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Excellent video of the last time humans left Lo Earth Orbit-Apollo 17

Started by Hog, December 07, 2016, 12:32:27 PM

Hog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMDdaNLc8DU

Till we visit again, SLS-1 will visit in a cis-lunar orbit in late 2018 without a crew, then hopefully in August 2021 with a crew of 4 NASA Astronauts.

In late 2017 Space Explorations Dragon-2 vehicle will begin flying, with eventual missions to the International Space Station(ISS) to rotate crew and provide emergency egress craft from the ISS.  In 2018 the Boeing CST-100 Starliner will begin its flying with the same missions as the Space Explorations craft.  Both systems are being funded by NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev).  When these crew systems begin to take NASA crews up to the ISS it will end the lack of capability for the US to fly it's own crew to and from space since the Space Transportation System(STS)/Space Shuttle Program(SSP) ended with the landing of Atlantis at the conclusion of STS-135 on July 21 2011 some 5 years, 4 months and 11 days ago today.  We have been spending approx. US$70 million PER SEAT to send American/Canadian/European Space Agency(ESA) Astronauts to the ISS aboard the Russian Soyuz launch vehicles and space vehicles.

CCDev COTS/CRS
CCDev is similar to the already up and running Commercial Orbital Transportation Services(COTS) program. COTS selected Space Explorations Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket, as well as Orbital Sciences Cygnus capsule and Antares rocket as the two companies to supply cargo capability to the ISS.
After COTS selected the 2 players out of the 18 separate companies that participated in the selection process, the Commercial Resupply Services(CRS) program took over the actual operation portion of the resupply missions.


The actual contracts for delivering cargo has been broken up into blocks of time.  Commercial Resupply Services Contract #1 (CRS 1) began in 2012 and will conclude in 2018.  CRS 2 will begin in 2019.
Space Explorations Dragon capsule and their Falcon 9 rocket have been bringing cargo up cargo since 2012 and Orbital Sciences flew a test payload on April 21, 2013 and went operation with its first actual payload classified as a demonstration payload on September 29, 2013.
Orbital Sciences 3rd CRS mission  from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on 28 October 2014 failed when the 1st stage failed and exploded shortly after launch, large parts of the rocket fel back onto the pad causing damage.
While an investigation into that accident was ongoing, as part of Orbital Science's contingency planning, they had contracted with United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 launch vehicle to launch Orbital Sciences "Orb-4" spacecraft. The launch was successful and Orbital Sciences was awarded CRS flights for space vehicles Orb-9 and Orb-10  which are expected before 2018.  These missions will be using Orbital Sciences new launch vehicle the Antares 230.  It can launch a heavier payload due to its 1st stage using the more powerful Russian RD-181 engines in its first stage, as well as using the more powerful Castor upperstage as well.  The orginal Antares 200 used the AJ26  which were Russian engines that were stored since 1970's.  The AJ26 are mildly modified Soviet NK-33 engines which were the replacement engines that were to replace the original NK-15 engines which were used in a cluster of 30 engines for the first stage of the Soviet N-1 rocket, the rocket that were to allow the Soviets their Moon shot.  The N-1 was launched 4 times, each time the flights ended in catastrophe. These rockets were about the same height as the Apollo programs Saturn V rockets which used 5 huge F-1 engines, the Soviets tried to make their 30 NK15s work.  The NK-33 engines were to be used on the 5th N-1 attempt but the Soviets cancelled to program as the Americans had landed multiple times on the Moon.  The scrapped the rockets, stored a couple hundred of these NK-33 engines in a building and the Soviets buried the program. Little did they know that the Americans had satellite photos of the N-1 launch facility in Baikonur Kazakhstan.  It wasn't until 1989 and the fall of the SOviet Union that the program was finally uncovered.  Some of tehse NK-33 engines were discovered and American rocket engine companies sent engineers to check out these highly advanced engines.  It was once thought by American engineers that theses types of engine would use technology that was impossible to harness. This technology for these
liquid fueled engines was the Oxidizer Rich technology.  It used pressures that were unheard of in the USA.  So a batch were acquired and the NK33 was renamed the AJ-26 by AeroJet Rocket, which is now Pratt Whittney Rocketdyne.  Well one of these engines failed in the Orbital Sciences Orb 3 launch and it was decided to move on to a more proven engine, the Russian designed

On June 28 2015 Space Explorations CRS-7 exploded after liftoff during a 1st stage failure.  But the company has supplied launches after this without incident.
Arpund the same time, the Russian resupply ship also failed.  So every system that supplies the ISS has had some sort of flight anomaly.  Like they say "Space is hard".




N-1 rocket being erected, NASA stacks their rockets vertically and crawls them to the pad vertically


N-1 rocket


The new SLS-rocket next to Saturn V


SLS rocket and crawler Mobile Launch Platform(MLP)

peace
Hog


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