THE NEW SPACE RACE: Starfish Space lands $37.5 million Space Force contract for on-orbit servicing vehicle. “DoD’s satellites in GEO typically lack the ability to easily move themselves around. The Otter spacecraft would provide augmented maneuver by docking and attaching to the client satellite and using Otter’s own propulsion systems, giving the military satellite a push or a pull, making specific movements or adjustments to its orbit.”
It could do the same to the other guy’s satellites, too.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Beyond blueprints: DoD’s commercial space strategy leaves industry wanting more.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s VIPER Rover Braces for Ultimate Space Challenge. “NASA’s VIPER team is not only building the rover for the Moon’s South Pole but also preparing for its environmental tests. These tests are designed to simulate the harsh conditions of space travel and lunar operation to ensure the rover’s readiness for its mission.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA and ESA complete agreement for cooperation on Mars rover mission.
THAT WAS TUESDAY — 51 IS SET FOR TONIGHT: SpaceX launches 50th Falcon 9 rocket of 2024 on Starlink mission.
I’M EXPECTING A SPACE-SHATTERING KABOOM: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ exploding star expected to be visible before October.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Lithuania 40th nation to sign Artemis Accords.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: India makes breakthrough by test-firing new 3D-printed rocket engine.
A NEW HOPE:
Full stack of Flight 4 Starship pic.twitter.com/TPprnj0zC4
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 16, 2024
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Crewed Test of Boeing Starliner Delayed to May 21st or Later.
I’M SURPRISED THEIR TELEMETRY IS UNENCRYPTED: Raw Intercepted Video of SpaceX Falcon 9 Upper Stage in Orbit.
VICTORIA TAFT: The Space-Time Continuum You Must Live in to Believe NYC Trump Prosecutors. “I know next to nothing about string theory, but it looks like the prosecutors in the Trump trial in Manhattan are hoping the jurors do. They want them to join the prosecution’s time-space continuum — that’s the only way to make sense out of how trying to kill a bad story in 2011 and again in 2016 turned into 34 alleged bookkeeping errors in 2017, and how those misdemeanors magically elevated into felonies in 2024 — including stealing the 2016 election.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX Starship’s next launch ‘probably 3 to 5 weeks’ away, Elon Musk says.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Air Force is “growing concerned” about the pace of Vulcan rocket launches.
It has been nearly four years since the US Air Force made its selections for companies to launch military payloads during the mid-2020s. The military chose United Launch Alliance, and its Vulcan rocket, to launch 60 percent of these missions; and it chose SpaceX, with the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters, to launch 40 percent.
Although the large Vulcan rocket was still in development at the time, it was expected to take flight within the next year or so. Upon making the award, an Air Force official said the military believed Vulcan would soon be ready to take flight. United Launch Alliance was developing the Vulcan rocket in order to no longer be reliant on RD-180 engines that are built in Russia and used by its Atlas V rocket.
“I am very confident with the selection that we have made today,” William Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics, said at the time. “We have a very low-risk path to get off the RD-180 engines.”
As part of the announcement, Roper disclosed the first two missions that would fly on Vulcan. The USSF-51 mission was scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2022, and the USSF-106 mission was scheduled for launch in the third quarter of 2022.
It turned out to not be such a low-risk path. The Vulcan rocket’s development, of course, has since been delayed. It did not make its debut in 2020 or 2021 and only finally took flight in January of this year. The mission was completely successful— an impressive feat for a new rocket with new engines — but United Launch Alliance still must complete a second flight before the US military certifies Vulcan for its payloads.
This is on the Air Force for planning 60% of their missions on a non-reusable rocket that had never flown when the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy were flight-proven.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s Chang’e-6 is carrying a surprise rover to the moon. “This is not the first time a Chinese mission has harbored hidden spacecraft.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX vying for 2 Starship launch sites in Florida, sealing Starbase’s fate as R&D, production site.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said it’s conducting an Environmental Impact Study of the effects of as many as 44 Starship launches per year from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. It follows the U.S. Space Force earlier this year starting such a study of the potential effects of Starship operations at sites on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
During an update last month at Starbase, SpaceX CEO Musk reiterated his vision for Starbase as a research, development, test and production site — with operational launches from Florida.
“I think what we should probably expect is that we do the kind of the development launches here” at Starbase, he said. “Test anything new here, build the rockets and then most of the operational launches would be from the Cape.”
And speaking of tests: Musk sees fourth flight of SpaceX’s Starship in 3-5 weeks.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Lunar lander company ispace sees opportunities in Japan-U.S. Artemis agreement.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Serbia becomes latest country to join China’s ILRS moon base project.
UPDATE: Nailed it! A friend messages: “OK, so China’s moonbase with international backing of third-world shitholes will provide support for China’s claim of moon ownership.” That’s absolutely the plan. Or at least a plan, depending on contingencies.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Starlink soars: SpaceX’s satellite internet surprises analysts with $6.6 billion revenue projection. “Starlink’s achievements over the past three years are mind-blowing.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Boeing files notice to lay off more than 100 employees in Huntsville, Alabama. “Local media outlet WHNT said Boeing, which employs more than 3,000 people in Huntsville, planned to cut jobs because of delays related to the SLS Artemis mission, with NASA reportedly pushing back its Artemis II and III launches.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches its first medium Earth orbit broadband satellites.
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