Dear readers,
Welcome to Quartz’s newsletter on the economic possibilities of the extraterrestrial sphere. Please forward widely, and let me know what you think. This week: Trouble for Momentus, Rocket Lab reuse, and the small matter of the US elections.
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First, a scoop: Mikhail Kokorich, the CEO of Momentus Space, is legally barred from accessing his company’s technology because he is a Russian national and has been unable to obtain US government permission to work with export-controlled space vehicles. Read more about what that means for the company’s planned $1.2 billion IPO.
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Rocket Lab is taking a big step towards becoming the next private company with a reusable rocket booster.
In a flight expected on Nov. 15 in the US, the New Zealand-American firm will use a parachute to return an Electron rocket first-stage booster gently to the Pacific Ocean after it launches customer satellites. Data and analysis from the demo will be used to build out a booster recovery system that will see a helicopter swoop in to snatch the rocket before it hits the water so it can be flown again.
(If that sounds wild, consider this was roughly how early spy satellites returned their images sixty years ago.)
While part of the experiment is seeing what state the rocket returns in, CEO Peter Beck is confident that reusing a booster will be a benefit for his business. “Being able to increase production rate is really the key driver,” he told reporters yesterday. “The fact that we don’t have to build more vehicles in the same factory is a big advantage.”
“The ultimate goal is to get it back in such a condition that we can put it back on the pad, gas it back up, charge the batteries and go again,” Beck said. The company has already developed and tested its parachute system and protective shielding that will insulate the rocket as it re-enters the atmosphere at 8.5 times the speed of sound.
The question of whether rocket reusability really drives down cost is close to settled. SpaceX’s reusable boosters have allowed it lower its prices, but not as much as once was forecast. This may simply be because the company is charging what the market will bear, but we don’t have good answers about how much it costs to refurbish the Falcon 9 booster once it lands. (We’re still waiting to see a first stage fly twice in 24 hours, as Elon Musk hoped to do in 2019.)
Still, the bonus boosters clearly benefitted SpaceX’s efforts to get its Starlink satellites into orbit, and Rocket Lab’s decision suggests the design choice offers real benefits to a pure-play launch company as well. Rocket Lab’s reusability gear means a loss of 15 kg of payload, or about 7.5% of the 200kg Electron typically flies with. Presumably, the extra cost of the infrastructure needed for recovery (boats, a helicopter) nets out.
“I’m a quarter Scottish,” Beck says. “I’m tight as anything.”
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IMAGERY INTERLUDE
America has its fourth astronaut senator in Mark Kelly, and also evidence that being an astronaut is powerful political juju to outweigh any Mike Dukakis-style pictures that may exist on the internet.
Space Shuttle astronauts practiced driving an armored personnel carrier, which they would use to evacuate the launchpad in case of an emergency.
👀 Read this 👀
Many consider the H-1B visa to be the pipeline that helped America build the world’s biggest tech hub in Silicon Valley. Over the last 30 years, beneficiaries of the visa, now numbering in the millions, have filled a massive skills gap in critical fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
But the visa category has come under immense criticism. Decades after its creation by one Republican president, another Republican president has targeted it as part of an anti-immigration clampdown. Our latest field guide examines how the visa became such a painful touchpoint in the debate over US immigration reform, and whether it can survive going forward. Read more about the status of the H-1B.
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SPACE DEBRIS
Early returns. As of this writing, the US hasn’t picked its next president, so I’m holding back on rampant policy speculation. Still, a few notable results from the Nov. 3 election: As noted, Mark Kelly, the former astronaut and husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, won a senate seat in Arizona; he didn’t campaign on space issues but you can expect he’ll take an interest once in office. Oklahoma rep. Kendra Horn, a Democrat skeptical of NASA’s approach to using private companies on moon missions, lost her reelection bid, as did Colorado senator Corey Gardiner, a Republican with a geopolitical interest in private-sector space, which means new lawmakers will step into their former positions of influence.
NASA objects to a mega-constellation. The US space agency formally objected to a proposed satellite constellation in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates American satellite launches. It’s the first time NASA has done so, amid rising concern about space traffic management in a world with thousands of new satellites in low-earth orbit. The agency has some very specific concerns: The proposed network, known as SpaceMobile, will fly too close for their comfort to the “A-train“, a group of remote-sensing satellites that operate in a precise orbit to gather data. The new spacecraft are also expected to be unusually large, making them difficult to maneuver around.
Vector resurrector. Vector Space, the small rocket firm that went bankrupt last year, is back after a new investor consortium bought its assets. The plan is to integrate a new engine design into the vehicle designed by the previous team. Vector has a lot of catching up to do as other small launchers, like Virgin Orbit and Firefly, approach big test milestones.
The ISS after two decades. Swallowed up in other news, Nov. 2 marks the twenty-year anniversary of the International Space Station’s continuous habitation by humans. There’s a lot of history floating around up there, and a perceptual journey from boondoggle to high-tech loss leader. Going by the list of traditional anniversary gifts, we should send China—either nice plates or, even better, international scientific cooperation.
Your pal,
Tim
This was issue 72 of our newsletter. Hope your week is out of this world! Please send inside information about Momentus, visions of space policy in 2021, tips, and informed opinions to tim@qz.com.