Current Space Missions

[Mercedes Benzene]

Is anyone else a fan of following civilian and military space missions? It's been a passion since I first visited Cape Canaveral years and years ago.

NASA is fantastic about providing live launch coverage before, during, and after their launches.
Along with the actual video feed and audio commentary, they also usually show post-launch computer generated images based on telemetry data. These feeds can be shown on mission-specific web pages, or on their TV page: NASA - NASA TV


At this very moment, NASA is providing coverage of the upcoming launch of the GOES-O weather satellite for NOAA. The launch window is 6:14 to 7:14 EDT, which begins in about 70 minutes.

Feel free to discuss current missions here.

[Mercedes Benzene]

Today's launch was scrubbed due to weather conditions. Kennedy predicts that tomorrow will be a 60% no-go as well. The problem is that during this time of the year, there are thunderstorms basically everyday. It's all about waiting things out for the perfect little window.

Anyway, they'll try again same time tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

[Mercedes Benzene]

The launch of GOES-O was a success, tonight at 22:51 UTC (6:51 pm local time).
It's currently in a coast phase for approximately 4 hours, after which there will be a final burn with satellite separation.

A little about the program: GOES = Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, started in 1975. GOES satellites are assigned a letter designation (this one is "O") until orbit, at which point it is assigned a numerical value corresponding to the order of launch.
This makes GOES-O (GOES-14) the 14th satellite in the program. GOES-1 through GOES-9 are all decommissioned. Once GOES-O reaches final orbit, 10-14 will be in operation.
The satellites are responsible for providing some of the visible light images that residents of the Unites States see in their meteorological reports, and provide data used in making weather predictions for the National Weather Service (part of NOAA).
Here's a fact sheet for the GOES-O instruments and operations.

GOES-O was carried into space by a Delta-IV (medium) rocket, which is a 2-stage expendable launch vehicle. The main first stage engine is manufactured by Rocketdyne, and is powered by LOX and LH2. The first stage lift is assisted by two strap-on solid rocket graphite-epoxy motors built by Alliance Techsystems. The second stage is powered by a Pratt and Whitney liquid hydrogen engine. The payload sits on top of the second stage.

EDIT: Here's a photo of the launch.

[modest]

Cool MB, and a good thread idea. It's interesting how many geostationary satellites there are. You can see on:

NASA - Science@NASA J-Track 3D

We're building a little ring around our planet

I read something interesting in the delay of STS-127,

Endeavour's next launch opportunity is July 11. This date comes after the end of an orbital sun-angle condition called a beta angle cut-out, which occurs between June 22 and July 10. The cut-out creates a thermal condition that prohibits shuttle and space station docked operations.

Aero-News Network: The Aviation and Aerospace World's Daily/Real-Time News and Information Service

It seems that if the beta angel exceeds 60 degrees at any time during docking procedures then it isn't safe to dock making cutouts that are apparently weeks long. That strikes me as a rather drastic design limitation—really limiting launch windows. Of course, I don't really know anything about the design so I can only imagine there is a good reason for the cutout and why it wasn't designed around when the ISS was built. I just had never heard of it and found it interesting.

Throw a docked orbiter into the mix and you have a third constraint,
shuttle thermal control. The attitude of the orbiter/ISS stack must be
chosen to satisfy ISS power/thermal constraints and shuttle thermal
constraints. It turns out that at beta angles larger than 60 degrees,
there is no attitude that satisfies all three. So the shuttle program has
a launch window cutout when the beta angle will exceed 60 degrees at any
time during docked ops.

These cutouts occur around the solstices, because that's the time of year
when the sun's declination is farthest north (summer) or south (winter)
and so the odds are greatest that the sum of the sun's declination and
the orbit inclination will exceed 60 degrees. The summer cutout affects
night launches and the winter cutout affects day launches. The shuttle
return-to-flight restriction on night launches has effectively mooted the
summer beta cutout, but the combination of the night launch restriction
and the winter beta cutout makes winter launch opportunities few and far-
between.

Re: launch windows

~modest

[Mercedes Benzene]

LRO has just taken its first test pictures of the moon!

[Tormod]

Ooooh...those are beautiful!

[Mercedes Benzene]

Originally Posted by Tormod

Ooooh...those are beautiful!

Aren't they? Our moon is so fantastic!

In other news...
For those of you who don't know: NASA is currently working on the Constellation Program
which will return Americans to the moon by the end of the next decade (if Obama doesn't cancel it)
Anyway, the part that actually holds the astronauts (crew compartment) is the Orion spacecraft, which sits atop the Ares I launch vehicle. In the event that the crew needs to escape during launch or ascent, then an abort system would launch the capsule off of the spacecraft. This is called the Launch Abort System (similar to the one used in the Apollo Program). Well, the reason I bring it up is because this morning, NASA tested an alternative to that abort system, called MLAS, or Max Launch Abort System. The launch took place at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Here's a picture and description of today's test.

[Mercedes Benzene]

PS: I just found a great video of the MLAS prep and launch this morning. I especially like the flock of birds that freaks out when it lands in the ocean.

[Mercedes Benzene]

The Ares I-X is the first test launch of the Ares I vehicle. It is to take place no earlier than August 30th, and will provide various data about the vehicle's flight, separation, etc during this nominal flight path.
Here's a picture of the aft portion of the vehicle, on it's way to be vertically integrated at the Vehicle Assembly Building.

[Mercedes Benzene]

Space Shuttle Endeavour (mission STS-127) successfully took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 6:03 PM local time.
Everything is looking good, and Endeavour has made it to orbit, on its way to the ISS.

The shuttle is delivering the "Kibo" Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) developed by JAXA.

This was the 6th launch attempt. Previously, this mission was delayed due to LH2 leaks. More recently, bad weather was to blame.