Tag: quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• An image and video as SpaceX restacks Superheavy #7 and Starship #24 for testing

 

• Vulcan’s Centaur upper stage finished, now ready for testing

It likely could have been ready two years ago, but there was no point since the first stage couldn’t be finished without Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines. ULA has those engines now, and is pushing hard of a 2023 Vulcan launch.

 

• China might be having communications issues with its Tienwen-1 Mars orbiter

It appears “a ground station is struggling to obtain a lock with the spacecraft.” If Tienwen-1 dies, it likely also means the end of Zhurong on the Martian surface. American and European orbiters might be able to step up, but the technical issues would not be trivial.

 

• China completes 100 second static fire test of new core engine for Long March 5

No word on whether this replaces the Long March 5B, whose core engines cannot be restarted and thus cause the core stage to crash uncontrolled to Earth.

 

• Video of Ceres-1 launch in China today

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• SpaceX aiming to do two launches on the same day this weekend, from opposite coasts

The launch from Vandenberg is a set of Starlink satellites, while the Kennedy launch is a set of OneWeb satellites. The author at the link breaks down the number of launches last year at each pad, and notes SpaceX’s goals this year.

 

• Launch of China’s Long March 7A now set for January 8-9, 2023

This launch was originally set for December but was postponed. It is unclear whether it will be China’s first launch in 2023.

 

• Norfolk Naval Station by Taijing-3-01 remote sensing satellite, Sept 2022

China gives us a hint at its satellite reconnaissance capability, which according to Jay, in this case has less resolution than Google Earth.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• SpaceX applies to build five new mega-gateway ground stations for its upgraded Starlink satellites

Soon thereafter, SpaceX applied for an additional eighteen. All 23 will be in the U.S., thus significantly enhancing access to its Starlink constellation for American customers. It also appears the company is building at least one gateway in the United Kingdom.

 

• Rocket Lab’s second launch out of Wallops is already being prepped

The first Wallops launch was delayed until January due to red tape. The company now plans back-to-back Wallops launches. It also plans to continue a launch pace of one launch per month for 2023.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• A look at Blue Origin’s Lunar Hazard Field to be used to test the Blue Moon Lander

Scroll down at the link for a look at Firefly’s comparable lunar test facility.

 

• NASA’s contract to Collins for space station spacesuit was sole source

This story seems to be trying to make a tempest in a teapot. NASA awarded two contracts to two different companies, one to Collins for station suits and a second to Axiom for lunar suits. In the end, both will be competing against each other, as both will clearly work to adapt their suits for other uses.

 

• The present status of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation

3666 Starlinks launched, 3374 still in orbit, 3063 in licensed operational orbital shells.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.

• It appears China is beginning to stretch out its long term space goals

The tweet notes new delayed target dates for China’s Mars sample return mission, asteroid mission, and exoplanet telescope, to name just three. I see this as typical of a government-run program. In the end the focus of such government programs always shifts from their stated goals to simply providing government jobs on Earth. Thus, delays become a feature, not a bug.

 

• Super Guppy airplane arrives in Florida to ship NASA-built station module to Axiom’s facility in Houston

Four Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM) were flown by the shuttle as temporary modules to ISS. Axiom has apparently purchased one to use as part of its private station that will initially be attached to ISS, then separated to fly independent.

 

• Former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin injured while in restaurant in Ukrainian occupied territory

Apparently he was in a restaurant celebrating his birthday when he “received shrapnel wounds to the soft tissues of the head, the buttocks and left thigh.”

Though few details were released, the known facts suggest this was an attack by the Ukrainian underground, which has routinely targeted Russian officials in its attacks.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Fiscal year 2023 omnibus bill provides $25.4 billion for NASA

Increases the budget by 5.6% from last year. Overall, it appears Congress is funding everything as NASA wishes, while maintaining pork projects like SLS and Orion.

 

• Is Virgin Orbit a Phantom in the UK?

Interesting article, but in a word, the answer has always been “Yes!” Virgin Orbit wants to launch from Cornwall in the UK, but its factories and management is all U.S. based. Since its launch vehicle is an airplane, it is not likely to bring much else to the UK for a very long time. For anyone in Britain to think otherwise is to live in a fantasy world.

 

• Virgin pumps another $20M into Virgin Orbit. $25M was pumped in last month.

This money is once again needed to cover the loss of revenue because of its lack of launches in the second half of 2022, caused partly by red tape in the UK and partly from rocket technical problems.

 

• The secret payloads of Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites

Detailed historical article, much of it describing detectors designed to monitor nuclear tests to make sure the U.S. did not violate any test ban treaties. The U.S. equivalent was its Vela satellites.

 

• Video of fairing release test of new Tianlong-2 rocket from Chinese pseudo-company Space-Pioneer

According to Jay, “Tianlong-2 is almost a knockoff of the expendable Falcon-1 rocket, but it has twice the payload.”

 

Three quick links providing graphics of China’s next generation crew spacecraft, suggesting it will be larger. None should be taken very seriously, as yet.

• Animation of China’s crewed lunar landing mission with the next-generation crew spacecraft

 

• Graphic showing the new crew spacecraft compared to Shenzhou crew capsule

The new version is wider, 5 meters in diameter, and appears to not use fairings during launch.

 

• Animation showing new crew spacecraft docking a Tiangong-3 with an additional module

The new spacecraft is docking with the bottom port, so that much of it is not visible.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Longer video of Zhuque-2 launch failure

You need to scroll down to see the second part, which appears to end before the failure.

 

• Ham radio cubesat released from Tiangong-3

More details about the satellite here.

 

• PR film from rocket startup Stoke Space

The most interesting part is where the film describes the company’s 2nd stage, which uses many mini-thrusters in a ring to make it reusable. For more info, see this October 2021 post.

 

• Roscosmos head Borisov claims Soyuz leak hole is about 0.8mm in size

This was part of his press statement that TASS reported earlier, but without including this one detail. How Borisov knows the hole size however is not explained.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.

• European Union issues a travel sanction against Valentina Tereshkova, the first female astronaut

The EU issued the sanction because Tereshkova, as a member of Russia’s Duma, voted in favor of the annexation of several Ukrainian provinces. This means she cannot visit her daughter in Italy.

 

• Rocket Lab is ready to launch from Wallops, but NASA/FAA red tape FAA has delayed the launch to December 18th

What makes this even more disgusting is that it was NASA red tape that delayed the launch more than two years. And yet, that wasn’t enough time for these idiots to do their paperwork so that competent people can actually accomplish something on schedule.

Courtesy of stringer Jay, whose help is making BtB much better.

• SOFIA makes its final flight to Tucson to become exhibit at Pima museum

This 747 (configured to be an astronomy telescope) was always too costly for the relatively small amount of research it could produce.

 

• Landing system installed on Luna-25

This increases the chance that this much delayed lunar lander will actually launch in 2023.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• NASA begins testing of more SLS rocket engines

This story is certainly connected to the decision to buy more SLS’s from Boeing. The new rockets however won’t launch for years, so I suspect this testing is partly an effort to justify the high cost of SLS.

 

• Sierra Space successfully blows up a subscale inflatable station module

Video at the link. The press release is here. The test was to confirm the module’s ability to survive inflation in space.

 

• China’s space agency, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), completes more engine tests of high thrust engine

 

• First observations released from China’s Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S)

 

• India and Russia discussing sale of 10 Russian rocket engines to India

It would be puzzling if this deal went through, as India has made a very aggressive (and successful) effort in the past decade to replace all foreign engines on its rockets with homebuilt engines.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.

• ASTRA shares drop in one year from $8.78 down to $0.45

If the price does not increase to above one dollar by April, NASDAQ has said it would delist it. This price however is less than it was a month ago, so the trend has not been positive.

 

• A look at Chinese pseudo-company Landspace

The review treats all these Chinese companies like private American companies, without recognizing that they do nothing without the approval and full supervision of the government.

 

• French satellite antenna company Anywaves raises $3 million in investment capital

The company’s goal is to expand its business in the U.S.

 

• Video of Relativity engine test

The music track is quite annoying.

 

• Shenzhou-15 upper stage reentered atmosphere on December 11th, with some debris hitting the ocean

The debris landed southeast of Madagascar

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Ham radio event celebrating 50th anniversary of Apollo 17

At the link do a search there for “Apollo 17”.

 

• China starts production of 20 Smart Dragon-3 rockets

This follows the rocket’s first successful launch earlier today.

 

• Hi-res satellite image of Landspace’s Zhuque-2 rocket vertical ahead of its maiden flight attempt

If this launches successfully as scheduled tomorrow, it will be the first rocket using methane to reach orbit, beating both SpaceX and Blue Origin.

 

• OneWeb reports it has successfully established communications with all 40 satellites launched by SpaceX

In its next tweet it thanks SpaceX for the launch.

 

• The next Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft are loaded for railroad shipment to launchsite

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s Twitter stringer.

• Engineers lose contact with ICON satellite on November 25, 2022

Right now the situation does not look hopeful. The satellite was studying the interaction of the Sun with the Earth’s ionosphere, and completed its prime two-year mission a year ago.

 

• Satellites now ready for December 13th Ariane 5 launch

The launch will put into orbit two communications satellites and a weather satellite (the subject of the tweet above.) With this launch, there will only be two Ariane 5 launches left on Arianespace’s manifest.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace now targeting a December 10th launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket

If successful, it will be the first methane fueled rocket to reach orbit, beating both SpaceX and Blue Origin.

 

• Cubesats launched on most recent Cygnus deployed from ISS

Nice images of the deployment at the link.

 

• Startup Canadian company Stells touts its goal to provide wireless charging stations on the Moon

All the company has so far is a short animation, describing their concept. Nonetheless, such private companies to provide services to future lunar colonies are coming.

 

• Dawn Aerospace secures $20 million in private investment capital

The company previously flew five test flights of a small reusable spaceplane prototype (only slightly larger than a model airplane). The goal now, using the funds from its New Zealand investors, is to begin development of a full scale orbital version.

 

• Impulse Space tests new rocket thruster

As Jay notes, “You don’t hear much from this company, but they are doing work for other rocket companies.”

 

• Weather forces Rocket Lab to delay 1st launch from Wallops to December 13th

 

• Unidentified Oumuamua interstellar object is just now leaving the Solar System

I still think a mission could reach this object, but it would have to launch very soon, and thus is almost certain not to happen.

 

• Northrop Grumman lead bidding team for NASA manned lunar lander

This bid is in competition with Blue Origin’s bid, also announced today. Few details for either have been so far been revealed.

 

• Watch a 7 minute Chinese propaganda overview of its Tiangong-7 station

Propaganda aside, China has much to brag about here. The video provides a very nice overview of the station.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Blue Origin is testing a method of catching the fairings of its not-yet-launched New Glenn rocket with a net

Scroll down to see the picture of the ship with net. SpaceX tried this technique aggressively, and abandoned it.

 

• First Rocket Lab launch from Wallops set for December 9, 2022

Two years overdue, due delays caused by NASA’s bureaucracy.

 

• Video of the re-entry of China’s manned Shenzhou-14 this past weekend

 

• Next launch of China’s Smart Dragon sea-launched rocket is set for December 9, 2022

The drop zone for the first stage is just to the east of Taiwan.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s intrepid stringer, trolling Tweeter so we don’t have to.

• ULA CEO Tori Bruno claims Blue Origin is building one BE-4 engine per week

You need to scroll down and read the thread, from the bottom up, to reach this conclusion. Whether Bruno is right remains unknown. Nothing Blue Origin has done so far suggests they are yet capable of this.

 

• Russian private company S7 negotiates with government to finalize transfer of its ownership of Sea Launch

Putin and his stooges have been pressuring S7 for years to gain control of Sea Launch, essentially bankrupting this private operation with fees and taxes.

 

• Russia’s Sphere broadband satellite constellation gets international regulatory approval

Whether this 600 satellite constellation eventually launches remains unknown, due to the Ukraine War sanctions that prevent Russia from obtaining financing and many necessary components.

 

• JAXA notes delivery in October ’22 of the propulsion system for its upgraded HTV-X1 cargo freighter to the assembly factory

The second image at the link shows the propulsion system attached to an earlier version of the HTV, with solar panels attached to the spacecraft walls rather than as fold-out solar panels as planned for the HTV-X1.

 

• Shenzhou-14, with three astronauts, is now scheduled to return on December 4, 2022

This second tweet shows the primary and backup landing zones.

 

• Sierra Space touts its upper stage Vortex engine

 

• South Korea awards contract Hanwha Aerospace $212 million contract to build three Nuri rockets

It appears the government wants to transfer production from the South Korean space agency, KARI, to this private company, though it also appears the government is not ceding ownership to the private company.

 

• Major management organization at Astra

According to CEO Chris Kemp, the reorganization has four engineering and manufacturing managers reporting directly to him, reducing a layer of management. Of the four managers involved, two once worked at Blue Origin, one at SpaceX, and one at Google.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer, Jay.

• Next two OneWeb satellite launches will be by SpaceX

India will launch the one after that.

 

• Popular Science magazine gives NASAWeb an award!

Pure idiocy, and another embarrassment for Popular Science, after it awarded Boeing an award for its magnificent work on Starliner.

 

• AST SpaceMobile looks to raise more investment capital

It appears the company — which wants to launch a constellation that would provide service to ordinary cell phones — has been squeezed between supply chain delays and FCC deadlines, which could cause it to lose its rights to certain frequencies. The extra cash is aimed at speeding satellite development.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Photo of docking port on Tiangong-3, taken from Shenzhou-15 capsule

Video of the docking can be seen here.

 

• Japanese astronaut that falsified research data will still fly his mission to ISS

In other words, according to Japan’s space agency JAXA, its okay for an astronaut to be dishonest and corrupt.

 

• Boeing says it achieved all goals during second Starliner unmanned demo mission

In making this statement Boeing also touted Popular Science giving it the 2022 “Best of What’s New” award. As Jay so correctly notes, “Talk about a rigged vote! Good thing I quit subscribing to PopSci five years ago.” Considering how behind schedule Starliner is, and considering the numerous other new rocket companies flying this year, this award is an embarrassment to Popular Science.

Thanks to BtB’s stringer Jay for digging these up.

• ULA installs engines on Centaur, the Vulcan upper stage

This Centaur will be on Vulcan’s inaugural launch, presently scheduled for next year.

 

• IAU issues statement complaining about the brightnees of AST Spacemobile’s BlueWalker-3 satellite

Essentially, astronomers are unhappy both about its brightness and its use of radio frequencies. The first could interfere with optical astronomy, the second with radio astronomy.

Once again, the solution is obvious: Stop building ground-based telescopes and build them in space, beyond Earth orbit, so these needed orbiting constellations won’t get in their way.

 

• South Korean leader pushes for unmanned landing on Moon by ’32, and on Mars by ’45

A decade to launch a lunar lander, eh? Both Israel and the UAE went from concept to launch in less than five years. South Korea should be able to do as well, if not better. If not, then this is really nothing more than a jobs program.

 

• Engineers continue efforts to communication with IceCube, launched on SLS

The cubesat was designed to go into lunar orbit, but engineers have so far failed to communicate with it since deployment.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.

• Shenzhou-15, with three astronauts, scheduled to launch at 10:08 am (Eastern) tomorrow

This will be the first time the Tiangong-3 station will be occupied by two three-person crews, performing its first crew rotation.

 

• Relativity touts 4-second video of one of its 3D printers

 

• Chinese government appears to prefer “Chinese Space Station” over “Tiangong-3”

I suspect officials decided they get more propaganda bang-for-the-buck with the more generic name. And on that note:

 

• China touts 9 international research projects to launch next year to its “China Space Station.”

Jay notes, with surprise, that this Twitter feed, China ‘N Asia Spaceflight, which mostly plugs China’s space achievements and thus should want to stay on that government’s good side, still tweeted about the lockdown riots in China.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer, trolling Tweeter so you don’t have to.

• Another update on the space junk remaining in orbit from Russia’s destruction of Cosmos 1408 in 2021

There is uncertainty here. An earlier update said only 18 pieces of debris would still be in orbit in three years. This update predicts 44 pieces in three years.

 

• Some unusual visitors tour SpaceX’s Starship facility

I think, but cannot prove it, that those are retired early Starship/Superheavy prototypes, not active ships.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace sets December 3rd for first launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket

This is a liquid fueled methane-oxygen smallsat orbital rocket.

 

• Ground-based images of ISS and Tiangong-3, side-by-side

Jay correctly notes, “The scale is off, the picture shows Tiangong-3 as larger than what it is.” Comparing the Russian modules on ISS with Tiangong-3’s modules, I estimate that Tiangong-3 is about 30% smaller than shown.

 

• China plans a DART-copycat mission in ’25, impacting an asteroid

The tweet provides no information in English on the asteroid being targeted.

 

• SpaceX has begun attaching OneWeb satellites in preparation for Falcon 9 launch

This will be the first SpaceX launch of satellites for its competitor OneWeb, picking up the business the Russians intentionally abandoned.

 

• UK to build the new lander for ESA’s Franklin Mars rover

The launch of this long delayed rover is now targeting ’28. It was originally supposed to launch in ’20, was first delayed until ’22 because of parachute issues, then was delayed again when Europe and Russia ended their space partnership due to the Ukraine War.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Damage to mobile launcher from SLS launch

More damage can be seen here. NASA apparently considers this damage no big deal, other than demonstrating how powerful SLS is.

 

• Blue Origin touts cooperative agreement with Space Force.

The deal is a first step toward becoming a launch provider for the Space Force. As Jay noted to me, “Wait, how many rockets does Blue Origin have again? How many have made it to orbit? How is that BE-4 going?”

 

• Next Shenzhou manned capsule on Long March 2F rolled to launchpad

Launch is scheduled for November 29th, and will facilitate the first on-station crew rotation on Tiangong-3.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Orienspace says it will launch its solid rocket Gravitation-1 three times by early ’24

It also says it had ten more launches planned through ’25.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Ispace lays off half its workforce

This reduction follows a failed rocket launch in May, the third in four attempts.

 

• ISRO preparing PSLV rocket for November 26th launch

The launch will place one Earth observation satellite and eight smallsats in orbit.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.

• Debris from “acoustic blanket” now thought to have caused Cygnus solar panel deployment failure

From the tweet: “Probably got snagged on the array when the fairing separated.” This conclusion is based on the images released two days ago.

 

• Anthony Zak at RussianSpaceWeb asks for donations & subscribers to keep his website going

 

• Video of a test article of Centaur, Vulcan’s upper stage, being inserted for testing

This was posted by ULA’s CEO, Tory Bruno. He does not say when this was done, nor provide clarity on a test or launch schedule.

 

• NASA declares inflatable heat shield test flown on Atlas-5 launch a success

And as the agency does so often, it now shuts things down, having no plans to fly it again. It could be scaled up for future Mars missions, but no such mission is presently planned. ULA, which partnered with NASA on the test, is likely to take this technology and use it to recover the 1st stage engines on Vulcan.

 

• China unveils a method using a net to capture the first stage of its proposed Long March 5G rocket

The tweet shows a picture of a small scale prototype test. An animation of the idea can be seen here. If built it would be a rare thing for China, a new concept not copied from others.

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

• South Africa signs deal with NASA to build a communications ground station for Artemis Moon missions

The plan is for the dish to become operative in ’25. It remains a puzzle. Shouldn’t the recently upgraded Deep Space Network provide this service?

 

• First test launch of Russia’s new manned Oryol capsule delayed until ’25

Wanna bet they won’t meet this date either?

 

• Spacewalk on Tiangong-3 to install handrails and other hardware to facilitate future EVAs

The work was done yesterday, and was the third for the Shenzhou-14 crew.

 

• China publishes new five-year-plan covering 2021 to 2025, with a chapter outlining its space plans

The link goes to the Chinese language version, with only a small excerpt translated into English.

 

• Rocket Lab about to roll its Electron rocket to Wallops launchpad

The launch, set for December 7th, will the the company’s first from Wallops.