🚀 "Starships were meant to fly..."

Planet Earth, this is The Astronaut Bro! 

Welcome to the first edition of my weekly briefing on the hottest topics in human spaceflight.

From now on, you will receive a weekly newsletter on what’s happening in human spaceflight.

As we are heading into 2024, you can be sure that no week will pass by without anything exciting about astronauts, crewed space missions, or anything about how we, humankind are trying to explore outer space.

As a long-time Orbital Stories subscriber, you get the exclusive first edition of this newsletter. I hope you will find it insightful enough not to unsubscribe. 🤪

So, enough from the intro, The Astronaut Bro is “go for launch”! 🚀

This week, you can read about:
🚀 A Starship Version 2 is under development
🌙 A French-Italian habitat could become the first permanent lunar outpost
🇮🇳 The US steps in to support India’s human space program development

It’s only a 4-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
SpaceX is already working on a new version of the Starship vehicle

SpaceX announced that it’s already working on a major overhaul of the Starship spacecraft that will carry payload and crew to low Earth orbit and beyond.

While the Starship program only had two integrated test flights, SpaceX wastes no time introducing design changes that will follow performance and reliability improvements as well.

These changes are considered more as a transformation than some minor iteration.

What can we expect from Starship V2?

• The introduction of the Raptor 3 engines: Musk already shared some updates on the next-gen Raptor engines, first in May then in November. According to him, Raptor 3 will come with higher thrust, better efficiency, and without a heat shield as it will be more robust.

• More Raptor engines: We may expect to see Starship V2 having nine Raptor engines, instead of six, as currently, according to Payload. Out of nine, three engines would be optimized for use in the atmosphere and six in space vacuum. Currently, there are 3-3 engines for both use cases. This will also increase payload capacity.

• An increase in propellant volume: Starship V2 may have a modified fuel tank shape and extended height by 5-10 meters (16-33 feet). This will allow bigger fuel capacity and thus, an extended range.

So when can we expect to see a Starship V2 integrated test flight?

It’s unclear as SpaceX still has four Ships assembled and it is expected that Ship 28 will fly on IFT-3, or the third Integrated Flight Test.

Musk claims that the hardware required for the next test flight will be ready in 3-4 weeks. Therefore, we may expect another test flight as early as January 2024. But don’t be surprised if it slips to February.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
French-Italian cooperation may build the first permanent outpost on the Moon

As we know, NASA is working on returning humankind to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis program.

However, this space program now includes significant cooperation with international partners and the private sector.

Recently, Thales Alenia Space, a French-Italian joint venture, announced that it signed a contract with the Italian Space Agency to start initial work on the Multi-Purpose Habitat (MPH). It aims to become the first permanent outpost on the Moon to serve Artemis astronauts.

The two partners did not share further details, only the initial design concept seen above.

According to their statement, the next big milestone will be the Mission Concept Review in early 2024. This should be followed by the preparation of the preliminary design objectives.

It is also yet unknown what date they target to assemble and launch the habitat, however, we shall not expect it to happen within the next 7-8 years.

Why not?

Artemis 3, the first crewed moon landing since 1972, is targeted for December 2025, however, a latest U.S. government report finds that a delay to 2027 is more likely*.

*I’m planning to write a summary of this report in a separate newsletter issue.

According to the latest mission plans, the initial lunar surface habitat is expected to be delivered in 2032, in line with the Artemis 8 mission.

At this stage, despite the current and potentially further delays, we all expect that the Artemis program will finally take humans back to the Moon and won’t be canceled even after.

Thales is no stranger to human-certified space modules, as they built several ISS modules: the Cupola observatory module, the Columbus lab Harmony utility hub, and Tranquility.

THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES
NASA will have a closer partnership with India on human spaceflight

NASA chief Bill Nelson visited India last week and had several strategic discussions with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the country’s official space agency.

What did Nelson agree on with his Indian colleagues?

• NASA to train an Indian astronaut: the Asian country’s next astronaut is expected to join an Axiom mission in 2024 onboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA will help India train its new astronaut. It’s worth mentioning that while this offer is a nice gesture from NASA, however, the potential Indian astronaut(s) will have extensive training with Axiom and SpaceX anyway.

• NASA will help India with its space station: Nelson said that NASA will help India’s vision to build its space station by 2040. He also shared that if India wants, “we can collaborate and share our experience” on commercial space station development that opens “avenues for research including pharma industry in zero gravity”. It’s not clear whether NASA would invite India for its commercial space station initiative that is currently under development.

India has ambitious plans for human spaceflight as the country is currently developing its Gaganyaan crewed space program. The first uncrewed orbital test flight has been delayed since December 2020 and is now expected to take place in Q1 2024.

If that mission succeeds, the first crewed mission could take place as early as 2025.

India also aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2040.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

🚀 58 Years Ago Today: The Gemini 7 crew has their preflight breakfast

Gemini 7 launched on December 4, 1965, at 2:30 am Eastern Time. Its crew, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell woke up that day at 7:00 am, as usual, and had their steak & egg breakfast at 10:00 am - 4.5 hours before launch.

They were joined by Dick Gordon, Gus Grissom, Pete Conrad, Tom Stafford, Wally Schirra, and Deke Slayton (clockwise around table, starting upper right).

Gemini 7 spent nearly 14 days in space and was a passive target of a space rendezvous for Gemini 6A that was launched on December 15, 1965.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

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