Welcome to version 3.17 of the Rocket Report! Allowing weather and technical problems, we are looking at a busy weekend in Florida, setting up a Delta IV Heavy Booster for an early Saturday morning liftoff, followed by the Falcon 9 launch on Sunday morning. In the meantime, grab all the booster news below.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the following using x (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 at the next three launches on the lander.
Trying to launch a new Shepard scrubs. On Thursday, Blue Origin canceled the first launch of its first New Shepard rocket since December 2019. The mission was to fly several commercial payloads and some lunar landing techniques for NASA. “We have identified a potential problem with the power supply to the experiments.” Blue Origin stated. The company added that it will try to relaunch on Friday, September 24, at 15:00 UTC.
Things are moving slowly, but … Some people have begun to adopt a ho-hum attitude towards the New Shepard, as it takes a long time to enter the service of humans and is “just” a suburban system. But as I outlined on Twitter, I think this is still an exciting program and it doesn’t really take long to certify that a system capable of launching cargo can do it safely even for humans. (Submitted by Tfargo04 and Ken Bin)
ISRO plans to launch two in November. After being down for nine months, largely due to COVID-19 issues on the country’s primary spacecraft, the Indian Space Research Organization is planning two launches of its Polar Satellite launch vehicle in November, The New India Express reports. According to the release, the PSLV-C49 and PSLV-C50 missions are now targeted for that month.
Best not to suppress information … This schedule is temporary and predicts effective control of the virus as employees return to work at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. Employees must be notified immediately if their family members are tested for the virus. “Information suppression will be taken seriously and action will be initiated,” Spaceport told staff. (Submitted by Ken Bin and John Carter 17)
German rocket company blocks European launch. The co-founder of the German rocket company Isar Aerospace said he believed the European launch, led by state-backed aerospace, was apt to disrupt the industry. “Europe is where the U.S. industry was 15 years ago,” Muni said. Daniel Metzler, co-founder and chief executive of the based company, said in an interview with Ars.
Growing market service? … Isar has grown from 25 to 100 personnel this year, and it is targeting a 2022 launch for its “Spectrum” rocket, designed for the ability to launch up to 1000 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The company has not set a price per launch, but is targeting a competitive price point of 10,000 euros (11,700) per kilogram. The company believes that a growing number of European companies and other groups will find affordable access to space for smaller satellites.
Firefly conducts successful first stage exams. On Saturday, the Texas-based rocket company investigated the first phase of its alpha rocket flight. Four river engines performed a 35 second thrust vector control exercise. Firefly called the test a major step in Firefly’s first flight march. This could come in early November. (Video here)
A deep dive into the owner of the firefly … The mysterious Ukrainian supporter of Firefly who saved the company from bankruptcy, Max Poliakov, has sparked controversy in the aerospace industry for a business portfolio that includes race dating sites. However, a new feature of Bloomberg Businessweek provides little insight into Polikov and his interest in space. Your timing is right. (Submitted by Ken Bin)
Two suborbital rockets have been launched from Sub Australia. Australian small-satellite launching company Southern Launch has said it has completed two consecutive polar subrobital launches on a two-stage dart rocket designed by the Netherlands, Spacewatch.Global reports. Launched from the Kanibba Test Range west of Seduna, South Australia, separated by a duration of just 1 hour 40 minutes.
Encouraging people Lloyd Dempsey, CEO of Southern Launch, said, “We have achieved something incredible today in the form of Australia, because at Kuniba today, Australia took its first small step towards becoming a proud-capable nation once again,” said Lloyd Dempsey, CEO of Southern Launch. This seems to be an attempt to promote public interest in Australia, as the company hopes to develop its own orbital rocket in the future. (Submitted by Cognac)
OneWeb and Arians space to restart lunch. Emerging after a period of financial uncertainty, Oneweb says it plans to re-launch satellites into low Earth orbit with the goal of providing high-speed internet from space. Before filing for bankruptcy, the company planned to launch 18 more missions on the Europeanized Soyuz rocket by deploying a constellation of 648 satellites before the end of 2021.
Flipping from Arian 6 … Now, under the revised agreement, Aerospace will provide 16 additional launches under the end of December 2020 and 2022. The revised agreement canceled two Soyuz launches and also removed OneWeb as a customer for the inaugural Ariane 6 launch. According to OneWeb, Aerospace plans to launch commercial services by the end of 2021 for regions including the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland and Canada. (Submitted by Ken Bin, Tfargo04, Platicartic and John Carter 17)
China can see business space as the key. U.S. A new study by the Air Force University’s think tank, entitled “China Space Narrative,” assesses China’s use of soft power and diplomacy as potentially powerful weapons that could weaken the United Nations. According to Space News reports, the prospect of commercial space in the coming years is one of the topics focused on.
Envy of SpaceX … According to the report, Chinese analysts see the U.S. commercial space sector – and in particular SpaceX – as opinion models that Chinese companies should emulate. China sees the US commercial space industry as a major advantage for the United States. China’s private business sector faces many challenges, including the lack of a supportive policy environment and the central government’s favoritism towards the government-owned sector, the report said. (Submitted by John Carter 17)
Delayed delayed UAE satellite launch again delayed. The launch of Russia’s Soyuz-ST rocket with the UAE’s Falcon I2 satellite from the Kurou launch facility in French Guiana, scheduled for October, has been postponed until early November, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. No reason was given for the additional delay.
Everything slips … The UAE satellite was originally planned to launch on March 6, but it was postponed for a day due to a problem in the rocket’s frigate upper phase. Later, the UAE and Aerospace decided to change the stage and postpone the launch. As the novel coronavirus epidemic gained momentum, all work on the Cairo launch facility was postponed, and the mission was postponed again. The inauguration was then scheduled for October. (Submitted by John Carter 17)
Starship blows on top of it. On Wednesday morning – early Wednesday morning, local time in South Texas – SpaceX finally managed to burst a test tank for its Starship project. The so-called S.N. 7. The tank was built to test a new steel alloy that SpaceX engineers believe will be stronger for starships and super heavy vehicles. The failure was intentional.
See the top pop … The good guys at NASASpaceflight.com have a video of the pope, which came after tank pressure. So far, SpaceX has not revealed what the tank pushes before popping. Now the company’s focus on the Boca Chika site will be to build the SN8 – a full-level prototype with flips for a flight campaign, a nose cone and three Raptor engines. It may return to the launch site today. It will be something to watch.
The weather looks fine for the Delta IV heavy launch effort. Weather conditions should be favorable this week for the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy Mission, marking the third attempt by a three-core rocket to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, according to Florida Today reports. The updated forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of “go” conditions.
Is there a third time charm? … If the timetable catches up, the rocket will take off from Launch Complex 37 at 12:14 a.m. EDT Saturday (04:14 UTC), featuring a spy-stored satellite of the National Rick Onna Office Office Fees. The primary concerns revolve around the clouds. The previous two initial attempts were canceled in late August due to technical problems. The first happened when the issue of pneumatics in ground equipment forced teams to stay down to bha; The second lift off funny happened a few seconds ago with a torn diaphragm in the pressure regulator. (Submitted by John Carter 17)
NASA has invited the media for the SLS Green Run test. On Wednesday, the space agency opened media registration for the first test firing of the Space Launch System Core Stage for Access. As part of the invitation, NASA said the test is expected to take place “in early November”. Ars plans to stay there.
Key testing … This will be a big moment for NASA and core-stage prime contractor, Boeing, which has worked for years to build a large liquid-hydrogen and liquid-oxygen tank and engine section with four space shuttle main engines. Under negligible testing, the rocket will simulate in ascending orbit for about eight minutes. If the booster passes the test, it will be sent to Florida for a possible launch in late 2021. (Presented by Ken Bean)
Next three launches
26 Sept.: Delta IV Heavy | NROL-44 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 04:14 UTC
27 Sept.: Falcon 9 | Starlink-12 Mission | Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 14:43 UTC
28 Sept.: Soyuz | Three Gonet Satellites | Placesk Cosmodrome, Russia | 11:20 UTC
