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On today's episode, we are getting
into the latest space news, including SpaceX

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and Blue Origin moon landing updates.
The star Base water deluge system is under

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investigation, and the ULA announces a
Christmas launch date for Vulcan. This is

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the Space Race. October twenty fifth
saw the start of the twenty twenty three

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Von Braun Space Exploration Symposium and with
it a conversation with NASA program managers about

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the planning and execution of the Artemis
Moon missions. Every aspect of the mission

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structure was touched on, with the
focus being on how the teams involved were

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approaching the execution of their individual parts, and at the very end, doctor

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Lisa Watson Morgan spoke about the human
Landing System program. Watson Morgan is NASA's

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program manager for the crude landing sections
of the Artemis missions, which means that

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she and her team are responsible for
organizing and liaising with both SpaceX and Blue

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Origin as both companies ready their vehicles
for the Artemis three and five missions,

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respectively. Her section of the Artemis
panel was devoted mostly to the nuts and

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bolts of procedure, the things NASA
is doing to help SpaceX and Blue Origin

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develop their hardware, but more importantly, develop them on time, because with

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an expected launch date of twenty twenty
five for Artemis three, SpaceX at least

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doesn't have much time left to complete
the mountain of testing needed before NASA will

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clear them to take a crew to
the lunar surface. Obviously, the concern

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here is that SpaceX will have a
more difficult time than anticipated with starships testing.

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Sure they are more than ready for
the second test flight, which is

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currently waiting on FAA approval to launch. More on that later, but proving

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Starship can fly is just one checkbox
to tick out of hundreds. The HLS

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team is hoping for around fifteen to
seventeen launches of Starship before the twenty twenty

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five Artomis three launch date even happens, and that's because of the way NASA

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and its partners develop rockets. NASA
has learned from working with SpaceX and other

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commercial partners that data is much more
accurate if the team focuses on a smaller

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series of objectives per launch and just
performs a lot of test launches. We've

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seen this with SpaceX for pretty much
its entire history. Test fly, learn,

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repeat must be tattooed on every one
of their engineers by now. But

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while this sort of testing seems to
be the safest way to develop the HLS

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hardware, it does present a problem
for the overall schedule. Before twenty twenty

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five, SpaceX has to prove flight
capability, recovery operations, orbital insertion,

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zero G refueling, docking with NASA's
O'Ryan capsule, long duration flight, flammability

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test, cabin pressure stability, radiation
shielding, landing stability, lunar takeoff,

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and probably a lot more we can't
think of off the top of our heads.

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And this is where Watson Morgan gives
us a little insight into NASA's take

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on this whole situation, because they
don't seem particularly worried that Artemis three could

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be delayed. She was careful to
say that NASA is concerned that the SpaceX

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testing could lag a bit because the
rest of the Artemis program really can't continue

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without success on Artemis three. But
we know that NASA has planned for delays

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in the overall program agenda, so
it makes sense that Watson Morgan doesn't seem

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too nervous about potential delays, especially
considering that NASA seems way more interested in

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the learning part of this exercise.
Watson Morgan says that in addition to the

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highly visible flight tests that gets a
lot of attention, the development of tech

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procedures and supporting hardware that is being
completed in the background will ensure that even

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if the worst should happen and Artemis
three has to be canceled or changed due

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to some unforeseen problem with Starship,
the program will have gained so much valuable

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information and technology during the process that
it would never be a total loss.

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And this includes Blue Origin, of
course. On October twenty seventh, Jeff

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Bezos's Space Launch Company unveiled their own
Blue Moon Mark one Lander, the second

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commercial human landing system picked for the
Artemis missions, specifically Artemis five, which

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is due to launch in September of
twenty twenty nine. The three story tall,

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white and gold Lander has been in
development since about twenty sixteen and was

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a part of the original NASA contest
that ended up awarding the first HLS contract

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to SpaceX, but since NASA likes
using different providers to ensure redundancy, Blue

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Origin was picked for their second commercial
lander mission, and as usual, the

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unveiling of their new Lander came as
a total surprise because Blue Origin doesn't keep

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the public up to date on their
development cycles, for better or for worse.

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The vehicle itself certainly looks like it's
ready to fly, and the company

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says that it will be ready as
soon as their new lug Glenn is in

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twenty twenty four. This means that
Blue Origin has about five years of extra

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testing that SpaceX won't have, which
is likely why Watson Morgan didn't mention them

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much in her lecture. She did
point out that Blue Origin is using these

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same methods of testing as SpaceX is, though taking all the help they can

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get from both NASA and Lockheed Martin, who have helped design their hardware.

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Blue Origin have said explicitly that their
Mark one is a testing platform and will

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be helping the team test for Artemis
five and design supporting technologies for that mission.

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It's a pretty clever method of designing, and it's a good thing NASA

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is adept at learning from their partners. Starship could still make their deadline for

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the current launch date of Artemis three, but the team at NASA and SpaceX

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have made sure that it's not such
a big deal if they don't and of

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course anything that makes Starship stumble will
be fixed in time for Blue Origin's turn.

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On October twenty second, SpaceX conducted
a series of fuel and launch pad

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tests their Bokachika test center, and
then again on the twenty fourth. Each

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test performed using a fully stacked Starship
super heavy rocket to demonstrate full flight readiness.

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SpaceX has been diligently working towards re
certifying their massive rocket for flight since

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their first test on April twentieth went
awry, but as repairs to the launch

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site have been completed and upgrades to
the vehicle itself have been finished, the

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company seems very confident that they are
ready to fly again. Both days of

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testing involved pumping cryogenic fuel into the
stacked vehicle, with the operation on the

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twenty fourth using over ten million pounds
of liquid oxygen and methane propellant to prove

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that Starship, with its new hot
stage and collar, could handle the procedure.

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But strangely, the more important test
came at the end of testing on

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the twenty second, as the team
fired up Starbase's newly completed water deluge system,

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cranking it to full power with the
aid of freshly installed high pressure canisters

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and a final water tank. The
eruption of water, which will both cool

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the steel plate that sits directly under
the booster's engines and protect from pressure and

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noise damage, was much more powerful
than the original tests back in July.

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But why would this be more important
than fuel testing. Well, the answer

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to that came on October twenty fifth, when survey teams from the Fish and

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Wildlife Service were spotted on the grounds
of Starbase. As we said earlier,

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SpaceX has been working closely with local
and federal regulatory bodies to get their license

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for flight testing re certified. The
biggest of these bodies is the Federal Aviation

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Administration, of course, but they
formally closed the mishap investigation into the April

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twentieth Starship explosion on September eighth,
so their part seems to have been close

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to finishing. But the FAA wasn't
the only regulatory body that SpaceX had to

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satisfy, So while all of the
mechanical requirements had been satisfied in September,

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the environmental concerns remained. This is
where both the Fish and Wildlife Service comes

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in, because the deluge system needs
to be checked There are a lot of

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environmental concerns with Starship that have already
been accounted for and deemed safe. The

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pollution from its methane fuel, the
potential followed from an explosion, the debris

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from normal use, all that sort
of thing. But when the deluge system

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pumps thousands of gallons of water into
the coast of Bocachica, water that has

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been shipped in and has a slightly
different chemical and biological makeup to the local

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ecosystem, it's not likely to be
an issue, but fish and wildlife still

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need to check it out or they're
not doing their jobs. The FAA says

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this part of the process could take
up to one hundred and thirty five more

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days, though they were also quick
to say that they don't believe it will

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take that long. And this sort
of regulatory hang up has been very frustrating

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for SpaceX lately, but also for
the commercial space in general. Recent discussions

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going as far up the chain as
Congress, have centered around the need to

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update the regulatory system to account for
the fact that the landscape of the space

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industry has changed dramatically in the last
decade. We need a faster response time

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from these organizations. Now. Of
course, the companies themselves would like to

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see looser regulations in general, which
would certainly speed up the process at the

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cost of potentially making spaceflight less safe. But other suggestions have centered around a

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need for more funding so that these
bodies can more quickly do their work,

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or a single new regulatory body that
can handle all aspects of licensing spaceflight operations

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without having to work between so many
agencies like the FAA currently has to do.

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NASA is also on the side of
regulatory reforms, throwing their weight behind

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creating a whole new regulatory framework that
would cut through a lot of the unnecessary

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testing that currently bogs down the process. Whatever the decision eventually ends up being,

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it looks like the external pressure to
get Starship flying again is getting the

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environ mental testing teams out in the
field a little faster, and with any

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luck, this sort of visibility will
lead to Starship getting its license renewed before

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the end of this year, just
in time for Christmas. The United Launch

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Alliance has announced that their Vulcan rocket
will have its very first launch on December

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twenty fourth, Originally slated for a
launch back in summer of this year,

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the ULA was plagued by mechanical issues
with both their Centaur upper stage vehicle,

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the delayed development of the B four
engines made by Blue Origin for Vulcan's first

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stage booster, and the Peregrine Lunar
lander made by Astrobotic, and delayed more

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than once by the COVID pandemic.
Needless to say, the ULA has had

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a pretty rough time getting their new
rocket to the test stand, which is

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a real shame because on paper the
thing is very impressive. Vulcan's first stage

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is powered by a pair of B
E four engines, which use a liquid

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methane and liquid oxygen fuel mix.
Just like SpaceX's Starship. The booster can

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produce four nine hundred kit Newton's of
maximum force, allowing the Vulcan to put

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up to seven thousand kilograms into geostationary
orbit. That puts the Vulcan in competition

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with most other heavy lift rockets,
not Starship, but that's not a fair

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comparison really, considering that Starship outmasses
Vulcan by a little under ten times.

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Still, it's more than strong enough
to allow the ULA's older workhorses, the

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Atlas five and Delta four, to
finally retire. The first flight won't just

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be a test of the Vulcan either, with astrobotics Peregrine Moonlander finally getting a

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chance to do what it was designed
for and head to the lunar surface with

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a payload of NASA experiments. It
certainly looks like the next several months are

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going to be very busy for the
space Race. Starship could get their launch

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license within the next three months.
Blue Origins, New Shepherd, and New

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Glen are looking at perhaps launching within
the next several months two and Vulcan of

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course has its Christmas launch, all
while NASA prepares for a November twenty twenty four launch