SpaceX shows off newly modified Starship Super Heavy booster (photos)
Mike Wall
Fri, August 18, 2023
a shiny silver rocket booster sits in a building with corrugating tin walls
SpaceX has added some new hardware to its latest Starship rocket prototype, which is being prepped for a test flight in the near future.
Starship, SpaceX's next-gen deep-space transportation system, consists of two fully reusable elements — a huge first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft called Starship.
The pair has flown together only once to date, on an April 20 test flight from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas that aimed to send Starship partway around Earth. That didn't happen, however: Starship and Super Heavy failed to separate as planned, and SpaceX beamed up a self-destruct command, detonating the duo high above the Gulf of Mexico.
Related: Relive SpaceX's explosive 1st Starship test in incredible launch photos
a large metal ring descends from the ceiling of a warehouse-like building
SpaceX has made a variety of design changes in the wake of that debut, aiming to increase the chances of success on future Starship flights.
The most dramatic change concerns the spacecraft-separation system. It will be quite different on the next Starship mission, which will involve a Super Heavy prototype named Booster 9 and an upper-stage vehicle called Ship 25 — and SpaceX just gave us a sneak peak.
"Vented interstage and heat shield installed atop Booster 9. Starship and Super Heavy are being upgraded to use a separation method called hot-staging, where Starship's second stage engines will ignite to push the ship away from the booster," the company wrote today (Aug. 18) in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that shared two photos of the new hardware.
"The superhot plasma from the upper-stage engines has gotta go somewhere," Musk told journalist Ashlee Vance in a discussion on X on June 24, during which he revealed the design change. "So we're adding an extension to the booster that is almost all vents, essentially. So that allows the the upper-stage engine plume to go through the sort of vented extension of the booster and not just blow itself up."
Hot staging, which is commonly used on Russian rockets, could end up increasing Starship's payload-to-orbit capacity by 10%, Musk added.
RELATED STORIES:
— Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX's Mars-colonizing transportation system
— Elon Musk says SpaceX could launch a Starship to the moon 'probably sooner' than 2024: report
— FAA seeks to fine SpaceX for August 2022 Starlink launch
The flight of Booster 9 and Ship 25 will have similar goals as the April 20 mission, Musk has said. SpaceX aims to launch the test flight soon, but no target date has been announced.
And Starship has not yet been cleared for liftoff by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA, which grants launch licenses, is still reviewing the mishap report that SpaceX filed about the April 20 test flight.
"When a final mishap report is approved, it will identify the corrective actions SpaceX must make," FAA officials said in an emailed statement to Space.com this week. "Separately, SpaceX must modify its license to incorporate those actions before receiving authorization to launch again."SpaceX's new Bandwagon program is a big threat to small launch providers
Aria Alamalhodaei
Updated Fri, August 18, 2023
SpaceX is expanding its rideshare program with a new series of missions aimed at meeting the demand for launches to mid-inclination orbits. The new program, which was quietly announced at a space industry conference earlier this month, is the latest sign that SpaceX intends to take no prisoners in the small launch market.
Orbital inclination refers to what part of the Earth is visible to a satellite as it rotates around the planet. A satellite in an equatorial orbit is at 0 degrees inclination; a satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) is slightly higher than 90 degrees; and a mid-inclination orbit is around 45 degrees. Currently, SpaceX offers rideshare services on the Falcon 9 rocket to SSO through the Transporter program, which is in notoriously high demand.
But mid-inclination orbits (MIOs) are appealing to a growing number of customers, especially to remote sensing companies that want to strengthen their coverage over areas like parts of Asia and the Middle East. Right now, companies must often purchase a dedicated launch from Rocket Lab if they want to position a satellite in MIO.
With the new rideshare program, called Bandwagon, SpaceX is going after this slice of the market. According to SpaceX’s website, it currently has two Bandwagon missions booked for 2024 and two for 2025.
If they become even close to the popularity of the Rideshare program, they could be a major threat to all other small launch providers: According to Jarrod McLachlan, director of rideshare sales at SpaceX, who spoke at the industry conference, SpaceX has delivered 682 spacecraft to orbit to date via rideshare missions.
See Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket come together at Florida space coast factory (photo)
Andrew Jones
Sat, August 19, 2023
Blue Origin has provided a rare look inside their factory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) showing hardware for its new orbital rocket.
The image shared on Instagram shows rocket stage and interstage components and propellant tank domes for the New Glenn rocket on the factory floor in Florida. The post provided no details, so it is not known if the image shows test articles or potential flight hardware.
New Glenn has been in development for years and, after numerous delays, may fly for the first time next year. The rare glimpse at rocket hardware suggests Blue Origin is confident about the progress it is making towards a test launch.
Related: Blue Origin's BE-4 rocket engine exploded during June 30 test: report
The two-stage rocket will be 322 feet tall (98 meters) long and able to lift 14 tons (13 metric tons) to geostationary transfer orbit, and 50 tons (45 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.
The first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines. Blue Origin is also building BE-4s for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan launch vehicle.
New Glenn will have a reusable first stage and is seen as a potential alternative and competitor to SpaceX’s industry-dominating Falcon 9 rocket.
Cylindrical and dome pieces of metal are organized and laid out on the floor of a large factory. A long fuselage lays on the right.
Related Stories:
— ULA delays 1st launch of Vulcan Centaur rocket again
— Blue Origin says it finally knows what caused its New Shepard rocket launch to fail last year
— Powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite on final flight from California
Blue Origin has a long-term lease for Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for New Glenn launches, close to the production factory.
NASA has signed up New Glenn to its fleet of commercial launchers and the rocket could be used for crewed lunar missions. Blue Origin will build a second moon lander for NASA's Artemis astronauts, adding another option alongside SpaceX’s Starship which was selected in 2021.
Mike Wall
Fri, August 18, 2023
a shiny silver rocket booster sits in a building with corrugating tin walls
SpaceX has added some new hardware to its latest Starship rocket prototype, which is being prepped for a test flight in the near future.
Starship, SpaceX's next-gen deep-space transportation system, consists of two fully reusable elements — a huge first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft called Starship.
The pair has flown together only once to date, on an April 20 test flight from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas that aimed to send Starship partway around Earth. That didn't happen, however: Starship and Super Heavy failed to separate as planned, and SpaceX beamed up a self-destruct command, detonating the duo high above the Gulf of Mexico.
Related: Relive SpaceX's explosive 1st Starship test in incredible launch photos
a large metal ring descends from the ceiling of a warehouse-like building
SpaceX has made a variety of design changes in the wake of that debut, aiming to increase the chances of success on future Starship flights.
The most dramatic change concerns the spacecraft-separation system. It will be quite different on the next Starship mission, which will involve a Super Heavy prototype named Booster 9 and an upper-stage vehicle called Ship 25 — and SpaceX just gave us a sneak peak.
"Vented interstage and heat shield installed atop Booster 9. Starship and Super Heavy are being upgraded to use a separation method called hot-staging, where Starship's second stage engines will ignite to push the ship away from the booster," the company wrote today (Aug. 18) in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that shared two photos of the new hardware.
"The superhot plasma from the upper-stage engines has gotta go somewhere," Musk told journalist Ashlee Vance in a discussion on X on June 24, during which he revealed the design change. "So we're adding an extension to the booster that is almost all vents, essentially. So that allows the the upper-stage engine plume to go through the sort of vented extension of the booster and not just blow itself up."
Hot staging, which is commonly used on Russian rockets, could end up increasing Starship's payload-to-orbit capacity by 10%, Musk added.
RELATED STORIES:
— Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX's Mars-colonizing transportation system
— Elon Musk says SpaceX could launch a Starship to the moon 'probably sooner' than 2024: report
— FAA seeks to fine SpaceX for August 2022 Starlink launch
The flight of Booster 9 and Ship 25 will have similar goals as the April 20 mission, Musk has said. SpaceX aims to launch the test flight soon, but no target date has been announced.
And Starship has not yet been cleared for liftoff by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA, which grants launch licenses, is still reviewing the mishap report that SpaceX filed about the April 20 test flight.
"When a final mishap report is approved, it will identify the corrective actions SpaceX must make," FAA officials said in an emailed statement to Space.com this week. "Separately, SpaceX must modify its license to incorporate those actions before receiving authorization to launch again."
Aria Alamalhodaei
Updated Fri, August 18, 2023
SpaceX is expanding its rideshare program with a new series of missions aimed at meeting the demand for launches to mid-inclination orbits. The new program, which was quietly announced at a space industry conference earlier this month, is the latest sign that SpaceX intends to take no prisoners in the small launch market.
Orbital inclination refers to what part of the Earth is visible to a satellite as it rotates around the planet. A satellite in an equatorial orbit is at 0 degrees inclination; a satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) is slightly higher than 90 degrees; and a mid-inclination orbit is around 45 degrees. Currently, SpaceX offers rideshare services on the Falcon 9 rocket to SSO through the Transporter program, which is in notoriously high demand.
But mid-inclination orbits (MIOs) are appealing to a growing number of customers, especially to remote sensing companies that want to strengthen their coverage over areas like parts of Asia and the Middle East. Right now, companies must often purchase a dedicated launch from Rocket Lab if they want to position a satellite in MIO.
With the new rideshare program, called Bandwagon, SpaceX is going after this slice of the market. According to SpaceX’s website, it currently has two Bandwagon missions booked for 2024 and two for 2025.
If they become even close to the popularity of the Rideshare program, they could be a major threat to all other small launch providers: According to Jarrod McLachlan, director of rideshare sales at SpaceX, who spoke at the industry conference, SpaceX has delivered 682 spacecraft to orbit to date via rideshare missions.
Orbital inclination refers to what part of the Earth is visible to a satellite as it rotates around the planet. A satellite in an equatorial orbit is at 0 degrees inclination; a satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) is slightly higher than 90 degrees; and a mid-inclination orbit is around 45 degrees. Currently, SpaceX offers rideshare services on the Falcon 9 rocket to SSO through the Transporter program, which is in notoriously high demand.
But mid-inclination orbits (MIOs) are appealing to a growing number of customers, especially to remote sensing companies that want to strengthen their coverage over areas like parts of Asia and the Middle East. Right now, companies must often purchase a dedicated launch from Rocket Lab if they want to position a satellite in MIO.
With the new rideshare program, called Bandwagon, SpaceX is going after this slice of the market. According to SpaceX’s website, it currently has two Bandwagon missions booked for 2024 and two for 2025.
If they become even close to the popularity of the Rideshare program, they could be a major threat to all other small launch providers: According to Jarrod McLachlan, director of rideshare sales at SpaceX, who spoke at the industry conference, SpaceX has delivered 682 spacecraft to orbit to date via rideshare missions.
See Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket come together at Florida space coast factory (photo)
Andrew Jones
Sat, August 19, 2023
Blue Origin has provided a rare look inside their factory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) showing hardware for its new orbital rocket.
The image shared on Instagram shows rocket stage and interstage components and propellant tank domes for the New Glenn rocket on the factory floor in Florida. The post provided no details, so it is not known if the image shows test articles or potential flight hardware.
New Glenn has been in development for years and, after numerous delays, may fly for the first time next year. The rare glimpse at rocket hardware suggests Blue Origin is confident about the progress it is making towards a test launch.
Related: Blue Origin's BE-4 rocket engine exploded during June 30 test: report
The two-stage rocket will be 322 feet tall (98 meters) long and able to lift 14 tons (13 metric tons) to geostationary transfer orbit, and 50 tons (45 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.
The first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines. Blue Origin is also building BE-4s for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan launch vehicle.
New Glenn will have a reusable first stage and is seen as a potential alternative and competitor to SpaceX’s industry-dominating Falcon 9 rocket.
Cylindrical and dome pieces of metal are organized and laid out on the floor of a large factory. A long fuselage lays on the right.
Related Stories:
— ULA delays 1st launch of Vulcan Centaur rocket again
— Blue Origin says it finally knows what caused its New Shepard rocket launch to fail last year
— Powerful Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite on final flight from California
Blue Origin has a long-term lease for Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for New Glenn launches, close to the production factory.
NASA has signed up New Glenn to its fleet of commercial launchers and the rocket could be used for crewed lunar missions. Blue Origin will build a second moon lander for NASA's Artemis astronauts, adding another option alongside SpaceX’s Starship which was selected in 2021.
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