Freedom successfully splashes down in the Atlantic
Freedom has successfully splashed down in the Atlantic. The crew and capsule is still in the ocean and must be recaptured, but that should be pro forma.
Tag: competition
Skyrora’s first suborbital rocket launch fails shortly after liftoff
Capitalism in space: The first launch attempt of a suborbital rocket for Skyrora, a rocket startup from the United Kingdom, failed on October 8, 2022 shortly after liftoff.
The launch was from Iceland, with the rocket crashing in the ocean about 1,600 feet from the pad. No one was injured. The rocket, Skylark-L, was designed for a suborbital flight to test equipment that will be used in the orbital rocket, Skyrora-XL.
Skylark-L is Skyrora’s 11m suborbital rocket, capable of reaching 4x the speed of sound and an altitude of over 125 km. 70% of the technology tested in the Skylark-L launch attempt will be applied to the systems of the Skyrora-XL vehicle, providing a key incremental learning opportunity to increase technological readiness ahead of vertical orbital launch next year.
As this was an engineering flight, the failure is actually a good thing, as it will provide Skyrora’s engineers information about changes needed to make their rocket function properly. Don’t expect that first orbital launch however next year, as the company promises. These things always take longer than expected.
Watching return of ISS crew on Freedom
The SpaceX manned capsule Freedom has undocked from ISS, carrying three astronauts completing a six month mission, with a scheduled splashdown planned for 4:50 pm (Eastern) off the western coast of Florida.
I have embedded NASA’s live stream below, for those that wish to watch. Note that though NASA inserts itself into this event, once the spacecraft has left ISS everything — including all workers involved in splashdown operations — is solely under the supervision of SpaceX, with NASA’s participation only that of a customer, albeit a very powerful one. This is a capsule and splashdown designed, built, run, and most important, owned by a private American company, not the government.
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China launches Earth observation radar satellite
Using its Long March 2C rocket, China today successfully launched a new Earth observation radar satellite.
As is usual for Chinese launches from interior spaceports, the rocket dumped its lower stages somewhere within China.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
46 SpaceX
44 China
14 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 66 to 44 in the national rankings. It is now tied with the entire world combined 66 each.
Ispace targets November 9-15 launch window for first commercial lunar lander
The private Japanese company Ispace has now scheduled the launch of its commercial lunar lander Hakuto-R on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for a November 9-15, 2022 launch window.
Though the lander’s primary goal is to see if this lander will work, it also includes several customer payloads, the most significant of which is the Rashid rover from the United Arab Emirates. Rashid, which is about the size of a Radio Flyer red wagon, will operate for one lunar day, about two weeks. While its main mission is to test the engineering and to train the engineers who built it, it will have two cameras for taking pictures. In addition, on its wheels are test adhesive patches of different materials, designed to see how each material interacts with the Moon’s abrasive dust.
Dennis Tito signs deal to fly on 2nd manned Starship mission around Moon
Capitalism in space: Dennis Tito, the first tourist to fly in space and now 82-years-old, has signed a deal with SpaceX for both him and his wife Akiko to fly on 2nd manned Starship mission around Moon.
His weeklong moonshot — its date to be determined and years in the future — will bring him within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of the lunar far side. He’ll have company: his wife, Akiko, and 10 others willing to shell out big bucks for the ride.
Tito won’t say how much he’s paying; his Russian station flight cost $20 million.
The couple recognize there’s a lot of testing and development still ahead for Starship, a shiny, bullet-shaped behemoth that’s yet to even attempt to reach space. “We have to keep healthy for as many years as it’s going to take for SpaceX to complete this vehicle,” Tito said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. “I might be sitting in a rocking chair, not doing any good exercise, if it wasn’t for this mission.”
The bottom line is that this deal, combined with the two other passenger Starship deals SpaceX has already signed, demonstrates that there is a solid market for Starship, even before its first launch. Expect that market to boom once the rocket begins operations.
Will Tom Cruise ever actually shoot a movie in space?
Capitalism in space: According an interview last week from Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Film Entertainment Group, the company is arranging for Tom Cruise to film scenes of a movie on ISS, where Cruise will also be the first non-professional to do a spacewalk.
“That’s the plan. We have a great project in development with Tom that does contemplate him doing just that,” she said, “taking a rocket up to the space station and shooting and hopefully being the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station.”
She said the film request came from Cruise directly and that he is in close collaboration with director Doug Liman, who previously worked with Cruise in 2014’s “Edge of Tomorrow” and is also known for “The Bourne Identity” franchise, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Jumper.”
This claim might be true, but producers associated with Cruise have been making such claims now for three years, none of which have come even close to happening. I am sure the project is being discussed, and even pushed hard, but based on what has actually happened, this announcement could simply be a way to generate buzz for Cruise’s next film, whether or not he flies.
Nonetheless, I fully believe that Cruise is the source of this idea, and wants to do it, given his habit of doing his own stunts in his movies.
SpaceX fully stacks Starship/Superheavy in preparation for launch
Starship about to be stacked on Superheavy, using
the launch tower’s chopstick arms. Click for full image.
For the first time in six months SpaceX engineers have stacked Starship prototype #24 on top of Superheavy prototype #7, with the intention of running a dress rehearsal countdown and a full static fire test of Superheavy’s 33 engines, all in preparation for the first orbital test flight before the end of this year.
According to CEO Elon Musk, Booster 7 and Ship 24 will attempt Starship’s first full-stack wet dress rehearsal (WDR) once all is in order. The prototypes will be simultaneously loaded with around 5000 tons (~11M lb) of liquid oxygen and methane propellant and then run through a launch countdown. Diverging just before ignition and liftoff, a WDR is meant to be more or less identical to a launch attempt.
…If the wet dress rehearsal goes to plan, SpaceX will then attempt to simultaneously ignite all 33 of the Raptor engines installed on Super Heavy B7, almost certainly making it the most powerful liquid rocket ever tested. Even if all 33 engines never reach more than 60% of their maximum thrust of 230 tons (~510,000 lbf), they will likely break the Soviet N-1 rocket’s record of 4500 tons of thrust (~10M lbf) at sea level. It would also be the most rocket engines ever simultaneously ignited on one vehicle. SpaceX will be pushing the envelope by several measures, and success is far from guaranteed.
Depending on the results of these tests, the stacked rocket will either require further modifications, or could even proceed directly to launch.
We are thus seeing a true race between SpaceX’s privately developed and funded rocket and NASA’s government developed and funded SLS rocket. Which will launch first? Right now the race is neck-and-neck, though that is deceiving since SpaceX began development twelve years after NASA started work on SLS. Even if SLS launches first, SpaceX will have clearly shown that private enterprise does things faster (7 years vs 18 years) and for far less money (about $9 billion vs $46 billion).
October 11, 2022 Quick space links
Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.
- Astra wins engine contract with Maxar
These are small orbital thrusters used on satellites. Whether this deal will save the stock remains unclear.
- Virgin Orbit about to fly its airplane and rocket to Cornwall for launch
The company says the flight across the Atlantic will occur this week. When the launch will occur still depends on the UK government’s approval of permits.
- Pseudo Chinese company DeepBlue tests rocket engine
The company also claimed the test attempted to simulate engine firings needed for a first stage landing.
- Upcoming schedule of launches to Tiangong-3
Mengtian on a Long March 5B on October 31st, Tianzhou-5 freighter on a Long March 7 on November 6th, and the next manned mission on Shenzhou-15 on a Long March 2F on November 26th.
- Russia claims it used lazer to take out several Starlink satellites
We have had no confirmation.
New rocket startup focusing on new concepts to make upper stage reusable
Capitalism in space: Another new rocket startup, Stoke Space, is working to develop a new innovative reusable design for its upper stages.
Most commonly, a traditional rocket has an upper stage with a single engine. This second-stage rocket engine has a larger nozzle—often bell-shaped—to optimize the flow of engine exhaust in a vacuum. Because all parts of a rocket are designed to be as light as possible, such extended nozzles are often fairly fragile because they’re only exposed above Earth’s atmosphere. So one problem with getting an upper stage back from Earth, especially if you want to use the engine to control and slow its descent, is protecting this large nozzle.
One way to do that is to bury the engine nozzle in a large heat shield, but that would require more structure and mass, and it may not be dynamically stable. Stoke’s answer was using a ring of 30 smaller thrusters. (The tests last month only employed 15 of the 30 thrusters). In a vacuum, the plumes from these nozzles are designed to merge and act as one. And during reentry, with a smaller number of smaller thrusters firing, it’s easier to protect the nozzles.
Will this company succeed? Who knows? It is presently very early in development. However, that its founders are former engineers from SpaceX and Blue Origin is encouraging, especially based on this comment about why the Blue Origin guy, Andy Lapsa, left that company:
“I love Jeff [Bezos]’s vision for space,” Lapsa said in an interview with Ars. “I worked closely with him for a while on different projects, and I’m basically 100 percent on board with the vision. Beyond that, I think I would just say that I will let their history of execution speak for itself, and I thought we could move faster.”
Lapsa apparently was part of the exodus of high level managers and engineers that occurred at Blue Origin after Bezos hired Bob Smith as CEO. All complained of the company’s far-too-cautious management style under Smith.
China launches solar science telescope
China today used its Long March 2D rocket to launch its first solar science telescope, Advanced Space-borne Solar Observatory (ASO-S), also known as Kuafu-1.
The probe, which was first proposed in 1976 (!), has a four year nominal mission and is designed to monitor the Sun as goes through its next sunspot maximum. More information can be found here.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
46 SpaceX
43 China
12 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 66 to 43 in the national rankings, and the entire globe combined 66 to 63.
SpaceX launches two Intelsat communications satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched two Intelsat communications satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket.
The first stage completed its fourteenth flight, landing successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
46 SpaceX
42 China
12 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 66 to 42 in the national rankings, and the entire globe combined 66 to 62.
Engineers regain full control of CAPSTONE
After a month of careful tests and analysis, engineers today successfully regained full control of the CAPSTONE lunar orbiter, on its way to the Moon.
The most likely cause of the anomaly was identified as a valve related issue on one of the spacecraft’s eight (8) thrusters. The partially open valve resulted in thrust from the associated thruster whenever the propulsion system was pressurized. To attempt a recovery from this condition, the mission team conducted multiple tests on the vehicle and evaluated extensive telemetry and simulation data and then formulated a plan for attempting recovery of the vehicle’s full 3-axis control.
This recovery sequence was uploaded to the spacecraft yesterday (Thursday) and was executed early this morning (Friday 10/7). Initial telemetry and observation data after the recovery attempt points to a successful recovery of the system which has now regained 3-axis attitude control. The updated spacecraft attitude has oriented the spacecraft solar arrays to the Sun and implemented an orientation for the downlink antennas which significantly improves data downlink performance as compared to the pre-recovery attitude.
The spacecraft is not out of the woods yet. The engineers still need to figure out how to do future course corrections with “the possible presence of a valve that remains partially open.”
Nonetheless, that they have successfully regained full control means they have a very good handle on the issue, which bodes well for the lunar orbital insertion maneuver on November 13, 2022.
China’s Long March 11 launches from floating sea platform
China today successfully launched two “navigation satellites” from a floating sea platform in the Yellow Sea, using its Long March 11 rocket.
The platform was only about two miles off shore at launch, so the view from the beach drew a large crowd. Video at the first link.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
45 SpaceX
42 China
12 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 65 to 42 in the national rankings, and the entire globe combined 65 to 62. These numbers will change again later today, with a SpaceX commercial launch scheduled for 4:06 pm (Pacific).
Rocket Lab successfully launches NOAA satellite
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully used its Electron rocket to place a NOAA satellite into orbit, designed to gather data from ground-based sensors.
This was the company’s eighth successful launch in 2022, the most it has achieved in any single year. No attempt was made to recover the first stage on this launch.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
45 SpaceX
41 China
12 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 65 to 41 in the national rankings, and the entire globe combined 65 to 61. The 65 successful launches so far this year is now the second most successful American year in rocketry, exceeded only by the 70 launches in 1966. With almost three months left to go in the year, 2022 looks like it will top that record, by a lot.
SpaceX meanwhile has a launch scheduled for later today, after getting scrubbed yesterday at T-30 seconds because of detected minor helium leak.
Startup smallsat rocket company signs spaceport deal with Brazil
The new colonial movement: A Canadian startup smallsat rocket company, C6 Launch Systems, has not only signed a spaceport deal with Brazil to build its own launchpad at that country’s Alcantara Space Center, it has also won its first launch customer.
First, the launchpad is for C6’s rocket, which is unnamed and designed to launch cubesats. The company webpage says they are aiming for suborbital flights in 2021 and orbital flights in 2022, but it is unclear if it has launched anything at this point.
Nonetheless, Brazil is very clearly teaming up with C6. The Brazilian air force hired it to build a launch pad, a Brazilian company, Concert Technologies, has awarded it a launch contract.
Concert Technologies S.A. who are developing a new small satellite constellation have signed a a non-exclusive letter of intent to launch three small satellites with C6 Launch. The broad agreement allows for Concert Technologies to schedule more launches to maintain and expand their high-resolution Earth Observation (EO) constellation.
It appears Concert’s satellites will be targeting both the Earth imagery market as well as communications services in the “internet of things.”
Important Roscosmos official endorses continuing cooperation with US in space
In a clear sign of the distinct change in atmosphere since the removal of Dmitry Rogozin as head of Roscosmos, the executive director of human space flight programs at Roscosmos, Sergei Krikalev, yesterday endorsed the longstanding cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in space.
Krikalev’s comments came after the launch yesterday of Endurance with one Russian astronaut as part of its four-person crew.
At a briefing after the Oct. 5 launch of the Crew-5 mission from the Kennedy Space Center, Sergei Krikalev, executive director of human space flight programs at Roscosmos, emphasized long-running cooperation between the United States and Russia in civil space, cooperation that has been strained since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
“We just continue what we started many years ago in 1975 when the Apollo-Soyuz crew worked together, and now we continue our cooperation,” he said after mentioning a “new phase of cooperation” with the exchange of seats between NASA and Roscosmos.
To understand the importance of Krikalev’s comments, you must also understand the context. First, Krikalev is a very significant figure in the history of Russia. He was called the last Soviet citizen, having been stranded on Mir an extra few months when the Soviet Union fell in 1991. Then he was the first Russian to fly on the shuttle, followed later by being on the first mission to ISS, when it was only two modules.
Since his retirement as an active astronaut, he has become the man in charge of Russia’s manned program, where he clashed with Rogozin several times over policy. His opposition to Rogozin almost certainly was a factor in Rogozin’s removal.
Krikalev’s endorsement of continuing the U.S-Russian partnership only cements that partnership, especially because Krikalev himself is a dyed-in-the-wool communist at heart. At least, he said so emphatically when I interviewed him at length in 2003 for Leaving Earth. I doubt his mind has changed in this matter, though his relentless honesty as an engineer has probably shaken his dedication to that failed ideology in subsequent years.
Nonetheless, his standing in Russia gives any statement he makes great weight. Expect more efforts by the Russians to ease tensions with the U.S., though their chances of success will be limited as long as Russia is continuing its unprovoked invasion of the Ukraine.
Engineers still struggling to regain full control of CAPSTONE
Though its batteries are now getting charged by the Sun, engineers have still not regained full control of the smallsat lunar orbiter CAPSTONE, presently on its path towards the Moon.
As per the latest update:
The CAPSTONE mission team is continuing to work towards recovery of the spacecraft full three-axis control. This work includes collecting information from the spacecraft, running simulations, and refining recovery plans. The vehicle remains stable and power positive in its current configuration.
In other words, they’ve got the spacecraft oriented so that its solar panels can gather enough sunlight to charge the batteries, but its attitude remains incorrect and they do not yet have CAPSTONE fully under their control.
The spacecraft arrives in lunar orbit on November 13, 2022. At that time however it will have to do an engine burn to enter lunar orbit, and if full control is not regained by then this burn will not be possible because engineers will not be able to point it correctly.
Falcon Heavy to finally launch again?
After three years of delays due to payload issues, it now appears that the next Falcon Heavy launch will likely occur near the end of October.
The tentative date is October 28th, but this is not yet confirmed. Though a manifest of a half dozen Falcon Heavy launches has existed since 2019, and most were originally scheduled for launch in 2020-2021, none has taken place, all supposedly because of payload delays not issues with the rocket itself.
SpaceX officials are now saying that it plans to complete six Falcon Heavy launches within the next twelve months. Two are for the military, three for commercial communications companies, and the last is the Psyche mission for NASA. This last launch is delayed because of software issues discovered in June, only a few weeks before launch. Whether it can fix these issues in time for a new July 2023 launch window remains questionable.
Satellite about to burn up because Sherpa orbital tug has done nothing
Capitalism in space: A Boeing cubesat satellite launched last month is about to burn up as it returns to Earth because the Spaceflight Sherpa orbital tug that was supposed to raise its orbit has as yet done nothing.
Spaceflight planned to use a chemical propulsion system on the Sherpa, provided by Benchmark Space Systems, to raise the orbit of the vehicle to an altitude of 1,000 kilometers. The Sherpa payload, initially not disclosed by Spaceflight, is a V-band communications demonstration by Boeing called Varuna.
However, tracking information from the U.S. Space Force shows that Sherpa has yet to raise its orbit. Atmospheric drag has caused that orbit to gradually decay, and the spacecraft was most recently tracked in an orbit of 283 by 296 kilometers. That raised concerns that the spacecraft could reenter in a matter of weeks if it does not start firing its thrusters.
Spaceflight officials explain the lack of action is because they are still “commissioning” the tug, whatever that means. It also appears that problems was this same propulsion system caused SpaceX to ban Spaceflight in March as a customer on future rideshare launches.