Tag: quick links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who trolls Twitter so I don’t have to.

• Rocket Lab held live investor webcast today on Neutron rocket development

The powerpoint presentation can be viewed here [pdf]. Lots of interesting details, including the revelation that Rocket Lab is considering the construction of its own manned capsule.

• A Chinese satellite has split in two, suggesting both are doing proximity operation experiments

To make sure there is no confusion, the satellite did not break apart. Instead, it appears to have been made of two spacecraft that have now undocked from each other and are testing automatic rendezvous and docking procedures, similar to the tests that Astroscale was doing.

• China’s Chang’e-8 lunar lander will also include a small rover and a “hopper.”

The project is targeting 2030 for launch. The picture of the “hopper” at the link looks more like a Boston Dynamics robot dog.

• China offering payload spots on its Chang’e-8 lunar lander, its two future Tianwen Mars missions

Based on the deal with the UAE on the lunar Chang’e-7 mission, China is looking for other countries to sign on, and will likely get a few.

• Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center rocket assembly building (VAB) damaged by Typhoon Nanmadol

• Axiom signs deal with Canada

The deal doesn’t appear to include anything specific, only for both to explore future cooperation, including flying Canadian astronauts on Axiom’s station. Also, this deal suggests Canada will get the contract to build the robot arm for Axiom.

• Relativity successfully completes 57-second-long static fire test of first stage

The company had previously done a 20 second test fire, and is still hoping to launch by the end of the year.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, trolling Twitter so I don’t have to.

• Hollywood taps Blue Origin Orbital Reef project for movie of the future in space

Seems about Blue Origin’s speed, doing things in fantasy instead of reality.

• Bridgestone joins Sierra Space team designing lunar vehicle for astronauts

The team also includes Nissan, and is competing for a NASA contract.

• Launch for next Rocket Lab launch changed to October 6, New Zealand time

In the U.S. that launch will still occur on October 5th.

• Axiom awards contract to MDA for robotic parts for Axiom’s space station

I was under the impression that MDA had changed its name to Maxar, but I might be confusing different companies.

• Firefly delays launch dateof its Alpha rocket to September 30th, due to weather concerns

Weather has forced several delays. Hopefully all will work out for this date, and the company will get its first successful orbital launch.

• SLS tank test tomorrow

Engineers are still unsure what caused the hydrogen leak during the last launch attempt. In replacing seals they think a “mark” on one seal might have been the cause, but that theory is not certain. For this test and the later launch they will load hydrogen at a lower pressure to hopefully reduce the chance of another leak.

The actual launch date remains unconfirmed.

• Russia signs agreement with the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean to keep weapons out of space

Russia has apparently made this agreement with about 30 nations, most of which have no space program at all. Thus, it is all propaganda, an attempt to distract from Russia’s actual use of weapons in space to destroy a satellite in November 2021.

• Russia confirms Luna-23, part of its Glob planetary program, will not launch until July 2023

Luna-23, a quarter century in the making! Great work if you can get it.

• Space Force unveils its theme song

Hat tip to John Batchelor for this story. It illustrates how unserious a people we have become.

Courtesy of stringer Jay, who trolls Twitter so I don’t have to.

• Four liquid nitrogen tanks on their way by barge to SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility
• First flight of Sierra Space’s Tenacity Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft now targeting the summer of ’23

As this spacecraft is launching on ULA’s Vulcan rocket, this launch date is entirely dependent on when Vulcan finally gets off the ground. According to various sources, this could be either the second or third Vulcan launch. However, right now that rocket still does not have the required two BE-4 engines that Blue Origin is building for it, and so the date of that first launch remains very uncertain.

• Rocket Lab’s next launch scheduled for October 5, 2022
• ULA Delta Heavy launch of National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite scheduled for September 24, 2022

This will be the final Delta launch from Vandenberg Space Force base. ULA plans its future Vandenberg launches to use the Vulcan rocket instead.

• Next Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to Tiangong-3 station will also carry a ham radio cubesat for later deployment from station

For more information about that cubesat, go here.

• UAE’s deal with China calls for its second Rashid lunar rover to fly on China’s Chang’e-7, scheduled now for 2026

The first Rashid rover is scheduled to launch in November, 2022, on a Falcon 9 rocket as part of Ispace’s private commercial lunar lander mission. Clearly, UAE officials are spreading their business around in order to guarantee the best results.

• China and Argentina sign agreement to work together on space projects

No details were provided but the image at the link is of a radio dish, suggesting this agreement firms up Argentina’s willingness to allow China to install space communications dishes there.

• Turkey signs deal with Axiom to fly Turkish astronaut to space

The deal does not say whether that Turkish astronaut will fly to ISS, or to Axiom’s own station. No date for the flight was set. This however is the fourth foreign nation that Axiom has signed, after Italy, Hungary, and the UAE. For Turkey it is the second manned contract, having also signed on with Sierra Space to launch an astronaut to its planned Orbital Reef station.

• Italian cubesat flying in formation with DART and designed to observe its asteroid impact, completes 1st of three course corrections

DART’s impact is scheduled for September 26th.

Some quick links, courtesy of reader Jay:

• Sierra Space begins delivery of its surface mounted foil-thick solar panels

The panels are flexible and can be mounted on any satellite surface, thus increasing the amount of power available to the satellite at a low cost and with little weight increase.

• Video of Weintian’s new full-sized solar panels on China’s Tiangong space station
• Mengtian, the station’s next module, arrives at launch site for testing and stacking
• China’s civil aviation administration [CAAC] apparently announced the wrong orbit for Galactic Energy Ceres-1 launch today

It appears that CAAC erroneously predicted the rocket’s ground track would go to the north, when it actually went, correctly, to the south, 180 degrees in the opposite direction.