Page 6 - Aerotech News 7-3-15

SpaceX rocket destroyed on way to ISS, cargo lost

CZ.BSDJB%VOO 9 rocket around 2 minutes and 19 sec- ences and SpaceX have NASA contracts
Associated Press
onds, he said. to ship cargo.

SpaceX founder and chief executive “Three failures on three different ve-

An unmanned SpaceX rocket carry- Elon Musk later said that the pressure hicles is unusual, but it would be even

ing supplies to the International Space got too high in the liquid-oxygen tank more worrisome if we had only one

Station broke apart June 28 shortly after of the rocket’s upper stage. means of access,” former NASA asso-

liftoff. It was a severe blow to NASA, “That’s all we can say with confi- ciate administrator Scott Pace wrote in

the third cargo mission to fail in eight dence right now,” Musk said via Twitter. an email to The Associated Press.

months. The private company is in charge of In addition to the July 3 scheduled

The accident happened about 21/2 the accident investigation, with oversight Russian launch, Orbital Sciences may

PLQXWHVLQWRWKHÀLJKWIURP&DSH&D- from the Federal Aviation Administra- be able to launch their supply ship at

naveral, Florida. A billowing white WLRQZKLFKOLFHQVHGWKHÀLJKW the end of this year, using another com-

cloud emerged in the sky, growing big- The Dragon capsule, which is de- pany’s rocket. And a Japanese resupply

JHUDQGELJJHUWKHQ¿HU\SOXPHVVKRW signed to eventually carry people, still ship is scheduled for August, Gersten-

out. Pieces of the rocket could be seen sent signals to the ground after the rock- maier said.

IDOOLQJLQWRWKH$WODQWLFOLNHD¿UHZRUNV et broke apart, said SpaceX President The seven previous SpaceX supply

display gone wrong. Gwynne Shotwell. Had astronauts been runs, dating back to 2012, had gone ex-

More than 5,200 pounds of space on board, a still-being tested abort sys- ceedingly well.

station cargo were on board, including tem, would have whisked them away to For a group of students from North RSC-Energia photograph
WKH¿UVWGRFNLQJSRUWGHVLJQHGIRUIX- safety in such a mishap, she said. Charleston, S.C., the failure was a sec-
ond dose of disappointment. Their stu- 7KH,663URJUHVVVSDFHFUDIWLVVHHQLQLWVSURFHVVLQJIDFLOLW\DWWKH%DLNRQXU
ture commercial crew capsules, a new SpaceX hopes to launch astronauts dent experiment on soldering circuit Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan being prepared for launch July 3.
VSDFHVXLWDQGDZDWHU¿OWUDWLRQV\VWHP from U.S. soil again aboard the Falcon-

1$6$RI¿FLDOVVDLGWKH\KDYHHQRXJK Dragon combination in December 2017. boards had been on the Orbital launch. it can’t function much longer, but there 9 rockets.
supplies for the three-person crew on The explosion was so strong and they is still enough stored water to make it to “These things happen,” he said in a
board the station to last till October and They still can make that target, Shotwell were so close they could feel the heat October or so.
still plan to send three more crewmem- on their faces back in October, student WZHHW³7KH\ZLOO¿JXUHWKLVRXW´
bers up in a late July launch. NASA likes said. Now NASA buys seats from Russia Rachel Lindbergh said. Gerstenmaier said the loss shouldn’t Launch spectators lining the beaches
to have a six-month cushion of food and postpone plans to send three more men
water, but is now down to four months. to get astronauts to the orbiting lab. This time, they were in Florida. They WRMRLQWKHFUHZRQ-XO\DÀLJKWDO- near Cape Canaveral were confused, at
high fived each other after the rocket ready delayed two months. ¿UVWE\WKHXQH[SHFWHGSOXPHVLQWKH
“We’re good from a food and water Shotwell assured reporters that the soared off the pad. sky.
standpoint,” NASA’s top spaceflight &DOLIRUQLDEDVHGFRPSDQ\ZLOO¿[WKH Along with SpaceX, Boeing is also
RI¿FLDO:LOOLDP*HUVWHQPDLHUVDLGDWD SUREOHP±³DQGJHWEDFNWRÀLJKW´ “We’re not going to let this deter us,” developing crew capsules for NASA. ³,WORRNHG¿QHXQWLOLWZDVDOPRVWRXW
press conference. said Lindbergh. “Disappointing, sure. Boeing designed the new docking sys- of sight. And then, a poof of smoke,”
Losing this shipment — which in- But this happens in spaceflight. You WHPWKDWZDVORVWRQWKH6SDFH;ÀLJKW said Whitney Jackson of Palm Beach,
This puts added pressure on another can’t let things stop you.” but a second version is still available to Fla, watching with her family. “Every-
resupply launch scheduled for July 3 by cluded replacements for items lost in the VHQGXSRI¿FLDOVVDLG one was cheering and clapping. No one
Russia, its first attempt since losing a WZRHDUOLHUIDLOHGVXSSO\ÀLJKWV²ZDVD The three space station residents were knew it meant failure.”
supply capsule in April. watching the launch live from orbit, in- Shotwell said the first stage of the
huge setback for NASA. cluding astronaut Scott Kelly. rocket seemed to work well. The com- The Air Force later warned people
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket shattered pany had planned to try to land the dis- along the Florida coast not to handle any
while traveling at 2,900 mph, about 27 “This is a blow to us,” Gerstenmaier “Sadly failed,” Kelly said via Twitter. carded booster on an ocean platform. debris washing ashore.
miles up. Everything seemed to be go- “Space is hard.”
ing well until the rocket went supersonic. said, citing the docking port, a spacesuit Kelly’s identical twin, Mark, a for- June 28 was Musk’s 44th birthday.
DQGFRQVLGHUDEOHVFLHQWL¿FUHVHDUFKWKDW NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
DQGRWKHURI¿FLDOVVWUHVVHGWKDWWKHVSDFH
had been on board. He said there was

nothing common among the three ac-

cidents, “other than it’s space and it’s
GLI¿FXOWWRJRÀ\´

In April, a Russian cargo ship spun

“We appear to have had a launch ve- out of control and burned up upon re- station crew is in no immediate trouble. mer space shuttle commander who is The SpaceX founder also runs his elec-

hicle failure,” announced NASA com- entry. And last October, an Orbital Sci- NASA space station program manager taking part in medical studies on the tric car company, Tesla.

mentator George Diller. ences Corp. capsule was destroyed in a Mike Suffredini said the water filtra- ground, pointed out that SpaceX, until “Yeah, not the best birthday,” Musk

'DWDVWRSSHGÀRZLQJIURPWKH)DOFRQ launch accident in Virginia. Orbital Sci- tion system is nearing the point where now, had “a great record” with its Falcon tweeted.

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Thirty-two undergraduate students are partici- (small particles suspended in the atmosphere) and years. At the conclusion of the program, each stu- resent 32 different colleges and universities from
pating in an eight-week NASA Airborne Science across the United States and Puerto Rico. They
¿HOGH[SHULHQFHGHVLJQHGWRLPPHUVHWKHPLQWKH air quality in the Los Angeles basin and in Cali- dent will present his or her results and conclusions were competitively selected based on their out-
agency’s Earth science research. standing academic performance, future career
fornia’s Central Valley. The students will also use to an audience of NASA scientists and administra- plans and interest in Earth system science.
Now in its seventh year, NASA’s Student Air- airborne and ground-based remote-sensing instru- tors, university faculty members and fellow SARP
borne Research Program provides a unique op- ments to study forest ecology in the Sierra Nevada students. Many students go on to present their The Student Airborne Research Program is
portunity for undergraduate students majoring in and ocean biology along the California coast. SARP research projects at national conferences. one of NASA’s tools for exposing future scien-
WKHVFLHQFHVPDWKHPDWLFVRUHQJLQHHULQJ¿HOGVWR In 2014, eight students presented their research tists and engineers to the Earth Science missions
participate in all aspects of a NASA Airborne Sci- Students are mentored by NASA scientists from at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting that support environmental studies and the testing
ence research campaign. Headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Langley and three were selected for the AGU Outstanding and development of new instruments and future
Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and the Student Paper Award. satellite mission concepts. The program’s goal is
Airborne science research uses aircraft as sky- Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Ad- to stimulate interest in NASA’s Earth science re-
high platforms for making observations, gathering ditional mentors are university faculty members, Students participating in the 2015 SARP rep- search and aid in the recruitment and training of
remote-sensing data with instruments or taking postdoctoral fellows and graduate students from the next generation of scientists and engineers,
samples. These data can be coupled to NASA’s PDQ\RIZKRPZLOOEHJHWWLQJWKHLU¿UVWKDQGVRQ
global satellite observations for a better under- the University of California in Irvine, San Diego, research experience during this program.
standing of the complete Earth system.
Santa Cruz and Davis. The University of Colorado SARP is managed by NASA’s Ames Research
SARP participants are given the opportunity to Center through the Cooperative for Research in
observe and participate in the instrument installa- in Boulder, the University of Wisconsin and the Earth Science and Technology (ARC-CREST),
WLRQÀLJKWSODQQLQJDQGVFLHQWL¿FGDWDFROOHFWLRQ under the leadership of the National Suborbital
that is the basis of every successful NASA Earth University of Houston are also providing mentors. Education and Research Center at the University
science airborne campaign. These campaigns play 7KHDLUFUDIWZLOORYHUÀ\GDLULHVDQGRLO¿HOGVLQ of North Dakota with funding and support from
a pivotal role in the acquisition of process-orient- NASA’s Earth Science Division.
ed knowledge about the Earth system, as well as the San Joaquin Valley, as well as parts of Los An-
calibration and validation of NASA’s space-borne NASA uses the vantage point of space to in-
Earth observations, remote-sensing measurements geles, the Santa Barbara Channel and the Salton crease our understanding of our home planet,
and high-resolution imagery for Earth system sci- improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA
ence. Sea at altitudes as low as 1,000 feet in order to develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s
interconnected natural systems with long-term
Hosted by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research collect air samples, measure aerosols and air qual- data records. The agency freely shares this unique
Center facility in Palmdale, Calif., SARP kicked LW\7KH'&FDQÀ\DWDOWLWXGHVRIIHHW knowledge and works with institutions around the
off on June 15 with lectures by university faculty FDUU\SRXQGVRIVFLHQWL¿FLQVWUXPHQWVDQG world to gain new insights into how our planet is
members, NASA scientists and program manag- changing.
ers. There will be students aboard the agency’s seats up to 45 experimenters and crew. NASA photograph
'&RQHDFKRIWKHVL[ÀLJKWVGXULQJWKHZHHNRI 'XULQJWKHODVWWZRÀLJKWVKDOIRIWKHVWXGHQWV For additional information about SARP, visit
June 22 when they will measure pollution, aerosols Matthew Irish, a senior Climate Impact http://www.nserc.und.edu/sarp.
ZLOOEHLQWKH¿HOGWDNLQJYDOLGDWLRQRUFRPSOH- (QJLQHHULQJPDMRUDWWKH8QLYHUVLW\RI0LFKLJDQ
6 PHQWDU\PHDVXUHPHQWVZKLOHWKH'&ÀLHVRYHU- attaches tubing to the Whole Air Sampler (WAS) July 3, 2015
instrument installed on the NASA DC-8 airborne
head. laboratory for the Student Airborne Research
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place at the University of California in Irvine,

where students will analyze and interpret the

data they collected aboard the aircraft and in the
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gathered by SARP participants in the previous six

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