JAXA confirms first hop of Callisto delayed until ’26
Callisto’s basic design
Japan’s space agency JAXA has now confirmed what France’s space agency CNES had revealed in August, that the first 100-meter-high hop of the government-proposed Callisto engineering Grasshopper-type test rocket will not take place any earlier than 2026.
This joint project of JAXA, CNES, and Germany’s space agency DLR was first proposed in 2015, and by 2018 was aiming for a 2020 launch. Four years past that target date and they are still not ready to launch. Remember too that even after it completes its test hop program an operational orbital rocket would have to be created. It does not appear this can easily be scaled up to fit Ariane-6.
SpaceX meanwhile conceived its Grasshopper vertical test prototype in 2011, began flying that year, and resulted in an actual Falcon 9 first stage landing in 2015. It has subsequently completed well over 300 actual commercial flights, reusing first stages up to 23 times.
The contrast between these government agencies and that private company is quite illustrative.
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
Callisto’s basic design
Japan’s space agency JAXA has now confirmed what France’s space agency CNES had revealed in August, that the first 100-meter-high hop of the government-proposed Callisto engineering Grasshopper-type test rocket will not take place any earlier than 2026.
This joint project of JAXA, CNES, and Germany’s space agency DLR was first proposed in 2015, and by 2018 was aiming for a 2020 launch. Four years past that target date and they are still not ready to launch. Remember too that even after it completes its test hop program an operational orbital rocket would have to be created. It does not appear this can easily be scaled up to fit Ariane-6.
SpaceX meanwhile conceived its Grasshopper vertical test prototype in 2011, began flying that year, and resulted in an actual Falcon 9 first stage landing in 2015. It has subsequently completed well over 300 actual commercial flights, reusing first stages up to 23 times.
The contrast between these government agencies and that private company is quite illustrative.
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
SpaceX has gone from being ridiculed on the subject of reusability, to making it a ho-hum almost daily occurrence. It has also shown the world what a reusable “Gen 1” booster looks like, what the development program looks like, and what “Gen 2” looks like, with the development program for that. Now, every country in the space business is trying to create a clone of Falcon 9 and, if they can afford it, a clone of Spaceship also.
No government agency was talking about any of these things until SpaceX rubbed everyone’s noses in it. Staying true to themselves, the Europeans are whining instead of investing, and the Chinese are stealing everything they can and moving forward as fast as they can.
You gotta be willing to break stuff. Governments and their contractors aren’t, which is all the difference in the world. Cheers –
I suspect this project is doomed not just because of who is doing it, but by the choice of LH2/LOX as their fuel mix. LH2 has proven way too hard to manage for everyone who has tried it, it’s the antithesis of a cheaply and quickly reusable engine.
China is government and they are closing the gap.
People get too wrapped up in what particular pocket space money is pulled out of.
Put the same sorry people in a private outfit-and all that’s different is their hat.
Now, were I to try an invest in a company–it would be one that WANTS to build things–say, talk Stoke into delaying Phil Bono designs in favor of Kistler ‘s two stage trash cans… parachutes and air-bags…simpler than any other RLV…hose it off, stand it up.
Japan doesn’t really want a space program–they’re like Baptists–always coming up with some committee or other.
Of course, there is such a thing as being too eager…to steal a Lou Grant quote “I hate spunk!”
I have to deal with these gig-goons, doordasher freaks who think a truck lane is their private parking lot and that I’m their waiter…or these foreign truck drivers….I ask them if they have dry OR frozen….and they say “yes.”
Errrr.
@ Jeff…. No offence, but I have literally no clue what you are talking about .. my advice is take more water with it…