Short Takes – 6-4-24 – Space Geek Edition

Spacesuits, Cargo Ops on Station as Starliner Targets June 5 Launch. Blogs.NASA.gov article. Pull quote: “Teams at NASA and Boeing confirmed Monday the company’s Starliner spacecraft, ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket, and ground support equipment are healthy and ready for the next launch attempt. The first Starliner flight with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, known as NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, is targeted to liftoff at 10:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday, June 5, to the International Space Station for about a one week stay aboard the microgravity laboratory.”

Star-crossed liner. TheSpaceReview.com article. Fairly detailed review of Starliner’ s problems to date. Pull quote: “As it turned out, there was something to be concerned about. The review turned up what he called a “design vulnerability” with Starliner’s propulsion system that had not been recognized. Starliner’s service module has four areas called “doghouses” spaced 90 degrees apart that host both larger Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) thrusters and smaller reaction control system (RCS) thrusters. If two adjacent doghouses failed for some reason, though, it would prevent the spacecraft from doing a deorbit burn even though the spacecraft is designed with multiple ways to carry out the deorbit burn using combinations of OMAC and RCS thrusters.”

Chinese Probe Collects Moon Samples and Heads for Earth. UniverseToday.com article. Pull quote: “The space agency said the Chang’e-6 ascent module lifted off at 7:38 a.m. June 4 Beijing time (11:38 p.m. GMT June 3) and fired its engine for about six minutes to reach lunar orbit. After the ascent module’s rendezvous with the orbiter and the transfer of the samples, the orbiter and the re-entry capsule will continue to circle the moon, “waiting for the right time to return for the lunar-to-Earth transfer,” CNSA said. The flight plan follows the model that was set in 2020 when Chang’e-5 brought back samples from the moon’s Earth-facing side.”

Craft unfurls China's flag on the far side of the moon and lifts off with lunar rocks to bring home. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “Xinhua said the probe's landing site was the South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater created more than 4 billion years ago that is 13 kilometers (8 miles) deep and has a diameter of 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles).”

Superstorm-Spawning Sunspot Cluster Is Facing Earth Again. What’s Next? ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “That said, we shouldn’t necessarily anticipate the same level of outbursts from the massive cluster as during AR3664’s initial transit. “I think we may get some more flares, but I’m not expecting to get as much activity as we had three weeks ago,” Jain says. “With time, active regions lose their strength, and they are not as active as they were in the previous rotation.” Still, the region won’t necessarily dissolve soon, she says: some particularly gargantuan sunspot clusters have lasted for up to four rotations.”