Monthly Archives: November 2019

Rockets

Space transport roundup – Nov.20.2019

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

[ Update 4: A statement from SpaceX indicates that they were pushing the pressure extremely high as a test of the tank design since they had decided it would never fly.

Sounds like the Mk.2 in Florida may also not fly. Perhaps it will also be used for ground tests like this one.

See also

Update 3: Elon says they will learn from this and move on to Mk.3, which will be much closer to the actual flight design:

Update 2: During a pressure test of the Starship Mk.1 propulsion module today in Boca Chica, the top bulkhead blew off:

Will be interesting to see if they repair it or build a whole new propulsion module. Regardless, no Mk.1 test flight this year for sure. A flight of the Mk.2 in Florida may now happen before a demo Starship flight in Texas.

Update: NASA posted a video of the recent SpaceX Crew Dragon static abort firing test:

]

** China launched a two Kuaizhou-1A rockets in less than a week. The latest  one carried

two multimedia satellites into space on Sunday after the successful launch of a remote sensing satellite on Wednesday, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The two satellites have already entered the pre-set orbit by the time of release. The rocket, carrying the satellites named KL-α-A, KL-α-B, blasted off from northwestern China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 18:00 p.m. BJT. The two satellites atop were developed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of Chinese Academy of Sciences to conduct Ka-band communication technology test for German customers.

More at:

** Japan’s Space One commercial rocket venture begins construction of a new launch facility: Japan’s 1st private-sector rocket launch site – NHK WORLD/JAPAN News

Space One is building the launch site in Kushimoto town, Wakayama Prefecture.

Space One is a joint venture funded by four companies — Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, Shimizu Corporation and Development Bank of Japan.

** Aerojet Rocketdyne demos a big electric propulsion system that will be used to move NASA’s Gateway lunar space station: Advanced Electric Propulsion Thruster for NASA’s Gateway Achieves Full Power Demonstration | Aerojet Rocketdyne

Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA recently demonstrated an Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) thruster at full power for the first time, achieving an important program milestone.

Aerojet Rocketdyne-developed AEPS thrusters are slated to be used on the Power and Propulsion Element of NASA’s Gateway, the agency’s orbiting lunar outpost for robotic and human exploration operations in deep space.

The state-of-the-art AEPS Hall thruster operated at 12.5 kilowatts (kW) as part of its final conditioning sequence during testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The thruster demonstrated stable operation at power levels ranging from 4.2 kW to 12.5 kW. Full electric propulsion thruster string integration will take place early next year.

‘Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Advanced Electric Propulsion System thruster demonstrates full power operation at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.”

** Relativity Space promotes the Terran-1 rocket, which the company plans to start launching in 2021.

** Orbex shows off the company’s factory where the Prime rockets will be made:

Orbex, a U.K.-based company that hopes to start launching rockets from Scotland in the coming years, has revealed images of the facility where it will build its upcoming Prime launch vehicle.

Located in the town of Forres near Inverness in Scotland, the company’s facility will be used to construct each 17-meter long Prime rocket, designed to loft small satellites into polar orbit from the early 2020s.

Inside, the company says it has included a number of features to produce a lighter and more environmentally-friendly rocket. This includes, with regards to the former, a large carbon-fiber winding machine to build the exterior structure of the two-stage rocket, which the company says is among the largest in Europe.

See also

“Orbex has installed one of the largest high-speed automated carbon fibre winding machines in Europe in its Scottish factory, as well as a full size ‘autoclave’. This equipment allows engineers to have complete control over the design and pace of manufacture of all carbon fibre tanks, including the main stage tanks, which can be wound in a matter of hours. Orbex fuel tanks use specialized materials, including graphene, and specially developed processing techniques to ensure linerless compatibility with liquid oxygen.” – Orbex

** An update on Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle development:

At the Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility, Sierra Nevada Corporation unveiled the name for Dream Chaser’s cargo module element as well as provided an update on the status of the cargo craft as it prepares for its first flight in 2021.

Also discussed at the event were potential other applications for Dream Chaser, including but not limited to a Gateway logistics cargo vehicle, a standalone space station, and a crew transportation vehicle.

Today’s update came as Sierra Nevada continues to prepare its cargo version of Dream Chaser for its first voyage to the International Space Station in “Fall 2021,” according to Steve Lindsey – Vice President, Space Exploration Systems Space Systems for Sierra Nevada Corporation.

A test version of Dream Chaser’s “Shooting Star” cargo module on display at KSC this week. The blue panel is where a solar panel can be located. The gray structures on the sides represent where cargo modules can be attached.

Here is a video of a Sierra Nevada briefing held back in October 15th on the occasion of the arrival of the primary structure of the first Dream Chaser at a SNC facility in Colorado where they will  assemble the vehicle: Dream Chaser Primary Structure Arrives in Colorado – SNC

** The Space Show – Mon, 11/18/2019 – Joe Carroll discussed “tethers, artificial gravity, humans and long duration spaceflight, living in space, on the Moon and Mars plus much more”.

See also Carroll’s slides shown at IAC 2019: Do Humans Have a Future in Moon or Mars Gravity 2019 IAC rev Nov14 no video.pptx.

** How SpinLaunch will swing payloads into space: Flinging Small Satellites Into Orbit on the Cheap – Wired/Spaceport America

Jonathan Yaney and his colleagues at SpinLaunch, a startup based in Long Beach, California, believe they’ve found the answer. Their nearly fuel-free system, known as a mass accelerator, will use a giant vacuum-sealed centrifuge to spin a payload to more than 4,000 mph. Once released, the payload will go screaming through the atmosphere, coasting nearly 30 vertical miles before propelling itself the rest of the way to orbit by means of a small rocket. The company already has a working prototype; Yaney calls it “science fiction stuff.”

Eventually, Yaney claims, SpinLaunch will be able to fling several 200-pound payloads into space every day, at a cost of less than half a million dollars each— five or 10 times cheaper than the competition. Human passengers are out of the question; the accelerator would turn their bodies to mush. Even satellites must be specially hardened to survive the ride. But that’s a small concession, Yaney argues, when you’re talking about putting together, say, a constellation of internet satellites in a matter of days rather than months.

** OHB of Germany recently  joined the crowded ranks of smallsat launcher developers: OHB defends self-funded launcher effort – SpaceNews.com

OHB is best known for building Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites, but the company also supplies many of the structures and tanks for the Ariane 5 and upcoming Ariane 6 rockets. 

This year OHB revealed plans to develop its own rocket, targeting the small satellite market around the range Rocket Lab’s Electron addresses today. 

OHB hopes to have a small launcher capable of sending 200 kilograms to low Earth orbit conduct a first flight by the end of 2021, Fuchs said in an interview at Space Tech Expo Europe here. The German prime contractor established an entity called Rocket Factory Augsburg to spearhead the small launcher program.

** SpaceX:

*** Falcon 9 booster used for the recent Starlink launch returns from the sea: SpaceX Falcon 9 booster returns to port on a drone ship for the first time in six months – Teslarati

*** The legs were soon removed and the booster laid on its transporter:

[ Update: The guys at www.USLaunchReport.com capture a video of the booster on its way to the hangar:

]

*** Starship program:

**** Testing of the Starship Mk1 began this week in preparation for its first flight from Boca Chica Beach, Texas: SpaceX’s Starship comes to life for the first time in lead-up to launch debut – Teslarati

An anthropomorphization sometimes used to describe the venting launch vehicles often exhibit while during and after fueling, Starship Mk1’s so-called ‘breaths’ occurred around 5:59 pm CST (23:59 UTC). Those first vents came after roughly an hour or two spent performing several different pressurization cycles, observable due to the fact that Starship’s stainless steel tanks visibly smoothed out as pressure increased.

Due to the typical distances Starship is viewed from and the nature of the mirror-finished stainless steel SpaceX has chosen to build the next-generation launch vehicle out of, the exterior of Starship prototypes can produce a reflection that looks bumpy and disjointed. This has lead many a layperson to incorrectly assume that SpaceX’s Starship prototypes are thus shoddily built. In reality, viewed from afar, the tiniest hint of surface heterogeneity on a mirror can dramatically change what is reflected on its surface.

Even at the thinness of Starship Mk1’s liquid oxygen and methane tanks, stainless steel is still extremely strong, but pressurizing the vehicle’s tanks can clearly counteract a significant portion of the slight imperfections in their curvature.

**** Additional views of Starship Mk1 activities at Boca Chica from the past few days

Following Monday’s initial testing, engineers entered Starship Mk1 for checks ahead of the cryoproofing test objectives potentially later this week. Long video (down to 12 mins thanks to timelapse, lots of viewpoints, with special guests: Starship Internal Ladder and Concrete Smoother guy. Learn about Starship Mk1: UPDATES: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind… ARTICLES: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/?s=St… Video and photos from Mary (@bocachicagal) for NSF.

Starship Mk1’s first cryo loading tests are just around the corner as workers prepare the test vehicle by flushing out the lines and pressurizing the commodity tanks. Venting IS normal (or “norminal” as SpaceX would say. 🙂 Learn about Starship Mk1: UPDATES: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind… ARTICLES: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/?s=St… Lots of videos (some time-lapse) and Photos by Mary (@bocachicagal) for NASASpaceFlight.com.

**** And view of the Starship Mk2 in Cocoa Beach, Florida

Some delicate adjustments to the propellant bulkhead:

**** Yusaku Maezawa gets a souvenir from the Starhopper.  The cost of development of the Starships has been helped by a down payment from Yusaku Maezawa for a trip on a Starship flight around the Moon with a group of artist friends. Elon Musk gifts SpaceX Starship angel investor a piece of Starhopper history – Teslarati

**** NASA will accept bids from SpaceX to use a Starship for lunar missions:

A SpaceX Starship on the Moon. Credits: SpaceX via NASA PR

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Activism, Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Nov.18.2019

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:

** New Companies Join Growing Ranks of NASA Partners for Artemis Program

** VP Pence: NASA Ames Visit – Leonard David

** A Spirited Conversation with Carolyn Porco | The Planetary Society

** The Space Show – Sun, 11/17/2019 – Casey Dreier, Director of Space Policy at the Planetary Society, talked about “his Apollo costing models plus his analysis of key present day space policy issues”.

**  The Space Show – Fri, 11/15/2019 – Dr. Alan Stern discussed “New Horizons and Kuiper Belt updates, what makes a planet a planet regarding the name, exoplanet searches, interstellar objects and lots more”.

==

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Activism, Space Policy

The Space Show this week – Nov.18.2019

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, Nov. 18, 2019; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome back Joe Carroll regarding artificial gravity, tethers and more.

2. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019; 7-8:30 pm PST (9-10:30 pm CST, 10-11:30 pm EST): We welcome back Christopher Richins for a discussion on LEO satellites, ground stations, and more.

3. Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019: Pre-recorded Hotel Mars Program with John Batchelor. See Upcoming Show on The Space Show website for details.

4. Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019; 7-8:30 pm PST (9-10:30 pm CST, 10-11:30 pm EST): Dr. David Livingston launches the 2020 Annual Fundraising Campaign with new campaign additions.

5. Friday, Nov. 22, 2019; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome Dr. Kirby Runyon from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to talk about what makes a planet a planet, planetary naming, dwarf planets, the proposed NASA interstellar mission and more.

6. Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019; 12-1:30 pm PST (3-4:30 pm EST, 2-3:30 pm CST): We welcome you to OPEN LINES. Call us and talk about the issues that you want to talk about. All callers welcome, so are all space, STEM, STEAM, economic, and science topics.

Some recent shows:

** Sun, 11/17/2019 – Casey Dreier, Director of Space Policy at the Planetary Society, talked about “his Apollo costing models plus his analysis of key present day space policy issues”.

** Fri, 11/15/2019 – Dr. Alan Stern discussed “New Horizons and Kuiper Belt updates, what makes a planet a planet regarding the name, exoplanet searches, interstellar objects and lots more”.

** Tue, 11/12/2019 – Jonathan Goff talked about Altius Space Machines and its acquisition of ASM by Voyager Space Holdings plus “future plans, LEO satellite service, debris removal and more”.

** Sun, 11/10/2019 – Dr. Christopher Morrison and Dr. Marcelo Vazquez discussed “space radiation & human spaceflight, medical radiation experiments for human spaceflight, alternative experiment ideas for better data collection”.

See also:
* The Space Show Archives
* The Space Show Newsletter
* The Space Show Shop

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
The Space Show – David Livingston

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Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Systems

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Nov.17.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs (find previous smallsat roundups here):

** EdgeCube to go to ISS on SpaceX Cargo Dragon in December. The cubesat, built by a collaboration of student teams at Sonoma State, Santa Clara Univ., and Morehead State Univ. in Kentucky, will be deployed into orbit from the ISS in January: Cube satellite built by SSU students set to orbit the Earth – The Community Voice

Sonoma State received funding for EdgeCube in June 2016, after physics and astronomy professor Lynn Cominsky wrote a proposal to NASA. The proposal called for monitoring the “red edge” of the chlorophyll spectrum in large patches of homogeneous vegetation using a CubeSat or a small satellite. Since then, approximately 30 students have worked on the project from Sonoma State, Santa Clara University and Morehead State. Professor Matt Clark from SSU’s Department of Geography and Environmental Planning was the originator of the idea to measure the “red edge,” hence the name “EdgeCube”. 

More at Edgecube – sonoma state university ~ Santa clara university ~ Morehead State university.

EdgeCube components view. From FCC application (pdf)

**  Virginia Tech inspireFly team wins SEDS SAT-2 contest. SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space),  Astranis, and NanoRacks sponsored the competition. The winning team will receive a free ride to the ISS for their CubeSat, which will then be deployed into orbit.

From the SEDS announcement:

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), the largest student-run space and science advocacy organization in the world, today announced that Virginia Tech’s inspireFly team is the winner of the Astranis SEDS SAT-2 competition. Astranis, a manufacturer and operator of small geostationary satellites, contributed to the cost of the launch, while competition co-sponsor Nanoracks, a leading provider of commercial access to space, will launch and deploy the winning CubeSat on the International Space Station in the next two to three years.

Open to U.S. SEDS chapters, the competition tasked teams with submitting a design for a novel 1U CubeSat. The competition kicked off at SpaceVision in November 2018, where interested teams had the opportunity to attend an Astranis/Nanoracks workshop on designing, building, and integrating a CubeSat for low Earth orbit.

Thirteen chapters from across the country entered the competition and submitted proposals. The judging panel included members of the SEDS-USA Board of Advisors and Directors, as well as employees from Astranis and Nanoracks. Proposals were judged on their technical merits, the non-technical capabilities of the team to develop and support the design, the professionalism of proposal, the novelty of the proposed CubeSat mission, and the demographic makeup of the design team and their mentors.

Virginia Tech’s team was selected as the winner for its ContentCube project, a selfie-stick for space that will take pictures of an external LCD screen–featuring publicly-submitted photos–with Earth in the background.

inspireFly Mission Profile – Credits: inspireFly at Virginia Tech

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-321 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Happy 45th Birthday AMSAT-OSCAR 7!
  • 19th Anniversary of ARISS Operations
  • PO-101 (Diwata-2) QSLs Available
  • IARU Update Regarding Amateur Satellite Allocations
  • AMSAT Member Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, Youth Excellence Award
  • G4BAO 23cm-45 W-PA Available as Public Domain
  • Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for November 14, 2019
  • Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • Satellite Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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Rockets

Space transport roundup – Nov.16.2019

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

** SpaceX executes successful static firing of Crew Dragon launch escape system.  A similar firing last April led to an explosion caused by leaks and other problems in the propellant plumbing. Assuming the data looks OK in closer examination, this firing allows for SpaceX to proceed to the in-flight abort test flight, presumably in December, in which a Crew Dragon will detach from a Falcon 9 upper stage not long after launch to simulate the escape from a failing booster.

See also

More SpaceX entries below.

** China launches two rockets on same day – Sept.13th: China carries out 2 orbital launches inside 3 hours – SpaceNews.com.

Firstly, a Kuaizhou-1A (Y11) launcher sent a remote sensing satellite into low earth orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu Province in northwest China, on 13 November 2019:

The Jilin-1 satellite constellation was developed on China’s Jilin Province and is the country’s first self-developed remote sensing satellite for commercial use. Data will be provided to commercial clients to help them forecast and mitigate geological disasters, as well as shorten the time scale for the exploration of natural resources.

The satellites were developed by the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd under the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

And then a Long March-6 sent five  small remote-sensing satellites into orbit from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi Province:

The new satellites – also designated Zhongzi, were developed by the DFH Satellite Co., Ltd. and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) – are part of a commercial satellite project financed by the Ningxia Jingui Information Technology Co., Ltd. and will be mainly used for remote sensing detection.

This mission was the first low-inclination orbital launch for the Long March-6 launch vehicles, in response to the mission needs. The rocket was submitted to a series of technical upgrades, including take-off roll, horizontal guidance, new composite material double-walled mount barrel and others.

** UK govt. aims to develop plan for flight-testing Reaction Engines‘ SABRE engine:

The purpose of this call is to produce a roadmap for the next phase in the SABRE development. It is focused on flight-testing the core SABRE air-breathing engine and assessing the potential competitive positioning of future SABRE-powered applications in the future space transportation segment.

** US rocket company Launcher gets $1.5 million for rocket engine development:

From launcher:

Launcher Inc. has scheduled the first full-scale test of its E-2 rocket engine for mid-2020 after securing a $1.5M award from the U.S. Air Force and taking delivery of the world’s largest 3D printed combustion chamber. 

3D printed by AMCM (An EOS Group Company) in Copper Alloy on AMCM’s M4K machine, it is the world’s largest liquid rocket engine combustion chamber 3D printed in a single part. The combustion chamber is 34in (86cm) tall with an exit nozzle diameter of 16in (41cm).

Launcher E-2 engine employs a large 3-D printed combustion chamber.

** EXOS Aerospace says structural failure led to the in-flight abort and loss of the SARGE vehicle  on the recent launch at Spaceport America in October : Exos blames suborbital launch accident on structural failure – SpaceNews.com

In a statement released by the Texas-based company Nov. 14, Exos said its Suborbital Autonomous Rocket with GuidancE, or SARGE, rocket was lost 48 seconds after its Oct. 26 liftoff from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

“We are still in the process of evaluating video and telemetry data; however, it appears a structural failure resulted in an abort and deployment of the recovery system at speeds far beyond its design capability,” the company stated.

** Airbus team flies TEXUS suborbital rocket from Esrange launch facility near Kiruna in northern Sweden:

Airbus has completed another successful space mission. On 15 November, the TEXUS-56 rocket completed a scientific research flight.

The research rocket took off at 10:35 CET from Kiruna, north Sweden, and gave the scientists involved six minutes of research in microgravity.  After the parachute landing of the rocket, the experiments were recovered by a helicopter team. The research teams will now evaluate the results.

“Mission accomplished! Our TEXUS team from Bremen has once again done a great job for our customers, ESA and DLR,” enthuses project manager Detlef Wilde. “With TEXUS, we offer very short preparation times, integrate the payloads and take care of the complete mission execution, including procurement of the rockets – a service that our customers love to use”.

Launch of the Airbus suborbital TEXUS-56 mission from Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.

** SpaceX:

*** Falcon 9 first stage returns to port following landing at sea for the Starlink launch:

Incredible how well the first-ever four-time flown booster looks. Was sort of bad weather, the B1048.4 traveled thru 15ft seas.

*** Update on the first group of fully operational Starlink satellites to reach orbit: SpaceX says upgraded Starlink satellites have better bandwidth, beams, and more – Teslarati

Aside from a general improvement to the overall visual fit-and-finish of the v1.0 spacecraft, SpaceX’s official comments on the matter indicated that the most substantial changes between v0.9 and v1.0 were more related to each spacecraft’s advanced electronics and payloads. In the case of Starlink, each satellite’s primary payload is a high-performance suite of electronically-steered phased array antennas. Initially developed to improve the flexibility of tracking and scanning radars used by military fighter aircraft, phased array antennas (and radar) allow multiple beams to be aimed without physically moving the antenna.

SpaceX says that Starlink v1.0 satellites added a number of Ka-band antennas alongside upgraded Ku-band hardware similar to what was installed on Starlink v0.9. Ka and Ku refer to similar but different communications frequencies, with Ku-band generally offering greater reliability and cloud/rain tolerance, while Ka-band is a bit more sensitive to environmental factors but offers a substantially higher theoretical bandwidth.

*** SpaceX aims to launch the Kacific-1 comm-sat to orbit in December:  SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 satellite launch a step closer as spacecraft heads to Florida – Teslarati

Known as Kacific-1 or JCSat-18 the massive spacecraft is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-December and is current set to be SpaceX’s second to last or final launch of 2019. According to tweets published by operator Kacific and satellite manufacturer Boeing, the satellite departed Boeing’s El Segundo, California factory on November 4th and has probably already arrived in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

After arrival, Boeing technicians will inspect the satellite to ensure its road trip caused no damaged and fuel the spacecraft’s bipropellant and xenon propellant tanks. SpaceX technicians will then take over, encapsulating Kacific-1 inside a Falcon 9 payload fairing, transporting the assembly to its Launch Complex 40 pad, and attaching the fairing to an integrated Falcon 9 rocket.

*** Views of Starship Mk.1 construction activity at Boca Chica Beach, Texas:

Starship Mk1 is now preparing for cryo loading tests in the coming days, which will mark fuel tests ahead of the testing with her three Raptor engines.

*** Latest fly-around the Florida orbital Starship demo construction facility:

Aerial view of Cocoa Facility. Attachment points in the top of the engine section are close to completion so that the top dome can be installed. Three very large containers have arrived at the site who’s purpose is unknown. They are located in various locations. One out front of main facility, one on the side of the facility and one in the small tent on the side of the facility.

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