Stephen Clark / Ars Technica
Welcome to Edition 6.20 of the Rocket Report! We apologize for missing last week, but both Stephen and I were in transit to South Texas for the Starship launch. To make up for it this week’s report is extra long, and a day early due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. But that doesn’t mean the spaceflight action stops, with an eagerly awaited hot fire test of the Ariane 6 rocket expected Thursday. See below for details on how to watch live.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using 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.
North Korea launches spy satellite. North Korea’s launch of a small, solid-fueled Chŏllima-1 rocket, which has a capacity of about 300 kg to low-Earth orbit, appears to have been successful, Reuters reports. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the US Space Force data had cataloged two new objects in an orbital plane consistent with the launch from North Korea at the time stated by Pyongyang.
Did Russia help? … “I conclude the objects are the spy satellite and the rocket upper stage,” McDowell told the news service. What remains unconfirmed, however, is whether its payload, the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1, is operating and whether the North received any outside help. South Korea’s spy agency has said North Korea may have overcome technical hurdles with the help of Russia, which in September publicly pledged to help Pyongyang build satellites. (submitted by EllPeaTea, Ken the Bin, and tsunam)
Firefly raises significant funding. It’s certainly not the best of times for a space company to raise money, but Firefly seems to be having success regardless. The company recently announced that it has raised about $300 million since February 2023, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. “We have been successful at raising funds at an increased valuation in this challenging capital markets environment due to our focus on production and mission execution,” said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace.
Lots of lines of business … Along with Firefly’s recent responsive launch success with the VICTUS NOX mission, the company said it has been awarded contracts for multiple Alpha rocket missions, including a NASA flight, and launch agreements with Lockheed Martin and L3Harris. The company also won multiple US government and commercial contracts, including three NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services task orders, with its Blue Ghost lander. Firefly is also developing a medium-lift rocket with Northrop Grumman. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Rocket Lab targets November return to flight. Rocket Lab expects to resume Electron launches in late November after concluding that a “largely improbable” combination of events caused the vehicle’s previous launch to fail, Space News reports. The company is targeting a return to flight of Electron no earlier than November 28 from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The rocket will carry a radar imaging satellite for the Japanese company iQPS on a dedicated mission.
An unexpected electrical arc … Electron has been grounded since a September 19 launch failure, when the second-stage engine appeared to shut down moments after ignition. The company has already received authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to resume launches. In an earnings call to discuss the company’s third-quarter financial results, Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck said the failure happened quickly, with only 1.6 seconds of data from the first indication of a problem with the vehicle to the loss of telemetry. “This was always going to be a highly complex issue to figure out,” he said. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Ursa Major to target solid rocket motor market. CEO Joe Laurienti said the company sees an opportunity to use 3D printing to disrupt an industry constrained by outdated processes, Space News reports. The production of solid rocket motors in the United States is “plagued by a broken supply chain and an overextended industrial base,” Laurienti said. “Most folks weren’t really paying attention to the industrial base around this until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Surging demand for missiles in Ukraine … While large solid rocket motors are employed by big launch vehicles such as NASA’s Space Launch System and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan, they are most widely used in military weapon systems like missiles and rockets. Northrop Grumman and L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne are the nation’s primary suppliers of solid rocket motors. The conflict in Ukraine has exposed cracks in the US industrial base, which has struggled to meet surging demand for critical munitions like the Javelin and Stinger missile systems that depend on solid rocket motors. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
SaxaVord owes contractors money. A spaceport being built on the Shetland Islands north of the Scottish mainland is having financial difficulties, European Spaceflight reports. Shetland Space Centre Limited owes approximately 1 million pounds to Shetland-based DITT Construction for the development of the spaceport. The company currently does not have the funds to pay the amount after a £139 million debt facility promised by CEO Frank Strang in May failed to materialize. The construction of SaxaVord Spaceport began in late March 2022. At its peak, more than 60 people were working on site to build out key infrastructure that would enable the facility to support launches of small rockets from Scottish shores.
One launch company still going, another pulls out … In January 2023, Germany’s Rocket Factory Augsburg announced that it had secured exclusive rights to the only launch pad that had been completed. With testing of the RFA ONE core stage expected to begin at the site in early 2024, this appears to be one of the elements of SaxaVord that has been completed on schedule. In possibly related news, another German launch startup, HyImpulse Technologies, said it would make the debut flight of its suborbital SR75 launch vehicle from the Southern Launch Koonibba Test Range in Australia instead of the previously announced SaxaVord. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)
Spanish startup makes progress on methalox engine. Barcelona-based Pangea Aerospace recently announced a successful test of the combustion chamber for its ARCOS aerospike engine. “We were also able to validate the advanced manufacturing techniques and materials used, which represent breakthrough technologies for the aerospace industry,” the company stated. Pangea says this is the first aerospike engine developed using liquid methane as a propellant.
A step toward full reuse … The ARCOS engine is designed to have a thrust of 300 kN, or about one-third that of a Merlin 1D rocket engine. It is intended to fly on both the first stage and upper stage of a reusable launch vehicle. The company’s technology is not at the maturity level of Stoke Space, but it does appear to be the first Europe-based startup attempting to build a fully reusable rocket. (submitted by Leika)
Ariane 6 hot fire test to be broadcast Thursday. After some public kvetching by myself and many others, the European Space Agency says it will now broadcast the full-duration hot-fire test of its Ariane 6 rocket. This test will occur on Thursday (Happy Thanksgiving to US-based space reporters) from the European launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. Coverage will start 20 minutes before engine ignition at 17:10 local time in Kourou (3:10 pm ET, 20:10 UTC) and continue for five minutes after core stage operation.
Turning up the heat in Kourou … The test includes the ignition of the core stage Vulcain 2.1 engine, followed by 470 seconds of operation covering the entire core stage flight phase, as it would function on a launch into space. The boosters will not be ignited. This is a test model of the rocket, as the first flight version of the Ariane 6 is still being completed in Europe. This is the final major test, and success here could pave the way for a debut launch sometime in 2024 (possibly no earlier than the third quarter). Shoutout to whoever made the decision and is making this broadcast happen. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Beyond Gravity joins the reusable rocket party. On Wednesday, the fairing manufacturer formerly known as Ruag announced it was kicking off a “major research and innovation project” to develop a reusable payload fairing. The concept entails the payload fairing being connected to the first stage, with two halves of the fairing swinging open to release an expendable second stage and a payload. The first stage and payload fairing would then return to Earth. The plan looks similar to Rocket Lab’s design for its reusable Neutron rocket.
The launch paradigm continues to shift … “This new approach is set to address the evolving market’s needs while staying true to Beyond Gravity’s commitment to sustainability, innovation, and dedication to a 100 percent mission success,” said Paul Horstink, executive VP at Beyond Gravity’s launcher division. “In addition, the cost savings associated with reusable rockets could make the launch systems more accessible to a wider range of companies and organizations, supporting more frequent launches.” The company says it will initially target medium-launch vehicles. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Japan sets target for next H3 attempt. Japan’s space agency, JAXA, says it aims to make a second attempt to launch the country’s new flagship H3 rocket by the end of next March, NHK News reports. The first launch last March ended in failure after the rocket’s second-stage engine did not ignite.
Fixing those problems … After analyzing flight data and conducting studies, JAXA identified three main factors contributing to the failure. JAXA President Yamakawa Hiroshi said measures to be taken for the next launch will address those failures from the initial attempt. He also said the results of the main engine’s combustion testing have helped JAXA to better prepare to launch its second H3 rocket. (submitted by tsunam)
White House concerns on Musk won’t halt SpaceX contracts. The Biden White House is not moving away from Elon Musk’s SpaceX or Starlink technology despite condemning Musk for pushing antisemitic comments on social media, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday. Musk’s antisemitic X post last week drew a swift response from the White House. “We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” spokesman Andrew Bates said, according to CNBC.
Difficult to move away from innovative services … “There’s innovation out there in the private sector that we’d be foolish to walk away from,” Kirby replied, when a reporter asked if the government was reconsidering its contracts with Musk’s rocket maker and his high-speed satellite Internet provider. “I’m not aware of any specific efforts to address our concerns over his rhetoric through the way that his companies provide support to our national security establishment,” said Kirby. Just because the federal government has no plans to walk away from Musk’s technology, however, “doesn’t mean that we accept or agree with or condone in any way that antisemitic rhetoric that he pushed,” Kirby added.
Starship takes flight for the second time. SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket reached space for the first time Saturday, flying straight and true for more than eight minutes before exploding nearly 100 miles over the Gulf of Mexico downrange from the company’s South Texas launch base, Ars reports. The flight profile for Saturday’s test launch, designated Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), should have taken the unpiloted Starship on a trajectory to fly most of the way around the world before a targeted reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. In the end, the rocket didn’t reach this objective, but the results Saturday were promising.
A lot riding on this rocket … “We got the hot staging, the thing that we really wanted to see and test,” said John Insprucker, a senior SpaceX engineer providing commentary during the company’s official live broadcast of the test flight. “We saw the separation, we saw the flip maneuver, we saw the light-up of the six Raptor engines on Starship.” SpaceX plans to use the rocket to launch massive payloads of numerous Starlink Internet satellites. NASA has a pair of contracts with SpaceX worth more than $4 billion to use a variant of Starship to land astronauts on the Moon. Private space travelers have also signed up to fly on Starship.
Actually, Starship had a remarkably successful flight. Despite uneven coverage by much of the media, SpaceX’s Starship rocket had quite a successful test flight on Saturday, Ars reports. The company enjoyed a nominal performance of the first stage, got the vehicle through the experimental hot-staging event, and obtained several minutes of performance data by the Starship upper stage’s Raptor engines. SpaceX also validated the revamped design of its launch mount and water-based suppression system to mitigate launch-site damage.
Still a lot of work to do … For all of that, the rocket and spacecraft ultimately blew up. Although this looks like an obvious failure, with the experimental nature of the test, it most definitely was not. Several sources at SpaceX reported that the internal mood at the company following the test flight was ecstatic and that the flight exceeded expectations. This was an important test of both the booster and upper stage that should allow SpaceX to reach a substantially higher cadence of Starship missions in 2024 as it continues to prove out the complex and highly ambitious vehicle.
Vulcan has a clear path to flight. United Launch Alliance is closing in on the debut flight of the Vulcan rocket, and it remains on track to fly the vehicle for the first time on December 24, Ars reports. The last major piece of hardware for the rocket, the Centaur V upper stage, arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, last week. All of the qualification testing necessary for the first flight, including for the upper stage, is complete. During a media roundtable, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said, “The path to flight one is clear” for Vulcan.
Bound for the Moon … Bruno said United Launch Alliance, or ULA, has some margin in its schedule as it works toward a launch at 1:49 am ET on Christmas Eve. If the weather is poor, the company also has launch opportunities on December 25 and 26 before the closure of the launch window this year. The “Certification 1” mission would then have another launch opportunity during the first half of January. As its primary payload, the Certification 1 mission will carry a lunar lander built by Astrobotic, which will attempt to make a soft touchdown on the Moon early next year.
New Glenn first flight will carry a Mars mission. The first flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket seems to finally have a payload. Instead of launching a sports car, as SpaceX did with its first Falcon Heavy rocket, Jeff Bezos’ space company will likely launch a pair of Mars probes for NASA, Ars reports. NASA is aware of the risk of launching a real science mission on the first flight of a new rocket. But this mission, known by the acronym ESCAPADE, is relatively low cost. The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers mission has a budget of approximately $79 million, significantly less than any mission NASA has sent to Mars in recent history. The launch cost is $20 million.
Giving thanks for a launch next year? … This mission will use two spacecraft to measure plasma and magnetic fields around the red planet. With simultaneous observations from two locations around Mars, scientists hope to learn more about the processes that strip away atoms from the magnetosphere and upper atmosphere, which drive Martian climate change. Because it’s going to Mars, ESCAPADE has a relatively narrow window to get off the ground next year. Documents on the mission presented at public meetings earlier this year indicated it had a launch window in August 2024, but NASA said Monday that the mission is now set to fly “around this time next year.” A debut of New Glenn in 2024, at any point, would be both welcome and surprising given the amount of work left to be done ahead of its liftoff.
Next three launches
November 23: Kuaizhou 1A | Unknown | Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China | 10:00 UTC
November 23: Soyuz 2.1 | Undeclared, but likely Bars-M No. 5 | Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia | 20:00 UTC
November 25: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-30 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | TBD
