Small Space News Story Roundup 39

A few short stories that caught my eye. 

Looks like NASA may be giving up on Starliner 

This is a story that merits a hat tip to Larry at Virtual Mirage who posted a link to a story from Ars Technica called  “NASA says it is “evaluating all options” for the Safe Return of Starliner crew.” I missed it yesterday due to watching the storm prep for the weekend I posted about. 

Short version: it's not guaranteed it's going to be a SpaceX Crew Dragon rescue, but doesn't seem smart to bet against that. The article is just full of clues.  Here's a few quotes trimmed back to what seems to be the meat:

One informed source said it was greater than a 50-50 chance that the crew would come back on Dragon. Another source said it was significantly more likely than not they would. To be clear, NASA has not made a final decision. This probably will not happen until at least next week. It is likely that Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator, will make the call.
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A Flight Readiness Review meeting had been scheduled for today, August 1, several days in advance. However, it was canceled. Instead, NASA put out a vague blog update on Thursday...
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NASA issued a $266,678 task award to SpaceX on July 14 for a "special study for emergency response." NASA said this study was not directly related to Starliner's problems, but two sources told Ars it really was.
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SpaceX has been actively working on a scenario in which two or four astronauts launch on board Crew 9. (A normal crew is four) This mission has a nominal launch date of August 18, but it could well be delayed. SpaceX has already identified flight suits that would fit Wilmore and Williams, allowing them to fly home on the Crew-8 spacecraft (presently docked to the space station) or the Crew-9 vehicle.

I've had this picture since I grabbed it back in mid-June to demonstrate how I'll watch Starliner returning. 

I'll be looking just like this. With the exception of this being a young woman who's over 40 years younger and a billion times better looking than I am. Because I care about you readers in my "old man" demographic.

I commented to LL over at his blog (after reiterating some things talked about here in the last month):

I know a pair of test pilots would never say this, but the best thing to do with that Starliner is let it re-enter unmanned. If it burns up in the atmosphere, hopefully, they’ll get data. If it doesn’t burn up, the chances of getting important data go up.

A couple of European companies pushing reusable rockets are facing delays

From this week's Rocket Report, also from Ars Technica. 

The French space agency, the CNES, has been working toward a test flight of a reusable rocket called Callisto. That was supposed to be "by the end of '24" but now looks to be by the end of '25. Or early '26.  

The Callisto rocket is designed to test techniques and technologies required for reusable rockets, such as vertical takeoff and vertical landing, with suborbital flights from the Guiana Space Center in South America.

Callisto, which stands for Cooperative Action Leading to Launcher Innovation in Stage Toss-back Operations, is a joint project between CNES, German space agency DLR, and JAXA, the Japanese space agency. It will stand 14 meters (46 feet) tall and weigh about 4 metric tons (8,800 pounds), with an engine supplied by Japan. Callisto is one of several test projects in Europe aiming to pave the way for a future reusable rocket.

The Themis project, funded by the European Space Agency - the "big guys" in European rockets - is similar in purpose to the Callisto testbed and I've been seeing stories about Themis since 2019. At that time, talk was that first flights wouldn't be until '28. 

This week, the German aerospace manufacturing company MT Aerospace announced it has begun testing a demonstrator of the landing legs that will be used aboard the Themis reusable booster, European Spaceflight reports. The landing legs for Themis are made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic composites, and the initial test demonstrated good deployment and showed it would withstand the impact energy of landing.

Also delayed ... Like Callisto, Themis is facing delays in getting to the launch pad. ArianeGroup, the ESA-selected Themis prime contractor, had been expected to conduct an initial hop test of the demonstrator before the end of 2024. However, officials have announced the initial hop tests won't happen until sometime next year. The Themis booster is intended to eventually become the first stage booster for an orbital-class partially reusable rocket being developed by MaiaSpace, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup.

The early news on Themis was pretty remarkable from my standpoint because it looked pretty much like a copy of a Falcon 9. To be fair, the Europeans weren't shy about saying they're copying SpaceX.  Everybody's doing it.  

During a presentation last year, the head of the French space agency's launch vehicle program, Jean Marc-Astorg, was asked about the similarities. As part of its development program, Ariane and CNES are also planning a "Callisto" hopper vehicle that is similar the Grasshopper test vehicle SpaceX flew in 2012 and 2013 to demonstrate vertical landing capabilities.

"Callisto is Grasshopper," Astorg said at the time. "The Chinese are also building a similar prototype, I have no problem saying we didn’t invent anything."

Imagine taking a major airliner, like an A380 or a B747, flying it once and throwing it out. Can you imagine wasting that much money?  There would be no air travel.  Not doing reusability smacks of being the kind of thing only a government would do. Maybe do it for the first few steps into space, but 60 years later? It was as recently as 2018 when an ESA representative openly said, 

Truthfully, if Europe ever did develop a reusable rocket, one that could fly all the missions in a year, this would be unhelpful politically. What would the engine and booster factories sprinkled across Europe do if they built one rocket and then had 11 months off? The member states value the jobs too much. This is one difference between rocket-by-government and rocket-by-billionaire programs.

Instead of his "rocket by government," it's helpful to substitute the phrase "morons with money" for the word government.