Welcome to Edition 5.23 of the Rocket Report! This has been a really fun week for US rockets: Electron made a smashing debut in a launch from Virginia, Vulcan went vertical in Florida, and Starship passed a key test en route to its first orbital launch. I'm looking forward to more great leaps in launch later this year.
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.
Rocket Lab makes successful US debut. For years, the Electron rocket and the company behind it had been stuck in limbo at the Virginia launch site, waiting on various approvals—for regulatory agencies to share enough paperwork with each other to convince everyone that the launch was safe. Then weather and the end-of-year holidays kept pushing the launch back. But on Tuesday, everything went as smoothly as it is possible to imagine, and the Electron shot to orbit almost as soon as the launch window opened, Ars reports.
Important for the local community ... The launch was celebrated by the surrounding community in Virginia, which has seen relatively few launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. But Electron is designed to be assembled and put into service quickly, so it has the potential to dramatically increase the number of launches from Virginia. In fact, Rocket Lab already had a second vehicle in the assembly building on the day the first was sent to orbit. The greater use has the potential to bring many benefits: More experience with launches can streamline procedures, a greater use of facilities can build up ancillary services, and so on. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin)
NASA validates rotating detonation engine. The space agency said this week it completed testing at Marshall Space Flight Center of an advanced rocket engine design that could significantly change how future propulsion systems are built. This full-scale rotating detonation rocket engine was fired over a dozen times, totaling nearly 10 minutes in duration, that agency said. While operating at full throttle, the engine produced over 4,000 pounds of thrust for nearly a minute at an average chamber pressure of 622 pounds per square inch. NASA worked with IN Space LLC, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, on the project.
Moving to a larger version ... Because of NASA’s recent success with this engine, follow-on work is being conducted by NASA engineers to develop a fully reusable 10,000-pound class rotating detonation engine to identify performance benefits over traditional liquid rocket engines. This design differs from a traditional chemical rocket engine by generating thrust using a supersonic combustion phenomenon known as a detonation. This design produces more power while using less fuel than today’s propulsion systems and has the potential to power both human landers and interplanetary vehicles to deep space destinations, such as the Moon and Mars. The technology is being researched around the world. (submitted by YetAnotherBoris)
Canada moves to regulate launches. Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced Friday that the federal government would develop the regulatory requirements, safety standards, and licensing conditions necessary to authorize commercial satellite space launches from Canada within the next three years, CBC reports. Alghabra said the country is also ready to approve launches in the interim period on a case-by-case basis, and he invited private companies to come forward with projects.
Bringing that launch business back home ... "For many years, Canadian satellites have launched from sites in other countries," he said at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Longueuil, Quebec, south of Montreal. "It's time for us to start launching them right here at home." Alghabra said he was confident that the first Canadian orbital launch would take place within the next three years. (submitted by Ken the Bin and brianrhurley)
Insurers lost $210 million on Vega C failure. The space insurance market managed to make a profit for 2022 despite a devastating Vega C rocket failure at the end of the year that ruined two Airbus imaging satellites, Space News reports. The Vega rocket that malfunctioned shortly after lifting off on December 20 was insured for around $210 million, according to industry sources.
Still turned a tidy profit in 2022 ... That accounted for more than two-thirds of the $294 million loss underwriters at AXA XL recorded for the space insurance market for the whole of 2022. However, AXA XL data shows net premium for the year came in at $579 million, excluding $75 million tied to Russian risks that Western insurers are banned from covering following the invasion of Ukraine. (submitted by brianrhurley)
Don't start a launch company! In an op-ed of sorts, Space Fund co-founder Meagan Crawford issued a call to the space community to focus less on developing new launch capabilities and more on getting down to the business of doing meaningful things in space. The Space Fund maintains a list of launch companies and has added more than 200 since its inception in 2018. "Many of those companies have fallen off the list (bankruptcy, acquisition, ‘zombie’ status, etc.), but new ones continue to be added at a dizzying pace, with the current count at the time of this writing being 168 launch companies still alive, around the world," Crawford wrote.
Think blue oceans, not red ones ... She believes that no more than 30 of the current number of launch companies will survive the coming decade. This is a theme I've echoed before, that the launch industry is saturated. Crawford uses the term "red ocean" to describe the launch business, where products become commodities, leading to cutthroat or ‘bloody’ competition. Instead, entrepreneurs should start blue-ocean companies, she said. "So what are the Blue Ocean strategies in space? Where are the biggest profits yet to be made? Where is the highest growth potential? What markets are being underserved? What emerging markets aren’t being served at all? These are the questions that will lead you to own your highly profitable Blue Ocean strategy."
Isar signs its first US customer. German launch startup Isar Aerospace has signed a multi-launch contract from Spaceflight, Inc., Payload reports. The deal will see Isar launch a single dedicated Spectrum flight from Norway’s Andøya Spaceport in 2026. There is also a provision for a second Spectrum flight in 2025. "We’ve seen an increased demand for flexible and affordable launch options around the globe, but especially for our European-based customers," said Spaceflight CEO Curt Blake.
Adding to its manifest ... Isar’s Spectrum launch vehicle is designed to carry up to 1,000 kg payloads to low-Earth orbit. The company is currently targeting 2023 for Spectrum’s debut flight. According to the company, work toward that flight is "progressing well." The company signed its first launch contract with Airbus Defense and Space in April 2021. Since then, Isar has broadened its customer base by adding flights for OroraTech, EnduroSat, and Astrocast. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)
Canadian spaceport eyes suborbital launch. Maritime Launch Services CEO Steve Matier said Monday that a suborbital launch could take place from a facility near Canso, Nova Scotia, this summer, CTV News reports. A small concrete pad will then be poured to accommodate a small-scale launch, he said. The launch would likely be conducted by Montreal-based Reaction Dynamics, which is developing a hybrid propulsion system.
Orbital launches in a few years ... "We are not pressuring (Reaction Dynamics) to go too fast so we are also looking at some other alternatives within the country, some of the universities that have suborbital (launchers)," Matier said. He added that the Canadian spaceport is planning to conduct its first commercial orbital launch in 2025, using a larger Ukrainian-made rocket, and has plans to scale up to eight to 10 launches a year soon after. That sounds fairly ambitious but not impossible. (submitted by GM)
European launch chief is anti-competition. In recent years, with the rise of private launch companies in Europe backed primarily by investors, some space officials have called for the European Space Agency to support these commercial space entities as NASA and the US government have done over the last 15 years. However, at the 15th European Space Conference on Tuesday in Brussels, Arianespace chief executive Stéphane Israël took issue with this notion. "It is not possible to copy-paste the US model," he said. "It is not possible."
No disruption here, please ... The level of space spending in the United States is five times higher than in Europe, and the private capital is not the same, he explained. Moreover, Israël said the European Space Agency must resist supporting microlaunchers to the point where these companies might compete with the existing capabilities. "A huge mistake would be that this focus on microlaunchers destabilizes Ariane 6 and Vega C—it would be a historic mistake," he said. The rationale for Israël's viewpoint seems obvious: Those resources should all be funneled to his monopoly.
Falcon 9 launches its heaviest payload. Early on Thursday morning, as much of the United States slept, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying 56 satellites. According to SpaceX, with a mass of 17.4 metric tons, this was the heaviest payload ever launched by the Falcon 9 rocket. The company was also able to retrieve the first stage of the booster on a drone ship.
How many launches this year? ... The late-night launch continued SpaceX's blistering launch cadence in 2023. This was the sixth Falcon rocket the company has launched so far this year, good for a cadence of one flight every 4.3 days. Over a full year, that comes to more than 80 launches, but it remains to be seen whether this exceptional performance is sustainable. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Chinese startup fires up mini Starship. A Chinese launch startup has performed hot-fire tests as part of the development of a planned reusable stainless-steel rocket apparently inspired by SpaceX’s Starship, Space News reports. Space Epoch recently performed a series of tests of a 4.2-meter-diameter stainless-steel propellant tank combined with a Longyun-70 methane-liquid oxygen engine developed by engine-maker Jiuzhou Yunjian.
This sounds familiar ... Beijing-based Space Epoch earlier revealed plans to develop a 64-meter-tall stainless-steel launcher capable of lifting 6.5 tons to a 1,100-kilometer-altitude sun-synchronous orbit. The launcher will be able to be reused up to 20 times, the company said. The static-fire tests included ignition and restart tests and ignition with low propellant levels. The combined breakthrough of stainless-steel storage tanks and liquid oxygen and methane technology has laid a solid foundation for subsequent rocket flight tests, officials believe. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Starship aces wet-dress test. SpaceX this week confirmed that it fully fueled its Starship launch system during a critical test on Monday and is now preparing to take the next step toward launch. During this "wet-dress rehearsal" test, SpaceX said it loaded more than 10 million pounds (about 4.6 million kg) of propellant onboard the vehicle, which, when fully stacked, stands 120 meters tall. Notably, the test was completed on its first attempt, Ars reports.
One more big test ... On Wednesday, the company's engineers and technicians removed the Starship vehicle from atop the first stage and later moved it away from the launch site. This will enable the company to conduct a static-fire test of all 33 Raptor 2 rocket engines presently attached to the first stage. This is the final major technical test before a launch attempt can take place. It is now looking more and more likely that an orbital launch attempt could occur as soon as March. Are you ready? (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Vulcan rocket goes vertical. After the main elements of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket arrived at Cape Canaveral this past weekend, the company got to work quickly on preparing the booster for its debut flight. On Wednesday, the core stage of the rocket was lifted into a standing position inside the company's Vertical Integration Facility in Florida. Next, the Centaur V upper stage will be lifted and placed on top of the core stage, the company said on its "Countdown to Vulcan" page.
Wen launch? ... Following this, tests of the integrated stages will be performed, leading to a rollout to Space Launch Complex-41 for fueling tests and a hot-fire test. If those tests are successful, the rocket will be rolled back to the hangar for the addition of payloads onto the vehicle. In its recent news releases and updates, United Launch Alliance has not put a targeted launch date on this Certification-1 mission. However, since the Starliner mission is due to launch on the company's Atlas V rocket in April, Vulcan's debut will presumably come during the late spring or summer months. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Next three launches
Jan. 29: Falcon 9 | Starlink 2-6 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 16:12 UTC
Jan. 31: Falcon 9 | Starlink 5-3 | Kennedy Space Center, Fla. | 08:27 UTC
Feb. 5: Proton M | Elektro-L No. 4 | Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan | 09:12 UTC
