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Space: NASA to name first astronauts to leave Earth orbit in over 50 years, Starship nears launch [1]

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Date: 2023-04-01  

Starlink competitor completes initial SATELLITE ‘constellation’

Right now, over half of all active satellites in orbit belong to SpaceX. These satellite are the over 3,700 that SpaceX uses to support it’s Starlink data service. Another set of satellites went up this week as SpaceX continues filling out its “second shell” of satellites which, when complete, will bring the number of satellites to 7,500.

Back in February, SpaceX reported that it has reached 1 million subscribers for Starlink. This places the project at a point where the revenue generated more than pays for the additional launches that SpaceX needs to expand the service. Like every space launch provider, SpaceX continues to be heavily dependent on government contracts, but Starlink is giving it an independent revenue stream that should only grow larger in the future.

The idea of a extensive set of low-orbiting satellites to provide internet and other communications services didn’t originate at SpaceX, and there are still several others who plan to compete in this space—including Amazon’s “Project Kuiper.” But what has made Starlink possible for SpaceX is simply the fact that they own the railroad. They’ve put 1,200 tonnes into space because not only are their launch costs lower than anyone else in the industry, they’re lower still without the “retail” markup.

Project Kuiper was supposed to have a similar advantage, because its satellites were supposed to head to orbit on the massive New Glenn rocket being built by Blue Origin—which is also owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. However, the New Glenn is now years behind schedule. So a year ago, Amazon signed a massive contract with launch providers United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Arianespace for a total of 56 launches carrying Kuiper satellites. They also put down Blue Origin for 18 launches, which will happen whenever Blue Origin actually cracks its veil of secrecy and gives everyone a hint when / if the New Glenn will appear. (The last statement from Blue Origin indicated that they expected a first flight of New Glenn in the third quarter of 2024.)

However, there’s another Starlink competitor which hit an important milestone this week: OneWeb.

Since they’re not owned by a billionaire who also dabbles in rocketry, OneWeb is at a decided disadvantage when it comes to launch cost. They had to go out there on the retail market, shopping for rides. That effort became even more complicated when passage that OneWeb had purchased on Russian Soyuz ran into … issues. Issues like a rocket already on the pad and loaded with OneWeb satellites that didn’t launch because Russia decided to hold the $50m worth of satellites hostage in an effort to get Western nations to stop sanctioning it over invading Ukraine. That didn’t work for either Russia or OneWeb.

OneWeb did some fast shopping and placed their satellites in some unexpected places, such as getting some launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Even more surprising, OneWeb went to SpaceX and got a series of lifts on Falcon 9s. Though they didn’t have to go quite hat in hand, as SpaceX saw this as a great opportunity to push back on claims that it was using its lift capacity to give itself a monopoly on space-based internet service.

In any case, an ISRO LVM3 rocket launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre last Sunday, carrying the 18th bundle of OneWeb satellites into orbit. With this successful launch, OneWeb now has 618 satellites in its constellation—more than it says it needs to provide global coverage.

As with SpaceX’s Starlink, OneWeb intends to launch additional satellites to bolster the capacity and reliability of its constellation, though at the moment they seem to be approved for 648 satellites by U.K. authorities. When OneWeb will begin offering consumer solutions, what they will look like, and how they will be priced, is currently not clear. Their initial plan seems to be to sell service to ground-based hubs that will be used by regional communications providers, rather than to put an antenna on the roof of every end customer, ala Starlink or Kuiper.

The new Moon suit is revealed … sort of

Two weeks ago, NASA revealed the suit that the Artemis astronauts will wear when strolling on the lunar surface. It’s not just a big upgrade from Apollo days, especially when it comes to the ease of getting in and out, but a massive improvement on the frighteningly clumsy suit NASA showed off just two years ago.

Only what people saw on their screens … is not exactly what they will see when Artemis III lands on the Moon.

That grey and orange suit looks great — Axiom apparently consulted with designers for the Apple Show “For All Mankind” (which is fantasic, if you haven’t seen it.) However, it's also something of a fake out.

What everyone is seeing and commenting on is actually a layer that Axiom has stitched onto the outside of the suit, in large part to hide some of the proprietary tech they’ve worked into the final design. The real suit that astronauts will wear when they make new footprints in the lunar powered glass that passes for dust, will be white. Because NASA doesn’t want the astronauts to die, and putting them on the Moon in dark grey and orange suits is a really good way to get parboiled astronaut.

Take the time to watch the film above, and look for the biggest change that this new suit brings to the table—the hatch in the back. Spacesuits have always been little space ships. This is even more obvious on this suit with that rigid, fast entry and exit hatch. Not only does this make the suit easier to put on, it also helps keep dust from getting in. Lunar dust—powdered glass ready to shred equipment, eyes, and lungs—is bad stuff.

Axiom says that the material beneath that grey cover has some kind of special system to repel dust. We’ll surely learn more about that when we get a better look at the suit under the suit.

Galactic Orbit calls it quits

Last week it seemed that Richard Branson’s air-launched space system might get a last minute reprieve in the form of an outside cash injection. That didn’t happen. Honestly, with all the other companies entering this space, it’s hard to see how the Virgin Galactic system could ever be made cost competitive, and its ability to launch from almost anywhere—because its rocket is air-dropped by a modified 747—turned out not to be the competitive advantage they had hoped.

85% of the Virgin Orbit staff has reportedly been laid off as Branson tries to shop the remaining physical and intellectual assets to potential buyers.

Right now, this doesn’t seem to be a death knell for Branson’s other space venture, Virgin Galactic, which includes the “Spaceship Two” craft and White Knight launcher that carried Branson and others on a suborbital flight in July of 2021. However, that craft has not flown again as a post-flight inspection revealed a number of safety issues.

Branson’s idea for Virgin Orbit was similar to those behind Stratolaunch, the company started by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen which introduced their giant aircraft in 2017. However, following Allen’s death in 2018, his heirs closed the company and sold off most of the assets. The stratolaunch plane made a single successful flight in 2019. No launch was ever attempted.

SpaceX appears to be moving toward orbital test flight

Fans of watching SpaceX blow up test tanks and crash prototypes of its Starship have had a long dry spell. Since the SN10 prototype made a successful launch and landing in 2021, SpaceX hasn’t tried to get another of its steel beasties off the ground. However, in the months since then they have been extremely busy.

The vehicle prototyped by SN10 was always intended to just be the top part of a much larger rocket, all of which is called Starship. Since 2021, SpaceX has concentrated on three things:

improving that second stage of the craft—which is the part that will actually go into orbit, and hopefully return

building a massive first stage booster with far more power than a Saturn V

constructing the ground infrastructure it needs to support an orbital flight from its location at Boca Chica, near Brownsville, Texas.

All those things seem to be in their final stages. The booster that SpaceX loaded onto the launch pad this week is actually the seventh version of that booster. The starship that’s expected to go on top is SN24. Together they will be the largest and most powerful rocket ever assembled. If SpaceX can successfully launch and retrieve both parts of the rocket for reuse, it will do far more to revolutionize the space industry than their current Falcon 9. On a Falcon 9 flight, the second stage, including all the engines, electronics, and complexly-machined body, is lost each time. The intention with Starship is to recover it all, and fly it all again. And again.

SpaceX’s confidence in the Starship design is reflected in the huge amount of infrastructure they’ve built that their “Starbase” over the last two years, and by the fact that that base is currently assembling booster 10 and SN28. They’re not even waiting for this first flight to make improvements and iterate the design. They are confident they can make this stainless steel beast work.

With the pace of movement at Starbase, it seems that SpaceX is planning for a first orbital test this month. Unless plans have changed, the idea on this flight won’t be to try and recover the two components, but simply to test their ability to achieve orbit and make reentry. The booster stage is expected to splash into the Gulf of Mexico east of Texas. The upper stage is expected to hit the water somewhere off Hawaii after completing a partial orbit.

If they can pull that off, another orbital test is expected to follow quickly. More boosters and upper stages are already waiting for their turn.

If you want to get a preview of how the orbital test flight is supposed to work, check out this amazing animation put together by SpaceX fans. The quality of the animation is almost as amazing as the engineering of the real thing. And hey,even the animation isn’t confident that this first one is going to work.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/1/2161489/-Space-NASA-to-name-first-astronauts-to-leave-Earth-orbit-in-over-50-years-Starship-nears-launch

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