Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 17, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Read the Winter issue at: winnipegfreepress.com/fp-features Available in your Free Press (subscribers) on March 29 and at Manitoba Liquor Marts - while supplies last! SPRING 2025 ISSUE OF DON’T MISS THE COMING SOON! FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2025 A8 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I WORLD SpaceX catches booster again, but loses Starship upper stage during test flight S PACEX sent up its first test flight of the year for its Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Texas, catch- ing the booster for just the second time back at the launch site, but suffering a loss of the upper stage. The seventh test flight overall for the 396-foot-tall combined rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 5:37 p.m. eastern time. “We do believe that we have lost the ship during its ascent phase,” said SpaceX commentator Kate Tice. “It successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster, but during that ascent phase, a couple of the engines dropped out, and then shortly thereafter we lost communication with the vehicle.” The booster recovery at least was a repeat of the spectacle SpaceX achieved on its fifth test flight last year, nailing a recovery back at the launch tower using what the company calls the tower’s “chopsticks,” which swivel in to grab hold of the booster as it makes a powered, hovering descent. The sixth test flight last November skipped the attempt because of some sensor damage done to the tower on liftoff, but SpaceX was able to make the most controlled landing yet of its Star- ship upper stage over the ocean. For Thursday’s successful recapture, the launch tower had been outfitted with radar sensors, aiming to increase accuracy measuring the distance be- tween the chopsticks and the booster as it came in for the catch. Of note, one of the 33 engines on this flight flew pre- viously on the fifth test flight, marking the first reuse of a Raptor engine. The tower sensors also featured more pro- tection to avoid the damage seen on the sixth test flight, giving SpaceX a better chance at nailing the capture. If safety parameters had not been met as the booster made its way back to the pad, the flight director would have ordered it to veer off for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico as it did on the sixth test flight. For the lost upper stage, though, SpaceX will have to revisit its plans on a future flight. This lost vehicle was what SpaceX called a new generation upper-stage ship, and the mission was going to attempt its first payload de- ployment test. “We are obviously bummed out about the ship. It looked like we lost contact with it a little under eight and a half minutes into flight. That’s roughly when you start to get to that main en- gine cutoff,” said fellow commentator Dan Huot. Designers continue to experiment with its shape, such as moving the loca- tion and size of its forward flaps, while also trying out various heat shield solu- tions. SpaceX was not yet ready to try a recovery landing of the upper stage, though, and it was going to try a splash- down again a little more than an hour after launch. On board were 10 Starlink-sized simulators that were to be deployed and follow Starship’s trajectory so they also would have splashed down in the ocean. The flight plan also called once again for a relighting of a single one of the up- per stage’s six Raptor engines. Plans for this year’s spate of test flights include sticking the upper stage landing as well as performing a propel- lant transfer in space, something that will be needed when Starship is used for NASA’s Artemis moon missions. The Super Heavy booster powered by 33 Raptor engines produces up to 16.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, making it the most powerful rocket in history to reach space. So far, though, all the test flights have been suborbital, with the upper Starship stage only trav- elling partway around the Earth target- ing splashdown landings in the Indian Ocean near Australia. The seventh flight had been aiming to take the same path, but ultimately fell short. “We obviously need to go through all the data. It’s going to take some time in the next hours, days, we’re going to fig- ure out exactly what happened, come back, fly the next one, getting farther,” Huot said. “Reminder, it’s a test. It’s a flight test. It’s an experimental vehicle. So we’ll figure out what ended our day today and make sure it doesn’t end our day tomorrow.” All test flights to date have taken place from Texas, but SpaceX has two launch sites planned from the Space Coast in Florida. It’s already building out a tower at Kennedy Space Cen- ter’s Launch Complex 39-A, adjacent to where it launches Falcon 9 and Fal- con Heavy missions. It’s also aiming to build out a tower at neighbouring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, taking over Space Launch Complex 37, which had been the home for United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy’s final launch- es. Environmental impact studies for both sites were started in 2024, but are expected to be complete this year. — Orlando Sentinel RICHARD TRIBOU SPACEX / TNS A SpaceX Starship Super Heavy booster makes a successful return, caught at the launch tower in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday. Trump picks former air crewman and space expert to head Air Force WASHINGTON — Presi- dent-elect Donald Trump has named Troy Meink, a former Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft navigator and former deputy of the National Reconnaissance Office, as his choice to serve as the top civilian leader for the Air Force. Meink has almost four decades of experience as both a military member and in government ser- vice in national security, includ- ing roles managing some of the nation’s most sensitive satellite intelligence capabilities and the military’s space portfolio. “Troy will work with our in- credible Secretary of Defence Nominee, Pete Hegseth, to en- sure that our Nation’s Air Force is the most effective and deadly force in the World, as we secure peace through strength,” Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social. If confirmed, Meink would as- sume the role as the Air Force and U.S. Space Force, which was established by Trump during his first term and just hit its fifth year in existence — are hurried- ly trying to reshape the nation’s space capabilities. Many countries, including Russia, China, North Korea and the U.S. are developing new ways to disable or defend the tens of thousands of satellites that ring the Earth as a way to cripple a potential adversary without fighting a traditional land-based war. Meink is from Lemmon, South Dakota, and joined the Air Force as an ROTC cadet at South Da- kota State University in 1988. In his previous role at the National Reconnaissance Office, Meink oversaw a more than US$15 bil- lion budget to acquire new satel- lite capabilities. — The Associated Press TARA COPP ;