May 16, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Ursa Major touts video of a recent static fire test of its Ripley rocket engine
This is the engine they are selling for use on larger rockets.
- NASA: Cabin temperatures in uncrewed Soyuz with the coolant leak were in high 70s F
If so, this means the crew would have had no problem coming home in that spacecraft.
- Astra gets Defense Department launch contract for its as yet unflown Rocket-4
These military contracts are designed to help new rocket companies, but are always only a tiny amount of the money the companies need to survive. On that note, there is this next link:
- Astra and Momentus face cash crunch
Both have serious financial issues, but Momentus probably a better chance of surviving since it is actually flying its Vigoride tugs. Astra has nothing flying at the moment.
- Australian government eliminates budget for spaceports
Whether the two planned spaceports can find private investment capital to replace this money remains unclear.
- SpaceX tests Raptor-3 engine with 17% more thrust
A video of the test can be seen here. If used in Superheavy/Starship, the total rocket would have three times the power of a Saturn-5.
- SpaceX files for permit for 2nd test flight of Starship/Superheavy with the FCC
This is not the launch license, only the communications permit.
- Meteorite that crashed through roof of NJ home is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old
As Jay notes, it looks like a stony carbonaceous chondrite.
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.
- Ursa Major touts video of a recent static fire test of its Ripley rocket engine
This is the engine they are selling for use on larger rockets.
- NASA: Cabin temperatures in uncrewed Soyuz with the coolant leak were in high 70s F
If so, this means the crew would have had no problem coming home in that spacecraft.
- Astra gets Defense Department launch contract for its as yet unflown Rocket-4
These military contracts are designed to help new rocket companies, but are always only a tiny amount of the money the companies need to survive. On that note, there is this next link:
- Astra and Momentus face cash crunch
Both have serious financial issues, but Momentus probably a better chance of surviving since it is actually flying its Vigoride tugs. Astra has nothing flying at the moment.
- Australian government eliminates budget for spaceports
Whether the two planned spaceports can find private investment capital to replace this money remains unclear.
- SpaceX tests Raptor-3 engine with 17% more thrust
A video of the test can be seen here. If used in Superheavy/Starship, the total rocket would have three times the power of a Saturn-5.
- SpaceX files for permit for 2nd test flight of Starship/Superheavy with the FCC
This is not the launch license, only the communications permit.
- Meteorite that crashed through roof of NJ home is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old
As Jay notes, it looks like a stony carbonaceous chondrite.
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
The fact that the capsule stayed at more or less normal temperatures on an unmanned re-entry doesn’t really tell us anything. The opposite would have been a “OK, that would have been deadly” but all this tells us is that with half the cooling capacity, it could deal with the onboard systems and any external inputs. But add three warm bodies… It might have worked, it might not, I suspect only Rosocosmos has enough knowledge of the systems to be able to say.
These military contracts are designed to help new rocket companies, but are always only a tiny amount of the money the companies need to survive.
Probably better to think of these contracts as credibility enhancers for the startups than a major source of funding per se: Makes it easier to secure investors and commercial customers. “Look, we got a DoD launch contract! We’re for real!”
Stunning idiocy in requiring Musk to apply for communications and launch permits. Just allocate the frequencies and let them have at it.
Same for the launch license. What would the FAA know that Musk doesn’t? Just accept that there will be some environmental damage and declare him an “Authorised Space Launch Facility” or some such bureaucratese. You don’t need an FAA permit to launch an airliner on its next flight.