TechCrunch Space: Spending less

3 months ago 34

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Story of the week

A pair of Rocket Lab-made spacecraft are about to embark on a two-step journey. The first step is the 55-hour, 2,500-mile stretch from California to the launch site at Cape Canaveral. The second step? Just 11 months and 230 million miles to Mars.

Even more exciting — the mission, commissioned by NASA, with scientific payloads from UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory and satellite buses provided by Rocket Lab, will end up costing just one-tenth of other orbiter missions to the red planet. ESCAPADE will launch on Blue Origin’s New Glenn in October, but it will be the first launch of that vehicle, so the date could get pushed back. If they miss the window, we’ll have to wait 26 months for ESCAPADE to launch.

Image Credits: Rocket Lab (opens in a new window)

Scoop of the week

OK, this is NOT a scoop. But I didn’t see anyone else covering the topic, so you might say it’s a bit of an exclusive. And that’s about the draft environmental assessment for Stoke’s launch pad that the U.S. Space Force released last month. These regulatory documents are long and can be difficult to get through, but they do provide unique insights into a company’s near-term plans.

The major gist of the document is that Stoke is pursuing a “phased program approach,” whereby the company first operates a totally expendable vehicle at a relatively low launch cadence (10 launches/year). Phase 2, which would require a supplemental environmental analysis and is not considered in this draft document, would involve the fully reusable rocket.

Stoke Space Hopper2Image Credits: Stoke Space (opens in a new window)

What we’re reading

Now that the Starliner astronauts have been in orbit for over 70 days (even though the original mission was targeting just around a week), it can be hard to keep all the facts straight. I found this short explainer from CNBC’s Michael Sheetz really handy — send it to your inquiring friends and everyone else who is confused about just what is happening way up on the International Space Station.

Image Credits: NASA (opens in a new window)

This week in space history

Instead of looking back, I want to call your attention to some contemporary astronomy news: The next full moon will be a Blue Supermoon. “Blue” because it’s the third full moon in a season of four full moons, and “super” because the moon will be within 90% of its closest approach to Earth. That means it’s going to be HUGE.