Archive for the ‘Space’ Category

Classified satellite launched from Vandenberg

The largest rocket ever launched from the West Coast blasted off Thursday with a classified defense satellite on board.

The 235-foot-tall Delta IV Heavy Launch Vehicle lifted off at 1:10 p.m. local time carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The launch complex used was SLC-6, which was built for the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program in the 60s and then converted for use by the Space Shuttle in the 1980s. No shuttles ever flew from Vandenberg and the MOL program was cancelled. Murdoc Online posted some pictures of a 1985 shuttle test using the Enterprise a while back.

19 November 2010:

The Minotaur IV consists of the first three stages of an LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM and a new fourth stage. The Minotaur family of launch vehicles was developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation from Minuteman II and Peacekeeper missiles. A 5-stage Minotaur V is currently being developed. It will be used to launch NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission in 2012.

‘Programming error’ caused Russian rocket failure

A Russian Proton rocket failed to get three Glonass satellites into orbit over the weekend, apparently due to computer programming issues. Glonass is the Russian equivalent of GPS. They’ve been trying to get the whole system back online after if fell into disrepair in the 1990s.

Here’s a bit from the AFP article:

Once separated from the Proton launch rocket, the upper-stage booster rocket with the three satellites aboard should have put them in orbit about 20 kilometres (12 miles) above the earth.

Wow. Just think how fast those things must be going to maintain orbit at only 12 miles. And the system works by listening for the things screaming overhead. “We just heard number seven, comrade, and that’s number fifteen. This must be Siberia.”

Okay, the article was probably supposed to say “20,000 km (12,000 miles),” which is about what Wikipedia says these things normally orbit at.

X-37B returns to Earth after 7-month mission

The winged craft autonomously landed at this California coastal air base 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, Vandenburg spokesman Jeremy Eggers said.

“It’s very exciting,” Eggers said of the 1:16 a.m. Pacific time landing.

The X-37B was launched by an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 22, with a maximum mission duration of 270 days.

Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, the Boeing-built spacecraft was originally a NASA project before being taken over by the military.

The Air Force has not said whether it carried anything in its cargo bay, but it insists the primary purpose of the mission was to test the craft itself.

7 months seems like a long time for a craft test, but who knows what the long-term plan will be.

Regardless, Murdoc hopes it did all sorts of super secret stuff, the mission was a complete success, and someday we read about it and are impressed.

Word is that it will fly again next spring.

UPDATE: Toejam points out a great photo gallery in the comments. Here are a couple:

Go check out the full gallery for more.

Interestingly, the gallery says that the Air Force has ordered a second X-37B and that the new one, Orbital Test Vehicle 2, will be the one to fly next spring. I wonder if it’s one and done for OTV 1, or if it needs to be modified after the initial test flight. Could be that lessons learned building OTV 1 have resulted in a lighter/better OTV 2, or maybe OTV 1 has a lot of extra sensors and monitoring gear that weighs it down.

Discovery’s final mission is postponed until at least November 30th due to continuing problems with the ground umbilical carrier plate and now some cracked foam:

It appears that the crack developed when they drained the tank on Friday after the latest attempt was scrubbed.

NASA:

Space shuttle managers have scrubbed Discovery’s launch attempt for today due to a hydrogen leak a the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP (pronounced GUP). The next launch attempt would be no earlier than Monday.

During the process of filling the external tank, the hydrogen leak was detected at the GUCP, an attachment point between the external tank and a 17-inch pipe that carries gaseous hydrogen safely away from Discovery to the flare stack, where it is burned off.

This will be Discovery‘s last flight.

Just watched this excellent documentary:

It’s very good and features tons of interviews with astronauts and some pretty good archival footage. We watched the DVD but I see the Blu-Ray is actually a couple of bucks cheaper at Amazon.

If you check this out, be sure to watch the additional scenes on the special features menu. Lots of great stuff and well worth the time.

Say what you will about the Shuttle program or the future of NASA, this is a thing of beauty:

From the looks of it, someone’s “saturation” dial goes to 11. Murdoc’s glad it does.

Missile Row in 1964:

I’ve always loved this picture. Talk about a great desktop image.

From the Project Apollo Archive.