NASA Orion Heat Shield glows red as Spacecraft re-enters Earth Atmosphere

Entry interface confirmed. The Orion spacecraft is falling back into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at an altitude of 400,000 feet.

Credit: NASA

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus 'Fireball' Re-Entry from Space Station - Video

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere on August 17th, 2014. ISS crew member Alexander Gerst captured imagery to create a time-lapse of the fireworks.

See Photos of the Destruction

Orbital Science Cygnus cargo ship makes planned re-entry to Earth

This picture provided by NASA shows the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket launching with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard on July 13, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

Orbital Sciences Corporation's unmanned Cygnus cargo ship disintegrated as planned Sunday as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere after a month-long resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft had been released from the orbiting lab on Friday at 6:40 am (1040 GMT), and then stayed in independent orbit for two days, before firing its engines and pushing into Earth's atmosphere.

The de-orbit burn had been scheduled to take just under 30 minutes.

Cygnus reentry [17 Aug 2014]. Alexander Gerst commented on Twitter "In 84 days Reid, Max and I will ride home inside such an amazing fireball!" 

Credit: NASA/ESA/Alexander Gerst

The crew on board the space station watched and documented the spacecraft's plasma trail, posting pictures of the comet-like streak to Twitter.

Cygnus launched July 13 and arrived at the ISS three days later, bearing a load of 3,653 pounds (1,657 kilograms) of gear, food and science experiments.

The resupply mission was part of a billion dollar contract with NASA for multiple journeys to the ISS.

NASA's Orion MPV spacecraft mock-up undergoes Recovery test

Credit: NASA, U.S. Navy 

A test version of NASA's Orion MPV spacecraft floats inside the well deck of the U.S.S. Anchorage on Aug. 2, 2014, during recovery tests off the coast of California.

A combined NASA and U.S. Navy team practiced recovery techniques over the weekend, in preparation for Orion's first trip to (and return from) space in Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) in December.

Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars.

It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

After traveling 3,600 miles into space on the unmanned or robotic EFT-1, Orion will return to Earth at a speed of 20,000 miles per hour and endure temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit before landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Video of the SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage reentry and landing following successful delivery of six ORBCOMM satellites to orbit. 

This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.

After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. 

The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. 

Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.

SpaceX today released video from the Falcon 9 first stage flyback and landing video from the July 14 launch of six ORBCOMM advanced telecommunications satellites.

This was a test of the reusability of the Falcon 9′s first stage and its flyback and landing system.

It splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, and SpaceX called it a "soft" landing, even though the booster did not survive the splashdown.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on July 14 that the rocket booster reentry, landing burn and leg deployment worked well, but the hull of the first stage "lost integrity right after splashdown (aka kaboom)."

He later reported that detailed review of rocket telemetry showed the booster took a "body slam, maybe from a self-generated wave."

SpaceX today said last week's test "confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity."

This video is of much higher quality than the video from the first soft landing test in the ocean, back in April of this year following the launch of the CRS-3 mission for the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Even though the booster has not been recoverable from either test (the April test saw too rough of seas to get the booster) SpaceX said that they received all the necessary data "to achieve a successful landing on a future flight.

The booster tipping over is the nominal procedure (in water), but the booster did touch down in a vertical position; additionally, as seen in the video, the landing legs deployed perfectly, and the flyback boosters performed flawlessly.


Screenshot from the SpaceX webcast of the Falcon 9 launch on July 14, 2013.

"At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment," SpaceX said in today's press release.

"However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don't allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode."

The next attempt for a our next water landing will be on Falcon 9′s thirteenth flight, a launch to the ISS for the fourth resupply mission, but they indicated the test would have a "low probability of success."

That flight is currently scheduled for no earlier than September 12, 2014. The next big challenge comes in flights 14 (another ORBCOMM satellite launch) and 15 (Turkmen satellite), where the booster will attempt to land on a solid surface. Those flights are currently scheduled for NET October and November of 2014.

ISS Expedition 31 Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan - YouTube

Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan near the town of Dzhezkazgan on July 1, 2012, after bidding farewell to the Expedition 32 crew and undocking their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft from the International Space Station.

ESA Astronaut André Kuipers Returns to Earth from ISS

ESA astronaut André Kuipers shortly after returning to Earth on Sunday 1 July 2012.

He landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 08:14 GMT after 193 days in space.

André conducted many scientific experiments during his six-month PromISSe mission on the International Space Station.

In addition to his scientific workload, André carried out maintenance and operational tasks. Highlights included receiving ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle Edoardo Amaldi cargo ferry and docking the first commercial spacecraft, Dragon.

For further information, please visit: www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMZAO1VW3H_index_0.htmlCredits: ESA–S. Corvaja, 2012

NASA X-37B Space Drone OTV-2 Returns to Earth Safely

The USAF X-37B designated Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV)-2 returned to Earth on Saturday, June 16th after 468 days 13 hours and 2 minutes on a voyage that orbited the Earth more than 7,000 times performing a classified mission.

OTV-2 received the command from its ground controller to return and initiated an autonomous firing sequence of its propulsion system to brake from its orbit and dive through the atmosphere for a reentry over the Pacific Ocean.

OTV-2 executed a series of turns similar to those performed by the Space Shuttle to dissipate speed as it navigated autonomously via GPS towards Vandenberg AFB in California. OTV-2 touched down on the 3-mile (4.8 kilometer) long runway at Vandenberg 5:48 a.m. local (8:48 a.m. EDT; 1248 GMT).

OTV-2′s flight and that of its sister ship OTV-1, is classified and will likely remain so.

It is that secrecy that has spawned speculation about the purpose of the both spacecraft ranging from a test-bed for new sensors and materials to being a prototype for a new generation of space weapons.

The U.S. Air Force maintains that both spacecraft are designed as test-beds for new technologies; however, the classified nature of the project will ensure that speculation will continue.

NASA to test IRVE-3 Inflatable Re-entry system

Your spacecraft is falling from the skies at an initial speed of Mach 25.

Your reentry heat shield, that has to survive a 7,800 degrees Celsius (14,072° F) plasma shock, is a finely tuned hi-tech amalgam of refractory metals and carbides and reinforced carbon-carbon ablation materials.

Care to replace your mighty heat shield with a balloon? Not likely! But that is exactly what NASA is considering.

This summer, the third in a series of NASA suborbital test flights will attempt to demonstrate the feasibility of inflatable spacecraft.

The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) is scheduled for a suborbital test flight from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore later this northern summer.

Part of the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) project within NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist's Game Changing Development (GCD) Program, IRVE-3 is one of NASA's many projects to develop new technologies to advance space travel.

NASA ISS Expedition 30 Crew Returns to Earth - YouTube

Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank of NASA, Russian Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan on April 27, 2012, after bidding farewell to the Expedition 31 crew and undocking their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft from the International Space Station.

The trio completed almost six months in space following a launch in November 2011. They are shown being assisted into reclining chairs by Russian personnel and beginning their adaptation to gravity after they were extracted from their capsule in Kazakhstan.

NASA Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank's safe Return

Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank smiles as he rests outside the Soyuz TMA-02M Capsule just minutes after he and Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin landed in a remote area outside of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on Friday, April 27, 2012.

NASA Astronaut Burbank, Russian Cosmonauts Shkaplerov and Ivanishin are returning from more than five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 29 and 30 crews.

image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi 

NASA ISS Expedition 30 Crew Land Safely - Video

Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank is carried to a medical tent after being extracted from the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft (Credits: NASA).

NASA ISS Expedition 30 crew Departure: Hatches close on Soyuz TMA-22

The Expedition Crew 30 and 31 prior to departure.

Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko (left) and Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank prepare to close the hatches between the International Space Station and the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft. Credit: NASA

Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin have said their farewells, entered the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft and closed the hatches at 1:12 a.m. EDT.

They will undock from the International Space Station at 4:18 a.m. ending Expedition 30 and landing in Kazakhstan three and a half hours later.

The Soyuz will perform a deorbit burn before the descent module separates from the rest of the Russian spacecraft and enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

Afterwards, the Soyuz will deploy several parachutes slowing its descent and then fire three small engines to soften its landing in the steppe of Kazakhstan.

ESA: DLR ROSAT Almost Crashed Into Beijing

The video shows a reconstruction of the reentry of ROSAT.

According to German newspaper Der Spiegel, the German Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) almost crashed into Beijing during its reentry. ”ROSAT nearly caused what would have been among the worst catastrophes in the history of space exploration,” reads the article, “In the night from Oct. 22 to 23 last year, the defunct satellite fell to Earth — just barely missing the Chinese capital Beijing, population 20 million.”

ROSAT was a 2.5 tons satellite built up with very durable materials. The heaviest component was the satellite’s X-ray optical system, whose mirrors and mechanical support was held in place by a massive structure made of carbon-fiber reinforced composite.

A study published before reentry predicted that up to 1.6 tons of satellite fragments, more than half of the spacecraft’s mass, could have survived reentry. Is has been estimated that as many as 30 individual pieces could have made to the ground.

An impact on Beijing would have surely caused deep craters, damage to buildings and human casualties.

According to calculation by the European Space Agency, what made the difference was a window of just a few minutes: ”Our calculations showed that, if Rosat had crashed to the ground just seven to 10 minutes later, it would have hit Beijing,” says to Der Spiegel Heiner Klinkrad, head of the ESA’s Space Debris team, “[an impact was] very much within the realm of possibility.”

The ROSAT project was developed jointly by Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The launch was procured by DLR , the Germany’s space agency. Launched on June 1, 1990 on top of a Delta II rocket, the spacecraft operated successfully for nearly nine years, until February 12, 1999.

At the time of reentry, the spacecraft was completely inert spacecraft is completely inert, so there was no way to control its final trajectory.

The satellite finally plunged into the waters of the Bay of Bengal on October 22, 2012, with no damages to people or property.

NASA HIAD: Changing the Way We Explore Worlds

A giant cone of inner tubes assembled sort of like a child's stacking ring toy may some day help cargo, or even people, land on another planet, return to Earth or any destination with an atmosphere.

NASA calls the inflatable spacecraft technology Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator or HIAD, for short.

The HIAD could give NASA more options for future planetary missions, because it could allow spacecraft to carry larger, heavier scientific instruments and other tools for exploration.

Express AM4 Destroyed as Effort To Save Russian Satellite Shunned

Express AM-4 satellite. Credit: EADS Astrium photo

The Russian Express AM4 communications satellite, placed into a bad orbit after a rocket failure during its August launch, was intentionally crashed into the Pacific Ocean March 25 despite an attempt to save the craft to serve Antarctic scientists, Spaceflight Now reports.

Polar Broadband Systems Ltd. wanted to purchase the satellite and raise its orbit so that it could provide broadband coverage to researchers in the South Pole region, said company co-founder Bill Readdy, a former space shuttle commander and NASA manager. But the company’s phone calls to the Russian space agency and Express AM4’s insurance underwriter in recent days were not answered, Readdy said.

Moving the satellite into an orbit high over Antarctic research sites would have provided broadband coverage of the South Pole region for more than 14 hours per day, Readdy said.

Soviet Weather Satellite, Meteor-1 to Fall to Earth

Russia is stopping the mission of the Express-AM4 telecommunication satellite, which was launched in August. 

At about 17.32 Moscow time on Sunday, the flight control center will descend the satellite from its orbit, and it will fall into the ocean near the Hawaii Islands. 

To avoid any collisions, the region will be closed for ships and planes for the time of the operation.

Meteor-1, the Soviet Union's first fully operational weather satellite, will on Monday night re-enter the Earth's atmosphere after more than four decades in orbit, the web site of the U.S. Strategic Command said.

The Meteor satellite series was developed in the Soviet Union during the sixties.

On March 26, 1969, a Vostok rocket launched Meteor -1, the very first version of the Soviet Meteor satellite network, into orbit. The satellite terminated operations in July 1970, according to NASA information.

The spacecraft is expected to begin falling at 3:13 a.m. Moscow time on March 27 with debris estimated to fall into the Indian Ocean south of Sri Lanka, the U.S. Strategic Command said.

Weighing between 1,200 and 1,400 kilograms, the Meteor 1-1 spacecraft was originally placed in orbit at an altitude of 650 km, the Space Safety magazine said.

Two solar panels were automatically oriented toward the sun to provide the spacecraft with the maximum amount of solar power.

Meteor-1 provided near-global observations of the earth's weather systems, cloud cover, ice and snow fields, and reflected and emitted radiation from the dayside and nightside of the earth-atmosphere system for operational use by the Soviet meteorological service.

Some of the processed data and TV pictures from the satellite were distributed to meteorological centers around the world.

MT Aerospace to manufacture flight hardware for ESA IXV reentry vehicle

MT Aerospace received an important follow-up order to manufacture ceramic compound body flaps and heat shield components for the European IXV reentry vehicle.

After completion of the development phase and successful Critical Design Review, Thales Alenia Space Italia, as prime contractor, and the Augsburg/Germany based company signed a contract for the qualification and manufacture of the IXV vehicle's flight hardware.

IXV will be launched into space in 2014 to test reentry technologies for future space applications.

The lightweight ceramic body flaps, each with a length of 0.8 m and a weight of ca. 37 kg, as well as main components of the thermal protection system on the vehicle's leeward side have been developed in Augsburg and are fabricated of patented, high-temperature resistant fiber-reinforced ceramic composites.

These high-performance composites ensure that the components will withstand extreme temperatures of up to 1,900 degrees C and quasi-static loads of up to 5.7 g - a crucial prerequisite for the successful reentry of the IXV, during which the vehicle starts from an altitude of around 450 km and reaches a velocity of 7.5 km/s on entering earth atmosphere.

The highly complex components are going to be delivered by the second half of 2013. IXV will be launched into space on board of a Vega launcher and is intended to collect a large number of useful data at reentry. The aim is to gain valuable knowledge on reentry systems for future European space missions.

NASA MARS HiRISE: Search for Beagle 2 Lander

This is the twelfth image from HiRISE in the part of Isidis basin where the British Beagle 2 spacecraft was supposed to land around Christmas time of 2003.

All contact was lost after its separation from the Mars Express spacecraft six days before atmospheric entry.

The lack of telemetry on its way to the surface means there is little information about where the spacecraft may have landed on the surface--we can only search in the region where it was expected to land if the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence had been nominal.

EDL was probably not nominal, but perhaps the spacecraft did land correctly and failure occurred for some other reason.

Nothing resembling the Beagle lander has been seen in any of the HiRISE images, although we aren't sure that they've been thoroughly searched. For an idea of what the Beagle 2 hardware might look like, see this web page.

The easiest thing to spot would be the bright parachute, if it actually deployed. The parachutes are still easy to spot at the MER and Pathfinder landing sites, so dust deposition over the past eight years probably would not disguise the bright feature over equatorial regions of Mars.

At high latitudes the brightness patterns are reset each winter by the seasonal deposits of carbon-dioxide and dust, as seen at the Phoenix landing site. However, beware of bright cosmic-ray hits.

EDL on Mars is difficult! Only the United States has succeeded, with Viking 1, Viking 2, Mars Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, and Phoenix.

The 1999 Mars Polar lander was a failure, as was Beagle 2 and six landing attempts by the former Soviet Union.

One of the Soviet landers, Mars 3, made it to the surface and transmitted some data or noise for 20 seconds before failure. We haven't been able to locate any of the Soviet lander hardware from HiRISE images.

Searching for this hardware is like looking for a needle in a really big haystack, and we don't know what the needle looks like.

In August 2012 NASA will attempt to land the biggest rover ever sent to Mars, MSL or Curiosity. HiRISE will attempt to image MSL during descent, as it did for Phoenix, and after what is hopefully a successful landing.

Written by: Alfred McEwen (11 January 2012)

Rocosmos update: Phobos Grunt

As of January 14 spacecraft (SC) "Phobos-Grunt" is on the earth elliptical orbit with the following parameters:

- Apogee (maximum altitude) - 174.2 km;

- Perigee (minimum altitude) - 149.7 km;

- Inclination - 51.44 degrees.;

- Period - 87.57 min.

The projected drop box residues of spacecraft "Phobos-Grunt" on Earth is determined by the dates from the 15th to 16th January, with a central point - 15 January at 21:51 GMT. Possible area falling in the "band" of 51.4 degrees north latitude to 51.4 degrees south latitude is shown in the diagram.

Operational Group is monitoring the convergence of the orbit of the spacecraft "Phobos-Grunt."