Looks like things could be warming up above us.
Britain and US accuse Russia of firing anti-satellite space weapon
Unprecedented intervention by UK as tensions with Moscow escalate
Russia has been accused of launching an anti-satellite space weapon in a move the US and Britain charge is a breach of trust and a dangerous escalation of the arms race with risky consequences for the international community.
The Western allies had previously accused the Kremlin of testing anti-satellite weapons. But this is the first time there has been an accusation that an “on orbit” weapon, one that is based in space, has been fired.
Washington and London charge Russia with using subterfuge to hide the operation. They claim that the anti-missile weapon was sent from Cosmos 2543, which was supposedly in space for survey and inspection.
Air Vice Marshal Harvey Smyth, head of the UK’s Space Directorate said: “Actions of this kind threaten the peaceful use of space and risk causing debris that could pose a threat to satellites and the space systems on which the world depends. We call on Russia to avoid any further such testing.”
General John W Raymond, commander of US Space Command and US Space Force chief of space operations, said: “This is further evidence of Russia’s continuing efforts to develop and test space-based systems, and consistent with the Kremlin’s published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold US and allied space assets at risk.”
The accusations come at a time when relations between the UK and Russia are already strained – and just days after the release of the long-awaited report by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) into Russia influence in British politics.
The probe accused successive Conservative prime ministers of failing to investigate whether the Kremlin had intervened in the Brexit referendum, despite years of warnings.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, also this week claimed Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 UK general election using a leaked government document detailing post-Brexit trade talks with the US.
Russian and Chinese anti-satellite weapons were cited by the Trump administration as the reason why the US created its own Space Force last December.
The US administration had announced in the days leading up the Russian missile launch on 15 July that a Space Security Exchange summit was being planned with Russia.
Christopher Ford, the US assistant secretary of state currently performing the duties of the under secretary for arms control and international security, said: “This event highlights Russia’s hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms control, with which Moscow aims to restrict the capabilities of the United States while clearly having no intention of halting its own counterspace programme – both ground-based anti-satellite capabilities and what would appear to be actual in-orbit anti-satellite weaponry.”
The Russian action, say Western security officials, has been ratcheted up with the increasing use of satellite for a variety of reasons including intelligence gathering, communications, navigation and early-warning of military activities.
Only four countries – Russia, the US, China and India – have demonstrated an anti-satellite capability over the past decades. And space is being seen as a new frontier with a number of states establishing command and control for space-based systems. The latest Russian is part of a pattern of recent Russian space activity
In February, the US military said two Russian satellites manoeuvred close to an American satellite, and in April Moscow test-fired a ground-based satellite interceptor.
In August 2018, Washington expressed concerns about a Russian satellite exhibiting “very abnormal behaviour” may be a weapon – an accusation Moscow described as “unfounded and slanderous”.
In military terms space has already become the new frontier with several countries organising specific commands in their armed forces to deal with both the defensive and offensive aspects of protecting their essential space-based systems.
Civilian space projects are being used, it has been claimed, as “Trojan Horses” for attempted strategic domination. The head of Russia’s space organisation criticised US plans to return astronauts to the moon as “a big political project,” warning that it was speaking with China about establishing a lunar base of operations.
Last year, Nasa announced its Artemis program, the agency’s plan to fulfil plans to have astronauts on the Moon by 2024.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, said Russia will not agree to international partnerships being mooted by Washington.
“For the United States, this right now is a big political project. With the lunar project, we are observing our American partners retreat from principles of cooperation and mutual support, which formed in collaboration with the [International Space Station].
“They are perceiving their programme not as an international one, but one resembling Nato,” he maintained.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-uk-us-arms-race-satellite-space-weapon-a9635366.html
Should be visible now, but cloudy
NASA has just launched its Perseverance rover to Mars on an Atlas V rocket. Trans Mars injection and separation of the spacecraft from the Centaur second stage have successfully been done. Now the spacecraft needs to activate, point its antenna towards Earth and give a status report. Once that has happened we can declare the first step of the mission a full success.
Edit: Signal acquired. Perseverance is on its way. In total now 3 missions to Mars in one launch window.
Last edited by Takeovers; 30-07-2020 at 08:28 PM.
"don't attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence"
^^
Excellent news.
What happens when they all arrive at Mars and their designated orbit is unavailable due to some bastard pinching their parking bay?
Have we had any previous actual races in real time before?
Would they be all travelling on the same route?
Is overtaking allowed?
Once they have left earths orbit do they fire up their engines much, change direction or just coast along and ride on any passing planets gravity affect?
Any rules regarding who gives way if a collision course is indicated? Any international rules at all, regarding safe manoeuvrings?
Do they all travel around Mars the same distance from it, on the same plane and in the same direction?
Are there existing satellites that need to be watched out for?
Last edited by OhOh; 31-07-2020 at 12:04 AM.
A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.
It is still the plan. But be clear about it. That's an aspirational goal. It may well slip 2, maybe 4 years. But they made another step on the way today. SN5, the fifth Starship prototype had a successful static fire of its Raptor engine today. Elon Musk tweeted after that success that a 150m hop is coming next, soon.
Very similar. They all go for mostly lowest energy flight trajectories. Though Perseverance flight was planned in a way that it would always arrive at Mars at the same day and time independent on when it would launch.Would they be all travelling on the same route?
Is overtaking allowed?
They coast all the way. They do not pass any other planets. They will do small course corrections at some point during flight if necessary to arrive very precisely when and where they plan to go.Once they have left earths orbit do they fire up their engines much, change direction or just coast along and ride on any passing planets gravity affect?
Space is big, really big. About zero chance they meet on the way.Any rules regarding who gives way if a collision course is indicated? Any international rules at all, regarding safe manoeuvrings?
The plans are different. Perseverance goes for direct EDL, entry descent and landing. It does not go into orbit.Do they all travel around Mars the same distance from it, on the same plane and in the same direction?
The chinese probe has an orbiting satellite and a lander. As far as I know the plan is that the combined probe goes into orbit. Then do some photos of the planned landing site and decide from the photos where exactly the lander will touch down.
The arab probe is a satellite only, for the purpose of exploring the atmosphere.
There are a number of satellites. But the space around Mars is still quite empty. They sometimes adjust the orbits of satellites so they are in the right position during landing so they can observe and be data relays to send telemetry back to earth that is sent by the lander.Are there existing satellites that need to be watched out for?
Thanks for your replies, always informative.
The first manned mission by NASA to the ISS after the end of the Spaceshuttle is ending. The Dragon capsule has departed from the ISS last night. Splashdown near Pensacola, Florida in about 5 hours. They would usually splashdown in the Atlantic near the Cape but with a hurricane threatening there they have chosen the other coast of Florida.
Short video of departure.
planned reporting of splashdown in 5 hours. The stream has a count down timer if you open it now.
This flight is the last requirement for full certification of Dragon. Certification is expected within 4-6 weeks after successful landing.
The first regular crew flight of Dragon with 4 astronauts is expected in September. The second regular crew flight is expected in February, also with Dragon, reusing the capsule touching down today.
Boeing will not be ready to do a regular crew flight in February, so SpaceX does the first and the second regular mission. The plan with 2 contractors was that they would fly one Dragon one Starliner.
Last edited by Takeovers; 02-08-2020 at 12:50 PM.
Thanks for the news.
Why are the descending astronauts required to pull their visors down prior to moving away and then once clear can raise them?
Presumably they are looking at instrument panels rather than out any windows.
There is a risk of a leak and losing pressure on undocking, so they wear the full closed spacesuit. They even take it off completely during cruise before reentry. For reentry I expect they will wear the suits again.
On launch they did the same. Wearing the full closed spacesuit, then took it off and don it again before docking.
They use the terms don and doff. I learned the doff part only recently. Maybe it is a known term for native english speakers?
They're slightly old-fashioned terms.
What's your native language, Takeovers ? Or are you American ?
Coverage was supposed to begin about now but has not yet. But actual splashdown of the capsule is expected in about 7 hours from now.
They are estimating 2 1/2 hours from now.
They show the groundtrack of Dragon sometimes. The orange part indicates the deorbit burn that gets Dragon down into the atmosphere for landing. Interesting that the deorbit burn happens when Dragon is south of Australia for a landing near the coast of Florida.
Dragon is go for deorbit burn.
How was the inclination of the orbit of the ISS determined?
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