Jan 30 2009
From The Space Library
NASA announced the successful test of a critical piece of the Ares-I rocket, marking a key milestone in the next-generation crew launch vehicle’s (CLV’s) development. ATK had conducted the flight test at its facility in Promontory, Utah. Simulating the separation event that should occur following the first-stage flight of Ares I-X, the test had demonstrated that the linear-shaped charge intended to separate the forward skirt extension would sever cleanly. The test had also measured the shock that the charge created. Built as a single, solid aluminum cylinder, 6 feet long (1.8 meters long) by 12 feet in diameter (3.7 meters in diameter), the forward skirt extension’s design enabled it to withstand the loads of the first stage and to support the weight of the upper stage. Michael A. Kahn, Executive Vice President of ATK Space Systems, remarked that the successful test represented an important milestone for the program, validating key parameters to support the upcoming Ares-I-X flight test.
NASA, “Test in Development of NASA’s New Crew Rocket Is Successful,” news release 09-022, 30 January 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jan/HQ_09-022_Ares_1-X_Sep_test.html (accessed 14 January 2010); ATK, “ATK Successfully Conducts NASA Ares-I-X Separation Test,” press release, 30 January 2009, http://atk.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=118&item=892 (accessed 7 March 2011); Todd Halvorson, “NASA Stages Key Test in Advance of Ares-IX,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 2 February 2009.
The Russian Coronas Photon solar observatory launched at 13:30 (UT) from Plesetsk Cosmodrome aboard a Tsyklon-3 rocket. Russia had dedicated the satellite to research in the fields of solar physics, solar-terrestrial connection physics, and astrophysics. Specifically, its mission was to study the connection between the Sun and Earth, using a suite of instruments designed to measure energetic particles produced by solar flares, the solar atmosphere, and solar activity in relation to magnetic storms around Earth. The Research Institute for Electromechanics in Moscow had manufactured the 4,200-pound (1,905-kilogram, or 1.9-tonne) satellite, and the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute had led the science team. The Photon observatory was the third satellite in the Coronos series; two previous craft had launched in 1994 and 2001 to study the Sun and had successfully concluded their missions.
Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 663; Stephen Clark, “Solar Physics Spacecraft Launched by Russia,” Spaceflight Now, 2 February 2009.
After the SST entered standby mode at 3:11 p.m. (PDT), NASA announced the end of its primary mission and the start of its “warm” mission. NASA had designed SST to conduct a two- and-a-half-year mission to detect infrared light from cool cosmic objects, a mission that required maintaining the telescope’s three instruments at -456°F (-271°C), the coldest temperature theoretically attainable. SST’s liquid helium, used as cryogen, had lasted twice as long as projected—more than five-and-a-half years—but Spitzer’s supply of the coolant had finally depleted. The telescope would remain cold, at -404°F (-242°C), but that temperature would be too warm to allow Spitzer’s infrared spectrograph and its longer wavelength, multiband imaging photometer to detect cool objects in space. SST Project Manager Robert K. Wilson at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) remarked that, with its coolant depleted, Spitzer would be “reborn,” with a mission to tackle new scientific pursuits. During its so-called warm mission, Spitzer would continue to see through the dust that permeates our galaxy, blocking visible-light views, and two channels of one of its instruments would continue to operate at full capacity. Spitzer’s two infrared-array camera detectors with short wavelengths would continue to function as designed, picking up the glow from a range of objects, such as asteroids, dusty stars, planet- forming discs, gas-giant planets, and distant galaxies. Spitzer’s new projects would include refining estimates of Hubble’s constant; searching for galaxies at the edge of the universe; assessing how often potentially hazardous asteroids might impact Earth; and characterizing the atmospheres of gas-giant planets that astronomers expected NASA’s Kepler mission would discover.
NASA, “NASA’s Spitzer Telescope Warms Up to New Career,” news release 09-099, 6 May 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/may/HQ_09-099_Spitzer_Warms_Up.html (accessed 20 June 2011); NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “Spitzer Space Telescope Mission Status,” JPL news release 15 May 2009, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-086 (accessed 30 June 2011).
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