Category Archives: Rockets

Rockets, Space business

Space access: New Shepard test date set + Latest from Vector, Relativity Space, Firefly, & RocketStar

Some rocket news:

** Blue Origin announces a New Shepard test flight on Monday, Jan. 21st :

** Vector Launch update – Bob Zimmerman reports on a tour of the Vector rocket factory and an update on the company’s development and test launch plans Making smallsat rockets at Vector | Behind The Black:

Cantrell then outlined their launch schedule beyond this. If all goes well, they hope to make their first launch to orbit in June, followed by launches in August, October (two), and December. When I told him I would not be surprised if this schedule did not happen, he readily agreed. Like Rocket Lab, these first launches are tests, and when you do tests, you must not be surprised if things to go wrong. Like Rocket Lab however Cantrell is confident they will quickly figure out any issues and move forward.

His confidence seems reasonable, based on the significant capital the company has raised, and based on what I saw during his tour….

** Relativity Space awarded lease of a legacy launch facility at Cape Canaveral:

Forbes:

Los Angeles-based Relativity Space, which is working to develop 3D-printed rockets, announced Thursday that it won a competitive bidding process with the United States Air Force to build and operate Launch Complex 16 (LC-16) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The company says it will launch its first rocket from the site in 2020.

This agreement makes Relativity only the fourth commercial space station to operate at the iconic launch site, after United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and SpaceX. Assuming that certain contractual milestones are set, Relativity could potentially maintain exclusive use of the site for 20 years.

“LC-16 is a historic site,” Relativity cofounder and Under 30 alumnus Tim Ellis told Forbes. “A lot of programs went through here. It was initially developed for Titan missile launches, then it was used during the Gemini program for NASA and was also used to test components for the Apollo program. And so there’s a really amazing historical significance.”

** Firefly Aerospace reportedly will build a factory and launch facility at Cape Canaveral: Firefly Aerospace is behind Florida rocket project: sources | Reuters

Firefly Aerospace Inc, a resurgent rocket company founded by a former SpaceX engineer, plans to build a factory and launch site at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Spaceport in a $52 million deal, people familiar with the project said on Wednesday.

** RocketStar suborbital rocket test will launch from a floating platform off Cape Canaveral on Feb. 7th:

** A new New Glenn animation preview video was released this week by Blue and it shows some changes to the design such as a wider fairing:

Debuting from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2021, New Glenn will serve commercial, civil and national security customers from around the world. Featuring a 7 meter fairing with more than 2X the available volume of any rocket flying today and twin BE-3U engines powering the most capable upper stage in the market, New Glenn can launch the full range of satellite payloads. Seven reusable BE-4 engines generating 3.85 million pounds of thrust power the first stage designed to launch 25 times and land safely down range on a moving ship. New Glenn is beginning to take shape at our state-of-the-art rocket factory. Visit us at www.blueorigin.com to learn more.

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Telescopes and Binoculars at Amazon

Rockets, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

Videos: New Shepard flight history + “Moon, the Eighth Continent” + “Coin Operated”

Today Blue Origin posted this video compilation of highlights of the test flights of the New Shepard:

From the caption:

The more we fly the better we get. Safety and reliability are paramount. Our rigorous test program with New Shepard is putting the vehicle through the paces. We have successfully completed several crew capsule escape tests showing that our astronauts will be safe in any phase of flight. In addition to our test program, our payloads program is driving more flights of the system as we iterate on operations and technology in preparation for human spaceflight. All the learnings from the New Shepard program are being flowed into New Glenn development as we scale up our capabilities to serve the orbital market. Visit us at www.blueorigin.com to learn more.

Another flight is expected to happen very soon.

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Moon, the Eighth Continent – A documentary about government and private efforts around the world to revitalize exploration of the Moon and to establish human bases and settlements there. (In French with English subtitles):

Major space agencies, and a few billionaires, are now launching a new space race to the moon. It’s the first step before heading to Mars.

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An entertaining story of one guy’s lifelong pursuit of a ride to the Moon: Coin Operated on Vimeo

Written & Directed by Nicholas Arioli

Coin Operated is an award winning 5 minute short animation that spans 70 years in the life of one naive explorer. This film was proudly made by independent artists.

Facebook – facebook.com/CoinOperatedFilm

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Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes

Rockets

Space access: Stratolaunch high-speed taxi test + ULA Delta 4 Heavy launch + SpaceX update

Stratolaunch is moving closer to getting the company’s giant rocket-carrier aircraft off the ground:

The vehicle will eventually become an air launch platform for a

The Stratolaunch aircraft will provide a high altitude launch platform for a family of rocket vehicles taking payloads and people to orbit.

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After several weeks of delays due to technical problems, United Launch Alliance has now set Saturday, Jan. 19th at 11:05 a.m. PST for the launch of a Delta 4 Heavy with the NRO NROL-71 spy satellite:

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Scott Manley gives an update on recent SpaceX activities:

The SpaceX news just keeps coming. Friday saw the Launch of Iridium 8 followed by the Layoff of 10% of its workforce. CRS-16 returned home, Crew dragon prep is stalled because of government shutdown. And of course Elon’s silver starship finally gets put together.

The latest on SpaceX’s Falcon 9/Dragon-2 crew transportation systems: SpaceX’s first human crew includes astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – The Verge

More on SpaceX:

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The High Frontier: An Easier Way

Rockets

Rockets: SpaceX Falcon 9 launch & landing + China Long March 3B launches comm-sat

** SpaceX on Friday launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg AFB in California with 10 Iridium NEXT satellites. The first stage booster returned for a bulls-eye landing on a platform floating in the Pacific Ocean:

See also the full SpaceX webcast. Here is a video of Tim Dodd’s launch webcast:

Here are scenes from the SpaceX webcast showing the return and landing of the booster, though, as usually happens, the signal is interrupted as the rocket lands due to the plume shaking the platform:

** China on Thursday launched a Long March 3B rocket with the Zhongxing-2D/Chinasat-2D communications satellite going to a geostationary orbit:

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Galaxy Girls: 50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space.

Rockets, Space Settlement

SpaceX: Update on “Starship Hopper” + Upcoming activities

[ Update Jan.10.2019: More on the Starship Hopper:

** Fairing recovery: One other project I failed to mention is SpaceX’s effort to return the fairings (the two halves of the clam-shell like structure that protects a satellite as it goes through the dense atmosphere during a launch) back to earth via paragliders and to catch them in a ship-borne net before they touch the water. Here is a video of a recent test that SpaceX carried out off the coast of California:

For the latest news on the activities of SpaceX’s ocean-going vehicles, see

]

SpaceX is developing a 2nd-gen space transportation system to follow the Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy rockets that will be much larger and be fully reusable. That is, both stages, which are now named Super Heavy and Starship, will fly multiple times and are intended to provide affordable access to low earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

SpaceX is assembling a low altitude test vehicle at the company’s facility in Boca Chica Beach, Texas near Brownsville to assist with development of the Starship. The test vehicle, referred to as “StarHopper” by some and “Starship Hopper” by others, is the same diameter as Starship but somewhat shorter. It will provide real-world data on flying and landing the Starship in a manner similar to how the Grasshopper helped with learning to fly and land the Falcon 9 first stage. The Grasshopper carried out 8 low altitude takeoffs and landings in the 2012-2013 time frame.

Things are changing frequently at Boca Chica, but here is a video showing StarHopper as of Jan. 8, 2019:

Tim “The Everyday Astronaut” Dodd, gives an overview of the StarHopper project:

… we’re going to do a quick history on SpaceX’s previous fleet of hoppers, why they build them, what this one is going to accomplish and then we’ll build a version in Kerbal Space Program and demonstrate what we’ll hopefully see the StarHopper do in 2019!

And here is some earlier commentary on the project from Scott Manley:

A few days ago, Elon posted this –

Elon Musk on Twitter: “Starship test vehicle under assembly will look similar to this illustration when finished. Operational Starships would obv have windows, etc.…”

The full-scale SuperHeavy/Starship would look something like the following (via roow110 on Reddit):

For updates on StarHopper, try:

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SpaceX has a number of other activities underway as well including:

** Falcon 9 launch of Iridium satellites from Vandenberg AFB in California is set for this Friday. This will be the 8th and final F9 launch for Iridium and will complete the implementation of the company’s 2nd-gen NEXT low earth orbit narrowband communications constellation:

SpaceX on Twitter: “Approved on the range – now targeting January 11 launch of Iridium-8 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Weather is 60% favorable for the instantaneous launch opportunity at 7:31 a.m. PST, 15:31 UTC.”

** Cargo Dragon return from the ISS is expected this weekend.

Intl. Space Station on Twitter:  The @SpaceX #Dragon is packed with science and hardware today as teams wait for favorable weather in the splashdown area for Dragon’s return. https://blogs.nasa.gov/…

** Crew Dragon Demonstration Mission (SpX-DM1) is now set for February. A Falcon 9 will launch an uncrewed Dragon 2 vehicle, which will dock to the ISS. SpaceX about one month away from first commercial crew test flight – Spaceflight Now.

If this mission and an in-flight abort test are successful, a Crew Dragon with astronauts could launch to the ISS in the June time frame. The Demo mission was previously set for mid-January but the partial government shutdown has prevented NASA staff from completing their oversight duties for the mission. An exact date for the DM1 flight won’t be set until the shutdown is over.

The DM1 Falcon 9 and Dragon recently were lifted upright on Pad-39A to check out the pad systems, including the new crew access arm:

** 2nd Falcon Heavy launch is planned for this spring. Various Falcon 9 missions are also planned throughout the year.

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Telescopes and Binoculars at Amazon