Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

29 April (29 April 2009)

Speaking at the National Academy of Sciences, President Barack Obama has pledged to return the USA to a “high water mark” of scientific achievement with a boost of 3% of GDP for R&D. “Science is more essential for our prosperity, security, our health, our environment and our quality of life”. He cited the falling standards and funding and said that science will be restored. Science investment has steadily declined. The President reminded the nation of the “space race” born of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 in 1957. Obama’s $787 billion stimulus looks good but what about support for NASA? Who is running the rudderless NASA? When on Earth will Obama select an Administrator? Will he or she be a “space experienced” leader. The incredulous refrain among space cadets: “they picked the First Dog before they selected a NASA administrator!?”, said ace space reporter, Miles O’Brien. Where are the budgets? The Constellation project is a joke. The Orion “Apollo capsule” will now carry just four crew, "in order to improve schedule and cost confidence by minimizing multiple configurations under simultaneous development during the Program's early phases, while a four-person crew would save some mass, the issue of mass savings was not a major factor in the decision-making process. " Oh really? Come off it!

The University of Washington says that in 20 years astronomers have “discovered planets orbiting stars” but many more have” fallen into their host stars” (or simply didn’t exist in the first place!). How do they know? “Computer models can show where planets “should” line up in a particular star system but direct observations show that some systems are missing planets close to the stars where models say they should be”. What a joke.

University of California-Berkley says Earth-bound tornadoes are puny compared with “space tornadoes”, which span a volume as large as the Earth and produce electrical currents exceeding 100,000 amperes according to findings from data collected by the five Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Sunstorms spacecraft (THEMIS).

Data returned from NASA’s Swift satellite has revealed a gamma ray burst from a star - the most distant cosmic explosion ever seen - when the universe “was only 630 million years old - less that 5% of its present age.

The reluctance of the US Government to provide orbital data of military satellite orbital parameters is hampering the tracking of satellites is hampering efforts to prevent collisions. Although civilian data is available, the military closely guards its precise data.

While investigating the chemical make-up of comets, Prof. Akiva Bar-Nun of the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences at Tel Aviv University found they were the source of missing ingredients needed for life in Earth's ancient primordial soup. "When comets slammed into the Earth through the atmosphere about four billion years ago, they delivered a payload of organic materials to the young Earth, adding materials that combined with Earth's own large reservoir of organics and led to the emergence of life”. This is based on the theory of evolution.

The Space Shuttle mission STS 125 Atlantis to make the final service of the Hubble Space Telescope will be the riskiest flight ever, reports the Orlando Sentinel. There is a 1:221 chance that Atlantis could be destroyed by debris or meteorites. NASA and the military track 19,000 pieces larger than four inches.     
 
Intelsat has ordered a new satellite, Intelsat 22, which will also carry a $167 million UHF transponder for the Australian military. The Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems-built Boeing 702B model will carry 48 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. Intelsat 22 will be launched 2012 and will be located at 72degE in GEO, serving customers in the Indian Ocean region.

A 10lb NASA mini satellite the size of a loaf of bread, weighing 10 pounds could help scientists better understand how effectively drugs work in space. The nanosatellite, known as PharmaSat, is a secondary payload aboard a U.S. Air Force four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket planned for launch on 5 May.

Eurockot Launch Services will launch Thales Alenia-built ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite on 9 September 2009.

NOTE: Space history is a bit thin at the moment for the years 1959 and 1969. Wait until May 2!

 

28 April (28 April 2009)

In an effort to revive the Russian lunar programme, the unique Russian "Lunar Glob" orbiter, built by Lavochkin is to fire instrumented Russian penetrator probes into the the moon in the regions of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 landing sites explored 40 years ago. A small lander might also be added to the mission, which is planned to land on the moon in 2012 in the region of south polar crater to obtain multi-spectral data in a search for signs of lunar water ice, while seismometers attached to penetrating probes would help determine whether the Moon has a molten core. The molten core issue is important to determining how the moon was formed.

The five THEMIS spacecraft launched by NASA in February 2007 have investigated space tornadoes, funnels of hot charged particles around the Earth about 40,000 miles above the Earth that reach speeds of over 1.6 million kph (1 million mph). The tornadoes can produce electrical currents greater than 100,000 amperes, channelling the electric charge along twisted magnetic field lines into Earth's ionosphere, igniting the auroras.

NASA’s remaining Space Shuttle missions will start with STS 125 Atlantis heading for the final servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope and will end with the launch of STS 135 which is designated a “Launch on Need” in 2010 – but most likely much later given the experience of Shuttle  flight schedules. The orbiter Endeavour will first serve as a rescue mission for STS 125 and will then fly in June on a flight to the International Space Station carrying the Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility during a 16- day flight, STS 127 in August. The next flight will be STS 119 Discovery with the major payload being another Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. STS 129 Atlantis will fly Express Logistics Carriers and other payloads. The next mission, STS 130 will launch the ISS Node 3, a Cupola and Node 1 port. STS 131 will carry an array of payloads, including another MPLM.  STS 132 and 133 will end the programme. STS 132 Atlantis will be launched in May 2010, followed by STS 133. Two possible missions 134 and 135 could be added. 

Senator Bill Nelson (who flew aboard the Space Shuttle in 1986 – the mission before Challenger) pressed the White House to select a new NASA administrator and repeated what President Obama said earlier this spring - that the nation's space agency is "adrift" because it “doesn’t have a vigorous leader to take charge; someone who understands space flight, who understands management and aeronautics”.
Here is Nelson’s message.  
“Mr. President, there are so many things I would like to talk about, not the least of which—which I will not confine my remarks to—is our space program, which is adrift.
The White House continues to deliberate on who should be the administrator of NASA. The previous administration starved NASA to death by asking it to do too much with too little. The result of that is that now NASA is coming to the end of the life of the space shuttle, as we complete the construction of the International Space Station (ISS).
With the remaining nine flights—and those nine flights NASA thinks it can get in during the next year and a half, but they can’t—we are going to have to fly the space shuttle into 2011, and we ought to do that deliberately and slowly to make sure we don’t sacrifice safety.
At the end of that time, upon the completion of the space station - the ISS, with components from a number of countries around the world and something that is larger than two football fields long, 200 miles into the cosmos, circling the globe at 17,500 miles an hour, with research laboratories, with habitation modules for the astronauts and cosmonauts on board - the United States, when we shut down the space shuttle, will not have a manned vehicle because we didn’t have enough money for the development of the new vehicle—the new rocket, the Ares- and so we are going to have a gap and we will have to rely on the Russians. We will have to buy a ride on their spacecraft in order to get to our space station, which is a $100 billion investment.
Now, that is the sad state of affairs and that is where NASA finds itself. NASA is adrift because it doesn’t have a vigorous leader, appointed by the Obama administration, to take charge; someone who understands space flight, who understands management, who understands aeronautics. By the way, aeronautics is the first “A” in NASA - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA does not have a leader as yet who understands how to motivate people and capture the spirit of the American people, which is that we are explorers and adventurers by nature. There is not a heart in America that does not beat more quickly when they think of the potential we have in the cosmos and the exploration of new worlds.
Look at what the Hubble Space Telescope has done for us. How do you think we have been able to have the revelations from the Hubble Space Telescope? It is because we have been able to send astronauts out there when it could not even see because it had an incorrectly ground lens when we launched it, over a decade and a half ago. We sent astronauts there to repair it in orbit.
Lo and behold, in two weeks another flight with astronauts will go to the Hubble Space Telescope, will repair it, will give it new instruments, and for the next two decades it will continue to peer into the universe and unlock those secrets about where did we come from and when did it happen and how are we positioned in this universe that is so vast, so infinite that our human minds cannot even grasp. That is the excitement of the future.
Yet NASA is adrift. I call on the White House to please put in an administrator of NASA who is a leader, who understands space, who understands how to motivate people and who can capture the American spirit and help inspire, standing by our President who wants it, a vigorous space program.
I did not come here to speak about that but I get pretty exercised because I have been the beneficiary of being a part of this space program. I do not like what I see now and I do not like what I have seen in the last five years. I have said so on the floor of this Senate, over and over. The more we try to get additional funding in the budget to develop this new rocket - and we were successful in the Senate—the more we would have our legs cut out from under us by the previous White House budget office because they kept starving NASA of funds. That has led us to where we are today.
I personally know our President is a space aficionado. We have talked about it hours on end. I know he wants us to have a vigorous space program. I know President Obama understands how to accomplish the very thing he wants to do with young people, in getting them educated and particularly educated in math and science and engineering. Look to history. Look at what happened in the Apollo program when young people by the thousands starting going into math and science and engineering because they were challenged by what we were doing in the cosmos. We can do that again if the President will give the full support to the space program and if he will put the right leader in NASA.
I came today to speak about another subject but I do not think there is a much more important subject at this time. With all the problems facing this country - the economy, the national security situation - you have to tend to your knitting. America’s space program and America’s pre-eminence in space - that we do not lose the high ground - is a highly important issue, high among the items on the agenda to which this country must attend.”  
Will Obama listen? He is not a space fan for sure.

Intelsat plans to add a new satellite to its global fleet in 2010. Intelsat 22 will be located at 72degE over the Indian Ocean and will be equipped with 48 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders, as well as an UHF payload for the Australian Defence Force.  


NOTE: Space history is a bit thin at the moment for the years 1959 and 1969. Wait until May 2!
 

25-27 April (27 April 2009)

The launch of the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for 11 May during a window of 20 minutes. The launch window can extend to 13 May when US Air Force priorities take over for about a week before a launch window starting again on 22 May as the batteries on the Hubble will need recharging. This would delay the Endeavour mission to the International Space Station from mid-June to July. Endeavour is already on Pad 39B in case it is needed for a rescue mission for Atlantis. 

Harvard Centre for Astrophysics “are celebrating” the discovery of the smallest known “exoplanet”, called Gliese 581e 20.5 light years away, which is apparently 1.9 times the size of the Earth and 80 times smaller than the first “exo-planet” discovered in 1995. Of course, these exo-planets cannot be seen. At the same time, celebrating the European Week of Astronomy in the UK, Ralph Neuhaeser of the Astrophysical Institute and University in Jena, Germany, claims that the evidence is edging towards exoplanets being brown dwarfs instead. The simple fact is that you cannot “see” an “exoplanet” nor a“brown dwarf”.

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov has offered to help North Korea on launching satellites. Russia has already co-operating with South Korea.

The European Space Agency hopes to launch the first of five Sentinel Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), providing Earth observation services using two C-band radar instruments per satellite starting with a launch in late 2011.

The NASA Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has started to respond to signals again after a failing to respond to signals from the Earth on 8 April.

NASA will sign a contract with Russia’s Roscosmos to provide 18 to a maximum 24 seats aboard Soyuz TMA spacecraft to provide taxi services to the International Space Station starting in 2012.

Space-X and Orbital Sciences Corporation will continue work on the provision of cargo deliveries of up to 20 flights to the International Space Station starting in 2010 under a NASA ISS Commercial Resupply Services contracts.  Meanwhile, PlanetSpace, which had hoped to be awarded a similar contract, has filed a GAO Protest to the Selection Decision of NASA, in the hope for a review.

Several Russian space bureaux, Motor, KBOM, KBTM and KBTKhM are to merge into the ground Space Intrastructure Operation Centre, TsENKI, while KBOM is to develop a launch pad at the new Vostochnyy cosmodrome in the far east, the development of which will start in 2012, the first unmanned flight in 2015 and the first manned launch in 2018.  

 

24 April (24 April 2009)

NASA SpaceFlight reports that Jeff Hanley, the manager of the Constellation programme, has proposed solutions to avoid further delays, including deleting the Ares 1-Y test flight, making Ares 1’s first stage disposable, switching from Orion 4 to Orion 3 as the full operational capability mission. Just put it out of its misery.

Space-X has completed its 42-firing qualification testing of the Draco spacecraft thruster and propellant tank at the SpaceX Test Facility in Texas. The NASA Commercial Orbital Transporation (COTS) Twelve Draco cargo craft are scheduled to be launched aboard Falcon 9s to the International Space Station starting next year. The Falcon 9 maiden test flight is scheduled later this year.

Flight International reports that Scaled Composites has admitted to problems with the rudder on its WhiteKnight Two prototype Virgin Mothership, Eve. The company has had to "adjust the rudder forces" and has "made three modifications to the rudder aerodynamic balances, along with adding vortex generators".


40 years ago
24 April 1969

President Richard Nixon cut NASA’s space budget by $45 million leaving the amount at $3,900 million as the Apollo programme approached its target - the moon on Apollo 11.

Professor Peter van de Kamp of Sproul Observatory, Pennnsyvania confirmed that two planets B1 and 2 were orbiting Barnard’s Star, six light years away. B1 was estimated at 450 million miles from the star (compared with the distance of the Earth from the sun at 93 million miles). The planets had periods of 26 and 12 years. “there is no  possibility of life as we know it” on the planets. “It is terrible cold”, said van de Kamp.

Britain announced that it was to spend 30 million pounds for the development of satellite communications and a satellite launcher, Black Arrow. A leading space official said, “we have a little more faith in space than we had 
and see a little more hope of earning money from it”. Good old Brits!

 

 




 

23 April (23 April 2009)

It is becoming obvious that President Barack Obama is not a space fan. Forbes magazine reports that NASA “seems so far off the White House radar that it might be on Pluto”. A  lack of interest that is a sign of the priorities in the White House. Meanwhile, more reports are being published in the USA about the return of astronauts to the moon has been pushed into 2022, with delays of the first Ares V launch. The project “is in deepening trouble”, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Even the first manned six-crew Orion flight to the International Space Station has been delayed to 2015. There are rumours that the Orion crew will be reduced to four.

China launched the YaoGan Weixing 6 “remote sensing” satellite aboard a Long March 2C booster from Taiyuan on 22 April. However, previous launches are used for either synthetic aperture radar (SAR) or electro-optical observation. The first such satellite launched in April 2006 was revealed later to be equipped with SAR and the others were equipped with electro-optical, SAR, electro-optical, SAR payloads respectively. 

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has completed the second static test firing of the first stage flight model of the H-IIB launch vehicle at the Tanegashima Space Center.
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has returned an image of an unusual galaxy system called Arp 194 containing a “cosmic fountain” of stars, gas and dust, stretching 100,000 light years.

Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) has joined SES Astra to create YahLive DTH TV.

India plans to launch a  Rs200 core, 1,650kg astronomy satellite, Astrosat in 2010 aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle into a 600km altitude orbit. Astrosat will be equipped with five visible, ultraviolet and x-ray instruments to observe black holes and neutron stars.

Astronomers have detected the most distant evidence of water in the universe.


50 years ago
23 April 1959

The fourth recovery of a data capsule from a Thor missile launched from Cape Canaveral was recovered 1,500 miles downrange.

40 years ago
23 April 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Baikonur carrying Cosmos 280, a Zenit 4 reconnaisance satellite with a recoverable film capsule which was recovered 13 days later.

Paul Haney, the Voice of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo 7, 8 and 9 was sacked by NASA after a disagreement with the space agency’s public affairs director Julian Scheer.







 

21-22 April (22 April 2009)

The European Space Agency plans to launch a small geostationary orbit satellite in 2014 in the first phase to prepare for the planned space-based European air traffic control covering an area from Iceland to Azerbaijan by about 2020 when global air travel will have doubled.  

Moonwalker Ed Mitchell, the lunar module pilot of Apollo 14 and an avid extraterrestrial life believer said on CNN that the“truth” has been concealed by US and other governments. Dream on Ed.

The Indian Space Research Organisation may launch four more satellite launches in 2009, including Oceansat, Rescourcesat and Radar Imaging Satellite. A manned spaceflight with a two-person crew could be made in 2016, costing Rs12,400 crore. A second Chandrayaan lunar orbiter is planned, followed by a moon lander.

The US Aerospace Corporation has recommended the Ares launcher could be replaced by the Delta IV Heavy booster or the Atlas V for the Constellation project aswell as being used for International Space Station heavy payload launches. 

Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin is supporting the Constellation project but accused the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is responsible for lack of realistic budgets. However, he said “in a democracy, the proper purpose of the OMB is not to find a way to create a Potemkin Village at NASA. It is not to create the appearance of having a real space program without having to pay for it. It is not to specify to NASA how much money shall be allocated for human lunar return by 2020. The proper purpose of the OMB is to work with NASA”.

Arianespace has delayed the launch of an Ariane 5 booster carrying the European Space Agency’s Plank and Herschel astronomical observation satellites from 6 May due to an “an anomaly” on the launcher. The launch had already been delayed from 16 April.

The first test of a five-segment solid rocket motor for the eventual launch of Ares 1 crews has been scheduled for 13 August. The first five-segment Ares 1 first stage test flight has been delayed again from 2012 to the third quarter of 2013. A six-crew launch of an Ares 1 to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for 2015. There has been support for extending the Shuttle program in Congress, and earlier this month a NASA delegation met with 14 other partners of the $100 billion ISS programme and agreed to review extending that program five more years until 2020.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko has allocated around 50 million dollars for space programmes. The priority is to build a communications satellite to be launched by 2011.

 

18-20 April (20 April 2009)

India launched the 15th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Shriharikota’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre, carrying a 600lbs, Israeli-built radar reconnaissance satellite into a 342 miles, 41deg inclination orbit on 20 April.  An Indian Anna University-built, 84lb piggyback store-dump satellite.

Sea Launch flew a Zenit 3SL from the Odyssey Launch Platform on 20 April, carrying Italy’s Thales Alenia Space Italia/Finmeccani Italsat 3000 bus-based 6,697lb SICRAL 1A military communications satellit, which will be located at 11.6degE in geostationary orbit.

The Soyuz TMA 16 mission carrying to crew to the International Space Station in September has a spare seat for a “tourist”. However, there are no takers yet but Space Adventures is looking for a customer, which could be a Russian MP.

Arianespace has been awarded a contract from Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation to launch the JCSAT 13, the seventh Arianespace launch contract of the year and the 27th Japanese satellite to be launched European launcher company. JCSAT 13 is being developed by Lockheed Martin and will be launched in 2013.

Space-X has been awarded a contract to launch two Falcon 9 boosters carrying Argentinian Earth observation satellites, SAOCOM 1A and B.

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) to launch a Delta IV from Cape Canaveral’s Pad 37 in 2011 carrying the National Reconnaissiance Office’s NROL 15 satellite. ULA has won 14 contracts in the last 14 months for launches from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg AFB.

NASA will cut at least 3,500 of 14,500 jobs at the Kennedy Space Centre if the Space Shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

Space-X’s planned launch of a Falcon 1 rocket from Omelek Island in Kwagalein on 21 April has been delayed for at least six weeks due to “unspecified damage to the booster”. It will be the second launch of a Falcon 1 after the maiden flight last September.

While the first crewed mission of the Ares 1 is planned for 2015 and the maiden flight of the Ares V in 2020, NASA’s budget estimates “may not be realistic”, says the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO). NASA has a record off being 25% over-budget but the CBO says that 72 NASA programmes were on overage 50% over budget. So what is the future of the Constellation project - long delays. The first manned Ares 1 flight has already been pushed to 2016 and a manned moon flight is unlikely until no earlier than 2023. President Barack Obama’s science chief suggests the China could fly NASA crews aboard Shenzhou spacecraft. NASA will also have to rely on Russia to fly Soyuz TMA crew craft and unmanned Progress tankers. The CBO has four scenarios: cut 79 sciences missions to 2025 to possibly 44; boost NASA’s $19.1 billion budget to $28.8 billion per year from 2010 to 2025 to get to the moon by 2020. NASA would need $3.3 billion a year from 2011 to 2015 to extend the Space Shuttle programme, flying three times a year to the International Space Station. Meanwhile, NASA’s Langley Research Centre is to start to evaluate the crew module energy absorbing seat system for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle with a design based on the Apollo capsule, which last flew in 1972.

Meanwhile, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel says, “to maximize safety, minimize wasted effort, and bolster employee morale, any further debate regarding the future of the Shuttle should be undertaken immediately and completed without further delay. From a safety standpoint, the ASAP strongly endorses the NASA position on not extending Shuttle operations beyond successful execution of the December 2008 manifest, completing the ISS. Continuing to fly the Shuttle not only would increase the risk to crews, but also could jeopardize the future U.S. Exploration program by squeezing available resources (and, in the worst case, support) for the Constellation program."

“Space tourist” US Congressman Bill Nelson who flew aboard a Space Shuttle as “payload specialist” in 1986 says that the 2010 deadline for the end of the Space Shuttle programme should be regarded as an “arbitrary” date and the remaining missions should be completed “without the pressure of a rigid timetable”. He talks sense.  

Russia is to work with Brazil to increase the reliability of the VLS 1 launcher at the South American Alcantara launch site.

NASA says that its twin Stereo spacecraft has made significant breakthrough that could play a major role in protecting satellites from damage caused by solar explosions. Images taken from the UK’s heliospheric  instrument have made a step forward in predicting the arrival of these solar storms at Earth within a day -  sufficient time for satellite operators and astronauts on the International Space Station to minimize their risks. 

NASA’s “planet” seeking spacecraft, Kepler has returned its first images of the sky where the space agency hopes to “find” Earth-like planets. Kepler will be monitoring 100,000 stars for minute, periodic decreases in brightness caused by transiting planets. Of course whether they look like the Earth will be impossible to detect. The first area being surveyed reveals stars in between the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra. NASA hopes to “find Earth-sized planets in habitable zones” where liquid water “could” exist. Such planets have already been detected from the Earth but Kepler is the first spacecraft dedicated to finding planets. Unfortunately, the tabloid and even the broadsheets will blow everything out of proportion. “Life on planets”. Yes there is life: it’s on the Earth in abundance and with incredible individuality and variety. And it didn’t come out of a bog of organisms either. 


40 years ago
April newspapers

Your weather from the space “butterfly”
The Sun
“The Easter sunshine pick-me up looks like being a repeat prescription. London and the South should enjoy more of the same until Thursday. This is as far as the weather forecasters van go at the moment but on Friday they are due to get a powerful new ally. Their crystal ball is a half ton robot spaceship, Nimbus 3 to be launched from California. In orbit 690 miles above the Earth, it will look like a metal butterfly 10 feet tall. “

Russian’s First on the Moon
The Daily Telegraph
“Col Vladimir Shatalov, the Russian cosmonaut hinted in Moscow that Russia does not believe that the Amercians will be able to carry out their moon landing in July. “The one who is better prepared will arrive first on the moon and our desire if that wee shall be the one”.

70,000,000,000 years to go
The Sun
“A world famous astronomer will appear on BBC 2 next week and prophesy the end of the world. But don’t worry, It is not going to happen for at least 70 billion years, according to Dr Alan Sandage of the Mount Palomar Observatory, California”.

School Astronauts Get Rocket
The Daily Telegraph
A protest by a psychology professor and many telephone calls have caused three boys to cancel a five-day flight in an Earth-bound “spacecraft” (Apollo 9) at a Long Island school. The spacecraft was made of wood. It was 20ft high and 10ft wide and the boys who were supervised by their science teacher had been provided with C rations. There was an unlisted telephone number for Apollo 9 but several people discovered it and began calling at all hours of the day and night telling the boys to “get out”. Dr Howard Gruber, of Rutgers University in New Jersey called school officials to warn that it was “irresponsible” to confine the children - the boys are 12, 13 and 15 years – in such a small space for such a long period. They might suffer temporary psychological damage”.  
 

17 April (17 April 2009)

For what will likely be the last time, two Space Shuttles will be located at the Complex 39 pads 39A and B for another mission to the International Space Station and the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. 

The National Commission on Space Activity in Argentina has selected Space-X to launch two Falcon 9 medium-heavy lift booster to launch two L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar Observation & Communications Satellite (SAOCOM) spacecraft into sun-synchronous orbits. The maiden test flight of the Falcon 9 is scheduled for later this year and will be followed with a flight carrying the first Dragon cargo craft to the International Space Station later this year. 

A Congressional Budget Office report, “Budgetary Implications of NASA’s Current Plans for Space Exploration” provides four scenarios for planning in the next decade. NASA development costs could grow by 50% per year from 2010-2025 during which 79 sciences missions and the planned Constellation project to return to the moon. The first scenario sees the cancellation of the Space Shuttle programme by 2010 (probably 2011 if there are launch delays) and a delay to the development of the Constellation programme moon landings to 2023 at the earliest. The second is to continue the Space Shuttle programme, which would entail a 25% increase in the NASA budget and delays to the Constellation programme. The third scenario sees delays to science missions to fund the 2023 moon landings, which will entail a 10% increase each year of about $21 billion. The fourth option is to cancel science and astronautics research to fund the moon flights resulting with the launch of only 44 science missions in 15 years. In any event, there are bound to be delays, whichever scenario is selected.

Apologies to any visitors who have logged into the Live Launches recordings and have not had been able to listen to all the recordings of each launch. Attempts are being made to repair the problem.

Canada’s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, “Dextre” is ready for work after problems at the end of last year. The first Japanese HTV cargo craft will be launched soon.

The UK’s Surrey Space Centre in Guildford, Surrey and the Royal Academy of Engineering are co-operating with China’s Beijing University of Technology to develop lunar rovers, the first of which will be equipped with a stereo- vision system.

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract to build a SKY Perfect/JSAT Corporation to build the JCSAT 13 to be launched in 2013, equipped with 44 Ku-band transponders covering Japan, Asia and Oceania. The satellite will be positioned at 124degE over the Pacific Ocean. Lockheed Martin has also built JCSAT 9, 10 and 11 and is currently building JCSAT 12 to be launched in 2009 and JCSAT 100R in 2011. The satellites will be based on the A2100 spacecraft bus.


 

15-16 April (16 April 2009)

NASA will be grounded from US manned missions by the end of 2010 thanks to a decision by the space agency. Nine more Space Shuttle missions are planned in an orderly phase-down to hopefully ensure the remaining flights will be successful. So, by 2011 that will be the end of US manned missions for much longer than people think because of the cut-price Constellation project, which is drastically under-funded and is just a poor copy of the Apollo programme, which ended in 1972. Manned flights in Orion spacecraft are unlikely until 2015. President Obama may regret his decision not to extend the Shuttle programme as he will be solely dependent on Russia for launches, except for the US cargo missions by companies such as Space-X. Who knows how things will turn out.

China launched its BeiDou (Compass G2) second GEO navigation satellite aboard a Long March 3C from Xichang, the first in a series off launches of 27 medium Earth orbit satellites with nine of each in of orbital plane plus four geosynchronous orbits at 58degE, 80degE, 110degE and 140degE. The constellation will be the second generation of navsats.

Arianespace plans to increase the payload capacity of the Ariane 5 by 400kg and has signed an order to launch the 3,000kg Intelsat-South African New Dawn GEO communications satellite with 28 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders.

The International Space Station Node 3 to be launched by a Space Shuttle mission STS 130 Endeavour in February 2010 will be called Tranquillity in tribute of the first manned landing on the moon in 1969.

By the end of 2011, Pakistan plans to replace Paksat-1 with a new communication satellite Paksat-1R, which will be manufactured exclusively for Pakistan. The satellite will have a total of up to 30 transponders: 18 in Ku-band and 12 in C-band and will be launched by an Ariane 5 carrying two satellites or on a Soyuz launcher from Kourou. 

 
40 years ago

15 April 1969
The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Baikonur carrying a 13,800lb Zenit 4 reconnaissance satellite on an 8-day mission with a return capsule.

The US Air Force launched a Titan IIIB booster from Vandenberg carrying an  6,600lb KH-8 surveillance satellite into a 108deg inclination orbit with a low perigee of just 83 miles. The return film camera returned 15 days later.

16 April 1959
The first Thor IRBM missile to be launched by a British team from Vandenberg AFB, California flew successfully.

 

10-14 April (14 April 2009)

The launch of a Delta IV from Cape Canaveral of weather satellite has been delayed from 28 April to mid-May as a result of leak in the first stage.

Saturn’s moon Titan “may” have a subterranean ocean of hydrocarbons, according to Howard Zebker of Stanford. Hydrocarbons are the only materials on Titan’s surface that would remain liquid at minus 180deg.

North Korea’s Taepo-Dong 2 launcher flew a distance of 2,390 miles rather than the announced range of 1,900 miles. The nation has no intention of dropping its “civilian space programme”.   

Russian president Dmitriy Medvedev has “demanded that the Defence Ministry transfer the Cosmonaut Training centre to Roskosmos. Medvedev says that “there is a decree to this effect” but it seems to have been ignored by the Ministry. Russia will keep funding its space industry in 2010-11 at the same level as the last financial year. The Russian Defense Ministry plans to launch a new version of an intelligence satellite and two military communications satellites.

Flight tests of a new Russian cargo spacecraft to replace the veteran Progress fleet will begin in 2016-17, while Energia will start a conceptual design of a new manned spacecraft.
Kazakhstan has indefinitely cancelled that planned flight of a national astronaut to the International Space Station because of lack of funding. 

The NASA hopes that its Mini-SAR payload flying on India’s Chandrayaan 1 lunar orbiter will provide definite clues about the presence or absence of water on the lunar surface.

Canada’s University in Canada says that “space” begins at an altitude of 73 miles and not 50 miles, which as has been an unofficial mark of the boundary of space for years. However, the Federal Aeronautique International sets the mark of space as 62 miles. X-15 rocketplane and Virgin Galactic test pilots have who flew above 50 miles earned astronauts wings. The confusion has continued since the X-15 rocketplane pilots flew above 50 miles, starting with Robert White in 1962.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US, Russian and international countries who operate the International Space Station have agreed in principle to keep the space base operating to 2020. One hopes that the ISS will be operational much longer than at, otherwise it will have been a huge waste of money. However, Earth-bound financial problems might intervene affecting NASA budgets.

China’s new 60m high, 5m wide Long March 5D, with a launch weight of 675,000kg with two strap-on boosters  and an upper stage, will be launched in 2014 with a payload capacity of 25 tons into low Earth orbit and 12 tons GEO.

India’s space agency ISRO will launch a radar spy satellite from Shriharikota on 20 April, while on 19 April, Sea Launch will launch a Zenit 3SL from the Odyssey launch pad in the Pacific Ocean carrying Sicral 1B.

Arianespace posted a small profit of 2.5 million Euros ($3.3 million) for 2008 on sales of 955.7 million Euros ($1.26 billion). Arianespace plans to launch seven Ariane 5s and the maiden flight of a Russian Soyuz from the French Guiana launch site at Kourou.

Some scientists think that life was formed on the Earth from a hot soup of chemicals including hydrogen cyanide and wonder whether the same “soup” exists on other planets around other stars. Hydrogen cyanide (which is used to kill on the Earth!) is apparently a pre-biotic chemical……….

NASA associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier says that Congress has until 30 April to prevent the shutdown of the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010, so the idea to continue with the programme to 2015 will need more funding and a decision from the White House which has been very slow to make critical decisions about the future of the US manned space programme. US Congress gossip is that extending the Space Shuttle programme to 2015 cannot be allowed to delay the progress of the Ares-Orion Constellation programme and something will have to give.

Meanwhile, a VCIOM poll of Russian citizens reveals that 60% do not have any interest of flying into space, with only 15% definitely would like a trip.  Making matters worse, most Russian don’t know the names of any contemporary cosmonauts.

The European Space Agency has selected British software company, SciSys to undertake a proof-of-concept investigation into an innovative technique for securely partitioning on-board satellite software.
 

 
50 years ago
13 April 1959

The US Air Force launched a Thor Agena A from Vandenberg AFB carrying Discoverer 2 the first spacecraft to be placed into a polar orbit, which also featured a re-entry capsule with a film camera on the first “spy satellite” mission but the re-entry capsule was not recovered as it landed in Spitsbergen instead of at sea near Hawaii.

A US Navy Vanguard rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral carrying a 22lb satellite, which failed to orbit. It was the ninth Vanguard mission of which seven failed to date from 6 December 1957, which featured the infamous “Flopnik” failure, which followed two Soviet Sputniks. 

40 years ago
11 April 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Molniya 1-11 communications satellite aboard a Molniya booster from Baikonur into the traditional elliptical orbit with an inclination of 64deg.

13 April
The US Air Force launched Atlas Agena D booster from Cape Canaveral carrying a Canyon 2 signals intelligence satellite into a 9.9deg inclination, 20,300-24,400 miles orbit.

14 April
NASA launched the 1,267lb Nimbus 3 meteorological satellite aboard a Thorad Agena D booster from Vandenberg AFB, California into a 665-700 mile, 110deg inclination orbit. Also orbited was a 44lb piggyback geodetic satellite, Secor 13.
 

9 April (9 April 2009)

The first mirror segment of the Northrop Grumman-built NASA James Webb Space Telescope has completed its first series of cryogenic temperature tests at the space agency’s Marshall Space Flight Centre.

A mock-up of the NASA “Apollo” capsule called Orion completed a simulation and recovery “splashdown” at the Trident Basin at Cape Canaveral involving the Air Force 920th Rescue Wing based at Patrick AFB.  Meanwhile, NASA has selected the material for the heat shield of the Orion crew module, which will encounter re-entry heat as a high as 5,000degF. The ablative heatshield will be made of either Avocat - used by Apollo - or Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator.

A new study using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope “hints” that planets around stars cooler that out sun might possess a different mix of potentially life-forming or “prebiotic” chemicals. This of course is only based on the theory of evolution.

The NASA/ESA three-satellite Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) project which will be launched by a Delta IV between 2018-2020 which will attempt to detect gravitational waves will also turn its “noise” into useful information about near-Earth asteroids which will make the LISA wobble allowing data to determine there mass.
India will launch a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Shriharikota carrying a 300kg synthetic aperture radar satellite into a 550km orbit on 20 April.


40 years ago
9 April 1969

The Soviet Union launched a Zenit 2 reconnaissance satellite, Cosmos 278 into a 65deg orbit aboard a Voshkod booster from Plesestk. The film capsule was recovered after eight days.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper: “Young stars theories fall”. Ultraviolet clues to the structure of the universe may lead to the abandonment of present cosmological theories, reported Britain’s Guardian newspaper. Data from the NASA Orbiting Astronomical Observatory satellite suggest that some galaxies near by contain an unexpectedly high proportion of young stars…which does not support the “steady state” theory. The Guardian also reported “there might be life on Mars”. “Mars axis is tilted to almost the same angle as the Earth and its spin is almost identical: there is day and night and there are seasons. Because it is further from the sun, its year is much longer - about 687 of our days – and its seasons evolve slowly. Although they last the same fraction of the years on Earth, each is almost double earth length: winter lasts 200 days and is extremely cold. Cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide as well as water, into polar caps.”
 

8 April (8 April 2009)

Russia’s unfortunate quest to explore the planet Mars which started in 1960 and ended in 1998, during which most spacecraft failed and some were partial failures, was ready to start again this October when an 11 ton Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was to attempt to land on the Red planet’s moon, Phobos. Guess what? The mission has been delayed to 2012.

Russia’s Soyuz TMA 13 landed in Dzhezkazgan today after its mission to the International Space Station carrying two ISS crewmen, Mike Finke and Yuri Lonchakov, with Charles Simonyi, the first space-paying tourist to make a second flight. (Several “payload specialists” tourists including a senator and a congressman flew on the Space Shuttle). Finke and Lonchakov completed a 178 day mission, with Finke clocking up 366 days on three missions and Lonchakov 201 days on three missions. Simonyi few a 13 day mission bringing his space experience to 27 days.

The Pentagon has cancelled the Transformation Satellite (TSAT) programme- which has cost $1.5 billion and will instead buy two more Advanced EHF satellites which are under development.

North Korea’s Eunha 2 three-stage rocket flew about 3,100km over the Pacific Ocean. The first stage flew 280km off Japan’s western coast of Atika. South Korea’s KSLV 1 has a shorter range of 2,750km but has not yet launch a satellite. North Korea claimed that its missile launched a satellite called Gwangmyungseong 2 but USA monitoring stations said whatever the payload - if there was one, maybe a radio transmitter - did not enter orbit.

The Orlando Sentinal reports that the budget for the Ares 1 booster programme could increase to $44 billion compared with the projected $28 billion when the project was introduced. Orion is an Apollo capsule and the project a boondoggle. Why develop an Ares booster - launched on a first stage SRB Stick - when the Atlas 5 and the Delta IV boosters are operational?

A study by the Journal of Applied Physiology suggests that astronauts need to increase their exercise to avoid extensive muscle loss aboard the ISS.

Titan, the planet Saturn’s largest moon may have a subterranean ocean of hydrocarbons, says Stanford University. The moon’s overall shape is like a pressed rubber ball.

The Harvard Crimson writes:
“Why has NASA had such a dismal track record since the Apollo program? Reduced funding tells part of the story. The space program received around $40 billion a year (adjusted for inflation) in the mid-1960s, which was at least four percent of the federal budget. But, back then, Americans also had a much greater tolerance for risk: The first successful Apollo mission was launched just eight months after the three astronauts in Apollo 1 died during testing. NASA’s tighter leash today means that riskier programs like nuclear-powered spacecraft don’t make it off the drawing board. Ultimately, NASA’s 1960s miracles were enabled by widespread public and congressional support fueled by the Cold War race to the moon.
That’s why the primary thrust of the current Constellation program, which plans to build a permanent settlement on the moon as a stepping stone to Mars, seemed good on the surface. Its ambition rivals the Apollo program, and its announcement came on the heels of China’s first manned rocket launch, suggesting a new space race was underway. Constellation also seems to have the support of Congress, which this year proposed increasing funding for the program (at the expense of NASA’s science budget) in order to return to the moon by 2020.
However, a new struggle against communism won’t save NASA. The red menace is hardly what it was, and, besides, we already won the race to the moon 40 years ago. Going back proves nothing, and there may be little to no scientific value to a permanent moon settlement. Mars is hardly realistic, because the lengthy cruise to get there would severely disfigure our astronauts. Prolonged habitation in zero-gravity environments might permanently cost astronauts a quarter of their skeleton due to osteoporosis. While many Americans view China’s space program as a threat, there is hardly enough political will necessary to fund such an ambitious proposal on a rapid timescale. The Orion capsules that will replace the space shuttle have already been delayed to 2015. It’s only a matter of time before waning interest spurs Congress to push the timeline back even further. Although President Obama has voiced support for the moon mission as of now, he already proposed delaying Constellation to pay for science education during his campaign.”
 

 

7 April (7 April 2009)

Pratt&Whitney Rocketdyne has completed a series of 25lb thrust hot-fire tests of a potential rapid “start and stop” propulsion system using gaseous methane and oxygen that could lead to a full-scale system that could be used “for flights to Mars and beyond”.

The present Russian Glonass navigation satellite fleet will continue to at least 2011 says Roskosmos. Ninteen Glonass M and one Glonass satellite have been operating since March and by 2010, there should be a full fleet of 24 spacecraft including three in-orbit spares. The first two Glonass satellites were launched in 1982. The operational segment consists of 21 satellites and three in-orbit spares. A new fleet of Glonass M while a Glonass K fleet, one-third the size will be introduced. 

Data from the AMSR-E instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite has revealed the extent of the maximum sea ice is 5.85 million sq miles, 278,000 sq miles less than the average extent for 1979 to 2000.

Kirtland AFB, New Mexico’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) is equipped with a range of satellite sensors and back-up options for rapid missile launches to “kill” enemy attacks. The annual ORS budget was planned at $100 million but it could be cut to just $10 million in 2012. An ORS satellite 1 being built by Alliant Techsystems, equipped with a “secret” instruments is planned.

Russia’s replacement of the Soyuz TMA will make its first manned flight from a new launch centre in Vladivostok in 2018. The new spacecraft will carry six crew or cargo weighing 500kg. It will be able to fly solo mission or dock to the International Space Station. The new craft has been nicknamed “Orionisky” and could be used for circumlunar flights. The spacecraft is likely to be used for space tourist flights.

 

3-6 April (6 April 2009)

North Korea launched its three-stage Taepodong 2  multi-stage missile over northern Japan on 5 April but it did not carry satellite, despite some reports to the contrary from the nation, which called the “satellite” Kwangmyongsong 2. The launcher was called Unha 2.  The launch was a “cause of concern”, said the West.

Rapid Eye, which operates a constellation of Earth observation satellites, has formed a partnership with Russia’s Sovzond for the distribution of images to Russia and other former Soviet states.

The return of the International Space Station expedition crew, Mike Finke and Yuri Lonchakov together with space tourist Charles Simonyi has been delayed a day to 8 April due to severe weather at the landing sites in Kazahkstan. His mission costing $35 million may be extended from the planned 13 day trip.

The Russian Progress design bureau will build the new booster to eventually replace the Soyuz, that will operate out of the Vostochnyy in the Amur Region in the Far East. The main sub-contracters are Energia and Makeyev. The first launch is planned for 2018.

An Atlas 5/421 model was launched from Cape Canaveral on 4 April, carrying the Boeing-Wideband Global Satcom satellite, WGS 2  - a Spacebus 400 C4 model - carrying Ka and X-band transponders, to be stationed at 60degE over the Middle East and Central Asia.

The 50th commercial mission by International Launch Services was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Proton Breeze M from Baikonur on 4 April carrying Eutelsat Communications’s W2A satellite built by Thales Alenia based on a Spacebus 4000C4 model carrying three payloads, including the first S-band payload for Europe. 

Space Adventures would-be space tourists Esther Dyson Nik Halik and others may have to wait sometime to fly aboard Soyuz TMA spacecraft to the International Space Station or may have to wait for the planned “solo” missions, not involving the ISS. The company plans to launch a solo service by 2012, which will carry two tourists Soyuz missions with a commander. With six-crew aboard the ISS there may not be room for tourists on the ISS anymore. 

The launch of the European Space Agency’s Herschel and Planck aboard an Ariane 5 booster from Kourou has been pushed into May

University of California, Berkeley scientists say that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is getting smaller. Between 1996-2006 its size reduced by 15% - about 1km a day.

The legendary Apollo flight director, Gene Kranz says that despite the recession, space exploration should be a priority as it will keep America competitive and inspire young engineers and scientists.

Space-X has raised $15 million of an ongoing $60 million equity round.

The United Launch Alliance has completed the preliminary design and development of a sun shield for the Atlas V’s liquid oxygen-hydrogen cryogenic upper stage, which will inflate and deploy after the jettison of the payload shroud to reflect the sun’s heat away from the upper stage tanks, reducing the liquid boil-off the propellants. The same concept could be used for the Delta IV.

The first Japanese $444 million H-2B two-engine core cryogenic LOX-LH booster was static tested for 10s on its Tanegashima launch base on 2 April and another test is scheduled for later this month lasting 150s.  Funding for the project is shared by Mitsubushi and JAXA. The maiden flight is scheduled for early September, carrying the first HTV International Space Station Transfer Vehicle. At least seven. The H-2 will be able to carry 17,000lbs into geostationary into GTO. 

The cost of the Ares next-generation booster for the Constellation project has increased from $28 billion to $36 to 44 billion, which will delay the maiden manned launch to the International Space Station to late 2016-17. The original date for the first manned flight to the moon is 2020, which is now incredibly optimistic. NASA has already cancelled systems tests of the Orion manned spacecraft and Ares 1  which is suffering several technical issues and many observers expect severe cost overruns. The biggest problem is that going to the moon is not a 1960s race to the moon and therefore has no real momentum. The symbol of the Constellation project is the Orion “Apollo” capsule.

Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences completed the firing of a sub-scale attitude control motor thrusters system for the launch abort system of the Orion CEV. The next major milestone is a Pad Abort-1 Flight Test at Whites Sands, New Mexico later this year.

Boeing and Ball Aerospace have completed the assembly of the US Air Force’s Space Based Space Surveillance satellite which is awaiting a decision as to what booster will be used to send it into orbit – the Orbital Sciences’ (OSC) Taurus which recently failed or the OSC Minotaur 4.

The 5th European Conference on Space Debris, held at ESA’s Darmstadt was attended by 330 people from 21 countries and covered several issues including “re-entry break-up physics, on-orbit and re-entry analysis, optical and radar sensors for detection of debris, the first steps toward maintaining a safe space debris environment and hypervelocity impacts and protection. The bottom line is that common understanding that mitigation alone cannot maintain a safe and stable debris environment in the long-term and active space debris remediation measures will need to be devised and implemented”. That’s the bleeding obvious!


50 years ago
2-3 April 1959

The first American “Astronauts” were named by NASA to fly Mercury capsules on sub-orbital and orbital missions. The Legendary Mercury 7 astronauts were US Air Force Captains Leroy “Gordon” Cooper, Virgil “Gus” Grisson and Donald “Deke” Slayton; US Navy Lt  Malcolm “Scott” Carpenter, Lt Cdr Alan B. Shepard, Lt Cdr Walter “Wally” M. Schirra and Marine Lt Col John H. Glenn.

Lt Gen Bernard A. Schriever, Commander AFBMD, was named Commander of Air Research and Development Command.

40 years ago
3 April 1969

The Sun newspaper’s headline reports “Space HQ doctors prepare for bugs from the Moon…A week-long dress rehearsal of what could be the most important medical check in history ends today when 14 men in Houston, Texas are released from Super-Q, the strictest quarantine system in the world has yet sees. All have been testing medical techniques that must be enforced when, in July the first men return to the Earth from the Moon”.

The Times newspaper reports that “the first conclusive proof of the presence of water on Mars have been obtained at the University of Texas. Several spectra of Mars obtained by the university’s McDonald observatory, gave “uamibiguous proof of the existence, amount and uneven distribution between the hemispheres of water vapour in the atmosphere of Mars”.

The Guardian newspaper reports that “the Nimbus 3, America’s most advanced weather satellite which will collect information from - among other things – an elk roaming in Yellowstone National Park, will be launched from the Western test range on 11 April”.

4 April
The Soviet Union launched two satellites from Plesetsk -  Cosmos 276, a Zenit 4 reconnaissance satellite aboard a Soyuz booster from Plesetsk. The mission lasted the usual seven days with the retrieval of the film capsule. Cosmos 277 was launched by a Cosmos booster on an air defence mission.









 

 

2 April (2 April 2009)

One of the eight radiator panels of the International Space Station’s S1 radiator has been damaged and could cause an ammonia leak in the External Thermal Control System, which may require flying a replacement on a future Space Shuttle mission which could also return the damaged unit. The problem was spotted during an EVA on the recent STS 119 mission.

The standby Space Shuttle rescue crew for the final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope will be four members of the planned STS 123 mission – commander Dominic Gorie, pilot Greg Johnson and mission specialists, Robert Behnken and Michael Foreman.

The delayed launch of the US Air Force’s Wideband Global Satcom 2 satellite aboard an Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral on 4 April, while the next Atlas 5 mission carrying NASA’s delayed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled for June.

Ball Aerospace has been selected by Boeing to provide the Ares 1 instrument unit assembly, flight computer and command telemetry computer. Meanwhile, Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences have successfully operated the in a series of ground tests of the Orion spacecraft’s attitude control system in preparation for the Pad Abort 1 Flight Test using a full-scale crew module mock-up. The Ares 1-X flight test will be made no earlier than 11 July.

South Korea says that North Korea has spent around $500 million on its first satellite launch “of a communications satellite”, which is expected to take place between April 4-8. The US believes that the flight will actually be long- range missile called Taepodong 2 – which would be in defiance of an UN resolution. Taepodong 1 was launched over Japan in August 1998 but the third stage failed.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is talking about changing the orbit of Mars to bring it closer to the Earth. Maybe the scientists spent too long in the bar after work.

An Indian small prototype of a planned space shuttle will be tested from Sriharikota next year using a combined aircraft-rocket carrier based on the 1980s Satellite Launch Vehicle 3.The programme aims to test fly a Reusable Launch Vehicle in 2010.


50 years ago
2 April 1969

The Soviet Union’s quest to explore Mars continued to fail with the latest attempted launch of a Proton K booster from Baikonur when the a fire in engine started at lift-off. The rocket flew horizontally and exploded, spraying the launch pad with propellant while observers nearby fled at extreme speed. 
 

 
 

31 March-1 April (1 April 2009)

The much-delayed final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission is set for launch on 12 May. The STS 125 Atlantis stack was rolled out to Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre on 31 March. The orbiter Endeavour will later be placed on Pad 39B on standby to move to Pad 39A if there is a need for a space rescue.

Former Apollo and Space Shuttle astronaut Tom Mattingly, speaking at conference invoked what he affectionately called "the spirit of Apollo." The US Navy Rear Admiral said, "We've got hard days ahead of us, but we are equipped to take care of it." Mattingly, who was replaced by Jack Swigert for the Apollo 13 mission at the last moment, worked at mission control as the key advisor and contact with the crippled crew.  Mattingly dismissed his portrayal, by actor Gary Sinise in Ron Howard's film of "Apollo 13," as an act of individual heroism. Mattingly joked, "When I saw that movie, I decided that when I grew up, I wanted to be Gary Sinise."

Four Russians, one Frenchman and one German have entered a space laboratory at the Russian Space Institute in Moscow to simulate a 105 days flight to Mars mainly to test how humans can cope in long isolation. Reaching Mars using present technology will take about 500 days. Russia estimates that a manned flight to Mars is unlikely until 2030. The spacecraft would have to be three times the size of the International Space Station. The longer 520 days simulation will start later this year.

The Space Foundation’s Space Report 2009 reveals that worldwide space revenues grew 2.5% to $257 billion.

Japanese air force Lt Col Kimiya Yui and All Nippon Airways pilot are joining the nation’s space agency JAXA to train with NASA for missions on the International Space Station.

A panel of officials with representatives from the Air Force, industry and a former astronaut were asked what they see as the largest threat to U.S. space assets. Col. Dusty Tyson, chief of the Air Force’s Space Control Division said, “Not knowing what everything is on orbit scares me. I am still interested in knowing what everything is at least at the geosynchronous level.” Richard Dalbello, vice president of Intelsat General Corporation, said.  “A focused cyber attack could be severely disabling. Not necessarily now but the technology that will evolve over the next decade. We have a lot of stuff in space that needs to be protected.” Donald R. McMonagle, former astronaut and manager of NASA’s Launch Integration Space Shuttle Programme said, “Orbital debris. There were times when we had to bring astronauts back inside the space station because of fears of collisions from space debris. If there was an impact that would cause catastrophic damage.”

The US Institute for Science and International Security reports that a DigitalGlobe company reconnaissance satellite has returned images of a rocket on a launch pad at North Korea’s Musudan-ri launch base. The Associated Press reported that the GlobalSecurity organisation believes there is a rocket on a launch pad but whether it is a missile or a satellite launcher is not known.

Space-X plans to launch the fifth Falcon 1 booster no earlier than 20 April carrying a Russian ATSB RazakSAT satellite.

The new International Space Station commander, Russia’s Gennadi Padalka says that arguments about how astronauts and cosmonauts divide the food, water, toilet and other facilities is complicating relations between international crews. The formal arrangement is that cosmonauts and astronauts eat their own food. Exercise US equipment is only used by NASA astronauts says Padalka who adds that there are similar arrangements for toilets. As Padalka is now aboard, perhaps he might force some changes.

Mexico plans to build a spaceport for satellite launches in Quintana Roo on the border with Belize. Mexico’s space agency, Aexa will be located in Hidalgo.