US Space Program - a thread

[Blue Marlin]

Every time I see that rocket!!

whats wrong with it?

 

[SvenSvensonov]

2 Minutes, 10 seconds of burn time. Successful test!

In case you missed the live stream, here's the test:

whats wrong with it?

 

[Blue Marlin]

2 Minutes, 10 seconds of burn time. Successful test!

In case you missed the live stream, here's the test:

ahhh i see where your comming from but i dont think there supposed to be big ,fat and short.
it's supposed to be big fat and long

if its pointy then you need to see the doc asap

 

[SvenSvensonov]

The QM-2 test video can be seen two posts above^.

...

NASA's Space Launch System Booster Passes Major Milestone on Journey to Mars

The second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch System’s booster is seen, Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion System's (SLS) test facilities in Promontory, Utah. During the SLS flight the boosters will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth, the first step on NASA’s Journey to Mars.

A booster for the most powerful rocket in the world, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), successfully fired up Tuesday for its second qualification ground test at Orbital ATK's test facilities in Promontory, Utah. This was the last full-scale test for the booster before SLS’s first uncrewed test flight with NASA’s Orion spacecraft in late 2018, a key milestone on the agency’s Journey to Mars.

“This final qualification test of the booster system shows real progress in the development of the Space Launch System,” said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Seeing this test today, and experiencing the sound and feel of approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust, helps us appreciate the progress we’re making to advance human exploration and open new frontiers for science and technology missions in deep space.”

The booster was tested at a cold motor conditioning target of 40 degrees Fahrenheit –the colder end of its accepted propellant temperature range. When ignited, temperatures inside the booster reached nearly 6,000 degrees. The two-minute, full-duration ground qualification test provided NASA with critical data on 82 qualification objectives that will support certification of the booster for flight. Engineers now will evaluate these data, captured by more than 530 instrumentation channels on the booster.

When completed, two five-segment boosters and four RS-25 main engines will power SLS on deep space missions. The solid rocket boosters, built by NASA contractor Orbital ATK, operate in parallel with SLS’s main engines for the first two minutes of flight. They will provide more than 75 percent of the thrust needed for the rocket and Orion spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravitational pull.

"Today's test is the pinnacle of years of hard work by the NASA team, Orbital ATK and commercial partners across the country," said John Honeycutt, SLS Program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “SLS hardware is currently in production for every part of the rocket. NASA also is making progress every day on Orion and the ground systems to support a launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We're on track to launch SLS on its first flight test with Orion and pave the way for a human presence in deep space."

The first full-scale booster qualification ground test was successfully completed in March 2015 and demonstrated acceptable performance of the booster design at 90 degrees Fahrenheit – the highest end of the booster’s accepted propellant temperature range. Testing at the thermal extremes experienced by the booster on the launch pad is important to understand the effect of temperature on how the propellant burns.

The initial SLS configuration will have a minimum 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capability. The next planned upgrade of SLS will use a powerful exploration upper stage for more ambitious missions, with a 105-metric-ton (115-ton) lift capacity. In each configuration, SLS will continue to use the same core stage and four RS-25 engines.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Pressure vessels built by SpaceX to test its Crew Dragon designs are going through structural testing, so engineers can analyze the spacecraft’s ability to withstand the harsh conditions of launch and spaceflight. A pressure vessel is the area of the spacecraft where astronauts will sit during their ride to the International Space Station. It makes up the majority of the Crew Dragon’s structure but does not include the outer shell, heat shield, thrusters or other systems.

Even without those systems in place, however, SpaceX and NASA can learn enormous amounts about the design’s strength by placing the pressure vessel in special fixtures that stress the structure. SpaceX completed two pressure vessels that will be used for ground tests and two more are in manufacturing right now to fly in space during demonstration missions for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

After the ground testing, the pressure vessels will be outfitted with all the systems they would need to be fully functional spacecraft.


...



June 24 the USN sent up a communications satellite called MUOS 5 aboard an Atlas 5.

Here's an alternate angle of the launch:

https://twitter.com/x/status/746359812582039552

And the launch as shot from a camera strapped to the rocket:

 

[SvenSvensonov]

People sometimes forget that NASA isn't just a space agency, it also does more Earth-bound flight (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) testing, research and development.

NASA maintains a fleet of specialized and modified aircraft ranging from the manned F/A-18 to the unmanned Predator and the mammoth Global Hawk.

Even within the fleet, each aircraft is used to test or experiment with different tasks. One F/A-18 is an airborne observatory. Another, this one, was a high Alpha research platform.

Yet another was used to design an active elastic wing, as shown here undergoing wing stress testing.

The innards of a NASA Global Hawk

The Predator B "IKhara" is a scientific platform. Here it is sporting a Raytheon designed pod for Arctic missions.

Occasionally NASA co-opted US Air Force aircraft like the B-52. Shown here is a B-52H loaned to NASA until 2001. It carries the X-38 lifting body aircraft.

That's a remote controlled F-15A. 3/8th-scale of course.

Some designs are unique versions of existing aircraft, like this F-5E.

Others, like the F-107A never made it past a prototype phase, but NASA helped test the aircraft every step of the way.

Space is glamorous and often more overt, but there isn't an aircraft flying in the US today that NASA research's touch avoided.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Here's a few more platforms NASA used or helped develop.

AIM-54 Phoenix.

SR-71 Blackbird.

Tier-3 Darkstar.

TU-144LL Supersonic transport. Not even foreign aircraft are safe from NASA's grasp.

X-31 Semi-tailless.

X-29.

X-40 space plane.

And last but not least, the X-45.

If there's a program, space or terrestrial in the US, you can bet NASA will be there testing the platform every step it takes. And you can be even more sure that before those programs ever get off the drawing board, NASA has helped develop the technology and research that will make them possible.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Here's a few more platforms NASA used or helped develop.


TU-144LL Supersonic transport. Not even foreign aircraft are safe from NASA's grasp.

X-31 Semi-.

That is truly amazing. How did they get their hands on one of those???? I can't believe Russia allowed it.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

That is truly amazing. How did they get their hands on one of those???? I can't believe Russia allowed it.

I was really surprised to see NASA helped research supersonic flight for Tupolev too. The development program was from 1996 to 1999, so relations between the US and Russia were markedly better. During the development of the TU-144 Supersonic Transport, NASA was asked to assist with research on supersonic flight.

NASA Research pilot C. Gordon Fullerton sits in cockpit of the TU-144LL SST.

I'm really disappointed to see our relations with Russia sour... again. Cooperating, our two nations are capable of great feats of engineering.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I was really surprised to see NASA helped research supersonic flight for Tupolev too. The development program was from 1996 to 1999, so relations between the US and Russia were markedly better. During the development of the TU-144 Supersonic Transport, NASA was asked to assist with research on supersonic flight.

NASA Research pilot C. Gordon Fullerton sits in cockpit of the TU-144LL SST.

Wait...NASA helped bail out the TU-144 program after its disastrous 1973 air show crash? Wow! So in return they got a jet...unreal!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Juno probe insertion today...unfortunately Jupiter is a nasty planet and the chance of it destroying the probe is high compared to other planets.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

http://www.space.com/33347-juno-team-celebrates-jupiter-orbit-success.html


NASA, Juno Team Exult in Successful Jupiter Arrival

NASA officials and members of the Juno mission team celebrate the spacecraft's successful arrival at Jupiter on July 4, 2016.
PASADENA, California — First came the sighs of relief, and then the shouts of joy.

The people behind NASA's Juno mission rode a wave of emotions Monday night (July 4) as the spacecraft approached Jupiter and then, after a picture-perfect, 35-minute engine burn, became just the second probe ever to enter orbit around the giant planet.

The tension was high Monday night, because the burn was a make-or-break maneuver: If Juno's engine didn't perform properly, the spacecraft would go sailing right past Jupiter. And the engine had to kick on — on autopilot, hundreds of millions of miles from Earth — just as Juno was zooming through the harshest part of Jupiter's intense radiation belts, where hordes of electrons zip around at nearly the speed of light. [Juno Team Cheers as Jupiter Arrival Confirmed (Video)]

"The more you know about the mission, you know just how tricky this [maneuver] was, and it had to be flawless," Juno program executive Diane Brown, who's based at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said during a news briefing here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after Juno's success was confirmed.

"I really can't put it into words," Brown added. "You imagine what it might feel like, but to actually have it, to know that we can all go to bed tonight not worrying about what's going to happen tomorrow? It's pretty awesome."

Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said he let loose a "huge sigh of relief and excitement" when it became clear that Juno had aced the engine burn.

"We're there — we're in orbit," Bolton said, as applause erupted throughout the briefing room at JPL. "We conquered Jupiter!"

The $1.1 billion Juno mission, which launched in August 2011, aims to map out the composition and internal structure of Jupiter, among other goals. Learning what Jupiter is made of — how much water swirls around in its atmosphere, and if it has a core of heavy elements, for example — will reveal a great deal about how the giant planet took shape, mission team members have said.

Juno won't begin studying Jupiter with its nine science instruments until late August, when it will loop back around for another close pass of the gas giant. (Monday night's engine burn placed Juno into a 53-day orbit.)

And the bulk of Juno's science work will start after an Oct. 19 engine burn shifts the spacecraft into its 14-day science orbit. Juno will then perform more than 30 such orbits, before finally plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere in an intentional death dive in February 2018.

So the Juno team has a lot to look forward to over the coming weeks and months.

"It's amazing, it feels wonderful, and it's also just the beginning," said Juno project scientist Steve Levin of JPL.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Juno probe insertion today...unfortunately Jupiter is a nasty planet and the chance of it destroying the probe is high compared to other planets.

Given the volatility of Jupiter, Juno has to rank among NASA's most dangerous missions, and one of its hardest. According to Scott Bolton, part of the Juno project:

“We just did the hardest thing NASA has ever done.”

I'm hard-pressed to disagree with him given the monster Juno is up against.

And this is the space agency that put man on the moon.

Has a rover exploring Mars.

Got intimate with Pluto.

And sent a probe out of the f*cking solar system!!

Along the way there's been a lot of difficult missions, some have even cost human lives or untold billions in losses, but Jupiter with its massive EM field and wonky amounts of radiation is a different beast to our probes. One flare up and Juno would turn to literal dust and around 1.1 billion USD with it.

Even near the poles where Juno is to be completing 37 orbits, it's still a dicey proposition:

Juno will experience the equivalent radiation dose of “a hundred million X-rays in less than a year,” - Heidi Becker, Juno's radiation monitoring team lead.

This video shows the highly elliptical orbital path of the probes, oriented towards the poles, from Juno's perspective.

The first revolution will take Juno 53.5 days to complete, all to avoid Jupiter's mammoth EM field.

Juno of course has some help, including a 400 pound radiation shield made from Titanium, but even that may not be enough.

Fingers crossed.

...

I'm soooo excited to see the first up-close photos come in!!

But in the mean time, here's a teaser from the 1996 Galileo mission of Jupiter's rings:

The first images of Jupiter from Juno will take 48 minutes to reach Earth, and should start being transmitted around the end of August. A second 14 day revolution, aided by a kick from the main thruster, should return photos in October too.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

NASA's ER-2:

Like its spy counterpart - https://defence.pk/threads/a-handy-guide-to-the-u-2-spy-plane.349567/ - the ER-2 can be configured with a variety of different missions.