NASA expects to begin stacking the SLS rocket this summer for next year's Artemis III launch.
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Rocket Report: Blue Origin explosion still making headlines; Impulse raises money
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Here's the updated list of space-related abbreviations. Tailored to contain abbreviations that Ars commenters in particular use frequently. Posted in the first Rocket Report of (nearly) every month.
- Ax/Artx∶ Artemis x (e.g. A3 = Artemis 3), NASA's moon program
- ACES∶ Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, a proposed variant of ULA's Centaur stage that can loiter in orbit
- ASDS∶ autonomous spaceport drone ship, SpaceX's mobile ocean landing platform
- Bx∶ Booster x (e.g. B20 = Booster 20), the first stage of SpaceX's Starship if x < 1000, otherwise a Falcon 9 booster
- BEO∶ beyond earth orbit
- BM∶ Blue Moon, Blue Origin's moon lander
- BO∶ Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space company
- (CC)SFS∶ (Cape Canaveral) Space Force Station
- CLD∶ Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Destination, NASA's commercial space station program
- CLPS∶ NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program
- COPV∶ composite overwrapped pressure vessel
- CRS∶ NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program
- DSCV∶ deep space crewed vehicle
- dV∶ delta-V or ΔV, the velocity change needed to go somewhere in space and thus a measure of the amount of propellant required
- ECLSS∶ environment control and life support system
- EDL∶ entry, descent, landing
- EOR∶ earth orbit rendezvous
- ESM∶ European Service Module, part of the Orion spacecraft
- ET∶ (The Space Shuttle's) external tank
- F9∶ Falcon 9, the SpaceX rocket
- FFSC∶ full flow staged combustion, a very efficient rocket engine design
- FH∶ Falcon Heavy, the SpaceX rocket
- FOD∶ foreign object debris/damage
- FTS∶ flight termination system
- GEM∶ graphite-epoxy motor, a type of solid rocket booster
- GSE: ground support equipment
- GTO∶ geostationary transfer orbit
- HEO∶ high earth orbit or highly elliptical orbit
- HLS∶ Human Landing System, NASA's program to land people on the moon as part of Artemis
- HSF∶ human space flight
- ICPS∶ interim cryogenic propulsion stage, a modified Delta IV cryogenic second stage used in SLS
- ISP∶ specific impulse, Isp, a measure of how fuel efficient a rocket motor is
- ISPR∶ International Standard Payload Rack
- ISRO∶ Indian Space Research Organisation
- ISRU∶ in situ resource utilization, exploiting resources at the destination to make useful products like fuel
- KSC∶ Kennedy Space Center
- KSP∶ Kerbal Space Program, a video game that puts the fun into orbital mechanics
- LAS∶ launch abort system
- LEO / LLO∶ low earth orbit / low lunar orbit
- LMx∶ Long March x (e.g. LM10 = Long March 10), the series of Chinese rockets
- LoC / LoM / LoV∶ loss of crew / mission / vehicle
- LOR∶ lunar orbit rendezvous
- LOX∶ liquid oxygen
- LRE∶ liquid rocket engine
- LRR∶ launch readiness review
- LV∶ launch vehicle
- MARS∶ Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island in Virginia
- MECO∶ main engine cut-off, first stage engines switch off
- ML(P)∶ mobile launch platform
- MLV∶ Medium Launch Vehicle, co-developed by Northrop-Grumman and Firefly
- MSFC∶ Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
- NEP∶ nuclear electric propulsion
- NET∶ no earlier than
- NG∶ New Glenn, Blue Origin's orbital rocket
- NG∶ Northrop-Grumman
- NRHO∶ near-rectilinear halo orbit, a highly eccentric orbit NASA uses for Artemis
- OFT∶ orbital flight test
- OLT∶ orbital launch tower
- OTV∶ orbital transfer vehicle
- PAF∶ payload attach fitting
- QD∶ quick disconnect
- RCS∶ reaction control system, used for spacecraft attitude control
- RL∶ Rocket Lab, maker of the Electron and Neutron rockets
- RPOD∶ rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking
- RTG∶ radioisotope thermoelectric generator
- RTLS∶ return to launch site
- RUD∶ rapid unscheduled disassembly, a euphemism for a rocket explosion
- Sx∶ Ship x (e.g. S40 = Ship 40), the upper stage of SpaceX's Starship
- SECO∶ second engine cut-off, second stage engines switch off
- SEP∶ solar electric propulsion
- SH∶ Super-heavy, the first stage of SpaceX's Starship
- SLS∶ Space Launch System, NASA's heavy-lift rocket
- SPMT∶ self propelled modular transporter
- SRB / SRM∶ solid rocket booster / motor
- SS∶ SpaceX's Starship; can refer to just the upper stage or the whole rocket system
- SSLV∶ India's small satellite launch vehicle
- SSME∶ Space Shuttle main engine
- SSO∶ sun-synchronous orbit
- SSTO∶ single stage to orbit
- STS∶ Space Transportation System, the official name of the Space Shuttle
- TLI / TMI∶ trans-lunar injection / trans-martian injection
- TPS∶ thermal protection system
- TRL∶ technical readiness level
- TSTO∶ two stage to orbit
- TVC∶ thrust vector control
- TWR∶ thrust-to-weight ratio, a measure of performance of rocket engines
- ULA∶ United Launch Alliance, Boeing and Lockheed-Martin's joint venture
- VG∶ Virgin Galactic, the part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group focussed on space tourism
- VI∶ vertical integration, attaching the payload while the rocket is vertical
- (V)SFB∶ (Vandenberg) Space Force Base
- WDR∶ wet dress rehearsal
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Flight 13 vehicle preparations are progressing.
SpaceX rolled Booster 20 to Masseys overnight ahead of it's cryo testing.
View: https://x.com/CeaserG33/status/2062778456409018468
Ship 40 has already done it's cryo testing, and several Raptor engines were spotted rolling into the Megabay for installation.
View: https://x.com/Flight2Starship/status/2062658837555900633
SpaceX rolled Booster 20 to Masseys overnight ahead of it's cryo testing.
View: https://x.com/CeaserG33/status/2062778456409018468
Ship 40 has already done it's cryo testing, and several Raptor engines were spotted rolling into the Megabay for installation.
View: https://x.com/Flight2Starship/status/2062658837555900633
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BBC says there is an emergency on the ISS due to air leak in Russian module. May have to evacuate the station.
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Sounds like it's the PrK leak from before, just getting much worse.
https://www.theguardian.com/science...-evacuation-orders?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
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Statement from Bethany Stevens on the twitters about the ISS situation.
Bethany Stevens said:
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Launching Blue Moon mk.1 on Falcon Heavy seems like an option. It would require SpaceX to support hydrogen supply in the fairing on the launch pad and Blue would have to create a tank that flies alongside the lander as payload. These are both solvable (SpaceX already supports one cryogenic fuel in methane).
I don't see how Blue Moon mk.2 could fly on anything but New Glenn. It appears to maybe just barely fit in the fairing for Vulcan, but at 65 tonnes max weight, it's 5 tonnes too heavy for Vulcan to get to LEO. Without max payload, I suppose, it might fly. But you still need to top off the hydrogen fuel tank. Centaur won't have any endurance left. Blue will have to add a fuel can again.
I don't see how Blue Moon mk.2 could fly on anything but New Glenn. It appears to maybe just barely fit in the fairing for Vulcan, but at 65 tonnes max weight, it's 5 tonnes too heavy for Vulcan to get to LEO. Without max payload, I suppose, it might fly. But you still need to top off the hydrogen fuel tank. Centaur won't have any endurance left. Blue will have to add a fuel can again.
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This Week’s Additional Launches
There are four launches scheduled this week beyond the next three, the Japanese launching what is billed as a test of their H3 (here’s hoping they’ve got all the bugs worked out), but it is carrying six payloads, the Chinese launching an unknown payload on a Long March 5, SpaceX launching a flight of Starlinks, and Rocket Lab launching what appears to be a classified suborbital mission out of Wallops Island.
Jun 9 | 12:53 UTC: H3-30 | Test Flight | LA-Y2, Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
Jun 10 | 07:30 UTC: Long March 5 | Unknown Payload | LC-101, Wenchang Space Launch Site, China
Jun 10 | 14:00 UTC: Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-44 | SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California
Jun 11 | 04:00 UTC: Electron | Curveball | Rocket Lab LC-2, Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia
There are four launches scheduled this week beyond the next three, the Japanese launching what is billed as a test of their H3 (here’s hoping they’ve got all the bugs worked out), but it is carrying six payloads, the Chinese launching an unknown payload on a Long March 5, SpaceX launching a flight of Starlinks, and Rocket Lab launching what appears to be a classified suborbital mission out of Wallops Island.
Jun 9 | 12:53 UTC: H3-30 | Test Flight | LA-Y2, Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
Jun 10 | 07:30 UTC: Long March 5 | Unknown Payload | LC-101, Wenchang Space Launch Site, China
Jun 10 | 14:00 UTC: Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-44 | SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California
Jun 11 | 04:00 UTC: Electron | Curveball | Rocket Lab LC-2, Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia
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It would be useful when doing the reports on the farce that is Maritime Launch to recognize that it is a shell company that exists purely as a financial game: their entire launch facility is a patio-sized non reinforced concrete slab poured by a backyard renovations company. Until literally last year (3 years into the Ukraine war) they were seriously promoting that their launch site would feature launches from a Ukrainian built and designed booster using hypergols... And about the only thing that they've flown from there thus far are a couple of rockets that would make amateur rocket builders laugh.
and that's setting aside all the other minor issues like no safety zone, completely ignoring environmental protocols for construction in canada, or the farce that is their launch corridor.
and that's setting aside all the other minor issues like no safety zone, completely ignoring environmental protocols for construction in canada, or the farce that is their launch corridor.
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"They also decided to paint “45 47″ on the train to recognize the sitting president during this important anniversary.”
A tone deaf move UP, but I am sure the Trump administration will love it. I see you even put his name on the locomotive. In gold no less. It seems less a celebration of the 250th anniversary and instead a celebration of Trump.
A tone deaf move UP, but I am sure the Trump administration will love it. I see you even put his name on the locomotive. In gold no less. It seems less a celebration of the 250th anniversary and instead a celebration of Trump.
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Past leaks have been patched using sealant. The repair this time is reportedly much more ambitious and dangerous, as Russian crew (not including the Russian from the Dragon crew) are going to cut into the PrK with a saw to try to get closer to the actual leak. This is likely going to result in debris floating around, and there's a possibility of making the leak substantially worse.
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Yeah mk 2 is huge, mk 1 is only supposed to be a little over 3 m wide so should fit. Fueling hydrogen at 39A is probably the biggest barrier, though SpaceX already has experience with methalox in the fairing. I think it's a lot less of a lift than getting new glenn flying in 6 months, and with NASA pushing it it might happen. In addition to my comments in last article about it probably having enough oomph if they were to short load the LOX and just let hydrogen boiloff (and not top it off on orbit), once should also consider a center core expended FH could probably chuck a full mark 1 and payload to GTO. On short loaded of LOX with hydrogen boiled off might be able to be boosted to TLI. So getting 1 tonne of payload out of it hitching a ride on FH outta be relatively easy even with out trying to top it.
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Has Mk 2 even started construction yet? Even if Blue doesn't make their (very optimistic) year-end return to flight, it doesn't seem like New Glenn will be the rate-limiting step there.
(I guess Starship hypothetically would be an option, though Jeff Bezos would probably gnaw out his own liver before going that route)
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Yes, the crew have been cleared to resume normal operations. I wonder why this seemed so unexpected. Did Roscosmos suddenly spot a change and decide to enact a procedure to respond? Or did they not communicate a planned activity with NASA?
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Where does that leave Chris Williams, the American member of the current Soyuz crew? Hope he was stationed inside the Soyuz during the repairs.
Edit - I see that the evacuation order has been rescinded.
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Starship doesn't have a traditional fairing (or payload variant at the moment). The mk.2 isn't going to fit out of a Pez dispenser and we don't know that SpaceX has made any progress on their cargo options.
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Did you all catch the Starship HLS airlocks and garage being tested at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab?
View: https://x.com/tobyliiiiiiiiii/status/1774638610815549497
View: https://x.com/tobyliiiiiiiiii/status/1774638610815549497
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From Stevens' X post:
So, Williams was on the Dragon, not the Soyuz.
Which makes sense: Williams couldn't leave in the Soyuz in an emergency without the two cosmonauts, so it wouldn't be an effective lifeboat.
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The superstitious part of my brain warns that you should be careful how you phrase that wish.
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Well, he couldn't have come home in the Dragon, no seat. I assume he actually was in the Soyuz and, if evacuation had been necessary, the cosmonauts would have joined him there and piloted it home. Even in a worst case scenario. it would have taken some time to depressurize the station and the two Russians would have been able to board their spacecraft.
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They probably could jerry-rig something. NASA has experience planning for such, after Frank Rubio and Butch and Suni. I think they may now be leaving a fifth Dragon IVA suit on station as a matter of course.
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What ever happened to crew dragon seating 7, was that just a fiction my brain invented?
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SpaceX's current schedule is a run of 11 Starlinks, following the run of eight in March and 12 in February. Their internal demand for F9 launches is at 80%.
Rocket Lab's "Curveball" is probably another in the HASTE series of suborbital hypersonic tests, following "Bubbles" in April. There was a block buy (three flights, $30 million, for Anduril) announced in May, after a USDoD contract (20 flights, four years, $190 million) announced in March, after various one-offs as with Kratos under the USDoD MACH-TB 2.0 program, announced in April 2025.
China's schedule was slow for a while, but this week had four constellation launches -- Qianfan (SpaceSail) Polar Groups 10 to 12 with a total of 38 birds, plus a lunch for SatNet with four. Upcoming are LandSpace Zhuque-2E Block 2 and CZ-5, -3B/E, -12, and -7A.
Others have been bouncing on and off the calendar: South Korea's test of a solid-fueled rocket, Chinarocket's Jielong-3, and ISRO's EOS-05 on a GSLV.
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A version of it has been there for at least two years as it appeared in a Smarter Everyday YT video...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiZd5yBWvYY
Roughly, 57:27 into the video you can see a mock up in the left side of the video when they start talking about the lunar surface simulation area in the pool. Then near a minute later you see the whole thing and the presenter talks about the egress process.
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"Up to 7 passengers" is one of the specs on the official page, and was announced in 2012 (Universe Today). AIUI, NASA's usual emergency procedure is a capsule will be a lifeboat for whichever crew members it originally lofted, and NASA has never sent an ISS crew of more than four astronauts. You wouldn't want to carry someone without a seat.
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They may have a hard time repainting it constantly when taggers change the 45 to 86.
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If the only alternative were certain death because there is no air to breath, I think I'd take my chances on riding without a seat. But otherwise, no, I'd think not.
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That was part of the original design. But NASA only want to ferry 4 people at a time. The extra space is used for more cargo on crew flights. SpaceX have only ever installed 4 seats, and there are only 4 hookups installed for the IVA suits.
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The Blue Origin explosion is no biggie. Just ask NASA how many times Vanguard, or Atlas, or Titan, or Thor rockets blew up before those pesky rocket scientists figured it out. The interesting part in all this is that the news media seems to be living in the delusion that we have it all figured out and nothing should ever blow up. Of course you have to actually be following all those start-ups out there that have had quite a few failures to launch like Dr. Berger does to know this actually is rocket science.
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I believe the issue was NASA wanted the forces on the astronauts distributed more evenly and SpaceX designed the rotating seats for launch, which used up the area that was for the other three seats.
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NASA wanted four seats specifically for Space Station operations, so that's the way they built them. My understanding is that, although Dragon can accommodate seven passengers, the existing Dragons cannot be reconfigured for larger crews and new ones would have to be built to do that. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong.
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Those early explosions didn't virtually annihilate the only launch pad available for them. Those launch pads were also much smaller and more easily rebuilt.
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