Tag Archives: spacecrafts

Everything You Should Know About Cosmos-482: The Soviet Spacecraft’s Return to Earth After 53 Years

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The robotic Soviet spacecraft has been floating in space for 53 years. It will return to Earth later this week.

Launched in March 1972, the Kosmos-482 was meant to land on the dynamic surface of Venus, marking the ninth mission in the Soviet Venella program. However, a malfunction left it orbiting Earth, where it has been circling ever since.

“This artifact was slated for Venus 50 years ago, lost and forgotten for half a century,” stated Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He pointed to the Public Catalog of space objects, adding, “Although it’s headed for the wrong planet, it will still create a moment of atmospheric entry.”

Having a protective heat shield, the spacecraft weighs roughly 1,050 pounds and is built to endure its descent through Venus’s harsh atmosphere, meaning it may survive the plunge and reach at least partway to the surface.

Nonetheless, the chance of ground impact is minimal.

“I’m not concerned—I’m not warning my friends to hide,” said Darren McKnight, Advanced Technology Fellow at Leo Labs, a company tracking orbital objects, which monitors Kosmos-482 six times daily. “We typically see a large object re-enter Earth’s atmosphere about once a week.”

The estimates are updated daily, but the current anticipated re-entry date is Friday or Saturday. The New York Times will provide updated estimates as they arise.

According to the Aerospace Corporation, which monitors space debris, there is a predicted re-entry window of 12:42 AM Eastern Time on May 10, with a margin of error of 19 hours. Window Calculation

Marco Langroek, a satellite tracker at Delft Institute of Technology, has been monitoring Cosmos-482 for several years and estimates a re-entry around 4:37 AM Eastern Time on May 10, with similar uncertainties.

The exact landing spot remains unknown. “And we won’t know until after it happens,” Dr. McDowell noted.

The Kosmos-482 travels at over 17,000 mph, and atmospheric friction slows it down rapidly, making timing crucial; even a slight miscalculation could land it in a completely different location.

What is certain is that the orbit of Kosmos-482 encompasses latitudes between 52°N and 52°S, covering large sections of Africa, Australia, North America, and much of Europe and Asia.

“There are three outcomes when an object re-enters: splashing, destruction, or injury,” Dr. McKnight remarked.

“A splash is ideal,” he added, noting that much of the Earth is ocean, while the undesired outcomes would be “destruction” or “injury.”

If Kosmos-482 endures the re-entry, it will impact at approximately 150 miles per hour, provided its heat shield remains intact. “I doubt much will remain after that,” Dr. McDowell stated. “Imagine crashing a car into a wall at 150 mph; not much would be left.”

If it returns over a populated area during nighttime, observers may see Kosmos-482 as bright streaks racing across the sky.

Should any part of the spacecraft survive the descent, it will legally be owned by Russia.

“Under international law, any found object must be returned,” explained Michelle Hanlon, Executive Director of the Aerospace Law Center at the University of Mississippi. “Russia is recognized as the registered owner and retains jurisdiction over the objects.”

Roughly 25 years ago, Dr. McDowell sifted through Norad’s catalog of some 25,000 orbital objects, attempting to identify each one. He often found the answer was, “this is debris from a rather dull rocket explosion.”

However, one object, 6073, stood out; launched from Kazakhstan in 1972, it traveled between 124 and 6,000 miles from Earth in a highly elliptical orbit.

Analyzing its trajectory and dimensions led Dr. McDowell to theorize it was likely the much-anticipated Kosmos-482 lander rather than merely debris from a failed launch, a hypothesis confirmed by multiple ground observations and recently declassified Soviet documents.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Boeing executives stay mum following Starliner spacecraft’s return

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summary

  • Boeing executives have made few public comments about the company’s Starliner spacecraft in the past six weeks.
  • The capsule returned to Earth without any crew on Saturday, ending a trouble-plagued test flight.
  • Boeing representatives did not attend a scheduled post-landing briefing.

Just over an hour after Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft returned empty to Earth, NASA held its regular post-landing briefing to discuss the conclusion of the eventful test flight.

Conspicuous by the absence of any Boeing representatives at the event early Saturday morning.

In fact, the last time Boeing representatives attended a press conference about the Starliner program was in late July, when the capsule was experiencing hardware issues that caused it to stay a few weeks longer than planned at the International Space Station, and questions were swirling about whether the two NASA astronauts who had been sent into orbit aboard the Boeing-built spacecraft would be able to return home safely.

NASA officials say they are working closely with Boeing, but the company’s absence from the event and limited public statements have raised questions about its commitment to transparency and the future of the Starliner program.

Boeing did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the change in the company’s name recognition.

Ahead of a post-landing news conference held last week at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA’s public advisory included the names of two Boeing executives who will be participating.

Eric Berger, a senior editor at Ars Technica, was there. Written About X Shortly before the press conference began, two chairs were removed from the podium, in what appeared to be a last-minute change in configuration.

Joel Montalbano, NASA’s associate administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate, Asked about Boeing’s absence During the briefing

“We spoke to Boeing prior to this, and they gave NASA the concession to represent them on this mission,” he said.

A few days later, in response to a question from NBC News, a NASA spokesperson referred Montalbano to his response at the press conference.

Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for Boeing’s commercial crew programs, instead attended the briefing. A statement on the company’s website.

“I commend the Starliner team for their hard work in ensuring a successful and safe undocking, deorbit, re-entry, and landing,” he wrote. “We will review the data and determine next steps for the program.”

Boeing said the capsule would be transported to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where engineers would analyze the flight data. No other details about the spacecraft’s status were released.

Starliner launched astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station in early June. The capsule’s first manned test flight was scheduled to last about eight days. However, a helium leak from the spacecraft’s propulsion system and a thruster failure while docking with the space station kept Starliner and its crew in space for months.

NASA held several media briefings over the summer to provide updates on the ongoing investigation into the thruster issue and how its findings might affect the remainder of the flight. Initially, NASA and Boeing officials attended the briefings jointly, but no Boeing representatives were present at the August press conference.

That month, NASA was considering how and when to return Wilmore and Williams safely. Asked why Boeing was absent from most of the briefings in August, NASA officials said the updates were for NASA consideration and therefore no company representatives were included.

On August 24, NASA announced it would ask SpaceX to return the astronauts and fly Boeing’s Starliner back to Earth without a crew member. The pair will stay on the space station until February, after which they will return with the next ISS crew.

in X Statement In response to NASA’s decision, Boeing wrote: “Our focus remains first and foremost on the safety of our crew and spacecraft. We are conducting the mission in accordance with NASA’s decision and are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”

The Starliner spacecraft ultimately returned safely to Earth, landing at White Sands Spaceport in New Mexico just after midnight on Saturday.

The manned test flight was intended to demonstrate that Boeing could reliably transport astronauts to the space station and pave the way for NASA to approve regular flights to the orbital laboratory.

Boeing developed the Starliner spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an effort launched in 2011 to support privately built spacecraft to fill the gap left by NASA’s retired space shuttle fleet.

Even before its latest flight, the Starliner program was more than $1.5 billion over budget and years behind schedule: In 2019, an uncrewed test flight to the space station was canceled due to technical issues, forcing the company to wait until 2022 to try again.

Rival company SpaceX is developing its Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of the same program, with regular flights to the space station beginning in 2020. NASA has said it wants two private companies to certify such flights so it has redundant options for reaching low Earth orbit.

Source: www.nbcnews.com