A Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket carrying a state of the art Boeing communications satellite exploded on its converted-oil-rig launch platform as it was taking off today.
The rocket and launch pad were engulfed in a huge fireball. Knowing that, the statement from Sea Launch is a little on the understated side:
“The Sea Launch Zenit-3SL vehicle, carrying the NSS 8 satellite, experienced an anomaly today during launch operations. Sea Launch will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of this anomaly.”
This guy has had to turn down the suborbital spaceflight he won from an Oracle promotion, because he can’t afford to pay the tax on the value of the prize.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for the guy - if it was me’ i’d be devastated. Luckily for me (though the chances of me winning a spaceflight at this point are remote), I live in a country where winnings are not taxed as income. Yet. (And I live in New Zealand, if you think you’re in the running for a spaceflight prize and you’re looking for a new place to live).
Seriously though, you’d think that the competition organizers would have put some thought into this, and organized a cash co-prize to cover the taxes. I know that this is what Sam at FreeSpaceShot does.
Bell, Trudy E.
“The Moon is a Harsh Witness”
Science@NASA
01/26/2007
On-line text
Elon Musk has posted another update on the SpaceX website. The planned static firing test did not go ahead, and the rocket has been returned to the hangar for a stage de-mate and inspection. Elon didn’t go into what has necessitated that move. The flow-on effect is that the static fire wont happen now until mid to late February. Elon didn’t mention a possible launch date at all.
Here’s what he said:
January 25, 2007: DemoFlight 2 Launch Update
In an excess of caution, we decided not to proceed with the static fire this month. The vehicle is now back in the hangar, where the stages are being demated for careful inspection.
The static fire and launch window is now mid to late February, due to Kwaj having to configure for an incoming Minuteman and then reconfigure back to handling a Falcon launch. During this downtime, we will take the opportunity to go over every inch of the rocket with a microscope again.
As Andy Grove said, “Only the Paranoid Survive“.
—Elon
You can forgive them a little paranoia. Having this launch go right is key to everything that SpaceX hopes to do.
ABCNews has a short interview with the current crew of the International Space Station.
It’s not mentioned in the interview, but there’s a strong perception out there that the ISS is a waste of time and money, that it’s a platform without a purpose. There’s no doubt that it’s a creature of political compromise, and there’s no doubt that it’s expensive for what it does, but I still feel uncomfortable writing it off completely. We should at least wait until it has had its full crew (of six) for a few years, doing science rather than construction. I don’t believe the ‘might cure cancer’ propaganda that got the thing built, but the fact remains that there is a vast amount of microgravity science that can be done, and we have no way of knowing what might (eventually) come of it.
The key for the ISS is not so much the station itself, but regular access to it. If it takes years to get a payload on board, and results of an experiment returned, before a follow-up can be flown (this was the experience of the space shuttle) then it’s hard to imagine how very much basic investigation could be done there before the end of it’s life. On the other hand, if experiments can be turned around in just a couple of months, researchers have a much better opportunity to test and explore their theories, and respond to the things they learn with re-designed experiments.
Is this possible with the current level of access to the station? No. But I believe it could be if one or both of the COTS companies, SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler, succeed in their task of demonstrating commercial access to the ISS.
We simply don’t know what might be waiting to be discovered up there, but it seems a fair bet, given that microgravity is such a radically different environment to the 1-G world in which almost all science has been, that there will be some very interesting surprises. We just need a place to do the experiments, and regular access.
When the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, it had a flawed mirror, and it looked like the mission was a failure. NASA figured out a way to correct its optics, and it has become the most amazing scientific instrument in history. The ISS is still in its construction phase, and there will be very little science done there until that is finished. It’s far too soon to write it off.
The ISRO has successfully recovered an experimental unmanned space vehicle from orbit for the first time.
This is an important milestone for India in their quest to develop an indigenous manned spaceflight capability.
Phillips, Dr. Tony
“Lunar Transient Phenomena”
Science@NASA
01/23/2007
Online Text
(Via Clark at HobbySpace RLV and Space Transport News)
An analysis of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program by aerospace engineering and consulting firm Spaceworks Engineering, shows a potential $6.5 to $7 billion market for COTS services, with the government saving as much as $8 billion over the same period compared to using government-owned vehicles.
Sounds like a match made in heaven.
Bigelow aerospace have released a pair of new pictures showing the outside of Genesis I with a beautiful ‘blue marble’ Earth in the background. They sure would make great posters.
Also, Bigelow’s latest where in the world game is just getting under way - head over there and have some fun. And note, there’s more to the picture-puzzle than meets the eye:
This is a special round of Where in the World. That is, there is something special about this game’s image that will be revealed along with the correct answer. As usual, once you have unscrambled the picture, you will be able to enter your Where in the World guess. You do not need to be logged in to make a guess (but you do need to unscramble the picture!).
Writing at TCS Daily, Rand Simberg seems to think so. The piece is a good roundup of what has happened and what it means.
The Moon, that is - according to Space.com, it’s going to disintegrate.
We’ve got about 5 billion years. The clock is ticking, folks! 
He would have given us a Moon-full of opportunity!
I highly recommend that you read Paul Spudis’ piece in this week’s Space Review.
If you want to know more about Paul, here’s his OotC interwiew.
If you want to know more about the Moon, do a little reading at the Lunar Library.
Spudis, Paul
“A Moon full of opportunity”
The Space Review
01/22/2007
On-Line Text
Author’s Web Site
…that I posted under those beautiful shock diamonds, then you might want to have a look at XCOR’s rocket engines gallery, where they’ve got even more.
Also, I see from the aRocket mailing list that you can now buy poster size prints of it from XCOR, via the Mohave Air and Space Collectables web site.
And if you still can’t get your fill of the hot flamey stuff, check out the supersonic post-hole digger they’ve got running hold-down tests at Masten Space Systems.
Launch Magazine
Mm Publishing
Jan/Feb 2007
Publishers’s Website
Dick’s Rocket Dungeon review
Librarian’s Note: This magazine is available at some 600 B&N and Borders bookstores. B&N said they filed it under Hobbies. I found it at Borders in the Science/Astronomy magazine section.
An issue with a thrust vector control actuator on the second stage means that the launch wont happen in the current window (although the planned static fire will still go ahead). The next launch opportunity at the Kwajalein range comes in mid-February. Even that is likely to slip given the number of new checks in the launch process.
DemoFlight 2 Launch Update
During our final check-outs prior to static fire, we uncovered an anomaly with the thrust vector control (TVC) pitch actuator on the second stage that will result in launch being pushed to February. Since this is not used during the static fire, we have decided to push forward with that test in order to acquire valuable data on engine ignition, pad acoustics, and the overall system response. The static fire is now planned to occur between Saturday and Tuesday (California time). This test will proceed very slowly and then only burns for about four seconds, so will not be webcast to avoid boring people silly. We will post a video afterwards.
Upon completion of the static fire, we will take the rocket back into the hangar to thoroughly investigate the TVC issue. With the range available to us only until January 23 (Kwaj needs to reconfigure for an incoming Minuteman mission), this means launch is now planned for mid-February. As I’ve mentioned previously, don’t hold your breath for this launch. Given the large number of robustness improvements and the fact that our vehicle/pad health verification system has increased from about 30 checks to almost 1000, shifts in the launch date are to be expected. Overall, the SpaceX team is quite happy with the smooth progress so far.
–Elon–
Elon has this to say on his updates page:
DemoFlight 2 Launch Update
The static fire has moved to Friday (California time) and launch to Monday, January 22. We have not encountered any new issues – the shift in timing is primarily to provide for additional risk reduction activities on site, as we continue to operate with a healthy paranoia.
As stated in the prior update, there is a high likelihood that the dates will continue to change, given the broad array of vehicle robustness upgrades. This will remain true all the way up to the final few seconds of the countdown, as our new health verification software executes hundreds of systems checks between engine ignition at T-3 sec and liftoff at T-0, when the hold down clamps release the rocket for flight. This is a critical phase for verification, given that the vehicle will have undergone substantial state changes throughout the first stage and avionics system.
—Elon—
Take your time, do it right, and smooth sailing. There’s an awful lot more than a demo payload riding on this little launch vehicle. Good luck guys.
According to this report from Aviation Week, on January 11 the Chinese used a ballistic missile with a kinetic kill vehicle warhead to shoot down one of their own aging weather satellites, in what appears to have been a successful anti-satellite weapons system test.
The weather satellite was in a polar orbit circling the Earth at an altitude of over 500 miles. This is significantly higher than the orbit of the International Space Station. I bet there’s a lot of work going on right now to track the debris.
Over at Transterrestrial Musings, Rand Simberg has a good explanation of the difference between average and marginal flight costs for space launch vehicles, and why higher flight rates should lead to lower average costs per flight.
I’m a bit late posting this, so apologies if you’ve already read about it, or seen it, elsewhere (and thanks to Jon Goff at Selenian Boondocks, which was how I found it).
This is a lovely sight:
It’s XCOR Aerospace’s Liquid Oxygen/Methane rocket engine, developed for NASA as part of a $3.3 million subcontract to Alliant Techsystems. The full press release from XCOR is here.
A methane main propulsion system was included in the baseline ESAS design for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Methane is easier to store for long periods than hydrogen (the main fuel used on the space shuttle, carried in the large orange external tank), and was included for commonality with future Mars missions, because it can be produced on Mars via a simple chemical process. Mars missions are still a long way off, however, and NASA’s exploration plans already face significant budget and schedule challenges. So to save time and money, and to reduce the technical risk, the methane engine was replaced with a storable-propellant system similar to that used by the Apollo CSM and the space shuttles’ orbital maneuvering engines. These have the advantage of being well-understood and mature systems, but have a performance penalty compared to LOX/Methane, and make use of highly toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants.
But XCOR’s work should go some way toward validating the methane concept. One day a derivative may find itself headed for Mars.
Incidentally, if you missed the Space Show’s David Livingston interviewing XCOR CEO Jeff Greason on December 29 last year, it’s a really good episode. You can listen to it here.
 Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX to most of us, has announced that it plans to launch its second Falcon 1 rocket on the 21st of this month. The rocket is on the pad, and the launch team have already taken it through a ‘wet dress rehearsal’ where they fuel it up and run the countdown down to T - 1 minutes.
SpaceX’s first launch of the Falcon 1 ended in failure about 30 seconds into its flight. A corroded nut failed, causing a fuel leak and fire that ultimately led to the shutdown of the main engine in mid-flight. The rocket then crashed back onto a coral reef beside its launch site.
Since then, SpaceX has made improvements in the Falcon 1 launch vehicle, essentially creating a Falcon 1.1 launcher. The company has also won a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract to perform a cargo delivery demonstration flight to the International Space Station with their larger Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule.
OotC wishes SpaceX good fortune and a smooth flight.
 James Oberg, writing for MSNBC, reports that Bigelow Aerospace has been forced to delay the launch of their second inflatable space station test article, Genesis II. Original plans called for launch on a Russian Dnepr rocket late this month, but the failure of an Dnepr launch last year caused a halt to launches while the cause was identified. With the cause identified as a manufacturing error rather than an inherent design flaw, launches are set to resume, but there is now a backlog that must be cleared before Genesis II can fly. That translates into a 60 day delay for the launch of Genesis II, which is now set to occur on April 1.
“Naturally, we are all disappointed,” Bigelow said, “because the spacecraft was and is ready to ship out to meet the original Jan. 30 launch date. Currently, our spacecraft is awaiting shipment to Russia with all your photos and personal items, etc., onboard. We now expect to ship the spacecraft for flight sometime in the early part of March for a launch on or about April 1.”
Meanwhile, Genesis I is still on-orbit and functional, steadily proving out the concept of inflatable habitable space structures.
As part of the pre-ISDC work behind the scenes, we at NSS and NSS-NT (not affiliated with Out of the Cradle) were contacted by Director Alan Chan, who is finishing work on an IMAX-style future documentary entitled “Postcards from the Future”. I was able to arrange a screening copy as we try to figure out how to incorporate it into the ISDC proceedings. The director prefers that it be referred to as ‘large-format feature (in Imax tradition)’, since there’s no actual affiliation with IMAX and we know how sensitive lawyers are about that sort of thing.
I just finished watching it, and it is phenomenal. The plot is conveyed through video postcards and newslinks prepared over a score of years by Sean Ever[y]man for his wife Karen back home on Earth. He’s just an electrical engineer who’s working to establish a power grid on the Moon for commercial use as the Moon becomes increasingly incorporated into our economic sphere. Over time, he has to keep staying on a bit longer on the Moon to do a bit more work, even though his wife has a medical flaw and his heart yearns to be there on Earth to hold her hand. But he sees his role in humanity’s story, and knows he must stay. As he puts it in one postcard, “I’m seeing the Grand Vision…and it Rocks”. The shot below is from Sean’s trip to the Lunar south pole to establish a baseline grid, and is the first time that the full scale and import of the work of his hands really hits him.
Sean’s daughter, Cayleigh Everman, is a member of the Mars crew, so he does see her on the Moon. The mission departs for Mars under the watchful gaze of a proud father, and of course there’s danger on final approach. It seems to be de rigeur for any portrayal of Mars in the movies, and is perhaps one of those collective subconscious visions of the future that will likely happen irrespective. Congressional hearings threaten to call back the badly crippled mission, but the remaining crew insists on staying. Sean follows later in the first interplanetary space elevator slingshot (Brad Edwards was a consultant) to establish the Martian power grid. It’s harder on Mars than on the Moon, and he notes in one postcard that the death rate on Mars is twice as high. But all goes fairly well, more progress is made than not, and he’s offered the chance of a lifetime…
Wouldn’t you like to know what that is? Well, you’re going to have to wait (but you can view the trailer here). The movie is going to be screened at an ESA conference in February, and we’re going to screen it in some way, shape, or form, as part of the proceedings at the 2007 ISDC over the Memorial Day weekend in May. It was shot in digital IMAX-style format (4K, whatever that is; see caveats above), and should be spectacular on a bigger screen than my laptop. The director bills it as an epic short, and he clearly learned a thing or three working on such movies as ‘Titanic’, ‘LOTR: T2T’, and ‘Polar Express’. It is epic in scale, but also deeply personal as Everman pines for his distant love.
During the Moon scenes I kept thinking of ‘Magnficent Desolation’, one of the few other space movies in recent times that’s made me shed so many tears at the sheer awesome beauty and splendor of it (and my innate, intense, burning but frustrated desire to go to the Moon). There are sly references to other sci fi works, and an awful lot of drama packed into its 38 minutes and 19 seconds with credits. There’s death, frustration, accomplishment, and humanity working to unlock the Solar system as our domain of exploration and work.
I’m really glad that I was able to see this movie. It’s one of those moments like the first time I saw the Explorations video of the child reaching out for Mars while standing on an overturned tub of LEGOs. (I’m trying to dig up a link, as it’s an artistically beautiful video) [Here we go, thanks to the NASA Academy alumni] The real story on that one is that it didn’t make the cut for some NASA competition, but someone at NASA was smart enough to put it on the ‘anon’ server. The Space Generation folks picked up on it (which is how I heard about it), and Keith Cowing over at NASAWatch and other bloggers passed it on to a much larger audience. It ended up becoming a cult hit because it conveys such a powerful message. While that video was a short short, ‘Postcards from the Future’ has much more time to deliver tugs to the heartstrings, and does so quite effectively.
It’s very similar to “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (one of my favorites for its style) in that it uses a lot of green screen work and CGI. At some points it stands out a bit more than others, but this is a draft copy in the Lunar Library, and the guy’s not working on a Hollywood mega-budget. It’s a darn fine movie that paints compelling pictures of a dangerous and beautiful tomorrow that humanity can achieve with some work, investment, and sweat equity.
I’m more than happy to give ‘Postcards from the Future’ a Full Moon rating. I’d give it a PG age-rating for some intermittent profanity (usually used when discussing medical issues).
Full Disclosure: The reviewer is co-chair of the ISDC. He really wants you to come to Dallas for the Memorial Day weekend for the big space party and to come see the movie. The Director, Alan Chan, would also like for you to see the movie, and we’re doing what we can to make it work out in the best way possible. First screening will be during the conference proceedings, so you’d better get registered.
…and liftoff!
Liftoff of the space website Out of the Cradle, on a mission to the outer reaches of the blogosphere! OotC has cleared the tower!
Well, that was fun, if more than a little space-geek-y. But hey, that’s who I am; I get shivers down my spine every time I hear a countdown. Space floats my boat, as it were. It’s what I’m passionate about. I have no idea why, it’s something I was infected with as a very young child – I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in space – and it’s stayed with me my whole life. In fact it’s only gotten stronger, despite NASA’s best efforts to take the incredible promise and risk and excitement inherent in space-flight and make it about as interesting as a bottle of sleeping pills.
It never ceases to amaze me how the space agency (which I love with a passion, don’t get me wrong) can take the raw adrenaline of flying in space, put it through a public affairs sausage machine, and extrude - pure Valium.
Anyway, lots to talk about and lots to do. You’ll be seeing the new features I talked about in my T-2 days post appearing on the site over the next few days. The first of the interviews, with Sam Dinkin of SpaceShot, is already up. It’s well worth a read - and FreeSpaceShot is well worth a play!
The first chapter of the serial novel is still undergoing some editing, but it should be up by the weekend. Every time I think I’m happy with it I read it again and find something else that’s not quite right. Won’t be too much longer though.
You might see brief problems with the site layout over the next couple of days, as I introduce the Asteroid Archives and Martian Manuscripts sections. Everything will settle down once they are in place though.
Incidentally, if you have any book suggestions for either section, let me know.
Just two more days to go until the relaunch of Out of the Cradle. We’re nearly there. I don’t think I’m going to be sleeping much between now and then, but it’ll be worth it.
Since it’s getting so close to the launch, I think it’s probably time to give you a bit of an idea what’s coming.
Insider Interviews
Back in October of 2005 when the site first got under way, it kicked off with a number of interviews with some interesting people in the space industry. We’re heading back to those roots, with a whole lot of new and interesting folk being interviewed.
For Monday we have two interviews lined up and ready to go: I will be talking with Jeff Krukin, the executive director of the Space Frontier Foundation, and also with Sam Dinkin who incidentally was OotC’s first victiminterviewee when we launched originally. Sam will be updating us with the latest goings-on at his company Space-Shot, and Jeff and I have a wide-ranging and very interesting conversation about NewSpace, NASA and more.
Original NewSpace Fiction
From going back to the site’s roots with the interviews, this one takes it in a whole new direction altogether!
I’m starting a serial novel, published here a chapter a month. It doesn’t have a name yet (the working title is - rather unoriginally - “Out of the Cradle Serial Story”), but it’s set in the very near future (2014-2018) and it has a strong NewSpace focus. Because it is coming out as a serial, you will have the opportunity to comment on it as it unfolds, and maybe even influence the outcome of events in the story. I’m trying for a believable very-near-future scenario, so if you’re a rocket engineer and you spot something that’s not quite right, I want to hear about it!
Hears a sneak preview of the first couple of paragraphs to whet your appetite:
Suiting up for spaceflight is a long and methodical process. Clambering into the bulky pressure garment is only the beginning; there follows a drawn-out period of fit checks, leak checks, and other testing to ensure that the space suit is ready to save its wearer’s life in an emergency. The astronaut stands or sits patiently while technicians work through their procedures with deliberate, unhurried care.
These activities place few demands on the astronaut’s attention, requiring more than anything that he act in the capacity of a highly trained garment stand. With little to do but watch as others prepare the suit around him, his mind is free – perhaps for the first time in weeks or months of intensive training – to think on the meaning of the flight to come.
This is typically when it all becomes real: This is not another rehearsal; today is launch day. That realization is enough to send a thrill of anticipation through the gut of even the most jaded of astronauts. For those rookies looking forward to their first flight, the sensation is almost unbearable.
“Hey – you’re on TV!”
Nicholas looked up at the monitor to see a pair of technicians fussing over an unfamiliar astronaut in a bright orange launch and entry suit. He watched the other astronaut gaze thoughtfully at something off-camera until he realized with a start that he was looking at himself. How could this mythic-hero astronaut figure be Nicholas Cook?
But that’s enough for now. More on Monday.
New Book Sections
We’re complementing the Lunar Library with two additional space-themed book collections: the Asteroid Archives and the Martian Manuscripts. These will be built up over time as Ken and I search out more good new and old books on the Moon, the asteroids, and Mars.
The NewSpace Status Board
This is a place where you will be able to see the current status and activities of each of the main NewSpace companies (at least to the extent that their activities are public). My prototype for this probably wont make the Monday launch, but it should be available by the end of the month.
Lots of interesting new stuff
As you can see, there are heaps of exciting new things in the works. Just two days to go until this all takes off, on Monday!
Everything remains GO for launch three days from now on January 15th.
But, oh boy I’m beat putting all this together. More tomorrow.
Fueling is complete, all valves are closed, and the blog author is coming up to flight pressure
Which is to say, he’s sitting here wondering:
Why am I doing this?
At an intellectual level, I think that humanity’s utilization of space is the next big step for civilization. There will be a lot of other ‘big steps’ happening simultaneously in fields as diverse as bio-tech and AI, but I think it will be the eventual settlement of space that ultimately has the biggest effect on us as a species.
That’s the obligatory ‘rational’ answer to the why question, but for me it’s not the real one.
The real reason that I’m doing this isn’t based on a logical argument, but on a visceral passion: The exploration and eventual settlement of space is unbelievably exciting. It’s going to be the most riveting, compelling, and dramatic adventure ever. It’s too cool for words. It rocks. It’s got everything: heroes, danger, rivalries, the unknown, loud explosions and fast - really fast - vehicles.
I look at what’s coming up in the next couple of decades, and can’t help but think -
“This is so cool, someone should be writing all this stuff down. It would make one hell of a good near term, hard SF novel.”
But you know what they say - truth is stranger than fiction. Who knows what we might live to see in the next few years?
Pages (999999): [1] 2 3 » ... Last » | As promised, here is part one of my interview with Jeff Krukin. Jeff is the Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation, a longtime space advocate, and an international speaker.
In a first for Out of the Cradle, this interview is delivered as audio. This means (among other things) that you get to hear my weird Kiwi accent! But rest assured, I do shut up for most of the interview and let Jeff do the talking, and it’s well worth listening to what he has to say.
Have a listen to the interview, and don’t forget to check out his personal homepage, where there’s lots of good information about his Human-Space Connection concept.
Just push the play button to listen:
READ MORE... Sam Dinkin of FreeSpaceShot.com gives us the run-down on his new free skill game, where contestants can compete for flights to space, and even a shot around the Moon.
READ MORE...
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