Eric Berger
@SciGuySpace
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Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica. Likes rockets. Author of the forthcoming book on the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, REENTRY.
Houston, TX
Joined August 2008
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I’m thrilled to announce the sequel to Liftoff, titled REENTRY, will be published on September 24. This book picks up the story where Liftoff left off, taking readers on a wild ride aboard the Falcon 9, Dragon, Heavy, and so much more.
Publisher page:
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The James Webb Space Telescope is now fully deployed. This is a remarkable engineering achievement that 99 percent of the world will not appreciate. But those of us who know, know. And we are in awe.
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Global launch totals for 2022:
SpaceX: 54
China: 52
Russia: 19
US (w/o SpaceX): 15
Rocket Lab (US/NZ): 9
Europe: 4
India: 4
Iran: 1
Korea: 1
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It appears that Chandrayaan 3 has safely touched down on the Moon!
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After today I just want to take a moment and say that I appreciate that NASA is run by adults; not just adults, but reasonable people who generally try to do the right thing, in a professional way, for the good of the country. So, thank you.
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Just so we're clear, SpaceX built a Mars rocket out of rolls of steel, in tents, in South Texas, in weeks. And the first time they flew it, it made a smooth launch, a controlled flight, and safely landed. This is truly remarkable.
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With this morning's Starlink mission SpaceX has launched a rocket, on average, every eight days in 2021. If you don't know much about rockets, know this: Such a cadence is jaw-dropping for an orbital rocket, especially a large one.
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SpaceX’s three main competitors in Russia, Europe, and the United States have launched three rockets in 2023. SpaceX just launched three missions in three days.
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The damage in Boca Chica at the Starbase launch site looks pretty serious, but a former senior SpaceXer from there says he believes the pad can be repaired; and a (water-cooled?) flame diverter installed in 4 to 6 months. Just passing on what I was told.
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The remarkable story of how
@elonmusk
and his small team reached orbit in 2008 has gone largely untold—until now. I’m thrilled to say my book on the origins of SpaceX, Liftoff, will be published by William Morrow on March 2, 2021. Preorder now:
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This headline is one I'm pretty happy with.
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Seriously, what the fuck is Russia doing shooting down its own satellite in low-Earth orbit; creating a cloud of 1,500 trackable pieces of debris, and knowingly threating its own asset—the International Space Station. What a catastrophe.
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The "but it exploded" take is fine. For the layperson who sees NASA at work, which can't afford to fail, this looks like failure. But for those who know a little bit more, and about iterative design, this was a tremendous success. SpaceX has 2-3 more rockets ready to go.
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Musk says he is increasingly confident about the possibility of full and rapid reuse of orbital rockets: "It’s only recently that I feel like full and rapid reusability can be accomplished. I wasn’t sure for a long time, but I am now."
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This black and white Starship photo from Friday, which is evocative of both history and what is to come, sent a clear message to regulators: We are ready to usher in the future.
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Wow. The Ariane 6 is proving to be a disaster for European space policy. Hard to say it is otherwise at this point.
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After learning to crawl, walk and run, the Falcon 9 is now sprinting. Today:
• 100th consecutive, successful launch of a Falcon 9
• 16th launch of 2021, a cadence of one rocket every nine days
• 6th launch during the last 33 days, once every five days
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I think a lot about the fact that, in 52 years, we've not gone further.
You want to know what's nuts? The Wright Brothers' first flight was in 1903. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the moon by 1969. Only 66 years between them. Millions of people remembered the first and watched the second. I think about that a lot.
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SpaceX launched its 39th rocket of 2022 last night from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The company has now launched a Falcon 9 every 6.2 days this year, putting them on pace for a total of 55 to 60. I've heard the company's goal is 100 orbital flights next year.
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Three Russian cosmonauts just launched to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket, from Kazakhstan. The color scheme of their space attire as they came aboard the station is rather striking.
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The Falcon 9 rocket has now flown more consecutive successful missions, 111, than any orbital rocket in history.
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This is hilarious.
Amazon sent us a 13-page PDF to prove Elon Musk is as litigious as Jeff Bezos via
@Verge
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Starship burnt up. Super Heavy crashed. It’s easy to see failure. If you want, go ahead. But this is failing forward at its finest. One of SpaceX’s secret sauces is an acceptance of failure as a means to an end. We are much nearer that end, rapid and fully reusable launch, today.
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Blue Origin is attempting to drown NASA and its Moon program in lawyers and paperwork.
NASA "reluctantly agrees" to extend the stay on SpaceX's HLS contract by a week bc the 7GB+ of case-related docs in the Blue Origin suit keeps causing DOJ's Adobe software to crash and key NASA staff were busy at Space Symposium this week, causing delays to a filing deadline. lol
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So Texas is going to have an orbital launch site *and* a major rocket engine factory in addition to the Starship build site. This was hard to imagine even a few years ago.
@Erdayastronaut
We are breaking ground soon on a second Raptor factory at SpaceX Texas test site. This will focus on volume production of Raptor 2, while California factory will make Raptor Vacuum & new, experimental designs.
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Q. Do you think it's important to do end-to-end integrated avionics and software testing?
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Don't let NASA fool you. "Percy" is no lovable, touchy feely explorer. It's actually a two-ton, nuclear powered, titanium robot that is going to spend a decade trampling over Mars, drilling into it mercilessly and stealing some rocks.
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NASA and SpaceX have now launched 10 humans, and landed six safely, in less than a year.
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This 1.8-billion pixel image of Mars, the highest resolution ever taken by Curiosity, is marvelous to behold.
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Four human launches by SpaceX within 16 months of beginning crew operations is damned impressive. It's not easy, but they made it look easy. Engineers, man.
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Hell of a year, NASA.
Perseverance sticks the landing ✔️
Ingenuity soars again and again ✔️
ISS fully crewed for max science ✔️
Makes bold choice for lunar lander ✔️
Parker touches the Sun ✔️
IXPE, DART take flight ✔️
Webb is on its way ✔️
All of this amid a pandemic, too.
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I've spoken with half a dozen employees at SpaceX since the launch. If their reaction is anything to go by, the Starship test flight was a spectacular success. Of course there's a ton to learn, to fix, and to improve. It's all super hard work. But what's new? Progress is hard.
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So yeah, NASA, this is exactly how you amp up public interest in what you're doing. Publish ground tracks and expected viewing areas next time, please. The Coast Guard will handle boats.
@ulmwxr
@carl_arredondo
@SpaceX
@NWSNewOrleans
Please excuse the excitement and language. I was overwhelmed
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SpaceX has posted that iconic black-and-white Starship photo to its Flickr page. Maximum resolution is a glorious 5472 x 3076.
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I spent last weekend in Boca Chica, Texas, visiting SpaceX's manufacturing facilities and speaking with Elon Musk. I have visited a lot of rocket factories, but I've never seen anything like this.
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Elon Musk has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, joining 132 other new members.
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If SpaceX launches Crew Dragon by June 4, consider its decade:
2010: Falcon 9, Cargo Dragon debut
2012: Dragon docks with ISS
2015: Booster land landing
2016: Sea landing
2017: Booster reuse
2018: Falcon Heavy debut
2019: Starlink launch, Boca Chica expansion
2020: Crewed launch
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This
@WIRED
cover from 14 years ago (!) would not be out of place today. Love that Falcon 1 in the foreground.
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Holy shit. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says cost-plus contracts have been "a plague on us" in the past. Eager to move toward fixed-price procurement for all contracts. Wow.
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I've had several questions about why there are no photos of Inspiration4 after orbit. It's a private mission, and their choice. Families are in regular contact and all is well. There will be some events. The video will eventually show up on Netflix. But this is not NASA, folks.
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Not sure most people realize how damned impressive is that the Chinese space agency not only sent a probe to Mars, but landed and deployed a rover on the first attempt.
Zhurong update: New panorama from the rover close to a dune. Zhurong has covered 1064 metres as of August 30, continuing south of the landing platform [CNSA/PEC]
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Welcome to the Starship era, humanity. It began with a bang, as big things often do. The universe awaits.
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NASA and SpaceX have signed a space act agreement for a commercial mission to boost the Hubble Space Telescope. This will extend the lifetime of the telescope, and preclude emerging concerns about the need for costly end-of-life disposal.
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Here's my overview of today's scrub, the road ahead for the SLS rocket, and the smallest element in the universe.
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There would be no Starship without the Falcon 9. It proved SpaceX could build world-class rockets. It served as a laboratory to push performance and study reuse. Now, as the world runs to catch up to the Falcon 9, SpaceX can afford to look to the future.
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NASA has uploaded high resolution photos of Orion, the Moon, and our home world taken earlier on Monday. They're gorgeous.
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Falcon 9 rocket first stage self-quarantined itself in the ocean.
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Hearing that the Starship pad survived and that, on top of the first stage performance, is a huge win for SpaceX and NASA.
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Exactly two weeks from now humans will launch from Florida again for the first time in nearly nine years. Two. Weeks.
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OFFICIAL: SpaceX has its launch license for the Starship Integrated Flight Test.
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Some perspective on Crew Dragon's rapid rise: It has now flown 22 astronauts into orbit. China, widely regarded as having the second-most capable space program in the world, has launched 20 astronauts since 2003.
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2021 orbital launches by U.S. companies:
SpaceX: 10
Rocket Lab: 2
Northrop Grumman: 1
Virgin Orbit: 1
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For most space science missions, the majority of "risk" is retired after the launch. With the James Webb Space Telescope, only about 10 percent of the mission risk has now been retired.
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SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk, along with his first employees Tom Mueller and Chris Thompson, almost exactly 18 years ago to this day. Quite an ascent.
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Heads up lunar conspiracy nuts! NASA flight director Judd Frieling says Orion will be flying past the Moon again on Dec. 5, and this time there will be sunlight on the Earth-facing side. Cameras on Orion will capture imagery of the Apollo landing sites.
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That's it, folks. No private company had ever put humans into space before today.
Never.
And you witnessed it. What a bright future is ahead of us if we do not lack the courage and grace to go forward into it.
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The FAA says SpaceX has asked for permission to launch Starship at least nine times. This year.
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Mars is still long freaking way away. So very far. But the first step is low-cost, frequent access to space for tons of stuff. This is the first step toward that first step. And it's a big one.
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SpaceX has launched three crews of astronauts into orbit in less than 11 months. Two more missions may follow in the next next six months. A remarkable cadence for a new spacecraft.
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WE'RE GETTING OLD ALERT: Wil Wheaton is now older than Patrick Stewart was when Star Trek: The Next Generation made its debut.
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Multiple sources say SpaceX is likely to receive a Starship/Super Heavy launch license from the FAA today.
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Per
@BryceSpaceTech
, SpaceX doubled the world in terms of upmass to orbit during the 2Q of 2022.
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After today's mission SpaceX is averaging one launch every 6.94 days this year.
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The launch of Starship was fucking phenomenal to behold. 🚀
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I just want to give ispace founder Takeshi Hakamada a hug right now. They lost communications with Hakuto-R just before it was scheduled to touch down. "We have to assume that we did not complete the landing on the lunar surface."
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Boeing confirms that the X-37 space plane returned to Earth today after 908 days in space. An impressive flight, to be sure.
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Thanks
@NASA
! Saved SpaceX in 2008, created the commercial crew program in 2010, and fully supported the development of Crew Dragon. Today's mission does not happen without the government's vision of being one of many customers of spaceflight.
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SpaceX completed a spin prime test already this morning with the Super Heavy booster. Now they're chilling engines again for what may be a static fire test of as many as seven Raptor rocket engines.
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This single Falcon 9 rocket first stage has now launched ~550 satellites, 1 Cargo Dragon, and 1 Crew Dragon into orbit. It has flown, on average, every two months since its first launch.
Reuse achievement unlocked.
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Just a wild year in space. Webb actually worked. NASA smashed into an asteroid. We returned to the freaking Moon. OneWeb launched on a Falcon. BE-4s are 4 real. Starliner soared. SpaceX launched five dozen times. Ingenuity flew on and on and on. Can’t wait to be dazzled in 2023!
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A booster on the mount, and a rocket at the pad. It is almost time for someone to hold Starship's beer.
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SpaceX just successfully landed its 100th consecutive booster.
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66 million years later we finally will have our revenge. 🦖
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TIRED: New space
WIRED: Newt space
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60 Minutes should probably ask who NASA has relied on to get its astronauts into orbit for the last four years.
I am actually shocked by this latest segment from
@60Minutes
about the Artemis program and Starship.
The way it was all worded was shameful.
"RUD is SpaceX speak for "our Starship rocket just blew up again"
"And now you've seen some of the perils of relying on SpaceX"
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NASA says that SpaceX has demonstrated the ability to build one Raptor rocket engine a day.
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SN10 becomes the first full scale Starship prototype to make a second flight!
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Even before today, Jeff Bezos was pretty damn jealous of the NASA contracts SpaceX had won. Now ...
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SpaceX required seven years to go from its first to its 10th launch. In seven more years SpaceX has gone from its 10th launch to its 100th. This is what acceleration looks like.
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SpaceX does things differently. Its process is faster, but also messier. Fortunately they can afford to "fail." They can build 10 Super Heavy first stages in the time NASA builds a single SLS rocket. If the first five fail, but the next five succeed, which is a better outcome?
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The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its final destination in space. In one piece. In working condition. Oh my!
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Just boarded our cruise ship here in Port Canaveral! It's super exciting because our cabin steward says there is a SpaceX launch this evening, and the captain plans to take us in for a close-up view.
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Love this full transparency by ISRO. Go Chandrayaan 3!
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Attempting to fly a helicopter on Mars is exactly the kind of thing that NASA should be doing.
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Here is the state of medium-lift in the free world:
Atlas V: Sold out
Delta IV: Two left
Vulcan: No spare capacity for awhile
Ariane 5: One left
Ariane 6: Not ready soon
LVM-3: Slowly scaling up
H3: Failure on debut flight
Falcon 9: Near unlimited capacity due to reuse
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Finally, someone at NASA stands up for astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor against baseless Russian claims about her conduct. Kathy Lueders of NASA says, "I stand behind her. We stand behind her. I did not find these accusations credible."
Background:
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Insprucker is the best. If anyone is going to tell me we're scrubbed, let it be him.
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As easy as it is to dunk on Jeff Bezos for not reaching orbit in 20 years, or being late with his rocket engines, he gets an A+ for his knowledge of, and appreciation of space history.
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It is becoming axiomatic that any new medium or heavy lift rocket that is proposed without some element of reuse is doomed to fail.
China scraps expendable Long March 9 rocket plan in favor of reusable version
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This is happening really fast.
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