Astro Watch

---

Next Space Station Crew Arrives in Baikonur, Starts Final Training Phase Posted: 15 Mar 2015 01:55 PM PDT The Expedition 43 crew to the International Space Station consisting of NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka has arrived in Baikonur, Kazakhstan on Saturday. Together with the backup crew, they were met by the members of the State Commission and Technical Management. Commanders of the crews reported on their readiness for pre-flight training and Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft acceptance. On Sunday, they initiated the final training phase in the processing facility. The crews departed Star City, near Moscow, just one day after Soyuz TMA-14M crew members Aleksander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova arrived back in the Russian capital. Before the departure, the two crews also participated in the traditional visit to Red Square and pre-flight press conference ahead of the farewell ceremony. “Last day in Star City is as the Inception riddle: waiting for a train, a train that'll take me far away,” Kelly commented on his trip to Baikonur on Twitter. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (left), Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonauts Gennady Padalka (center) and Mikhail Kornienko (right) arrive in Baikonur. Credit: energia.ru Operations at the Launch Site in Baikonur started for the crew with a suit-up exercise, putting on their Sokol Launch and Entry Suits for leak and fit checks under the supervision of specialists. They also made a visit of the Spacecraft Processing Facility to enter their Soyuz capsule, inspect the spacecraft and acquainted with the onboard documentation. A meeting of Technical Management was held on Sunday and a decision to fill the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft with propellant components and compressed gases was accepted. Later, the craft will return to the processing facility for final cargo loading, inspections and the installation of the launch shroud. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (left), Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonauts Gennady Padalka (center) and Mikhail Kornienko (right) in front of the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft at the Spacecraft Processing Facility in Baikonur. Credit: energia.ru The crews will spend the next week with inspections of pre-packed cargo, procedure reviews and familiarization with emergency equipment. They will also conduct conferences with mission control and with the three crew members already in orbit. The future ISS inhabitants will also have some quiet time to spend with their families and for personal preparations for their long mission. Soyuz FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft will lift off from the Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 19:42 UTC on Mar. 27. The Expedition 43 crew will dock to the ISS after four orbits to join Terry Virts (NASA), Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA) and Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos). Padalka will return to Earth in September with ESA Astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Spaceflight Participant Sarah Brightman, while Kornienko and Kelly will perform the first one-year stay at the ISS.

ISRO Successfully Tests Its GSLV Mk III Cryogenic Engine Posted: 15 Mar 2015 11:04 AM PDT The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted a test on Saturday Mar. 14 to check the GSLV Mk III launch vehicle’s indigenous cryogenic CE-20 engine at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) in Mahendragiri, Tirunelveli district. “It is yet another milestone achievement on the road map of developing a bigger and more powerful indigenously built high thrust cryogenic upper stage for GSLV Mk III rocket for the Indian Space Program,” said IPRC Director D. Karthikesan. IPRC is called the "Jet Propulsion Laboratory of India" as all stage and engine related tests of ISRO's launch vehicles and satellites are carried out there. The CE-20 was ignited and was tested for 20 seconds to study the flight characteristics of the engine. All the major parameters of CE-20 were normal and further tests are planned in the coming months. Various subsystems of CE-20, such as injector, thrust chamber, gas generator, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen turbo pumps were tested earlier at IPRC. The GSLV Mk III rocket will launch satellites into geostationary orbit and will be also used as a launcher for an Indian crew vehicle. It will help the country carry out major scientific missions in space. "The GSLV Mk III rocket has a payload capacity of four tons which would enable to carry out space missions successfully. Besides, there is also a billion-dollar satellite market that could be tapped for the commercial benefit of the country," said former ISRO director Suresh Naik. Weighing 630 tons, the GSLV Mk III is a new-generation launch vehicle. It is 43 meters (142 ft) long. The cryogenic upper stage C 25 will be powered by the CE-20 engine burning liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, producing 186 kilonewtons (19.0 tf) of thrust. The C 25 will be 4 meters (13 ft) in diameter and 13.5 meters (44 ft) long, and contain 27 tons of propellant. A suborbital flight test of the GSLV Mk III launcher, with a passive cryogenic third stage, was successfully carried out on Dec. 18, 2014, and was used to test a Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) on a suborbital trajectory. "The GSLV will also be useful for carrying out Indian human space missions through Chandrayaan-3. In the recent years, India has been successful in reducing dependency on other countries to launch satellites, while many nations are carrying out the process from India due to cost effectiveness and reliability," Naik said. The next launch of GSLV Mk III is planned for early 2017. The mission will put in the GSAT-19E communication satellite into orbit.