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Welcome to Rocket Report edition 3.24! It’s December and we could see a number of big small satellite launches this month, including Virgin Orbit and Astra. But for the immediate future, our eyes are on South Texas, where a prototype spacecraft is expected to leap forward early next week.
As always, we accept 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 versions of the site). Each report will include information on small, medium and heavy rockets, as well as a quick overview of the next three launches on the schedule.
Aevum unveils its Ravn X launch system. So far, Aevum has operated largely in the background. But now he’s ready to show some material, and it starts with the first stage of the “Ravn X” launch system, Ars reports. This autonomous aircraft and launcher is 24 meters long and has a wingspan of 18 meters. It has a gross takeoff weight of 25,000 kg – enormous for an unequipped aerial vehicle. It will drop a rocket capable of carrying 100 kg into a synchronous orbit with the Sun.
Seek to make satellite delivery a commodity … The company is targeting next year for its first launch. Even as he finalized the Ravn X first stage, Aevum developed a rocket with two liquid fuel engines for its main stage, each with 5,000 pounds of thrust and a single top stage engine. These engines have been hot fire tested beyond their total burn time and have undergone qualification and acceptance testing, the company said. Aevum claims to have secured more than $ 1 billion in launch contracts over the next decade, including the Air Force’s ASLON-45 mission.
Virgin Orbit sets date for second launch attempt. On Monday, Virgin Orbit announced that it will attempt a second orbital flight of its LauncherOne rocket on Saturday, December 19. The four-hour window will open at 10 a.m. PT (6 p.m. UTC). On the company’s first demonstration flight last May, the rocket was successfully released from its carrier plane and its engine ignited for a few seconds before running out of LOX due to a blocked line.
This time there will be a customer … This mission didn’t have a payload, but this one will. Through its Venture-class launch services program, NASA is providing nine CubeSat missions comprising of 10 spacecraft in total to fly as part of the Launch Demo 2 mission. The company said it has yet to perform a wet dress rehearsal. before embarking on his launch attempt. Good luck! (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Relativity Space adds $ 500 million to fundraising funds. The launch company that aims to 3D print almost all of its rockets announced that it had closed the funding round for the D-Series at the end of November. That brings the company’s valuation to $ 2.3 billion, reports CNBC. It also makes the company the second most valuable private space company, behind SpaceX.
A stack of cash … “It really accelerates Relativity’s momentum and scale as we focus beyond the first launch on production and various infrastructure expansion projects,” said Ellis . We can confirm that this is a LOT of private funding for a rocket company to raise, especially before its first attempt to launch. This can only help Relativity meet its aggressive 2021 launch schedule. (Submitted by Ken the Bin)
Rocket Lab says the scene was recovered in “good condition”. Ten days after the launch of its “Return to Sender” mission, Rocket Lab took stock of its first attempt to recover an Electron rocket first stage. “We couldn’t have hoped for a better result from our first attempt at recovery and the team are delighted.” The rocket came back in such good condition, the company added: “We will requalify and relaunch some components.”
Not yet ready for a chopper … The flight on November 20 marked the first time Rocket Lab fished an Electron in the Pacific Ocean, Ars reports. The rocket was picked up from the waters off the coast of New Zealand, from where the small thruster is launched. Founder Peter Beck said the company wanted to assess the state of health of the first stage – and make the necessary changes to the heat shield and flight software – before moving on to the final stage of catching the Electron rocket by flight with a helicopter. This could happen next year after further testing.
Billionaire invests in Shetland spaceport. Anders and Anne Holch Povlsen are investing £ 1.5million ($ 2million) in a spaceport project in the Shetland Islands of northern Scotland, reports the BBC. The couple’s company, Wildland Ltd., are also taking legal action to suspend the building permit for Space Hub Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands.
NIMBY, rocket edition … The Danish couple, who own a clothing retail empire, also own thousands of acres of land in Sutherland and other areas in the Highlands. The Povlsens have raised concerns about the impact of the Sutherland Space Center on the Caithness and Sutherland Bog Special Protection Area. This appears to be a rather cheeky attempt to strengthen the financial case for the Shetland site and to draw investment and support away from the Sutherland site. (submitted by BH)
Jim Cantrell of Vector is back. The co-founder of rocket company Vector quietly launched Phantom Space, a new company that plans to provide micro-satellite launch services, as well as small satellites and propulsion systems, reports the Arizona Daily Star. Cantrell told the publication that he was convinced he was starting another satellite technology company by Michael D’Angelo, a former colleague at Vector, after thinking they could use the many lessons they learned from Vector. Phantom is building four launchers and hopes to launch its first orbital flight in about two years.
Fool me once … Cantrell said Phantom had a broader view of the ever-evolving New Space industry that has been spurred by the rapid development of tiny satellites for research and communications. Rather than creating a vertically integrated company that builds everything from scratch, Phantom integrates existing technologies – including proven, plug-and-play engines for its launchers – into systems to serve its customers. “We are a space transportation company,” Cantrell said. “Thinking about the future, we don’t know what the killer app is. One thing we do know is that people have to send their items into space and you have to move them, and sometimes bring them back. ” We’re going to take a wait-and-see approach to this one. (submitted by platykurtic and Ken the Bin)
NASA and SpaceX on track for next Cargo launch. The space agency said it was targeting SpaceX’s 21st Commercial Refueling Services mission to the International Space Station on Saturday, December 5. However, weather officials at the US Air Force’s 45th Space Wing predict only a 40% chance of favorable weather conditions for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon spacecraft to take off from the Kennedy Space Center.
Rocket launches its second ISS mission … This will be the first mission under the company’s second commercial replenishment services contract with NASA and the first flight of the enhanced cargo version of Dragon 2. This flight will reuse the same Falcon 9 first stage that launched the Demo-2 crewed mission in May, sending Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the space station. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
H3 rocket debut delay confirmed. The first launches of Japan’s new H3 launcher are being delayed by problems with two components of the rocket’s main engine, SpaceNews reports. JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the prime contractor for the H3, aimed to arrange the inaugural launch by the end of 2020 before the problems were discovered in May.
You have to look at the FTP blades … Now the rocket debut will fall at some point in the Japanese fiscal year 2021, starting April 1, 2021. The problems were found with the combustion chamber and turbopump of the new LE-9 engine. “The fatigue fracture surfaces were confirmed in the opening area of the internal wall of the combustion chamber and the FTP blade of the turbo-pump,” according to JAXA. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Russian spaceport officials sacked left and right. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin continued a series of shootings that saw many senior space port officials across the country fired, arrested, or both. Most recently, on November 27, Rogozin sacked the head of the Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructures, which administers all of Russia’s space ports. Andrei Okhlopkov, the head of this Roscosmos branch, had previously faced a reprimand from Rogozin for “repeated failings in his work”.
Wait, there is more … Earlier this month, Vladimir Zhuk, chief engineer of the center that administers Russia’s space ports, was arrested. Several other key officials linked to the Vostochny Cosmodrome – under development since 2011 and aimed at reducing Russia’s dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan – were also recently dropped. The spaceport has been mired in corruption almost since construction began, Ars reports.
NASA confirms the return of the Centaur booster from the 1960s. Scientists have confirmed that Near-Earth Object 2020 SO is in fact a Centaur rocket propellant from the 1960s. First discovered in September, analysis of the orbit of 2020 SO revealed that the object was brought it close to Earth a few times over the decades, with an approach in 1966 bringing it close enough to suggest it could have come from Earth, NASA said. The moment coincided with the launch of the 1966 Surveyor 2 mission to the moon, NASA said.
Using spectral data … To confirm this, a team led by Vishnu Reddy, associate professor and planetologist at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, performed tracking spectroscopy observations of 2020 SO using a NASA telescope over Maunakea, Hawaii. Reddy’s team watched another Centaur D rocket thruster long enough to get a good spectrum. The rocket was launched in 1971 and delivered a communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. With this new data, Reddy and his team were able to compare them to 2020 SO and found the spectra to be consistent with each other, thus definitively concluding 2020 SO to be a Centaur rocket thruster as well. (submitted by Tfargo04)
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