Category: Space Sunday

On Thursday February 10th, Elon Musk gave the first large-scale update on the work SpaceX is doing to develop the world’s first – and largest – fully reusable space transportation system in the form of the starship vehicle and its super heavy booster, and where things stand at present.

The presentation, which took place at the SpaceX Starbase facilities close to Boca Chica in Texas, came amidst on-going activity to both complete the first orbital launch facility for the massive booster and the payload-carrying starship vehicle, an in refining and finishing the first booster that will make an orbital launch attempt – Booster 4 and further testing of the first orbital attempt starship – number 20.

In terms of the booster, this now appears to be pretty much launch complete: all of the anticipated protection has been added around sensitive equipment at the base of the rocket, the Raptor motors have been given a coat of protective paint, and work has been carried out into the rocket itself.

On the launch platform itself, work has been completed on the huge “Mechazilla” system that is designed to roll up and down the side of the launch tower, lifting both boosters and starships onto and off of the launch table using its two massive “chopstick” arms. Not only has the system, together with the Quick Disconnect Arm that provides fuel and power connections to the starship vehicle been put through their paces rising up and down the tower on their respective tracks, Mechazilla has also carried numerous tests using water-filled ballast bags to simulator the suspended weight of a booster or starship vehicle as it lifts, rotates and lowers them.

Such was the status of testing that many pundits had asserted that Mechazilla would be used to hoist both Booster 4 and Starship 20 from their transport cradles and hoist them up onto the pad and one another ahead of Musk’s presentation.

As it turned out, this was not quite the case. During the first part of the week ahead of Musk’s presentation, Booster 4 was moved the short distance to the launch facility, but one of the large cranes SpaceX has been using was used to hoist it from its transport platform and up on onto the circular launch platform, where clamps within the table’s ring to locked it into position. Following this upper Quick Disconnect (QD) Arm was positioned and connected.

The QD arm has two functions: holding the booster steady by extending two claws outwards and around the upper section of the booster so they mate with hard points mounted on the booster’s frame. Its second role is to similarly help secure a starship vehicle once stacked on top of a booster, and to provide with fuel and electrical power ahead of a launch. As the name implies, the QD arm is designed to rapidly disconnect from both booster and starship and swing out of the way at launch.

Following the securing of Booster 4, and under a night sky, Mechazilla did finally see action as Starship 20 was delivered to the launch facility and the huge arms of the mechanism were moved into position either side of the vehicle just below its forward canards and then gently closed so that they could engage with hard point on the starship before hoisting it clear of its transporter.

After what appeared to be a period of load testing / check out and a retraction / removal of the QD arm, Mechazilla was finally winched up the side of the launch tower, lifting Starship 20 up above Booster 4, prior to the mechanism and vehicle being rotated directly over the booster and then gently down onto it for mating with the booster, after which the QD arm rotated back into place and connected to both booster and starship.

This marked the third time booster and Starship had been mounted together on the launch table – but the first time in which both they, and the entire launch facility have been very close to being ready for that first launch attempt.

Mechazilla itself is a remarkable system. Not only will it lift and stack boosters and ships, it will (eventually) catch them out of the air. The animation below pretty much demonstrates how this will be done with a returning Super Heavy Booster, although after it was released, SpaceX revealed that rather than “dropping” onto Mechazillia’s arms, the booster will in fact come in to hover between the arms, which will them adjust their height and “hold” the booster, allowing the engines to shut down. When watching the video, note also the conveyors on the top of the Mechazilla arms correctly orient the booster ready for it to be swung over the launch table and lowered onto it, and also the V-shaped arms under the “chopsticks” that also connect to the booster to provide additional stability.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: Starship update” →

The United States has now formally announced its intention to end the International Space Station that the start of 2031.

The announcement comes on top of confirmation that the Biden-Harris administration has confirmed ISS operations should continue through until the latter half of 2030. In it, the agency confirms that they plan to replace the ISS with at least three commercial space stations under a joint public-private arrangement that will see the new facilities in part built using taxpayer’s funding through NASA, allowing them to be used for both NASA-operated and private sector research and other activities.

These new space stations will be developed during the nine years of remaining life for the ISS, allowing operations to gradually pivoted to them as they are commissioned.

The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space. The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030.

– Phil McAlister, director of commercial space, NASA

Within the plan, NASA also outline how the ISS is to be through to its end-of-life, and provides a brief summary of some of its achievements, including:

• Hosting more than 3,000 research investigations from over 4,200 researchers across the world.
• Allowing 110 countries and to participate in research activities performed aboard the
• Operating international STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programme that has reached 1.5 million students world-wide each year it has been running.
• Allowed for major breakthroughs in a range of Earth and space sciences.

The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a ground-breaking scientific platform in microgravity. This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit.

– Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station, NASA

However, there are still bumps in the road in terms of NASA’s planning. Whilst the Biden-Harris administration has green lit the station through until the end of 2030, it is Congress that will largely have the final say in things from the US side – and Congress has mixed views on ISS, a 4-year extension of ISS operations from 2024-2028 having previously proven contentious. Such is the reality of things, there are doubts if some of NASA’s plan can be achieved – something I’ll get to in a moment – which may leave Congress again arguing over the future of the ISS.

Another possible sticking point is continued Russian involvement in the ISS. In 2021, the Russian government and their national space agency, Roscosmos, announced plans to launch their own, independent space station. Currently referred to as the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS), which they planned to have “fully operational” and comprising multiple modules by 2030.

These plans will see Russia launch two modules originally intended for the ISS and called SPM-1/NEM-1 and SPM-2/NEM-2 as the backbone for ROSS. The first of these modules is to be launched in 2024 and the second in 2028. However,  under their original plans, Russia indicated that one SPM-1 was in orbit, they might actually detach the self-propelled Nauka science module together with the Prichal docking module attached to it (both delivered to the ISS in 2021) and move them to dock with the nascent ROSS facility, disrupting ISS operations.

But since then, the timeline for ROSS has been pushed out so that 2035 is now the target for completing 2035, potentially negating any need to remove modules from ISS in the late 2020s. Even so, that Russia is to push ahead with ROSS does level some concerns over their willingness to financially support ISS operations beyond 2028.

In terms of private venture facilities to replace the ISS, NASA initially indicated that 11 companies and organisations filed proposals under the agency’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLD) programme. Several of these were rejected for a range of technical and practical issues, whilst three were granted initial seed funding amounting to US $415.6 million.

As I reported in December 2021, these three proposals are from Blue Origin / Sierra Space, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman. Two further proposals received notes of merit by did not gain initial funding. One of these came from – unsurprisingly – SpaceX, who proposed using a variant of their Artemis lunar landing Starship vehicle, but failed to address core requirements – such as environmental support for long-duration missions, support for multiple vehicle docking and external payload handling capabilities.

The second proposal to receive merit came from an unexpected source: Relativity Space. This is 7-year-old start-up I’ve previously mentioned in these pages that is developing a line of expendable and reusable 3D-printed launch vehicles. They proposed perhaps the most novel concept to NASA: a small-scale research laboratory based on their yet-to-fly Terran-R reusable launch vehicle that could be placed in orbit and periodically returned to Earth for refurbishment, upgrade and re-launch.

At the time the initial CLD contracts were awarded, NASA’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG) was already casting doubt on whether the time frames for a private sector space station could be achieved:

In our judgment, even if early design maturation is achieved in 2025 — a challenging prospect in itself — a commercial platform is not likely to be ready until well after 2030. We found that commercial partners agree that NASA’s current timeframe to design and build a human-rated destination platform is unrealistic.

– NASA OIG report on commercial space stations, December 2021

Ergo, settling on December 2030 as an end date for ISS operations could again split Congress. On the one side, there might be those who believe the station should be financed beyond 2030 “just in case” alternatives are not available. On the other, the fact that alternatives may not be ready, coupled with recent concerns about issues with the ISS as a result of the increasing age of, and wear-and-tear to, the older modules on the station, might lead to calls for an earlier ISS “retirement” to allow funds to be targeted elsewhere.

But there is a potential alternative to a reliance on one of the CLD stations being rapidly developed. . Axiom Space already has a contract with NASA to launch a new module to the ISS in 2024 on a fixed-price basis. The module would be used for a mix of research and space tourism (Axiom will launch its first private crew to the ISS in March of this year aboard their Ax-1 mission). However, the company has additionally committed itself to developing four further modules, two of which they hope to add to the unit attached to the ISS by 2028 to form an “orbital segment”.

These three modules could then be detached from the ISS in 2030 to form a core of a new space station, to which the remaining to modules would be attached in the early 2030s. If Axiom can carry these plans forward between 2024 and 2030, then they could provide the means for NASA to pivot a fair portion of their ISS activities to the Axiom station and also to the CLD stations as they also come on-line in the 2030s, leaving the way clear for ISS to be decommissioned and de-orbited as announced.

This will actually start in around 2025, while the ISS is still in operation, when a gentle series of manoeuvres will be used to gradually lower the station’s altitude through until 2030. Then, after the last crew has departed the station, NASA intend to use the thrusters from a mix of Progress and Cygnus resupply vehicles to remotely lower the station and orient it so that as the frictional heat increases the larger, more delicate parts of the structure will burn up. The track of entry into the atmosphere will be designed so that what survives re-entry – liable to be a series of large sections falling in close proximity to one another – will fall into the southern Pacific Ocean in a region called Point Nemo between New Zealand and Chile, and 2,672 km from the nearest land, the traditional “graveyard” for objects making controlled returns from low Earth Orbit.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: the future of the ISS” →

China has published an overview of its plans for the next five years in its space exploration endeavours. It builds on the last five years, which have seen a remarkable acceleration in China’s capabilities with in the introduction of new Long March 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 rockets, the commencement of work on the country’s multi-module space station, and the launch of missions to the Moon and Mars.

In particular, the plan – published on January 28th, 2022 – indicates that as well as completing its new modular space station, China will seek to develop its space transportation capabilities, test new technologies, embark on both crewed and robotic exploration missions, modernise space governance, enhance innovation and boost international cooperation.

Notably, the plan confirms China intends to the undertake crewed missions to the lunar surface – most likely commencing in the late 2020s, and also folds current private-sector space activities that are in progress within the country into its overall national strategy, utilising the private sector to leverage new technologies and innovation.

Robotic missions confirmed in the paper include:

• Chang’e-6: a second lunar sample-return mission, scheduled for a 2024 launch, which will return around 2.2 kg of material from up to 2 metres below the Moon’s surface.
• Chang’e-7: a 4-part lunar mission that will include an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a robotic “flying probe”, all of which will focus on the Moon’s South Pole.
• Chang’e 8: a mission to test technologies expected to be used in the establishment of a lunar base.

• An asteroid sample-return mission (possibly in cooperation with Russia).
• Developing technologies that will be used for a Mars sample-return mission and for a deep space mission to Jupiter and its moons.

In addition, the paper highlights on-orbit crew operations aboard the new space station which will include a range of sciences and helping to lay the groundwork for human operations in cislunar space in order to make and support actual lunar landings. It also makes mention of the introduction of China’s new crew launch system that will replace the current Shenzhou vehicles, the continued development of a fully reusable space transportation system, and  a possible spaceplane launch system – most likely as a payload delivery system, although one Chinese company has stated it plans to commence operating a spaceplane that, launched vertically, could be used for space tourism flights and point-to-point passenger flights around the Earth.

Some of China’s emerging capabilities have given rise to a certain amount of fear-mongering in the west (and notably within America’s political right). One such mission is that of Shijian 21, referred to by China as a “space debris mitigation mission” and launched in October 25th October 2021, but denounced as an “anti-satellite” mission by the US Right and touted as another failure of President Biden’s “woke” policies.

However, on January 22nd, 2022, Shijian 21 docked with the defunct Beidou-2 G2 navigation satellite. The latter had failed to reach its assigned orbit following its launch in 2009, and had since become a risk to other geostationary satellites. Having successfully docked, Shijian 21 pushed the defunct satellite into a much higher orbit, eliminating it as a threat, thus confirming the mission is part of China’s desire to develop a capability to remove its own space debris from orbit, with the Shijian class of vehicle also potentially capable of supply satellites with propellants to extend their lifespan.

The paper is also the first time that China’s private sector space ventures have been mentioned in a government document. This is seen as both a recognition of the rapid growth of the country’s private / commercial space sector, and of the benefits of folding such work into the nation’s broader ambitions and goals – just as the United States has done through NASA contracts with SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, etc.

NASA Commemorates Comrades Lost

NASA has marked the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire with a video commemorating those of the US astronaut corps who have lost their lives whilst preparing for, or during, a US mission into space.  Those commemorated are not the only people to have lost their lives in the quest to achieve a human presence in space, but within the west, the 17 who are commemorated in the video are perhaps the most well-known.

initially designated AS-204, Apollo 1 was intended to be the first  crewed mission of the United States Apollo program, undertaking an Earth orbital test of the Apollo Command and Service module. Set for launch on February 27th, 1967, the mission never took place.

During a full launch rehearsal test at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 on January 27th, 1967, a fire broke out within the command module and, due to the oxygen-rich nature of the atmosphere within the vehicle, coupled with the extensive use of flammable materials within it and the complex design of the entry / egress hatch, all three astronauts – Command Pilot Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee – were killed before the support crew on the launch gantry could successfully open the hatch to extract them from the vehicle.

Nineteen years later, on January 28th, 1986, the 25th flight of the Space Transportation System, officially designed STS-51-L, came to an abrupt end 68 seconds after launch when the massive external tank that fuelled the pace shuttle orbiter’s three main engines exploded beneath the vehicle, the result of a failure with one of the support solid rocket boosters. All seven souls aboard the shuttle Challenger  – mission commander  Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, pilot  Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and  Ronald E. McNair, together with payload specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and S. Christa McAuliffe – were lost.

The third disaster marked by the video is that of the shuttle Columbia, lost on February 1st, 2003  at the end of the 113th shuttle system flight – and the vehicle’s 28th mission. It broke apart following re-entry into the atmosphere, the result of super-heated gases penetrating the vulnerable interior wing space of the vehicle as a result of damage received during the mission’s launch. Killed aboard it were Rick D. Husband (commander), William C. McCool (pilot), David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, Michael P. Anderson (mission specialists) and Israeli payload specialist Ilan Ramon.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: China’s plans, and space memorials” →