Cassiope, три POPACS, CUSat 1&2, DANDE - Falcon 9 v1.1 - Ванденберг SLC-4E - 29.09.2013

[Salo]

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/09/cusat-set-launch-sept-14-making-gps-precise

Sept. 4, 2013
CUSat set to launch Sept. 14 from California

By Blaine Friedlander


Provided
For the pending CUSat launch on Sept. 14, team members, from left, Dan LaChapelle '16, Steven Dourmashkin '15, and Aastha Acharya '14 work on various mission aspects in Ithaca.

After eight years of planning, submitting, winning, building and waiting, Cornell University's CUSat – a nanosatellite designed and built by engineering students to help calibrate global positioning systems (GPS) with pinpoint accuracy – will be launched Sept. 14 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, Calif.
The satellite – which weighs about 90 pounds – will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Once in space, the satellite will move into low orbit to help calibrate GPS accuracy to within 3 millimeters. With that precision, future space missions can perform improved close-proximity spacecraft-to-spacecraft maneuvers.
The satellite uses algorithms developed by Mark Psiaki, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Shan Mohiuddin, Ph.D. '10.
"It's a very exciting and busy time for the team. We've been performing weekly mission rehearsals for the past year and a half," said Paul Jackson '15, the Cornell team's student project manager.
In 2007 the U.S. Air Force and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics chose CUSat – from among 11 entries – as the winner of its Nanosatellite Program's Nanosat-4 competition. Since 2005, more than 200 engineering students have worked on the project.
The Cornell satellite is loaded and ready for launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, whose primary payload is the Canadian Space Agency's Cassiope digital broadcast satellite.
To communicate with the satellite in orbit, the team configured ground stations in Ithaca, the Marshall Islands, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Redondo Beach, Calif.
When the CUSat team won the Nanosat-4 competition in 2007, the project was slated for launch in June 2008 from the SpaceX launch complex in the Marshall Islands. But then the launch was postponed to late 2011/early 2012. Now, it will launch next week.
Alumni from the team's early years tell Jackson they'll watch the launch live from Vandenberg or with team members in Ithaca. "It's a very exciting time for our alumni. Many of them worked on CUSat for their senior design or master's degree projects. They tell me it's really great to see their work finally go into space and serve the intended purpose," said Jackson.
When the team won the 2007 competition, its faculty adviser and principal investigator was Mason Peck, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Peck is on leave from Cornell and serves as NASA's chief technologist. James Lloyd, professor of astronomy, now serves as the team's faculty adviser.
The Sept. 14 launch window is from noon to 2 p.m. EDT, but that could change due to weather.
Editor's note: This story has been upd ated to reflect the new launch date. It was originally se t to launch Sept. 10.

[Salo]

DANDE отгружен ещё 5 августа:
http://spacegrant.colorado.edu/dande-news

T-30 Days to Launch!
August 5, 2013
Miranda Link
 
This morning, DANDE and CUSat (a Cornell University satellite) left the Air Force Research Laboratories in Albuquerque New Mexico headed for the launch site! Once the satellites arrive tomorrow to Vandenberg AFB in California, (specifically launch pad SLC-4E) DANDE and CUSat will be going through a final system checkout and prepare for flight. After Cassiope is integrated onto the launch vehicle, DANDE and CUSat will follow. Then we wait for launch on September 5th!
The DANDE team in Boulder is going through final preparations and action item closeouts in order to be a well oiled machine that is prepared for launch.

More updates to come!

-The DANDE Team

[Salo]

http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=52602

USU Get Away Special Team Set to Monitor Solar Effects on Satellites
          
  Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013

                                     
Graphic of the POPACS system shows three spheres (rightmost partially obscured) in a spring-loaded canister designed to eject the satellites into orbit. USU students will monitor the satellites and report findings to a national database.                
                             
                                     
The Get Away Special 'GAS' Team is USU's student space research group. The team is largely responsible for one of Utah State's best known achievements: USU has sent more student-built experiments into space than any university in the world.                
                       
 In a unique public-private partnership, Utah State University students will track three small satellites in low Earth orbit by telescope and report their findings to a national database.
    "This is an opportunity to involve students in a real-world — or should we say 'out-of-this-world' — project aimed at protecting satellites from the orbit-straying effects of space weather," says Jan Sojka, head of USU's Department of Physics and a lead investigator on the project.
    SpaceX, a private space transport company, is set to launch its Falcon 9 rocket into space Sept. 10 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. On board is POPACS, a project led and funded by Gil Moore, former USU faculty member and longtime supporter of USU's Get Away Special student space research team.
    POPACS, short for "Polar Orbiting Passive Atmospheric Calibration Spheres," is a project designed to measure changes in the density of the upper atmosphere in response to solar flares. The project consists of three spherical satellites, each measuring about 4 inches in diameter but each with a different mass.
    "A big concern for satellites is drag — that is, forces due to atmospheric density that cause the satellite to stray from its orbit," Sojka says. "If a satellite doesn't stay on its prescribed path, it risks collisions with other space objects or falling toward Earth hastening its demise as it burns up in the atmosphere."
    Using telescopes and GPS, USU students will track the shiny balls — one made of aluminum, the other two of stainless steel — as they as make their way across the sky.
    "Each of the spheres will reflect the same amount of light but, because of their varied densities, will experience the upper atmosphere differently," Sojka says.
    Designed and built by Planetary Systems Corporation of Maryland, the satellites will travel into space in a spring-loaded canister that will eject the spheres into orbit.
    "This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to explore emerging technology in orbital analysis," Sojka says. "The military, private companies and space agencies such as NASA and the European Space Agency are keenly interested in keeping satellite fleets going and avoiding problems with space weather."
    Solar flares, varying in intensity and frequency as the Sun moves through cycles, disrupt satellites upon which citizens of the Earth increasingly depend for communications and other commercial and military uses.
    "So many of our daily activities — especially cell phone and pager use, Internet and TV viewing — depend on satellites," Sojka says. "This project provides our students an opportunity to contribute to solutions for a global challenge, while learning about a lot of really interesting science."
    USU's GAS Team hosts its opening social Wednesday, Sept. 4, at 5:30 p.m. in the Science Engineering Research Building, Room 244. All students interested in space research are welcome to attend. The team is currently involved in a number of endeavors, including the POPACS project.

[igorvs]

Статья о предстоящем полете указывает на проведение огневого теста 7-8 сентября
http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/37094musk-says-spacex-being-%E2%80%9Cextremely-paranoid%E2%80%9D-as-it-readies-for-falcon-9%E2%80%99s

[igorvs]

Похоже тест смещается на сл. неделю,  наверное и старт поедет
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32685.0

[Salo]

igorvs пишет:
Статья о предстоящем полете указывает на проведение огневого теста 7-8 сентября
 http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/37094musk-says-spacex-being-%E2%80%9Cextremely-paranoid%E2%80%9D-as-it-readies-for-falcon-9%E2%80%99s

Musk Says SpaceX Being "Extremely Paranoid" as It Readies for Falcon 9's California Debut
By Irene Klotz | Sep. 6, 2013

 
SpaceX's latest Falcon 9 version is 60 percent longer than the company's five previous Falcon 9 boosters. Credit: Photo courtesy of Elon Musk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Building on its experience setting up a space launch complex in Florida, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is looking to begin operations in its home state this month, with a debut demonstration flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket.

Privately owned SpaceX planned to conduct a static-test firing of the rocket's new Merlin 1D engines the weekend of Sept. 7-8, the last major hurdle before a launch attempt could be made as early as a week or two later, founder and chief executive Elon Musk told SpaceNews. At press time, a NASA manifest had the launch slated for Sept. 14.

The flight would be Falcon 9's first fr om a newly refurbished launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Спойлер

"We're being, as usual, extremely paranoid about the launch and trying to do everything we possibly can to improve the probability of success, but this is a new version of Falcon 9," Musk said.

The rocket is 60 percent longer than the company's five previous Falcon 9 boosters, all launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Three of those rockets carried Dragon cargo capsules to the international space station for NASA. Two others were test flights.

The rocket's extension, which makes it more susceptible to bending during flight, is the most visible of several upgrades intended to increase the booster's lift capacity and simplify operations.

In addition to a new five-meter payload fairing, the rocket has upgraded avionics and software, as well as a new stage-separation system that cuts the number of attachment points from 12 to three.

"It's ultimately an improvement in reliability, but it is a new system," Musk said.

Because it is a demonstration mission, SpaceX offered launch services at a cut-rate price. MDA Corp. of Canada bought the ride for its 500-kilogram Cassiope spacecraft, built in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and Technology Partnerships Canada.

"Cassiope paid a tiny fraction of the price for the right to be on the demonstration flight. This is essentially a development flight for the rocket. It's not an operational flight," Musk said.

"Cassiope is a very small satellite. It takes up just a tiny fraction of the volume of the fairing. They paid, I think, maybe 20 percent of the normal price of the mission," he added.

A trio of secondary payloads — including a privately funded cubesat Earth science mission and two university payloads — also will be aboard.

Once the payloads are put into orbit, SpaceX may try to restart the rocket's upper-stage motor, depending on how much fuel is left. Also on tap is a highly experimental restart of the Falcon's boost stage to slow its crash-landing into the sea.

"Just before we hit the ocean, we're going to relight the engine and see if we can mitigate the landing velocity to the point wh ere the stage could potentially be recovered, but I give this maybe a 10 percent chance of success," Musk said.

In a related program called Grasshopper, SpaceX has been developing a booster stage that can fly itself back to a launch pad.

"We've never attempted to land Grasshopper on water. We don't know if the radar system will detect the water surface level accurately. We don't know all sorts of things, so I really give it a very tiny chance of success. But we're going to see what data we can learn," Musk said.

Eventually, Musk hopes to outfit the Falcon rockets with landing legs and offer a discount launch service on used rockets.

"Ultimately, I think we could see a drop in cost per launch of 25 percent or more, just from re-use of the boost stage," he said.

Following the Falcon 9 v1.1 flight from California, SpaceX plans to return to Florida for its first commercial mission, an SES World Skies communications satellite.

NASA, which has a contract with SpaceX for 10 more cargo runs to the station, wants the upgraded Falcon 9 rocket to fly two or three times before it is used to launch an enhanced Dragon capsule slated to fly on the next resupply mission, space station program manager Mike Suffredini said. A NASA manifest shows Dragon's next cargo run occurring between Jan. 17 and Feb. 16.

[свернуть]

[Salo]

https://www.facebook.com/spacegrantdande?ref=stream&hc_location=timeline

COSGC DANDE

возле Боулдер (Колорадо)

Still looking like launch will be this upcoming Saturday!
 
 "SpaceX conducted their Flight Readiness Review today! The more exciting news is that the conclusion was a GO for launch! The fairing has been integrated to the launch vehicle and no unplanned open work is planned. The last gate on the way to launch is the Static Fire planed for Tuesday and the Launch Readiness Review verifying its success." (from public sources)
 
 GOOOO DANDE!!!

[anik]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

Пуск - 15 сентября в 20:00-22:00 ЛМВ.

[Salo]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/377325202121580544/photo/1

Elon MuskVerified account ‏@elonmusk   First of next gen Falcon 9 rockets rolls out to the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base pic.twitter.com/hNl6zKodvr

[ilan]

Ночью вывозят.
Секретничают.

[Salo]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/377349811604709376

Elon MuskVerified account ‏@elonmusk   Upcoming Falcon 9 demo has a lot of new technology, so the probability of failure is significant http://ow.ly/oJ0W1

[anik]

Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk
Upcoming Falcon 9 demo has a lot of new technology, so the probability of failure is significant

P.S.: Salo опередил  

[Старый]

А ведь гдето месяц назад я предполагал что Маск избегает трансляции потому что ожидает аварии...

[Salo]

https://twitter.com/4adamharris/status/377577692763144192

Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust 21h

    Adam Harris, SpaceX: planning a static fire of Falcon 9 at Vandenberg tomorrow; launch now planned for a week from today. #aiaaspace
 8:25 PM - 10 Sep 13

Adam Harris ‏@4adamharris

@jeff_foust To clarify, I said we will attempt to launch within a week.
2:41 AM - 11 Sep 13

[Salo]

http://spaceref.ca/missions-and-programs/canadian-space-agency/after-years-in-storage-cassiope-satellite-set-for-launch.html

After Years in Storage CASSIOPE Satellite Set for Launch

[/li]
•     Posted by Marc Boucher Source: SpaceRef
  
• Posted September 11, 2013 9:57 AM
  

©U.S. Air Force
Space Falcon 9 v1.1 on the pad.
 
               I bet you didn't know that if you drove onto the West Island of Montreal via the Trans-Canada Highway, that in a nondescript building at MDA's Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue office, on the north side of the highway, was a $140 million satellite securely stored and awaiting its mission the last few years.
Almost a decade after the it was announced, the Canadian Space Agency CASSIOPE satellite appears set to launch on September 15th on a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, barring any delays. SpaceX will conduct a "hot fire" test of the rockets engines today and if all goes well the launch will proceed.
The multi-purpose satellite was announced on February 7th, 2004 by the Canadian Space Agency with MadDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) as the prime contractor.
The CASSIOPE or CAscade, SmallSat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer satellite has two payloads, an experimental commercial space-based digital courier service called Cascade and the scientific Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (ePOP) mission with eight instruments.
At the time it was announced little did then President Marc Garneau know how many delays the mission would encounter. "Our investment in the design of these new space satellites will increase Canadian knowledge and expertise, diversify our space industry and enhance the timely delivery of Canadian payloads on a more frequent basis."



When announced it was hoped that CASSIOPE would launch in 2007. And in 2005 MDA signed a sweetheart of a deal with SpaceX for a third quarter launch in 2008.
The deal MDA signed was for SpaceX, still a very new company in 2005 without a single launch to its name, to launch CASSIOPE on a Falcon 1 rocket fr om Vandenberg Air Force Base for a reported price of less than $10 million. That was too good a price to pass up. At the time SpaceX was advertising the Falcon 1 launch at $5.9 million before raising the price to $9 million in 2009. The price is less than 20% of what it would cost today on the rocket it will now launch on.
For the Canadian government, which wanted to keep the cost of any mission low, who wh ere they to argue with such a sweet deal.
Unfortunately as is the case with any new rocket there are delays and failures. SpaceX would launch three Falcon 1 rockets between March 2006 and August 2008, all which failed, though the third was considered a partial-success by SpaceX. However in September 2008 the first successful Falcon 1 launch was completed and SpaceX has not had a failure since then.


 CASSIOPE Satellite Rendering. Credit: Siemens.

SpaceX only flew one more Falcon 1 though after that first successful launch and shifted its focus to the bigger Falcon 9 rocket. Development of this rocket caused further delays in the SpaceX launch schedule.
Then SpaceX competed and won a contract to supply NASA with a cargo resupply service to the International Space Station. This meant more delays for CASSIOPE.
SpaceX in 2012 officially retired the Falcon 1 and CASSIOPE was moved to the much bigger and successful Falcon 9 rocket.
However the move came with an asterisk. SpaceX decided that CASSIOPE would fly on the first launch of the upgraded Falcon 9, labelled version 1.1 or just Falcon 9 v1.1. While similar to the original Falcon 9 the new upgraded version sports the more powerful Merlin 1D engines which have yet to fly, a much longer fuselage, a new larger fairing and a number of other upgrades to the rocket including its software.
Which brings us today, just days away from the CASSIOPE launch and five years later than when it was scheduled to launch.
SpaceRef contacted MDA and Dr. Andrew Yau, the principal investigator of ePOP, to discuss the launch and if after 10 years were the variety of experiments still relevant and what if any upgrading the satellite needed since its been sitting idly in storage for several years.
For MDA, Corporate Communications Manager Wendy Keyzer said "The experiment is still relevant, Cascade is an experimental capability looking at providing a cost-effective, secure, and very high fidelity high-bandwidth communications offering using a 'store and forward' operational concept."
Dr. Yau said "yes, I would say so - the more we learn from other sources of data, the more relevant the underlying scientific questions remain. There is now a much broader appreciation of the impact of space weather on our daily life than 10 years ago. As we know more about plasma outflows, there is also increased scientific interest in understanding their important effects on the Earth's upper atmosphere and ionosphere and its space weather."
Dr. Yau also said that while some of the experiments software parameters might need changes, there was probably no need for instrumentation software upgrades, though one instruments GPS receiver firmware and software did need upgrading which has been performed.
For the researchers "the delay has been frustrating and problematic, but it has been very inspiring to see everyone on both the science and the technical teams maintaining their focus on the eventual success of the mission despite the increasing budgetary and programmatic challenges" Dr. Yau said.
The launch will also be the first out of SpaceX's new Vandenberg launch complex. And SpaceX has classified this launch as a "demonstration launch". And it was only a few of weeks ago that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave SpaceX a waiver to launch the new rocket though in the waiver it did cite the Air Force as stating it "has determined that its overall failure probability is nearly fifty percent for each of the first two launches."
So while that less than $10 million launch contract looked really good in 2005 when it was signed, it seems that aside from the ongoing launch delays, CASSIOPE must now launch on an upgraded rocket with a greater risk of failure.
This is the nature of the launch industry though. And while SpaceX is calling this a demonstration launch, it is in their best interest to launch only if they feel the rocket and technology is ready. However no matter how much you try to cover every contingency, there is always that chance the launch will fail.
For Canada and the Canadian government which accepted this risk due to the nations meagre space budget, let's hope that SpaceX delivers a flawless launch.

[Salo]

[testest]

Что-то ничего не слышно. Я тут подумал, если прожиг пройдет хорошо, Маск сразу напишет. А если нет, мы узнаем о результатах только завтра.

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32685.msg1095597#msg1095597

Chris Bergin пишет:
Per L2, no hot fire today.

[Ну-и-ну]

Рубят хвост по частям, в назидание.

[igorvs]

SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 1st launch: Static firing test update - Wed
September 12 2013 02:32:35 AM | by Clark Lindsey, Managing Editor
 
The latest I hear from Charles about the SpaceX Falcon v1.1 hot fire test is that the scrub today was due to a ground pad LOX leak and nothing to do with the rocket.