Updates to the ISS Status

Blast-off of Soyuz MS-02 from Baikonur.

Since the last post in September, there have been more comings and goings to and from the ISS. As usual. We last had seen the departure of Expedition 48 on Soyuz TMA-20M, leaving Expedition 49 in charge. Commanding the expedition, and the ISS, was Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos, supported by Flight Engineers Kate Rubins (NASA) and Takuya Onishi (JAXA).

Posing in front of the Soyuz MS-02 capsule are Shane Kimbrough (NASA), Soyuz Commander Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos) and Andrei Norisenko (Roscosmos).

The next to arrive at the station were the crew of Soyuz MS-02 on October 21. They brought the crew total back to six. Astronaut Kimbrough was making his second spaceflight, having flown before on the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Borisenko is also on his second trip to the ISS, having served before in 2011 on expedition 27/28 and as commander of the ISS for three months. Ryzhikov is making his first flight.

View through the station cupola. Cygnus can be seen docking to the station in the upper left.

 

On October 23, the Orbital AK supply ship Cygnus made a visit to the station, bringing supplies and experiments. Cygnus lifted up from the Virginia Wallops-Island launch site on the newly-redesigned Antares rocket.

Cygnus parked near the station awaiting grappling by the robotic arm.

 

This Cygnus vessel was named SS Alan Poindexter, after the NASA astronaut of Shuttle Atlantis STS-122 mission that brought the Columbia module to the station. The Cygnus was docked to the Node-1 hatch. It will stay at the station until November 18.

Astronaut Kate Rubin inside the Soyuz MS-01 capsule during a routine spacesuit checkout procedure. This picture shows well the cramped nature of the capsule interior.

 

 On October 29 it was time for the next crew transfer to begin. Expedition 49 ended when MS-01 undocked from the station, and returned astronaut Kate Rubins, cosmonaut Ivanishin, and astronaut Takuya to Kazakhstan. With their departure, Expedition 50 began with Astronaut Shane Kimbrough assuming command duties.

Retrorockets fire to safely land MS-01 on the flat steppes of Kazakhstan.

 

Now ISS awaits the next crew of Expedition 50/51, scheduled to launch on November 17. Below, you can see their ship, the Soyuz MS-03 awaiting them on the launch pad in Baikonur. Behind the ship is a telephoto-effect view of the recent Supermoon lunar event.

 

 

Rocket Summer

Up, up and away for the Delta-4. Credit: ULA.

For rocket lovers, we live in a wonderful time for rocket watching. Every summer is a rocket summer. On July 29 rocket fans watched United Launch Alliance and the US Air Force launch a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Blasting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center), the Delta-4 Heavy lifted a classified NRO satellite (NROL-15) into orbit. 

Liftoff from LC-37. Credit: ULA.

The Delta-4 Heavy is the most powerful variant of the Delta family of rockets (scroll down to the article on the Atlas-5 launch for the graphic display of the Delta family of rockets). It's even more powerful now, with this latest launch featuring new versions of the RL-68 rocket engines, the RL-68A's. These new engines feature an additional 36-39,000 pounds of thrust for a total of 797,000 pounds of thrust. The distinguishing feature of the Delta-4 Heavy is the addition of the two side boosters, which are liquid-fueled instead of the commonly-seen solid rocket boosters. 

With this Delta-4 Heavy launch, it means we've seen recently a launch of the Delta-4, the Atlas-5, the Long March variant for Shenzhou-9, with upcoming launches of the Soyuz and another Atlas-5 in July.

Rocket Motor Two tests in the desert. Credit: Virgin Galactic.

And it's not just rocket flights, either. There's plenty of rocket engine testing going on in the race for commercial rocket development. Virgin Galactic is preparing for the first tourists flights into sub-orbit, and continuing testing of the Rocket Two engine at their facilities in the Mojave desert.

ATK fires up in the Utah desert. Credit: ATK

ATK continues working feverishly to advance the Liberty rocket system. In northern Utah at their facility near Brigham City, ATK fired the GEM-60 solid rocket motor which will power the first stage of Liberty. Liberty is expected to fly in 2014.

Liberty rocket and capsule. Art by ATK.

In fact, it's not just rocket engines that fly the machines, it's computers as well. ATK has recently completed a technical review of its program software with NASA, fulfilling another step in the long checklist of items towards launch. ATK expects to have two unmanned launches in 2014 and 2015, with the first crewed launch in 2015. Other companies will have to press onward quickly to match this schedule, should ATK manage to maintain this pace.

Going Back to Space: ATK 's Liberty rocket

ATK's Liberty rocket and capsule program.

With the end of the shuttle and the Space Transportation System (STS), it seemed to some outsiders that ATK would no longer have a market for those large 4-segment Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB's) that propelled the shuttle orbiters into space. Also not boding well for the company was the cancellation of the Constellation program and the Ares rocket system after only one test of the Ares 1-X. But you can't keep a good team down. ATK has bounced back as a major competitor in the CCD race to space.

Comparing the commercial rockets under development or already available. "A" is the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, still under development. "B" is the Liberty rocket.

ATK has joined forces with key companies to put together the Liberty commercial crew transportation system. With ATK providing a 5-segment SRB first stage, the makers of the Arianne rocket, Astrium, providing the liquid-fueled second stage, and now Lockheed Martin providing support for ATK's Liberty capsule, all the components are together.

Computer illustration of Liberty on crawler/tower moving to the pad. The Liberty is almost as tall as a Saturn rocket, but a great deal less expensive!

Because much of the hardware of the rocket is already tested and flown, it remains to ATK to assemble the package and flight test it and attain a human-rated approval. The toughest part of the process will be quickly developing a crew capsule. And ATK has that in hand, as well. Between 2007 and 2010, ATK had built a composite-structure capsule for a NASA program to reduce risk in transporting humans to space. Now ATK will modify the capsule to fully comply with safety and engineering requirements.

Component-ready Liberty. SRB's from the shuttle, liquid-fuel stage from the Arianne. Capsule by ATK with Lockheed support.

ATK also has the most ambitious schedule of the companies racing to provide commercial crew service. According to their plans, the first unmanned mission will launch in 2014, with the first crewed spaceflight in 2015. This would place ATK a year ahead of SpaceX Dragonrider, and several years ahead of NASA's SLS/Orion system.

5-segment SRB first stage testing in Utah.

ATK is finishing testing of the SRB first stage in the Utah test facility. They are also working on the launch abort system that could save the crew capsule in an emergency on the pad or during launch. As you can see from the picture below, progress is moving at a rapid pace on the Liberty capsule.

Engineers preparing the composite-structure spacecraft.

Barring any unforeseen difficulties in testing, my money would be on ATK to be fairly close to its schedule projections. The project is led by former astronaut Kent Rominger and the ATK team is experienced in building space technology systems. Keep an eye out for more news from ATK as their systems get ready for launch.

All images for this blog post are credited to ATK.