The new space race is booming as commercial enterprises such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin vie to provide efficient and affordable transport to orbit. Not to be outdone, India’s space agency accomplishes hundred-million-dollar missions for a fraction of the cost. Now, the country plans to launch 22 satellites on a single rocket next week.
Scheduled to launch from Sriharikota barrier islands on India’s southeast coast on June 20, the rocket will deliver American, Indian, Canadian, and German satellites into orbit, reports Bloomberg Technology. These 22 satellites will carry atmospheric observation and broadcasting technology, and add to the approximately 2,271 manmade satellites currently in Earth’s orbit. That number is set to grow drastically in the coming years, as missions become more affordable and digital and scientific needs increase. The 208 satellites launched in 2014 almost doubled the number from 2013.
India itself has about 35 satellites that help perform scientific studies and maintain steady cellphone connections on Earth. But that number needs to double, India’s space agency chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar told Bloomberg Technology. Kumar insisted his country needs to build and launch more satellites to compete with other programs. “We’re reaching a stage where every month we are having a launch,” he said.
The 22-satellite-packed rocket launch will may be a milestone for India. And although it’s a record for the agency, it’s not a record overall. In 2013, NASA launched 29 satellites on a single rocket. In 2014, Russia launched 33.
Still, India’s space program has been more intent on challenging private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin with affordable missions and rocket reusability. India’s mission to Mars cost just $74 million, compared to the $671 million NASA spent on practically the same task. In May, India launched and landed their first reusable rocket in the Bay of Bengal. Though India’s mission last month was just a test with a full-scale model, it placed the nation among the few programs to achieve a successful return and recovery.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.