Orbital Index #58: OneWeb, SpaceX, & the environmental impact of rockets
Issue No. 58
¶OneWeb has filed for bankruptcy. Blaming COVID-19 for delays in financing, OneWeb has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, backed by ~$3.4 billion from Softbank and others, has launched 74 of their planned constellation of 650 satellites, with their second batch of 34 satellites launched just last week. Each satellite costs about $1 million. Rather than the convenient scapegoat of COVID-19, their situation is likely actually due to pressure from SoftBank to move quickly, then the unexpected loss of additional capital as SoftBank adapted to the dramatic WeWork collapse. Competing against Starlink and SpaceX’s vertical-integration and Project Kuiper with Amazon’s endlessly deep pockets, OneWeb chose to rely on subcontractors like Airbus for satellite manufacturing and Arianespace (to whom they owe a whopping $238 million) for launches—initially, 20 Soyuz launches, then launches on Ariane 6 and LauncherOne—but have avoided SpaceX’s more affordable service. OneWeb joins a long history of satellite constellation bankruptcies (see Iridium, Orbcomm, and Globalstar), all of which didn’t happen during a global pandemic. But like those previous bankruptcies, the vision and assets may well continue on to become successful.¶Environmental impact of rocket launches. Several readers have asked about the impact of rocket launches and how they relate to climate change. Rockets are often fueled with fossil fuels—RP-1 is highly refined kerosene, methane comes from natural gas extraction, and hydrogen is currently generated by cracking methane. Tim Dodd recently released a long-promised 55-minute monster video on this topic. Takeaways: SRBs, which are very common in Chinese launches (among many others) and will feature on the SLS, and hypergolic fuels like hydrazine are definitely not great for the environment or human health. Modern cryogenic rockets running on hydrogen or methane tend to be better due to their more inert byproducts. However, the entire international launch manifest is minuscule compared to the climate impact of commercial air or ground transportation. Companies are also working on green solutions, including ARCA Space, who is working on a super ambitious linear aerospike rocket and touting a steam-powered booster for its environmentally friendly aspects. Other green fuel initiatives include SpaceX’s plan to generate methane from carbon dioxide and water and NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission which aims to replace hydrazine with a monopropellant that produces non-toxic combustion byproducts.¶SpaceX news.NASA selected SpaceX to provide transportation to (lunar) Gateway… if it ever gets built. SpaceX would use a new capsule, called Dragon XL, launched on Falcon Heavy. The new capsule will be able to carry five metric tons of cargo, appears to feature an unpressurized frunk, and fits inside a Falcon Heavy cargo fairing since it will not reenter the atmosphere. Booster recovery/reuse could require the long-imagined three-drone ship-landing due to payload weight.SpaceX received an FCC license for up to a million Starlink data terminals which “look like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick.”Out of caution around the upcoming Crew Dragon mission, NASA will join the SpaceX investigation into the premature engine shutdown that occurred (seemingly-harmlessly) on last week’s Falcon 9 Starlink launch.Some SpaceX test hardware was damaged due to an abort in the lead up to a parachute test. A May Crew Dragon launch is seeming less and less likely.Starship SN3 recently completed stacking, was rolled out of its assembly bay, and transferred to the test stand. Engine tests may occur in the next week.¶Upcoming virtual events. One side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is many in-person events are moving online and becoming free. Here are a few upcoming ones. See Space Agenda for more.All of April: Global Astronomy Month 2020 eventsApril 2nd: New Approaches to Space Architecture (originally a SXSW panel, now free and online)April 9th: the “Make Space Boring” Virtual Conference ($25)April 11th: Yuri’s Night global live-streamMay 12-14: 8th European Lunar Symposium¶COVID-19 hacking efforts. We’ve been impressed with the efforts of groups like Helpful Engineering (join with this direct Slack invite link) that are coordinating tens of thousands of online volunteers to design open source ventilators, O2 concentrators, and software projects. Many other DIY projects are going on as well. (Related: Andrew and a friend started a project called HospitalHero and were joined by a group of volunteers on the COVID Accelerator—cough, poor naming choice—Slack.)¶News in brief. Boeing is likely to receive a $17 billion bailout from the coronavirus federal loan program in a classic example of privatizing profits and socializing losses; a ULA Atlas V launched the US Space Force’s first mission, the geostationary AEHF-6 military communication satellite; Kubos, Andrew’s old employer, is offering Major Tom, their cloud-based mission control software, free for 90 days to support remote mission operations, a growing need due to COVID-19—ESA just put the operation of 4 missions on hold to reduce in-person staffing needs; the March 24th Rocket Lab launch has been postponed due to COVID-19; Astra’s first orbital test rocket was damaged during pre-launch testing; the Kagra gravitational-wave telescope in Japan has started observations—it’s the first detector in Asia, the first detector underground (with 3 km long underground interferometric arms), and the first to use cryogenic mirrors; and, the U.S. Space Force’s Space Fence situational awareness radar is now operational.¶Etc. Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 definitely won’t hit Earth in April. This is good, because it’s 1.8 ~ 4.1 km across, making it the most significant close-approach of an asteroid until 2027. It’ll come within about 16 Earth-Moon distances, and if you have a 6-in to 8-in telescope, you may be able to see it or you can use the online Virtual Telescope Project.Closures and lockdowns around the globe tell a tale of reduced pollution and economic downturn. Meanwhile, the demand for satellite imagery has increased.Scott Manley does a deep dive video into rocket fuel injectors.You can volunteer to help digitize Sally Ride's astronaut training notes.Environment: the northern-hemisphere winter was the warmest ever recorded on land, and methane emissions from coal mines may be more than double previous estimates.The Wintergatan Marble Machine is a work of true musical wonder.A fun jaunt into the theoretical world of interstellar flight—at 20% c. NASA At Home is a collection of NASA podcasts, tours, videos, and citizen science opportunities. Also, see NASA’s free history e-book collection. Related: An interview with Kevin Gill, whose beautiful citizen-science JunoCam images of Jupiter we’ve shared before.