Soyuz Blasts off with 2 Americans and 1 Russian Bound for International Space Station

The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:44 p.m. EDT March 21, 2018 (11:44 p.m. Baikonur time). The crew is scheduled to dock to the International Space Station at 3:41 p.m. March 23, 2018.  Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   21 Mar 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL- A Russian Soyuz capsule blasted off successfully today, Wednesday, March 21, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a fresh trio of veteran astronauts and cosmonauts starting a two day voyage bound for the International Space Station.

The all male trio comprising two NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut launched aboard their Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:44 p.m. EDT Wednesday (11:44 p.m. Baikonur time) into the plane of the space stations orbit. The launch was broadcast live on NASA TV.

The Expedition 55 crew includes Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA reached orbit as planned eight and a half minutes after liftoff.

The Soyuz MS-08 rocket is launched with Expedition 55 Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.   Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The Soyuz separated from the third stage and the solar arrays and navigation antennas deployed  as planned during orbital insertion.

The Soyuz MS-08 rocket is launched with Expedition 55 Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.   Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

After a two day orbital chase with carefully choreographed thruster firings veteran spaceflyers Feustal, Arnold and Artemyev are scheduled to dock the Soyuz to the space station’s Russian Rassvet module at 3:41 p.m. EDT on Friday, March 23, and begin a 5 month stay.

Coverage of the rendezvous and docking will begin at 3 p.m. on NASA TV, followed at 5 p.m. by coverage of the opening of hatches between the spacecraft and station.

The arrival of the new Expedition 55 crew will restore the space station to its full complement of six crew members living and working on the orbiting outpost.

Feustal, Arnold and Artemyev join the existing trio of Scott Tingle of NASA, Expedition 55 Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency already on board launching on Soyuz MS-07 in December 2017.

Expedition 55 flight engineer Drew Feustel of NASA, top, flight engineer Ricky Arnold of NASA, middle, and Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, bottom, are seen on the launchpad prior to boarding the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft for launch, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Feustel, Arnold, and Artemyev will spend the next five months living and working aboard the International Space Station.  Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The ISS has been continuously occupied for more than 17 years.

Shkaplerov, Tingle and Kanai are scheduled to remain aboard the station until June 2018, while Feustel, Arnold and Artemyev are slated to return to Earth in late August after 167 days on orbit.

The Expedition 55-56 crew poses for a picture at the conclusion of a press conference, Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

This is Feustel’s 3^rd mission – including one to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope - and the second for Arnold and Artemyev.

The mission “continues the long-term increase in crew size on the U.S. segment from three to four, allowing NASA to maximize time dedicated to research on the space station,” said NASA.

They will continue investigations working on over 250 science experiments.  

At least 2 spacewalks are planned during Expedition 55.

“Highlights of upcoming investigations include: a new facility to test materials, coatings and components of other large experiments in the harsh environment of space; a study on the effects of microgravity on bone marrow and blood cells produced in bone marrow; and a newly-developed passive nutrient delivery system for the Veggie plant growth facility.”

The next US cargo resupply mission is slated for blastoff on April 2 with on the SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon CRS-14 flight carrying over 5000 pounds of science and supplies to the ISS.

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer - ken at kenkremer.com

NASA’s James Webb Observatory Begins Final Assembly and Testing at Northrup Grumman California Facility

The combined optical element and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope were removed from their specially designed shipping container, called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS), in a high bay at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, on March 8, 2018. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   18 Mar 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has begun final assembly and testing at the Northrup Grumman spacecraft integration facility in Redondo Beach, California where the huge science instrument component and sunshield will be joined together.

California is Webb’s last assembly and testing spot before the completed telescope is shipped to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.

NASA is aiming for a spring 2019 launch target, but the date has not yet been determined pending the outcome of the final assembly and testing of the massive observatory at Northrup Grumman.

Engineers lift the combined optics and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope after removing it from the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS) at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, on March 8, 2018. Webb’s science payload and spacecraft (which includes the sunshield that is also pictured here in its folded state) will be combined at Northrop before launch.  Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn

JWST is the largest, most powerful and most complex space telescope ever built. It will serve as the scientific successor to NASA’s world famous and phenomenally successful Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

It will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket, folded up like origami inside the nose  cone.

The science module is comprised of the science instruments, optical train, and the iconic and gigantic golden primary mirror measuring 6.5-meter (21.3-foot) in diameter.

The 18-segment gold coated primary mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is raised into vertical alignment in the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 2, 2016. The secondary mirror mount booms are folded down into stowed for launch configuration.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

The science module half of Webb is named OTIS which stands for optical telescope and integrated science instrument module.  

OTIS recently arrived at the Northrup Grumman Redondo Beach facility in California in February after successfully completing 9 months of cryogenic testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

It was flown on a U.S. military C-5 Charlie aircraft that departed Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, just outside of Johnson to Los Angeles International Airport and then trucked to Northrop Grumman.

OTIS was carefully transported from Texas to California packed inside the shipping container known as the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS).

For the first time the two halves of JWST now reside at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, where they will come together to form the complete observatory after years of   design, development, manufacturing and testing.

The science instrument module was assembled and tested at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md, which this author saw and reported on the fully open golden mirror first hand. It was then shipped to Johnson for further cryogenic testing.  

“Extensive and rigorous testing prior to launch has proven effective in ensuring that NASA’s missions achieve their goals in space,” said Eric Smith, program director for Webb at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in a statement.  

“Webb is far along into its testing phase and has seen great success with the telescope and science instruments, which will deliver the spectacular results we anticipate.”

The sunshield of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope sits deployed inside a cleanroom at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, in October 2017. Credits: Northrop Grumman

After the two halves are joined, the additional testing is required to insure that Webb’s extremely complicated unfolding and deployment process work as planned.

“These final tests at Northrop are critical to making sure the fully assembled observatory deploys and operates as expected in space. Deployment is the most critical part of Webb’s journey to L2. To reach space, the telescope must fold origami-style inside its Ariane 5 rocket for launch. Once in space and detached from the rocket’s payload adaptor, Webb will unfold its sunshield and deploy its mirrors, including its  high complex primary mirror.  It will be the first space telescope to complete such an intricate process.” 

“Opening Webb’s tennis court-sized, five-layered sunshield is one of the most technically challenging parts of deployment. The sunshield must delicately fold around the telescope for launch and then carefully open in space. Opening the sunshield requires that about 100 actuators, tiny motors that control the delicate motions of deployment, correctly fire. The sunshield must deploy successfully to ensure the mirrors and science instruments of Webb stay cold enough to be able to detect the extremely faint light of far-away planets, stars and galaxies.”

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer - ken at kenkremer.com

Engineers open the interior tent frame of the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS) at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, on March 8, 2018, to reveal its precious cargo — the combined optics and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn

‘Ultima Thule’ tapped as Nickname for New Horizons Spacecraft Next Flyby Target in 2019

Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69, a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto, on Jan. 1, 2019. With public input, the team has selected the nickname “Ultima Thule” for the object, which will be the most primitive and most distant world ever explored by spacecraft.  Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Steve Gribben

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   16 Mar 2018

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL –  The New Horizons team has tapped ‘Ultima Thule’ as the nickname for the spacecrafts next flyby target on New Year’s Day 2019 – which “symbolizing this ultimate exploration by NASA” says Alan Stern, the missions team leader and chief scientist. It orbits the sun more than 4 Billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) beyond Earth.

The primitive frozen world - officially known as 2014 MU69 – will become the farthest object ever explored up close by a manmade emissary in history when NASA’s New Horizons spaceship zooms past for a close encounter on Jan. 1, 2019 orbiting more than a billion miles beyond Pluto, the most distant planet in our Solar System.

The first ever up close examination of this distant object holds critical clues to the formation of the outer solar system eons ago.

“With substantial public input, the team has chosen “Ultima Thule” (pronounced ultima thoo-lee”) for the Kuiper Belt object the New Horizons spacecraft will explore on Jan. 1, 2019,” NASA announced.

‘Ultima Thule’ is located in the Kuiper Belt and represents a pristine building block of the solar system.  It was ‘ultimately’ selected as the team after being imaged by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope for scrutiny by the science team.

Its exact nature is not known precisely because it is so distant and tiny. It could be a single body, a binary pair, or perhaps a system of multiple objects with multiple moons.

This image of Ultima Thule, or 2014 MU69, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

Pluto, the largest known body in the Kuiper Belt, was the first target explored by New Horizons during a fast flyby over two years ago during July 2015

“Thule was a mythical, far-northern island in medieval literature and cartography. Ultima Thule means "beyond Thule"– beyond the borders of the known world—symbolizing the exploration of the distant Kuiper Belt and Kuiper Belt objects that New Horizons is performing, something never before done.”

The mission team wanted a more inspiring name for the Kuiper Belt target besides 2014 MU69.

So they set up a contest hosted by the SETI Institute of Mountain View, California, and led by Mark Showalter, an institute fellow and member of the New Horizons science team,  and invited the public to submit names from November to early December 2017 and stipulated that a nickname would be chosen from among the top vote-getters.

NASA said over 115,000 people participants from around the world nominated over 34,000 names. 37 names were down selected for final voting including eight names suggested by the New Horizons team and 29 nominated by the public.

“MU69 is humanity's next Ultima Thule,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in a statement.

 “Our spacecraft is heading beyond the limits of the known worlds, to what will be this mission’s next achievement. Since this will be the farthest exploration of any object in space in history, I like to call our flyby target Ultima, for short, symbolizing this ultimate exploration by NASA and our team.”

The New Horizons spacecraft is currently hibernating while the mission team plans the ‘Ultima Thule’ flyby.

“We are grateful to those who proposed such an interesting and inspirational nickname,” Showalter said. “They deserve credit for capturing the true spirit of exploration that New Horizons embodies.”

A formal name will be chosen by NASA and the New Horizons team and submitted to the infamous International Astronomical Union (IAU) after the flyby is completed.

The shape and composition of ‘Ultima Thule’ is unknown. It could be peanut shaped or binary. Its size is estimated at no more than 20 miles (30 kilometers) long, or, if a binary, each about 9-12 miles (15-20 kilometers) in diameter. 

“We really won’t know what MU69 looks like until we fly past it, or even gain a full understanding of it until after the encounter,” said New Horizons science team member Marc Buie, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, at the American Geophysical Union Fall 2017 Meeting in New Orleans. “But even from afar, the more we examine it, the more interesting and amazing this little world becomes.” 

New Horizons is the fifth spacecraft to traverse the Kuiper Belt, but the first to conduct a scientific study of this mysterious region beyond Neptune. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Magda Saina

“Our flyby of MU69 on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day 2019 will be an exciting sequel to the historic exploration New Horizons performed at Pluto in 2015,” added Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. “Nothing even like MU69 has ever been explored before.”

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer - ken at kenkremer.com

Global mosaic of Pluto created from raw images gathered during July 2015 flyby by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JHU/JPL/SWRI/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

Revolutionary GOES-S Weather Observatory Reaches Geostationary Orbit, Renamed GOES-17

GOES-S view of Earth from its checkout location.  Credit: NOAA

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   14 Mar 2018

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL –  Less than 2 weeks after the dinnertime blastoff of the GOES-S weather observatory put on a stunningly delicious launch display from the Florida Space Coast on March 1, 2018, the revolutionary satellite that will track extreme weather in near real time reached geostationary orbit and was renamed as GOES-17.

“On March 12, GOES-S executed its final liquid apogee engine burn, placing the satellite in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles away,” NOAA announced in a statement.

“GOES-S is now GOES-17!”

GOES-17 will revolutionize weather forecasting in the Western Hemisphere orbiting  some 22,200 mi (35800 km) above Earth where it will operate for the remainder of its planned 15 year lifetime. 

The 5.5 ton school bus sized probe will provide vastly improved forecasts and warnings on weather, wildfires, tornadoes and cyclones for California and the western United States all the way out to Hawaii and Guam in ways that will positively impact the lives of everyday people as well as save lives by helping pinpoint outbreaks of severe weather in near real time. 

 

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) lifted off on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from seaside Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 5:02 p.m. EST on March 1, 2018.

ULA Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the NOAA/NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-S at 5:02 p.m. EST on March 1, 2018. - as seen from the VAB roof. GOES-S will be stationed over the western US. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com

With GOES-17 now in geostationary orbit, the next steps are to complete the deployment of the solar array  and solar pointing platform and maneuver the satellite to its checkout position at 89.5 degrees West longitude.

A six-month checkout of its suite of six state-of-the-art science observing instruments and space craft systems will commence on March 26.

NOAA says the first images are expected in mid-May.

Thereafter it will be moved to its operational location at 137 degrees West longitude in late 2018 and become NOAA’s new GOES West observatory – thereby replacing the current legacy satellite.

An operational GOES-17 will complete NOAA’s constellation of two next-generation geostationary satellites for the Western Hemisphere.

GOES-17 joins twin sister GOES-16 which was the first in the series of US next-gen weather observatories and recently became operational as NOAA’s new GOES-East observatory at 75 degrees West longitude.

Together, GOES-16 and GOES-17 will keep an eye on weather and environmental hazards from the west coast of Africa all the way to New Zealand.

Image shows the view of Earth from the GOES West operational position. Credit: NOAA/CIMSS

NOAA manages the GOES-R Series program through an integrated NOAA/NASA office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

GOES-S/GOES-17 and GOES-R/GOES-16 were built by prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Littleton, Colorado.  

GOES-17 will deliver a quantum leap in weather forecasting for the western United States just as GOES-R – the first satellite in the new series – is now doing for the eastern United Stated since it only recently became operational in December 2017.

GOES-17 will provide faster, more accurate, and more detailed data in near real-time to track storm systems, lightning, wildfires, coastal fog, and other hazards that affect the western U.S., Hawaii and Alaska. 

“GOES 17 will become operational in the fall of 2018, “ Tim Walsh, acting GOES-R system program director at NOAA told Space UpClose during an interview at KSC. “It will give us the equivalent perspective for the western US that we now have for the eastern US using the six onboard instruments namely ABI and GLM, SUVI, EXIS, SEIS and the magnetometer.”

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the NOAA/NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-S at 5:02 p.m. EST on March 1, 2018. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com

GOES-S is the second in the new GOES-R series of America’s most powerful and most advanced next generation geostationary weather observation satellites.  It is designed to last for a 15 year orbital lifetime and will deliver a ‘quantum leap’ in weather forecasting. 

GOES-S will work in tandem with twin sister satellite GOES-R which was successfully launched by a ULA Atlas V on Nov. 19, 2016.

Altogether the GOES-R series consists of a quartet of four identical satellites - comprising GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U – manufactured at an overall cost of about $11 Billion. This will keep the GOES satellite system operational through 2036.

The GOES-R series (including GOES-S) state-of-the-art science instrument suite includes the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI), Extreme Ultraviolet and X-Ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS), and the Magnetometer (MAG). 

ABI is the primary instrument and will collect 3 times more spectral data with 4 times greater resolution and scans 5 times faster than ever before - via the primary Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument - compared to the current GOES satellites.

ABI views the earth with 16 spectral channels in the visible, near infrared and infrared channels compared to 5 for the legacy GOES satellites.

“We are seeing a revolutionary step forward in performance with 4x better spatial resolution, 3 x as many frequencies or spectral bands, and we receive images 5 x faster,” Walsh said already with GOES-R/GOES-16 compared to the legacy GOES East/West satellite imager technologies “which were created and developed in the mid-1980s.”

“Currently to do a full western hemisphere image with the current imager on orbit today takes 26 minutes. With GOES-R now we can do the same thing in 5 minutes.”

“So it gives us much better severe weather forecasting and now weather forecasting imagery.”

“We hope to start test imaging with GOES-S by around early May, said Walsh. “First we need to raise the temperature of the instruments once on orbit. We will outgas them for several weeks.”

“There is no real difference between this spacecraft GOES-S/GOES 17 and GOES-R/GOES 16.” 

But they will be located at different positions in the equatorial belt to obtain different views.  Together they will be able to image the entire US and regions further out beyond to the east and west to provide coverage of the entire Western Hemisphere.

“GOES 17 will provide imagery that will complement what we have from GOES 16.”

“GOES S will be located at 137 degrees west longitude over the eastern pacific. So at that time we will be able to see the entire United States out to Hawaii, Alaska and even almost to New Zealand.”

“GOES-R/GOES 16 is located at 75 degrees west longitude gives the full Eastern seaboard and CONUS [continental US] coverage,” Walsh explained.

Video Caption: This animation depicts the areas of the Earth viewed by GOES East and GOES West from their vantage point 22,236 miles above the equator. NOAA maintains a two-satellite Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) constellation to watch over the Western Hemisphere. The satellites circle the Earth in geosynchronous orbit, which means they orbit the Earth’s equatorial plane at a speed matching the Earth’s rotation. This allows them to stay in a fixed position in the sky, remaining stationary with respect to a point on the ground.  Credit: NOAA/NASA

The gigantic school bus sized satellite measures  6.1 m x 5.6 m x 3.9 m (20.0 ft x 18.4 ft x 12.8 ft) with a three-axis stabilized spacecraft bus.

It has a dry mass of 2,857 kg (6,299 lbs) and a fueled mass of 5,192 kg (11,446 lbs) at launch.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the NOAA/NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-S at 5:02 p.m. EST on March 1, 2018. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com

Watch this GOES-East Full Disk GeoColor satellite imagery GIF, March 14, 2018:

https://www.facebook.com/NOAASatellites/videos/2028306583876275/

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer - ken at kenkremer.com

The NASA/NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) is being processed in the clean room at Astrotech Space Operations, in Titusville, FL, on Jan 16, 2018 in advance of nose cone encapsulation and launch on a ULA Atlas V on Mar. 1, 2018.  GOES-S belongs to new constellation of America’s most advanced weather satellites. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com