Tag Archives: Redwire Corp

SpaceX launching NASA DART spacecraft to crash into an asteroid

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is put in the nosecone of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for launch.

Ed Whitma / Johns Hopkins APL / NASA

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to launch a first-of-its-kind planetary defense mission for NASA in the early hours of Wednesday morning, sending the spacecraft on its way to intentionally crash into an asteroid.

“We’re smashing into an asteroid,” NASA’s Launch Services Program senior launch director Omar Baez said during a press conference. “I can’t believe we’re doing that”

Known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (or DART) mission, the space agency is trying to learn “how to deflect a threat that would come” toward Earth, NASA associate administrator of the science mission directorate Thomas Zurbuchen said.

“Rest assured, that rock right now is not a threat,” he said.

SpaceX is launching DART on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, with a liftoff window that begins at 1:20 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

DART is a 610-kilogram spacecraft that will spend 10 months traveling to a pair of asteroids, which are named Didymos and Dimorphos. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland built DART, while space company Redwire contributed the spacecraft’s navigation and solar arrays that will power it.

The goal of the mission is to hit the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos, with the spacecraft at about 15,000 miles per hour and see how the impact changes the asteroid’s trajectory.

An overview of the DART mission plan.

NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

The DART mission is costing NASA about $330 million in total, with SpaceX having won a $69 million contract in 2019 for the launch. Not only is it NASA’s first planetary defense mission, but DART also represents SpaceX’s first mission launching a spacecraft to another planetary body.

“This is just the coolest mission. Thank you all for enabling SpaceX to be a part of a really important planetary defense mission,” SpaceX director of civil satellite missions Julianna Scheiman said during a press conference.

SpaceX test fired its Falcon 9 rocket last Friday in preparation for the launch.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft onboard is seen during sunrise on Nov. 23, 2021 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Bill Ingalls / NASA

To give a sense of scale, the Dimorphos asteroid is about the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, while the Didymos asteroid is wider in diameter than the One World Trade Center tower in New York City is tall. After arriving at the asteroids, and before it smashes into Dimorphos, the DART spacecraft will deploy a small cube satellite to take photos of the impact event.

While the mission is testing a method of planetary defense, Zurbuchen emphasized that NASA is not aware of any near-term risks to Earth. There are billions of asteroids and comets orbiting the sun, but only a few have a chance of hitting the Earth for a very long time.

“Of all the near Earth objects that we know today, none of them are a threat within 100 years or so,” Zurbuchen said.

Infographic showing the sizes of the two asteroids in the Didymos system relative to some objects on Earth.

NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

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Sierra Space raises $1.4 billion at $4.5 billion valuation

A rendering of the “Ocean Reef” space station in orbit.

Blue Origin

Sierra Space, the subsidiary of private aerospace contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation, raised $1.4 billion as the company expands its portfolio of space transportation products.

The company’s valuation jumped to $4.5 billion following the raise, with investors including General Atlantic, Coatue, and Moore Strategic Ventures, as well as the funds of private equity firms BlackRock and AE Industrial Partners.

“We are building the next generation of space transportation systems and in-space infrastructures and destinations that will enable humanity to build and sustain thriving civilizations beyond Earth,” Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice said in a statement.

The capital represents the first outside investment in Sierra Space since the subsidiary was setup by Sierra Nevada Corporation in April.

Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft in orbit

Source: Sierra Nevada Corporation

Sierra Space has two major projects in development: The Dream Chaser spaceplane, which it is developing to deliver cargo and eventually crew to low Earth orbit, and the Orbital Reef space station, which Sierra Space partnered with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to build.

Dream Chaser is a reusable spacecraft that, in appearance resembling a miniaturized NASA Space Shuttle, is built to launch atop a traditional rocket and land on a runway like an airplane. Sierra Space aims to launch its first Dream Chaser cargo mission in the next year or so.

Blue Origin is Sierra Space’s primary partner for Orbital Reef, with the team also including Boeing, Redwire Space and Genesis Engineering. The station is planned to begin deploying in space later this decade, and is designed to be habitable for up to 10 people.

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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin unveils Ocean Reef private space station

A rendering of the “Ocean Reef” space station in orbit.

Blue Origin

WASHINGTON – Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on Monday unveiled its plan for a private space station called “Orbital Reef,” which it will build in partnership with multiple space companies and expects to deploy between 2025 and 2030.

Blue Origin describes the Orbital Reef station, which would be habitable for up to 10 people, as a “mixed use business park” in space – as well as capable of “exotic hospitality” for space tourists.

Ocean Reef is designed to have almost as much habitable volume as the International Space Station.

The company’s primary partner for the station is Sierra Space, a subsidiary of aerospace contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation, with the team also including Boeing, Redwire Space, and Genesis Engineering.

“We’re just beginning to understand the tremendous implications that microgravity research, development and manufacturing can mean, for not only for exploring the universe and making discoveries but improving life on Earth,” Redwire executive vice president Mike Gold told CNBC.

Shares of Redwire Space were halted temporarily by the New York Stock Exchange after surging following the announcement. The stock jumped as much as 40% in trading from its previous close of $12.16.

Blue Origin will provide the space station’s “utility systems” and “core modules,” and plans to use its New Glenn rocket to launch Ocean Reef.

Sierra Space is contributing its LIFE habitat (Large Integrated Flexible Environment; essentially an inflatable space station module), and plans to use its Dream Chaser spacecraft to transport cargo and crew to-and-from the station.

Redwire Space, which went public in September, will run the station’s payload operations and build deployable structures. Redwire also plans to use Orbital Reef for microgravity research, development and manufacturing.

Boeing will build Ocean Reef’s science-focused module and run the station’s operations, as well as conduct maintenance engineering. The aerospace giant also plans to utilize its Starliner capsule for transporting crew and cargo to the station.

Genesis Engineering will contribute its “Single Person Spacecraft” system, which the company describes as an alternative to a spacesuit.

In a conference call with reporters, executives representing the companies of the team declined to specify how much each expect to invest in Orbital Reef.

Blue Origin vice president Brent Sherwood said the team is not going to give “a specific number” on how much the Ocean Reef space station will cost, adding that the financial numbers are commercially sensitive.

Bezos’ company has been looking at building a space station for more than a year, as CNBC previously reported, and earlier this month added a number of job postings for its “Orbital Destinations” team.

Bezos’ vision: Living and working in space

Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of Amazon Jeff Bezos gives a thumbs up as he speaks during an event about Blue Origin’s space exploration plans in Washington, U.S., May 9, 2019.

Clodagh Kilcoyne | Reuters

Orbital Reef fits squarely at the center of Bezos’ vision for Blue Origin, which is to get to where “millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth,” especially by moving “industries that stress Earth into space.”

Bezos has personally increased his involvement at Blue Origin, after he stepped down as the CEO of Amazon this summer. While the company has had success with its suborbital New Shepard rocket, having flown two successful crewed flights to date, Blue Origin has come under scrutiny due to soaring employee turnover and allegations of safety issues, as well as a “toxic” work culture, by former employees.

Blue Origin has teamed up with other major space companies before, having partnered with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to build a crewed lunar lander for NASA’s HLS program.

However, while the Blue Origin-led team won a $579 million award for early development, it lost the following $2.9 billion contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX earlier this year. Blue Origin has since taken NASA to court, filing a lawsuit against the space agency to reverse the lunar lander award.

Space station race heating up

Blue Origin intends to bid for one of NASA’s expected contracts for the “Commercial LEO Destinations” program, but Bezos’ company is not alone. NASA director of commercial spaceflight, Phil McAlister told CNBC last month that the program “received roughly about a dozen proposals” from a variety of companies for contracts.

With NASA planning to retire the International Space Station by the end of the decade, the CLD program represents an effort to turn to private companies for new space stations – with the space agency expecting to save more than $1 billion annually as a result.

“We are in a second golden age of space exploration and development,” Redwire’s Gold said.

Last week, another private space station was announced by a separate team of companies: Nanoracks, Voyager Space, and Lockheed Martin are building a station called Starlab, which plans to be operational by 2027.

Starlab is designed to be crewed by up to four astronauts, with about a third of the volume of the ISS.

Concept art of a “Starlab” space station

Nanoracks

NASA has already begun funding the ambitions of one company under a separate contract from the CLD program, having awarded Axiom Space with $140 million. Axiom plans to build modules that will connect to the ISS. When the ISS retires, Axiom then would detach its modules and turn it into a free-flying space station.

An illustration of three of the company’s modules connected to the International Space Station.

Axiom Space

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