A not-so-good evening not only for Orbital Sciences and the two and a half ton ISS payload: Sadly, there were various Amateur Radio and scientific satellite payloads that were lost also. But fortunately, no one was hurt in the mishap. Arkyd-3, RACE, GOMX-2, and Cygnus CRS-3 CubeSats were onboard the vehicle, in addition to 26 @PlanetLabs CubeSats. Via The ARRL: The 2U GMX-2 CubeSat was intended to test a de-orbit system designed by Aalborg University in Denmark. Karl Klaus Laursen, OZ2KK, is listed as the “responsible operator” on International Amateur Radio Union frequency coordination documents. The Amateur Radio payload proposed using a 9.6 k MSK data downlink on 437.250 MHz. Also on board was an optical communications experiment from the National University of Singapore. The mission also hoped to flight qualify a new high-speed UHF transceiver and SDR receiver built by an Aalborg University team. The Radiometer Atmospheric Cubesat Experiment (RACE) CubeSat was a joint project between The Texas Spacecraft Laboratory (TSL) at the University of Texas-Austin and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It carried a 183 GHz radiometer, a new science instrument designed by JPL. The primary objective of the RACE mission was to collect atmospheric water vapor measurements. The spacecraft was equipped to transmit using GMSK at 38.4 k and CW telemetry on a downlink frequency of 437.525MHz, as coordinated with the IARU. TSL’s Edgar Glenn Lightsey, KE5DDG, was listed in the IARU coordination documents as the responsible operator. The rocket had been scheduled for liftoff on Monday night, but the launch was postponed when a boat entered a hazard area down range.The launch was to have begun a fourth contracted space station delivery for the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences. Orbitals Antares 130 first stage uses Aerojet AJ-26 engines which are refurbished Soviet NK-33 engines originally built for the Soviet lunar program. The Antares 130 first stage is built by Ukrainian company Yuzhnoe, in Dnepropetrovsk and integrated by Orbital at Wallops. My Speculation (worth exactly 2c): This was the first launch with a larger Cygnus 30XL upper stage; probably not related, but changes to center of gravity, etc. could have had unforeseen control affects, although Im sure they put the design through rigorous testing before launching $266 million in hardware. youtu.be/BSr4hUcROwo
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:24:06 +0000
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