THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA assessment suggests potential additional delays for Artemis 3 lunar lander.
Search Results
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China Discovers Graphene on the Moon.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: University of Michigan wins NASA’s lunar lander challenge award.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Watch India’s reusable space plane prototype ace its final landing test.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and huge explosion.
If you’re not blowing things up now and then, you’re not making progress.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA Defines Lunar Cargo Mobility Needs as Part of Larger Moon, Mars Plans.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Starliner undergoing thruster testing before indefinite return flight.
THE NEW SPACE RACE:
Wow. This is apparently what was supposed to be a STATIC FIRE TEST today of a Tianlong-3 first stage by China's Space Pioneer. That's catastrophic, not static. Firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months. https://t.co/BY9MgJeE7A pic.twitter.com/L6ronwLW1N
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) June 30, 2024
More: Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and huge explosion. “Space Pioneer was conducting its test as a buildup to an orbital launch of the Tianlong-3, which is benchmarked against the SpaceX Falcon 9, in the coming months.”
SPACE: SpaceX launches second batch of satellites for NRO’s proliferated constellation.
It was smart of Elon to make SpaceX indispensable to the most powerful part of the Deep State.
WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: NASA orders more tests on Starliner, but says crew isn’t stranded in space.
SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK:
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/nwIuI4bwdG
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 29, 2024
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 29, 2024
Ad Astra, per ardua.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China hops closer to reusable rockets.
The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), part of China’s apparatus of state-owned aerospace companies, has conducted the country’s highest altitude launch and landing test so far as several teams chase reusable rocket capabilities, Space News reports. A 3.8-meter-diameter (9.2-foot) test article powered by three methane liquid-oxygen engines lifted off from the Gobi Desert on June 23 and soared to an altitude of about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) before setting down successfully for a vertical propulsive touchdown on landing legs at a nearby landing area. SAST will follow up with a 70-kilometer (43.5-mile) suborbital test using grid fins for better control. A first orbital flight of the new reusable rocket is planned for 2025.
Lots of players … If you don’t exclusively follow China’s launch sector, you should be forgiven for being unable to list all the companies working on new reusable rockets. Late last year, a Chinese startup named iSpace flew a hopper rocket testbed to an altitude of several hundred meters as part of a development program for the company’s upcoming partially reusable Hyperbola 2 rocket. A company named Space Pioneer plans to launch its medium-class Tianlong 3 rocket for the first time later this year. Tianlong 3 looks remarkably like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, and its first stage will eventually be made reusable. China recently test-fired engines for the government’s new Long March 10, a partially reusable rocket planned to become China’s next-generation crew launch vehicle. These are just a few of the reusable rocket programs in China.
SpaceX does need competitors to stay innovative — I just wish there were more here and fewer in China.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Russian spy satellite reportedly continues suspicious maneuvers.
Slingshot reports that the satellite, which has been in orbit for just over a year, has been positioning itself near several communications satellites in what appears to be an ongoing signals intelligence-gathering mission.
Luch 2’s latest move, flagged by Slingshot’s automated tracking system, was a “large maneuver” on June 23 that would indicate that the satellite is moving towards an Intelsat communications satellite.
Audrey Schaffer, Slingshot’s vice president of strategy and policy, said the company “has had eyes on Luch 2 since it was launched in March 2023, and our machine learning algorithms have predicted its next move.”
The company is forecasting that Luch 2’s next object of interest is the Intelsat 1002 communications satellite.
Practice runs for attacking the West’s satellite comms?
We have plenty of rapid-launch capability, thanks to SpaceX. We need to make having plenty of backup birds a priority.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Space Mining doesn’t need more international regulation from the U.N. “Does the United Nations need to form a Parliament to regulate space mining? The answer will likely be yes if we ask from within the U.N. itself. Posing this question outside that forum, however, one may find a different answer.”
On this topic, I highly recommend this just-published article on space mining by my former research assistant Isabelle Thibault.
THEY MAY ALSO NEED TO PAY SPACEX TO RESCUE THE STARLINER CREW: NASA awards SpaceX $843M to build vehicle to push Int’l Space Station out of orbit. “The ISS is planned for its operational life to finish around 2030, and SpaceX was announced by NASA on Wednesday that it has been commissioned to develop a so called deorbit spacecraft vehicle that will deorbit it in a controlled manner and avoid risking populated areas.”
I’VE HEARD A LOT ABOUT SPACE LASERS: What Israel Can Do in Space: The plummeting cost of sending things to space will enable a small state like Israel to play on a very big field.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China to launch first satellites for megaconstellation in August.
The first launch for China’s G60 Starlink megaconstellation of over 12,000 satellites is set for early August.
The first satellites are due to leave the factory in Shanghai for Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China in the coming days, according to Shanghai Securities News.
The launch is set for Aug. 5 with the mission expected to carry 18 satellites. The launch vehicle was not stated in reports, but the Long March 6A would be the most capable option from Taiyuan in terms of capacity to low Earth orbit and payload fairing.
The constellation aims to provide global internet access, challenging U.S. projects including Starlink. It is also intended to secure finite orbital slots and frequencies and provide national internet coverage and data security.
Left unasked: without reusable launch vehicles, will G60 turn a profit or just be another cash-sucking state megaproject?
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Some European launch officials still have their heads stuck in the sand.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China’s state-owned SAST performs reusable rocket test.