Blue Origin Unveils Their Northstar Engine! - Weekly Spaceflight News [6:22]

Transcript

Chapter 1: Space industry intro

In this week’s Avid Space Industry update, Blue Origin announces multiple new technologies in the works, astronauts perform another successful spacew walk at the ISS, and a new heavy lift rocket is announced. So, let’s dig in and see what’s new in the space industry.

Chapter 2: Recent launch activity

This week, we only saw one launch from the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Early on Friday morning, booster 1095 lifted off on its eighth mission as it carried a classified payload on its way to low Earth orbit for the United States Space Force. Following stage separation, the booster returned to Earth and touched down on, of course, I Still Love You, ending its part of the mission. With this being a classified launch, SpaceX’s coverage stopped there.

Chapter 3: Rocket development news

Moving on to other space news, early on Tuesday morning local time, Rocket Lab launched their 99th mission. The Seagd Surveys launched from launch complex 1A in New Zealand. The rocket carried an imaging satellite for IQPS and successfully delivered it to low Earth orbit. With the company’s 100th mission just around the corner and Neutron’s debut expected next year, it’s an exciting time for Rocket Lab. Firefly Aerospace posted on Tuesday that they’re in the process of testing solar panel deployment operations in preparation for an upcoming Siquinon project launch for the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit. This mission will be a demonstration flight and their Elytra orbital will perform several onorbit maneuvers to prove out their technology. AS Space Mobile announced on Friday that it’s developing its own heavy lift rocket to launch its Bluebird satellites. The rocket will have a 20 ton payload capacity and be capable of deploying as many as five of the Bluebird satellites per launch. The rocket has been dubbed Blacklift and its debut is currently planned for late 2028.

Chapter 4: Firefly and AST partnership

In related news, Firefly also announced that they’ve entered into a more than $1.3 billion deal with AST Space Mobile as part of the deployment of their Black Lift rocket. Firefly will supply 27 of the Miranda rocket engines as well as nine of their vacuum vra engines to power the first three black lift rockets. They’re also granting a license to produce the engines themselves and providing engineering support as they develop their production capabilities.

Chapter 5: Industry infrastructure updates

On Tuesday, Gilmore Space posted that they’ve constructed a new test stand at the Bowen orbital spaceport in northeastern Australia. They plan to use this new infrastructure for testing their Muggera rocket engine. On Wednesday, United Launch Alliance announced that they plan to bring all production, sustaining engineering, and developmental work of their fairings for their Vulcan rocket inhouse. They’ve come to an agreement with their current supplier to transition the work to their own teams as they look to take advantage of opportunities to vertically integrate. Intuitive Machines posted this week that they’ve been awarded a new mission from NASA. The Falcon Radar Earth Science Mission will launch no earlier than 2029 on the company’s IM300 spacecraft bus and will study weather and atmospheric dynamics. On Wednesday, NASA’s Swift observatory returned to Earth, ending its 22-year stay in orbit.

Chapter 6: Space mission updates

Following the failed attempt to reboost the craft earlier this year, the observatory was unable to maintain its orbit and re-entered over Indonesia. It was expected that most of the craft would burn up on re-entry, although it did contain a few components that may have survived. Vast Space posted on Thursday that they’ve begun integrating the composite overwrap pressure vessels onto Haven 1’s flight vehicle. These COPVS will store propellant as well as the oxygen and nitrox for the station’s life support systems. Impulse Space gave an update on their first Helios flight vehicle this week. They’ve recently completed welding the oxidizer and fuel barrels to the common dome and the tank has now been transferred to the integration stand for inspections ahead of the installation of internal hardware.

Chapter 7: Blue Origin innovations

On Thursday, Blue Origin announced the development of a third stage of their new Glenn rocket called GS3. This new stage will significantly further the capabilities of New Glenn, enabling direct deployment to geostationary orbit as well as heavy lift missions to the moon and beyond. In a related post, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp posted footage of a composite liquid hydrogen tank being tested in Texas. He went on to state that they expect this to be the largest ever composite LH2 tank in space. In a third announcement from the company, they’ve also revealed a new engine that’s been in development. Northstar uses liqufied natural gas and liquid oxygen and is more powerful than their BE4 engine. This new hardware is 30% lighter, uses half as many parts, and produces 75,000 more pounds of thrust when compared to the BE4. Dave Limp posted footage from a Hotfire test and went on to elaborate that over 65% of the new engine is built inhouse using their 3D printed technology and the engine can be assembled in less than a day by their team. Blue Origin News continued on Friday with a post about their Blue Ring space tug. They recently subjected a fully integrated blue ring vehicle to acoustic testing, ensuring the hardware can withstand the punishing acoustics of a launch.

Chapter 8: ISS power system upgrades

NASA astronaut Anil Manan and Canadian astronaut Joshua Cutri completed their second spacew walk in 8 days on Thursday. During this nearly 7-hour excursion, the pair installed and deployed the eighth and final new rollout solar array and wrapped up this phase of power upgrades to the station, which has spanned 5 years and 18 spacew walks.

Chapter 9: Lunar production and closing

Lockheed Martin posted on Thursday that they’re accelerating production of the Orion spacecrafts for the Aremis 3, four, and five missions. They’re streamlining production and adding additional workers as they look to keep pace with the accelerated timetable being implemented under administrator Jared Isaacman. And finally for this week, on Friday, Stoke Space announced that they’ve been granted right of entry to the property just north of Space Launch Complex 14 at the Cape. The company plans to use this space to expand their launch facilities and develop a second launch pad as they look to not just debut their Nova rocket next year, but to rapidly build out the capability for a higher cadent launch manifest. Well, that’s going to do it for this week’s Avid Space Flight Industry update, but make sure you keep your eyes peeled for our special live coverage of Flight 15 coming up in just a few days. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you soon.

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