Cool Mars Rover mission video

I’m so glad I found this Mars MER video again! I thought it was gone forever. This was the best and most fun video simulation of a Delta II rocket launch and its associated Mars Exploration Rover (MER) spacecraft mission that I’d ever seen. There‘s no narrative, so you get to figure out the technical details of the launch and trans-Mars injection, and appreciate the clever aerobraking and landing approaches, from what you see, which is quite a lot. Enjoy!

Going away party

My coworker and friend John made arrangements for a going-away party. He scheduled it a week after my last day, to avoid conflicting with a bunch of other layoff happy hours. It was nice, to be able to say goodbye to the people who came, that I hadn't made time to see before I left, and to get a few more signatures in my going-away picture book. I asked the waitress to take this picture, of the early-arrivers.

Therese arranged for a delicious cake, with an edible picture on top, of the Juno launch on August 5, 2011 that I supported from our Denver launch support center. The Juno satellite has made a 5 year journey, and is currently making its rendezvous with the planet Jupiter. I'll miss being a part of all the ULA launches, but I'll especially miss those planetary missions, which last so long, and are so exciting to read about.

Time to think

For the entire month of April, I get to think about what I want to do with my immediate future. The company has a standing invitation for any of the higher level employees to volunteer for layoff, in exchange for a slightly enhanced layoff benefit. There is a part of me, that wants to jump at the invitation to have so much free time, that I probably wouldn't know what to do with it. But then, there's the other part of me, that loves being a part of building and launching rockets, and wants to stay on board, to continue the regular income, and to help keep the company going in a successful direction. Decisions, decisions...

AV056 (MUOS-4) launched!

Weird work schedule the last two days. I worked Tuesday morning, went home for a nap, came in at 9pm last night, worked until noon, launched MUOS-4, went home for a nap, and just woke up in time to walk the dog while it's still light out.



We launched the fourth satellite in the series of the mobile user objective system (MUOS) launches. I just watched a video of the launch, and it appears to have been pretty spectacular, with a very impressive vapor trail.





SpaceFlightNow has some good snapshots:

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/02/photos-atlas-5-puts-on-predawn-sky-show/

...and here's a nice launch video:
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/02/video-liftoff-of-atlas-5-rocket-to-deploy-navys-muos-4-satellite/

Virgin Galactic / Scaled Composites Anomaly

Sad to learn that SpaceShipTwo was lost in today's test flight. Hoping for the best, for the pilots.

Here's a CNN story, and a SpaceFlightNow story on the subject.

Update 11/1: One pilot was killed, the other parachuted out, seriously injured.

Update 11/3: It sounds like it's looking possible that the braking "tail feathers" (stabilizers) were deployed prematurely, about 9 seconds into the boost phase. Ugh. It's not good, to have all that stuff hanging out in the breeze, when the breeze is going thousands of miles per hour.

GPS Launched!

We just completed today's successful GPS launch, with some really great rocketcam views!

Here's a SpaceFlightNow story with imagery.

Orbital Sciences / Antares Anomaly

Sorry to hear that Antares had a launch failure today. A not-so-subtle reminder that this is a risky business.

I was amazed to see them (Range Safety?) let the rocket fall back, almost all the way back down to the Wallops Island launch pad, before they destroyed it. I would think they incurred an unnecessary risk to the pad by waiting so long. Once forward motion is gone, you'd think they'd destroy it immediately at that altitude, so save as much of the pad as possible.

Here's a link to early SpaceFlightNow coverage of the story, and a later story.

Update 10/31: It looks like maybe the launch pad survived with minimal damage.

The initial investigation appears to be focusing on the first stage propulsion section, specifically the AJ26 Russian-made engines, although they're not talking about any specific cause yet.

Interesting development

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wants to develop new American made rocket engines. This could be a hugely good thing for ULA. NY Times article here

Launched AFSPC-4!

Finally! Liftoff of DV-368 carrying the AFSPC-4 payload (and two others), from Cape Canaveral SLC-37. Loooooong mission, will run into the wee hours... Happy Birthday to me.

Launching TDRS-L

We're planning on launching AV043, an Atlas V rocket, carrying TDRS-L, a NASA telemetry data relay satellite, on Thursday evening. I'm not looking forward to the morning commute, with several inches of snow accumulation forecast for tonight and the morning. See the full story at SpaceFlightNow.com and follow the countdown at their Mission Status Center. Sometimes they carry live video of a launch.

Launched AV038_MAVEN

Today we launched AV-038, an Atlas V rocket, carrying the MAVEN spacecraft, bound for Mars. MAVEN's mission is to probe the Martian upper atmosphere, in hopes of learning how Mars transformed from a warm, wet planet, into the barren world it is today. Flight time for the gas-sniffing sleuth is ten months, with arrival scheduled for next September.

MAVEN's next milestone is a December 3rd engine burn, to adjust the probe's path toward Mars, the first of four course correction maneuvers planned during the mission's 10-month cruise.

Ground controllers will start activating MAVEN's eight science instruments for tests this December, and some of the payloads will take data during the voyage to Mars. MAVEN's ultraviolet imaging spectrometer will observe comet ISON in December.

Once MAVEN is at Mars, the probe will drop into an operational elliptical orbit, and begin collecting scientific data in November 2014.

See the full story and more pics at SpaceFlightNow.com.

First Open House

We had our first open house at our new work location in Centennial... We watched videos of the MSL launch in our Denver launch support center, ran across a few of my coworkers, toured our development lab, chatted about the big pictures in my office, of our old facility in San Diego. We missed out on the free pizza, but had free burritos and red velvet cupcakes instead. Mandy waited for us in the car, sleeping while curled up in her nice warm bed in the back of my car, in the cool shady parking garage. She's gotten to be an old hand at that. Not a bad outing. My visitors seemed to enjoy it. — at United Launch Alliance Corporate Headquarters.

AV041 Launched!

We launched AV-041, carrying the AEHF-3 payload, early this morning. By the time I got home, it was just about time to be heading back into work, but of course my plan was to take the morning off, and get some sleep.

Back at work

I'm back at work, for the AV-041 launch countdown. I took the mid-day off for a short nap to balance my work and sleep hours. K got dialysis 2-6 today. I stopped by to drop off some of her rarer meds, that the hospital pharmacy doesn't carry, on my way back in. They say they may discharge her Wednesday. The nurse also casually mentioned, that she does indeed have at least one rib fracture on the right side, where she's hurting so much.

NROL-65 Launched!

We launched D364, a Delta IV heavy, carrying the NROL-65 satellite, this afternoon.

See the photos on SpaceFlightNow

Launching LDCM

The countdown for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has begun, out at Vandenberg AFB on the California coast. Liftoff is planned for 10:02am Pacific Time. SpaceFlightNow has live video coverage of the launch countdown and flight. Check it out: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av035/status.html

Facebook has more details

I'm posting far more updates and pictures to Facebook. If you want to see them, but are afraid to create an account for yourself, ask me about the "friend" account I setup in Mandy's name. You can view all of my posts that way, without giving away ANYTHING personal about yourself, not even your name. If you're interested, please call me, and I'll get you started.

AEHF-2 Launched!

Today we launched AV-031, an Atlas V carrying AEHF-2, from Cape Canaveral LC-41

MSL Launched!

We launched AV-028 this morning, an Atlas V carrying the MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) payload, from Cape Canaveral! See SpaceFlightNow for the story!

GOES-P Launched!

We launched D-348, a Delta IV rocket carrying the GOES-P weather satellite, after a late afternoon countdown and an unusually long 5-hour flight. See the writeup at SpaceFlightNow.