Minutes of June 10 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met June 10, 2023, at the Cyber Hall and Gaming Lounge at Norman Computers in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending in person were Clifford and Claire McMurray. Charles ?, Mark Deaver, Adam Hemphill, Clark Morter. Tim Scott, Dave Sheely, and Syd Henderson. OSA President Clifford (Kip) McMurray presided over the meeting He did an Update discussing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online at https://osa.nss.org/Update2306.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
We watched part of the return of the Axiom-2 (Ax-2) mission, The ship used to pull Ax-2 out of the water also has a pad for SpaceX stages to land on, but obviously not used for the Dragon capsule (which I believe has to splash down anyway). Later we watched the docking of Ax-2 with the space station.
One of the new Chinese astronauts on Tiangong is their first payload specialist. They are keeping a crew capsule on standby in case of emergency (as well as the capsule attached to Tiangong. This seems prudent, given the problems the Soviets had when the coolant went out on the Soyuz that was supposed to take three astronauts home and they had a sudden extension of their stay.
The first Chinese manned mission to the Moon will land two astronauts on the surface and one in orbit, just like the Apollo missions did. A stay of six hours on the surface is anticipated [but this is far enough in the future that plans can change.]
Peggy Whitson is the first woman to command a private space mission. [She was also ISS commander twice and once held the record for longest stay in space by a woman and prior to Wally Funk was the oldest woman to fly in space. I believe she is still the oldest woman to orbit the Earth,
The Blue Moon [Blue Origin] moon lander will have a stage that can be launched for refueling in orbit by a tanker being built by Northrup Grumman. [All still to be built-SFH.] Blue Moon will be using liquid hydrogen, in contrast with Starship, which uses methane.
We watched a video of the Chinese spacewalk.
Stratolaunch’s latest cargo, Talon-0 doesn’t have an engine [hence the zero] but is a glider prototype of a hypersonic aircraft that will be launched with an engine by Stratolaunch later this year,
Space startups Momentus and Astroscale, who hope to reboost Hubble and other spacecraft such as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, are also having cash flow problems
We watched a trailer for “Stars on Mars” a reality show filmed in the Australian outback that simulates a Mars colony using celebrities in a “Survivor”-type scenario. I guess if people get voted out the airlock. William Shatner is the host.
The James Webb Space Telescope detected a huge plume erupting from Saturn’s satellite Enceladus.
We watched a YouTube video on tethered ring launch, which is a concept to raise a ring around the Earth.
We also watched a YouTube video on all you need to understand orbital mechanics.
We now have $826.06 in the checking account and $267 in cash.
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
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