Space Startup Scorecard 2009 January 17, 2009
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in ARCA, Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, Canadian Arrow, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceDev, SpaceX, Starchaser, Tspace, UP Aerospace, X Class Orgs, XCOR.1 comment so far
The last time I did the scorecard was in 2007. Surprisingly, not a lot has changed. This was caused by two factors. First, not all of the companies are still pursuing private manned spaceflight. Instead Xcor and Planetspace are becoming engine and other parts suppliers to aerospace businesses. Others, like Transformational Space would like to be prime contractors and project managers rather than really hardware guys.
The second reason is that the milestones I have listed are extremely challenging. A few years ago, I don’t think most of us realized just how challenging they would be. ARCA, for example, has had multiple drop tests and balloon flights with various hardware configurations. They’ve also designed and test fired several engines and fuel combinations. They just haven’t fired a rocket after launching it on a balloon. They are progressing, but it’s painfully slow when viewed from the outside.
One other thing became clear as I read over company websites and profiles filling in the scorecards. Almost every one of these businesses submitted a proposal for NASA’s COTS program. We’ll dig a little deeper into that at a later date.
I’ve highlighted the few changes to the scorecard to make it easier to read.
Aerospace Startup Scorecard 2009
Year in Review April 27, 2008
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, ESA, JAXA, NASA, Orbital SCiences, Rocketplane Kistler, Russia, Space Startups, SpaceX.add a comment
Yes, it’s been twelve months since my last post. So, I thought I’d give a quick run down of spaceflight activities for the past year. It’s been a busy one with many exciting developments.
Let’s start with the ISS’s growth spurt. The installation of ESA’s Columbus module, and JAXA’s Kibo Pressurized Logistics Module, and NASA’s Node 2 Harmony greatly expanded that habitable volume of the orbital outpost. It also means that. ESA and JAXA activated their own control rooms to support their modules. ESA also wins bonus points for finally getting Jules Vern, their first ATV cargo ship off the ground last month. After several rendezvous tests, the unmanned vehicle automatically docked to a Russian port. Just the other day, Jules Vern fired two of its four engines to boost the Space Station’s orbit.
Canada also has new hardware on orbit. Dexter, a two-armed extension for the Canada Arm II, accompanied the Kibo module on STS-123. It’s designed to complete some of the maintenance and repair tasks usually handle by space walking astronauts. Considering how dangerous those activities are, Dexter is a welcome contribution to this great experiment in space.
The ISS also played host to numerous international astronauts. Germany’s Hans Schlegel helped install ESA’s Columbus module on STS-122. Frances’s Leopold Eyharts also rode up on STS-122 and remained on orbit for a month to configure Columbus before returning on STS-123. Japan’s Takao Doi flew aboard STS-123 to deliver and install the Kibo PLM. South Korea also sent its first astronaut into space. Engineer Yi So Yeon joined Russia’s most recent Soyuz taxi flight. She spent ten days on orbit, and introduced the crew to some Korean foods including spicy kimchi, and fermented soybean paste. Both of which I can personally confirm are delicious, as I currently reside just north of Seoul. Soon the ISS may boast both an international cuisine as well as an international crew.
In other news, NASA’s project Orion is proceeding. The mockup capsule for the launch abort test is complete. Orbital Sciences is building the abort tower that will cap the module. Launch pad modifications are under way for the Ares I-X test. The dummy upper stage for the test is also complete. NASA also conducted numerous airbag tests to see if the vehicle can safely perform a landing on dry ground. They performed drop tests for the larger parachutes needed for the extended five segment solid booster. It’s great to see real hardware under construction and in tests.
The private sector hasn’t been sitting on its laurels either. Bigelow Aerospace successfully launched Genesis II, and is pushing forward with plans for full-scale inflatable orbital modules.
Armadillo Aerospace again failed to capture the Lunar Lander Challenge at the XPrize Cup. However, they were the only team to field a vehicle, and their repeat attempts were the highlight of the Cup. They also posses an experimental launch permit which has allowed them to log a great deal of low altitude flight time beyond tethered flights. They also have a modular sub-orbital design, which looks like it could be a commercial success.
SpaceX still hasn’t orbited any hardware, but progress continues on the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9. Flights of both are still scheduled for this year, and the company has plenty of paying customers lined up. They’ve improved their Merlin engine with a regeneratively cooled version that increases the available thrust, and their engine test stand has been keeping their neighbors on their toes. SpaceX is still on track for the COTS program, and has past several critical reviews and funding milestones. NASA also awarded them an indefinite quantity, indefinite time contract for launch services to be specified as needed.
Scaled Composites/ The Spaceship Company has had the roughest year. They had an engine blow up on a test stand. The accident resulted in two deaths, and has slowed down development work on SpaceShip II. Burt Rutan is in it for the long haul, and is an experienced aircraft designer. They will investigate the causes of the accident, and prevent it from occurring again. This will not end the SpaceShip II program. One interesting idea to come out of Virgin Galactic is that this model could be used for point to point supersonic flights as well as space tourism.
One last note: NASA finally managed to get rid of Rocket Plane Kistler and re-award their portion of the COTS contract to Orbital Sciences. RPK failed to make required funding deadlines. Few space insiders really believed RPK had the muscle to launch any hardware into space. Their K-1 vehicle has been “90% complete” for the past five years, and they haven’t done anything in that time but burn money. Orbital Sciences was a new aerospace startup during the Reagan administration. They still think like a small, young organization, but they have a successful development track record including three launch vehicles.
Upcoming Launches April 5, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, NASA, News and politics, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceX, UP Aerospace, schedule.add a comment
Of the seven launch vehicles mentioned below, three have experienced terminal failures in the past twelve months. This is just a reminder that what these people do is difficult, and success cannot be taken for granted.
April 7 – ISS Expedition 15 launches in a Soyuz-TMA From Baikonur Cosmodrome. The crew includes Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi.
April 19 – Bigelow Aerospace will launch Genesis II, their second subscale inflatable demonstrator aboard a dnepr rocket from ISC Kosmotras Space and Missile Complex near Yasny, Russia.
April 28 – UP Aerospace’s SpaceLoft will carry commercial and student payloads, including the remains of Gordon Cooper and James Doohan on a suborbital flight from New Mexico’s Space Port. This will be their second attempt after their launch failure in January.
Also in April, Armadillo Aerospace plans several test flights of Pixel, their Lunar Lander Challenge vehicle. The flights will take place at the Oklahoma Space Port.
In May or June, Space Shuttle Atlantis mission STS-117 should lift off From Cape Canaveral. The flight will flesh out the space station with the addition of new solar arrays.
SpaceX has two more launches scheduled for this year from their facility on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll. The first could be as early as August and will carry TacSat 1, a US military demonstrator. Their second flight, in the fourth quarter, will carry a Malaysian communications satellite.
After their last launch ended in a launch pad explosion, Sea Launch is repairing their floating facility and plans to be ready for their next launch in October.
ATK to Acquire Swales Aerospace April 4, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in ATK, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, News and politics, Rocketplane Kistler.add a comment
Beltsville, MD based Swales designs and manufactures spacecraft subsystems, small satellites, and EVA tools. They created several of the thermal sensors and other hand-held tools used on the Return to Flight Shuttle missions and thermal blankets and radiators found on the ISS as well as many NASA, NOAA, and DoD spacecraft.
ATK is slowly acquiring companies and partnerships that will eventually allow the business to handle complete missions from the design and engineering phase to launch and in space operations. Their partnership agreement last year with Rocketplane Kistler was intended to gain access to the medium lift K1 booster. Now ATK has swallowed up some impressive engineering talent and experience as well as satellite subsystem design and fabrication facilities. Boeing and Lockheed-Martin better watch their backs. ATK is on the prowl.
Space Startup Scorecard March 25, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in ARCA, Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, Canadian Arrow, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceDev, SpaceX, Starchaser, Tspace, UP Aerospace, XCOR.1 comment so far
Although many of the aerospace startups have differing goals, which make them difficult to compare, I thought it might be fun to take a quick look at how they all stack up. From my perspective, Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites/The Spaceship Company is still the most advanced business since they have the only manned flights under their belts. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and John Carmack’s Armadillo Aerospace have also made impressive strides in the past few years. Bigelow Aerospace is much more difficult to compare because they are not building rockets, and simply purchasing launch services from other vendors. I assume Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin have actually conducted static fire tests, but with their secretive ways, it’s difficult to tell.
If I’ve missed anything, feel free to add it in a comment, and I’ll update the chart. Thanks.
A Busy Year for SpaceX February 16, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in NASA, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceX.add a comment
The El Segundo based rocket development company has a full plate this year, including three planned launches of their yet to be successful Falcon 1 booster. SpaceX is also continuing development of the Falcon 9 booster for NASA’s COTS program to create commercially viable cargo delivery service to the ISS.
All three Falcon 1 flights will launch from their facility on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein atoll. After the second attempted demonstration flight, which may launch as early as March 9, they plan to launch satellites for the US Navy Research Laboratory and for the Malaysian government in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.
NASA recently announced that on February 8 SpaceX gained approval for their first COTS orbital demonstration mission scheduled for September 2008. Though the initial $278 million contract is for the development of pressurized and unpressurized cargo delivery capabilities, SpaceX is looking beyond bulk cargo. The Dragon capsule they are developing will also be capable of conducting taxi missions to deliver crews to the ISS or other LEO destinations. With NASA’s commitment to purchase cargo and crew launch services as soon as they are available, SpaceX is pursuing multiple revenue streams with this single spacecraft.
Rocketplane Kistler also completed systems requirement design reviews to NASA’s satisfaction this month. They are also on tract to fulfill their commitments in the COTS development contract. “These milestones demonstrate genuine progress toward a new way of doing business for NASA and pave the way for the commercial purchase of transportation services needed to maintain the International Space Station,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. “If these companies can continue this rapid pace, the first demonstration launches are right around the corner.”
What is Bigelow Up To? February 14, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Rocketplane Kistler, Russia, Space Startups, SpaceX.add a comment
In April, Robert Bigelow will unveil long secret business plans at the National Space Symposium. Industry watchers are abuzz with speculation at to what he plans to reveal. Back in November, Bigelow announced that Genesis II, scheduled for launch by April 1, will be the last opportunity to fly personal effects on a test flight. Does this mean that Genesis II will be Bigelow’s final sub-scale demonstrator? Was Genesis I so successful that he’s ready to proceed with his first full-sized Nautilus module?
Last year, Bigelow also entered into negotiations with Lockheed-Martin to explore the feasibility of man-rating the Atlas 5 launch vehicle. Will Bigelow announce an agreement to carry through with the project? Will Lockheed resurrect one of their plans for a space capsule to ride atop the Atlas and taxi people to waiting Bigelow habitation modules?
Energiya, announced plans last year for a commercial circumlunar flight. Drawings that used to be on the Bigelow web site depict Russian Soyuz docked to a Bigelow inflatable habitat. Has Bigelow entered into an agreement with Energiya to provide living space for their flight around the Moon?
NASA’s Orion capsule is designed to be one component of a flexible modular system. For any given mission additional components are added like an earth departure rocket stage, additional living space, and life support. There has been recent talk in the space community about the feasibility of Orion missions to NEO’s, Near Earth Objects. Missions to these asteroids would need additional habitation space, just like that provided by a Bigelow inflatable module. Is NASA requesting just such a system?
Speculating about the future of Bigelow Aerospace is fun because there are so many possibilities. While other aerospace startups are slogging through the process of building and testing rocket boosters, Bigelow has jumped ahead to design systems that will take advantage of these boosters. His inflatable modules will dramatically increase the capabilities of anyone who can launch people into orbit. Whether it’s SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocketplane Kistler, Energiya, or NASA, he’s providing the tools to expand their missions, and turn cramped space capsules into full-fledged spacecraft.
This Year in Space January 1, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, ESA, India, JAXA, NASA, Orbital SCiences, Rocketplane Kistler, Russia, Space Startups, SpaceX, UP Aerospace.add a comment
2006 was a pretty good year in space. The international launch community averaged over one orbital launch per week. U.S. and Russian providers carried out the bulk of the operations but the E.U., Japan, Israel and China also had successes under their belts. With four failed launch attempts, the failure rate was a mere 6%, which is considerably better than the historical average of 10%.
Manned spaceflight had a banner year. The International Space Station returned to a three-person crew and played host to astronauts and cosmonauts from the U.S., Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. Although U.S. citizens, Astronauts born in Australia and England also visited the ISS and truly put the “International” in the International Space Station. Anousheh Ansari, perhaps the most famous space tourist to date, traveled to the station on one of two Soyuz flights this year. Her blog carried many dreamers with her on the ten-day journey.
NASA also managed to conduct two ISS construction flights. Space walkers and the robotic arm installed the P4 solar arrays, the P5 spacer truss, and rewired the electrical system to its permanent configuration. For the first time several years, the ISS actually looks different from the outside. Not only that, the increased power supplied by the new photovoltaic cells sets the stage for the installation of Japanese and European modules over the course of the next two years.
The emerging aerospace companies had more of a mixed year. SpaceX attempted to launch a partly reusable Falcon 1 at the start of the year, but suffered a major engine failure. Even with the loss of the vehicle, NASA still awarded them $278 million to develop cargo delivery and possibly human taxi services to the ISS. Rocketplane-Kistler won the other COTS development contract for $207 million to develop the same services.
UP Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace both struggled with suborbital flights. UP Aerospace lost their launcher the New Mexico’s innaugerral spaceport flight, when it veered off course and disappeared into the White Sands Missile Range. It took them over a week to recover the broken hardware so they could analyze the failure.
Armadillo conducted several spectacular flights at the X Prize Cup in October. In an attempt to secure the Lunar Lander Challenge, a golf cart sized LH/LOX rocket vehicle named Pixel had to traverse 100 feet, land, and then return to its launch pad. The team made three tries at the event, and accomplished the first half of the challenge, but suffered equipment malfunctions and other difficulties at the landing site. If their vehicle had been a bit more robust, they certainly would have succeeded.
Bigelow Aerospace impressed most space watchers with the launch of their first test of an inflatable orbital habitat. The subscale vehicle was launched on a Russian Dnepr rocket and surpassed expectations. The inflation was flawless, and the mini-space station established contact with Beigelow’s ground station. The on-board thrusters stabilized the initial tumbling, and the solar cells fed power to the systems. Video cameras mounted inside and outside let the world witness this privately funded success.
In the next installment we’ll take a look at the accomplishments of our unmanned explorers over 2006.
Rocketplane Kistler and ATK form strategic partnership November 9, 2006
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in ATK, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups.add a comment
This week Rocketplane Kistler announced a new partner would lead the development of its K-1, reusable two-stage launch vehicle. The K-1 is Rocketplane’s entry into NASA’s COTS development program to demonstrate commercial cargo delivery to the ISS. In September, only a month after securing the $207 million contract, the program floundered when Orbital Sciences, their prime contractor, backed out of the deal. Now Rocketplane is back on track with ATK (Alliant Techsystems) joining the team.
ATK brings many years of experience in the industry. They built and maintain the solid rocket boosters that push the Shuttle into orbit, as well as many other military and civilian systems. They help repair the legitimacy that Rocketplane lost when Orbital Sciences departed.
ATK will lead the development, assembly, integration, and launch preparation of the K-1 launch vehicle. Essentially, all of booster development and production is in the hands of ATK. Andrews, Rocketplane’s other strategic partner, will lead up development of the cargo module, and other orbital systems. Rocketplane’s role is like that of a project manager who sets the design requirements, and oversees the process, but farms out each step to experts in other fields.
Randy Brinkley, of Rocketplane, said, “We are very excited about our strategic industrial partnership with ATK.” With ATK’s assistance, they intend to ship the first K-1 booster to their Australialian launch site in September 2008. The COTS demonstration flights will follow at a rate of one launch every two months.
Space Flight Is Still Challenging September 26, 2006
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Orbital SCiences, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceX, UP Aerospace.add a comment
Today, both UP Aerospace and Rocketplane Kistler suffered serious setbacks. Though one was technical and the other financial and administrative, the both demonstrate that even suborbital space flights are not easy. UP Aerospace’s Spaceloft XL attempted it’s maiden flight, but the vehicle was lost after 13 minutes of flight. The solid fueled unmanned rocket was also the first launch at New Mexico’s new spaceport. The vehicle never made it to its intended altitude, and the exact nature of the malfunction is still unknown.
Rocketplane Kistler suffered a different kind of malfunction. Last month NASA awarded them $207 to fund their ISS resupply demonstrator as part of the COTS program. This should have made it easier for Kistler to secure the rest of the funding needed to complete the K-1 rocket. Unfortunately, their prime contractor, Orbital Sciences pulled out citing disagreements over Kistler’s business plan. Orbital also withdrew the $10 million they had promised to invest in the project. Almost as importantly, Rocketplane Kistler will loose the legitimacy brought by working with an established aerospace firm like Orbital Sciences.
With the high cost of spaceflight, a single setback like this can be devastating for a startup. President Reagan’s administration also attempted to encourage the development of private space flight. Out of all the startups that sprang into being, only one managed a launch during his presidency. The Conestoga was the nation’s first privately funded launch vehicle. Instead of leading to an era of private space launch, it exploded, causing investors to flee the industry. There was no second launch attempt for the Conestoga. Only one startup from that era is still in the launch business today. Orbital Sciences, and their Pegasus rocket have a proven track record for small payloads.
Hopefully, today’s aerospace startups will prove a bit more resilient. They’ll have to be if they want to succeed. The average launch failure rate around the world is still one in ten. This means that everyone who wants to launch rockets must expect launch failures during and even after development. In March, SpaceX, the other COTS contract recipient, suffered a technical malfunction on the maiden flight of their Falcon 1. Interestingly, NASA selected them after this failure. At least one investor has appears to have the guts it takes to stomach rocket development pains. Perhaps the industry will maintain a stronger base of support this time around.
