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kevinforsyth.net
To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles
"A valuable contribution to the field of aerospace literature," this book includes an extensive overview of Delta history and development along with chapters on Atlas, Titan, Scout, Space Shuttle, and much more.
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Many other excellent books about spaceflight are recommended here.
29-Jan-00 | MPL and DS-2 both lost
Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 were both lost on 3 December, 1999. NASA abandoned the search in mid-January, but not before evidence surfaced that appears to show a deep canyon passing through the landing site.
29-Jan-00 | FUSE begins operations
FUSE (Delta 271) is beginning to open astronomers’ eyes following a seven-month shakedown phase. (12-Jan-00 NASA Press Release) This mission has a good chance of providing some disturbingly theory-tweaking observations, but since spectroscopy doesn’t usually include “pretty” pictures, FUSE may linger in undeserved obscurity.
23-Dec-99 | Congratulations
Congrats to contributor Justin Ray, who has left Florida Today to become chief reporter for a new online magazine, SpaceflightNow.com. A good-looking site with a rapidly-burgeoning collection of articles, photos, and video clips, it’s worth checking out. Of course, Justin is continuing the up-to-the-minute flight journals that have been indispensable to this reporter during launches not carried live on t.v. or the web.
23-Dec-99 | MPL and DS-2 lost
Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 were both lost on 3 December, striking another blow against NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” mission strategy. The as-designed lack of telemetry during the EDL phase makes it unlikely we’ll ever know exactly the fate of the lander or the two microprobes with the inspired names of Amundsen and Scott. Even so, NASA has convened a review panel, which will likely find design and/or managerial flaws that, once resolved, may improve chances for the success of future Mars missions. That is, if funding remains available for those missions, which is always a concern in the aftermath of failure.
Editorial: In this critic’s opinion, NASA’s streamlined mission strategy is a marked improvement over the “egg baskets” of the past, giant probes such as Galileo and Cassini, that were burdened with too many instruments and overly-long development periods. In particular, the billion-dollar Mars Observer revealed the folly of that approach. All the same, NASA has not gone far enough to simplify its designs. The spidery gear and descent engine landings of Viking were made possible by massive support staffs and extremely conservative (read: dull) landing sites. The use of the same design on Polar Lander was a sign of under-simplification and over-complacency. Frankly, I’m surprised future Mars missions aren’t taking their cues from the supposedly pathfinding Pathfinder: toss it at the planet, wrap it up in airbags, and just let it bounce. And for Pete’s sake, put a little omnidirectional antenna on it so we have some idea of what’s happening during the dangerous and critical phases of entry, descent, and landing. In conclusion, I’m saddened not only by the loss of new science and of an inspiring Mars mission (with my name aboard), but also by the waste of two pinpoint-perfect Delta II launches.
10-Nov-99 | ICO returns to schedule
Three of five ICO flights expected in 2000 have returned to the schedule, following the announcement that a group of investors led by Teledesic will be providing up to $1.2 billion to the beleaguered company over the next year. The investment is a win-win situation for the two companies: it allows ICO to pull itself out of Chapter 11, and enables Teledesic to begin building its constellation of “Internet-in-the-sky” satellites earlier than originally planned.
04-Nov-99 | MPL on course
Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 completed a minor course correction burn on 30 October and are on course for arrival at Mars on 3 December. MPL will soft-land near the Martian south pole to study climate history and composition of the polar ice cap. DS-2 consists of two micro-probes which will impact Mars and penetrate to a depth of up to one metre in order to analyse sub-surface soil.
04-Nov-99 | Schedule update
As expected, the launch of NASA’s Earth Observing-1, an advanced land imaging mission that is part of the New Millenium Program, has slipped into April 2000. The next Delta launch will be another batch of Globalstar satellites, to fly from Cape Canaveral on 27 January. This will be the longest hiatus for the Delta program since 1995.
20-Oct-99 | Ice rivers in Antarctica
Canada’s RADARSAT, launched aboard a Delta II in 1995, has been used to generate the first high-resolution radar map of Antarctica. Among other items of interest, the map reveals what are known as “ice rivers,” vast rivers of — you guessed it — ice, which amazingly flow up to 100 times faster than the ice through which they channel. (18-Oct-99 NASA Press Release)
Meanwhile, though this author has not yet found any offical word, it seems that RADARSAT-II may have resolved (pardon the pun) its clarity issues, as it now appears in Florida Today‘s extended launch schedule for November, 2001. Previously it was reported here that the radar mapper’s ground resolution of 3 metres exceeds the clarity allowed by the U.S. government for non-military satellites by 2 metres, thus preventing it from being launched from a U.S. site.
20-Oct-99 | MCO hits Martian atmosphere, is lost
On Thursday, September 23, Mars Climate Orbiter fired its main engine for approximately 17 minutes to drop out of heliocentric orbit and begin Mars Orbit Insertion. Sadly, a navigational error led MCO to pass some 80 kilometers closer to the planet than was intended, and the spacecraft was destroyed during the pass through the Martian atmosphere. The mistake has been traced to confusion over units of measurement: spacecraft builder Lockheed Martin specified the force of manoeuvring thrusters in pounds; JPL controllers assumed the thrust was in newtons.
Though NASA is downplaying the loss as part of the risk involved in their “faster, cheaper, better” strategy, the mistake is a major embarrassment to the agency, and a review board has been convened for “process improvement.” One of two ships in the Mars Surveyor 1998 program, MCO was intended to perform a full Martian year of observations to better understand the seasonal changes on that planet. It was launched from Cape Canaveral on 11 December, 1998, the 264th launch of a Delta rocket.
12-Oct-99 | Next launch
The next Delta launch will be from Vandenberg AFB in California on 15 December, the longest hiatus of 1999. It will carry NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (formerly Earth Orbiter-1), an advanced land imaging mission that is part of the New Millenium Program. (This date is expected to slip somewhat.)
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