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Boeing Starliner rolled out ahead of its planned first crewed launch
April 16, 2024
FLORIDA TODAY spoke with Laura Forczyk, a consultant in the space industry, on Starliner’s progress. “Not far enough. It is years behind schedule. Years behind SpaceX’s Dragon. 2017 was the initial target date for the first launches for both SpaceX and Boeing,” said Forczyk.
“They have yet to prove their crew demo flight which is what their next step is.” Forczyk said of Boeing.
“Because of the great care that Boeing and NASA working together have done to ensure that Starliner is successful, I do believe that this first flight with astronauts onboard will be successful," Forczyk said.
Competing Visions
April 1, 2024
“SpaceX is not trying to invent something completely new. They’ve been using the existing technology in a different way,” says physicist and space consultant Laura Forczyk.
But “at this point, it’s just ideas and concepts and nothing with a budget,” Forczyk, the analyst, says. “The issue is that NASA’s budget is so very limited that all they can do are these limited studies.”
That funding pales in comparison with $5.819 billion in the spending bill allocated for the Space Launch System rockets and Human Landing System for NASA’s Artemis moon program, some of which would go to SpaceX, which is on contract to deliver two astronauts to the lunar surface in a Human Landing System variant of Starship in 2026. “You can see where the priorities are,” Forczyk says. “The priorities are getting to the moon before China.”
SpaceX's lost Starship still made progress, analysts say
March 15, 2024
Despite meeting a fiery end, analysts say SpaceX’s Starship flight did hit some key milestones before it disintegrated on its return to Earth. They say it took steps forward toward the goal to one day take people to the Moon and Mars.
SpaceX Starship successfully blasts off on third test flight
March 14, 2024
“This was a great step forward. It was a vast improvement from the last test flight. It was not a 100% success, but I would still call it a success because it achieved many of the milestones that SpaceX set out,” said Laura Forczyk, executive director of space industry consultancy Astralytical.
Stuck on Mars
March 5, 2024
Space industry analyst and founder of the consulting firm Astralytical, Laura Forczyk, said these concerns aren’t just about planetary science, but rather pollical science.
“We’re seeing a lot of disagreement within Congress -- even more than usual -- which means there is going to be less of an understanding of what the budget is going forward,” Forczyk said.
Because the sample return mission involves robots and not humans on the surface of Mars, Forczyk said it is more difficult than some of our other sample return missions, like the Apollo missions.
“What we're seeing is the complexity, and the design challenges really delaying the program. It is delayed now more than a year, it has ballooned in cost,” Forczyk said. “It's gone from approximately $2.5 billion, that was the estimate from four years ago, to now over 10 billion even over 11 billion perhaps is the latest unofficial estimate from the independent review last September.”
Private Moon lander is dying — it scored some wins for science
Feb. 28, 2024
“What we’re seeing here is at least the beginnings of validating this concept, where NASA can trust commercial companies with this lunar landing service,” says Laura Forczyk, executive director of the space consulting firm Astralytical in Atlanta, Georgia. Odysseus is the second spacecraft to launch in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme; the first, from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company Astrobotic, did not make it to the lunar surface because of a propellant leak. NASA paid Intuitive Machines US$118 million to help develop Odysseus.
Even though it was mostly successful, Odysseus encountered numerous challenges that underscore just how difficult it is to get to the Moon and operate on its surface. “When you’re trying things in a new way, with new technology, you’re going to expect bumps in the road,” Forczyk says.
First Commercial Moon Landing Returns U.S. to Lunar Surface
Feb. 23, 2024
“[NASA] expected an approximately 50 percent failure rate, and one for two is that rate,” says Laura Forczyk, executive director of the space industry consulting firm Astralytical. “[IM-1 proves] that there is a capability for commercial landers to safely land on the surface of the moon at a lower cost.”
“These initial missions are more test missions,” Forczyk says. “We want to make sure that the technology is proven and mature before we put higher-stakes payloads onboard.”
Blue Origin ramping up New Glenn rocket production on Merritt Island ahead of 1st launch
Feb. 18, 2024
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos started Blue Origin in 2000, while Elon Musk created SpaceX in 2002. But the billionaires have taken markedly different paths in developing orbital rockets, said Laura Forczyk, founder and executive director of the Atlanta space consulting firm Astralytical. She does not view Blue Origin as a short-term competitor to SpaceX.
"They've had just as much time as SpaceX. They've had just as much time as SpaceX — but they've been taking their time. They've been very deliberate. And they have different areas of interest," Forczyk said.
"Right now, they're not even competing for the same customer base in the short term. In the long term is where things might change. Because in the long term, we do have (SpaceX's) Starship becoming operational and increasing its cadence, and we just don't know what that's going to look like yet," Forczyk said.
"But what's interesting will be how New Glenn and ULA's Vulcan and Starship all compete in the long run," she said.
"It was impressive seeing those engines fly on Vulcan. Now Vulcan is a different vehicle than New Glenn, but still it was really impressive to see Vulcan succeed the way it did," Forczyk said.
"And that gives me hope that New Glenn will actually succeed when it finally is ready to launch," she said.
Interstellar travel: From science fiction to reality
February 2, 2024
Laura Forczyk, an author and the founder of space consulting firm Astralytical, said nuclear fusion propulsion has the potential to revolutionise space flight.
"We will not be able to achieve interstellar travel until we engineer a faster and more efficient means of accelerating," said Ms Forczyk.
"We also need to develop long-term, self-sustained robust ecosystems for long-duration voyages and a better means of radiation shielding. We are at least a century away from these advances."
Is NASA too down on space-based solar power?
January 22, 2024
NASA is counting on Starship, a fully reusable giant rocket under development by SpaceX. It will be capable of lofting up to 150 tons at a time to low-Earth orbit, once it gets over the teething problems that doomed the first two test launches. The company’s partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket has already revolutionized the launch business since its debut in 2010, lowering launch costs from upward of $7000 per kilogram of payload to less than $3000 per kilogram. “Once Starship is operational, it’s all going to change again,” says Laura Forczyk of Astralytical, a space industry consultancy.
China and the US: Who will win Moon race in new space era?
January 21, 2024
Laura Forczyk, author and founder of space consulting firm Astralytical, said the Artemis mission delays were expected and that timelines could "inevitably slip" because new technology ensuring crew safety takes time to develop.
She said Nasa was in a transition period where it is relying on contractors, including buying services at a fixed price.
"These companies have never before provided lunar services such as landers, rovers, infrastructure and spacesuits, so we can expect delays," she said.
"Nasa established the Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme to land commercial landers and rovers on the Moon with the expectation that half would fail. We all learn from these setbacks."
Peregrine, a Private U.S. Moon Lander, Burns Up in Earth’s Atmosphere
January 19, 2024
“They have flawlessly updated us when they did not need to on a mission that is otherwise a failure,” adds Laura Forczyk, founder and executive director of the space industry consulting firm Astralytical. “They made us rally around a lunar lander that was never going to land. Because of their frequent updates, they made us care.”
Unlike the relatively brief crewed lunar forays of NASA’s Apollo program in 1960s and 1970s, the space agency envisions Artemis as a long-term effort that will see astronauts and robots visiting the moon for years, if not decades, to come. “We are trying hard to return to the surface of the moon sustainably,” Forczyk says. “It all ties together.”
5-Year Deorbit Rule Won't Prompt Timing, Licensing Locale Shakeups
January 9, 2024
Given the years it can take to get a payload on a launch manifest -- compounded when dealing with multiple satellites such as a constellation -- "there is neither the time nor the launch vehicle availability to rush to get satellites into LEO before September," emailed Laura Forczyk, executive director-founder of space consultancy Astralytical. Constellation operators generally want to be good stewards of the orbital environment "because irresponsible behavior and crowded orbits harm everyone, themselves included," she added. "It costs resources for satellite operators to respond to conjunction warnings and conduct their own risk analysis," Forczyk said. "The FCC 5-year rule is generally seen favorably by satellite operators, even if they are burdened by its implementation."
Private U.S. Lunar Lander Suffers ‘Critical’ Anomaly after Launch
January 9, 2024
“The disappointment of Peregrine now having an anomaly, while it is unfortunate, was not unexpected. I had braced myself for the prospect of failure,” says Laura Forczyk, founder of the space industry consulting firm Astralytical.
“When you think about the future of the Artemis program, this is just the very beginning,” Forczyk says. “These robotic landers are the initial steps.”
Here’s What’s Next for SpaceX’s Starship
Nov. 21, 2023
“I thought it was fantastic partial success, and really good progress forward. It got some milestones accomplished that needed to happen,” says Laura Forczyk, an Atlanta-based space industry consultant. “Not only SpaceX but also NASA, which is SpaceX’s most important customer, was pleased with the results,” she added, referring to NASA chief Bill Nelson’s praise on social media following the launch.
These test flights demonstrate how SpaceX’s development style differs from NASA’s, Forczyk says: While NASA tested every component to perfection before its Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft could launch—with federal agencies, Congress, and the White House looking over the agency’s shoulder—SpaceX improves by launching over and over again, seeking to do better with each effort.
“With each test flight, they are going to have greater standards for themselves, because they really need to move quickly,” Forczyk says.
Starship, SpaceX’s transformational mega-rocket, makes it to space
Nov. 18, 2023
“It has the potential to launch more payload and more crew members at a lower price than any other launch vehicle that has ever existed,” says Laura Forczyk, executive director of the space-industry consulting firm Astralytical.
Despite Musk’s erratic behavior, Forczyk predicts NASA’s relationship with SpaceX and Starship will remain steady. “Just [as] with the Russians after the invasion of Ukraine, it’s business as usual,” Forczyk says. “NASA does not want to be pulled into controversies.”
Second SpaceX megarocket launch ends with another explosion. What happens next?
Nov. 18, 2023
“NASA is so high profile when it comes to its reputation and who they’re held accountable to,” says Laura Seward Forczyk, founder of the space consulting company Astralytical. “They have Congress. SpaceX is not as accountable, only to its investors and its customers.”
Progress in Starship test launch, but ship and booster explode
Nov. 18, 2023
"It was a fantastic partial success," space scientist Laura Forczyk told AFP. "It surpassed my expectations."
Forczyk, the space scientist, said that SpaceX achieved "more progress than they did back in April" and she expected the company to get cleared by aviation authorities for another attempt more rapidly than before, adding, "It's going to be a quicker turnout."
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to lay off 185 employees
Nov. 8, 2023
That’s bad news for Virgin Galactic, which needs time to ensure the safety of its vehicles and passengers and to build a track record of successful flights, said Laura Forczyk, executive director of space consulting firm Astralytical.
“Virgin Galactic really does need to take their time to ramp up operations,” she said. “There are very few investors that would be willing to have that patience.”
“The pressures of raising money for stakeholders and being so public about their finances, and the lack of investor environment right now contributes to the fact that companies have been doing mass layoffs and some companies might go under,” Forczyk said.
See how SpaceX's Starlink is driving record rocket launches on Florida's Space Coast
Nov. 1, 2023
It's such a contrast to where we were 12 years ago when the space shuttle was retired," Laura Forczyk, a physicist and space industry consulting firm owner, told FLORIDA TODAY, part of the USA TODAY Network. "The Space Coast was in this depression where people were not sure what the future looked like. They assumed that there would be commercial access to space, but government was all they knew. It is such a paradigm shift."
After ISS, will a new home materialize for NASA?
Oct. 31, 2023
Laura Forczyk, the founder of US space consulting firm Astralytical, agrees that the market potential is a little unclear. “I don’t believe anybody expected all four of the commercial space station awardees to have operational space stations because of the business case,” she says. “It’s a risky business, and we know from the International Space Station that it is very expensive to run a human-rated platform in space. It’s extremely challenging to make a space station that is profitable.”
India had an impressive year in space—and it’s just getting started
Oct. 29, 2023
“The Indian space program has been under the radar, I think, because it has always operated well, but with lower stakes and lower budget,” says Laura Forczyk, a space industry analyst and founder of the consultancy company Astralytical. But IRSO’s ambitions are clearly and justifiably ramping up in the wake of the Vikram landing, she says, as “successfully landing a lander and a rover on the moon is something that very few countries in the world have ever done.”
But a crewed mission by 2026? “I think that’s completely feasible,” Forczyk says. As Russia’s influence wanes, and that of India’s close rival China’s rises, the crewed Gaganyaan program is “a means of growing their own standing in the world.”
“What we’re going to see is more countries that have historically not played a large role in space rise, because they see it as a means of demonstrating their technology, technological advancement,” Forczyk says. “A peaceful demonstration of advancement.”
India’s 2040 moon landing could make it a space superpower
Oct. 29, 2023
In the book “Rise of the Space Age Millennials,” space business analyst Laura Forczyk presents case studies of young people, none of whom were alive during the Apollo program, who constitute the “Artemis Generation,” a phrase coined by former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, inspired by current space programs, both governmental and commercial. India will surely experience that phenomenon if it can establish a thriving space sector.
Years after space shuttle retirement, Florida chases nearly 70 launches a year
October 22, 2023
"It's such a contrast to where we were 12 years ago when the space shuttle was retired," Laura Forczyk, a physicist and space industry consulting firm owner, told FLORIDA TODAY. "The Space Coast was in this depression where people were not sure what the future looked like. They assumed that there would be commercial access to space, but government was all they knew. It is such a paradigm shift."
"Florida has grown significantly in integration — it's got the manufacturing, it's got the integrating into the rockets, and then it also has the ability for the landings both to land and off the coast," Forczyk said. "All of that really ties together to make it a more seamless one-stop-shop location for all spaceflight."
How NASA got its mojo back and what it means for Space City
August 11, 2023
What was not that many years ago perceived as a marginalized government agency, struggling to articulate a vision after the retired shuttle program, appears these days to be, once again, relevant.
In the audio above, Laura Forczyk, executive director of the space consulting firm Astralytical, tells us that this has been many years in the making.
Boeing’s struggling Starliner craft won’t fly astronauts until at least 2024
August 10, 2023
In 2014, NASA awarded both SpaceX and Boeing contracts to develop spacecraft for the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The goal at the time, according to Laura Forczyk, founder of the space industry analysis firm Astralytical, was to provide NASA with rides to space after the 2011 retirement of the Space Shuttle, without relying on Russia and its Soyuz spacecraft. Boeing was the clear favorite.
“They chose to do dissimilar redundant systems, Dragon and Starliner, for the purpose of at least one succeeding. That one was assumed to be Starliner,” Forczyk says. “And it was a question whether SpaceX would even succeed at all.”
“These other systems that are in development will offer competition, but at what point does SpaceX become less dominant?” Forczyk says. “Right now SpaceX is so far ahead of everyone else in human-rated orbital launch that it’s going to take a lot for other companies to catch up.”
Ripples in the cosmos: What we're learning from gravitational waves
July 11, 2023
Then, delays could keep the crew of the Artemis II mission on the ground, the first time humans have made a trip to the moon in more than a half-century. We’ll speak with Laura Forczyk, a space policy analyst and founder of the consulting firm Astralytical, about the crew’s training ahead of the planned 2024 launch from Kennedy Space Center and the challenges of such a complex mission.
A space segment for the belt and road? Saudi Arabia and China get cozy.
July 10, 2023
Laura Forcyzk, Founder of Astralytical, on navigating a career in aerospace.
Fixing Starship
July 6, 2023
“NASA knows that the development of a new launch vehicle takes time and likely will have setbacks,” says Laura Forczyk of the Astralytical consultancy. “I do not think Starship’s messy progress is a surprise to NASA at all. NASA has a long working relationship with SpaceX and understands how the company prefers to test its prototypes.”
Virgin Galactic has a launch date for its first paying space tourists
June 25, 2023
“I do not have high hopes for Virgin Galactic’s long-term stability due to their excruciatingly slow pace to become operational, their high company expenses, and their mixed safety track record,” says Laura Forczyk, a space industry analyst and founder of the consultancy company Astralytical. “I don’t think that their revenues are going to be able to catch up with their expenses unless there is a significant change in operations.”
“They had way more technological problems with this less mature technology than they anticipated, and they had significant safety concerns” Forczyk says. “Traditional rockets have a long history of launching uncrewed as well as crewed spaceflight. Space planes do not have that history.”
“They absolutely had competitors that took advantage of the fact that they were not online when they said they would be,” Forczyk says.
The company needs to raise capital, “and they need to prove their safety and prove their operations in order to raise that capital,” Forczyk says. “So I don’t know what this summer will bring, but I do believe that we should expect more delays. Hopefully, we will see more flights.”
It also needs to prove that those flights are safe. “Their entire business case relies on public perception of these people who are willing to fly on their vehicle, either for the fun of it or for research,” Forczyk says. “They don’t have another business case to fall back on, unlike their competitors.”
What the lost Titanic submersible means for explorers and space tourism
June 23, 2023
Laura Forczyk, a physicist and owner of space consulting firm Astralytical, told FLORIDA TODAY: “Adventure tourism and space tourism attract many of the same kinds of people: the wealthy who are willing to risk their lives to do something few (or no) others have ever done, usually with newer, less mature technology.”
“Unlike a submersible trapped underwater, Blue Origin's New Shepard has an escape system that demonstrated its success last year," Forczyk said. "If there had been human passengers on board, they would have survived."
“Much the same way that wealthy adventure tourists accept risk, so, too, do space tourists,” Forczyk said.
"Safety is integral to human spaceflight, government and commercial," said Forczyk. "The market will determine whether commercial human spaceflight providers have proven themselves safe enough for a large enough segment of wealthy adventurers."
Artemis: Space seeks more inclusion, embracing women on journey back to moon
June 16, 2023
Laura Forczyk, physicist and space industry consulting firm owner, told FLORIDA TODAY, "Back in the time when NASA was stood up when the initial space program kicked off, it was a difference in the cultural standards of the United States where women were not expected to work. They were expected to stay home."
"There was an expectation that the races would be separate and that higher level careers would not be accessible to people of certain races or ethnicities, or religion or gender identity," Forczyk said.
Forczyk said NASA has a responsibility to promote these kinds of initiatives as the de facto leader in the space sector.
"To have and promote those initiatives and for NASA leadership to set that standard is very valuable," Forczyk said. "It trickles down."
Sally Ride’s space launch 40 years ago ushered in decades of change for women and STEM education
June 16, 2023
Laura Seward Forczyk thought a space career could be more attainable after meeting Ride in high school. She pursued astrophysics and planetary science and later founded the space consulting firm Astralytical.
“It’s wealthy men who can afford to buy these tickets to go to space,” said Forczyk with Astralytical. “So even though NASA’s astronaut classes are close to 50-50, the commercial astronauts are definitely not.”
NASA Inspector General Blames Rocket Engine Contract Mismanagement for Artemis Moon Program’s Problems
June 5, 2023
If $93 billion seems like a lot to pay for a program that’s six years late, that’s because it is a lot, argues Laura Forczyk, a space industry consultant and founder of the firm Astralytical.
But “I wouldn’t say this is particularly surprising,” she told SpaceRef. “There have been reports coming out for years now about how delayed everything is, including these RS-25 engines and how much their costs overrun.”
“This is business as usual. This will not be seen by Congress as justification to change the program at this point,” Froczyk told SpaceRef. “It could be used as justification to change the program at a later point if SLS falls out of favor, but at this point, it’s still so politically popular that this is just going to be accepted as fact.”
A closer look at Starship’s launch pad
June 1, 2023
“The extent of the damage took me by surprise,” says Laura Forczyk, a space analyst from Georgia-based Astralytical. “I did not realize SpaceX had taken shortcuts in the design of the pad.”
Artemis 2 Crew Finds Inspiration in DC’s Chaos
May 23, 2023
Any significant delays in new technology, including Starship and the spacesuits being designed for the mission, could also prompt lawmakers to start questioning the mission, said Laura Forczyk, executive director of space consulting firm Astralytical.
“It is very difficult to back out of an international coalition when you are the leader, and NASA has established itself firmly as the leader of this initiative,” Forczyk said. “To me, that was political brilliance”
Another way to ensure political buy-in is to play up the competition with China, which is pursuing its own lunar base on the Moon’s south pole. Forczyk said pitting the US against China—and highlighting how embarrassing it would be if Beijing beat Washington—could be the “number one thing” to make sure politicians give NASA the funding it needs.
What will replace the International Space Station?
May 15, 2023
However, rather than research, some argue the station's main accomplishment was solidifying humanity as a space-faring species. Prior to its launch we had dipped our toes into long-duration spaceflight, with Russian cosmonauts spending upwards of a year on their Mir space station, but the ISS has been on another level, says Laura Forczyk, a space analyst at the US consulting firm Astralytical. "It changed our minds about what it means to be a space-faring civilisation," she says.
Was SpaceX's first attempt to launch its Starship rocket a failure?
May 13, 2023
“Test flights are weighted heavily towards failure – everything needs to go right, and only one thing needs to go wrong,” says space analyst Laura Forczyk. “I do not believe that even most people within SpaceX thought that this mission would be entirely successful with launching to space and landing back on Earth.”
“I have been calling it a successful failure, because it did get fairly far into the mission and it did give SpaceX a lot of valuable data,” says Forczyk. Statements from SpaceX had a similar tone, talking about how much the company learned from the test flight.
“I understand the mentality of ‘A flame trench is going to take a long time so we’re gonna skip it’, but there is a reason that pretty much every launch pad has a flame trench,” says Forczyk. “This was entirely predictable.”
EVONA Origin Stories - Laura Forczyk
May 10, 2023
In today's episode, we’re joined by Laura Forczyk, a renowned space consultant and career coach with nearly 20 years' industry experience. 🚀
As the founder and executive director of Astralytical, Laura has made it her mission to help businesses, governments, non-profits, and professionals worldwide thrive in the fast-paced and fascinating space sector. 🌌
With a lifelong passion for space and a background in astrophysics and planetary science, Laura has successfully transitioned her broad range of skills into her unique niche today. 🪐💼
In this episode, we'll discuss Laura's journey into the industry, the invaluable lessons she's learned along the way, as well as the diverse and exciting roles available in the space industry to anyone with a dream.
A fiery end? How the ISS will end its life in orbit
May 2, 2023
Beginning as the single Russian-built Zarya module in 1998, the station today is enormous, boasting 16 modules, vast solar panels mounted on a metallic truss, and radiators to expel heat. At 109m (356ft) in length it is the size of a football field, the largest human structure ever assembled in space. "It's like the pyramids of Giza," says Laura Forczyk, a space analyst at the US consulting firm Astralytical. A rotating crew of seven inhabit the station today.
Launching Your Business or Career Into the Space Industry
April 27, 2023
Today I have the pleasure of talking with Laura Forczyk. She’s the Founder and Executive Director of Astralytical, which is a space consulting firm. Laura guides businesses and government entities to grow in the exciting and fast-paced space sector.
Laura is passionate about spaceflight and the entire space industry. She has a broad expertise spanning science, technology, exploration, and public policy – which gives her a unique perspective.
During our interview, Laura discusses opportunities for non-space companies to expand into the space industry. She also shares information about the many space-related jobs that don’t require STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) degrees.
I know you will enjoy this discussion and get some valuable insights about the space industry and how you might be able to play a role in that industry.
“Every tech company has some kind of link to the space industry, they just don’t know it yet.” – Laura Forczyk (Founder and Executive Director of Astralytical)
SpaceX’s Starlink Position Remains Protected from Most Starship Delay Scenarios, Analysts Say
April 27, 2023
“I don’t believe this is a major setback. At this time, we don’t have enough information to really know what kind of delay this will bring,” said Laura Seward Forczyk, founder and executive director of consulting firm Astralytical. “But I don’t see anything within this launch that will be a major delay, like years. We already know that it takes longer than Elon Musk predicts to get the development of hardware, especially with new rockets on board.”
Was the SpaceX explosion a success or a failure? A little of both
April 20, 2023
Aerospace consultant Laura Forczyk, in an interview with VERIFY, called the launch “a partial success, or a successful failure.”
“It actually got off the launchpad. And it got past the maximum dynamic pressure point – max Q – where the rocket undergoes the most intense forces against the atmosphere,” she said. “The data that they got far outweighs the fact that they did not 100 percent complete the mission.”
“There is more of a tolerance for explosions with private companies because they are not under public scrutiny. With NASA, there is a lot of public attention. There's Congress, there's the White House, and there's the general public – the taxpayers who pay NASA's budget. And so all of those people, all those stakeholders, are watching NASA. And there's an expectation that it's going to go right the first time,” said Forczyk. “But with private rockets, especially ones that are not publicly traded, there's more incentive for them to ‘fail fast.’”
Forczyk says private companies like SpaceX may believe more frequent, less perfected tests can offer a better chance at quickly accomplishing the end goal, adding that before NASA came so squarely into the public eye it too operated with more abandon.
“Back in NASA’s early history we did see a lot more tolerance for failure and expectation that things will break and that there will be explosions,” she said.
Four minutes into SpaceX's new Starship test flight, it tumbled and exploded
April 20, 2023
Space policy analyst Laura Forczyk is calling this mission a successful failure and that it really exemplifies SpaceX's design process - develop rapidly, push hardware to the limits and learn from when things inevitably go boom.
LAURA FORCZYK: Each accident, each anomaly gives them further data as to what to improve so that when they finally have payloads on board, when they finally have astronauts on board, they are going to have a successful launch and landing.
SpaceX’s Starship Fails Upward in Milestone Test
April 20, 2023
“We should expect failures of brand-new rockets,” says Laura Forczyk, a space analyst and executive director of Astralytical, a space consulting firm. “SpaceX will learn from its mistakes and hopefully we will see quicker iterations once that first test flight is off the ground and they get the data they need to improve for the next time.
SpaceX rocket explodes before reaching orbit
April 20, 2023
“It was a partial success, it was not a large setback,” said Laura Forczyk, a former Nasa official and now a space consultant at Astralytical. “The most important part was that it launched — that is quite the accomplishment for a new rocket, particularly one as complex as Starship.”
The rocket failed performing a manoeuvre that had never been attempted before, said Forczyk. She added that information gathered from the failed flight was likely to contribute to a successful orbital test of the Starship within the next year or two.
SpaceX’s enormous Starship rocket finally launched – and then exploded
“I don’t think anybody, Elon Musk included, expected this launch to go perfectly,” says space analyst Laura Forczyk. “I would have been shocked if it had been 100 per cent successful this first time.”
“SpaceX is going to determine what went wrong, they are going to improve on the process and they are going to try again – I think we should expect to see multiple tests this year,” says Forczyk. “They have many customers that are waiting on this rocket – they have NASA, they have private customers, they have other government interest, so there’s a lot waiting on this rocket becoming operational.”
Despite the explosion, the test was not a complete failure. It demonstrated that Starship can get off the ground, which was not a given. “I don’t see any reason why today’s failure would be a major setback,” says Forczyk.
Despite test flight failure, Starship poised to transform space science
April 20, 2023
Laura Forczyk, who owns the space consulting firm Astralytical, says Starship is “the first step toward reinventing science payloads.”
With frequent Starship flights, researchers could build large constellations of Earth-observing satellites, Forczyk says. The vehicle could also haul copies of a particular mission into space, lowering the risk of failure and driving savings through economies of scale. “What if you had 10 Voyager-like probes sent in different directions?” Forczyk asks.
SpaceX Starship: launch of biggest-ever rocket ends with explosion
April 20, 2023
If SpaceX demonstrates that Starship can reach orbit, that will be “significant for what it will bring afterwards”, says Laura Forczyk, executive director of Astralytical, a space consulting company in Atlanta, Georgia.
It’s too soon to tell whether SpaceX can fulfil its promises of flying Starship regularly and cheaply, Forczyk says. But the fact that it has shown it can do so with smaller rockets, and that NASA is supporting Starship as a key part of its Moon exploration programme, are both in Starship’s favour.
Still, developing any new rocket is challenging, as today’s flight showed. SpaceX has a number of other Starships built and will probably test another one in the near future. “We could see a lot of significant progress this year,” Forczyk says. “Or not.”
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Identifying Space Industry Opportunities
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NASA Budget Uncertainty Deepens Amid Headwinds
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Commercial Space Stations: Orbit is Only the Beginning
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America’s Spaceports: Power and Peril
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Spacecraft Trends and Increasing Opportunities
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China’s Lunar Ambitions Rising As NASA Squeezes Science for Lunar Push
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Global Launches: Trends, Observations, and Opportunities
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Shutdown Threat Looms Large Over NASA; Science Programs Face Cuts
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Virgin Galactic’s Possible Businesses
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Is the American Space Sector Ready for Climate Change?
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The (Growing) Business of Observing the Blue Marble
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India: 21st Century’s Newest Space Powerhouse
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A Critical Look: European Orbital Launch
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Uncertainty Continues to Cloud NASA’s Budget Prospects Amid Speakership Shuffle
