In this file photo from 2017, several Praxair tanker trucks deliver liquid oxygen to launch pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
The effects of a nationwide liquid oxygen shortage caused by the recent spike in hospitalized coronavirus patients has already delayed the launch of a Landsat imaging satellite by a week, and threatens to impact more missions from launch sites in Florida and California.
NASA said last week that the launch of the Landsat 9 satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California would be delayed one week until no earlier than Sept. 23 due to a lack of liquid nitrogen at the military base. ULA uses gaseous nitrogen, which is converted from liquid nitrogen, for purges during testing and countdown operations.
The space agency said pandemic demands for medical liquid oxygen impacted the delivery of liquid nitrogen to Vandenberg.
Del Jenstrom, NASA’s Landsat 9 project manager, said Tuesday the liquid oxygen crunch spilled over to affect liquid nitrogen deliveries as tanker trucks were repurposed to carry oxygen to medical facilities treating COVID-19 patients.
The Defense Logistics Agency, which oversees a facility at Vandenberg that converts liquid nitrogen into gaseous nitrogen, determined last week that the military base’s nitrogen supply was “critically low” and insufficient to support pre-launch testing of the Atlas 5 rocket for the Landsat 9 mission.
Airgas, a supplier of industrial and medical gases, is relocating a “dozen or so” tankers from the Gulf Coast region to California to restock Vandenberg’s nitrogen supply, Jenstrom said.
“Most of those tankers came in over the weekend, so we’re seeing a substantial increase in the number of LN2 (liquid nitrogen) deliveries to the base right now, and as far as we know, based on latest reports, we’re on track to support our launch on Sept. 23,” Jenstrom said. “And that includes an important rocket fueling test and rehearsal called a wet dress rehearsal that should happen this week.”
Once ULA completes the dress rehearsal, teams will hoist the Landsat 9 satellite — a joint program between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey — on top of the Atlas 5 rocket on the SLC-3E launch pad at Vandenberg.
ULA rival SpaceX is also watching the liquid oxygen shortage.
A few days before NASA announced the Landsat 9 launch delay, a SpaceX executive said she anticipated a lack of liquid oxygen could impact the company’s launch schedule.
“We’re actually going to be impacted this year with the lack of liquid oxygen for launch,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said Aug. 24. “We certainly are going to make sure hospitals have the liquid oxygen that we need, but for anybody that has liquid oxygen to spare, would you send me an email?”
Some cities have asked residents to reduce water usage to address concerns about liquid oxygen supplies to hospitals.
Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, said the liquid oxygen shortage has, so far, not affected the company’s launch operations.
“This is a risk, but not yet a limiting factor,” Musk tweeted Aug. 26.
SpaceX is the the space industry’s biggest user of liquid oxygen. The company uses liquid oxygen, which is stored several hundred degrees below zero, in combination with kerosene to power Falcon 9 rockets into orbit.
SpaceX’s next-generation Starship launch vehicle, currently undergoing testing in Texas, uses methane fuel mixed with liquid oxygen.
Rockets need an oxidizer to fire their engines in space, where oxygen doesn’t exist to allow engine combustion.
The first stage of the Atlas 5 rocket for the Landsat 9 mission was raised on its launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 13. Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Both stages of ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket use liquid oxygen — the first stage with kerosene fuel and the second stage with liquid hydrogen fuel.
SpaceX launched its most recent Falcon 9 mission Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, consuming hundreds of thousands of pounds of liquid oxygen.
ULA loaded 800,000 pounds of liquid oxygen into a pathfinder booster for the company’s new Vulcan rocket at Cape Canaveral Monday for a cryogenic loading test. After the ground test, ULA drained the oxidizer from the rocket to be used again.
NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket will also need large quantities of liquid oxygen when it begins launch pad testing, possibly before the end of this year. The SLS rocket is powered by engines that consume the oxygen in combination with super-cold liquid hydrogen.
NASA says it already has enough liquid oxygen stored at the Kennedy Space Center for a fueling test of the Space Launch System, plus multiple launch attempts.
The shortage of liquid oxygen isn’t the only COVID-related supply issue impacting the space industry.
Shotwell said SpaceX is also feeling the effects of the global chip shortage, which she said has delayed development of new user terminals for the company’s Starlink internet network.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
