SpaceX Dragon Launches from Apollo Pad to Resupply Space Station

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.

Thank you for reading Irish Space Blog!

Space Shuttle: The Greatest Flying Machine Ever Built?

On December 19th 1972, the Apollo 17 command module America carrying astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ron Evans splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing an end to the Apollo Programme. However, before the Apollo days ever ended, NASA was already busy planning what shape the manned US space programme was going to take next. They set their sights for Low-Earth Orbit. In fact the announcement came while Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke were walking on the Moon, to which Young replied "The people need that shuttle". The space shuttle was on its way.

First flight of the Wright Flyer, 1903

Now just before I get into the comparisons to other great flying machines, I just want to set everything straight. In this piece I will refer to anything used by human beings to successfully fly from one place to another as a flying machine. Seeing that human beings were the ones who built the machine, I won't really be crediting company names and things like that, just that that it was built by men and women. Understand? Right, I think we're ready to move on.

Lets's start at the very beginning and look at Orville and Wilbur Wright's very first flying machine. Although it is not even close to comparing to the worst of modern day aircraft, it showed us that man could get off the ground and fly like a bird, thus in my opinion, ranking up among the most important aircraft in history, but certainly not the greatest flying machine ever built. The same goes for things like the F-61 helicopter flown all those years ago. Then if you want to talk about airships, let's just say they're a bit too slow for me!

Let's take a look at some more..



The Bell X-1

The Bell X-1

The Bell X-1 will go down in history as the first aircraft flown by man to travel faster than the speed of sound. On October 14 1947, Air Force General Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to a speed of 800mph(Mach 1.07) to become the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound. Just like many of the most famous aircraft ever built, it proved a point, showing us that we could now fly faster than the sound barrier, and since then, we have sought to fly harder and faster on every flight.

The X-15

In NASA's earliest days, before the nation's first astronauts were even selected, a group of twelve pilots found themselves soaring to previously unimaginable heights while flying the famous X-15 rocket plane. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, an X-15 pilot himself, and a man fascinated with flight since he was a little boy, was always fond of the X-15.  In the words of Armstrong; "Rockets were powering aircraft to higher and higher speeds. The X-15 had enough energy to zoom to altitudes above the atmosphere". It seems like this magical aircraft can get the first man on the Moon pretty excited. But that's the beauty of it! This particular flying machine was not your average plane. It couldn't even take off on a runway for crying out loud! It had to be taken up attached to the wing of a B-52 bomber and then simply dropped. Don't worry it didn't just glide back to Earth- here's the exciting part! Not long after being dropped from the B-52, the X-15's rocket engine would ignite and send both pilot and aircraft up to altitudes over 100km. If you have never seen the launch and landing of an X-15, I suggest you watch this. You can come to your own conclusions after watching it. I just think it was a magnificent flying machine and what I've written doesn't even come close to summing up how awesome the X-15 really was.


The Saturn V

At a height of 363 feet tall, the Saturn V is the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built. Everyone's familiar with the sight of the Saturn lifting off Pad 39-A during the Apollo 11 mission- just by looking at it in photos you can tell that this thing has a whole lot a muscle! Without the Saturn V, we may still live in a world where man hasn't walked on the Moon. This flying machine was flown on all the Apollo missions and will go down in history for this very reason. It is probably one of the most standout images that appears in people's minds when you mention space exploration. This may not be a good reason to award it the title of the greatest flying machine ever built, but without this amazing launch vehicle, you can't help but feel history books would be a lot different than they are today.

The Apollo Lunar Excursion Model(LEM)

The LEM in lunar orbit

Okay so you might think I'm focusing in on the Apollo days a but too much here right? But how can I leave out the LEM? It was of course the very machine that brought twelve men down to the lunar surface, and acted as a lifeboat during the perilous voyage of Apollo 13, saving the lives of three astronauts in the process. This spidery looking thing just looks really cool to me. With its four golden legs, the lunar module must have been one of the most difficult and scariest things to fly even for the most experienced pilot. You flew it standing up so that must have taken some getting used to! However, let's remember that it is a lunar module, and would be pretty useless and disastrous if it were to be flown here on Earth. What makes it unique is that it could only be flown off our planet. For me, it certainly ranks well up there seeing that it most certainly has to go down as the greatest flying machine to travel to the surface of the Moon. Now how many other flying machines can do that?


Concorde

Like most of the flying machines mentioned so far on this list, the Concorde is no longer in service. However, a lot of people(including myself) feel it should still be flying. Now I have never flown on the Concorde- I'm only 16 years old, but I can understand how beautiful and commercially important this supersonic aircraft really was. Concorde could fly from London to New York in three hours, travelling at twice the speed of sound. This means that a businessman from North London could finish a meeting in Manhattan at midday and be back at home in time for tea. But looking at the aircraft itself, I mean come on- it looks perfect! The wings accompanying the narrow fuselage give the Concorde such a slick finish, ultimately allowing it to fly at Mach 2. Concorde pretty much was your ideal commercial aircraft, What a dream it must have been to fly!

The Soyuz

"Flying the Soyuz is like driving a Ferrari in a circuit... it's an extremely capable vehicle because it's extremely fast, and it performs very well". These were the words of ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli when I asked him last November to compare flying the Soyuz and the Shuttle. The Soyuz spacecraft has been in operation since the late sixties and is still flying astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station to this very day. It is one of, if not the most reliable spacecraft ever built and it is the workhorse for the Russian Space Programme. Many would say that the Soyuz would beat the Shuttle hands down in terms of mission effectiveness and reliability, but you have to remember that it can only hold three people, and it cannot be reused. However it is the only spacecraft on this list that still flies.

And finally...

The Space Shuttle

For NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, "The space shuttle is the greatest flying machine that NASA has ever built". Now this is a man who has worked with the space agency since Project Mercury, and has no doubt witnessed some great air and spacecraft in his time, and he thinks that the space shuttle is the greatest flying machine man has ever built? I have to agree with him on this one.

Space Shuttle Discovery Launches on STS-120 from KSC.

Whenever I see videos and photos of the Space Shuttle, whether it be on its eight and a half minute journey to low-Earth orbit, or gliding its way back to the Kennedy Space Center with waving contrails flowing off the Delta wingtips, its one hell of a flying machine. First launched in 1981 on STS-1, the shuttle has flown 135 missions using five different orbiters; Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. During its 30 year history, it has deployed satellites, repaired and serviced telescopes, and has allowed us to build the ISS- a true city in space and our castle in the sky. It has proved to us that the word impossible no longer exists,

Over the course of its 135 missions, two orbiters and their crews have been lost on the path of exploring space. However, we must go on. Now that that the shuttle fleet has been retired, I have to say I miss seeing it fly. In fact, watching Atlantis landing at KSC for the final time really is what got me so enthusiastic about spaceflight. Here I saw one of the greatest space programmes coming to an end, but I knew that a new one is right around the corner. Looking at those pictures of Atlantis on the runway made me sad I have to say(I can't imagine how the astronauts must feel), but not because people would no longer be launching from US soil. Astronauts will fly from the US in a couple of years, and I'm really excited about that. However the thing that really disappointed me was knowing that this beautiful spaceship and remarkable flying machine would never leave Earth again.

Never before has a craft been able to escape the surly bonds of our Earth, orbit the planet every ninety minutes or so, build and visit space stations, conduct science in a microgravity environment, and then make a pinpoint landing on a runway nearly three miles long. Is that cool or what? If you have not had the pleasure of watching a video of a space shuttle landing, I suggest you check this out!

The Space Shuttle in Orbit

This versatile flying machine will go down in history as the first re-usable spacecraft ever flown. I am sorry I could not provide you with the important facts and figures that are needed in order to answer this question a bit better than I did, but I think I gave it a good shot. Perhaps I am still in mourning of losing our finest ship, or should I wait a few years and try come up with a better answer? In the future we will fly faster, higher and further than the shuttle ever could, and I cannot wait for that day. But the Space Shuttle has allowed us to do all this- it has allowed us to dream!

In Conversation With Astronaut Paolo Nespoli

On July 28 2017, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli alongside Soyuz MS-05 crew mates Sergey Ryazanskiy and Randy Bresnik will launch on a five-month mission to the International Space Station as part of Expedition 52/53. Five years ago I was lucky enough to interview Nespoli following a talk he gave in Dublin's Little Museum celebrating Science Week 2012.

What were your favourite subjects in school?

Hmm... Well I liked the science things such as math and physics. But I mean I wasn't an exceptional student, I was just a regular guy. I think one of the problems was that school at that time was not really interested in adapting to the student. It had a programme that was not challenging for me, so I didn't really care. I remember I did really poor in Latin. So the bottom line really is that science was my preferred subject, but it's not like I was excelling.

Science Week 2012 interview with Paolo Nespoli at Dublin's Little Museum

So then you took these interests and you ended up studying aeronautical engineering in New York. At what point then did you decide that you wanted to become an astronaut?

The idea of becoming an astronaut came when I was around 10, and I saw American astronauts jumping on the Moon. I think I was 12 or something like that. And then when I saw this guy called John Young jumping on the moon I just thought "Wow!" I want to become an astronaut." But at the time it was just an idea.

Later on when I decided to go back to university, I decided to become an engineer not because I wanted to be an astronaut, but because I liked engineering, so there is a false assumption that you need to figure out what field you need to take in order to become an astronaut - it does not work that way. I caution people all the time - you need to find your passion, and if that passion is in a technical field, then you need to find which technical field. It could be mathematics, physics, engineering, it could be medicine, it could be oceanography. It could be anything. But you don't do a technical degree just so you can become an astronaut, because there is a very good chance that you won't be an astronaut. So you better find a field that you like, pursue it, hope that everything goes okay, and then you will become an astronaut. But you need to have a profession that you can do with pleasure, with passion.

"I saw this guy called John Young jumping on the moon and I just thought "Wow!" I want to become an astronaut!"

So then after years of training, in 2007 you are about to make your first launch on STS-120. What were the main emotions that you felt on launch day, as you were getting ready to make your first flight?

Well you know, the launch itself is a bit of an anti-climax I think. Meaning that you have waited for that for a good part of your life, and finally you are there. And I think what I felt was a huge sense of being relieved. Finally I am here. Finally today is the day in which we launch. The day that I am no longer in a simulator, or doing a sport in which I could injure myself and break a leg and then you don't launch anymore. It's the day that the rocket is working. I mean there are a few chances that they might delay it, but you know, it's a day in which everything gets put together and it's a very happy day.

I felt a good sense of accomplishment that I was able to get there. But I was really concentrated on what I needed to do to do my part in this launch. I wanted to make sure that I am not the cause for a delay or even putting myself or somebody else's life in danger, so I was very much concentrated on my tasks. That took most of my brain power.

Nespoli speaking at Dublin's Little Museum for Science Week 2012.

Three years later you launched on the Soyuz Spacecraft as part of Expedition 26/27. What are the main differences between launching on the Soyuz and launching on the shuttle?

Flying the Soyuz is like driving a Ferrari in a circuit. I mean it's an extremely capable vehicle because it's extremely fast, and it performs very well. At the same time it's very delicate.  Anything can influence the launch sequence, the rocket itself, and the crew.

While the Soyuz is a very small piece of equipment, it's still very reliable, and when the Russians say you will launch on the 15th of December at one o'clock at night - you will launch on the 15th of December at one o'clock at night!

If you have flown on the shuttle, you kind of look at it with skepticism. You then rethink this when you train, because you see how reliable it is. How ingenious it is able to do these complex tasks with little equipment and little complexity. So there's a lot of things to be said about that. I think we can learn from both the philosophies of the shuttle and the Soyuz because we really need to build  a capable vehicle that will bring us to the Moon and Mars and continue exploration. We need to make it perform and we also need to understand that complicating things is not really efficient and does not work.

So then when you arrived at the space station after your two day catch up, what were the main thing that you wanted to achieve during your 6 months on station?

My goal was to be a good crew member. This means working effectively with Mission Control, the other crew members, to do my best, get all he scientific results from all the experiments we performed, and most of all making the space station work effectively. So I wanted to do a good mission. Nothing exceptional but a decent and good mission, and it turned out that this is exactly what I did.

It was nice being up there you know, I really enjoyed it, and I felt that after the initial period of adapting to life in space; which was really hard work, I felt I was able to contribute effectively to what was going on. I worked really well with Mission Control, I worked really well with my crew members. I made myself available any time I could, to go above and beyond what was the call of duty. I made myself available to work on weekends because I felt it's such an exceptional place to be, and I really need to take advantage of all the things that are there.

You orbited the Earth once every 90 minutes. What was the best thing you have seen from space?

Paolo Nespoli training at Star City, Russia. credit: ESA

Difficult to say. It's difficult to say because I started the mission looking out of the Cupola (360 degree field of view window on the ISS). By the way it's not so easy to look down because of things like time. If you have a few minutes in the Cupola, most of the time you see oceans and clouds. I mean there are a LOT of clouds! I would say that more than 50% of the planet is covered by clouds. And it also very difficult to make out where you are. However this is only at the beginning. Then there is a magic moment about one third into the mission where suddenly, you understand where you are. You peek out of the window and now you know what continent you are flying over, what nation you are looking at, what river, what sea it is. Then you start picking out things- special places, mines, cities. It becomes really really interesting. Then I thought I'm going to take a picture of 2 or 3 exceptional places that I really want to go and see once I go back to Earth.

I wanted to go back and see those places, and then I started taking pictures. Sure enough, instead of ending up with 2 or 3, I ended up with three hundred and something, which obviously is impossible because I don't have either the money or the time to visit all those places. So really it is difficult to say which is the best, because from up there, everything looks so astonishing. I mean frozen lands from up there look pretty inhospitable, but from space they look wonderful. Just so interesting.

When Expedition 27 was coming to an end, what were your feelings as you prepared to leave the ISS, your home for the last 6 months?

Well you know, six months pass fairly quickly, which is astonishing, but this is what happens. And six months pass even quicker because we had so many visiting vehicles- 2 shuttles and things like that, so we were always busy busy busy. But it turns out that the last shuttle was delayed, and it came at exactly the moment in which we needed to leave which caused an operational problem. They actually delayed our return by a week, and they were thinking of delaying it even more. We even asked to be delayed even more because we wanted to stay up there. Then it turned out that this was not possible. But I would have to say in my opinion the strongest emotion was that I was glad that the six months had passed in a pretty good way.

I felt I worked effectively with Mission Control and the other crew members. We got a lot of data, we really worked well in orbit, nothing major happened, so I had a good sense of accomplishment which was pretty good. I have to say however that I was not ready to go home really, because I had other things to do, but you know, time passes and things need to be done. And I have to say that in a certain way when I was going home that it was a good mission. I mean it doesn't take much to turn a good mission into a disaster, so in a certain way I was happy to be where I was. I did not cry when I left the station, well.. maybe I cried but it was more emotional I think. I did not live with displeasure, I mean, I was very neutral. I was coming back but I was neither happy nor sad. I think I came back exactly the time I needed to come back.

In the last couple of weeks, it has been announced that there will be a year long mission to the ISS. Do you feel that now is the right time to carry out a mission like this?

The Soyuz MS-05 crew ready for launch credit: Roscosmos

I feel we need to know more about what happens to the body and what happens to the mind when you stay in space for a long time. There was a Russian cosmonaut who stayed in space for well over a year, so the Russians have done  this in a more restricted and confined environment (Mir Space Station) than what is today space station, where we have internet, telephone, teleconference capabilities so we can talk to Mission Control whenever we want. So I feel we need to understand more about longer duration missions if we want to go to Mars and continue exploration.

I think it's a good time for NASA, and the community to tackle a one year mission. I personally would like to go on a one year mission. I know many US astronauts who volunteer for that, so NASA really had problems to select an astronaut, but basically yeah, I think that now is a good time, and I think we should do it.

Do you feel that in order to achieve the goal of landing on Mars, all space faring nations like the US, Europe, Russia, China and India all need to work together in order to achieve this goal?

Well you know, there are technical considerations, and there are political considerations. I'm not sure I can do political considerations because this is not my field. But obviously, in my opinion, the most problematic point of going to Mars is to find secure political support. It's not a technological problem, it's not a capability problem, it's more support. Going to Mars costs a lot, and we need good political will, and I feel that now, we do not have such a political will.

I think that going to Mars will be better done if completed on an international point of view. A mission to Mars by the human race. Instead of just by Italy, United States, Russia or China or whatever. I think it would be better if we went as humanity, but I am not sure if this would work. It might be that the Chinese decide that it is an important strategical goal for their nation to go to Mars, and they will decide to go. For sure it's easy if one nation decides. It's more difficult if a consortium of nations is in charge of this task. I don't know! I feel it would be much better for humanity if we went as human beings, as united nations or something like that. But as you know it's not so simple!

To celebrate Paolo's return to the ISS, Blackrock Castle Observatory are offering free admission from 16:30 – 17:00. For more information, please click here.

Live coverage of the Soyuz MS-05 launch, rendezvous and docking to the International Space Station will be available on NASA TV.

Thank you for reading Irish Space Blog!

Questions and Answers With Space Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane

I recently had the enormous privilege of interviewing retired pilot and former NASA astronaut Mike Mullane. In a quick Q&A session, it was great to ask Mike about his opinions on the the past, present and future of human space flight.

At what point did you decide that you wanted to pursue a career exploring space?

I was twelve years old when Sputnik’s launch by the Russians started the space race.  As soon as American astronauts were selected (the Mercury 7 Astronauts) I knew I wanted to be an astronaut.

How important do you feel the space shuttle was in terms of allowing us to take the next step and construct something as huge as the International Space Station?

The ISS could not have been constructed without the Space Shuttle.  The robotics of its “arm”, its ability to carry large payloads, and the presence of spacewalking astronauts were all essential to build the ISS.

What are your feelings about the retirement of a flying machine as great as the shuttle, and the fact that now, US astronauts have to fly on the Russian Soyuz in order to go to the ISS?  

Retiring the shuttle was the right decision.  If we want to put astronauts back on the moon, on asteroids, and/or Mars, we need a vehicle that can fly out of earth orbit.  The shuttle cannot do that.  But I’m saddened that America’s financial situation makes it unlikely that any deep space exploration by humans will occur for many, many years.  It’s a national tragedy that we have to rely on the Russians to put Americans in space.

One of NASA'S main goals for the future is to land a man on Mars. Do you feel that in order to go to places such as this, man needs to return to the moon, so that we can practice techniques such as landing and rendezvous?  

No.  We know how to land and rendezvous.  What we need to better understand is how to protect astronauts during multi-year missions (as will be a mission to Mars).  The ISS will allow the opportunity to better understand the hazards of long space flights.

Countries such as India and China have expressed their desire to land a man on the moon, and have their own space station by the 2020's. Do you feel that older space faring nations like the US and Russia need to work together with these countries, rather than having a divide?  

India, yes.  It’s a democracy.  China, no. China needs to make some movement toward democracy. 

Editor's note:

This interview was originally published on October 27 2012 with the prior consent of astronaut Mike Mullane.

A big thanks to Mike for taking the time to share with me his opinions. If you want to learn more about Mike and his career as a pilot and astronaut be sure to read his excellent book entitled "Riding Rockets" which is available on his website: http://mikemullane.com/riding-rockets/

Thank you for reading Irish Space Blog!