SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virigin Galactic and other Private Space Companies Thread

[Elderberry]

So what's he going to pick?   317?

https://www.nickelinstitute.org/media/1667/designguidelinesfortheselectionanduseofstainlesssteels_9014_.pdf

[Cyber Liberty]

So what's he going to pick?   317?

https://www.nickelinstitute.org/media/1667/designguidelinesfortheselectionanduseofstainlesssteels_9014_.pdf

Rearden Metal.

[Elderberry]

Blue Origin pressing on with rocket and engine development as industry copes with coronavirus

Space News by Sandra Erwin — March 17, 2020

https://spacenews.com/blue-origin-pressing-on-with-rocket-and-engine-development-as-industry-copes-with-coronavirus/

WASHINGTON — As the coronavirus outbreak continues to shake up every sector of the U.S. economy, including the space industry, Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith says the company so far has been able to continue on with the development of its space vehicles and engines.

The response to this crisis is fast moving and shifts from day to day, Smith told SpaceNews March 16. The company is headquartered in Kent, Washington, near one of the epicenters of the coronavirus outbreak. Blue Origin weeks ago stood up a task force to lead response efforts.

“We meet with our task force every day,” Smith said. “It’s a changing environment, and we make adjustments and continue to operate,” he said. “We’re just trying to respond to the changing environment.”

Even tough travel is highly restricted and most employees are teleworking, Smith said Blue Origin plans to continue to conduct test flights of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle that last flew in December. The company has said the goal is to start flying people to the edge of space as early as 2020.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

SpaceX stacks third Starship prototype ahead of testing (photos)

https://www.space.com/spacex-stacks-starship-prototype-sn3.html

Space.com By Mike Wall 3/27/2020

The SN3 could take to the skies soon.

SpaceX's newest Starship prototype is standing tall.

The latest test version of the Mars-colonizing Starship spacecraft, called the SN3, has been stacked at SpaceX's South Texas facilities, new photos tweeted out by company founder and CEO Elon Musk show.

More at link.


Elon Musk posted this photo of SpaceX's recently stacked Starship prototype, the SN3, on March 26, 2020.

[kevindavis007]

SpaceX Starship Updates – Prototype Schedule Update – NASA Orders Dragon XL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty0Urm-rsNg&t=1s

[kevindavis007]

NASA and SpaceX prepare to launch astronauts from the US again
https://www.isn-news.com/2020/04/nasa-and-spacex-prepare-to-launch.html

[Elderberry]

Virgin Orbit selects Japanese airport as launch site

Space News by Jeff Foust — April 2, 2020

https://spacenews.com/virgin-orbit-selects-japanese-airport-as-launch-site/

Virgin Orbit announced April 2 it has identified an airport in Japan as a potential site for launch operations, joining airports in the United States and Great Britain as hosts for the air-launch company.

Virgin Orbit said that, working with ANA Holdings and Space Port Japan Association, it selected Oita Airport on the island Kyushu as its preferred site. The company and Oita Prefecture, the local government, will work together on a technical study to confirm the feasibility of carrying out launch operations from the airport starting as soon as 2022.

Oita Airport has a single runway 3,000 meters long. The airport is primarily used for domestic flights by several airlines, as well as flights to Seoul.

“As Japan looks to establish a regional launch hub for Asia, we’re very excited to work alongside Oita to enable launch operations for space ventures, stimulate the local economy and facilitate the growth of Japan’s broader space ecosystem,” Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said in a statement.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

SpaceX: Elon Musk’s Starship SN3 prototype collapses in cloud of white smoke during test

https://www.thenational.ae/world/the-americas/spacex-elon-musk-s-starship-sn3-prototype-collapses-in-cloud-of-white-smoke-during-test-1.1001042

NASA has said the failed test means SpaceX will have to rely on other Starship models

A test on SpaceX’s Starship SN3 has ended in failure after the prototype dramatically collapsed in a cloud of white smoke at its Boca Chica facility in Texas.

NASA has said that the misfiring of the Starship SN3, which had been designed to carry cargo and people to a variety of different destinations including Mars, means SpaceX will now have to focus on future Starship models.

Testing began at the south Texas facility on Thursday and continued into Friday morning when the collapse occurred.

However, the billionaire SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk, has just said that issues with the prototype may have been caused by the test configuration.

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[Elderberry]

SpaceX Starship News, SN4 to reuse thrust section, Starship Users Guide surprises and Tesla Updates


Marcus House
128K subscribers
It has been another incredible week of SpaceX news. SpaceX's Starship SN4 will reuse the thrust section we have only just learned. Interesting new information in the new Starship Users Guide. I'm also super happy to have Zac and Jesse from the Youtube channel Now You Know joining us for some Tesla Updates. If you haven’t heard by now we did sadly lose the SN3 starship due to a bizarre mishap the other night. Not necessarily an issue with the build itself, but a testing process that failed here. Looking back at the week for the SN3 Starship is however still interesting because much of what we’ve learned will apply to the SN4 Starship already underway.


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[kevindavis007]

Private companies find role in developing nuclear power for space travel
https://www.isn-news.com/2020/04/private-companies-find-role-in.html

[Elderberry]

SpaceX Starship SN4 prototype comes together quickly after SN3's demise

CNET by Eric Mack 4/12/2020

https://www.cnet.com/news/spacex-starship-sn4-prototype-comes-together-quick-after-sn3s-demise/

While many businesses in Texas are shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SpaceX is busy working at its Boca Chica development facility to assemble another Starship prototype shortly after a previous version collapsed during a pressure test earlier this month.

A webcam set up by a nearby resident captured the above time lapse video of the Starship prototype SN4 getting stacked inside the company's on-site vehicle assembly building. NASASpaceflight.com reports that bulkheads for another unit, SN5, are also being built at the facility.

This has been the company's operating mode during Starship's development -- to rapidly assemble two prototypes at the time to be able to quickly pivot to a new unit if one fails. So far, both SN1 and SN3 have failed during pressure tests, while SN2 passed.

More at link.

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[kevindavis007]

NASA sets May 27 launch date for SpaceX commercial crew test flight
https://www.isn-news.com/2020/04/nasa-sets-may-27-launch-date-for-spacex.html


Finally.. There will be a live thread.

[Elderberry]

SpaceX launches Starlink 6 mission - Another 60 satellites

SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 22, 2020. The launch brings the number of satellites in orbit for the megaconstellation to 422.

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[kevindavis007]

SN4 passed ambient pressure test!!!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1254430299313836036

[Elderberry]

Starship SN4 - Ambient  Temperature Pressure Test - SpaceX Boca Chica (25-04-2020)


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[Elderberry]

Elon Musk says SpaceX’s newest Starship just passed its first test

TESLARATI  By Eric Ralph 4/26/2020

https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-says-spacexs-newest-starship-just-passed-its-first-test/

Elon Musk says that SpaceX’s newest Starship prototype just passed its first test, clearing the way for the rocket to perform a form of testing that has destroyed all previously full-scale prototypes.

Known as a cryogenic proof test and reportedly scheduled to kick off as early as tonight (April 26th), SpaceX will fill some or all of the Starship SN4 prototypes with ultra-cold liquid nitrogen. Used to simulate the similarly cold properties of Starship’s liquid oxygen and methane, liquid nitrogen (LN2) is chemically neutral and wont catch fire or explode in the event of a leak or total vehicle failure. SpaceX has performed many of those tests over the last six or so months, none of which were completed successfully with full-scale rocket tanks.

A series of test tanks (the same width as Starship but much shorter) did manage some impressive successes and proved that SpaceX’s current methods can technically build a rocket that’s up to the standards of spaceflight. Still, SpaceX needs to demonstrate that that remains true when multiple tanks and other components are attached to form a complete rocket. Enter Starship SN4’s April 25th and proposed April 26th tests.

    Aiming for cryo pressure test tonight

More at link.

[sneakypete]

Elon Musk says SpaceX’s newest Starship just passed its first test

@Elderberry

I wish him luck!

[Elderberry]

@Elderberry

I wish him luck!

@sneakypete

I hope so too!  My son will be working out there in a little over a week. I sure don't want him to get blown up.

[sneakypete]

@sneakypete

I hope so too!  My son will be working out there in a little over a week. I sure don't want him to get blown up.

@Elderberry

Ahhh,living on the cutting edge of the 21st Century! I envy him!

[kevindavis007]

SpaceX Starship SN4 passes key test, Elon Musk says
https://www.isn-news.com/2020/04/spacex-starship-sn4-passes-key-test.html

[kevindavis007]

'Uphill battle': SpaceX overcame obstacles on road to historic 1st crew launch
https://www.isn-news.com/2020/04/uphill-battle-spacex-overcame-obstacles.html

[kevindavis007]

NASA picks SpaceX, Dynetics and Blue Origin-led team to develop Artemis moon landers
https://www.isn-news.com/2020/04/nasa-picks-spacex-dynetics-and-blue.html

[Elderberry]

Starship reaches milestone: Prototype survives hyper cold pressure test

American Military News by  Steve Clark - The Brownsville Herald  April 30, 2020

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/04/starship-reaches-milestone-prototype-survives-hyper-cold-pressure-test/

Late on April 26, the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, posted a brief Twitter video from a vantage point beneath the SN4 as the towering cylinder shed ice crystals following a successful cryogenic pressurization test meant to simulate the extremely cold fuel conditions that Starship would endure in space.

“Snowing in Texas,” was Musk’s caption.

“Great work by SpaceX engineering!” he tweeted again. The critical cryogenic test, which encased much of the stainless-steel-clad ship in frost, was preceded by an equally successful ambient pressurization test over the weekend. Musk tweeted early Monday that a static-test of the SN4’s single Raptor engine can take place “hopefully later this week.”

Development of Starship, which the company is designing to carry humans to the Moon and Mars as well as Earth destinations, hasn’t been entirely smooth, though rocket science never is. Starship Mk1, the gleaming, finned prototype that lured countless sightseers to SpaceX’s roadside rocket works near Boca Chica Beach east of Brownsville, was destroyed during a “cryo proof” in November. The subsequent prototype, SN1, failed the same test on Feb. 28, delaying plans for a suborbital test flight this spring.

More at link.

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[Elderberry]

Watch how SpaceX’s first human spacecraft performed during its key in-flight escape test

Tech Crunch by Darrell Etherington 5/1/2020

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/01/watch-how-spacexs-first-human-spacecraft-performed-during-its-key-in-flight-escape-test/

SpaceX is getting ready to launch its first-ever spacecraft with humans on board, the Commercial Crew Demo-2 mission (DM-2) that will take off from Florida on May 27. There are still a couple of things remaining to finish up prior to flight, including a final parachute system test that’s happening later today. The company also posted a video recap of its most recent uncrewed Crew Dragon flight, the in-flight escape demonstration that it flew on January 19.

The video provides a look at the processes involved in the test, including a look at mission control, with astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley looking on during the flight. You can see the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch with the Crew Dragon attached, as well as watch it explode in a ball of fire (as intended) during the early emergency separation. Then, watch as the capsule itself descends safety back to the ocean where it’s recovered by a SpaceX vessel.

More at link.

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[Elderberry]

SpaceX Boca Chica - Starship SN4 spotted with a Raptor, nosecone prototypes make progress

NASASpaceflight  4/30/2020

A beehive of activity at SpaceX's Texas Starship factory today. SN4 being readied for static fire and hop with a single Raptor engine, work on the build site progresses, and SN5 takes shape.

Photos and Video by Mary (@BocaChicaGal) for NASASpaceflight.com. Edited by Jack Bayer (@thejackbeyer).


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