NASA and the Private Sector - Page 239

SpaceX is getting some advice from NASA to investigate the possibility of converting its huge new Starship vehicle into an orbital destination.

If the idea comes to fruition, Starship could offer a wide variety of accommodations for on-orbit research and commercialization.

For NASA, Starship presents another option in a line of possible space stations and technological developments in the works to support an emerging economy in low Earth orbit (LEO). The International Space Station (ISS) is expected to reach its operational end by 2030, and the space agency has been preparing for its eventual demise.

Over the past few years, NASA has entered agreements with several companies to support the development of commercial LEO space stations, including a $415 million award divided between Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and Nanoracks, and an agreement with Axiom Space to dock their own commercial modules to the ISS. Axiom's hardware will eventually separate, becoming a free-flying private outpost.

WASHINGTON — Boeing took another loss on its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew program as the first crewed flight of that vehicle remains in limbo.

In its fiscal second quarter financial results released July 26, the company said it took a $257 million loss on the Starliner program, citing the delay in the vehicle’s first flight with astronauts on board that Boeing and NASA announced June 1. That loss was the biggest single factor in a $527 million loss the company reported for its Defense, Space and Security business unit in the quarter.

The loss is the latest financial setback for Boeing on the fixed-price contract. The company has previously recorded $883 million in charges against earnings linked to Starliner, including $195 million in the third quarter of 2022. Those charges covered delays in the vehicle’s development and the cost to fly a second uncrewed test flight.

“On Starliner, we’re in lockstep with our customer. We’ve prioritized safety, and we’re taking whatever time is required. We’re confident in that team and committed to getting it right,” said David Calhoun, president and chief executive of Boeing, in an earnings call. He did not elaborate on those efforts or estimate how much time is required.

When NASA and Boeing announced the latest delay in the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager for CST-100 Starliner at Boeing, said it was premature then to announce a new launch date, stating that the company needed “several days” to review the work needed to address parachute harness and wire tape issues that caused the delay.

During a July 25 NASA briefing about the upcoming SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station, Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said the Starliner program had “stepped back” to take a detailed look at all aspects of preparations for the crewed flight, a recommendation made by NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel shortly before the latest problems.

The program had found a new joint for use in the parachute system that would meet the required factor of safety that the existing component fell short of. “That joint is in testing right now and we’re in the middle of looking at that joint and figuring out how to get it into the chutes for flight,” he said.

Others have been removing tape for wire harnesses in the spacecraft that tests showed to be flammable. Stich said engineers had found an alternative tape that is not flammable to use in its place.

Stich, though, did not offer a revised schedule for the CFT mission, which will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station for a brief stay. That launch had been scheduled for July 21 before the delay.

“The work on Starliner is progressing well,” he said. “We need to step back a little bit and take a look at how all this work lines up. We’re not really ready to talk a launch opportunity yet.”

Stich said the focus for now is resolving the technical issues. NASA and Boeing will meet “when the time is right and pick a launch target.”

Struggling space company Astra is cutting 25% of its workforce, the company announced Friday, and restructuring to focus more on its spacecraft engine business, which will delay progress on the small rocket it has been developing.

Astra is cutting about 70 employees, as well as reallocating about 50 personnel from its rocket development program over to its space products unit, which builds the company's spacecraft engines.

"We are intensely focused on delivering on our commitments to our customers, which includes ensuring we have sufficient resources and an adequate financial runway to execute on our near-term opportunities," Astra chairman and CEO Chris Kemp said in a statement.

The workforce reductions are expected to result in $4 million in quarterly cost savings, beginning in the fourth quarter. Astra noted that it had 278 total orders for spacecraft engines, as of four months ago, worth about $77 million in contracts. It expects to deliver on "a substantial majority" of those orders by the end of 2024.

In a separate filing Friday, Astra said it raised $10.8 million in net proceeds from selling debt to investment group High Trail Capital.

Astra stock was little changed in after-hours trading Friday from its close at 38 cents a share.

Last year, Astra moved away from its Rocket 3.3 vehicle earlier than expected to focus on the next version, an upgraded system called Rocket 4.0, after its final Rocket 3.3 mission failed mid-launch. While the company was targeting a first launch of Rocket 4 by the end of this year, in a securities filing, Astra noted the prioritization of the spacecraft engine business "will affect the timing of the Company's future test launches."

"The Company's ability to conduct paid commercial launches in 2024 and beyond will depend on the ultimate timing and success of the initial test launches which will in turn depend on the resources that the Company is able to devote to Launch Systems development in the coming quarters," Astra warned.

The company also released preliminary second-quarter results. Astra expects it brought $1 million or less in revenue during the quarter, with a net loss between $13 million and $15 million, and a remaining amount of cash and securities of about $26 million. The company plans to report finalized second-quarter results Aug. 14.

Last month, Astra finalized plans to conduct a reverse stock split at a 1 to 15 ratio. It's also seeking to raise up to $65 million through an "at the market" offering of common stock through Roth Capital and ended a prior agreement with B. Riley to sell up to $100 million in common stock that the company signed a year ago.

In Friday's filing, Astra said it hired PJT Partners as a financial advisor, with the company "focused on thoughtfully pursuing opportunities to raise additional capital."

Boeing Co. aims to have its Starliner capsule ready for its first flight to the International Space Station with astronauts on board around next March, with a long-delayed launch following NASA approval.

Boeing’s target hinges on a successful high-altitude drop test of parachute upgrades, currently slated for around November, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg News, as well as satisfying other crucial technical and safety concerns both internally and at NASA.

Starliner’s future has been uncertain, with NASA and Boeing officials in June delaying its launch indefinitely. Repeated delays have heaped pressure on Boeing, with a fresh $257 million accounting charge unveiled on July 26 bringing its total cost overruns to more than $1.4 billion.

Shares of Boeing pared an early gain of as much as 3.3% to trade up 2.1% to $236.10 as of 10:03 a.m. in New York.
Boeing and NASA are scheduled to provide an update on Starliner’s crewed flight test at 2 p.m. ET on Monday.

The delays have also raised concerns about NASA’s goal of having multiple lifelines to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully flew its first astronauts under the Commercial Crew Program to the ISS in 2020, and has sent crews to the space station several times since. SpaceX’s next mission to ISS is slated for Aug. 25.

A successful crewed test-flight would ultimately clear the way for Starliner to ferry cargo and astronauts to the ISS, but flight readiness does not necessarily mean a launch date will be available.

Boeing aims to be ready to launch late in the first quarter of next year, and will be working with NASA to identify a target date, the spokesperson said. A NASA representative declined to comment ahead of Monday’s news conference.

During its June press conference, NASA and Boeing said they had discovered two new concerns with Starliner, including issues with the vehicle’s parachutes and flammable tape used to wrap around wiring harnesses.

The high-altitude drop of the capsule in November will test parachute upgrades engineers believe resolve potential safety risks flagged earlier, Boeing said. Upgrades include a modified fabric joint with an improved safety margin and higher-strength fibers, the company said.

Boeing is trying to resolve the flammability issue by eliminating the acrylic tape in some areas of Starliner, or covering it up elsewhere. That could mitigate fire risks as the tape’s glue, which is flammable, needs oxygen to ignite.

For Starliner’s launch to happen, Boeing’s work would have to be completed and approved in parallel with the many other standard but elaborate preparations emblematic of space travel, any of which could throw off the time-line, aerospace experts say.

The Starliner upgrades come as Boeing’s defense and space division struggles with worker turnover, parts shortages and inflation, particularly on fixed-price contracts that it won last decade with bids that were near break-even.

Starliner’s repeated delays and cost overruns have raised questions over whether Boeing might scrap the program all-together — a prospect executives have repeatedly rejected.

“We prioritize safety, and we’re taking whatever time is required,” Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun told analysts on a July 26 earnings call. “We’re confident in that team and committed to getting it right.”

On July 06 2023 18:41 Harris1st wrote:
Ariane 6 is supposedly ready in 4-5 month with just a 3 year delay

LOGAN, Utah — The European Space Agency acknowledged Aug. 8 what most of the space industry had long expected: the first flight of the Ariane 6 will not happen this year.

In a LinkedIn post, Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said that the inaugural flight of the long-delayed rocket had been rescheduled for some time next year after a series of engine tests planned in the coming weeks.

“With this,” he wrote, ESA, vehicle prime contractor ArianeGroup, Arianespace and the French space agency CNES, “confirm that the inaugural launch is now targeted for 2024.”

Since early this year Aschbacher and other ESA officials had declined to offer an updated schedule for the vehicle’s inaugural flight. The last formal update ESA provided was in October 2022, when the agency set a launch date of the fourth quarter of 2023.

ESA had declined to provide an update because officials said they wanted to see progress on a series of engine and other vehicle tests. One such test was an Ariane 6 countdown test in July at the spaceport in French Guiana. The vehicle was loaded with propellants and went through a simulated countdown to test launch procedures.

That July 18 test was scheduled to conclude with a brief firing of the Vulcain 2.1 engine in the Ariane 6 core stage. However, ESA said in a July 25 statement that the firing could not take place “as time ran out.”

In a more detailed statement Aug. 8, ESA said the automated countdown was aborted “due to certain measurements exceeding preset limits.” The firing was later abandoned because the length of the test led to a shortage of liquid oxygen propellant.

That hot-firing has been rescheduled for Aug. 29. ESA said the gap between the tests allows for a two-week summer break for personnel and to make repairs in a basin used for burning off excess hydrogen that was damaged by water.

A test of the upper-stage engine, at a facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany, was also postponed in late July because of software anomalies, ESA said. That test has been rescheduled for as soon as Sept. 1.

Following those tests, ESA said there will be a long-duration static-fire test of the Vulcain 2.1 engine at the Kourou spaceport, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 26. Only after that test, the agency said, will it be ready to announce a launch date for the inaugural Ariane 5.

“However,” the ESA statement added, “the inaugural flight is now scheduled for 2024.”

The slip of the Ariane 6 debut to 2024 was widely anticipated. In an earnings call in May, executives with OHB, the German company that is a supplier to the Ariane 6, said they expected the rocket to make its first launch “early next year” but not before.

That first Ariane 6 launch will carry a number of smallsat payloads, including a NASA-supported cubesat called Cubesat Radio Interferometry Experiment, or CURIE. A chart presented at a NASA smallsat town hall meeting during the 37th Annual Small Satellite Conference here Aug. 7 stated that CURIE would launch on an Ariane 6 no earlier than April 1, 2024.

Delays in the Ariane 6 have contributed to what Aschbacher has called a “launcher crisis.” Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket made its final launch July 5, while the Vega C rocket remains out of service after a launch failure in December 2022. Europe lost access to Russia’s Soyuz rocket, which launched from Kourou, after the invasion of Ukraine last year. That has temporarily left Europe without independent space access.

Those issues led ESA to procure Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX for its Euclid space telescope, which successfully launched July 1, and the Hera asteroid mission in 2024. ESA also plans to acquire a Falcon 9 for its EarthCARE Earth science mission in 2024. ESA and the European Commission are weighing the use of Falcon 9 to launch Galileo navigation satellites.

During 2021 and last year, the company spent a total of $5.4 billion on purchases of property and equipment and incurred significant research and development costs, the documents show. Some portion of that spending is tied to its program developing Starship, a powerful rocket that poses immense hurdles for SpaceX. Costs for Starship weren’t specified in the documents.

The company’s first Starship test flight in April ended when an onboard system destroyed the vehicle after about four minutes. SpaceX won’t be allowed to fly the rocket again until air-safety regulators sign off.

It also has been putting money into Starlink, a satellite-powered internet service, including for a new factory near Austin, Texas.

Last year, SpaceX spent $3.1 billion on a group of costs that included employee salaries, materials and spacecraft depreciation. That was up from $1.6 billion in 2021, the documents show. The company reported $1.3 billion on research and development expenses for 2022, an increase of 11% year over year.

SpaceX’s results have likely been helped by price increases for its Falcon rocket missions as well as delays that have prevented competitors from debuting new vehicles. It boosted Starlink prices for U.S. residential subscribers in 2022, but adjusted them more recently, raising prices for some customers and lowering them for others.

The company has put its financial resources to work in other ways. It spent $153 million to buy SpaceX shares earlier this year during one of its liquidity events, where current and former employees can potentially cash out their stock in the company, according to the documents. SpaceX also said it paid $524 million, mostly in stock, in a rare deal to acquire a satellite-communications company called Swarm Technologies in 2021.