It's Time! Starship & Starliner Inch Closer To Launch! | This Week In Spaceflight

Starship inches closer to launch Starliner is finally back on the pad after another lengthy delay and two Japanese space probes may have met their fate I'm Elicia seagull for NSF it's Friday the 31st of May and there's much more to come this week in space flight [Music] [Applause] after a few weeks of delays Starliner is back on the pad getting ready for launch but the road back there has been pretty interesting you may remember Boeing and NASA attempted the first crude flight of Starliner back on May 6th but a malfunctioning valve on the Centaur stage of the atlas 5 rocket prompted a scrub of the launch that day we explained all of the details about that specific abort on this week in space flight that week but what we didn't know at the time was that despite the problem with Centaur there was a problem with Starliner as well according to Boeing right after the scrub on May 6th Engineers found a small helium leak on a Thruster seal within the service module of the spacecraft the leak was minimal and wouldn't have posed a risk to the crew in principle however Boeing and NASA still took about 2 and 1/2 weeks to understand the issue more in depth the most obvious thing to do was of course to find the cause of the leak and according to Boeing and NASA officials it was most likely due to a small defect on the seal in a helium line that goes to one of the Thruster pods on Starliner service module this seal is small about the size of a shirt button and as thick as about 10 paper stacked on top of each other so any small defect could cause the seal to not work properly and potentially create a leak another step in the investigation had to do with the consequences of the leak and the seal defect what if it gets worse can the spacecraft function if the leak gets worse well Engineers studied the problem at Boeing's propulsion laboratory where they found that even if there was no seal in the first place the helium leak could be manageable and would not L impact on orbit operations The Next Step was to study what would happen if more leaks were to develop and thrusters were to become disabled due to said leaks NASA and Boeing teams looked at a variety of scenarios where multiple maneuvering thrusters might fail and only found a potential issue with Starliner deorbit burn in extremely remote cases where multiple issues take place there might have been a chance that the spacecraft wouldn't have performed this burn because it wasn't programmed to take into account these very remote failure modes Starliner has four PODS of three orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters also known as omac thrusters which act as the main engines used for big orbital Maneuvers while another set of smaller thrusters control the spacecraft's main attitude one of the remote cases that NASA and Boeing looked at involved having all omac thrusters disabled by propulsion system issues and four out of the eight aft facing reaction control thrusters also disabled by a propulsion system issue now if this were to happen the spacecraft software would would not have been able to execute the deorbit burn because it wasn't a potential scenario built into the software teams have now introduced a modification of this and applied Corrections that could enable Starliner to perform a deorbit burn by only using four of the eight small AP facing reaction control thrusters this would be done via two Burns 10 minutes in length each executed about 80 minutes apart but there's probably a very fair question that a lot of people were wondering when the news about this came out why not just solve the leak issue in the first place well it turns out this helium seal is right next to lines for the hypergolic propellant system used on Starliner service module in order to solve the problem Starliner would have had to have been destacked and all of its fluids removed to be able to work on this area in a safe manner now this might have taken a few months which would have then come into conflict with the visiting vehicle schedule at the ISS and ula's own launch schedule as well after all of the work performed so far NASA and Boeing hope that Starliner first crude flight will take place as soon as this Saturday June 1st first at 1625 UTC let's hope this time is the charm Starship is a mere few days away from launch this week SpaceX teams at Starbase completed a second wet dress rehearsal finally checking this major Milestone off the long list of items that need to be completed ahead of the Rocket's fourth flight the company already completed an initial wet dress rehearsal back on May 20th but it appeared to have been cut short just minutes before propellant load was supposed to be completed ship 29 was then destacked and worked worked on for a few more days with heat shield testing taking place pretty much up through Sunday when it was then restacked on booster 11 last Friday the same morning when we released our last episode of this weekend space flight SpaceX confirmed that it was targeting June 5th for starship's next launch pending regulatory approval this regulatory approval seems to be trending in the right direction now if you've kept a close eye on our Channel you may know that SpaceX requested the FAA to make a public safety determination this is another way for a company to return to flight that does not necessitate the completion of the mishap report from the previous flight this means that if the FAA agreed that no public safety issues were involved during starship's thirdd flight then SpaceX could return Starship to flight if it also meant all other licensing requirements and indeed this week we had confirmation from the FAA thanks to our own Adrien bile that the agency has agreed with this and SpaceX can therefore proceed with a return tolight pending a modification to its current launch license to gain this modified launch license SpaceX must prove that it can comply with all licensing requirements ahead of launch and once in hand it will allow the company to launch Starship once again this paperwork can come literally the day before the launch and SpaceX could still launch just fine that's in fact what happened for flight 3 so we'll keep a very close eye out for any potential updates that said SpaceX must be expecting this license modification really soon if it's already targeting a June 5th launch date the company also destacked ship 29 from booster 11 right after finishing this latest wet dress rehearsal and workers are installing the flight termination system on both vehicles so what do you think will we have a Starship launch next week now let's take a quick Glimpse at some other stories across space blue origin has once again rolled out its new Glen Simulator for testing on the Launchpad this week the company announced that the test will be more about testing the Launchpad systems than the Vehicle Systems which I guess is why blue is using the simulator rather than the Pathfinder which is actual real tanks in particular this testing will be proving all of the systems that help Supply Commodities to the rocket another test will involve a rapid retraction of the umbilical connections from the rocket although it's still horizontal on the pad as of the time of this recording we've been keeping a close eye on blu's activities thanks to our cameras at the cape and you can bet that we'll be trying to spot that retraction test whenever it happens another thing that we'll be keeping an ion is the company's Landing platform arriving at the Space Coast this vessel appears to have been spotted last month on its way to France from its build location in Romania our good friend Gavin posted on social media just this week about the ship which is called Landing platform vessel one not the most creative name but it does the job Jack says slim may have had its last day on the moon in case you don't remember slim which stands for smart Lander for investigating moon was launched in September of last year and landed on the moon about 4 months later on January 19th its Landing was peculiar to say the least it was designed to land sideways but instead it landed upside down however that wasn't the end for it quite the opposite in fact due to its Landing orientation its solar panel was not oriented optimally which meant that it could only operate for a few Earth days every lunar day despite this the Lander survived three lunar nights having its last communication with Earth on April 29th right before its fourth lunar night but it seem slim may not have survived this fourth round this week team's triying to contact slim on multiple occasions but no signals were received Engineers think that this could be the first sign of slim succumbing to the harsh environment of lunar night but they'll try again next month when the Sun starts to rise at Slim's Landing location regardless of the outcome slim has delivered a lot more science than originally planned and was able to pull through three lunar Knights when it was never designed for that in the first place something that not a lot of lunar Landers can say from the Moon to Venus another jaxa spacecraft may have fallen silent in recent weeks jaxa announced this week that it has lost Communications with its Akatsuki spacecraft since late April due to attitude control issues Akatsuki already had a troubled start to its Mission launched in May of 2010 it arrived at vus 7 months later for an orbital insertion burn that was never accomplished its main engine failed 3 minutes into the burn and Engineers had to devise a different plan to go into orbit around the hottest planet in our solar system it took 5 years of planning and waiting for Akatsuki to finally enter orbit around Venus using its reaction control system thrusters it's extend ended time in deep space and heavy usage of its thrusters already had an impact on the mission with some instruments failing a few years after the spacecraft's orbital insertion akatsuki's Mission had been extended multiple times in recent years as its primary Mission got extended further and further Jax's press release relating to this latest issue says quote the probe has already exceeded its 4 and a2e design lifespan since launch and is now in the later stages of operation we are currently considering our future response and will announce our policy as soon as it has been decided this week Avio announced that it had tested a new design of the Vegas C second stage as part of the company's efforts to return the rocket to flight if you remember Vegas SE suffered a failure back in December 2022 when the second stage broke up during its burn due to higher than expected erosion on the motor's nozzle throat insert the company had been testing newer designs over the last year and suffered another failure on the test stand back in June when trying to test a newly designed nozzle after all of those troubles Avio has finally completed a successful test fire of the redesign stage called zapiro 40 advancing Vegas's return to flight one step closer to reality vegacy is the replacement rocket for Vega the European Light Lift launcher managed by Aran group in AIO Vega still has one flight left so after that no more Vega Rockets will be available hence why Avio is quickly working on resuming flights of the Vega sea another zapiro 40 motor is set to be tested in October prior to this Rocket's return to flight by the end of the year year here's hoping that all goes well and stays on schedule now let's go over all of the traffic in space during the past week and see what's coming up next week in space flight starting off the week we had the launch of the sixth electron rocket of the Year taking place on May 25th at 741 UTC from rocket lab's own Spaceport in New Zealand the rocket was carrying out the Ready Aim pre-fire mission for NASA the first of two pre-fire missions for the agency pre-fire which stands for Polar radiant energy in the far infrared experiment consists of two Cube SATs that will be studying the amount of heat absorbed and emitted by the Earth's polar regions this will help to inform scientists how this flow of heat one way or the other affects our planet's climate and its effect on climate change the launch was the first of two that rocket lab is aiming to perform in quick succession and the company is already preparing for that second flight in just a few days from now the second launch of the week happened quite unexpectedly North Korea has once again attempted to launch an orbital rocket but unlike the previous one this one failed to even reach space in the first place according to North Korean State media the rocket lifted off on May 27th at 1344 UTC from the so satellite launching station in the northeast of the country the Rocket's initial liftoff was carried out successfully but a problem with the first stage engines eventually led to the failure of the launch this state media seems to indicate that the first stage engines run on Carol loocks rather than hypergolic propellants as it was thought for the previous three flights of the chalma 1 rocket it's not clear whether this was a new rocket or an improved version of the Chula 1 rocket or if it was a completely new rocket altogether but it's clear that something did not go according to plan on this flight whatever the circumstances it's believed the rocket was carrying a successor of the Malang Yong military reconnaissance satellite that was launched last year as this mission was carried out in secrecy we most likely won't know any details about the failure until the government of North Korea decides to disclose them up in Orbit on the Tang gang space station the Shen 18 crew has performed its first extra vehicular activity on the orbiting Outpost yaguang Fu and Li Guang Su exited the station's WN module on May 28th at around 230 UTC for about 8 and 1 half hours setting the record for the longest Chinese spacewalk according to the Chinese man space agency the pair of astronauts performed several tasks during The Space Walk which were aimed at improving the station's orbital debris protection continuing with space station traffic we had the departure of the progress ms25 cargo spacecraft from the ISS after a 6-month stay on the orbiting Outpost undocking from the pois module took place on May 28th at 839 UTC and now gives way for the arrival of the progress ms27 spacecraft later this week this week was a rare week in which we only had two Falcon 9 launches the first of these took place from Florida on May 28th at 1424 UTC carrying a batch of 23 starlink V2 mini satellites into low earth orbit the first stage for this Mission be 1078 was was flying for a 10th time becoming the 15th booster to reach 10 flights remember when 10 flights was a big deal the booster successfully returned to Earth landing on spacex's drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas with this starlink launch SpaceX has now put a total of 6,528 satellites into orbit of which 450 have re-entered and 5,234 have reached their operational orbit the second Falcon 9 launch of the week took place from vandenbberg on May 28th at 2220 UTC carrying the Earth care satellite into a sun synchronous orbit Earth care which stands for Earth Cloud aerosol and radiation Explorer is an earth observation satellite Mission jointly developed between Issa and jaxa Earth care has four main instruments that will allow it to study Earth's clouds and aerosols understanding how they change over time and how this Dynamic affects Earth's changing climate the mission has had a lengthy development time with earthcare originally planned to launch in 2013 but delayed several years due to difficulties veloping the spacecraft liar system the mission suffered another turn as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 which led to the European Space Agency to change the spacecraft from soyu to Vega SE and then to spacex's Falcon 9 rocket after the aforementioned challenges with Vegas SE this Mission marked yet again the use of a Merlin vacuum engine with a shorten nozzle extension since the Rocket's full performance was not needed the first stage for this mission b1081 was flying for a seventh time and it success successfully landed back on Landing Zone 4 just about 400 m away from the launch site this week we also had the launch of Galactic energy series 1s rocket on May 29th at 812 UTC from the dong Fong Hong tangang barge located off the coast of the city of Ria in China the mission dubbed beautiful world was carrying four TN Internet of Things satellites into low earth orbit this was the second sea launch of a series 1 rocket and potentially the first of two this week this launch was quite peculiar due to the proximity of the rocket to the city of row when it launched continuing the long list of launches this week we had a progress launching from site 316 in kazakstan on May 30th at 942 UTC this was the progress ms27 spacecraft and it carried about 2500 kg of cargo to the ISS including about 750 kg of propellant for the station's propulsion systems the spacecraft is still in route to the ISS with Docking to the pois module scheduled to take place on June 1st at 11:47 UTC later in the week we had a Chong Jong 3be launch on May 30th at 1212 UTC from launch complex 2 at the XI Chong satellite launch Center the rocket was carrying the pat mm1r to geosynchronous transfer orbit this 5.5 tonon satellite is set to replace the Pat mm1 in geostationary orbit delivering communication services in ku ka and cbands the spacecraft is based on the Chinese dfh 4 satellite bus and will be operated by the Pakistan space and upper atmosphere res search commission going into next week we'll have the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida carrying a batch of starlink V2 mini satellites the 4-Hour launch window for the Starling group 664 mission is set to open on May 21st at 2243 UTC right on the heels of the first pre-fire mission rocket lab is set to break its own turnaround record for electron with the second pre-fire mission for NASA the pre-fire and Ice mission is set to take place on June 1st within a 1-hour window that opens at 3:00 UT TC also on June 1st we'll be looking forward to the next attempt to launch Boeing's Starliner spacecraft with crew on board liftoff is set to take place at 1625 UTC with nsf's own live coverage beginning about 4 and 1 half hours earlier at around 10:00 UTC if the launch goes to plan Starliner will take a bit over a day to catch up to the station docking to the front docking port on June 2nd at 1935 UTC our eyes will then turn to the Moon after that with China's chonga 6 Mission attempting to land on the far side of the moon on June 2nd an exact time has not been given but it's expected to take place around midnight UTC once landed chonga 6 will quickly take samples from the surface of the Moon and place them on its Ascent module the plan calls for the ascent module to launch from the Moon about 48 hours after landing so we should expect that launch to take place early in the day of June 4th once in orbit the ascent module will dock to the orbital module to transfer the samples back to Earth this docking is also set to take place about 48 hours after the launch of the ascent module so we should expect that to take place around June 6th coming back to Earth we'll have the launch of another falcon9 carrying the first batch of starlink direct to cell satellites to launch from Florida the 4-Hour launch window for the starlink group 85 mission is set to open on June 5th at around midnight UTC another batch of direct to sell satellites are then set to launch from the other coast of the United States on the starlink group 88 Mission the 4-Hour launch window is set to open on June 5th at 512 UTC Starship the world's most powerful rocket is then set to launch a few hours later from Starbase in Texas on its fourth test flight the approximate 2hour Long window is set to open on June 5th at 12:00 UTC make sure to subscribe and hit the notification Bell as we'll be going live regularly with our countdown to launch live streams and the leadup to this launch to provide regular status updates we'll also be live for launch with our coverage set to begin approximately 8 hours prior to the opening of the window and that's your weekly update at space flight news we see you all again next week to recap this week in space flight

Channel: NASASpaceflight

Views: 57,731

Keywords: Spaceflight, Starship, SpaceX, Starliner, Boeing, NASA, JAXA, SLIM, Akatsuki, Rocket Launch, Astronomy, Space Exploration, Science News, Space Technology, Space Missions, Elon Musk, Starlink, Satellite Launch, Space Events, Spacecraft, Blue Origin, New Glenn, Vega C, Space Probes, Space Updates

Id: 6foG1b-7PrY

Length: 19min 2sec (1142 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024