Team 34 B on the way to ISS

Blast off of the TMA-07M Soyuz rocket and spacecraft.

Help is on the way for the three current crew of the International Space Station. This morning at 5:12 am MST, a Russian rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is on a two-day orbit path to intersect and dock with the ISS on Friday. On board are astronauts Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn, and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. When Expedition 35 begins in March 2013. Canadian Chris Hadfield will become the station commander.

Currently, the expedition 34 team on ISS is Commander Kevin Ford, and flight engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin. 

Missed Me! Missed Me!

Asteroid Toutatis radar images.

This last week saw a flurry of asteroid watch action as several rocky bodies passed close to the Earth. Well, relatively speaking.  On December 11, not one but THREE asteroids made scientists take notice. 

Zip! There it goes! 2012 XE54 is spotted.

First on the list was 2012 XE54, a small bodied rock about 36 meters in size, passed within the Earth-Moon distance, a little over 60% of the distance. Not Earth-shattering, but big enough to possibly cause a Tunguska-like event if it had hit us. Scary note here: this was a recently-discovered asteroid, which shows you that there are dangerous steroids out there that we DON'T know about yet.

Next up was 2012 XL55, about half the size of XE54, but it wasn't as close... just a mere 4.2 times the distance from Earth to Moon (which itself is 240,000+ miles away). And on it's heels was 2009 BS5, just a little bit smaller, but twice as far away.

Then came the big show on the 12th. Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is an old friend, first discovered in 1934. It has a somewhat erratic orbit that actually crosses the orbit of Mars as well as Earth's, and is influenced by the gravity of Jupiter. It comes closer to earth about every four years. Radar images show it to be like a peanut shell in shape, with two lobes. It's greatest length is about 4.2 kilometers, making rather large actually.  On December 13th, a Chinese space probe made a close pass to Toutatis. You can find all about that encounter here on SpaceRef: http://spaceref.com/asteroids/chinas-change-2-does-close-flyby-of-asteroid-toutatis.html

Toutatis came by at about 18 Lunar Distances. It is expected to make a really close pass in 2069!

50 Years Ago: Mariner II in Trouble

Art of the Mariner II probe to Venus.

Was the Mariner mission to Venus a cursed mission? Some people were wondering that during the end of November in 1962. The Mariner mission to Venus was intended to succeed in receiving signals from a probe near Venus, make sensor readings of the planet as the probe passed by, and detect any magnetic fields around the planet. Mariner 1 was destroyed when a malfunctioning Atlas rocket veered off course in July 1962, forcing the range officer to push the self-destruct button. Mariner w, an exact copy of the first, launched on August 27, 1962. On September 4, engineers were surprised when the craft lost its lock on the Sun briefly while the craft was making a mid-course correction. Thankfully, lock was re-acquired and Mariner proceeded on its way, On its journey, the craft measured the solar wind, detected interplanetary dust, and detected high-energy particles coming from Solar Flares.

Twice during the voyage, the craft suddenly turned off scientific instruments and activated emergency gyroscopes. Navigational lock was lost briefly, then reacquired and instruments turned back on. Scientists speculated that perhaps the craft had been hit by micrometeorites.

Coming into November, one of the solar panels providing energy to the craft began to flirt with breakdown. Finally on November 15, the panel shut down completely. Fortunately the craft was close enough to the Sun now to receive more energy, so instruments were not impacted and the craft continued on its journey, expecting to arrive in December. Still, some scientists had to be wondering, What Next?

Future Aerospace: LAPCAT concept

A Mach 5 Jet design. Credit: Reaction Engines

A British company is moving towards the future of high speed air transport. The LAPCAT concept envisions a new engine design, SCIMITAR, to propel an aircraft up to mach 5 in order to reach the other side of the world in 2 to 4 hours. Reaction Engines designed the engines to use their heat exchange technology to super-cool the engines as they heat from the tremendous thrust. What intrigues me is the possibility of using this design as an atmospheric boost for a low-orbit rocket plane which could then return to Earth on its own.

For more information including engine cutaway and video, check out Parabolic Arc's article at http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/11/28/reaction-engines-plans-for-a-mach-5-point-to-point-transport/

Enjoy the future!

50 Years Ago: X-15 Crash

X-15 #2 upside down and in trouble on lake bed.

I found an interesting little incident that happened during the X-15 rocket plane tests back in 1962. On November 9, 1962, pilot Jack McKay was dropped from the B-52 mothership in X-15 #2 over Mud Lake, Nevada. The goal was to reach an altitude of over 120,000 feet. It was the seventh time McKay had flown one of the rocket planes, and it was the 31st mission for the #2 craft. Suddenly engine trouble put the mission in jeopardy. McKay piloted the craft down in a glide to land on the superflat dry lakebed below. Unexpectedly (of course) the nosewheel broke upon touchdown and the craft lost control, sliding nose down and then turning sideways, posing the danger of cartwheeling and breaking up. However, the craft had slowed down, and then flipped over on its back only once, saving the craft and pilot. The picture above shows its final resting position and state after emergency crews had "safed" the X-15. McKay suffered only light injuries, and the X-15 had damage to the nosegear, nose, wings, and tail. Engineers determined the craft could be repaired. That's a very tough vehicle! (and pilot, too!)

Pilot Jack McKay on the right, with a rebuilt X-15 in 1966.

50 Years Ago: Saturn Rocket Testing

Unmanned SA-3 lifts off from Pad 34.

On November 16, 1962,  NASA achieved an important milestone on the path to the Moon when they launched mission SA-3. This unmanned test included the primary mission of launching the SA-1 first stage, which would become the first stage of the Saturn 1 rocket. The second and third stages were dummy stages and included test monitoring sensors. The launch was kept under tight security, as the area had been hit by a tropical depression in September followed by the ongoing Cuban Missile Crisis. As the test reached its successful conclusions, the second and third stages were remotely detonated from mission control, and the first stage crashed into the Atlantic some 270 + miles downrange.

Cutaway diagram of the S-IV stage.

Also on the 16th, a very large package arrived in Alabama. Shipped all the way from Douglas Missile and Space Systems in Santa Monica, California, the S-IV (200) stage of the Saturn rocket arrived at the Huntsville Marshall Space Flight Center. The 23-day journey by barge was made by the first Saturn stage of many more to come. The S-IV stage would become the second stage of the Saturn 1 rocket, and the third stage of the Saturn V. This particular piece would be used in testing at the Center to see how it would react to the stresses of flight.

Barge docks at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

ISS Expedition 33 Readies for Trip Home

Making a mess in the Destiny Module.

Ever notice how things get a little messy when you get ready for a trip? Looks like that's true off the planet as well as at home. Expedition 33 crew members Sunni WIlliams, Aki Hoshide, and Yuri Malenchenko are preparing everything they need for their upcoming flight home to Earth. 

On Saturday, Commander WIlliams will turn over command to astronaut Kevin Ford in the official Change of Command Ceremony. On Sunday, the three Expedition crew members will undock from the iSS in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for the de-orbit burn and re-entry through the atmosphere. Once they undock, Commander Ford will then officially be leading Expedition 34, along with cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin.

Expedition 34 will receive the second part of their crew in mid-December.

Unmanned Progress Resupply ship approaches ISS.

On November 1, Russia launched a Soyuz rocket lifting the Progress M-17M unmanned supply spacecraft into orbit. The trajectory of this mission enabled the craft to fly the "shortcut" path to dock with the ISS only a few hours later. The success of this mission paves the way to launching manned Soyuz capsules on the same trajectory in the near future, thus saving hours of cramped claustrophobic flight in the Soyuz craft. This Progress capsule brings astronaut supplies, and station life support and fuel supplies. Later the same day, another Progress ship docked at the station used its maneuvering thrusters to boost the ISS orbit in order to dodge some space debris.