Saturday, August 23, 2014

SPACE-X Rocket Explodes, ESA Sats In Wrong Orbit

Hey Space Placers!

As I prepare to give my talk on "The Future of U.S. Manned Spaceflight" today at Almost Heaven Star Party, two incidents remind us that getting to space is not easy.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today that two of their Galileo GPS satellites that were just launched on 8/22/14 by a Soyuz rocket are in the wrong orbit. The satellites are under control and safe. ESA is assessing the situation and will decide on the appropriate course of action.

A Space X Falcon 9R rocket exploded on Friday during a fight test. The F9R is designed to be a reusable rocket and Elon Musk commented in a Tweet after the incident that "Rockets are Tricky".

Both of these incidents show us that access to space is not easy. Each organization will review data and telemetry to determine what happened, make corrections and try again.

Sky Guy in VA

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