Plus commercial space efforts, an ageing space station, and beavers.

#01 LAUNCH ATTEMPTS

+ It was not a great week to be an upstart small spacecraft launch company. Astra’s 3rd attempt to reach orbit (pictured above) failed to get very far after one of its five engines shut off immediately after liftoff. Interestingly, this left the rocket with a thrust-to-weight ratio of almost exactly one which means you don’t go anywhere. Interestingly, as fuel burnt off the rocket was able to make progress skyward but not nearly enough to reach orbit. Newtonian physics wins again.

+ Firefly Aerospace attempted their first-ever orbital launch as well. Control of the rocket was lost a few minutes into the flight at which point the launch was “terminated”. This typically means a safety officer on the ground determined things were becoming unsafe (fair, considering the rocket was tumbling out of control at the time) and sent a command for it to self-destruct (yes, rockets typically have a self-destruct feature) causing a fiery explosion. I don’t know if there’s a big read button involved but I sure hope there is.

#02 YOU'RE GROUNDED

+ Richard Branson’s first ride into space on Virgin Galactic’s space plane was also nearly his first emergency landing. During the vehicle’s ascent, the pilots received a warning (apparently a big red light on the dashboard) that the flight profile was too shallow, meaning they were leaving controlled airspace and risked not being able to make it back to the landing strip. The correct response in this scenario would have been to abort the flight and return early, but instead, the pilots continued on with the flight. The company has been grounded by the FAA until an investigation is complete and other concerns about Virgin’s safety culture are answered. This story also wades into a larger debate about human vs robotic control of spacecraft. Virgin’s spacecraft requires pilots to have manual control over the vehicle for the entire flight whereas competitors like Blue Origins have an entirely autonomous rocket. 

+ Speaking of Blue Origins, the company launched their New Shephard rocket again, although this time it carried 18 research experiments aboard instead of tourists. Commercial space is often criticized for catering to wealthy millionaires, but the new capabilities make for more affordable and frequent space science as well. 

#03 SPACE STATION

+ We’ve previously reported on how the International Space station is showing its age, and the news isn’t getting any better. More small superficial cracks have been discovered in the Russian Zarya cargo module. It’s unknown whether or not the cracks are leaking any air into space, but a Russian official warned that the cracks may get worse over time and that at least 80% of in-flight systems on the Russian segment are past their expiration date. 

#04 PERSEVERANCE

+ The Perseverance rover seems to have successfully captured its first rock sample from Mars. Some additional imagery is required to confirm the feat, but this is welcome news after the team came up empty in the first attempt a month ago.

#05 CONSERVATION

+ A quintessential endangered species no longer, Chinese conservation officials have announced that giant pandas in China have been removed from the endangered species list. 

+ Lake Trout are once again reproducing in Lake Eerie thanks to a decades-long effort to clean up the great lake. Over the last century native fish have essentially been exterminated from the region due to pollution and invasive species.

+ Scotland's population of beavers has doubled to 1,000 in the last three years after being re-introduced in 2009 in a bid to increase biodiversity and wildlife habitat in the region.

#06 A GOOD BOOK

+ A couple of newsletters ago I suggested a Theodore Roosevelt bio that got me interested in reading some of the president's own writing, and Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail does not disappoint. In his 20s Roosevelt bought a ranch in the North Dakota badlands which he lived and worked on for a number of years before returning to politics in the East. Ranch Life chronicles a number of stories including Roosevelt's experiences ranching in an unforgiving environment, breaking broncos, hunting mountain sheep, and even rounding up a couple of thieves that stole his boat. Roosevelt's reminiscences provide a detailed look at life on the American frontier, and are an apt portrait of a man who had a lifelong delight in physical challenges and tests of nerve.

Roosevelt's penchant for descriptive language is particularly on display in this passage, describing a winter night on the plains. "When the days have dwindled their shortest and the nights seem neverending, then all the great northern plains are changed into an abode of iron desolation... All the land is like granite; the great rivers stand still in their beds, as if turned to frosted steel. In the long nights there is no sound to break the lifeless silence. Under the ceaseless shifting play of the Northern Lights, or lighted only by the wintry brilliance of the stars, the snow-clad plains stretch out into dead and endless wastes of glimmering white.

That's all for this week! You can respond to this email to tell me about anything you liked or didn't like, tell me about a project you're working on, or suggest a story. You might also forward this email to a friend so they can subscribe too!

- Evan Hilgemann