Tonight's headliner is a night launch from Wallops. This one will be a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying the same company's Cygnus supply capsule to the Space Station. This is Northrop's piece of the same COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation System) Space Station resupply contracts that SpaceX has been flying with its Cargo Dragons. The Antares rocket has 12 flights, 11 of which have been successful. It isn't reusable
YazataOct 2, 2020 02:50 AM (This post was last modified: Oct 2, 2020 05:20 PM by Yazata.)
Scrubbapalooza continues! After Delta IV/NROL 44 scrubbed again last night and the Starlinks scrubbed again this morning, Antares/Cygnus just experienced an autosequence abort initiated by the flight computer. They are busily safeing the vehicle as we speak. I appreciate that NASA and/or Northrop is leaving coverage on as they go down the safeing checklist.
They are tentatively planning on a 24 hour recycle and will try to go again tomorrow. That's all contingent on understanding what caused the abort tonight.
This is what they get for putting AI in the computers. The computers just decide "Why the hell am I doing this??"
Edit: NSF is already selling "eat-sleep-scrub-repeat" t-shirts!
YazataOct 2, 2020 05:15 PM (This post was last modified: Oct 2, 2020 05:33 PM by Yazata.)
Launchapalooza Continues! (Assuming none of these slip, which they might given how congested the Eastern Range may become. Lots of tracking assets will be necessary.)
1. Antares CRS NG-14 Space Station resupply mission re-do from last night from Wallops. Scheduled for Saturday 01:16 UTC, Friday 9:16 PM EDT, 6:16 PDT.
2. Falcon 9 GPS III-4 Global Positioning System satellite from CCAFS Pad 40. Booster will be B1062 on its first flight. Recovery on JRTI. Scheduled for 01:43 UTC, 9:43 PM EDT, 6:43 PM PDT This is just 27 minutes after Antares!! (That's why I suspect that one or the other will be pushed back. Stay tuned.)
3. Falcon 9 Starlink from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Booster will be trusty old B 1058 on its third flight. It's the booster that flew Bob and Doug! Recovery on OCISLY Schduled for 12:34 UTC Saturday, 8:34 AM EDT, 5:34 AM PDT
I'm not sure if it will be streamed, if it is you can probably find it at https://www.spacex.com/
YazataOct 3, 2020 01:00 AM (This post was last modified: Oct 3, 2020 01:27 AM by Yazata.)
Both Antares and GPS III-4 are still on for tonight. But indications seem to be that Saturday's Starlink launch has been pushed back to Monday Oct 5. Time still not set as they are still awaiting final range approvals.
Informative article on tonight's Antares/Cygnus launch here
Looks like the Scrubbapalooza continues. The Falcon 9 got down to engine ignition but something wasn't right and there was an abort at T-2 seconds. The GPS satellite requires a precise launch window, so a scrub for the day has been declared.
Booster is B1062 on its first flight. Recovery will be at sea on OCISLY.
The satellite is a GPS Block III satellite belonging to the US Space Force and built by Lockheed. It is one of a planned constellation of ten designed to provide global positioning services to both military and civilian users. It has improved civilian signals allowing for better accuracy, plus a new military signal called 'M-code' that is designed to resist jamming by potential adversaries. In fact, Space's Falcon 9's don't land by homing in on OCISLY or JRTI. Instead they use GPS to head for a precise spot, and the landing barge sits at that precise spot, again enabled by GPS.
Oct 1, 2020 11:49 PM
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