Space

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Human muscle cells come back from space, look aged

Biology, gene activity, muscle cells, Science, Space, Space exploration / /

Putting some muscle into it —

Astronauts’ muscles atrophy in space, but we can identify the genes involved.

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Image of two astronauts in an equipment filled chamber, standing near the suits they wear for extravehicular activities.

Enlarge / Muscle atrophy is a known hazard of spending time on the International Space Station.

Muscle-on-chip systems are three-dimensional human muscle cell bundles cultured on collagen scaffolds. A Stanford University research team sent some of these systems to the International Space Station to study the muscle atrophy commonly observed in astronauts.

It turns out that space triggers processes in human muscles that eerily resemble something we know very well: getting old. “We learned that microgravity mimics some of the qualities of accelerated aging,” said Ngan F. Huang, an associate professor at Stanford who led the study.

Space-borne bioconstructs

“This work originates from our lab’s expertise in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. We received funding to do a tissue engineering experiment on the ISS, which really helped us embark on this journey, and became curious how microgravity affects human health,” said Huang. So her team got busy designing the research equipment needed to work onboard the space station. The first step was building the muscle-on-chip systems.

“A lot of what was known about how space affects muscles was gathered through studying the astronauts or studying animals like mice put in microgravity for research purposes,” Huang said. “In some cases, there were also in vitro cultured cells on a Petri dish—something very basic. We wanted to have something more structurally complex.” Her team developed a muscle-on-chip platform in which human myotubes, cells that organize into long parallel bundles that eventually become muscle fibers in a living organism, were grown on collagen scaffolds. The goal was to make the samples emulate real muscles better. But that came with a challenge: keeping them alive on the ISS.

“When we grow cells on Earth, we pour the medium—basically a liquid with nutrients that allow the cells to grow—over the cells, and everything is fine,” Huang said. “But in space, in the absence of gravity, we needed a closed, leak-proof, tightly sealed chamber. The medium was sloshed around in there.”

Oxygen and carbon dioxide levels were maintained with permeable membranes. Changing the medium was a complicated procedure involving syringes and small custom-designed ports. But getting all this gadgetry up and running was worth it in the end.

Genes of atrophy

Huang’s team had two sets of muscle-on-chip systems: one on the ground and one on the ISS. The idea of the study was to compare the genes that were upregulated or downregulated in each sample set. It turned out that many genes associated with aging saw their activity increase in microgravity conditions.

This result was confirmed when the team analyzed the medium that was taken off after the cells had grown in it. “The goal was to identify proteins released by the cells that were associated with microgravity. Among those, the most notable was the GDF15, which is relevant to different diseases, particularly mitochondrial dysfunction or senescence,” said Huang.

Overall, the condition of cells on the ISS was somewhat similar to sarcopenia, an age-related muscle loss disease. “There were some similarities, but also a lot of differences. The reason we didn’t make sarcopenia the main focus of this study is that we know our muscle-on-chip system is a model. It’s mostly muscle cells on a scaffold. It doesn’t have blood vessels or nerves. Comparing that to clinical, real muscle samples is a bit tricky, as it is not comparing apples to apples,” said Huang.

Nevertheless, her team went on to use their ISS muscle-on-chip samples to conduct proof-of-concept drug screening tests. Drugs they tested included those used to treat sarcopenia, among other conditions.

Space drugs

“One of the drugs we tested was the [protein] IGF 1, which is a growth factor naturally found in the body in different tissues, especially in muscles. When there is an injury, IGF 1 activates within a body to initiate muscle regeneration. Also, IGF 1 tend to be declined in aging muscles,” said Huang. The second drug tested was 15-PGDH-i, a relatively new inhibitor of enzymes that hinder the process of muscle regeneration. Used on the muscles-on-chip on the ISS, the drugs partially reduced some of the microgravity-related effects.

“One of the limitations of this work was that on the ISS, the microgravity is also accompanied by other factors, such as ionizing radiation, and it is hard to dissociate one from the other,” said Huang. It’s still unclear if the effects observed in the ISS samples were there due to radiation, the lack of gravity, both, or some additional factor. Huang’s team plans to do similar experiments on Earth in simulated microgravity conditions. “With some of the specialized equipment we recently acquired, it is possible to look at just the effects of microgravity,” Huang said. Those experiments are aimed at testing a wider range of drugs.

“The reason we do this drug screening is to develop drugs that could either be taken preemptively or during the flight to counteract muscle atrophy. It would probably be more feasible, lighter, and cheaper than doing artificial gravity concepts,” Huang said. The most promising candidate drugs selected in these ground experiments will be tested on Huang’s muscle-on-chip systems onboard the ISS in 2025.

Stem Cell Reports, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2024.06.010

Human muscle cells come back from space, look aged Read More »

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NASA’s Lunar Gateway has a big visiting vehicles problem

lunar gateway, NASA, Science, Space / /

Stack controllability —

“These defects could lead the flight computers to unexpectedly restart.”

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A rendering of NASA's proposed lunar gateway.

Enlarge / A rendering of NASA’s proposed lunar gateway.

NASA

Do you remember the Lunar Gateway? You could be forgiven if not, as the program continues to be tossed around by NASA planners, and it is still not entirely clear what purpose the lunar space station is supposed to serve.

The Gateway—a small space station that will fly in a halo orbit around the Moon and spend most of its time far from the lunar surface—was initially supposed to launch in 2022. That obviously did not happen, and now, according to a new report from the US Government Accountability Office, the space agency does not expect the launch of the initial elements of the Gateway until at least December 2027. The baseline cost estimate is $5.3 billion.

NASA’s present plans contemplate using the Gateway as part of the Artemis IV mission, presently scheduled for September 2028. Unfortunately, the Gateway’s current launch target is already three months later than needed to support Artemis IV, the second mission to land humans on the Moon. But that’s OK. There are a lot of other moving parts for this mission, so a launch any time this decade would be a win.

The report includes a helpful cartoon to explain the complicated sequence that needs to happen for Gateway to be involved in the Artemis IV mission:

  • Launch of the initial segments of the Gateway, a power and propulsion module, and a habitation module, to a halo orbit around the Moon
  • Launch of a SpaceX Dragon XL vehicle to bring supplies to the Gateway
  • Launch of multiple SpaceX Starships to fuel a Lunar Starship, which will then fly to and dock with the Gateway
  • Launch of a NASA Space Launch System rocket carrying four astronauts inside an Orion spacecraft as well as another Gateway module
  • After launch, Orion separates from the rocket and docks with this module, the International Habitat
  • Orion tugs the International Habitat to the Gateway and docks; the crew exits onto Gateway
  • Two crew members board the Lunar Starship and go down to the Moon for six days
  • Starship flies back to the Gateway, and the four astronauts return to Earth inside Orion.
How the Artemis IV mission will (probably) take place.

How the Artemis IV mission will (probably) take place.

US GAO

In a rather understated manner, the report notes that this plan is fairly complex and faces some serious schedule risks.

“This mission will be complex because NASA will need to coordinate across seven NASA programs, multiple contractors that support those programs, and international partners to execute the mission,” the report states. “It will also be the first launch of an upgraded version of the Space Launch System rocket.”

Developmental difficulties

The report also finds that the Gateway program is running into some pretty serious technical difficulties. One involves a defective network chip that facilitates communication throughout the lunar space station. Its failure could cause myriad problems onboard the Gateway.

“For example, these defects could lead the flight computers to unexpectedly restart,” the report states. “If the network is not functioning properly, it could result in loss of control of the Gateway. Program officials are also concerned that they might identify more defects with the communication network, based on the number found already.”

Another risk involves something called “stack controllability.” This essentially means that because SpaceX’s Lunar Starship is so much more massive than the Gateway, when it is docked to the space station, the Gateway’s power and propulsion element (PPE) will not be able to maintain a proper orientation of the entire stack.

“Program officials estimate that the mass of the lunar lander Starship is approximately 18 times greater than the value NASA used to develop the PPE’s controllability parameters,” the report states. “According to NASA’s system engineering guidance, late requirements and design changes can lead to cost growth and schedule delays.”

The report also has some sobering conclusions about the potential utility of the Lunar Gateway for Mars missions. (In the past, NASA officials have spoken about the Gateway as a staging area for spacecraft and propellant for human missions to the surface of Mars.) However, the “stack controllability” issue poses a serious constraint to hosting large Mars transit vehicles. Moreover, the planned 15-year lifetime of the Gateway may not be long enough to sustain Mars missions.

“The Gateway could have exceeded its planned 15-year on-orbit life as early as 2042 when crewed missions to Mars are potentially just beginning,” the report states.

All in all, the report seems to suggest that the Gateway is way behind schedule and is of limited use to lunar and Mars landings. The report suggests the Gateway will be complex to undertake at the very same time NASA is attempting to establish a lunar surface program. But other than that, everything is going great.

NASA’s Lunar Gateway has a big visiting vehicles problem Read More »

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Boeing’s Starliner has cost at least twice as much as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon

Boeing, commercial crew, international space station, NASA, Science, Space, starliner / /

$$$ —

“Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods.”

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A Starliner spacecraft departs Boeing's spacecraft processing facility before the program's first orbital test flight in 2019.

Enlarge / A Starliner spacecraft departs Boeing’s spacecraft processing facility before the program’s first orbital test flight in 2019.

Boeing announced another financial charge Wednesday for its troubled Starliner commercial crew program, bringing the company’s total losses on Starliner to $1.6 billion.

In its quarterly earnings report, Boeing registered a $125 million loss on the Starliner program, blaming delays on the spacecraft’s still-ongoing Crew Flight Test, the program’s first mission to carry astronauts into orbit. This is not the first time Boeing has reported a financial loss on Starliner. Including the new charge announced Wednesday, Boeing has now suffered an overall loss on the program of nearly $1.6 billion since 2016.

These losses have generally been caused by schedule delays and additional work to solve problems on Starliner. When NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract to complete development of the Starliner spacecraft a decade ago, the aerospace contractor projected the capsule would be ready to fly astronauts by the end of 2017.

It turns out the Crew Flight Test didn’t launch until June 5, 2024.

In a separate announcement Wednesday, Boeing named Kelly Ortberg as the company’s CEO, effective August 8. He will replace Dave Calhoun, whose tenure as Boeing’s chief executive was marred by scandals with the 737 MAX passenger airplane. Ortberg was previously CEO of Rockwell Collins, now known as Collins Aerospace, a major supplier of avionics and other parts for the aerospace industry.

Boeing is on the hook

When NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to develop the Starliner and Crew Dragon spacecraft for astronaut missions, the agency signed fixed-price agreements with each contractor. These fixed-price contracts mean the contractors, not the government, are responsible for paying for cost overruns.

So, with each Starliner delay since 2016, Boeing’s financial statements registered new losses. It will be Boeing’s burden to pay for solutions to problems discovered on Starliner’s ongoing crew test flight. That’s why Boeing warned investors Wednesday that it could lose more money on the Starliner program in the coming months and years.

“Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods,” Boeing wrote in an SEC filing.

Taking into account the financial loss revealed Wednesday, NASA and Boeing have committed at least $6.7 billion to the Starliner program since 2010, including expenses for spacecraft development, testing, and the government’s payment for six operational crew flights with Starliner.

It’s instructive to compare these costs with those of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon program, which started flying astronauts in 2020. All of NASA’s contracts with SpaceX for a similar scope of work on the Crew Dragon program totaled more than $3.1 billion, but any expenses paid by SpaceX are unknown because it is a privately held company.

SpaceX has completed all six of its original crew flights for NASA, while Boeing is at least a year away from starting operational service with Starliner. In light of Boeing’s delays, NASA extended SpaceX’s commercial crew contract to cover eight additional round-trip flights to the space station through the end of the 2020s.

Boeing’s leaders blame the structure of fixed-price contracts for the losses on the Starliner program. The aerospace giant has similar fixed-price contracts with the Pentagon to develop new two new Air Force One presidential transport aircraft, Air Force refueling tankers, refueling drones, and trainer airplanes. Boeing has reported losses on those programs, too.

SpaceX, meanwhile, has excelled with fixed-price contracts, which NASA uses on several elements of the Artemis program aiming to land astronauts on the Moon. For example, NASA selected SpaceX and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space company, for fixed-price contracts to develop human-rated lunar landers. SpaceX also won a fixed-price contract to provide NASA with a vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station at the end of its life.

Decision time

The first crew mission aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is expected to end sometime in August with the return of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station. A successful conclusion of the test flight would pave the way for Boeing to start launching its backlog of six operational crew missions to the space station.

But it hasn’t been that simple. The Starliner test flight was initially expected to stay at the space station for at least eight days. Before the launch in June, NASA and Boeing officials left open the possibility for a mission extension, but managers didn’t anticipate Starliner to still be docked at the space station more than 50 days later.

Mission managers ordered Starliner to stay at the station through the rest of June and July while engineers investigated problems in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. There are helium leaks in Starliner’s service module, and the craft’s small maneuvering thrusters overheated during the final approach for docking at the space station.

NASA, which oversees Boeing’s commercial crew contract, is getting close to clearing Starliner for return to Earth, perhaps as soon as next week. On Saturday, ground controllers commanded Starliner to test-fire its maneuvering thrusters, and 27 of the 28 jets appeared to function normally despite overheating earlier in the mission. Despite the leaks, the spacecraft also has ample helium to pressurize its propulsion system, NASA officials said.

Before giving final approval for Starliner to undock from the space station and return to Earth, senior NASA leaders will convene a readiness review to go over the results of the investigation into the propulsion issues.

Boeing has some work to do to find a long-term fix for the helium leaks and overheating thrusters on future Starliner missions. NASA officials hoped a flawless Starliner test flight would allow the agency to formally certify the capsule for regular six-month expeditions to the space station by the end of the year, allowing Boeing to launch the first operational Starliner flight, known as Starliner-1, in February 2025.

Last week, NASA announced a six-month delay for the Starliner-1 mission to allow more time to solve the problems the spacecraft experienced on the crew test flight.

Boeing’s Starliner has cost at least twice as much as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Read More »

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With a landmark launch, the Pentagon is finally free of Russian rocket engines

atlas v, cape canaveral, launch, military space, rd-180, russia, Science, Space, space force, united launch alliance, US Space Force, ussf-51 / /
Liftoff of ULA's Atlas V rocket on the US Space Force's USSF-51 mission.

Enlarge / Liftoff of ULA’s Atlas V rocket on the US Space Force’s USSF-51 mission.

United Launch Alliance delivered a classified US military payload to orbit Tuesday for the last time with an Atlas V rocket, ending the Pentagon’s use of Russian rocket engines as national security missions transition to all-American launchers.

The Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 6: 45 am EDT (10: 45 UTC) Tuesday, propelled by a Russian-made RD-180 engine and five strap-on solid-fueled boosters in its most powerful configuration. This was the 101st launch of an Atlas V rocket since its debut in 2002, and the 58th and final Atlas V mission with a US national security payload since 2007.

The US Space Force’s Space Systems Command confirmed a successful conclusion to the mission, code-named USSF-51, on Tuesday afternoon. The rocket’s Centaur upper stage released the top secret USSF-51 payload about seven hours after liftoff, likely in a high-altitude geostationary orbit over the equator. The military did not publicize the exact specifications of the rocket’s target orbit.

“What a fantastic launch and a fitting conclusion for our last national security space Atlas V (launch),” said Walt Lauderdale, USSF-51 mission director at Space Systems Command, in a post-launch press release. “When we look back at how well Atlas V met our needs since our first launch in 2007, it illustrates the hard work and dedication from our nation’s industrial base. Together, we made it happen, and because of teams like this, we have the most successful and thriving launch industry in the world, bar none.”

RD-180’s long goodbye

The launch Tuesday morning was the end of an era born in the 1990s when US government policy allowed Lockheed Martin, the original developer of the Atlas V, to use Russian rocket engines during its first stage. There was a widespread sentiment in the first decade after the fall of the Soviet Union that the United States and other Western nations should partner with Russia to keep the country’s aerospace workers employed and prevent “rogue states” like Iran or North Korea from hiring them.

At the time, the Pentagon was procuring new rockets to replace legacy versions of the Atlas, Delta, and Titan rocket families, which had been in service since the late 1950s or early 1960s.

A cluster of solid rocket boosters surround the RD-180 main engine as the Atlas V launcher climbs away from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the USSF-51 mission.

Enlarge / A cluster of solid rocket boosters surround the RD-180 main engine as the Atlas V launcher climbs away from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the USSF-51 mission.

Ultimately, the Air Force chose Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V and Boeing’s Delta IV rocket for development in 1998. The Atlas V, with its Russian main engine, was somewhat less expensive than the Delta IV and the more successful of the two designs. After Tuesday’s launch, 15 more Atlas V rockets are booked to fly payloads for commercial customers and NASA, mainly for Amazon’s Kuiper network and Boeing’s Starliner crew spacecraft. The 45th and final Delta IV launch occurred in April.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin merged their rocket divisions in 2006 to form a 50-50 joint venture named United Launch Alliance, which became the sole contractor certified to carry large US military satellites to orbit until SpaceX started launching national security missions in 2018.

SpaceX filed a lawsuit in 2014 to protest the Air Force’s decision to award ULA a multibillion-dollar sole-source contract for 36 Atlas V and Delta IV rocket booster cores. The litigation started soon after Russia’s military occupation and annexation of Crimea, which prompted US government sanctions on prominent Russian government officials, including Dmitry Rogozin, then Russia’s deputy prime minister and later the head of Russia’s space agency.

Rogozin, known for his bellicose but usually toothless rhetoric, threatened to halt exports of RD-180 engines for US military missions on the Atlas V. That didn’t happen until Russia finally stopped engine exports to the United States in 2022, following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At that point, ULA already had all the engines it needed to fly out all of its remaining Atlas V rockets. This export ban had a larger effect on Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, which also used Russian engines, forcing the development of a brand new first stage booster with US engines.

The SpaceX lawsuit, Russia’s initial military incursions into Ukraine in 2014, and the resulting sanctions marked the beginning of the end for the Atlas V rocket and ULA’s use of the Russian RD-180 engine. The dual-nozzle RD-180, made by a Russian company named NPO Energomash, consumes kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants and generates 860,000 pounds of thrust at full throttle.

With a landmark launch, the Pentagon is finally free of Russian rocket engines Read More »

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SpaceX moving Dragon splashdowns to Pacific to solve falling debris problem

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A Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen docked at the International Space Station in 2022. The section of the spacecraft on the left is the pressurized capsule, while the rear section, at right, is the trunk.

Enlarge / A Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen docked at the International Space Station in 2022. The section of the spacecraft on the left is the pressurized capsule, while the rear section, at right, is the trunk.

NASA

Sometime next year, SpaceX will begin returning its Dragon crew and cargo capsules to splashdowns in the Pacific Ocean and end recoveries of the spacecraft off the coast of Florida.

This will allow SpaceX to make changes to the way it brings Dragons back to Earth and eliminate the risk, however tiny, that a piece of debris from the ship’s trunk section might fall on someone and cause damage, injury, or death.

“After five years of splashing down off the coast of Florida, we’ve decided to shift Dragon recovery operations back to the West Coast,” said Sarah Walker, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management.

Public safety

In the past couple of years, landowners have discovered debris from several Dragon missions on their property, and the fragments all came from the spacecraft’s trunk, an unpressurized section mounted behind the capsule as it carries astronauts or cargo on flights to and from the International Space Station.

SpaceX returned its first 21 Dragon cargo missions to splashdowns in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles. When an upgraded human-rated version of Dragon started flying in 2019, SpaceX moved splashdowns to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico to be closer to the company’s refurbishment and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The benefits of landing near Florida included a faster handover of astronauts and time-sensitive cargo back to NASA and shorter turnaround times between missions.

The old version of Dragon, known as Dragon 1, separated its trunk after the deorbit burn, allowing the trunk to fall into the Pacific. With the new version of Dragon, called Dragon 2, SpaceX changed the reentry profile to jettison the trunk before the deorbit burn. This meant that the trunk remained in orbit after each Dragon mission, while the capsule reentered the atmosphere on a guided trajectory. The trunk, which is made of composite materials and lacks a propulsion system, usually takes a few weeks or a few months to fall back into the atmosphere and doesn’t have control of where or when it reenters.

Air resistance from the rarefied upper atmosphere gradually slows the trunk’s velocity enough to drop it out of orbit, and the amount of aerodynamic drag the trunk sees is largely determined by fluctuations in solar activity.

SpaceX and NASA, which funded a large portion of the Dragon spacecraft’s development, initially determined the trunk would entirely burn up when it reentered the atmosphere and would pose no threat of surviving reentry and causing injuries or damaging property. However, that turned out to not be the case.

In May, a 90-pound chunk of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that departed the International Space Station fell on the property of a “glamping” resort in North Carolina. At the same time, a homeowner in a nearby town found a smaller piece of material that also appeared to be from the same Dragon mission.

These events followed the discovery in April of another nearly 90-pound piece of debris from a Dragon capsule on a farm in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. SpaceX and NASA later determined the debris fell from orbit in February, and earlier this month, SpaceX employees came to the farm to retrieve the wreckage, according to CBC.

Pieces of a Dragon spacecraft also fell over Colorado last year, and a farmer in Australia found debris from a Dragon capsule on his land in 2022.

SpaceX moving Dragon splashdowns to Pacific to solve falling debris problem Read More »

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Although it’s not final, SpaceX just got good news from the FAA on Starbase

FAA, Science, Space, spacex, Starbase, starship / /

A superfluity of Starships —

“SpaceX has dramatically reduced the duration of operations.”

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The Super Heavy booster for Flight 5 of Starship undergoes a static fire test earlier this month.

Enlarge / The Super Heavy booster for Flight 5 of Starship undergoes a static fire test earlier this month.

SpaceX

After SpaceX decided to launch orbital missions of its Starship rocket from Texas about five years ago, the company had to undergo a federal environmental review of the site to ensure it was safe to do so.

As a part of this multi-year process, the Federal Aviation Administration completed a Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment in June 2022. Following that review, SpaceX received approval to conduct up to five Starship launches from South Texas annually.

SpaceX has since launched Starship four times from its launch site in South Texas, known as Starbase, and is planning a fifth launch within the next two months. However, as it continues to test Starship and make plans for regular flights, SpaceX will need a higher flight rate. This is especially true as the company is unlikely to activate additional launch pads for Starship in Florida until at least 2026.

To that end, SpaceX has asked the FAA for permission for up to 25 flights a year from South Texas, as well as the capability to land both the Starship upper stage and Super Heavy booster stage back at the launch site. On Monday, the FAA signaled that it is inclined to grant permission for this.

A solid step for SpaceX

The federal agency released a 154-page “Draft Tiered Environmental Assessment” for an increased cadence of Starship launches from South Texas. In conclusion, the document stated: “The FAA has concluded that the modification of SpaceX’s existing vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, consistent with the data contained in the 2022 PEA, that there are no significant environmental changes, and all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met in the current action.”

Effectively, then, the FAA is saying that its extensive 2022 analysis of Starship activities on the environment, wildlife, local communities, and more was sufficient to account for SpaceX’s proposed modifications.

This is not the final word. In the parlance of the FAA, this is just milestone No. 3 in the seven-part process that results in a final determination. Up next are a series of public meetings, both in person in South Texas and online, during the month of August. The public comment period will then close on August 29.

Although the process is not yet complete, this document indicates the current thinking of federal regulators, who appear inclined to be permissive of an increased scope of activities. This is no small finding, as SpaceX is not only seeking to launch more rockets, but also to land them back at Starbase, as well as significantly increase the thrust of the vehicles.

SpaceX asked the FAA—which has federal authority to regulate such activities in order to protect life and property on the ground—for 25 annual launches and 50 total landings, 25 for Starship and 25 for Super Heavy. The company is also seeking to conduct up to 90 seconds of daytime Starship static fire tests, and 70 seconds of daytime Super Heavy static fire tests a year.

Bigger rockets, more propellant

SpaceX also is developing more powerful variants of its rocket, and the launch of these vehicles would also be permitted. Under the environmental assessment completed in 2022, SpaceX’s plans called for a 50-meter-tall Starship and a 71-meter-tall Super Heavy booster stage. Its upgraded Starship would be 70 meters tall, atop an 80-meter boost stage, for a total stack height of 150 meters.

The company is contemplating a far greater thrust for each of the vehicles, more than doubling Starship’s thrust to 6.5 million pounds and substantially increasing Super Heavy’s thrust to 2.3 million pounds. A bigger, more powerful launch system will require more than 1,500 tons of liquid oxygen and methane propellant.

Upgrade plans for Starship and Super Heavy.

Enlarge / Upgrade plans for Starship and Super Heavy.

FAA

One change that may have helped sell this increased flight rate is that SpaceX is not seeking any additional increases in road closures of State Highway 4, which leads from Brownsville to Boca Chica Beach. This road passes right by the launch site and is closed during launches and static fire tests. SpaceX has moved much of its pre-launch testing to a new location nearby that does not require road closures.

“SpaceX has dramatically reduced the duration of operations and the number of access restrictions through engineering analysis and improvements,” the FAA draft document states. “There has been an 85% reduction in the number of access restrictions from Flight 1 to Flight 3. Additionally, a majority of the testing that required access restrictions has been moved to SpaceX’s Massey’s Test Site, approximately 4 miles away.”

After the public comment period, the FAA will prepare a final environmental assessment and render a decision on the request.

Although it’s not final, SpaceX just got good news from the FAA on Starbase Read More »

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SpaceX roars back to orbit barely two weeks after in-flight anomaly

falcon 9, Science, Space, spacex / /

Look who’s back, back again —

“It was incredible to see how quickly the team was able to identify the cause of the mishap.”

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The Starlink 10-9 mission lifts off early Saturday morning from Florida.

Enlarge / The Starlink 10-9 mission lifts off early Saturday morning from Florida.

SpaceX webcast

Early on Saturday morning, at 1: 45 am local time, a Falcon 9 rocket soared into orbit from its launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

By some measures this was an extremely routine mission—it was, after all, SpaceX’s 73rd launch of this calendar year. And like many other Falcon 9 launches this year, the “Starlink 10-9” mission carried 23 of the broadband internet satellites into orbit. However, after a rare failure earlier this month, this particular Falcon 9 rocket was making a return-to-flight for the company, and attempting to get the world’s most active booster back into service.

And by all measures, it performed. The first stage booster, B-1069, made its 17th flight into orbit before landing on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Then, a little more than an hour after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage released its payload into a good orbit, from which the Starlink spacecraft will use their on-board thrusters to reach operational altitudes in the coming weeks.

A crack in the sense line

The Falcon 9 rocket only failed a little more than 15 days ago, during a Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 7: 35 pm PDT (02: 35 UTC) on July 11. During that mission, just a few minutes after stage separation, an unusual buildup of ice was observed on the Merlin vacuum engine that powers the second stage of the vehicle.

According to the company, the Merlin vacuum engine successfully completed its first burn after the second stage separated. However, during this time a liquid oxygen leak developed near the engine—which led to the buildup of ice observed during the webcast.

Engineers and technicians were quickly able to pinpoint the cause of the leak, a crack in a “sense line” for a pressure sensor attached to the vehicle’s liquid oxygen system. “This line cracked due to fatigue caused by high loading from engine vibration and looseness in the clamp that normally constrains the line,” the company said in an update published prior to Saturday morning’s launch.

This leak excessively cooled the engine, and caused a lower amount of igniter fluid to be available prior to re-lighting the Merlin for its second burn to circularize the rocket’s orbit before releasing the Starlink satellites. This caused a hard start of the Merlin engine. Ultimately the satellites were released into a lower orbit, where they burnt up in Earth’s atmosphere within days.

The sense line that failed is redundant, SpaceX said. It is not used by the flight safety system, and can be covered by alternate sensors already present on the engine. In the near term, the sense line will be removed from the second stage engine for Falcon 9 launches.

During a news briefing Thursday, SpaceX director Sarah Walker said this sense line was installed based on a customer requirement for another mission. The only difference between this component and other commonly flown sense lines is that it has two connections rather than one, she said. This may have made it a bit more susceptible to vibration, leading to a small crack.

Getting back fast

SpaceX identified the cause of the failure within hours of the anomaly, and worked the Federal Aviation Administration to come to a rapid resolution. On Thursday, the launch company received permission to return to flight.

“It was incredible to see how quickly the team was able to identify the cause of the mishap, and then the associated corrective actions to ensure success,” Walker said.

Before the failure on the night of July 11th, SpaceX had not experienced a mission failure in the previous 297 launches of the Falcon 9 rocket, dating back to the Amos-6 launch pad explosion in September 2016. The short interval between the failure earlier this month, and Saturday’s return to flight, appears to be unprecedented in spaceflight history.

The company now plans to launch two more Starlink missions on the Falcon 9 rocket this weekend, one from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, as well as Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It then has three additional missions before a critical astronaut flight for NASA, Crew-9, that could occur as soon as August 18.

For this reason, NASA was involved in the investigation of the second stage failure. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said SpaceX did an “extraordinary job” in identifying the root cause of the failure, and then rapidly looking at its Dragon spacecraft and first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket to ensure there were no other sensors that could cause similar problems.

SpaceX roars back to orbit barely two weeks after in-flight anomaly Read More »

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Rocket Report: ABL loses its second booster; Falcon 9 cleared for return to flight

Science, Space / /
NASA's SLS rocket core stage for Artemis II is moved to the VAB.

Enlarge / NASA’s SLS rocket core stage for Artemis II is moved to the VAB.

NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Welcome to Edition 7.04 of the Rocket Report! Probably the most striking news this week came from ABL, which said in a terse social media statement that it had lost its second RS1 rocket during pre-flight testing. This is unfortunate, since the company had been so careful and meticulous in working toward this second launch attempt. It’s a reminder of how demanding this industry remains.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

ABL loses rocket after static fire test. ABL Space Systems said Monday that its next rocket had suffered “irrecoverable” damage during preparations for launch. “After a pre-flight static fire test on Friday, a residual pad fire caused irrecoverable damage to RS1,” the company said on the social media site X. “The team is investigating root cause and will provide updates as the investigation progresses.” As of the writing of this report three days later, the company has not posted any additional information.

Not particularly promising … This is a serious setback for the launch company, which attempted the debut flight of its RS1 vehicle 18 months ago and had been preparing for this second attempt for a long time. The California-based company had been keeping a low profile and had not made a social media posting since May. The RS1 vehicle is advertised as having a lift capacity of 1.35 metric tons at a price of $12 million. During ABL’s initial launch attempt in January 2023, an anomaly in the rocket caused all nine of the RS1’s first-stage engines to shut down. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Point-to-point company test-fires engine. A space transportation startup with visions of high-speed point-to-point travel has started tests of the engine that will power their vehicle, Space News reports. Frontier Aerospace test-fired its Mjölnir engine on July 18, its chairman, Alex Tai, said during a panel discussion at the Farnborough International Airshow. Mjölnir is a full-flow staged combustion engine. The firing lasted less than a second but demonstrated the startup of the turbopumps and successful ignition.

Starting with a smaller version … The company plans to do longer engine burns as part of the testing program. The version of Mjölnir currently being tested produces less than 3,000 pounds-force of thrust. New Frontier plans to use a much more powerful version of the engine on a vehicle called the Intercontinental Rocketliner, a suborbital vehicle intended to carry 100 people on high-speed flights around the planet at hypersonic speeds. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

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Ursa Major invests in Ohio. Ursa Major will buy several industrial 3D printers and hire 15 new employees for a research and development center in Youngstown, Ohio, focused on additive manufacturing, Payload reports. The Colorado-based rocket engine maker will contribute $10.5 million in capital investment alongside a $4 million grant from JobsOhio, a privately funded economic development nonprofit. The expansion of a small existing facility will enable the company to step up its development of solid rocket motors—a top priority for the Department of Defense.

The war needs what it needs … In April, Ursa won a contract of undisclosed value from the Navy to develop a lower-cost manufacturing approach for the standardized solid rocket motors used across a range of missiles. The US supply chains for those motors—mainly provided by Northrop Grumman and L3Harris—have been stressed by US support for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders. In November, Ursa raised $138 million to support its push into solid rocket motor manufacturing in a round that reportedly valued the company at $750 million.

Rocket Report: ABL loses its second booster; Falcon 9 cleared for return to flight Read More »

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Rocket delivered to launch site for first human flight to the Moon since 1972

artemis, artemis II, human spaceflight, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Science, SLS core stage, Space, space launch system / /
Rocket delivered to launch site for first human flight to the Moon since 1972

The central piece of NASA’s second Space Launch System rocket arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this week. Agency officials intend to start stacking the towering launcher in the next couple of months for a mission late next year carrying a team of four astronauts around the Moon.

The Artemis II mission, officially scheduled for September 2025, will be the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the Moon since the last Apollo lunar landing mission in 1972. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen will ride the SLS rocket away from Earth, then fly around the far side of the Moon and return home inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft.

“The core is the backbone of SLS, and it’s the backbone of the Artemis mission,” said Matthew Ramsey, NASA’s mission manager for Artemis II. “We’ve been waiting for the core to get here because all the integrated tests and checkouts that we do have to have the core stage. It has the flight avionics that drive the whole system. The boosters are also important, but the core is really the backbone for Artemis. So it’s a big day.”

The core stage rolled off of NASA’s Pegasus barge at Kennedy early Wednesday, following a weeklong ocean voyage from New Orleans, where Boeing builds the rocket under contract to NASA.

Ramsey told Ars that ground teams hope to begin stacking the rocket’s two powerful solid rocket boosters on NASA’s mobile launcher platform in September. Each booster, supplied by Northrop Grumman, is made of five segments with pre-packed solid propellant and a nose cone. All the pieces for the SLS boosters are at Kennedy and ready for stacking, Ramsey said.

The SLS upper stage, built by United Launch Alliance, is also at the Florida launch site. Now, the core stage is at Kennedy. In August or September, NASA plans to deliver the two remaining elements of the SLS rocket to Florida. These are the adapter structures that will connect the core stage to the upper stage, and the upper stage to the Orion spacecraft.

A heavy-duty crane inside the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) will hoist each segment of the SLS boosters into place on the launch platform. Once the boosters are fully stacked, ground teams will lift the 212-foot (65-meter) core stage vertical in the transfer aisle running through the center of the VAB. A crane will then lower the core stage between the boosters. That could happen as soon as December, according to Ramsey.

Then comes the launch vehicle stage adapter, the upper stage, the Orion stage adapter, and finally, the Orion spacecraft itself.

Moving toward operations

NASA’s inspector general reported in 2022 that NASA’s first four Artemis missions will each cost $4.1 billion. Subsequent documents, including a Government Accountability Office report last year, suggest the expendable SLS core stage is responsible for at least a quarter of the cost for each Artemis flight.

The core stage for Artemis II is powered by four hydrogen-fueled RS-25 engines produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Two of the reusable engines for Artemis II have flown on the space shuttle, and the other two RS-25s were built in the shuttle era but never flew. Each SLS launch will put the core stage and its engines in the Atlantic Ocean.

Steve Wofford, who manages the stages office for the SLS program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, told Ars there are “no major configuration differences” between the core stages for Artemis I and Artemis II. The only minor differences involve instrumentation that NASA wanted on Artemis I to measure pressures, accelerations, vibrations, temperatures, and other parameters on the first flight of the Space Launch System.

“We are still working off some flight observations that we made on Artemis I, but no showstoppers,” Wofford said. “On the first article, the test flight, Artemis I, we really loaded it up. That’s a golden opportunity to learn as much as you can about the vehicle and the flight regime, and anchor all your models… As you progress, you need less and less of that. So Core Stage 2 will have less development flight instrumentation than Core Stage 1, and then Core Stage 3 will have less still.”

Rocket delivered to launch site for first human flight to the Moon since 1972 Read More »

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NASA nears decision on what to do with Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft

Boeing, butch wilmore, commercial crew, Commercial space, human spaceflight, international space station, NASA, Science, Space, spacex, starliner, suni williams / /
Boeing's Strainer spacecraft is seen docked at the International Space Station in this picture taken July 3.

Enlarge / Boeing’s Strainer spacecraft is seen docked at the International Space Station in this picture taken July 3.

The astronauts who rode Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station last month still don’t know when they will return to Earth.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been in space for 51 days, six weeks longer than originally planned, as engineers on the groundwork through problems with Starliner’s propulsion system.

The problems are twofold. The spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters overheated, and some of them shut off as Starliner approached the space station June 6. A separate, although perhaps related, problem involves helium leaks in the craft’s propulsion system.

On Thursday, NASA and Boeing managers said they still plan to bring Wilmore and Williams home on the Starliner spacecraft. In the last few weeks, ground teams completed testing of a thruster on a test stand at White Sands, New Mexico. This weekend, Boeing and NASA plan to fire the spacecraft’s thrusters in orbit to check their performance while docked at the space station.

“I think we’re starting to close in on those final pieces of flight rationale to make sure that we can come home safely, and that’s our primary focus right now,” Stich said.

The problems have led to speculation that NASA might decide to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. There’s one Crew Dragon currently docked at the station, and another one is slated to launch with a fresh crew next month. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, said the agency has looked at backup plans to bring the Starliner crew home on a SpaceX capsule, but the main focus is still to have the astronauts fly home aboard Starliner.

“Our prime option is to complete the mission,” Stich said. “There are a lot of good reasons to complete this mission and bring Butch and Suni home on Starliner. Starliner was designed, as a spacecraft, to have the crew in the cockpit.”

Starliner launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5. Wilmore and Williams are the first astronauts to fly into space on Boeing’s commercial crew capsule, and this test flight is intended to pave the way for future operational flights to rotate crews of four to and from the International Space Station.

Once NASA fully certifies Starliner for operational missions, the agency will have two human-rated spaceships for flights to the station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has been flying astronauts since 2020.

Tests, tests, and more tests

NASA has extended the duration of the Starliner test flight to conduct tests and analyze data in an effort to gain confidence in the spacecraft’s ability to safely bring its crew home and to better understand the root causes of the overheating thrusters and helium leaks. These problems are inside Starliner’s service module, which is jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere during reentry, while the reusable crew module, with the astronauts inside, parachutes to an airbag-cushioned landing.

The most important of these tests was a series of test-firings of a Starliner thruster on the ground. This thruster was taken from a set of hardware slated to fly on a future Starlink mission, and engineers put it through a stress test, firing it numerous times to replicate the sequence of pulses it would see in flight. The testing simulated two sequences of flying up to the space station, and five sequences the thruster would execute during undocking and a deorbit burn for return to Earth.

“This thruster has seen quite a bit of pulses, maybe even more than what we would anticipate we would see during a flight, and more aggressive in terms of two uphills and five downhills,” Stich said. “What we did see in the thruster is the same kind of thrust degradation that we’re seeing on orbit. In a number of the thrusters (on Starliner), we’re seeing reduced thrust, which is important.”

Starliner’s flight computer shut off five of the spacecraft’s 28 reaction control system thrusters, produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne, during the rendezvous with the space station last month. Four of the five thrusters were recovered after overheating and losing thrust, but officials have declared one of the thrusters unusable.

The thruster tested on the ground showed similar behavior. Inspections of the thruster at White Sands showed bulging in a Teflon seal in an oxidizer valve, which could restrict the flow of nitrogen tetroxide propellant. The thrusters, each generating about 85 pounds of thrust, consume the nitrogen tetroxide, or NTO, oxidizer and mix it with hydrazine fuel for combustion.

A poppet valve, similar to an inflation valve on a tire, is designed to open and close to allow nitrogen tetroxide to flow into the thruster.

“That poppet has a Teflon seal at the end of it,” Nappi said. “Through the heating and natural vacuum that occurs with the thruster firing, that poppet seal was deformed and actually bulged out a little bit.”

Stich said engineers are evaluating the integrity of the Teflon seal to determine if it could remain intact through the undocking and deorbit burn of the Starliner spacecraft. The thrusters aren’t needed while Starliner is attached to the space station.

“Could that particular seal survive the rest of the flight? That’s the important part,” Stich said.

NASA nears decision on what to do with Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft Read More »

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No, NASA hasn’t found life on Mars yet, but the latest discovery is intriguing

Life on Mars, Mars, perseverance, Science, Space / /

Look at the big brain on percy —

“These spots are a big surprise.”

–

NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered “leopard spots” on a reddish rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in Mars’ Jezero Crater in July 2024.

Enlarge / NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered “leopard spots” on a reddish rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in Mars’ Jezero Crater in July 2024.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Perseverance rover has found a very intriguing rock on the surface of Mars.

An arrowhead-shaped rock observed by the rover has chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by ancient microbial life. To be absolutely clear, this is not irrefutable evidence of past life on Mars, when the red planet was more amenable to water-based life billions of years ago. But discovering these colored spots on this rock is darn intriguing and has Mars scientists bubbling with excitement.

“These spots are a big surprise,” said David Flannery, an astrobiologist and member of the Perseverance science team from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, in a NASA news release. “On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface.”

What the rover found

This is a very recent discovery, and the science has not yet been peer-reviewed. The sample was collected on July 21—a mere four days ago—as the rover explored the Neretva Vallis riverbed. This valley was formed long ago when water rushed into Jezero Crater.

The science team operating Perseverance has nicknamed the rock Chevaya Falls and subjected it to multiple scans by the rover’s SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument. The distinctive colorful spots, containing both iron and phosphate, are a smoking gun for certain chemical reactions—rather than microbial life itself.

On Earth, microbial life can derive energy from these kinds of chemical reactions. So, what we have here is a plausible source of energy for microbes on Mars. In addition, there are organic chemicals present on the same rock, which is consistent with something living there. From this, it is tempting to jump to the idea of microbes living on a rock, eons ago, in a Martian river. But this is not direct evidence of life.

NASA has a seven-step process for determining whether something can be confirmed as extraterrestrial life. This is known as the CoLD scale, for Confidence of Life Detection. In this case, the detection of these spots on a Martian rock represents just the first of seven steps—for example, scientists must still rule out non-biological possibility and identify other signals to have confidence in off-world life.

Bring them home

According to NASA, Perseverance has used all of its available instrumentation to study Chevaya Falls. “We have zapped that rock with lasers and X-rays and imaged it literally day and night from just about every angle imaginable,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist. “Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more to give.”

The discovery provides some wind in the sails for NASA’s flagging efforts to devise and fly a Mars Sample Return mission. The agency’s most recent plan, costing $11 billion, was determined to be too expensive. Now, the space agency is asking the industry for help. In June it commissioned 10 studies on alternative means of returning rocks from Mars sooner, and presumably for a lower cost.

Now, scientists can point to rocks like Chevaya Falls and say this is precisely why they must be studied in ultra-capable labs back on Earth.

No, NASA hasn’t found life on Mars yet, but the latest discovery is intriguing Read More »

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SpaceX just stomped the competition for a new contract—that’s not great

Features, fixed price, NASA, northrop, Science, Space, spacex / /
A rocket sits on a launch pad during a purple- and gold-streaked dawn.

Enlarge / With Dragon and Falcon, SpaceX has become an essential contractor for NASA.

SpaceX

There is an emerging truth about NASA’s push toward commercial contracts that is increasingly difficult to escape: Companies not named SpaceX are struggling with NASA’s approach of awarding firm, fixed-price contracts for space services.

This belief is underscored by the recent award of an $843 million contract to SpaceX for a heavily modified Dragon spacecraft that will be used to deorbit the International Space Station by 2030.

The recently released source selection statement for the “US Deorbit Vehicle” contract, a process led by NASA head of space operations Ken Bowersox, reveals that the competition was a total stomp. SpaceX faced just a single serious competitor in this process, Northrop Grumman. And in all three categories—price, mission suitability, and past performance—SpaceX significantly outclassed Northrop.

Although it’s wonderful that NASA has an excellent contractor in SpaceX, it’s not healthy in the long term that there are so few credible competitors. Moreover, a careful reading of the source selection statement reveals that NASA had to really work to get a competition at all.

“I was really happy that we got proposals from the companies that we did,” Bowersox said during a media teleconference last week. “The companies that sent us proposals are both great companies, and it was awesome to see that interest. I would have expected a few more [proposals], honestly, but I was very happy to get the ones that we got.”

Commercial initiatives struggling

NASA’s push into “commercial” space began nearly two decades ago with a program to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The space agency initially selected SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler to develop rockets and spacecraft to accomplish this, but after Kistler missed milestones, the company was subsequently replaced by Orbital Sciences Corporation. The cargo delivery program was largely successful, resulting in the Cargo Dragon (SpaceX) and Cygnus (Orbital Sciences) spacecraft. It continues to this day.

A commercial approach generally means that NASA pays a “fixed” price for a service rather than paying a contractor’s costs plus a fee. It also means that NASA hopes to become one of many customers. The idea is that, as the first mover, NASA is helping to stimulate a market by which its fixed-priced contractors can also sell their services to other entities—both private companies and other space agencies.

NASA has since extended this commercial approach to crew, with SpaceX and Boeing winning large contracts in 2014. However, only SpaceX has flown operational astronaut missions, while Boeing remains in the development and test phase, with its ongoing Crew Flight Test. Whereas SpaceX has sold half a dozen private crewed missions on Dragon, Boeing has yet to announce any.

Such a commercial approach has also been tried with lunar cargo delivery through the “Commercial Lunar Payload Services” program, as well as larger lunar landers (Human Landing System), next-generation spacesuits, and commercial space stations. Each of these programs has a mixed record at best. For example, NASA’s inspector general was highly critical of the lunar cargo program in a recent report, and one of the two spacesuit contractors, Collins Aerospace, recently dropped out because it could not execute on its fixed-price contract.

Some of NASA’s most important traditional space contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, have all said they are reconsidering whether to participate in fixed-price contract competitions in the future. For example, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said last August, “We are being even more disciplined moving forward in ensuring that we work with the government to have the appropriate use of fixed-price contracts.”

So the large traditional space contractors don’t like fixed-price contracts, and many new space companies are struggling to survive in this environment.

SpaceX just stomped the competition for a new contract—that’s not great Read More »