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Bring together As India arrived in lunar orbit this morning, bickering over who was going to lead NASA's next lander, Rocket Lab landed another hit and a Chinese satellite seemed to collapse.
Rocket Lab: "Look at my mother, no hands"
Rocket Lab continued its successful launches yesterday by sending four additional satellites into orbit aboard its Electron launcher.
The eighth launch, entitled "Look Ma, No Hands", also included the Blackbox Recorder and the useful telemetry system (BRUTUS) to measure the loads on the first stage as it returned to the sea before the booster changes intended to reuse the thing.
The first visible changes on the Electron vehicle should be observed at launch, after which recovery efforts will start seriously next year.
The launch took place yesterday at 12:12 UTC, at the company's complex located on the Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand, after being delayed by strong winds at the site this weekend.
Two experimental spacecraft for the US Air Force, a maritime surveillance platform for UNSEENLABS and another terrestrial imagery satellite for BlackSky have been deployed by Electron's Kick Stage in a 540 orbit. x 540 km approximately 54 minutes after take-off.
The BlackSky Global-4 satellite joins the Global-3 satellite launched by Electron in June.
As always, Rocket Lab remains discreet about the next launch, only indicating that its takeoff is expected "in the coming weeks".
The ups and downs of China
Another launcher destined for the growing light-satellite market made its first flight into orbit last week while a new rocket developed by the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) sent three satellites in orbit.
The rocket, the Smart Dragon-1 (SD-1), has taken less than 18 months to develop, according to Chinese media, and is capable of sending 200 kg into a synchronous solar orbit. The rocket, which uses solid propellant, is remarkable in that it can be manufactured in six months and fired less than 24 hours after arriving at the launch site.
Operators, China Rocket Co Ltd, plan to complete five vehicle launches by the end of 2020.
However, the news was not as good for ChinaSat 18, a communications satellite launched into space by a Long March-3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 19:03 UTC on 19 August. After a still longer silence than usual on the state of the mission, it seems that the launch was a success and that the separation of the satellite was "normal", but that the spacecraft itself "works abnormally".
Handbags at dawn on Lunar Lander
NASA Director Jim Bridenstine visited the Michoud Assembly Center last week to review the progress of the monstrously delayed launch system (SLS), which is expected to bring astronauts to the moon. 2024.
The main phase of the rocket, once completed and equipped with four RS-25 engines recovered from the Space Shuttle program, will be 212 feet tall and more than 27 feet in diameter. It will then be triggered as part of the Green Run test before being shipped to Florida prior to launch.
The launch date itself "remains in the study" as NASA is still looking for someone to run the manned spaceflight program, according to Bridenstine.
However, to land on the moon, humans need a lander. The inevitable rivalry between NASA centers and information centers arose again when Bridenstine took the opportunity to announce that the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama (with "experts from other centers") would lead the development of this major asset.
Spurred by the fact that NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) would simply work with a commercial partner to design and develop the "logistics and housing outpost" of the Lunar Gateway, the member of the Congress Brian Babin of Texas grumbled that he was "disappointed with the decision," stressing JSC was "where the Apollo lunar lander program has been successfully managed."
Of course, the brain of this lander has long since retired or died and all surviving documents reside in NASA's archives. And to give a logical conclusion to Babin, the Apollo lander was built at the Grumman plant in Bethpage, New York. Therefore, the congressman would also like to see the workshops, the last of which was closed 25 years ago, reopened in 2024 effort.
Probably not.
Although a visit to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in New York may help to understand how things went on during the day, since the 13th and last Apollo Lunar Lander (built for Apollo 18) remains exposed .
ULA sends a pilgrim to the moon
Astrobotic will use the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur to deliver its Peregrine lander on the Moon in 2021.
Astrobotic received $ 79.5 million under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which will carry up to 14 payloads for the agency transported on the surface lunar. The company has managed to recruit 16 customers for its first mission on Moon.
And it will be a risky mission. The launch from Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida will be the first of two certification flights for the new booster. Although the first launch of Atlas V was a success, sticking material on one of the first flights is still brave.
The reason why Astrobotic chose Vulcan Centaurus in what CEO John Thornton described as "a highly competitive business process". Presumably, significant discounts have been put in place to deter the holding of something like a Falcon 9.
After all, we understand that SpaceX may have some room for maneuver following the termination of the OrbitBeyond CLPS contract in competition.
Too early?
Chandrayaan-2 arrives in lunar orbit
Finally, the Indian Chandrayaan-2 completed his maneuver into lunar orbit this morning with a 1,738-second engine burn to drop the probe into an orbit of 114 x 18,072 km.
It will still take a few burns to place the probe in a final orbit, about 100 km from the surface of the Moon. The LG will then separate and head to a 100 x 30 km orbit before a soft landing in the southern polar region on 7 September. ®
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