Miscellaneous Launches and Payloads (updates)

[Blue-Vision]

Wow.  

[DocM]

More from the situation in Kourou

 

 

[SarK0Y]

cheap LEO at the best case needs about 10 YEARS OF HARDEST WORK & THIS WORK MUST BE STARTED RIGHT NOW. so far, there been only muddy drafts. pilot missions to the high orbits & beyond need adoption of human/animal body to the aggressive rads & magnetic fields.. khe-khe.. also it needs HEIS 

29 minutes ago, DocM said:

More from the situation in Kourou

 

 

so, soon we'll be able to see how space ports get demolished..

[DocM]

More from Kourou

 

 

 

[DocM]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/03/23/launches-from-kourou-suspended-by-social-unrest/

 

Quote

 

Launches from Kourou temporarily suspended by social unrest

 

The launch an Ariane 5 rocket with Brazilian and Korean communications satellites that was set for this week has been postponed indefinitely after protesters blocked access to the French Guiana spaceport.

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“The evolution of the situation does not permit the restart of operations for the Ariane 5 launch scheduled for today,” Arianespace said in a statement Thursday.

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[Blue-Vision]

 *sigh* ....

[DocM]

Arianespace needs a backup location. Years ago there was a proposal to launch Ariane from Australia with the main advantage being political stability. Sounds like a plan....

 

 

 

[Blue-Vision]

Yeah. That might be the best move. It'd take them 3~5 years to build a new Spaceport, but the political stability isn't something to be overlooked. And after this mess ... ?! Yeah. Time to move ops elsewhere.

[DocM]

Sounds like an agreement has been reached & signed, with the next launch in about 8 days. We'll see if it lasts.

 

http://spacenews.com/french-guiana-accord-sets-stage-for-arianespace-resume-launches/

 

WASHINGTON — An agreement between France and its restive South American territory French Guiana, home to Europe’s spaceport, has resolved a month-long dispute that had prevented any launch activity since mid-March.

Thanks to the “Accord de Guyane” agreement signed April 21 by French and French Guianese officials, launch service provider Arianespace says it will be able to soon resume launch activity and can make up for delays by using previously scheduled downtime over the next two months.
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[DocM]

/sigh.....

 

Report (PDF): link....

 

Ars....

 

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NASA inspector says agency wasted $80 million on an inferior spacesuit

 

The space agency seems to be running out of usable suits for space station operations.
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A new report released Wednesday by NASA Inspector General Paul Martin sharply criticizes this decision. "The continuation of this contract did not serve the best interests of the agencys spacesuit technology development efforts," the report states. In fact, the report found that NASA essentially squandered $80.6 million on the Oceaneering contract before it was finally ended last year.
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[Blue-Vision]

/groan

 

So they pretty much did what NASA has done thus far. Taken a boatload of money and wiped their collective rear ends with it. AND THIS INCLUDES OLDSPACE INTERESTS.

 

And it's clear they haven't given two hoots about all of the work NewSpace, collectively, have done on spacesuits. Not even in the mix for consideration ...

 

Arrgh. People need to be held to account for this travesty. Like SLS's "big effing plan for Mars" that is completely and utterly unworkable in every critical point that could be lobbed in its' general direction. SLS itself has no use case for being built. Orion has no mission, at all. Starliner may never fly.

 

Gigantic waste of time, money, and resources that SpaceX could have actually done mind-blowing things with if they were given the opportunity.

 

/sigh

[Blue-Vision]

Article link | NasaSpaceFlight.com Website

Quote

Ariane 5 returns to action with SGDC and Koreasat-7 launch

May 4, 2017 by Chris Bergin

(Images via Arianespace).

Arianespace returned to action on Thursday with the long-awaited launch of its Ariane 5 rocket – following a delay caused by a local “social movement”. Ariane 5 lofted the SGDC and Koreasat-7 satellites from the European Spaceport in Kourou, deep into the launch window at 21:50 GMT. A late fuel load and a telemetry based issue caused the launch to move later into the evening.

 

Good stuff.  

[Blue-Vision]

And the coverage following in about four hours from now, beginning at 11:27UTC (4:27 AM EST), is ISRO's next launch of the GSRV Mark 2 from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. They'll be launching GSAT-9 for South Asia Satellite (a group of several Asian nations cooperatively) on a GTO trajectory. This will mark the fourth consecutive flight without a mishap if successful, proving the Mark 2 platform reliable and the facility (and personnel) capable of an increased launch cadence.

 

 

[Blue-Vision]

[EDIT] Scratch that. Not "India Time", or "my time in my head". Not "This morning". Wondered why the feed kept saying 3 hours. Bleh. I really need to watch doing that. I saw 4:27 ... ugh. Tunnel vision. Never mind. My fault entirely. Sorry all.  

Edited May 5, 2017 by Unobscured Vision

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Quote

 

NASA Just Fast-Tracked Its Mission to Explore a $10,000 Quadrillion Metal Asteroid

 

It might have just pushed back its manned mission to Mars, but NASA just fast-tracked a planned journey to 16 Psyche - an asteroid made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal.

 

Estimated to contain $10,000 quadrillion in iron alone, if we could somehow mine Psyche's minerals and bring them back to Earth, it would collapse our comparatively puny global economy of $78 trillion many times over. Fortunately for the economic stability of our planet, NASA plans on looking but not extracting.

 

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Named after Psyche, a human figure in Greek mythology who earned immortality, 16 Psyche is one of the most massive asteroids that have been discovered in the asteroid belt so far - a dusty disc located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

 

Measuring 240 km in diameter, it's nowhere near as large as some of the other known asteroids in the belt - the largest, Ceres, has a diameter of 945 km - but 16 Psyche's claim to fame is it is by far the largest exposed iron metal body in the asteroid belt.

 

If NASA is successful in its mission, Psyche will give humans their first ever chance of exploring a world made of iron - not rock or ice.

 

The space agency had originally announced that it would be launching its 16 Psyche Discovery Mission in 2023, but has just brought that forward to the summer of 2022. 

 

/snip

 

 

Full article at Science Alert

[DocM]

Apparently NASA thinks InmarSat-5 4F was launched from the Cape, but on a Proton-M  

 

 

 

[Blue-Vision]

That's the best-looking, best-performing Proton-M ever, then. 

[DocM]

They lost 450+ last year to layoffs, and insiders are saying at least another 1,000 this year. 

 

Delta IV Medium's last flight is next year (3 left) and Delta IV Heavy goes away in 2023 (7 left). With work on launches running 4-5 years, SpaceX and Blue Origin fielding modern, reusable launchers and innovative new startups like Rocket Labs just winding up, their reality for the early 2020's looks grim. 

 

http://www.janes.com/article/70229/united-launch-alliance-joint-venture-agreement-expires

 

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United Launch Alliance joint-venture agreement expires

 

Key Points

* ULA's 2005 joint-venture agreement expires

* Could affect business between the Pentagon and its two largest contractors

The 2005 joint-venture master agreement between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that created the United Launch Alliance (ULA) expired this month, according to a key US Air Force (USAF) official.

David Hardy, associate deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space, and the deputy director, principal Defence Department space advisor staff, said on 9 May that he was the compliance officer for the agreement and that the Pentagon no longer has oversight duties now that the agreement has expired. He told Jane's these oversight duties included compliance requirements to what communications and relationships the two parent companies, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, could have with ULA, their joint venture.

Neither ULA nor the USAF, the US government's space launch provider, returned requests for comment about whether the expiration of the agreement would affect business between the USAF and ULA. Since its founding in 2005, ULA has provided the vast majority of USAF launches.
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Edited May 28, 2017 by DocM

[Blue-Vision]

The parents companies are doing more than fine. Big, fat Mil/Gov contracts that nobody else can cover -- LockMart and Boeing both. Boeing builds Satellites, Electronic gear, Commercial and Military jets. LockMart builds Military jets and most Naval vessels & equipment. Weaponry too. They've got their hands in everything. ULA is a "side project" to them, in the grand scheme of things. A way to make more money, and really it's a good way to make lots of it. The Shuttles weren't flying enough, and were too expensive, to use a lot. So here comes a joint venture to build and fly rockets. See a need, fill that need.

 

Now things are different. NewSpace is here, in a BIG way. ULA can't get away with charging exorbitant prices anymore, and ULA wasn't structured to operate in that environment. Tory Bruno, to his credit, has attempted to modify ULA's business practices (and prices) to compensate -- but ULA is pretty much bleeding money and isn't profitable now. They've cut the company's expenses almost as far as they'll go; and getting a new, modern, easily and quickly-built rocket flying that doesn't cost the company an arm and a leg to build is not going to come easy.

 

There will be a lot of infighting inside the company too -- those who insist on sticking to the old ways and those who need to move ahead with the new (and they'll be correct). I think the "old guard" will win out, and it'll be to ULA's detriment. Sure, they'll move to CH4/LOX, because they're committed to the BE-4 engine now .. but ACES is just dumb. Using four engines that lack the performance of a single modern one is a bad move, even if it's to save money.

 

Yeah. ULA is going to be a victim of its' own shortsightedness.

[DocM]

The worst part of ACES is that damned 6 cylinder piston engine. Sure it can run on boil-off props, generating power and heat while pumping fluids, but so can a solid oxide fuel cell + electric pump(s) but with 97% fewer parts. Hello?!

 

The problem is ACES has been in development for so long they're mentally locked in to their previous work.

[Blue-Vision]

Yep. Like I'm thinking .. "the old guard is gonna cost 'em". Another example is that, exactly. The first rule of Space is "KISS". Less = more, for a good reason. Less stuff that can fail = keeps more going, longer.

 

Short-term gain, long-term liability. That's what they're best known for at ULA/LockMart/Boeing.

[DocM]

Reporter: why did the lunar mission fail?

 

ULA spokesperson: our rocket stage's V6 threw a piston rod.