January 19, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- ULA plans 10 Vulcan launches in 2023
My count of total planned ULA launches in ’23 is 11, but that includes two Delta Heavy launches and five Atlas-5 launches. It seems a complete fantasy to expect ULA to complete 17 launches this year (10 of which will be the as yet unlaunched Vulcan), when ULA has never completed more than 16 in a single year, and that record was set in 2009, more than a decade ago. In fact, the company has never completed more than 8 launches in a year since 2016.
- The challenges of developing a smallsat reusable rocket when owned by ArianeGroup
This is an interview with the CEO of an ArianeGroup subsidiary that is tasked with building that company’s smallsat reusable rocket. It illustrates the difficulties of working under those conditions.
- Chinese pseudo-company Landspace completes investigation on Zhuque-2 launch failure on January 9th
The companys says it will try again in 2023. The race to be the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit thus includes SpaceX, Relativity, Landspace, and Blue Origin.
- Two Chinese pseudo-companies, engine maker JiuzhouYunjian and tank maker Space Epoch, have completed multiple static fire tests of methane-fueled engine
Space Epoch claims it is building a mini-version of SpaceX’s Starship.
- Varda Space & Rocket Lab prepare re-entry capsule to be launched on SpaceX Falcon 9
The goal is to do manufacturing in space and bring it back to Earth.
- Firefly adds former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to advisory board
Includes a zoom interview of Bridenstine, where he comments on why he joined this board.
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.
- ULA plans 10 Vulcan launches in 2023
My count of total planned ULA launches in ’23 is 11, but that includes two Delta Heavy launches and five Atlas-5 launches. It seems a complete fantasy to expect ULA to complete 17 launches this year (10 of which will be the as yet unlaunched Vulcan), when ULA has never completed more than 16 in a single year, and that record was set in 2009, more than a decade ago. In fact, the company has never completed more than 8 launches in a year since 2016.
- The challenges of developing a smallsat reusable rocket when owned by ArianeGroup
This is an interview with the CEO of an ArianeGroup subsidiary that is tasked with building that company’s smallsat reusable rocket. It illustrates the difficulties of working under those conditions.
- Chinese pseudo-company Landspace completes investigation on Zhuque-2 launch failure on January 9th
The companys says it will try again in 2023. The race to be the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit thus includes SpaceX, Relativity, Landspace, and Blue Origin.
- Two Chinese pseudo-companies, engine maker JiuzhouYunjian and tank maker Space Epoch, have completed multiple static fire tests of methane-fueled engine
Space Epoch claims it is building a mini-version of SpaceX’s Starship.
- Varda Space & Rocket Lab prepare re-entry capsule to be launched on SpaceX Falcon 9
The goal is to do manufacturing in space and bring it back to Earth.
- Firefly adds former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to advisory board
Includes a zoom interview of Bridenstine, where he comments on why he joined this board.
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
ULA probably won’t meet that goal…but they will still be around. The spooks like their own.
The story about the ArianeGroup owned rocket company is misrepresented by your link description.
In the story the CEO of MaiaSpace says about ArianeGroup ownership:
“So, I’m not going to lie about the fact that being a subsidiary of a large group also potentially has disadvantages. But I’m convinced the advantages this gives us are greater than these disadvantages.”
What I find interesting is the difficulty MaiaSpace is having making reusable rockets economically viable.
This after SpaceX has been making money with (partially) reusable rockets for years.
The CEO says it’s related to the small scale of their rocket and they can make money when they relaunch the rocket as an expendable.
Years ago when Musk/SpaceX announced their plans to recover/reuse Falcon stages I was skeptical.
I thought by the time the cost of loss of payload due to extra weight of fuel needed for recovery and the need to make the rocket more robust for multiple reuse and the cost of inspecting/refurbishing were counted, it would be cheaper to make more single use rockets.
But Musk turned that “conventional wisdom” on it’s head (and I find eating crow isn’t so bad if cooked the right way…).
Will be interesting to see how long it takes SpaceX competitors to catch up.
About the Varda Space story. What’s the deal with space manufacturing these days?
Is there stufff that can be more economically manufactured in space? Can it be done in a modestly sized spacecraft?
I recall one of the selling points of ISS was the promise of developing manufacturing in space
(“Pharmaceuticals and perfect ball bearings”)
But while there is talk of adding modules for tourists I haven’t heard of any proposals for factory modules.
ULA. Not so long ago 10 launches a year for a single company would have been a pretty impressive achievement. Times have changed.
The economic arguments against the reusability of rockets seem at first glance to be compelling. Obviously they are not. Does anyone know of an informed exposition of how SpaceX turned those arguments on their head?
Mitch S.,
“Years ago when Musk/SpaceX announced their plans to recover/reuse Falcon stages I was skeptical. I thought by the time the cost of loss of payload due to extra weight of fuel needed for recovery and the need to make the rocket more robust for multiple reuse and the cost of inspecting/refurbishing were counted, it would be cheaper to make more single use rockets.”
My story of the time is a little different. In 2012 I had attended a talk by the then lead rocket engineer (Muller?) — not to be confused with the chief engineer, Musk — who had described reusing the booster and the upper stage. By the time of the 1990s, reusability was desired by some in the space business, the airliner analogy was already in use, so I was not very skeptical, but I thought that they would take longer to make it profitable, iterating for several years to make it work. In retrospect, the skipped and scrapped Starships and Boosters show us that SpaceX learns fast and iterates even faster.
One of the reasons for my “pessimism,” in 2012, was that engineers were focusing on performance, the weight to orbit rather than the cost per pound.
One of the reasons for my “hopefulness” was that we could already reuse Space Shuttle parts. Reusability was not impossible, it just had to be designed in. The X-Prize, announced in 1995, was all about reusability and rapid turnaround.
SpaceX’s solution was to forgo higher performance in favor of lower cost per pound to orbit, which was the goal from its founding. SpaceX does many things very differently than the usual space company does them. The latest, and the one I am currently most worried about, is to forgo a flame trench at the Starship launch pad. After SLS launched, there was a picture of caved-in doors on the gantry elevator, due to the acoustics of the engines as they passed by. Starship launches with its acoustics reflecting directly back at the engine compartment of the booster stage, and I fear severe damage to the engines, equipment, or the bottom of the propellant tank in a way similar to the elevator doors.
On the other hand, SpaceX has surprised me many times in the past with their methods and their designs, so we will have to see what happens in February or March when they launch Starship on her maiden experimental shakedown test voyage.