Author Topic: The suborbital thread!  (Read 1213302 times)

Offline Star One

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1740 on: 03/31/2018 08:51 pm »
More to the above.

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=104916&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=100000202499776&utm_campaign=Read

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SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Nebraska (SSBN 739) along with the U.S. Navy's Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) conducted successful test flights of two Trident II D5 Missiles, March 26.

The unarmed test missiles were launched as part of Demonstration and Shakedown Operation (DASO) 28 in the Pacific Test Range off the coast of Southern California.

The missiles were launched as a double mission test and were the key element of DASO 28, which marked the 166th and 167th successful test flights of the Trident II D5 missile since its introduction to the fleet in 1989. The primary objective of the DASO is to evaluate and demonstrate the readiness of the SSBN's strategic weapon system and crew before operational deployment following midlife refueling overhaul.

Offline Lewis007

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1741 on: 04/01/2018 06:53 am »
The ASPIRE mission successfully launched from Wallops Flight Facility at 12:29 EDT on Mar 31. It was the heaviest and largest diameter payload ever flown on a Black Brant IX sounding rocket.

A separate thread exists on the forum for this launch in the section Robotic Spacecraft (Astronomy, Planetary, Earth, Solar/Heliophysics), Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and Mars 2020 Rover Section

Offline Galactic Penguin SST

Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1742 on: 04/05/2018 10:14 am »
Apparently one of the lesser known Chinese small sat launcher start-ups has flown something over the von Karman line yesterday. The company is named i-Space (not sure of their full English name as all reports I have seen are in Chinese) and they flew a single stage solid fuel rocket called "Hyperbola-1S" from somewhere on Hainan Island (perhaps from the Chinese Academy of Sciences sounding rocket site?) yesterday at 18:00 UTC. They claimed that their 8.4 m long, 4.6 tonne rocket flew to 108 km altitude with maximum velocity at 1200 m/s. (not sure if that solid stage was sourced from elsewhere)

I have actually seen reports about them before in Chinese forums, but they were derided as one of the new smallsat launcher start-ups with little progress (despite claiming aiming for 1st orbital launch by June 2019 and a 2 tonne to LEO launcher that really looks like an F9 on Chinese paint by 2021  ::)). Well, it looks like maybe the chaotic situation of new Chinese small satellite launchers just got yet another variable.....

(BTW, does anyone know if there were related NOTAMs?)

Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
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Offline jcm

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1743 on: 04/05/2018 01:34 pm »
Apparently one of the lesser known Chinese small sat launcher start-ups has flown something over the von Karman line yesterday. The company is named i-Space (not sure of their full English name as all reports I have seen are in Chinese)

The Chinese name of the company translates as something like "Interstellar Glory" ?  Xingji Rongyao
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Offline jcm

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1744 on: 04/05/2018 02:01 pm »
The rocket appears to be about 0.90+-0.05 m dia consistent with the DF-11 or possibly the DF-15. Seems very unlikely they developed their own solid motor, so maybe surplused missile motors from DF-11 stock?

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Offline Skyrocket

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1745 on: 04/05/2018 02:55 pm »
The rocket appears to be about 0.90+-0.05 m dia consistent with the DF-11 or possibly the DF-15. Seems very unlikely they developed their own solid motor, so maybe surplused missile motors from DF-11 stock?

I get similar values from a rough measurement. I guess, DF-11 (0.86 m diameter) is a good bet.

Offline MrEricSZ

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1746 on: 04/05/2018 03:02 pm »
Like many things in China, I take announcements, photos, and predictions with a big grain of salt. There is strong push for (mostly) domestic reasons to give the appearance of progress, milestones, and success but, like the Wizard of Oz, there is usually something else, less impressive, going on behind the curtain.

Offline Skyrocket

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1747 on: 04/05/2018 03:26 pm »
This link (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Uy4FmjasbtibJyBCGCP6iw) tells us, that the orbital Hyperbola-1 rocket has a diameter of 1.4 m (DF-21 class), a total length of 20 m, a takeoff mass of 31 t, a takeoff thrust of 58.6t and a  capacity of 300 kg to low earth orbit. The artist impressions might suggest, that the Hyperbola-1S could be the second stage of the Hyperbola-1 launch vehicle.
« Last Edit: 04/05/2018 03:27 pm by Skyrocket »

Offline jcm

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1748 on: 04/05/2018 05:47 pm »
So presumably launch site either Haikou or Wenchang rather than a new site - but don't have a feel for
which is more likely
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Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1749 on: 04/06/2018 06:35 am »
36.330 UH McEntaffer/Penn State Univ - April 4, 2018
Water Recovery X-ray Rocket (WRX-R)

36.330 UH, Terrier-Black Brant sounding rocket was launched from Roi-Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands on April 4, 2018. The purpose of this mission was to make observations of soft X-ray emissions from Vela Supernova Remnant with large field of view detector.

https://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/index.html
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline Lewis007

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1750 on: 04/06/2018 06:47 am »
Also launched on April 4 was a Black Brant 9 rocket with the WRX-R payload (36.330 UH McEntaffer) from Kwajalein.

The Water Recovery X-ray - Rocket (WRX-R) is a X-ray spectroscopy payload that is capable of providing moderate spectral resolution, and was used to study the Vela Supernova Remnant.

More info: https://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/news/story221%2036.330%20WRX.html
Photo credit: NASA Wallops twitter
« Last Edit: 04/06/2018 06:47 am by Lewis007 »

Offline Star One

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1751 on: 04/13/2018 11:53 am »
Revealed: China's Nuclear-Capable Air-Launched Ballistic Missile

"China is developing and has been flight-testing a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) along with a new long-range strategic bomber to deliver it, The Diplomat has learned.

According to U.S. government sources with knowledge of the latest intelligence assessments on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, China has conducted five flight tests of the unnamed missile. The U.S. intelligence community is calling the new missile the CH-AS-X-13.

The missile was first tested in December 2016 and was most recently tested in the last week of January 2018, according to one source. In recent years, the directors of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) have made reference to this nuclear-capable ALBM in their two most recent on-record worldwide threat assessments."

https://thediplomat.com/2018/04/revealed-chinas-nuclear-capable-air-launched-ballistic-missile/

Offline Lewis007

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1752 on: 04/17/2018 07:19 am »
The Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph, or CHESS 4, sounding rocket (a Black Brant 9) was successfully launched at 12:47 p.m. EDT, April 16 (4:47 a.m. local, April 17) from the Kwajalein Atoll.

For more info: https://www.nasa.gov/Wallops/2018/feature/nasa-rocket-experiments-to-examine-lifecycle-of-stars

Offline russianhalo117

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1753 on: 05/10/2018 07:46 pm »
Swedish Space Corporation
Started streaming on 7 May 2018

Texus 54&55: first possible launch May13.
NASA summer campaign: first possible launch May 11.

Follow https://twitter.com/SSC_Rockets for updates.

Visit:
http://esrange.insupport.se


Offline Lewis007

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1754 on: 05/16/2018 10:36 am »
Another launch from Kiruna occurred on March 12. An Improved Orion rocket was launched, carrying the Rexus-24 payload with five student experiments. The launch did not go according to plan, as the motor separated too early. The payload was found and recovered.

The launch of Rexus-23 was canceled until the investigation into the cause of the mishap was finalized.

Credit pics & video: facebook pages of the project teams.

Offline catdlr

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1755 on: 05/16/2018 11:17 pm »
Littoral Combat Ship Fires Longbow Hellfire Missile, Strikes Target Fast Boat


MiliSource
Published on May 16, 2018

The Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) fires an AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire missile during a live-fire missile exercise off the coast of Virginia, May 11, 2018. As the first phase of the Surface-to-Surface Missile Module (SSMM) Developmental Testing (DT) for the LCS Mission Modules (MM) program, USS Milwaukee fired four Longbow Hellfire missiles that successfully struck fast inshore attack craft targets during a complex war-fighting environment utilizing radar and other systems to track the targets.



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Offline catdlr

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1756 on: 05/16/2018 11:25 pm »
Student-Built Rocket Breaks Sound Barrier - Watch It Launch


VideoFromSpace
Published on May 16, 2018

A sounding rocket built by students from New Mexico Tech that reached a maximum velocity of mach 1.27 (1.27X speed of sound).



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Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1757 on: 05/17/2018 05:17 am »
Launch of Texus 54 on 13 May. Texus 55 is scheduled for 18 May.

http://www.dlr.de/rd/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-4276/6859_read-9938/

« Last Edit: 05/17/2018 05:25 am by Steven Pietrobon »
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline Olaf

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1758 on: 05/23/2018 01:13 pm »
https://twitter.com/nukestrat/status/998982529263824897
Quote
Zvezda says Russian Borei-class SSBN test-launched four ballistic missiles from White Sea across Russia to Kamchatka. https://m.tvzvezda.ru/news/forces/content/201805221948-fau0.htm/

Apparently first Borei “volley” launch. US SSBNs normally launch 1-4 SLBMs.

Offline Lewis007

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Re: The suborbital thread!
« Reply #1759 on: 05/24/2018 06:10 am »

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