Whew! Only 48 hours late. Sorry, all. A lot, and I mean A LOT, has happened this week but there’s only so much here. Hopefully, it’s enough for you to be a little better informed on the State of Space. Happy reading!
Preburner:
Successful launches: 2
Failures: 0
Major events: Russian ASAT, Astra reaches orbit, Crew-4/5 updates
Combustion Chamber:
Fourth time’s the charm!
Astra successfully launched a Rocket 3.2 vehicle into Sun-Synchronous Orbit late Friday night, achieving a speed of 7.61 km/s at 500 km altitude in just 8 minutes and 47 seconds. And may I just say… WOOOOOO YEAH! GO ASTRA! The company has worked so hard for this, and I’m very proud of them.
The first stage burned nominally with no Kodiak Drift™ after launch, pushing the small upper stage through the densest part of the atmosphere (getting up to about 110 km before separating the fairing and releasing the second stage). The second stage burned for approximately 5 minutes before engine shutdown and a commanded payload separation, although there was no physical separation hardware. Just a test. Good job Astra! Here’s a recap video from NASASpaceflight and Astra:
Crew-4 astronauts and a cosmonaut on Crew-5 announced
Early this year, NASA announced the commander and the pilot of the fourth operational mission to the International Space Station using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. They are, respectively, Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines. More recently (inMay), the European Space Agency assigned Samantha Cristoforetti as Expedition 68 commander, which marks the first time a European female will be in charge of the Station. On Tuesday, Jessica Watkins was announced as Crew-4 Mission Specialist, complementing the primary crew.
While both Lindgren and Cristoforetti have been to space before (141 days and 199 days, respectively), Hines and Watkins are still rookies; the two were selected as part of NASA’s 2017 astronaut class.
Kjell Lindgren visited the Station on Soyuz TMA-17M, during Expedition 44/45, which has a remarkable crew poster. He served as the only member of the backup crew for the Crew Dragon Demo-2, besides training as the backup commander for Crew-1.
Bob Hines graduated from Air Force Officer Training School and Air Force Test Pilot School. He has logged 3,500 flying hours, including 76 combat missions, and has received several awards.
Samantha Cristoforetti has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics Sciences. She has logged 500 hours in six military aircraft. After launching on Soyuz TMA-15M, she began the “Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut” outreach program, which challenged 8-12 years old students to get fit within two months while she trained in space.
Jessica Watkins has a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences and a Ph.D. in geology. While an undergraduate she worked on the Mars Phoenix lander and later collaborated on the Curiosity, Perseverance, and Mars Sample Return missions.
Head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin during a brief press conference at the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai announced that Russia has deemed Crew Dragon vehicles safe enough for cosmonauts to fly on and could fly as soon as Crew-5 and would fly fairly often after that. We may see typical Crew Dragon flights being one ESA/JAXA astronaut, one Roscosmos cosmonaut, and two NASA astronauts.
Northrop Grumman to develop a crewed lunar rover
Northrop Grumman is overseeing the design and construction of a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to be used by humans during the Artemis program, with AVL, Michelin, Lunar Outpost, and Intuitive Machines working on various aspects of the development. AVL will provide expertise in electric vehicle powertrains and autonomy, Michelin the airless tires, Lunar Outpost the understanding of lunar navigation, and Intuitive Machines delivering the finished vehicle to the surface. The companies provided limited details, but we have a few sources of speculation. Intuitive’s Nova-D lander can deliver a maximum of 500 kg to the surface, and the rover itself is supposed to be able to operate for up to 10 years. From concept art, it appears the vehicle will be unpressurized (similar to the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle but unlike a proposal from Lockheed Martin and GM), seat two astronauts, and potentially be powered by an RTG, which uses the heat from decaying uranium to produce electricity.
SpaceX Updates:
During livestream, Elon Musk provides new info on the Starship program
Here’s the important stuff:
Orbital Flight Test NET January 2022
Super Heavy and Starship vehicle ready to go; still waiting on GSE and extensive testing
Will attempt a dozen flights in 2022 before commercial service in 2023
Biggest vehicle production constraint is engines
First booster catching attempt mid-2022
FAA environmental review expected to close December 2021/January 2022
Orbital Debris Report:
Russian anti-satellite missile test threatens the ISS
Astronauts and cosmonauts closed hatches on the ISS due to debris concerns, sealing off the radial modules and putting the station in the “Safe Haven” configuration during two passes through a newly created debris field. That field was caused by the destruction of the Kosmos-1408 satellite during testing of a Nudol Direct-Ascent Anti-SATellite missile system (DA-ASAT system or just ASAT). Nudol is a two-stage explosive missile developed by the Russian Ministry of Defense to intercept and destroy satellites while in orbit, with a theorized max kill altitude of around 800 km with either conventional or potentially nuclear warheads. Kosmos-1408 was a defunct Tselina-D electronic signals intelligence(ELINT) satellite launched on 16 September 1982 by the Soviet Union to identify and intercept radio communications. This was the 10th and ultimate test of the Nudol system in the last eight years, with only the first two being failures. The US military confirmed large pieces of debris a few hours after the test and the space-vehicle tracking company LeoLabs announced that they were tracking at least 1,500 large pieces of debris, with an unknown number of smaller pieces. The test follows similar tests by the US (1985 and 2008; 432 total pieces of detectable debris), China (2007; 950 pieces), and India (2019; 400 pieces), all of which used a kinetic-kill vehicle with no explosives. That’s what made this test different - there was an explosive warhead on the missile. It’s also what made it so much more dangerous. Great physics-based animation of the orbits and trajectories of the ASAT, ISS, and Kosmos-1408 by AGI:
Upcoming launches*:
Falcon 9 Flight 130 | DART on Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 00:20 AM
Soyuz 2.1b Flight 68 | Progress M-UM Pritchal on Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 1:06 PM
Long March 3B/E Flight 139 | Unknown payload on Wednesday, Nov. 24
Soyuz 2.1b Flight 69 | Tundra nº5L on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 00:30 AM
Electron Flight 23 | A Data With Destiny on Saturday, Nov. 27
*All times UTC, NOT EST. For EST, subtract 4 hours.