Welcome to Edition 3.06 of the Rocket Report! On Saturday, Americans will celebrate July 4 with ridiculously small solid rockets. Readers of this report, however, will know that rockets are worth celebrating every day of the year. And there’s a lot of news around here this week, so let’s get to it.
As always, we appreciate reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss a problem, subscribe using the box below (the form won’t 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 at the next three launches on the calendar.
The weather forces a very long delay in launching Vega. The European rocket company Arianespace has been trying to launch a Vega rocket carrying dozens of small satellites for most of the year. More recently, unfavorable upper-level winds sank three different launch attempts in late June. On Wednesday, Arianespace appeared to raise its hands in frustration and postpone the flight until August 17, “when the forecast is expected to be more favorable based on wind modeling.”
OK, it wasn’t just the weather … A seven-week delay due to weather seems excessive, so Ars searched a bit more. The forecast for the next week or 10 days seems bleak compared to the upper level winds. But after that time, the batteries on board the vehicle (and some of the payloads) will need to be recharged, and this would delay the launch of an Ariane 5 planned for July 28. So Vega’s return flight mission was punished.
DoD withdraws small launch contract awards. Well that was fast. On June 16, the Department of Defense announced that it had selected Aevum, Astra, X-Bow, Rocket Lab, Space Vector, and VOX Space to receive non-competitive contracts to launch two ride-sharing missions for government clients in the next 24 months. On Wednesday, the department reversed the decision.
Necessary justification … According to SpaceNews, multiple industry sources said that the selection of the six companies generated widespread criticism because it was unclear how these suppliers were selected over others. When contracts are awarded without open competition, the Department of Defense is required by law to submit a “Justification and Approval” document that explains why an award was single-sourced. No such documents were presented in this case. (presented by trimeta, JohnCarter17 and Ken the Bin)
Firefly Now Targets Mid-October For Alpha Launch. In a recent interview, Firefly founder Tom Markusic said the company missed a month of hours due to a test bench fire in January and perhaps a month or two due to COVID-19. “The plan is now in mid-October this year, which represents a couple of months less than before,” he told Connectivity Business of the first launch of the Alpha rocket. “Overall, I think we have been very fortunate in both incidents because we are no longer delayed.”
The material goes in, the pieces of the rocket come out … During the interview, Markusic said the company’s vertical integration helped limit the amount of time Firefly lost in the pandemic. “We had some disruption to some of the material supplies, particularly the compounds that caused us a bit of a delay, but I think vertical integration really helped us because it’s just a matter of marking the material and assembling, rather than waiting for the finished boxes arrive by mail, “he said.
SpaceShipTwo performs New Mexico’s second glide flight. Virgin Galactic conducted its second test flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle from its New Mexico spaceport on June 25, and the company now says it is ready to resume powered flights from the spacecraft, SpaceNews reports. “It was an important test that, pending the data review, means that we can now begin preparing the vehicles for powered flight,” said George Whitesides, executive director of Virgin Galactic.
Test of driving conditions … The company billed this flight as a “high-speed” test of SpaceShipTwo, with the spacecraft reaching speeds of up to Mach 0.85 during its descent. The highest speed was designed to test how the vehicle is handled in conditions closest to powered flight. Virgin Galactic also said it will reveal the interior of the spacecraft on July 28 (presented by Ken the Bin, platykurtic, and JohnCarter17)
Australian company tests its rocket engine. Queensland-based Gilmour Space Technologies said in late June that it had completed a successful 45-second ‘hot fire’ of its top-stage hybrid rocket engine. “This was our longest and most efficient litmus test to date,” said Gilmour Space CEO and co-founder Adam Gilmour.
A growing company … The company is developing hybrid propulsion technology to power its “Eris” orbital rocket. Gilmour, who reports having 50 employees, has set himself the goal of launching his rocket in 2022. Among his short-term goals are low-altitude tests of his guidance, navigation and control systems, as well as a static fire test of its first Stage Engine. (presented by Ken the Bin)
