The first story is a small one: the next Axiom Space mission to the International Space Station, called Axiom or Ax-4, has been bumped from Tuesday morning at 7:20 AM EDT (approximate - I'm not 100% sure I remember that) and has been pushed to 8:00 AM on Wednesday morning. The reason cited was weather along the ascent corridor.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
Not to demean Peggy Whitson in any way, from what I know of her as NASA's and America's record holder for the most cumulative time spent in space she's as close to being unquestionable as it gets, but the fact that she's the only experienced astronaut on this flight seems a little "light." The other, other hand is that since she's Axiom Space's director of human spaceflight, she probably hand picked the crew to fly with.
The big story is that SpaceX is about to tear up part of the Cape Canaveral
infrastructure
As many of us here on the blog have said in posts and comments that in the world of launch to orbit there's SpaceX and everyone else. Last year, they submitted a plan to move into Space Launch Complex (SLC) 37, one of the largest launch complexes at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Why? They plan to use the facility for up to 76 launches of the company's Starship rocket each year.
76 Starships each year?!? Be still my beating heart! I can hardly wait to see Starships flying from the CCSFS, "just up the road."
A draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released this week by the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Space Force, found SpaceX's planned use of Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral would have no significant negative impacts on local environmental, historical, social, and cultural interests. The Air Force also found SpaceX's plans at SLC-37 will have no significant impact on the company's competitors in the launch industry.
SLC-37 was the launch site for United Launch Alliance's Delta IV missions, and that vehicle has been retired. The last Delta IV mission from SLC-37 was April 9, 2024.
Ground crews are expected to start dismantling the existing launch complex immediately with some reports saying as early as Thursday.
Emre Kelly, a Space Force spokesperson, deferred questions on the schedule for the demolition to SpaceX, which is overseeing the work. But he said the Delta IV's mobile gantry, fixed umbilical tower, and both lightning towers will come down. Unlike other large-scale demolitions at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX and the Space Force don't plan to publicize the event ahead of time.
...
In their place, SpaceX plans to build two 600-foot-tall (180-meter) Starship launch integration towers within the 230-acre confines of SLC-37. [BOLD added: SiG]
A Delta IV Heavy rocket stands inside the mobile service tower at Space Launch Complex-37 in this photo from 2014. SpaceX is set to demolish all of the structures seen here. Credit: United Launch Alliance
So when can we look forward to a Starship launch? I've seen talk of a Florida Starship launch before the end of this year, but that would have to be from the existing and unfinished facilities at Pad 39A, which is a bit northwest of SLC-37, by about 6 miles. The Starship facilities have been started, stopped and restarted before, but are ahead of the mods to SLC-37.
Don't forget any Starship operations are separate from and don't affect the timing of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.
Within a few years, SpaceX could have as many as nine active launch pads spread across three states. The company's most optimistic vision for Starship would require many more, potentially including offshore launch and landing sites.
Nine launch pads for SpaceX while their competitors largely have two.
Unless the fallout from the spat results in increased bureaucratic oversight.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: Nine launch pads for SpaceX in constant use while their competitors largely have two not being used for months or years at a time.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot to mention that Blue Origin is saying cert flight 2 for New Glenn is being pushed out.
DeleteWell, duh. I think sometime in the 23rd century BO will still be pushing out flight 2.
DeleteAnd, of course, if BO is pushing out New Glenn then that most likely means that BE4 engine production is slow and is probably affecting Vulcan's next flight or the flight after.
In a recent video, Elon spoke of manufacturing one thousand complete ships per year. Three per day is feasible in the very near future.
ReplyDeleteTo do this, manufacturing will be accomplished at Bolsa Chica and on the East Coast, presumably the Cape. Two massive factories to be built, or in construction now, one each location.
Elon's focus on Mars is not new, but he provided more details such as a self-contained settlement on Mars within the next decade.
The following link is not the video, but contains some of what Elon said when speaking before Space X employees.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/05/future-starship-block-3-mars/
Be neat if they started building at Vandenberg, too, but considering California politics I don't see that happening.
ReplyDelete'California politics' can be interpreted in many ways. The fact is, concerning commercial launches at Vberg, the effort was mangled since the beginning.
DeleteCirca 2003, local politicians, sitting and washed up seeking to enhance their legacy, sought to establish a space port.
(You don't even want to know about Lois Capps)
(This was at a time when multiple sites around the country were eager to push for a space port. Basically it was a race to get established first.). Too, there was Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites at Mojave, also in CA.
The aforementioned pols sought to use whatever connections they had in D.C. and Sacramento. They were over their head as project leaders or administrators and basically were shunned by various civil and military agencies. They then appealed to the public to finance the endeavor. Approx $100-150 million dollars (mostly govt grants, etc) yielded very minimal results.
They even formed an economic incentive zone to encourage private investments.
All in all, it was a feeble though costly attempt and mainly to elevate certain political personalities. Still, USAF held all the cards.
After languishing for a long decade, might as well having been pronounced dead, along comes Elon Musk. Currently, the CA Coastal Commission, which is as powerful as it is ideologically biased, spurns Space X because they despise Elon. That is the subject of a lawsuit which is moving forward.
Being a federal installation, they should just tell CA to pound sand and stop dallying with state cretins.
Of course this is the very brief summary.
Part of the justification for NOT using Vandy is the geography. The only launch that gives them an advantage over the east coast is to a polar orbit. That's a very useful class of orbit, but the extra "fling" the Earth's rotation gives a rocket flying easterly helps put bigger sats in orbit. Plus, launching over open ocean instead of dry land has to be better.
DeleteThat extra velocity from launching east is pretty much not even a concern any more, but had to have been in the early days. Likewise, less worries about a rocket stage falling on land, like they do in China all the time, had to figure in back then, too.
Do all rocket launch towers have to be purpose built for specific rockets or can some towers accomodate different rockets (even with some modification)? I realize a tower designed for a Falcon would be too small for a Starship but with others how possible?
ReplyDeleteIn 2024, US and Australia signed an agreement to allow US launches from Australia. SpaceX should build a full facility there to take some stress from the US facilities and to insure SpaceX has options if the US plays games again.
On the east coast of Puerto Rico is an ex US bombing range, Vieques island. 20 miles long, 4 miles wide, virtually uninhabited. Not too many islands east down range. It would make an excellent new launch facility.
First one: towers for each specific company's rockets seems to be the way it's done. If they plan to launch more than one kind, they can build towers to handle both, but I'm not aware of any instances where a lot of different rockets use the same "stage zero," as Musk calls it. I think Vulcan and Atlas V use the same tower: same company, different rockets.
DeleteWhich makes sense. If your company is designing the two rockets you can require them to have the same attachments in the same places. In the Vulcan/Atlas combo, the first one designed tells the second where to put its attachment. But no sense spending money to hook up to some rocket that you'll never launch.
Regarding Vieques Island, the Puerto Ricans finally got the US Navy to stop using the island as a gunnery and bombing range. Which, without the need for an actual coaling station, took away any real reason for the US Navy to be in Puerto Rico in large numbers.
DeleteSo the US Navy basically left.
Which crashed the economy of Puerto Rico in a very big way.
Basically Uncle Sam's Navy was supporting all of Puerto Rico. The PR without the USN is a failed territory, economically and physically.
Confounding the issue with the PR is they refuse to learn English. Even Guam uses English as an official language.
One problem would be all the UXO laying around. Clearing enough for a launch complex and auxiliary support areas would require a year at least . Even then with Starship size launches you will experience sympathetic detonations enough to make everyone as nervous as a tomcat in a roomful of rocking chairs.
DeleteI suspect that either the Air Force doesn't know what they are doing, or they have special requirements, because their analysis says there are No Significant Impacts, yet they are doing an Environmental Impact Statement.
ReplyDeleteWith no impacts, they should be doing an Environmental Assessment, not an EIS - the difference in cost and time is years and millions of dollars.
The same is true of the work at Vanderburg - and in this case, I suspect that two isn't a coincidence. Too bad we can't report this waste to Elon anymore...
If they can carry out their plans, it will be significant.
Jonathan