The expected Falcon 9 launch this past week of the mysterious Zuma government payload, built by Northrop Grumman but linked to no government agency, has been postponed indefinitely because of a fairing issue identified during testing for a different customer.
This delay also suggests that this may be an issue that will delay more than one launch, which could effect SpaceX’s effort to achieve 20 launches in 2017.
Capitalim in space: The next to last ULA launch of a Delta 2 rocket successfully launched a $1.6 billion NOAA weather satellite on Saturday.
Link here. He finds much of what he reads, especially involving Virgin Galactic, to be seriously wanting.
Expect a more detailed review in the coming days, but essentially Branson’s dishonest hyperbole shines through.
Capitalism in space: In response to the announcement by Chinese officials that they aim to reduce their launch costs in order to attract more commercial business, Indian officials announced that they plan to do the same in order to compete.
Interestingly, the reduced price that China revealed, $5,000 per kilogram, remains about twice that of SpaceX’s estimate per kilogram price for a launch using a reused first stage.
China’s Long March 4C rocket successfully placed two satellites in orbit today, a weather satellite and a commercial data relay satellite.
This was China’s 11th launch in 2017, well below the 20 they achieved in 2016, the drop caused by two launch failures earlier this year that resulted in an almost four month pause in launches.
At present the race for the most launches in 2017 stands as follows:
17 Russia
16 SpaceX
11 China
10 Arianespace (Europe)
7 ULA
5 Japan
4 India
3 Orbital ATK
Overall, the United States leads with 26 launches, its most since 2000.
JAXA, Japan’s space agency, has announced that it will make a second launch attempt in December of what would be the world’s smallest orbital rocket.
The rocket, measuring 10 meters long and 50 cm in diameter, will carry a “micro-mini” satellite weighing about 3 kg developed by the University of Tokyo to collect imagery of the Earth’s surface.
The launch scheduled for Dec. 25 will feature the fifth rocket in the SS-520 series. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is hoping small rockets made with commercially available components at low cost will help fuel the growing global demand for micro-mini satellites. JAXA used components found in home electronics and smartphones for the rocket, which is about the size of a utility pole.
The previous launch failed when vibrations during liftoff caused a short-circuit that cut off communications, forcing them to terminate the flight.
Boston Dynamics has released a short teaser video of a sleeker, dressed up, and possibly friendlier-looking version of its SpotMini robot.
The thing still moves in a way that makes me think of Terminator and a coming robot take-over.
Capitalism in space: Sierra Nevada has declared Sunday’s glide test of its Dream Chaser engineering prototype a success.
I have embedded a video of the flight below the fold. It is especially fascinating to watch the vehicle make small maneuvers as it begins its runway appoach.
Capitalism in space: Billionaire Yuri Milner, who already funds several astronomy projects aimed at interstellar travel, is now considering funding a planetary probe to the Saturn moon Enceladus.
At the moment all he is doing is holding workshops with scientists and engineers to see if such a mission can be done for an amount he can afford. Considering that Elon Musk’s first concept to send a private probe to Mars, before SpaceX existed, was stopped because of high launch costs, thus becoming the inspiration for SpaceX itself in order to lower those costs, Milner’s private effort might actually be affordable now.
Capitalism in space: The CEO of ARCA Space was arrested in Georgia yesterday for fraud and embezzlement and extradited back to New Mexico.
ARCA is the company developing an aerospike test engine that was supposedly ready for ground tests in late September but as of yet I am unaware of any actual tests taking place.
The robot prop from the classic 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot, is going up for auction on November 21.
The robot was purchased by its present owner in 1979, and has been sitting in his home since then.
In related auction news, one of eighty medals carried on the Apollo 17 mission is also going up for auction.
Capitalism in space: NASA revealed today that it is close to approving the use of a Falcon 9 reused first stage for the next Dragon cargo mission to ISS.
During a press conference at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility here Nov. 10 about the launch of a Cygnus cargo mission to the ISS, a NASA manager said the agency would likely approve the use of a reused booster on that mission, designated SpX-13, assuming it clears an upcoming review. “We’re in the final stages of doing all those assessments,” Dan Hartman, ISS deputy program manager, said. SpaceX first requested to use a previously-flown booster for a cargo mission about a year ago. “On the NASA side, we’ve had a lot of major reviews.”
He said SpaceX itself had one more readiness review for the booster they’re planning to refly before deciding if they can use it for the SpX-13 mission, scheduled for launch Dec. 4. “If that comes back positive,” he said, “I’d say the chances are that we’ll be flying a reuse on SpX-13.”
It appears that about a year from now the use of reused boosters will have become completely normalized, with no one thinking anything unusual about their use. This, after almost a half century of old-school engineers and managers repeatedly saying such a thing made no sense and was impossible in terms of engineering and economics.
