Category: ISS
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Now comes SpaceX’s true test
This morning SpaceX suffered the first failure of their Falcon 9 rocket as it explode two minutes into the CRS-7 mission. Initial data from Elon Musk indicates that an over-pressure event happened on the second stage. There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause. — Elon Musk…
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SpaceX loses CRS-7 mission to ISS
This morning SpaceX launched their latest mission to the International Space Station, unfortunately during the first stage flight the rocket exploded causing lost of Falcon, Dragon and the cargo it was carrying Among the cargo that Dragon was carrying was the first of two International Docking Adapters for the station which will be used…
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NASA awards first Commercial Crew Flight Contract
This week NASA announced that it had awarded Boeing the first Commercial Crew flight contract under the CCtCap program. However it is important to realize that while the contract has been awarded, as NASA started in the press release. Determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at…
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PMM relocated on ISS
This morning the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 moved the Permanent Multipurpose Module from the Unity module to the Tranquility module. The module which was previously flown as a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) aboard the Space Shuttle was left at the station in February 2011 to provide additional storage space. The was moved to continue the…
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And it gets worse – Progress ISS Re-boost also failed
Just as we thought things couldn’t get worse for Russia we were wrong. The planned International Space Station re-boost by the Progress M-26M failed when the engines on the spacecraft failed to start. The spacecraft which has been docked at the station since 17th February 2015 was supposed to raise the orbit of the station…
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Why we need multiple providers for Space Access
It became clear again this week why it is critical that we have multiple providers to access Space. With the Progress 59 (M-27M) failure recently the International Partners involved in the ISS have now had to rescheduled several future flights to accommodate the loss of the vehicle and allow time for the investigation into the loss…
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Progress 59 (M-27M) Failure
While the Progress 59 (M-27M) spacecraft is still in orbit, Russian Mission Control have declared that it cannot be recovered, they have tried repeatedly to send commands to the vehicle in an attempt to control the rapid spinning but as several reports have stated they have had no luck. In addition orbital tracking shows at least…
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Will Progress failure have Impact on ISS re-supply
With what potentially looks like a loss of mission for Progress M-27M questions will once again arise as to the impact on re-supply to the International Space Station. At present the mission hasn’t been declared lost however the longer the vehicle spins out of control the more likely it is that they will not be…
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Progress 59 Out of Control
Following the successful launch yesterday morning mission control has not been able to regain control of the progress M-27M vehicle which at one point was seen spinning out of control on the third pass of ground stations. Mission control have informed the station that there will be no docking attempt on Thursday which was the backup…
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Progress 59 Launches
Russia launched the next Progress re-supply vehicle to the International Space Station early this morning the launch and deploy to orbit was successful, however the Progress M-27M spacecraft suffered a glitch once in orbit resulting in mission control deciding to use the two day flight plan instead of the six hour which had become common practice.…