ISS Mission Launched, Starship Launch Delayed

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The CRS-34 mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. (NASA)

Delays abound, but at least one space mission successfully launched this week. After delays earlier this week, today the CRS-34 mission successfully launched towards the International Space Station (ISS). The Dragon capsule, carrying supplies for the Expedition 74 Crew on the station, is expected to dock with the ISS Sunday morning.

The first launch this year of the SpaceX Starship was not so lucky. While is was scheduled to launch today as well, it was delayed until Tuesday, May 19th. This will be the 12th test of the new rocket.

SpaceX has planned a long list of objectives related to the booster and rocket on this flight:

The booster’s primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch.

The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including a payload deployment of 20 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, and two specially modified Starlink satellites. The two modified satellites will test hardware planned for Starlink V3 and will attempt to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. All of the deployed payloads will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.

For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.

It appears SpaceX is trying to make up for numerous delays with a single mission – a mission that is critical to the success of NASA’s Artemis program as well as SpaceX’s upcoming IPO.

Pic of the Week: Spiral Arm of Galaxy M51

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): View of an arm of the Messier 51 galaxy from both JWST and the Hubble Space Telescop. (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Pedrini, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team)

This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope, which together scanned about 9,000 star clusters in the four galaxies. What you are looking at above comes from the spiral arm of one of the galaxies – Messier 51 (M51).

Here is a description from the European Space Agency (ESA) regarding what you are seeing in the image:

A large, long portion of one of the spiral arms in galaxy M51. Red-orange, clumpy filaments of gas and dust that stretch in a chain from left to right comprise the arm. Shining cyan bubbles light up parts of the gas clouds from within, and gaps expose bright star clusters in these bubbles as glowing white dots. The whole image is dotted with small stars. A faint blue glow around the arm colours the otherwise dark background.

Movie: Disclosure Day

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Universal Pictures

If the recent release of UFO information by the White House was not all that exciting, then you may want to turn to Hollywood for a boost.

On June 12th, Steve Spielberg’s movie Disclosure Day comes to your local movie screen. From what I read in the press and previews, it should lift your spirits if you are looking for something strange out there, real or imaged.

However, if you want a good summary of the upcoming film then you are out of luck. Everyone is talking about how Spielberg is the master of hiding the plot from the rest of us. I suppose that will keep us in suspense, but will it put butts in theater seats?

This is the totality of what Universal Pictures is sharing about the plot:

If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to eight billion people. We are coming close to … Disclosure Day.

While that summary was worthless, you have a lot of information to play with in the film trailers. You can also see what other are saying, from those who are pulling apart the trailer to others who are posting their theories about the real story behind all the hype.

So I recommend you review all of this to determine whether this film might be for you.

Or you can simply await full disclosure on June 12th without ruining the surprise.

The ISS Will Need to Wait a Little Longer for Supplies

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

Everything was set for a cargo mission to the International Space Station earlier today until the weather decided to mess things up.

As a result, the CRS-34 mission with its 6,500 pounds of supplies will be delayed for another day.

Here is a summary of some of the cargo going up to the station tomorrow:

  • ODYSSEY: Evaluating how well Earth-based microgravity simulators recreate space conditions.
  • STORIE: Monitoring charged particles in orbit around the Earth, which respond to space weather and can affect assets like power grids and satellites. 
  • Laplace: Studying the movement and collision of dust particles in microgravity to understand particle motion in space.
  • Green Bone: Observing how bone cells grow and develop in space on a bone scaffold made from wood.
  • SPARK: Evaluating how red blood cells and the spleen change in space for future astronauts.

Fingers crossed for better weather tomorrow.

Update: The CRS-34 launch has now been moved to Friday, May 15th.

Space Stories: Earth Similar to Vesta, Comet 3I/ATLAS is from a Strange Cold Place, and a US/China Telescope Battle in South America

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Dawn spacecraft image of Vesta. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA)

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—BBC Sky at Night: “We Were Truly Astonished” – Astronomers Say Earth Formed from the Same Material as Mars“

Planetary scientists say they’ve taken a step closer to solving the mystery of where the material that formed Earth comes from. While Earth resides in the inner Solar System with Mercury, Venus and Mars, it’s been proposed that up to 40% of the material that formed our planet came from the outer reaches, beyond the orbit of Jupiter. But a new study looking at the chemistry of meteorites has found that Earth is likely made entirely from the inner Solar System. In particular, Earth’s make-up is strikingly similar to that of Mars and Vesta, one of the biggest objects in the asteroid belt.

—SciTechDaily: “Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Came From a Place Nothing Like Our Solar System“

A comet from beyond our solar system is giving astronomers a rare look at how alien planetary systems may form under conditions very different from those that shaped our own cosmic neighborhood. The object, called 3I/ATLAS, was discovered less than a year ago as it traveled through our solar system. Although scientists still do not know exactly where it originated, new research led by the University of Michigan suggests the comet formed in an extremely cold region of space…“Our new observations show that the conditions that led to the formation of our solar system are much different from how planetary systems evolved in different parts of our galaxy,” said Luis Salazar Manzano, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the U-M Department of Astronomy.

—New York Times: “U.S.-China Rivalry Reaches South American Skies“

In the foothills of the Argentine Andes, the enormous Chinese radio telescope sits in one of the world’s premier stargazing locations, surrounded by vast, undulating mountain ranges and beneath skies untouched by light pollution. It is also on the opposite side of the planet from Beijing, offering China a window on the half of the heavens it would not otherwise see. But the Chinese telescope at the site, the Cesco observatory in San Juan Province, picks up no signals. After the U.S. government repeatedly pressed them on the issue, the Argentine authorities stopped the project’s completion. Lacking key parts, the telescope now sits dismembered, its gigantic antenna pointing blindly at the sky.