Massive Attack – Teardrop
An evening pause: Proves that good music with modern rock instruments does not have to be loud. I just wish this singer wasn’t using the modern slurring singing style that makes it almost impossible to understand the words.
Tag: commercial
ULA delays first launch of Vulcan to June at the earliest
An official from Astrobotics confirmed this week that an explosion during testing of the Centaur upper stage of its new Vulcan rocket will delay that rocket’s first launch for at least one to two months, from May to June or July.
On March 29, Tory Bruno, the CEO of Colorado-based spacecraft makers United Launch Alliance LLC, announced on his personal Twitter account that ULA’s Vulcan Centaur V rocket had experienced “an anomaly,” which preceded a tweet he shared on April 13 that showed a video of an explosion that occurred outside of a testing rig that housed the ULA rocket. He alluded to a hydrogen-related leak as being a possible culprit and in response the next day to other replies, Bruno said in a tweet that “June/July” will be the next earliest estimated launch timeline.
That timeline is the same one that John Thornton, CEO of North Side-based Astrobotic, shared during a speech as part of a kickoff event for the Aviation and Robotics Summit in the Strip District on Tuesday.
The main payload on that Vulcan inaugural launch is Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, carrying several NASA science instruments to the Gruithusien Domes region on the Moon, as indicated by the white dot on the picture above.
Rocket Lab to reuse previously flown engine on upcoming launch
Rocket Lab engineers, having tested a previously flown Rutherford engine numerous times after recovering it from a launch in May 2022, have now approved that engine for reflight, and are inserting into their Electron rocket assembly line for launch sometime in the third quarter of this year.
The company also revealed that it has now completely abandoned the use of a helicopter in first stage recovery, and will instead pick up all first stages after they have splashed down in the ocean.
Extensive analysis of returned stages shows that Electron withstands an ocean splashdown and engineers expect future complete stages to pass qualification and acceptance testing for re-flight with minimal refurbishment. As a result, Rocket Lab is moving forward with marine operations as the primary method of recovering Electron for re-flight. This is expected to take the number of Electron missions suitable for recovery from around 50% to between 60-70% of missions due to fewer weather constraints faced by marine recovery vs mid-air capture, while also reducing costs associated with helicopter operations.
Rocket Lab will assess the opportunities for flying a complete pre-flown first stage booster following the launch of the pre-flown Rutherford engine in the third quarter this year.
Rocket Lab is presently the only operational American company besides SpaceX that is aggressively pursuing reuse of its rocket. ULA says it wishes to recover and reuse the engines of its still-unflown Vulcan rocket, but development of this concept has been very slow. Many other new companies claim their rockets will be reusable, but none has yet even launched.
Ohio local authorities approves land sale for future private astronaut training facility
The local city council in Brook Park, Ohio, yesterday approved by a vote of 7-0 the purchase of nearly thirteen acres by the British company Blue Abyess to allow it to quickly build its proposed private astronaut training facility.
The Brook Park location will be built around a very large, 150-foot deep, multi-level pool. It’s an area that can replicate what life would be like in outer space and allow for the necessary training, dubbed astronaut boot camp for space exploration. “They’re not swimming pools. They’re aimed at industry, whether that’s marine offshore energy, maritime defense, subsea technology, human performance in extreme environments, or how do humans cope with green space environments,” Vickers said.
Officials say this project could be a huge economic driver, potentially bringing more than 100 jobs to the area.
In addition, it will likely generate major interest from tourists.
The facility will also include a hotel for those private astronauts, whether commercial or tourist. Located next to the Glenn Research Center, the company hopes to provide its services to both the public and NASA.
Superheavy/Starship clears tower but fails at stage separation
Starship and Superheavy, having just cleared the tower
In a spectacular first orbital launch attempt, SpaceX’s Superheavy and Starship successfully lifted off, clearing the tower and continuing through max-Q (maximum dynamic pressure). It then reached about 24 miles altitude when the rocket began to slowly spinn just prior to main engine cutoff and stage separation. At that point, because engine cutoff and separation had not occurred as planned, the engineering team used the flight termination system to destroy it so as to eliminate any risk to anyone on the ground.
As the announcers noted repeatedly, if the rocket simply cleared the tower they would consider this a magnificent success, considering that they had never fired Superheavy before in a real countdown. That Superheavy performed exactly as it should for almost its entire flight means SpaceX is that much closer to getting Starship into orbit than one would think at this stage of testing.
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Amazing Saxophone Solo
An evening pause: It is shame there is not more information about this sax player, who is astonishing in her skill.
Hat tip James Street.
An ordinary person’s view of the Starship/Superheavy countdown
One of my readers, who wishes to go by is nickname Doubting Thomas on Behind the Black, went to Boca Chica earlier this week with the hope of seeing the live first orbital launch of Superheavy with Starship stacked on top. Unfortunately, the launch on April 17, 2023 was scrubbed, and he could not remain in Boca Chica for the now rescheduled launch early tomorrow morning on April 20th.
He sent me some pictures of that experience, however, which I post here with his permission. The best of course is the one to the right, of Starship stacked on Superheavy on the launchpad. This was taken before the roads were closed, and shows how incredibly close the general public can get to that launchpad simply by driving past on a public road.
The next few pictures give us a glimpse at the options people have for viewing future Boca Chica launches.
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ILC Dover to provide spacesuits and “softgoods” for Sierra Space’s LIFE space station
Sierra Space yesterday announced that it has signed a partnership deal with ILC Dover for it to provide spacesuits and other “softgoods” for Sierra Space’s LIFE space station, including helping to build the station’s inflatable modules.
ILC Dover will be an exclusive partner with Sierra Space for softgoods used to support inflatable space habitat systems for low-Earth orbit (LEO), lunar and Mars transport and surface habitation, and use cases even farther into deep space.
The two companies have already been working together on the development and testing of Sierra Space’s first prototype inflatable modules.
Axiom offers package space program deals for other countries
The private space station and human spaceflight company Axiom announced this week a set of package space program deals it is marketing to other countries.
In the base tier, Axiom provides countries with advice and insight, and gives those countries priority access on upcoming missions. The second tier enables research and development activities by counties. The third tier offers human spaceflight missions on a regular basis. A fourth tier offers countries the ability to co-develop parts of Axiom’s station.
The first country to join the program is Azerbaijan, which will work with Axiom on satellite solutions and inspiring students to pursue space research and development activities. New Zealand and Uzbekistan are also participating, as well as Rakia Mission, an Israeli space education and research organization involved with the Ax-1 private astronaut mission to the ISS a year ago. Italy is another nation working with Axiom through a partnership that dates back to 2018. An Italian astronaut is slated to fly on Axiom’s Ax-3 mission to the ISS, currently scheduled for late 2023. Two astronauts from Saudi Arabia are flying on the Ax-2 mission in May.
The company also notes that it has found its customers divide into three components, government, private citizens, and corporations. At present this is their order in terms of market share, though the company thinks that corporations will eventually become its biggest customer.
SpaceX launches 21 second generation Starlink satellites
SpaceX this morning successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral to launch 21 second generation Starlink satellites into orbit.
The first stage successfully completed its eighth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
25 SpaceX
16 China
6 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads China 28 to 16 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 28 to 27. SpaceX now trails the entire world, including American companies, 25 to 30.
Bastille – Pompeii
An evening pause: I especially like the dog.
Hat tip Sayomara.
April 18, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Virgin Orbit’s 747 took a flight yesterday
As Jay asks, “A buyer for the plane or the company?”
- European Commission requests permission from EU to launch its Galileo GPS-type satellites using American rockets
Right now it is required to launch on Arianespace’s rockets, but the Ariane-5 is being retired, the Ariane-6 is not ready, and the partnership with the Russians is dead. So once again, America (likely in the guise of SpaceX) will come to rescue Europe.
- Chinese pseudo-rocket company signs launch deal with Chinese pseudo-satellite company
The rocket, Gravitation-1, has not yet launched, and is targeting the 4th quarter of this year for that flight.