Category Archives: Space

New National Space Policy

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(Cross-posted from the Space Warfare Forum.)


(Earthrise from lunar orbit. NASA image. Click to enlarge.)

Yesterday the White House released the new National Space Policy of the U.S.A., available in as a PDF file at the noted link.

On a quick read-through, I didn’t find anything to which I could strongly object. Even the much-anticipated (by the aerospace industry) relaxation of export restrictions did not come across as the drastic change that had been hyped. I might disagree with the conciliatory tone, which seems almost an apology for rather than an affirmation of the country’s efforts to lead the way in space, but that seems to be the norm for the current Administration.

I don’t know that I agree with the focus on an asteroid mission and then a Mars mission (i.e., a Mars orbital mission) to the exclusion of a return to the Moon, since the Moon would seem to be the logical base of operations for such excursions. But maybe that’s the point: to reach those other objectives assumes first establishing a presence on the Moon. I hope that’s it.

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Two Payloads, Two Orbits, Two Space Firsts

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Fifty years ago today — June 22, 1960 — a Thor rocket launched from Cape Canaveral and, for the first time ever, put two payloads into two different orbits. This launch set the standard for many multiple-launch missions to come. The rocket carried a Transit-2A navigation satellite and the Solrad-1 solar observation satellite.

Transit-2A was the newest in a series of navigation satellites put into orbit by the U.S. Navy. The Transit system proved that satellite navigation was possible, and set the stage for today’s Global Positioning System.

Solrad-1 was the other “first” scored by this launch.


(GRAB (Solrad-1) satellite model on display at the National Cryptologic Museum. Naval Research Laboratory image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Solrad-1 was also known as GRAB, the Galactic Radiation and Background satellite. Built by the Naval Research Laboratory, GRAB was the nation’s first reconnaissance satellite. As noted on this page, GRAB collected electronics intelligence on Soviet radar systems.

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Triple Play for Shuttle DISCOVERY

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Twenty-five years ago today — June 17, 1985 — the Space Shuttle Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-51G. U.S. astronauts Daniel C. Brandenstein, John O. Creighton, Shannon W. Lucid, John M. Fabian, and Steven R. Nagel were joined by French astronaut Patrick Baudry and the first Arab astronaut, Sultan Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.


(The SPARTAN-1 science package in the cargo bay during mission STS-51G. NASA image.)

The STS-51G crew’s “triple play” involved launching three separate communications satellites during this one mission. They deployed the Mexican satellite Morelos-A on the 17th, the aptly-named Arabsat-IB satellite on the 18th, and finally Telstar-3D on the 19th.

The crew also released the SPARTAN-1 (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy) on the 20th. Its X-ray instruments made observations of the center of the Milky Way, as well as of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The crew retrieved SPARTAN-1 from orbit on the 24th, just prior to their return to Earth.

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First U.S. Spacewalk: Ed White Steps Out of Gemini-IV

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Forty-five years ago today — June 3, 1965 — astronauts James A. McDivitt and Edward H. White launched from Cape Canaveral on a Titan-II rocket.


(Ed White on the first U.S. spacewalk. NASA image.)

A little over four hours into the flight, Ed White stepped out of the Gemini-IV capsule for the first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA) by a U.S. astronaut. His EVA lasted about 20 minutes and met all the mission objectives, though he and McDivitt had some trouble getting the hatch closed when he got back in the spacecraft.

Some great high-resolution images of the EVA are available at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/gemini_4_eva.html.

McDivitt and White stayed in orbit for four days. One interesting side note to the mission was a famous UFO sighting by McDivitt while White was sleeping, of an object shaped “like a beer can with an arm sticking out”; it is likely he saw the second stage of their Titan-II. The claim is disputed by UFO enthusiasts, but the 1981 article by James Oberg linked above asks,

Is any conclusion possible after so many years, when the supporting evidence has been trashed and the eyewitness testimony has become fossilized by countless repetitions? The principal leg of the [UFO enthusiasts’] endorsement — that there weren’t any candidate objects within 1,000 miles — has been demolished by the recognized presence of the beer can-shaped Titan-II stage. McDivitt, more than a decade after the fact, refused to believe he could have misidentified that object — but both his degraded eyesight [because of issues in the Gemini capsule] and different viewing angle at the time of the sighting eliminate any reliability from that claim — and years of UFO research have taught us the surprising lesson that pilots are, in truth, among the poorest observers of UFOs because of their instinctive pattern of perceiving visual stimuli primarily in terms of threats to their own vehicles.

As to that last bit, about pilots perceiving objects as threats until proven otherwise … that’s probably a good thing. And possibly a lesson we could apply to other endeavors.

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Mapping the Universe … in X-Rays

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Twenty years ago today — June 1, 1990 — the US-UK-German Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II.


(X-ray image of Comet Hyakutake, taken by ROSAT’s High Resolution Imager. NASA image.)

True to its namesake, ROSAT was an X-ray observatory, designed to last 18 months and to conduct both a full survey of the sky and detailed observations of points of interest. The mission far exceeded expectations, as the spacecraft operated into 1999. ROSAT not only discovered X-ray emissions from comets, as seen in the image above, but specifically observed emissions from the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter.

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Another Apollo Boilerplate Mission

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Forty-five years ago today — May 25, 1965 — NASA launched Apollo boilerplate mission BP-26 from Cape Canaveral. This mission, like the previous mission in February, carried a satellite experiment.


(Launch of Pegasus-2, 3:35 a.m. EDT, May 25, 1965. NASA image.)

The Pegasus 2, like its predecessor, had large wings that detected impacts from micrometeoroids. The boilerplate Apollo command and service module acted as a protective shroud over the Pegasus experiment during launch.

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Infrared Space Surveillance, a Half Century Ago

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Fifty years ago today — May 24, 1960 — the Midas-2 spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas booster.


(The “launch cover” for Midas-2. Click to enlarge. Image from http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/military-wx.htm. Note the price of the postage.)

Midas-2 was the first satellite to carry an experimental IR surveillance payload into orbit. (The Midas-1 launch attempt in February 1960 failed because of a problem with the booster.)

The Air Force’s “Missile Defense Alarm System” proceeded through a series of launches to test gradually more powerful detectors, but did not produce workable missile warning satellite coverage. However, the technical lessons from Midas launches were applied to the Defense Support Program series of missile warning spacecraft: the very same DSP satellites that provide launch detection today.

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NC Aerospace Aspirations: Report from the Aerospace Executive Forum

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The state of North Carolina intends to be a “world-class player” in the aerospace and defense sectors, as Governor Beverly Perdue said yesterday at the “Aerospace Executive Forum” in New Bern.

I was privileged to attend the forum, which was the third such event put on by the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The Commerce team did a great job organizing everything; the event seemed to run perfectly.

The forum actually began with a reception Thursday evening. I am not a very gregarious person, but I enjoyed conversations with several colleagues and new acquaintances — and the food was superb.

On Friday morning, NC Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco welcomed everyone and we heard from several industry leaders:

  • Colonel Scott Loch, the commander of Fleet Readiness Center East,
  • Rick Davis, Spirit AeroSystems operations director, and
  • Ray Jones, CEO of VX Aerospace and President of the NC Aerospace Alliance.

I’m humbled that Ray singled me out by name with respect to our work at the North Carolina Aerospace Initiative to characterize R&D needs and capabilities throughout the state. (Want to help us? If you’re part of an aerospace company, take our R&D survey!)

After the first round of speakers, the attendees chose between three breakout sessions: workforce, military-related business opportunities, and R&D collaborations. I helped facilitate the third session, along with UNC Associate VP of Economic Development, Policy and Planning, Leslie Boney. We didn’t have as many industry participants as I would’ve liked, and I probably talked more than I should have, but in all I thought our session went well.

Senator Kay Hagan started off the keynote session. She spoke about the importance of aerospace to the economy and of her efforts to promote job growth — two things that go very well together. After Senator Hagan, Kimberly Gavaletz of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics gave a terrific presentation about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. She pointed out something that I’ve talked about for years: our tendency to be risk-averse and, because of it, to miss opportunities. The key to success, she said, is to know the risks and manage them.

Finally, Governor Perdue spoke on “A Vision for the Aerospace Industry in North Carolina.” She challenged Secretary Crisco and his team to produce a systemic plan, with timelines and deliverables, to ensure North Carolina is “positioned to excel” in aerospace. She charged them:

  • to ensure we have a robust and sustainable aerospace workforce,
  • to expand opportunities and relationships for aerospace companies in the state, and
  • to increase efforts to recruit aerospace companies to North Carolina

— and she laid out an ambitious schedule, asking for an interim report in six months and to have the complete strategy presented in a year.

Governor Perdue hearkened back to the Wright brothers and their “big dream,” and she challenged the attendees also to dream big — but I got the impression that she will only be satisfied if we can take action to reach the dreams. She said we are “deadly serious” about succeeding in becoming an aerospace state.

And because of my role in the NC Aerospace Initiative, it sounds as if I may be pretty busy over the next few months….

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Spektr: Demilitarized Space Station Zone

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Fifteen years ago today — May 20, 1995 — the Russian Spektr (“spectrum”) module launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Proton-K rocket.


(Mir space station, photographed from STS-81. The Spektr module is in the upper right, with the two straight and two angled solar arrays. NASA image.)

Spektr was originally designed as a military outpost for surveillance and anti-missile experiments. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the module was grounded until U.S.-Russian cooperative missions began in the mid-90s. The Russians removed their military hardware, refurbished the module, and installed additional solar panels and several U.S. experiment packages, in what might be thought of as the space age equivalent of beating a sword into a plowshare.

Spektr was mated to the Mir space station and served as an experimental laboratory and crew quarters for U.S. astronauts until it was damaged by a Progress resupply ship in 1997. Mir residents closed off the damaged module and eventually succeeded in routing power cables from its solar arrays into the interior of the station. Because of an air leak that was never located, however, the Spektr module could not be occupied again.

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ATLANTIS at the Space Station, a Decade Ago

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Ten years ago today — May 19, 2000 — the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-101.


(Launch of STS-101. NASA image.)

Astronauts James D. Halsell, Jr., Scott J. Horowitz, Mary Ellen Weber, Jeffrey N. Williams, James S. Voss, and Susan J. Helms, along with cosmonaut Yuri V. Usachev, carried the SPACEHAB module into orbit and took part in International Space Station Assembly Flight ISS-2A.2a. They installed new equipment, delivered a ton of supplies, and made repairs to the station.

And today, of course, Atlantis is taking part in another space station mission at this very moment: installing equipment, delivering supplies, and making repairs. Its current mission also happens to be the last scheduled mission for Atlantis.

We look forward to a successful conclusion and a graceful retirement for shuttle Atlantis.

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