06-29-2019, 02:16 AM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Orion abort test July 2
I found the following in the below-linked STP-2 mission article, near its end:
“The Air Force is supporting an atmospheric abort test of NASA’s Orion crew capsule scheduled for July 2 at Cape Canaveral. A test version of the Orion spacecraft will blast off aboard a converted Air Force Peacekeeper missile to demonstrate the capsule’s ability to escape from a launch failure.” (And today I heard on the national news that NASA has redoubled its efforts to get the first SLS/Orion vehicle ready for flight.) Also:
Not only did The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 solar sail spacecraft get a successful ride into orbit on the STP-2 Falcon Heavy (inside the Prox-1 satellite—LightSail 2 will deploy on Monday, July 1!), but the Naval Research Laboratory’s Tether Electrodynamics Propulsion CubeSat Experiment (TEPCE—two CubeSats connected by a 1-kilometer electrically conducting tether) was also orbited by the rocket. TEPCE will test the tether’s ability to provide electrodynamic propulsion (just like with a proposed, cheap 1-wire “rotating asymmetrical dumb-bell” CubeSat probe/extra solar panel asteroid probe); both of these missions are mentioned in the STP launch report *here* https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/06/...atches-fairing/ . |