and their moons, which are imagination.

The planned launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS 119 mission to the International Space Station on 12 February has been delayed until no earlier than 19 February while studies are made of a errant flow control valve in SSME system.

40 years ago
3 February 1969

Mercury and Gemini astronaut Gordo Cooper was banned by NASA from participating in the 24hr Daytona international sports car race, as he was back-up commander of the Apollo 10 missions scheduled for May.

It was revealed that in the summer of 1956 over Scunthorpe, England two RAF Venom fighter pilots were the only air force crew to get a radar “gunlock” and visual sighting of an UFO.

Britain’s Nature magazine reports that the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts, USA discovered that pulsars, the strange oscillating radio stars discovered by Cambridge astronomers in 1968 send out flashes of light as well as massive pulses of radio energy.

4 February

Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman and his family paid a visit to London during a 19-day European visit as a special emissary for President Nixon. “Enter Colonel Borman - on time of course”. “Borman gives moon module to Tony Benn, the Minister of Technology”. “Borman keeps it down to earth”. “Horizons for man unlimited” , says Borman.

30-31 January-1-2 February (2 February 2009)

Saturn’s starring moon, Titan may be filled with liquid methane and a complex organic chemistry but there is not enough to sustain the atmosphere for 10 million years, says Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Data for the NASA Cassini orbiter and the European Space Agency’s Titan lander Huygens - probably the most spectacular unmanned lander in space history - revealed liquid methane filled lakes with recent observations by Cassini revealing what could be liquid-filled lakes, including a Kraken Mare five times the size of Lake Superior on the Earth.

Russia’s Roscosmos space agency has proposed a Mir-like module as a foundation for manned lunar missions to establish a moon base and even manned flights to Mars.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans a manned spaceflight using an uprated Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) by 2015 under an initial $19 million study. Two astronauts would fly from Shriharikota and land in either the Indian Ocean or the Bay of Bengal.

The Canada Space Agency is to recruit two new astronauts to replace veteran astronauts Bjarni Tryggvason and Dave Williams.

Russia’s final launch of a Tsyklon 3 booster was made from Plesetsk on 30 January carrying the 600kg Coronas-Photon satellite into a550km orbit to study the internal structure and the nature of solar flares. Two similar satellites, Koronas 1 and Koronas F were launched in March 1994 and July 2001. India, Spain and Ukraine also provided instruments. The Tsyklon 3 was based on the R-36 missile and 122 rockets have been launched.

A full-scale separation test of the forward skirt extension of the Ares 1 rocket was made in Promontory, Utah on a modest but significant progress for the booster which is scheduled for a test flight from the Kennedy Space Centre in 2009 during a two minute mission to 25 miles when there will be a test of the separation of he first stage of the rocket and deployment of the parachute system.

Alexei Krasnov the head of manned spaceflight programmes at Roskosmos says the he is seriously concerned about the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet at the end of 2010 and is considering using a recoverable version of an unmanned Progress, as well as continuing with the operational Soyuz TMA. There will be four Soyuz manned missions in 2009 as well as five Progress launches and a small research module, MIM-2. There will be even more missions in 2011 and there will still be a lot of work for the Baikonour Cosmodrome before the Vostochnyy Cosmodrome in the Amur region, from where a new manned spacecraft operate in 2015-18.

40 years ago

30 January 1969
Canada’s Isis satellite to study the magnetosphere was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California aboard a Thor Delta into a 359-2,148 mile, 88.40deg inclination orbit. Ionosphere measurements were correlated with Canada’s Alouette 1 launched in 1962.

The Soviet Union launched a Soyuz booster from Plesetsk carrying a Meteor weather satellite, which did not reach orbit after an upper stage failure.