Space, Rockets, Satellites, oh my!
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Unfortunate, though it is pretty common that a first launch might still have a problem or two. Hopefully they can still fix this in flight, or else fix what ever the problem was for next flight.
The first launch of Ariane 6 was mostly successful, which is good for ArianeGroup and for Europe.
Unfortunately, the anomaly means that two of the payloads failed to deploy and the upper stage will linger as space debris for a few years:
The payloads that Ariane 6 failed to release were Nyx Bikini and SpaceCase SC-X01
Prior to the launch, ArianeGroup had touted the ability to reignite the upper stage multiple times as a key innovation of Ariane 6:
www.nature.com
arstechnica.com
Nevertheless, congrats to the Ariane 6 team on a (mostly) successful launch.
I expect the issues will be ironed out, and hopefully future launches will be even more successful.
Unfortunately, the anomaly means that two of the payloads failed to deploy and the upper stage will linger as space debris for a few years:
Article: Compared with its predecessor, Ariane 6 comes with improvements, like an upper stage powered by an engine that can be reignited up to four times. This makes it possible for missions requiring orbits of different altitudes to fly on a single rocket.
[ . . . ]
As a result, the upper stage will not be able to maneuver itself out of orbit to burn up in Earth's atmosphere and avoid contributing to the growing population of space junk, a goal ESA has promoted with Ariane 6. Depending on the orbit, it could take years for the vehicle to naturally fall back to Earth.
[ . . . ]
Two re-entry capsules were supposed to be released as a demonstration of technology that may bring back cargo from space. But because of the anomaly, the re-entry capsules were not released.
Ariane 6 Lifts Off, But Second Stage Anomaly Spoils the Day
Posted: July 9, 2024 6:10 pm ET | Last Updated: July 10, 2024 8:40 am ET | Europe's Ariane 6 rocket lifted off successfully from Kourou, French Guiana on July 9, 2024, but a problem with the second stage spoiled the day.
spacepolicyonline.com
Article: Although it did relight a second time, it quickly shut down due to a yet-to-be-determined problem.
The engine was supposed to reignite a third time to deorbit the second stage into the Pacific Ocean to avoid cluttering Earth orbit. Two small capsules were to be released to test reentry technologies.
A graphic from ESA's live broadcast shows the path the second stage was supposed to follow in green, with it falling back to Earth, and its actual path in yellow. Without the APU, ESA's on-air commentators said further re-ignitions are not possible. The second stage remains in a stable orbit with the two capsules.
The payloads that Ariane 6 failed to release were Nyx Bikini and SpaceCase SC-X01
Ariane 6 launches: splashdown for Nyx Bikini
www.esa.int
Article: Hot on the heels of being selected for Europe's cargo transportation initiative to the International Space Station, the Exploration Company's Nyx Bikini intends to perform a ballistic reentry demonstration.
Nyx Bikini is a technology demonstrator of 60 cm diameter – about the size of a large lampshade – that will allow Exploration Company to get their first data on atmospheric reentry and calibrate their mathematical models.
[ . . . ]
Developed in just nine months and for a cost of under 2 million euros Nyx Bikini is an example of the new European space sector.
Ariane 6 launches: the case for SpaceCase SC-X01
www.esa.int
Article: SpaceCase SC-X01 is built by ArianeGroup, the same company behind the Ariane 6 rocket that will launch it into space. Staying attached to the rocket's upper stage for the most part of its three-hour mission, SpaceCase will detach just minutes before the upper stage deorbits and head for a fiery controlled destruction in Earth's atmosphere.
[ . . . ]
Most spacecraft designed to return to Earth use ablative materials – as the outer layer heats up it will burn off and be whisked away, taking the heat build-up away with it, and on to the next layer until splashdown.
SpaceCase SCX-01 uses the same principle but its unique selling point is that its heat-protective shield – made of carbon resin called NAXECO® resin – is also the structure. Whereas most spacecraft heat shields are glued or bolted on to the spacecraft structure, often in tiles, SpaceCase SCX-01's monolithic heatshield is the structure of the capsule itself. This has many benefits from weight to simplicity and cost.
Prior to the launch, ArianeGroup had touted the ability to reignite the upper stage multiple times as a key innovation of Ariane 6:
Article: "We have made a lot of innovations between Ariane 6 and Ariane 5. Innovation in particular on the upper stage of the launcher with two, brand new propulsion systems: the re-ignitable Vinci engine and also an auxiliary power unit," [Franck Huiban, Head of Civil Program at ArianeGroup,] said. "This gives Ariane 6 much broader mission capability compared to the Ariane 5, but of course, since we introduced an innovative system, we met some difficulties."
Powerful Ariane 6 rocket poised to restore Europe’s access to space
After years of delays, the heavy-lift launcher is finally ready to send major scientific missions into space.
www.nature.com
Article: But the rocket does improve on the design of Ariane 5. One important innovation is the engine of the second stage, called Vinci, which is designed to be switched on and off multiple times. This will enable the stage to 'deorbit' and re-enter Earth's atmosphere after it has completed its tasks, rather than contribute to the growing problem of space debris, which is the case for many launch vehicles. "It's very important to clean space" after a launch, says Caroline Aussilhou, an Ariane 6 launch system engineer working at the ESA on secondment from CNES. Aussilhou contributed to the early development of the Vinci engine, which was initially designed for other rockets. "My old colleagues and I have been waiting 25 years to see this engine fly," she says.
Europe’s long-delayed flagship rocket is about to launch for the first time
“One of the main innovations on the launcher is the upper stage.”…
arstechnica.com
Article: If all goes according to plan, the rocket will climb into low-Earth orbit, release nine small satellites, and exercise its upper stage with a series of burns to simulate maneuvers required on future operational Ariane 6 missions. Finally, the upper stage will steer toward a destructive plunge into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and deploy two commercial reentry capsules to test heat shield materials.
[ . . . ]
The 40,000-pound (180-kilonewton) thrust Vinci engine gives the Ariane 6 several new capabilities lacked by the Ariane 5 rocket. The most fundamental of these upgrades is the Vinci engine's ability to fire up to four times on a single launch, replacing the one-burn upper stage engine flown on Ariane 5.
The restartable Vinci engine will allow Ariane 6 to deploy payloads at different altitudes, or inject satellites directly into high-energy geosynchronous orbits, like SpaceX's Falcon launchers or United Launch Alliance's Atlas V and Vulcan rockets. The upper stage also has an Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU)—essentially a miniature second engine—to fulfill several important functions.
Nevertheless, congrats to the Ariane 6 team on a (mostly) successful launch.
I expect the issues will be ironed out, and hopefully future launches will be even more successful.
Well, the part about taking their time is correct at least, given that the Vinci engine has been in development for a quarter century.
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Congress apparently feels a need for “reaffirmation” of SLS rocket
Because I'm tall enough, I'm orange enough, and doggone it, Senators like me.
arstechnica.com
uuh... That's a 4 billion dollar rocket sir. It's a bit expensive for any other agency or the private sector.
Yeah... I indeed wonder if anyone else would want to use the SLS.
We shouldn't exaggerate the price - it's "only" 2 billion USD per rocket.
The fact that the SLS lost to the Falcon Heavy for additional non-cost reasons is the true kicker here. The SLS simply shakes too much to readily launch probes with sensitive equipment. That's going to be at the back of the mind of the engineers building the next high-value space probe. Will they want their probe to go up in a shaking SLS, or just stick with the likes of Falcon Heavy/Starship/New Glenn?
If the SLS only gets to launch man-rated and manned spacecraft, the case for it is going to dwindle towards cancellation. (You don't need to use the SLS to visit the ISS or the future Starlab. And it seems launch costs will exclude launching commercial space stations using the SLS, in fact Starlab Space signed a deal with SpaceX for a Starship launch.)
A batch of defective chips may endanger NASA's Europa Clipper mission, currently scheduled to launch in October on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy:
arstechnica.com
The author of the NYT article also commented on reddit:
View: https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1e18kwz/breaking_from_the_nytimes_europa_clipper_nasas/lctrs8s/
Sounds like the "non-NASA customer" with the "classified satellite" who tipped them off was a defense or intelligence agency.
It's a good thing they learned of the problem. Seems like NASA is debating whether the risks can be mitigated if they go ahead with the launch, or if they'll need to delay the mission for a hardware fix.
Article: The flawed chips in Europa Clipper are called metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, or MOSFETs.
"We're seeing some of these MOSFETs fail at lower radiation levels" than the prevailing environment around Europa, Shannon Fitzpatrick, the head of flight programs for NASA's Planetary Science Division, said during a meeting of the Planetary Science Advisory Committee, a group of outside researchers who advise NASA, this week. She also said in the meeting that engineers had not yet solved the issue.
The chips currently in Europa Clipper are manufactured by Infineon Technologies, a German semiconductor firm. They are also used in military spacecraft. An Infineon spokesperson declined to comment on "actual or potential customers," but said that the company has "stringent processes in place to ensure compliance with all relevant quality and performance standards for our products."
https://www.science.org/content/article/vulnerable-transistors-threaten-upend-europa-clipper-mission
Article: Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which leads the development of Clipper, discovered the problem in May after talking with colleagues about a classified satellite at a conference. They told the JPL staff that a batch of radiation-hard MOSFETs developed by Infineon Technologies, a leading commercial supplier, was falling far below desired performance levels.
[ . . . ]
Some years ago, Infineon changed its manufacturing process for its radiation-hard MOSFETs, which it designs to meet U.S. military specifications—the same radiation-resistance standards used by the Clipper team. After this change, the company's classified customers found that several lots of the transistors failed at lower than expected radiation levels, Fitzpatrick said. The company has already corrected the mistake, but Infineon did not report the flaw to NASA because the company did not know what the transistors would be used for, Fitzpatrick said. "They did not realize it was going to affect us." Infineon did not respond to a request for comment.
[ . . . ]
The transistors cannot simply be replaced. Clipper's aluminum-zinc electronics vault, meant to provide a measure of radiation resistance, was sealed in October 2023. Barring an indication that the faulty MOSFETs will cause catastrophic failure, the agency will likely seek to continue with the launch—although backup windows are available the next 2 years.
Article: Engineers with NASA's Europa Clipper mission continue to conduct extensive testing of transistors that help control the flow of electricity on the spacecraft. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission, began the tests after learning that some of these parts may not withstand the radiation of the Jupiter system, which is the most intense radiation environment in the solar system.
[ . . . ]
The issue with the transistors came to light in May when the mission team was advised that similar parts were failing at lower radiation doses than expected. In June 2024, an industry alert was sent out to notify users of this issue. The manufacturer is working with the mission team to support ongoing radiation test and analysis efforts in order to better understand the risk of using these parts on the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Testing data obtained so far indicates some transistors are likely to fail in the high-radiation environment near Jupiter and its moon Europa because the parts are not as radiation resistant as expected. The team is working to determine how many transistors may be susceptible and how they will perform in-flight. NASA is evaluating options for maximizing the transistors' longevity in the Jupiter system. A preliminary analysis is expected to be complete in late July.
NASA’s flagship mission to Europa has a problem: Vulnerability to radiation
"What keeps me awake right now is the uncertainty."
arstechnica.com
Article: Ars reached out to several experts familiar with the Clipper mission to gauge the likelihood that it would make the October launch window, and opinions were mixed. The consensus view was between a 40 to 60 percent chance of becoming comfortable enough with the issue to launch this fall. If NASA engineers cannot become confident with the existing setup, the transistors would need to be replaced.
[ . . . ]
"The most challenging thing we're dealing with right now is an issue associated with these transistors, MOSFETs, that are used as switches in the spacecraft," he said. "Five weeks ago today, I got an email that a non-NASA customer had done some testing on these rad-hard parts and found that they were going before (the specifications), at radiation levels significantly lower than what we qualified them to as we did our parts procurement, and others in the industry had as well."
[ . . . ]
These are precisely the kinds of issues that scientists and engineers don't want to find in the final months before the launch of such a consequential mission. The stakes are incredibly high—imagine making the call to launch Clipper only to have the spacecraft fail six years later upon arrival at Jupiter.
The author of the NYT article also commented on reddit:
View: https://old.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1e18kwz/breaking_from_the_nytimes_europa_clipper_nasas/lctrs8s/
Sounds like the "non-NASA customer" with the "classified satellite" who tipped them off was a defense or intelligence agency.
It's a good thing they learned of the problem. Seems like NASA is debating whether the risks can be mitigated if they go ahead with the launch, or if they'll need to delay the mission for a hardware fix.
Certainly a bit concerning, hopefully the problem can be resolved.
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Second SLS core stage ready to ship to Florida
NASA rolled out the second core stage for the Space Launch System rocket July 16 to ship it to Florida for the Artemis 2 mission next year.
spacenews.com
Umph.
NASA cancels $450 million VIPER moon rover due to budget concerns
The agency plans to potentially reuse VIPER's scientific instruments and other hardware on future moon missions.
dhasenan
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I was wondering why they chose such an aggressive name for it, but I quickly realized that nobody would fund the Polar Exploration Rover (Volatiles Investigation).Umph.
NASA cancels $450 million VIPER moon rover due to budget concerns
The agency plans to potentially reuse VIPER's scientific instruments and other hardware on future moon missions.www.space.com
Kind of a shame it being cancelled when they'd already assembled it though.
Whats fun is that $50+ million of the cost overrun is directly related to it being a CLPS program. Astrobotic asked for more testing to be done on the rover to make sure their lander could handle it. The thing is after helping make the cost overruns Astrobotic still is going to be paid for a moon landing it will just be with a mass simulator now.
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🤦♂️
apnews.com
NASA says no return date yet for astronauts and troubled Boeing capsule at space station
Officials say two NASA astronauts will remain at the International Space Station until engineers finish working on problems plaguing their Boeing capsule.
apnews.com
View: https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1817914479809872202
For some reason you can't take pictures of ULA rockets and sell anymore (if you take them inside their property).
I have no idea why; it's not as if photographs are making millions from this. Well, even if they are making millions, why would this bother you? Is free publicity.
A pretty strange sudden change, so far I know their management hasn't changed either. And considering they even gave a few tours in the past that let pictures and videos for their rocket be posted online, it seems like quite the turn around.
One wonders what changed.
One wonders what changed.
NASA likely to significantly delay the launch of Crew 9 due to Starliner issues
The primary reason for the delay is rather surprising.
arstechnica.com
If true it is another drop in the "What is Boeing even doing" bucket.
Oh, that's not good. But it also makes total sense. That's why NASA is taking their time testing the thrusters. If they send the astronauts back on a Dragon, they risk Starliner being stuck as a permanent module on the ISS.Of course, Boeing can update their software so the capsule can undock itself, but this would be sending untested software into production. Who knows what kind of disasters this could create? Undocking is a sensitive part of the process, and no one wants the capsule hitting the ISS and damaging it
dhasenan
always lowercase
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Can the Dragon dock with the Starliner? That would allow the crew to set the Starliner to a closed orbit, move over to the Dragon, and deorbit safely.
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Starliner must move away from ISS before any maneuvers can take place, to avoid and risk of collision with the ISS. The first priority is the safety of human lives, and the second is the safety of ISS. No maneuvers can take place near the ISS without good reason. It's also not enough to simply move away from the ISS, without a good reason objects must leave ISS's orbit and not have their orbits intersect again with ISS's orbit again for safety reasons.
But Starliner doesn't have the software to undock autonomously or the confidence in their thrusters to operate properly to thrust away from ISS in the first place.
I recall it might take up to 45 seconds of thrusting from Starliner in order to remove it from ISS's orbit entirely.
dhasenan
always lowercase
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I was talking about moving the crew over from the Starliner to the Dragon module, which doesn't require autonomous undocking, but since the thrusters are the main problem, that wouldn't help.
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Let's see, how to shuffle crew over... Complicating factors:
- The lifeboat rule means that ISS is not allowed to have more crew onboard than seats on a docked capsule.
- There are only two docking ports capable of handling Starliner and Dragon
- Crew-9 launches on Dragon with two empty seats
- All members of Crew-8 get back into their Dragon and detach from the ISS
- Crew-9 docks with ISS and and picks up Starliner's crew
- Either Crew-9 undocks to return to earth and Crew-8 re-docks with ISS, or Crew-9 stays on ISS and Crew-8 returns to Earth.
View: https://x.com/davill/status/1821196577240981642
Dave Limp, Blue Origin's CEO, is sharing some videos about New Glenn's capabilities.
Glad to see they are enthusiastic over their development.
NASA says Boeing's Starliner astronauts may have to come home on different spacecraft
NASA officials said during a press conference on Wednesday that the astronauts who flew on Boeing's Starliner may have to come home on a different spacecraft.
abcnews.go.com
Well we have news what NASA's backup plans are now.
So now there is apparently a need for backup plans, guess they aren't completely confident then.