Welcome to Edition 3.11 of the Rocket Report! Many of the most interesting news this week came in the world of small launches, with Electron announcing a quick return to flight as well as improving the capacity of its Electron booster. We were also surprised to see such a robust money-making effort from ABL Space Systems.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you do not want to miss a problem, please sign up with the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small, medium, and heavy lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Astra is trying to launch second orbital rocket. The launch pad for launching Rocket 3.1 from the company’s spaceport on Kodiak Island, Alaska, opened Sunday night. A combination of technical issues with the rocket and ground systems, such as weather issues, has ruled out launches on Sunday through Wednesday.
Slide to the end of the window … The company now intends to fly on Thursday, August 6, with the window opening at 7 a.m. PST (02:00 UTC Friday). The purpose for this flight, which will not carry any commercial cargo, is to get through the fire of the first stage. Lightening up the second stage and getting into the job will be grim, company CEO Chris Kemp told reporters last week. We wish Astra well. (submitted by Ken de Bin)
Virgin Galactic delays commercial flights to 2021. Virgin Galactic has postponed the start of commercial flights of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital car to no earlier than the first quarter of 2021, while announcing plans to sell additional equipment to raise money, SpaceNews reports. The company, in its fiscal second-quarter financial results released Monday, said it expects to conduct two more test flights of SpaceShipTwo from Spaceport America in New Mexico, both of which will be powered by aircraft.
And then, the knight … “Assuming things go as expected on this fully manned flight, we would then plan to fly Sir Richard Branson on the third powered flight from New Mexico,” said George T. Whitesides, the company’s chief space officer . This would mark the beginning of commercial service. At this point, we are in the we will-believe-it-as-we-see-it camp on Virgin Galactic’s plans for commercial space tourism. (submitted by JohnCarter17)
Rocket Lab announces return to flight this month. In a fairly quick cover, Rocket Lab says it has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to repair these launches this month after an anomalous electrical connection was identified as the cause of an error in flight on July 4, 2020. The investigation could confidently limit the problem to one anomalous electrical connection.
Objective of August return-to-flight mission … “The problem occurred under incredibly specific and unique circumstances, causing the connection to fail in a way we would not detect with standard testing,” said Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck. “Our team has now replicated the issue in reliable replication and identified that it can be mitigated by additional testing and procedures.” Separately, Rocket Lab also announced an impressive increase in Electron’s loadload capacity from 225kg to 300kg at low ground. (submitted by trimeta, Unrulycow, Ken the Bin and platykurtic)
ABL secures new financing. ABL Space Systems, a three-year startup developing a launch vehicle for small satellites, announced this week that it has received two US Air Force contracts worth $ 44.5 million, and secured $ 49 million in new private financing . ABL says it is planning the first orbital launch of its RS1 car in 2021.
To fundraising during a pandemic … “We closed the loop during the COVID-19 pandemic. No doubt there have been serious challenges in many people this year, but I think the rhetoric around funding for small launches is completely frozen and necessitating bourouts in the sector is a bit exaggerated, “founder and CFO Dan Piemont told SpaceNews. This is a good amount of money, and the technology of the company seems to be mature. We would love to see where ABL goes. (submitted by JohnCarter17 and Ken the Bin)
Virgin Orbit will carry NASA’s second loads. In a lengthy blog post, Virgin Orbit said it had determined the cause of the first launch-try failure: “A break in the high-pressure line carrying cryogenic liquid oxygen to our first stage combustion chamber due to a component failure. Without a supply of oxidizer, which engine soon stopped supplying pressure, ended our powered flight and finally the test itself.
Update the second demo for launching demo … The company says aircraft hardware is now in final integration and will be shipped to Mojave, California, soon for testing. Notably, NASA has agreed for the second mission to launch 11 CubeSats for its CubeSat Launch Initiative. This demonstrates an admirable risk tolerance on NASA’s part and some confidence in Virgin’s part. The company plans to carry out this flight “at the end of this year”.
Ariane 5 rocket which is now aimed 14 August. On July 31, with less than three minutes to go into the countdown, the launch of an Ariane 5 rocket with three satellites was halted. The reason? A technical problem involving “unexpected behavior” of a sensor going into the liquid-hydrogen tank of the main stage.
Returning from the pandemic … The rocket was then transferred back to the Final Assembly Building at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. This week, Arianespace announced a new launch date for the mission, August 14, “with the possibility of an optimization in the process for the mission that would be performed a day earlier.” This is a major mission and the first to fly from Kourou since the space shuttle closed earlier this year due to COVID-19. (submitted by Ken de Bin)
After delays, Starlink mission returns to the launch pad. After a six-week delay for undisclosed reasons, SpaceX on Thursday added a Falcon 9 vertical to its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Spaceflight Now reports. The company will try again early Friday to launch the next batch of Starlink Internet relay stations and a few commercial BlackSky Earth imaging microsatellites.
Late night launch … Liftoff is set for 05:12 UTC Friday. This will be the first launch of SpaceX to provide a full set of Starlink satellites equipped with new sunshades, such as fissures, in an effort to make the spacecraft less visible to ground-based telescopes, addressing concerns expressed by astronomers that thousands of Starlink satellites can interfere with scientific observations.
South Korea is launching its own launch program. Analysts from the South Korean defense sector say the nation would struggle to compete with other countries in the launch sector, which could provide more advanced technologies and services at lower prices with their already established space industry infrastructure. “Even if South Korea develops its own missiles, they would no longer be able to emerge as air and space giants like SpaceX in terms of technology,” said Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, in The Korea Times.
Ten times the cost … The country’s space institute, KARI, has developed several small satellite missiles, but these are not competitive with SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which recently launched South Korea’s first military communications satellite, ANASIS-II. “The cost to the South Korean government to develop the two missiles was 10 times higher than that spent by SpaceX,” said Kim Seung-jo, former president of KARI. “But the outcomes of the South Korean government in its missile projects were far behind the Falcon 9 missile produced by SpaceX.” (submitted by JohnCarter17)
SES selects SpaceX, ULA for commercial launches. In separate news releases, SES announced with the two leading start-ups of America. SpaceX will provide launch capacity for up to three of its C-band satellites over two Falcon 9 launches, and one United Launch Alliance Atlas V will carry the two stacked satellites. Only American missiles were considered for the commercial missions.
No Vulcan for this … The launch of the C-band satellites will facilitate the distribution of the 5G network across the United States. The announcement is notable for a number of reasons: first, it is rare for ULA to win a purely commercial contract. Second, the ULA mission will fly on an Atlas V, instead of a Vulcan rocket. This may indicate some lack of confidence on behalf of SES about Vulcan’s integrity in 2022. (Submitted by JohnCarter17 and Ken the Bin)
Swarm to launch on a Falcon 9 rideshare. Swarm Technologies is working with Exolaunch of Germany to launch 24 SpaceBee satellites into orbit on the SpaceX Falcon 9 mission for small satellite ride parts to be launched in December. Exolaunch, a ride-share launch and satellite deployment company, will handle the launch, integration and deployment of SpaceBee satellites in solar-synchronous orbit, SpaceNews reports.
Rates of December … Earlier this year, Exolaunch announced an agreement with SpaceX to launch multiple small satellites into orbit on the December flight. For the December launch, Exolaunch plans to integrate microsatellites and cube sets onto a Falcon 9 Evolutionary Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter port and send the satellites into orbit using EXOpod, the company’s proprietary system. (Submitted by Ken de Bin and JohnCarter17)
The Atlas V launch to Mars was certainly stunning. Last Thursday, an Atlas V rocket launched NASA’s latest rover, Perseverance, into the Red Planet. For this mission, NASA opted for an Atlas V rocket with four solid rocket boosters. Yes, this is a free photo gallery.
Smoke and fire … The rocket built by United Launch Alliance took flight under clear skies from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and, now, we will stop writing, because the photos of this epic lance speak for themselves. We’m not sure we’ve ever seen a more breathtaking Atlas V launch.
Starship prototype makes its first flight. On Tuesday night, a little over an hour before the sun set in the rolling Texas horizon, this prototype of Starship rumbled to life and left the ground for the first time. It stood out of a grandstand, with its single Raptor rocket engine burning clean. Then the 30-meter-high car climbed to about 150 meters, moved laterally and began to descend before landing safely, Ars reports. This prototype lacks important structural elements, including a large nose seal, flaps, an intermediate station, and more. But critically, this car incorporated Starship’s steering system.
Bigger hops late this year? … After Tuesday’s test, the next steps of the program are unclear. Tuesday’s vehicle was Serial Number 5, or SN5. It will probably be retired now. Inside the tents and high bays in South Texas, SpaceX has components for SN6, a separate pathfinder tank that uses a new steel alloy, and SN8. This latest car will likely have a nosebleed and flight control surface, and it will likely increase the number of Raptor engines to three. This car could possibly make a test flight up to 20 km this year.
Next three launches
August 7: Rocket 3.1 | Astra booster’s second launch attempt | Kodiak Island, Alaska | 02:00 UTC
Aug 7: Falcon 9 | Starlink-9 mission | Kennedy Space Center, Fla. | 05:12 UTC
Aug 14: Ariane 5 | Galaxy 30, MEV-2 & BSAT-4B satellites | Kourou, French Guiana | 21:33 UTC
