Tag: quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• China holds technical meeting for developing its manned lunar spacecraft

It appears from the tweet that the main topic was the propulsion systems to be used.

 

• Tiangong-3 astronauts preparing for spacewalk, probably in the next day or so.

The tweet provides little information, other than a short uninformative video with stirring music.

 

• Firefly to do first launch for Space Force in May

The contract is part of the Space Force’s effort to have the ability to launch on 24 hours notice. Both Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit are competing for similar contracts.

 

• Smallsat rocket company officials warn of industry “bloodletting”

Lots of whining about SpaceX, as well as the difficulty of rocket science. Translation: Competition and rocketry demands the best from you. Don’t complain, deliver.

 

• ISRO does drop tests into pool of Gaganyaan manned capsule prototype

Though the manned orbital mission is presently slotted for 2024, it is very unlikely that target date will be met.

 

• SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell said at a conference today it will attempt a 33-engine static fire test of Superheavy February 9, 2023

For this last quick link a hat tip to reader Richard M.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Why Europe might have backed off sending its astronauts to Tiangong-3

Eric Berger essentially repeats my initial one sentence analysis, just in more detail.

 

• JUICE ready for shipment to launchpad in French Guiana

If all goes as planned, this Jupiter orbiter will arrive at Jupiter in 2029.

 

• February 6th was the fifth anniversary of first Falcon Heavy launch

 

• China’s space tracking ship heads to sea for 2023 launches

Jay thinks the the theme from “Love Boat” would be better background music for the video at the link.

 

• Progress freighter has undocked from Zvezda port, to be replaced by new Progress to be launched on February 9, 2023

Previously the Russians and NASA had said there would be no more dockings at Zvezda’s port to reduce the possibility of more stress fractures to the hull of that module. Apparently, they and NASA have changed their minds. It would be nice to know the reasoning behind that decision.

 

• Old Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, producing 85 pieces of space junk

The breakup was tracked by U.S. Space Defense Squadron, and occurred on January 4, 2023.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Scrapping of the ship Blue Origin purchased as a New Glenn 1st stage landing pad is ongoing

Blue Origin abandoned the idea of using this ship for landings last year. What it will do instead however remains entirely unclear.

 

• Polish satellite company signs launch agreement with Virgin Orbit

The press release says this deal calls for multiple satellite launches, but does not specify the number. The deal also suggests that this company thinks Virgin Orbit will survive its present hard times.

 

• Webb found an asteroid by accident during instrument calibration last year

I read this press release this morning, decided the story was mostly NASA fluff designed to sell Webb, and rejected giving it a full post. Discoveries like this happen all the time with all telescopes. Webb didn’t do anything special here. However, Jay is right that it deserves some mention, so here it is as a quick link.

 

• Comparison of three amazing rockets

You must click on the link. Trust me, you will find it worthwhile.

 

• A close-up image of NISAR, a joint NASA-ISRO radar satellite now ready for launch

 

• ISRO releases new details about its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander

The launch is presently scheduled for the summer of 2023.

 

• China building giant rocket engine test stand

The largest engines for its heavy lift Long March 9 Starship/Superheavy copy will test here.

 

• World View about to go public

Though it has previously touted its desire to launch high altitude balloon tourist flights, it is pushing the surveillance capabilities of its balloons at this time.

Except for the first, all are courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer, who trolls Twitter so I don’t have to.

• Quub Emerges from Stealth Mode, Announces Two Air Force Contracts

Quub is the smallsat company created by long time BtB reader Joe Latrell, whose satellite work I featured previously here. The article at the link includes a detailed interview of Latrell.

 

• OneWeb gets $50 million deal with Canadian internet company Galaxy Broadband

This is how OneWeb will compete with Starlink. While Starlink sells its service directly to rural customers, OneWeb can sell its service to the internet providers that already exist on the ground, allowing them to expand and improve their business in those rural areas.

 

• The route China’s spy balloon took to get to the U.S.

This balloon suggests China is significantly ahead of the U.S. in developing this high altitude balloon technology.

 

• Russian engineers and designers to meet to assess the technical future of ISS

The assessment will apparently be entirely engineering in nature, and will tell the Putin government whether these engineers think ISS will be safe to occupy until 2028, or require leaving sooner. Regardless of what they determine, it is very unlikely Russia can launch its own replacement by 2028.

 

• Where do rockets launch from?

The global map at the link provides an excellent overview of present and future spaceports worldwide

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Branson loans another $10 million to Virgin Orbit

The details, described at the link, suggest serious problems for the company.

 

• African Union Commission inaugurates the headquarters of the African Space Agency in Egypt

None of this really has anything to do with space, rockets, or satellites, but with building bureaucratic empires here on Earth.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Sierra Space successfully completes third test of its inflatable LIFE module

The module is intended for use in the Orbital Reef station that Sierra Space is building in partnership with Blue Origin and others.

 

• Former NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for flying on first SpaceX Dragon manned flight

 

• The flight recorder of Long March 2F is able to sustain 20,000G impact

Make sure you look at the picture of the flight recorder at the link. As Jay notes, “Just so you know, if this hits your house, it is not a box of KFC, but the flight recorder of a Shenzhou spacecraft.”

 

• Using a rocket engine in a very unusual way

 

• Top Soyuz rocket manager claims they have completed design of a methane-burning rocket with a reusable booster

If you believe this is going to be built any time in the near future, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you cheap.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Construction on commercial launch tower a China’s Wenchang spaceport begins

This launchpad will apparently be reserved for use by China’s pseudo-companies.

 

• Europe working to develop its own system for tracking objects in orbit

For decades Europe depended on the American military’s tracking system. Based on this article, it appears it will likely be years yet before Europe’s own system is established, unless Europe decides to hire private enterprise to provide it.

 

• Arianespace still has three Soyuz rockets in storage in French Guiana

It appears that no negotiations are presently under way to return them, which would likely also require the return by the Russians of the OneWeb satellites it confiscated.

 

• Engineers at Chinese pseudo-company Landspace repurposed ultrasonic cleaning machine for crayfish for cleaning cooling channels in rocket nozzles

As much as we tend to disparage China’s ability to independently develop new technology — generally stealing ideas from others — this story illustrates that we must also never underestimate it. These are smart people, and they continue to do marvelous things in space, not all of which are copies.

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer. Sorry this is posted late, but Diane and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary hiking and then going to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner.

• Boeing and NASA are now targeting mid-April for first manned Starliner mission

 

• Progress to launch February 9th to ISS

The replacement Soyuz follows ten days later.

 

• SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell dropped in at ESA’s Brussels conference this week

From the reporter: “Surely nothing more than idle curiosity.”

 

• Chinese satellite company with links in Luxembourg sanctioned by U.S. for providing Ukraine imagery to Russia

Utterly meaningless, as the company’s operations are almost all in China, it launches on Chinese rockets, and most important it is a Chinese pseudo-company, fundamentally supervised by the Chinese government. They certainly are not going to care about U.S. sanctions.

 

• Short animation of Venus’ atmosphere

No information is provided about the source of this imagery, so for all we know, it is entirely fabricated.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• BepiColumbo and Solar Orbiter release results from their flybys of Venus on August 9-10, 2021

The data mostly provided information about the weak magnetosphere that surrounds Venus

 

• Roscosmos chief in discussions about developing hydrogen-fueled rocket engine

The engine was first proposed as part of a joint Russian-American project but never finished. The project will likely go nowhere, first because hydrogen is not the smartest fuel to use because it is so difficult to handle, and second because it is unlikely Russia has the capability or money to do it right now.

 

• Two Russian executives sentenced to prison terms for corruption involving rocket engine sales to U.S.

As Jay noted, “The usual graft and corruption in Russia.”

 

• OneWeb satellites on the way to India for launch

 

• Chopsticks now fully attached to tower at Cape Canaveral

The crane that lifted the chopsticks has now released them.

 

• First stage of Vulcan is now vertical at ULA assembly building at Kennedy

Next step, stacking the Centaur upper stage, followed by the payloads. Launch is still aiming for the end of March.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Arnhem spaceport in Australia hopes to have its first orbital rocket customer launch before the end of 2023

It appears no deal as yet been signed, but it is pushing hard to get customers. In ’22 NASA did three suborbital launches from this site.

 

• Boeing’s Starliner capsule mated to its service module

Boeing and NASA are still targeting April for that first manned demo mission to ISS.

 

• NASA and DARPA form partnership to fly and test a nuclear thermal engine in space by 2027

Whether this promised demo mission will happen is certainly uncertain, as NASA has promised such nuclear engine projects now for decades, none of which ever got past the planning stages. If it happens, however, the technology has the potential to cut travel times to the planets significantly.

 

• Video describing new Japanese startup rocket company

Mostly in Japanese, as is the company’s website. However, the images and some text suggests the company wants to create a range of rockets comparable to the rockets offered by SpaceX and Rocket Lab.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Weather looks good for Rocket Lab’s first launch from Wallops tomorrow

The launch window is between 6 and 8 pm Eastern.

 

• ESA head admits it has no plans to fly astronauts to China’s Tiangong-3 space station

He indicated the reasons are both “political” and “budgetary”, which suggests he does not want to threaten his financially beneficial partnership with the U.S. by doing anything with China.

 

• Video touting China’s lunar Chang’e-6’s sample return mission in ’24 and Chang’e 7’s hopper to south pole in ’26

The video is in Chinese.

 

• 2022 was a profitable year for space insurance companies, the third in a row

Jay notes this interesting detail from article: “Many LEO operators including SpaceX are choosing to forgo insuring satellites, not least because the size of their constellations gives them built-in redundancy. The estimated lifetimes of satellites in LEO are also far shorter than their cousins in GEO.”

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Though next Soyuz capsule will be launched unmanned, astronaut Oleg Kononenko completed training to fly it alone with cargo

No surprise here. The Russians clearly want to be prepared for all contingencies.

 

• Another Chinese pseudo-company, Orienspace, unveils its proposed rockets

The first is a solid fueled smallsat rocket, targeting a first launch in 2023. The second appears to be a variation of a Falcon 9, targeting a first launch in 2025. The third is a Falcon Heavy copy targeting a 2030 launch.

 

• China shows off model of Long March 10, which appears to be a replacement for the Long March 5

It is nothing more than a display model, so there isn’t yet much reality here.

 

• SpaceX gets FCC license for launching Starship/Superheavy from Boca Chica

The license covers the time period from January 20, 2023 to July 20, 2023. This is not the launch license, however, which still has to be issued by the FAA. That the FCC has given the go-ahead however increases the pressure on the FAA to do so as well.

 

• ESA chief proposes global “zero debris” policy at World Economic Forum

How nice of him. Considering that it is government agencies like ESA, not private companies, that are the worst offenders in this matter, he might consider looking to his own glass house before throwing rocks at others.

 

• ESA’s Jupiter orbiter Juice ready for shipment to French Guiana for launch in April 2023

More info here.

 

• Florida makes believe it doesn’t care that Terran Orbital won’t build a satellite factory there

Florida’s space business might be booming, but that doesn’t mean the loss of this company is irrelevant.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• ULA plans 10 Vulcan launches in 2023

My count of total planned ULA launches in ’23 is 11, but that includes two Delta Heavy launches and five Atlas-5 launches. It seems a complete fantasy to expect ULA to complete 17 launches this year (10 of which will be the as yet unlaunched Vulcan), when ULA has never completed more than 16 in a single year, and that record was set in 2009, more than a decade ago. In fact, the company has never completed more than 8 launches in a year since 2016.

 

• The challenges of developing a smallsat reusable rocket when owned by ArianeGroup

This is an interview with the CEO of an ArianeGroup subsidiary that is tasked with building that company’s smallsat reusable rocket. It illustrates the difficulties of working under those conditions.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace completes investigation on Zhuque-2 launch failure on January 9th

The companys says it will try again in 2023. The race to be the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit thus includes SpaceX, Relativity, Landspace, and Blue Origin.

 

• Two Chinese pseudo-companies, engine maker JiuzhouYunjian and tank maker Space Epoch, have completed multiple static fire tests of methane-fueled engine

Space Epoch claims it is building a mini-version of SpaceX’s Starship.

 

• Varda Space & Rocket Lab prepare re-entry capsule to be launched on SpaceX Falcon 9

The goal is to do manufacturing in space and bring it back to Earth.

 

• Firefly adds former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to advisory board

Includes a zoom interview of Bridenstine, where he comments on why he joined this board.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. I remain on the mend, and think by tomorrow I should be fully back to normal.

• Saddam Hussein’s failed space program

An interesting historical read.

 

• A few more details about China’s planned spaceport in Djiborti, Africa

“7 satellite launch pads and 3 rocket test beds.”

 

• China to attempt 70 launches in 2023

50 launches by government agencies, and 20 by Chinese pseudo-companies.

 

• Japan to launch spy satellite using its H-2A rocket January 25th

Includes a map of the flight path over the ocean.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Sierra Space shows off Dream Chaser mock up

This is just empty PR. Sierra Space is taking forever to build Tenacity, the first cargo version of its proposed Dream Chaser fleet. In fact, its pace rivals Blue Origin for slowness and non-achievement.

 

• Virgin Orbit’s press release on the launch failure out of Cornwall

No new information, other than the failure occurred because of the “premature shutdown of the first burn of the second stage.”

 

• Three launches from China expected this week

The map at the link shows the drop zones for the rocket’s lower stages within China.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who probably has more energy than me at this time.

• Drone footage showing the stacking of Starship #24 on top of Superheavy #7

Quite spectacular, both in efficiency and majesty.

 

• AirBaltic chooses Starlink to provide free WiFi for its flight passengers

 

• NASA technicians recently finished welding the pressure vessel for the Orion crew module planned for Artemis-4

The NASA tweet lies by implying this capsule will take that crew to the Moon, when all it will do is take them to the Lunar Gateway. Starship will take them to the Moon.

 

• Virgin Orbit’s finances are really bad

The article essentially outlines the loss of revenue because the company could not launch in 2022, waiting for the UK bureaucrats to say yes. To stay afloat it borrowed lots of money, with the hope that revenues would begin pouring in with launches in 2023. That is now unlikely, at least for several months.

 

• Rocket Lab meets milestone in development of Archimedes, the new engine for its next generation Neutron rocket

 

• China’s CAS-Space shows off models of its future rockets

CAS-Space is a pseudo-company, supposedly private but really owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As Jay wrote, “Looks like they copied both SpaceX and Blue Origin.” I found the similarity to be shameless, especially with its manned capsule.

 

• First Vulcan ready to ship to Cape Canaveral for launch

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.