An evening pause: For those like myself who as a kid watched all of Irwin Allen’s sometimes good, often boringly predictable, but always truly cheesy sci-fi television shows, this documentary will bring back memories. Allen’s shows also explain why Star Trek became the phenomenon it did, as it was so much better.
And can you guess the name of the documentary’s narrator/anchor?
Hat tip Robert Pratt.
Samson’s Switchblade flying car, designed to convert from a car to a small airplane with the touch of a button, has successfully completed its first test flight.
At the Grant Country International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, the Switchblade lifted off for an exhilarating first flight, reaching an altitude of 500 ft (150 m) and circling around to touch down some six minutes later.
In September the company had the plane perform a number of runway hop tests, but this was the first actual flight. At present the company says it has more than two thousand preorders for the flying car.
The FCC tonight extended SpaceX’s communications license for Starship/Superheavy launch from December 1, 2023 to February 23, 2024.
Though there are a lot of rumors that Fish and Wildlife is about to approve the launch, which will allow the FAA to issue the actual launch license, this extension suggests SpaceX is covering its bets in case the approvals are further delayed, or if they are approved in November weather issues force a delay into December.
I remain pessimistic about a November launch, not because I don’t want it to happen (I do), but because I have no faith in the federal government’s desire to allow it to happen. The bureaucracy has now delayed this launch more than two months (SpaceX was ready to launch in September) and the politics continue to sugges the delays will continue.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay for the link.
Using a Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral, SpaceX tonight successfully launched a cargo Dragon carrying supplies to ISS.
This Dragon capsule is making its second flight. The first stage also completed its second flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The capsule itself will dock with ISS early Saturday morning.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
81 SpaceX
51 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
American private enterprise now leads China 93 to 51 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 93 to 80. SpaceX by itself is once again leading the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 81 to 80.
An evening pause: Song by Harry Warren and first published in 1923.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
NASA has awarded the solar panel company Solestial its second development contract, with both contracts worth more than one million dollars, to develop new advanced solar panels for use on future commercial space stations.
The 18-month SBIR Phase II contract will provide funds to support development of next generation, 50-kilowatt (kW) class solar array wings. Solestial’s silicon solar blanket technology will allow for arrays larger than any ever built, while also maintaining lower mass and competitive efficiency. The array will be developed in collaboration with Opterus Research & Development, who will develop a low-cost, novel deployment system for Solestial’s ultrathin, flexible, silicon solar blankets.
These blankets will be an upgrade from the new panels presently being deployed on ISS, that unroll like a blanket rather than unfold like hard panels. The design is lighter weight, easier to deploy, and cheaper. It will thus become a valuable product that every private space station will want to buy.
Firefly yesterday announced that the Australian commercial company, Fleet Space Technologies, will fly its seismometer on Firefly’s second Blue Ghost lunar lander mission, planned to land on the far side of the Moon in 2026.
Fleet Space’s SPIDER payload is part of the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars initiative that’s aligned with NASA’s Artemis program to support future habitation on the Moon. Upon deployment of the payload, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander will provide ongoing power and communications, enabling SPIDER to capture seismic data from the lunar surface for up to 14 days. This data will offer insights into the geological properties of the lunar subsurface and its mineral profile, such as water ice, that can support lunar infrastructure and further regolith exploration.
The mission also has payloads from NASA and the European Space Agency. Note that all three governments are buying the lunar landing services from this private company, rather than build the lander themselves.
The next X-37B launch has now been scheduled for a December 7, 2023 launch, and will be sent into orbit for the first time on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.
The mission, designated USSF-52, will conduct a wide range of tests, including operating the reusable spaceplane in new orbital regimes, experimenting with space domain awareness technologies, and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA, the Space Force said in a statement Nov. 8. “We are excited to expand the envelope of the reusable X-37B’s capabilities,” said Lt. Col. Joseph Fritschen, the X-37B program director. The NASA experiment onboard, known as Seeds-2, will expose plant seeds to the harsh radiation environment of long-duration spaceflight.
SpaceX was awarded a $130 million contract in June 2018 to launch USSF-52. The mission was originally scheduled to launch in 2021 and has been delayed by payload and range availability.
The use of the Falcon Heavy suggests the payloads on this next flight are heavier and require that rocket’s extra boost. This will be the seventh X-37B flight of the Space Force’s fleet of two reusable mini-shuttles, beginning in 2010. The previous mission lasted 908 days in orbit, and landed one year ago in November.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa finally admitted publicly today that his manned Moon mission using SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket won’t happen in 2023 as first announced in 2018.
The most significant part of the announcement? “”We’re not sure when the flight will be,” Maezawa noted on X. Though SpaceX and several news sources claim that federal approval for the next test launch could occur as soon mid-November, Maezawa — as one of SpaceX’s most important customers — might have more detailed non-public information about that approval process.
Even if that second flight get approved and flies in November, it does not mean Maezawa’s manned mission will soon follow. SpaceX will certainly not be ready for manned Starship launches following this test. It will likely require at least a few more unmanned test launches, with each likely delayed months by the same federal bureaucracy that delayed the second test launch by months.
Unless something significant changes in how the federal government is regulating SpaceX at Boca Chica, the first manned flight of Starship is likely years away, no sooner than 2025, but more likely 2026 or 2027.
Rocket Lab has completed its investigation into a September 2023 launch failure and has now scheduled its next Electron launch for the end of November.
More significant, it says it has 22 booked launches scheduled for 2024, a pace that would more than double its previous annual record of 9 launches in 2022.
In its third quarterly report it also revealed that it lost just over $40 million in that quarter, more than last year’s third quarter by 17%. The September launch failure impacted those numbers, though the company’s revenue in the third quarter still grew by 7% from the previous year.
To achieve 22 launches next year will require the company to launch twice a month. With three launchpads (two in New Zealand and one in the U.S.) this is possible, but challenging. Of those launches, nine will attempt to recover and reuse the first stage, and two will not be orbital but suborbital hypersonic tests for the military.
An evening pause: Performed live 2023. The sound and camerawork could be better, but her performance more than compensates.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
The FCC has responded to SpaceX’s application to link cell phones to Starlink with a set of questions, mostly centered on finding out whether the company’s system might interfere with other communications systems.
“This analysis should take into account the worst case scenario of all satellites transmitting at the same time, including different power levels required for rain fade and cloud cover as well as clear sky conditions over a particular area of coverage,” the FCC wrote.
In addition, the same analysis should look at the “possibility of loss of service by other authorized satellite and terrestrial operators in that area,” the Commission added. Another request asks SpaceX to provide “a map with projected beam coverage” for the US, showing the maximum and typical power levels of the satellite cellular service. The FCC also wants to know how the company can shut down the cellular Starlink system in the event interference arises over certain geographic areas.
The FCC’s concerns appear reasonable, but no one should dismiss the possibility that politics are involved as well. The Biden administration, which now has a majority of appointees on the FCC, has made it clear it opposes almost everything Elon Musk is doing.
