Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
On today's episode, we are gettinginto the latest space news, including SpaceX
and Blue Origin moon landing updates.The star Base water deluge system is under
investigation, and the ULA announces aChristmas launch date for Vulcan. This is
the Space Race. October twenty fifthsaw the start of the twenty twenty three
(00:20):
Von Braun Space Exploration Symposium and withit a conversation with NASA program managers about
the planning and execution of the ArtemisMoon missions. Every aspect of the mission
structure was touched on, with thefocus being on how the teams involved were
approaching the execution of their individual parts, and at the very end, doctor
(00:42):
Lisa Watson Morgan spoke about the humanLanding System program. Watson Morgan is NASA's
program manager for the crude landing sectionsof the Artemis missions, which means that
she and her team are responsible fororganizing and liaising with both SpaceX and Blue
Origin as both companies ready their vehiclesfor the Artemis three and five missions,
(01:03):
respectively. Her section of the Artemispanel was devoted mostly to the nuts and
bolts of procedure, the things NASAis doing to help SpaceX and Blue Origin
develop their hardware, but more importantly, develop them on time, because with
an expected launch date of twenty twentyfive for Artemis three, SpaceX at least
doesn't have much time left to completethe mountain of testing needed before NASA will
(01:27):
clear them to take a crew tothe lunar surface. Obviously, the concern
here is that SpaceX will have amore difficult time than anticipated with starships testing.
Sure they are more than ready forthe second test flight, which is
currently waiting on FAA approval to launch. More on that later, but proving
Starship can fly is just one checkboxto tick out of hundreds. The HLS
(01:53):
team is hoping for around fifteen toseventeen launches of Starship before the twenty twenty
five Artomis three launch date even happens, and that's because of the way NASA
and its partners develop rockets. NASAhas learned from working with SpaceX and other
commercial partners that data is much moreaccurate if the team focuses on a smaller
(02:13):
series of objectives per launch and justperforms a lot of test launches. We've
seen this with SpaceX for pretty muchits entire history. Test fly, learn,
repeat must be tattooed on every oneof their engineers by now. But
while this sort of testing seems tobe the safest way to develop the HLS
hardware, it does present a problemfor the overall schedule. Before twenty twenty
(02:36):
five, SpaceX has to prove flightcapability, recovery operations, orbital insertion,
zero G refueling, docking with NASA'sO'Ryan capsule, long duration flight, flammability
test, cabin pressure stability, radiationshielding, landing stability, lunar takeoff,
and probably a lot more we can'tthink of off the top of our heads.
(02:58):
And this is where Watson Morgan givesus a little insight into NASA's take
on this whole situation, because theydon't seem particularly worried that Artemis three could
be delayed. She was careful tosay that NASA is concerned that the SpaceX
testing could lag a bit because therest of the Artemis program really can't continue
without success on Artemis three. Butwe know that NASA has planned for delays
(03:22):
in the overall program agenda, soit makes sense that Watson Morgan doesn't seem
too nervous about potential delays, especiallyconsidering that NASA seems way more interested in
the learning part of this exercise.Watson Morgan says that in addition to the
highly visible flight tests that gets alot of attention, the development of tech
procedures and supporting hardware that is beingcompleted in the background will ensure that even
(03:46):
if the worst should happen and Artemisthree has to be canceled or changed due
to some unforeseen problem with Starship,the program will have gained so much valuable
information and technology during the process thatit would never be a total loss.
And this includes Blue Origin, ofcourse. On October twenty seventh, Jeff
(04:08):
Bezos's Space Launch Company unveiled their ownBlue Moon Mark one Lander, the second
commercial human landing system picked for theArtemis missions, specifically Artemis five, which
is due to launch in September oftwenty twenty nine. The three story tall,
white and gold Lander has been indevelopment since about twenty sixteen and was
a part of the original NASA contestthat ended up awarding the first HLS contract
(04:31):
to SpaceX, but since NASA likesusing different providers to ensure redundancy, Blue
Origin was picked for their second commerciallander mission, and as usual, the
unveiling of their new Lander came asa total surprise because Blue Origin doesn't keep
the public up to date on theirdevelopment cycles, for better or for worse.
(04:53):
The vehicle itself certainly looks like it'sready to fly, and the company
says that it will be ready assoon as their new lug Glenn is in
twenty twenty four. This means thatBlue Origin has about five years of extra
testing that SpaceX won't have, whichis likely why Watson Morgan didn't mention them
much in her lecture. She didpoint out that Blue Origin is using these
(05:15):
same methods of testing as SpaceX is, though taking all the help they can
get from both NASA and Lockheed Martin, who have helped design their hardware.
Blue Origin have said explicitly that theirMark one is a testing platform and will
be helping the team test for Artemisfive and design supporting technologies for that mission.
It's a pretty clever method of designing, and it's a good thing NASA
(05:38):
is adept at learning from their partners. Starship could still make their deadline for
the current launch date of Artemis three, but the team at NASA and SpaceX
have made sure that it's not sucha big deal if they don't and of
course anything that makes Starship stumble willbe fixed in time for Blue Origin's turn.
On October twenty second, SpaceX conducteda series of fuel and launch pad
(05:59):
tests their Bokachika test center, andthen again on the twenty fourth. Each
test performed using a fully stacked Starshipsuper heavy rocket to demonstrate full flight readiness.
SpaceX has been diligently working towards recertifying their massive rocket for flight since
their first test on April twentieth wentawry, but as repairs to the launch
site have been completed and upgrades tothe vehicle itself have been finished, the
(06:24):
company seems very confident that they areready to fly again. Both days of
testing involved pumping cryogenic fuel into thestacked vehicle, with the operation on the
twenty fourth using over ten million poundsof liquid oxygen and methane propellant to prove
that Starship, with its new hotstage and collar, could handle the procedure.
(06:45):
But strangely, the more important testcame at the end of testing on
the twenty second, as the teamfired up Starbase's newly completed water deluge system,
cranking it to full power with theaid of freshly installed high pressure canisters
and a final water tank. Theeruption of water, which will both cool
the steel plate that sits directly underthe booster's engines and protect from pressure and
(07:08):
noise damage, was much more powerfulthan the original tests back in July.
But why would this be more importantthan fuel testing. Well, the answer
to that came on October twenty fifth, when survey teams from the Fish and
Wildlife Service were spotted on the groundsof Starbase. As we said earlier,
SpaceX has been working closely with localand federal regulatory bodies to get their license
(07:30):
for flight testing re certified. Thebiggest of these bodies is the Federal Aviation
Administration, of course, but theyformally closed the mishap investigation into the April
twentieth Starship explosion on September eighth,so their part seems to have been close
to finishing. But the FAA wasn'tthe only regulatory body that SpaceX had to
(07:50):
satisfy, So while all of themechanical requirements had been satisfied in September,
the environmental concerns remained. This iswhere both the Fish and Wildlife Service comes
in, because the deluge system needsto be checked There are a lot of
environmental concerns with Starship that have alreadybeen accounted for and deemed safe. The
(08:11):
pollution from its methane fuel, thepotential followed from an explosion, the debris
from normal use, all that sortof thing. But when the deluge system
pumps thousands of gallons of water intothe coast of Bocachica, water that has
been shipped in and has a slightlydifferent chemical and biological makeup to the local
ecosystem, it's not likely to bean issue, but fish and wildlife still
(08:33):
need to check it out or they'renot doing their jobs. The FAA says
this part of the process could takeup to one hundred and thirty five more
days, though they were also quickto say that they don't believe it will
take that long. And this sortof regulatory hang up has been very frustrating
for SpaceX lately, but also forthe commercial space in general. Recent discussions
(08:56):
going as far up the chain asCongress, have centered around the need to
update the regulatory system to account forthe fact that the landscape of the space
industry has changed dramatically in the lastdecade. We need a faster response time
from these organizations. Now. Ofcourse, the companies themselves would like to
see looser regulations in general, whichwould certainly speed up the process at the
(09:20):
cost of potentially making spaceflight less safe. But other suggestions have centered around a
need for more funding so that thesebodies can more quickly do their work,
or a single new regulatory body thatcan handle all aspects of licensing spaceflight operations
without having to work between so manyagencies like the FAA currently has to do.
(09:41):
NASA is also on the side ofregulatory reforms, throwing their weight behind
creating a whole new regulatory framework thatwould cut through a lot of the unnecessary
testing that currently bogs down the process. Whatever the decision eventually ends up being,
it looks like the external pressure toget Starship flying again is getting the
environ mental testing teams out in thefield a little faster, and with any
(10:03):
luck, this sort of visibility willlead to Starship getting its license renewed before
the end of this year, justin time for Christmas. The United Launch
Alliance has announced that their Vulcan rocketwill have its very first launch on December
twenty fourth, Originally slated for alaunch back in summer of this year,
the ULA was plagued by mechanical issueswith both their Centaur upper stage vehicle,
(10:26):
the delayed development of the B fourengines made by Blue Origin for Vulcan's first
stage booster, and the Peregrine Lunarlander made by Astrobotic, and delayed more
than once by the COVID pandemic.Needless to say, the ULA has had
a pretty rough time getting their newrocket to the test stand, which is
a real shame because on paper thething is very impressive. Vulcan's first stage
(10:48):
is powered by a pair of BE four engines, which use a liquid
methane and liquid oxygen fuel mix.Just like SpaceX's Starship. The booster can
produce four nine hundred kit Newton's ofmaximum force, allowing the Vulcan to put
up to seven thousand kilograms into geostationaryorbit. That puts the Vulcan in competition
(11:09):
with most other heavy lift rockets,not Starship, but that's not a fair
comparison really, considering that Starship outmassesVulcan by a little under ten times.
Still, it's more than strong enoughto allow the ULA's older workhorses, the
Atlas five and Delta four, tofinally retire. The first flight won't just
be a test of the Vulcan either, with astrobotics Peregrine Moonlander finally getting a
(11:31):
chance to do what it was designedfor and head to the lunar surface with
a payload of NASA experiments. Itcertainly looks like the next several months are
going to be very busy for thespace Race. Starship could get their launch
license within the next three months.Blue Origins, New Shepherd, and New
Glen are looking at perhaps launching withinthe next several months two and Vulcan of
(11:52):
course has its Christmas launch, allwhile NASA prepares for a November twenty twenty four launch
On today's episode, we are gettinginto the latest space news, including SpaceX
and Blue Origin moon landing updates.The star Base water deluge system is under
investigation, and the ULA announces aChristmas launch date for Vulcan. This is
the Space Race. October twenty fifthsaw the start of the twenty twenty three
(00:20):
Von Braun Space Exploration Symposium and withit a conversation with NASA program managers about
the planning and execution of the ArtemisMoon missions. Every aspect of the mission
structure was touched on, with thefocus being on how the teams involved were
approaching the execution of their individual parts, and at the very end, doctor
(00:42):
Lisa Watson Morgan spoke about the humanLanding System program. Watson Morgan is NASA's
program manager for the crude landing sectionsof the Artemis missions, which means that
she and her team are responsible fororganizing and liaising with both SpaceX and Blue
Origin as both companies ready their vehiclesfor the Artemis three and five missions,
(01:03):
respectively. Her section of the Artemispanel was devoted mostly to the nuts and
bolts of procedure, the things NASAis doing to help SpaceX and Blue Origin
develop their hardware, but more importantly, develop them on time, because with
an expected launch date of twenty twentyfive for Artemis three, SpaceX at least
doesn't have much time left to completethe mountain of testing needed before NASA will
(01:27):
clear them to take a crew tothe lunar surface. Obviously, the concern
here is that SpaceX will have amore difficult time than anticipated with starships testing.
Sure they are more than ready forthe second test flight, which is
currently waiting on FAA approval to launch. More on that later, but proving
Starship can fly is just one checkboxto tick out of hundreds. The HLS
(01:53):
team is hoping for around fifteen toseventeen launches of Starship before the twenty twenty
five Artomis three launch date even happens, and that's because of the way NASA
and its partners develop rockets. NASAhas learned from working with SpaceX and other
commercial partners that data is much moreaccurate if the team focuses on a smaller
(02:13):
series of objectives per launch and justperforms a lot of test launches. We've
seen this with SpaceX for pretty muchits entire history. Test fly, learn,
repeat must be tattooed on every oneof their engineers by now. But
while this sort of testing seems tobe the safest way to develop the HLS
hardware, it does present a problemfor the overall schedule. Before twenty twenty
(02:36):
five, SpaceX has to prove flightcapability, recovery operations, orbital insertion,
zero G refueling, docking with NASA'sO'Ryan capsule, long duration flight, flammability
test, cabin pressure stability, radiationshielding, landing stability, lunar takeoff,
and probably a lot more we can'tthink of off the top of our heads.
(02:58):
And this is where Watson Morgan givesus a little insight into NASA's take
on this whole situation, because theydon't seem particularly worried that Artemis three could
be delayed. She was careful tosay that NASA is concerned that the SpaceX
testing could lag a bit because therest of the Artemis program really can't continue
without success on Artemis three. Butwe know that NASA has planned for delays
(03:22):
in the overall program agenda, soit makes sense that Watson Morgan doesn't seem
too nervous about potential delays, especiallyconsidering that NASA seems way more interested in
the learning part of this exercise.Watson Morgan says that in addition to the
highly visible flight tests that gets alot of attention, the development of tech
procedures and supporting hardware that is beingcompleted in the background will ensure that even
(03:46):
if the worst should happen and Artemisthree has to be canceled or changed due
to some unforeseen problem with Starship,the program will have gained so much valuable
information and technology during the process thatit would never be a total loss.
And this includes Blue Origin, ofcourse. On October twenty seventh, Jeff
(04:08):
Bezos's Space Launch Company unveiled their ownBlue Moon Mark one Lander, the second
commercial human landing system picked for theArtemis missions, specifically Artemis five, which
is due to launch in September oftwenty twenty nine. The three story tall,
white and gold Lander has been indevelopment since about twenty sixteen and was
a part of the original NASA contestthat ended up awarding the first HLS contract
(04:31):
to SpaceX, but since NASA likesusing different providers to ensure redundancy, Blue
Origin was picked for their second commerciallander mission, and as usual, the
unveiling of their new Lander came asa total surprise because Blue Origin doesn't keep
the public up to date on theirdevelopment cycles, for better or for worse.
(04:53):
The vehicle itself certainly looks like it'sready to fly, and the company
says that it will be ready assoon as their new lug Glenn is in
twenty twenty four. This means thatBlue Origin has about five years of extra
testing that SpaceX won't have, whichis likely why Watson Morgan didn't mention them
much in her lecture. She didpoint out that Blue Origin is using these
(05:15):
same methods of testing as SpaceX is, though taking all the help they can
get from both NASA and Lockheed Martin, who have helped design their hardware.
Blue Origin have said explicitly that theirMark one is a testing platform and will
be helping the team test for Artemisfive and design supporting technologies for that mission.
It's a pretty clever method of designing, and it's a good thing NASA
(05:38):
is adept at learning from their partners. Starship could still make their deadline for
the current launch date of Artemis three, but the team at NASA and SpaceX
have made sure that it's not sucha big deal if they don't and of
course anything that makes Starship stumble willbe fixed in time for Blue Origin's turn.
On October twenty second, SpaceX conducteda series of fuel and launch pad
(05:59):
tests their Bokachika test center, andthen again on the twenty fourth. Each
test performed using a fully stacked Starshipsuper heavy rocket to demonstrate full flight readiness.
SpaceX has been diligently working towards recertifying their massive rocket for flight since
their first test on April twentieth wentawry, but as repairs to the launch
site have been completed and upgrades tothe vehicle itself have been finished, the
(06:24):
company seems very confident that they areready to fly again. Both days of
testing involved pumping cryogenic fuel into thestacked vehicle, with the operation on the
twenty fourth using over ten million poundsof liquid oxygen and methane propellant to prove
that Starship, with its new hotstage and collar, could handle the procedure.
(06:45):
But strangely, the more important testcame at the end of testing on
the twenty second, as the teamfired up Starbase's newly completed water deluge system,
cranking it to full power with theaid of freshly installed high pressure canisters
and a final water tank. Theeruption of water, which will both cool
the steel plate that sits directly underthe booster's engines and protect from pressure and
(07:08):
noise damage, was much more powerfulthan the original tests back in July.
But why would this be more importantthan fuel testing. Well, the answer
to that came on October twenty fifth, when survey teams from the Fish and
Wildlife Service were spotted on the groundsof Starbase. As we said earlier,
SpaceX has been working closely with localand federal regulatory bodies to get their license
(07:30):
for flight testing re certified. Thebiggest of these bodies is the Federal Aviation
Administration, of course, but theyformally closed the mishap investigation into the April
twentieth Starship explosion on September eighth,so their part seems to have been close
to finishing. But the FAA wasn'tthe only regulatory body that SpaceX had to
(07:50):
satisfy, So while all of themechanical requirements had been satisfied in September,
the environmental concerns remained. This iswhere both the Fish and Wildlife Service comes
in, because the deluge system needsto be checked There are a lot of
environmental concerns with Starship that have alreadybeen accounted for and deemed safe. The
(08:11):
pollution from its methane fuel, thepotential followed from an explosion, the debris
from normal use, all that sortof thing. But when the deluge system
pumps thousands of gallons of water intothe coast of Bocachica, water that has
been shipped in and has a slightlydifferent chemical and biological makeup to the local
ecosystem, it's not likely to bean issue, but fish and wildlife still
(08:33):
need to check it out or they'renot doing their jobs. The FAA says
this part of the process could takeup to one hundred and thirty five more
days, though they were also quickto say that they don't believe it will
take that long. And this sortof regulatory hang up has been very frustrating
for SpaceX lately, but also forthe commercial space in general. Recent discussions
(08:56):
going as far up the chain asCongress, have centered around the need to
update the regulatory system to account forthe fact that the landscape of the space
industry has changed dramatically in the lastdecade. We need a faster response time
from these organizations. Now. Ofcourse, the companies themselves would like to
see looser regulations in general, whichwould certainly speed up the process at the
(09:20):
cost of potentially making spaceflight less safe. But other suggestions have centered around a
need for more funding so that thesebodies can more quickly do their work,
or a single new regulatory body thatcan handle all aspects of licensing spaceflight operations
without having to work between so manyagencies like the FAA currently has to do.
(09:41):
NASA is also on the side ofregulatory reforms, throwing their weight behind
creating a whole new regulatory framework thatwould cut through a lot of the unnecessary
testing that currently bogs down the process. Whatever the decision eventually ends up being,
it looks like the external pressure toget Starship flying again is getting the
environ mental testing teams out in thefield a little faster, and with any
(10:03):
luck, this sort of visibility willlead to Starship getting its license renewed before
the end of this year, justin time for Christmas. The United Launch
Alliance has announced that their Vulcan rocketwill have its very first launch on December
twenty fourth, Originally slated for alaunch back in summer of this year,
the ULA was plagued by mechanical issueswith both their Centaur upper stage vehicle,
(10:26):
the delayed development of the B fourengines made by Blue Origin for Vulcan's first
stage booster, and the Peregrine Lunarlander made by Astrobotic, and delayed more
than once by the COVID pandemic.Needless to say, the ULA has had
a pretty rough time getting their newrocket to the test stand, which is
a real shame because on paper thething is very impressive. Vulcan's first stage
(10:48):
is powered by a pair of BE four engines, which use a liquid
methane and liquid oxygen fuel mix.Just like SpaceX's Starship. The booster can
produce four nine hundred kit Newton's ofmaximum force, allowing the Vulcan to put
up to seven thousand kilograms into geostationaryorbit. That puts the Vulcan in competition
(11:09):
with most other heavy lift rockets,not Starship, but that's not a fair
comparison really, considering that Starship outmassesVulcan by a little under ten times.
Still, it's more than strong enoughto allow the ULA's older workhorses, the
Atlas five and Delta four, tofinally retire. The first flight won't just
be a test of the Vulcan either, with astrobotics Peregrine Moonlander finally getting a
(11:31):
chance to do what it was designedfor and head to the lunar surface with
a payload of NASA experiments. Itcertainly looks like the next several months are
going to be very busy for thespace Race. Starship could get their launch
license within the next three months.Blue Origins, New Shepherd, and New
Glen are looking at perhaps launching withinthe next several months two and Vulcan of
(11:52):
course has its Christmas launch, allwhile NASA prepares for a November twenty twenty four launch
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