SCIENCE

Rocket Report: Falcon Heavy launch on tap; South Korea seeks Russia alternative

Also, the Ariane 6 rocket is inching closer to the launch pad.

2022-10-07 07:10

Welcome to Edition 5.13 of the Rocket Report! Lots of news to discuss this week, as usual. Also, be on the lookout for a report from me early next week with some new information about a Washington-based startup, Stoke Space, working to develop a fully reusable rocket. They're beginning to make some credible progress. 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.

Firefly reaches orbit, but ... Powered by four Reaver engines, Firefly's Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12:01 am local time on Saturday, delivering several small payloads into low Earth orbit after relighting its upper stage. This success followed an initial launch attempt in September 2021, where one of the four Reaver engines failed during ascent. With this second launch, the Alpha rocket became the first of a new generation of rockets capable of lifting approximately one metric ton to reach orbit, Ars reports. A successful failure? ... The rocket was intended to place the small satellites on board into a circular orbit at an altitude of 300 km. However, independent observations later placed them considerably lower, at approximately 200 km. Due to this underperformance of the vehicle—it is not clear what the precise problem was—the tracking firm Seradata said it was now classifying the mission as a "launch failure," with a provisional capability loss of 90 percent due to the likely life loss for the seven satellites aboard. My less harsh judgment is that reaching orbit on a second flight is a success. Ars has reached out to Firefly for more information. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin) SpinLaunch conducts 10th flight test. The company that uses a centrifuge to accelerate payloads prior to their release announced this week that it has completed its 10th successful flight test of its suborbital accelerator. The flight test, which occurred on September 27, "demonstrated that SpinLaunch partners’ standard satellite components are inherently compatible with the company’s launch environment and provided critical flight data, as all payloads were flown and recovered successfully." Previous flights to 9 km ... As is customary with its announcement of tests, SpinLaunch declined to release specific information about altitude or flight duration. However, a spokesperson told Ars that this test was intended primarily to ensure the "compatibility" of the payloads with the SpinLaunch system. Previous flights went higher, apparently. "The system had already demonstrated the ability to operate in excess of 1,000 mph and attain 30,000 feet," the spokesperson said. Virgin Orbit working "permitting" process. The US launch company announced Wednesday that the LauncherOne vehicle for the company's next mission has completed a "full launch rehearsal" and is now ready for flight. This will be Virgin Orbit's historic first mission from a spaceport in Cornwall, England, which will be the first orbital launch from that country. This milestone marked the final acceptance test of the rocket prior to mating it to its carrier aircraft, a Boeing 747. Dealing with those persnickety permitters ... However, the company declined to set a launch date for the mission. "The window for the company’s next launch, planned to be the first orbital space launch from the U.K., will be determined by the launch permitting regulatory process," Virgin Orbit said. This will be the sixth overall mission for LauncherOne and would be its fifth success in a row if the "Straight Up" flight reaches orbit. This is the company's third launch attempt of 2022. (submitted by Ken the Bin) ABL Space targeting mid-October. In a series of recent tweets, ABL Space Systems provided some additional information about the debut launch attempt for its RS1 rocket. The launch date is now targeted for no earlier than mid-October, the company said, as its launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration remains pending. The rocket will carry a commercial payload consisting of two OmniTeq satellites. The mission will seek to demonstrate the successful use of OmniTeq’s Equalizer deployer and operation of its Varisat HF payload. Years of work to reach this point ... After launching from Kodiak spaceport in Alaska, the RS1 rocket will deploy the two satellites near Hawaii and complete its mission over the southern region of the African continent. This week the company also released a four-minute video with behind-the-scenes footage of all the work that has gone into the RS1 vehicle over the last five years. It looks like a lot of hard work by some dedicated people. Certainly, we wish them well.

Falcon 9 carries Russian cosmonaut to orbit. For the first time in 20 years, a Russian cosmonaut has launched into space from the United States, Ars reports. Among the four crew members aboard a Dragon spacecraft Wednesday, launching atop a Falcon 9 rocket, was Anna Kikina, who was making her first spaceflight. This is a pretty significant moment for NASA and particularly SpaceX, which has been a rival to the Russian launch industry with its Falcon 9 rocket. The launch was important symbolically ... Kikina's launch comes as relations between NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, are stabilizing. There have been many difficult moments in this relationship after Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February. Tensions were exacerbated by the bombastic and nationalistic leader of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. After Rogozin's sacking in July, however, Russian space officials have sought to improve relations. Everyone, Americans and Russians, was all smiles after Wednesday's launch. For now, NASA has only SpaceX for science missions. On the last day of September, NASA closed the bidding process to select a launch vehicle for an upcoming Earth science mission to measure changes in sea level, Sentinel-6B. The mission is expected to launch into low Earth orbit about four years from now, and the space agency is finalizing its choice of a rocket. Such bidding processes are secretive to protect the competitive interests of the bidders in terms of prices and capabilities. However, realistically, there is no mystery about who will win the Sentinel-6B contract: It will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket sometime in 2026. Falcons flying everywhere ... This is because, at present, there are no other bidders for NASA's medium and large science missions beyond SpaceX and its fleet of Falcon rockets, Ars reports. The story explains that none of the other rockets that are part of NASA's Launch Services II contract are eligible or able to bid on medium- and heavy-lift science missions for NASA and NOAA as part of the space agency's Launch Services Program. In fact, after an Atlas V launch in November, all of NASA's major science missions for the next few years, including the Europa Clipper and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, among many other missions, will be flying on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. India's first OneWeb launch gets a date. India's most powerful rocket is getting ready to make its entry into the global commercial launch service market with the launch of a batch of 36 OneWeb satellites on October 21 (UTC), The New Indian Express reports. In its first dedicated commercial mission, GSLV-Mk III will launch the broadband satellites from Sriharikota spaceport. India's Bharti Enterprises is a major investor and shareholder in OneWeb. Falcon 9 coming soon, too ... These OneWeb satellites, part of the company's initial constellation, had to be moved off of Soyuz rockets onto India's GSLV-Mk III and SpaceX's Falcon 9 due to Russia's war against Ukraine. OneWeb's first launch on a Falcon 9 rocket is expected later this year. OneWeb also considered Japan's H II rocket as a potential launch vehicle in the wake of Russia's invasion. South Korea also seeks alternative to Russia. South Korea’s science ministry plans to set aside $32.9 million in next year’s budget to launch two satellites that have been left grounded because of Western sanctions on Russian rockets over the war in Ukraine, Space News reports. The ministry will seek to make a “package deal” with a launch company in the United States or Europe for the two satellites: CAS500-2 remote sensing satellite and KOMPSAT-6 multipurpose satellite. Two options ... While the ministry didn’t specify the launch companies it wants to talk with, reports indicate that the ministry would choose between SpaceX and Arianespace. The ministry’s spokesman refused to comment on the issue. In August, Kwon Hyun-joon, a senior science ministry officer, said that the two satellites’ launch would be conducted by a single company under a “package deal” with the Korean government. Given the amount of funding requested and lack of Ariane rockets, it's difficult to see beyond SpaceX as the likely option. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Falcon Heavy launch later this month. The world's largest active rocket is set to fly again as soon as October 28 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a long-delayed national security mission for the US Space Force, Spaceflight Now reports. The Falcon Heavy rocket mission, codenamed USSF-44, is expected to be the next launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy following Wednesday's Crew-5 launch. The USSF-44 mission was originally scheduled to launch in late 2020 but has been delayed nearly two years by issues with the Space Force payload. Lots more flights in the hopper ... A military spokesperson told the publication that the USSF-44 payload issues are now resolved, without offering additional details. This will be the first Falcon Heavy launch in more than three years. However, such missions should become much more frequent as long-delayed payloads start becoming ready to fly. Tom Ochinero, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said in September that the company plans six Falcon Heavy missions over the next 12 months. (submitted by Ken the Bin) Ariane 6 upper stage tests completed. The test version of the Ariane 6 rocket's upper stage has completed a series of hot fire tests at a facility in Germany, the European Space Agency said Thursday. The tests (see video) demonstrated the capability of the upper-stage Vinci engine to stop and restart multiple times, as it will need to do for the deployment of satellites and de-orbiting of the stage. The upper stage will next be shipped to the space agency's ESTEC technical center in the Netherlands for stage separation and acoustic tests. Flight hardware coming along ... Meanwhile, teams are working with a test version of the rocket's first stage and launch pad in French Guiana, in preparation for a hot fire test there. As these tests proceed, work on the actual flight hardware is ongoing in Bremen, Germany (upper stage) and Les Mureaux, France (first stage). This hardware will likely be shipped to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, next year in preparation for the large rocket's anticipated debut in 2023. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea) Artemis II engines arrive at Michoud. NASA announced that the space shuttle main engines that will power the Artemis II mission have arrived at its Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana. Later this fall, the engines will be installed into the Space Launch System rocket's core stage, which is in the final phase of assembly at Michoud where it was manufactured. Plenty of flight experience ... The first engine, Engine E2047, of the flight set flew on 15 space shuttle missions, including the final shuttle mission STS-135. The second engine of the set, Engine E2059, previously flew on five shuttle missions. The third and fourth engines, E2062 and E2063, are new engines that include some previously flown hardware. NASA has plenty of time. This SLS rocket is now unlikely to launch the Artemis II mission before 2025, given ongoing delays with the Artemis I mission. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Next three launches