Tag: SpaceXs

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Business

SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission for NASA launches efficiently, reaches orbit

SpaceX's Crew-2 mission for NASA launches successfully, reaches orbit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the astronauts from the Crew 2 mission will launch on April 23, 2021 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from Launch Complex 39A.

GREGG NEWTON | AFP | Getty Images

SpaceX launched another group of astronauts for NASA early Friday morning. Elon Musk’s company has now sent 10 astronauts into space in less than a year.

The Crew 2 mission, the company’s second operational mission for NASA and the third to date, successfully reached orbit after being launched at 5:49 a.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket brought the four astronauts into space in the company’s Crew Dragon spaceship called “Endeavor”.

The launch marked several new novelties for SpaceX, with the company reusing both a rocket and capsule for the mission, surpassing the total number of astronauts launched into space under the Mercury program, which began in 1958.

“It was just spectacular,” said acting NASA administrator Steve Jurczyk after the start of the Crew 2 mission. “Our partnership with SpaceX has been enormous.”

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet is now on its way to the International Space Station. The mission is scheduled to dock with the ISS approximately 24 hours after takeoff around 5:10 a.m. EDT on Saturday. The Crew 2 team will then conduct a full-term mission on the ISS and spend approximately six months on board.

After launch, SpaceX also landed the booster of its Falcon 9 rocket, the large lower part of the rocket. This Falcon 9 rocket booster previously launched the Crew 1 mission in November, and SpaceX plans to continue using it for future missions.

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Business

SpaceX’s Starship sole winner in NASA’s HLS Moon lander program

SpaceX's Starship sole winner in NASA's HLS Moon lander program

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ceremoniously raises his arms beneath a prototype Starship rocket under construction in Boca Chica, Texas.

Steve Jurvetson on flickr

Elon Musk’s SpaceX knocked out teams led by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Leidos subsidiary Dynetics and won a nearly $ 3 billion contract to build NASA’s next manned lunar lander.

“It is another step in an exciting set of steps that leads us to a sustainable human landing system on the moon,” said Kathy Lueders, director of NASA’s manned space program, in the agency’s announcement.

SpaceX’s order is valued at $ 2.89 billion. The Washington Post first reported on SpaceX’s victory on Friday.

NASA awarded the three teams $ 967 million last year and a 10-month contract to begin work on the lunar landing concepts as part of its Human Landing Systems (HLS) program. SpaceX received the smallest amount of the three at $ 135 million. Meanwhile, Dynetics received $ 253 million and Blue Origin received $ 579 million.

NASA was expected to select two of the three teams, which makes SpaceX’s sole selection surprising given the agency’s previous goals for the program, which is supposed to remain a competition.

Starship’s SN11 prototype rocket is on the launchpad at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas facility.

SpaceX

For the HLS program, Musk’s company offered a variation of its Starship rocket, prototypes of which SpaceX has tested at its development facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The company has had several successful Starship test flights to date, although attempts to land after the last four soaring have resulted in a multitude of fiery explosions.

NASA said their astronauts will use Starship to transfer from the agency’s Orion spacecraft when the capsule reaches lunar orbit.

HLS is part of NASA’s Artemis mission to land astronauts on the moon by 2024.

The mission was announced by the administration of President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden’s press secretary has indicated that the current administration expects to proceed with Artemis.

Bezos’ space company announced plans to build a manned lunar lander in 2019 and announced that it would partner with industry giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. Dynetics from Leidos teamed up with the Sierra Nevada Corporation for his concept and was considered a dark horse in the race.

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Business

Relativity’s reusable Terran rocket competitor to SpaceX’s Falcon 9

Relativity's reusable Terran rocket competitor to SpaceX's Falcon 9

An artist’s impression of the size difference between the company’s Terran 1 rocket on the left and the proposed Terran R rocket.

Relativity space

Relativity Space, the 3D printed rocket builder, is making another big bet: developing a fully reusable rocket that matches the power and capabilities of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

Named the Terran R, the reusable missile is “an obvious evolution” of the company’s Terran 1 missile, Tim Ellis, CEO of Relativity, told CNBC – the Relativity is expected to launch for the first time later in 2021.

“It’s the same architecture, the same propellant, the same factory, the same 3D printers, the same avionics and the same team,” said Ellis.

“I’ve always been a big fan of reusability. No matter how you look at it – even with 3D printing and with falling costs [increasing the] The automation of a launcher – to make it reusable has to be part of that future, “added Ellis.

Terran R is the first of several new initiatives that Ellis is expected to introduce in the coming year. The company has raised more than $ 680 million since it was founded five years ago. Just like Terran 1, Relativity Terran R will build more than 90% of the parts through additive manufacturing – using the world’s largest 3D printers, as Ellis calls it the “factory of the future”.

The theory of relativity, valued at $ 2.3 billion, is one of the most valuable private space companies in the world. Investors include Tiger Global Management, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Mark Cuban and more.

The factory floor of Relativity’s new headquarters in Long Beach, California.

Relativity space

Ellis pointed out that, despite the announcement of Terran R, Relativity is “very much focused on getting Terran 1 out for the first time,” which he believes is planned for later this year.

And the company plans to keep Terran 1 long term, as Ellis believes “it’s a great product”.

“We’re not making a change from ‘Falcon 1 to Falcon 9’,” said Ellis, noting how Elon Musk’s SpaceX originally built and planned to operate a smaller rocket.

Take over the dominant falcon 9

A composite image showing a Falcon 9 rocket booster taking off and landing back near the launch pad a few minutes later.

SpaceX

Terran R is an extension of Relativity’s offering in the starter market.

Terran 1 costs 12 million US dollars per launch and is designed to carry 1,250 kilograms into low-earth orbit. In terms of price and performance, Terran 1 is in the middle of the US launch market between Electron from Rocket Lab and Falcon 9 from SpaceX.

Ellis said Terran R will be able to lift nearly 20 times as much payload as Terran 1, with Relativity targeting a rocket that can put more than 20,000 kilograms into near-earth orbit. That would be near the 22,800 kilograms that can be fired from the Falcon 9 rockets, according to SpaceX.

While Ellis refused to disclose the per-launch price that Relativity expects for Terran R, he said that Relativity plans to compete with other offerings. SpaceX is promoting Falcon 9 rocket launches at a price of $ 62 million. According to Musk’s company, each rocket costs about $ 28 million to launch.

“We were really asked by the market to create something [Terran R] and we’re currently talking to customers, “said Ellis.

According to Ellis, Relativity has a multi-billion dollar pipeline of “in active dialogue” contracts for the Terran 1 and Terran R missiles, with customer interest evenly divided between the two vehicles. He noted that the Terran 1 contracts Relativity has announced so far have mandatory launch service agreements so customers pay for deposits for the missiles.

“There are tons of customers all getting funding and making big plans, and that increases the need for more launch capacity around the world,” said Ellis.

Not only does the CEO of Relativity expect to be competitive in the marketplace, but he also believes that more spacecraft will launch than trips into orbit.

“There is actually going to be a lack of launch when you look at how many people are trying to get payloads into space,” Ellis said. “Almost every model we’ve looked at has to have more launch vehicles to implement even a fraction of the plans people are talking about.”

Ellis also praised Terran R’s reusability as a further improvement in Relativity’s competitiveness.

“I just don’t see a future where a fully reusable missile doesn’t and doesn’t have to exist,” Ellis said.

He highlighted SpaceX’s work on reusability as an indication of relativity’s approach to Terran R, which he expects to be “fully reusable”. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets are partially reusable as the company lands the first stage (also known as a booster) and often restores the rocket’s nose cone. However, SpaceX is not restoring the second phases of Falcon 9 – a feat that is said to achieve relativity through 3D printed designs that “wouldn’t be possible with traditional manufacturing,” Ellis said.

“We will be able to print far more exotic and traditionally difficult-to-make materials that will greatly improve reusability in both the first and second stages,” said Ellis.

No factory changes required

The company’s “Stargate” 3D printer.

Relativity space

Relativity’s focus on 3D printing means the company doesn’t have to change its production line or add new equipment.

“The Terran R printers will be built directly with software changes,” said Ellis.

“It’s a completely different technology stack for the aerospace industry,” added Ellis. “Every aerospace factory you go to today is still building products with huge stationary tools and a very complex supply chain. It takes many years to develop a new product. If you want to make minor tweaks and changes, you have to rip them all out that and start all over again. “

The theory of relativity built Terran 1 with the expectation that Terran R would come.

Ellis noted that Terran 1 runs on liquid oxygen and liquid methane – propellants are at the heart of next-generation reusable rockets. Even the company’s test facilities at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi are “already sized” to test the larger engines needed for Terran R, he said.

“A lot of the pieces are quite similar architecturally, but what is completely different is the fact that [Terran R] is completely reusable, “said Ellis.

Engine tests started

The enterprise test fires an Aeon 1 engine that is upgraded with copper and designed for use in the upper stage of the Terran R rocket at its facility at NASA’s Stennis center in Mississippi.

Relativity space

Relativity has completed hundreds of tests on its Aeon 1 engines that will power Terran 1 – but Terran R will include a “new engine called the Aeon R” that the company has begun development, Ellis said.

“We tested the engine for the upper stage as well,” said Ellis. “It’s a copper chamber engine … and it’s actually the same engine on the top tier of Terran R now that it was on Terran 1.”

The company expects to conduct Mission Duty Cycle Tests, also known as full-time tests, on the new, more powerful engine in the coming days, Ellis said.

Relativity plans to launch Terran R from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the company previously secured a launch site for Terran 1.

More details will follow

Construction of the company’s launchpad on the LC-16 in Cape Canaveral, Florida is underway.

Relativity space

Although Ellis refused to speak specifically about his expectations for Terran R’s development schedule, he said the company is announcing it now that it has started building hardware and running tests.

“I think it was only a matter of time before we could keep it a secret,” said Ellis, noting that the theory of relativity “is out now, selling Terran R-starts.”

The company will announce more details about the Terran R design and specifications later this year. As Relativity plans to land its Terran R rockets, Ellis said his company will “maybe” use both concrete landing pads and drone ships, as SpaceX is doing.

Overall, Ellis has a vision of 3D-printed reusable missiles as “the inevitable technology we need to build the industrial base of humanity on Mars” – a goal akin to Musk’s dream of “turning humanity into a multiplanetary species.” “by building settlements on the red planet. Ellis believes Relativity and SpaceX may be two companies ushering in a new era of exploration.

“We need to inspire tens to hundreds of companies to do this,” he said.

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Health

She Beat Most cancers at 10. Now She’ll Be a part of SpaceX’s First Personal Journey to Orbit.

She Beat Cancer at 10. Now She'll Join SpaceX's First Private Trip to Orbit.

Hayley Arceneaux, 29, had hoped this would be the year she would achieve her goal of visiting all seven continents before she turned 30.

However, she won’t have time for it.

She goes into space.

Ms. Arceneaux, a medical assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, will be one of four people on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket taking off from Florida. It’s slated to launch later this year and be the first crewed mission to orbit Earth where no one on board is a professional astronaut.

“I asked, ‘Will I get a passport stamp to go into space?'” Ms. Arceneaux said. “But I don’t think I’ll do it. So I’ll just draw a star and the moon in one of my passports. “

This adventure is led by Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire who announced in January that he had bought the rocket launch from SpaceX, the space company founded by Elon Musk. Mr. Isaacman said at the time that he wanted the mission to be more than an outing for the super rich and that he had given St. Jude two of the four available spots.

One of them will go to a random winner of a sweepstakes competition to raise money for the hospital, which treats children for free and develops cures for childhood cancer and other diseases.

The other seat, Isaacman said, is occupied by a front line health worker in St. Jude, someone who symbolizes hope.

On Monday, St. Jude and Mr. Isaacman officials announced that Ms. Arceneaux was the person they had selected.

Ms. Arceneaux could be the youngest American to ever travel to orbit. She will also be the first person to go into space with a prosthetic body. She was a patient in St. Jude nearly 20 years ago, and metal bars replaced parts of the bones in her left leg as part of her treatment for bone cancer.

In the past, this would have kept her firmly on the ground and would not have been able to meet NASA’s strict medical standards for astronauts. But the advent of privately funded space travel has opened the final frontier to some people who were previously excluded.

Dr. Michael D. Neel, the orthopedic surgeon who installed Ms. Arceneaux’s prosthesis, says that while artificial leg bones mean she can’t practice contact sports on Earth, they shouldn’t limit her on this SpaceX trek.

“It shows us that the sky is not the limit,” said Dr. Neel. “It’s Heaven and Beyond. I think that’s the real point of it all, that it has very few restrictions on what you can do. Unless you’re playing soccer up there. “

Ms. Arceneaux said she hoped to inspire patients at St. Jude.

“You will be able to see a cancer survivor in space, especially one who went through the same thing as you,” she said. “It will help you visualize your future.”

Richard C. Shadyac Jr., president of ALSAC, the St. Jude fundraising organization, said of Ms. Arceneaux, “If anyone was a symbol of hope, it was Hayley.”

Mrs. Arceneaux herself did not find out until early January that she would take a seat on the rocket. Hospital officials had vaguely told her there was an opportunity they wanted to talk to her about. She said she thought “maybe it would be a commercial or maybe give a speech somewhere.”

Instead, it was an opportunity to become an astronaut.

“I even kind of laughed,” said Ms. Arceneaux. “I thought: what? Yes. Yes, please, that would be great. “She added,” Let me talk to my mom. “

Her mother had no objection.

Ms. Arceneaux first stepped on St. Jude in 2002. She was 10 years old. She had earned her black belt in taekwondo shortly before, but complained of pain in her leg. Her mother saw a lump sticking out over her left knee. The pediatrician in the small town of St. Francisville, La., Where they lived not far from Baton Rouge, told them it was a cancerous tumor.

“We have all fallen apart,” said Mrs. Arceneaux. “I remember being so scared because by the age of 10 everyone I knew with cancer had died.”

In St. Jude, doctors gave the good news that the cancer had not spread to other parts of the body. Ms. Arceneaux had chemotherapy, prosthetic leg surgery, and long sessions of physical therapy.

Already at this young age, bald from chemotherapy, Ms. Arceneaux was helping with fundraising for St. Jude. The next year she was recognized by Louisiana Public Broadcasting with one of its Young Heroes Awards.

“When I grow up, I want to be a nurse in St. Jude,” she said in a video shown at the 2003 ceremony. “I want to be a mentor to patients. When they walk in I’ll say, “I had this when I was little and I’m fine.”

Last year Ms. Arceneaux was hired by St. Jude. She works with children with leukemia and lymphoma, such as a teenager she recently spoke to.

“I informed him that I had also lost my hair,” said Ms. Arceneaux. I said to him, ‘You can ask me anything. I am a former patient. I will tell you the truth, everything you want to know. ‘And he said,’ Are you really going to tell me the truth? ‘ And I said yes. “

His burning question: “Are you the one who goes into space?”

Mrs. Arceneaux had to evade. “I said, ‘Well, we’ll see who gets announced.'” She said. “But I think he knew because then he and his father said,” Yes! “and fifty.”

Ms. Arceneaux and Mr. Isaacman visited SpaceX’s California headquarters three times to meet with engineers and plan the trip. Unlike the missions SpaceX flies for NASA, it won’t go to the International Space Station, but will orbit the earth for three or four days before splashing off the coast of Florida.

“She has an adventurous spirit,” said Isaacman of Ms. Arceneaux. “And now she’s allowed to travel to the stars, which is pretty cool.”

It will be a few more weeks before they know who their companions will be.

The St. Jude Sweepstakes, featured in a television commercial that aired during the Super Bowl two weeks ago, will run until the end of the month. Around $ 9.5 million has been raised to date. That appears to be way below the $ 100 million Isaacman himself pledged for St. Jude, or the overall goal of $ 200 million. But Mr. Isaacman and Mr. Shadyac said the fundraiser was going beyond the sweepstakes and that they were happy with the progress.

“This is going to be a campaign that will last until launch,” said Shadyac.

The competition is structured in such a way that the amount of donations is effectively limited. Entry is free. A minimum donation of $ 10 buys 100 entries, and each additional dollar donated buys 10 additional entries, up to $ 1,000 for 10,000 entries.

There were some more expensive options that are now sold out. For example, Mr. Isaacman will give a donor who has donated $ 100,000 a ride on the Russian-built MiG-29 jet fighter he owns. The donor will also be given a trip to watch the launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But that donor still only has 10,000 entries in the contest, just like someone who donated $ 1,000.

Mr. Isaacman said this was a deliberate choice to prevent a wealthy person from trying to win the grand prize of a trip to space by buying millions of items.

“Will it represent everyone on earth and not just rich whites?” Mr. Isaacman said.

The fourth SpaceX seat goes to the winner of a competition sponsored by Shift4, Isaacman’s company, that sells terminals and point of sale systems for credit card processing to restaurants and other businesses. The “Shark Tank” -like competition calls on entrepreneurs to design an online shop with the Shift4 software and then publish a video on Twitter describing their business.

As of last week, fewer than 100 people had submitted full entries. “It means that once you’ve created and entered a Shift4 store, your chances are pretty amazing,” said Isaacman.