Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Private Rockets Blast Open 2014 & Commercial Space Race with Big Bangs on Jan. 6 & 7

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: January 3, 2014 12:04:45 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Private Rockets Blast Open 2014 & Commercial Space Race with Big Bangs on Jan. 6 & 7

SpaceX launch from Cape now Monday
Jan. 2, 2014 7:16 PM
Written by
James Dean
FLORIDA TODAY
The year's first launch from Cape Canaveral is now planned no earlier than Monday.
SpaceX had been targeting launch of a Falcon 9 rocket around 5 p.m. today, carrying a Thai commercial communications satellite.
The company did not immediately explain the reason for the delay.
If necessary, launch attempts could also be made next Wednesday through Sunday, according to the Air Force's 45th Space Wing. NASA is launching another rocket from Virginia Tuesday.
Monday's launch would be SpaceX's second from Florida, and third overall, of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket featuring more powerful Merlin engines and 43-foot payload fairing.
SpaceX successfully flew a similar mission from the Cape last month for Luxembourg-based SES.
Meanwhile, preparations continue for the next local launch on the schedule.
NASA today planned to brief the media on a tracking and data relay satellite the agency is readying for a Jan. 23 liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. A 40-minute launch window that day opens at 9:05 p.m.
The satellite is being processed at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville before moving to the launch pad.
Separately, NASA on Thursday confirmed plans to launch an International Space Station resupply mission from Virginia next week.
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket and unmanned Cygnus spacecraft are targeting a 1:55 p.m. Tuesday liftoff on the company's first of eight missions under a $1.9 billion contract.
The launch was postponed in December by a breakdown in the station's cooling system. Astronauts completed two spacewalks before Christmas to replace a faulty coolant pump and fix the problem.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com.
Copyright © 2014 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved.

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Private American Rockets Blast Open 2014 & Commercial Space Race with Big Bangs on Jan. 6 & 7
by Ken Kremer on January 2, 2014
Seaside panoramic view of an Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft built by Orbital Sciences at Launch Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia Eastern Shore. Blastoff for the ISS is slated for Jan. 7, 2014 at 1:55 p.m. EDT. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
The status quo in space flight operations is no more.
Private American rockets are leading the charge of overdue change into the innovative 'Commercial Space Race' by blasting 2014 open with a pair of 'Big Bang fireworks' just a day apart on Jan. 6 and Jan 7.
A dynamic duo of US aerospace firms – SpaceX and Orbital Sciences – are each launching their own recently developed private boosters in the first week of the new year.
And to top that off, the rockets are thundering aloft from two different spaceports located some 800 miles apart along the US East coast – weather permitting of course given the monster snow storm and frigid arctic cold – akin to Mars – bearing down at this very moment on the big populations centers of the Atlantic coast region.
Both companies are revolutionizing access to space for both government entities as well as commercial companies doing lucrative business in space.
The implications for space travel and space commerce are far reaching and imperative – especially in the face of static and declining budgets mandated by politicians worldwide.
Except for China, which just landed its first rover on the Moon, is investing mightily in space and science and reaping strong economic growth.
Next Generation SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off with SES-8 communications satellite on Dec. 3, 2013 from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
SpaceX is first on deck with their next generation Falcon 9 rocket poised to soar on Monday, Jan. 6, with a highly valuable international payload – the Thiacom-6 commercial broadcasting satellite. Note: this launch has just been postponed from Jan. 3 due to concerns with the rocket – better safe than sorry.
Orbital Sciences follows up quickly on Tuesday, Jan. 7, with their Antares rocket carrying the firm's own Cygnus cargo vessel on its first operational commercial resupply mission for NASA – that's bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
The upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket is slated to launch from complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, likely at dusk.
The original Jan. 3 Falcon 9 evening time launch had been scheduled for 5:50 p.m. Thaicom-6 will be placed into an elliptical supersynchronous transfer orbit.
The commercial space race sometimes makes for strange bedfellows. The Thaicom-6 satellite was built by Orbital Sciences.
This marks only the 2nd launch of the newly upgraded Falcon 9 from Florida. Read my eyewitness reports about the thunderous maiden liftoff barely a month ago on Dec. 3, 2013 with the SES-8 commercial telecom satellite – starting here.
The new Falcon 9 is the key to achieving SpaceX's future launch manifest of some 50 payloads worth billions of dollars.
The next gen Falcon 9 will also launch the human rated SpaceX Dragon to the ISS. But first the Dragon and Falcon 9 must successfully achieve a pair of abort tests planned for 2014. Read my new article and discussion with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk – here.
The Jan. 7 Antares liftoff is currently scheduled for 1:55 p.m. EST from Launch Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA Wallops Island, Virginia.

Antares rocket slated for Jan. 7, 2014 launch undergoes processing at the Horizontal Integration Facility at NASA Wallops, Virginia, during exclusive visit by Ken Kremer/Universe Today. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
The Antares launch comes on the heels of the completely successful demonstration flight to the space station by Orbital Sciences in September 2013.
This flight was originally scheduled for mid-December 2013 in prime time but was postponed due to the urgent repairs required to get the ISS cooling system back in full operation.
And although it's now moved to daylight by reason of orbital mechanics, the liftoff could still easily be visible to millions of residents along a wide swath of the US East Coast spanning from North Carolina to New York City – weather permitting.
Antares Launch from Virginia– Maximum Elevation Map The Antares nighttime launch will be visible to millions of spectators across a wide area of the Eastern US -weather permitting. This map shows the maximum elevation (degrees above the horizon) that the Antares rocket will reach during the Jan 7, 2014 launch depending on your location along the US east coast. Credit: Orbital Sciences
I'll be covering the Antares launch, dubbed Orb-1, from on site at NASA Wallops – watch for my continuing reports.
The Cygnus logistics vessel will carry a total of 2,780 pounds of supplies to the station, including vital science experiments to expand the research capability of the Expedition 38 crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory, crew provisions, spare parts and experiment hardware, says NASA.
Also packed aboard the Antares/Cygnus flight are a batch of student experiments involving life sciences topics ranging from amoeba reproduction to calcium in the bones to salamanders.
"The 23 experiments flying next week [on Antares/Cygnus] are the culmination of 8,700 students engaged in real experiment design, and 1,800 proposals received by student teams," Dr. Jeff Goldstein told Universe Today. Goldstein is the Center Director for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE),which is sponsoring and organizing the student experiments.
This is but the opening salvo of shots heard reverberating round the world that will surely "rock" the space industry to its core by cutting the steep cost of access to space.
"This is really rocking the industry. Everybody has to look out," said Martin Halliwell, SES chief technical officer during a recent media briefing with Elon Musk, including Universe Today.
Both the SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon and Orbital Sciences Antares/Cygnus vehicles were developed from the start with seed money from NASA in a public-private partnership.
The goal was to restore America's cargo and crew capabilities to low Earth orbit and the ISS that was totally lost following the forced retirement of NASA's Space Shuttles.
After a slow start, both Orbital Sciences and SpaceX have succeeded in bringing their new rockets and delivery vehicles safely on line.
SpaceX next Dragon cargo launch to the ISS is currently scheduled for Feb. 22, said SpaceX spokeswoman Emily Shanklin to Universe Today.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, commercial space, Chang'e-3, LADEE, Mars and more news.
Ken Kremer
…………….
Learn more about SpaceX, Orbital Sciences Antares Jan. 7 launch, Curiosity, Orion, MAVEN, MOM, Mars rovers and more at Ken's upcoming presentations
Jan 6-8: "Antares/Cygnus ISS Rocket Launch from Virginia on Jan. 7" & "Space mission updates"; Rodeway Inn, Chincoteague, VA, evening
Mike Whalen of Orbital Sciences and Ken Kremer of Universe Today pose at the base of the Antares rocket 1st stage now slated for liftoff on Jan. 7, 2014 at NASA Wallops, Virginia. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
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AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
January 2nd, 2014
SpaceX Thaicom-6 Launch Delayed Until At Least Monday Jan. 6
By Mike Killian

SpaceX has delayed their first launch of 2014 until NET Jan. 6, 2014. Photo Credit: SpaceX
With roughly 25 hours before launch Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has reportedly delayed their first launch of 2014 by at least three days, a move meant to give the launch team in Florida time to resolve an unspecified issue with the Falcon-9 v1.1 rocket's fairing.
According to NASA Spaceflight.com the company made the decision to delay during today's Launch Readiness Review (LRR), which is a mandatory prelaunch safety inspection and logistics review held prior to any rocket launch.
AmericaSpace reached out to SpaceX this afternoon via email and telephone for comment, but the company has yet to respond.
While SpaceX works through the issue with their rocket Orbital Sciences Corporation is preparing to launch their Cygnus spacecraft on its first mission to resupply the International Space Station early next week. That launch, ORB-1, will lift off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia no earlier than Jan. 7.
Both SpaceX and Orbital will need the assets available at the Bermuda telemetry station to launch, and there is no word yet whether Jan. 6-8 is even available for SpaceX to use.
Technicians work on the Thaicom-6 telecommunications satellite at Orbital Science Corporation's Dulles, Virginia facility. SpaceX is expected to launch the spacecraft atop their new Falcon-9 v1.1 rocket from Florida NET Jan. 6, 2014. Photo Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation
The 7,330-pound hybrid C-band and Ku-band commercial telecommunications satellite SpaceX will deliver to space, identified as Thaicom-6, will be launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) for Asian satellite operator Thaicom Public Limited Company (PLC) atop SpaceX's new upgraded 224-foot-tall Falcon-9 v1.1 rocket. Once in orbit Thaicom-6 will be operated at 78.5 degrees East Longitude.
The satellite,which was manufactured and tested by Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va, is equipped with 18 C-band and 8 Ku-band transponders to provide service coverage to the growing satellite television market in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Southern Africa (including Madagascar).
Last Saturday, SpaceX successfully conducted a Static Fire test on their rocket at Cape Canaveral, hoisting it vertical atop its launch pad and putting the vehicle and launch pad systems through a full countdown scenario which ended with firing of the rocket's nine Merlin 1D engines. The launch dress rehearsal, according to SpaceX, went as expected, although the company has yet to answer on whatever the issue is with the rocket's fairing.
Should SpaceX try for a launch attempt Jan. 6 the weather forecast shows another cold front sweeping across central Florida late Sunday and into Monday, which could be a problem even if SpaceX tries for a Monday launch attempt. The 45th Space Wing has not released an updated launch window or launch forecast as of yet.

Copyright © 2014 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

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SpaceX launch of Falcon 9 rocket delayed
By Kevin P. Connolly, Staff Writer
7:39 a.m. EST, January 3, 2014
The launch of the SpaceX unmanned Falcon 9 rocket has been delayed until at least Monday.
The rocket will carry a satellite that will improve communications in Southeast Asia and Africa, according to the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing at
The liftoff is set to happen roughly a month after the Hawthorne, Calif.,-based company's milestone launch from the Cape on Dec. 3.
That's when SpaceX put the company's first commercial satellite into orbit.
SpaceX has become a fixture on the Space Coast.
NASA said last month that it was awarding SpaceX the rights to negotiate for a long-term lease to run Launch Complex 39A.
It's one of the two huge pads that have been used for everything from Apollo to space shuttle rockets at Kennedy Space Center.
The announcement was a win for Internet billionaire-turned-space-entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Musk co-founded PayPal and then invested his money to found SpaceX.
LC-39A was first used to launch the unmanned Apollo 4 into space in 1967. Apollo 11, carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon, also blasted off from there. So did the first space shuttle flight, that of Columbia.
LC-39A was last used to launch the last shuttle mission — of Atlantis — on July 8, 2011.
SpaceX made history in May 2012 when it became the first private company to launch a spacecraft — its Dragon capsule taken to space by its Falcon 9 rocket — to the space station and back.
The company now is a NASA cargo-hauling contractor for the space station.
SpaceX also is in the running to become the first private company to launch a human spaceflight, carrying American astronauts to the space station late this decade.
Scott Powers and Susan Jacobson of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report
Copyright © 2014, Orlando Sentinel
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SpaceX delays Falcon 9 launch to next week
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
January 2, 2014
SpaceX has delayed the launch of a Thai communications satellite from Friday until at least Monday, according to the U.S. Air Force.

File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Credit: SpaceX

"We're not aware of anything that would cause a mission failure, but in order to ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance we decided to conduct additional inspections of the launch vehicle," said Emily Shanklin, a SpaceX spokesperson.
Liftoff is now set for no earlier than Monday, according to a brief statement emailed by a 45th Space Wing spokesperson. The Air Force's 45th Space Wing operates communications and safety systems for all launches out of Cape Canaveral.
Backup launch opportunities are available from Jan. 8 to Jan. 12. A launch would not be possible Tuesday because the SpaceX mission shares a tracking station in Bermuda with the Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket set for launch Tuesday from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on a resupply flight to the International Space Station.
The Falcon 9 rocket is slated to loft the Thaicom 6 communications satellite into a high-altitude egg-shaped supersynchronous transfer orbit.
The satellite, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., will provide broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific with improved television quality and additional high-definition channels, according to Thaicom. It carries 18 C-band and eight Ku-band transponders connected to three antennas.
SpaceX worked over the holidays to ready the Falcon 9 launch pad after the company's successful Dec. 3 launch of the SES 8 television broadcasting satellite, marking the Falcon 9's first mission to geostationary transfer orbit, the desired position for most communications spacecraft.
The launch of Thaicom 6 will duplicate the Dec. 3 flight, sending the 3.6-ton satellite to an orbit stretching more than 50,000 miles from Earth at its highest point. The mission will take about a half-hour from launch to spacecraft separation.

The Thaicom 6 mission patch. Credit: SpaceX

It will mark the eighth flight of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010, and the third launch of the launcher's newest version since its debut in September in a flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Hardware for Friday's launch, including the Falcon 9 rocket and Thaicom 6 satellite, was delivered to Cape Canaveral in late November and put in storage before the launch of SES 8 cleared room for technicians to begin fueling the spacecraft and assembling the two-stage booster.
On Dec. 28, ground crews put the rocket through a full countdown rehearsal. The launch team loaded propellants into the Falcon 9 rocket and ended the countdown with a brief ignition of the first stage's nine main engines. The rocket remained on the launch pad in the grip of hold-down clamps.
Technicians this week were expected to connect ordnance charges responsible for staging and fairing separation during the Falcon 9's ascent into orbit Friday evening. This week's milestones were also supposed to include the encapsulation of Thaicom 6 inside the Falcon 9's payload fairing and attachment of the spacecraft and fairing to the Falcon 9 rocket.
© 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.

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Private Cygnus Cargo Ship Launching Delivery Mission to Space Station Next Week
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer | January 03, 2014 07:00am ET
The Antares rocket carrying Orbital Sciences' first cargo-carrying Cygnus spacecraft rolls to its launch pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. ahead of launch. Liftoff is set for Jan. 7.
Credit: Orbital Sciences Corp. View full size image
A private spaceship is scheduled to launch on its first official cargo run to the International Space Station next week.
The unmanned Cygnus spacecraft, which is built by Virginia-based firm Orbital Sciences, is slated to blast off from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 7), in a launch that could be visible from large stretches of the U.S. East Coast, weather permitting.
If all goes according to plan, Cygnus will arrive at the station on Friday morning (Jan. 10), delivering 2,780 pounds (1,261 kilograms) of supplies and science experiments to the crewmembers of the orbiting lab's Expedition 38, NASA officials said.
A Cygnus spacecraft has visited the space station once before during a landmark demonstration flight last September. But Tuesday's launch will initiate the first of eight robotic supply runs that Orbital Sciences plans to make using Cygnus and its Antares rocket, under a $1.9 billion contract the company signed with NASA.
Tuesday's five-minute launch window opens at 1:55 p.m. EST (1855 GMT), Orbital Sciences officials said. According to viewing maps released by the company, the liftoff may be visible from as far south as South Carolina and as far north as Boston.
Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft is attached to its Antares rocket on Dec. 10, 2013 for a planned Dec. 19 launch to deliver cargo for the International Space Station.
Credit: Orbital Sciences
When the Cygnus arrives at the station next Friday, NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins and Japanese spaceflyer Koichi Wakata will snag it using the orbiting lab's huge robotic arm. The Cygnus will stay berthed to the space station for 42 days, Orbital Sciences officials said, at which point it will be filled with trash and depart, eventually burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
The mission was originally supposed to blast off last month, but it was delayed after a cooling pump module malfunctioned on Dec. 11. NASA decided to replace the pump module over the course of two holiday spacewalks, pushing the Cygnus launch into January.
Orbital Sciences isn't the only firm with a NASA cargo deal. SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract to fly 12 robotic supply missions using its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. The California-based company has already completed two of these missions, and the third is slated to blast off next month.

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