MASS

 

Blog for Sunday, June 11, 2023

This is the 7th weekly blog, I think it is a habit. Hope you enjoy. Any feedback is appreciated.

The week started out with a bang. I had joined Fraser Cain’s Universe Today as a patreon supporter and he scheduled me for a 15-minute Zoom interview on Monday, June 5. What an honor to talk to someone that I have seen for so many hours of video content with interviews and about astronomy and space issues. I zoomed from my upstairs lair and Fraser noticed my picture of the “Tesla in space” that Elon Musk launched on the first Falcon Heavy rocket. I was also surrounded by my models of the Space Shuttle and ISS and I think my “lava lamp” might have dated me. I told him about our MASS group and hoped he would check out our content. He seemed interested but I know he must be a very busy guy. I thanked him for letting me know about a phone app that identifies birds by their sounds, something that Carol and I are enjoying. Before I knew it, our time was up.

Vulcan rocket test fires its BE4 engines – On 6/7/23, the new rocket fired its engines for a 6-second test and it went according to plan. This is the last major hurdle for the Vulcan rocket to launch before the end of 2023. On its inaugural mission, possibly in July this year, it will send the Peregrine lunar lander from Astrobotic to a soft landing at the South Pole of the moon. The second Vulcan mission is to launch the first DreamChaser space plane to the ISS for a cargo delivery. The rocket uses methane-liquid oxygen burning BE-4 engines which are years late and coming from Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos. Vulcan is a critical rocket. It is needed due to the phase-out of the Atlas 5 which uses Russian based engines. Fortunately, we have a stockpile of Atlas 5 parts already in the US after Russia invaded Ukraine. The DoD has awarded its future military satellite contracts to be launched with 60% coming on Vulcan launches and 40% on SpaceX. The other US rocket, the Delta, is being de-commissioned because it is cost prohibitive. The Vulcan is capable of putting 27.2 mt (60,000 lb) into LEO which is more than a reusable Falcon 9 which maxes out at 22.8 mt (50,000 lb). Blue Origin also plans to use the BE-4 engines on its new rocket, the New Glenn. This rocket is critical because it will be launching the Blue Moon manned lunar lander for NASA.