Starship, the tallest, most versatile rocket system ever built may finally be launching into orbit! NASA officials announced that the dream that SpaceX founder and recent controversial figure Elon Musk presented all the way back in 2012 may finally fly. It is hard to believe that it has already been a decade since the world stood in shock at the idea of a fully reusable super-lift vehicle capable of taking people and equipment to other worlds. Some cheered. Others laughed at the hubris. But that dream may finally come to life, as long as SpaceX passes a few key tests. Today I’ll explain what those tests are, as well as the other key takeaways from today in the space world. Welcome to the Undiscovered Country!
Hello and welcome to the “Undiscovered Country”. I am your host Bryant A.M. Baker. Today, I will present the top 5 most important things happening in the world of space. Let’s count them down.
1. Blue Origin finally delivered a set of BE-4 engines for the maiden launch of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur booster next year. The engines were delivered to ULA’s manufacturing facility in Decatur, Ala., after final acceptance testing.
The BE-4 is an oxygen-rich liquified-methane -fueled staged-combustion rocket engine developed by Blue Origin. ULA had selected the BE-4 for their Vulcan Centaur booster as far bak as September of 2018. At the time they had planned to begin testing and launching as soon as 2019. But delays in the development of the BE-4 not only caused delays across the chain, but it brought a good deal of criticism towards Blue Origin, who many see as a potential competitor for SpaceX both with space launch, as well as eventually with their Kuiper mega-constellation.
“We are very pleased to receive the first two engines for Vulcan’s inaugural flight,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. “Development of this new engine is complete, and the performance of the engine is outstanding. It has been a great team effort working together with our partners at Blue Origin and we can’t wait to see Vulcan fly.”
Each Blue Origin’s liquid oxygen/methane BE-4 engines provides 550,000 pounds of thrust.
I look forward to seeing this project finally get off the ground. And i hope that this will mean the development of some strong competition for SpaceX in the launch field. Because as happy as I am at what SpaceX is accomplishing, I think that healthy competition will always help. But what do you think? Let me know!
2. Today another hit to the space market in an ongoing indication that the industry may be losing some of the steam it has been enjoying. Australia’s Electro Optic Systems Holdings announced that barring last-minute offers from potential buyers or investors, SpaceLink, a startup developing a space-relay constellation, will wind down its operations.
They revealed plans in September to focus on its core defense and space business, and seek outside investment to support SpaceLink. But In the current economic environment with rising interest rates and declines in many space stocks, SpaceLink has been unable to attract new investors.
SpaceLink was established in 2020 to develop a constellation of communications satellites in medium-Earth orbit to relay data between the ground and low-Earth orbit.
While future demand is likely strong for this type of constellation, setting it up requires significant upfront investment.
In all, about $250 million would be required to complete the SpaceLink constellation. If that investment were made, SpaceLink expects to generate revenues of $150 million a year.
In addition to growing commercial demand, government agencies are likely to become major customers for commercial data-relay services. NASA, for example, plans to rely on commercial services instead of replacing its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite constellation.
In fact, SpaceLink won a $190,000 NASA contract for a data-relay study. The company also has worked with Parsons and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Army to begin preparing to relay military data.
But for now, without an unexpected big-time investment, it looks like Spacelink will be missing out on the opportunity to service anyone.
https://spacenews.com/spacelink-wind-down/
3. China has added a third module to their Tiangong space station..
A Long March 5B rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 3:37 a.m. Eastern Oct. 31.
The Mengtian module connected with a forward port on Tiangong’s docking hub just under 13 hours after launch at 4:27 p.m. Eastern..
Mengtian (which means “dreaming of the heavens”) is a 17.9-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter and roughly 22-ton module designed to host a range of science experiments.
Mengtian also has a payload airlock which will allow a small robotic arm to grasp science experiments and install them on payload adapters on the outside of the module.
Monday’s launch was the ninth of 11 missions mapped out for the construction and testing of Tiangong. The launch of a cargo spacecraft and separate crew launch will complete this phase before the end of the year.
China plans to keep Tiangong occupied for at least 10 years, conducting science experiments including international experiments through an initiative with the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs. It could also host foreign astronauts in the future.
China will also add further capabilities to the Tiangong in the future. For example, the Xuntian optical module—a co-orbiting, Hubble-class space survey telescope—is planned for launch in late 2023 or 2024.
The space station itself could also be expanded from three to six modules, according to Chinese space officials. Such an expansion may depend upon other countries joining the project. And while still quaint when compared to the colossal international space station, this is a major step forward for the Chinese space agency.
https://spacenews.com/final-module-docks-at-chinas-tiangong-space-station/
4. The world’s most powerful operational rocket, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, took to the Florida skies for the first time in over three years on Tuesday for the USSF-44 mission, a US Space Force contracted flight with a classified payload and at least one rideshare satellite..
On this mission, the Falcon Heavy rocket reached a new milestone on its fourth-ever flight. This was both Falcon Heavy’s and SpaceX’s first mission direct to geostationary orbit (GEO).
Traditionally, most missions, including Falcon 9 flights, send payloads destined for GEO into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). This allows the spacecraft to propel itself into its eventual final orbit in GEO more than 35,200 km (22,000 mi) above the Earth rather than the launch vehicle.
This mission used three brand-new boosters. The side boosters, B1064 and B1065, landed at Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 and LZ-2) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
As a result of the challenging launch profile, the new center core, B1066, was not recovered after completing its mission.
These landings of B1064 and B1065 marked SpaceX’s 150th and 151st successful landings of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters.
This mission was SpaceX’s 50th orbital launch this year, a record for the company, and the fourth Falcon Heavy launch ever..
The Space Force payloads include a pair of space tugs, a military communications satellite, and a microsatellite named TETRA-1 built by Millennium Space Systems. There were also four payloads from Lockheed Martin and Universal Space Network.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/11/falcon-heavy-ussf-44/
5. No Starship prototype has taken flight since May 2021, and of all of its little hops so far have reached a maximum altitude of just 6 miles (10 kilometers) or so.
But NASA announced that SpaceX is targeting early December to launch its giant Starship rocket system into orbit for the first time. This will be a pivotal demonstration flight as it aims to fly NASA astronauts to the moon in the next few years. The December mission will test the entire system for the first time, involving the company's 230-foot Super Heavy booster to lift the 160-foot Starship spacecraft into orbit.
The Super Heavy booster would return to land, while the orbital Starship spacecraft would re-enter Earth's atmosphere roughly 90 minutes later. The plan is for it to splashdown dozens of miles off a Hawaiian coast.
That schedule is dependent on several upcoming milestones, including a static-fire test of all 33 Raptor engines in the Super Heavy booster designated Booster 7. SpaceX has yet to fire all 33 Raptor engines simultaneously, having done tests of up to seven engines at a time as well as a “spin prime” test where the engines’ turbopumps are turned on and propellant flowed through the engines without igniting them.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial launch site safety, has not yet granted a license for the mission to SpaceX. The FAA cleared the way for Starship launches from Boca Chica with an environmental review in June, that review required SpaceX to implement more than 75 measures to mitigate the environmental effects of those launches. The FAA would determine whether to grant SpaceX a license "only after SpaceX provides all outstanding information and the agency can fully analyze it". No word yet on whether SpaceX has provided the necessary information yet.
Mark Kirasich, the deputy associate administrator for Artemis Campaign Development at NASA said “We track four major Starship flights,” starting with the first orbital launch. That will be followed by one to test propellant transfer in space, which is needed to refuel the Starship lunar lander. And then a “longer duration” Starship mission, details of which have not been announced. The fourth mission will be the uncrewed lunar landing demonstration mission scheduled for late 2024.
Whether or not SpaceX and NASA meet this schedule will all depend on how these next tests go. I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether you see this schedule holding up or not.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-predicts-first-starship-orbital-launch-as-soon-as-december/
https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-orbital-launch-december
Thank you for joining me. Links to all the stories are in the description. The world of Space law, policy and business is changing every day. If you missed what happened yesterday, be sure to check out the video I did covering it. I would love to hear your thoughts on everything I talked about here today? I’ll see you again next time.
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