Launches...

[2hats]

Virgin Orbit look like they are going to have a stab at launching 'Start Me Up' (9 satellites: AMAN, CIRCE A & B, DOVER, ForgeStar-0, IOD-3 Amber, Prometheus 2A & 2B, STORK-6) on LauncherOne from Cosmic Girl out of Newquay Airport/Spaceport Cornwall on 9 January. Launch window is 2216-0016UTC, with a backup date of 18 January.

In the unlikely event it is clear that night (current forecast models don't yet look promising) then persons towards/in the SW/South Wales/southern Ireland might be able to see it briefly during the early stage of powered flight (first minute or two).

 

[T & P]

ESA's Juice mission has blasted off

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-65258309

 

[danny la rouge]

European Space Agency: Blast off for Jupiter icy moons mission European Space Agency: Blast off for Jupiter icy moons mission

 

[T & P]

Could 2hats or anyone else knowledable about such matters explain how a rocket launch window can be as narrow as one second, as it was the case here?

 

[Signal 11]

Could 2hats or anyone else knowledable about such matters explain how a rocket launch window can be as narrow as one second, as it was the case here?

It's because it has to do a series of flybys to speed it up and get it there using the minimum amount of fuel.

Europe's JUICE mission has to squeeze into a 1-second launch window. Here's why.

"We're trying to stack up all the planets, or the gravity assist maneuvers to get to Jupiter with the minimum out of the three and a half tonnes of fuel," Justin Byrne, the head of Science Programs at Airbus Defence and Space, which led the consortium building the JUICE spacecraft, told Space.com. "So we have a one-second launch window to inject JUICE into the right orbit."

 

[T & P]

I'm sure they wouldn't launch if they estimated the risk to be anything more than infinitesimal, but given Boeing's record of late, I wonder if the astronauts due to ride the Starliner are feeling a bit uneasy...

Boeing Says Leak on Its Spacecraft Is Totally Fine, Will Launch Astronauts Without Fixing It

At a news conference on Friday, Boeing and NASA said they were going to proceed with the Starliner launch without fixing a helium leak.

futurism.com

 

[2hats]

Could 2hats or anyone else knowledable about such matters explain how a rocket launch window can be as narrow as one second, as it was the case here?

For low Earth orbit it is due to needing to hit a precise orbital plane (plane at a particular inclination) such that they can be at a particular point in space and time (eg for rendezvous). How large that launch window is (seconds or minutes) depends on how much spare energy the launch vehicle has to steer back in-plane from a less than optimal initial launch plane (the shuttle to ISS had a 10 minute long launch window to the ISS for each attempt; a lot of Falcon 9 ascents for similar profile missions are near-instantaneous as they are often looking to recover the first stage).

Talking of instantaneous launch windows - the first Boeing Starliner crew flight test is about to launch - due at 1552BST. Live coverage on NASA TV streams.

 

[bcuster]

https://www.nbc-2.com/article/starliner-live-stream-boeing-launch-watch/61003822

5 min ago

Starliner reaches orbit​

From CNN's Ashley Strickland

The Starliner spacecraft has officially reached orbit.
Now, Williams and Wilmore have their tablets out and are preparing for the first in a series of burns that will set Starliner on its way to the International Space Station.

 

[StoneRoad]

I gather that Starliner's countdown today was a clean sheet for problems ... after scrubbing so many attempts I'm pleased that it all worked as intended today.

 

[a_chap]

Well, Starship made it into space and it put on quite a surprising display of glowing, burning metal on the way down.



(you need to scroll to about 11 hours into the above video)

 

[elbows]

Starliner is less than an hour away from planned ISS docking and has been visible from ISS camera feeds for quite some time already.

I am watching via:

 

[StoneRoad]

Been a busy day in low earth orbit !

Hope that those He leaks are under control.

 

[elbows]

Theyve now got some failures of multiple control thrusters, but I dont really know my terminology. Holding at 260M away from ISS as a result, for now.

 

[elbows]

I switched to the official NASA feed instead.

Ground control tried hot firing 4 thrusters, crew felt 3 out of 4 working.

 

[elbows]

Manual piloting demo going ahead.

 

[elbows]

Period of darkness. Moving to 200M. If Im interpreting things right they cannot proceed beyond that as intended while they havent got enough redundancy confirmed as available in the thruster array.

 

[elbows]

Having missed the first docking window of opportunity, they are now confident enough to try again as the second window looms.

 

[elbows]

Its going much better this time. Pretty close, in distance at least, still a while to wait for actual docking.

 

[elbows]

Only about 22 meters away.

 

[elbows]

 

[elbows]

Hlding at 10 meters while they wait for better lighting.

 

[elbows]

Docked!

 

[elbows]

 

[StoneRoad]

I gather "Starliner" is still having trouble with the He leaks, so they've shut the manifolds down. They still have sufficient reserves ...

 

[T & P]

I gather "Starliner" is still having trouble with the He leaks, so they've shut the manifolds down. They still have sufficient reserves ...

They’ve postponed the return flight to July, seemingly due to those helium leaks that were so insignificant they decided to launch without fixing them.

Starliner return delayed to July

NASA and Boeing have delayed the return of the CST-100 Starliner from the ISS until at least early July to continue work on propulsion system problems.

spacenews.com

 

[2hats]

A particular space-faring nation that is not too troubled by H&S risk assessments... (hypergolic fuel-based fun for all the family earlier this week):
View attachment LM2Cdrop.mp4
...has gone one better. This was supposed to be a static fire test (structural failure of the test stand).
View attachment NotStatic.mp4