Tag: commercial

Sierra Space says first Dream Chaser will be ready for launch by December

12:41 pm

In a presentation at an investor conference on June 27, 2023, a Sierra Space official provided an update on the status of its first Dream Chaser reusable mini-shuttle, dubbed Tenacity, stating that they expect it to be ready for launch by December, with the main question whether its ULA Vulcan launch rocket will also be ready.

The launch is supposed to be the second for Vulcan, but the first launch was just delayed for an undetermined amount of time so ULA can make modifications to the rocket’s Centaur upper stage. Once Tenacity is flying Sierra has a contract with NASA for seven cargo flights to ISS, with plans beyond.

The company is also working on a second version that can carry both crew and cargo. Vice said that version will have 40% greater cargo capacity than the first version and can support a six-person crew.

The ability of Dream Chaser to glide back to Earth in a runway landing, rather than splash down in the ocean, is a key selling point to customers, he argued. “We just think that landing at runways around the world is a huge differentiator: low-g landing back on a runway for both time-critical cargo and science, but also just the way people are going to want to fly back and land.”

The official also indicated that this human-rated version is being designed to work with the private Orbital Reef space station that Sierra Space is building in partnership with other companies. The company also said it is planning its own free flying version of its Orbital Reef LIFE module that the company hopes to launch by the end of 2026, ahead of Orbital Reef. If so, that would make this the sixth independent private space station planned by American companies.

Because much of this presentation was designed to impress potential investors, we should take it with a touch of skepticism. Nonetheless, that the company is considering launching its own station, independent of the Blue Origin-led Orbital Reef station, suggests it has its own doubts about whether that project will ever take off as planned, and has thus decided to make its own contingency plans.

Hat tip to Jay, BtB’s stringer.

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Las Vegas developer touts spaceport plan

9:47 am

A Las Vegas developer is publicizing his plan to build a spaceport for rockets and spaceplanes on his 240 acre lot, with launches taking place within five to seven years.

He is also building a hotel/casino at this location, and I suspect the spaceport proposal’s purpose has more to do with publicizing that casino than actually launching rockets. He claims he will have a spaceport permit in two years, but for him to get such a thing for this land-based site is questionable.

The developer is also proposing to include a space-focused engineering school at the site, as well as fly zero-gravity planes from there, both of which are far more feasible.

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Europe successfully tests rocket engine to be used in its first reusable rocket

9:31 am

The European Space Agency (ESA) on June 22, 2023 successfully completed a 12-second static fire test of the Prometheus rocket engine it plans to use in its first reusable rocket.

The engine, like SpaceX’s Raptor-2 engine for Starship/Superheavy, uses methane as its fuel. The plan is to use it in a future rocket to replace or upgrade the Ariane-6 rocket, still being developed, with the ability to vertically land and reuse the first stage. The plan after this first round of static fire tests is complete is to begin to do short vertical hop tests next year, similar to the Grasshopper tests SpaceX did as it developed the Falcon 9.

However, the following quote from the article indicates their are some limitations to the engine:

According to CNES, the new engine will be reusable up to five times and can deliver variable thrusts of up to 100 tonnes.

SpaceX builds its Merlin and Raptor engines with the goal of many more reuses than this. Possibly this number is simply a conservative estimate that will change once the engine is operational. If all goes as planned, ESA hopes to have this new reusable rocket flying by 2026, at the earliest.

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SpaceX completes six-engine static fire test of Starship prototype #25

9:43 am

SpaceX yesterday successfully completed a six-engine static fire test of Starship prototype #25, the prototype that will be stacked on top of Superheavy prototype #9 and flown on the next orbital test flight.

Musk said in an interview on Saturday that more than a thousand upgrades were planned before the next flight of the Starship/Super Heavy. Including a significant change to the stage separation system that will see the Starship ignite its engines while still attached to the Super Heavy. Improvements are also being made to the Raptor engines to prevent leaks of super-heated gas which resulted in multiple engine failures during the April launch.

Major repair work and modifications are also underway to the Starship launch pad, after extensive damage occurred during the April 20 test flight.

Musk has also said the company will be ready to launch by August. While it is certainly possible that engineering will cause a slight delay to that schedule, more likely SpaceX will be ready, and then have to sit and wait for the FAA and the Biden administration to issue a launch permit. I am predicting it will not be issued by then, and likely not for months afterward.

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Russians launch weather satellite and 42 smallsats

9:29 am

Russians today successfully launched a Russian weather satellite plus 42 smallsats on a Soyuz-2 rocket, lifting off from Vostochny in Russia’s far east.

Almost all of the secondary payloads were Russian. The one exception known was a demo cubesat from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), apparently built by its own engineers and flown to test their growing capabilities. Previous UAE satellites and probes have previously been built by others and used to train UAE engineers.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

43 SpaceX
24 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 49 to 24 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 49 to 41, with SpaceX by itself still leading the rest of the world, excluding other American companies, 43 to 41.

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Japan’s military tests using Starlink for communications

8:49 am

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) have been testing since March the use of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation to augment that nation’s own geosynchronous communications satellites.

Japan’s Defense Ministry signed a contract with an agent that provides SpaceX’s services to equip units of the Air, Ground and Maritime SDF with Starlink antennas and other communication devices. The SDF has been using the service at about 10 locations, including bases and camps, to verify whether there are any operational issues.

The ministry currently has two of its own X-band communication satellites in geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometers above Earth for SDF units to use. The Starlink deal marks the first time the SDF is using a private-sector satellite constellation in low orbit.

An agreement with another company that provides a similar service will be concluded during the current fiscal year. [emphasis mine]

The goal is to provide Japan redundant communications capabilities in case China or Russia — both of which have become more aggressive militarily in the past few years — attempt to take out its own satellites. The highlighted sentence strongly suggests a deal with OneWeb is also being negotiated.

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Tiny Tim’s first appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Aired live April 4, 1968. This important moment in time not only illustrates the incredible tolerant and eccentric nature of 1960s culture, it shows us Johnny Carson at his best. He recognizes the eccentricity of his guest, uses it for humor, but then is also sincerely willing to interview Tim and let him express himself. As always, Carson is kind to his guest, which is one of the reasons his audience loved him so much.

Carson also recognized that Tiny Tim’s eccentricity was great entertainment (something Tim recognized himself quite clearly), which is why Carson allowed the appearance to go so long. It was good show business.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

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Will the wreck of the submersible Titan and the death of its five passengers impact space tourism?

10:57 am

OceanGate's Titan submersible
OceanGate’s Titan submersible

Three articles today all asked the same question as I pose above in the headline, noting the similarity in the business model of the deepsea tourism company OceanGate Expeditions and the burgeoning space tourism business, including both suborbital and orbital flights.

Without question there will be many more such articles in the coming days, as more information is gathered about what caused the failure of the Titan. As these three articles do, all will note the similarities and differences between deep sea tourism and space tourism.

First the differences. » Read more

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Rocket Lab to attempt full recovery of first stage on next launch

9:46 am

In announcing the launch window, opening July 14th, for its next New Zealand launch, Rocket Lab also revealed that it will attempt the full recovery of the first stage after it splashes down softly in the ocean using parachutes.

Rocket Lab is also planning to conduct a marine recovery of Electron’s first stage as part of this mission. Rocket Lab’s recovery team will retrieve Electron using a customized vessel and transport the stage back to Rocket Lab’s production complex for analysis. Data from this recovered stage will inform Rocket Lab’s ongoing recovery and reuse program.

The company recently decided to forego any further attempts to snatch the first stage in the air before splashdown using a helicopter. Instead, it thinks it can recover the stage in good enough condition out of the water to use it or its engines again.

The launch itself will carry seven smallsats, four for NASA and three for two commercial companies.

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House Democrats propose and Republicans approve Space Force increasing spaceport fees

9:37 am

We’re here to help you! The House Armed Services Committee, controlled by a majority of Republicans, has approved a defense funding bill that includes an amendment, proposed by a Democrat, that would allow the Space Force to charge much larger fees for the use of its spaceports.

Committee members signed off on the legislation June 22, which proposes $874 billion in defense spending. The full House is slated to vote on the bill in July. Included in the bill is an amendment offered by Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., that would allow the Space Force to collect fees from companies for the indirect costs of using the military’s launch ranges, like overhead infrastructure or other charges that a traditional port authority might impose on its users.

Today, per the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, the service is limited to collecting fees for direct costs like electricity at a launch pad. The law also restricts the Space Force from accepting in-kind contributions from commercial companies to upgrade its ranges.

The committee’s bill, if approved, would require commercial launch companies to “reimburse the Department of Defense for such indirect costs as the Secretary concerned considers to be appropriate.”

The bill also includes a Republican amendment that encourages the Space Force to charge other additional fees, or require private companies to do work the Space Force is presently handles.

Though the latter amendment might make sense, both amendments will likely achieve just one thing: making it much more expensive to launch from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg. Whether those increased costs will be kept as low as possible is entirely unknown. We certainly should not trust officials in the federal government to do so.

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