Category Archives: Space

Shuttle, Soyuz, and Space-Based Navigation

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Twenty years ago today — April 26, 1993 — the Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on an international Spacelab mission.


(Spacelab D-2 in the shuttle payload bay. Note the lightning flashes in the clouds below. NASA image.)

The STS-55 crew consisted of U.S. astronauts Steven R. Nagel, Terence T. Henricks, Jerry L. Ross, Charles J. Precourt, Bernard A. Harris Jr., and Ulrich Walter, plus German astronaut Hans W. Schlegel. The shuttle carried the second of the German-built reusable Spacelab modules, and the crew spent 9 days in space conducting a variety of experiments in the laboratory. One highlight of the mission was the first IV established in orbit, in which Dr. Harris “inject[ed] Schlegel with saline as part of study to replace body fluids lost during adaptation to weightlessness.”

Then, on this date 10 years ago, astronaut Edward T. Lu launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on mission Soyuz TMA-2, making him the first U.S. astronaut to serve as the Flight Engineer of a Soyuz spacecraft. The spacecraft commander was cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko, and their destination was the International Space Station where they became the Expedition 7 crew.

Finally, 5 years ago today — April 26, 2008 — a Soyuz-Fregat rocket launched from Baikonur carrying GIOVE-B (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element-B), the second of two test spacecraft for the European Union’s own fleet of navigational satellites.

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Soft X-Rays and a Data Relay

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Twenty years ago today — April 25, 1993 — the first satellite completely sponsored by the Department of Energy launched on a Pegasus booster, dropped from the wing of NASA’s B-52.


(ALEXIS satellite artist’s conception. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons.)

The Array of Low Energy X-Ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) satellite’s primary instrument was an X-ray telescope array tuned to “ultrasoft” X-rays for making a sky map in that part of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as the “Blackbeard” VHF receiver “for studying the effect of lightning and electromagnetic impulse from exploding [nuclear] devices on the ionospheric transmission.”

During its flight, one of the satellite’s solar array paddles was damaged, and controllers could not establish contact with the spacecraft for 3 months. Once they established contact, they had to develop specific attitude control procedures to bring the satellite under control, after which the spacecraft performed well although “the astronomy data needed a full pointing and aspect solution in order to be interpreted.”

And, to complete the promise implied by the title of this post: 5 years ago today — April 25, 2008 — China launched its first data-relay satellite, Tianlian 1, on a Long March 3C rocket from Xichang Launch Center.

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Neurolab, the Last Spacelab Mission

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Fifteen years ago today — April 17, 1998 — the Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on a unique scientific mission.


(The Spacelab module in the Shuttle cargo bay during mission STS-90. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons.)

The STS-90 crew — Richard A. Searfoss, Scott D. Altman, Richard M. Linnehan, Dafydd Rhys Williams, Kathryn P. Hire, Jay C. Buckey, and James A. Pawelczyk — spent just over 2 weeks in space, operating the “Neurolab” which

targeted one of the most complex and least understood parts of the human body — the nervous system. The primary goals were to conduct basic research in neurosciences and expand understanding of how the nervous system develops and functions in space. Test subjects were crew members and rats, mice, crickets, snails and two kinds of fish.

The crew conducted most of the experiments in the European Space Agency’s pressurized Spacelab module, which flew for the last time on this mission.

The mission might have ended a week early because of a problem with the Regenerative Carbon Dioxide Removal System, but ground-based engineers guided the crew through bypassing a “suspect valve” to enable them to stay on orbit.

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Atmospheric Science and Two Space Firsts

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On this date, 15 years apart, two trailblazing (so to speak) female astronauts made historic space flights.


(Charlotte, North Carolina, photographed at night from STS-56. NASA image.)

Twenty years ago today — April 8, 1993 — the Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center carrying two science payloads. The STS-56 crew consisted of astronauts Kenneth D. Cameron, Stephen S. Oswald, C. Michael Foale, Kenneth D. Cockrell, and the first Hispanic woman to fly in space, Ellen Ochoa. The primary payload was the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS, in its second iteration, ATLAS-2), which was “designed to collect data on [the] relationship between [the] sun’s energy output and Earth’s middle atmosphere and how these factors affect ozone layer.” The crew also deployed and recovered the SPARTAN-201 free-flying science package, which examined the sun’s corona and the solar wind.

Also on this date, in 2008, Soyuz TMA-12 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying cosmonauts Sergei A Volokov and Oleg D. Kononenko, plus South Korean Yi So-Yeon, to the International Space Station. Yi was South Korea’s first astronaut, having been selected from 36,000 applicants. Volokov and Kononenko stayed aboard the ISS when Yi and the former ISS crew returned to Earth on April 19th.

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Pioneer 11: First Spacecraft to Saturn

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Forty years ago today — April 5, 1973 — an Atlas Centaur rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carrying the Pioneer 11 space probe.


(Pioneer 11. NASA image.)

Pioneer 11 launched at 02:11 April 6th UTC, though it was still April 5th in Florida when it lifted off. It followed its sister ship, Pioneer 10, which had launched a little over a year before (on March 2, 1972).

Pioneer 11 was the first spacecraft to travel to Saturn, and returned close-up pictures of the ringed planet. On its way to Saturn, it used Jupiter’s gravity for course correction, and in so doing became the first spacecraft to photograph Jupiter’s polar region.

Pioneer 11 passed by Saturn on September 1, 1979, and then continued on toward the edge of the Solar System and the constellation Sagittarius. Contact with the spacecraft was lost in late 1995.

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Fifteen Years Apart: Apollo 6 and STS-6

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Forty-five years ago today — April 4, 1968 — the final qualification flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle and the Apollo spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center.


(Apollo 6 launch. NASA image.)

Apollo 6 consisted of a complete three-stage Saturn V, a Command and Service Module, and a “boilerplate” or “pathfinder” Lunar Module. The mission encountered several major problems:

Two minutes and five seconds after launch, the Saturn V structure underwent a severe pogo oscillation, without damage to the spacecraft structure. Due to a manufacturing flaw and unrelated to the pogo oscillations, structural panels were lost from the lunar module adapter. Finally, after the completion of first stage firing and part way through the second stage burn, two of the five second stage J-2 engines shut down prematurely. The planned 175 km circular Earth orbit was not achieved, instead, after completion of the third stage burn, the spacecraft was in a 172.1 x 223.1 km, 89.8 min orbit. After two orbits, the third stage failed to reignite as planned, so the Service Module propulsion system was used to boost the spacecraft to an apogee of 22,225.4 km, from which the planned lunar reentry simulation took place at 36,025 km/hr, slightly less than the planned velocity of 40,000 km/hr. The Command Module splashed down 80 km off target 9 hr 50 min after launch and was recovered in good condition.

Fifteen years later, on April 4, 1983, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its first flight, mission STS-6. Astronauts Paul J. Weitz, Karol J. Bobko, Donald H. Peterson and Story F. Musgrave spent 5 days in space and deployed the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.

The STS-6 mission was not without its problems. The Inertial Upper Stage placed TDRS-1 in the wrong orbit, and later the satellite’s own thrusters were used to put it into the correct orbit (much like the service module’s thrusters being used on Apollo 6, and some recent spacecraft which have been recovered by judicious use of on-board propulsion). Nevertheless, the overall STS-6 mission was successful and featured the first spacewalk from a Shuttle.

Looking back at these two launches, it seems our space exploits have regressed instead of progressed. Given 10 years between Explorer 1 and Apollo 6, and 15 years between Apollo 6 and STS-6, and 30 years since then, you might think that we should have a colony on Mars by now. So this image of Challenger rolling out in the fog seems apt:


(STS-6 rollout to pad 39A, in the fog. NASA image.)

Here’s hoping we soon catch up to the future!

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The Mystery of Salyut 2

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Forty years ago today — April 3, 1973 — the USSR launched Salyut 2 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Proton K rocket.


(Line drawing of an Almaz space station. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons.)

According to the National Space Science Data Center, Salyut 2 “was designed for scientific research and testing of onboard systems and units” and failed “11 days after launch [due to] an unexplainable accident.”

The Wikipedia entry tells a different story: that Salyut 2 was one of the Soviet Union’s Almaz modules — a space station designed for military use, in answer to the USAF’s proposed Manned Orbiting Laboratory — and the first of the Almaz units to reach orbit. The station’s true purpose was hidden in plain sight by its being designated as a Salyut module.

Wikipedia also includes an explanation for the Almaz/Salyut’s failure:

Three days after the launch of Salyut 2, the Proton’s spent third stage exploded. Thirteen days into its mission, Salyut 2 began to depressurise, and its attitude control system malfunctioned. An inquiry into the failure initially determined that a fuel line had burst, burning a hole in the station. It was later discovered that a piece of debris from the third stage had collided with the station, causing the damage.

The source for the additional Salyut 2 information is this Russian Space Web page, which also notes that

Soon after the accident, official Soviet sources announced that the Salyut-2 had completed its operations “after a series of tests.” For years, official Soviet sources continued to claim that “during entire flight (of Salyut-2) reliable radio-contact with the station had been maintained … and all onboard systems and science equipment of the station had functioned normally.”

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Exploring Earth’s Atmosphere, a Lunar Flyby, and a Space Odyssey

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Fifty years ago today — April 2, 1963 — two quite different launches happened in the U.S. and the Soviet Union.


(Explorer 17. NASA image.)

The U.S. launched Explorer 17, also known as Atmospheric Explorer A, the first in a series of satellites to study the upper atmosphere. The satellite launched in the late evening — already April 3rd, UTC — on a Thor-Delta rocket out of Cape Canaveral, and operated until its batteries failed in July 1963.

Earlier in the day, the Soviet Union had launched Luna 4, the “first successful spacecraft of their ‘second generation’ lunar program.” It launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Molniya rocket — a Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) ICBM. Interestingly, the USSR did not reveal Luna 4’s intended mission, but “was announced it would travel to ‘the vicinity of the Moon.'”

Rather than being sent on a straight trajectory toward the Moon, the spacecraft was placed first in a 167 x 182 km Earth orbit and then was rocketed in a curving path towards the Moon. Luna 4 achieved the desired initial trajectory but during trans-lunar coast the Yupiter astronavigation system failed (most likely due to thermal control problems) and the spacecraft could not be oriented properly for the planned midcourse correction burn. Communications were maintained, but Luna 4 missed the Moon by about 8400 km (sources give reports of 8336.2, 8451, and 8500 km) at 13:25 UT on 5 April 1963 and entered a 89 250 x 694 000 km equatorial Earth orbit. The spacecraft transmitted at 183.6 MHz at least until 7 April. The orbit is believed to have been later perturbed into a heliocentric orbit.

… It was speculated the probe was designed to perform a soft landing on the Moon based on the trajectory and on the later attempted landings of the Luna 5 and 6 spacecraft, as well as the advances made over the 3 years since the successful Luna 3 flyby. (And the fact that a lecture program entitled “Hitting the Moon”, scheduled to be broadcast on Radio Moscow at 7:45 p.m. the evening of April 5, was cancelled.)

Before all of this happened, on this date 55 years ago President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent “draft legislation to Congress establishing the ‘National Aeronautics and Space Agency.'” The name was soon changed to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. You can read more about NASA’s beginnings here.

Finally, 45 years ago today — April 2, 1968 — 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, DC. This page includes a retrospective on its early run.

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Pegasus Carries Solar Explorer

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Fifteen years ago today — April 1, 1998* — a Pegasus XL originating from Vandenberg AFB carried a small satellite to study the Sun’s atmosphere.


(Coronal “loops” above the Sun’s surface, in a false-color image from TRACE. NASA image.)

The Transition Region And Coronal Explorer, or TRACE, carried a single multi-spectral instrument to

examine the three-dimensional magnetic structures which emerge through the Sun’s photosphere (the visible surface of the Sun) and define both the geometry and dynamics of the upper solar atmosphere (the transition region and corona).

In more detail, TRACE was built to achieve three primary objectives:

  1. follow the evolution of magnetic field structures from the solar interior to the corona;
  2. investigate the mechanisms of the heating of the outer solar atmosphere; and,
  3. determine the triggers and onset of solar flares and mass ejections.

The effectiveness of TRACE’s telescopic sensor was due to its sophisticated attitude control system, which combined magnetic-torquers, reaction wheels, and inertial gyros to maintain its pointing accuracy within 5 arc-seconds.

The TRACE mission lasted until June 2010, and produced some stunning images of our Sun.

___

*April 2nd UTC.

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Last Saturn-Apollo Block 1 Suborbital Test Flight

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Fifty years ago today — March 28, 1963 — the Saturn-Apollo 4 mission was launched from Cape Canaveral.


(Saturn SA-4. NASA image.)

Saturn-Apollo (SA) 4, or Apollo SA-4, was the final “Block 1” Saturn test, the last of four test launches of the Saturn rocket’s first stage.

The rocket was launched on a sub-orbital flight to an altitude of 129 km and a peak velocity of 5906 km/hr. After 100 seconds of flight, a pre-set timer cut off engine no. 5 as planned to test the “engine-out” capability of the booster. Fuel was successfully routed to the other seven engines and the flight continued.

Also on this date in space history, 30 years ago, the first of an advanced series of remote-sensing spacecraft, NOAA 8, launched into a polar orbit atop an Atlas E rocket out of Vandenberg AFB. Unfortunately, the satellite did not live out its two-year planned operational life: it failed in June 1984.

Finally, 10 years ago today — March 28, 2003 — Japan launched a pair of reconnaissance satellites, IGS (Information Gathering Satellite) 1A and IGS 1B, from Tanegashima Space Center on an H-2A rocket. According to the National Space Science Data Center, “One of the two spacecraft uses optical cameras with a resolution of one meter; the other uses synthetic aperture radar to provide images at a resolution of a few meters,” but it is unclear which satellite carried which sensor.

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