Tag: quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• India’s Air Force to become the “Air and Space Force,” with plans to launch 100 military satellites in the next 7-8 years

It also says it will complete those launches using India’s private space industry, which is at this moment barely established.

 

• This week marks the 51st anniversary of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the Moon

If you had told the astronauts then that they’d all be dead before we returned, they would have been outraged. Nonetheless, it looks like they will all be dead before humans once again step forth on the Moon, and worse, the odds of those next steps being taken by Americans is getting lower all the time.

 

• Image of one of Amazon’s two Kuiper satellites in orbit

• Satellite imagery suggests Blue Origin did an engine test of its BE-4 engine in early December

The real question is this: How many engines are they mass producing at this point? By next year they will need to produce a lot to meet the demands of both ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin’s own New Glenn rocket, both of which have contracts to get a lot of Amazon Kuiper satellites into orbit quickly.

 

• China is apparently about to launch its own X-37B copy

The images suggest 1) that it is a copy of Boeing’s X-37B and 2) they will be reusing the rocket shroud on this launch. #2 however is unconfirmed.

I apologize to my readers for my lack of any essays so far this week. For maybe the first time in my life I have a kind of writer’s block. I find the news here in the U.S. so distressing I have trouble writing about it. This break might help me regain my writing juices.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Images of the Chinese pseudo-company Landspace’s launchpad where it plans a rocket hop test soon

The rumors say the test flight will occur next week.

 

• Space Force head admits government intentionally works slower than private enterprise

He said this to explain what he saw as a positive aspect of government, but I think he instead underlined why it should be the last place we should ever go to get anything done.

 

• Today’s Falcon Heavy launch is still set for 8:14 pm (Eastern)

You can watch it at this live stream, beginning around 7:30 pm (Eastern).

 

• Ghana in Africa warns its citizens not to use Starlink illegally

Heavy fines are threatened. Ghana is the fourth African country to issue such a warning, after South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Senegal. Apparently the citizens of those countries are tired of bad phone and internet service, and have been bypassing their incompetent government to get it on the black market from private enterprise. In other words, they are exercising independence, and we can’t have that!

 

• ISRO confirms its manned mission to ISS in 2024 in partnership with NASA

The tweet adds that the mission will fly on a Falcon 9 using a Dragon capsule.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• ULA engineers conducting dress rehearsal countdowns for December 24th Vulcan launch

• The flight plan for Ingenuity’s 68th flight

It is presently scheduled for tomorrow.

 

• India’s Aditya-L1 solar observatory takes its first full-disk images of the Sun

All images were in an ultraviolet wavelength range never previously used to image the Sun.

 

• Astronauts on ISS wish Happy Hanukkah to all Jews on Earth

I can’t help wonder if they did this because of the rise of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli hatred worldwide. Since Apollo 8, NASA has generally frowned on giving pubicity to any religious holiday.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Chinese pseudo-company Orienspace readies its Gravity-1 rocket for launch

The company says it will launch this month. Though the image makes the rocket seem as big as SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, it actually more closely resembles the most powerful version India’s GSLV rocket. Makes me wonder if the design was stolen.

 

• Robert Zubrin op-ed says NASA should abandon its Mars sample return mission, use the money for many other missions

Zubrin is of course right. It is also the same thing I have said now for almost fifteen years, not only about Mars Sample Return but about Webb and the Roman Space Telescopes. NASA’s big flagship science projects are consistently run badly, wasting a lot money that could be far better spent.

No one in Congress ever listens to me. I wonder if they will listen to Zubrin. We can only hope.

 

• The ice that fills Korolev Crater on Mars

A very cool image from Europe’s Mars Express orbiter. As noted at the tweet, “This crater on Mars is 3 times the area of Greater London and its filled with ice almost 2 kilometers thick.” Korolev is located at 73 degrees north latitude, where the Martian surface appears covered by ice sheets.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. Sorry about posting this late.

• SpaceX targeting 100 launches per year at Vandenberg by 2025

This high pace is certainly because it needs to get many Starlink satellites into orbit to meet its FCC licesne requirements, and doesn’t yet have Starship as planned. The Falcon 9 however has proven it can do it however.

 

• Australian rocket startup Gilmour shows off pictures of the upper stage of its Eris rocket

They had hoped to fly this year but are now targeting a launch from Australia sometime in 2024.

 

• Sierra Space wins DARPA contract to develop oxygen extraction from lunar soil

The contract could be extended for up to ten years, and also involves developing other technologies that would use that oxygen, not just for breathing but for engine technology.

 

• Axiom touts the first module of its space station, being built by Thales-Alenia in Europe

The picture isn’t that interesting, but as Jay notes, “This small company is actually building something, the future. This is a view of the first private space station being built.”

 

• NASA officials whine that commercial companies maintain the secrecy of their proprietary in-house designs

Essentially, these officials want to stick their nose into the work of these companies (“We’re from the government and we’re here to help!”), and the companies are telling them to pound sand. I think that’s wonderful, though we should always worry when government officials begin complaining in this manner. The next step is always for them to use the power of government to enforce their desires.

 

• Hollywood movie trailer about what happens on ISS when war between the U.S. and Russia breaks out

I like Jay’s comment: “Oh for the love of….” To me it seems very predictable and not very interesting. Pure formula.

 

• NRO awards contracts to five commercial companies to develop better orbital surveillance technologies

This continues the shift by the federal government from designing, building, and owning everything to becoming a customer that obtains what it wants from the privately-developed and -owned products of the private sector.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Boeing touts the 25th anniversary of the launch of its first ISS module, Unity

Ah, those were the days, when Boeing could actually build something that works.

 

• Today in 1965 a Titan rocket launched Frank Borman and Jim Lovell on the planned two-week long Gemini 7 mission

The mission proved humans could live in space long enough to go to and from the Moon. As the astronauts both explained to me, it was like being locked in a compact car for two weeks, the windows closed and the wheel tied down so that all you could do was go in circles.

 

• Russians were forced to dock a Progress manually on December 2nd because of problems with Kurs automatic system

The real questions are this: What exactly was the problem, and what is being done to fix it?

 

• Chinese pseudo-company CAS Space releases new images of its proposed family of rockets

As noted at the tweet, all look identical to various SpaceX rockets. Let me add that these designs are nothing more than engineering by powerpoint, and at this moment represent nothing but fantasies.

 

• Indian engineers have brought the Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module back into Earth orbit, from the Moon

This achievement is way cool. They used multiple gravity assists over two months to shift the module’s lunar orbit so that crossed back into the Earth’s sphere of influence and thus return back to Earth.

 

• A storm near Mars’ north pole, as seen today by Europe’s Mars Express orbiter

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• ULA CEO Tory Bruno touts the arrival of solid rocket motors at its Florida facility

The strap-on boosters are for future Vulcan launches, when the rocket needs extra power

 

• Prior to launch a wrench was accidently dropped on the radiator of the Progress now heading to ISS

My, the Russians really do seem to have jinx when it comes to the coolant systems on all their spacecraft.

 

• China says it is working on air-launched reusable rocket system

Once again, like many similar Chinese concepts, development does not yet appear to have gotten past the powerpoint stage.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• OneWeb says it is about to provide broadband services to South Africa
  The story at the link is unclear about when this will begin, and whether OneWeb has gotten government approval.

 

• Space Force touts its fleet of two X-37Bs, with one about to take off on the program’s 7th flight

The launch is presently scheduled for December 10, 2023 on a Falcon Heavy.

 

• Progress has undocked from ISS in preparation for new freighter launching tomorrow

The old Progess was sent to burn up over the Pacific today.

 

• Video by a spectator of a Long March 3B launch, from amazingly nearby

From the videographer: ” I could literally taste the hypergolic fuel.”

And I believe him.
 

• Environmental testing of Sierra Space’s Shooting Star cargo capsule has begun

The tests are designed to make sure it can survive launch and space. It will launch as part of the first launch Sierra’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle, set to launch next year.

 

• Today is the anniversy of the last manned mission of the 20th century, a shuttle flight to ISS

The mission delivered new upgraded solar panels to the station.

 

• Former shuttle astronaut Mary Cleve has passed away at 76

She flew two missions, in 1985 and 1989.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Agile Space touts its shortening of lead times for its chemical satellite thrusters

The company claims it shortened the times from “the industry standard 24 months” to 3 to 6 months.

 

• Stratolaunches announces contract award from military contractor for testing hypersonic payloads

It appears Rocket Lab’s suborbital version of its Electron rocket, flying similar tests, has not put Stratolaunch out of the game entirely.

 

• China insists it will land a man on the Moon by 2030

Based on the accelerating pace of the Chinese space program, this goal remains possible, if difficult.

 

• Another explosion has occurred at the Kuaizhou-11 rocket test stand at China’s Jiuquan spaceport

The photos suggest the failure blast occurred during an engine static fire test. This is two years after a similar earlier test stand explosion at the same location.

 

• Kuiper signs a deal with Japanese company to provide broadband in that country

The deal of course hinges on Amazon getting its satellites into orbit, and that depends on whether ULA, Blue Origin, and ArianeGroup can get their new rockets flying finally.

 

• Video of new Superheavy tank being moved at Boca Chica

In other words, SpaceX is gearing up for a lot of test launches in 2024, assuming the federal paper-pushers can get out of the way.

 

• My $500M Mars Rover Mistake: A Failure Story

A great story from the history of America’s Mars rovers that every budding engineer must read!

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Firefly completes first hot fire static fire test of its Miranda rocket engine

This engine will be used on the first stage Firefly is building for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket to replace the Russian engines and Ukrainian first stage used previously.

 

• New Glenn first stage spotted outside factory at Cape Canaveral?

The tweet suggests this is the stage’s “the LNG/LOx tank section”. From the picture it is not clear to me if it has an engine yet. Regardless, it does appear that Blue Origin might finally getting close to launching a real rocket.

 

• Soyuz-2 carrying next Progress freighter rolls to launchpad

The launch is scheduled for December 1st.

 

• ESA touts completion of first round of testing of its first carbon-fiber rocket fuel tank, dubbed Phoebus

Note that SpaceX tried making carbon-fiber tanks almost a decade ago, and abandoned them for steel because of the time and expense of manufacturing them.

 

• Today in 1964 Mariner 4 was launched, the first spacecraft to fly past Mars and return images

Today is also the fifth anniversary of the landing of InSight on Mars.

 

The next three links are all from China, touting either concepts or the engine tests. Some will turn out real, some not.

• A cartoon proposal for using lunar lava tubes as habitats

• China touts successful testing of methane-fueled rocket engine

• China touts proposed an even bigger methane-fueled engine

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who with I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving tomorrow.

• China touts concept for two-stage to orbit reusable space plane

Cute looking, but right now nothing more than engineering by PowerPoint.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company shows off video of separation test of its large fairing

The fairing will be used on a launch scheduled for December.

 

• Commercial lunar rover startup announces eight payload customers for 2026 mission

The company, Astrolab, has a contract to fly on SpaceX’s Starship to the Moon. The customers have contracts with Astrolab equaling $160 million. Everything involved however is extremely tentative and in the early development stages, even the lunar landing version of Starship.

 

• South Korea camera catches North Korean launch, showing 1st stage separation and its apparent destruction immediately thereafter

The video, part of a meteor-survey project, suggests the North Koreans might have purposely destroyed that first stage so that the South Korean military could not recover it, as was done after the May failed launch.

 

• Blue Origin shows off the now welded first stage tanks of its New Glenn rocket

It is assumed these are for the first launch, whenever that might be. Since there are no workers on the factory floor, Jay speculates it was taken after hours. I wonder, since this lack of activity has been seen in every such picture of this rocket assembly operation. I really wonder how many people even work there.

 

• Jeff Bezos sells off $240 million more Amazon shares

Though the reporters on the CNBC video at the link speculate this money is for Blue Origin, there is no evidence of this. In fact, recently Bezos has appeared to donate almost all his stock sale cash to leftist political charities, not Blue Origin.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• NASA’s dual smallsat Mars mission to fly on first New Glenn launch

When that launch occurs however remains a mystery. Blue Origin says next year, but Blue Origin has said next year for the past four.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Galaxy Space touts a proposed communications satellite for providing cell phones global coverage

To quote Jay, “Wow, it looks like AST SpaceMobile’s Bluewalker 3 satellite. What a coincidence! The ground based astronomers are going to have kittens over this one.” My response: “No they won’t. It’s China, and those ground-based astronomers are almost all confirmed lefties who love Xi and the communist empire. Their only interest is to squelch American free enterprise, and Elon Musk.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• NASA and Boeing are now targeting an April 14, 2024 launch of the first manned Starliner mission

That date still depends on the results from a planned January parachute drop test to see if Boeing has fixed their faulty design.

 

• How to watch the final minutes of Ariane-6’s final dress rehearsal countdown, including an 8-minute engine burn of the rocket’s core stage

The test is scheduled for November 23, 2023

 

• Upcoming Chinese launches will have drop zones in habitable areas of China

The link has maps showing a variety of drop zones, but because the text is in Chinese, it is unclear when those launches will occur, and with what rocket. If anyone can translate please comment here.

 

• Boeing today celebrates 25 years of ISS operations

The picture shows the first module, Russian-built Zarya, the completion of which was paid for by American taxpayers. One wonders if its condition is as bad now as Russia’s other early module, Zvezda.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• ArianeGroup touts the deluge launch system for its Ariane-6 rocket

It would be nice if this system was put to use during a launch, now only four years late.

 

• NASA official says SpaceX will need to almost 20 launches of Starship/Superheavy to get it approved for an Artemis lunar mission

The number is slightly higher than previously stated, and likely was made public now because of SpaceX’s problems getting regulatory approval for test flights. NASA needs Starship, and the intransigence of the FAA and Fish & Wildlife to give launch approval is likely delaying that lunar manned mission by years.

 

• Russia shows off a model of a proposed commercial module for its proposed space station

Russian officials are saying they want to encourage new private Russian companies to compete for contracts for such things, but it is all smoke and mirrors. The big entities in power in Russia, such as Energia, are going to work to block it as hard as they can.

 

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Roscosmos head says Russia will stick with ISS as long as possible

Translation: Russia’s own proposed space station won’t launch this decade (surprise) and it is likely it won’t launch next decade either.

 

• Head of Russia’s Energia, which runs all of Roscosmos’ manned missions, predicts first Russian on Moon in next decade

And if you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you cheap.

 

• Today is the anniversary of the only flight of Russia’s space shuttle, Buran

That shuttle never flew again, and was finally destroyed when the roof of its storage hanger fell on it in 2002.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Sierra Space and Agile quickly develop hydrazine-rich preburner for their VRM5500-H engine

The engineers here will appreciate the technical explanation at the link as to why this is good.

 

• ULA narrows list of potential buyers to three

Blue Origin is thought to be one of the three. Whether this sale will happen before or after the December 24th launch of Vulcan is not clear.

 

• SpaceX gets extension of FCC communications license at Cape Canaveral

• Tweet touting the anniversary today of Mariner 9’s arrival in Mars orbit in 1971

The orbiter arrived during one of Mars’s worst global dust storm. It needed to wait months before the atmosphere cleared and it could begin seeing details on the surface, the first of which were the high calderas of Mars’ giant volcanoes.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Live stream from Ispace about its second commercial Hakuto-R lander mission to the moon

The press conference is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 15, 8:00 pm (Eastern). The mission has targeted launch in 2024.

 

• South Korea rocket startup Innospace touts reusable rocket engine

The company has completed one suborbital flight in March 2023. No word on when further flight tests will take place.

 

• In connection with its founders move to buy the company and go private, Astra has cancelled its third quarterly earnings call to stockholders

There has also been a shake-up in management. It appears the founders are pushing out the outside investors and their managers.

 

• Satellite companies debate proposal to change the rules limiting satellite power levels

Designed to reduce signal interference in orbit, some companies want the restrictions eased, others want them tightened, and still others like the status quo. Amazon is leading the group wanted a review of the rules.

 

• Juno data and computer modeling suggest a better understanding of Jupiter’s atmosphere and winds

For me, this study defines the uncertainty of science. The data is not rich enough to come to any conclusion at all, though the computer modeling suggests one.

 

• SpaceX gets license to provide Starlink in India

In 2022 SpaceX had regulatory problems in India that forced it to exit the market. This new development indicates those problems have been overcome.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who sent them on time but I am late posting them.

• Blue Origin issues another short PR promo

This is same all-sizzle-no-steak stuff we’ve seen seeing from the company now for seven years.

 

• Astra’s co-founders offer to buy up the company’s stock to take it private

They are offering $1.5 per share, about double the share’s present price. If accepted it will be very entertaining to see if this action saves Astra. It surely appears however that these men, Chris Kemp and Adam London, are still firmly committed to the company.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer touts its Falcon-9-class rocket targeting a June 2024 launch

The pseudo-company has raised a lot of cash, and has one successful orbital launch with its first version of this rocket.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• DHL touts its deal with Astrobotic to send more than 100,000 messages to the Moon

Anyone can send a picture, which will go digitally on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander scheduled for launch late this year.

 

• Lynk satellite constellation starts cell phone to satellite service in Solomon Islands

Because Lynk only has three satellites in orbit, the service is presently limited to text and emergency messages.

 

• ESA shifts control of Vega-C rocket from Arianespace to the private Italian company Avio

The press release at the link summarizes all the actions taken by ESA at its just ended conference, all except this story had been covered here previously. Avio essentially builds Vega-C. It will now have full ownership and control. Arianespace — the government middle-man that never made a profit — is meanwhile slowly going away.

 

• Three companies tout their partnership to develop nuclear power propulsion for interplanetary travel

Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor for DARPA. The contract was awarded in July 2023.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Euclid releases its first images

Euclid is designed to produce a 3D map of billions of nearby galaxies.

 

• Webb and Chandra detect supermassive black hole only a half billion years after the Big Bang

Lots of uncertainty here, with most now centering on the Big Bang theory itself. There shouldn’t be a supermassive black hole that soon after the bang. Not enough time for it to form, based on present models.

 

• Ingenuity completes its 66th flight

As noted in my last Ingenuity post, it was a short flight, 23 seconds long moving less than two feet, merely to reposition the helicopter in advance of the three-week solar conjunction when communications will be cut off.

 

• First data from India’s Aditya-1 solar observatory

The observatory, located a million miles closer to the Sun than the Earth, is presently undergoing its final caliberations even as its instruments begin gathering data.

 

• Dish’s CEO stepping down ahead of merger with Echostar

His resignation was part of the merger deal. Both companies are under severe pressure from competition, which is why they merged.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander will carry seeds that also flew on Apollo 14

The Apollo 14 trees, dubbed the Moon Trees, came back to Earth and were planted in many places. It is unclear from the link whether the seeds now going to the Moon are the same seeds, or seeds from a Moon tree subsequently grown on Earth.

 

• ESA head endorses using private enterprise for sending European cargo to ISS and other stations

In other words, the Europe Space Agency has no rocket or capsule to do the job, has no capacity to build either, but sees from America that private enterprise can do it better.

 

• French space agency head blames the government mostly for the failure of ArianeGroup to launch Ariane-6 on schedule

Like the ESA story above, European space leaders are finally beginning to realize the benefits of freedom and capitalism. It just took them a decade longer than it should have.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company rolls its Zhuque-2 methane-fueled rocket to launchpad

The pseudo-company is Landspace, this will be its rocket’s third launch. The first failed, the second was the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit. In related news, the company’s CEO claims it will be doing 100 launches per year within five years.

 

• Video of crashed Long March 6 solid-fueled strap-on booster, which landed in farm country in Ji County of Shanxi Province

Shanxi province is in the middle of China, and to the immediate southwest of Beijing. I am surprised the Chicoms didn’t censor this video.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Firefly puts its new Miranda rocket engine on the test stand, ready for its first hot fire tests

This is the engine that will power the first stage that Firefly is building for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, replacing the Ukrainian stage and Russian engines it used to use.

 

• ULA’s CEO shows off four Vulcan upper stages under assembly at its factory

As Jay notes, “At least he is building something,” taking a jab at another company with the word “blue” in its name.

 

• Bezos is abandoning Seattle and moving to Florida

He says he wants to be closer to both his family and his Cape Canaveral space facilities in Florida, which as he says is “shifting increasingly to Cape Canaveral.” He also likely decided to get out because of a new state tax that will steal $70 million from him for every stock sale of $1 billion.

 

• The Times of India brags about the use of an nuclear power source for the Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module still functioning in lunar orbit

The units are engineering tests, designed to work out the kinks so this power source can be used on future unmanned rovers to Mars and elsewhere.

 

• Next Gaganyaan launch abort test scheduled for March 2024

This second test vehicle will be closer to the final capsule version. According to ISRO, four total abort tests are planned before the manned mission.

 

• Review of Kepler archive confirms solar system with seven exoplanets

The review also refined the present understanding of this alien solar system.

 

• NASA officials say they are willing to extend ISS beyond 2030

That’s nice, but the question is whether the Russians will stay on after ’28, and even more important, whether their modules will last until then.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Retired Air Force general joins Rocket Lab’s board of directors

Without question this hire is to help Rocket Lab get military contracts.

 

• New rocket startup Veng in Argentina announces its proposed orbital rocket

The story is in Spanish, but based on Jay’s translation it is targeting a 2029 launch, with suborbital tests of a smaller version first in 2026. All launches will take place in Argentina.

 

• Rocket startup Keka Aerospace in the Congo touts its own rocket

The video is in French. Images of the company’s test suborbital rocket can be seen at the 5 minute mark. It certainly does not look much like a real rocket when looked at closely.

 

• A Chinese university touts its proposed lunar rover

The artist’s rendering looks cool, but that isn’t how one builds real engineering.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Ispace releases video of hop test today of its small scale test vehicle

This is essentially its version of SpaceX’s Grasshopper. Ispace appears to be making good progress towards developing a reusable first stage for its Hyperbola rocket. More information here.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• ULA during Vulcan’s Christmas Eve launch will coordinate with NORAD to avoid Santa collision

Silly stuff for a slow day in space news.

 

• New Indian smallsat rocket startup, Spantrik, touts itself at conference

So far no webpage launched yet, and almost no information about the company or its rocket, but as Jay says, “Always good to see a new small sat rocket launcher company.”

 

• Video of test of prototype aerospike engine from Indian rocket engine company, Spacefields

These are preliminary tests, which appear to show that the design works.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• At Boeing’s request the FCC withdraws its license for a low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation, approved less than two years ago

The forfeiture cost Boeing $2.2 million, but is likely necessary because of the company’s many other problems that make building this constellation impossible.

 

• Sierra Space shows of image of its Tenacity Dream Chaser reusable mini-shuttle

The spacecraft does appear almost finished, making the present ready date for launch the end of this year increasingly likely.

 

• Rocket Lab now targets the end of 2024 for launch of its privately funded Venus mission

Now called Venus Life Finder, this new target date firms up the mission’s schedule, as the last word from the company was that it had delayed it to 2025.

 

• FAA announces it has completed its safety review of SpaceX’s proposed next Starship/Superheavy test launch

A somewhat meaningless announcement, as no license was rewarded because Fish & Wildlife is still doing its own investigation.

 

• PLD touts its Miura-5 orbital rocket, ready to launch in 2025

The only other detail provided is that the rocket will have a thrust of 1 MN and lift at least 500kg to orbit.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• New startup, Interlune, focused on in situ technology for lunar mining and manned operations

Two of the company’s founders come from Blue Origin, while the third is Apollo astronaut Jack Schmidt, the only actual geologist to walk on the Moon.

 

• Visual maps showing who has put the most satellites in orbit in 2023, here and here

Not surprisingly, the maps make it obvious how much SpaceX now dominates the space industry.

 

• An image showing three different next generation Russian manned capsules, all under development

For an assembly production floor, the image shows remarkably little activity, with no workers and very little on the floor itself. Russia might be building these, but I bet the work is going more slowly than anything Blue Origin has done, and that is very slow indeed.

 

• A map of the lunar surface material displaced by the engine thrust of India’s Vikram lander at touchdown

Good information for calculating the work that must be done to reduce the consequences of take off and landing when near a future base.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Blue Origin unveils what looks like a full scale model of its lunar cargo demonstrator

All we have so far is this tweet, but its vagueness suggests this is not even a prototype but a model for show. Jay also noted that it looks completely different than an earlier version from 2019.

 

• Space Force issues small development contacts to two software startups from India

These are the first Space Force contracts with non-U.S. companies. While wonderful news for the companies, one wonders why the U.S. military is not favoring American companies.

 

• Military struggling to take advantage of private enterprise to maintain and augment its satellite tracking system

This ground system of antennas is what is used to track all objects in orbit, including space junk, and is aging and also needs upgrade. The Pentagon apparently can’t get organized to contract private companies to do the work, so it isn’t getting done.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Europe’s smallsat rocket startups issue their own response to a recent Space News article claiming SpaceX’s big rideshare launches was dominating the industry

In essence, they admit SpaceX is making it harder, but also say they can’t begrudge the company’s success. They simply have to do better to compete.

 

• Sierra Space successfully completes first mission Flight Operations Review for Tenacity Dream Chaser

The paves the way for the first Tenacity flight, hopefully next year.

 

• The Centaur V for first Vulcan launch has come out of the High Pressure Test Cell for its final touches before shipment

That December 24th launch date is looking better and better.

 

• Update on ArianeGroup’s demo project to develop reuseable rockets

The Prometheus engine has been doing ongoing tests, while the tanks and landing legs of the Themis demonstrator are being tested.

 

• Video of Shenzhou capsule docking with Tiangong-3 station

So begins this crew’s six month mission.