Tag: commercial

NASA extends the mission of the lunar orbiter Capstone to the end of 2025

9:36 am

The Moon as seen by Capstone
The Moon as seen by Capstone during itsMay 2023 close fly-by.
Click for original image.

NASA has now funded the mission of the privately built and operated lunar orbiter Capstone to the end of 2025, allowing it to complete engineering testing by more than two years of the orbit around the Moon that NASA’s Lunar Gateway space station intends to use.

Extending CAPSTONE’s mission also allows further collaboration with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. That partnership comes via a recently extended Space Act Agreement to evaluate, and when appropriate, conduct opportunities for cross-link data collection between the two spacecraft.

The spacecraft is entirely commercial, with NASA merely acting as the customer. It was built by Terran Orbital, launched by Rocket Lab, and is owned and operated by the private company Advanced Space, making it I think the first interplanetary probe operated entirely by the private sector for NASA. Advanced Space’s achievement was further magnified in shortly after launch the spacecraft had some thruster issues causing it to tumble. The company’s engineers were able to regain control and get it to the Moon.

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SpaceX completes two launches last night from opposite coasts

8:46 am

With the FAA bureaucrats finally getting out of the way and lifting its absurd and clearly politically motiavated grounding of SpaceX, the company has wasted no time in resuming flight. Last night it completed two Starlink launches only two hours apart from opposite coasts.

First, it launched 23 satellites from Cape Canaveral, using a Falcon 9 rocket with a first stage flying on its eleventh flight and successfully landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

Then, two hours later it launched 20 more Starlink satellites from Vandenberg, with a Falcon 9 first stage flying for the nineteenth time and successfully landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

With these two launches, the company has completed 100 successful launches in 2024. It had already broken its own record for the most launches by a private company in a single year when it put Starship/Superheavy into orbit on October 13th. Whether it can achieve its goal of 150 launches in this year remains uncertain, but what does it matter? SpaceX has unequivocally proven the benefits of private ownership and capitalism, now achieving as many launches as any other entire country. Russia had completed 100 launches in 1982, which was only topped last year by the United States, but only because SpaceX made it happen.

And literally the sky is the limit, since as long as SpaceX is producing revenue and profits from its effort — which it is — there is nothing to stop it from topping these numbers for decades to come.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

100 SpaceX
45 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 117 to 68, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 100 to 85.

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Vast unveils its proposed full space station concept

11:26 am

Haven-2
Haven-2 station once completed

After revealing the layout planned for its first single module space station dubbed Haven-1 last week, the startup Vast today unveiled its proposed full space station concept, dubbed Haven-2.

The graphic to the right is a screen capture from the video describing the step-by-step assembly of this larger station. Initially it will be comprised of four modules, linked together in a straight line. This confirguration is aimed at winning a space station contract from NASA when it announces the winners in the second phase of its commercial space station program in mid-2026. If picked, Vast then intends in the expand that four-module station to the eight modules illustrated in the graphic.

Between 2030 and 2032, Vast will add a larger 7m diameter core module and four more Haven-2 modules, fully realizing the next-generation commercial space station capable of meeting the needs of international partners, NASA, commercial researchers & manufacturers, and private astronauts.

Key features of the completed station include an unprecedented 3.8m diameter cupola window, external payload hosting capabilities, a robotic arm, visiting vehicle berthing capabilities, external payload airlock, and an extravehicular activity (EVA) airlock to support customers’ needs. Each module will also feature two Haven-1-like 1.1m dome windows, totaling 16 windows by 2032.

Vast’s design is projected to surpass all other proposed on-orbit space stations in terms of volume, functionality, and operational efficiency.

Vast’s overall plan is quite ambitious, but well thought out. If all goes as planned, just as NASA is about to decide on the winners in phase 2 of its space station program, Vast plans to launch in 2026 its Haven-1 station and immediately fly a manned 30-day mission to it, using SpaceX rockets and Dragon capsules. If successful, that private mission will do wonders in convincing NASA to pick Vast.

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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launches NASA’s Europa Clipper mission

9:50 am

Europa's approximate orbit around Jupiter
Click for original image.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket this morning successfully launched NASA’s Europa Clipper mission on its way to Jupiter, the rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In order to get the energy to reach Jupiter, none of the Falcon Heavy’s first stage boosters were recovered today. The two side boosters completed their sixth and final flights with this mission, while the core booster completed its first launch. The only parts of the rocket that will be recovered and reused were the two fairing halves.

To get to Jupiter, the spacecraft will make first a fly-by of Mars in February 2025, and then a fly-by of Earth in December 2026. It will arrive in Jupiter orbit in April 2030, where its orbit will be adjusted to fly close past Europa many times in order to study it closely, as shown by the graphic on the right. It will not going into orbit around the planet because that would place it permanently inside the high radiation environment around Jupiter. This is especially important because the spacecraft has installed transistors that were not properly hardened for that environment.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

98 SpaceX
45 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 115 to 68, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 98 to 85.

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ESA awards D-Orbit €119.6 million contract to complete Europe’s first robotic service mission

9:25 am

The European Space Agency (ESA) today awarded the European orbital tug company D-Orbit a €119.6 million contract to fly Europe’s first robotic mission to extend the life of an already orbiting satellite.

Referred to as RISE, the mission will demonstrate the D-Orbit GEA satellite life extension vehicle’s ability to dock with a geostationary satellite, maneuver the satellite, and then release it. After this sequence is verified, ESA’s involvement in its operation will come to an end. The vehicle will then move into an operational phase with D-Orbit offering a life extension service to active geostationary satellite operators.

The mission is targeting a 2028 launch, though no specific target satellite as yet has been identified.

This project is very similar to the Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) robotic missions of Northrop Grumman, which has been flown twice successfully. I guess ESA needed to see it work before it would consider doing its own mission. Moreover, ESA probably wanted to sign up a European company to do it, and until now no such company existed. D-Orbit has already completed fourteen orbital tug missions with seven more scheduled for 2025. This mission extension project however will be a significant leap forward in its capabilities, funded by ESA.

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Estonia signs Artemis Accords

8:55 am

NASA yesterday announced that Estonia had become the 45th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, the bi-lateral treaty created during the Trump administration initially to overcome the Outer Space Treaty’s limits on private property and ownership.

The Biden administration appears to be working to de-emphasize those goals, and in fact to instead strengthen the Outer Space Treaty. From this press release (and similar to statements in all recent press releases):

The accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.

The full list of nations is as follows: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the Ukraine, the United States and Uruguay.

It is interesting to note that Estonia as well as Lithuania, Armenia, and the Ukraine were once part of the Soviet Union (against their will). Similarly, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia were once part of the Soviet bloc, also against their will. It appears they want to ally themselves with the west, with one reason their fear that Russia might invade them as it has the Ukraine. It also could be that these nations agree with the Trump administration’s original goals, and wish to promote capitalism and private property, having experienced for decades the failures of communist and authoritarian rule.

The future goals of the Artemis Accord alliance will demand entirely on who wins the presidency in the elction in November.

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Musk says SpaceX will sue California Coastal Commission

8:42 am

In a tweet on X on October 12, 2024, Elon Musk said that SpaceX will sue the California Coastal Commission for violating his first amendment rights as soon the court opens tomorrow.

“Filing suit against them on Monday for violating the First Amendment,” he wrote, adding: “Tuesday, since court is closed on Monday.”

At least two commissioners had made it very clear in public statements at a hearing last week that they were voting against a Space Force request that would increase the number of launches at Vandenberg because they opposed Elon Musk’s political positions, not because the request would do any harm to the coast. The commission then rejected the request 6-4, with others claiming that SpaceX should have made the request directly rather than have the Space Force do it.

The vote remains non-binding, as the Space Force has the legal power to do whatever it wants at Vandenberg, and only works with the commission as a courtesy.

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SpaceX Starship/Superheavy test flight achieves 100% of its goals

6:53 am

Superheavy after its flight safely captured at Boca Chica
Superheavy after its flight, safely captured at Boca Chica

In SpaceX’s fifth orbital test flight of its Starship/Superheavy rocket, the company astonishingly achieved 100% of its goals, with Superheavy successfully returning to the launch tower and caught by the tower chopsticks on the very first attempt, and Starship successfully completing a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, hitting its target landing spot for the first time.

The full video of the live stream is embedded below.

The capture of Superheavy, as shown in the screen capture to the right, was especially incredible. The first attempts to vertically soft land the first stage of the Falcon 9 back in the mid-2010s were not unprecedented, the concept of which had previously been demonstrated by numerous tests on Earth as well as the Apollo landings. The tower chopstick capture of Superheavy was an entirely new concept and had never even been tested previously, anywhere, by anyone. To hit the mark and succeed on the first attempt is mind-boggling. The reaction of the SpaceX employees illustrated this, as they were overwhelmed by their own success.

As for Starship, like the fourth test flight there was some burn through damage seen on at least one of the control flaps, but much less this time. Moreover, the spacecraft was under full control during its entire flight, followed its planned flight plan, and landed on its target in the Indian Ocean.

With that success, I predict SpaceX will do a full orbit of Starship on the next test flight, #6, and attempt to land Starship vertically on land, possibly at Boca Chica or elsewhere. To do this will of course require government approvals, something that will likely slow things down again while accomplishing nothing, because in the end the bureaucrats will have to say yes anyway.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

97 SpaceX
45 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 114 to 68, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 97 to 85.
» Read more

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FAA approves launch license for tomorrow’s SpaceX Starship/Superheavy launch

12:24 pm

Superheavy being captured by the tower chopsticks at landing
Artist rendering of Superheavy being captured by
the tower chopsticks at landing. Click for video.

The FAA today announced that it has finally approved a launch license for the fifth test launch tomorrow of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy, and that this approval applies to the next few launches as well, assuming the FAA or other government agencies or politicians don’t attempt to nitpick things again.

The full written re-evaluation [pdf] released today is somewhat hilarious, in that it spends 61 pages essentially concluding that SpaceX’s proposed actions were already approved by the 2022 Environoment Reassessment [abbreviated PEA by the FAA], spending page after page detailing why a license should be approved based on that 2022 reassessment. After wasting more than two months essentially retyping the 2022 conclusions, this report concludes ludicrously:

The 2022 PEA examined the potential for significant environmental impacts from Starship/SuperHeavy launch operations at the Boca Chica Launch Site and defined the regulatory setting for impacts associated with Starship/Super Heavy. The areas evaluated for environmental impacts in this WR [written reevaluation] included noise and noise compatible land use and biological resources.

Based on the above review and in conformity with FAA Order 1050.1F, Paragraph 9-2.c, the FAA has concluded that the modification of an existing vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, that the data contained in the 2022 PEA remains substantially valid, that there are no significant environmental changes, and all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met in the current action. Therefore, the preparation of a supplemental or new environmental document is not necessary to support the Proposed Action.

In plain English, SpaceX is doing nothing to require this bureaucratic paperwork, but we have insisted on doing it anyway in order to justify our useless jobs while acting to squelch free Americans from getting the job done as they wish. As Musk so rightly put it last month, “It takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware.”

Despite this approval, we must emphasize that this action has now set a very bad precedent for the future, When SpaceX makes changes to its flight plans on future test launches — something that is guaranteed as the company incrementally improves the design — the FAA will almost certainly shut things down again as it spends months once again determining that nothing is wrong.

Either way, stand by for tomorrow’s test launch, lifting off at 7 am (Central time). I have embedded the Space Affairs youtube live stream below, since SpaceX’s live streams on X don’t allow one to stand by, and will only go live 35 minutes before launch.
» Read more

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California officials: SpaceX shouldn’t be allowed to launch from Vandenberg because we hate Elon Musk

10:11 am

In voting yesterday to reject a plan by the military to increase the number of launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, members of the California Coastal Commission admitted openly they did so because they do not like Elon Musk and his publicly stated political preferences.

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected the Air Force’s plan to give SpaceX permission to launch up to 50 rockets a year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.

“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” Commissioner Gretchen Newsom said at the meeting in San Diego.

…“I really appreciate the work of the Space Force,” said Commission Chair Caryl Hart. “But here we’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race and he’s managed a company in a way that was just described by Commissioner Newsom that I find to be very disturbing.”

It must be noted that this vote is not legally binding on the military. Though it has always tried to work in cooperation with this commission, it has the right to decide for itself how many launches it wants to allow out of Vandenberg. Whether it will defy the commission however is uncertain, and likely depends entirely on who wins the presidential election. If Harris wins, she will likely order the Space Force to not only obey the commission but to further limit launches by SpaceX at Vandenberg. If Trump wins, he will likely tell the Space Force to go ahead and expand operations, ignoring the immoral political machinations of these commissioners.

And it must be emphasized how immoral and improper these commissioners are. Their task is to regulate the use of the California coast in order to protect it for all future users, from beach-goers to rocket companies. It is not their right to block the coast’s use to certain individuals simply because those individuals have expressed political views they oppose. Not only does this violate Musk’s first amendment rights, it is an outright abuse of power.

If anyone in California reading this article wishes to tell these commissioners what they think of their actions yesterday, you can find their contact information here.

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Fringe activists in Texas sue SpaceX to prevent further launches of Starship/Superheavy

9:50 am

In an obvious attempt to block SpaceX’s effort to do the fifth Starship/Superheavy orbital test launch this coming weekend, a fringe activist group dubbed Save RGV has now sued the company, accusing it of using industrial wastewater in the launchpad’s deluge system that acts to minimize damage to the pad.

The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division, under the Clean Water Act (CWA), seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, the imposition of civil penalties and “other appropriate relief” to bring a halt to SpaceX’s “recurring, unpermitted discharges of untreated industrial wastewater from the deluge system at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site into waters of the United States,” according to the suit.

According to SpaceX, water in the deluge system is potable drinking water. Moreover, in previous launches the company obtained all the proper licenses for its use, only to have the EPA subsequently step in and claim SpaceX had “violated the Clean Water Act in deploying the deluge system. The EPA did not assess a fine, but did order SpaceX to comply with federal regulations.” That action has forced the FAA to delay issuing any further launch licenses, even as of today.

I call Save RGV a fringe group because it has almost no support from within the Rio Grande Valley surrounding Boca Chica and Brownsville. That community is overwhelming in support of SpaceX’s efforts, and wants it to grow and expand, because of all the jobs and money it is bringing to the region.

This suit is clearly an attempt to forestall any launch license approval the FAA might want to issue for SpaceX’s desire to launch this weekend, on October 13, 2024. SpaceX is ready to go that day, and is now merely waiting for the FAA to “go!”.

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On-going manned test flights of Boom’s prototype supersonic plane inching towards the supersonic

9:28 am

During the on-going manned test flights of Boom’s one-third scale prototype supersonic plane, dubbed XB-1, the maximum flight speeds have been steadily increased as they company tests the plane’s design and structure.

[On October 7th on the fifth manned flight] Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg set a record for the XB-1 shod with GE J85-15 turbojet engines, taking it up to 17,800 ft (5,425 m) and as fast as Mach 0.69 (428 knots / 492 mph / 791 km/h, true airspeed) over its 50-minute-long test flight, marking the highest and the fastest it’s flown so far.

Boom tested its flutter excitation system (FES) at Mach 0.6 … which must be unnerving for a test pilot. The FES is a system that deliberately induces vibrations into an aircraft’s airframe to help engineers find potential structural issues, particularly at higher speeds. They do this so structural issues (that could cause flutter) don’t rear their ugly head mid-flight.

The plan is to do five more test flights before attempted to break the sound barrier.

At the completion of this testing the company will then begin manufacture of its full scale supersonic passenger plane, dubbed Overture, that will carry up to 80 passengers and will sell to airlines. It already has contracts and financial support from a number of major airlines, including United and Japan Airlines.

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NATO to issue new space strategy to address growth in commercial sector

9:07 am

Capitalism in space? NATO officials at a meeting this week proposed issuing a new space strategy next year, designed to deal with the changing relationship in space between government and private enterprise.

During the Commercial Space Forum at NATO, participants discussed the threats they face, from cyber-attacks against ground systems, to jamming or spoofing of GPS and other satellite communications signals. They also addressed the importance of further investment in areas such as cybersecurity and sharing information about threats.

NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment, Ms Tarja Jaakkola, highlighted the need for a new relationship between the military and the commercial sector, “where both sides can learn from another, and where we can support and harness the entrepreneurial spirit and technological innovation essential to keep our defences strong and effective.”

More information here. It appears that NATO officials have realized that they can no longer do things as they have for the past half century, whereby they design, build, and own the space assets they launch. They must instead do what NASA and the Pentagon has been doing, become the customer that buys such products from the private enterprise.

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Mitsuibishi’s H3 rocket wins launch contract from UAE

8:55 am

Capitalism in space: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday announced that it has awarded the launch contract for its first unmanned probe to the asteroid belt to the Japanese company Mitsuibishi and its new H3 rocket.

The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) announced Oct. 10 it selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to launch its Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) on an H3 rocket in the first quarter of 2028. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The spacecraft, also known as MBR Explorer after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, will fly by six main belt asteroids between 2030 and 2033 before rendezvousing on a seventh, Justitia, in 2034, later deploying a lander.

This mission is the third that the UAE has selected MHI to launch. An H-2A rocket launched the Emirates Mars Mission, a Mars orbiter, in 2020, while KhalifaSat, a remote sensing satellite, launched as a secondary payload on another H-2A in 2018.

What makes this launch contract different from the previous two is that the winner is Mitsubishi. Previous awards went through Japan’s space agency JAXA, which appeared to manage the H2A entirely. Now, Mitsubishi is in control, and is working directly with its customer.

This change proves that Japan’s government effort to promote private enterprise in space is real, that though it has been slow to wrest bureaucratic control from JAXA, that wresting is happening nonetheless.

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EPA to NASA: We intend to regulate how you dispose ISS, and that’s only the start

12:47 pm

The FAA to SpaceX
The EPA and its supporters to the American space industry:
“Nice industry you got here. Sure would be a shame if
something happened to it.”

It appears the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a number of activist groups are now lobbying for the right to regulate whether anything in orbit can be de-orbited into the oceans, beginning with how NASA plans to dispose of the International Space Station (ISS) when the station is de-orbited into the ocean sometime before 2030.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is evaluating how the disposal of the International Space Station into the ocean will need to be regulated but has not shared the details of any specific concerns or aspects of regulation. “EPA’s Office of Water is coordinating with the Office of General Counsel on this complex issue. The agency does not have a timeline for this evaluation,” EPA spokeswoman Dominique Joseph told SpaceNews.

“Sixty-six years of space activities has resulted in tens of thousands of tons of space debris crashing into the oceans,” said Ewan Wright, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia and a junior fellow of the Outer Space Institute, an interdisciplinary group of experts working on emerging space sustainability issues.

While Wright is later quoted as saying that disposal in the ocean is “the least worst option,” the article at the link includes quotes from several other academics, all claiming that such an option must be stopped at all costs, because it threatens to “cause great damage” to the ocean. These “experts” make this claim by comparing ISS’s de-orbit with the dumping of old ammunition from World War I as well as plastic forks now.
» Read more

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Vast unveils its first preliminary design for the interior of its Haven-1 space station

12:08 pm

Artist's rendering of Haven-1 interior
Artist’s rendering of Haven-1 interior.
Click for original.

Vast today revealed its first preliminary design for the interior of its Haven-1 space station that it hopes to launch in the second half of 2026 and immediately occupy with four astronauts for a 30-day mission.

After docking with a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, Haven-1 crew members open the Haven-1 exterior hatch and are greeted by a sleek, functional layout upon entry. A real-time display shows the station status with temperature and lighting controls, and optimized cargo compartments ensure essential supplies are stored efficiently. Notably, Haven-1’s interior surfaces are soft and padded to provide an added safety component for crew and visitors as they float throughout.

Above and below the corridor, the station’s four private crew quarters offer astronauts a space to rest and recharge. Slightly larger than the crew quarters aboard the ISS, these expanded personal rooms are uniquely designed to allow for changing, entertainment, online communication with loved ones back on Earth (enabled by SpaceX Starlink connectivity), and, most importantly, a good night’s rest. Experience has shown that sleeping in space can be a restless endeavor. Maximizing sleep efficiency and comfort remains critical to the overall experience aboard the Vast station. Historically, zero gravity sleep has been uncomfortable for astronauts due to a lack of standardized and consistent restraint systems during weightless sleep and a deficit in the distributed gravity forces humans are accustomed to on Earth. Vast’s patent-pending signature sleep system is roughly the size of a queen bed, provides a customized amount of equal pressure throughout the night, and accommodates side and back sleepers alike.

Additionally, each room features a built-in storage compartment, vanity, and a custom amenities kit

Beyond the corridor with the crew quarters is a common area which also includes a laboratory rack system on one wall, where experiments can be installed, monitored, and performed.

Overall the interior of this single module station in many ways harks back to the early Soviet Salyut stations, as the amount of interior space is somewhat comparable. One feature of Vast’s design however that is truly original is the use of “genuine safety-tested, fire-resistant maple wood veneer slats” on the interior’s walls.

Though definitely designed with that 30-day mission in mind, this first release clearly looks preliminary, with the graphics appearing far simpler than things will look in reality.

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SpaceX says it is targeting October 13, 2024 for 5th Starship/Superheavy launch

9:13 am

Superheavy being captured by the tower chopsticks at landing
Artist rendering of Superheavy being captured by
the tower chopsticks at landing. Click for video.

The hint last week that SpaceX might attempt its fifth test orbital launch of Starship/Superheavy launch by mid-October was confirmed yesterday by the company. It announced on its Starship/Superheavy webpage that it is now targeting October 13, 2024 for 5th Starship/Superheavy launch, “pending regulatory approval.”

SpaceX’s announcement noted that the flight’s primary goals will be an attempted chopstick landing of Superheavy at the launch tower in Boca Chica and a test of Starship’s ability to return and land using its newly redesigned heat shield.

The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone. Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.

Starship will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. » Read more

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Dominican Republic signs the Artemis Accords

8:52 am

The Dominican Republic yesterday became the 44th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, original conceived by the Trump administration as bi-laterial agreements between the U.S. and other nations and focused on building a strong coalition for getting the Outer Space Treaty’s limitations on free enterprise and private property cancelled or overturned.

Sadly, under the Biden administration that focus has been pushed aside, replaced with watered-down “principles [that] support the safe and sustainable exploration of space” that are also “grounded in the Outer Space Treaty.”

In other words, nations signing the accords now are simply signing on in the hope of getting American cash by joining the American Artemis program. The full list of nations is as follows: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the Ukraine, the United States and Uruguay.

Whether this alliance can eventually be used as a tool to overturn the Outer Space Treaty’s restrictions on private property in space remains unknown. A new Trump administration would almost certainly shift things back in the right direction, especially if that administration reshaped the entire Artemis program away from its failed reliance on SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway and instead allowed private companies to redesign the program entirely, based on what makes the most economic and engineering sense rather than funding big government projects that accomplish litte except create make-work jobs.

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FAA and the Biden administration proves it is out to destroy SpaceX

9:47 am

The FAA to SpaceX
The FAA to SpaceX “Nice company you got here.
Sure would be a shame if something happened to it.”

In the past week the FAA proved unequivocally that it is abusing its regulatory powers for political reasons, imposing much harsher regulatory restrictions on SpaceX while allowing other companies much more free rein.

That reality became most evident first with the FAA response to the serious failure of one of the strap-on solid-fueled boosters during the second test launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket on October 4, 2024. During that launch something went seriously wrong with that booster 38 seconds after launch, involving an explosion and what appeared to be ejection of that booster’s nozzle. Though the launch succeeded in placing its payload into the correct orbit, it required the rocket’s main engines to compensate aggressively.

Despite this, the FAA decided no investigation by it was necessary.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial space launches in the United States, said in a statement that it assessed the booster anomaly and “determined no investigation is warranted at this time.” The FAA is not responsible for regulating launch vehicle anomalies unless they impact public safety.

This decision is correct, but the contrast with the FAA’s treatment of SpaceX is quite striking. If the FAA applied the absurd standard it has been using against SpaceX, it would claim that this Vulcan launch threatened public safety because the incident occurred 38 seconds after launch and was thus relatively close to Florida, where an out of control rocket could potentially threaten public safety.

Such a threat of course really doesn’t exist, as the FAA correctly concluded, because the rocket has a self-destruct system to prevent it from crashing in habitable areas.

Yet the agency failed to use this logic with SpaceX. Instead the FAA decided anything SpaceX launches that doesn’t work perfectly poses a serious public safety threat, no matter where or how it happens, and thus has repeatedly grounded SpaceX launches. A first stage, flown already 23 times, falls over after soft-landing successfully on its drone ship in the middle of the Atlantic, and somehow this justified the FAA grounding SpaceX due to the threat to public safety. A second stage, after successfully placing two astronauts into orbit, misfires during its de-orbit burn but still lands in the middle of the ocean, far from any habitable regions, and somehow this justified the FAA grounding SpaceX due to the threat to public safety.

And the fact that a Superheavy returning to its launchpad at Boca Chica will cause a sonic boom — as do every Falcon 9 landings at Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg — is now justification for grounding Starship/Superheavy test launches, even though sonic booms pose zero threat to anyone other than startling them with the sudden noise.

The FAA further illustrated its bias against SpaceX when it decided to allow the company to do its launch this morning of Europe’s Hera asteroid mission, but specifically stated that the company’s other launches remain grounded.
» Read more

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Spanish rocket startup PLD unveils a proposed family of rockets plus crew capsule

8:48 am

The Spanish rocket startup PLD this week unveiled a proposed family of rockets to follow its Miura-5 rocket, set to launch for the first time in 2025.

The three rockets introduced were the Miura Next, Miura Next Heavy, and Miura Next Super Heavy, all based on a system or modular building blocks. Miura Next will be the base of the modular system will be a single-stick two-stage rocket. Miura Next Heavy will feature two boosters and Miura Next Super Heavy will feature four boosters. The boosters will have a shared architecture with the rocket’s core stage. The first stages and boosters will all feature a propulsive recovery capability.

The smallest of the three rockets will be capable of delivering up to 13,580 kilograms to low Earth orbit, while the most powerful will have the capacity to deliver 53,000 kilograms.

This design concept essentially follows the approach that SpaceX used to develop the Falcon Heavy from the Falcon 9, and saves a great deal of money by using what the company has already developed as part of the larger rocket.

The crew capsule, dubbed Lince, is conceived at this company’s version of Dragon, capable of launching either cargo or 4 to 5 astronauts to any one of the proposed commercial space stations under construction. Capsule drop tests will begin in 2025, with the first launch abort tests in 2028 aiming for the first orbital flight by 2030.

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SpaceX launches Europe’s Hera asteroid mission

8:41 am

SpaceX today successfully launched the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera asteroid mission to the binary asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

The first stage completed its 23rd rocket, but was not recovered in order to maximum the fuel used to send Hera on its proper route. The fairings completed their 13th and 19th flights respectively.

Hera will do a follow-up rendezvous with the binary asteroids to get a close-up look at the consequences of the Dart impact back in 2022 of Dimorphos.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

96 SpaceX
44 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 113 to 67, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 96 to 84.

For SpaceX, this launch ties the record the company set last year for the number of launches of a private company in a single year, and it did so in just more than three-quarters of the year. The company’s goal of 144 launches in 2024 remains possible, assuming the federal government stopped blocking its operations. For example, the FAA granted the company permission for this one launch, but maintained its grounding of further launches because an upper stage did not land safely in the ocean in the exact right spot.

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Sierra Space wins Air Force contract to develop orbital cargo delivery system

9:49 am

The Air Force has now awarded Sierra Space a contract to develop its proposed “Space Ghost” satellite spacecraft, designed to be launched into a stand-by orbit carrying needed cargo, where it can upon command deliver that cargo within 90 minutes anywhere on Earth.

Sierra Space won a contract of undisclosed value as part of the AFRL’s Rocket Experimentation for Global Agile Logistics (REGAL) program. The Air Force is exploring the potential of space vehicles to rapidly transport critical supplies from orbital warehouses back to Earth. This could include reusable reentry vehicles capable of delivering payloads from prepositioned stocks in orbit.

Sierra Space, based in Louisville, Colorado, said its defense technology team designed the Ghost system to be capable of remaining in orbit for up to five years, storing and delivering essential supplies on-demand. Once fully developed, the spacecraft could be used for missions such as delivering rescue kits for downed pilots, medical supplies for disaster relief or logistical support for military operations.

The company began doing drop tests of a Space Ghost prototype heat shield in March, and apparently the data satisfied the Air Force enough to issue this development contract. Whether such a system however makes sense remains unknown. To be able to deliver cargo anywhere on Earth will require putting up a large constellation of Space Ghost satellites, in many different orbits. Moreover, it is unclear how much cargo each satellite would carry.

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Avio completes testing of new redesigned nozzle for its Vega-C second stage

9:31 am

The Italian rocket company Avio yesterday successfully completed the second of two static fire engine tests of the newly redesigned nozzle for the second stage of its Vega-C rocket, paving the way for the company to resume launches after the nozzle design failed both during a launch in 2022 and then again during a static fire test in 2023 after its first redesign.

A launch date has tentatively been scheduled for November, but this date is not yet confirmed. For this and the next several launches in 2025, the rocket will still be managed by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) commercial arm, Arianespace. Beginning late next year however Avio will regain complete control of its rocket and will be able to market it internationally, no longer required to deal with this unneeded government middleman. The launch price will then certainly go down, making Vega-C more competitive.

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FAA: No Starship/Superheavy launch before late November

9:01 am

In response to speculation that the fifth Starship/Superheavy test launch could happen in mid-October — based on a recent notice to mariners from the Coast Guard, the FAA on Wednesday made it clear that its stonewalling of SpaceX will continue.

“We are not issuing launch authorization for a launch to occur in the next two weeks — it’s not happening,” an FAA spokesman said Wednesday afternoon. “Late November is still our target date.”

The report comes from the San-Antonio Express-News, and as is typical of the reporting in the propaganda press, the article only gives the FAA’s side of this story, making absolutely no mention of SpaceX’s detailed and very public objections. As far as this news outlet is concerned, the FAA is god, whatever it says must be true. So much for a skeptical free press whose goal is supposed to be to hold government accountable.

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