A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here):
[ Update: Great views of the Starship Mk.1 coming to together at Boca Chica Beach:
— SPadre (@SpacePadreIsle) September 25, 2019
— SPadre (@SpacePadreIsle) September 25, 2019
]
** Today a Russian Soyuz launched 3 new ISS crew members including the first astronaut from the UAE. This was the final flight for the Soyuz-FG version of the rocket. The modernized Soyuz-2 will now become the standard crew launch version of the Soyuz family of rockets. The Expedition 61 crew includes Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, United Arab Emirates guest cosmonaut Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. The launch was timed for a fast rendezvous with the station and the spacecraft is set to dock today at 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT).
- Live coverage: International crew preps for launch in Kazakhstan – Spaceflight Now
- Soyuz-FG retirement; Last launch from Gagarin’s Start lofts first Emirati astronaut – NASASpaceFlight.com
** A Japanese H-IIB rocket launched a HTV cargo module to the ISS on Tuesday. Following a scrub on Sept. 10 due to a launch pad fire, the H-IIB successfully lifted off yesterday from the Tanegashima Space Center with the eighth HTV (H-II Cargo Vehicle) to go to the ISS. The spacecraft will take 4 days to reach the station with its load of over 4 tons of supplies and equipment, including several new lithium-ion batteries to replace aging nickel-hydrogen batteries for part of the station’s power system.
- HTV-8 launches on H-IIB to the ISS – NASASpaceFlight.com
- Fresh batteries, experiments on the way to the International Space Station – Spaceflight Now
** Three rocket launches took place in China in the past week including a Long March 2D today carrying a Yunhai remote sensing satellite: China launches environmental monitoring satellite – Spaceflight Now
*** Long March 3B rocket on with two Beidou navigation satellites launched on Sept. 22th:
- China launches two new BeiDou satellites – Xinhua | English.news.cn
- Long March 3B launches latest Beidou-3M satellites – NASASpaceFlight.com
- Two more satellites launched into China’s Beidou navigation fleet – Spaceflight Now
*** A Long March 11 launched on Sept.19th with five satellites for the private company Zhuhai Orbita Aerospace Science and Technology Co., Ltd. The group of satellites included four with hyperspectral imaging systems and one with video imaging.
** Virgin Orbit shipped out the first operational LauncherOne rocket for tests in prep for launch by end of the year: LauncherOne: Shaping Up and Shipping Out | Virgin Orbit
This week, after a very hard drive by our teammates in our Long Beach factory, we waved good-bye to our latest test rocket. Our previous LauncherOne served valiantly through a battery of tests highlighted by several captive carry flights and especially by our flawless drop test. Our latest rocket — which has already been fully integrated, tested, checked, re-checked, analyzed, and triple-checked — is destined for a rigorous crucible of engineering demonstrations and tests of its own. The final demonstration for this rocket will also be the biggest test we’ve attempted as a team: during that test, we’ll fire up LauncherOne’s engine in flight and head for space for the first time.
** Firefly Aerospace is posting updates on preps for the first launch of an Alpha rocket next year.
We are running 4 test stands at Firefly as we move towards first flight. Currently on TS-2 we are performing Stage 2 Qualification testing. This video shows Thrust Vector Control (TVC) during a recent test. #Firefly #MakingSpaceForEveryone pic.twitter.com/4k2t7gCqzo
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) September 23, 2019
** The small company LAUNCHER pushes 3D printing technology to make its rocket engines more efficient:
More 💎💎💎🚀. To further reduce the cost of 3D printing our highest performance copper alloy engines – we more than doubled the powder layer thickness and as a result sped up the 3D printing time by more than 2X. Made possible by AMCM and @3t_am_ltd on an @EOSGmbH 3D printer. pic.twitter.com/rTOdKmQj2B
— LAUNCHER (@launcher) September 23, 2019
** Blue Origin targets November for next New Shepard flight:
Blue Origin appears to be targeting NET Nov. 1 for its next suborbital flight of New Shepard. It’s anticipated the company will fly at least two more uncrewed missions before sending people into space.https://t.co/strONivCQ1
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) September 25, 2019
** An update on research on bleeding-edge propulsion concepts: Marc Millis: Testing Possible Spacedrives – Centauri Dreams
Marc Millis, former head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project, recently returned from another trip to Germany, where he worked with Martin Tajmar’s SpaceDrive project at Germany’s Technische Universität Dresden. Recent coverage of the ongoing experimental work into spacedrives in both the popular and scientific press has raised public interest, leading Millis to explain in today’s essay why and how the techniques for studying these matters are improving, and how far we have to go before we have something definitive. Millis is in the midst of developing an interstellar propulsion study from a NASA grant even as he continues to examine advanced propulsion concepts and the methodologies with which to approach them.
See also Just How Feasible is a Warp Drive? – Universe Today.
** SpaceX
*** Assembly of the Starship Mk.1 orbital demonstrator accelerated at even a faster pace in the past week at Boca Chica Beach. It appears that some staff from the Mk.2 project in Cocoa Beach, Florida came to help out in Texas so that a complete Starship can provide a dramatic backdrop to Elon Musk’s update presentation on the project this Saturday, Sept. 28th.
For the first time in history, not in science fiction, an actual spaceship is under construction. https://t.co/fm4aOw88mZ
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) September 22, 2019
- SpaceX’s Starship Mk1 rocket already has three Raptors installed, says Elon Musk – Teslarati
- SpaceX installs two Starship wings ahead of Elon Musk’s Saturday update – Teslarati
At last…! #Starship Mk1 is coming together!
The new nose-cone has been stacked!! 👍🚀✨ pic.twitter.com/DWXFGa3i5G— Reagan Beck (@bluemoondance74) September 25, 2019
SpaceX’s Starship Mk1 at Boca Chica ahead of Wednesday’s (Elon’s estimated timeline) integration and weld of the pointy end to the noisy end.
Mary (@BocaChicaGal) with Monday’s photos.
More here:https://t.co/Sha26ScaEd pic.twitter.com/mmpjwK6Gd2
— Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) September 23, 2019
*** Elon gives some pre-presentation hints on the latest Starship design and operation concepts:
- Elon Musk’s upcoming Starship presentation to mark 12 months of rapid progress – NASASpaceFlight.com
- SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explains how Starships will return from orbit – Teslarati
- SpaceX’s Elon Musk tweets a sneak peek at his Starship vision – GeekWire
*** Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, gives an overview of the new design for the fins:
*** Scott Manley also gives his thoughts on the design changes: Scott Manley: New Details Revealed About SpaceX’s Stainless Steel Starship as Prototype Nears Completion : spacex/reddit.com
*** Some synergy at last between SpaceX and Tesla: SpaceX’s Starship Mk1 rocket shares a surprising connection with Tesla EVs – Teslarati
These battery packs were spotted by an eagle-eyed forum user who was first to recognize the hardware for what it likely was. Per the above photo, SpaceX appears to have joined two self-contained Tesla battery packs into single units that were then installed on a header tank. Knowing that the highest capacity Tesla offers is ~100 kWh, the 2×2 packs could store up to 400 kWh and offer instantaneous power output (ignoring thermal limitations) well into the megawatt (MW) range.
The Tesla batteries are needed to run the motors that move the fins:
Many powerful electric motors & batteries. Force required is enormous, as entire fin moves. More about this on the 28th.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 24, 2019
*** Yusaku Maezawa raises a few billion dollars from selling stock in his clothing company. This will provide him additional money to fund his Starship flight around the Moon with artist friends. He may also take a preliminary flight to space on a Crew Dragon.
- SpaceX’s first private Starship customer resigns to fund, train for private Moon mission – Teslarati
- Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa resigns to train for SpaceX moon flight – Business Insider
- Moon Shot: Billionaire Maezawa To Give Up Control Of Fashion Site Zozo In Yahoo Japan Deal – Forbes
Forbes:
While acknowledging his mistakes at a two-hour press conference, he said there were two personal reasons for his resignation: Preparing for the 2023 lunar mission, including going into space once before that, and wanting to feel the “rush” of building a company from the ground up again.
“Training to go into space will to take up much of my time,” he said, flanked by his successor at Zozo, Kotaro Sawada, and the president of Yahoo Japan.
*** Falcon 9 launch rate to accelerate in coming year as SpaceX ramps up deployment of the Starlink broadband Internet constellation: Starlink to fill lion’s share of SpaceX near-term launch manifest – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX plans as many as 24 launches next year to build out the company’s Starlink network to provide broadband Internet service from space, following up to four more Starlink missions before the end of this year, according to SpaceX’s chief operating officer.
The rapid-fire launch cadence for SpaceX’s Starlink fleet will take up the majority of the company’s launch manifest next year with a series of missions taking off from Florida’s Space Coast, adding new nodes to a network that could eventually contain nearly 12,000 small satellites.
** After a two month break, the next Falcon 9 launch looks to happen in mid-October but not clear yet if it will be a Starlink payload or a customer satellite SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 launches get a bit closer as hardware arrives in Florida – Teslarati
SpaceX completed its last orbital launch on August 7th, placing the AMOS-17 communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on an exceedingly rare expendable Falcon 9. As of then, SpaceX’s next launch – an internal Starlink mission – was already expected no earlier than October and has since settled towards the end of the month. First reported by NASASpaceflight.com, the first Starlink v1.0 mission (AKA Starlink-1) is tentatively scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) October 17th, followed by Starlink-2 NET November 4th and Starlink-3 NET late-November.
Of note, there have been whispers in the last few days that SpaceX’s next launch is not, in fact, a Starlink mission. Reading between the lines, only two possible spacecraft – JCSAT-18/Kacific-1 or South Korea’s ANASIS – are next on SpaceX’s manifest, the former of which is scheduled to launch no earlier than November 11th and the latter of which does not yet have a firm date.
*** Crew Dragon program continues to move along with progress on parachutes, finalizing the April explosion investigation, and targeting late this year for the in-flight abort test:
- SpaceX anomaly: ‘No further action’ needed on Crew Dragon explosion cleanup – Florida Today
- Commercial Crew Program Testing Fosters Improvements in Parachute Safety – Commercial Crew Program
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