Rockets

Putting satellites, cargo, and astronauts into space is an expensive proposition. As a result, all the private companies working with NASA are attempting to reuse some of the rocket hardware to help reduce the cost of launches. SpaceX is the best-known company in the private space industry, with its Falcon 9 rockets being routinely reused. While SpaceX may be the best known, it's certainly not the only private company working to put satellites and other cargo into orbit as efficiently and cheaply as possible.

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SpaceX faces a "genuine risk of bankruptcy" if Starship can't fly once every two weeks in 2022, Elon Musk has warned employees, blaming rocket engine production challenges and management crisis for the surprise ultimatum. Starship is set not only to take NASA's Artemis mission to the Moon later this decade and, beyond that, missions to Mars, in addition to being a key part of SpaceX's own products like the Starlink satellite internet service.

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This week was a busy one for SpaceX, having launched the Crew-3 mission to the ISS. Only days later, SpaceX also launched another Falcon 9 to put 53 Starlink satellites into orbit. This was an interesting flight shrouded in fog at launch but had decent weather above the fog layer.

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SpaceX is been working on various prototypes of its Starship spacecraft, and some have ended in spectacular failure. However, SpaceX has worked most of the bugs out of Starship and has announced that its first orbital test flight could happen in November. Word of the potential orbital test flight came from CEO Elon Musk.

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With drones increasingly utilized as common warfare and surveillance technologies, a number of government contractors and agencies have funded projects that look into new ways to knock the aerial vehicles out of the sky. The latest among them is BAE Systems, which has tested a modified rocket featuring a laser guidance system to shoot down drones without the cost of existing missile options.

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Blue Origin is a private space company looking forward to launching its NS-18 mission with civilians going into space. Blue Origin notified the public via a tweet yesterday that winds at its West Texas launch facility were forecast to be too high for the launch to occur as planned. The launch has been rescheduled for October 13, with liftoff targeted for 8:30 AM CDT.

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China is gearing up to send its next crewed mission to its orbiting space station. On October 7, Chinese space officials rolled the Long March 2F rocket vertically to its launchpad. The launch will happen at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Atop the 203-foot tall rocket was the astronaut carrying Shenzhou 13 spacecraft.

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The US Space Force USSF-44 mission set to launch on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has been delayed once again due to a 'payload readiness' issue, Space Force Command has confirmed. The USSF-44 mission was first scheduled to launch this past July, but was delayed to early October because the payload wasn't ready. The next launch date is less firm, but will happen next year.

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SpaceX launched a mission with a fully civilian crew a few days ago called Inspiration4. It was a milestone trip into orbit as the first mission to feature an entirely civilian crew. Crew members launched into orbit last Wednesday and orbited the Earth at an altitude of 363 miles above the surface.

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One of the coolest things about the Crew Dragon capsule used for the Inspiration4 mission that put an all civilian crew in orbit happened due to being able to remove the docking connector from the nose of the capsule. Typically, in the nose of a Crew Dragon capsule is the docking apparatus for connecting the capsule to the ISS. Since Inspiration4 isn't docking with the ISS, that apparatus was removed, and in its place was put a cupola to give crewmembers an incredible view of space and Earth while in orbit.

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SpaceX and Inspiration4 are on track for a launch of the groundbreaking first all-civilian crew into space, with blast-off currently scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, September 15 in the US. If all goes to plan, the four-strong crew will ride a SpaceX Crew Dragon into orbit around Earth, for the start of a three day mission.

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This week was a big one for Firefly Aerospace. The company is a small private space firm that was trying to reach orbit using its Alpha orbital vehicle. Its first orbital attempt happened on September 2 with liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The goal was to deploy multiple payloads in a low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 300 kilometers.

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