SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication Volume 60 No.3 March 2018 £5.00 Ariane steps into the future! New Glenn Space in the GDR Bruce McCandless Exoplanet puzzles 03> 634072 770038 9 CONTENTS Features 12 Supernatural science A new capability is coming to the International Space Station, courtesy of a cooperative endeavour between the partners to supplement existing research capabilities. 12 14 Read all about it! DrJens Heide describes for us the difficulties Letter from the Editor encountered by German space enthusiasts as The New Year has started with mixed they struggled to get information about the fortunes for the space programme. space programme from behind the Iron Curtain. Ariane V is on its way out, soon to be replaced with Ariane 6, a welcome new 20 Ariane 6 – bigger, better, cheaper entrant with a European industry The European Space Agency is counting down to pledged to cut costs and look at retiring the Ariane V heavy launcher in five years recoverable stages, as we describe in and introducing its successor. SpaceFlight takes a long view and looks at far reaching decisions. this issue. 14 On the other hand, a shadow falls 26 Into the blue across the successful entry of SpaceX New launch vehicles are emerging from into the black world of Top Secret billionaire investors and now Jeff Bezos, the space operations as the billion dollar world’s richest entrepreneur is accelerating Zuma satellite goes missing after development of a launcher to challenge Ariane 6. launch on 7 January. Despite the surge in blaming SpaceX, it does not appear 30 Hiding in plain sight to be the fault of the Falcon 9 but there Alistair Scott decided that a talk on planetary are many out there who would wish to science in distant star systems was so exciting it topple it from its entry to this most needed a fuller and more complete description 20 coveted of customers. than that covered in the initial report. We agreed. In this issue I am very pleased to . draw back the veil on Cold War East Germany, with recollections of what it was like to be a “space cadet” in that Regulars communist state. And we remember the terrific work done by Bruce 4 Behind the news McCandless in developing the Trump ditches racetrack approach to Mars. rocket-powered backpack, work that lives on in the SAFER device after his 7 Opinion untimely death.. 8 ISS Report 26 9 December 2017 – 8 January 2018 32 Flashback March 1968 David Baker [email protected] 34 Obituary Bruce McCandless II (1937-2017) 40 Satellite Digest 542 – December 2017 44 Society news / Diary 30 COVER: SOON TO BE REPLACED – ARIANE V LAUNCHING TWO TELECOM SATELLITES ON 28 JUNE 2017/ESA ON 28 SATELLITES TELECOM TWO – ARIANE V LAUNCHING BE REPLACED TO SOON COVER: What’s happened • What’s coming up OUR MISSION STATEMENT Editor David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub Editor Ann Page Creative Consultant Andrée Wilson Design & Production MP3 Media Promotion Gillian Norman Advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] Distribution Warners The British Interplanetary Society Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England Tel: +44 (0)1778 391 000 Fax: +44 (0)1778 promotes the exploration and 393 668 SpaceFlight, Arthur C. Clarke House, 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ, England Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Fax: +44 (0)20 7582 7167 Email: [email protected] www.bis-space.com use of space for the benefit Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society, SpaceFlight is a publication that promotes the mission of the British of humanity, connecting people Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor to create, educate and inspire, or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered charity No: 250556. The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. Printed in England by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd., Plymouth. and advance knowledge in © 2018 British Interplanetary Society 2017 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or all aspects of astronautics. transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written persmission for the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. SpaceFlight Vol 60 March 2018 3 SLUG BEHIND THE NEWS TRUMP DITCHES MARS RACETRACK APPROACH Approval for a “Moon first” infrastructure plan for deep space exploration has many benefits – not least because it could get us to Mars faster. ON THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of the landing by Apollo 17 on the change’s sake has become a feared consequence whenever the lunar surface, the last crewed flight to the Moon, President Donald White House changes occupants. Trump signed Space Policy Directive No 1 (SPD-1). In it, he called Now, breaking that cycle, there seems to be a consensus – upon the NASA Administrator to “lead an innovative and among NASA, the Congress and professional opinion expressed sustainable programme of exploration with commercial and by scientists, engineers and opinion-shapers – that America international partners to enable human expansion across the solar really cannot afford to embark on an Apollo-style dash to Mars. system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and That any long-term plan must involve government, private opportunities”. He added: “It marks a first step in returning industry, commercial companies and international partners, not American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, for necessarily in that order of priority. It’s simply too expensive long-term exploration and use”, asserting that the United States and would call for a significant increase in the agency’s annual would “…establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars...” budget, which is out of the question. But it came with a caveat. Unlike the first time, America’s visit to Under the Obama administration NASA was asked to abandon the Moon would be a truly international effort. Echoing the broader plans for the Moon, look to an undefined, far-distant goal of definition of orientation defined by SPD-1, NASA Administrator boots on Mars, sometime, and somehow find ways to prepare for designate Robert Lightfoot affirmed that the historic step in that by rushing off to an asteroid and retrieving samples for establishing a deep space community would involve “our partners return to Earth. Nice to have if it comes alongside a coordinated across the world”. This has been the enabling message from the set of infrastructure targets so that the cycle we really want to numerous bodies and individuals that have participated in defining break – the repetitious damage of spearing off after separate the new objectives over the last several months. targets, each requiring its own unique set of hardware to make it Concerns over funding have haunted space-watchers mindful of happen – finally gets laid at the door of history. the changes implemented by the two previous administrations – But it didn’t; there was no connectivity between SLS/Orion, choosing first to implement a return to the Moon under the asteroid dockings and landing on Mars: on its own SLS cannot Constellation programme only to have that torn up and replaced deliver a Mars mission, unsupported Orion is incapable of with a more commercial approach, albeit one begun by the last transporting crew on a Mars mission and along that path Bush administration. The cyclical expectation of change for nothing was building toward a viable transportation and 4 Vol 60 March 2018 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS ❝ It marks a first step in returning American Briefing astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use ❞ President Donald Trump, on signing Space Policy Directive No 1, December 2017 habitation infrastructure that could make it the current administration and the Congress has happen. So it was back to spearing off after endorsed a more far-reaching strategy. One with separate targets, each driving a unique set of a grander and more permanent programme than hardware. And that’s costly and has been the could ever be contained within a single objective prime reason why we are not back on the Moon and they are to be congratulated for that. NAKER DAVID now, or on the surface of Mars. “We will return American astronauts to the Challenging this volte face, Congress Moon, not only to leave behind footprints and reinstated the heavy-lifting Space Launch flags, but to build the foundation we need to System (SLS), continued to fund Orion and send Americans to Mars and beyond,” said Vice FLY ME TO THE STARS watched to see how well the commercial President Mike Pence at the National Air and Responding to an increasing interest in the start-ups did when it came to fulfilling promises. Space Museum’s Udvar Hazy-Center on 5 possibility of sending a probe to our Pressing for cancellation of all but the October 2017. This followed a commitment nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, an commercial supply chain, NASA’s deputy boss publicly declared on 27 September by the US and ambitious idea pursued with scientific Lori Garver departed, the commercial carriers Russia for these partners on the International rigour by the British Interplanetary came good (no thanks to a Congress reluctant to Space Station to work together to develop a Society’s own Kelvin Long, the Jet provide requested funds and to accept that they crewed facility in lunar orbit as the first step on Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is conducting could do a better job!) and SLS and Orion slowly the road to a permanent cislunar and deep- a feasibility study on such a proposition.