The Week in Space History #8
February 17-23 Friendship 7, Fire on Mir, Pluto, Tortillas, and Enterprise
News Worth Your Time-
Starship is going to be a beast. 50% power is nearly as powerful as SLS and more powerful than a Saturn V. The mid-2020s and beyond are going to be a wild time!
More SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission news-
Jared Isaacman, commander of the private Polaris Dawn mission, shared this on Twitter after being asked about how the Dragon spacecraft has been modified to be able to support an EVA.
93 Years Ago-
On February 18, 1930, 24-year-old American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto.
Tombaugh exposed photographic plates with a camera attached to a telescope. This painstaking work meant that he compared the plates with a tool called a blink comparator. This microscope-like setup allowed astronomers to “blink” back and forth between two images, which helped them spot when an object in the image moved.
Even if Pluto isn’t a planet anymore, it’s still an incredible world that was finally visited by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015.
Please take a moment to check out my shop- Starlight and Gleam. There’s FREE shipping on all orders with the code SUBSTACK, so check out the site and snag something nice for yourself or someone special. Also, check out this glow-in-the-dark Lunar Module and Command Module, plus a holographic Space Shuttle sticker- available in this 3-pack!
64 Years Ago-
On February 17, 1959, the United States launched Vanguard 2, a spacecraft that was designed to study the sunlight that was reflected from Earth’s cloud cover.
During the launch, the third stage of the rocket nudged the Vanguard 2 satellite, causing it to develop a precession or wobble. Per NASA:
“The sensor system worked well, indicating in considerable detail the variations of the reflected earth radiation received by the satellite, but the data proved difficult to reduce because the satellite developed a large precession that caused it to move erratically, shifting its attitude relative to the earth.24 Although the experimenters were therefore unable to make a complete mapping of the earth's cloud cover, the experience gained from the flight helped in designing and carrying out later meteorological experiments.”
The International Geophysical Year, or IGY, was proposed as an international cooperation to study geophysics at a global scale. The IGY took place during a period of maximum solar activity from 1957 to 1958. While Vanguard 2 wasn’t launched during this time, it was still part of the effort that started during the IGY.
61 Years Ago-
61 years ago, at 9:47 a.m. EST on February 20, 1962, American astronaut John Glenn launched into space atop a Mercury-Atlas rocket on the third flight of Project Mercury. According to NASA, the launch was nominal, the “powered portion of the flight which lasted 5 minutes and 1 second was completely normal and the astronaut was able to make all of the planned communications and observations throughout this period.”
The first two Mercury launches were suborbital missions on the Redstone launch vehicle. Astronaut Alan Shepard and his Freedom 7 capsule and Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Liberty Bell 7 experienced weightlessness for a few moments on their ballistic trajectories. NASA had something different planned for Mercury-Atlas 6. John Glenn’s Friendship 7 spacecraft was placed into orbit around Earth.
During his first spaceflight, Glenn orbited the Earth three times over a period of 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. Here’s a vintage NASA video about Glenn’s historic flight.
The first orbital flight for America wasn’t without its hiccups.
“During the flight only two major problems were encountered: (1) a yaw attitude control jet apparently clogged at the end of the first orbit, forcing the astronaut to abandon the automatic control system for the manual-electrical fly-by-wire system; and (2) a faulty switch in the heat shield circuit indicated that the clamp holding the shield had been prematurely released - a signal later found to be false.”
That faulty switch for the heat shield meant that the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere in a manner that no other Mercury capsule had tried. Eventually it was decided that the retrofire pack that’s usually jettisoned would kept in place. Flight controllers felt that doing that could prevent the heatshield from coming off of the spacecraft during reentry.
I read through the report titled “Results of the First United States Manned Orbital Spaceflight” a few years ago. This report covers everything from Glenn’s workout routine to reentry. My favorite part of this document is the pilot’s flight report. Glenn describes the sensation of entering orbit.
“When the sustainer engine cutoff at 5 minutes, 1.4 seconds and the acceleration dropped to zero, I had a slight sensation of tumbling forward… There was no doubt when the clamp ring between the Atlas and the Mercury spacecraft fired. There was a loud report and I immediately felt the force of the posigrade rockets which separate the spacecraft from the launch vehicle. Prior to the flight I had imagined that the acceleration from these three small rockets would be insignificant and that we might fail to sense them entirely, but there is no doubt when they fire.” Glenn’s assessment of the thruster problem warranted this short response, “it was necessary to control the spacecraft manually for the last two orbits. This requirement introduced no serious problems, and actually provided me with an opportunity to demonstrate what a man can do in controlling a spacecraft. However, it limited the time that could be spent on many of the experiments I had hoped to carry out during the flight.”
His description of starting reentry over the California coast is something new that I’ve never heard before. “I could hear each rocket fire and could feel the surge as the rockets slowed the spacecraft. Coming out of zero-g condition, the retrorocket firing produced the sensation that I was accelerating back toward Hawaii. This sensation, of course, was an illusion.”
Reentering Earth’s atmosphere with the retropack still on meant that Glenn could see parts of it breaking off the spacecraft during reentry, “there was a noise and a bump on the spacecraft. I saw one of the straps that holds the retrorocket package swing in front of the window… Flaming pieces were breaking off and flying past the spacecraft window. At the time, these observations were of some concern to me because I was not sure what they were. I had assumed that the retropack had been jettisoned when I saw the strap in front of the window. I thought these flaming pieces might be parts of the heat shield breaking off. We know now, of course, that the pieces were from the retropack.”
Glenn and Friendship 7 splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, concluding the first American orbital flight. Project Mercury was crucial because it proved that humans could function in weightlessness and in orbit. Projects Gemini and Apollo expanded on the foundation laid during the Mercury program.
46 Years Ago-
On February 18, 1977, the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise took to the air for the first time. Enterprise spent this flight attached to the 747, but no crew were onboard the orbiter, but it was an important milestone for the Shuttle program.
Enterprise took her first free flight on August 12, 1977, with astronauts Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton at the controls. A series of approach and landing tests culminated with the final free flight of Enterprise on October 26, 1977. Enterprise never flew into space since the refit that would have been required to make the shuttle spaceworthy was too extensive and expensive. Check out episode 90 of The Space Shot for some history of the ships named Enterprise.
51 Years Ago-
On February 21, 1972, the Soviet Union’s Luna 20 spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface.
31 Years Ago-
On February 22, 1978, the first GPS satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Navstar 1 was one of eleven GPS Block 1 satellites that “were used to demonstrate the feasibility of the GPS system.”
If you’ve ever used a smartphone map application like Waze, Google Maps, or, god forbid, Apple Maps, you’ve used an app made possible by the latest generation of GPS satellites. (I want to love Apple Maps, heck, I even worked for Apple, so I’m rooting for them, but that app needs some serious improvements before I will use it every day.)
The GPS satellite constellation was originally created by the United States Department of Defense to provide navigation for American forces around the world in any weather. Like so many pieces of technology, its dual use and utility for civilian applications became apparent.
Apps like Uber and Lyft rely on GPS, fans of Geocaching rely on these satellites, as do private pilots, anyone that wants to track pieces of equipment, or parents that track the movement of their kids with smartphones.
It’s an incredible technology that’s made our lives so much easier. I can remember the days of printing off maps from MapQuest or using a paper map while on a road trip. I could still get places, it just wasn’t as easy or seamless.
27 Years Ago-
On February 22, 1996, the Shuttle Columbia launched on the STS-75 mission. This flight of Columbia is notable because the shuttle carried the Tethered Satellite System, which was a joint American and Italian science experiment.
A satellite was attached to a 12.8-mile-long tether that was slowly released over the first few days of the flight. The tether snapped right before it was fully deployed, sending the satellite speeding away from the shuttle. The goal of the experiment was “to study electrodynamics of a tether system in electrically charged portion of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere.” The tether reached voltages of 3,500 volts, which was greater than scientists had predicted.
The NASA press release for STS-75 explains why tethers are important to study:
“Tethered systems can be used to generate thrust to compensate for atmospheric drag on orbiting platforms such as the international Space Station. Deploying a tether towards Earth could place movable science platforms in hard-to-study atmospheric zones. Tethers also could be used as antennas to transmit extremely low frequency signals able to penetrate land and sea water, providing for communications not possible with standard radio. Non-electrical tethers can be used to generate artificial gravity and to boost payloads to higher orbits.”
NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, payload commander of STS-75, is seen below preparing a bean burrito.
In another February piece of history, happy birthday to astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela, the first Mexican citizen to orbit Earth and the first person to bring tortillas to space during the STS-61B mission in 1985. Rodolfo was born on February 19, 1952, happy birthday! If you ask me, tortillas are the ultimate space food since they can be used for everything from tacos to pizza and more! (There’s an argument to be made that tortillas are also the ultimate food here on Earth, too, haha.)
26 Years Ago-
Depending on your time zone, on February 23 or 24, 1997, a fire broke out on the Mir Space Station.
A chemical oxygen generator or “candle” as they were called caught fire, and since that canister delivered pure oxygen, it accelerated the fire quite quickly.
I’ve talked about the chemical reaction that’s used in this type of canister before, way back in episode 83 of the Space Shot. Emergency oxygen masks on airplanes use chemically generated oxygen in the event of cabin depressurization.
The fire wasn’t just a small burning piece of material either. “The fire resembled a box full of fireworks sparklers, all burning at once. The flame shot out about two to three feet in length.” NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger reported that pieces of metal were “flying across and splattering on the other bulkhead.”
The fire also generated an extreme amount of smoke, causing the astronauts and cosmonauts to experience poor visibility, not a good thing when you’re trying to fight a fire.
Fires in space are always a concern, but in this case, the crew had to react even more quickly because the fire blocked access to the Soyuz capsule that could be used as a lifeboat should the crew need to abandon the station.
With masks on and fire extinguishers in hand, the crew worked to put out the fire with the foam extinguishers throughout Mir. The microgravity environment meant that two people had to work together to use a fire extinguisher since the force of the foam could move its operator. Yay for Newton’s third law.
NASA and Roscosmos reports stated the fire lasted for 90 seconds, but Jerry Linenger said the fire ended up lasting a lot longer, nearly 15 minutes.
After the fire was extinguished, the temperature inside the burnt module of Mir was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The crew was able to avoid serious exposure to smoke, thanks to their quick action donning masks.
The fire in February of 1997 wasn’t the first or last trouble for Mir. In June of 1997, just months after the fire, a Progress resupply craft collided with the Spektr module of the station. Check out this NASA article for pictures of the fire and more about this incident.
6 Years Ago-
SpaceX launched CRS-10 on February 19, 2017.
5 Years Ago-
On February 22, 2018, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Paz satellite and the two prototype Starlink satellites, named Tintin A & B. Since this first flight, SpaceX has rapidly expanded its Starlink constellation, now providing internet service around the world. One of my best friends relies on Starlink connectivity at his house in rural Colorado. He’s been happy with the speeds and latency but says Starlink customer service can take weeks to respond at times.