Success! Cygnus Spaceship Launch Restarts Orbital ATK Cargo Missions for NASA

As reported by Space.com: With a brilliant afternoon launch, the private spaceflight company Orbital ATK returned its Cygnus cargo ship to flight after a year on hiatus Sunday (Dec. 6), launching vital supplies and NASA gear to the International Space Station.

A UnitedLaunch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft on the OA-4 mission launches from the Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:44 p.m. EST on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015.
Credit: United Launch Alliance

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The unmanned Cygnus spacecraft blasted off from a pad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 4:44 p.m. EST (2144 GMT) Sunday after a three-day delay caused by bad weather. The liftoff marks the first resupply mission for NASA by Orbital ATK since the loss of its last Cygnus vehicle and Antares rocket in October 2014. The vehicle is expected to deliver nearly 4 tons of supplies, including a life sciences facility, microsatellite launcher, Microsoft HoloLens sets and other tools, when it arrives at the space station on Thursday (Dec. 10).

Orbital ATK was able to mount a second supply mission so quickly after last year's rocket failure by collaborating with the U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA), which provided the Atlas V rocket that lofted Cygnus into space Sunday evening. The mission is especially important because there have been two other delivery failures in the past year, one in June by rival U.S. company SpaceX and another by Russia's Federal Space Agency in April. [See photos from today's Orbital ATK Cygnus launch]

Astronauts on the space station were able to watch the launch from their vantage point in orbit, capturing a stunning view of the liftoff. "Caught something good on the horizon. #Cygnus at #sunset on its way to @space_station! #YearInSpace," NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who commands the station's six-man crew and is flying a one-year mission to the outpost, wrote on Twitter after launch.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on the International Space Station captured this view from orbit as the Cygnus cargo ship launching spaceward on an Atlas V rocket on Sunday, Dec. 6 2015.
Credit: NASA/Scott Kelly via Twitter (@StationCDRKelly)

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"Within a few days [of the failed launch last year], we had a plan," Frank Culbertson, Space Systems Group president at Orbital ATK and retired NASA astronaut, said in a press briefing Wednesday (Dec. 2). "With the help of our friends at ULA, who stepped forward and offered us a ride in a very short period of time, we've reached this point," which is, he added, less than 12 months from the first discussion to launch. "That's quite an accomplishment for the commercial space industry, in my opinion — I think it says a lot about what we can do to support NASA and all of exploration in space."

Cygnus separated from its Atlas V booster about 21 minutes after launching into orbit. It is due to rendezvous at the International Space Station on Thursday (Dec. 10). NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren will capture the Cygnus using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm and attach the cargo ship to an Earth-facing port on the outpost's Unity module. That connection will be the first berthing to the port in many years, NASA officials said. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who commands the station and is in the midst of a one-year mission in space, is Lindgren's backup.

A bigger, better Cygnus

How Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft service the space station. See how Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rockets works here.
Credit: Karl Tate,SPACE.comInfographics Artist

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Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft are autonomous vehicles designed to haul tons of freight to the space station, then burn up in Earth's atmosphere with trash and unneeded items aboard at mission's end. Orbital ATK names its Cygnus vehicles after astronauts, with the one launched Sundaychristened the S.S. Deke Slayton II in honor of the former NASA astronaut, one of the agency's original "Mercury Seven" spaceflyers.
Over the course of the successful first two flights in Orbital ATK's $1.9 billion, eight-flight contract with NASA, the company's Cygnus vehicles have delivered more than 7,940 lbs. (3,600 kilograms) to the space station and re-entered the atmosphere with 6,830 lbs. (3,100 kg) of trash. This time, an "enhanced Cygnus" craft is carrying more than 7,700 pounds (3,500 kg) of supplies up with it — it was able to carry even more than originally planned, due to the additional capacity of the Atlas V, Orbital ATK officials told Space.com.

The spacecraft has 25 percent more storage space than the old Cygnus and lighter solar arrays that unfold into two circular, outstretched wings to generate power. After about a month, the craft will return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

The next Cygnus launch, in March, will also ride to space on an Atlas V, but after that, Orbital ATK will debut an updated version of the company's Antares rocket.

Big science aboard

The Cygnus that launched Sunday is carrying several experiments on board, including a life sciences research module the size of a locker, a research project to evaluate flame-resistant and flame-retardant textiles in microgravity, an exploration of gas and liquid movement, and two different systems for networking small satellites or modular pieces into a larger whole. The vehicle is also carrying Microsoft HoloLens headsets that will let experts on Earth help station crewmembers with complicated tasks (originally set to be sent on the failed SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launch in June) and a safety jetpack for spacewalks.

Plus, Cygnus will bring several student experiments on board, five of which first took flight on earlier, failed launches over the past year, along with replacement parts for the space station and added consumables for the crew. (This includes a student-built satellite bearing a medallion that was blessed by the Pope.)

"I just can't emphasize enough how it's important to us, on board ISS, to have a regular cadence of resupply flights," Kirk Shireman, the program manager for ISS, said during the briefing. "We're so much looking forward to having Cygnus back on, and of starting a new era on ISS [going] back to regular resupply flights — that way we can utilize ISS like it was intended." Instead of focusing on catching up, NASA will be able to send up more new experiments and components for the crew.

Still, this flight will bring some goodies of its own when it docks on Thursday: "I'm guessing that Santa's sleigh is somewhere inside the Cygnus," Culbertson added. "And they're probably excited about their stockings coming up, too."

Porsche Is Charging Ahead With Mission E 'Tesla Killer' Electric Car

As reported by Forbes: Even Porsche is gunning for Tesla Motors these days. After floating the Mission E pure electric concept in September, Porsche is going ahead with production of the vehicle.

“The first 100% electrically powered Porsche is on its way. It will be launched at the end of the decade,” Porsche said Friday in a statement. Some highlights from the announcement:

Unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the four-door car with four individual seats has a system power output of over 440 kW (600 PS). The vehicle will thus achieve both acceleration of 0 to 100 km/h in under 3.5 seconds and a range of more than 500 kilometres. 

With the Mission E project, Porsche is continuing to back sustainable growth. In Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen alone more than 1,000 new jobs are being created. The company will be investing around 700 million euros in its main site there. Over the next few years, a new paint shop and a new assembly plant will be built. The existing engine factory is also being expanded for the production of electric motors. In addition, the existing body shop is being enlarged. On top of that come other areas in which the company will be investing in this context, such as in the Weissach development centre.

Other goodies include: an 800-volt charger that juices up the battery to 80 percent of the range in about 15 minutes. And the vehicle can optionally be recharged wirelessly by induction via a coil set into the garage floor, Porsche said.

The giant asterisk to all of the above is of course that Porsche is doing this by the end of the decade. The Tesla Model S is here and now.

Pro Drivers Go Headset-to-Headset in VR Race on Two Separate Tracks (Video)

As reported by The Wall Street Journal: In a race that fuses video-game technology and real world driving skill, two professional drivers, on two separate but identical tracks, have raced against each other while wearing virtual reality headsets attached to their crash helmets.

The race, which took place on November 10 at Los Angeles’ Santa Anita track, saw the drivers looking not at the actual road in front of them, but at a virtual reality representation of the track, infused with smoke, fire, waterfalls, and boulders.

The drivers, one of whom drove a stunt car in the latest James Bond film ‘Spectre,’ hurtled around the circuit in two identical 2015 V8 Ford Mustangs, trusting that what they were seeing on their Oculus Rift DK2 VR headsets was a true, real-time representation of how their cars were performing on the actual track.

“The main risk is, if I go blind and I can’t see where I’m going at 70 mph, I could thunder into a tree which would not feel very nice,” said U.K.-based stunt driver Ben Collins.

“The beautiful thing about virtual reality is you can press reset without killing yourself.”

To get the real-virtual mix right, technologists working for car oil company Castrol, which produced the event, mixed virtual reality with self-driving car technology.

One of the main challenges: tracking the cars’ exact positions as they sped around the track without the need for re-calibration. This was necessary so that an exact match could be achieved between what was happening on the physical track and its representation on the VR screens.

To track the cars, a system frequently used to navigate robots around a space was used, integrating a combination of physical, optical, and laser sensors gauged the position of the cars at high speeds during the race.

To get the two cars to communicate their locations without any significant transmission latency within the headset–which could cause the drivers to crash as they would not be accurately judging their vehicles’ orientation and locations– the technology team had to make sure that a fast Internet connection in the area of the race tracks would send all the data from the cars and the surrounding cameras and sensors to a powerful, on-site server.

The race comes as VR hardware and software is expected to hit the mainstream market in 2016, with companies like Facebook Inc. marketing the Oculus Rift VR headset and Sony Corp. promoting its PlayStation VR.

Google's New Computer 'Vision' Tech is Very Cool and Somewhat Terrifying

As reported by Business Insider: Google on Tuesday announced a new tool on Wednesday for app developers that's absolutely amazing and also a little disturbing: it lets apps, robots and drones "see."

The tech is called the Google Cloud Vision API and it allows any app developer to tap into Google's smart "machine learning" service that can identify objects, including faces and emotions.

Cloud Vision solves a hard computer problem of "seeing." For instance, your computer can scan and reproduce an image of a mountain or an image of a baby, but to the computer, they look the same: a bunch of pixels. Your computer can't sift through your photos and find baby photos for you, unless you've tagged them "baby."

Google Photos, on the other hand, can find the baby photos.

And now Google is making that technology available to programmers to add to their apps. 

Cloud Vision can even detect various emotions on a face such as a happy smile or an angry frown, Google says.

To demonstrate the power of Cloud Vision, Google built a cute little robot with Cloud Vision, via a DYI robot kit known asGoPiGo. 

At 1:14 in the video below, the robot demonstrates how it can follow faces and detect emotions. At 2:08, the robot demonstrates how it can detect and identify other objects like glasses, a banana, money.

As for the terrifying part ...

While the demo robot is 'adorbs', it doesn't take much imagination to see less cuddly uses for computer vision.

For instance, at least one drone maker has been testing Google Vision out: Aerosense, owned by Sony Mobile Communications. 

"We have drones that take thousands of photos per flight. We find that Google Cloud Vision API as the best way to turn those huge number of photos, automatically produced, into meaningful insights,"Aerosense General Manager Tomoaki Kobayakawa says on Google's blog.

And given Amazon's recent news that its drone delivery project is progressing, we can't help thinking of that Audi commercial featuring people-seeking delivery drones run-amok.

SpaceX's Launch Escape System Looks Totally Badass

As reported by Gizmodo: In two years, SpaceX will begin ferrying astronauts into orbit. But before it can do so, the commercial spaceflight company must prove to NASA that its ride will be safe. A big part of that guarantee comes from the fire-breathing propulsion system pictured above.

Arranged in four pairs around the outside of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX’s SuperDraco engines are a first-of-its-kind launch escape system. In the event of a booster failure on the way to orbit, the SuperDracos will all fire at once, collectively producing 120,000 pounds of thrust. That’s enough to accelerate a Crew Dragon from zero to 100 mph in a rip-roaring 1.2 seconds, boosting the astronauts well out of harm’s way. Eventually, SpaceX plans to use the system in place of a parachute during landings.

Each of the engines in the module pictured above has been test fired over 300 times. Just watching them ignite in the lab is getting me stoked for the future of commercial spaceflight.

China Again Tests Nuclear Hypersonic Missile

Sixth flight of DF-ZF glide vehicle indicates weapon a high priority for Beijing

As reported by Free Beacon: China carried out a sixth flight test of its new high-speed nuclear attack vehicle on Monday designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses or carry out global strikes.

The ultra-fast maneuvering strike weapon known as the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle was launched atop a ballistic missile fired from the Wuzhai missile test center in central China’s Shanxi Province, according defense officials.

The vehicle separated from its launcher near the edge of the atmosphere and then glided to an impact range several thousand miles away in western China, said officials familiar with details of the test.

The DF-ZF flight was tracked by U.S. intelligence agencies and flew at speeds beyond Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban declined to comment. “We do not comment on specific PRC weapons tests, but we do monitor Chinese military modernization carefully,” Urban told theWashington Free Beacon.

It was the sixth time the hypersonic glider has been flight tested since last year.

The website China Spaceflight reported Sunday that the test would take place, based on the Chinese government announcement of airspace closures along what would ultimately become the zone used by the glide vehicle during the flight test. The website reported that the airspace restrictions were similar to closures announced prior to an August DF-ZF flight test.

Flight path of the test / China Space Flight

The airspace was closed to commercial and military air traffic between 12:53 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. Beijing time on Nov. 23—the likely timeframe of the test.

China’s most recent DF-ZF test took place Aug. 19, also from Wuzhai, and like Monday’s flight test was judged a success.

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed the DF-ZF to be a nuclear delivery vehicle for Chinese missiles, with maneuverability and high speeds that would allow it to defeat U.S. missile defenses, currently designed to counter non-maneuvering warheads with more easily-tracked ballistic trajectories.

China also could use the DF-ZF for conventional-armed rapid global strike capability, according to military specialists.

The vehicle is believed to reach speeds of between Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,836 miles per hour and 7,680 miles per hour.

The high rate of testing for the glide vehicle is an indication China has placed a high priority on the weapon program and that it is making rapid progress.

The Chinese conducted earlier flight tests on June 7, and on Jan. 9, 2014, Aug. 7, 2014, and Dec. 2, 2014. All the tests were first reported by the Free Beacon.

The commander of the U.S. Strategic Command told reporters last summer that hypersonic glide vehicles are new strategic warfare technology and an emerging threat.

“As I look at that [hypersonic] threat, clearly the mobility, the flight profile, those kinds of things are things we have to keep in mind and be able to address across that full kill chain,” Cecil Haney said in an interview in July, using the military term for the process used to target and attack enemy missiles.

Air Force Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, then-deputy commander of Strategic Command, said at the same time that hypersonic missiles offer a number of advantages as strategic weapons.

“It offers a number of different ways to overcome defenses, whether those are conventional, or if someone would decide to use a nuclear warhead, I think gives it an even more complicated dimension,” Kowalski said.

Currently, no nation has deployed hypersonic weapons but “it remains something that concerns us,” Kowalski added.

The annual report of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, made public Nov. 18, stated that China’s hypersonic weapons are in the developmental stages and are “progressing rapidly.” The glide vehicle could be deployed by 2020, and a separate high-technology ramjet-propelled cruise missile could be deployed by 2025, the report said.

The Mach 5 to Mach 10 speeds allow the arms to “strike any target on earth in under an hour,” it stated.

“The very high speeds of these weapons, combined with their maneuverability and ability to travel at lower, radar-evading altitudes, would make them far less vulnerable than existing missiles to current missile defenses,” the report said.

The report said China’s hypersonic weapons, as well as the use of multiple-warhead missiles, are part of China’s efforts to assure its missiles can penetrate U.S. missile defenses.

Nuclear-armed hypersonic vehicles would be part of China’s retaliatory strike capabilities, while conventionally-tipped hypersonics could indicate long-range conventional strikes.

“Alternatively, China may intend its hypersonic program for both nuclear and conventional purposes, or may simply be following the United States in pushing the technological frontier and is not yet certain which it will pursue,” the report said.

China is among three nations that are developing hypersonic arms, along with Russia and the United States.

Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said the sixth test indicates Beijing may be seeking a conventional rapid global attack capability similar to the developmental U.S. program called Prompt Global Strike.

Fisher said analysis of Chinese solid fueled space launchers indicates the new Kuaizhou-2 launcher could be used with China’s anti-satellite missiles and also could boost the DF-ZF to intercontinental ranges.

“It is possible that Kuaizhou-2 could become the basis for China’s first intercontinental non-nuclear armed Prompt Global Strike delivery vehicle,” he said, adding the booster “could likely carry multiple DF-ZF derived hypersonic maneuvering precision strike warheads.”

China also is building and deploying sophisticated surveillance satellites that could be used for the precision global strike weapons.

With some 138 satellites in space by 2030, “this means that an intercontinental [Prompt Global Strike] launched from China against U.S. targets could benefit from multiple target location updates,” he said.

Since China has refused to negotiate limits on its strategic weapons and remains highly secretive about all its arms programs, “the safe course for Washington would be to avoid any further delay in developing its own Prompt Global Strike capability to deploy if China does the same.”

SpaceX Will Try to Land its Next Falcon 9 Rocket on Solid Ground, NASA Says

As reported by The Verge: When SpaceX launches its Falcon 9 rocket again, the company will attempt to land the vehicle back on solid ground, Florida Today reported. So far, the company has only attempted landing their rockets on ships out at sea, but SpaceX's ultimate goal is to eventually touch down its rockets on land-based spaceports. If the company's landing is successful, it will be the first step toward making the Falcon 9 a reusable rocket.

The "very exciting news" came from a NASA representative, who made the announcement today to members of the press at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "Their plan is to try to land [the next booster] out here on the Cape-side," said Carol Scott of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, referring to Cape Canaveral, where SpaceX typically launches from. Scott said she had recently talked about the landing plan with a SpaceX executive. SpaceX declined to confirm the news.

SPACEX'S ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO TOUCH DOWN ITS ROCKETS ON LAND-BASED SPACEPORTS

This past year, SpaceX has tried to land the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage — the long 14-story rocket body that contains the main engines and most of the fuel — after launching the vehicle into space. Typically, rocket bodies are lost or destroyed post-launch. It makes the cost of commercial space travel particularly expensive, since a new rocket must be built for each subsequent mission. Landing a big portion of the rocket would allow SpaceX to then reuse the vehicle, saving the company from building an entirely new spacecraft.

The two times SpaceX has tried to land the Falcon 9, the rocket's target was an autonomous drone spaceport floating out in the ocean. Unfortunately, the company wasn't able to stick those landings — though the rockets did get pretty close. Landing attempts — and launches, for that matter — were then halted in June, after a Falcon 9 rocket exploded en route to the International Space Station. SpaceX said it plans to return to flight sometime this month, by launching small satellites for a communications company called Orbcomm, but no exact date has been confirmed yet.

It's during this tentatively scheduled Orbcomm mission that SpaceX will attempt a ground landing, Scott said. A solid touch down would pave the way for SpaceX's big-picture plan of landing rockets mostly on land going forward. In February 2015, SpaceX leased an old launch pad at Cape Canaveral from the Air Force, known as Launch Complex 13. Since renamed Landing Complex 1, the site will be where SpaceX hopes to touch down its rockets post-launch.

A Falcon 9 landing on land would be a huge technological first, though it won't be the first time a rocket has landing vertically after going to space. Last week, Blue Origin made big waves when it announced it had landed its New Shepard booster after sending it to sub-orbital space. While, Blue Origin's achievement was a historical moment, what SpaceX is trying to do is a bit more complex than the New Shepard landing, as the Falcon 9 is going much faster and is at a much higher altitude when it begins its return trip to Earth.