NASA dixit:
“On Sept. 6, after bidding farewell to the crew remaining aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA and Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos undocked from the orbital outpost to begin their return trip to Earth. They spent 172 days aboard the ISS, conducting research and operational work in support of the station.”
Video credit: NASA
NASA dixit:
“The SpaceX CRS-9 Dragon cargo craft departed the International Space Station Aug. 26 after five weeks at the complex. Dragon delivered critical science experiments and the first International Docking Adapter to which U.S. commercial spacecraft will link up to in the future. Using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins released the Dragon and monitored the resupply spacecraft as it backed away to a safe distance from the station for its deorbit engine firing that would enable the ship to enter the Earth’s atmosphere for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California. Dragon returned about one and a half tons of science experiments and other cargo that will be collected once it reaches port in Long Beach, California. Dragon launched July 18 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and arrived at the station July 20.”
Video credit: NASA
United Launch Alliance dixit:
“The Air Force’s AFSPC-6 payload, encapsulated inside a 4-meter diameter payload fairing, is transported and mated to a Delta IV rocket at Space Launch Complex-37. AFSPC-6 will deliver two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites to near-geoÂsynchronous orbit. The twin GSSAP spacecraft, built by Orbital ATK, will support U.S. Strategic Command space enhanced awareness operations.”
Wikipedia dixit:
“Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) is a major command of the United States Air Force, with its headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. AFSPC supports U.S. military operations worldwide through the use of many different types of satellite, launch and cyber operations. Operationally, AFSPC is an Air Force component command subordinate to U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), a unified combatant command.
More than 38,000 people perform AFSPC missions at 88 locations worldwide and comprises Regular Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard military personnel, Department of the Air Force Civilians (DAFC), and civilian military contractors. Composition consist of approximately 22,000 military personnel and 9,000 civilian employees, although their missions overlap.
AFSPC gained the cyber operations mission with the stand-up of 24th Air Force under AFSPC in August 2009. On 1 December 2009, the strategic nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) mission that AFSPC inherited from Air Combat Command (ACC) in 1993, and which ACC had inherited following the inactivation of Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1992, was transferred to the newly established Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). Spacelift operations at the East and West Coast launch bases provide services, facilities and range safety control for the conduct of DOD, NASA and commercial launches. Through the command and control of all DOD satellites, satellite operators provide force-multiplying effects—continuous global coverage, low vulnerability and autonomous operations. Satellites provide essential in-theater secure communications, weather and navigational data for ground, air and fleet operations and threat warning. Ground-based radar and Defense Support Program satellites monitor ballistic missile launches around the world to guard against a surprise missile attack on North America. Space surveillance radars provide vital information on the location of satellites and space debris for the nation and the world.
As of 2013, Air Force Space Command is considering Space Disaggregation, which would involve replacing a few large multimission satellites with larger numbers of smaller single purpose platforms. This could be used to defend against ASATs, by increasing the number of targets that needed to be attacked.”
Video credit: United Launch Alliance
Ergo dixit:
The NRO satellites are operated by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. The NRO missions are generally classified, so their exact purposes and orbital elements are not available to the public.
Wikipedia dixit:
“The Atlas V was developed by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services as part of the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program and made its inaugural flight on August 21, 2002. The vehicle operates out of Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Space Launch Complex 3-E at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services continues to market the Atlas V to commercial customers worldwide.
The Atlas V first stage, the Common Core Booster (CCB), is 12.5 ft (3.8 m) in diameter and 106.6 ft (32.5 m) in length. It is powered by a single Russian RD-180 main engine burning 627,105 lb (284,450 kg) of liquid oxygen and RP-1. The booster operates for about four minutes, providing about 4 meganewtons (860,000 lbf) of thrust. Thrust can be augmented with up to five Aerojet strap-on solid rocket boosters, each providing an additional 1.27 meganewtons (285,500 lbf) of thrust for 94 seconds. The Atlas V is the newest member of the Atlas family. Compared to the Atlas III vehicle, there are numerous changes. Compared to the Atlas II, the first stage is a near-redesign. There was no Atlas IV. The “1.5 staging” technique was dropped on the Atlas III, although the same RD-180 engine is used. The RD-180 features a dual-combustion chamber, dual-nozzle design and is fueled by a kerosene/liquid oxygen mixture. The main-stage diameter increased from 10 feet to 12.5 feet. As with the Atlas III, the different mixture ratio of the engine called for a larger oxygen tank (relative to the fuel tank) compared to Western engines and stages. The first stage tanks no longer use stainless steel monocoque “balloon” construction. The tanks are isogrid aluminum and are structurally stable when unpressurized. Use of aluminum, with a higher thermal conductivity than stainless steel, requires insulation for the liquid oxygen. The tanks are covered in a polyurethane-based layer. Accommodation points for parallel stages, both smaller solids and identical liquids, are built into first stage structures.
The Centaur upper stage uses a pressure stabilized propellant tank design and cryogenic propellants. The Centaur stage for Atlas V is stretched 5.5 ft (1.68 m) relative to the Atlas IIAS Centaur and is powered by either one or two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10A-4-2 engines, each engine developing a thrust of 99.2 kN (22,300 lbf). The inertial navigation unit (INU) located on the Centaur provides guidance and navigation for both the Atlas and Centaur, and controls both Atlas and Centaur tank pressures and propellant use. The Centaur engines are capable of multiple in-space starts, making possible insertion into low Earth parking orbit, followed by a coast period and then insertion into GTO. A subsequent third burn following a multi-hour coast can permit direct injection of payloads into geostationary orbit. As of 2006, the Centaur vehicle had the highest proportion of burnable propellant relative to total mass of any modern hydrogen upper stage and hence can deliver substantial payloads to a high energy state.
The standard payload fairing sizes are 4 or 5 meters in diameter. The 4.2-meter fairing, originally designed for the Atlas II booster, comes in three different lengths, the original 9-meter high version, as well as fairings 10 meters (first flown on the AV-008/Astra 1KR launch) and 11 meters (seen on the AV-004/Inmarsat-4 F1 launch) high. Lockheed Martin had the 5.4-meter (4.57 meters usable) payload fairing for the Atlas V developed and built by RUAG Space (former Oerlikon Space) in Switzerland. The RUAG fairing uses carbon fiber composite construction, based on flight-proven hardware from the Ariane 5. Three configurations will be manufactured to support the Atlas V. The short (10-meter long) and medium (13-meter long) configurations will be used on the Atlas V 500 series. The 16-meter long configuration would be used on the Atlas V Heavy. The classic fairing covers only the payload, leaving the Centaur stage exposed to open air. The RUAG fairing encloses the Centaur stage as well as the payload.”
Video credit: United Launch Alliance
NASA dixit:
“The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket on July 18 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware in support of the Expedition 48 and 49 crew aboard the International Space Station. About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon reached its preliminary orbit, deployed its solar arrays and began a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to begin its two-day journey to the station. […]
On July 20, two days after launching from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida , the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware in support of the station’s Expedition 48 and 49 crews. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams used the station’s robotic arm, which he controlled from the station’s cupola, to capture the Dragon. Ground controllers in Houston then sent commands instructing the robot arm to install Dragon on the Earth-facing side of the station’s Harmony module. During the next five weeks, crew members will unload the spacecraft and reload it with cargo to return to Earth. About five-and-a-half hours after it departs the station Aug. 29, it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.”
Video credit: NASA
NASA dixit:
“Two days after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the unpiloted Russian ISS Progress 64 cargo ship automatically docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment on the Russian segment of the International Space Station July 18. The new Progress is delivering three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the six crewmembers comprising the Expedition 48 crew. The Progress will remain attached to the station until late January, when it will undock and commanded to deorbit so it can burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Video credit: NASA / Roscosmos
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