Aug 18, 2022RELEASE 22-088NASA Selects Proposals to Study Stellar Explosions, Galaxies, StarsNASA has selected four mission proposals submitted to the agency’s Explorers Program for further study. The proposals include missions that would study exploding stars, distant clusters of galaxies, and nearby galaxies and stars.Two Astrophysics Medium Explorer missions and two Explorer Missions of Opportunity have been selected to conduct mission concept studies. After detailed evaluation of those studies, NASA plans to select one Mission of Opportunity and one Medium Explorer in 2024 to proceed with implementation. The selected missions will be targeted for launch in 2027 and 2028, respectively.“NASA’s Explorers Program has a proud tradition of supporting innovative approaches to exceptional science, and these selections hold that same promise,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “From studying the evolution of galaxies to explosive, high-energy events, these proposals are inspiring in their scope and creativity to explore the unknown in our universe.”NASA Explorer missions conduct focused scientific investigations and develop instruments that fill scientific gaps between the agency’s larger space science missions. The proposals were competitively selected based on potential science value and feasibility of development plans.The two Medium Explorer teams selected at this stage will each receive $3 million to conduct a nine-month mission concept study. Astrophysics Medium Explorer mission costs are capped at $300 million each, excluding the launch vehicle. The selected proposals are:UltraViolet EXplorer (UVEX) UVEX would conduct a deep survey of the whole sky in two bands of ultraviolet light, to provide new insights into galaxy evolution and the lifecycle of stars. The spacecraft would have the ability to repoint rapidly to capture ultraviolet light from the explosion that follows a burst of gravitational waves caused by merging neutron stars. UVEX would carry an ultraviolet spectrograph for detailed study of massive stars and stellar explosions. Principal investigator: Fiona Harrison at Caltech in Pasadena, CaliforniaSurvey and Time-domain Astrophysical Research Explorer (STAR-X) The STAR-X spacecraft would be able to turn rapidly to point a sensitive wide-field X-ray telescope and an ultraviolet telescope at transient cosmic sources, such as supernova explosions and active galaxies. Deep X-ray surveys would map hot gas trapped in distant clusters of galaxies; combined with infrared observations from NASA’s upcoming Roman Space Telescope, these observations would trace how massive clusters of galaxies built up over cosmic history. Principal investigator: William Zhang at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MarylandThe two Mission of Opportunity teams selected at this stage will each receive $750,000 to conduct a nine-month implementation concept study. NASA Mission of Opportunity costs are capped at $80 million each. The selected proposals are:Moon Burst Energetics All-sky Monitor (MoonBEAM) In its orbit between Earth and the Moon, MoonBEAM would see almost the whole sky at any time, watching for bursts of gamma rays from distant cosmic explosions and rapidly alerting other telescopes to study the source. MoonBEAM would see gamma rays earlier or later than telescopes on Earth or in low orbit, and astronomers could use that time difference to pinpoint the gamma-ray source in the sky. Principal investigator: Chiumun Michelle Hui at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AlabamaA LargE Area burst Polarimeter (LEAP) Mounted on the International Space Station, LEAP would study gamma-ray bursts from the energetic jets launched during the formation of a black hole after the explosive death of a massive star, or in the merger of compact objects. The high-energy gamma-ray radiation can be polarized, or vibrate in a particular direction, which can distinguish between competing theories for the nature of the jets. Principal investigator: Mark McConnell at the University of New Hampshire in DurhamThe Explorers Program is the oldest continuous NASA program. The program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the Science Mission Directorate’s astrophysics and heliophysics programs.Since the launch of Explorer 1 in 1958, which discovered the Earth’s radiation belts, the Explorers Program has launched more than 90 missions, including the Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) missions that led to Nobel prizes for their investigators.The program is managed by NASA Goddard for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, which conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system, and the universe.For more information about the Explorers Program, visit:https://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov-end-
Jason Rainbow @JasonRainbowSky Perfect JSAT has picked SpaceX’s Starship rocket to launch its Superbird-9 satellite in 2024 - SpaceNews
Jonathan McDowell @planet4589LAUNCH at 1921 UTC of a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral with 53 more Starlinks (Group 4-27)
Next Spaceflight shows the launch on August 27 at 05:30 UTC.
SFN SpaceX’s Starlink fleet gets 53 new satellites with launch from Florida, August 19:QuoteThe Starlink launch from Florida is scheduled for next Saturday, Aug. 27. The preliminary launch time for that mission is 10:22 p.m. EDT (0222 GMT on Aug. 28),...
The Starlink launch from Florida is scheduled for next Saturday, Aug. 27. The preliminary launch time for that mission is 10:22 p.m. EDT (0222 GMT on Aug. 28),...
1443-EX-ST-2022Mission 1831 Starlink Group 4-36 from Cape Canaveral FL at LC-40 CCAFS or LC-39a at KSC, and the experimental recovery operation following the Falcon 9 launchNET late September [NET Sep 20]ASDS to the NE: North 32 42 50 West 75 42 51
Ben Cooper's Launch Photography Viewing Guide, updated August 19:QuoteA Falcon 9 will launch a Starlink batch from pad 40 on September 4.
A Falcon 9 will launch a Starlink batch from pad 40 on September 4.
Jonathan McDowell @planet4589Space-Track has cataloged USA 337, a new payload (presumably 100 kg ESPASat class) ejected from the USSF 12 Ring spacecraft launched on Jul 1 to near-synchronous orbit. However, the orbital elements are currently secret. Catalog is 53521 (2022-073E).
Argos-4 Environmental, Wildlife Tracking Instrument Poised for Fall Launch [dated Aug. 11]Quote from: NOAANOAA and CNES, the French space agency, are just two months away from the planned launch of Argos-4, an advanced satellite instrument that will track the movement of wildlife, particularly marine mammals and sea turtles, while also collecting critical environmental data around the world. The NOAA-CNES Argos-4 will launch as a payload aboard the General Atomics GAzelle satellite October 10 at 1:30am (EST) [05:30 UTC] on a Rocket Lab Electron spacecraft from Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand.
NOAA and CNES, the French space agency, are just two months away from the planned launch of Argos-4, an advanced satellite instrument that will track the movement of wildlife, particularly marine mammals and sea turtles, while also collecting critical environmental data around the world. The NOAA-CNES Argos-4 will launch as a payload aboard the General Atomics GAzelle satellite October 10 at 1:30am (EST) [05:30 UTC] on a Rocket Lab Electron spacecraft from Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand.
...The versatility of our design approach provides greater flexibility and scalability for a single dedicated mission payload or for multiple payloads on a single platform. In this instance, the Argos-4 payload and a radiation monitoring payload are integrated onboard the satellite...
Firefly Aerospace @Firefly_SpaceWe are excited to announce we will be live streaming our next flight demonstration, Flight 2, "To The Black" with Tim Dodd @Erdayastronaut. Launch window opens on Sept 11 at 3:00 PM PST. More information can be found on our mission page. #ToTheBlack http://ow.ly/7pwW50KpjiL
Orbital Test FlightLaunch TimeNET September, 2022First full-stack launch of Starship and Super Heavy. First Starship launch to attempt to reach orbit.
Starlink Group 4-35Launch TimeNET September, 2022
Starlink Group 4-36Launch TimeNET September, 2022
One example is the Uranus Orbiter and Probe flagship mission recommended by the decadal, which in its recommended budget would start almost immediately to enable it to launch in the early 2030s, allowing it to take advantage of a Jupiter gravity assist to shorten the travel time to Uranus.“We are really excited about this,” Glaze said of the mission concept, but stated NASA would be taking a somewhat slower approach to its development. Mission concept studies will begin no later than fiscal year 2024 examining a range of options for the mission. “The timeline for that is probably going to put a launch no earlier than the early 2030s.”Glaze added that NASA supports the other new flagship recommended by the decadal, the Enceladus Orbilander. “The guidance from the decadal survey is pretty clear that we need to get Uranus underway first,” she said, with no mission studies expected for the Enceladus flagship before fiscal year 2026.NASA is still evaluating other aspects of the decadal survey, including its recommendations for missions such as a lunar rover called Endurance-A that would collect samples for later return to Earth by crewed Artemis missions as well as a Mars astrobiology lander mission called Mars Life Explorer.It did support the decadal’s endorsement of the NEO Surveyor mission to search for near Earth asteroids despite cutting funding for the mission in its fiscal year 2023 budget proposal, delaying its 2026 launch by at least two years. The decadal, agency officials noted, was published a few weeks after the 2023 budget proposal.“The ’23 funding is a challenge,” Glaze said. “We are going to be working hard to make sure we can confirm the mission and move out on NEO Surveyor.”
Sept. 4/5 • Falcon 9 • Starlink 4-20 & Sherpa-LTC2Launch time: 0032 GMT on 5th (8:32 p.m. EDT on 4th)Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FloridaA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch with another batch of Starlink internet satellites. This mission is also expected to launch Spaceflight’s propulsive Sherpa-LTC2 space tug, which will climb into a higher orbit with Boeing’s Varuna Technology Demonstration Mission, a pathfinder for a planned constellation of broadband satellites. The Varuna demo mission is a hosted payload on the Sherpa-LTC2 orbital transfer vehicle. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. [Aug. 22]
Starlink Group 4-23Launch TimeSun Aug 28, 2022 02:22 GMT...LocationSLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA
Aug. 27/28 • Falcon 9 • Starlink 4-23Launch time: 0222 GMT (10:22 p.m. EDT)Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
The decadal treated Mars separately from other proposed flagship missions. The report recommended as the top-ranking flagship mission concept the Uranus Orbiter and Probe, which would go into orbit to study the planet, its rings and moons, as well as deploy a probe into the planet’s atmosphere. Uranus has been visited only once by a spacecraft, the Voyager 2 flyby in 1986.The mission “will transform our knowledge of ice giants in general and the Uranian system in particular,” the report stated, calling Uranus “one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system.” The mission, with an estimated cost of $4.2 billion, could launch as soon as 2031 on a Falcon Heavy or similar heavy-lift vehicle, arriving at Uranus 13 years later using a Jupiter gravity assist....Enceladus Orbilander would spend a year and a half orbiting Enceladus and sampling those plumes before landing for a two-year mission to study materials for evidence of life. The mission, with an estimated cost of $4.9 billion, could launch in the late 2030s on an SLS or Falcon Heavy with a landing in the early 2050s....The following New Frontiers competition, likely to take place in the early to mid 2030s, would include those same mission themes with the exception of the one selected for New Frontiers 6, and add a mission to Neptune’s largest moon, Triton. The report also recommended the cost cap for New Frontiers missions be raised to $1.65 billion (in fiscal year 2025 dollars) to reflect experience such as the Dragonfly mission to Titan under development.For Mars, the decadal survey recommended that, once MSR passed the peak of its spending profile in the late 2020s, NASA start work on a lander mission called Mars Life Explorer that would look for evidence of current life on Mars by drilling into ice deposits to search for biosignatures. The lander, described as a “notional mission concept” in the report, would cost $2.1 billion and launch in the mid-2030s.Studies of the moon, the decadal stated, would involve an interplay with human exploration with the Artemis series of crewed landings scheduled to begin as soon as 2025. “The successful integration of science into programs of human exploration has historically been a challenge and remains so for Artemis,” the report stated. “Currently, science requirements do not drive the Artemis capabilities. However, in the committee’s view it is imperative that Artemis support breakthrough, decadal-level science.” [Emphasis in original.]One way of doing so involves combining robotic and human exploration capabilities. The report endorsed a mission concept called Endurance-A that would send a robotic rover to the moon’s South Pole Aiken Basin on a commercial lander. The rover would travel 2,000 kilometers across the basin and collect 100 kilograms of samples. Those samples would be returned to Earth on a crewed Artemis mission. The $1.9 billion mission would cost a billion dollars less than an alternative that involved both a robotic rover and sample return spacecraft that would have returned only about two kilograms of material.
Starlink 3-4 launch date and time:Next Spaceflight NET August [August 23]
The NGA Space Debris notice was not canceled TBD like the Rocket Launching notice. Instead, there is a cancel-and-replace notice. On that basis, the launch would be on August 31 at 05:30 UTC.Quote from: NGA231933Z AUG 22HYDROPAC 2320/22(83).SOUTH PACIFIC.DNC 06.1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS 0719Z TO 0757Z DAILY 31 AUG THRU 04 SEP IN AREA BOUND BY 25-56.00S 154-18.00W, 25-28.00S 156-42.00W, 59-30.00S 169-29.00W, 59-57.00S 165-13.00W.2. CANCEL HYDROPAC 2298/22.3. CANCEL THIS MSG 040857Z SEP 22.
231933Z AUG 22HYDROPAC 2320/22(83).SOUTH PACIFIC.DNC 06.1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS 0719Z TO 0757Z DAILY 31 AUG THRU 04 SEP IN AREA BOUND BY 25-56.00S 154-18.00W, 25-28.00S 156-42.00W, 59-30.00S 169-29.00W, 59-57.00S 165-13.00W.2. CANCEL HYDROPAC 2298/22.3. CANCEL THIS MSG 040857Z SEP 22.
Quote from: Gav Cornwell tweetIt only delivered B1062 to port 9 hours ago, but ASOG has been turned around and is heading downrange for Starlink 4-23.Doug is towing.http://nasaspaceflight.com/fleetcam [Aug 23 UTC]
It only delivered B1062 to port 9 hours ago, but ASOG has been turned around and is heading downrange for Starlink 4-23.Doug is towing.http://nasaspaceflight.com/fleetcam [Aug 23 UTC]
September 24thQuote from: NRO tweetLAUNCH UPDATE: #NROL91 is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg SFB (@SLdelta30) on a @ulalaunch Delta IV Heavy September 24. This is the last Delta IV Heavy launch from the #WestCoast, don’t miss out!#AboveandBeyond #LastButNotLeast[Aug 24]
LAUNCH UPDATE: #NROL91 is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg SFB (@SLdelta30) on a @ulalaunch Delta IV Heavy September 24. This is the last Delta IV Heavy launch from the #WestCoast, don’t miss out!#AboveandBeyond #LastButNotLeast[Aug 24]
Belated update/confirmation:SFN Launch Schedule, updated August 15:NET October 2022= Q4
You don't have to believe it but Astrobotic is still pushing for this year, assuming the launch vehicle is ready. Stated today at LEAG.
Date: Mid 2023Mission: Lunar TrailblazerDescription:Lunar Trailblazer, a mission selected under NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, is a small satellite designed to provide an understanding of the form, abundance, and distribution of water on the Moon, as well as the lunar water cycle.
Apparently SpaceX pulled out a last minute change of booster. This is now B1069-2, explains why they're doing the static fire. 9 new engines for this booster.
Quote from: SpaceX tweetStatic fire test complete – targeting Saturday, August 27 at 10:22 p.m. ET for a Falcon 9 launch of 54 Starlink satellites to orbit from SLC-40 in Florida; team is keeping an eye on weather. [Aug 25]
Static fire test complete – targeting Saturday, August 27 at 10:22 p.m. ET for a Falcon 9 launch of 54 Starlink satellites to orbit from SLC-40 in Florida; team is keeping an eye on weather. [Aug 25]
Ben Cooper's Launch Photography Viewing Guide, updated August 24:QuoteThe next SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Starlink batch from pad 40 on August 27 at 10:22pm or around ~11:45 or 1am EDT.= current launch time August 28 02:22 UTC= or August 28 ~03:45 UTC= or August 28 ~05:00 UTC.
The next SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Starlink batch from pad 40 on August 27 at 10:22pm or around ~11:45 or 1am EDT.
Assuming simple swap, the first stage for Starlink 4-20 is now 1067.6.
Well, here's something interesting. The USCG District 17 weekly Local Notice to Mariners is out and it includes a notice from PSCA for P138, which looks like P137 but with a launch window starting on September 19 [through 27 UTC]. The notice for P137 on September 6 is still in the LNM as well. The PSCA website does not mention P138 and there is not a new integrated range schedule.Quote from: PSCAPacific Spaceport Complex Alaska (PSCA) will be conducting a launch designated P138 from Launch Pad LP-3C at Narrow Cape, Kodiak, Alaska, with a launch azimuth of 176°. Daily launch operations are scheduled between 2200-0130 UTC September 19th through September 27th. In local time 1400-1730 AKDT September 19th through September 26th, 2022 (local). Mariners are requested to remain clear of the Hazard Areas during the scheduled launch operations.
Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska (PSCA) will be conducting a launch designated P138 from Launch Pad LP-3C at Narrow Cape, Kodiak, Alaska, with a launch azimuth of 176°. Daily launch operations are scheduled between 2200-0130 UTC September 19th through September 27th. In local time 1400-1730 AKDT September 19th through September 26th, 2022 (local). Mariners are requested to remain clear of the Hazard Areas during the scheduled launch operations.
From today's [Aug 25] CFT briefing:4:41:Quote from: Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew ProgramCurrently we are targeting a launch date as early as February of 2023. It's a busy time frame around there, and so early February is likely the best window.6:21:Quote from: Joel Montalbano, program manager, International Space StationAs you know, long term, we're planning a Starliner visit once a year. Steve mentioned Suni [Sunita Williams] and Butch [Barry Wilmore]. We expect this mission to be docked about eight days. We're still working the details, but think approximately eight days or so. Butch and Suni, in addition to the Starliner activities, we're going to have them do ISS activities, whether it be research utilization and commercialization work or technology delopment, just like we did with Bob and Doug when they were on their SpaceX test mission.
Currently we are targeting a launch date as early as February of 2023. It's a busy time frame around there, and so early February is likely the best window.
As you know, long term, we're planning a Starliner visit once a year. Steve mentioned Suni [Sunita Williams] and Butch [Barry Wilmore]. We expect this mission to be docked about eight days. We're still working the details, but think approximately eight days or so. Butch and Suni, in addition to the Starliner activities, we're going to have them do ISS activities, whether it be research utilization and commercialization work or technology delopment, just like we did with Bob and Doug when they were on their SpaceX test mission.