SpaceShipTwo makes a powered flight

Yesterday Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo made a powered flight over the Mojave dessert. After being carried to altitude by WhiteKnightTwo it fired up the rocket engines for about 16 seconds and broke the sound barrier.
“The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt, our single most important flight test to date,” said Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson, who was on the ground in Mojave to witness the occasion. “For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight. Today’s supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship’s powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year’s end. We saw history in the making today and I couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved.” – Virgin Galactic

official press release here

 

SpaceX Grasshopper: Ring of Fire video

Newest launch of the Grasshopper shows it rise to 820 ft, hover, and then land all from the birds eye view of a hexacopter.

 

 

Orbital Antares Launch Successful

Orbital Successfully Launches First Antares Rocket

– Company Introduces America’s Newest Medium-Class Space Launch Vehicle – – Orbital Now Poised to Conduct Cargo Resupply Demonstrations Mission to International Space Station in Mid 2013 – (Dulles, VA 21 April 2013) – Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, today completed a successful test launch of its new Antares™ rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Lift-off took place at 5:00 p.m. (EDT) followed by payload separation approximately 10 minutes later and mission completion at about 18 minutes after launch, once the rocket’s upper stage completed planned maneuvers to distance itself from the payload. The test flight demonstrated all operational aspects of the new Antares launcher, including the ascent to space and accurate delivery of a simulated payload to a target orbit of approximately 150 by 160 miles, with an inclination of 51.6 degrees, the same launch profile it will use for Orbital’s upcoming cargo supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. READ THE COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE HERE

 

Orbital Science Antares Launch

Update 4-21

Update 4-20

The launch of Orbital’s Antares rocket on Saturday, April 20, 2013 was scrubbed due to high upper level winds. The launch team will attempt another launch on Sunday April 21 with a window extending from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm EDT. NASA TV and webcaset launch coverage will begin at 4:30 p.m. (EDT) on www.NASA.gov - -Orbital Science

Update 4-18 - 

Orbital has determined that the next launch attempt for the new Antares rocket will be no earlier than Saturday, April 20, at 5:00 p.m. The mission management team met this afternoon to evaluate weather forecasts and optimum crew work schedules to provide two back-to-back opportunities for a launch attempt.

Weather conditions deteriorate on Friday, April 19, but improve significantly over the next two days increasing the chances for acceptable conditions at launch time. This also allows the Antares launch team a day of rest before back-to-back opportunities on Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21. -Orbital Science

UPDATE 4-17 4:48pm – Launch Aborted for day. Premature separation of umbilical to second stage.

Orbital announced that the Antares team has developed a go-forward plan to address the umbilical disconnect issue that resulted in the April 17 launch scrub. The program is currently working toward the next launch attempt on Friday, April 19 at 5 p.m. EDT, weather permitting.- Orbital Science

 

LIVE COVERAGE of launch begins at 4 PM Eastern on NASA TV

Orbital Science is set to launch the Antares rocket on April 17th at 5 pm. The Launch will take place at Wallops Flight Center on the coast of Virginia. This will be the maiden voyage of the Antares rocket which is set to compete with SpaceX . The flight is part of the  NASA COTS agreement. Orbital Science describes the Antares rocket:

“Antares is a two-stage launch vehicle designed to provide responsive, low-cost, and reliable access to space for medium-class payloads weighing up to 6120 kg. Currently under development to demonstrate commercial re-supply of the International Space Station under a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract, the Antares launch system utilizes many management approaches, engineering standards, production and test processes common to Orbital’s family of highly successful small-class Pegasus®, Taurus®, and Minotaur launch vehicles. These proven launch technologies, along with hardware from some of the world’s leading aerospace suppliers, combine to provide cost-effective access to a variety of orbits for civil, commercial and military Delta II-class payloads.” – Orbital Science

Unfortunately the weather may delay things:

“There is a 45 percent chance of favorable weather at the time of launch. Low clouds are the primary concern for a weather violation. If needed, back-up launch opportunities are available April 18-21.” -NASA

Graphic credit: NASA

More Info on Antares

Orbital Science Link

NASA Orbital Science Link

 

Later this year SpaceX to attempt water landing

Elon Musk  photo credit: elonmusk.com

In the quest to fully recover the Falcon 9 first stage and validate the Grasshopper flights, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX will attempt a water “landing” on a flight later this year.  At a conference that included NASA Elon Musk talked about SpaceX’s plans.

“Initial recovery test will be a water landing. First stage continue in ballistic arc and execute a velocity reduction burn before it enters atmosphere to lessen impact. Right before splashdown, will light up the engine again. Emphasizes that we don’t expect success in the first several attempts. Hopefully next year with more experience and data, we should be able to return the first stage to the launch site and do a propulsion landing on land using legs.” -Elon Musk

Along with the change to the Merlin 1D engines the recovery of a first stage would be a significant event. The Merlin 1Ds offer a significant power boost and redundancy to the Falcon 9 Musk went on to say that he expects the first recovery flight will happen sometime around the middle of next year.

More on the Grasshopper

 

SpaceX CRS-2

UPDATE: Successful Launch at 10:10 am

Liftoff of Falcon 9 on CRS-2 mission – image: SpaceX

Be prepared for the mission.

The launch will be webcast live, with commentary from SpaceX corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, California, at spacex.com/webcast, and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at www.nasa.gov/nasatv. Pre-Launch coverage will begin at 8:30 EDT on NASA TV (40 minutes later on the SpaceX site)

SpaceX is targeting launch for 10:10 AM

“Overview:

After SpaceX’s successful first official resupply mission to the International Space Station last October, SpaceX is set to launch its second Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission to the orbiting lab. The SpaceX CRS-2 mission is targeting launch at 10:10AM EST Friday, March 1 from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

If all goes as planned, Dragon will arrive at station on Saturday, March 2, where it will be grappled and berthed to the complex for an expected three-week visit. Dragon is scheduled to return to Earth on March 25 for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Baja California. Dragon is the only cargo craft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies from station to Earth, including experiments. – SPACEX”

 

Young Engineers resurrect the F-1 Gas Generator

Young NASA engineers and a F-1 photo credit:NASA

The mighty F-1 has been revisited. These young engineers having been reviewing how the powerful Saturn F-1 might assist in building heavy lifting rockets. What better way than to rebuild the F-1. In this case they rebuilt the Gas generator.

“This activity provided us with information for determining how some parts of the engine might be more affordably manufactured using modern techniques, such as additive manufacturing,” said Kate Estes, a Marshall liquid propulsion systems engineer.

Link to the story

Great Video of the Gas generator test done by these engineers (Love that roar!)

 

SpaceX Grasshopper 12 story hop

After days of speculation and an FAA report that showed there was a Grasshopper launch on Dec. 17th the video has been finally released.

 

Launch video of X-37B OTV-3 Mission

 

Third X-37B Launch Scheduled for Today

An Atlas V will launch the Air Force’s Third Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-3) mission.

Scheduled Launch time is: December 11 at 1:03pm EST – Launch Window is 5 Hours

An approaching cold front could delay the launch .  The secret spy shuttle will begin another mission after an incredible 469 day mission that was launched in March 2011. Air Force officials say there is a chance the third mission will end with a landing on the shuttle runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

LIVE BROADCAST

Article at Florida Today

 

More X-37B posts

 

 

Stig B flies and returns under Wamore recovery system

Here is a video of the launch and recovery of Armadillo Stig B all within the same frame. The Wamore recovery system brings the rocket back within 80 meters of the launch. During this launch the distance was 55 meters. Wamore’s expertise is with precision guided parachute systems.

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Brochure from Wamore

More on Stig

 

SpaceX CRS-1 Overview Video

Nice video of the mission courtesy of SpaceX.

 

Copter Recovery and Vortex Ring Chutes

NASA is revisiting an old concept of Copter Recovery for Space capsules(Link here). If you follow some of my rocketry obsessions you would be aware that Copter recovery is very high on the list. See my Copter Recovery Guide for modeler links and info.
In watching some of the new test and looking at vintage research I realized that there were some new modeling opportunities.
I have built a few models with blade recovery capsules and flew them. I called them Teepee Twisters and they were a great deal of fun to fly. But what has caught my eye here is the Vortex Ring Parachute. I would love to find a viable pattern for this chute and reproduce it for a model. If anyone out there has the chute pattern and line configuration let me know. I will continue to study the images in the meantime hoping to create my own pattern to test.

Man tested Vortex Ring Chute

Vortex Ring Chute test

NASA test video

Tests of a Vortex-Ring Parachute at Supersonic Speed

 

Latest SpaceX Grasshopper hop

First flight of 10 story tall Grasshopper rocket using closed loop thrust vector & throttle control

Video here

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SpaceX: Why use retros on the Grasshopper?
A reasonable question was asked by Oliveri on Reddit  a few days ago

“I have a question for all SpaceX enthusiasts. I want to know why is SpaceX spending so much time and money on re-usable rockets that land on their tail? It looks cool, but that seems to be a lot of weight (fuel and landing gear) and engineering, i.e development costs, to make that happen. Wouldn’t a combination of parachutes and some retro rockets be just as effective and cheaper. Could it be that even parachute landings put such stresses on the structure and/or the inundation of salt water make repairs and inspections just as cost prohibitive as throwing the rockets away in the ocean or burning them in the atmosphere or scrapping and recycling them after recovery?”

The discussion can be found here

 

Kickstarter for Plasma Jet Electric Thrusters

Plasma Pulse – photo credit: HyperV

Three HyperV scientist Dr. Doug Witherspoon, Dr. Andrew Case, Dr. Sam Brockington, and an energy & space entrepreneur, Chris Faranetta have a Kickstarter project up called “Plasma Jet Electric Thrusters for Spacecraft”. As of this publication time it has raised more than $42,000 dollars with a goal of $69,000. If you wish to add your dollars to Plasma research and help decrease the cost of plasma propulsion visit their Kickstarter and make a donation.

Please visit their Kickstarter page here. There is a great video and detailed explanation included.