The Orbital Index

Super Heavy gets a hug. To the utter amazement of many (us & numerous SpaceXers included), SpaceX executed one of the most dramatic engineering feats of modern times on Sunday morning, catching the returning 70 m tall Booster 12 with its mechanized launch tower minutes after it took off. For a little perspective, Super Heavy is as tall as a 19+ story building, and the catch-fitting pins that it was caught by are just 17 cm long. Just hours after the launch, SpaceX lowered B12 back onto the orbital launch mount (OLM) and reconnected it to the booster quick disconnect—testing the ability of systems to still function after a launch and catch, a prerequisite for truly rapid reusability. (In theory, SpaceX could have stacked another Starship and reflown B12 mere hours after the catch.) Flight 5’s first-attempt catch was facilitated by “half a centimeter accuracy” booster guidance on Flight 4. You should probably just watch another few videos of the catch (or play SpaceX’s tiny bit-art game, or this one, which is even better). In addition to the spectacular ground effects, Flight 5 also saw Starship complete a successful flight and splashdown. Ship 30, with its upgraded heatshield, flew to an altitude of over 200 km on a reentry trajectory that brought it down in the Indian Ocean—the upgraded heatshield performed much better, but at least one flap still appeared to burn through toward the end of reentry. Regardless, Ship 30 landed on target and was captured on the livestream as it floated by one of SpaceX’s pre-placed buoys before exploding. What’s next is a bit unclear. Ship 31, the next upper stage ready to go, is the last of the current generation of Starships expected to fly (future versions will have flaps that are more leeward, protecting them from some reentry heating). Orbital fuel transfer is a pressing question from NASA as the HLS mission isn’t possible without it—but it’s unclear if they can reasonably demonstrate cryogenic transfer with a single ship. Starlink V2 deployment and in-space Raptor relight are other possible near-term objectives, with the satellite deployment door receiving a rework since it seemed to only partially function on Flight 3. Whatever is attempted next, it is hard to imagine Flight 6 will be as monumental to the Starship program as what we witnessed on Sunday morning.

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Vast shares space station photos and future designs. Commercial space station startup Vast shared final plans last week for Haven-1, the company’s first space station. With help from retired NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel and ex-Apple industrial designer Peter Russell-Clarke, they’ve clearly worked hard to come up with a “human-centric” design, including “safety-tested, fire-resistant maple wood veneer slats,” that supports aerospace requirements while making the single-module station somewhere people might actually want to work or visit. Check out the many pretty renders. Vast also shared a company update video with shots of actual Haven-1 hardware, including thrusters, structures, batteries, solar panels, sleeping systems, and a hatch cleverly designed to include their logo. Haven-1 is scheduled to launch NET August 2025. A few days later, Vast also shared initial designs for Haven-2, an eventually much larger station design to be pitched to NASA’s CLD program as an ISS replacement. Haven-2 will start with a larger module launched NET 2028, followed by three more modules to be docked into a stick configuration. These will further be followed by a larger, Starship-launched core module and reconfiguration into a cross with up to the addition of four more modules on its four arms. While Vast’s long-term goal is spin gravity, Haven-2 doesn’t currently have plans to rotate, as this is not a core NASA requirement. (Disclaimer: Andrew was on the Vast founding team and enthusiastically stays in touch.)

PLD Space announcements. The European launch startup PLD Space set its sights high last week by unveiling three new rockets and a long-term plan to design a human-rated capsule (interesting live commentary from the announcement here). The rockets, all part of the Miura family, will share a core + booster design, with the first variant being the core in a single-stick design, the second as a core + two boosters, and the final, super heavy variant boasting a core + four boosters. Reuse is planned via both parachute-assisted soft splashdown and return-to-launch-site. When reused, the vehicles would be rated at ~10 tons (Miura Next, NET 2030), ~19.5 tons (Miura Next Heavy, NET 2031/32), and 53 tons (Mirua Next Super Heavy, NET 2033). The Lince capsule, with space for four to five astronauts, is planned to come online in 2030 as well, just when the ISS is being deorbited—aero drop tests will begin next year. These are big dreams; PLD has so far successfully launched their Miura 1 suborbital rocket and hopes to make their first attempt to launch an orbital class rocket, the in-development Miura 5—capable of 500 kg to SSO and 1 ton to equatorial orbits—sometime next year from French Guiana.

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News in brief. Europa Clipper launched successfully toward Jupiter (c.f. Issue 289) ● The elusive X-37B space plane will perform maneuvers to responsibility jettison the service module and change its orbit through aerobraking in Earth’s atmosphere (the first mention of this type of trajectory adjustment for X-37B) ● The Dominican Republic and Estonia became the 44th and 45th nations to sign the Artemis Accords ● NASA awarded Rocket Lab a contract to study a simplified alternative for Mars Sample Return (they were not one of the original seven companies selected to run studies, but NASA reevaluated their decision) ● Czech startup Zaitra closed a €1.7M pre-seed to continue developing satellite autonomy solutions ● China launched a third high-orbit (GEO) internet satellite ● China plans to launch satellites to LEO next year with the hopes of building out a quantum communications network ● Northwood Space, a ground-station-as-a-service startup, tested their prototype antenna by achieving bi-directional communication with a Planet satellite during a ground pass in North Dakota ● The UAE selected Japan’s H3 rocket to launch their Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt in 2028 ● Planet released the first methane and carbon dioxide detections by the Tanager-1 satellite, part of the Carbon Mapper Coalition’s broader effort to identify and measure greenhouse gas point-source emissions on a global scale.

Etc.

• Relatedly: Solving methane mysteries (from LNG tankers) with satellite imagery.
• As Moon Monday recently discussed, LRO neutron spectroscopy data suggests that lunar permanently shadowed regions outside of the south pole (down to 77° latitude) may have water ice deposits, an unexpected finding. This will hopefully be confirmed by Lunar Trailblazer or future surface crewed or commercial missions (such as those proposed by Argo Space and Starpath Robotics).
• Beautiful supercomputer simulations of anthropogenic CO2 diffusing and mixing in the Earth’s atmosphere. There is also an explanation video.
• The LOFAR radio telescope spotted the most extensive black hole jet system ever observed, named Porphyrion, with jets spanning 23 million light-years, or about 140 times the diameter of the Milky Way (paper). Such large and ancient jet systems—10,000 have been surveyed by LOFAR—suggest they may have had an unexpected and significant effect on the dynamics of early galaxy formation. Ethan Siegel has more details.
• Radio telescope observations like this may be affected by Starlink satellites—a recent study reported that Starlink V1.5 (incorrectly referred to as V2) satellites have interference 32x stronger than first-gen Starlink sats (paper).
• A timelapse of a New Shepard propulsion module being installed at the National Air and Space Museum.
• Soldering, really close.