Tag: 2023

Future Space Missions Are Being Designed to Take Advantage of New Generation of Very Large Launch Vehicles

The Space Review reported on future space missions being designed “to take advantage of a new generation of very large launch vehicles” that will “offer greater mass and volume” at lower prices. SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn have been considered as possible options for several NASA missions. NASA’s expensive Space Launch System has also been examined for future missions, although it will only be used for Artemis missions through the late 2020s. Panelists at the ASCEND space event “argued that science missions were needed to increase the SLS flight rate and make that vehicle more sustainable.”
Full Story (The Space Review)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission

Florida Today reports that with SpaceX’s newly “installed crew access arm for use by future astronauts stationed alongside on a support tower, a Falcon 9 rocket blazed into the post-midnight darkness Wednesday carrying another payload of 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.” The launch “lit up the Space Coast sky at 12:05 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.” Of note, SpaceX’s Starlink 6-27 mission “marked the 61st orbital launch from the Space Force installation and nearby Kennedy Space Center this year, extending the ongoing annual record.”
Full Story (Florida Today)

 

Video

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Starlink 6-27
(NASASpaceflight; YouTube)

Airbus Creeps Towards Full-Year Delivery Goal with 18% Year-Over-Year Increase for October

Reuters reports that Airbus “needs to deliver 161 aircraft in the last two months of the year to reach its full-year delivery target, fractionally below the performance seen in the closing stages of last year.” Airbus’ monthly bulletin “confirmed it had delivered 71 aircraft in October, up 18% from the same month last year and bringing the total for the first 10 months to 559 jets.” In the final “two months of 2022, Airbus delivered 166 jets.” Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa “wrote in a note that the company was not expected to change its full-year delivery target of 720 aircraft despite pressure on supplies of Pratt & Whitney engines.” Airbus last year “lowered and eventually abandoned its delivery goal due to supply constraints and started 2023 on a weak note, before deliveries accelerated over the summer.”
Full Story (Reuters)

SpaceX Marks Space Coast Record with 60th Launch this Year

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reported another Space Coast night launch “Friday marked the 60th liftoff from the Space Coast for the year, this time with a booster flying for a record 18th time.” A Falcon 9 carrying “another 23 of Elon Musk’s company’s Starlink satellites took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:37 p.m.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

 

Video

SpaceX Starlink 119 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing, 4 November 2023
(SciNews; YouTube)

AIAA Statement on Senate Confirmation of the Honorable Michael Whitaker as FAA Administrator

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 2, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Executive Director Dan Dumbacher made the following statement on the Senate confirmation of the Honorable Michael Whitaker as FAA Administrator:

“On behalf of the Institute’s nearly 30,000 professional and student members, congratulations to the Honorable Michael Whitaker on being confirmed as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator. We are pleased to see strong bipartisan support for our nation’s aviation regulatory agency.

We see significant opportunities for the FAA to continue its important mission ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the largest aerospace system in the world, including the integration of space operations into the U.S. airspace system and regulation of the commercial space industry around the launch and reentry of space vehicles.

Under Administrator Whitaker’s leadership, we anticipate the FAA will benefit from his depth of aviation experience in government and the private sector, as well as his commitment to safety.

AIAA looks forward to supporting Administrator Whitaker in his new role as we strive to maintain our nation’s leadership in aviation, while also helping make critical advances in technology development and research to advance safer, smarter, and more sustainable flight.”

Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Passes First of 10 Asteroids on Trip to Jupiter

AP reports that on Wednesday, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft “encountered the first of 10 asteroids on its long journey to Jupiter.” The spacecraft “swooped past the pint-sized Dinkinesh, about 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars.” It was “a quick hello,” according to NASA, “with the spacecraft zooming by at 10,000 mph (16,000 kph).” Lucy came “within 270 miles (435 kilometers) of Dinkinesh, testing its instruments in a dry run for the bigger and more alluring asteroids ahead.” Dinkinesh is “just a half-mile (1 kilometer) across, quite possibly the smallest of the space rocks on Lucy’s tour.” Lucy’s main targets “are the so-called Trojans, swarms of unexplored asteroids out near Jupiter that are considered to be time capsules from the dawn of the solar system.” The spacecraft “will swing past eight Trojans believed to be up to 10 to 100 times bigger than Dinkinesh.” It’s due to “zip past the final two asteroids in 2033.”
Full Story (Associated Press)

JetBlue Predicts Pratt & Whitney Engine Issues to Ground Aircraft through Next Year

FlightGlobal reports that JetBlue Airways “expects six of its Airbus A321neos to be grounded by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engine problems by year-end – and for that number to rise in 2024.” JetBlue CFO Ursula Hurley said, “We’ll end next year with a high single-digits, low double-digits number of aircraft on the ground.” During its October 31 quarterly earnings call, the carrier “described how it stands to be affected by P&W’s recall of PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) engines due to disk problems, which has caused broad fleet disruptions among A320 operators.” JetBlue currently “has 25 A321neos in service and four in storage, according to Cirium fleets data.” The majority of GTF engines “on JetBlue’s aircraft were manufactured post-2021, meaning that they were made outside of the production run of engines that currently need inspection.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)

Embraer Sees Backlogs Rise in Q3

Aviation Week reports that Embraer “delivered 28 executive aircraft and 15 commercial aircraft during the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, up 30% from 33 total aircraft delivered for the period a year ago.” The Brazil-based manufacturer “delivered 19 light jets and nine midsize jets during the quarter, up 22% from a year ago.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

NASA Safety Panel Expresses Concerns About ISS Transition Plans

Space News reported that a “NASA safety panel expressed concerns about NASA’s plans to shift from the International Space Station to commercial successors, including funding for an ISS deorbit vehicle.” During its October 26 public meeting, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel “issued a recommendation calling on NASA to provide a ‘comprehensive understanding’ of the requirements needed to transition from the ISS to commercial space stations, called commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) destinations, or CLDs, by the agency.” David West, a member of the panel, said, “NASA should develop a comprehensive understanding of the resources and timelines of the ISS-to-commercial-LEO transition plan to a much higher level of fidelity, to provide confidence that the nation will be able to sustain a continuous human presence in LEO.” West added that plan “should include ‘explicit defensible assumptions’ as well as specific metrics and deadlines for judging the progress by companies in developing a commercial business case for their stations ‘and is sufficient to support the development, production and operation of one or more commercial platforms to replace the ISS.’”
Full Story (Space News)