A Little Space News Roundup

Just a few little items that caught my eye - once my searches for them turned up answers.  

First, the Falcon 9 Starlink 4-7 mission that had been originally scheduled for today has a launch date.  This has been scheduled for a week as being "the day after " yesterday's COSMO-SkyMed 2nd Generation mission.  Practically, that means every delay of that mission delayed this one.  I had today's launch time in last night's post until the final proofing when I found it had yet another delay.  

The launch time as of this afternoon is Wednesday afternoon, February 2nd, at 4:51 PM EST or 2151 UTC.   These Starlink launches all seem to have an instantaneous launch window, meaning it either goes on time or it goes another day.  That's roughly 90 minutes after the Falcon 9 launch of NROL 87 from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:18 PM EST or 2018 UTC (12:18 PM PST).  In fact, at 93 minutes after the Vandenberg launch, it's fastest SpaceX has ever launched another mission. 

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The launch I've been trying to pin down all year is the first Astra Rocket 3 launch from Cape Canaveral.  The last I heard was on January 22nd that they had a successful static firing (video).  That was followed by a statement that they'd release the launch date once the launch had been approved.  

The Astra launch is currently scheduled for Saturday, February 5th, a 1:00 PM EST (1800 UTC) with a three hour window (1:00 to 4:00).  The payloads include the BAMA 1 CubeSat, the Ionospheric Neutron Content Analyzer, QubeSat, and a mission called R5-S1. The CubeSats were selected for launch by NASA through the agency’s Venture Class Launch Services program; it's a NASA mission.  

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Finally, a story that made me laugh.  I'm just going to quote the paragraph directly from Ars Technica's Rocket Report that came out last Thursday.  It concerns a pending acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne by industry giant Lockheed Martin - known far and wide across the "Space Coast" as Lock-Mart, your 24 hour defense shopping superstore.  Flashing blue light special now on cruise missiles!

FTC sues to block defense merger. The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday filed an antitrust lawsuit that seeks to block Lockheed Martin's planned $4.4 billion purchase of Aerojet Rocketdyne, The Wall Street Journal reports. The federal agency argued that the deal would harm rival defense contractors and lead to unacceptable consolidation in markets critical to national security and defense. "Without competitive pressure, Lockheed can jack up the price the US government has to pay, while delivering lower quality and less innovation," said Holly Vedova, director of the FTC's bureau of competition.  [Bold added: SiG]

"Lockheed can jack up the price... while delivering lower quality and less innovation??"  Are you serious, Holly?  I thought that was Lock-Mart's whole business model!!  I know they aren't particularly involved with SLS but I'm not sure I can think of a better example of "jack up the price while delivering less innovation" than SLS, and its engines are already Aerojet Rocketdyne's RS-25 engines.  Those are also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engines or SSMEs.  These are the engines that NASA is paying $146 million/each for as part of SLS.  They're a good design, but it's an engine designed to be reusable for the shuttle program that will now be disposed of after every use.  

Oh, yeah.  I know it's difficult to say this with inflation and all, but when the Shuttles were flying, the SSMEs cost $40 million each as reusable engines.  Now that we're "dropping 'em in the drink" they're over 3-1/2 times the cost.  

An RS-25 (SSME) from SLS in 10/19.  Note the name on the yellow lifting machine, top right.