All posts by TopSpacer

Rockets

Space transport roundup – Nov.2.2019

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here).

** Northrop Grumman Antares successfully launches Cygnus cargo spacecraft. This is the 12th Cygnus mission to the the ISS. The craft is to dock with the ISS at 4:10 am EST on Monday, Nov. 4th.

Lift off is at the 30:32 point in the webcast video:

The pre-launch briefing given on Friday:

** Japan’s HTV-8 “Kounotori” cargo vehicle left the ISS on Friday: HTV-8 departs ISS ahead of destructive re-entry – NASASpaceFlight.com

** Interview with Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck: Episode T+138: Peter Beck, Founder of Rocket Lab – Main Engine Cut Off

Peter Beck, Founder, CEO, and CTO of Rocket Lab, joins me to talk about what they’ve been up to with Electron and Photon, as well as some of their new offerings like ground station support through KSAT and Photon missions to the Moon.

** Aevum gains a USAF contract for its drone-launched rocket: Vector’s lost contract gives wings to new startup Aevum – SpaceNews.com

Aevum, an Alabama startup designing a drone-launched rocket in a former textile mill, went from winning a $50,000 study grant to landing a $4.9 million U.S. Air Force launch contract in the span of three weeks.

About a month later, on Oct. 10, Aevum then became one of eight launch service providers qualified by the Air Force to compete for $986 million worth of small- and medium-sized launch missions over nine years.

Ravn Releases Rocket - Aevum
Ravn Releases Rocket – Aevum

** Virgin Orbit promotes LauncherOne for beyond earth orbit missions:

With the addition of a third stage housed within the rocket’s fairing, LauncherOne can send cutting-edge satellites on a ride past LEO into deep space. We’ve run the numbers, and we think we’ve got a solid engineering plan for ways to use a third stage to launch payloads not only into LEO, MEO, and GEO, but even towards the Moon, any of the Earth-Moon LaGrange points, various main-belt asteroids, Venus, or Mars. With this simple adaptation, LauncherOne unlocks the ability to deliver enough mass to interplanetary destinations to conduct some really valuable smallsat missions, whether that’s studying the potential for extraterrestrial life or learning more about the chemical composition of far-flung worlds.

** bluShift Aerospace hopes to launch bio-fueled rockets from Maine: Billion-dollar ‘Space Port’ business could be headed to Maine if state legislator has her way | newscentermaine.com

“For long enough people have thought of Mainers as, ‘We do great lobster, we do, heck, we do great beer,'” Sascha Deri, founder of bluShift, said. “It’s time for us to show the world that, ‘No, we do a lot of really cool things too like, rockets.'”

** China prepares for launch of Long March 5 heavy lift rocket: China on pace to resume Long March 5 launches by end of year – Spaceflight Now

Components for China’s third Long March 5 rocket arrived at the country’s southern launch base this week as teams prepare for the first flight of the heavy-lift launcher since a 2017 mission ended in failure.

The return-to-flight mission, expected in the second half of December, is a major test of the heavy-lift rocket before China commits to launching a Mars rover and a lunar sample return mission on Long March 5 vehicles next year.

** French space agency tests Frog, a prototype vertical takeoff & landing vehicle: Successful captive flights for FROG – CNES. It is jet powered but serves to teach the VTOL techniques needed for rocket landings.

Both demonstrations in captive flight take-off and landing were a success. FROG is a small scale flight demonstrator designed to test vertical landing algorithms for future reusable launchers.

The project team is currently preparing the Free Flight Fitness Review (RAV) which will take place in October and will allow free flight tests, without gantry or safety cable.

FROG VTOL Prototype
FROG jet powered VTOL prototype in tethered tests.
FROG Schematic
Schematic diagram of the FROG VTOL demonstrator.

** Japan preparing the RV-X vertical takeoff and landing rocket vehicle for test flights. The RV-X is essentially a re-start of the RVT (Reusable Vehicle Test) program of the late 1990s, early 2000s. See my interview with Yoshifumi Inatani, who led the RVT program.

Here is a set of program overview slides in Japanese (pdf). Note that CALLISTO mentioned on the slides refers to a VTOL suborbital rocket vehicle under development by the French and German space agencies. See CALLISTO – Reusable VTVL launcher first stage demonstrator, E. Dumont et al, 2018 (pdf).

** Exodus Space pursues two-stage space plane RLV design. Here is an overview by Fraser Cain:

Exodus CEO Miguel Ayala recently gave a presentation to the FISO (Future In-Space Operations Working Group): Fully Reusable, Two-Stage-To-Orbit (TSTO), Horizontal Takeoff & Landing Spaceplanes – Here are the slides (pdf) and the audio:

AstroClipper - Exodus Space
The flight sequence for the Exodus Space AstroClipper reusable launch system.

** Latest update on space elevators from ISEC (Int. Space Elevator Consortium): ISEC Newsletter – November 2019

The ISEC has had an impact. In the last 6 years the technical maturity and engineering substance of the Space Elevator has solidified and become organized; most notably as the Galactic Harbour.   ISEC’s Technology Development and Maturation approach has melded a better definition of the Space Elevator Engineering solution(s). 

The Elevator is no longer a mystery. Engineering approaches for the Tether Climber, the Earth Port, the GEO Region, and the Apex Anchor have been expressed in terms everyone understands; a harbor. The last technology hurdle – strong material for the tether – was conquered.

*** NASA Commercial Crew update:

The current dates for the tests:

  • Boeing:
    • Nov.4: Pad abort test at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico. The event will be webcast.
    • Dec.17: Orbital Flight Test (OFT) will send an uncrewed Starliner to the ISS via a ULA Atlas V launch.
  • SpaceX:
    • Nov. 6: Static firing of all the SuperDraco engines on the Crew Dragon.
    • Early Dec.: In-flight abort test in which a Crew Dragon will fire its abort engines to depart from a Falcon 9 during the max-Q portion of the flight.

** SpaceX:

** Attaching a canard to the Spaceship Mk.1:

** Next Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites set for Nov. 11. Presumably these Starlinks will be operational spacecraft rather than the demo prototypes on the first launch.  Over the coming year, SpaceX hopes to get into a routine of Starlink launches about every two weeks. 2nd Starlink Mission Launch Campaign Thread : spacex/reddit.com.

== Amazon Ad ==

Safe Is Not an Option

Astronomy, Education

Videos: Night sky highlights for November 2019

[ Update: “What’s Up” for November 2019 from NASA JPL:

Highlights of the November sky include how to watch as Mercury transits the Sun on Nov. 11, plus how to observe the regular dimming and brightening of the “Demon star,” Algol, with your own eyes. Additional information, along with still images from the video, and the video transcript, are available at https://go.nasa.gov/34hp376 . Algol animation is licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0. Video credit NASA-JPL/Caltech.

]

** “Tonight’s Sky” for the coming month courtesy the Space Telescope Science Institute:

In November, hunt for the fainter constellations of fall, including Pisces, Aries, and Triangulum. They will guide you to find several galaxies and a pair of white stars. Stay tuned for space-based views of spiral galaxy M74 and the Triangulum Galaxy, which are shown in visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light.

** What’s in the Night Sky November 2019 – Alyn Wallace

== Amazon Ad ==

Moon: An Illustrated History:
From Ancient Myths to the Colonies of Tomorrow)

In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Space Systems

Videos: “Space to Ground” ISS report – Nov.11.2019

This week’s episode of NASA’s “Space to Ground” report on activities related to the International Space Station:

** Down to Earth – NASA Johnson

In “Down to Earth – The Overview Effect” NASA astronauts discuss a shift in worldview from their time living and working in space. The phenomenon is described in space philosopher Frank White’s book, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution.

** Expedition 61 Inflight Event with Eastern Aroostook School Unit 39 – October 29, 2019

Astronaut Jessica Meir discusses life in space with students in her Maine hometown.

== Amazon Ad ==

Outpost in Orbit:
A Pictorial & Verbal History of the Space Station

Activism

Space policy roundup – Nov.1.2019

A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest (find previous space policy roundups here):

Webcasts

** Commercial Crew Presentation at NASA NAC Meeting (10/30/2019) – NASA Spaceflight

Kathy Lueders, the Program Manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, provides an update at the Oct. 30 NAC meeting on the status of Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The two spacecraft will carry astronauts to the Space Station.

** Debate on NASA’s Proposed Gateway – 22nd Annual International Mars Society Conference

Debate on NASA’s proposed Lunar Orbital Gateway space station and the possible approaches to America’s return to the Moon.
Dr. Robert Zubrin – President, The Mars Society
Greg Autry – Director, SoCal Commercial Spaceflight Center

** Hotel Mars – Wed, 10/30/2019 with John Batchelor, Dr. David Livingston – William Harwood of CBS News talks about NASA’s Artemis lunar program.

** October 29, 2019 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast | Behind The Black

==

== Amazon Ad ==

Moon Rush: The New Space Race

Rockets

Space transport roundup – Oct.30.2019

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here):

** Northrop Grumman Antares on pad for launch of Cygnus cargo module to the ISS. Liftoff currently set for 9:59 am EDT on Saturday Nov. 2nd from Wallops Island, Virginia.

Northrop Grumman Antares CRS-12 Rollout
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket is seen as it rolls out to Pad-0A, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman’s 12th contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station will deliver about 8,200 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. Launch is scheduled for 9:59 a.m. EDT Saturday, Nov. 2. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) – NASA IOTD

The Cygnus module is named the “SS Alan Bean” in recognition of the late Apollo 12 astronaut. The module will cary over 3719 kilograms (8200 lbs) of supplies and equipment for the station. More info about the mission:

** Reusable X-38 spaceplane returns to Cape Canaveral more than two years after launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9:

From the USAF:

The Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission 5 successfully landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility Oct. 27, 2019 at 3:51 a.m.

The spaceplane conducted on-orbit experiments for 780 days during its mission, recently breaking its own record by being in orbit for more than two years. As of today, the total number of days spent on-orbit for the entire test vehicle program is 2,865 days.

“The X-37B continues to demonstrate the importance of a reusable spaceplane,” said Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett. “Each successive mission advances our nation’s space capabilities.”

This is the Air Force’s premier reusable and unmanned spacecraft, providing the performance and flexibility to improve technologies in a way that allows scientists and engineers to recover experiments tested in a long-duration space environment.

X-37B after landing at Cape Kennedy
X-37B after landing at Cape Kennedy on Oct.27, 2019 after 780 days in orbit. Credits: USAF

[ Update 3: Scott Manley discusses the X-37B history, features, and missions:

]

** Relativity Space prints big rockets: The Worlds Largest 3d Metal Printer Is Churning Out Rockets – IEEE Spectrum

The room contained Stargate, the largest metal 3D printer in the world. Relativity invented the Stargate printer for the audacious purpose of 3D printing an entire rocket that’s intended to fly to low Earth orbit. We hope our rockets will eventually fly even farther. Perhaps one day we’ll ship our 3D printers to Mars, so rockets can be constructed on the Red Planet. From there, who knows where they’ll go.

Does this sound crazy? Crazy ambitious, maybe. But plenty of people are taking our idea seriously. Four commercial customers have signed up for launches to Earth orbit beginning in early 2021. The U.S. Air Force has approved our request to build a launch site at Cape Canaveral, the famed Florida facility that launched many historic human spaceflight missions. And NASA has leased us a building at its Stennis Space Center, in Bay St. Louis, Miss., where Relativity will build a factory capable of turning out 24 rockets per year. Such mass production will represent a revolution in rocketry. By embracing additive manufacturing—that is, 3D printing—we believe we can pull it off.

** A couple of recent updates from Copenhagen Suborbitals, the all-volunteer effort to design, build, and launch a single person capsule on a suborbital space trip:

** Scott Manley comments on the history behind EXOS Aerospace, which made an unsuccessful suborbital rocket launch attempt last weekend:

** Landspace in China fires engine for reusable 1st stage booster for full flight duration:

China’s 80-ton thrust liquid oxygen-methane engine for a proposed new rocket launcher completed a variable 200-second test on Saturday. The duration is longer than the whole flying period of a rocket. The engine, named TQ-12, was independently developed by the commercial rocket company LandSpace. It has the third highest thrust level among liquid oxygen-methane engines glob

** LAROS is a Russian company developing a reusable suborbital rocket. The LAROS RN-1 will fly to 120-130 kilometers and return for a vertical landing.

The TASS article claims the first flight will be in 2020 but the LAROS item says 2022. Other info from LAROS:

Currently, work is underway on rocket engines. Experimental samples printed on a 3D — printer with a thrust of 20 kgf are successfully tested on mobile stands in the technical laboratory of the Aircraft Bureau «LAROS». «After achieving stable performance on these samples, the engine will be scaled to a capacity of 500 kg. For a new engine, we will need a testing ground», — said Larionov.

After testing the suborbital rocket, the company will begin to create an orbital reusable light rocket-LAROS-RN2, which will display a payload weighing up to 200 kg at a height of up to 400-500 km.

LAROS-RC2 orbital carrier
LAROS reusable orbital  launch system.

** Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket and Photon satellite tug to use Kongsberg ground station services:  Rocket Lab partners with Kongsberg Satellite Services for Electron and Photon ground station support | Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab, the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, has partnered with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), the world’s largest provider of ground station services, to be the sole provider of ground station services for the Electron launch vehicle and Photon satellite bus customers. The agreement sees Rocket Lab deliver a complete solution for small satellite operators, including satellite design and build, launch, and ground segment support leveraging an existing global network of ground stations.

..

The closely integrated partnership with KSAT now provides launch to operations ground segment support for Photon customers – the final piece for small satellite operators seeking an end-to-end mission partner. This enables small satellite operators to focus on what really matters—their applications and their customers—freeing engineering time and capital from having to develop a spacecraft platform, secure a launch, and coordinate access to ground stations from different providers.

** The DC-X was the rocket that accelerated the emergence of New Space: DC-X: The NASA Rocket That Inspired SpaceX and Blue Origin – The Crux

** SpaceX

***The base section of Starship Mk1 moved to launch pad site from the construction facility today.

[ Update 2: More about the move: Starship Mk1 arrives at launch site ahead of flight test – NASASpaceFlight.com.

Update: Another view of the move:

]

*** Landing Starships wherever – Lars Blackmore made key contributions in the effort to return and land Falcon 9 boosters and now he is working on landing Starships:

What’s next for Lars?

Sending people to the Moon and Mars! I’m now leading entry and landing for Starship, a fully reusable rocket that will one day be able to land up to 100 people on the surface of Mars. Because it lands vertically, like Falcon 9, it should be able to land almost anywhere in the solar system. The Starship’s engines run on methane, this means we can refuel it using propellant generated on Mars and then fly back to Earth or fly further to more distant planets. The near-term goal is just to get Starship into Earth orbit and back with a 100% reusable vehicle, but even that is exciting, because the payload capacity will be far beyond that of any rocket that has ever existed – and with full reusability, the cost should be tiny compared to existing rockets.

For me personally, this is a great opportunity to continue learning, especially outside of my main field of expertise. Designing the rocket hardware from the ground up to be capable of landing, will require a much broader understanding of engineering, combined with all the lessons learned from landing Falcon 9. “Experience comes immediately after you need it,” and many times I realised late in the game that our lives would have been much easier if we could have made simple changes at the start. This time around, I’m hoping to use that experience early in the design cycle, and perhaps save myself some grey hairs in the process! 

Landing Starship will be much harder than landing Falcon 9, but if we can do it, it will be revolutionary. Let’s see what happens!

*** Another look at the Mk.1 video shown by Gwynne Shotwell at IAC 2019:

*** Views of the Starship Mk.1 assembly work earlier this week at Boca Chica Beach:

Over in Boca Chica, SpaceX’s Starship Mk1’s landing legs have been installed, as work continues on the vehicle and (per the flashes) inside the fairing section. With the Roll-Lifts arriving, the two halves will be moved close to each other for re-mating in the coming days. Several clips, with numerous photos edited in. Some of the video has been sped up, some plays at normal speed so you can hear the noise of the worksite. All filmed and photographed by Mary (@bocachicagal).

** The work continues late into the night:

*** Preparations are underway for the next Crew Dragon tests. The the test include:

  • Static firing of all the SuperDraco engines on the Crew Dragon that will do the in-flight abort test. Appears to be set for Nov. 6th.
  • In-flight abort test will see an uncrewed Dragon fly off a Falcon 9 upper stage during the max-Q moment of a launch. The test is currently expected in early December.
  • First crewed flight of a Dragon to the ISS. This could happen by the end of the first quarter of 2020.

More at SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut launch debut a step closer after SuperDraco milestone – Teslarati.

*** Practicing Falcon 9 fairing catches: SpaceX’s new Falcon 9 fairing recovery ship kicks off sea trials ahead of next launch – Teslarati

After a brief installation period, SpaceX’s second Falcon 9 fairing-catching ship departed Port Canaveral to begin sea trials with its new net and arms, a critical step before it can be declared ready to attempt its first fairing recovery.

Known as GO Ms. Chief, the ship’s first opportunity could come as early as a few weeks from now, potentially marking a major milestone for SpaceX’s fairing recovery and reuse program.

*** More about Gwynne Shotwell’s comments on launching lots of Starlink satellites:  SpaceX president teases Starship’s game-changing Starlink launch capabilities – Teslarati

Beyond Shotwell’s clear confidence that Starlink’s satellite technology is far beyond OneWeb and years ahead of Amazon’s Project Kuiper clone, she also touched on yet another strength: SpaceX’s very own vertically-integrated launch systems. OneWeb plans to launch the vast majority of its Phase 1 constellation on Arianespace’s commercial Soyuz rockets, with the launch contract alone expected to cost more than $1B for ~700 satellites.

SpaceX, on the other hand, owns, builds, and operates its own rocket factory and high-performance orbital launch vehicles and is the only company on Earth to have successfully fielded reusable rockets. In short, although Starlink’s voracious need for launch capacity will undoubtedly require some major direct investments, a large portion of SpaceX’s Starlink launch costs can be perceived as little more than the cost of propellant, work-hours, and recovery fleet operations. Boosters (and hopefully fairings) can be reused ad nauseum and so long as SpaceX sticks to its promise to put customer missions first, the practical opportunity cost of each Starlink launch should be close to zero.

== Amazon Ad ==

LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V 21309
Outer Space Model Rocket for Kids and Adults, Science Building Kit
(1900 pieces)