United Launch Alliance
Welcome to Edition 5.37 of the Rocket Report! I am happy to share some good news this week, with the Vulcan rocket rolling back to the launch site for a new round of tests, and India making progress on its next-generation engine. It’s great to see all of the progress in this industry.
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.
Virgin Galactic burns through more money. The space tourism company reported a net loss of $159 million in the first quarter of 2023, compared to $93 million in the first quarter of 2022. The company said it needed the extra spending as it prepares for its first commercial flight later this year and invests heavily in its next-gen Delta spacecrafts, Payload reports. Virgin Galactic announced it will perform a final test flight in late May, sending two pilots and four Virgin Galactic employees to suborbital space.
Challenges ahead … If all goes well, the company will commence commercial flights in late June. It has been nearly two years since Virgin Galactic last flew humans above 80 km. With its latest financials, the company faces some very serious existential questions. First of all, it must get back to flying into space more frequently and then do so safely across many flights to start generating revenue. And then it must succeed in bringing the Delta ships—which are supposed to be capable of flying a couple of times a month—into service by 2026. The company has $874 million on hand, so this is not impossible—but it will be a real challenge. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Australia axes spaceport budget. The government has cut a plan to bankroll spaceports and rocket launch facilities in Australia as part of funding cuts to the space industry, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. The Department of Industry, Science and Resources recouped $77 million in savings in Tuesday’s federal budget by cutting three programs that aimed to support Australian space technology, including $32.3 million slated to co-invest in spaceports and launch sites.
Spending on space lagging … The axing of the spaceport program in particular was bad news, said Malcolm Davis, a senior space policy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. “If we’re going to have sovereign space capabilities, which was the goal, then we need somewhere to launch from,” he said. Australia’s existing spaceports include Arnhem Space Centre, a commercial facility in the Northern Territory. Another spaceport planned for Toowoomba in 2024, however, was thrown into doubt last month after satellite launch company Virgin Orbit went bankrupt. (submitted by Subwoofer2 and Ken the Bin)
Ranking the UK launch companies. The website Orbital Today has published a ranking of six launch companies in the United Kingdom—Skyrora, Lockheed Martin, SmallSpark, Astraius, Newton Launch Systems, and Orbex. “This is a way to keep tabs on what these companies are doing, and how they are developing new technologies and craft that will turn the UK into a hotbed of space launch activity!” the list author wrote excitedly. I’ll be honest, I have never heard of some of these companies. And the only one I feel fairly confident will ultimately reach orbit is Lockheed, which is partnering with ABL Space to launch the RS1 rocket from the SaxaVord. Both companies are also based in the United States.
And the winner is … Orbital Today puts Skyrora atop its list, which, to be honest, seems like a brave move to me. Orbex, by the way, is at the bottom due to the abrupt departure of CEO Chris Larmour. “No new CEO has been installed as of the time of writing, so we expect the company to pull itself together slowly, if at all. The smoke-and-mirrors aspect of the Orbex PR output, as opposed to the anorak-in-motion presentations of others, makes us wonder about the company’s actual progress in the first place,” the website opines. Me too. (submitted by brianrhurley)
Construction begins on Scottish spaceport. Meanwhile, the launch company Orbex has begun construction at Sutherland Spaceport in Scotland with a ground-breaking ceremony on May 5, Spaceflight Now reports. This would be the first vertical launch spaceport to be built on mainland United Kingdom. Located on the north coast of Scotland, the spaceport will become the “home” spaceport of the Scottish-based business, which will use the site to launch up to 12 rockets per year for the deployment of satellites into low-Earth orbit.
An optimistic timeline … Orbex, with headquarters, production, and testing facilities in Scotland and design and testing facilities in Denmark, is also pushing ahead with the development of its Prime rocket, which it plans to launch for the first time by the end of the year. (Don’t hold your breath.) The company has signed a 50-year sub-lease with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, enabling it to direct launch site construction and assume full operational management of the new facility on the community-owned Melness Crofters Estate. (submitted by JoeyS-IVB)
Falcon 9 to launch private space station. A private space station company, Vast, announced on Wednesday that it intends to launch a commercial space station as soon as August 2025 on a Falcon 9 rocket. After deploying this “Haven-1” space station in low-Earth orbit, four commercial astronauts will launch to the facility on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle. This is a very aggressive schedule, but the partnership with SpaceX is the key to making this mission happen, Ars reports.
Leaning on Dragon … Not only will the 3.8-meter-wide Haven-1 module launch inside a Falcon 9 rocket, but part of its life-support systems will also be provided by the Crew Dragon spacecraft when the vehicle is docked. The Dragon spacecraft will remain powered on the entire time it is attached to Haven-1, providing some of the consumables such as air or water and other services needed to keep humans alive. By leaning on SpaceX and its experience developing these life-support systems for Dragon, Vast will attempt to develop a space station on a quicker timeline. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)
India set to launch next lunar mission. India’s space agency is targeting July for the launch of its Chandrayaan 3 mission to the Moon on a Launch Vehicle Mark-3 rocket, DNA reports. The first edition of ISRO’s Moon missions, Chandrayaan 1, was launched in 2008 and was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit of the Moon. Chandrayaan 2 was launched in 2019, but its lander had crash-landed on the lunar surface due to a software glitch.
Launch in less than two months … Chandrayaan 3 will have a lander and a rover, just like Chandrayaan 2, with the hope of better luck this time in the landing process. The project has a budget of about $80 million and, on the current timeline, will launch in the first week of July. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Space Force working to accommodate range demand. In an explainer story, C4ISRNET interviews several officials with the US Space Force about efforts to accommodate surging demand for launch site access and the associated congestion. For example, Col. Mark Shoemaker, vice commander for operations at Space Launch Delta 45 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, said the Space Force wants to run its ranges more like airports that provide a service to its customers.
Working toward the range of the future … “We spent a lot of time and effort, not on buying new equipment but looking at just the way we make decisions and the ‘why’ behind the policies that we had in place,” Shoemaker said. “Really what it did was change the mental model and get us ready for the increase in launch.” The service’s fiscal 2024 budget includes $1.3 billion over the next five years for infrastructure projects at the Cape, and Vandenberg meant to increase the number of launches they can conduct. (submitted by brianrhurley)
Falcon family hits 200 consecutive successes. SpaceX’s launch of 51 more Starlink Internet satellites Wednesday from California marked the 200th consecutive successful mission for the company’s Falcon rocket family, a record unmatched by any other space launch vehicle. The string of successes dates back to September 2016, when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on a launch pad during pre-flight testing at Cape Canaveral, Spaceflight Now reports.
By way of comparison … United Launch Alliance has amassed a 97-for-97 success record for its Atlas 5 rocket since its debut in 2002. Going further back, the Atlas rocket family, which includes earlier launcher designs with different engines, has a string of 172 consecutive successful missions since 1993. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has achieved a record of 141 straight successful space launches since April 2020. This state-owned company manufactures and operates the Long March launch vehicle family. (submitted by EllPeaTea)
India tests powerful engine prototype. India’s space agency, ISRO, said Wednesday it has carried out the first integrated tests of a preliminary version of its “2000kN Semicryogenic Engine.” Also known as SCE-2000, this is an important engine for India, with a sea-level thrust of about 410,000 pounds. It is intended to power the country’s future heavy and super heavy-lift rockets, including those with reusable first stages. It runs on LOX and kerosene.
Still needs some thrust … The engine, which was developed through cooperation with Ukraine, underwent tests of its chill-down operations that are necessary for ignition. It is notable, however, that this engine version included all systems except for the thrust chamber. That will need to be incorporated into future engine prototypes, which probably will not launch into space for several more years. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Vulcan to resume testing. In a series of tweets on Wednesday night, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said the Vulcan rocket would soon return to Space Launch Complex-41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. “Rolling the bird out to the pad shortly to commence testing on the vehicle,” Bruno tweeted. “If all goes well, we’ll proceed to a Flight Readiness Firing not long after that.” True to his word, the rocket rolled to the launch pad on Thursday. ULA had previously set a May 4 launch date for the rocket, but now Bruno said the company is preparing for the possibility of a launch “this summer.”
Some uncertainty left … That schedule is dependent upon resolving the investigation into a dramatic failure of the Centaur upper stage of the vehicle in late March. What we know with some certainty is that there is about a one-month period of work required between the flight readiness firing (a static fire test of the rocket’s BE-4 engines) and a potential Vulcan launch from Florida. So at this point, the earliest possible launch date is probably in July. United Launch Alliance will also have to work around its planned launch manifest from Florida this year, including Starliner’s crewed flight test. (submitted by EllPeaTea)
China completes massive test stand. The Asian nation has completed a stand for testing huge rocket engines that could power the country’s Moon exploration efforts, Space.com reports. The test stand at Tongchuan, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, is now Asia’s largest for testing liquid-propellant rocket engines. The facility was constructed in a cut in a hillside, allowing hot rocket exhaust to be safely directed into the remote valley floor below.
Bigger engines, bigger ambitions … The site conducted a successful engine hot fire test run on April 24, with footage demonstrating a water deluge system designed to cool the exhaust and reduce the sound pressure levels and showing hot rocket exhaust blasting the valley floor. The country’s space program is developing huge new Long March 9 and Long March 10 series launch vehicles intended for use in deep space exploration, crewed lunar missions, and the construction of space infrastructure. (submitted by Tfargo04)
Echostar anticipating summer Falcon Heavy launch. EchoStar said its long-awaited Jupiter 3 satellite should be ready for a Falcon Heavy launch in August, Space News reports. The 500 gigabit-per-second Americas-focused satellite, originally slated to launch in 2021 before production delays at Maxar Technologies, is needed to relieve broadband capacity constraints that have led to subscriber losses for the operator. EchoStar expects Maxar to ship Jupiter 3 to its Florida launch site in June.
May face schedule delays … Although SpaceX has reserved an August launch slot, the company warned this remains “subject to preemption by certain higher-priority government launches.” SpaceX is projected to use a Falcon Heavy to launch the Space Force’s USSF-52 mission in July. A Falcon Heavy is also lined up to launch NASA’s Psyche asteroid exploration mission in October. Both missions have suffered delays amid payload readiness and range scheduling issues. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Next three launches
May 14: Falcon 9 | Starlink 5-9 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 04:58 UTC
May 18: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-3 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 04:26 UTC
May 21: Falcon 9 | Axiom-2 crew mission | Kennedy Space Center, Fla. | 21:37 UTC
