February 15, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- China’s present deep space timeline
- 2024 lunar sample return: Chang’e-6
- 2025 asteroid sample return: Tianwen-2
- 2026 lunar south pole: Chang’e-7
- 2028 Mars sample return: Tianwen-3
- 2030 lunar station: Chang’e-8
- 2030 Jupiter/Uranus: Tianwen-4
- Ten-minute video outlining the recent history of China’s planned large internet constellations
An excellent summary. If you want to understand why I call all of China’s so-called private companies “pseudo,” watch this video. The earlier constellations planned by two pseudo companies vanished when the government decided something else should be launched instead. Neither company was private, and both were always entirely owned by the government.
- Flapless Starship prototype #26 rolled out to suborbital Pad A at Boca Chica for tests
Some have labeled this prototype the “bullet” because it also lacks tiles. SpaceX is clearly designing this for orbital tests without any intention of bringing it back to Earth safely. For all we know, the company might send it on an interplanetary flight for PR purposes.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- China’s present deep space timeline
- 2024 lunar sample return: Chang’e-6
- 2025 asteroid sample return: Tianwen-2
- 2026 lunar south pole: Chang’e-7
- 2028 Mars sample return: Tianwen-3
- 2030 lunar station: Chang’e-8
- 2030 Jupiter/Uranus: Tianwen-4
- Ten-minute video outlining the recent history of China’s planned large internet constellations
An excellent summary. If you want to understand why I call all of China’s so-called private companies “pseudo,” watch this video. The earlier constellations planned by two pseudo companies vanished when the government decided something else should be launched instead. Neither company was private, and both were always entirely owned by the government.
- Flapless Starship prototype #26 rolled out to suborbital Pad A at Boca Chica for tests
Some have labeled this prototype the “bullet” because it also lacks tiles. SpaceX is clearly designing this for orbital tests without any intention of bringing it back to Earth safely. For all we know, the company might send it on an interplanetary flight for PR purposes.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Robert wrote: “For all we know, the company might send it on an interplanetary flight for PR purposes.”
What a good thought. They may have the delta-v to do that, and it certainly would be quite a news item.
Or they may send it on a trajectory around the Moon to test the navigation for DearMoon and Denis Tito’s flight. This would be a more practical use of the vehicle and would give valuable experience for the controllers and SpaceX’s deep space antennas.
Edward: A test flight around the Moon makes perfect sense. It would provide them the PR I was thinking of, as well as real data, which Elon Musk is always thinking of.
10 years wind Chelyabinsk explosion.
https://www.space.com/chelyabinsk-meteor-explosion-ten-years-later
The growing consensus among Starship watchers is that Starship 26 seems likely intended for the initial propellant transfer test (required not just to make HLS work, but also in that $50 million NASA Tipping Point Award from May 2021). Getting on-orbit prop transfer nailed down is in many ways more urgent for SpaceX (and NASA) than nailing down recovery and reuse.
The first test can be satisfied by merely transferring cryogenic propellant on-orbit between two tanks within the same vehicle. Once they accomplish this….then they can move on to attempting it between two Starships.
Failing this, it could just be intended as an expendable vehicle for Starlink 2.0 deployment. But maybe, they might try to do both?
Here’s the contract abstract of that Tipping Point award:
SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, $53.2 million
Large-scale flight demonstration to transfer 10 metric tons of cryogenic propellant, specifically liquid oxygen, between tanks on a Starship vehicle. SpaceX will collaborate with Glenn and Marshall.
Being called the Bullet-I can only think of Melies…as one in the eye for NASA?
Depletion burn for Luna’s Hill sphere and Slim Pickens in-maybe flashing by NRO and maybe crush Jade Rabbit-Yee-Haw!
Richard M,
You pointed out: “The growing consensus among Starship watchers is that Starship 26 seems likely intended for the initial propellant transfer test (required not just to make HLS work, but also in that $50 million NASA Tipping Point Award from May 2021). Getting on-orbit prop transfer nailed down is in many ways more urgent for SpaceX (and NASA) than nailing down recovery and reuse.”
That is an excellent point. I had forgotten about NASA’s Tipping Point opportunities (although this seems to be from October 2020). At some point, SpaceX needs to begin practical experiments of propellant transfer in microgravity.
Robert reported this before:
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-awards-370-million-to-14-companies-to-develop-new-space-capabilities/
Which links to the following article:
https://www.space.com/nasa-tipping-point-contracts-moon-exploration
My recollection is that Ship #24 is intended for the first orbital attempt, with an attempted reentry, that #25 does not have a “Pez dispenser,” but that #26 does.
I find it humorous that we think of SpaceX as being open about what it is doing, but it isn’t as open as we think. We keep having to speculate about what they are doing with the hardware that we see at their facility, because they do not tell us. The reason that we see the hardware is that they do not have their facilities on large properties, unlike many other aerospace companies, so we see far more of what they are doing than we do of what the other companies are doing. The many SpaceX watchers publish what they see and speculate as to what is happening. Due to this speculation, we think that we know more than we do. This makes it seem as though SpaceX is open about what they are doing.
On the other hand, SpaceX seems to do more interviews than the other aerospace companies. Could it be that they get more interview requests? Or perhaps they are more open, but that “more open” is relative. If they do an on-orbit propellant transfer test, would we know about it if it does not go well? We probably would hear about it if it satisfies the Tipping Point contract.
Edward: What makes SpaceX truly different that older big space companies is that it no press office. It spends no money creating pr announcements. Instead, it builds its rockets, broadcasts their launches openly, and lets that sell the company.
Without a pr department SpaceX has no employees tasked with publicizing the company’s background efforts. And apparently, SpaceX is quite okay with that, as it keeps the company’s focus entirely where it should be.
Robert,
“What makes SpaceX truly different that older big space companies is that it no press office.”
That is fascinating. No public relations office but a reputation for openness. What a contradiction. Or, maybe a PR department spends its time trying to hide failures.
“It spends no money creating pr announcements. Instead, it builds its rockets, broadcasts their launches openly, and lets that sell the company.”
Blue Origin didn’t release its first failed booster landing to the public, but someone at SpaceX with a sense of humor made fun of some Falcon landing failures. Maybe the webmaster?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ (2 minutes: SpaceX’s “How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster”)
That certainly makes SpaceX look more open than Blue Origin and more open than several other companies. After all those exploding boosters, SpaceX sold three Dragon rides to members of the general public. Despite a few exploded Starship test units and not one on orbit, so far, SpaceX has sold three manned Starship rides to members of the public: Jared Isaacman (Polaris 3 mission, first LEO flight), Yusaku Maezawa (DearMoon, with 8 additional passengers) and Denis Tito (with his wife and ten additional passengers).
It looks like SpaceX’s sales strategy works.
Hi Edward,
Nearly 70% of the money is earmarked for the management of cryogenic fluids such as liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. SpaceX, for example, will get $53 million for an in-space demonstration that will transfer 11 tons (10 metric tons) of liquid oxygen between tanks on one of its next-gen Starship vehicles.
Right – that’s the one.
And that’s $53 million sitting on the table, waiting to be picked up, the moment SpaceX can demonstrate it. That would almost be incentive enough by itself to prioritize it, if SpaceX didn’t have to do it anyway for HLS.
It remains speculation, of course. But it seems like a reasonable bet. And maybe they use the flight to deploy a couple of Starlink 2.0 satellites while they are up there.