Zitat A commercial space crew has flown higher above Earth than anyone who has traveled since the last Apollo astronauts went to the moon.
The four members of the Polaris Dawn mission, riding aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft "Resilience," climbed into an elliptical orbit with a high point, or apogee, of 870 miles (1,400.7 kilometers) on Tuesday (Sep. 10). They reached the record distance about 15 hours after lifting off at 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 GMT) from Florida earlier in the day and circling the planet about eight times in an initial orbit of 190 by 1,200 miles (306 by 1,930 km).
The crew's top altitude more than doubled the maximum height that NASA's space shuttle reached when it deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 and surpassed the previous record for a crewed spacecraft remaining in Earth orbit of 853 miles (1,373 km), achieved by NASA's Gemini 11 mission in 1966.
Zitat von Ulrich Elkmann im Beitrag #469Damit befinden sich zurzeit 16 Menschen im Weltraum.
Seit einer Minute sind es 19. 18:23 MESZ Start der Mission Sojus MS-26 von Baikonur, an Bord Don Pettit, Aleksej Owschonin und Iwan Wagner. So viele waren es noch nie. PS.
Zitat Jonathan McDowell@planet4589 Updated Polaris Dawn analysis: Initial apogee boost at perigee 9, crica 0020 UTC Sep 11, from 196 x 1200 km to 196 x 1396 km (mean elements). Apogee lowering burn at perigee 15, 1030 UTC Sep 11, to about 196 x 1226 km. Second lowering burn at P16, 1204 UTC, to 195 x 1073 km. 7:24 PM · Sep 11, 2024
Zitat Jonathan McDowell@planet4589 Following the first apogee boost, the mean elements had an apogee of 1395.6 km. The first apogee in the new orbit was at 0111:20 UTC, with an standard height of 1400.0 km (moment of maximum distance from geocenter); the max geoid height was 1408.3 km at around the same time.
The above values were derived using the Space Force TLE and applying the SGP4 algorithm.
A second TLE set from Space Force with a later epoch gives very slightly lower values (1399.5 km and 1407.8 km respectively).
For comparison, the best data I have for Gemini 11 suggests an apogee of 1374.0 km (standard height) with a geoid height maxium of 1377.9 km. However this is not an SGP4 dataset and perturbations are not taken into account - could be 2 km off. Clear that Polaris Dawn was higher. 7:30 PM · Sep 11, 2024
Zitat Jonathan McDowell@planet4589 Time for a deep dive into "apogee". There are two slightly different senses. 1) The highest altitude reached during a trajectory. 2) The highest altitude of the elliptical orbit that you are currently on. These are different why? (1/n...)
They are different because if you are currently only part way round the orbit, the orbit you are currently on will be altered ('perturbed') by the gravity of the Moon and Sun, by the atmosphere, and by the non spherical parts of the Earth's gravity field. So, .... (2/n)
By the time you get to the high part of the orbit you're actually on a slightly different ellipse than the one you started on. And then you fall back down towards perigee and the orbit changes again ... mostly back to the original values (although not exactly) (3/n)
So we usually quote 'mean elements', averaging the ellipses around the orbit to get a mean ellipse. But the actual apogee and perigee heights you reach will not be the same as those of the mean ellipse because of the above details. But wait, there's more! (4/n)
Height relative to what? Conventionally we quote height relative to an imaginary spherical Earth with radius equal to actual equator's. But of course the Earth is not round, you may prefer to quote the height above the actual surface, or (good to nearest km) the geoid (5/n)
I'll refer to these two heights as the 'standard height' and the 'geoid height'. Note that the highest point in these two definitions may not happen at the same time, because the ellip. cross-section of the Earth and the long axis of the orbit ellipse are not aligned.
Summary: "What's the apogee?" is complicated. 6:35 PM · Sep 11, 2024
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat Spaceflight Now@SpaceflightNow SpaceX adjusted the start time of the Polaris Dawn spacewalk. The EVA is now set to begin at 5:58 am ET (0958 UTC). Live coverage will begin an hour before the EVA starts. From the start of the suit purge through repressurization, the EVA itself is set to last just shy of two hours. 8:20 AM · Sep 12, 2024
12:22 MESZ. Awaiting cabin venting. 401 km Höhe. 12:39. Dragon venting. Kabinendruck 1,5 PSA. 677 km Höhe. 12:44. Jaredman kurbelt die Lukenverriegelung auf. 724 km Höhe. Kapselinnendruck 0,0; Anzuginnendruck 4,8 PSI. 12:50. Innerer Lukendeckel nach innen geklappt. Umschaltung auf Jaredmans Helmkamera. 12:52. Freier Blick auf die Erde aus 752 km Höhe. Was da unten liegt, ist der Südindische Ozean, 51° Süd. Die Raumanzüge haben keinen eigenen Sauerstoffvorrat, sondern werden durch 4 m lange Versorgungsschläuche aus der Kapsel versorgt. 12:57 EV 1 (Jaredman) in progress. Über dem Pazifik wird es gerade Nacht. 719 km Höhe.
Zitat Eric Berger@SciGuySpace What is striking about this to me is the professionalism of Isaacman. Clearly taking this serious and providing real-time observations of suit mobility and performance. 12:56 PM · Sep 12, 2024
13:01. Jaredman wieder in der Kapsel und auf seinem Sitz. 668 km Höhe. 13:04. EV2 in progress, Sarah Gills. 13:09. 547 km Höhe. Das ist die Höhe des Orbits des Hubble-Teleskops. 13:18. Luke geschlossen. Innendruck in der Kapsel baut sich auf. 1,1 PSI. 13:34. Cabin leak check. Kabinendruck 9,4 PSI. Höhe 195 km. Die Kapsel hat gerade die amerikanische Westküste überflogen. 13:55. Innendruck 14,2 PSI. Dragon repress complete. Höhe 390 km.
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Zitat Polaris@PolarisProgram SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew have completed the first commercial spacewalk!
“SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.” — Mission Commander @rookisaacman during Dragon egress and seeing our planet from ~738 km 2:40 PM · Sep 12, 2024
Zitat Jonathan McDowell@planet4589 The spacewalk time using my 5kPa rule was 33min 25s. The hatch open/close time was about 26m 40s. Isaacman was outside hatch for 7 min 56m; Gillis for about 7m15s. 1:26 PM · Sep 12, 2024
Zitat New Scientist@newscientist Four civilian astronauts will soon launch into space on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission. Two of them will venture outside their Crew Dragon capsule on the riskiest spacewalk ever attempted. 10:09 AM · Sep 14, 2024
Der Artikel im "New Scientist" stammt vom 29. August, aber welcher Schluhu von Volo postet das heute?
Und der riskanteste Weltraumspaziergang war bislang der von Bruce McCandless am 7. Februar 1984 während der Shuttle-Mission STS 41-B, als er ohne jede Leinensicherung fast 6 Stunden lang mit Hilfe des Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) des Space Shuttle Challenger umkreiste.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat The Polaris Dawn crew closed out a record-setting commercial spaceflight with a pre-dawn splashdown early Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico northwest of Key West, Florida. Splashdown occurred at 3:37 a.m. EDT (0737 UTC).
Zitat Along with a full slate of biomedical research, the crew also tested laser communications technology linking the Crew Dragon to the Starlink constellation of commercial internet relay satellites.
“Early this morning via @Starlink space lasers, the Polaris Dawn crew chatted with SpaceX teams over coffee and donuts,” SpaceX posted on X Saturday. “During the 40+ minute uninterrupted video call, Dragon completed half an orbit over the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., cutting southeast over the Atlantic Ocean and rounding the Cape of Good Hope.”
Earlier in the mission, Gillis, an accomplished violist, participated in what amounted to an international concert from space, performing composer John Williams’ “Star Wars” song “Rey’s Theme,” accompanied by young musicians in the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Sweden and Uganda.
The Polaris Dawn mission is the first of three planned by Isaacman, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, in cooperation with Musk.
The second flight will be another Crew Dragon mission while the third will be the first piloted flight of SpaceX’s huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket, now under development in Texas. It’s not known how much Isaacman is paying for the flights or how much SpaceX funded on its own.
Polaris Dawn is SpaceX’s fifth commercial Crew Dragon flight to orbit and its 14th including NASA missions carrying crew members to the International Space Station. The California rocket builder has now launched 54 men and women to orbit since piloted flights began in May 2020.
PS. Gesamtdauer der Polaris Dawn-Mission: 4 Tage, 22 Stunden und 10 Minuten; insgesamt 75 Erdumrundungen. PS.
Zitat Jonathan McDowell@planet4589 The trunk from Polaris Dawn was jettisoned into a 215 x 451 km x 51.7 deg orbit and has been cataloged as 61073. It will make an uncontrolled reentry in a couple of months. 8:00 PM · Sep 15, 2024
Heute wurde ja bekannt, daß die US-Luftfahrt-Aufsichtsbehörde FAA SpaceX ein Bußgeld von $ 663.000 aufgebrummt hat, weil 2 Starts im vergangenen Jahr nicht nach den geforderten Regularien erfolgt sind. Jetzt stellt sich heraus: SpaceX hat die FAA von der geänderten Kommunikations-Struktur für den Start am 18. Juni am 2. Mai 2023 in Kenntnis gesetzt. Der 16.6.2023 war ein Freitag; der 18. ein Sonntag. Am 15. Juni (!) hat die FAA ihre Zustimmung zum Antrag bis zum 18.6. abgelehnt; am 16. 6. eine Abänderung der Genehmigung verweigert.
Zudem hat SpaceX wohl Änderungen in der Technik (wahrscheinlich neue Monitor o.ä. aufgestellt) im Kontrollraum vorgenommen, denen die FAA am 16. Juni die Genehmigung verweigert hat. Zwei Dinge: zum einen ist das 15 Monate unbeanstandet geblieben; erst Musks öffentliche Unterstützung für Trump hat das ausgelöst. Zum anderen hate SpaceX heute angekündigt, gegen die FAA wegen Obstruktion & Überregulierung vor Gericht zu ziehen. Ein weiterer Punkt ist die Verweigerung einer Startgenehmigung für den 5. Flug des Starship, das seit Anfang August startbereit ist; die FAA hat in der vorigen Woche einen Termin "Ende November" genannt. Knackpunkt ist hier, daß die FAA eine Erlaubnis für eine exakte Wiederholung von Flug 4 erteilt hat, bei Flug 5 aber das Einfangen des Boosters mit den Mechazila-Greifarmen des Startturms auf dem Plan steht.
Zitat Elon Musk@elonmusk I am highly confident that discovery will show improper, politically-motivated behavior by the FAA 8:55 PM · Sep 17, 2024
Zitat Elon Musk@elonmusk SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years.
If those all land safely, then crewed missions are possible in four years. If we encounter challenges, then the crewed missions will be postponed another two years.
It is only possible to travel from Earth to Mars every two years, when the planets are aligned. This increases the difficulty of the task, but also serves to immunize Mars from many catastrophic events on Earth.
No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity. We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveler to go to Mars! That means you or your family or friends – anyone who dreams of great adventure.
Eventually, there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars and it will a glorious sight to see! Can you imagine? Wow.
The fundamental existential question is whether humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that, for example nuclear war, a supervirus or population collapse that weakens civilization to the point where it loses the ability to send supply ships to Mars.
One of my biggest concerns right now is that the Starship program is being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year. This stifling red tape is affecting all large projects in America, which is why, for example, California has spent ~$7 billion dollars and several years on high-speed rail, but only has a 1600 ft section of concrete to show for it!
While I have many concerns about a potential Kamala regime, my absolute showstopper is that the bureaucracy currently choking America to death is guaranteed to grow under a Democratic Party administration. This would destroy the Mars program and doom humanity.
It cannot happen. Your help would be much appreciated. This is a fork, maybe the fork, in the road of human destiny. https://x.com/peterrhague/st
Zitat "The FAA requires a license modification if an operator proposes a change that is material to ppublic safety. A change is material to public safety if it alters or affects the following: class of payload; type of launch or rentry vehicle; type or quantity of hazardous material; flight trajectory; launch site or reentry site or other landing site; or any system, policy, procedure, requirement, criteria, or standard that is safety critical.
A proposal to conduct a return to launch site for the booster, if the FAA has not previously evaluated and authorized it for prior flights, is a change that is material to public safety. A change of a vehicle's thermal protection system (TPS) may be a material change if the TPS is a safety critical system or component that could affect public safety." - The FAA responding to NSF
Space Sudoer@spacesudoer So now the FAA even has problems with Starship's new heat tiles. They're concerned about 'public safety', even though the ship will splash down in the middle of the ocean where there are no people. Am I the only one who feels like they're making shit up to get in SpaceX's way? 7:30 PM · Sep 25, 2024
Zitat Elon Musk@elonmusk America is being smothered by ever larger mountains of irrational regulations from ever more new agencies that serve no purpose apart from the aggrandizement of bureaucrats.
Humanity, and life as we know it, are doomed to extinction without significant regulatory reform. We need to become a multiplanet civilization and a spacefaring species!
This is my absolute showstopper for why Kamala and the giant government machine that is her legion of puppetmasters cannot win.
Trump or doom. This is the fork in the road of destiny.
Zitat @spacesudoer·19h So now the FAA even has problems with Starship's new heat tiles.
der Livestream für das abschließende Kapitel der Saga "Boeing Starliner/CST-100" mit dem Countdown und dem Start der Crew-Dragon-Kapsel für den Flug der Crew 9 zur ISS. Das Abheben ist für 13:17 Eastern Daylight Time/19:17 MESZ vorgesehen; wie bei allen Starts zur ISS muß das sekundengenau erfolgen. Der Start ist am Mittwoch um zwei Tage verlegt worden, gestern haben die Ausläufer der Hurrikans Helene Cape Canaveral touchiert. An Bord werden nur Kommandant Nick Hague und der Russe Alexander Gorbunow sein, damit die beiden Raumfahrer der Starliner-Crew, Butch Wilmore und Sunita Williams, im Februar 2025 mit der Kapsel landen können. Dafür hat die NASA im August die Astronauten Stefanie Wilson und Zena Cardman auf die Reservebank gesetzt. Der Start wird der erste bemannte Start von der umgebauten Startrampe 40 sein, die bisher für militärische Satellitenmissionen reserviert war; die Modifikationen betreffen hauptsächlich den Startturm.
Der kleinen Mustererkennung kommt natürlich beim Namen Cardman sofort "South Park" in den Sinn (obschon sich der Name dort mit "t" schreibt: Cartman), vor allem aber, daß die Tradition der Namensfindung für diese Staffel aus der Serie "Odyssee im Weltraum" dankenswerterweise gewahrt ist. Die Starliner-Kapsel trug den Namen "Calypso," nominell nach dem Forschungsschiff von Jacques-Yves Cousteau - aber Cousteau hat den Namen natürlich der "Odyssee" entnommen, der Nymphe auf der Insel Ogygia, die Odysseus dort sieben Jahre lang an der Heimkehr nach Ithaka gehindert hat. Und zwar dadurch, daß der listenreiche Wanderer mit seinem Schiff vor ihrer Insel Schiffbruch erlitten hat und als einziger überlebte - das war die Strafe dafür, daß seine Mannschaft aus den "Rindern des Helios" (Ἠελίοιο βόες) auf der Insel Thrinakia (die antiken Kommentatoren sind sich uneins, ob damit Sizilien oder Malta gemeint ist) Hamburger gemacht haben, nachdem ein Sturm, den Poseidon gesandt hat, sie dort einen Monat länger als vorgesehen festgehalten hat. Odysseus verliert also seine Transportmöglichkeit, und erst nach sieben Jahren muß ihm die Nymphe auf Anordnung von Hermes Werkzeuge zur Verfügung stellen, damit er sich ein Floß zimmern kann. Und bekanntlich wurde der Trojanische Krieg, der nach zehn Jahren durch die Sache mit dem Pferd für die Achäer entschieden wurde, durch die Entführung der schönen Helena durch Paris losgetreten. Und die trägt im Original exakt den Namen des obenerwähnten Wirbelsturms: Ἑλένη - mit stellungslangem E am Ende.
Es ist schon ein paar Jahrzehnte her, daß ich als Zehnjähriger Gustav Schwabs "Sagen des klassischen Altertums" gelesen habe. Und wenn mir damals jemand vorausgesagt hätte, ich würde das mal tief im 21. Jahrhundert gut brauchen können, um die Anklänge bei der Eroberung des Weltalls so richtig nachschmecken zu können, dann hätte ich mir nur vielsagend an die Stirn getippt.
Hübsch ist auch, daß diese Namenswahl nicht zeitnahe erfolgt ist, sondern so lange zurückliegt, daß es tatsächlich scheinen könnte, daß die Olympischen hier ihre Griffel im Spiel haben. Die Taufe des Starliner auf den Namen "Calypso" durch Suny Williams ist am 22. Dezember 2019 erfolgt, nach dem ersten unbemannten Flug der Kapsel, bei dem das Annäherung an die ISS wgen des Ausfalls der Lagekontrolldüsen gescheiert ist.
Apropos "10 Jahre": Die Entführung der Helena war ja der Göttinnenlohn für das Parisurteil. Das kam zustande, weil Eris, Göttin der Zwietracht, nicht auf die Hochzeit von Peleus und Thetis eingeladen worden ist, aber trotzdem die Party gesprengt hat, indem sie einen goldenen Apfel mit der eingeritzten Inschrift τῇ καλλίστῃ ("Der Schönsten") auf den Tanzboden gekullert hat (von daher kommt übrigens der Begriff des Zankapfels/the apple of contention oder discord/pomme de discorde).* Zeus hat die unschöne Entscheidungsfindung an den Sterblichen Paris delegiert, mit den bekannten Folgen, als der sich für Aphrodite entschieden hat. Eric Berger widmet in seinem Buch "Reentry" (Untertitel: "SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age"), am vergangenen Mittwoch vor 4 Tagen erschienen, ein Kapitel der entscheidenden Sitzung in der Führungsebene der NASA, wem von drei Bewerbern die Milliarden für Entwicklung und Bau eines bemannten Zuträgers zur ISS zuerkannt würden. Das Meeting fand am 6. August 2014 statt. Der Dritte im Bunde war die Sierra Nevada Corporation. Um ein Haar wäre die gesamte Summe an Boeing allein gegangen, am Ende kam es zu dem Splitting von 4,2 Milliarden für Boeing und 2,6 Milliarden USD zugunsten von SpaceX. Der Start heute abend wird der elfte bemannte Flug der Crew Dragon sein.
Nachzulesen ist die Episode als Amuse-Geule auf Ars Technica:
* Im Katalog von Aarne + Thompson ("Motive Index of Folk-Literature") trägt das Motiv der perfiden Rache der ausgeladenen bösen Fei die Nummer 163. Soweit ich das auf die Schnelle sehe, ist das Urteil des Paris die älteste überlieferte Version.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat SpaceX@SpaceX After today’s successful launch of Crew-9, Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.
We will resume launching after we better understand root cause 6:20 AM · Sep 29, 2024
Probleme mit der zweiten Stufe scheinen in Mode zu kommen. Flug 2 und 3 des Starship sind an der zweiten Stufe gescheitert, der Erststart der japanischen H3 im März 2023, der Erststart der Ariane 6 am 9. Juli, und die zweiwöchige Startunterbrechung der Falcon 9 nach dem Versagen der zweiten Stufe am 11. Juli.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat Crew-9's Crew Dragon capsule, named Freedom, is scheduled to dock with the ISS today around 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT). You can watch the rendezvous live via NASA+ and the agency's website, beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT). Space.com will carry the feed as well, if NASA makes it available.
The coverage will continue through hatch opening and the ISS crew's welcoming remarks, which are expected around 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT) and 7:40 p.m. EDT (2340 GMT), respectively.
Zitat von Ulrich Elkmann im Beitrag #491 Probleme mit der zweiten Stufe scheinen in Mode zu kommen.
Ich erwarte, daß die FAA in wenigen Tagen, spätestens in 1-2 Wochen wieder Startfreigabe erteilt. Zum Einfluß auf den aktuellen Fahrplan:
Zitat SpaceX’s Falcon rocket fleet was grounded for the third time in three months after a second stage problem occurred Saturday following the successful launch of a Dragon Capsule carrying two crew to the International Space Station. The suspension in flights comes as the company prepares to launch two solar system exploration missions in October with narrow launch windows.
SpaceX said the Falcon 9 second stage that launched NASA’s Crew 9 mission failed to correctly perform a firing of its Merlin Vacuum engine less than 30 minutes after releasing Dragon Freedom into a planned 117×128 mile (189×206 km) orbit. The engine firing is designed to prevent the rocket body from becoming space debris by driving the stage into the atmosphere for a destructive reentry. Any debris was supposed to fall harmlessly into the ocean in an area previously identified in warnings to mariners and aviators. “Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn,” SpaceX said in a social media post, shortly after midnight EDT on Sunday. “As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.”
The mishap is likely to prompt an investigation from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which oversees the company’s launch licenses. SpaceX is currently in dispute with the FAA over fines related to Falcon 9 activities at Kennedy Space Center and delays gaining authorization for the fifth test flight of its Starship vehicle from Starbase in Texas. Spaceflight Now reached out to the FAA for comment but had not yet received a response, with the FAA’s offices closed for the weekend.
Debris from the rocket stage should have fallen in a stretch of the Pacific Ocean that started east of New Zealand, but probably ended up falling further downrange, but still south of the Equator, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and tracker of space launches and satellites. “The most likely failure mode that still results in reentry is a slight underburn,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “So you expect the entry to be further along… but not by too much.” McDowell told Spaceflight Now he estimates the deorbit burn should have occurred around 1:55 p.m. EDT (1755 UTC) as the craft passed over Yemen. If everything had gone to plan, reentry would have happened about 35 minutes later.
SpaceX was scheduled to launch 20 satellites for OneWeb from its West Coast launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base late Sunday night local time but that mission was put on hold, along with a Starlink delivery mission from Cape Canaveral originally planned for Wednesday. “We will resume launching after we better understand root cause [of the problem],” SpaceX said in its statement.
This will be the third grounding of the Falcon 9 fleet in three months. An upper stage problem resulted in the loss of 20 Starlink satellites on July 11. Flights resumed 15 days later after the company determined the cause of a liquid oxygen leak and came up with a quick fix. A shorter suspension of just three days came when a Falcon 9 first stage made a crash landing on the deck of SpaceX’s drone ship after an otherwise successful launch on August 28. The company has not disclosed the cause of that mishap.
The grounding of the Falcon fleet will be of particular concern to NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) which had launches of solar system exploration missions planned within days of each other in early October.
On October 7 a Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral with ESA’s Hera mission to study the Didymos binary asteroid system that was impacted by the DART mission in September 2022. It’s launch window runs until October 27.
Then on October 10, a Falcon Heavy, which uses the same second stage as the Falcon 9, is due to launch NASA’s Europa Clipper on a mission to explore one of Jupiter’s most intriguing moons. The Falcon Heavy will need all its performance for the $5 billion mission and two burns of the rocket’s second stage will be required. The spacecraft will be released from the rocket at a velocity of approximately 25,000 mph (40,200 km per hour), the fastest speed ever achieved by a Falcon upper stage. The launch window for Europa Clipper closes on October 30.
Zitat random@r3a9an_k_ So after an incredibly long 335 launch streak and 254 landing streak, theyve had 2 second stage failures and a landing failure (albeit on a life leader) all within 25 flights. Is it really just bad odds? Or has something changed? 2:44 PM · Sep 29, 2024
Zitat von Ulrich Elkmann im Beitrag #492Zitat:Crew-9's Crew Dragon capsule, named Freedom, is scheduled to dock with the ISS today around 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT).
Zitat Jeff Foust@jeff_foust From the FAA on the Falcon 9 deorbit burn anomaly: "The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX NASA Crew-9 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on September 28. The incident involved the Falcon 9 second stage landing outside of the designated hazard area. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation." 10:28 PM · Sep 30, 2024
Zitat von Ulrich Elkmann im Beitrag #493 On October 7 a Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral with ESA’s Hera mission to study the Didymos binary asteroid system that was impacted by the DART mission in September 2022.
Stichwort Hera.
Zitat Jeff Foust@jeff_foust At an ESA briefing this morning, Hera project officials say they are proceeding with plans for an Oct. 7 launch on a Falcon 9, including encapsulating the spacecraft in the fairing tomorrow. Getting daily briefings on investigation and "very happy" with progress so far. 2:33 PM · Oct 2, 2024
Zitat On Thursday, the Hera spacecraft, along with two CubeSats, are set to be encapsulated inside the fairings of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ahead of a planned launch on Monday, Oct. 7. The moment will begin a roughly two-year journey out to the binary asteroid system of Didymos and its moon, Dimorphos.
The concept of a twin satellite mission to an asteroid was originally pitched as an undertaking, called “Don Quijote,” and would’ve been entirely within ESA. Ian Carnelli, Hera’s project manager, said that in the early 2000s, the concept was a hard sell to political leaders needed to finance the undertaking.
“It was super difficult to sell to our decision makers. A mission that was not science, not purely technology, no human exploration, no robotic exploration. So, it was completely outside of any of the schemes that were in place,” Carnelli said. “Planetary defense didn’t exist. A planetary defense program didn’t exist in the agency and when you were explaining and trying to sell the mission to those deciding, most of the time they would laugh.”
In 2011, during a planetary defense conference in Bucharest, Romania, earnest discussions began between Carnelli and his scientists and NASA’s Applied Physics Lab (APL) about the idea of visiting a binary asteroid. From those conversations came the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which consisted of NASA’s DART and ESA’s Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM).
Under this mission design, AIM would arrive at Didymos and Dimorphos prior to DART and be there to witness the impact and the aftermath. Carnelli said he was optimistic about their prospects of getting financial backing from the European member states after NASA gave some funding to DART. However at a meeting of ESA member countries in 2016, European space ministers decided to put their money into other projects.
“Ministers and colleagues and everybody was absolutely convinced we were going to get the funding. And my hope started really to build. It was a lot of effort to get even to that point, to be even tabled for discussions for the funding. It was something completely new and very emotional,” Carnelli said. “And then in 24 hours, that dream just collapsed.”
He and his team tried numerous workarounds to reduce the cost of the mission or simplify it in ways that would make it more palatable for funding. After nearly giving up, Carnelli said the mission’s principal investigator, Dr. Patrick Michel, gave him some words of encouragement to keep him going.
“[He] said, ‘Look, we’re so close. We cannot give up now.’ And he gave me the little boost to make another try and so, I contacted the German delegates to the German Space Agency and said, ‘Look I think we could still do something,’” Carnelli recounted. “DART is moving forward. Let us continue a few more months to see if NASA actually approves DART.”
That pitch got the team about 4 million euros, which allowed them to press forward while “running on fumes.” But that was enough for them to get through the point of NASA approving DART and for them to get even more than they were asking for during the 2019 ministerial.
“In 2019, we were asking for 160 million euros to cover the industrial cost and we had more than 180. So, we even had more money than we asked, which was a big relief for us,” Carnelli said. “Made us more comfortable to work and place all the contracts. And I think the other positive side of this story is that by that time, all of the scientific payloads were very well defined. And so, when we signed the contract in 2019, everything was super clear.”
The challenge presented by the Covid-19 pandemic the following year provided a fresh wave of challenges, not only to the workforce, but also to their supply chain.
“Production had stopped and parts were basically, not stolen, but bought by many people, much faster and stocks were depleting. And stupid things like connectors or harnesses, sometimes even brackets, I mean, very simple stuff was just not there anymore,” Carnelli said. “So, that was wild. That was very wild.”
“The integration team at OHB (Hera’s prime contractor) did an amazing job. The last units were delivered in April, May 2024 and they managed to literally assemble the satellite in three, four months and ship it… at the end of August,” he said. “It was really an amazing project and I can only be extremely proud of what we all achieved together.” ... Part of the saga of the Hera mission was finding a ride to space. When the mission was pitched during the 2016 ministerial their plan was to use a Soyuz rocket, launching from French Guiana. Carnelli said launching before DART, “we could have done it with a much lower energy.”
When they missed that opportunity, they had to pivot to at least a medium-lift vehicle, which led them to the Ariane 6 rocket. After some discussion about the need for true redundancy, especially given their uncompromising launch window of 20 days, Carnelli said they eventually were able to book SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as the backup.
When the Ariane 6 hit development delays, ESA decided in 2022 to move Hera to the Falcon 9. In order to get more performance out of the spacecraft, they will be using a fully expendable version of the Falcon 9 rocket.
“We’re going to use basically every single drop of propellant they have on board because we’re going to a very energetic orbit,” Carnelli said. “This will be the fastest ESA spacecraft ever launched and therefore, that’s actually why we need quite a bit of propellant onboard.”
However, following the delivery of the Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft to low Earth orbit on Sunday, Sept. 29., SpaceX said in a brief social media post that there was “an off-nominal deorbit burn” which caused the upper stage to “safely [land] in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.”
During an interview with Spaceflight Now on Tuesday, Oct. 2, Carnelli said they’ve been “informed about what is the most probable cause and we’re keeping our launch campaign nominal.” Liftoff is targeted for Monday, Oct. 7.
“We’re doing all we can. SpaceX is going to submit their report to the FAA, they said, by the end of the week and at that point, we’ll be in the hands of the FAA,” Carnelli said. “I hope really that we get a green light to move to the pad and launch on Monday.”
With NASA’s Europa Clipper mission also set to launch during a mid-October planetary launch window, Carnelli said he and his colleagues will be meeting Friday morning with Dr. Nicola Fox, the associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. They will be coordinating to ensure there is a healthy amount of distance between their two mission launches.
Zitat Deutschland ist größter Beitragszahler der Mission. Die Deutsche Raumfahrtagentur im Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) koordiniert diese deutschen ESA-Beiträge mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK). Das DLR ist mit der DLR-Einrichtung für Raumflugbetrieb und Astronautentraining in Köln und dem DLR-Institut für Planetenforschung in Berlin wissenschaftlich beteiligt. In Bremen erfolgte bei der Firma OHB die Entwicklung und der Bau der Hera-Raumsonde. Mit einer neu entwickelten Antenne „Made in Germany“ wird Hera ihre Daten Richtung Erde schicken. Zwei Kameras aus Jena liefern Bilder von Didymos und Dimorphos.
Zitat Elon Musk@elonmusk Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina.
@FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!
“Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two large operating bases for choppers to deliver goods into hands. We’ve deployed 300+ starlinks and outpour is it has saved many lives.
The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping. We are blocked now on the shipments of new starlinks coming in until we get an escort from the fire dept. but that may not be enough.” 6:54 PM · Oct 4, 2024
Vielleicht als Ergänzung: Musk hat vor ein paar Tagen für die vom Hurrikan Helene betroffenen Katastrophengebiete 500 Starlink-Terminals zur Verfügung gestellt, sondern auch freie (also kostnelose) Nutzung für die nächsten 30 Tage zugesagt. Die FEMA ist die Federal Emergency Management Agency und ist dem Department for Homeland Security unterstellt.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat A shocking firsthand account from a SpaceX engineer in storm-battered North Carolina reveals that Biden-Harris' Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) blocked shipments of critical goods for relief efforts into the region. There have been numerous reports this week of FEMA actively hindering relief efforts in the western part of the state, including threatening private helicopter pilots with arrests for conducting rescue missions. We also learned that the Biden-Harris administration drained FEMA funds to support illegal aliens, prioritizing non-citizens (future voters) over American citizens.
Around lunchtime, Elon Musk shared a dire message from one of his SpaceX engineers on the ground in the storm-ravaged state. Musk said, "FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!"
Musk shared a dire warning from one of his engineers on the ground:
Radio transmissions from first responders in Mecklenburg County provided firsthand accounts of the government blocking relief efforts by private citizens. This is disturbing.
Americans quickly understood by the end of the week the big theme in Biden-Harris' botched hurricane response efforts, very similar to the dismal response in East Palestine, Ohio, as explained by The Bishop of Mises Institute: "This horrific natural disaster is a reminder of the extent to which the regime [Biden-Harris] hates the people who live there."
Folks were even more shocked when the US Homeland Security secretary warned that FEMA funds were running dry for hurricane disaster funding. This is because the Biden-Harris team diverted $1.4 billion to address the migrant crisis they helped create through open southern border policies.
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