Space Stuff and Launch Info

[Dullard]

Figuratively. I worked on the payloads.

 

[Borg]

Spacesuit for return to the Moon unveiled

 

[Redbelly98]

Couple of interesting launches coming up this week.

March 22, 4:45 a.m. EDT: Rocket Lab will attempt an ocean recovery of their Electron rocket.

March 22, 10 pm - March 23, 1 am EDT: Relativity Space plans another attempt at the maiden launch of their Terran 1 rocket. This would be the first methalox rocket to reach orbit, if successful.

 

[Redbelly98]

Spacesuit for return to the Moon unveiled

... previous plans to send female astronauts to space have been scuppered by the lack of spacesuits in their size.

Little perplexed by this statement. Why were they unable to make additional suits in an appropriate size?

 

[mfb]

Hakuto-R has entered lunar orbit. The next Japanese mission attempting a soft landing (in about a month).

How many suits do you want to store on the ISS?

But just days before Anne McClain and Christina Koch were due to depart on the walk, Nasa realised they didn't have two spacesuits in the correct size for both women, and McClain had to be replaced by colleague Nick Hague.

Artemis III and IV can launch suits on Starship and both surface crew members will get their own custom suit, no problem there.

March 22, 4:45 a.m. EDT: Rocket Lab will attempt an ocean recovery of their Electron rocket.

Now March 24

 

[mfb]

A test version of the upper stage of Vulcan failed in a ground test.

Keeping you posted: During Qual testing of Centaur V structural article at MSFC, the hardware experienced an anomaly. This is is why we thoroughly & rigorously exercise every possible condition on the ground before flight. Investigation is underway. Vulcan will fly when complete.
[...]
Extreme structural load testing of various worst possible conditions

It's likely the test conditions were beyond the conditions expected for a flight, but it was still an unexpected failure so it could delay the launch of the flight hardware.

----

SpaceX has launched 21 times so far this year and another mission is scheduled to fly in three hours, which means most likely 22 launches in the first quarter. Not too far behind the pace needed for 100 launches this year.

Here is a graph comparing different years. Since 2020, each year was clearly beating all previous years.