Hello and welcome to Max Q. We hope our readers in Florida are safe during Hurricane Ian. I am thinking of you. In this issue:
- How the Space Coast Prepared for the Storm
- Human: 1, Asteroid: 0
- News from Astra, Firehawk Aerospace and more
by the way… in a few weeks TechCrunch chaoswill be returning live and in person to San Francisco on October 18-20. Use this link to receive your 15% off pass (excludes online and expos).
Florida’s Space Coast has breached hatches in preparation for the arrival of the extremely powerful and slow-moving Hurricane Ian. Officials returned the rocket to safety in the hangar and delayed the launch until the storm had passed.
By Wednesday afternoon, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) will enter HURCON I, indicating that sustained winds of 50 knots are likely within 12 hours. In light of these dire circumstances, all non-essential facilities have been closed and the majority of staff sent home. NASA also made an important decision Monday to roll back the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft from the launch pad to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), allowing employees to safely move the large launch system ahead of the storm. gave enough time to move to. A rollback, while arguably necessary, would affect the launch potential of the Artemis I lunar mission. The next launch window looks likely to be sometime in November.
Private companies with facilities on the Space Coast, including Relativity Space, United Launch Alliance, and SpaceX, also secured assets in hangars before the storm arrived. NASA’s Crew-5 was slated to power his SpaceX’s Falcon 9, but the launch of his two SES communications satellites by United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V has also been postponed.
In an update, a NASA spokesperson wrote on KSC’s Twitter page: minimal damage reported Can be used in most operational facilities.
Hurricane Ian as seen from the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA
In a major victory for mankind, NASA successfully smashed a vending machine-sized satellite into a small asteroid. This is part of what NASA calls the “Double Asteroid Redirection Test” (DART). The target asteroid Dimorphus is part of two asteroid systems. Neither was in danger of colliding with Earth, but the space agency saw it as an opportunity to test whether we humans could redirect an asteroid. was target the earth. Just ask a dinosaur.
NASA launched DART last November and used a SpaceX Falcon 9 to send the satellite onto a collision course with Dimorphos. The DART spacecraft impacted the asteroid moon at 7:14 p.m. ET Monday night at a speed of about 6.5 kilometers per second, and the impact was confirmed in a series of images from its onboard camera.
Image credit: NASA
More news from TC…
- Astra It will no longer send any remaining NASA TROPICS payloads into space, but will instead launch other “comparable” science missions for its agency, the company announced Wednesday. The change to the launch contract comes just over three months after Astra’s first TROPICS launch failed because the upper stage shut down before sending the payload into orbit.
- Astra It also announced the appointment of a new CFO to help the company navigate the new capital market landscape as it seeks to grow its launch and propulsion business.
- FCC In hopes of reducing the amount of “space junk” orbiting Earth, a new rule has been passed that requires commercial satellite operators to ensure that their spacecraft are deorbited within five years of mission completion. did.
- firehawk aerospace has developed new rocket engines and stable solid fuels to power them, and has secured millions of dollars in new funding to undergo the next series of tests before its first atmospheric demonstration launch. led the company.
- space x When NASA has signed a new contract to study the possibility of sending a private crew to the Hubble Space Telescope to accelerate its orbit. Missions like this could extend the telescope’s operational life by as much as 20 years.
The Hubble Space Telescope as seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery during Hubble’s second service mission in 1997. Image credit: NASA via Getty Images.
…from
- arc investmentan investment firm run by Kathy Woods, used two of its funds to purchase approximately 729,000 shares of Rocket Lab.
- of the astroscale The UK subsidiary has opened a new 20,000 square foot satellite manufacturing facility in Oxfordshire called ‘Zeus’.
- blythe tech We released our quarterly launch report and found that SpaceX launched about 500 spacecraft in the second quarter. A Chinese launch company and Rocket Lab tied for second place with him, each launching his 36 spacecraft.
- parliamentary subcommittee We are closely monitoring the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation into an anomaly that led to a booster failure on the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket.
- firefly aerospace Latest Boot Attempt scrubbed with T-0, and the rocket went into auto-abort shortly after ignition. “We are reviewing the data to make a decision. [its] Next launch window. “
- sierra space is considering a public offering to fund private space station ambitions.
- space x It achieved the fastest launch pad turnaround ever, with two launches from the same launch pad in just six days.
- spire global $4 million awarded by the National Oceanic and Ocean Service to fund the development and demonstration of an orbital hyperspectral microwave sensor.
- star link manufacturing 1 million user terminalsSpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.
- STOKE Space Technology Received a $1 million grant From the National Science Foundation to test its metal heat shield technology.
- National Reconnaissance Service Signed commercial radio frequency remote sensing research contracts with six companies: Aurora Insight, HawkEye 360, Kleos Space, PredaSAR, Spire Global, and Umbra Lab.
- British Space Agency We signed two contracts with ClearSpace and Astroscale to demonstrate debris removal in space. The contracts are worth £2.25m ($2.4m) and £1.7m ($1.8m) respectively.
Max Q I brought you, Aria alamarhodaeiIf you enjoy reading Max Q, please consider forwarding it to a friend.
