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#1320 by jcm on 06 Dec, 2014 02:30
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China tested a hypersonic vehicle (WU-14) on December 4, launched from Taiyuan with a CZ-2C.
The source, as usual, is Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-conducts-third-flight-test-of-hypersonic-strike-vehicle/
citing US defense officials. -
#1321 by plutogno on 06 Dec, 2014 06:55
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it had also been reported (before Bill Gerz) in a French forum, including a picture of the launcher contrail from Weibo
http://astronautique.actifforum.com/t16397-lancement-cz-2c-engin-hypersonique-boost-glide-a-tslc-le-2-decembre-2014-succes -
#1322 by jcm on 06 Dec, 2014 12:59
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it had also been reported (before Bill Gerz) in a French forum, including a picture of the launcher contrail from Weibo
http://astronautique.actifforum.com/t16397-lancement-cz-2c-engin-hypersonique-boost-glide-a-tslc-le-2-decembre-2014-succes
Tres interessant, je vous remercie!
Not clear how the forum member knows it is a CZ-2C. Presumably there is a further Chinese source somewhere? -
#1323 by Galactic Penguin SST on 06 Dec, 2014 13:45
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it had also been reported (before Bill Gerz) in a French forum, including a picture of the launcher contrail from Weibo
http://astronautique.actifforum.com/t16397-lancement-cz-2c-engin-hypersonique-boost-glide-a-tslc-le-2-decembre-2014-succes
Tres interessant, je vous remercie!
Not clear how the forum member knows it is a CZ-2C. Presumably there is a further Chinese source somewhere?
That member got it from the Chinese aerospace forum that I got most of the info from: http://bbs.9ifly.cn/thread-14200-1-1.html
As for using the CZ-2C - it was a conjecture, but I think it's an educated one base on what we know here:Well in this article about the YG-23 launch it was mentioned that this was the 50th launch of the CZ-2/CZ-2C series and that the CZ-2C has a record of "6 out of 6 in 2014" (!), as well as that 4 CZ-2C were in final preparation for launch in September/October. This essentially confirms that the hypersonic RV tests this Jan. 9 and Aug. 7 were boosted by CZ-2C rockets, and points to the "extra CZ-2C" this month as the 3rd such test.
Maybe this should fit more with the sub-orbital flight thread though..... -
#1324 by Star One on 06 Dec, 2014 16:40
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China tested a hypersonic vehicle (WU-14) on December 4, launched from Taiyuan with a CZ-2C.
The source, as usual, is Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-conducts-third-flight-test-of-hypersonic-strike-vehicle/
citing US defense officials.
That article seems to throw everything but the kitchen sink into the point it appears to be making for greater defense spending. -
#1325 by Satori on 14 Dec, 2014 17:36
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Brazil launched a Basic Tranning Rocket (Foguete de Trainamento Básico - FTB) on December 10 from Barreira do Inferno Launch Center.
Launch took place at 1300UTC.
No other info available.
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#1326 by Steven Pietrobon on 15 Dec, 2014 06:06
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Here's the Brazilspace blog article.
http://brazilianspace.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/clbi-lancou-com-exito-foguete-de.html -
#1327 by jcm on 18 Dec, 2014 04:11
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Israeli suborbital target missile launch - possibly Blue Sparrow? - over Med Sea Dec 16.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.632195 -
#1328 by vyoma on 18 Dec, 2014 08:08
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http://isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/pressreleasein.aspx?Dec18_2014Quote
December 18, 2014
First Experimental Flight of India's Next Generation Launch Vehicle GSLV Mk-III Successful
The first experimental flight (GSLV Mk-III X/CARE) of India's next generation launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III was successfully conducted today (December 18, 2014) morning from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Also known as LVM3-X/CARE, this suborbital experimental mission was intended to test the vehicle performance during the critical atmospheric phase of its flight and thus carried a passive (non-functional) cryogenic upper stage.
The mission began with the launch of GSLV Mk-III at 9:30 am IST from the Second Launch Pad as scheduled and about five and a half minutes later, carried its payload - the 3775 kg Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) - to the intended height of 126 km. Following this, CARE separated from the upper stage of GSLV Mk-III and re-entered the atmosphere and safely landed over Bay of Bengal with the help of its parachutes about 20 minutes 43 seconds after lift-off.
Two massive S-200 solid strap-on boosters, each carrying 207 tons of solid propellants, ignited at vehicle lift-off and after functioning normally, separated 153.5 seconds later. L110 liquid stage ignited 120 seconds after lift-off, while S200s were still functioning, and carried forward for the next 204.6 seconds.
CARE separated from the passive C25 cryogenic upper stage of GSLV Mk-III 330.8 seconds after lift-off and began its guided descent for atmospheric re-entry.
After the successful re-entry phase, CARE module's parachutes opened, following which it gently landed over Andaman Sea about 1600 km from Sriharikota, there by successfully concluding the GSLV Mk-III X/CARE mission.
With today's successful GSLV Mk-III X / CARE mission, the vehicle has moved a step closer to its first developmental flight with the functional C25 cryogenic upper stage. -
#1329 by Websorber on 18 Dec, 2014 09:53
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#1330 by Lewis007 on 20 Dec, 2014 07:12
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NASA launched a Black Brant IX rocket from White Sands with the FOXSI payload.
See: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-funded-foxsi-to-observe-x-rays-from-sun/#.VJUuYcw4A
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#1331 by Lewis007 on 20 Dec, 2014 07:19
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The launch window has come to an end for the Cusp Alfven and Plasma Electrodynamics Rocket (CAPER) from the Anodya Rocket Range in Norway. NASA was not able to launch the CAPER payload within the required window either because of poor weather conditions or the needed science conditions did not exist. The payload is being shipped back to the United States and is being rescheduled for a launch attempt late in 2015 from Norway.
Source: NASA Facebook (8 dec)
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#1332 by Lewis007 on 25 Dec, 2014 06:43
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Brazil launched a Basic Tranning Rocket (Foguete de Trainamento Básico - FTB) on December 10 from Barreira do Inferno Launch Center.
Launch took place at 1300UTC.
No other info available.
Video of the launch
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#1333 by Lewis007 on 01 Jan, 2015 08:00
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On December 26, 2014, the Strategic Forces conducted a successful launch of a RS-24 Yars missile. The missile was launched from a mobile launcher deployed at the Plesetsk test site. Missile warheads were reported to have successfully reached their targets at the Kura test site in Kamchatka. The launch, which was performed with support of the Air and Space Defense Forces, took place at 11:02 MSK (08:02 UTC).
This is one of the two missile launches that the Rocket Forces planned to conduct at the end of December. The other one is either the Strela space launch or a rumored RS-26 test launch. However, it appears that the RS-26 tests appear to be postponed, so it's possible that today's launch is the last in 2014.
source: http://russianforces.org/blog/2014/12/rs-24_launch_from_plesetsk.shtml
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#1334 by Lewis007 on 14 Jan, 2015 06:33
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The The Anomaly Investigation Board investigating the launch mishap of the Terrier Improved Malemute on July 2 has published its findings and determined that the failure was linked to the installation process for the second stage igniter.
The Improved Malemute is a surplus solid-fueled motor from the U.S. military that has been modified for use in the NASA sounding rocket program. As part of the modification, a NASA-developed igniter and mechanical safe and arm system is installed in the front end of the motor. The July mission was the seventh flight of this type of motor by NASA.
During the July flight when the motor was ignited, the motor pressure ejected the igniter resulting in the motor burning from both ends and ending the mission prematurely.
The Anomaly Investigation Board determined the incorrect installation of the Improved Malemute clip was due to inadequate procedures for the NASA modification.
The board recommended the corrective action was to update the modification procedures including adding drawings and verbiage for correct installation and verifying that the clip is properly installed after placing the igniter in the motor. Phil Eberspeaker, chief of the Sounding Rocket Programs Office at Wallops, said: “The program accepts the recommendations of the Anomaly Investigation Board and appreciates its hard work to determine the cause of the failure… The recommendations are being applied in the program and clears the way for the launch of two Terrier-Improved Malemute vehicles in January 2015 from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska.”
See: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Completes_Investigation_of_July_2014_Terrier_Improved_Malemute_Sounding_Rocket_Failure_999.html
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#1335 by edkyle99 on 14 Jan, 2015 14:08
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The The Anomaly Investigation Board investigating the launch mishap of the Terrier Improved Malemute on July 2 has published its findings and determined that the failure was linked to the installation process for the second stage igniter.
How about that! It wasn't the ancient (surplus Patriot) rocket motor. It was the on-site modification of the ancient rocket motor.
- Ed Kyle -
#1336 by Salo on 21 Jan, 2015 17:30
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http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/agniv-missile-to-be-testfired-on-january-31/article6802690.ece
BENGALURU, January 20, 2015
Agni-V missile to be test-fired on January 31
T. S. Subramanian
It can carry a nuclear warhead weighing 1.1 tonnes
India's strategic missile, Agni-V, will be test-fired from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, on January 31.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which has developed the missile, will launch it from a canister mounted on a road-mobile launcher, which is a TATRA truck. A gas generator at the bottom of the canister will push the 17-metre long, 50-tonne Agni-V out of the canister. The missile, which can take out targets situated more than 5,000 km away, can carry a nuclear warhead weighing 1.1 tonnes. In the launch on January 31, 2015, it will carry a dummy payload.
The missile was earlier scheduled to be test-fired in the second week of January but was postponed to the last week of January or the first week of February due to “non-technical” reasons.
It is significant that the missile will lift off now on January 31 because it is the day that Avinash Chander, the Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and DRDO Director-General, will be demitting office. Mr. Chander is the key architect of Agni series of missiles, all of which can carry nuclear warheads.
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#1337 by Star One on 22 Jan, 2015 16:55
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Quote
The Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency hope to start flying follow-ons to the X-51 hypersonic testbed circa 2018, Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello, head of Air Force Research Laboratory, told Air Force Magazine in a Wednesday interview. "We've each invested about $300 million" in a project AFRL is calling the High Speed Strike Weapon, Masiello said. Two hypersonic vehicles are being explored: one is a waverider using technology like that of the X-51, which achieved 209 seconds of hypersonic flying in 2013. The other is called tactical boost-glide technology, "where there's no scramjet power; you're just basically taking a booster, accelerating it to hypersonic speed, then it glides to the target," Masiello explained. If all goes well, he said, by 2020, "we could have the technology matured to the point of a program of record," applying hypersonics to a cruise missile-type of weapon "with an acceptable level of risk.
Rest on link.
http://www.airforcemag.com/DRArchive/Pages/2015/January%202015/January%2022%202015/Beyond-the-Hyper.aspx -
#1338 by Lewis007 on 27 Jan, 2015 07:40
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The Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment, or M-TeX, and the Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence, or MIST, experiment were successfully conducted the morning of Jan. 26, 2015, from the Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska.
The first M-Tex rocket, a NASA Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket, was launched at 4:13 a.m. EST and was followed one-minute later by the first MIST experiment payload on a NASA Terrier-Improved Orion. The second M-TeX payload was launched at 4:46 a.m. EST and also was followed one minute later by the second MIST payload.
Preliminary data show that all four payloads worked as planned and the trimethyl aluminum, or TMA, vapor trails were seen at the various land-based observation sites in Alaska. A fifth rocket carrying the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe remains ready on the launch pad. The launch window for this experiment runs through Jan. 27.
See: http://www.nasa.gov/content/m-tex-and-mist-experiments-launched-from-alaska/
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#1339 by catdlr on 27 Jan, 2015 17:28
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The above also made picture of the Day!!
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/m-tex-and-mist-launch/#.VMfYdnt0b5s
Sounding Rockets Launch Into an AuroraQuoteThe interaction of solar winds and Earth’s atmosphere produces northern lights, or auroras, that dance across the night sky and mesmerize the casual observer. However, to scientists this interaction is more than a light display. It produces many questions about the role it plays in Earth’s meteorological processes and the impact on the planet’s atmosphere.
