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Andrew Parsonson

2 Dec, 5 tweets, 3 min read

@ArianeGroup

.@ArianeGroup and has completed a series of six tests on a pair of propellant tanks at the company's facility in Vernon, France. The tests are the first technological milestone in the development of the reusable Themis rocket booster demonstrator.

@esa

During these tests, the tanks were filled and then drained of cryogenic propellants. According to @esa, the tests were performed to "validate the fluidic and electrical processes and sequences for the correct operation" of the tanks.

@ArianeWorks

The Themis program was developed by @ArianeWorks, a joint initiative from @ArianeGroup and the French space agency @CNES founded in Feburary to accelerate the development of future European launchers.

@esa

After getting the go ahead from @esa to continue development of Themis during a 2019 Ministerial Council, @ArianeGroup secured the first contract for Themis in December 2020 receiving €33 million from the agency for the initial development phase.

At its core, the Themis program aims to develop reusable launch capabilities. It will utilise the Prometheus methalox engine, another of the agency's projects focused on pushing the continent towards reusability. Themis hops are expected to begin in Sweden in 2023.

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Andrew Parsonson

@AndrewParsonson

2 Dec

@AndoyaSpace

The CREX-2 sounding rocket mission was successfully launched from @AndoyaSpace in Norway on 1 December as part of the Grand Challenge Initiative, a collaborative international effort to understand specific, fundamental issues in space and earth science.

The NASA-built four-stage Oriole IV sounding rocket carried the payload to an apogee of 630kms. The missions sought to better understand a funnel-shaped gap in our planet’s magnetic field, called the polar cusp, that gives solar wind a direct line of access to Earth's atmosphere.

The payload consisted of a set of 20 canisters of vapor tracers, each with its own small rocket motor. The canisters were deployed in four directions and preprogrammed to rupture at different altitudes. Scientists observed how the dispersed vapor reacted at different altitudes.

Read 4 tweets

Andrew Parsonson

@AndrewParsonson

29 Sep

@ESA

.@ESA initiated its first astronaut selection process on 28 March 1977. The effort was the result of an agreement made with @NASA 4 years earlier that would see European astronauts join space shuttle missions in exchange for ESA supplying the Spacelab reusable science lab.

The astronauts would assume what was then a brand new role board a spacecraft, payload specialist. They would have some generic astronaut training but mostly they would be familiarising themselves with the experiments that would be flown aboard their mission.

ESA's selection criteria required applicants to be no older than 47 years, 150-190cm in height, in good health, emotionally stable, and of high scientific/engineering ability. They stressed that they were looking for normally-fit scientists rather than super-fit astronauts.

Read 9 tweets

Andrew Parsonson

@AndrewParsonson

28 Sep

@ESA

No, that's not Starship. It's Themis! I don't think I've seen that rendering before - it's great! For those of you not in the know, Themis is a technology demonstration programme initiated by @ESA to develop a reusable rocket first stage.

https://twitter.com/ArianeGroup/status/1442571540516671489

The initiative is part of the agency's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP) which, according to ESA, is focused on "system studies and research activities to foster new technologies capable of delivering performance and reliability coupled with reduced operational costs"

@ESA

The rocket stage demonstrator will be powered by the agency's Prometheus engines, another of @ESA's FLPP initiatives. It will be launched from the Guiana Space Centre's former Diamant launch facility, which is being refurbished for this purpose.

Read 4 tweets

Andrew Parsonson

@AndrewParsonson

27 Sep

@Arianespace

What the @Arianespace Ariane 5 would have looked like in its @esa Hermes configuration. I would have loved to have seen this thing fly. Credit: ESA

@CNES

For context, Hermes was an ambitious crewed spaceflight program created by @CNES in 1985 and later adopted by ESA. The program was canceled in 1992 because of its projected cost and some geopolitical developments with Russia that enabled ESA to utilize Soyuz.

@ESA_History

Although no Hermes spacecraft were ever built, a mockup was created for the Paris Air Show. According to @ESA_History, it was then used to demonstrate the European Space Research and Technology Centre's (ESTEC) capacity to accommodate large-scale spacecraft.

Read 4 tweets

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