Jim Morrison of The Doors, as described by his father and sister
An evening pause: The interviews give a perspective that might surprise you.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Tag: commercial
SpaceX completes successful 6-second static fire test of Superheavy
Screen capture during static fire test
SpaceX today successfully completed a full 5-second static fire test of all 33 Superheavy Raptor-2 engines as well as the deluge system of the launchpad at Boca Chica.
The link goes to the live stream, which is still on-going. The static fire test occurs at about 42 minutes, if you wish to see it.
According to the narrators of the live stream, Elon Musk tweeted that the static fire was a success. It certainly appeared to go for the full five seconds, and it certainly appeared more robust than the previous test. We will have to wait however for confirmation that all 33 engines fired as planned.
The company clearly appears just about ready to do an orbital test flight. Too bad the Biden administration still stands in the way. There is yet no word on when the FAA will approve a launch license, and the decision of the Justice Department yesterday to file a bogus discrimination lawsuit against SpaceX strongly suggests the White House is working hard to figure out ways to squelch this private effort by an American citizen and his company.
Hat tip to Jay, BtB’s stringer.
The Alan Parsons Project – Eye In The Sky
An evening pause: Performed live, with a full orchestra, 2013.
Hat tip John Jossy.
Rocket Lab launches a satellite reusing one rocket engine from previous flight
Rocket Lab not only successfully launched a satellite tonight (August 24 in New Zealand), its first stage used a rocket engine that had flown previously.
In addition, the first stage was designed to be reused, and was quickly recovered after it splashed down in the Pacific. The plan is to refly either this or another recovered first stage in one of the company’s upcoming launches in the coming months, making Rocket Lab the second private company in the world, after SpaceX, to reuse a first stage.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
57 SpaceX
36 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
In the national rankings, American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 66 to 36. It also leads the entire world combined, 66 to 59. SpaceX by itself still trails the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 57 to 59 in successful launches.
Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
An evening pause: I admit that I was never a fan of Winehouse, but quality is still quality, even if one has different tastes.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
First mission in Isaacman’s private space program delayed again
The first mission in the Polaris space program of manned flights by billionaire Jared Isaacman, using SpaceX’s manned spacecraft and rockets, has now been delayed until early in 2024.
Isaacman, in the podcast interview, suggested the delays were linked to the development of a new spacesuit required for a spacewalk, the first by a private astronaut mission, planned for Polaris Dawn. “We’ve had a little bit more free time this summer than we probably would have expected,” he said, which he attributed to the timing of spacesuit development and training. That effort “doesn’t always sync up, so we’ve had a little more free time with family and work this summer.”
That new suit, billed as the first new spacesuit developed in the United States in four decades, is critical to future human activities on moon and Mars, he argued. “We’re going to need spacesuits that don’t cost hundreds of millions of dollars in order to do that. We’re pretty excited because the suit that we are testing out, the evolution of it someday could be very well worn by people that are walking on the moon or Mars.”
This mission, dubbed Polaris Dawn, will use a Falcon 9 and one of SpaceX’s fleet of four manned Dragon capsules to spend several days in Earth orbit while conducting that first private spacewalk. Isaacman’s entire Polaris program includes two more manned missions,the second possibly aimed at raising and even doing maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope, and the third using Starship to go around the Moon.
Isaacman has already flown one private mission in space, in 2021, dubbed Inspiration4. It flew for three days in orbit, carrying four passengers, including Isaacman himself. Since it did not dock with ISS, it was an entirely private manned mission, with no significant government involvement.
VisioRacer – Audi’s Audi’s Supercharged V16 racecars of the 1930s
An evening pause: Some automotive racecar history from before WWII, showing cars then capable of going more than 250 miles per hour.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Proposed Las Vegas spaceport signs deal with launch startup
A private spaceport proposed for the desert west of Las Vegas has signed a deal with launch startup company to wants to use a 747 to launch reusable rockets.
Robert Lauer, director of Las Vegas Spaceport, announced a partnership with O-G Launch, a company headed by Robert Feierbach. Feierbach’s company aims to be a part of the commercial space industry by launching satellites from recyclable rockets deployed from large jets.
Terms of the partnership were not disclosed, but it is expected that companies seeking to deploy satellites would use O-G Launch aircraft starting from the Las Vegas Spaceport to launch a satellite-bearing rocket from 40,000 feet.
To put it mildly, this project is hardly a spaceport. It is planned as a casino, a resort, and a flight school with a runway. O-G helps give it the appearance of a spaceport by allowing it to claim orbital launches will take place there. Whether O-G ever takes off is another thing entirely. Its presence as part of the project, however, provides great PR for attracting customers to the proposed resort/casino.
Redwire to build biotech lab in Sierra Space’s LIFE space station
Sierra Space announced yesterday that — as part of its private space station module dubbed LIFE — it is partnering with Redwire to install a commercial biotech lab in the module.
The hardware includes equipment that Redwire has previously developed for the International Space Station, such as the Advanced Space Experiment Processor, which hosts biotech experiments. A particular focus will be on crystallization experiments, using the microgravity environment to grow larger crystals that can then be studied to determine their structure for pharmaceutical applications.
The companies did not disclose terms of the contract other than that Redwire will start delivering hardware in the fourth quarter of this year. Gold said that the companies will also partner on business development to identify customers for using the experiment platform.
The target date for the launch of LIFE is presently 2026, though it was not revealed when Redwire’s equipment would be installed.
What struck me about this deal is the shrinking mention of Blue Origin. Originally that company was listed as one of the major players in building this private space station, dubbed Orbital Reef, in which LIFE is only the first module. In the past year however its participation seems less and less significant in every subsequent press release. It appears to still be part of the project, but it is Sierra Space that is leading the effort, and appears to be making things happen.
But then, the track record of Blue Origin is to not make things happen. It could very well be that events are once again overtaking it. Sierra Space can’t wait for Blue Origin to slowly get its act together. It is finding ways to get things done, even if that means Blue Origin gets left behind.
Space Force awards multi-satellite contracts to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman
Capitalism in space: In what is a landmark deal indicating the complete shift by the military from building its own satellites to letting private enterprise do it, the Space Development Agency (SDA) of the Space Force yesterday announced it has awarded Lockeheed Martin and Northrop Grumman each a contract to build and operate 36 satellites.
The 72 satellites will make up a portion of SDA’s network known as Tranche 2 Transport Layer. SDA is building a large constellation called the proliferated warfighter space architecture that includes a Transport Layer of interconnected communications satellites and a Tracking Layer of missile-detection and warning sensor satellites. Northrop Grumman’s contract for 36 satellites is worth approximately $733 million. The agreement with Lockheed Martin, also for 36 satellites, is worth $816 million, SDA said.
What makes this contract different than previous military satellite contracts is that the military will do relatively little design. It has released the basic specifications, and is asking private enterprise to do the work for it. It is a customer, not a builder. When the military attempted its own design and construction, the job would take sometimes a decade or more, cost many billions (with cost overruns), and often failed. This new constellation is targeting a 2026 launch, only two years from now.
The constellation will also be more robust than the gold-plated giant satellites the military would build previously. Rather than rely on a single do-it-all satellite which is easy to take out, the constellation has many satellites, and can easily compensate if one or even a few are damaged or destroyed.
This shift was one of the fundamental reasons the military wanted to create a separate Space Force. As part of the Air Force the office politics within that branch of the military had been impossible to make this shift. Too many managers in the Air Force liked building big gold-plated satellites. Once the Space Force took over those managers were taken out of the equation.
SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites using Falcon 9
Using a Falcon 9 rocket with a first stage making its 15th flight, SpaceX early this morning launched 21 Starlink satellites, lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The first stage landed successfully on a drone ship in the Pacific. SpaceX now has two first stages that have flown 16 times, and one that has flown 15 times. Those 47 flights like reduced the launch cost of those launches by about 70%. Since no other rocket company can do this, SpaceX can pocket the profits since it isn’t forced to lower prices as much as it would if it had some real competition.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
57 SpaceX
36 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India
In the national rankings, American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 65 to 36. It also leads the entire world combined, 65 to 58. SpaceX by itself remains in a neck-in-neck race with the rest of the world (excluding American companies), trailing 57 to 58 in successful launches.
Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
An evening pause: Performed live 1994.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.