Space Putin Digest vol 2
Sup, here we go again, some fun stuff
(1) China announces lunar plans
China is typically pretty hush-hush about their plans in space, but for the first time in quite a while they revealed details about their hope to create an international research station on the moon (which obviously has chinese flags on every module, very international). The most interesting news out of this was that Russia was on-board with this plan. So yet again, we will have a Communist v Democracy race to the moon, although this time both parties intend to stick around.
(2) Falcon 9 Booster completes six (6!!!) flights
Ok so resubaility has been the whole shtick of commercial space, but it was also the shtick with the Space Shuttle too… Problem was it took so much money to refurbish it that you might as well have built a new Space Shuttle. Everyone assumed the same issues would plague SpaceX with their reusable rockets as well. Using propulsive landings rather than a heat shield makes things easier to refurbish however since you’re not speeding through the atmosphere on re-entry.
People, myself included, thought SpaceX would have *some* success with reusability, i.e. 2-3 flights per rocket and extensive refurbishment. I definitely did not expect for them to have a rocket that has already hit 6 successful flights this soon. Great sign for the cost of launching things to space, since that means you’re rapidly approaching a cost-basis that’s just your fuel rather than paying for a whole new rocket each time. Moore’s law is coming back in a whole new way baby!
(3) Crew Dragon NET date announced
We sent 2 astronauts up to the space station with the Dragon. Now time for its first full mission running at total capacity with 4 astronauts onboard. The earliest date for this launch just got announced as October 23rd
Exciting times in space. Nothing too crazy the past few weeks but Q4 is gearing up to be filled with lots of space news!