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

[Elderberry]

NASA, SpaceX prepare for Falcon 9 rocket to explode over the Atlantic

CNET by Eric Mack 1/8/2020

https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-and-spacex-are-prepping-to-explode-a-falcon-9-rocket-over-the-atlantic/

To test its Crew Dragon's ability to escape an emergency, SpaceX must make a sacrifice.

If you've gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, perhaps it's no surprise you have to blow up a few space vehicles to get to space. SpaceX and NASA are preparing for the latest trial of the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the in-flight abort test is likely going to lead to the destruction of a Falcon 9 rocket in the process.

That test has been pushed back a week, to Jan. 18, to allow "additional time for spacecraft processing," NASA said Monday. The goal of the test is to demonstrate the Dragon's emergency escape system before NASA gives the final thumbs-up for the craft to begin ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew program.

While much has been made what will happen to Crew Dragon during the test -- it will separate from the Falcon 9, fire its SuperDraco engines to get away from the rocket and parachute to an ocean landing -- there's been less of a focus on the fate of the Falcon 9 rocket that will enable the process.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

Elon Musk reveals how SpaceX Starlink customers will get online

Slash Gear by Chris Davies - Jan 8, 2020

https://www.slashgear.com/elon-musk-reveals-how-spacex-starlink-customers-will-get-online-08606331/

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation may be starting to take shape in orbit, but we’re only just starting to find out what the user-experience of the internet service will be like down on the ground. Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to build a network of satellites tens of thousands in number will eventually, if the plan pans out, deliver internet connections to areas previously underserved by ISPs or offline altogether.

The satellites, though, are only half of the story, albeit the tougher part to deploy. Back on Earth, subscribers to Starlink will need special hardware to get online. If you’re instantly thinking of cumbersome and tricky to set up satellite phones, though, the good news is that it should be a far easier proposition.

SpaceX isn’t quite ready to show off its so-called Starlink Terminals yet, but that hasn’t stopped Elon Musk from sharing some early details. The device itself “looks like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick,” Musk tweeted this week. That’s presumably a circular antenna atop an extended pole to try to lift it away from any other objects that might block its line-of-sight.

More at link.

[sneakypete]

Past threads is going to be left alone

@kevindavis

Wouldn't hurt to put links to them at the top,and maybe even especially the bottom,of this thread so that anytime anyone knew to it clicks on to it,they can go to the beginning and work their way forward.

[Elderberry]

@kevindavis

Wouldn't hurt to put links to them at the top,and maybe even especially the bottom,of this thread so that anytime anyone knew to it clicks on to it,they can go to the beginning and work their way forward.

Watch what you ask for. The beginning goes back a ways.  I don't know how far back the beginning was. Like this one?

 NASA awards space taxi contract to Boeing and SpaceX
« on: September 16, 2014, 05:05:09 PM »

[kevindavis007]

@kevindavis

Wouldn't hurt to put links to them at the top,and maybe even especially the bottom,of this thread so that anytime anyone knew to it clicks on to it,they can go to the beginning and work their way forward.

Nice idea, but it goes way back.. At least 6 years!!!!

[kevindavis007]

SpaceX Starship Tank Test Performs "Pretty Good" & Dragon IFA Delayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyrbGRo1n6w

[sneakypete]

Nice idea, but it goes way back.. At least 6 years!!!!

@kevindavis

Maybe do a stand-alone link for each year? That way anyone really interested could download a whole year of posts at a time to look over,and it would just take one link per year?

Talking off the top of my head here because  have no idea of the amount of actual work or time that would be needed.

[kevindavis007]

@kevindavis

Maybe do a stand-alone link for each year? That way anyone really interested could download a whole year of posts at a time to look over,and it would just take one link per year?

Talking off the top of my head here because  have no idea of the amount of actual work or time that would be needed.

I'll see what I can do.

[kevindavis007]

Inside look at Blue Origin headquarters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztn6Iyg38-8

[Elderberry]

Elon Musk And Tesla Are Hobbling SpaceX's Long-Term Viability

Seeking Alpha by John Engle 1/10/2020

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4316215-elon-musk-and-tesla-are-hobbling-spacexs-long-term-viability

Summary

Tesla's brand – as well as Elon Musk's personal brand – is built on sustainability and futurist positivity; while beneficial for the EV company, this has limited another Musk company.

SpaceX has successfully disrupted the space launch industry, but has failed to become profitable; with fewer launches in 2019 than in either 2018 or 2017, it needs another income stream.

Government weapon systems contracts would make an obvious and synergistic play for SpaceX; however, it is foreclosed from pursuing the opportunity due to the potential negative impact on Tesla's brand.

Tesla's brand and reputation are buoyed by a hardcore of true believers, but supported by a much wider following; moving into weapon systems, though more stable and lucrative than launch, could alienate customers from Tesla.

Thanks to the deep pockets of the Defense Department, weapon systems contracts are immensely valuable and big multi-year development contracts, with a tendency for massive cost overruns to be the norm rather than the exception adding to their allure. Such contracts are the bread and butter of many aerospace firms. Lockheed Martin's (LMT) F-35 jet fighter program is expected to cost U.S. taxpayers upward of $1 trillion over its 60-year lifecycle.

With so much money to be made, it stands to reason that an upstart like SpaceX (SPACE) might want to get in on the action. For an unprofitable company with a $33.3 billion valuation and mounting competition in its core launch business, it might seem like a no-brainer.

Yet, the upstart aerospace firm, which has competed head-to-head against established industry stalwarts for rocket launch contracts, often successfully, has steered clear of the weapons sector.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

Japanese billionaire Maezawa seeks girlfriend for SpaceX voyage

Fox Business by Sam Nussey 1/12/2020

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/japanese-billionaire-maezawa-girlfriend-spacex-voyage

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's search for a girlfriend to join him on a voyage around the moon will be the subject of a new documentary program, in the latest attention-grabbing stunt by the entrepreneur.

44-year-old Maezawa, who sold his online fashion retailer Zozo Inc to SoftBank Group Corp, is seeking single females aged over 20 for the show, which will be shown on streaming service AbemaTV.

"As feelings of loneliness and emptiness slowly begin to surge upon me, there's one thing that I think about: continuing to love one woman,'' wrote Maezawa on a website for applicants.

More at link.

[Elderberry]

Before 2020 Is Over, SpaceX Will Offer Satellite Broadband Internet

The Motley Fool by Rich Smith 1/12/2020

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/12/before-2020-is-over-spacex-will-offer-satellite-br.aspx

By 2025, SpaceX could be earning $22 billion a year.

For the better part of a decade, the world has waited for SpaceX to deliver on its promise to provide high-speed internet from space. The wait is finally over.

Broadband satellite internet is here ... or will be before the year is out.

Satellites galore

Over time, SpaceX intends to launch at least 12,000 -- and possibly as many as 42,000 -- "Starlink" internet satellites. Granted, this is a long-term, stretch goal, and it will take years to orbit all of the (tens of) thousands of satellites envisioned. But Elon Musk says Starlink will be able to begin delivering at least "moderate" internet coverage to many locations on Earth once SpaceX has gotten 800 satellites into orbit.

How close is SpaceX to that goal?

On Monday evening, January 6, SpaceX successfully launched its second "official" Starlink mission, carrying 60 satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. In addition to the 115 operational satellites put into orbit on previous launches, this gives the company about 175 operational internet satellites in orbit today.

Assuming SpaceX continues putting satellites in orbit at a rate of 60 satellites per launch (and doesn't attempt to accelerate deployment by using bigger Falcon Heavy or Starship rockets), 11 more Falcon 9-Starlink missions should suffice to surpass the 800-sat threshold for "moderate" internet coverage. At a planned launch rate of two Falcon 9 launches per month, therefore, Starlink should reach this goal by the end of June 2020. By the end of the year, Starlinks in orbit should reach 1,500.

More at link.

[EdinVA]

Before 2020 Is Over, SpaceX Will Offer Satellite Broadband Internet

The Motley Fool by Rich Smith 1/12/2020

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/12/before-2020-is-over-spacex-will-offer-satellite-br.aspx

60 Satellites per launch... they must be small, softball size?
Will each of these 1500 orbits be individually controllable?

[catfish1957]

Japanese billionaire Maezawa seeks girlfriend for SpaceX voyage

Fox Business by Sam Nussey 1/12/2020

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/japanese-billionaire-maezawa-girlfriend-spacex-voyage

Maybe Musk can turn his Space X ship into a brothel.  He's already had sex with the American Taxpayer for his Tesla subsidized boondoggle.

[Elderberry]

60 Satellites per launch... they must be small, softball size?
Will each of these 1500 orbits be individually controllable?

Why will Starlink satellites use krypton instead of xenon for electric propulsion?

Space Exploration Beta

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/36165/why-will-starlink-satellites-use-krypton-instead-of-xenon-for-electric-propulsio/36169

The press kit for the first Falcon 9 Starlink launch and deployment of the first 60 satllites scheduled for May 15, 2019 says:

    With a flat-panel design featuring multiple high-throughput antennas and a single solar array, each Starlink satellite weighs approximately 227kg, allowing SpaceX to maximize mass production and take full advantage of Falcon 9’s launch capabilities. To adjust position on orbit, maintain intended altitude, and deorbit, Starlink satellites feature Hall thrusters powered by krypton. (emphasis added)

Most of the electric propulsion systems that I've heard of use xenon. While the lighter krypton would have a higher Isp at a given acceleration voltage, I assume Xenon has a slightly lower ionization potential and so would be easier to ionize.

DC power for electromagnets for confinement and RF power supply for plasma excitation can dominate the weight of an ion propulsion engine (depending on the specific design and principle), so in for these svelte and featherweight spacecraft I would have thought that the'd go with the lower ionization potential of xenon which presumably can be ionized with lower electron energy.

[catfish1957]

Before 2020 Is Over, SpaceX Will Offer Satellite Broadband Internet

br.aspx]https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/12/before-2020-is-over-spacex-will-offer-satellite-br.aspx[/url]

42,000 satellites in geosynchronous orbit?  How is anyone going to keep these things from bumping into each other?

A billion years from now the next intelligent being that finds us is going to first think we are ringed planet, but are going to be shocked when they find it is mostly just metal debris.

[sneakypete]

Maybe Musk can turn his Space X ship into a brothel.  He's already had sex with the American Taxpayer for his Tesla subsidized boondoggle.

@catfish1957

I don't care. He managed to launch a sports roadster off into interstellar space with an astronaut pressure suit sitting behind the wheel,and I am ready to forgive him for damn near anything because of that.

I can't help but imagine the impact this will have when some alien race hundreds of years from now spots this strange thing entering their area,and sending out a ship to investigate.

Makes for a little "happy moment" for me every time I think of it.

[EdinVA]

Why will Starlink satellites use krypton instead of xenon for electric propulsion?

Space Exploration Beta

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/36165/why-will-starlink-satellites-use-krypton-instead-of-xenon-for-electric-propulsio/36169

That is wild..... thanks

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[catfish1957]

@catfish1957

I don't care. He managed to launch a sports roadster off into interstellar space with an astronaut pressure suit sitting behind the wheel,and I am ready to forgive him for damn near anything because of that.

I can't help but imagine the impact this will have when some alien race hundreds of years from now spots this strange thing entering their area,and sending out a ship to investigate.

Makes for a little "happy moment" for me every time I think of it.

Okay....he screwed us with style.   

[Elderberry]

I don't care. He managed to launch a sports roadster off into interstellar space with an astronaut pressure suit sitting behind the wheel,and I am ready to forgive him for damn near anything because of that.

I can't help but imagine the impact this will have when some alien race hundreds of years from now spots this strange thing entering their area,and sending out a ship to investigate.

Makes for a little "happy moment" for me every time I think of it.

@sneakypete

I hope that hundreds of years from now the heliocentric orbit that the Tesla is in will be crowded with "Space Train Cars" carrying goods between Earth and Mars.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a16571489/elon-musk-space-tesla-mars/

Elon Musk's Space Tesla Isn't Going to Mars. It's Going Somewhere More Important.

The Falcon Heavy launch would place the Roadster into a heliocentric orbit, meaning that like the planets and comets and so on, it will be orbiting the sun. More specifically, the Muskmobile will go into a type of heliocentric orbit called Trans-Mars injection, which it is the easiest and least energy-intensive way to move objects back and forth between Earth and Mars.

At specific moments every two years, the conditions are right to fire up the spacecraft’s engines and slide from one orbit to the other. A future transportation network that supplies a Martian colony would benefit from this kind of scheduling. Think of Musk's car like a city bus on a scheduled run through the solar system, slung this way and that to take advantage of the gravitational pull of the sun to make it easier to get into Earth or Martian orbits.

Since the Tesla doesn’t have thrusters, it won’t make that jump into Martian orbit. It'll be a Flying Dutchman, careening through the solar system for billions of years. Even so, the opportunity for a private company to launch anything on a jaunt through the solar system is itself a game changer. The fact that the launch may help lay the groundwork for industrialization and colonization makes this far more than a publicity stunt.

[sneakypete]

@sneakypete

I hope that hundreds of years from now the heliocentric orbit that the Tesla is in will be crowded with "Space Train Cars" carrying goods between Earth and Mars.

@Elderberry

I do,too . Eventually mankind is going to need another place to live,and if we wait until then to go looking,it will be too late.

[kevindavis007]

SpaceX Starship Testing Continues - Pad 39A & Fairing Upgrades For U.S. Space Force

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[kevindavis007]

Start-ups join Google, SpaceX and OneWeb to bring new technologies to space
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/10/startups-join-google-spacex-to-bring-new-technologies-to-space.html

[kevindavis007]

SpaceX Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIZnaMXTEU

[kevindavis007]

Launch Pad for #BlueOrigin 16 January 2020

https://twitter.com/John_Winkopp/status/1217897040627273732