Russia’s Soyuz rockets were used to launch OneWeb satellites from French Guiana.
The Russian space agency may be willing to return 36 satellites it’s been keeping hostage in Kazakhstan in exchange for parts of its Soyuz rockets that are being held in French Guiana.
According to a report by Russian Space Web, French aerospace company Arianespace might be looking into a deal with Roscosmos to swap components of the Russian Soyuz rocket for 36 OneWeb satellites that have been held at its Kazakhstan launch site since March. Roscosmos’s newly appointed head Yuri Borisov is reportedly open to negotiations with Arianespace, a source told Russian Space Web.
Arianespace and OneWeb did not immediately respond to our request for confirmations of the Russian Space Web report. We’ll update this post should we hear back.
Under the helm of former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, the space agency severed ties with Europe in retaliation for Western-imposed sanctions against Russia. That included an ongoing deal it had with British company OneWeb to launch its internet satellites to orbit aboard the Soyuz rockets. OneWeb refused to agree to a list of unreasonable demands put forward by Roscosmos in March, prompting Russia to hold on to the company’s 36 satellites and store them indefinitely at its launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. OneWeb eventually forged new partnerships with SpaceX and India’s space agency to launch its remaining satellites to orbit, but its 36 lonesome satellites remained out of reach.
Roscosmos also halted its cooperation with Europe on Soyuz rocket launches from French Guiana and withdrew 87 employees from the launch site. But with Russian involvement in French Guiana terminated, the Soyuz rocket components were left abandoned, as Anatoly Zak writes at Russian Space Web:
On orders from Roskosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, dozens of Russian specialists were abruptly withdrawn from French Guiana in early March 2022, leaving behind the rocket stages, containers with propellant, support hardware and documentation. The Paris-based Arianespace company, which contracted Roskosmos to provide and support Soyuz launches with European and most non-Russian commercial payloads, took custody of the stored equipment until its expected return to Russia. However, due to the severe breakdown in diplomatic relations and economic activities between Europe and Moscow, the Russian hardware remained in French Guiana for the rest of 2022.
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With Russia gone from French Guiana, the European Space Agency is turning to U.S. company SpaceX to launch its upcoming Euclid telescope to orbit instead of launching it on board a Soyuz rocket.
Following Rogozin’s dismissal from his position at Roscosmos, the space agency could be taking a more diplomatic approach to its space partnerships. But it could still take some time. Russian Space Web’s source said some logistical hurdles still need to be addressed, which are causing negotiations to advance at a slow pace. For example, Russian specialists would need to obtain new visas to enter French Guiana and retrieve the rocket parts, a process made more difficult on account of Russia’s severed ties with Europe.
The previous year was tumultuous for both the Russian and European space industry; Russia lost key space partners while Europe scrambled to find ways of reaching orbit without access to Soyuz rockets. Whether or not this will change this year remains to be seen, but an ongoing swap agreement may be a good step for now.
More: Europe Has Few Options to Reach Space After Vega-C Rocket Crash
The Vega-C rocket lifting off from its launch pad at the Kourou space base, French Guiana, December 21, 2022.Photo: JM Guillon (AP)
Arianespace’s medium-lift Vega-C rocket failed to reach orbit on its second mission, resulting in the destruction of the two satellites on board.
The rocket, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), built by Italian company Avio, and operated by Arianespace, took off on Tuesday at 8:47 p.m. ET from the Kourou space base in French Guiana, carrying the Neo 5 and Neo 6 satellites for for Airbus’ Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation.
The rocket’s first stage separated successfully from the second stage, but trouble ensued shortly thereafter. Around two minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage, called the Zefiro 40, experienced a catastrophic anomaly, Arianespace announced on Twitter.
“Following the nominal ignition of the second stage’s (Zefiro 40) engine around 144 seconds after lift-off, a decrease in the pressure was observed leading to the premature end of the mission,” Arianespace wrote in a statement.
“After this underpressure, we have observed the deviation of the trajectory and very strong anomalies, so unfortunately we can say that the mission is lost,” Stéphane Israël, chief executive of Arianespace, said on the launch webcast, as reported by SpaceNews. Per standard procedures, the rocket was ordered to self-destruct.
The satellites on board were meant to complete Airbus’ six-satellite constellation, providing high-resolution imagery of Earth.
Arianespace and ESA have appointed an independent inquiry commission to analyze the reason for the rocket’s failure and determine what needs to be done before Vega-C can resume flights, according to an Arianespace statement.
Vega-C was originally scheduled to launch on November 24, but the mission was delayed due to faulty equipment in the payload fairing separation system. The launch system hasn’t had the best track record, with the latest incident marking the third time a Vega rocket has suffered a mission failure in the last eight liftoffs, according to the BBC. In November 2020, a Vega rocket failed eight minutes into the mission, the result of human error.
More on this story: Vega Rocket Failure Apparently Caused by Human Error
It’s a disappointing follow-up to Vega-C’s debut this summer. On July 13, Vega-C successfully completed its inaugural flight, delivering the Italian Space Agency’s LARES-2 to orbit as its primary payload. Vega-C is a more powerful successor to the Vega launcher, which was in operation for 10 years. Vega-C is fitted with a more powerful first and second stage, along with an improved re-ignitable upper stage.
Tuesday’s mission marked the first time Vega-C carried a commercial payload, so it is unfortunate that the mission ended in failure. ESA is counting on Vega-C to deliver European payloads to orbit and maintain its presence in the growing space industry by virtue of possessing its own launch vehicle.
ESA is also getting ready to debut Ariane 6, the next-generation launcher to follow Ariane 5. Ariane 6 was originally slated for launch in 2020, but has suffered numerous delays, and is now scheduled to fly in 2023. “With Vega-C and Ariane 6, Europe will have a flexible, independent solution for a fast-changing launch market,” Daniel Neuenschwande, ESA’s director of Space Transportation, said in a statement in June.
Hopefully ESA can recover from the mission failure and get Vega-C back on track.
More: We Can’t Wait for These Futuristic Rockets to Finally Blast Off
Artist’s conception of SUSIE performing a vertical landing (video sped 2.5 times). Gif: ArianeGroup/Gizmodo
French aerospace company ArianeGroup has revealed a concept for a reusable upper stage spacecraft that would be capable of delivering heavy payloads to space and carry out crewed missions before landing vertically back on Earth.
SUSIE, short for Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration, was introduced to the world at the International Astronautical Congress held in Paris from September 18 to 22. The fully reusable upper stage could eventually serve as an automated freighter and payload transporter, as well as a spacecraft for crewed missions carrying a crew of up to five astronauts. SUSIE remains a concept for now, but if realized, the spacecraft would support various European space endeavours for years to come.
Reusability is fast becoming a necessity in modern spaceflight, as launch providers work to keep costs down. “It is our industrial duty to contribute to this ambition and offer European decision-makers smart and ambitious technological solutions capable of contributing to independent access to space, and also to open the door to European space exploration and address commercial and institutional needs for services in space over the coming decades,” Morena Bernardini, head of strategy and innovation at ArianeGroup, said in a statement.
Europe’s private space industry has fallen a bit behind its American counterparts in terms of developing reusable vehicles. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is a reusable two-stage rocket that has flown to space nearly 200 times, while the company’s reusable Dragon capsules, whether for cargo or crews, are now in steady circulation. Boeing’s Starliner, a reusable crew capsule, recently completed its first uncrewed end-to-end test flight (although it was a less-than-perfect mission). Reusable launchers and vehicles aren’t so much the future as they are the present.
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Artist’s conception of SUSIE shortly after detaching from the second stage. Screenshot: Ariane Group
SUSIE will initially launch onboard the company’s heavy-lift Ariane 6 vehicle, which is scheduled for its inaugural flight in 2023. The large upper stage could be used to transport all sorts of payloads to orbit and even assist in the orbital construction of large infrastructure, such as space stations. For its return trip home, the spacecraft could be packed with upwards of 14,000 pounds (7 tons) of cargo and supplies.
“Missions made possible by SUSIE include towing, inspecting and upgrading satellites and other payloads, and supplying fuel, food, and equipment to space stations. It will also be able to carry out crew changeovers and facilitate human in-orbit activities,” ArianeGroup claimed in its statement. “It will also help reduce orbital debris and assist with removing or deorbiting end-of-life satellites.” SUSIE is meant to be entirely reusable and is designed to make a soft, vertical landing back on Earth. The upper stage would also be equipped with an abort safety system that covers the entire mission from liftoff to landing.
Aside from SUSIE, ArianeGroup is designing new heavy-lift reusable launchers as part of a proposal for the European Space Agency (ESA) for its NESTS (New European Space Transportation Solutions) initiative. The heavy-lift launchers could later be used to carry SUSIE to orbit. Europe may be late to the game, but it’s planning a solid entry into the business of reusable space vehicles.
More: Arianespace Reaches Deal With OneWeb, Setting Stage for Resumption of Suspended Launches
Engineers activating the James Webb Space Telescope decided Sunday to hold off tightening the observatory’s critical sunshade to allow more time to check out the performance of its power systems and overall behavior now that several major deployments are complete.
“Nothing we can learn from simulations on the ground is as good as analyzing the observatory when it’s up and running,” Bill Ochs, the Webb project manager, said in a NASA blog post Sunday. “Now is the time … to learn everything we can about its baseline operations. Then we will take the next steps.”
NASA is not providing “live” coverage of Webb’s deployments and has not held a media briefing since the telescope’s launch on Christmas Day. But the latest blog post said engineers wanted to more thoroughly characterize the telescope’s performance now that it’s finally in space while making sure motors needed for sunshade tensioning are at the “optimal” temperatures before proceeding.
No technical details were provided, but the two-day sunshade tensioning process could begin as early as Monday.
A frame from a NASA animation showing the James Webb Space Telescope’s current state, with its five-layer sunshield deployed but not yet pulled taut.
NASA
Since its launch on Christmas Day, Webb has successfully fine-tuned its trajectory with two precision thruster firings, deployed its critical solar panel, unlimbered the high-gain antenna it will use to relay science data back to Earth and extended a “momentum flap” to counteract the destabilizing pressure of the solar wind.
It’s also elevated its primary mirror and science instruments by about four feet to further isolate them from the heat generated by on-board electronics and other systems.
On Friday, two telescoping booms extended to either side of two pallets, pulling out and unfolding Webb’s tennis court-size sunshade to kick off one of the most complex procedures in the observatory’s initial activation.
Once the sunshade is properly tensioned, gaps between each layer will help dissipate heat, passively cooling Webb to within a few degrees of absolute zero, required for the observatory to detect infrared light from the first stars and galaxies to form in the aftermath of the Big Bang.
NASA
Made up of five hair-thin Kapton layers, the sunshade is critical to Webb’s goal of capturing faint light from the first stars and galaxies to light up in the wake of the Big Bang birth of the cosmos nearly 14 billion years ago.
To register that ancient radiation, now stretched out into the infrared by the expansion of space itself, Webb must be chilled to within 50 degrees of absolute zero, or nearly 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The light- and heat-blocking shield needed to do that, which was folded up for launch like a skydiver’s parachute, is in the process of being extracted.
The two pallets holding the sunshade were deployed and locked in place Tuesday, one on either side of Webb’s 21.3-foot primary mirror. On Thursday, protective covers were commanded to roll off each pallet, exposing the still-folded sunshade membranes to space.
The actual deployment began Friday when the two telescoping booms at right angles to the pallets began extending, one at a time, slowly pulling out both sides of the shield and unfolding the membranes in the process.
That work started later than expected to give engineers time to confirm 107 membrane retention devices, used to hold the folded layers in place during launch, had worked as required.
They did, and with both booms extended to give the sunshade its iconic kite-like shape, all five layers must now be pulled taut using motor-driven cables running through scores of pulleys. Tensioning is required to produce a gap between each layer, providing space for excess heat to migrate outward to the sides.
Because the boom extension work took longer than expected, mission managers put tensioning on hold Saturday to give the team a chance to catch its collective breath. Another delay was ordered Sunday, in part to make sure the motors needed for the shade’s full extraction were at the required temperatures.
“We’ve spent 20 years on the ground with Webb, designing, developing and testing,” said Mike Menzel, Webb’s lead systems engineer. “We’ve had a week to see how the observatory actually behaves in space. It’s not uncommon to learn certain characteristics of your spacecraft once you’re in flight. That’s what we’re doing right now.
“So far, the major deployments we’ve executed have gone about as smoothly as we could have hoped for. But we want to take our time and understand everything we can about the observatory before moving forward.”
William Harwood
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”
Conceptual image of a Starship launch involving both stages of the reusable system.Image: SpaceX
Humanity’s reach into space has never been greater, with 2022 promising to be one of the most thrilling yet. Here are the space stories we’ll be watching in the coming months.
The inaugural flight of NASA’s Space Launch System
One of the most anticipated events of the year happens next spring, or so we hope. NASA will attempt the inaugural launch of its 332-foot-tall (101 meters) SLS rocket, effectively kickstarting the Artemis era. It’ll be an impressive sight, as the rocket will exert 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff—15% more than NASA’s Saturn V rocket. For this, the Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft will travel 280,000 miles (450,000 km) to lunar orbit and promptly return to Earth.
Conceptual image showing an SLS launch. Image: NASA
Launch windows for Artemis one occur in mid-March and mid-April. A successful launch of SLS will set the stage for Artemis 2 (scheduled for 2023), in which a crewed Orion capsule will travel around the Moon and back (basically a repeat of Artemis 1, but with astronauts), and Artemis 3 (scheduled for no earlier than 2025), in which NASA astronauts will land on the Moon for the first time since 1972.
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The inaugural orbital flight of SpaceX’s Starship
SpaceX will also attempt the launch of an oversized rocket, likely in either January or February. The reusable Starship megarocket will consist of the Super Heavy Booster 4 and Starship prototype SN20, which, at a combined 394 feet (120 meters) in height, will be the tallest rocket ever built. Launching from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, the rocket will enter Earth orbit but complete less than full rotation of the planet. The booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the second stage will splash down in the Pacific near Hawaii.
The stacking of a Starship upper stage onto a Super Heavy. Photo: SpaceX
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said there’s “a lot of risk associated with this first launch,” and he’s candidly predicting a failure. That said, he believes a Starship rocket will reach orbit in 2022 and that upwards of 12 Starship launches could take place over the course of the year. Progress will be important, as SpaceX is developing the rocket to serve as the landing craft for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions on the Moon.
Other rockets expected to make their maiden flights in 2022 include Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, and Mitsubishi’s H3.
The second uncrewed test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner
Artist’s concept of a Boeing CST-100 Starliner in Earth orbit. Image: NASA/Boeing
Speaking of pressure, all eyes will be on Boeing to see if the beleaguered company will finally make progress with its CST-100 Starliner. Boeing is developing the capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, but it’s now years behind schedule. A major setback occurred in October 2021, when Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) had to be scrubbed after 13 of 24 oxidizer valves in the spacecraft’s propulsion system failed to open. The inaugural test of Starliner in 2019 was a total mess, making this latest incident all the more embarrassing. Boeing is now seeking to launch Starliner in May 2022, “pending spacecraft readiness and space station availability,” according to NASA.
A helicopter will attempt to catch a falling rocket booster
Photo of the rocket retrieval test done in April 2020. Image: Rocket Lab
In 2022, aerospace manufacturer Rocket Lab will attempt to catch a falling Electron rocket booster mid-air and then return it to the mainland for reuse (Rocket Lab performed a successful test of this idea in April 2020). A parachute system will slow the booster during its descent, while a special engagement line on the helicopter will enable it to capture and secure the booster. An auxiliary fuel tank will be added to the helicopter, allowing for an extended journey. Rocket Lab expects to perform this daring catch during the first half of 2022.
To the Moon!!
No humans will reach the Moon in 2022, but the same cannot be said for landers and robots, with the United States, Russia, India, and Japan all preparing for lunar missions in the coming year.
Conceptual image of the Peregrine lander. Image: NASA
Pittsburgh-based Astrobiotic is planning to send its Peregrine Lunar Lander to the Moon at some point in 2022. The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which the space agency contracts with commercial partners. The lander, equipped with 14 payloads of various types, will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Centaur rocket.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines, another CLPS partner, is currently planning to send its Nova-C lander to the Moon, which it expects to do during the first half of the year with the lift coming from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Nova-C will deliver 220 pounds (100 kg) worth of goods to the lunar surface.
In July 2019, India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission failed to safely deliver the Vikram lander to the lunar surface. The Indian Space Research Organization will try again during the third quarter of 2022 in what will hopefully be a successful sequel—the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Should India pull it off, it’ll become just the fourth country to successfully land a probe on the Moon (the others being the United States, Russia, and China).
In July 2022, Russia will be sending its Luna 25 lander, also known as the Luna-Glob-Lander, to the southern polar region of the Moon. The purpose of the mission is to analyze the “composition of the polar regolith, and to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere,” according to NASA.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) will be Japan’s first mission to the Moon. The purpose of SLIM is to test precision lunar landing capabilities, such as avoiding craters and selecting optimal locations for touchdown. The probe, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is expected to launch at some point in 2022 and land near the Marius Hills Hole—a lunar lava tube entrance.
Another rover for the Red Planet
The European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin rover, along with Russia’s Kazachok lander, is scheduled to launch on September 29. Once at Mars, the Rosalind Franklin will collect surface samples and crush them into a fine powder. Its onboard laboratory will then perform detailed chemical, spectral, and physical analyses. The rover’s navigational capabilities should allow it to travel around 328 feet (100 meters) every Martian day, or sol.
Conceptual image of the Rosalind Franklin rover. Image: ESA
Meanwhile, we can expect new insights from NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers (and perhaps more flights of the Ingenuity helicopter), and also China’s Zhurong rover. NASA’s InSight mission will continue to operate in 2022, but this is likely to be its final year, as the stationary lander is struggling to collect solar power.
Space probes probing space
In August, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will attempt to deliver NASA’s Psyche probe to space. Its destination is 16 Psyche—a metallic asteroid containing copious amounts of nickel-iron. The asteroid “offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets,” according to NASA. The mission could shed new light on the composition and age of Psyche’s surface, and the conditions under which it formed. Data from the probe will also be used to create a detailed map of the asteroid’s surface. The Psyche probe is expected to reach the asteroid in January 2026.
Conceptual image of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. Illustration: NASA
The same launch of the Falcon Heavy will deliver two smallsats for NASA, but they’re headed elsewhere. Known as the Janus project, the dual spacecraft will explore two binary asteroids, (175706) 1996 FG3 and (35107) 1991 VH. Daniel Scheeres, the principal investigator of the project and an astronomer at the University of Colorado, says binary asteroids “are one class of objects for which we don’t have high-resolution scientific data,” as all existing observations come from ground telescopes, “which don’t give you as much detail as being up close.” Janus, in addition to furthering our understanding of the early solar system, could also inform planetary defense measures. It’ll take four years for the probes to reach their destinations.
Conceptual images of the Janus dual-spacecraft. Image: Lockheed Martin
Probes already launched to space will continue to do their work. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will perform a close fly-by of Jupiter’s moon Europa on September 29, after which time its orbital period around the gas giant will be reduced from 43 to 38 days. The Parker Solar Probe, also managed by NASA, will perform four flybys of the Sun in 2022, as it gets increasingly closer to our host star.
In addition, the $10 billion Webb Space Telescope, set to launch on Christmas Day 2021, will travel to its special spot in space—Lagrange Point 2 (an area of space where gravity from the Sun and Earth balance the orbital motion of an object). Once at L2, and after Webb’s instruments are successfully deployed, we’ll finally get to see Webb’s first view of the cosmos.
Astronomical happenings
No total solar eclipse will happen in 2022, but there will be two partial solar eclipses. The first happens on April 30, when the partial eclipse will be visible from the southern portions of South America, and the second will occur on October 25 and be visible to skywatchers in Europe and parts of northern Africa (weather permitting, of course).
A partial lunar eclipse on May 15/16 will be visible in parts of North America and all of South America, while a partial lunar eclipse on November 7/8 will appear primarily over the Pacific Ocean, with western parts of North America and eastern Asia also catching a glimpse.
So buckle up and grab some kool-aid—looks like we’ve got another amazing year in space ahead.
Conceptual image showing the launch of the Webb telescope, with the fairing falling away. Image: ESA/D. Ducros
The Webb Space Telescope, after years of delays, has finally reached the launch pad. It’s a momentous occasion, but the observatory still needs to go through a complex and unprecedented commissioning process that will require a nerve-wracking six months to complete. The hard part, it would seem, is still to come.
Developed by the American, European, and Canadian space agencies, and with help from private contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Webb has been described as the “most complex and powerful telescope ever built.” With its infrared capabilities, Webb will hunt for ancient stars and galaxies, study the formation of stars and exoplanets, and search for life in the Milky Way. The space telescope has the potential to literally and figuratively transform our view of the cosmos and our understanding of our place in it.
Excitement for this mission is accentuated by the fact that Webb was supposed to go up in 2007, but a major redesign having to do with its sunshield, cost overruns that nearly doubled the original quote, ongoing technical hurdles, extensive testing, issues with the chosen launch vehicle—pauses to catch breath—the covid-19 pandemic, and problems during processing at the Guiana Space Center all conspired to create the current launch date of December 25, 2021 (liftoff is currently scheduled for between 7:20 and 7:52 a.m. EST on Christmas Day).
Broad overview of the six-month commissioning phase. Graphic: NASA
The heavy lifting, so to speak, seems to be behind us, but plenty of steps remain before Webb can be declared fully operational. Now, I can’t possibly account for everything that could possibly go wrong from now until then, but I can go over some key stages, and even some technological gadgetry, that could create problems over the next six months.
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Before we get to that, however, I want to talk about the Ariane 5 rocket that will take Webb to space. The Arianespace rocket is super reliable, but a prior technical issue is making me a little nervous about the upcoming launch. On two separate occasions in 2020, the Ariane 5 rocket experienced unexpected vehicle accelerations during fairing separation. Arianespace has since corrected the issue, and everything seems good to go, but I don’t love that this happened. This will make me a little extra nervous on Christmas morning as I sip on my eggnog and watch the launch.
A catastrophic rocket failure notwithstanding (heaven forbid), the launch could produce damaging vibrations. That said, Webb is specifically designed to tolerate the expected shaking. Back in 2016, vibrations testing revealed a problem with the tie-downs, or “launch restraint mechanisms,” that will hold the telescope’s mirror wings. The many acoustic and vibration tests done on the 14,300-pound instrument should have ruled this out, among other potential problems, but we won’t know until Webb finally gets to space.
As Alison Nordt, Lockheed Martin space science and instrumentation director, explained in an email, Webb doesn’t just have to survive launch—it also needs to survive its rude introduction to space.
“I am of course very excited for the JWST launch, and the stakes are definitely high,” said Nordt. “The space environment, including launch, presents many differences from the ground—things like launch loads (vibration and acoustics), vacuum (lack of air), temperature extremes (especially for Webb going to about -400°F), and weightlessness,” which can’t necessarily be tested on the ground.
The launch sequence itself should be a routine affair, with the Ariane’s side boosters falling away a few minutes after blast off, followed by the jettisoning of the payload fairing. The rocket’s lower stage will continue to provide the needed thrust, but once out of fuel it too will need to fall away, allowing the upper stage to take over. The spacecraft must then perform a series of oscillation maneuvers to prevent solar radiation from blasting a single side of the now-exposed telescope. The upper stage will be jettisoned around 27 minutes after launch, at which time Webb will be independent and under its own power.
Launches always involve an element of risk, but in this case, it’s all the stuff that will happen next that could create the biggest problems. With more folds than an origami paper sculpture, the space telescope must open up, give out a metaphorical yawn, and unfurl its many components.
The spacecraft will deploy its solar panels around 33 minutes into the mission “so that Webb can start making electricity from sunshine and stop draining its battery,” as NASA writes in the Webb FAQ. “Webb will quickly establish its ability to orient itself and ‘fly’ in space.” Webb’s high gain antenna will be deployed at this time as well, in order to “enable the highest available rates of data communication as early as practical,” according to NASA.
Graphic showing Webb’s location in the second Lagrange point (not to scale). Graphic: NASA
Deploying the solar arrays will be a time-sensitive affair, but so too will be the first trajectory correction. Unlike Hubble, which works in low Earth orbit, Webb will conduct its business in the second Lagrange point, or L2. This sweet spot, situated between Earth and the Sun, is highly stable, which means Webb won’t have to use an excessive amount of fuel to stay in position. L2 is located around 1 million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth, so it will take Webb a full month to get there, during which time the spacecraft will need to make some course corrections. The first, known as MCC-1a, will happen some 12.5 hours into the mission.
Webb’s first day in space sounds intense, but the following weeks and months will likewise involve some very important steps, any one of which could jeopardize the mission, as SpaceNews explains:
Those initial deployments, though, are among the most critical, and the riskiest. At a November briefing, Mike Menzel, JWST lead mission systems engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said there are 344 single-point failures in the spacecraft, 80% of which are associated with deployment mechanisms. “When you have a release mechanism, it’s hard to put full redundancy into that,” he said.
The sunshield, for example, includes 140 release mechanisms, 70 hinge assemblies, eight deployment motors, about 400 pulleys and 90 cables that are a total of 400 meters long, said Krystal Puga, JWST spacecraft systems engineer at Northrop Grumman, during that November briefing.
The process of deploying the telescope’s five-layer sunshield will begin three days after launch. Being an infrared telescope, Webb needs this shield to minimize potential interference; the telescope is designed to detect sources of heat, so the last thing scientists need is to be picking up heat coming off its own instruments. In the week following launch, “the most critical operations will be all the sunshield deployments and tensioning of the layers,” Nordt told Gizmodo. “The sunshield deployment is causing the most discussion in part because it was the hardest system to test-like-you-fly.” Other deployments, like the rolling out of Webb’s radiators, will take place at the same time.
By week two, the team should be wrapping up the deployments, including the unfolding and latching of the secondary mirror tripod, the rotating and latching of the two primary mirror wings, and the unlocking of the primary mirror segments. Full deployment of the telescope should be completed around 13 days into the mission. The effects of the sunshade should start to become apparent around this time, with the scientific instruments undergoing rapid cooling.
“The Webb team has done everything they possibly could to test everything to ensure success, and I know we will all breathe a bit easier once all the deployments are complete and we can move on to alignments,” said Nordt.
Webb’s four science instruments. Graphic: NASA
The end of the first month will involve one final course correction (on day 29) and the insertion of Webb into its L2 orbit. Excitingly, controllers will then power up the observatory’s four scientific instruments: the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS-NIRISS).
“Once all those deployments are complete, the next step in commissioning is the one I am personally most excited for: turning on the NIRCam to start the meticulous process of aligning the 18 primary mirror segments,” said Nordt.
To start this process of fine-tuning the mirrors, “126 extremely precise actuators on the backside of the mirrors will position and subtly bend or flex each mirror into a specific prescription, a process that will take months,” NASA says. NIRCam can sense distortions in incoming light with great precision, said Nordt, and this data will allow the team in control of the individual mirror segments to “translate, rotate and change their curvature accordingly.” By the end of this alignment process, the 18 individual segments will serve as a single primary mirror. “So as you can imagine, those measurements from NIRCam have to be exactly correct in order for all this to work,” Nordt explained.
These initial optics checkouts and telescope alignments will happen during months two through four. Months five and six will involve final calibrations and the completion of the commissioning process. Webb will conduct observations of representative targets to help with the calibrations, and early demonstrations will test the observatory’s ability to track objects such as asteroids, comets, and moons. The team will then prepare a preliminary report, the Early Release Observations, to showcase the telescope’s abilities. Only after this is done will the official science operations phase begin.
Webb should remain functional for a minimum of five years, but the expectation is that it will work for at least 10 and possibly 12. Over those years, the telescope will have to perform slight engine bursts to keep it in L2, but the fuel required for these adjustments will eventually run out, after which time the telescope will just drift away, effectively ending the science stage of the mission.
With no feasible way to repair the telescope should something go wrong, and potentially 10 years of scientific breakthroughs in the balance, we’ll be on the edge of our seats this Christmas morning. The next decade will be a busy one for Webb and the many astronomers planning to use it. For all this to happen however, the stars, it would seem, will need to come into perfect alignment.
The Webb space telescope being hoisted to the top of an Ariane 5 rocket. Photo: ESA/M. Pedoussaut
Another day, another problem with the Webb Space Telescope. The new delay has to do with a communications issue, which we can only hope is not serious.
NASA’s latest update to the Webb launch situation was clear, concise, and grammatically incorrect. “The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system,” the space agency posted to its Webb telescope blog. “This will delay the launch date to no earlier than Friday, Dec. 24. We will provide more information about the new launch date no later than Friday, Dec. 17.”
That’s a delay of two days, as the highly anticipated (and anxiety-provoking) space observatory had been scheduled for launch on December 22. A two-day delay doesn’t sound serious, but because no further details were given, it’s hard to know.
In November, a processing incident at a satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, caused a vibration to course through the entire $10 billion telescope, resulting in a four-day delay. The incident happened as Arianespace technicians were preparing to mount Webb to the launch vehicle adapter. A NASA-led investigation found no lingering issues and declared the observatory “ready for flight.”
Good progress has been made since then. The telescope has been fueled up, transported to the final assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, and placed atop the Ariane 5 rocket that will take it to space. As the Webb blog noted on December 14, the telescope “was slowly hoisted nearly 130 feet [40 meters] and then perfectly aligned on top of the Ariane 5, after which technicians bolted Webb’s launch vehicle adapter down to the rocket.”
A successor to the still-active-but-struggling Hubble Space Telescope, Webb will use its infrared capabilities to study distant planets, stars, and some of the most ancient galaxies in the universe.
The incident with the vibration and now the communications issue are just two of many problems to afflict the project over the years. Webb, a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency, was supposed to launch years ago, but ongoing technical challenges, the covid-19 pandemic, and other issues have resulted in a seemingly endless succession of delays.
The current year alone has seen multiple delays, as the observatory was supposed to launch in March, October, and November—including October 31. I suppose the new target date of Christmas Eve is far less ominous than a Halloween launch.
A Soyuz ST-B launcher takes off from the Guiana Space Center on Saturday night with two Galileo navigation satellites. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin
Deployment of Europe’s independent Galileo navigation network resumed Saturday night with an on-target launch of two satellites aboard a Soyuz rocket, the final Arianespace mission from French Guiana before the historic liftoff of the James Webb Space Telescope later this month.
Running four days late due to bad weather and a problem with a downrange telemetry station, a Soyuz launcher fired its kerosene-fueled engines and vaulted away from the Guiana Space Center on the northeastern shore of South America at 7:19:20 p.m. EST Saturday (0019:20 GMT Sunday).
The liftoff occurred at 9:19 p.m. local time at the launch base in French Guiana, beginning the 26th Soyuz mission from the tropical spaceport.
Two previous launch attempts were scrubbed due to bad weather, and officials called off another countdown due to the unavailability of a downrange shipborne tracking station in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Russian-made Soyuz ST-B rocket took off with nearly a million pounds of thrust and darted through scattered clouds, arcing to the northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. The Soyuz shed four first stage boosters two minutes into the mission, then jettisoned its clamshell-like nose cone after soaring above the thickest layers of the atmosphere.
The core stage shut down and released about five minutes after liftoff, and a third stage engine ignited to continue the flight into space. The Soyuz third stage finished its work about nine minutes into the flight, then deployed a Russian Fregat upper stage for the final maneuvers to place the Galileo satellites into orbit.
Liftoff of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana, carrying Europe’s 27th and 28th operational Galileo navigation satellites. https://t.co/FAcojHwAD9 pic.twitter.com/j3nuV9x2j1
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 5, 2021
The Fregat engine fired first to reach an egg-shaped transfer orbit, then the rocket coasted more than three hours before reigniting to circularize its orbit at an altitude of more than 14,600 miles (23,500 kilometers) and an inclination of 57.1 degrees to the equator.
The two 1,576-pound (715-kilogram) Galileo satellites, mounted side-by-side during launch, deployed from the Fregat upper stage around 11:11 p.m. EST (0411 GMT).
A few minutes later, telemetry from the rocket confirmed a successful spacecraft separation.
Ground teams at a Galileo control center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, took command of the spacecraft. The satellites unfurled their solar panels as panned, officials said.
The spacecraft will complete a series of post-launch tests before entering operational service in a few months.
“Tonight, we have a fantastic success again for the Galileo program,” said Paul Verhoef, director of navigation at the European Space Agency.
Designed for 12-year missions, the new spacecraft will join 26 Galileo satellites already in orbit providing navigation services around the world for the European Union’s mulbillion-euro flagship space program. Ten launches of Soyuz and Ariane 5 rockets from French Guiana from October 2011 through July 2018 deployed the operational Galileo satellites, which are spread out in three orbital planes around 14,400 miles (23,200 kilometers) above Earth.
The full constellation needs 30 satellites, including 24 active platforms and six spares.
“The purpose of the coming up launch of Galileo is to complete the deployments of the satellites and the population of the different orbital planes to ensure that the constellation is complete,” said Andrea Cotellessa, head of the Galileo space segment management office at the European Space Agency. “Our constellation requires eight operational satellites and two spare satellites per plane, and this has not been achieved yet.”
Europe’s next two Galileo navigation satellites are prepared for attachment to their Russian-made Fregat upper stage at the Guiana Space Center. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Baudon
Galileo satellites are already beaming navigation signals to users around the world. More than 2 billion smartphones have been sold with Galileo-enabled chipsets, allowing users to locate themselves with navigation signals from Galileo satellites alongside data from the U.S. military’s Global Positioning System network.
When fully operational, the Galileo network will provide independent navigation fixes for users without needing GPS signals. With both networks available, combining Galileo and GPS data can give users a more precise position estimate.
The launch Saturday night was the final mission from the spaceport in French Guiana before liftoff Dec. 22 of the James Webb Space Telescope, a $9.7 billion observatory developed by NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency.
Webb, the most expensive space science mission in history, will blast off on top of a heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket. Officials at the Guiana Space Center require about two weeks to reconfigure ground infrastructure between launches, meaning the Soyuz flight needs to get off the ground by around Dec. 8 to ensure the Webb launch remains on schedule.
The complete Galileo constellation will consist of 24 satellites along three orbital planes, plus two spare satellites per orbit. Credit: ESA-P. Carril
The two Galileo spacecraft launched Saturday night were built by OHB in Bremen, Germany. The L-band navigation payloads on each satellite was supplied by SSTL in the United Kingdom.
The satellites are the first two of 12 Galileo spacecraft ordered in a third batch contract from ESA in 2017. The “Batch 3” satellites, with the same capabilities as the previous 26, will sustain the Galileo constellation until a new generation of spacecraft is ready for launch.
Over the next few years, three Soyuz launches and three flights of Europe’s new Ariane 6 will rocket will each carry two Galileo satellites into orbit.
The second-generation satellites should begin launching by the end of 2024, according to ESA, which manages spacecraft development for the Galileo system on behalf of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body.
“They will be more powerful,” Verhoef said before this week’s launch. “They will be, as a result, also heavier, but they will have more capabilities. In particular, they will be fully flexible, fully digital, so we can re-program them in orbit.
“At the moment with the first generation, if we want to provide significant new services, we’re going to have to bring completely new satellites into orbit,” Verhoef said. “With the second generation, we have decided to do it differently and allow this capability, de facto, to be on the satellites, so we can change things as markets demand it in a relatively quick way.”
Earlier this year, the European Commission and ESA awarded contracts to Airbus and Thales Alenia Space for 12 second-generation, or G2, Galileo satellites. Each company won a deal for six spacecraft, which will carry navigation payloads built on the European continent, rather than by SSTL in the UK.
SSTL was excluded from the new generation of Galileo satellites after Brexit. European officials required sensitive elements of the Galileo program to come from EU member states.
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Update for Dec. 3: Due to poor weather, Arianespace has again delayed this launch by 24 hours. Liftoff is now scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 4. The exact time of the targeted liftoff has not yet been announced.
Update for Dec. 2: Arianespace is now targeting launch on Friday (Dec. 3) for the Galileo satellite mission on a Russian-built Soyuz rocket. Liftoff is set for Dec. 3 at 7:23 p.m. EST (0023 GMT).
Arianespace plans to send two new European Galileo navigation satellites to space tonight (Dec. 2) and you will be able to watch it live online.
An Arianespace Soyuz rocket will launch two navigation satellites into orbit at 7:27 p.m. EST (9:27 p.m. local time at the Guiana Space Center launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, or Friday, Dec. 3, at 0027 GMT). France-based Arianespace is expected to webcast the launch live on YouTube, which you can watch here, once it is available. Arianespace typically begins its launch webcasts about 20 minutes before liftoff.
The European Space Agency will also webcast the launch on its ESAWeb TV stream. The mission, if successful, will grow the European global satellite navigation satellite to 28 members. The nearly six-year-old constellation serves 2.3 billion users around the world, Arianespace said in launch documentation.
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Arianespace will use a Soyuz rocket produced by the Progress Space Rocket Center, which is a part of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. This is the fourteenth time this partnership aimed to send a Galileo mission to space, Arianespace said.
The mission is being performed for the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of the European Commission, to bring “strategic autonomy and sovereignty to the EU [European Union] citizens and its member states,” Arianespace said of the mission.
Galileo is similar to the United States Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Glonass system, but aims to give Europeans a homemade alternative should one of these other systems become unavailable to them.
The 26 Galileo satellites now in orbit were launched both by Soyuz rockets and by the company’s own heavy-lift rocket, Ariane 5. Arianespace plans six more Galileo satellites in the coming years using Soyuz and a next-generation rocket Ariane 6 version known as Ariane 62. The first flight of the Ariane 6 rocket is expected now in 2022, delayed from 2020.
Tonight’s mission, known as Galileo FOC-M9, will be the 61st mission launched by Arianespace on behalf of ESA and will carry the 83rd and 84th satellites for the partnership. The delivered satellites will join the rest of the Galileo constellation in medium Earth orbit at 14,429 miles (23,222 kilometers), according to ESA documentation.
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