Small Space News Story Roundup 28

A couple of stories that caught my eye on an otherwise slow day

SpaceX Launches Cygnus Cargo Module to the ISS

I'm probably the only one alive who called this the Strange Bedfellows mission, or the Odd Couple, but the mission should be called "another routine SpaceX launch" so far.  

Just after noon, 12:07 PM EST, SpaceX launched the Cygnus CG-20 cargo mission to the ISS, carrying 4000 pounds of cargo.  All 19 prior launches of the Cygnus modules have been launched by Northrop Grumman atop their Antares 230 rocket.  Due to the Antares' use of parts from Russia and the Ukraine, NG had to accelerate their dropping of the Antares 230 and attempt to speed development of the replacement Antares 330.  In August of '22, Northrop Grumman signed a deal with SpaceX to launch three of their Cygnus cargo spacecraft.  They're hoping to have the Antares 330 ready to fly by the end of this year. 

The video is pretty routine until the reentry burn of the Falcon 9 heading back to the cape to land near the launch pad the flight originated from, just after the 8:00 mark in the red timer bar you can select.  After that engine burn ends, you'll get views of the booster you've probably never seen before and a beautiful view of the booster landing.

This was the 10th flight for this booster which previously launched Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06, Inmarsat I6-F2, CRS-28, Intelsat G-37, and four Starlink missions.  

The Cygnus module is scheduled to arrive at the ISS early Thursday morning (4:20 AM EST).  

Our view wasn't great, since the trajectory was toward the NE, which is away from us.  As a general rule winter is the best time to watch launches because all of the various neighbors' trees have lost, or most, of their leaves.  Launches to the SE, like Sunday night's Starlink 6-38 mission, or south for a polar orbit, are the most visible for us. 

NASA's Lucy Probe to Fire Its Main Engine 

The Lucy probe to the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter was launched in October of '21 on a 12 year mission to study the two groups of Trojan asteroids, one ahead of and the other trailing behind the planet in its orbit around the sun. 

On January 31st, Lucy will fire its main engines for the first time since it was launched. This will be followed by a second, larger maneuver, which NASA says is currently set for Saturday (Feb. 3).

The NASA blog page goes on to say:

Combined, these two maneuvers are designed to change the velocity of the spacecraft by around 2,000 mph (approximately 900 meters per second) and will consume roughly half of the spacecraft’s onboard fuel. Each of the prior spacecraft maneuvers have changed the spacecraft’s velocity by less than 10 mph (only a few meters per second) and were small enough to be carried out by the spacecraft’s less powerful thrusters.

This series of engine firings will change Lucy's trajectory to approach Earth for a flyby gravity assist, which will finally get Lucy to Jupiter's L4 Trojan asteroids.

In this image from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Southwest Research Institute, the broad red dashes show the trajectory to date.  It turns to solid red line at Wednesday's and Saturday's engine firings, loops down closer to the sun than Earth's orbit (in blue), and gets the gravity assist from Earth this coming December '24.  From there, a line of shorter red dashes show the path to the L4 Trojans.  With the first encounters in August and September of '27 and others out to November of '28.  

Judging by the complex flight path we've seen before, after Lucy leaves the L4 Trojans, it will fly by Earth for another gravity assist (based on three years to get to the L4 group, that'll be in 2031) and leave to arrive at the L5 Trojans in about another three years after that.