Rockets, Launches, Satellites, ISS, etc.

[northland10]

This is not at all the way Star Trek movies documented the history of us into this uncharted territory. Are not the Vulcans supposed to come greet us?

Leave it to Elon to forget the most important part of the launch, the music.

[RTH10260]

Falcon Heavy launch of secretive X-37B military spaceplane on hold

December 11, 2023
Will Robinson-Smith

Update Dec. 13: Falcon Heavy is returning to the hangar and launch of USSF-52 mission is on hold.

Update Dec. 12: SpaceX and SSC are now targeting launch of the USSF-52 mission at 8:13 p.m. EST (0113 UTC) on Wednesday, Dec. 13.

Update Dec. 11: SpaceX is standing down from its launch attempt of the USSF-52 mission due to “a ground side issue.” The scrub was followed by a delay of the Falcon 9 launch for the Starlink 6-34 mission as well.

SpaceX said they are looking at a backup opportunity no earlier than Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 UTC).



Original story:

The fifth and final Falcon Heavy mission of 2023 is preparing to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center carrying the X-37B, a secretive spaceplane operated by the U.S. military. The mission, code-named U.S. Space Force (USSF)-52, is set for liftoff during a ten-minute window on Monday, Dec. 10, that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 UTC).

The mission had been scheduled to liftoff Sunday evening but was delayed 24 hours. In a post on social media, SpaceX did not provide a specific reason for the delay, but stated it would allow “time to complete additional pre-launch check outs.”



https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/12/11/l ... paceplane/

[chancery]

NASA’s Voyager 1 Is Glitching, Sending Nonsense From Interstellar Space
The aging spacecraft, launched in 1977, is transmitting a gibberish pattern of ones and zeros back to Earth

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180983448/

NASA’s Voyager 1 probe is experiencing a glitch that’s causing it to send a repeating, gibberish pattern of ones and zeroes back to Earth, the agency announced this week. The spacecraft is still able to receive and execute commands sent to it, but it’s unable to transmit back science or engineering data.

After ruling out other possibilities, the Voyager team determined the spacecraft’s issues stem from one of its three computers, called the flight data system (FDS). Last weekend, engineers tried to restart the FDS to see whether they could resolve the problem, but the probe still isn’t returning usable data, according to NASA.

But the simple, yet hardy design of the Voyagers has contributed to their longevity and allowed them to hop between missions to collect valuable data. Still, both aging spacecraft have experienced glitches. Over the summer, a human error caused Voyager 2’s antenna to tilt two degrees away from Earth, leading researchers to lose contact with the craft for more than a week before its functions returned to normal. In 2022, an issue in the attitude articulation and control system (AACS) of Voyager 1 caused it to send “garbled information about its health and activities to mission controllers, despite operating normally,” per NASA. Engineers were eventually able to solve the glitch.

Some commentary from two posts put up by an experienced member of unmannedspaceflight.com.*

(1) http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/inde ... t&p=262304

A close parsing of the nasa update says that, too. "No science or engineering data is being sent back."

It is then colored by a lot of what they've deduced. And yes, after reading it yesterday, I did have to remind myself... but they're getting nothing.

It does say they're scrutinizing old documents, and there sure is not a lot out there that I've just discovered in a quick search. The FDS is one unit, no A/B units, though it's redudant internally, I think. It also might be one of the first uses of volatile (presumably SRAM) memory. And that means, this could be an SEU. Whether there have been prior SEU that have done this to either V1 or V2 FDS, I can't discover.

(2) http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/inde ... t&p=262310

Speaking of SEU. Found in IEEE Spectrum** June 1987...

A faraway bit fix
Just six days before Voyager 2's closest approach to Uranus, in 1985, compressed photographic images transmitted from the spacecraft's cameras began to include large blocks of black-and-white lines.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., ran an old data stream received from the craft through the programs used to decompress the images back on earth. The engineers concluded that the problem lay not in the ground computers, but in the craft's flight-data subsystem (FDS), which controls on-board instruments and formats data for transmission back to earth. To test the theory, they directed the FDS to transmit the contents of its 8-kilobyte CMOS memories. By comparing that copy of the image-compression program with the original on earth, engineers Dick Rice and Ed Blizzard determined that a single bit of one 16-bit instruction word had changed from a 0 to a 1. Rice and Blizzard prepared a patch that would circumvent the faulty location in the memory. The patch overwrote the instruction before the failed memory cell with a jump command to unused memory. It then executed a copy of the overwritten instruction and the instruction from the defective location, and jumped back to the address following the failed cell.
The patch was transmitted to Voyager, along with a command to reset the incorrect bit. The patch corrected the failure, and in the least possible time, since transmitting a message to Voyager and receiving a response took 41 hours. The reset command failed, and Rice and Blizzard therefore concluded that the bit failure was permanent. With the patch installed, the program sent error-free images. But engineers acknowledged that the actual cause of the failure would likely never be known. The craft will not return to earth "within our lifetime," said a Voyager team member.

So, precedented. Of 32kbit on both, there's been at least one bit failure

.

chancery notes:
* The founder, staff, and members of unmannedspaceflight.com (a forum which operates on a shoestring) have been in agreement for years that the forum's name should be changed to uncrewedspaceflight.com, but the name-change won't take place until money is raised to upgrade the forum's software and hosting.

** IEEE Spectrum is an engineering magazine which frequently publishes technical papers about the design and operation of uncrewed spacecraft missions.

[northland10]

NASA’s Voyager 1 Is Glitching, Sending Nonsense From Interstellar Space
The aging spacecraft, launched in 1977, is transmitting a gibberish pattern of ones and zeros back to Earth

What do ya know. It's a Trump supporter.

[chancery]

[RTH10260]

It Brought Human Spaceflight Back to the US | SpaceX Booster B1058

NASASpaceflight
26 Dec 2023

SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster 1058 tipped over at sea. This booster had a record-breaking 19 flights before tipping over in rough seas and high winds on its return to Port Canaveral. B1058 was the Falcon 9 booster on the Demo-2 mission which brought Human Spaceflight back to the United States following the termination of the Space Shuttle Program.

[Chilidog]

January 8, 2024 is scheduled as the launch date for Peregrine Mission 1 under NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

The intent is to develop a sustainable commercial infrastructure for lunar missions.

The Peregrine Lander is scheduled to deliver several science payloads to the moon.

Things are getting fun in the space race again.

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecr ... =PEREGRN-1

[Chilidog]

It Brought Human Spaceflight Back to the US | SpaceX Booster B1058

NASASpaceflight
26 Dec 2023

SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster 1058 tipped over at sea. This booster had a record-breaking 19 flights before tipping over in rough seas and high winds on its return to Port Canaveral. B1058 was the Falcon 9 booster on the Demo-2 mission which brought Human Spaceflight back to the United States following the termination of the Space Shuttle Program.

I wish NASA had not chosen SpaceX to be part of Artemis.

For every success they have, they step on their own dicks three times beforehand.

[Chilidog]

Countdown clock for the
Peregrine lunar lander (Maiden flight)
Vulcan VC2S
United Launch Alliance
Liftoff.

Its a early morning shot, but I might try to catch it live.


https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/lau ... JU_1f5kZHE

[Chilidog]

Roll out day

IMG_1027.jpeg (488.86 KiB) Viewed 35277 times

[Chilidog]

Elon's SpaceX fan Bois can go pound sand.

This is what a rocket should look like.

IMG_1031.jpeg (457.64 KiB) Viewed 35257 times

[Chilidog]

Anyone else up now?

[Chilidog]

https://www.nasa.gov/virtualguestevent/

[RTH10260]

@chilidog H/T for the link - I picked it just in time to watch the launch thru to the end of the first phase.

[Chilidog]

It was impressive.

2024 looks to be a good year to be a space nerd.

[Chilidog]

Unfortunately, astrobitics is already having issues with it's lander.

[Chilidog]

Update 1

After successfully separating from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander began receiving telemetry via the NASA Deep Space Network. Astrobotic-built avionics systems, including the primary command and data handling unit, as well as the thermal, propulsion, and power controllers, all powered on and performed as expected. After successful propulsion systems activation, Peregrine entered a safe operational state. Unfortunately, an anomaly then occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation. The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will be providing updates as more data is obtained and analyzed.

Upldate 2

We continue to gather data and report our best assessment of what we see. The team believes that the likely cause of the unstable sun-pointing is a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the Moon. As the team fights to troubleshoot the issue, the spacecraft battery is reaching operationally low levels. Just before entering a known period of communication outage, the team developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient the solar panels toward the Sun. Shortly after this maneuver, the spacecraft entered an expected period of communication loss. We will provide more updates as Peregrine comes in view of the ground station again.

Update 3

We have successfully re-established communications with Peregrine after the known communication blackout. The team’s improvised maneuver was successful in reorienting Peregrine’s solar array towards the Sun. We are now charging the battery. The Mission Anomaly Board continues to evaluate the data we’re receiving and is assessing the status of what we believe to be the root of the anomaly: a failure within the propulsion system.

We are grateful for the outpouring of support we’re receiving – from messages on social media to phone calls and helping hands. This is what makes the space industry so special, that we unite in the face of adversity. A heartfelt thank you from the entire Peregrine Mission One team.

Update 4

Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant. The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture. We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.

[keith]

Poop.

[Chilidog]

"Pittsburgh, we had a problem."

[neonzx]

There used to be this non-commercial entity called "NASA" or something like that.

[AndyinPA]

"Pittsburgh, we had a problem."

[Chilidog]

Don't be misled.
This is a NASA mission all the way.

They are subsidizing the majority of the costs.

The idea is to jump start alternate contractor entities.

[Chilidog]

We’ve received the first image from Peregrine in space! The camera utilized is mounted atop a payload deck and shows Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) in the foreground. The disturbance of the MLI is the first visual clue that aligns with our telemetry data pointing to a propulsion system anomaly.

Nonetheless, the spacecraft’s battery is now fully charged, and we are using Peregrine’s existing power to perform as many payload and spacecraft operations as possible.

IMG_1062.png (440.25 KiB) Viewed 34713 times

[RTH10260]

What happened to the Peregrine lander and what does it mean for moon missions?
The spacecraft, a collaboration between Nasa and Astrobotic, is unlikely to reach the lunar surface

Linda Geddes Science correspondent
Tue 9 Jan 2024 17.18 CET

What is the Peregrine lander and what was its purpose?

The Peregrine lunar lander is a robotic spacecraft designed by the US-based lunar logistics company, Astrobotic. Loaded on to a rocket, and blasted into space, it is designed to deliver payloads to the surface of the moon, or the moon’s orbit.

Its first mission, Peregrine Mission One, launched on Monday 8 January and was intended to deliver scientific equipment to the Gruithuisen Domes region of the moon. Some of these instruments are designed to take readings that could minimise risks and lay some of the groundwork for Nasa’s Artemis programme, which hopes to enable a sustained human presence on the moon.

Also on the lander are instruments and equipment from the Mexican and German space agencies, as well as universities, companies and individuals in the UK and elsewhere. These include a physical coin “loaded with one bitcoin” and a Japanese “lunar dream capsule” that contains 185,872 messages from children from around the world.

What went wrong?



https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... n-missions

[Chilidog]

Update 8

Astrobotic’s current hypothesis about the Peregrine spacecraft’s propulsion anomaly is that a valve between the helium pressurant and the oxidizer failed to reseal after actuation during initialization. This led to a rush of high pressure helium that spiked the pressure in the oxidizer tank beyond its operating limit and subsequently ruptured the tank. While this is a working theory, a full analysis report will be produced by a formal review board made up of industry experts after the mission is complete. All available data is being downloaded from the lander to support this assessment.

ULA’s Vulcan rocket inserted Peregrine into the planned translunar trajectory without issue. There is no indication that the propulsion anomaly occurred as a result of the launch.