Rockets, Launches, Satellites, ISS, etc.

[Suranis]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... astronauts

Two US astronauts stuck in space as Boeing analyzes Starliner problems

Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have spent better part of month in ISS as engineers work out problem

Wed 26 Jun 2024 12.00 CEST
Last modified on Wed 26 Jun 2024 22.17 CEST

Boeing’s public relations crisis is now out of this world: the company’s Starliner spacecraft – with two astronauts onboard – are currently stuck in space.

After what started as an eight-day mission, US astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have now spent the better part of a month in the International Space Station as engineers work out the problems with Starliner.

It remains unclear when exactly the astronauts will be able to make their return to Earth. A Boeing spokesperson said they have “adjusted the return of Starliner crew flight test until after two planned spacewalks on Monday 24 June and Tuesday 2 July” and that they “currently do not have a date for the return, and will evaluate opportunities after the spacewalks”.

The spokesperson also noted “the crew is not pressed for time to leave the station since there are plenty of supplies in orbit, and the station’s schedule is relatively open through mid-August”.

The Starliner blasted into space on 5 June from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after two previously unsuccessful launches on 6 May and 1 June respectively.

A year behind schedule and $1.5bn over budget, this particular Nasa-Boeing mission had problems long before its official launch, including issues with reaction control thrusters and helium leaks.

The Boeing spokesperson noted that the helium leaks and most of the thruster problems have been “all stable and not a concern for the return mission.

“Four of the five thrusters that were previously shutting down are now operating normally. This means only one thruster out of 27 is currently offline. This does not present an issue for the return mission,” the spokesperson added.

Nasa and Boeing officials insist the astronauts are not stranded and that the technical difficulties do not threaten the mission. Nasa said the spacecraft requires seven hours of free-flight time to perform a normal end of mission and it “currently has enough helium left in its tanks to support 70 hours of free flight activity following undocking”.

[RTH10260]

Flying under the media radar

China returns samples from the moon's far side in historic 1st (video)

By Mike Wall
published 3 days ago

The lunar material touched down in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region early Tuesday morning (June 25).

China has made spaceflight history yet again.

The nation's robotic Chang'e 6 mission returned material from the moon's mysterious far side to Earth on Tuesday (June 25) — something that had never been done before.

The milestone moment occurred Tuesday at 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT; 2:07 p.m. Beijing time), when Chang'e 6's return capsule landed in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Chang'e 6 consists of four modules: a lunar lander, a return capsule, an orbiter and an ascender (a small rocket carried by the lander).

This hardware launched on May 3 and arrived in lunar orbit five days later. On June 1, the lander touched down inside Apollo crater, which lies within the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, a 1,600-mile-wide (2,500 kilometers) impact feature on the moon's far side.

The lander collected about 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar material using a scoop and a drill. This precious cargo launched aboard the ascender on June 3 and met up with the mission's orbiter a few days later.


https://www.space.com/china-chang-e-6-m ... ding-earth

[RTH10260]

earlier

China's Chang'e 6 spacecraft finds long-sought particles on far side of the moon

By Sharmila Kuthunur
published June 14, 2024

The observations help astronomers better understand the chemical makeup of the moon's regolith.

A European experiment aboard China's Chang'e 6 mission has recorded previously undetected charged particles on the moon's surface, a catalog of which enables astronomers to better probe the chemical makeup of the moon's regolith.

These particles, which are essentially gases excited by sunlight, were detected at the landing spot of the Chang'e-6 spacecraft in the southern pocket of the Apollo crater, which lies within the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon's far side. The ion detector was the first European Space Agency instrument to land on the moon.

"This was ESA's first activity on the surface of the moon, a world-first scientifically, and a first lunar cooperation with China," Neil Melville, ESA's technical officer for the experiment, said in a statement. "We have collected an amount and quality of data far beyond our expectations."

While Earth is protected from solar storms thanks to its magnetic field, which repels and traps charged particles from the sun, the moon lacks its own magnetic field. So, gases in its vanishingly thin atmosphere — helium, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide, among a handful of others — are easily ionized by sunlight and "picked up" by flowing plasma. These charged particles ferry information about the chemical makeup of the moon's regolith, where the gases originate from through different processes rife on the surface, including impacts from small asteroids.



https://www.space.com/change-negative-i ... -detection

[RTH10260]

China opens Chang'e 6 return capsule containing samples from moon's far side (video)

By Andrew Jones
published 10 hours ago

The moon material is being prepared for storage, analysis and research.

China's Chang'e 6 mission return capsule has been transferred to Beijing and opened to access its precious cargo.

The return capsule made its fiery plunge through the atmosphere on June 25 before landing in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The event brought the 53-day-long Chang'e 6 mission to a successful conclusion, delivering the first-ever lunar far side samples to Earth.

The capsule was airlifted to Beijing early Wednesday (June 26), to the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which designed the mission spacecraft. Once there, a ceremony was held which saw researchers open the return capsule and examine key technical indicators, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Technicians remove the samples collected on the moon's far side from the return capsule of the Chang'e 6 lunar mission. (Image credit: CCTV)
A sample container, holding up to 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of material from the moon, was then secured for the next stage of its journey. The samples will be transferred to specially developed facilities for storage, analysis and distribution for research.



https://www.space.com/chang-e-6-moon-fa ... ule-opened

[RTH10260]

Space X dual recovery landing of booster rockets

[RTH10260]

Astronauts take cover as defunct Russian satellite splits into nearly 200 pieces
The six US astronauts aboard International Space Station rush to their spacecrafts in case of emergency departure

Reuters
Fri 28 Jun 2024 01.14 CEST

A defunct Russian satellite has broken up into nearly 200 pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter for about an hour and adding to the mass of space junk already in orbit, US space agencies said.

There were no immediate details on what caused the breakup of the Resurs-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite, which Russia declared dead in 2022.

US Space Command, tracking the debris swarm, said there was no immediate threat to other satellites.

The event took place at around 10am mountain time (1600 GMT) on Wednesday, Space Command said. It occurred in an orbit near the space station, prompting US astronauts onboard to shelter in their spacecraft for roughly an hour, Nasa’s Space Station office said.

Russian space agency Roscosmos, which operated the satellite, did not respond to a request for comment or publicly acknowledge the event on its social media channels.

US Space Command, which has a global network of space-tracking radars, said the satellite immediately created “over 100 pieces of trackable debris”.

By Thursday afternoon, radars from US space-tracking firm LeoLabs had detected at least 180 pieces, the company said.

Large debris-generating events in orbit are rare but of increasing concern as space becomes crowded with satellite networks vital to everyday life on Earth, from broadband internet and communications to basic navigation services, as well as satellites no longer in use.

The satellite’s breakup was at an altitude of roughly 220 miles (355km) in low Earth orbit, a popular region where thousands of small to large satellites operate.

“Due to the low orbit of this debris cloud, we estimate it’ll be weeks to months before the hazard has passed,” LeoLabs said in a statement to Reuters.

The roughly 25,000 pieces of debris bigger than 4 ins (10cm) in space caused by satellite explosions or collisions have raised concerns about the prospect of a Kessler effect - a phenomenon in which satellite collisions with debris can create a cascading field of more hazardous junk and exponentially increase crash risks.



https://www.theguardian.com/science/art ... ce-station

[raison de arizona]

Collin Rugg is a tool. And a dull one at that. I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. Interesting video though.

NEW: Chinese rocket which was developed to rival Musk’s Space X, crashes into a mountain side.

The Tianlong-3 rocket accidentally lifted off during a static fire test according to The Telegraph.

After launching into the air, the rocket was seen falling back to Earth, exploding into the mountainside near the city of Gongyi in Henan Province.

The rocket was owned by private Chinese business Space Pioneer.

Space Pioneer claims a “structural failure” of the launch moorings which were supposed to hold the rocket in place resulted in the accidental launch.

Reports say there are no casualties at this moment.

[Reality Check]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... astronauts

Two US astronauts stuck in space as Boeing analyzes Starliner problems

Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have spent better part of month in ISS as engineers work out problem

Wed 26 Jun 2024 12.00 CEST
Last modified on Wed 26 Jun 2024 22.17 CEST

Boeing’s public relations crisis is now out of this world: the company’s Starliner spacecraft – with two astronauts onboard – are currently stuck in space.

I have seen this misleading headline numerous times. The Starliner astronauts are not "stuck in space". They will eventually return using the spacecraft. Boeing is being extra cautious and trying to gather as much data as possible on the thruster issue because once they return the service module will be detached to burn up in the atmosphere. So if they are going to gather data this is the only chance. Only one thruster is being removed from service. The remaining ones are more than enough to accomplish the de orbit maneuver. There is also plenty of helium left to make the return trip.

[RTH10260]

SpaceX Falcon 9 Suffers In Flight Engine Failure, Starlink Payloads Lost
SpaceX has experienced its first in-flight failure of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2015, potentially resulting in the loss of a batch of Starlink satellites and raising concerns across the space industry.

Fri Jul 12 2024
Written by Zac Aubert

SpaceX has experienced its first in-flight failure of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2015, potentially resulting in the loss of a batch of Starlink satellites and raising concerns across the space industry.

The failure occurred during SpaceX’s 70th orbital launch of the 2024, designated Starlink 9-3. The mission began promisingly with a liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 11, 2024 at 7:35 p.m. PDT (10:35 p.m. EDT, 0235 UTC). However, issues arose during the burn of the Falcon 9’s second stage when an unusual amount of ice was observed accumulating around the Merlin Vacuum engine in camera views from the rocket.

A planned one-second burn of the second stage, intended to circularize the orbit, was supposed to occur 52 minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff.

Approximately an hour after the expected time of satellite deployment, Musk released a statement.

“Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD [Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly] for reasons currently unknown. Team is reviewing data tonight to understand root cause. Starlink satellites were deployed, but the perigee may be too low for them to raise orbit. Will know more in a few hours.” - Elon Musk

An hour later SpaceX released an update.

"During tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of Starlink, the second stage engine did not complete its second burn. As a result, the Starlink satellites were deployed into a lower than intended orbit. SpaceX has made contact with 5 of the satellites so far and is attempting to have them raise orbit using their ion thrusters." - SpaceX Statement

On board were 20 Starlink satellites; 13 direct-to-cellphone satellites, and 7 v2 mini satellites. The satellites are believed to have been released into a approximate orbit of 295 km by 138 km, instead of the intended deployment orbit of 296 km by 286 km.

Musk provided further updates on the situation: “We’re updating satellite software to run the ion thrusters at their equivalent of warp 9. Unlike a Star Trek episode, this will probably not work, but it’s worth a shot. The satellite thrusters need to raise orbit faster than atmospheric drag pulls them down or they burn up.”

This incident marks the first failure, whether partial or total, for a Falcon 9 since a September 2016 when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral during fueling operations for a pre-flight static test fire, resulting in the destruction of an Israeli communications satellite and extensive damage to Space Launch Complex 40. The last in-flight failure occurred in June 2015, when the upper stage broke apart during the launch of a cargo Dragon spacecraft.

Since then, the Falcon 9 has achieved a remarkable record of success. This launch was the 354th for the Falcon 9, since the June 2015 in-flight failure.



https://tlpnetwork.com/news/in-space/sp ... loads-lost