Minutes of August 12 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met August 12, 2023, at the Cyber Hall and Gaming Lounge at Norman Computers in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending in person were Clifford McMurray. Richard Adkins, Charles ?, Mark Deaver, Adam Hemphill, Kevin?, Steve Marino, 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/Update2308.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
Starship 2 didn’t get all 33 engines to light the first attempt since the attempted flight. Four engines did not light. [In a second test last week all engines lit though two didn’t stay lit through the six-second test.] The question is how soon they can try a second test flight given the engines problems and an ongoing lawsuit.
The Mars Sample Return mission asked for $943 million in the new budget but only got $300 million.
We watched a video of Virgin Galactic’s first wholly tourist flights. (The flight in June was more scientific.) Commander was C. J. Sturcknow, Pilot Kelly Latimer, and passengers were Beth Moses, Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff and Anastasia Mayers. Beth Moses is listed as “Astronaut Instructor” and the last three simply as “Tourist.) Sturcknow is a space shuttle veteran. Moses is a veteran of previous Virgin Galactic flights. Keisha Schahaff is Anastasia Mayer’s mother. This was the first mother and daughter to fly into space. Mayer is the youngest woman to fly into space.
Virgin Galactic plans to have a launch a month. The next few flights will have three passengers but will go up to four next year.
We watched a video of the launch and landing. They went up to around 291,000 feet, or 55 miles (or a bit over 90 kilometers).
Each vehicle in China’s Moon lander will weigh 26 tons, and the forthcoming Long March 10 can carry 27 tons. This means that the vehicle will require two launches and assembly in orbit. China will have ten nations signing up by October 2023.
The next Zhuque launch will be by the end of the year. We watched a video of the Zhuque-2 launch.
Chandrayaan 3 will land at 70 degrees south latitude on the Moon and will last for one lunar day. We watched the launch of Chandrayaan 3.
Russia’s Lunar 25 lander will “sit where no one has ever sat.”
Jupiter 2 was lost so the new largest comsat is Jupiter 3. We watched a video of the Falcon Heavy launch and the return of the two boosters.
We watched RocketLab launch its Electron booster to orbit.
The European Space Agency wasn’t spending money to send astronauts to the ISS but was doing it on a swap basis.
This Week @ NASA: The Nancy Roman Space Telescope could detect as many as 400 “rogue planets” similar in mass to Earth. [A rogue “planet’ is one that doesn’t orbit a star or brown dwarf. They may have thrown out of their star system or been formed away from a star.]
We have $896.06 in the bank account and $267 in cash for $1163.06 in total.
We are willing to spend up to $50.00 on posters for OSA. The cost is $15.00 apiece. We authorized Adam to spend the money.
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
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