Auf die Tagung "Satellite 2024" in Washington, 18-20 März, habe ich gestern schon verwiesen. Heute, am 2. Tag:
Zitat Christian Davenport@wapodavenport·1h On a panel at the Satellite conference, Gwynne Shotwell says SpaceX should be ready to fly Starship again in about six weeks. Says teams are still reviewing the data from the last flight and that flight 4 would not have satellites on board.
She adds that the goal for Starship this year is to reach orbit, deploy satellites and recover both stages. And of course to launch Falcon 9 148 times. 2:55 PM · Mar 19, 2024
Zitat Speaking at the Satellite 2024 conference March 19, Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said the company was still reviewing the data from the vehicle’s third integrated launch March 14 but expected to be ready to fly again soon.
“We’re still going through the data” from the flight, she said when asked about the analysis of data from the mission. “It was an incredibly successful flight. We hit exactly where we wanted to go.”
On that launch both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage performed as expected on its ascent, placing the vehicle on its planned suborbital trajectory. Starship’s payload door was opened while in space and a propellent transfer demonstration, moving liquid oxygen between two tanks in the vehicle, was initiated.
“We’ll figure out what happened on both stages,” she said, not discussing what may have gone wrong with either, “and get back to flight hopefully in about six weeks,” or early May.
That schedule will depend on completing a mishap investigation that must be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, which would then have to modify the existing launch license for Starship before the next launch.
Zitat Jeff Foust@jeff_foust In a Satellite 2024 panel, Isar Aerospace's Stella Guillen said they are targeting this summer for a first launch; hoping to beat RFA (and Ariane 6). #satshow 7:41 PM · Mar 20, 2024
Zitat The Ultimate Guide to Argo: Our Cost-Effective Cargo Capsule March 21, 2024
Meet Argo, our cost-effective space cargo capsule. Optimized for flexibility and reliability, Argo offers an end-to-end service at a low price point of just €150M. Led by RFA, the bidding consortium combines our expertise with that from Space Cargo Unlimited, along with partners like ATMOS Space Cargo to offer a fully reusable solution for the European Space Agency and commercial clients.
Instead of giving you a formal press release, we decided the best way to talk about Argo would be to talk directly with YOU. So, we asked you to submit any pressing questions you had about Argo and promised to answer some of them in a future post.
Chapter 1: Why Europe Needs Space Cargo Capabilities While Europe’s space capabilities are still world class, it is no longer the space power it once was due to the lack of autonomy.
But with a booming New Space industry and innovative initiatives, the doors are open to achieve the European Space Agency’s ambition to position Europe as a global space power once again by 2035. One such initiative is the competition opened by ESA in November 2023 for a European cargo service to and from space stations in Low Earth Orbit. Since the termination of ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), we have had to rely on international sources for our space cargo needs. The recent call from ESA shows their commitment to developing Europe’s future as a global space leader once more.
Argo is our answer to this call. But it’s also more than that. Argo is not “just” a supply service for space stations. It stands as a symbol of Europe’s leadership and innovation in the New Space economy.
According to the requirements of ESA, Argo is developed for use on any launcher. At a minimum, it is compatible with current and future European medium to heavy-lift launch vehicles, but can also fly with other medium or heavy-lift launch vehicles if needed.
This approach makes Argo launch agnostic and capable of offering a 100% flexible and customer-oriented service.
Although Argo is compatible with other existing and upcoming launchers, the most cost-effective solution would be to launch on our very own medium or heavy-lift launch system. This enables us to offer a full end-to-end cargo service for 4,000kg to and from orbit.
As one person pointed out, RFA ONE is indeed too small to carry Argo. But that was never our plan. ESA’s requirement is that we must launch Argo by 2028 – and by then the European Launcher Challenge will presumably provide the framework for the development of a larger RFA rocket. So we move step by step and start with our RFA ONE which, you’ll know, is due to launch in summer 2024 and is already fully booked for its two test flights.
3) When is the maiden flight planned?
Tying in nicely to the previous point, we can confirm that we plan to implement Argo’s first demo mission in 2028.
During our market research, we found a substantial global demand for cargo transportation missions. After its first demo mission in 2028, we plan to make the service commercially available from 2029 onward, with the aim to increase cadence as needed to serve the market.
Argo will be 3.7 m in diameter and 7.7 m long (without its fairing). It will have a 1:1 ratio between its up and down cargo mass – one of its most unique features. How do we achieve the same up-and-down mass? With an Inflatable Atmospheric Decelerator (IAD), provided by our partner Atmos Space Cargo.
Argo has a dry mass of 5,200 kg without cargo, a total internal pressurized volume of 27.9 cubic meters and a pressurized cargo volume of 15.5 cubic meters. It can carry up to 4,000 kg of cargo to and from orbit.
Two RFA Fenix engines will power Argo in orbit, with an additional 24x 100 N Thrusters for the Reaction Control System (RCS). The Fenix engines use bi-propellant and will already have flight heritage from RFA ONE. Argo has an estimated propellant mass of 3,082 kg.
Argo will utilize its Inflatable Atmospheric Decelerator to allow the entire vehicle to return to Earth and safely land with up to 4000 kg of cargo. The position of the Inflatable Atmospheric Decelerator (IAD) was moved from the front in Version 1 to the back in the current version, but this doesn’t change the functionality or effectiveness of the return module. We can confirm that Argo is capable of safe re-entry.
Our demo mission in 2028 will last a total of 25 days. Argo will spend three of those days getting to the ISS, 20 days docked, and 2 further days for undocking, re-entry and recovery. However, Argo is designed to service our customers and their needs. Therefore, it’s possible for Argo to remain in orbit for over one year, if required.
Argo will be fully reusable. This reusability starts from the first mission with immediate post-recovery actions like de-salting and unloading payload, followed by refurbishment. Argo returns to Earth enveloped and protected by the cutting-edge technologies of the large IAD, allowing a fast turnaround time on refurbishment and expedited reuse. This also helps keep costs low and offer short response times for emergency delivery.
Its design is based on existing technologies from our partners and also our RFA ONE and Redshift OTV. This allows us to provide modularity and be cost-competitive, but we also have the goal of full reusability. After our first demo mission with Argo, we will analyze and further refine the reusable aspects to meet our goals effectively.
Argo’s services start at 150 million EUR per launch.
Our analysis was based on publicly available information and showed that Argo is highly competitive and significantly undercuts the prices offered by competitors. For reference, ATV claimed to be 300 million EUR per launch.
Lucky for us, Argo is based on a combination of existing technology through European partnerships. Therefore, we can use a building blocks approach to build the capsule. The Fenix engines will see their first flight on RFA ONE this year. A subscale IAD has already been tested and is planned to gain its flight heritage on the SpaceX Transporter mission in 2025. And the stainless steel tanks and CFRP structures will also be flight-qualified on RFA ONE. We are confident that all critical systems of Argo will reach TRL 6 in 2026 for its first demo mission in 2028.
Mal wieder ein wenig Zahlenmagie (oder Zahlenfetischismus, je nachdem).
Vor einer Viertelstunde Start der Starlink-Mission 6-46 von Startrampe 40 in Cape Canaveral mit 23 Starlink "Mini"-Satellliten; mit Landung auf der "A Shortfall of Gravitas"
Vor gut einer Woche kam auf X die Frage auf, ob die Falcon 9, wenn sie denn einmal ihren Lauf beendet hat & durch das Starship ersetzt wird, die am öftesten gestartete Rakete der Raumfahrtgeschichte sein wird. Mit dem Hinweis darauf, daß die F9 etwas über 300 Starts hinter sich hat, die sowjetische/russische Sojus aber "mehr als 1900."
Deshalb als Gedächtnisstütze ein wenig Statistik. Auf die Zahl ">1900" kommt man nur, wenn man sämtliche Starts der verschiedenen Sojus-Varianten, einschließlich der R-7, der ersten Interkontinentalrakete überhaupt (ab Mai 1957), addiert. Für die einzelnen Modelle sieht das wie folgt aus (Variante, Einsatzzeitraum, Zahl der Starts/der Fehlstarts):
Auch die F9 ist nur ein Modell einer Reihe (begonnen mit der F1 mit 3 Fehlstarts 2006-8, plus der Falcon Heavy), Erstflug 2010. Der Start vorhin war der 314. Start einer F9; mit der 214. erfolgreichen Landung in Folge.
Roskosmos hat im vergangenen Jahr 16 Starts absolviert; in diesem Jahr bislang 3. Die F9 hat 2023 insgesamt 86 Starts absolviert; in diesem Jahr 29 (in den nächsten 4 Tagen stehen 3 weitere an); macht einen Start alle 2,9 Tage.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
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