A Russian state board of inquiry announced on August 30 that the cause of the August 18 failure of a Proton rocket upper stage has been found. According to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Breeze-M failure was due to a badly programmed sequence for its guidance system, which resulted in an off-nominal orientation of the upper stage, injecting the [...]
Archive for August, 2011
Lost Russian Satellite Threatens Space Navigation
According to press agency Xinhua, the Russian heavy satellite Express-AM4, inserted in a wrong orbit after a faulty launch on Aug. 18, might pose a threat to space navigation satellites Quoting a source in the space industry, the interfex news agency said that the satellite may stay in its orbit for decades, risking collisin with Glonass, GPS, Globalstar and Iridium satellites. The [...]
Proposed Missions Could Deflect Space Rocks Like Asteroid Apophis
An article on Space.com highlights two new studies for mission to deflect away asteroids in collision course with Earth. A Chinese study proposes using a spacecraft propelled by by solar sails. The other plan is a European Space Agency mission called Don Quijote, which would crash a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to deflect it, while a second [...]
Available In Bookstores
The Need for an Integrated Regulatory Regime for Aviation and Space ICAO for Space? (Studies in Space Policy) In the new space age after the end of the Cold War, orbit and frequency allocations, traffic control, safety, and a number of support services such as space weather forecast and orbital debris monitoring need to be coordinated transparently and effectively by [...]
The Soyuz Crew Escape System
The video shows the Soyuz T-10-1 attempted launch of September 26, 1981. The launch escape system fired just two seconds before the rocket exploded for a fuel spill. The capsule was pulled away from the explosion, with an acceleration of 14 to 17g (137 to 167 m/s²) which lasted for five seconds. Despite some minor injuries caused by the sudden acceleration, the [...]
Progress Accident May Have Been Caused by Gas Generator Failure
“Members of the emergency commission have determined the cause of the failure of the Soyuz carrier rocket’s third stage engine,” said Roscosmos spokesman Alexei Kurznetsov, “It is a malfunction in the engine’s gas generator.” The comment, released by Itar-tass in an August 29 press release, is the first attempt to explain what went wrong during the launch of Progress M12-M [...]
New Russian Spacecraft Mockup on Display
The Russian Federation Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the 10th International Aerospace Show MASK-2011 in Zhukovskiy on August 17, 2011. According to RSC Energia, Putin showed a special interest in the full scale mockup of the PPTS, the next-generation Russian manned spacecraft. The Prospective Piloted Transport System (PPTS) spacecraft is a 6 man crew vehicle that RSC Energia is developing along with industrial [...]
FALCON HTV-2
The Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) is an unmanned experimental rocket launched aircraft which has the capability to fly up to Mach 20 (21,000 km/h). Launched on top of a Minotaur IV Lite rocket, the HTV-2 vehicle carries various sensors to collect data about aerodynamics, aerothermal effects and critical guidance, navigation and control. From an aerodynamic point of view, the [...]
Darpa HTV-2 Test Flight
The video shows the test flight of DARPA Hypersonic Test Vehicle (HTV)-2. The HTV-2 is a prototype for a reusable, rapid-strike Hypersonic Weapon System. The August 11 test, the second for the platform, ended prematurely when the craft lost contact 9 minutes into its planned 30 minute glide flight. Andrea GiniAndrea Gini is a scientific journalist and a professional of the [...]
Progress Spacecraft Crashes in Siberia
An unmanned Russian Progress M-12M spacecraft carrying 2.9 tonnes of supplies for the ISS has crashed into the Altai region of Siberia in Russia following a malfunction of the Soyuz carrier rocket right after launch. This is the first failure of this family of spacecraft in over 30 years of activity. The Progress 44 lifted off from the Baikonour cosmodrome [...]
