Small Space News Story Roundup

As I frequently do, a summary of some short news stories that hit my general interest buttons.

CNBC Reports that last year was a record year for rockets launched from the US and the regulatory agency that's responsible for gumming up things coordinating those operations, the Federal Aviation Agency, is struggling with the overload.  The agency coordinated US airspace for a record-breaking 92 space missions in 2022, up 33 percent from the year prior, and it expects to top that this year.  As I'm sure you know, 61 of those 92 were SpaceX's record year, and this year they're aiming for 100 launches.  Even if SpaceX doesn't make 100, but gets close, the FAA could be looking at more than 60% more launches.

It didn't take long for the number crunchers to realize that the problem area is Florida for two big (and actually pretty obvious) reasons: there are more launches from Cape Canaveral than any other launch facility in the US and the state is also a major tourist destination with big theme parks in many places, plus hundreds of miles of beaches and other natural attractions.  Compound that with our summer thunderstorm season that delays and re-routes flights routinely as well as the couple or few times in the year that hurricanes or tropical storms shut down swaths of the state.  This led to clashes, such as when the FAA had to talk NASA out of Artemis I launch attempts around the Thanksgiving holiday. 

SpaceX launches from both Vandenberg Space Force Station in California and Cape Canaveral SFS in Florida.  Of the 31 launches that weren't SpaceX, most were also from those two facilities, with four launches from Texas, as well as one from Kodiak Alaska and two from Wallops Island, Virginia.   

(Hat tip for this story to Edition 5.25 of Rocket Report)

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Do you think that Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket will be operational in a bit less than two years?  Does it matter to you that they've apparently worked the bugs out of the BE-4 engines and are building the first test vehicle?  

Regardless of what you and I might think, NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract for a pair of Mars orbiting satellites to launch in the next closest launch window coming in the fourth quarter of 2024.  That's more like 1-3/4 years from now than two years.  The mission is another one of those names almost legally required to be a cutsie acronym; in this case, the mission is ESCAPADE, short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers.

ESCAPADE is slated to study the magnetosphere, the magnetic zone of the Red Planet's atmosphere, with twin craft designed by Rocket Lab. Two Mars-orbiting spacecraft will look at how the solar wind (charged particles from the sun) tore away the atmosphere over eons, thinning it considerably. 

Mission results could allow scientists to learn more about how the planet got so dry over time, as billions of years ago it appears Martian water flowed abundantly on the surface.

Yes, designed by Rocket Lab, probably better known for launching their Electron booster for small satellites.  They also advertise as building satellites on their web page.  As has been the case several times with missions we've covered, this is part of NASA's Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program; a short list of 13 companies formulated in 2022. Financial details of Thursday's contract were not released by NASA. 

Illustration of the ESCAPADE spacecraft in orbit around Mars. Image credit: Rocket Lab USA/UC Berkeley)