This week in SF history

2004 February 26. First ISS EVA with no one inside ( wikipedia.org )

RPG night on the 8th! ( patreon.com )

Another successful test flight for Virgin Galactic. ( spaceflightnow.com )

PS this booster will be the one used for the in-flight abort ( americaspace.com )

Beresheet prepares to land on the Moon ( planetary.org )

Thanks to Arin Cross for researching and presenting this topic! (linkedin.com)

BFRCs - produced when launches with NTO go wrong (youtube.com)

Early hypergolic testing history: Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants, by John Drury Clark (google.com/books)

Video showing a drop of RFNA into a pool of MMH (purdue.edu)

See also Investigation into the hypergolic ignition process initiated by low weber number collisions. (aiaa.org)

Advances in hypergolic propellants: ignition, hydrazine, and hydrogen peroxide research. (hindawi.com)

Flame structure, a la Arin Cross (proquest.com)

Space Shuttle OMS engines used hydrazine and NTO (books.google.com)

JWST has hypergolic and monopropellant thrusters (jwst-docs.stsci.edu) (PDF: nasa.gov) More info on JWST momentum dumps (jwst-docs.stsci.edu)

Ariane 5 ECA purges with helium before and after burns (books.google.com) (esa.int)

GSLV and PSLV use Vikas engine (isro.gov.in) High-thrust Vikas Engine (HTVE) is now used on GSLV Mk III (spacetechasia.com)

Named after Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai. Recommended reading: From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet: India’s Space Journey (isro.gov.in)

ISRO sent a team of ~50 scientists to France in 1974 to participate in Viking/Ariane development. (indiatimes.com)

Side note: a rag left in a water coolant pipe during installation destroyed a Viking engine in flight (wikipedia.org)

Viking uses transpiration cooling (airandspace.si.edu)

Lots of work is happening in “green” hypergolics (harvard.edu) A mixture of furfuryl alcohol, ethanolamine and copper (II) chloride (fuel) and 70% hydrogen peroxide was tested at one point (PDF: researchgate.net)

Gelled hypergolics are also an option (docs.lib.purdue.edu)

Hydrazine in a solid fuel for hybrid application (doi.org)