"Jews in Space!" (links)
 

Hello All,

This evening (Thursday, 2/21), if all goes well, Mel Brooks’ vision of “Jews in Space” (see: http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...pace+mel+brooks ) will come closer to fruition. During a 32-minute launch window that will open at 8:45 PM EST Thursday (0145 GMT Friday), a Falcon 9 will launch the Indonesian Nusantara Satu communications satellite into a STO (Supersynchronous Transfer Orbit). Stacked atop the Indonesian primary payload are two “hitch-hiker” spacecraft. They are the U.S. Air Force’s S5 space situational awareness satellite and the Beresheet lunar lander (see: http://www.google.com/search?source...i10.pveyYr5biEw ), which was built by SpaceIL, a private organization in Israel. Also:

Here (see: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/...cape-canaveral/ ) is an article about the missions; live coverage of the launch will be carried online *here* https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/...-status-center/ , beginning about 15 minutes prior to launch (as of now, the launch is about 13 hours away). SpaceX will not only attempt to land the Falcon 9 first stage on their drone ship, but it appears that Mr. Steven (their vessel that’s equipped with a “catcher’s mitt” for catching payload fairing halves before they splash down in the sea; she [he?] is at Port Canaveral) may attempt to snag at least one half of this Falcon 9’s payload fairing.

I hope this information will be helpful.

They did it! The launch went like clockwork, the Falcon 9 first stage landed perfectly--in the center of the X!--on the drone ship for the *third* time (despite SpaceX's doubts that it might not make it, because it faced the most challenging re-entry environment yet), and the second Stage 2 burn injected the three payloads into the planned Supersynchronous Transfer Orbit. The three payloads separated and went their different ways (although the separation of the U.S. Air Force’s S5 space situational awareness satellite wasn't shown, and may not have occurred just yet), beginning with the SpaceIL Beresheet Moon lander. Also:

The video of today's Falcon 9 mission can be seen *here* https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/...-status-center/ and *here* www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS0E35aYJcU ).

Those drone ship landings are becoming almost routine in the eyes of the casual observer, much like shuttle launches were at one time. With the first Dragon 2 launch coming up tenatively in March and a manned mission in July, let's hope the focus stays sharp at SpaceX!

Yep--even Elon Musk predicted it a couple of years ago ("Uh--another landing"). I'm curious to see how many flights they can get out of the first stages (and SpaceX definitely is, too, of course); this one made its third flight and landing yesterday. Also:

This article (see: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/...onesian-comsat/ ) says that yesterday's launch cleared the way for the Dragon 2 launch to occur--as they're planning for--on March 2, just over a week from now! It also covers the details of how Beresheet will reach the Moon, achieving lunar orbit and finally landing in April. They're doing what ISAS's Hiten/Hagoromo lunar flyby probe and mini lunar orbiter (both eventually orbited the Moon) and ISRO's Mangalyaan Mars orbiter did. In its highly eccentric, Supersynchronous Transfer Orbit, Beresheet will conduct brief burns at perigee (utilizing the Oberth effect), to gradually raise the orbit's apogee until it's higher than the Moon's orbit, and then Beresheet will pass ahead of the Moon, facilitating its capture--with a little help from its thrusters--into lunar orbit. Its powered descent will be similarly gradual until it gets quite close to the surface.

That's a nice efficient way to get to the moon. It doesn't help the Jewish stereotype for pinching pennies, though, being piggybacked on the thrice used booster and sort of slinging itself to the moon with bursts from the off-the-shelf thrusters and components. However, I love the "bang for the buck" they are getting out of their project.

Yes--the Oberth effect method (of gradually raising the apogee of an eccentric orbit by making numerous brief prograde burns at perigee)--in combination with utilizing the target body's gravity--is *so* efficient, in fact, that huge changes of velocity and location can be made using just a few kilograms of rocket fuel! For example:

The mathematician an artist (he often gets mathematical insights from his paintings) Edward Belbruno discovered how to utilize WSBs (Weak Stability Boundaries, which often involve considering the ^combined^ gravitational effects of two or more celestial bodies, such as the Earth and the Moon) to move spacecraft across great distances using very little propellant (solar sails can do it using no fuel). When the tiny Hagoromo lunar orbiter separated from its larger, Hiten lunar flyby carrier bus spacecraft (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiten ) but its radio failed at retro-motor ignition, ISAS was greatly disappointed. But Professor Belbruno, working with other interested trajectory specialists, devised a WSB-utilizing low-energy trajectory for getting Hiten into lunar orbit, which worked. He covered this--and many other WSB flight paths for lunar, planetary, and even interstellar missions--in his informative and entertaining book, "Fly Me to the Moon: An Insider's Guide to the New Science of Space Travel" (see: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea...+Moon&kn=&isbn= ). Also:

Being an "unofficial partial ethnic Jew" (one is considered to be a Jew if at least one's mother is Jewish; my father had some Portuguese Jewish ancestry, although he never knew of it in his lifetime--we discovered it much later), I not only don't take any offense, but I've always considered it a virtue. Jews have long been known to be both penny-pinchers *and* generous in charitable giving (and not just of money, but of food, clothing, their time and skills, etc.), which seems like a practical and prudent combination. Also, there is another--although unavoidable--"Jewish stereotype" in Israel's space activities:

Hebrew is written and read "backwards" (from right to left), by our standards. Their indigenous satellite launches, which are conducted from their Palmachim Airbase using the IAI (Israel Aircraft Industries) Shavit-1 and Shavit-2 solid propellant launch vehicles (Shavit [see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavit ] means "Comet" in Hebrew), are launched from right to left (east to west) over the Mediterranean Sea, into retrograde orbits, and:

This reduces the Shavit vehicles' payload-to-orbit capability by about 30 percent as compared to what it could achieve in direct (prograde orbit) west-to-east launches, but such launches from Israel would drop the spent lower stages on the Arab countries to the east. IAI has been working on two air-launched versions of Shavit, as well as U.S.-built Shavit vehicles (which would satisfy the U.S. missile technology transfer restrictions) for commercial satellite launches.

It makes sense that they launch over the Med, not only for safety reasons, but they would also be launching over unfriendly nations. I'm sure there would be protests even if they were all successful launches. If it's a military payload and the mission fails, the depths will also protect technology from those nations. It wouldn't even be a good idea to overfly Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, chancing the somewhat decent relations they have.

Scott Manely pointed that out - suggesting that the "neighbors might complain" if the Israelis launched west to east in his video about the mission: https://youtu.be/0PUjA6sekB4 When he said that I almost sprayed my iPad with coffee :eek:

Mr. Steven was apparently damaged, losing two of the four net arms. No word (as of ten hours ago when I last checked) as to why. I'll go see if there's any new word now.

An Israeli engineer posted a comment to that effect under Scott Manley's video (which Bernard included the link to above--Thank You!), because the Shavit launch vehicle is based on ICBM technology (Israel and South Africa jointly developed it). South Africa launched their rounds--they called it the RSA (see: http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets_1...ption/Frame.htm )--from the Overburg Test Range near Cape Town, and the SLV version was called Arniston.