Bad altitude reading leaves ESA with a destroyed lander on Mars

European Space Agency officials reported Wednesday that one-second of misinterpreted data lead to the crash of the Schiaparelli lander on the surface of Mars. The lander's Internal Measurement Unit, or IMU, gave the spacecraft's navigation computer the wrong data making it think that it had already landed onto the surface when it was about 12,000ft (3,700m) above the surface. The nine thrusters were supposed to fire for about 30 seconds to help slow the descent of the lander to land but hit the ground at nearly 200mph(300km/h) causing the craft too, which they believe, explode since the fuel tanks were full. This landing would've been ESA's first successful landing on Mars to pave the way for the ExoMars mission to launch in July 2020. Officials believe that they will learn enough information from the crash to keep the 2020 mission on track to a successful landing. 

Cygnus launches toward the International Space Station

Orbital ATK's Antares rocket carrying Cygnus launched from

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Wallops Island, Virginia en route to resupply the International Space Station. Antares carried Cygnus off the pad at 7:46pm EDT igniting its new engines for the first time since the failure back in 2014. Cygnus was separated from the Castor 30XL solid fuel second stage at approximately 7:55pm EDT, 9 minutes after liftoff. Both of the spacecraft's solar arrays were successfully deployed around 9:28PM EDT and is now awaiting to approach the International Space Station. Cygnus has to wait for the new arrival of the 3 new crew members arriving at the station Friday in a Soyuz spacecraft. The station crew members will capture Cygnus and is expected to dock Sunday, around 7:05am EDT. 

Orbital ATK Antares to launch to ISS this afternoon

Orbital ATK is going to launch their Cygnus spacecraft

today aboard the Antares rocket to resupply the International Space Station. Antares will launch from Wallops Island, Virginia at 7:40pm EDT. Cygnus will carry over 5,300lbs of cargo to the ISS. Antares and Cygnus were rolled out to the pad and raised vertically over the weekend and was supposed to launch yesterday but was scrubbed due to an error with a ground equipment cable. 9 minutes after launch, Cygnus will separate from the second stage and deploy its solar arrays about 1 hour and 20 minutes after. Once Cygnus rendezvous, the crew will grapple the spacecraft with the canadarm and dock it to the ISS. After the mission at the station is over, it will undock from the ISS and conduct the Sapphire-2 Space Combustion experiment from NASA's Glenn Research Center to

burn material and study open flames in space. During this time, Cygnus will deploy several small CubeSats from an external NanoRacks deployer. At the end of the mission, Cygnus will conduct a safe reentry over the Atlantic Ocean, completing the mission. All photos credit of Orbital ATK.

China launches two crew members to Tiangong-2 Station

China successfully launched 2 crew members on their Shenzhou-11 rocket to the Tiangong-2 space lab for 30 days. The spacecraft will dock with the space station in 2 days and they will conduct experiments related to medicine and physics. The spacecraft will undock and land back to Earth 1 day after undocking. The landing is planned to occur on November 19th. This will mark another step forward for the countries goal of creating a permanent station in space by the 2020s. The full video of this launch can be viewed here.

Blue Origin tests in-flight abort

On October 5th, Blue Origin launched it's reused New Shepard rocket to test their in-flight abort system for the crew capsule in case something were to go wrong. Video of the in-flight abort test can be viewed here.

NOAA to launch GOES-R Weather Satellite

NOAA is going to launch a new weather satellite that will give new High-Definition data for weather predictions. GOES-R will launch aboard an Atlas V rocket into a Geostationary orbit above the US on November 4th at 5:40pm EDT. This data will give a real-time view of the weather in a way we've never seen it before. Some members of the media had a chance to view the Spacecraft before in the Astrotech cleanroom and learn about its functions and the instruments used onboard. They described the upgrade in the imagery as going from Black and White TV to Full HD, so the change is going to be huge. 

Next launch to the Space Station by Orbital ATK

Antares being prepped for launch

Orbital ATK is currently targeting a launch date no earlier than October 9th-13th for the launch of the Cygnus spacecraft. Cygnus will launch atop Orbital ATK's Antares 230 rocket and will be the first time it has flown since the failure on October 28th, 2014. This will also be the first Enhanced Cygnus to fly into orbit and to the Space Station. They will launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. A final specific date of the launch will be announced once the final operation milestones and technical reviews are finished. Media credentialing has been opened and the deadline for US Citizens is September 30th. Members of the media should send their accreditation request to keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov.

Falcon 9 could launch from SpaceX's other launchpads

Jason-3 set to launch at the VAFB in California
on  January 17th, 2016

SpaceX is still looking into what caused the Falcon 9 to explode on September 1st before the static fire, but have hopes to return to flight in November. SpaceX has leased NASA's old Space Shuttle launch complex 39A to turn into a new launch pad that can launch the Falcon Heavy as well as Falcon 9 rockets. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president, said that they hope to launch Falcon 9 missions from LC-39A. SpaceX also has a launch site in California at the Vandenberg Air Force Base to help support missions. 

NASA's OSIRIS-REx launches toward the asteroid Bennu

NASA's OSIRIS-REx launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 8th at 7:05pm EDT. It launched atop an Atlas V rocket with one strap-on solid rocket booster in the 411 configuration. The probe's purpose is to go to the asteroid Bennu and collect a surface sample. The spacecraft has many scientific instruments to learn about the asteroid and monitor it. It has specially designed solar arrays that can gimbal toward the sun and are extended pointed away from the asteroid. OSIRIS-Rex is also one of the few

spacecraft's to have many small thrusters on its body to help with orientation and translation. The surface sample will be taken by an arm on the spacecraft that extends outward. It's a telescoping arm so the surface sampler can touch the surface for about the 3 seconds it needs for the correct amount of it. It releases nitrogen gas to push the regolith or light surface rock, into the sample canisters. It'll put the canister into the sample return capsule and go on its return trip back to Earth, where the capsule will parachute back into Utah and the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere. It is planned to return in September of 2023. 

NASA's Historic Spacecraft to launch this evening

Photo from the Kennedy Space Center
Facebook page

Tonight at 7:05pm EDT, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on an Atlas V. The Atlas V is in its 411 configuration with a 4m fairing, 1 solid rocket booster, and 1 centaur upper stage engine. The weather has improved to a 90% chance of favourable weather. More than 8,000 viewers are at KCS to view the launch of this historic mission to the Asteroid Bennu. View the live broadcast of the launch here on NASA TV. 

Falcon 9 explodes during static fire fueling

On September 1st around 9:07am EDT a Falcon 9 rocket with AMOS-6 was fueling for the planned hold down firing of its nine Merlin engines when an anomaly occurred causing the loss of the rocket and the payload that costed around $200 million. A few days before launch, SpaceX raises the launch vehicle vertical and begins fueling it and go through a regular launch sequence. Then, they ignite all nine Merlin engines to ensure that everything is functioning correctly and usually lasts a few seconds. During the fueling process, an explosion occurred around the area where the strongback umbilical connects to the second stage. This caused the tanks to rupture under pressure and

the liquid contents of the second stage ignited and poured down onto the first stage. The structural integrity of the first stage weakened and the tanks ruptured, which caused the second large explosion. The cause of the initial ignition is still unknown, but the SpaceX team is working hard to find the cause so they can return to flight as soon as possible. The explosion of the rocket caused damage to the launch pad and major damage to the strongback. This event is not like what happened during CRS-7 last year when a broken strut caused an overpressurization event in the second stage resulting in the loss of the vehicle and payload. With this also being an issue with the second stage, this creates a larger setback for SpaceX's launch manifest. SES also stated that what happened doesn't change their plans on launching with a recovered booster. SES-10 was set to launch sometime in October, but with damage to the pad and strongback it may be

pushed back. All photos used are credited to US Launch report who also captured this intense video of the explosion. Updates to this anomaly can be found at SpaceX's website here.