NASA G2

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Date 02.05.2021

SpaceX capsule leaves space station with 4 astronauts

The crew headed home aboard the Dragon capsule after their November launch ended years of US reliance on Russia to ferry its astronauts into space.

Four astronauts departed the International Space Station (ISS) late Saturday aboard a SpaceX vessel, after more than 160 days in space.

The capsule, set to land off the Florida coast, would be the first US nighttime splashdown since Apollo 8's crew returned from the moon in 1968.

SpaceX targeted a splashdown around 3 a.m. Sunday. The Coast Guard deployed extra patrols and spotlights.

"The astronauts have removed their spacesuits and are enjoying one more meal in space before returning to Earth. They'll suit up again before the deorbit burn, about 4.5 hours from now," NASA tweeted. 

NASA's Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan's Soichi Noguchi, headed home in the same Dragon capsule that delivered them to the ISS last November.

[...]

The four astronauts' replacements arrived a week ago aboard the same Dragon capsule.

Three US astronauts, two Russians, a Japanese and a French were left at the space station after Saturday's undocking.

Last November, the crew were the first to go on a fully operational mission to the ISS aboard a vehicle made by SpaceX.

SpaceX has become NASA's favored commercial transportation partner, ending nine years of dependence on Russia. 

https://www.dw.com/en/spacex-capsule-leaves-space-station-with-4-astronauts/a-57401075

ETA:

Quote

Date 02.05.2021

SpaceX capsule with four ISS astronauts splashes down off Florida

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts back to Earth from the International Space Station has parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first US crew splashdown in darkness since 1968.

SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk's company.

After an express trip home, lasting just 6 1/2 hours, the crew splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, off Florida, at around 3 a.m. local time (0700 UTC/GMT).

'Welcome back!'

"We welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX," SpaceX's Mission Control radioed moments after splashdown.

"For those of you enrolled in our frequent flyer program, you've earned 68 million miles on this voyage."

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/spacex-capsule-with-four-iss-astronauts-splashes-down-off-florida/a-57401075

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by BansheeOne

[BansheeOne]

It came down, and stayed, in one piece!

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Date 06.05.2021

SpaceX successfully lands Starship rocket after four failed attempts

Elon Musk's SpaceX has successfully launched and landed the SN15 after initial attempts ended in explosions mid-air or shortly after landing.

US aerospace company SpaceX successfully landed its prototype Starship rocket at its Texas base on Wednesday, after the earlier four attempts ended in fiery explosions.

"Starbase Flight Control has confirmed, as you can see on the live video, we are down. The Starship has landed!" launch commentator John Insprucker announced after touchdown.

The latest version of SpaceX’s stainless steel rocketship, called SN15, ascended over 10 kilometers over the Gulf of Mexico before flipping and coming down horizontally during the six-minute flight. It switched to a vertical position right before touchdown. 

A small fire broke out at the base of the 50 meter-high rocket soon after landing but Insprucker explained this was "not unusual with the methane fuel we're using," and that engineers were still working out some design issues. It was extinguished successfully.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk took to Twitter to refer to the landing as "nominal", which means normal in the context of spaceflight.

Last month, NASA chose SpaceX's Starship to deliver astronauts to the moon in the next few years in a $3 billion contract. However, the losing companies — Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Dynetics — protested, pausing the contract.

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/spacex-successfully-lands-starship-rocket-after-four-failed-attempts/a-57441890

Unlike this thing will, by design.

Quote

Date 04.05.2021

Author Zulfikar Abbany

China's rocket: Uncontrolled, unpredictable return home

It's impossible to predict when and where China's Long March 5 rocket, a CZ-5B, will crash down to Earth. But it will. The question is: What's the risk?

Only a few weeks ago, the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket made an uncontrolled reentry into Earth's atmosphere after deploying Starlink telecommunication satellites for the company. 

The rocket lit up the sky over homes in the Portland and Washington State area of the US. 

Now, spaceflight experts expect the core stage of a Chinese Long March 5 rocket to do the same — in the next few days.

At this stage, it is hard to say with 100% certainty how, or exactly where and when the bits of rocket, which is a Chang Zheng-5B (CZ-5B), will come down.

The European Space Agency is tracking developments. Their space debris office told DW that the uncontrolled reentry of a CZ-5B core stage was the heaviest of its kind in more than 20 years. But they say that "the actual mass [of the rocket] is unknown," so it's difficult to be exact.

That's an important fact because you would usually want to control the way in which you "de-orbit" any spacecraft, be it part of a rocket or old satellite, to make sure you control where and when it lands. And since China's Long March 5 rockets appear to use uncontrolled reentries by design — they have done it once before with a CZ-5B rocket in May 2020 — it's got the rest of the world's space community watching, eagerly.

[...]

The ESA's space debris team currently estimates that the CZ-5B spacecraft will reenter Earth's atmosphere on May 9 at about 5:23 p.m. UTC (1:23 p.m. ET). That's about 1:23 a.m. on May 10 in Beijing (CST).

But such predictions have a "typical uncertainty window" of about of 20%, which means the estimated time of arrival is +/- 26.44 hours around that time.

It's also virtually impossible to say where the spacecraft will come down.

[...]

Tracking the untrackable?

Public intellectuals and spaceflight experts, such as Jonathan McDowell at Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, are also keeping watch over the trajectory of the falling core from CZ-5B.

McDowell describes the uncontrolled return of CZ-5B as "bigger than anything recent, but not as big as Skylab."

Skylab was an American space station that crashed back to Earth in 1979 and disintegrated over a populated area in rural Australia. Some of it fell into the Indian Ocean.

Then, as now, details were sketchy before the event. Even after an event, details can remain sketchy.

When Skylab came down, a US government spokesperson told a press conference, "We lost track of the thing on its last pass somewhere around …," and then he paused, unable to remember the name of the island until someone prompts him, "and the next thing we heard was that it was coming down over Australia." 

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/chinas-rocket-uncontrolled-unpredictable-return-home/a-57425829

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Date 09.05.2021

Chinese rocket disintegrates over Indian Ocean

The fragments are from a Chinese space module launched at the end of last month. There had been speculation about where the debris would land, but experts predicted the chances of death or injuries were tiny.

Debris from a  Chinese rocket fell back to Earth on Sunday, disintegrating over the Indian Ocean, according to Chinese state media.

The reports cited the China Manned Space Engineering Office as saying that the point of impact was southwest of India and Sri Lanka.

"After monitoring and analysis, at 10:24 (0224 GMT) on May 9, 2021, the last-stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 launch vehicle has re-entered the atmosphere," it said in a statement.

The fragments are from the Long March-5b rocket that was used to launch the first module of China's new space station last month.

At 18 tons it is one of the largest items in decades to have undergone an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere.

There had been fervent speculation about where it would land, but given that Earth is nearly 70% water the chances of it hitting an inhabited area were very small.

Last year, debris from a rocket fell on villages in Ivory Coast but there were no injuries or deaths.

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/chinese-rocket-disintegrates-over-indian-ocean/a-57473383

[rmgill]

7 hours ago, BansheeOne said:

https://www.dw.com/en/chinese-rocket-disintegrates-over-indian-ocean/a-57473383

 

[rmgill]

EOD on the moon..

https://www.standingwellback.com/explosive-devices-on-the-moon/?fbclid=IwAR3YUOdeN5AEjPfcnvO0-85A6DUJ5omRBYtHvp6uNglTi-kX2UiAksGcKSQ

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Date 15.05.2021

China's 'Zhurong' Mars rover lands successfully

The "Zhurong" rover was transported to Mars on the Tianwen-1 orbiter, which reached the Red Planet in February. China is now the second country after the US to successfully land a spacecraft on Mars.

The landing module of China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft, carrying the "Zhurong" Mars rover, successfully landed on the Martian surface, state media reported early Saturday, citing China's National Space Administration.

It landed at a site on the Southern Utopia Plain, "leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time," the Xinhua news agency said.

The landing is a major advancement for China's space program, which has been increasing its ambitions over the past year. 

The successful landing of the unmanned spacecraft makes China the second country after the United States to achieve this feat. 

Named after the Chinese god of fire, the Zhurong rover weighs approximately 240 kilograms (529 pounds). It has six wheels and four solar panels and is capable of moving on the surface of Mars at a speeds of up to 200 meters (656 feet) per hour.

According to plans, the rover will stay in the lander and run diagnostic tests for a few days, before rolling down to the surface of Mars to explore an icy area known as "Utopia Planitia." 

The rover was transported to Mars on the Tianwen-1 orbiter, which took off from the Chinese island of Hainan in July last year. It was launched by the powerful Long March 5 rocket.

After over six months in transit, it reached the Red Planet's orbit in February.

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/chinas-zhurong-mars-rover-lands-successfully/a-57538426

[Ssnake]

There were very successful landings from other nations before this one. They soundingly confirmed the hypothesis that lithobreaking would exceed the structural strain limits of various probe designs.

[Tim Sielbeck]

 

[BansheeOne]

Quote

China's rover starts exploring Mars

5h ago

The solar-powered Zhurong rover is expected to roam Mars for 90 days to search for evidence of life on the planet's surface and in the atmosphere.

China's first Mars rover has started its exploration on the red planet, according to the country's national space administration. The Zhurong rover touched Martian soil on Saturday at 10.40 am (Beijing time), a week after it landed on the red planet.

China is the second country after the US to drive a rover on Mars. The former Soviet Union had landed a rover on Mars in 1971, but it lost communication in seconds.

The solar-powered rover is expected to roam Mars for 90 days to search for evidence of life on the planet's surface and atmosphere.

Named after the Chinese god of fire, the Zhurong rover weighs approximately 240 kilograms (529 pounds). It has six wheels and four solar panels and is capable of moving on the surface of Mars at a speeds of up to 200 meters (656 feet) per hour. Zhurong is equipped with six scientific instruments, including a high-resolution topography camera.

[...] 

https://m.dw.com/en/chinas-rover-starts-exploring-mars/a-57629057

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Date 16.06.2021

China to send first astronauts to its space station site

The three-member crew will be the first to blast off to China's space station site to conduct spacewalks, maintenance work and science experiments.

China is set to send a spacecraft carrying three astronauts to its new space station for the first time Thursday morning.

Chinese astronauts have not been to the International Space Station (ISS) — a collaboration between the US, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan — as US legislation bars NASA from cooperating with China.

What did China say about its space mission?

The Chinese space agency announced Wednesday that the astronauts will be traveling in the Shenzhou 12 spaceship launched by a Long March-2F Y12 rocket set to blast off at 9:22 a.m. (0122 UTC).

"Exploring the vast universe, developing space activities building a powerful space nation is our unremitting space dream," China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming told reporters.

"I believe that in the near future, when the Chinese space station is complete, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts taking on joint missions to the Chinese space station," he said.

"It is a positive contribution by China for human exploration of the universe, peaceful utilization of outer space and push forward the building of a community of shared future for mankind."

Shenzhou 12 is the third of 11 missions needed to build China's station, which is expected to be completed by 2022.

Who are the astronauts?

Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo are due to launch from the Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert.

The trio will stay on the core module of the new station for three months, the longest for any Chinese astronauts. They will live on the orbiting Tianhe station, conducting maintenance work, tests and spacewalks. 

"The [mission] is longer this time, and not only do we have to set up the core module — this 'home' in space — we've to carry out a series of pivotal technical tests," Nie told reporters in Jiuquan. 

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/china-to-send-first-astronauts-to-its-space-station-site/a-57914839

[Stuart Galbraith]

British rocket engine tested on Shetland.

 

[BansheeOne]

Quote

China plans for first manned mission to Mars in 2033

The ambitious target is part of a plan to build a base on the Red Planet, in an intensifying space rivalry with the US.

24 Jun 2021

China plans to send its first crewed mission to Mars in 2033, with regular follow-up flights, under a long-term plan to build a permanently inhabited base on the Red Planet and extract its resources.

The ambitious plan, which will intensify a race with the United States to put humans on Mars, was disclosed in detail for the first time after China landed a robotic rover on Mars in mid-May in its inaugural mission to the planet.

Crewed launches to Mars are planned for 2033, 2035, 2037, 2041 and beyond, the head of China’s main rocket maker, Wang Xiaojun, told a space exploration conference in Russia recently by video link.

Before the crewed missions begin, China will send robots to Mars to study possible sites for the base and to build systems to extract resources there, the official China Space News reported on Wednesday, citing Wang, who is head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

For human habitation on Mars, crews would have to be able to use the planet’s resources, such as extracting any water beneath its surface, generating oxygen on-site and producing electricity.

China must also develop technology to fly astronauts back to Earth.

An uncrewed round-trip mission to acquire soil samples from the planet is expected by the end of 2030.

NASA, the US space agency, has been developing technology to get a crew to Mars and back sometime in the 2030s.

China’s Mars plan envisages fleets of spacecraft shuttling between Earth and Mars and the major development of its resources, Wang said.

To shorten the travel time, spacecraft would have to tap energy released from nuclear reactions in the form of heat and electricity, in addition to traditional chemical propellants, Wang said.

China would have to accomplish round trips with a total flight time of “a few hundred days”, he said.

China is also planning to set up a base at the south pole of the Moon and is deploying robotic expeditions to asteroids and Jupiter around 2030.

Last week, China sent three astronauts to an unfinished space station in its first crewed mission since 2016, expanding its growing near-Earth presence and challenging US leadership in orbital space.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/24/china-plans-for-first-manned-mission-to-mars-in-2033

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Chinese astronauts make first space walk at new station

4h ago

It's the first of two such walks planned for the three-month stay at the Tiangong space station. They're expected spend around six hours in space, carrying out construction work.

Two astronauts made the first space walk outside China's new orbital station on Sunday morning, state media reported.

Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo's space walk comes just weeks after they and crew member, Nie Haisheng, became the first astronauts to arrive at the station, on a three-month mission.

Carrying out the spacewalk

Liu and Tang were shown by state TV climbing out of the airlock.

They were tasked with elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module of the Tiangong space station. They also had to verify the 15-meter (50-foot) robotic arm's transfer capability, state media said.

Television footage showed the astronauts preparing for the spacewalk by donning gear and conducting health checks while exercising in the cabin.

The space walk was expected to last around six hours.

It is the first of two planned for the mission.

As well as carrying out space walks, the crew members are carrying out experiments, conducting maintenance and preparing the station for two more modules scheduled to launch next year.

[...] 

https://m.dw.com/en/chinese-astronauts-make-first-space-walk-at-new-station/a-58152884

[DB]

The Virgin Space Ship made it above 80km/50 miles with Branson on board. Some say it should have left him there, which seems unfair. Some also say that it doesn't count as space because it wasn't 100km, only 86. there are, or were, a number of X-15 pilots who have astronaut wings that would beg to differ.

[Ssnake]

The transition is continuous. Some Satellites go below 100km and come close to 80. Besides, who cares which of the lot can claim bragging rights in their space-racing bazillionaire club.

[rmgill]

If X15 pilots get their astronaut wings for flying where RCS becomes the only way to control your craft...

[BansheeOne]

Jeff Bezos goes to real space in a ... 

 

[rmgill]

Somehow I think Elon's joke about making the Starship more pointy is a more subtle joke than Bezo's Austin Powers reference. 

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Date 30.07.2021

Russian space lab pushes ISS out of position after docking

Thrusters on the Nauka science lab fired "inadvertently", NASA said, prompting a delay to another planned launch. The situation was remedied in 47 minutes.

A Russian science lab knocked the International Space Station out of position after docking on Thursday when its thrusters malfunctioned. 

The Nauka science module had docked with the ISS after an eight day journey from the Russian launch site in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

NASA technicians said they had "a pretty exciting hour" trying to return the space station with its seven astronauts to its original position for 47 minutes.

What went wrong?

NASA said thrusters on the Nauka science lab fired "inadvertently," a few hours after it had docked at the ISS.

It caused the station to move 45 degrees out of position, which is essential for solar panels to work and communications with Earth to carry on uninterrupted.

For a few minutes communications with ground control stopped working twice.

NASA then used thrusters on other Russian modules to return the space station to its proper position.

"We haven't noticed any damage," space station program manager Joel Montalbano said. "There was no immediate danger at anytime to the crew.''

NASA said it was still working out what caused the malfunction, which was not felt by the crew at the time.

What were its consequences?

The incident caused the launch of a Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule, planned for Friday, to be delayed.

Due for blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US module to be added to the space station would have been transported by a Boeing Lockheed Martin Corp Atlas V rocket.

NASA now expects to launch the Starliner capsule on August 3 or 4.

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/russian-space-lab-pushes-iss-out-of-position-after-docking/a-58699061

[rmgill]

Screwing up the orbit like that is potentially bad if not reversed. That's a scream at the computer and 're-load the save' moment in KSP. 😁

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Date 31.07.2021

Russia blames ISS incident on software glitch

A Russian space agency chief said "a human factor" could have also played a role in the incident that briefly pushed the International Space Station off track.

Russia said on Friday that a software failure caused thrusters on its new lab module to switch on and move the International Space Station (ISS) off course after the new module docked.

Engines on the new Nauka science lab switched on three hours after docking with the ISS on Thursday, pushing the whole space station out of position for 47 minutes before NASA ground crew managed to fix the problem.

Russian space agency bosses said they would work on changing a newly attached module which was at fault during the minor accident.

What has Russia said?

Vladimir Solovyov, the flight director for the Russia segment of the ISS, said that the situation had been contained on the Nauka.

"Due to a short-term software failure, a direct command was mistakenly implemented to turn on the module's engines for withdrawal, which led to some modification of the orientation of the complex as a whole," Solovyov said.

The head of the Russian space program Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said "a human factor" could have been part of the problem.

Rogozin said that the seven crew on board experienced "euphoria" after the new module docked successfully, after which "everybody got relaxed."

However, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky told concerned space fans not to "worry" after reading comments on Twitter.

"Our work at the International Space Station to integrate the newly arrived Nauka module continues!" he tweeted.

What now for the ISS?

Two Russian cosmonauts, three NASA astronauts, a Japanese and a European astronaut — who were never in any danger during the incident — will now proceed in taking possession of their expanded space station.

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-blames-iss-incident-on-software-glitch/a-58711930

[John Nelson]

The real situation regarding the Nauka module uncontrolled thruster firing was far more serious than first reported. 

The station did not move 45 degrees out of alignment. 

The entire ISS, solar panels and all, completed one and a half revolutions before coming to a stop upside down. 

Which begs the question, just how do you clean a brown flight suit in space?

 

Space station situation with Russian module misfire more serious than stated: report

 

In battle with Russian lab module, space station ‘brought a knife to a gun fight’

[BansheeOne]

5 hours ago, John Nelson said:

Space station situation with Russian module misfire more serious than stated: report

Quote

[...] 

"We had two messages — just two lines of code — saying that something was wrong," Scoville said. 

After initially thinking the message could perhaps be a mistake, he told The New York Times, he soon realized that it was not and that Nauka was not only firing its thrusters, but that it was trying to actually pull away from the space station that it had just docked with. And he was soon told that the module could only receive direct commands from a ground station in Russia, which the space station wouldn't pass over for over an hour. 

[...] 

Damn little green men. 

[BansheeOne]

Quote

Date 04.08.2021

Russia and US to continue working together on ISS: Report

Russia said it would continue working with the United States after earlier saying it would withdraw from the ISS in 2025. Russia has criticized US sanctions on the space sector, which affect Moscow's satellite launches.

Russia and the US will continue working together on the International Space Station (ISS), Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a senior official at Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

In June, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said Russia would withdraw from the space station in 2025. Moscow wanted the US to lift sanctions on the space sector, which it said was hampering Russian satellite launches.

Russia's ISS incident 

Last month, engines on Russia's Nauka science lab switched on three hours after docking with the ISS, pushing the whole space station out of position for 47 minutes before NASA ground crew managed to fix the problem.

Russia said a software failure caused thrusters on its new lab module to switch on and move the International Space Station off course after the new module docked. A "human factor" could have caused the prolem, said Rogozin.

The Nauka, which means "Science" in Russian, will add a new science lab and living quarters to the ISS complex.

The 22-ton (20-metric-ton) module is fitted with its own life support system that is now hermetically sealed onto the space station.

Rogozin said a new Russian space module would be launched to the ISS in November.

Boeing's Starliner capsule was scheduled to send an unmanned test flight from Cape Canaveral to the space station on Wednesday. 

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-and-us-to-continue-working-together-on-iss-report/a-58750878

[rmgill]

Sounds like KSP kraken issues where you dock with a station and something bug like causes an unexpected thrust vector.