The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond

Cosimo · 30 Oct 2011 at 15:24

Good news.

A Soyuz-U rocket with a Progress M-13M/45P spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:11 GMT today. The unmanned Russian cargo craft is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station on Wednesday. After the failure of the M-12M/44P mission on August 24th the launch today paves the way for the launch of the Soyuz TMA-22 manned mission to the ISS on November 13th.

Cosimo · 1 Nov 2011 at 09:00

China successfully launches Shenzhou-8 using a Long March 2F rocket.

Shenzhou-8 is expected to dock twice with the unmanned space module TianGong-1 that was launched on September 29th. The first docking is expected on November 3rd.

Cosimo · 2 Nov 2011 at 12:09

The Progress M-13M/45P unmanned cargo ship arrived today at the ISS and docked to the Pirs docking compartment at 11:41 GMT. The Progress craft will stay at the station until January 25th.

Cosimo · 2 Nov 2011 at 14:51

DiCe! said:
Simulatorman what is your opinion on:

1. The amount of space rubbish that we have left up in orbit? What do you think will happen to it? How will we recover it?

2. The JWT, your thoughts? Massively over budget but imo 100% needed and to hell with the cost, It will be a sad day when hubble comes down

1. It will stay up there and if you wait long enough it will fall to earth. In the short term there should be agreement to try and stop/limit this from happening. In the long term there is nothing and there have been calls for research to be carried on how this could be addressed. People have suggested giant magnets and space nets to trawl this stuff. I think we will be waiting a long time for something to materialise. I suspect it will have to be commercially viable before something happens.

This is worth a read:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14763668

2. JWT has certainly been at risk because of overspend and poor project management. A government committee proposed cancelling the project earlier this year. They are currently reworking the plans/budgets with a view of now launching in 2018 instead of 2014. I have no reason not to believe that with this reworking the budget will be found and approved. A project of this importance will not go to the wall. Meanwhile the mirrors have now completed the coating process. There are some videos about this in the Astronomy thread.

More on JWT:

http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

Cosimo · 3 Nov 2011 at 08:43

China took a huge step forward and joined the Russian/US docking club when two unmanned Chinese spacecraft made an automated docking in orbit. Shenzhou 8 and Tiangong 1 docked at 17:28 GMT yesterday:

Cosimo · 3 Nov 2011 at 12:18

Cosimo · 3 Nov 2011 at 17:16

Great view of Progress M-13M/45P docking with the ISS yesterday:

A must have:

Nearly 200 pages of goodness. It’s very comprehensive and full of diagrams/pictures. To be had for £13.83 with free postage.

Cosimo · 4 Nov 2011 at 09:54

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has been moved the Kennedy Space Centre’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) to Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral and then hoisted on top of its Atlas V rocket:

MSL is targeted to launch at 08:35 GMT (04:35 EDT) on November 25th.

The MSL fact sheet.

The mission:

The MSL site.

Cosimo · 7 Nov 2011 at 17:41

One of those timeless images and a scary one at that.

McCandless Orbits in Jetpack

On Feb. 12, 1984, astronaut Bruce McCandless, ventured further away from the confines and safety of his ship than any previous astronaut had ever been. This space first was made possible by a nitrogen jet propelled backpack, previously known at NASA as the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU.

After a series of test maneuvers inside and above Challenger's payload bay, McCandless went "free-flying" to a distance of 320 feet away from the Orbiter. This stunning orbital panorama view shows McCandless out there amongst the black and blue of Earth and space.

Image Credit: NASA

Cosimo · 8 Nov 2011 at 15:35

Phobos-Grunt

The Russian Phobos-Grunt mission is due to launch tonight at 20:16 GMT aboard a Zenit 2FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission will attempt to enter orbit around Mars, land on the moon Phobos, collect samples and return to Earth.

The launch will be live here.

More:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt.html
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt_scenario.html

Cosimo · 9 Nov 2011 at 09:15

Phobos-Grunt going up:

Two planned burns to send it on its way have failed and they have three days to sort the issue before the mission is lost.

Cosimo · 9 Nov 2011 at 09:40

To be continued.......

Cosimo · 10 Nov 2011 at 09:07

PermaBanned said:
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003252/

Apparently it's a programming problem, could theoretically be fixed but the ground teams have very little time in which do to it.

The Russian space agency have now said they have two weeks to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile an animation has appeared which shows the proposed test flight of the Orion spacecraft. The test is called Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) and is due in 2014:

Cosimo · 10 Nov 2011 at 10:27

Fantastic video of a 1/9 scale 10.75" diameter 13.7' tall Delta II Model 7420-10 Rocket launch with on board camera:

Cosimo · 10 Nov 2011 at 22:27

Not much success with contacting Phobos-Grunt:

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt_launch.html#11_10

and

"I think we have lost the Phobos-Grunt," Vladimir Uvarov, a former senior space official at the Russian Defence Ministry, told the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

"It looks like a serious flaw. The past experience shows that efforts to make the engines work will likely fail."

At this point in time he's probably right.

Cosimo · 11 Nov 2011 at 08:20

Still no contact:

Attempts during the night to receive a signal from the unmanned lander Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, which failed to reach its orbit after separating from the launch vehicle on November 9, have so far been to no avail, a source in the space industry said on Friday.

“The spacecraft repeatedly passed over the Baikonur station and other Russian and foreign points of space communications during the night. There is no news yet,” the spokesman said.

RIA Novosti

Cosimo · 12 Nov 2011 at 09:12

PermaBanned said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15684192

The Russians haven’t said a word since Friday. I suspect that they won’t talk to it again and knowing their luck a part of it will land on someone’s head when it fails back to earth.

More from Russia:

http://en.ria.ru/analysis/20111112/168621275.html

Cosimo · 12 Nov 2011 at 09:30

A sad look back:

and a positive look forward:

Cosimo · 13 Nov 2011 at 09:53

Not unexpected:

Efforts to resume contact with a Russian space mission to Mars stuck in Earth orbit after launch have failed and the probe must be considered lost, Interfax news agency reported Saturday.

"All attempts to obtain telemetric information from the Phobos-Grunt probe and activate its command system have failed. The probe must be considered lost," Interfax quoted a source in the Russian space sector as saying.

The source said Russia's space agency would announce the failure of the mission in the next few days.

http://news.discovery.com/space/russia-mars-phobos-grunt-lost.html

Cosimo · 13 Nov 2011 at 10:11

Time to visit the ISS again:

The remaining Expedition 29 crew will lift off aboard Soyuz TMA-22 at 04:04 GMT tomorrow morning. Docking with ISS is expected at 05:33 GMT on Wednesday.

** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond