The Orbital Index

The ‘world’s only commercial spaceplane’ is finally sort of nearing launch. Sierra Space’s perennially delayed Dream Chaser Cargo System (DCCS) is now scheduled to launch in Q4 of next year on a Vulcan rocket, no longer planning to visit the ISS, but still attempting a runway landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base (animated launch video). The vehicle recently completed pre-flight tests at Kennedy Space Center, where it will launch. If successful, it’s not entirely clear what would be next for the reusable, autonomous spaceplane. The cargo variant of the vehicle was originally planned to start a multi-mission NASA Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) contract for ISS cargo delivery, but that contract now seems to be in flux. Much like Cargo Dragon with its expendable trunk, DCCS includes the Shooting Star cargo module with docking hardware and solar panels for power, which will burn up on re-entry. DCCS would be capable of delivering 5 tons of cargo to the ISS, and carrying about a ton back to Earth for landing on a commercial runway while subjecting it to no more than 1.5 g. The vehicle maneuvers in orbit with ‘green’ hydrogen peroxide propellant and has folding wings that allow it to fit in standard 5-meter fairings. A crewed version (originally funded through phases of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program but ultimately passed over in favor of Starliner and Crew Dragon) could carry up to seven people to LEO, should the vehicle ever be developed (its most likely use may be commercial station deliveries in either configuration, given its partnership in the Orbital Reef, should that station ever progress).

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• A new paper calls into question the accelerating expansion of the Universe, potentially resolving the Hubble tension. The team produced evidence that type Ia supernovae, a key standard candle used to estimate distances in the Universe, are strongly affected by the age of their progenitor stars, with supernovae from younger stars appearing fainter than those from older stars. This fits recent data from DESI, derived from baryonic acoustic oscillations and the CMB. “Our study shows that the universe has already entered a phase of decelerated expansion at the present epoch and that dark energy evolves with time much more rapidly than previously thought.” Further updates and confirmations will be needed over the next few years (with some likely coming from Rubin LSST data), but this may be an exciting development in cosmology!
• Astronomers found a Jupiter-sized planet, tidally locked to a millisecond pulsar, with an atmosphere made up of almost exclusively carbon (paper). The planet may once have been a star, but so much material has either been stolen by the pulsar or blasted away by gamma rays that what is left is Jupiter-sized. The source of the planet’s carbon-rich atmosphere isn’t yet understood. This type of system, where a pulsar consumes or ablates a planet, is sometimes called a black widow pulsar.
• One long-standing, though generally poorly accepted, theory for the cause of a period of abrupt cooling of the climate 12,000 years ago—which saw the disappearance of megafauna and the Clovis culture—is known as the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH). The theory posits that a comet airburst caused massive fires and subsequent global cooling, wiping out woolly mammoths and causing the collapse of the Clovis culture. No craters have been found, but a layer of black strata, which might be burnt material, as well as microspherules and platinum, has been cited as evidence. Now, a recent paper reports the discovery of shocked quartz at three well-known Clovis sites, strengthening evidence for an extraterrestrial cause. Shocked quartz—quartz sand grains with molten silica solidified in fractures—is known to occur after nuclear weapons tests and inside impact craters (the latter seeming more likely here).

A Bigger, Newer Glenn. Following its very successful second launch, including a successful booster return, Blue Origin released an update on what’s next for its heavy lift rocket. First up are engine upgrades, with both the BE-4 and BE-3U getting thrust increases that will yield better performance for the current rocket configuration. These upgrades include subcooling for the rocket’s propellant (which SpaceX also introduced in the Falcon 9 block 5 upgrade) and will deliver ~15% more thrust to the first stage and 25% more to the upper stage (interestingly, BE-3U has only delivered up to ~70% of its current thrust capability on the test stand to date). In addition to engine upgrades, Blue will introduce a recoverable/reusable fairing on the current rocket, which should help increase launch cadence. Looking further into the future, the company intends to introduce an even larger version of New Glenn; this variant would feature 9 BE-4s and 4 BE-3Us (Blue refers to this as a 9x4 configuration, compared to the current 7x2 version). This new variant should be capable of delivering 70 tons to LEO and will require stretched tanks and a new aft thrust section. 9x4 will feature an even larger 8.7-meter fairing—altogether, this version will be taller than the Saturn V and squarely move the rocket into the Super Heavy camp (Starship will still be taller and produce significantly more thrust, however). No word on when it is planned for launch (we’d be a bit surprised to see it before 2028).

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• NASA shared more images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS taken from spacecraft all over the solar system.
• Moss spores survived for 9 months outside the International Space Station.
• Airbus update on A320 Family precautionary fleet action (SEUs in aircraft!)
• ESCAPADE, recently launched on New Glenn’s second flight, has seen first light. 
• All about Apollo 11’s feared biological back contamination risk and the isolation procedures applied to returning astronauts. “This is how a completely abstract argument about alien germs was taken seriously and mitigated at great effort and expense during the 1969 Apollo landing.”
• ESA announced a project to study food production in space using hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria to make protein from microbes that need only air, hydrogen (via electrolysis), and a bit of astronaut urine (for urea). Think Soylent for astronauts. (An interesting effort to find the most efficient possible path to generate food in space, or for an emergency on Earth, is ALLFED. Here’s a review paper of non-agricultural food production, including wood/biomass to sugars, single-cell proteins from various gas/liquid feedstocks, including hydrogen, chemical synthesis from hydrocarbons or CO₂, and precision fermentation. And here is another on direct chemical synthesis of food.)