SSI News
International Space Station has communications cut for a time
On 19 February, flight controllers were in the process of updating the International Space Station’s command and control software when a communications fault related to this transition occured. During the transition from primary computer to the backup computer as part of the software load procedure, there was a loss of all communications with mission control at 1435 GMT. The back up computer was not letting the station communicate with Nasa’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, Normal ommunications and telemetry were restored at 1934 GMT using another computer. In the intervening period a secondary radio voice communications were able to made as the station passsed over Russian ground stations.
Analysis: Standard Missile SM-3 makes successful missile intercept using satellite tracking data and Royal Navy might need similar (Updated)
On 13 February, the Raytheon Company announced that its Standard Missile SM-3 Block IA was fired from the USS Lake Erie and successfully destroyed a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target using tracking data from two Space Tracking and Surveillance System-Demonstrator (STSS-D) satellites in low Earth orbit carrying sensor payloads able to detect infrared and visible light. The MRBM target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility. As it rose above the horizon, the target was acquired and tracked by STSS-D. Threat data was then relayed through the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) system to the ship. The ship’s crew fired the SM-3 based on STSS track data and before the ship’s radar acquired the target.
Arabsat awaits regulatory approval for its Hellassat buy
The pan-Arabic satellite operator Arabsat is awaiting regulatory approval for its planned purchase of the Greek satellite operator Hellassat from OTE which it announced on 7 February. The purchase price was €208 million ($281 million). Hellesat operates the Hellesat 2 communications satellite in geosyncronous orbit over 39 degrees East and plans to build a new satelltie called Hellassat 3.
No need for paper maps
Residents of Chelyabinsk may understandably be justa bit jittery, but the rest of us can breathe easy - or at least continue torely on satnav. Asteroid DA14 may be a 45m chunk of rock set to pass Earthwithin the orbit of our geosynchronous satellites, but it won't...
NASA adds Aerojet to SLS booster risk reduction contracts
NASA has selected the rocket engine manufacturer Aerojet to take part in the risk reduction effort to provide advanced booster concepts for later versions of the Space Launch System (SLS). The $23.3 million contract has been awarded to allow Aerojet to reduce the technical risk in providing a liquid oxygen and kerosene oxidizer-rich staged-combustion engine. The company will fabricate a representative full-scale 550,000lb thrust class main injector and thrust chamber, and prepare to conduct a number of tests measuring performance and demonstrating combustion stability previously reported to be as part of its efforts to produce a dual combustion chamber engine of 1 million lb thrust called AJ-1-E6.
Meteor explosion over Russia injures a thousand (updated)
As the world waited for an expected close pass of an asteroid 2012 DA 14 on the evening of 15 February, a second smaller object, fell onto the Ural mountains in Central Russia on the morning of that day. At 0315 GMT a 15m diameter meteorite plunged through the atmosphere explosively breaking up as it did so at a height of circa 20-25km and with an explosive power of 500kT (kiloton equivalent of TNT). The shockwave resulting from the air burst explosion was reported to have injured more than one thousand people as it blew out windows and damaged roofs in the city of Chelyabinsk. The injuries were mainly minor and no fatalities were reported.
Proton M launch undershoot: ILS says it was too warm propellants that ultimately doomed Breeze M turbopump
Having already noted that the Proton M Breeze M launch undershoot of the Yamal 402 spacececraft on 8 December 2012 had been caused the failure of the Breeze M upper stage’s oxidiser pump bearing during the start of the 3rd burn, the ILS Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) has explained that the “adverse conditions” that caused this were that the propellants were too warm at launch and that the engine’s warming effect was more than usual.
Astium Services wins Ka-band service contract from French Ministry of Defence
Now renamed from its original name of Paradigm Secure Communications, Astrium Services is building on the success it has had in supplying satellite communications to the UK’s Ministry of Defence (via Astrium-operated Skynet satellites) and on its past communications contracts with the Frenche military. As a result, the French defence procurement agency (DGA) has awarded Astrium Services and military communications specialist firm Actia Sodielec a 17-year services contract to provide Ka-band miiltary satellite communications based system called “Comcept”.
Proton M Breeze M injection failure had oxidiser pump bearing damage as part of the cause
The Russian failure investigation into the Proton M Breeze M undershoot on 8 December 2012 which stranded the Yamal 402 communications spacecraft (the satellite later recovered itself albeit with some loss of projected lifespan) has found that found that “adverse conditions” affected startup of the 3rd burn of the Breeze M (Briz-M) upper stage resulting in damage being caused to a Breeze M engine bearing on the oxidizer side of the turbo pump. This ultimately resulted in the failure of the bearing during the 4th burn and caused the 4th burn of the Breeze M to end about four minutes early, The “adverse conditions” have not yet been disclosed.
The International Launch Servies (ILS) Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) agreed with the conclusons of the official failure investigation.
On a sadder note: Veteran BBC Space Correspondent Reg Turnill passes way (corrected)
Flightglobal’s Hyperbola column is sad to report that veteran BBC spaceflight correspondent Reg Turnill has died at the age of 97 on 12 February 2013. Recruited initially from the Press Association to cover industrial news, Turnill became the BBC air and space correspondent in 1958 after reporting the launch of Sputnik the year before. In this role he covered most of the key US and Russian manned space missions thoughout the 1960s and 1970s including the Apollo 11 moonlanding live from mission control in Houston. As the last reporter in mission control in the evening, it was also Turnill who initially broke the story of Apollo 13’s in-space explosion to the world.
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