Crewmembers on the International Space Station are set to get 2,780 lb. of science experiments and fresh supplies early Sunday, after Orbital Sciences Corp.’s new Antares launch vehicle orbited the company’s Cygnus cargo carrier in a delayed launch Thursday afternoon. Liftoff of the Antares from its custom-built pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore came at 1:07 p.m. EST, and the spacecraft separated into its target orbit 10 min. later. Solar array deployment followed shortly afterward.
NEW DELHI — India will carry out a test launch of the heaviest variant of its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the Mk. 3, in April. “The rocket will have a passive cryogenic engine,” Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says. The Mk. 3, an advanced version of the GSLV, is designed to launch communications satellites weighing more than 4 metric tons (8,800 lb.). The chief objective of the mission “will be to study the aerodynamics and stability of the rocket,” Radhakrishnan says.
A concept for constructing satellites from building-block “satlets,” under development for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), could allow a spacecraft to be assembled quickly around the payload for a specific mission or service, says developer NovaWurks. Instead of integrating the payload into a large satellite bus that provides the required mechanical, propulsion, power, thermal, communications, processing and other functions, the spacecraft would be assembled around the payload by connecting multiple satlets together.
A powerful solar flare forced Orbital Sciences Corp. to delay the first commercial mission of its Cygnus cargo vehicle atop the company’s new Antares rocket Wednesday, delaying delivery of 1,465 kg. of supplies and scientific gear to the International Space Station by at least a day. Company engineers scrubbed the planned attempt after determining that radiation levels “exceeded by a considerable margin the constraints imposed on the mission to ensure the rocket’s electronic systems are not impacted by a harsh radiation environment.”
Congressional auditors agree that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), one of the agency’s most complex and costly science projects, is proceeding well along its restructured plan, but the Hubble successor has little fiscal room for error or surprise difficulties leading up to its expected October 2018 launch.
DREAM CHASER: Sierra Nevada Corp. has made agreements with the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center to explore potential applications of European technology to the company’s Dream Chaser reusable human spacecraft. “This international collaboration will also help define missions outside the Dream Chaser’s primary mission of ferrying U.S. and partner nation astronauts to low Earth orbit, thereby helping to maintain the global space partnerships established between these agencies and the United States space program,” the company said Jan. 8.
NASA skirted internal processes and cost-saving agreements established with the Department of Defense when it chose to refurbish the B-2 test stand at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for testing of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage, according to agency Inspector General Paul K. Martin. The SLS core stage is the foundation for the new upgradable heavy-lift rocket envisioned to send U.S. astronauts on future missions of deep space exploration.
SpaceX launched its second commercial communications satellite — Thaicom 6 — with an upgraded Falcon 9 on Jan. 6. But the company fell silent immediately after the Orbital Sciences Corp. spacecraft was to have deployed, raising the possibility that the new rocket’s troublesome upper stage failed to perform as advertised.
Medical experts face a significant challenge in their search for the causes, ultimate effects and remedies for the vision problems reported by astronauts assigned to long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station, according to a National Academies’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) review. The review urges NASA-guided scientists to expand their search for contributing factors, pre- and post-flight evaluation techniques and appropriate ground-based analog studies.
This week could see a surge of news on fresh fiscal 2014 appropriations, as House and Senate appropriators are working feverishly to put together a so-called omnibus spending bill by Jan. 15, when the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) of 2013 funds runs out.
NEW DELHI — India has entered the multibillion dollar commercial launcher market with the successful liftoff of the GSAT-14 satellite aboard its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) heavy-lift rocket fitted with an indigenous cryogenic engine.
HOUSTON — The International Space Station (ISS) Mission Management Team has cleared Orbital Sciences Corp. for a Jan. 8 launch attempt of its Antares rocket/Cygnus cargo carrier combination at 1:32 p.m. EST, if weather conditions permit. A mostly favorable launch forecast includes a low probability of cloud cover in the region that could prohibit the launch, NASA space station program spokesman Josh Byerly said. The spacecraft was transported from its hangar to the launch pad at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Jan. 5.
NEW DELHI — India’s space agency has approved a Jan. 5 launch attempt for the GSAT-14 communications satellite aboard a Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5). The indigenous, cryogenic engine-fitted GSLV-D5 will launch from the Sriharikota spaceport in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh. “A 29-hour countdown for the launch is set to commence around 11 a.m. local time on Jan. 4,” an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientist says.
No people are seemingly more eager and suited than Americans to leave the Earth for a new life on Mars. The notion emerges from the demographics behind the 1,058 men and women selected by Mars One this week to proceed with future rounds of a global selection process by the Dutch non-profit to identify those best suited to settle the red planet. Trips are scheduled to begin in 2025.
“All” sounding and research rockets remain controlled under the U.S. Munitions List (USML) category covering launch vehicles, ballistic and guided missiles, according to final export control reform rules announced Dec. 31.
EADS has formally rebranded as Airbus Group, retaining its Airbus commercial aircraft identity and renaming its other two divisions as Airbus Defence and Space, and Airbus Helicopters. This means the group’s Cassidian, Astrium and Airbus Military defence and space activities have now been united under the Airbus Defence and Space division. Airbus Group is also planning to change its legal status, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, although its organizational structure and operations will remain the same.
Following Boeing Commercial Airplane’s recent decision to open engineering design centers away from its traditional Seattle base, parent company Boeing has announced plans to restructure its entire Research & Technology organization by establishing research centers in Alabama, California, Missouri, South Carolina and Washington.
Studies of “Super Earth” and slightly larger Neptune-class exoplanets using the Hubble Space Telescope are providing the first atmospheric characterizations of planet classes considered among the most common in the Milky Way as a whole. Those glimpses show evidence of clouds but little to describe their composition. Super Earths are characterized as having more mass than the Earth but less than Neptune.
SCIENCE PUSH: With a congressional budget framework in hand, considering passage last month of the so-called Ryan-Murray deal in Congress, advocates for federal spending on science endeavors are ramping up calls for lawmakers to follow through with greater appropriations for Earth and space science programs. “Federal science spending has plummeted by 16% over the last three years (fiscal 2010-13), the largest decrease in decades,” said Christine McEntee, CEO of the American Geophysical Union.
HOUSTON — The six-person International Space Station is headed toward a resumption of normal operations following a pair of unscheduled late-December spacewalks by NASA astronauts to replace a degraded external thermal control system (TCS) pump module. The astronauts followed the excursions with other measures to restore cooling to all U.S. segment electrical systems deactivated in response to a Dec. 11 flow control valve failure.
DEFENSE: Global hotspots and country-by-country analyses of national priorities, budgets and programs. See pages 38-47. MILITARY AVIATION: Rivals upgrade their combat aircraft as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter begins to gain international traction. Special missions become a key part of transport market. See pages 58-67. UNMANNED AIRCRAFT: Europe finally may be getting its act together on UAS, but China and civil developments are moving faster. See page 68.
