Captured from a camera mounted on one of the service module’s solar arrays, this shot show the Artemis 1 Orion vehicle heading back to the Moon on November 29th, 2022, with both the Moon (44,949 km distant from the vehicle) and Earth (435,230 km from the vehicle) visible. Credit: NASA
NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 mission has started its return to Earth. Having reached the furthest distance on November 28th, the vehicle started back towards the Moon as it travels along its distant retrograde orbit (DRO). Along the way it completed a further series of flight tests of both its manoeuvring systems and flights systems, including Callisto, NASA’s voice recognition software (based on Amazon Alexa) designed to assist crews during flight operations.
On Wednesday, November 30th, the vehicle completed the first of three engine burns to start it on it way back to Earth. This was an “orbit maintenance burn” designed to maintain Orion’s trajectory as it headed back to the Moon, and to decrease its velocity, allowing the Moon’s gravity play a greater role in the craft’s trajectory. At 95 seconds, this burn ran for slightly longer than originally planned, allowing mission engineers gather additional data to characterise the impact of the vehicle’s thrusters and their radiative heating on the spacecraft’s solar array wings to help inform Orion’s operational constraints.
Created using NASA’s AROW – The Artemis Real-time Orbit Website – this image shows a view of the Artemis vehicle as it heads back towards the Moon on November 29th, 2022. Credit: NASA
On Thursday, December 1st, Orion completed the more critical DRO exit burn, slowing it further and “bending” its trajectory so it make a close passage around the Moon, bringing it to 127 km above the lunar surface, a point it will reach on Monday, December 5th.. At this point Orion’s service module will fire its main engine to exit lunar orbit to move into a trans-Earth Injection (TEI) flight path that will see it reach Earth on December 11th, when it will enter the atmosphere for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
As well as testing the flight system, NASA has used the flight back towards the Moon to capture further stunning images and video, with the agency also releasing a high-speed “mission highlights” video covering the mission’s launch and flight to the Moon and into DRO.
JWST and Keck Continue to Reveal Titan
In my previous Space Sunday update, I noted that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has returned to full operations following the correction of an issue with its Mid-Infrared Instrument. The event was marked by the release of images captured by the instrument of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
Since then, NASA, the space Telescope Science institute and the Keck observatory have released further stunning images of the moon, these taken with JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
In the first, two images of the moon are placed side-by-side captured using different filters. They reveal both the lower reaches of the moon’s methane-heavy atmosphere. The second reveals how NIRCam can look through the murk of such an atmosphere to see the surface of the moon. Both images reveal intriguing aspects of the moon.
Titan, as images by JWST’s NIRCam, showing (l) the lower atmosphere and (r) the surface. Credit: NASA
On the first, NIRCam reveals two clouds, labelled “A” and “B”, whilst the second reveals some of the known surface details of the moon including Kraken Mare, believed to be a methane / hydrocarbon sea, and above which, intriguingly, “cloud A” had formed, suggesting it might be a weather system. Also imaged was Belet, a range of dark dunes and a bright albedo feature of uncertain nature, called Adiri.
The clouds were of particular interest because they can validate long-held predictions from computer models about Titan’s climate: that clouds would form readily in the mid-northern hemisphere during its late summertime when the surface is warmed by the Sun. Further, observing how the clouds move or change shape might reveal information about the air flow in Titan’s atmosphere.
To this end the JWST team observing Titan contacted colleagues at the Keck Observatory, Hawai’i who were about to start their own infra-red observations of Titan. They agreed to carry out a similar series of observations of the moon to allow for comparative science studies to be carried out.
On the left, the James Webb Space Telescope Nov. 4, 2022, observations of Titan; on the right, Keck Observatory’s view two days later. Credit: NASA / Webb Titan GTO Team and Keck Observatory
The result is a series of images which appear to show the formation, movement and dissipation of the same cloud formations over the course of several days (November 4th-7th), offering the potential for those promised insights into climate and weather around Titan – although astronomers caution the clouds seen by Keck might be of different origin.
NIRCam isn’t the only JWST instrument which gathered data on Titan during the observation period. The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) examined the light reflected by Titan’s atmosphere to gather its spectra, which will allow scientists map what compounds are present in the lower atmosphere — including a strange bright spot over the moon’s South Pole, which has been a source of puzzlement for astronomers and planetary scientists.
On the left, the James Webb Space Telescope Nov. 4, 2022, observations of Titan; in the middle, Keck Observatory’s view two days later; on the right Keck’s view Nov. 7, 2022. Credit: NASA / Webb Titan GTO Team and Keck Observatory
China Sets a National Record for Taikonauts in Orbit
China had six tiakonauts in orbit for the first time this week as the crew of Shenzhou 15 joined their colleagues of the Shenzhou 14 mission aboard the nation’s new space station of a handover of station operations.
Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu departed Earth on 29th November 2022 atop a Long March 2F rocket at around 15:08 UTC on November 29th. The vehicle docked with the forward docking port on Tiangong’s docking hub 6.5 hours later. Following the required post-docking checks, the hatches between station and vehicle were undogged and opened a 23:33 UTC, allowing the Shenzhou 14 crew welcome their colleagues onto the station.
The Shenzhou 14 crew and their newly-arrived Shenzhou 15 crew members, November 29th, 2022. Credit: CMSE
The new crew will be aboard the station for 6 months, and after their welcome and a rest period, they joined Shenzhou 14 team is preparing the station for their stay, carrying out a range of small but essential maintenance work using equipment flown to the station aboard the Tianzhou 5 resupply mission in November.
With the hand-over work completed by Sunday December 4th, the Shenzhou 14 crew departed the station aboard their vehicle at 03:01 UTC. Once clear of the station, they performed a series of fast return de-orbit procedures, allowing them to soft-land within the Dongfeng landing area in the Gobi Desert in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region nine hours later at 12:00 noon UTC.
Their return marked the most successful crewed mission to date for China, with 180 days spent in orbit, three spacewalks, a space lecture and overseeing multiple tests of the station, the arrival of both the the station’s science modules, the manoeuvring (and eventual undocking) of the Tinazhou 4 automated resupply vehicle and the arrival of Tianzhou 5.
A recovery team as the crew return capsule of Shenzhou 14, after it soft-landed in the Dongfeng landing area in the Gobi Desert. Credit: CMSE
The Shenzhou 15 crew are liable to be even busier. Among their tasks, they will be expected to carry out or monitor over 100 experiments both within the science modules and outside, across the six months of their stay. They will also be carrying out three or four EVAs (spacewalks) which will bring new challenges, including “parallel operations” each taikonaut outside the station working independently to the other, with the crew member aboard the station balancing the needs of both EVA crew. Then are scheduled to return to Earth in May 2023.
SpaceX Starship Update
On November 29th, SpaceX completed a second static fire test on its Super Heavy Booster 7, the booster earmarked to try to carry one of the company’s Staship vehicles to orbit – and once again things did not go as quite as planned.
Lasting 13 seconds, the test was 3 seconds longer that the first static fire test, performed on November 14th, although it involved three fewer engines: 11 compared to the 14 used in the November 14th test. However, like the first test the firing resulted in damage to the orbital launch facility, gouging clunks of concrete from under the base of the launch table, hurling them into the air where they might strike the vehicle or the launch facilities.
As I noted following the November 14th test, the flying debris is the result of both an insufficient sound suppression system (SSS) and provision of a flame deflector. The former is best known for deluging a rocket launch platform with thousands of litres of water in order to absorb the sound of the rocket engines which might otherwise be deflected up against the rocket to damage it. However, it has an additional function: to “drown” the launch platform and the area beneath it to protect them from the searing blast of the engine exhausts at lift-off.
The flame deflector performs a similar role in protecting launch facilities from rocket engines by deflecting the exhaust plumes out and away from the launch stand (and also carrying the excess water (and steam) from the SSS away from both the platform and rocket, further lessening the risk of damage to either. Part of the sound suppression system used by NASA for Space Launch System rockets is shown being tested in the video below. This element protect the concrete base on the launch facility, with water also being directed down the central flame deflector seen within the trench used to channel heat, steam and sound away from the launch platform. A second suppression system (not seen in this video) is built-in to the mobile launch platform itself, to give it the aforementioned protection from the heat of the SLS four main engines and two SRBs at launch.
However, SpaceX has thus far eschewed and flame deflector and has opted for a spray system of water and nitrogen gas delivered through pipes within the circular launch table on which the super Heavy / Starship combination sits. Already upgraded since its initial installation, this system appears adequate in terms of sound suppression, but does not properly protect the concrete apron directly below the rocket engines from their full fury.
Whether this remains the case with all Starship / Super Heavy launch facilities remains to be seen: this first orbital launch facility is very much a prototype. However, the lack of consideration for any form of flame deflection mirrors a similar decision not to initially equip the launch stand with another basic requirement of a launch facility: burn-off igniters which resulted in the July 11, 2022 spin-start test explosion under Booster 7.
Following the November 29th test, two of the booster’s Raptor engines were swapped out at the pad, although it is unclear whether his was the result of damage from the materials flung upwards and outwards from the apron during the test or as a result off other motor issues. After this work had been completed, Booster 7 was disconnected from the launch platform and returned to the production area. This may again be to allow further damage inspections to be carried out, by is likely equally to allow the rest of the booster’s aft skirt to be fitted.
At the same time as Booster 7 has been under test, Ship 24, which is due to be mated to it for the launch attempt, has been undergoing repairs at the sub-orbital launch platform where it has been completing its own series of static fire tests. The results of these tests appear to have been fed back into the assembly of Ships 25 and 26, the next vehicles in the series.
SpaceX has indicated they are still planning a further 20-sec 33-engine Raptor static fire test prior to any launch attempt, which will also include a further autogenous repressurisation test (feeding cooled gasses from the engines back up into the propellant tanks to maintain their pressure as their contents are used). This coupled with the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to issue a launch license, means that the launch attempt is unlikely to come before 2023.
A view of Earth taken by a solar array mounted camera on the Orion spacecraft on November 24th, a day before the spacecraft entered a distant retrograde orbit around the moon. Credit: NASA
NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, launched on November 16th, 2022, has become the first vehicle capable of carrying humans that far, to return to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The Orion capsule reached the Moon on Monday, November 20th, the fifth flight day of the mission overall. At 12:44 UTC, the vehicle, swinging around the far side of the Moon and so out of communications with Earth, closed to within 130 km of the lunar surface and a velocity of 862 km/h. It then fired the single motor mounted on the vehicle’s service module for 2.5 minutes, the first engine burn designed to push the vehicle into a distant retrograde orbit (DRO).
The DRO is a path that loops the vehicle away from the Moon in the opposite direction to the Moon’s own orbit around the Earth. Confirmation of the manoeuvre’s success came as the vehicle cleared the Moon and resumed communications with Earth – returning a colour image of our home in the process.
The DRO provides a highly stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space to put Orion’s systems to the test in an extreme environment far from Earth.
– NASA blog post
A portion of the far side of the moon as seen from the Orion spacecraft on November 21st, 2022 during the Artemis 1 mission. Credit: NASA
An hour later, as the vehicle proceeded away from the Moon, it passed over a historic landmark – Tranquillity Base, the landing zone for Apollo 11 in 1969 at a distance of 2,227 km. It continued outwards from the Moon with all systems functioning as expected. However, on Wednesday, November 23rd, all contact with the vehicle was suddenly lost and remained so for 47 minutes prior to contact being re-established.
The cause of loss-of-contact lay with the reconfiguring of the communications link between the spacecraft and NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) – the orbiting and ground-based communications network used to maintain contact with all of NASA’s operational missions. The reconfiguration should have been routine, having been carried out several times during the mission as DSN carried out its multiple duties, and at the time of writing it was not clear what caused the glitch.
looking back at Earth from beyond the Moon, November 2st, 2022. Credit: NASA
At 21:52 GMT on Friday, November 25th, Orion made its second DRO engine burn, one that lasted 82 seconds, sufficient to push the vehicle into its outward loop away from the Moon travelling at 396 km/h. This outbound leg of the flight saw Artemis 1 breaking the record for the for the farthest distance from Earth travelled by a human-rated spacecraft, surpassing the 432,000 km distance set by Apollo 13 in April 1971; Artemis will reach a maximum distance from Earth of 435,000 km on Monday, November 28th, the point marking the start of its return to close proximity to the Moon, which it will reach on December 1st.
The mission has not all been smooth sailing, however. As noted in my previous Space Sunday update, the launch facilities at Kennedy Space Centre suffered damage during the Artemis 1 launch, although at the time of that article, NASA had not confirmed how much damage had occurred on the mobile launch platform.
Immediately following the launch, NASA asked the media not to image or record the launch platform and tower, citing security issues and ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulation), sparking speculation (particularly among SpaceX fans) that the Space Launch System rocket have caused considerable damage to its launch facilities and was therefore somehow a “failure”.
The elevator stations at the base of the mobile launch tower used in the launch of Artemis 1, showing the extent of the damage with the protective blast doors entirely blown-in. Credit: NASA
Since then, however, NASA has completed an initial damage assessment exercise and has been more forthcoming. Whilst a more in-depth assessment is required on the internals of the launch tower structure, the initial assessment suggests the launch platform overall faired a lot better than expected, given the huge strain it was under (SLS generates more thrust and heat than either the space shuttle vehicles or the Apollo Saturn V at launch).
NASA’s SLS rocket soars into the Florida early morning sky, November 16th, 2022, at the start of the Artemis 1 mission to cislunar space.. Credit: United Launch Alliance
On November 16th, 2022 NASA launched what is – for a time at least – the world’s most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), on its maiden flight. The uncrewed mission marks the first flight of a human-capable vehicle to the vicinity of the Moon under the aegis of NASA’s Project Artemis.
Lift-off came at 06:47 UTC on the morning, and the rocket – roughly the size of the Apollo Saturn V but massing around 400 tonnes less and with engines generating 5 meganewtons greater thrust – was no slow climber like Saturn V; instead it fairly leapt into the night sky, thundering from 0 to 120 km/h in just a handful of seconds as it lifted an Orion capsule and service module away from the launch pad and on their way to orbit.
The view home: a camera mounted on one of Orion’s four solar arrays looks back at Earth from a distance of almost 92,000 km, 12.5 hours after launch as the vehicle makes a sweeping 6-day arc out from Earth to the Moon. Credit: NASA TV
It was actually a launch that also nearly didn’t take place (again); during fuelling operations immediately ahead of the launch, a leak was detected. Such leaks have been the bane of this rocket’s existence, and for a time it was uncertain if NASA would stop or delay the fuelling operation – and even scrub the entire launch attempt.
Instead, a risky decision was taken to send in a Red Team to Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Centre to try to fix the leak with the liquid hydrogen propellant feed at the base of the rocket, even with propellants in the tank and the risk of a spark causing an explosion. The team – engineers Trent Annis, Billy Cairns and Chad Garrett worked under the “living” rocket – these monsters do not stand quietly when even partially fuelled, they creak, groan and periodically vent excess gasses – to tighten the “packing nuts” designed to hold the seals on the propellant feed line tightly in place. The crew arrived on the pad just 3.5 minutes ahead of the launch and had to work fast to fix the issue if a launch scrub was to be avoided.
The three-man Red Team address reporters following their trip to the launch pad to fix a liquid hydrogen propellant leak during fuelling operations. Credit: NASA TV
Obviously, the team was successful – which does not lessen the risks they took as unsung heroes of the launch – and at 07:01 UTC, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) upper stage of the rocket placed the Orion vehicle in an initial orbit, and just over 30 minutes afterwards, the Orion service module successfully deployed the four solar arrays required to provide it and Orion with electrical power.
An hour later, after raising Orion’s orbit, the IPCS stage re-lit is engines to propel Orion from Earth orbit and into a trans-lunar injection orbit at 08:37 UTC, the stage separating from the space vehicle at 09:13 UTC.
Since then, the mission has progressed precisely as planned. At 14:30 UTC, Orion completed its first engine burn, correcting its flight to the Moon, and then late in the day a camera mounted on one of the service module’s solar panels captured a shot of Earth as seen from the vehicle, already almost some 92 thousand kilometres from Earth. On November 18th, the vehicle returned a further image of Earth – in greyscale – as it reached the 299,000 km from Earth mark.
A view of Artemis 1 simulated by AROW – he Artemis Real-time Orbit Website – showing the vehicle as it approaches the Moon on Sunday, November 20th. Note the vehicle appear to be travelling sideways in order to keep its solar arrays facing the Sun. Credit NASA AROW
The next major milestone for the flight comes on Monday, November 21st, 2022, Orion will complete the first stage of its leisurely, widely-curved outbound flight to the Moon. At 12:44 UTC on that day, with the vehicle passing around the far side of the Moon at a distance of 130 km, the vehicle will undertake a 2.5 minute burn of its main engine to direct itself into a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) which will carry it as far as 432,000 km from Earth.
The critical aspect of this manoeuvre is that it will occur when the vehicle is out-of-communication with Earth, thanks to the Moon being in between. The entire manoeuvre will therefore be carried out entirely by the onboard flight systems.
The flight so far has tested almost all of Orion’s flight, navigation and other systems, with only 13 issues, the majority defined as “benign”, being recorded. The most significant issue has been the star tracker – part of the flight navigation system. This was getting “dazzled” by thruster plumes as the vehicle adjusted its orientation during flight. While the tracker itself was designed to ignore the plumes, their brightness did confuse the flight software – something that hadn’t been considered could happen during testing. However, now it has been identified, the problem can be dealt with by Mission Control.
More substantial damage was actually done by the rocket itself at launch; the sheer power on the four RS25 engines and two solid rocket boosters did unspecified, but apparently extensive, damage to the mobile launch platform and launch tower. How much damage they sustained is unclear, but Pad 39B has been known to cause launch platforms using it damage. This was particularly noticeable following the launch of Apollo 10 in ay 1969 and again with the Ares 1-X launch in October2009 which resulted in some US $800 million in damages to the pad, platform and tower – although this was in part due the vehicle having to be launched slightly off-vertical, resulting exhaust plume physically striking the tower.
The view inside Orion: “Commander Moonikin Campos” seated in the command position aboard Orion, facing a set of dummy digital display panels. The mannequin is testing the Orion Crew Survival System Suit (OCSSS), designed to keep crew alive in the event of the vehicle’s life support system experiencing a malfunction. Credit: NASA TV
As I noted in my previous Space Sunday report, Orion is carrying a range of experiments onboard, all of which are being monitored throughout the flight. Chief among these are the radiation experiments which will come into their own as the vehicle enters its extended orbit around the Moon, where it will remain through until it again uses the Moon to swing itself back onto a return course to Earth in December 2022.
If you want to interactive track Artemis 1, you can do so via NASA’s Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW). In the meantime, the video below captures the stacking of the Artemis 1 SLS vehicle inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Centre, together with the original roll-out to the pad earlier this year, and the night-time roll-out ahead of the launch, together with the initial phase of the mission’s ascent to orbit.
A shot from the viewing stand at Kennedy Space Centre showing Artemis 1 on Pad 39B, and in the foreground is a sign marking the 5 Apollo launches, 53 space shuttle launches and single Constellation launch undertaken from the complex. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O’Meara
NASA has confirmed that the first launch of its Space Launch system rocket will still go ahead on November 16th, 2022.
Concerns about the launch had been raised after the US space agency decided to leave the vehicle on the pad in the face of category 1 tropical storm Nicole, which made a Florida landfall south of Kennedy Space Centre on November 10th, with high winds and rain lashing the launch centre. However, in a statement made on November 1tth after the storm had passed, NASA stated the vehicle had suffered only minor damage – all of which will be rectified in time for the launch attempt to go ahead.
NASA was aware of the approaching storm ahead of returning the vehicle to Pad 39B on November 4th, but at the time, Nicole was an unnamed mild tropical storm with wind speeds measured at between 65-74 km/h, well below the threat level for the rocket and its launch systems. However, following roll-out to the pad, the storm rapidly strengthened, and the decision was taken to leave the rocket bolted to the launch pad rather than being caught on the move on the back of the crawler-transporter.
Overall, winds at the pad during the worst of the storm reached 132 km/h at 18 metres above the ground – just 5 km/h below the stress limit for the vehicle at that height. At the top of the tower, the wind was recorded at 160 km/h against an October 2021 stated maximum for rocket and launch tower of 172 km/h. These resulted in some damage being done to covers that would be detached during launch.
An updated infographic for the Artemis 1 flight. Credit: NASA
The November 16th launched of Artemis 1 is – as I’ve noted before – designed to send an uncrewed Orion vehicle on an extended flight to cislunar space utilising a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the Moon. It will last some 39 days and is designed to be the final uncrewed test flight of Orion (and the first Orion flight to use the European-built Service Module to supply the capsule with power and propulsion) as well as the first test flight of SLS itself.
As well as testing the various vehicles and their systems for operation on missions to the Moon – and in preparation for sending humans onwards to Mars in the future – the Orion vehicle will also be carrying a set of sensor-laden mannequins dubbed “Moonikins”. As I’ve previously noted, two of these are part of research to better understand the radiation environment of space beyond the Earth’s protective magnetic field.
Despite the cavalier attitude shown towards it by the likes of SpaceX’s Elon Musk (radiation is “not that big a problem”), there is much we do not know about the impact of cosmic radiation on the human body – although there is growing evidence that long-terms exposure to GCRs and solar energetic particles (SEPs) can be extensively damaging – 60% of astronauts who have spent extended time on the ISS have developed herpes through the re-activation of naturally-occurring viruses in the human body such as the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) as a likely result GCR / SEP exposure¹. These viruses can also give rise to serious medical conditions and (as well as the radiation itself) can also be responsible for various cancers².
This being the case, the “Moonikins” are constructed from materials that mimic human bone and tissue, as well as organs unique to adult females, such as breast tissue and ovaries, which are particularly susceptible to radiation damage. Equipped with over 6,000 sensors, the “Moonkins” are linked to a series of Earth-based computational 3D models which include cardiac and respiratory motions and can simulate any number of diseases. Overall, the aim is to gain a clearer understanding of the potential impact of high-energy radiation on human tissue, bone and organs that can hopefully help determine better means of mitigation – be it through recommendations on general exposure during things like space walks / lunar surface operations, or providing better primary and secondary radiation protection through the materials used in space vehicles and space suits.
An Artist’s rendering of the Artemis 1 Orion vehicle showing “Commander Moonikin Campos”, a full-body “Moonikin” designed to test the Orion Crew Survival System Suit (OCSSS), designed to be worn for up to 6 days and preserve the wearer’s life in the event of an issue with the vehicle’s primary life support systems, together with the two radiation research torsos “Helga” and “Zohar”. Credit: NASA / Lockheed Martin
In the meantime. those wishing to watch the launch of Artemis 1 can do so via NASA TV. The launch window opens at 06:04 UTC on Wednesday, November 2022 and lasts for 2 hours – although NASA is aiming to launch as close to the opening of the window as possible, with coverage of the launch preparations commencing some 24 hours in advance of the launch window opening.
Should the mission miss the November 16th launch window, there will be two further opportunities during the month. The first will open at 06:45 UTC on Saturday, November 19th, and the second on Friday, November 25th. Both will be “short form” missions of 25 days and between 26 and 28 days respectively. Should the mission miss those dates, there is an extended launch opportunity running from December 9th through 23rd (excluding December 10th, 14th, 18th and 23rd as currently stated by NASA), with windows then resuming in January 2023.
X-37B Returns Home
The US Space Force has ended the 6th flight of its orbital space plane, bringing the vehicle through re-entry and a rolling landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Florida on Saturday November 12th, 2022. The landing brought to an end a mission of 908 days in space, the vehicle having launched on May 17th, 2020.
Officially called the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), the X-37B comprises two uncrewed vehicles of the same design, which together have completed six orbital missions for a combined time in space of 3,774.4 days (10.34 years). It was the first of these vehicles – OTV-1 – that completed this latest mission, itself slightly confusingly referred to as OTV-6, the first of these missions to be flown completely under the auspices of the United States Space Force, even if the vehicle carries the markings of the US Air Force.
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1) sits on the runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre following its landing on November. 12, 2022 to conclude the 908-day OTV-6 mission. Credit: U.S. Space Force
The exact function of the 8.92 metre long vehicle is rated as classified, leading it being labelled as a weapons platform. However, its primary cargoes thus far have been purely scientific in nature, with payloads being both military and civil in nature.
With this most recent flight, OTV-1 carried NASA’s Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space, designed to further understand the effects of the space environment on different types of materials. It also carried an experiment to investigate the effects of long-duration space exposure on seeds. Past flights have carried both classified and unclassified tests of high-frequency communications and experimental propulsion systems, and one from the US Navy to convert sunlight directly into electrical energy.
A further first for this mission was the use of an expendable service module designed to both further extend the vehicle’s operational duration – the X-37B was originally designed to spend a maximum of 270 days at a time in space – and host additional experiments. This module was jettisoned from the vehicle prior to its return to Earth.
This mission highlights the Space Force’s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Space Force.
– General Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, USSF.
SpaceX Moving Towards Booster 7 Static Fire Tests
SpaceX has taken a further step towards a full static fire test of its Super Heavy booster as it continues to move towards the first orbital flight attempt of the Super Heavy / Starship combination.
As reported in my previous Space Sunday update, the company has been carrying out a series of cryogenic and pressurisation tests of both Booster 7 and Ship 24 – the pairing of booster and orbital vehicle to make this first attempt to reach orbit. These tests ended on Tuesday, November 8th, when Ship 24 was “unstacked” from the booster and moved to a sub-orbital test stand after its sibling, Ship 25, which had been undergoing its own propellant tanks cryogenic and pressurisations tests, being returned to the production facilities at Starbase Boca Chica, Texas, most likely to have its Raptor motors installed.
The “Mechazilla” arms on the SpaceX orbital launch tower start to lift Ship 24 clear of Booster 7 on Tuesday, November 8th, 2022. Credit: NasaSpaceFlight.com (not a NASA affiliate)
The removal of Ship 24 from Booster 7 leaves the way clear for the latter to undergo a further static fire engine test – part of the pre-requisites for any flight test. One such test has already been carried out with seven of the Booster’s 33 motors, and it is widely speculated that any forthcoming static fire test will involve around 14-15 of the booster’s motors, and could occur in the next week. A successful test should pave the way for a static fire of all of the vehicle’s motors, possibly before the end of November.
China Launches Tianzhou 5; Seeks to Launch More Long March 5 Vehicles
Following the successful rendezvous and docking of the Mengtian science module to their Tiangong space station, China has now furthered the operational campaign of the space station with the launch and rendezvous of the automated Tianzhou 5 re-supply vehicle.
The 10.6-metre long, 13.5-tonne (including 6.7 tonnes of cargo) vehicle departed the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre, Hainan Province in on November 12th, lifted aloft by a Long March 7 booster. It was placed on a “fast rendezvous” track to the space station, reaching it just over 2 hours after launch. On arrival, it moved to dock with the rear axial docking port of the Tianhe-1 core module. That port had been occupied by the Tianzhou 4 re-supply vehicle since May 10th, 2022. However, that vehicle was detached from the station on November 9th under autonomous control and placed into an orbit in preparation for it to be safely de-orbited.
Images from China’s mission control showing pictures returned from Tiangong space station showing the Tianzhou 5 re-supply vehicle about to dock with the Tianhe-1 core module. Credit: CMSA
Tianzhou 5’s arrival at the station signals a further shift in Tiangong’s status as being “under construction” to being “operational”; it brings with it supplies for the upcoming Shenzhou 15 crew, who will flying to the station in December, and additional propellants for the station’s manoeuvring systems.
As I’ve recently covered, China has not made itself popular within the international community thanks to its unwillingness to manage the re-entries of the 21-tonne core stages of its Long March 5B booster. Most recently, the uncontrolled re-entry of such a core stage – the one used in the recent launch of the Mengtian space station module – saw cities and airspace across southern Europe and the Middle East on alert. This being the case, the news that China plans to step up the cadence of Long March 5B launches has raised some concerns.
In a statement made on November 11th, 2022, Liu Bing, director of the general design department at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), indicated that the Long March 5 booster will be transferred to “high density” launches. This means offering the vehicle to China’s emerging “private sector” space industry as a launch platform, and using it in high-volume “constellation” type launches of multiple satellites in one pass (as SpaceX does with its Starlink network).
To achieve this, the Long March 5B booster will likely be paired with the Yuanzheng-2 (YZ-2) upper stage. This may overcome the need for the core stage to achieve its own orbital velocity in lifting payloads, leaving it on a sub-orbital track to fall back into the ocean downrange from the launch site – although China has not, as yet, committed to this, and the YZ-2 tends to operate with varying levels of efficiency depending on the payload.
In the meantime, the next Long March 5B launch is due in late 2023, when the vehicle will be used to launch the free-flying Xuntian, the Chinese Survey Space Telescope (CSST), designed to operate alongside the Tiangong space station.
A rendering of the Chinese Tiangong space station as it appeared immediately following the Mengtian science module’s arrival. From left to right: The Mengtian module attached to the axial port of the Tinahe-1 docking hub; Centre: the Wengtian science module attached to the starboard port of the hub. Centre right: the Tianhe-1 core module with the Tianzhou 4 resupply vehicle docked against its after port. Just visible and extending away from the nadir port of the docking hub, centre, is the Shenzhou 14 crew vehicle. Credit: CMSA
China has completed all major construction activities with its Tiangong space station following the arrival of the ~20 tonne Mengtian laboratory module at the station. Launched at 07:37 UTC on Monday, 31st October, 2022, the module arrived at the space station 13 hours later, completing an automated docking with the axial port on the station’s docking hub, the docking overseen by the current crew on three on the station – Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe.
Following this, on November 3rd, ground personnel used the docking manipulator on the module to literally grapple itself around to the hub’s portside docking ring. once a hard dock and pressurisation of the inter-module area had been confirmed, the hatches were undogged and the crew entered the module to commence preparing it for operations.
Next up for the station is the flight of the Tianzhou 5 automated resupply vehicle, due to launch on a Long March 7 rocket on November 12th. This will deliver additional supplies to the station ahead of the handover of the station from the Tianzhou 14 crew to the Tianzhou 15 crew, which is due to take place before the end of 2022.
A rendering of Tiangong as it now appears: to the left, and “pointing towards Earth” is the Wengtian science module; Shenzhou 14 can be seen docked at the nadir port on the docking hub, and Mengtian is in the foreground, forming the station’s T-bar with Wengtian. Extending back from the docking hub is the Tianhe-1 core module and the Tianazhou 4 resupply vehicle. Credit: CMSA
This was not the end of the story for this launch however; on Friday, November 4th, the core stage of the Long March 5B rocket made an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere. As I noted in my previous Space Sunday update, China has cavalier attitude towards large parts of its Long March core stages surviving re-entry to potentially fall on a populated area. In this case, the final track of the booster core saw it passing over numerous population centres in southern Europe and the Middle East, including Lisbon in Portugal, Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, Marseille in France, and Rome in Italy. As a result, emergency services were on alert, and an air safety notice was issued, closing EU airspace along the track of booster against the risk of smaller debris striking airliners and cargo aircraft.
Tracked by the US Space Force and EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (EUSST), the booster eventually re-entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, the remnants falling into the seas there without incident. The re-entry of this vehicle means the core stages of the Long March 5B account for 4 of the six largest objects making uncontrolled re-entries; only the U.S Skylab (1979; ~77 tonnes) and the Soviet Union’s Salyut 7 (1991; ~40 tonnes), are the only higher mass events.
Artemis 1 Back on the Pad; Artemis 4 Regains Lunar Landing
NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, featuring the first launch of the space agency’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket has returned to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Centre.
The vehicle, which is due to launch an uncrewed Orion vehicle to cislunar space, has seen numerous issues and delays in making its maiden flight, and was most recently held-up by the arrival of hurricane / tropical storm Ian in late September. The roll-out to Launch Complex 39B on November 4th marked the fourth (and hopefully last) trip back to the pad, departing the Vehicle Assembly Building at 04:00 UTC, and reaching the pad 8.5 hours later. Following arrival, work immediately began integrating the mobile launch platform on which the vehicle sits into the the pad systems in readiness for the next launch attempt.
A unique fisheye lens view of the Artemis 1 mission SLS vehicle moving out of the Vehicle Assembly Building, Kennedy Space Centre, at the start of its fourth journey to Pad 39B, November 4th, 2022. Credit: Joel Kowsky / NASA
If all goes according to plan, the rocket will lift-off on Monday, November 14th, at the start of an extended 39-day mission which will see the Orion vehicle and its service module spend some 15-16 days in a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the Moon before returning to Earth, with the uncrewed capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Providing no significant issues are encountered, the mission will pave the way for a second such flight in 2024/25- Artemis 2 – carrying a crew. Then in 2027, Artemis 3 should undertake the first crewed landing on the Moon since the Apollo missions of the late 1960s / early 1970s.
in addition, NASA announced that Artemis 4 – the third crewed flight of an SLS vehicle to the vicinity of the Moon – will now include a lunar landing, marking a reversal to plans announced earlier in 2022. Under those plans, Artemis 4 was going to be a mission focused solely on the construction of the new Lunar Gateway station, due to be placed in a cislunar halo orbit in support of lunar landings. This was to allow time for NASA to switch away from using the SpaceX Starship-derived lander vehicle of Artemis 3 with lander craft to be supplied under the Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) programme.
Artemis 4 was to have focused on the assembly of the Lunar Gateway space station. However, it will now also include a lunar landing. Credit: NASA
However, NASA also has a so-called “Option B” in its contract with SpaceX that specifies the latter to develop and supply – funded by NASA – an enhanced version of the Starship lander, and it is believed that this option has now been exercised to enable a crew landing on the Moon with Artemis 4, which will still use the upgraded Block 1B version of SLS to deliver a crewed Orion vehicle and the Gateway station’s habitation module to lunar orbit in 2027.
In the meantime, Dynetics, one of the two contenders for the original Human Landing System (HLS) contract, has indicated it may well pursue the SLD contract, whilst Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – the three main contractors in the so-called “National Team” and third contender for the original HLS contract – have indicated they will each independently pursue SLD contracts, with Lockheed Martin examining the use of nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) in it vehicle architecture, seeing NTP as a key element for future human exploration of Mars.
Starliner Will Not Fly to ISS Until 2023
The first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) has been further delayed to April 2023. However, the delay this time is not due to technical issues with vehicle, but rather to “deconflict” multiple planned arrivals at the station.
After a series of extended delays, Starliner finally completed an uncrewed flight to the ISS in May 2022, the second attempt at such a flight after software issues with the original December 2019 mission left the vehicle unable to achieve a rendezvous with the station.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule “Spacecraft 2”, docked at the International Space Station during the uncrewed OFT-2 mission in May 2022. Credit: ESA
Whilst this second uncrewed flight was a success, there were a number of minor issues which meant the hoped-for December 2022 crewed flight to the ISS – called the Crewed Flight Test-1 (CFT-1) – had to be delayed until February 2023. However with a another crewed flight using a SpaceX dragon vehicle and a further resupply mission both due to reach the station in February 2023, the decision has been taken to slip the Boeing flight and reduce the volume of traffic arriving at the ISS in a relatively short time span.
A rendering of the Tiangong Space Station as it appears ahead of Mengtian’s arrival. Centre right is the Tianhe core module with the Tinazhou 14 resupply vehicle on its aft docking port. To the left, the Wengtian science module and the Shenzhou 14 crew vehicle are attached to the starboard and nadir ports of the main docking hub, respectively. Credit: Shujianyang
This coming week should see the launch of two rocket behemoths from very different parts of the world and with.
On Monday, October 31st, at approximately 07:30 UTC, Long March 5B (Y4) should depart the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the island of Hainan, off the south-east coast of the mainland, carrying aloft the ~20 tonne Mengtian laboratory module en route for a rendezvous with the Tiangong space station.
The massive Long March 5B, China’s most powerful launch vehicle, departed the vehicle integration facility at the launch complex on October 25th, carrying the space station module enclosed in its payload fairings, the combination sitting on their mobile launch platform.
The Long March 5B Y4 booster and payload sitting on its mobile launch platform within the vehicle integration building at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. Credit: Xihu News
At 17.9 metres in length and 4.2 metres in diameter, Mengtian – Chinese for ‘Dreaming of the Heavens” – is in many ways similar to the Wentian (“Quest for the Heavens”) module which launched and rendezvoused with the space station’s Tianhe core module in July 2022. In all, the module will provide three science experiment facilities:
A pressurised environment for researchers to conduct science experiments.
An unpressurised experiments / cargo module with doors that can be opened to space.
A series of external experiment racks.
To reach the unpressurised elements, the module includes its own dedicated airlock, and has a single docking port for connecting to the Tinahe core module and two robotic arm, the first 5 metres in length and a smaller unit called an “indexing robot arm”. Mengtian will initially rendezvous with Tiangong “head-on” relative to Tianhe, allowing it to dock with the core module’s axial port on its main docking hub, minimising the risk of setting the entire station into an unwanted rotation.
The Mengtian science module. Credit: Leebrandoncremer
The axial port was, up until the end of September 2022, occupied by Wentian, however this used its own “indexing robot arm” to move itself to the starboard docking adapter on Tianhe, temporarily giving the space station a lopsided “L” shape. Some time after initial docking, Mengtian will similarly use its own small but powerful indexing arm to disconnect from the axial port and swing around to connect with the hub’s portside docking ring, leaving the station in its final T-configuration.
Mengtian’s arrival at the space station will signal the end of Tiangong’s main construction phase, as there are currently no plans to add further modules permanently to the 60-tonne station. Instead, the fore and aft axial docking ports on Tinahe will be used primarily by crew-carrying vehicles and by Tianzhou automated re-supply vehicles.
However, China does plan to launch a free-flying space telescope called Xuntian (“Space Sentinel”) in December 2023. This will by roughly equivalent to the Hubble Space Telescope in size, but have a field of view 300–350 times larger, coupled to a 2.5 gigapixel imaging system. Xuntian will periodically dock with Tiangong to allow for servicing of its equipment and systems and to allow its propellant tanks to be topped-up.
The launch is also liable to result in controversy. By design, Long March 5B’s 21.6 tonne (unfuelled) core stage and engines are designed to reach orbit. However, China has thus far made no attempt to equip it with the means to make a controlled re-entry into the upper atmosphere so that any parts surviving that re-entry (such as the engines) do not strike any populated areas of Earth.
The Long March 5B Y4 and Mengtian science module and mobile launch platform move by rail from the vehicle integration building towards the launch pad, October 25th, 2022. Credit: Xiahua News
This cavalier attitude has caused consternation within the international community. In 2020, for example, debris from a Long March 5B core landed in Cote d’Ivoire, damaging several buildings; then in July of 2022, parts of the vehicle used to lift the Wentian module to orbit, came down uncomfortably close to populated areas in Indonesia and Malaysia. In this, China does itself no favours by refusing to share details regarding specific trajectory information related to these launches with the wider global community, even though doing so would allow a degree of forewarning in areas at risk from debris.
The second big launch for the week should then follow on November 1st, when A SpaceX Falcon Heavy – currently the world’s most powerful rocket vehicle – is due to depart Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. It will mark the first Falcon Heavy launch in more than three years – and only the fourth overall for a vehicle which at one time was to have become the backbone of the SpaceX fleet (the company now intends for its Starship / Super Heavy combination to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy).
The launch is the first US Department of Defense mission for Falcon Heavy. Designated USSF-44, it will deliver at least four satellites directly to geosynchronous orbit. In order to achieve this, the core of the vehicle – A Falcon 9 booster core – will be expended, rather than attempt a landing. The two booster segments – also Falcon 9 booster cores – will be return for an attempted simultaneous landings at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
The Falcon Heavy booster performs a static fire test on Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre on October 27th, 2022. Following the test, the rocket was lowered back onto its side and returned to the processing facility at Pad 39A so that the payload can be integrated prior to the vehicle being returned to the pad ready for launch. Credit: SpaceX
The lack of Falcon Heavy launches since 2019 illustrates a potential problem SpaceX may have with its plans for Starship / Super Heavy.
Simply put, with its ability to lob 63.8 tonnes to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and 26.7 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit, Falcon Heavy was supposed to lower the cost of lifting payloads to orbit. However, in order to get close to this, it needs to launch relatively close to its payload capacity, and in an age of increasingly smaller and lighter satellites and payloads, its capabilities are seen as too excessive for most customers. Even in a rideshare capacity, where the costs can spread among multiple payload providers, the additional lead time involved in waiting for sufficient customers to sign-on to a Falcon Heavy launch have made it unattractive to potential customers, thus limiting its commercial viability; something that may prove to be the case with Starship / Super Heavy, with its much greater capacity.
Roc Shows off Stratolaunch’s Talon
Stratolaunch, builder of the world’s largest airplane, flew a prototype of its planned air-launched Talon hypersonic vehicle for the first time on Friday, October 28th, 2022, slung beneath the massive Roc aircraft, which uses two modified 747 fuselages, lifted the Talon-A TA-0 vehicle into the Mojave desert sky in captive/carry flight lasting over five hours and designed to pave the way for more extensive test flights.
The Stratolaunch Roc takes to the air with Talon-A TA-0 prototype mounted on its central launch pylon, marking the first time the latter as been flown. Credit: Stratolaunch
At 8.5 metres in length and weighing 3.7 tonnes, Talon-A is an air-launched, automated hypersonic aircraft capable of flying at speeds of Mach 5 through Mach 7 (6,100–8,600 km/h). Previously known as Hyper-A, the vehicle is designed to offer a reliable test-bed for hypersonic research and experiments. It is intended to be used by the US the government, the US Department of Defense, the commercial sector, and academia, and can carry both internal and external experiment payloads.
The massive Roc aircraft is designed to act as an aerial launch vehicle for a range of vehicles being developed by Stratolaunch, including the orbit-capable Talon+ (formerly Talon-Z) and even larger Stratolaunch spaceplane (previously called Black Ice), which is intended to deliver larger payloads – and possibly humans – to orbit in the future. In addition, Stratolaunch are in discussions with a number of potential customers to use the aircraft as a launch platform.
Stratolaunch Talon-A. Credit: Stratolaunch
As it stands, the success of the captive / carry flight means the Stratolaunch will now likely move to a vehicle drop test – releasing the TA-0 test vehicle in flight so that it can glide to an automated landing – which may occur in December 2022. Assuming that flight is successful, testing will switch to the first Talon-A production model (TA-1), which will likely undertake the first powered flight test in early 2023. Providing flight testing with TA-1 is successful, Stratolaunch plan to start offering commercial, payload-carrying flights with fully reusable version of the vehicle designated TA-2 and TA-3 before the end of 2023.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 