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SpaceX continues to come under fire from environmentalists who say the companys actions are putting South Texas wildlife and the environment at risk.

The aerospace company has conducted several launches of its Starship in Boca Chica, Texas. April 2023 marked the first near-orbital test of the spacecraft, which is being called the most powerful rocket ever built.

However, the rocket exploded apparently a planned occurrence and its launch kicked up a cloud of debris that settled on a town six miles away and caused forces similar to an earthquake.

It was truly terrifying, one local resident told The New York Times.

The rockets engines also tore up part of the concrete launch pad, and chunks of concrete from the pad flew through the air, damaging a parked car in a nearby town.

SpaceX appeared to recognize it had to do better and made adjustments to its launchpad and added a wall for Starships November 2023 launch, which shows improvement, though it still resulted in similar but fortunately reduced debris and evidence of chemical waste, as reported by WANE and My San Antonio.

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These launches affected the local environment, as the launch pad is located near a beach and surrounding tidal flats. The first launch even caused a 3.5-acre fire and a 385-acre debris field, causing experts to question why the launchpad did not include a flame diverter, trench, or water deluge system.

The Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a local environmental group, told MySA that the area is an important habitat for rare, threatened, and endangered species like the ocelot, aplomado falcon, piping plover, red knot, snowy plover, and black rail. It is also an important site for spring and fall bird migrations. And the Kemps Ridley sea turtle nests only a quarter of a mile from the launch site, MySA reported.

Though the total impact on wildlife is unknown, the April explosion incinerated a group of blue land crabs and seven bobwhite quail eggs within a local state park. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists were left in disbelief over the environmental damage that the launch caused.

SpaceX also has received backlash for its plans to dispose of contaminated water that degrades wetlands. The company recently asked to dump more than 200,000 gallons of wastewater into the South Bay, and more than 1,100 people submitted comments in opposition to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, according to MySA.

Jim Chapman, president of FOWC, told the outlet that though the local environment might not look like much, It is an extremely important area for lots of shorebirds and is a critical habitat for many endangered animals. There arent a lot of places like that; it is a unique area.

Meanwhile, SpaceX cofounder and CEO Elon Musk took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say more tests are coming: Starship Flight 3 hardware should be ready to fly in 3 to 4 weeks. There are three ships in final production in the high bay (as can be seen from the highway).

Editors note: A previous version of this article characterized the post-launch explosion of Starship as causing damage on the ground in addition to the launch blast, but it has been updated to correct that damage to the local area in Texas has only been attributed to the launch process of each rocket.

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Environmental experts express concern about SpaceX after company's second test flight results in further damage to ... - The Cool Down

After one days delay, SpaceX on Thursday, January 18 launched Falcon 9sAxiom Spaces Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 4:49 p.m. ET.

Wednesdays launch was delayed due to concerns Axiom had.

The Axiom statement said some of the needed analysis was with the parachute system energy modulator. It sounds like there are some concerns still to make sure that the parachutes are ready to safely return the capsule to the Earth at the end of the mission.

SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Thursday, January 18 for Falcon 9s launch of Axiom Spaces Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 4:49 p.m. ET. If needed, an additional opportunity is available on Saturday, January 20 at 4:00 p.m. ET.

A live webcast of this mission will begin on X @SpaceX about two hours prior to launch. Watch live.

Safety is a big concern on any launch, and even more so with astronauts onboard, according to Dr. Don Platt of Florida Tech.

Certainly, for a human mission, they are going to want to make sure that every i is dotted and t is crossed. So, if theres some technical data that has not been closed out here, they definitely want to make sure that they are good to go before they put people on a rocket, Platt said.

The Axiom statement said some of the needed analysis was with the parachute system energy modulator. It sounds like there are some concerns still to make sure that the parachutes are ready to safely return the capsule to the Earth at the end of the mission, added Dr. Platt.

The additional time allows teams to complete pre-launch checkouts and data analysis on the vehicle, SpaceX officials announced in a tweet.

Weather should remain favorable at the Cape. The Space Forces 45th Weather Squadron has pegged the odds of go for launch weather for this backup chance at 80%.

Primary concerns include cumulus clouds, precipitation and weather conditions along the rockets ascent corridor in case the Dragon crew capsule has to abort and eject from the second stage.

The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-4 and Ax-2 to and from the space station. Following stage separation, Falcon 9s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct more than 30 scientific experiments and demonstrations focused on human physiology and technological industrial advancements.

SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Wednesday, January 17 for Falcon 9s launch of Axiom Spaces Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 5:11 p.m. ET, with a backup opportunity available on Thursday, January 18 at 4:49 p.m. ET.

A live webcast of this mission will begin on X @SpaceX about two hours prior to launch. Watch live.

The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-4 and Ax-2 to and from the space station. Following stage separation, Falcon 9s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct more than 30 scientific experiments and demonstrations focused on human physiology and technological industrial advancements.

Mission patches are a symbolic expression of the mission objectives and a time-honored tradition dating back to the 1960s with the NASA Gemini program. They are designed and worn by the astronauts and people affiliated with each mission. Axiom Space continues the tradition with its commercial astronaut missions.

The Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) patch is shaped as a shield to illustrate strength and courage. The International Space Station (ISS) is centered and angled to be seen as aviator wings, symbolizing four astronauts piloting toward growth in low-Earth orbit (LEO) through the spirit of exploration and collaboration.

The Ax-3 crew is included at the forefront of the mission patch. The names of each crew member are seen in alphabetical order with flags of the countries they represent. The four stars next to the names represent the four European nations on the Ax-3 missionSpain (Commander Lpez-Alegra as a dual citizen of the U.S. and Spain), Trkiye, Italy, and Sweden.

The tiled Earth is shown with longitude and latitude lines to highlight the new frontier that the crew will explore and celebrate the power of bridging cultural divides to advance human knowledge and prosperity.

Located on the tiled Earth, toward the base of the patch, the number 100 denotes centennial milestones for Trkiye and Italy. Ax-3 will be a symbolic mission for Trkiye as the nation reflects on changes and progress made in the past century to advance economic development, education and technology, and the countrys global influence, now in space. This year, on March 28, 2023, the Italian Air Force celebrated its centennial anniversary as one of the oldest air forces in the world. This mission will serve as an opportunity to celebrate the Italian Air Forces contribution to global security and stability.

The number 500 represents ajubilee year for Sweden as the countrycelebratedfive centuriesas anindependentnation on June 6, 2023. The second Swedish ESA astronaut in history will fly to the space station during the Ax-3 mission, embodying opportunity and freedom to explore the unknown.

Located around the bottom edges of the patch, the missions moto Further, Beyond is written in Latin (PLVS VLTRA).

Ax-3 is the third commercial astronaut mission to the ISS and will carry the first crew of all-European national astronauts. With this crew, Europe is taking a visionary, leadership role in the future of commercial space.

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UPDATE 2: Success as SpaceX transports first humans for 2024 with Axiom's first all European commercial astronauts ... - SatNews

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launches the Axiom-2 mission on May 21, 2023.

SpaceX

The European Space Agencys (ESA) has a deal with Axiom Space to get more Europeans in orbit. But does the partnership benefit European taxpayers who fund the agencys operations?

On Wednesday, January 17, the third privately funded mission by US commercial spaceflight company Axiom Space is set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket. Inside the Crew Dragon capsule will be a quartet of space travelers, including Swedish fighter pilot Marcus Wandt.

Wandt will be flying under the European Space Agency (ESA) flag, although he is not exactly an ESA astronaut. In the 2022 European astronaut recruitment round, Wandt didnt make the final five of Europes proper astronaut class, who became ESA staff members and started their astronaut training in 2023. Instead, he was selected as a member of ESAs first astronaut reserve pool, a novelty developed by ESA with an apparent goal of encouraging its member states to pay for national missions in addition to their regular contributions to ESAs budget. Sweden was the first to jump at the opportunity in April last year and is paying for Wandts two-week space trip through a contract brokered by ESA as part of a Memorandum of Understanding the agency signed with the American commercial company Axiom Space in October 2023.

Wandt is the first but not the only reserve astronaut with his ticket to space while his seemingly more successful colleagues who made the proper astronaut corps are still in training. Poland, too, has signed up and expects to fly its reservist, Sawosz Uznaski, on another Axiom mission later this year.

Compared to their overall investment in space activities, the price these countries pay to see their nationals float in microgravity is not negligible. At the November 2022 ESA ministerial councilthe triennial member state summit that decides the agencys budget for the following three-year periodSweden pledged 317 million euros ($355 million).

According to a 2018 announcement, Axiom Space sells 10-day space trips for $55 million a seat. The overall cost of each mission is likely to be quite a bit higher. Last year, Hungary signed a contract directly with Axiom to send a Hungarian national to the International Space Station independently of ESA. Hungary discussed plans for a national mission back in 2022 and, at that time, estimated the project to cost about $100 million. Based on that estimate, Sweden may be easily paying an equivalent of its annual contribution into the ESA budget to get Wandt to space.

In addition to Wandt and Uznaski, the ESA astronaut reserve pool includes nine other candidates, none of them officially employed by ESA. By filling this astronaut reserve pool, ESA seems to have created a market for Axiom Space, a move that might raise questions given the agencys purpose is to promote the European space sector. In fact, the ESAs founding Convention enshrines the principle of geo-return, which grants member states at least an 80 percent return on their contributions into ESAs budget in the form of research and development contracts. Although the cost of the Axiom missions is paid through ESA, most of this money goes to the Texas-headquartered Axiom Space and its launch provider, SpaceX.

ESA refused to disclose details of the arrangement between Axiom Space and Sweden, calling it proprietary data as this is implemented through aconfidentialcommercial contract. The Swedish National Space Agency didnt respond to Ars Technicas request for comment.

Polands announcement of a national mission for Uznaski arrived in August last year, accompanied by a jaw-dropping increase of the countrys contribution to ESAs budget. At the 2022 ministerial council, Poland earmarked 197 million euros for the agencys activities in the 2023 to 2025 period. In August, the Polish Space Agency more than doubled this contribution, committing an additional 295 million euros ($322 million). It is not clear how much of this money will go toward Uznaskis space trip.

In the months following the announcement of the astronaut reserve pool, Axiom Space began actively approaching home countries of the reservists with offers to fly those men and women to space, according to media in the Czech Republic, which has recently declined the offer.

In addition to Sweden and Poland, the UK also intends to use Axioms services and conduct a British-only mission that will be headed by semi-retired ESA astronaut Tim Peake. It will also include the UKs Rosemary Coogan, newly named as one of ESAs career astronauts, as well as reservist Meganne Christian and para-astronaut John McFall. Unlike the Swedish and Polish mission, the British mission will be funded by the private industry in the UK rather than by taxpayers, according to the BBC.

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Axiom and SpaceX are disrupting Europe's traditional pathway to space - Ars Technica

Enlarge / Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, recently held an all-hands meeting with employees at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas.

SpaceX

Last year was unquestionably the best year in SpaceX's history, CEO Elon Musk told his employees during an all-hands meeting in South Texas last week.

There were 96 flights of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, plus the first two test flights of the enormous new Starship rocket. In 2024, SpaceX said it aims for more than 140 launches of the Falcon rocket family. There may be up to 10 Starship test flights this year, according to the NASA official who manages the agency's contract with SpaceX to develop Starship into a human-rated Moon lander.

SpaceX posted a video late Friday on the social media platform X of Musk's all-hands meeting at the Starbase launch facility near Brownsville, Texas. The hour-long video includes Musk's comments on SpaceX's recent accomplishments and plans, but the video ends before employees ask questions of their boss.

While it would be nice to see space reporters get more opportunities to question Musk about SpaceX, it's good to see the company sharing these kinds of videos. Musk has presented several formal updates on Starship in the pastin person and virtualand taken questions from reporters and space enthusiasts.

Nevertheless, the recent all-hands meeting included significant updates on Starship and other SpaceX programs. We now know a little more about what happened at the end of an otherwise successful Starship test flight from South Texas in November, preventing the rocket from achieving its planned trajectory. And Musk talked about what we can expect in upcoming Starship test flights.

He also touched on the records set by SpaceX's workhorse Falcon rocket family this year. Until Starship is fully operational, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy will keep flying. SpaceX has launch contracts for both rockets into the late 2020s.

Musk said SpaceX is working on extending the life of Falcon 9's reusable first-stage boosters. Originally, SpaceX said each Falcon 9 booster could fly up to 10 times without a major overhaul. Some Falcon 9s have now flown almost twice that number of missions.

Weve done a 19th re-flight," Musk said. "Were now qualifying Falcon 9 to be able to do 40 flights, and were aiming for maybe as much as 150 flights this year."

Ramping up the launch cadence will require SpaceX to increase factory throughput to produce more Falcon 9 second stages, which are only used once. And SpaceX will need to get even better at turning around its Falcon 9 launch pads between missions.

"Were aiming to hopefully, I think, get under 24 hours pad turnaround by the end of this year," Musk said.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Musk's presentation centered on Starship.

Starship's second full-scale test flight on November 18 surpassed SpaceX's goals going into the launch. Musk said the primary objective was to get the rocket past staging, a milestone just shy of three minutes into the flight when Starship's upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster.

Getting to that point, the Super Heavy booster's 33 Raptor engines all worked, apparently flawlessly, then Starship's upper stage lit its six Raptor engines to continue the climb into space.

The Super Heavy booster exploded moments later as it began a boost-back burn to guide itself toward a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. This was a secondary objective, but SpaceX engineers will have to correct this issue before it can recover and reuse a Super Heavy booster.

Starshipthe rocket's upper stagecontinued flying until around eight minutes into the flight, when it broke apart in space over the Gulf of Mexico. This happened less than 30 seconds before Starship's engines were supposed to cut off, when the vehicle would have accumulated enough velocity to reach its planned trajectory, taking it most of the way around the world. If everything went perfectly, the ship would have reentered the atmosphere and splashed down near Hawaii.

Musk didn't discuss what happened with the Super Heavy booster on the November flight, but he said Starship disintegratedduring a liquid oxygen vent late in its burn. The Raptor engines consume liquid oxygen and methane as propellants.

Flight 2 actually almost made it to orbit," Musk said. "The reason that it actually didnt quite make it to orbit was we vented the liquid oxygen, and the liquid oxygen ultimately led to a fire and an explosion.We wanted to vent the liquid oxygen because we normally wouldnt have that liquid oxygen if we had a payload. Ironically, if it had a payload, it would have reached orbit.

SpaceX

Musk didn't offer any more details about the liquid oxygen vent but said he thinks SpaceX has a "really good shot of reaching orbit" on the next Starship test flight. This third full-size Starship test flight is likely weeks away. Jessica Jensen, SpaceX's vice president of customer operations and integration, said in a NASA teleconference last week that SpaceX aims to have hardware for the next Starship launch ready this month.

She said SpaceX anticipates getting a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration in February. SpaceX launched its first two Starship test flights within a few days of receiving its FAA license.

SpaceX introduced numerous changes to the Starship design between its first and second flights last year, including a water deluge system at the launch pad, a redesigned stage separation technique, and replacing hydraulic thrust vector controls with an electrically driven engine steering system.

"With Flight 1, the goal was not to blow the pad up and ideally get some distance, which we did," Musk said. "With Flight 2, it was to get past staging, so we achieved the goal of getting past staging and almost to orbit."

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Elon Musk's recent all-hands meeting at SpaceX was full of interesting news - Ars Technica

The commander of humanity's first moon mission in half a century has a special invite from SpaceX in his pocket.

Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut leading the four Artemis 2 crew members, told Space.com in a Dec. 18 exclusive that SpaceX wants to talk to his crew about Starship. That's no coincidence, given that SpaceX is developing Starship for Artemis 3, which intends to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972.

When and how that all comes together is not known yet. Artemis 2 is expected to fly around the moon no earlier than 2024 if schedules hold. Artemis 3 is manifested for 2025 or 2026, but that assumes that SpaceX's Starship has passed enough tests to satisfy NASA's strict safety requirements for human-rated spacecraft.

Wiseman spoke with Space.com not only about SpaceX, but what his crew plans to take along with them on the mission, the outreach he has been doing, and how his crew is dealing with developmental uncertainty. Riding to the moon with him (and back) are NASA pilot Victor Glover (who will become the first person of color to leave low Earth orbit), NASA mission specialist Christina Koch (the first woman) and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen (the first non-American).

Related: NASA's Artemis 3 astronaut moon landing unlikely before 2027, GAO report finds

We're about a year out from the launch of Artemis 2. Can you talk about your main goals for the mission, and what you're focusing on as a crew and as a team right now?

Reid Wiseman, Artemis 2 commander: It's pretty basic for us. We really want to enable the Orion and the Space Launch System for our fellow astronauts that are going to go land on the moon and work in the lunar vicinity. So every day we show up to work.

It just happened in a class we were just in: We are not only looking at how to make this better for Artemis 2. We're thinking about, "How do we position this for Artemis 3, 4, and 5?" Victor Glover today we were talking about, "Hey, it [Artemis 2] is just a nine-day mission." We were in a survival class, but we said, "We won't be that deconditioned [after the mission]." And Victor was like, "Hey, wait a minute. We have to think about the max mission duration, because this will be valid for all Artemis missions."

So we've done I think an awesome job of just really looking at, what does this vehicle need for the future for our crewmates, when they go and land on the moon? How can we wring out Orion and SLS so that when our peers are training for moonwalking missions, that is almost just a basic in that [they think], "Okay, we know Orion. So we don't have to worry about that [spacecraft]. Let's instead focus on the HLS [human landing system spacecraft] or, let's focus on the new suit designs." That's really our fundamental goal.

Training has been fantastic, really well-prepared classes. It kind of comes in little waves. We're really busy, in the last few weeks, and then we have a little bit of down time. Then you're really busy again.

Wiseman: It completely has blown me away, and not just on the professional side, but on the outreach side,to traveling around the world. Seeing where the European Service Module was built in Bremen, Germany with Airbus. Those people are so fired up to have humans riding on their vehicle. Or going into the Cape [Canaveral area] with Lockheed and Orion. I even got a call two weeks ago from the lead engineer at SpaceX. He was like, 'Next time you guys are at Cape [Canaveral, nearby NASA's Kennedy Space Center), come by and talk to us. We're doing Starship, and Dragon, and we just want to hear what is going on with the Artemis 2 crew."

I had to take a step back. They launched two Starships [in 2023], and got another one rolling onto the pad. Here they want us to come talk to them, because they are just motivated. Then of course, there are the teams that we're training with, especially at NASA. A lot of these folks, this is their career. Their career is spent preparing for us to go work on the moon. So to be a crew, marching towards a launch, it's far more meaningful for them than it is for us. We really try to embrace that. It's very powerful.

Wiseman: My surprise might be a little cliche. We figured as the crew that's going to fly this vehicle for the first time there are going to be so many unknowns. We're going to work our way through a really rough training syllabus. But what I neglected was, we're being trained by the flight controllers who just operated Artemis 1 [an uncrewed mission around the moon in 2022] very successfully. So we go into these classes, and they are just polished. They know everything there is to know about this vehicle. They just got done flying it, and around the moon. They know their systems. So there, it's just wired. I've been very impressed. They really know what's going on.

How would NASA deal with any ripple effects in scheduling later Artemis missions if this one happened to be delayed?

Wiseman: You know, as a crew, we don't get into the programmatic of, "We ought to launch in November of 2024." There's political implications. There's operational implications. What we really care about is when this vehicle is ready, and when NASA says it's ready to go fly, we will be prepared to go fly it. That is our critical milestone. But as they're going through assembly, I think we're gonna face a little bit of a slip. For sure. So we'll see how that goes.

But I think so far, everything that I'm seeing is coming along very logically. Very methodically. And when the Orion program, or SLS, has hit a snag, we have stopped the appropriate amount of time. We're really analyzing, "Do we need to fix this? Do we have an operational workaround? Do we have a hardware workaround?" And then we're proceeding on.

I think everything has been, and what I have seen is, a safety culture. The mission assurance culture right now has been extremely healthy. We're very methodically going along at a great pace to fly when this vehicle is ready.

Wiseman: We are pretty weight-limited, but we do all have little things. I won't speak for the rest of the crew, but my whole life, I've realized how important tradition is to me. Things that I do with my children, or that my parents did with me and my brother growing up. So I will take something that nods to my personal family tradition, just as a personal token to myself.

When I flew on the Soyuz in 2014 [to the International Space Station], on my kneeboard, I had a little black-and-white picture of my kids just printed on the piece of paper, because mass is everything. So you don't take anything extra that you don't need to take. So I printed it directly on my kneeboard, and I'll do something very similar to that.

But to be honest I didn't think about this when we first got assigned but I get to work with Victor, Christina and Jeremy. I just want to be immersed in this experience with them. They are such special people. So I just can't wait to watch them operate as we head out around the moon.

Wiseman: We've been heading absolutely everywhere. The thing we have to remind ourselves, is everywhere we go, people know who we are. It is amazing to see just how excited people are. I mean, they are so fired up. We went to Marshall Space Flight Center, one of our own NASA centers, and we stood for an entire hour as people just took picture after picture after picture. Just walking up to the crew. We are just a human representation of what these people have been working for for over a decade. It's just so powerful.

Wiseman: That is definitely surreal, because we're in places that most people don't get a chance to experience. Tom Hanks he had a formative place in my childhood with "Apollo 13," and with "Forrest Gump." Just to get to meet these people, and to interact a little bit, has been really neat. But you know, if you gave us our wishes, we would be at a fifth-grade class trying to motivate kids to go study STEM [science, technology, engineering and math].

But this is important. We need all elements of outreach to get the message as far and wide as we possibly can, that this is worth doing. Human exploration is important to bring our world together. We can tackle big problems when we work together. So that's the message we want to send. Having people like Tom Hanks involved, and getting to F1 getting to a few markets that typically we don't get to has been cool.

It was fun to be immersed in the Formula One parallels between that, and Mission Control and spaceflight. The way they communicate the way they structure and organize the things that matter to the drivers, and then the different things that matter to the engineering teams I took a lot away from Formula One.

Wiseman: I just want to really thank you for what you all do at Space.com. We have a lot of great, great learning from you guys, and I appreciate the research that you do and showing up [at the events]. I think it's really important.

I love the public-private partnership of Artemis. I don't think we do a good enough job highlighting just how that is going. The CLPS [commercial lunar payload services program, or robotic missions in support of Artemis] are going to launch soon, with robotic missions to the moon. And what SpaceX is doing, and now Blue Origin is coming on, with the HLS design. When you're when you live in this and you marinate in it, it's just awesome. This is an amazing time to be a part of this program. So we really appreciate the public support.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Excerpt from:

Artemis 2 moon crew invited to visit SpaceX to talk Starship (exclusive) - Space.com