Space Stuff and Launch Info

[Astronuc]

https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-curiosity-rover-mars-spotted-climbing-mont-mercou-2021-5

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) snapped a dramatic image of the Curiosity rover climbing Mont Mercou, a terrene near the centre of the Gale Crater, according to the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at The University of Arizona.

MRO captured the image on April 18 using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment tool (HiRISE), which can spot features as small as a kitchen table. So, even at an altitude of 167.5 miles, the car-sized Curiosity rover was in plain sight, according to the HiRISE team's image description.

Since 2014, Curiosity has been climbing the 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, the central peak of the Gale Crater.

 

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SpaceX pad teams are currently spraying the companies newest Falcon 9 with artificial soot ahead of its maiden flight on Thursday.

SpaceX has said: "Some customers have become wary of flying on un-flight tested boosters, we hope this new paint scheme will help to reassure them!"

It's a satire tweet, but it's true that customers start preferring boosters that have flown already.

In that aspect the launch in one hour is a rare event. The last 20 flights all reused boosters.

 

[Astronuc]

(Fox News) - Bill Nelson spoke to Fox News and also detailed plans at 'State of NASA' address. The NASA administrator detailed missions to moon, Mars, Venus and the agency's efforts on Earth.
https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa-administrator-moon-mars-venus-missions-earth

The big news of the day surrounded dual missions to Earth's "twin" Venus, named VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy) and DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging).

NASA Selects 2 Missions to Study ‘Lost Habitable’ World of Venus
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-2-missions-to-study-lost-habitable-world-of-venus

DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging)

DAVINCI+ will measure the composition of Venus’ atmosphere to understand how it formed and evolved, as well as determine whether the planet ever had an ocean. The mission consists of a descent sphere that will plunge through the planet’s thick atmosphere, making precise measurements of noble gases and other elements to understand why Venus’ atmosphere is a runaway hothouse compared the Earth’s.

In addition, DAVINCI+ will return the first high resolution pictures of the unique geological features on Venus known as “tesserae,” which may be comparable to Earth’s continents, suggesting that Venus has plate tectonics. This would be the first U.S.-led mission to Venus’ atmosphere since 1978, and the results from DAVINCI+ could reshape our understanding of terrestrial planet formation in our solar system and beyond. James Garvin of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the principal investigator. Goddard provides project management.

VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy)

VERITAS will map Venus’ surface to determine the planet’s geologic history and understand why it developed so differently than Earth. Orbiting Venus with a synthetic aperture radar, VERITAS will chart surface elevations over nearly the entire planet to create 3D reconstructions of topography and confirm whether processes such as plate tectonics and volcanism are still active on Venus.

VERITAS also will map infrared emissions from Venus’ surface to map its rock type, which is largely unknown, and determine whether active volcanoes are releasing water vapor into the atmosphere. Suzanne Smrekar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, is the principal investigator. JPL provides project management. The German Aerospace Center will provide the infrared mapper with the Italian Space Agency and France’s Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales contributing to the radar and other parts of the mission.

 

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Jeff Bezos and his brother will fly on the first crewed New Shepard flight (July 20).
One seat goes to an auction winner, the other three seats are expected to go to yet unnamed Blue Origin employees.

That's a remarkable move. All 15 flights so far were successful (for the capsules - one booster crashed), two of them with the capsule they will use for that crewed flight, but it still comes with a significant risk.

 

[Astronuc]

NASA's Juno - June 3 - NASA stated

The first of the gas-giant orbiter’s back-to-back flybys will provide a close encounter with the massive moon after over 20 years.

On Monday, June 7, at 1:35 p.m. EDT (10:35 a.m. PDT), NASA’s Juno spacecraft will come within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of the surface of Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede. The flyby will be the closest a spacecraft has come to the solar system’s largest natural satellite since NASA’s Galileo spacecraft made its penultimate close approach back on May 20, 2000. Along with striking imagery, the solar-powered spacecraft ’s flyby will yield insights into the moon’s composition, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and ice shell. Juno’s measurements of the radiation environment near the moon will also benefit future missions to the Jovian system.

June 3 - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-juno-to-get-a-close-look-at-jupiter-s-moon-ganymede

And apparently, Juno did a flyby today.

 

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The New Shepard seat was sold for $28 million.
That's $400,000 per second in space.
The winner will be made public in a few weeks.

In addition to a minute in space to forget about how much they paid the winner can claim to be one of the first 10 space tourists, and they get to meet Jeff Bezos.

Dragon seats sell for ~$50 million, but you get a few days in space for that price.

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On June 17, China will launch the first crew to its new modular space station (a single module at the moment). The seventh crewed flight of China in total, and by far its longest (planned to be 3 months, current record is 1 month).

 

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Virgin Galactic plans to fly the first full crew on a suborbital flight July 11 - beating Blue Origin by 9 days. Probably not coincidence. Here is the announcement.
6 people, including founder Richard Branson, all from within the company.

There will be a livestream somewhere, of course. Branson announced that they'll have something exciting "to give more people the chance to become astronauts" after the flight. Unclear if this is simply a $300,000 ticket option, a lottery, a seat given away for free or whatever.

This year is the beginning of regular space tourism. Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, SpaceX, Russia (Soyuz) - all with dedicated tourism missions or test flights towards these missions.

 

[Borg]

Operations Underway to Restore Payload Computer on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope​

June 30, 2021 - NASA Preparing for Procedures to Turn On Backup Hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope​

NASA is taking additional steps to investigate the Hubble Space Telescope’s payload computer issue that began on June 13, suspending science observations. In parallel with the investigation, NASA is preparing and testing procedures to turn on backup hardware onboard the spacecraft . The telescope itself and science instruments remain healthy and in a safe configuration.

 

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Blue Origin tries to downplay the upcoming Virgin Galactic flight (Sunday morning 9 am ET, 13:00 UTC, 31 hours after this post) and produces some strange infographics, while at the same time misorganizing press coverage of their upcoming flight.

One key point is the definition of "space", as Virgin Galactic crosses 80 km but not 100 km. More discussion here

 

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Some weather delays but the livestream is running.
The aircraft is flying upwards at the moment. Not sure when the release is planned but I would expect it in less than an hour.

Edit: Release in ~20 min I think, or [hour]:23.

 

[berkeman]

Leveling off at 46,000 feet before launch...

 

[hutchphd]

six minutes now

 

[berkeman]

Safe landing. Great.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Did anyone notice that the spaceplane doesn't seem to have a front wheel? They appear to use something more like a skid plate. My first thought was it reduces weight.

 

[berkeman]

Yeah, I guess they have to use the rear wheel brakes to control the low-speed steering?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yeah, I guess they have to use the rear wheel brakes to control the low-speed steering?

Apparently so. But if you don't really need it, why build it? They only need steering for 30 seconds or so. I think beyond that it could all be done with air surfaces.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Heh, they might also be using the skid pad as an additional brake.

 

[dlgoff]

Are there any replay videos of this flight? I some how missed it.

 

[Motore]

Are there any replay videos of this flight? I some how missed it.

Post #780

 

[dlgoff]

Post #780

Yes, I watched that, but that's not a replay video.

 

[dlgoff]

Post #780

Okay, I guess that does show what happened.

 

[hutchphd]

Yes, I watched that, but that's not a replay video.

Did anone else feel this was closer to Evel Knievel at the Snake River than Yuri or Alan?? Maybe that's the point, but it all seemed just a little "off" to me...I guess I,m showing my age.

 

[berkeman]

Well, thankfully this mission was more successful than that failed "jump" by Evel.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Did anone else feel this was closer to Evel Knievel at the Snake River than Yuri or Alan?? Maybe that's the point, but it all seemed just a little "off" to me...I guess I,m showing my age.

Haha, I know what you mean. But this isn't Evel Knievel. These guys are doing it right. I think the biggest notable differences between this and a NASA operation are the reduced scale, and they are only providing what amounts to a thrill ride.

 

[berkeman]

Does anybody know what the contingencies are for failed mission landings? Are there other airstrips in the area that can be used as alternates for glided landings? How long of an airstrip does the lander need? Does the craft have the capability to dump its rocket fuel if needed to lighten before an emergency landing?

 

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What would be the scenario where they need to go to a different landing site farther away? Release is just ~15 min before landing, so they can make sure the weather conditions will be fine.

I liked the coverage, just the constant comparisons to Apollo 11 were annoying. This was not another Moon landing event. Not even close.

 

[dlgoff]

Does anybody know what the contingencies are for failed mission landings? Are there other airstrips in the area that can be used as alternates for glided landings? How long of an airstrip does the lander need? Does the craft have the capability to dump its rocket fuel if needed to lighten before an emergency landing?

In October 2010, the 3,000 m (10,000 ft) runway at Spaceport America was opened, with SpaceShipTwo "VSS Enterprise" shipped to the site carried underneath the fuselage of Virgin Galactic's Mother Ship Eve.

compliments of this google search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=vir...AEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpesgBCMABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz

I guess this came from this Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Galactic

 

[Office_Shredder]

Did anone else feel this was closer to Evel Knievel at the Snake River than Yuri or Alan?? Maybe that's the point, but it all seemed just a little "off" to me...I guess I,m showing my age.

The only point of this stunt was to sell space tickets. It's just a show. People already go to space on a regular basis.

 

[Baluncore]

FlightAware tracking.

The mother ship.
RUTAN 348 White Knight Two (quad-jet) (WHK2)
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VGX3/history/20210711/1430Z/9NM9/9NM9

The spaceship. Aircraft tracking speed and altitude fail above 900 mph or 60,000 ft.
RUTAN 339 Space Ship Two (single-Rocket) (SS2)
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VGX1/history/20210711/1441Z

Spaceport America; Arrivals and Departures.
https://flightaware.com/live/airport/9NM9

 

[berkeman]

The only point of this stunt was to sell space tickets. It's just a show. People already go to space on a regular basis.

True, but I think we have to give the guy credit for risking his own life to help make that happen.

 

[Office_Shredder]

True, but I think we have to give the guy credit for risking his own life to help make that happen.

To be clear, I am not opposed to stunts. Virgin galactic was a huge struggle for him to get operational, and if he wants to throw himself a party more power to him.

 

[Baluncore]

True, but I think we have to give the guy credit for risking his own life to help make that happen.

It takes many steps to create and fund a safe industry. I don't think height is the long term aim. Height is a step needed for funding, by flying the affluent early passengers.
It will all change again when one can buy an orbital flight.

 

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You can buy orbital flights.
Axiom sells Crew Dragon seats to fly to the ISS for $55 million each. First flight early 2022. You can also buy a full Crew Dragon flight. Inspiration4 in two months will be the first of these flights.

 

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DearMoon application sneak peek
One million applications for 8 seats - not even NASA's astronaut selection is that selective. No decision yet, but presumably the candidates featured in that video are still in the race.

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More mystery around the upcoming Blue Origin flight (July 20). The original winner moved to a later flight, citing unspecified "scheduling concerns". What unexpected event could make you miss that opportunity? Combined with no announcement of who won, people wonder if someone didn't want the publicity. But then... why did they bid in the first place? It was obviously going to be a big media event.

Now the seat went to Oliver Daemen, son of a Dutch investment banker. The two Bezos brothers fly, and they invited Wally Funk, who likely would have been an astronaut in the 1960s if NASA would have allowed women to fly at that time. The flight will set new records for both the youngest (18) and oldest (82) person in space.

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July 21 the Nauka module will be launched to the ISS, one of its last big components. It also comes with the European Robot Arm, which will help on the Russian side of the ISS.

July 30 Boeing will repeat the uncrewed flight test of Starliner.

 

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upcoming Blue Origin flight

Launch in about one hour.

Official livestream
Everyday Astronaut coverage
NASASpaceflight coverage

Edit: Success.