INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Welcome back to Max Q, our weekly look at what’s happening in space and space startup news
This week was a bit more quiet than usual coming off of the amazingly over-packed International Astronautical Congress, but there were still
some big moves that promise a lot more action to come before they year’s over – particularly in the race to fly American astronauts to
space on a rocket launched from American soil once again.There’s also startup news, including how an entirely different kind of race –
one to make stuff in space – could be a foundational moment that opens up entirely new areas of opportunity for entrepreneurs big and
small.SpaceX needs to nail one key ingredient before its Crew Dragon missions can proceed apace with people on board
Actually, it has to nail quite a few, but parachutes are a crucial one, and it has been developing the parachutes that will help Crew Dragon
float back safely to Earth for years not.The third iteration is looking like the one that will be used for the first Crew Dragon missions
with astronauts, and luckily, that version three system has now completed 13 successful tests in a row
That’s approaching the kind of reliability it needs to show to be used for the real thing, so this is good news for the current goal of
putting astronauts on board early next year.SpaceX has another key test for Crew Dragon coming up as early as this week – a static fire of
its capsule abort engines
This is a key test because the last one didn’t go so well
Also, Boeing will be doing their pad abort test as early as this week as well, which sets things up nicely for a busy time next year in
crewed spaceflight.Launching stuff to space is expensive and really limits what you can do in terms of designing spacecraft and components
There’s been efforts made to reduce the costs, including SpaceX and Blue Origin pursuing reusable rocketry, but just building stuff up
there instead of launching it could unlock much deeper cost savings – and new technical possibilities
(ExtraCrunch subscription required)Satellite propulsion has, until very recently, been almost entirely a bespoke affair, which translates to
expensive and generally not accessible to startup companies who actually have to worry about stuff like burn rates
But Morpheus Space has a new “Lego-like” system for offering affordable, compact and scalable propulsion that can serve pretty much any
satellite needs.Small satellite business is booming, and Kepler wants to make sure that developers are able to figure out what they can do
with smallsats, so it’s offering a developer kit for its toaster-sized IoT communications satellites
Cooler than the Apple TV dev boxes that were on offer once upon a time.The ISS is getting a shipment of supplies and scientific material
courtesy of a resupply cargo capsule launched by Northrop Grumman on Saturday
One thing on board is twelve containers of read wine, courtesy of startup Space Cargo Unlimited
I’ll have more info about that on Monday, so stay tuned.
