Commercial/Private Space Industry Projects: News and Updates

In China, the assembly of the small-sized suborbital commercial launch vehicle of the OS-M series, developed by the Chinese private company One Space, has been completed.

The rocket was delivered to the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the Gobi Desert. The launch is scheduled for the end of March 2019.



https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3568177.html

Hopefully this is true...

Source: Sea Launch owner canceled order for Zenit missiles

MOSCOW, March 21 - RIA News. Russian private company S7 Space intends to suspend and then terminate the contract for the production of 12 Zenit launch vehicles at the Ukrainian enterprise Yuzhmash, a source in the rocket and space industry told RIA Novosti.
This information was confirmed by the source in the company S7 Space. According to him, the production will freeze in April.
Yuzhmash declined to comment, and Roskosmos said they did not know anything about a possible breach of contract.
S7 press service reported that the "contract is valid."

source

Buy NOTHING from those Ukro bastards. Let their aerospace industries rot to nothing. Even if it delays S7 plans to start flight operations... don't care... not one single kopek to Banderastan.

Russian space agency to adapt Soyuz-5 rocket for Sea Launch project — source

The launches are carried out from the equatorial Pacific near Christmas Island

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos will support the Sea Launch project and adapt its new Soyuz-5 medium-class carrier rocket for launches under this program, a source in the domestic space industry told TASS on Thursday.

"Roscosmos is ready to support the development of the Sea Launch project and adapt the Soyuz-5 rocket for its launch from the floating Odyssey platform as part of this program," the source said.

S7 Sea Launch Limited and the Ukrainian Yuzhmash manufacturer signed a contract in April 2017 on the production of 12 Zenit carrier rockets for the Sea Launch project. Two of the rockets are already in the process of their production. According to the plans of S7 Space, the first launch under the Sea Launch program is scheduled for December 2019 while three launches are planned for 2020, four launches in 2021 and four in 2022. As a whole, S7 Space expects to perform up to 70 commercial launches over 15 years.

As was reported earlier, S7 Space (part of S7 Group) is developing its own reusable rocket based on the conceptual design of the Soyuz-5 carrier (being developed by Energia Space Rocket Corporation). The company has dubbed the new rocket "Soyuz-7" and "Soyuz-7SL" (Sea Launch).

S7 Group is the owner of the assets of the Sea Launch rocket and space compound where 36 launches (including 32 successful) were carried out by the end of May 2014. The sea compound comprises the Odyssey floating launch platform and the assembly and command vessel where rockets are assembled and control of pre-launch operations is exercised. The vessels are based in the state of California, the USA.

The launches are carried out from the equatorial Pacific near Christmas Island. The compound’s space rocket component comprises the Russian-Ukrainian Zenit-3SL carrier rocket and the Russian DM booster.

The rocket’s two stages are assembled at the Ukrainian Yuzhmash enterprise, although 80% of its components are made in Russia. After their manufacture, the rocket stages are transported by sea to the United States where the rocket is finally assembled.

The Soyuz-5 medium-class rocket is being developed by the Energia Space Rocket Corporation. Roscosmos earlier approved its conceptual design. The Soyuz-5 carrier can be used to deliver the manned Federatsiya spacecraft into a low near-Earth orbit. The Soyuz-5 rocket is expected to be created by 2021. Its four launches are planned in 2022-2025 as part of its flight tests.


More:
http://tass.com/science/1049764

Russian private firm to start reusable rocket launches for satellite delivery in 2024-2026

The launch of an orbital light rocket is estimated at $2.5-3 million

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. The Russian private company Laros will begin launches of its reusable carrier rocket capable of delivering up to 200 kg of payloads into orbit at an altitude of 500 km in 2024-2026, Laros owner Oleg Larionov told TASS on Thursday.

The company chief earlier told TASS that in 2020 Laros planned to begin the launches of a sub-orbital one-stage rocket to an altitude of up to 130 km to practice propulsive landing. In this case, the rocket lands onto a special site at landing pads with zero speed, using its own thrusters. The same method is employed by the US SpaceX.

"Then we will switch over to the two-stage orbital rocket, which will already deliver payloads of up to 200 kg into orbits at an altitude of 400-500 km. The first stage will also return on this rocket, using the landing method tested by the suborbital model. We are planning the first launch in 2024-2026," Larionov said.

The company’s plans also include the return of the second stage. This work envisages testing the heat shield and braking devices of future rocket systems, he added.

Eight engines with a thrust of 2.5 tonnes each will be mounted on the first stage of the orbital rocket. The engines will be derived from the sub-orbital carrier’s 500 kg thruster, the company’s head specified.

There are also plans to develop a semi-mobile version of the orbital rocket’s launch: the carrier will be transported on a launcher based on a heavy-duty trailer and launched from quickly deployed sites, Larionov said.

A test range will be required for the launch of Laros orbital rockets, the company’s head said. "For the first test flights, this can be the Kapustin Yar range. However, other test ranges will be required for launches into polar orbits that are in demand for large satellite groupings, for example, the new Russian spaceport Vostochny. Agreeing drop areas is a complex task for a small private company and we hope for the help of Roscosmos in this case," he said.

The launch of an orbital light rocket is estimated at $2.5-3 million and the readiness for the launch should be no later than two weeks after placing an order, he said.

A carrier rocket should be in demand for replenishing large satellite groupings in low orbit where small satellites have an active service life of no more than three-four years, Larionov said.

The work on the suborbital rocket project is being financed through the company’s own funds. However, the project of the orbital carrier rocket will require extra funds, he said.

https://tass.com/science/1086301

Musk does it again!



At least the Soviets N-1 Lunar Booster actually passed its structural testing and got to fly before blowing itself to bits.

Amount of times word 'Elon' is mentioned in the comments gave me cringe overload

And it crumbles apart like an oversized coke can. As if the whole thing was made from sheet aluminum

PapaDragon wrote:
Amount of times word 'Elon' is mentioned in the comments gave me cringe overload

Not as bad as 'Dear Elon'
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ukraine-tesla/dear-elon-ukraine-takes-up-teslas-ventilator-offer-via-twitter-idUSKBN21K1UX

'Dear Elon': Ukraine takes up Tesla's ventilator offer via Twitter

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has taken to Twitter to ask Elon Musk to send it ventilators after the billionaire chief executive of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) offered to ship them across the world during the coronavirus pandemic.

Musk said this week he was ready to send the life-saving machines wherever his company delivers, free of charge.

“Dear Elon, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe with population nearly 40 mln citizens,” Kiev’s embassy in Washington wrote on Twitter late on Wednesday.

“The pandemic situation in Ukraine is approaching its peak, April is going to be the hardest. People in hospitals need ventilators. We are ready to cooperate! Dyakuyemo! (Thank you!)”

Former health minister Ulana Suprun tweeted a separate appeal to the entrepreneur. “Ukraine is in dire need of ventilators,” she wrote. There was no immediate response from Musk or Tesla.

Governments across the world, including in Tesla’s home the United States, are scrambling to get enough ventilators as patients with respiratory conditions linked to the coronavirus pandemic overwhelm hospitals.

Ukraine had reported 804 coronavirus cases and 20 related deaths as of Thursday morning. It is one of Europe’s poorest countries and its healthcare spending is a fraction of its Western peers.

Some of the country’s wealthiest men have chipped in to buy ventilators from abroad, in response to an urgent appeal by hospitals to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

And representatives of state defence conglomerate Ukroboronprom are leading an initiative to boost domestic production of the machines based on technology developed during the Soviet era.

Musk tweeted on Tuesday that he was ready to “ship to hospitals worldwide within Tesla delivery regions. Device & shipping cost are free. Only requirement is that the vents are needed immediately for patients, not stored in a warehouse.”

A week earlier he said Tesla had bought ventilators from China for U.S. hospitals and that a Tesla factory in New York would also start manufacturing them.

And of course there's the gem in this story too, that the Muskrat is buying Chinese ventilators in order to reverse-engineer them and produce them in the US. Or make them under license, whatever.

Keep in mind this is Tesla we're talking about, allegedly America's premier super-innovative, tech powerhouse company. And now it's copying stuff from China. Probably the most optimal solution given the current situation but you can't but note the irony.

More and more I have the feeling that this guy is just a PR-genius con-artist who got lucky with his first projects, that's all.

kvs wrote:A modern effort could make the N-1 viable.   It needs a reduction in the number of pipes and other vibration mode dampening
changes.   It is much easier to simulate the N-1 in computer space today and figure out all of its destructive resonances.

What SpaceX is constructing is farm level cisterns.

Couldn't have said it better myself. IMHO the N-1 was a viable system, but proved too challenging for the time due to its complicated flight dynamics that could not be solved with 1960s computational technology, and due to a clunky flight safety system (Kord) limited by the control system hardware of the day.

I often wonder what the N-1 could have been if Glushko had not been such an arrogant prick and had agreed to build large capacity kerolox engines. Kuznetsovs NK-33 was a brilliant design and a generation ahead of anything else being built at the time (IIRC it was the first closed-cycle oxidiser-rich kerolox engine), but the need for large numbers of small engines clustered in the 1st stage was the key factor for its eventual failure.

flamming_python wrote:More and more I have the feeling that this guy is just a PR-genius con-artist who got lucky with his first projects, that's all.

Musk is a fraud, plain and simple.  Apart from his reuseable rockets his ideas are all nonsense.  The "hyperloop" is total nonsense, and his "Starship" is a fucking joke. He really thinks this grain silo can fly to the Moon with 100 PAX?  Then return, land, swap out passengers and luggae, refuel, then fly again????

Complete charlatanism...  This absurd monstrosity isn't going anywhere.  If he manages to get one  into LEO (and thats a HUGE "if" cuz he ain't gonna ever build the huge 1st stage core needed to get it launched) it won't survive its flight in a reuseable condition.  My money is on a destructive re-entry and catastrophic failure due to overheating and structural collapse - there's a fucking reason why the Shuttle was covered with thousands of heat-resistant tiles, and it wasn't to make it look pretty.

Musk is merely a fraud who knows how to play the idiot rubes that make up the bulk of US society (launching a Tesla roadster on his heavy rocket with a mannequin and firing it in the general direction of Mars? And these are the people who disparaged early Soviet space activities as being nothing but "PR stunts").  Consider his antics to be the 21st century version of the Roman "bread and circuses" but minus the bread.

I stumbled on this piece of news by accident and did some looking up, apparently there is another private Russian company trying to get into space business: RTSS (Reusable Transport Space Systems)

They are working on reusable cargo spacecraft called Argo

http://www.rtss.space/?lang=en

Net volume of the pressurized cargo compartment: 11 m3

Flight duration as part of ISS: up to 300 days

Payload orbit weight: up to 2000 kg

Operational cycle > 10 launches

Payload weight returned from orbit: up to 1000 kg

Autonomous flight duration: up to 30 days

News article:

The creation of a prototype of a Russian private spacecraft began

The Russian company RTSS has begun manufacturing a case for the prototype of the Argo spacecraft, said Sergey Sopov, chairman of the board of directors.

https://ria.ru/20200527/1572034832.html

"A contract has been signed for the manufacture of a composite case for the prototype of the ship. Work is now ongoing with the specialists of the manufacturer on the design and manufacture of a tool kit for the direct creation of the case," he said.

Sopov explained that due to the lack of necessary technologies in Russia, they decided to order a composite building in Germany, which would speed up the process of creating Argo. Further, serial production of cases and components will be deployed in Russia. It was previously reported that it could be organized in Voronezh.

"Thus, the prototype of the case can be put under the installation of equipment and the beginning of ground tests in the first half of 2021," said Sopov.

Earlier, RTSS announced the development of a cheap transport ship for delivering goods to the International Space Station.

The ship was named "Argo" in honor of the ship on which the argo navigators set off in search of the Golden Fleece according to ancient Greek mythology.

"Argo" will consist of a reusable spacecraft capable of delivering up to two tons of cargo to the ISS and returning up to a ton of cargo, as well as a one-time propulsion compartment. The assigned resource should be 20 take-off and landing cycles.

The ship itself will be 58% composed of composites, which will significantly reduce its weight.

The first test launch of "Argo" is scheduled for 2024.

Got this too as well off some forum, if anyone knows more do share:

Sources: S7 may sell Sea Launch to Rosatom

https://tass.ru/ekonomika/8690619

MOSCOW, June 10. / TASS /. S7 may sell the Sea Launch floating spaceport to one of Rosatom’s subsidiary structures, negotiations are ongoing. This was reported by TASS two sources in business circles.

“S7 intends to sell the Odyssey floating platform and the command vessel as part of the program for disposing of non-core assets. The most likely buyer is one of Rosatom’s subsidiaries. Negotiations are ongoing,” the agency’s source said.

The second source confirmed information about the possible sale of Sea Launch to one of Rosatom’s subsidiaries. He explained that “taking into account the state of the platform and the command ship after dismantling the equipment by the American side, and also due to the need to create coastal infrastructure from scratch, the cost of the project is estimated to be extremely high, and the private airline, given the financial losses from the pandemic, simply does not have it of money".

PapaDragon wrote:

I stumbled on this piece of news by accident and did some looking up, apparently there is another private Russian company trying to get into space business: RTSS (Reusable Transport Space Systems)

They are working on reusable cargo spacecraft called Argo

Well that reusable parachuteless design is worrying but it would be hilarious to see the reactions of all the pindostanski trolls if they got it working.

There could be problems with lack of compatibility with Roskosmos rockets and stations, though I am sure adapters could be made and they would have access to Russian rocket components, a considerable advantage.

One thing I must say though is that I would certainly preffer multiple layers of redundancy in the escape systems; backup escape rockets, ejector seats, backup decent parachutes ect.

The-thing-next-door wrote:...Well that reusable parachuteless design is worrying but it would be hilarious to see the reactions of all the pindostanski trolls if they got it working.

There could be problems with lack of compatibility with Roskosmos rockets and stations, though I am sure adapters could be made and they would have access to Russian rocket components, a considerable advantage.

One thing I must say though is that I would certainly preffer multiple layers of redundancy in the escape systems; backup escape rockets, ejector seats, backup decent parachutes ect.

It's a cargo ship not manned one, I doubt anyone would be heartbroken if it crashes

Saving weight takes priority here, no need for redundancy, backups or or ejector seats (does any spaceship even have those?)

As for compatibility I'm pretty sure that making them compatible with Russian rockets and airlocks is first thing they did

Anyway 2024 is still long ways off, we'll see if anything comes out of this

PapaDragon wrote:

Saving weight takes priority here, no need for redundancy, backups or or ejector seats (does any spaceship even have those?)

My suggestion was because I though this was a manned craft.

As for does any spacecraft have all the features I suggested, If there is not one in Russian service someone should be shot.
It is absurd to think that cosmonauts would be using capsules without backup escape rockets and backup parachutes.

I've always had a lack of excitement over cargo return as IMHO there doesn't seem to be much to actually return other than "biological samples" (which seems to be a code word for bags of shite, urine and blood).  Space manufacturing (for electronics and pharmaceuticals) has turned out to be a total bust so other than used research equipment and the odd test article, what do they need this capability for?  For that matter, what does the Dragon capsule usually bring back?

They used to load up their rubbish on the old cargo rockets that were not man rated and have it all burn up on reentry.

If you chucked rubbish out the window of the ISS it would remain in orbit with you only gradually floating away.

A cargo rocket delivers supplies, water, food, fuel, equipment etc etc, so first thing you do is unpack it and move the stuff to where it needs to be used and then you take all the stuff you don't need and pile it into the cargo rocket. Once it is full send it off on a nice steep dive down into the atmosphere where it will break up and burn up nicely. Manned rockets obviously deliver crew and are used to return the crew members being replaced and to bring back any products of experiments or other materials for more detailed study on the ground.

GarryB wrote:They used to load up their rubbish on the old cargo rockets that were not man rated and have it all burn up on reentry.

If you chucked rubbish out the window of the ISS it would remain in orbit with you only gradually floating away.

A cargo rocket delivers supplies, water, food, fuel, equipment etc etc, so first thing you do is unpack it and move the stuff to where it needs to be used and then you take all the stuff you don't need and pile it into the cargo rocket. Once it is full send it off on a nice steep dive down into the atmosphere where it will break up and burn up nicely. Manned rockets obviously deliver crew and are used to return the crew members being replaced and to bring back any products of experiments or other materials for more detailed study on the ground.

Yep, I get it, I just don't see why they would bother to design the Dragon capsule for return and recovery rather than build it cheaper and just let it burn up like a Progress does. Its not really reuseable (more like salvagable/refurbishable) so it doesn't make much sense given the lack of actual cargo to return.

But it sounds great. Reusable. Good PR. The media will love it.

Rosatom estimates restoration of Sea Launch at 84 billion rubles

MOSCOW, June 17 - RIA News. The cost of restoring the Sea Launch complex to operability will amount to 84 billion rubles in 2020 prices, which exceeds the cost of its purchase by the S7 group in 2016 by almost eight times, according to Rosatom.

Given the projected inflation, the volume of required investments will amount to 91 billion rubles, according to Rosatom experts, compiled from data provided by Roskosmos, which RIA Novosti has reviewed. At the same time, in 2016, the S7 group paid 150-160 million US dollars, or about ten to eleven billion rubles, at the current exchange rate for Sea Launch.

The materials do not specify for what purpose investments are required. However, it is known that the Sea Launch project has neither a rocket nor equipped for the operation of coastal infrastructure for the assembly and testing of rockets and spacecraft. In addition, all foreign equipment was removed from the Odyssey launch platform and the command ship in the United States : Boeing information and communications equipment and Ukrainian-made launch equipment for the Zenit rocket from Yuzhmash.

Earlier media reported that Rosatom was considering the possibility of acquiring the Sea Launch complex, which had recently been relocated from the US to Russia. Currently, the owner of the complex is a group of companies S7.

According to RIA Novosti, Rosatom considers it inappropriate to buy Sea Launch due to the lack of such a need, the high competition in the launch services market created by SpaceX by Ilona Mask, and a number of other reasons. At the same time, the press service of the corporation told the agency that they studied the potential risks of the project and worked out measures to prevent them.

Sea Launch was created in 1995 for the operation of a sea-based rocket and space complex. In 2016, the S7 Group signed a contract with the Sea Launch group of companies (a subsidiary of RSC Energia), which provides for the purchase of the project's property complex.

In March 2020, with the approval of the US State Department, the complex was relocated to Russia. At the end of April, Vyacheslav Filev, chairman of the board of directors of S7 Group, told Kommersant in an interview that the Sea Launch was frozen until better times.

Around the same time, it became known that Roscosmos set a task for its enterprises to conduct an economic feasibility study for resuming the project - to estimate the costs of repairing a floating spaceport and creating a new Soyuz-7 rocket . At the same time, launches are planned from 2024.

source

So.... based on the bold text (my highlight) and reading between the lines, S7 bought the infrastructure in good faith, but the US essentially wrecked the facility before transferring it (to forestall the development of any private-industry Russian space launch provider, and potential competitor to Holy God-Emperor Musk).

Not exactly surprised.

Big_Gazza wrote:...So.... based on the bold text (my highlight) and reading between the lines, S7 bought the infrastructure in good faith, but the US essentially wrecked the facility before transferring it (to forestall the development of any private-industry Russian space launch provider, and potential competitor to Holy God-Emperor Musk).

Not exactly surprised.

Only idiot would be surprised, when a former beggar decides to go into business for himself you don't give him investment tips

And why are they shocked at the fact that American and Ukrainian equipment is removed? They said they would remove it, it was in the contract S7 signed

What I don't understand is why are they still wasting time on this trash? It's a write-off and never worked too well to begin with

Did price of land in Russia suddenly skyrocket so they can't launch from normal spaceport?

And why did Rosatom got involved in this? They are state owned company and there's already another state​ owned company that's supposed to be dealing with space (at least on paper)

PapaDragon wrote:
What I don't understand is why are they still wasting time on this trash? It's a write-off and never worked too well to begin with

Using Sea Launch, Russia can launch from directly at the equator (some thing Sea Launch always did) and get the associated performance boost there. No land Russia has is even remotely close to the Equator.

They have a large mother ship and what is essentially an oil rig converted into a launch platform.

I wonder if there are other things they could use it for... maybe a mobile mooring system that can be moved around and form an artificial pier for submarines to operate from... base it off the coast of Iran or India for launches near the equator where the rotation of the earth boosts the speed of launched rockets to allow higher orbits to be achieved with smaller rockets...

I am sure if they think about it they can make it useful and cost efficient... that is something the Russians are very good at... something the Americans and Ukrainians are not... they like to waste money so the corruption is easier to hide...

Yep, I get it, I just don't see why they would bother to design the Dragon capsule for return and recovery rather than build it cheaper and just let it burn up like a Progress does. Its not really reuseable (more like salvagable/refurbishable) so it doesn't make much sense given the lack of actual cargo to return.

Maybe it is because this is how the Soviets and now the Russians do it so they want to appear to be doing it their own way for some hidden benefit or advantage...

Ironic with the US being the ultimate throw away society that they don't see the sense of making a cheap disposable cargo ship...

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4379358

Rosatom lists the risks associated with the purchase of Sea Launch

Rosatom considers it inappropriate to purchase the Sea Launch complex, according to the materials of the state corporation, which RIA Novosti got acquainted with . Among the reasons - high competition in the launch services market, created by SpaceX Ilona Mask.

The materials list five risks associated with the purchase of the complex:

1) The absence of a significant need for ROSATOM for space launches;
2) Lack of competencies in Rosatom for attracting customers to launches;
3) The purchase of Sea Launch will lead to competition with another Russian state-owned corporation, Roskosmos;
4) Rosatom noted a decrease in the cost of launching launch vehicles in the commercial market in connection with the activities of SpaceX;
5) Rosatom noted the need to compensate for accumulated losses and debts under the Sea Launch project.