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.
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…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.
| 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:
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