Doreen’s Jazz Band – The House of The Rising Sun
A evening pause: Performed live in 2014 in New Orleans, with Doreen Ketchens on the clarinet.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Tag: commercial
ESA awards UK’s Orbex 7.45 million euros to fund rocket development
Capitalism in space: The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded the new United Kingdom smallsat launch company Orbex 7.45 million euros to help fund the development of its Prime rocket.
This will supplement the 4.7 million euros that Orbex has raised from private capital.
The funds from the award will go towards the completion of spaceflight systems in preparation for the first launches of Orbex’s 19-metre ‘microlauncher’ rocket, Prime. €11.25 million of the total funding will be assigned to work undertaken in the UK, in particular the lightweight avionics designed in-house by Orbex in Forres, and the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) software subsystem being designed by Elecnor Deimos, a strategic investor and partner of Orbex. The remaining €900,000 of the total funding package will support the development of the GNC for the orbital phase being developed by Elecnor Deimos for Orbex in Portugal.
If all goes right, Prime will make its first launch from Sutherland, Scotland, in ’22.
The contract award signals the shift at ESA that resembles what happened at NASA in the past decade, moving from designing and building its rockets and spacecraft to buying the product from private companies. While ESA might be providing a large bulk of the capital to develop Prime, it appears ESA is not involving itself heavily in the development itself, leaving that instead to the company.
SpaceX successfully launches another 60 Starlink satellites
SpaceX early today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to place another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit, bringing that constellation to over 1,300 satellites.
The first stage landed successfully, for the sixth time. Both fairing halves were also reused, and their recovery method has now been simplified:
SpaceX has recently appeared to adjust its fairing recovery strategy. The ships previously dedicated to fairing catch attempts, GO Ms. Chief and GO Ms. Tree, have been stripped of their nets and arms, a possible sign that dry fairing recoveries will no longer be attempted. Post-splashdown recovery has proven to be fairly successful, as recent missions frequently use fairing halves that have flown once if not multiple times before.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
9 SpaceX
6 China
4 Russia
2 Rocket Lab
Counting all launches, the U.S. now leads China 13 to 6 in the national rankings.
MOS – JOJO’s Bizarre Adventure
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who correctly describes this as “Short, energetic, and very brassy.”
Rocket Lab completes second launch in 2021
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully launched six smallsats today from New Zealand using its Electron rocket.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
8 SpaceX
6 China
4 Russia
2 Rocket Lab
Including all its other launches, the U.S. leads China 12 to 6 in the national rankings.
Dave Matthews Band – Ants Marching
An evening pause: Performed live prior to the album’s release in 2007.
Nice way to start the week, with some energy.
Hat Chris McLaughlin.
Another Starhip update: Static fire test today for #11
Link here. If the static fire goes well, the test flight for Starship prototype #11 should occur in the next few days, possibly as soon as tomorrow.
The article at the link also reviews the possible testing schedule for future prototypes. The next Starship prototype being prepared for flight, #15, will likely not fly next. Instead, it appears that SpaceX is gearing up to first begin tanking tests on its first Super Heavy prototype.
All could change of course depending on tests and flights and construction.
Motorcycle Chariots
An evening pause: A free people might do grand things, but they will also do silly things as well. This falls into the latter category.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Update on SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster
Capitalism in space: According to this update on SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster, the first prototype is now stacked as two complete tank sections that only need to be welded together.
While a good amount of work still remains to weld the two halves together and connect their preinstalled plumbing and avionics runs, those tasks are largely marginal and will tweak the massive steel tower that’s now firmly in one piece. Comprised of 36 of the steel rings also used to assemble Starships, the first Super Heavy prototype – serial number BN1 – will stand roughly 67 meters (220 ft) tall from the top of its uppermost ring to the tail of its soon-to-be-installed Raptor engines.
At that height, Super Heavy BN1 is just 3 meters (~10 ft) shorter than an entire two-stage Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket – the second and third tallest operational rockets today. Of course, Super Heavy is just a booster and SpaceX says the rocket will stand at least 120m (~395 ft) tall with a Starship upper stage and spacecraft installed on top, easily making it the tallest (and likely heaviest) launch vehicle ever assembled.
The report also adds SpaceX’s confirmation that this prototype will never fly, but will be used solely for ground tests. It is the second prototype that will do the first short test hops, hopefully sometime this summer.
SpaceX & NASA agree to better coordinate their satellite constellations to avoid collisions
NASA announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement with SpaceX to better coordinate and share information about their their satellite constellations in order to avoid collisions and launch conflicts.
SpaceX has agreed its Starlink satellites will autonomously or manually maneuver to ensure the missions of NASA science satellites and other assets can operate uninterrupted from a collision avoidance perspective. Unless otherwise informed by SpaceX, NASA has agreed to not maneuver its assets in the event of a potential conjunction to ensure the parties do not inadvertently maneuver into one another.
Makes great sense. Not only will this help avoid damage to satellites from both entities, it commits NASA’s support of SpaceX’s Starlink.
SpaceX narrows Mars landing site for Starship to four prime locations
Capitalism in space: During this week’s 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, one poster [pdf] caught my eye as something significant. It was titled “SpaceX Starship Landing Sites on Mars.” The map to the right is figure 1 from that poster, annotated slightly by me based my earlier stories about SpaceX’s use of the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to research potential Martian landing sites for its Starship spacecraft. The stars indicate MRO images, most of which were described and linked to in my last major post about this SpaceX effort in November 2019.
The red spots covering some stars are the big story: SpaceX has narrowed its choice for its Starship landing site to four prime locations (indicated by the bright red spots) and three backup locations (indicated by the dark red spots). The images under the red spots numbered 2, 4, and 6 were linked to in my November 2019 post. The images under red spots marked by a “D” are earlier images taken by MRO when SpaceX was researching a potential Dragon landing site. The images under red spots labeled 1P and MRO are subsequent images taken by MRO since November 2019, with the 1P image previously linked to in a post in April 2020 entitled “The icy Phlegra Mountains: Mars’ future second city.”
The poster outlined why the prime candidate sites — PM1, EM16, AP1, and AP9 — were favored. For example, PM-1 in the Phlegra Mountains “…has the lowest latitude and elevation of the group, a clear association with LDAs [lobate debris aprons that resemble glacial features], well developed polygons, and has the highest SWIM [Subsurface Water Ice Mapping] score for geomorphic indicators of ice.”
EM 16 “…has a clear association with an LDA with nearby brain terrain and the strongest radar return for shallow ice and the highest combined SWIM score.”
AP1 “…appears to be the safest site and has a moderate combined SWIM score for ice.”
AP9 “…has the thickest ice from radar returns and geomorphology indicating shallow ice. It has the highest combined SWIM score for ice, but appears slightly rocky and rough.”
Below the fold are images, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, of the four primary landing sites, as well as links to the full images of all four plus the three back-up sites (AP8, EM15, and PM7).
» Read more
Jordi Bertran – Le petit bonhomme en mousse
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World
An evening pause: Performed live 1979 on Saturday Night Live.
Hat tip Chris McLaughlin.
Musk confirms goal of orbital Starship flight this year
Capitalism in space: Musk today confirmed the stories published earlier this week that SpaceX has a target goal of completing the first test orbital flight of Starship before the end of this year, possibly as early as July.
The only new news in the article is Musk’s confirmation. It does outline again the challenges SpaceX faces to meet this goal, recognizing that these dates are thus merely targets that almost certainly will not be met. It also recognizes that the targets tell us that development will continue to move forward swiftly, and that an orbital test flight is also likely not that far in the future.
Who wants to bet that a Starship/Super Heavy rocket reaches orbit before SLS? Right now the odds I’d say are about 50-50.
Private Snafu – Coming!!
An evening pause: This was the first of a World War II cartoon series directed by Chuck Jones, voiced by Mel Blanc, and written by Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss and designed to with humor raise the work ethic of soldiers and officers.
Hat tip Lazurus Long, who adds that “it was a bit racy and [thus] popular with the servicemen.”
Today our military authorities probably consider our servicemen and women to be too fragile for such stuff. And hopefully this evening pause will air before Google’s YouTube decides it must be banned.
Tom Scott – The Library of Rare Colors
A evening pause: This is something that is technologically complex that we all take entirely for granted.
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
Starship update: Prototype #11 could fly tomorrow
Capitalism in space: According to this Starship update, the 11th Starship prototype is scheduled for its static fire dress rehearsal countdown today, with the possibility of its first flight as early as tomorrow.
This paragraph about SpaceX’s overall Starship program however is more significant:
Following SN11’s flight, SpaceX will move on to SN15, 16, and 17, alongside testing with Super Heavy prototypes BN1 and BN2, before shooting for an orbital launch with SN20 and BN3. In typical SpaceX-style, that orbital launch has an astonishing – and unlikely – “by July 1” target. At the very least, this target portrays SpaceX’s Starship drive to push the vehicle into operation.
The reason they are going directly from prototype #11 to #15 is because they scrapped #s 12, 13, and 14 after the flights of #9 and #10. They had learned enough, and those scrapped prototypes would not have taught them anything. Instead, they incorporated the learned changes to #15 and will fly that next.
The July 1st launch date is certainly overly optimistic. It also signals the company’s determination to try to get that first orbital flight off this year. Based on their pace, it would be foolish to dismiss this as a possibility.
It also signals what I think is an internal unstated goal within SpaceX to have Starship beat SLS into orbit. Nor would anyone be wise to consider that impossible. In fact, I consider it quite likely.
SpaceX launches another 60 Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX early this morning successfully launched another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit using its Falcon 9 rocket.
The company also successfully used a first stage for a record ninth time, landing it on its drone ship in the Atlantic. The booster did all nine flights in just over two years.
The 2021 launch race:
8 SpaceX
6 China
3 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Virgin Orbit
1 Northrop Grumman
1 India
The U.S. now leads China 11 to 6 in the national rankings.
The Offspring – Self Esteem
An evening pause: Performed live 1995.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who added, “A time before cell phones waved in everyone’s hand. A time where crowds were in the moment. A time when there were crowds.”
I would add it was a time when people were also not afraid, but lived life with spirit and exuberance, ignoring its natural risks because to pay attention to them would make life intolerable.
Enjoy your weekend. Get out of your house. Do something grand. And do it with as many people as you can find.
Military band joke
An evening pause: One marching band from Britain is performing to an Italian audience when a band representing the Italian Bersaglieri (mobile light infantry who traditionally run at a trot instead of march) arrives to upstage them.
Silly and staged, but fun nonetheless.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.