NASA and other global space programs (excluding Indian) news, Updates and Discussions

DumbPilot

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On Columbia's anniversary. People inside the MCC - they don't actually realize earlier it's the heat melting off the sensors causing the erroneous readings.

Fair reminder that spaceflight is no joke
 

skywatcher

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SpaceX performs Starship static-fire test

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SpaceX fired nearly all of the engines in the booster of its Starship launch vehicle in a ground test Feb. 9, one of the last technical milestones before the vehicle’s first orbital launch attempt.

The Super Heavy booster ignited its engines at about 4:14 p.m. Eastern at the company’s Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas. The engines fired for nearly 15 seconds, with both the booster and launch infrastructure appearing intact after the test. SpaceX said that the test ran for the full intended duration.

The test was designed to fire all 33 Raptors in the booster. However, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted immediately after the test that controllers turned off one engine just before the test and another stopped itself during the test. “But still enough engines to reach orbit!” he declared.

Company officials had previously said a full 33-engine static-fire test was the final major test for the vehicle before the first orbital launch attempt. “It’s really the final ground test that we can do before we light ’em up and go,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at the Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Conference Feb. 8, when she announced the scheduled test.

Shotwell said at the conference that if the test went well, the company would be ready to make an orbital launch attempt in about a month. That schedule will depend not just on the technical readiness of the vehicle but also receiving an FAA launch license. “I think we’ll be ready to fly right at the timeframe that we get the license,” Shotwell predicted in comments to reporters after her conference presentation.

Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the moon on the Artemis 3 mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program.

The two are linked, said Nick Cummings, director of civil space advanced development at SpaceX, during another panel at the FAA conference Feb. 9, noting that initial Starship missions will launch Starlink satellites. “I think we should all think about those as Artemis launches,” he said of Starship launches carrying Starlink satellites. “Critically, what we’re doing is developing the reliability and reusability that we need to support the HLS mission and, more broadly, the sustainable expansion of humanity to the moon and then Mars.”

Shotwell, in her conference presentation, suggested Starship might fly 100 or more times before it carries people, although she later told reporters that was more of a goal than a requirement. “I would love to do hundreds before. I think that would be a great goal and it’s quite possible that we could do that,” she said.

She acknowledged there is no guarantee the first orbital launch will be a success, but that the company was ready to make repeated attempts. “We will go for a test flight and we will learn from the test flight and we will do more test flights,” she told reporters. “The real goal is to not blow up the launch pad. That is success.”
 

skywatcher

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Seriously? 134 orbital launch attempts from US are expected in 2023 probably more than the rest of world combined
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skywatcher

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ULA announces May launch of first Vulcan

ORLANDO — The first launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is now scheduled for no earlier than May 4, a date the company says is based on remaining tests of the rocket and its main engines as well as launch windows for its primary payload.

In a call with reporters Feb. 23, ULA Chief Executive Tory Bruno announced the date for the long-awaited inaugural flight of the rocket as the company gears up for a series of tests of the rocket at Space Launch Complex 41. The launch will carry Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation and a payload for space memorial company Celestis.

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skywatcher

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All the possible lunar landers/rovers in 2023
1.iSpace Hakuto-R lander & Emirates Rashid lunar rover(en route)
2.Astrobotic Technology Mission One Peregrine lander & Mexico Colmena micro-rovers(May)
3.Intuitive Machines IM-1 Nova-C lander(late June)
3.Roscomos Luna-25 lander(July 13)
4.ISRO Chandrayaan-3 lander & rover(Q3/Q4)
5.Intuitive Machines IM-2 Nova-C lander(Q4)
6.JAXA SLIM lander & LEV-2 rover(Q4)
*the launch time is for your reference only
 
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skywatcher

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ESA JUICE launch targeted for April 13

Launch date: April 13, 2023
Orbital insertion: 2034
Objective: Study three of Jupiter's Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa (excluding the volcanically active Io) to search for life.
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WarmongerLSK

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The capsule had an issue with one of the hooks. So, the capsule hovers 20m above the ISS. It can do so for about 2 hrs. The issue got fixed and the docking proceeded fine.
 

Blademaster

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DumbPilot

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Well after they flew it once or twice they decided not to fly it anymore because they found out that it was a total waste of money and it was better off using staging rockets with a crew capsule at the top. Took US 20 more years to figure that part out.



IIRC it was the last great project before USSR dissolved.
The most useful utilization of the Shuttle was its ability to snatch away satellites and bring them back to Earth, or deploy satellites where human interaction was a necessity.
 

Indx TechStyle

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DumbPilot

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That is only successful Soviet super heavy lift launcher called Energia. After Americans landed on moon using Saturn V, Soviets unsuccessfully tried launching an equivalent called N9 for a decade. They finally had a super heavy rocket with 75% capacity of Saturn V in 1990 but their country collapsed.
If Korolev had not died, the Soviets would have been on the moon. This is the same country who was sending probes to the Moon, landing and returning them before the Americans even learned much about intra-system transfers
 

skywatcher

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Terran-1 rolled out for launch tomorrow. another methalox rocket attempts to reach orbit. stay tuned.
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Indx TechStyle

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If Korolev had not died, the Soviets would have been on the moon. This is the same country who was sending probes to the Moon, landing and returning them before the Americans even learned much about intra-system transfers
Korolev was a launch system engineer, not an exclusive liquid fuel engine designer and a robotics pioneer. So no, Soviets wouldn't have landed on moon even if Korolev was alive.

There is no "one man army" involved in a large scale program and an entire team, not alone Korolev was. Combination of Soviet money, resources, scientific team and program management groups were together responsible for failure of N1 rocket failure as well as success of Energia. Soviet Union's political and economic failure lead to its collapse and end of space program.
 

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1.5 years old article for Thai space program.

The identical low life western media wanking about "The announcement causes many unfavorable reactions from Thai citizens; despite our lack of human rights, freedom of speech, and poverty problem, going to the moon is believed to be out of our reach. "
Thailand Announces Its first multi-billion Lunar and Deep Space mission.
Bangkok – It is now about a month since Anek Laothamatas, minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Royal Thai Government shockingly surprise Thai citizens by mentioned its moon mission. The announcement causes many unfavorable reactions from Thai citizens; despite our lack of human rights, freedom of speech, and poverty problem, going to the moon is believed to be out of our reach.
Most of the Thai media went to the government spokesperson, but they didn’t comment on that topic. We know that something was wrong. The minister shouldn’t have announced any detail.
Artist render of one of the Thai Space Consortium spacecraft. Source – TSC
Today, January 20, 2021. The responsible organization for the space program has made the very first public comment on the agenda. The National Astronomical Research Institute host, a Facebook Live session, brings the responsible person to join, including Saran Poshyachinda, National Astronomical Res., Saroj Rujiwat, Synchrotron Light, the first three organization to form the consortium. Pongsatorn Saisutjarit, International Institute of Space Technology for Economic Development, who later joined the consortium in early 2021, also joined the session.
Saran Poshyachinda made the very first public announcement on the program by showing the image presenting their milestone.
The program will include series of Spacecraft development.
  • Thai Space Consortium Pathfinder will be their first technology demonstration satellite of the program and will be launched or developed not earlier than 2022.
  • TSC-1 will be the first serious phase of the mission featuring an optical instrument for Low Earth Orbit observation. It will be launched not earlier than 2025.
  • TSC-2 is the moonshot program. The consortium will launch the spacecraft into lunar orbit and conduct several experiments. (2027)
  • They also aimed to develop and launch TSC-3, 4, and 5, but not many details were given.
(The number in the image is buddhist calendar, you can make it become AD by minus 543)
One of the slides from the Facebook Live session showing the milestone and budget of the program. Source – NARIT
Thailand has no launch vehicle, so Thai will need to collaborate with other launch service providers. Will it controversially be China? We still do not know yet.

So what is it all about and what is the Thai Space Consortium
We need to go back to when the National Astronomical Res. had a sign and MOU with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2018, where we can be considered the program’s initiation. The program did not appear to be very clear who will join and what they will make. The TSC was gradually mentioned more and more since time pass. GISTDA and Synchrotron later mention being part of the consortium.
NARIT MOU Signing where we believe to be the fist sign of the consortium. Source – NARIT
In December 2020, The consortium went larger by having the National Innovation Agency, the International Institute of Space Technology for Economic Development, and several universities joined them. The more organization joined will make the program impact the further industry. This was mentioned in their announcement session.
What will they potentially do
Thai Space Consortium will be mostly focused on science experiments. According to Facebook Live, they firmly believe the program will result in human development. Mentioning space weather physics, Mahidol University (who also join the program) has a robust weather physic study program led by David Ruffolo and his colleague. It makes sense since we already have many hypotheses on many space weather problems; the Thai Space Consortium spacecraft will be a very suitable platform for the program to join. More science experiments are expected to be on spacecrafts from TSC-1 to TSC-5.
Conclusion
Today’s announcement is the first step and an exciting point where they clearly tell us all about what will happen. The TSC-Pathfinder will be the first spacecraft, followed by TSC-1, and the moonshot TSC-2 and series of spacecraft will come. As they all said in the session, the program is believed to help Thai engineers and scientists develop their profession. Beyond that, they also aim to help create Space Economy for Thailand in the near future.
 

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