Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

28-20 March (30 March 2009)

With the docking of Soyuz TMA 14 on 28 March, the number of people inhabiting the International Space Station (ISS) numbered a joint-record 13, comprising Space Shuttle, ISS and Soyuz crews. The other time 13 people were in space occurred in 1996. STS 119 Discovery landed at the KSC on 28 March after a mission lasting 12 days 19 hrs 29 min 33 seconds. The return crew included Sandra Magnus, who had been aboard the ISS for four months.

The delayed Atlas V launch from Cape Canaveral which was rescheduled for 31 March, has been delayed yet again carrying the Wideband Global Satcom satellite has been rescheduled again to 3 April.

Western reconnaissance satellites have taken images of the nosecone of what is suspected to be a long-range North Korean launcher, which is suspected to be ready to launch a satellite or a test warhead.

The Teal Group estimates that 2,033 payloads will be launched into orbit from 2009-2028. A 2.5% increased over the 2008-2027 estimate of last year. 41% payloads are for communications and Earth imaging applications. North America accounts for 40% of payloads, Europe 22%, Asia and Pacific Rim 16%, Russia and former states 16%, Africa and the Middle East 16%, Africa and the Middle East 3%, and Latin America and Caribbean 3%.

The first unmanned operational Ares 1-Orion spacecraft launch has slipped 18 months with the first manned Orion flight to the International Space Station no earlier than March 2015 but probably later. The Space Shuttle programme is likely to be extended until at least 2012, rather than 2010 due to the continuing delays of the Constellation programme, which uses Apollo and Shuttle-based hardware. NASA is still considering replacing Ares 1 with the Atlas V Heavy and Delta IV Heavy booster while an Ares 5 heavy booster is still planned.

The European Space Agency and CNES, the French space agency have signed a 435 Euro contract assuring the availability of Ariane, Vega and Soyuz boosters over the period of 2009-2013.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plans for the first static firing of the first stage of the H-IIB at Tanegashima on 27 March has been postponed.

Russian control centres are monitoring the movement of Cosmos 2421, which is apparently slowly disintegrating, with about 30 fragments being tracked as of 20 March.


40 years ago
28 March 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Cosmos rocket from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 275, an operational radar target for the anti-ballistic missile ABM programme.

NASA reported that the first men on the moon would touch down at 7.45 on the morning of Sunday 16 July.

 
 

27 March (27 March 2009)

The last Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission has at last got to the first in the line after several delays due to International Space Station priorities and other issues. The orbiter Atlantis is now in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre…but there is another issue: tile damage under the orbiter.

A space tourist with a difference was launched into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA spacecraft en route to the International Space Station (ISS) from Baikonur on 26 March. Charles Simonyi is the first space tourist to make another mission, after flying in 2007. He flew with the next ISS Expedition Crew members, Gannedi Padalka – the first second time ISS commander – and rookie NASA astronaut Michael Barratt. They join Japan’s Koichi Wakata, who flew earlier to the station aboard STS 119.

The first test firing of the five-segment solid rocket motor of the first stage of the Ares 1 crew launch vehicle has been delayed again for six months to August-September. Meanwhile, the first test flight of the four-segment Ares 1-X test flight is scheduled for July.

40 years ago
27 March 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Proton K booster from Baikonur carrying a Mars orbiter and landing probe. At T+51s, the payload shroud failed, ending the mission although the second stage fired and the third stage failed.

Meanwhile at Cape Canaveral NASA launched the 908lb Mariner 7 aboard an Atlas Centaur booster from Pad 36A on a fly-by mission of the planet Mars on 5 August returning 126 images.
 

25-26 March (26 March 2009)

Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) company, EADS- Astrium and the University of Surrey have created a new “Space Engineering Innovation Hub” to combine academic research with commercial exploitation to develop technologies that “will change the economics of space by providing rapid-response, low cost high capable space missions”. UK space minister, Lord Drayson - at last someone who actually likes space! - says SSTL “is a shining example on innovation”.

Globalstar has received a new round of $574 million credit from a French government agency to help finance 24 next-generation satellites being built by Thales Alenia Space and the launch of a craft aboard Soyuz boosters from Kourou, French Guiana.

The Space Shuttle STS 119 Discovery mission has completed the major construction of the $100 billion International Space Station’s framework weighing 453,592km with a wingspan of 240ft (73m) - the largest man-made structure in space and longer than a football field. The project began with the launch of the first, Russia’s Zvezda in 1988 and the station is now 81% complete. Discovery will return to Earth on 28 March.

Over the past months the USA has lost three of the best space reporters - Craig Couvault of Aviation Week and Space Technology, then Miles Obrien of CNN and now the Houston Chronicle’s Mark Carreau. 

Russia will launch Soyuz TMA-14 from Baikonur on 28 March carrying new ISS commander Gennady Padalka, NASA flight engineer Michael Barratt and the first space tourist to make a second spaceflight - Charles Simonyi, who will return with NASA astronaut ISS commander Mike Fincke and Russian Yuri Lonchakov. Padalka and Barratt will be joined with Japan’s Koichi Wakata who was launched aboard STS 119 Discovery.
 
Intelsat will reposition Galaxy 26 from 93degW to a position to serve military units in Iraq and Afghanistan and Galaxy 25 will replace Galaxy 26’s original orbital postion.

China has signed an agreement with Nigeria to provide a replacement communications satellite Nigcomsat 1R   costing $157 million to be launched in 2011, which will replace the original satellite which suffered a solar power failure on 10 November 2008.

International Launch Services has been contracted to launch the Orbital Sciences-built 2,500kg Intelsat 16 aboard a Proton M booster from Baikonur later this year instead of the originally planned launch using a Land Launch Zenit 3 from the same launch site.

The hype about liquid water on Mars, which was not questioned during a Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston was oversold say planetary scientists. One scientist said, “we have a long way to go”. The nature of the “water” on the NASA Phoenix lander (leading to “microbes” claims) could have been formed on thin films on the spacecraft.

40 years ago
26 March 1969

Meteor 1-1 was the first fully operational Soviet Union meteorological satellite and the ninth meteorological satellite. The 3,800kg satellite was launched from Plesetsk aboard a Vostok booster into a 550-570km. 81deg inclination orbit. 

 

 

24 March (24 March 2009)

The United Launch Alliance launched a Delta 2 booster from Cape Canaveral carrying the US Air Force GPS-IIR 20 Navstar GPS satellite. The final GPS IIR satellite, II- RM-7 will be launched in August while the first GPS IIF series satellite will be launched in October.

The third and final EVA of the Space Shuttle STS 119 Discovery mission at the International Space Station was completed by astronauts Rick Arnold and Joseph Acaba. The EVA lasted 6hr 27min. Discovery will land on Saturday.

50 years ago
24 March 1959

NASA reported that Wallops Island had launched over 3,300 rockets from the base since 1945.

40 years ago
24 March 1969

The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 274 from Baikonur on a high-resolution imaging mission with a return capsule after eight days in orbit. The 6,300kg spacecraft was placed into 206-300km, 65deg inclination orbit.

“US discovery points to life in space” said the British Daily Telegraph newspaper’s science correspondent Dr Anthony Michkaelis. “Life may have begun in the depths of space and life may be widespread in the universe”, said Thomas Gold of Cornell University. This finding was based on the discovery of formaldehyde, an organic carbon-containing chemicals in the depths of the galaxy. Michkaelis also reported that “high speed astronomy techniques have been developed by a team of British and American scientists in at the University of Texas”. By using pulsars, which radiate energy at regular intervals the system promises to recalibrate all distances in our solar system, proving Einstein’s relativity theory”. 
 

21-13 March (23 March 2009)

The International Space Station’s (ISS) orbit was moved slightly on 22 March to avoid a 10cm piece of a spent Chinese booster launched in 1999, which broke apart in 2000. The Ares 1-X launch which will kick off the Constellation programme from the reconfigured Pad 39B to return to the moon has been delayed yet again for at least three weeks and may be pushed further back due to need for a stand-by “rescue” from the pad to support the final Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The ISS is now at its full size after the attachment of the final solar array assembly by the STS 119 crew. The surface array surface is 38,400sq ft. The second EVA of the Shuttle mission featured Steve Swanson and Joseph Acaba - a former teacher astronaut on his first flight. The six and a half hours EVA featured the installation of batteries, a GPS antenna on the Kibo module but hit a few problems unstowing a cargo carrier and with rewiring circuit breakers. A gyro will be repaired will be added to the third and final EVA. The University of Washington (UW) says that astronauts on the ISS lose up to ten times more bone mass each month. Twenty-two volunteers are in the midst of an 84 day study on beds down at 6deg.

India has procured a spy satellite from Israel with day-night viewing to boost its surveillance capabilities after the recent Mumbai attacks. The 300kg Risat 2 will be launched by a Polar satellite Launch Vehicle in “the next few weeks”.
Climate scientists hoping that NASA will launch a replacement carbon dioxide monitoring satellite after the loss of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory which was loss in the failure of a Taurus rocket in February. A replacement could be launched in 2012.

The European Space Agency and NASA have selected the Southwest Research Institute in Denver to provide an imaging coronal spectrograph for the Solar Orbiter which will orbit one fourth the distance to the sun. It is one of 10 instruments, which will fly in 2017.

40 years ago
22 March

The Soviet Union launched a Voshkod booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 273, a Zenit 2 recoverable film reconnaissance satellite, which flew for eight days.

NASA confirmed that Apollo 10 would not attempt the first landing on the moon but would simulate the moon mission, including flying the Lunar Module independently “simulated” a landing to within five miles of the surface. The launch was planned for May.

 
 



 

 

 

19-20 March (20 March 2009)

Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin is integrating the rocket and space industry with 15 units established by 2015, of which five have already been formed.

International Launch Services and SES have signed agreement for the launch by Proton boosters of two more communications satellites. SES New Skies NSS 14 and SES Sirius 5 will be launch in 2010-2011. Another contract has been signed for the Proton launch of an American domestic satellite, OS-1 for a 2010 launch.

Iran’s first satellite, Omid  (Hope)  which was launched on 2 February has completed its mission.

Scientists lead by the University of Michigan have detected “salty liquid water” on one of the legs of NASA’s Mrws Phoenix Lander. It is the “first time liquid water has been detected and photographed outside the Earth”. You know what comes next - “essential ingredient to life”.

Rumours are coming out of Washington DC that former Space Shuttle mission specialist astronaut, Mae Jemison who flew STS 47 in 1992 is being considered as NASA’s next Administrator.

The four Alliant Techsystems Ares 1-X motor segments have been delivered to the Kennedy Space Centre for the test flight in the summer. The first stage will generate a thrust of 3.3 million pounds of thrust. A fifth segment to replicate the size and shape of the crew module will also be attached. 

The Space Shuttle Discovery STS 119 docked to the International Space Station (ISS) late on 17 March, while
the need for the station crew to move into the attached Soyuz TMA as a piece of a Russian satellite debris was coming too close for comfort was not needed in the end. The first spacewalk - lasting 6hr 7min - of the mission was made on 19 March featuring veteran Steve Swanson and rookie Rick Arnold who attached the last of the International Space Station’s S6 solar array truss segment. EVAs at the ISS have totalled over 700 hours. The EVA was the 121st at the ISS.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Thales Aleniaa-EADS Astrium-built 1,052kg Gravity Field and Steady State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was launched by a Russian Rokot/Briz-KM from Plesetsk into a near sun-synchronous, 96.7deg orbit at 280km. GOCE was the first of planned series of ESA science spacecraft.

SpaceX plans to launch Malaysia’s 400lb RazakSAT from Kwajelein on 21 April. The satellite is equipped with a medium-resolution camera with a resolution of 8.4ft in colour and 16.4ft in black and white providing environment, crop, transportation and national security applications from its 425 miles, 9deg inclination orbit. Two microsats will also be deployed.

Russia will select the design of the new launcher to carry cosmonauts to the moon within a decade will be announced by 25 March. The launcher will have a carrying capacity of 20 to 23 tons in Earth orbit and will be propelled by environmentally friendly fuels. The first test of the rocket is planned for 2015 with the first manned test flight in Earth orbit in 2018. However, as always with Russian there may be problems with the selection of the contractor. Roskosmos has already its own opinion of the configuration of the rocket and its is understood that “there is some distance between what we want and what might be available”.   

Space Systems/Loral will add a European Union navigation payload to the SS/L 1300 spacecraft bus-based SES Sirius 5 Direct to Home communications satellite serving Europe and Africa. The navigation payload is part of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the precursor to the Galileo full global navigation system.

The United Launch Alliance has won a $600 million contract from NASA to fly science and communications missions starting in 2011 aboard Atlas V boosters. Two Radiation Belt Storm Probes satellites will study the Van Allen radiation belts in 2011. Two NASA Tracking and Data Relay satellites, TDRS K and L will be launched in either 2012-2013. A launch in 2014 will feature a cluster of four plasma particles physics Magnetosphere Multiscale satellites.

The Canadian Space Agency has selected 16 top candidates two of whom will join the nation’s astronaut corps in May.


40 years ago

17 March 1969
The Soviet Union launched a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk carrying a 600g upper atmosphere satellite into a 74deg inclination, 1,178-1,200km orbit.

18 March
An Atlas F booster was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying OV1 17S, 18S, 19S and 17A research and technology satellites, weighing between 142-275kg into 98-104 inclination orbits with apogee parameters between 309-5,551km.

19 March
The USAF launched a Thorad Agena D from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying the Agena-based NRO Agena-based KH-4A, with a recoverable film capsule into an 82deg inclination orbit on a curtailed mission of three days. Also orbited were a SRV radar monitoring and OPS sigint satellites.
 

17-18 March (18 March 2009)

The Space Shuttle Discovery STS 119 docked to the International Space Station late on 17 March, while
the need for the station crew to move into the attached Soyuz TMA as a piece of a Russian satellite debris was coming too close for comfort was not needed in the end.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Thales Aleniaa-EADS Astrium-built 1,052kg Gravity Field and Steady State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was launched by a Russian Rokot/Briz-KM from Plesetsk into a near sun-synchronous, 96.7deg orbit at 280km. GOCE was the first of planned series of ESA science spacecraft.

SpaceX plans to launch Malaysia’s 400lb RazakSAT from Kwajelein on 21 April. The satellite is equipped with a medium-resolution camera with a resolution of 8.4ft in colour and 16.4ft in black and white providing environment, crop, transportation and national security applications from its 425 miles, 9deg inclination orbit. Two microsats will also be deployed.

Russia will select the design of the new launcher to carry cosmonauts to the moon within a decade will be announced by 25 March. The launcher will have a carrying capacity of 20 to 23 tons in Earth orbit and will be propelled by environmentally friendly fuels. The first test of the rocket is planned for 2015 with the first manned test flight in Earth orbit in 2018. However, as always with Russian there may be problems with the selection of the contractor. Roskosmos has already its own opinion of the configuration of the rocket and its is understood that “there is some distance between what we want and what might be available”.   

Space Systems/Loral will add a European Union navigation payload to the SS/L 1300 spacecraft bus-based SES Sirius 5 Direct to Home communications satellite serving Europe and Africa. The navigation payload is part of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the precursor to the Galileo full global navigation system.

The United Launch Alliance has won a $600 million contract from NASA to fly science and communications missions starting in 2011 aboard Atlas V boosters. Two Radiation Belt Storm Probes satellites will study the Van Allen radiation belts in 2011. Two NASA Tracking and Data Relay satellites, TDRS K and L will be launched in either 2012-2013. A launch in 2014 will feature a cluster of four plasma particles physics Magnetosphere Multiscale satellites.

The Canadian Space Agency has selected 16 top candidates two of whom will join the nation’s astronaut corps in May.


40 years ago

17 March 1969
The Soviet Union launched a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk carrying a 600g upper atmosphere satellite into a 74deg inclination, 1,178-1,200km orbit.

18 March
An Atlas F booster was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying OV1 17S, 18S, 19S and 17A research and technology satellites, weighing between 142-275kg into 98-104 inclination orbits with apogee parameters between 309-5,551km.

 

13-16 March (16 March 2009)

STS 119 Discovery with the International Space Station’s fourth and last solar array, completing the station’s truss that will enable to accommodate six crew on the space base was launched on a planned 13-day mission from the Kennedy Space Centre on 15 March, with seven crew, commanded by Lee Archambault accompanied by rookie pilot Tony Antonelli. The mission specialists include veterans Steve Swanson, John Phillips and Japan’s Koichi Wakata, with unique rookies, Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold who were originally selected for the second Teachers in Space programme, later named “educator astronauts” but who eventually became fully-trained NASA astronauts who will take spacewalks during the Discovery mission. Returning from the ISS with the Discovery crew will be Sandra Magnus who will be replaced by Wakata. Earlier on 13 March the three ISS crew, commander Mike Finke, Yuri Lonchakov and Magnus had a close encounter with space debris and entered the Soyuz TMA ferry for safety for ten minutes. The warning was so late that there was not time to manoeuvre the ISS out of the way. The object was identified as a part of the Delta PAM-D stage used to the launch the GPS 37 satellite.

Meanwhile, the igniter which will start the Ares 1 rocket first stage motor has been successfully tested in preparation for the first ground test later this year. The Ares 1 will be used to carry crew to the ISS.

Scientists at the University of Manchester, England have been awarded a 3.5 million pounds research grant to continue the quest to answer questions about the creation of the universe, by analysing tine samples of material collected from space. While on the subject, the European Space Agency’s Herschel and Planck spacecraft which were to have been launched on 16 April have been grounded for “several weeks”. The satellites are designed to probe the formation of galaxies and the “Big Bang”. The real Creation (Genesis 1) is the answer. Then the scientists could use the money for something else.

The NASA astrophysicist, Mario Acuna, who developed instruments for 30 NASA missions exploring all the planets and the sun has died aged 68. He explored the interactions of magnetic fields and plasmas and was credited with the discovery of magnetic disturbance around the planet Jupiter.

North Korea says it will launch a satellite, “Kwangmyongsong using its Unha 2 rocket” but if the launch in deemed by US or Japanese navies to be a ballistic missile test it will be shot down. Meanwhile, South Korea’s plan to launch a satellite has been delayed until the summer.

Veteran Space Shuttle astronaut, Tom Jones has sent an open letter to President Barak Obama:
Dear Mr. President,
En route to the moon forty years ago, Apollo 11's astronauts executed a course correction maneuver, an 8-mph rocket burn that fine-tuned their aim. You gave NASA a course correction with the 2010 budget plan. The $19.2 billion NASA budget (just half a percent of federal spending) may seem trivial amid the trillions spent to boost the economy, but such decisions will make or break America's status as the world leader in space. Here are six moves we need to keep NASA—and the United States—on the right trajectory.
Retire the Space Shuttle by 2010
Mr. President, the shuttle first flew nearly thirty years ago, and although two fatal accidents each led to design improvements, it is still a temperamental, risky vehicle. Cracks in main-engine hydrogen valves delayed last winter's Discovery launch by more than a month. Tremendously versatile, the shuttle is also fragile, and every astronaut crew knows the risk—any serious launch or re-entry failure will likely be fatal. Shuttle operations cost more than $3 billion a year; money freed by its retirement should go directly to field its safer and more efficient replacement, Orion. With its sturdy structure, robust heat shield and launch-abort system, Orion will offer future crews a tenfold increase in safety. Most important, Orion can take us into deep space, somewhere the veteran shuttle can never go.
Use the International Space Station
Nearing completion after a decade of construction, the International Space Station (ISS) is our foothold in space and the only game in town until Orion debuts in 2015. Let's get some payback for the many billions we've invested. Tell our partners we'll continue to use the station until at least 2020 and make the science investments that will keep its three big laboratories humming.
Research aboard the ISS, for example, has led to promising trials of a new salmonella vaccine. On one of its last flights, the shuttle will deliver to the ISS the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, searching out rare antimatter and the universe's mysterious dark matter. Ad Astra Rocket
Company will test its new high-efficiency plasma rocket engine aboard ISS, which is also the perfect place to try out new spacesuits, life-support systems and radiation-protection techniques essential for voyages into deep space. If bureaucratic opponents to the station within your administration continue to undermine it, you should fire them.
Send Explorers Beyond the ISS—Soon
Your budget endorses NASA's return to the moon; so has Congress. Now deliver the sustained funding to get us there. Competitors, such as China and India, are catching up to us in low Earth orbit; they have made no secret that the moon is their target. Apollo's laurels were won forty years ago. Now, you must demonstrate clearly that we will again lead in missions that take us beyond the ISS. Human missions to nearby asteroids would discover new resources, protect Earth from impact and inspire us with views of a breathtakingly distant Earth. The moon also beckons, offering knowledge and possible resources. We should welcome partners on our journey, but leave no doubt that Americans will lead the way.
Reaffirm America's Place in Space
Mr. President, you must explain why space exploration will continue to be an American trademark. Tell the public that space is not just about science—it's about exploring for resources and energy, creating new industries and finding economic opportunity on the moon and nearby asteroids. You must use your bully pulpit to show how investment in "space tech" will keep our scientists and engineers keen and capable.
Unleash the Commercial Space Industry
Have NASA follow through with plans to use private industry to ship cargo to the ISS. Money saved through competitive bidding on cargo services can then be spent on exploration. Commercial flights may someday be the cheapest way to get astronauts to the station. Private robot explorers can map and prospect the moon and asteroids, and deliver supplies and equipment for a future lunar base.
Inspire the Next Generation of Space Explorers
Look our young people in the eye and tell them that we need explorers—doers—who are citizens of the most forward-looking nation on Earth. Tell them America is signing up a world-beating corps of talented scientists and engineers and turning them loose to explore the asteroids, the moon, and the solar system. That same team can conquer terrestrial challenges in energy, defense, environmental protection and high-tech competition. Generations of Americans found prosperity and forged our nation's future on the frontier. Mr. President, reignite the excitement generated by those epic Apollo voyages. Launch our future explorers to prove themselves at the frontiers of space.
 

40 years ago

13 March 1969

Apollo 9 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after a 10d 1hr 0m 54s mission which included the first test of the Lunar Module. As was the case in the 60s, the mission took the headlines. “Apollo takes moon taxi for a ride”. “The man in the water-cooled combinations (British, of course”). “Crew Fly The Moon Bug”. “1am. Space Sickness Blow”. “Astronaut walks for 37 minutes in space”. “The Lunarnauts go-it-alone in the Spider”. “Apollo 9 moon bug jets away into the unknown – the risk. No return”. “Whew! Apollo Men Make It”. “US Set For Summer Moon Trip”. “Three 1969 Moon Trips”. “The buzz is for Buzz for the moon landing”. “Splash! Perfect!” Now for the moon”.

15 March

The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 271 from Plesetsk into a 65deg inclination on a high resolution reconnaissance mission which returned a film capsule eight days later.

16 March

President Richard Nixon gave the go ahead for the Sentinel anti-ballistic missile shield, which was to guard offensive missile installations.

American space officials plan to build a permanent space station accommodating 100 crew within ten years, costing $10 billion.

The Sun Newspaper’s ace space correspondent Ronald Bedford reports that “The Russians plan to blast an unmanned space ship to the moon “next week” park it on the surface and bring it back to earth again. The Russians are believed to have a new rocket that is more powerful  than the Saturn 5. Images sent spy satellites show the rocket and scientists believe the booster has a thrust of 12 million pounds compared with NASA’s 7.5 million pounds thrust Saturn 5. Meanwhile, the Guardian’s ace space reporter Anthony Tucker, reports that “a Russian moon landing vehicle may be sent down to the surface of the moon and then recovered and brought back to the Earth entirely by remote control. Russia could certainly do it, and before the Americans set foot on the moon.” 
 

12 March (13 March 2009)

North Korea has joined the International Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space which came in force in 1976.

Scientists of the High Energy Astrophysics Department in the Institute of Space are researching the possibility of building autonomous navigation systems based on analysis of signals coming from roentgen pulsars or neutron stars with magnetic fields. They cannot be used to cannot be used for flights to the moon and planets. Space locator beacons - roentgen pulsars stably and periodically emitting impulses - can provide navigation of a range of ten hundreds of kilometres with a precision of a few kilometres.

The National Space Agency of Kazakhstan believes that the emergence of the eastern cosmodrome may in future negatively affect the functioning of the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the development of the space industry in Russia. A new strategy of space programmes is deemed to be very risky.

International Launch Services (ILS) has won a launch contract for a Proton flight from Baikonur in 2011 to carry the ViaSat 1 Ku-band with 10 times the throughput of any other Ku-band satellite.

Kazakhstan says that a space budget of 100 billion tenge has been allocated for the 2008-11 period, with a further 25 billion tenge for 2012-20.

North Korea plans to develop and launch an experimental communications satellite, Kwngmyongsong 2 using a Unha 2 rocket.

The much-delayed STS 119 Discovery launch was scrubbed several hours before lift-off at the Kennedy Space Centre early late on 11 March after a hydrogen leak and has been re-scheduled for no earlier than March 15 at 2343 GMT.

Although NASA faces 3,500 job losses at the Kennedy Space Centre, with a resulting loss of 28,000 jobs in the region, President Obama is affirming the retirement of the Space Shuttle programme in 2010 (realistically extended to 2011 to complete missions: five missions are planned for 2009 plus the first Are rocket test flight and five more Shuttle missions in 2010) - but he and his new NASA Administrator yet to be appointed will aim for a “long term vibrancy…and to restore that sense of excitement and interest that existed…shaping a 21st century NASA”. Obama does “not want NASA to just limp along”. Without a huge increase in budgets that is just what NASA will do.

International Space Station crewmembers Mike Finke and Yuri Lonchakov completed a 4hr 48min spacewalk on 11 March to install an experiment package on the Russian Zvezda module and cut loose straps near the Pirs module docking port.

A Kazakh cosmonaut will fly to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft in late 2010. The  mission will be paid by Kazakhstan.


50 years ago

12 March 1959
The second British Black Knight rocket reached 350 miles after launch from Woomera, Australia.


40 years ago
12 March 1969

Apollo 7 astronaut Donn Eisele was divorced by his wife who cited “mental cruelty”. This was the first time that marital problems among the 51 NASA astronauts was “blown up in public”, although there had been several “ripples under the surface”, reported Britain’s Daily Mail.

 

10-11 March (11 March 2009)

Andrey Kokoshin, State Duma deputy and former secretary of the Russian Security Council says that the development of anti-satellite weapons in Russia is “quite justified” since the USA has been “actively promoting the deployment of offensive weapons”. Russia and the USA “still have a chance to agree on preventing an arms race.

The construction of the Vostochnyy Cosmodrome in the Amur region of Russia “remains a priority” says the Russian Space Agency. Funding has bee provided until 2012 for the design and engineering works after which construction will begin.

Iridium has replaced one of the 66 satellites, which was lost during the collision with a Russian satellite, by using a back-up Iridium satellite.

India successfully tested an anti-missile rocket on 6 March as part of a planned space-based radar system with an initial range of 2,000km. India’s Earth-based radar system has a present range of 600km. A range of 6,000km is planned eventually using radar mounted on satellites.

China will fly a biological payload aboard Shenzhou 8, which will fly a dual mission with Shenzhou 9 in 2011. One of the taikonauts on the dual mission may be a female. China plans to launch up to 16 satellites this year, compared with the average launch rate of eight satellites. China aiming to send Chinese astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2020 after a phased programme of unmanned missions. Chang’e 2 will test a moon-lander in 2011, Chang’e 3 will make soft-landing of an operational  spacecraft, with Chang’e 4 being launched by 2017.

Roskosmos has “pledged” that invitations to apply for a new cosmonaut group will include females.

Space-X has successfully conducted a full-mission six-minute duration firing of the new Merlin Mach 7 liquid oxygen/kerosene engine.


50 years ago

10 March 1959
The first captive flight of an X-15 rocket plane with Scott Crossfield aboard attached to a modified B-52 was completed from Edwards Air Force Base, California. Further captive flights were made on April 1 and 10 and 21 May.

12 March 11
The second British Black Knight rocket reached 350 miles after launch from Woomera, Australia.
 

6-9 March (9 March 2009)

The United Launch Alliance launched the $600 million Kepler spacecraft aboard a Delta 2 booster for NASA on 6 March local time. The spacecraft is the first with the ability to detect signs of Earth-sized planets around stars, similar to the sun, by detecting slight dimming of 100,000 stars as a planet or planets pass between the stars and the spacecraft. In other words, any moons will not actually be observed. Kepler will be able to observe the same stars constantly in the region of the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra. The spacecraft is equipped with a 95-megapixel array devices of charge-coupled devices, the largest camera of its kind sent into space, with a theoretical resolution that could detect one person in a small town turning off a porch-light at night. Another analogy is trying to detect a very tiny flea in the headlights of a car. NASA’s science mission directorate chief, Ed Weiler calls Kepler “an historical mission” .  Since 1999, 337 “earth-like” planets have been detected using the “slight dimming” method. The sci-fi part of the publicity is as ever the descriptions of how planets in just the right place could harbour life, based on the theory of evolution - which of course will never be proved as the “moons” can’t actually be seen. Remember - those pretty graphic images that have been created are sci-fi.

Russia has technologies capable of destroying weapons in Earth orbit, the deputy defence minister, Army Gen Vladimir Popovkin, told journalists in Moscow. "We already have basic elements to carry out work in the event off someone deploying weapons in space. We can counter this…we cannot just sit and watch when others do it. I can only say that work of this kind is being conducted in Russia…although we have always been in favour of not putting arms into space”.

Lockheed Martin has made a switch for the communications and tracking system for the Orion manned spacecraft for the Constellation programme from a Phased Array to a combination of S-band at lower data rates with a high gain antenna due to a reduction of the mass and power of the spacecraft. This has been mainly due to the predicted shortfall of the performance of the Ares 1 booster. How on Earth can the Constellation programme meet its objective with such a cut-price and flawed spacecraft and booster. OK Apollo did but it had an extra “boost” - JFK’s race to the Moon to beat the Soviets and a huge budget.

The to-and-fro story of the mission of STS 119 Discovery (fitted with a new set of Flow Control Valves) seems to have had a happy ending - a launch to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Centre is planned on 11 March.

Two super-massive black holes with masses of 20 million and one billion solar masses orbiting each other have been discovered. Astronomers say that eventually the black holes will eventually merge with each other.

South Africa’s fight to eradicate poverty and
unemployment could be helped by a space programme starting with satellite communications systems, including disaster management and ground communications equipment. A second small South African satellite, Sumandilasat will be launched by Russia this year.

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch an Rs500 million solar observation satellite in 2012. The observations will provide clues on how to protect spacecraft from solar flares and other radiation from the sun.

Japan plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 after robotic rovers and lunar sample collection missions. This is a reversal of previous policy.

Russia’s Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems has been awarded a contract to build Indonesia’s PT Telekommunikasi’s Telkom 3, 32 C-band  and 10 Ku-band communications satellite, to be launched by a Proton-Briz in August 2011. Reshetnev is a subcontractor to Thales Alenia Space.

The 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston on March 23 will include a report regarding the evidence of water on Mars, based on an image and the detection of a block of frozen water ice under the Phoenix lander. No doubt the news will create another OTT media frenzy. “Life on Mars!”

50 years ago
6 March 1959

Pioneer 4 became the first US spacecraft to reach escape velocity but it had not achieved its primary objective, to photograph the Moon during a flyby. During the launch, the second stage did not cut off on time and caused the trajectory to change, so the spacecraft passed by the Moon by 59,545 km, instead of the planned 32,000 km which was not close enough for Pioneer’s imaging scanner to function but its tiny radio transmitted for 82 hrs and at a distance of 406,620 km before contact was lost, 655,000km from Earth - the greatest tracked distance to date. Pioneer 4 eventually became the first American spacecraft enter solar orbit. 

40 years ago
6 March 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk carrying a 6,300kg high-resolution surveillance satellite with a recoverable capsule, which landed after a flight of 8 days.

7 March 1969
The first French Veronique sounding rocket was launched from Columb Bechar to an altitude of 155 miles.
 

 

5 March (5 March 2009)

China has started a search for five to seven new taikonauts, who will be part of the plan for a space station.

A Mars gulley system “appears” to have been created by flowing water “relatively recently”. The system in a crater in a mid-southern latitude appears to have been created about 1.25 million years ago - “very recently for a geological timescale”, based on the theoretical Big Bang timescale. Mars gullies are supposed to have been created “by melted snow and ice deposits”. In another story, Rice University professors are looking into the possibilities of finding life on Mars either past or present. Nothing new in that of course but the professors used a computer model to work out how Olympus Mons was formed and suggest that pockets of ancient water may still be trapped under the mountain. “What we were analysing was the structure of the volcano, why it is shaped the way it is…what we found has implications for life - but implications are what go at the end of a paper.”  A classical example of tenuous wishful thinking.

The launch of Space Shuttle Discovery has been cleared for a launch on 11 March after fears that the Flow Control Valves (FCV) issue would delay the flight for over a month. New FCVs have been fitted. Discovery will fly a 10-day mission at the International Space Station, which will be followed by the launch of Russia’s Soyuz TMA-14 on 26 March, carrying Russian commander Gennady Padalka and NASA flight engineer, Michael Barratt, with a unique space tourist, Charles Simonyi who flew a similar mission on 2007 and who will be the first space tourist to make a second flight. Simonyi will return with ISS commander Mike Finke and Yuri Lonchakov. The third ISS crewmember, Sandra Magnus will return aboard Discovery and will be replaced by Japan’s Koichi Wakata - a former Japanese Airlines engineer - who will be launched on Discovery. In addition to Wakata’s formal duties, he will ride on a “flying carpet” as part of 16 tasks of 1,597 chosen by the Japanese public. He will attempt to fold clothes, do push-ups and back-flips, arm-wrestle with another astronaut. The Japanese space agency has also invited companies to rent an astronaut in space to perform experiments and tasks such as displaying advertisements. The cost of hiring a crewman could be $55,000 plus the fee to carry the required items into space at 3.3 million yen per kg.

40 years ago
5 March 1969

Thomas O. Paine was appointed as NASA Administrator. By President Richard Nixon. Paine was previously Acting Administrator.

The Soviet Union launched two satellites, one from Kapustin Yar and Plesetsk. A Cosmos booster carried the 250kg Cosmos 268 target satellite into a 48deg inclination   as part of an air defence system, while Cosmos 269 was an 875kg signals intelligence satellite, placed into a 74deg inclination orbit.  
 

4 March (4 March 2009)

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd will provide a Multi-Spectral Imager for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) EarthCARE satellite under a 30 million Euro contract with Astrium GmbH, Germany. EarthCARE is the third spacecraft of ESA’s Earth Observation Envelope Programme (EOEP) and will provide 500m resolution data on the horizontal structures of clouds and cloud optical and microphysical properties, from a 400km orbit.

The delayed STS 119 Discovery mission to the International Space Station could be cleared for launch as early as 11 March after the planned replacement of three Flow Control Valves today.

The US Geological Survey-operated, NASA-built and launched Landsat 5 satellite launched on March 1984, with a predicted lifetime of 15,000 orbits in three years has exceeded 132,000 orbits and is still going strong.

The 61st moon orbiting Saturn has been discovered. The object is about third of mile wide.

The Earth has again escaped a collision with an asteroid. Designated 2009 ND DD45 and measuring 21-47 metres, the asteroid flew past our home planet at a distance of 72,000 km.

China plans to launch a mega booster, the Long March 5, which will be operational in 2014 with a payload capability of 25 tonnes.

Retired Russian Major General Leonid Shercshev - former chief of the country’s military space intelligence - has cause a mini-rift by suggesting that the Cosmos 2251-Irdium collision in orbit on 10 February was arranged as part of a DARPA plan to validate the technical feasibility of a robotic anti-satellite programme. 


40 years ago

4 March 1969

The US Air Force launched a Titan IIIB/Agena D booster from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying an NRO/USAF KH-8 military surveillance satellite into a 92deg inclination, 83-286 mile orbit returning a film capsule on 18th March.




 

26 February-3 March (3 March 2009)

China will launch the 8.5 tonne Tiangong 1 module (Heavenly Palace) in 2010 which will dock automatically with an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft automatically in 2011.  Meanwhile, China’s first lunar orbiter, Chang’e 1 launched in October 2007 impacted on the moon on 1 March at 1.50degS/52.36degE. China also plans to launch its third ocean survey satellite in 2010. 

NASA has awarded an interim letter contract to Oceaneering International of Houston to start the design, development and production of a new spacesuit system for the Constellation programme. The initial contract is worth $9..6 million.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has selected two pilots, Takuya Onishi and Kimiya Yui as astronaut candidates who could be flying aboard the International Space Station as early as 2013 spending most of the time on experiments aboard the Japanese Kibo Experiment Module. Onishi flies as a co-pilot of Boeing 767 planes on routes in Asia. Yui is an F-15 fighter pilot.

Russia launched a Zenit 3SLB booster from Baikonur on 26 February on the second Land Launch mission, carrying Telstar 11N towards a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

International Launch Services will launch the Space Systems/Loral-built Asiasat 5 satellite aboard a a Proton booster from Baikonur  later this year to replace Asiasat 2 at 100.5degE, equipped with C and Ku band transponders.

Russia launched a Proton K booster from Baikonur on 28 February carrying military satellite which is suspected to have been a Raduga geostationary satellite.

North Korea’s plan to launch a long-range missile, the Taepodong 2 to launch a satellite which President Barack Obama and Japanese prime minister, Taro Aso say is a provocative act.

NASA has been awarded a budget for 2010 of $18.7 billion.

The European Space Agency has selected prime and back-up crewmembers for the 105 day simulated Mars mission with four Russian crewmen, which will begin on 31 March. Two of the four will join four Russians who will work aboard a simulated spacecraft at Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. A similar mission may follow before a planned 520-day study later in the year.
It is reported that Eutelsat will fly a satellite aboard a Chinese booster.

The much-delayed launch of the Space Shuttle STS 119 Discovery will be now earlier than 12 March due to the need to replace all three hydrogen Flow Control Valves. However, there are other issues might cause problems, including the launch of the next Soyuz mission the International Space Station (ISS) with two crewmen and a space tourist which needs to be fitted in during this period. If Discovery is delayed further - March 17 is being suggested -  one or even three of four planned EVAs might have to be cancelled because of pressure on the schedule for the next Soyuz TMA mission! Surely, STS 119 wouldn’t be treated in such a way. Why not just go ahead with the Hubble Space Telescope mission and then fit in 119. Let’s face it - there is no way all the remaining Space Shuttle missions will be completed by the end of 2010 anyway. 

A Delta booster is scheduled for launch on 5 March carrying NASA’s Kepler science satellite and an Atlas V launch is planned on 9 March with a military satellite both from Cape Canaveral.

Despite the worldwide recession, 90% of Americans support the space programme.

India’s Chandrayaan 1 lunar will work together with two NASA lunar orbiters, which will be launched aboard an Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral no earlier than 20 May. The NASA orbiter are the main craft, Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter and a Lunar Crater Observation and sensing satellite, which will search for signs pf water-ice at the bottom of lunar craters that are permanently in shadow.

India’s planned Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III is expected to launch within three years to provide the nation with self-sufficiency for all launches. The MkIII will be used to launch manned missions in 2015 and will be able to launch four tonnes into geostationary orbit.

Alliant Techsystems successfully completed the second of four planned Ares 1 first stage a 68ft diameter drogue parachute drop tests from a 50,000lb test drone from a C-17 aircraft from 25,000ft.

 
50 years ago

28 February 1959
The US Air Force launched a Thor Hustler booster from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying Discoverer 1 into a polar orbit. The second stage failed to ignite. The booster was based on a Thor missile with an Agena second stage. Discoverer 1 was a test flight for the first spy satellites to monitor the Soviet Union from near-polar orbit returning film capsules to Earth.

March 3
An ABMA-JPL-NASA Pioneer IV spacecraft was launched by a Juno II booster from Cape Canaveral carrying the fourth USA-International Geophysical Year spacecraft  Pioneer 4 towards the moon. The spacecraft passed the moon at a distance of 37,000 miles from the moon and entered into solar orbit, the first US spacecraft to do so.

40 years ago

24 February
NASA launched Mariner 6 aboard an Atlas Centaur booster from Cape Canaveral en route to the planet Mars. The spacecraft flew within 2,120 miles on 31 July sending 75 TV pictures at 42.3s intervals.

25 February
The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 266 aboard an SL3 booster from Plesetsk carrying a reconnaissance camera capsule, which returned to the Earth on 5 March.

February 26
The final ESSA meteorological satellite was launched aboard a Thor Augmented Delta booster from Cape Canaveral on the final TOS system mission. ESSA 7 used an AVCS system.

February 26
The Soviet Union launched Cosmos 267 into an 65deg inclination orbit with a reconnaissance camera which returned to Earth on 6 March.

March 1
NASA reports that the first man on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission will be Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.

March 3
NASA launches the first full-up Apollo mission into Earth orbit with a crew commanded by Jim McDivitt with David Scott and Russell Schweickart who featured in a 40min  EVA, cut due to the astronaut’s space sickness. The crew landed after a 10 day mission clearing the way to the moon, first with a full-up mission, Apollo 10 in lunar orbit.  The Apollo 9 mission had been delayed when the crew was hit sore throats and blocked noses. “The tissue paper Moon bug! Now the Apollo men catch colds”. Rocket snag and seezes delay Apollo”. “Sneezes hold up space flight”. “Colds in space worry experts”. The postponement cost half a million dollars out of the mission’s estimated $340 million.