Jerome Strach

July 4th, 2017

With SpaceX recovering boosters on nearly every mission, hangars can get crowded. This photo was taken in the summer of 2016 before Launch Complex 39A was active for Falcon 9 launches. Four recovered boosters are present. Photo Credit: SpaceX

Last week, the Canaveral Port Authority authorized the leasing and development of anadditional 2.17 acres (8,780 square meters) to expand SpaceXs current property along State Road 401 andPayne Way. The company currently has property through along-term lease option in Port Canaveral. This new property, which lies adjacent to the first, will allow for the construction of a large hangar for booster processing and refurbishment strategically located near the launch facilities.

SpaceX already leases property at Port Canaveral. It plans to build additional hangar space on a lot just to the east of its current property. Photo Credit: Google

The lease term began on July 1, 2017, and runs through March 31, 2022. Its terms indicate an expenditure for SpaceX to be about $19,730 per month, with a 3percent annual increase. The neighboring property already runs the company about $35,180 per month.

It is unclear how much the new facility will cost to construct, but the U.K. architectural firm Atkins is being hired by SpaceX management, headquartered in Hawthorne, California. The new hangar will be a 67,222-square-foot (6,245-square-meter) behemoth and will provide additional protected work space for recoveredboosters.

Shortly following a launch from Cape Canaveral, usually around eight to nineminutes, SpaceX boosters land offshore in the Atlantic Ocean on theAutonomous Space Drone Ship Of Course I Still Love Youor back at Landing Zone 1 (formerly Space Launch Complex 13).

While SpaceX has only recently begun to safely land their first-stage boosters, the number of successful landings to date includeseight drone ship landings (including two on the West Coast drone ship Just Read The Instructions) and fiveLZ-1 landings. The expected result of this advanced aerospace maneuver of successful landings is that SpaceX now holds a rather large fleet of used boosters that each measure about157 feet(48 meters) in length and 12 feet(3.65 meters) in diameter.

Each brand new Falcon 9is reportedly valued at around $62 million, and now that landed first stages are being refurbished and re-flown, the most recent being the BulgariaSat-1 launch occurring on June 23, 2017, the future cost for flight-proven vehiclelaunches is expected tosignificantly drop for customers.

The current manifest SpaceX shares with the public currently lists clients using new hardware. The option of clients choosing refurbished equipment at a discount will become a consideration for customers moving forward.

The BulgariaSat-1 first stage core returns to port to be offloaded and sent to a hangar for potential refurbishment. Photo Credit: Vikash Mahadeo / SpaceFlight Insider

Most rocket companies flying orbital trajectories, up until this point, simply disposed of the expensive rocket hardware due to flight dynamics and challenging physics encountered during launch. The only exception wasthe Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) used on NASAs Space Shuttle. The SRBs would parachute into the Atlantic Ocean, thereby allowing for recovery and refurbishment.

However, SpaceX wants to eventually reuse 100percent of itsrocket components, including the payload fairing which can cost upward of $6 million. More challenging will be the recovery of the secondstage because it travels all the way to orbit, requiring a heat shield for a successful recovery.

This new hangar structure to be built will provide additional sheltered work space for SpaceX to tackle the taskof analyzing the Merlin-1D engine cluster and other flight hardware. The returning of the boosters through the atmosphere can punish the booster as it re-enters the dense air at high speed.

As an example, just recently, SpaceX started constructing grid fins steerable flaps located at the top of the booster out of titanium because the aluminum components on previous designs were not holding up to the intense heat. Onboard cameras would often show the oldergrid fin design glowing bright orange, and even catching fire during descent just beforelanding.Thenew titanium grid fins will allow for long-term use of the same hardware, allowing for repeated flights with little or no maintenance.

The current hangar structures available to SpaceX in Florida include alarge horizontal integration facility (HIF) just outside the perimeter atLaunch Complex39A at the Kennedy Space Center, an HIF at Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and a small hangar at Landing Zone 1. Without additional space, there is aneed to shuffle hardware around frequently utilizing the McGregor, Texas, test facility as well as the SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Another HIF is located at Vandenberg Air Force Bases SLC-4E launch site in California.

This shuffling of hardware has become a frequent occurrence with SpaceX increasing its launch cadence. In 2016, SpaceX launched a total of eight Falcon 9 rockets (with the ninth one exploding on a launch pad during a test on Sept. 1, 2016). This year, so far, there have been nine launches, with six months still left in 2017.

The additional challenge of fleet management will now be exacerbated by the Falcon Heavy configuration which requires three separate booster cores. It is hoped that SpaceX will launch itsFalcon Heavy rocket before the end of 2017.

Tagged: Falcon 9 Port Canaveral SpaceX The Range

Jerome Strach has worked within the Silicon Valley community for 20 years including software entertainment and film. Along with experience in software engineering, quality assurance, and middle management, he has long been a fan of aerospace and entities within that industry. A voracious reader, a model builder, and student of photography and flight training, most of his spare time can be found focused on launch events and technology advancements including custom mobile app development. Best memory as a child is building and flying Estes rockets with my father. @Romn8tr

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SpaceX acquires 2 more acres at Port Canaveral - SpaceFlight Insider

SpaceXs next Falcon 9 rocket was hydraulically hoisted vertical Sunday morning at launch pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center, less than 12 hours before a scheduled blastoff with the Intelsat 35e communications satellite.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is not fitted with the landing legs or aerodynamic steering fins needed for recovery because the 14,905-pound (6,761-kilogram) Boeing-built spacecraft mounted atop the Falcon 9 is too heavy to permit a controlled descent of the first stage.

SpaceX is preparing for its second launch in a little more than nine days at pad 39A, a turnaround that will set a record for the shortest time between missions from the historic launch complex, assuming the Falcon 9 lifts off in the next few days.

Sundays launch, scheduled for 7:36 p.m. EDT (2336 GMT), will be the 10th Falcon 9 mission this year, and the eighth from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Follow our live coverage of the countdown and launch.

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Photos: Expendable Falcon 9 launcher raised vertical at pad 39A - Spaceflight Now

3D-printed scale models of asteroids and other planetary bodies are used for real-life testing of spacecraft navigation and landing systems. The Martian moon Phobos is shown in the foreground.

ESA / G. Porter

When youre planning a space mission, you want to make sure you know the terrain.

One perhaps unexpected tool of the modern space agency is 3D printing. Detailed scale models of planetary bodies such as comets, asteroids and other worlds are used to aid in real-life testing of spacecraft navigation and landing systems.

The structure of the models is based on data and imagery from earlier space missions. The image above shows two versions of a model of the Martian moon Phobos. The white one in the background is the raw 3D-printed object. We then add colour and surface finishing to produce the more realistic-looking model in the foreground, explains Olivier Dubois Matra of European Space Agencys Guidance, Navigation and Control Section.

Mobile cameras are then used to represent the spacecrafts view of the planet and are manoeuvred around the models. This allows for physical testing of guidance and landing procedures, and is used in conjunction with virtual testing using specialized software.

Read more at the European Space Agency.

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3D-printed moons for spaceflight practice - Cosmos

Jim Sharkey

July 4th, 2017

A scarecrow rover at NASAs JPL drives over a sensor while testing a new driving algorithm. Engineers created the algorithm to reduce wheel wear on the Mars Curiosity rover. Photo Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

The six wheels of NASAsCuriosity Mars rover have experienced considerable wear and tear since the one-ton rover landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. However, anew algorithm is helping the rover drive more carefully over rocks on the Martian surface to reduce wheel wear.

The new software, called traction control, adjusts the speed of the rovers wheels depending on the rocks its rolling over. The software was uploaded to Curiosity in March, following 18 months of testing at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Curiositys wheels have received considerable damage since the rover touched down on the surface of Mars in 2012. Photo Credit: NASA / JPL

The software was approved for use by mission managers on June 8, after extensive testing at JPL and multiple tests on Mars. The traction control software is currently on by default but can be turned off as needed, such as during scheduled wheel imaging when the Curiosity team assesses wheel wear.

Even before the wheels began to showvisible signs of wear, engineers at JPL had started studying ways to reduce the damaging effects of the Martian surface. All of the rovers wheels turn at the same speed on level ground, but as a wheel goes over uneven terrain, the incline causes the wheels behind or in front of it to begin slipping.

Such changes in traction are particularly troublesome when goingover pointed rocks that are embedded in the Martian surface. When this occurs, the wheels in front pull the trailing wheels into the rocks; the wheels behind push the leading wheels into rocks.

The treads on Curiositys wheels, called grousers, are designed for climbing rocks. The spaces on the wheels in between the grousers are more at risk of cracks and punctures.

If its a pointed rock, its more likely to penetrate the skin between the wheel grousers, said Art Rankin of JPL, the test team lead for the traction control software. The wheel wear has been [a]cause for concern, and although we estimate they have years of life still in them, we do want to reduce that wear whenever possible to extend the life of the wheels.

The traction control software uses real-time data to adjust the speed of each wheel, thus reducing pressure from the rocks. The software measure changes to the rovers suspension system to determine the contact points of each wheel. The algorithm then calculates the correct speed to avoid slippage and improve Curiositys traction.

To test the effectiveness of the software, the wheels were driven over a six-inch (15-centimeter) force torque sensor on level ground. According to Rankin, leading wheels experienced a 20 percent load reduction and middle wheels experience an 11 percent load reduction.

The traction control software will also help with the problem of wheelies. Sometimes a climbing wheel will keep rising, lifting off the surface of a rock until it is free-spinning. Wheelies increase the forces on the wheels that remain on the ground. When the traction control software detects a wheelie, it adjusts the speeds of the other wheels until the rising wheel is back into contact with the surface.

Video courtesy of NASA

Tagged: Curiosity Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars Mars Science Laboratory The Range wheels

Jim Sharkey is a lab assistant, writer and general science enthusiast who grew up in Enid, Oklahoma, the hometown of Skylab and Shuttle astronaut Owen K. Garriott. As a young Star Trek fan he participated in the letter-writing campaign which resulted in the space shuttle prototype being named Enterprise. While his academic studies have ranged from psychology and archaeology to biology, he has never lost his passion for space exploration. Jim began blogging about science, science fiction and futurism in 2004. Jim resides in the San Francisco Bay area and has attended NASA Socials for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover landing and the NASA LADEE lunar orbiter launch.

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New driving algorithm helps protect Curiosity rover's wheels - SpaceFlight Insider

The Dragon spacecraft was lifted onto a boat for a trip back to port in Southern California following Mondays predawn splashdown. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceXs Dragon spaceship, carrying more than 4,100 pounds of cargo and research specimens, descended to a predawn splashdown Monday in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles, completing the first re-flight of one of SpaceXs unpiloted supply ships to the International Space Station.

Completing a four-week stay at the space station, the Dragon cargo capsule departed the research outpost Monday at 2:41 a.m. EDT (0641 GMT), when astronaut Jack Fischer commanded the stations robotic arm to release the spacecraft.

Launched June 3 from NASAs Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the automated logistics carrier delivered nearly 6,000 pounds of equipment and research hardware to the space station.

The capsule made its second trip to the orbiting complex. SpaceX refurbished the craft following its first mission in September and October 2014.

Dragons been an incredible spacecraft, Fischer radioed mission control a few minutes after Dragon left the space station. I could even say it was slathered in awesome sauce. This baby had almost no problems, which is an incredible feat considering its the first reuse of a Dragon vehicle.

Items stowed for Dragons return included live mice from an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of a therapeutic drug to promote bone growth, combating atrophy in astronauts in space and osteoporosis patients on Earth. The mice will be euthanized and examined after landing.

Most of the 6,000 pounds of cargo carried was science, and almost all the return cargo are precious samples for discoveries we cant wait to see, Fischer said. In addition, Dragon brought up a host of external experiments. Weve added an external platform for science, a neutron star analyzer and a new solar array that rolled out like a party horn on New Years Eve.

Dragons homecoming was pushed back a day because of rough seas in the splashdown zone around 260 miles (420 kilometers) southwest of Long Beach, California.

Under the control of SpaceX engineers in Hawthorne, California, the Dragon capsule fired its thrusters in three pulses to fly a safe distance away from the space station. A few hours later, the supply freighter braked out of orbit with another rocket firing, jettisoned its disposable unpressurized trunk and service module, then plunged into Earths atmosphere for a searing re-entry.

Soaring southwest to northeast, the capsule deployed two drogue parachutes and three main chutes before splashing down, SpaceX tweeted at 8:14 a.m. EDT (1214 GMT; 5:14 a.m. PDT).

The return marked the first time a Dragon capsule has splashed down at night. Fischer captured a view of the plasma trail behind the Dragon spacecraft during re-entry as the space station sailed overhead.

A SpaceX recovery team hoisted the craft onto a boat for a two-day trip to the Port of Los Angeles, where time-sensitive cargo and scientific samples will be handed over to NASA and research teams.

SpaceX replaced the heat shield and other parts of the capsule after its 2014 flight, but officials said the primary structure, propulsion system and sections were original articles.

Mondays splashdown concluded SpaceXs 11th resupply mission to the space station. Including flights already accomplished, SpaceX has contracts with NASA for at least 26 cargo flights to the orbital research lab through 2024.

The companys 12th cargo mission is set for launch Aug. 10 from the Kennedy Space Center.

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Dragon capsule returns home with animals and station equipment - Spaceflight Now

A computer-triggered abort halted the countdown of a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, pushing back the next mission in SpaceXs launch surge until at least Monday.

The 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket was counting down to liftoff with an Intelsat communications satellite at 7:36 p.m. EDT (2336 GMT) Monday, and an iffy afternoon weather forecast gave way to clear skies as clocks ticked toward launch.

An automatic sequencer sent commands to load the two-stage rocket with super-chilled RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, and the Falcon 9s engines were prepared for ignition and its fuel tanks pressurized for launch during the final minutes of Sundays countdown.

But clocks stopped at T-minus 9 seconds after a computer overseeing preset criteria in the rockets guidance, navigation and control system ordered an automatic abort. SpaceXs launch director scrubbed Sundays launch attempt a few minutes later as engineers investigated the problem.

We had a vehicle abort criteria violated at T-minus 10 seconds, a GNC (guidance, navigation and control) criteria, the launch director said. Were still looking into what that is at this time.

Were not going to be able to get a recycle in today without going past the end of the window, so were officially scrubbed, he said. Go ahead and put a 24-hour recycle into work.

SpaceX began draining the Falcon 9s propellant tanks at launch pad 39A soon after the scrub.

If SpaceXs launch team can understand the problem, and correct it if necessary, the Falcon 9 rocket could be fueled again Monday for a 58-minute launch window that opens at 7:37 p.m. EDT (2337 GMT).

The launch of the Intelsat 35e communications satellite is the third in a series of Falcon 9 flights over the last two weeks. If the rocket blasted off Sunday, it would have been the third Falcon 9 launch in a little over nine days, and the second from the same launch pad in Florida.

The feverish pace of activity at SpaceXs Cape Canaveral facilities seeks to break the record for the fastest turnaround between launches at pad 39A. SpaceX and Intelsat are eager to get the rocket off the ground before the U.S. Air Forces Eastern Range becomes unavailable to support the launch after the July 4 holiday.

The Falcon 9 rocket assigned to Intelsat 35es mission conducted a static fire test Thursday evening at pad 39A, less than 72 hours before the opening of Sundays launch window. Ground crews rolled back the Falcon 9 to its hangar Friday afternoon and attached the Intelsat 35e satellite to the rocket in time to return to the pad in the predawn hours Sunday.

We had to add additional resources to try to turn around the campaigns in such a short time, said Ken Lee, Intelsats senior vice president of space systems, in an interview Sunday at Cape Canaveral. More manpower a lot of pressure but as usual our team is mission-oriented, so when they see a target theyre going to do the best they can do meet that date.

Theyve been working almost around-the-clock, and we brought in additional engineers to make sure that we did the work that we needed to do without any shortcuts.

The 14,905-pound (6,761-kilogram) Intelsat 35e communications satellite, built by Boeing, is the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by SpaceX toward a perch in geostationary orbit, a circular loop more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earths equator commonly used by broadcast and data relay stations.

At that altitude, orbital mechanics require a satellite to fly around Earth at the same speed it rotates, allowing a spacecraft to hover over a fixed geographic location, an ideal situation for communications applications.

The heavy weight of Intelsat 35e effectively maxes out the Falcon 9s capability to lift a payload going to that type of orbit, Lee said.

SpaceX has budgeted all of the Falcon 9s kerosene and liquid oxygen propellant to send Intelsat 35e into as high of an orbit as possible. That means the first stage will not return to land on a barge at sea, and the upper stages single Merlin engine is programmed to fire as long as it can, instead of aiming for a specific predetermined altitude.

The mission is designed to leave as little leftover propellant as possible in the second stage, called a minimum residual shutdown.

There is a minimum orbital target that we are shooting for, and if there is excess fuel on the rocket, then were going to continue to burn until we deplete all the fuel, Lee said.

Lee said there is a range of possible orbits the Falcon 9 could deploy Intelsat 35e into, but the minimum expected peak altitude, or apogee, when the satellite separates from the upper stage is 19,405 miles (31,230 kilometers), according to Lee.

The low point, or perigee, of the transfer orbit is expected to be around 155 miles (250 kilometers), and Intelsat 35es path around Earth will be tilted 26 degrees to the equator.

If the launcher releases the Intelsat 35e satellite in that orbit, the spacecraft will still have enough on-board propellant for its planned 15-year operational life. Intelsat and Boeing agreed to load more fuel into the spacecraft to make up for the possible altitude shortfall.

Everything else will be gravy in terms of the service life, Lee said, referring to the benefit of going into a higher initial orbit.

When it blasts off, the Falcon 9 could deliver extra performance for Intelsat 35e, and the possible range of the satellites initial apogee altitude runs above 22,000 miles, a regime called supersynchronous transfer orbit, Lee said.

The higher the orbit, the better for the satellite in terms of mission lifetime because Intelsat 35e will have to burn less of its own fuel to maneuver into its final position.

The range we are hoping for tonight, we have a minimum number, and we have a maximum number, which would be a slightly supersynchronous (transfer) orbit, Lee said.

We are maxing out (the Falcon 9) and beyond because we are doing the MRS (Minimum Residual Shutdown) mission, and we are not recovering this rocket.

Intelsat 35es own engine will fire multiple times in weeks after launch to circularize the satellites orbit a geostationary altitude. Lee said the spacecraft should ever service in the second half of August, beaming signals across the Americas, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and Africa for wireless network providers and television broadcasters.

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SpaceX scrubs Sunday launch attempt with Intelsat relay satellite - Spaceflight Now

Curt Godwin

July 2nd, 2017

President Trump displays the Executive Order authorizing the reinstatement of the National Space Council. Photo Credit: White House video

In a move that had been anticipatedsince late in his campaign, President Trump signed an Executive Order re-establishing the National Space Council on Friday, June 30, 2017. The Council, disbandedin 1993, will be chaired by Vice President Pence and staffed by members of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, including the yet-to-be-named NASA Administrator, and will help guide national space policy and initiatives.

Originally created as the National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC) as a part of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 during the Eisenhower administration, the Council was designed to give guidance to NASA during the early days of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

At its inception, the Council was chaired by the President and staffed by various Secretaries from the Executive Branch, along with the NASA Administrator, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and with an allowance of up to four additional members composed of representatives from private industry and the federal government.

Though the framework of the Council stayed relatively unchanged throughout its early years, President Kennedy directed that Vice President Johnson chair the committee in his stead. This arrangement of the Vice President chairing the Council has been commonplacethroughout its history, even after renaming the organization to the National Space Council in President Bushs administration in 1989.

Vice President Pence, who will chair the National Space Council, gives a short introduction for President Trump prior to the signing of the Executive Order. Photo Credit: White House video

After the Council was disbanded in 1993, its functions were assumed by the National Science and Technology Council.

Though President Obama hadpromised to re-establish the National Space Council as part of his 2008 campaign, his two terms passed without that pledge coming to fruition.

AfterPresident Trump made a similar promise during his 2016 campaign, many thought a similar fate had befallen the Council after five months had passed since his inauguration with little to indicate if, or when, the council would be reinstated. Indeed, the Administration has yet to name an administrator for the national space agency.

However, on relatively short notice,the President reinstated the Council and placed the Vice President at its helm.

Today, were taking a crucial step to secure Americas future in space by reviving the National Space Council after it washas been dormant almost 25 years if you can believe it, the President was quoted as saying in a release by the White House.

The Vice President will serve as the councils chair, stated Trump, following with a list of key members of the revived body. Several representatives of my administration will join him including the Secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce, Transportation, and Homeland Security; the Chairman of the greatIll tell you, hes doing a fantastic job, always working, always fighting, and winning winning big against ISIS, that I can tell you, seeing whats happening therethe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Advisor, NASA, and the Director of National Intelligence.

Beyond the President and Vice President,there were Congressional representatives and Senators in attendancemainly from states with a vested interest in a national spaceflight programalong with industry representatives and astronauts, including spaceflight pioneers Buzz Aldrin and Gene Kranz.

Notably absent from the signing, however, were leaders from the NewSpace industry. Though it was reported both SpaceXsElon Musk and Blue OriginsJeff Bezos were invited, neither were in attendance. In fact, one of the NewSpace industrys leading advocatesthe Commercial Spaceflight Federationwas not even invited and has been silent on the announcement.

In contrast,the Coalition for Deep Space Explorationan alliance representing much of the traditional members of the United States spaceflight industrywas present for the signing.

The re-institution of the National Space Council is another important step in solidifying our nations continued commitment to NASAs deep space exploration program, statedDr. Mary Lynne Dittmar, president and CEO of the Coalition, in an e-mail statement issued by the organization.

Robert Lightfoot, the acting NASA Administrator, was also quick to praise the signing of the Executive Order.

I am pleased that President Trump has signed an executive order reestablishing the National Space Council. The council existed previously from 19891993, and a version of it also existed as the National Aeronautics and Space Council from 19581973. As such, the council has guided NASA from our earliest days and can help us achieve the many ambitious milestones we are striving for today, noted Mr. Lightfoot in a release issued by the agency.

The establishment of the council is another demonstration of the Trump Administrations deep interest in our work, and a testament to the importance of space exploration to our economy, our nation, and the planet as a whole, concluded Lightfoot.

With traditional spaceflight partners and their supporters so readily represented, coupled with the lack of members from the growing NewSpace industry in attendance, one could draw the conclusion that thenewcomers may not have much influence overthe nations spaceflight direction.

However, with NASA not yet having an Administrator and not knowing the overall composition of the revived Council, only time will tell if Americas spaceflight policy will be guided by the old guard or shepherded by the nascent NewSpace leaders.

Video courtesy of The White House

Tagged: Donald Trump Lead Stories NASA National Space Council White House

Curt Godwin has been a fan of space exploration for as long as he can remember, keeping his eyes to the skies from an early age. Initially majoring in Nuclear Engineering, Curt later decided that computers would be a more interesting - and safer - career field. He's worked in education technology for more than 20 years, and has been published in industry and peer journals, and is a respected authority on wireless network engineering. Throughout this period of his life, he maintained his love for all things space and has written about his experiences at a variety of NASA events, both on his personal blog and as a freelance media representative.

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Derek Richardson

July 2nd, 2017

Alegless Falcon 9 waits for liftoff. The onboard computer aborted the July 2, 2017, launch attempt due to a GNC issue. Photo Credit: Michael Howard / SpaceFlight Insider

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. Within 10 seconds from leaving the pad at Launch Complex 39A, the Falcon 9s onboard computer triggered an automatic abort. While this was a 58-minute window, it was decided there would not be enough time to diagnose the abort and recycle the countdown.

SpaceX lead Falcon 9 engineer John Insprucker reported via the companys webcast that it appeared to be an out of criteria reading in theGuidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) system. Liftoff was scheduled for 7:36 p.m. EDT (23:36 GMT).

Assuming the problem is found and engineers can fix it in time, the SpaceX team will try again on July 3, 2017. The 58-minute window opens at 7:37 p.m. EDT (23:37 GMT).If it launches then, it will be the third Falcon 9 to fly in 10 days.

This mission will utilize an expendable legless Falcon 9 to send Intelsat 35e into a geostationary transfer orbit. The rocket will not be recovered as the 14,905-pound (6,761-kilogram) satellite is too massive to allow for a successful first stage landing downrange.

This will be the fourth Intelsat EpicNG satellite to be placed in orbit. It will service parts of the Americas, Europe and Africa from a geostationary orbital slot of 34.5 degrees West longitude.

The Boeing-built satellite was built on the Boeing 702MP bus. It will have C- and Ku-band transmitters powered by two solar wings that generate between 6 kilowatt and 12 kilowatts of electricity. It is expected to operate for at least 15 years.

Tagged: Falcon 9 Intelsat-35e Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A Lead Stories SpaceX

Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a blog about the International Space Station, called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team during the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter. His passion for space ignited when he watched Space Shuttle Discovery launch into space Oct. 29, 1998. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized his true calling was communicating to others about space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has worked to increase the quality of our content, eventually becoming our managing editor.

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Legless Falcon 9 automatically aborts launch at T-10 seconds - SpaceFlight Insider

Sean Costello

July 1st, 2017

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced two new astronauts who will join its astronaut corps, Joshua Kutryk, and Jennifer Sidey, on Saturday, July 1, the event was tied to the 150th celebration of Canada Day and was made by Justin Trudeau, Canadas prime minister. Photo Credit: Jeffrey Radbourne

OTTAWA, Ontario The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announcedbig news on the 150th anniversary of the nations Confederation: the next astronaut candidates that the space agency would prepare for trips beyond Earths atmosphere. The announcement was made by CanadasPrime Minister, Justin Trudeau, on Parliament Hill, the nations capital, during theCanada Day festivities.

Joshua KutrykandJennifer Sideywill join the CSAs two current astronauts:David Saint-Jacques (who is currently scheduled to fly onDec. 2018) and Jeremy Hansen (who serves with the CSA evaluation teamand is the NASA astronaut candidate class mentor andleader). This means that these latest two additions will double the size of the CSAs astronaut corps.

Interestingly, overhead, Kutryks brother, Matthew, flew as a member of Canadas CF-18 Demo Team, buzzing the nations Capital.

Canada is one of the 16 nations that are involved with the International Space Station. The nation has contributed the Canadarm 2 and DextretheSpecial Purpose Dexterous Manipulator(SPDM) to the orbiting laboratory. Canadas astronauts have gained access to the space station via NASAs now-retired fleet of shuttle orbiters and Russias Soyuz spacecraft.

Videos courtesy of the Canadian Space Agency

Tagged: Canada Day Canadian Space Agency International Space Station Jennifer Sydey Joshua Kutryk Lead Stories

Sean Costello is a technology professional who also researches, writes about and speaks publicly on the many benefits and inspiring lessons which stem from within the international space flight programs. Prior to joining the growing SpaceFlight Insider team in early 2014, Costello was a freelance photographer and correspondent for various radio and print news organizations, beginning his coverage during the Shuttle era. Costello's chief responsibility on the team is that of Producer for "SFI Live", the live webcast which is shot on location prior to most launches occurring at Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Beginning with the inaugural show which covered the launch of Orion atop EFT-1, all archived shows are available for on-demand viewing at https://www.youtube.com/spaceflightinsider

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Chinas Long March 5 rocket is counting down to liftoff Sunday from the countrys tropical island space center with a high-power, electrically-propelled communications satellite.

The heavy-lifter is scheduled to blast off from the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island at around 1120 GMT (7:20 a.m. EDT; 7:20 p.m. Beijing time) Sunday, heading for an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit with the Shijian 18 communications satellite, the first in a new series of modern Chinese high-capacity relay stations.

Sundays launch will be the second flight of a Long March 5 rocket, Chinas most powerful launcher, which made a successful maiden mission in November 2016.

Chinese space officials will closely watch the performance of the Long March 5 rocket Sunday as engineers prepare to send Chinas Change 5 sample return mission to the moon in November on the third launch of the heavy-lifter.

Ten engines on the Long March 5s first stage and four strap-on boosters will send the launcher skyward on 2.4 million pounds of thrust. The 187-foot-tall (57-meter) Long March 5 will head east from the Hainan Island launch base, which will host its fourth launch Sunday after entering service last year.

Ground crews at Wenchang rolled the Long March 5 to its launch pad Monday.

Riding on a vertical launch table, the Long March 5 completed the trip in about two-and-a-half hours, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. Swing arms on the seaside launch pads 300-foot-tall (92-meter) service gantry enclosed the Long March 5 for final launch preparations.

Chinas state-run media has not said if they plan any live coverage of the launch.

The Long March 5s maiden test flight last year deployed an experimental satellite named Shijian 17 to test electric thrusters, technology that could give Chinese spacecraft improved maneuverability between different types of orbits around Earth.

The Shijian 18 satellite aboard Sundays flight is the first in an upgraded series of Chinese spacecraft called the DFH-5 platform. Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, the DFH-5 design is bigger and more capable than Chinas existing satellites, providing more power for communications payloads and additional data throughput for Internet providers, television broadcasters and data networks.

Shijian 18 also hosts a laser communications instrument for even higher-speed data links, and ion thrusters will keep the spacecraft in geostationary orbit, a perch more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.

China hopes to sell communications satellites based on the new DFH-5 design to international governments and commercial customers.

Ground controllers will run the Shijian 18 satellite through extensive testing to verify the new satellite design works as expected.

Chinese officials say the Long March 5 is a centerpiece of the countrys long-term space ambitions, allowing China to dispatch satellites to space that are twice as heavy as payloads that can fit on earlier Long March rockets.

The heavy-duty rocket can haul about the same amount of weight into space as United Launch Alliances Delta 4-Heavy, the worlds other leader in space lift capability. The Long March 5 bests the capacity of the European Ariane 5 and Russian Proton launchers.

The Long March 5 is one of three new launch vehicles China has debuted in the last two years.

The Long March 6 is the smallest of the three, tailored to deliver small satellites into low-altitude orbits. The medium-lift Long March 7 is designed to carry resupply ships, and eventually crews, to Chinas future space station.

The Long March 5 will haul three 20-ton modules to low Earth orbit for the Chinese space station, beginning next year with the launch of the Tianhe 1 core module. The Long March 5 is also slated to launch the robotic Change 5 mission to the moon later this year to scoop up surface samples for return to Earth, and Chinas first Mars rover will ride a Long March 5 rocket when it blasts off in mid-2020.

The new family of launchers will eventually replace Chinas Long March 2, 3 and 4 rockets, which burn toxic liquid propellants and launch from inland space centers, requiring them to drop spent stages on land.

The Long March 5 rocket, when flown from Wenchang, jettisons its boosters over the South China Sea. Its engines also consume a more environmentally-friendly mixture of liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene.

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President Trump signs an executive order re-establishing the National Space Council, with astronauts Dave Wolf and Al Drew, and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin (left-to-right) looking on. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Emphasizing commercial, technological and national security opportunities in space, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday re-establishing the National Space Council, a space policy advisory and steering group that was last active nearly 25 years ago.

The directive to relaunch the council was promised by Trumps presidential campaign, and Vice President Mike Pence announced in March that he would chair the reinstated National Space Council.

Fridays signing by President Trump formally sets up the council, an inter-agency board that will include the secretaries of state, defense, commerce, transportation and homeland security, the head of the governments intelligence community, the NASA administrator, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other Trump administration officials.

Todays announcement sends a clear signal to the world that we are restoring Americas proud legacy of leadership in space, Trump said. Our vice president cares very deeply about space policy, and for good reason. Space exploration is not only essential to our character as a nation, but also our economy and our great nations security.

The council will review space policy, develop a national space strategy, make recommendations to the president on space issues, foster close coordination and cooperation among civilian, military and commercial space sectors, and advise on U.S. participation in international space activities, according to the document signed Friday by President Trump.

But many questions remain unanswered about the space programs future under President Trump, including the balance between traditional government-managed projects and privately-run efforts.

The White House has not named a nominee to be NASAs next administrator, andPresident Trump has also not appointed a science advisor. The three remaining employees in the science division of the White Houses Office of Science and Technology Policy left their jobs this week. Their departures left the science division unstaffed, according to CBS News.

While slashing Earth science research and calling for the elimination of NASAs education office, the Trump administrations first budget request keeps Obama-era human spaceflight programs in place, continuing spending on commercial space taxis to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, the government-owned Space Launch System mega-rocket, and the Orion crew capsule designed for deep space missions.

We will continue to unlock the mysteries of space, but to do so, we most reorient our civilian space program toward deep space exploration and provide the capabilites for America to maintain a constant presence in low Earth orbit and beyond, Pence said earlier this month in a speech at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin joined other astronauts, lawmakers and business executives at the signing ceremony in the White House.

I am pleased that President Trump has signed an executive order re-establishing the National Space Council, said Robert Lightfoot, NASAs acting administrator, in a statement. The council existed previously from 1989-1993, and a version of it also existed as the National Aeronautics and Space Council from 1958-1973. As such, the council has guided NASA from our earliest days and can help us achieve the many ambitious milestones we are striving for today.

Lightfoot added that the council will help ensure that all aspects of the nations space power national security, commerce, international relations, exploration, and science are coordinated and aligned to best serve the American people.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, billionaires who established SpaceX and Blue Origin with their fortunes, did not attend the White House signing ceremony. Congressman Jim Bridenstine, R-Oklahoma, a rumored candidate to become NASAs next administrator, was also absent.

The chief executives of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and United Launch Alliance were there, along with an executive from Orbital ATK. Sandy Magnus, a former astronaut and executive directorof the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, also attended the order-signing.

We appreciate the Trump Administrations efforts to strengthen our nations space enterprise and view this as an opportunity to create an integrated strategic approach to U.S. space endeavors, Magnus said in a statement.

The order resurrecting the National Space Council also sets up aUsers Advisory Group with members from industry and other organizations involved in aeronautical and space activities.

Im very happy to see this executive order, said Alan Stern, chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an advocacy group that promotes commercial human spaceflight. I think that a new National Space Council is an important step forward for the nation and for space exploration, and on first brush, Im very happy with the structure of the council.

Stern said he was also pleased that Vice President Pence will lead the council.

Thats precisely how it worked when the nation was really turning heads around the world with space exploration in the 1960s, Stern said in an interview Friday with Spaceflight Now. Lyndon Johnson had that job.

Stern said he wants to ensure the voices of the commercial space industry and scientists are heard by the council through the Users Advisory Group.

I do think the devil is in the details, and Im going to be looking very closely to see that the commercial space community, the scientific community and other stakeholder communities are properly represented, not just at a token level but at a meaningful level, Stern said.

And Im sure that Im not alone in that, he said. Many others are watching to make sure that the deck isnt stacked for certain communities, and leaving others behind or under-represented.

The Trump people have been talking about this since before the inauguration, so its finally good to see some action, said John Logsdon, a space historian, policy analyst and professor emeritus at George Washington University. I frankly expected this to be part of a package of signing the executive order and naming the new leadership of NASA, so Im a little disappointed that that didnt happen.

Stern agreed that the Trump administration should name a new NASA administrator soon.

I think, now that were about six months past the inauguration, its beginning to hurt that NASA doesnt have a named administrator, Stern said. While Robert Lightfoot is doing a tremendous job as acting administrator, its time for an agency of this scope, and this importance to the nation, to get an appointee.

Logsdon called the establishment of the National Space Council a potential step towards a high-quality, coherent U.S. space program.

But the tenor of the council could be much different today than under the first Bush administration.

One of the big differences is a vibrant commercial space sector, which wasnt the case in 1989 through 1993, Logsdon said in an interview Friday. Another is that, in principle, this space council will be able to exert influence over the national security space program, which the Bush 41 council was never able to do.

What happened in 89 is Mr. Bush set these very ambitious goals back to the moon, this time to stay, and then on to Mars and NASA didnt want to do them, Logsdon said. So lets see whether Mr. Trump has some goals to set, and whether the leadership he puts in place at NASA is consistent with his goals.

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Updated at 10 p.m. EDT June 30 (0200 GMT July 1).

An experimental solar wing sent to the International Space Station earlier this month was jettisoned from the orbiting labs robotic arm after engineers were unable to fully retract the array.

The disposal followed an otherwise successful test of the power panels novel roll-out deployment technique, which engineers say could help future spacecraft generate more electricity and still fit inside the fairings of existing rockets.

Carried to the space station inside a SpaceX Dragon supply ship, the Roll-Out Solar Array ROSA is an experiment sponsored by the U.S. Air Force to measure its performance in space for the first time. Rolled up in a spool fastened inside the Dragon capsules unpressurized trunk, ROSA was extracted with the stations Canadian-built robotic arm and extended to a length of more than 15 feet (4.5 meters).

The solar array unfurled June 18, extending like a party favor with tensioning booms on both sides of the 5.5-foot-wide (1.6-meter-wide) wing.

The unique design of the experimental solar array is different from the way solar panels on existing satellites deploy. Current solar panels unfold like an accordion using mechanical hinges, but the roll-out design could save volume and mass on future missions, officials said.

The problem is these traditional methods are bulky and they tend to be heavy, and we just cant make them any bigger, said Jeremy Banik, ROSAs principal investigator at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Thats what it comes down to. ROSA solves this problem by reducing mass by 20 percent and reducing stowed volume by 400 percent over these traditional approaches.

Youre really limited by the surface area of the bus that youre mounting it to, Banik said of current solar array designs. And you can only stack so many panels up before you run into the volume limitation of your launch vehicle fairing.

Engineers observed the behavior of the solar array as the space station sailed through day and night during each 90-minute orbit of Earth, exposing it to extreme temperature swings. A mechanical actuator also introduced vibrations and oscillations to gauge the arrays response to structural loads, and engineers measured the power production from solar cells attached to the panel.

The experiments went well, NASA said, but ground controllers were unable to lock the solar panel back in its stowed configuration after rolling it up last Saturday. Officials opted to re-extend the array before a control center in Canada commanded its release Monday, an eventuality foreseen by the solar panels designers, who added a built-in jettison mechanism to the structure.

Officials did not intend to retrieve the solar array, but mission managers planned to roll up the panel and return it to the Dragon spacecrafts external payload bay, which will burn up in Earths atmosphere Monday when the commercial cargo carriers pressurized capsule heads for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The Dragon capsules homecoming was scheduled for Sunday, but NASA and SpaceX officials on Friday delayed the departure and splashdown due to a forecast of unacceptable sea states in the landing zone.

The operations team executed the (solar array) jettison procedure that was developed as part of the pre-flight planning process that covered various scenarios, NASA said in a statement. ROSA will not present any risk to the International Space Station and will not impact any upcoming visiting vehicle traffic.

The uncontrolled solar array will likely stay in orbit several months until it succumbs to atmospheric drag, which will pull it back into the atmosphere for a destructive re-entry.

The robotic arm returned the solar arrays attachment plate to the Dragon capsules trunk for disposal.

Developed by Deployable Space Systems of Goleta, California, in partnership with the Air Force and NASA, the Roll-Out Solar Array tested solar cells capable of generating up to 300 watts of electricity. But future versions of the solar panel could extend to much greater lengths, producing as much as 500 kilowatts of power, according to Banik.

Commercial communications satellites currently operate on no more than about 25 kilowatts of electricity. Higher-power spacecraft are needed to feed large ion engine drives that could propel space probes to other planets, or help maneuver military satellites between different orbits around Earth.

The Roll-Out Solar Array technology opens up applications for things like solar-electric propulsion, Banik said. NASA is considering that for interplanetary missions. Certainly, the Air Force is interested from a LEO to GEO (low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit) transfer perspective. There are some really cool applications for ROSA coming down the pike.

Space Systems/Loral, a California-based manufacturer of large telecommunications satellites, has selected the ROSA technology for potential use on future broadcasting spacecraft.

High-strain composites at the core of the prototype solar array could also be used in other deployable space structures, such as radar antennas, communications antennas and solar sails, Banik said.

The Dragon spacecraft arrived June 5 at the International Space Station, two days after its launch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket. The recycled cargo freighter is on its second flight to the space station, following a 34-day mission in September and October 2014.

The capsule also delivered a NASA astrophysics instrument designed to study the nature of neutron stars, a commercially-developed Earth observation platform, a habitat with rodents for research into a new drug that could fight osteoporosis, among other experiments.

The unpiloted capsule carried5,970 pounds (2,708 kilograms) of equipment and experiments for unpacking by astronauts and the stations robotic arm. The station crew will finish loading cargo heading back to Earth before closing the hatches leading to Dragon on Saturday.

If weather and sea conditions in the splashdown zone are deemed favorable, the Dragon capsule will be unberthed from its attachment port on the stations Harmony module Sunday, then released from the robotic arm via a command from astronaut Jack Fischer at 2:28 a.m. EDT (0638 GMT) Monday. A series of thruster firings will send the craft a safe distance from the space station for a de-orbit braking burn.

The pressurized section of the Dragon cargo craft will head for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean about 260 miles (420 kilometers) southwest of the California coast at 7:56 a.m. EDT (1146 GMT) Monday, while the unpressurized module will break apart and burn up in the atmosphere.

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Laurel Kornfeld

July 1st, 2017

Binary black hole gravitational waves simulation. Image Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions

The European Space Agency (ESA) is partnering with NASA on a new space mission that will study gravitational waves from space. Known as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, the project was approved by ESAs Cosmic Vision science program on June 20.Both space agencies will now work together to design the mission and outline a budget for it prior to construction.

The concept for LISA involves three spacecraft placed into a triangular array, each separated by 1.6 million miles (2.5 million km), which will follow the Earth in its solar orbit. On board each spacecraft will be a shielded device known as a test mass, which responds only to gravity, ignoring other forces.

This illustration shows ESAs (the European Space Agencys) LISA observatory, a multi-spacecraft mission to study gravitational waves expected to launch in 2034. In the mission concept, LISA consists of three spacecraft in a triangular formation spanning millions of kilometers. Test masses in spacecraft on each arm of the formation will be linked together by lasers to detect passing gravitational waves. Credits: Image AEI / Milde Marketing / Exozet; Caption NASA

These test masses will be linked together by lasers, which will be sensitive to the tiny changes produced by gravitational waves.

NASA and ESA have already spent decades developing technologies LISA will require, such as systems for measurement, control, and micropropulsion.

ESAs LISA Pathfinder successfully demonstrated a technique known as drag-free flight a method of flying that does not disturb test masses, which LISAs three spacecraft will have to do last year. Testing showed this technology to be capable of the precision and sensitivity LISA will require.

Technologies pioneered for LISA will also be used on the GRACE Follow-On mission satellite project scheduled for launch later this year to replace the aging GRACE satellites. This joint project between the U.S. and Germany will test the ability of the satellites Laser Ranging Interferometer to detect minute distance changes between two spacecraft.

Initially predicted about 100 years ago by Albert Einstein as part of his theory of general relativity, gravitational waves are produced by massive accelerating objects, such as two merging black holes, which generate waves of energy that radiate through space-time.

They were first detected indirectly in 1978 in the form of very small changes in the movement of binary neutron stars, stellar remnants produced in supernova explosions of precursor stars.

Scientists studying the pair of neutron stars found that energy was leaving the system in just the amount predicted by theorists of gravitational waves.

Direct detection of gravitational waves first occurred in 2015, when the National Science Foundations Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) confirmed a signal coming from two merging stellar-mass black holes approximately 1.3 billion light-years from Earth.

Since then, several similar signals have been detected, all coming from merging black holes.

Because LIGO is ground-based, it is capable of detecting only high-frequency gravitational waves at about 100 hertz (or cycles) per second. Interference from seismic, thermal, and other activities that produce noise make it impossible for the observatory to detect any frequencies lower than about one hertz.

As a space-based observatory, LISA will not suffer from these limitations and will be capable of detecting signals from extremely powerful activities, such as mergers of supermassive black holes at the centers of colliding galaxies.

Much larger than stellar mass black holes, supermassive black holes have millions of times the mass of the Sun.

LISA will sense gravitational waves coming from a range of events, such as binary systems comprising two neutron stars or one black hole and one neutron star. Production of these waves shrinks the orbits of the two objects in the binary system.

Scientists hope LISA will also be sensitive to background gravitational waves produced in the early universe. LISA is scheduled to launch in 2034.

This visualization shows gravitational waves emitted by two black holes (black spheres) of nearly equal mass as they spiral together and merge in an event like GW170104. Yellow structures near the black holes illustrate the strong curvature of space-time in the region. Orange ripples represent distortions of space-time caused by the rapidly orbiting masses. These distortions spread out and weaken, ultimately becoming gravitational waves (purple). This simulation was performed on the Pleiades supercomputer at NASAs Ames Research Center. Credits: NASA / Bernard J. Kelly (Goddard and University of Maryland Baltimore County), Chris Henze (Ames), and Tim Sandstrom (CSC Government Solutions LLC).

Video courtesy of NASA.gov Video

Tagged: European Space Agency Laser Interferometer Space Antenna LISA Pathfinder NASA The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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ESA and NASA to collaborate on mission to detect gravitational waves - SpaceFlight Insider

July 1, 1960

NASA opened the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. Led by director Wernher von Braun, MSFC became NASAs propulsion research center and, in the 1960s, developed the rockets that sent Americans to space and to the moon. Over the years, MSFC has diversified its research specializations and participated in a variety of NASA programs, including developing the Skylab space station, the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. In 2011, the center began developing the Space Launch Systems initiative to provide next-generation propulsion for manned missions to other parts of Earths solar system.

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Marshall Space Flight Centers F-1 Engine Test Stand is shown in this picture. Constructed in 1963, the test stand is a vertical engine firing test stand, 239 feet in elevation and 4,600 square feet in area at the base, and was designed to assist in the development of the F-1 Engine. Capability is provided for static firing of 1.5 million pounds of thrust using liquid oxygen and kerosene. The foundation of the stand is keyed into the bedrock approximately 40 feet below grade. (Photo Credit: NASA)

Dr. Wernher von Braun and Maj. Gen. August Schomburg officiate the official transfer of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) to the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) on July 1, 1960. The Official transfer ceremony took place in the front of the ABMA-MSFC joint headquarters, building 4488, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. (Photo credit: NASA)

President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Mrs. George C. Marshall unveil the bronze bust of General George C. Marshall during the dedication of the Marshall Space Flight Center. Eisenhower signed an Executive Order on October 21, 1959 directing the transfer of persornel from the Redstone Arsenals Army Ballistic Missile Agency Development Operations Division to NASA. On March 15, 1960, another Executive Order announced that the space complex formed within the boundaries of Redstone Arsenal would become the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. The Center was activated on July 1, 1960, with dedication ceremonies taking place September 8, 1960. (Photo credit: NASA)

The Marshall Space Flight Center, a NASA field installation, was established at Huntsville, Alabama, in 1960. The Center was named in honor of General George C. Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff during World War II, Secretary of State, and Nobel Prize Winner for his world-renowned Marshall Plan. (Photo credit: NASA)

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A Falcon 9 rocket missing its payload fired its nine Merlin 1D main engines at 8:30 p.m. EDT Thursday (0030 GMT Friday). Credit: SpaceX

Six days after SpaceX fired its last Falcon 9 rocket from NASAs Kennedy Space Center, another launcher rolled to historic pad 39A and ignited its nine Merlin 1D engines at sunset Thursday in preparation for a commercial satellite delivery mission Sunday for Intelsat.

The two-stage rocket rolled out to pad 39A from SpaceXs nearby hangar Thursday, and ground teams lifted it vertical on the pads launch mount around 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). A few hours later, SpaceXs launch crew loaded super-chilled, densified RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the rocket.

The nine Merlin 1D engines affixed to the base of the first stage ignited at 8:30 p.m. EDT Thursday (0030 GMT Friday), a few minutes after sunset at Cape Canaveral. The engines ramped up to full throttle around 1.7 million pounds of thrust and fired for around seven seconds, sending a plume of exhaust into the air and a dull rumble across the Florida spaceport.

SpaceX confirmed the test on Twitter a few minutes later, and the hotfire keeps the companys next mission on track for liftoff Sunday at 7:36 p.m. EDT (2336 GMT), weather permitting.

Engineers will review data from Thursday nights test before clearing the Falcon 9 rocket for flight in a launch readiness review.

The flight will loft the Intelsat 35e communications satellite on a trip toward geostationary orbit, a perch nearly 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) over the equator. Built by Boeing, the Intelsat 35e spacecraft is set for a 15-year service life covering the Americas, the Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe and Africa for Intelsat.

SpaceXs technicians will remove the Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A as soon as Friday and roll it back to the hangar a quarter-mile away, where workers will connect the Intelsat 35e satellite and its protective payload fairing to the two-stage launcher.

The U.S. Air Force weather team predicts iffy conditions could prevent the Falcon 9 from launching Sunday. Anvil clouds and cumulus clouds from storms expected across Central Florida have a 60 percent chance of violating weather criteria for a launch, forecasters said.

If the Falcon 9 is able to blast off Sunday, it will be the third launch by SpaceX in less than 10 days.

A Falcon 9 rocket took off June 23 from Kennedy Space Center with the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite, then another Falcon 9 launched June 25 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with 10 voice and data relay spacecraft for Iridium. Both missions were successful and featured landings of the Falcon 9s first stage on platforms at sea.

BulgariaSat 1s booster made its second flight after SpaceX recovered, inspected and refurbished the stage following its first liftoff in January.

SpaceX does not plan to recover the first stage after Intelsat 35es launch due to the satellites heavy weight. The booster is not fitted with the landing legs or grid fins needed for a landing.

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Next SpaceX launch on track for Sunday after hold-down firing at pad 39A - Spaceflight Now

Blasting off shortly before sunset in French Guiana, an Ariane 5 rocket delivered two communications satellites to orbit Wednesday for the Indian space agency and companies based in Greece and the United Kingdom.

Propelled by two solid rocket boosters and a hydrogen-fueled Vulcain 2 main engine, the Ariane 5 took off at 2115 GMT (5:15 p.m. EDT; 6:15 p.m. French Guiana time) Wednesday from the ELA-3 launch pad at the European-run Guiana Space Center on the northeastern shore of South America.

Its payloads were the Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT 17 communications satellites designed for television broadcasts across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, airborne Wi-Fi connectivity as part of the European Aviation Network, and video and data distribution services over India.

Wednesdays launch was the fourth Ariane 5 flight of the year, and the 94th Ariane 5 launch overall. A video replay and photos of the liftoff are posted below.

Read our full story for details on the mission.

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Tomasz Nowakowski

June 30th, 2017

Front page of the 2017 Facts & Figures report. Image Credit: AIA

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), a trade association representing leading aerospace and defense (A&D) companies in the U.S., has recently published its report entitled 2017 Facts & Figures, which reveals key numbers about A&D industrys economic impact. Among other things, the summaryhighlights the condition of the space systems sector as part of the A&D industry.

According to the document, in 2016, the U.S. A&D industry supported 2.4 million American jobs. By industry group, employment for 2016 accounted for the following: 547,900 for aeronautics/aircraft, 79,000 for space systems, 140,900 for land and sea systems, and 77,700 for cyber.

Based on the employment numbers, you can see that the nearly 80,000 people employed in the space sector are much smaller than the number of employees in aviation which shows that space, while important and stable, is still dwarfed by the aviation sector, Frank Slazer, Vice President for Space Systems at AIA told SpaceFlight Insider.

Employment trends in space systems sector number of jobs in recent years (in thousands). Image Credit: AIA

Employment in the space systems sector has beenstable during recent years as since 2011 the number of jobs in this segment fluctuates between 79,000 and 80,800.

However, sales in this sector remained stagnant. In 2016, space systems generated $40.4 billion out of $450.1 billion overall attributed to A&D firms producing end-use goods and services. This value has not exceeded $42.2 since 2010.

Total U.S. government spending on space is about 12 percent of the global space market of $335 billion in 2015 much of which is tied to commercial services from space, Slazer said.

What is also noteworthy, commercial space is far more than just the new space market entrants such as Blue Origin and SpaceX that tend to get a lot of media attention. AIA member companies sell billions of dollars of satellites and launch services annually to commercial customers and have for many years, he added.

Slazer also notedthat while these might be government space programs that the work being done is performed by commercial contractors.

In fact, typically, over 80 percent of NASAs budget is spent through industry contracts, he noted.

In general, the A&D industry generated approximately last year $872 billion in sales, and reduced the U.S. trade deficit by a record $90.3 billion the highest of any U.S. industry sector.

The report also underlines the significant growth of government research and development (R&D) spending relevant to A&D. In 2016, it grew by 7.5 percent to $84.7 billion.

R&D spending from the Department of Defense (DoD) accounted for 84 percent ($71.5 billion) of the total, while R&D spending from NASA accounted for the remaining 16 percent ($13.3 billion).

AIA was founded in 1919 by many of aviations early pioneers including Orville Wright and the organization regularly publishes reports on topics related to the A&D industry since 1922.

Tagged: Aerospace Industries Association AIA Commercial Space Department of Defense report The Range

Tomasz Nowakowski is the owner of Astro Watch, one of the premier astronomy and science-related blogs on the internet. Nowakowski reached out to SpaceFlight Insider in an effort to have the two space-related websites collaborate. Nowakowski's generous offer was gratefully received with the two organizations now working to better relay important developments as they pertain to space exploration.

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Jason Rhian

June 29th, 2017

NASA launched a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket at 4:25 a.m. (08:25 GMT), on Thursday, June 29, from Wallops Flight Facility located in Virginia. (Click for full view) Photo Credit: NASA

On Thursday, June 29, after numerous delays, the early morning skies along the mid-Atlantic coast came alivewith luminescent clouds as NASA checked outa new deploymentsystem. that supports science studies of the ionosphere and aurora.

The flight lasted for about 8 minutes and deployed about ten canisters as part of the rockets payload. Photo Credit: K. Hoppes / NASA

The mission was launched atop a two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocketfrom the agencys Wallops Flight Facility (the 15th flight of one of these rockets from Wallops Island) on the eastern Virginia shore. The flight was supposed to get underway on May 31, then on June 1.

When all was said and done, the mission was rescheduled numerous times, almost all of which were due to weather conditions not being optimal.

The space agency has not stood still while waiting for this mission to get underway. A Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket carrying the RockOn/RockSat-C payload was successfully launched at 5:30 a.m. EDT (09:30 GMT) on Thursday, June 22.

Clear skies whilepreferred, werenot required, on this particular mission with blue-green and red artificial clouds being produced as part the test this occurred approximately4 and 5.5 minutes after launch. NASA has stated that these could be visible all the way fromNew York to North Carolina.

Ground cameras located at Wallops and Duck, North Carolina, monitoredthe vapor tracers. which provide their results through an interaction withbarium, strontium, and cupric oxide.

It is anticipated that these clouds or vapor tracers will allow scientists to visually track particle motions in space from the ground. These tracers were deployed at altitudes of about96 to 124 miles (154 to 200 kilometers).

NASA hopes that scientists will be able to usethismulti-canister or ampule ejection system to get data from a much larger area than was previously possible.

During the flight, ten canisters, about the size of a soda can, weredeployed into the atmosphere around 6 to 12 miles (9.65 to 19 kilometers) away from the 670-pound (304 kg) primarypayload.

From start to finish, the mission elapsed time stood at approximately 8 minutes, with the payload (which was not recovered) splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean some 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the launch site.

As one might imagine, such a highly visible event was witnessed by a large number of people.Wallops received almost2,000 call-ins, emails, and images relating to the clouds from New York and all the way down to North Carolina. According to the space agency, these also came from across Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

Video courtesy of NASA Wallops

Tagged: NASA Terrier-Improved Malemute The Range Wallops Flight Facility

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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NASA sounding rocket releases artificial clouds above mid-Atlantic - SpaceFlight Insider

Jerome Strach

June 29th, 2017

The CHESS payload is integrated with the sounding rocket before launch. The goal of the mission was to measure the light filtered through the interstellar medium in order to examine the earliest stages of star formation. Photo Credit: Kevin France / University of Colorado

In New Mexico, from the White Sands Missile Range, NASA launched a Black Brant IX sounding rocket at 1:10 a.m. EDT on June 27, 2017. The mission known as CHESS Colorado High-Resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph has given every indication to NASA mission handlers that the flight appeared very promising with science data being received as anticipated.

Within the vastness of distant star neighborhoods, there float near-infinite clouds of neutral atoms and molecules, along with charged plasma particles called the interstellar medium, that scientists theorize could form into new stars, or even planets, over millions of years. CHESS will focus on these vast reservoirs of interstellar soup seeking to analyze infant star formation stages.

CHESS will analyze the atoms and molecules as light passes through the interstellar medium to gain a better understanding of stars and their dynamic history. The gathering of this scientific data for later analysis of the light spectrumis achieved with a brief 16-minute flight. Only 45 percent of this flight time can be used making observations while the sounding rocket travels 90200 miles (145322 kilometers) above the surface.

The observations must be made above Earths atmosphere because far-ultraviolet light, which is the portion of the light spectrum that CHESS focuses on, will not penetrate our atmospheres protective shield. Once observations have transpired through apogee, the payload delicately parachutes back to Earth in order to be recovered for future flights.

This iterative process is why this particular flight is the third in a series initiated over the past three years, and also why it is the most significant survey yet. This launch payload utilized a newly upgraded diffraction grating, a process whereby light reflection is separated into various wavelengths allowing for detailed analysis.

Kevin France is the primary investigator from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and he discussed this upgraded payload grating. A more efficient grating means the instrument is that many times more sensitive, France said. Compared to the first flight of CHESS, this third incarnation is about eight times more sensitive.

Utilizing sounding rocket vehicles allows for an economic science hardware refinement process that can ultimately see advanced instrument design placed into orbit for long-term missions. According to France, the CHESS instrument serves as a spectrograph prototype for NASAs LUVOIR concept.

Supporting technology and suborbital flight projects today directly translates into lower risk and shorter development time for NASAs large missions in the next two decades, France said.

CHESS is supported through NASAs Sounding Rocket Program conducted at the agencys Wallops Flight Facility, which is managed by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Orbital ATK provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for the NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract. NASAs Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program for the agency.

Tagged: Black Brant IX CHESS The Range University of Colorado White Sands Test Facility

Jerome Strach has worked within the Silicon Valley community for 20 years including software entertainment and film. Along with experience in software engineering, quality assurance, and middle management, he has long been a fan of aerospace and entities within that industry. A voracious reader, a model builder, and student of photography and flight training, most of his spare time can be found focused on launch events and technology advancements including custom mobile app development. Best memory as a child is building and flying Estes rockets with my father. @Romn8tr

Continued here:

CHESS mission measures light filtered through interstellar medium - SpaceFlight Insider

Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace Photo Optique Video du CSG S. Martin

Two geostationary communications satellites rode an Ariane 5 rocket into orbit Wednesday from a launch pad in French Guiana, embarking on missions to broadcast television across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, link European air travelers with Wi-Fi, and relay video and data signals across India.

The tandem satellite launch marked the fourth Ariane 5 flight of the year, and Arianespaces seventh mission of 2017, deploying a spacecraft shared by the Greek and Cypriot operator Hellas-Sat and London-based Inmarsat and a payload built and owned by the Indian Space Research Organization.

The nearly 180-foot-tall (55-meter) rocket blasted off at 2115 GMT (5:15 p.m. EDT; 6:15 p.m. French Guiana time) after a 16-minute delay to allow the Arianespace launch team time to finalize final countdown preparations.

Rocketing into a partly cloudy sky shortly before sunset, the Ariane 5s guidance computer directed the launcher east from the northeastern coast of South America before it dropped two side-mounted solid rocket boosters into the Atlantic Ocean just after the flights two-minute point.

The Ariane 5s Swiss-made nose cone jettisoned in the fourth minute of the flight, and the core stages Vulcain 2 main engine, guzzling a mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fired for nine minutes before giving way to an HM7B upper stage powerplant for the final maneuver to enter orbit.

The launcher intended to drop off the Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT 17 communications satellite into an egg-shaped transfer orbit with a perigee, or low point, of 155 miles (250 kilometers) and an apogee, or high point, of 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers). The drop-off was inclined around 3 degrees to Earths equator.

Arianespace said the Ariane 5 reached an on-target orbit before releasing the two satellite passengers, first the 12,742-pound (5,780-kilogram) Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN spacecraft, which launched in the upper position inside the rockets dual-payload accommodation.

The Indian-built 7,665-pound (3,477-kilogram) GSAT 17 communications satellite separated second.

Officials with Thales Alenia Space, the manufacturer of the Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN satellite, and the Indian space agency confirmed ground controllers established contact with both spacecraft soon after arriving in space.

The launch closed out a successful first half of 2017 for Arianespace, which had its launch campaigns in French Guiana halted more than a month in March and April by a general strike by local workers.

Arianespace resumed launchings May 4, and Wednesdays mission was the French launch companys fourth rocket flight in eight weeks.

Arianespace is delighted to announce that Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT 17 have been separated as planned in the targeted geostationary transfer orbit, said Luce Fabreguettes, executive vice president of missions, operations and purchasing at Arianespace.

For the fourth time this year, and the 80th time in a row, Ariane 5 performed flawlessly, she said. Unlike Ariane 5s usual missions, our heavy-lift vehicle delivered not for two but for three major customers at the service of telecommunications today.

The satellites will fire on-board thrusters in the coming days to circularize their orbits nearly 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) over the equator, where they will hold position over a fixed spot on the planet in geostationary orbit.

Developed in a cost-sharing arrangement by Hellas-Sat and Inmarsat, the missions larger payload will broadcast direct-to-home television programming over Europe, Africa and the Middle East with 44 Ku-band transponders and a Ka-band payload owned by the Hellas-Sat, a telecom provider based in Greece and Cyprus.

It will expand and eventually replace broadcast capacity currently offered by the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite launched from Cape Canaveral by an Atlas 5 rocket in May 2003.

Harry Iordanou, Hellas-Sat 3 project manager, said the satellite will be Hellas-Sats second satellite at 39 degrees east delivering in-orbit, direct-to-home, and telecom services over its coverage areas in Europe, the Middle East and sub-Saharan African countries.

Its activation will not only maintain but also expand Hellas-Sats business reach with additional capacity, while bringing video content in high and ultra-high definition format, Iordanou said.

The satellites initial orbit-raising maneuvers and deployments will be controlled from Thales Alenia Spaces center in Cannes, while in-orbit testing and commercial operations will be managed from a control site in Nemea, Greece.

Speaking soon after Wednesdays launch, Greek telecommunications and digital policy minister Nikos Pappas said Greece is set to start its first space agency in the next month or two.

The S-band payload on the Hellas-Sat/Inmarsat S EAN spacecraft will connect airline passengers traveling across Europe with Wi-Fi as a centerpiece of Inmarsats European Aviation Network.

This is a key milestone for our European Aviation Network, said Michele Franci, Inmarsats chief technology officer. Its part of a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network to provide cabin connectivity to passengers throughout Europe. This is one step of many, but with this we hope to be able to launch the service at the end of this year.

The European Aviation Network will have coverage in all 28 European Union member states, plus Norway and Switzerland.

The aeronautical communications project is a partnership between Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom, which provides a network of approximately 300 4G ground sites, allowing a computerized controller aboard aircraft to automatically switch between ground and satellite Wi-Fi service as needed.

The airborne Wi-Fi network is a European program that has been riding on one of Europes best successes, Ariane, and its to provide a service in Europe for European passengers, Franci said. It will add to our drive to provide more and more services for aero connectivity, for cabin and passenger connectivity throughout the world. We have several hundred planes already being installed with our terminals and getting into our network, and well be able to serve many, many airlines over the next months and years.

Passenger jets operated by British Airways, Vueling, Iberia and Aer Lingus will be among the first to go live in the European Aviation Network.

Heading for an operating position at 93.5 degrees east longitude, GSAT 17 is the heaviest Indian-built spacecraft ever built, according to Prakasha Rao, GSAT 17 launch campaign manager at ISRO.

Outfitted with C-band broadcast transponders and an S-band payload designed for mobile services, GSAT 17 will join 17 current satellites in Indias communications network. According to ISRO, GSAT 17 also hosts a payload to relay meteorological data and has a search and rescue support mission.

K. Sivan, director of Indias Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, said GSAT 17 is the third Indian communications satellite to launch in the last 50 days. It also caps a busy June for ISRO, which launched the maiden orbital test flight of its largest rocket, the GSLV MK.3, June 5 and deployed 31 Indian and international satellites in orbit on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle last week.

GSAT 17 is a major (mission) for ISRO and India, Sivan said It is providing continuity of services of two aging satellites, as well as augmenting our transponder reliability and broadening our horizon to mobile satellite services, as well as to the Antarctic areas.

Arianespaces next launch from French Guiana is set for Aug. 2 at 0158 GMT (Aug. 1 at 9:58 p.m. EDT), when a lightweight solid-fueled Vega booster will hurl the Optsat 3000 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite into orbit for the Italian military and deploy a French-Israeli environmental satellite named Vens.

The next Ariane 5 mission is scheduled to lift off Aug. 31 with the Intelsat 37e and BSAT 4a communications satellites.

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Ariane 5 rocket tallies 80th straight success with on-target satellite launch - Spaceflight Now