The Voyager 1 spacecraft is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. Even if defined only by distance, the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory twin Voyagers are America's greatest space adventure. They've been flying successfully for more than 36 years and are billions of miles from home. What isn't widely known is that they almost never made it out there.
The first proposed mission in the late 1960s was for four spacecraft to take advantage of a rare alignment of the four outer planets of the solar system; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune would all be on the same side of the sun. However, in December 1971, NASA decided it couldn't afford the $1-billion price tag for a 12-year "grand tour" mission with four spacecraft.
This alignment happens only every 176 years, and the next launch opportunity was just five years away, in 1977. To avoid missing the opportunity, JPL engineers quickly devised a plan to send two simpler spacecraft on four-year flights to Jupiter and Saturn, with the hope of continuing on to Uranus and Neptune. (2/18)
Meet NASA's Enormous Rocket Transporter (Source: Weather Channel)
Before a rocket can get into space, it has to get to its launch pad. But moving 12 million pounds’ worth of spaceship requires a whole lot more than your average truck, which is why, in the 1960s, NASA built a 6.5 million-pound behemoth of a vehicle, known as the crawler transporter. Now it’s getting an upgrade.
NASA’s two crawlers got the space agency through the Apollo program and the space shuttle era, trudging across the Kennedy Space Center complex at a speed of about a mile per hour. At about 26 feet high, it towers over the other vehicles (and humans) that move with it along the road to the launch site — this was particularly obvious when it carried the Saturn V rocket, itself taller than the Statue of Liberty. Click here. (2/17)
Boeing's CST-100 Passes Two New Milestones (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The Boeing Company recently announced the completion of more developmental requirements for their Crew Space Transportation 100(CST-100)-100 spacecraft that includes a software safety test and hardware design review. Passing this phase of testing is considered a milestone for a company that is competing to return flights of astronauts from U.S soil in the coming years.
Boeing’s current phase of testing is the Critical Design Review (CDR), which included system analysis of their Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA) that will connect the CST-100 spacecraft to the rocket that will take it into orbit. This CDR testing was performed to establish the flight stability of the LVA in a wind tunnel and verified that Boeing’s design is applicable for production. Click here. (2/17)
Cygnus Cargo Ship Prepares for Departure From Space Station (Source: America Space)
After more than a month at the Space Station, Orbital Sciences Corp. will bring its ORB-1 Cygnus cargo ship back to Earth with a fiery Viking-like funeral this week. Unberthing from the Earth-facing (or “nadir”) port of the station’s Harmony node is scheduled to take place at 5:30 a.m. EST on 18 February, with Expedition 38 crewmen Mike Hopkins and Koichi Wakata controlling the 57.7-foot-long Canadarm2 robotic arm.
The Cygnus vehicle, named in honor of former shuttle astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton—who died last August—is due to be released into free flight by Canadarm2 at 6:40 a.m. EST, after which it will be maneuvered into a “disposal corridor,” preparatory to its seven-minute de-orbit “burn” Wednesday morning. (2/17)
Angara Mockup Installed on Plesetsk Cosmodrome’s Launch Pad (Source: Itar-Tass)
A mockup of Russia’s new Angara carrier rocket was taken out of the assembly shop at the northern Plesetsk Cosmodrome and installed in the launch pad area. Angara is one of the priorities in the development of the Plesetsk spaceport. In November 2013, a full-scale mockup of the rocket was for the first time put up at the launch pad. It was a fully operational rocket but intended for ground testing only, not for launching. (2/17)
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