Moonshot #15

HStar's plans for LEO passenger flights, Intuitive Machines unveils Nova-C, Firefly completes Blue Ghost just in time for Halloween, and everything else happening in commercial space

Hello Continuum readers and Celestial Citizens,

Welcome back to Moonshot where we will give a bi-weekly rundown of all the private sector space news. If you haven’t already, consider becoming a paid subscriber ($6/month) so you can get past that pesky paywall and read the full Moonshot post!

The Nova-C lunar lander from Intuitive Machines awaits its final touch ups in Houston, Texas. Credit: Lee Hutchinson

HStar Space – Celestial Citizen talked to HStar Space Transport Co-Founder and COO Nick Orenstein on the Continuum podcast last week, who revealed details about the company’s promising heavy launch vehicle and how it fills a void left behind by launch leviathan SpaceX. Leading human spaceflight for HStar, Orenstein believes in a space future for “humanity,” and hopes to build a vehicle that would not shackle space transportation to a single customer or nationality. HStar also looks at Earth’s orbit as a sweet spot for launch business. With SpaceX so distracted by focused on Mars and the departure from Earth altogether, there are and will likely continue to be launch contracts left on the table for LEO passenger flights. HStar looks at how space can help Earth, as opposed to looking at escaping Earth altogether into deep space. To learn more about this emerging multipurpose delivery vehicle that can handle satellites, passengers and cargo, give the episode a listen.  

Intuitive Machines – SpaceX isn’t the only company distracted by the red planet. To some extent, NASA has also had crimson-colored glasses over the years. However, the agency took a giant leap into lunar land with Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C soft lander, unveiled on October 3rd and now “ready to get buttoned up and ship,” according to Intuitive Machines Chief Executive Steve Altemus. As essentially a preliminary step for Artemis, Intuitive Machines received NASA funding to the tune of $77 million through their Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The company’s competitor, Astrobotic received $79.5 million for their lunar lander through the same program. Though Astrobotic technically completed their lander first, their launch provider ULA’s Vulcan rocket has suffered delays for months. For Intuitive Machines on the other hand, trusty SpaceX is set to provide Nova-C’s ride to the stars as early as mid-November.  

SpaceX – Speaking of Mars’ red-hot distraction, SpaceX founder Elon Musk reported via video call at this year’s International Astronautical Congress that the company could land on the planet “within the next four years.” Okay. To that we say, we’ve been down this road before. Certainly, SpaceX knows how to work fast, but they also predicted to land on Mars in 2022. All this to say, we’ll take Mr. Musk’s timing estimates with a Starship-sized pinch of salt. In a roundup of more concrete SpaceX news, the launch company is juggling a lawsuit claiming disproportional engineer compensation particularly amongst women, a domino-effect of launch delays caused by strong winds this week, and a report by the Federal Aviation Administration on the dangers of falling satellites that seems to paint a target on Starlink’s back. On the plus side, a new Italian investor may be able to take some of the heat off the launch provider. 

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander assembled in its Texas facility. Credit: Firefly

Firefly – Texas-based Firefly Aerospace completed a major milestone last week when it completed development and assembly of their Blue Ghost, a lunar lander funded through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). The spacecraft’s first mission is currently slated for 2024, at which time it will head to the moon’s nearside with ten NASA instruments in tow. The team’s next steps will be integrating payloads and conducting environmental tests before liftoff.