Russia set to resume manned Soyuz flights after crash

BBC News - Russia set to resume manned Soyuz flights after crash: "A Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts - two Russians and one American - is due to launch shortly (0414 GMT) from Kazakhstan.

They are the first to travel on a Russian Soyuz craft since a similar unmanned rocket carrying cargo crashed shortly after launch in August."


Expedition 29 Set for Launch Tonight onboard Soyuz TMA-22 - SpaceRef Canada: "Expedition 29 has been given the green light for launch today at 11:13 p.m. EST to the International Space Station. Onboard the Soyuz spacecraft will be Commander Anton Shkaplerov, NASA Flight Engineer Dan Burbank and Russian Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin.

The crew also conducted a final pre-launch news conference at the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters and prepared for liftoff on November 14, Baikonur time, in the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft. The trio will begin a five and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Also featured in the video are the backup crew members, Russian Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Revin."

SpaceX, NASA schedule next Dragon flight for early 2012

"The first SpaceX demonstration flight to the International Space Station will launch no sooner than January as NASA awaits final delivery of flight software before clearing the mission to proceed, according to space agency sources."

Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | SpaceX, NASA schedule next Dragon flight for early 2012

NASA Releases Updated Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55

NASA Scientists working with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have released a second, longer, and more refined, movie clip of asteroid 2005 YU55. The images were generated from data collected at Goldstone on Nov. 7, 2011, between 11:24 a.m. and 1:35 p.m. PST (2:24 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. EST).  

The movie clip can be found at: http://1.usa.gov/YU55

NASA Releases Updated Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55 - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: 

NASA's J-2X Upper Stage Engine Passes Major Test

NASA conducted a successful 500-second test firing of the J-2X rocket engine on Wednesday, Nov. 9, marking another important step in development of an upper stage for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS).

SLS will carry the Orion spacecraft, its crew, cargo, equipment and science experiments to destinations in deep space. SLS will be safe, affordable and sustainable to continue America's journey of discovery from the unique vantage point of space.

The J-2X is derived from the Apollo era J-2 which successfully powered 9 manned spacecraft towards the moon.

"The J-2X engine is critical to the development of the Space Launch System," Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, said after the test at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. "Today's test means NASA is moving closer to developing the rocket it needs if humans are to explore beyond low-Earth orbit."

NASA - NASA's New Upper Stage Engine Passes Major Test:

Controllers desperately trying to reboot Phobos Grunt

Ground controllers appear to be engaged in a desperate last ditch effort to save the Phobos Grunt mission. If multiple reports are correct, the spacecraft has been silent since it's second orbit, when it reported solar panel deployment and nominal operations.

After that Phobos Grunt's main propulsion unit failed to make the two burns required to put the spacecraft on a trajectory toward Mars. The craft was over South America and out of range of Russian tracking stations at the time.

It appears that while the spacecraft has been within range of Russian ground stations that controllers have been sending commands to reboot it's flight computer. Apparently, without success so far.

Communication sessions with Phobos Grunt are limited to brief periods each night while the craft passes over Russia or Kazakhstan. The European Space Agency has offered it's tracking stations in Australia and South America to assist in the effort.

With no official word coming from the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) speculation is rife on the internet as to what really is happening.

Russianspaceweb.com edited by Anatoly Zak, a journalist and expert on Russia's space program is reporting the following:

"In early hours Moscow Time, the editor of this web site received a message from the director of Moscow-based Space Research Institute, IKI, Lev Zeleny, informing that tracking facilities of the US military provided significant help in establishing exact orbital parameters of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft. This data was to be used during the previous night to send commands to the spacecraft as it was passing within range of ground control stations. Zeleny reassured that the mission team still had had "few days for reprogramming before the end of the Mars accessibility window for 2011."

Notice that Zeleny did not say the spacecraft had accepted the commands, only that they had been sent.

Zak's article continues:


"In the meantime, a poster on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum reported some crucial details on the very initial phase of the mission. As it transpired, immediately after reaching the orbit, telemetry was received from the second stage confirming normal separation of the rocket and the spacecraft. During the second orbit, ground control received the only communication from the spacecraft itself, confirming that solar panels had been deployed, the vehicle acquired correct orientation toward the Sun and all systems had been functioning well. However after the second orbit, the spacecraft was found in orbit transmitting no signals and no telemetry came during the previous night. At a ground station in Baikonur, ground controllers attempted to re-boot Phobos-Grunt's flight control computers, BKU, and were planning to repeat the same attempt during the upcoming night."

So at this point things are looking grim for the Phobos Grunt mission. It appears that there has been no communication with the spacecraft since sometime in it's second orbit and that so far attempts to reboot it's computer have failed. 

Unless flight controllers can pull off a miracle it appears Phobos Grunt is doomed.

Phobos Grunt stuck in low Earth orbit

After a flawless launch provided by it's Zenit booster the Phobos Grunt's main propulsion unit failed to make the two burns required to put the spacecraft on a trajectory toward Mars. If Russian engineers can find and fix the problem within three days, before the crafts batteries drain, there's a chance they can salvage the mission.

Spaceflight Now: "We had a difficult night, and we could not locate the spacecraft for a long time," Popovkin said in a report by the Russian Novosti news agency. "We now have its position. It was found that the propulsion system failed. There was neither the first nor the second burn."

Popovkin said the spacecraft may not have issued the command for a specially-designed rocket system to ignite, adding such an issue was foreseen during the development of the mission. He also suggested there could have been a problem with the craft's orientation and switching from sun-tracking to star-tracking, according to the Novosti report.

Atlanta Journal article: "James Oberg, a NASA veteran who now works as a space consultant, said it's still possible to regain control over the Russia space probe."

"With several days of battery power, and with the probe's orbit slowly twisting out of the optimal alignment with the desired path towards Mars, the race is on to regain control, diagnose the potential computer code flaws, and send up emergency rocket engine control commands," Oberg said in an email to The Associated Press. "Depending on the actual root of the failure, this is not an impossible challenge."

Russian Phobos Grunt Mars probe set for launch today

Phobos Grunt mission poster

November 9 - 0130 UTC: After a flawless launch provided by it's Zenit booster the Phobos Grunt's main propulsion unit failed to make the two burns required to put the spacecraft on a trajectory toward Mars. If Russian engineers can find and fix the problem withing three days, before the crafts batteries drain, there's a chance they can salvage the mission.


Spaceflight Now: "We had a difficult night, and we could not locate the spacecraft for a long time," Popovkin said in a report by the Russian Novosti news agency. "We now have its position. It was found that the propulsion system failed. There was neither the first nor the second burn."

Popovkin said the spacecraft may not have issued the command for a specially-designed rocket system to ignite, adding such an issue was foreseen during the development of the mission. He also suggested there could have been a problem with the craft's orientation and switching from sun-tracking to star-tracking, according to the Novosti report.

Atlanta Journal article: "James Oberg, a NASA veteran who now works as a space consultant, said it's still possible to regain control over the Russia space probe."

"With several days of battery power, and with the probe's orbit slowly twisting out of the optimal alignment with the desired path towards Mars, the race is on to regain control, diagnose the potential computer code flaws, and send up emergency rocket engine control commands," Oberg said in an email to The Associated Press. "Depending on the actual root of the failure, this is not an impossible challenge."
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November 8 - 2026 UTC: A successful Zenit launch carrying the Phobos Grunt spacecraft.  Two burns of the Phobos Grunt's main propulsion unit remain before the vehicle is on course to Mars.
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Russia plans to launch it's bold Phobos Grunt mission to Mars today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Grunt means "soil" in Russian) The missions objective is to land on the Martian moon Phobos, collect soil samples and return them to Earth three years later.

Launch is scheduled for 2016:03 GMT (12:16:03 p.m. PST) today. Phobos Grunt will make it's 9 minute ride to orbit on a two stage Zenit rocket.  Once in Earth orbit the spacecraft's main propulsion unit will make two burns to place it on a course to intersect Mars 11 months later. After arriving at Mars the same propulsion unit, based on the Fregat upper stage, will be used once more to place the craft in mars orbit.


Once in Mars orbit Phobos Grunt will jettison the propulsion unit and deploy China's Yinghuo 1 orbiter, which piggybacked it's ride to there.


The spacecraft is expected to reach the vicinity of Mars in October 2012. Before attempting a Phobos landing several months will be spent investigating Mars and it's moons. 

By early 2013 Phobos Grunt will have approached Phobos and began looking for a landing site. In February 2013 it's expected that the lander will  attempt to land on Phobos. Once on the surface it will collect up to half a pound of samples with it's robotic arm and drill.

Phobos-Grunt's will then launch it's return capsule toward Earth, where it's expected to land in August 2014.  The lander will remain on Phobos continuing it's investigations for up to a year.

Images: RosCos

NASA's Cassini to Radar Map Enceladus

NASA's Cassini Saturn orbiter is set acquire the first detailed radar images of Saturn's moon Enceladus during a flyby on 6 November. These will be the first high-resolution radar observations made of an icy moon other than Titan. The results will provide new information about the surface of Enceladus and enable researchers to compare its geological features as seen by radar with those of Titan.

The spacecraft will fly past Enceladus at a distance of about 300 miles (500 kilometers) at its closest point. During the encounter, Cassini's synthetic aperture radar will sweep across a long, narrow swath of the surface just north of the moon's south pole. Cassini will use other radar techniques to map much more of the surface of Enceladus at lower resolutions and determine some of the surface's physical properties as the spacecraft approaches and then speeds away from the icy body.

NASA's Cassini Makes a New Pass at Enceladus - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

Image: NASA

Galileo satellites handed over to control center in Germany

Europe’s first two Galileo satellites, launched by a Soyuz booster from French Guiana on 21 October, have reached their final operating orbits, paving the way for activating and testing their navigation payloads.

Marking the formal end of their LEOP Launch and Early Operations Phase, control of the satellites was passed yesterday from the CNES French space agency centre in Toulouse to the Galileo Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany.

ESA - Galileo IOV Launch - Galileo satellites handed over to control centre in Germany:

Voyager 2 Switches to Backup Thrusters to Conserve Energy

NASA took steps on 4 November to extend the life of the Voyager 2 spacecraft. NASA's Deep Space Network sent commands to the spacecraft to switch to the backup set of thrusters that controls the roll of the spacecraft. Confirmation was received today that the spacecraft accepted the commands. The change will allow the 34-year-old spacecraft to reduce the amount of power it requires to operate and use previously unused thrusters as it continues its journey toward interstellar space, beyond our solar system.


The Voyager space probes have 3 radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG} which generated 470 watts total when new.  Today they have degraded to about 270 watts, necessitating the gradual powering down of equipment over the years.  These probes are expected to lose all capability to power instruments in 2025 (almost 50 years after launch).


Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are each equipped with six sets, or pairs, of thrusters to control their movement. These include three pairs of primary thrusters and three backup, or redundant, pairs. Voyager 2 is currently using the two pairs of backup thrusters that control the pitch and yaw motion of the spacecraft. Switching to the backup thruster pair that controls roll motion will allow engineers to turn off the heater that keeps the fuel line to the primary thruster warm. This will save about 12 watts of power. The spacecraft's power supply now provides about 270 watts of electricity. By reducing its power usage, the spacecraft can continue to operate for another decade even as its available power continues to decline.

The thrusters involved in this switch have fired more than 318,000 times. The backup pair has not been used in flight. Voyager 1 changed to the backup for this same component after 353,000 pulses in 2004 and is now using all three sets of its backup thrusters.

Voyager 2 will relay the results of the switch back to Earth on Nov. 13. The signal will arrive on Earth on Nov. 14. Voyager 2 is currently located about 9 billion miles (14 billion kilometers) from Earth in the "heliosheath" -- the outermost layer of the heliosphere where the solar wind, which streams out from the sun, is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas.

NASA - Voyager 2 to Switch to Backup Thruster Set

Video: Shenzhou-8 successfully docs with Tiangong-1

Schnzhou-8 has successfully docked with Tiangong-1