SpaceX is done testing Booster 3 and is working on Starship 20 and Booster 4. SpaceX Starship 4 could be ready for orbital flight testing by August 5th. Felix at What About It? is indicating the activity and rumors of a SpaceX orbital launch test target date of August 5th. This would likely be the …
Marcus House has worked with several people to use detailed calculations to model the first SpaceX lunar missions. NASA has funded the development of a lunar Starship. There are propellant calculations by Aeneas. They have determined it will take about seven refueling missions to fully fuel a lunar Starship in Earth orbit. This would then …
The Europa Clipper mission will launch in October 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The total contract award amount for launch services is approximately $178 million. Above – This illustration, updated in December 2020, depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. With an internal global ocean …
China has been pretty good at large engineering projects. Readers of Nextbigfuture over the last 15 years know that Nextbigfuture tracks all of China’s megaprojects and all of the major space, energy and technology projects that have ever been proposed. China does not have infinite funds and I will go over the fundamental engineering, science, …
At the Mobile World Congress 2021, Elon Musk discusses the overall strategy around the SpaceX Starlink internet service and the goal to reach 500,000 users in the next 12 months. Starlink is filling in the gaps between 5G and fiber. Starlink will help the hardest to reach 3-5% of the world’s users. The combined power …
SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell, a Northwestern graduate, delivered a commencement address from the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne, California. Gwynn walked in the SpaceX factory in front of a graphic that shows the delivery of Raptor engines for the new orbital Starship test rocket. About 11 Raptors were delivered over 25 days. This means the complete …
The US Air Force is funding $48 million to study using the SpaceX Starship to move military cargo anywhere in the world in one hour. There will need to be more spent to actually use SpaceX Starships for rapid deployments. SpaceX seems to be well on the way to making Starship a technical and economic …
The SpaceX Super Heavy booster that will fly to orbit should be completed within weeks. This first booster will have 29 Raptor engines and each engine will have 225 tons of thrust. The regular Super Heavy boosters will have 32 Raptor engines for 7200 tons of thrust. The Saturn V that flew men to the …
There are many companies working to develop commercial supersonic planes. There is Boom Technology which has raised $241 million and has may pre-orders from potential customers. United Airlines agreed to purchase 15 Boom Overture aircraft with an option to buy 35 more. They are currently scheduled to begin servicing passengers in 2029. Nextbigfuture has been …
SpaceX is scheduled to fly a cargo Dragon 2 to the space station starting June 3. Crew Dragon’s system of SuperDraco abort thrusters and other gear were removed from the human flight Dragon 2 to enable more cargo. Falcon 9 booster B1067 will take more than 3300 kg of cargo. They will bring new roll …
Elon Musk says that Raptor engine production has reached one every two days. This is a runrate of 180 per year. The previous Merlin engines had reached a production rate of 400 engines per year. SpaceX will likely at least double Raptor engine production to the old Merlin engine level in 2022. SpaceX needs 29 …
