Space Stuff and Launch Info

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Soyuz MS-23 launched and docked with the ISS, so everyone has a ride down again.

Dragon Crew-6 will launch in around 3.5 hours, the crew is on the way to the rocket. Live coverage:
NASA
SpaceX
NASASpaceflight
This will be the last flight of the original commercial crew contract but NASA already booked 8 more.
Boeing's Starliner is planned to make its first crewed test flight in April.

On its other Florida launch pad, SpaceX is preparing the first launch of "v2" Starlink satellites. They are significantly larger so Falcon 9 will only carry 22 instead of ~53, but each satellite is reported to have ~4x more capacity, so capacity per launch increases. In California yet another Starlink launch is in preparation.
If all three launches happen this month then SpaceX will break its record for launches in a month (7->8), despite February being a short month. The current record of 7 launches in a month was set in December last year, and matched again in January.

Edit: Crew-6 launch attempt has been scrubbed shortly before T=0 because of some concerns with the ignition system, will likely try again tomorrow. First time a crewed Falcon 9 mission was delayed by a technical issue - there had been delays from weather or people entering the restricted area in the past.
No new monthly launch record for SpaceX then, but they could still get 7 launches again (California flight today, Crew-6 tomorrow) and start March with a launch on the first day.

 

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Starlink v2 deployment and a nice view of the upper stage in orbit.

Crew-6 has been moved to March 2, 5:34 UTC (evening/night of March 1 for most of the US).

Terran 1's maiden flight is planned for March 8.

 

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Crew-6 is on the way to the ISS.

SpaceX has now landed 101 boosters in a row successfully. Even for the easier launches this would be the second-longest success streak in spaceflight history (after Falcon 9 launches: 179 and counting), surpassing Delta II's 100 successful flights in a row.

 

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H3 had a first launch attempt that was aborted just before liftoff.

Liftoff and nice first-stage flight of H3, but the second stage failed to ignite.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/03/06/h3-tf1-mission-status-center/

Terran 1 is still on track for a launch in 1.5 days: Livestream starting in 37 hours.
First mostly 3D-printed rocket, with a chance to become the first methane-burning rocket to reach orbit (methalox race).

 

[DennisN]

Want to try docking with the International Space Station?
Try the SpaceX Docking Simulator online here : https://iss-sim.spacex.com/

 

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Terran-1 is still on track for a launch attempt in 54 minutes.



Edit: Scrubbed because of some issues with the upper stage fuel temperature. Next attempt on March 11.

Edit2: Artemis 2 is now planned to launch November 2024. During Artemis 1 the ablative heat shield of Orion lost more material than expected, but still within acceptable limits.

 

[Dullard]

Delta II's 100 successful flights in a row

Reference: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/space-stuff-and-launch-info.879196/page-32#post-6862818

I vividly remember the day that streak ended. Open-Loop hydraulic systems are great, but an unexpected oscillation will (demonstrably) use up all of your hydraulic fluid in a hurry.

 

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That streak ended with the retirement of the rocket.

 

[Dullard]

That streak ended with the retirement of the rocket.

I guess that's true. oops. The first launch of it's successor is what I was talking about. Delta II, Delta III... They all look the same when you're the passenger.

 

[.Scott]

They all look the same when you're the passenger.

Hmmm... If you've been a Delta rocket passenger, I think you just outed yourself as an AI.

 

[Dullard]

Figuratively. I worked on the payloads.

 

[Borg]

Spacesuit for return to the Moon unveiled

 

[Redbelly98]

Couple of interesting launches coming up this week.

March 22, 4:45 a.m. EDT: Rocket Lab will attempt an ocean recovery of their Electron rocket.

March 22, 10 pm - March 23, 1 am EDT: Relativity Space plans another attempt at the maiden launch of their Terran 1 rocket. This would be the first methalox rocket to reach orbit, if successful.

 

[Redbelly98]

Spacesuit for return to the Moon unveiled

... previous plans to send female astronauts to space have been scuppered by the lack of spacesuits in their size.

Little perplexed by this statement. Why were they unable to make additional suits in an appropriate size?

 

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Hakuto-R has entered lunar orbit. The next Japanese mission attempting a soft landing (in about a month).

How many suits do you want to store on the ISS?

But just days before Anne McClain and Christina Koch were due to depart on the walk, Nasa realised they didn't have two spacesuits in the correct size for both women, and McClain had to be replaced by colleague Nick Hague.

Artemis III and IV can launch suits on Starship and both surface crew members will get their own custom suit, no problem there.

March 22, 4:45 a.m. EDT: Rocket Lab will attempt an ocean recovery of their Electron rocket.

Now March 24

 

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A test version of the upper stage of Vulcan failed in a ground test.

Keeping you posted: During Qual testing of Centaur V structural article at MSFC, the hardware experienced an anomaly. This is is why we thoroughly & rigorously exercise every possible condition on the ground before flight. Investigation is underway. Vulcan will fly when complete.
[...]
Extreme structural load testing of various worst possible conditions

It's likely the test conditions were beyond the conditions expected for a flight, but it was still an unexpected failure so it could delay the launch of the flight hardware.

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SpaceX has launched 21 times so far this year and another mission is scheduled to fly in three hours, which means most likely[/size] 22 launches in the first quarter. Not too far behind the pace needed for 100 launches this year.

Here is a graph comparing different years. Since 2020, each year was clearly beating all previous years.

 

[.Scott]

This is Bizarre:
As described in many news articles including this one, Kazakstan has grounded Roscosmos until Russia pays up $30M in Baikonur Cosmodrome related debt.

Perhaps we need to start a Roscosmos Go-Fund-Me site.

More seriously, I notice that this Cosmodrome is not listed among Kazakstan's World Heritage sites. Nor is it on Kazakstan's "tentative" list.

 

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It's only affecting some future rocket plans as far as I understand, normal Soyuz launches are unaffected.

The US doesn't have any spaceflight-related World Heritage Sites either. These seem to focus on older things.

SpaceX's 22nd launch this year was delayed twice, now it's planned for April 1.

 

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The Artemis II crew has been announced:

Commander Reid Wiseman - previously flew one half-year mission to the ISS in 2014 (Soyuz)
Pilot Victor Glover - previously flew one half-year mission to the ISS in 2020 (first operational Dragon flight)
Mission Specialist 1 Christina Koch - almost a year at the ISS in 2019/2020 (Soyuz)
Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen - first flight for him (from Canada)

I didn't expect them to include someone without flight experience, but the crew will always stay together so the risk from Hansen getting sick in space is probably limited.

 

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A Chinese start-up launched their first rocket, Tianlong-2, and it was successful. 2 tonnes to low Earth orbit, very large for a start-up. News article

Starship has a very preliminary launch date: April 10. In under a week.
The ship has been stacked on the booster again.

 

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No Starship on April 10, now no earlier than April 17 (and not expected to fly then, either).

A test version of the upper stage of Vulcan failed in a ground test.

The ULA "anomaly" turned out to be a significant explosion.

Article

 

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Four of the largest rockets are currently on their launch pads (Tweet with images):

* Ariane 5 with JUICE, a European mission to Jupiter, launching in 1.5 hours (live coverage)
* Delta IV Heavy with NROL-68, a US military satellite (April xx)
* Falcon Heavy with ViaSat-3 Americas, a communication satellite (April 18)
* Starship/Super Heavy without payload, for its test flight (April 17-x)

SpaceX is now aiming at a flight on April 17, pending regulatory approval. They also created a website.

 

[.Scott]

Before a Starship launch, we should see a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) issued by the FAA.
It should be issued about a full day before the airspace over Starbase is put under control - so more than a day before a launch.

The FAA TFR's are posted at https://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.jsp.

If you visit that web page, see near the top of that page that there are dropdown menus for "Center", "State", and "Type". The center will be "Houston", the State will be "Texas" and the "Type" will be "Space Operations". Suggest you select "Space Operations", then click the word "GO".

Currently, only one is listed for the Brownsville area - for activity on March 31st.

 

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The beach will be closed on Monday April 17 for "spaceflight activities", with April 18 and 19 as backup dates.

Tory Bruno (CEO of ULA) shared a better video of the "anomaly" on Twitter. A hydrogen leak in a closed volume, hydrogen accumulated and ignited:

 

[.Scott]

TFR for SpaceX "Space Operations"
For Monday, April 17, 2023 1200-1505UTC (8:00-11:05am local time)

Issue Date :​	April 14, 2023 at 1044 UTC
Location :​	Brownsville, Texas
Beginning Date and Time :​	April 17, 2023 at 1200 UTC
Ending Date and Time :​	April 17, 2023 at 1505 UTC
Reason for NOTAM :​	Space Operations Area
Type :​	Space Operations
Replaced NOTAM(s) :​	N/A
Pilots May Contact :​	Houston (ZHU) ARTCC, 281-230-5560

 

[.Scott]

Tory Bruno (CEO of ULA) shared a better video of the "anomaly" on Twitter. A hydrogen leak in a closed volume, hydrogen accumulated and ignited:

This explosion was on March 29.
You can see flames cooking the frame as the video starts - well before the explosion.

 

[.Scott]

There is now an identical SpaceX TFR for Tuesday.

 

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Interesting Tweets from Eric Berger:

Quite obviously this [launch license on Thursday] did not happen. However, generally, there remains confidence that a license is forthcoming for SpaceX when it is needed—i.e. before 7 am CT on Monday morning. A license could be issued any time, any day, including weekends.

SpaceX could literally launch within minutes of receiving a launch license from the FAA. Every indication from the company and FAA (i.e. road closures, flight restrictions) indicate that planning moving toward a Monday morning launch attempt.

SpaceX and the FAA are working together so they'll have an internal target date for that launch license. Looks like it's Monday morning or earlier. Getting a launch license with the rocket already in the fueling process would be a very interesting move.

 

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Starship has a launch license
SpaceX confirms Monday for its first launch attempt

The launch window opens 7 am CT, 12:00 UTC, or 2 days 7 hours after this comment, and goes for three hours.

If the launch happens next week then SpaceX might make four launches within 7 days for the first time: A Falcon 9 rideshare mission on Saturday, Falcon Heavy on Tuesday, a Starlink mission on Wednesday, and Starship.

 

[.Scott]

SpaceX has now reserved airspace for possible launches on Monday through Friday of this coming week.