50 Years Ago: Rocket Tragedies and Triumphs

Titan II on Launch Pad, Cape Canaveral.

Fifty Years ago, the US Air Force and NASA Engineers were continuing to test and modify a multitude of rockets and ICBMS (InterContinental Ballistic Missiles). The Titan series were being modified to carry astronauts in NASA's Gemini program, soon to start now that the Mercury Program had come to a conclusion. On May 29th, 1963, a Titan II rocket was launched from Launch Complex 15 at Cape Canaveral. It was the 16th launch from LC-15. Nine flights had been mostly successful, yet six had encountered problems or come up short in meeting the mission goals. The last Titan launch had been the 1,400th rocket launched from the Cape, on May 21 (may have been May 24th) which successfully placed its test payload more than 6,500 miles down the AMR (Atlantic Missile Range).

Not so successful.

Fifty seconds into the flight, fuel began to leak into the engine compartment and started a fire. The rocket lost control at at 55 seconds of flight, it blew up spectacularly.

Rocket garden at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

Also on May 29, a target payload previously launched by a Titan I missile began to re-enter the atmosphere. Waiting for it was a Nike-Zeus rocket, fired from the Kwajalein Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The rocket warhead successfully intercepted the target coming down. This shows that even this early in rocket development, the US was able to see hope in the idea of defense against nuclear missiles. It would be politics that would shut that effort down eventually, only to see it be resurrected  later by Presidents Reagan and Bush (43).

Minuteman I on display.

Tests also continued on the Minuteman ICBMs, which used a solid rocket fuel motor. May 29th was a busy day, as a Minuteman took off from either LC31 or LC32 and placed its payload 4,000 miles down the AMR. This was the last launch of the Minuteman tests by Boeing personnel, future launches would be by the Air Force.

Minuteman II in flight.

Minuteman I on pad LC-31/32.

Minuteman family of vehicles.

On June 5, A minuteman II was launched over the Atlantic, successfully placing its payload all the way out near Ascension Island. On the other coast, an Atlas E rocket lifted off from Vandenberg AFB the day before.

Polaris missile on pad 29 at Cape Canaveral.

It wasn't just NASA and the Air Force launching rockets. The Navy was in on it, too. On June 6th, the Navy sent up a Polaris A-3 rocket from launch Complex 29. The Polaris system was designed for launch from nuclear-powered submarines.

Polaris family of rockets.

1998 QE2 Raises Asteroid Awareness

Asteroid 1998 QE2 with its small moon. Radar picture.

Ever since the smacking Russia got earlier this year, the world has been paying more and more attention to the passing of NEOs (Near Earth Objects). Congressional committees have been receiving briefings from NASA. News outlets and space blogs have been covering every passing rock. And NASA has received the goal from the President of traveling to an asteroid, and maybe diverting it to Earth Orbit to study it (anyone else think that may be a bad idea?).

Today at a minute before 3 pm MDT, asteroid 1998 QE2 will pass about 3.6 million miles from the Earth. In space distance terms, that IS close, but in reality, no need for any panicking or worrying. But what makes QE2 so interesting is that radar imaging has discovered that the big hunk of rock has its own orbiting satellite, or moon. The little dude is about 600 meters across, or about 2000 feet.

It's been very cool to see more people paying attention to one of the actual space dangers we could see in our lifetimes. NASA's budget for detection and tracking of NEOs has gone from about $6 million to just about $20 million in 2012. WHile some scientists think that they may have discovered up to 98% of the objects already, this year's collision with the Chelyabinsk asteroid proves that it's the ones you DON'T see that are the trouble-makers.

Malfunction... Malfunction...

Orbital debris surrounds the Earth. Credit: Google Earth.

Just a month ago, Ecuador launched its first satellite using a Chinese rocket. Now, it seems it has met with disaster. With help from the US-based Joint Operations Center, scientists have been able to piece together data, tracking, and timing to conclude that the small satellite has probably hit a tumbling, spent Soviet-era rocket booster. The JOC monitors all space orbiting objects and debris. With their fine attention to details, they help NASA plot safe trajectories and warn the ISS when a piece of debris is likely to pass into their safety zone.

Logo for the Ecuadorian satellite.

The Pegaso satellite was Ecuador's first and only satellite, and was a proud moment of achievement for the nation. It was a nano-satellite, cube-shaped weighing only 2.6 pounds. Its purpose was to take pictures from orbit and play the national anthem so radio operators could practice space communications. Not much of a satellite compared to the big advanced models usually launched, but for EXA, the Ecuadorian Space Agency, and the people of Ecuador, a proud achievement. Their scientists speculate that there may still be hope it can be contacted and stabilized, but they should no doubt be looking forward for their next mission.

GOES-13. Credit: Boeing.

Bad luck isn't just for Ecuador. It happens to American equipment, too. The weather satellite GOES-13, operated by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), has lost control of both of its main instruments. The satellite was tasked with providing weather coverage of the American East Coast. Fortunately, because of the importance of weather coverage, a "spare" or backup satellite had already been launched in 2006 and placed in "storage mode" just in case something like this happened. With the re-activation of the backup satellite, weather coverage is assured.

Expedition 36/37 crew reaches ISS

Soyuz rocket blasts off from Baikonur.

The Soyuz TNA-09m lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at about 2:31 p.m. MDT yesterday, carrying a three-astronaut crew to the ISS. Soyuz commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight engineers Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano make up the second half of the Expedition 36 ISS crew. The night time launch went well and placed the Soyuz capsule on a 6-hour quick path to the station. 

Cramped quarters inside the capsule.

This flight was the second use of the new shorter rendezvous course to the ISS. Good thing, since, as you can see from the screenshot above (thank you NASA TV), the occupants have to remain squeezed into an uncomfortable position while they travel to the docking port. You might notice the stuffed plush toys hanging from the console. This helps ground flight controllers watching on monitors understand when the crew reaches zero gravity. Perhaps it also brings good luck. In any case it brought a smile to many viewers!

Approaching Soyuz against the Earth's blue oceans.

The Soyuz reached the station in under six hours and began maneuvering for docking. The target docking port is located on the Russian Rassvet module.

Soyuz moves in closer to the docking port.

Docking occurred at 8:10 pm MDT. The craft had completed four orbits of the Earth before rendezvous. The crew could then secure their space suits and begin the procedures to equalize pressures in the Soyuz prior to opening the hatch.

Luca Parmitano makes it clear he's happy to be on board!

The station hatch opened at 12:14 a.m. MDT, and the crew was welcomed aboard by the first section of Expedition 36 station commander Pavel Vinogradov and FLight Engineers Chris Cassidy and Alexander Misurkin. Their section arrived at the station on March 28.

The complete Expedition 36 crew.

The complete crew will man the station until September, when the first section will return to Earth and cosmonaut Yurchikhin will become the Expedition 37 commander.

Expedition 36 relief crew prepares for launch

Expedition 36 Prime crew in front of Soyuz trainer.

Preparations continue at Baikonur for the Tuesday launch of Soyuz TMA-09M and the second half of the Expedition 36 crew. Commanding the Soyuz will be cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, and with him will be flight engineers Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitarno.

Expedition 36 crew in Russian suits.

The Soyuz is expected to use the advanced orbital techniques to arrive at the ISS in only 6 hours, as opposed to the traditional 2 days previously taken. They are planning to dock the Soyuz to the Russian Rassvet module.

Expedition 36 backup crew on the left, prime crew on the right. From L to R: Koichi Wakata (Japan),   Mikhall Tyurin (Russia), Rick Mastracchio (NASA), Karen Nyberg (NASA), Fyodor Yurchikhin (Russia), and Luca Parmitano (ESA). The suit in the chair is part of the test fit procedures for suit testing for the astronauts.

Delta IV lifts WGS-5 to orbit

Delta IV launch from LC-47. ULA picture.

Wideband Global SATCOM-5 was sent into orbit Friday to become part of the US military's network of communications satellites giving worldwide networking communications to ships, planes, and groundfighters wherever they may be.

The United Launch Alliance is the spin-off company owned 50-50 by Boeing and Lockheed that provides launch services for the US government. That includes the military, NASA, and our spy agencies. Using the Launch Complex 37 pad at Cape Canaveral, ULA prepped and launched the Delta IV rocket at 6:27 pm MDT Friday May 24th. It was the 71st ULA launch in a 77-month period. It was the second launch for the government in 9 days, the last being a launch of an Atlas rocket (covered in the previous post). 

Great coverage of the flight at SpaceFlight Now: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d362/#.UaNuSc3E6nG

Rockets Red Glare

Atlas V launches from Pad LC-41.

Rocket fans live in a wonderful time of launches. On Wednesday May 15, United SPace ALliance launched an Atlas V rocket carrying the GPS 2F-4 satellite into orbit. The 31st part of the GPS system is safe in space. It's the 4th in a series of GPS satellites with entirely new upgrades and systems.  Of the course the marvelous Atlas V launch went fantastically well. You can see a whole gallery of photos from the launch thanks to SpaceFlight Now, at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-163

ESA's Vega rocket blasts off.

The European Space Agency launched the second successful flight of a Vega rocket from French Guiana on May 14th. The Vega is a lighter rocket than the famous Arianne V. This one easily placed three satellites in orbit to help with communications and science experiments.

Proton rocket lifts off from Kazakhstan.

International Launch Services (ILS) lifted the Eutelsat 3D communications satellite into orbit on May 15. Russian rocket observers are happy to see the 3rd successful flight of a Proton rocket since a failure in December. ILS is a company jointly owned by USA and Russian partners. They lease launch space from the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan and use the Proton rocket for satellite delivery services.

If you are a rocket fan, you definitely want to watch all the great rocket news found at SpaceFlight Now: http://spaceflightnow.com/

There's an upcoming flight of a Delta 4 rocket scheduled for this Wednesday, due to blast off from Cape Canaveral. On board will be an Air Force Wideband Global SATCOM, built by Boeing and destined to support our military's communication network.

Payload for the Delta 4 on the move to assembly.