Image (Credit): Photo of Launch Complex 36 (LC-36), located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, prior to Thurday’s explosion. Completed in 2021, Blue Origin invested more than $1 billion to rebuild the launch site from the ground up. (Blue Origin)
“We have regained some access to Launch Complex 36 and are actively investigating the hotfire anomaly. We will start clearing the pad soon and have a good rebuild plan in place. The booster and GS2s in the integration facility appear healthy from quick looks.”
-Statement on Twitter/X by Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp regarding the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36 facility damaged by the explosion of a New Glenn rocket on Thursday. The “GS2s” refer to the New Glenn second stages housed at Launch Complex 36 with the booster. Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, stated:
The company does not have another launch site for New Glenn. It has begun preliminary work on a nearby pad, LC-36B, and has plans to develop another site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. But these projects are just getting started...Rebuilding the company’s pad, or finishing a new one, will likely take at least a year.
Credit: Image by David Yonatan González Aburto from Pixabay.
“At NASA, decades of designing humanoid robots for environments that don’t forgive narrow thinking revealed that the machines that failed were the ones built for a single scenario. The ones that succeeded could multitask and be reprogrammed– for deployment in different settings. The arm built for the Space Shuttle, for example, was designed to position an astronaut who would catch and later release a satellite. It turned out the robot was better at making the catch itself — but positioning astronauts proved useful for other tasks, like repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.”
-Statement by Dr. Robert Ambrose, Chairman of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at alliant and former Chief of the Software, Robotics and Simulation Division at NASA. He was discussing robotics in a Fortune magazine story titled “Former NASA Robotics Chief: America is Building the Wrong Kind of Robots — and China Knows It.” It is nice to see that NASA can teach the private sector a few things about preparing for the future. The agency has a wealth of information that can be shared with the private sector and allied countries. We just need to recognize the treasure trove of information we have accumulated at NASA over the years and do our best to preserve it and build upon it.
Fortunately, the first SpaceX Starship launch of the year (and the twelfth for the rocket) went well yesterday with only a few bumps along the way. While it was not perfect, given that it was the first test of a new version of the rocket, it was a good night for the rocket-maker and NASA.
Following stage separation, the Super Heavy booster performed a directional flip maneuver and attempted its boostback burn. It was unable to light all planned engines and performed a partial boostback burn that ended early. Super Heavy attempted to reignite its engines for the landing burn before experiencing a hard splashdown in the Gulf of America.During its ascent burn to space, Starship lost one of the Raptor 3 vacuum engines but demonstrated its engine-out capability and achieved its planned trajectory.
This latest test is encouraging, but would be more encouraging is a solid schedule of more tests this year to ensure the Starship will be ready for the Artemis III low Earth orbit tests next year. SpaceX is still significantly behind schedule on it launches. For instance, this twelfth launch was delayed many times.
Both SpaceX and Blue Origin are racing to be part of the Artemis III test in late 2027 to see if NASA is really ready for a crewed landing on the Moon in 2028. This latest launch brings SpaceX that much closer.
NASA released a much-anticipated contract solicitation for a Mars-orbiting spacecraft late last week, kicking off what is sure to be a hotly contested and potentially controversial procurement. At issue is $700 million, already appropriated by Congress, to build a spacecraft, launch it to Mars, and once there to serve as a vehicle to relay communications between the red planet and Earth. But the stakes may be even bigger than this, including the possible resurrection of the recently canceled Mars Sample Return mission. As part of the new solicitation, NASA says it will conduct the acquisition “as a full and open competition.” But will it? That’s the question that several people involved with this procurement process are asking. And it could turn messy, quickly.
A European intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit prototype developed under a CNES-initiated programme was transported to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The spacesuit will be tested aboard the station by ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot. The EuroSuit project was initiated by CNES in December 2023 as part of the agency’s Spaceship FR programme, which aims to foster the development of core technologies required for future crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit.
The combination of the Shenzhou-23 crewed spacecraft and the Long March-2F Y23 carrier rocket was transferred to the launchpad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. All facilities and equipment at the launch site are in good condition. Various pre-launch functional inspections and joint tests will be carried out as scheduled in the coming days. The launch is planned to take place in the coming days.
Update: Here is a podcast version of this story if you sometimes prefer to digest the news in this way. It is created by AI. To note, it’s not replacing anything or anyone. It’s simply offering an option if listening while driving is preferable to you. I do not use AI in the written articles. I will also start posting the latest podcasts in the sidebar.
Image (Credit): The CRS-34 mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. (NASA)
Delays abound, but at least one space mission successfully launched this week. After delays earlier this week, today the CRS-34 mission successfully launched towards the International Space Station (ISS). The Dragon capsule, carrying supplies for the Expedition 74 Crew on the station, is expected to dock with the ISS Sunday morning.
The first launch this year of the SpaceX Starship was not so lucky. While is was scheduled to launch today as well, it was delayed until Tuesday, May 19th. This will be the 12th test of the new rocket.
SpaceX has planned a long list of objectives related to the booster and rocket on this flight:
The booster’s primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch.
The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including a payload deployment of 20 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, and two specially modified Starlink satellites. The two modified satellites will test hardware planned for Starlink V3 and will attempt to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. All of the deployed payloads will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.
It appears SpaceX is trying to make up for numerous delays with a single mission – a mission that is critical to the success of NASA’s Artemis program as well as SpaceX’s upcoming IPO.
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