Boeing – s Starliner crew capsule launches on 1st space flight

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule launches on 1st space flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing’s new Starliner capsule rocketed toward the International Space Station on its first test flight Friday, a crucial dress rehearsal for next year’s inaugural launch with astronauts.

The Starliner carried Christmas treats and presents for the six space station residents, hundreds of tree seeds similar to those that flew to the moon on Apollo 14, the original air travel ID card belonging to Boeing’s founder and a mannequin named Rosie in the commander’s seat.

The test dummy — named after the bicep-flexing riveter of World War II — wore a red polka dot hair bandanna just like the original Rosie and Boeing’s custom royal blue spacesuit.

“She’s pretty tough. She’s going to take the hit for us,” said NASA’s Mike Fincke, one of three astronauts who will fly on the next Starliner and, as test pilots, take the hit for future crews.

As the astronauts watched from nearby control centers, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the capsule blasted off just before sunrise from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was a one-day trip to the space station, putting the spacecraft on track for a docking Saturday morning.

This was Boeing’s chance to catch up with SpaceX, NASA’s other commercial crew provider that completed a similar demonstration last March. SpaceX has one last hurdle — a launch abort test — before carrying two NASA astronauts in its Dragon capsule, possibly by spring.

The U.S. needs competition like this, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday, to drive down launch costs, boost innovation and open space up to more people.

“We’re moving into a new era,” he said.

The space agency handed over station deliveries to private businesses, first cargo and then crews, in order to focus on getting astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars.

Commercial cargo ships took flight in 2012, starting with SpaceX. Crew capsules were more complicated to design and build, and parachute and other technical problems pushed the first launches from 2017 to now next year.

It’s been nearly nine years since NASA astronauts have launched from the U.S. The last time was July 8, 2011, when Atlantis — now on display at Kennedy Space Center — made the final space shuttle flight.

Since then, NASA astronauts have traveled to and from the space station via Kazakhstan, courtesy of the Russian Space Agency. The Soyuz rides have cost NASA up to $86 million apiece.

“We’re back with a vengeance now,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said from Kennedy, where crowds gathered well before dawn.

Chris Ferguson commanded that last shuttle mission. Now a test pilot astronaut for Boeing and one of the Starliner’s key developers, he’s assigned to the first Starliner crew with Fincke and NASA astronaut Nicole Mann. A successful Starliner demo could see them launching by summer.

“This is an incredibly unique opportunity,” Ferguson said on the eve of launch.

Mann juggled a mix of emotions: excitement, pride, stress and amazement.

“Really overwhelmed, but in a good way and really the best of ways,” she said.

Built to accommodate seven, the white capsule with black and blue trim will typically carry four or five people. It’s 16.5 feet (5 meters) tall with its attached service module and 15 feet (4.5 meters) in diameter.

Every Starliner system will be tested during the eight-day mission, from the vibrations and stresses of liftoff to the Dec. 28 touchdown at the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Parachutes and air bags will soften the capsule’s landing. Even the test dummy is packed with sensors.

Bridenstine said he’s “very comfortable” with Boeing, despite the prolonged grounding of the company’s 737 Max jets. The spacecraft and aircraft sides of the company are different, he noted. Boeing has long been involved in NASA’s human spacecraft program, from Project Mercury to the shuttle and station programs.

Boeing began preliminary work on the Starliner in 2010, a year before Atlantis soared for the last time.

In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX made the final cut. Boeing got more than $4 billion to develop and fly the Starliner, while SpaceX got $2.6 billion for a crew-version of its Dragon cargo ship.

NASA wants to make sure every reasonable precaution is taken with the capsules, designed to be safer than NASA’s old shuttles.

“We’re talking about human spaceflight,” Bridenstine cautioned. “It’s not for the faint of heart. It never has been, and it’s never going to be.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

SpaceFlight Insider is creating space news, photography, videography and live webcasts, Patreon

SpaceFlight Insider

Select a membership level

About

Who are we?

SpaceFlight Insider is a team of individuals working to produce daily content in the form of stories, exclusive interviews, a photographic library, videos, live webcasts and more. In total more than 100 pieces of content are produced each month along with coverage of launches around the world.

What we feature

In the last few years, SpaceFlight Insider has created one of the best launch calendars currently in use. Additionally, we have an ever-expanding gallery of photographs and video packages and an array of assets including fleets of remote still and video cameras which collect imagery from the pads themselves during launches.

At present, SpaceFlight Insider is the only comparable media outlet to host live webcasts during launches at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (we hope to expand that to other locations in the near future).

Importantly, the “Insider” in our name is not us, rather it references you. We do our best to bring you as much information about the space industry to make you an insider. For example, if a user has a question, we do our best to get an answer from someone in the industry, be it an astronaut or an engineer working on a spacecraft.

Additionally, we feature multiple small things that improve the experience of our viewers, including a feature on the upper right side of the website that changes the style from dark with white text to a more traditional light with black text.

Why do we need your help?

Providing these services is a labor of love for the SpaceFlight Insider team. However, regular travel, equipment procurement and maintenance, as well as paying editors, writers and photographers consumes much of what funds we have managed to acquire so far. All of these efforts require a great deal of infrastructure, manpower and coordination to achieve.

We want to create a place where people can turn to for all the information they want regarding space exploration and development. We want to deliver high quality video, audio, imagery and much more to give you an insider’s view of the whole industry. We will go so far as to take your questions directly to those officials within NASA and other space-related organizations.

Two big items we are working on right now include increasing the quality of our SFI Live shows and adding to a new section of our website called, “The Hangar.”

For the live show, we currently broadcast during most launches at Cape Canaveral. However, we want to begin streaming in high quality from the remote areas most launch facilities are located. But since enough mobile data is hard to come by a special device is needed for higher quality. We already have this device, but the cost to use it per month is nearly $1,000.

We also want to purchase equipment to support our live webcasts, including professional camera equipment, a sound mixing board, a pop up tent, and lights, just to name a few. These will also help us with exclusive interviews as well.

Here is an example of one of our high quality shows:

The Hangar is a database of launch vehicles, spacecraft and more. We want to provide you with all the information you could want from the basic all the way down to the details.

We plan on rolling this feature out on our website in phases, but to “finish” it will take a lot of hard work and dedication. We’d like to be able to pay those on our team that work on it.

Why should you care?

We are a news organization that prides ourselves with telling the whole story of space exploration, both the good, the bad as well as the ugly. As journalists, we don’t pick favorites. That doesn’t mean we want anybody to fail – just the opposite. We want to see every space organization succeed, but in order for that to happen, truth and facts need to be reported.

We also do what many other outlets (especially in terms of our live webcasts) have ceased to do in the post-shuttle era, and will continue to do so.

Our team has decades of experience covering the space program and we are focused on providing you with the absolute latest on all things space. If we can’t pay the bills, let alone our staff – which currently consists of mostly volunteers and hard-working space enthusiasts – then we can’t do everything we can to share the thrill of space exploration with the world.

If you like space, and want more space news, launch videos, images and podcasts, then help us by becoming a Patron of SpaceFlight Insider.

SpaceFlight Insider Remote Camera Project by Jason Rhian – Kickstarter

Space flight insider

alert icon Artboard Copy 8

arrow-point-left icon Fill 1 Copy 5

arrow-point-right icon Fill 1

arrow-right icon arrow-right

arrow-up-right icon icon–arrow-up-right copy

bar-chart icon Artboard Copy 6

bell icon Combined Shape Copy 5

book icon Artboard Copy 3

brand-assets icon Artboard Copy 13

cart icon Artboard Copy 4

circle-back icon Fill 1 Copy 13

circle-forward icon Fill 1 Copy 16

circle-left icon circle-left

circle-right icon circle-right

clipboard icon Artboard Copy 12

clock icon Combined Shape

closed-caption icon Fill 1

compass icon Combined Shape Copy 2

conversion icon conversion

embed icon Combined Shape Copy 6

eye icon Combined Shape Copy 12

facebook-contained icon Facebook Contained

facebook icon Facebook logo

global-africa icon Fill 1 Copy 9

global-america icon Fill 1 Copy 10

global-asia icon Fill 1 Copy 17

graph-bar icon Combined Shape Copy 9

graph-line icon Combined Shape Copy 16

icon–arrow-down icon icon–arrow-down

icon–arrow-left icon icon–arrow-left

icon–arrow-right icon icon–arrow-right

icon–arrow-up-right icon icon–arrow-up-right

icon–arrow-up icon icon–arrow-up

icon–backer-badge icon icon–backer-badge

icon–bookmark-outline icon icon–bookmark-outline

icon–bookmark icon icon–bookmark

icon–calculator icon icon–calculator

icon–calendar-check icon icon–calendar-check

icon–calendar icon icon–calendar

icon–campaign-outline icon icon–campaign-outline

icon–chevron-down icon icon–chevron-down

icon–chevron-left icon icon–chevron-left

icon–chevron-right icon icon–chevron-right

icon–chevron-up icon icon–chevron-up

icon–circle-around icon icon–circle-around

icon–circle-back icon icon–circle-back

icon–circle-forward icon icon–circle-forward

icon–circle-loader icon Page 1

icon–circle icon icon–clipboard icon icon–clipboard

icon–closed-caption icon icon–closed-caption

icon–collapse icon icon–collapse

icon–commissions icon icon–commissions

icon–compass icon icon–compass

icon–confirmation icon icon–confirmation

icon–conversion icon icon-conversion

icon–curve-right icon icon–curve-right

icon–delta-down icon icon–delta-down

icon–delta-left icon icon–delta-left

icon–delta-right icon icon–delta-right

icon–delta-up icon icon–delta-up

icon–download icon icon–download

icon–ellipsis icon icon–expand icon icon–expand

icon–external icon icon–external

icon–facebook icon icon–facebook

icon–filter icon icon–filter

icon–globe-africa icon icon–globe-africa

icon–globe-america icon icon–globe-america

icon–globe-asia icon icon–globe-asia

icon–graph-bar icon icon–graph-bar

icon–graph-line icon icon–graph-line

icon–heart-outline icon icon–heart outline

icon–heart-thin-outline icon Fill 1

icon–humans icon icon–humans

icon–instagram icon icon/instagram

icon–lightbulb icon icon–lightbulb

icon–lock-black-bg icon lock-icon

icon–message icon icon–message

icon–mobile icon icon–mobile

icon–overflow icon icon–overflow icon–pause icon icon–pause icon–pencil icon icon–pencil

icon–pinterest icon icon–pinterest

icon–plus-human icon icon–plus-human

icon–prohibit icon icon–prohibit

icon–pull-quote icon icon–pull-quote

icon–question-filled icon icon–question-filled

icon–question icon icon–question

icon–reorder icon icon-reorder

icon–search icon icon–search

icon–section-break icon icon–section-break

icon–sound-hi icon icon–sound-hi

icon–sound-lo icon icon–sound-lo

icon–sound-mute icon icon–sound-mute

icon–star-outline icon Star Outline

icon–subtitles-captions icon icon–subtitles-captions

icon–text-bold icon icon–text-bold

icon–text-bullet icon icon–text-bullet

icon–text-italic icon icon–text-italic

icon–textalign-centered icon icon–textalign-centered

icon–textalign-right icon icon–textalign-right

icon–thumbs-down icon icon–thumbs-down

icon–thumbs-up icon icon–thumbs-up

icon–thumbsdown-outline icon icon–thumbsdown-outline

icon–thumbsup-outline icon icon–thumbsup-outline

icon–tumblr icon icon–tumblr

icon–twitter icon icon–twitter

icon–unlock icon icon–unlock

icon–update-freeform-round icon icon–update-freeform-round

icon–update-freeform icon icon–update-freeform

icon–update-pinned icon Artboard

icon–update-qa-round icon icon–update-qa-round

icon–update-qa icon icon–update-qa

icon–upload icon icon–upload

icon–youtube icon icon–youtube

icon-imagealign-center icon icon-imagealign-center

icon-imagealign-left icon icon-imagealign-left

icon-imagealign-right icon icon-imagealign-right

Home – Microsoft Flight Simulator

March 5th, 2020 – Development Update

4 days ago
Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Screenshot credit: SkintFrmine4112

In light of recent health concerns, we’ve asked the team to focus on their health and well-being. As a result, our normal development updates will be scaled back over the next few weeks as we continue to monitor the situation. On behalf of the entire team, we express our sincere apologies for the impact this decision has on our community. We will do our best to continue providing status updates, and look forward to resuming regular postings in the near future.

  • Timeline update for pre-release build testing (e.g. Alpha, etc.).
  • Update on a new Alpha build that is coming very soon.
  • Update on next round of Alpha invitations.
  • Feature Discovery Series Episode 8 (still tracking to a March 12 th release).
  • DR Roadmap update preview for April/May (this is going to be worth paying attention to).
  • Feedback Snapshot update preview.
  • Partnership Series update.
  • SDK update.
  • Feature Discovery Series update.

Some big things coming on the horizon!

MORE GREAT SCREENSHOTS FROM ALPHA PARTICIPANTS!

Screenshot credit: SlidHydra647449

Screenshot credit: Eigil A

Screenshot credit: JonasAlexandr2

Screenshot credit: djays72

Screenshot credit: RealestAirdoo

Screenshot credit: Batlle777

Screenshot credit: skellyy61

Screenshot credit: MoMedia1

Screenshot credit: JonasAlexander2

Screenshot credit: Lewiskelly02

Screenshot credit: TheMrEricM

Screenshot credit: thomas3302

Screenshot credit: tomlaut1980

Screenshot credit: Icon32

Screenshot credit: Acktu Nasrabi

NEXT UPDATE – 03.12! (fingers crossed)

Russian spacecraft

Space flight insider

Over many centuries, the idea of space travel has been taking shape with the humanity’s improving understanding of the Universe. Before flying machines could attempt to escape the Earth’s gravity, generations of astronomers had been bluilding a realistic stage for space exploration, while their tools served as the earliest space research instruments.

After millennia of dreams, centuries of scientific research and decades of engineering experimentation, the Space Age began in 1957 with the launch of the Earth’s first artificial satellite.

Sputnik: The Soviet satellite project | Sputnik-2: Laika’s mission | Sputnik-3: The multi-purpose orbital science lab

The Soviet Union pioneered human conquest of space sending the first piloted spacecraft into orbit in 1961. Since then, several generations of transport ships and orbital stations were developed in the country. Much more ambitious projects of giant orbital settlements, lunar bases and expeditions to Mars were conceived, but could not be implemented due to their tremendous cost. Yet, along with the United States, Russia had remained one of two nations in the world sending people in space in the 20th century.

HISTORICAL PROJECTS

  • Myasishev Project 48: An early Soviet attempt to develop reusable spacecraft
  • Raketoplan/Kosmoplan: Vladimir Chelomei’s early attempt to develop reusable and planetary spacecraft

The Moon Race: The early Soyuz missions, L1, N-1/L3 programs (1967-1974)

Mars mission: Russian plans for a manned expedition to the Red Planet (1960s-1990s)

LKS: Vladimir Chelomei’s alternative to Buran (1974-1983)

Buran: The Energia-Buran reusable spacecraft program (1974-1993)

Mir space station: The first permanent manned outpost in space (1986-2001)

Kliper space plane: A study of a reusable orbiter to replace Soyuz (2000-2006)

TKS follow-on: Proposals for a follow-on series to the TKS spacecraft by Khrunichev enterprise (2005-2009)

FLYING TODAY

International Space Station: A multinational effort to build human outpost in the Earth orbit

American segment of ISS

European segment of ISS

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Future modules of the Russian ISS segment:

Russian space station projects to succeed the ISS:

PTK Federatsiya design:

PTK Federatsiya development history:

Vision for Space Exploration, VSE: A NASA program for a manned lunar base, which could involve international partners, including Russia

Modules and major components:

Systems and operations:

As soon as rockets learned to fly beyond the atmosphere, the spacecraft developers on both sides of the Atlantic drafted the plans for planetary exploration. The Soviet space probes opened the race to the Moon, Venus and Mars. The projects of unmanned missions to Mercury and Jupiter were also under consideration in the former USSR.

SpaceFlight Insider – For the inside line on Space Flight news

Spaceflight Insider

SpaceX successfully launches CRS-20, recovers their 50th Falcon 9 Booster

Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes Cold Static Test of Second Stage for OmegA Rocket

SpaceX successfully launches fourth batch of Starlink satellites

Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort’s successful completion clears way for crewed flights

Boeing’s Starliner capsule begins much-delayed first flight: UPDATE

Northrop Grumman’s NG 12 paints the sky in honor of an American legend

Delta IV Medium ends 17-Year run with 100% success

CRS-18 Falcon and Dragon brave storms to begin 18th ISS flight

Night time is the right time for SpaceX STP-2 mission

Anomaly occurs during OmegA first stage static fire test

Boeing CST-100 Starliner Testing Deficiencies Identified

Michael McCabe March 9th Cape Canaveral, FL – Details are emerging about exactly what and how testing was performed prior to Boeing launching their Starliner test capsule on December 20, 2019, a flight which resulted in a mixed outcome instead of what was supposed to be a resounding and highly anticipated success.

Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes Cold Static Test of Second Stage for OmegA Rocket

Patrick Attwell February 28th PROMONTORY, Utah – Feb. 28, 2020 – Northrop Grumman has successfully completed a cold static test of the second stage of its OmegA rocket in Promontory, Utah, completing the full-duration (approx. 140 seconds) firing on the afternoon of February 27.

New Horizons parallax project seeks public participation

Laurel Kornfeld February 21st NASA’s New Horizons mission is seeking public participation in a project aimed at imaging the two closest stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, from Earth on April 22 and 23, the same day the spacecraft will photograph them from almost five billion miles (eight billion km) away.

Pluto’s heart feature controls its winds

Laurel Kornfeld February 20th Pluto’s iconic heart feature, named Tombaugh Regio, functions as a “beating heart” that controls the small planet’s winds and might even play a role in shaping its surface features.

Arrokoth data sheds light on planet formation

Laurel Kornfeld February 19th Data returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft taken during its January 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth, also known as 2014 MU 69, located four billion miles from Earth, supports the theory that planet formation in the solar system occurred in a gentle rather than violent process.

ULA successfully launches Solar Probe aboard Atlas V

Theresa Cross February 10th CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched a NASA probe its way to our Sun. At 11:03 p.m. EDT, February 9, the rocket left Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Pluto’s hazy atmosphere is similar to that of Titan

Laurel Kornfeld February 2nd Pluto is often compared to Neptune’s largest moon Triton, but its hazy atmosphere is actually more akin to that of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, which is sometimes viewed as an analog of early Earth.

Artemis I Orion spacecraft advancing through tests at Plum Brook Station

Michael Cole January 31st SANDUSKY, OHIO — Testing is fully underway on the Orion spacecraft for the upcoming Artemis I test flight mission at NASA’s Plum Brook Station testing facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The Orion crew capsule, integrated with its European Service Module, is currently inside the facility’s Space Environments Complex undergoing thermal vacuum tests in the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world.

SpaceX successfully launches fourth batch of Starlink satellites

Theresa Cross January 29th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX launched their fourth batch of approximately 60 satellites for the Starlink broadband network at 9:06am EDT, January 29, after carefully “evaluating extreme weather in the recovery area,” according to SpaceX.

NASA broadcast celebrates Spitzer telescope’s accomplishments

Laurel Kornfeld January 24th In a live broadcast on Wednesday, January 22, NASA celebrated 16 years of incredible accomplishments by the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of its four “Great Observatories” in space.

Spitzer telescope to be decommissioned after 16 years

Laurel Kornfeld January 20th NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which has studied the universe in infrared light since its launch in August of 2003, will be decommissioned on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

Gallery: SpaceX’s Dragon clears safety check paving way for crewed missions

Michael McCabe January 19th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Images from the Jan. 19 test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft which successfully demonstrated the vehicle’s ability to pull astronauts away from the rocket in the event of an accident on its way to orbit.

Boeing CST-100 Starliner Testing Deficiencies Identified

Michael McCabe March 9th Cape Canaveral, FL – Details are emerging about exactly what and how testing was performed prior to Boeing launching their Starliner test capsule on December 20, 2019, a flight which resulted in a mixed outcome instead of what was supposed to be a resounding and highly anticipated success.

Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes Cold Static Test of Second Stage for OmegA Rocket

Patrick Attwell February 28th PROMONTORY, Utah – Feb. 28, 2020 – Northrop Grumman has successfully completed a cold static test of the second stage of its OmegA rocket in Promontory, Utah, completing the full-duration (approx. 140 seconds) firing on the afternoon of February 27.

Artemis I Orion spacecraft advancing through tests at Plum Brook Station

Michael Cole January 31st SANDUSKY, OHIO — Testing is fully underway on the Orion spacecraft for the upcoming Artemis I test flight mission at NASA’s Plum Brook Station testing facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The Orion crew capsule, integrated with its European Service Module, is currently inside the facility’s Space Environments Complex undergoing thermal vacuum tests in the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world.

SpaceX successfully launches fourth batch of Starlink satellites

Theresa Cross January 29th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX launched their fourth batch of approximately 60 satellites for the Starlink broadband network at 9:06am EDT, January 29, after carefully “evaluating extreme weather in the recovery area,” according to SpaceX.

Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort’s successful completion clears way for crewed flights

Theresa Cross January 19th SpaceX successfully completed yet another milestone under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to send astronauts to the International Space Station – the In Flight Abort Test.

SuperDraco engines set to be tested during SpaceX in-flight abort

Theresa Cross January 19th KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — With the in-flight Crew Dragon abort test set to launch in less than an hour, let’s take a look into the incredibly powerful and spacecraft specific SuperDraco engine.

SpaceX, NASA monitoring weather ahead of in-flight abort test.

Sean Costello January 19th CAPE CANAVERAL. Fla. — As the sun rises and the shorelines of the Space Coast communities fill with eager spectators, SpaceX and NASA engineers have their attention focused on the early Sunday morning weather systems.

SpaceX poised to take large step toward human space flight

Cullen Desforges January 17th SpaceX is ready to check off another box on the list of requirements that need to be completed before the company can send crewed missions to the International Space Station.

NASA graduates its newest class of Astronauts

Sean Costello January 10th As NASA prepares to send astronauts to destinations far beyond Earth, a new breed of space flyers has joined the elite cadre of the agency’s astronaut corps.

New Year, new headquarters for Blue Origin

Laurel Kornfeld January 9th With Blue Origin opening its new headquarters, 2020 appears to be a year of further expansion for NewSpace.

SpaceX starts 2020 with Starlink launch

Patrick Attwell January 6th SpaceX’s Starlink constellation just got a major boost.

What’s in a name? Mars 2020 wouldn’t know, it doesn’t have one – yet

James Rice December 30th NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is on the verge of traveling to the Red Planet and beginning its search for evidence of Martian life. But it’s missing something very important.

Launch of Shijian 20 lights up Chinese skies and exploration ambitions

SpaceFlight Insider December 28th China has big plans for its space program. But before it can achieve them, it needed to make sure a key launch vehicle was up to the task. A recent mission suggests that it is.

Russia launches final Rockot with trio of communications satellites

SpaceFlight Insider December 27th Russia launched its final mission on the nation’s 2019 manifest when it sent three communications satellites to orbit on Friday, Dec. 27. The flight marked the close of a vehicle designed for violence.

Boeing Blunder! Starliner timing failure prevents ISS rendezvous

SpaceFlight Insider December 20th “Unplanned but stable.” That’s how Boeing referred to the first flight of its Starliner “space taxi.” In layman’s terms, the spacecraft was placed in the wrong orbit and won’t be going to the International Space Station.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule begins much-delayed first flight: UPDATE

Cullen Desforges December 20th CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – After almost a year of continued delays, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has finally launched. It is the culmination of years of development, but there’s still a ways to go before astronauts will be soaring aloft in the vehicle.

New Horizons parallax project seeks public participation

February 21st
NASA’s New Horizons mission is seeking public participation in a project aimed at imaging the two closest stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, from Earth on April 22 and 23, the same day the spacecraft will photograph them from almost five billion miles (eight billion km) away.

Pluto’s heart feature controls its winds

February 20th
Pluto’s iconic heart feature, named Tombaugh Regio, functions as a “beating heart” that controls the small planet’s winds and might even play a role in shaping its surface features.

Arrokoth data sheds light on planet formation

February 19th
Data returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft taken during its January 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth, also known as 2014 MU 69, located four billion miles from Earth, supports the theory that planet formation in the solar system occurred in a gentle rather than violent process.

ULA successfully launches Solar Probe aboard Atlas V

February 10th
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched a NASA probe its way to our Sun. At 11:03 p.m. EDT, February 9, the rocket left Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Pluto’s hazy atmosphere is similar to that of Titan

February 2nd
Pluto is often compared to Neptune’s largest moon Triton, but its hazy atmosphere is actually more akin to that of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, which is sometimes viewed as an analog of early Earth.

NASA broadcast celebrates Spitzer telescope’s accomplishments

January 24th
In a live broadcast on Wednesday, January 22, NASA celebrated 16 years of incredible accomplishments by the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of its four “Great Observatories” in space.

Spitzer telescope to be decommissioned after 16 years

January 20th
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which has studied the universe in infrared light since its launch in August of 2003, will be decommissioned on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

Gallery: SpaceX’s Dragon clears safety check paving way for crewed missions

No in-flight abort for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft today

January 18th
SpaceX has been forced to stand down from today’s attempt to test out a critical element of the company’s crew-rated spacecraft.

Boeing releases video from recent OFT mission

January 16th
Boeing has released video from its failed attempt to send its “Starliner” spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Processing of Starlink 2 booster underway, following return to Port Canaveral

January 11th
SpaceX’s B1049.4 returned to Port Canaveral January 9, 2020 after the completion of its fourth flown mission delivering the third set of Starlink satellites into low-Earth-orbit (LEO). This is Spacex’s first launch supported by the newly-created U.S. Space Force and its forty-eighth successful booster recovery.

CRS-19 Dragon wet and waiting for next mission

January 7th
After spending nearly a month berthed to the International Space Station, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule left the Station and splashed down marking the successful completion of its mission.

OPINION: 2019 – Numbers and Names

January 1st
Well that happened. 2019 was a roller-coaster of ups and downs that will have far-reaching consequences for future space exploration efforts.

SpaceX prepares for first of many Starlink launches in 2020

December 31st
2020 looks to be a big year for space. The next twelve months could see the U.S. regain a long-lost capability and another rover should be sent on its way to the Red Planet. SpaceX is planning to kick off 2020 with the launch of the next batch of Starlink satellites.

NASA Mars 2020 rover passes driving test

December 27th
Remember how stressful it was taking your first driver’s test? Now imagine driving a car that’s worth $2.5 billion.

From Spaceflight Insider: NASA teaming up with commercial companies for return to the Moon, sciencesprings

sciencesprings

Richard Mitnick

Follow Blog via Email

Origin Story

The Origin Story for the Blog

I am telling the reader this story in the hope of impelling him or her to find their own story and start a wordpress blog. We all have a story. Find yours.

The oldest post I can find for this blog is “From FermiLab Today: Tevatron is Done” at the End of 2011 (but I am not sure if that is the first post, just the oldest I could find.

But the origin goes back to 1985, Timothy Ferris Creation of the Universe PBS, November 20, 1985, available in different videos on YouTube; The Atom Smashers, PBS Frontline November 25, 2008, centered at Fermilab, not available on Youtube; and The Big Bang Machine, with Sir Brian Cox of U Manchester and the ATLAS project at the LHC at CERN.

In 1993, our idiot Congress pulled the plug on The Superconducting Super Collider, a particle accelerator complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas. Its planned ring circumference was 87.1 kilometers (54.1 mi) with an energy of 20 Tev per proton and was set to be the world’s largest and most energetic. It would have greatly surpassed the current record held by the Large Hadron Collider, which has ring circumference 27 km (17 mi) and energy of 13 TeV per proton.

If this project had been built, most probably the Higgs Boson would have been found there, not in Europe, to which the USA had ceded High Energy Physics.

The project’s director was Roy Schwitters, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Louis Ianniello served as its first Project Director for 15 months. The project was cancelled in 1993 due to budget problems, cited as having no immediate economic value.

Some where I learned that fully 30% of the scientists working at CERN were U.S. citizens. The ATLAS project had 600 people at Brookhaven Lab. The CMS project had 1,000 people at Fermilab. There were many scientists which had “gigs” at both sites.

I started digging around in CERN web sites and found Quantum Diaries, a “blog” from before there were blogs, where different scientists could post articles. I commented on a few and my dismay about the lack of U.S recognition in the press.

Those guys at Quantum Diaries, gave me access to the Greybook, the list of every institution in the world in several tiers processing data for CERN. I collected all of their social media and was off to the races for CERN and other great basic and applied science.

Since then I have expanded the list of sites that I cover from all over the world. I build html templates for each institution I cover and plop their articles, complete with all attributions and graphics into the template and post it to the blog. I am not a scientist and I am not qualified to write anything or answer scientific questions. The only thing I might add is graphics where the origin graphics are weak. I have a monster graphics library. Any science questions are referred back to the writer who is told to seek his answer from the real scientists in the project.

The blog has to date 900 followers on the blog, its Facebook Fan page and Twitter.I get my material from email lists and RSS feeds. I do not use Facebook or Twitter, which are both loaded with garbage in the physical sciences.

That is my Origin Story

richardmitnick 11:33 am on August 7, 2019 Permalink Reply
Tags: “NASA teaming up with commercial companies for return to the Moon”, Spaceflight Insider ( 25 )

From Spaceflight Insider: “NASA teaming up with commercial companies for return to the Moon”

August 5th, 2019
Laurel Kornfeld


NASA has issued a request for proposals for the space agency’s new Artemis Program. Image Credit: NASA

To achieve the goal of returning humans to the Moon by 2024, NASA announced it is teaming up with commercial companies to develop new technologies for landing on and taking off from the lunar surface.

On July 30, the space agency issued a public call for commercial companies to build both small and medium-sized lunar landers and rovers capable of bringing science experiments and power sources to the Moon as part of its new Artemis program. The project seeks to land astronauts, including one or more women, on various regions of the lunar surface, including its South Pole. Nine companies have already signed on to a program known as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

“Our commercial partners are helping us to advance lunar science in an unprecedented way. As we enable broader opportunities for for commercial providers through CLPS, we’re enlarging our capabilities to do novel measurements and technology development scientists have long wanted to do at the Moon,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

In October 2018, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate issued an Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO) seeking private companies to contract with on the many components of future space missions. These include advanced communication, navigation, and avionics; advanced materials for rockets and spacecraft; entry, descent, and landing technologies; in-space manufacturing and assembly of equipment; power systems, including solar cells; propulsion, and other exploration technologies.

Through a public-private collaboration program known as Swamp Works, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is partnering with both SpaceX and Lockheed Martin to make Artemis a reality. With SpaceX, KSC hopes to develop the technology needed to vertically land rockets on the Moon. This could be difficult because of potential interaction between plumes generated by rocket engines and lunar soil, known as regolith.

“Missions to the lunar surface present challenges from rocket engine plume effects as they interact with the regolith surface to eject high-velocity dust particles and rocks,” explained Rob Mueller, senior technologist for advanced projects development at KSC‘s Exploration Research and Technology Programs. “To mitigate the damage to equipment during landings and takeoff, we’ll work on technologies such as launch and landing pads, and blast protection berms or walls to make operations on the Moon sustainable and safe for NASA and all of our partners. These types of risk mitigations become exponentially more important as landers increase in size, and Kennedy‘s Swamp Works is at the forefront of developing new technological solutions for this based on related computer modeling tools and testing.”

NASA hopes that in working together, KSC‘s Swamp Works program and SpaceX can develop technologies capable of landing astronauts on both the Moon and Mars, Mueller emphasized.

KSC‘s partnership with Lockheed Martin seeks to grow plants in space autonomously with the help of robotics. If successful, this could function as a food source for astronauts on future deep space missions. Bryan Onate, chief of KSC‘s Life Sciences and Utilization Office, said the public-private partnership already has a team of engineers, scientists, interns, and other contractors working on the project.

“Exploring beyond low-Earth orbit will require long-duration stays on the Moon and eventually Mars, meaning we are focused on providing plant growth systems that will supplement and sustain the crews’ nutrition and implement autonomous operations as required. So we are excited to be taking part in this collaborative opportunity, which will develop new technology to enable future missions.”

NASA hopes to reduce both the cost and the amount of time needed to develop new technologies for Artemis and for subsequent long-term crewed space missions by working together with commercial spaceflight companies.

“The Artemis program integrates our science and exploration goals, and we are using our commercial partners to help meet those goals with an innovative and cost-effective approach. The ability to land heavier payloads on the lunar surface is a service that NASA has a key interest in. We’re looking forward to innovative proposals and possibly more partners to advance what we’ve already started with CLPS,” emphasized Steve Clarke, NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration in science.

Thirteen commercial companies have been contracted with through the ACO for a total of 19 public-private partnerships.

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

SpaceFlight Insider reports on events taking place within the aerospace industry. With our team of writers and photographers, we provide an “insider’s” view of all aspects of space exploration efforts. We go so far as to take their questions directly to those officials within NASA and other space-related organizations. At SpaceFlight Insider, the “insider” is not anyone on our team, but our readers.

Our team has decades of experience covering the space program and we are focused on providing you with the absolute latest on all things space. SpaceFlight Insider is comprised of individuals located in the United States, Europe, South America and Canada. Most of them are volunteers, hard-working space enthusiasts who freely give their time to share the thrill of space exploration with the world.