Space stuff thread

[Anak]

Catastrophic failure of Antares rocket:

NASA rocket explodes on launch - CNN.com Video

 

[MrNeeds]

Catastrophic failure of Antares rocket:

NASA rocket explodes on launch - CNN.com Video

I read about that earlier on today, a little shocked and surprised that no one was injured, I know it was unmanned but surely there were crew about...

 

[Anak]

I was watching the launch live, my heart sank....

The rule of thumb is; The larger the missile the larger the buffer zone.

For public viewing at Wallops the closest one can get is 7.5miles. I haven't found anything definitive yet, but I believe the Launch Control bunker was no closer than 1mile. IMHO, an educated guess to the diameter of the blast zone would be 1/2mile (0.8km) with debris falling as far away as 5miles (8.05km).

They certainly felt it at Launch Control, and to a lesser degree the Visitors Center 7.5miles (12.07km) away, the upper part of the line by the 175route marker is the approximate location of the Visitor's Center.
All personnel within the immediate launch area are accounted for and protected by specially hardened bunkers before liftoff.

For Cape Canaveral in Florida the closest the public can get is 10miles (16.09km), with Launch Control 5miles (8.05km), and I believe the VIP viewing area is 8miles (12.87 km) away.

The Antares launch was delayed Monday because a sailboat had wandered into one of two of the restricted zones downrange shown in the third pix.

 

[Anak]

Update to Antares Post.

I stand corrected.

In the past few days since the Antares explosion I have seen news reports of amateur video of the launch from 1.5miles (2.4km) away and reporters 3miles (4.8km) away.

This quote, and pix is from the Media Guide: Covering Orbital Launch Missions from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility This is a direct download link, I scanned it with Mbam and it was clean.

Launch Viewing Site
The media launch viewing site is located on the Wallops Mainland, seven miles south of the Visitor Center. The viewing site is two miles across the marsh from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s launch pads. Media will be escorted from the Visitor Center to the media launch viewing site about two hours prior to the opening of the launch window.

 

[Anak]

It has been a tough week for Space Exploration...

Statement from Virgin Galactic:

Virgin Galactic's partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo earlier today. During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft landed safely.

The Virgin Galactic team is cooperating with our partners at Scaled Composites and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as local authorities. We understand that the NTSB is scheduled to arrive in Mojave tomorrow morning (Saturday Nov. 1) to commence their investigation, which is expected to last several days.

Local authorities have confirmed that one of the two Scaled Composites pilots died during the accident. The other pilot parachuted to the ground and is being treated at a local hospital. All of us at Virgin Galactic are deeply saddened by today’s events. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all those affected by this accident.

Source: Statement from Virgin Galactic

The web site for Virgin Galactic has been shutdown, the statement above is the only page there.

A news video report from NBC News: Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes During Test Flight - NBC News

 

[Anak]

China recovers experimental lunar orbiter:

BEIJING – China has successfully recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and back in a test run for the country's first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface.

The eight-day trip that ended early Saturday marked the first time in almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after traveling around the moon. China plans to send a spacecraft to the moon in 2017 and have it return to Earth after collecting soil samples.

If successful, that would make burgeoning space power China only the third country after the United States and Russia to carry out such a mission.

Source: China recovers experimental lunar orbiter, moves ahead with plan for unmanned moon mission | Fox News

 

[Anak]

Follow the Rosetta mission landing live on 12 November

Follow the Rosetta mission landing live on 12 November
10 November 2014

Rosetta will release the Philae lander at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET on 12 November at a distance of approximately 22.5 km from the centre of the comet. Landing will be about seven hours later at around 15:30 GMT/16:30 CET.

With a one-way signal travel time between Rosetta and Earth on 12 November of 28 minutes 20 seconds, that means that confirmation of separation will arrive on Earth ground stations at 09:03 GMT/10:03 CET and of touchdown at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET.

Follow the landing events throughout the day via

Live TV programme from the ESOC Mission Control Room,
Cologne Lander Control Centre and
Toulouse Science Operations and Navigation Centre
on http://new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding ​

Regular updates on the Rosetta blog (blogs.esa.int/rosetta)​

Follow Rosetta on twitter: @ESA_Rosetta​

Source: ESA Science & Technology: Follow the Rosetta mission landing live on 12 November

All times in Blue adjusted for Eastern Standard Time U.S, November 12, 2014

• Release Philae lander at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET - ( 03:35am )

• Confirmation of separation will arrive on Earth ground stations at 09:03 GMT/10:03 CET. - ( 04:03am )

• Landing will be about seven hours later at around 15:30 GMT/16:30 CET. - ( 10:30am )

• Confirmation of touchdown at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET. - ( 11:00am )

Live coverage: Rosetta #CometLanding webcast on Livestream

 

[z3r010]

Live feed

[eesa][/eesa]

 

[Golden]

Sweet....apparently, due to the low gravity the lander weighs the equivalent of about 2 gramme. Going to be a tricky landing.

 

[Anak]

Double sweet John, thank you for putting that up!

I wasn't aware there was a BB Code for eesa. Are you going to keep it, and will it work for any live eesa feed without a value? eesa]?value?[/eesa

 

[z3r010]

Double sweet John, thank you for putting that up!

I wasn't aware there was a BB Code for eesa. Are you going to keep it, and will it work for any live eesa feed without a value? eesa]?value?[/eesa

It's only temp atm.

 

[z3r010]

They really need to put some HD cameras on these things to make the landings more appealing.

Edit - I'm getting a different live feed when using the popout player.

 

[z3r010]

It looks like we have a successful landing

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) View on Twitter

 

[Brink]

Perfect.

 

[z3r010]

Maybe not so perfect.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) View on Twitter

 

[z3r010]

In other news....

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) View on Twitter

 

[Anak]

I've been busy with errands and chores since my last post and missed out on a lot of history; I had an appointment a half-hour before touchdown.

Been home since 1pm est, and just got in house for the rest of the day. I'm still 'bout 2hours behind 'till I get situated; Making supper for the wife when she gets home from work at 6pm. One of those shite, shower, and shave deals.

Can't check on it now, but it sounds like the Philae had a touch an go landing...Arrghh, Where's my hooks??

 

[Anak]

Launch -11:30 and Counting....

The Launch of the Orion spacecraft could happen as early as 7:05am EST (12:05pm UTC)

Orion is scheduled to launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket Dec. 4 at 7:05 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. The window for launch is two hours 39 minutes.

Source: http://Orion Flight Test on NASA TV | www.nasa.gov

If you 're viewing anything other than the Orion launch pad there will be other NASA programming until 4:30am (9:30am UTC) When they will pick up the Orion broadcast again, see the first related link.


Live Video streaming by Ustream

Related Links
http://NASA TV Schedule | www.nasa.gov

Orion | NASA

http://The first test flight of NASA’s Orion capsule: Here’s how it will work | www.extremetech.com

https://blogs.nasa.gov/orion/

   Note

This is for John, Shawn or any moderator that has the authority.

I tried using BB code for
Live Video streaming by Ustream

Live Video streaming by Ustream​

Live Video streaming by Ustream

 

[z3r010]

1 hour until launch.

 

[z3r010]

Launch on hold atm