Rockets, Space transport roundup

Space transport roundup – June.29.2020

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

** SpaceX successfully launched a fourth batch of 60 Starlink satellites today from Cape Canaveral. The first stage booster landed safely and one of the two nosecone fairings was caught in a net on a ship as well. The other fairing had a soft landing near a second ship and will probably be recovered for possible reuse.

See also

More SpaceX items below.

** Spinlaunch and its centrifugal catapult launch system are described in the most detailed public article released so far for the secretive company: Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry’s Best Kept Secret | WIRED

In SpinLaunch’s design, once a rocket is spinning at launch speeds, an exit port in the centrifuge will open for a fraction of a second, sending the rocket shooting out. According to patents filed by the company, a counterbalance spinning opposite the rocket gets released at the same time, preventing the tether from becoming unbalanced and vibrating into oblivion. The rocket coasts for about a minute and ignites its engines at roughly 200,000 feet. At that altitude, there’s hardly any atmosphere pushing against the rocket, so a minute-long engine burn is about all it takes to boost the vehicle to orbital speeds of around 17,500 miles an hour. Another burn, this one lasting just ten seconds, helps the rocket slide into orbit around Earth.

Or so [Spinlaunch founder and chief Jonathan] Yaney assures me. When I visited the company, the prototype centrifuge was still in pieces and Yaney wouldn’t show me any videos of it in action. Instead, he insisted the math of SpinLaunch engineers was solid. Major investors—including Airbus Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and GV (part of Alphabet)—have given their blessing too, pumping $80 million into the company. And last year, the US Department of Defense awarded SpinLaunch a contract to help develop its centrifuge. Still, the scant public evidence that any of it works leaves much to the imagination.

** Blue Origin to use Air Force facility to test BE-7 lunar lander engine. Blue will fund major improvements to the site located on Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and Blue Origin are developing a new test facility for the Blue Origin BE-7 lunar lander engine at the AFRL rocket lab here.

Capital improvements, funded by Blue Origin, will allow BE-7 testing in a simulated space-like environment. Planned work includes adding liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant capabilities, along with other facility upgrades.

AFRL and Blue Origin signed a 15-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement Dec. 11, 2019 to develop a test facility for the Blue Origin BE-7 Lunar Lander Engine here. The CRADA was signed by Dr. Shawn Phillips, chief of the Rocket Propulsion Division, and Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin.

The BE-7 engine is a new, high performance 10,000 pound-thrust dual-expander cycle engine for in-space applications, including Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander. The new AFRL test capabilities will support various development, qualification, and production acceptance tests of the BE-7 engine under future Commercial Test Agreements, also to be funded by Blue Origin.

“The Altitude facility at Edwards Air Force Base, California, does tactical scale research on next generation rocket motor and engine components, propellant formulations, and subsystems; and high vacuum research on satellite components, subsystems, and systems. Research testing includes solid rocket motor testing at simulated altitudes up to 120,000 feet. The complex has been used for space simulation to validate thrust vector control systems, baseline a standard for solid rocket motor propellants, research extendable nozzle cones, and systems, and research space qualified ignition systems.” Credits: AFRL

** Rocket Lab set to launch Birds of a Feather mission with NRO smallsat during window that opens Friday, Jan.31st:

Rocket Lab’s 11th Electron flight – Birds of a Feather – will launch a dedicated mission for the United States National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The launch window is scheduled to open on 31 January NZDT and the mission will lift off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1.

The NRO competitively awarded the contract under the Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract vehicle. RASR allows the NRO to explore new launch opportunities that can provide a streamlined, commercial approach for getting small satellites into space.

See also

** An update on Exodus Space Corp and the Astroclipper orbital spaceplane:

AstroClipper first stage detaching from the upper stage. Credits: Exodus Aerospace

Space.com:

Startup Exodus Space Corp. plans to build a space plane to ferry cargo around Earth. Eventually, that cargo could include people, if the spacecraft is deemed safe enough.

The spaceship — called AstroClipper — will take off from a runaway, make a flight into space and then land again, plane-style. A heft booster at the space plane’s back end will help it get into orbit by giving AstroClipper the speed it requires to break out of Earth’s atmosphere.

Exodus is new and still raising money, but its team includes deep experience across the space industry. Principals at the company have worked at SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and NASA, among others. 

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

** A NASA KSC video highlights the Commercial Crew program:

NASA and Commercial Crew Program partners Boeing and SpaceX are preparing to launch astronauts from Florida’s Space Coast.

** Misc. rocket items:

** SpaceX:

**** Crew Dragon abort test flight accomplished all the primary mission goals according to results released so far: SpaceX releases preliminary results from Crew Dragon abort test – Spaceflight Now

Data from the Jan. 19 in-flight launch escape demonstration of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft indicate the performance of the capsule’s SuperDraco abort engines was “flawless” as the thrusters boosted the ship away from the top of a Falcon 9 rocket with a peak acceleration of about 3.3Gs, officials said Thursday.

The Jan. 19 test demonstrated the Crew Dragon’s ability to safely carry astronauts away from a launch emergency, such as a rocket failure, and return the crew to a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.

**** Starship

****** SpaceX conducted multiple pressure tests on propellant tanks in the past several days at the Boca Chica Beach facility. These included tests on a prototype nosecone tank and on a second large main propulsion tank. (The nosecone header tank is used to keep the center of mass of the Starship positioned correctly as propellants are fed into the engines.) The tanks were each tested to the point of destruction so as to determine the margin of safety above their planned operating pressures. The latest large tank test used liquid nitrogen, whose cryogenic temperature strengthens the stainless steel structure. The tank did not burst until the pressure reached 8.5 bar, which Elon Musk said was the target level. The highest operating pressure will be 6 bar.

****** SpaceX Boca Chica – Starship Test Tank 2 Destructive Cryo Test – Jan.29.2020 – NASASpaceflight.com

The second Starship test tank is tested to overpressure (8.5 Bar) at SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site. Video and Photos from Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF. Edited by Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer)

****** SpaceX Boca Chica – Starship Nosecone Heads to Launch Site – Bulkhead Flip – Jan.23.2020 – NASASpaceflight.com

Ops are ramping up at SpaceX Boca Chica as the Test Tank bulkhead was flipped and the Starship Nosecone/Header Tank was transported to the launch site for its own proofing test. Video and Photos from Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF.

****** SpaceX Boca Chica – Starship Header Tank Pressurization Test – Jan.25.2020 – NASASpaceflight.com

SpaceX conducted a pressurization test of a Starship header tank on Jan. 24 at their Boca Chica launch facility. NSF’s BocaChicaGal (Mary) filmed the test for several hours. The footage has been compiled into a timelapse of the test.

****** A Starship lands on the Moon in this nicely made animation at Hazegrayart – YouTube:

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