The Solar Sailer That Did

Lightsail 2 by EC Holm

When Lightsail 2 launched a year ago and first set sail, it was evident that the team had on their hands that an orbit that was less than ideal. Their perigee was low. With a craft that had rocket propulsion, this would have been no problem at all. Lightsail 2 has kryptonite that rockets do not, the source of propulsion is coming from one direction. The craft can only get a push from the Sun on one side of the planet, so it cannot circularize its orbit without the help of additional thrusters. The craft was only able to increase the eccentricity of its orbit, increase the apogee while the perigee decreases. Lightsail 2 was expected to deorbit after a few months, but it didn’t. Its mission control team pulled a rabbit out of a hat and minimized the altitude reduction as the craft made passed through its perigee thus extending its mission life. It has now been over a year. That's amazing. Congratulations to the Planetary Society and to the Lightsail 2 team.

Check out their mission control website: https://www.planetary.org/blogs/lightsail-2-extended-mission.html

Check out the one year in space celebration video by the Lightsail 2 team: https://youtu.be/Y4k1p0-59WE

Orbital Commercial Space is Open for Business

SpaceX has accomplished what many have said was impossible. They—a commercial company—have launched two humans successfully to orbit on the Crew Dragon (Dragon 2). Not only to orbit, but they have sent them to the International Space Station on May 30th, 2020. Some have said how important this accomplishment is for the United States to get back launching Americans from American soil. I agree; that's true. Nationalism aside, there is a much much deeper and more important milestone this accomplishment marks that few are saying, and it has to do with our future from here on out. It marks the beginning of commercial human operations. What does that mean? It means we are no longer dependant on government money to get humans to space. SpaceX will open the market to allow citizens and anyone to go to space.

An actor has a contract to go to the ISS on SpaceX Dragon to shoot a movie. Tom Cruise is reportedly going to ride on Crew Dragon to the space station in the near future (Verge article). This was announced almost a month before the launch. This is how Earth-shattering this launch is. It's already sparking space tourism.

A billionaire wants to go to space and take artists around the moon. He has a contract with SpaceX. The Dear Moon project by entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa hired SpaceX to take him and artists on a journey around the moon on Starship. It's the most ambitious space tourism feat yet. The Crew Dragon launch validates SpaceX's ability to launch humans into space and thus to launch them on the yet to be developed Starship as well.

I heard on the webcast of the launch that SpaceX plans on sending making available twice a year on Crew Dragon a year to the ISS. This article from the Verge states that SpaceX made an agreement with Space Adventures to have four private citizens in the next year or so. 

Now, the future can open up. Commercial Space Stations project entrepreneurs can make real plans because they have a way to get people to their stations. Axiom Space, Bigelow Aerospace, and the Gateway Foundation have been surely watching eagerly the Crew Dragon launch.

Low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and deep space are all potential destinations for commercial human missions and colonies. The successful launch of Crew Dragon is amazing and is also the key to an open and profitable space future. Ad Astra.

Virgin Orbit First Launch Attempt

Virgin Orbit attempted its first rocket launch on May 25th, 2020. It experienced an anomaly shortly after the Boeing 747, Cosmic Girl, released the rocket, LauncherOne, and the rocket ignited. So far they haven't given any details as to what when wrong.

I followed their live Twitter feed as they attempted this launch. My impression is that this is a very complicated procedure, more so than a regular rocket launch. The rocket is powered by liquid fuel which is a first of its kind, air-launched rocket. The Pegasus of Northrup Grumman has solid rocket motors. The other thing Virgin Orbit is doing differently is that they are pitching the nose of Cosmic Girl up dramatically to release the rocket. This is to give the rocket a better angle than horizontal since it doesn't have a main wing-like Pegasus does. So, there's lots of variable and lots of things that can go wrong with LauncherOne.

Yeah, it was disappointing to hear that the rocket failed. It was a test flight, and there was no customer payload to lose. Still, I rooted for these guys, and they are doing something pretty extraordinary.

Virgin Orbit is focused on launching cube sats and compete with Rocket Lab.  Air launch does have a couple of advantages over regular land launches. It allows for launches form any airport. The rocket uses less fuel since it launches at altitude. Virgin Orbit aims to keep the launch prices for the customer significantly lower than the customers of the Pegasus system. 

UPDATE: According to Virgin Orbit post dated May 25th, the mission was a success, and data was collected to make modifications for the next flight. This kind of approach is reminiscent of the Russian way of development, which is to use actual tests to figure out the next step of development. It is a practical approach and can be more cost-effective than buying or making specialized test equipment just to develop one rocket. At least, that's opinions that I've heard over the years. I don't know how true that is. I just have to trust what they're doing and hope for the best. Any of these companies could always go the way of XCOR. Commercial space is a big gamble, but Sir Richard Branson is very resourceful, and his team of engineers and professionals seem really capable.

Posting Again

I want to start posting here again. I think the time is right. I initially stopped posting in 2017 because a lot of YouTubers came on and started to inform the public on commercial space which was my purpose. So, at that time I didn't see much point continuing. Also, a lot of social media groups came on and fans started to gather. People started to become interested in Space and not only space but in more science, technology, math, and engineering. This was a good thing and I applauded it. I heard of people, both men and women going into science and engineering. That was awesome. I hope the best for them.

Years on, now we have more science detractors. We have a pandemic. We have more commercial space companies. SpaceX is booming. Virgin Group has grown and is still working on its projects. Blue Origin has flown its suborbital craft and is working on its orbital rocket. Statolaunch has been bought out. Xcor went under. Dreamchaser project still holds on to the dream, and its parent company, Sierra Nevada, still gets contracts, very healthy. Bigelow waits. Then Axiom comes up with a commercial space station contract with NASA. It's not called that but it does the job. There is so much to talk about. More YouTubers are on talking about space projects and the field seems endless. I think it's finally happening. Commercial space is making a foothold and is here to stay. So, it can only get bigger. And I can only give my two cents on what all this means and how all this is going down.

Mad Dash to Plan B

NASA needs a bigger budget from Congress to get to Mars. Check out Dan Vergano’s article, NASA's Mars Program Is As Sad As It’s Ever Been

Elon Musk is considering pulling back on Mars for now. Check out this interview:

He needs to get the astronauts to space and to the ISS. He also needs to make it happen by next year. No  pressure. Except, no more landing legs for Dragon (see minute 35:45). So no power landing for it either, so no Red Dragon, either, and Dragon won’t land on the moon either. Come to think about it, that’s a lot of things. And there goes much of Musk's Mars plans for Mars out the window. And why? Well, real practical practice takes priority over dreams.

Notice that Musk said, “If you want to get people fired up, you make a base on the Moon. And then going beyond that, getting people to Mars.” He said this in minute 24:46.

Robert Bigelow was also at the same conference Musk was at. Check out this video.

Bigelow proposes going back to the moon before Mars because the Chinese are heading to the moon and we need to beat them to it. The prize is resources.

ESA wants to make an international base on the moon. They have been in talks with China about it, (article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/moon-base-outpost-china-europe-chinese-space-agency-collaboration-together-a7702936.html) That’s very interesting. Let’s wait and see how things pan out.

It seems that Russia also has an interest in a mission to the moon (article: https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/15/roscosmos-first-manned-moon-landing/) We also need to wait on this as well. Maybe they will hook up with another country for this.

So what do we make of all this talk in the summer of 2017? To me, I can only conclude that for now Mars is out and the Moon is in on everyone’s agenda, including NASA’s. In my opinion this represents a change of plans that is steered by finances and resources. It’s sad that the dreamers dreams are put on hold for Mars. If you want to see a Mars landing, I suggest you keep healthy and plan to live a long life.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” Robert Burns.

Second Stages in the Planning

In recent history, SpaceX has demonstrated mastery of first stage reusability with the launch and landing of their first stage Falcon 9 again. What of the second stage? ULA, Blue Origin, and SpaceX all have planned, designed, and are building rockets that make innovative use of the second or upper stage.

The New Glenn rocket, by Blue Origin, is to be a very large reusable first stage. The second stage is a throw away, just like the traditional second stages. The innovation comes where they stack two second stages on top of one another. This effectively makes a bigger overall rocket without extra development costs of designing a bigger second stage. Sounds interesting, but nothing spectacular.

The Vulcan rocket, by ULA, will have the ACES upper stage. ACES will be more than just an upper stage, it will be a space tug capable of taking payloads to the lunar surface. It will also be able to refuel other ACES. It will have a fuel cell to produce its own electricity and take payloads on long duration missions. Reminds me of a five year mission I heard somewhere...hmm. I doubt that it's fuel cell will last that long without ref

Credit NASA: Saturn V second stage

ueling, but overall it sound pretty cool for commercial science missions.

The Interplanetary Spaceship, by SpaceX, seemingly doesn't have an upper stage. It's upper stage has been incorporated into the body of the spaceship. Yep, it's that thing in the back with 40 raptor engines. What SpaceX has done in designing this ship, is that they have created a ship straight out of classic science fiction. The second stage has become fully reusable. It does everything. It launches. It refuels. It lands. What more could you ask for from an upper stage? In my mind, this design takes the lot. It's far out there. It makes you think why we weren't designing spaceships like this in the first place. But that's a whole other discussion. In the interim, SpaceX may try to reuse land and reuse an upper stage on its Falcon Heavy. If successful, it would mean another technical and economic victory, over launch prices, for the company.

Rockets are changing, hopefully for the better. Which application of the upper stage will become standard? Only time will tell.

Clipped Space Wings

2015 has seen some sad developments in new space companies that tout systems with wings. Virgin Galactic, Stratolaunch, and XCOR have all seen changes in their programs with not much progress.It seems to me that this is the year that space wings have been clipped.

Virgin Galactic was the venerated company that inherited the technology from Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne, winner of the Ansari X-Prize. Yet, its SpaceShipTwo suffered a disaster that killed a crew member, injured another, and destroyed the ship. It never made it to space. Due to constant changes to engines and other design features, it probably never will. I realized that this program was in real trouble when I read the article Virging Glactic gets a 747 jet to serve as a flying launch pad for its LauncherOne rocket . It said that VG had changed the mother craft for LauncherOne to launch from from the WhiteKnightTwo to a Boeing 747. That tells me the company sees no end to SpaceShipTwo’s problems. Perhaps we should also see no end either.

Stratolaunch was touted as the largest plane in the world. Then I read the article Stratolaunch Without Final Conception which said that not only has its company changed the rocket it would launch twice, but now the plane itself was in jeopardy. Someone seems to have bitten off more than they can chew; I think.

Then there is XCOR. They were to be a competitor to VG with their space-plane Lynx. Now the main guy Jeff Greason has left his position to a board position according to their news post. They also have not made much progress. What is taking so long? I fear the worse: lack of customers and cash.

All of this comes in a year when two new space rocket companies have made fantastic progress in doing the impossible: landing rockets. I'm talking about, of course, Blue Origin and SpaceX. Both companies have money backing them, one way or another, a strong handle on development, and strong top people to see the projects through. I think, in the end, that makes all the difference.

Shall we say farewell to the dream of space-wings? Perhaps, it’s farewell for now.