Human WorldSpace

Launches: We are going! Plus, a private space station

Posted by
Deborah Byrd
and
Dave Adalian
and
August 23, 2022
Lauanches: Large rocket with an orange stage and boosters on each side launching through the atmosphere on a tail of flame.
Launches for August 23, 2022. Artist’s concept of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. It’s powerful and fast but carries a high price tag. Image via NASA.

EarthSky’s Launches blog brings you the best in spaceflight updates. See more from Launches here.

Previously on Launches: NASA solicits plans to deorbit ISS

Launches for August 23: We are going!

NASA said yesterday that – so far – all is well for the launch of the Artemis 1 mission as scheduled for Monday, August 29, 2022. The two-hour launch window opens at 12:33 UTC (8:33 a.m. EDT) on that day. It’s the first step in our return to the moon! Read more about Artemis 1.

A private space station

In other news … Private rocketeers Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced Monday (August 22) that NASA has given the nod to advance development plans to build a privately-owned space station. Their proposal, dubbed the Orbital Reef, was conceived using funding from NASA’s Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development Program. And the plans recently underwent a review to ensure the concept meets the agency’s requirements.

A press release announcing NASA’s OK to move ahead described why the achievement is noteworthy:

It demonstrates to NASA that the space station design is feasible and achievable while validating that the Orbital Reef system is on-track to proceed into the design phase.

Working with Sierra Space and Blue Origin on the project are Amazon Supply Chain, Amazon Web Services, Arizona State University, Boeing, Genesis Engineering Solutions and Redwire Space. NASA’s review of the project is intended to make sure the planned station does what NASA needs it to do and does it well.

The next industrial revolution

A quote from CEO of Sierra Space Tom Vice makes it clear why commercial spaceflight is about more than just sending billionaires into space:

We are on the doorstep of the most profound industrial revolution in human history. An industrial revolution marked by the transition from the last 60 years of space exploration to a future where humanity extends our factories and cities into space. It isn’t solely about tourism. It is about unlocking the next great discoveries using the microgravity factories that we will build just 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.

The microgravity factories and services provided by Orbital Reef have the potential to revolutionize every industry and become a major growth contributor to the U.S. and world economies.

Many linked cylinders, end to end and at right angles, with wide solar panels connected.
This artist’s concept drawing depicts the Orbital Reef, a private space station, being developed using funding from NASA. Monday (August 22, 2022) NASA gave the OK for further development of Orbital Reef. Image courtesy of Business Wire.

Bottom line: NASA tweeted yesterday that Artemis 1 is still scheduled to launch August 29 … And has now given the nod to a private space station concept.

In the past week, on Launches:
Russians unveil space station model
U.S. Space Force takes command
Surprise rollout for Artemis 1

Posted 
August 23, 2022
 in 
Human World

Deborah Byrd

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About the Author:
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.

Dave Adalian

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About the Author:
Award-winning reporter and editor Dave Adalian's love affair with the cosmos began during a long-ago summer school trip to the storied and venerable Lick Observatory atop California's Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose in the foggy Diablos Mountain Range and far above Monterey Bay at the edge of the endless blue Pacific Ocean. That field trip goes on today, as Dave still pursues his nocturnal adventures, perched in the darkness at his telescope's eyepiece or chasing wandering stars through the fields of night with the unaided eye. A lifelong resident of California's Tulare County - an agricultural paradise where the Great San Joaquin Valley meets the Sierra Nevada in endless miles of grass-covered foothills - Dave grew up in a wilderness larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, one choked with the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in the US, one which passes its nights beneath pitch black skies rising over the some of highest mountain peaks and greatest roadless areas on the North American continent. Dave studied English, American literature and mass communications at the College of the Sequoias and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked as a reporter and editor for a number of news publications on- and offline during a career spanning nearly 30 years so far. His fondest literary hope is to share his passion for astronomy and all things cosmic with anyone who wants to join in the adventure and explore the universe's past, present and future.

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