SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication

Volume 61 No.5 May 2019 £5.25 Dragon fire! copy Subscriber

Apollo feedback 05> Commercial space

634089 Steps back to the Moon

770038 Remembering Apollo 10 9 copy Subscriber CONTENTS Features 16 Return of the Dragon SpaceX has taken a big step forward by successfully launching its Dragon 2 crew- carrying capsule to the International Space Station but how long before astronauts get to ride the latest people-carrier? 2

Letter from the Editor 18 The Impact of Apollo – Part 2 Nick Spall FBIS looks at the technological and The excitement just keeps on inspirational legacy of the Apollo Moon shots growing! No sooner did we have and finds value in the money spent. the first uncrewed landing on the far side of the Moon by China than Israel launched the first privately 22 Apollo 10 – so near, yet so far funded spacecraft to head for a David Baker recalls events 50 years ago when lunar touchdown. Then, NASA three astronauts got closer to the Moon than boss Jim Bridenstine advised ever before and yet left the final descent to glory Congress that its flagship rocket, to the next mission in line, clearing the way for 16 the Space Launch System, may the first landing. not be ready to launch Orion in 2020 as planned, while calling on 32 Commercial Space commercial providers to step up Using a wide range of commercial providers, and fly the mission to fast-track humans back on the Moon in 2028 NASA is building a roadmap to the Moon with (page 2). landers, space tugs and spacecraft for taking Not fast enough it seems. Vice humans back to the surface by 2028. President Mike Pence has now delivered a message from the Trump White House ordering NASA to get a woman on the 18 Moon by 2024! Nobody seems to copy have told the President that this is virtually impossible. Or is it? Watch Regulars this space. Meanwhile, we reflect on the feedback from the Apollo 2 Behind the news extra programme and look again at the SLS: hanging in the balance? Apollo 10 mission, 50 years ago, that pioneered the route Moon- 8 Opinion landing astronauts would take for the next three years. It all seems 10 ISS Report 22 that much more relevant now, with 9 February – 8 March 2019 concerted efforts to resume the explorationSubscriber of the Moon with humans. 34 Letters to the Editor

38 Multi-media The latest space-related books, games, videos

42 Satellite Digest 556 – February 2019 David Baker 46 Society news / Diary [email protected] 32 COVER: AN ARTIST IMAGINES THE SPACEX DRAGON 2 HEADING FOR A RENDEZVOUS WITH THE ISS / SPACEX WITH A RENDEZVOUS 2 HEADING FOR DRAGON THE SPACEX IMAGINES ARTIST AN COVER: What’s happened/ What’s coming up

OUR MISSION STATEMENT Editor David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub Editor Ann Page Creative Consultant Andrée Wilson Design & Production MP3 Media Promotion Gillian Norman Advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] The British Interplanetary Society Distribution Warners Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England Tel: +44 (0)1778 promotes the exploration and 391 000 Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 SpaceFlight, Arthur C. Clarke House, 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ, use of space for the benefit England Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] www.bis-space.com Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society, SpaceFlight is a publication that promotes the mission of the British of humanity, connecting people Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of to create, educate and inspire, the Editor or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered charity No: and advance knowledge in 250556. The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. Printed in England by Latimer Trend & Co. © 2019 British Interplanetary Society 2017 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced all aspects of astronautics. or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission for the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 1 BEHIND THE NEWS EXTRA

SLS HANGING IN copy THE BALANCE?

SubscriberThe liquid hydrogen tank of the SLS rocket at the Michoud Assembly Facility. Major problems with NASA’s super-heavy launch vehicle could bring about its early demise amid claims of shoddy manufacturing and incompetent management. Or is the project just being given the hurry-up?

ANALYSTS HAVE BEEN SAYING IT for several negotiations were under way last autumn to seal the years and now the NASA Administrator is confirming NASA budget request for 2020, a financial year that it. The Space Launch System will not meet NASA’s begins on 1 October this year, it was apparent that early programme expectations and may very well not much more money would be needed to get SLS on get beyond the early Block I design before it is track. As covered elsewhere in this issue, NASA is retired. Moreover, it will probably not be used to restructuring how US civilian space activity is send the developed version of Orion to lunar orbit in conducted and the way operations are planned to a 2020 and may well not retain its planned application greater extent than ever before. But the escalating for sending heavy payloads into deep space with the cost of the SLS has been the fulcrum on which the more capable Block IB. Neither is it any longer the fortunes of the big rocket have been balanced. preferred launch system for the flagship Europa The present budget proposes a halt to funds for Clipper mission to the Jovian moon. the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) and the Mobile Concerns now being expressed over the SLS Launcher-2 (ML-2) platform along with development

IMAGES: CSNA IMAGES: timeline began to emerge a year ago and by the time of the Block 1B – the launcher slated to carry the

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LEFT The Block 1 Space Launch System in its latest configuration and paint scheme.

year. This date was then shifted tocopy mid-2020, but it cannot be delayed any further without compromising Orion’s development schedule, which calls for the engineering problems to be solved before the spacecraft is cleared for crewed flight. The date for BELOW EM-2, the first crewed flight, has already slipped and Jim Bridenstine appearing before will now take place no earlier than April 2023. the Senate More challenging is the withdrawal of funding for Committee on the ML-2 platform and for the EUS – the two defining Commerce, elements of the SLS Block IB. Both have already Science and Transportation at received funding above and beyond what was a NASA budget allocated in the previous financial year in the belief The liquid hydrogen tank of the SLS rocket at the Michoud Assembly Facility. Subscriber hearing on 13 that fast-tracking the Block IB would give NASA a March 2019.

EUS. Moreover, there is a defined plan within the budget proposal to fly Lunar Gateway payloads and Orion on a commercial launch vehicle. But if that is approved by Congress, it is difficult to see how the planned mid-2020 flight of Orion could be achieved because of the work required to mate the spacecraft to a different rocket. The need to get Orion flying into lunar orbit is driven by the requirement to qualify its newly redesigned heat shield by returning the spacecraft from hyperbolic trajectories. Exploration Flight Test-1, launched on 4 December 2014, revealed major problems with the original unified ‘monobloc’ design, which had been adopted in spite of earlier warnings about its integrity. Since then, the heat shield has been completely reworked and now has to be qualified before the project can move ahead. The next flight, known as Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was to have been the first with the Orion/ SLS combination and was originally set for late this

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more robust capability for advanced missions. There are those at the agency who believe the EUS will still be required – eventually. But in the meantime, questionmarks over where it fits into NASA’s rapidly evolving strategy could on their own be enough to doom it to extinction. The story behind these changing hardware configurations is serpentine to say the least, but is worth a recap.

BLASTS FROM THE PAST The Block 1 SLS is built around a cryogenic core stage powered by four RS-25D legacy engines from the Shuttle programme, but it is non- recoverable, delivering a stage thrust of 7,440 kN. Two Solid Rocket An artist’s impression of the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 in Earth orbit (above) and the Delta IV rocket Boosters (SRBs) produce a combined that launched it (below). It may be that history ends up repeating itself. thrust of 32,000 kN and deliver a total vehicle lift-off thrust of 39,440 kN – 18% greater than the Saturn V. The SRBs are five-segment variants of the boosters used for the Shuttle flights, but with 25% greater thrust output. Test and qualification firings were completed in June 2016, clearing the design for flight. The Initial Cryogenic Propulsion System (ICPS) upper stage is derived from the Delta IV Delta Cryogenic Secondcopy Stage (DCSS), which provides a thrust of 110.1 kN from a single RL10B-2 rocket motor. This combination gives the Block 1 the capacity to place a mass of 95,000 kg in low Earth orbit or to send almost 27,000 kg to the Moon. This is significantly less than the Saturn V, which routinely sent combined Apollo spacecraft and Lunar Module payloads weighing more than 45,000 Subscriber kg to the Moon. Moreover, because the SLS has been designed primarily to support the Orion spacecraft, which has an all-up mass of nearly 26,000 kg, it is fully loaded when carrying that four-person spacecraft only. The payload capacity of the Saturn V was greater for less thrust because the fraction of its mass devoted to cryogenic (high-energy) propellants was greater than that of the SLS. Also, the thrust output of the Saturn V’s upper stages was greater than the SLS, hence its ability to deliver a higher payload into lunar orbit. These factors underline the difficulty of taking legacy propulsion systems designed for low Earth orbit delivery and adapting them for deep space. But NASA had little choice: there was no money for an all-new design based on more

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advanced propulsion systems. during the budget hearings in mid- To increase the payload capability of March, citing poor management, Briefing the SLS, the Block 1B and Block 2 technical issues and manufacturing versions were to have adopted the problems as the reasons why another Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). With way must be found to test Orion on a the same diameter as the ICPS, this cislunar flight. Only rarely have we new, more powerful upper stage seen such openness from a senior would have four RL10Bs delivering a manager tasked with accounting to thrust of 440 kN – enough to send Congress while simultaneously 37,000 kg to the Moon following a maintaining confidence and morale second burn from low Earth orbit. among the workforce. But it is such The initial EUS configuration on the displays of leadership that give NASA Block 1B was to have been followed at least a fighting chance of pulling by the more advanced Block 2 version, through its present difficulties. with more powerful boosters and a The programme now up for revised upper stage capable of consideration by Congress includes delivering 45,000 kg to a heliocentric several fundamental changes, not orbit. The original plan plan was to fly least the decision to find a commercial at least two SLS missions with the provider for launching Europa Clipper Block 1/ICPS followed by the Block 1B/ in 2023. Although this was first EUS combo. The first flight of the proposed in last year’s budget, it was BIG IS BAD? Block 1B was then brought forward to rejected by Congress in favour of an NASA is drawing up plans to rethink its EM-2 after Congress awarded SLS-launched Clipper and an additional astronomical observatories programme unsolicited extra funding to accelerate lander mission. Now Bridenstine has with a new sense of urgency brought on development of the EUS stage and raised the question again – a move he by concerns over the spiralling cost of the modifications to the MLP. But in 2018, says could save the agency $700 James Webb Space Telescope (above). with further delays to the rocket million. And there are other threats to Much delayed, and with a cost expected looming, NASA changed its mind again SLS, too. to top $8.8 billion, the JWST is unlikely to and put back the Block 1B to no earlier During the same budget hearings, fly before the mid-2020s. Threatened, too, than the fourth launch of the SLS Bridenstine stated that the plans for is the agency’s other maxi-sized (EM-4). Now, it appears that the Block assembling the Lunar Gateway were in observatory project, the Wide Field 1B may never fly at all. flux and will likely call upon Infrared Survey Telescope. Fears are New NASA Administrator Jim commercial launchers to provide much copymounting that NASA’s surge toward the Bridenstine is getting a reputation for of the lifting capacity. But even as he expansion of human space flight may be plain speaking, and that is to be spoke, NASA managers were at the expense of big science projects, as admired. It was he who brought discussing the possibility of lease- was the case with the Space Shuttle in concerns over the SLS to Congress sharing arrangements with the 1970s and 1980s. Subscriber

The latest iteration of the Orion/SLS EM-2 mission. Like its predecessor, EM-1, it incorporates a recently modified trajectory. ALL IMAGES: NASA ALL IMAGES:

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international partners – the The Block I and Block II Apollos Briefing same teams that built and have flew atop a combined Instrument been supporting the International Unit and S-IVB, both of which Space Station. comprised the upper elements of On the basis of a “work in kind” the Saturn IB and the Saturn V. arrangement whereby hardware is And the synergy between the exchanged for places aboard the spacecraft and launchers was built ISS, and following the precedent in from the start – the result of the set by the provision of the Orion decision to develop them Service Module for NASA flights, concurrently. Europe could have a significant Today, there are precious few role to play with its Ariane launch candidates to replace SLS for MOONBOUND TOYOTA vehicle. But Russia, too, may be EM-1, which NASA is still attracted by the idea of swapping committed to fly in 2020. As Japan has teamed with Toyota to come up TOYOTA hardware delivery for “free” already mentioned, in December with a lunar rover fit for the 21st century, with launches, and so may Japan. 2014 a Delta IV Heavy delivered plans to launch a Moon car in 2029 followed Canada has already signed a the first Orion spacecraft into a by an operational vehicle supporting a long-term commitment to work highly elliptical Earth orbit, but that resurgence of interest in the human with NASA on the Lunar Gateway, payload had a mass of 21,000 kg, exploration of the lunar surface. Of course and is the first nation to complete of which only 9,072 kg was the Toyota is not the first to put a car in space, formalities on the project. spacecraft itself. For EM-1, the the first being Boeing with the Lunar Roving Orion and its Service Module will Vehicle in 1971 followed by Elon Musk with IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO be much heavier; and the Delta IV, his Tesla in 2018. But this one is expected to Leaning towards commercial with a capacity of just 10,000 kg outdo its predecessors, operating for 9,600 providers is something that many to trans-lunar injection, simply km on one charge of Toyota’s fuel cell people have been urging NASA to doesn’t have the power to lift it. technology, which was itself first employed do for a very long time. But there Moreover, United Launch Alliance, to power spacecraft in 1965. is more to it than that. Switching through which all Delta IV launchers for a specific payload launches are procured, has said can bring unexpected problems. that it takes at least two or three ROCK HUNT The severity of launch years to deliver a rocket from Nine teams at NASA have been selected to environments mean that payload contract to launch pad. There isn’t begin investigating lunar samples returned designers prefer to work within copytime to wait that long. by Apollo astronauts and which have never the limits imposed by specific Then there is Space X’s Falcon been examined. These include 800 grams of launch vehicles. All rockets have Heavy, which has already been material inside a drive tube from a core closely defined parameters for certified for commercial payloads sample brought back by Apollo 17. Other payloads involving shock and cleared by the US Department samples, some from Apollo 15, have been constraints and acoustic and of Defense for launching military dry-stored in helium. The initiative aims to thermal vibration, but so far Orion satellites. Rated at around 26,000 apply technology to their examination which has been modelled only on those kg to translunar injection, its had not been invented 50 years ago when the pertaining to the SLS. That’s not to payload capability still doesn’t samples were brought to Earth. say that Orion couldn’t be meet the full requirements of the modified to work within the proposed EM-1. But since no tolerances of another launcher, other contender is likely to SubscriberNASA since most of this information is become available in the current freely available. But the real timeframe, it has prompted a truly challenge comes in adapting the unexpected proposal from mating hardware, verifying the Bridenstine: that Orion and its spacecraft’s abort capability for a crew are placed in low Earth orbit different rocket, arranging the to dock with an upper stage electrical feed-through conduits launched by another rocket and (arguably most critical) carrying enough propellant for integrating the hardware and translunar injection. When put software for a different launch before the Senate committee, this profile. How that could be announcement was met with achieved within the fifteen months incredulity. And although between now and July 2020 is Bridenstine was at pains to point difficult to see. out that he was not asking for There is, however, a precedent. more money, he was unable to Development of the Apollo offer any alternative. spacecraft involved three launch The challenges of the plan go vehicles – the Saturn I, the Saturn beyond merely bringing in another IB and the Saturn V. Only launch vehicle at this late stage. boilerplate versions of Apollo flew Currently, Orion lacks the ability to on Saturn 1, where the spacecraft dock with another stage in Earth Olivine basalt returned by Apollo 15. was attached to the S-IV stage. orbit. And despite the availability

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THE PENCE PARADIGM? On 26 March, Vice President Mike Pence launched a challenge on behalf of President Trump for Americans to be back on the Moon within five years, promising that the next boot prints in the lunar dust would be those of a woman. Claiming that the United States was in a new Space Race, Pence asserted that “It’s not just competition against our adversaries. We’re also racing against our worst enemy: complacency”. He continued: “Just as the United States was the first nation to reach the Moon in the 20th century, so too will we be the first to return astronauts to the Moon in the 21st century and I’m here…at the direction of the President of the United States, (to say that) it is the stated policy of this administration…to return American astronauts to the Moon within the next five years.” NASA For some time now there has been frustration in The Lunar Gateway in its latest commercially-oriented configuration. Washington over the languid pace of progress, with the mantra “paralysis through analysis” being increasingly heard. Echoing that frustration in his of the International Docking flight (EM-2) on the second SLS in voice, Pence went on to assert that if NASA was System, which could be attached 2022. Both internal and unable to achieve this new and ambitious goal “we to a frame in the top of an upper independent analysis pegs April need to change the agency, not the mission”. stage, the verification and clearing 2023 as the earliest date for this Responding, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine process could well take longer flight. But flying a cargo version of said: “We will take action in the days and weeks than the time available. SLS would compromise the ML-1 ahead to accomplish these goals. I have already Mission modelling and design hardware already equipped to directed a new alignment within NASA to ensure we would also have to be revised to support a crewed Orion on top of effectively support this effort”, citing a new mission accommodate the Earth Orbit the Block 1 SLS. Moreover, directorate to focus on the formulation and execution Rendezvous (EOR) mode of without a human presence, the of exploration development activities: “We are calling it the Moon to Mars Mission Directorate”, he said. reaching the Moon. Readers will habitation hardware would require At present, it is by no means clear how NASA can recall EOR being dismissed back autonomous manoeuvring and make up what is in effect a three-year gap given the in 1962 as a method of sending probably the Power Propulsion current problemscopy with SLS. But it will not be the first Apollo to the Moon on the Element as well. This is still in the time that a Vice President has spoken out of turn by grounds of inefficiency. But we development stage for, but not a promising grand goals that have little basis in reality. live in different times. Now that part of, the Lunar Gateway. In 1969, amidst the euphoria surrounding the Apollo the parallel development of SLS If these first flights take place Moon landing, Nixon’s VP Spiro Agnew announced and Orion has slipped out of as outlined, the flight profile of that he would personally steam-roller a further surge sequence, there will almost the third Orion and second SLS in human space flight direct to Mars. It never certainly be a heavy price to pay. could be changed to support a trip happened, and the White House distanced itself. This time, though, the directive comes not just from to the habitation hardware instead the VP but from the Oval Office itself, with President LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE of a series of ever greater elliptical Trump personally lending his name to Pence’s The dual-launch capability may Earth orbit flights followed by a challenge. Even so, NASA currently has nothing in offerSubscriber some mitigating shortcuts. lunar fly-by that was originally development capable of achieving such a goal and The ICPS for EM-1 is already at planned for EM-2. And in this case senior managers will need to come up with a lot of the Kennedy Space Center and EM-3 could deliver an Orion answers in “the days and weeks ahead”. cleared to fly when the other spacecraft to the previously elements of SLS are ready. Since launched hardware elements. it comes from an existing Delta Beyond that, there is no certainty programme, it’s possible that the as to the architecture, although match-and-mate to another the hardware described here commercial vehicle may be would be in addition to the Lunar simpler, and safer, to achieve. Gateway in rectilinear lunar orbit. Even so, it’s hard to assess the Shifting the Orion test flight to a impact of such a shift in policy in commercial launch vehicle, the longer term until firm following the precedent set by decisions are made on the first Exploration Flight Test 1 aboard a two flights of Orion, and of SLS. Delta IV could open up the On 14 March, Bridenstine possibilities for a more integrated outlined NASA’s initial thoughts partnership with commercial and regarding those early missions, non-government providers, by reasserting the intention to fly which NASA and the US Orion in mid-2020, to be followed government hope to return to the by the first SLS delivering Moon with robotic probes and habitation hardware the following human explorers. That is certainly Pence challenges NASA at the National Space Council. year, and the first crewed Orion the direction of travel, although

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 7 from which much of the technology was inherited. SLS and Orion are currently funded at an annual rate of $3 billion. Boeing received its baseline contract on the Ares V in August 2007 worth $300 million, only to see the Constellation programme (of which it was a part) cancelled in 2010. In October 2012 the SLS core stage contract increased the value of Boeing’s revenue to $1.1 billion, and in June 2014 it soared to $4.2 billion following a “redefinition of requirements”. In May 2016 a total revision of the programme upped Briefing the pendulum has swung from the value to $5.2 billion and in CNSA finding reasons to commercialise February 2017 the addition of the deep-space exploration to justifying Exploration Upper stage saw it rise CHINA RISING further development of SLS. to $6.2 billion. By January last year The China Manned Space Engineering Office In several respects this whole it had reached $6.23 billion and was has announced that the first module of the affair can be seen as damage still climbing. permanent Chinese Space Station (above) is limitation. In October 2018 NASA’s “At Boeing’s current expenditure to be delivered to the Wenchang launch site Office of the Inspector General rate, we project that NASA will during the second half of this year. The China (OIG) found multiple flaws in the spend at least $8.9 billion through Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has SLS programme, including evidence 2021 – double the amount initially confirmed that “the key module and of mismanagement both within the planned – while delivery of the experiment modules are currently under agency and at Boeing, and warned EM-1 core stage to Kennedy (Space development and will be carried by the new that the aerospace giant could end Center) has slipped 2.5 years from Long March-5B heavy-lift rocket, which will up billing NASA for almost $9 billion June 2017 to December 2019”, said be tested in the first half of 2019”. China has – twice the original estimate. But the OIG in a damning indictment of indicated that the Long March-5B (see that is just the money going to the entire programme. This opposite) is making steady progress toward Boeing: overall, the cost of SLS is promptedcopy NASA to call for a its inaugural flight and that it anticipated no soaring even higher. Since restructuring of the Boeing contract delay in moving swiftly to launching the first development of the rocket began in to be in place by the autumn of this element of its large space station, which is 2011 the project has cost NASA $14 year, although there is little expected to be fully operational in 2022 and billion – not including the cost of the confidence that the problems can to last for 15 years. Ares V launcher that preceded it and be so easily resolved.

MINING METALS Opinion Having become the first country to adopt legal regulations for the industrial mining of objects inSubscriber the solar system, Luxembourg has TIME TO SET SAIL? followed through on its commitment and signed a deal with Russia, itself a leading THERE CAN BE FEW WHO have watched the ever-changing direction of producer of natural resources, to mine America’s human space flight programme without wondering why there have minerals from asteroids and the Moon. The been so many redirected efforts to select a goal and see it through – particularly possibility of mining for commercial gain from in the year we celebrate half a century since humans walked on the Moon. On extraterrestrial resources is still a long way reflection, too many triumphalist declarations of intent have been seen to off but with a potential scarcity of rare-earth evaporate with the passing of time. elements, and minerals in short supply on It is easy to blame politicians, who seek to fulfil goals within their elected term Earth, Luxembourg is keen to get a head of office, or a lack of public resolve to fund the space agencies for what is often start. There is no proposed plan for such interpreted as a lack of will. In fact there is really no substance in either, except operations, however. to reinforce our own prejudices. I don’t believe any of those excuses, driven as they usually are by some person or organisation playing the blame game. Five, six, even seven decades ago, we did things because we could – Everest, supersonic flight, Sputnik, Concorde, Gagarin, Apollo, circumnavigation of the globe under water. All of these achievements were driven by a determination to reach beyond what was immediately possible, and were lauded by successive MINING GLOBAL generations as the peaceful accomplishments of a race that for the first half of the 20th century had mired itself in conflict. It was as if something had to be cauterised: humanity suddenly felt obliged to display the positive side of its capacity for design, invention, science, technology and engineering. But over time we tired of doing things just because we could. We had to have a

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“Cost increases and schedule management problems, there delays of core stage development was a somewhat unexpected Briefing can be traced largely to statement from Bridenstine that BIG IS BEST management, technical and many thought should have been infrastructure issues driven by apparent some time ago: “I want In the belief that big rockets will power it Boeing’s poor performance”, the to start with a point of emphasis,” into the 21st century Space Race – to the OIG noted. It also expressed a he said. “SLS is the largest rocket Moon and Mars – China is putting total lack of confidence in Boeing, ever built in American history and together a launch manifest for a citing both scheduling and pricing it’s a critical piece of what needs succession of heavy-lift flights beginning challenges and pointing out that to be built. But SLS is struggling in 2030, after which it expects to fly no the company has yet to perform to meet schedule…and now we less than 10 of its Saturn V-class Long its “Green Run Test” – a are understanding better how March 9 rockets each year up to 2035. significant milestone in the difficult the project is and that it’s The plans include a base on the Moon integration of the various core going to take additional time.” tended by humans, large space station stage elements. Of course, this could all be facilities in Earth orbit, and the smoke and mirrors – a game of development of habitats to support HARSH CRITICISM brinkmanship intended to give crewed missions to Mars. According to The phrase “technical and everyone involved the impetus to Chinese Space Agency CNSA, the Long infrastructure issues” is usually find a workable solution. Given March 9 will be capable of lifting 140 tons reserved only for the harshest the evidence from the OIG, from to low Earth orbit, 50 tons to Earth-Moon criticism of a contractor’s the Administrator, and from transfer orbit, and 44 tons to Earth-Mars performance and is likely to bring several senior and not a few transfer orbit. The 93 m-high rocket is significant changes. But there are mid-level managers, a sense of expected to have a launch mass of more other areas in which the urgency is badly needed to than 4,000 tons, with a kerosene and management of NASA contracts maintain momentum, and it is liquid oxygen fuelled first stage and liquid and work packages has been less likely that there will be changes to hydrogen fuelled upper stages. In the than optimal. Bridenstine freely the schedule as well. meantime, developments of the Long shared that he has inherited a But essentially all that is being March 5 (below) will continue to deliver culture of delays and cost advocated is that NASA go back payloads into low Earth orbit. overruns, and that while NASA to what it, and its predecessor may enjoy strong bi-partisan NACA, were set up to accomplish support in Congress, the delays to – namely, a stimulus to private other programmes, not least the industry to deliver all that is best copy James Webb Space Telescope, do in aerospace science and little to help the Administrator engineering. This is exactly what present the agency’s programmes the global aerospace partnerships in a positive light. need – leadership, coupled with a Notwithstanding the inherited focused commitment. SF

The time must surely come when we must Subscriberabandon our safe havens and reawaken our desire to sail to distant shores reason – a justification other than the glow of self-satisfaction that comes from accomplishing an implausibly planted goal. Ambition, it seemed, had to be tempered with pragmatism. Apollo was the requiem of that passing age. And still we wonder why we have not revisited the Moon or ventured further still to Mars. Instead we watch our future expressed through the fantasy of science fiction films, living out our dreams courtesy of Matt Damon andThe Martian. It is as if we have already been to Mars; why bother to go there in reality when we have the capacity simply to make it all up? Added to which is a need to justify the expense; to find a reason to do it before we look for a way to get there. It is an indictment of progress, for virtual experiences are not experiences at all; they are two-dimensional excuses for the absence of effort in a three-dimensional world. Displaced now from our innate need to live on the edge of our capabilities, we languish in the safe harbours of calm water, smugly satisfied and lacking in courage. The challenge lies in the stormy seas beyond, on the far side of which we will find new harbours where the highest ideals of humanity can be rediscovered and reforged. The time must surely come when we must abandon our safe havens and reawaken our desire to sail to distant shores, as John F

Kennedy put it, across the New Ocean of Space. SF David Baker CNSA

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 9 ISS REPORT

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n 9/10 February, the crew enjoyed a light- 9 February – 8 March 2019 duty weekend conducting their regular housekeeping chores, talking to family and friends and performing their daily ESA IMAGE: Now in its third month, Expedition 58 is under Otwo and a half hours exercise regimen. The crew completed their weekly Food Acceptability the command of Russian Oleg Kononenko questionnaire on 11 February. This provides doctors on the ground with information on nutritional with flight engineers American Anne McClain intake and helps in the development of strategies to improve what NASA describes as the “food system and Canadian David Saint-Jacques. and better support crew health and performance on long-duration missions”. Saint-Jacques also Report by George Spiteri devoted several days setting up a docking station

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inside Unity for NASA’s Astrobee free-flying cube- ABOVE worked with the Russian Experiment Vektor-T shaped robots. These three autonomous assistants The forward end of the space navigation investigation. ISS on 14 February, right are due to arrive at the ISS later this year and may to left: a portion of the free up more time for astronauts to perform science Destiny module linking VIRTUAL REALITY experiments and allow mission controllers better to the Harmony module, On 13 February, Saint-Jacques conducted monitoring capabilities. attached to the port side of ultrasound scans for the Fluid Shifts experiment McClain measured her breathing and aerobic which (left foreground) is which is seeking to reverse increased head and eye Japan’s Kibo module and capacity on 12 February to understand the effects its logistics module on top. pressure that occurs in space. Kononenko worked of microgravity on pulmonary function and On Harmony’s starboard with the Russian Motocard study which examines physical exertion. Saint-Jacques set up a carbon side (centre background) is motion coordination and the Matryoshka-R Bubble dioxide meter inside the Automated Bioproduct ESA’s Columbus module. radiation exposure experiment and McClain Laboratory in Kibo which supports a wide variety devoted the whole day to the maintenance of the of life science experiments whilst Kononenko life support systems inside Destiny and Kibo.

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The crew conducted further research with experiment installed on the Station’s truss which the Fluid Shifts study on 14 February. McClain measures cosmic rays and searches for dark matter also worked with JAXA’s Two-Phase Flow physics The experiment is and antimatter. experiment and Saint-Jacques performed a series Kononenko worked with a suite of Russian of biomedical studies researching the long-term researching the experiments on 20 February including the impact of space flight on bone marrow, red blood Uragan (Hurricane) Earth observation study, the cells and human physiology. hypothesis that Dubrava investigation which documents forest The following day McClain and Saint-Jacques conditions and examined how space impacts the donned virtual reality gear for ESA’s Time time and depth cardiovascular system and the piloting skills of Perception investigation appropriately inside perception are a cosmonaut. Saint-Jacques continued with two Columbus. The experiment is researching the further days of maintenance work to EMU suit No. hypothesis that time and depth perception are altered in 3006 and McClain set up camera hardware for the altered in microgravity. Kononenko explored Tropical Cyclone experiment to demonstrate storm how crew activities and the Earth’s magnetic field microgravity predictions from the ISS. impact the structure of the ISS and later replaced On 21 February, McClain set up a virtual reality dust filters and worked on space navigation camera inside Tranquility. The US astronaut has techniques. been filming hours of footage depicting a first During the crew’s light-duty weekend 16/17 person’s view of life aboard the ISS which will February, McClain checked the station’s air quality be eventually screened to educate audiences monitors and Saint-Jacques captured a spectacular on Earth to show what it’s like to live and work photograph of the Pyrenees. in space (SpaceFlight Vol 61 No. 4 p 9). Saint- On 18 February, the crew changed a memory Jacques tested cables inside the European built flash disk from the Selectable Optical Diagnostics Materials Science Research Rack-1 (MSRR-1). This Instrument (SODI), which studies diffusion in experiment explores the chemical and thermal six different liquids, worked with the Sally Ride properties of materials such as metals, alloys and EarthKAM payload that allows middle school polymers to create new and improved elements and students to photograph Earth from an astronaut’s applications. Kononenko photographed hardware perspective and spent two days conducting routine for a blood pressure experiment and tested Earth maintenance to one of the US EVA Extravehicular ABOVE observation techniques using a camera equipped Mobility Unit (EMU) suits (No. 3006). Oleg Kononenko in the with small ultrasound emitters. Pirs docking compartment during operations to install McClain continued with the Time Perception FUELLING BY ROBOT gear for the VIZIR Earth study on 22 February and jokingly tweeted that she McClain and Saint-Jacques installed the Robot observation experiment. couldn’t “wait forcopy the week to be over!” She and her Refueling Mission-3 (RRM-3) hardware inside Canadian colleague again wore headsets to block Kibo’s airlock on 19 February. RRM-3 was deployed out any external visual cues to gauge how long a outside the Japanese module and transferred to an visual target appears on a laptop screen. external logistics carrier with the assistance of the 23/24 February was another light-duty weekend. Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) The crew once again tweeted several photos of two-armed robot or Dextre. According to NASA Earth including one by Saint-Jacques of the Strait “RRM-3 will begin operations in the next few of Gibraltar. months” by demonstrating fluid transfers with a BELOW set of specialised tools (SpaceFlight Vol 61 No.2 p Anne McClain and David JOHN YOUNG RETURNS Saint-Jacques in between 16 and SpaceFlight Vol 61 No.3 p 8). McClain also a pair of spacesuits that are At 09:05 UTC on 25 February the Cygnus S.S. John replacedSubscriber a laptop computer hard drive dedicated stowed and serviced inside Young unmanned cargo craft performed a planned to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS-2) the Quest airlock. destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand to complete the Northrop Grumman-10 (NG-10) re-supply mission. Once the spacecraft had left the ISS on 8 February (SpaceFlight Vol 61 No.4 p 10) it deployed two CubeSats on 9 February and three more on 13 February. The engines of Progress 71 were fired for 7 min 31.2 sec at 02:21 UTC on 26 February to raise the station’s height by 1.6 km to an altitude of 408.5 km in readiness for the next Soyuz launch. Kononenko conducted further research with the Matryoshka-R Bubble investigation, whilst his United States Orbital Segment (USOS) crewmates stowed the Sally Ride EarthKAM hardware. NASA reported that up to 26 February this experiment has resulted in 6,475 images been successfully downlinked, involving the participation of 22,061 students from 247 schools representing 29 countries including 39 students from four Russian schools. On 27 February, McClain and Saint-Jacques worked inside Columbus on the Vection

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space perception experiment. McClain later ABOVE with the Meteor space-based observatory study and moved to Kibo to focus on the Synchronised Canada’s David Saint- spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Jacques inside Destiny Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental replacing fuel flow on the day Canada became the first country to Satellites Smoothing-Based Relative Navigation controllers on the formally commitcopy to NASA’s Lunar Gateway, a (SPHERES SmoothNav) study, which examines Combustion Integrated human-tended facility that will orbit the Moon in how autonomous satellites could benefit future Rack. the 2020s. public and private space exploration. Kononenko On 1 March, McClain and Saint-Jacques participated in the Russian DAN cardiopulmonary performed final preparations reviewing procedures study and collected another series of radiation for the arrival of the SpaceXDemo-1 vehicle. The readings of the Russian life support systems to crew also worked with the joint ESA/Roscomsos ensure their efficiency and upkeep. Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) physics experiment The following day McClain logged into and NASA’s Team Task Switching study, which specialised software for a test session with the investigates whether or not crews encounter neurophysiological Behavioural Core Measures Lead Designer Elon problems in changing tasks and determine the experiment.Subscriber Saint-Jacques took his turn with the impact these changes have to improve individual virtual reality camera inside the Cupola, worked Musk admitted he and team motivation and effectiveness.

was “a little CREW DRAGON FLIES BELOW LEFT: NASA / LEFT: ROSCOSMOS / ABOVE AND BELOW: NASA AND BELOW: ABOVE / ROSCOSMOS / LEFT: NASA LEFT: BELOW SpaceX launched the first flight of the Dragon 2 emotionally spacecraft, albeit uncrewed, on top of a Falcon exhausted” 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at KSC at 07:49 UTC (02:49 local time) on 2 March on the critical SpaceX Demo-1 mission. This flight is a precursor to manned SpaceX Dragon flights to the ISS. Dragon carried an Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) or mannequin named Ripley in honour of the character played by Sigourney Weaver in the Science Fiction “Alien” franchise. The ATD was clad in SpaceX’s custom designed spacesuit and fitted with sensors around the head, neck and spine to gather data. Following the launch, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine hailed this as “a new era in spaceflight” and SpaceX’s CEO LEFT and Lead Designer Elon Musk admitted he was David Saint-Jacques performing the Time “a little emotionally exhausted” and praised the Perception in Microgravity commercial partnership because “SpaceX wouldn’t investigation. be here without NASA”.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 13 ISS REPORT IMAGES: NASA IMAGES:

Falcon 9’s first stage made a successful landing ABOVE experiment operations inside the Combustion on SpaceX’s Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship SpaceX Dragon 2 Integrated Rack (CIR). Saint-Jacques collected approaching the ISS in the barge “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic first demonstration of the station water samples for microbial analysis Ocean approximately 500 km off the Florida coast commercial crew-carrier. and together with McClain linked up with approximately ten minutes after launch. SpaceX personnel throughout the US to answer Dragon completed a soft capture to the station’s BELOW questions about life aboard the ISS and their initial David Saint-Jacques International Docking Adapter-2 (IDA-2) which in Unity performing impressions of Dragon. is connected to the Pressurised Mating Adapter-2 preventative maintenance The highlightcopy of 6 March was a VIP phone call (PMA-2) attached to Harmony at 10:51 UTC on on the Simplified Aid For from US Vice President Mike Pence to the USOS 3 March as the complex flew 418.4 km above the EVA Rescue (SAFER) unit crew. He reiterated that Dragon’s docking to the ISS which would be used to north of New Zealand. McClain who together manoeuvre an astronaut made it “a great, great week in the American space with Saint-Jacques monitored the autonomous back to the ISS if they programme” and McClain responded that the crew manoeuvre, radioed her “congratulations to all the became untethered during was “very privileged to have been a part of it” and teams on a successful docking”. A hard capture was a spacewalk. as a result “we are changing the face of space flight”. achieved eleven minutes later and Saint-Jacques The crew also conducted a routine emergency opened Harmony’s forward hatch to PMA-2 about evacuation drill, stowed science hardware in ten minutes after that. the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) and Following leak checks the crew opened the prepared hardware to test the production of higher hatch toSubscriber Dragon over two hours later at 13:07 quality semiconductor crystals. UTC. Wearing protective breathing apparatus Saint-Jacques became the first crewman to enter RETURN OF THE DRAGON the new spacecraft in orbit and together with his Dragon’s hatch was closed at 17:39 UTC on 7 two colleagues began transferring some of the March by Saint-Jacques who had been last out of more than 181 kg of supplies delivered to the the spacecraft seconds earlier. Thirty-three minutes station. Later in the day the crew participated in later the hatch between IDA-2 and PMA-2 was also an official welcoming ceremony. Saint-Jacques said closed leaving Ripley inside Dragon along with this achievement was “the result of years of work” approximately 150 kg of science gear, crew supplies and McClain took TV viewers inside Dragon to and Station hardware. “Little Earth” was salvaged introduce Ripley and “Little Earth”, the zero gravity by the crew to stay aboard the ISS. indicator. “America has Dragon undocked from IDA-2 at 07:32 UTC on Following the docking the crew configured 8 March as the complex flew 407.1 km above Dragon for its stay at the station and on 4 March driven a golden Sudan. As Dragon departed McClain radioed went through emergency procedures specific to spike on the trail mission control Houston that “America has driven Dragon. Kononenko resumed work with the PK-4 a golden spike on the trail to new space experiment, whilst McClain and Saint-Jacques to new space explorations”. Dragon’s trunk was jettisoned and donned their EVA suits inside Quest for an EMU following a 15 min 20 sec de-orbit burn, splashed fit check in preparation for a series of planned explorations” down in the Atlantic Ocean at 13:45 UTC (08:45 spacewalks. local time) on 8 March, about 321 km off the east On 5 March, Kononenko devoted the first coast of Florida. Appropriately it was the first of four further days of research to the PK-4 splash down by a US spacecraft in the Atlantic investigation and replaced fuel bottles used during since Apollo 9 in March 1969. SF

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Return of the DRAGONcopy SpaceX steps up the pace to get astronauts flying to the ISS once again from US soil. by David Baker

n 8 March, Crew Dragon returned to Earth ABOVE responsible for getting money to pursue this goal cut SubscriberA view from the completing a successful demonstration of the annual funds available and the pace slowed, under ISS with Dragon its ability to fly to the International Space 2 approaching heavy criticism from NASA Administrator Charlie Station, autonomously rendezvous and dock gives scale to just Bolden. Undeterred, the contenders pressed ahead and return after a brief stay in orbit. Fulfilling how big it appears and on 16 September 2014, SpaceX and Boeing got the O against the station. a decade-long dream of returning astronauts to space contracts they needed to press ahead. SpaceX would from the Kennedy Space, last achieved by the Space build the Crew Dragon, referred to as Dragon 2 and Shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, what are the implications Boeing would build its CST-100 Starliner. for the broad spectrum of human space activity The development work would cost NASA $6.8 billion conducted by ISS partners and what is the short-term of which $4.2 billion went to Boeing and $2.6 billion value of this qualified success? to SpaceX. For this money, each contender agreed to The desire for a private industry supply chain leased conduct development with a certification flight funded by government for big-ticket NASA programmes such Dragon 2 has followed by as many as six operational flights. As both as the ISS, lunar missions and expeditions to Mars, Boeing and SpaceX continued their development dates back to the Commercial Crew Development a capacity activity, launchers were agreed upon by NASA – the programme of 2010 calling for bids of interest. That led ultimate customer for initial activation. Boeing would to Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) for seven fly its CST-100 on an Atlas V while SpaceX would use programme of August 2012 which awarded funding crewmembers its Falcon 9. Because of that, NASA had to approve both to SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation. the design and development path of the spacecraft and The aim at that time was to put up US astronauts the combination of spacecraft and launch vehicle. from American soil in 2017 but the realities of the SpaceX was always slightly ahead of Boeing in Commercial Crew Programme quickly kicked in. getting its hardware ready, largely because significant Cynical from the outset, Congressional committees portions of the Dragon hardware development relied

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on the first-principles laid down by the Dragon cargo vehicle. However, it would be wrong to believe that Dragon is simply an upgrade of the uncrewed cargo- lifter. While looking superficially similar to the cargo Dragon, Dragon 2 is significantly different, not least because of the Draco abort motors embedded in the conformal exterior of the crew vehicle mould liner. The vehicle itself is designed for a free flight of up to one week or a docked lifetime of 210 days. Dragon 2 has a capacity for seven crewmembers and can uplift a payload mass of 6,000 kg with a download capacity of 3,000 kg in addition to a disposable cargo of 800 kg. With a diameter of 4 m and a total length of 8.1 m including the unpressurised cargo hold, known as the IMAGES: NASA (LEFT) / SPACEX (RIGHT, BELOW RIGHT) BELOW (RIGHT, (LEFT) / SPACEX NASA IMAGES: “trunk” in American English. There is a pressurised volume of 9.3 m³ and an unpressurised volume of 12.1 m³. Total loaded mass at launch is mission-specific but 15,525 kg notionally. There have been compromises shifting operational ABOVE and immutable restrictions on velocity and range-rates modes. For instance, the Draco thrusters were originally The spacecraft to protect the ISS from uncontrolled impact, ensuring itself employs a designed as retro-rockets for softening the impact on service module that if something should go wrong, there would be no dry land but in 2017 that option was removed and all supporting collision. landings will be on water. NASA was instrumental conformal solar Inside that sphere, Dragon 2 spent four orbits in this decision and has maintained a close watch on arrays rather station-keeping before gradually migrating inward to safety and reliability. It may be a SpaceX design but it is than the twin Waypoint 1 (WP-1) at a distance from the docking port deployable arrays a NASA-controlled specification and has to conform to used with the of 150 m. And then, to demonstrate its controllability NASA criteria for mission operability. cargo-carrying and abort potential, it retreated to a distance of 180 m Dragon. using four of the 16 Draco thrusters. Stabilising at that HOME RUN distance, flight controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, SpaceX conducted its first pad abort test on 6 May 2015 California, in the Johnson Space Center at Houston and and cleared the design for the first demonstration flight, at the Russian Mission Control outside Moscow, the Demo-1 which launched to the ISS on 2 March this BELOW signal was given for translation to WP-2 on the R-bar, year. Conducting a conservative rendezvous procedure Elon Musk, left, 20 m from the docking port. At that point the command astronauts Victor copy the first manoeuvre designated the Approach Transition Glover, Doug was given to proceed to dock, with relative motion Burn (ATB) was approximately the equivalent of the Hurley, Bob between the two reduced to little more than 0.1 m/sec. Terminal Phase Initiation (TPI) of Apollo operations Behnken, NASA Docking was achieved at 10.51 UTC on 3 March, and was, in effect, a hybrid of the final approach Administrator Jim followed by crew inspection of the interior, initially Bridenstine, and techniques employed by the Shuttle. astronaut Mike equipped with breathing gear to offset any toxic ATB took place on a V-bar approach (velocity- Hopkins inside contaminants. Inside Dragon 2 were some items for bar) rather than the R-bar (radial-bar) to which the crew access transfer to the ISS and the crew maintained a critical Dragon 2 translated before entering the approach arm with Dragon watch on the integrity of the spacecraft before it was ellipsoid 1 km from the ISS. It was at this point that 2 visible behind sealed back up for undocking, which occurred at 07.31 them during a tour the spacecraft translated to an R-bar closure for the of Launch Complex UTC on 8 March followed by splashdown at 13.45 UTC “keep-out”Subscriber sphere 200 m out. This is essentially the 39A before the that day. The same Dragon 2 used for Demo-1 will be station’s cordon sanitaire inside which there are strict launch of Demo-1. used for the high altitude abort test which is set for June this year. If successful it will clear the way for the first crewed demonstration flight to the ISS in July, the 50th anniversary month of Apollo 11, with Demo-2. And what of the question we asked at the beginning: the significance and impact of this event? Far more than the mission itself. The opportunities it opens up for commercial access to the ISS with crew-carrying spacecraft launched from US soil is value enough but this one event has done more to invigorate the entire debate surrounding the use of commercial companies for relieving NASA of the pressure to fund development and programme management as well as build the hardware and run the missions. And that will encourage greater reliance on a partnership between industrial contractors and the government. It never was really about New Space or Old Space – despite the confrontational nature of turf-protecting advocates, for each saw it as a battleground that was never really there. It’s all about Smart Space and that is the winning move in this ever-expanding game of celestial chess. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 17 SPACE HISTORY The impact of

APOLLO part 2 In the second of a three-part series, Nick Spall considers the scientific, technological and inspirational legacies that were provided by humanity’s first journey to explore the Earth’s nearest neighbour half a century ago. by Nick Spall FBIS copy Subscriber

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ith fears of deep dust-traps and Moon would rewrite the story of the Moon. By 1972, the “bugs”, until Neil Armstrong stepped six landing missions had secured 382 kg of Moon off the Lunar Module’s footpad no one rock, with NASA distributing it across the world’s could even be certain that the surface research labs. Geologist Harrison Schmitt had W was safe. In the end the six Apollo explored the Taurus Littrow region with Gene The impact of landings during 1969-72 solved many of the Cernan during the Apollo 17 mission, deeper core Moon’s mysteries and produced hugely important tube samples had been taken to a depth of 3 m and science results. more complex experiments set up. Just to get to the Moon, NASA had to invent As noted by Prof. Ian Crawford of Birkbeck UCL, new technologies and many of these would ultimately Apollo 17 was a highly successful conclusion to the benefit humanity. Unforeseen at the time, the Apollo mission series and provided intense lunar adventure that was the Apollo programme would exploration science. The crew travelled 35 km in their inspire thousands of graduates to go on to study for lunar rover during their three day stay – interestingly, higher degrees across the globe, developing new and it would take 14 years for the Spirit rover to travel this innovative hi-tech industries post the 1969 Moon The results distance on Mars. Three separate EVA traverses were landing success. As part of the “Children of Apollo”, this undertaken and the crew discovered “orange” soil, generation would press for future space exploration. from Apollo which turned out to be 3.6 billion year old pyroclastic On 21 July 1969, lunar scientists across the world glass beads, and a very ancient 4.3 billion year old were most probably wide-eyed at the TV images of redefined the magnesium rich Moon rock. the first lunar explorers on the surface of the Moon story of the The results from Apollo redefined the story of during the Apollo 11 mission. The science exploration the Moon. It was concluded from the samples and efforts were initially limited, as the key objective of Moon experiments that the Moon has evolved over its the first landing mission was to prove that a successful 4.6 billion year lifetime, being melted, erupted and touchdown and return was indeed possible. Even impacted. Samples older than any on Earth had been so, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set up three discovered, the rock constituency being common with modest experiments on the surface of the Sea of the Earth’s, although lacking iron and elements that Tranquility during the 2.5 hr EVA, including a solar could provide an atmosphere. Lunar cratering was more wind collector, a seismometer and a laser reflector. The clearly understood and the history of cratering events crew brought back 22 kg of Moon rocks, including two on Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury were clarified. core-tube samples from a depth of 11 cm, whilst in The Moon was discovered to be devoid of any orbit overhead crew member Michael Collins took as evidence of life, past or present. Mass concentrations, many photographs of the Moon’s near and far sides as BELOW “mascons”, were discovered beneath the surface and possible at that time. Setting out lunar basins identifiedcopy as coming from impacts, with science lava filling them 3.2-3.6 billion years ago. It was found IT JUST KEPT ON COMING instruments that the Sun’s radiation effects implanted elements in across the lunar The science results from the Apollo 11 mission were surface was the surface material from 4 billion years ago and an the precursor to more intense exploration activities engaged by Apollo ancient lunar magnetic field may have once existed.

ALL IMAGES: NASA ALL IMAGES: of Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. These missions from the outset. The difference between the thicker crust of the lunar Subscriber

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far side and the thinner Earth-facing side was including batteryless power tools (first created identified and understood. by Black and Decker for NASA in 1964),cordless The three-year programme of Apollo landings vacuum cleaners, memory-foam for beds, shock- was dramatic in its science output, dwarfing the absorbing material for trainer shoes, freeze- Soviet robotic mission results of that period, with dried food, fuel cells, solar PV panels, smoke only 320 g of lunar soil being bought back by three detectors, fire-proof clothing garments, water Luna sample return missions. purifiers, telemetry heart monitors, protective heat-proof coatings, lightweight fabrics (famously TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE used to cover Houston’s Reliant Stadium), The technology boost emerging out of the computer joysticks, scratch-resistant lenses, ear Apollo programme from the 1960s onwards was thermometers, CAT scanners, kidney dialysis undoubtedly significant for the US economy equipment and quartz-clocks. and for worldwide technical breakthroughs. Many observers considered that President Kennedy’s ABOVE THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION challenge for the US to land a man on the Moon before The complexities A key “gift of Apollo” that has been flagged up by space of the Lunar the end of the 1960s was partly based on a desire for Roving Vehicle historian and film-maker Chris Riley covers the powerful a “Keynesian” approach to public spending – from it and the Lunar accelerator effect that the project had on computers and skilled employment and technology research would Module in information technology. This process would kick-start the be boosted, spin-offs provided and the whole “trickle- particular spurred subsequent rapid evolution of small and relatively powerful down” theory of technical innovation improving the development computers for everyday use. of technologies everyday lives and living standards would flow. Indeed, that had a vast Riley recorded the story of how NASA, within only some have compared America’s Space Race with the range of spin-offs weeks of President Kennedy’s 1961 Moon landing USSR as like fighting “a war without direct casualties”. in the everyday speech, approached young Massachusetts Institute Of course, the prime motivation for the Moon world. of Technology (MIT) PhD-level academics to seek Race at the time was a political one – the goal was to the answers to safely navigating the Apollo spacecraft be seen to beat the Soviet Union. President Kennedy across cislunar space. It was quickly concluded that a and Vice President Lyndon Johnson must have been new approach was needed whereby a small lightweight keenly aware that Congressional support for the Apollo computer would be developed to fit into the Apollo programme would relate back to establishing US Command and Lunar Modules, linked to sophisticated technological prowess, the superiority of free-market fly-by-wire systems. The computer would need to use economics over Soviet state control and the inevitable reliable integrated circuits which were just coming out technical “spin-offs” that would occur. Kennedy’s “we of the early microelectronics industry. NASA placed choose to go to the Moon” speech of 1962 referred to an order for one millioncopy of them from the Fairchild rocket technologies and materials that at the time did Semi-Conducters company and within a few years not even exist and acknowledged the challenges to US this financial kick-start to the industry prompted two innovation and industrialisation. Fairchild employees to leave and form Intel in 1969. As in World War Two, huge technological progress The rest is technological and social history. occurred at a relatively fast rate resulting from, or at BELOW Advancing this emerging technology by at least 10 least aligning with, the years of the Apollo programme From Apollo 17, a years ahead of its time, the navigation demands (normally regarded as 1961-72). NASA maintains that brecciated dunite of the Apollo programme resulted in fast-track over 6,300 actual inventions came out of the Apollo clast weighing 32 computer evolution and miniaturisation. From gram, part of the effort. Of these, many went on to have direct and treasure-store in this commercialisation of micro-circuitry, pocket indirect everyday applications as “spin-offs”. lunar rocks still calculators arrived in the early 1970s, affordable home We areSubscriber familiar with many of the much touted ones, being investigated. computers in the 1980s, the Internet and world-wide- web emerged from Tim Berners Lee’s pioneering initiatives by the 1990s and now the planet’s smart- phone, video streaming, i-pad culture and resulting social network revolution is with all of us. As a consequence of the Apollo programme’s technological acceleration, it is arguable that the world has rapidly shrunk. The 1960s concept of Marshall McLuhan’s “Global Village” has virtually transpired. Instant news communication crosses continents, whilst families, friends and business contacts can chat away watching each other instantly on smartphones and tablet video feeds. “Dan Dare” style communicators from the 1950s are now with us ahead of time, thanks to the technological “gift” from Apollo.

VALUE FOR MONEY? Proponents of space exploration’s public financial investment, particularly covering human space flight, often quote the technology benefits as paying back the actual cost. It has been claimed that the US taxpayer got back at least 7 times the outlay in terms of tax dollars invested from hi-tech employment stimulation

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copy and technology boosts to the US economy. ABOVE technology-linked businesses. Paul Allen and Bill At one point in the mid-1960s, approximately Nobody knew how Gates flourished in the Californian “Silicon Valley” to get to the Moon 409,000 people were working on Apollo, including when President hi-tech world that had close links with NASA and the NASA employees, contractor management and factory Kennedy made the aerospace industries. workers as well as science professionals and academic commitment to go. In other aspects of business, Martin Sweeting staff across the USA and abroad. This 1964 model of was inspired by the excitement of Apollo to focus Was the Apollo investment worth it? Economics a Lunar Module is on small satellite development in the UK, forming a far cry from the writer Christopher Cooper considered that in 2008 definitive vehicle the SSTL company in Guildford. Space enthusiasts values, the Apollo programme may have cost up to actually flown. of that generation, Richard Branson and later Elon $163Subscriber billion. This contrasted with the 1950-60s US Musk, were also inspired by the adventure of the 1969 Interstate Highways programme that amounted to an Moon programme enough to start their own private estimated $500 billion investment. Other US public space flight companies. Musk’s Space X company has investment costs make interesting comparisons – he The Apollo achieved the extraordinary, with the highly successful, quotes the Vietnam War as costing the US tax payer partly-reusable Falcon launcher undercutting other $686 billion, the Iraq/Afghanistan wars as being $2.4 programme conventional rockets and now the Crew Dragon human trillion and the F22 Raptor jet fighter, incredibly, spaceflight capability emerging out of a successful costing $67 billion (2008 values) even before it entered may have cargo-carrying service to the ISS. military service. cost up to The inspirational legacy of Apollo 11 would The Apollo Moon landing has been compared challenge many individuals to become astronauts. to the construction of the Panama Canal or the $163 billion… UK-born Mike Foale, Piers Sellers and Nick Patrick Manhattan Project in terms of historical importance all referred to the Apollo inspirational impact to fire and scale. the Iraq/ their own careers with NASA. More recently, the UK/ ESA’s “Principia” mission to the ISS in 2015/16 sought STEM INSPIRATION Afghanistan to create its own “Apollo effect” in UK schools, by From the late 1960s into the early 1970s, the “Apollo inspiring children to take up science and engineering effect” stimulated academic interest in science and war has cost topics. technology and STEM subjects became more appealing $2.4 trillion In the final part of this series, the cultural impact of to graduates. A three-fold increase in science and the Apollo 11 events will be reviewed. Did Apollo engineering topic-related PhDs occurred across the change humanity’s philosophical and environmental USA during that period. attitude to the Earth, with its fragility as an oasis of life Young technical innovators like Jeff Bezos of in the cosmos being observed from a distance for the Amazon were inspired by the Apollo period to develop first time? SF

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 21 SPACE HISTORY Apollo 10 so near, yet so far

The fourth crewed Apollo mission constituted another giant leap beyond everything that had gone before, carrying the Lunar Module and its crew of two agonizingly close to the surface of the Moon. by David Baker copy Subscriber

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copy Subscriber

he plan was to build on the success of send Apollo 10 all the way and not let it land. But Apollo 9 (SpaceFlight Vol 61 No 3 p 28), apart from the many engineering data points which take the Lunar Module all the way to had yet to be provided by a real-world simulation, the Moon and down to about 15,240 m there was one overriding reason why the crew

ALL IMAGES: NASA ALL IMAGES: T above the surface to demonstrate that the could not land. In order to provide an accurate full complement of Apollo spacecraft and Lunar simulation of the weight an Ascent Stage would Module could be operated in lunar orbit. The Lunar have after burning its main engine from the surface Module for Apollo 10 was equipped in every way ABOVE of the Moon to orbital insertion, Apollo 10’s LM Hyginus Rille, a landing site but one for a safe landing, except that the trajectory earmarked for a later Apollo would not carry sufficient propellant to get off the and the ground track were different from that to be mission, as viewed from the surface and back into orbit even if it did land. flown by the first planned landing. But many claims Apollo 10 Lunar Module Those same individuals who claim that short- have been made as to the ability of the spacecraft Charlie Brown. fuelling the LM was so that the Apollo 10 crew to go all the way and set down on the surface. would be discouraged from making a quick dash After all, from their closest approach to the Moon LEFT to the surface fail to understand the engineering The prime crew for the it was but a 12-minute ride down to the surface – Apollo 10 mission, from imperatives driving not only this mission but something they would not attempt on this mission. left: Eugene Cernan, Tom the entire programme – not to mention the To the general observer, it seemed a waste to Stafford and John Young. professionalism of the astronauts. However, it

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didn’t help when an ebullient Gene Cernan joked 11, 12 and 13, possibly even squeezing in 14 were on more than one occasion that this was in fact the considered candidates for that first touchdown real reason for virtually empty tanks! It was not so. before the end of the decade. By careful shaping of the crew selections, despite That was one good reason to step up the anomalous re-seating due to minor surgery or anticipated hardware flow with Apollo 10 assigned some other unexpected but temporary removal to fly off Launch Complex 39B, the first time that from the flight list, it transpired that Deke Slayton second Saturn V pad had been used. This had had managed to get an all-experienced crew on been made necessary due to the accelerated flow of both Apollo 10 and Apollo 11. For this full-dress AS-506 for Apollo 11, forcing NASA, reluctant to rehearsal Stafford (Gemini VI-A and IX-A) would spend money where it was not needed, to open the command a crew consisting of Young (Gemini 3 second pad for flight operations. However, it would and X) and Cernan (Gemini IX-A). Training had ABOVE be the only Apollo Moon mission launched from been tempered by subtle changes to trajectories and The Apollo spacecraft for there, all the others taking off from LC-39A. With the second visit to the Moon flight plans and revised operational procedures had had several modifications LC-39B available, however, it would just be possible been evaluated and tested on preceding flights. and would be called upon to sustain the surge and get four more flights in That, to a certain extent, made life busy on the to try operations around the during 1969. But the message was equally firm in simulators and on the training devices employed Moon with a Lunar Module that whatever flight did achieve the first landing, which had never been there for familiarising the crew with a flow of major before. after that there would be a reduction in launch and minor changes. Updates to flight plans and rate and gaps would open up between remaining operational procedures could be measured by the missions. It was going to be necessary to slow down increasing frequency of updated documents and the flight rate if only to maximise the amount last-minute correction sheets. It was a particularly of scientific feedback for application to the next intense period, too, for the mission planners and The message from mission. flight controllers – the analysis division being Technical engineering changes to the Apollo 10 especially pressed for time, of which there never on high was launch vehicle (AS-505) involved a reduction of seemed to be enough. the dry weight of the S-IC first stage from 134,084 At this juncture there were eleven astronauts simple: go full kg to 133,449 kg but with dry weight at ignition either training for, or in support of, the Apollo 10 increased, together with an increase in the number mission; three assigned as prime crew, three as throttle until the of instrumented measurements from 666 to 672. back-up and five in the support role. Also claiming landing is The empty weight of the S-II stage was further time with a finite number of people were astronauts reduced to 32,269 kg while the overall thrust of and flight directors, working on individual achieved, never the five cryogenic J-2 engines was raised further missions, but sometimes pulled to help with the to 5,198 kPa. Instrumentationcopy on the S-II went up next mission coming down the road, as that flight assuming that any from 975 to 986 measurement points. The S-IVB demanded refinements, changes or modifications third stage saw a dry weight increase to 11,680 kg to the entire range of activities, changing, shifting one mission will with its instrumentation increased from 296 data focus and counting down to their own event. points to 386. Then there were the capsule communications, deliver the Summed changes to the AS-505 launch vehicle each as equally dedicated to a particular crew so successful attempt resulted in this being the heaviest Saturn V that every inflection or nuance of the voice of the launched to date, placing the heaviest payload astronaut they had come to know so well could yet in Earth orbit 44,576 kg. For weight watchers, be read for its real meaning, valuable pointers to this would also produce a record mass in lunar unspoken intimations on a voice loop that was orbit of 31,493 kg for the combined CSM/LM almost continuouslySubscriber transmitting live to the world configuration, the net effect of reduced propellant from another place in space. The total integration in the LM Ascent Stage producing a total mass (and of crews, support teams and Capcoms was a whole- a LM mass) proportionately lower than it would be life experience, where even barbecues welded for a lunar landing flight. But as observed above, associations and familiarities became as close as BELOW the slightly lower mass for all LM operations up to with family members. The Saturn V for Apollo 10, jettisoning the Descent Stage was subservient to the here seen on LC-39B at the more important objective of getting a similar mass EDICTS AND TWEAKS Kennedy Space Center, had for the post-insertion phase as that for a landing significant changes as the The intensity of the pace picked up quickly after launch vehicle continued flight. Apollo 9. The message from on high was simple: to evolve in parallel with Specific mission objectives included a timeline go full throttle until the landing is achieved, active operations. closely matching that being developed for the never assuming that any one mission will deliver first landing attempt, the first demonstration of the successful attempt. And that was based on a docking operations in the lunar environment, calculated assessment of probabilities so that even evaluation of the docked and undocked lunar circumspect astronauts, when interviewed close to navigation procedures, visual observation of, their mission, gave the first landing attempt only a and stereo photography of, landing site 2 (LS-2). 50-50 chance of achieving its goal on that mission. Secondary objectives included an equally vital test Nobody had much thought for failure to the extent of, for instance, the performance of the steerable of losing life but the sheer complexity of getting antenna on the LM when tracking the changing to the surface, and the even more demanding position relative to the Earth when, on a lunar task of getting back and docking with the Apollo landing flight, the pilot-yaw manoeuvre took the spacecraft in orbit, lowered expectations of success orientation of the LM from a heads-down to a on the first try. Which is the reason why Apollos heads-up attitude after PDI.

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The Apollo spacecraft (CSM-106) was largely similar to CSM-104 (Apollo 9) with significant improvement to the sealant for windows 2 and 4 similar to that for windows 1, 3 and 5 for Apollo 9. Improvements were also made to the side hatch, incorporating a ratchet-handle for operation rather than a knob used on earlier Block II spacecraft. Some changes were also made to the load-capacity of the couch attenuation struts (from actuation at 8.5g to 6.3g) and uploading of ballast weight in the Launch Escape System. For crew comfort during drinking, there was a device for separating gas from the potable tank, with Nomex replacing nylon in the suit for still further resistance to fire. There had been concerns about the suit itself; Schweickart had found the A7L to be particularly comfortable in weightlessness, observing that on Apollo 9 he found the EVA experience surprising in that he appeared to ‘float’ inside the suit when passive, whereas work action indicated a fundamental resistance in the material which it was thought could lead to fatigue under 1/6th lunar gravity. So the suit had a looser fit and reduced heat leak plus Teflon patches built in to the outer layers with Dacron and Mylar in the insulation layer.

PICTURE TAKERS The cameras carried on Apollo 10 were very different to those on Apollo 9, for which there had been some problems. Those cameras had the lunar configuration operating from the Ascent Stage whereas Apollo 10 had one black-and-white and copy one colour camera operated from the Command Module. With 80º wide angle lens, a 9º (100 mm) ABOVE removed on LM-4, while a fourth cold rail was lens and a 3.65 m power cable, the black-and-white The Apollo spacecraft for fitted to the Descent Stage heat transport system. the second visit to the Moon camera was identical to that carried on Apollos 7 had several modifications The principle changes to both CSM and LM and 8 but with different lenses and a new ring sight. and would be called upon noted here are but a small number of several The Westinghouse colour TV camera to try operations around the dozen modifications, depletions, replacements or incorporated a synchronised filter system and Moon with a Lunar Module additions managed by North American Aviation operated at a scan rate of 30 frames/sec with which had never been there (NAA), by Grumman and by NASA in the before. a dedicated 2 MHz bandwidth in the S-Band pre-flight phase and are noted here not for their transmitter. The camera had a zoom lens with a academic interest alone but rather to emphasise 9º toSubscriber 53º field of view and a resolution of 160 x that while each spacecraft assembly was hand- 370 lines. A black-and-white TV monitor with built, there was a considerable amount of workover a 76.2 mm x 57.1 mm picture tube was included and attention from engineers and technicians for use with the colour camera for better pointing between completion and flight, some of it at the accuracy, using the same mounting as the black- manufacturer’s facility and some after acceptance. and-white camera. No two spacecraft were identical. Some significant changes were made to the Quality control, particularly at NAA, became Lunar Module (LM-4), with increased strength in a serious concern and led to delays pre-delivery, the structural webs of the Descent Stage through while Grumman was required to make good, thickening by 0.381 mm and bonded doublers Quality control, deficiencies logged at acceptance. That shifted to fitted to the upper deck webs. Although not carried particularly at NASA-imposed post-acceptance work to shape a on this flight, the Apollo Lunar Science Equipment specific spacecraft to the evolving requirements of Package support structure was also improved and NAA, became a particular missions. Technicians at each end of the the deployment mechanism modified. In addition, delivery chain got used to continuous access to the two of the four batteries previously in quad 4 were serious concern interior of the spacecraft and it was not unusual for moved to quad 1. Changes were also made to the little notes to be scribed onto panels and doors as composite structure of the thermal blankets and to and led to delays messages to other specialist technicians who would the thermal shielding protecting the exterior from enter the spacecraft on another day or on another plume impingement from the RCS thrusters on pre-delivery shift. the Service Module in the docked configuration. “Chalking on the walls” became a crew habit A major change to the Environmental Control as well; when renovators at the National Air and System was in the removal of cold plates previously Space Museum disassembled sections of the fitted for the Development Flight Instrumentation, interior of Apollo 11’s CM-107 they found little

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performed by the previous four Saturn V launches but on this flight, in an attempt to reduce the vertical oscillations still felt on the first stage, it was planned that the centre engine would be shut down 25 seconds before the four outer engines, a sequence phasing which would remain standard procedure on subsequent vehicles. Moreover, the centre J-2 engine on the S-II stage was shut down early, 92 sec before mainstage cut-off, to prevent low-frequency oscillations observed on the two previous Saturn V launches.

AVOIDANCE TACTIC Ignition for TLI came at 2 hr 35 min 25 sec, a 5 min 45 sec burn for a delta-V of 3,181 m/sec which placed the stack on a free-return flight path with a closest approach to the Moon of 1,680km, a figure which would be modified later. Setting a trend which would continue for the remainder of the mission, and entirely at their own decision, the crew began a series of TV transmissions far in excess of the schedule written in the flight plan. Showing separation, turnaround and docking pencil notes scrawled on panels and interior walls ABOVE with the LM, the crew in Charlie Brown gave Earth of the spacecraft. Nobody knew they were there In the “White Room” viewers the first live colour TV pictures from space, adjacent to the Apollo and the crew never told anyone simply because spacecraft, Gene Cernan starting transmission with the configuration 5,600 there was never a reason to discuss such a practice. (foreground) and Tom km distant and ending 22 minutes later 15,150 km These notes were in addition to plates with stamped Stafford wait their turn away. This was followed by a further transmission 5 instructions reminding crewmembers of activation as technicians help John hr 6 min into the mission from a distance of 38,873 sequences or systems requirements regarding Young, out of sight and km which lasted 12 minutes. already inside Charlie switch positions. Brown. The standard evasive manoeuvre occurred at 4 hr 38 min 47 sec when the Service Propulsion TO THE MOON! System (SPS) enginecopy was fired for 2.5 sec for a Crew preparation for the flight of Apollo 10 began velocity change of 5.7 m/sec, shifting the point of in November 1968 and persisted on a continuous closest approach to 576 km. The purpose of that basis until early May 1969, with an average built-in change was based on a requirement to workload of 72 hours a week but the built-in rest have the inclination of the lunar orbit so that the period of two weeks prior to launch provided an Appalled at the approach azimuth to the landing site (LS-2) would opportunity for physical conditioning and mental be close to that anticipated for the first landing relaxation which was believed to greatly benefit the frivolity, he [Julian attempt. The final cislunar trajectory correction performance of the crew in space. However, several was performed at 26 hr 32 min 56 sec for a 6.67sec improvements to checkout periods built in to the Scheer] quickly flight plan were prompted by the crew working secured the to reduceSubscriber timelines and build less preparation time into anticipated busy work days in space; for approval of senior instance, the pre-separation checkout of the LM prior to rendezvous and re-docking operations in management for a lunar orbit were reduced from an initial 10 hours to six hours, all because the crew developed a more more sober use of efficient way of getting the LM ready to go. As with Apollo 9, two spacecraft in operation call signs at the same time necessitated call signs and the Apollo 10 crew chose Charlie Brown for the CSM and Snoopy for the LM, both taken from the George Schultz cartoon strip. These things were heavily influenced by the judgemental eye of Julian Scheer, head of public affairs. Appalled at the frivolity, he quickly secured the approval of senior management for a more sober use of call signs and after this mission they took on a more conservative application of names, usually great sailing ships, names associated with discovery and great deeds or national symbols. RIGHT Saturn V AS-505 thunders Following launch on 18 May 1969 at 11.49 away from LC-39B on 18 am local time, the lift-off, ascent and Earth orbit May 1969, the only Saturn V phase of the Apollo 10 flight was similar to that launched from this pad.

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burn of the SPS engine, changing velocity by 15 m/ ABOVE Passive Thermal Control (PTC) “barbecue”’ mode sec, shifting the closest approach to a mere 112.6 Earthrise, as seen by as conducted during the Apollo 8 mission but the Stafford, Young and Cernan kmSubscriber above the lunar surface. Trajectory shaping was in lunar orbit. different centre of mass for the two spacecraft and vital and the launch date of Apollo 10 had already the very different weight distribution compared to been advanced by one day to obtain a better the lone CSM on Apollo 8 brought some surprises. alignment. It had not been possible to completely model On this trajectory the docked assembly was the way in which the rotating mass would begin capable of swinging around the Moon and to cone and the use of the thrusters to stabilise returning to Earth within the trim capacity of the axis of rotation caused problems, in that the the small RCS thrusters on either the CSM or the BELOW frequency of firing the tiny rocket motors caused LM. Over the next several hours, flight controllers An artist visualises the disturbance in the axial pointing angle. anticipated a further course correction to be two spacecraft above the The roll axis was used exclusively for PTC but lunar surface as Snoopy performed 22 hr prior to Lunar Orbit Insertion fires its thrusters to begin during the first period, when the crew were in a (LOI), a ΔV in the magnitude of 0.2 m/sec for a complex sequence of sleep session, the attitudes rapidly oscillated at satisfying the nodal targeting requirement but it manoeuvres. one edge of the 20º pitch and yaw deadbands. was not performed because the real-time solution Subsequently, the roll rate was increased from 0.1º/ at LOI-5 hr came up with a projected 0.85 m/sec sec to 0.3º/sec with deadbands increased to 30º and requirement. Two hours prior to that, a velocity when all the body rates were carefully nulled before change of 1.09 m/sec was calculated to deliver initiating the roll at the new faster rate it became the required nodal constraints but the projected possible to conduct PTC at periods of up to 20 perilune error at LOI-3.5 hr was reckoned to hours without any thruster activity. be off by only 0.37 km and so the burn was not As defined earlier, guidance and navigation performed. was key to effective lunar missions and midcourse One of the primary activities during the coast to techniques used star/horizon measurements the Moon was to place the docked assembly into a utilising the horizon of either the Earth or the

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Moon. Star/lunar-landmark sightings were conducted with excellent results. Twenty-two sets of star/horizon and nine sets of star/lunar- landmark sightings were made, the crew reporting that the latter were far easier to obtain than the former.

MOON MEANDERS The LOI-1 burn was conducted satisfactorily at 75 hr 55 min 54 sec lasting 5 min 56 sec, much longer than the Apollo 8 insertion burn due to the very different weights at this point in the mission: 43,000 kg for Apollo 10 versus 28,800 kg for Apollo 8. The achieved orbit was 195.6ml (315km) by 69.3ml (111.5km), very close to the pre-planned value. The LOI-2 circularisation burn occurred with ignition of the SPS engine at 80 hr 25 min 08 sec placing the configuration in an orbit of 113 km by 109.5 km. The determination of the lunar orbit for Apollo 10 was made for two front-side passes rather than ABOVE an anomaly. This had a significant effect on the the one with Apollo 8 and this greatly improved The lunar orbit manoeuvres determination not only of the actual path but also of the two orbiting the position errors, achieving a down-track error spacecraft simulating on the magnitude of the gravity value which had of 609 m versus 4,572 m for Apollo 8. Moreover, the descent of the Lunar its effect on the spacecraft. The R2 model had been the radial error was 192 m compared with 457 Module to the point where prepared especially for Apollo 8 but in rapidly m for Apollo 8. Apollo 10 employed a triaxial it would start its descent moving up the mission ahead of the originally Moon model successor known as R2 which was on a landing mission, with planned Apollo 8, with the spacecraft flown on a large looping phasing known to have a deficiency which, while allowing manoeuvre to bring the Apollo 9, there had been insufficient time to factor a two-pass fit for the site navigation location to LM back around behind it in to the ground computing complex. Another show significant improvement with in-plane the Apollo spacecraft to a reason to fly Apollo 10. measurements versus the solutions from a one-pass position it would be in after The crew entered the Lunar Module for the first leaving the surface. fit, allowed the cross-range error on Apollo 8 of 192 time at around 82 hr elapsed time when equipment m versus 609 m on Apollo 10. from Charlie Browncopy was transferred to Snoopy This was precisely what the Apollo 10 ready for the long day of independent activity, mission was all about – determining the best before a rest period and preparations for the big approach to nulling dispersions in predictable, “They’re down day when the initial stages of a landing profile but unquantified, navigation and position-fixing would be tested around the Moon. The dramatic errors. It had been determined that landing site there among the achievements of Apollo 8 in being the first manned accuracy was vital for safety in putting the first spacecraft to achieve lunar orbit and the orbital landing down at precisely the planned location rocks, mumbling ballet conducted by the first manned flight of the which had been surveyed extensively. But that about the Lunar Module on Apollo 9, seemed to eclipse in could only be achieved if the position parameters public perception the dramatic importance of this were achievable. Because of inherent errors in the boulders” particular flight. R2 model,Subscriber while the orbit plane for Apollo 10 was changing, the orbit prediction was increasingly ALONE AGAIN… veering off the expected path. So much so that Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 98 hr Apollo 10 passed about 9.1 km south of the 11 min 57 sec initiating radar and communications planned landing site. checks, events televised to Earth for a little over In carefully analysing the R2 model it was 20 minutes. After the usual visual inspection decided that the landing flight would use a one- from the CSM, Stafford and Cernan slipped away BELOW pass model for orbital inclination and nodal In Mission Control, Snoopy from Charlie Brown as Young performed a small location but the R2 model with a two-pass solution and Charlie Brown dolls separation burn which put the two vehicles 3.7 km for in-plane elements. Mission planners decided to keep watch on operations. apart, this setting up the trajectory for the Descent use discrete and overlapping orbit determinations Orbit Insertion (DOI) burn. This was to be the on every revolution, this helping to reduce or standard profile for a lunar landing flight and would eliminate errors in predicting the accuracy of the precede the PDI burn where the Descent Propulsion orbit plane. It was also decided that the R2, or what System would fire continuously, braking the velocity was known as the 13th order model, would be used of the LM and taking it down to the surface. in predicting plane parameters for manoeuvres, The 27 sec DOI burn with the LM came at 99 with the known bias factored in to the manoeuvre hr 46 min 01 sec on the far side of the Moon and calculations. provided a velocity change of 21.27 m/sec placing Another area researched by the Apollo 10 Snoopy in an orbit of 112.6 km by 15.78 km so mission was a determination of the magnitude that pericynthion would occur on the near side of the mascon at different locations. Apollo 8 at 15º east longitude and east of the landing site passed over the Sinus Aestum whereas Apollo 10 planned for the initial landing. The separation in flew across the Sinus Medii and measured less of distance between Charlie Brown and Snoopy caused

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further burn to put them in a wide, looping flight path moving far above the CSM, slowing down in the process and coming back down again to the same relative distance behind the mothership as a crew coming up from the Moon. This 40 sec phasing burn took place at 100 hr 58 min 25 sec placing Snoopy in a highly elliptical path with an apocynthion of 350 km which, as the LM flew that higher path it slowed and that allowed the CSM to get ahead. But plans to photograph the illuminated portion of the far side were prevented by a failure in the 70 mm camera.

STAGING A SHOW This arching trajectory, carrying the LM far higher above the Moon than any other manned spacecraft would again, lasted 1 hr 47 min during which time Stafford and Cernan configured Snoopy for simulating the rendezvous operations all future missions would follow, a sequence which had been closely rehearsed on Apollo 9. But that had been in Earth orbit where the times, revolutions and manoeuvres were compromised by the greater mass of the home planet. The idea here was to separate the Ascent Stage from the Descent Stage to more closely simulate in mass the situation when a crew was returning from the surface (which is why, as related earlier, that stage was only partially filled with propellant). Staging occurred at 102 hr 45 min 17 sec but just before and after that the vehicle began a wild gyration in a seemingly uncontrollable surge of attitude excursions,copy reaching 19º/sec in pitch and in excess of 25º/sec in roll and yaw. The sudden surprise at this event carried both Stafford and Cernan into a sequence of expletives and would require Cernan, sometime after the flight, to issue a public apology for his language on world TV! the CSM to come around the eastern limb of the ABOVE Moon before the LM and be first to regain voice Charlie Brown as viewed by Snoopy after the two communication back to Earth. From his position vehicles separate. up ahead of Snoopy, John Young commented to MissionSubscriber Control on their jocular spirits: “They’re down there among the rocks, mumbling about the boulders…They just saw Earthrise. They say they’re looking up at the horizon right now.” And then, from the speeding Snoopy to Capcom Charlie Duke at Mission Control: “We’s goin, we’s down among ‘em, Charlie. Ah! Charlie, we just saw “We’s goin, we’s Earthrise and it’s got to be magnificent!” down among ‘em, Stafford and Cernan had their own “Earthrise” moment to add to that first wondrous sight taken Charlie” by the Apollo 8 crew almost five months before. Being on an elliptical path which would carry them close to the lunar surface, the LM crew speeded up and were now 298 km ahead of Charlie Brown above. At pericynthion, the LM was 15,392 m above the radius of the landing site and by the time they arrived overhead at LS-2 they were at 17,307 m and climbing slightly out of the low point in the orbit. But they wanted to get behind as well as below RIGHT A view of Landing Site 3, the CSM so that they could simulate the position to the west of the place a crew would be in returning from the Moon’s selected for the first landing surface. To achieve that they needed to conduct a attempt.

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A significant engineering investigation into the occurrence came up with the embarrassing answer that it was the inadvertent fault of the crew in configuring the switches for the guidance mode of the LM at that critical point. The separation manoeuvre had been accomplished using the Abort Guidance System and the “Mode” control switch was left in “Auto” and not “Attitude Hold” as it should have been. That drove the AGS to attempt to point the longitudinal axis of the Ascent Stage toward the Apollo spacecraft. Stafford took over manual control through a series of separate switch positions and eventually regained a stable attitude.

RETURN TICKET The insertion burn took place at 102 hr 55 min 01 copy sec with Snoopy 22,250 m above the landing site radius, a firing of the Ascent Propulsion System for 15.6 sec inducing a 67.4 m/sec velocity change placing the stage in a 83.8 km x 20.7 km path. In this orbit, Snoopy would slowly catch up with Charlie Brown through a series of intermediate manoeuvres and would eventually reach a relative ABOVE LEFT km x 77.4 km. position behind and below the CSM so that it The final manoeuvres And then, 58 minutes later, the Constant Delta leading to rendezvous. could start the rendezvous sequence beginning Height (CDI) burn, again with the RCS quads, was with TPI (see Apollo 9, SpaceFlight Vol 61 No 3 performed putting the Ascent Stage in a 86.5 km p 28). At apocynthion, just over 50 minutes after BELOW x 77.9 km path more or less at a fixed separation SubscriberFlight Directors Gerry Griffin the insertion burn, the crew used Snoopy’s RCS (foreground) and Glynn between the orbits of Snoopy and Charlie Brown. thrusters to perform the Coelliptic Sequence Lunney monitor operations This was essentially the start of the rendezvous Initiation (CSI) burn, changing to an orbit of 87.4 during the flight. phase and was a very short 0.9 m/sec burn with Young in the CSM conducting ranging and sextant alignments so that the relevant back-up calculations could be performed prior to a mirror- image burn should the Ascent Stage fail. The TPI burn, closely conducted during Apollo 9, took place at 105 hr 22 min 55 sec. Further work from the RCS quads to begin the process of moving the Ascent Stage up to the orbit of the CSM preceded docking which was achieved at 106 hr 22 min 02 sec. After the crew rejoined Young in Charlie Brown, and equipment was transferred from the CSM to the Ascent Stage, what remained of Snoopy was jettisoned at 108 hr 24 min 36 sec, followed 19 min later by the CSM conducting a separation burn to clear space for the APS engine to fire to depletion. That occurred 9 min later for a duration of 4 min 48.9 sec, placing it into an unknown heliocentric orbit. After a total vehicular separation time of

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LEFT Snoopy approaches Charlie Brown after demonstrating all the major manoeuvres required for a landing mission.

RIGHT Splashdown close to the USS Princeton. Mission accomplished.

The crew had performed beyond the expectations of those projecting NASA’s stories to the public

BELOW RIGHT Greeted by the sailors and officers aboard the USS Princeton, from left, Cernan, Stafford and Young. All three would command future Apollo flights: Young copy Apollo 16 and Cernan Apollo 17 in 1972 and Stafford the Apollo Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Young would also command two Shuttle flights, in 1981 and 1983.

8 hr 10 min 5 sec, all three crewmembers had accomplished a highly significant set of objectives that would leave nothing standing in the way of a lunar landing attempt. LSubscriberandmark tracking activity occupied the crew for the last day in lunar orbit before the TEI burn at 137 hr 36 min 29 sec, placing Apollo 10 on a fast track to Earth, crossing the distance in around 54 hours. This was one of the more accurate targeting burns which, without any course correction, would have placed the spacecraft on the desired entry path angle of -6.69º, only 0.17º off course and very well within the corridor. Had it not been for a propulsive vent from a water evaporator (acting as a thruster to nudge it away from the optimum alignment) the single course correction, of 0.67 m/sec some three hours prior to entry interface, would have been unnecessary. The crew had performed beyond the expectations of those projecting NASA’s stories to the public, transmitting 19 TV sessions for the public relations machine versus the eleven planned, almost doubling the time viewers on Earth got to see live broadcasts from the spacecraft. Splashdown for this second lunar orbit mission occurred at 192 hr 03 min 23 sec, with recovery by the USS Princeton just 39 minutes after landing. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 31 HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT Commercial SPACE Thanks to new partnerships with private industry, NASA’s plans for returning to the Moon at last seem to be taking physical shape. by David Baker

ASA has pledged to have boots back support infrastructure for the first tentative steps on the Moon by 2028. Through the defined in the agreements already signed with the Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery nine companies. Services contract, which NASA signed Next comes the “lunar ascent element” moving N with nine companies, the first steps are from a transportation system capable of getting already under way. Cynics have observed that hardware down on the surface to one which this was a neat way for the agency to mobilise provides a safe and accessible route back up – the nation, rather than the other way round; for probably to the Gateway. Next, almost concurrent it to give the “hurry-up” to private industries with the two-waycopy transportation system comes a and corporations while leaving all the hard work ABOVE “transfer vehicle element”, or a Space Tug. Some to others. Now, though, NASA appears to be Lunar landers: more than readers will know that a Tug was implicit within following through on its intentions to fully exploit just a fantasy? the Space Transportation System that included the commercial capabilities and unlock the potential in Space Shuttle and a Space Station – a propulsion private industry. unit ferrying back and forth rather like an in-space There has been much publicity, greased by the taxi which would never come down to the surface BELOW PR people at NASA, but now senior management With help from of any world but exist to remain in the weightless has defined how it will move, quickly, to develop commercial partners, vacuum of space and shift things around. These a Human Landing System for putting people back NASA Administrator Jim two elements should be in place by 2026. Next on the lunar surface. The essential steps begin with Bridenstine has reaffirmed comes the hard bit! the Lunar Gateway in 2024 as a “human descent the agency’s commitment to In 2028 NASA wants to conduct a fully Subscriberland people on the Moon by element”, essentially the delivery terminus for 2028. Hopefully the first fully supported infrastructure involving spacecraft robots and eventually people travelling the cislunar functioning hardware will plying cargo to the Gateway, twin tankers for highway between Earth and the Moon. This is the soon follow. refuelling the Lander and the Tug, an airlock and four astronauts. The first Lander will have been left on the Moon and, this time around, there will be a fully supported rescue capability built in before human operations begin at the lunar surface. What was lacking in Apollo is to be an implicit component of the permanent presence NASA envisages, creating a fully supported Moon base with a lot of the work, and a considerable amount of hardware, coming from commercial companies. Those companies rea already lining up. Elon Musk has said that SpaceX will be presenting an unsolicited design for a lunar lander as it intends to get ahead of the game and help NASA decide the best roadmap and the optimum architecture for achieving its broad mission goals. But there is nothing new in this. Sixty years ago, industry and the big corporations beat a path to NASA’s door, defining how the agency could get to the Moon – proposals that preceded the commitment

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from President Kennedy. Much of the mission ABOVE kept the diversity of missions top-of-mind”, said architecture was laid out for NASA by aerospace The Habitat Ground Bill Pratt, Lockheedcopy Martin Space NextSTEP Test Article enables the companies and consultative think-tanks. Lockheed Martin/NextSTEP programme manager. “By building modularity in team to study the ergonomic from the beginning, our design can support lunar LIVING SPACE and aesthetic possibilities orbit and surface science missions along with While some people are focusing on getting for long-duration habitation commercial operations, all the while accelerating robots and humans to the lunar surface, others on and around the Moon the path to the Moon.” in support of commercial are providing design solutions for the problems future activities. Over the past five months the team has used regarding habitation on deep-space missions. In a tools such as virtual and augmented reality to public-private partnership with NASA’s NextSTEP simplify and streamline the build-up process. They Phase II contract, Lockheed Martin has completed have also applied expertise from Lockheed Martin’s the initial ground prototype for a cislunar habitat heritage of operating autonomous interplanetary that would be compatible with NASA’s Gateway robotic missions, like OSIRIS-REx and InSight,

IMAGES: NASA (LFET) / LOCKHEED MARTIN (ABOVE) / LOCKHEED MARTIN (LFET) NASA IMAGES: Subscriber architecture. This habitat will help NASA study to integrate reliable robotic capabilities into the and assess the critical capabilities needed to build a design. sustainable presence around the Moon and support “Getting back to the Moon, and eventually pioneering human exploration in deep space. Mars, is no small feat, but our team are mission The full-scale prototype, or Habitat Ground visionaries”, said Pratt. “They have worked to apply Test Article (HGTA), is built inside a re-purposed lessons learned from our experience with deep Shuttle-era cargo container, called a Multi-Purpose space robotic missions to this first-of-its-kind Logistics Module (MPLM), at Kennedy Space spacecraft around the Moon.” Center. Using rapid prototyping and modern “They have worked The Lockheed Martin team will soon transition design tools with virtual and augmented reality, the to apply lessons the prototype to the NASA NextSTEP team for team customised the interior and made full use of assessment. During the week beginning 25 March, the entire volume of the module to accommodate learned from our a team of NASA astronauts began living and a variety of tasks for science missions and the working inside the prototype, evaluating the layout personal needs of future astronauts. The team also experience with and providing feedback. The NASA test team will studied how to apply the advanced deep-space also validate the overall design and will be able to capabilities that are already built in to the Orion deep space robotic evaluate the standards and common interfaces, spacecraft. Through additional research and such as the International Docking System Standard development funding, the NextSTEP team also missions” (IDSS), and how to apply those systems for applied mixed-reality technology to further refine long-term missions based at the Lunar Gateway. the concept. Once NASA testing has completed, Lockheed “Throughout the design and engineering Martin will continue to optimize and study the process of this high-fidelity prototype, we have prototype to prepare for other lunar efforts. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 33 CORRESPONDENCE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Going to the Moon, 1958 style

Sir: The Moon has been in the news lately, what with NASA’s recently announced intention of sending new missions there, including astronauts, plus the upcoming 50th anniversary of the original Apollo trips. All this reminded me that I was a regular space cadet when I was growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s. I watched all the space shows on television then, including the Walt Disney specials, “Rocky Jones Space Ranger”, “Men Into Space” and so on. The other day I finally found one of my read- again-and-again childhood books, “By Space Ship to the Moon”, 1958 edition, by Jack Coggins and Fletcher Pratt. How accurate was it in retrospect? Since then, what has happened for real, and what is still in the future? The first page caught my 7-year old self’s attention at once, by saying that a crewed mission to the Moon might cost at least two billion dollars. I had never heard of the word “billion” before, but it sounded as if there wasn’t that much money in all the world. The book assumed that people would build a space station first, and use the station as a launch platform to build a rocket to the Moon. There copy seemed to be no special hurry. Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 were briefly mentioned, but things had got no further than that. Then in real life the Kennedy administration in 1961 entered upon the Space Race to the Moon with the Soviet regime, the US to reach the Moon first before the decade ended. This meant a direct launch to the Moon. Space stations could wait. Another error in the book was to assume that the space station would be some 1,730 km above the Earth.Subscriber But real-life satellites soon found a belt of dangerous radiation there, so today’s ISS is ABOVE Lunar Module. Still in the future, though, was their A book from the first year of about 400 km up. There is just enough atmospheric the Space Age. Its authors proposal for a permanent lunar base. drag there, however thin, to make it necessary to failed to foresee that humans The book suggests finding a cave, as a shield use rockets occasionally, to keep the station at its would be circling the Moon against meteors, said cave to be rendered air tight, 10 years later and landing proper altitude. on its surface seven months and its air to be purified by massive hydroponic The writers got the everyday details of life after that. gardens. If no caves are available, then dig one. aboard the station more or less right, though they The fictional base was to have a space telescope weren’t sure yet if weightlessness might prove of its own, resembling one of the massive domed harmful. If it did, the station could be built in a observatories on Earth, such as Mount Palomar, the circular shape, and rotated to generate artificial largest such observatory in 1958. gravity. That one is still in the future. They also Actually, there is one type of observatory that wanted the station to have a space telescope, but The book assumed could be useful on the Moon, though strangely those have been launched separately. enough the book overlooked it. It would not be an As for electric power, their station could be that people would optical telescope, but a radio telescope. If placed powered by focusing the Sun’s heat on water, to on the far side of the Moon, the side that never generate steam for a steam engine. In reality, of build a space faces Earth, it would be shielded from Earth’s course, today’s stations use solar cells. station first incessant radio traffic. It could more easily pick up And what of the Moon lander? They got that the universe’s radio waves – maybe even another right, pointing out that in the vacuum of space and “wow” signal? on the Moon, a sleek, aerodynamic shape wasn’t Near the end of the book is a jarring 1958 needed. Their fictional ship resembled a bug with reminder of the Cold War. It assumes that a lunar spider-like landing pads, reminding me of the base would naturally include an underground

34 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight CORRESPONDENCE nuclear weapons chamber, to take part in a possible the human race itself. Besides, leaving evidence war on Earth, and to shoot down incoming enemy of existence behind for others to “unearth” is an missiles. This takes up several disheartening pages. idea that only really works if there is someone else “We came in peace for all mankind” has a much out there to do so, something for which there is better sound. Let’s hope everybody follows it. currently no evidence. If asked, I would guess, as I suspect that most BIS John Lockwood (via email) members would, that there is other life, other intelligence, out there but I feel that this is far too “Sometimes the important a matter to be based on a guess. Until Omniscient or omnipotent? only defence proven otherwise, we should assume that it all depends on us. I hope that most BIS members Sir: With regard to the question of human against something would also support me on that, as well. exploration as against robotic exploration (SpaceFlight Vol 61, No 2 p10-11), there are is to be somewhere Peter Davey (via email) apparently a number of scientists – Carl Sagan was accused of being one – who see the Universe, that else when it part of it beyond our atmosphere at least, as being The future is in the classroom! entirely the province of “mind”, to be analysed and happens” studied by probes and telescopes, but not to be Sir: I am writing to make members aware of a “interfered with” by humanity (or any other form competition that I think most, if not all, would of intelligent life, presumably) through settlement, applaud and possibly like to see expanded. The UK mining, or exploration (there is a suggestion of this Space Design Competition is, for those not aware in the National Geographic series “Mars”). of it, for school pupils in years 10 to 13 (up to A Before Christmas, there was some further level) and is designed to encourage and stimulate speculation in the press, concerning the possibility an interest in space and engineering. The origins of of a substantial increase in solar electromagnetic the competition go back to the USA and in 2008 Dr radiation causing substantial damage to civilisation; Randall Perry of Imperial College set up the Space overloading circuitry, erasing data-banks, etc. Science and Engineering Foundation to run the This helps to illustrate that the dividing line competition in the UK. between the Earth and the rest of the Universe is I was one of the judges of a regional heat held not as clear-cut as some people seem to think. recently in Liverpool where the participants had to Eventually, the Earth will die, caught in a wave design a base on Europa. It was set in the year 2118, of heat and radiation as the Sun expands. In the was to be constructedcopy below the surface and had to meantime, of course, there are any number of lesser house 4,000 permanent and 400 transient persons. catastrophes capable of destroying civilisation, and The aim of this research base was to explore the possibly the human race. sub-surface ocean and search for life. The pupils As the science-fiction writer, Larry Niven, put it: arrived at 9am in the morning, were handed a “Sometimes the only defence against something is detailed Request for Proposal and information to be somewhere else when it happens”. describing companies that they should choose and This was one of the themes of the “Science of then a list of subcontractors. They had to organise Discworld” series; Earth's history has been marked themselves into a team, pick a management by a series of catastrophes, we are currently structure, allocate work areas and produce a design between catastrophes, but must plan for the next that included a project plan and costing. Finally, at one.Subscriber “One of the great dreams of humanity has 6pm, they had to present the design to a panel and been to visit other worlds. It’s starting to look as be questioned on it. though this might be a very good idea – not just for The winners of the regional heats compete in fun and profit, but for survival” – Terry Pratchett. the national final held at Imperial College. The Space exploration is therefore not just a matter winners of the UK competition then take part in of curiosity, but of hard, practical survival. The the International Competition in the USA and in various private tourism initiatives – Musk, 2010 a UK team won in Houston. I understand that Branson, etc. - are helping to establish the idea of there is also a Galactic Challenge for ages 10-14. a human presence in space, but less directly, and It was impressive to see not only the effort without the same co-ordination and expertise. that they had put into their proposals but also Obviously, a short-term preference for unmanned the quality of the designs and their presentation. over manned exploration may not amount I think is a wonderful competition and just the to much, but they can lead to a longer-term thing to encourage more young people to pursue strategy. Unmanned probes, and the various other a career in engineering and science especially the manifestations of the electronic revolution can be space industry. It would be great to see as many of great help to humanity, but it cannot replace schools as possible taking part in the future and I it. If the Earth were to be destroyed tomorrow, would encourage all members, where possible, to evidence of our existence would still be around on promote it. the Moon, Mars, and further out. We are the first ABOVE For more information on The UK Space Design species of which this could be said. The UK Space Design Competition see www.uksdc.org. However, as a commentator once pointed out, Competition – a chance for your minds to engage with sometimes the best symbol for something is the the challenges of space Bob Morris thing itself. The best symbol for humanity is surely exploration. The Northern Space Consortium, Merseyside

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 35 CORRESPONDENCE

To Orbex via Taifun

Sir: With reference to the article on Orbex in SpaceFlight (Vol 61 No 4 p 6) and articles in the more general press, Orbex is claiming a revolutionary propellant tank design “a co-axial” or annular design. However this tank design is not new and was certainly used in the liquid propellant versions (solid propellant versions existed as well) of the German World War II Ground to Air, unguided rocket Taifun. Taifun went into development toward the end of 1944 when Germany was putting large amounts of effort into anti-aircraft weapons in order to counter Allied bombing raids. Taifun was still under development at the end of the war although flight trials had taken place. The weapon was to have been a barrage weapon similar to the successful British 3 inch (75 mm) unrotated anti-aircraft rocket. A solid propellant (cordite) powered rocket equipped an all-up system known as the Z battery which was credited with the first destruction of an enemy ESA MARK PERMAN / RIGHT: THIS PAGE: aircraft using an unguided rocket. The Taifun rockets (not missiles as they were ABOVE better specific impulse. The Taifun F was expected Cutaway of the German Taifun unguided) were to be launched from projectors WWII anti-aircraft rocket, to have a specific impulse of 164 but achieved 145. holding 30 rounds. The projectors were mounted showing the annular fuel tank The British 3 inch UP had a specific impulse of on 88 mm gun mounts with the barrel removed. design and injector. 177 (all figures lb/sec./lb). The rocket’s propellants were, in the central For further information on the Liquid cylindrical tank, Salbei, predominantly fuming propellant version of Taifun see Armament nitric acid plus a little sulphuric acid, and in Design Department Tech Report No 6/46 German the outer annular tank Visol, a mixture of Non Guided Flak Rocket Taifun, which is hydrocarbons (there were many differing types available on thecopy Internet, or to see hardware visit of Visol). Propellants were pressurised by hot the RAF Museum Cosford. gas from a cordite charge and, being hypergolic, Furthermore, post WWII the Americans ignited on contact in the combustion chamber. attempted to use the liquid propellant design Problems with the rocket engine design meant BELOW of Taifun in an Anti-Aircraft (AA) rocket A pair of captured Taifuns that it never achieved the performance expected on display at at the RAF but switched to solid propulsion to get the and in fact the British 3inch UP solid had a far Museum, Cosford. performance they needed from very high thrust. Subscriber

36 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight CORRESPONDENCE

The subsequent vehicle was superseded by the guided AA missiles, however the design went on to become a small sounding rocket of the boosted dart type – Loki Dart. For information on that see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki_(rocket). As an anecdote, while working at the Rocket Propulsion Establishment, Westcott I was sitting at my desk one day when an e-mail arrived from the RAF Museum at Cosford attached to which was a load of pictures. They had been going through their “toys” in store and found an unidentified item with a Brown hazard band on – indicating live filled motor. Some small excitement ensued! I identified the vehicle as a Super Loki Dart minus the dart and later by examination that it was fired/empty – fun/ excitement over!”

Mark Perman (via email) Secretary of the BIS West Midlands, formerly of the Rocket Propulsion Establishment, Westcott.

Landfill or recycling?

Sir: I pick up copies of your excellent magazine in a newsagents shop and have read a lot about the Space Launch System. I would like to know why you persist in supporting this waste of US ABOVE about ways to convince young people about doing Reader Jay Givens would taxpayers’ money when there so many alternatives like to see more about Earth something on climate change. We need to know around which are paid for by commercial resource satellites such as more about the way we can reduce the general companies. Surely it would be possible to use the Europe’s ERS-2 – displayed pollution of the atmosphere. SpaceFlight can help here as a full scale model. services of one of those? And why do we need it us understandcopy that. Please, let’s have more of this. anyway? Nobody seems to have found a purpose I hope you don’t mind my “rant”. Lovely for it yet. magazine but I sometimes get annoyed with NASA seems intent on grabbing government politicians telling us all what to do without funds for doing things the more expensive way. It moving off their %$£@ and giving the future a has been more than 10 years since talk of a “super- chance! heavy” launch vehicle surfaced and still there is nothing to show for it. The continued support for Jay Givens (via email) SLS appears to me to be a “jobs programme” and will only result in a lot of metal ending up in a Dear Jay. Thanks for your interest in the space watery landfill at the bottom of the ocean! The continued programme and in SpaceFlight magazine, which I ElonSubscriber Musk has the right attitude, with his hope you continue to buy on a regular basis. First, reusable rockets which can return and be used support for SLS the British Interplanetary Society is an advocacy again. Surely this is the way forward and the group and not a lobbying organisation and we Europeans seem to think so. ESA is taking notice appears to me to pride ourselves on being impartial on political of the New Space trend toward rockets which can issues while being non-judgemental on policy. be used again and is asking for ideas about how be a “jobs Which is why we do try to be completely neutral it can do that with its existing Ariane rockets or when it comes to programme decisions, particularly their successors. I understand the way space can programme” and those made outside the UK. We report and analyse be used for human benefit. But it doesn’t make news and events and as such have no direct support sense to throw everything away and pollute the will only result in a for government-led or commercially-driven activity. planet even more. Very Old Space attitudes to lot of metal ending However, we do support a coalition of New Space keep Congress happy. and Old Space as well as the dual-track decision of Can SpaceFlight please stop acting as though up in a watery the United States government to develop a national it is an arm of NASA and challenge the status- programme supported by those organisations from quo to do something more with tax funds such as landfill at the which NASA obtains services. But we do have an sending more spacecraft to the planets, carrying opinion and are equally prompt at pointing out out more climate research or developing a more bottom of the issues backed by facts, as expressed in the News cost-effective way to reach orbit rather than section starting on page 2 of this issue. As to building rockets that can never be re-used rather ocean! pressuring agencies and organisations to favour than those which are reusable? Then perhaps we planetary probes or satellites engaged in climate could all have a go! research, we don’t do that because that would be I am interested to know more about the way lobbying. Keep buying. We may cover the items you satellites are helping us understand the Earth and request in a future issue. Ed.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 37 REVIEWS

MULTI-MEDIA RIGHT The completed rocket in Juno I mode, topped by the Explorer 1 satellite – the first The latest books, films, TV, models and US satellite to enter orbit on January 31, 1958.

games for space enthusiasts of all ages BELOW The front box art (left) depicts the launch of Explorer 1, while SPACE MODELS the back (right) pictures the three variants possible – the Juno I launcher, the Redstone IRBM and the Sparta launch vehicle used to launch Australia’s first satellite, New horizons WRESAT, in November 1967. he next few months will be taken up with a propellant second stage with a third stage nested inside comprehensive look at the Apollo models it. The difference was the Explorer satellite on top, in our build-up to the Apollo 11 landing, which had its own rocket motor that effectively turned but first a look back to the very beginning. it into a fourth stage. The name change was supposedly T The relatively new Australian model made because Jupiter C was a military missile, whereas company, Horizon Models, has been specialising in Explorer was a purely civilian project – hence the models of the rockets that made up the early days of switch to Jupiter’s wife, Juno. the American space programmes, all to the common As far as the kit is concerned, Horizon provides scale of 1:72. Having made the Mercury Redstone, it identical runners for most of the parts, as rockets has now issued the earlier form of the rocket, itself a tend to be symmetrical up and down. In some places modified Redstone IRBM – the Jupiter C. It was this this can mean slight modifications to one half as rocket that, through Werner von Braun and the US against the other, such as filling in an indentation Army team at Huntsville, created the launcher for or drilling a hole. Here you get some runners that what became American first artificial satellite in orbit, are the same as the Mercury Redstone kit, basically Explorer 1. This was needed to regain national pride the lower section of the first stage, the fins and the after the intended first launch of the Vanguard satellite launch pad. New runners supply the upper section,copy failed. Its new Vanguard rocket had an unfortunate and not only for Juno, but for a Redstone IRBM habit of exploding on the pad! and also a US/UK variant on Redstone, Sparta, that First, to deal with the confusion as to what the tested re-entry dynamics. In the latter form it also rocket was actually called. Although it was almost became the launcher for Australia’s first satellite, universally known as Jupiter C, in its Explorer launch WRESAT. However the finished schemes of colours vehicle guise it became Juno I. Most of the two rockets and markings differ between all four launchers, so you were identical, including the main stage and the can only build one specific rocket, unfortunately you spinningSubscriber tub at the top, which comprised the solid can’t swap them around. To build all four versions you

38 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight REVIEWS

GAMER'S CORNER with Henry Philp Relay networks in KSP One of the more interesting aspects of Kerbal Space Program is the ability to construct constellations of relay satellites to stay in contact with your spacecraft. First released in KSP version 1.2.0 on 11 October 2016, this enables players to build relay networks like the one I built above, which allows contact with vehicles on the far side of the Mun (the analogue of the Moon). Just like the real Moon, the Mun is tidally locked to its parent body, meaning that networks like these are necessary to control craft like rovers. KSP uses a two-body orbital mechanics simulation in which Lagrange points do not exist. This means that missions similar to An example of a relay network in KSP. the Chinese Chang’e 4 cannot be recreated accurately – Chang’e 4 uses a relay satellite orbiting the Earth-Moon L2 point. apoapses and low periapses mean that the satellite will “hang” However, satellites in synchronous orbit are still possible. above the planet for a long time and sweep past its periapsis Because Kerbin’s (Kerbin is the Earth analogue in KSP) day lasts fast, minimising “blind spots” in coverage, while removing the six hours rather than 24, satellites need to be in a six-hour orbit to need to use fuel station keeping in synchronous orbit. remain stationary above an area on the surface of the planet. The aforementioned example shows the flexibility of Kerbal Of course, the difference between real life physics and the Space Program – you can design and fly missions that conform game means that many different variations on the basic relay to reality, or you can push the boundaries and create things that network design are possible. For example, the setup depicted have never been done before. Who knows, maybe designs like above mainly uses several satellites in eccentric orbits – high my relay network will one day become reality.

would need four kits, (and you’d also end up with a lot methods. But these parts are extremely thin and of parts for the spares box!). delicate, so great care will be need in handling. Fix in The fit of these kits is extremely good. It is position with tiny drops of superglue. invariably a problem joining rocket halves together, If you are sparing with the cement, the tub that there’s almost always a slight miss-match where filler contains stagescopy 2 and 3, can be carefully cemented is needed. If building the Juno, the upper section of around the “pin” on top of the first stage, and will the first stage needs eight very small holes drilled for BELOW rotate like the original. (Incidentally these stages are The parts layout and the the four antennae. Because of their size and delicacy completed alternative upper spun for stability, in effect they became a gyroscope, these antennae are supplied as photo-etched (PE) stages for the rocket. Note avoiding the need for extra correction engines.) parts, etched into a metal sheet, in this case very thin that you get two sets of each Photo-etch is also used to represent the four of the runners – the top one stainless steel. To make parts this scale would be here shows main Redstone whip antennae that are attached to Explorer 1 itself. virtually impossible with standard injection moulding parts, the bottom one shows Thoughtfully you get two sets of these – just in case – the new parts. Shown but as there is a spare Explorer 1 itself, as there is a part bottom right is the small photo-etched set, and the on each of the new runners, you can build a separate comprehensive decal sheet. model of the satellite, albeit extremely small! SubscriberThe kit is moulded in grey styrene, though for the Juno 1 you will need to paint it white. Here, Humbrol sprays were used – Matt White as a primer, topped with Gloss White, which isn’t high gloss and is ideal such rockets. Some halves of the fins, and some areas in between, need painting semi-gloss black. Exactly what needs painting needs careful cross-checking, as it’s very easy to get the wrong half, the wrong colour! The decal sheet provides the final markings. The

PHOTOGRAPHS THE BY AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPHS distinctive stripes around the first stage of Juno 1 are in four parts, so will need careful lining up matching their positions to the four fins. There are also some extremely small decals for areas around the lower sections, though it will be down to the individual modeller to decide if they are up to the task, as some are extremely small. One decal is provided for the stripes on the nose of Explorer. Here you will have to use what is called “decal softener” to get this to seat correctly. Check a local model shop near you, (if you have any!), or get on line from such as www. modelling-tools.co.uk. Thanks to Tony Radosevic at Horizon Models for the review kit – www.horizon- models.com. Mat Irvine FBIS

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 39 REVIEWS

PRINTED BOOK A forgotten story of Apollo reaking with tradition usually adopted for the lives of hundreds of thousands of families for book reviews, the following paragraphs more than a decade. Most of their stories will never are how author and publisher, Canadian survive the demise of that generation. Robert Godwin begins the introduction to “However, buried in the mountains of surviving Bthis important new book. To understand paperwork are fragments of those events floating why he is so excited about this is to appreciate the like motes of dust waiting for a flicker of light to value it presents for anyone celebrating the 50th expose them. One of those fragments landed on my anniversary of the first landing on the Moon, for desk almost by accident.” it tells a little-known story that needs the wider This book is as much a detective story as it is a audience which this book can provide. narrative on one historical aspect of Apollo, one “Few stories in the historical era can claim to be on which Robert Godwin has justifiably placed as unifying as the voyages of Apollo. Even though great importance. It tells two stories: the first about the technology and the political impetus for the how he came to unravel the origins of the Lunar Space Race was born in both World War II and the Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) concept that liberated Cold War, every language and country on Earth Manned Lunar the space agency from the outrageously expensive has preserved the narrative of how Armstrong, Landing and Return alternatives which may, if adopted, have cost the Aldrin and Collins made their journey to another Project MALLAR – a lives of astronauts in space before the goal set by world. However, 50 years have already polished Forgotten Story of President Kennedy could be approached; and the away many of the rough edges and detail from this Apollo second about the virtue in tenacious research – momentous accomplishment. by Robert Godwin however long it takes! “In classrooms around the world the principle Apogee Books To many people the story of Apollo is a narrative is already being reduced to caricature, www.apogeebooks.com triumphalist expression of a superior technology, diluted by the winds of expediency and the shifting 9781-926837-42-0 about a people principled on high ideals and a sands of society’s rectitude. But beyond the well- $25.95 patriotic yearning for American superiority on the known tales of the 32 heroic astronauts, or the 132 pages, b/w “new ocean of space”, as Kennedy himself pitched captured German scientists, Apollo is a much the race to the Moon. But the real story is one of more expansive and complex story that consumed uncertainty, of copycareers challenged by new ideas that Subscriber

40 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight REVIEWS

stronger direction to the mission model than even Houbolt had proposed. It was, in fact, Vought that suggested the LOR mode to NASA, one year after the agency had been formed and almost three years before critical decisions were being made about fulfilling Kennedy’s objective for the nation. And in that period it was German-born Hermann Koelle, who in 1948 reconstituted the German Society for Space Travel and was brought to the United States by Wernher von Braun, who played a vital role in developing the entire mission concept of what would become Apollo. It was because Koelle connected work on Saturn I with the Moon mode design effort at Vought, which had already been presented to NASA, that this German engineer, now head at the Future Projects Office at Huntsville, laid the seeds sown for NASA to harvest. But Koelle had himself been impressed, as much as Houbolt would be three threatened the status quo and about indecision, the ABOVE years later, by the work at Vought encouraged and Project Horizon was built caution that comes with the fear of failure. around the Army’s Saturn C-1 directly stimulated by interest from the German The official histories, like those about wars, launch vehicle, soon to be contingent at Huntsville. are written by the victors and sometimes to the acquired by NASA. Vought engineers were embedded in high- pleasure of the establishments they serve and performance jet aircraft and already had a who pay them. In popular culture, it has become reputation for advanced simulators – the theory fashionable to skim off the contribution of the behind this work was closely aligned with the German rocket scientists, the engineers and the challenges of the emerging rocket industry. Vought technicians and to discard their work, along with was encouraged by ambitious plans under the their past service to a flawed regime. To reject Army’s 1959 Project Horizon for a base on the them as inconsequential to the all-American story Moon and conducted parallel studies. From these of the Space Race and the official record of the were consolidated a range of studies and proposals Apollo programme in particular. It has become encapsulatedcopy by MALLAR – an acronym for distasteful to a generation honed by politically- …replete with new Manned Lunar Landing and Return. correct socialisation of “truth” to acknowledge the MALLAR specifically quoted Lunar orbit chequered story, and tarnished backgrounds, of discoveries tracing Rendezvous and featured advanced elements such as many key players in this story of Apollo. solar arrays for electrical power. Appearing in 1960, Fortunately, there are those for whom the connections which and with Vought encouraged by von Braun’s work shaping of history has no such constraint and at Huntsville, the report embraced a wide range of in following that route, taking him to scattered knit together a futuristic, but prescient aspects of a lunar mission remnants of a forgotten part of Apollo’s origin, story every bit as and in the establishment of subsequent bases. But Rob Godwin has again provided an invaluable the concept was tied in with the Army, envisaging resource while shining new light on a buried past. engaging as a as it did the use of Saturn I launchers, and would He Subscriberfinds that original thinking was not always mature as interest in lunar missions increased in present within the space agency itself, coming more novel 1960. MALLAR would mature into MALLIR – solidly from industry and from engineering logic Manned Lunar Landing Involving Rendezvous and expressed by those who left Germany and came to that, by a circuitous route, into Apollo. work for the United States. The pre-history of the first manned lunar

LEFT: APOGEE BOOKS / ABOVE: US ARMY APOGEE BOOKS / ABOVE: LEFT: Conventional narratives attribute the seminal mission objective is a vital aspect of how the decision to adopt LOR as coming directly out of momentous events of the 1960s unfolded and NASA itself, championed by unbridled pressure this research by Rob Godwin has opened a new from John C. Houbolt, the man from the Langley window on aspects that have been side-lined by Research Center for whom there was no other the more formal story of NASA itself. The research engineering option. But digging beneath the surface, contained in this book is seminal in linking the accessing documents scattered in archives, libraries, studies of an aircraft manufacturer to its expertise even private collections, the author finds a different with simulators and advanced engineering from story that emerges in this book, replete with new former German rocket scientists to the emerging discoveries tracing connections which knit together urgency for a robust space programme. And, from a story every bit as engaging as a novel. that, to the original ideas which underpinned the In what may well emerge as important an development of the Apollo programme and the illumination on the design origins of the Apollo selection of the most effective mission mode. mission mode as those studies on the political The strength of this title lies not in the formal motivation written down by noted historian John FAR LEFT presentation of a historical analysis but rather in Logsdon, Godwin shines a light on work presented Project Horizon envisaged a the narrative that flows from Godwin’s own work – lunar base with subsurface by Chance Vought, the US aeroplane manufacturer accommodation and and that should be recommendation enough. which highlights LOR and gives earlier and connecting tunnels. David Baker

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 41 SATELLITE DIGEST Satellite Digest 556 Satellite Digest is SpaceFlight’s regular listing of world space launches using orbital data from the United States Strategic Command space-track.org website. Compiled by Geoff Richards

Spacecraft International Date Launch Launch vehicle Mass Orbital Inclin. Period Perigee Apogee Notes designation site (kg) epoch (deg) (min) (km) (km) Dousti Feb 5 Semnan Safir 1B 52 Failed to reach orbit [1] SGS 1/Hellas Sat 4 2019-007A Feb 5.88 CSG Ariane-5ECA 6,495 Feb 7.74 3.04 631.43 254 35,774 [2] GSAT 11 2019-007B 2,536 Feb 17.79 0.13 1,436.04 35,768 35,806 [3] MisrSat A 2019-008A Feb 21.70 Baykonur Soyuz 2.1b Fregat-M 1,000 Feb 21.84 98.02 97.78 652 657 [4] Nusantara Satu 2019-009A Feb 22.07 ETR Falcon 9FT 4,100 Mar 8.91 0.08 1,435.98 35,781 35,791 [5] Beresheet 2019-009B 585 Feb 22.57 27.57 1,373.87 245 68,918 [6] S5 2019-009D 60 Mar 8.15 0.08 1,449.94 36,044 36,054 [7] OneWeb 0012 2019-010A Feb 27.90 CSG Soyuz 2.1b Fregat-M 147 Feb 28.58 87.77 105.07 989 1,010 [8] OneWeb 0010 2019-010B 147 Feb 28.85 87.77 105.06 988 1,010 [8] OneWeb 0008 2019-010C 148 Feb 28.85 87.77 105.06 988 1,009 [8] OneWeb 0007 2019-010D 147 Feb 28.34 87.77 105.05 988 1,008 [8] OneWeb 0006 2019-010E 147 Feb 28.14 87.77 105.04 988 1,007 [8] OneWeb 0011 2019-010F 147 Feb 28.85 copy87.77 105.01 988 1,005 [8] NOTES

1. Dousti (Friendship) experimental Earth survey satellite built by replacing Asiasat 3S (PSN 5R2), for high-throughput service Sharif University of Technology for the Iranian Space Agency including broadband Internet and direct TV broadcast to Indonesia, carrying a camera for Earth imaging and a store-and-forward Malaysia and the Asian region. First stage, previously used to transponder for communications. Apparently failed early in the launch SAOCOM 1A, successfully landed on the Of Course I Still launch. Love You barge 663 km downrange. 2. Saudi Geostationary Satellite/Hellas Sat is a communications and 6. Beresheet (Genesis) is a lunar lander built by IAI for SpaceIL direct broadcast satellite built using a new LM 2100 (modernised carrying a camera for pictures of the Lunar surface, a video A2100) bus by Lockheed-Martin and launched by Arianespace for camera for landing sequence, a magnetometer for Lunar field, a KACSTSubscriber and Hellas Sat. Mass quoted above is at launch, dry mass retro-reflector for laser tracking and a time-capsule of digital files. is 3,950 kg. Manoeuvring using electric propulsion to geostationary Manoeuvring to raise orbit and planned to reach the Moon in April. orbit over Africa. Planned location is at 39°E for communications 7. S5 (Small Satellite System for Space Surveillance) is a space and direct TV broadcast service to Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and surveillance satellite built by Blue Canyon Technologies for the the Middle East. USAF carrying a 0.30 m optical telescope with a CCD camera and 3. Geostationary Satellite, a communications satellite built by ISRO filters to detect, track and identify other satellites and space debris using an I-2000 bus. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite in the geosynchronous orbit region. Separated from Nusantara Satu is located over 48°E, co-located with Insat 4CR and GSAT 19, for about March 4 in westward drift orbit. Together with Beresheet, service to India and surrounding area. formed the Spaceflight Industries GTO-1 mission. 4. EgyptSat A survey satellite built using a 559GK bus by RKK Energia 8. Set of six low-orbit communications satellites built by OneWeb for NARSS, National Agency for Remote Sensing and Space Satellite (a joint enterprise of OneWeb and Airbus) and launched Science, with an MSI visible/infra-red panchromatic and multi- by Arianespace for OneWeb, first of a planned 648 satellite spectral camera for Earth imaging. constellation to provide communication services to a wide range of users. Manoeuvres to reach 1,200 km operational orbit are 5. Nusantara Satu (One Archipelago) or PSN 6 telecommunications planned. Satellites are also named, in numerical order: SherpaSat, satellite built by SSL using a 1300 bus for PT Pasifik Satellit ChinghizSat, IcyerekezoSat, ChusigSat, LempiraSat and NanuqSat. Nusantara and launched by SpaceX. Mass quoted above is at Names were chosen by schoolchildren in six different countries. launch. The satellite is located at 146°E, co-located with and

42 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight SATELLITE DIGEST NASA

NASA’s InSIGHT Mars lander has begun operations with its HP3 mole device.

ADDITIONS AND UPDATES copy DESIGNATION COMMENTS DESIGNATION COMMENTS

1988-091B TDRS 3 was manoeuvred off station at 62.5°W has reversed drift from westward to eastward. February 23 and is drifting to the east. 2014-058A Luch (Olimp-K) was manoeuvred off station at 57°E 1996-053A Inmarsat 3 F2 was manoeuvred off station at 15.5°W February 15 and was relocated at 60°E February 20. February 5 and is drifting to the west. 2014-076A Hayabusa 2 descended to a brief touchdown on Ryugu 1997-051B Iridium 32 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium February 21.94 and activated its sample collection constellation to a disposal orbit February 8. Add orbit: mechanism, then returned to its 20 km station February Feb 12.79 86.38° 93.44 min 172 km 717 km 22. 1998-019D Iridium 59 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium 2016-050A JCSat 16 was manoeuvred off station at 144°E Subscriberconstellation to a disposal orbit February 22. Add orbit: February 13 and relocated at 136°E, co-located with Mar 1.55 86.53° 92.78 min 157 km 668 km JCSat 8 (previously JCSat 2A) and N-Star c, February 21. 1999-032A Iridium 14 was manoeuvred from a reserve orbit to a disposal orbit February 27. Add orbit: 2017-052A OTV 5 (USA 277) has manoeuvred to a lower orbit, according to amateur trackers. Add orbit: Mar 6.48 86.66° 93.00 min 154 km 692 km Feb 25.78 54.51° 90.79 min 316 km 319 km 1999-033A ASTRA 1H was relocated back at 67.1°W, co-located with SES 10, February 8. 2018-022A GOES 17 was declared operational as GOES-West February 12. 2002-005A Iridium 91 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium constellation to a disposal orbit February 15. Add orbit: 1998-067NT RemoveDebris satellite deployed target boom and successfully fired harpoon at target February 8. Feb 22.55 86.58° 92.93 min 170 km 669 km 2003-060A Ekspress AM22 westward drift rate has increased and 2018-042A InSight covered the seismometer with the wind and it appears to have been retired. thermal shield February 2 and deployed the HP3 mole device to the surface February 12. Mole operation 2004-017A AMC 10 was manoeuvred off station at 135°W began February 28. February 13 and is drifting to the west. It appears to have been retired 2018-046 Radix is now identified as 1998-067NY. 2010-065A HYLAS 1 was relocated at 13.8°E February 12. 2018-060A-D Galileo Sat 23 to 26 (GSAT0219 to GSAT0222) were 2012-046A,B Van Allen Probe A and B are manoeuvring to lower declared operational February 7. perigee to a value that will ensure decay once science 2018-073 Tenryu is confirmed as object 1998-067PQ. mission is complete. 2018-079A AEHF 4 (USA 288) reached geostationary orbit over 2013-063A MAVEN began aerobraking February 11 to reduce 94°W February 21. Add orbit: orbital period for use as relay satellite in support of Feb 23.65 4.82° 1,436.00 min 35,768 km 35,805 km 2020 Mars Rover mission. 2018-090A Es’hail 2 add-on Amsat P4A payload has been given 2014-043A GSSAP 1 (USA 253), according to amateur trackers, the name Qatar-Oscar 100.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 43 SATELLITE DIGEST

DESIGNATION COMMENTS DESIGNATION COMMENTS

2018-092A ISS crew attached new SlingShot deployer, apparently CHEFSat 2 2018-092E launched on Dragon CRS 16, to the hatch of John Feb 14.69 51.64° 93.76 min 455 km 471 km Young Cygnus freighter, which was then unberthed MYSAT 1 2018-092F from ISS/Unity on February 8.5 using the ISS arm Feb 14.61 51.64° 93.76 min 455 km 471 km and released February 8.68. Freighter manoeuvred KickSat 2 2018-092G to a higher orbit and SlingShot deployer was used to release two Quantum Radar Cubesats February Feb 14.84 51.64° 90.45 min 297 km 306 km 9.00. These are passive targets with reflectors for 2018-099 The three Hawk satellites were declared operational laser tracking built by SEOPS, now part of Hypergiant February 26. 2018-099B is now identified as Sirion Galactic Systems. SlingShot also carried an attached Pathfinder 2, 099V is ENOCH (the report of a payload from UbiquitiLink to test a mobile phone deployment failure was incorrect), MOVE 2 is 099Y, transceiver node in space. After further Cygnus KazSciSat 1 is confirmed as 099AF and SeaHawk 1 manoeuvres, CHEFSat 2 and MYSAT 1 were released is 099BQ. eXCITe ejected the SeeMe satellite about February 13.50 and KickSat 2 February 13.95, all from February 1. Add object with orbit: NRCSD-E deployers. Cygnus carried out further SeeMe 2018-099BS manoeuvres to provide target for MDA sensors and Feb 1.84 97.76° 96.29 min 571 km 594 km was de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean February 25. 2018-102 SaudiSat 5A is confirmed as 2018-102A, but SaudiSat Add objects and orbits: 5B is 2018-102C, not 102B which is apparently an Quantum Radar 1 2018-092C adapter. 2018-102C orbit is: Feb 10.14 51.64° 93.62 min 454 km 459 km Dec 7.70 97.63° 95.43 min 532 km 551 km Quantum Radar 2 2018-092D 2018-107A Kosmos 2533 (Blagovest 13L) was manoeuvred off its Feb 10.14 51.64° 93.63 min 455 km 459 km test station at 80°E February 11 and was relocated at 70°E February 24.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ACTIVITY RECENTLY DETAILED ORBITAL DECAYS There was the following orbital manoeuvre of ISS during February, International Object name Decay boosted by Progress MS-10: Designation

Pre-manoeuvre orbit: Feb 26.11 51.64° 92.61 min 403 km 411 km 2013-002B Jissho Eisei Feb 20.23 Post-manoeuvre orbit: Feb 26.52 51.64° 92.64 min 406 km 412 km 2013-066X Eagle 1 (BeakerSat) Feb 13.0 End-of-February orbital data: 1998-067LH HAVELSAT Feb 28.0 1998-067LQ X-CubeSatcopy 1 Feb 4.31 Feb 28.77 51.64° 92.64 min 406 km 411 km 1998-067LR qbee50-LTU-OC Feb 26.70 1998-067LY SpaceCube Feb 28.9 1998-067MH QBITO Feb 16.7 1998-067MJ AALTO 2 Feb 6.9 1998-067MM PolyITAN 2-SAU Feb 5.2 2018-092A John Young Feb 25.38

Subscriber ARIANESPACE

One of six OneWeb satellites prior to integration with its dispenser and launch aboard a Soyuz-2.1b Fregat-M on 27 February.

44 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight copy Subscriber SOCIETY NEWS

Jerry provides a packed audience with an enthralling description of Apollo 9. copy SPIDER STRATEGEM The BIS’s Jerry Stone describes the Apollo 9 SubscriberLunar Module’s workout in Earth orbit. THE LATEST TALK in Jerry Stone’s popular “Apollo fly their historic Apollo 8 mission around the Moon. at 50” series on 6 March covered Apollo 9, the first Apollo 9 was launched on 3 March 1969 and crewed test of the much-delayed Lunar Module placed in an initial orbit of 191 km, although it would Spider – a major leap into the unknown, and the first change significantly over the course of the mission. time that astronauts would occupy a spacecraft not A team of 5,000 people around the world supported destined to return to Earth. The mission involved the flight, including the Department of Defense tests of both the Ascent and Descent stages of the personnel seconded (and paid for by NASA) for Lunar Module, along with a number of other recovery. The tests in orbit included not only the innovations, such as a new type of rescue net to independent flight and docking of the LM, but also enable the crew to be lifted into their recovery test firings of the troublesome Descent Engine and helicopter after a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. a spacewalk to test the feasibility of an EVA from Jerry explained that following the successful the CM to the LM, should future crews encounter a Apollo 7 CSM test flight, a crewed test of the Lunar problem re-docking. Module in Earth orbit was next on the roster – but The CM splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean (the that development problems prompted NASA to rest of the Apollo missions landed in the Pacific) off switch things around and conduct the first “all up” the Bahamas on the eleventh day of the mission and test of the Apollo CSM/Saturn V without it. was recovered by the USS Guadalcanal. Against all Commander James McDivitt, CM Pilot David Scott the odds, Apollo 9 was an almost unqualified and LM Pilot Russell Schweickart were next in line success and cleared the way for Apollo 10’s full to fly, but after months of training specifically for the dress rehearsal of a lunar landing two months later LM, they opted to wait until it was ready and left – the subject of Jerry’s next, to be held at BIS HQ in Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders to 22 May. SF Griffith Ingram

46 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight SOCIETY NEWS BIS Scotland looks to “reignite its engines”

WE ARE DELIGHTED to report a The final event in the inaugural very successful relaunch of the BIS series was held on 3 August 2018, as Scottish branch, with a mission to colleagues from SIGMA, the Moray shape the future of space science, Astronomy Club, kindly hosted a exploration and industry “north of talk entitled “From Standing Stones the border”. Building on over 80 to Blasting Rockets: Scotland is years of BIS history and harnessing Off to Space!” by our own Matjaz the exciting developments in the Vidmar. He updated the audience on Scottish space sector, from the news from the global space industry growing nano-satellite and space and linked it to the rich history of data applications industries to the astronomy and space science in building of spaceport facilities, we Scotland. Matjaz also highlighted plan to “reignite the engines” with a what great opportunities there programme of technical and social were to expand the space sector in events to connect professionals and Scotland by combining the know- enthusiasts in the space arena. how of the country’s long-established The first event in the series was institutions with innovative new held at the Riverside Campus of the ventures and start-ups. City of Glasgow College on the 30 Further talks are in the pipeline for January 2018, with a talk by Prof 2019. We hope to visit Dundee to talk Colin McInnes, from the University about electronics and sub-systems, of Glasgow, who spoke on Emerging follow up the announcement of the PHOTOS BY GEIR ENGENE BY PHOTOS Space Technologies: Opportunities spaceport investment in Scotland for the Future. Colin was an early with a joint talk with Highlands advocate for the developing Astronomical Society in Inverness, Scottish space industry and is a and return to Edinburgh to examine research leader in spacecraft orbitalcopy the vibrant Scottish space and dynamics, solar sail propulsion and Arts scene (science fiction, advanced concepts engineering. filmmaking, etc), as part of the Space The second event was held at Enlightenment Festival (http://www. the Royal Observatory Edinburgh sdos.ac.uk). (ROE) on the 21 March 2018 on the All events and additional topic of Space Experiments. Dr John information will be regularly posted Davies opened the evening with an on the BIS Scotland Branch page historical overview, noting that the at https://www.bis-space.com/ ROE, and more recently its successor branches/regional/bis-scotland. the UK Astronomy Technology Centre Further ideas/suggestions regarding Subscriber(UKATC), has a history of space topics and venues are very much research stretching back over 50 welcomed by the organising years. John began by describing committee at scotland@bis-space. early Skylark rocket experiments com. Also, please, do get in touch which in turn led to ROE involvement if you are able to volunteer to help in the European Space Research organise any of the meetings. (Alba) Organisation’s TD-1A UV astronomy ad Astra! satellite, launched in 1972. He went Matjaz Vidmar, John Davies and on to talk about the European Infrared Graham Paterson. Space Observatory mission (on which he worked in the 1990s) and the SPIRE instrument for the Herschel Space Observatory. Moving from the past to the present, Dr Alistair Glasse talked about the observatory’s role in its latest space project, the Mid Infra Red Instrument (MIRI) for the James Webb Space Telescope. Alistair, who is a key member of the MIRI team, recounted some of his experiences working at NASA on pre-flight BIS-Scotland hard at work. qualification and testing of MIRI.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 May 2019 47 SOCIETY NEWS

BIS LECTURES & MEETINGS MEMBERSHIP NEWS

NASA’S ARCHIVES: THE FIRST 60 YEARS 24 April 2019, 7.00pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Piers Bizony lifts the lid on some of the treasures to be found in the archives of the world’s oldest and most prolific space agency.

APOLLO 10 – DRESS REHEARSAL FOR THE MOON LANDING 22 May 2019, 7.00pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Jerry Stone continues his coverage of Apollo with the first flight to carry both the Apollo spacecraft and the Lunar Module on a full dress rehearsal of a landing.

Call for Papers RUSSIAN-SINO FORUM 1-2 June 2019, 9.30 am to 5pm (tbc) VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ The BIS has now scheduled its 39th annual Russian- Sino Forum – one of our most popular and longest running events. Papers are invited. APOLLO MISSIONS: LANDING ON THE MOON BY Who could they be? DAVID BAKER 12 June 2019, 7.00pm I HAVE BEEN CONTACTED by Ingemar Skoog of the IAA concerning VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ this mystery picture. He wants to know the identity of the two gentlemen on the left of the picture, who he believes were BIS SpaceFlight's editor looks at the systems evolved by members. He thinks the short gentleman pointing could be Harry Ross NASA for calculating optimum lunar landing and I tend to agree with him. The picture was taken at the 4th IAC trajectories, and at the descent procedures needed to meeting in Zurich in 1953 and the twocopy gentlemen on the right are Teofil achieve the maximum chance of success. Tabanera from Argentina and Harald von Beckh. Can anybody help? If so, please contact John Becklake, Editor Space Chronicle. SF 74TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 27 July 2018, 1 pm VENUE: Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire (TBC) Admission to the AGM is open to Fellows only but all Members are welcome to join the discussion after the There’s no place formalities conclude around 1.15 pm. Please advise in advance if you wish to attend (attendance to this part of the afternoon is free). like Rome The AGMSubscriber will be followed by the BIS Summer Get- ONCE AGAIN, MAKER FAIRE 2019 will be together at the same venue; tickets are £20 and will be hosting a major section devoted to the space sector on sale on our website soon. and the BIS will be responsible for coordinating content and for managing the many displays and Council nomination forms are obtainable from the presentations. Held from 18-20 October in Rome, this Executive Secretary or from the BIS website. These year’s theme will be “The Human Exploration of must be completed and returned not later than 1pm 4 Mars” – in particular, the role that Makers and May 2019. If the number of nominations exceeds the Makers’ attitudes will play in the early settlement on the Red Planet. There number of vacancies, election will be by postal ballot. can be no doubt that the human exploration of Mars is achievable and that, Voting papers will then be prepared and circulated to given time, the abundance of local resources will sustain entire Martian all Corporate Members. communities. The aim of this section of Maker Faire Rome will therefore be to gather experiences, inventions, innovations and knowledge that could have practical applications on the new frontier. As an aside to the principal theme, NEW MEMBERS Makers will be invited to share their ideas related to the aerospace sector in general, as they have at previous Maker Faire Rome events. And since all the A total of 28 new members from all sciences have a practical applications in the sector, we are expecting that across the world joined the Society in amateur astronomers, physicists, chemists and biologists will be well February – 18 from the UK, 4 from Italy, represented, too. In addition, we hope to feature works of art inspired by 2 from the USA, 2 from Germany, 1 from space exploration, and we’re particularly interested in school projects that Ireland, and 1 from Australia. A warm make use of technologies related to the space sector. welcome to you all! For more information on Maker Faire see www.makerfairerome.eu or go to [email protected]. SF Fabrizio Bernardini

48 Vol 61 May 2019 SpaceFlight Present

Original designs by David A. Hardy celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo

LIMITED EDITION £25.00* David A. Hardy Tie Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo Missions £20.00* for BIS members copy Subscriber

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