I thought they were mainly for Lunar orbiters to target. If you can figure out an Earth based one as a hobbyist I'd expect a van outside pretty soon, lol.
Weird. I know Sierra has shown concept art for a little reentry vehicle, but I don't think I've seen anything like that from Blue, Rocketlab, or Anduril.
(I hate when this stuff is only on shitter and linkedIn and not their press release page)
reduced LINK’s spin rate from approximately 9 degrees per second to approximately 4 degrees per second
That's a lot less bad than I expected. Great progress. The hall thruster being on a gimbal must be a huge help. I'll still be stunned if this isn't a loss of mission, but this is impressive work so far.
They should definitely have separate test stands from their launch infrastructure regardless. ESPECIALLY after the NG-4 explosion. There's no way they want Stennis to be their long term answer after all the build up at the Cape.
I didn't have that on my bingo card. NET Q4 but not actually on the schedule, though...
Looking at the ISS schedule thread on NSF there is a window in Dec after a Cargo Dragon leaves and before Ax5 shows up. Then Feb between Ax5 and Crew 14. Then Apr and May before the next Cargo Dragon. So they can definitely fit it in over the next 12 months.
I could see the Starship story playing out like the ramp up to Falcon 9 first stage reuse, where they start with a few launches per booster with significant refurb time, then keep making block upgrades to speed it up and extend the lifespan.
I'm still stuck wondering how cheap a Raptor is and how low they could get the cost of a disposable Starship upper stage without wings or a heat shield
Aaaaand someone just got ITAR'ed and lost their job, RIP.
Is that all life support on the lower level? Hopefully that makes some folks feel a little better about progress behind the scenes. I'm sure someone on xshitter has already made a full CAD model and reverse engineered every pallet.
Yeah, the downside of LEO constellations is that the lifespans are way shorter than higher orbits and they need constant replenishment. To keep this service alive, this isn't just a one-time cost for Amazon where user pricing will come down as they defray costs, it's a long term expensive commitment.
The scifi part of my brain wants SpaceX to leave some old Starships in orbit to sell to space station or space tug/depot companies to refit, or mfg companies to scrap. There's no way any of those uses make sense anytime soon, though.
Idk, man, they're at the point of trying to use their eprop to stop tumbling. I'm sure the power situation isn't great. It reminds me of when Starfish had an emergency deployment and burned everything out trying to despin.
Idk, sporadic comms, down to 1/3 reaction wheels, and prop problems... Using their electric thrusters to null rotation sounds like not a good time. I'm not optimistic.
I feel like it's more surprising that this random startup with no track record got the contract in the first place. Like, of course their first satellite has some issues. This would have been an ambitious mission even for a proven company.
They found another swamp!
I'm here for more launch complexes. This plus the Rocket Lab build out in Alaska are pretty cool for the industry.
I thought they were mainly for Lunar orbiters to target. If you can figure out an Earth based one as a hobbyist I'd expect a van outside pretty soon, lol.
Weird. I know Sierra has shown concept art for a little reentry vehicle, but I don't think I've seen anything like that from Blue, Rocketlab, or Anduril.
The actual update link:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katalyst-space_over-the-last-48-hours-the-katalyst-team-activity-7488722727298818048-mApL
(I hate when this stuff is only on shitter and linkedIn and not their press release page)
That's a lot less bad than I expected. Great progress. The hall thruster being on a gimbal must be a huge help. I'll still be stunned if this isn't a loss of mission, but this is impressive work so far.
Nice. I didn't know what to expect, but finishing it this year sounds great.
The tank farm growth to support 3.2 stacks starts to open up some cool launch options. The scale of the Gigabay is pretty hard to imagine.
Glad to see them moving quickly.
They should definitely have separate test stands from their launch infrastructure regardless. ESPECIALLY after the NG-4 explosion. There's no way they want Stennis to be their long term answer after all the build up at the Cape.
I didn't have that on my bingo card. NET Q4 but not actually on the schedule, though...
Looking at the ISS schedule thread on NSF there is a window in Dec after a Cargo Dragon leaves and before Ax5 shows up. Then Feb between Ax5 and Crew 14. Then Apr and May before the next Cargo Dragon. So they can definitely fit it in over the next 12 months.
TL;dr: still a Leaf
It's cool to see some progress but wow do I wish it was faster
The record is up to 36!
I could see the Starship story playing out like the ramp up to Falcon 9 first stage reuse, where they start with a few launches per booster with significant refurb time, then keep making block upgrades to speed it up and extend the lifespan.
I'm still stuck wondering how cheap a Raptor is and how low they could get the cost of a disposable Starship upper stage without wings or a heat shield
You're probably right. I generally assume anything inside a Starship gets lumped under an ITAR blanket, which is way too broad.
It'd better work this time or they're going to be deep in the doghouse
Aaaaand someone just got ITAR'ed and lost their job, RIP.
Is that all life support on the lower level? Hopefully that makes some folks feel a little better about progress behind the scenes. I'm sure someone on xshitter has already made a full CAD model and reverse engineered every pallet.
Robotic missions need to fly through that mess, too!
Yeah, the downside of LEO constellations is that the lifespans are way shorter than higher orbits and they need constant replenishment. To keep this service alive, this isn't just a one-time cost for Amazon where user pricing will come down as they defray costs, it's a long term expensive commitment.
The scifi part of my brain wants SpaceX to leave some old Starships in orbit to sell to space station or space tug/depot companies to refit, or mfg companies to scrap. There's no way any of those uses make sense anytime soon, though.
Idk, man, they're at the point of trying to use their eprop to stop tumbling. I'm sure the power situation isn't great. It reminds me of when Starfish had an emergency deployment and burned everything out trying to despin.
Idk, sporadic comms, down to 1/3 reaction wheels, and prop problems... Using their electric thrusters to null rotation sounds like not a good time. I'm not optimistic.
I feel like it's more surprising that this random startup with no track record got the contract in the first place. Like, of course their first satellite has some issues. This would have been an ambitious mission even for a proven company.