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Launching NG-12

and sending cookies to space

By Luke Beard

February 10^th, 2020

The year I learned a lot about space and also saw a rocket launch in person

I spent too many hours of '19 watching hundreds YouTube videos about the history of space exploration and the current exciting developments from the private and public sectors. Have you seen what SpaceX are doing lately or the plans for the next moon missions? Exciting stuff even on a surface level and seemingly a new generation of public enthusiasm is everywhere.

Once you dig into the history you really start to appreciate just how incredible the achievements of the worlds space community have been in a relatively short time. I was not alive during the Apollo missions and the crazy journey to putting a human on the moon in 1961 so this year I tried to figure how to see a rocket launch in person.

Enter #NASASocial...

A bizarrely unique experience

It's sounds odd but you really can just apply to go see a rocket launch, get access to media events and go behind the scenes at NASA. Stuff you would typically expect to reserved for press. Nope, anyone can apply! Obviously I highly suggest it.

"NASA Social is a program to provide opportunities for NASA's social media followers to learn and share information about NASA's missions, people, and programs. NASA Social is the next evolution in the agency’s social media efforts. Formerly called NASA Tweetup, NASA Social program includes both special in-person events and social media credentials for individuals who share the news in a significant way. This program has brought thousands of people together for unique social media experiences of exploration and discovery."

Apply for a NASA Social

NASA Wallops Flight Facility

The NG-12 Cygnus launch was at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. A 3-ish hour drive from DC that actual passes through some quite lovely secrecy. Thankfully I had accrued some favors from my good friend and fellow space enthusiast, Mac Higgins (thanks bud) to drive me there*.

Wallops Flight Facility has 50 years experience conducting suborbital projects and also happened to be a critical component for the Apollo program. More on that later.

It's part of the "Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport" or MARS (punny) that enables these commercial space launches.

*Fun fact: I don't have a driving license.

Space Flight Center

Once everyone had checked in and we all introduced one another it was time to board a bus and travel about 20 mins from the visitors center to the Space Flight Center.

It's worth noting that the group was incredible diverse in all manners outside the keen interest in space. Teachers, NASA stamp collectors, a dog (really), a civil rights lawyers and many more in-between.

Integration Facility

Our first stop was the facility that's responsible for receiving rockets and cargo, getting it all ready for launch to LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and meet the International Space Station.

There was lot's going on in this area and some things I could not photograph. We were also told to leave our phones and WIFI transmitting devices on the bus. Oddly my camera, with WIFI was...fine(!?).

Low Earth Orbit: LEO, between an altitude of 320 and 380 km (200 and 240 mi).

The Antares Rocket

The mission was launching with a Antares rocket, developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (now Northrop Grumman). It costs between $80-85 million USD per launch and can carry 8,000 kg (18,000 lb). For comparison, SpaceX's Falcon 9 can carry around 22,800 kg (50,300 lb).

I'd never really seen a rocket up close before so It's quite the trip to casually stand next to one and have it explained by people who are getting it ready to go into space.

Wallops is a Horizontal Integration Facility, that means the rocket and cargo are prepared horizontal then transported to the launch pad to be stood vertically for take off. This is super beneficial for later loading of cargo and last min changes.

A Quick Peek at the Launch Pad

We took a brief bus journey to the across the Space Center to see the launch pad. You can see here that the rocket is horizontal in the first photo. There was also a group photo from the #NASAsocial team. Again, just a very cool/odd feeling to be around all of this launch stuff.

Let me know if you can spot me.

Tweet at me

“It turns out that after various weird tweets at Elon Musk, Hilton had found a partner to take their famed cookies to space”

Baking Cookies in Space

After we got back to the visitors center we were sat in a room for a presentation on "Cookies in Space". I had no real context but I did know that there was a person from Hilton Hotels at the front of the room in a spiffy fleece. This felt like it had the potential to be some weird and dull marketing thing.

It was not, not at all.

It turns out that after various weird tweets at Elon Musk, Hilton had found a partner to take their famed cookies to space. Not just take them, bake them in space. A cooking task that had never been done before!

Hilton partnered up with Zero G Kitchen, the makers of the first oven on the International Space Station. This is an important development for humans traveling into deep space for years at a time. Folks gatta eat, right?

Learn more

Oh and They Totally Did It BTW

As you can see, Christina Hammock Koch baked the first thing ever on the @iss, a cookie. A cookie in SPACE. 🤯

Pro Tip

If you do happen to attend a NASA Social at Wallops then listen to the email that suggests brining your own food.

There is nowhere within walking distance or at the visitors center that has anything for lunch.

In my case, I was not smart and had to eat 10 cookies to stay alive. Thank you Double Tree.

Meet the Press

Part of the NASA Social experience is attending press conferences and informative sessions about the launch itself and the missions for the cargo. In this case the rocket was packed with tons of new experiments for the International Space Station as-well as supplies for the crew.

They even let you ask questions and you can appear on the live stream during the press conferences.

In 2011 The astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavour delivered a $2 billion cosmic ray detector to the International Space Station. The AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) is a project from Nobel Prize winning Dr Ting (pictured below) . It's effectively trying to understand the origins of the universe via anti-matter and dark-matter, extremely out there stuff. The mission including repairing the AMS and extending its life span till 2030. The repairs were completed a couple weeks ago and it was a complete success.

Dr Ting also had mad jokes that I appreciated given the subject manner.

Touring the Sounding
Rocket Factory

Small but rad rockets

First, Sounding Rocket 101

"A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight." - Wiki

Basically, small and (relatively) cheap launch system to get experiments sub-orbital. Real run and gun stuff.

Sounding rockets typically carry a payload of a few hundred kilograms.

They have been building sounds rockets at Wallops for decades so it was super interesting to walk the halls and workshops of the factory. Our tour guide (who I forgot his name ☹️) has been an engineering intern over 10 years ago as was now managing lots of important aspects of the manufacturing process.

Downlink Station

One the coolest stops on the tours was the Downlink Station. A field of antenna dishes all responsible for supporting launches, current space craft and satellites. We also happen to be there at a beautiful sundown moment.

They were moving is such beautiful ways, constantly changing their orientation. I missed out on getting any video as I was quite memorized by the dance of the dishes (working board-way show title, like Cats but with antennas).

Apollo Built

We were stood right by an original Apollo program S-band antenna that is still in use today. Wallops supported many of the Apollo missions with these dishes and they represent a historical leap in communication technology.

Also, so very cool.

Launch Day

November 2, 2019

Get Up and See a Rocket Launch

We arrived bright and early at the Visitors Center to then be bussed to the media area. It was around 2 miles away from the launch pad, as close as you can get. The weather was perfect. There was only atmosphere and birds between us and the rocket.

Lots of gear on show as well as a decent selection of donuts.

And Then It's Over...

While easily the coolest and most uniques thing I've seen in my life, the launch it's self is over in a literal flash. Everyone is packing up to go home 3 minutes after take off.

You see the ignition, the shockwave hits you as the sound does. It sounds like someone tearing a huge sheet of paper in the sky. The NASA Social team explained that if it's your first launch then maybe don't worry about photos and just enjoy it.