SCIENCE

Rocket Report: Russia finally agrees to fly SpaceX, Firefly targets early 2022

"From our viewpoint, SpaceX has gained sufficient experience."

2021-10-29 07:10

Welcome to Edition 4.22 of the Rocket Report! Please note there will be no report next week, as the author will be taking the week off. Also, I wanted to say that Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the British-built Black Arrow rocket successfully reaching orbit for the first time. The Black Arrow program was canceled the same year, after the British government decided it would be cheaper to use US-built Scout rockets for its needs. 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.

ABL Space raises $200 million. Small-launch company ABL Space Systems has raised an additional $200 million just seven months after a $170 million round, SpaceNews reports. The original Series B valued the company at $1.3 billion, while the expanded round nearly doubles that to $2.4 billion. Dan Piemont, president and co-founder of ABL, said the company still has most of the $170 million it raised in March, describing the new round as "somewhat opportunistic and driven by insider interest." More facilities, more machines, more production ... Much of the additional funding will go to scale up production of ABL's RS1 vehicle, which is nearing its first launch. "We have received large orders for RS1 and will need to scale faster than we previously planned to meet the demand," he said, with more than 75 launches under contract. "Our investors have seen the incredible demand for RS1 and want to make sure we have all the resources we need to serve it. (submitted by Ken the Bin) Firefly targets early 2022 for next launch. During the first attempt of Firefly's Alpha rocket launch in September, the booster failed after one of its first-stage engines shut off only seconds after launch. But the company is already well on its way toward a second attempt, CEO Tom Markusic told Ars. Firefly is currently targeting the end of January for the vehicle's second launch. Going fast from first to second launch ... Markusic said the company has completed assembly of the rocket's first stage and will soon test it in Briggs, Texas. Then, Firefly plans to deliver hardware for its second flight to the launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in December in preparation for a launch. Getting a second Alpha rocket launch off within six months would represent a quick turnaround in the small-launch industry. Blue Origin eyes UAE for New Shepard. The company is looking at the United Arab Emirates' desert as a possible location for a spaceport for tourists, The National reports. In an interview, Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of advanced development programs for Blue Origin, said the UAE was an "obvious choice" for a spaceport and that the company was looking to expand its launch sites from the current one in El Paso, Texas. New Shepard, new launch site ... "Now that we are operational for tourism, the next thing we are looking at is other locations around the planet to establish launch and landing sites for New Shepard," he said. "A couple of nights ago I slept over in Sharjah and did some stargazing in the desert. It was only 30 minutes away from Dubai, so I think it's very promising to think about areas here." If the company can work around ITAR, this seems like a solid idea. Space Rider offers payload opportunities. The European Space Agency said it is getting closer to launching its small, reusable Space Rider vehicle. The uncrewed vehicle's debut is expected next year on a Vega-C rocket. While in orbit, Space Rider aims to provide a laboratory in space for an array of applications, orbital altitudes, and inclinations. Up to two months in orbit ... Space Rider is about the size of two minivans. Its re-entry module hosts a multipurpose cargo bay that can accommodate up to 600 kg of customer payloads. This re-entry module, coupled with the AVUM orbital module, supplies power along with thermal control, data-handling and telemetry capability during missions expected to last up to two months or longer if needed. Interested organizations can inquire with ESA. Ukraine signals its support for Canadian spaceport. Senior Ukrainian officials are heading to Canada in November, and they plan to stop in Halifax and Guysborough County, SpaceQ reports. This is the site where Maritime Launch Services is proposing to build a spaceport in Nova Scotia. Among the officials coming are Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Uruskyi, State Space Agency of Ukraine Administrator Vladimir Taftai, and likely Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba. First funding, then permits ... Having previously secured $10.5 million in private financing, the Canadian company has been working to secure the environmental permits needed to construct a spaceport. Finding a viable rocket to launch from the spaceport is another big step, and that's where the Ukrainians come in. The Ukrainian government appears willing to provide funding to Ukrainian companies Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash for the continued development of the RD-870 rocket engine that would be used in the first stage of the Cyclone 4M launch vehicle. The RD-870 could loft as much as 5 tons to low Earth orbit. (submitted by js)

NASA clears next crew mission for launch. NASA managers at Kennedy Space Center gave the go-ahead Monday to continue preparations for a Halloween launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station, pending more analysis of a modification to the toilet system on the crew's SpaceX-owned capsule. "We at the commercial crew program have a little bit of work to do with SpaceX leading forward to flight," said Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, Spaceflight Now reports. Flushing those issues away ... Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said he believes the two unresolved technical concerns have a "good path to closure" in time for launch of the next Crew Dragon flight to the space station, known as Crew-3, set for 2:21 am EDT (06:21 UTC) Sunday. While launch site weather should be fine for liftoff, there are concerns about downrange conditions in the unlikely event that the spacecraft should need to abort the mission during the Falcon 9 rocket launch. (submitted by Ken the Bin, platykurtic, and Tfargo04) Russia willing to fly on SpaceX. At this week's meeting of the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai, Russian space chief Dmitry Rogozin said his country's cosmonauts would fly on future Crew Dragon missions. "From our viewpoint, SpaceX has gained sufficient experience for representatives of our crews to make flights aboard its spacecraft," he said, according to TASS. This is the first time a Russian official has said cosmonauts would fly on the SpaceX-built vehicle. Riding a rival's rocket ... Now, Roscosmos and NASA officials can discuss future crew swaps, in which a NASA astronaut flies aboard a Soyuz or a Russian flies on Crew Dragon. This arrangement is highly preferred, as it ensures continuous habitation of the station by fliers from both of the International Space Station's main partners. There had been some question as to whether Russian officials would permit cosmonauts to be seen flying on SpaceX vehicles, as the company is a serious rival to the Russian launch industry. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Tfargo04) Ariane 5 completes final pre-Webb mission. On Sunday, after addressing a ground systems issue, an Ariane 5 rocket launched its second mission of the year carrying two geostationary communications satellites. With a combined mass of 10.26 metric tons, the mission achieved a world record for total mass injected into a geostationary transfer orbit, Arianespace said. No pressure ... Success with this flight sets up arguably the most important launch ever conducted by Arianespace. In partnership with the European Space Agency and NASA, the Ariane 5 rocket firm will launch the James Webb Space Telescope later this year, likely near the end of December. The telescope has cost more than $10 billion to design and build and is NASA's flagship astrophysics mission for the next decade or two. (submitted by Ken the Bin) China sets record for orbital launches. The successful deployment of a small remote-sensing satellite Wednesday set a new record for Chinese orbital launch attempts in a single year: 40 missions. This figure surpasses a mark set in 2018 and 2020, Spaceflight Now reports. The Jilin 1 Gaofen 02F satellite was lofted into orbit by a solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rocket. The official number of 40 orbital launch attempts from China this year does not include the test of a hypersonic vehicle. Leading the world, for now ... By comparison, US rockets have launched on 39 orbital attempts this year, including Rocket Lab's Electron booster, which flies from a base in New Zealand. Russian rockets have launched on 17 orbital flights, and European launch vehicles have logged four missions so far this year. (submitted by EllPeaTea and Ken the Bin) Boeing takes another charge for Starliner delays. Boeing announced Wednesday it is taking an additional $185 million charge against its earnings to cover the costs to get its Starliner commercial crew vehicle flying again, SpaceNews reports. The company announced the charge in its release of its second-quarter financial results, adding that it was based on latest assessments of remaining work on Orbital Flight Test-2. Running up the charge card ... Previously, Boeing took a $410 million charge in January 2020 to cover the costs it anticipated at the time to complete a second uncrewed flight after software problems truncated the original OFT mission in December 2019. Boeing had planned to perform that second uncrewed test flight, OFT-2, in early August but scrubbed a launch attempt hours before scheduled liftoff when valves in the spacecraft's propulsion system failed to open. Starliner's launch on an Atlas V rocket is now unlikely to occur before at least May 2022. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

A launch date for Artemis 1? Sort of. NASA and its myriad contractors for the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft reached a significant milestone earlier this month—creating a full stack of the rocket and deep-space capsule for the first time, Ars reports. The completed launch vehicle stands an impressive 98 meters (321 feet) tall inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Although technicians and engineers still must put the rocket and spacecraft through a series of tests in the coming months, for the first time the agency discussed a possible launch window for the Artemis I mission. Step by step ... This launch, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into orbit around the Moon and back, could happen as soon as a 15-day window from February 12 through 27. Much has to go right for NASA to make that launch window. So the Artemis I launch will likely slip further into spring 2022. "There's a series of activities we need to successfully complete," said Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA Headquarters. "We are dedicated as an agency to taking this a step at a time. We're absolutely committed to taking it a step at a time." (submitted by Tfargo04 and Ken the Bin) NASA wants to buy SLS rockets at half-price. NASA has asked the US aerospace industry how it would go about "maximizing the long-term efficiency and sustainability" of the Space Launch System rocket and its associated ground systems, Ars reports. The request comes as NASA and its chief contractor for the rocket, Boeing, are nearing the launch pad after a long, arduous, and expensive development process that has lasted more than a decade. Selling the SLS to others ... In its request, NASA says it would like to fly the SLS rocket for "30 years or more" as a national capability. Moreover, the agency wants the rocket to become a "sustainable and affordable system for moving humans and large cargo payloads to cislunar and deep-space destinations." NASA sees itself as the "anchor tenant" of the launch system and procuring one crewed flight per year for the next decade or longer. When appropriate, the agency said, industry will "market" the large launch vehicle to other customers, including the science community and other government and nongovernment entities. Starship ignites a vacuum Raptor engine. SpaceX took another step late last week toward validating the rocket engine technology that will power its Starship rocket. For the first time, engineers at the company ignited a vacuum version of a Raptor rocket engine that had been attached to the Starship upper stage, Ars reports. The test-firing at sunset in South Texas lasted only a few seconds. But it appears to have been successful, and it checks another box in a series of technical tests SpaceX must complete before launching Starship on a Super Heavy rocket for an orbital test flight. This may happen sometime in early 2022. Three of each ... SpaceX has test-fired its Starship vehicle with Raptor engines before, of course. In some prototype test flights, the vehicle has ascended as much as 10 km under the power of up to three Raptor "sea level" engines. But it is quite another thing to test a rocket with a version of Raptor optimized to operate in the vacuum of space. SpaceX's Starship upper stage is designed to fly in both thick atmospheres and space. It aims to solve the nozzle-size conundrum by flying with three "sea level" Raptor engines and three "vacuum" Raptor engines.

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