Video Caption: In Season 6 Episode 12 of Spacevidcast Live we take a look at all the NewSpace companies located in Mojave and what they are up to! Doug Messier of ParabolicArc.com walks us through that exciting area. In Space News we have Orbital nominally launching their Antares rocket, SpaceX Grasshopper jumps 250m and lands smoothly and the wraps come off Atlantis! Don’t forget about the show after the show! […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Investigators have identified the cause of the failure of a Sea Launch Zenit launch vehicle at the end of January:
“The investigations isolated the failure to the Zenit-3SL first stage hydraulic power supply unit (BIM) used to pressurize the RD-171M main engine gimbal actuators. No additional contributors to the failure were found. The BIM failed approximately 3.9 seconds into the flight due to the abnormal performance of the pump that’s function is to pressurize the hydraulic oil supplied to the RD-171M main engine gimbal actuators. The pump failure was the result of contributing factors associated with a pump manufacturing process that proved difficult to control.”
Read the full press release below.
This artist’s concept from 1978 shows an asteroid retrieval mission. (NASA)
By Michelle K. Dailey
NASA History Office Program
Within NASA’s new FY2014 budget proposal lies a project known as the Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization Mission. This project would be the first to capture a small near-Earth asteroid and safely redirect it to a lunar orbit so that astronauts can visit and explore it. Such a mission would expand scientific knowledge of the origins of both humanity and the universe.
The countdown is on for the first powered SpaceShipTwo flight on Monday. And you can feel the excitement here in Mojave! It’s a mixture of anticipation, nerves and sweat (the last bit being from both hard work and the desert temperatures, which are beginning to climb right up the old thermometer). WhiteKnightTwo is out on the ramp today, presumably with SpaceShipTwo underneath it. (I couldn’t tell from the highway.) They’re […]
CORRECTION: The airport did set up a viewing area for the public. They just didn’t tell people about it clearly.
The Mojave Air & Space Port’s website has a somewhat cryptic notice on the front page of its website:
Mojave Air & Space Port strives to preserve the privacy of our many clients and their flight research objectives. We work with our clients to post post mission outcomes in a timely manner. While many in the press and non-affiliate blogs are reporting an event in Mojave on Monday 29 April the Mojave Air & Space Port is not sponsoring a public or press related event. We cannot guarantee a date or time to monitor a test because tests occur when three critical items come together: the vehicle is ready, the weather can support and the test and airspace has been allocated.
Huh?
A J-2X engine test firing on April 4, 2103, at Stennis Space Center. (Credit: NASA/SSC)
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, MS (NASA PR) — Engineers developing NASA’s next-generation rocket closed one chapter of testing with the completion of a J-2X engine test series on the A-2 test stand at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and will begin a new chapter of full motion testing on test stand A-1.
The J-2X will drive the second stage of the 143-ton (130-metric ton) heavy-lift version of the Space Launch System (SLS). The rocket will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration and send humans in NASA’s Orion spacecraft into deep space.
The NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) for Monday’s SpaceShipTwo flight is decoded below: !MHV 04/029 MHV Service Tower Class D Airspace Effective from 1304291130-1304291359 . The time at the end of the message is 11:30 to 13:59. I believe this is UTC, which would translate into 4:30 to 6:59 a.m. PDT.
Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser shuttle. (Credit: Sierra Nevada)
SPARKS, Nev., April 25, 2013 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems has successfully completed two milestones as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Word is that the Mojave Air & Space Port will be on a form of lock down for the SpaceShipTwo supersonic flight that Richard Branson says is scheduled for Monday morning. If you don’t have no stinkin’ airport badge, you ain’t getting on the airport property. History will be made on Monday, but anyone interested in watching will have to do so from outside the fence of a public airport. […]
The Las Cruces Sun-News has a report on the New Mexico Spaceport Authority’s meeting earlier this week where the following actions and updates occurred. Bruce Jackson, Virgin Galactic vice president for Trade Controls & Export Strategy, told the board that the company is expected to submit an application to the Federal Aviation Administration to license WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. He said the FAA’s review period could take six months or longer. […]