NASA and Boeing on Wednesday announced that the Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT), intended to be the spacecraft’s final dress rehearsal before the agency certifies it for service missions, is a “go” to proceed for 12:25 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 1.

However, Starliner engineers during a press conference last week said that a design flaw with the spacecraft’s propulsion system gives the capsule a 0.77 percent chance of being unable to perform a deorbit burn after it returns from the ISS. A deorbit burn, in which the vehicle reverses direction and fires its orbital maneuvering engines to slow itself, is used to maneuver a spacecraft back into Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA, Boeing, and launch provider United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are taking a calculated risk with the launch attempt following years of delays to the Starliner program. The setbacks have resulted from a combination of issues involving the spacecraft’s software, propulsion system, and parachutes.

Boeing and rival SpaceX each have multibillion-dollar contracts with the space agency to provide crew rotation services. But all eight missions to the ISS to date have been flown using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which like Starliner is a reusable capsule designed to accommodate up to seven passengers.

Starliner in 2019 and 2022 attempted two uncrewed test flights to the ISS, the first aborted and the second successful.

The capsule’s first crewed mission has been delayed a number of times since an initial launch attempt scheduled for May 6 was scrubbed due to an issue with ULA’s Atlas V launch vehicle. Following that setback, engineers discovered a small helium leak on the Starliner capsule itself, tracing it to one of 28 reaction control system thrusters on the spacecraft’s service module.

“This is a high-pressure system, and helium is a very small, tiny molecule, and it tends to leak,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, last week. “This particular leak, I don’t think it implicates the design of the seal or the flange. It’s just maybe a defective part.”

Rather than replace the faulty valve, which would involve removing Starliner from the Atlas V rocket and could take several months, crews decided to try and better understand the flaw.

According to Stich, Starliner could actually weather a complete rupture in the valve’s seal, even if additional helium leaks spring up elsewhere.

“We could handle this particular leak if that leak rate were to grow even up to 100 times,” he said.

The leak is now described as stable, and Stich noted that SpaceX’s Dragon has also encountered leaks, which did not impact operations. But in the course of investigating the issue, teams uncovered yet another problem.

“We found a design vulnerability…in the [propulsion] system as we analyzed this particular helium leak, where for certain failure cases that are very remote, we didn’t have the capability to execute the deorbit burn with redundancy,” said Stich.

In what Stich described as “a pretty diabolical case where you would lose two helium manifolds in two separate doghouses, and then they have to be next to each other”—referring to the aforementioned 0.77 percent figure—Starliner could be unable to perform a deorbit burn. Engineers said they have come up with a contingency plan that has already been tested by NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore in a Starliner simulator.

“We have multiple redundancies in our system,” Mark Nappi, vice president of Boeing and program manager for Starliner, said last week. “We have a case here that’s extremely remote that we missed. And if there are more out there, they’re going to be in that same category of extremely remote.”

Though the issue hasn’t entirely gone away, Starliner teams appear committed to a launch on Saturday.

NASA, Boeing, and ULA on Wednesday completed a Delta-Agency Flight Test Readiness Review, determining that all Starliner systems, facilities, and teams are ready for launch. On Thursday, crews rolled Atlas V and Starliner back to the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, further signaling their intent to move forward with the attempt.

NASA will provide live coverage of the mission on its website, app, and YouTube channel. If all goes according to plan, Starliner, carrying Wilmore and Williams, will dock to the ISS’s Harmony module Sunday afternoon. The astronauts would then spend about one week on the orbital laboratory, where they will test the capsule’s systems in order to advance the certification process.

NASA hopes to get Starliner into its Commercial Crew rotation with the Starliner-1 service mission, scheduled for no earlier than 2025. After that, it would alternate six-month missions to the ISS with SpaceX’s Dragon.

U.S. Space Force meteorologists on Friday said there is a 90 percent chance that weather conditions will meet the criteria for a safe launch. Should the attempt be scrubbed again, backup launch windows are scheduled for Sunday, June 2, Wednesday, June 5, and Thursday, June 6.

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After postponing the previously announced May 25 launch attempt of the Starliner CFT on Tuesday, NASA on Wednesday said that it, Boeing, and launch provider United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are targeting no earlier than Saturday, June 1, at 12:25 p.m. EDT for the next attempt. Additional launch windows include Sunday, June 2, Wednesday, June 5, and Thursday, June 6.

The postponement is the latest in a string of delays that have impacted the mission—and plagued the Starliner program more broadly—for years. An initial launch attempt was scrubbed hours before takeoff on May 6.

The setback follows the discovery of what NASA and Boeing described as a small helium leak on Starliner’s service module, which is designed to power and maneuver the autonomous spacecraft on its journey to the ISS.

According to NASA, Starliner teams have been meeting extensively to identify a new launch date, but further work remains. The agency said the current leak remains stable but that crews are now conducting follow-on performance and propulsion system assessments “to understand potential helium system impacts on some Starliner return scenarios.”

NASA will also perform a Flight Test Readiness Review to recap the work that has been done since May 6 and explain the rationale for attempting the next launch. A date for that review has not been identified but will be announced once selected, it said.

“It has been important that we take our time to understand all the complexities of each issue, including the redundant capabilities of the Starliner propulsion system and any implications to our Interim Human Rating Certification,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. “We will launch [astronauts] Butch [Wilmore] and Suni [Williams] on this test mission after the entire community has reviewed the teams’ progress and flight rationale at the upcoming Delta Agency Flight Test Readiness Review.”

NASA views Starliner as an alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for missions to low-Earth orbit. Dragon has flown each of the space agency’s eight Commercial Crew rotation missions, ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS, and will facilitate the upcoming Crew-9 mission scheduled for August.

But NASA wants to keep two reusable spacecraft in its fleet in case of a contingency, such as the incident that stranded astronaut Frank Rubio on the orbital laboratory for six months.

Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 each signed multibillion-dollar contracts with the agency to secure test flights and several Commercial Crew missions for their respective vessels. SpaceX has since expanded its arrangement multiple times, while Starliner—which is under contract for six flights—has languished in the development phase.

The Starliner CFT is intended to be the spacecraft’s final test flight before NASA certifies it for Commercial Crew rotation flights. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft’s first commercial mission to the ISS, Starliner-1, could take place next year. But the delays continue to pile up.

The mission was initially scrubbed due to an oscillating pressure regulation valve on ULA’s Atlas V rocket, which will send Starliner into orbit. The partners set a new target launch date of May 10, later revising it to May 17 to give crews additional time to resolve the issue.

Then, last week, teams discovered a new problem—this time involving a helium leak on one of the Starliner capsule’s 28 reaction control system thrusters. Helium allows the thrusters to fire and make minor maneuvers in orbit. As a result, the launch was pushed to no earlier than Tuesday, a timeline that was then revised yet again to Saturday.

With Wednesday’s announcement, the partners are now nearly one month behind schedule, placing the Starliner team in a bind. On one hand, the safety of the astronauts must be prioritized. But on the other, there is some pressure to launch sooner rather than later.

As Ars Technica’s Stephen Clark notes, the ISS docking schedule gets a bit crowded after July, so there is some pressure for Starliner teams to launch sooner rather than later. In addition, Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida—from where Starliner will launch—is used by ULA for other Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur launches.

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ValveTech, a manufacturer previously hired by Boeing supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne to build valves for Starliner’s propulsion system, is warning NASA to “immediately halt” the spacecraft’s first crewed launch, which may come as early as Friday.

The company—which sued Aerojet in 2017 alleging a violation of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and misuse of trade secrets—urged the space agency to “redouble safety checks and re-examine safety protocols” before the mission, which was scrubbed on May 6 due to a valve issue.

The faulty valve was located on United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket, which will launch Starliner into orbit. Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA, addressed ValveTech president Erin Faville’s comments directly in a post on social media platform X.

“Not sure what to say about this one,” Bruno wrote. “Close to none of it is correct: Not urgent. Not leaking. Etc. Remarkable that the particular person quoted doesn’t seem to know how this type of valve works…”

ValveTech says it supplies 14 valve components to Starliner vendors, but ULA tells FLYING it is not one of them. ValveTech did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

Starliner has been described by NASA as a redundant alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which so far has flown eight Commercial Crew astronaut rotation missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Starliner, similarly, was designed as a reusable spacecraft to ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit destinations.

The Starliner CFT, which had already been delayed several times, was scrubbed earlier this month due to an oscillating pressure regulation valve on the Atlas V rocket, forcing NASA to push back the launch to no earlier than Friday at 6:16 p.m. EDT.

Although NASA and ULA have already investigated and decided to remove and replace the valve, Faville warned against catastrophe should they attempt another launch.

“As a valued NASA partner and as valve experts, we strongly urge them not to attempt a second launch due to the risk of a disaster occurring on the launchpad,” said Faville. “According to media reports, a buzzing sound indicating the leaking valve was noticed by someone walking by the Starliner minutes before launch. This sound could indicate that the valve has passed its life cycle.”

NASA and ULA made no mention of a leaking valve in their assessments of the incident, saying only that the valve was oscillating abnormally.

“After evaluating the valve history, data signatures from the launch attempt, and assessing the risks relative to continued use, the ULA team determined the valve exceeded its qualification and mission managers agreed to remove and replace the valve,” NASA wrote in a blog post.

Faville later clarified that she is not calling for a permanent end to the Starliner program but rather a more thorough assessment of safety concerns.

“What I said was that NASA needs to redouble safety checks and re-examine safety protocols to make sure the Starliner is safe before trying to launch the Starliner again,” said Faville. “As a valued NASA partner, it would make no sense and not be in my company’s interest to end this mission.”

Since parting ways in 2017, ValveTech and Aerojet, a division of defense contractor L3Harris, have been tangled in a prolonged legal dispute. That year, ValveTech filed suit alleging that Aerojet breached NDAs and misused trade secrets in developing the flight valve for Starliner’s service module propulsion system.

In November, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York ruled that Aerojet had indeed breached two NDAs—awarding ValveTech $850,000 in damages—but had not misappropriated trade secrets.

According to Payload Space, the company sought further restrictions on Aerojet, but a judge closed the case on May 6.

In its statement regarding the May 6 launch scrub, ValveTech raised concerns about an earlier issue with one of Starliner’s valves. But the events appear to be unrelated.

In August 2021, Boeing scrubbed Starliner’s first uncrewed flight test due to a problem with the spacecraft’s service module propulsion system—the same system ValveTech alleges Aerojet built using trade secrets.

ValveTech alleges that “NASA, Boeing, and Aerojet…qualified this valve for [Starliner CFT] without proper supporting data or previous history or legacy information,” citing witness testimony from its November trial.

However, according to NASA and ULA, the incident on May 6 involved a pressure regulation valve on ULA’s Atlas V rocket—not the service module, which is on the Starliner capsule itself.

“The concerns raised by ValveTech in relation to the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission are not applicable to the pressure regulation valve with off nominal performance during the first launch attempt,” a ULA spokesperson told FLYING.

ValveTech and Faville’s comments appear unlikely to deter NASA and Boeing from attempting a second Starliner CFT launch as early as Friday.

The companies have a $4.2 billion contract that includes six Commercial Crew rotation missions to the ISS on an unspecified timeline. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon already fills that role for the space agency. But NASA hopes to put a second spacecraft in the rotation for redundancy in the case of a contingency.

Safety, of course, remains a priority for the space agency. But with the program now several years behind schedule and an estimated $1.5 billion over budget, stakeholders will be eager to see Starliner fly with a crew as soon as possible.

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Initially scheduled for early 2023, the flight, called Boeing Crewed Flight Test-1 (CFT-1), has since been delayed multiple times. The most recent setback occurred before a planned launch on Monday, which was called off just two hours before takeoff due to a valve issue on the upper stage of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle that will send Starliner into orbit. ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

ULA crews identified the issue after noticing a buzzing noise created by an oscillating pressure regulation valve located on a liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V’s upper stage. Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams safely exited the spacecraft, which was parked at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Teams were quickly able to repair the oscillating valve. But according to NASA, the issue resurfaced twice during fuel removal. After evaluating the valve and completing a thorough review on Tuesday, ULA decided to remove and replace it.

As a result, NASA announced that the next launch attempt will take place no earlier than 6:16 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 17.

ULA on Wednesday rolled Atlas V and Starliner, still stacked together, back to NASA’s Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41. There, teams are working to replace the faulty part and perform leak checks and functional checkouts before the next launch attempt.

The Starliner program has contended with nearly a decade of delays since Boeing first announced it in 2011, including an uncrewed orbital test flight that failed to reach the ISS as planned.

CFT-1 is expected to be the spacecraft’s final flight before being deployed for NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which rotates astronaut crews at the orbital laboratory.

All eight Commercial Crew rotation missions to date have been flown using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, an alternative to Starliner also under contract with NASA. Boeing and NASA’s contract includes a total of six service missions using Starliner.

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SpaceX on Saturday unveiled its first-generation extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuit, which will be donned by astronauts aboard the Polaris Dawn mission, scheduled for no earlier than this summer. Polaris Dawn—a five-day, four-person orbital mission to research human health both in space and on Earth—is the first of three potential human spaceflights under the Polaris Program.

SpaceX and entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who founded the program in February 2022, held a discussion accompanying the announcement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acquired in October..

While the mission has no firm launch date, SpaceX on Saturday confirmed that Polaris Dawn would be the next crewed mission the company will fly.

What Is Polaris?

The Polaris Program is the brainchild of Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of integrated payments provider Shift4 who is also a pilot and astronaut, with more than 7,000 flight hours and multiple experimental and ex-military aircraft ratings. Isaacman in 2012 founded Draken International, a private air force that trains pilots for the U.S. Armed Forces.

Isaacman purchased flights from SpaceX in February 2022 to launch the program and is funding Polaris Dawn himself.

Named after the constellation of three stars more commonly known as the North Star, or Polaris, the program comprises three potential missions, one for each star. The effort aims to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities with an eye toward future missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond. Simultaneously, it will raise funds and advance research into issues facing humanity on Earth, such as cancer.

Polaris Dawn, the first of the three missions, was announced in 2022 and expected to fly later that year. It has since been delayed multiple times, most recently from February to mid-2024, due in part to SpaceX’s development of the specially designed EVA spacesuits.

Polaris Dawn and a second mission without a timeline, simply called Mission II, will be flown using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. Both vehicles are already in use by NASA and a handful of commercial customers, such as Axiom Space.

Falcon 9, a reusable two-stage rocket, is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket and has been lauded for driving down launch costs in flying 330 times. Crew Dragon, which is capable of carrying up to seven passengers, in 2020 restored NASA’s ability to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) with the first Commercial Crew rotation mission. It has flown a total of 46 missions, visiting the ISS on 42.

Polaris is expected to culminate in a third mission comprising the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Like Falcon 9, the spacecraft is designed to be fully reusable and has so far attempted three orbital test flights, each more successful than the last.

Isaacman has been outspoken about Polaris’ aim to make human spaceflight accessible to all. The new SpaceX suits, for example, are designed to fit a range of body types and accommodate all spacewalkers.

At the same time, the billionaire aviator is focused on solving problems on Earth. Since its founding, Polaris has worked closely with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and helped fund research into childhood cancer.

Civilians in Space

Polaris Dawn is notable for its four-person crew, which includes the first SpaceX employees expected to actually reach space.

Mission specialist Sarah Gillis oversees the company’s astronaut training program, while mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon manages crew operations. Gillis, trained to be a classical violinist, joined SpaceX in 2015, while Menon is a seven-year NASA veteran. But both have been part of past Crew Dragon flights. Menon in particular was influential in developing Dragon’s crew and emergency response capabilities.

Joining the SpaceX employees will be pilot Scott Poteet, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with more than 3,200 flying hours in the F-16, A-4, T-38, T-37, T-3, and Alpha Jet.

Isaacman himself will serve as Polaris Dawn mission commander, a role he also filled for  SpaceX’s 2021 Inspiration4 mission: the first all-civilian mission to space. Poteet, who previously served in roles at Isaacson’s companies Shift4 and Draken, was mission director for that flight, which raised $250 million for St. Jude.

To prepare for Polaris Dawn, crewmembers lived inside the decompression chamber at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for two days, summited the 16,800-foot peak of Illinizas Norte volcano in Ecuador, and experienced 9 Gs of force while training on three different kinds of fighter jets.

The mission will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will spend up to five days in orbit, performing about 40 experiments and testing of hardware and software. Like Inspiration4, it is a charitable effort, with the goal of raising additional funds for St. Jude.

“Fifty or 100 years from now, people are going to be jumping in their rockets, and you’re going to have families bouncing around on the moon with their kids at a lunar base,” said Isaacman in an article on the St. Jude website. “If we can accomplish all of that, we sure as heck better tackle childhood cancer along the way.”

Polaris Dawn aims to fly higher than any SpaceX Dragon mission to date, a height that hasn’t been reached since the end of the Apollo program half a century ago.

The crew will also attempt to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown. Isaacman during the discussion on X said the mission will target an apogee of 1,400 kilometers, or about 870 miles, more than double the orbital height reached by Apollo 17. That orbit would place the crew just inside the Van Allen radiation belt, where it hopes to research effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health.

“The benefit of being at this high altitude is that we can better understand the impacts of that environment…on both the human body…as well as on the spacecraft,” said Menon during the discussion on X.

Suit Up

The Dragon capsule will complete seven elliptical orbits until reaching its apogee before descending to a circular orbit at about 700 kilometers (435 miles). At that altitude, crewmembers will attempt the first commercial spacewalk. It would also be the first time four astronauts have been exposed to the vacuum of space at the same time, according to SpaceX.

The spacewalk will mark the first use of SpaceX’s EVA spacesuit in low-Earth orbit, a key milestone that is expected to inform future iterations of the design for long-duration missions.

It’s an evolution of SpaceX’s Intravehicular Activity (IVA) suit that has been modified to enable both intra and extravehicular use. In other words, personnel won’t need to change clothes when moving from the confines of the spacecraft to the harsh environment of space.

The EVA suit adds greater mobility, seals and pressure valves, a helmet camera, and textile-based thermal material, which regulates suit temperature and can be controlled using a dial. Boots were constructed from the same thermal material used to shield Falcon and Dragon from exposure.

“There was a lot of work on both the materials of the suit, developing a whole new layer that we needed to add for thermal management as well as looking at the thermal condition for the crewmembers themselves, and making sure that they were at a comfortable temperature inside the suit,” said Chris Drake, manager of SpaceX’s spacesuit team, on Saturday.

The 3D-printed helmet incorporates a new visor designed to reduce glare as well as a state-of-the-art, heads-up display (HUD). The HUD is active only during spacewalks and displays spacesuit pressure, temperature, and humidity, as well as a mission clock to track how long the astronauts are exposed to the vacuum of space.

Already, SpaceX is developing a second-generation EVA suit for missions to the moon and Mars. It estimates that millions of suits will be required to one day build a lunar base or Martian city.

“This is important because we are going to get to the moon and Mars one day, and we’re going to have to get out of our vehicles and out of the safety of the habitat to explore and build and repair things,” Isaacman said during the discussion on X.

The Dragon capsule has also required modifications to prepare for the landmark spacewalk. SpaceX on Saturday said a structure called “Skywalker” has been attached near the capsule’s hatch to act as a mobility aid. Handrails and foot rails have been installed inside the spacecraft, with a ladder interface added to the hatch opening.

SpaceX also installed a cabin pressurization system that allows the interior of the capsule to withstand the vacuum of space as air is sucked out during the spacewalk. A repressurization system will stabilize it once the astronauts return.

Why It Matters

In addition to achieving the first commercial spacewalk and the highest orbital altitude ever recorded, Polaris Dawn hopes to test Starlink laser-based communications in space for the first time. Data from the test could help develop space communications for future missions.

In addition, Polaris and SpaceX selected 38 scientific experiments from 23 partner institutions—including NASA, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University—intended to advance the understanding of human health in space and on Earth.

The crew will use ultrasound to study decompression sickness, for example, and will research spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome: a disease unique to humans who fly in space that can have severe debilitating effects. Upon landing, astronauts will undergo tests to study anemia—an unavoidable effect of traveling to space—and other conditions that might impact humans on Earth.

The scientific aims of the Polaris Program differ from the commercial spaceflight ventures offered by companies such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which could be classified more aptly as space tourism operations.

Tickets for those companies’ orbital and suborbital offerings, some of which involve research, can range from the hundreds of thousands of dollars to the millions. Isaacman and SpaceX’s Inspiration4, meanwhile, raised a quarter of a billion dollars for cancer research.

Isaacman has been particularly outspoken when it comes to accessibility in spaceflight. And by taking on much of the risk himself, the billionaire businessman has lessened the pressure on SpaceX. Isaacman’s funding of Polaris Dawn has allowed the company to focus on developing the spacesuits and other technology necessary to ensure the mission runs smoothly.

Polaris Dawn also represents a critical juncture for SpaceX’s Starship, the lynchpin of the company’s planned human spaceflight offerings. The largest rocket ever built is not quite ready to fly humans. But when it is, the third Polaris mission is expected to be its maiden voyage.

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The post What Is Polaris Dawn? Breaking Down the Upcoming SpaceX Mission appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The problem with the relief valve on the upper stage of the Atlas rocket was detected about two hours before the scheduled 10:34 p.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral.

“In a situation like this, if we see any data signature is not something that we have seen before, then we are just simply not willing to take any chances with what is our most precious payload,” United Launch Alliance spokesman Dillon Rice told reporters.

ULA is providing the rocket to boost the capsule into orbit for a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS).

* READ MORE: What to Know About Boeing Starliner’s First Crewed Test Flight 

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had just strapped in when the decision to scrub was made. It’s not known how long it will take to fix the valve.

It’s the latest in a series of issues encountered getting the Starliner to space, although this is the first issue with the launch system. The first uncrewed test launch of the capsule in 2019 failed to get to the right orbit for the ISS. The second test reached the space station, but after it returned problems were found with the parachutes and flammable tape was discovered in the electrical system.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

The post NASA Scrubs Starliner Crewed Flight Test Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Now for this week’s top story:

The U.S. Government Launched a Secret Robot Spaceplane

What happened? Well…we don’t quite know. Last week, the U.S. Space Force sent a mysterious spaceplane called X-37B on its seventh mission. The Boeing-built orbital test vehicle’s (OTV) purpose, payload, and final destination are all unknown. But this launch used a powerful SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, fueling speculation it could be headed for deep orbit.

What we know: Boeing’s Phantom Works, notable for cutting-edge designs such as the A160 Hummingbird, has been developing X-37B for decades. The manufacturer says the reusable design—which resembles a school bus-sized NASA space shuttle—is built to fly in low Earth orbit (LEO) using technologies never before seen in spaceflight, such as automated de-orbiting.

Government agencies have been tight-lipped about the objectives of X-37B, which can evade detection using techniques, such as “hiding” in the sun’s glare. Speculation on its purpose has ranged from spying technology to a weapons delivery system. The government has denied the latter, saying only that it will conduct tests and prepare the U.S. for future space activity.

To infinity and beyond? X-37B won’t travel the galaxy, but some observers think it could reach the moon. That’s because the seventh launch was the spaceplane’s first aboard Falcon Heavy, one of the world’s most powerful launch vehicles. Its first five missions flew on United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets, and its sixth on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster.

Those journeys were constrained to below 1,200 miles in altitude. But Falcon Heavy can reach 22,000 miles, leading some to believe X-37B will at minimum head to deep orbit. Each of the spaceplane’s missions has been longer than its last, with the most recent jaunt spanning a record 908 days. If that’s any indication, the seventh mission could last years.

Quick quote: “The X-37B government and Boeing teams have worked together to produce a more responsive, flexible, and adaptive experimentation platform. The work they’ve done to streamline processes and adapt evolving technologies will help our nation learn a tremendous amount about operating in and returning from a space environment,” said William Bailey, director of the U.S. Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office.

My take: Exactly what the Space Force is up to is anyone’s guess. But it may be worth keeping an eye on, considering China is working on a similar project that also launched this month.

General B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations for the Space Force, has hinted X-37B’s seventh launch could be its last. China, however, is just ramping up its Shenlong “Divine Dragon” project, which in December set out on its third mission since 2020. There are no photos of the secretive spacecraft, but it’s thought to resemble the X-37B. A few weeks ago, it reportedly deployed six mysterious objects into orbit.

Some, including Saltzman, have implied the initiatives are similar because of the timing of the two launches. If not for delays, X-37B would have launched three days before Shenlong. Perhaps that planned date was not a coincidence.

Deep dive: U.S. Space Force’s Secret Robot Spaceplane Could be Headed to Deep Orbit

In Other News…

Rocket Lab Signs $515 Million Satellite Contract with Mystery Government Agency

What happened? Thought one mystery was enough? How about another? Rocket Lab, which trailed only SpaceX in launches this past year, will design, manufacture, deliver, and operate 18 “space vehicles” for an unnamed U.S. government agency, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The deal—which could extend as far as 2033—calls for deliveries and operations to begin in 2027.

Case cracked? Several reports speculate that Rocket Lab’s mystery customer is the Space Development Agency (SDA), a unit within the Space Force. In particular, comments from SDA director Derek Tournear regarding the agency’s need for 18 additional satellites have been linked to Rocket Lab’s contract, which calls for that same figure.

Tournear’s words are by no means conclusive evidence, but Rocket Lab and SDA have collaborated on satellite systems in the past. Subtly, the company’s Space Systems unit—which produces satellite components, such as radios and solar panels—has actually outperformed its launch business in recent months, adding to the appeal of a potential SDA partnership.

Deep dive: Rocket Lab Signs $515M Satellite Contract With Mystery Government Agency

Alphabet Drone Delivery Arm Wing Adds Second Texas Walmart Location

What happened? Wing, the largest consumer drone delivery provider in the world by deliveries made, expanded its presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by adding a Walmart Supercenter in the suburb of Lewisville to its network. It’s the second Walmart store the company has modified for services in the region, following an inaugural site in Frisco that launched in September.

Everything’s bigger in Texas: If the old adage holds true, that includes Wing’s delivery network. By now, a handful of DFW residents are familiar with the service, whether they’ve used it themselves or watched the buzzing aircraft fly overhead. But with the addition of a second Walmart site, the company says it can now serve 60,000 people.

To see Wing’s service in action for yourself, check out our on-site coverage earlier this year. But for those in a time crunch, the gist is that the drones load orders, fly as far as 6 miles, and deliver within 30 minutes—entirely on their own. Flights are monitored remotely from hundreds of miles away, and on-site staff essentially have one job: place payloads beneath the drones.

Deep Dive: Walmart-Google Linkup Adds Drone Delivery to 60,000 Households

And a Few More Headlines:

• Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Horizon Aircraft expects to go public in the coming weeks.

• Another eVTOL manufacturer, Hyundai’s Supernal, plans to unveil its latest design at CES 2024 next week.

• Russian forces launched a “record” number of drones at Ukraine in the early hours of the new year.

• The U.S. Navy is soliciting proposals for systems to counter “cross-domain” drone attacks.

• FBO operator Jet Aviation partnered with World Fuel Services to sell SAF out of two more sites.

On the Horizon…

In lieu of the typical weekly roundup of modern flying developments, let’s ring in the new year with a few predictions for 2024.

American-made drones will have a banner year. On the defense side of things, U.S. manufacturers should benefit from the recently approved spending bill, which includes language that would ban the purchase or use of drones made in China—and other nations considered hostile to U.S. interests—at the federal level. Considering Chinese DJI drones are near-ubiquitous in government agencies, American companies could get a lift.

U.S. drone delivery firms are also poised for a big year as the FAA introduces beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) summary grants. Wing and Amazon Prime Air have already won the approvals, which are streamlined authorizations based on four waivers the regulator awarded last year. The looming enforcement of remote ID rules and BVLOS provisions contained in the pending FAA reauthorization bill will only add fuel to the industry’s fire.

The FAA reauthorization bill also places emphasis on U.S. leadership of advanced air mobility (AAM) services, such as air taxi routes to and from airports. The first batch of personal eVTOL designs could arrive next year, with companies such as Jetson and Pivotal planning to open sales. Outside the U.S., eVTOL air taxis from Volocopter and EHang are expected to begin flying paying customers.

SMG Consulting, which releases a monthly ranking of AAM manufacturers in its AAM Reality Index, also has a few predictions for the industry. Among other forecasts, the firm expects Joby to begin for-credit flight testing, the FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to finalize eVTOL regulations, and the first certified vertiport to open for cargo operations. It also predicts a top 10 AAM manufacturer will be snapped up by a legacy aerospace firm.

Mark Your Calendars

Each week, I’ll be running through a list of upcoming industry events. The FAA Drone Symposium and Advanced Air Mobility Summit wrapped up Thursday in Baltimore, but here are a few conferences to keep an eye on:

• CES 2024—January 9-12 in Las Vegas
• 11th Annual eVTOL Symposium—February 6-8 in Silicon Valley, California
• Drone Show Korea 2024—March 6-8 in Busan, South Korea
• World’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Conference—March 17-19 in Jerusalem
• AUVSI Xponential 2024—April 22-25 in San Diego 
• Vertical Flight Society’s Forum 80—May 7-9 in Montreal

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The post What Did the U.S. Just Put in Orbit? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The 400-foot-tall rocket and booster departed the company’s Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, bombastically, leaving a trail of ignited propellant in its wake.

But a few minutes into the orbital test flight, as Starship’s super heavy booster was preparing to separate from the rocket, the spacecraft exploded, sending a ball of fiery debris hurtling into the Gulf of Mexico. The mission was uncrewed, so no humans were on board.

My Autotrack software captures the moment that Starship lost control. Excitement was very much guaranteed. Great first attempt by the SpaceX team!

Tune in to hear our live reaction! @NASASpaceflight https://t.co/uutBwWSABz pic.twitter.com/in201JaOiU

— Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight) April 20, 2023

According to SpaceX spokeswoman Kate Tice, it’s still unclear what caused the explosion. 

For about four minutes, Starship traveled along its expected path, though reports suggest some of the rocket’s 33 first-stage engines failed to ignite. It’s possible the rocket’s flight termination system, sensing the vehicle was going off course, triggered the explosion at the point of separation. Or, it could just be that natural forces tore it apart.

SpaceX called the event a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 20, 2023

By SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s standards, though, the test flight was a success. While Starship did not complete its more ambitious goals, it did comfortably clear the launch pad, and Musk on Sunday said he “would consider that to be a success.”

“Just don’t blow up the launchpad,” he half-jokingly told thousands of listeners during a Twitter Spaces that evening.

By Musk’s estimation, the launchpad would take “months” to repair, sidelining test flights for the foreseeable future. So despite the explosion, the launch will give the SpaceX team valuable data for future missions without incurring rebuilding costs.

Plus, this isn’t unusual. Starship prototypes have crashed or exploded in several previous missions, and the company has been known to embrace such incidents as progress toward a greater goal.

“Success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,” it said in a Tweet.

Even agencies like NASA experience explosions. The most infamous, of course, was the Challenger explosion, but similar incidents are not exactly uncommon.

Bill Nelson, the former Democratic senator from Florida and current NASA administrator, congratulated SpaceX for a successful test flight on Twitter: “Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test—and beyond.”

Speaking of the next test flight, Musk dropped a hint at when that may take place.

Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship!

Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months. pic.twitter.com/gswdFut1dK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023

Barring an unanticipated rift, SpaceX will have NASA’s full backing for its next test. The two have already completed several successful resupply missions to the International Space Station using SpaceX’s Dragon, the most recent of which concluded over the weekend.

Now, they want to go deeper into the unknown. Starship was designed to do more than just orbit the Earth—its eventual purpose, SpaceX and NASA say, is to ferry hundreds of humans at a time to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

As it stands, the plan is for SpaceX to help NASA astronauts land on the moon in 2025, which would mark humanity’s first return to its surface in over 50 years. And Musk has claimed that the firm will land humans on Mars by 2029, but he’ll look to beat out a pair of private spaceflight firms that are each targeting rover landings sometime in 2024.

All of those projects will rely on a successful Starship orbital test flight. But despite Thursday’s explosion, Musk and SpaceX have time to iron out the kinks.

The post SpaceX’s Starship Rocket Explodes Minutes After Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

But less than 10 minutes before the historic flight, SpaceX called it off, delivering the disappointing news that Starship would not take off for at least 48 hours. So what happened? The firm’s head honcho provided some clarity:

“A pressurant valve appears to be frozen, so unless it starts operating soon, no launch today,” tweeted Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX (and chief executive of Twitter).

A pressurant valve appears to be frozen, so unless it starts operating soon, no launch today

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2023

The frozen valve created pressurization issues with the rocket’s booster, forcing Musk and SpaceX to scrub the uncrewed launch.

However, despite the postponement, SpaceX performed what is called a “wet dress rehearsal,” treating the launch as real until the countdown reached 10 seconds. As previously planned, the 400-foot-tall rocket and booster were loaded with about 10 million pounds of icy-cold (minus-272 degrees Fahrenheit) liquid methane propellant.

The wet rehearsal also allowed SpaceX to collect data that could ensure the real deal goes smoothly.

“Learned a lot today, now offloading propellant, retrying in a few days …” Musk noted in a follow-up Tweet.

SpaceX added that its team is “working towards the next available opportunity” for a flight test, though it did not specify a date. The company has another launch window reserved for Tuesday morning, but Wednesday is the earliest it can attempt another launch.

However, Musk saw this coming. In a live discussion on Twitter Spaces Sunday evening, the SpaceX founder warned that “if we see anything that gives us concern, we will postpone the launch.”

Musk also cautioned that Starship could explode, a familiar outcome of the company’s other tests, including those of this particular model. But so long as the launchpad—which would take months to rebuild, according to Musk – remains intact, the SpaceX CEO “would consider that to be a success.”

“Just don’t blow up the launchpad,” he mused to thousands of listeners.

Starship prototype crashes have been well-documented. But that hasn’t kept NASA, which has suffered multiple explosions to its Space Launch System, from maintaining a tight partnership with SpaceX. 

Most notably, the agency enlisted the space exploration company and aerospace and defense firm Northrop Grumman to resupply the International Space Station, and SpaceX’s Dragon has already completed several successful trips—including one that concluded over the weekend.

But NASA and SpaceX have a different plan for Starship: the moon, Mars, and beyond. The rocket’s design includes a large cabin and airlocks to enable moonwalks, as well as a maximum payload of 165 tons to facilitate deliveries of cargo and other equipment. 

Eventually, SpaceX says, it will be able to carry as many as 100 people on long-term missions, including to the moon and other planets. 

The company also envisions Starship being used to establish a lunar base, which would serve as a waypoint for future missions. Musk himself has teased the concept, envisaging “hundreds of thousands” of staffers on the moon.

SpaceX is thinking years, if not decades, in advance. But in order to turn those voyages to the stars into a reality, the firm will first need to prove its next-generation aircraft can escape the Earth. In short, there’s a lot riding on Monday’s postponed launch—and all eyes will be on Musk and SpaceX.

The post SpaceX Starship Orbital Launch Scrapped Minutes Before Go appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Since 1973, there have been nine missions to the outer solar system, and the U.S. has had a hand in all of them. European agencies have also reached the outer planets a pair of times, but those voyages—the Ulysses and Cassini-Hudgens missions—had heavy NASA involvement.

This week, however, the European Space Agency (ESA) will finally have a deep space mission it can call its own.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) will lift off Friday and spend the next eight years on a voyage to study the gas giant and three of its water-bearing moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.

Originally slated to launch Thursday at 1:14pm U.K. time (8:14 a.m. EST) but postponed because of inclement weather, the spacecraft will take off from an Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher and encircle the massive planet for several months, completing flybys of the three moons as it orbits. 

The mission will conclude with an orbital tour of Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system and the only one with its own magnetic field. No spacecraft has ever orbited a moon besides our own.

According to ESA, the goal of the mission, which is expected to reach Jupiter in July 2031, is to explore the possibility of life in the solar system beyond Earth. In particular, researchers are looking to answer five questions:

• How has Jupiter’s environment shaped its moons, and vice versa?
• How do gas giants form, and what are they like?
• Is there—or has there ever been—life in the Jupiter system?
• What makes Ganymede unique?
• And what are ocean worlds like?

Olivier Witasse, an ESA planetary scientist who has worked on JUICE since 2015, provided more details during an April 6 press briefing.

“The main goal,” he explained, “is to understand whether there are habitable environments among those icy moons and around a giant planet like Jupiter. We will characterize, in particular, the liquid water oceans which are inside the icy moons.”

Witasse said researchers will examine the location, depth, and makeup of each saltwater ocean, which only exist in liquid form deep below the surface. They’ll also look at the rotation, composition, weather conditions, and magnetic field of Jupiter’s atmosphere, to determine whether conditions are suitable for life.

To do so, they’ll rely on 10 state-of-the-art instruments aboard the launcher. They include remote sensors with spectral imaging capabilities, tools like altimeters and radar sounders to map surfaces, and a suite of equipment to measure atmospheric characteristics like magnetic fields. 

Coordinating all of them will be quite the undertaking: “We’re talking about a very large spacecraft with many key features that are striking…just after launch, there will be a lot of work to make sure that everything gets deployed properly,” said Alessandro Atzei, payload systems engineer for the mission.

In addition, JUICE will feature a powerful antenna to transmit data back to Earth, shields to protect against radiation, massive solar panels for energy collection, and a layer of insulation to shelter equipment from harsh temperatures.

To succeed, the spacecraft will also need to test out a new trick. En route to Jupiter, the spacecraft will perform what is referred to as a Lunar-Earth gravity assist, leveraging the gravity of the moon and Earth to propel it to higher speeds. Expected to take place around January 2029, it will be the world’s first attempt at such a maneuver.

As JUICE navigates the lonely vacuum of space, it’ll have at least some company. Another spacecraft, NASA’s Lucy, embarked on its 12-year sojourn to the Jupiter system in 2021, while the U.S.-backed Europa Clipper mission is slated for launch in October 2024. It too will spend several years orbiting the gas giant.

Outside of Lucy and Europa Clipper, the U.S. is eyeing several other projects. In 2024, NASA will send four astronauts to orbit the moon in the Artemis II spacecraft, while Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now an FAA approval away from an orbital launch attempt.

Mars could also be on the horizon—in June, NASA will begin an experiment where four humans spend a year inside a 3D-printed box designed to mimic conditions on the Red Planet. NASA currently has two Martian missions in development and several more under proposal.

But like all good things, the findings of JUICE and other missions will take time to arrive. Curious observers can follow along as the ESA tracks the spacecraft’s early movements by checking out this interactive tool, or by keeping an eye on the mission’s website or Twitter feed for updates.

The post When it Comes to Space Travel, NASA has the Juice—But ESA has JUICE appeared first on FLYING Magazine.