The latest in a series of mostly classified X-37B missions has come to a close which shattered previous records for longevity in flight. While permanent fixtures in space like the international space station, voyager probes, and multiple still operating satellites certainly have earlier birthdays than the US military’s X-37B, what none of those other craft can brag of is having been launched, returned to the earth, and then launched again in successive missions. With the successful completion of its sixth mission the reusable spaceplane has now flown over 1.3 billion miles and spent a total of 3,774 days in space where it conducts experiments for government and industry partners with the ability to return them to Earth for evaluation. Today I’ll talk about the accomplishments of this latest mission as well as all the other most space stories that YOU need to know about. Welcome to the Undiscovered Country.
Hello and welcome to the “Undiscovered Country”. I am your host Bryant A.M. Baker. Today, I will present the top 5 most important things happening in the world of space. Let’s get started.
1.
The BBC recently launched a documentary called The Elon Musk Show, which uses interviews with Musk's family, friends, former employees – and enemies – to explain his rise to become the world's richest man. There, Dolly Singh, who worked for SpaceX from 2008 to 2013 as a chief, stated that Elon Musk should be thought of as a combination of Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and John D. Rockefeller.
Singh said she believed Musk was smarter than Einstein.
"He learned everything about Tesla and Einstein. He has learned everything that they knew and he's trying to take it to the next level. . . . I think he's the closest thing that we have to that kind of a figure in our day and age."
Once Musk "has done building his legacy, it will be unquestionable that he is a combination of Einstein, Tesla, and Rockefeller.
Singh added: "When you set out to do something incredibly hard, there's gonna be a lot of hard days that go along with that."
The tech mogul's mother, Maye, was also featured in the documentary. She described him as a "genius," but despite many people admiring his achievements, she admitted that "no one wants to be him."
"With those companies, he gets a lot of hate," she said. And added in typical motherly fashion the plea to "Stop being mean to him."
Musk’s 76-year-old father, Errol, said Musk loved reading when he was younger, especially about Alexander The Great. He also had Napoleon's last will and testament in French.
Musk has come under increasing fire in the media as well as within general discourse due to an increase of presence in discussions of general politics rather than science and technology where he has thrived for so long. That criticism has only gotten worse with his purchase of Twitter.
I would like to think that this latest side of Mr. Musk is separate from the revolutionary man that has been such a key part of the evolution of the newest space age. But what do you think? Can one continue to admire the man without the politics? Or is it the world that is getting it wrong and do you predict that Mr. Musk will be the one smiling at the end just as with endeavors like SpaceX and Tesla? Be a part of the discussion by sending me your thoughts in the comments.
2.
China has successfully launched the Tianzhou-5 mission to the Tiangong Space Station for cargo resupply. The mission launched at 02:03 UTC on Friday, Nov. 11 on a Chang Zheng 7 (Long March 7) rocket and docked at the Tiangong Space Station (TSS) at just over three hours later. The launch was conducted from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, in China.
After the cargo craft entered orbit, it traveled two hours and seven minutes to rendezvous with the Tiangong space station and then docked with the massive station at 12:10 pm.
The maneuvers became the fastest rendezvous and docking ever, replacing the old record set by Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-17 on Oct 14, 2020. That flight took three hours and three minutes from its liftoff to rendezvous and connect with the International Space Station. The Chinese manned space agency said the fast rendezvous and docking are key to establishing the capability to transport supplies to the space station in an emergency.
China's Tianzhou cargo spacecraft weigh about 29,760 pounds, with a cargo capacity of roughly 15,200 pounds..
This cargo will be used to support the Shenzhou-15 mission, which is planned to launch on Nov. 29, 2022. The current crew of the station, under the leadership of crew commander Chen Dong, will stay in space until December, before returning to Earth on the Shenzhou spacecraft. The crew for the Shenzhou-15 mission has not been announced yet but will feature three taikonauts from the People’s Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC).
The payload for this mission included the Macao Student Science Satellite No.1, developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)
China launched two modules in recent months to join the already-orbiting Tianhe core module. These major missions marked the completion of the three-module, T-shaped Tiangong space station. It is currently hosting the three Shenzhou 14 astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe.
Tiangong is about 20% as massive as the International Space Station (ISS). China intends to keep Tiangong occupied and operational for at least decade, meaning it should outlast the ISS and possibly become the only space station in orbit above Earth.
Less than four hours before the Tianzhou-5 mission, a Chang Zheng 6A was launched from Taiyuan. The payload for this mission was the Yunhai-3 satellite, which will conduct atmospheric and environmental research. Yunhai-3 went to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) and further details about the payload were not released. But the mission was confirmed a success.
These were flights 50 and 51 from China this year. China is only five more launches away from equaling their 2021 record of 56 launches. If the current pace and rumored manifests hold, this has a high chance of happening.
Both the multiple launches in quick succession as well as the incredibly fast rendezvous time are yet additional reasons to believe that China’s space capabilities and know-how are growing at incredibly fast rates and are deserving of respect.
https://www.space.com/china-launches-tianzhou-5-mission-tiangong-space-station
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/11/tianzhou-5-and-yunhai-3/
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinas_cargo_spacecraft_sets_new_world_record_999.html
3.
Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly has won re-election to the United States Senate. Mark Kelly, an incumbent Democratic senator from Arizona, defeated his Republican opponent Blake Masters.
Kelly was first elected to the Senate in 2020, becoming just the fourth former astronaut ever to win a seat in Congress. In that race, Kelly defeated Republican Martha McSally, whom Arizona's governor had appointed after longtime senator John McCain died in 2018.
Kelly joined NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1996, in the same class as his twin brother, Scott. Mark Kelly spent a total of 54 days off Earth across four space shuttle missions, the last of which flew in 2011.
He retired from NASA that same year but played a key role in Scott's epic 11-month mission aboard the International Space Station, which ran from late March 2015 to early March 2016.
Scott Kelly retired from NASA in April 2016, shortly after the mission wrapped up.
One surprising thing that has been missing from Mr. Kelly’s time in the senate thus far, however, has been a strong stance on space-related policies despite his presence on the senate armed services committee. I hope that NASA and space will soon play a larger role in his focus. But what do you think citizens? Let me know in the comments.
https://www.space.com/former-astronaut-mark-kelly-re-elected-us-senate
4.
The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $72 million contract to Advanced Space LLC to demonstrate space situational awareness, object detection and tracking in the region of the Moon, supporting a resurgence of interest in lunar exploration and development across civil, commercial and international space agencies.
AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate awarded the contract to support the lab’s Oracle spacecraft program, previously called the Cislunar Highway Patrol System, or CHPS. The project has been renamed Oracle after the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece. The high priestess of the Oracle would channel the knowledge of Apollo and provide wisdom and foresight to those with whom she would consult.
Dr. James Frith, Oracle’s principal investigator stated that “Our primary goals for the program are to advance techniques to detect previously unknown objects through search and discovery, to detect small or distant objects, and to study spacecraft positioning and navigation in the XGEO realm.” XGEO refers to the space beyond geosynchronous orbit out to the Moon.
Oracle will operate in the vicinity of the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 1, at a range of about 320,000 kilometers from Earth.
Dr. Frith further stated that “Oracle is the culmination of years of ongoing research at AFRL into how to detect and track objects in XGEO given the vast distances, challenges of lunar and solar exclusion, and complexity introduced by the Moon’s gravity.”
I would like to think that contracts like these are about to see another boom in economic feasibility as interest, especially interest from the US federal government and China, begins to hone in on the lunar environment. But what do you think? Is it still too early to tell? Or is this the next big thing?
5.
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (OTV-6), the U.S. Space Force’s unmanned, reusable spaceplane, successfully deorbited and landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Nov. 12, 2022, at 05:22 a.m. The winged vehicle had spent 908 days in orbit — more than four months longer than the previous 780 day X-37B flight.
The space plane is a derivative of the X-37A designed by NASA in the late 1990s to deploy from the Space Shuttle. The program later was transferred to the Defense Department.
The X-37B resembles NASA's now-retired space shuttle but is much smaller, measuring just 29 feet from nose to tail. The space shuttle was 122 feet long and was piloted — another key difference, as the X-37B is autonomous.
OTV -6 was the first mission to introduce a service module - a ring attached to the rear of the vehicle expanding the number of experiments that can be hosted during a mission. Jim Chilton, senior vice president at Boeing Space and Launch stated that "With the service module added, this was the most we've ever carried to orbit on the X-37B, and we're proud to have been able to prove out this new and flexible capability for the government and its industry partners.”
The service module successfully separated from the OTV before landing, which is a necessary activity due to the aerodynamic forces experienced by the X-37B vehicle upon re-entry. In the coming weeks, the service module will be disposed of in accordance with best practices.
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said, “The deliberate manner in which we conduct on-orbit operations-to include the service module disposal-speaks to the United States' commitment to safe and responsible space practices, particularly as the issue of growing orbital debris threatens to impact global space operations.” This statement was likely made to deliberately compare these actions to those of China who recently received backlash for the manner in which a part of their Long March 5 rocket performed an uncontrolled reentry.
Gen. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations for the space force stated that “This mission highlights the Space Force's focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Air Force (DAF).”
The OTV-6 mission hosted the Naval Research Laboratory's Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna Module. This experiment successfully harnessed solar rays outside of Earth's atmosphere and aimed to transmit power to the ground in the form of radio frequency microwave energy.
Another NASA experiment aims to investigate the effect of long-duration space exposure on seeds. Scientists are interested in the seeds’ resistance and susceptibility to space environment-unique stresses, notably radiation. The seeds experiment will inform space crop production for future interplanetary missions and the establishment of permanently inhabited bases in space.
Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen, DAF Rapid Capabilities Office’s X-37B Program Director stated that “The X-37B continues to push the boundaries of experimentation, enabled by an elite government and industry team behind the scenes. . . . The ability to conduct on-orbit experiments and bring them home safely for in-depth analysis on the ground has proven valuable for the Department of the Air Force and scientific community. The addition of the service module on OTV-6 allowed us to host more experiments than ever before.”
https://www.space.com/space-force-x-37b-space-plane-otv-6-mission-ends
http://parabolicarc.wpengine.com/2022/11/13/boeing-x-37b-lands-in-florida-after-908-day-mission/
Thank you for joining me. Links to all the stories are in the description. The world of Space law, policy and business is changing every day. If you missed what happened yesterday, be sure to check out the video I did covering it. I would love to hear your thoughts on everything I talked about here today? I’ll see you again next time.
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