THE NEW SPACE RACE: Jielong-3 sea launch sends 8 satellites into orbit.
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THE NEW SPACE RACE: For the first time, Blue Origin has ignited an orbital rocket stage.
Twenty days after it rolled out to Blue Origin’s launch site in Florida, the second stage of the massive New Glenn rocket underwent a successful hot-fire test on Monday.
The second stage—known as GS2 for Glenn stage 2—ignited for 15 seconds as part of the “risk reduction” hot-fire test, the company said. The two BE-3U engines, fueled by liquid oxygen and hydrogen and each producing 173,000 pounds of thrust, burned with a nearly transparent flame that approached a temperature of 6,000° Fahrenheit.
This marked the first time that Blue Origin, a space company founded by Jeff Bezos more than two decades ago, has integrated and fired an orbital rocket stage. After the test, Blue Origin said it is still tracking toward a November launch of the New Glenn rocket.
This vehicle is really big, standing 320 feet (98 meters) tall. By comparison, NASA’s titanic Saturn V Moon rocket was 363 feet tall. New Glenn’s first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 rocket engines, which burn methane and liquid oxygen. The performance of these engines has previously been demonstrated in flight on the debut of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket at the beginning of this year.
Although Monday’s test checked an important box for Blue Origin, there is still much work to do to prepare the New Glenn rocket for its debut. Crucially, the company must complete assembly of the first stage, and then roll this vehicle out from its assembly building a couple of miles to Launch Complex-36, along the Atlantic Ocean.
Then, the first and second stages will be mated. This is a complex endeavor, and as it will be the first time technicians and engineers from Blue Origin attempt the procedure, they will undoubtedly find some issues that need to be addressed. After the vehicles are integrated, the combined stack is due to undergo a short hot-fire test. Following a review of this data, the company is expected to launch the vehicle.
Godspeed.
While I love the work Elon Musk is doing with SpaceX — and fully appreciate how vital it is to our national security and the future of humanity — Musk himself would be the first to tell you it’s unwise to keep all your eggs in one basket.
STUPID GOVERNMENT TRICKS AGAIN: FAA administrator claims SpaceX wasn’t following regulations; SpaceX says that’s false.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s cancellation of VIPER cedes leadership in lunar exploration.
PRIVILEGE SO BIG YOU CAN SEE IT FROM SPACE: Amazing Photo Shows The Burning Man Festival As Seen From Space.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese commercial rocket firm Deep Blue Aerospace conducted a first-stage rocket hop test Sunday, experiencing a partial failure during the final moments of landing. Failures aren’t failures if you learn from them.
EVERGREEN: European officials complain about SpaceX some more.
Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël recently gave an interview to the French publication Les Echos that has been shared by European Spaceflight. It sounds like the once-dominant commercial satellite launch firm, which has been run over by the SpaceX steamroller, is tired of being asked about the SpaceX steamroller. Israël said Europeans should “stop just comparing SpaceX and Elon Musk with Arianespace.”
Why? … His reasoning for this was that SpaceX is not just a launch company but one that controls a broader value chain that includes satellite manufacturing and operation through Starlink. “He competes against the entire space industry on his own,” said Israël. In order to compete with SpaceX, he explained, “the entire European space sector must be united and ambitious.” Israël identified Europe’s planned Iris² satellite constellation as a key project to ensure future competitiveness. “Our hopes rest on the Iris² constellation promoted by the European Commission,” he said. The future of this project, however, appears to be uncertain, especially after the sudden departure of Thierry Breton from the European Commission this week.
The only thing stopping Ariane — or ULA, for that matter — from doing what SpaceX does is a lack of ambition and imagination.
There seems to be plenty of both in China’s rocket industry, however.
SPACEX IS USING LAND THE WOKE IDIOTS AT CAH BOUGHT TO PROTEST TRUMP’S BORDER WALL: Cards Against Humanity sues SpaceX, alleges “invasion” of land on US/Mexico border.
SKYNET FLIES: Evolving artificial intelligence capabilities in space.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Electron launches second set of Kinéis satellites.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Saudi Arabia plans space industry transformation.
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE ENTERS THE CHAT: Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites ‘Blocking’ View Of The Universe: Report.
It isn’t that astronomers don’t have valid concerns because they do. But Earth-based astronomy is slowly going the way of the geocentric model of the universe.
BUREAUCRATS AT WAR: FAA fines SpaceX for launch license violations.
I THINK IT’S SAFE TO SAY NO: Will Biden and Kamala finally congratulate the Spacex Polaris Dawn team?
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China prepares for 1st launch of new Long March 8A rocket.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Landspace hops closer to a reusable rocket.
Chinese private space startup Landspace has completed a 10-kilometer (33,000-foot) vertical takeoff and vertical landing test on its Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) reusable rocket testbed, including a mid-flight engine reignition at near supersonic conditions, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. The 18.3-meter (60-foot) vehicle took off from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China, ascended to 10,002 meters, and then made a vertical descent and achieved an on-target propulsive landing 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) from the launch pad. Notably, the rocket’s methane-fueled variable-thrust engine intentionally shutdown in flight, then reignited for descent, as engines would operate on future full-scale booster flybacks. The test booster used grid fins and cold gas thrusters to control itself when its main engine was dormant, according to Landspace.
“All indicators met the expected design” … Landspace hailed the test as a major milestone in the company’s road to flying its next rocket, the Zhuque-3, as soon as next year. With nine methane-fueled main engines, the Zhuque-3 will initially be able to deliver 21 metric tons (46,300 pounds) of payload into low-Earth orbit with its booster flying in expendable mode. In 2026, Landspace aims to begin recovering Zhuque-3 first-stage boosters for reuse. Landspace is one of several Chinese companies working seriously on reusable rocket designs. Another Chinese firm, Deep Blue Aerospace, says it plans a 100-kilometer (62-mile) suborbital test of a reusable booster soon, ahead of the first flight of its medium-class Nebula-1 rocket next year.
SpaceX is trying to make Falcon 9 obsolete with Starship but the Biden-Harris administration keeps slowing them down. Meanwhile, there are several companies in China working to make Falcon 9 obsolete, presumably without hindrance from Beijing.
SPACE: Crew Dragon splashes down to conclude Polaris Dawn mission. “A Falcon 9 launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft into an elliptical orbit Sept. 10, initially placing it into an orbit of about 190 by 1,200 kilometers. Dragon raised its orbit later in the first day of the mission, reaching an apogee of 1,408.1 kilometers, according to SpaceX. That marked the highest altitude on a crewed Earth orbital mission and the highest altitude by any crewed mission since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972. . . . The highlight of the mission was the first commercial spacewalk, which took place on Sept. 12. All four crewmembers wore SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) suits as the cabin was depressurized. Isaacman and Gillis briefly exited the hatch in the nose of the Dragon spacecraft in a “standup” spacewalk, testing the performance of the suits.”
SOME GOOD NEWS: A Walk In Space.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Report highlights severe infrastructure challenges at NASA.
“The extensive consultations, site visits, and interviews conducted in the course of the study lead the committee to conclude that NASA stands at a crossroads,” the report concluded. “The underpinnings of the unique and critical capabilities the agency provides to the United States are eroding and will be inevitably lost if certain trends are not reversed.”
The report highlighted problems in three key areas: infrastructure, workforce and technology development. They ranged from attracting and retaining a skilled workforce to aging facilities at NASA centers visited by committee members that were “some of the worst facilities many of its members have ever seen.” The report also highlighted a lack of long-term planning to guide investments in technology and infrastructure.
The report concluded that much of that had to do with budget pressures that forced the agency to prioritize spending on specific missions and projects at the expense of spending on mission support. The amount of NASA’s budget spent on mission support declined from 20% in 2013 to 14% in 2023.
That stems from having more projects on its books than funding for them, said Norm Augustine, retired chairman and chief executive of Lockheed Martin and chair of the committee, in a Sept. 10 webinar about the report. “NASA’s solution to the problem has been to underinvest in infrastructure and so on in the future. That tactic, frankly, has run out of gas.”
NASA has a budget of about $25.4 billion and requires a budget of probably no less than $30 billion to fully fund Artemis (and still get us back to the moon late) — and that doesn’t include delayed infrastructure spending.
The Biden-Harris Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (which has done little for infrastructure and less for private-sector jobs) cost more than 40 times what NASA needs.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA’s $50,000 Reward: Help Map the Moon’s Mysterious South Pole and Win Big.