🚀 The Dawn is not yet here but coming

Planet Earth, this is The Astronaut Bro! 

I am back for another weekly briefing.

While there are a bit less news & development in human spaceflight this week than the previous one, we cannot say that there are no exciting topics to talk about.

This week, you can read about:
🧑🏻‍🚀 New updates on the Polaris Dawn mission
🚀 The third Starship test flight could do an important & exciting test
🇺🇸 NASA did a contract strategy revision for the ISS deorbit vehicle tender
🍅 Astronauts found a lost tomato on the ISS

It’s only a 5-min read.

Before we dive in, make sure to subscribe to get a piece of The Astronaut Bro every week.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
Polaris Dawn is now targeting an April launch, new EVA suits under testing

Jared Isaacman, the founder of the Polaris Program and the commander of the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission, shared some updates on X (Twitter) about the mission preparation status.

On Saturday, he shared that he was testing the new EVA suits developed by SpaceX. As per the post, photos on these EVA suits will be published “in advance to mission” but unknown yet when.

Jared also mentioned that Polaris Dawn is now targeting an April launch. It’s already a 6-month delay from the original target launch date of Fall 2023.

However, he argues that “schedule slips” are expected, since Polaris is a development program.

One claims that since the hardware is all there (Falcon 9 & Crew Dragon), what takes so long to prep for?

Jared explains:

• Until now, SpaceX only had spacesuits used onboard the spacecraft during launch & reentry. Developing an EVA suit used in vacuum in space is much more complicated. The suits need to be modified for mobility, life support redundancy, sun glare, and resiliency to micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD).

• Also, the Crew Dragon’s interior is only designed to be exposed to vacuum in case of an emergency. Therefore, some modifications are needed for both the software and the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) hardware.

• Crew Dragon will test laser-based communication over Starlink and SpaceX has to prepare the vehicle for it. Jared mentioned that “every draco firing could break a link”.

• Polaris Dawn also planned to fly into a higher orbit than any missions since Apollo 17 - 750-1,400 km (470-870 mi). That will result in higher radiation exposure since the crew will be much closer to the Van Allen belts. Crew Dragon has to be prepared for this since it was mainly developed for low Earth orbit (LEO) operations in lower altitudes - with less radiation exposure.

The Polaris Dawn mission will certainly be one of the most exciting missions in 2024. However, it will also pave the way for new opportunities in private human spaceflight. The fact that it’s funded by a private individual and in collaboration with a private spaceflight company shows what an exciting time we live in.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
SpaceX plans to test in-orbit fuel transfer during Starship’s third test flight

In the last weekly briefing, I reported that Musk claims the next Starship hardware is 3-4 weeks away from being flight-ready.

Now, we are getting some more spicy details on what Starship IFT-3 (Integrated Test Flight 3) could bring.

In a meeting last week, a NASA presentation at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine by Lakiesha Hawkins broke the news that SpaceX may test the tank-to-tank fuel transfer in-orbit with the next Starship test flight.

A SpaceX spokesperson emphasized to Payload that no final decision has been made yet.

This has never been done before in space and it’s essential for the development of the HLS (Human Landing System) variant that will serve as the lunar lander for Artemis III and later missions.

While on operational missions, Starship tanker variants will transfer fuel to the Starship HLS (and other crewed variants leaving low Earth orbit), this test will be conducted within the same spacecraft but between different internal fuel tanks.

How is it gonna look like?

Once Starship’s second stage will reach orbit, a cca. 10 metric tons of liquid oxygen will be transferred from the spacecraft’s main fuel tank to the header tank that is located at the top (nose) of the vehicle.

However, it sounds easier than it actually is!

To make it to the lunar surface and back to lunar orbit to dock with Orion (or the Lunar Gateway space station), Starship HLS may require as many as 20 launches to have enough tankers in low Earth orbit that could fuel HLS’ 1,200-t tank.

One Starship tanker may be able to carry around 100-150 tonnes of fuel.

Also, both NASA and SpaceX need to solve the risk of cryogenic boil-off.

It means that cryogenic fuels, such as liquid methane, hydrogen, and oxygen need to be stored at extremely low temperatures. In the vacuum of space, temperature can quickly vary between extremely cold and hot. If fuel is exposed to extreme heat, it may boil off into gas and thus lose massive fuel.

The engineers are working on to solve this issue. While it’s indeed massively complex, once it’s solved, HLS will be able to carry around 100 tonnes to the lunar surface.

Remember: Apollo’s lunar module had a payload capacity of 5 tonnes max.

Overall, Starship’s third test flight may manage to perform a crucial test for Starship’s HLS development and thus, the timeline for the Artemis III mission - the first planned crewed lunar landing since 1972.

When are we gonna see the Starship IFT-3 test? We don’t know yet, however, we can aim for a February target date, in my opinion.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
NASA revised ISS deorbit vehicle development tender, extends deadline

As we know, the International Space Station (ISS) is now planned for operation until 2030.

Therefore, NASA is already preparing for the controlled deorbit of the massive space habitat.

The space agency already published the original request for proposals (RFP) in September, however, now it revised some elements of the proposal.

This development program is controlled by the United States Deorbit Vehicle Contract (USDV).

Previously, NASA allowed companies to submit their proposals with a cost-plus contract for the development and a fixed-price term for the production of the vehicle.

Now, NASA issued an update, giving the flexibility for tendering companies to provide their proposals for both the development and production in either fixed-price or cost-plus commercial structure.

Cost-plus means that companies will be remitted for all expenses plus a pre-defined fixed cost. Therefore, this enables the winning company to claim all expenses - even if they exceed a certain budget.

NASA also extended the deadline from the previous December 14 to February 12. This means that while previously NASA wanted to award the development by April, we can now expect a decision by early June.

NASA requested a $180 million budget for 2024 and officials claim that at the time of project completion, the deorbit vehicle may reach a cost of $1 billion.

This deorbit vehicle shall be delivered by 2028-2029 to support the controlled deorbit in 2030, according to present plans.

We still cannot rule out a potential extension in ISS’ life duration which - in my opinion - also massively depends on whether the new commercial space stations will be ready and in operation already.

Russia is currently supporting the ISS until 2028, however, this may also be extended.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
After 8 months, the first space-grown tomato was found at the ISS

Have you ever had the feeling of losing something in your home and finding it quite a while later?

I’m sure we all had this experience before.

Well, usually, we don’t like to find any kind of food lost for months.

But this happened to the ISS crew recently!

It was already known that Frank Rubio - the NASA astronaut who returned to Earth at the end of September after a record-breaking one-year mission - lost the remains of a tiny tomato after a harvest in March.

He was also - jokingly - blamed for eating what was the first-ever space-grown tomato.

According to Rubio, he spent a good amount of his own hours trying to find this piece of space veggie but with no luck.

He also possibly joked about the 18-20 hours he claimed to have spent on this “rescue mission”.

However, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli recently shared the good news on a Q&A livestream that they found the missing tomato - although she didn’t go into detail about where the piece was hiding for all these months.

Rubio hasn’t commented on this publicly yet but we can be sure he must be extremely pleased.

Back in October, he was asked about the tomato situation by a reporter and he added the following:

Well, Frank, the little, shriveled thing was successfully recovered!

I hope no one eats it…

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

🚀 25 Years Ago Yesterday: The first crew “set foot” into the International Space Station (ISS)

In December 1988, STS-88 and Space Shuttle Endeavour delivered the Unity module to low Earth orbit to dock it with the up-and-running Zarya module.

By the docking of these two modules, the International Space Station (ISS) was born.

On December 10, 1998, the crew of STS-88 opened that hatch of the Unity module and entered the space station for the very first time.

During the next three days, they continued working on the installation of the Unity module to make it ready for more upcoming station modules and later crews.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Did you know that NASA was testing a lunar motorcycle as an alternative for the Lunar Rover Vehicles (LRV) that were sent to the lunar surface for Apollo 15-16-17?

NASA planned it as a backup if LRV wasn’t ready on time for Apollo 15. However, according to some sources, NASA also considered sending this up to the lunar surface with Apollo 20.

Which, as we know, eventually got cancelled…

Although, it would’ve been interesting to see those astronauts riding these motorbikes in lunar gravity.

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See you next week!🧑🏻‍🚀