Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article

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This is the selected article subpage of the Spaceflight Portal. This page contains an archive of past, present and future selected articles, and details of how to nominate or create future selected articles. Selected articles can be any page related to spaceflight, with the exception of articles about people, which are covered by the selected biography section. Well written and illustrated articles have more chance of being chosen, but there are no requisites for selection, and selection is not constrained to featured or good articles.

Usage

The layout used to format these sub-pages is at Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Layout

1. Add a new selected article to the next available subpage.
2. Update "max=" to new total for its {{Random portal component}} on the main page.

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Selected article 1

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The Shuttle–Mir Program was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States, which involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the shuttle and an American astronaut flying aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to engage in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir.

The program, sometimes called 'Phase One', was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience into long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their respective space agencies, NASA and RKA. It would prepare the way for further cooperative space ventures; specifically, 'Phase Two' of the joint project, the construction of the International Space Station. Announced in 1993 with the first mission occurring in 1994, the program continued until its scheduled completion in 1998, and consisted of eleven shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight and almost 1000 days in space for American astronauts over seven expeditions.

During the four-year program, many 'firsts' in spaceflight were obtained by the two nations, including the first American astronaut to launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, the largest spacecraft ever flown at that time in history, and the first American spacewalk using a Russian Orlan spacesuit.

The program was, however, marred by various concerns, notably the safety of Mir following a fire and collision on board the station, financial issues with the cash-strapped Russian Space Program and worries from astronauts about the attitudes of the program administrators. Nevertheless, a large amount of science, expertise in space station construction and knowledge in working in a cooperative space venture was gained from the combined operations, allowing the construction of the ISS to proceed much more smoothly than would have been likely.

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Selected article 2

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Orbital Vehicle is the temporary name of an Indian manned spacecraft in development. The capsule will be designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with a rendezvous and docking capability. In its maiden manned mission, ISRO's largely autonomous 3-ton capsule will orbit the Earth at 248 miles (400 km) in altitude for up to seven days with a two-person crew on board. The crew vehicle would launch atop of ISRO's GSLV Mk II, currently under development. It will be equipped with emergency mission abort and emergency escape that can be done at the first stage and second stage of the rocket. In spring 2009 the full-scale mock-up of crew capsule of OV was built and delivered to Satish Dhawan Space Centre for training of Indian astronauts. The OV is scheduled to be launched with astronauts into space around 2015.

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Selected article 3

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The Proton (Прото́н) rocket (formal designation: UR-500, also known as D-1/ D-1e or SL-12/SL-13) is a Russian unmanned space vehicle design, first launched in 1965. It is still in use as of 2007, for both commercial and government launches. This makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight. All Protons launch from the Baikonur facility.

The name "Proton" originates from a series of large scientific satellites, which were among the rocket's first payloads. The enormous capacity of the new rocket allowed the heavy materials used in particle detectors. Thus the Proton satellites were pioneers of high-energy astronomy. Like many Soviet boosters, the name of the recurring payloads became associated with their launchers.

Launch capacity to low Earth orbit is about 22 tonnes (44,000 lbm). Interplanetary transfer capacity is about 5–6 tonnes (11,000–13,000 lbm).

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Selected article 4

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Lunar orbit rendezvous is a key concept for human landing on the Moon and returning to Earth.

In a LOR mission a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar module travel together into lunar orbit. The lunar module then independently descends to the lunar surface. After completion of the mission there, it returns to lunar orbit and conducts a rendezvous with the main spacecraft. The main spacecraft then returns to Earth.

First mention of LOR dates back to 1916. It was proposed by Yuri Kondratyuk, a self-educated Russian, who calculated that LOR was the most economical way of landing a human on the Moon.

LOR was used by the Apollo missions for human spaceflight to the Moon.

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Selected article 5

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The Saturn V (pronounced "Saturn Five") was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable rocket used by NASA for Apollo and Skylab missions between 1967 and 1972. In total NASA launched twelve Saturn V rockets, plus one derived Saturn INT-21, with no loss of payload. It remains the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to operational status, in terms of height, mass and payload capacity. The Soviet Energia, which flew two test missions in the late 1980s before being cancelled, had slightly more takeoff thrust.

The largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company, and IBM as the lead contractors. The three stages of the Saturn V were developed by various NASA contractors, but following a sequence of mergers and takeovers all of them are now owned by Boeing.

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Selected article 6

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Ariel 1, also known as UK-1 and S-55, was the first British satellite. Its launch in 1962 made the United Kingdom the third country to operate a satellite, after the Soviet Union and the USA. It was constructed in the United States by NASA, under an agreement reached as the result of political discussions in 1959 and 1960.

NASA constructed and launched the satellite, whilst SERC provided the experiments, conducted operations, and later analysed and interpreted the results. Ariel 1 was launched aboard an American Thor-Delta rocket from Launch Complex 17A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on 26 April 1962. It decayed from orbit on 24 April 1976.

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Selected article 7

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Mir (Russian: Мир, IPA: [ˈmʲir], Peace or World) was a Soviet and later Russian space station. It was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first of the third generation type of space station, constructed from 1986 to 1996 with a modular design. The station was in operation for fifteen years until March 23, 2001, when it was deliberately de-orbited, breaking apart during atmospheric re-entry over the South Pacific Ocean.

The station currently holds the record for the longest continuous manned presence in space, at eight days short of ten years, and was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years of its fifteen-year lifespan. Mir had the capacity to support a resident crew of three but could also support larger crews for short-term visits, the largest crew simultaneously aboard the station being six.

Through a number of international collaborations, including Intercosmos, Euromir and the Shuttle-Mir Program, the station was made accessible to astronauts from North America, several western European nations, Japan as well as cosmonauts from various eastern nations. Mir also marked the beginning of space tourism when Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama made a paid visit in 1990.

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Selected article 8

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Soyuz (Russian: Сою́з, IPA: [sɐˈjus]), Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau. The spacecraft was also referred to as a Cosmic chelnok or simply chelnok which literally means a spaceship. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program.

The Soyuz spacecraft is launched by the Soyuz rocket, the most frequently used and the most reliable launch vehicle in the world. The Soyuz rocket was initially a part of the Soyuz program, and was a part of the unmanned Zond program.

The first unmanned Soyuz mission was launched November 28, 1966; the first Soyuz mission with a crew (Soyuz 1) was launched April 23, 1967, but the cosmonaut on board, Vladimir Komarov, died during the flight's crash-landing. Soyuz 2 was an unmanned mission, and Soyuz 3, launched on October 26, 1968, was the first successful Soyuz manned mission.

Currently, the Soyuz spacecraft family is still in service. Soyuz spacecraft were used to carry cosmonauts to and from Salyut and later Mir Soviet space stations, and are now used for transport to and from the International Space Station. The International Space Station maintains docked Soyuz spacecraft at all times to be used as escape craft in the event of an emergency.

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Selected article 9

Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/9 Salyut 6 (Russian: Салют-6; lit. Salute 6) was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth flown as part of the Salyut programme. Launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket, the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station. Salyut 6 possessed several revolutionary advances over the earlier Soviet space stations, which it nevertheless resembled in overall design. These included the addition of a second docking port, a new main propulsion system and the station's primary scientific instrument, the BST-1M multispectral telescope. The addition of the second docking port made crew handovers and station resupply by unmanned Progress freighters possible for the first time, which in turn allowed the programme to evolve from short-duration station visits to long-duration expeditions, marking the beginning of the transition to multi-modular, long-term research stations in space.

From 1977 until 1982, Salyut 6 was visited by five long- and eleven short-duration crews, including cosmonauts from Warsaw Pact countries as part of the Intercosmos programme. The very first long-duration crew to visit the station broke a long-standing endurance record set on board the American Skylab station, staying 96 days in orbit; the longest expedition lasted 185 days. These crews were responsible for carrying out the primary missions of Salyut 6, including astronomy, Earth-resources observations and the study of human adaptation to space. Following the completion of these missions and the launch of its successor, Salyut 6 was deorbited on 29 July 1982, almost five years after its launch.

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Selected article 10

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In aerospace, Skylon is a design by Reaction Engines Limited for an unpiloted, airbreathing single-stage to orbit, combined cycle jet engine based spaceplane. A fleet of vehicles is envisaged; the design is aiming for reusability up to 200 times. In paper studies, costs per kilogram of payload are hoped to be below the current costs of launch (as of 2006), including the costs of R&D, with costs expected to fall much more over time after the initial expenditures have amortised. The cost of the program has been estimated by the developer to be about $12 billion.

The vehicle design is for a hydrogen-powered aircraft that would take off from a conventional runway, and accelerate to Mach 5.4 at 26 km using atmospheric air before switching the engines to use the internal LOX supply to take it to orbit. It would then release a 12-tonne payload, then reenter the atmosphere. The payload would be carried in a standardised payload container or passenger compartment. During reentry the relatively light vehicle would fly back through the atmosphere and land back at the runway, with its skin protected by a strong ceramic composite. It would then undergo any necessary maintenance and, if the design goal is achieved, be able to fly again within two days.

The proposed engine for the vehicle is not a scramjet, but a jet engine running combined cycles of a precooled jet engine, rocket engine and ramjet. Originally the key technology for this type of precooled jet engine did not exist - the required heat exchanger was about ten times lighter than the state of the art. However, research has now achieved the necessary performance. As of 2010, the funding required to develop and build the entire craft has not yet been secured, and so current research and development work is focused on the engines, under an ESA grant.

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Selected article 11

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Nominations

Feel free to add any featured or good articles to the list above. You can also nominate other articles relating to Human spaceflight here.

Current selected article

Week 21, 2013

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Selected article

Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 21 2013

Archive

2006 Week: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Week: 50 51 52 2007 Week: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Week: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Week: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Week: 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Week: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Week: 50 51 52 2008 Week: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Week: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Week: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Week: 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Week: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Week: 50 51 52 2009 Week: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Week: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Week: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Week: 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Week: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Week: 50 51 52 53 2010 Week: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Week: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Week: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Week: 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Week: 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Week: 50 51 52 Template  • Archive

For older selected articles, please see the Archive, for Space exploration portal selected articles, see this archive.

2010

• Week 1 2010 - 2009 in spaceflight
• Week 2 2010 - International Space Station
• Week 3 2010 - None
• Week 4 2010 - None
• Week 5 2010 - None
• Week 6 2010 - International Space Station
• Week 7 2010 - Cupola (ISS module)
• Week 8 2010 - White Sands Missile Range
• Week 9 2010 - Skynet (satellites)
• Week 10 2010 - Giotto mission
• Week 11 2010 - Ariane 4
• Week 12 2010 - None
• Week 13 2010 - None
• Week 14 2010 - Ames Research Center
• Week 15 2010 - Scout (rocket family)
• Week 16 2010 - Space Shuttle Columbia
• Week 17 2010 - TBD
• Week 18 2010 - TBD
• Week 19 2010 - TBD
• Week 20 2010 - TBD
• Week 21 2010 - TBD
• Week 22 2010 - TBD
• Week 23 2010 - TBD
• Week 24 2010 - TBD
• Week 25 2010 - TBD
• Week 26 2010 - TBD

• Week 27 2010 - TBD
• Week 28 2010 - TBD
• Week 29 2010 - TBD
• Week 30 2010 - TBD
• Week 31 2010 - TBD
• Week 32 2010 - TBD
• Week 33 2010 - 1959 in spaceflight
• Week 34 2010 - TBD
• Week 35 2010 - TBD
• Week 36 2010 - TBD
• Week 37 2010 - TBD
• Week 38 2010 - TBD
• Week 39 2010 - TBD
• Week 40 2010 - TBD
• Week 41 2010 - TBD
• Week 42 2010 - TBD
• Week 43 2010 - TBD
• Week 44 2010 - TBD
• Week 45 2010 - TBD
• Week 46 2010 - TBD
• Week 47 2010 - TBD
• Week 48 2010 - TBD
• Week 49 2010 - TBD
• Week 50 2010 - TBD
• Week 51 2010 - TBD
• Week 52 2010 - TBD

Nominations

• X-15 Flight 90

How to add a selected article

1. Click on the redlink in the current year's section of the table for the week that you want it to be the selected article
2. Paste the template code into this new article:
   

{{subst:Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Template|article title|article description|image|image description}}

1. Enter the title of the corresponding article in place of the text article title
2. Enter the main text of your selected article entry in place of the text article description (remember to link to appropriate articles)
3. Select a suitable image, and type its name it in place of the text image (omit the "Image:" prefix)

Note: since this will be in the Portal: namespace, non-free images cannot be used.

1. Enter a caption for the image in place of the text image description.
2. Preview and save