Starship's Most Successful Test, and a Private Moon Lander

Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week’s newsletter is 786 words, a 6-minute read.

From now on, I’ll be sending the newsletter out at 12PM (noon) on Tuesdays instead of 10am. The data says that it’s an easier time for most of you to read it.

Table of Contents

• 1 Big Thing: Starship 3’s Successful Test Flight

• 2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

• 3. Astrobotic is Preparing its Next Moon Lander

• 4. An Awesome Newsletter You Should Check Out

1 Big Thing: Starship 3’s Successful Test Flight

SpaceX Had a Successful Test of its behemoth Starship launch vehicle on Thursday (Mar. 14).

A Broken Record: I know we’ve talked about Starship 3 weeks in a row now, but I truly believe that it’s the most important thing happening in the world of spaceflight right now.

How it Went Down: Starship’s first stage, the “Super Heavy” booster, fired all 33 of its engines for nearly 3 minutes. Then, the spacecraft’s stages separated, and the upper stage continued on to reach its planned suborbital trajectory.

Big Splash: The rocket’s first stage was supposed to attempt a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, simulating a controlled landing. Unfortunately, the booster broke apart about 300 miles above the ocean surface so it didn’t get to attempt this soft splashdown.

In the Future, the first stage will land itself after separating from the rest of the spacecraft - most likely on a massive barge in the ocean - so it can be reused on future flights.

Major Milestones: Once Starship was in space, it successfully opened its payload doors. It wasn’t carrying anything, but on future missions it will use these payload doors to release Starlink satellites and other craft. Starship also successfully transferred propellant between different fuel tanks - a major milestone for SpaceX, since Starship will rely on in-space refueling and propellant transfers for its longer missions.

What Lies Ahead: Starship is expected to have its 4th test flight some time in the late spring or early summer. SpaceX is gearing up for a contract it signed with NASA to use Starship as the next lunar lander to bring humans back to the moon, hopefully some time in the late 2020s.

2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

1. Startup Orbit Fab has begun shipping its satellite refueling ports to customers. (Payload)

2. NASA astronaut Tom Stafford, who famously commanded Apollo 10 as well as shook a cosmonaut’s hand during the Apollo-Soyuz mission, passed away at age 93. (NPR)

3. Benchmark Space’s electric thruster spacecraft is in orbit and ready to begin operations. (SpaceNews)

3. Astrobotic is Preparing its Next Moon Lander

Pittsburgh Company Astrobotic is gearing up for another (unmanned) moon landing after its Peregrine lander failed to reach the moon’s surface this January.

What’s Going On?: Astrobotic’s engineers are hard at work building the Griffin lander, which they hope will safely reach the moon’s surface late this year.

Chasing History: The company’s Peregrine lander would’ve been the first private spacecraft to safely land on the moon’s surface had the mission not gone awry. Instead, Intuitive Machines successfully landed its Odysseus lander at the moon’s south pole in February, but not without hiccups; the lander ended up sideways on the moon’s surface after a slightly botched landing.

What’s all this for?: NASA has an initiative called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS. Through this program, NASA “is working with several American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface.” Both Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines have won contracts through this initiative to deliver private and NASA payloads to the moon.

Astrobotic’s Future: If Griffin lands successfully on the moon before other private space companies and doesn’t tip over, it could be considered the first fully-successful moon landing by a private company - a massive feat. If we humans are going to return to and partially inhabit the moon, we’ll need private companies like Astrobotic to deliver supplies and equipment to astronauts.

4. An Awesome Newsletter You Should Check Out

If you’re like me, you’re probably interested in the high-tech world of electric vehicles.

Just like the space industry, the EV industry sees innovation and new developments every single day. It’s a lot to keep up with.

Consider joining The EV Universe newsletter, where over 6,000 readers stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the EV industry. Joining means supporting my newsletter and another newsletter that I genuinely enjoy reading.

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Thanks as always,

-Michael