There were lots of rocket launches over our break. When we go on break either nothing happens or everything happens, and it was an “everything happens” week.

On February 19, Northrop Grumman launched the Cygnus NG-17 mission from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport with 3,800 kilograms of supplies for the International Space Station (ISS).

The supplies were split into 1,352 kilograms of crew supplies, 1,300 kilograms of vehicle hardware, 896 kilograms of science, 60 kilograms of spacewalk equipment, and 35 kilograms of computers.

One of the experiments going up on NG-17 is a solid-state lithium-ion battery made by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Currently, most lithium-ion batteries use flammable electrolytes which can break down and become less effective. Solid-state lithium-ion batteries are safe for spaceflight because they don’t leak or break down and are flame retardant.

Another experiment on NG-17 brings a new design of hydrogen sensor for the oxygen generation system in the station’s life support. The oxygen generation system generates hydrogen as a byproduct of a chemical reaction, and it is dumped into space, but it could leak into the crew areas, so hydrogen sensors are used to detect leaks. The current hydrogen sensors are sensitive to vibration and drift, or a gradual loss of accuracy, so they are changed every 201 days. Longer duration space flights don’t have enough space for lots of spare parts, so the new oxygen sensor is more stable and durable so fewer replacements are needed.

The Cygnus also brings up a new electronics box which will be installed on an upcoming spacewalk to manage the power from the new solar panels and a trash bag deployer for the Nanoracks airlock. Later this spring, the ISS will get more capability to yeet garbage into space. Currently, trash is disposed of by packing it into resupply spacecraft which burn up in the atmosphere, but those are limited in capacity and only come a few times a year.

The Cygnus will perform an operational re-boost of the ISS during its mission, adding about half a meter of delta-v to the 500-ton station.

Cygnus uses a Ukrainian-built first stage with Russian-built engines. These may be impacted by Russia’s ongoing invasion, but Northrop Grumman has hardware on hand for two missions, which gives them until mid-2023 to find another rocket.

SpaceX also launched over our break, with Yet More Batches Of Starlinks on February 21 and 25, with one Falcon 9 booster on its eleventh flight and the other on its fourth, sending a total of 96 Starlink spacecraft into orbit from Florida and California. Both boosters landed on their respective barges, to be reused.

There were also two Chinese launches within hours of each other this past weekend, February 26 and 27. One of them was the first flight of a new rocket, a Long March 8 without side boosters from Wenchang. It put 22 small spacecraft into orbit. The other Chinese launch was yet another Long March 4B from Jiquan with a radar satellite called L-SAR 02. We covered the launch of L-SAR 01 in late January of this year.

On February 28, Rocket Lab conducted their first launch in 2022 with an Electron from their newest launchpad at their launch complex in Mahia, New Zealand, LP-1B. Called The Owls Night Continues, it successfully put its payload of a commercial radar satellite for Synspective into orbit about an hour after launch. No first-stage recovery was attempted, but the rocket did sport red stripes because it was testing new systems for recovery. Specifically, the second stage had lighter-weight batteries to offset mass gains on the first stage from the added recovery hardware.

To wrap up our rocket summary, NASA awarded SpaceX three more Crew Dragon missions to send NASA astronauts to the ISS and back, extending their services through mid-2028. This will give SpaceX the first nine operational commercial crew rotation missions instead of alternating with Boeing’s Starliner, as was the original plan.

In news about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX sent a load of Starlink terminals to Ukraine after a request from the Ukrainian government. The terminals and the service will be provided for free, confirmed by the Ukrainians. The dishes arrived in the country this weekend. This sounds good, right? Maybe not. 

Broadband dishes like the Starlink receivers emit in all directions, so it’s easy to geolocate the position of the receivers on the ground and send a guided missile in its direction. Russia can and has done this in the past. Starlink dishes also emit infrared radiation, which also makes them a target; however, small dishes like this aren’t likely to be a major military target.

Also, the closest teleports – the infrastructure that connects the Starlink terminal to the wider internet – are located in Poland which makes them less useful for connections in eastern Ukraine. We’ll have a full show on the impact on spaceflight from Russia’s invasion later this week, so stay tuned.

More Information

Overview for Northrop Grumman’s 17th Commercial Resupply Mission (NASA)

Northrop Grumman’s 17th Resupply Mission Carries Science Experiments, Technology Demonstrations to Space Station (NASA)

Space Demonstration for All Solid-State Li Ion Battery (NASA)

Advanced Hydrogen Sensor Technology Demonstration (NASA)

Starlink mission page (SpaceX via Archive Today)

CASC press release (Chinese)

CASC press release (Chinese)

NASA Awards SpaceX Additional Crew Flights to Space Station (NASA)

SpaceX heeds Ukraine’s Starlink SOS (Space News)