Spaceflight A British Interplanetary Society Publication Britain’s Shuttle

Spaceplanes for science

Habitats for Orion

Skylark remembered

Vol 58 No 11 November 2016 £4.50

www.bis-space.com

contents

Editor: Published by the British Interplanetary Society David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub-editor: Volume 58 No. 11 November 2016 Ann Page Production Assistant: Ben Jones 412-415 Give me SPACE! Spaceflight Promotion: Gerard van de Haar reviews the candidate concepts for NASA’s Gillian Norman NextStep-2 technology competition embracing potential habitation Spaceflight modules for supporting deep-space exploration. He also explains how Arthur C. Clarke House, NASA is already conducting tests with simulated isolation experiments 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, England. using volunteers. Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 416-417 Skylark at Heritage Museum Fax: +44 (0)20 7582 7167 Email: [email protected] Robin Brand describes a visit to the new museum heralding the www.bis-space.com aerospace achievements of Bristol’s associated industry and explains how the Skylark rocket will be a prominent feature of the displays. ADVERTISING Tel: +44 (0)1424 883401 Email: [email protected] 418-423 Britain’s Space Shuttle DISTRIBUTION Dan Sharp previews publication of his book on British attempts to Spaceflight may be received worldwide by build a reusable shuttlecraft with an overview of an impressive and mail through membership of the British little-known project which failed on the altar of political indecision and Interplanetary Society. Details including Library vacillation, leaving the Americans, impressed with the British work, to subscriptions are available from the above address. pick up the challenge. * * * 424-428 Science by spaceplane Spaceflight is obtainable from UK newsagents Vladmir Pletser of the Suborbital Research Association is pushing hard and other retail outlets in many countries. to get space tourism married to real scientific research and to guide the In the event of difficulty contact: Warners Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, use of suborbital flying machines into the hands of investigators and Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England. experimenters seeking a middle road between sounding rockets and Tel: +44 (0)1778 391 000 satellites. Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 * * * Spaceflight is a publication which promotes the mission of The British Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the Regular Features contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or the Council of the British 404-407 News Analysis – Failure or flaw? – New Glenn from Blue Origin Interplanetary Society. * * * 408 Briefing notes – news shorts from around the world Back issues of Spaceflight are available from the Society. For details of issues and prices go to www.bis-space.com or send an sae to the 409-411 ISS Report – 16 August-15 September 2016 address at top. * * * 430-431 Satellite Digest – 526 August 2016 Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. 432-434 Flashback – A regular feature looking back 50 years ago this month Registered Charity No: 250556. Printed in the UK by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd. 436-437 Society News – BIS-Italia at star party * * * Copyright © British Interplanetary Society 2016 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. 398 What’s On No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo- copying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission NOTICE TO JBIS READERS from the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. A small number of copies of the previous issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary * * * Society (JBIS) (February/March 2016) were misprinted and mailed to members. If your The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. copy of JBIS was incomplete, or incorrectly paginated, please email the Editor - jbis@ bis-space.com and the BIS will post a new copy to you. Mission The British Interplanetary Society promotes the exploration and use of space for the benefit of humanity, by connecting people to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in Cover image: A dramatic interpretation of NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft arriving at Bennu in August all aspects of astronautics. 2018 where it will remain for two years seven months before returning to Earth in 2023. NASA

Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 403 news analysis Failure or flaw?

SpaceX plans to fly its Falcon Heavy before the end of this year but it must sort out its liabilities for pad damage first, caused by the loss of a Falcon 9 on 1 September. SpaceX

Falcon 9 rocket being prepared and the Federal Aviation Administration’s and grow. The US Department of Defense, for the launch of Amos-6, a 5.3 accident branch in helping with that activity. He which buys launches on Delta and Atlas tonne communication satellite, was got that. He has also appealed to the general rockets for military payloads, asserts that while Adestroyed along with its payload during the public for any photographs which could add their provider, United Launch Alliance, does morning of 1 September shortly before a clarity to the confusion as to the source – or nothing wrong, illegal or evasive, the price for scheduled hot fire test of the first stage. What cause – of the destructive fast burn which heavy-lift these days is astronomical to where are we to make of this? consumed the rocket and its payload. it should be in a commercial world filled with Quite a lot, some of which lays serious But that’s the rub; the payload should not competitors. questions at the door of SpaceX and its have been on the rocket for its engine test. And That competition itself is vital for a healthy management philosophy. Most of those the reason why it was attached is also linked to industry is acknowledged by traditional questions appear not to have been addressed the SpaceX philosophy of continuous iteration, mainstream players, a philosophy supported by pundits and analysts, who to date have in the design modifications and “improvements” by the customer wherever possible. Which concentrated solely on the impact this will have made in every evolutionary step of the is why the promise of SpaceX and others in on the company’s ambitious launch schedule. programme. Musk is keen to emphasise his the commercial launcher market is crucial to And on its determination to fly as frequently as approach through a set of rolling changes in realising the possibility, lauded for several possible driven by commercial considerations, both technology and test and flight preparation. decades, that truly global space development while ignoring the consequences of risk. This philosophy runs counter to the rocket requires very low cost rockets which are safe After several weeks analysing the accident engineers’ mantra for test, re-test and test and reliable. a forensic examination of the physical, visual again before flight and then consistency in This is the third failure of a Falcon 9 in 29 and telemetered data is making only slow hardware design, manufacture, checkout events. Not bad for a start-up, now showing progress toward determining the cause and and flight, building an actuarial spread which a 90% success rate which is commendable finding a solution. Telemetered data amounts assembles a log of reliability and predictability. for a new launch vehicle of radical design. It to some 3,000 channels with specific attention No changes except to improve reliability. usually takes 30 or 50 flights to bed down a going to a critical band of 35-55 milliseconds But how does that fit with the New Space new system, one which relies on consistency when the train of events began. philosophy of confident entrepreneurs risking in design and engineering for its success, not The event itself was preceded by a dull all? Probably to the unsavoury conclusion that one in which small, if subtle, changes are being “crump” sound followed three seconds later by failed risks are now being paid for through the made to the technology on a consistent basis, a major fast-burn prior to a series of explosions chequebooks of customers and users, returning flight by flight. and the collapse of the two stages. The payload to compromise the bold pioneering efforts of Traditionally, consistency in rocket and shroud and contents remained attached to individual operators. Yet entrepreneurs such launcher design is needed in the repeated the service mast for about 10 seconds before as Elon Musk are important for the space success of a standardised system which relies crashing nose down to the ground. programme as a whole. on performance to attract customers; but It is a particularly tricky investigation and consistency in expecting successive changes SpaceX founder Elon Musk has openly Imperatives and modifications is not desirable. To achieve admitted that he would like the help of NASA It is vital that companies such as SpaceX thrive the reliability which customers seek operators

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must develop systems which are sufficiently mission, delivering the first commercial cargo few days in the schedule. robust to limit the damage caused by failure. to the International Space Station (ISS), was a Spacecom had insured Amos-6 in the No engineer can afford to assume that failure success. Marine cargo market for launch-plus-one will not occur and any new system – be it a Evaluating and calculating insurance year, only going on risk at the point of ignition spacecraft or a rocket – must have designed premiums is a dark art and this did little to for launch, not ignition for test. In either case, in to its systems engineering protocols a penalise SpaceX in the marketplace, largely no ignition took place so that is irrelevant. It fault mitigation capability to reduce as far as because the primary mission was saved by was not covered. Although the insurance was technically possible the impact of a malfunction the flexibility of the Falcon 9 system following valued at $285 million, the satellite itself was during operation. Be that in a ground test or in a failed first-stage engine. The market liked insured as a piece of hardware for about $255 flight. It is what good design engineers do. that. Adaptability and in-flight recovery from a million. But there is another type of failure reduction potential failure is good fault mitigation. Because the satellite was on the rocket at planning, one which the commercial operator The only other failure in the 28 Falcon the time, SpaceX was legally responsible. has to adopt outside the remit of the systems 9 flights to date occurred on 28 June 2015 Instead of a liability for $50 million over a lost manager or the technical team controlling when the vehicle exploded in flight, destroying launch which would have been the case had operations: procedural conditions which, if the CRS-7 logistical Dragon payload on its the satellite been away from the rocket, they failure occurs, will limit the impact that such an way up to the ISS. The first flight for a non- incurred a total liability of $305 million on the occurrence has on the commercial success of US government customer had been the sixth loss of both launcher and payload. So is this all the rocket or the spacecraft. And this is where launch, the first flight of the Falcon V1.1, down to SpaceX? Or will somebody else stump SpaceX failed. Why? on 29 September 2013. It was carrying the up the cash to save the launch company from Because it failed the frequently ignored, but CASSIOPE polar science survey satellite an embarrassingly high bill? And what about vitally important, security of funding for the for the Canadian Space Agency. Since then, damage to the launch pad – LC-40? service provider’s user community, the money 12 Falcon flights have carried commercial The matter is complex. When Orbital ATK to procure the payload and the insurance payloads with a further nine delivering Dragon lost their Antares rocket in an explosion just required to protect the finance and the user’s capsules to the ISS. three seconds after lift-off from its Wallops business plan. In this case, SpaceX is the Which brings us back to Amos-6 and why it Island, Virginia, launch pad on 28 October service provider and the user is Spacecom, was where it should never have been: on the 2015 nobody wanted to admit liability for the the latter also responsible to its tenant – in this top of a Falcon 9 rocket for the hot-fire test. damage to the spaceport. NASA had insurance case Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg – for its in place but not the cover they thought they own service plan to dedicated customers. Consequences had. It provided recompense for incidents In preparation for these flights SpaceX usually involving aircraft but not spacecraft so there Repercussions fires the first stage on the pad to qualify the was no payout. Owned by the telecommunications company engine cluster before installing the payload. In While NASA owned the facility it leased out Spacecom, Amos-6 was to have provided this case, in an attempt to cut time and speed the pad to the Virginia Commercial Spaceflight telephone, video and broadband services to up the process, they decided to conduct a Authority who were unable to come up with the the Middle East, Europe and areas across sub- full-up test with the vehicle on the pad only cash. It got the attention of the NASA inspector Saharan Africa. The company was in detailed days before the scheduled flight. For some general who had to intervene when NASA itself discussions with the Xinwei Group based in engineers this is not the wisest thing to do; for was lobbied by local Congressmen to find the Beijing, China, and were negotiating a buyout others it is plain foolish – risking all for saving a money. Which it had to as the situation became for $285 million. That deal was contingent upon successful operation of Amos-6. Reusability is claimed as a key element in SpaceX driving down launch prices but if lack of reliability boosts insurance premiums costs will soar. Here a Falcon 9 first stage is brought back to Port After the failure, Spacecom reacted fast Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX to allay concerns and to reassure interested parties that it had started discussions about procuring a replacement and either receiving $50 million from SpaceX to fly it on another rocket or get another flight on Falcon free of charge. But just what are the costs involved? As said, the launch cost paid by Spacecom was around $50 million while the cost of the satellite was about $255 million. SpaceX protected its value in the marketplace by a succession of successful commercial flights which brought the insurance premium down to around that of other launch providers which have a higher success rate. In fairness, SpaceX has not had a single failure with a major commercial launch so its equivalence criteria substantiates that lower premium level, despite the loss of Orbcomm- OG2 when it was delivered to the wrong orbit in October 2012. But the primary objective of that

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premiums in the short term and there is still the lurking spectre of potential loss claims from Spacecom business and from Mark Zuckerberg for switching his planned satellite- based broadband service to one of his other platforms. All that costs money and these are businesses unlikely to accept an altruistic solution. If, as had been the case with the first SpaceX accident just over a year ago, it is found that failure of a structural member in the Falcon rocket was to blame, was it the result of too many of what Elon Musk boasts are “continuous iterations”? And will SpaceX return to the safer method of testing the rocket without a vulnerable payload installed? It needs Elon Musk is driving hard on plans to put Dragon derivatives on Mars but is this too much too soon and to look at both with recognition that some is the market place for commercial flights suffering? SpaceX ditched procedures weaned on experience from 50 years of building rockets for space are a matter of national priority due to the critical satellite. One more for the lawyers! unavoidable. need to supply the ISS. Over the last 24 months the two competing Meanwhile, with a faltering gaze at the SpaceX could argue that case for itself, contenders for commercial work have suffered lengthening line of waiting SpaceX customers although here it does have another launch pad, three catastrophic losses: Orbital ATK in 2014 Arianespace has made it known that it LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, to which and SpaceX in 2015 and 2016. So far, two of could squeeze in another flight this year to it wanted to assign the big Falcon heavy. That those have involved a government customer accommodate frustrated operators. And the pad, it is believed, could be ready be November who has remained loyal. Immediate reactions string of failures involving SpaceX and Orbital for either its intended launcher or the Falcon 9 from the commercial customer base is to ATK is already exciting the plans of other V1.1. ISS delivery flights could fly from there so stick with SpaceX and see their expectations launcher entrepreneurs such as Blue Origin, the impact on the ability to re-supply the station realised, that the provider will come back from which lost out when competing for NASA is not a very significant issue. this and restore faith through consistent and contracts to lift cargo to the ISS. positive performance building that sometimes Jeff Bezos is eager to press ahead with a Paying the price elusive string of successful flights to once new class of launchers to match and eclipse As it stands right now, SpaceX is responsible again lower insurance premiums. SpaceX, plans which have been in the for restoring LC-40 to an operating condition, That is a vitally important matter, because the running for some time but which now may for replacing the Falcon 9 rocket and somehow attractiveness of a launch operator is based in see investors favouring the outsider (see the compensating Spacecom for Amos-6. In no small part on the record of reliability which following story). addition, it will have to absorb the manufacturing influences the insurance premium the customer Bezos is not known for his vaudeville costs of two rockets without compensation and must pay to get the satellite in orbit. Which approach and boasting of extravagant lose the revenue from one launch. In all, with means that the launch company damages its possibilities, as are Richard Branson with the amount directly lost from the 1 September own position in the market should those rates SpaceShipTwo and Elon Musk with his accident, a total of perhaps $400 million, or rise. The real attraction in a selecting a launch missions to Mars. But something he did say thereabouts. And Spacecom, which suffered a provider is not cost of flight alone, but also the after the accident rings true: “In the long run, fall in their share price as a result, have already premium the marketplace demands for flying deliberate and methodical wins the day, and said they may pursue an extra $205 million on a particular rocket. you do things quickest by never skipping from Israel Aerospace Industries who built the But SpaceX is likely to suffer from increased steps.” New Glenn from Blue Origin lue Origin likes to boast that its mascot The technology from Blue Origin’s New to space and back. His ultimate aim: colonies is the tortoise and one gets painted on Shepard ballistic reusable rocket has been in space for off-planet habitation, research and one of their vehicles after each flight. incorporated in these new designs, named exploration. BThe company motto is “Gradatim Ferociter” after the first American to orbit the Earth, John Bezos made his money as founder of – step by step ferociously! It is something H Glenn. Amazon and through other business interests that its boss Jeff Bezos, secretive, quiet and Blue Origin has been around for 16 years which have allowed him to put in excess of somewhat elusive, has honed to perfection. and its founder has been working quietly to $300 million into Blue Origin, a company Now, Blue Origin have unveiled their plan build a technology programme around his which now employs in excess of 400 people. for New Glenn, a powerful rocket capable of vision of vertical take-off/vertical landing With headquarters in Kent, Washington, supporting ambitious missions to low Earth reusable launchers and reliable spacecraft the company is slowly expanding, taking up orbit and beyond in two basic configurations. capable of sending tourists and adventurers additional office space together with leasing

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Blue Origin plan a new generation of launchers which could be attractive to government customers. New Glenn would provide an intermediate lift capacity between current heavies and Saturn V-class rockets. Blue Origin

Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Compared to existing launchers New Glenn when it comes to supplementing the SLS for Force Station Florida. Its suborbital launch is a major leap from its competitors. Ariane 5 less powerful work, for which he may be well facility is on land near Van Horn, West Texas. produces a lift-off thrust of 13,120 kN, Delta IV positioned. While Elon Musk is going for day- New Shepard has demonstrated that Heavy a thrust of about 9,400 kN, and Atlas to-day commercial launch contracts going Bezos has the right technology to start that 5 about 3,800 kN. SpaceX’s Falcon heavy against operators such as Arianespace, Bezos journey and he has gained credibility through boasts a lift-off thrust of 22,800 kN. All dwarfed is placing his New Glenn variants solidly in a development of the BE-3 rocket motor and by by the Saturn V which had a thrust of 33,800 cost/kg slot which no other provider can fill. the BE-4 which will provide Blue Origin with the kN. No-one is yet proposing a lower cost version of propulsion system it needs to get rockets into Since 29 April 2015 New Shepard has made the SLS, yet! But if Falcon Heavy proves to be orbit. But Jeff Bezos was never satisfied to limit five suborbital flights of which all but the first the rocket Musk says it is, delivering reliability his horizon to space tourism and suborbital were successfully returned to a controlled and low cost, he could have a truly awesome hops. He now wants to grow it big. vertical landing, the last three being re-flights competitor. New Glenn will be powered by seven BE-4 with the same booster. The most recent flight Bezos clearly has his eye on the future rocket motors operating on liquid natural gas was on 19 June this year and Jeff Bezos is and his BE-4 is the rocket motor of choice and liquid oxygen producing a first stage committed to taking fee-paying passengers for ULA’s Vulcan launch vehicle destined to thrust of 16,902.4 kN and a second stage with to just beyond the Karman line, at 100 km the replace Atlas 5 and Delta IV. This is good, a single BE-4 with a thrust of 2,500 kN. The arbitrary altitude where space is considered to providing an established launch provider with two stage version would support payloads begin. Like SpaceX, Blue Origin is committed a production engine which Blue Origin may for low Earth orbit and stand 82.3 m tall. The to reusable rocket stages and has based the itself utilise to challenge the customer for the third stage employs a single modified BE-3 New Glenn launcher on that principle. engine itself. engine producing a thrust of 490 N from liquid Bezos says New Glenn will be flying before Operator and owner United Launch Alliance hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, raising the end of the decade and his previous believes that with Vulcan it can halve the total vehicle height to 95.4 m. Both have a first projections have not been far from the mark. current price of $164 million for an Atlas launch stage diameter of 7 m. The sheer scale of this programme has taken and it needs to do that if it is to match SpaceX New Glenn is a big step up from New several analysts by surprise, not least NASA, and its Falcon heavy. But Jeff Bezos may be Shepard (named after Alan Shepard, America’s currently developing its Space Launch System hard on the heels of ULA, and SpaceX, with his first astronaut to reach space), but then if you which boasts a lift-off thrust of 39,142 kN, hard-driving mantra of Gradatim Ferociter. The had the foresight to be one of the first investors almost 16% more powerful than the Saturn V. real component of this dream ticket is reliability of Google and own the Washington Post you Bezos has his eye on big lifting capacity, and consistency which could yet win the day are accorded the credibility to do that. solid reliability and a capacity to take on NASA over SpaceX.

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Bennu at a speed of 0.32 km/sec to deliver Briefing notes its sample back at Earth on 24 September • The OSIRIS-Rex mission got off to a good 2023, entering the atmosphere at 12.4 km/ start with launch from Cape Canaveral sec for touchdown in the Utah desert. at 7.05 pm EDT on 8 September at the beginning of a window lasting 1 hr 55 min. • Sponsored by Sen Ted Cruz, the NASA The period of opportunity was 34 days with Transition Authorization Act of 2016 has a characteristic velocity of 29.3 km²/s² for a approved a fiscal year 2017 budget of $19.5 launcher capability of 1,955 kg. Carried aloft billion, $200 million more than requested for by the rarely used Atlas V-411 configuration, exploration activity. But there is language the rocket had a single strap-on booster calling for further analysis of alternatives and a single RL-10 in the Centaur upper to the Asteroid Retrieval Mission for stage. The spacecraft crossed the orbital early deep-space exploration flights with path of the Moon 18.5 hrs after launch SLS/Orion. The Team also required NASA as it transitioned from the launch to the to examine termination strategies for the cruise phase. The first star tracker image International Space Station and to come was taken on 12 September and science up with concepts for commercially run instruments were checked out two weeks operations in low Earth orbit after the ISS Ukraine’s Cyclone 4, which may launch from later. OSIRIS-Rex will conduct a gravity- is de-orbited. But it also asks NASA to Canada. Yuzhnoye assist fly-by of Earth on 23 September provide a cost-benefit analysis of keeping on the North American continent for its 2017, reaching the asteroid Bennu on 17 it operational until 2028. Cyclone 4 rocket and is looking for $155 August 2018, slowing down by 0.53 km/sec million. With a capacity to deliver 3,700 kg to achieve an approach velocity of 20 cm/ • NASA’s Space Launch System has to Sun-synchronous orbit at a cost of $45 sec to enter orbit. Beginning in October that been redefined as contributing not only million the launcher is a developed version year, a preliminary survey will search for to bolstering US leadership in civilian of Cyclone 3 with a more powerful and plumes, any natural satellites and measure space activities. It is now defined as a vital restartable upper stage. Plans to launch the Yarkovsky effect (whereby a body national security asset and is attracting Cyclone from a site in Brazil floundered absorbs energy from the Sun and radiates significant unsolicited increases in funding. on the back of that country’s worsening it back out creating an acceleration). Orbital Against a government request for $1.78 economy and Yuzhnoye is now looking for A will transition from star-based navigation billion for fiscal year 2016, Congress a new location, possibly in Canada. to landmark-based navigation using surface allocated $2.4 billion, a 35% increase to images, followed by a Detailed Survey ensure a first flight with Block I in 2018 • Polls suggest support for NASA is high as period to map the asteroid and obtain bulk and the first human space flight mission America approaches the big decision day data. Orbital B will map at highest resolution in 2021. More in an upcoming issue of on who will be the next President of the to determine a suitable “landing” spot. Spaceflight. United States. Whoever gets to the White Surface sampling is expected to begin on 4 House in January will inherit a strong set July 2020 after a touch and go at 10 cm/sec. • Got any spare cash? Ukraine’s Yuzhnoye of recommendations from Congressional On 3 March 2021 OSIRIS-Rex will leave Design Bureau plans to build a launch site space committees to maintain momentum OSIRIS-Rex in the Lockheed Martin clean room at Denver, Colorado. Lockheed Martin and not get bogged down in re-inventing the future by tearing up the plans of the outgoing administration. Lessons learned from the debacle created when President Obama cancelled the Constellation programme and all but abandoned NASA- led human space flight programmes may ensure a smoother ride this time around. A lot hinges on the result of the election in November where all 435 member seats in the House of Representatives and one- third of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs.

• Final approval has been given for the launch of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars in a window opening on 5 May 2018 for a landing on 26 November that year. Originally planned for launch this year there were difficulties with providing an effective seal on a seismic detection instrument provided by France. JPL is helping with redesign and test.

408 Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 space stations ISS Report 16 August – 15 September 2016

By George Spiteri

Expedition 48 came to an end in the early dawn hours of 7 September when Jeff Williams, Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-20M/46S. NASA

Expedition 49 is underway following the safe return to Earth of Jeff issued the command to close all twelve hooks, Williams, Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin. The ISS is under permanently affixing IDA-2 to PMA-2 at 14:40 temporary three person operations, commanded by Anatoly Ivanishin UTC. with flight engineers Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi. IDA-2 is the first of two docking ports which will allow future US commercial spacecraft n 16 August Williams and Rubins the International Docking Adapter-2 (IDA- such as SpaceX’s crewed Dragon and Boeing’s devoted three final days preparing for 2) from Dragon’s unpressurised trunk and Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) their EVA. Rubins also researched the manoeuvred it to a point one metre away from Starliner to dock at the ISS. Ophysics of tiny particles suspended in water its installation position ahead of the EVA. The astronauts also removed a thermal under NASA’s Advanced Colloids Experiment- Onishi conducted routine maintenance cover from IDA-2 and installed two new Temperature control-1 (ACE-T-1) study and to the Mouse Habitat on 18 August, whilst reflectors. The reflectors function like rear view Onishi observed altered gene expression Ivanishin did further work with the Kulonovskiy mirrors and will assist vehicles when arriving at and DNA changes in mice and their offspring Kristall study and researched how the heart their new spot on the Station. living in space for JAXA’s Mouse Epigenetics beats in space under the Russian Cardiovector Williams found time to wish NASA experiment, whilst his Russian colleagues experiment. Ovchinin explored ways of Administrator Charlie Bolden happy 70th studied how microgravity impacts fluid shifts detecting micrometeroid impacts on the birthday during the EVA adding that it had from the lower to the upper body. station’s exterior for the Otklik study and joined “been an honour to work with him”. Aside from their spacewalk preparations, Skripochka for the Russian Fagen experiment Several “get ahead” tasks were cancelled Williams and Rubins packed items including which studies after Williams research samples into Dragon on 17 August. how galactic and ‘Rubins described the view over reported degraded Williams also removed and replaced a solar radiation the south eastern Pacific Ocean communications hydrogen sensor to the Oxygen Generation genetically affects as “phenomenal”…’ following a problem Assembly (OGA), whilst Onishi downloaded viruses that infect bacteria. with the right ear piece of his communication data from the Fluid Shifts study. Ivanishin cap and the EVA was terminated after 5 hrs 58 worked with the Russian Kulonovskiy Kristall US EVA-36 min at 18:02 UTC. physics experiment, Skripochka gathered Williams and Rubins left the Quest airlock at surface samples from inside the Station’s 12:04 UTC on 19 August to begin the 36th US Outage Russian segment and Ovchinin performed an ISS EVA. Rubins described the view over the NASA denied a report from RIA Novosti on 19 experiment which examines blood circulation south eastern Pacific Ocean as “phenomenal” August that a fire alarm was triggered by smoke in the lower body. as she began her first spacewalk. Together coming from one of the Merlin freezers in the In the early hours of 18 August ground with ground controllers, the astronauts US segment. However in an unrelated event, controllers used the 17.6 m Canadarm2 with successfully installed IDA-2 to Pressurised the European Columbus module experienced the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator Mating Adapter-2 (PMA-2) in front of the a power anomaly the same day when Power (SPDM) or “Dextre” attached to it and removed Harmony module. Inside the station, Onishi Distribution Unit-1 (PDU-1) lost power.

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NASA reported that all systems were record of time in space having logged 520 Williams and Rubins performed procedural automatically safed and downstream loads days 10 hr 30 min on his four missions. Kelly reviews on 29 August for their next EVA, were subsequently repowered with the congratulated Williams from Mission Control in whilst the commander and his crewmates also exception of the RapidScat scatterometer, Houston adding that “it’s great to see another worked with JAXA’s Multi-Omics experiment, which measures surface wind speeds and record broken, especially by a sardine”, a taking body samples and storing them in the directions over the ocean. RapidScat can stay reference to Kelly and Williams both belonging Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer deactivated indefinitely without any impact on to the NASA astronaut class of 1996. for ISS (MELFI). Skripochka and Ovchinin the hardware and a response team was formed Having closed the hatches to Dragon on checked out their Russian Sokol launch and to investigate the issue. The instrument’s 25 August, ground controllers unlatched the entry suits in preparation for departure from heaters which are designed to keep RapidScat vehicle from Harmony at 20:57 UTC and, the ISS, whilst Ivanishin conducted routine within allowable temperatures remained on as packed with over 1,360 kg of scientific research maintenance inside the Russian segment and they are powered from a different source within equipment and hardware, it was released by Onishi worked with ESA’s Circadian Rhythms Columbus. Canadarm2 the following day at 10:11 UTC experiment, which examines the sleep cycle of The following day the crew recharged their 404 km over the Timor Sea, north of Australia. crewmembers during long duration missions. EMU suit batteries and conducted a debriefing Dragon splashed down 525 km south west On 30 August, Williams and Rubins session with ground controllers after their EVA of Baja, California conducted two and enjoyed two light-duty days 21/22 August at 15:47 UTC ‘…cameras captured spectacular further days of conducting housekeeping chores, talking to (08:47 local time). footage of three tropical storms EVA preparations. family and friends plus planning for the week SpaceX personnel churning across the Pacific and Skripochka and ahead. returned Dragon Atlantic Oceans.’ Ovchinin collected On 23 August the crew resumed loading to Long Beach, California where some blood and saliva samples for two Russian Dragon with final items prior to its departure cargo, including the Heart Cells and Mouse biological studies. The pair also performed from the complex and did further research Epigenetics experiments, were removed and a simulated Soyuz descent drill, whilst the with the Fine Motor Skills experiment, which returned to NASA and JAXA researchers external cameras captured spectacular footage according to its Principal Investigator Dr. Kritina respectively. This marked the completion of of three tropical storms churning across the Holden involves a series of tasks that “include SpaceX’s ninth contracted cargo resupply Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. things like pointing to a target, dragging to a mission to the ISS. Skripochka and Ovchinin packed their Soyuz target, shape tracing” using a touchscreen The weekend of 27/28 August were light- vehicle with returning items the following day, tablet. duty days for the crew. Before that, Rubins whilst Ivanishin conducted maintenance and Progress MS-02/63P fired its engines for 12 had conducted the first successful trial run of worked together with Ovchinin on the Russian min 8.6 sec at 07:30 UTC on 24 August to raise NASA’s Biomolecule Sequencer experiment to Korrektsiya and Neiroimmunitet biomedical the orbit by 2.3 km and place the complex in a prove DNA can be sequenced in a microgravity experiments for a second day. 403.79 km x 420.1 km orbit to accommodate environment. Researchers hope that a space the next Soyuz departure and arrival. based DNA sequencer will be able to identify Another step microbes, diagnose diseases, understand Williams and Rubins left Quest for another EVA Record breaker crewmembers’ health and potentially help at 11:53 UTC on 1 September, successfully Just before 09:00 UTC on 24 August, Jeff detect DNA based life elsewhere in the solar retracting the Trailing Thermal Control Radiator Williams surpassed Scott Kelly’s US cumulative system. (TTCR) attached to the P6 solar array. Flight Director Zeb Scoville said before the spacewalk Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams outfit spacesuits inside the Quest airlock in preparation for a spacewalk that this was necessitated as the TTCR was on 19 August to install the first international docking adapter, the new port that will enable the future “exposed to the external environment and arrival of US commercial crew spacecraft. NASA susceptible to any orbital debris or damage that may come its way”. Two high definition cameras were also installed on the truss and Rubins tightened bolts on the massive port side Solar Array Rotary Joint (SARJ) after sensors detected slight vibrations near the mechanism. Williams and Rubins returned to Quest after 6 hr 48 min at 18:41 UTC to complete the 195th EVA dedicated to ISS assembly and maintenance totalling 50 days 17 hrs 34 mins. On 2 September, Williams and Rubins stowed their EVA tools, recharged the EMU batteries, tidied up the Quest airlock and conducted a debriefing with ground controllers. Skripochka and Ovchinin went through Soyuz descent training and all six crewmembers enjoyed another light-duty weekend. Rubins entered the Bigelow expandable module (BEAM) on 5 September to collect

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Jeff Williams (right) and Kate Rubins conducted a spacewalk on 1 September, successfully retracted a thermal radiator, installed two enhanced high definition cameras on the truss and tightened bolts on a joint that enables one of the station’s solar arrays to rotate. NASA air and surface samples, inspected BEAM’s All three crewmembers took part in an cells from the MELFI then initiated a 48 hr walls, found no moisture and replaced all of emergency departure drill the following day, sequencing run, the fourth such session the sensor battery packs. This marked the conducted maintenance and repairs to two of aboard the complex. The crew also conducted first time since June that crewmembers had the exercise gear and relocated EXPRESS maintenance to the Waste and Hygiene entered the habitat (Spaceflight Vol 58, No 8 p racks 7 and 8 to accommodate NASA’s Phase Compartment (WHC), replacing a Dose Pump 290). Change Heat Exchanger Project (Phase which NASA said was “reaching the end of its On 6 September, Williams relinquished Change HX). Delivered by the latest Dragon, it nominal six month life”. command of the ISS to Ivanishin. The hatches has the capability where test articles requiring Ivanishin began 14 September with a between Soyuz TMA-20M/46S and the station sub-zero temperatures can be tested on the Russian experiment which studies how crew were closed later that day at 18:42 UTC and ISS. activities affect the station’s structure and with Ovchinin in command, together with Progress 63’s thrusters were fired again for explored how the circulatory system adapts Williams and Skripochka undocked Soyuz to microgravity. Onishi set up JAXA’s Try ‘…sensors from Poisk at 21:51 UTC as the complex flew detected slight Zero-G for Asia experiment which attempts to 415 km over eastern Mongolia to signal the vibrations near the mechanism.’ demonstrate how space affects the flight of start of Expedition 49. nearly 10 mins at 00:45 UTC on 10 September a paper plane, a spinning ball and buoyancy Soyuz landed 148 km south east of the to raise the Station’s orbit by 2.2 km to a new amongst other phenomena. The results were remote town of Dzhezkazgan at 01:13 UTC altitude of 405.6 km in readiness for the next videotaped for sharing with Asian audiences to (07:13 local time) on 7 September to complete Soyuz and Progress arrivals. promote the understanding of spaceflight. a mission of 172 days 3 hr 47 min with Williams The crew enjoyed another light-duty Rubins took time out from her work to having accumulated 534 days 2 hr 48 min in weekend 10/11 September. Rubins conducted speak to students from Vintage High School space. maintenance inside Quest on EMU suits 3006 in Napa, California from where she graduated and 3010 the following day, which included a in 1996 and later tweeted that the first pair Then there were three loop scrub and a conductivity test. The crew of eight Planet Lab Dove satellites deployed Rubins conducted more DNA sequencing also performed another session with the Fine from the Station at 15:25 UTC resembled on 8 September and inspected emergency Motor Skills experiment and removed the Heart “skydivers soaring towards the Earth”. The equipment. Onishi cleaned ventilation fans and Cell payload from the Microgravity Science second and third pair were deployed at 23:15 measured the air flow while Ivanishin worked Glovebox (MSG). UTC and 02:35 UTC on 14 and 15 September with the Russian Pilot-T study which explores On 13 September, Rubins conducted further respectively. Delivered by the Cygnus cargo how a crewmember adapts to working research with the Biomolecule Sequencer. vehicle last March all were placed in an orbit of conditions. She removed and thawed samples and flow 400 km to 410 km.

Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 411 exploration Give me SPACE!

By G. van de Haar FBIS

NASA test subjects prepare to enter the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) in January 2016 to simulate a protracted period isolated from contact with other humans. NASA

ith the dawn of the SLS/Orion and January 2016) progress was briefly prototype of XBASE (Expandable Bigelow era (Spaceflight Vol 58, No 3, mentioned. Most noteworthy were the habitat Advanced Station Enhancement), a 330 cubic pages 84-88), in October 2014 study contracts of around $1million each to metre expandable habitat and test platform for WNASA started its big NextSTEP initiative, a companies like Bigelow, Lockheed Martin deep space hardware. The testing conducted public-private partnership model that seeks and Orbital ATK which by now has resulted on this platform will advance approaches for commercial development of deep space in several cislunar habitat concepts. The deep space missions and serve as a basis for exploration capabilities. These are intended to propulsion studies concentrate on innovative commercialization in low-Earth orbit. XBASE is support extensive human space flight missions electric propulsion technology systems in the based on the B330 expandable spacecraft for in the proving ground around the Earth-Moon 50 to 300 kilowatt range to meet the needs of a the mission-specific purpose of attaching to the system and beyond cislunar space – extending variety of deep space mission concepts. International Space Station as a visiting vehicle from the Moon to Mars. In April 2016 NASA released NextSTEP-2 (see Spaceflight Vol 58, No 8, pages 291-292). In a first call in March 2015 NASA selected asking for proposals to partner with NASA XBASE leverages the lessons learned from the concept studies and technology development on the development of critical technologies Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), projects in three key areas: advanced needed for the next steps in deep space a 16 cubic meter expandable spacecraft, which propulsion, habitation, and small satellites. human exploration. On 9 August the six was recently deployed on the space station. NASA picked 12 awardees – seven in selected companies were announced: Bigelow Boeing is developing a modular habitat habitation (four integrated habitation concepts Aerospace of Las Vegas, Nevada; Boeing system based on experience in designing, and three advanced life support systems and of Pasadena, California; Lockheed Martin developing, assembling on-orbit, and safely integrated concepts), three in propulsion, and of Denver, Colorado; Orbital ATK of Dulles, operating the International Space Station for two in small satellites. Virginia; Sierra Nevada of Louisville, Colorado; over 15 years. This includes the production Spaceflight magazine reported on this and NanoRacks of Webster, Texas. of a full-scale habitat that will provide design Phase-1, or NextSTEP-1, call in its July analysis and high-fidelity demonstration and 2015 issue (Vol 57, No 7, page 247) and in Contenders test capability to simulate how humans can recent issues (October and December 2015 Bigelow Aerospace will develop and test a safely live and work in deep space for extended

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periods of time. This ground demonstrator will test and validate interface standards, systems functionality and critical exploration technologies. Lockheed Martin will refurbish a multi- purpose logistics module, like those that were used to carry equipment and supplies to and from the station aboard the Space Shuttle, into a full-scale habitat prototype which will include integrated avionics and ECLSS (Environmental Control & Life Support System). The high-fidelity ECLSS prototype will provide risk reduction and form and fit testing. The avionics prototype will prove data communication between the habitat and Orion and demonstrate crew interfaces between a deep space habitat and Orion. Lockheed Martin will also use virtual prototyping to validate the habitat module’s form, fit and function. Orbital ATK will mature the mission architecture and design of their initial cislunar habitat concept, based on the Cygnus spacecraft that currently services the space station. Orbital ATK will create their prototype to support testing of critical interfaces with Orion and other modules. They will mature the Cygnus-derived habitat design for long- term operation in deep space and establish a proposed roadmap that leads to Mars exploration. Sierra Nevada, Colorado will study and refine a flexible architecture and concept of operations for a deep space habitat that leverages three to four commercial launches to construct a modular long-duration habitat. Their prototype will be based on the Dream Chaser cargo module as a foundation for the SNC NextSTEP-2 proposal and will allow SNC to assess their ability to meet the criteria for each operation phase and identify risks. After launch from the Dream Chaser spacecraft, the SNC NextSTEP-2 module will be combined with a large inflatable fabric environment module, ECLSS system, and propulsion system. The design and prototype will confirm the proof- of-concept and ensure critical subsystems seamlessly integrate together. “This habitat will combine our experience in space The Lockheed Martin cislunar habitat concept, shown here on its way to the Moon with an Orion technologies, satellite systems, propulsion and spacecraft (top) for carrying the crew from and to the surface of the Earth. Lockheed Martin environmental control systems …. as well as our work with the Dream Chaser spacecraft”, commented Mark Sirangelo who is a corporate space. The feasibility study will provide insight NextSTEP-2 each company should finance vice president of SNC. into this innovative and low-cost approach that 30% of its work, so with the allocated NASA- NanoRacks in conjunction with its partners, can be used for any rocket system, including budget of $65 million the total for NextSTEP-2 Space Systems Loral and the United Launch NASA’s Space Launch System. should be around $100 million. Alliance, referred to collectively as the Ixion “NASA is on an ambitious expansion of Team, will conduct a comprehensive feasibility Autonomy human spaceflight, including the Journey to study regarding the conversion of an existing All of these companies will continue their Mars, and we’re utilizing the innovation, skill launch vehicle’s upper stage, or propellant work done under NextSTEP-1 or on other and knowledge of both the government and segment, into a pressurized habitable volume in earlier NASA contracts; in the two years of private sectors”, says Jason Crusan, director

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of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems chemical engines they are much lighter and concepts of deep-space habitats, NextSTEP-2 division, managing the programme at NASA have a significant higher specific impulse and will advance the long duration deep-space headquarters. “We are now adding focus and are ideal for a long space journey. A 13 kW Hall habitation capability concepts and mature the specifics on the deep-space habitats where thruster prototype is currently being tested at design and development of the integrated humans will live and work independently for NASA’s Glenn Center. For food the crew has systems to achieve a high level of fidelity. They months or years at a time, without cargo supply to grow their own crops as much as possible. will achieve that by developing prototype deep- deliveries from Earth.” NASA is using the PPP- And as to safety, this includes aspects like space habitation capability options to test a full- model to avoid the contracted companies just fire hazards, equipment malfunction, medical size ground prototype unit by the end of Phase “carrying out a contract” but also to stimulate capabilities, etc. 2 in 2018 to support first flight opportunities in them to combine their commercial and LEO Designing a deep-space habitat has to early- to mid-2020s. needs with NASA’s stated goals. involve all these elements. As Crusan puts it: These full-scale ground habitats will also The focus in NextSTEP-2 is on the known “Overall, our habitation development challenge provide the ability to conduct human mission but complicated aspects of human space flight is the systems and crew health and combining simulations to test the habitability, mission in deep-space: radiation protection, oxygen, those with the overall habitation capability operations, health and medical aspects, power, safety, nutrition, etc. For radiation itself – the physical structure of where all these logistics and waste management operations, shielding the current plans are to use a things are housed and how their interactions EVA operations, and emergency scenarios sophisticated type of plastic, Kevlar or foam. affect all of these systems”. So these 4-person of long-duration missions; they will become For oxygen at least 75% needs to come from habitats have to be autonomous, as missions the reference habitat architecture based the CO2 scrubbers (instead of the present may last up to three years! on contractor and international concepts in 42% on ISS), and for water that number has to Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate preparation for Phase 3. increase from the 90% on ISS to close to 100% Administrator for Human Exploration stresses For now NASA uses its own Deep-Space on a deep-space mission. that when for the first time “We go to this Earth- Habitat, recently renamed HERA for Human As to power, big solar arrays are needed for independent region, we have to make some Exploration Research Analog. This closed on-board needs with electric or ion engines huge philosophical changes that I don’t think habitat at NASA’s JSC is a 3-story, 150 m³ used for propulsion; while those thrusters we’ve fully addressed.” 4-segment structure where scientist volunteers produce much less power than traditional While NextSTEP-1 delivered drawing board involved with NASA’s exploration activities spend

Sierra Nevada Corporation envisages a complex of modules to supplement the capabilities of the Orion spacecraft. SNC

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Pivotal to long duration flights in deep space will be the ability of teams of four astronauts to live harmoniously and work productively. NASA’s HERA extended flight simulations provide vital data for achieving that. NASA time in isolation for up to 45 days. Since 2014 a number of 4-person crews each simulated a specific mission; the first four crews only spent a week but this was later expanded to 14 days while the most recent crews stay a month inside and on later missions this will be extended to 45 days. Each crew creates their own mission logo and while usually NASA selects a mixed male-female crew, in January 2016 HERA-9 featured an all-woman crew that simulated a 30- day flight to a near-Earth asteroid where they collected makeshift samples.

Right: Crew members (left to right) Emmanuel Urquieta, Daniel Surber, Kyle Foster and Tess Caswell celebrate a successful HERA Mission 11 on 10 August at NASA Johnson Space Center. The instigating Human Research Program required that the test subjects conduct the same experiments as the two previous HERA missions this year. This enables researchers to identify patterns and variances in the research data. Experiments included testing hardware prototypes, creating equipment with a 3-D printer, testing out a new concept for space food, flying a simulated exploration vehicle, and virtually conducting an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on an asteroid. NASA-JSC

Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 415 rockets

Skylark at Heritage Museum

By Robin Brand

The three-stage Skylark 12 from the Bristol Aero Collection Trust (BACT) currently being prepared in the Brabazon hangar at Filton. Robin Brand

fully assembled three-stage Skylark aerospace products over more than 100 years. by Bristol Aerojet (a partnership between BAC 12 sounding rocket and several That includes aircraft and guided weapons, and Aerojet of the US) at Banwell in Somerset, space satellites, all of which Bristol an 1895 tram representing one of the primary and filled with solid propellant at Bridgewater Ahad a hand in making, have been selected business interests of Sir George White when or Westcott. By 1976 the RAE had ceased to for display in a new aerospace museum he founded the British and Colonial Aircraft be involved in Skylark, and BAC had become to be opened in 2017. “Aerospace Bristol” Company in 1910, and a collection showing full design authority and sales agents. will be a major industrial heritage museum how Bristol stepped into the space age in the and learning centre, presenting the stories 1960s. Added asset and achievements of Bristol’s world-class The Skylark 12 version was a purely BAC aerospace industry – past, present and future. Eclectic mix development, and in many ways the ultimate Surely, no better place to feature Britain’s first The exhibits will come from a number of Skylark. It was first launched from Andøya in space rocket. important collections, not least of which is Norway in 1976, to study the Aurora Borealis The Bristol Aero Collection Trust has recently that of the Bristol Aero Collection Trust. Until (Northern Lights). That flight reached a height received the welcome news that HRH The relatively recently this large historic collection of 715 km (twice the altitude of the International Princess Royal has agreed to be its patron. was housed at Kemble airfield near Cirencester Space Station) and it was claimed “[its] unique The museum is currently under construction in Gloucestershire, but in 2012 the objects weight lifting and altitude performance is at Filton Airfield on the northern outskirts of were moved to one of the three bays of the unequalled by any other presently available Bristol. The nine-acre site includes two World iconic Brabazon Hangar at Filton, just south of research rocket”. War I grade-II listed hangars, next to which the new museum site. There, the exhibits are Although the final Skylark 12 flight was from a new multi-million pound building is being being prepared for their new home by a team Esrange in Sweden in 1990, other Skylark erected to house a Concorde aircraft and of around 150 enthusiastic volunteers. Terry configurations continued to fly until 2005, related exhibits. Ransome, BIS member and BACT volunteer, contributing to a grand total of 441 Skylark Concorde 216 (G-BOAF) was the last (and the last person to touch Beagle 2!) launches from six launch sites around the Concorde built, and the last in a long-line of worked on Skylark early in his career, and he world. It is fortunate indeed that the Bristol Bristol designed aircraft to be assembled has been doing an excellent job preparing the Collection has such a fine example of a Skylark and flown at Filton. It returned there on 26 fine Skylark 12 exhibit as illustrated here. 12 to preserve this rich heritage. November 2003, making the final flight by Although the Skylark sounding rocket was In addition to Skylark, the new museum a Concorde. Concorde 216 remains on the originally designed and made by the Royal hopes to include full or scale models of other site of the disused airfield but visitors should Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough examples of Filton’s spacecraft and products. remember that it is not possible to see it and in Hampshire, its early success and popularity These include: Envisat, the world’s largest neither is it on public display. meant that its manufacture soon had to be civilian Earth observation satellite at the The two World War I hangars are the earliest subcontracted to mainstream industry. By time of its launch in 2002; the Hubble Space surviving buildings at Filton. The smaller 1967, BAC’s (British Aircraft Corporation’s) Telescope, launched in 1990 with Filton- hangar will become a restoration workshop for Guided Weapons division at Filton was built solar arrays and the Photon Detector the centre, but the larger hanger will house an making, integrating and testing the payload Assembly imaging system; Giotto, in 1986 the exhibition displaying Filton’s rich heritage of heads. The cylindrical motor cases were made first spacecraft to make close up observations

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The Trust received a welcome boost to its fund raising efforts and to its prestige when HRH The The start of the new building in May 2016 with the clear outline of Concorde’s ogive wing planform Princess Royal agreed to be its Patron. giving scale to the size. BACT Buckingham Palace of a comet (Halley’s Comet); GEOS, two scientific spacecraft launched in 1977 and 1978 to survey particles and wavefields at geostationary altitude; and either Ariel 4 or Prospero, early British scientific and research satellites dating from 1971.

The author is a member of the BACT. The Aerospace Bristol heritage museum is scheduled to open in summer 2017. In the meantime, see the excellent website www. aerospacebristol.org/ or follow progress via www.facebook.com/aerospacebristol/.

Skylark 12 during meticulous preparation for its place in the new aerospace museum. Robin Brand The new building progresses, next to the two heritage hangars. BACT

Robin Brand has produced the definitive history of the Skylark sounding rocket, copies of which are available from: www.ypdbooks.com/46- science-and-technology/.

Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 417 britain’s shuttle Britain’s Space Shuttle

By Dan Sharp

An artist’s impression of the British Aircraft Corporation’s Mustard (Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device) orbiter. Daniel Uhr

uring the early 1960s the two main discussions, the RAE suggested that the Very High-Speed Vehicles. Three months British aircraft manufacturers – the companies ought to carry out design studies after that event, the Cuban Missile Crisis British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker on reconnaissance bombers and transport had demonstrated the importance of good DSiddeley Aviation – each worked on detailed vehicles in the Mach 4-6 speed range, and reconnaissance, particularly in circumstances top secret designs for what might have become parametric studies of vehicles capable of flight where the use of spy planes might prove a British Space Shuttle, a little known period of at Mach 6-12, including the possible use of provocative or problematic. manned spacecraft design in Britain. such an aircraft as satellite launchers. This was the height of the Cold War and there The late 1950s saw both the British and These two aircraft manufacturers each went was growing concern that the Soviets, with the Americans investigating the potential away from the event believing that they were their proven ability to launch satellites, might for very high speed flight within the earth’s likely to receive a Ministry of Aviation contract be developing their own orbital reconnaissance atmosphere. Alloys were developed that could to work on high-speed aircraft designs and just devices or even weapons platforms. The latter, retain their strength at extreme temperatures over a year later, on 10 July 1963, these were which might afford the ability to rain nuclear and innovative new engine types encouraged duly presented. But in the intervening twelve missiles down on Britain without warning or engineers on both sides of the Atlantic to push months the emphasis of the work had changed. the opportunity to respond, was an enormous the boundaries of what aircraft could do. When the contracts arrived, they were to study cause for concern. It was largely assumed that these very high hypersonic vehicles in four categories – long- Not only did the British government believe speed vehicles would be necessary for military range high-speed cruise aircraft, recoverable that it needed its own satellites and a cheap reconnaissance or perhaps as a stepping stone space launchers, boost glide vehicles and reusable way of launching them, it was also to a commercial airliner that could cover great space planes. thought that a manned vehicle for inspecting distances, such as the journey from London to Under those four broad headings, the or even destroying hostile enemy satellites Sydney, very quickly. firms were to look at whether two-stage or might be necessary. The RAE itself formulated The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) single-stage configurations would be best, a basic design for such a vehicle, similar in size at Farnborough, Hampshire, which played a whether rockets and ramjets could be used and shape to the American X-20 Dyna-Soar, pivotal role in driving forward technological effectively as “boosters” and “sustainers” and and presented this to both Hawker Siddeley innovation in British aircraft manufacturing, what different fuels might be used, particularly and BAC in November 1963 as a design they gathered together many of the industry’s top hydrogen and kerosene. might like to consider. engineers at a Symposium on Very High Speed Cost and timescale were to be commented At BAC, the contract work had been handed Vehicles at Farnborough Technical College on on and suggestions for further avenues of to the English Electric Aviation team at Warton 5 July 1962, to discuss future developments research were invited. near Preston in Lancashire – the same team along these lines. responsible for designing both the Lightning Among the delegates were representatives Urgency supersonic fighter and the TSR.2 supersonic of both the recently-formed British Aircraft It was evident that the task of putting payloads strike and reconnaissance aircraft. Corporation (BAC) and its arch-rival Hawker into space, particularly satellites, had assumed The firm, which had been one of the two Siddeley Aviation. During two days of more importance since the Symposium on senior partners at BAC’s formation in 1960

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One programme, Aerospaceplane (ASP), was intended to produce an aircraft that could fly right up into space after a conventional take-off and then return. Designs for this requirement were usually intended to use supersonic combustion ramjets (scramjets) or liquid air cycle engines, where air was scooped up, liquefied and burned as fuel. Other designs, such as the massive Douglas Rombus or the even more massive General Dynamics Nexus, would use enormous rocket thrust to propel very large payloads, up to 900 tons in one go in the case of the latter, into orbit. These designs were far beyond British requirements and certainly beyond Britain’s budget. However, there was one American design which drew the attention of Smith and Creasey – another Douglas design for which the company itself seemed to have little regard: Astro.

Work on British manned spacecraft at BAC began with large booster aircraft carrying smaller manned This involved a small manned spacecraft spacecraft on their backs. This mid-1960s concept drawing shows a spacecraft launching from its carrier sitting on the nose of a large reusable booster. fitted with an expendable rocket pack. BAE Systems The two-vehicle combination would launch vertically using liquid oxygen and liquid alongside the Bristol Aeroplane Company director of engineering Ray Creasey, who had hydrogen-fuelled rocket engines before the and Vickers, was in the process of becoming been part of bouncing bomb inventor Barnes piloted booster detached and either glided or its Preston Division but it still very much Wallis’ team during the Second World War, and manoeuvred back to earth. retained its own dynamic and forward-thinking who designed the Lightning’s innovative wings, Neither booster nor spacecraft was character. Having previously worked on high- determined that a new approach was needed. especially large or overly ambitious in speed aircraft projects such as the Mach 3 P.10 He therefore directed the P.42 project team, design, the use of existing technology being bomber and P.30 pre-Concorde supersonic headed by gifted aerodynamicist Tom Smith, cited by Douglas as one of the system’s key airliner, the Warton team called the project P.42 to begin a comprehensive review of American advantages. It did have some serious problems and started by designing a series of relatively space projects. however – the structure required to balance small Mach 5 research aircraft. one fuel-filled vehicle on top of the other was They progressed on to drawing up a wide Success in stages substantial, there was a real danger from wind- range of boosters – large aircraft that could By this time, the American aircraft companies shear during take-off and the booster would carry a small manned spacecraft on their back had spent several years and millions of dollars have been unable to fly back to its original or attached to their underside and launch it at on advanced spacecraft design concepts – base under its own steam. high altitude. The spacecraft, fitted with a large most of which relied on technology beyond the In addition, Astro required the detailed expendable rocket pack, could then fire up its state of the art at the time but which seemed design and construction of two different engines and begin the final stage of its journey as though it would soon become a practical manned vehicles, which would dramatically into orbit. proposition. increase the cost of the project and the time These boosters, designed to take off from an ordinary airfield in Britain and return there for Another configuration with an expendable fuel-filled nose fairing. BAE Systems a conventional landing once their mission was complete, had to be very large to accommodate all the necessary fuel but also very heavy due to the weight of their huge engines, heat shielding and undercarriage. The team quickly found that the faster aircraft needed to be, the heavier it got and therefore the smaller the payload it could carry that would eventually go into space. Slower aircraft, even subsonic transports, were looked at, as were recoverable rockets – essentially winged missiles with cockpits and landing gear – but by the end of the six month research contract, they found themselves still frustratingly far away from having a workable design. With this in mind, the contract was renewed for a further period of study. Now English Electric’s

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it took to develop. (Several years later it was could really work. this very imperative which pushed NASA to They devised a system that eliminated wind- abandon the initial Shuttle concept of a two- shear and structural problems by positioning stage booster/orbiter fly-back configuration in the manned launch vehicles side by side, and favour of an orbiter assisted by separate semi- kept costs down by using three or more almost reusable boosters.) identical vehicles. Like Astro, its name was an Nevertheless, the Warton team recognised acronym: Mustard. This stood for Multi-Unit unrealised potential in Astro (an acronym Space Transport And Recovery Device and the which stood for Advanced Spacecraft Truck/ first drawing to show it was dated 14 February Trainer/Transport Reusable Orbiter in 1964. 1962 before being revised to Aerodynamic Spacecraft Two-Stage Reusable Orbiter in Mustard seeds 1963). They set about working on a vertical At first a whole range of different launch launch system of their own which followed configurations were examined but gradually the Astro example by being relatively small, the team came to favour a “stack” where three affordable and based mostly on existing Mustard modules were positioned in parallel technology. with one another. The central module was to But having closely studied the American be the spacecraft while the outer pair were system and assessed it using their own boosters. Some 16 different module designs considerable engineering knowledge were examined but what was eventually settled and experience, the British designers on as the standard wingless module shape concentrated on finding ways to address its was carefully designed with the aid of wind shortcomings and produce something that tunnel testing to make the best possible use of

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One of BAC’s early concepts for the Multi-Unit Space Transport and Recovery Device was similar to Douglas’ Astro, except it used a trio of identical boosters and an orbiter very closely based on their design to keep costs down. Daniel Uhr

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These two concept paintings, produced during the mid-1960s, show a Mustard stack during launch and separation. BAE Systems the lifting body principle. This was, at that time, launch, inspection and interception. that BAC’s work be carried out under conditions being flight tested by NASA at Edwards Air For reasons of balance the Mustard of absolute secrecy. While aircraft companies Force Base, California, using the M2-F1 glider. spacecraft’s payload bay was to the rear of across Europe freely discussed their efforts to Mustard’s crew cabin was in the nose and the vehicle near the engines and was intended develop reusable systems, BAC was forbidden a pair of fixed vertical fins were positioned on to be opened and controlled either using to talk about Mustard. either side to the rear. Four rocket engines were automated systems or manually by a crewman Meanwhile, Hawker Siddeley had taken mounted centrally at the vehicle’s trailing edge, moving along the exterior of the vehicle. an entirely different tack with its identical with the fly-back turbojet or turbojets being Mission completed, the spacecraft could then hypersonic vehicles research contract. close by. On either side of the engines were initiate re-entry before ejecting all remaining Whereas English Electric had never worked extendable control surfaces and underneath the fuel. Its empty tanks would be pressurised on a manned space vehicle project before, vehicle was an all-skid tricycle undercarriage. with helium to ensure that they retained their Hawker group companies had begun Beneath a seamlessly welded outer skin structure for the flight home. Close to base, designing them as early as 1957. Armstrong of corrugated nickel alloy were foil-thick the module’s turbojets could be fired up with Whitworth Aircraft had designed what it called pressurised tanks for the liquid oxygen and enough fuel for a few minutes of manoeuvring the Manned Satellite – a Dyna-Soar-like glider liquid hydrogen fuel. For maintenance, the skin before touch-down. launched atop a purpose-built expendable was designed as a pair of clamshells, front The Warton team planned out every detail rocket – by May 1959. and rear, which could be split apart across the of this procedure and went to great lengths to At another Hawker firm, Avro, the Weapons middle of the vehicle to allow interior access. ensure that internal systems would function Research Division (WRD) at Woodford in At the beginning of a launch, all three correctly throughout any given mission – Cheshire had begun using its Blue Steel nuclear modules would fire their rocket engines even going so far as to design space suit stand-off missile as a basis for a hypersonic together and fuel from the boosters would be filtration systems, air conditioning and battery research project in 1958. The following year, used to continually keep the spacecraft’s tanks stacks. An analogue flight simulator was also it was proposed that a European reusable topped up. designed, based on existing flight simulators, launcher could be created by modifying an At the required altitude, the boosters would which would enable pilots to get to grips with Avro Vulcan bomber to carry a space vehicle separate and fly back to base using their turbojets some of Mustard’s trickier tasks, such as in its bomb bay. while the spacecraft carried on into orbit. Once rendezvous with a target satellite. By 1961, this work had resulted in plans to there, it could manoeuvre using vernier thrusters convert a Blue Steel missile into a manned and was designed to be able to carry out a range Limitations high-speed research aircraft similar to the North of missions including reconnaissance, orbital There was one problem that they were unable American X-15. In May 1961, Hawker became a survey, space station resupply and satellite to get around, however. The Ministry required founder member of Eurospace – a Europe-wide

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towards the front of the pack in the Aerospace Transporter contest but this in itself was no guarantee of success. As American satellite technology continued to develop and with the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in January 1967, outlawing orbital weapons, the most pressing reasons for building Mustard had begun to bleed away. Efforts in the US to design a reusable space transporter now began to gather pace. Mueller invited Creasey and Smith to make a presentation on Mustard at the Space Shuttle Symposium at the Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC on October 16-17, 1969, alongside their erstwhile rivals from other European companies. By the end of the year, Mustard had been shelved. Writing in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society in 2006, Professor John Allen of Hawker Siddeley conceded: “Looking back on the European designs 40 years later, the Hawker project had potentially the lowest Mustard Scheme 4 is illustrated in drawing EAG 4450. The design team at Warton hoped that turbojets operating cost but required the most advanced would not be necessary to bring the Mustard orbiter in for a safe landing but here the design features a air breathing engines. The BAC Mustard retractable pair of them. BAE Systems probably had the least design risk and could have been built in the 1960s following a modest industry body concerned with space projects – to be declared ‘the winner’. The revelation of programme of enabling technology.” alongside much of the French aviation industry. Mustard’s existence also attracted the attention In the same publication, Eric Webb wrote: From this point on, Hawker continued to fund of the Americans who now took a keen interest “Many loose ends remained but by this time the its own space projects and regularly submitted in both the concept and the project as a whole. team was confident that the Mustard concept them to Eurospace for consideration. was viable and would be a serious contender Having already covered so much ground, Afterburn in any objective competition to develop low when Hawker received its hypersonics research BAC Preston began to receive invitations to cost space transportation.” contract, it decided to use the funds to work tender for American space projects via NASA It was not to be and the project is survived up a detailed design for a manned hypersonic and in August 1967 George Mueller, the NASA only by the files and archives of the UK’s research aircraft, ignoring the space aspect of manager who had been pressing hardest abandoned aerospace history, a mythical the requirements, arguing that without practical for the development of a cohesive reusable but weighty volume containing the many and experience of hypersonic speeds there was no launcher programme, visited Warton and varied proposals, projects and programmes hope of designing anything more advanced. received a short presentation on Mustard from from Britain’s illustrious aeronautical past In 1964, the members of Eurospace decided project engineer Eric Webb. where air and space may have been joined by to work on concepts for a potential joint project It seemed as though Mustard might be edging the Union flag. to be known as the Aerospace Transporter. Numerous different companies came up with The final, unnumbered, Mustard scheme is depicted in this drawing from January 1967. The portholes proposals but most were highly ambitious in that had been a feature of every previous design were replaced with a rectangular windscreen. Also the American vein – including those of Hawker. shown are the internal structure of the vehicle and close-ups of its corrugated skin. BAE Systems It therefore came as something of a shock when, in 1966 and after much lobbying, BAC was finally given leave to release limited details of the Mustard project both to Eurospace and the wider public. Suddenly, alongside the many fledgling concepts based on as-yet undeveloped technologies, there was a very practical and well thought-out design based on years of research, from a firm already famous for delivering high-tech aircraft. BAC had thought that the emergence of the fully-formed Mustard would rally the other nations behind the design. Instead, it seemed only to exacerbate existing tensions between the Eurospace members and there was even greater uncertainty as to whose concept ought

Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 423 spaceplanes Science by spaceplane

By Vladimir Pletser FBIS, SRA Secretary

Virgin Galactic anticipates flights to the edge of space for fee-paying scientists as well as tourists. Virgin Galactic

uborbital flights will soon be available coming years. This will provide the necessary have to face and that tomorrow’s space to the general public for space tourism. assistance to the practical realization of travellers will have to get used to. With the This frequent access to microgravity fundamental and applied scientific research in advent of the International Space Station, this Salso opens up promising prospects for suborbital environment and promote scientific environment of weightlessness is the place the progress of scientific research and research in suborbital flights to the general where new scientific and technical research is technological development. The Suborbital public, youth and students. conducted. Research Association (SRA) wants to bring The Association aims at gathering scientists Space technologies, already abundantly it closer to the international community of together to help them in accessing research present in our everyday life, will be more researchers, scientists and engineers. opportunities in suborbital flights by considering prominent in tomorrow’s society. From casting Space is not only infinitely large. It is also the different suborbital platforms. For this, the of new materials and alloys to the study of a great stimulant of academic and intellectual Association will collect funds from institutional, fluids without the constraint of their own pursuits, with the questioning of phenomena industrial and private sponsors in order to allow weight, from adaptation of living systems, and processes in physics, chemistry, biology, the realization of selected experiments. All including humans, to biotechnology, with etc. Weightlessness or microgravity offers fields of research on suborbital platforms are creation of new molecules for pharmaceutical opportunities for creativity and innovation for considered, from life and physical sciences in use, the weightlessness environment enables research and technology. Weightlessness microgravity to astrophysics and atmospheric new progress in scientific areas already under is permanent, once in orbit, as on the ISS research, as well as tests of space technology exploration and will enable new discoveries in (International Space Station) or on recoverable in the broadest sense. areas still not currently investigated. capsules or automatic platforms. But the price Currently, the only platforms enabling Weightlessness is the environment obtained to gain access to these systems is very high. experiments involving humans as subjects of in a vehicle which is subject to the sole force Aircraft parabolic flights allow conditions of experiments or operators are aircraft parabolic of gravitational attraction, in a state of free fall. microgravity for only approximately 20 seconds flights or the International Space Station (ISS). Inside this vehicle in free fall, the gravitational at a time, which is not long enough to study Aircraft parabolic flights are limited by the attraction is exactly balanced by inertial forces complex phenomena. microgravity time (20s) and the International existing in the referential frame of the vehicle in An alternative exists in the form of a long Space Station is limited by the cost of free fall, weightlessness and gravity effects are parabola which, with a suborbital trajectory experiments and the long preparation time. thus cancelled. to an altitude of 100 km, allows a continuous These two factors handicap the research to be This ideal state is however hardly feasible microgravity environment for a few minutes, carried out by or on human beings. Therefore, in practice and small residual forces still exist, and this for an attractive cost. The rise of space new flight possibilities must be considered and yielding a microgravity environment. This tourism with suborbital flights at the edge of offered to researchers. Moreover, it is also environment is attained aboard orbital space space will make this alternative possible. proposed to embark on every flight opportunity platforms, where Earth’s gravitational force is A group of Scientists involved in space at least one experiment proposed by students, balanced by inertial forces due to the orbital research have created the Suborbital Research tomorrow’s researchers. motion. This environment is also achieved on Association (SRA, www.suborbital-research. Earth in experimental automatic free falling org) whose goals are to promote the suborbital Microgravity platforms and aircraft-laboratories describing scientific and technical research aboard Weightlessness, or absence of gravity effects, parabolic trajectories offering periods of suborbital platforms that will be available in the is the new environment that today’s astronauts microgravity of a few seconds and only

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applicable to short-term experiments. claiming the life of one of the pilots, destroyed experiments or to launch satellites. Suborbital flights of sounding rockets and, completely the vehicle and caused further Other technical details are given in the Lynx in the near future, of spaceplanes offer a delays. technical specifications (http://xcor.com/lynx/). microgravity environment of several minutes XCOR Aerospace develops the Lynx The cost of a flight is presently $150,000 on the suitable for other types of longer experiments. spaceship, a small spaceplane which takes off Lynx Mark I and $250,000 on the Lynx Mark II. After the launch with accelerations of several like a normal aircraft from a space airport in Blue Origin (www.blueorigin.com) develops g, the microgravity environment is obtained the California Mojave Desert, carrying a pilot the New Shephard system, a fully reusable during the ballistic phase after engines have and a passenger both sitting at the front of the vertical take-off, vertical landing single stage been turned off. No forces other than gravity spaceship. rocket, called the Propulsion Module, and a act on the vehicle in free fall for several The spaceplane is powered by four liquid Crew Capsule. minutes, before decelerating in the upper propellant rocket motors to its apogee before The New Shephard system is launched from atmosphere upon re-entry and finally landing returning to land as a glider. Three models are a base close to the town of Van Horn in West back on ground. planned: Mark I, Mark II and Mark III. Texas. The Propulsion Module propels the The first, Mark I, is planned to fly to Mach 2 Crew Capsule and separates at an altitude of Suborbital platforms to an altitude of 60-65 km. Based on the results approx. 72 km. The Crew Capsule continues Several private companies are currently of Mark I, the second, Mark II, would start its to ascend up to its apogee of about 100 km working on the development of suborbital flights one year later at Mach 3 up to an altitude before returning safely to ground under a set of vehicles that will take private astronauts and of 100 km. The third, Mark III, would follow later parachutes. experiments to suborbital weightlessness. on. The Crew Capsule will carry six passengers Among the 20 or so private companies The cockpit of the Lynx is not wide enough to for a yet undisclosed cost (but most likely involved in the development of platforms for float freely. In addition, the cabin configuration similar to the one of a Lynx Mark I flight). suborbital flights, three American companies is such that experiments can be installed next However, first flights will be used to fly retain attention by their technical advances to the pilot’s seat in a dedicated rack with unmanned experiments. and the credibility of the access to space in the mid-deck lockers or behind the pilot’s seat in Five test flights have been conducted near future: the cockpit. Alternatively, the rack next to the successfully in 2015 and 2016 (29 April and • The Spaceship Company (a joint venture pilot seat can be replaced by a second seat 23 November 2015, 22 January, 2 April and 19 between Scaled Composites and Virgin for a passenger astronaut carrying small June 2016), with the technological prowess of Galactic) experimental equipment into his suit pockets. landing the Propulsion Module back vertically. • XCOR Aerospace Experiments behind the pilot seat can then Manned test flights could be started as early as • Blue Origin. be activated by the passenger astronaut. Two 2017 with commercial exploitation in 2018. These three companies have different canister compartments located at the rear Note however that launch dates for manned technical approaches. of the spaceplane can also accommodate flights are not specified firmly by any of these Scaled Composites won the X Prize in small experiments or be used to launch small companies as development of space systems 2004 by flying twice to the edge of space with satellites of the cubesat type. Finally, the usually take longer than what was anticipated its first developed vehicle SpaceShipOne. Mark III spaceplane will carry a container on at the beginning of the project. Nevertheless, More than ten years later, the SpaceShipTwo the top for automatic or remotely controlled despite of all technical and operational hurdles of The Spaceship Company (www. thespaceshipcompany.com/) has not yet XCOR has simplified the process through its Lynx spaceplane capable of taking off and landing from and to a standard runway. XCOR entered in a commercial operational phase. SpaceShipTwo takes off attached to its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo from a Space Port in New Mexico. At an altitude of 15,000 m, SpaceShipTwo is jettisoned from the carrier aircraft and, powered by a hybrid rocket to more than Mach 3, climbs to an altitude of 110 km, where it describes a long parabola of six minutes before re-entering the atmosphere and landing like an aeroplane. SpaceShipTwo carries two pilots and six passengers. The cabin is wide enough to allow passengers to float freely and to look through windows. It could be possible for a private astronaut to take one or several small experiments into his suit pockets. It might also be possible for a private astronaut to embark experimental material taking another passenger place. The cost of a flight is presently $250,000 USD per person per flight (www.virgingalactic. com/). However, the tragic accident of the first SpaceShipTwo in October 2014, in addition to

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Advantages The advantages of using suborbital flights for scientists are multiple and can be divided into three categories. 1. Intermediate duration between parabolic flights and ISS Suborbital flights are a new experimental platform, which, by providing a period of one to six minutes, depending on the carrier, allows users to bridge the time interval of microgravity between aircraft parabolic flights (20 s) and orbital flights on the ISS for experiments with human subjects and operators. For medical and human physiology experiments, all scientists are unanimous that aircraft parabolic flights allow time for observing the start of certain changes in physiological systems but they do not allow sufficient time for studying the adaptation to microgravity. For Lynx borrows conventional construction techniques from the aircraft industry for a spaceplane designed this, suborbital flights of one to six minutes are to adapt to the needs of the scientific community. XCOR better suited. Furthermore, the physiological adaptation that these developers have to face, suborbital costs of development of instrumentation); on a time scale of one to several minutes is flights with passengers will be a reality in a few a development cost of a few million and not accessible for research on astronauts years. launch of the order of €20,000/kg considered launched to the ISS. Table 1 presents some technical data of the for the ISS; three experiments per flight for The same goes for some physical science systems proposed by these three companies. suborbital flights; if more experiments can be experiments where one would like to verify accommodated, the cost per experiment would an experimental configuration for longer than Research platforms obviously decrease (the Lynx I was taken as 20s before sending it to the ISS in order to The platforms used presently for microgravity an example). maximize the chances of success and optimize research are compared with suborbital flights From Table 2, it is seen that the only budget investment of an orbital mission. in Table 2, with respect to the level and conventional platforms for experiments with It should be stressed that this new the duration of microgravity obtained, the human subjects or operators are aircraft experimental means of suborbital flights is available experimental volume, the type of parabolic flights and the ISS. Moreover, complementary to other microgravity platforms interaction, the waiting time for scientists, the aircraft parabolic flights are limited by the and cannot be substituted for these other approximate overall cost of a mission. The duration of microgravity (≈ 20 s) and the ISS is means. cost by experiment is based on the following limited by the cost of experiments and waiting 2. Logistical advantages for scientists assumptions: one experiment per fall in free fall time. These two factors greatly handicap the a) Ease of access towers; 12 experiments per aircraft parabolic research to be carried out by or on human Approaches and technical reviews are flight campaign; five experiments per sounding beings, particularly for scientists involved in minimized and are equivalent to what scientists rocket flight (these costs do not include the microgravity research. are already doing for aircraft parabolic flights.

Table 1: Comparison between SpaceShipTwo, Lynx and New Shepard. Spacecraft Spaceship Company XCOR Aerospace Blue Origin New Shepard SpaceShipTwo launched Lynx spaceplane; Spaceship system incl. Propulsion Module by WhiteKnightTwo 3 models: Mark I, II and III and Crew Capsule (CC) L 3.66 m x diam 2.28 m CC diam. approx. 3.6 m Possibility of Cockpit has 2 seats Cabin size Possibility of free-float in free-float in weightlessness in No free-float in weightlessness weightlessness front of large windows Number of Persons 2 pilots + 6 passengers 1 pilot + 1 passenger 6 passengers Mark I : 65 km Apogee 100 km 100 km Mark II - III : 100 km Mark I : 1 min. at < 10-2g Weightlessness duration 6 min. Approx. 3 min. Mark II - III : 3-4 min. at < 10-2g Max. speed 4,200 km/h 3,700 km/h (Mach 3) Approx. 40,00 km/h (1) Cabin: 20 kg Trapezoidal volume: Hxwxl: 50 x 40.5 L 340 cm, diam 76 cm x (46 - 10.3) cm3 Stacked Payload Locker 11.34 kg/ Mass/volume available for experiment No detailed information available (2) 2 canisters: 3 kg, Locker; Lxwxh: 51.59 x 41.78 x 22.91 L 20 cm x 15 cm diam cm3 (3) Pod on roof : Mark III : 650 kg Jul 28.53

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Table 2: Comparison of Microgravity Platforms. Platform μg (g) Duration Vol. (m3) Inter-action Waiting Time Cost Cost/expt Free fall towers 10-3…-6 < 5 s < 1 TC ≈ months > 10 k€ ≈ 5 k€ Parabolic flights 10-2…-3 ≈ 20 s > 10 Hum. ≈ months - 1 year ≈ 1.5 M€ ≈ 125 k€ Sounding rockets 10-4…-5 5 - 13 min. < 1 TC > 2 years > 2 M€ > 400 k€ ISS 10-2…-5 years > 1 Hum. > 5 years > 10 M€ ≈ 1-5 M€ Lynx I/II-III 10-2…-4 1/3-4 min. < 1 Hum. ≈ months ≈ 150 k€ ≈ 50 k€ (TC = telecommands, Hum = operator or human subject). b) High frequency Experiments balloons or stratospheric aircraft or space Once entered in the commercial exploitation Scientific experiments on board suborbital orbital platforms. phase, the suborbital platforms will fly regularly platforms will be able to use either the The scientific and technical fields in which and several flights per day can be expected, environment of weightlessness with, these experiments can be conducted allowing frequent and rapid repetition for depending on the carrier, an approximate are multiples: from human physiology to experiments, thus ensuring a high scientific duration of one to six minutes, or the outer materials science, from Earth observation to return. space environment at an altitude of 60 to measurements of parameters of the upper c) Multidisciplinary platform 65 km or up to 100 km, hardly attainable by atmosphere, and from technological tests in The suborbital platforms offer also the possibility to embark several different experiments in biomedical fields and physical sciences and to conduct other types of experiments in the upper atmosphere. 3. Programmatic advantages a) Low-cost The total cost for a flight would be between $150,000 and $250,000, which is much more interesting than other platforms when costs per experiment are compared (see Table 2). If we consider accommodating three experiments only, each experiment would cost approximately €50,000 to €80,000, i.e. more or less about half of the cost of an experiment in parabolic flights, for a duration of one to six minutes instead of 20 s. Even for human physiology experiments, for which typically three to six subjects are tested per parabolic flight campaign, the costs of suborbital platforms are less than or equivalent Internal payload volume provides pressurised compartments for science experiments. XCOR to those of parabolic flight campaigns, but XCOR has designed the Lynx programme to provide adaptable payload space with an evolutionary with the advantage of offering a much longer option for an additional dorsal roof box on Lynx Mk. III. XCOR microgravity exposure. b) Diversification of flight opportunities The organization of a series of suborbital space missions for leading edge scientific experiments from researchers already selected by space agencies and waiting for a flight opportunity will provide independently more frequent flight opportunities to researchers. c) Expertise It is important for researchers to be among the first users of experimental suborbital flights before these become routine, to build up a unique expertise in preparing and running experiments with this new research platform. Participating in early suborbital flights will allow pioneer scientists and engineers to build up expertise as an economic asset for these suborbital flights since these will certainly develop in the future.

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microgravity to the qualification of the on-board Table 3: Non-Exhaustive List of Scientific Experiments for Suborbital Flights. space environment. Many scientists have Physiology Heart rhythm and its variations by electrocardiography already marked their interest to take part in Brain electrical activity by electroencephalography these flights. Cognitive experiments in microgravity Examples of scientific experiments that can Biology Study of biological systems in microgravity and exposure to the space environment be conducted in real time on board suborbital and atmospheric re-entry Chemistry of cellular membranes in microgravity platforms are listed non-exhaustively in Table 3. Physics of fluids Formation of multilayer system fluid in microgravity Measurement of diffusion coefficients in fluid mixtures In addition, pre- and post-flight experiments Behaviour of fluids near their critical point can be conducted on the passenger astronauts Studies of cryogenic fluids that will participate in these suborbital Atmospheric physics Measurement in-situ of atmospheric parameters by radio sounding flights to measure the degree of adaptation Measurement of atmospheric Ozone and other gases to weightlessness and potential change in physiological systems. Other experiments can be considered and researchers are invited to contact the Association. To prepare today’s students, which are tomorrow’s researchers, for research in weightlessness and space technologies, it is also proposed to embark on each flight an experiment proposed by students that will be conducted by the passenger astronaut during the flight. This student experiment will be An evocative view approaching the Virgin Galactic facilities at Spaceport America in the southern part of selected by a scientific board and supported New Mexico. Virgin Galactic by a group of engineering students. Blue Origin adopts a different operational philosophy with its New Shepard rocket and crew capsule. Blue Origin Conclusions It is evident that the interest and scientific benefits of a flight of one to six minutes in weightlessness for experiments in physics of fluids, human physiology and biology in microgravity justify organizing this type of mission. It is important to note that suborbital flights are complementary to the other classic experimental platforms and cannot replace them and suborbital flights will be added to the panoply of experimental means offered to researchers rather than replacing them. The use of parabolic flights and the ISS will continue but, unfortunately, with growing costs and delays for researchers. New opportunities for flights must therefore be given to researchers. This new low cost approach, economically and scientifically justified will allow continuing the fundamental and applied research despite the economic crisis since research is a factor of economic recovery. In particular, space research in microgravity is a strong factor in economic growth, with many practical applications in everyday life. In the near future the Suborbital Research Association will organize an initial series of research flights and interested researchers are invited to contact the Association at www. suborbital-research.org/ or at suborbital.ra@ gmail.com.

Vladimir Pletser is the Secretary of the Suborbital Research Association.

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Spaceflight Vol 58 March 2016 429 satellite digest

Satellite Digest is Spaceflight’s regular listing of world space launches. It is prepared by Geoff Richards using orbital data from Satellite Digest-526 the United States Strategic Command Space-Track.Org website.

Spacecraft International Date Launch Vehicle Mass Orbital Inclin. Period Perigee Apogee Notes Designation Site kg Epoch deg min km km Tiantong 1-01 2016-048A Aug 5.68 Xichang Chang Zheng 3B 5,000? Aug 16.76 5.00 1,436.02 35,780 35,794 [1] Gaofen 3 2016-049A Aug 9.96 Taiyuan Chang Zheng 4C 2,950 Aug 14.09 98.42 99.81 751 752 [2] JCSat 16 2016-050A Aug 14.23 ETR Falcon 9FT 4,600 Aug 25.78 0.06 1,435.99 35,777 35,796 [3] Mozi 2016-051A Aug 15.74 Jiuquan Chang Zheng 2D 620 Aug 16.65 97.37 94.49 488 504 [4] 3Cat 2 2016-051B 7 Aug 16.78 97.37 94.48 487 504 [5] Lixing 1 2016-051C 110 Aug 17.57 97.35 87.02 125 133 [6] GSSAP 3 2016-052A Aug 19.20 ETR Delta-4M+(4,2) 600? Aug 26.71 0.00 1,435.98 35,752 35,820 [7] GSSAP 4 2016-052B 600? Aug 26.71 0.02 1,438.42 35,792 35,876 [7] Intelsat 36 2016-053A Aug 24.93 CSG Ariane-5ECA 3,253 Sep 8.92 0.12 1,436.04 35,776 35,799 [8] Intelsat 33e 2016-053B 6,600 Sep 5.18 2.06 828.71 9,955 35,746 [9] Gaofen 10 Aug 31.79 Taiyuan Chang Zheng 4C 2,000? Failed to reach orbit [10]

Notes 1. Tiantong means Heaven and Earth. Telecommunications satellite built using a CAST DFH-4 bus for China Satcom. Mass quoted above is estimated at launch. The satellite is located over 101.4°E to provide a service to mobile users. 2. Gaofen is an earth resources satellite built by CAST using a CS-L3000B bus for SASTIND’s CHEOS programme with a high-resolution imaging radar for all-weather Earth surface pictures and sea-state information. 3. Telecommunications and direct broadcast satellite built using an SS/L 1300 bus for SKY Perfect JSAT and launched by SpaceX to replace the delayed Superbird 8. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite is located over 150°E for test and will be moved to 162°E to provide a service to Japan, Asia and the Pacific region. Launch vehicle first stage successfully landed on the Of Course I Still Love You barge 640 km downrange. 4. Mozi was a fourth-century BC philosopher, also known as Micius. QSS (Quantum Science Satellite) physical science satellite was built by Chinese Academy of Sciences and carries a quantum laser optical communications system for concept demonstration. 5. Cube Cat is a technology development 6U Cubesat built by UPC (Catalonia Polytechnic University) with a dual-polarisation L-band receiver (PYCARO) using GPS and other navigation signals which works as a reflectometer to gather ocean altimetry and atmosphere and surface properties data, plus a star tracker (Mirabilis) and a magnetometer (AMR eLISA) for performance test. Formed the ISILaunch08 mission. 6. Lixing (Force Star) was an atmospheric research satellite built by CAS carrying an autonomous navigation system and a propulsion system which manoeuvred to lower orbit to investigate the rarefied upper atmosphere. Used propulsion to maintain ultra-low orbit for three days while measuring atmospheric properties. 7. Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, also called USA 270 and USA 271, comprise the second pair of space object tracking satellites built by Orbital ATK for the USAF, each carrying cameras to observe and characterise other satellites and space debris and also possibly receivers for satellite transmissions. Orbital date withheld, but intended to have one satellite in westward drift and the other in eastward drift to survey the entire geostationary ring. Data from amateur trackers shows one satellite in westward drift andtheother currently geostationary over 111°W. 8. Telecommunications and direct broadcast satellite built using an SS/L 1300 bus, launched by Arianespace for Intelsat. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite is located over 61°E for test and will be located at 68.5°E to provide a service to southern Africa and the Indian Ocean region, replacing Intelsat 20. 9. Telecommunications and direct broadcast satellite built using a Boeing 702MP bus, launched for Intelsat to replace Intelsat 904. Mass quoted above is at launch, dry mass is 2,946 kg. The satellite is currently in the intermediate orbit given following a problem with the main orbit- raising engine. The satellite is to be located at 60°E to provide a service to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including mobile user and Internet services. Second satellite in Intelsat’s high-throughput EpicNG series. 10. Gaofen is an earth resources satellite, but no further details are available. The launch was not officially announced. There is a rumour that the launch vehicle upper stage failed to ignite for its second burn.

Additions and Updates Designation Comments 1997-007A Intelsat 26 was manoeuvred off station at 62°E August 4 and was relocated at 64°E, co-located with Intelsat 906, August 8. 1997-061A Cassini performed its 123rd targeted fly-by of Titan, passing 1,599 km from the satellite, on August 10.36. 1999-033A ASTRA 1H was relocated at 55.3°E August 11. 1999-043B Globalstar M027 was manoeuvred out of its constellation position about August 10 and has apparently been retired. 2000-028A Eutelsat 36A was relocated at 88.5°E August 8. 2000-054A ASTRA 2B was manoeuvred off station at 31.3°E August 3 and was relocated at 39°E August 17. 2002-015B ASTRA 3A was relocated at 86.85°W, co-located with SES 2, August 16. 2002-038A Eutelsat 33D was manoeuvred off station at 70.3°E August 7 and is drifting to the west. It may have been retired. 2002-062A Nimiq 2 was relocated at 23.5°E August 12. 2006-047B Contact with STEREO B re-established August 21. Attempts are ongoing to regain attitude control. 2009-047A PAN (USA 207) is apparently the first satellite in the NRO Nemesis programme to intercept commercial communications satellite traffic. 2010-041B Kosmos 2465 (Uragan-M 737) was returned to service August 18. 2011-001A Elektro-L 1 began manoeuvring August 25 to slow its westward drift. 2011-011A USA 227 was manoeuvred off station at 92°E August 2 and is drifting to the east, according to amateur trackers.

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2011-040A Juno used its first 4,200 km periapsis pass August 27 to gather Jupiter science data. 2014-016A Sentinel 1A was hit by an object August 23, leaving a visible dent in a solar panel and producing five fragments. Satellite remains operational. 2014-043B GSSAP 2 (USA 254) has been detected by amateur trackers in a slow eastward drift orbit. Add orbit: Aug 26.08 0.06° 1,435.52 min 35,759 km 35,795 km 2014-055A CLIO (USA 257) is possibly the second satellite in the NRO Nemesis programme to intercept commercial communications satellite traffic. 2014-058A Luch (Olimp-K) was manoeuvred off station at 1.1°W August 30 and is drifting to the east. 2015-036A WGS 7 (USA 263) has been relocated from 150°E to 134°E, according to amateur trackers. 2015-074A Elektro-L 2 was manoeuvred off its test station at 77.8°E August 10 and was relocated at 76°E, replacing Elektro-L 1, August 23. 2016-039B EchoStar 18 was relocated from its test station at 67.2°W to 61.35°W, co-located with EchoStar 3, 12, 15 and 16, by August 29 for use as a reserve satellite. 2016-041A MUOS 5 has manoeuvred to raise its perigee by some 500 km, according to amateur trackers. It may be testing alternatives to its failed main engine. 2016-046A IDA-2 docking adaptor was unberthed from Dragon CRS 9 using the ISS arm August 18.06 and moved to the PMA-2 port. It was permanently attached there during an EVA on August 19.61. Following unloading of cargo and re-loading with 1,547 kg of return cargo, Dragon was unberthed using the ISS arm August 25.88 and was released August 26.42. Landed in the Pacific Ocean 525 km from the coast of Mexico August 26.66. 2016-047A USA 269 is now in geostationary orbit over 92°E, replacing USA 227, according to amateur trackers. Add orbit: Aug 13.71 5.03° 1,436.02 min 35,577 km 35,997 km

International Space Station activity Recently detailed orbital decays There was the following orbital manoeuvre of ISS during August, boosted by Progress International Object name Decay MS-02: Designation Pre-manoeuvre orbit: Aug 24.10 51.64° 92.50 min 401 km 403 km 2000-079A EROS A1 Jul 7.1 Post-manoeuvre orbit: Aug 24.53 51.64° 92.55 min 402 km 406 km 2013-064D DragonSat 1 Aug 31.2 End-of-August orbital data: Aug 31.94 51.64° 92.55 min 402 km 406 km 1998-067GP Flock 1e-10 Aug 9.8 1998-067GQ Flock 1e-9 Aug 9.9 1998-067GR Flock 1e-12 Aug 9.6 1998-067GS Flock 1e-13 Aug 24.5 1998-067HG Flock 2b-6 Aug 22 2016-042F Aolong 1 Aug 27.73 2016-042L Tiange 1 Aug 27.5 2016-042M Tiange 2 Aug 24.66 2016-046A Dragon CRS 9 Aug 26.66 2016-051C Lixing 1 Aug 19

Left: The US Air Force and its mission partners successfully launched the third and fourth Orbital ATK built Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV launch vehicle from Space Launch Complex 37, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, at 12:52 a.m. EDT on 19 August.

Defined as the AFSFC-6 mission, the satellites join a GSSAP constellation currently supporting US Strategic Command space surveillance operations as a dedicated Space Surveillance Network sensor. The GSSAP also supports the Joint Functional Component Commander for Space by collecting space situational awareness data, allowing for more accurate tracking and characterization of man-made orbiting objects.

With a capability of performing Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO), the GSSAP satellites will manoeuvre near resident space objects of interest to the military for imaging anomalies and providing surveillance on satellites and spacecraft in the geosynchronous orbital environment. This will also enhance position manoeuvring for collision avoidance. Communications will be through the Air Force Satellite Control Network to the 1st Space Operations Squadron. ULA

Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 431 reflection

FLASHBACK – November 1966

A regular feature looking back 50 years this month

hen asked the date that America plan from being realised and no further flights astronauts who had died on 27 January when “won” the space race many people were made until 7K-OK-3 was launched on 7 their Apollo spacecraft caught fire during a would say July 1969, the month February 1967. It too was a failure. rehearsal at Cape Canaveral. WApollo 11 reached the Moon and two astronauts Gemini had been the first manned spacecraft These tragedies deeply affected personnel, walked on its surface for the first time. Others capable of changing its orbit using on-board managers and administrators of the respective might say December 1968, when the crew of propulsion although Soyuz was designed to do programmes, unwittingly sharing a common Apollo 8 became the first humans to leave that too. Rendezvous and docking was key to grief for lost colleagues and a fallen comrade. Earth orbit and venture into the gravitational just about every activity humans would perform These tragedies would influence the way each field of another body in the solar system. in space. Whether that was assembling a side in this technological marathon progressed Each of these events was dramatic and space station or building a spaceship to go to their aims and objectives. Soyuz would suffer seismic in its impact on people alive at the time, the Moon and the planets. It was US Air Force a technical malfunction four years later when seminal moments in America’s dash for space. Major Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, pilot to US Navy three cosmonauts died returning to Earth But retrospection allows 20/20 hindsight and Captain Jim Lovell on the last Gemini mission, in Soyuz 11 after a depressurisation valve on reflection historians might just pick October who made a major contribution to the principles popped open evacuating air from the descent 1961, when the first Saturn I was successfully of orbital rendezvous in a doctoral thesis. module. launched from Cape Canaveral. A Soyuz spacecraft was launched again Why is this relevant? November 1966 is It had been the politicians who set the ability on 23 April 1967 when 7K-OK-4 made it into important in retrospect because only by looking to launch very big payloads on very powerful orbit but again experienced a succession of back is it possible to clearly see that it was a rockets as the benchmark that identified technical failures culminating in the death turning point for both America and Russia. A whether the US was behind the Russians or of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov little more feeling of having won the space race was already ahead. When the space race began America than two days later. Both main and backup creeping in to the American programmes. simply did not have large and powerful satellite parachutes failed to deploy. By this date Having slipped into decline the NASA budget launchers. However, the flight of a Saturn Americans were mourning the loss of three was unable to confidently embrace a post- rocket eventually capable of lifting more than In addition to making a major contribution to orbital rendezvous, Buzz Aldrin conducted successful 9 tonnes into orbit was a landmark moment in space walks on the last Gemini mission in November 1966. NASA accelerating the pace of US activities. But the first three Saturn I flights were suborbital and not until 1964 did it reach that capability with the first use of a cryogenic upper stage. Was this the moment America eclipsed the Soviets in the space race? Probably not. Milestones such as those are just that and while sheer brute force and rocket power might be visually dramatic symbols of technological progress, it is seminal performance which trumps fire and brimstone. On which basis, if there was one single month when the United States unquestionably achieved technological supremacy in the space programme, it was probably November 1966.

Significance In this month 50 years ago, NASA completed its twelfth and last Gemini mission, 10 of them manned, and Russia flew the first Soyuz spacecraft under the international designation Cosmos 133. Unmanned on that first flight, it was known internally as 7K-OK- 2 and was to have been followed into orbit by a second unmanned Soyuz the following day to demonstrate automatic rendezvous and docking. After which both were to have returned to Earth. Not long after reaching orbit a series of technical failures prevented that

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Apollo programme, and not for almost two When the Apollo 13 spacecraft was powered years would Russia get back into its stride with down shortly after the loss of the two oxygen Soyuz, three years after the end of the Gemini tanks in the Service Module on its way to the programme, its American equivalent. Moon, a heavy build-up of condensation in the Command Module produced dangerous A done deal? quantities of water gathering behind panels To many it seemed the race had been won when and equipment bays. Many engineers at the last Gemini returned to Earth in November Mission Control were worried that when power 1966. In every essential respect, Soyuz was was restored to the Command Module the Russia’s equivalent of Gemini, providing orbital water-soaked electrical wires would fail. rendezvous and docking, extended duration Several years after the safe return of flights and EVA. Every essential programme the crew some engineers ran a simulated task carried out by Soyuz would have been duplicate mission mirroring Apollo 13 but possible with Gemini, even the circumlunar with the unmodified Block II spacecraft. They flights which astronaut Pete Conrad tried discovered that without the dense layers of desperately hard to get approval for. And the insulation, applied behind instrument panels first manned flight of Gemini came three years and equipment bays as a result of post-fire seven months before the first successful flight modifications, the electrical wiring in the myriad of a manned Soyuz spacecraft, an event which conduits installed in the Apollo 13 Command took place after NASA had flight tested its Module would indeed have become saturated Apollo spacecraft with a three-man crew. in condensation, almost certainly shorting out Concluded this month 50 years ago Gemini the electrics and removing all power for the had raised to 16 the total number of American final fall descent through the atmosphere. space flights, twice that of the USSR, Today, “lessons learned” is an important contributing to a total of more than four times application in spacecraft engineering courses, Aboard the USS Wasp, astronauts Jim Lovell the man-hours in space achieved by the Soviet as increasingly engineers of a certain age are (right) and Buzz Aldrin celebrate a successful Union. quizzed on how accidents were avoided in conclusion to the two-man Gemini programme, early programmes several decades ago. But Very few within the space programme which may have had a very different ending. USN sensed the national mood in America – a not all of it gets picked up and we are now in belief among the greater majority of the the period when so much has been lost. lessons beyond the capabilities of 1960s-era population that the US had now eclipsed the Toward the end of the Apollo programme instruments. Soviet Union in the propaganda war and that senior management decided to lock down Over time a new generation of engineers for most citizens the anticipated Moon landing all documentation for 40 years, in case it focused on extant technologies, philosophically was verification rather than completion of that became relevant to future activities. Also, believing there was little they could learn from ascendant position. to preserve test and checkout paperwork decades-old technology. The consultation to Yet, while November 1966 can be seen in together with test results in case diagnostic or “lessons learned” was lost and the links with retrospect as the point where NASA overtook simulation evaluations using future computer the past were broken. With the result that we the Soviet Union in human space flight and analytical procedures could derive are still experiencing disasters and accidents capabilities (as measured solely by technical which can be mitigated in their severity through design of vehicles) the disasters which befell A cluster of eight IDSCS satellites attached to prudent application of safety and test-secure each country just a few months later provided the dispenser truss on top of the Titan III-C/ measures now deemed redundant. Transtage launch vehicle, a brief candidate for stimulus for engineering changes which would See page 404 of this issue for an example of UK procurement. USAF save lives on later flights. that.

Lessons learned Peripherals During preliminary discussions with the But November 1966 was also an interesting time Russians about a joint flight of Apollo and Soyuz for applying existing technology development spacecraft which was to take place in 1975 to future programmes. One of those involved the full extent of concerns about monitoring the re-flight of the Gemini 2 unmanned re-entry pressure in Soyuz spacecraft after the disaster module which had previously been launched of 1971 became evident. Redundant sensors by the second Gemini-Titan launch vehicle on and measuring devices were now standard in 19 January 1965 for a suborbital heat shield Soyuz spacecraft. test. But, while most historians attribute the This was the closest McDonnell Aircraft shock of the Apollo fire to the exhaustive re- Company came to getting a modest production engineering of that spacecraft to prevent such run with its two-man spacecraft. In 1963 the US an event occurring again, the real life-saving Air Force received permission to adopt NASA’s measures saved a later crew from certain spacecraft for its Manned Orbiting Laboratory disaster after surviving a gruelling return to (MOL), conceived as a military space station Earth from around the Moon. A link hardly ever and adopted by the National Reconnaissance found in stories about that mission. Office for its KH-10 Dorian optical telescope.

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Designed for launch on the Titan III-C/ research began with instruments carried aloft now offers sophisticated facilities for the Transtage, MOL would have utilised Gemini by balloons and later by sounding rockets. On preparation, launch and recovery of instrument B to carry the crew during launch and return this day 50 years ago, at 23:42:36 UTC the first packages which have a landing zone 120 x 75 them to Earth at the end of their mission. The sounding rocket was launched from Kiruna, km in area. Balloon payloads have a landing one and only flight associated with the MOL northern Sweden, at what is now the Esrange area extending across the north of Sweden programme before its cancellation in 1969, facility used by the European Space Agency and into Norway, Finland and north-western the rocket got off the launch pad at Cape and by commercial operators managing Russia. Canaveral on 3 November. scientific projects for research institutes. The Gemini 2 capsule separated as planned Located at 67.93º north, 200 km north of 22 November 1966 before reaching orbit for a thermal test of the the Arctic Circle and originally known as the Britain’s Defence Minister Dennis Healey hatch cut into the heat shield, a modification Paksuniemi site, Kiruna was chosen as an provided a written reply to a question in the which would allow astronauts to transfer back ideal location for studying aurora and space House of Commons regarding the UK’s plan into the pressurised compartment of the MOL phenomena close to the Earth’s atmosphere. for satellite communications to support secure without depressurising the spacecraft for The place is sufficiently remote to afford a links between London and Australia. The UK, EVA transfer. The test was a success and the vacant area of 5,200 km² where payloads can he said, planned to buy two IDSCS (Initial launch vehicle continued on to orbit delivering descend safely and without unduly affecting Defense Satellite Communication System) three research satellites. habitable areas or wildlife. satellites from the US and pay for them to Had the MOL programme carried forward The first launch involved a French Centaure be launched by the US Air Force from Cape to its operational phase the US Air Force rocket at the site then opened by the European Canaveral on the basis that Britain would would have sustained the Gemini production Space Research Organisation. Kiruna is forego development of an independent launch line for several years. In which case it truly relatively mild, despite its location, and has vehicle. would have mirrored the application of Soyuz the advantage of affording land recovery for The IDSCS satellites each weighed 45 kg to a wide range of independent and space instruments, unlike many similar facilities and took the form of a symmetrical polyhedron station-related missions. In which event, the around the world where payloads are likely to 81 cm high and 91 cm in diameter, covered Gemini spacecraft could have endured for at return to a watery splashdown. Most sounding with solar cells on their 24 sides. They would least several decades. For more on that see rocket launches are to altitudes of 70-800 km be placed in a circular equatorial orbit of Spaceflight Vol 57, No 11, pages 422-428. and are usually recovered and their instrument 34,000 km, below a geostationary position so returned to users within one hour. that they would take 4.5 days to migrate from 19 November 1966 Since 1972 the site has been managed one horizon to the next. Long before the dawn of the satellite era, space by the Swedish Space Corporation and A constellation of 26 satellites placed 14º of longitude would allow continuous coverage A TEXUS-50 launched with a VSB-3 sounding rocket from Kiruna in northern Sweden, a site celebrating 50 years of service to the scientific community. SSC for ground-based stations. Clusters of IDSCS satellites were to be launched by Titan III-C/ Transtage rocket and the first seven were lifted into orbit on 16 June 1966 carried on a cantilevered dispenser. The UK was interested in buying the IDSCS satellites and the Defence Ministry negotiated with the Americans for procurement, which was approved. The announcement in the House was “buried” in a rather obscure reply but came with the reassurance that these would not be used for reconnaissance, a purpose for which they were unequipped. Transponders on each satellite received signals from the ground at 89 GHz and re- transmitted at 7.2 GHz. On 13 December the government reversed its decision, cancelled plans to buy IDSCS satellites and announced it would go ahead with development of the Black Arrow satellite launcher. In any event the IDSCS programme was not uneventful. A second set of satellites was destroyed when the rocket blew up but a third set did make it to orbit followed by the last eight in June 1968, all built by Ford Aerospace. But the capability was limited, each satellite carrying only a single circularly polarised toroidal antenna, and was succeeded by the much more capable Defense Satellite Communication System.

434 Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 correspondence

Biohazards of Exploration Sir: Dr. Cain’s superb article on “Humans a potentially hazardous microbe infecting the allowed (see photo on pg. 341 - Apollo 17). in Space and Chemical Risks to Health” crew who would have no immunity to this new Should this dust contain microorganisms the (Spaceflight Vol. 58, No 9, pp.336-341) organism. Decreased astronaut immunity is hazard increases. provides an excellent overview of many of the likely to be a serious issue as NASA research This leads me to one final thought. Should chemical hazards that humans would face suggests that weightless space travel may humans explore and work in space? The while exploring space. However, a discussion suppress immune systems [1]. notion of the intrepid space explorer boldly of biological hazards facing humans in space We also have to consider the effects of our seeking new frontiers of knowledge is well exploration also requires critical review. These microbes on the ecosystems of any planets, entrenched in science fiction as well as hazards, primarily microbiological, would arise moons, asteroids or other bodies that we visit. NASA history. Would this function be better from two major sources, namely biohazards As Dr. Cain pointed out (pg. 340) the release handled by robotic machines that are not that the crew would bring with them, and of new synthetic organisms “will need to be subject to human frailties and whose loss biohazards that exist in the outer space well controlled and regulated”, the same holds while unfortunate, would not be seen as environment. true for our natural organisms, especially a human tragedy? Until our technology While it may be possible to sterilize the where the release is accidental. increases to the stage that we can protect crew capsule and equipment used on the The second source is biohazards that our astronauts from chemical and biological voyage (although 100% sterilization is likely exist in the outer space environment. The hazards of space travel (both known and to be impossible), such is not the case comment that “Human contact with alien unknown), robotic exploration may be the with the human body. Both inside and out environments poses great challenges for the best answer. we are a repository of various bacteria, generation of space colonists and these could viruses, moulds and parasites. The most include biological hazards” (p 340) is very Dr. William Basztyk, C.Biol.,FRSB,MRSC vigorous cleaning and antibiotic courses of appropriate. Although we don’t know what Via email treatments will not eliminate all the possible alien life forms exist. The likelihood that alien microbiological hitchhikers in and on us. life exists in microbiological form as opposed References Nor would this be desirable as microbes are to complex multi cellular organisms is quite 1. J.B. Boonyaratanakornkit et al., “Key necessary for certain human functions such high. How these microorganisms will interact Gravity-Sensitive Signaling Pathways Drive T Cell Activation”, The FASEB Journal, as digestion. with humans is unknown and should be 19, 2020-2022, 2005, DOI:10.1096/fj.05- As a result, we will be bringing entire approached with caution. 3778fje. colonies of microorganisms with us on Astronauts returning to the capsule these voyages. On the surface this may covered in dust which could contain microbes The editor welcomes letters and emails for not represent a problem but with each need to be carefully decontaminated before publication but regrets that he is unable to crewmember bringing their own special these microbes have an opportunity to acknowledge or reply individually. Those ecosystem with them, other crewmembers interact with human tissue. The situation of an sending letters via email to may not have developed immunity from prior astronaut coming into a capsule covered in [email protected] exposure to these microorganisms. A sealed dust and exposing himself and his crewmates should remember to include their address. Letters may be edited. capsule with re-circulated air can allow the to this hazardous dust simply cannot be intermixing of these organisms and the spread of illnesses or diseases among the Meyya Meyyappan, chief scientist for exploration technology and former director of the Center for crew ranging from colds and flu to potentially Nanotechnology at NASA Ames Research Center (left) and Neil Gordon, president of Early Warning, Inc, examine a prototype of NASA’s nanotechnology-based biosensor licensed to Early Warning. deadly situations. NASA Ames Research Center/Dominic Hart Consider this example, an MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staph. Aureus) from person “A” drifts through the capsule and lands on an open wound of person “B” causing an unstoppable infection and eventual death of this individual. A spacecraft hurtling through the cosmos at blinding speeds is not a suitable lab in which a new antibiotic could be developed. Also, the chances of a newly developed antibiotic, effective against MRSA, being launched in time from earth to catch up with the capsule is unlikely. Result, one or more dead astronauts. The possibility of mutations of the microbial “hitchhikers” is also high. Once we leave the protection of the earth’s magnetosphere, increased levels of cosmic ray activity can mutate microorganisms. Most of these mutations would destroy the organism but the survival of only a few will increase the risk of

Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 435 society news BIS-Italia at star party

The observatory at Lignan, not far from the town of Nus, in Valle d’Aosta. Fabrizio Bernardini

uring the first weekend of September, conferences on space sciences and space table, with our classic display of magazines, the 25th Valle d’Aosta Star Party exploration, the amateur astronomers expo Skylon models and descriptions of the was held in the north-western Italian area, and of course our activities. evolution of interstellar projects the BIS has DAlps. It has been organised in cooperation This time we managed multiple repetitions followed since the Daedalus project. The with the local astronomical observatory by of two sessions devoted to model rocketry history of the BIS was played on video, and the relentless Paolo Calcidese, who invited and to Mars rovers. In the first ones we many people stopped to ask questions about BIS-Italia with some of its activities which are showed many practical aspects of hands-on the Society, greatly surprised to know about helping the BIS gain ground in Italy. building of rockets, and some theory behind our past achievements and our current trends. The location was Lignan, at an altitude of them (for all ages), while in the others we Among the great successes of our 1,633 m, featuring a small gathering of houses, used our educational rover project to explain participation we should note the interest in one church and a bar, which is used to host the problems behind real-life operations of the two guided sessions, including of course amateur astronomers. At night the small village a rover on Mars, including the intricacies of the spectacular launches of rockets in the transforms into a magic place for observing the telemetry and tele-command for deep-space alpine environment, and the Soyuz simulator, sky and the local population ensures there is missions. Both “classes” provided attendance followed by a lot of interest by a group of deaf no disturbance to observations: street lamps certificates to participants. people that required assistance with gesture are switched off, windows are obscured, lights A dedicated stand was provided for the BIS language, a long, but rewarding, experience are red-shielded and even cars use only side lights to drive around. Enrico Flamini, ASI Chief Scientist and good friend of the BIS, holding our Rover together with Aldo BIS-Italia had been invited to the event to Minniti and Dario Kluber. Fabrizio Bernardini help provide the public with additional daily activities related to space exploration. This was supported by Luigi Blasi, Davide Coco, Alessio Pelella and Carlo Alberto Rasoni. It was locally coordinated by Aldo Minniti and helped by Dario Kubler, who brought rockets, the educational rover, the Soyuz simulator, and all BIS institutional paraphernalia, driving it all for more than 800 km. Francesca Ingiosi managed coordination and organization of the event, while Sveva Stallone, a guest of ours, helped popularise rocketry culture. It was a small team, compared to our usual appearances, but we had to work within the tight budget allowed by the organiser who paid all the expenses. While during the night public attention was focused on astronomical observations, during daytime a rich programme included guided visits to the main local observatory,

436 Spaceflight Vol 58 November 2016 society news

Paolo Calcidese, organizer and host, with Aldo Minniti at the BIS stand. Fabrizio Bernardini for our Alessio. The event drew a crowd of more than 1,000 people, and was blessed by perfect weather, the only variable that organizer Paolo Calcidese, to which goes our gratitude and esteem, cannot control! He managed a team Queuing for a session with the Soyuz rendezvous and proximity operations simulator, managed by of very kind and efficient people that provided Alessio Pelella. Fabrizio Bernardini us with perfect working conditions. Paolo also built on his own the perfect Martian-like Rare Space Books for Sale! terrain, pleasing our Luigi that for once was able to see reddish dirt staining the tracks of Book Sale at the BIS HQ Conference Room in Vauxhall the rover. This was yet another successful Wednesday 19 October 2016, 12 – 6.30 pm participation for the Italian section of the BIS, due exclusively to the enthusiasm, and The Society is holding a sale of surplus books from its library. All proceeds go to support capabilities, of its members, and the hands-on the BIS. Due to the number of books, a list is not available, so it’s first come, first served. approach to space education. BIS-Italia would Come and have a browse and find rare and unusual, as well as some newly published also like to thank Sierrafox Hobbies (Stefano space books. There will be a few bargains as well! Figini) for the special prices applied to kits and rocket motors used for the event and their speedy delivery. Aldo Minniti, MBIS Journal of the British JBIS Interplanetary Society New BIS Members Mike Smith, Lancashire, UK Oliver Hay, Edinburgh, UK Mario Di Paolantonio, Italy Matthew Akisanya, Italy Olesya Myakonkaya, London, UK Andrew Jones, Finland The April 2016 issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society is now available and contains the following papers: Errata A Review of Air-Fuel Mixing and Alternative Methods in Scramjet and Scramjet-Like Engines

The caption to the picture on page 380 of the HESPeruS – Highly Elliptical Solar Power Satellite October issue of Spaceflight was incorrect Lunar Propellant for Interstellar Missions in identifying the person shaking hands with Patriock Moore as Gordon Bolton. It was in Copies of JBIS, priced at £10 for members, £40 to non-members plus P&P. Full list of available issues – www.bis-space.com/eshop/products-page/publications/jbis/ fact William “Bill” Childs, President of the Back issues are also available and can be obtained from The British Interplanetary Society, BIS from 1988 to 1992. Arthur C Clarke House, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, England

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BIS Lectures and Meetings US Spy Satellites 1954-2016 2 November 2016 OS Maps go Out of This World Speaker: David Baker In a fund raising effort for the BIS, David will present a talk focused on 19 October 2016 his latest book, available to purchase on the night, describing in detail Speaker: Nigel Clifford, Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey the development and associated technologies of US spy satellites with recently declassified material and using his own sources which were (OS) cleared for publication. With the wealth of experience and expertise gained over its 225 year A Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and now history and its world-renowned reputation as a user and provider of a lecturer in geopolitics and the application of aerospace technologies, geographical information, Ordnance Survey (OS), the UK’s national David will place these satellites in historical and Cold War context, mapping agency, is continually looking to the future for its products explaining how their development predated plans for civilian satellites. and services. While already well established in many countries in All proceeds from copies sold will go to the BIS. this world the OS is venturing further afield, much further, to other planets! So, where better than Mars? So much information is now available on Film – Rocket Flight the red planet, our nearest neighbour, and more is being gathered by 26 November 2016 the day, even by the minute, from the many satellites already orbiting Mars and the two or three rover vehicles on the planet’s surface. More Venue: The Gardeners Arms, Vines Lane, Droitwich, WR9 8LU high resolution images reveal more details of the land below, the mountains and the dried up riverbeds, and ground penetrating radar The rocket and missile historian John Harlow MBE will introduce and radio altimeters give highly accurate measurements for mapping a rarely seen film Rocket Flight. The film, made by the RAF in 1945, terrain. details the development of rockets and missiles in Germany before and during the Second World War. There will be a discussion afterwards on As in the past, our explorers will all need maps, but this time they won’t the film and the significance of the German work in relation to rockets have to make their own. They, like many of us, can rely on Ordnance and missile development post World War II. Survey! To cover the cost of the film there will be an admission charge of £6.00 (payable on the day). RISpace 2016 24-27 October 2016 Call for Papers Venue: Royal Society, London Future Histories and Forecasting The BIS-organised 14th Reinventing Space Conference and Exhibition 25 January 2017 will be held between Monday 24 and Thursday 27 October 2016 Following the successful session at the BIS Space Conference; the at the Royal Society in London. The focus of the 2016 conference British Interplanetary Society is staging a one-day symposium on the will be on how technology trends are leading to the increasing subject of hypothetical future histories and technical forecasting in commercialisation of space, including low cost launch systems, mega- both science fiction and space programme planning. constellations, and a range of novel satellite applications, both in LEO and beyond. Papers are invited on constructed projections of the future of space flight and their value in guiding technical development programmes, RISpace brings together industry, agency, government, financiers, space infrastructure planning and their inspiration role in developing academia and end users in the unparalleled, catalytic environment of visions of the future. To submit your paper please email Events@bis- a major London scientific institution. The conference and exhibition is space.com or send to the HQ. organised by the British Interplanetary Society.

BIS Belgium Annual Space Symposium 2016 Lectures 29 October 2016, 2 pm Venue: BIS HQ, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, unless Venue: CC De Ploter, Ternat, Belgium otherwise stated. On 29th October 2016 at 2p.m., the Belgian branch of the BIS will Members can attend free of charge. Places must be booked in advance, organize its third afternoon with lectures. From now on this event will online or by post. Each member may also obtain a free ticket for one be called the BIS Belgium Annual Space Symposium. Just as the two guest subject to availability of space. previous times, this event will take place in the cultural centre “De Non-Members are able to attend the Society’s lectures for a fee. You Ploter” in Ternat, about 15 km west of Brussels. It is easily accessible can order a ticket online or by post (please make cheques payable to by public transport: Ternat has a train station within walking distance the British Interplanetary Society). If oversubscribed Society Members of the cultural centre. will be given priority. These are the planned lectures for this year: “Amateur near space If applying via our website the confirmation receipt is your entry ticket. exploration with high altitude weather balloons” by L. Paul Verhage; If, for reasons outside its control, the Society is required to change “Interstellar Travel – Can we reach the stars?” by Kelvin F. Long; “The the date or topic of a meeting, every effort will be made to avoid Future of Human Spaceflight: Diverging or Converging Paths?” by Bart inconvenience to attendees either by notice of change in Spaceflight/ Hendrickx, our specialist in Russian spaceflight. JBIS, on our website or by special advice to each participant.

Readers are reminded that these Notices contain only a reduced description of the event. Full details can be found online: www.bis-space.com/whats-on

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440 Spaceflight Vol 55 January 2013