Cosmonauts Exhibition

Spaceflight A British Interplanetary Society Publication Cosmonauts exhibition

F-1 recovery

Space Resources

Kettering get-together

Remodelling the Cape

Vol 58 No 6 June 2016 £4.50

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202 Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 contents

Editor: Published by the British Interplanetary Society David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub-editor: Volume 58 No. 6 June 2016 Ann Page Production Assistant: 210-211 Utilising Resources Ben Jones Nick Spall discusses the thorny issue of accessing the mineral resources of the solar system and reviews the many legal, ethical and Spaceflight Promotion: Gillian Norman moral questions raised by extending our propensity to outgrow our place on Earth by supplementing depleting resources through scavenging Spaceflight Arthur C. Clarke House, other worlds. 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, England. 212-215 A Vanishing Era Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Joel Powell has watched the changing Cape Canaveral landscape for Fax: +44 (0)20 7582 7167 many decades and brings a disturbing tale of wanton abandonment Email: [email protected] as launch pads and block houses are erased for ever in the conversion www.bis-space.com of the area as a new age in space activity brings different rockets to ADVERTISING Florida. Tel: +44 (0)1424 883401 Email: [email protected] 216-221 The Cosmonauts challenge DISTRIBUTION Spaceflight may be received worldwide by Ian Blatchford and Dr Natalia Sidlina provide a revealing insight to the mail through membership of the British extraordinary effort required to bring an unprecedented range of Russian Interplanetary Society. Details including Library space hardware to the Science Museum in London, our tribute to an subscriptions are available from the above outstanding exhibition, remembered through a special photographic visit address. by Bob Christy. * * * Spaceflight is obtainable from UK newsagents and other retail outlets in many countries. 222-223 Kettering and the Plesetsk site In the event of difficulty contact: Warners Mike Sinnett of the Kettering Group recalls the time when British Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, amateurs, still at school, provided unparalleled detail on the activities of Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England. the Soviet space programme and reports on a historic reunion at a very Tel: +44 (0)1778 391 000 special birthday celebration. Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 * * * 226-227 Saturn V F-1 parts retrieved Spaceflight is a publication which promotes the The UK’s greatest authority on the Saturn V, rocket engineer Alan Lawrie mission of The British Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the describes the recovery of key sections of F-1 engines from the ocean contributors and do not necessarily reflect the floor off Cape Canaveral, testimony to the world’s largest successful views of the Editor or the Council of the British launch vehicle and now an iconic representation of the “golden age” of Interplanetary Society. space exploration. * * * 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 Regular Features address at top. 204-205 News Analysis – Don’t Break It! * * * Published monthly by the British Interplanetary 206-208 ISS Report – 16 March-15 April 2016 Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered Charity No: 250556. Printed in the UK by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd. 209 Briefing notes – news shorts from around the world * * * Copyright © British Interplanetary Society 224 Shelf – Into the Black – World Launcher Review 2015-16 – Thor Ballistic Missile 2016 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, 225 Flashback – A regular feature looking back 50 years ago this month electronic or mechanical, including photo- copying or recording by any information storage 228-229 Satellite Digest – 521 March 2016 or retrieval system without written permission from the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. 230-236 Society News – A Change of Leadership – BIS Vision and Strategy Meeting * * * – Westcott gets a visit – Tom Stafford in Yorkshire The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. 237 Obituary – Morris V. Jenkins (1923-2016)

Mission The British Interplanetary Society promotes the 238 What’s On exploration and use of space for the benefit of humanity, by connecting people to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in Cover image: An Atlas V rocket prepares to lift the extended Cygnus cargo module to the International all aspects of astronautics. Space Station on 22 March (local time) from LC-41 at Cape Canaveral. NASA

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 203 news analysis DON’T BREAK IT!

NASA’s Curiosity rover is one element in a combined robotic/human space flight programme to extend deep-space exploration to Mars and beyond, an initiative which could be threatened by further changes made by an incoming President. JPL

n a presentation to the Space Transportation companies would focus on ferrying cargo and None of the contenders have discussed Association on 31 March, NASA administrator people to the ISS. space with the electorate and NASA has been Charles F. Bolden addressed issues relevant Some said that cancellation of the operating on a “call us when you want to talk” Ito the upcoming US Presidential election by Constellation programme was unavoidable – basis. But once the nominees are selected and affirming that his intention was to approach the and it certainly was too expensive for the annual the lucky candidates can begin their dialogue respective nominated candidates “on an equal NASA budget meted out by Congress. A strong with the American people, NASA will brief them basis and without regard to political affiliation.” lobby within the dissident camp said it was on its programmes and plans. Plus, NASA He was, of course, referring to the briefings going in the wrong direction and a few within will be making a concerted plea to avoid the each candidate will get when the political that group proposed a completely different temptation to carry out swingeing changes to parties decide on who will go forward to the approach, less expensive they said and more the status quo. country in the national Presidential election achievable than the “big spend” government Charlie Bolden has not yet been approached held on 8 November. On that day the United architecture. Arguments such as these fuelled by any of the candidates and his attitude is to States will decide which of the two candidates the New Space/Old Space debate, with many wait until called, because staying quietly to one will go to the White House in January 2017. believing that doing things the NASA way was side may just be the best bet for NASA to cruise Between those dates, a transition team will a recipe of overspend, delay and inflexibility. on through the election period without focused manage the shift of power. Nevertheless, Congress resuscitated the attention which could work against continuity. There is a nervousness in the air about what ailing patient, gave NASA a big rocket to build Making space an election issue can sometimes will happen when the new President is sworn and resurrected the Orion spacecraft that be very bad for long-term consistency in. Memories of former convulsions created by had been designed for the Constellation era. and complex technical, engineering and the “clean slate” approach to re-structuring US With a general trend of shifting low Earth orbit programmatic issues connected with a wide space goals and objectives hangs high on the traffic to the commercial sector and retaining range of projects. list of concerns. The record endorses those deep-space exploration for robotic spacecraft If all goes as expected the two nominees worries. and the Space Launch System, NASA has should be known by the end of July, when the The cancellation of the Constellation compromised on the very big differences long list of Federal agencies will parade their programme by Barack Obama in 2010 between Congress and the White House, wares and each presidential candidate will unravelled a series of steps which would have providing the lawmakers with options to receive in-depth briefings. Transition times put humans back on the Moon and paved the balance the programme. are populated with such detail, all the more way for missions to Mars. It caused several so at the end of a two-term presidency when years of delay in reconfiguring the dynamic of No talk yet the White House will inevitably receive a large-scale human space flight, extended US With hotly contested political issues and two new tenant and the all-but irresistible urge to support for the International Space Station and highly polarised parties slugging it out in the make changes cascades through the planning sustained a programme begun under the Bush primaries, heavy-hitters are leaning on the documents of the incoming president. administration in which subsidised New Space candidates for clip-quotes on policy issues. On several occasions since NASA opened for

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business on 1 October 1958, metamorphosing his hands while campaigning for re-election, tourist activities within a single structure. But from the old National Advisory Committee for Nixon had NASA put the Apollo 17 flight back that is a very big step and may require NASA Aeronautics, the President has made broad until after the country went to the polls on 7 to remain as an integral structure of such an changes in programmes and focus, if not in November 1972. organisation, rather than being absorbed by it. downright rewrite of space policy agreements Yet for all the debate and lack of substance to The rationale behind this proposal is driven during former administrations. Unwilling change anything more than the launch of a single by the explosion of diverse and variable to be seen endorsing the policies of their mission, the assumption of the President that he activities conducted with space-based assets predecessors, incoming administrations can (or she) can change national policy at will is very supporting everyday life in the US and around bring about change on a near-catastrophic strong, if not in fact a reality. Despite strenuous the world. Numerous government departments scale, affecting long-term plans and efforts to get approval to develop the Shuttle, use satellites and spacecraft to streamline, programmes which often far outlive the life of first voiced by George Mueller at a meeting of increase or expand their capabilities. And a lot the chief executive. the British Interplanetary Society in August 1968, of that conflicts across the margins between Nixon only acquiesced when Caspar Weinberger different organisations. Abolishing NASA threw the weight of the treasury behind this For instance, NASA, the National Oceanic When Richard M. Nixon entered the White programme on the promise of jobs in California. & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) House in January 1969 he had little knowledge Throughout the last several decades, and the US Geological Service (USGS) all about space, casting aside the investment of Presidents have sought to stamp their extract data from space systems to support the Kennedy and Johnson years as a one- imprimatur on changes to existing programmes, environmental and climate change studies. time payment for prestige and technological plans or policies. And not only in the space Frequently, the same data is sought by unique flag-waving in a bi-polar world defined by sector. But for NASA the dangers are very real access channels set up by these individual American pre-eminence on one hand and and the threat a constant pressure to reinforce government agencies, while the Department Soviet propaganda on the other. In such an the organisation against attack or deflection. of Defense and national security agencies use environment, it seemed to Nixon that the As indicated here, there is precedent and form commercial and other government assets to country had no need of NASA itself, certainly not for such anxiety. But not necessarily from the collect information, sometimes triplicating the the several post-Apollo plans and propositions changing political spectrum alone. same work through individual channels. already in hand. As he sought to redefine the In recent months, in attempting to find a Then there are the wide range of shape of US priorities in a time of civil unrest stronger bond between NASA and its coterie of international ventures, carried out by separate and failing military operations in Vietnam, to contractors, customers and international partners, space-related organisations, multiple channels Richard Nixon the space programme was a murmuring voices have been echoing around the to which the non-US participant has no single luxury. It had served its purpose. halls of power for NASA to be abolished and a access route, sometimes falling foul of ITAR Reacting to his innate lack of conviction about new Department of Space to be formed. Only restrictions. Which is why some people call for a Department of Space to pool services. America’s long-term future in space, Nixon in this way, say advocates, can the activities Meanwhile, in the present, Charlie Bolden sought to change NASA by shutting down the of NASA be fully insulated from the predating aspirations of a new political leadership. has one message for the two Presidential Apollo missions (“I don’t want risk any more”, Such a Department of Space would, candidates which he will brief after July: “This he said after the near-death experience of apparently, provide a stronger lead for is where NASA is today. This is where we think Apollo 13), and redirecting the agency to a very international cooperation and bring together the nation can go if we stay the course. And if different path. He even contemplated changing under one administrative canopy, fully you want to change something, tweak it, but its name to the Experimental Space Agency, embracing government, commercial and space whatever you do, don’t break it!” cutting it back so drastically that it would be a repository for all manner of domestic research Final welding takes place during April on the engine section of the Space Launch System which will programmes. These included the world’s house four RS-25 rocket motors. The SLS is crucial for NASA’s heavy-lift to deep space. NASA-MAF biggest desalination plant in California and having that come out of NASA’s budget. When chief domestic adviser John Ehrlichman told Nixon that he wanted to “Cancel the Moon programme, (not) do any more lunar landings…take all the money…to put it on desalting possibilities”, the President concurred, reassuring Ehrlichman that “They’ll squeal” but “I can deal with the astronauts.” From that meeting flowed a sequence of discussions again searching for a new name for the agency, included in which were, among others, The Discovery Agency, Center for Exploration of the Unknown, or the National Scientific Breakthrough Agency. Of course it never happened but the influence of the White House in cutting deep into assumptions intended to outlast the limited term of office served by a single President is palpable. Not wanting to have a disaster on

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 205 space stations ISS Report 16 March – 15 April 2016

By George Spiteri

Bringing some 250 experiments to the ISS, Cygnus is here in the final stages of docking on 26 March. NASA

Commanded by Tim Kopra, Expedition 47 now comprises Jeff Williams, March for Cygnus’ arrival. Kopra did some Yuri Malenchenko, Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Tim Peake. troubleshooting to Robonaut 2 (R2) which experienced what NASA TV described as “off n 16 March, Kopra and Peake launched as 46S from Baikonur at 21:26 UTC nominal voltage readings”. Williams recorded performed more Ocular Health studies, on 18 March (03:26 19 March local time), his initial observations for NASA’s Habitability using eye scanning devices aimed carrying Jeff Williams (58) on his fourth space study, which looks at the relationship between Oat better understanding why crewmembers flight, Alexey Ovchinin (44) a space rookie, crewmembers and their environment to help experience decreased visual acuity during long and Oleg Skripochka (46) who flew aboard the future designers of spacecraft. The Russian duration missions. The duo also conducted on first Soyuz TMA-M vehicle in 2010 on his one cosmonauts worked with the Cosmocard board refresher training inside Destiny for the previous mission (Spaceflight Vol 52, No 12, medical experiment and Matryoshka radiation imminent arrival of the next Cygnus vehicle. p 465). study respectively. Malenchenko worked with the Identification Soyuz docked to the Poisk module at 03:09 On 22 March, Kopra took his turn with the (Identificatsia) experiment, which studies the UTC on 19 March as the ISS flew 407km above Habitability study and conducted maintenance stresses on the station’s structures and with the southern Pacific Ocean near the coast to the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG), the Interactions-2 (Vzaimodeistviye-2) study, of Peru. The hatches were opened over two whilst Peake reviewed procedures for another which looks at how crewmembers interact with run with NASA’s Synchronised Position Hold, each other and the ground control centres. “…great to be back on Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites There were more eye exams and Cygnus board....an amazing orbiting (SPHERES). The following day SPHERES robotics training for Kopra and Peake on 17 outpost!” was used as a test bed for docking procedures March. Peake also operated ESA’s METERON hours later returning the station to a six person inside Kibo. Williams collected blood, breath robot, which will help engineers validate complement. Williams became the first US and air samples for Canada’s Marrow the technology that will control rovers on astronaut to conduct three long duration visits experiment. Malenchenko and Skripochka another planet. He tweeted his excitement to to the ISS and tweeted that it “was great to be did further work with Cosmocard and the be commanding his “first rover from space!” back on board....an amazing orbiting outpost!” Seismoprognoz earthquake study experiment Malenchenko continued to pack Progress The new arrivals spent part of the weekend and Ovchinin completed transferring items 61 with unwanted items and worked with the 19/20 March familiarising themselves with from the newly arrived Soyuz to the ISS. SPLANH experiment, which studies how the their new orbital home. Peake tweeted his Kopra and Peake continued with refresher digestive system adapts to microgravity. appreciation for the “fresh fruit....nothing training on 23 March for Cygnus’ grapple. quite like a juicy apple!” delivered by the Williams prepared one of the payload racks Full complement Soyuz crew and together with Kopra and for NASA’s new Additive Manufacturing The last of the Soyuz-TMA-M vehicles was Williams resumed on board training on 21 Facility (AMF), which enables the production

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of components on the ISS for NASA and the ability of communicating with the ground aft port at 14:15 UTC on 30 March and after commercial objectives whilst his Russian while wearing the masks. completing several days of engineering tests colleagues completed work with the On 27 March, Peake, Kopra and Williams was de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean at 13:31 Cosmocard experiment. tweeted their best wishes to everyone for a UTC on 8 April. This paved the way for the Happy Easter together with spectacular photos launch of Progress MS-02/63P from Baikonur’s Cygnus arrives of Earth and resumed unloading Cygnus the Site 31 at 16:23 UTC (22:23 local time). The At 03:05 UTC on 23 March (23:05, 22 March following day. Russian unmanned cargo vehicle docked at local time), Orbital ATK launched the Cygnus Williams collected more blood and urine Zvezda’s vacated aft port at 17:58 UTC on OA-6 unmanned cargo vehicle on an Atlas V samples for the Marrow experiment on 28 2 April as the complex flew above Astana, from LC-41 at Cape Canaveral to mark the March, whilst Peake worked with NASA’s Kazakhstan delivering 2,425kg of food, fuel start of the fifth Orbital ATK mission to the Cognition study which involves a series of and supplies, including a nanosatellite that will ISS. The following day the Centaur upper computer tasks aimed at testing cognitive be deployed by hand during a future Russian stage fired for more than a minute longer than functions and Kopra conducted a Ham EVA. planned to compensate for a premature shut radio pass with students in Kobe, Japan. Kopra and Williams used a tablet to conduct down of the rocket’s first stage engine, an Malenchenko and Skripochka worked with a series of interactive tasks as part of NASA’s anomaly isolated “to the first stage fuel system Russia’s DAN medical experiment and Fine Motor Skills study on 30 March. Peake and its associated components”. Ovchinin teamed up Skripochka for two days to assisted Williams with ultrasound scans of Named in honour of Rick Husband, the look at how bacteria and fungi on the ISS may his arteries for the Cardio Ox experiment. contaminate some Malenchenko commander of the ill-fated Columbia mission ‘Kopra and Williams tweeted their in 2003, Cygnus was grappled by Canadarm2 of the station’s and Skripochka best wishes to everyone for a at 10:51 UTC on 26 March as the complex flew components. continued with above the southern Indian Ocean. Canadian On 29 March, Happy Easter’ the Interactions-2 astronaut CapCom Jeremy Hansen radioed Kopra, Peake and Williams reviewed the study, Ovchinin worked with the Seismoprognoz Kopra and Peake, inside the Cupola at the rendezvous procedures for the next Dragon. experiment and later joined Malenchenko for two days work with the Biocard cardiovascular Robotics Workstation, that they “made that Williams also was the first to try out NASA’s new Gecko Gripper technology, that could study. look easy”. enable new touch-to stick and catch and Peake set up the hardware for ESA’s Cygnus delivered approximately 3,600kg release technologies such as robotic crawlers Energy experiment on 31 March. This involved of supplies and scientific equipment including that walk and work on the outside of spacecraft. wearing an arm band for 10 days to take a second generation 3D printer, a gripper Malenchenko and Skripochka completed measurements which monitor a crewmember’s experiment to test adhesive technologies loading Progress with unwanted items and optimum food requirements. Williams and Saffire-1, which will attempt to create a Peake took time out to speak to Sky News at devoted two days to NASA’s high intensity controlled fire inside Cygnus once it departs 12:30 UTC. He said he definitely missed“fresh low volume Sprint exercise experiment and the complex to better understand the growth air, being outdoors and the colour green” but Kopra began maintenance to the EMU suits of fires in space. Cygnus was berthed to conceded space travel “is very addictive”. inside Quest, including scrubbing cooling Unity’s Earth facing port at 14:52 UTC and loops the following day. Ovchinin took his turn the crew entered the vehicle at 09:30 UTC the Progress traffic with the Interactions-2 experiment and joined following day to begin several days unloading Progress M-29M/61P undocked from Zvezda’s Skripochka to work on an experiment which its supplies. On 24 March, Peake tweeted a photo receiving his “100 days in space” patch from Tim Peake, left, and Alexey Ovchinin cross their names off the ceremonial “League of Unflown Astronauts” patch. Both are on their first spaceflight and were the 221st and 222nd individuals to visit Kopra. He also completed the 25th day out of the ISS, respectively. NASA a 28 day run with JAXA’s Multi-Omics immune study and then partnered his commander for more work on the Habitability experiment. Ovchinin and Malenchenko worked with the Russian Cardiovector blood circulation study and Malenchenko then joined Skripochka researching how crewmembers move about in weightlessness under Russia’s Motocard experiment. The following day Peake took his turn with the Habitability study, the cosmonauts conducted Earth observations courtesy of the Vizir experiment and used the Pilot-T study, which aims to improve and develop the tools to assess and predict the reliability of how a crewmember performs complicated tasks, such as piloting a spacecraft. All six crewmembers familiarised themselves with emergency hardware, including practicing donning emergency breathing masks, demonstrating

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The Dragon returns SpaceX launched their Dragon unmanned commercial vehicle on a Falcon 9 rocket to begin the CRS-8 mission from LC-40 at 20:43 UTC (16:43 local time) on 8 April. This was SpaceX’s first resupply mission since their last launch to the ISS failed last June (Spaceflight Vol 57, No 9, p 335). As an added bonus SpaceX successfully managed to land the rocket’s first stage on a landing barge afew miles offshore. With Peake at the controls of Canadarm2, Dragon was grappled at 11:23 UTC on 10 April as the complex flew west of Hawaii and berthed to Harmony’s Earth facing port over two and a half hours later at 13: 57 UTC, marking the third resupply mission in as many weeks, the first time there were two US commercial vehicles at the ISS and only the second time in ISS history that six visiting vehicles have been Chow time! Tim Kopra (left), Jeff Williams (centre) and Tim Peake eat together in Destiny. NASA docked at the complex, the previous time being when “Discovery” conducted its final flight in studies the pain threshold tolerated during an Exercise Device (ARED) and did some training 2011(Spaceflight Vol 53, No 5, pp 183-190). extended stay in space. All three cosmonauts for the installation of NASA’s Meteor imaging Dragon delivered 3,136kg of supplies and took part in an educational demonstration experiment delivered by Cygnus. Malenchenko hardware including the much anticipated highlighting the achievements of the Russian took an inventory of the gas masks and Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), space programme. Ovchinin paired up with Skripochka for another a prototype habitat module. Kopra tweeted his On 1 April, Kopra installed new gear in the run with the DAN experiment and conducted thanks for having “an epic birthday” turning 53 Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), Peake maintenance in the Russian segment. on 9 April, and assisted Williams, Malenchenko swapped batteries and hard drives in a All six crewmembers participated in two and Peake unloading supplies after Williams, laptop computer for NASA’s Alpha Magnetic simulated emergencies on 6 April, one involved who initially wore a protective mask and Spectrometer-02 (AMS-02), whilst Skripochka a rapid depressurisation and the other a fire in goggles, opened its hatch on 11 April. completed a 24hr heart monitoring session the Russian segment. These exercises allow The Russian cosmonauts celebrated the using an electrocardiogram (ECG). the crew to stay familiar with escape routes, 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering Malenchenko opened the hatch to Progress safety hardware and communication protocols. flight on 12 April. Russia’s President Vladimir 63 in the late Afterwards Williams Putin took the opportunity to speak to the crew, ‘…an hours of 2 April example of how people conducted a Ham telling them that “in spite of all the challenges and together can work “shoulder to shoulder” radio pass with that we face on the ground” the ISS was an with Skripochka in space.’ students in northern example of how people can work “shoulder to began unloading supplies the following days. Canada, Kopra performed maintenance to the shoulder” in space. Kopra and Peake configured ESA’s Muscular CIR and the Russian cosmonauts worked with On 13 April Kopra and Peake began three Atrophy Research and Exercise System the ongoing Pilot-T study. more days of Ocular Health studies, Williams th (MARES) experiment on 4 April for several Peake celebrated his 44 birthday on 7 April worked on four scientific experiments including days of research. After attaching electrodes to and received numerous congratulatory tweets, the Gecko Gripper experiment and Skripochka his right leg the following day to successfully including the UK Space Agency, the National continued to prepare the Rodent Research execute ankle exercise sessions, the hardware Space Centre in Leicester and NASA who facility. Peake worked for the fourth day with experienced software issues which prevented advised him to celebrate by enjoying the “out the Spheroids experiment on 14 April. Results the remaining activities from being completed. of this world view”. He and Williams devoted from this study could help develop potential Williams assisted with the installation of a part of the day to further on board robotics countermeasures to prevent cardiovascular new adaptor on Kibo’s exposed facility. The training for Dragon’s arrival. Malenchenko and deconditioning in astronauts. Kopra continued device can hold up to two payloads that can be Ovchinin continued with Progress unloading unloading Dragon and Williams worked with mounted by crewmembers. He also conducted and Kopra conducted maintenance to one of the Sprint and Multi-Omics experiments. maintenance to the Waste and Hygiene the GLACIER freezers. Malenchenko swapped out GoPro batteries Compartment (WHC), whilst Ovchinin and Despite the crew having a light-duty day on 8 and photographed the condition of Zvezda’s Skripochka returned to the DAN experiment. April, Kopra, Williams and Peake still managed solar panels, whilst Skripochka worked with Kopra and Skripochka spent 5 April to perform maintenance tasks and conduct the Biocard experiment. preparing NASA’s Rodent Research habitat. various scientific studies. Malenchenko loaded On 15 April, Williams worked with the This facility will help scientists better Progress 62 with unwanted items and replaced Habitability experiment and Kopra and understand how living in space affects bones a pump panel in Zarya’s internal hydraulic Peake completed several days of eye tests and muscles by observing how mice behave in loops, whilst Skripochka and Ovchinin replaced with ultrasound scans on each other and the weightlessness. Williams conducted scheduled a sensor package and tested communication cosmonauts conducted maintenance and maintenance to the Advanced Resistive systems inside Zvezda. experiments in the Russian segment.

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solar system approximately two million Briefing notes years ago. Evidence of the fact has been found on the earth in the form of increased • Further to reports last month about concentrations of the iron isotope 60Fe Russia’s space programme planning detected in Pacific Ocean deep-sea crusts (Spaceflight Vol 58, No 05, p 174), over and in ocean-floor sediment samples. the next 10 years the next generation This evidence is highly compelling. The Soyuz and Angara rockets are expected radioactive 60Fe isotope is created almost to be the sole remaining launch vehicles exclusively in supernova explosions. With following the retirement of the Proton, a half-life of 2.62million years, relatively Rokot, Kosmos, Cyclone, Dnepr and Zenith short compared to the age of our solar series. Much is hanging on the success of system, any radioactive 60Fe originating Angara which will provide an adaptable from the time of the solar system’s birth family of rockets for all commercial and should have long ago decayed into stable government payloads. Optimising launch elements and thus should no longer be vehicle capabilities with anticipated found on Earth. payload requirements, there will be three versions of the Soyuz (1a, 1b and 1v) and • In March NASA formally gave the go-ahead three for Angara (light, medium and heavy) for NASA’s next space observatory, the versus the 12 originally anticipated. Approval has been granted for NASA’s next Wide-Field Infra-Red Space Telescope space observatory – WFIRST – which will focus (WFIRST) which is scheduled for launch • Russia’s new strategic planning for on wide-field infra-red observations. NASA in the early 2020s. Conceived in 2011, the 2016-2025, prioritises the communications Italy, Japan, Sweden and the US, NASA’s WFIRST was originally to have utilised sector followed by remote sensing. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has a 1.5m diameter mirror but the “gift” of number of direct broadcast satellites is captured the disturbance produced by two two redundant 2.4m telescopes from the planned to grow from 32 to 41 over the colliding black holes, merging into one, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) next decade with funding from commercial marking the first detection of gravitational has significantly expanded the science operations and from revenue on astronaut waves. A fraction of a second after the potential from this mission. The NRO flights to the International Space Station. event, the telescope picked up a weak burst has responsibility for national security Space science gets high rating in the plan of high-energy light. While energy from assets involving space reconnaissance with the ExoMars programme with the visible light lies in the range of 2-3 eV that and surveillance and the offer came European Space Agency top of the list. from gamma ray bursts exhibits energies of unexpectedly in June 2012. These Hubble- However, there is increasing possibility between 8,000 eV and 40million eV. standard optics enabled a considerable that the second mission will be deferred expansion of capability for the WFIRST but from 2018 to 2020. Added to the Mars • A dying star ends its life in a cataclysmic from the date of its approval in June 2013 mission are a selection of lunar missions explosion, shooting the majority of the the telescope has been on hold waiting involving orbiters, landers and rovers with star’s material, primarily new chemical for the peak rise in funding requirements an outside chance of funding a return to elements created during the explosion, for the James Webb Space Telescope to sample-return flights. The last time Russia out into space. They are believed to abate. The confirmation of WFIRST as brought back materials from the Moon was have played a crucial role in providing the next decade’s major astrophysical in August 1976 with Luna 24. materials from which our solar system space observatory has opened the range formed. One or more such supernovae of science objectives and broadened its • Russia’s long-term plans for the International appear to have occurred close to our application. Space Station seem more assured than is the case with other partners. Igor Komarov, Gravity waves from two merging black holes appear to have been observed by the international- head of Roscosmos, has refined earlier supported NASA Fermi gamma-ray telescope. NASA uncertainties with confirmation that Russia will continue to support space station operations, building its own independent successor to the ISS should the United States decide to halt funding it from 2024. Komarov asserts the value of space stations for conducting unique research into technologies supporting long-duration flights to the Moon and Mars and confirms that Russia will work to put cosmonauts on the Moon by 2030. For that, Russia would have to develop a new super-heavyweight rocket beyond the currently projected ten- year spending plan.

• With team partners in France, Germany,

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 209 mining Utilising Resources

By Nick Spall FBIS

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will launch in September to begin the inspection of asteroid Bennu, retrieve a sample and return it to Earth. NASA

key driver for the exploration of the example, how viable will resource utilisation Elon Musk’s Space-X company is committed Moon, planets and asteroids and the really be until the cost of access to space is to push for human Mars flights for the future gradual spread of humanity across slashed? Are there insurmountable practical – the crewed Orion/SLS combination will allow Athe Solar System is the potential utilisation of operational problems associated with mining for possible asteroid capture for NASA, a the resources that it has to offer. Exploitation in space and, most importantly, what are the return to the Moon for the international space of interplanetary resources will one day legal, moral and philosophical questions that community and then trips to the Martian moons include the extraction of water from the lunar will need to be addressed? Phobos and Deimos, with a Mars landing surface, Mars and other bodies to open up possibly by the 2040s and beyond. more cost-effective spacecraft operations and Affordability Commercial space will enhance the ease support manned lab bases. Once space flight Since the emergence of private-led space of investigating and prospecting on the lunar operations become more affordable, future access, the possibility of significantly cheaper surface and asteroids for viable materials resource utilisation could transform the “closed deep space probes and more numerous and to exploit. Importantly, reducing the current economy” of the Earth itself, with new sources complex research satellites may free up the 80% launch cost load on an interplanetary of minerals, chemicals and energy being study and future exploitation of the resources of probe mission allows for more numerous available for human and industrial needs. the solar system. Already, Space-X and Orbital fleets of robotic missions across the Solar Resource utilisation was recently examined ATK have challenged the launcher market System – they could become heavier and at a Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) with lower-cost access to LEO and GEO via more sophisticated or cheaper to build with specialist discussion meeting. Organised by their Dragon and Taurus rockets. Even newly less redundancy needed due to the capability Prof Ian Crawford (Birkbeck), Martin Elvis developed expendable rockets such as the of flying several at once. Lunar landers and (Harvard-Smithsonian) and James Carpenter Ariane 6 will be simpler, more flexible and rovers may soon only cost £50m to fly, due to (ESA/ESTEC), several speakers provided their therefore cheaper. cheaper launchers. views, focusing on the extent of interplanetary For the longer term, Reaction Engines’ resources that could be available, viable Skylon spaceplane gradually moves ahead Moon first? methods of extraction/utilisation and the with the promise of orbital access for satellites The debate over whether to return to the benefits that this will have on planetary costing just a few million pounds per launch, as Moon with research bases and prospecting, astronomy for the future. opposed to the current average £60-70m for a as precursor to future Mars missions, is well Resource exploitation might one day be commercial satellite launch to LEO. known. ESA is championing this with Director big business. Potentially, profits from the Significantly, space tourism promises to cut General Jan Worner pushing for a “Moon extraction of metals and rarer minerals from prices for human access to space, with Virgin Village”. The current NASA approach is a asteroids could be impressive. An analytical Galactic, XCOR and Blue Origin competing for straight path to Mars, perhaps with an asteroid group has estimated that 253 Mathilde, a 52.8 sub-orbital markets and Bigelow Aerospace capture mission or a Moon orbit test approach km-diameter C-type (carbonaceous) asteroid, hoping to create space hotels, making use of undertaken beforehand for a full check-out of has an estimated value of over $100trillion and the emerging Dragon V2, Boeing CST-100 the Orion/SLS deep space hardware. estimated profit of $9.53trillion. Companies and SNC’s Dream Chaser orbital spacecraft. Paul Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary like Planetary Resources are closely studying Cheaper access to orbit will then progress to Institute is a powerful advocate for returning to possibilities and future extraction technology more viable interplanetary human expeditions, the Moon first, with a lunar South Pole base for asteroids. including flights around the Moon, Mars and making use of possible continuous sunlight Serious issues come out of the study. For deep space. (Shackleton crater for example) for power and

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the in-situ ice resources in nearby craters for astronauts, would all make the operational resources in space. The UN is the logical water, oxygen and future rocket fuel. logistics complex and costly. Robotic remotely body to establish and monitor this licensing Up to one billion tonnes of water may exist controlled and autonomous techniques would monitoring and enforcement approach. at the lunar poles. Spudis believes that this be important for these situations. will open up future affordable lunar exploration For asteroid mining, the very low gravity Environmental and allow for good planetary science and radio environment would result in debris trailing around To many, the thought of future extensive astronomy on the surface. This approach could machinery and a “plume” being left behind the mining operations on the Moon or Mars may then be used on Mars and the more distant moving asteroid. The dangers of spacesuit / sound like possible acts of “cosmic vandalism”. moons across the solar system. spacecraft impact is obvious. The “Saturn’s-ring” Indeed, Prof Ian Crawford has pointed out that Spudis has a clear concern over the “flags scenario could develop over a number of years vast areas of the lunar surface would need to and footprints” strategy approach of some in of working on a particular asteroid, endangering be strip-mined to approach a viable extraction the space community, who would seek early visiting spacecraft and freighters. and recovery situation of the rare He3 for exploration gains via Mars landings without a A further issue is the possible deflection of future fusion reactor usage. Is this justifiable longer-term and more sustainable approach the asteroid itself – obvious concerns arise or aesthetically appropriate for Earth’s nearest established. Telerobotics in real-time from orbit if an asteroid is bought close to the Earth, neighbour? by humans above the Moon, Mars, asteroids particularly if it occupies the currently “quiet” Many believe that “Wilderness Areas” of etc., will enhance the speed of prospecting L1 and L2 points close to the planet. the Solar System should be established. In for resources. Tim Peake’s Principia mission these zones, similar restrictive exploitation included a possible link to an Earth-based robot Legality controls could exist as apply to Antarctica, for at Stevenage as a test of such techniques. Is it legal to take water/ice, rocks and minerals sound environmental and moral reasons. One On the lunar surface and on Mars “In Situ away from objects and make use of that could envisage a range of “Planetary Parks”, Resource Utilisation” (ISRU) is the way material for economic gain? Many observers similar to the Earth’s national parks, with forward, according to Olivier de Weck of MIT, quote the provisions of the UN’s “Outer Space conservation areas, historic sites (e.g. Apollo to allow for much reduced dependency on Treaty” (1967) and point out that, whilst no landing sites) and even protected “natural resupply missions. He also believes that a “sovereignty” rights can be claimed over heritage” features (caves, geysers, rille valleys, “cislunar network” of extracted hydrogen and space territory with it being the province of all canyons planetary/moon volcano summits and oxygen resources may reduce Earth launched mankind (via Article 1), only nation states have mountain tops etc.). payloads to Mars for continuous missions by signed up to this and private companies may In the same way that the Earth is becoming 68% from current NASA reference models. not be so respectful of the spirit of the Treaty. a controlled and regulated environment, with Many consider that bases established land use, forests and mining areas defined Practicality for resource utilisation can operate in a in an increasingly careful way, so the solar Mining in space is not without its difficulties. permissible situation provided it establishes a system may well be controlled for the future, Anyone who has seen mining operations defined perimeter that has recognised support by international agreement – the involvement close-up on Earth will understand how and accepted standing in the community of of the International Academy of Astronautics hazardous this activity might be on a planet/ spacefaring nations. The recent US Space Act (IAA), Committee on Space Research asteroid surface, with its lower gravity, lack allows for future flexibility for US companies (COSPAR) and the UN Committee on the of dust clearing wind and rain and the need involved in such activities. Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPOUS) for astronaut-workers using pressure suits. Clearly, a future international licensing might be of use. Dust wear impact on spacesuit joints, roving structure is required to allow for safe, mining vehicle bearings and spacecraft/base scientifically respectful and ultimately fair Morality hatches and openings, plus inhalation by prospecting and exploitation of natural Interplanetary probes are heavily sterilised before launch, but inevitably some Earth Future exploitation of the solar system will call for a wide range of exploration equipment and in situ human sampling. NASA bacteria contamination will spread across the solar system via exploration and some of it may possibly survive in its new environment – the fear of Europa’s pristine sub-ice surface oceans being harmed is an obvious example of possible dangers. Resource utilisation will extend this impact possibility and so the question of ethically acceptable practices arises. To allow for industrialisation and economic growth to continue to expand on Earth for the long term via use of interplanetary resources, careful philosophical and ethical matters require attention and consideration. The good news is that it may well be at least 30-50 years before real resource exploitation commences – in that period, there is still time to build solid, practical regulation, control and practice on an internationally accepted basis.

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 211 launch sites A Vanishing Era

By Joel W. Powell

Cape Canaveral’s once famous “Missile Row” looking north on 6 August 1963. The launch pad in the foreground is LC-36A. Art LeBrun collection

The evidence of space history is slowly being erased. In the name for bid on eBay, to the benefit of many of environmental remediation, the United States Air Force has been collectors, including this author. systematically eradicating most of the iconic landmarks still standing at The Tech Lab, as it was known, was a mecca Cape Canaveral, Florida. for tourists who once flocked to see the full- size missiles exhibited in front of the building ith little or no fanfare, the Air Force housed the RCA Photo Laboratory for many on Highway A1A, long before there was a since 2010 has razed the old years (later run by Technicolor), printing and Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center. The Mercury Mission Control building distributing all of the still photos taken of the missiles were on display from 1960 through Wand levelled blockhouses and pad structures rockets, and processing the miles of motion 1996, when a hurricane blew over the exhibits at Launch Complexes 11, 12, 13, 15, and 17. picture film shot of each test flight. The RCA and forced their removal. The twin umbilical and service towers for Delta Photo Lab was also the source of the many After the missile test function of the Cape II still stand at pad 17, but these last remaining historic Cape Canaveral photos now available wound down in the 1970s, the Technical examples of the old Canaveral skyline are up The Mercury Atlas-6 memorial tablet installed on Laboratory was turned over to a new tenant, the for demolition in the near future. the ramp of Launch Complex 14, commemorating clandestine nuclear weapons sleuths of the Air Also under threat are the old missile hangars John Glenn’s orbital flight on 20 February 1962. Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC). in the Industrial Area, in particular the famous Joel Powell When AFTAC’s new state-of-the-art campus Hanger S, which served as the crew quarters was opened in 2014 (behind the old laboratory for the Mercury astronauts from 1961 to 1963. building at Patrick), the obsolete structure was Driving through the remarkably well-preserved scheduled for demolition in October 2015. Industrial Area today is like taking a trip back in Asbestos removal was one of the priorities of time to the 1960s, which is so unlike travelling the project, which was completed in December the now-empty backroads of Old Cape 2015. All that remains in front of the empty Canaveral. space where the Technical Laboratory once stood is an inconspicuous marker of a time Tech Lab capsule, intended to be opened in 2075. It The most recent example of landmark is as if the Technical Laboratory never even destruction is the old Technical Laboratory existed... that was located at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Completed in June 1956, the massive Falling Towers concrete edifice originally housed hundreds of The corrosive salt air environment of the technicians and engineers who analyzed the ocean-side launch pads at Cape Canaveral performance of military missile tests at Cape presented one of the greatest impediments Canaveral. The Technical Laboratory also to the preservation of the steel launch towers.

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In fact, once the early Atlas and Titan missile pads were no longer needed in the 1960s, the towers were removed, beginning in 1967. The Titan towers at pad 20 were dismantled in April 1967, followed by pad 15’s umbilical tower in June 1967. Pad 16 (also Titan) was later decommissioned in 1969 along with its unusual silo-shaped test chamber for the Apollo Service Module engines. The first Atlas towers at pad 11 were removed in August 1967, followed by the deactivation of pad 12 (Atlas-Agena) in December 1967. The service tower at pad 13 (which remained in use for classified Atlas- Agena launches until April 1978) was declared a National Historic Landmark in April 1984. Structural deterioration eventually forced the Air Force to demolish the tower on 6 August 2005. Complex 13 has been repurposed by SpaceX as the landing site for their reusable Falcon 9 first stages. The historic first landing at pad 13 was successfully accomplished by SpaceX on 21 December 2015. The Technical Laboratory on Highway A1A, as it was in June 1960. The roadside missiles and rocket The Saturn rocket facilities at Launch display includes (from left to right): Bomarc, Matador, Snark, Thor and Titan I. USAF Complexes 34 and 37 were maintained in caretaker status until April 1972 in case they were needed for the Skylab crew launches. popular bus tours that depart from the KSC ICBM Row) at Cape Canaveral is but a distant When NASA decided to transfer all launch Visitor Complex every day. Remnants of both memory now, preserved mostly in official activity for Skylab to Launch Complex 39 at concrete launch stands for the second Saturn archival photographs. neighbouring Kennedy Space Center, the facility can also be glimpsed at nearby pad gigantic umbilical towers and mobile service 37 (now utilized by Delta IV), along with the Blockhouse Destruction structures were dismantled and ignominiously oversize Saturn blockhouse. Many of the historic blockhouses have now sold for scrap. Since the mid 1970s, the original towers been bulldozed. Citing Federal environmental Like a triumphal arch in ancient Rome, the have been knocked down one-by-one, until cleanup regulations, the Air Force is attempting imposing 7m (23ft) columns of the launch only those at Space Launch Complex 17 are to remove accumulated contaminants such as pedestal at pad 34 stand as a monument to still standing. The Air Force’s sprawling ITL trichloroethylene solvent that was spilled at the Apollo 1 astronauts who perished there facilities for Titan III and IV (Complexes 40 the old Atlas pads, and to remove hazardous in a ground test fire on 27 January 1967. and 41) survived until the early 2000s, when asbestos from existing structures such as old Stencils painted on the columns famously read they were totally rebuilt for the Falcon 9 and blockhouses. “Abandon in Place”. The site is a stop on the Atlas V rockets. The famous “Missile Row” (or The Air Force has quietly begun demolishing the remaining Atlas and Titan blockhouses from Demolition of the Technical Laboratory (AFTAC) in October 2015. USAF “Missile Row” after taking down the service towers (see Table 1). Beginning with the Atlas blockhouse at pad 12, the distinctive round structures were bulldozed one-by-one until the final structure (so far) at pad 11 was destroyed in February 2014. The Titan blockhouse at pad 15 was removed in December 2012. In addition to historic sites at pads 14 and 19, the blockhouses at pad 16, 20, 34 and 36 are still standing, but it is uncertain for how long. The Air Force cited structural concerns and removal of asbestos as reasons for demolishing the 18m (59ft) wide blockhouses. For instance, the shell of the old pad 12 blockhouse was cracked, and there was a pepper tree growing out of the roof! In December 2013, the original bunker- style blockhouse at SLC-17 (Thor and Delta II) was knocked down. It was abandoned in January 1997 after the explosion shortly after

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down, beginning with the twin Atlas-Centaur stands at Complex 36 after the towers were knocked over in 2007. The same fate has befallen most of the old Titan launch stands except pad 19, which was used in the Gemini programme. Consequently the images of Cape Canaveral on Google Earth reveal a landscape slowly returning to the wild state with very little visual evidence of the once-bustling rocket launch sites. As most of the historic facilities of Cape Canaveral inexorably succumb to the bulldozer (except for four Historic Landmarks and the Space Museum site), memories and photographs are all that preserve the totality of Old Cape Canaveral. Certain other facilities All that remains of the old Vanguard launch site at LC-18A is this water spray pylon that is visible in old have been relatively well preserved, such as launch photos. The old utility building at the pad (5-1312-A) was recently removed. Joel Powell the Navaho and Mace hardstands. The Army’s two-story Pershing blockhouse TABLE 1: Towers Toppled. in 2010. There is nothing but a bland historic at pad 30 has been preserved in pristine Site Date Structures marker at the site now. The Control Center condition, and the unusual “bee hive” consoles were transferred to a display at LC-14 1 December 1976 MST blockhouses for Minuteman are also still the Visitor Center; it was easier to demolish LC-19 30 May 1977 umbilical standing. Ironically it is the less-well-known the structure than to restore it for the Cape LC-41 14 October 1999 umbilical and MST Navy Area at the south end of the base that Canaveral Then and Now public tour. LC-13 6 August 2005 MST retains most of the original facilities from the The author vividly remembers seeing the 1960s, including the neat rows of hangars built LC-36 16 June 2007 both MSTs intact mission control building on one of his for the Polaris missile. LC-40 27 April 2008 MST first visits to the Cape Canaveral area in the Perhaps one cannot argue with the liftoff of Delta 241 introduced toxic gasses early 1980s. The sense of history inside the environmental and safety concerns motivating into the sealed atmosphere of the blockhouse actual Mercury control room was palpable, the Air Force to remove these iconic structures, control room. This forced the Air Force to but the effect has been diminished by an particularly the corroding steel gantries move prematurely to a new Launch Control annoying visual presentation featured at the or launch stands, but one can lament the Center built for Delta III in the Cape Canaveral new display. destruction of the distinctive round concrete Industrial Area. blockhouses. These were the equivalent of the Unfortunately, the demise of the Titan Attrition “ruins” of Cape Canaveral. and Atlas blockhouses was preceded by the The elevated platforms of the Atlas launch Other than certain radical groups located destruction of the old Mercury Control Center stands (except pad 14) have also been torn in the Middle East and Afghanistan, which other modern countries deliberately destroy Blockhouse 13 was destroyed in 2012. The three cylinders at right are the periscopes used to view the the remnants of their past? What will remain launch pad. The History Center a century from now to indicate what was happening at Cape Canaveral at the dawn of the Space Age is anybody’s guess.

Larry Aldrich design house uses an Atlas service gantry for a 1959 fashion shoot. USAF

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By the fall of 1967, many of the Atlas and Titan gantries were already removed. Beneath the blimp lies LC-11 (Atlas), completely stripped of all useable equipment. USAF

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The Cosmonauts challenge By Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, and Dr Natalia Sidlina, Curator of Cosmonauts

The ejection seat of the type used to allow the cosmonaut to escape from the descending Vostok module in the denser layers of the atmosphere and return to Earth by parachute. Robert Christy In the summer of 1961, over half of a million visitors attended the Earl’s Tsiolkovsky. Court exhibition hall in London to marvel at 10,000 exhibits brought to the UK from the Soviet Union. A new approach For many years the public perception of he USSR Industrial Exhibition was a visit of Yuri Gagarin, made a long-lasting space science has been known only through masterpiece of the Soviet propaganda impression on the British public. the considerable achievements of America’s machine, offering a glimpse into its Fifty years later the curators at the Science NASA and the defining moment of the Apollo 11 Tlifestyle while promoting the communist way Museum sought to bring to London the iconic Moon mission of 1969. And yet Soviet Russia of life. The 87m (285ft) span of the exhibition objects that had made this golden age of space (however defined) was the first space-faring hall’s steel truss roof provided an impressive exploration. But as crucial as the obvious “star” nation. It launched the world’s first satellite framework for the displays of the latest trends objects are, the exhibition also reflects on how (Sputnik) and four years later the first human in science, culture and education. Russia made science fiction into science fact into orbit (Yuri Gagarin). But when NASA’s Neil The “Hall of the Cosmos”, a darkened tall and confounds expectations by starting with Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon cylindrical display space in the very centre of the creative and philosophical concepts of the earlier Soviet feats were all but forgotten. the exhibition contained engineering models late nineteenth century Russia. Clearly, it tells The secrecy under which Russia carried out of Sputniks and planetary probes, a revolving the story of the Soviet heroes Sergei Korolev, its space programme – all part of its military- globe and state-of-the-art audio-visual content. Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova and Alexei industrial complex – no doubt lies at the root Outer space was at the heart of the 1961 Leonov, but they all stand on the shoulders of this, and it has been the Science Museum’s exhibition and, coinciding with the triumphant of early innovators such as Konstantin mission to bring this untold story to light, through

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British enterprise – Science Connections (SC) – with a collaborative proposal for a 2011 event to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Gagarin’s historic mission. The initial idea was to bring Gagarin’s historical spacecraft Vostok 1 to the Museum. The Vostok descent modules have never been seen in the West before and, clearly, displaying the spacecraft of the first manned mission at the Science Museum would have been a highlight event of the 2011 festivities. The Museum’s former director, Chris Rapley, supported the proposal and in September 2009 the Museum curators were granted access to Russia’s space industry enterprises for the first viewing of the artefacts. Such visits certainly whetted the appetite of the curators involved.

Ways and means The Gagarin monument in London for the 2011 Several engineering examples of the LK Moon space exhibits display at the British Society. Unfortunately, the goal of staging such an lander survive at a number of engineering Science Museum ambitious and costly project within a restricted facilities in Russia. Science Museum timeframe was always going to be difficult. The an exhibition of unprecedented ambition. Museum then felt it could only be achieved with With support from the British Council, The Museum’s desire to tell the unknown the commitment of funding secured by SC. the Museum hosted the Deputy Director of story through an unprecedented showcase The Memorandum of Understanding, signed Roscosmos, Vitaly Davydov, and the President of real historical technology, equipment and by the Museum and its partners SC and the of AMCOS, cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov, memorabilia proved to be one of the most Association of Museums of Cosmonautics at a meeting in June 2010, establishing direct complex and challenging projects within (AMCOS), stated that the fund-raising, contact with potential partners. But by the end the museum sector. It involved negotiations negotiations with Roscosmos and coordination of June, as SC failed to secure the funds, plans with the military sector, the declassification of this complex project were to be undertaken for the 2011 exhibition ended. of certain exhibits, the engagement of state by SC within strict deadlines. The final (successful) attempt to stage the authorities in both countries, and all at a time The Vostok 6 spacecraft in which Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth in 1963. Robert Christy when the political and economic weather threatened to undermine the project on both ends in a country shaken by economic crisis, territorial disputes and under EU sanctions. The Museum’s interest in staging an object- rich temporary exhibition on the history of space exploration with important Soviet and Russian content can be traced back to 1990. The lack of Soviet-era space technology in the Museum’s galleries had been highlighted and the idea of borrowing items for a temporary exhibition explored. A proposal for an International collaboration in space exhibition was considered for our 1992 exhibitions programme. Doug Millard, assistant curator at the time, recalls that difficulties in bringing the equipment from post-Soviet Russia prevented the project from proceeding, but in 1992 cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova visited the Museum. Keen to explore new possibilities for collaboration, Millard went to Moscow in 1995 to view the collection of the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics (MMC) and the remaining exhibits of the Space pavilion at the former Exhibition of Achievements of the People’s Economy. A second attempt to address the issue was made in 2008 when the Museum was approached by a private

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slim. Gagarin’s Vostok 1 and Tereshkova’s Vostok 6 are held by RKK Energia, which had consistently turned down our repeated requests to borrow them. The public museum sector in Russia holds only one original Vostok descent module – Valery Bykovsky’s Vostok 5 (launched on 14 June 1965), on display in the K. Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, in Kaluga. Following several curatorial trips and discussions with Museum director Mr Kuzin, it was confirmed that the removal of such a large-scale object would involve demolition of one of the Museum’s walls. Even the curator had to concede that this was a loan request too far. Thus, other options had to be considered. The team examined the evidence that Adriyan Nikolayev’s Vostok 3 (launched on 11 August 1962) was held by the “Memorial Museum Complex of the USSR cosmonaut A.G. Nikolayev”, Shorshely village, in the The basic instrument displays mounted to a single console inside the Voskhod 1 spacecraft was similar to that in Vostok. Robert Christy Chuvash Republic. Alas, it transpired that the one displayed is one of the refurbished exhibition started in 2011. The British Council on a number of joint Kremlin-V&A Museum unmanned Vostok spacecraft. The Russian and its Director of Arts, Andrea Rose, were exhibition projects in his previous role as museum sector holds a number of such working in partnership with Roscosmos on Deputy Director at the latter. descent modules from unmanned missions. plans to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the When the plans for such an exhibition were Among others, a refurbished descent module first manned space mission. A project to bring revisited in 2012, it became obvious the project of the artificial satellite Intercosmos 6 from Gagarin’s statue from the Lyubertsy Technical must be conceived in line with the Museum’s the MMC and a privately owned Vostok 3KA- College (the school Gagarin attended as a new ambitions for staging major, object- 2 on display at the Moscow Planetarium were teenager) to London for public display was rich exhibitions, emphasising the social and considered and rejected as potential exhibits. being considered. The 1984 monument by cultural contexts of science, technology and In late 2012 the curators found themselves sculptor Anatoly Novikov proved impossible to engineering and fostering active collaborations seated in the Director’s office looking at the dismantle and Roscosmos funded production with international science museums and list of identified manned Vostok descent of a copy. The statue was duly unveiled in institutions. The new exhibition proposal, modules in the former Soviet Union, and facing London on 14 July 2011 near the British submitted to the Museum’s Exhibitions Board something of a crisis. The final selection of Council offices on the Mall. in October 2012, was to present a broader the artefact to tell the story of the pioneering On this occasion, a small display of Soviet story and to place the history of Russian and missions of the 1960s had to be made: either space artefacts was devised, featuring objects Soviet longing for “space” in a cultural and Vostok 1 or Vostok 6, both at RKK Energia, and from NPP Zvezda (the world’s first and Russia’s historical context. at that point a reluctant potential partner. only space life-support design and production The Director decided that requesting company), RKK Energia (Sergei Korolev’s Up close… Vostok 1 would never succeed but that he rocket and spacecraft design bureau) and the The Science Museum’s visitors are enthralled would commit personally to arguing at the Gagarin family archive. Formerly classified when close to real, historic artefacts. They are highest level for Vostok 6. Indeed, it was objects, such as the 1960 dog spacesuit and mesmerised when standing next to the actual also agreed that the exhibition would be catapult car and 1961 Vostok descent module Apollo 10 spacecraft on permanent display seriously diminished without Vostok 6 and ejector seat, never previously displayed in in our galleries. We aimed to allow them the a small number of other crucial objects held the UK, were exhibited in the British Council same experience with the Soviet spacecraft by Energia – the ground testing model of the Gallery. that marked an age-defining moment in the first satellite Sputnik 1 (1957), complete with The opening ceremony, attended by history of space exploration. That meant the radio transmitter; the ground testing model of Mr Davydov and Sergei Krikalev, Head of exhibition could only take place if we were Sputnik 3 (1958), the first scientific laboratory Cosmonauts Training Centre, provided an successful in negotiating the loan of key in space; the descent module of the first auspicious occasion for the Science Museum’s technical artefacts. One pivotal issue to be crewed missions of the Voskhod series and a new Director, Ian Blatchford, to meet key resolved before the exhibition might make any descent module of the Soyuz series. None of Russian officials. One should also respect claim to be definitive was the need to identify these five key exhibits have ever been seen in the role of personal friendship and collegiality. an iconic Vostok descent module and secure the West before. The negotiation for the loan of Andrea Rose and Elena Gagarina, who is it on loan. those five objects proved the most complicated Yuri Gagarin’s daughter and also the Director But the rarity of the Vostok also meant and complex stage in the process of exhibition of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, are long- that the team faced a big battle; with only preparation. standing artistic collaborators and friends, and three currently on display, our chances of Thus, by mid-2013 all key exhibits were Mr Blatchford had worked with Dr Gagarina obtaining permission to borrow one were very identified, loan requests had been submitted

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and negotiations were underway. At this of borrowing the work and permission to take it Institute and to allow it to travel to the Science stage another aspect that caused unexpected out of the country. However, it turned out that Museum. There was even talk of a special complication had surfaced, the inherent what had been possible during the turbulent government commission needed to consider problem of dual-use technical equipment: its years following the fall of the Soviet Union was the request for such a secret object to travel classified status. very challenging in 2013–14. overseas. We fell into a slough of despond at The curatorial team secured key loans from First, the ownership and the provenance of this point. the cultural sector and from various commercial the object needed to be confirmed. Extensive Fortunately, these knotty problems were enterprises, but also discovered the important research established that the LK-3 was brought resolved through a series of meetings between role played by technical universities since to the university by Vasili Mishin, from 1966– the Science Museum Director Mr Blatchford some important space technology has been 1974 the Chief Designer of OKB-1 (now RKK and the Minister of Education and Science Mr transferred there as educational tools for future Energia), which had developed the lander. Livanov and his Deputy Minister Mr Kaganov. engineering students and designers. One such Following the closure of the N1-L3 project in The next step was to establish which of object, discovered and secured as a loan by 1974, and facing the imminent disposal of the the current space enterprises would take the curatorial team, was the LK-3 lunar lander. technology developed for it, Mishin rescued responsibility for processing declassification LK-3 and took it to MAI, his new place of paperwork. Moon lander employment. LK is a complex spacecraft. The engineering The lander LK-3 is particularly fascinating The lander still serves as a teaching tool for models of it were devised for carrying out because the circumstances of its survival are students in the rocket department and is held various tests and each one was differently historically important and poignant. It survives at Laboratory 601, a hangar-style store located equipped. In practice it meant that designers due to the private initiative of an eminent on the university’s premises in Moscow. At the of various parts of the lander would each engineer keen to preserve the legacy of stage of the loan agreement preparation, we have to get involved in the declassification Sergei Korolev and to prevent its destruction discovered there was no paperwork confirming procedure. Finally, one of the design units by factional fighting from various internal the transfer of the lander, nor any ownership within RKK Energia, the closed joint-stock agencies involved in the space programme. documents or declassification papers. company “Experimental engineering plant of However, we were to discover this generous Participation in the Cosmonauts project RKK Energia”, completed the procedure and but unauthorised act created a minefield of was fully supported by MAI Vice-Chancellor issued the declassification letter. legal complexities – unresolved for decades Dr Shevtsov, but to be able to borrow such Having overcome these impediments, we but finally resolved due to our loan request. a seminal (and previously secret) object should also mention the astonishing array of LK stands for “Lunnyi Korabl”, a lander also required permission from the Ministry practical issues that also had to be addressed. designed to carry a single cosmonaut to the of Education and Science of the Russian The Laboratory 601 hanger crane system surface of the Moon and back to rendezvous Federation. Indeed, we needed two things: was no longer working, the hanger door had with the orbiting mother spacecraft LOK permission to lend, and a commitment from rusted shut and a tree had grown outside the entrance doors too. The Institute worked (“Lunnyi Orbitalnyi Korabl”). As a response to someone to untangle the legal ambiguities. It diligently to resolve each hurdle and also the US commitment to land a man on the Moon further transpired that in order to resolve the legal status of the object it would also need to found an engineer who actually knew how to by the end of 1960s, the Soviet manned lunar be declassified, both to legitimise its role at the disassemble the object! programme with its launcher-spacecraft-lander N1-L3 project was conducted in secrecy. It The three-man Voskhod 1 was an ingenious rework of the basic Vostok capsule. Robert Christy suffered greatly from many factors, including the sudden death of Korolev, Chief Designer of the country’s entire space programme, as well as rivalry between different research institutes. The programme was abandoned in 1974. A number of engineering models of the landers were devised and launch pad tests carried out before the programme’s closure. Such an impressive piece of equipment was coveted by the curators as the pièce de résistance of the exhibition, recounting the story of a secret Soviet manned lunar programme. Extensive research helped to trace one of the remaining LK to the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). Other possible lenders were unwilling to lend: the Bauman Moscow State Technical University due to the poor state of their lander, and RKK Energia, which claimed that the engineering model they owned was unavailable. This LK-3 lander (1969, measuring 500cm x 554cm x 445cm) from MAI was previously exhibited at Disneyland, Paris in France in 1997, which seemed to indicate the possibility

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stage it was clear that without the highest level of diplomatic support and the right delivery partners, the combination of a febrile landscape and genuinely tough pragmatic problems would conspire to sink our ambition. After initial encouragement from Ms Rose, the British Council’s Director of Arts, we were introduced to Director of the British Council Moscow office Paul de Quincey and his team, who proved to be important in ensuring a smooth introduction to lenders from the cultural sector. However, to access the collections of the various scientific enterprises the team needed an introduction from a different official body. We were able to call upon assistance from the British Embassy’s Science and Innovation Network (SIN). Dr Julia Knights and Dr Marina Sokolova were the driving force behind the UK-Russia Year of Space 2011– 2012, which had coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of Gagarin’s pioneering mission. SIN was instrumental in establishing lines of communication with Roscosmos’ enterprises The Soyuz TM-14, a spacecraft design begun while Vostok flights were taking place and which, in much and NPP Zvezda. modified form, is the mainstay of ferrying people back and forth to the International Space Station. This network had a strong working Robert Christy relationship with the enterprises and ensured The LK declassification story is just one and is accessible upon request and subject to that the Science Museum had a receptive example of the problems the Museum faced security checks. The Museum’s most precious welcome in the first instance. It cannot and overcame whilst trying to secure the exhibit is Gagarin’s flown spacesuit. It is kept in be sufficiently stressed that colleagues in exceptional loans for the exhibition. Needless a Perspex capsule-vitrine and never leaves the Roscosmos and the enterprises had never to say, similar issues had to be resolved with premises of the Museum, located in a refurbished dealt with museum loan demands previously, every space sector loan. These included: proof air-raid shelter deep underground beneath the had no staff with loan administration and of ownership; declassification; permission to administrative building of the enterprise. condition reporting experience or any funds export; and dealing with hazardous substances There are a number of Gagarin SK-1 to cover associated costs. That the loans associated with 1960s technology, such as spacesuits, held by various museums in still proceeded is a testament to the crucial asbestos. The fate of a precious artefact – Russia and abroad, including one on loan to role of SIN and the goodwill of our Russian Gagarin’s spacesuit and helmet with iconic the Smithsonian. Those in Russia tend to have colleagues. The British Council also played a ‘CCCP’ sign, for example – demonstrate that almost apocryphal stories associated with them. crucial role in promoting the idea of the UK- the preservation of key historic objects was One of his ground training SK-1s was given to Russia Year of Culture and then managed its often a matter of chance. the Lyubertsy Technical College by the first man delivery in somewhat choppy waters. in space himself. However, the NPP Zvezda’s The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Suits spacesuit is the very one worn by Gagarin in also played an important role, especially NPP Zvezda, a formerly classified military plant, space. Upon the first cosmonaut’s return, it was in providing the Russian authorities with is a joint stock company. This privately owned subjected to a number of tests, designed to assurances as to the security of the objects as enterprise is managed by its Director General improve the equipment for future flights. anxieties about the risk of seizure arose from and Chief Designer Sergei Pozdniakov, After the NPP Zvezda team finished running 2014 onwards (see 4.4). The project team appointed by a board of shareholders. NPP tests on the spacesuit a few years later, it could ended up almost expert itself in the abstruse Zvezda has a company museum, located at have been discarded as disused gear. And usages of diplomatic exchanges, such as the the plant’s premises in Tomolino settlement, officially it still is. The list of such precious objects note verbale. Moscow district, with an impressive collection in NPP Zvezda’s care will delight any collection Throughout negotiations, the Director of original life-support equipment. Their curator. For examples, Tereshkova’s cooling maintained dialogue with the British newly refurbished exhibition space presents garment with original embroidery featuring Ambassador, the Russia Desk of the FCO and the unique story of life-support technology. a seagull (her inflight call name); Leonov’s the international officers of the Department It starts from the world’s first spacesuit, SK- EVA spacesuit and life-support rucksack; a for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Whilst 1, to cosmonaut’s (and 2011 astronaut’s) stratospheric flight dog spacesuit and ejector the Science Museum is designated as a Non- “professional uniform” Sokol SV-2, and includes seat, among others. All of them iconic, and all Departmental Public Body, and thus enjoys a 1960s prototype of the first man-manoeuvring near-misses in terms of extinction. its own independent Board of Trustees under unit and test-flown spacesuit for the cancelled the National Heritage Act and a considerable Soviet space shuttle programme Buran. Enablers degree of financial and decision-making This impressive “fashion gallery” of life- This exhibition project came with a degree of freedom as compared with a standard support technology is run by retiree volunteers political exposure. Moreover, from an early government department, it nonetheless had

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to proceed with every caution regarding the Year of Culture. Following this meeting an whether you could arrange for such an order geopolitical “mood music”. official letter addressed to Russia’s Deputy to be issued”. By now it will be evident that nothing on this Prime Minister Golodets in her capacity as the This letter was the first of many addressed project was straightforward. Thus we learnt very Russian Chair of Organising Committee was to officials in Russia, sent through diplomatic early on that even where we appeared to have dispatched: channels, and delivered to ministers and the support of “the Russian government” that “May I take this opportunity also to ask for government offices throughout 2013–15. But meant little unless we had enlisted precisely your help with the exhibition of Russian space this letter proved to be key in securing support the right elements of the government machine exploration that will open in October 2015 at from our strongest ally, Deputy Prime Minister and specific individuals and ministries. the Science Museum in London. This will Golodets. The Museum Director welcomed Ms The inclusion of Cosmonauts in the 2014 be a flagship event of the Year of Culture. Golodets at the Science Museum a few months Year of Culture programme ensured support The success of this exhibition depends on later at the opening of the Collider exhibition on the ministerial level in Russia: Dr Shvydkoy the inclusion of key historic spacecraft and – the launch of the Science Museum’s on the Foreign Ministry (MFA) side, Deputy artefacts of the Russian space programme, ambitious new programme of ground-breaking Minister Manilova on the MoC side. However, residing in the collection of the Roscosmos exhibitions. Attended by leading scientists our key lenders from the space industry were enterprises and institutions. My understanding Peter Higgs and Stephen Hawking as well not subject to the purview of these ministries is that a state order needs to be issued to as Chancellor George Osborne, the event and this was not a mere technicality. ensure the release of those artefacts for loan. left a lasting impression on the Deputy Prime With NPP Zvezda’s keen support and the I am therefore respectfully asking, as Co-Chair Minister and convinced her that the Museum willingness of some Roscosmos enterprises to of the Year of Culture Organising Committee, would deliver a world class exhibition. collaborate, our main challenge was to secure The one-man LK Moon lander, with retracted ladder to the lower right, circular egress hatch above and written consent from Roscosmos and win the the forward-facing landing window to the left of the pressurised cabin. Robert Christy trust of RKK Energia. Their request was for the Science Museum to provide reassurances from both the UK and Russian governments. This included a statement of support from the Russian Government (although it was not clear what this meant) and a “comfort letter” from the MFA also indicating their support. They also sought “cast iron” guarantees from the UK’s government about the safety of the objects and immunity from seizure. Such requests made sense in the context of some of the landscape we have outlined so far. These were organisations with no experience of the normal language and currency of museum lending and the Roscosmos reluctance could be traced to the aborted 2011 exhibition plan. Without doubt, it was also felt that this was a dance where no-one was prepared to commit to the floor, for fear of criticism, especially as the bilateral relationship worsened. And on a practical level, there were genuine and messy questions about status and legal issues, especially at a time when the Federal Space Agency was undergoing restructuring. It also felt that the political crisis of 2014–15, with EU sanctions against Russia over Ukraine and state property seizure related to the Yukos case, might be the “final straw” for some lenders. Some of the press coverage around the exhibition suggested that this issue was the central and killer risk to the project proceeding, but the nervousness of some lenders derived from many sources. We could not have overcome these problems without the good fortune of finding the right allies at the highest levels. In July 2013 the exhibition curators went to Parliament to present the exhibition to Lord Speaker Baroness D’Souza, in her role as UK Chair of the Organising Committee for the UK-Russia

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 221 tracking

Kettering and the Plesetsk site By Mike Sinnett, Kettering Group

A Q&A session featured (left to right) Sven Grahn, Robert Christy, Isabel Carmichael and Chris Wood with Marcia Smith joining via the Internet from across the Atlantic. National Space Centre

n 1966 a group of schoolboys, together with satellites passing overhead. In September 1966, using their tracking of two teachers, achieved an amazing feat. From this inauspicious beginning in 1960 Cosmos 129 from the new site, the Group was IThey identified a new Soviet launch site and they continued to log signals. In 1962 they able to pinpoint the precise location of the new announced it to the world before either the invited other pupils to help with the listening. space centre as Plesetsk, near Archangel. Americans or the Soviets. The Kettering Grammar School Satellite Geoffrey Perry, a Physics teacher at Tracking Group was born. Pupils used to Fast Forward Kettering Grammar School in England, wanted monitor satellite transmissions before school, The Kettering Group came to an end in 2000 to use satellite observations to make teaching during the lunch break, after lessons and even when Geoffrey Perry died. Some members more interesting, initially by using radio signals at weekends. kept in touch with each other and are still to demonstrate and explain the Doppler Effect. In March 1966, the school team intercepted actively monitoring space events. Derek Slater He got together with Derek Slater, another signals from Cosmos 112 that were different died in 2015 but he had already donated some science teacher and keen radio amateur, in quality from those of previous Cosmos of the school’s early radio equipment to the for help. Using an ex-RAF radio receiver, a satellites. Analysis of the orbit showed that it National Space Centre at Leicester in the UK. borrowed frequency meter and a wire cable could not have been launched from the usual The largest-ever gathering of Kettering Group slung between the two school buildings as site at Baikonur and pointed to a launch site members took place at the National Space an aerial, they recorded signals from early in European Russia near the Arctic Circle. Centre on 16 March 2016. It was to celebrate the As Mary Slater looks on, Isabel Carmichael cuts the first slice of celebratory cake. Robert Christy official unveiling of a new exhibit to commemorate the Plesetsk discovery. Some of the school pupil members were meeting each other for the first time (Spaceflight Vol 58, No 5, p197). The first major activity was a Q&A session introduced by Alistair Scott, immediate past President of the BIS. Alistair relayed a message from Tim Peake, resident on board the ISS, sent earlier that morning: “Kettering Grammar School has been monitoring space and satellites for half a century – celebrating 50 years of pioneering space research as an aid to teaching. Enjoy your day at the National Space Centre, Leicester”. Isabel Carmichael (daughter of Geoffrey Perry) spoke about how her father’s hobby had influenced family life, even to the extent of dictating holidays and meal times! She stressed how proud he was of what the Group achieved. Robert Christy explained how the Group tracked the orbit of Cosmos 112 using a toy globe with a circle of copper wire attached

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using a bulldog clip – the team’s first Analogue Computer! He described how Charles Sheldon, an analyst from the US Library of Congress in 1966, was working on a Senate Report detailing the Soviet space effort but was prevented from mentioning Plesetsk because the information was classified as ‘secret’. He got round it by pointing to a group of school boys from the UK who had published it quite openly! It was Sheldon who informed the world’s press of what was happening at Kettering Grammar School and prompted the significant media interest of December 1966. Sven Grahn, the Group’s first overseas member recalled how he first became aware of the Group via an article in Flight International during 1965. He had been trying to record Cosmos satellites for 18 months. He sent the recording to Geoff Perry in January 1966 and The Marconi CR-100 ex-RAF radio receiver and its accompanying Frequency meter that are now he confirmed it was a satellite. It started a incorporated in the Leicester exhibit. National Space Centre communication that lasted 34 years. Chris Wood, a distant relative of Geoffrey Perry information to and from Kettering quickly. The comprehensive reports were produced every was a Post Office engineer working in Fiji during cost of telephone calls was prohibitive and post 5 years. Entire chapters written by the Group the 1960s. In June 1967, he became the second took a week! Geoff and Chris devised a system appeared in later editions. overseas member of the Group when it was using telegrams, fitting coded information into Robert Christy reminded us that, throughout realised that he could monitor transmissions the five words of five characters permitted for all of the success achieved by the Group, for from the recoverable Cosmos satellites as they the minimum cost of sending a cablegram. Geoff Perry this was about teaching. School returned to Earth with their film and camera Marcia Smith, formerly of the US Library of science taught pupils how to do experiments but cargo. Generally, they only transmitted outside Congress, joined in via Skype, describing how the results were already known. With the satellite Soviet territory on their last circuit of the Earth the observations and analyses produced by tracking activity the results were not known. which took some of them directly over Fiji. the Group were an essential part of the reports Pupils learned how to record accurate data and that were given to the US Congress. During reach new conclusions, which is how science Cost effect the 60s, 70s and 80s, there was a very strong is done in the real world. Having space as a The biggest challenge in those days was to get interest in the Soviet space programme and backdrop made it exciting. A number of students from the Group carried the experience proudly Isabel Carmichael and Robert Christy explain the finer points of how a student’s globe was used as an into their careers. They had been taught well. analogue computer for displaying orbits. Margaret Christy Mary Slater, Derek’s widow, and Chas Bishop – Chief Executive of the British Space Centre, officially unveiled the new exhibit on the third floor of the Centre’s “Rocket Tower”. Mary reminisced that Derek had purchased the radio receiver in 1958 for £25. In perspective, his salary as a teacher was £60 per month! Together with Isabel Carmichael, Mary cut the first slice of a cake in the form of a 1960s Ferrograph tape recorder (the original is to be seen in the exhibit). Both agreed it was good to see the work of the Group marked formally and to share the day with so many members of the Group. The final event of the day was a private screening of “We Are Astronomers” in the Centre’s Patrick Moore Planetarium. This 360º dome programme attempts to answer the question “What does an astronomer do?” It reveals how much global collaboration, technology and dedication are required to answer the unresolved questions of the Universe – no different to the Kettering Group’s approach to the Soviet space programme 50 years ago.

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 223 off the shelf

satellite and its optical assembly known as capacities, and a range of proposed government Into The Black DORIAN. The connection between Gemini-B, as well as commercial spaceports are described. MOL, DORIAN, the KH-11 spy satellite and the The team behind this reference book are well Author Space Shuttle is a seamless flow of interactive known to BIS members and Spaceflight readers. Rowland White elements in a single, unifying story. This author With its more than 30 years of experience Publisher has excelled in achieving what he set out to do. in satellite and space vehicle consulting and Bantam Press There is, however, one additional advantage with involvement in satellite launches in many ISBN to this book in that it avoids technical descriptions countries, including Russia, Commercial Space 978-0-5930-6436-8 and provides a highly readable narrative, telling Technologies has an unprecedented knowledge Price a story of which there are many parts that the base which it brings to this book. £18.99 436 pages reader will encounter for the first time. There is so Of particular fascination are the details about (hardback) much in this book that the author has expressed proposed candidate UK spaceport sites, with in a fluid and understandable way that it is very descriptions of the seven locations – hard to see eaders may know this author for his difficult to appreciate his prior lack of familiarity most of them having geographically acceptable best-seller Vulcan 607 and for his several with the inner workings of space engineering and isolation to allow license for suborbital or orbital other titles from the world of aviation and the pressures on space operations people. flight! Except perhaps as departure points for Rflying. Flying is the theme of his latest book, A secondary focus is more subliminal, air-launched rockets released over the Atlantic destined I am sure to be another “best seller”, and maybe not even realised by the author Ocean. although the author shifts his sights higher and himself. The Shuttle was the first, and perhaps A desirable aspect of this review is the faster, to the world of human space flight and the last, crew-carrying spacecraft to shift risk- range of proposed launchers lacking in the first flight of the Space Shuttle. management from design and pre-launch some competing, and much more expensive, It is here your reviewer must declare an preparation to the mission itself. In all other compilations of launchers. In that regard it interest. Rowland approached me several years vehicles, before and since, risk-management serves a valuable purpose. But the connection ago with an audacious and brave commitment. was inherent in the design; the Shuttle design between the separate operating companies A determination to write about the first, and and its associated systems engineering, moved and their range of rockets and launch vehicles possibly the last, time a vehicle designed to lift risk-solving from the drawing board out into orbit. is arguably its greatest strength. humans into space carried its first crew without For that reason the Shuttle was vulnerable to With cutaways and colour illustrations, this any preceding test launch. situations avoided, or compromised, by operating is a welcome addition to any space reference I have to admit that I was sceptical that he decisions involving the flight of the vehicle itself library and the team is to be congratulated in could do this. Space flight is a lore unto its own and that was why Challenger, and eventually producing what is arguably the best all-round and climbing aboard the confusing lexicon of Columbia, succumbed to that flaw. On its very summary of hardware, operators and facilities acronyms, digging deep into the technicalities, first flight, Columbia was compromised, but not in the world of space operations today. and unravelling the hype from the heroic is a to the point of loss. But it might so easily have David Baker difficult enough task for aficionados, let alone been and the consequences for the future of the the uninitiated. But sometimes it helps to come programme are unimaginable. This book is unique with a fresh perspective and a new approach. for having revealed that through the story itself And Rowland has both aplenty. Thor Ballistic and it is essential reading for anyone with even In focusing now on the flight of Columbia the slightest interest in space flight, engineering on 12 April 1981, the author has captured an Missile or humans on the frontier of high-risk technology. opportunity made possible by the declassification David Baker Author of files concerning the Manned Orbiting John Boyes Laboratory and intelligence satellites in general. Publisher It is from the MOL that earlier Shuttle crews Fonthill were drawn. This story is an integral component World Launcher ISBN of events associated with the first flight of the 978-1-78155-481-4 Shuttle, STS-1. When problems arose from tile Review 2015-16 Price loss on the OMS pods visible from the flight deck, Edited by £25.00 208 pages STS-1 became unwittingly, the focus of attention Alan Perera-Webb, Oleg (hardback) from spy satellites, getting a visual inspection Sokolov and David Todd from a KH-11 satellite. It is in this combination Publisher he book is a narrative history of the Thor of stories that this book is, so far, unique. Commercial Space ballistic missile and its deployment with No other book about the Shuttle has dug Technologies Ltd/ the Royal Air Force. Packed with highly beneath the canopy of secrecy that veiled Taccurate information about the Thor agreement, Seradata Ltd the real story behind STS-1, that it was the Price RAF training and launches and about the bases National Reconnaissance Office and its eyes- £250 208 pages and logistical support in the UK, it is arguably the in-space that verified to NASA Mission Control (softback) best account yet available in a single volume of the integrity of the critical black tiles on the the British side of the Thor story underside of Columbia. Moreover, it knits he development of current launch vehicles With a preliminary section on the key aspects together the real worlds of overt and covert and the proliferation of launch sites of its design and technical configuration the book space operations and is the finest example to is a changing catalogue of expansion wastes no time in getting down to honouring its date of the synergy which exists between the Tand development, well documented in this title and, in a series of appendices, telling the black and white worlds of aerospace operations. outstanding reference work which all space story and the fate of each RAF Thor missile. But the book is wider in scope, helping bring professionals and enthusiasts alike will find Tiny, detailed layout diagrams of each Thor site to life the story of the Air Force version of NASA’s invaluable. Encyclopaedic in scope, it is laid are virtually useless, annotation unreadable on Gemini spacecraft. Known as Gemini-B, this out in an accessible format and with details the poor quality paper only partly offset by 53 would have been crucial to the MOL programme about the world’s inventory of space launchers quality photographs on glossy paper. Despite itself, the crew-return vehicle attached to the and their operating sites. Launch providers are this, an essential work of reference. forward end of the cylindrical, manned spy listed, with salient detail on their services and David Baker

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FLASHBACK – June 1966

A regular feature looking back 50 years this month

ive decades ago this was a busy was located, Cernan’s visor fogged over and disclose the nature and purpose of each space month, as NASA battled technical and the EVA had to be abandoned. launch and, still enshrined today, endorsed procedural difficulties in its Gemini an agreement to allow access by either side Fprogramme, succeeded in achieving its first 2 June 1966 to space stations, bases on other worlds and soft landing on the Moon, and checked out The first fully controlled descent to the surface associated vehicles “on a basis of reciprocity” the first full-scale Saturn V at the Kennedy of another celestial body by any robotic and on a “reasonable advance notice”. Space Center. In Britain, the government spacecraft was achieved at 06.15hr UTC This remains an essential element of UN officially confirmed that it would withdraw when NASA’s Surveyor I touched down in the space law and is frequently side-lined in from the European Launcher Development southwest region of the Oceanus Procellarum. discussions regarding access to facilities Organisation and remove Blue Streak as Preceded by Lunar 9 on 31 January, the launched by another country. When planning a proposed first stage for the international Russian spacecraft had been ejected for a landings and resource extraction, “private” Europa launch vehicle. In America, Kennedy hard landing and survived by a cushioned companies are under the laws prevailing in Space Center director Kurt Debus declared landing on crushable panels. their country, or state, of registration. Thus, in that fee-paying tours of the NASA facility would Surveyor was the sole survivor of an early California, Google has been prohibited by law begin, with a free drive-through on Sundays and more ambitious soft-landing programme from allowing its Lunar X prize contenders from for private citizens. Subsequently, a Visitor of complex and sophisticated science stations putting their robotic vehicles down on Apollo Information Center would be built and tours and roving vehicles, eclipsed by the rapid pace landing sites, an act which would contravene would be organised on a more formal basis. of the Apollo manned landing schedule. It California state law passed last year. As Google But the real news this month impacts the future would successfully place on the lunar surface is registered in California it is constrained by of space resource utilisation (see pages 210- five spacecraft, two failing, with the final state law which overwrites Federal statutes on 211), as noted below (16 June), a veritable mission, Surveyor 7 landing on 10 January commercial activities within the state. “elephant in the room”. 1968. June 1966 1 June 1966 16 June 1966 During the month NASA verified all the swing- A sequence of events began this day when Struggling with language to enshrine an arm connections carrying fluids and electrical an Atlas launch vehicle placed an Augmented international law prohibiting the military use of power to the Apollo-Saturn-500-F, a full size Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) in orbit. The celestial bodies, Russia proposed to the United structure assembled to provide a fit-check object of NASA’s Gemini IX mission flown by Nations that any disputes should in future be for Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) built for Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan, the ATDA discussed between parties, whereas the launching Saturn 5. The assembly had been had been prepared for flight following the loss United States wanted cases brought before the rolled to the launch pad on 25 May, five years of the Gemini IX Agena Target Vehicle on 17 International Court of Justice. On 22 June both to the day after President John F. Kennedy May. When the time came to launch Gemini countries agreed to a compromise which would publicly announced his decision to send men IX-A, a computer problem stopped the count at be made by the Committee on the Peaceful to the Moon within the decade of the 1960s. 1min 40sec. Following previous incidents with Uses of Outer Space. On 5 October both The AS-500-F Facilities Integration Vehicle missions VI, VI-A and IX, this was the fourth time parties agreed that each country would fully consisted of: first stage S-IC-F, eventually Stafford had climbed out of a Gemini spacecraft returned to the Marshall Space Flight Center after failed attempts to launch. The most notable Lunar X prize contenders are prohibited by law and scrapped; second stage S-II-F returned to had been VI-A when he and command pilot from landing on Apollo sites classified as historic Marshall on the barge Poseidon and assigned Walter Schirra lifted fractionally from the restraint national monuments, a statute contested by the role of dynamic test stage (S-II-F/D); and arms before settling back on the pad. Google. Google third stage S-IVB-F, which had already served Two days later, Gemini IX-A roared into as a facilities check structure for the Saturn IB orbit, finding the ATDA still carrying the payload and became the Dynamic Test Stage for the shroud that should have jettisoned prior to orbit Skylab Workshop. insertion; a metal restraining strap had failed to AS-500-F was returned to the VAB on 8 sever. Achieving a rendezvous but no docking, June as Hurricane Alma loomed, rolled back to the mission deferred to an ambitious spacewalk LC-39A on 10 June and made its final journey whereby Cernan was to have donned, and back on 21 October after a wet-test propellant flown, the US Air Force Astronaut Maneuvering transfer. And as a footnote, the designation AS- Unit (AMU). Developed for use in the Manned 500F, as written today, carried an additional Orbital Laboratory, it had hydrogen peroxide hyphen (AS-500-F) on the day of roll-out. It thrusters and would be used in conjunction is also distinguished from flight models of the with an autonomous life support system. Saturn V by a broad black band circling the Finding it strenuous working his way to the top of the S-IC stage which was unique to this back of the spacecraft adapter where the AMU assembly.

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 225 rockets Saturn V F-1 parts retrieved

By Alan Lawrie

An F-1 thrust chamber on the Ocean floor in March 2013. Bezos Expeditions

or a brief ten-week period over Christmas team announced locating F-1 rocket parts in particular Apollo 12 engine. Although these are 2015 the public were given the privilege March 2012 following a sonar survey of the the prized items the Museum also has been of seeing part of an F-1 Saturn V rocket ocean floor. The following year the expedition given other engine parts identified as being Fengine that was used to launch men to the team set about diving to the sonar locations and from Apollo 16, including a gas generator, heat Moon in the 1960s. The Museum of Flight in recovering some of the F-1 parts using Remotely exchanger and turbine blades. Seattle has been given a number of F-1 parts Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROVs). During As a taster, the Apollo 12 injector was put on from NASA for permanent display after they lay an expedition in March 2013 they visited around temporary public display on 21 November 2015 on the Ocean floor for over 40 years. 20 sites which corresponded to predicted impact and then removed to the archive at the end These parts have been undergoing locations for the S-IC stages from Apollos 8, 11, of January 2016. Following a major Museum conservation for the past two years at the 12, 13 and 16. Over 11,000kg (24,255lb) of F-1 display celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Cosmosphere International SciEd Center hardware was raised to the surface and brought Boeing Company in 2016 all the F-1 engine and Space Museum (formerly known as the back to shore. parts will be placed on permanent public Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center) in The Museum of Flight has a thrust chamber display, along with other Apollo artefacts, in a Hutchinson, Kansas after they were recovered from the Apollo 12 debris zone as well as new exhibition to open no earlier than 1 March from the Atlantic Ocean in 2013 by the Jeff the injector plate and LOX dome from that 2017. Bezos-funded team of Bezos Expeditions. An Apollo 12 thrust chamber nozzle as imaged on the Ocean floor in March 2013. Bezos Expeditions Head of Amazon, Bezos has long been a supporter of space activities and is founder of the Blue Origin space company. After launch and separation from the second stage of the Saturn V rocket each S-IC first stage fell to the Atlantic Ocean and sank to the seabed, over 4,000m (13,124ft) below. Jeff Bezos utilised a highly experienced exploration team to perform search and recovery activities. It was headed by David Concannon, who had previous underwater experience diving to the Titanic and, in 2001, exploring with Kurt Newport the site where Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 capsule had been found two years previously to investigate other targets in the area. Each first stage from the Apollo missions was predicted to have impacted the sea in a slightly different location based on accurate post-mission trajectory analysis. The expedition

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Pride of place On 19 November 2015 a press conference was held at the Museum of Flight at which Jeff Bezos unveiled the Apollo 12 injector. “It took a lot of 21st century underwater tech and an extraordinary team of skilled professionals to find and recover these historical treasures and, thanks to them, NASA, and The Museum of Flight, now a whole new generation of young people will be able to see these amazing engines on display,” said Bezos. “When I was five years old I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon and it imprinted me with a passion for science and exploration - it’s my hope that these engines might spark a similar passion in a child who sees them today.” Doug King, President and CEO of The Museum of Flight also spoke at the press conference: “These artifacts not only launched F-1 engine parts diagram showing where the recovered parts originated. humanity’s first expeditions to the Moon, they PJ Muller, Museum of Flight, Seattle fired the imagination of young people who are The Apollo 12 thrust chamber in storage in Seattle. Alan Lawrie now today’s leaders in the second great era of space exploration. We trust that the legacy of these engines will continue to inspire a new generation of explorers who will set foot on Mars and other new worlds.” Four days after the Apollo 12 injector went on public display I was able to visit the Museum and inspect the injector. Thanks to Museum staff Geoff Nunn and Dan Hagedorn I was able to view close-up most of the remaining F-1 engine parts in the Museum’s underground storage area known as “the cage”. At the time of the underwater expedition in 2013 I had provided some assistance to the team in helping to identify which missions the various parts originated from. Most impressive is the thrust chamber from the Apollo 12 impact zone which, along with the other parts have been expertly cleaned and preserved although no deliberate The Apollo 12 injector is uncovered by Allison Loveland at Seattle’s Museum of Flight on 19 November refurbishment has taken place. What is 2015. Geoff Nunn (left) and Jeff Bezos (right) look on. Dieter Zube astonishing is that on many of the parts it is possible to see the original North American Rocketdyne inspectors’ stamps with the number of the inspector clearly visible. The larger, thicker parts such as the injector plate and the LOX dome survived with relatively little obvious damage while the thrust chamber lost most of its skirt extension at the time the engine hit the water. Although the expedition mainly located engine parts, some sections of the S-IC’s lower thrust structure were clearly imaged by the ROV. The work to preserve the remaining parts continues and in due course all of the recovered F-1 engine parts will be distributed to various museums across the USA. However, Seattle had the fortunate distinction of being the first location to display one of the recovered parts to the public.

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Satellite Digest is Spaceflight’s regular listing of world space launches. It is prepared by Geoff Richards using orbital data from Satellite Digest-521 the United States Strategic Command Space-Track.Org website.

Tim Kopra tweeted this image of the Soyuz TMA-20M approaching the ISS on 19 March. NASA

Spacecraft International Date Launch Vehicle Mass Orbital Inclin. Period Perigee Apogee Notes Designation Site kg Epoch deg min km km SES 9 2016-013A Mar 4.98 ETR Falcon 9FT 5,330 Mar 25.92 0.14 1,438.16 31,088 40,570 [1] Eutelsat 65 West A 2016-014A Mar 9.22 CSG Ariane-5ECA 6,564 Mar 19.62 0.03 1,435.97 35,780 35,791 [2] IRNSS 1F 2016-015A Mar 10.44 SHAR PSLV-XL 1,425 Mar 23.21 5.09 1,436.05 35,700 35,874 [3] Resurs-P 3 2016-016A Mar 13.79 Baykonur Soyuz-2.1b 5,920 Mar 20.81 97.28 93.97 469 472 [4] ExoMars 2016-017A Mar 14.40 Baykonur Proton-M-Briz-M 4,332 Heliocentric orbit [5] Soyuz TMA-20M 2016-018A Mar 18.89 Baykonur Soyuz-FG 7,220 Mar 22.50 51.64 92.55 403 406 [6] Rick Husband 2016-019A Mar 23.13 ETR Atlas V 401 7,492 Mar 26.49 51.64 92.55 403 406 [7] Kosmos 2515 2016-020A Mar 24.40 Plesetsk Soyuz-2.1a 4,000? Apr 1.79 97.62 96.06 549 594 [8] Beidou DW22 2016-021A Mar 29.84 Xichang Chang Zheng 3A 4,200 Apr 4.66 54.97 1,435.86 35,676 35,890 [9] Progress MS-02 2016-022A Mar 31.68 Baykonur Soyuz-U 7,285 Apr 3.47 51.64 92.55 402 406 [10]

Notes 1. Telecommunications satellite built using a Boeing 702HP bus and launched by SpaceX for SES. Mass quoted is at launch. Satellite is in an elliptical geosynchronous orbit currently located in the vicinity of 112°E as it manoeuvres to circularise orbit. It will be located over 108.2°E to provide a communications and direct broadcast service to the Indian Ocean region including Australia and the Middle East. 2. Telecommunications satellite built using an SS/L 1300 bus for Eutelsat and launched by Arianespace. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite is located over 42.5°W for test and will be moved to 65°W to provide a service to Latin America, the Caribbean and Western Europe. 3. Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System navigation satellite built by ISRO using an I-1000 bus. Mass quoted above is at launch, dry mass is 598 kg. The satellite is located over 32.5°E. 4. Earth survey satellite built using a Yantar bus by TsSKB Progress. It carries a high-resolution panchromatic/multi-spectral camera and lower- resolution multi-spectral and hyper-spectral imagers for Earth survey. One solar panel failed to deploy fully, but satellite is apparently still functional. 5. Exobiology Mars probe built by Thales Alenia Space for ESA consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module. TGO carries two infra-red and one ultraviolet spectrometers (NOMAD) for methane and other trace gases in Mars atmosphere, three infra-red spectrometers (ACS, supplied by Russia) for Martian atmospheric composition and the solar spectrum, a camera (CaSSIS) for high-resolution Mars surface imaging, a neutron detector (FREND, supplied by Russia) for sub-surface hydrogen and a UHF transponder for communications with probes on Mars surface. Schiaparelli EDM, named for the 19th century Italian astronomer, has entry and descent equipment, instrumentation (COMARS+) for pressure, temperature and heat flux during atmospheric entry, a lander with instruments (DREAMS) to measure atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, dust from solar radiation intensity and electric fields, a camera (DECA) for surface images during descent and laser retro-reflectors for location. An additional experiment (AMELIA) is scheduled to extract atmospheric and trajectory data from the probe’s engineering telemetry. ExoMars will arrive at Mars on October 19. 6. Spacecraft with three-man crew launched to the International Space Station, mission ISS-46S. Crew comprises Aleksei Ovchinin (Soyuz Commander, ISS flight engineer), Oleg Skripochka (Soyuz/ISS flight engineer) and Jeffrey Williams (Soyuz/ISS flight engineer, NASA astronaut). Spacecraft docked with ISS/Poisk port on March 19.13. Crew are part of ISS Expeditions 47 and 48. 7. Cygnus freighter spacecraft named in honour of the late astronaut, ISS Mission OA-6, built by Orbital ATK and launched by ULA as part of NASA’s CRS programme for transport to ISS, with 3,395 kg of cargo including new experiments, a J-SSOD deployer with the Diwata 1 satellite and several NRCSD Cubesat deployers. Spacecraft captured by the ISS arm March 26.45 and docked at the ISS/Unity nadir port March 26.62. Diwata 1 is a 50 kg survey and technology satellite built by DOST (Philippine Department of Science and Technology) carrying a telescope and visible/infra-red CCD camera (HPT) for Earth imaging, a multispectral visible/infra-red imager (SMI/LCTF) for ocean colour and vegetation, a

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panchromatic wide-angle CCD camera (WFC) for cloud imaging and a colour CCD index camera (MTC) to calibrate attitude control. Some of the NRCSD deployers are to be transferred to ISS. These contain the Flock 2e’ payload of twenty Dove survey 5 kg 3U Cubesats from Planet Labs each carrying a camera for Earth observation. Two of these Doves are testing new systems for the next generation. The remaining NRCSD deployers are mounted externally on the Cygnus for use after it departs the ISS. These apparently contain five 4 kg 3U Cubesats in the Lemur 2 series built by Spire Global, each carrying an AIS receiver (SENSE) to track shipping and a GPS receiver (STRATOS) for atmospheric data from occultation of GPS signals. 8. Military topographic mapping satellite, the second in the Bars-M series built by TsSKB Progress for MORF with a Karat dual camera system and laser altimeters. 9. Beidou, or Compass IGS6, is a navigation satellite using a CAST DFH-3A bus. Mass quoted above is at launch. Satellite is in an inclined geosynchronous orbit with ground track centred over 94°E, co-located with Beidou DW9 (IGS4) and DW10 (IGS5) and in an orbital plane close to that of Beidou DW8 (IGS3). 10. Unmanned freighter mission to the International Space Station, mission ISS-63P, with 2,425 kg of cargo including the Tomsk TPU-120 5kg 3U Cubesat from Tomsk Polytechnic University with an amateur radio payload and additive manufacturing (3D printing) structure for performance test. Spacecraft docked at ISS/Zvezda port April 2.75.

Additions and Updates Designation Comments 1993-032A Navstar 32 (USA 91, SVN 37) was manoeuvred out of operational orbit about March 15 and switched off late March. 1996-041A Navstar 38 (USA 126, SVN 40) was manoeuvred out of operational orbit about March 3 and switched off March 11. 1997-061A Cassini performed a distant non-targeted fly-by of Titan, passing 425,863 km from the satellite, on March 8. 1998-033A Apstar 9A (Zhongxing 5A) was manoeuvred off station at 141.4°E March 3 and is drifting to the east. 2001-005A SICRAL 1 has been relocated from 22°E to 16°E, according to amateur trackers. 2002-062A Nimiq 2 was relocated at 148°E, co-located with Measat 2, apparently to reserve slot. 2004-006A Rosetta has manoeuvred to study the tail of the comet, reaching 1,000 km away by March 30. 2006-007B Eutelsat 9A was manoeuvred off station at 9°E March 10, relocated at 13°E, co-located with Eutelsat Hot Bird 13B, 13C and 13D, March 15 and renamed Eutelsat Hot Bird 13E. 2006-021A Resurs-DK ceased operating due to communications problems in late 2015. Attitude control ceased by February 7. 2009-008B Eutelsat Hot Bird 13D was manoeuvred off station at 13°E March 21 and is drifting to the east. 2009-049A Meteor-M suffered another failure and was taken out of operation March 21. 2010-006A Intelsat 16 was relocated at 58°W, co-located with Intelsat 21, March 24. 2010-041B Kosmos 2465 (Uragan-M 737) was taken out of operation in GLONASS slot 12 February 15 for maintenance. This normally indicates that it will be out of operation for a day or two, but it has yet to resume operations. 2010-041C Kosmos 2464 (Uragan-M 736) was operational in GLONASS slot 16 from March 15. 2011-053A Tiangong 1 ceased sending data March 16. 2015-043A Soyuz TMA-18M crewed by Volkov, Kornienko and Kelly undocked from the ISS/Poisk port March 2.04 and landed near Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan March 2.19. 2015-044A MUOS 4 was relocated at 75°E about February 29, according to amateur trackers. 2015-055A Progress M-29M undocked from ISS/Zvezda port March 30.59 and carried out the Izgib experiment to investigate use of spin stabilisation. It was de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean April 8.56. 2015-065B Badr 7 was relocated at 39°E, co-located with Hellas Sat 2, on March 8. 2015-078A Wukong was declared operational on March 17. 2015-080A-L The Orbcomm satellites were declared operational March 1, though they are still in the process of manoeuvring to three separate planes of the Orbcomm constellation. 2016-010A USA 267 has manoeuvred to its operational orbit, according to amateur trackers. Add orbit: Mar 30.76 122.98° 107.27 min 1,101 km 1,107 km 2016-012A Hitomi suffered an attitude anomaly March 25 and increasing spin rate caused satellite to shed solar panels and other components March 26.

International Space Station activity There was the following orbital manoeuvre of ISS during March, boosted by Progress M-29M: Pre-manoeuvre orbit: Mar 4.88 51.64° 92.54 min 402 km 406 km Post-manoeuvre orbit: Mar 5.67 51.64° 92.57 min 404 km 407 km End-of-March orbital data: Mar 31.67 51.64° 92.55 min 403 km 406 km

Recently detailed orbital decays International Object name Decay Designation While the Cassini spacecraft was 2000-050A Ziyuan 2-01 Mar 10.94 conducting a distant fly-by of Titan on 8 March, scientists were processing 2013-064AB ChargerSat Mar 19 data captured earlier of the Saturnian 1998-067GE Flock 1e-2 Mar 5.58 moon Dione. Here two craters are 1998-067GX SERPENS Mar 27.33 superimposed over an ancient terrain. 1998-067GZ AAUSat 5 Mar 15 The upper crater is named Italus, the 1998-067HR Fleshka? Mar 10 lower is called Helorus Fossa and both rest in a valley 1,123km across. 2015-043A Soyuz TMA-18M Mar 2.19 JPL

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 229 society news A change of leadership

Suszann Parry (right) hands the Executive Secretary baton to Gillian Norman, at Suszann’s retirement from the BIS. Alistair Scott

n 7 April Suszann Parry retired from 1986 to provide additional support in the Society’s request for a Coat of Arms. the British Interplanetary Society, run up to the 38th International Astronautical After the Brighton congress she stayed completing 30 years of hard work to Congress (IAC) in Brighton in October 1987 on and when, in 1991, Len Carter stepped Osupport, and later manage, the world’s oldest which was hosted by the Society and will down as Executive Secretary to be replaced astronautical society still functioning across long be remembered for the hurricane on the by his Deputy, Shirley Jones, Suszann was the centennial divide. Tirelessly supporting Thursday night. It devastated the Grand Hotel, made Deputy in her stead. This was a role the efforts and endeavours of a dedicated completely destroyed the Friday programme she did quietly and unassumingly while group of volunteers, a small nucleus of and led to the cancellation of the Conference the dominating figures of Len and Shirley staff and a loyal band of members and dinner. Actually Suszann’s very first job for us commanded the Society’s affairs. At that time Fellows, Suszann is succeeded as Executive was a bit more mundane, the typing up of the there were eight members of staff including Secretary by Gill Norman, who is herself no stranger to the BIS. Suszann made an outstanding contribution to the success of the BIS over the last 30 years. Alistair Scott Over the next several pages we show appreciation for Suszann’s long service to the Society and reflect on the significance of her immeasurable contribution, as Gill takes over the management and daily running of a truly international organisation. We asked three key BIS rule-makers and the executive, to share their thoughts on the past and aspirations for the future. David Baker

An appreciation The 7th April saw the last day of Suszann Parry’s reign as Executive Secretary of the British Interplanetary Society after dedicating 30 years of her life working for the Society, the last 15 as “the boss”. Suszann joined the Society staff in April

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Suszann’s mother and father, Bernadette and Tom Walsh. This set a family tradition with husband George continuing to help the Society out on a voluntary basis, carrying out maintenance jobs on the HQ building for over a decade. While there could be no question of the efficiency of the Society’s operation under Len and Shirley’s rule, their somewhat autocratic style was putting some proverbial noses out of joint. So when Shirley retired in 2001 and it seemed natural for Suszann as her Deputy to take over, there were many relationships within and without the Society that needed to be repaired. It was immediately clear as she took on the new role that Suszann was well versed in how to make the Society work and that she had a plan to mend the broken bridges. The fortunes of the Society improved Suszann and Alistair Scott at the Summer Palace in Beijing during the 2013 IAC. Alistair Scott leading up to the greatest achievement of for the last 15 years as she takes well-earned is happy to take charge of the whole thing. her term of office, the 59th IAC in Glasgow in retirement. After 30 years with the BIS, she Over the years she has built up an amazing 2008. knows the Society and most of its members list of contacts of many nationalities, most The Society had tried several times to get better than anyone. of whom became her firm friends. So when the IAC to Glasgow before, and, under the Running an organisation with a very you arrive at a Congress, be it in Naples, leadership of Suszann, we finally succeeded. small staff where your customers, i.e. your Beijing or Toronto you don’t have to go far She had learned a lot from attending members, and, in effect your bosses, are all before someone greets her or asks after her conferences over nearly two decades and so volunteers, is not easy. It requires a special and it doesn’t take long for her to find her had many ideas and improvements that were kind of person, someone who is both a team way around. She soon becomes the perfect incorporated into the planning for Glasgow. player and a leader, an event organiser and “social secretary”, organising our diaries and The Congresses had been in a slow decline an accountant, a landlord and an estate arranging technical visits and sight-seeing before Glasgow, which proved to be a turning manager, a caterer and a hostess, a real trips to the more exotic locations like the point. It was a record-breaking Congress people-person and a bit of a politician. Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China or and, since then, the IAC has continued to Knowing your members is important. Knowing Niagara Falls. grow in size and popularity. As a result the who to turn to for advice, support and But this is also where the politics comes International Astronautical Federation which assistance is essential. in. By knowing everyone, Suszann is able runs the Congress sought Suszann’s support It can sometimes be a seven day week to play the field, particularly at the IAF in the planning of all future congresses. She with days that can often include an evening General Assembly which can be a minefield will be sorely missed. lecture or weekends away at conferences and for the uninitiated like me. She knows who Though a great success for the IAF, the exhibitions in colourful locations anywhere to go to for support and advice and who IAC in Glasgow developed into a major in the world. Fitting in holidays, and even we, the BIS, should in turn support. For predicament for the Society as, due to a weddings, between the many Society events many years she played an invaluable role “perfect storm”, three factors, all outside and commitments can be a challenge too. in selecting the venues for the forthcoming Suszann’s and the Society’s control, meant the So how did Suszann manage it? All I can Congresses and she had some exotic Congress created a massive loss which the say is that I’m glad she did! venues to choose from. She was well Society had to bear. Although Suszann had As an aircraft and missile man for the respected by the leaders of the international hoped to retire on a high after the Congress, first half of my working life, I didn’t get into space community and was always the BIS’ she decided to remain to help put the Society space until 1984 and was actually recruited greatest ambassador. on a firmer footing. Eight years of dedicated into the BIS in 1994, not by Suszann, but The Society will certainly miss Suszann’s effort later, that task has been largely achieved. by her predecessor Shirley Jones at a great cheerful presence, but her positive So everyone in the Society will miss her BIS event to celebrate the 25th Anniversary contribution over so many years has given us winsome smile and charming, but efficient of Apollo 11 Moon Landing with Buzz Aldrin a sure foundation for continued success in the manner, of coping with whatever the job and Patrick Moore. But a couple of years future. We wish Suszann and George a long threw at her. We all wish her well for a long later it was Suszann who invited me to and happy retirement. and happy retirement with her family, recently join the Programme Committee and I was Alistair Scott enlarged with the arrival of granddaughter hooked. Grace. Suszann certainly knows how to spot A new day Mark Hempsell, President potential volunteers and has a way of getting Well, I’ve had my feet under the table in our teams to work together to run events - the HQ for nearly three months now. I’m enjoying A reflection bigger the better. She is in her element at the it immensely and am extremely grateful for the Sadly the time has come to say farewell to big conferences and congresses and, like the warm welcome extended to me by everybody Suszann, our treasured Executive Secretary huge and successful IAC 2008 in Glasgow, involved with BIS.

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Before volunteering for the BIS over a year ago, I also had extensive voluntary involvement with an associated not-for-profit organisation, the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (www.i4is.org). It was through this association that I was introduced to some of the key BIS people. I would like to publicly acknowledge two key individuals in particular who recommended me for this role: they are Kelvin F. Long, ex-Council member and Richard Osborne, current Council member. Without their encouragement and backing, I would not be in this exciting role today and I am extremely grateful to them. My background is not in the space industry. I am from the business world: an ex-accountant who moved into project management and organisational development. Our vision of the future of BIS includes enhanced communications and A final toast to 30 years of service. David Baker vitality as we move forward. We acknowledge that we have issues to address. As with I’ve been very careful to state that I’ve well deserved rest after years of such devoted many similar organisations, we are faced “taken over” from Suszann Parry whenever service to us and my personal goal is to do as with a gradually declining membership; this is introducing myself to members and good a job as she has done. She has set the difficult to deal with as fewer members mean colleagues. The term “replacing” simply isn’t bar very high indeed! fewer funds. So we have to work out how to suitable because, as we all know, Suszann I must thank the Council and the do more with less, until we can increase our was irreplaceable. She has been the bedrock Committees for providing so much generous membership base and become financially on which this society had operated for many support since I began my role. They work stronger. years. It feels very strange without her in the extremely hard to drive projects forward We cannot forget that we are not a office now and she is sorely missed. I have and address issues. They are all staffed by business; we are a charity and our charitable nothing but praise and gratitude for her, not volunteers, who give up their time freely. The aims are to advance the field of astronautics. just for an excellent handover period but also depth of their commitment is touching and However, in the same way that corporates for her astonishing achievements over the humbling for me personally and we simply exist to increase shareholder value, they last 30 years. I hope she is enjoying her very couldn’t function without them. cannot do that unless they keep their

A gathering at the BIS on 7 April to wish Suszann bon voyage. Alistair Scott

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customers happy. We cannot achieve our advanced telescopes and research stations Some of you could become an agent of aims if we don’t keep our members happy. in space. Help us to create a new generation change in the Society, a driving force with a We understand that we also need to appeal of young space professionals to be at the significant impact on its future. Those of you to a younger, more diverse audience. So we forefront of that race. who are regular readers of Principium, the welcome practical suggestions from you all. And that brings me to my final point. I e-magazine produced by the aforementioned What can we do to help inspire your children? mentioned the gratitude that we have for i4is will have read my similar plea in the To convince them that a future career in the small army of volunteers that the BIS last edition. You don’t necessarily need the space industry will be one of the most has to achieve many of its operations. That qualifications to help us – a love of space is rewarding options available to them? Or to at army could be bigger! We rely heavily on a enough! least adopt space as a hobby and become core of individuals who do so much for us. So, while we are very sad to say goodbye involved in it at whatever level is appropriate. Every charitable or not for profit organisation to Suszann, it does provide us with a natural How can we encourage more students to take always needs more volunteers. One of our opportunity for change. Let us embrace that up STEM subjects and take advantage of the aims is to have more transparency around chance and see what we can do to enhance rapidly diversifying portfolio of space-related our technical projects; however, we would the service we provide to our members. You courses on offer? also benefit from assistance on other are our lifeblood and it is your subscriptions We are lucky that we live in unprecedented matters. If you’re a “whizz” with marketing that cover all our operational activities. times. A time when cheap access to low Earth and PR, social media, design, or events Please let me know what you would like to orbit is becoming a reality and the imminent management (the list is almost endless), see, what you would like us to offer, and arrival of a new space race, whether that the BIS needs you! There is always space whether you can help. You can reach me on be driven by the for-profit activities such (pun intended…) for an individual that [email protected]. I look forward to hearing as mining and tourism or the incredible can give an hour a week - or more - to the from you. exploration opportunities afforded by noble cause of advancing astronautics. Gill Norman, Executive Secretary BIS Vision and Strategy Meeting he first BIS Vision and Strategy else, in other words the rest of the world in setting up the event, participating in it, and meeting was held at the HQ on 11 terms of publicity and media. Each of the with the catering, Robin for his leadership of March, and was attended by 18 four groups presented their ideas, and these the vision and strategy sessions, and all those Tmembers of BIS Council, committees and will be collated to produce a strategy for the who participated. Last but not least, Suszann staff. Led by (then) Executive Secretary- Society. for her work in planning for the event and for elect Gill Norman and Marketing Strategy The idea is to hold these meetings once a arranging the catering, and Ben for his help Consultant Robin Tucker, the idea was year to update the strategy document. on the day. to bring together volunteers and staff to I would like to thank Gill for her work in Colin Philp act as one team with one main purpose: a successful Society, with increasing Membership, increasing revenue, and increasing influence, and to agree on the Journal of the British strategy for achieving this. There was also an Interplanetary Society important secondary aim, which was to bring JBIS together committee and staff members as a social group. The meeting united everyone working for the BIS as a kind of “super committee” to which all staff and volunteers automatically belong, considering the “big picture” for the Society. The December 2015 issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society is now The day started with a presentation from available and contains the following papers: each of the BIS’s committees on their current The Purpose of Art and Artists Beyond Earth situation, with achievements of 2015, a strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats Why is There no Von Neumann Probe on Ceres? Error Catastrophe can Explain the Fermi-Hart Paradox (SWOT) analysis, and finally plans for 2016. Nature-Inspired Design and Engineering (NIDE): A New Tool for the Next Generation of Robotic and Human Space Missions After lunch, Robin led a workshop on vision Mission Mars: A Dentist’s Perspective for the future BIS in five years’ time, with each The Probability of Faster than Light Travel and our Place in the Universe participant contributing ideas. The final session involved splitting into Mars, Human Nature and the Evolution of the Psyche four groups, each discussing ideas for Pirouette Launch and Energy Storage System strategies to attract our three main target Copies of JBIS, priced at £10 for members, £40 to non-members plus P&P. groups, “the three Es”, Experts, Enthusiasts, Full list of available issues – www.bis-space.com/eshop/products-page/publications/jbis/ and those in Education. A fourth group and Back issues are also available and can be obtained from The British Interplanetary Society, Arthur C Clarke House, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, England fourth “E” was also considered: Everyone

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Westcott gets a visit

embers of the BIS helped former Smith who became a future BIS Chairman. The site is now a Venture Park owned by employees of the Guided Projectile In an interview for the television Programme Rockspring Property Investment Managers. Establishment (GPE) Westcott “Picture Page” he was asked to explain Links with rocketry remain as the site Mcelebrate the 70th Anniversary of the opening the work and purpose of the BIS using his retains many of the original buildings and of the Site with a visit on 9 April. illustrations and drawings. Other Westcott test sites with a number of companies active Opened in 1942, as a World War II Bomber alumni who held the post of President of the in the field of rocket propulsion. These Operational Training Unit (OTU), aircrew BIS are Bob Parkinson and John Harlow. include: Airborne Engineering – doing were trained on the aircraft they would fly in A couple of years ago a card index system interesting work and based at the former combat. By war’s end the site was a principal was discovered in the Westcott archives that J Site; European Astrotech Ltd provide prisoner of war repatriation centre. GPE was included references to items of interest to the engineering, technical and advisory support set up under the auspices of the Admiralty establishment in BIS publications. to the space propulsion industry; Falcon opened officially on the 1 April 1946 and despite being only 65km north of London it was for many years one of the most secret sites in the UK, never appearing on Ordnance Survey Maps, patrolled by armed MoD Police night and day and forbidden from overflight by commercial aircraft. Initially, GPE was to study and research all aspects of missile development but, in post-war Britain, rationalisation of research establishments resulted in the site becoming an outstation of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) The site was renamed the Rocket Propulsion Department (RAE/ RPD), only becoming independent again in June 1958 as the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE). Many members of BIS worked on site. The very first edition of the site magazine Venturi (August 1947) mentions Ralph A

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Projects are in the former Bomb Dump and design test and manufacture of solid and Hybrid propulsion systems; Moog In-Space Propulsion (ISP) are based at both F Site and J Site. Formerly AMPAC In- Space Propulsion (ISP), Moog is a leading developer and supplier of liquid rocket engines and propulsion systems. On the announcement of the 70th Anniversary celebration, members of BIS West Midlands decided to see if they could assist with the event. Ed Andrews at the Venture Park was contacted and we came up with a day-long programme. Activities included a re-union at the former V100 club of the GPE, thanks to our hosts in the club Donna and Mark, and two guided bus tours of the site (very kindly sponsored by Rockspring) with a stop at J site where James MacFarlane of Airborne Engineering and Alistair Scott, Gill Norman, Steve Salmon and Colin Philp celebrating Yuri’s night at Westcott 70th. Ian Coxhill of Moog ISP gave excellent and enthusiastic descriptions of the work that Wright of the British Rocketry Oral History the PR work and Jake McNulty for the their companies are doing. Westcott films and Programme, also the organisers of the photography, again courtesy of Rockspring. photos, displayed by courtesy of Class Act, Charterhouse Space Conference, Blue Streak Last but not least, appreciation goes to Di followed and lunch was again sponsored by Memorabilia including a collection of hardware Hickman, who started on site in July 1947, Rockspring. from Blue Streak while Robin Brand (who and Barbara Hood for overall organisation There were a number of desktop stands in also heads up the BIS technical Committee) helping make it a very enjoyable day. the club: BIS West Midlands – displaying a ably assisted by his wife Sue who sold Mark Perman small selection of items developed at Westcott copies of his excellent and comprehensive (thanks to Bob, Amelia and Callum Stanton Skylark book. Institute for Interstellar Studies for manning the stand); BIS merchandise was represented by Kelvin F. Long and Rob BRITISH INTERPLANETARY SOCIETY and Society info who also sold the “Westcott” Swinney. Rolls Royce Heritage from Derby WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH history booklet and Ed Andrew’s Westcott displayed a collection of turbopump engines DVD collection of films. Thanks go to Gill and supported by Alan Ranger and Charles FILM - ROCKET FLIGHT Ian Norman, Steve Salmon, Alistair Scott and King. Daniel Jubb and team represented the Colin Phillip. Falcon Project and Dave Golby sold copies Saturday 26 November 2016 Other contributions included a small of his book on the Mechanical Engineering 13.45–16.45 selection of hobby rockets and literature Apprenticeship at Westcott The Gardeners Arms, Vines Lane, courtesy of Mark Perman, Leslie and Dave Claire Thompson deserves thanks for Droitwich, WR9 8LU The Rocket and Missile historian John Harlow MBE will introduce a rarely seen film ROCKET FLIGHT. The film, made by the RAF in 1945, details the development of Rockets and Missiles in Germany before and during the Second World War. There will be a discussion afterwards on the film and the significance of the German work in relation to rockets and missile development post World War II. To cover the cost of the film there will be an admission charge of £6.00 (payable on the day)! Please Note - There is no disabled access for the film showing! It would help us know numbers attending - please register to attend on the British Interplanetary Society website More info on the branch can be found on the branches Facebook page: www.facebook. com/groups/569776719819420/

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 235 society news Tom Stafford in Yorkshire dinner had been arranged at the Wentbridge House Hotel, Pontefract, for Friday 8 April, with a talk by AGemini and Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan, with a lecture at Carleton Community High School the following day. But fate interjected and at exceptionally short notice Space Lectures received the following: “It is with personal regret that I am unable to be with you this weekend. I have had some health issues and a setback last week that have prevented me from being able to travel. I know you will enjoy my good friend General Tom Stafford, my former Commander on Gemini 9 and Apollo 10. So please welcome him and I look forward to hopefully being able to visit you some time in the future.” – Capt. Eugene A. Cernan. I know I can speak for everybody attending when I tell you that I was devastated that Captain Gene Cernan postponed his Space Lectures April encounter. I think I can speak for everybody attending when I tell you his Welcomed warmly, Tom Stafford impressed with his breadth of knowledge. Rick Mulheirn “stand in” was quite simply outstanding. General Tom Stafford is a pioneering only right and fitting. event in October. We are counting the days astronaut with an enviable spaceflight record, Tom’s journey to Pontefract was already! his NASA days being just part of an amazing problematic. He arrived just an hour before Rick Mulheirn career to which all his contemporaries could Friday’s planned photo shoot. He quickly only aspire. A veteran of four historic space freshened up, signed some auction pieces BIS Library missions, he is also largely responsible and was soon pressing the flesh in the for 60% of the current US Air Force strike photo room. Circumstances surrounding the The Society’s specialist space and capability stealth bombers to F16s, refuelling event only served to heighten the sense of astronautics library is open Monday to Friday between 10.30 and 15.30 tankers to Tomahawk missiles. appreciation and the standing ovation afforded and 18.50 when there is an evening It was evident both at the lecture and in the General as he entered the dining room lecture. Pre-booking is not required but private conversation that General Stafford is was genuine and heartfelt. please check in advance whether the rightly as proud of his career with the US Air Never before has Space Lectures had a library is already in use. Force and the US government as he is in his speaker with such a breadth of knowledge spell at NASA. and first-hand experience of the aerospace New BIS Members In May 1990, Tom was made chair of a industry. From his early days as a test pilot at Simone Camilletti, Rome, Italy committee to independently advise NASA how Edwards Force Air Base through firing “bottle Adithya Kothandhapani, Bangalore, India to carry out President George H. W. Bush’s rockets” at Soviet policemen in 1974 and Oliver Witney, Bucks, UK vision of returning to the Moon, this time to stay, his aerospace work beyond, the breadth of Timothy Miller, Pennsylvania, USA and then go on to explore Mars. The resulting knowledge, detail and insight afforded by Tom Brad Appel, California, USA publication “America at the Threshold”, a sprinkled with a goodly number of anecdotes Sean Moloney, Pinjarra, Australia road map for the next 30 years of US human and jokes was quite remarkable. And the less Kai MacDonnell, London, UK spaceflight is still viewed as the blueprint for said about Ron Evans and the Playboy centre Andrew Batters, Ilkley, W. Yorks future space exploration. And he is currently fold magazine the better! Hugh Yarrow, Cirencester, Glos the Chairman of the NASA International Space At one hour and 40 minutes General Susan Morris, Lincoln, Lincs Station Advisory Committee. Stafford’s talk was the longest in Space Gail Campbell, London, UK General Stafford’s list of honours and Lectures history, by some considerable Toni Weisskopf, Tennessee, USA accolades for services to aerospace and margin. Time constraints meant the Q&A Dermott McNulty, Herts, UK engineering reads like a who’s who of such was cancelled but nobody seemed to mind. Giles Billenness, Hounslow, UK and in itself speaks volumes for the man’s Such had been the calibre and content of the Danny W Patterson, Georgia, USA achievements. Perhaps his proudest being unscripted lecture. Jonathan Koch, London, UK the 2011 recipient of The Wright Brothers To cap off a wonderful event was a “cool” David Hawksett, Essex, UK Memorial Trophy, an annual award bestowed video clip, recorded by Scott Kelly aboard Robert Naylor, Northumberland, UK upon some of the most historic aviation the ISS, inviting all those present to join Paul Wilkinson, W Sussex, UK leaders the world has known. It would seem him and his brother at Space Lectures’ next

236 Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 obituary Morris V. Jenkins (1923-2016)

British engineer who played a key role in Mechanical Engineering in 1951. He joined an initial expedition of 570 days to Mars in in creating the trajectories that Apollo Avro Canada, Toronto, in 1956 and worked 1987 and 1988. Jenkins’ plan assumed that astronauts followed to the moon and on stability and control aspects of models NASA had already developed a shuttlecraft Aback to Earth, Morris Jenkins has died at age of the Avro Arrow. Once at NASA in 1959, and that components of the solar-powered 92. Jenkins said he worked on control systems in Mars vehicle would be assembled in Earth Jenkins was one of the 32 British and Mercury before moving into his work on lunar orbit following seven launches using shuttle Canadian engineers who joined NASA after trajectories for Apollo in 1961. booster vehicles. losing their jobs in 1959 when the Canadian Jenkins was always modest about his work, After 15 days in orbit around Mars, three of government cancelled the CF-105 Avro Arrow and required a great deal of persuasion to the five astronauts on the trip would descend to supersonic interceptor programme. agree to talk to a historian about what he did. the surface in a Mars exploration module for 45 The highlight of Jenkins’ 25 years at NASA “It wasn’t easy to get this trajectory scheme days of exploration. On its way back to Earth, was leading a group in the Mission Analysis going. The group that I led did it. It wasn’t I the spacecraft would swing by Venus and enter and Planning Group at the Manned Spacecraft (alone) who did it,” he explained. Earth orbit for a pickup by shuttle at the end of Center (since 1973, the Johnson Space By the time of Apollo 11, Jenkins was working its trip. Center) at Houston, Texas, that developed for fellow former Avro Canada engineers After a brief stint in the Skylab programme, lunar trajectories for Apollo spacecraft. John Hodge and Dennis Fielder on future Jenkins worked in the Space Shuttle In describing the trajectories in a talk at the programmes, and Manned Spacecraft Center programme as Chief of the Powered Flight Apollo Lunar Landing Mission Symposium in director Bob Gilruth designated Jenkins to draw Analysis Branch, which prepared launch Houston in June 1966, Jenkins spoke of the a up a plan for a trip to Mars. Jenkins was able trajectories, until he retired from NASA in 1984. complexities of the flights, which started off to call on help from many of his colleagues from Jenkins and his wife first retired to California with putting a spacecraft into an orbit around MSC and from the aerospace contractor TRW. for several years and then returned to Texas. the Earth that was tilted in relation to both the “Even with a realistic perspective on the whole He passed away in Dallas on 15 March 2016. Earth’s equator and the Moon’s orbit. At the thing, we put out an energetic effort on it. It was Jenkins is survived by his wife Joan of 63 right moment, the spacecraft had to be injected a good first draft and sent to headquarters,” he years, a teacher who later became an engineer into a path that just missed, by slightly more said. who also worked in the space programme, and than 100 km (62ml), where the Moon would be The Jenkins report, as it was known, was their two children, five grandchildren and four when the spacecraft arrived three days after completed in February 1971 and called for great grandchildren. launch. an “austere” low-budget programme sending Chris Gainor, Ph.D., FBIS The spacecraft’s return path to Earth had Morris V. Jenkins (right) receives NASA Superior Achievement Award in 1969. NASA to place it into a very narrow corridor that ensured that the spacecraft entered the Earth’s atmosphere at the right place and at the right angle. A tiny error meant that the crew would be lost. Crews that landed on the Moon faced additional complexities. And it also had to be taken into account that the Earth and Moon orbit the Sun, are not perfect spheres and wobble slightly in their orbits. Starting not long after President John F. Kennedy and Congress charged NASA with flying astronauts to the Moon, Jenkins and his group at MPAD had used a complicated mathematical estimation method, some outside help, and brute computing power to prepare trajectories for lunar missions and give the people planning Apollo confidence that the spacecraft could be safely guided to its target and back home. Based on this work, another group drew up the detailed trajectory calculations for each mission. Morris Vivian Jenkins was born in Southampton, England, on 3 May 1923 and served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War as a navigator. After the war, he worked at the Supermarine technical office of Vickers Armstrong for nine years, during which he learned stress, aerodynamics, and stability and control. Jenkins earned a degree

Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 237 what’s on

More than thirty speakers including: Mark Hempsell, George Abbey (former director, Johnson Space Centre), Alan Bond, Richard Varvill, BIS Lectures and Meetings Prof. Fred Taylor, Prof. Mark Sims and Kelvin F. Long. Rocketplanes and the X-15 BIS Summer Get-Together & 71st Annual General 12 May 2016, 7 - 8.30 pm Meeting Speaker: David Baker 30 July 2016, 12 - 5 pm This talk will explore the fascinating story of how early plans for Venue: RAF Museum Cosford, Shifnal, Shropshire, TF11 8UP spaceplanes in the US Air Force X-series inspired ambitious designs and bold initiatives carrying flight through the sound barrier in 1947 and Website: www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford into the heat barrier during the 1960s. It is a story replete with technical Come and enjoy a relaxing afternoon with a picnic, meeting BIS friends, advances which would underpin new generations of high-performance at the RAF Museum Cosford, and also take part in the BIS AGM. The aircraft but in this talk we will focus on the challenges posed by the space event will be hosted by our Guest of Honour (TBA). frontier and on achievements which encouraged development of projects such as Dyna-Soar, approved in 1956 but cancelled in 1963. The official business of the AGM, which takes a short while, is open to BIS Fellows, and the discussion afterwards is open to all BIS Members, We will examine how the X-1 series and the X-15 pioneered ways to so come along and have your say about the Society! fly spacecraft outside the atmosphere and look at the technology which made space flight possible and at the pilots selected to push aviation The social event after the AGM is open to all BIS Members and Fellows beyond the atmosphere – including the first man to walk on the Moon and their friends and families (children very welcome!), so put the event – as pioneers in what may yet be the most enduring way for humans to in your diary and don’t miss out! Bring all your own food and drink, a routinely fly between the surface of the Earth and destinations in space. picnic rug and deck chairs, for a very enjoyable afternoon. The talk will provide an opportunity to purchase two books recently published by David – the Rocket Planes bookazine and the Haynes The rest of the afternoon will involve a chance to relax and socialise, manual on the X-15 – with all proceeds going to the BIS. and there will be a number of family-friendly talks. The RAF Museum is open to all visitors, so this is also a chance to look around the historic 2016 Soviet/Chinese Technical Forum exhibits. The ticket price for the event is £10, to cover costs and also as a BIS 21-22 May 2016 fundraiser. Children under 16 are free. Entry to the BIS AGM, from To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Helen Sharman’s Mission to Mir, the 12:00 midday, is for BIS Fellows, and Members can join the discussion 2016 Soviet/Chinese Technical Forum will be spread over the weekend afterwards. Entry to the Museum is free but there is a charge for parking, of 21-22 May, with a varied and exciting programme. The event starts on which is £4 for the day. Saturday 21st May, with a selection of presentations and a Cosmonaut Q&A; the day is rounded off by a conference dinner in the evening at a The Museum itself opens at 10:00 am, so guests can arrive from then on venue local to HQ. Sunday 22nd May continues with more presentations to look at the museum exhibits before the AGM starts at 12:00. and a panel including Helen Sharman, ending mid-afternoon. Tickets for the AGM and Get-Together can be booked through the website or via the BIS HQ office. Entry to the AGM is free for BIS Fellows, and Reusable Launch Vehicles? free for BIS Members for the discussion afterwards. 15 June 2016, 7 - 8.30 pm Car Sharing Scheme Speaker: Bob Parkinson A car-sharing scheme will be available, between Members, so please get in touch if you would like to offer lifts, or would need transport. We can’t The early pioneers of astronautics could hardly imagine that we would guarantee a lift, but we hope we can put you in touch with someone who throw away millions of pounds worth of expensive hardware each time can! Please contact [email protected] and let us know your we launched into space. However, the first satellite launchers were location, and for people wanting a lift, how many seats are needed, and based on military missiles where the costs of development had already for people offering a lift, how many seats are available. been paid for, and the politics of space flight emphasised the importance of having the capability to loft spacecraft rather than developing the best This is sure to be a popular event, and tickets will be issued on a first way of doing it. Even the one serious attempt to develop a reusable come, first served basis, limited to 200 tickets, so book now and we look launcher – the Space Shuttle – was compromised from the start and, forward to seeing you there. while a triumph of engineering, proved to be the most expensive way of getting into space yet. More recently other routes have been started – Space-X with recoverable boosters, and the air-breathing Skylon. Lectures The talk will discuss the economics of the various ideas that have been Venue: BIS HQ, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, unless proposed, and how the cost of access to space and our future activities otherwise stated. there are intimately related. Members can attend free of charge. Places must be booked in advance, online or by post. Each member may also obtain a free ticket for one BIS Space Conference at Charterhouse guest subject to availability of space. 21-23 July 2016 Non-Members are able to attend the Society’s lectures for a fee. You can order a ticket online or by post (please make cheques payable to the Venue: Charterhouse School nr. Godalming Surrey British Interplanetary Society). If oversubscribed Society Members will be given priority. Great speakers, provocative discussions, friendly and informal If applying via our website the confirmation receipt is your entry ticket. atmosphere: this is the Space Conference you cannot miss! If, for reasons outside its control, the Society is required to change the date Skylon, Apollo-Soyuz, Interstellar Flight, Lost Landers, a tribute to or topic of a meeting, every effort will be made to avoid inconvenience to Colin Pillinger, British cordite rockets, water rockets, developments at attendees either by notice of change in Spaceflight/JBIS, on our website Goonhilly… we have a fantastic programme lined up this year. 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

238 Spaceflight Vol 58 June 2016 The British Interplanetary Society From Imagination to Reality Join online by going to www.bis-space.com/join or fill in this form Why not take a digital subscription where a PDF version of your chosen publication(s) is delivered to your inbox each month? Go to www.bis-space.com/digital

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240 Spaceflight Vol 55 January 2013