SPACE - random thread about space stuff

[em2nought]

“Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic,” according to Boeing.

...but it sure makes the astronauts sound funny on the comms.

[jztemple2]

“Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic,” according to Boeing.

For reference, the SpaceX Dragon capsule uses hypergolics, as did the Space Shuttle. Hypergolics are toxic, but are storable at ambient temperature and ignite when mixed, not needing an igniter like a spark plug.

[jztemple2]

[Isgrimnur]

Boeing's 1st Starliner to carry astronauts arrives at ISS despite thruster malfunction

Starliner reached the International Space Station (ISS) today (June 6), making contact with the orbiting lab at 1:34 p.m. EDT (1734 GMT) as the duo flew over the southern Indian Ocean.

That was a bit later than originally planned. Starliner missed its first docking chance, at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT), after five of its 28 reaction-control thrusters malfunctioned. But the mission team got four of those impacted thrusters back online, and Starliner was cleared to approach the ISS in the next window.
...
About two hours after, Wilmore and Williams opened Starliner's hatch and entered the International Space Station and received a warm greeting by the seven members of the station's current Expedition 71 crew. They were welcomed by the ringing of a bell (an ISS tradition), music and zero gravity "dancing" as the pair floated around the Harmony module, hugging their new crewmates.

[jztemple2]

Rather a confusing tweet. The tower section was built here at the SpaceX facility but is being sent to Boca Chica so SpaceX can assemble a second Orbital Launch tower. This is so if one tower is damaged after a launch or a Super Heavy Booster recovery, there will be a second tower ready to go. Eventually SpaceX will be launching Starships from Boca Chica in a rather rapid sequence to demonstrate the needed on-orbit activities for the Human Landing System.

SpaceX is also planning on having at least two Orbital Launch towers operational here at the Cape, but I'm figuring that right now assembling those is a lower priority.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1798687604038406638

Update: Here's a look at the SpaceX assembly area at the Cape for the Orbital Launch tower assembly.

[Isgrimnur]

CHINESE LANDER INSTRUMENT DETECTS NEGATIVE IONS ON FAR SIDE OF MOON

Within just over 48 hours, China's Chang'e-6 lunar touched down on the far side of the Moon, successfully scooped up samples, and kicked off once again.
...
During its brief visit, the lander also dropped off several scientific payloads on the lunar service, including the European Space Agency's Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument.

And the device didn't spare any time, kicking into action and immediately detecting the presence of negative ions, the result of solar wind buffeting the lunar surface.

"This was ESA’s first activity on the surface of the Moon, a world-first scientifically, and a first lunar cooperation with China," said ESA’s technical officer for the experiment Neil Melville in a statement. "We have collected an amount and quality of data far beyond our expectations."

[Hrdina]

[Kraken]

Nice tribute.

[jztemple2]

Astronauts test SpaceX Starship hardware and spacesuits for Artemis 3 moon mission (photos)

Axiom Space astronaut and director of human spaceflight Peggy Whitson (L) and NASA astronaut Douglas Wheelock wear pressure garments to remove heat and provide protection underneath their Axiom Space-designed spacesuits during a test on April 30, 2024 at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Come 2026, NASA plans to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. Times have changed, as can be gauged from the new rockets, spacecraft and spacesuits.

To prepare for the Artemis 3 moon-landing mission, in late April two astronauts donned Axiom Space's new spacesuits and for the first time tested out a mock version of the vehicle that will get them to the moon.

Scientists and engineers say the test — the first of its kind since the Apollo era — provided feedback on how well the spacesuits, being built by Axiom, worked with a test version of SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System (HLS), NASA's vehicle of choice to ferry astronauts to and from the moon during the Artemis 3 mission. They were able to gauge the layout of the HLS, including its layout, physical design and clearances, according to a NASA statement.

The three-hour test, which was carried out at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, was also useful to judge the flexibility of the spacesuits, and the ease of getting in and out of them before stowing them in the airlock with minimal assistance.

Two astronauts, Axiom Space's Peggy Whitson and NASA's Doug Wheelock, donned spacesuits in a full-scale mockup of the airlock that is perched on Starship's airlock deck. Each spacesuit also included a full-scale "backpack" model of the portable life support system, according to a statement by Axiom.

[Zaxxon]

https://twitter.com/StarshipGazer/statu ... 0851164363

[Kraken]

That's a major component of Test 5 -- upgraded tiles, and an ablative coating underneath them to protect the vehicle when some of them inevitably fail. It adds some weight but should greatly improve survivability. Gives the next ship much better odds of making it to the ocean in good shape.

[Zaxxon]

That's a major component of Test 5 -- upgraded tiles, and an ablative coating underneath them to protect the vehicle when some of them inevitably fail. It adds some weight but should greatly improve survivability. Gives the next ship much better odds of making it to the ocean in good shape.

Yep. I'm impressed more that they are already proceeding. Lends credence to the idea that the next launch will be a much tighter turnaround than the priors.

[jztemple2]

That's a major component of Test 5 -- upgraded tiles, and an ablative coating underneath them to protect the vehicle when some of them inevitably fail. It adds some weight but should greatly improve survivability. Gives the next ship much better odds of making it to the ocean in good shape.

Makes you really realize the big step from SHB/Starship Flight 4 to Artemis III and the HLS putting down (and lifting off!) from the moon. Actually, when I think about it, the heatshields are one of those items that won't be needed on Starship/HLS for Artemis III, unless I'm mistaken.

I do think it is real pie-in-the-sky thinking that we will go from Artemis II which will orbit around the moon to Artemis III, which will see the crew, in lunar orbit, transfer from Orion to the HLS, then HLS lands, astronauts walk around on the surface, then HLS returns to lunar orbit, crew transfers back to Orion which returns to Earth.

I haven't heard of any plans of sending an unmanned HLS to lunar orbit then landing it on the moon and return to lunar orbit. That wasn't done on Apollo, but then the whole Apollo program was about accepting a lot of risks.

[Kraken]

That's a major component of Test 5 -- upgraded tiles, and an ablative coating underneath them to protect the vehicle when some of them inevitably fail. It adds some weight but should greatly improve survivability. Gives the next ship much better odds of making it to the ocean in good shape.

Yep. I'm impressed more that they are already proceeding. Lends credence to the idea that the next launch will be a much tighter turnaround than the priors.

Musk said it will fly in July. Elon is ever optimistic, but that seems realistic to me given that they already had improved tiles ready to go. 'Course, Elon also says that a Starship will land on Mars in three years and there will be hundreds of Mars landings by the end of this decade, so....

[jztemple2]

Good article about the MOL program: 55 Years Ago: Manned Orbiting Laboratory Cancellation

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), a joint classified project of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), sought to establish a crewed platform in low Earth orbit to obtain high-resolution photographic imagery of America’s 1960s Cold War adversaries. Approved in 1965, the MOL Program envisioned a series of space stations launched from a new pad in California and placed in low polar Earth orbit. Two-man crews, launching and returning to Earth aboard modified Gemini-B capsules, would work aboard the stations for 30 days at a time. Although the Air Force selected 17 pilots and built prototype hardware, the program faced budget pressures and competition from rapidly advancing technologies in uncrewed reconnaissance capabilities, leading to its cancellation on June 10, 1969.

[jztemple2]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/17994 ... splashdown

[Isgrimnur]

Boeing's Starliner Now Has 5 Leaks While Parked Outside the ISS

If you’ve been keeping track, there were three leaks on the Starliner spacecraft the last time we checked. Starliner teams had identified two new leaks on the spacecraft after it launched on June 5, in addition to a helium leak that was detected prior to liftoff.
...
“Engineers evaluated the helium supply based on current leak rates and determined that Starliner has plenty of margin to support the return trip from station,” NASA wrote in its update. “Only seven hours of free-flight time is needed to perform a normal end of mission, and Starliner currently has enough helium left in its tanks to support 70 hours of free flight activity following undocking.”

[hepcat]

Man, that would really get on my nerves if I had to spend all that time flying there and back with everyone talking in funny, high pitches voices from all that helium the entire time. I mean, yeah….maybe it would be funny for the first day. But after that? No way.

[jztemple2]

Starship Flight 4 milestones effect changes to Flight 5’s Ship

Following the highly successful milestones achieved by Booster 11 and Ship 29 on Flight 4 of SpaceX’s Starship, engineers are already implementing lessons learned from the mission ahead of the next flight, including widescale changes to the Thermal Protection System (TPS). Although Elon Musk thinks the next flight is a month away, the Flight 5 pairing requires the reapplication of stronger tiles ahead of its mission.

There is a lot more in this article about the changes anticipated to be made before flight 5. Really worth reading if you are a space nerd. And there was this info just received today:

https://twitter.com/BCCarCounters/statu ... light-5%2F

[Daehawk]

‘Dyson spheres’ were theorized as a way to detect alien life. Scientists say they’ve found potential evidence

[raydude]

Man, that would really get on my nerves if I had to spend all that time flying there and back with everyone talking in funny, high pitches voices from all that helium the entire time. I mean, yeah….maybe it would be funny for the first day. But after that? No way.

Looks like "a quality escape occured". Could be worse I guess, like maybe the door flies off. Thanks Boeing.

[jztemple2]

NASA: No emergency on the International Space Station

All of the crew members on the International Space Station are safe and sound after a mix-up resulted in a training simulation that was somehow broadcasted on NASA’s livestream and indicated there was an emergency, stated the U.S. space agency.

On Wednesday at around 6:28 p.m. ET, an audio of a training simulation was broadcasted, which indicated that one of the nine astronauts currently on the ISS was “experiencing the effects related to decompression sickness,” stated NASA's International Space Station's post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the post, officials stated that there was no emergency on the floating laboratory.

“This audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams training for various scenarios in space and is not related to a real emergency,” stated NASA officials in the social media post.

The Expedition 71 members and the Starliner crew members Cmdr. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams were in a sleep period at the time the audio was broadcast.

[Isgrimnur]

[Unagi]

Is that my voice?

Oh man, I love that movie. It's an often quoted classic around our house.

[jztemple2]

This is an interesting video from Scott Manley from a couple of months ago that I missed (I had surgery the day before).

In 1991 Space Shuttle Atlantis returning after STS-37 was forced to land on a lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base which had never been used by a shuttle before and wasn't included in mission plans.

But across the US the weather made it the only option, and to compound things, in addition to the runway being unfamiliar, the winds threw a few curveballs at them resulting in an approach that landed over 3000 feet before it was supposed to.

[Daehawk]

Is that my voice?

Oh man, I love that movie. It's an often quoted classic around our house.

Was a great movie but I think thats from the tv show cartoon of which I REALLY loved. ..The Emperor's New School

[jztemple2]

Soviet-era cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov, who survived only Soyuz splashdown, dies

Soviet-era cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov, whose failed docking with a Russian space station ended with the first and only emergency splashdown in a Soyuz spacecraft, has died at the age of 82.

Zudov's death on Wednesday (June 12) was reported by Roscosmos, Russia's federal space corporation.

"[His] two-day spaceflight became, without exaggeration, dramatic," read a statement from the space agency. "The landing of 'Radon' (the call sign that the cosmonaut chose for himself) turned out to be no less dangerous."

[Kraken]

I dimly remember that happening, but the USSR never provided any details beyond a headline announcement. Quite an interesting story. RIP and congrats on not drowning in 1976.

[Isgrimnur]

NASA extends Starliner stay at ISS for additional testing

NASA and Boeing will keep the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station for at least four more days to perform additional testing of the commercial crew vehicle before it returns to Earth.
...
The agency and the company will use the extra time “to finalize departure planning and operations,” NASA stated, including some additional tests of Starliner systems not originally planned for the spacecraft’s time at the station.

“We have an incredible opportunity to spend more time at station and perform more tests which provides invaluable data unique to our position,” Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and commercial crew program manager, said in a statement about the latest extension. “We have plenty of margin and time on station to maximize the opportunity for all partners to learn, including our crew.”

Among the additional tests planned for Starliner is a brief test of aft-facing thrusters on the spacecraft. Seven of the eight thrusters will be fired in two pulses with a total duration of about one second. NASA said that test will demonstrate how the spacecraft will perform when docked to the station on future missions lasting up to six months.

[Zaxxon]

Gotta love the verbiage-fu. 'This [the fact that Starliner is leaking from a half-dozen places] is an incredible opportunity!' Since this additional testing was unplanned, call a spade a spade. I'm sure the astronauts up there are viewing this as incredible, but in a slightly different way.

[Kraken]

I see a lot of hating and ridicule on Boeing, and I really hate to pile on, but...I'm glad Starliner isn't my ride home.

[jztemple2]

Gotta love the verbiage-fu. 'This [the fact that Starliner is leaking from a half-dozen places] is an incredible opportunity!' Since this additional testing was unplanned, call a spade a spade. I'm sure the astronauts up there are viewing this as incredible, but in a slightly different way.

Speaking as a former engineer, I am always reminded that one learns more from failure than from success.

And knowing a number of former astronauts, I suspect that the Starliner crew is enjoying the challenge.

[Zaxxon]

I’m not knocking the move; I’m knocking the false framing.

[jztemple2]

And knowing a number of former astronauts, I suspect that the Starliner crew is enjoying the challenge.

To expand on this, check out some of the videos posted on the Reentry - An Orbital Simulator (and a lot more!!!) thread. And now imagine yourself as an astronaut who has spent months if not years practicing those checklists and procedures over and over and over, dozens if not hundreds of times. If the mission goes entirely as planned, you do nothing more exciting than repeating the same checklists and procedures you practiced all those times.

Now, if you have issues occur, out of nominal readings or reactions or just plain failures, you (as a highly trained astronaut) get to work planned contingency procedures or even new, scratched out on the back of an envelope procedures. You get to demonstrate your skill at working problems and handling problems and even emergencies. And for those type-A personalities that get recruited as astronauts and may only do one or two missions in their career, having something off-nominal to achieve is a real bonus.

[Isgrimnur]

Or never notice that your variometer is pegged before liftoff.

[jztemple2]

Or never notice that your variometer is pegged before liftoff.

A minor detail!

[jztemple2]

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket suffers rare last-second abort during Starlink satellite launch

A SpaceX rocket suffered a last-second abort during the attempted launch of 22 Starlink internet satellites from Florida on Friday afternoon (June 14).

The SpaceX booster, a workhorse Falcon 9 rocket that has flown 15 times before, aborted its liftoff while igniting its nine first-stage engines at 5:07 p.m. EDT (2107 GMT) atop the Space Launch Complex 40 pad of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

"Abort, we have an abort," a SpaceX launch commentator said during the company's livestream on X (formerly Twitter).

It is unclear what caused the rare abort for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, or when the company will attempt to launch its Starlink satellite mission again. Today's launch attempt had a four-hour window and a similar window is available on Saturday (June 15) starting at 4:07 p.m. EDT (2007 GMT).

https://twitter.com/tariqjmalik/status/ ... ch-attempt

[Isgrimnur]

Nova explosion of nearby star will soon light up Earth's skies

T Coronae Borealis, affectionately known as T CrB, is no ordinary star. It’s a binary system, a celestial pattern of two stars locked in a gravitational embrace.

At the heart of this cosmic process lies a white dwarf, the incredibly dense remnant of a once-mighty star. Its partner, a bloated red giant, is in the twilight years of its existence, slowly shedding its outer layers under the relentless pull of the white dwarf’s gravity.

This ongoing stellar cannibalism sets the stage for an explosive event known as a nova. As the white dwarf siphons hydrogen from its companion, the gas accumulates on its surface, building up pressure and heat.

This process continues until, like a pressure cooker reaching its limit, the white dwarf erupts in a cataclysmic thermonuclear explosion.

T CrB is no stranger to these nova explosions. Historical records suggest it’s erupted roughly every 80 years, with its most recent outburst occurring in 1946.
...
The anticipation among astronomers and amateur stargazers is palpable, as T CrB’s recent activity mirrors the patterns observed in the lead-up to the 1946 eruption. All signs point to an impending nova, potentially as soon as September 2024.

[Punisher]

Doesn't that mean that of it was gonna happen it actually happened already?

[Isgrimnur]

Wiki

On 20 April 2016, the Sky & Telescope website reported a sustained brightening since February 2015 from magnitude 10.5 to about 9.2. A similar event was reported in 1938, followed by another outburst in 1946. By June 2018, the star had dimmed slightly but still remained at an unusually high level of activity. By mid-2023, it faded by 0.35 magnitude; the lowest brightness seen since 2016. A similar dimming occurred in the year before the 1946 outburst, indicating that it will likely erupt between February 2024 and October 2026.

By PopePompus - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p ... d=99263183