Small Space Story Roundup

There's actually a Canadian space race going on.  Who knew?  From this week's Rocket Report at Ars Technica (as usual, sent as an email before it hits the website here)  

Tracking the Canadian rocket race. Much, and more, has been written in this newsletter about commercial launch development in the United States, China, Europe, and India. But what about Canada? It turns out there are at least five Canada-based companies working to develop a native commercial launch capability. These companies are summarized in a new article in spaceQ which is (unfortunately) behind a paywall. Most of the companies are working toward the goal of launching from Spaceport Nova Scotia, which remains under development.

Big ideas, small payloads ... The five companies are based in Calgary (AVRO Aerospace), Toronto (C6 Launch Systems, Nordspace, and SpaceRyde), and Montreal (Reaction Dynamics). All are planning some variation on a small-satellite launch vehicle, with some ideas more radical than others—SpaceRyde's balloon-based launch concept, for example. I'm not well enough informed to comment on the viability of any of these companies, but small launch is a difficult business. However if the Canadian Space Agency were to start offering and awarding contracts, that would help us discern who is legitimate, and who is not.

Yeah, I tried their link and it says for subscribers only.  Any of you Canadian readers have any input here?  Anybody know anything about the companies? 

---

SpaceX static fired the Falcon Heavy for next week's USSF-44 mission tonight at 8PM EDT.  It was livestreamed by NASASpaceflight.com.  The video should start at about T-20 seconds.  Like most static fire tests, it was a WDR (Wet Dress Rehearsal) followed by about seven seconds of firing. 

Screen capture at around the peak brightness.  The US Space Force payload is not yet stacked, so the vehicle will be rolled back to the hanger, the payload and fairing stacked, and then rolled back to the pad.  

The two websites I linked to for launch times on Monday have diverged with one saying the launch will be Monday and the other saying Tuesday.  The commentators on the video talk about Tuesday as well.

---

In keeping with yesterday's post about SpaceX becoming NASA's largest contractor, they're also becoming more important to the European agencies.  On October 20th, European Space Agency (ESA) director Josef Aschbacher announced that the ESA will contract with SpaceX to launch two important science probes, the Euclid telescope and Hera, a multi-spacecraft mission to a near-Earth asteroid, after all domestic alternatives fell through. The move was due to delays in qualifying the Ariane 6 booster.  

Euclid is a small near-infrared space telescope that has been in development since the early 20-teens.  It is to be launched to the same Earth-Sun Lagrange point as the James Webb Space Telescope, L2.  The Webb is a much broader spectrum instrument from near infrared out to far infrared wavelengths, so they're not competitors; more like extra capability out at L2 for the near-infrared spectrum.  

The other mission, Hera, is considerably more ambitious.  Hera’s mission is to orbit around the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and study the impact crater on its smaller partner, Dimorphos, created last month by the DART mission. Hera has a short, 17-day launch window in October of 2024.  It had been intended to fly on Ariane and was scheduled to be one of the first payloads launched by an Ariane 64 rocket with a new Astris kick stage under development at Arianespace.  Missing that October window could stretch out its mission from two years to more than five years.  Where do you go to find a booster capable of lifting that on short notice?  Exactly.  The same rocket that launched the DART mission.

Hera, left and Euclid renderings.  ESA image