Category Archives: Spaceflight

Reporting Live From NASA/JPL

NASA has invited me to spend the entire day of Monday, June 6 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA’s center for unmanned spaceflight).

All day long, I will be visiting the facilities where NASA’s unmanned spacecraft are designed, built and controlled. I will be chatting with engineers and scientists about upcoming missions and advances. Among other spacecraft, I will see the upcoming Mars Rover “Curiosity”, saying final good-byes before it is sent to Cape Canaveral for launch.

Throughout the day, I will be reporting live via Twitter (and other social media). Please follow my feed!

http://twitter.com/TweetReinhard (in English)

or

http://twitter.com/TwitReinhard (in German)

Twitter is a new medium which now has over 200 million users. Twitter messages (called “Tweets”) are brief messages of 140 characters or less. (This means they can be received on cellphones — but also on the worldwide web).

Although they are brief, “Tweets” may contain links to photographs, videos, articles, online posts or other material of interest.

You do not need a Twitter account to read the messages on your computer. But it would be helpful if you have one. (It does not cost anything). Having a Twitter account enables you to selectively and automatically follow updates from individuals, institutes and organizations, and it also allows you to “talk back”.

Hoping to see you in cyberspace!

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Alan Shepard In Space!

50 years ago this month, Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space.

Although the intensely celebrated accomplishment was technically much less challenging than that of Yuri Gagarin’s earlier flight, it was the event for which America had been waiting. (Gagarin’s flight orbited the Earth, while Shepard’s capsule stayed only on a 15-minute, ballistic trajectory).

Shepard, a U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot, was one of America’s original 7 “Space Heores”. Besides Project Mercury, Shepard also flew on Gemini, and later in 1969, he commanded Apollo 14 and landed on the moon.

Shepard died from leukemia in 1998, in Pebble Beach, California.

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Why the US Can Beat China: The Facts About SpaceX Costs (by Elon Musk)

Please note: The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author, Mr. Musk.  (Cheaper ways to space are the subject of my most recent magazine article) — RK

Whenever someone proposes to do something that has never been done before, there will always be skeptics.

So when I started SpaceX, it was not surprising when people said we wouldn’t succeed.  But now that we’ve successfully proven Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Dragon, there’s been a steady stream of misinformation and doubt expressed about SpaceX’s actual launch costs and prices.

As noted last month by a Chinese government official, SpaceX currently has the best launch prices in the world and they don’t believe they can beat them.  This is a clear case of American innovation trumping lower overseas labor rates.

I recognize that our prices shatter the historical cost models of government-led developments, but these prices are not arbitrary, premised on capturing a dominant share of the market, or “teaser” rates meant to lure in an eager market only to be increased later. These prices are based on known costs and a demonstrated track record, and they exemplify the potential of America’s commercial space industry.

Here are the facts:

Continue reading →

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“Obviously A Major Malfunction”

25 years ago, on January 28, 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during launch, costing the lives of astronauts Francis “Dick” Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Sharon Christa McAuliffe and Gregory Jarvis. Their brief flight (STS-51-L) was the 25th shuttle launch.

By the time, shuttle flights had become routine and were hardly covered in the news. I was exiting the subway station Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria when I heard the shocking news on a radio, which a storekeeper had sitting on the counter.

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Today’s Rocket Launch

Today’s launch of a huge Delta IV Heavy lifted an NRO reconnaissance satellite into orbit. (Mission NRO-49). This was probably the largest rocket ever to launch from California so far. Here’s a picture I took from my window:

Plume of Delta IV Heavy as seen from my window. Photo: Reinhard Kargl

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Voyagers In Space

It’s been exactly 30 years today since Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Saturn. Its sister ship, Voyager 2, followed closely behind. Curious where they are now?

Voyager 1, which was launched on Sept. 5, 1977, is currently about 17 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) away from the sun. It is the most distant spacecraft launched from Earth. Voyager 2, which was sent on its way on Aug. 20, 1977, is travelling at a distance of 14 billion kilometers (9 billion miles) from the sun.

Both craft have reached the outer regions of the Solar System and are still returning useful scientific data. (Where exactly we should consider the Solar System to end and interstellar space to begin is subject of scientific controversy. Some astronomers take the position that the solar system extends quite a bit further. If the Voyagers continue to radio back measurements, they might contribute to the debate).

The Voyagers were built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which continues to operate both spacecraft.

More Voyager information is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .

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A Historical Instrument

Last night, a small group from our local astronomy organization attended a lecture at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In this picture, we are posing in front of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which will soon be residing at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

A little bit of history: Soon after its launch in 1990, the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope‘s internal optics proved to be flawed, and the HST seemed doomed. But in 1993, NASA astronauts saved the day by installing the instrument behind us during Space Shuttle mission STS-61. With the addition of this camera, the HST was fully operational. It went on to become one of the most important telescopes in history.

Among the countless, breathtaking images returned by the WFPC2 were the Hubble Deep Field in 1995, the Hourglass Nebula and Egg Nebula in 1996, and the Hubble Deep Field South in 1998.

During Shuttle Mission STS-125, WFPC2 was removed and replaced with the Wide Field Camera 3 as part of the mission’s first spacewalk on May 14, 2009. It was returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, which landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on May 24, 2009.

Here are some famous images NASA and ESA made with this camera.

6,500 light years from Earth are the "The "Pillars of Creation" within Eagle Nebula. Columns of gas and dust extend 57 trillion miles (97 trillion km) into space. New stars are forming here! In fact, our own Sun may have come from a structure similar to this. (Click to enlarge).

NGC 604, an area in the Triangulum Galaxy about 3 million light years away. In its center are massive stars, which illuminate and ionize gases in this region. New stars appear to be forming here. (Click to enlarge).

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NASA Boss Charles Bolden Shows Personality

The new NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden showed a passionate side in his radio interview with Patt Morrison today.

He gets teary-eyes about the retirement of the Space Shuttle but then turns his eyes toward the future. Bolden, a retired U.S. Marine Corps major general, is a former astronaut who flew on 4 shuttle missions. But despite his feelings, Bolden seems content with the notion that it is time to retire the shuttle and move on by limiting NASA’s role in Earth-orbit launch operations. Which must happen by default anyway, since NASA has no shuttle successor anywhere near the launchpad at this time.

Taking a big step, Bolden conceded that future NASA astronauts will be flying on spacecraft mostly developed and built by private firms.

You can listen to the interview below:

To download the entire audio file, click on Download.

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