Post mortem for CRS-3 Antares notes turbopump failure.
Engineers are methodically working through stacks of data related to last week's failure of the CRS-3/OrB-3 Antares launch vehicle. Orbital managers have noted that early data points to the failure of a turbopump on one of Antares' AJ-26 engines as the leading reason the rocket failed just seconds after launch. The company are now working towards "upgrading" the propulsion system with a new engine, ready for 2016.
Antares Failure:
Antares – along with her Cygnus spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS) – were lost seconds after launch during Thursday's mission from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.
The rocket made a nominal ascent off the pad, as Antares conducted her designed "Baumgartner Maneuver" – a subtle sideways step to ease the vehicle away from the close proximity of the Transporter/Erector/Launcher (TEL) – and ascended into the night sky. Once clear of the pad, the first sign of trouble was a distinct change to the appearance of the plume generated by her AJ-26 engines at T+14 seconds – suggesting oxidizer starvation in at least one engine – prior to the aft of the vehicle exploding a second later.
Additional videos of varying quality showed a "ghost image" or visual artifact on the footage, which may provide extra insight into what transpired.
The next event was sadly obvious, as propulsion was lost and the vehicle fell in flames, exploding near the pad from where she had just departed.
The Flight Termination System (FTS) was activated just moments prior to the vehicle impacting the ground.
It is understood the FTS command was successfully sent via the Range Safety system that employs fully steerable antennas, which track the rocket, as well as omni antennas which radiate in all directions. This ensures the rocket receives the command.
This command results in the puncturing of the tank domes on the first stage and the motor dome on the second stage, causing the depressurization on each stage and rendering the vehicle non-propulsive.
The root cause is being worked by the Antares launch failure Accident Investigation Board (AIB), which is being led by Orbital under the oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The board includes former Space Shuttle Program manager Wayne Hale and other industry experts. Photos and further analysis at the link
#1
Orbital Announces Go-Forward Plan for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services Program and the Company’s Antares Launch Vehicle
-- Revised Approach Will Maintain Required ISS Cargo Deliveries in 2015 and 2016 --
-- Accelerated Propulsion System Upgrade of Antares to be Implemented at Wallops --
DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2014-- Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, today announced comprehensive plans to fulfill its contract commitments under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program as well as to accelerate an upgrade of the Antares medium-class launcher’s main propulsion system. Under the new approach and in line with Orbital’s existing CRS contract, all remaining cargo will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2016. There will be no cost increase to NASA and only minor adjustments will be needed to the cargo manifest in the near term.
Orbital’s Antares launch failure Accident Investigation Board (AIB) is making good progress in determining the primary cause of last week’s failure. A preliminary review of telemetry and video data has been conducted and substantial debris from the Antares rocket and its Cygnus payload has been collected and examined. While the work of the AIB continues, preliminary evidence and analysis conducted to date points to a probable turbopump-related failure in one of the two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 stage one main engines. As a result, the use of these engines for the Antares vehicle likely will be discontinued.
To maintain the CRS program’s critical ISS supply line, Orbital plans an early introduction of its previously selected Antares propulsion system upgrade in 2016. This will be preceded by one or two non-Antares launches of the company’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS in 2015-2016, employing the spacecraft’s compatibility with various launch vehicles and its flexibility to accommodate heavier cargo loads as launcher capacity permits. In addition, the company expects repairs to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) launch complex at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to be undertaken quickly, allowing launch operations to continue at Wallops Island with the upgraded Antares beginning in 2016.
“Orbital is taking decisive action to fulfill our commitments to NASA in support of safe and productive operations of the Space Station. While last week’s Antares failure was very disappointing to all of us, the company is already implementing a contingency plan to overcome this setback. We intend to move forward safely but also expeditiously to put our CRS cargo program back on track and to accelerate the introduction of our upgraded Antares rocket,” said Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
“Exact financial impacts to Orbital will depend on which of several specific options for near-term launches is selected, but they are not expected to be material on an annual basis in 2015. In all cases, no significant adverse effects are projected in 2016 or future years, in part because the cost of the Antares propulsion system upgrade was already part of our internal investment plan during that time,” he added.
“We very much appreciate the tremendous support Orbital has received from NASA and Virginia’s MARS commercial spaceport team over the last seven years on our Antares rocket and CRS cargo programs. We look forward to working closely with them to quickly recover from last week’s setback,” Thompson concluded.
[An Nahar] A man who taxied his light plane down a street in Australia and parked it at a pub while he went inside for a beer was being questioned Monday by police, who were not amused.
Locals in Newman, Western Australia, were stunned when they saw the wingless Beechcraft two-seater aircraft chugging down the main drag of the mining town in the Pilbara region, before pulling up at the local watering hole.
"On the way back through town... here's a plane parked outside the Purple Pub," Newman resident Beau Woolcock told ABC radio.
"Even more special was seeing one of the local coppers poking his head in the door of the plane looking like he was asking for a licence."
While the incident quickly became the talk of the town, police did not see the funny side.
"It was a pretty stupid thing to do," Newman police sergeant Mark McKenzie told news hounds, saying the propeller was running and it needed to be steered by foot pedals. It was not clear why it had no wings.
"Kids were coming home from school. It could have been very ugly. All he needed was one gust of wind ... because without the wings, it's not stable.
"People think it was a bit of a laugh but it was very dangerous and we're not very happy with it."
The West Australian newspaper said staff at the pub had dubbed the man a "legend" for his casual arrival.
Police said they were investigating whether he had committed an offence, given the plane did not leave the ground or cause any traffic accidents and the man passed a breath-test at the scene.
"I need to look at what the appropriate offence would be as it's a bit of an unusual one," said police officer Mark Garner.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2014 00:00 ||
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The spirit of Patrick Swayze lives.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/05/2014 7:33 Comments ||
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Backing out of the stall might have been problematic.
He should have just shut it off before going in and having a pint.
Although he may have had a pint or two prior to his excursion. They don't say.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/05/2014 8:21 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Canada suspended development assistance to Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... on Tuesday after the West African country's military seized power in one of the world's poorest nations.
"Given the current climate, it is not possible to provide development assistance dollars directly to the government of Burkina Faso and ensure they are spent effectively and as intended," International Development Minister Minister Christian Paradis said in a statement.
Paradis said he has also ordered a review of other aid programs currently operating in the country through 20 non-governmental organizations.
Canada provided Can$40.76 million (U.S.$35.6 million) in aid between 2012 and 2013, according to the latest available government figures, for agriculture, entrepreneurship, women's rights, technical training and health.
Funding would be restored, said Paradis, when Ottawa is "satisfied that a legitimate and accountable civil authority has been re-established."
He urged military leaders now in control to set a timetable for a full return to democratically-elected authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The United States warned pro-Russia separatists and Moscow on Tuesday against seeking to grab more territory in Ukraine, saying such a move would be a "gross violation" of recent peace deals.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Kiev was deploying new units to the east to counter any bid by the rebels to seize more areas outside of their enclaves centered on the cities of Donetsk and Lugansk.
"Any attempt to push further into Ukraine would be another violation of Ukraine's illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity and a gross violation of the Minsk agreement signed by Russia, Ukraine and the separatists," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki ...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State... said.
"There is a path back to the grinding of the peace processor that only if Russia and its proxies fully implement their commitments" under the September 5 ceasefire deal signed in the Belarus capital Minsk.
Poroshenko said Ukrainian troops were in place to defend cities from Mariupol on the Black Sea to Kharkiv in the northeast, near Russia.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2014 00:00 ||
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I'm sure that they're all quivering under the table, knowing that they face the wrath of the 'O'. ("Somebody call Barnaul, we're gonna need more ammunition.")
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/05/2014 7:42 Comments ||
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For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
General Phillip Breedlove, commander of NATO forces in Europe (SACEUR) said Tuesday that Sunday's parliamentary elections in Lugansk and Donetsk have further soured NATO relations with the Russian Federation, according to several English language news accounts.
General Breedlove told reporters that the border between Ukraina and Russia was "completely porous", and that large amounts of Russian military supplies were flowing into the two breakaway former Ukrainian states.
Two weeks ago, about mid October, Russia was to have demobilized a large part of the forces it previously mobilized for "refresher training" the previous August. The exact number of troops in the Russian southern military district was unknown at the time, but at the same time Russia was to have pulled away its troops from the border with Ukraina, which was a requirement of the Minsk ceasefire agreement.
Now, says Breedlove, it appears that Russia has moved some of its troops back near the border. Additionally, Breedlove said, about 300 Russian effectives are known to be operating in Lugansk and Donetsk, training and helping refit Donbas rebel forces.
Ukrainian military analysts say the number is much, much higher, as many as 15,000 effectives, and those numbers include new military equipment.
According to Breedlove a total of seven Russian battalion tactical groups are deployed on the border with Ukraina, which if true would represent a Russian violation of the ceasefire. A battalion tactical group is a task-organized military unit totaling about 300 effectives, or about a battalion sized element. Since commanders who organize those groups do not follow a set organization, those groups could include any number of infantry, armor and artillery units.
Tuesday, Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko announced that a number of reinforcements would be sent to Kharkov, well to the north of the Novorossiya area of operation, and to Mariupiol, directly on the forward Ukrainian line near the Sea of Azov.
The Mariupol deployments are likely in response to an attack, and to artillery fire on a checkpoint by Donbas rebels, and to a report filed last week by Russian military journalist Dmitri Steshen, who reported while riding along with a Donbas military unit that Mariupol appeared to have been abandoned.
Poroshenko's reaction may also concern reports filed last week that Russian troops, possibly border guards have throttled traffic in the Mariupol region in favor of Russian military convoys.
According to Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin, pro Russian guerrillas in the Kharkov region have been active recently with attacks against Ukrainian officials, and may be a reason why Poroshenko sought to move more troops to the region.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/05/2014 7:31 Comments ||
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Now that we've all had our sock-puppet elections, back to the business at hand, and the NATO brass can make it back to Brussels in time for their 'Full Moon Beer Bust'.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/05/2014 7:46 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... 's grandiose new presidential palace is costing Turkey more than $600 million, nearly twice previous estimates, the country's finance minister said Tuesday.
The vast new 1,000-room palace -- more than 30 times larger than the White House and bigger even than La Belle France's sprawling Palace of Versailles -- has been condemned by the opposition as an absurd extravagance that showed Erdogan was slipping towards authoritarian rule.
Answering questions from opposition MPs, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said that the palace was costing around 1.37 billion Turkish lira (490 million euros, $615 million).
This included over 300 million lira ($135 million) that has been allocated in the budget for 2015, he added -- a steep rise on previously quoted price tag of $350 million.
Simsek also revealed that another new Erdogan acquisition -- a brand new Airbus A330-200 presidential jet -- has cost $185 million.
Erdogan held the first official event at the new presidential palace on October 29 to mark Turkey's annual republic day.
But in a sign the building may not be entirely ready, all other official events are still being held at the president's former Cankaya residence and it is not clear when all functions will transfer to the new complex.
The palace, built in forest land on the outskirts of Ankara, has been dubbed by the press as the Ak Saray (White Palace) but is officially known as the Cumhurbaskanligi Sarayi (Presidential Palace).
Some Erdogan critics have compared the 200,000 square meters (2.1 million square feet) edifice to the People's Palace built by Romania's communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu ...late Communist dictator of Romania, where he was executed by a firing squad organized by his indignant subjects. While he was alive Old Nick was the subject of periodic mandatory adoring rallies and was respected in Washington because he wasn't Like All the Other Commies... , but it is actually smaller than the building in Bucharest.
The post of president has been a largely ceremonial in Turkey until Erdogan took office in August after over a decade as prime minister.
He vowed to wield real power, something he has clearly done in his first weeks in office, clearly remaining Turkey's number one. Civil servants and advisers working for the president are also likely to be housed in the palace.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is to move into the Cankaya Palace in downtown Ankara which was once home to the modern republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
For the opposition, the new palace marks another betrayal by Erdogan of Turkey's secular heritage bequeathed by Ataturk, who based the republic on a strict separation of religion and state.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2014 00:00 ||
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When they start building monuments to themselves, the end is usually in sight.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/05/2014 7:48 Comments ||
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h/t Instapundit
A few years back, when I got my first LED-based lightbulb, it seemed natural to stick it into a wattmeter to get a sense of its efficiency. At under 15 Watts of power drawn, it clearly beat any incandescent bulbs I'd ever put into the same lamp. But I was disappointed to find that it wasn't any better than a compact fluorescent bulb.
Based on the graph shown above, my experience was hardly unique; in fact, it was decidedly average. Although the technology behind LEDs had the potential to be far more efficient than any other lighting source, the complete LED bulb package wasn't doing that much better at the time than the far more mature fluorescent bulbs, which output roughly 60 lumens for every Watt put in.
After some small boosts in 2013, however, a new generation of more efficient LEDs hit the market this year, raising the typical efficiency to nearly 100 lumens per Watt. The increased efficiency is coming at a time when prices for the bulbs continue to drop; given their expected lifetimes, they're now far and away the most economical choice for most uses.
#2
I might look into them as soon as I run out of CFLs (which, though I don't like them, do put out a much brighter light and do draw less power, and last a whole lot longer than incandescents).
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/05/2014 20:43 Comments ||
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the a19 cree bulb currently on sale at home depot
does about 85 lumens/watt
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/05/2014 21:11 Comments ||
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[FREEBEACON] A University of Arizona instructor is facing criticism for claiming that the U.S. military is "a greater threat" than the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) and for portraying American soldiers as anti-Moslem rapists who commit crimes on par with--or even worse than--IS itself.
University of Arizona instructor Musa al-Gharbi--who also serves as an academic affiliate at the university's Southwest Initiative for the Study of Middle East Conflicts (SISMEC)--drew the controversial comparison between IS (also known as ISIL or ISIS) and U.S. soldiers in a recent column arguing that America's moral outrage at IS's crimes is hypocritical.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/05/2014 00:00 ||
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"Americans are worse than Israelis, who are worse than the Americans."
#2
....arguing that America's moral outrage at IS's crimes is hypocritical.
He's only a bit confused. It's the Champ's moral courage regarding ISIS that is hypocritical. If he were not conflicted by his obvious allegiance to the prophet, he would pursue ISIS more aggressively.
#3
This just demonstrates that they'll let anyone be a university instructor, as long as they don't have to give him tenure. He'll probably get an endowed chair paid for by the Saudis.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/05/2014 7:36 Comments ||
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I'm sure it can be arranged for the professor too go teach in IS held territory. See how appalled he is after 2 weeks. If he survivds that long.
Posted by: chris ||
11/05/2014 7:41 Comments ||
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#5
Same lies that spurred the suicides at Okinawa.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] A man who taxied his light plane down a street in Australia and parked it at a pub while he went inside for a beer was being questioned Monday by police, who were not amused.
[An Nahar] President 
[FREEBEACON] A University of Arizona instructor is facing criticism for claiming that the U.S. military is "a greater threat" than the 
