Space News reports on pricing for the Long March, a family of boosters that has racked up an impressive series of launch successes: The company selling Chinese Long March rockets on the commercial market said Sept. 24 that it is maintaining prices for telecommunications satellite missions at about $70 million, a price it says is backed by a 96 percent success record over 181 flights as of Sept. 23. In […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Space News reports on a draft report on safety practices for keeping commercial spaceflight participants safe:
In an attempt to forestall congressional direction of the process, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has produced a 50-page list of safety practices that could serve as the cornerstone for future commercial human spaceflight safety regulations.
Canadian Space Summit 2013 Canada’s Space Economy November 14-15 in Ottawa, ON Call for Abstracts and Early Bird Registration deadlines: September 30! Register now to save over 20%! The Canadian Space Summit is the Canadian Space Society’s annual conference devoted to space science, research, and technology. The Summit will bring together approximately 200 professionals from industry, academia, government, and the military to explore topics of importance to the space sector in […]
Mission Overview
Company: SpaceX
Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9 v. 1.1
Date: Sept. 29, 2013
Launch Window Opens: 12: p.m. EDT/9 a.m. PDT
Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Orbit: Elliptical Polar
Primary Payload: CASSIOPE (CAscade, SmallSat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer)
CASSIOPE Funding Authority: Canadian Space Agency
CASSIOPE Builder: MDA
CASSIOPE Description: Cascade commercial communications system and a scientific payload called ePOP (enhanced Polar Outflow Probe)
Former CU-Boulder students Mark Sakaguchi and Bruce Davis test the DANDE satellite. (Credit: CU-Denver)
BOULDER, Colo. (CU-Boulder PR) — A small beach ball-sized satellite designed and built by a team of University of Colorado Boulder students to better understand how atmospheric drag can affect satellite orbits is now slated for launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sept. 29.
The satellite, known as the Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer satellite, or DANDE, is designed to investigate how a layer of Earth’s atmosphere known as the thermosphere varies in density at altitudes from about 200 to 300 miles above Earth. There are thousands of satellites orbiting Earth at those altitudes, most of which eventually degrade, lose altitude and burn up in the atmosphere.
NASA engineers and contractors tested four different payload configurations during the liftoff transition testing of a 67.5-inch model of the SLS at NASA Langley Research Center’s 14-by-22-foot subsonic wind tunnel in Hampton, Va. (Credit: NASA/LaRC)
HAMPTON, VA (NASA PR) — Environmental factors, like wind gusts, can factor into an aircraft’s performance. NASA’s new heavy-lift launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), is no exception when it comes to Mother Nature.
NASA engineers and contractors recently completed liftoff transition testing of a 67.5-inch model of the SLS in a 14-by-22-foot subsonic wind tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Data acquired from the test will help prepare SLS for its first mission in 2017, Exploration Mission-1, which will deliver an unmanned Orion spacecraft to a stable lunar orbit to check out the vehicle’s fully integrated systems.
Sir Richard Branson speaks to a group of future astronauts at the FAITH Hangar of Virgin Galactic in Mojave, CA September 25, 2013 in Mojave, CA. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic is now hoping to get SpaceShipTwo into space on a test flight in February, according to multiple sources who attended the company’s gathering of future astronauts in Mojave on Wednesday.
Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson told about 300 future passengers that February is the new target date for having the six-passenger spacecraft fly above the Karmen line located at an altitude of 100 km (62 miles).
One attendee said that Branson didn’t project a lot of confidence about the February date. Overall, the British billionaire seemed rather subdued during in his opening remarks to attendees, lacking some of the enthusiasm he had shown at previous Virgin Galactic events, sources said.
Others who are familiar with the troubled development of SpaceShipTwo’s hybrid engine were less confident in Branson’s prediction. A flight in February is possible, they said, but it might not occur in 2014.
WhiteKnightTwo Flight Summaries Via Scaled Composites Flight: 137 Date: 19 Sep 13 Flight Time: 1.9 hr WK2 Pilot: Siebold WK2 CoPilot: Sturckow WK2 FTE: Flynn Objectives: Pilot proficiency Results: Objective achieved. Flight: 136 Date: 18 Sep 13 Flight Time: 2.2 hr WK2 Pilot: Siebold WK2 CoPilot: Masucci WK2 FTE: Reeder Objectives: Pilot proficiency Results: Objective achieved. Flight: 135 Date: 17 Sep 13 Flight Time: 1.9 hr WK2 Pilot: Stucky WK2 […]
Artist’s conception of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus freighter approaching the International Space Station.
NASA and its International Space Station partners have approved a Sunday, Sept. 29, target arrival of Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus spacecraft on its demonstration cargo resupply mission to the space station.
Sunday, September 29
4:30 a.m. – Cygnus rendezvous, grapple and berthing coverage begins on NASA Television.
7:15 a.m. – Grapple of Cygnus by International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm
9:15 a.m. – Cygnus berthing to Earth-facing port of Harmony node begins
~11:20 a.m. – Cygnus berthing complete (2nd stage capture)1 p.m. – Cygnus Post-Capture News Conference
For the latest schedule for spacecraft capture and installation, as well as the post-berthing news conference, visit:
Sony Pictures Television is set to launch a reality series in which the winner would fly into space: Milky Way Mission, created by Tuvalu Media and Simpel Media, features 10 celebrities living in a special bootcamp where they undergo a rigorous and intensive training program in preparation to become an astronaut. (The Mark Burnett series is said to feature non-celebrity contestants). Each week the stars face a series of extreme […]