This upcoming Monday, November 25th, will be a busy day in the launch world with the flight of two very different missions.
The next resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) is the Progress 53 mission flying out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, scheduled for lift-off at 3:53 pm Eastern and will typically dock with the station on Friday the 29th. The Progress vehicle is an unmanned version of the Russian Soyuz capsule that has been in use since the 1960s. These designs have had such a long lifespan because they are relatively simple (as simple as spaceships can be), very durable, and adaptable. Progress is able to carry a little over 3,700 lb of supplies in the somewhat spherical forward section called the Cargo Module. Typical supplies include food, water, replacement parts and new scientific experiments to be installed on station. The center segment of the vehicle is the Refueling Module and this will carry up to 3,800 lb of fuel that the ISS will need to maintain its orbit. Despite being at 250 miles above the Earth, there is still a slight presence of atmosphere creating drag on the station that, over time, slows it down and degrades its orbit. Progress will likely remain docked with ISS for up to 6 months, at which time the Cargo Module will be packed with the station's trash, waste water, and old station parts. After undocking it's sent back to Earth on a course that will lead to its incineration in the atmosphere above the Pacific ocean.
The other flight that day will be the commercial launch of the SES-8 communications satellite out of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
This satellite, which was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will serve as direct communications satellite for southern Asia and has a designed service life of 15 years, according to the manufacturer's website. Interestingly, SES-8 will be put into orbit by a Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket built by one of Orbital Sciences' competitors: Space Exploration Technologies, more commonly called SpaceX. The
Falcon 9 is a two-staged rocket designed and built in the United States, also used for commercial resupply of the ISS and is steadily evolving into what may be the first fully reusable rocket in the world.
The next resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) is the Progress 53 mission flying out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, scheduled for lift-off at 3:53 pm Eastern and will typically dock with the station on Friday the 29th. The Progress vehicle is an unmanned version of the Russian Soyuz capsule that has been in use since the 1960s. These designs have had such a long lifespan because they are relatively simple (as simple as spaceships can be), very durable, and adaptable. Progress is able to carry a little over 3,700 lb of supplies in the somewhat spherical forward section called the Cargo Module. Typical supplies include food, water, replacement parts and new scientific experiments to be installed on station. The center segment of the vehicle is the Refueling Module and this will carry up to 3,800 lb of fuel that the ISS will need to maintain its orbit. Despite being at 250 miles above the Earth, there is still a slight presence of atmosphere creating drag on the station that, over time, slows it down and degrades its orbit. Progress will likely remain docked with ISS for up to 6 months, at which time the Cargo Module will be packed with the station's trash, waste water, and old station parts. After undocking it's sent back to Earth on a course that will lead to its incineration in the atmosphere above the Pacific ocean.
(3)...space-elevator (orbital station ramp)... On Track, besides, there are 3 (one at down in Earth-Station, one at middle in Rhombus-structure, and one at top in Ramp-Station) special powerful automatic maglev-vehicles which, in case of emergency, would go out to Train´s encounter and equaling speed between both: soft contact and braking and both stopping... On Train, besides, 2 gigantic and folded in little compartments resistant graphene´s parachute with a rigid central-ring for Track passing through: one parachute at Train´s front only for emergency when Train goes climbing, and so it could return "softly" to ground... And other parachute at Train´s rear with a sophisticated system also maglev of rigid central-ring for Track passing parachute´s through without hitching... On come back, at 9,000 kms height (exosphere) maglev central-ring is launched and pulling extracts and, when according it descends goes sufficiently increasing for it the Atmosphere´s density, deploys its parachute probably 100 kms height´s below...when Train comes hyper-speedy and maglev-braking falling towards Earth, for avoid now already Gravity´s acceleration...aero-braked regulating with a major or minor Distance between Train and canopy´s rigid-central-ring of the parachute: max Distance, chute totally deployed max braking...less Distance, chute partially deployed less braking. System of rear parachute which normally before touch ground is automatically refolded (bringing again the canopy´s central-ring into its Train´s compartment and coiling the canopy and its fine cords around motorized gyratory cylinders)... Train enters on terminal horizontal-track and stops in Earth-Station.
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