Shepard Brings It Home
Blue Origin successfully recovered its booster after a soft landing in the West Texas desert. The booster carried a prototype crew capsule to 100.5km on a single BE-3 engine before separating and beginning its descent. Many other companies have been attempting to land their boosters, but New Shepard's aim is to provide reusable suborbital transport for space tourists. This distinction was reinforced by SpaceX's Elon Musk shortly after congratulating Blue Origin. Blue Origin Founder, Jeff Bezos, expressed intentions to launch again once the data from this flight has been reviewed.
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To the ISS Please... and Step On It.
SpaceX officially received the first order for its Dragon crew capsule to take astronauts to the International Space Station via the Commercial Crew Program. This marks the second of at least four crew launch orders guaranteed by NASA. The launch is currently scheduled for late 2017, with the possibility of up to five more launches. Although Boeing received the first order for their Starliner capsule in May, it is uncertain which company will launch first.
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Moon Rocks, Moon Rocks! Get 'em While They're Hot!
President Obama recently signed into law the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015. The act creates a new framework for commercial companies to extract, use, and sell minerals and other resources from celestial bodies. Within this context, the Act does not conflict with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which forbids countries vs. companies from claiming celestial bodies. Another important provision in the Act exempts private spaceflight companies from potentially market-crippling U.S. government oversight and regulation until October 2023. This "learning period" will allow companies to attract investors more easily. A final provision in the Act extends the U.S. commitment to the International Space Station into 2024.
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Use the Boost to Get Through
Aerojet Rocketdyne has signed a $200 MM contract with Boeing to produce the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 "Starliner" propulsion system. The CST-100 is being developed under Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) as one of the astronaut launchers. Under this new contract, Aerojet will provide seven shipsets of hardware, each including four launch abort engines, 24 Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) engines, 28 Reaction Control System (RCS) engines, as well as valves, tanks, ducts, and tubing to Boeing. Additionally, Aerojet will provide testing services for hot pad, orbital flight and Pad Abort testing. NASA also awarded a $1.16-B contract to Aerojet Rocketdyne to restart the production of the retired Space Shuttle RS-25 engine for use with the Space Launch System (SLS). NASA currently has enough RS-25 engines for four launches, so the renewed production of the ½-million-pound-thrust RS-25 engine will be used for the 2020 launches and beyond.
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BYOD - Bring Your Own Drone
Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport, has been somewhat silent since the Virgin Galactic crash. Things are getting busy again. In November, UP Aerospace's SpaceLoft rocket carrying several scientific and engineering experiments was launched from the complex as Spaceport's 24th overall launch campaign. Google is planning to give another boost to this facility with its high-altitude tests. These tests, which may last until March next year, will involve relaying data between ground stations using aircraft flying up to 25,000ft, operating on the same 2.5GHz frequencies as 4G LTE cellphone signals. The spaceport also announced the launch of their first Spaceport America Drone Summit to be held Mar. 11-13, 2016. The summit, during which three drone races will be organized under obstacle, cinematography, and freestyle categories, is expected to bring drone pilots and enthusiasts together with film and other industry professionals. A panel of experts will be judging aerial footage shot and edited on the spot.
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XCOR Founders Practicing Agility
Jeff Greason, Dan DeLong, and Aleta Jackson, co-founders of XCOR Aerospace have left the company to establish their own aerospace consulting firm, Agile Aero. Greason hopes to bring rapid prototyping and testing capabilities to the field of custom vehicle design, where long development phases have been a major issue in the past. "We don't have the answers yet, but we have a clear grasp on the challenge," says Greason. "We think if we work on that, we can solve that problem, not just for one company but for a whole industry."
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Made In Space Selected to Make in Space
NASA has selected Made In Space to lead the design and development of systems for the "assembly of large and complex systems in space without astronaut extravehicular activity." Made In Space will be partnering with Northrop Grumman and Oceaneering Space Systems on the project. Dubbed "Archinaut", the first phase of the project will include a series of technology demonstrations to prove commercial
feasibility
.
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Would You Like Plasma With Your CubeSat?
Phase Four LLC of Pasadena recently received a $1MM DARPA contract to develop a functional flight test unit of their CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (CAT). The CAT is an electrodeless high thrust-to-power ratio engine for high delta-V applications. The concept has be successfully tested in the lab, however this contract includes options for full-scale in-space demonstrations of the entire system.
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Through the Eyes of a Goddess
Hera Systems is the latest entrant into the growing Earth imaging market. The company is planning to launch nine 12-U cubesats in late 2016 that will be able to provide images at resolutions of up to one meter over several spectral bands, as well as video. The constellation could grow up to 48 satellites in time. The company recently closed a funding round worth several million dollars.
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- SpaceWorks Launches Blink Astro LLC [Link]
- Virgin Galactic Hires Test Pilot Lt. Col. Kelly Latimer [Link]
- UKube-1 Completes Mission [Link]
- NASA JSC Offers Houston Spaceport Helping Hand
[Link]
- Integrated Spaceflight Services Test Spacesuit
[Link]
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This month, Dr. Paul Spudis of Spudis Lunar Resources and Dr. Chris Impey of the University of Arizona
share their respective
NewSpace initiatives with Dr. David Livingston on The Space Show.
[Link]
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New Shepard Landing [Video]
ISS Turns 15 [Link]
SuperDraco Test Fire [Video]
Karlie Kloss SpaceX Photoshoot [Link]
Virgin Galactic on Testing [Video]
New SpaceIL Design [Video]
PLD Space [Link]
Pluto Ice Volcanoes [Link]
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UPCOMING LAUNCHES
Dec 2
Vega - LISA Pathfinder
Dec 3
Atlas V - Orbital CRS-4
Dec 9
Soyuz 2-1v - Kanopus ST
Dec 10
Proton - Garpun
Dec 11
Zenit 3SLBF - Elektro-L 2
Dec 15
Soyuz - ISS 45S
Dec 16
PSLV - TeLEOS 1
Dec 17
Soyuz - Galileo 11, 12
Dec 21
Soyuz - Progress 62P
Dec 23
Proton - Express AMU1
Dec 29
Soyuz - Glonass M
Dec TBD
Falcon 9 - OG2
Falcon 9 - SES 9
Long March 3B - GF4
Long March 2D - DAMPE
Dnepr - Paz
Rockot - Sentinel 3A
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Aerojet Rocketdyne
Agile Aero
Airbus Safran
Blink Astro LLC
Blue Origin
Boeing
Google
Hera Systems
Houston Spaceport
Integrated Spaceflight Services
Made In Space
Northrop Grumman
Oceaneering Space Systems
Orbital ATK
Phase Four LLC
Planetary Resources
Sierra Nevada Corp.
SpaceIL
Spaceport America
SpaceWorks
SpaceX
Spudis Lunar Resources
UP Aerospace
Virgin Galactic
XCOR Aerospace
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