A SpaceX Dragon capsule has successfully launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on a mission to resupply the International Space Station. From the same launchpad used to send men to the Moon during the Apollo missions, the Commercial Resupply Services(CRS)-10 mission blasted off at 9:39 a.m. Eastern Time bound for the orbiting laboratory.
CRS-10 lifted off from the historic Launch Complex 39A at 9:39 a.m. EST
credit: NASA
Today's events mark the first time a rocket has roared to life at Pad 39A since the final flight of the space shuttle programme in July 2011.
Just eight minutes after launch, the rocket's expended first stage fell back to Earth, fired its engines, before successfully landing upright for the second time at SpaceX's Landing Zone-1 - around 15 kilometers south of Launch Complex 39.
The vehicle will arrive at the space station on early on Monday, February 22 carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory in support of the Expedition 50 and 51 crews.
Among the investigations are experiments with potential to fight human disease and a new autonomous spacecraft docking technology for testing.
From the station's Cupola, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough alongside European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet will capture Dragon with the station's robotic arm, Canadarm-2(Grapple is scheduled at 6 a.m.) before flight controllers in Mission Control in Houston berth Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module a few hours later.
Today's launch marks the beginning of the tenth Dragon resupply ship to fly to the International Space Station and the first commercial flight from Pad-39A.
Dragon was originally scheduled to launch a day earlier on February 18, but a problem with the positioning of the vehicle's second stage engine nozzle led to an abort at T-13 seconds.
Just two days after Dragon's arrival to the station, the Russian Progress 66 resupply craft will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:58 a.m. EST on February 22 to deliver food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station, followed by manual docking on Friday morning.
In breaking news, there has been an explosion at one of the launch pads at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The pad in question is Launch Complex 40, which is currently used to by SpaceX to launch their Falcon-9 rocket to deliver payloads into Earth orbit. SpaceX have been issuing statements throughout the day; "SpaceX can confirm that in preparation for today's static fire, there was an anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of the launch vehicle and its payload. Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries."
Video footage showing extensive damage to the Falcon-9 launch vehicle at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. credit: wftv.com
The 45th Space Wing at the Cape stated that the explosion, which occurred at approximately 9:07 a.m. as the rocket was being loaded with fuel.
"The anomaly originated around the upper stage oxygen tank and occurred during propellant loading of the vehicle." -SpaceX statement
SpaceX, which was set to launch the Israel Aerospace Industries/Spacecom AMOS-6 communications satellite on Saturday, was conducting a static fire test on the vehicle today ahead of the launch.
A static fire test is conducted in the days prior to every Falcon launch in which the engines of the rocket are ignited to test its engines as well as other onboard systems, without the vehicle leaving the pad.
by Cian O'Regan On the thirtieth anniversary of the Challenger disaster which occurred on this day, January 28 1986, we pause to remember the seven person crew of space shuttle mission STS-51L, who died in the name of exploration. On this day we remember astronauts Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Christa McAuliffe, Ron McNair and Greg Jarvis.
The crew of space shuttle mission STS-51L from Left-Right:
Back Row: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judy Resnik
Front Row: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Ron McNair credit: NASA
I was not born until ten years after Challenger exploded, so unfortunately I did not experience what it was like to marvel at those early shuttle flights or become familiar with those who made each mission possible.
Fortunately, I did not have to share in their grief.
Space shuttle mission STS-51L lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at 11:38 a.m. Eastern Time on January 28. It was a bitterly cold winter's morning in Florida that day with temperatures falling as low as 26 °F (−3 °C) - well below the qualification limit of the shuttle's twin Solid Rocket Boosters(SRBs).
Combined with strong winds, conditions for launch were far from ideal.
Just one minute and thirteen seconds after lift-off, Challenger suffered a catastrophic structural failure resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its crew. The Rogers Commission later determined the failure of primary and backup O ring seals in the right SRB to be the cause of the accident.
Whether you were around at the time or not, we all know the fate of Challenger. People remember it in much the same way that they remember the Kennedy assassination and other moments in history. They remember where they were when they heard the news, who they spoke to, how they felt. My father for example often reminds me of where he was that day three decades ago- working as a doorman at a hotel in New York City. He had the heavy duty of informing some people of what had happened earlier that day down at the space coast.
Although most people not only in the United States but around the world never saw let alone met President Kennedy, somehow they still felt as if they knew the man personally - weeping at the news of his death as if he were a member of the family. The same is true for the crew of Challenger. I feel that as a space enthusiast and as a person whose heroes are those who fly into the cosmos aboard spaceships like Challenger, I figured I owe the crew and their families a simple prayer of remembrance and this piece to show that their efforts were far from vain.
I know that no words of mine can come close to trying to sum up what happened on this day thirty years ago. However, earlier this week I came across a speech made by John Glenn to the team of launch controllers on duty that day, just six hours after lift-off. I think it sums things up pretty well.
"Most of you have been tied up here today, you've been tied up on the boards here at the positions here. You haven't seen probably much of what's been going on on TV across the country today, but it's been a national day of tragedy, I can guarantee you that."
"All America is sharing in the tragedy that you have lived through here today. We've had tremendous triumphs. We've head triumph after triumph after triumph and that's how mankind goes ahead.. We try! We try! We try! In this program we've succeeded."
The final launch of Challenger on January 28 1986. The shuttle
and its crew would be lost just 73 seconds after launch. credit: National Geographic
"Really, if we're honest about it, and honest with ourselves, beyond our wildest dreams, I would have never thought we would ever go this far without losing some people in something where you're up there travelling around at 5 miles a second, the heat of re-entry and all the complexities and the things that have to work right.. We come to a time when something happens, and we have a tragedy that goes along with our triumphs. And I guess that's the story of all mankind."
It would have been much easier to cancel the shuttle program after Challenger was lost rather than pick up the pieces and press on with space shuttle missions. It would also ensure an accident like this never happened again aboard a shuttle. Sadly, NASA would lose another shuttle when Columbia burned up upon re-entry during STS-107 in February 2003.
But if you ask any astronaut about whether they think the risks associated with sending humans into space are worth it, you will be met with a response similar to that given by Gus Grissom, Mercury astronaut, who was to die in the Apollo 1 fire;
"If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
Three decades on from Challenger, we no longer see the shuttle blazing a trail in the skies above us. Nowadays instead of clear skies, you now require a museum admission ticket to admire the surviving shuttles; Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour.
But all is not lost! We have learned from our mistakes and now live in an age where there has been a continuous human presence in space for over fifteen years and counting aboard the football pitch-sized International Space Station. I can only imagine that this idea would have been unfathomable as the month of January drew to a close in 1986. However, when humans suffer setbacks, we come back even stronger, more curious, and more determined. Who knows what the next thirty years in space may bring?
January 28 marks NASA's Day of Remembrance where the agency remembers all of its fallen astronauts. Let us not only remember Challenger as well as the crew of Apollo 1 and Columbia(whose anniversaries also occur at this time), but all those from around the world who have given their lives in the name of space exploration.
Res Gesta Per Excellentiam.
Ad Astra! A big thanks to Andy McCrea, Hart Sastrowardoyo, Al Hallonquist and Ian Whalley for their contributions and help to this article. Also be sure to check out my friend Tim Gagnon's website. Tim is just after designing a wonderful patch to remember all of those who died in man's conquest of space.
The SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle making its seventh resupply mission to the International Space Station has been lost just minutes after launching from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket and vehicle have both been lost.
The Falcon 9 appeared to have exploded just after the separation of the rocket's first stage. All data with the vehicle was lost, two minutes and nineteen seconds into the flight.
The vehicle appeared to disintegrate just minutes into launch
credit: NASA TV
It is currently unclear what exactly caused today's failure. According the Pam Anderson of SpaceX there were no problems with the performance of the first stage of the Falcon 9, and telemetry with Dragon was received by teams on the ground shortly after the incident occurred.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on Twitter; "There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause."
ISS programme managers have assured the public that anomalies such as the one which happened today are planned for and as a result, it is estimated that the crew currently has enough supplies to last until late October.
Some of the cargo which was being flown aboard Dragon includes a number of student experiments, plant growth experiments, a space suit as well as provisions for the crew on board the station.
Another item also lost today was the International Docking Adapter-1(IDA-1) which was due to be installed on the Pressurised Mating Adapter located on the forward facing port of the Harmony. This would allow commercial crew vehicles built by Boeing and SpaceX to dock with the station thus allowing them to transport astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station. The first flight of Commercial Crew are slated to occur no later than 2017.
This is the third space station resupply ship that has been lost in the past eight months. Today's anomaly occurred exactly two months after a Russian Progress resupply ship spun out of control and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere several days later. An Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo craft exploded shortly after lift-off from the Wallops Flight Facility last October.
A Russian Progress resupply ship is scheduled to launch cargo to the station this coming Friday, July 3 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This will be followed in August by a Japanese HTV flight. Orbital ATK is moving ahead with plans for its next launch later this year.
NASA's next generation crew vehicle Orion, designed to take astronauts to deep space destinations such as the Moon, an asteroid and Mars, has completed its first test flight around the Earth.
Atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket, Orion lifted off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 12:05 p.m. GMT. This uncrewed mission, designated Evaluation Flight Test-1(EFT-1) tested systems critical to future crew safety, also marks the first time that a spacecraft designed to carry humans has gone beyond the bounds of low-Earth orbit and into deep space since the days of Apollo.
Less than eighteen minutes of powered flight, Orion reached its initial orbit. After completing one revolution around the Earth, the second stage of the Delta IV fired its engines once again for a 4-minute, 45-second engine burn to raise Orion to a higher orbit, now 5,800 kilometers above the Earth(15 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station).
Passing through the Van Allen Radiation Belts, data recorders on board measured the radiation levels being received by the spacecraft in order to analyse the doses of radiation astronauts would receive on future missions on Orion to deep space. Two cameras on board were also in a position to capture images of Earth from 5,800 kilometres above the planet.
Trial by Fire
Nearly three and a half hours after launch, Orion separated from its Service Module and the Delta IV Heavy, then fired its thrusters to set it on course for a fiery re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere. Traveling at around 32.000kmh during re-entry, Orion's heat shield experienced temperatures of 4000 Degrees Celsius, 80% of the temperature that would be experienced on a return journey from the Moon, as it made its journey home.
Stunning views of Earth from Orion cameras. credit: NASA TV
During this time there was an expected 2.5 minute loss of communications(LOS) between Orion and Mission Control teams in Houston, who were led today by Flight Director Mike Sarafin, as superheated plasma formed around the vehicle itself, blocking signals both in and out.
Finally, over 4.5 hours after launch in Florida, with its three parachutes fully deployed, Orion, now traveling at less than 30kmh, Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, around 270 miles off the coast of Baja, California at 4:29 p.m.
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden later said in a statement: “Today’s flight test of Orion is a huge step for NASA and a really critical part of our work to pioneer deep space on our Journey to Mars.. The teams did a tremendous job putting Orion through its paces in the real environment it will endure as we push the boundary of human exploration in the coming years.”
Recovery
Members of the US Navy aboard the USS Anchorage were in the vicinity of the landing zone to recover the Orion spacecraft. Once the vehicle was made safe, cables were attached by divers and Orion was towed into the flooded deck of the ship. Once secure, the vessel began the journey home to port in San Diego.
What Happens Next?
Once data from today's flight has been analysed the focus for the NASA teams working on Orion systems will turn to the next flight of Orion. Mission EM-1 will involve another test flight of the Orion Crew Module, this time attached to a Service Module designed by the European Space Agency. This mission will fly beyond the Moon in 2017. The first crewed flight of Orion to the Moon is expected for 2021.
Orion will be used to carry astronauts to an asteroid that will be placed in a stable lunar orbit in the 2020s as part of the Asteroid Redirect Mission. Designed to carry four people to deep space, Orion will facilitate the exploration of other bodies in our solar system for the first time in over forty years.
On a sidenote..
Orion was originally scheduled to lift off from the Cape at 12:05 p.m. GMT on Thursday December 4, but a fault in one of the Delta IV's valves meant launch had could not take place inside the specified launch window, resulting in the scrubbing of the launch by 24-hours.
Also, legendary former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, who led teams in Mission Control on numerous Apollo flights to the Moon, was a special VIP guest in the Mission Control Center in Houston this week. Kranz was one of the Flight Directors on Apollo 17, a mission which marked the last time humans have traveled to and returned from deep space.
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