Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California, has been awarded a $130,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract, for launch services to deliver the Air Force Space Command-52 satellite to its intended orbit.
...
This launch service contract will include launch vehicle production and mission, as well as integration, launch operations and spaceflight worthiness activities.
That seems like a super low bid for a Falcon Heavy launch, they must be really confident they can nail all three landings and re-launch with minimal refurbishment. Not that a lot is known about how much it takes to get a FH off the pad, maybe $130 million is around their break-even point for an expendable mission?
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
In terms of costs, rolling out a brand-new (all three cores) Falcon Heavy would probably cost SpaceX ~$150 million, from what I've read.
Fortunately, the side cores get to be previously-flown Block 5 boosters, which will have already been paid for in their previous missions, and with any luck can be recovered again.
The center core, of course, has to be unique (but hopefully recovered as well!), and is honestly a big chunk of the cost.
But yeah, SpaceX offers the "reusable" Falcon 9 at $62 million, and a fully reusable Falcon Heavy at $90 million for commercial launches.
The Air Force gets government pricing because they're picky about certain things, and there's a lot of extra security and clearances involved.
Two years ago I did a post about the Lunar X-Prize, and I decided to look into where things are with it now.
Originally scheduled to finish in 2015, it was extended several times to March 2018. The prize was for $20mil to land a robotic lander on the moon that would transmit HD video and images from the moon to earth. The second group to do this would receive $5mil. There was additional prize money to be awarded to the first or second place winners based on achieving certain milestones.
Teams also earned additional money by completing additional tasks beyond the baseline requirements required to win the grand or second prize, such as traveling ten times the baseline requirements (greater than 5,000 meters (3 mi)), capturing images of the remains of Apollo program hardware or other man-made objects on the Moon, verifying from the lunar surface the recent detection of water ice on the Moon, or surviving a lunar night. Additionally, a US$1 million diversity award was to be given to teams that make significant strides in promoting ethnic diversity in STEM fields.
As of January 2018, after several failed launch contracts and holdups on planned launches (none of which appear to be the fault of the competitors), Google determined that there was no one group of the finalists that had been able to schedule, and pay for a trip by this point, so the prize would not be extended for another year. The $30mil in Google's prize money will not be awarded, but the Lunar X-Prize will continue as a non-cash award. The race for the X-Prize helped establish multiple companies building commercial and scientific craft, and many of the competitors are still contracted to build and launch missions in the future.
Moon Express (US), the frontrunner in the competition and the first to get government approval for their mission, is planning to launch several in 2019:
The Lunar Scout containing
International Lunar Observatory - An optical telescope positioned on the southern lunar pole
Moonlight - Laser retroreflector experiment built by Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics and the University of Maryland
and
The Lunar Outpost - A robotic outpost for experimentation, exploration, communication, and searching for water on the moon.
Team Indus (India) and Synergy Moon (US) will be teaming up to launch their two expeditions simultaneously.
Team Indus (India) plans to establish a surface lander that will contain a UV telescope, several scientific experiments (including testing potential radiation shielding and photosynthesis) and a rover equipped with several cameras designed for space exploration given by the French space agency.
Synergy Moon is a combination of several Lunar X-Prize teams, including Team Omega Envoy (US), Team Independence-X (Malaysia), Team Stellar (Croatia/Australia), and Team Space Meta (Brazil). They are working with Team Indus to have the Indus lander launch their rover, which will include several experiments, and an "Art Capsule" containing selected works of art that they will collect through a competition.
Team Hakuto (Japan) was originally planning to launch with Team Indus, but the India Space Agency pushed back and then cancelled the contract for the launch. Team Hakuto will now be launching with Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lander in 2020, and will be deployed along with several other robotic rovers (including rovers from Chilean and Mexican space agencies) at the same time.
Space IL (Israel), is continuing to raise funds for it's mission this year. Their plan involves landing a legged rover on the moon that will propel itself across the surface by hopping.
So hey guys, more moon talk again. The US government approved the first ever private company expedition to the moon.
A bit on some of the entities involved in this.
Google Lunar X Prize
The Google Lunar X prize is an award of $20 million to the first private organization to land a robotic lander on the moon, travel 500 meters above, below, or on the lunar surface, and transmit high-definition video and images back to earth. The current deadline for this is December 2017, but it has been pushed back before from it's original deadline of December 2015 on the stipulation that at least one team had to secure a launch contract by December 2015. Two of them did, being the Israeli Space IL and the US Moon Express.
There are additional bonuses to be awarded on completion of certain conditions, like the filming of areas of the Apollo missions.
The Outer Space Treaty
In accordance with the Outer Space Treaty, states must approve and monitor private space missions that happen within their jurisdiction.
While the treaty disallows governments from claiming extraterrestrial resources, it does not specifically disallow private entities from doing so. However it does state that States that launch objects into space retain ownership of that object are are responsible for damages by that object. What that entails or even means in practice is not well stated.
Moon Express
The company Moon Express started in 2010 with the ultimate goal of winning Google's Lunar X prize and establishing infrastructure for sending media to and from the moon, as well as mining it for resources like Niobium, Yttrium, and Helium-3. They have invested over $500,000 in NASA through a program (granted via the "Space Act" of 1958) whereby they have been able to commercialize NASA facilities and technology.
Reimbursable Agreements - Agreements where NASA's costs associated to the activity are reimbursed by the Agreement Partner (in full or in part). NASA undertakes Reimbursable Agreements when it has unique goods, services, and facilities that are not currently being fully utilized to accomplish mission needs. These may be made available to others on a noninterference basis and consistent with the Agency's missions and policies.
They had a working prototype of a lunar lander within a year of their founding, at least partially due to their ability to share resources with NASA.
They're contracted with New Zealand's Rocket Lab for three launches on their Electron Rocket (brand name, not an indication of the kind of rocket).
They're also contracted with NASA for lunar data services, which is valued in the millions of dollars.
They're also contracted with the ILOA for assistance establishing the International Lunar Observatory.
International Lunar Observatory Association
The ILOA is an international organization that plans to advance human knowledge through placement of observatories on the moon. Currently the ILO-X 7cm optical telescope is contracted to be landed on the moon with Moon Express's first launch (MX-1). They have already landed the Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope on the lander of the Chang’e-3, with additional contracts to land more telescopes on the lunar surface with Chang'e-4/5/6.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab, founded in 2006, will be providing the use of its Electron Launch Vehicle to Moon Express. The ELV is a two-stage vehicle using Rutherford engines. Rutherford engines use battery powered motors to control the pumps that combine the fuel and the oxidizer, removing the need for a secondary engine. It's also almost entirely 3D printed via electron beam melting process.
The US Government
The FAA, the NOIA, NASA, the DoD, the White House, the FCC, and the Department of State all had to sign off on the mission, which first sought approval in April 2015, and received it's final approval last month. It's worth noting that there's no official process for this, which has led to a really long and drawn out phase in the planning as multiple agencies were required to work together on this. This has prompted the feds to try and come up with a licensing process for future missions, though it's still unclear who exactly would be in-charge. However as of July 2016 Moon Express has become the first company to receive approval for private space missions beyond Earth's orbit.
SpaceIL
SpaceIL is an Israeli non-profit who have secured reservations with SpaceX for a launch in 2017. Instead of a tracked or wheeled vehicle their lander will travel the requisite 500 meters for the XPrize by hopping from its landing site to its secondary site via rocket propulsion. Of their 200+ members they are 95% volunteers, which makes them unique among the competition. Especially as they're one of only two teams to currently have launches contracted and it was their team's contract with SpaceX that secured the extension on the XPrize to 2017.
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
THE Sunita Williams has been part of the Commercial Crew Program since its inception
In this poorly-formatted article from Business Insider, she gives her impression of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in anticipation of the two vehicles making their spaceflight debut by the end of the year:
(Rest assured that Suni herself never refers to them as "spaceships" :P )
Not a deep dive, but some interesting information and some great pics of the Commercial Crew astronauts trying on the new spacesuits and exploring the new spacecrafts!
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BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
SpaceX dropped their spacecraft again (intentionally) to test the parachutes in the event of an in-flight abort:
Also there is a launch coming up on Friday, June 29th - I will endeavor to make an effort post about it tomorrow
Still a little sad they nixed propulsive landings. The engines are right there still even, just use them!
Maybe do another test, only this time it lands with its rockets and then a dude drives out there with a giant pair of novelty sunglasses and puts them on the capsule.
Seal on
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BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
Still a little sad they nixed propulsive landings. The engines are right there still even, just use them!
Maybe do another test, only this time it lands with its rockets and then a dude drives out there with a giant pair of novelty sunglasses and puts them on the capsule.
I was hoping they could use them like the Russians use solid rockets on the Soyuz - fire them in the last few seconds to lessen the force of impact
But with 4 'chutes it looks like the Dragon is setting down pretty darn gently anyway :P
You can find the Russian interview with Roscomos' new Director General D. O. Rogozin here, run it through a translator. A combination of the success of SpaceX's own cargo launching systems, concerns over the continued viability of UR-500 ("Proton"), and a desire to launch those payloads domestically rather than from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome (where Proton rockets have always been launched) led to the decision. Angara, manufactured by the Khrunichev Production Center and in Omsk, will be its formal replacement. UR-500 first launched as a cargo launch system in 1965, having a very long and venerable career with its retirement.
Kind of a big deal! There are also rumors that Proton's retirement would mean the shuttering of Baikonur--considering Soyuz and Progress (resupply) must still be launched from there, and Soyuz is still the lone option for regular human spaceflight, I suspect these are premature or betray some unawareness of the situation.
Maybe a hot take, but russian spacecraft names sound much better that US or EU ones.
To soon, Honovere! Too soon!
The irony being that Soviet and Eurasian spacecraft might have better names than American ones ("Proton" is actually the name of the satellites that were among UR-500's first crew--the missions were referred to as such, and the name stuck, to the point where Roscomos eventually started painting it on the side), but Soviet and Eurasian rocket and missile systems all have worse names than American ones, like the "Topol" ("Poplar"), "Volga" ("Volga"), "Buk" ("Beech"), "Verba" ("Willow") etc., and are all named after rivers, trees, flowers, or related features, when they have a name at all. Compared "Patriot", "Minutemen", "Stinger" and other tough, manly American names.
Naturally, NATO or the Americans give Eurasian systems scary nicknames like "Satan", "Scud", "Savage", "Satan-II". Too bad the Russians think they're ridiculous and never use them ("Satan Two: Satan Harder").
They also have Buran, Foton, and Molnija which are all pretty good names.
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BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
Upcoming Orbital Launch
Hey all, just an update for the next launch for which I'll be providing coverage (maybe not live, schedule is iffy for Friday). June 29th at 0941 UTC (5:41am Eastern, 2:41am Pacific), SpaceX will be launching a flight-proven booster AND spacecraft as the Dragon once again carries cargo to the International Space Station for CRS-15!
The launch will be out of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and will feature a Block 4 first stage that had its maiden flight just 72 days ago, delivering TESS into orbit! The Dragon spacecraft, meanwhile, first flew for CRS-9, and so heads to the ISS for the second time.
The static fire was performed 4 days ago without issue, and the weather is currently being reported as 90% GO at T=0 !
As this is the second launch for the first stage Block 4 booster, and no landing profile has so far been filed with the relevant authorities, it is safe to say that there will be no landing attempt on this flight. Still, CRS launches are usually fun to watch because a) they are fairly quick and b) watching the Dragon deploy all of its hardware once it has reached orbit is always a treat
And as I mentioned briefly in my parenthetical, whether or not I'll be able to watch and provide coverage live is still very much up in the air. I may or may not be up, and if I am up I may or may not be on the road :P I'll know closer to T=0, but at the very least I'll endeavor to provide the relevant livestream link as they become available!
Science in space, and supplies for our astropeople
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BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
The Atlas and the Titan still reign supreme as rugged rocket names, in my opinion
They hold a special place for propelling our earliest spacefolk into orbit, of course :P
I still laugh at Stephen Colbert's bit about the "Satan II" deployment a few years back, for what amounts to an English name given by Americans to a Russian missile--which the operators probably never heard of until they watched it on Youtube--as if it were their idea.
Last update was May 30th, it performed its final adjustment burn and achieved its desired orbit, then snapped a few test images to verify its scientific instruments, so all good news so far!
Its far enough along at this point that they can't cancel it, right?
It's effectively a living, breathing spacecraft already, it would need to be physically mothballed which I think would be unprecedented for such an expensive piece of scientific equipment I just remembered that abandoned particle accelerator in Texas
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I will push it to space if I have to.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Its far enough along at this point that they can't cancel it, right?
The only way it could get 'cancelled' now is if it explodes before making it to orbit. (This is not a suggestion, space-gods...)
And that would make a lot of astronomers very sad and/or cross. Because (along with the huge set-back), spec-wise, something much less capable would end up being built.
Total launch success, the Dragon is en route to the International Space Station, full of supplies and scientific goodies for the fine astronauts on board
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BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
Zilla36021st Century. |She/Her|Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered Userregular
An unfortunate RUD event for the tiny MOMO rocket. If you look closely you can see the exact moment the determined-looking face they painted on the top is obliterated.
After the unfortunate MOMO-2 RUD Scott Manley did us all a favor and obtained some additional details on the rocket and the mascot loving company that launches it.
An unfortunate RUD event for the tiny MOMO rocket. If you look closely you can see the exact moment the determined-looking face they painted on the top is obliterated.
I'm sure most of you have heard of the time the Russian space station Mir was hit by a supply vessel. But did you know it involved a handheld laser rangefinder and a stopwatch?
Posts
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
That seems like a super low bid for a Falcon Heavy launch, they must be really confident they can nail all three landings and re-launch with minimal refurbishment. Not that a lot is known about how much it takes to get a FH off the pad, maybe $130 million is around their break-even point for an expendable mission?
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Fortunately, the side cores get to be previously-flown Block 5 boosters, which will have already been paid for in their previous missions, and with any luck can be recovered again.
The center core, of course, has to be unique (but hopefully recovered as well!), and is honestly a big chunk of the cost.
But yeah, SpaceX offers the "reusable" Falcon 9 at $62 million, and a fully reusable Falcon Heavy at $90 million for commercial launches.
The Air Force gets government pricing because they're picky about certain things, and there's a lot of extra security and clearances involved.
Unrelated but I could not resist buying this when I saw it in stores, made me think of you BeNarwhal
It's beautiful
Also has a memory foam core so it's super fun to squeeze. Funny on ebay they are all listed at 3 times what I paid for it in store.
Sorry to one up you Handkor, but we got the little one a narwhal on vacation this week. His name is Bob Narly.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Originally scheduled to finish in 2015, it was extended several times to March 2018. The prize was for $20mil to land a robotic lander on the moon that would transmit HD video and images from the moon to earth. The second group to do this would receive $5mil. There was additional prize money to be awarded to the first or second place winners based on achieving certain milestones.
As of January 2018, after several failed launch contracts and holdups on planned launches (none of which appear to be the fault of the competitors), Google determined that there was no one group of the finalists that had been able to schedule, and pay for a trip by this point, so the prize would not be extended for another year. The $30mil in Google's prize money will not be awarded, but the Lunar X-Prize will continue as a non-cash award. The race for the X-Prize helped establish multiple companies building commercial and scientific craft, and many of the competitors are still contracted to build and launch missions in the future.
Moon Express (US), the frontrunner in the competition and the first to get government approval for their mission, is planning to launch several in 2019:
The Lunar Scout containing
- International Lunar Observatory - An optical telescope positioned on the southern lunar pole
- Moonlight - Laser retroreflector experiment built by Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics and the University of Maryland
andThe Lunar Outpost - A robotic outpost for experimentation, exploration, communication, and searching for water on the moon.
Team Indus (India) and Synergy Moon (US) will be teaming up to launch their two expeditions simultaneously.
Team Indus (India) plans to establish a surface lander that will contain a UV telescope, several scientific experiments (including testing potential radiation shielding and photosynthesis) and a rover equipped with several cameras designed for space exploration given by the French space agency.
Synergy Moon is a combination of several Lunar X-Prize teams, including Team Omega Envoy (US), Team Independence-X (Malaysia), Team Stellar (Croatia/Australia), and Team Space Meta (Brazil). They are working with Team Indus to have the Indus lander launch their rover, which will include several experiments, and an "Art Capsule" containing selected works of art that they will collect through a competition.
Team Hakuto (Japan) was originally planning to launch with Team Indus, but the India Space Agency pushed back and then cancelled the contract for the launch. Team Hakuto will now be launching with Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lander in 2020, and will be deployed along with several other robotic rovers (including rovers from Chilean and Mexican space agencies) at the same time.
Space IL (Israel), is continuing to raise funds for it's mission this year. Their plan involves landing a legged rover on the moon that will propel itself across the surface by hopping.
Original post:
But was has been achieved is still fantastic. Team Indus especially.
In this poorly-formatted article from Business Insider, she gives her impression of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in anticipation of the two vehicles making their spaceflight debut by the end of the year:
Suni Williams on SpaceX and Boeing's new "spaceships"
(Rest assured that Suni herself never refers to them as "spaceships" :P )
Not a deep dive, but some interesting information and some great pics of the Commercial Crew astronauts trying on the new spacesuits and exploring the new spacecrafts!
Also there is a launch coming up on Friday, June 29th - I will endeavor to make an effort post about it tomorrow
Maybe do another test, only this time it lands with its rockets and then a dude drives out there with a giant pair of novelty sunglasses and puts them on the capsule.
I was hoping they could use them like the Russians use solid rockets on the Soyuz - fire them in the last few seconds to lessen the force of impact
But with 4 'chutes it looks like the Dragon is setting down pretty darn gently anyway :P
You can find the Russian interview with Roscomos' new Director General D. O. Rogozin here, run it through a translator. A combination of the success of SpaceX's own cargo launching systems, concerns over the continued viability of UR-500 ("Proton"), and a desire to launch those payloads domestically rather than from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome (where Proton rockets have always been launched) led to the decision. Angara, manufactured by the Khrunichev Production Center and in Omsk, will be its formal replacement. UR-500 first launched as a cargo launch system in 1965, having a very long and venerable career with its retirement.
Kind of a big deal! There are also rumors that Proton's retirement would mean the shuttering of Baikonur--considering Soyuz and Progress (resupply) must still be launched from there, and Soyuz is still the lone option for regular human spaceflight, I suspect these are premature or betray some unawareness of the situation.
To soon, Honovere! Too soon!
The irony being that Soviet and Eurasian spacecraft might have better names than American ones ("Proton" is actually the name of the satellites that were among UR-500's first crew--the missions were referred to as such, and the name stuck, to the point where Roscomos eventually started painting it on the side), but Soviet and Eurasian rocket and missile systems all have worse names than American ones, like the "Topol" ("Poplar"), "Volga" ("Volga"), "Buk" ("Beech"), "Verba" ("Willow") etc., and are all named after rivers, trees, flowers, or related features, when they have a name at all. Compared "Patriot", "Minutemen", "Stinger" and other tough, manly American names.
Naturally, NATO or the Americans give Eurasian systems scary nicknames like "Satan", "Scud", "Savage", "Satan-II". Too bad the Russians think they're ridiculous and never use them ("Satan Two: Satan Harder").
Hey all, just an update for the next launch for which I'll be providing coverage (maybe not live, schedule is iffy for Friday). June 29th at 0941 UTC (5:41am Eastern, 2:41am Pacific), SpaceX will be launching a flight-proven booster AND spacecraft as the Dragon once again carries cargo to the International Space Station for CRS-15!
The launch will be out of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and will feature a Block 4 first stage that had its maiden flight just 72 days ago, delivering TESS into orbit! The Dragon spacecraft, meanwhile, first flew for CRS-9, and so heads to the ISS for the second time.
The static fire was performed 4 days ago without issue, and the weather is currently being reported as 90% GO at T=0 !
As this is the second launch for the first stage Block 4 booster, and no landing profile has so far been filed with the relevant authorities, it is safe to say that there will be no landing attempt on this flight. Still, CRS launches are usually fun to watch because a) they are fairly quick and b) watching the Dragon deploy all of its hardware once it has reached orbit is always a treat
And as I mentioned briefly in my parenthetical, whether or not I'll be able to watch and provide coverage live is still very much up in the air. I may or may not be up, and if I am up I may or may not be on the road :P I'll know closer to T=0, but at the very least I'll endeavor to provide the relevant livestream link as they become available!
Science in space, and supplies for our astropeople
They hold a special place for propelling our earliest spacefolk into orbit, of course :P
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Last update was May 30th, it performed its final adjustment burn and achieved its desired orbit, then snapped a few test images to verify its scientific instruments, so all good news so far!
Argh.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
It's effectively a living, breathing spacecraft already, it would need to be physically mothballed which I think would be unprecedented for such an expensive piece of scientific equipment I just remembered that abandoned particle accelerator in Texas
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I just read some relevant facts about the old stalwart Hubble, who as I'm sure you all know had an inauspicious debut
Funding for Hubble was appropriated in 1978, and launched in 1990
It was initially proposed in 1968
JWST is moving slowly, no doubt about it, but we've seen slow-moving history makers before!
And that would make a lot of astronomers very sad and/or cross. Because (along with the huge set-back), spec-wise, something much less capable would end up being built.
Total launch success, the Dragon is en route to the International Space Station, full of supplies and scientific goodies for the fine astronauts on board
After the unfortunate MOMO-2 RUD Scott Manley did us all a favor and obtained some additional details on the rocket and the mascot loving company that launches it.
Space travel is hard, yo. That's why people talk about rocket science the way they do.
Edit: Not dissing on the MOMO team. Just saying.
I'm sure most of you have heard of the time the Russian space station Mir was hit by a supply vessel. But did you know it involved a handheld laser rangefinder and a stopwatch?